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diff --git a/old/14753-8.txt b/old/14753-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..971fc22 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14753-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10296 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume +54, No. 335, September 1843, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 21, 2005 [EBook #14753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Jon Ingram, donlei, Internet Library of Early Journals +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + + +No. CCCXXXV. SEPTEMBER, 1843. VOL. LIV. + + * * * * * + + +"WE ARE ALL LOW PEOPLE THERE." + +A TALE OF THE ASSIZES. + +IN TWO CHAPTERS. + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + + +Some time ago, business of an important character carried me to the +beautiful and populous city of ----. I remember to have visited it when I +was a child, in the company of a doating mother, who breathed her last +there; and the place, associated with that circumstance, had ever +afterwards been the gloomiest spot in the county of my birth. A calamity +such as that to which I have alluded leaves no _half_ impressions. It +stamps itself deep, deep in the human heart; and a change, scarcely less +than organic, for good or ill, is wrought there. Agreeably with this +fact, the scene itself of the event becomes at once, to the survivor, +either hallowed and beloved, or hated and avoided. Not that natural +beauty or deformity has any thing to do in the production of such +feelings. They have a mysterious origin, and are, in truth, not to be +accounted for or explained. A father sees the hope and joy of his manhood +deposited amongst the gardens of the soil, and from that moment the +fruitful fields and unobstructed sky are things he cannot gaze upon; +whilst the brother, who has lived in the court or alley of a crowded city +with the sister of his infancy, and has buried her, with his burning +tears, in the dense churchyard of the denser street, clings to the +neighbourhood, close and unhealthy though it be, with a love that renders +it for him the brightest and the dearest nook of earth. He cannot quit +it, and be at peace. Causes that seem alike, are not always so in their +effects. For my own part, for years after the first bitter lesson of my +life became connected with that city, I could not think of it without +pain, or hear its name spoken without suffering a depression of spirits, +as difficult to throw off as are the heavy clouds that follow in the +track, and hide the little light of a December sun. At school, I remember +well how grievously I wept upon the map on which I first saw the word +written, and how completely I expunged the characters from the paper, +forbidding my eyes to glance even to the county from which I had erased +them. Time passes, hardening the heart as it rolls over it, and we afford +to laugh at the strong feelings and extravagant views of our youth. It is +well, perhaps, that we do so; and yet on that subject a word or two of +profitable matter might be offered, which shall be withholden now. For +many years I have battled through the world, an orphan, on my own +account; and it is not surprising that the vehemence of my early days +should have gradually sobered down before the stern realities that have +at every step encountered me. Long before I received the unwelcome +intelligence, that it was literally incumbent upon me to revisit the spot +of my beloved mother's dissolution, the mention of its name had ceased to +evoke any violent emotion, or to affect me as of old. I say _unwelcome_, +because, notwithstanding the stoicism of which I boast, I felt quite +uncomfortable enough to write to my correspondent by the return of post, +urging him to make one more endeavour to complete my business without my +aid, and to spare, if possible, my personal attendance. I gave no reason +for this wish. I did not choose to tell a falsehood, and I had hardly +honesty to acknowledge, even to myself--the truth. I failed, however, in +my application, and with any but a cheerful mind, I quitted London on my +journey. Thirty years before I had travelled to ---- in a stupendous +machine, of which now I recollect only that it seemed to take years out +of my little life in arriving at its destination, and that, on its broad, +substantial rear, it bore the effigy of "_an ancient Briton_." Locomotion +then, like me, was in a state of infancy. On the occasion of my second +visit to the city, I had hardly time to wonder at the velocity with which +I was borne along. Distance was annihilated. The two hundred miles over +which _the ancient Briton_ had wearisomely laboured, were reduced to +twenty, and before I could satisfy myself that our journey was more than +begun, my horseless coach, and fifty more besides, had actually gone over +them. I experienced a nervous palpitation at the heart as I proceeded +from the outskirts of the city, and grew more and more fidgety the nearer +I approached the din and noise of the prosperous seat of business. I +could not account for the feeling, until I detected myself walking as +briskly as I could, with my eyes fixed hard upon the ground, as though +afraid to glance upon a street, a house, an object which could recall the +past, or carry me back to the first dark days of life. Then it was that I +summoned courage, and, with a desperate effort to crush the morbid +sensibility, raised myself to my full height, gazed around me, and awoke, +effectually and for ever, from my dream. The city was not the same. The +well-remembered thoroughfares were gone; their names extinct, and +superseded by others more euphonic; the buildings, which I had carried in +my mind as in a book--the thought of meeting which had given me so much +pain, had been removed--destroyed, and not a brick remained which I could +call a friend, or offer one warm tear, in testimony of old acquaintance. +A noble street, a line of palaces--merchants' palaces--had taken to +itself the room of twenty narrow ways, that, in the good old times, had +met and crossed in close, but questionable, friendship. Bright stone, +that in the sunlight shone brighter than itself, flanked every broad and +stately avenue, denoting wealth and high commercial dignity. Every +venerable association was swept away, and nothing remained of the +long-cherished and always unsightly picture, but the faint shadow in my +own brain--growing fainter now with every moment, and which the +unexpected scene and new excitement were not slow to obliterate +altogether. I breathed more freely as I went my way, and reached my +agent's house at length, lighter of heart than I had been for hours +before. Mr Treherne was a man of business, and a prosperous one too, or +surely he had no right to place before the dozen corpulent gentlemen whom +I met on my arrival--a dinner, towards which the viscera of princes might +have turned without ruffling a fold of their intestinal dignity. I +partook of the feast--that is to say, I sat at the groaning table, and, +like a cautious and dyspeptic man, I eat roast beef--_toujours_ roast +beef, and nothing else--appeased my thirst with grateful claret, and +retired at last to wholesome sleep and quiet dreams. Not so the corpulent +guests. It may be to my dyspeptic habit, which enables me to be virtuous +at a trifling cost, and to nothing loftier, that I am bound to attribute +the feeling with which I invariably sit down to feasting; be this the +fact or not, I confess that a sense of shame, uneasiness, and dislike, +renders an affair of this kind to me the most irksome and unpleasant of +enjoyments. The eagerness of appetite that one can fairly see in the +watery and sensual eyes of men to whom _eating_ has become the aim and +joy of their existence--the absorption of every faculty in the gluttonous +pursuit--the animal indulgence and delight--these are sickening; then the +deliberate and cold-blooded torture of the creatures whose marrowy bones +are _crunched_ by the epicure, without a thought of the suffering that +preceded his intensely pleasurable emotions, and the bare mention of +which, in this narrative, is almost more than sufficient, then, worst of +all, the wilful prodigality and waste--the wickedness of casting to the +dogs the healthy food for which whole families, widows, and beggared +orphans are pining in the neighbouring street--the guilty indifference of +him who finds the wealth for the profusion, and the impudent recklessness +of the underling who abuses it. Such are a few of the causes which concur +in giving to the finest banquet I have seen an aspect not more odious +than humiliating; and here I dwell upon the fact, because the incident +which I shall shortly bring before the reader's eye, served to confirm +the feelings which I entertain on this subject, and presented an +instructive contrast to the splendid entertainment which greeted my +immediate arrival. + +I slept at the house of Mr Treherne, and, on the following morning, was an +early riser. I strolled through the city, and, returning home, found my +active friend seated at his breakfast-table, with a host of papers, and a +packet of newly-arrived letters before him. The dinner was no more like +the breakfast, than was my friend in the midst of his guests like my +friend alone with his papers. His meal consisted of one slice of dry +toast, and one cup of tea, already cold. The face that was all smile and +relaxation of muscle on the preceding evening, was solemn and composed. +You might have ventured to assert that tea and toast were that man's most +stimulating diet, and that the pleasures of the counting-house were the +highest this world could afford him. I, however, had passed the evening +with him, and was better informed. Mr Treherne requested me to ring the +bell. I did so, and his servant speedily appeared with a tray of garnished +dainties, of which I was invited to partake, with many expressions of +kindness uttered by my man-of-business, without a look at me, or a +movement of his mind and eye from the pile of paper with which he was +busy. In the course of half an hour, I had brought my repast to a close, +and Mr Treherne was primed for the conflict of the day. His engagements +did not permit him to give me his assistance in my own matters until the +following morning. He begged me to excuse him until dinner-time--to make +myself perfectly at home--to wile away an hour or so in his library--and, +when I got tired of that, to take what amusement I could amongst the lions +of the town--offering which advice, he quitted me and his house with a +head much more heavily laden, I am sure, than any that ever groaned +beneath the hard and aching knot. Would that the labourer could be taught +to think so! + +After having passed an unsatisfactory hour in Mr Treherne's library, in +which the only books which I cared to look at were very wisely locked up, +on account of their rich binding, too beautiful to be touched, I sauntered +once more through the broad streets of the city, and, in my solitary walk, +philosophized upon the busy spirit of trade which pervaded them. It is at +such a time and place that the quiet and observant mind is startled by the +stern and settled appearance of reality and continuance which all things +take. If the world were the abiding-place of man, and life eternity, such +earnestness, such vigour, such intensity of purpose and of action as I saw +stamped upon the harassed brows of men, would be in harmony with such a +scene and destination. HERE such concentration of the glorious energies of +man is mockery, delusion, and robs the human soul of--who shall say how +much? Look at the stream of life pouring through the streets of commerce, +from morn till night, and mark the young and old--yes, the youngest and +the oldest--and discover, if you can, the expression of any thought but +that of traffic and of gain, as if the aim and end of living were summed +up in these. And are they? Yes, if we may trust the evidence of age, of +him who creeps and totters on his way, who has told his threescore years +and ten, and on the threshold of eternity has found the vanity of all +things. Oh, look at him, and learn how hard it is, even at the door of +death, to FEEL the mutability and nothingness of earth! Palsied he is, yet +to the Exchange he daily hies, and his dull eye glistens on the mart--his +ear is greedy for the sounds that come too tardily--his quick and treble +voice is loud amongst the loudest. He is as quick to apprehend, as eager +now to learn, as ravenous for gain, as when he trusted first an untried +world. If life be truly but a shadow, and mortals but the actors in the +vision, is it not marvellous that age, and wisdom, and experience build +and fasten there as on a rock? Such thoughts as these engaged my mind, as +I pursued my way alone, unoccupied, amongst the labouring multitude, and +cast a melancholy hue on things that, to the eye external, looked bright, +beautiful, and enduring. I was arrested in my meditations at length by a +crowd of persons--men, women, and children--who thronged about the +entrance of a spacious, well-built edifice. They were for the most part in +rags, and their looks betrayed them for poor and reckless creatures all. +They presented so singular a feature of the scene, contrasted so +disagreeably with the solid richness and perfect finish of the building, +that I stopped involuntarily, and enquired into the cause of their +attendance. Before I could obtain an answer, a well-dressed and better-fed +official came suddenly to the door, and bawled the name of one poor +wretch, who answered it immediately, stepped from the crowd, and followed +the appellant, as the latter vanished quickly from the door again. A +remark which, at the same moment, escaped another of the group, told me +that I stood before the sessions'-house, and that a man, well known to +most of them, was now upon trial for his life. He was a murderer--and the +questionable-looking gentleman who had been invited to appear in court, +had travelled many miles on foot, to give the criminal the benefit of his +good word. He was the witness for the defence, and came to speak to +_character_! My curiosity was excited, and I was determined to see the end +of the proceeding. It is the custom to pay for every thing in happy +England. I was charged _box-price_ for my admittance, and was provided +with as good a seat as I could wish, amongst the _élite_ of the assembly. +Quick as I had been, I was already too late. There was a bustle and buzz +in the court, that denoted the trial to be at an end. Indeed, it had been +so previously to the appearance of the devoted witness, whose presence had +served only to confirm the evidence, which had been most damnatory and +conclusive. The judge still sat upon the bench, and, having once perceived +him, it was not easy to withdraw my gaze again. "The man is surely +guilty," said I to myself, "who is pronounced so, when that judge has +summed up the evidence against him." I had never in my life beheld so much +benignity and gentleness--so much of truth, ingenuousness, and pure +humanity, stamped on a face before. There was the fascination of the +serpent there; and the longer I looked, the more pleasing became the +countenance, and the longer I wished to protract my observation and +delight. He was a middle-aged man--for a judge, he might be called young. +His form was manly--his head massive--his forehead glorious and +intellectual. His features were finely formed; but it was not these that +seized my admiration, and, if I dare so express myself, my actual love, +with the first brief glance. The EXPRESSION of the face, which I have +already attempted faintly to describe, was its charm. Such an utter, such +a refreshing absence of all earthiness--such purity and calmness of +soul--such mental sweetness as it bespoke! When I first directed my eye +to him, it seemed as if his thoughts were abstracted from the +comparatively noisy scene over which he presided--busy it might be, in +reviewing the charge which he had delivered to the jury, and upon the +credit of which the miserable culprit had been doomed to die. I do not +exaggerate when I assert, that at this moment--during this short +reverie--his face, which I had never seen before, seemed, by a miracle, +as familiar to me as my own--a fact which I afterwards explained, by +discovering the closest resemblance between it and a painting of our +Saviour, one of the finest works of art, the production of the greatest +genius of his time, and a portrait which is imprinted on my memory and +heart by its beauty, and by repeated and repeated examination. The +touching expressiveness of the countenance would not have accorded with +the stern office of the judge, had not its softness been relieved by a +bold outline of feature, and exalted by the massy formation of the head +itself. These were sufficient to command respect--_that_ made its way +quickly to the heart. An opportunity was soon afforded me to obtain some +information in respect of him. I was not surprised to hear that his name +and blood were closely connected with those of a brilliant poet and +philosopher, and that his own genius and attainments were of the highest +character. I was hardly prepared to find that his knowledge as a lawyer +was profound, and that he was esteemed erudite amongst the most learned +of his order. My attention was called reluctantly from the judge to the +second case of the day, which now came for adjudication. The court was +hushed as a ruffian and monster walked sullenly into the dock, charged +with the perpetration of the most horrible offences. I turned +instinctively from the prisoner to the judge again. The latter sat with +his attention fixed, his elbow resting on a desk, his head supported by +his hand. Nothing could be finer than the sight. Oh! I would have given +much for the ability to convey to paper a lasting copy of that +countenance--a memorial for my life, to cling to in my hours of weakness +and despondency, and to take strength and consolation from the spectacle +of that intelligence, that meekness and chastity of soul, thus allied and +linked to our humanity. + +It was instructive to look alternately at the criminal and at him who +must award his punishment. There they were, both men--both the children +of a universal Father--both sons of immortality. Yet one so unlike his +species, so deeply sunken in his state, so hideous and hateful as to be +disowned by man, and ranked with fiercest brutes; the other, as far +removed, by excellence, from the majority of mankind, and as near the +angels and their ineffable joy as the dull earth will let him. Say what +we will, the gifts of Heaven are inscrutable as mysterious, and education +gives no clue to them. The business of the hour went on, and my attention +was soon wholly taken up in the development of the gigantic guilt of the +wretched culprit before me. I could not have conceived of such atrocity +as I heard brought home to him, and to which, miserable man! he listened, +now with a smile, now with perfect unconcern, as crime after crime was +exhibited and proved. His history was a fearful one even from his +boyhood; but of many offences of which he was publicly known to be +guilty, one of the latest and most shocking was selected, and on this he +was arraigned. It appeared that for the last few years he had cohabited +with a female of the most disreputable character. The issue of this +connexion was a weakly child, who, at the age of two years, was removed +from her dissolute parents through the kindness of a benevolent lady in +the neighbourhood, and placed in the care of humble but honest villagers +at some distance from them. The child improved in health and, it is +unnecessary to add, in morals. No enquiry or application was made for her +by the pair until she had entered her fifth year, and then suddenly the +prisoner demanded her instant restoration. The charitable lady was +alarmed for the safety of her _protegée_, and, with a liberal price, +bought off the father's natural desire. He duly gave a receipt for the +sum thus paid him, and engaged to see the child no more. The next morning +he stole the girl from the labourer's cottage. He was seen loitering +about the hut before day-break, and the shrieks of the victim were heard +plainly at a considerable distance from the spot where he had first +seized her. Constables were dispatched to his den. It was shut up, and, +being forced open, was found deserted, and stripped of every thing. He +was hunted over the county, but not discovered. He had retired to haunts +which baffled the detective skill of the most experienced and alert. This +is the first act of the tragedy. It will be necessary to stain these +pages by a description of the last. The child became more and more +unhappy under the roof of her persecutors, as they soon proved themselves +to be. She was taught to beg and to steal, and was taken into the +highways by her mother, who watched near her, whilst, with streaming +eyes, the unhappy creature now lied for alms, now pilfered from the +village. Constant tramping, ill treatment, and the wear and tear of +spirit which the new mode of existence effected, soon reduced the child +to its former state of ill health and helplessness. She pined, and with +her sickness came want and hunger to the hut. The father, affecting to +disbelieve, and not listening to the sad creature's complaint, still +dismissed her abroad, and when she could not walk, compelled the mother +to carry her to the public road, and there to leave her in her agony, the +more effectually to secure the sympathy of passengers. Even this +opportunity was not long afforded him. The child grew weaker, and was at +length unable to move. He plied her with menaces and oaths, and, last of +all, deliberately threatened to murder her, if she did not rise and +procure bread for all of them. She had, alas! no longer power to comply +with his request, and--merciful Heaven!--the fiend, in a moment of +unbridled passion, made good his fearful promise. With one blow of a +hatchet--alas! it needed not a hard one--_he destroyed her_. I caught the +judge's eye as this announcement was made. It quivered, and his +countenance was pale. I wished to see the monster _too_, but my heart +failed me, and my blood boiled with indignation, and I could not turn to +him. The short account which I have given here does bare justice to the +evidence which came thick and full against the prisoner, leaving upon the +minds of none the remotest doubt of his fearful criminality. The mother, +and a beggar who had passed the night in the hut when the murder was +perpetrated, were the principal witnesses against the infanticide, and +their depositions could not be shaken. I waited with anxiety and great +irritability for the sentence which should remove the prisoner from the +bar. The earth seemed polluted as long as he breathed upon it; he could +not be too quickly withdrawn, and hidden for ever in the grave. The case +for the prosecution being closed, a young barrister arose, and there was +a perfect stillness in the court. My curiosity to know what this +gentleman could possibly urge on behalf of his client was extreme. To me +"the probation bore no hinge, nor loop to ban a doubt on." But the +smoothfaced counsellor, whose modesty had no reference to his years, +seemed in no way burdened by the weight of his responsibility, nor to +view his position as one of difficulty and risk. He stood, cool and +erect, in the silence of the assembly, and with a self-satisfied _smile_ +he proceeded to address the judge. Yes, he laughed, and he had heard that +heart-breaking recital; and the life of the man for whom he pleaded was +hardly worth a pin's fee. The words of the poet rushed involuntarily to +my mind. "Heaven!" I mentally exclaimed, "_Has this fellow no feeling of +his business--he sings at grave-making_!" He made no allusion to the +evidence which had been adduced, but he spoke of INFORMALITY. I trembled +with alarm and anger. I had often heard and read of justice defeated +by such a trick of trade; but I prayed that such dishonour and public +shame might not await her now. Informality! Surely we had heard of the +cold-blooded cruelty, the slow and exquisite torture, the final +deathblow; there was no informality in these; the man had not denied his +guilt, his defender did not seek to palliate it. Away with the juggle, it +cannot avail you here! But in spite of my feverish security, the shrewd +lawyer--well might he smile and chuckle at his skill--proceeded calmly to +assert the prisoner's right to his immediate _discharge! There was a flaw +in the declaration, and the indictment was invalid_. And thus he proved +it. The man was charged with murdering his child--described as his, and +bearing his own name. Now, the deceased was illegitimate, and should have +borne its mother's name. He appealed to his lordship on the bench, and +demanded for his client the benefit which law allowed him. You might have +heard the faintest whisper in the court, so suspended and so kept back +was every drop of human breath, whilst every eye was fixed upon the +judge. The latter spoke. "_The exception was conclusive; the prisoner +must be discharged_." I could not conceive it possible. What were truth, +equity, morality--Nothing? And was murder _innocence_, if a quibble made +it so? The jailer approached the monster, and whispered into his ear that +he was now at liberty. He held down his head stupidly to receive the +words, and he drew it back again, incredulous and astounded. Oh, what a +secret he had learned for future government and conduct! What a friend +and abettor, in his fight against mankind, had he found in the law of his +land! I was maddened when I saw him depart from the well-secured bar in +which he had been placed for trial. There he had looked the thing he +was--a tiger caught, and fastened in his den. Could it do less than chill +the blood, and make the heart grow sick and faint, to see the bolts drawn +back--the monster loosed again, and turned unchained, untamed, fiercer +than ever, into life again? Legislators, be merciful to humanity, and +cease to embolden and incite these beasts of prey! Melancholy as the +above recital is, it is to be considered rather as an episode in this +narration, than as the proper subject of it. Had my morning's adventure +finished with this disgraceful acquittal, the reader would not have been +troubled with the perusal of these pages. My vexation would have been +confined to my own breast, and I should have nourished my discontent in +silence. The scene which immediately followed the dismissal of the +murderer, is that to which I have chiefly to beg attention. It led to an +acquaintance, for which I was unprepared--enabled me to do an act of +charity, for which I shall ever thank God who gave me the power--and +disclosed a character and a history to which the intelligent and +kind-hearted may well afford the tribute of their sympathy. It was by way +of contrast and relief, I presume, that the authorities had contrived +that the next trial should hardly call upon the time and trouble of the +court. It was a case, in fact, which ought to have been months before +summarily disposed of by the committing magistrate, and one of those too +frequently visited with undue severity, whilst offences of a deeper dye +escape unpunished, or, worse still, are washed away in _gold_. A poor man +had stolen from a baker's shop a loaf of bread. _The clerk of the +arraigns_, as I believe he is called, involved this simple charge in many +words, and took much time to state it but when he had finished his +oration, I could discover nothing more or less than the bare fact. A few +minutes before the appearance of the delinquent, I remarked a great +bustle in the neighbourhood of the young barrister already spoken of. A +stout fresh-coloured man had taken a seat behind him with two thinner +men, his companions, and they were all in earnest conversation. The stout +man was the prosecutor--his companions were his witnesses--and the +youthful counsellor was, on this occasion, retained _against_ the +prisoner. I must confess that, for the moment, I had a fiendish delight +in finding the legal gentleman in his present position. "It well becomes +the man," thought I, "through whose instrumentality that monster has been +set free, to fall with all his weight of eloquence and legal subtlety +upon this poor criminal." If he smiled before, he was in earnest now. He +frowned, and closed his lips with much solemnity, and every look bespoke +the importance of the interests committed to his charge.--A beggar!--and +to steal a loaf of bread! Ay, ay! society must be protected--our houses +and our homes must be defended. Anarchy must be strangled in its birth. +Such thoughts as these I read upon the brow of youthful wisdom. Ever and +anon, a good point in the case struck forcibly the lusty prosecutor, who +communicated it forthwith to his adviser. _He_ listened most attentively, +and shook his head, as who should say "Leave that to me--we have him on +the hip." The witnesses grew busy in comparing notes, and nothing now was +wanting but the great offender--the fly who must be crushed upon the +wheel--and he appeared. Reader, you have seen many such. You have not +lived in the crowded thoroughfares of an overgrown city, where every +grade of poverty and wealth, of vice and virtue, meet the eye, mingling +as they pass along--where splendid royalty is carried quicker than the +clouds adown the road which palsied hunger scarce can cross for lack of +strength--where lovely forms, and faces pure as angels' in their innocent +expression, are met and tainted on the path by unwomanly immodesty and +bare licentiousness--amongst such common sights you have not dwelt, and +not observed some face pale and wasted from disease, and want, and +sorrow, not one, but all, and all uniting to assail the weakly citadel of +flesh, and to reduce it to the earth from which it sprung. Such a +countenance was here--forlorn--emaciated--careworn--every vestige of +human joy long since removed from it, and every indication of real misery +too deeply marked to admit a thought of simulation or pretence. The eye +of the man was vacant. He obeyed the turnkey listlessly, when that +functionary, with a patronizing air, directed him to the situation in the +dock in which he was required to stand, and did not raise his head to +look around him. A sadder picture of the subdued, crushed heart, had +never been. Punishment! alack, what punishment could be inflicted now on +him, who, in the school of suffering, had grown insensible to torture? +Notwithstanding his rags, and the prejudice arising from his degraded +condition, there was something in his look and movements which struck me, +and secured my pity. He was very ill, and had not been placed many +minutes before the judge, when he tottered and grew faint. The turnkey +assisted the poor fellow to a chair, and placed in his hands, with a +rough but natural kindness, which I shall not easily forget, a bunch of +sweet-smelling marjoram. The acknowledgement which the miserable creature +attempted to make for the seasonable aid, convinced me that he was +something better than he seemed. A shy and half-formed bow--the impulse +of a heart and mind once cultivated, though covered now with weeds and +noxious growths--redeemed him from the common herd of thieves. In the +calendar his age was stated to be thirty-five. Double it, and that face +will warrant you in your belief. Desirous as I was to know the +circumstances which had led the man to the commission of his offence, it +was not without intense satisfaction that I heard him, at the +commencement of the proceedings, in his thin tremulous voice, plead +_guilty_ to the charge. There was such rage painted on the broad face of +the prosecutor, such disappointment written in the thinner visage of the +counsellor, such indignation and astonishment in those of the witnesses, +that you might have supposed those gentlemen were interested only in the +establishment of the prisoner's innocence, and were anxious only for his +acquittal. For their sakes was gratified at what I hoped would prove the +abrupt conclusion of the case. The prisoner had spoken; his head again +hung down despondingly--his eyes, gazing at nothing, were fixed upon the +ground; the turnkey whispered to him that it was time to retire--he was +about to obey, when the judge's voice was heard, and it detained him. + +"Is the prisoner known?" enquired his lordship. + +The counsellor rose _instanter_. + +"Oh, very well, my lud--an old hand, my lud--one of the pests of his +parish." + +"Is this his first offence?" + +The barrister poked his ear close to the mouth of the prosecutor before he +answered. + +"By no means, my lud--he has been frequently convicted." + +"For the like offence?" enquired the Judge. + +Again the ear and mouth were in juxtaposition. + +"We believe so, my lud--we believe so," replied the smart barrister; "but +we cannot speak positively." + +The culprit raised his leaden eye, and turned his sad look towards the +judge, his best friend there. + +"For BEGGARY, my lord," he uttered, almost solemnly. + +"Does any body know you, prisoner?" asked my lord. "Can any one speak to +your previous character?" + +The deserted one looked around the court languidly enough, and shook his +head, but, at the same instant there was a rustling amongst the crowd of +auditors, and a general movement, such as follows the breaking up of a +compact mass of men when one is striving to pass through it. + +"Si-_lence_!" exclaimed a sonorous voice, belonging to a punchy body, a +tall wand, and a black bombasin gown; and immediately afterwards, "a +friend of the prisoner's, my lord. Get into that box--speak loud--look at +his lordship. Si-_lence_!" + +The individual who caused this little excitement, and who now ascended the +witness's tribune, was a labouring man. He held a paper cap in his hand, +and wore a jacket of flannel. The prisoner glanced at him without seeming +to recognize his friend, whilst the eyes of the young lawyer actually +glistened at the opportunity which had come at last for the display of his +skill. + +"What are you, my man?" said the judge in a tone of kindness. + +"A journeyman carpenter, please your worship." + +"You must say _my lord_--say _my lord_," interposed the bombasin gown. +"Speak out. Si-_lence_!" + +"Where do you live?" + +"Friar's Place--please you, my lord." The bombasin smiled pitifully at the +ignorance of the witness, and said no more. + +"Do you know the prisoner at the bar?" + +"About ten weeks ago--please you, my lord, I was hired by the landlord--" + +"Answer his lordship, sir," exclaimed the counsel for the prosecution in a +tone of thunder. "Never mind the landlord. Do you know the prisoner?" + +"Why, I was a saying, please you, my lord, about ten weeks ago I was hired +by the landlord--" + +"Answer directly, sir," continued the animated barrister--"or take the +consequences. Do you know the prisoner?" + +"Let him tell his story his own way, Mr Nailhim," interposed his lordship +blandly. "We shall sooner get to the end of it." + +Mr Nailhim bowed to the opinion of the court, and sat down. + +"Now, my man," said his lordship, "as quickly as you can, tell me whatever +you know of the prisoner." + +"About ten weeks ago--please you, my lord," began the journey-man _de +novo_, "I was hired by the landlord of them houses as is sitiwated where +Mr Warton lives--" (The bombasin looked at the witness with profound +contempt, and well he might! The idea of calling a prisoner at the bar +_Mr_--stupendous ignorance!) "and I see'd him day arter day, and nobody +was put to it as bad as he was. He has got a wife and three children, and +I know he worked as hard as he could whilst he was able; but when he got +ill he couldn't, and he was druv to it. I have often taken a loaf of bread +to him, and all I wish is, he had stolen one of mine behind my back +instead of the baker's. I shouldn't have come agin him, poor fellow! and I +am sure he wouldn't have done it if his young uns hadn't been starving. I +never see'd him before that time, but I could take my affidavy he's an +industrious and honest man, and as sober, please you, my lord, as a +judge." + +At this last piece of irreverence, the man with the staff stood perfectly +still, lost as it seemed, in wonder at the hardihood of him who could so +speak. + +"Have you any thing more to say?" asked his lordship. + +The carpenter hesitated for a second or two, and then acknowledged that he +had not; and, such being the case, it seemed hardly necessary for Mr +Nailhim to prolong his examination. But that gentleman thought otherwise. +He rose, adjusted his gown, and looked not only _at_ the witness, but +through and through him. + +"Now, young man," said he, "what is your name?" + +"John Mallett, sir," replied the carpenter. + +"John Mallett. Very well. Now, John Mallett, who advised you to come here +to-day? Take care what you are about, John Mallett." + +The carpenter, without a moment's hesitation, answered that his "old woman +had advised him; and very good advice it was, he thought." + +"Never mind your thoughts, sir. You don't come here to think. Where do you +live?" + +The witness answered. + +"You have not lived long there, I believe?" + +"Not quite a fortnight, sir." + +"You left your last lodging in a hurry too, I think, John Mallett?" + +"Rather so, sir," answered Innocence itself, little dreaming of effects +and consequences. + +"A little trouble, eh, John Mallett?" + +"Mighty deal your lordship, ah, ah, ah!" replied the witness quite +jocosely, and beginning to enjoy the sport. + +"Don't laugh here, sir, but can you tell us what you were doing, sir, last +Christmas four years?" + +Of course he could not--and Mr Nailhim knew it, or he never would have put +the question; and the unlucky witness grew so confused in his attempt to +find the matter out, and, in his guesses, so confounded one Christmas with +another, that first he blushed, and then he spoke, and then he checked +himself, and spoke again, just contradicting what he said before, and +looked at length as like a guilty man as any in the jail. Lest the effect +upon the court might still be incomplete, the wily Nailhim, in the height +of Mallett's trouble, threw, furtively and knowingly, a glance towards the +jury, and smiled upon them so familiarly, that any lingering doubt must +instantly have given way. They agreed unanimously with Nailhim. A greater +scoundrel never lived than this John Mallett. The counsellor perceived his +victory, and spoke. + +"Go down, sir, instantly," said he, "and take care how you show your face +up there again. I have nothing more to say, my lud." + +And down John Mallett went, his friend and he much worse for his +intentions. + +"And now this mighty case is closed!" thought I. "What will they do to +such a wretch!" I was disappointed. The good judge was determined not to +forsake the man, and he once more addressed him. + +"Prisoner," said he, "what induced you to commit this act?" + +The prisoner again turned his desponding eye upwards, and answered, as +before-- + +"Beggary, my lord." + +"What are you?" + +"Nothing, my lord--any thing." + +"Have you no trade?" + +"No, my lord." + +"What do your wife and children do?" + +"They are helpless, my lord, and they starve with me." + +"Does no one know you in your neighbourhood?" + +"No one, my lord. I am a stranger there. _We are all low people there_, my +lord." + +There was something so truly humble and plaintive in the tone with which +these words were spoken, and the eyes of the afflicted man filled so +suddenly with tears as he uttered them, that I became affected in a manner +which I now find it difficult to describe. My blood seemed to chill, and +my heart to rush into my throat. I am ashamed to say that my own eyes were +as moist as the prisoner's. I resolved from that moment to become his +friend, and to enquire into his circumstances and character, as soon as +the present proceedings were at an end. + +"How long has the prisoner been confined already?" + +"Something like three months, my lud," answered the barrister cavalierly +as if months were minutes. + +"It is punishment enough," said the judge--"let him be discharged now. +Prisoner, you are discharged--you must endeavour to get employment. If you +are ill, apply to your parish; there is no excuse for stealing--none +whatever. You are at liberty now." + +The information did not seem to carry much delight to the heart of him +whom it was intended to benefit. He rose from his chair, bowed to his +lordship, and then followed the turnkey, in whose expression of +countenance and attentions there was certainly a marked alteration since +the wind had set in favourably from the bench. The man departed. Moved by +a natural impulse, I likewise quitted the court the instant afterwards, +enquired of one of the officials the way of egress for discharged +prisoners, and betook myself there without delay. What my object was I +cannot now, as I could not then, define. I certainly did not intend to +accost the poor fellow, or to commit myself in any way with him, for the +present, at all events. Yet there I was, and I could not move from the +spot, however useless or absurd my presence there might be. It was a small +low door, with broad nails beaten into it, through which the liberated +passed, as they stepped from gloom and despair, into freedom and the +unshackled light of heaven. I was not then in a mood to trust myself to +the consideration of the various and mingled feelings with which men from +time to time, and after months of hopelessness and pain, must have bounded +from that barrier, into the joy of liberty and life. My feelings had +become in some way mastered by what I had seen, and all about my heart was +disturbance and unseemly effeminacy. There was only one individual, +besides myself, walking in the narrow court-yard, which, but for our +footsteps, would have been as silent as a grave. This was a woman--a +beggar--carrying, as usual, a child, that drew less sustenance than sorrow +from the mother's breast. She was in rags, but she looked clean, and she +might once have been beautiful; but settled trouble and privation had +pressed upon her hollow eye--had feasted on her bloomy skin. I could not +tell her age. With a glance I saw that she was old in suffering. And what +was her business here? For whom did _she_ wait? Was it for the father of +that child?--and was she so satisfied of her partner's innocence, and the +justice of mankind, that here she lingered to receive him, assured of +meeting him again? What was his crime?--his character?--her history? I +would have given much to know, indeed, I was about to question her, when I +was startled and detained by the drawing of a bolt--the opening of the +door--and the appearance of the very man whom I had come to see. He did +not perceive me. He perceived nothing but the mother and the child--_his_ +wife and _his_ child. She ran to him, and sobbed on his bosom. He said +nothing. He was calm--composed; but he took the child gently from her +arms, carried the little thing himself to give her ease, and walked on. +She at his side, weeping ever; but he silent, and not suffering himself to +speak, save when a word of tenderness could lull the hungry child, who +cried for what the mother might not yield her. Still without a specific +object, I followed the pair, and passed with them into the most ancient +and least reputable quarter of the city. They trudged from street to +street, through squalid courts and lanes, until I questioned the propriety +of proceeding, and the likelihood of my ever getting home again. At +length, however, they stopped. It was a close, narrow, densely peopled +lane in which they halted. The road was thick with mud and filth; the +pavement and the doorways of the houses were filled with ill-clad sickly +children, the houses themselves looked forbidding and unclean. The +bread-stealer and his wife were recognised by half a dozen coarse women, +who, half intoxicated, thronged the entrance to the house opposite to +that in which they lodged, and a significant laugh and nod of the head +were the greetings with which they received the released one back again. +There was little heart or sympathy in the movement, and the wretched +couple understood it so. The woman had dried her tears--both held down +their heads--even there--for shame, and both crawled into the hole in +which, for their children's sake, they _lived_, and were content to find +their home. Now, then, it was time to retrace my steps. It was, but I +could not move from the spot--that is, not retreat from it, as yet. There +was something to do. My conscience cried aloud to me, and, thank God, was +clamorous till I grew human and obedient. I entered the house. A child +was sitting at the foot of the stairs, her face and arms begrimed--her +black hair hanging to her back foul with disease and dirt. She was about +nine years old; but evil knowledge, cunning duplicity, and the rest, were +glaring in her precocious face. She clasped her knees with her extended +hands, and swinging backwards and forwards, sang, in a loud and impudent +voice, the burden of an obscene song. I asked this creature if a man +named Warton dwelt there. She ceased her song, and commenced +whistling--then stared me full in the face and burst into loud laughter. + +"What will you give if I tell you?" said she, with a bold grin. "Will you +stand a glass of gin?" + +I shuddered. At the same moment I heard a loud coughing, and the voice of +the man himself overhead. I ascended the stairs, and, as I did so, the +girl began her song again, as if she had suffered no interruption. I +gathered from a crone whom I encountered at the top of the first flight of +steps, that the person of whom I was in quest lived with his family in the +back room of the highest floor; and thither, with unfailing courage, I +proceeded. I arrived at the door, knocked at it briskly without a moment's +hesitation, and recognized the deep and now well-known tones of Warton in +the voice desiring men to enter. The room was very small, and had no +article of furniture except a table and two chairs. Some straw was strewn +in a corner of the room, and two children were lying asleep upon it, their +only covering being a few patches of worn-out carpet. Another layer was in +the opposite corner, similarly provided with clothing. This was the +parents' bed. I was too confused, and too anxious to avoid giving offence, +to make a closer observation. The man and his wife were sitting together +when I entered. The former had still the infant in his arms, and he rose +to receive me with an air of good breeding and politeness, that staggered +me from the contrast it afforded with his miserable condition--his +frightful poverty. + +"I have to ask your pardon," said I, "for this intrusion, but your name is +Warton, I believe?" + +"It is, sir," he replied--and the eyes of the wife glistened again, as she +gathered hope and comfort from my unexpected visit. She trembled as she +looked at me, and the tears gushed forth again. + +("These are not bad people, I will swear it," I said to myself, as I +marked her, and I took confidence from the conviction, and went on.) + +"I have come to you," said I, "straight from the sessions'-house, where, +by accident, I was present during your short trial. I wish to be of a +little service to you. I am not a rich man, and my means do not enable me +to do as much as I would desire; but I can relieve your immediate want, +and perhaps do something more for you hereafter, if I find you are +deserving of assistance." + +"You are very kind, sir," answered the man, "and I am very grateful to +you. We are strangers to you, sir, but I trust these (pointing to his wife +and children) _may_ deserve your bounty. For myself--" + +"Hush, dear!" said his wife, with a gentleness and accent that confounded +me. _Low_ people! why, with full stomachs, decent clothing, and a few +pounds, they might with every propriety have been ushered at once into a +drawing-room. + +"Poor Warton is very ill, sir," continued the wife, "and much suffering +has robbed him of his peace of mind. I am sure, sir, we shall be truly +grateful for your help. We need it, sir, Heaven knows, and he is not +undeserving--no, let them say what they will." + +I believed it in my heart, but I would not say so without less partial +evidence. + +"Well," I continued, "we will talk of this by and by. I am determined to +make a strict enquiry, for your own sakes as well as my own. But you are +starving now, it seems, and I sha'n't enquire whether you deserve a loaf +of bread. Here," said I, giving, them a sovereign, "get something to eat, +for God's sake, and put a little colour, if you can, into those little +faces when they wake again." + +The man started suddenly from his chair, and walked quickly to the window. +His wife followed him, alarmed, and took the infant from his arms, whilst +he himself pressed his hand to his heart, as though he would prevent its +bursting. His face grew deathly pale. The female watched him earnestly, +and the hitherto silent and morose man, convulsed by excess of feeling, +quivered in every limb, whilst he said with difficulty-- + +"Anna, I shall die--I am suffocated--air--air--my heart beats like a +hammer." + +I threw the window open, and the man drooped on the sill, and wept +fearfully. + +"What does this mean?" I asked, speaking in a low tone to the wife. + +"Your sudden kindness, sir. He is not able to bear it. He is proof against +cruelty and persecution--he has grown reckless to them, but constant +illness has made him so weak, that any thing unusual quite overcomes him." + +"Well, there, take the money, and get some food as quickly as you can. I +will not wait to distress him now. I will call again to-morrow; he will be +quieter then, and we'll see what can be done for you. Those children must +be cold. Have you no blankets?" + +"None, sir. We have nothing in the world. What, you see here, even to the +straw, belongs, to the landlord of the house, who has been charitable +enough to give us shelter." + +"Well, never mind--don't despond--don't give way--keep the poor fellow's +sprits up. Here's another crown. Let him have a glass of wine, it will +strengthen him; and do you take a glass too. I shall see you again +to-morrow. There, good-by." + +And, fool and woman that I was, on I went, and stood for some minutes, +ashamed of myself, in the passage below, because, forsooth, I had been +talking and exciting myself until my eyes had filled uncomfortably with +water. + +It was impossible for me to go to sleep again until I had purchased +blankets for these people, and so I resolved at once to get them. I was +leaving the house for that purpose, when a porter with a bundle entered +it. + +"Whom do you want, my man?" said I. + +"One Warton, sir", said he. + +"Top of the house," said I again--"back room--to the right. What have you +got there?" + +"Some sheets and blankets, sir." + +"From whom?" + +"My master sir, here's his card." + +It was the card of an upholsterer living within a short distance of where +I stood. I directed the porter again, and forthwith sallied to the man of +furniture. Here I learnt that I had been forestalled by an individual as +zealous in the cause of poor Warton as myself. I was glad of this, for I +knew very well, in doing any little piece of duty, how apt our dirty +vanity is to puff us up, and to make us assume so much more than we have +any title to; and it is nothing short of relief to be able to extinguish +this said vanity in the broad light of other men's benevolence. The +upholsterer, however, could not inform me who this generous man was, or +how he had been made aware of Warton's indigence. It appears that he had +called only a few minutes before I arrived, and had requested that the +articles which he purchased should be sent, without a moment's delay, to +the address which he gave. He waited in the shop until the porter quitted +it, and then departed, having, at the request of the upholsterer, who was +curious for the name of his customer, described himself in the day-book as +Mr Jones. "He was not a gentleman," said the man of business, "certainly +not, and he didn't look like a tradesman. I should say," he added, "that +he was a gentleman's butler, for he was mighty consequential, ordered +every body about, and wanted me to take off discount." + +My mind being made easy in respect of the blankets, I had nothing to do +but to return, as diligently as I could, to the house of my friend, Mr +Treherne. I reached his dwelling in time to prepare for dinner, at which +repast, as on the previous evening, I encountered a few select friends and +opulent business men. These were a different set. Before joining them, +Treherne had given me to understand that they were all very wealthy, and +very liberal in their politics, and before quitting them I heartily +believed him. There was a great deal of talk during dinner, and, as the +newspapers say, after the cloth was removed, on the aspect of affairs in +general. The corn-laws were discussed, the condition of the Irish was +lamented, the landed gentry were abused, the Church was threatened, the +Tories were alluded to as the enemies of mankind and the locusts of the +earth; whilst the people, the poor, the labouring classes, the masses, and +whatever was comprised within these terms, had their warmest sympathy and +approbation. My habits are somewhat retired, and I mix now little with +men. I can conscientiously affirm, that I never in my life heard finer +sentiments or deeper philanthropy than I did on this occasion from the +guests of my friend, and with what pleasure I need not say, when it +suddenly occurred to me to call upon them for a subscription on behalf of +the starving family whom I had met that day. + +"You must take care, my dear sir," said a gentleman, before I had half +finished my story, (he might be called the leader of the opposition from +the precedence which he took in the company in opposing all existing +institutions,)--"You must, indeed; you are a stranger here. You must not +believe all you hear. These fellows will trump up any tale. I know them of +old. Don't you be taken in. Take my word--it's a man's own fault if he +comes to want. Depend upon it." + +"So it is--so it is; that's very true," responded half-a-dozen gentlemen +with large bellies, sipping claret as they spoke. + +"I do not think, gentlemen," I answered, "that I am imposed upon in this +case." + +"Ah, ah!" said many Liberals at once, shaking their heads in pity at my +simplicity. + +"At all events," I added, "you'll not refuse a little aid." + +"Certainly, I shall," replied the leader; "it's a rule, sir. I wouldn't +break through it. I act entirely upon principle! I can't encourage robbery +and vagrancy. It's Quixotic." + +"Quite so--quite so!" murmured the bellies. + +"Besides, there's the Union; we are paying for that. Why don't these +people go in? Why, they tell me they may live in luxury there!" + +"He has a wife and three children--it's hard to separate, perhaps--" + +"Pooh, pooh, sir!" + +"Pooh, pooh!" echoed the bellies. + +"And, I'll tell you what, sir," said the gentleman emphatically in +conclusion, "if you want to do good to society, you mustn't begin at the +fag end of it; leave the thieves to the jailers, and the poor to the +guardians. Repeal the corn-laws--give us free trade--universal +suffrage--and religious liberty; that's what we want. I don't ask you to +put a tax upon tallow--why do you want to put a tax upon corn? I don't +ask you to pay my minister--why do you want me to pay your parson? I +don't ask you--" + +"Oh! don't let us hear all that over again, there's a good fellow," said +Treherne, imploringly. "Curse politics. Who is for whist? The tables are +ready." + +The company rose to a man at the mention of whist, and took their places +at the tables. I did not plead again for poor Warton; but his wretched +apartment came often before my eyes in the glitter of the wax-lit room in +which I stood, surrounded by profusion. His unhappy but faithful wife--his +sleeping children--his own affecting expression of gratitude, occupied my +mind, and soothed it. What a blessed thing it is to minister to the +necessities of others! How happy I felt in the knowledge that they would +sleep peacefully and well that night! I had been for some time musing in a +corner of the room, when I was roused by the loud voice of the Liberal. + +"Well, I tell you what, Treherne, I'll bet you five to one on the game." + +"Done!" said Treherne. + +"Crowns?" added the Liberal. + +"Just as you like--go on--your play." + +In a few minutes the game was settled. The Liberal lost his crowns, and +Treherne took them. Madmen both! Half of that sum would have given a +month's bread to the beggars. Did it enrich or serve the wealthy winner? +No. What was it these men craved? They could part with their money freely +when they chose. Was it excitement? And is none to be derived from +appeasing the hunger, and securing the heartfelt prayers of the naked and +the poor? I withdrew from the noisy party, and retired to my room, +determined to investigate the affairs of my new acquaintances at an early +hour in the morning, and effectually to help them if I could. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + + +Mr Treherne readily acquiesced in my wish to delay the execution of our +business for another day, when I made the proposition to him on our +meeting the following morning at his breakfast table. He seemed so +thoroughly engrossed in his own affairs, so overwhelmed with his peculiar +labours, that he was, I believe, grateful to me for the reprieve. For my +own part, I had engaged to afford myself a week's recreation, and I had no +wish to revisit London until the last moment of my holiday had been +accomplished. It is little pastime that the employments of the present day +enable a man to take, who would fain retain his position, and not be +elbowed out of it by the ninety and nine unprovided gentlemen who are +waiting for a scramble. The race of life has grown intense--the runners +are on each other's heels. Woe be to him who rests, or stays to tie his +shoe-string! Our repast concluded, and Mr Treherne, again taking leave of +me until dinner-time, I set out at once for the attic of my unhappy +bread-stealer. What was the object of my visit? I had given him a +sovereign. What did I intend further to do for him? I had, in truth, no +clear conception of my purpose. The man was ill, friendless, without +employment, and had "_the incumbrances_," wife and children, as the sick +and unemployed invariably do have; but although these facts, coming +before a man, presented a fair claim upon his purse (if he chanced to +have one) to the extent of that purse's ability, yet the demand closed +legitimately here, and the hand of charity being neither grudgingly nor +ostentatiously proffered, the conscience of the donor and the heart of +the receiver had no reason whatever to complain. Still my conscience was +not at ease, and it _did_ complain whenever I hesitated and argued the +propriety of engaging any further in the business of a man whom I had +known only a few hours, and whose acquaintance had been made, certainly, +not under the most favourable circumstances. It is a good thing to obey +an instinct, if it be stimulated toward that which is honourable or good +for man to do; yes, though cold deliberation will not give it sanction. +It was an urging of this kind that led me on. Convinced that I had done +enough for this unhappy man, I was provoked, importuned to believe that I +ought to do still more. "It may be"--the words forced their way into my +ears--"that the interest which has been excited in me for this family, is +not the result of a mere accident. Providence may have led me to their +rescue, and confided their future welfare to my conduct. _He_ is an +outcast--isolated amongst men--may be a worthy and deserving creature, +crushed and kept down by his misfortunes. Is a trifling exertion enough +to raise him, and shall I not give it to him?" Then passed before my eyes +visions, the possibility of realizing which, made me blush with shame for +a moment's indecision or delay. First, I pictured myself applying to my +friend Pennyfeather, who lives in that dark court near the Bank of +England, and sleeps in Paradise at his charming villa in Kent, and +gaining through his powerful interest a situation--say of eighty pounds +per annum--for the father of the family; then visiting that incomparable +and gentle lady, Mrs Pennyfeather, whose woman's heart opens to a tale of +sorrow, as flowers turn their beauty to the sun, and obtaining a firm +promise touching the needle-work for Mrs Warton. And then the scene +changed altogether, and I was walking in the gayest spirits, whistling +and singing through Camden town on my way to their snug lodgings in the +vale of Hampstead heath--and the time is twilight. And first I meet the +children, neatly dressed, clean, and wholesome looking, jumping and +leaping about the heather at no particular sport, but in the very joy and +healthiness of their young blood--and they catch sight of me, and rush to +greet me, one and all. They lead me to their mother. How beautiful she +has become in the subsidence of mental tumult, in quiet, grateful labour, +and, more than all, in the sunlight of her husband's gradual restoration! +She is busy with her needle, and her chair is at the window, so that she +may watch the youngsters even whilst she works; and near her is the +table, already covered with a snow-white cloth, and ready for "dear +Warton" when he comes home, an hour hence, to supper. "Well, you are +happy, Mrs Warton, now, I think," say I. "Yes, thanks to you, kind sir," +is the reply. "We owe it all to you;" and the children, as if they +understand my claim upon their love, hang about my chair;--one at my +knee, looking in my face; another with my hand, pressing it, with all his +little might, in his; a third inactive, but ready to urge me to prolong +my stay, as soon as I should think of quitting them. What a glow of +comfort and self-respect passed through my system, as the picture, bright +with life and colour, fixed itself upon my brain, stepping, as I was, +into the unwholesome lane, and shrinking from the foetid atmosphere. I +could hesitate no longer. I began to make my plans as I trudged up the +filthy stairs. The measured tones of a voice, engaged apparently with a +book, made me stop short at the attic floor. I recognised the sound, and +caught the words. The mendicants were at their prayers. "The benevolent +stranger" was not forgotten in the supplication, nor was he unmoved as be +listened in secret to the fervent accents of his fellow man. Whilst I +have no pretension to the character of a saint, I am free to confess, +that amongst the fairest things of earth few look so sublime as piety, +steadfast and serene, amidst the cloud and tempest of calamity. Was it so +here? I had yet to learn. A striking improvement had taken place in the +aspect of the room since the preceding evening. The straw was gone. Its +place had been supplied by the gift of the anonymous benefactor, of whom, +by the way, nothing was known, or had since been heard. The beds were +already removed to an angle of the apartment--the pieces of carpet were +converted into a rug for the fire place, and a chair or two were ready +for visitors. Warton himself looked a hundred per cent better--his wife +was all smiles, when she could refrain from tears; and the children had +been too much astonished by their sumptuous fare, to be any thing but +satiated, contented, happy. My vision was already half realized. When I +had submitted for an inconvenient space of time to their reiterated +thanks and protestations, I put an end to further expressions of +gratitude, by informing them that my stay in the city was limited--that I +had no time for any thing but business, and that we must have as few +_words_ as possible. I wished to know in what way I could effectually +serve them. + +"You said, sir, yesterday," replied Warton, "that you would take no steps +in our favour, until you had satisfied yourself that we, at least, +deserved your bounty. Had you not said it, I should not have been happy +until I had afforded you all the satisfaction in my power. Heaven knows I +owe it to you! It is to you, sir--" + +"Come, my good fellow, remember what I told you. No protestations. Let us +come to the point." + +"Thank you, sir--I will. Are you acquainted with London?" + +"Tolerably well. What then?" + +"You may have heard, sir, of a merchant there of the name of ----" + +"Ay have I. One of our first men. Do you know him? Will he give you a +character?" + +"He is my uncle, sir--my mother's brother. Apply to him, and he will tell +you I am a plunderer and a villain." + +I looked at Mr Warton, somewhat startled by his frank communication, and +waited to hear more. + +"It is false--it is false!" continued the speaker emphatically. "I cannot +melt a rock. I cannot penetrate a heart of stone. If I could do so, he +would be otherwise." + +"You surprise me!" I exclaimed. + +"That I live, sir, is a miracle to myself. That I have not been destroyed +by the misery which I have borne, is marvellous. A giant's strength must +yield before oppression heaped upon oppression. But there, sir"--he added, +pointing to his wife, and struggling for composure--"there has been my +stay, my hope, my incitement; but for her--God bless her"--The wife +motioned him to be silent, and he paused. + +"This excitement is too much for him, is it not?" I asked. "Come, Mr +Warton, you are still weak and unwell. I will not distress you now." + +"I ask your pardon, sir. Three years' illness, annoyance, irritation, +poverty, have made me what you see me. It has not been so always. I was +vigorous and manly until the flesh gave way, and refused to bear me longer +up. But I will be calm. It is very strange, sir, but even now one look +from her subdues me, and restores me to myself." + +"You have received a good education--have you not, Mr Warton?" + +"Will you spare an hour, sir, to listen to my history?" + +"I should be glad to hear it," I replied, "but it will be as well to wait, +perhaps--" + +I looked enquiringly at his wife. + +"No, sir," resumed the man, "I am tranquil now. It is a hard task, but I +have strength for it. You shall know every thing. Before you do a second +act of charity, you shall hear of the trials of those whom you have saved +already. You shall be satisfied." + +"Well, be it so," I answered. "Proceed, and I will listen patiently." + +Warton glanced at his wife, who rose immediately and quitted the room with +her three children. The latter were evidently staggered by the sudden +change in their circumstances, and they stared full in my face until the +latest moment. Being left alone with my new acquaintance, I felt, for a +short time, somewhat ill at ease; but when the poor fellow commenced his +history, my attention was excited, and I soon became wholly engrossed in +his recital, which proved far more strange and striking than I had any +reason to expect. + +Mr Warton, as well as I can remember, spoke to me as follows:-- + +"Knowing what you do, sir," he began, "you will smile, and hardly believe +me, when I tell you that the sin of _Pride_ has been my ruin. Yes, +criminal as I was yesterday--beggar as I am to-day--surrounded by every +sign and evidence of want, I confess it to my shame--Pride, has helped to +bring me where I am--Pride, not resulting from the consciousness of blood, +or the possession of dignities and wealth--but pride, founded upon +nothing. I am one of three children. I had two sisters--both are dead. My +father was a workhouse boy, and his parentage was unknown. I told you that +I had little reason to build a self-esteem upon my family descent; yet +there was a period in my life when I would have given all I had in the +world for an honourable pedigree--to know that I had bounding in my veins +a portion of the blood that ages since had fallen to secure a nation's +liberties, or in any way had served to perpetuate its fame. Wealth, simple +wealth, I always regarded with disdain. I revered the well-born. My father +was apprenticed from the workhouse to a maker of watch-springs, living in +Clerkenwell; but after remaining with his master a few months, during +which time he was treated with great severity, he ran away. He obtained a +situation in the establishment of a silk-merchant in the city, and began +life on his own account as helper to the porter of the house. My father, +sir--we may speak well of the departed--had great abilities. He was a +wonderful man--not so much on account of what he accomplished, (and, in +his station, this was not a little,) as for what he proved himself to be, +under every disadvantage that could retard a man struggling through the +world, even from his infancy. His perseverance was remarkable, and he had +a depth of feeling which no ill treatment or vicissitude could diminish. +He must have risen amongst men; for mind is buoyant, and leaps above the +grosser element. He had resolved, in his first situation, to do his duty +strictly, rather to overdo than to fall short of it, and to make himself, +if possible, essential to his employers. He saw, likewise, the advantage +of respectful behaviour, and cheerfulness of temper. Whatever he did, he +did with a good grace, and with a willingness to oblige, that secured for +him the regard of those he served. He was not long in discovering, that it +was impossible for him to advance far with his present amount of +attainment, however sanguine he might be, and resolute in purpose. The +porter's boy might lead in time to the office of porter; but there was no +material rise from this, and the emolument was, at the best, sufficient +only for the necessities of life. He learned that the head of the firm +himself had been originally a servant in the establishment, and had been +promoted gradually from the desk, on account of his industry, +trustworthiness, and skill in figures. Now, honest and industrious my +father knew himself to be, but of skill in figures he had none. He +determined at once to make himself a good accountant, and every leisure +hour was employed thenceforward with that object. At the same time he was +diligent in improving his handwriting, in storing his mind with useful +information, and in preparing himself for any vacancy which might occur at +the desk, when his age would justify him in offering himself to fill it. +He had held his situation for three years, when an accident happened that +materially helped him on. A fire broke out in his master's warehouse. The +gentleman was from home, and nobody was on the premises at the time but +the porter and himself, who lived and slept in the house. It was in the +middle of the night. A fierce wind set in when the flames were at their +highest, and, before morning, the place was a heap of ruins. In the first +alarm, my father remembered that, in the counting-house, a tin box had +been left by his master, which previously had always been carefully locked +away in the iron chest. He was sure that it contained papers of great +value, and that its loss would be severely felt. He determined to secure +it, or, at the least, to make every endeavour. He succeeded, and gained +the treasure almost at the expense of life. He was not mistaken in his +supposition. In the box were deposited documents of the highest importance +to his master; and the latter, delighted with the boy's acuteness, and +grateful for the service, was eager to remunerate him. My father made +known his wishes, and his acquaintance with accounts, and in less than six +months as soon, indeed, as the house was rebuilt--he had his foot on the +first step of the ladder, and took his place amongst the clerks in the +counting-house. Ah, sir! there is nothing like perseverance. My father +knew his powers, and was the man to exert them. He worked at the desk from +morning till night. He gave his heart to his business, and no time was his +which could be given to that. What was the consequence? His less energetic +brethren envied and hated him, but his employer esteemed and valued him. +And he ascended rapidly. It is said that circumstances make the man. I +doubt the truth of this. The highest order of minds controls them, moulds +them to his purposes, and makes them what he will. Time and opportunity +are the crutches of the timid and the helpless. In the course of a few +years, my father became the youngest partner in the firm--the youngest, +but the most active and the most useful. He began to accumulate. He +remained in this position until he reached his thirtieth year, when he +looked abroad for a companion and a home. He proposed as a suitor to the +daughter of his senior partner--a vain and foolish, although a wealthy +man, who had made great plans for his child, and looked for an alliance +with nobility. She, a proud and handsome girl, scorned the approaches of +the silk-merchant, and wondered at his boldness. One word, sir, of her, +before I follow my father in his career. Oh, the vicissitudes of life--the +changes--the sudden rise--the violent fall of men! Well may the player +say, 'The spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.' They do, +they do, what a spectacle for gods is man! The woman, sir this arrogant, +this supercilious damsel, cradled in gold and satin, and bred in the +glossy lap of luxury--died--rotted on a dunghill. Her father gained his +nobleman--she, a paramour. She eloped with a marquis, who deserted her. +She returned to her home, and found it shut against her. She who had +feasted upon the choice morsels of abundance, must, like me, commit crime +for a loaf of bread. She is carried abroad by a new protector, and +strangers bear her to a pauper's grave. This was her fate, sir. But to +return. In consequence of the refusal, a coolness arose between the +partners. An angry word or two took place--a taunt--something too galling +for my father's pride was spoken, and there was a separation. My father +then commenced business on his own foundation--it is hardly necessary for +me to say with success. He could not but prosper. To fail whilst reason +was left him was impossibility. He soon married. His wife--my mother--was +the daughter of a rich merchant. You know the name, sir. Her brother, my +uncle, bears the same. I told it you just now. There could not have been a +more unfortunate union. My father was full of feeling and noble impulses, +intelligent, active, passionate, and required, if not his own qualities in +a partner, at least a milder reflex of himself--a woman that could +appreciate his nature, encourage, help, support him; a woman, in a word, +with a heart and mind, and both devoted. My mother, unfortunately for her, +for all, had no sympathy for her husband--had nothing to offer him but the +portion which she brought, and the hand which her father bade her give. +She was a cold--must I say it?--unfeeling woman, with little thought +beyond herself, her apparel, and her pleasures. I hope, sir, I shall make +you understand me. It is hard to speak disparagingly of her who gave me +life. Let me be careful that I do her justice. _I_ bring against her no +charge of vice. I believe her _not_ vicious. I ever considered her too +weak to be so. I would have you imagine a woman apathetic and +characterless; her mental powers just equal to providing her with a +becoming garment; her feelings capable, perhaps, of their full expansion +if a stranger moved them with some hollow compliment upon her good taste, +or, easier still, her beauty--for she was not without this dangerous +gift--a lovely image, sir. I have myself, as a boy, often seen a radiance +upon her countenance at such a season, when the pretty gambols of my +infant sister has failed to draw one smile of approbation. The little +sensibility she had waited on a paltry vanity. I may say with truth, that +her children caused her no pain. By a fortunate physical constitution, she +bore the burden of a mother without the pangs that usually attend a +mother's state. In this respect she was considered a remarkable woman by +those who deemed their judgement in such matters sound. Once in the world, +her care was at an end. I have heard, sir--I have read of mother's love. I +can feel what it should be; I can guess what wonders it may work in the +wayward spirit of man; for I longed and yearned for it, but it never came. +My elder sister died when a child of two years. My father was then in the +zenith of his prosperity, and was absorbed in his affairs; yet this +loss--this heavy blow--came upon him like a thunderstroke. Many things +occupied his time, but this alone his mind. Deep sighs would escape him +in the active prosecution of his business, and his cheeks were suffused +with tears as he sped along the city's streets, sacred only to gain and +worldly commerce. He doated on his girls, and to lose one was to lose +half the joy of his existence. The effect of this calamity was otherwise +on my mother; and I revert to the difference in order to make clear to +you their respective natures. My mother wept at the death of her +child--she would not else have been a woman; but as I have seen weak +watery clouds pass across the moon's surface, leaving the planet +untouched and tranquil in their transit, so the thin veil of her sorrows +did not disturb the palpable unconcern--the neutrality of soul that were +behind. One easy flow of tears, and the claim of the departed was +satisfied. In a day, the privation had ceased to be one. Here then, sir, +are the seeds of a wilderness of after woe: my father, overflowing with +affection, and craving, as it were, for sympathy, turning to my mother, +and finding there a blank--nothing to rest upon. 'What is fortune,' says +the poet, 'to a heart yearning for affection, and finding it not? Is it +not as a triumphal crown to the brows of one parched with fever, and +asking for one fresh, healthful draught--_the cup of cold water_?' So it +was here, and hence husband and wife became soon estranged from one +another. The former, busy from hour to hour in his counting-house, had +little time to spare upon his children; the latter, with all her time at +her disposal, took no delight in the task. My sister and I, in our +infancy, were made over to strangers; and from the hands of the nurse we +were transmitted to those of the schoolmistress. When I was old enough, I +was removed from my sister's school, and placed, with a select number of +young gentlemen, under the care of a highly respectable master. It was +here that my pride began to take root. One of my schoolfellows was the +son of a general, another the son of a large landed proprietor, a third +was heir to a peerage, a fourth traced his ancestors to a period when the +soil was yet untrodden by a Norman foot. I was chagrined at my +position--irritated--humbled, but the boys, especially those to whom I +have alluded, behaved towards me with extreme kindness, and whilst I felt +humbled, I did not envy them, because I loved them. I had one advantage, +I was the son of a rich _merchant_, as he was called in the school, +although _I_ knew that title to be one of courtesy only, and I was +ashamed of the little superiority which that advantage gave me. What +cause for pride can there be in the possession of so much dross? You will +smile, sir, when I tell you of the resolution which fixed itself in the +mind of a boy scarcely in his teens. My playfellows were respected on +account of the considerations which I have named. Why should I not be +respected? I vowed that I would become so. And how? For what? For nothing +less, sir, than _myself_; for my own high principle and integrity of +conduct. It is true, sir. There were the sons of a noble ancestry about +me who would condescend to tell a falsehood, the nephew of an officer who +was mean enough to borrow money and not repay it. There were many whose +notions of honour were lax and unbecoming. Had I entertained them, they +must have been fatal to me. Discarding them for ever, and speaking and +acting on all occasions, of trifling or of serious moment, with the most +jealous regard to truth and honesty, I relied upon securing for myself +what my predecessors had failed to leave me--the respect of my +fellow-men, and a good and honourable name. It seems a noble resolution. +I repent it to this hour. It is true that I rose rapidly in the +estimation of my master, and that I was regarded even with deference, as +I grew up, by boys of my own age, and of better standing; but it is no +less true, that, from the moment my determination was made, I became +morbidly anxious for the good opinion of men, painfully alive to +ridicule, and as fearful of the breath of slander or reproach as though +it came loaded with the plagues of Egypt. With such an idiosyncrasy, what +becomes of happiness on earth? But I tire you, sir." + +"Go on, I beg of you," I answered, deeply interested in the narrative, and +no less surprised at the language and manner of the speaker, both of which +convinced me that he was a man of genius and of education. The whole thing +was a mystery, and I was impatient for the solution and the end. "Do not +fatigue yourself," I continued. "For my own part I listen with the +greatest interest." + +"I remember, sir," proceeded Mr Warton, "as if it were yesterday, my first +return home. It was for the midsummer holidays, and gay enough were my +spirits then. All was sunshine and hope. I had not seen my parents for two +years. It seemed as if twenty had passed over my father's head since our +leave-taking. His hair had become blanched, and a settled frown had grown +upon his brow. His forehead was full of lines and wrinkles; his lips were +constantly pressed together; anger was the predominant expression of his +face. The openness of countenance which had so well become him, and which +inspired me even as a child with loving confidence, was chased away, and +disappointment and vexation had seated themselves in its place. He relaxed +for a moment when he saw me, and pressed me, even then, passionately to +his arms; but the clouds soon gathered again, and asserted their right of +possession. I, boylike and apprehensive, concluded that his affairs were +in a disordered state. I had but one thought at the time. I prayed that +misfortune, and not _dishonesty_, might appear to the world as the +occasion of his difficulties. My mother looked younger than ever. She was +dressed with much care, and there was a bloom upon her cheek that would +have adorned a country maiden. Not a line, not a shadow of a line, was +visible on her soft skin--not a tooth had departed from the ivory and +well-formed set. She had retained all that was valueless, and had lost +entirely and irreparably the priceless treasure of her husband's love. At +supper-time, on the very first evening of my arrival, I was made +thoroughly aware of the fearful change which, in so short a time, had come +over the spirit of our home. Joy, I knew, had long since fled from it--now +peace had been startled, and there was discord, nothing but discord, at +the hearth. My father drew his chair to the table, in the sullen and angry +temper which I have told you was visible on his countenance at our +meeting. It seemed at first as though he had received offence elsewhere, +and was resolved to remain discomforted. I could not understand it, but I +was awed by his frown, and sat in terror. In a few minutes, the flame +burst forth. My father required a silver spoon. There was one within arm's +reach of him. 'But why was it not _before_ him?' He repeated the question +again and again, until he forced an answer, which gave him no +satisfaction, but provoked fresh rage. Then came insipid remonstrances +from my mother, foolish argument--passionless, but not on that account +less irritating, allusions to the past. There was little incitement +required, and a word from her lips scarcely worth noticing was sufficient +to maintain a quarrel for an hour. To a stranger, the scene would have +been lamentable; to me, their child, it was sad and sickening indeed. I +have no terms to express to you the fierceness of my father's anger. By +degrees, he lost all mastery over himself; he used the most opprobrious +epithets, and, but for me, he would have struck her. For three hours this +state of things continued, and at midnight they withdrew, to retire to +separate beds, and separate rooms. + +"'And all this,' said my mother as she closed her door--'all this for the +sake of a paltry spoon!' Ah! poor woman, could she but have understood how +guiltless of offence was that said spoon, she would have learnt the secret +of her troubles; but we are not all physicians, sir, and we do not trouble +ourselves concerning the _seat_ of our complaint, whilst its effects are +killing us with pain. It was evident that every spark of affection was +extinguished in my father's breast, that his disposition was soured, and +that, cause or no cause, misery must be our daily bread. I could not sleep +that night, and I rose from my bed in the morning, determined to speak +boldly to my father on what had taken place. I loved him--child never +loved parent better--and I knew I could speak respectfully-- +affectionately--yes, and solemnly to him; for, God bless him--he was proud +of me, and he listened with regard to my words--on account of my little +education, already so superior to his own. I was better able to +remonstrate with him, because I had taken no part in the contest which I +had witnessed, further than placing myself between them when _his_ rage +seemed to have robbed him of reason. + +"I stepped into his bed-room before he quitted it. + +"Father"--said I. + +"'What? Edgar,' he replied kindly, 'what can I do for you?' + +"I had arranged in my mind the words which I proposed to utter, but they +vanished suddenly, and I could do nothing but weep. + +"My father, sir, was the strangest of men. Indeed, since his alienation +from his wife, the most unaccountable. Rude and violent as he could be to +her--he was the tenderest, the most anxious of fathers. He turned pale as +death when he saw me in tears, and entreated me to tell him what I +suffered. I gained confidence from his anxiety, and spoke. + +"'Father,' I said, 'you must not be angry with me for speaking boldly. +Poor mother! you will kill her--you do not treat her well. I am sure +nothing could justify all you said and did last night. You called her +cruel names. It is not right. I am certain it is not.' + +"'Edgar,' said my father, frowning as he went on, 'be silent. You are a +child, and I love you. I will do any thing for your happiness. I forbid +you to speak to me of your mother.' + +"'But if you love me,' I answered quickly, 'you ought to love my mother, +too. Oh! do, dear father--do be kind and loving to her.' + +"'Edgar,' exclaimed my parent passionately, 'you are very young now--you +will be older if you live, and then I can speak to you as a friend. You +cannot understand me now. She has broken your father's heart--she has +rendered me the most miserable of men. I would I could speak to you, dear +Edgar but this tongue will perhaps be cold and immovable before you can +understand the tale. I am wretched, wretched, indeed!' + +"My father was overcome. He could not himself refrain from tears. I felt +deeply for him, and would have given any thing to hear this secret cause +of grief. But his expressions kept me silent; and I clasped his hands in +pity. + +"'Edgar,' he continued in a loud voice, and speaking through his tears, +'listen to my words. They are sacred. Receive them as you would my dying +syllables. You may be distant when the blow falls which divides us. Edgar, +I implore you, when you become a man, to let one consideration only guide +you in your selection of a partner. Mark me--only one--see that she has a +heart--a _virtuous_ heart--and that it be yours entire. Despise wealth-- +beauty--family--look to nothing but that. Would to Heaven that I had!-- +Edgar--your happiness--your salvation, every thing, depends upon it. I +have lost all--I am crushed and ruined; but do you, dear child, learn +wisdom from your father's wreck.' + +"He said no more. I could not answer him, for my heart was choked. In a +few minutes he bade me, in a quiet tone, retire to the breakfast room; and +shortly afterwards he made his own appearance there, looking as moodily +and cross when he beheld my mother, as when he had encountered her at +supper on the night before. + +"Now, sir, I am ashamed to confess to you--but I have asked you to hear my +history--and you shall hear the truth in the teeth of shame--that all my +sympathy was, from this hour, towards my father, and against my mother. It +may be wrong--wicked--but I could not control the strong feeling within +me. His words had left a powerful impression upon my mind. His tone, his +tears--his man's tears--stamped those words with truth, and I believed him +wronged. In what way I knew not--nor did I care. It was sufficient for me +to hear it, as I did, from his lips, and to be told that it was not +possible to reveal more. Besides, sir, I have already intimated to you +that there was little tenderness in my mother's heart for me. She was +cold, indifferent, and had never had part in all my little joys and +griefs. My father, even with his heavy fault--a fault almost pardoned, as +I believed; by the provocation--watched my boyish steps, and rejoiced with +me in my well-doing. Nothing had interest for me which was not important +to him. He encouraged me in learning. He grudged no money that could be +spent in my improvement--he had no joy so great as that which waited on my +desire for knowledge. He had been to me a playmate, counsellor, friend, +whenever his slender opportunities permitted him to escape to me; and +evidences of the most devoted affection had disturbed my youthful heart +with an emotion too deep for utterance in the silence and solitude of my +schoolboy hours. Yes--right or wrong--by necessity--my sympathy was all +for him. And to convince you, sir, that my feelings were enlisted in his +cause, irrespectively of self, without the most distant view to my own +interest, I have but to refer to the life which I passed under his roof, +until I left it, to return, for a second time, to the enjoyments and +consolations--as they were always--of my school. Although his affection +for me was unbounded, it was not long before I perceived, with bitterness +and trouble, that it was impossible for him to save me from the fury of a +temper which he had no longer power to govern. I could read, or I believed +I could, his inmost soul, and I could see the hourly struggle for +forbearance and self-control. It was in vain. If his passion obtained the +rein for an instant--it was wild--away--beyond his reach--and he thought +not, in the paroxysm, of the sufferer, whose smile he would not have +ruffled in the season of sobriety and quiet. I did not fail again and +again to remonstrate on behalf of my mother--for the scene which I have +described to you became an endless one; but perceiving at length that +representation added only fuel to the fire, I desisted. My lively habits +soon appeared to be unsuited to the new order of things. My father would +once have smiled with enjoyment at some piece of boyish mischief which now +roused him to anger, and before excuse could be offered, or pardon +asked--the severest chastisement--I cannot tell how severe, was inflicted +on my flesh." + +"Madman!" I exclaimed involuntarily, interrupting Warton in his narrative. + +"Madman do you say, sir?" he answered quickly. "Yes, I have often thought +so--and to an extent, I grant you--if it be madness to have the reason +prostrate before passion. But it is profitless to define the malady. I +would have you dwell, sir, on the _cause_--_her_ fatal apathy--her +indifference--_I know not what besides_--which made him what he was. You +may imagine, sir, that my blood has boiled beneath the punishment--that I +have burned with indignation beneath the weight of it, undeserved and +cruel as it was. Oh, sir! God has visited me these many years with sore +affliction. I am a forlorn, disabled, cast-off creature--nothing lives +viler than the thing I have become; and yet in this dark hour I thank my +Maker with an overflowing grateful heart that He tied down my hands when +they have tingled in my agony to return the father's blow. I never did--I +never did." + +The speaker grew more and more excited, and his voice at last failed him. +I rose, and retired to the window, but he proceeded whilst my face was +turned away. I know not why--but my own eyes smarted. + +"Yes, sir, time after time the horrible desire to be avenged, and to give +back blow for blow, has possessed me; and, as if eternal torture were to +be the immediate penalty of the unnatural act, I have thrown my arms +behind me, clasped hand in hand, and held them tiger-like together, until +the fit was passed away. And then who could be more penitent, more +sorrowful, than he! Within an hour of perpetrating this barbarity, he has +met me with a look pleading for forgiveness, which I would have given him +had he offended me, oh much--much more. What could he say to his child? +What could his child allow him to utter? Nothing. I have kissed him; he +has taken me by the hand, we have walked abroad together; and he has +loaded me with gifts for the joy of our reconciliation." + +Curious as I was to hear more, I deemed it expedient, for the present, to +close the history. The man seemed carried away by the subject, and his +cheeks were scorched with this burning flush which the unusual exertion of +mind and body had summoned up. He spoke vehemently--hurriedly--at the top +of his voice, and I knew not how far his agitation might carry him. I +again proposed to him to abstain from fatigue, and to leave his history +unfinished for the present. He paused for a few minutes, wiped the heavy +perspiration from his brow, and answered me in a calm and steady voice-- + +"I will transgress no more, sir. I have never spoken of these things +yet--and they come before my mind too vividly--they inflame and mislead +me. I ask your pardon. But let me finish now--the tale is soon told--I +cannot for a second time revert to it." + +"Go on," I answered, yielding once more to his wish, and in the same +composed and quiet voice he _began_ again. + +"The first watch which I called my own, was given to me on one of these +occasions. My father had requested me to execute some small commission. I +forgot to do it. In his eyes the fault for a moment assumed the form of +wilful disobedience. That moment was enough--he was roused--the paroxysm +prevailed--and I was beaten like a dog. An hour afterwards he was +persuaded that his child was not undutiful. His reason had returned to +him, and, with it a load of miserable remorse. He offered me, with a +tremulous hand, the bauble, which I accepted; and, as I took it, I saw a +weight of sorrow tumble from his unhappy breast. This was my father, sir. +A man who would have been the best of fathers--had he been permitted, as +his heart directed him, to be the tenderest of husbands. I could see in my +boyhood that blame attached to my mother--to what extent I did not know. I +lived in the hope of hearing at some future time. That time never came. I +remained at home two months, and then went back to school. I received a +letter from one of my father's clerks, who was an especial favourite of +mine. It must have been about a week after my departure. It told me that +my father had drooped since I quitted him. On the morning that I came +away, he left his business and locked himself in my bedroom. He was shut +up at least two hours there. Fifty different matters required his presence +in the counting-house, and at length my friend, the clerk, disturbed him. +When the door was opened he found his master, his eyes streaming with +tears, intent upon a little book in which he had seen me reading many days +before. Oh, it was like him, sir! Within a few days I received another +letter from the same hand. My father was dangerously ill, and I was +summoned home. I flew, and arrived to find him delirious. He had been +seized with inflammation the day before. The fire blazed in a system that +was ripe for it. The doctors were baffled. Mortification had already +begun. He did not recognize me, but he spoke of me in his delirium in +terms of endearment, whilst curses against my mother rolled from his +unconscious lips. Three hours after my arrival he was a corpse. And such a +corpse! They told me it was my father, and I believed them. + +"Are _you_, sir, fatherless?" asked Warton suddenly. + +I told him, and he continued. "You have felt then the lightning shock +that has altered the very face of nature. Earth, before and after that +event, is not the same. It never was to human being yet. It cannot be. +What a secret is learnt upon that day! How tottering and insecure have +become the things of life that seemed so firm and fixed! The penalty is +heavy which we pay for the privilege to be our own master. Oh, the +desolation of a fatherless home! My father died, having made no will. So +it was said at first--but in a few days there was another version. My +mother's brother--the uncle that I spoke of--then appeared upon the +stage, and was most active for his sister's interests. He had never been +a friend of my father's. They had not spoken for years. I did not know +why. I had never enquired--for the man was a stranger to me, and since my +birth he had not crossed our threshold. My father believed that his +relative had wronged him--of this I was sure--and I hated him therefore +when he appeared. When my father was buried, this man produced a will. I +was present when it was read--bodily present; but my heart and soul were +away with him in the grave--and with him, sir, in heaven, beyond it. They +told me at the conclusion of the ceremony, that my father had died worth +fifty thousand pounds--that he had left my mother the bulk of his +property--to my sister a fortune of ten thousand pounds, and to me the +sum of a hundred and fifty pounds per annum. But they might have talked +to stone. What cared my young and inexperienced, and still bleeding +heart, for particulars and sums? A crust without him was more than +enough. It was more than I could swallow now--and what was _wealth_ to +me? My uncle, I heard afterwards, watched me as the different items were +read over, and seemed pleased to observe upon my face no sign of +disappointment. That he was pleased, I am certain, for he spoke kindly to +me when all was over, and said that I was a good boy, and should be taken +care of. "-Taken care of-!"--and so I was--and so I am--for look about +you, sir, and observe the evidences of my uncle's love. The clerk, to +whom I have alluded, took an early opportunity to remind me of the nature +of my father's will--and to hint to me suspicions of foul play. I readily +believed him. It was not that I cared for the money. At that age I was +ignorant of its value, and my little portion seemed a mine of wealth. But +I wished to dislike my uncle, because he had given pain to my dear +father. I avoided his presence as much as I could, and I made him feel +that my aversion was hearty. We never became _friends_. We seldom +spoke--and never but when obliged. He was a coarse man then--I have not +seen him for many years--ungentlemanly and unfeeling in his deportment. +It would have been as easy for him to alter the framework of his body as +to have shown regard for the sensibilities of other men. He lived to +amass. He counts his tens of thousands now--they may have been scraped +together amidst the groans and shrieks of the distressed, but there they +are--he has them, and he is happy. I asked, and obtained from my mother, +permission to return to school. I remained there without visiting my home +again for three years. My mother did not once write to me, or come to see +me. I did not write to her. My expenses were paid from my income. My +father's business was still conducted by my mother with her assistants, +and she resided in the old house. Did I tell you that my uncle was the +appointed executor of my father's will, and my guardian? He managed my +affairs, and for the present I suffered him to do as he thought proper. +In the meanwhile my happiness at school was unbounded. My existence there +was sweet and tranquil, like the flow of a small secluded stream. I loved +my master. Ill-taught and self-neglected nearly till the time that I came +under his instruction, I believed that I owed all my education to him; +and whilst I thirsted for knowledge as the means of raising myself and my +own mind, he supplied me with the healthful sustenance, and helped me +forward with his precepts. I had neither taste nor application for the +severer studies. Science was too hard and real for the warm imagination +with which Providence had liberally endowed me. It was a scarecrow in the +garden of knowledge, and I looked at it with fear from the sunny heights +of poesy on which I basked and dreamed. History--fiction--the strains of +Fletcher, Shakspeare--the lore of former worlds--these had unspeakable +charms for me; and such information as they yielded, I imbibed greedily. +Admiration of the beautiful creations of mind leads rapidly in ardent +spirits to an emulative longing; and the desire to achieve--to a firm +belief of capability. The grateful glow of love within is mistaken for +the gift divine. I burned to follow in the steps of the immortal, and +already believed myself inspired. Hours and days I passed in +compositions, which have since helped to warm our poverty-stricken room; +for they had all one destination--the fire. I shall, however, never +consider the days ill-spent which were engaged in such pursuits. The +pleasure was intense--the advantage, if unseen and indirect, was not +insignificant. Whatever _tends_ to elevate and purify, is in itself good +and noble. We cannot withdraw ourselves from the selfishness of life, and +incline our souls to the wisdom of the speaking dead, and not advance--be +it but one step--heavenward. And in my own case--the intellectual +character was associated with all that is lofty in principle, and exalted +in conduct. _Sans peur et sans reproche_ was its fit motto. Falsehood and +dishonesty must not attach to it. In my own mind I pictured a moral +excellence which it was necessary to attain; and in my strivings for +intellectual fame, _that_, as the essential accompaniment, was never once +lost sight of. Pride still clung to me--and was fed throughout. I was +eighteen years of age, and I desired to enter the university. I fixed +upon Oxford, as holding out a better prospect of success than the sister +seat of learning. I enquired what sum of money was necessary for my +education there; and received for answer, that two hundred pounds a-year +might carry me comfortably through, but that, with some economy and +self-denial, a hundred and fifty might be sufficient. It is a curious +circumstance that the very post which brought this information, brought +likewise a letter from my uncle, offering, as my guardian, and at his own +expense, to send me to the university. I was indignant at the +proposition, and vowed, before his letter was half read, that I would +rather live upon a meal a-day, than owe my bread to one whom I regarded +as my father's foe. Does it not strike you, sir, as somewhat singular, +that my father should make this man executor, trustee, and guardian? Men +do not generally appoint their enemies to such offices. I wrote to my +uncle in reply, declined coldly but respectfully his offer, and told him +my intention. Here our correspondence ended, and six months afterwards my +name was on the boards of my college. I went up knowing no one, but +carrying from my friend, the schoolmaster, a letter of introduction to a +clergyman who had been his college friend, and who (now married and the +father of one child) earned his subsistence by taking pupils. I was +received by this poor but worthy man with extreme kindness. He read the +character which I had brought with me, and bade me make his house my +home. His hospitality was at first a great advantage to me. My slender +income compelled me to exercise rigid economy--and to avoid all company. +Although very poor, I have told you that I was already very proud. I +would not receive a favour which I could not pay back--I would not permit +the breath of slander to whisper a syllable against my name. There were +hours in which no book could be read with pleasure, which no study could +make light. Such were passed in delightful converse with my friend, and +thus I was spared even the temptation to walk astray. I need not tell you +that I had no tutor. It was a luxury I could not afford. I worked the +harder, and was all the happier for the victory I had gained--such I +deemed it--over my uncle. At the end of a twelve-month, I found my +expenses were even within my income. It was a sweet discovery. I had paid +my way. I did not owe a penny. I was respected, and no one knew my mode +of life, or the amount of income that I possessed. My friend, I said, had +one child. She was a daughter. During my first year's residence I had +never seen her. She was away in Dorsetshire nursing a cousin, who died at +length in her arms. She returned home at the commencement of my second +year, and I was introduced to her. She fell upon my solitary life like +the primrose that comes alone to enliven the dull earth--a simple flower +of loveliness and promise, graceful in herself--but to the gazer's eye +more beautiful, no other flower being present to provoke comparison. We +met often. She was an artless creature sir, and gave her love to me long, +long before she knew the price of such a gift. She doated on her father, +and it was a virtue that I understood. She was very fair to look at; +timid as the fawn--as guileless; a creature of poetry, sent to be a +dream, and to shed about her a beguiling unsubstantial brightness. All +things looked practicable and easy in the light in which she moved. The +difficulties of life were softened--its rewards and joys coloured and +enhanced. I thought of her as a wife, and the tone of my existence was +from the moment changed. If you could have seen her, sir--the angel of +that quiet house--gliding about, ministering happiness--her innocent +expression--her lovely form--her golden hair falling to her swelling +bosom--her truthfulness and cultivated mind--you would, like me, have +blessed the fortune which had brought her to your side, and revealed the +treasure to your youthful heart. I told her that I loved, and her tears +and maiden blushes made her own affection manifest. Her father spoke to +me, bade me reflect, take counsel, and be cautious. He gave at last no +opposition to our wishes--but requested that time might be allowed for +trial, and my settlement in life. And so it was agreed. I prosecuted my +studies more diligently than ever, and looked with impatience for the +hour when my profession (for I had gone to the university with a view to +the church) and my little income would justify me in offering to my +darling one a home. Did I now mourn over the inequality of my fortune? +Did I upbraid the dead--accuse the living? I did not, sir. Too pleased to +labour for the girl whom I had chosen--I rejoiced to owe my bread to my +exertion. She then, as now--for it was her--my Anna, sir--the wreck whom +you have seen--cruelly misused by poverty and grief--robbed of her beauty +and her strength--the miserable outline of her former self--she then, +even as now, was in all things actuated by the highest motives--a serious +and religious maid. She cheered me with her smiles--her perfect patience +and tranquil hope. It was to her a privilege to be united to a clergyman, +and to find her earthly joy combined with usefulness and good. In our +walks, I have painted the future which was never to be--the bliss we were +never to experience. I have spoken of the parsonage, and its little lawn +and many flowers--pictured myself at work--visiting the poor--comforting +the sick--herself my dear attendant at the cottage doors, with hosts of +little ones about her, whom she might call her children, and for whom she +might exercise more than a mother's care. She could not listen to such +promises, and not grow happier in her inexperience than reality could +ever render her; and yet sighs, sighs, ominous sighs, would from the +first escape her. Still for a twelvemonth our nook of earth was Paradise, +and sorrow, the universal lot, was banished from our door. The tales +which I had been accustomed to hear of the world's deceit and falsehood +seemed groundless and cruel--the inventions of envious disappointed +minds--whose ambition had betrayed them into hopes, too preposterous for +fulfilment Happiness was on earth--did I not find her in my daily +walk?--for such as were not loth to greet her with a lowly and contented +spirit. I had no present care. The days were prosperous. I obtained a +scholarship in my college at the end of the first year, which was worth +to me at least fifty pounds per annum. This, not requiring, I saved up. I +worked hard during the day--withdrew myself from all intercourse with +men, and every evening was rewarded with the smiles of her for whose dear +sake all labour was so easy. Oh, the tranquillity and ineffable bliss of +those distant bygone days! _Bygone_, did I say? No--they exist still. +Poverty--misery--persecution--such things pass away, and are in truth a +dream. The troubles of yesterday vanish with the sun that set upon +them--but those hours, deeply impressed upon the soul, have left their +mark indelible; the intense, unspeakable joy that filled them, lingers +yet, and brightens up one spot that stands alone, distinct in life. Cast +when I will one single glance there, and I behold the stationary sun +shine. I do so now. None feel so vigorous and well as they who are on the +eve of some prostrating sickness. Dreaming of security, and as I looked +about, perceiving from no side the probability or show of evil, I was in +truth entangled in a maze of peril. My summer's day was at an end. The +cloud had gathered--was overhead, and ready to burst and overwhelm me. +For one twelvemonth, as I have said, I felt the perfect enjoyment of +life, and was blest. At the end of that period I received a letter from +my uncle. It was full of tenderness and affection. The first few lines +were taken up with enquiries--and immediately afterwards there came a +proposition. It was to this effect. "My mother wished to retire from +business; it was still a lucrative one, and she offered it to me. She +undertook to leave in the firm a capital sufficiently large to carry it +on, and receiving a moderate interest only for this sum, she would +relinquish all other profit in favour of her son." I read the letter, and +had faith in its sincerity. _As_ I read it, a devil whispered delusively +into my ear, and the sounds were music there, until my ruin was +completed. I knew the business to be affluent and thriving. The income +derived from it enabled my mother to live luxuriously. _Half the sum +would afford every wished-for comfort to my Anna, and much less would +enable us at once to marry_. Here was the rock on which I went to +pieces--here was the giddy light that blinded me to all +considerations--here was the sophistry that made all other reasoning dull +and valueless. I did not stop to enquire what movement of feeling could +operate so generously upon my uncle. If an unfavourable suggestion forced +itself upon me, it was expelled at once; and persuasion of the purity of +his motives was too easy, where my wish was father to the thought. If I +remained at college, years might elapse before our union. _Now, +immediately_, if I accepted this unlooked-for offer--she was mine, and a +home, such as in other circumstances I could never hope to give her, was +ready for her reception! I could think of nothing else, but I beheld in +the unexpected good--the outstretched hand of Providence. Full of my +delight, I communicated the intelligence to Anna; but very different was +its effect on her. She read the letter, and looked at me as if she wished +to read the most hidden of my secret wishes. + +"'What have you thought of doing, then?' she asked. + +"'Accepting the proposal, Anna,' I replied, 'with your consent.' + +"'Never with that,' she answered almost solemnly. 'My lips shall never bid +you turn from the course which you have chosen, and to which you have been +called. You do not require wealth--you have said so many times--and I am +sure it is not necessary for your happiness.' + +"'I think not of myself, dear Anna,' I replied. 'I have more than enough +for my own wants. It is for your sake that I would accept their offer, and +become richer than we can ever be if I refuse it. Our marriage now depends +upon a hundred things--is distant at the best, and may never be. The +moment that I consent to this arrangement, you are mine for ever.' + +"'Warton,' she said, more seriously than ever, 'I am yours. You have my +heart, and I have engaged to give you, when you ask it, this poor hand. In +any condition of life--I am yours. But I tell you that I never can +deliberately ask you to resign the hopes which we have cherished--with, as +we have believed, the approbation and the blessing of our God. Your line +of duty is, as I conceive it--marked. Whilst you proceed, steadily and +with a simple mind--come what may, your pillow will never be moistened +with tears of remorse. If affliction and trial come--they will come as the +chastening of your Father, who will give you strength to bear the load you +have not cast upon yourself. But once diverge from the straight and narrow +path, and who can see the end of difficulty and danger? You are unused to +business, you know nothing of its forms, its ways--you are not fit for it. +Your habits--your temperament are opposed to it, and you cannot enter the +field as you should--to prosper. Think not of me. I wish--my happiness, +and joy, and pride will be to see you a respected minister of God. I am +not impatient. If we do right, our reward will come at last. Let years +intervene, and my love for you will burn as steadily as now. Do not be +tempted--and do not let us think that good can result--if, for my sake, +you are unfaithful--_there_!' She pointed upwards as she spoke, and for a +moment the sinfulness of my wishes blazed before me--startled, and +silenced me. I resolved to decline my uncle's offer; yet a week elapsed, +and the letter was not written. But another came from _him_. It was one of +tender reproach for my long silence, and it requested an immediate answer +to the munificent proposal of my mother. If I refused it, a stranger would +be called upon to enjoy my rights, and the opportunity for realizing a +handsome fortune would never occur again. Such were its exciting terms, +and once more, perplexed by desire and doubt, I appealed to the purer +judgment of my Anna. + +"She wept when she came to the close of the epistle, and had not a word to +say. + +"'I distress you, Anna,' said I, 'by my indecision. Dry your tears, my +beloved; I will hesitate no longer.' + +"'I know not what to do,' she faltered; 'if you should act upon my advice, +and afterwards repent, you would never forgive me. Yet, I believe from my +very soul that you should flee from this temptation. But do as you +will--as seems wisest and best--and trust not to a weak woman. Do what +reason and principle direct, and happen what will--I will be satisfied. +One thing occurs to me. Can you trust your uncle?" + +I hesitated. + +"'I ask,' she continued, 'because you have often spoken of him as if you +could not confidently. May he not have--I judge of him only from your +report--some motive for his present conduct which we cannot penetrate? It +is an unkind world, and the innocent and guileless are not safe from the +schemes and contrivances of the wicked. I speak at random, but I am filled +with alarm for you. You are safe now--but one step may be your ruin.' + +"'You are right, Anna,' I replied; 'it is too great a venture, I cannot +trust this man. I will not leave the path of duty. I will refuse his offer +this very night.' + +"And I did so. In her presence I wrote an answer to his letter, and +declined respectfully the brilliant prospect which he had placed before +me. The letter was dispatched--Anna was at peace, and my own mind was +satisfied. + +"It was, however, not my fate to pass safely through this fiery ordeal. +Nothing but my destruction, final and entire, would satisfy my greedy +persecutor--and artfully enough did he at length encompass it. In a few +days, there arrived a third communication on the same subject, but from +another hand. My mother became the correspondent, and she conjured me by +my filial love and duty, not to disobey her. She desired to retire into +privacy. She was growing old and it was time to make arrangements for +another world. Her son, if he would, might enable her to carry out her +pious wish--or, by his obstinate refusal, hurry her with sorrow to the +grave. There was much more to this effect. Appeal upon appeal was made +_there_, where she knew me to be most vulnerable, and the choice of +action was not left me. To deny her longer--would be to stand convicted +of disobedience, undutifulness, and all unfilial faults. From this +period, I was lost. One word before I hurry to the end. I absolve my +mother from all participation in the crimes of which boldly I accuse my +uncle. She, poor helpless woman, was but his instrument, and believed, +when she urged me, that it was with a view to my advancement and lasting +benefit. I conveyed my mother's communication immediately to Anna. She +made no observation on its contents--bade me seek counsel of her father; +and with her eyes streaming with agonizing tears, left me to pray upon my +knees for counsel and direction from on high. Her father--I could not +blame him--a man who had struggled hardly for his bread as a clergyman +and a scholar--and seen more of the dark shadows than the light of +life--received my intelligence with unmingled satisfaction. He charged +me, as I loved his child, and valued her future welfare, to accept the +princely kindness of my friends--to see them instantly, and secure my +fortune whilst time and circumstances served. And then, as if to appease +his own qualms of conscience, and to justify his counsel, he reasoned +about the usefulness which, even to a pious mind, was permitted in the +exercise of trade. Infinite was the good that I might do. Yea, more, +perhaps, than if I persisted in my first design, and remained for ever a +poor clergyman; I might relieve the poor even to my heart's content. What +privilege so great as this! What suffering so acute as the desire to help +the sick and needy with no ability to do it! 'Be sure, young man, the +hand of Providence is here; it would be sinful to deny it.' O +_interest--interest!--self--self_!--words of magic and of power; they +rendered my poor friend blind as they did me. I listened to his advice +with eagerness and delight; and though I knew that to obey it was to cast +myself from security into turmoil and danger, I laboured to persuade +myself that he was right, and that hesitation was now criminal. Again I +saw my betrothed, and I approached her--innocent and truthful as she +was--with shame and self-abasement. I repeated her father's words, and +she shook her head sadly, but made no reply. What need was there of +reply? Had she not already spoken? + +"'Let me, at least, dear Anna, go to London,' I said, 'and implore my +mother to retract this wish, unsay her words. I would rather give up the +world, than take it without your cheerful acquiescence. Your happiness is +every thing to me. You shall decide for me.' + +"'No, Warton,' she replied--'you and my father must decide, and may Heaven +direct you both. Go to London--do as you wish. I am resigned. I am +presumptuous, and may be wrong. All will be for the best. Go! God bless +you and support you.' + +"And I went, traitor and renegade that I was, prepared to surrender to the +bitterest foe that ever hunted victim down. Believe me not, sir, when I +say that any sense of filial duty actuated me in my resolve, that any +feeling influenced this unsteady heart but one--The desire to call my Anna +mine--the pride I felt in the consciousness of wealth--and of the power +to bestow it all on her. + +"My reception in London was as favourable as I could wish it. My uncle was +an altered man--at least he appeared so. He met me with smiles and honied +words, and made such promises of friendship and protection, that I stood +before him convicted of uncharitableness and gross misconduct. I +reproached myself for the old prejudices, and for the malice which I had +always borne him, and attributed them all to boyish inexperience, and +stubbornness. I was older now, and could see with the eyes of a man. Not +only did I acquit him of all intention of wrong, but I could have fallen +on my knees before him, and asked his pardon for my own offences. I wrote +a long letter to Anna, and described in lively colours my own agreeable +surprise, desired her to be of good heart, and to rely upon my prudence. I +engaged to write daily, to announce the progress of my mission--and to +advise her of the proposed arrangements. This was my first communication. +Before she could receive a second, I had put my hand to paper, and signed +my death-warrant. I had irretrievably committed myself. I was living with +my uncle. His wine was of the best. He could drink freely of it, and get +cooler and more collected at each glass, but frequent draughts animated +and inflamed my younger head. He spoke to me with kindness, and I grew +confiding and loquacious. I told him of my engagement with Anna, described +her beauty, extolled her virtues. He seized the golden opportunity, and +reproved me gently for the little consideration which I exhibited for one +so worthy of my love. It was unpardonably selfish to hesitate one instant +longer. It was due to her, and to our future offspring, to make every +provision for their maintenance and comfort. It was madness to overlook +the advantages which my mother's offer gave. She herself, the lovely Anna, +as her cares increased, would mourn over the cruel obstinacy of him who +might have placed her beyond anxiety and apprehension, but who preferred +to keep her poor, dependent, joyless. She was young, and spoke, doubtless, +as she felt--but time would dissipate romance, and bitterly would she +regret that he who professed to love her had not taken pains to prove that +love more thoughtful and sincere. So he went on--and, in the height of his +appeal, a visitor was announced--Mr Gilbert, an old friend, an intimate, +who was immediately admitted. I was requested not to mind him, for he knew +every secret of my uncle's. The latter repeated my story, and ended with +an account of my ingratitude to Anna. Mr Gilbert could scarcely speak for +his astonishment. He shook his head severely, and vowed the case was quite +unparalleled. I drank on--the thought of the immediate possession of my +Anna flashed once powerfully and effectually across my brain, and I held +out no longer. I yielded to the sweet solicitation--and was lost. + +"On the following morning, Mr Gilbert arrived to breakfast. The subject +was resumed. My uncle produced a paper, which he had hastily drawn up. It +should be signed by all. Mr Gilbert, as a friend, could witness it. It was +a rough draught, but would answer every purpose for the present. The +statement was very simple. My mother left in the firm twenty thousand +pounds in stock, and cash and book debts. For this I made myself +responsible, and undertook to pay an interest of five per cent. All +profits in the business were my own. Fool that I was, I signed the +document without reflection--gave, with one movement of the pen, my +liberty, my happiness, and life, into the power of one who had for years +resolved to get them in his clutch. My uncle followed with his +signature--then Mr Gilbert. To make all sure, however, a clerk of the +former was summoned to the room, and requested to act as second witness +to the deed. + +"You are perfectly satisfied with the contents?' said Mr Gilbert to my +uncle, when the clerk had finished. + +"'Quite so,' was the answer. + +"'And you, sir?' he continued, turning then to me. + +"'I answered, '_Yes_,' whilst a sickening shudder crept through my blood, +and the remonstrance of Anna sounded in my ears like a knell. + +"I remained in London, and a week after this ceremony I entered upon my +duties at the counting-house. _At the earnest recommendation of my +uncle_, I carried into the business, as additional capital, the sum of +money from which I had hitherto derived my income. This amounted to +nearly four thousand pounds. It may seem strange to you, sir, as it does +to me now, that I should so readily have adopted the statement of my +uncle, and so deeply involved myself upon the strength of his simple +_ipse dixit_. It was a mad-man's act, and yet there were many excuses for +it at the time. I was but a boy--fresh from a life of retirement and +study--unused to the ways of men--unprepared for fraud. Satisfied of my +own integrity, I believed implicitly in the ingenuousness of others. I +had no friend to act for me--to investigate and warn--my heart was +burthened with its love, and all my thoughts were far away. The business +had prospered for years, and it was conducted externally as in the days +of my poor father. All was decorous and business-like, and the reputation +of the house was high and unblemished. There was nothing in the +appearance of things to excite suspicion--and not a breath was suggested +from my own too easy and confiding nature. The father of my betrothed! +was delighted at the step which I had taken. He wrote me an impassioned +letter, full of praise and brilliant prophecies, none of which he lived +to see fulfilled. His daughter, he assured me, would yet be grateful to +me for the firmness I had evinced, and that the blessing of Heaven must +attend conduct so estimable and wise. Anna herself wrote in another +strain. The act which she had so long dreaded was accomplished--it was +useless to look back--she could only hope and pray for the future. She +entreated me to be careful of my health, and to accustom myself gradually +to my new employment. It was a consolation to behold her father so very +happy, and to find me contented in my position. Nothing would give her +now such satisfaction, as to be convinced that she had been wrong +throughout, and that I had done well in giving up my former occupations. +A month passed quickly by. The engagements of the firm were met--and its +affairs were carried on as usual. No change took place. The only +difference was my presence, and the appearance of my name in all the +transactions of the house. I saw my mother frequently--but my uncle, by +degrees, withdrew. His own affairs required his constant attention, but +he provided me with help and countenance in the person of Mr Gilbert. +This gentleman, in addition to the character of a bosom friend, sustained +another--that of _legal adviser_ to my uncle! He visited me daily, and +helped me marvellously. He procured from my uncle my patrimony of four +thousand pounds--drew up in return for it a release, which I +executed--paid the money into my banker's hands--received my mother's +dividend--inspected the accounts--advised summary proceedings against +defaulters--and settled, at a certain rate, to purchase a few outstanding +debts, which it would cost some trouble and manoeuvring to get in. I +could not choose but act upon advice that was at once so very friendly +and professional. My inexperience, for a time, gratefully reposed in Mr +Gilbert. Exactly two months after I had entered the concern, I married. +Sun never rose more promisingly upon a wedding-day--a lovelier bride had +never graced it. I pass over the few intoxicating weeks during which life +assumes a form and hue which it never wore before--never puts forth +again. The novelty of my situation--the joy I had in her possession, and +in the knowledge that she was wholly mine--lived now and breathed for +me--the pride with which I gazed upon her blooming beauty, and communed +with her, as with a new-found better self--all combined to render one +brief season a sweet delirium--an ecstatic dream. It is time to wake from +it. I return to the business. I had agreed to pay my mother's dividend +every quarter--and, as I told you, Mr Gilbert received the money for her. +She did not live to enjoy it. A short illness removed her from a world +which had never been one of sorrow to her. Her heart was adamant, and +troubled waters passed over--did not enter and disturb it. All that she +had became my uncle's, and he was now my creditor. I beg you, sir, to +mark this. Twice had he inherited the property which should have been my +own. It was about a twelvemonth after the death of my mother, that small, +dark shadows appeared in the horizon, foretelling storm and tempest. At +first they gave me no uneasiness, but they increased and gathered, and +soon compelled me to take measures for the outbreak. I continued to +discharge my uncle's claim with undeviating regularity. Mr Gilbert +sharply saw to that; but a difficulty arose at length of meeting +punctually all the demands which came upon me in the way of business. +This was overcome in the beginning, by enforcing payment from customers +who had traded previously on a liberal credit. The evil thus temporarily +repaired gave rise, however, to a greater evil. Our friends withdrew +their favours, and offered them else where. This critical state of things +did not improve, but caused me daily fresh alarm. Money became more +scarce--the difficulty of meeting payments more imminent and harassing. +It was very strange. It had not been so in my father's time; nor later, +when my mother had the management of affairs. Was it my fault? What had I +done amiss. Frightful thoughts began to haunt my bosom, and my sleep was +broken, as a criminal's might be. One day I had a heavy sum to pay. It +was on the fourth of the month--a serious day to many--and, although I +had made every exertion to meet this payment, I found myself, on the very +morning, at least two hundred pounds deficient. I have told you, that the +credit of our house was without a spot. Its reputation stood high amongst +the highest. Slander had not dared to breathe one syllable against it. To +me was entrusted this precious jewel, and I was now upon the very brink +of losing it. I rose from my pillow before daylight, and endeavoured to +contrive a plan for my relief. Fear and excitement prevented all +deliberate thought, and I walked to the counting-house confounded--almost +delirious. I had taken no food. I could not break my fast until the +exigency had passed away. I was sitting in the little room, filled with +dismal apprehensions, when Mr Gilbert was announced, and suddenly +appeared. As suddenly I resolved to tell him of my necessity, and to ask +his aid or counsel. Blushing to the forehead, I confided my situation to +him, and asked what it was possible to do. He smiled in answer produced +his pocket-book, and gave me, without a word; a draft upon his banker for +the sum required. At that moment, sir, I felt what it was to be respited +after sentence of death--to be rescued from drowning--to awaken into life +from horrible and numbing dreams. I pressed the hand of my deliverer with +the most affectionate zeal, and assured him of my everlasting gratitude. + +"'No occasion, my dear sir,' answered Mr Gilbert. 'This is a very common +case in business, and will happen to the best of men. Never hesitate to +ask me when you are in need. When I have the cash, you shall command me +always. Give me your IOU--that will be quite sufficient, and pay the money +back when it is quite convenient.' Disinterested, most praiseworthy man! +He left me, impressed with his benevolence, and with my spirit at rest. +With the dismissal of my incubus, my appetite was restored. I partook of a +hearty dinner, and returned home, happy as a boy again. At the end of a +week, I was enabled to repay my benefactor; but, at the end of a +fortnight; I was again in need of his assistance. Emboldened by his offer, +I did not hesitate to apply; as freely as before he responded to my call; +and I felt that I had gained a friend indeed. Men who have committed +heinous crimes, will tell you that it is the first divergence from the +point of rectitude that gives them pain and anguish. The false direction +once obtained, and the moral sense is blunted. So in matters of this kind. +There was no blushing or palpitation when I begged a third time for a +temporary loan. The occasion soon presented itself, and I asked +deliberately for the sum I wanted. Mr Gilbert likewise had grown familiar +with these demands; and familiarity, they say, does not heighten our +politeness and respect. He had not the money by him, but he might get it, +though, from a friend, he thought, if it were absolutely necessary. But +then a friend is not like one's self. He must be paid for what he did. +Well, for once in the way, I could afford it. I must borrow as cheaply, as +I could, and give my note of hand, &c. Sir, in less than three months; I +was in a mesh of difficulties, from which it was impossible to tear +myself. Bill after bill had I accepted and given to this Gilbert--pounds +upon pounds had he sucked from me in the way of interest; He grew greedier +every hour. If I hesitated; he spoke to me of exposure--I refused, he +threatened enforcement of his previous claims. And, what was worse than +all, notwithstanding the heavy sums which he advanced, and for which he +held securities, my affairs remained disordered, and the demand for money +increased with every new supply. I could not understand it. I had not +communicated with my uncle. I was afraid to do it; but I took care to pay +his dividend the instant it was due. Had I omitted it, Mr Gilbert would +have looked to me; for he was even more anxious than myself to keep my +affairs a secret from my uncle. It was not long before I got bewildered by +the accumulated anxieties of my position. My mind was paralyzed. My days +were wretched. Home had no delight for me; and neither there nor elsewhere +could I find repose. Before daybreak, I quitted my bed, and until +midnight, I was occupied in arranging for the engagements of the coming +day. Legitimate and profitable business was neglected; lost sight of, and +all my faculties were engrossed in the one great object of obtaining +_money_ to appease the present and the pressing importunity. In the midst +of my trouble, I was thrown, for the first time, upon a bed of sickness. I +was attacked with fever, but I rallied in a day or two, and was prepared +once more to cast myself into the vortex from which I saw no hope or +possibility of escape. It was the evening before the day on which I had +determined to resume the whirl of my sickening occupation. I was in bed, +and, tired with the thought that weighed upon my brain, had fallen into a +temporary sleep, from which I woke too soon, to find my wife, now about to +become a mother, weeping as if her heart were broken, at my side. Trouble, +sir, had soured my temper, and I had ceased to be as tender as she +deserved. I was base enough to speak unkindly to her. + +"'You are discontented, Anna,' I exclaimed. You are not satisfied--you +repent now that you married me'--I see you do.' + +"'Warton,' she exclaimed, 'if you love me, leave this cruel business. Let +us live upon a crust. I will work for you. I will submit to any thing to +see you calm and happy. This will kill you.' + +"'It will, it must!' I cried out in misery. 'I cannot help it. What is to +be done?' + +"'Retire from it--resign all--every thing--but save us both. This +agitation--this ceaseless wear and tear--must eventually, and soon, +destroy you. What, then, becomes of me?' + +"'Show me, Anna, how I can do what you desire with honour. Show me the +way, and I will bless you. Oh, why did I not heed your words before! Why +did I suffer myself to be entrapped'-- + +"She stopped me in my exclamations. + +"'You have promised, dear,' said she, 'never to look upon the past. You +acted for the best. So did we all. It is our consolation and support. But +the present is sad and mournful, and, I believe, it rests with ourselves +to secure our happiness for the future. Are you content to do it?' + +"'Oh, can you ask me, Anna? Tell me how I may escape without +discredit--without shame and one dishonourable taint--and you take me +from the depths of my despair. I see no end to this career. I am fixed to +the stake, and I must burn.' + +"'Listen to me, dearest. You shall write to your uncle without delay, and +explain to him your wishes. You shall tell him of your difficulties +frankly and unreservedly. Make known to him your state of health, and tell +him firmly that you are unequal to the burden which is laid upon you. +Should he insist upon a recompense for your loss, you have money of your +own there--yield it to him, and these hands shall never rest until they +have earned for you every shilling of it back again. Be tranquil, +resolute, cheerful, and all will yet be well, I trust--I feel it will.' + +"I had once refused to act on her advice, and the consequences had been +dire enough. When compliance was too late, I implicitly obeyed her. The +letter was written, and an answer came as speedily as we could wish it. It +was a kind reply. My uncle was sorry for my illness, and was content to +take the business off my hands, if I was ready to resign it in the +condition that I had found it. And this, I thanked my God with tears of +joy, I was prepared to do. My personal expenses had been trifling. The +amount of business done was large--my the profits had not been withdrawn. +Although my sufferings had been great, and difficulties had met me which I +could neither prevent nor comprehend, still reason told me that the +property must have increased in value. It was with alacrity that I +engaged, at my uncle's particular request, an accountant to investigate +the proceedings of the house, and to pronounce upon its present state. The +result of the examination could not but be most satisfactory. It did not +occur to me at the time, that my uncle had deemed no accountant necessary +when he heaped upon me the responsibility which I had borne so ill. It +would have been but fair, methinks. A time was fixed for a meeting with my +uncle, and for producing the result of the enquiry. The accountant had +been closely engaged at his work for many days, and had brought it to an +end only on the evening preceding the day of our appointment. He submitted +his estimate to me, and you shall judge my horror when I perused it. There +were many sheets of paper, but in one line my misery was summed up. EIGHT +THOUSAND POUNDS _were deficient and unaccounted for_. Yes, and my own +small fortune had been included in the amount of capital. The accountant +had been careful and exact--there was not a flaw in his reckoning. The +glaring discrepancy stared me in the face, and pronounced my ruin. I knew +not what to think or do. In accents of the most earnest supplication, I +entreated the accountant to pass the night in reviewing his labours, and +to afford me, if possible, the means of rescuing my name from the obloquy +which, in a few hours, must attach to it. I offered him any sum of +money--all that he could ask--for his pains, and he promised to comply +with my request. The idea that I had been the victim of a trick, a fraud, +never glanced across my mind. No, when my wretchedness permitted me to +think at all, I suspected and accused no one but myself. I could imagine +and believe that, inadvertently, I had committed some great error when my +soul had been darkened by the daily and hourly anxieties which had +followed it so long. But how to discover it? How to make my innocence +apparent to the world? How to face my uncle? How to brave the taunts of +men? How, above all, to meet the huge demands which soon would press and +fall upon me? The tortures of hell cannot exceed in acuteness all that I +suffered that long and bitter night. The accountant was waiting for me in +the parlour when I left my bed. He had spent the night as I had wished +him but had not found one error in his calculations. I tore the papers +from his hands, and strained my eyes upon the pages to extract the lie +which existed there to damn me. It would not go--it could not be removed. +I was a doomed, lost man. Whatever might be the consequence, I resolved +to see my uncle, and to speak the truth. I relied upon the sympathy which +I believed inherent in the nature of man. I relied upon my own integrity, +and the serenity which conscious innocence should give. I met my uncle. I +shall never forget that interview. He received me in his private +house--in his drawing-room. We were alone. He sat at a table: his face +was somewhat pale, but he was cool and undisturbed--ah, how much more so +than his trembling sacrifice! I placed before him the condemning paper. +It was that only that he cared to see. He looked at once to the result, +and then, without a word, he turned his withering eye upon me. + +"'I know it,' I cried out, not permitting him to speak. 'I know what you +would say. It is a mystery, and I cannot solve it. There is a fearful +error somewhere--but where I know not. I am as innocent--' + +"'Innocent!' exclaimed my uncle, in a tone of bitterness, 'Well, go on, +sir.' + +"'Yes, innocent,' I repeated. 'Time will prove it, and make the mystery +clear. My brain is now confused; but it cannot be that this gigantic error +can escape me when I am calm--composed. Grant me but time.' + +"'I grant nothing,' said my uncle, fiercely. 'Plunderer! I show no mercy. +You would have shown me none--you would have left me in the lurch, and +laughed at me as you made merry with your stolen wealth. Mark me, +sir--restore it--labour till you have made it good, or I crush you--once, +and for ever.' + +"I was rendered speechless by these words. I attempted to make answer; but +my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth--my throat grew dry and hot--my +brain was dizzy, and the room swam round me. I thought of the name which I +had been striving for years to build up--the honourable name which I had +gained--the height from which I was about to fall--the yawning gulf +below--a thousand painful thoughts rushed in one instant to my mind, and +overcame me. I should have fallen to the earth, had not my heart found in +my eyes a passage for its grief, and rendered me weaker than a child +before a creature who had never felt the luxury of one human tear. I wept +aloud and fearfully. + +"'Guilt, guilt, palpable guilt!' exclaimed my uncle. 'None but the guilty +weep. You do not take me by surprise, young man. I was prepared for +this--I have but a word to say. Restore this money, or undertake to pay +it back to me--to the last farthing of my lawful claim. Do this, and I +forgive you, and forget your indiscretion. Refuse, and to-morrow you are +a bankrupt and a beggar. Leave me, and take time for your decision. Come +to me again this evening. If you fail--_you_ may expect a visit in the +morning.' + +"This was said deliberately, but in a tone most expressive of sincerity. I +staggered from his presence, and hurried homeward. A sickening sensation +checked me as I approached my door. I could not enter it. I rushed away; +and in the open fields, where I could weep and rave unnoticed and alone, I +cursed my fate, and entreated heaven to smite me with its thunders. My +mind was tottering. Hours passed before I reached the house again, how, +when, or by what means I arrived there, I could not tell. The servant girl +who gave me admittance looked savagely upon me, as I thought. It was +sorrow, and not anger, that was written in her face; but how could I +discriminate? Her mistress was seriously ill. She had been alarmed by the +visit of a gentleman, who waited for me in the parlour, and by my +protracted absence; and her agitation had brought on the pangs of labour. +A physician was now with her. Who was this gentleman? I entered the room, +and there the fiend sate, white with irritation and gnawing +disappointment. I started back, but he advanced to me--held my papers to +my face, and pointed to one portion of them with a finger that was alive +with rage and agitation. + +"'Is it true?' asked my uncle, gnashing his teeth. 'Answer me--yes or +no?--one word, is it true?' + +"'It is a lie!' I answered, ignorant of his meaning, and half crazed with +the excitement. 'I am innocent--innocent--Heaven knows I am.' + +"'Have you, or have you not given to Gilbert, for these heavy sums, a +power of attorney? Has he got it? Answer me in a word.' + +"'He advanced me money,' I replied, 'and I gave him such documents as he +required.' + +"'Enough!' said my uncle. 'You are a beggar!'--and without another word he +left me. + +"For a week my wife remained in a dangerous condition. Threatened with the +loss of her, I did not leave her side. What was the business to me at such +a time?--what was reputation--what life? Life!--sir, I carried about with +me a potent poison, and I waited only for her latest breath to drink it +off, and join her in the grave. She rallied, however, and once more I +walked abroad--to find myself a bankrupt and a castaway. The very day that +my uncle quitted me, he called my creditors together--exposed the state of +my affairs--and accused me of the vilest practices. A docket was struck +against me. Every thing that I possessed was dragged away--even to the bed +on which my Anna had been cast, and which she so much needed now. Every +thing was gone; but the blow had fallen, and I was callous to the loss. In +the midst of the desolation I struggled to preserve one trifle from the +common wreck. Do not smile, sir, when I mention _my reputation_. Yes, I +felt that if it could be rescued all might be spared, and I might yet defy +and shame my persecutors. I appealed to the commissioner who had charge of +my estate. I proclaimed aloud, and in the face of men, my innocence. I +conjured him to subject me to the severest trial--to compel the closest +examination of my affairs--my books--and every individual connected with +the house. I demanded it for the sake of justice--for my own sake, and for +the sake of the poor creatures--I was a father now--whose fortunes were +linked with mine, whose bread depended upon the verdict which should be +pronounced against me. My passionate supplication was not in vain. The +affairs of our house were looked into--the business that had been done for +years was sifted--and clerks and men were subjected to every interrogatory +that could elucidate a fact. At the end of six months it was publicly +announced that an important error had been discovered--that the estimate +given to me was incorrect, _and by many thousand pounds greater than the +true value_. + +"There had been a _mistake_! The bankrupt departed from the court without +a blemish on his character. He had been indiscreet in entering heedlessly +upon so large an undertaking, and must pay dearly for that in discretion. +He was strictly liable and bound to pay what he had acknowledged with his +hand to be a lawful debt. There was no help for him. The young man was +worthy of commiseration, and his creditors should show him mercy." This +was the verdict of the commissioner, spoken in the ears of one who was a +stranger to mercy, and who had vowed to show me _none_. Guilt, however, +attached to my good name no longer, and I smiled at his malignity. It was +too soon _to smile_. The secret of all my difficulty was now explained. +Trading upon a false capital, to an extravagant extent beyond the real +one--draining my exchequer of its resources to pay an ever-recurring +interest, whilst the principal was but a fiction in the estate, it was no +wonder that I became hemmed in by claims impossible to meet, and that the +services of Mr Gilbert were so soon in requisition. In giving to Mr +Gilbert a power over the firm, I acted according to my ideas of justice. +When I was impoverished, he furnished me with the means of keeping up the +credit of the house. But for him it must have fallen. I believed that I +was solvent. Why should I hesitate to make this man secure? But it is for +this preference, which rendered my uncle's dividend comparatively nothing, +that I have been followed through my life with rancour and malevolence +unparalleled. Mark me, sir; the _mistake_, as it was called--the vital +_error_--was a deliberate fraud committed by my uncle at the outset. + +He had withdrawn this heavy sum of money at the beginning--he had resolved +to keep me for my life his servant and his slave--to feast upon the +dropping sweat of my exhausted mind--to convert my heart's blood into +gold, which was his god. He hated me for my conduct towards him in my +boyhood, which he had neither forgotten nor forgiven; and his detestation +gave zest to his hellish desire of accumulating wealth at any cost. Had I +applied to _him_, had I entered into new engagements with _him_, given to +_him_ the securities which, from a notion of right, I had presented to +Gilbert--had I made over to the fiend soul as well as body, I might still +have retained his friendship, still been permitted to labour and to toil +for his aggrandizement and ease. It was Gilbert himself who revealed to me +his patron's villany. It was time for the vultures to quarrel when they +could not both fatten on my prostrate carcass; but they were bound +together by the dark doings of years, and it was only by imperfect hints +and innuendoes that I was made aware of their treachery. If proofs existed +to convict my uncle, Gilbert could not afford to produce them. The price +was life, or something short of it; but I heard enough for satisfaction. +Although I was deprived of everything that I possessed, my mind recovered +its buoyancy, and my spirit, after the first shock, grew sanguine. I had +been proclaimed an innocent and injured man, and my beloved Anna was at my +side smiling and rejoicing. In our overthrow, she beheld only the dark +storm of morning, that sometimes ushers in the glorious noon and golden +sunset. I spoke of the past with anger; she reverted to it with the +chastened sorrow of a repentant angel. I looked to the future with +distrust and apprehension, she, with a bright, abiding confidence. Never +had she appeared so happy, so contented--never had the smile remained so +constant to her cheek, so unalloyed with touch of care, as when we stood +houseless and homeless in the world, and nothing but her fortitude and +love were left me to rely upon. My first care after my dismission into +life again, was to obtain my certificate from my creditors, and with +almost all of them I was successful. The exceptions were my uncle, and +three individuals--his creatures, and willing instruments of torture. They +were sufficient to brand me with disgrace, and to affix for ever to my +name that mark of infamy which an after life of virtue shall never wash +away or hide. UNCERTIFICATED BANKRUPT was the badge I carried with me. +From this period my decline was rapid and unequivocal. A creditor, who had +not proved his debt upon the estate, hearing tell of my defenceless +situation, cast me forthwith into prison. I will not tell you of the +sufferings we endured during a two years' cruel incarceration. Starvation +and its horrors came gradually upon us. Application upon application was +made to my uncle; entreaties for nothing more than justice; and my poor +meek Anna was turned with contumely from his doors. After years of +privation, a glimmering of light stole in upon us, to be soon +extinguished. I obtained temporary employment in a school far away from +the scenes of my misery, and hither my evil fortune followed me. The +schoolmaster was an ignorant, gross man. He gained my services for a song, +and he treated me with disrespect in consequence. I had been with him +about six months when some silver spoons were stolen from his house. The +thief escaped detection; but the master received an anonymous +communication, containing a false history of my life, with a true +statement of my unfortunate position. He at once charged me with the crime +of being an uncertificated bankrupt. I confessed to it, and the very day I +was dragged before a magistrate on suspicion of felony. I was acquitted, +it is true, for want of evidence; but what could acquit me--what could +release me from the super-added stigma? _An uncertificated bankrupt, and a +suspected felon_! Alas! the charity of man will not look further than the +surface of things, and is it not secretly pleased to find there, rather an +excuse for neglect, than a reason for exertion? Excited almost to madness +by privation and want, and unable to get assistance from a human being, I +visited my uncle. I could not see my wife and children drooping and +sinking day by day, and not make one great struggle for their rescue. I +resolved to accost him with meekness and humility--yes, to fall upon my +knees and kiss the dust before him, so that he would fill their famished +mouths. He would not see me. I watched for him in the street, and there +addressed him. He reviled me--cast me off--provoked me to exasperation, +and finally gave me into custody for an attempt upon his life. Again I was +taken to the magistrate, but not again discharged so easily. My character +and previous _offences_ were exhibited. The magistrate, serious with +judicial sorrow, looked upon me as you would turn an eye towards a reptile +that defiles the earth. I appealed to him, and in a loud and animated +voice proclaimed my grievances. It was suggested that I was a lunatic, and +whilst the justice committed me to hard labour, he benevolently promised +that the prison surgeon should visit me, and pronounce upon my fitness for +Saint Luke's. It was during my temporary confinement for this offence, +that I was seized with the illness from which I have never since been +free. For three years I was unable to work for my family, and by the end +of that period we were sunk into the lowest depths. My Anna sickened +likewise; but as long as she was able she laboured for our support. We +have been hunted and driven from place to place, and the little which we +have been able to earn in our wanderings, has hardly kept us alive. Twice +have I stolen a loaf of bread to appease the children's hunger. What could +I do? I could not bear to see their languid glassy eyes, and hear their +little voices imploring for the food--God knows, I could not let them die +before my face--I could not be their murderer--I could not--" + +"Stay, Mr Warton," said I, interrupting the narrator, "I have heard +enough. Spare me for the present. Your statements must be corroborated. +This is all I ask. Leave the rest to me." + + + +If the reader has perused, with painful interest, the account that I have +laid before him, let me gratify him with the intelligence that I have +accomplished for this unfortunate family all that I could wish. Warton's +account of himself was strengthened and confirmed by the strict enquiry +which I set on foot immediately. He was, as he asserted, _an innocent and +injured man_. Satisfied of this, I transmitted to the worthy judge, who +had been moved by the man's misfortunes, a faithful history of his life. I +was not disappointed here. It was that functionary who obtained for Warton +the situation which he at present fills--and for his children the +education which they are now receiving. Nor was this his first exertion on +their behalf. It was he who furnished them with clothing on the night of +the criminal's discharge. They are restored to happiness, to comfort, and +to health. The moderate ambition of the faithful Anna is realized, and my +vision is a vision no longer. + +Reader, I have nothing more to add. I have told you a simple tale and a +true one. It is for you to say whether it shall be--useless and +uninstructive. + + + * * * * * + + + + +FREDERICK SCHLEGEL.[1] + + +[Footnote A: 1. _Geschichte der alten und neuen Literatur von_ FRIEDRICH +SCHLEGEL. _Neue auflage. Berlin_, 1842. + +2. Lectures on the History of Ancient and Modern Literature, from the +German of Frederick Schlegel. New edition. Blackwood: Edinburgh and +London, 1841. + +3. The Philosophy of History, translated from the German of FRIEDRICH VON +SCHLEGEL, with a Memoir of the Author, by JAMES BURTON ROBERTSON, Esq. In +two vols. London, 1835. Reprinted in America, 1841. + +4. _Philosophie des Lebens_ von FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL. Wien, 1828.] + + +"I would not have you pin your faith too closely to these SCHLEGELS," said +FICHTE one day at Berlin to VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, or one of his friends, in +his own peculiar, cutting, commanding style--"I would not have you pin +your faith to these Schlegels. I know them well. The elder brother wants +depth, and the younger clearness. One good thing they both have--that is, +hatred of mediocrity; but they have also both a great jealousy of the +highest excellence; and, therefore, where they can neither be great +themselves nor deny greatness in others, they, out of sheer desperation, +fall into an outrageous strain of eulogizing. Thus they have bepraised +Goethe, and thus they have bepraised me."[B] + +[Footnote B: _Denkwürdigkeiten_ von K. A. VARNHAGEN VON ENSE. Mannheim, +1837. Vol. ii. p. 60.] + +Some people, from pride, don't like to be praised at all; and all +sensible people, from propriety, don't like to be praised extravagantly: +whether from pride or from propriety, or from a mixture of both, +philosopher Fichte seemed to have held in very small account the +patronage with which he was favoured at the hands of the twin aesthetical +dictators, the Castor and Pollux of romantic criticism; and, strange +enough also, poet Goethe, who had worship enough in his day, and is said +to have been somewhat fond of the homage, chimes in to the same tune +thus: "the Schlegels, with all their fine natural gifts, have been +unhappy men their life long, both the one and the other; they wished both +to be and do something more than nature had given them capacity for; and +accordingly they have been the means of bringing about not a little harm +both in art and literature. From their false principles in the fine +arts--principles which, however much trumpeted and gospeled about, were +in fact egotism united with weakness--our German artists have not yet +recovered, and are filling the exhibitions, as we see, with pictures +which nobody will buy. Frederick, the younger of these Dioscouri, choked +himself at last with the eternal chewing of moral and religious +absurdities, which, in his uncomfortable passage through life, he had +collected together from all quarters, and was eager to hawk about with +the solemn air of a preacher to every body: he accordingly betook +himself, as a last refuge, to Catholicism, and drew after him, as a +companion to his own views, a man of very fair but falsely overwrought +talent--Adam Müller. + +"As for their Sanscrit studies again, that was at bottom only a _pis +aller_. They were clear-sighted enough to perceive that neither Greek nor +Latin offered any thing brilliant enough for them; they accordingly threw +themselves into the far East; and in this direction, unquestionably, the +talent of Augustus William manifests itself in the most honourable way. +All that, and more, time will show. Schiller never loved them: hated them +rather; and I think it peeps out of our correspondence how I did my best, +in our Weimar circles at least, to keep this dislike from coming to an +open difference. In the great revolution which they actually effected, I +had the luck to get off with a whole skin, (_sie liessen mich noth dürftig +stehen_,) to the great annoyance of their romantic brother Novalis, who +wished to have me _simpliciter_ deleted. 'Twas a lucky thing for me, in +the midst of this critical hubbub, that I was always too busy with myself +to take much note of what others were saying about me. + +"Schiller had good reason to be angry with them. With their aesthetical +denunciations and critical club-law, it was a comparatively cheap matter +for them to knock him down in a fashion; but Schiller had no weapons that +could prostrate them. He said to me on one occasion, displeased with my +universal toleration even for what I did not like. 'KOTZEBUE, with his +frivolous fertility, is more respectable in my eyes than that barren +generation, who, though always limping themselves, are never content with +bawling out to those who have legs--STOP!'"[C] + +[Footnote C: Briefwechse Zwischen GOETHE und ZELTER. Berlin, 1834. Vol. vi. +p. 318.] + +That there is some truth in these severe remarks, the paltry personal +squibs in the _Leipzig Almanach_ for 1832, which called them forth, with +regard to Augustus Schlegel at least, sufficiently show: but there is a +general truth involved in them also, which the worthy fraternity of us +who, in this paper age, wield the critical pen, would do well to take +seriously to heart; and it is this, that great poets and philosophers have +a natural aversion as much to be praised and patronized, as to be rated +and railed at by great critics; and very justly so. For as a priest is a +profane person, who makes use of his sacred office mainly to show his gods +about, (so to speak,) that people may stare at them, and worship him; so a +critic who forgets his inferior position in reference to creative genius, +so far as to assume the air of legislation and dictatorship, when +explanation and commentary are the utmost he can achieve, has himself only +to blame, if, after his noisy trumpet has blared itself out, he reaps only +ridicule from the really witty, and reproof from the substantially wise. +Not that a true philosopher or poet shrinks from, and does not rather +invite, true criticism. The evil is not in the deed, but in the manner of +doing it. Here, as in all moral matters, the tone of the thing is the soul +of the thing. And in this view, the blame which Fichte and Goethe attach +to the Schlegels, amounts substantially to this, not that in their +critical vocation the romantic brothers wanted either learning or judgment +generally, but that they were too ambitious, too pretenceful, too +dictatorial that they must needs talk on all subjects, and always as if +they were the masters and the lions, when they were only the servants and +the exhibitors; that they made a serious business of that which is often +best done when it is done accidentally, viz. discussing what our +neighbours are about, instead of doing something ourselves; and that they +attempted to raise up an independent literary reputation, nay, and even to +found a new poetical school, upon mere criticism--an attempt which, with +all due respect for Aristarchus and the Alexandrians, is, and remains, a +literary impossibility. + +But was Frederick Schlegel merely a critic? No He was a philosopher also, +and not a vulgar one; and herein lies the foundation of his fame. His +criticism, also, was thoroughly and characteristically a philosophical +criticism; and herein mainly, along with its vastness of erudition and +comprehensiveness of view, lies the foundation of its fame. To understand +the criticism thoroughly, one must first understand the philosophy. Will +the _un_philosophical English reader have patience with us for a few +minutes while we endeavour to throw off a short sketch of the philosophy +of Frederick Schlegel? If the philosophical system of a transcendental +German and _Viennese_ Romanist, can have small intrinsic practical value +to a British Protestant, it may extrinsically be of use even to him as +putting into his hands the key to one of the most intellectual, useful, an +popular books of modern times--"The history of ancient and modern +literature, by Frederick Von Schlegel,"--a book, moreover, which is not +merely "a great national possession of the Germans," as by one of +themselves it has been proudly designated, but has also, through the +classical translation of Mr Lockhart,[D] been made the peculiar property of +English literature. + +[Footnote D: Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern. +Blackwoods, Edinburgh, 1841.] + +In the first chapter of his "_Philosophie des Lebens_," the Viennese +lecturer states very clearly the catholic and comprehensive ground which +all philosophy must take that would save itself from dangerous error. The +philosopher must start from the complete living totality of man, formed as +he is, not of flesh merely, a Falstaff--or of spirit merely, a Simon +Pillarman and Total Abstinence Saint--but of both flesh and spirit, body +and soul, in his healthy and normal condition. For this reason +clearly--true philosophy is not merely sense-derived and material like +the French philosophy of Helvetius, nor altogether ideal like that of +Plotinus, and the pious old mathematical visionaries at Alexandria; but +it stands on mother earth, like old Antaeus drinking strength therefrom, +and filches fire at the same time, Prometheus-like, from heaven, feeding +men with hopes--not, as Aeschylus says, altogether "blind," ([Greek: +tuphlas d eu autois elôidas katôkioa)] but only blinking. Don't court, +therefore, if you would philosophize wisely, too intimate an acquaintance +with your brute brother, the baboon--a creature, whose nature speculative +naturalists have most cunningly set forth by the theory, that it is a +parody which the devil, in a fit of ill humour, made upon God's noblest +work, man; and don't hope, on the other hand, as many great saints and +sages have done, by prayer and fasting, or by study and meditation, to +work yourself up to a god, and jump bodily out of your human skin. Assume +as the first postulate, and lay it down as the last proposition of your +"philosophy of life," that a man is neither a brute, nor a god nor an +angel, but simply and sheerly a MAN. Furthermore, as man is not only a +very comprehensive and complex, but also, (to appearance at least,) in +many points, a very contrary and contradictory creature, see that you +take the _whole_ man along with you into your metaphysical chamber; for +if there be one paper that has a bearing in the case amissing out of your +green bag, (which has happened only too often,) the evidence will be +imperfect, and the sentence false or partial--shake your wig as you +please. Remember, that though you may be a very subtle logician, the soul +of man is not all made up of logic; remember that reason, (_Vernunft_,) +the purest that Kant ever criticized withal, is not the proper vital soul +in man; is not the creative and productive faculty in intellect at all, +but is merely the tool of that which, in philosophers no less than in +poets, is the proper inventive power, IMAGINATION, as Wordsworth phrases +it: Schlegel's word is _fantasie_. Remember that in more cases than +academic dignities may be willing to admit, the heart (where a man has +one) is the only safe guide, the only legitimate ruler of the head; and +that a mere metaphysician, and solitary speculator, however properly +trimmed, + + "One to whose smooth-rubb'd soul can cling + Nor form nor feeling, great nor small; + A reasoning, self-sufficing thing, + An intellectual all-in-all," + +may write very famous books, profound even to unintelligibility, but can +never be a philosopher. Therefore reject Hegel, "that merely thinking, on +a barren heath speculating, self-sufficient, self-satisfied little EGO;"[E] +and consider Kant as weighed in the balance and found wanting on his own +showing: for if that critical portal of pure reason had indeed been +sufficient, as it gave itself out to be, for all the purposes of a human +philosophy, what need was there of the "practical back-door" which, at the +categorical command of conscience, was afterwards laid open to all men in +the "Metaphysic of Ethics?" As little will you allow your philosophical +need to be satisfied with any thing you can get from SCHELLING; for +however well it sounds to "throw yourself from the transcendental +emptiness of ideal reason into the warm embrace of living and luxuriant +nature," here also you will find yourself haunted by the intellectual +phantom of absolute identity, (say absolute inanity,) or in its best +phasis a "pantheizing deification of nature." Strange enough as it may +seem, the true philosophy is to be found any where rather than among +philosophers. Each philosopher builds up a reasoned system of a part of +existence; but life is based upon God-given instincts and emotions, with +which reason has nothing to do; and nature contains many things which it +is not given to mortal brain to comprehend, much less to systematize. True +philosophy is not to be found in any intellectual system, much less in any +of the Aristotelian quality, where the emotional element in man is +excluded or subordinated; but in a living experience. To know philosophy, +therefore, first know life. To learn to philosophize, learn to live; and +live not partially, but with the full outspread vitality of human reason. +You go to college, and, as if you were made altogether of head, expect +some Peter Abelard forthwith, by academic disputation, to _reason_ you +into manhood; but neither manhood nor any vital WHOLE ever was learned by +reasoning. Pray, therefore, to the Author of all good, in the first place, +that you may _be_ something rather than that you may _know_ something. Get +yourself planted in God's garden, and learn to GROW. Woo the sun of life, +which is love, and the breeze which is enthusiasm, an impulse from that +same creative Spirit, which, brooding upon the primeval waters, out of +void brought fulness, and out of chaos a world. + +[Footnote E: This is Menzel's phrase, not Schlegel's. "Hegel's _centrum war +ein blos denkendes, auf öder Heide spekulirendes, kleines, suffisantes, +selbstgenügsames Ichlein_." The untranslatable beauty of the German is in +the diminutive with which the sentence closes. It is difficult to say +whether Menzel or Schlegel shows the greater hostility to the poor Berlin +philosopher.] + +Such, shortly, so far as we can gather, is the main scope, popularly +stated, of Frederick Schlegel's philosophy, as it is delivered in his two +first lectures on the philosophy of life, the first being titled, "Of the +thinking soul, or the central point of consciousness;" and the second, "Of +the loving soul, or the central point of moral life." The healthy-toned +reader, who has been exercised in speculations of this kind, will feel at +once that there is much that is noble in all this, and much that is true; +but not a little also, when examined in detail, of that sublime-sounding +sweep of despotic generality, (so inherent a vice of German literature,) +which delights to confound the differences, rather than to discriminate +the characters, of things; much that seems only too justly to warrant that +oracular sentence of the stern Fichte with which we set out, "_The younger +brother wants clearness_;" much that, when applied to practice, and +consistently followed out in that grand style of consistency which belongs +to a real German philosopher, becomes what we in English call Puseyism and +Popery, and what Goethe in German called a "_chewing the cud of moral and +religious absurdities_." But we have neither space nor inclination, in +this place, to make an analysis of the Schlegelian philosophy, or to set +forth how much of it is true and how much of it is false. Our intention +was merely to sketch a rapid outline, in as popular phrase as philosophy +would allow itself to be clothed in; to finish which outline without +extraneous remark, with the reader's permission, we now proceed. + +If man be not, according to Aristotle's phrase, a [Greek: zôon logikon] in +his highest faculty, a _ratiocinative_, but rather an emotional and +imaginative animal; and if to start from, as to end, in mere reason, be in +human psychology a gross one-sidedness, much more in theology is such a +procedure erroneous, and altogether perverse. If not the smallest poem of +a small poet ever came to him from mere reason, but from something deeper +and more vital, much less are the strong pulsations of pure emotion, the +deep-seated convictions of religious faith in the inner man, to be spoke +of as things that mere reason can either assert or deny; and in fact we +see, when we look narrowly into the great philosophical systems that have +been projected by scheming reasoners in France and Germany, each man out +of his own brain, that they all end either in materialism and atheism on +the one hand, or in idealism and pantheism on the other. All our +philosophers have stopped short of that one living, personal, moral God, +on whose existence alone humanity can confidently repose--who alone can +give to the trembling arch of human speculation that keystone which it +demands. The idea of God, in fact, is not a thing that individual reason +has first to strike out, so to speak, by the collision or combination of +ideas, the collocation of proofs, and the concatenation of arguments. It +is a living growth rather of our whole nature, a primary instinct of all +moral beings, a necessary postulate of healthy humanity, which is given +and received as our life and our breath is, and admits not of being +reasoned into any soul that has it not already from other sources. And as +no philosopher of Greek or German times that history tells of, ever +succeeded yet in inventing a satisfactory theology, or establishing a +religion in which men could find solace to their souls, therefore it is +clear that that satisfactory Christian theology and Christian religion +which we have, and not only that, but all the glimpses of great +theological truth that are found twinkling through the darkness of a +widespread superstition, came originally from God by common revelation, +and not from man by private reasoning. The knowledge of God and a living +theology is, in fact, a simple science of experience like any other, only +of a peculiar quality and higher in degree. All true human knowledge in +moral matters rests on experience, internal or external, higher or lower, +on tradition, on language as the bearer of tradition, on revelation; +while that false, monstrous, and unconditioned science to which the pride +of human reason has always aspired, which would grasp at every thing at +once by one despotic clutch, and by a violent bound of logic bestride and +beride the ALL, is, and remains, an oscillating abortion that always +would be something, and always can be nothing. A living, personal, moral +God, the faith of nations, the watch-word of tradition, the cry of +nature, the demand of mind, received not invented, existing in the soul +not reasoned into it--this is the gravitating point of the moral world, +the only intelligible centre of any world; from which whatsoever is +centrifugal errs, and to which whatsoever is opposed is the devil. + +Not private speculation, therefore, or famous philosophies of any kind, +but the living spiritual man, and the totality of the living flow of +sacred tradition on which he is borne, and with which he is encompassed, +are the two grand sources of "the philosophy of life." Let us follow these +principles, now, into a few of their wide-spread streams and multiform +historical branchings. First, the Bible clearly indicates what the +profoundest study of the earliest and most venerable literatures confirms, +that man was not created at first in a brutish state, crawling with a slow +and painful progress out of the dull slime of a half organic state into +apehood, and from apehood painfully into manhood; but he was created +perfect in the image of God, and has fallen from his primeval glory. This +is to be understood not only of the state of man before the Fall as +recorded in the two first chapters of Genesis; but every thing in the +Bible, and the early traditions of famous peoples, warrants us to believe, +that the first ages of men before the Flood, were spiritually enlightened +from one great common source of extraordinary aboriginal revelation; so +that the earliest ages of the world were not the most infantine and +ignorant to a comprehensive survey, as modern conceit so fondly imagines, +but the most gigantic and the most enlightened. That beautiful but +material and debasing heathenism, with which our Greek and Latin education +has made us so familiar, is only a defaced fragment of the venerable whole +which preceded it, that old and true heathenism of the holy aboriginal +fathers of our race. "There were GIANTS on the earth in those days." We +read this; but who believes it? We ought seriously to consider what it +means, and adopt it _bona fide_ into our living faith of man, and man's +history. Like the landscape of some Alpine country, where the primeval +granite Titans, protruding their huge shoulders every where above us and +around, make us feel how petty and how weak a thing is man; so ought our +imagination to picture the inhabitants of the world before the Flood. +Nobility precedes baseness always, and truth is more ancient than error. +Antediluvian man--antediluvian nature, is to be imaged as nobler in every +respect, more sublime and more pure than postdiluvian man, and +postdiluvian nature. But mighty energies, when abused, produce mighty +corruptions; hence the gigantic scale of the sins into which the +antediluvian men fell; and the terrible precipitation of humanity which +followed. This is a point of primary importance, in every attempt to +understand how to estimate the value of that world-famous Greek +philosophy, which is commonly represented as the crown and the glory of +the ancient world. All that Pythagoras and Plato ever wrote of noble and +elevating truths, are merely flashes of that primeval light, in the full +flood of which, man, in his more perfect antediluvian state, delighted to +dwell; and it is remarkable in the case of Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Thales, +and so many other of the Greek philosophers, that the further we trace +them back, we come nearer to the divine truth, which, in the systems of +Epicurus, Aristippus, Zeno, or the shallow or cold philosophers of later +origin, altogether disappears. Pythagoras and Plato were indeed divinely +gifted with a scientific presentiment of the great truths of Christianity +soon to be revealed, or say rather restored to the world; while Aristotle, +on the other hand, is to be regarded as the father of those unhappy +academical schismatics from the Great Church of living humanity, who +allowed the ministrant faculty of reason to assume an unlawful supremacy +over the higher powers of intellect, and gave birth to that voracious +despotism of barren dialectics, in the middle ages commonly called the +scholastic philosophy. The Greek philosophy, however, even its noblest +Avatar, Plato, much less in the case of a Zeno or an Aristotle, was never +able to achieve that which must be the practically proposed end of all +higher philosophy that is in earnest; viz. the coming out of the narrow +sphere of the school and the palaestra, uniting itself with actual life, +and embodying itself completely in the shape of that which we call a +CHURCH. This Platonism could not do. Christianity did it. Revelation did +it. God Incarnate did it. Now once again came humanity forth, fresh from +the bosom of the divine creativeness, conquering and to conquer. There was +no Aristotle and Plato--no Abelard and Bernard here--reason carping at +imagination, and imagination despising reason. But once, if but once in +four thousand years, man appeared in all the might of his living +completeness. Love walked hand in hand with knowledge, and both were +identified in life. The spirit of divine peace brooded in the inner +sanctuary of the heart, while the outer man was mailed for the sternest +warfare. Such was pure Christianity, so long as it lasted--for the +celestial plant was condemned to grow in a terrestrial atmosphere; and +there, alas! it could only grow with a stunted likeness of itself. It +was more than stunted also--it was tainted; for are not all things tainted +here? Do we not live in a tainted atmosphere? do we not live in a time out +of joint? Does not the whole creation literally groan? Too manifestly it +does, however natural philosophers may affect to speak of the book of +nature, as if it were the clear and uncorrupted text of the living book of +God. Not only man, but the whole environment of external nature, which +belongs to him, has been deranged by the Fall. In such a world as this, +wherein whoso will not believe a devil cannot believe a God, it was +impossible for Christianity to remain in that state of blissful vital +harmony with itself with which it set out. It became divided. Extravagant +developments of ambitious, monopolizing faculties became manifest on every +side. Self-sufficing Pelagianisn and Arianism, here; self-confounding +Gnosticism and Manichaeism there. Then came those two great strifes and +divisions of the middle ages--the one, that old dualism of the inner man, +the ever-repeated strife between reason and imagination, to which we have +so often alluded--the other, a no less serious strife of the outward +machinery of life, the strife between the spiritual and the temporal +powers, between the Pope and the Emperor. This was bad enough; that the +two vicars of God on earth should not know to keep the peace among +themselves, when the keeping of the peace among others was the very end +and aim of the appointment. But worse times were coming. For in the +middle ages, notwithstanding the rank evils of barren scholasticism, +secular-minded popes, and intrusive emperors, there was still a church, a +common Christian religion, a common faith of all Christians; but now, +since that anarchical and rebellious movement, commonly called the +Reformation, but more fitly termed the revolution, the overturning and +overthrowing of the religion of Christendom, we have no more a mere +internal strife and division to vex us, but there is an entire separation +and divorce of one part of the Christian church (so called) from the main +mother institution. The abode of peace has become the camp of war and the +arena of battles; that dogmatical theology of the Christian church, +which, if it be not the infallible pure mathematics of the moral world, +has been deceiving men for 1800 years, and is a liar--that theology is +now publicly discussed and denied, scorned and scouted by men who do not +blush to call themselves Christians; there is no universal peace any +longer to be found in that region where it is the instinct of humanity, +before all things, to seek repose; the only religious peace which the +present age recognises, is that of which the Indian talks, when he says +of certain epochs of the world's history, _Brahma sleeps_! Those who +sleep and are indifferent in spiritual matters find peace; but those who +are alive and awake must beat the wind, and battle, belike, with much +useless loss of strength, before they can arrive even at that first +postulate of all healthy thinking--there is a God. "_Ueber Gott werd ich +nie streiten_," said Herder. "About God I will never dispute." Yet look +at German rationalism, look at Protestant theology--what do you see +there? Reason usurping the mastery in each individual, without control of +the higher faculties of the soul, and of those institutions in life by +which those faculties are represented; and as one man's reason is as good +as another's, thence arises war of each self-asserted despotism against +that which happens to be next it, and of all against all--a spiritual +anarchy, which threatens the entire dissolution of the moral world, and +from which there is no refuge but in recurring to the old traditionary +faith of a revolted humanity, no redemption but in the venerable +repository of those traditions--the one and indivisible holy Catholic +church of Christ, of whom, as the inner and eternal keystone is God, so +the outer and temporal is the Pope. + +Such is a general outline of the philosophy of Frederick Schlegel--a +philosophy belonging to the class theological and supernatural, to the +genus Christian, to the species sacerdotal and Popish. Now, without +stopping here to blame its sublime generalities and beautiful confusions, +on the one hand, or to praise its elevated tendency, its catholic and +reconciling tone on the other, we shall merely call attention, in a single +sentence, physiologically, to its main and distinguishing character. It +was, in fact, (in spirit and tendency, though not in outward +accomplishment,) to German literature twenty years ago what Puseyism is +now to the English church--it was a bold and grand attempt to get rid of +those vexing doubts and disputes on the most important subjects that will +ever disquiet minds of a certain constitution, so long as they have +nothing to lean on but their own judgment; and as Protestantism, when +consistently carried out, summarily throws a man back on his individual +opinion, and subjects the vastest and most momentous questions to the +scrutiny of reason and the torture of doubt, therefore Schlegel in +literary Germany, and Pusey in ecclesiastical England, were equally +forced, if they would not lose Christianity altogether, to renounce +Protestantism, and to base their philosophy upon sacerdotal authority and +ecclesiastical tradition. That Schlegel became a Romanist at Cologne, and +Dr Pusey an Anglo-Catholic at Oxford, does not affect the kinship. Both, +to escape from the anarchy of Protestant individualism, (as it was felt by +them,) were obliged to assert not merely Christianity, but a +hierarchy--not merely the Bible, but an authoritative interpretation of +the Bible; and both found, or seemed to find, that authoritative +interpretation and exorcism of doubt there, where alone in their +circumstances, and intellectually constituted as they were, it was to be +found. Dr Pusey did not become a Papist like Frederick Schlegel, for two +plain reasons--first, because he was an Englishman, second, because he +was an English churchman. The authority which he sought for lay at his +door; why should he travel to Rome for it? Archbishop Laud had taught +apostolical succession before--Dr Pusey might teach it again. But this +convenient prop of Popery without the Pope was not prepared for Frederick +Schlegel. There was no Episcopal church, no Oxford in Germany, into whose +bosom he could throw himself, and find relief from the agony of religious +doubt. He was a German, moreover, and a philosopher. To his searching eye +and circumspective wariness, the general basis of tradition which might +satisfy a Pusey, though sufficiently broad, did not appear sure enough. +To his lofty architectural imagination a hierarchical aristocracy, +untopped by a hierarchical monarch, did not appear sufficiently sublime. +To his all-comprehending and all-combining historical sympathies, a +Christian priesthood, with Cyprian, Augustine, and Jerome, but without +Hildebrand, Innocent, and Boniface, would have presented the appearance +of a fair landscape, with a black yawning chasm in the middle, into which +whoever looked shuddered. Therefore Frederick Schlegel, spurning all half +measures, inglorious compromises, and vain attempts to reconcile the +irreconcilable, vaulted himself at once, with a bold leap, into the +central point of sacerdotal Christianity. The obstacles that would have +deterred ordinary minds had no effect on him. All points of detail were +sunk in the over-whelming importance of the general question. +Transubstantiation or consubstantiation, conception, maculate or +immaculate, were a matter of small moment with him. What he wanted was a +divinely commissioned church with sacred mysteries--a spiritual house of +refuge from the weary battle of intellectual east winds, blasting and +barren, with which he saw Protestant Germany desolated. This house of +refuge he found in Cologne, in Vienna; and having once made up his mind +that spiritual unity and peace were to be found only in the one mother +church of Christendom, not being one of those half characters who, +"making _I dare not_ wait upon _I would_," are continually weaving a net +of paltry external _no's_ to entangle the progress of every grand decided +_yes_ of the inner man, Schlegel did not for a moment hesitate to make +his thought a deed, and publicly profess his return to Romanism in the +face of enlightened and "ultra-Protestant" Germany. To do this certainly +required some moral courage; and no just judge of human actions will +refuse to sympathize with the motive of this one, however little he may +feel himself at liberty to agree with the result. + +But Frederick Schlegel, a well informed writer has said,[F] "became +Romanist in a way peculiar to himself, and had in no sense given up his +right of private judgment." We have not been able to see, from a careful +perusal of his works, (in all of which there is more or less of +theology,) that there is any foundation for this assertion of Varnhagen. +Frederick Schlegel, the German, was as honest and stout a Romanist in +this nineteenth century as any Spanish Ferdinand Catholicus in the +fifteenth. Freedom of speculation indeed, within certain known limits, +and spirituality of creed above what the meagre charity of some +Protestants may conceive possible in a Papist, we do find in this man; +but these good qualities a St Bernard, a Dante, a Savonarola, a Fénélon, +had exhibited in the Romish Church before Schlegel, and others as great +may exhibit them again. Freedom of thought, however, in the sense in +which it is understood by Protestants, was the very thing which Schlegel, +Göres, Adam Müller, and so many others, did give up when they entered the +Catholic Church. They felt as Wordsworth did when he wrote his beautiful +ode to "Duty;" they had more liberty than they knew how to use-- + + "Me this uncharter'd freedom tires; + I feel the weight of chance desires; + My hopes no more must change their name-- + I long for a repose that ever is the same." + +And if it seem strange to any one that Frederick Schlegel, the learned, +the profound, the comprehensive, should believe in Transubstantiation,[G] +let him look at a broader aspect of history than that of German books, +and ask himself--Did Isabella of Castile--the gentle, the noble, the +generous--establish the Inquisition, or allow Ximenes to establish it? In +a world which surrounds us on all sides with apparent contradictions, he +who admits a real one now and then into his faith, or into his practice, +is neither a fool nor a monster. + +[Footnote F: Varnhagen Von Ense, Rahel's Umgang, i. p. 227. "Er war +auf besondere Weise Katholisch, und hatte seine Geistesfreiheit dabei +gar nicht aufgegeben."] + +[Footnote G: The following is Schlegel's philosophy of +transubstantiation--"Though it be true, that in the Holy Scriptures, in +accordance with the symbolical nature of man, there is much that is +generally symbolical, and symbolically to be understood; yet when a +symbol proceeds immediately from God, it can in this case be nothing less +than substantial; it cannot be a mere sign, it must also be something +actual; otherwise it would be as if one would palm on the eternal LOGOS, +who is the ground of all existence and all knowledge, words without +meaning and without power. Quite natural, therefore, it must be regarded, +i.e. quite suitable to the nature of the thing, although _per se_ +certainly supernatural, and surpassing all comprehension, when that +highest symbol which forms the proper principle of unity, and the living +central point of Christianity, is perceived to possess this character, +that it is at once the sign and the thing signified. For now, that on the +high altar of divine love the one great sacrifice has been accomplished +for ever, and no flame more can rise from it save the inspiration of a +pure God-united will, that solemn act by which the bond formed between +the soul and God is from time to time revealed, can consist in nothing +else than this--that here the essential substance of the divine power and +the divine love is in all its lively fullness communicated to, and +received by man, as the miraculous sign of his union with +God."--_Philosophie des Lebene_, p. 376. On the logic of this remarkable +passage, those who are strong in Mill and Whately may decide; its +orthodoxy belongs to the consideration of the Tridentine doctors.] + +In his political opinions, Schlegel maintained the same grand consistency +that characterizes his religious philosophy. He had more sense, however, +and more of the spirit of Christian fraternity in him than, for the sake +of absolutism, to become a Turk or a Russian; nay, from some passages in +the _Concordia_--a political journal, published by him and his friend +Adam Müller, in 1820, and quoted by Mr Robertson--it would almost appear +that he would have preferred a monarchy limited by states, conceived in +the spirit of the middle ages, to the almost absolute form of monarchical +government, under whose protection he lived and lectured at Vienna. To +some such constitution as that which now exists in Sweden, for instance, +we think he would have had no objections. At the same time, it is certain +he gave great offence to the constitutional party in Germany, by the +anti-popular tone of his writings generally, more perhaps than by any +special absolutist abuses which he had publicly patronized. He was, +indeed, a decided enemy to the modern system of representative +constitutions, and popular checks; a king by divine right according to +the idea of our English nonjurors, was as necessary a corner-stone to his +political, as a pope by apostolical succession to his ecclesiastical +edifice. And as no confessed corruption of the church, represented as it +might be by the monstrous brutality of a Borgia, or the military madness +of a Julius, was, in his view, sufficient to authorize any hasty Luther +to make a profane bonfire of a papal bull; any hot Henry to usurp the +trade of manufacturing creeds; so no "sacred right of insurrection," no +unflinching patriotic opposition, no claim of rights, (by petitioners +having _swords_ in their hands,) are admissible in his system of a +Christian state. And as for the British constitution, and "the glorious +Revolution of 1688," this latter, indeed, is one of the best of a bad +kind, and that boasted constitution as an example of a house divided +against itself, and yet _not_ falling, is a perfect miracle of dynamical +art, a lucky accident of politics, scarcely to be looked for again in the +history of social development, much less to be eagerly sought after and +ignorantly imitated. Nay, rather, if we look at this boasted constitution +a little more narrowly, and instruct ourselves as to its practical +working, what do we see? "Historical experience, the great teacher of +political science, manifestly shows that in these dynamical states, which +exist by the cunningly devised balance and counter-balance of different +powers, what is called governing is, in truth, a continual strife and +contention between the Ministry and the Opposition, who seem to delight +in nothing so much as in tugging and tearing the state and its resources +to pieces between them, while the hallowed freedom of the hereditary +monarch seems to serve only as an old tree, under whose shades the +contending parties may the more comfortably choose their ground, and +fight out their battles."[H] It is but too manifest, indeed, according to +Schlegel's projection of the universe, that all constitutionalism is, +properly speaking, a sort of political Protestantism, a fretful fever of +the social body, having its origin (like the religious epidemic of the +sixteenth century) in the private conceit of the individual, growing by +violence and strife, and ending in dissolution. This is the ever-repeated +refrain of his political discourses, puerile enough, it may be, to our +rude hearing in Britain, but very grateful to polite and patriotic ears +at Vienna, when the cannon of Wagram was yet sounding in audible echo +beneath their towers. The propounder of such philosophy had not only the +common necessity of all philosophers to pile up his political in majestic +consistency with his ecclesiastical creed, but he had also to pay back +the mad French liberalism with something more mad if possible, and more +despotic. And if also Danton, and Mirabeau, and Robespierre, and other +terrible Avatars of the destroying Siva in Paris, had raised his +naturally romantic temperament a little into the febrile and delirious +now and then, what wonder? Shall the devil walk the public streets at +noon day, and men not be afraid? + +[Footnote H: _Philosophie des Lebens_, p.407.] + +We said that Frederick Schlegel's philosophy, political and religious, but +chiefly religious, was the grand key to his popular work on the history of +literature. We may illustrate this now by a few instances. In the first +place, the "many-sided" Goethe seems to be as little profound as he is +charitable, when he sees nothing in the Sanscrit studies of the romantic +brothers but a _pis aller_, and a vulgar ambition to bring forward +something new, and make German men stare. We do not answer for the elder +brother; but Frederick certainly made the cruise to the east, as Columbus +did to the west, from a romantic spirit of adventure. He was not pleased +with the old world--he wished to find a new world more to his mind, and, +beyond the Indus, he found it. The Hindoos to him were the Greeks of the +aboriginal world--"_diese Griechen der Urwelt_"--and so much better and +more divine than the western Greeks, as the aboriginal world was better +and more divine than that which came after it. If imagination was the +prime, the creative faculty in man, here, in the holy Eddas, it had sat +throned for thousands of years as high as the Himalayas. If repose was +sought for, and rest to the soul from the toil and turmoil of religious +wars in Europe, here, in the secret meditations of pious Yooges, waiting +to be absorbed into the bosom of Brahma, surely peace was to be found. +Take another matter. Why did Frederick Schlegel make so much talk of the +middle ages? Why were the times, so dark to others, instinct to him with a +steady solar effluence, in comparison of which the boasted enlightenment +of these latter days was but as the busy exhibition of squibs by +impertinent boys, the uncertain trembling of fire-flies in a dusky +twilight? The middle ages were historically the glory of Germany; and +those who had lived to see and to feel the Confederation of the Rhine, and +the Protectorate of Napoleon, did not require the particular predilections +of a Schlegel to carry them back with eager reaction to the days of the +Henries, the Othos, and the Fredericks, when to be the German emperor was +to be the greatest man in Europe, after the Pope. But to Schlegel the +middle ages were something more. The glory of Germany to the patriot, they +were the glory of Europe to the thinker. Modern wits have laughed at the +enthusiasm of the Crusades. Did they weep over the perfidy of the +partition of Poland? Do they really trust themselves to persuade a +generous mind that the principle of mutual jealousy and mere selfishness, +the meagre inspiration of the so called balance of power in modern +politics, is, according to any norm of nobility in action, a more laudable +motive for a public war, than a holy zeal against those who were at once +the enemies of Christ, and (as future events but too clearly showed) the +enemies of Europe? Modern wits sneer at the scholastic drivelling or the +cloudy mistiness of the writers of the middle ages. Did they ever blush +for the impious baseness of Helvetius, for the portentous scaffolding of +notional skeletons in Hegel? But, alas! we talk of we know not what. What +spectacle does modern life present equal to that of St Bernard, the pious +monk of Clairvaux, the feeble, emaciated thinker, brooding, with his +dove-like eyes, ("_oculos columbinos_,") over the wild motions of the +twelfth century, and by the calm might of divine love, guiding the +sceptre of the secular king, and the crosier of the spiritual pontiff +alike? Was that a weak or a dark age, when the strength of mind and the +light of love could triumph so signally over brute force, and that +natural selfishness of public motive which has achieved its cold, +glittering triumphs in the lives of so many modern heroes and heroines--a +Louis, a Frederick, a Catharine, a Napoleon? But indeed here, as +elsewhere, we see that the modern world has fallen altogether into a +practical atheism by the idolatry of mere reason; whereas all true +greatness comes not down from the head, but up from the heart of man. In +which greatness of the heart, the Bernards and the Barbarossas of the +middle ages excelled; and therefore they were better than we. + +It is by no means necessary for the admirer of Schlegel to maintain that +all this eulogium of the twelfth century, or this depreciation of the +times we live in, is just and well-merited. Nothing is more cheap than to +praise a pretty village perched far away amid the blue skies, and to rail +at the sharp edges and corners of things that fret against our ribs. Let +it be admitted that there is not a little of artistical decoration, and a +great deal of optical illusion, in the matter; still there is some truth, +some great truth, that lay in comparative neglect till Schlegel brought it +into prominency. This is genuine literary merit; it is that sort of +discovery, so to speak, which makes criticism original. And it was not +merely with the bringing forward of new materials, but by throwing new +lights on the old, that Frederick Schlegel enriched aesthetical science. +If the criticism of the nineteenth century may justly boast of a more +catholic sympathy, of a wider flight, of a more comprehensive view, and +more various feast than that which it superseded, it owes this, with +something that belongs to the spirit of the age generally, chiefly to the +special captainship of Frederick Schlegel. If the grand spirit of +combination and comprehension which distinguishes the "Lectures on Ancient +and Modern Literature," be that quality which mainly distinguishes the so +called Romantic from the Classical school of aesthetics, then let us +profess ourselves Romanticists by all means immediately; for the one seems +to include the other as the genus does the species. The beauty of +Frederick Schlegel is, that his romance arches over every thing like a +sky, and excludes nothing; he delights indeed to override every thing +despotically, with one dominant theological and ecclesiastical idea, and +now and then, of course, gives rather a rough jog to whatever thing may +stand in his way; but generally he seeks about with cautious, +conscientious care to find room for every thing; and for a wholesale +dealer in denunciation (as in some views we cannot choose but call him) is +really the most kind, considerate, and charitable Aristarchus that ever +wielded a pen. Hear what Varnhagen Von Ense says on this point--"The +inward character of this man, the fundamental impulses of his nature, the +merit or the results of his intellectual activity, have as yet found none +to describe them in such a manner as he has often succeeded in describing +others. It is not every body's business to attempt an anatomy and +re-combination of this kind. One must have courage, coolness, profound +study, wide sympathies, and a free comprehensiveness, to keep a steady +footing and a clear eye in the midst of this gigantic, rolling +conglomeration of contradictions, eccentricities, and singularities of +all kinds. Here every sort of demon and devil, genius and ghost, Lucinde +and Charlemagne, Alarcos, Maria, Plato, Spinoza and Bonald, Goethe +consecrated and Goethe condemned, revolution and hierarchy, reel about +restlessly, come together, and, what is the strangest thing of all, do +_not_ clash. For Schlegel, however many Protean shapes he might assume, +never cast away any thing that had ever formed a substantial element in +his intellectual existence, but found an _advocatus Dei_ to plead always +with a certain reputable eloquence even for the most unmannerly of them; +and with good reason too, for in his all-appropriating and curiously +combining soul, there did exist a living connexion between the most +apparently contradictory of his ideas. To point out this connexion, to +trace the secret thread of unity through the most distant extremes, to +mark the delicate shade of transition from one phasis of intellectual +development to another, to remove, at every doubtful point, the veil and +to expose the substance, that were a problem for the sagacity of no +common critic."[I] We take the hint. It is not every Byron that finds a +Goethe to take him to pieces and build him up again, and peruse him and +admire him, as Cuvier did the Mammoth. Those who feel an inward vocation +to do so by Schlegel may yet do so in Germany; if there be any in these +busy times, even there, who may have leisure to applaud such a work. To +us in Britain it may suffice to have essayed to exhibit the fruit and the +final results, without attempting curiously to dissect the growth of +Schlegel's criticism. + +[Footnote I: RAHEL'S _Umgang_. FRIEDRICH VON SCHLEGEL, vol. i. p. 325.] + +The outward fates of this great critic's life may be found, like every +thing else, in the famous "Conversations Lexicon;" but as very few +readers of these remarks, or students of the history of ancient and +modern literature, may be in a condition to refer to that most useful +Cyclopaedia of literary reference, we may here sketch the main lines of +Schlegel's biography from the sources supplied by Mr Robertson,[J] in the +preface to his excellent translation of the "Lectures on the philosophy +of history." Whatever we take from a different source will be distinctly +noted. + +[Footnote J: The authorities given by Mr Robertson are, (1.) _La +Biographie des Vivans, Paris_. (2.) An article for July 1829, in the +French _Globe_, apparently an abridgement of the account of Schlegel in +the Conversations Lexicon. (3.) A fuller and truer account of the author, +in a French work published several years ago at Paris, entitled "Memoirs +of distinguished Converts." (4.) Some facts in _Le Catholique_, a +journal, edited at Paris from 1826 to 1829, by Schlegel's friend, the +Baron d'Echstein.] + +The brothers Schlegel belonged to what Frederick in his lectures calls the +third generation of modern German literature. The whole period from 1750 +to 1800, being divided into three generations, the first comprehends all +those whose period of greatest activity falls into the first decade, from +1750 to 1760, and thereabout. Its chief heroes are Wieland, Klopstock, and +Lessing. These men of course were all born before the year 1730. The +second generation extends from 1770 to 1790, and thereabouts, and presents +a development, which stands to the first in the relation of summer to +spring--Goethe and Schiller are the two names by which it will be sent +down to posterity. Of these the one was born in 1749, and the other in +1759. Then follows that third generation to which Schlegel himself +belongs, and which is more generally known in literary history as the era +of the Romantic school--a school answering both in chronology, and in many +points of character also, to what we call the Lake school in England. +Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey, are contemporaries of Tieck, Novalis, +and the Schlegels. Their political contemporaries are Napoleon and +Wellington. The event which gave a direction to their literary +development, no less decidedly than it did to the political history of +Europe, was the French Revolution. Accordingly, we find that all these +great European characters--for so they all are more or less--made the +all-important passage from youth into manhood during the ferment of the +years that followed that ominous date, 1789. This coincidence explains the +celebrity of the famous biographical year 1769--Walter Scott was born in +that year, Wellington and Napoleon, as every body knows--and the elder +Aristarchus of the Romantic school, _the_ translator of Shakspeare, +Augustus William Von Schlegel was born in 1767. At Hanover, five years +later, was born his brother Frederick, that is to say, in May 1772, and +our Coleridge in the same year--and to carry on the parallel for another +year, Ludwig Tieck, Henry Steffens, and Novalis, were all born in 1773. +These dates are curious; when taken along with the great fact of the +age--the French Revolution--they may serve to that family likeness which +we have noted in characterizing the Romanticists in Germany and the Lake +school in England. When Coleridge here was dreaming of America and +Pantisocracy, Frederick Schlegel was studying Plato, and scheming +republics there.[K] In the first years of his literary career Schlegel +devoted himself chiefly to classical literature; and between 1794 and +1797 published several works on Greek and Roman poetry and philosophy, +the substance of which was afterwards concentrated into the four first +lectures on the history of literature. About this time he appears to have +lived chiefly by his literary exertions--a method of obtaining a +livelihood very precarious, (as those know best who have tried it,) and +to men of a turn of mind more philosophical than popular, even in +philosophical Germany, exceedingly irksome. Schlegel felt this as deeply +as poor Coleridge--"to live by literature," says he, in one of those +letters to Rahel from which we have just quoted--"is to me _je länger je +unerträglicher_--the longer I try it the more intolerable." Happily, to +keep him from absolute starvation, he married the daughter of Moses +Mendelsohn, the Jewish philosopher, who, it appears, had a few pence in +her pocket, but not many;[L] and between these, and the produce of his +own pen, which could move with equal facility in French as in German, he +managed not merely to keep himself and his wife alive, but to transport +himself to Paris in the year 1802, and remain there for a year or two, +laying the foundation for that oriental evangel which, in 1808, he +proclaimed to his countrymen in the little book, _Ueber die Sprache und +Weisheit der Indier_. Meanwhile, in the year 1805, he had returned from +France to his own Germany--alas, then about to be _one_ Germany no more! +And while the sun of Austerlitz was rising brightly on the then Emperor +of France, and soon to be protector of the Rhine, the future secretary of +the Archduke Charles, and literary evangelist of Prince Metternich, was +prostrating himself before the three holy kings, and swearing fealty to +the shade of Charlemagne in Catholic Cologne. There were some men in +those days base enough to impeach the purity of Schlegel's motives in the +public profession thus made of the old Romish faith. Such men wherever +they are to be found now or then, ought to be whipped out of the world. +If mere worldly motives could have had any influence on such a mind, the +gates of Berlin were as open to him as the gates of Vienna. As it was, +not wishing to expatriate himself, like Winkelmann, he had nowhere to go +to but Vienna; in those days, indeed, mere patriotism and Teutonic +feeling, (in which the Romantic school was never deficient,) +independently altogether of Popery, could lead him nowhere else. To +Vienna, accordingly, he went; and Vienna is not a place--whatever +Napoleon, after Mack's affair, might say of the "stupid Austrians"--where +a man like Schlegel will ever be neglected. Prince Metternich and the +Archduke Charles had eyes in their head; and with the latter, therefore, +we find the great Sanscrit scholar marching to share the glory of Aspern +and the honour of Wagram; while the former afterwards decorated him with +what of courtly remuneration, in the shape of titles and pensions, it is +the policy alike and the privilege of politicians to bestow on poets and +philosophers who can do them service. Nay, with some diplomatic missions +and messages to Frankfurt also, we find the Romantic philosopher +entrusted and even in the great European Congress of Vienna in 1815, he +appears exhibiting himself, in no undignified position, alongside of +Gentz, Cardinal Gonsalvi, and the Prince of Benevento.[M] We are not to +imagine, however, from this, either that the comprehensive philosopher of +history had any peculiar talent for practical diplomacy, or that he is to +be regarded as a thorough Austrian in politics. For the nice practical +problems of diplomacy, he was perhaps the very worst man in the world; +and what Varnhagen states in the place just referred to, that Schlegel +was, what we should call in England, far too much of a high churchman for +Prince Metternich, is only too manifest from the well-known +ecclesiastical policy of the Austrian government, contrasted as it is +with the ultramontane and Guelphic views propounded by the Viennese +lecturer in his philosophy of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. +Frederick Schlegel wished to see the state, with relation to the church, +in the attitude that Frederick Barbarossa assumed before Alexander III. +at Venice--kneeling, and holding the stirrup. + + "An emperor tramples where an emperor knelt." + +Joseph II., in his estimation, had inverted the poles of the moral world, +making the state supreme, and the church subordinate--that degrading +position, which the Non-intrusionsts picture to themselves when they talk +of ERASTIANISM, and which Schlegel would have denominated +simply--PROTESTANTISM. + +[Footnote K: "_Das republikanishe Werk erscheint gewiss nicht vor Zwei +Jahren_."--Letters to Rahel--1802. Varnhagen, as above. Vol. I. p. 234.] + +[Footnote L: "_Das kleine Vermogen meiner Frau_."--Letters to Rahel. +Paris: 1803.] + +[Footnote M: _Das Wiener Congress_ in 1814-15, by VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, in +the fifth volume of his _Denkwürdigkeiten_, p. 51. By the way here, Mr +Robertson in his list of famous Catholics in Germany, (p. 19,) includes +Gentz. Now, Varnhagen, who knew well, says that Gentz was only +politically an Austrian, and always remained Protestant in his religious +opinions; which is doubtless the fact.] + +During his long residence at Vienna, from 1806 to 1828, Schlegel +delivered four courses of public lectures in the following +order:--One-and-twenty lectures on Modern History,[N] delivered in the +year 1810; sixteen lectures on Ancient and Modern Literature, delivered +in the spring of 1812, fifteen lectures on the Philosophy of Life, +delivered in 1827; and lastly, eighteen lectures on the Philosophy of +History, delivered in 1828. Of these, the Philosophy of life contains the +theory, as the lectures on literature and on history do the application, +of Schlegel's catholic and combining system of human intellect, and, +altogether, they form a complete and consistent body of Schlegelism. +Three works more speculatively complete, and more practically useful in +their way, the production of one consistent architectural mind, are, in +the history of literature, not easily to be found. + +[Footnote N: _Ueber die neuere Geschichte Vorlesungen gehalten zu Wien im +Jahre 1810; Wien, 1811_.] + +Towards the close of the year 1828, Schlegel repaired to Dresden, a city +endeared to him by the recollections of enthusiastic juvenile studies. +Here he delivered nine lectures _Ueber die Philosophie der Sprache, und +des Worts_, on the Philosophy of Language, a work which the present writer +laments much that he has not seen; as it is manifest that the prominency +given in Schlegel's Philosophy of Life above sketched to living experience +and primeval tradition, must, along with his various accomplishments as a +linguist, have eminently fitted him for developing systematically the high +significance of human speech. On Sunday the 11th January 1829, he was +engaged in composing a lecture which was to be delivered on the following +Wednesday, and had just come to the significant words--"_Das ganz +vollendete und voll-kommene Verstehen selbst, aber_"--"The perfect and +complete understanding of things, however"--when the mortal palsy suddenly +seized his hand, and before one o'clock on the same night he had ceased to +philosophize. The words with which his pen ended its long and laborious +career, are characteristic enough, both of the general imperfection of +human knowledge, and of the particular quality of Schlegel's mind. The +Germans have a proverb:--"_Alles wäre gut wäre kein ABER dabei_"--"every +thing would be good were it not for an ABER--for a HOWEVER--for a BUT." +This is the general human vice that lies in that significant ABER. But +Schlegel's part in it is a virtue--one of his greatest virtues--a +conscientious anxiety never to state a general proposition in philosophy, +without, at the same time, stating in what various ways the eternal truth +comes to be limited and modified in practice. Great, indeed, is the virtue +of a Schlegelian ABER. Had it not been for that, he would have had his +place long ago among the vulgar herds of erudite and intellectual +dogmatists. + +Heinrich Steffens, a well-known literary and scientific character in +Germany, in his personal memoirs recently published,[O] describes +Frederick Schlegel, at Jena in 1798, as "a remarkable man, slenderly +built, but with beautiful regular features, and a very intellectual +expression"--(_im höchsten Grade gisntreich_.) In his manner there was +something remarkably calm and cool, almost phlegmatic. He spoke with +great slowness and deliberation, but often with much point, and a great +deal of reflective wit. He was thus a thorough German in his temperament; +so at least as Englishmen and Frenchmen, of a more nimble blood, delight +to picture the Rhenish Teut, not always in the most complimentary +contrast with themselves. As it is, his merit shines forth only so much +the more, that being a German of the Germans, he should by one small +work, more of a combining than of a creative character, have achieved an +European reputation and popularity with a certain sphere, that bids fair +to last for a generation or two, at least, even in this book-making age. +Such an earnest devotedness of research; such a gigantic capacity of +appropriation, such a kingly faculty of comprehension, will rarely be +found united in one individual. The multifarious truths which the noble +industry of such a spirit either evolved wisely or happily disposed, will +long continue to be received as a welcome legacy by our studious youth; +and as for his errors in a literary point of view, and with reference to +British use, practically considered they are the mere breadth of +fantastic colouring, which, being removed, does not destroy the drawing. + +[Footnote O: _Was Ich Erlebte_, von HEINRICH STEFFENS. Breslau, 1840-2. +Vol. iv. p. 303.] + + + * * * * * + + + + +MARSTON; OR THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. + + +PART IV. + + "Have I not in my time hear lions roar? + Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind, + Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat? + Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, + And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies? + Have I not in the pitched battle heard + Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?" + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +What that residence and Brighton have since become, is familiar to the +world--the one an oriental palace, and the other an English city. But at +this time all that men saw in the surrounding landscape was almost as it +had been seen by our forefathers the Picts and Saxons. I found the prince +standing, with four or five gentlemen of distinguished appearance, under +the veranda which shaded the front of the cottage from the evening sun. +The day had been one of that sultry atmosphere in which autumn sometimes +takes its leave of us, and the air from the sea was now delightfully +refreshing. The flowers, clustered in thick knots over the little lawn, +were raising their languid heads, and breathing their renewed fragrance. +All was sweetness and calmness. The sunlight, falling on the amphitheatre +of hills, and touching them with diversities of colour as it fell on their +various heights and hollows, gave the whole a glittering and fantastic +aspect; while the total silence, and absence of all look of life, except +an occasional curl of smoke from some of the scattered cottages along the +beach; with the magnificent expanse of the ocean bounding all, smooth and +blue as a floor of lapis-lazuli, completed the character of a scene which +might have been in fairyland. + +The prince, whose politeness was undeviating to all, came forward to meet +me at once, introduced me to his circle, and entered into conversation; +the topic was his beautiful little dwelling. + +"You see, Mr Marston," said he, "we live here like hermits, and in not +much more space. I give myself credit for having made the discovery of +this spot. I dare say, the name of Brighthelmstone may have been in the +journal of some voyager to unknown lands, but I believe I have the honour +of being the first who ever made it known in London." + +I fully acknowledged the taste of his discovery. + +"Why," said he, "it certainly is not the taste of Kew, whose chief +prospect is the ugliest town on the face of the earth, and whose chief +zephyrs are the breath of its brew houses and lime-kilns. Hampton Court +has always reminded me of a monastery, which I should never dream of +inhabiting unless I put on the gown of a monk. St James's still looks the +hospital that it once was. Windsor is certainly a noble +structure--Edward's mile of palaces--but that residence is better +tenanted than by a subject. While, here I have found a desert, it is +true; but as the poet says or sings-- + +'I am monarch of all I survey.'" + +"Yes," I observed. "But still a desert highly picturesque, and capable of +cultivation." + +"Oh! I hope not," he answered laughingly. "The first appearance of +cultivation would put me to flight at once. Fortunately, cultivation is +almost impossible. The soil almost totally prohibits tillage, the sea air +prohibits trees, the shore prohibits trade, nothing can live here but a +fisherman or a shrimp, and thus I am secure against the invasion of all +_improvers_. W----, come here, and assist me to cure Mr Marston of his +skepticism on the absolute impossibility of our ever being surrounded by +London brick and mortar." + +A man of a remarkably graceful air bowed to the call, and came towards us. + +"W----," said the prince, "comfort me, by saying that no man can be +citizenized in this corner of the world." + +"It is certainly highly improbable," was the answer. "And yet, when we +know John Bull's variety of tastes, and heroic contempt of money in +indulging them, such things may be. I lately found one of my country +constituents the inhabitant of a very pretty villa--which he had built, +too, for himself--in Sicily; and of all places, in the Val di Noto, the +most notorious spot in the island, or perhaps on the earth, for all kinds +of desperadoes--the very haunt of Italian smugglers, refugee Catalonians, +expert beyond all living knaves in piracy, and African renegades. Yet +there sat my honest and fat-cheeked friend, with Aetna roaring above him; +declaiming on liberty and property, as comfortably as if he could not be +shot for the tenth of a sixpence, or swept off, chattels and all, at the +nod of an Algerine. No, sir. If the whim takes the Londoner, you will have +him down here without mercy. To the three per cents nothing is +impossible." + +"Well, well," said the good-humoured prince, "that cannot happen for +another hundred years; and in the mean time my prospect will never be shut +out. Let them build, or pull down the pyramids, if they will. The tide of +city wealth will never roll through this valley; the noise of city life +will never fill those quiet fields; the smoke of an insurrection of city +hovels will never mingle with the freshness of such an evening as this. +Here, at all events, I have spent half a dozen of the pleasantest years of +my existence, and here, if I should live so long, I might spend the next +fifty, notwithstanding your prophecies, W----, as far from London, except +in the mere matter of miles, as if I had fixed myself in a valley of the +Crimea." + +His royal highness was clever, but he was no prophet, more than other men. +Need I say that London found him out within the tenth part of his fifty +years; instead of suffering him to escape, compelled him to build: and, +after the outlay of a quarter of a million, shut him up within his own +walls, like the giant of the Arabian tales in a bottle--His village a huge +suburb of the huge metropolis; his lawn surrounded by a circumvallation of +taverns and toyshops; the sea invisible; and the landscape scattered over +with prettinesses of architecture created by the wealth of Cheapside, and +worthy of all the caprices of all the tourists of this much travelled +world. + +But simple as was the exterior of the cottage, all within was costliness, +so far as it can be united with elegance. Later days somewhat impaired the +taste of this accomplished man, and he sought in splendour what was only +to be found in grace. But here, every decoration, from the ceiling to the +floor, exhibited the simplicity of refinement. A few busts of his public +friends, a few statues of the patriots of antiquity, and a few pictures of +the great political geniuses of Europe--among which the broad forehead and +powerful eye of Machiavel were conspicuous--showed at a glance that we +were under the roof of a political personage. Even the figures in chased +silver on the table were characteristic of this taste. A Timoleon, a +Brutus, and a Themistocles, incomparably classic, stood on the plateau; +and a rapier which had belonged to Doria, and a sabre which had been worn +by Castruccio, hung on either side of the mantelpiece. The whole had a +republican tendency, but it was republicanism in gold and +silver--mother-of-pearl republicanism--the Whig principle embalmed in +Cellini chalices and porcelain of Frederic le Grand. Fortunately the +conversation did not turn upon home politics. It wandered lightly through +all the pleasanter topics of the day; slight ventilations of public +character, dexterous allusions to anecdotes which none but the initiated +could understand; and the general easy intercourse of well-bred men who +met under the roof of another well-bred man to spend a few hours as +agreeably as they could. The prince took his full share in the gaiety of +the evening; and I was surprised to find at once so remarkable a +familiarity with the classics, whose sound was scarcely out of my college +ears; and with those habits of the humbler ranks, which could have so +seldom come to his personal knowledge. To his exterior, nature had been +singularly favourable. His figure, though full, still retained all the +activity and grace of youth; his features, though by no means regular, +had a general look of manly beauty, and his smile was cordiality itself. +I have often since heard him praised for supreme elegance; but his manner +was rather that of a man of great natural good-humour, who yet felt his +own place in society, and of that degree of intelligence which qualified +him to enjoy the wit and talents of others, without suffering a sense of +inferiority. Among those at table were C---- and H----, names well known +in the circles of Devonshire House; Sir P---- F----, who struck me at +first sight by his penetrating physiognomy, and who was even then +suspected of being the author of that most brilliant of all libels, +Junius; W----, then in the flower of life, and whose subtilty and whim +might be seen in his fine forehead and volatile eyes; some others, whose +names I did not know, and among them one of low stature, but of +singularly animated features. He was evidently a military man, and of the +Sister Isle, a prime favourite with the prince and every body; and I +think a secretary in the prince's household. He had just returned from +Paris; and as French news was then the universal topic, he took an ample +share in the conversation. The name of La Fayette happening to be +mentioned, as then carrying every thing before him in France-- + +"I doubt his talents," said the prince. + +"I more doubt his sincerity," said W----. + +"I still more doubt whether this day three months he will have his head on +his shoulders," said Sir P----. + +"None can doubt his present popularity," said the secretary. + +"At all events," said his highness, "I cannot doubt that he has wit, which +in France was always something, and now, in the general crash of pedigree, +is the only thing. Any man who could furnish the Parsans with a _bon-mot_ +a-day, would have a strong chance of succeeding to the throne in the +probable vacancy." + +"A case has just occurred in point," said the secretary. "Last week La +Fayette had a quarrel with a battalion of the National Guard on the +subject of drill; they considering the manual exercise as an infringement +of the Rights of Man. The general being of the contrary opinion, a +deputation of corporals, for any thing higher would have looked too +aristocratic, waited on him at the quarters of his staff in the Place +Vendôme, to demand--his immediate resignation. On further enquiry, he +ascertained that all the battalions, amounting to thirty thousand men, +were precisely of the same sentiments. Next morning happened to have been +appointed for a general review of the National Guard. La Fayette appeared +on the ground as commandant at the head of his staff, and after a gallop +along the line, suddenly alighted from his horse, and taking a musket on +his shoulder, to the utter astonishment of every body walked direct into +the centre of the line, and took post in the ranks. Of course all the +field-officers flew up to learn the reason. 'Gentlemen,' said he, 'I am +tired of receiving orders as commander-in-chief, and that I may _give_ +them, I have become a _private_, as you see.' The announcement was +received with a shout of merriment; and, as in France a pleasantry would +privilege a man to set fire to a church, the general was cheered on all +sides, was remounted and the citizen army, suspending the 'Rights of Man' +for the day, proceeded to march and manoeuvre according to the drill +framed by despots and kings." + +"Well done, La Fayette," said the prince, "I did not think that there was +so much in him. To be sure, to have one's neck in danger--for the next +step to deposing would probably be to hang him--might sharpen a man's wits +a good deal." + +"Yes," said Sir P----, "so many live by their wits in Paris, that even the +marquis of the mob might have his chance; but a bon-mot actually saved, +within these few days, one even so obnoxious as a bishop from being _sus. +per coll_. In the general system of purifying the church by hanging the +priests, the rabble of the Palais Royal seized the Bishop of Autun, and +were proceeding to treat him 'à la lanterne' as an aristocrat. It must be +owned that the lamps in Paris, swinging by ropes across the streets, offer +really a very striking suggestion for giving a final lesson in politics. +It was night, and the lamp was trimmed. They were already letting it down +for the bishop to be its successor; when he observed, with the coolness of +a spectator--'Gentlemen, if I am to take the place of that lamp, it does +not strike me that the street will be better lighted.' The whimsicality of +the idea caught them at once; a bishop for a _reverbère_ was a new idea; +they roared with laughter at the conception, and bid him go home for a +'_bon enfant_!'" + +"I cannot equal the La Fayette story," said C----, "but I remember one not +unlike it, when the Duke of Rutland was Irish viceroy. Charlemont was +reviewing a brigade of his volunteers when he found a sudden stop in one +of the movements, a troop of cavalry on a flank: choosing to exhibit a +will of their own in an extraordinary way. If the brigade advanced, they +halted; if it halted, they advanced. The captain bawled in vain. +Aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp was sent to enquire the cause; they all +came back roaring with laughter. At length Charlemont, rather irritated +by the ridicule of the display, rode down the line and desired the +captain to order them to move; not a man stirred; they were as immovable +as a wall of brass. He then took the affair upon himself; and angrily +asked, 'if they meant to insult him.' 'Not a bit of it, my lord,' cried +out all the Paddies together. 'But we are not on _speaking terms_ with +the captain.'" + +"How perfectly I can see Charlemont's countenance at that capital answer: +his fastidious look turning into a laugh, and the real dignity of the man +forced to give way to his national sense of ridicule. Is there any hope of +his coming over this season, C----?" asked the prince. + +"Not much. He talks in his letters of England, as a man married to a +termagant might talk of his first love--hopeless regrets, inevitable +destiny, and so forth. He is bound to Ireland, and she treats him as +Catharine treated Petruchio before marriage. But he has not the whip of +Petruchio, nor perhaps the will, since the knot has been tied. He is only +one of the many elegant and accomplished Irishmen who have done just the +same--who find some strange spell in the confusions of a country full of +calamities; prefer clouds to sunshine, and complain of their choice all +their lives." + +"Yes," said W----. "It is like the attempt to put a coat and trousers on +the American Indian. The hero flings them off on the first opportunity, +takes to his plumes and painted skin, and prefers being tomahawked in a +swamp to dying in a feather-bed like a gentleman!" + +"Or," said the prince, "as Goldsmith so charmingly expresses it of the +Swiss--to whom, however, it is much less applicable than his own +countrymen-- + + 'For as the babe, whom rising storms molest, + Clings but the closer to his mother's breast, + So the rude whirlwind and the tempest's roar + But bind him to his native mountains more.'" + +My story next came upon the _tapis_; and the sketch of my capture by the +free-traders was listened to with polite interest. + +"Very possibly I may have some irregular neighbours," was the prince's +remark. "But, it must be confessed, that I am the intruder on their +domain, not they on mine; and, if I were plundered, perhaps I should have +not much more right to complain, than a whale-catcher has of being swamped +by a blow of the tail, or a man fond of law being forced to pay a bill of +costs." + +"On the contrary," said the secretary, "I give them no slight credit for +their forbearance; for the sacking of this cottage would, probably, be an +easier exploit than beating off a revenue cruiser, and the value of their +prize would be worth many a successful run. I make it a point never to go +to war with the multitude. I had a little lesson on the subject myself, +within the week, in Paris"-- + +An attendant here brought in a letter for the prince, which stopped the +narrative. The prince honoured the letter with a smile. + +"It is from Devonshire House," said he--"a very charming woman the +Duchess; just enough of the woman to reconcile us to the wit, and just +enough of the wit to give poignancy to the woman. She laughingly says she +is growing 'heartless, harmless, and old.' What a pity that so fine a +creature should grow any of the three!" + +"There is no great fear of that," observed Sir P----, "if it is to be left +to her Grace's own decision. There is no question in the world on which a +fine woman is more deliberate in coming to a conclusion." + +"Well, well," said the prince; "_she_, at least, is privileged. Diamonds +never grow old." + +"They may require a little resetting now and then, however," said I. + +"Yes, perhaps; but it is only once in a hundred years. If they sparkle +during one generation, what can _we_ ask more? Her Grace tells me an +excellent hit--the last flash of my old friend Selwyn. It happens that +Lady ----"--another fine woman was mentioned--"has looked rather distantly +upon her former associates since her husband was created a marquis. 'I +enquired the other day,' says the duchess, 'for a particular friend of +hers, the wife of an earl.' 'I have not seen her for a long time,' was the +answer. Selwyn whispered at the moment, I dare say, long enough--she has +not seen her since the _creation_.'" + +"If Selwyn," said Sir P----, "had not made such a trade of wit; if he had +not been such a palpable machine for grinding every thing into _bons-mots_; +if his distillation of the dross of common talk into the spirit of +pleasantry were less tardy and less palpable; I should have allowed him to +be"-- + +"What?" asked some one from the end of the table. + +"Less a _bore than he was_," was the succinct answer. + +"For my part," said the prince, "I think that old George was amusing to +the last. He had great observation of oddity, and, you will admit, that he +had no slight opportunities; for he was a member of, I believe, every club +for five miles round St James's. But he _was_ slow. Wit should be like a +pistol-shot; a flash and a hit, and both best when they come closest +together. Still, he was a fragment of an age gone by, and I prize him as I +should a piece of pottery from Herculaneum; its use past away, but its +colours not extinguished, and, though altogether valueless at the time, +curious as the _beau reste_ of a pipkin of antiquity." + +"Sheridan," observed C----, "amounts, in my idea, to a perfect wit, at +once keen and polished; nothing of either violence or virulence--nothing +of the sabre or the saw; his weapon is the stiletto, fine as a needle, yet +it strikes home." + +"_Apropos_," said the prince, "does any one know whether there is to be a +debate this evening? He was to have dined here. What can have happened to +him?" + +"What always happens to him," said one of the party; "he has postponed +it. Ask Sheridan for Monday at seven, and you will have him next week on +Tuesday at eight. 'Procrastination is the thief of time,' to him more +than, I suppose, any other man living." + +"At all events," said H----, "it is the only thief that Sheridan has to +fear. His present condition defies all the skill of larceny. He is +completely in the position of Horace's traveller--he might sing in a +forest of felons." + +At this moment the sound of a post-chaise was heard rushing up the avenue, +and Sheridan soon made his appearance. He was received by the prince with +evident gladness, and by all the table with congratulations on his having +arrived at all. He was abundant in apologies; among the rest "his carriage +had broken down halfway--he had been compelled to spend the morning with +Charles Fox--he had been subpoenaed on the trial of one of the Scottish +conspirators--he had been summoned on a committee of a contested +election." The prince smiled sceptically enough at this succession of +causes to produce the single effect of being an hour behind-hand. + +"The prince bows at every new excuse," said H---- at my side, "as Boileau +took off his hat at every plagiarism in his friend's comedy--on the score +of old acquaintance. If one word of all this is true, it may be the +breaking down of his post-chaise, and even that he probably broke down for +the sake of the excuse. Sheridan could not walk from the door to the +dinner-table without a stratagem." + +I had now, for the first time, an opportunity of seeing this remarkable +man. He was then in the prime of life, his fame, and of his powers. His +countenance struck me at a glance, as the most characteristic that I had +ever seen. Fancy may do much, but I thought that I could discover in his +physiognomy every quality for which he was distinguished: the pleasantry +of the man of the world, the keen observation of the great dramatist, and +the vividness and daring of the first-rate orator. His features were fine, +but their combination was so powerfully intellectual, that, at the moment +when he turned his face to you, you felt that you were looking on a man of +the highest order of faculties. None of the leading men of his day had a +physiognomy so palpably mental. Burke's spectacled eyes told but little; +Fox, with the grand outlines of a Greek sage, had no mobility of feature; +Pitt was evidently no favourite of whatever goddess presides over beauty +at our birth. But Sheridan's countenance was the actual mirror of one of +the most glowing, versatile, and vivid minds in the world. His eyes alone +would have given expression to a face of clay. I never saw in human head +orbs so large, of so intense a black, and of such sparkling lustre. His +manners, too, were then admirable; easy without negligence, and +respectful, as the guest at a royal table, without a shadow of servility. +He also was wholly free from that affectation of epigram, which tempts a +man who cannot help knowing that his good things are recorded. He laughed, +and listened, and rambled through the common topics of the day, with all +the evidence of one enjoying the moment, and glad to contribute to its +enjoyment; and yet, in all this ease, I could see that remoter thoughts, +from time to time, passed through his mind. In the midst of our gaiety, +the contraction of his deep and noble brows showed that he was wandering +far away from the slight topics of the table; and I could imagine what he +might be, when struggling against the gigantic strength of Pitt, or +thundering against Indian tyranny before the Peerage in Westminster Hall. + +I saw him long afterwards, when the promise of his day was overcast; when +the flashes of his genius were like guns of distress; and his character, +talents, and frame were alike sinking. But, ruined as he was, and +humiliated by folly as much as by misfortune, I have never been able to +regard Sheridan but as a fallen star--a star, too, of the first magnitude; +without a superior in the whole galaxy from which he fell, and with an +original brilliancy perhaps more lustrous than them all. + +"Well, Sheridan, what news have you brought with you?" asked the prince. + +The answer was a laugh. "Nothing, but that Downing Street has turned into +Parnassus. The astounding fact is, that Grenville has teemed, and, as the +fruits of the long vacation, has produced a Latin epigram. + + 'Veris risit Amor roses caducas: + Cui Ver--"Vane puer, tuine flores, + Quaeso, perpetuum manent in aevum?'" + +The prince laughed. "He writes on the principle, of course, that in one's +dotage we are privileged to return to the triflings of our infancy, and +that Downing Street cannot be better employed in these days than as a +chapel of ease to Eton." + +"Yet, even there, he is but a translator," said Sir P----. + +"'The tenth transmitter of an idler's line,' + +It is merely a _rechauffé_ of the old Italian. + + 'Amor volea schernir la primavera + Sulla breve durata e passegiera + Dei vaghi fiori suoi. + Ma la belle stagione a lui rispose + Forse i piacere tuoi + Vita piu lunga avran delle mie rose.'" + +The prince, who, under Cyril Jackson, had acquired no trivial scholarship, +now alluded to a singular poetic production, _printed_ in 1618, which +seemed distinctly to announce the French Revolution. + +'Festinat propere cursu jam temporis ordo, +Quo locus, et Franci majestas prisca, senatus, +Papa, sacerdotes, missae, simulacra, Deique +Fictitii, atque omnis superos exosa potestas, +Judicio Domini justo sublata peribunt.[A] + +[Footnote A: + + The time is rushing on + When France shall be undone; + And like a dream shall pass, + Pope, monarch, priest, and mass; + And vengeance shall be just, + And all her shrines be dust, + And thunder dig the grave + Of sovereign and of slave.] + +"The production is certainly curious," remarked W----; "but poets always +had something of the fortune-teller; and it is striking, that in many of +the modern Italian Latinists you will find more instances of strong +declamation against Rome, and against France as its chief supporter, than +perhaps in any other authorship of Europe. Audacity was the result of +terror. All Italy reminds one of the papal palace at Avignon--the +banqueting-rooms above, the dungeons of the Inquisition below; popes and +princes feasting within sound of the rack and the scourge. The Revolution +is but the ripening of the disease; the hydrophobia which has been lurking +in the system for centuries." + +"Why, then," said Sheridan, "shall we all wonder at what all expected? +France may be running mad without waiting for the moon; mad in broad day; +absolutely stripping off, not merely the royal livery, which she wore for +the last five hundred years with so much the look of a well-bred footman; +but tearing away the last coverture of the national nakedness. Well; in a +week or two of this process, she will have got rid not only of church and +king, but of laws, property, and personal freedom. But, I ask, what +business have we to interfere? If she is madder than the maddest of March +hares, she is only the less dangerous; she will probably dash out her +brains against the first wall that she cannot spring over." + +"But, at least, we know that mischief is already done among ourselves. +Those French affairs are dividing our strength in the House," remarked +C----. + +"What then?" quickly demanded Sheridan. "What is it to me if others have +the nightmare, while I feel my eyes open? Burke, in his dreams, may dread +the example of France; but I as little dread it as I should a fire at the +Pole. He thinks that Englishmen have such a passion for foreign +importations, that if the pestilence were raging on the other side of the +Channel, we should send for specimens. My proposition is, that the example +of France is more likely to make slaves of us than republicans." + +"Is it," asked W----, "to make us + + 'Fly from minor tyrants to the throne?'" + +"I laugh at the whole," replied Sheridan, "as a bugbear. I have no fear of +France as either a schoolmaster, or a seducer, of England. France is +lunatic, and who dreads a lunatic after his first paroxysm? Exhaustion, +disgust, decay, perhaps death, are the natural results. If there is any +peril to us, it is only from our meddling. The lunatic never revenges +himself but on his keeper. I should leave the patient to the native +doctors, or to those best of all doctors for mad nations, suffering, +shame, and time. Chain, taunt, or torment the lunatic, and he rewards you +by knocking out your brains." + +"Those are not exactly the opinions of our friend Charles," observed the +prince with peculiar emphasis. + +"No," was the reply. "I think for myself. Some would take the madman by +the hand, and treat him as if in possession of his senses. Burke would +gather all the dignitaries of Church and State, and treat him as a +demoniac; attempt to exorcise the evil spirit, and if it continued +intractable, solemnly excommunicate the possessed by bell, book, and +candle. But, as I do not like throwing away my trouble, I should let him +alone." + +"The doctrine of confiscation is startling to all property," remarked the +prince. "I wish Charles would remember, that his strength lies in the +aristocracy." + +"No man knows it better," observed W----. "But I strongly doubt whether +his consciousness of his own extraordinary talents is not at this moment +tempting him to try a new source of hazard. The people, nay, the populace, +are a new element to him, and to all. I can conceive a man of pre-eminent +ability, as much delighted with difficulty as inferior men are delighted +with ease. Fox has managed the aristocracy so long, and has bridled them +with so much the hand of a master, that what he might have once considered +as an achievement, he now regards as child's play. If Alexander's taming +Bucephalus was a triumph for a noble boy, I scarcely think that, after +passing the Granicus, he would have been proud of his fame as a +horse-breaker. Fox sees, as all men see, that great changes, for either +good or ill, are coming on the world. Next to that of a great king, +perhaps the most tempting rank to ambition would be that of a great +demagogue." + +The glitter of Sheridan's eye, and the glow which passed across his cheek, +as he looked at the speaker, showed how fully he agreed with the +sentiment; and I expected some bold burst of eloquence. But, with that +sudden change of tone and temper which was among the most curious +characteristics of the man, he laughingly said, "At all events, whatever +the Revolution may do to our neighbours, it will do a vast deal of good to +ourselves. The clubs were growing so dull, that I began to think of +withdrawing my name from them all. Their principal supporters were daily +yawning themselves to death. The wiser part were flying into the country, +where, at least, their yawning would not be visible; and the rest remained +enveloped in dry and dreary newspapers, like the herbs of a 'Hortus +siccus.' White's was an hospital of the deaf and dumb; and Brookes's +strongly resembled Westminster Hall in the long vacation. It was in the +midst of this general doze that the news from Paris came. I assure you the +effects were miraculous--the universal spasm of lock-jaw was no more. Men +no longer regarded each other with a despairing glance in St James's +Street, and passed on. All was sudden sociability. Even in the city people +grew communicative, and puns were committed that would have struck their +forefathers with amazement. As Burke said, in one of his sybilline +speeches the other night: 'The tempest had come, at once bending down the +summits of the forest and stirring up the depths of the pool.' One of the +aldermen, on being told that the French were preparing to pass the Waal, +said, that if the Dutch would take _his_ advice, and if iron spikes were +not enough, they should _glass_ their _wall_." + +The newspapers now arrived, and France for a while engrossed the +conversation. The famous Mirabeau had just made an oration with which all +France was ringing. + +"That man's character," said the prince, after reading some vehement +portions of his speech, "perplexes me more and more. An aristocrat by +birth, he is a democrat by passion; but he has palpably come into the +world too early, or too late, for power. Under Louis XIV., he would have +made a magnificent minister; under his successor, a splendid courtier; but +under the present unfortunate king, he must be either the brawler or the +buffoon, the incendiary, or the sport, of the people. Yet he is evidently +a man of singular ability, and if he knows how to manage his popularity, +he may yet do great things." + +"I always," said Sheridan, "am inclined to predict well of the man who +takes advantage of his time. That is the true faculty for public life; the +true test of commanding capacity. There are thousands who have ability, +for one who knows how to make use of it; as we are told that there are +monsters in the depths of the ocean which never come up to the light. But +I prefer your leviathan, which, whether he slumbers in the calm or rushes +through the storm, shows all his magnitude to the eye." + +"And gets himself harpooned for his pains," observed W----. + +"Well, then, at least he dies the death of a hero," was the +reply--"tempesting the brine, and perhaps even sinking the harpooner." He +uttered this sentiment with such sudden ardour, that all listened while he +declaimed--"I can imagine no worse fate for a man of true talent than to +linger down into the grave; to find the world disappearing from him while +he remains in it; his political vision growing indistinct, his political +ear losing the voice of man, his passions growing stagnant, all his +sensibilities palpably paralyzing, while the world is as loud, busy, and +brilliant round him as ever--with but one sense remaining, the unhappy +consciousness that, though not _yet_ dead, he is buried; a figure, if not +of scorn, of pity, entombed under the compassionate gaze of mankind, and +forgotten before he has mouldered. Who that could die in the vigour of his +life, would wish to drag on existence like _Somers_, coming to the Council +day after day without comprehending a word? or Marlborough, babbling out +his own imbecility? If I am to die, let me die in hot blood, let me die +like the lion biting the spear that has entered his heart, or springing +upon the hunter who has struck him--not like the crushed snake, miserable +and mutilated, hiding itself in its hole, and torpid before it is turned +into clay!" + +"Will Mirabeau redeem France?" asked the prince; "or will he overwhelm the +throne?" + +"I never heard of any one but Saint Christopher," said Sheridan, +sportively, "who could walk through the ocean, and yet keep his head above +water. Mirabeau is out of soundings already." + +"Burke," said F----, "predicts that he must perish; that the Revolution +will go on, increasing in terrors; and that it would be as easy to stop a +planet launched through space, as the progress of France to ruin." + +"So be it," said Sheridan with sudden animation. "There have been +revolutions in every age of the world, but the world has outlived them +all. Like tempests, they may wreck a royal fleet now and then, but they +prevent the ocean from being a pond, and the air from being a pestilence. +I am content if the world is the better for all this, though France may be +the worse. I am a political optimist, in spite of Voltaire; or, I agree +with a better man and a greater poet--'All's well that ends well.'" + +The prince looked grave; and significantly asked, "Whether too high a +present price might not be paid for prospective good?" + +Sheridan turned off the question with a smile. "The man who has as little +to pay as I have," said he, "seldom thinks of price one way or the other. +Possibly, if I were his Grace of Bedford, or my Lord Fitzwilliam, I might +begin to balance my rent-roll against my raptures. Or, if I were higher +still, I might be only more prudent. But," said he, with a bow, "if what +was fit for Parmenio was not fit for Alexander, neither would what was fit +for Alexander be fit for Parmenio." + +The prince soon after rose from table, and led the way into the library, +where we spent some time in looking over an exquisite collection of +drawings of Greece and Albania, a present from the French king to his +royal highness. The windows were thrown open, and the fresh scents of the +flower garden were delicious; the night was calm, and the moon gleamed far +over the quiet ocean. + +At this moment a soft sound of music arose at a distance. I looked in vain +for the musicians--none were visible. The strain, incomparably managed, +now approached, now receded, now seemed to ascend from the sea, now to +stoop from the sky. All crowded to the casement--to me, a stranger and +unexpecting, all was surprise and spell. I, almost unconsciously, repeated +the fine lines in the Tempest:-- + + "Where should this music be? I' the air, or the earth? + It sounds no more: and sure, it waits upon + Some god of the island-- + This music crept by me upon the waters, + Allaying both their fury and my passion + With its sweet air--But 'tis gone! + No, it begins again." + +The prince returned my quotation with a gracious smile, and the words of +the great poet, + +"This is no mortal business, nor no sound +This the earth owns." + +The private band, stationed in one of the thickets, had been the +magicians. Supper was laid in this handsome apartment, not precisely + + "The spare Sabine feast, + A radish and an egg," + +but perfectly simple, and perfectly elegant. The service was Sevre, and I +observed on it the arms of the Duke of Orleans, combined with those of the +Prince. It had been a present from the most luxurious, and most +unfortunate, man on earth. And thus closed my first day in the exclusive +world. + + +On the next evening, I had exchanged fresh breezes and bright skies for +the sullen atmosphere and perpetual smoke of the great city; stars for +lamps, and the gentle murmurs of the tide, for the turbid rush and heavy +roar of the million of London. During the day, I had been abandoned +sufficiently to my own meditations. For though we did not leave Brighton +till noon, Marianne remained steadily, and I feared angrily, invisible. +Mordecai, during the journey, consulted nothing but his tablets, and was +evidently plunged in some huge financial speculation; and when he dropped +me at a hotel in St James's, and hurried towards his den in the depths of +the city, like a bat to its cave, I felt as solitary as if I had dropped +from the moon. + +But an English hotel is a cure for most of the sorrows of English life. +The well-served table--the excellent sherry--a blazing fire, not at all +unrequired in the first sharp evenings of our autumn--and the newspaper +"just come in," are capital "medicines for the mind diseased." And like +old Maréchal Louvois, who recommended roast pigeons as a cure for +grief--observing that, "whenever he heard of the loss of any of his +friends, he ordered a pair, and found himself always much comforted after +eating them"--I was beginning to sink into that easy oblivion of the +rules of life, which, without actual sleep, has all the placid enjoyment +of slumber; when a voice pronounced my name, and I was startled and half +suffocated by the embrace of a figure who rushed from an opposite box, +and in a torrent of French poured out a torrent of raptures on my +arriving in London. + +When I contrived at last to disengage myself, I saw Lafontaine; but so +hollow-cheeked and pale-visaged, that I could scarcely recognize my showy +friend in the skeleton knight who stood gesticulating his ultra-happiness +before me. + +At length he drew, with a trembling touch and a glistening eye, from his +bosom a letter, which he placed in my hand with a squeeze of eternal +friendship. "Read," said he, "read, and then wonder, if you can, at my +misery and my gratitude." The letter was from Mariamne, and certainly a +very pretty one--gay and tender at once; gracefully alluding to some +little fretfulness on her part, or his, I could scarcely tell which; but +assuring him that all this was at an end--that she foreswore the world +henceforth, and was quite his own. All this was expressed with an elegance +which I was not quite prepared to find in the fair one, and with a tone of +sincerity for which I was still less prepared; yet with the coquette in +every line. + +I should have been glad to see him at any time, but now I received him as +a resource from solitude, or rather from those restless thoughts which +made solitude so painful to me. Another bottle, perhaps, made me more +sensitive, and him more willing to communicate; and before it was +finished, he had opened his whole heart and emptied his letter-case, and I +had consulted him on the _im_probabilities of my ever being able to +succeed in the object which had so strangely, yet so totally, occupied all +my feelings. + +It was clear, from her correspondence, that his pretty Jewess had played +him much as the angler plays the trout which he has secured on his hook. +She evidently enjoyed the display of her skill in tormenting: every second +letter was almost a declaration of breaking off the correspondence +altogether; or, what was even worse, mingled with those menaces, there +were from time to time allusions to my opinions, and quotations of my +chance remarks, which, rather to my surprise, showed me that the proverb, +"_Les absens ont toujours tort_," was true in more senses than one, and +that the Frenchman occasionally lost ground by being fifty miles off. Once +or twice it seemed to me that the little "betrothed" was evidently +thinking of the error of precipitate vows, and was beginning to change her +mind. But her last letter was a complete extinguisher of all my vanity, if +it had ever been awakened. It was a curious mingling of poignancy and +penitence; an acknowledgment of the pain which she felt in ever having +given pain, and almost an entreaty that he would hasten his affairs in +London, and return to Brighton, to "guard her against herself, once and +for ever." + +All this was quite as it should be; but the envelope contained an enormous +postscript, of which I happened to be the theme. It was evidently written +in another mood of mind; and except that passion is blind, and even +refuses to see, when it might, I should probably have had another +rencontre with the best swordsman in the _Chevaux Legers_. After speaking +of me and my prospects in life, with an interest which reached at least to +the full amount of friendship, the subject of my reveries came on the +tapis. "My father and Mr Marston are on the point of going to town," said +the postscript; "the latter to dream of Mademoiselle De Tourville, without +the smallest hope of ever obtaining her hand. But I scarcely know what to +think of him and his feelings--if feelings they can be called--which +change like the fashions of the day, and at the mercy of all the triflers +of the day; or like the butterfly fluttering round the garden, as if +merely to show that it can flutter. This habit must make him for ever +incapable of the generous devotedness of heart and truth of affection +which I so much value in my '_friend_.'" But here Lafontaine interfered, +obviously through fear of my plunging into some discovery of my own +demerits, which had not struck him on his first perusal; and I surrendered +the letter, postscript and all, having first ascertained by a glance, that +the former was dated at the very hour of the discovery of my unlucky +stanzas to Clotilde, and the latter probably after the "fair penitent" had +time to reflect on the matter, and let compassion make its way. Woman is a +brilliant problem--but a problem after all. + +A sudden trampling of cavalry and loud rush of carriages prevented my +attempting the solution--at least for that sitting. All the guests crowded +to the door. "His Majesty was going to Drury-Lane!" It was a performance +"by command." The never-failing pulse in the foreign heart was touched. +Lafontaine crushed his correspondence into his bosom, sprang on his feet, +wiped his eyes of all their sorrows, and proposed that we should see the +display. I was rejoiced to escape a topic too delicate for my handling. A +carriage was called, and by a double fee we contrived, through many a +hazard, in the narrowest and most dangerous defiles of any Christian city, +to reach the stately entrance, just as the troopers were brushing away the +mob from the steps, and the trumpets were outringing the cries of the +orangewomen. + +By another bribe we contrived to make our way into a box, whose doors were +more unrelenting than brass or marble to the crowd in the lobby, less +acquainted with the mode of getting through the English world; and I had +my first view of national loyalty, in the handsomest theatre which I have +ever seen. How often it has been burnt down and built since, is beyond my +calculation. It was then perfection. + +We had galloped to some purpose; for we had distanced the monarch and his +eight carriages. The royal party had not yet entered the house; and I +enjoyed, for a few minutes, one of the most striking displays that the +opulence and animation of a great country can possibly produce--the +_coup-d'oeil_ of a well-dressed audience in a fine and spacious theatre. +Multitudes spread over hill and dale may be picturesque; the aspect of +great public meetings may be startling, stern, or powerfully impressive; +the British House of Lords, on the opening of the session, exhibits a +majestic spectacle; but for a concentration of all the effects of art, +beauty, and magnificence, I have yet seen nothing like one of the English +theatres in their better days. To compare it in point of importance with +any other great assemblage, would in general be idle. But at this time, +even the assemblage before me, collected as it was for indulgence, had a +character of remarkable interest. The times were anxious. The nation was +avowedly on the eve of a struggle of which no human foresight could +discover the termination. The presence of the king was the presence of the +monarchy; the presence of the assemblage was the presence of the nation. +The house was only a levee on a large scale, and the crowd, composed as it +was of the most distinguished individuals of the country--the ministers, +the peerage, the heads of legislature--and the whole completed by an +immense mass of the middle order, gave a strong and admirable +representation of the power and feelings of the empire. + +At length the sound of the trumpets was heard, the door of the royal box +was thrown open, and "God save the King" began. Noble as this noblest of +national songs is, it had, at that period, a higher meaning. It is +impossible to describe the spirit and ardour in which it was received; +nay, the almost sacred enthusiasm in which it was joined by all, and in +which every sentiment was followed with boundless acclamation. It was more +than an honourable and pleased welcome of a popular king. It was a +national pledge to the throne--a proud declaration of public principle--a +triumphant defiance of the enemy and the Earth to strike the stability of +a British throne, or subdue the hearts of a British people. + +The king advanced to the front of the box, and bowed in return to the +general plaudits. It was the first time that I had seen George the Third, +and I was struck at once with the stateliness of his figure and the +kindliness of his countenance. Combined, they perfectly realized all that +I had conceived of a monarch, to whose steadiness of determination, and +sincerity of good-will, the empire had been already indebted in periods of +faction and foreign hostility; and to whom it was to be indebted still +more in coming periods of still wilder faction, and of hostility which +brought the world in arms against his crown. + +As I glanced around for a moment, to see the effect on the house, which +was then thundering with applause, I observed a slight confusion, like a +personal quarrel, in the pit; and in the next instant saw a hand raised +above the crowd, and a pistol fired full in the direction of the royal +box. The King started back a pace or two, and the general apprehension +that he had been struck, produced a loud cry of horror. He evidently +understood the public feeling, and instantly came forward, and by a bow, +with his hand on his heart, at once assured them of his gratitude and his +safety. This was acknowledged by a shout of universal congratulation; and +many a bright eye, and many a manly one, too, streamed with tears. In the +midst of all, the Queen and the royal family rushed into the box, flung +themselves round the king, and all was embracing, fainting, and terror. +Cries for the seizure of the assassin now resounded on every side. He was +grasped by a hundred hands, and torn out of the house. Then the universal +voice demanded "God save the King" once more: the performers came forward +and the national chant, now almost elevated to a hymn, was sung by the +audience with a solemnity scarcely less than an act of devotion. All the +powers of the stage never furnished a more touching, perhaps a more +sublime scene, than the simple reality of the whole occurrence before my +eyes. + +But at length the tumult sank; the order of the theatre was resumed; and +the curtain rose, displaying a remarkably fine view of Roman architecture, +a vista of temples and palaces, the opening scene of Coriolanus. + +The fame of the admirable actor who played the leading character was then +at its height; and John Kemble shared with his splendid sister the honour +of being the twin leaders of the theatrical galaxy. I am not about to +dwell on Shakspeare's conception of the magnificent republican, nor on the +scarcely less magnificent representative which it found in the actor of +the night. But I speak to a generation which have never seen either +Siddons or Kemble, and will probably never see their equals. I may be +suffered, too, to indulge my own admiration of forms and faculties which +once gave me a higher sense of the beauty and the powers of which our +being is capable. Is this a dream? or, if so, is it not a dream that tends +to ennoble the spirit of man? The dimness and dulness of the passing world +require relief, and I look for it in the world of recollections. + +Kemble was, at that time, in the prime of his powers; his features +strongly resembling those of Siddons; and his form the perfection of manly +grace and heroic beauty. His voice was his failing part; for it was hollow +and interrupted; yet its tone was naturally sweet, and it could, at times, +swell to the highest storm of passion. In later days he seemed to take a +strange pride in feebleness, and, in his voice and his person, affected +old age. But when I saw him first, he was all force, one of the handsomest +of human beings, and, beyond all comparison, the most accomplished classic +actor that ever realized the form and feelings of the classic age. His +manners in private life completed his public charm; and, in seeing Kemble +on the stage, we saw the grace and refinement acquired by the +companionship of princes and nobles, the accomplished, the high-born, and +the high-bred of the land. + +From the mingled tenderness and loftiness of Kemble's playing, a new idea +of Coriolanus struck me. I had hitherto imagined him simply a bold +patrician, aristocratically contemptuous of the multitude, indignant at +public ingratitude, and taking a ruthless revenge. But the performance of +the great actor on this night opened another and a finer view to me. Till +now, I had seen the hero, a Roman, merely a gallant chieftain of the most +unromantic of all commonwealths, the land of inflexibility, remorseless +daring, and fierce devotement to public duty. But, by throwing the softer +feelings of the character into light, Kemble made him less a Roman than a +Greek--a loftier and purer Alcibiades, or a republican Alexander, or, most +and truest of all, a Roman Achilles--the same dazzling valour, the same +sudden affections, the same deep conviction of wrong, and the same +generous, but unyielding, sense of superiority. Say what we will of the +subordination of the actor to the author, the great actor shares his +laurels. He, too, is a creator. + +But while I followed, with eye and mind, the movements of the stage, +Lafontaine was otherwise employed. His opera-glass was roving the boxes; +and he continually poured into my most ungrateful ear remarks on the +diplomatic body, and recognitions of the _merveilleux_ glittering round +the circle. At last, growing petulant at being thus disturbed, I turned to +beg of him to be silent, when he simply said--"La Voilà!" and pointed to a +group which had just taken their seats in one of the private boxes. From +that moment I saw no more of the tragedy. The party consisted of Clotilde, +Madame la Maréchal, and a stern but stately-looking man, in a rich +uniform, who paid them the most marked attention. + +"There is the Marquis," said my companion; "he has never smiled probably, +since he was born, or, I suppose, he would smile to-night; for the +secretary to the embassy told me, not half an hour ago, that his +marriage-contract had just come over, with the king's signature." + +My heart sank within me at the sound. Still my gay informant went on, +without much concerning himself about feelings which I felt alternately +flushing and chilling me. "The match will be a capital one, if matters +hold out for us. For Montrecour is one of the largest proprietors in +France; but, as he is rather of the new noblesse, the blood of the De +Tourvilles will be of considerable service to his pedigree. His new +uniform shows me that he has got the colonelcy of my regiment, and, of +course, I must attend his levee tomorrow. Will you come?" + +My look was a sufficient answer. + +"Ah!" said he, "you will not. Ah! there is exactly the national +difference. Marriage opens the world to a French _belle_, as much as it +shuts the world to an English one. Mademoiselle is certainly very +handsome," said he, pausing, and fixing his opera-glass on her. "The +contour of her countenance is positively fine; it reminds me of a picture +of Clairon in Medea, in the King's private apartments--her smile charming, +her eyes brilliant, and her diamonds perfect." + +I listened, without daring to lift my eyes; he rambled on--"Fortunate +fellow, the Marquis--fortunate in every thing but that intolerable +physiognomy of his--Grand Ecuyer, Gold Key, Cross of Saint Louis, and on +the point of being the husband of the finest woman between Calais and +Constantinople. Of course, you intend to leave your card on the marriage?" + +"No," was my answer. I suppose that there was something in the sound which +struck him. He stared with palpable wonder. + +"What! are you not an old acquaintance? Have you not known her this month? +Have you not walked, and talked, and waltzed, with her?" + +"Never spoke a word to her in my life." + +"Well, then, you shall not be left in such a forlorn condition long. I +must pay my respects to my colonel. I dare say you may do the same to the +_fiancée_. Mademoiselle will be charmed to have some interruption to his +dreary attentions." + +I again refused, but the gay Frenchman was not to be repulsed. He made a +prodigious bow to the box, which was acknowledged by both the ladies. +"There," said he, "the affair is settled. You cannot possibly hesitate +now; that bow is a summons to their box. I can tell you also that you are +highly honoured; for, if it had been in Paris, you could not have got a +sight of the bride except under the surveillance of a pair of chaperons as +grey and watchful as cats, or a couple of provincial uncles as stiff as +their own forefathers armed cap-a-pie." + +I could resist no longer; but with sensations perhaps not unlike those of +one ascending the scaffold, I mounted the stairs. As the door opened, and +Lafontaine, tripping forward, announced my name, Clotilde's cheek suffused +with a burning blush, which in the next instant passed away, and left her +pale as marble. The few words of introduction over, she sank into total +silence; and though she made an effort, from time to time, to smile at +Lafontaine's frivolities, it was but a feeble one, and she sat, with +pallid lips and a hectic spot on her statue-like cheek, gazing on the +carpet. I attempted to take some share in the conversation; but all my +powers of speech were gone, my tongue refused to utter, and I remained the +most complete and unfortunate contrast to my lively friend, who was now +engaged in detailing the attempt on the royal life to Madame la Maréchal, +whose later arrival had prevented their witnessing it in person. My nearer +view of the Marquis did not improve the sketch which Lafontaine had given +of his commanding-officer. He was a tall, stiff, but soldierly-looking +person, with an expression, which, as we are disposed to approve or the +reverse, might be called strong sense or sullen temper. But he had some +reputation in the service as a bold, if not an able officer. He had saved +the French troops in America by his daring, from the effects of some +blunders committed by the giddiness of their commander-in-chief; and as +his loyalty was not merely known but violent, and his hatred of the new +faction in France not merely determined but furious, he was regarded as +one of the pillars of the royal cause. The Marquis was evidently in +ill-humour, whether with our introduction or with his bride; yet it was +too early for a matrimonial quarrel, and too late for a lover's one. +Clotilde was evidently unhappy, and after a few common-places we took our +leave; the Marquis himself condescending to start from his seat, and shut +the door upon our parting bow. The stage had now lost all interest for +me, and I prevailed on Lafontaine, much against his will, to leave the +house. The lobby was crowded, the rush was tremendous, and after +struggling our way, with some hazard of our limbs, we reached the door +only just in time to see Montrecour escorting the ladies to their +carriage. + +All was over for the night; and my companion, who now began to think that +he had tormented me too far, was drawing me slowly, and almost +unconsciously, through the multitude, when a flourish of trumpets and +drums announced that their Majesties were leaving the theatre. The life +guards rode up; and the rushing of the crowd, the crash of the carriages, +the prancing and restiveness of the startled horses, and the quarrelling +of the coachmen and the Bow Street officers, produced a scene of uproar. +My first thought was the hazard of Clotilde, and I hastened to the spot +where I had seen her last, but she was gone. + +"All's safe, you see," said Lafontaine, trying to compose his ruffled +costume; "your John Bulls are dangerous, in their loyalty, to coats and +carriages." I agreed with him, and we sprang into one of the wretched +vehicles that held its ground, with English tenacity, in the midst of a +war of coronets. But our adventures were not to close so simply. Our +driver had not remained in the rain for hours, without applying to the +national remedy against all inclemencies of weather. He had no sooner +mounted the box than I found that we were running a race with every +carriage which we approached, sometimes tilting against them, and +sometimes narrowly escaping from being overturned. At last we met with an +antagonist worthy of our prowess. All my efforts to stop our charioteer +had been useless, for he was evidently beyond any kind of appeal but that +of flinging him from his seat; and Lafontaine, with the genuine fondness +of a Gaul for excitement of all kinds, seemed wonderfully amused as we +swept along. But our new rival was evidently in the same condition with +our own Jehu, and after a smart horsewhipping of each other, they rushed +forward at full speed. A sudden scream from within the other carriage +showed the terror of its inmates, as it dashed along; an old woman in full +dress, however, was all that I could discover; for we were fairly +distanced in the race, though it was still kept up, with all the +perseverance of a fool thoroughly intoxicated. In a few minutes more we +heard a tremendous collision in front, and saw by the blaze of half a +hundred flambeaux brandished in all directions, our rival a complete +wreck, plunged into the midst of a crowd of equipages, waiting for their +lordly owners in front of Devonshire house. It had been one of the weekly +balls given by the Duchess, and the fallen vehicle had damaged panels +covered with heraldry as old as the Plantagenets. + +Arriving with almost equal rapidity, but with better fortune, I had but +just time to spring into the street, at the instant when the old lady, +writhing herself out of the window, which was now uppermost, was about to +trust her portly person to chance. I caught her as she clung to the +carriage with her many-braceleted arms, and was almost strangled by the +vigour of her involuntary embrace as she rolled down upon me. + +There was nothing in the world less romantic than my position in the midst +of a circle of sneering footmen; and, as if to put romance for ever out of +the question, I was relieved from my plumed and mantled encumbrance only +by the assistance of Townshend, then the prince of Bow Street officers; +who, knowing every thing and every body, informed me that the lady was a +person of prodigious rank, and that he should 'feel it his duty,' before +he parted with me, to ascertain whether her ladyship's purse had not +suffered defalcation by my volunteering. + +I was indignant, as might be supposed; and my indignation was not at all +decreased by the coming up of half a dozen Bow Street officers, every one +of whom either "believed," or "suspected," or "knew," me to be "an old +offender." But I was relieved from the laughter of the liveried mob round +me, and probably from figuring in the police histories of the morning, by +the extreme terrors of the lady for the fate of her daughter. The carriage +had by this time been raised up, but its other inmate was not to be found. +She now produced the purse, which had been so impudently the cause of +impeaching my honour; "and offered its contents to all who should bring +any tidings of her daughter, her lost child, her Clotilde!" The name +thrilled on my ear. I flew off to renew the search, followed by the +crowd--was unsuccessful, and returned, only to see my _protégé_ in strong +hysterics. My situation now became embarrassing; when a way was made +through the crowd by a highly-powdered personage, the chamberlain of the +mansion, who announced himself as sent by "her Grace," to say that the +Countess de Tourville was safe, having been taken into the house; and, +further, conveying "her Grace's compliments to Madame la Maréchal de +Tourville, to entreat that she would do her the honour to join her +daughter." This message, delivered with all the pomp of a "gentleman of +the bedchamber," produced its immediate effect upon the circle of cocked +hats and worsted epaulettes. They grew grave at once; and guided by +Townshend, who moved on, hat in hand, and bowing with the obsequiousness +of one escorting a prince of the blood, we reached the door of the +mansion. + +But here a new difficulty arose. The duchess was known to La Maréchal, for +to whom in misfortune was not that most generous and kind-hearted duchess +known? But _I_ was still a stranger. However, with my old Frenchwoman, +ceremony was not then the prevailing point. _I_ had been her "preserver," +as she was pleased to term me. _I_ had been "introduced," which was quite +sufficient for knowledge; above all other merits, "I spoke French like a +Parisian;" in short, it was wholly impossible for her to ascend the +crowded staircase, with her numberless dislocations, by the help of any +other arm on earth. The slightest hope of seeing Clotilde would have made +me confront all the etiquette of Spain; and I bore the contrast of my +undress costume with the feathered and silken multitude which filled the +stairs, in the spirit of a philosopher, until, by "many a step and slow," +we reached the private wing of the mansion. + +There, in an apartment fitted up with all the luxury of a boudoir, yet +looking melancholy from the dim lights and the silent attendants, lay +Clotilde on a sofa. But how changed from the being whom I had just seen at +the theatre! She had been in imminent danger, and was literally dragged +from under the horses' feet. A slight wound in her temple was still +bleeding, and her livid lips and half-closed eyes gave me the image of +death. As for Madame, she was in distraction; the volubility of her +sorrows made the well-trained domestics shrink, as from a display at which +they ought not to be present; and at length the only recipients of her +woes were myself and the physician, who, with ominous visage, and drops in +hand, was administering his aid to the passive patient. As Madame's +despair rendered her wholly useless, the doctor called on me to assist him +in raising her from the floor, on which she had flung herself like a +heroine in a tragedy. + +While I was engaged in this most reluctant performance, the accents of a +sweet voice, and the rustling of silk, made me raise my eyes, and a vision +floated across the apartment; it was the duchess herself, glittering in +gold and jewels, turbaned and embroidered, as a Semiramis or a queen of +Sheba; she was brilliant enough for either. She had just left the fancy +ball behind, and was come "to make her personal enquiries for the health +of her young friend." + +My office was rather startling, even to the habitual presence of mind of +the leader of fashion. I might have figured in her eyes, as the husband, +or the lover, or the doctor's apprentice; she almost uttered a scream. But +the sound, slight as it was, recalled the Maréchal to her senses. The +explanation was given with promptitude, and received with politeness. My +family, in all its branches, came into her Grace's quick recollection; and +I was thus indebted to my adventure, not only for an introduction to one +of the most elegant women of her time--to the goddess of fashion in her +temple, the Circe of high life, at the "witching hour," but of being most +"graciously" received; and even hearing a panegyric on my chivalry, from +the Maréchal, smilingly echoed by lips which seemed made only for smiles. + +A summons from the ball-room soon withdrew the captivating mistress of the +mansion, who retired with the step and glance of the very queen of +courtesy; and I was about to take my leave, when a ceremonial of still +higher interest awaited me. Clotilde, feebly rising from her sofa, and +sustaining herself on the neck of her kneeling mother, murmured her thanks +to me "for the preservation of her dear parent." The sound of her voice, +feeble as it was, fell on my ear like music. I advanced towards her. The +Maréchal stood with her handkerchief to her eyes, and venting her +sensibilities in sobs. The fairer object before me shed no tears, but, +with her eyes half-closed, and looking the marble model of paleness and +beauty, she held out her hand. She was, perhaps, unconscious of offering +more than a simple testimony of her gratitude for the services which her +mother had described with such needless eloquence. But in that delicious, +yet unaccountable feeling--that superstition of the heart, which makes +every thing eventful--even that simple pressure of her hand created a +long and living future in my mind. + +Yet let me do myself justice; whether wise or weak in the presence of the +only being who had ever mastered my mind, I was determined not "to point a +moral and adorn a tale." I had other duties and other purposes before me +than to degenerate into a slave of sighs. I was to be no Romeo, bathing my +soul in the luxuries of Italian palace-chambers, moonlight speeches, and +the song of nightingales. I felt that I was an Englishman, and had the +rugged steep of fortune to climb, and climb alone. The time, too, in which +I was to begin my struggle for distinction, aroused me to shake off the +spirit of dreams which threatened to steal over my nature. The spot in +which I lived was the metropolis of mankind. I was in the centre of the +machinery which moved the living world. The wheels of the globe were +rushing, rolling, and resounding in my ears. Every interest, necessity, +stimulant, and passion of mankind, came in an incessant current to London, +as to the universal heart, and flowed back, refreshed and invigorated, to +the extremities of civilization. I saw the hourly operations of that +mighty furnace in which the fortunes of all nations were mingled, and +poured forth remolded. And London itself was never more alive. Every +journal which I took up was filled with the signs of this extraordinary +energy; the projects and meetings, the harangues and political +experiments, of bold men, some rising from the mire into notoriety, if not +into fame; some plunging from the highest rank of public life into the +mire, in the hope of rising, if with darkened, yet a freshened wing. The +debates in parliament, never more vivid than at this crisis, with the two +great parties in full force, and throwing out flashes in every movement, +like the collision of two vast thunder clouds, were a perpetual summons to +action in every breast which felt itself above the dust it trod. But the +French journals were the true excitements to political ardour. They were +more than lamps, guiding mankind along the dusky paths of public +regeneration--they were torches, dazzling the multitude who attempted to +profit by their light; and, while they threw a glare round the head of the +march, blinding all who followed. To one born, like myself, in the most +aristocratic system of society on earth, yet excluded from its advantages +by the mere chance of birth, it was new, and undoubtedly not displeasing, +to see the pride of nobility tamed by the new rush of talent and ambition +which had started up from obscurity in France; village attorneys and +physicians, clerks in offices, journalists, men from the plough and the +pen, supplying the places of the noblesse of Clovis and Capet, possessing +themselves of the highest power while their predecessors were flying +through Europe; conducting negotiations, commanding armies, ruling +assemblies, holding the helm of government in the storm which had +scattered the great names of France upon the waters. I anticipated all the +triumph of the "younger sons." + +Even the brief interval of my Brighton visit had curiously changed the +aspect of the metropolis. The emigration was in full force, and every spot +was crowded with foreign visages. Sallow cheeks and starting eyes, +scowling brows and fierce mustaches, were the order of the day; the monks +and the military had run off together. The English language was almost +overwhelmed by the perpetual jargon of all the loud-tongued +provincialities of France. But the most singular portion was the +ecclesiastical. The streets and parks were filled with the unlucky sheep +of the Gallican church, scattered before the teeth and howl of the +republican wolf; and England saw, for the first time, the secrets of the +monastery poured out before the light of day. The appearance of some among +this sable multitude, though venerable and dignified, could not prevent +the infinite grotesque of the others from having its effect on the +spectator. The monks and priesthood of France amounted to little less than +a hundred and fifty thousand. All were now thrown up from the darkness of +centuries before a wondering world. I had Milton's vision of Limbo before +my eyes. + + "Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars, + A violent cross wind from either coast + Blew them transverse. Then might ye see + Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost, + And flutter'd into rags; their reliques, beads, + Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls, + The sport of winds." + +The mire was fully stirred up in which the hierarchy had enjoyed its sleep +and sunshine for a thousand years. The weeds and worms had been fairly +scraped off, which for a thousand years had grown upon the keel of the +national vessel, and of which the true wonder was, that the vessel had +been able to make sail with them clinging to her so long. In fact, I was +thus present at one of the most remarkable phenomena of the whole +Revolution. The flight of a noblesse was nothing to this change. The +glittering peerage of France, created by a court, and living in perpetual +connexion with the court, as naturally followed its fate as a lapdog +follows the fortunes of its mistress; but here was a digging up of the +moles, an extermination of the bats, a general extrusion of the subversive +principle, to a race of existence which, whether above or below ground, +seemed almost to form a part of the soil. Monkery was broken up, like a +ship dashed against the shores of the bay of Biscay. The ship was not only +wrecked, but all its fragments continued to be tossed on the ceaseless +surge. The Gallican church was flung loose over Europe, at a time when all +Europe itself was in commotion. I own, to the discredit of my political +foresight, that I thought its forms and follies extinguished for ever. The +snake was more tenacious of life than I had dreamed. But if I erred, I did +not err alone. + +Mordecai, whom I found immersed deeper and deeper in continental politics, +and who scarcely denied his being the accredited agent of the emigrant +princes, gave his opinion of this strange portion of French society with +much more promptitude than he probably would of the probable fall or rise +of stocks. + +"Of all the gamblers at the great gambling-table of France," said he, "the +clergy have played their game the worst. By leaving their defence to the +throne, they have only dragged down the throne. By relying on the good +sense of the National Assembly, they have left themselves without a +syllable to say. Like men pleading by counsel, they have been at the mercy +of their counsel, and been ruined at once by their weakness and their +treachery." + +On my observing to him that the church of France was necessarily feebler +than either the throne or the nobles, and that, therefore, its natural +course was to depend on both-- + +"Rely upon it," said the keen Jew "that any one great institution of the +state which suffers itself, in the day of danger, to depend on any other +for existence, will be ruined. When all are pressed, each will be glad to +get rid of the pressure, by sacrificing the most dependent. The church +should have stood on its own defence. The Gallican hierarchy was, beyond +all question, the most powerful in Europe. Rome and her cardinals were +tinsel and toys to the solid strength of the great provincial clergy of +France. They had numbers, wealth, and station. Those things could give +influence among a population of Hottentots. Let other hierarchies take +example. They threw them all away, at the first move of a bloody +handkerchief on the top of a Parisian pike. They had vast power with the +throne; but what had once been energy they turned into encumbrance, and if +the throne is pulled down, it will be by their weight. They had a third of +the land in actual possession, and they allowed themselves to be stripped +of it by a midnight vote of a drunken assembly. If they were caricatured +in Paris, they had three-fourths of the population as fast bound to them +as bigotry and their daily bread could bind. Three months ago, they might +have marched to Paris with their crucifixes in front, and three millions +of stout peasantry in their rear, have captured the capital, and fricaseed +the foolish legislature. And now, they have archbishops learning to live +on a shilling a-day." + +From the Horse guards I had yet obtained nothing, but promises of "being +remembered on the first vacancy;" Clotilde was still a sufferer, and my +time, like that of every man without an object, began to be a deplorable +encumbrance. In short, my vision of high life and its happiness was fairly +vanishing hour by hour. I occasionally met Lafontaine; but, congenial as +our tempers might be, our natures had all the national difference, and I +sometimes envied, and as often disdained, his buoyancy. Even he, too, had +his fluctuations; and a letter from Mariamne, a little more or less +petulant, raised and sank him like the spirits in a thermometer. + +But one day he rushed into my apartment with a look of that despair which +only foreigners can assume, and which actually gave me the idea that he +was about to commit suicide. Flinging himself into a chair, and plunging +his hand deep into his bosom, from which I almost expected to see him draw +the fatal weapon, he extracted a paper, and held it forth to me. "Read!" +he exclaimed, with the most pathetic tones of Talma in tragedy--"read my +ruin!" I read, and found that it was a letter from his domineering little +Jewess, commanding him to throw up his commission on the spot, and +especially not to go to France, on penalty of her eternal displeasure. My +looks asked an explanation. "There!" cried the hero of the romance, +"there!--see the caprice, the cruelty, the intolerable tyranny of that most +uncertain, intractable, and imperious of all human beings!" I had neither +consolation nor contradiction to offer. + +He then let me into his own secret, with an occasional episode of the +secrets of others--the substance of the whole being, that a counter +revolution was preparing in France; that, after conducting the +correspondence in London for some time, he had been ordered to carry a +despatch, of the highest importance, to the secret agency in Paris; and +that the question was now between love and honour--Mariamne having, by +some unlucky hint dropped from her father, received intimation of the +design, and putting her _veto_ on his bearing any part in it in the most +peremptory manner. What was to be done? The unfortunate youth was fairly +on the horns of the dilemma, and he obviously saw no ray of extrication +but the usual Parisian expedient of the pistol. + +While he alternately raved and wept, the thought struck me--"Why might I +not go in his place?" I was growing weary of the world, however little I +knew of it. I had no Mariamne either to prohibit or to weep for me. The +only being for whom I wished to live was lost to me already. I offered +myself as the carrier of the despatch without delay. + +I never saw ecstasy so visible in a human being; his eloquence exhausted +the whole vocabulary of national rapture. "I was his friend, his brother, +his preserver. I was the best, the ablest, the noblest of men." But when I +attempted to escape from this overflow of gratitude, by observing on the +very simple nature of the service, his recollection returned, and he +generously endeavoured, with equal zeal, to dissuade me from an enterprise +of which the perils were certainly neither few nor trifling. He was now in +despair at my obstinacy. The emigration of the French princes had not +merely weakened their cause in France, but had sharpened the malice of +their enemies. Their agents had been arrested in all quarters, and any man +who ventured to carry on a correspondence with them, was now alike in +danger of assassination and of the law. After debating the matter long, +without producing conviction on either side, it was at length agreed to +refer the question to Mordecai, whom Lafontaine now formally acknowledged +to be master of the secret on both sides of the Channel. + + + * * * * * + + + + +A VISION OF THE WORLD. + +BY DELTA. + + + A blossom on a laurel tree--a cloudlet on the sky + Borne by the breeze--a panorama shifting on the eye; + A zig-zag lightning-flash amid the elemental strife-- + Yea! each and all are emblems of man's transitory life! + Brightness dawns on us at our birth--the dear small world of home, + A tiny paradise from which our wishes never roam, + Till boyhood's widening circle brings its myriad hopes and fears, + The guileless faith that never doubts--the friendship that endears. + + Each house and tree--each form and face, upon the ready mind + Their impress leave; and, in old age, that impress fresh we find, + Even though long intermediate years, by joy and sorrow sway'd, + Should there no mirror find, and in oblivion have decay'd. + How fearful first the shock of death! to think that even one + Whose step we knew, whose voice we heard, should see no more the sun; + That though a thousand years were ours, that form should never more + Revisit, with its welcome smiles, earth's once-deserted shore! + + Look round the dwellings of the street--and tell, where now are they + Whose tongues made glad each separate hearth, in childhood's early day; + Now strangers, or another generation, there abide, + And the churchyard owns their lowly graves, green-mouldering side by side! + Spring! Summer! Autumn! Winter! then how vividly each came! + The moonlight pure, the starlight soft, and the noontide sheath'd in flame; + The dewy morning with her birds, and evening's gorgeous dyes, + As if the mantles of the blest were floating through the skies. + + I laid me down, but not in sleep--and Memory flew away + To mingle with the sounds and scenes the world had shown by day; + Now listening to the lark, she stray'd across the flowery hill, + Where trickles down from bowering groves the brook that turns the mill; + And now she roam'd the city lanes, where human tongues are loud, + And mix the lofty and the low amid the motley crowd, + Where subtle-eyed philosophy oft heaves a sigh, to scan + The aspiring grasp, and paltry insignificance of man! + + 'Mid floods of light in festal halls, with jewels rare bedight, + To music's soft and syren sounds, paced damosel with knight; + It seem'd as if the fiend of grief from earthly bounds was driven, + For there were smiles on every cheek that spake of nought but heaven; + But, from that gilded scene, I traced the revellers one by one, + With sad and sunken features each, unto their chambers lone; + And of that gay and smiling crowd whose bosoms leapt to joy, + How many might there be, I ween'd, whom care did not annoy? + + Some folded up their wearied eyes to dark unhallow'd dreams-- + The soldier to his scenes of blood, the merchant to his schemes: + Pride, jealousy, and slighted love, robb'd woman of her rest; + Revenge, deceit, and selfishness, sway'd man's unquiet breast. + Some, turning to the days of youth, sigh'd o'er the sinless time + Ere passion led the heart astray to folly, care, and crime; + And of that dizzy multitude, from found or fancied woes, + Was scarcely one whose slumbers fell like dew upon the rose! + + Then turn'd I to the lowly hearth, where scarcely labour brought + The simplest and the coarsest meal that craving nature sought; + Above, outspread a slender roof, to shield them from the rain, + And their carpet was the verdure with which nature clothes the plain; + Yet there the grateful housewife sat, her infant on her knee, + Its small palms clasp'd within her own, as if likewise pray'd he; + For ere their fingers brake the bread, from toil incessant riven, + Son, sire, and matron bow'd their heads, and pour'd their thanks to Heaven. + + What, then, I thought, is human life, if all that thus we see + Of pageantry and of parade devoid of pleasure be! + If only in the conscious heart true happiness abide, + How oft, alas! has wretchedness but grandeur's cloak to hide? + And when upon the outward cheek a transient smile appears, + We little reck how lately hath its bloom been damp'd by tears, + And how the voice, whose thrillings from a light heart seem'd to rise, + Throughout each sleepless watch of night gave utterance but to sighs. + + This was the moral, calm and deep, which to my musing thought, + From all the varying views of man and life, reflection brought-- + That most things are not what they seem, and that the outward shows + Of grade and rank are only masks that hide our joys and woes; + That with the soul, the soul alone, resides the awful power, + To light with sunshine or o'ergloom the solitary hour; + And that the human heart is but a riddle to be read, + When all the darkness round it now in other worlds hath fled. + + Why, then, should sorrow cloud the brow, should misery crush the heart, + Since all life's varied changes "come like shadows, so depart?" + There is one sun, there is one shower, to evil and to just, + And health, and strength, and length of days, and to all the common dust: + But as the snake throws off its skin, the soul throws off its clay, + And soars, till purpled are its wings with everlasting day; + God, having winnow'd with his flail the chaff from out the wheat, + When those, who seem'd alike when here, approach'd his judgment-seat. + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BANKRUPTCY OF THE GREEK KINGDOM. + + + Come let us drink their memory, + Those glorious Greeks of old-- + On shore and sea the Famed, the Free, + The Beautiful--the Bold! + The mind or mirth that lights each page, + Or bowl by which we sit + Is sunfire pilfer'd from their age-- + Gems splinter'd from their wit. + Then, drink and swear by Greece, that there + Though Rhenish Huns may hive + In Britain we the liberty + She loved will keep alive. + + _Philhellenic Drinking Song._ By B. Simmons. + +In our July No. CCCXXXIII. + + +Sir Robert Peel, Monsieur Guizot, and Count Nesselrode, Great Britain, +France, and All the Russias, have announced to the world that the kingdom +of Greece is bankrupt. The _Morning Chronicle_, at a time when it was +regarded as a semi-official authority on foreign affairs, declared and +certified that the king of Greece was an idiot. Verily! the battle of +Navarino has proved a most "untoward event." + +In these degenerate days, a revolution is by no means so serious a matter +as a bankruptcy, and kings require rather more than the ordinary +proportion of wit to keep their feet steady in their slippery elevation. +Greece is therefore clearly in a most lamentable condition, and the +British public who adopted her, and fed her for a while on every luxury, +now cares very little about her misfortunes. Sir Francis Burdett, Sir John +Hobhouse, and the Right Honourable Edward Ellice, who once acted as her +trustees, and Joseph Hume--the immaculate and invulnerable Joseph himself, +who once stood forward as her champion--have forgotten her existence. + +There can be no permanent sympathy where truth is wanting, but the public +does not attend to the correct translation of _Graecia mendax_; it ought +to convey the fact, that foreigners tell more lies about Greece than the +natives themselves. Old Juvenal calls the Greeks a mendacious set of +fabulists, for recording that Xerxes made a canal through the isthmus to +the north of Mount Athos. Colonel Leake declares that the traces of the +canal are visible to all men at this day, who ride across that desert +plain. The moral we wish to inculcate is, that modern politicians should +learn, from the error of the old Roman satirist, to look before they leap. +We shall now endeavour to supply our readers with an impartial account of +the present condition of the Greeks, without meddling with politics or +political speculation. Our opinion is, that the country ought not to be +put in the _Gazette_,--nor ought the king to be sent to the hospital. +Greece is not quite bankrupt, and King Otho is not quite an idiot. Funds +are scarce every where with borrowers in this unlucky year 1843, and wit +scarcer still with most men. + +Our readers are aware, that Great Britain, France, and Russia, having +constituted themselves into an alliance for protecting Greece, concocted +together a long series of protocols, and selected Prince Otho of Bavaria +to be King of Greece.[A] The prince was then a promising youth of +seventeen years of age, destined by his royal father to be a priest, +and--his holiness the Pope willing--in due time a cardinal. At the time +of King Otho's election, a national assembly was sitting in Greece, and a +military revolution was raging in the country, in consequence of the +assassination of Capo d'Istria. The recognition of King Otho was obtained +from this national assembly by the ministers of the three protecting +powers, amidst scenes of promising, threatening, and stabbing, which will +long form a deep stain on the Greek revolution, and on European +diplomacy. Mr Parish, who was subsequently secretary of the British +Legation in Greece, has described the drama, and the share which the +ministers of the allied powers took in arranging its acts. + +[Footnote A: Three large volumes of papers relative to the affairs of +Greece have been laid before Parliament in 1830, 1832, 1833, and 1836.] + +It was well known that King Otho and his regency could not arrive for +several months; and it appeared to be the duty of the protecting powers, +who had selected a sovereign for Greece, to maintain tranquillity in the +country until the arrival of the new government. The representatives of +the allied powers shrank from this responsibility. The national assembly +seemed determined to vote two addresses--one congratulating King Otho on +his selection to the throne, assuring him of the submission of the nation, +but stating to him the laws and usages of Greece, and informing him that +his new dignity imposed on him the duty of rendering justice to all men +according to the laws and institutions of Greece. This address might have +failed to interest the foreign ministers, but it became known that another +was to follow--thanking the protecting powers for the selection they had +made of a monarch, but calling upon them to maintain order in the country +until the arrival of the young king, or of a legally appointed regency. + +The representatives of the European powers knew that Greece was in a state +of anarchy, and that the irregular troops scattered over the country, were +destroying the resources of the new monarchy; yet to escape the +responsibility of advising their courts to act, they thought fit to +persuade a few of the political leaders of different parties to unite in +silencing the observations of the representatives of the Greek nation, and +looked on while a military insurrection compelled the assembly to adopt a +decree in the following words-- + + "The representatives of the Greek + nation recognise and confirm the selection + of H.R.H. Prince Otho of Bavaria as + King of Greece. + + "The present decree shall be inserted + in the acts of the assembly, and published + by the press." + +The military rabble outside then rushed in and dispersed the +representatives of the Greek nation. No rhetorical Greek ever prepared +this precious decree. It tells its own tale; it is too diplomatically +laconic. It served its purpose in Europe: it looked so well suited to act +as an annex to a protocol. Here, however, we have the source of half the +evils of the Greek monarchy. King Otho's reign commenced with a violation +of law, order, and common sense; and as this violation of every principle +of justice had been openly countenanced by the political agents of the +protecting powers, King Otho was misled into a belief that Great Britain, +France, and Russia, wished to deliver Greece, bound hand and foot, and +despoiled of every right, into his hands. + +Various reasons, at the time, induced the Greeks to submit to these +proceedings without a murmur, and even to turn away from those who +endeavoured to raise a warning voice. The truth is, no sacrifice was too +great, which held out a hope of putting an end to the existing anarchy. +About thirteen thousand irregular troops were occupying the richest part +of Greece, and destroying or consuming every thing that had escaped the +Turks. The cattle and sheep of the peasantry were seized, the olive trees +cut down for fuel; and while the people were dying of hunger, literally +perishing for want of food, these banditti were feasting in abundance. The +political Greeks, the jackals of diplomacy, cajolled the people and the +soldiers, by declaring that the allied powers had furnished the king with +money to pay the troops, and to indemnify every man for the losses +sustained during the revolution. + +King Otho and his regency did at last arrive, and they brought with them +an army of Bavarians. The king was received with a degree of enthusiasm, +and with proofs of devotion which would have touched any hearts not +protected by an impenetrable padding of beer and sour crout. But it was, +unfortunately for the young king, the fashion at the new court to despise +and distrust the Greeks, to underrate their exploits, and to declaim +against their honesty. The revolution was treated as a war of words, the +defence of Missolonghi as a trifle, and the naval warfare as a farce. The +Greeks have since, on the mountains of Maina, and on the plain of +Phthiotis, shown themselves so far superior to the Bavarians when engaged +in the field, that we shall say nothing on that subject. Their honesty has +been generally considered more questionable than their courage; for though +the names of Miaulis, Kanaris, Marco Botzaris, Niketas, Kolocotroni and +Karaiskaki are known to all Europe, the only spotless statesman, in the +opinion of the Greeks themselves, is the unknown Kanakaris. The arrival of +the king, however, afforded singular proof of the strong feeling of +patriotism and honesty which prevailed among the people. + +The Bavarians arrived in Greece early in 1833, and the revenues for that +year were estimated, by competent persons, at four millions of drachmas; +but it was thought that the regency would not succeed in collecting more +than three millions, as their recent arrival prevented their enforcing a +strict system of control. It was necessary, therefore, to trust much to +the honesty of the people, usually a poor guarantee for large payments +into the exchequer of any country. But the Greeks felt that their national +independence was connected with the stability of the new government, and +they acted with true nobility of feeling on the occasion. The revenues +received by the king's government in 1833, amounted to upwards of seven +millions of drachmas, although two months elapsed before some of the +provinces were relieved from the burden of maintaining the irregular +soldiery at free quarters. We believe that there never was a government in +the world which received the amount of the taxes imposed on the people +with such perfect good faith, as the Greek government in 1833. The +expenditure of the government for that year, amounted to something more +than thirteen millions and a half, and if Greece had been governed with +the honesty shown by the Greek people, the expenditure of future years +would never have exceeded that sum. + +[We subjoin a statement of the revenues and expenditure of Greece, for +those in which the Greek government have condescended to publish their +accounts. + + REVENUE. EXPENDITURE. + Drachmas. Drachmas. +1833, . . . . 7,042,653 1833, . . . . 13,630,467 +1834, . . . . 9,455,410 1834, . . . . 20,150,657 +1835, . . . . 10,737,011 1835, . . . . 16,851,070 +1836, . . . . 12,381,000 1836, . . . . 16,447,126 +1837, . . . . 13,313,393 1837, . . . . 16,190,527 + +After the king took the entire direction of public business into his own +hands, he gave up publishing any accounts, and accordingly none have +appeared in the Greek Gazette for the years 1838, 1839, 1840, and 1841. +Financial difficulties pressing hard in 1842, his Majesty resumed the +practice to a certain degree, by publishing a budget:-- + + REVENUE. EXPENDITURE. + Drachmas. Drachmas. +1842, estimated at 17,834,000 1842, . . . . 19,395,022 +1843, . . . . 14,407,795 1843, . . . . 18,666,482 + +We may remark, that not the smallest reliance can be placed on these +budgets for the years 1842 and 1843. We are informed that 1,000,000 +drachmas of the revenue of 1842 were still unpaid in the month of May +1843.] + + +We shall now endeavour to explain why the king's government has proved so +inefficient in improving the country, and afterwards examine the various +causes of its extreme unpopularity. To do this, it is necessary to state +what the government has really done; and also, what it was expected to do. +We shall try as we go along, to explain the part the protecting powers +have acted in thwarting the progress of improvement, and in encouraging +the court in its lavish expenditure and anti-national policy. It must, +indeed, constantly be borne in mind by the reader, that the three +protecting powers in their collective capacity have all along supported +the government of King Otho--and that even when the _Morning Chronicle_ +called King Otho an idiot, and Lord Palmerston quarrelled with him and +scolded him, still England joined the other powers in continuing to supply +him with money to continue his immense palace, and pay his Bavarian +aides-de-camp. We may add, too, that if it had been otherwise, had either +Great Britain, France, or Russia, deliberately abandoned the alliance, +King Otho would immediately have ceased to be King of Greece, unless +supported on his throne by the direct interference of the other two. Had +the Greeks not looked upon him as the pledge that the protecting powers +would maintain order in the country, they would have sent him back to his +royal father, as ornamental at Munich, where an additional king would +make the town look gayer, but as utterly useless in Greece. Though, +England, France, and Russia, have therefore each in their turn acted in +opposition to King Otho, still they have always as a body supported his +doings, right or wrong. + +Let us now see what the government of King Otho has done for Greece. From +1833 until 1837, Greece was governed by Bavarian ministers, and +accordingly the king was not considered directly responsible for the +conduct of the administration. These ministers were Mr Maurer, who, during +1833 and part of 1834, directed the government. He was supported with +great eagerness by France, and opposed with more energy by England. The +liberal and anti-Russian tendency of his measures, alarmed Russia, but +she showed her opposition with considerable moderation. Count Armansperg +succeeded Mr Maurer, and he ruled Greece with almost absolute power for +two years. He was supported by Lord Palmerston with the energy of the most +determined partizanship. The institutions of Greece, liberal policy, and +sound principles of commercial legislation, were all forgotten, because +Count Armansperg was anti-Russian. The opposition of France and Russia was +strongly announced, but restrained within reasonable bounds. Mr Rudhart +succeeded Count Armansperg. He, poor man! was assailed by England with all +the artillery of Palmerston; and as neither France nor Russia would +undertake to support so unfit a person, he was driven from his post. + +The Greek government enjoyed every possible advantage during the +administration of these Bavarians. A loan of £.2,400,000, contracted under +the guarantee of the three protecting powers, kept the treasury full; so +that no plan for the improvement of Greece, or for enriching the +Bavarians, was arrested for want of funds. We shall now pass in review +what was done. + +1. A good monetary system was established. The allies, it is true, +supplied the metal, but the Bavarians deserve the merit of transferring as +much of it as they could into their own pockets, in a very respectable +coinage. + +2. The irregular troops were disbanded, and many of them driven over the +frontier into Turkey. The thing was very clumsily done; but, thank Heaven! +it was done, and Greece was delivered from this horde of banditti. + +3. Every Bavarian officer or cadet was promoted, and every Greek officer +was reduced to a lower rank. We cannot venture to describe the rage of the +Greeks, nor the presumption of the Bavarians. + +4. An order of knighthood was created, of which the decorations were +distributed in the following manner: One hundred and twenty-five grand +crosses, and crosses of grand commanders, were divided as follows: The +protecting powers received ninety-one, that is thirty a-piece if they +agreed to divide fairly. The odd one was really given to Baron Rothschild, +as contractor of the loan. The Bavarians took twenty-three. The Greeks +received ten for services during the war of the revolution, and during the +national assembly which accepted King Otho, and one was bestowed among the +foreigners who had served Greece during the war with Turkey. Six hundred +and fourteen crosses of inferior rank were distributed, and of these the +Greeks received only one hundred and forty-five; so that really the +protecting powers and the Bavarians reserved for themselves rather more +than a fair proportion of this portion of the loan, especially if they +expected the Greeks not to become bankrupt. + +5. All the Greek civil servants of King Otho were put into light blue +uniforms, covered with silver lace, at one hundred pounds sterling a-head. +And, O Gemini! such uniforms! Those who have seen the ambassador of his +Hellenic majesty at the court of St James's, at a levee or a drawing-room, +will not soon forget the merits of his tailor. + +6. Ambassadors were sent to Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Munich, Madrid, +Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople, and Consuls-general to all the ends of +the earth. + +7. A council of state was formed. + +8. The civil government was organized, and royal governors appointed in +all the provinces, who maintain a direct correspondence with the minister +of the interior. + +9. A very respectable judicial administration was formed, and codes of +civil and criminal procedure published. + +10. The Greek Church was organized on a footing which rendered it +independent of the patriarch at Constantinople without causing a schism. +This is unquestionably the ablest act of Mr Maurer's administration, and +it drew on him the whole hatred of Russia. + +11. The communal and municipal system of Greece, the seat of the vitality +of the Greek nation, was adopted as the foundation of the social edifice +in the monarchy. It is true some injudicious Bavarian modifications were +made; but time will soon consign to oblivion these delusions of Teutonic +intellect. + +12. The liberty of the press was admitted to be an inherent right of Greek +citizens. + +The five last-mentioned measures are entirely due to the liberal spirit +and sound legal knowledge of Mr Maurer, who, if he had been restrained +from meddling with diplomacy, and quarreling with the English and Russian +ministers at Nauplia, would have been universally regarded as a most +useful minister. But all the practical good Greece has derived from the +Bavarians, is confined to a few of his acts. + +The accession of Count Armansperg to power, opened a new scene. A certain +number of Greeks were then admitted to high and lucrative employments, on +condition that they would support the Bavarian system, and declare that +their country was not yet fit for the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. +The partizans of Mr Maurer were dismissed and sent back to Bavaria: a few +good bribes were given to newspaper editors and noisy democrats; but the +Bavarians were kept in the possession of the richest part of the spoil. +Accordingly, the cry of the Greeks against Bavarian influence and Bavarian +rapacity never ceased. Rudhart's government was a continuation of that of +Armansperg, only with the difference that he leaned on a different foreign +power for support. Neither Armansperg nor Rudhart conferred any benefit on +Greece. They formed a phalanx or corps of veterans; but as they laid down +no invariable rules for admission, but kept the door open as a means of +creating a party among the military, this institution has become a scene +of jobbing and abuse. + +A law conferring a portion of land on every Greek family was passed; but +as it was intended to serve political purposes, it was never put into +general execution. A number of sales of national lands has been made under +it, in direct violation of every principle of law and justice; and as +detached pieces of the richest plains in Greece have been alienated in +this way, the resources of the country will be found to have been very +seriously diminished by this singular species of wholesale corruption. + +Rudhart was compelled from his weakness to make one or two steps in the +national path. He assembled the council of state, and called the +provincial councils and the university into activity. + +We have now arrived at the period when King Otho assumed the reins of +government. From the year 1838 to the present day, he has been his own +irresponsible prime minister; for the apparent ministers Zographos, +Païkos, Maurocordatos and Rizos, have never enjoyed his unlimited +confidence, nor have they been viewed with much favour by the people. +Indeed, with the exception of Maurocordatos, they are men of inferior +ability, and of no character or standing in the country. Any one who will +take the trouble to read those portions of their diplomatic correspondence +with the ministers of the allied powers at Athens, which have been +published, will be convinced of their utter unfitness for the offices they +have held. Let the reader contrast these precious specimens of inaccuracy +and rigmarole, with the come-to-the-truth style of our own minister, or +the sarcastic, let-us-go-quietly-over-your-reasoning style, in which the +Russian minister answers them. + +In order that our readers may form some idea of the manner in which King +Otho has carried on the government for five years, we shall describe the +political machine he has framed--name it we cannot; for it resembles +nothing the world has yet seen amidst all the multifarious combinations of +cabinet-making, which kings, sultans, krals, emperors, czars, or khans, +have yet presented to the envious contemplation of aspiring statesmen. The +king of Greece, it must be observed, is a monarch whose ministers are held +by a fiction of law to be responsible; and the editor of an Athenian +newspaper has been fined and imprisoned for declaring that this fiction is +not a fact. These ministers are not permitted by King Otho to assemble +together in council, unless he himself be present. The assembly would be +too democratic for Otho's nerves. In short, the king has a ministry, but +his ministers do not form a cabinet; his cabinet is a separate concern. +Each minister waits on his majesty with his portfolio under his arm, and +receives the royal commands. To simplify business, however, and make the +ministers fully sensible of their real insignificancy, King Otho +frequently orders the clerks in the public offices to come to his royal +presence, with the papers on which they have been engaged; and by this +means he shows the ministers, that though they are necessary in +consequence of the fiction of law, they may be rendered very secondary +personages in their own departments. If it were not a useless waste of +time, we could lay before our readers instances of this singularly easy +mode of doing business--instances too, which have been officially +communicated to the allied powers. His majesty carried his love of +performing ministerial duties so far, that for more than a year he +dispensed entirely with a minister of finance, and divided the functions +of that office among three of the clerks: no bad preparation for a +national bankruptcy, we must allow--yet the protecting powers viewed this +political vagary of his majesty with perfect indifference. + +The most singular feature of King Otho's government is his cabinet, or, as +the Greek newspapers call it, "the Camarilla." This cabinet has no +official constitution; yet its members put their titles on the visiting +cards which they leave, as advertisements of the existence of this +irresponsible body, at the houses of the foreign ministers. It consists, +or until the late financial difficulties deranged all the royal plans, it +consisted, of four Bavarians and two Greeks. Its duty is to prepare +projects of laws to be adopted by the different ministers, and to assist +the king in selecting individuals appointed to public offices. This is the +feature which excites the greatest indignation at Athens; the minister of +war does not dare to promote a corporal; the minister of public +instruction would tremble to send a village schoolmaster to a country +_demos_, even at the expense of the citizens; and the minister of finance +would not risk the responsibility of conferring the office of porter of +the customhouse at Parras, before receiving the royal instructions how to +act on such emergencies, and ascertaining what creature of the camarilla +it was necessary to provide for. + +We have already mentioned the council of state; it consists of about +twenty individuals chosen by his majesty, a motley congregation--some +cannot read--others cannot write--some came to Greece after the revolution +was over--some, long after the king himself. This council is, by one of +the fictions of law so common in the Hellenic kingdom, supposed to form a +legislative council, and it is implied that it ought to be considered as +tantamount to a representative assembly. Some of its members are most +brave and respectable men, who have rendered Greece good service; but +since they were decked out in silver uniforms, and received large salaries +to form a portion of the court pageant, they have lost much of their +influence in the country, either for good or evil. The king looks upon +these patriotic members as an insignificant minority, or an ignorant +majority, as the case may be, and he has more than once set aside the +opposition of this council, by publishing laws rejected by a majority of +its members. To speak a plain truth in rude phrase--the council of state +is a farce. + +King Otho, with his Greek ministers, his Bavarian cabinet, and his motley +council of state, is therefore, to all appearance, a more absolute +sovereign than his neighbour, Abdul Meschid. But we must now leave the +royal authority, and turn our attention to an important chapter in the +Greek question; one which nevertheless has not hitherto met with proper +study either from the king, his allies, or the public in Western +Europe--we mean the institutions of the Greek people. + +The inhabitants of Greece consist of two classes, who, from having been +placed for many ages in totally different circumstances, are extremely +different in manners and in civilization. These are the population of the +towns or the commercial class, and the inhabitants of the country or the +agricultural class. The traders have usually been considered by strangers +as affording the true type of the Greek character; but a very little +reflection ought to have convinced any one, that the insecurity of the +Turkish government, and the constant change in the channels of trade in +the East, had given this class of the population a most Hebraical +indifference to "the dear name of country." To the Fanariote and the +Sciote, Wallachia or Trieste were delightful homes, if dollars were +plentiful. But the agricultural population of Greece was composed of very +different materials. We are inclined to consider them as the most +obstinately patriotic race on which the sun shines; their patriotism is a +passion and an instinct, and, from being restricted to their village or +their district, often looks quite as like a vice as a virtue. This class +is altogether so unlike any portion of the population of Western Europe, +that we should be more likely to mislead than to enlighten our readers by +attempting to describe it. The peasants are themselves inclined to +distrust the population of the towns, and look on Bavarians, Fanariotes, +and government officers, as a tribe of enemies embodying different degrees +of rapacity under various names. They have as yet derived little benefit +from the government of King Otho, for their taxes are greater now than +they were under the Turks, and they very sagaciously attribute the +existence of order in Greece to the alliance of the kings of the Franks, +not to the military prowess of the Bavarians. + +There is a third class of men in Greece who hold in some degree the +position of an aristocracy. This class is composed of all those +individuals who from education are entitled to hold government +appointments; and at the head of this class figure the Fanariotes or Greek +families who were in the habit of serving under the Turkish government. +Many of the Fanariotes move about seeking their fortunes, from Greece to +Turkey, Wallachia, and Moldavia, and _vice versa_. One brother will be +found holding an office in the suite of the Prince of Moldavia, and +another in the court of King Otho. This class is more attached to foreign +influence than to Greek independence, and is almost as generally unpopular +in the country as the Bavarians; and perhaps not without reason, as it +supplies the court with abler and more active instruments than could be +found among the dull Germans. + +We must now notice the great peculiarity of the national constitution of +the Greeks as a distinct people. There is indeed a singular difference in +the organization of the European nations, which does not always meet with +due attention from historians. The various governments of Europe are +divided into absolute and constitutional; but it is seldom considered +necessary to explain whether the people are ruled by officers appointed by +the central authority of the state, or by magistrates elected by local +assemblies of the people. Yet, as the character of a nation is more +important in history than the form of its government, it is as much the +duty of the historian to examine the institutions of the people, as it is +the business of the politician to be acquainted with the action of the +government. To illustrate this, we shall describe in general terms the +political constitution of the Greeks, and leave our readers to compare it +with the share enjoyed by the French, and some other of the constitutional +nations, in their own local government. After all the boasted liberty and +equality of the subjects of the Citizen King, we own that we consider that +the Greeks possess national institutions resting on a surer and more solid +basis. + +All Greece is, and always has been, divided into communities enjoying the +right of choosing their own magistrates, and these magistrates decide a +number of police and administrative questions not affecting crimes and +rights of property. The most populous town, and the smallest hamlet, +equally exercise this privilege, and it is to its existence that the +Greeks owe the power of resistance they were enabled to exert against +their Roman and Turkish masters. We shall not enter into the history of +this institution, under the Turks, at present; as it is sufficient for our +purpose to give our readers a correct idea of the existing state of +things. A local elective magistracy is formed, which prevents the central +government from goading the people to insurrection by the insolence of +office which the inferior agents of an ill-organized administration +constantly display. Fortunately for the tranquillity of the country, the +local administration works its way onward through the daily difficulties +which present themselves, independent of king, ministers, councillors of +state, or royal governors. + +In order to make our description as exact as possible, without presenting +a vague statistical view of the whole kingdom, for the accuracy of which +we would not pretend to answer, we confine our observations to the +province of Attica, concerning which we have been able to obtain official +information from all the communes. + +There is, of course, a royal governor in Attica, who resides at Athens; he +is named on the responsibility of the minister of the interior, with whom +he is in daily correspondence, and is the organ of communication between +the royal government and the popular magistracy. Of course, in the present +state of things, the officer is appointed by King Otho himself, who has +made it a point of statesmanship to keep a person in the place quite as +much disposed to serve as a spy on all the ministers, as inclined to +execute with zeal the orders of his immediate superior. + +The population of Attica is divided into seven communes or demarchies.[B] + +[Footnote B: To this population of 33,909, must be added the troops and +strangers in Athens, and at the Piraeus, who are not citizens. They +generally exceed three thousand.] + +1. Athens, containing . 22,309 inhabitants. +2. Piraeus, . . . 2099 ... +3. Kekropia, . . . 2158 ... +4. Marathon, . . . 1214 ... +5. Phyle, . . . 2659 ... +6. Laurion, . . . 1470 ... +7. Kalamos, . . . 2000 ... + ------ + 33,909 + +It will be enough for our purpose to describe the local constitution of +the city of Athens, and then point out the slight variations which +circumstances render necessary in the secluded agricultural communes of +the province. + +The magistrates of Athens consist of a demarch (provost), six paredhroi +(bailies), and a town council composed of eighteen members. The +town-council is selected by all the citizens, who vote by signed lists, +containing the names of thirty-six individuals. The eighteen who have a +majority of votes become members of the town-council, and the remaining +eighteen who have the greatest number form a list of supplementary +members to supply vacancies, and prevent any election being necessary +except at the stated periods provided by law. The election of the demarch +and paredhroi is a more complicated affair. The eighteen members chosen +to form the town-council, and eighteen citizens who are the highest +tax-payers in the community, then meet together under the presidency of +the royal governor of the province. This meeting first proceeds to elect +two of its number to open the ballot-box, and assist and control the +conduct of the royal governor, as vice-presidents of the assembly. The +election proceeds, the persons present voting by ballot. The names of +candidates for the office of demarch must be returned, from which the +king selects one, and six paredhroi chosen, who must all have an absolute +majority of votes. The indirect election of the demarch is extremely +unpopular, as it has no effect except to enable the king to exclude two +popular but uncourtly citizens from every municipal office. + +The plan of election in the country districts is precisely similar, but +the town-council is less numerous, and each village has its own resident +paredhros. The election of the demarch and of the paredhroi is conducted +as at Athens, and the royal governor of the province is compelled to visit +each commune in turn, in order to preside at the election. The whole +system rests on a popular basis. Every citizen possessing property, or +enrolled in the list of citizens from paying taxes, enjoys a vote in the +election of the magistrates of his demos. The royal authority only concurs +in so far as is required to preserve order, and give an official +certificate of the legality of the proceedings. + +We come now to another popular institution, which gives a great degree of +political strength to the municipal organization of Greece, and protects +its liberties in a manner unknown in most other countries. Each province +possesses a provincial council, the members of which are elected by the +citizens of the different demoi into which the province is divided--a +demos containing 2000 inhabitants, sends one representative; a demos with +10,000 but exceeding 2000, sends two representatives; and a demos having +more than 10,000 inhabitants, sends three. Here, however, the electors are +required to pay fifty drachmas of direct taxes to the general government +in order to be entitled to vote.[C] + +[Footnote C: Twenty-eight drachmas make a pound sterling.] + +It will be seen, on referring to the population of the Attic demoi, that +the provincial council of Attica consists of twelve members, and these +members are elected for six years. The restriction on the electors is not +unpopular in Greece, as it is connected with an extended suffrage in the +municipal elections. Upwards of 500 citizens voted in Athens at the last +elections of provincial councillors. The provincial councils meet every +year in the months of February or March, as that is the season when the +landed proprietors in the country can most conveniently absent themselves +from their farms. The council chooses its own president and secretary, but +the royal governor of the province has the right to attend its meeting. +The budget of each demos must be presented to the council and approved by +it, and it has the power of rejecting any item of expenditure; but it can +only recommend, not enforce, any additional expense. It is likewise the +business of the provincial council to examine the grounds on which any +demos solicits the power of imposing local taxes: it proposes also general +improvements for the whole province, and has the power of assessing the +taxes necessary for carrying them into effect. Roads, barracks for +_gendarmes_, prisons, hospitals, and schools, are objects of its +attention. Its acts must all be presented to the minister of the interior +at the conclusion of the session, and they acquire validity only from the +time the minister communicates the royal assent to the proceedings. + +This system of popular government, in all matters directly connected with +the daily business of the citizens, is a wise arrangement, and it has +proved a powerful engine for the preservation of order amidst a population +accustomed to anarchy, revolution, and despotism; and it has also formed a +firm barrier against the tyrannical aspirations of the Bavarians. Indeed, +had King Otho's government not been prevented, by this municipal system, +from coming into daily contact with the people, we are persuaded that it +would long ago have thrown Greece into convulsions, and caused the +massacre of every Bavarian in the country. + +From the account we have given of the royal central government on the one +hand, and of the local magistracy on the other, it will be evident to our +readers that there are two powers at work in Greece, which, unless they +are united in the pursuit of some common objects, must at last engage in a +contest for the mastery. + +We shall now notice the newspaper allegation, that the Greek court is +composed entirely of Bavarians. This was once the case, but it ceased to +be strictly true from the moment Armansperg introduced the system of +bribing the Greeks to join the Bavarian party; and at present the +government is supported almost entirely by Greek deserters from the +national cause. There is now no Bavarian in the ministry, and there are +Greeks in the cabinet. Many of the Greeks who affect with foreigners to be +loud in their complaints against the Bavarians, are, in the +administration, the most strenuous supporters of King Otho's system, and, +like Maurocordatos, the declared opponents of a national assembly and of a +representative form of government. They declare to the king that it is +necessary to retain some Bavarians in Greece, and they really wish it done +in order to exclude their Greek rivals from office. A revolution, followed +by a foreign government, and a lavish expenditure, has demoralized sterner +stuff than Greek politicians are made of, so that it is more to be +regretted than wondered at, when it appears that the Greek court has an +unusually large supply of venal political adventurers always ready to +enter its service. + +This band consists of the Fanariotes, who were trained to official +aptitude and immorality under the Turks--of the politicians of the +revolution who deserted the cause of their country for the service of the +protecting powers at the last national assembly--and of a large class of +educated men not bred to commerce, who have resorted to Greece to make +their fortunes, and are now ready to accept places under any government. +The court, in its ignorance of Greece, has often purchased the services of +these men at their own valuation; and from this cause originates the crowd +of incapable councillors of state, useless ambassadors and consuls, +ignorant ministerial councillors and royal governors, and dishonest +commissaries, who assemble round King Otho in his palace. But time is +rolling on--ten years have elapsed since King Otho first stepped on the +Hellenic soil--the heroes of the war are sinking into the grave--Miaulis, +the best of the brave--Zaimi, the sagacious timid Moreote +noble--Kolocotroni, the sturdy strewd old klephtic chieftain;--these +three representatives and leaders of numerous classes of their +countrymen, now sleep in an honoured grave, and their followers no longer +form a majority in the land. A new race has arisen, a race equal in +education to the Maurocordatos, Rizos, Souizos, Karadjas, Tricoupis, and +Kolettis, and possessing the immense advantage over these men of +occupying a social position of greater independence. The fiery vehemence +of youth placed most of these new men in the opposition when they entered +on life. A political career being closed, they were, fortunately for +their country, obliged to devote all their attention to the cultivation +of their estates, and content themselves with improving their vineyards +and olive plantations instead of governing their country. Years have now +brought an increase of wealth, habits of moderation, steadiness of +purpose, and feelings of independence. + +In a country such as we have described Greece, and we flatter ourselves +our description will bear examination on the part of travellers and +diplomatic gentlemen, we ask if there can be any doubt of the ultimate +success of popular institutions? For our own part, we feel persuaded that +Greece can only escape from a fierce civil war by the convocation of a +national representative assembly.--We adopted this opinion from the moment +that the Bavarian government was unable to destroy the liberty of the +press, after plunging into the contest and awakening the political +passions of the people. When a sovereign attacks a popular institution +without provocation, and fails in his attack, and when the people show +that concentrated energy which inspires the prudence necessary to use +victory with a moderation which produces no reaction against their cause, +their victory is sure. Under such circumstances a nation can patiently +wait the current of events. If Greece exist as a monarchy, we believe it +will soon have a national assembly; and if King Otho remain its sovereign, +we have a fancy that he will not long delay convoking one. Nothing, +indeed, can long prevent some representative body from meeting together, +unless it be the interference, direct or indirect, of the three protecting +powers. They, indeed, have strength sufficient to become the Three +Protecting Tyrants. + +We hope that we have now given a tolerably intelligible account of King +Otho's government, and how it stands. We shall, therefore, proceed to the +second division of our enquiry, and strive to explain the actual state of +public feeling in Greece; what the king's government was expected to do, +and what it has left undone. We may be compelled here to glance at a few +delicate and contested questions in Greek politics, on which, however, we +shall not pretend to offer any opinion of our own, but merely collect the +facts; and we advise all men who wish to form a decided opinion on such a +question, to wait patiently until they have been discussed in a national +assembly of Greeks. + +The first great question on which the government of King Otho was expected +to decide, was the means necessary to be adopted for discharging the +internal debt contracted for carrying on the war against the Turks. This +debt resolved itself into two heads: payment for services, and repayment +of money advanced. The national assemblies which had met during the +revolution, had decreed that every man who served in the army should, at +the conclusion of the war, receive a grant of land. It was proposed that +King Otho should carry these decrees into execution, by framing lists of +all those who had served either in the army, the navy, or in civil +employments. The same registers which contain the lists of the citizens of +the various communes, could have been rendered available for the purpose +of verifying the services of each individual. A fixed number of acres +might then have been destined to each man, according to his rank and time +of service. This measure would have enabled the Greek government to say, +that it had kept faith with the people. It would have induced many of the +military to settle as landed proprietors when the first current of +enthusiasm in favour of peaceful occupations set in, and it would have +been the means of silencing many pretensions of powerful military chiefs, +whose silence has since been dearly purchased. + +The royal government always resisted these demands of the Greeks, and the +consequence was, that when it was necessary to yield from fear, Count +Armansperg adopted a law of dotation, which, under the appearance of being +a general measure, was only carried into application in cases where +partisanship was established; and yet national lands have been alienated +to a far greater extent than would have satisfied every claim arising out +of the revolutionary war. The king, it is true, has in late years made +donations of national land to favoured individuals, to maids of honour, +Turkish neophytes, and Bavarian brides; and he has rewarded several +political renegades with currant lands, and held out hopes of conferring +villages on councillors of state who have been eager defenders of the +court; but all this has been openly done as a matter of royal favour. + +With regard to the second class of claimants. Common honesty, if royal +gratitude go for nothing in Greece, required that those who advanced money +to their country in her day of need, should be repaid their capital. All +interest might have been refused--the glory of their disinterested conduct +was all the reward they wanted; for few of them would have demanded +repayment of the sums due had they been rich enough to offer them as a +gift. The refusal of King Otho to repay these sums when he lavished money +on his Bavarian favourites and Greek partizans, has probably lowered his +character more, both in the East and in Europe, than any of those errors +in diplomacy which induced the _Morning Chronicle_ to publish, that +several Bavarians of rank had written a certificate of his being an idiot, +and forwarded it to his royal father. The sum required to pay up all the +claims of this class, would not have exceeded the agency paid by King Otho +to his Bavarian banker for remitting the loan contracted at Paris to +Greece, by the rather circuitous route of Munich. + +It was also expected by the Greeks that one of the first acts of the royal +government would have been to abolish the duty on all articles carried by +sea from one part of the kingdom to another; this duty amounted to six per +cent, and was not abolished until the late demands of the three protecting +powers for prompt payment of the money due to them by his Hellenic +majesty, rendered King Otho rather more amenable to public opinion than he +had been previously. A decree was accordingly published a few months ago, +abolishing this most injurious tax, the preamble of which declares, with +innocent _naïveté_, that the duty thus levied is not based on principles +of equal taxation, but bears oppressively on particular classes.[D] +Alas! poor King Otho! he begins to abolish unjust taxation when his +exchequer is empty, and when his creditors are threatening him with the +Gazette; and yet he delays calling together a national assembly. It is +possible that, little by little, King Otho may be persuaded by +circumstances to become a tolerable constitutional sovereign at last; but +we fear our old friend Hadgi Ismael Bey--may his master never diminish the +length of his shadow!--will say on this occasion, as we have heard him say +on some others, "Machallah! Truly, the sense of the ghiaour doth arrive +after the mischief!" But we hold no opinions in common with Hadgi Ismael +Bey, who drinketh water, despiseth the Greek, and hateth the Frank. Our +own conjecture is, that King Otho has been studying the history of +Theopompus, one of his Spartan predecessors who, like himself, occupied +barely half a throne. Colleagues and ephori were in times past as +unpleasant associates in the duties of government as protecting powers now +are. Now Theopompus looked not lovingly on those who shared his royalty, +but as he understood the signs of the times, he sought to make friends at +Sparta by establishing a popular council, that is to say, he convoked a +national assembly. Thus, by diminishing the pretensions of royalty, he +increased its power. Let King Otho do the same, and if some luckless +Bavarian statesmen upbraid him with having thrown away his power, let him +reply--"No, my friend, I have only rendered the Bavarian dynasty more +durable in Greece." [Greek: Oi deta, paraoioômi gar ten basileian +poluchroniôteran.] If King Otho would once a day recall to his mind the +defence of Missolonghi, if he would reflect on the devotion shown to the +cause of their country by the whole population of Greece, he would surely +feel prouder of identifying his name and fortunes with a country so +honoured and adored, than of figuring in Bavarian history as the protector +of the artists who has reared the enormous palace he has raised at Athens. + +[Footnote D: This decree was published in the _Athena_ newspaper, and is +dated the 20th of April 1843. It does not appear to have been published +until some weeks later.] + +The Greeks expected that a civilized government would have taken measures +for improving the internal communications of the country, and exerted +itself to open new channels of commercial enterprise. They had hoped to +see some part of the loan expended in the formation of roads, and in +establishing regular packets to communicate with the islands. The best +road the loan ever made, was one to the marble quarries of Pentelicus in +order to build the new palace, and the only packets in Greece were +converted by his majesty into royal yachts.[E] The regency, it is true, +made a decree announcing their determination to make about 250 miles of +road. But their performances were confined to repairing the road from +Nauplia to Argos, which had been made by Capo d'Istria. The Greek +government, however, has now completed the famous road to the marble +quarries, a road of six miles in length to the Piraeus, and another of +five miles across the isthmus of Corinth. The King of Bavaria very nearly +had his neck broken on a road said to have been then practicable between +Argos and Corinth. We can answer for its being now perfectly impassable +for a carriage. Two considerable military roads are, however, now in +progress, one from Athens to Thebes, and another from Argos to +Tripolitza. But these roads have been made without any reference to +public utility, merely to serve for marching troops and moving artillery, +and consequently the old roads over the mountains, as they require less +time, are alone used for commercial transport. + +[Footnote E: This is no exaggeration. We once visited the island of +Santorin, which has a population of 9000 souls, who own 46 vessels of 200 +tons and upwards, besides many smaller craft. King Otho was sailing about +in one steamer at the time, and another was acting the man-of-war amidst +a fleet of English, French, Prussian, and Austrian frigates in the front +of the Piraeus; yet no post had been forwarded to Santorin for a +fortnight. Santorin is about 90 miles from Athens, and yields a very +considerable revenue to the Greek monarchy.] + +It is evident that a poor peasantry, possessing no other means of +transport than their mules and pack-horses, must reckon distance entirely +by time, and the only way to make them perceive the advantages to be +derived from roads, is forming such bridle-paths as will enable them to +arrive at their journey's end a few hours sooner. The Greek government +never though of doing this, and every traveller who has performed the +journey from Patras to Athens, must have seen fearful proofs of this +neglect in the danger he ran of breaking his neck at the Kaka-scala or +cursed stairs of Megara. + +Nay, King Otho's government has employed its _vis inertiae_ in preventing +the peasantry, even when so inclined, from forming roads at their own +expense; for the peasantry of Greece are far more enlightened than the +Bavarians. In the year 1841, the provincial council of Attica voted that +the road from Kephisia--the marble-quarry road--should be continued +through the province of Attica as far as Oropos. Provision was made for +its immediate commencement by the labour of the communes through which it +was to pass. Every farmer possessing a yoke of oxen was to give three +days' labour during the year, and every proprietor of a larger estate was +to supply a proportional amount of labour, or commute it for a fixed rate +of payment in money. This arrangement gave universal satisfaction. +Government was solicited to trace the line of road; but a year passed--one +pretext for delay succeeding another, and nothing was done. The provincial +council of 1842 renewed the vote, and government again prevented its being +carried into execution. It is said that his Majesty is strongly opposed to +the system of allowing the Greeks to get the direction of any public +business into their own hands; and that he would rather see his kingdom +without roads than see the municipal authorities boasting of performing +that which the central government was unable to accomplish. + +We shall only trouble our readers with a single instance of the manner in +which commercial legislation has been treated in Greece. We could with +great ease furnish a dozen examples. Austrian timber pays an import duty +of six per cent, in virtue of a commercial treaty between Royal Greece and +Imperial Austria. Greek timber cut on the mountains round Athens pays an +excise duty of ten per cent; and the value of the Greek timber on the +mountains is fixed according to the sales made at Athens of Austrian +timber, on which the freight and duty have been paid. The effect can be +imagined. In our visit to Greece we spent a few days shooting woodcocks +with a fellow-countryman, who possesses an Attic farm in the mountains, +near Deceleia. His house was situated amidst fine woods of oak and pine; +yet he informed us that the floors, doors, and windows, were all made of +timber from Trieste, conveyed from Athens on the backs of mules. The house +had been built by contract; and though our friend gave the contractor +permission to cut the wood he required within five hundred yards of the +house, he found that, what with the high duty demanded by the government, +and with the delays and difficulties raised by the officers charged with +the valuation, who were Bavarian forest inspectors, the most economical +plan was to purchase foreign timber. The consequence of this is, the +Greeks burn down timber as unprofitable, and convert the land into +pasturage. We have seen many square miles of wood burning on Mount +Pentelicus; and on expressing our regret to a Greek minister, he shrugged +up his shoulders and said: "That, sir, is the way in which the Bavarian +foresters take care of the forests." Yet this Greek, who could sneakingly +ridicule the folly of the Bavarians, was too mean to recommend the king to +change the law. + +Let us now turn to a more enlivening subject of contemplation, and see +what the Greeks have done towards improving their own condition. We shall +pass without notice all their exertions to lodge and feed themselves, or +fill their purses. We can trust any people on those points; our +observations shall be confined to the moral culture. We say that the +Greeks deserve some credit for turning their attention towards their own +improvement, instead of adopting the Gallican system of reform, and +raising a revolution against King Otho. They seem to have set themselves +seriously to work to render themselves worthy of that liberty, the +restoration of which they have so long required in vain from the allied +powers. There is, perhaps, no feature in the Greek revolution more +remarkable than the eager desire for education manifested by all classes. +The central government threw so many impediments in the way of the +establishment of a university, that the Greeks perceived that no buildings +would be erected either as lecture-rooms for the professors, or to contain +the extensive collections of books which had been sent to Greece by +various patriotic Greeks in Europe. Men of all parties were indignant at +the neglect, and at last a public meeting was held, and it was resolved to +raise a subscription for building the university. The government did not +dare to oppose the measure; fortunately, there was one liberal-minded man +connected with the court at the time, Professor Brandis of Bonn, and his +influence silenced the grumbling of the Bavarians; the subscription +proceeded with unrivalled activity, and upwards of £.4000 was raised in a +town of little more than twenty thousand inhabitants--half the inhabitants +of which had not yet been able to rebuild their own houses. Many +travellers have seen the new university at Athens, and visited its +respectable library, and they can bear testimony to the simplicity and +good sense displayed in the building. + +One of the most remarkable features of the great moral improvement which +has taken place in the population, is the eagerness displayed for the +introduction of a good system of female education. The first female school +established in Greece was founded at Syra, in the time of Capo d'Istria, +by that excellent missionary the late Rev. Dr Korck, who was sent to +Greece by the Church Missionary Society. An excellent female school still +exists in this island, under the auspices of the Rev. Mr Hilner, a German +missionary ordained in England, and also in connexion with the Church +Missionary Society. The first female school at Athens, after the +termination of the Revolution, was established by Mrs Hill, an American +lady, whose exertions have been above all praise. A large female school +was subsequently formed by a society of Greeks, and liberally supported by +the Rev. Mr Leeves, and many other strangers, for the purpose of educating +female teachers. This society raises about £.800 per annum in +subscriptions among the Greeks. We cannot close the subject of female +education without adding a tribute of praise to the exertions of Mrs +Korck, a Greek lady, widow of the excellent missionary whom we have +mentioned as having founded the first female school at Syra; and of Mr +George Constantinidhes, a Greek teacher, who commenced his studies under +the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society, and who has +devoted all his energy to the cause of the education of his countrymen, +and has always inculcated the great importance of a good system of female +education. We insist particularly on the merits of those who devoted their +attention to this subject, as indicating a deep conviction of the +importance of moral and religious instruction. Male education leads to +wealth and honours. Boys gain a livelihood by their learning, but girls +are educated that they may form better mothers. + +Other public institutions have not been neglected. The citizens of Athens +have built a very respectable civil hospital, and we mention this as it is +one of the public buildings which excites the attention of strangers, and +which is often supposed to have been erected by the government, though +entirely built from the funds raised by local taxes. The amount of +municipal taxes which the Greeks pay, is another subject which deserves +attention. The general taxes in Greece are very heavy. Every individual +pays, on an average, twelve shillings, which makes the payment of a family +of five persons amount to £.3 sterling annually. This is a very large sum, +when the poverty and destitution of the people is taken into +consideration, and is greater than is paid by any other European nation +where the population is so thinly scattered over the surface of the +country. Yet as soon as the Greeks became convinced that the general +government would contribute nothing towards improving the country, they +determined to impose on themselves additional burdens rather than submit +to wait. Hospitals, schools, churches, and bridges, built by several +municipalities, attest the energy of the determination of the people to +make every sacrifice to improve their condition. We offer our readers a +statement of the amount of the taxes imposed by the municipalities of +Attica on themselves for local improvements. The town communes of Athens +and the Piraeus find less difficulty in collecting the large revenues they +possess, than the country districts their comparatively trifling +resources. + + Drachmas +Athens, with a population of 22,309 collects 159,000 +Piraeus, ... 2,099 ... 27,300 +Kekropia, ... 2,158 ... 3,759 +Marathon, ... 1,214 ... 1,708 +Phyle, ... 2,659 ... 7,000 +Laurion, ... 1,470 ... 2,356 +Kalamos, ... 2,000 ... 2,747 + ------- ------- + 33,909 ... 203,870 + +From this statement we find that each family of five persons pays, on an +average, thirty drachmas of self-imposed taxes, or about twenty-two +shillings annually, in addition to the £.3 sterling paid to the general +government. + +We think we may now ask: Are the Greeks fit for a representative system of +government? We should like to hear the reasons of those who hold the +opinion, that they are not yet able to give an opinion on the best means +of improving their own country, and the most advantageous mode of raising +the necessary revenue. + +We must now conclude with a few remarks on the line of conduct towards the +Greeks which has been pursued by the three protecting powers. We do not, +however, propose entering at any length on the subject, as we have no +other object than that of rendering our preceding observations more clear +to our readers. We are persuaded that the policy of interfering as little +as possible in the affairs of Greece, which has been adopted, and +impartially acted on by Lord Aberdeen, is the true policy of Great +Britain. + +But in reviewing the general position of the Greek state, it must not be +forgotten that the Greek people have had communications with the great +powers of Europe of a nature very different from those which existed +between the protecting powers and King Otho. As soon as it became evident +that Turkey could not suppress the Greek revolution without suffering most +seriously from the diminution of her resources, Russia and England began +to perceive that it would be a matter of some importance to secure the +good-will of the Greek population. The Greeks scattered over the +countries in the Levant, amount to about five millions, and they are the +most active and intelligent portion of the population of the greater part +of the provinces in which they dwell. The declining state of the Ottoman +empire, and the warlike spirit of the Greek mountaineers and sailors, +induced both Russia and England to commence bidding for the favour of the +insurgents. In 1822 the deputy sent by the Greeks to solicit the +_compassion_ of the European ministers assembled at Verona, was not +allowed to approach the Congress. But the successful resistance of the +Greeks to the whole strength of the Ottoman empire for two years, induced +Russia to communicate a memoir to the European cabinets in 1824, proposing +that the Greek population then in arms should receive a separate, though +independent, political existence. This indiscreet proposition awakened the +jealousy of England, as indicating the immense importance attached by +Russia to securing the good-will of the Greeks. England immediately outbid +the Czar for their favour, by recognising the validity of their blockades +of the Turkish fortresses, thus virtually acknowledging the existence of +the Greek state. The other European powers were compelled most unwillingly +to follow the example of Great Britain. Mr Canning, however, in order to +place the question on some public footing, laid down the principles on +which the British cabinet was determined to act, in a communication to the +Greek government, dated in the month of December 1824. This document +declares that the British government will observe the strictest neutrality +with reference to the war; while with regard to the intermediate state of +independence and subjection proposed in the Russian memorial, it adds +that, as it has been rejected by both parties, it is needless to discuss +its advantages or defects. It also assured the Greeks that Great Britain +would take no part in any attempt to compel them by force to adopt a plan +of pacification contrary to their wishes. + +France now thought fit to enter on the field. According to the invariable +principle of modern French diplomacy, she made no definite proposition +either to the Greeks or the European powers; but she sent semi-official +agents into the country, who made great promises to the Greeks if they +would choose the Duke de Nemours, the second son of the Duke d'Orleans, +now King Louis Philippe, to be sovereign of Greece. The Greeks had seen +something too substantial on the part of Russia and England to follow this +Gallic will-o'-the-wisp. But England and Russia, in order to brush all the +cobwebs of French intrigue from a question which appeared to them too +important to be dealt with any longer by unauthorized agents, signed a +protocol at St Petersburg on the 4th April 1826, engaging to use their +good offices with the Sultan to put an end to the war. The Duke of +Wellington himself negotiated the signature of this protocol, and it is +one of the numerous services he has rendered to his country and to Europe, +as the Greek question threatened to disturb the peace of the East. France, +as well as Austria, refused to join, until it became evident that the two +powers were taking active measures to carry their decisions into effect, +when France gave in her adhesion, and the treaty of the 6th of July 1827, +was signed at London by France, Great Britain, and Russia. + +Events soon ran away with calculations. The Turkish fleet was destroyed +at Navarino on the 20th October 1827, the anniversary (if we may trust +Mitford's _History of Greece_) of the battle of Salamis. France now +embarked in the cause, determined to outbid her allies, and sent an +expedition to the Morea, under Marshal Maison, to drive out the troops of +Ibrahim Pasha. Capo d'Istria assumed the absolute direction of political +affairs, and by his Russian partizanship and anti-Anglican prejudices, +plunged Greece in a new revolution, when his personal oppression of the +family of Mauromichalis caused his assassination. King Otho was then +selected as king of Greece, and the consent of the Greeks was obtained to +his appointment by a loan to the new monarch of £.2,400,000 sterling, and +by a good deal of intrigue and intimidation at the assembly of Pronia.[F] +The Greeks, however, had already solemnly informed the allied powers, +that the acts of their national assemblies, consolidating the +institutions of the Greek state, and by securing the liberties of the +Greek people, "were as precious to Greece as her existence itself;" and +the protecting powers had consecrated their engagement to support these +institutions, by annexing this declaration to their protocol of the 22d +March 1830.[G] + +[Footnote F: Several national assemblies have been held in Greece. The +acts of the following have been printed in a collection composed of +several volumes. The first was held at Pidhavro, near Epidaurus, of which +its name is a corruption, in 1822; the others at Astros in 1823, at +Epidaurus in 1826, at Troezene in 1827, at Argos in 1830 and the last at +Pronia, near Nauplia, in 1832.] + +[Footnote G: Annex A, No. 9.] + +The three allied powers have not displayed more union in their councils, +since the selection of King Otho, than they did before his appointment. In +one thing alone they have been unanimous; but unfortunately this has been +to forget their engagements to the Greek people, to see that the +institutions and liberties of Greece were to be respected. England and +France have, however, displayed at times some compunction on the subject; +but, unluckily for the Greeks, their consciences did not prick them at the +same moment. At one time the Duke de Broglie proposed that Greece should +be reinstated in the enjoyment of her free institutions, but Lord +Palmerston declared, that, her government being very anti-Russian at the +time, institutions and liberty were a mere secondary matter, and he did +not think the Greeks required such luxuries. Times, however, changed, and +King Otho, displaying considerably more affection for Russia than for +England--England conceived it necessary to propose, at one of the +conferences in London on the affairs of Greece, that the Greeks should be +called, in virtue of their national institutions, to exercise a control +over the lavish and injudicious expenditure of the revenues of the kingdom +by the royal government. But Russia and France, though admitting the +incapacity of the king's government, declared that they considered it +better to send commissioners named by the protecting powers, to control +his Hellenic majesty's expenses. Russia, indeed, distinctly declared she +would not allow the constitutional question to be discussed in the +conferences at the Foreign Office, and Lord Palmerston, with unusual +meekness, submitted. France, every ready to play a great game in small +matters, really sent a commissioner to Greece, to control King Otho's +expenses; but his Hellenic majesty soon gave proofs of how grievously the +_Morning Chronicle_ had mistaken his abilities. He gave the French +commissioner a few dinners, a large star, and a good place at all court +pageants in which he could display the uniform of Louis Philippe to +advantage, and thereby made the commissioner the same as one of his own +ministers. England and Russia kept aloof in stern disapprobation of this +paltry comedy. + +The last farthing of the loan has now been expended, and the protecting +powers have intimated to King Otho, in very strong terns, that he must +immediately commence paying the interest and sinking fund, due in terms of +the treaty which placed the crown of Greece on his head. The whole burden +of this payment, of course, falls on the Greek people, who, we have +already shown, have suffered enough from the government of King Otho, +without this aggravation of their misery. Is it, we ask, just that the +Greeks should be compelled to pay sums expended on decorations to European +statesmen, pensions to Bavarian ministers, staff appointments to French +engineer officers, and ambassadors at foreign courts, when they never were +allowed even to express their conviction of the folly of these measures, +except by the public press? The truth is, that the loan was wasted, and +the amount now to be repaid by Greece was very considerably increased by +the allied powers themselves, who neglected to enforce the provisions of +the very treaty they now call upon the Greeks to execute, though not a +party to it. King Otho borrowed largely from Bavaria, as well as from the +protecting powers--he was at liberty to do so without the allies +attempting to interfere. But he was not entitled to repay any part of this +loan from the revenues of Greece, until the claims of the protecting +powers were satisfied. So says the treaty. + +The allies were bound, also, to restrict the auxiliary corps of Bavarians +to 3000 men; yet they allowed King Otho to assemble round his person, at +one time, upwards of 6000 Bavarian troops, and a very great number of +civil officers and forest guards. The King of Bavaria, when he was anxious +to secure the throne for his son, promised "that limited furloughs should +be granted to Bavarian officers, and their pay continued to them. This," +says his Majesty, "will greatly relieve the Greek treasury, by providing +for the service of the state officers of experience, possessing their own +means of subsistence without any charge upon the country." Now, the allies +knew that every Bavarian officer who put his foot in Greece, received the +pay of a higher rank than he previously held in Bavaria from the Greek +treasury. Is it, then, an equal application of the principles of justice +to king and people, to compel the Greeks to pay for the violation of the +King of Bavaria's engagement?[H] + +[Footnote H: The paper from which we have quoted the above passage, is +printed as an annex to the protocol appointing King Otho, in the +Parliamentary papers.] + +We believe that there now remains only one assertion which we have +ventured to make, which we have not yet proved. We repeat it, and shall +proceed to state our proofs. We say that Greece, if equitably treated, is +not bankrupt, but on the contrary she possesses resources amply sufficient +to discharge all just claims on her revenues, to maintain order in the +country, and to defend her institutions. We shall draw our proof from the +budget of King Otho for the present year, as this statement was laid +before the allied powers to excite their compassion, and show them the +absolute impossibility of King Otho paying his debts. + +The revenues of Greece are stated at 14,407,795 drachmas: and we may here +remark, that last year, when his Hellenic majesty expected to persuade the +allies to desist from pressing their claims, he stated the revenues of his + +kingdom at ... 17,834,000 +The national expenses only amount to ... 11,735,546 + +Under the following heads:-- + + Drachmas. +Foreign Affairs, 394,712 +Justice, 904,902 +Interior, 1,073,182 +Religion and Education, 651,658 +War Department, 5,255,804 +Navy, 1,404,465 +Finances, 486,600 +Expenses of managing the Revenue, which, in + all preceding years, has been a part of the + expenses of the Finance Department, 1,564,222 +Another section of Finance Department, 60,000 + ---------- + Making a total of 11,735,546 + +The expenses of the Greek government which have been imposed on the +country by the protecting powers, but never yet approved of by the Greek +nation, are as follows:-- + + Drachmas. +Interest and sinking fund of debt due to the three + protecting powers, debt to Bavaria, and pensions, 4,703,232 +Civil list of King Otho, 1,209,064 + ---------- + 5,912,296 + +It seems that the allies have made a very liberal allowance to King Otho. +The monarch and his council of state cost more than the whole civil +administration of the country, and almost as much as the Greek navy. + +We humbly conceive that a court of equity would strike out the Bavarian +loan as illegally contracted, and forming a private debt between the two +monarchs of Bavaria and Greece--that it would diminish the claim of the +protecting powers, by expunging all those sums which have been spent among +themselves or on strangers, with their consent--that it would reduce the +civil list of the king and the council of state to 500,000 drachmas--and +that it would order the immediate convocation of a national assembly, in +order to take measures for improving the revenues of the country. + +If the allied powers will form themselves into this court of equity, and +follow the course we have suggested, we have no doubt that in a very short +period no kingdom in Europe will have its finances in a more flourishing +condition than Greece. + + + * * * * * + + + + +A SKETCH IN THE TROPICS. + +FROM A SUPERCARGO'S LOG. + + +It was on a November morning of the year 1816, and about half an hour +before daybreak, that the door of an obscure house in the Calle St +Agostino, at the Havannah, was cautiously opened, and a man put out his +head, and gazed up and down the street as if to assure himself that no one +was near. All was silence and solitude at that early hour, and presently +the door opening wider gave egress to a young man muffled in a shabby +cloak, who, with hurried but stealthy step, took the direction of the +port. Hastening noiselessly through the deserted streets and lanes, he +soon reached the quay, upon which were numerous storehouses of sugar and +other merchandize, and piles of dye-woods, placed there in readiness for +shipment. Upon approaching one of the latter, the young man gave a low +whistle, and the next instant a figure glided from between two huge heaps +of logwood, and seizing his hand, drew him into the hiding-place from +which it had just emerged. + +A quarter of an hour elapsed, and the first faint tinge of day just began +to appear, when the noise of oars was heard, and presently in the grey +light a boat was seen darting out of the mist that hung over the water. As +it neared the quay, the two men left their place of concealment, and one +of them, pointing to the person who sat in the stern of the boat, pressed +his companion's hand, and hurrying away, soon disappeared amid the +labyrinth of goods and warehouses. + +The boat came up to the stairs. Of the three persons it contained, two +sailors, who had been rowing, remained in it; the third, whose dress and +appearance were those of the master of a merchant vessel, sprang on shore, +and walked in the direction of the town. As he passed before the logwood, +the stranger stepped out and accosted him. + +The seaman's first movement, and not an unnatural one, considering he was +at the Havannah and the day not yet broken, was to half draw his cutlass +from its scabbard, but the next moment he let it drop back again. The +appearance of the person who addressed him was, if not very prepossessing, +at least not much calculated to inspire alarm. He was a young man of +handsome and even noble countenance, but pale and sickly-looking, and +having the appearance of one bowed down by sorrow and illness. + +"Are you the captain of the Philadelphia schooner that is on the point of +sailing?" enquired he in a trembling, anxious voice. + +The seaman looked hard in the young man's face, and answered in the +affirmative. The stranger's eye sparkled. + +"Can I have a passage for myself, a friend, and two children?" demanded +he. + +The sailor hesitated before he replied, and again scanned his interlocutor +from head to foot with his keen grey eyes. There was something +inconsistent, not to say suspicious, in the whole appearance of the +stranger. His cloak was stained and shabby, and his words humble; but +there was a fire in his eye that flashed forth seemingly in spite of +himself, and his voice had that particular tone which the habit of command +alone gives. The result of the sailor's scrutiny was apparently +unfavourable, and he shook his head negatively. The young man gasped for +breath, and drew a well-filled purse from his bosom. + +"I will pay beforehand," said he, "I will pay whatever you ask." + +The American started; the contrast was too great between the heavy purse +and large offers and the beggarly exterior of the applicant. He shook his +head more decidedly than before. The stranger bit his lip till the blood +came, his breast heaved, his whole manner was that of one who abandons +himself to despair. The sailor felt a touch of compassion. + +"Young man," said he in Spanish, "you are no merchant. What do you want at +Philadelphia?" + +"I want to go to Philadelphia. Here is my passage money, here my pass. You +are captain of the schooner. What do you require more?" + +There was a wild vehemence in the tone and manner in which these words +were spoken, that indisposed the seaman still more against his would-be +passenger. Again he shook his head, and was about to pass on. The young +man seized his arm. + +"_Por el amor de Dios, Capitan_, take me with you. Take my unhappy wife +and my poor children." + +"Wife and children!" repeated the captain. "Have you a wife and children?" + +The stranger groaned. + +"You have committed no crime? you are not flying from the arm of justice?" +asked the American sharply. + +"So may God help me, no crime whatever have I committed," replied the +young man, raising his hand towards heaven. + +"In that case I will take you. Keep your money till you are on board. In +an hour at furthest I weigh anchor." + +The stranger answered nothing, but as if relieved from some dreadful +anxiety, drew a deep breath, and with a grateful look to heaven, hurried +from the spot. + +When Captain Ready, of the smart-sailing Baltimore-built schooner, "The +Speedy Tom," returned on board his vessel, and descended into the cabin, +he was met by his new passenger, on whose arm was hanging a lady of +dazzling beauty and grace. She was very plainly dressed, as were also two +beautiful children who accompanied her; but their clothes were of the +finest materials, and the elegance of their appearance contrasted +strangely with the rags and wretchedness of their husband and father. +Lying on a chest, however, Captain Ready saw a pelisse and two children's +cloaks of the shabbiest description, and which the new-comers had +evidently just taken off. + +The seaman's suspicions returned at all this disguise and mystery, and a +doubt again arose in his mind as to the propriety of taking passengers who +came on board under such equivocal circumstances. A feeling of compassion, +however, added to the graceful manners and sweet voice of the lady, +decided him to persevere in his original intention; and politely +requesting her to make herself at home in the cabin, he returned on deck. +Ten minutes later the anchor was weighed, and the schooner in motion. + +The sun had risen and dissipated the morning mist. Some distance astern of +the now fast-advancing schooner rose the streets and houses of the +Havannah, and the forest of masts occupying its port; to the right frowned +the castle of the Molo, whose threatening embrasures the vessel was +rapidly approaching. The husband and wife stood upon the cabin stairs, +gazing, with breathless anxiety, at the fortress. + +As the schooner arrived opposite the castle, a small postern leading out +upon the jetty was opened, and an officer and six soldiers issued forth. +Four men, who had been lying on their oars in a boat at the jetty stairs, +sprang up. + +The soldiers jumped in, and the rowers pulled in the direction of the +schooner. + +"_Jesus Maria y José!_" exclaimed the lady. + +"_Madre de Dios!_" groaned her husband. + +At this moment the fort made a signal. + +"Up with the helm!" shouted Captain Ready. + +The schooner rounded to; the boat came flying over the water, and in a few +moments was alongside. The soldiers and their commander stepped on board. + +The latter was a very young man, possessed of a true Spanish +countenance--grave and stern. In few words he desired the captain to +produce his ship's papers, and parade his seamen and passengers. The +papers were handed to him without an observation; he glanced his eye over +them, inspected the sailors one after the other, and then looked in the +direction of the passengers, who at length came on deck, the stranger +carrying one of the children and his wife the other. The Spanish officer +started. + +"Do you know that you have a state-criminal on board?" thundered he to the +captain. "What is the meaning of this?" + +"_Santa Virgen!_" exclaimed the lady, and fell fainting into her husband's +arms. There was a moment's deep silence. All present seemed touched by the +misfortunes of this youthful pair. The young officer sprang to the +assistance of the husband, and relieving him of the child, enabled him to +give his attention to his wife, whom he laid gently down upon the deck. + +"I am grieved at the necessity," said the officer, "but you must return +with me." + +The American captain, who had been contemplating this scene apparently +quite unmoved, now ejected from his mouth a huge quid of tobacco, replaced +it by another, and then stepping up to the officer, touched him on the +arm, and offered him the pass he had received from his passengers. The +Spaniard waved him back almost with disgust. There was, in fact, something +very unpleasant in the apathy and indifference with which the Yankee +contemplated the scene of despair and misery before him. Such +cold-bloodedness appeared premature and unnatural in a man who could not +yet have seen more than five-and-twenty summers. A close observer, +however, would have remarked that the muscles of his face were beginning +to be agitated by a slight convulsive twitching, when, at that moment, +his mate stepped up to him and whispered something. Approaching the +Spaniard for the second time, Ready invited him to partake of a slight +refreshment in his cabin, a courtesy which it is usual for the captains +of merchant vessels to pay to the visiting officer. The Spaniard +accepted, and they went below. + +The steward was busy covering the cabin table with plates of Boston +crackers, olives, and almonds, and he then uncorked a bottle of fine old +Madeira that looked like liquid gold as it gurgled into the glasses. +Captain Ready seemed quite a different person in the cabin and on deck. +Throwing aside his dry say-little manner, he was good-humour and civility +personified, as he lavished on his guest all those obliging attentions +which no one better knows the use of than a Yankee when he wishes to +administer a dose of what he would call "soft sawder." Ready soon +persuaded the officer of his entire guiltlessness in the unpleasant affair +that had just occurred, and the Spaniard told him by no means to make +himself uneasy, that the pass had been given for another person, and that +the prisoner was a man of great importance, whom he considered himself +excessively lucky to have been able to recapture. + +Most Spaniards like a glass of Madeira, particularly when olives serve as +the whet. The American's wine was first-rate, and the other seemed to find +himself particularly comfortable in the cabin. He did not forget, however, +to desire that the prisoner's baggage might be placed in the boat, and, +with a courteous apology for leaving him a moment, Captain Ready hastened +to give the necessary orders. + +When the captain reached the deck, a heart-rending scene presented itself +to him. His unfortunate passenger was seated on one of the hatchways, +despair legibly written on his pale features. The eldest child had climbed +up on his knee, and looked wistfully into its father's face, and his wife +hung round his neck sobbing audibly. A young negress, who had come on +board with them, held the other child, an infant a few months old, in her +arms. Ready took the prisoner's hand. + +"I hate tyranny," said he, "as every American must. Had you confided your +position to me a few hours sooner, I would have got you safe off. But now +I see nothing to be done. We are under the cannon of the fort, that could +sink us in ten seconds. Who and what are you? Say quickly, for time is +precious." + +"I am a Columbian by birth," replied the young man, "an officer in the +patriot army. I was taken prisoner at the battle of Cachiri, and brought +to the Havannah with several companions in misfortune. My wife and +children were allowed to follow me, for the Spaniards were not sorry to +have one of the first families of Columbia entirely in their power. Four +months I lay in a frightful dungeon, with rats and venomous reptiles for +my only companions. It is a miracle that I am still alive. Out of seven +hundred prisoners, but a handful of emaciated objects remain to testify to +the barbarous cruelty of our captors. A fortnight back they took me out of +my prison, a mere skeleton, in order to preserve my life, and quartered me +in a house in the city. Two days ago, however, I heard that I was to +return to the dungeon. It was my death-warrant, for I was convinced I +could not live another week in that frightful cell. A true friend, in +spite of the danger, and by dint of gold, procured me a pass that had +belonged to a Spaniard dead of the yellow fever. By means of that paper, +and by your assistance, we trusted to escape. _Capitan!_" said the young +man, starting to his feet, and clasping Ready's hand, his hollow sunken +eye gleaming wildly as he spoke, "my only hope is in you. If you give me +up I am a dead man, for I have sworn to perish rather than return to the +miseries of my prison. I fear not death--I am a soldier; but alas for my +poor wife, my helpless, deserted children!" + +The Yankee captain passed his hand across his forehead with the air of a +man who is puzzled, then turned away without a word, and walked to the +other end of the vessel. Giving a glance upwards and around him that +seemed to take in the appearance of the sky, and the probabilities of good +or bad weather, he ordered some of the sailors to bring the luggage of the +passenger upon deck, but not to put it into the boat. He told the steward +to give the soldiers and boatmen a couple of bottles of rum, and then, +after whispering for a few seconds in the ear of his mate, he approached +the cabin stairs. As he passed the Columbian family, he said in a low +voice, and without looking at them, + + "Trust in him who helps when need is at the greatest." + +Scarcely had he uttered the words, when the Spanish officer sprang up the +cabin stairs, and as soon as he saw the prisoners, ordered them into the +boat. Ready, however, interfered, and begged him to allow his unfortunate +passenger to take a farewell glass before he left the vessel. To this +young officer good naturedly consented, and himself led the way into the +cabin. + +They took their places at the table, and the captain opened a fresh +bottle, at the very first glass of which the Spaniard's eye glistened, his +lips smacked. The conversation became more and more lively; Ready spoke +Spanish fluently, and gave proof of a jovialty which no one would have +suspected to form a part of his character, dry and saturnine as his manner +usually was. A quarter of an hour or more had passed in this way, when the +schooner gave a sudden lurch, and the glasses and bottles jingled and +clattered together on the table. The Spaniard started up. + +"Captain!" cried he furiously, "the schooner is sailing!" + +"Certainly," replied the captain, very coolly. "You surely did not expect, +Señor, that we were going to miss the finest breeze that ever filled a +sail." + +Without answering, the officer rushed upon deck, and looked in the +direction of the Molo. They had left the fort full two miles behind them. +The Spaniard literally foamed at the mouth. + +"Soldiers!" vociferated he, "seize the captain and the prisoners. We are +betrayed. And you, steersman, put about." + +And betrayed they assuredly were; for while the officer had been quaffing +his Madeira, and the soldiers and boatmen regaling themselves with the +steward's rum, sail had been made on the vessel without noise or bustle, +and, favoured by the breeze, she was rapidly increasing her distance from +land. Meantime Ready preserved the utmost composure. + +"Betrayed!" repeated he, replying to the vehement ejaculation of the +Spaniard. "Thank God we are Americans, and have no trust to break, nothing +to betray. As to this prisoner of yours, however, he must remain here." + +"Here!" sneered the Spaniard--"We'll soon see about that you +treacherous"-- + +"Here," quietly interrupted the captain. "Do not give yourself needless +trouble, Señor; your soldiers' guns are, as you perceive, in our hands, +and my six sailors well provided with pistols and cutlasses. We are more +than a match for your ten, and at the first suspicious movement you make, +we fire on you." + +The officer looked around, and became speechless when he beheld the +soldiers' muskets piled upon the deck, and guarded by two well armed and +determined-looking sailors. + +"You would not dare"--exclaimed he. + +"Indeed would I," replied Ready; "but I hope you will not force me to it. +You must remain a few hours longer my guest, and then you can return to +port in your boat. You will get off with a month's arrest, and as +compensation, you will have the satisfaction of having delivered a brave +enemy from despair and death." + +The officer ground his teeth together, but even yet he did not give up all +hopes of getting out of the scrape. Resistance was evidently out of the +question, his men's muskets being in the power of the Americans who, with +cocked pistols and naked cutlasses, stood on guard over them. The soldiers +themselves did not seem very full of fight, and the boatmen were negroes, +and consequently non-combatants. But there were several trincadores and +armed cutters cruising about, and if he could manage to hail or make a +signal to one of them, the schooner would be brought to, and the tables +turned. He gazed earnestly at a sloop that just then crossed them at no +great distance, staggering in towards the harbour under press of sail. The +American seemed to read his thoughts. + +"Do me the honour, Señor," said be, "to partake of a slight _dejeuner-à-la +fourchette_ in the cabin. We will also hope for the pleasure of your +company at dinner. Supper you will probably eat at home." + +And so saying, he motioned courteously towards the cabin stairs. The +Spaniard looked in the seaman's face, and read in its decided expression, +and in the slight smile of intelligence that played upon it, that he must +not hope either to resist or outwit his polite but peremptory entertainer. +So, making a virtue of necessity, he descended into the cabin. + +The joy of the refugees at finding themselves thus unexpectedly rescued +from the captivity they so much dreaded, may be more easily imagined than +described. They remained for some time without uttering a word; but the +tears of the lady, and the looks of heartfelt gratitude of her husband +were the best thanks they could offer their deliverer. + +On went the schooner; fainter and fainter grew the outline of the land, +till at length it sank under the horizon, and nothing was visible but the +castle of the Molo and the topmasts of the vessels riding at anchor off +the Havannah. They were twenty miles from land, far enough for the safety +of the fugitive, and as far as it was prudent for those to come who had to +return to port in an open boat. Ready's good-humour and hearty hospitality +had reconciled him with the Spaniard, who seemed to have forgotten the +trick that had been played him, and the punishment he would incur for +having allowed himself to be entrapped. He shook the captain's hand as he +stepped over the side, the negroes dipped their oars into the water, and +in a short time the boat was seen from the schooner as a mere speck upon +the vast expanse of ocean. + +The voyage was prosperous, and in eleven days the vessel reached its +destination. The Columbian officer, his wife and children, were received +with the utmost kindness and hospitality by the young and handsome wife of +Captain Ready, in whose house they took up their quarters. They remained +there two months, living in the most retired manner, with the double +object of economizing their scanty resources, and of avoiding the notice +of the Philadelphians, who at that time viewed the patriots of Southern +America with no very favourable eye. The insurrection against the +Spaniards had injured the commerce between the United States and the +Spanish colonies, and the purely mercantile and lucre-loving spirit of the +Philadelphians made them look with dislike on any persons or circumstances +who caused a diminution of their trade and profits. + +At the expiration of the above-mentioned time, an opportunity offered of a +vessel going to Marguerite, then the headquarters of the patriots, and the +place where the first expeditions were formed under Bolivar against the +Spaniards. Estoval (that was the name by which the Columbian officer was +designated in his passport) gladly seized the opportunity, and taking a +grateful and affectionate leave of his deliverer, embarked with his wife +and children. They had been several days at sea before they remembered +that they had forgotten to tell their American friends their real name. +The latter had never enquired it, and the Estovals being accustomed to +address one another by their Christian names, it had never been mentioned. + +Meantime, the good seed Captain Ready had sown, brought the honest Yankee +but a sorry harvest. His employers had small sympathy with the feelings of +humanity that had induced him to run the risk of carrying off a Spanish +state-prisoner from under the guns of a Spanish battery. Their +correspondents at the Havannah had had some trouble and difficulty on +account of the affair, and had written to Philadelphia to complain of it. +Ready lost his ship, and could only obtain from his employers certificates +of character of so ambiguous and unsatisfactory a nature, that for a long +time he found it impossible to get the command of another vessel. + + +In the autumn of 1824, I left Baltimore as supercargo of the brig +Perverance, Captain Ready. Proceeding to the Havannah, we discharged our +cargo, took in another, partly on our own account, partly on that of the +Spanish government, and sailed for Callao on the 1st December, exactly +eight days before the celebrated battle of Ayacucho dealt the finishing +blow to Spanish rule on the southern continent of America, and established +the independence of Peru. The Spaniards, however, still held the fortress +of Callao, which, after having been taken by Martin and Cochrane four +years previously, had again been treacherously delivered up, and was now +blockaded by sea and land by the patriots, under the command of General +Hualero, who had marched an army from Columbia to assist the cause of +liberty in Peru. + +Of all these circumstances we were ignorant, until we arrived within a few +leagues of the port of Callao. Then we learned them from a vessel that +spoke us, but we still advanced, hoping to find an opportunity to slip in. +In attempting to do so, we were seized by one of the blockading vessels, +and the captain and myself taken out and sent to Lima. We were allowed to +take our personal property with us, but of brig or cargo we heard nothing +for some time. I was not a little uneasy; for the whole of my savings +during ten years' clerkship in the house of a Baltimore merchant were +embarked in the form of a venture on board the Perseverance. + +The captain, who had a fifth of the cargo, and was half owner of the brig, +took things very philosophically, and passed his days with a penknife and +stick in his hand, whittling away, Yankee fashion; and when he had chapped +up his stick, he would set to work notching and hacking the first chair, +bench, or table that came under his hand. If any one spoke to him of the +brig, he would grind his teeth a little, but said nothing, and whittled +away harder than ever. This was his character, however. I had known him +for five years that he had been in the employ of the same house as myself, +and he had always passed for a singularly reserved and taciturn man. +During our voyage, whole weeks had sometimes elapsed without his uttering +a word except to give the necessary orders. + +In spite of his peculiarities, Captain Ready was generally liked by his +brother captains, and by all who knew him. When he did speak, his words +(perhaps the more prized on account of their rarity) were always listened +to with attention. There was a benevolence and mildness in the tones of +his voice that rendered it quite musical, and never failed to prepossess +in his favour all those who heard him, and to make them forget the usual +sullenness of his manner. During the whole time he had sailed for the +Baltimore house, he had shown himself a model of trustworthiness and +seamanship, and enjoyed the full confidence of his employers. It was said, +however, that his early life had not been irreproachable; that when he +first, and as a very young man, had command of a Philadelphian ship, +something had occurred which had thrown a stain upon his character. What +this was, I had never heard very distinctly stated. He had favoured the +escape of a malefactor, ensnared some officers who were sent on board his +vessel to seize him. All this was very vague, but what was positive was +the fact, that the owners of the ship he then commanded, had had much +trouble about the matter, and Ready himself remained long unemployed, +until the rapid increase of trade between the United States and the infant +republics of South America had caused seamen of ability to be in much +request, and he had again obtained command of a vessel. + +We were seated one afternoon outside the French coffeehouse at Lima. The +party consisted of seven or eight captains of merchant vessels that had +been seized, and they were doing their best to kill the time, some +smoking, others chewing, but nearly all with penknife and stick in hand, +whittling as for a wager. On their first arrival at Lima, and adoption of +this coffeehouse as a place of resort, the tables and chairs belonging to +it seemed in a fair way to be cut to pieces by these indefatigable +whittlers; but the coffeehouse keeper had hit upon a plan to avoid such +deterioration of his chattels, and had placed in every corner of the rooms +bundles of sticks, at which his Yankee customers cut and notched, till the +coffeehouse assumed the appearance of a carpenter's shop. + +The costume and airs of the patriots, as they called themselves, were no +small source of amusement to us. They strutted about in all the pride of +their fire-new freedom, regular caricatures of soldiers. One would have on +a Spanish jacket, part of the spoils of Ayacucho--another, an American +one, which he had bought from some sailor--a third a monk's robe, cut +short, and fashioned into a sort of doublet. Here was a shako wanting a +brim, in company with a gold-laced velvet coat of the time of Philip V.; +there, a hussar jacket and an old-fashioned cocked hat. The volunteers +were the best clothed, also in great part from the plunder of the battle +of Ayacucho. Their uniforms were laden with gold and silver lace, and some +of the officers, not satisfied with two epaulettes, had half-a-dozen +hanging before and behind, as well as on their shoulders. + +As we sat smoking, whittling, and quizzing the patriots, a side-door of +the coffeehouse was suddenly opened, and an officer came out whose +appearance was calculated to give us a far more favourable opinion of +South American _militaires_. He was a man about thirty years of age, +plainly but tastefully dressed, and of that unassuming, engaging demeanour +which is so often found the companion of the greatest decision of +character, and which contrasted with the martial deportment of a young man +who followed him, and who, although in much more showy uniform, was +evidently his inferior in rank. We bowed as he passed before us, and he +acknowledged the salutation by raising his cocked hat slightly but +courteously from his head. He was passing on when his eyes suddenly fell +upon Captain Ready, who was standing a little on one side, notching away +at his tenth or twelfth stick, and at that moment happened to look up. The +officer started, gazed earnestly at Ready for the space of a moment, and +then, with delight expressed on his countenance, sprang forward, and +clasped him in his arms. + +"Captain Ready!" + +"That is my name," quietly replied the captain. + +"Is it possible you do not know me?" exclaimed the officer. + +Ready looked hard at him, and seemed a little in doubt. At last he shook +his head. + +"You do not know me?" repeated the other, almost reproachfully, and then +whispered something in his ear. + +It was now Ready's turn to start and look surprised. A smile of pleasure +lit up his countenance as he grasped the hand of the officer, who took his +arm and dragged him away into the house. + +A quarter of an hour elapsed, during which we lost ourselves in +conjectures as to who this acquaintance of Ready's could be. At the end of +that time the captain and his new (or old) friend re-appeared. The latter +walked away, and we saw him enter the government house, while Ready joined +us, as silent and phlegmatic as ever, and resumed his stick and penknife. +In reply to our enquiries as to who the officer was, he only said that he +belonged to the army besieging Callao, and that he had once made a voyage +as his passenger. This was all the information we could extract from our +taciturn friend; but we saw plainly that the officer was somebody of +importance, from the respect paid him by the soldiers and others whom he +met. + +The morning following this incident we were sitting over our chocolate, +when an orderly dragoon came to ask for Captain Ready. The captain went +out to speak to him, and presently returning, went on with his breakfast +very deliberately. + +When he had done, he asked me if I were inclined for a little excursion +out of the town, which would, perhaps, keep us a couple of days away. I +willingly accepted, heartily sick as I was of the monotonous life we were +leading. We packed up our valises, took our pistols and cutlasses, and +went out. + +To my astonishment the orderly was waiting at the door with two +magnificent Spanish chargers, splendidly accoutred. They were the finest +horses I had seen in Peru, and my curiosity was strongly excited to know +who had sent them, and whither we were going. To my questions, Ready +replied that we were going to visit the officer whom he had spoken to on +the preceding day, and who was with the besieging army, and had once been +his passenger, but he declared he did not know his name or rank. + +We had left the town about a mile behind us, when we heard the sound of +cannon in the direction we were approaching; it increased as we went on, +and about a mile further we met a string of carts, full of wounded, going +in to Lima. Here and there we caught sight of parties of marauders, who +disappeared as soon as they saw our orderly. I felt a great longing and +curiosity to witness the fight that was evidently going on--not, however, +that I was particularly desirous of taking share in it, or putting myself +in the way of the bullets. My friend the captain jogged on by my side, +taking little heed of the roar of the cannon, which to him was no novelty; +for having passed his life at sea, he had had more than one encounter with +pirates and other rough customers, and been many times under the fire of +batteries, running in and out of blockaded American ports. His whole +attention was now engrossed by the management of his horse, which was +somewhat restive, and he, like most sailors, was a very indifferent rider. + +On reaching the top of a small rising ground, we beheld to the left the +dark frowning bastions of the fort, and to the right the village of Bella +Vista, which, although commanded by the guns of Callao, had been chosen as +the headquarters of the besieging army--the houses being, for the most +part, built of huge blocks of stone, and offering sufficient resistance to +the balls. The orderly pointed out to us the various batteries, and +especially one which was just completed, and was situated about three +hundred yards from the fortress. It had not yet been used, and was still +masked from the enemy by some houses which stood just in its front. + +While we were looking about us, Ready's horse, irritated by the noise of +the firing, the flashes of the guns, and perhaps more than any thing by +the captain's bad riding, became more and more unmanageable, and at last +taking the bit between his teeth started off at a mad gallop, closely +followed by myself and the orderly, to whose horses the panic seemed to +have communicated itself. The clouds of dust raised by the animals' feet, +prevented us from seeing whither we were going. Suddenly there was an +explosion that seemed to shake the very earth under us, and Ready, the +orderly, and myself, lay sprawling with our horses on the ground. Before +we could collect our senses and get up, we were nearly deafened by a +tremendous roar of artillery close to us, and at the same moment a shower +of stones and fragments of brick and mortar clattered about our ears. + +The orderly was stunned by his fall; I was bruised and bewildered. Ready +was the only one who seemed in no ways put out, and with his usual phlegm, +extricating himself from under his horse, he came to our assistance. I was +soon on my legs, and endeavouring to discover the cause of all this +uproar. + +Our unruly steeds had brought us close to the new battery, at the very +moment that the train of a mine under the houses in front of it had been +fired. The instant the obstacle was removed, the artillerymen had opened a +tremendous fire on the fort. The Spaniards were not slow to return the +compliment, and fortunate it was that a solid fragment of wall intervened +between us and their fire, or all our troubles about the brig, and every +thing else, would have been at an end. Already upwards of twenty balls had +struck the old broken wall. Shot and shell were flying in every direction, +the smoke was stifling, the uproar indescribable. It was so dark with the +smoke and dust from the fallen houses, that we could not see an arm's +length before us. The captain asked two or three soldiers who were +hurrying by, where the battery was; but they were in too great haste to +answer, and it was only when the smoke cleared away a little, that we +discovered we were not twenty paces from it. Ready seized my arm, and +pulling me with him, I the next moment found myself standing beside a gun, +under cover of the breastworks. + +The battery consisted of thirty, twenty-four, and thirty-six pounders, +served with a zeal and courage which far exceeded any thing I had expected +to find in the patriot army. The fellows were really more than brave, they +were foolhardy. They danced rather than walked round the guns, and +exhibited a contempt of death that could not well be surpassed. As to +drawing the guns back from the embrasures while they loaded them, they +never dreamed of such a thing. They stood jeering and scoffing the +Spaniards, and bidding them take better aim. + +It must be remembered, that this was only three months after the battle of +Ayacucho, the greatest feat of arms which the South American patriots had +achieved during the whole of their protracted struggle with Spain. That +victory had literally electrified the troops, and inspired them with a +courage and contempt of their enemy, that frequently showed itself, as on +this occasion, in acts of the greatest daring and temerity. + +At the gun by which Ready and myself took our stand, half the artillerymen +were already killed, and we had scarcely come there, when a cannon shot +took the head off a man standing close to me. The wind of the ball was so +great that I believe it would have suffocated me, had I not fortunately +been standing sideways in the battery. At the same moment, something hot +splashed over my neck and face, and nearly blinded me. I looked, and saw +the man lying without his head before me. I cannot describe the sickening +feeling that came over me. It was not the first man I had seen killed in +my life, but it was the first whose blood and brains had spurted into my +face. My knees shook and my head swam; I was obliged to lean against the +wall, or I should have fallen. + +Another ball fell close beside me, and strange to say, it brought me +partly to myself again; and by the time a third and fourth had bounced +into the battery, I began to take things pretty coolly--my heart beating +rather quicker than usual, I acknowledge; but, nevertheless, I began to +find an indescribable sort of pleasure, a mischievous joy, if I may so +call it, in the peril and excitement of the scene. + +Whilst I was getting over my terrors, my companion was moving about the +battery with his usual _sang-froid_, reconnoitring the enemy. He ran no +useless risk, kept himself well behind the breastworks, stooping down when +necessary, and taking all proper care of himself. When he had completed +his reconnoissance, he, to my no small astonishment, took off his coat and +neck-handkerchief, the latter of which he tied tight round his waist, then +taking a rammer from the hand of a soldier who had just fallen, he +ordered, or rather signed to the artilleryman to draw the gun back. + +There was something so cool and decided in his manner, that they obeyed +without testifying any surprise at his interference, and as though he had +been one of their own officers. He loaded the piece, had it drawn forward +again, pointed and fired it. He then went to the next gun and did the same +thing there. He seemed so perfectly at home in the battery, that nobody +ever dreamed of disputing his authority, and the two guns were entirely +under his direction. I had now got used to the thing myself, so I went +forward and offered my services, which, in the scarcity of men, (so many +having been killed,) were not to be refused, and I helped to draw the guns +backwards and forward, and load them. The captain kept running from one to +the other, pointing them, and admirably well too; for every shot took +effect within a circumference of a few feet on the bastion in front of us. + +This lasted nearly an hour, at the end of which time the fire was +considerably slackened, for the greater part of our guns had become +unserviceable. Only about a dozen kept up the fire, (the ball, I was going +to say,) and amongst them were the two that Ready commanded. He had given +them time to cool after firing, whereas most of the others, in their +desperate haste and eagerness, had neglected that precaution. Although the +patriots had now been fifteen years at war with the Spaniards, they were +still very indifferent artillerymen--for artillery had little to do in +most of their fights, which were generally decided by cavalry and +infantry, and even in that of Ayacucho there were only a few small +field-pieces in use on either side. The mountainous nature of the +country, intersected, too, by mighty rivers, and the want of good roads, +were the reasons of the insignificant part played by the artillery in +these wars. + +Whilst we were thus hard at work, who should enter the battery but the +very officer we had left Lima to visit? He was attended by a numerous +staff, and was evidently of very high rank. He stood a little back, +watching every movement of Captain Ready, and rubbing his hands with +visible satisfaction. Just at that moment the captain fired one of the +guns, and, as the smoke cleared away a little, we saw the opposite bastion +rock, and then sink down into the moat. A joyous hurra greeted its fall, +and the general and his staff sprang forward. + +It would be necessary to have witnessed the scene that followed in order +to form any adequate idea of the mad joy and enthusiasm of its actors. The +general seized Ready in his arms, and eagerly embraced him, then almost +threw him to one of his officers, who performed the like ceremony, and, in +his turn, passed him to a third. The imperturbable captain flew, or was +tossed, like a ball, from one to the other. I also came in for my share of +the embraces. + +I thought them all stark-staring mad; and, indeed, I do not believe they +were far from it. The balls were still hailing into the battery; one of +them cut a poor devil of an orderly nearly in two, but no notice was taken +of such trifles. It was a curious scene enough; the cannon-balls bouncing +about our ears--the ground under our feet slippery with blood--wounded and +dying lying on all sides--and we ourselves pushed and passed about from +the arms of one black-bearded fellow into those of another. There was +something thoroughly exotic, completely South American and tropical, in +this impromptu. + +Strange to say, now that the breach was made, and a breach such that a +determined regiment, assisted by well-directed fire of artillery, could +have had no difficulty in storming the town, there was no appearance of +any disposition to profit by it. The patriots seemed quite contented with +what had been done; most of the officers left the batteries, and the thing +was evidently over for the day. I knew little of Spanish Americans then, +or I should have felt less surprised than I did at their not following up +their advantage. It was not from want of courage; for it was impossible to +have exhibited more than they had done that morning. But they had had +their moment of fury, of wild energy and exertion, and the other side of +the national character, indolence, now showed itself. After fighting like +devils, at the very moment when activity was of most importance, they lay +down and took the _sièsta_. + +We were about leaving the battery, with the intention of visiting some of +the others, when our orderly came up in all haste, with orders to conduct +us to the general's quarters. We followed him, and soon reached a noble +villa, at the door of which a guard was stationed. Here we were given over +to a sort of major-domo, who led us through a crowd of aides-de-camp, +staff-officers, and orderlies, to a chamber, whither our valises had +preceded us. We were desired to make haste with our toilet, as dinner +would be served so soon as his Excellency returned from the batteries; +and, indeed, we had scarcely changed our dress, and washed the blood and +smoke from our persons, when the major-domo re-appeared, and announced the +general's return. + +Dinner was laid out in a large saloon, in which some sixty officers were +assembled when we entered it. With small regard to etiquette, and not +waiting for the general to welcome us, they all sprang to meet us with a +"_Buen venidos, capitanes!_" + +The dinner was such as might be expected at the table of a general +commanded at the same time an army and the blockade of a much-frequented +port. The most delicious French and Spanish wines were there in the +greatest profusion; the conviviality of the guests was unbounded, but +although they drank their champagne out of tumblers, no one showed the +smallest symptom of inebriety. + +The first toast given, was--Bolivar. + +The second--Sucre. + +The third--The Battle of Ayacucho. + +The fourth--Union between Columbia and Peru. + +The fifth--Hualero. + +The general rose to return thanks, and we now, for the first time, knew +his name. He raised his glass, and spoke, evidently with much emotion. + +"Senores! Amigos!" said he, "that I am this day amongst you, and able to +thank you for your kindly sentiments towards your general and brother in +arms, is owing, under Providence, to the good and brave stranger whose +acquaintance you have only this day made, but who is one of my oldest and +best friends." And so saying he left his place, and approaching Captain +Ready, affectionately embraced him. The seaman's iron features lost their +usual imperturbability, and his lips quivered as he stammered out the two +words-- + +"Amigo siempre." + +The following day we passed in the camp, and the one after returned to +Lima, the general insisting on our taking up our quarters in his house. + +From Hualero and his lady I learned the origin of the friendship existing +between the distinguished Columbian general and my taciturn Yankee +captain. It was the honourable explanation of the mysterious stain upon +Ready's character. + +Our difficulties regarding the brig were now soon at an end. The vessel +and cargo were returned to us, with the exception of a large quantity of +cigars belonging to the Spanish government. These were, of course, +confiscated, but the general bought them, and made them a present to +Captain Ready, who sold them by auction; and cigars being in no small +demand amongst that tobacco-loving population, they fetched immense +prices, and put thirty thousand dollars into my friend's pocket. + +To be brief, at the end of three weeks we sailed from Lima, and in a +vastly better humour than when we arrived there. + + + * * * * * + + + + +WOMAN'S RIGHTS AND DUTIES. + +BY A WOMAN. + + + "Chose étrange d'aimer, et que pour ces maitresses, + Les hommes soient sujets à de telles foiblesses-- + Tout le monde connoit leur imperfection, + Ce n'est qu'extravagance et qu'indiscrétion. + Leur esprit est méchant, et leur âme fragile, + Il n'est rien de plus foible et de plus imbécille, + Rien de plus infidèle--et malgrè tout cela, + Dans le monde on fait tout pour ces animaux-là." + + _Ecole des Femmes._ + +Such is the language of disappointment--but although a careful examination +of ancient and modern manners might lead to a different conclusion, (for +as the corruption of excessive refinement ends by placing her in the first +condition, so does the brutal assertion of physical superiority begin by +degrading her to the last,) woman is, we firmly believe, neither intended +for a tyrant nor a slave--Not a slave, for till she is raised above the +condition of a beast of burden, man, her companion, must continue +barbarous--Not a tyrant, for terrible as are the evils of irresponsible +authority, with whomsoever it may be vested, in her hands it becomes the +most tremendous instrument that Providence in its indignation can employ +to crush, degrade, and utterly to paralyze the nations within its reach. +The former position will readily be conceded; and the history of Rome +under the Emperors, or of France during the last century, affords but too +striking an exemplification of the second. It is, then, of the last +importance to society, that clear and accurate notions should prevail +among us concerning the education of a being on whom all its refinement, +and much of its prosperity, must depend. It is of the last importance, not +only that the absurd notions which half-a-century ago deprived English +ladies of education altogether, should be consigned to everlasting +oblivion and contempt--not only that the system to which France is +indebted for its Du Deffauds, Pompadours, and Du Barrys should be +extinguished, but that principles well adapted to the habits and +intelligence of man, in the most civilized state in which he has ever yet +existed, should prevail among us, should float upon the very atmosphere we +breathe, and be circulated in every vein that traverses the mighty fabric +of society. Therefore it is, because we are deeply impressed with this +conviction, that we hail with delight the appearance of a work so +profound, eloquent, and judicious; combining in so rare an union so many +kinds of excellence, as that which we now propose to the consideration of +our readers. Since the days of Smith and Montesquieu, no more valuable +addition has been made to moral science; and though the good taste and +modesty of its author, has induced her to put, in the least obtrusive +form, the wisdom and erudition--the least fragment of which would have +furnished forth a host of modern Sciolists with the most ostentatious +paragraphs--the deep thought and nervous eloquence by which almost every +page of the volume before us is illustrated, sufficiently establish her +title to rank among the most distinguished writers of this age and +country. If, indeed, we were ungrateful enough to quarrel with any part of +a work, the perusal of which has afforded us so much gratification, we +should be disposed (in deference, however, rather to the opinions of +others than our own) to alter the title that is prefixed to it. Many a +grave and pompous gentleman, who is "free to confess," and "does not +hesitate to utter" the dullest and most obvious commonplaces, would sit +down to the perusal of a work entitled, "On the Government of +Dependencies," or "Sermons on the Functions of Archdeacons and Rural +Deans," though never so deficient in learning, vigour, and originality, +who will reject with the supercilious ignorance of incurable stupidity, +these volumes, in which the habits, the interests, the inalienable rights, +the sacred duties of one half of the species, (and of that half to which, +at the most pliant and critical period of life, the health, the +disposition, the qualities, moral and intellectual, of the other half must +of necessity be confided,) are discussed with exemplary fairness, and +placed in the most luminous point of view. But we have detained our +readers too long from the admirable work which it is our object to make +known to them. It opens in the following manner:-- + + "It was once suggested by an eminent physiologist, that the + greatest enjoyments of our animal nature might be those which, + from their constancy, escape our notice altogether. + + "His investigations had led him to think, that even the + involuntary motions carried on in our system, were productive of + pleasure; and that the act of respiration was probably attended + by a sensation as delightful as the gratifications of the palate. + It is certain that every sense is a source of unnoticed + pleasures. Sound and light are agreeable in themselves, before + their varied combinations have produced music to our ear, or + conveyed the perceptions of form to our mind. Innumerable are the + emotions of pleasure conveyed to the imagination and the senses, + by the endless diversities of form, colour, and sound; and the + unbought riches poured upon us from these sources, are more + prolific of enjoyment, than any of the far-sought distinctions + which stir the hopes and rivalries of men. Yet, on these and + other spontaneous blessings, no one reflects, or even enumerates + them among the sources of happiness, till some casual suspension + of them revives sensibility to the delight they afford. + + "Such are the lamentations, though rarely so eloquently uttered, + which we daily hear on the loss of some possession, which, while + held, was scarcely noticed; and could preserve its owner, neither + from the gloom of apathy, nor the irritation of discontent. + + "Were it not for this, the necessary effect of habit both in the + physical and moral world, women might be expected to live in + daily and hourly exultation, who have been born in a Christian + and civilized country. Whatever theorists may have thought + occasionally of the happiness of men in barbarous or savage + conditions, no doubt at all can be entertained as to that of + women. It is civilization which has taken the yoke from their + neck, the scourge from their back, and the burden from their + shoulders. It is Christianity chiefly which has raised them from + the state of slaves or menials to that of citizens, and compelled + their rough and unresisted tyrants to call up law in their + defence; that potent spirit which they, who have evoked it, must + ever after themselves submit to. Religion, which extends the + sanctity of the marriage vow to the husband as well as to the + wife, has rescued her from a condition in which her best and most + tender affections were the source of her bitterest misery; a + condition in which her only escape from a sense of suffering too + unremitting for nature to endure, was in that mental degradation + which produces insensibility to wrong. The instances of primitive + communities, in which such injustice has not prevailed, are too + few and far between, to form any solid objection to the truth of + this general picture. The mere increase of numbers infallibly + obliterates the fair but feeble virtues that originate in nothing + but ignorance of ill; and the first inroads of want or discord, + usually settle the doom of the weak and defenceless. In restoring + to women their domestic dignity, religion has done more than + every other cause towards shielding them from the consequences of + weakness and dependence. From the dignified affections of the + other sex, they have gradually acquired some social rights, and + some share of that freedom, without which virtue itself can + scarcely exist. Opinion, the offspring, not of resplendent + genius, whose earliest fires burned indignantly against the + tyrant and oppressor, but of a religion which preached the + equality of all before God, has given them a share of those + blessings, without which life is not worth possession. At length + it has opened to them the portals of knowledge and wisdom, the + gradual, but effective supports against degradation; and has + sanctified its gifts by withholding from them every license that + leads to vice, every knowledge that detracts from their purity, + and every profession that would expose them to insult." + +Then follows a masterly sketch of the condition of woman in uncivilized +life, in which the subject is illustrated by the most apposite quotations +from the works of different travellers and historians. It is the writer's +opinion that in uncivilized life, the degradation of woman, though common, +is not universal. The celebrated passage in Tacitus is quoted in support +of this position; and among other less interesting extracts, is the +following account of Galway by Hardiman, a country which, so great is the +blessing of a paternal and judicious government, may furnish, in the +nineteenth century, illustrations of uncivilized life, equally picturesque +and striking with those which Tacitus has recorded in his day as familiar +among the inhabitants of Pagan Germany. + + "This colony, from time immemorial, has been ruled by one of + their own body, periodically elected, who somewhat resembled the + Brughaid or head village of ancient times, when every clan + resided in its hereditary canton. This individual, who is + decorated with the title of mayor, in imitation of the city, + regulates the community according to their own peculiar customs + and laws, and settles all fishery disputes. His decisions are so + decisive, and so much respected, that the parties are seldom + known to carry their differences before a legal tribunal, or to + trouble the civil magistrate. They neither understand nor trouble + themselves about politics, consequently, in the most turbulent + times, their loyalty has never been questioned. Their mayor is no + way distinguished from other villagers, except that his boat is + decorated with a white sail, and may be seen when at sea, at + which time he acts as admiral, with colours flying at the + masthead, gliding through their fleet with some appearance of + authority.... When on shore, they employ themselves in repairing + their boats, sails, rigging, and cordage, in making, drying, and + repairing their nets and spillets, in which latter part they are + assisted by the women, who spin the hemp and yarn for their nets. + In consequence of their strict attention to these particulars, + very few accidents happen at sea, and lives are seldom lost. + Whatever time remains after these avocations, they spend in + regaling with whisky, and assembling in groups to discuss their + maritime affairs, on which occasions they arrange their fishing + excursions. When preparing for sea, hundreds of their women and + children for days before crowd the strand, seeking for worms to + bait the hooks. The men carry in their boats, potatoes, oaten + cakes, fuel, and water, but never admit any spirituous liquors. + Thus equipped, they depart for their fishing ground, and + sometimes remain away several days. Their return is joyfully + hailed by their wives and children, who meet them on the shore. + The fish instantly becomes the property of the women, (the men, + after landing, never troubling themselves further about it,) and + they dispose of it to a poorer class of fishwomen, who retail it + at market. + + "The inhabitants of the Cloddagh are an unlettered race. They + rarely speak English, and even their Irish they pronounce in a + harsh, discordant tone, sometimes not intelligible to the + townspeople. They are a contented, happy race, satisfied with + their own society, and seldom ambitious of that of others. + Strangers (for whom they have an utter aversion) are never + suffered to reside among them. The women possess an unlimited + control over their husbands, the produce of whose labour they + exclusively manage, allowing the men little more money than + suffices to keep the boat and tackle in repair; but they keep + them plentifully supplied with whisky, brandy, and tobacco. The + women seldom speak English, but appear more shrewd and + intelligent in their dealings than the men; in their domestic + concerns the general appearance of cleanliness is deserving of + particular praise. The wooden ware, with which every dwelling is + well stored, rivals in colour the whitest delft. + + "At an early age they generally marry amongst their own clan. A + marriage is commonly preceded by an elopement, but no + disappointment or disadvantage from that circumstance has ever + been known among them. The reconciliation with the friends + usually takes place the next morning, the clergyman is sent for, + and the marriage celebrated. The parents generally contrive to + supply the price of a boat, or a share in one, as a beginning." + +The writer then proceeds, in a strain of generous yet chastened energy, to +comment on the false measure which people apply to the sufferings of +others. Insensibility to wretchedness, or, as in the vocabulary of +oppression it is called, content, is often a proof of nothing but that +stupefaction of the faculties which is the natural result of long and +blighting misery. A contented slave is a degraded man. His sorrow may be +gone, but so is his understanding. + +In the course of her enquiries into the condition of women under the +Mahometan law, the author is led to make some reflections upon one by whom +Mahometan manners were first presented in an attractive shape to the +English public--a person celebrated for her friends, but still more +celebrated for her enemies--known for her love, but famous for her hate--a +girl without feeling, a woman without tenderness--a banished wife, a +careless mother--on whom extraordinary wit, masculine sense, a clear +judgment, and an ardent love of letters seem to have been lavished for no +other purpose than to show that, without a good heart, they serve only to +make their possessor the most contemptible of mankind. Lady Mary Wortley's +heart was the receptacle of all meanness and sensuality--the prey of a +selfishness as intense as rank, riches, a bad education, natural +malignity, and the extremes of good and bad fortune, ever engendered in +the breast of woman. The remarks on her character, in the volume before +us, are, as might be expected, excellent. + +The condition of women among the more polished nations of antiquity, is a +subject which, if fully examined, would more than exhaust our narrow +limits. It does not appear from Homer, says our author, that the condition +of women was depressed. Achilles, in a very striking passage, declares +that every wise and good man loves and is careful for his wife, and +Hector, in the passage which Cicero is so fond of quoting, urges the +opinion of + + "Troy's proud dames, whose garments sweep the ground," + +as a motive for his conduct. However this may be, certain it is, that the +feelings and affections of domestic life are portrayed by Homer with a +degree of purity, truth, and pathos, that casts every other writer, Virgil +not excepted, into the shade; and which, to carry the panegyric of human +composition as far as it will go, he himself, in his most glorious +passages, has never been able to surpass. It has been so long the fashion +to represent Virgil as the sole master of the pathetic, that this +assertion may appear to many paradoxical; and it is undoubtedly true, that +the fourth book of the Aeneid cannot he read by any one of common +sensibility without strong emotion; but how different is the lamentation +of Andromache over her living husband, uttered in all the glow and +consciousness of returned and "twice blest" love, from the raving of the +slighted woman, abandoned by the lover whom she has too rashly trusted, +and to whom she has too plainly become indifferent! How different is the +character of the patriot warrior, the prop and bulwark of his country, +sacrificing his life to delay that ruin which he knew it was beyond his +power to avert--snatching, amid the bloody scenes around him, a moment for +the indulgence of a father's pride and a husband's tenderness, from the +perfidious paramour flying from the vengeance of the woman he had wronged! + +And how noble is the simplicity of Andromache, how affecting the appeal in +which, after reminding her husband that all else to which she was bound +had been swept away, she tells him that, while he remains, her other +losses are unfelt! Let us trace the episode. "She had not gone," the poet +tells us, "to the mansions of her brothers or of her sisters, with their +floating veils; neither had she gone to the shrine of Minerva, where the +Trojan women strove to appease the terrible wrath of the fair-haired +goddess. No. She had gone to the lofty tower of Ilium, for she had heard +that the Trojans were sore harassed, and that the force of the Greeks was +mighty; thither, like one bereft of reason, had she precipitated her +steps, and the nurse followed with her child." Then follows that +interview, which no one can read without passion, or think of without +delight--that exquisite scene, in which the wife and mother pours out all +her tenderness, her joy, her sadness, her pride, her terror, the memory of +the past, and the presage of future sorrow, in an irresistible torrent of +confiding love. Not less affecting is her husband's answer. Conscious of +his impending doom, he replies, that "not the future misery of his +countrymen, not that of Hecuba herself, and the royal Priam--not that of +all his valiant brethren slain by their enemies, and trampled in the dust, +give him such a pang as the thought of her distress." Then, as if to +relieve his thoughts, he stretches out his hand towards his child, but the +child shrinks backwards, scared at the brazen helm and waving crest--the +father and the mother exchange a smile--Hector lays aside the blazing +helmet, and, clasping his child in his arms, utters the noble prayer which +Dryden has rendered with uncommon spirit and fidelity:-- + + "Parent of gods and men, propitious Jove, + And you, bright synod of the powers above, + On this my son your precious gifts bestow; + Grant him to love, and great in arms to grow, + To reign in Troy, to govern with renown, + To shield the people, and assert the crown: + That when hereafter he from war shall come, + And bring his Trojans peace and triumph home, + Some aged man, who lives this act to see, + And who in former times remember'd me, + May say, 'The son in fortitude and fame, + Outgoes the mark, and drowns his father's name;' + That at these words his mother may rejoice, + And add her suffrage to the public voice." + +"Thus having said, he placed the boy in the arms of his beloved wife, and +she received him on her fragrant breast, sailing amid her tears;" her +husband uttered a few words of melancholy consolation, "and Andromache +went homewards, weeping, and often turning as she went." There is but one +passage in any work, ancient or modern, which can bear comparison with +this, and that is one in the Odyssey, in which is described the meeting of +Ulysses and Penelope; and yet some unfortunate people, who write +commentaries on the classics, only to show how completely nature has +denied them the faculty of taste, affirm that these passages were written +by different people. It is curious to what a pitch pedantry and dulness +may be brought by diligent cultivation. + +As the fanatics of the East, to prove their continence, frequented the +society of women under the most trying circumstances, so these gentlemen +seem to study the writers of antiquity with the view of showing that their +understandings are equally inaccessible. In one respect the analogy does +not hold good. History tells us that the fanatics sometimes sunk under the +temptations to which they exposed themselves; but these gentlemen have +never, in any one instance, yielded to the influence of taste or genius. +Zenophon, in a beautiful treatise, has given an account of the manner in +which an Athenian endeavoured to mould the character of his wife, and to +this we would refer such of our readers as wish for more ample knowledge +on the subject. There is one circumstance, however, which we the rather +mention, as it has not found its way into the work before us, and as it +furnishes the most conclusive and irresistible evidence of the value set +upon matrimonial happiness at Athens, and of the servile vassalage to +which women, in that most polished of all cities, were reduced. By the law +of Athens, a father without sons might bequeath his property away from his +daughter, but the person to whom the property was bequeathed was obliged +to marry her. This was reasonable enough; but the same principle, that of +keeping the inheritance in the stock to which it belonged, occasioned +another law--if the father left his estate to his daughter, and if the +daughter inherited his property after the father's death, her nearest male +relation in the descending line, the [Greek: agchioteus], might, though +she was married to a living husband, lay claim to her, institute a suit +for her recovery, force her from her husband's arms, and make her his +wife. + +Such a law must, alone, have been fatal to that domestic purity which we +justly consider the basis of social happiness--the very word, [Greek: +hetairai], which the Athenians enjoyed to denote the most degraded of all +women, if it proves the exquisite refinement of that wonderful people, +serves also to show how different were the associations with which, among +them, that class was connected. Can we wonder at this? Under that glorious +heaven, such women might, when they chose, behold the statues of Phidias +and the pictures of Zeuxis; they could listen to the wisdom of Socrates, +or they might form part of the crowd, hushed in raptured silence, round +the rhapsodist, as he recited the immortal lines of Homer--or round +Demosthenes, as he poured upon a rival, worthy of himself, the burning +torrent of his more than human eloquence. + +In their hearing the mightiest interests were discussed--the subtle +questions of the Academy propounded--the snares of the sophist +exposed--the sublime thoughts and actions of heroes and demigods, +embodied in the most glorious poetry, were daily exhibited to their view; +while the wife, occupied solely with petty cares and trifling objects, +without charms to win the love, or dignity to command the esteem, of her +husband, was condemned, within the narrow walls of the Gynaeceum, (of +which the drawings of Herculaneum and Pompeii may enable us to form some +notion,) to drag out the insipid round of her monotonous existence. + +True the Hetairai were stigmatized by law--but, as opinion was on their +side, they might well submit to legal condemnation and formal censure, +when they saw every day the youth, the intellect, the eloquence, the +philosophy, and the dignity of Athens crowding round their feet. At Rome, +the wife was not subject to the same rigorous seclusion, she was not cut +off from all possibility of improvement; her influence was gradually felt, +her rights were tacitly extended, and long after the letter of the law +reduced her to the condition of a slave, she held and exercised the +privileges of a citizen. At Rome, domestic virtues were more considered, +domestic ties were held in great esteem. The family was the basis of the +state. The existence of the Roman was not altogether public, it was not +merely intellectual; in what Grecian poet after Homer shall we find lines +that convey such an idea of domestic happiness as these?-- + + "Præterea neque jam domus accipiet te læta, neque uxor + Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati + Præripere--et tacitâ pectus dulcedinet tangent." + +There is no event to which women are more indebted for the improved +situation they hold among us than the propagation of Christianity. It was +reserved for religion to urge the weakness of woman as a reason for +treating her, not with tenderness only, but with respect; it was reserved +for religion to bring the charities that are lovely in private life into +public service; to break down the barriers which had so long separated the +husband from the citizen, and to pour around the private hearth the light +which, up to the time of its revelation, had been reflected almost +exclusively from the school of the philosopher or the forum of the +republic, unless in a few rare and favoured instances when it had shed its +radiance over the cell of the captive and the deathbed of the patriot. It +was for religion to inculcate that purity of heart, without which mere +forbearance from sensuality is a virtue which may be prized in the +precincts of the seraglio, but to which true honour is almost indifferent. +Nothing less powerful than such an influence prescribing a new life, and +commanding its votaries to be new creatures, could have wrenched from +their holdings prejudices as old as the society in which they flourished. +Our limits will not allow us to descant at any length on the condition of +women during the early ages of Christianity; but we transcribe on this +subject, from a recent work, a passage which we are sure our readers will +peruse with pleasure. + + "Ce qui rendit les moeurs des familles Chrétiennes si graves, ce + qui les conserva si chastes, c'est ce qui a toujours exercé sur + les moeurs en général l'influence la plus profonde, l'exemple des + femmes. Douées d'une delicatesse d'organes, qui rend, pour ainsi + dire, leur intelligence plus accessible à la voix d'un monde + supérieur, leur coeur plus sensible à toutes ces émotions qui + enfantent les vertus, et qui élèvent l'homme terrestre au-dessus + de la sphère étroite de la vie présente, les femmes, étrangères à + l'histoire des travaux speculatifs du genre humain, sont + toujours, dans les révolutions morales et religieuses, les + premières à saisir, et à propager ce qui est grand, beau, et + céleste. Avec une chaleur entrainante elles embrassèrent la cause + Chrétienne, et s'y dévouèrent en héroines, depuis l'annonciation + du Sauveur jusqu'à sa mort; en effet, elles furent les premières + aux pieds de sa croix, les premières à son sépulcre. Présentant + avec leur tact si prompt et si fin, tout ce que cette cause leur + déferait d'élévation morale et d'avantages sociaux, elles s'y + attachèrent avec un intérêt toujours croissant. Depuis les + saintes femmes de l'évangile et la marchande de pourpre de + Thyatire jusqu'à l'impératrice Hélène, elles furent les + protectrices les plus zélées des idées Chrétiennes. Leur zèle ne + fut point sans sacrifices, mais avec empressement elles + renoncèrent à leurs goûts les plus chers, à la parure et aux + élégances du luxe, pour rivaliser avec les hommes les plus sages + de la société Chrétienne. Quelques rares exceptions ne se font + remarquer que pour relever tant de mérite."--Matter, _Hist. du + Christianime_, Vol. I. + + "The tendency of this creed," to use the words of our author, "is + to direct the aim and purposes of mankind to whatever can exalt + human nature and improve human happiness. It represents us as + gardeners in a vineyard, or servants entrusted with a variety of + means, who are not 'to keep their talent in a napkin,' but to + exert their skill and ingenuity to employ it to the best + advantage. The moral principles themselves are fixed and + unchangeable; but their application to the circumstances by which + we are surrounded, must depend very much on the degree in which + reason has been exercised. By no imaginable instruction could the + mind be so tutored, as to see through all the errors and + prejudices of its times at once, but the principles possess in + themselves a power of progression. The generosity of one time + will be but justice in another; the temperance that brings + respect and distinction in one age, will be but decorum in one + more civilized, yet the principles are at all times the same." + +It is difficult to read without a smile some of the passages in which the +dress and manners of the first ages are described by the Fathers of the +Church; the fair hair, (our classical readers will recollect the + + "Nigrum flavo crinem abscondente galero" + +of the Roman satirist,) which the daughters of the South borrowed from +their Celtic and German neighbours, seems especially to have excited their +indignation. Tertullian, in his treatise "De Cultu Foeminarum," declaims +with his usual fiery rhetoric against this habit. "I see some women," says +the African, "who dye their hair with yellow; they are ashamed of their +very nation, that they are not the natives of Gaul or Germany. Evil and +most disastrous to them is the omen which their fiery head portends, while +they consider such abomination graceful." This charitable hint of future +reprobation, savage as it appears, seems to have been much admired by the +Fathers; it is repeated by St Jerome and St Cyprian with equal triumph. +Well, indeed, might Theophilus of Antioch, in his letter to Autolycus, +place the Christian opinions concerning women in startling contrast with +the revolting scheme proposed in relation to them by the most refined +philosopher of antiquity. Well might the matrons of Antioch refuse to +gratify Julian by a sacrifice to gods whose votaries had steeped their sex +in impurity and degradation. The death of Hypatia is indeed a blot in +Christian annals, but she fell the victim of an infuriated multitude; and +how often had the Proconsul and the Emperor beheld, unmoved, the arena wet +with the blood of Christian virgins, and the earth blackened with their +ashes! Indeed, the deference paid to weakness is the grand maxim, the +practical application of which, in spite of some fantastic notions, and +some most pernicious errors that accompanied it, entitles chivalry to our +veneration, and prevented the dark ages from being one scene of unmixed +violence and oppression. The flashes of generosity that gild with a +momentary splendour the dreadful scenes of feudal tyranny, were struck out +by the force of this principle acting upon the most rugged nature in the +most superstitious ages. While the fire that had consumed the surprised +city was slaked in the blood of its miserable inhabitants, the distress of +high-born beauty, or the remonstrances of the defenceless priest, often +arrested the career of the warrior, who viewed the slaughter of +unoffending peasants and of simple burghers with as much indifference as +that of the wild-boar or the red-deer which it was his pastime and his +privilege to destroy. Who does not remember the beautiful passage in +Tasso, where the crusaders burst into tears at the sight of the holy +sepulchre?-- + + "Nudo ciascuno il pie calca il sentiero, + Ch'l'esempio de duci ogn' altromuove + Serico fregio d'or, piuma e criniero + Superbo dal suo capo ognon rimuove, + _E d'insieme del cor l'abito altero + Depone, e calde e pie lagrime piove_." + +We now enter into the main object of the work, the condition of women in +modern times; and the passage which introduces the subject is so luminous +and eloquent, that we cannot resist the pleasure of laying it before our +readers without mutilation. + + "To pursue the history of woman through the ages of misrule and + violence that corrupted the spirit of chivalry, would be useless. + It is sufficiently evident, that in proportion as the vices of + barbarism renewed their dominion, the condition of women would be + more or less affected by their evils. But, on the whole, society + was improving: two great events were preparing to engage the + attention of Europe--the struggles for religious freedom and the + revival of learning. These produced effects on the human mind + very different from those of any revolutions that had taken place + during the age of barbarism. + + "While the opinion reigned absolute, that war was the most + important affair of life and the most honourable pursuit, the + tendency of society was towards destruction. All the virtue + consistent with so false a principle was, perhaps, brought forth + by chivalry; but in the long run, the false principle overruled + the force of the generous spirit, and chivalry sank like a meteor + that owed its splendour to surrounding darkness. Its spirit gave + an impulse to opinion and sentiment, but its errors and ignorance + disabled it from supplying any corrective to the bad institutions + and mistaken policy which fostered barbarism. It was not every + mind that was capable of imbibing the generous sentiments of + chivalry, but ferocious passions could rarely fail to be + stimulated by the idolatry of war, and the contempt for civil + employments it produced. Among men, poor, restless, and to a + great degree irresponsible, the craving for distinction excited + by chivalry was a dangerous passion. No very general change over + the face of society could be reasonably expected, from the + attempts to engraft a spirit of gentleness and beneficence upon a + principle of war and destruction. The spirit was right, but the + principle was wrong. It was just the reverse in the next + enthusiasm which seized the minds of mankind. In the struggles + for religious freedom which followed, the principle was right, + but it was pursued in the horrible spirit of persecution. Men, + ready to die for the right of professing the truth, could not + divest themselves of that persecuting spirit towards others, + which was leading themselves to the stake. But there is a vigour + in a right principle which gradually clears men's eyes of their + prejudices. The dire and mistaken means by which successive + reformers defended each his own opinion, were abandoned, and men + began to perceive that civil and religious liberty were of more + use to society than martial feats or extended conquests; and that + it is still more important to learn how to reason than how to fight. + + "The tendency of this principle was towards social improvement, + and civilization began to make progress. + + "Before the extinction of chivalry, the airy throne on which + women had been raised was broken down; but the effects of her + elevation were never obliterated. There remained on the surface + of society a tone of gallantry which tended to preserve some + recollection of the station she had once held. As civilization + advanced, the idea that women might be disposed of like property, + seemed to be nearly abandoned all over Europe; but their + subsequent condition partook (as might be expected in the case of + dependent beings) of the character prevailing in each country. + The grave temper and morbid jealousy of the Spaniards, reduced + them almost to Eastern seclusion." + +We entreat the attention of our readers to the following remark, which +explains, in some degree, the mediocrity that characterizes the present +day:-- + + "In the first ages after the rise of literature, the very want of + that multitude of second-rate books we now possess, had the + effect of compelling those who learned any thing to betake + themselves to studies of a solid nature; and there was + consequently less difference then, between the education of the + two sexes, than now. The reader will immediately recollect the + instances of Lady Jane Grey, Mrs Hutchinson, and others of the + same class, and will feel that it is quite fair to assume, that + many such existed when a few came to be known." + +It was during the reign of the last princes of the House of Valois, that +the women of the French court began to exercise that malignant and almost +universal influence, which, for a while, poisoned the well-springs of +refinement and civility. Eclipsed for a while by the mighty luminaries +which, during the life of Louis XIII., and the early part of Louis +XIV.th's reign, were lords of the ascendant when they had sunk beneath +the horizon, their constellation again blazed forth with greater force +and more disastrous splendour. Hence the Dragonnades, the destruction of +Port-Royal, the persecution of the Jansenists, the death of Racine, the +disgrace of Fénélon. Hence, in the reign of Louis XV., orgies that +Messalina would have blushed to share; while cruelties[A] of which +Suwarrow would hardly have been the instrument, were employed to lash +into a momentary paroxysm nerves withered by debauchery. Here let us +pause for a moment, to remark upon the effect which false opinions may +produce upon the happiness and well-being of distant generations. Nothing +is so common as for trivial superficial men--the class to which the +management of empires is for the most part entrusted--to ridicule +theories, and, by a mode reasoning which would place any cabin boy far +above Sir Isaac Newton, to insist upon the mechanical parts of +government, and the routine of ordinary business, as the sole objects +entitled to notice and consideration-- + + "O curvæ in terris animæ, et coelestium inanes!" + +[Footnote A: This does not apply to Louis XV. personally.] + +We would fain ask these practical people--for such is the eminently +inappropriate metaphor by which they rejoice to be distinguished--we would +fain ask them (if it be consistent with their profound respect for +practice to pay some attention to experience) to cast their eyes upon the +proceedings and manners of the French court (wild and chimerical as such +an appeal will no doubt appear to them) during the dominion of Catharine +of Medicis and her offspring, those execrable deceivers, corrupters, and +executioners of their people. To what are the almost incredible +abominations, familiar as household words to the French court of that day, +to be ascribed? To what are the persecutions, perjuries, the massacres +that pollute the annals of France during that period, to be attributed? To +a false theory. Catharine of Medicis brought into France the practical +atheism of Machiavelli's prince--the Bible, as she blasphemously called +it, of her class. The maxims which, when confined to the petty courts of +Italy, did not undermine the prosperity of any considerable portion of the +human race, when disseminated among a valiant, politic, and powerful +nation, brought Iliads of desolation in their train. We subjoin Jeanne +d'Allrep's account of the private manners of the court of Charles IX:-- + + "J'ai trouvé votre lettre fort à mon gré--je la montrerai à + madame, si je puis; quant à la peinture, je l'enverrai querir à + Paris; elle est belle et bien avisée, et de bonne grâce, mais + nourrie en la plus maudite et corrompue compagnie qui fut jamais, + car je n'en vois point qui ne s'en sente. Votre cousine la + marquise (l'épouse du jeune Prince de Condé) en est tellement + changée qu'il n'y a apparence de religion en elle; si non + d'autant qu'elle ne va point à la messe; car au reste de sa façon + de vivre, hormis l'idolâtrie, elle fait comme les Papistes; et ma + soeur la Princesse (de Condé) encore pis. Je vous l'écris + privément, le porteur vous dira comme le roi s'émancipe--c'est + pitié; je ne voudrois pour chose du monde que vous y fussiez pour + y demeurer. Voilà pourquoi je désire vous marier, et que vous et + votre femme vous vous retiriez de cette corruption; car encore + que je la croyois bien grande, je la trouve encore davantage. Ce + ne sont pas les hommes ici qui prient les femmes--ce sont les + femmes qui prient les hommes; si vous y étiez, vous n'en + échapperiez jamais sans une grande grâce de Dieu." + +Thus women were alternately tools and plotters, idols and slaves. The +ornaments of a court became the scourges of a nation; their influence was +an influence made up of falsehood, made up of cruelty, made up of +intrigue, of passions the most unbridled, and of vices the most +detestable, and it seems to the student of history, in this wild and +dreadful era as if all that was generous, upright, noble, and +benevolent--as if faith and honour, and humanity and justice, were +foreign and unnatural to the heart of man. But let us turn to our author. + + "But the times were about to change. The great and stirring + contests in religion and politics, which had given such scope to + the deep fervour of the British character, subsided, as if the + actors were breathless from their past exertions. The struggle + for freedom sank into acquiescence in the dominion of the most + worthless of mankind; and zeal for religion fled before the + spirit of banter and sneer. The enthusiasm of 'fierce wars and + faithful loves,' of piety and of freedom, were succeeded by the + reign of profligacy and levity. + + "During that disastrous period, the sordid and servile vices seem + to have kept pace with the wildest licentiousness; and the dark + and stern persecutions in Scotland form a fearful contrast with + the bacchanalian revels of the court. The effects on the + character and estimation of the female sex, sustain all that has + been said upon the connexion of their interests with the + elevation of morals. It became the habit to satirize and despise + them, and on this they have never entirely recovered. The + demoralization which led to it was, indeed, too much opposed to + the temper of the English to be permanent; but women, for a long + time after, ceased to keep pace with their age. Notwithstanding + the numerous exceptions which must always have existed in a free + and populous country like England, where literature had made + progress, it is certain, that in the days of Pope and Addison, the + women, in general, were grossly ignorant. + + "The tone of gallantry and deference which had arisen from + chivalry, still remained on the surface, but its language was + that of cold, unmeaning flattery; and, from being the arbiters of + honour, they became the mere ministers of amusement. They were + again consigned to that frivolity, into which they _relapse as + easily as men_ do into ferocity. The respect they inspired, was + felt individually or occasionally, but not for their sex. Any + thing serious addressed to them, was introduced with an apology, + or in the manner we now address children whom we desire to + flatter. They were treated and considered as grown children. In + the writings addressed to them expressly for their instruction in + morals, or the conduct of life, though with the sincerest desire + for their welfare, nothing is proposed to them that can either + exalt their sentiments, invigorate their judgment, or give them + any desire to leave the world better than they found it. They + inculcated little beyond the views and the duties of a decent + servant. Views and duties, indeed, very commendable as far as + they go, but lamentable when offered as the standard of morals + and thought for half the human species; that half too, on whom + chiefly depends the first, the often unalterable, bent given to + the character of the whole." + +The dignity of character which rivets our attention on the "high dames and +gartered knights" of the days of Elizabeth, the simplicity and earnestness +and lofty feeling, which lent grace to prejudice and chastened error into +virtue, were exchanged, in the days of Charles II., for undisguised +corruption and insatiable venality, for license without generosity, +persecution without faith, and luxury without refinement. Grammont's +animated _Mémoires_ are a complete, and, from the happy unconsciousness of +the writer to the vices he portrays, a faithful picture of the court, to +which the description Polydore Virgil gives of a particular family, "nec +vir fortis nec foemina casta," was almost literally applicable. + +Various as are the beauties of style with which this work +abounds--beauties which, to borrow the phrase of Cicero, rise as +naturally from the subject as a flower from its stem--we doubt whether it +contains a more felicitous illustration than that which we are about to +quote. The reader must bear in mind that the object of the writer is to +establish the proposition, that there is an average inferiority of women +to men in certain qualities, which, slight as it may appear, or +altogether as it may vanish, in particular instances, is, on the whole, +incontestable, and according to which the transactions of daily life are +distributed. + + "All inconvenience is avoided by a slight inferiority of strength + and abilities in one of the sexes. This gradually develops a + particular turn of character, a new class of affections and + sentiments that humanize and embellish the species more than any + others. These lead at once, without art or hesitation, to a + division of duties, needed alike in all situations, and produce + that order without which there can be no social progression. In + the treatise of _The Hand_, by Sir Charles Bell, we learn that + the left hand and foot are naturally a little weaker than the + right; the effect of this is, to make us more prompt and + dexterous than we should otherwise be. If there were no + difference at all between the right and left limbs, the slight + degree of hesitation which hand to use or which foot to put + forward, would create an awkwardness that would operate more or + less every moment of our lives, and the provision to prevent it + seems analogous to the difference nature has made between the + strength of the sexes." + +The domain of woman is the horizon where heaven and earth meet--a sort of +land debatable between the confines where positive institutions end and +intellectual supremacy begins. It includes the whole region over which +politeness should extend, as well as a large portion of the territories +over which the fine arts hold their sway. + +Those lighter and more shifting features which elude the grasp of the +moralist, and escape the pencil of the historian, though they impress upon +every age a countenance and expression of its own, it is her undoubted +province to survey. Consequently, if not for the + + "Troublous storms that toss + The private state, and render life unsweet," + +yet for whatever of elegance or simplicity is wanting in the intercourse +of society, for all that is cumbrous in its proceedings, for any bad +taste, and much for any coarseness that it tolerates, woman, as European +manners are constituted, is exclusively responsible. The habits of daily +intercourse represent her faults and virtues as naturally as a shadow is +cast by the sun, or the image of the tree that overhangs the lake is +reflected from its undisturbed and silent waters. Where the desire of +wealth and respect for rank engross an excessive share of her thoughts, +conversation will be insipid; and instead of that, "nature _ondoyante_," +that disposition to please and be pleased, which is the essence of good +nature and the foundation of good taste--instead of frankness and +urbanity, youth will engraft on its real ignorance the dulness of affected +stupidity--will assume an air of selfish calculation--of arrogance at one +time and servility at another--debased itself, and debasing all around it. +When, on the contrary, whatever may be their real sentiments, the external +demeanour of men to each other is such as benevolence, gratitude, and +equity would dictate--and we do mean this phrase to include Russian +manners--where, whatever may be the principles that ferment within, the +surface of society is brilliant and harmonious--where, if the better +politeness which dwells in the heart be wanting, the imitation of it which +springs from the head is habitual--women are entitled to the praise of +exact taste and skilful discrimination. There are women whom the world +elevates, only afterwards the more effectually to humble. For a time the +best and wisest submit to their caprices, study their humour, are governed +by their wishes--every one avoids as a crime the slightest appearance of +collision with any motive that, for the moment, it may suit their purpose +to entertain--a smile upon their face is hailed with rapture, any faint +proof that humanity is not dead within their breasts draws down the most +enthusiastic applause. During their hour of empire, people are grateful to +them for not being absolutely intolerable--when they deviate into the +least appearance of courtesy or good nature, they are angels. Their sun +sets, and they soon learn what it is to be a fallen tyrant. The woman who +pleases at first, and as your acquaintance advances gains the more in your +esteem, is the most charming of all companions; the countenance of such a +person is the most agreeable of all sights, and her voice the most +musical of all sounds. "Une belle femme qui a les qualités d'un honnête +homme est-ce qu'il y a au monde d'un commerce plus delicieux; l'on trouve +en elle tout le mérite des deux sexes." + +"In the heart of the best woman," says a German writer, "there glows a +shovelful, at least, of infernal embers; in that of the worst, there is a +little corner of Paradise." + +The real benefits which depend on the influence of the softer sex are thus +described:-- + + "One of the peculiar offices of women is to refine society. They + are very much shielded by their sex from the stern duties of men, + and from that intercourse with the basest part of mankind which + is opposed to the humanizing influence of mental cultivation. On + them, the improvement of society in these respects chiefly + depends; and they who consider the subject with the views here + offered, will become more and more convinced of the service they + might render. Manners are, in truth, of great importance. If real + refinement be a merit, it is surely desirable that it should show + itself in the general deportment. Real vulgarity is the + expression of something mean or coarse in sentiments or habits. + It betrays the want of fine moral perceptions. The peculiarities + in manner and deportment, which proceed from the selfishness of + the great world, when stripped of the illusory influence of their + apparent refinement, become grossly offensive. A cold repulsive + manner, such as is commonly assumed by persons in high life, is + sometimes a necessary shield against the pushing familiarity of + underbred persons. Their tasteless imitations of habits and + manners which do not belong to their station or character, + deserve the ridicule they meet with. The most offensive form + vulgarity can take, is an affectation of the follies and vices of + high life. It is true that the notion of vulgarity is affixed, in + the fine world, to many trifling modes of dress and deportment, + which in themselves have no demerit whatever, except that + something opposed to them has acquired an ephemeral propriety + from the fancy of the great. But in real good breeding there is + always a reason. It is far too little attended to in England in + any class, though, from acting as a continual corrective to + selfish and unsocial affections, it is peculiarly requisite in + all. Good manners consist in a constant maintenance of + self-respect, accompanied by attention and deference to others; + in correct language, gentle tones of voice, ease, and quietness + in movements and action. They repress no gaiety or animation + which keeps free of offence; they divest seriousness of an air of + severity or pride. In conversation, good manners restrain the + vehemence of personal or party feelings, and promote that + versatility which enables people to converse readily with + strangers, and take a passing interest in any subject that may be + addressed to them." + +The writer takes occasion to regret the narrow spirit which prevents our +nobility, or, to speak more properly, our fashionable coteries, from +acquiring a healthier tone, by mixing with societies in which habits of +more vigorous thought predominate. In France, to whatever degree frivolity +may be carried, a French lady would be ashamed not to affect an interest +in the great writers by whom her country has been ennobled; and to betray +an ignorance of their works, or an indifference to their renown, would be +considered a proof not only of the greatest stupidity, but of bad taste +and unrefined habits. Here we are distinguished unfavourably from our +neighbours--exceptions, of course, there must always be--but in general to +betray an acquaintance with any literature beyond the last novel, or the +current trash and gossip of the day, might provoke the charge of pedantry, +but at any rate would fail in exciting the slightest sympathy. Hence men +of letters, and women of letters, form a caste by themselves much to their +own disadvantage, and still more to the injury of those to the improvement +of whom they might imperceptibly contribute; hence the statesman, or the +lawyer, or the writer, generally keeps aloof from the great world, which +he leaves to idle young men and aged coxcombs; or, if he enters it, takes +care to abstain from those topics on which his conversation would be most +natural, instructing, and entertaining. Instances, indeed, may be found, +where men, eminent for science and literature, or of high professional +reputation, inflamed with a distempered appetite for fashionable society, +"drag their slow lengths along" among the guardsmen and dowagers who +frequent such scenes; but they are rather tolerated than encouraged, and +the sacrifices by which they purchase their admission into the dullest +society of Europe are so numerous, their appearance is so mortifying, and +the effect produced upon themselves so pernicious, that hitherto such +instances have served not as models to imitate, but as bywords to deter. +Instead of improving others, they degrade themselves; instead of inspiring +the frivolous with nobler aims and better principles, they condescend to +be the echoes of imbecility; instead of raising the standard of +conversation, they yield implicitly to any signal, however corrupt, +worthless, or utterly unreasonable may be the quarter from which it +proceeds, that the most submissive votaries of fashion watch for and obey. +The system is denounced by our author in the following vigorous and +eloquent passage:-- + + "The assembly-room or dinner-table _is the very focus of care and + anxiety_, so that a funereal dulness often overhangs it; and + there, where there is the greatest amount of money, time, and + contrivance expended on pleasure--there is least animation of + spirits. For one who is pleased, a dozen are chewing the cud of + some petty annoyance, and _the flow of spirits excited and + animated by rapid interchange of ideas is scarcely known._ When + it occurs, it is seldom owing to those who live for dissipation, + but to men whom the duties of office compel to work very hard. + Notwithstanding their wealth, the pursuits of ambition compel + them to become men of business, and the elasticity of their minds + is preserved. That languid and depressed condition which cankers + the very heart of social enjoyment, loses its solemn character on + occasions of disappointment and vexation. Its pleasures are not + cheerful, but its distresses are ludicrous, and are felt to be + so. Each laughs at his neighbour's mortifications, and the + consciousness he is supplying the same malicious amusement in his + turn, does not take the sting from his own griefs when they + arise. + + "Nor is it merely as destructive of social enjoyment, that the + habits of the great world are unfriendly to happiness. It is not + the place for those who have warm imaginations and tender hearts. + There is scarcely any circumstance in which that sphere differs + more from others, than in the deficiency of strong affections. + The chances are many against their existence; and if a woman be + born to move in the haunts of the worldly, it were almost cruel + to snatch her from that immersion in their follies which may + serve to stifle the pangs of disappointed affection. For after + all that can be said of the misery of its empty pursuits and + corrupted tastes, the disappointments that end its petty + passions, and the mortifications that cling to its apparent + splendours, sorrows like those bear no comparison with tears of + anguish shed by the grave of love. Surrounding pleasures, even + the tranquil and elevating beauty of external nature, seem but a + mockery when offered in place of the one thing needful--perfect + and overflowing affection. The exterior decorum and attention on + the part of an altered husband, which betrays to the world no + dereliction of morals but what its easy code passes over as a + right, is no substitute for love. Not unfrequently there is + something almost appalling in the sense of solitude, which on + occasions of sickness or retirement oppresses a young woman, who + to all appearance is overwhelmed with attendance. The hand is not + there that would render every other superfluous. A voice is + wanting, whose absence leaves the silence and horror of death. + The eyes are missed, whose glances first called forth the fervour + of her affections from their peaceful sleep; or, if looking on + her for a moment, they express nothing but indifference. These + are the occasions that dispel the laboured illusion, wherewith, + under the garb of business, or cares, or natural manner, she had + sought to disguise from herself the marks of an estranged heart. + In these sad and desolate hours her memory retraces her early + years, her mother's tender watchfulness, and the soft voices of + sisters contending for their place by her bedside. The contrast + with her present stately solitude bursts resistless through every + effort to repel it; and life and youth, with their long futurity, + present her with nothing but a frightful chasm." + + "Alas! alas my song is sad; + How should it not be so, + When he, who used to make me glad, + Now leaves me in my woe? + With him my love, my graciousness, + My beauty, all are vain; + I feel as if some guiltiness + Had mark'd me with its stain. + + "One sweet thought still has power o'er me, + In this my heart's great need; + 'Tis, that I ne'er was false to thee, + Dear friend, in word or deed: + I own that nobler virtues fill + Thy heart, love only mine; + Yet why are all thy looks so chill + Till they on others shine? + + "Oh! long-loved friend, I marvel much + Thy heart is so severe, + That it will yield not to the touch + Of love and sorrow's tear. + No, no! it cannot be, that thou + Should seek another's love; + Oh! think upon our early vow, + And thou wilt faithful prove. + + "Thy virtues--pride, thy lofty fame, + Assures me thou art true, + Though fairer ones than I may claim + Thy hand, and deign to sue. + But think, beloved one, that, to bless + With perfect blessing, thou + Must seek for trusting tenderness: + Remember then our vow!" + + "Collectively," says our author, "women might do much to remove + the national stigma of leaving men of science and letters + neglected. But their education is seldom such as enables them to + know the great importance of science and literature to human + improvement; and they are rarely brought up to regard it as any + part of their duty to promote the interests of society. They + would not, indeed, be able directly to reward men of talent by + employment or honours, but they might make them acquainted with + those who could; at all events, mere social distinction, the + attention and approbation of our fellow creatures, is in itself + an advantage to men who seldom possess that passport to English + respect--wealth. Though learning is tacitly discouraged in women, + yet the access to every species of knowledge requisite to direct + their efforts wisely and well, is as open to them as to men. With + this power of forming the mind of the rising generation, this + influence over the opinions, the morals, and the tastes of + society, this direct power in promoting objects both of private + benevolence and national importance--with so many advantages, how + is it that women are still exposed to so many sufferings, from + dependence, oppression, mortification, and contempt? why are + their opinions yet sneered at? why is their influence rather + deprecated than sought? Is it not that they have never learnt + even the selfish policy of connecting themselves with the spirit + of moral and intellectual advancement? Is it not because their + liberty, their privileges, their power, have proceeded in many + respects, less from a spirit of justice in the other sex, or a + sense of moral fitness, than from the love of pleasure and + luxury, of which women are the best promoters?" + +In England, these evils are peculiarly great; for in England they are +without compensation. It is possible to imagine such brilliant +conversation, such varied wit, such graceful manners, such apparent +gentleness, that would stifle the complaints of the moralist, and cause +the half-uttered expostulation to die away upon his lips. So we can +conceive that Arnaud and Nicole may have listened to the enchanting +discourse of Madame de Sevigne, and under an influence so irresistible, +have forborne to scan with severity the faults, glaring as they were, of +the system to which she belonged. But with us the case is +different--compare the English lady in her country-house, hospitable to +her guests, benevolent to her dependents, as a wife spotless, as a mother +most devoted, caring for all around her, dispensing education, relieving +distress, encouraging merit, the guard of innocence, the shame of guilt, +active, contented, gracious, exemplary: and see the same person in +London--her frame worn out with fatigue, her mind ulcerated with petty +mortifications, her brow clouded, her look hardened, her eye averted from +unprofitable friends, her tone harsh, her demeanour restless, her whole +being changed: and were there no higher motive, were it a question of +advantage and convenience only, were dignity, and the good opinion of +others, and consideration in the world, alone at stake, can any one +hesitate as to which situation a wife or daughter should prefer? We +should, indeed, be sorry if our demeanour in those vast crowds where +English people flock together, rather, as it would seem, to assert a +right than to gratify an inclination, were to be taken as an index of our +national character--the want of all ease and simplicity, those essential +ingredients of agreeable society, which distinguish these dreary +meetings, have been long unfortunately notorious. No nation is so careful +of the great, or so indifferent to the lesser, moralities of life as the +English; and in no country is society, indebted, perhaps, to polished +idleness for its greatest charms, more completely misunderstood. Too busy +to watch the feelings of others, and too earnest to moderate our own, +that true politeness which pays respect to age, which strives to put the +most insignificant person in company on a level with the most +considerable--virtues which our neighbours possess in an eminent +degree,--are, except in a few favoured instances, unknown among us; while +affectation, in other countries the badge of ignorance and vulgarity, is +in ours, even in its worst shape, when it borrows the mien of rudeness, +and impertinence, and effrontery, the appanage of those whose station is +most conspicuous, and whose dignity is best ascertained. There is more +good breeding in the cottage of a French peasant than in all the boudoirs +of Grosvenor Square. + +But God forbid that a word should escape from us which should +seem to place the amusements of society, or the charms of +conversation, in competition with those stern virtues which +are the guardians of an English hearth! The austere fanaticism of the +Puritans, tainted with hypocrisy as it was, was preferable a thousand +times to the orgies of the Regent and the _Parc-aux-Cerfs_. If purity and +refined society be, indeed, incompatible--if the love of freedom and +active enterprise necessarily exclude the grace and softness which lessen, +or at least teach us to forget, the burden of existence, let us be what we +are; and, indeed, it is the opinion of many, that the rant of social +pleasure is the price we pay for the excellence of our political +institutions. It is because before the law all men are equal, that in the +world so much care is taken to show that they are different. If to this we +add the mercantile habits of our countrymen, the enormous wealth which +their pursuits enable them to accumulate--the great honours which are the +reward of successful industry and ambition--the absurd value annexed to +technical distinctions--the manner in which, in our as in all free +countries, those distinctions are conferred--and a certain disposition to +sneer at any chivalrous, or elevated feeling, from which few of our ladies +are exempt--we shall find it easy to account for the cold, stiff, +ungraceful, harsh, and mercenary habits which disfigure, to the +astonishment of all foreigners, the patrician class of English society. +Nothing, indeed, can be less graceful than the frivolity of an Englishman. +Naturally grave, serious, contemplative, if his angry stars have endowed +him with enormous wealth, he carries into the pursuit of trifles the same +solemnity and perseverance which, had he been more fortunately situated, +would have been employed in a professional career--he carries a certain +degree of gravity into his follies and his vices; as Pope, no less keen an +observer than finished a poet, observed, he + + "Judicious sups, and greatly daring dines"-- + +devotes himself to an eternal round of puerile follies, with a pompous +self-importance that would be ludicrous were it exhibited in the discharge +of the noblest and most sacred duties. Plate and wine seem his religion, +and a well-furnished room his morality--his dinners engross his +thoughts--his field sports are a nation's care. He writes books on +arm-chairs, hunts with the most ineffable self-sufficiency, and talks of +his dogs and horses as Howard or Clarkson might speak of the jails they +had visited, and the mourners they had set free. He commits errors with a +stolid air of deliberation, which the reckless passions of boiling youth +could hardly palliate, but which, when perpetrated as a title to fashion, +and as a passport to society, no epithets that contempt can suggest are +vehement enough to stigmatize. The Englishman's vice has a business-like +air with it that is intolerable--there is no illusion, no refinement--it +is coarse, direct, groveling brutality--it wears its own hideous aspect +with no garnish or disguise; and how seldom, even among that sex which +these volumes are intended to instruct, does the brow wreathed with +roses, amid the haunts of dissipation, wear a gay, a serene, or even a +contented aspect! Where all the treasures that inanimate nature can +furnish are scattered in profusion--where the air is fragrant with +perfume, and vocal with melody, how vainly do we look for the freshness +and animation, and the simplicity and single-mindedness of buoyant and +delighted youth! We feel inclined, amid this gloomy dissipation and +depressing pleasure, to reverse the most beautiful passage in Euripides, +and to say, that the banquet and the festival do require all the +heightening of art, all the embellishments of luxury, all the illusions +of song, to conceal the struggles of corroding interest, and the pangs of +constant mortification. + + "There" (but we quote one of the most remarkable passages in the + book) "is a general aversion from the labour of thought, in all + who have not had the faculties exercised while they were pliant, + nor been supplied with a certain stock of elementary knowledge, + essential alike to any subject of science that may be presented + to their maturer years. By means of the press, many broken and + ill-sustained rays pierce across the neglect or indifference of + parents, to the minds of the young. Gleams of a rational spirit + and enlarged feeling may often be found among the daughters of + country gentlemen, whose sons are still solely devoted to + sporting and party politics. + + "When we think of those mighty resources we have just been + adverting to, the strength all such tastes acquire by sympathy, + and the observation of nature and of human life they tend to + excite, we might expect they would furnish society with + everlasting sources of excitement and mutual interest, that they + would create a universal sympathy with genius and ability + wherever it was found, and soften the repulsive austerity with + which it is the nature of rank and wealth to look on humble + fortunes. + + "Little or nothing of all this takes place. Frivolity and + insipidity are the prevailing characters of conversation; and + nowhere in Europe, perhaps, does difference of fortune or station + produce more unsocial and illiberal separation. Very few of those + whom fortune has released from the necessity of following some + laborious profession, are capable of passing their time agreeably + without the assistance of company; not from a spirit of gaiety + which calls on society for indulgence--not from any pleasure they + take in conversation, where they are frequently languid and + taciturn, but to rival each other in the luxury of the table, or, + by a great _variety of indescribable airs_, to make others _feel + the pain of mortification_. They meet as if _'to fight the + boundaries' of their rank and fashion_, and the less definite and + perceptible is the line which divides them, the more punctilious + is their pride. It is a great mistake to suppose that this + low-minded folly is peculiar to people of rank: it is an English + disease. But the higher we go in society, the wider the circle of + the excluded becomes, consequently, the greater the range of + human beings cast forth from the pale of sympathy; and the more + contracted do the judgment, experience, and feelings of its + inmates become. The lofty walls, the iron spikes that surround + our villas, and the notices every where affixed 'that trespassers + will be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law,' are meet + emblems of the social spirit that connects the different orders + of society in England. The effect of this is to produce narrow + minds, or, what is worse, narrow hearts on one side, and a host + of dissocial, irritable passions on the other. In each step of + the scale, those beneath see chiefly the unamiable qualities of + their superiors." + +The disproportion of the happiness of society with its means, is a subject +which calls forth all the eloquence and sagacity of this writer. Nor is +this surprising; for it might startle the most sluggish indifference--the +most incurious stupidity. How does it come to pass, that with us misery is +the fruit of successful labour, that with us experience does not teach +caution, that with us the most munificent charity is unable to check the +accumulation of evil, moral and physical, with which it vainly endeavours +to contend? How is it, that while the wealth of England is a proverb among +nations, the distress of her labourers is a byword no less universal; that +while her commerce encircles the globe, while her colonies are spread +through both hemispheres, while regions hitherto unknown are but the +resting-place of her never-ceasing enterprise, the producers of all this +wealth, the causes of all this luxury, the instruments of all this +civilization, lie down in despair to perish by hundreds, amid the miracles +of triumphant industry by which they are surrounded? How happens it, that +as our empire extends abroad, security diminishes at home? that as our +reputation becomes more splendid, and our attitude more commanding, the +fabric of our strength decays, and our social bulwarks rock from their +foundations? Who can say that the skill and valour of the general who has +added a province to our Indian empire--who, triumphing over obstacles +hitherto insurmountable, has caused the tide of victory to flow from East +to West, and make the Sepoy invincible--may not erelong be called upon to +fulfil the thankless task of suppressing insurrection, and to control the +kindling fury of a mistaken, it is true, but of a kindred population? +Shall the day indeed come when in our streets there shall be solitude, and +in our harbours be heard no sound of oars, neither shall gallant ship pass +thereby? Is the vaunted splendour of this country to furnish a melancholy +lesson of the instability of earthly power, and its fate to conclude a +tale more glorious, to point a moral more affecting, than any which Tyre, +or Sidon, or Carthage have furnished, to curb the insolence of prosperity, +and to show the insignificance of man? + + "Quamvis Pontica pinus, + Sylvae filia nobilis, + Jactes et genus et nomen inutile." + +After dwelling on the supply of information which the present age enjoys, +and which is quite without parallel in any former period, and pointing out +the inconsistencies among us, of which, nevertheless, every day affords +perpetual examples, the writer asks-- + + "Do these evils proceed from some moral perversity in the people? + Is there some natural barrier in England against the effects of + capital, industry, science, and religion; or is it not that + ignorance of the laws that regulate and harmonize social + existence, and of those that govern the human mind, has hitherto + been extensively prevalent, and is still resisting the remedies + of riper experience? + + "But the poor and ignorant cannot educate themselves; it must be + the upper classes who give them the means of improvement. In the + natural laws of society, the use of a class who are independent + of labour for subsistence, is, that a certain part of the + community should have leisure to acquire that general knowledge + which is the parent of wise institutions and pure morals. That + they should have such affluence as to give weight to their + example and authority, is also desirable. Government, as has + already been observed, cannot act effectively against a very + great preponderance of error and prejudice, but must legislate in + the spirit of truths that are generally known, and in the service + of interests that excite general sympathy. + + "The object of this work is not to advocate particular measures, + nor even to assume that every thing that is wrong is so through + culpable neglect; but it is to call attention to the grievous + evils, that neither legislation nor zeal and charity can + counteract with effect, till the increased education of all + classes assists their efforts. Something must be wanting, when + such unrivalled knowledge and wealth are accompanied by such + various and wide-spread evils. It is not benevolence that is + deficient, for nowhere can we turn without meeting it in private, + struggling against miseries too great for its power, and in + public devoting abilities of the first order to the cause of + humanity. + + "It is the wider diffusion of knowledge we require: more heads + and hands still are wanted, qualified for acting in concert, or + at least acting generally on right principles. Too many persons + capable of generous feeling are absorbed and corrupted by luxury + and frivolity; too many waste their efforts from shallow, + mistaken, and contradictory views." + +Then follows a splendid description of scientific energy, the +gratification which it affords, and the noble objects to which it points +the way. + + "In examining the prodigious resources at the command of the + upper classes of English society, it is finely remarked, that + 'the fine arts are the materials by which our physical and animal + sensations are converted into moral perceptions.' + + "Every thing in the form of matter, however coarse--the refuse + and dross of more valuable materials--is resolvable, by science, + into elements too subtle for our vision, and yet possessed of + such potency that they effect transmutations more surprising than + the fables of magic. The points that spangle the still blue + vault, and make night lovely to the untaught peasant, interpreted + by science, expand into worlds and systems of worlds: some so + remote, that even the character of light, in which their + existence is declared to us, can scarcely give full assurance of + their reality--some, kindred planets which science has measured, + and has told their movements, their seasons, and the length of + their days. Such resemblances to our own globe are ascertained in + their general laws, and such diversity in their peculiar ones, + that we are led irresistibly to believe they all teem with + beings, sentient and intelligent as we are, yet whose senses, and + powers, and modes of existence, must be very dissimilar, and + indefinitely varied. The regions of space, within the field of + our vision, present us with phenomena the most incomprehensibly + mysterious, and with knowledge the most accurate and + demonstrable. Light, motion, form, and magnitude--the animal, + vegetable, and mineral kingdoms--have their several sciences, and + each would exhaust a life to master it completely. No uneasy + passion follows him who engages in such speculations, where + continual pursuit is made happy by the sense of continual + progress. He leaves his cares at the threshold; for when his + attention is fixed, so great is the pleasure of contemplation, + that it seems good to have been born for this alone. + + "If we turn to the moral world, where, strange as it seems, we + meet with less clearness and grandeur, yet there our deep + interest in its truths supplies a different, perhaps a more + powerful attraction. While we wonder and hope, the general laws + of sentient existence give us glimpses of their harmony with + those of inanimate nature. The latter seems assuredly made for + the use of the former. The identity of benevolence with wisdom + presents itself to our minds as a necessary truth, and, + notwithstanding our perplexities, brings peace to our hearts. + Social distinctions sink to insignificance when contemplating our + place in existence, and the privilege of reading the book of + nature, and sharing the thoughts and the sentiments of the + distinguished among men, atones for obscurity and neglect; + neither would the troubled power of a throne nor the flushing of + victory repay us for the sacrifice of those pleasures." + +The second volume opens with a dissertation on luxury, in which the +subject is treated with the depth and perspicuity that the extracts we +have already made will have prepared our readers to anticipate. Luxury is +a word of relative, and therefore of ambiguous signification; it may be +the test of prosperity--it may be the harbinger of decay: according to the +state of society in which it prevails, its signification will, of course, +be different. The effect of civilization is to increase the number of our +wants. The same degree of education which, during the last century, was +considered, even by the upper classes, a superfluity, is now a necessary +for the middling class, and will soon become a necessary for the lowest, +or all but the lowest, members of society. Most of our readers are +acquainted with the story of the Highland chief who rebuked his son +indignantly for making a pillow of a snowball. Sumptuary laws have always +been inefficient, or efficient only for the purposes of oppression. Public +morality has been their pretext--the private gratification of jealousy +their aim. In republics they were intended to allay the envy of the +poor--in monarchies to flatter the arrogance of the great. The first of +these motives produced, as Say observes, the law Orchia at Rome, which +prohibited the invitation of more than a certain number of guests. The +second was the cause of an edict passed in the reign of Henry II. of +France, by which the use of silken shoes and garments was confined to +princes and bishops. States are ruined by the extravagance, not of their +subjects, but of their rulers. + +Luxury is pernicious when it is purchased at an excessive price, or when +it stands in the way of advantages greater and more attainable. The worse +a government is, the more effect does it produce upon the manners and +habits of its subjects. The influence of a government of favourites and +minions over the community, is as prodigious as it is baneful. Every +innocent pleasure is a blessing. Luxury is innocent, nay, it is desirable, +as far as it can contribute to health and cleanliness--to rational +enjoyment; as far as it serves to prevent gross debauchery; and, as one of +our poets has expressed it, + + "When sensual pleasures cloy, + To fill the languid pause with finer joy," + +it should be encouraged. It does not follow, because the materials for +luxury are wanted, that the bad passions and selfishness, which are its +usual companions, will be wanted also. A Greenlander may display as much +gluttony over his train oil and whale blubber as the most refined epicure +can exhibit with the _Physiologie du Goût_ in his hand, and with all +Monsieur Ude's science at his disposal. When the gratification of our +taste and senses interferes with our duty to our country, or our +neighbours, or our friends--when, for the sake of their indulgence, we +sacrifice our independence--or when, rather than abandon it, we neglect +our duties sacred and imperative as they may be--the most favourable +casuists on the side of luxury allow that it is criminal. But even when it +stops far short of this scandalous excess, the habit of immoderate +self-indulgence can hardly long associate in the same breast with +generous, manly, and enlightened sentiments: its inevitable effect is to +stifle all vigorous energy, as well as to eradicate every softer virtue. +It is the parent of that satiety which is the most unspeakable of all +miseries--a short satisfaction is purchased by long suffering, and the +result is an addition to our stock, not of pleasure, but of pain. + +The next topic to which our attention is directed is the influence of +habit. Habit is thus defined:-- + + "Habit is the aptitude for any actions or impressions produced by + frequent repetition of them." + +The word impressions is used to designate affections of mind and body that +are involuntary, in contradistinction to those which we can originate and +control. For instance, we may choose whether or not we will enter into any +particular enquiry; but when we have entered upon it, we cannot prevent +the result that the evidence concerning it will produce upon our minds. A +person conversant with mathematical studies can no more help believing +that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side, than, if +his hand had been thrust in the fire, he could help feeling heat. The +remarks which follow are ingenious and profound:-- + + "The more amusements," continues the writer, "partake of an useful + character, the more lasting they are. This is never the case with + trifles; when the enjoyment is over, they leave little or nothing + in the mind. They are not steps to something else, they have no + connexion with other and further _results, to be brought out by + further endeavours. The attempt to make life a series of quickly + succeeding emotions, will ever prove a miserable failure;_ + whereas, when the chief part of our time is spent in labour, + active power increases--the exertion of it becomes habit--the + mind gathers strength; and emotion being husbanded, retains its + freshness, and the spirits preserve their alacrity through life. + It follows that the most agreeable labours are those which + superadd to an object of important and lasting interest a due + mixture of intermediate and somewhat diversified results. To a + mechanic, making a set of chairs and tables, for example, is more + agreeable than working daily at a sawpit. But nothing can deprive + the industrious man (however undiversified his employment) of the + advantage of having a constant and important pursuit--viz. + earning the necessaries and comforts of life; and when we + consider the uneasiness of a life without any steady pursuit, and + how slight is the influence that such as one merely voluntary has + over most men, it seems certain that, as a general rule, we do + not err in representing the necessity of labour as a safeguard of + happiness." + +Active habits are such as action gives: passive habits are such as our +condition qualifies us to receive. In emotion, however violent, we may be +passive, the forgiving and the vindictive man are for a time equally +passive in their emotions. It is when the vindictive man proceeds to +retaliation upon an adversary that he becomes a voluntary agent. It is +often difficult to analyse the ingredients of our thought, and to +determine how far they are involuntary and how far they are spontaneous. +Nor is this an enquiry the solution of which can ever affect the majority +of mankind: it is not with such subtleties that the practice of the +moralist is concerned. It is a psychological fact, which never can be +repeated too often, that habit deadens impression and fortifies activity. +It gives energy to that power which depends on the sanction of the +will--it renders the sensations which are nearly passive every day more +languid and insignificant. + +"Mon sachet de fleurs," says Montaigne, "sert d'abord à mon nez; mais, +après que je m'en suis servi huit jours, il ne sert plus qu'au nez des +assistants." So the taste becomes accustomed to the most irritating +stimulants, and is finally palsied by their continued application, yet +the necessity of having recourse to these provocatives becomes daily more +imperious. + + "Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops + Nec sitim pellit." + +The tanner who lives among his hides till he is insensible to their +exhalations--the surgeon who has conquered the disgust with which the +objects around him must fill an ordinary individual--the sensualist, on +whose jaded appetite all the resources of art and all the loveliness of +nature are employed in vain--may serve as common instances of the first +part of the proposition; and the astonishing facility acquired by +particular men in the business with which they are conversant, are proofs +no less irrefragable of the second. Can any argument be conceived which is +more decisive in favour of the moral economy to which even this lower +world is subject, than the undeniable fact, that virtue is fortified by +exercise, and pain conquered by endurance; while vice, like the bearer of +the sibyl's books, extorts every hour a greater sacrifice for less +enjoyment? The passage in Mammon's speech is no less philosophically +accurate than it is poetically beautiful-- + + "Out torments also may in length of time + Become our elements, these piercing fires + As soft as now severe, our temper changed + Into their temper, which must needs remove + The sensible of pain." + +So does man pass on his way, from youth to manhood, from manhood till the +shadow of death falls upon him; and while his moral and physical structure +adapts itself to the incessant vicissitudes of his being, he imagines +himself the same. The same in sunshine and in tempest--in the temperate +and the torrid zone--in sickness and in health--in joy and sorrow--at +school and in the camp or senate--still, still he is the same. His +passions change, his pleasures alter; what once filled him with rapture, +is now indifferent, it may be loathsome. The friends of his youth are his +friends no longer--other faces are around him--other voices echo in his +ears. Still he is the same--the same, when chilling experience has taught +him its bitter lesson, and when life in all its glowing freshness first +dawned upon his view. The same, when "vanity of vanities" is graven upon +his heart--as when his youthful fancy revelled in scenes of love, of +friendship, and of renown. The same, when cold, cautious, interested, +suspicious, guilty--as when daring, reckless, frank, confiding, innocent. +Still the dream continues, still the vision lasts, until some warning yet +unknown--the tortures of disease, or the loss of the very object round +which his heartstrings were entwined, anguish within, and desolation +without--stir him into consciousness, and remind him of that fast +approaching change which no illusion can conceal. Such is the pliability +of our nature, so varied are the modes of our being; and thus, through the +benevolence of Him who made us, the cause which renders our keenest +pleasures transient, makes pain less acute, and death less terrible. + +It follows from this, that in youth positive attainment is a matter of +little moment, compared with the habits which our instructors encourage us +to acquire. The fatal error which is casting a blight over our plans of +education, is to look merely to the immediate result, totally disregarding +the motive which has led to it, and the qualities of which it is the +indication; yet, would those to whom the delicate and most responsible +task of education is confided, but consider that habits of mind are formed +by inward principle, and not external action, they would adopt a more +rational system than that to which mediocrity owes its present triumph +over us; and which bids fair to wither up, during another generation, the +youth and hopes of England. Such infatuation is equal to that of the +husbandman who should wish to deprive the year of its spring, and the +plants of their blossoms, in hopes of a more nutritious and abundant +harvest. + + "The inward principle required to give habits of industry, + temperance, good temper, and so forth, is the express intention + of being industrious, temperate, and gentle, and regulating one's + actions accordingly. But the inward principle exercised by a + routine of irksome restraints, submitted to passively on no other + grounds but the laws of authority, or the influence of fashion, + or imposed merely as the necessary condition of childhood, may be + only that of yielding to present impression. He who, in youth, + yields passively to fear or force, in after life may be found to + yield equally to pleasure or temper; the habit of yielding to + present impressions, in the first case, prepares the mind for + yielding to them in the second, without any attempt at + self-control. + + "The necessity of reducing the young, in the first instance, to + implicit obedience, and the utility of a strict routine of + duties, is not hereby disputed. The impressions arising from + every species of restraint and coercion, whether from the command + of another or our own reason, being almost invariably unpleasant + at first, it is necessary (on the theory of habit) to weaken + their force by repetition, before the principle of + self-government can be expected to act. But the point insisted on + is, that weakening the pain of restraint and of submission to + rules, will not necessarily create an intention of adhering to + the rules, when coercion ceases. An intention is a mental action, + and even when excited, it is neither impossible nor uncommon that + the practice of forming intentions may be accompanied by the + practice of breaking them; and as the shame and remorse of so + doing wear out through frequency, a character of weakness is + formed." + +Although we regret the omission of some observations on waste and +prodigality--remarks in which the most profound knowledge of the best +authorities on this subject is tempered with a strict attention to +practical interest, and a minute acquaintance with the affairs of ordinary +life--we proceed to the chapters on "Frivolity and Ignorance," with which, +and an admirable dissertation on the authority of reason, the volume +terminates. These chapters yield to none in this admirable work for +utility and importance; there are three subjects on which the influence of +frivolity, baneful as it always is, is most peculiarly dangerous and +destructive--education, politics, and religion. On all these great points, +inseparably connected as they are with human happiness and virtue, the +frivolity of women may give a bias to the character of the individual, +which will be traced in his career to the last moment of his existence. +The author well observes that frivolity and ignorance, rather than +deliberate guilt, are the causes of political error and tergiversation. If +there are few persons ready to devote themselves to the good of their +species, and carrying their attention beyond kindred and acquaintance, to +comprise the most distant posterity and regions the most remote within the +scope of their benevolence; so there are few of those monsters in +selfishness, who would pursue their own petty interests when the happiness +of millions is an obstacle to its gratification; but as a leaf before the +eye will hide a universe, self-love limits the intellectual horizon to a +compass inconceivably narrow; and the prosperity of nations, when placed +in the balance with a riband or a pension, has too often kicked the beam. +Professional business, and the love of detail, which is so deeply rooted +in most English natures, tends also to contract the thoughts, to erect a +false standard of merit, and to fill the mind with petty objects. As an +instance of this, it may be remarked that Lord Somers is the only great +man who, in England, has ever filled a judicial situation. So wide is the +difference between present success and future reputation--so weak on all +sides but one, are those who have limited themselves to one side only--so +technical and engrossing are the avocations of an English lawyer. The +best, if not the only remedy for this evil, is, in the words of our +author, the "study of well-chosen books." + + "Life must often consist of acts or concerns which, taken + individually, are trivial; but the speculations of great minds + relate to important objects. By their eloquence they draw forth + the best emotions of which we are capable, they fill our minds + with the knowledge of great and general truths, which, if they + relate to the works of creation, exalt our nature and almost give + us a new existence; or if they unfold the conditions and duties + of human life, they kindle our desire for worthy ends, and teach + us how to promote them. We learn to consider ourselves not as + single and detached beings, with separate interests from others, + but as parts of that great class who are the support of society-- + that is, the upright, the intelligent, and the industrious. Hence + we cease to be absorbed by one set of narrow ideas; and the least + duties are dignified by being viewed as parts of a general + system. The bulk of mankind must and ought to confine their + attention principally to their own immediate business. But if + they who belong to the higher orders, do not avail themselves of + their command of time, to enlarge their minds and acquire + knowledge, one of the great uses of an upper class will be lost." + +The trite and ridiculous axiom, the common refuge of imbecility, that +women should take no interest in politics, is then sifted and exposed; it +would be as wise to say, that women should take no interest in the blood +that circulates through their bodies because they are not physicians, or +in the air they breathe because they are not chemists. The people who are +most fond of repeating this absurdity, are, it may be observed, the very +people who are most furious with women for not acquiescing at once in any +absurdity which they may think proper to promulgate as an incontrovertible +truth. Ill temper, and rash opinions, and crude notions, are always +mischievous; but it is not in politics alone that they are exhibited, and +the women most applauded for not _meddling_ with politics, (an expression +which, as our author properly observes, assumes the whole matter in +dispute,) are generally those who adhere to the most obsolete doctrines +with the greatest tenacity, and pursue those who differ with them in +opinion with the most unmitigated rancour. In short, it is not till +enquiry supersedes implicit belief, till violence gives place to +reflection, till the study of sound and useful writers takes the place of +sweeping and indiscriminate condemnation, that this aphorism is brought +forward by those who would have listened with delight to the wildest +effusions of bigotry and ignorance. But in the work before us, the author +(convincing as her reasons are) has furnished the most complete practical +refutation of this ridiculous error. + +Infinitely worse, however, than any evil which can arise from this or any +other source, is that which the opinions and ideas of a frivolous woman +must entail upon those unhappy beings of whom she superintends the +education. + + "Turpe est difficiles habere nugas + Et stultus labor est ineptiarum," + +is a text on which, even in this great and free country, many comments may +be found. + +The pursuit of eminence in trifles, the common sign of a bad heart, is an +infallible proof of a feeble understanding. A man may dishonour his birth, +ruin his estate, lose his reputation, and destroy his health, for the sake +of being the first jockey or the favourite courtier of his day. And how +should it be otherwise, when from the lips whence other lessons should +have proceeded, selfishness has been inculcated as a duty, a desire for +vain distinctions and the love of pelf encouraged as virtues, and a +splendid equipage, or it may be some bodily advantage, pointed out as the +highest object of human ambition? To set the just value on every +enjoyment, to choose noble and becoming objects of pursuit, are the first +lessons a child should learn; and if he does not learn their rudiments on +his mother's knees, he will hardly acquire the knowledge of them +elsewhere. The least disparagement of virtue, the slightest admiration for +trifling and merely extrinsic objects, may produce an indelible effect on +the tender mind of youth; and the mother who has taught her son to bow +down to success, to pay homage to wealth and station, which virtue and +genius should alone appropriate, is the person to whom the meanness of the +crouching sycophant, the treachery of the trading politician, the +brutality of the selfish tyrant, and the avarice of the sordid miser, in +after life must be attributed. + +This argument is closed by some very judicious remarks on the degree in +which the perusal of works of imagination is beneficial. + + "It is not easy to explain to a person whose mind is trifling, + the consequences of the over-indulgence in passive impressions + produced by light reading, or to make them understand the + different effect produced by the highest order of works of + imagination, and the trivial compositions which inundate the + press, with no merit but some commonplace moral. Both are classed + together as works of amusement; but the first enrich the mind + with great and beautiful ideas, and, provided they be not + indulged in to an extravagant excess, refine the feelings to + generosity and tenderness. They counteract the sordid or the + petty turn, which we are liable to contract from being wholly + immersed in mere worldly business, or given up to the follies of + the great world; in either case confined too much to intercourse + with barren hearts and narrow minds. It is of great use to the + 'dull, sullen prisoner in the body's cage' sometimes 'to peep + out,' and be made to feel that it has aspirations for somewhat + more excellent than it has ever known; and that its own ideas can + stretch forth into a grandeur beyond what this real existence + provides for it. It is good for us to feel that the vices into + which we are beguiled are hateful to our own minds in + contemplation, and that it is our unconquerable nature to love + and adore that virtue we do not, or cannot, attain to." + +The remarks on the influence of frivolity on religion, on the mistaken +name and worldly spirit introduced amongst its most solemn ordinances, are +no less excellent. After pointing out the danger of mistaking excitement +for devotion, and of separating the duties of man from the will of God, +the sanctions of religion from the lessons of morality, the writer +observes-- + + "The weak and ignorant are peculiarly liable to be infected with + these doctrines, and to them they are peculiarly hurtful. Unable + to take a just view of their particular duties, or of the uses + and purposes of our natural faculties, creatures of impulse, + slaves of circumstances, the pleasures of this hour fill them + with vanity, the devotion of the next with enthusiasm, or perhaps + terror. Charmed by worldly follies because they are ignorant or + idle, and without resistance to vice because they have never + learned self-command, they seek to extirpate all the natural + emotions and desires which they do not know how to regulate, and + so give up the world. But they deceive themselves; their moral + defects are not lessened; they have only changed their objects. + The frivolity which formerly made trifles absorb them, now spends + itself on religion, which it degrades. Whatever the former + defects of their character, whether selfishness, vanity, pride, + ill-temper, indolence, or any other, it remains unconquered, + though the manner in which it exhibits itself is different. In + one respect they are much worse; formerly they were less blind to + their own imperfections; they sometimes suspected they were + wrong; now they are quite satisfied they are right; nor can they + easily be undeceived, because, when about to examine their hearts + and their conduct, the error in their views directs their efforts + to a false standard." + +We think we cannot more appropriately close the faint outline, in which +we have endeavoured, however feebly, to shadow forth the merit of these +volumes, than by placing before our readers the tribute to departed +excellence, which this touching and finished picture is intended to +convey. + + "Leaving the contemplation of feverish excitement, fantastic and + complicated subtleties, angry zeal, and dissocial passions, I + turn to the records of memory, where are graven for ever the + lineaments of one who was indeed a disciple of Christ, and whose + character seemed the earthly reflection of his. Wherever there + was existence her benevolence flowed forth, never enfeebled by + the distance of its object, yet flushing the least of daily + pleasures with its warmth. Her views rose to the most + comprehensive moral grandeur, while her calm, uncompromising + energy against sin, was combined with an ever-flowing sympathy + for weakness and woe. She spent her life in one continued system + of active beneficence, in which her business, her projects, her + pleasures, were but so many varied forms of serving her + fellow-creatures. Never for a moment did a reflection for herself + cross the current of her purposes for them. Her whole heart so + went with their distresses and their joys, that she scarcely + seemed to have an interest apart from theirs. The simplicity of + her character was peculiarly striking, in the unhesitating + readiness with which she received--I might even say, with which + she grasped at--the correction of her errors, and listened to the + suggestions of other persons. One undivided desire possessed her + mind--it was not to seem right, but to do right. + + "What heightened the resemblance between her and the model she + followed, was, that her counsels came not from a bosom that had + never been shaken with the passions she admonished, or the + sorrows she endeavoured to soothe. Her character was one of deep + sensibility and passions strong even to violence; but they were + controlled and directed by such vivid faith as has never been + surpassed. Her long life had tried her with almost every pang + that attends the attachment of such beings to the mortal and the + suffering, the erring and perverse; and when those sorrows came, + that reached her heart through its deepest and most sacred + affections, the passion burst forth, that showed what the energy + of that principle must have been, that could have brought such a + mind to a tenor of habitual calmness and serenity. When every + element of anguish had been mingled together in one dreadful cup, + and reason for a week or two was tottering in its seat, she was + seen to resume the struggle against the passions that for a + moment had conquered. The bonds that attached her to life were + indeed broken for ever, but she recovered her heart-felt + submission to God, and she learned by degrees again to be happy + in the happiness she gave. + + "It was this depth and strength of feeling that gave her a power + over others, seldom surpassed, I believe, by any other mortal. In + her the erring and the wretched found a sure refuge from + themselves. The weakness that shrunk from the censure or the + scorn of others, could be poured out to her as to one whose + mission upon earth was to pity and to heal; for she knew the + whole range of human infirmity, and that the wisest have the + roots of those frailties that conquer the weak. But in restoring + the fallen to their connexion with the honoured, she never held + out a hope that they might parley with their temptations, or + lower their standard of virtue: a confession to her cut off all + self-delusion as to culpable conduct or passions. While she + inspired the most uncompromising condemnation of the thing that + was wrong, she never advised what was too hard for the "bruised + reed;" she chose not the moment of excitement to rebuke the + misguidings of passion, nor of weakness to point out the rigour + of duty. But strength came in her presence: she seemed to bring + with her irresistible evidence that any thing could be done which + she said ought to be done. The truths of religion, stripped of + fantastic disguises, appeared at her call with a living reality, + and for a time, at least, the troubles of life sank down to their + just level. When our sorrows are too big for our own bosoms, if + others receive then with stoicism, it repels all desire to seek + relief at their hands; but the calmness with which she attended + to the effusions and perturbations of grief, seemed the earnest + of safety from one who had passed through the storm. The deep and + tender expression of her noble countenance suggested that feeling + with which a superior being might be supposed to look down from + heaven on the anguish of those who are still in the toils, but + know not the reward that awaits them. + + "Every thing petty seemed to drop off from her mind, but she + imbibed the spirit of essentials so perfectly, she followed it + throughout with such singleness of heart, that its influence + affected her minutest actions, not by an effort of studied + attention, but with the steadiness of a natural law. Nature and + revelation she regarded as the two parts of one great connected + system; she always contemplated the one with reference to the + other; her views were therefore all practical and free from + confusion, and nothing that promoted the welfare of this world + could cease to be a part of her duty to God. It was her maxim + that the motive dignified the action, however trivial in itself; + and all the actions of her life were ennobled by the motive of + obedience to an all-powerful Being, because he is the pure + essence of wisdom and goodness. In the virtue of those who had + not the consoling belief of the Christian, she still saw the + handwriting of God, that cannot be effaced from a generous mind; + and she used to dwell with delight on the idea that the good man, + from whose eyes the light of faith was withheld in this life, + would arise with rapture in the next, to the knowledge that a + happiness was in store for him which he had not dared to believe. + + "It was not the extent of her intellectual endowments that made + her the object of veneration to all who knew her; it was her + extraordinary moral energy. The clear and vigorous view she took + of every subject arose chiefly from her habit of looking directly + for its bearing on virtue or happiness; she saw the essential at + a glance, or could not be diverted from the truth by a passion or + a prejudice. Hence, also, her lofty undeviating justice; her + regard to the rights of others was so scrupulous, that every one + within reach of her influence reposed on her decisions with + unhesitating trust; nor would the certainty that the interests of + those she loved best were involved, have cast a shadow of doubt + over her stainless impartiality. + + "She could be deceived, for she was too simple and lofty always + to conceive the objects of base minds:-- + + "'And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps + At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity + Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill, + Where no ill seems.' + _Paradise Lost._ + + "Nevertheless, she generally read the characters of artifice and + insincerity with intuitive quickness, though it was often + believed she was duped by those whom she saw through completely. + Of this she was aware, but she was so exempt from all desire to + prove her sagacity, that she never cared to correct the + misconception; and she held that it was neither useful nor quite + justifiable to expose all the pretences we may discover, till it + became necessary to set the unwary on their guard. + + "She never renounced the innocent pleasures or pursuits of life, + nor the proprieties of a distinguished station, though she + partook so little of its luxuries, that she could pass from the + splendour of her own establishment to one the most confined, + apparently without sensibility to the change. Wherever she moved, + she inspired joy and cheerfulness; yet she was by no means + unreserved, except to those she tenderly loved, and it was + surprising how any manner so gentle, could at the same time + oppose a barrier so impassable to the advances of the unworthy. + She enjoyed the beauty of nature with passion. Her mind, at an + advanced age, had all the elasticity and animation of the prime + of life, and she could be led to forget half the night in the + excitement of conversation. Happy were the hours spent with her + in the discussion of every subject that could call forth her + opinions, and her wide knowledge of the eventful times in which + she had lived!--hours that exalted the feelings, informed the + understandings, and animated the playfulness of younger minds, + who found that forty years of difference between their age and + hers, took nothing from their sympathies, but added a new and + rare delight to their intercourse. + + "But she is gone! To those who knew her, her counsels are silent + and her place void; but there remains the distinct consciousness, + that to them had been given a living evidence of the true + Christian spirit, for if hers were not true, than many errors be + more excellent than truth! Far distant, and with unequal steps, + they endeavour to follow her course and perhaps the distaste with + which they turn from the defective and ill-proportioned models + that are forced on their admiration, is scarcely consistent with + the charity she always taught." + +Great, indeed, is the task assigned to woman. Who can elevate its dignity? +who can exaggerate its importance? Not to make laws, not to lead armies, +not to govern empires, but to form those by whom laws are made, and armies +led, and empires governed; to guard from the slightest taint of possible +infirmity the frail, and as yet spotless creature whose moral, no less +than his physical, being must be derived from her; to inspire those +principles, to inculcate those doctrines, to animate those sentiments, +which generations yet unborn, and nations yet uncivilized, shall learn to +bless; to soften firmness into mercy, to chasten honour into refinement, +to exalt generosity into virtue; by her soothing cares to allay the +anguish of the body, and the far worse anguish of the mind; by her +tenderness to disarm passion; by her purity to triumph over sense; to +cheer the scholar sinking under his toil; to console the statesman for the +ingratitude of a mistaken people; to be the compensation for hopes that +are blighted, for friends that are perfidious, for happiness that has +passed away. Such is her vocation--the couch of the tortured sufferer, the +prison of the deserted friend, the scaffold of the godlike patriot, the +cross of a rejected Saviour; these are the scenes of woman's excellence, +these are the theatres on which her greatest triumphs have been achieved. +Such is her destiny--to visit the forsaken, to attend to the neglected; +amid the forgetfulness of myriads to remember--amid the execrations of +multitudes to bless; when monarchs abandon, when counsellors betray, when +justice persecutes, when brethren and disciples fly, to remain unshaken +and unchanged; and to exhibit, on this lower world, a type of that +love--pure, constant, and ineffable--which in another world we are taught +to believe the best reward of virtue. + + + * * * * * + + + + +A PLEA FOR ANCIENT TOWNS AGAINST RAILWAYS. + + +It is impossible to look, without surprise, to the progress of the railway +system since the first experiment in 1830. The Liverpool and Manchester +line was opened in the September of that year, at an expense of +£.1,200,000; and in the thirteen years since that period, line after line +has been laid down and opened for traffic, till the completed railways +amount to many hundred miles in length, and the expenditure of capital has +been many millions of money. + +The advantages of a line between Manchester and Liverpool were obvious. It +connected the two towns--the importing and the manufacturing--which needed +connexion the most; and, in fact, the harbour gained an enormous +manufacturing population, and the population gained a harbour. The outlay, +prodigious as it was, was found a profitable investment; but the benefits +of the improvement were so great that the mere profits on the undertaking, +as a pecuniary speculation, were lost sight of, in the higher view of the +impetus given to the trade of these two main seats of our commercial +enterprize. It became a national undertaking; Birmingham and the other +wealthy towns were determined to have the same advantage; London became, +of course, the great centre to which every new line tended; and in an +incredibly short space of time, at an incredible expenditure of money, the +iron and cotton emporiums of the north, the packet stations of the south +and south-west, the agricultural and manufacturing districts of the +north-east, all were moved into the actual neighbourhood of the capital. +The beautiful Southampton water flowed within three hours of the Bank. +Ipswich was not much further off than Hammersmith; and Bath and Bristol +were but a morning's drive from Buckingham palace or Windsor. + +What has been the effect of all these improvements, and to what do they +all tend? + +If the whole prosperity of a nation depended on rapidity of conveyance, +there could be but one answer to the enquiry--but even in that case the +prosperity must depend on rapidity of conveyance between the particular +places which the railway unites--Manchester and Liverpool, Birmingham and +London, and generally the great towns at the _termini_, and some +throughout all of the intermediate stations, have cause to rejoice in the +improvement. And land and houses in the neighbourhood have increased in +value, their correspondence is conducted in half the time, and money is of +course distributed in fertilizing rills by the crowds of travellers who +pass through them on their way to join the train. But these advantages are +local, and an opinion is now gaining ground that they are obtained at the +expense of other places. What possible benefit can accrue to a town or +neighbourhood near which the railway passes, but where there is no +station? Can it encourage the trade of such a town as Dangley or Standon +to know, that the five or six thousand beings who are whirled past them, +with almost invisible rapidity, every day, arrive in Liverpool in ten +hours after leaving London? On the contrary, is it not found to be +directly injurious to them by the encouragement it gives to towns and +villages more favourably situated; while their inns become deserted, their +tradespeople are drifted out of the great stream of business, their +turn-pikes are ruined, and grass grows in their streets. Let us take any +one of the great lines, and see the number of towns whose ancient +prosperity it has destroyed. From London to York a few years ago, ten or +twelve coaches gave life and animation to all the places they passed +through. Their hotels and commercial rooms were filled at every blowing +of the guard's horn; tradespeople looked out from behind their counters +with a smile, as, with a dart and rattle, the four thoroughbred greys +pulled the well-known fast coach up the street, loaded inside and out. +They became proud of their Tally-ho, or Phenomenon; they got their +newspapers and parcels "with accuracy and despatch," and enjoyed the +natural advantages of their situation. Now the case is altered; a +two-horse coach, or perhaps an omnibus, jumbles occasionally to the +railway station, and the traveller complains that it takes him longer +time to go the ten or twelve miles across the country than all the rest +of the journey. Then he grumbles at the inconvenience of changing his +mode of conveyance, and only revisits the out-of-the-way place when he +cannot avoid it. + +A person settling in one of these towns twenty years ago, establishing +trade, buying or building premises, in the belief that, however business +may alter from other causes, his geographical position must, at all +events, continue unchanged, must be as much astonished as was Macbeth at +the migratory propensities of Birnam forest, when he perceives that towns +a hundred miles down the road have actually walked between him and London; +get their town parcels much earlier, and have digested and nearly +forgotten their newspaper, while he is waiting in a fever of expectation +to know whether rums is much riz or sugars is greatly fell. He calls for a +branch railway to put him on equal terms; but a vast hill, perhaps, rises +between him and the main line--it would cost forty thousands pounds a +mile--he must bore an enormous tunnel, and fill up a prodigious valley, +and the united wealth of all the shopkeepers in the town would fall far +short of the required half million. He sinks down in sheer despair, or +takes to drinking with the innkeeper, who has already had an attack of +_delirium tremens_, gives up the _Times_ newspaper for the _Weekly +Despatch_, and thinks Mr Frost a much injured character, and Rebecca a +Welsh Hampden. The railway has touched his pocket, and the iron has +entered into his soul. He feels as if he lived at the Land's-End, or had +emigrated to the back woods of America. All the world goes at a gallop, +and he creeps. Finally, he is removed to Hanwell, and endeavours to +persuade Dr Conolly that he is one of Stephenson's engines, and goes +hissing and spurting in fierce imitation of Rapid or Infernal. And all +this is the natural consequence of having settled in an ancient city +inaccessible to rails. A list could easily be made out that would astonish +any one who had not reflected on the subject before, of cities and towns +which must yield up their relative rank to more aspiring neighbourhoods on +whom the gods of steam and iron have smiled. It will be sufficient to +point out a few instances in some of the main lines of mail-coach +travelling, and see what their position is now. + +Let us go to Lincoln, region of fens and enterprize, of fat land and jolly +yeomen. The mail is just ready to start; we pay our fare, and, after +seeing our luggage carefully deposited in the recesses of the boot, we +mount beside the red-faced, much-becoated individual who is flickering his +whip in idle listlessness on the box; the guard gives a triumphal shout on +his short tin horn, the flickering of the whip ceases, the horses snort +and paw, and finally, in a tempest of sound and a whirlwind of dust, we +career onward from the Saracen's head, and watch the stepping of the +stately team with pride and exultation--a hundred and forty miles before +us, and thirteen hours on the road. + +In fifty-five minutes we are at Barnet--pick up a stout gentleman and +plethoric portmanteau in the green shades of Little Heath lane; and +dashing through Hatfield, as if we were announcing Waterloo, change horses +again at Stanborough. Away, away, the coach and we, with two very jolly +fellows on the roof, and cross in due time the beautiful river Lea, +scattering letter-bags at every gentleman's lodge as we pass, with a due +proportion of fish-baskets and other diminutive parcels. Hedges, row +after row, dance past us with all their leaves and blossoms--milestone +after milestone is merrily left behind--we have crossed the Maran, the +Joel; the sluggish Ouse, trotted gaily on under the shadow of the +episcopal towers of Buckden, and perform wonders with a knife and fork, in +the short space of twenty minutes, in the comfortable hotel at Stamford. +Refreshed and invigorated with a couple of ducks and a vast goblet of +home-brewed--for it is well known we and all other good subjects are rigid +anti-Mathewsians--we continue our course through unnumbered villages and +market towns, Coltersworth, Spittlegate, Ponton, Grantham, till Newark +opens her hospitable gates; and finally, as "the shades of eve begin to +fall," we descend from our proud eminence and commit ourselves to the +tender attentions of a civil landlord, two waiters, and a stout +chambermaid, in the chief inn of the good town of Lincoln. + +Many coaches followed our track. Like the waves of the summer, as one +rolled away, another as bright and as shining, came on. Every lane formed +a "terminus," where a motion of the hand gave notice to the coachman that +a passenger wished to get in; and it is impossible to doubt that the +traffic along that smooth and wide highway was a source of prosperity to +the whole neighbourhood. + +The coaches are now off the road--the letters are carried by a mail train, +and forwarded across in a high gig with red wheels, and the liveliness and +bustle of all the villages and country towns are gone--a few more years, +and the ruin of every turnpike trust in England will be another proof of +the irresistible power of steam. + +It is not contended that rapid intercommunication is an evil; or even that +the towns we have mentioned, and hundreds of others, in all parts of the +country, do not participate in the advantage, to the extent of being +within a shorter distance of London than they were before; for it is +evident, that to go to Lincoln would occupy less time if you went to +Leicester by the railroad, and travelled the remaining miles by coach. But +this is what we maintain--that towns or lines of road through which the +railway runs, have an undue advantage--and that the prosperity so +acquired, is at the expense of the towns which are not only at a distance +from the new mode of communication, but are deprived of the old. Twelve +years ago, upwards of a hundred coaches passed through Oxford in the +four-and-twenty hours. We will be bound to say, not half a dozen pass +through it now; and whatever the _University_ may think upon the subject, +it is certain that the alteration is of great detriment to the _town_, +and makes little less difference to the Corn-market and High Street, than +the turning the course of the Thames would do to Westminster and Wapping. +Who is to keep the beautiful roads by Henley and High Wickham in repair? +And who is to restore a value to the inns at the tidy comfortable towns +along the line? Will the prosperity of Steveton bring back the gaieties +of Tetsworth or Beaconsfield, and the numerous villages within an easy +distance of the road? We repeat it--the towns which formerly enjoyed the +natural advantages of their geographical position, are now deprived of +them; they become subordinates instead of principals, and will sink more +and more, as new competitors arise in the towns which will infallibly +gather round every railway station. + +In every county there are numbers of towns whose fate is sealed, unless +some great effort is made to preserve their existence: Marlborough, +Devizes, Hindon, Guildford, Farnham, Petersfield, the whole counties of +Rutland and Dorset, and the greater part of Lincoln, besides hundreds, or +probably thousands, of other places of inferior note. + +But what is the effort that should be made, and how are the parties +interested to bring their powers to bear in staving off the destruction +that threatens them? It is to these points we are now about to address +ourselves; and we trust, in spite of the lightness of some parts of this +paper; the real weight of the subject will command the notice of all who +feel anxious to benefit any neighbourhood in the position of some of those +we have mentioned. And the attention of the trustees of high-roads +throughout the kingdom is solicited to the following suggestions. + +It is conceded on all hands, that where speed is required in draught, the +horse cannot compete with mechanical power. At three miles an hour, the +horse is the most perfect locomotive machine; but if his velocity be +increased to ten, most of his power is consumed in moving himself. The +average exertion in each horse in a four-horse heavy coach, is calculated +by the author of the excellent Treatise on Draught, appended to the work +published on the Horse by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful +Knowledge, not to be equal to a strain of more than 62-1/2 lbs., and at +twelve miles an hour to be barely 40 lbs. It is therefore useless to rely +oh horse-power to enable a neighbourhood to retain its advantages in +competition with a railway. To meet this difficulty many ingenious men +turned their attention to the possibility of inventing a steam-engine +applicable to common roads; and although, in several instances, their +experiments succeeded, and many of the difficulties were overcome, still +it is not to be denied that, on the whole, macadamized roads are not +adapted to locomotive machines. Even when the road is in the best possible +condition, the concussion is found so great as materially to interfere +with the action of the machinery; and if the road be slightly muddy, or +sandy, or newly gravelled, the draught will be double, or even treble what +it is on the same road when free from dirt or dust. The author of the +_Treatise on Draught_, accordingly, concludes against the use of +steam-carriages on common roads, chiefly on account of their want of +uniform hardness and smoothness, and the consequent wear and tear of the +coach. "Perfection in a road," he says, "would be a plain, level, hard +surface;" and in another passage--"Hardness, therefore, and consequently +the absence of dust and dirt, which is easily crushed or displaced, is +the grand desideratum in roads." + +These opinions were published in 1831, and since that period the +desideratum has been supplied. A method of preparing a road has been +discovered, uniting all the qualities required for the perfection of a +highway. We allude to the system recently introduced of paving a road with +wood. On this smooth and hard surface a steam coach goes more easily than +on iron rails, and the expense of laying it down is trifling in +comparison. + +At a meeting of the South-eastern Railway Company in July 1843, a branch +line to Maidstone, ten miles in length, was proposed; and as the directors +were satisfied it would be beneficial to the parent line, they determined +to raise £.149,300, on loan notes or mortgage, to complete it. This gives +an expenditure of £.15,000 a mile, and, judging from the estimate of other +lines, the estimate is exceedingly low. For less than a third of the sum, +the distance could have been laid down in wood without interfering with +the traffic of the present road; for one great advantage of the proposed +method consists in this, that by setting aside a portion of the present +highway, where it is wide enough, or widening it a few feet where it is +too narrow, the turnpike would derive a considerable income from the +steam-coaches, and the traffic would continue in its accustomed channels. +Where a portion of the road was set apart for the sole use of the +steam-coaches, they could travel at a very considerable rate, and at a +third of the expense of horse-power. And even if the wooden lines were +laid down on the common road, with no exclusive barriers between them and +other vehicles, a speed of fifteen or sixteen miles an hour could be +maintained with perfect safety to themselves and the public. On the 27th +of April last year, Mr Squire tried his steam-carriage in the streets of +London, and ran along the macadamized part, then in fine condition, at +the rate of fifteen miles an hour. On coming to the wooden pavement the +difference was at once perceptible; and he pronounced that on such roads +he should have no difficulty in keeping up a velocity of thirty miles an +hour. In other respects, his carriage appeared to be perfect, and was +guided with much greater facility than an ordinary coach. + +This gentleman had run his carriage on common roads with great success; +and the experiments made in 1831 had attracted so much notice, that a +Parliamentary Committee was appointed in that year; and another in 1834, +to examine into the subject. As the decision of these committees was +eminently favourable, in spite of the difficulties, at that time generally +thought insurmountable, arising from the nature of the highways to be +travelled on, we shall quote some portion of their reports, from which it +will be seen that all other difficulties were overcome. + +Mr Goldsworthy Gurney, the first inventor of steam-coaches adapted for +common roads, says in his evidence-- + +"I have always found the most perfect command in guiding these carriages. +Suppose we were going at the rate of eight miles an hour, we could stop +immediately. In case of emergency, we could instantly throw the steam on +the reverse side of the piston, and stop within a few yards. The stop of +the carriage is singular; it would be supposed that the momentum would +carry it far forward, but it is not so; the steam brings it up gradually +and safely, though rather suddenly--I would say within six or seven yards. +On a declivity, we are well stored with apparatus: we have three different +modes of dragging the carriage." + +"You stated in your former evidence, that you anticipated that passengers +would be carried at one-half the rate by your steam-carriages that they +are by the common carriages; what difference in the ordinary expences of +carriage would it make, if you had a paved road for this purpose? + +"I think it would reduce the expense to one-half again." + +"To what velocity could you increase your present rate of travelling with +your engine?" + +"I have stated that the velocity is limited by practical experience only; +theoretically it is limited only by quantity of steam. Twelve miles, I +think, we could keep up steadily, and run with great safety. The extreme +rate that we have run, is between twenty and thirty miles an hour." + +"What is the greatest number of passengers you have taken on that +carriage?" + +"Thirty-six passengers and their luggage. The greatest weight we could +draw by that carriage, at the rate of ten miles an hour, is from forty to +fifty hundred-weight. The greatest weight we ever drew on the common road, +at a rate of from five to six miles an hour, was eleven tons. We made the +experiment on the Bristol road. The weight of the drawing carriage was +upwards of two tons; it drew five times its own weight. The eleven tons +included the weight of the drawing carriage, and I did not consider that +its maximum power." + +In a very scientific and interesting Treatise on Locomotion, by Mr +Alexander Gordon, a civil engineer of eminence, we find an account given +of the trial of power alluded to by Mr Gurney. A pair of three feet wheels +were used on the hind axle, and the engine drew with ease a large waggon +loaded with cast-iron. After going about a mile and a quarter, a cart also +loaded with cast-iron was attached to the waggon. The engine started with +these loaded carriages, and returned to Gloucester. The additional weight +made so little apparent difference to the engine, that on the way back +several persons among the spectators got up and rode; the number +altogether amounted to twenty-six. The united weight amounted to ten tons. +Going into Gloucester, there is a rise of one foot in twenty, or +twenty-five. + +Two great objections were advanced by the opponents of the proposed +innovation, which are most emphatically answered by the Report of the +Committee of 1834. Even in 1831, the Committee reported as follows:-- + +"It has frequently been urged against these carriages, that wherever they +may be introduced, they must effectually prevent all other travelling on +the road, as no horse will bear the noise and smoke of the engine. The +Committee believe that these statements are unfounded. Whatever noise may +be complained of, arises from the present defective construction of the +machinery, and will be corrected as the makers of such carriages gain +greater experience. Admitting even that the present engines do work with +some degree of noise, the effect on horses has been greatly exaggerated. +All the witnesses accustomed to travel in these carriages, even in the +crowded roads adjacent to the metropolis, have stated, that horses are +very seldom frightened in passing." + +But in 1834, the report is still more conclusive on this point. Mr +Macneil, a distinguished civil engineer, gives the following evidence:-- + +"At the time the Committee sat in 1831, I could speak as to having seen +only one steam-carriage on a turnpike road, and as to the effect on horses +that passed it on the road. From considerable experience since that time, +_I am quite certain, that in a very short period there will be no +complaint of horses being frightened by steam-carriages._ I do not know +that I have seen more than two or three horses in all my experience, that +were at all frightened by any of the carriages. I travelled with, and I +have passed many times through some of the most crowded streets in London +and in Birmingham, in steam-carriages. I have also seen horses out in the +morning, led by grooms, which would in all probability be startled by any +object at all likely to frighten a horse, and they did not take the least +notice of the engine. At another time, several ladies passed on horseback +without the least alarm, and some of them rode close after the carriage, +and alongside of it, as long as they could keep up with it." + +This evidence is corroborated by all the other witnesses; and great as the +noise, and fearful as the horrid gasping of the engine may be, we are not +prepared to say that terror may not as naturally be excited in the heart +of the most gallant of Houyeneans by the thunder and glitter of a fast +coach, rushing downhill at the rate of sixteen miles an hour. In fact, the +horse that has ceased--like a young lady after her second season--to be +shy, will care no more for a steam-engine than a tilted waggon. And it is +decidedly our private and confidential opinion, from a long experience of +vivacious roadsters, that a quadruped which maintains its equanimity on +encountering a baker's cart with an awning, will face the noisiest and +most vociferous of boilers. But granting that the committee is right in +coming to this conclusion as far as regards the danger arising to horses, +the other objection we alluded to was a poser, from which we shall be glad +to see how they extricate themselves--we mean the injury done to the +turnpike road. Why, it turns out that a steam-coach does no injury at all; +but, from the necessity it is under to sport the widest and strongest of +wheels, it acts as a sort of roller, and might pass for a deputy Macadam. +Mr Macneil, who has had great experience in road surveying, says that, +even in 1831, he had stated that, from the examination he had made as to +the wear of iron in the shoes of horses, compared with the wear on the +tire of the wheels of carriages, the injury done to the turnpike roads +would be much less by steam-carriages than that done by mail and stage +coaches drawn by horses. Since then, "I have had practical experience on +this point, and have carefully examined the roads in different parts of +the country where steam-carriages have been running, and I have every +reason to believe the opinion I then gave was correct; indeed, I have not +the least doubt in my mind, that if steam-carriages ran generally on the +turnpike roads of the kingdom, _one-half of the annual expense of the +repairs of these roads would be saved_." + +It is supposed that the tolls throughout England are let for more than a +million and a half a-year! A saving of one half in this enormous amount +would fructify in the pockets (now remarkably in need of some process of +the kind) of the public, to the entire satisfaction of Rebecca and all her +daughters. And yet with this evidence, of perhaps the best practical +authority on the subject, before their eyes, let us see what the wiseacres +of certain rural districts did to encourage economy and inland transit. By +means of a tremendous instrument of tyranny called a local act, (for which +the Grand Sultan would be very glad to exchange his firman,) the road +trustees of various neighbourhoods have laid an embargo on all steam +carriages, by enacting _intolerable_ payments. Thus on the Liverpool and +Prescot road, a steam-carriage would be charged £.2, 8s.; while a loaded +stage-coach would pay only four shillings! On the Bathgate road the same +carriage would be charged £.1, 7s. 1d.; while a coach drawn by four horses +would pay five shillings. On the Ashburnham and Totness road, steam would +pay £.2; and a four-horse coach three shillings. And how did these sages +settle the rates of payment? The reader would never guess, so we will tell +him at once-they charged for each horse power as if the boiler contained a +whole stud, all trampling the road to atoms with iron shoes; whereas they +ought have let the broad-wheeled carriage go free, if, indeed, they were +not called on to pay it a certain sum each journey for the benefit it did +the highway. + +Such was the evidence that led the committee to decide, in 1834, on the +practicability, the safety, and economy of running steam-carriages on +common roads. It will be sufficient to give a list of the witnesses +examined, to show that the highest authorities were consulted before the +report was framed. They were-- + + Mr Goldsworthy Gurney. + Walter Hancock. + John Farey, civil engineer. + Richard Trevethick. + Davies Gilbert, M.P., president of the Royal Society. + Nathanael Ogle. + Alexander Gordon, civil engineer. + Joseph Gibbs. + Thomas Telford, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. + William A. Summers. + James Stone. + James Macadam, road surveyor. + John Macneil, civil engineer, and + Colonel Torrens, M.P. + +Since the date of the last Report railways have run their titanic course; +and whether from the opposition of wise road trustees, or a want of +enterprise in steam-carriage proprietors, or from some other cause, steam +locomotion on common roads has not made any progress. But, in spite of the +powerful evidence we have quoted, we cannot conceal from ourselves that +there was always an _if_ or a _but_ attached to the complete triumph of +the new system. The _if_ and the _but_, it will be seen, had reference to +the nature of the road. Mr Macneil and the other able and scientific +gentlemen examined, all concurred in calling for a vast improvement on the +highways to be travelled on--"a smooth and well-dressed pavement"--"a hard +pavement"--"a smooth pavement on a solid foundation"--they all agree in +thinking indispensable to the complete triumph of steam. "If on the road," +says Mr Macneil, "from London to Birmingham, there were a portion laid off +on the side of the road for steam carriages, and if it be made in a solid +manner, with pitching and well-broken granite, it would fall very little +short of a railroad. It would be easy to fence it off from fifteen to +twenty feet without injury to property." And a statement to the same +effect was made in November 1833, to which the following names are +appended:-- + + Thomas Telford, P.I.C.E. + John Rickman, commissioner for Highland roads and bridges. + C.W. Pasley, colonel royal engineers. + Bryan Donkin, manufacturing engineer. + T. Bramah, civil engineer. + James Simpson, manufacturing engineer. + John Thomas, civil engineer. + Joshua Field, manufacturing engineer. + John Macneil, civil engineer. + Alexander Gordon, civil engineer. + William Carpmael, civil engineer. + +"There can be no doubt," say they, "that a well-constructed engine, a +steam-carriage conveyance between London and Birmingham, at a velocity +unattainable by horses, and limited only by safety, may be maintained; and +it is our conviction that such a project might be undertaken with great +advantage to the public, more particularly if, as might obviously be the +case, without interfering with the general use of the road, a portion of +it were to be prepared and kept in a state most suitable for travelling in +locomotive steam-carriages." + +But in this is the whole difficulty as far as regards the best granite +road; for, supposing for a moment that all the other conditions were +fulfilled--that it was hard and smooth--one great element is to be taken +into consideration, from which no skill and science can exempt the best +and firmest Macadam; and that is the effect of atmospheric changes on the +surface of the road. The difference of tractive power in summer and winter +must be immense, and the great disadvantage of mechanical, as compared +with animal draught, is its want of adaptability to the exigencies of an +ordinary road. A steam-carriage of ten horse power cannot under any +circumstances, when it encounters a newly mended part of the road, or a +softer soil, put forth an additional power for a minute or two, as a team +of horses can do; so that equality of exertion is nearly indispensable for +the full advantage of an engine. We accordingly find that the opponents of +steam-travelling on common roads, gained their object by covering the +highway with a coating of broken stones fourteen inches deep. Through this +it was impossible to force the coach without such a strain as to displace +or otherwise injure the machinery. But when a system of locomotion, +containing so many advantages, has so nearly been brought to perfection, +in spite of the many difficulties presented by the common modes of making +a road, it would be inconceivable blindness in the parties interested in +the subject to overlook the certain mode of success offered to them, by +merely laying down a portion of the road in wood. Who those parties are we +have already pointed out. They are the inhabitants and owners of property +in towns and neighbourhoods at some distance from railway traffic; and if +the proprietors of great lines of railway saw their own interest, they +would be foremost in adopting the new method as an auxiliary, and not view +it as a rival or an enemy. For it is very evident that nothing can be so +beneficial to a railway already in operation as a branch line, by which a +hitherto unopened district can be united to their stations. And the +difference of expense between the two systems--namely, between an iron +railway and a wooden pavement--is so great, that the latter is scarcely +beyond the power of the poorest neighbourhood. An iron branch was at one +time proposed between Steventon and Oxford. The same sum which would have +been required for this purpose, according to the estimates, would have +laid down an excellent road in wood from Steventon through Oxford to +Rugby; thus connecting the three great arteries of the country--the Great +Western, the Birmingham, and the Midland Counties Railways. It will be +found that the great lines of railway have been forced, at an unavoidable +and foreseen loss, to spread out minor or tributary lines, which, if the +system of wood-paving had been in existence, might have been laid down at +less than a third of the expense, and producing a proportionate profit. +This view of the case has not been altogether neglected, for it has been +dwelt on at some length in an able pamphlet on "the Use of Mechanical +Power in Draught on Turnpike Roads, with reference to the new system of +Wood Paving." It is evidently the work of a practical man, who has deeply +studied the subject. "No part of the community," he says, "are likely to +benefit so largely by the introduction of the new system as the holders of +railway shares. For though, in all probability, the railroads would not +have been constructed to their present extent had the virtues of wood +paving been earlier known, yet it would be absurd to contend that the +wooden road will ever be able to compete with the existing iron lines. The +new principle, however, may be most usefully adopted by the railway +companies themselves, in the formation of branches or tributary roads, the +completion of which has hitherto entailed on them enormous expense +unattended by corresponding benefits. The proposed system, at all events, +is worth a trial by many other towns besides the one chosen for +illustration by the author of the pamphlet. He fixes on Shrewsbury, a +place already on the decline, and not likely to recover its former +prosperity, unless it can establish steam communication with the great +lines of railway at Wolverhampton. "But capitalists," he adds, "who see +the small amount of dividend paid to their shareholders by the minor +railways, can no longer be induced to embark their money in similar +undertakings. Let a portion, however, of the noble, but now +half-deserted, Holyhead road be paved with wood, and for a comparatively +trifling cost of less than £.50,000, in six months from the present time +steamers could be enabled to run along the entire line with safety, +infinitely greater than, and speed almost equal to, that on the +Birmingham Railway." + +We feel sure that these considerations need only to be stated to have +their due weight, and we shall be greatly surprised if an effort is not +soon made to avoid the ruin impending over so many towns. Among others, +the beautiful town of Salisbury should take an interest in this matter; +for what can be more evident that she will fall rapidly to decay, if she +cannot establish a steam communication with Southampton on one side, and +Bath and Bristol on the other. Salisbury, above all other places, ought to +know the value of a good road; for she has the fate of her elder sister +Sarum before her eyes. Decay--disfranchisement--contempt will assuredly be +her lot, if she allows herself to be treated in the same way as the +venerable Sarum was in the days of her youth--for do not the antiquaries +tell us what was the cause of Sarum's fall? It has, in fact, become so +notorious, that it has even got into Topographical Dictionaries. "About +this time," the reign of Edward the First, "Bishop Bridport built a bridge +at Harnham, and thus changing the direction of the Great Western Road, +which formerly passed through Old Sarum, that place was completely +deserted, and Salisbury became one of the most flourishing cities of the +kingdom." + +The same will be recorded of her by future chroniclers, if she do not +seize this opportunity of retrieving her possession of "the Great Western +Road." "In the reign of Queen Victoria, a railroad being established at +some distance from Salisbury, and the traffic being thus diverted from it, +which once formed the great source of its prosperity, it became completely +deserted; Shaftesbury, Sturminster, and Sherborne, shared in her ruin; and +Swindon became one of the most flourishing places in the kingdom." We +cannot think so meanly of our countrymen, as to suppose that they will +yield like white-livered cravens, and die without a struggle; and in thus +raising the voice of Maga to warn them of their danger, and instruct them +how to avoid it, we consider that we are doing the state some service, and +pointing out new means profitable employment for the capital of the rich, +and the labour of the poor. + + + * * * * * + + + + +COMMERCIAL POLICY--SHIPS, COLONIES, AND COMMERCE. + + +Who, standing on the shore, has not seen, as the gale freshened into storm +and swelled into the hurricane, the waves of the clear green sea gradually +lose their brightness, until raking up from the lowest depths, convulsed +with the mighty strife of the elements, the very obscene dregs and refuse +of all matter terreous, or instinct of life, the mounting billows become +one thick and unsightly mass of turbid waters, chafing with all the foam +and froth of the unclean scourings of the deep, rioting in the ascendant? +As in the world physical, so is it with the order of nature in the world +moral and political. As the social horizon becomes troubled, as reform +careers on to revolution, the empire of mind is overwhelmed--the brute +matter and fiercer spirits of the masses ascend, and ride the tempest +political more triumphantly as incipient confusion thickens into confirmed +chaos. + +The bad eminence popularly of men so devoid of all principle and +integrity, so strangely uncouth and assorted, as the Daniel O'Connells, +the John M'Hales, and the Feargus O'Connors; of men so unlearned in all +principle, political and economical--so wanting, moreover, in the presence +of the higher order of moral sentiments, as the Cobdens, the Brights, the +Rory O'Mores, the Aucklands, and Sydney (he of the League) Smiths, is +among the worst symptoms of the diseased times upon which the country has +fallen. It recalls forcibly to mind, it reproduces the opening scenes and +the progress, the men and the machinery, of the first French Revolution, +the precursor of so many more, upon the last act of the last fashioned +melodrama of which the curtain has not yet probably descended. How then +the meaner spirits succeeded in the whirlwind of change, to the mightier +minds which first conjured and hoped to control it; how the Mirabeaux, the +Lally Tollendals, the Mouniers of the Assembly, were replaced and +popularly displaced by the sophists and intriguers of the Gironde and the +Constituent; how, in the Convention and the hall of the Jacobins, the +coarser men of the whole movement--the Dantons, the Robespierres, the +Marats, the facetious as ferocious Bareres, the stupid Anacharsis +Clootzes--trampled under foot, or finished with the guillotine, the +_phraseurs_ and _meneurs_ of the Gironde, your orators of set speech, +glittering abstractions, and hair-splitting definitions; the Brissots, +Vergniauds, Condorcets, and Rolands, who could degrade, dethrone, and +condemn a king to perpetual imprisonment, but were just too dainty of +conscience to go the whole hog of murder. As history, like an old +almanack, does but repeat itself within a given cycle of years, so the +same round, cast, and change of characters and characteristics, with all +the other paraphernalia of the great drama, Reform and Revolution, as +performed in France, have been, and are in due order enacting and +exhibiting in this country. We have already seen, however, the Greys, +Hollands, and Broughams, the fathers and most eloquent apostles of Reform, +dethroned by a clique of large talkers about great principles, with a +comparatively small stock of ideas to do business on, such as Mr +appropriation Ward, the Tom Duncombes, Villierses, &c., men vastly +inferior in talents and attainments, after all, to the Gironde, of whom +they are the _imitatores servum pecus_; whilst these again "give place" on +the pressure from without of the one-idea endowed tribe of Repealers of +Unions and Corn-Laws--the practical men of the Mountain genus--the +O'Connells, Cobdens, and Brights, who, not yet so fierce as their +predecessors of the Robespierre and Clootz dynasty, are so far content +with patronising the "strap and billy roller" in factories, instead of +carting aristocrats to the guillotine, which may come hereafter, if, as +they say, appetites grow with what they feed on. For it is a fact recorded +in history, that Robespierre himself was naturally a man of mild +temperament and humane disposition, converted into a sanguinary monster, +as some wild beasts are, with the first taste of human blood. Anacharsis +Clootz, his coadjutor, the celebrated "orator of the human race," in his +day, was at least a free trader as thorough-going, as eminently eloquent +and popular a leader, as Mr Cobden himself. + +On the present occasion, our business chiefly lies with the gentleman +known as Mr Alderman Richard Cobden, M.P. for the borough of Stockport, +one of the first samples sent up of municipal and representative reform +achievement. Mr Cobden is an example of successful industry when +translated to a proper sphere of action. Fortunate in the maternal +relationship of a Manchester warehouseman, domiciliated in the classic +regions of cotton and Cheapside, he was taken as an "odd lad" into the +establishment. In process of time he was advanced to the more honourable +grade of traveller, in days of yore styled "bagman," to the concern. +Somewhere about 1825 or 1826, we find him transplanted to Manchester, in +partnership with two other persons of the same craft and trading position, +where they enjoyed the patronage of the late Mr Richard Fort, an extensive +calico-printer, at, and in his latter years member for, the borough of +Clitheroe in the north of Lancashire. He leased to them one of his +print-works near Chorley, and such, it is understood, was the success of +the trio, that when, after a partnership of some thirteen or fourteen +years, they separated, the division of fairly won spoil accruing to each +was not less than £.30,000. Within the space of fourteen years say, +industry had created out of nothing the incredible sum of £.90,000. +During his travels, like Jemmy the sandman, for orders, Mr Cobden became +initiated into the science of "spouting;" he became the oracle and orator +of bars and travellers' rooms; the observed of all observers, from the +gentlemen of the road down to waiters, barmaids, and boots. The roadsters +of his, as of these days, were no longer, however, of the same high-toned +class as that of the "bagmen" in times gone by. Tradition tells now only +of the splendid turns-out, the dinner-table luxury, the educated +commercial polish, the "feast of reason and the flow of soul" enjoyment, +of a race defunct; the degenerate crew of Cobden's association, with +wages cut down to short common commissions, dined not at home; tea and +turn-in, with a sleeping draught of whisky toddy, were the staples of +mine host's bill. Such is briefly the report of the rise and progress of +Mr Cobden in the world, as we have it from quarters entitled to regard; +various exaggerated statements about his hundreds of thousands acquired, +are afloat as usual in cases where men spring from nothing; his trading +career has been sufficiently prosperous and extraordinary, not to be +rendered incredible by ridiculous inventions of friends or foes. About +the locale of his birth and residence, of his origin and antecedents, Mr +Cobden himself ever maintains a guarded silence, as if, with +aristocratical airs growing with his fortunes, he were ashamed, and would +cast the slough of family poverty and plebeianship; or perhaps he +calculates on leaving the world, Sussex at least, hereafter to dispute +the honours of his paternity like another Homer. + +Mr Cobden is but a type, not of the highest cast either, of the +manufacturing operatives of Lancashire. You will find his equal in one at +least out of every ten of the adult factory workmen of Lancashire, whose +wits are sharpened by everyday conflict and debate in clubs and publics; +you will often meet his superior in those self-educated classes. We have +not unfrequently read speeches at public meetings by intelligent +operatives in Lancashire, which showed a more profound acquaintance with, +and greater powers of development of the _rationale_ of political and +economical philosophy, in single instances, than can be discovered in the +mass of harangues poured forth by Mr Cobden, were the flowers ever so +carefully culled and separated from the loads of trashy weed. His forte +consists in a coarse but dauntless intrepidity, with which respectability +and intellect shrink from encounter. The country squire, educated and +intelligent, but retiring and truth-loving, retreats naturally from +contest with a bold, abusive, and unscrupulous demagogue; even the party +he serves, holds off from contact and communion with him. He never quails, +therefore, because never matched, unless before Mr Ferrand, the fearless +member for Knaresborough--a man most ill-used, even abandoned by the very +party he so signally serves; yet who is never slow, as occasion offers, to +chastise the cur which snarls whilst it crouches before him. The eloquence +of Mr Cobden is of that vulgarly-exciting sort, well adapted to the level +of the audiences, the scum of town populations, to which it is habitually +addressed. Without the education of the late Henry Hunt, he has quite as +much capacity and more tact, with the single exception, that when +attempting to soar to the metaphorical he is apt to enact the ludicrous +blunders of Astley's clown aping the affected pomposity of the master; as +_v.g._ in the "demon rising from the Thames with an Act of Parliament in +his hands." Mr Alderman Cobden is, withal, a very ostentatious declaimer +about "great first principles;" but into the nature and the definition of +those principles he is the most abstemious of all men from entering. The +subtlety of a principle escapes the grasp of his intellect; he can deal +with it only as a material substance clear to sight and to touch, like a +common calico. Hence he talks about principles and cotton prints as if +they were convertible terms. + +Such as he is, Mr Cobden, it cannot be denied, fills for the present a +large space in the public eye; and so he will continue to fill until +occult party supports are withdrawn, and, having served the turn, he is +left to the natural operation of the principles of gravitation, and to +sink to the nothingness from which he has been forced up by the political +accidents and agitation of the day. Lamentably astern in economical lore +and political knowledge as he is, and as the want of that educational +preparation upon which alone the foundation of knowledge and of principles +can be raised, has left him, Mr Cobden, it must be conceded, turns the old +rags, the cast-off clothes, of other people's crotchets to good account +popularly; he succeeds where others fail, not because he is less ignorant +but because he is more fearless. But newly come into the world, as it may +be said, with little learning from books, with understanding little +enlarged by study, and furnished only with those clap-trap generalities, +that declamatory trash, which may be gleaned from reading diligently the +Radical weekly papers, Mr Cobden boldly takes for granted that all which +is new to himself must be unknown to the older world about him. Thus he +appropriates, without scruple, because in sheer ignorance, the ideas and +discoveries, such as they are and as they seem to him, of others, his more +experienced Radical contemporaries. He plunders Daniel Hardcastle, in open +day, of his banking and currency dogmas; he fleeces Bowring before his +eyes of his one-sided Free Trade and Anti-corn-Law stock in business; nay, +he mounts Joseph Hume's well-known stalking-horse against "ships, +colonies, and commerce," (colonial,) and forthwith on to the foray. Yet he +alone remains unconscious of the spoliations patent to all the world +besides-- + + "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." + +He retails the worn-out conceits of others as new and wondrous discoveries +of his own genius and profound meditation; and all with such a simplicity +and complacency of self-satisfied conviction, that you never dream or +impugning the good faith with which + + ----"His undoubting mind + Believed the magic wonders which he sung." + +Thus has it been with him specially in the last new case of poaching on +the manor of Mr Joseph Hume, whose game he unhesitatingly appropriates, +disguising it only in a sauce of his own flavouring. After sundry mystical +heraldings forth, at various public meetings, of a mighty state secret for +the cure of all state ills, which was labouring for vent in the swelling +breast of Mr Alderman Cobden, M.P., the hour of parturition at length +arrived; he was--after the one or two hours' agonies of a speech delivered +in the for ever memorable day of June 22, 1843--delivered of the mare's +nest so miraculously conceived. Here is the bantling bodily, stripped of +all the swaddling-clothes of surplus verbiage in which it was enveloped on +entering the world of Westminster--resolved, "That, in the opinion of this +house, it is not expedient that, in addition to the great expense to which +the people of this country are subject for the civil, military, and naval +establishments of the colonies, they should be compelled to pay a higher +price for the productions of those colonies than that at which similar +commodities could be procured from other countries, and that therefore all +protective duties in favour of colonial produce ought to be abolished." +Our "colonial system" was denounced by this colonial Draco as "one of +unmixed evil; ... there was no subject upon which there was greater +misapprehension than this ... the _new_ facts he should lay before the +house would, no doubt, prove his position." Happy the legislature +illumined with the infusion of Cobden's Bude light; thrice blest the +people, both inside and outside of the house, amongst whom, all alike, "a +great deal of misapprehension upon this point prevailed," whose darkness +was about to be discharged by the same master mind which was, and anon is, +busied in the discharge of Turkey reds from cotton chintzes at Chorley +print-works. + +We need not remind the public, that the peculiar phrases of that disease +with which the mind of Cobden is so profoundly impregnated, essentially +resolve themselves into the _moneymania;_ the leading characteristic of +the mental hallucinations with which the patient is tormented, consists in +the inveterate habit of reducing all argument into arithmetical +quantities; of calculating the value of all truth at some standard rate +per pound sterling, of what it might possibly produce as a matter of +trade; of confounding syllogisms with ciphers, and lumbering all logic +into pounds, shillings, and pence. With diagnostics of disease so +unmistakably developed, it would only be exasperation of the symptoms to +exhibit remedially in other than the peculiar form which the patient +fancies for the kill-or-cure-all draught; and since he has raised the +suit, of which he is the self-constituted judge, in which Cocker is pitted +against the colonies, we shall even humour the conceit, and try the +question with him according to the principles of law and logic, as laid +down and reduced by himself into the substantial shape of a _Dr._ and +_Cr._ account, balances struck in hard cash, and no mistake. + +Firstly, to begin with the beginning, which Mr Cobden, with customary +confusion of intellect and arrangement, shoots into the midst of his +arithmetic. The worthlessness of the colonies is argued upon the figures, +which show that, of the total exports of the United Kingdom, but one-third +is absorbed by them, whilst two-thirds are taken by foreign markets; +therefore it follows, not that the colonial trade is by 50 per cent less +important than foreign, but that, relatively, it is not only of no +importance at all, but, by all the amount, an absolute prejudice: such, at +least, is the rule-of-three logic of the Cobden school, as, viz.:-- + + "They should, however, consider what the extent of their trade + with the colonies was. The whole amount of their trade in 1840 + was, exports £.51,000,000; out of that £.16,000,000 was exported + to the colonies, including the East Indies; but not one-third of + their export trade went to the colonies. Take away £.6,000,000 of + this export trade that went to the East Indies, and they had + £.10,000,000 of exports to set against the £.5,000,000 or + £.6,000,000 annually which was voted from the pockets of the + people of this country to support these colonies." + +We shall come in season meet to the five or six millions sterling said to +be voted annually "to support the colonies." Now, admitting that the +sixteen millions, as stated, of exports colonial do contrast unfavourably +with the thirty-five millions of foreign, and that by all the difference, +by more than the difference, colonial trade is disparaged in its +importance, what becomes of this arithmetical illustration of the +superiority of foreign trade, when by the same standard we come to measure +it against the home trade, scarcely less a subject of depreciation and +vituperation than the colonial, with thinkers of the same impenetrable, if +not profound class as the member for Stockport? Here, for his edification, +we consign the resulting figures from the standard set up by himself, as +they may be found calculated and resolved from minute detail into grand +totals in the "General Statistics of the British Empire," by Mr James +Macqueen, an authority, perhaps, who will not be questioned by competent +judges any where without the pale of the Draconian legislators of the +Anti-corn-Law League. + +"The yearly consumption of the population of Great Britain and Ireland for +food, clothing, and lodging, (we give the round numbers only):-- + +Agricultural produce for food, £.295,479,000 +Produce of manufactures, 262,085,000 +Imports, (raw produce, &c.) value as landed, 55,000,000 + ------------- + 612,564,000 +Deduct exports, 51,000,000 + ------------- + £.561,564,000" + +It follows, then, that whilst foreign trade simply consumes something more +than double that of colonial trade, the home trade alone amounts to eleven +times over both foreign and colonial together, and by sixteen times as +much the amount of foreign trade alone. Upon the hypothesis of Mr Cobden, +therefore, foreign trade should be treated as of no value at all in the +national sense. + +Having disposed of Mr Cobden according to Cocker, in reference to his +arithmetical demonstrations of the superiority in point of pounds, +shillings, and pence value of one sort of trade over another, we may +notice some petty trickery, cunningly intended on his part, consisting in +the suppression of figures and facts on the one side, and their +aggregation on the other, &c., by way of bolstering up unfairly a rotten +case. He states the whole colonial trade at £.16,000,000 only, inclusive +of British India, whereas Porter's Tables, which he must have consulted, +give the _total_ exports of Great Britain to all the world for 1840, + +at £.51,406,430 +Of which colonial, 17,378,550 + ------------- +Remaining for foreign trade, £.34,027,880 + +Mr Cobden knew well, however, that Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Isles +are not, and cannot be considered as, colonies. They are in fact military +stations held for political and commercial objects. It would be ridiculous +to suppose that the rock of Gibraltar, with a population of 15,000 souls, +should consume of British imports alone £.1,111,176, the value actually +entered for that port in 1840. That amount should be accounted as to the +credit of foreign export trade, and so Mr Cobden reckoned it, without, +however, drawing the distinction, as he should have done. But that would +have exposed the miserable chicanery of the double dealing he had in hand; +for whilst taking credit for the exports to Gibraltar as part and parcel +of foreign trade, he proceeded, by way of doubly weighing the balance, to +charge all the civil and military expenditure of the garrison and fortress +against colonial trade, so that he treated Gibraltar as a colony in +respect of its cost, and as a foreign country in respect of its trade. +Cunning Isaac! here we have his military arithmetic:--"Upon the 1st of +January in this year, their army numbered 88,000 rank and file. They had +abroad, exclusive of India, 44,589. So that more than one half of that +army was stationed in their colonies; and as it was stated by the noble +lord the member for Tiverton in his evidence, for every 10,000 of these +soldiers that they had in the colonies, 5000 were wanted in England for +the purpose of exchange and recruiting. So that not only one-half, but +actually three-fourths of the army were devoted to the colonies. The army +estimates this year amounted to £.6,225,000, the portion of which sum for +the colonies amounted to £.4,500,000." Now, as the garrison of Gibraltar +alone consists of about 4000 men, to which add 2000 as the proportion for +the reserve in England for recruiting and exchanges, it follows that of +the 44,500 men on colonial duty, to which add the reserve in England, +22,250, one-eleventh are stationed in and wanted for Gibraltar alone, the +charge of which to be rateably deducted from the whole sum of £.4,500,000, +falsely set down as incurred for the colonies, would be about £.410,000. +If to this sum be added £.275,000 for "new works in Gibraltar," as stated +by Mr Cobden himself from the estimates--ordnance expenditure, (1000 +guns,) £.25,000 only--share of navy estimates, £.50,000 only--we have a +gross sum of above three quarters of a million sterling as the cost of a +fortress whose sole utility, in peace or in war, is the favour and +protection of foreign trade--of the trade of the Mediterranean, of which +it is the key; and the nation is saddled with this cost for, among others, +the special behoof of that economical and disinterested patriot Mr Cobden +himself, who trades to the shores laved by the waters of that sea, the +Levant and the Dardanelles, if not the Black Sea. Why, Gibraltar alone, +with its 15,000 of population, is more than double the charge of Canada +with its million of people, one-half just emerged out of a state of +rebellion, if not _quasi_ rebellious yet. So with Malta, its garrison of +about 3000 men; and, besides, a naval squadron for protection, that island +being the headquarters of the Mediterranean fleet--a fleet and a station +exclusively kept up for the protection of foreign trade, if for any +purpose at all. And so also with the Ionian Islands, garrisoned with 3300 +troops. Taking the garrison forces of Malta and these islands at 6000 men +only, with the reserve in England of 3000 more, making altogether 9000, +the rateable share of expense, according to the calculation of Mr Cobden, +for the whole army, would be about £640,000. Add to this sum the estimate +of £410,000 for the garrison alone of Gibraltar, and we have the gross sum +of £1,050,000 for the three dependencies of Gibraltar, Malta, and the +Ionian Islands, under the head of those army estimates, amounting to +£4,500,000, which Mr Cobden veraciously charges to the account of the +colonies. We purposely leave out of question for the present the +consideration of the other heavy charges in naval armaments, ordnance, +&c., to which this country is subjected for the same possessions, because +we have still to deduct other portions of the army expenditure set down as +for colonial account--that is, as the penalty paid for keeping colonies; +whereas a foreign trade of thirty-four or thirty-five millions, costs the +country nothing at all, according to the numeration tables of Mr Cobden, +and therefore should be all profit. + +Passing from Europe, we come to Austral-Asia, where Great Britain, among +others, possesses no less than three penal colonies. It will not be +contended that New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and Norfolk Island, +were established either with economically trading or political objects; +that, in point of fact, they were established in any other sense than as +metropolitan prisons, for the safe keeping, punishment, and moral +reclamation and reform of those _quasi_ incorrigible offenders, those +criminal pests, by which the health of society was distempered, and its +safety endangered in the parent state. Therefore, whatever the military or +other expenditure incurred, it must be as much an obligation in its +supreme or corporate capacities upon the state benefited, as the support +of the criminal jurisdiction at home in all its ramifications, from the +chief judges of the land down to the lowest turnkey at Newgate. We need +not stop to enquire in what proportion the manufacturing system, with the +immoral schools of radicalism, irreligionism, and Anti-corn-Law Cobdenism, +have contributed to people the penal settlements, and, _pro tanto_, to +aggrieve the national treasury. Certain it is, and a truth which will not +be questioned, that by far the largest share of that criminal refuse has +been cast off by and from the manufacturing districts; and of which, +therefore, the colonial trade portion indirectly contributed should be +rateably the minimum, as compared with foreign trade. In his _Statistics +of the Colonies of the British Empire_, Mr Montgomery Martin remarks of +New South Wales, that "it should be observed that a large part of the +military force is required to guard the prisoners." Let us take the number +of troops so employed at 2600, which will not be far from the mark, the +corresponding home reserve of which will be 1300 more, and we then arrive, +with the help of Mr Cobden's arithmetic, and starting from his own fixed +datum of total charge, at a sum, in round numbers, of £265,000 army +expenditure for the three penal colonies; the more considerable proportion +of which must at least be set down as arising indirectly from foreign +trade, and certainly far the least from colonial, so far as chargeable +upon either. + +We have next, taking Mr Cobden's rule of practice, about £.50,000 actual +military expenditure in St Helena, to which add reserve in England, and a +total of about £.70,000 is arrived at; which cannot be placed to colonial +account as for colonial purposes, since the island is purely a military +and refreshment station for vessels _en route_ for China, India, and the +seas circumflowing; and foreign trade, therefore, as much concerned in the +guilt of its expense as colonial traffic. The amount of charge, therefore, +although remaining to be deducted from the colonial head, may be left as a +neutral indeterminate item. But the military expenses for Singapore, +Penang, and Malacca, about £.80,000, cannot be for colonial account at +all, because stations merely for carrying on foreign trade, against which +chargeable, with the civil establishments as well, whether in whole or in +part, paid by the East India Company or not. + +Returning westward, we have the Bay of Honduras with a military +establishment, including reserve as _per_ Cobden, expending about +£.50,000, which ranges for the far greater part within the category of the +cost attending foreign trade. Then, on the West African slave-trading +coast, we have Sierra Leone, with a military expenditure, actual and +contingent, of about £.25,000. There are the Cape Coast Castle, Acera, +Fernando Po, and other small African settlements besides, which cannot +cost less, in military occupation, than some few thousands a-year, say +only £.10,000, all for foreign trade, since colonization and production +are _nil_; and with Sierra Leone, they are only kept, or were established, +for the purpose of suppressing the trade in slaves, and promoting a +foreign trade in that quarter of Africa. Coming to Europe we have +Heligoland, a rock in the North Sea, which, as only costing something more +than £.1000 per annum on foreign trade account, we may leave out of +question. Now, without pretending on the present occasion to make up and +offer an approximate estimate of the proportion of army expenditure +charged against the colonies by Mr Cobden, which should be set down either +to political account, as arising from the possession and maintenance of +outposts necessary for defensive or defensively aggressive purposes, in +case of, or for the prevention of foreign war, or for the protection and +encouragement of foreign trade, in which a right large portion of the +military expenditure for Jamaica, Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, &c., +may be regarded, we shall content ourselves with reducing his wholesale +estimate of colonial army charge by the materials antecedently furnished. +The reductions will stand thus, premising that in respect of Singapore, +Penang, and Malacca, we have not the means of ascertaining what proportion +of the charge falls upon the national treasury, as part is borne by the +East India Company. Of one fact there can, however, be no doubt; namely, +that nearly the whole of that charge is incurred for the support and +maintenance of foreign trade, just in or about the same degree as the +charges for Gibraltar. + +Gibraltar, army estimate, £.410,000 +Malta, Ionian Islands, 640,000 +New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land, Norfolk Island, 265,000 +St Helena, 70,000 +Singapore, Penang, &c., 80,000 +Honduras, 50,000 +Sierra Leone, Cape Coast, &c., 35,000 + ---------- + £1,550,000 + ---------- +Deducting this amount from Mr Cobden's colonial + estimates of 4,500,000 + ---------- + £2,950,000 + +This discount of about 35 per cent at one "fell swoop" from an audaciously +mendacious account-current, would be deemed sufficiently liberal if +dealing with other than the "measureless liars" of the League; it is far, +however, from the whole sum which will be charged upon, and proved against +them, on occasion hereafter when the general question shall be progressed +with. The rogues that fleeced the simple stripling, Lord Huntingtower, out +of 95 per cent for his bills, were not, as shall be proved, more +unscrupulous cheats and abusers of individual, than the League are of +public faith. + +But the discount of Cobden's Cocker veracity here established, with which +for the present we shall conclude, is far (enormous, almost incredible +though it be) from the full measure of his intrepidity in the "art of +misrepresentation;" crediting him, as upon fair consideration we are +bound, with misrepresenting to some extent from sheer ignorance, from want +of that early mental training, or maturer discipline, which alone can +qualify for the severe labour of researches into, and the analysation of +truth. For, unfortunately for the question he has raised, although not so +far entertained by the legislature, the very figures discounted from his +colonial fictions tell against, and must be carried over to the debit of, +his highly cherished foreign trade account, the cost of which to the +country will be approximately verified on another occasion in Blackwood. +It is the distinctive mishap of the family of the Wrongheads, the +illiterate, one-idea'd class of which he is a member, that they never can +contemplate a friendly act without perpetrating mischief, nor intend +mischief without unconsciously achieving discomfiture and disgrace. For of +the £.1,550,000 colonial overcharge in military expenditure _alone_ of +this shallow, unreflecting, and superficial person, not less certainly +than £1,200,000 must be charged to the account of foreign trade, the +special trade he delights to honour. It will constitute, as he will find, +a material item in the general balance-sheet which we purpose to draw +hereafter between the advantages of foreign and colonial trade. + +Sir Robert Peel is not more correct in his so bitterly reproached +"do-nothing" policy about Irish repeal, than in his "do-nothing" emphatic +policy about Corn-law repeal. No man better knows how, left to +themselves, the Brights and Cobdens will turn out to be Marplots. The +dolts cannot see, that however hard the Villierses, and such as them, bid +for popularity against them, in apparently the same cause--they have an +interest diametrically adverse in the general sense, and on the fitting +opportunity will throw them overboard. The most influential part of the +liberal press, both metropolitan and provincial, it is well understood, +concur with the League to some extent in its avowed objects, without at +all liking its leaders, or the means pursued for the end sought, and wait +only for the occasion, which will come, for damaging and finally +overthrowing them in popular estimation. In Manchester, Leeds, and +Birmingham, that is, in the privately known sentiments of the leading +press and other liberal leaders of opinion in each, it is notorious that +this feeling and occult determination prevails. Mr Cobden himself, and +some of his colleagues, are not unaware of the fact, and have, in the +factious and political sense, latterly trimmed their course accordingly. +But, notwithstanding, confidence they have recovered not--never will, +because apostacy or trimming cannot inspire confidence; they are +endured--to be used, and to be laid aside, "steeped in Lethe" and +forgotten, as in time they will be. + +In this brief article we have treated only of the salient points of the +colonial slanders of Mr Cobden and the League. We have challenged them +only with carrying to colonial account above one million and a half +sterling, with which the colonies, so understood in the true sense, have +nothing to do; and we have shown that one million and a quarter nearly of +the charge made against colonial trade, legitimately appertains to foreign +trade. Hereafter we purpose to investigate the respective charges entailed +upon the country by foreign and colonial trade, to apportion to each its +share, and to strike the balance of profit and loss relatively upon each. +Let it suffice for the present that we have shown Mr Cobden and his +figures to be utterly undeserving of credit in a partial point of view +only; we could, as we shall, prove them to be, either through idiotical +ignorance or stupidly malicious intent, more worthless of credit still in +the general and rational sense--in the relative proportions of the +totality of national expenditure. The blunderer, ignorant or malignant, +classed the expenditure for Guernsey and Jersey, and the Channel islands, +under the head of colonial military expenditure, as well as a considerable +portion of the cost of the Chinese war, partly repaid or in course of +being repaid. He took the exports to the colonies for 1840, when the +Chinese war was only in its origin, and expense scarcely incurred; and he +adopted the estimates for 1843, when the expenses of the Chinese war had +to be provided for, a portion of which was charged under colonial heads. +He omitted, as we have said, any account of permanent charge for +conducting and protecting the trade with China, amounting to a +considerable sum yearly under the old system, and which hereafter will be +more--all to the account of "foreign trade." He omitted besides, at the +least, half a million for the war with China--all for "foreign trade." We +shall have other occasions, however, for exposing his dishonesty, and +vindicating the colonies from his calumnies. The only words of something +like truth he spoke, were against that bastard and discreditable system, +purporting to be a "self-supporting system," concocted by adventurers and +land-jobbers for achieving fortunes at the cost, and to the ruin, of the +unsuspecting emigrating public, and to the signal detriment and dishonour +of the state. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- +Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14753-8.txt or 14753-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/7/5/14753/ + +Produced by Jon Ingram, donlei, Internet Library of Early Journals +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 21, 2005 [EBook #14753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Jon Ingram, donlei, Internet Library of Early Journals +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + + +No. CCCXXXV. SEPTEMBER, 1843. VOL. LIV. + + * * * * * + + +"WE ARE ALL LOW PEOPLE THERE." + +A TALE OF THE ASSIZES. + +IN TWO CHAPTERS. + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + + +Some time ago, business of an important character carried me to the +beautiful and populous city of ----. I remember to have visited it when I +was a child, in the company of a doating mother, who breathed her last +there; and the place, associated with that circumstance, had ever +afterwards been the gloomiest spot in the county of my birth. A calamity +such as that to which I have alluded leaves no _half_ impressions. It +stamps itself deep, deep in the human heart; and a change, scarcely less +than organic, for good or ill, is wrought there. Agreeably with this +fact, the scene itself of the event becomes at once, to the survivor, +either hallowed and beloved, or hated and avoided. Not that natural +beauty or deformity has any thing to do in the production of such +feelings. They have a mysterious origin, and are, in truth, not to be +accounted for or explained. A father sees the hope and joy of his manhood +deposited amongst the gardens of the soil, and from that moment the +fruitful fields and unobstructed sky are things he cannot gaze upon; +whilst the brother, who has lived in the court or alley of a crowded city +with the sister of his infancy, and has buried her, with his burning +tears, in the dense churchyard of the denser street, clings to the +neighbourhood, close and unhealthy though it be, with a love that renders +it for him the brightest and the dearest nook of earth. He cannot quit +it, and be at peace. Causes that seem alike, are not always so in their +effects. For my own part, for years after the first bitter lesson of my +life became connected with that city, I could not think of it without +pain, or hear its name spoken without suffering a depression of spirits, +as difficult to throw off as are the heavy clouds that follow in the +track, and hide the little light of a December sun. At school, I remember +well how grievously I wept upon the map on which I first saw the word +written, and how completely I expunged the characters from the paper, +forbidding my eyes to glance even to the county from which I had erased +them. Time passes, hardening the heart as it rolls over it, and we afford +to laugh at the strong feelings and extravagant views of our youth. It is +well, perhaps, that we do so; and yet on that subject a word or two of +profitable matter might be offered, which shall be withholden now. For +many years I have battled through the world, an orphan, on my own +account; and it is not surprising that the vehemence of my early days +should have gradually sobered down before the stern realities that have +at every step encountered me. Long before I received the unwelcome +intelligence, that it was literally incumbent upon me to revisit the spot +of my beloved mother's dissolution, the mention of its name had ceased to +evoke any violent emotion, or to affect me as of old. I say _unwelcome_, +because, notwithstanding the stoicism of which I boast, I felt quite +uncomfortable enough to write to my correspondent by the return of post, +urging him to make one more endeavour to complete my business without my +aid, and to spare, if possible, my personal attendance. I gave no reason +for this wish. I did not choose to tell a falsehood, and I had hardly +honesty to acknowledge, even to myself--the truth. I failed, however, in +my application, and with any but a cheerful mind, I quitted London on my +journey. Thirty years before I had travelled to ---- in a stupendous +machine, of which now I recollect only that it seemed to take years out +of my little life in arriving at its destination, and that, on its broad, +substantial rear, it bore the effigy of "_an ancient Briton_." Locomotion +then, like me, was in a state of infancy. On the occasion of my second +visit to the city, I had hardly time to wonder at the velocity with which +I was borne along. Distance was annihilated. The two hundred miles over +which _the ancient Briton_ had wearisomely laboured, were reduced to +twenty, and before I could satisfy myself that our journey was more than +begun, my horseless coach, and fifty more besides, had actually gone over +them. I experienced a nervous palpitation at the heart as I proceeded +from the outskirts of the city, and grew more and more fidgety the nearer +I approached the din and noise of the prosperous seat of business. I +could not account for the feeling, until I detected myself walking as +briskly as I could, with my eyes fixed hard upon the ground, as though +afraid to glance upon a street, a house, an object which could recall the +past, or carry me back to the first dark days of life. Then it was that I +summoned courage, and, with a desperate effort to crush the morbid +sensibility, raised myself to my full height, gazed around me, and awoke, +effectually and for ever, from my dream. The city was not the same. The +well-remembered thoroughfares were gone; their names extinct, and +superseded by others more euphonic; the buildings, which I had carried in +my mind as in a book--the thought of meeting which had given me so much +pain, had been removed--destroyed, and not a brick remained which I could +call a friend, or offer one warm tear, in testimony of old acquaintance. +A noble street, a line of palaces--merchants' palaces--had taken to +itself the room of twenty narrow ways, that, in the good old times, had +met and crossed in close, but questionable, friendship. Bright stone, +that in the sunlight shone brighter than itself, flanked every broad and +stately avenue, denoting wealth and high commercial dignity. Every +venerable association was swept away, and nothing remained of the +long-cherished and always unsightly picture, but the faint shadow in my +own brain--growing fainter now with every moment, and which the +unexpected scene and new excitement were not slow to obliterate +altogether. I breathed more freely as I went my way, and reached my +agent's house at length, lighter of heart than I had been for hours +before. Mr Treherne was a man of business, and a prosperous one too, or +surely he had no right to place before the dozen corpulent gentlemen whom +I met on my arrival--a dinner, towards which the viscera of princes might +have turned without ruffling a fold of their intestinal dignity. I +partook of the feast--that is to say, I sat at the groaning table, and, +like a cautious and dyspeptic man, I eat roast beef--_toujours_ roast +beef, and nothing else--appeased my thirst with grateful claret, and +retired at last to wholesome sleep and quiet dreams. Not so the corpulent +guests. It may be to my dyspeptic habit, which enables me to be virtuous +at a trifling cost, and to nothing loftier, that I am bound to attribute +the feeling with which I invariably sit down to feasting; be this the +fact or not, I confess that a sense of shame, uneasiness, and dislike, +renders an affair of this kind to me the most irksome and unpleasant of +enjoyments. The eagerness of appetite that one can fairly see in the +watery and sensual eyes of men to whom _eating_ has become the aim and +joy of their existence--the absorption of every faculty in the gluttonous +pursuit--the animal indulgence and delight--these are sickening; then the +deliberate and cold-blooded torture of the creatures whose marrowy bones +are _crunched_ by the epicure, without a thought of the suffering that +preceded his intensely pleasurable emotions, and the bare mention of +which, in this narrative, is almost more than sufficient, then, worst of +all, the wilful prodigality and waste--the wickedness of casting to the +dogs the healthy food for which whole families, widows, and beggared +orphans are pining in the neighbouring street--the guilty indifference of +him who finds the wealth for the profusion, and the impudent recklessness +of the underling who abuses it. Such are a few of the causes which concur +in giving to the finest banquet I have seen an aspect not more odious +than humiliating; and here I dwell upon the fact, because the incident +which I shall shortly bring before the reader's eye, served to confirm +the feelings which I entertain on this subject, and presented an +instructive contrast to the splendid entertainment which greeted my +immediate arrival. + +I slept at the house of Mr Treherne, and, on the following morning, was an +early riser. I strolled through the city, and, returning home, found my +active friend seated at his breakfast-table, with a host of papers, and a +packet of newly-arrived letters before him. The dinner was no more like +the breakfast, than was my friend in the midst of his guests like my +friend alone with his papers. His meal consisted of one slice of dry +toast, and one cup of tea, already cold. The face that was all smile and +relaxation of muscle on the preceding evening, was solemn and composed. +You might have ventured to assert that tea and toast were that man's most +stimulating diet, and that the pleasures of the counting-house were the +highest this world could afford him. I, however, had passed the evening +with him, and was better informed. Mr Treherne requested me to ring the +bell. I did so, and his servant speedily appeared with a tray of garnished +dainties, of which I was invited to partake, with many expressions of +kindness uttered by my man-of-business, without a look at me, or a +movement of his mind and eye from the pile of paper with which he was +busy. In the course of half an hour, I had brought my repast to a close, +and Mr Treherne was primed for the conflict of the day. His engagements +did not permit him to give me his assistance in my own matters until the +following morning. He begged me to excuse him until dinner-time--to make +myself perfectly at home--to wile away an hour or so in his library--and, +when I got tired of that, to take what amusement I could amongst the lions +of the town--offering which advice, he quitted me and his house with a +head much more heavily laden, I am sure, than any that ever groaned +beneath the hard and aching knot. Would that the labourer could be taught +to think so! + +After having passed an unsatisfactory hour in Mr Treherne's library, in +which the only books which I cared to look at were very wisely locked up, +on account of their rich binding, too beautiful to be touched, I sauntered +once more through the broad streets of the city, and, in my solitary walk, +philosophized upon the busy spirit of trade which pervaded them. It is at +such a time and place that the quiet and observant mind is startled by the +stern and settled appearance of reality and continuance which all things +take. If the world were the abiding-place of man, and life eternity, such +earnestness, such vigour, such intensity of purpose and of action as I saw +stamped upon the harassed brows of men, would be in harmony with such a +scene and destination. HERE such concentration of the glorious energies of +man is mockery, delusion, and robs the human soul of--who shall say how +much? Look at the stream of life pouring through the streets of commerce, +from morn till night, and mark the young and old--yes, the youngest and +the oldest--and discover, if you can, the expression of any thought but +that of traffic and of gain, as if the aim and end of living were summed +up in these. And are they? Yes, if we may trust the evidence of age, of +him who creeps and totters on his way, who has told his threescore years +and ten, and on the threshold of eternity has found the vanity of all +things. Oh, look at him, and learn how hard it is, even at the door of +death, to FEEL the mutability and nothingness of earth! Palsied he is, yet +to the Exchange he daily hies, and his dull eye glistens on the mart--his +ear is greedy for the sounds that come too tardily--his quick and treble +voice is loud amongst the loudest. He is as quick to apprehend, as eager +now to learn, as ravenous for gain, as when he trusted first an untried +world. If life be truly but a shadow, and mortals but the actors in the +vision, is it not marvellous that age, and wisdom, and experience build +and fasten there as on a rock? Such thoughts as these engaged my mind, as +I pursued my way alone, unoccupied, amongst the labouring multitude, and +cast a melancholy hue on things that, to the eye external, looked bright, +beautiful, and enduring. I was arrested in my meditations at length by a +crowd of persons--men, women, and children--who thronged about the +entrance of a spacious, well-built edifice. They were for the most part in +rags, and their looks betrayed them for poor and reckless creatures all. +They presented so singular a feature of the scene, contrasted so +disagreeably with the solid richness and perfect finish of the building, +that I stopped involuntarily, and enquired into the cause of their +attendance. Before I could obtain an answer, a well-dressed and better-fed +official came suddenly to the door, and bawled the name of one poor +wretch, who answered it immediately, stepped from the crowd, and followed +the appellant, as the latter vanished quickly from the door again. A +remark which, at the same moment, escaped another of the group, told me +that I stood before the sessions'-house, and that a man, well known to +most of them, was now upon trial for his life. He was a murderer--and the +questionable-looking gentleman who had been invited to appear in court, +had travelled many miles on foot, to give the criminal the benefit of his +good word. He was the witness for the defence, and came to speak to +_character_! My curiosity was excited, and I was determined to see the end +of the proceeding. It is the custom to pay for every thing in happy +England. I was charged _box-price_ for my admittance, and was provided +with as good a seat as I could wish, amongst the _elite_ of the assembly. +Quick as I had been, I was already too late. There was a bustle and buzz +in the court, that denoted the trial to be at an end. Indeed, it had been +so previously to the appearance of the devoted witness, whose presence had +served only to confirm the evidence, which had been most damnatory and +conclusive. The judge still sat upon the bench, and, having once perceived +him, it was not easy to withdraw my gaze again. "The man is surely +guilty," said I to myself, "who is pronounced so, when that judge has +summed up the evidence against him." I had never in my life beheld so much +benignity and gentleness--so much of truth, ingenuousness, and pure +humanity, stamped on a face before. There was the fascination of the +serpent there; and the longer I looked, the more pleasing became the +countenance, and the longer I wished to protract my observation and +delight. He was a middle-aged man--for a judge, he might be called young. +His form was manly--his head massive--his forehead glorious and +intellectual. His features were finely formed; but it was not these that +seized my admiration, and, if I dare so express myself, my actual love, +with the first brief glance. The EXPRESSION of the face, which I have +already attempted faintly to describe, was its charm. Such an utter, such +a refreshing absence of all earthiness--such purity and calmness of +soul--such mental sweetness as it bespoke! When I first directed my eye +to him, it seemed as if his thoughts were abstracted from the +comparatively noisy scene over which he presided--busy it might be, in +reviewing the charge which he had delivered to the jury, and upon the +credit of which the miserable culprit had been doomed to die. I do not +exaggerate when I assert, that at this moment--during this short +reverie--his face, which I had never seen before, seemed, by a miracle, +as familiar to me as my own--a fact which I afterwards explained, by +discovering the closest resemblance between it and a painting of our +Saviour, one of the finest works of art, the production of the greatest +genius of his time, and a portrait which is imprinted on my memory and +heart by its beauty, and by repeated and repeated examination. The +touching expressiveness of the countenance would not have accorded with +the stern office of the judge, had not its softness been relieved by a +bold outline of feature, and exalted by the massy formation of the head +itself. These were sufficient to command respect--_that_ made its way +quickly to the heart. An opportunity was soon afforded me to obtain some +information in respect of him. I was not surprised to hear that his name +and blood were closely connected with those of a brilliant poet and +philosopher, and that his own genius and attainments were of the highest +character. I was hardly prepared to find that his knowledge as a lawyer +was profound, and that he was esteemed erudite amongst the most learned +of his order. My attention was called reluctantly from the judge to the +second case of the day, which now came for adjudication. The court was +hushed as a ruffian and monster walked sullenly into the dock, charged +with the perpetration of the most horrible offences. I turned +instinctively from the prisoner to the judge again. The latter sat with +his attention fixed, his elbow resting on a desk, his head supported by +his hand. Nothing could be finer than the sight. Oh! I would have given +much for the ability to convey to paper a lasting copy of that +countenance--a memorial for my life, to cling to in my hours of weakness +and despondency, and to take strength and consolation from the spectacle +of that intelligence, that meekness and chastity of soul, thus allied and +linked to our humanity. + +It was instructive to look alternately at the criminal and at him who +must award his punishment. There they were, both men--both the children +of a universal Father--both sons of immortality. Yet one so unlike his +species, so deeply sunken in his state, so hideous and hateful as to be +disowned by man, and ranked with fiercest brutes; the other, as far +removed, by excellence, from the majority of mankind, and as near the +angels and their ineffable joy as the dull earth will let him. Say what +we will, the gifts of Heaven are inscrutable as mysterious, and education +gives no clue to them. The business of the hour went on, and my attention +was soon wholly taken up in the development of the gigantic guilt of the +wretched culprit before me. I could not have conceived of such atrocity +as I heard brought home to him, and to which, miserable man! he listened, +now with a smile, now with perfect unconcern, as crime after crime was +exhibited and proved. His history was a fearful one even from his +boyhood; but of many offences of which he was publicly known to be +guilty, one of the latest and most shocking was selected, and on this he +was arraigned. It appeared that for the last few years he had cohabited +with a female of the most disreputable character. The issue of this +connexion was a weakly child, who, at the age of two years, was removed +from her dissolute parents through the kindness of a benevolent lady in +the neighbourhood, and placed in the care of humble but honest villagers +at some distance from them. The child improved in health and, it is +unnecessary to add, in morals. No enquiry or application was made for her +by the pair until she had entered her fifth year, and then suddenly the +prisoner demanded her instant restoration. The charitable lady was +alarmed for the safety of her _protegee_, and, with a liberal price, +bought off the father's natural desire. He duly gave a receipt for the +sum thus paid him, and engaged to see the child no more. The next morning +he stole the girl from the labourer's cottage. He was seen loitering +about the hut before day-break, and the shrieks of the victim were heard +plainly at a considerable distance from the spot where he had first +seized her. Constables were dispatched to his den. It was shut up, and, +being forced open, was found deserted, and stripped of every thing. He +was hunted over the county, but not discovered. He had retired to haunts +which baffled the detective skill of the most experienced and alert. This +is the first act of the tragedy. It will be necessary to stain these +pages by a description of the last. The child became more and more +unhappy under the roof of her persecutors, as they soon proved themselves +to be. She was taught to beg and to steal, and was taken into the +highways by her mother, who watched near her, whilst, with streaming +eyes, the unhappy creature now lied for alms, now pilfered from the +village. Constant tramping, ill treatment, and the wear and tear of +spirit which the new mode of existence effected, soon reduced the child +to its former state of ill health and helplessness. She pined, and with +her sickness came want and hunger to the hut. The father, affecting to +disbelieve, and not listening to the sad creature's complaint, still +dismissed her abroad, and when she could not walk, compelled the mother +to carry her to the public road, and there to leave her in her agony, the +more effectually to secure the sympathy of passengers. Even this +opportunity was not long afforded him. The child grew weaker, and was at +length unable to move. He plied her with menaces and oaths, and, last of +all, deliberately threatened to murder her, if she did not rise and +procure bread for all of them. She had, alas! no longer power to comply +with his request, and--merciful Heaven!--the fiend, in a moment of +unbridled passion, made good his fearful promise. With one blow of a +hatchet--alas! it needed not a hard one--_he destroyed her_. I caught the +judge's eye as this announcement was made. It quivered, and his +countenance was pale. I wished to see the monster _too_, but my heart +failed me, and my blood boiled with indignation, and I could not turn to +him. The short account which I have given here does bare justice to the +evidence which came thick and full against the prisoner, leaving upon the +minds of none the remotest doubt of his fearful criminality. The mother, +and a beggar who had passed the night in the hut when the murder was +perpetrated, were the principal witnesses against the infanticide, and +their depositions could not be shaken. I waited with anxiety and great +irritability for the sentence which should remove the prisoner from the +bar. The earth seemed polluted as long as he breathed upon it; he could +not be too quickly withdrawn, and hidden for ever in the grave. The case +for the prosecution being closed, a young barrister arose, and there was +a perfect stillness in the court. My curiosity to know what this +gentleman could possibly urge on behalf of his client was extreme. To me +"the probation bore no hinge, nor loop to ban a doubt on." But the +smoothfaced counsellor, whose modesty had no reference to his years, +seemed in no way burdened by the weight of his responsibility, nor to +view his position as one of difficulty and risk. He stood, cool and +erect, in the silence of the assembly, and with a self-satisfied _smile_ +he proceeded to address the judge. Yes, he laughed, and he had heard that +heart-breaking recital; and the life of the man for whom he pleaded was +hardly worth a pin's fee. The words of the poet rushed involuntarily to +my mind. "Heaven!" I mentally exclaimed, "_Has this fellow no feeling of +his business--he sings at grave-making_!" He made no allusion to the +evidence which had been adduced, but he spoke of INFORMALITY. I trembled +with alarm and anger. I had often heard and read of justice defeated +by such a trick of trade; but I prayed that such dishonour and public +shame might not await her now. Informality! Surely we had heard of the +cold-blooded cruelty, the slow and exquisite torture, the final +deathblow; there was no informality in these; the man had not denied his +guilt, his defender did not seek to palliate it. Away with the juggle, it +cannot avail you here! But in spite of my feverish security, the shrewd +lawyer--well might he smile and chuckle at his skill--proceeded calmly to +assert the prisoner's right to his immediate _discharge! There was a flaw +in the declaration, and the indictment was invalid_. And thus he proved +it. The man was charged with murdering his child--described as his, and +bearing his own name. Now, the deceased was illegitimate, and should have +borne its mother's name. He appealed to his lordship on the bench, and +demanded for his client the benefit which law allowed him. You might have +heard the faintest whisper in the court, so suspended and so kept back +was every drop of human breath, whilst every eye was fixed upon the +judge. The latter spoke. "_The exception was conclusive; the prisoner +must be discharged_." I could not conceive it possible. What were truth, +equity, morality--Nothing? And was murder _innocence_, if a quibble made +it so? The jailer approached the monster, and whispered into his ear that +he was now at liberty. He held down his head stupidly to receive the +words, and he drew it back again, incredulous and astounded. Oh, what a +secret he had learned for future government and conduct! What a friend +and abettor, in his fight against mankind, had he found in the law of his +land! I was maddened when I saw him depart from the well-secured bar in +which he had been placed for trial. There he had looked the thing he +was--a tiger caught, and fastened in his den. Could it do less than chill +the blood, and make the heart grow sick and faint, to see the bolts drawn +back--the monster loosed again, and turned unchained, untamed, fiercer +than ever, into life again? Legislators, be merciful to humanity, and +cease to embolden and incite these beasts of prey! Melancholy as the +above recital is, it is to be considered rather as an episode in this +narration, than as the proper subject of it. Had my morning's adventure +finished with this disgraceful acquittal, the reader would not have been +troubled with the perusal of these pages. My vexation would have been +confined to my own breast, and I should have nourished my discontent in +silence. The scene which immediately followed the dismissal of the +murderer, is that to which I have chiefly to beg attention. It led to an +acquaintance, for which I was unprepared--enabled me to do an act of +charity, for which I shall ever thank God who gave me the power--and +disclosed a character and a history to which the intelligent and +kind-hearted may well afford the tribute of their sympathy. It was by way +of contrast and relief, I presume, that the authorities had contrived +that the next trial should hardly call upon the time and trouble of the +court. It was a case, in fact, which ought to have been months before +summarily disposed of by the committing magistrate, and one of those too +frequently visited with undue severity, whilst offences of a deeper dye +escape unpunished, or, worse still, are washed away in _gold_. A poor man +had stolen from a baker's shop a loaf of bread. _The clerk of the +arraigns_, as I believe he is called, involved this simple charge in many +words, and took much time to state it but when he had finished his +oration, I could discover nothing more or less than the bare fact. A few +minutes before the appearance of the delinquent, I remarked a great +bustle in the neighbourhood of the young barrister already spoken of. A +stout fresh-coloured man had taken a seat behind him with two thinner +men, his companions, and they were all in earnest conversation. The stout +man was the prosecutor--his companions were his witnesses--and the +youthful counsellor was, on this occasion, retained _against_ the +prisoner. I must confess that, for the moment, I had a fiendish delight +in finding the legal gentleman in his present position. "It well becomes +the man," thought I, "through whose instrumentality that monster has been +set free, to fall with all his weight of eloquence and legal subtlety +upon this poor criminal." If he smiled before, he was in earnest now. He +frowned, and closed his lips with much solemnity, and every look bespoke +the importance of the interests committed to his charge.--A beggar!--and +to steal a loaf of bread! Ay, ay! society must be protected--our houses +and our homes must be defended. Anarchy must be strangled in its birth. +Such thoughts as these I read upon the brow of youthful wisdom. Ever and +anon, a good point in the case struck forcibly the lusty prosecutor, who +communicated it forthwith to his adviser. _He_ listened most attentively, +and shook his head, as who should say "Leave that to me--we have him on +the hip." The witnesses grew busy in comparing notes, and nothing now was +wanting but the great offender--the fly who must be crushed upon the +wheel--and he appeared. Reader, you have seen many such. You have not +lived in the crowded thoroughfares of an overgrown city, where every +grade of poverty and wealth, of vice and virtue, meet the eye, mingling +as they pass along--where splendid royalty is carried quicker than the +clouds adown the road which palsied hunger scarce can cross for lack of +strength--where lovely forms, and faces pure as angels' in their innocent +expression, are met and tainted on the path by unwomanly immodesty and +bare licentiousness--amongst such common sights you have not dwelt, and +not observed some face pale and wasted from disease, and want, and +sorrow, not one, but all, and all uniting to assail the weakly citadel of +flesh, and to reduce it to the earth from which it sprung. Such a +countenance was here--forlorn--emaciated--careworn--every vestige of +human joy long since removed from it, and every indication of real misery +too deeply marked to admit a thought of simulation or pretence. The eye +of the man was vacant. He obeyed the turnkey listlessly, when that +functionary, with a patronizing air, directed him to the situation in the +dock in which he was required to stand, and did not raise his head to +look around him. A sadder picture of the subdued, crushed heart, had +never been. Punishment! alack, what punishment could be inflicted now on +him, who, in the school of suffering, had grown insensible to torture? +Notwithstanding his rags, and the prejudice arising from his degraded +condition, there was something in his look and movements which struck me, +and secured my pity. He was very ill, and had not been placed many +minutes before the judge, when he tottered and grew faint. The turnkey +assisted the poor fellow to a chair, and placed in his hands, with a +rough but natural kindness, which I shall not easily forget, a bunch of +sweet-smelling marjoram. The acknowledgement which the miserable creature +attempted to make for the seasonable aid, convinced me that he was +something better than he seemed. A shy and half-formed bow--the impulse +of a heart and mind once cultivated, though covered now with weeds and +noxious growths--redeemed him from the common herd of thieves. In the +calendar his age was stated to be thirty-five. Double it, and that face +will warrant you in your belief. Desirous as I was to know the +circumstances which had led the man to the commission of his offence, it +was not without intense satisfaction that I heard him, at the +commencement of the proceedings, in his thin tremulous voice, plead +_guilty_ to the charge. There was such rage painted on the broad face of +the prosecutor, such disappointment written in the thinner visage of the +counsellor, such indignation and astonishment in those of the witnesses, +that you might have supposed those gentlemen were interested only in the +establishment of the prisoner's innocence, and were anxious only for his +acquittal. For their sakes was gratified at what I hoped would prove the +abrupt conclusion of the case. The prisoner had spoken; his head again +hung down despondingly--his eyes, gazing at nothing, were fixed upon the +ground; the turnkey whispered to him that it was time to retire--he was +about to obey, when the judge's voice was heard, and it detained him. + +"Is the prisoner known?" enquired his lordship. + +The counsellor rose _instanter_. + +"Oh, very well, my lud--an old hand, my lud--one of the pests of his +parish." + +"Is this his first offence?" + +The barrister poked his ear close to the mouth of the prosecutor before he +answered. + +"By no means, my lud--he has been frequently convicted." + +"For the like offence?" enquired the Judge. + +Again the ear and mouth were in juxtaposition. + +"We believe so, my lud--we believe so," replied the smart barrister; "but +we cannot speak positively." + +The culprit raised his leaden eye, and turned his sad look towards the +judge, his best friend there. + +"For BEGGARY, my lord," he uttered, almost solemnly. + +"Does any body know you, prisoner?" asked my lord. "Can any one speak to +your previous character?" + +The deserted one looked around the court languidly enough, and shook his +head, but, at the same instant there was a rustling amongst the crowd of +auditors, and a general movement, such as follows the breaking up of a +compact mass of men when one is striving to pass through it. + +"Si-_lence_!" exclaimed a sonorous voice, belonging to a punchy body, a +tall wand, and a black bombasin gown; and immediately afterwards, "a +friend of the prisoner's, my lord. Get into that box--speak loud--look at +his lordship. Si-_lence_!" + +The individual who caused this little excitement, and who now ascended the +witness's tribune, was a labouring man. He held a paper cap in his hand, +and wore a jacket of flannel. The prisoner glanced at him without seeming +to recognize his friend, whilst the eyes of the young lawyer actually +glistened at the opportunity which had come at last for the display of his +skill. + +"What are you, my man?" said the judge in a tone of kindness. + +"A journeyman carpenter, please your worship." + +"You must say _my lord_--say _my lord_," interposed the bombasin gown. +"Speak out. Si-_lence_!" + +"Where do you live?" + +"Friar's Place--please you, my lord." The bombasin smiled pitifully at the +ignorance of the witness, and said no more. + +"Do you know the prisoner at the bar?" + +"About ten weeks ago--please you, my lord, I was hired by the landlord--" + +"Answer his lordship, sir," exclaimed the counsel for the prosecution in a +tone of thunder. "Never mind the landlord. Do you know the prisoner?" + +"Why, I was a saying, please you, my lord, about ten weeks ago I was hired +by the landlord--" + +"Answer directly, sir," continued the animated barrister--"or take the +consequences. Do you know the prisoner?" + +"Let him tell his story his own way, Mr Nailhim," interposed his lordship +blandly. "We shall sooner get to the end of it." + +Mr Nailhim bowed to the opinion of the court, and sat down. + +"Now, my man," said his lordship, "as quickly as you can, tell me whatever +you know of the prisoner." + +"About ten weeks ago--please you, my lord," began the journey-man _de +novo_, "I was hired by the landlord of them houses as is sitiwated where +Mr Warton lives--" (The bombasin looked at the witness with profound +contempt, and well he might! The idea of calling a prisoner at the bar +_Mr_--stupendous ignorance!) "and I see'd him day arter day, and nobody +was put to it as bad as he was. He has got a wife and three children, and +I know he worked as hard as he could whilst he was able; but when he got +ill he couldn't, and he was druv to it. I have often taken a loaf of bread +to him, and all I wish is, he had stolen one of mine behind my back +instead of the baker's. I shouldn't have come agin him, poor fellow! and I +am sure he wouldn't have done it if his young uns hadn't been starving. I +never see'd him before that time, but I could take my affidavy he's an +industrious and honest man, and as sober, please you, my lord, as a +judge." + +At this last piece of irreverence, the man with the staff stood perfectly +still, lost as it seemed, in wonder at the hardihood of him who could so +speak. + +"Have you any thing more to say?" asked his lordship. + +The carpenter hesitated for a second or two, and then acknowledged that he +had not; and, such being the case, it seemed hardly necessary for Mr +Nailhim to prolong his examination. But that gentleman thought otherwise. +He rose, adjusted his gown, and looked not only _at_ the witness, but +through and through him. + +"Now, young man," said he, "what is your name?" + +"John Mallett, sir," replied the carpenter. + +"John Mallett. Very well. Now, John Mallett, who advised you to come here +to-day? Take care what you are about, John Mallett." + +The carpenter, without a moment's hesitation, answered that his "old woman +had advised him; and very good advice it was, he thought." + +"Never mind your thoughts, sir. You don't come here to think. Where do you +live?" + +The witness answered. + +"You have not lived long there, I believe?" + +"Not quite a fortnight, sir." + +"You left your last lodging in a hurry too, I think, John Mallett?" + +"Rather so, sir," answered Innocence itself, little dreaming of effects +and consequences. + +"A little trouble, eh, John Mallett?" + +"Mighty deal your lordship, ah, ah, ah!" replied the witness quite +jocosely, and beginning to enjoy the sport. + +"Don't laugh here, sir, but can you tell us what you were doing, sir, last +Christmas four years?" + +Of course he could not--and Mr Nailhim knew it, or he never would have put +the question; and the unlucky witness grew so confused in his attempt to +find the matter out, and, in his guesses, so confounded one Christmas with +another, that first he blushed, and then he spoke, and then he checked +himself, and spoke again, just contradicting what he said before, and +looked at length as like a guilty man as any in the jail. Lest the effect +upon the court might still be incomplete, the wily Nailhim, in the height +of Mallett's trouble, threw, furtively and knowingly, a glance towards the +jury, and smiled upon them so familiarly, that any lingering doubt must +instantly have given way. They agreed unanimously with Nailhim. A greater +scoundrel never lived than this John Mallett. The counsellor perceived his +victory, and spoke. + +"Go down, sir, instantly," said he, "and take care how you show your face +up there again. I have nothing more to say, my lud." + +And down John Mallett went, his friend and he much worse for his +intentions. + +"And now this mighty case is closed!" thought I. "What will they do to +such a wretch!" I was disappointed. The good judge was determined not to +forsake the man, and he once more addressed him. + +"Prisoner," said he, "what induced you to commit this act?" + +The prisoner again turned his desponding eye upwards, and answered, as +before-- + +"Beggary, my lord." + +"What are you?" + +"Nothing, my lord--any thing." + +"Have you no trade?" + +"No, my lord." + +"What do your wife and children do?" + +"They are helpless, my lord, and they starve with me." + +"Does no one know you in your neighbourhood?" + +"No one, my lord. I am a stranger there. _We are all low people there_, my +lord." + +There was something so truly humble and plaintive in the tone with which +these words were spoken, and the eyes of the afflicted man filled so +suddenly with tears as he uttered them, that I became affected in a manner +which I now find it difficult to describe. My blood seemed to chill, and +my heart to rush into my throat. I am ashamed to say that my own eyes were +as moist as the prisoner's. I resolved from that moment to become his +friend, and to enquire into his circumstances and character, as soon as +the present proceedings were at an end. + +"How long has the prisoner been confined already?" + +"Something like three months, my lud," answered the barrister cavalierly +as if months were minutes. + +"It is punishment enough," said the judge--"let him be discharged now. +Prisoner, you are discharged--you must endeavour to get employment. If you +are ill, apply to your parish; there is no excuse for stealing--none +whatever. You are at liberty now." + +The information did not seem to carry much delight to the heart of him +whom it was intended to benefit. He rose from his chair, bowed to his +lordship, and then followed the turnkey, in whose expression of +countenance and attentions there was certainly a marked alteration since +the wind had set in favourably from the bench. The man departed. Moved by +a natural impulse, I likewise quitted the court the instant afterwards, +enquired of one of the officials the way of egress for discharged +prisoners, and betook myself there without delay. What my object was I +cannot now, as I could not then, define. I certainly did not intend to +accost the poor fellow, or to commit myself in any way with him, for the +present, at all events. Yet there I was, and I could not move from the +spot, however useless or absurd my presence there might be. It was a small +low door, with broad nails beaten into it, through which the liberated +passed, as they stepped from gloom and despair, into freedom and the +unshackled light of heaven. I was not then in a mood to trust myself to +the consideration of the various and mingled feelings with which men from +time to time, and after months of hopelessness and pain, must have bounded +from that barrier, into the joy of liberty and life. My feelings had +become in some way mastered by what I had seen, and all about my heart was +disturbance and unseemly effeminacy. There was only one individual, +besides myself, walking in the narrow court-yard, which, but for our +footsteps, would have been as silent as a grave. This was a woman--a +beggar--carrying, as usual, a child, that drew less sustenance than sorrow +from the mother's breast. She was in rags, but she looked clean, and she +might once have been beautiful; but settled trouble and privation had +pressed upon her hollow eye--had feasted on her bloomy skin. I could not +tell her age. With a glance I saw that she was old in suffering. And what +was her business here? For whom did _she_ wait? Was it for the father of +that child?--and was she so satisfied of her partner's innocence, and the +justice of mankind, that here she lingered to receive him, assured of +meeting him again? What was his crime?--his character?--her history? I +would have given much to know, indeed, I was about to question her, when I +was startled and detained by the drawing of a bolt--the opening of the +door--and the appearance of the very man whom I had come to see. He did +not perceive me. He perceived nothing but the mother and the child--_his_ +wife and _his_ child. She ran to him, and sobbed on his bosom. He said +nothing. He was calm--composed; but he took the child gently from her +arms, carried the little thing himself to give her ease, and walked on. +She at his side, weeping ever; but he silent, and not suffering himself to +speak, save when a word of tenderness could lull the hungry child, who +cried for what the mother might not yield her. Still without a specific +object, I followed the pair, and passed with them into the most ancient +and least reputable quarter of the city. They trudged from street to +street, through squalid courts and lanes, until I questioned the propriety +of proceeding, and the likelihood of my ever getting home again. At +length, however, they stopped. It was a close, narrow, densely peopled +lane in which they halted. The road was thick with mud and filth; the +pavement and the doorways of the houses were filled with ill-clad sickly +children, the houses themselves looked forbidding and unclean. The +bread-stealer and his wife were recognised by half a dozen coarse women, +who, half intoxicated, thronged the entrance to the house opposite to +that in which they lodged, and a significant laugh and nod of the head +were the greetings with which they received the released one back again. +There was little heart or sympathy in the movement, and the wretched +couple understood it so. The woman had dried her tears--both held down +their heads--even there--for shame, and both crawled into the hole in +which, for their children's sake, they _lived_, and were content to find +their home. Now, then, it was time to retrace my steps. It was, but I +could not move from the spot--that is, not retreat from it, as yet. There +was something to do. My conscience cried aloud to me, and, thank God, was +clamorous till I grew human and obedient. I entered the house. A child +was sitting at the foot of the stairs, her face and arms begrimed--her +black hair hanging to her back foul with disease and dirt. She was about +nine years old; but evil knowledge, cunning duplicity, and the rest, were +glaring in her precocious face. She clasped her knees with her extended +hands, and swinging backwards and forwards, sang, in a loud and impudent +voice, the burden of an obscene song. I asked this creature if a man +named Warton dwelt there. She ceased her song, and commenced +whistling--then stared me full in the face and burst into loud laughter. + +"What will you give if I tell you?" said she, with a bold grin. "Will you +stand a glass of gin?" + +I shuddered. At the same moment I heard a loud coughing, and the voice of +the man himself overhead. I ascended the stairs, and, as I did so, the +girl began her song again, as if she had suffered no interruption. I +gathered from a crone whom I encountered at the top of the first flight of +steps, that the person of whom I was in quest lived with his family in the +back room of the highest floor; and thither, with unfailing courage, I +proceeded. I arrived at the door, knocked at it briskly without a moment's +hesitation, and recognized the deep and now well-known tones of Warton in +the voice desiring men to enter. The room was very small, and had no +article of furniture except a table and two chairs. Some straw was strewn +in a corner of the room, and two children were lying asleep upon it, their +only covering being a few patches of worn-out carpet. Another layer was in +the opposite corner, similarly provided with clothing. This was the +parents' bed. I was too confused, and too anxious to avoid giving offence, +to make a closer observation. The man and his wife were sitting together +when I entered. The former had still the infant in his arms, and he rose +to receive me with an air of good breeding and politeness, that staggered +me from the contrast it afforded with his miserable condition--his +frightful poverty. + +"I have to ask your pardon," said I, "for this intrusion, but your name is +Warton, I believe?" + +"It is, sir," he replied--and the eyes of the wife glistened again, as she +gathered hope and comfort from my unexpected visit. She trembled as she +looked at me, and the tears gushed forth again. + +("These are not bad people, I will swear it," I said to myself, as I +marked her, and I took confidence from the conviction, and went on.) + +"I have come to you," said I, "straight from the sessions'-house, where, +by accident, I was present during your short trial. I wish to be of a +little service to you. I am not a rich man, and my means do not enable me +to do as much as I would desire; but I can relieve your immediate want, +and perhaps do something more for you hereafter, if I find you are +deserving of assistance." + +"You are very kind, sir," answered the man, "and I am very grateful to +you. We are strangers to you, sir, but I trust these (pointing to his wife +and children) _may_ deserve your bounty. For myself--" + +"Hush, dear!" said his wife, with a gentleness and accent that confounded +me. _Low_ people! why, with full stomachs, decent clothing, and a few +pounds, they might with every propriety have been ushered at once into a +drawing-room. + +"Poor Warton is very ill, sir," continued the wife, "and much suffering +has robbed him of his peace of mind. I am sure, sir, we shall be truly +grateful for your help. We need it, sir, Heaven knows, and he is not +undeserving--no, let them say what they will." + +I believed it in my heart, but I would not say so without less partial +evidence. + +"Well," I continued, "we will talk of this by and by. I am determined to +make a strict enquiry, for your own sakes as well as my own. But you are +starving now, it seems, and I sha'n't enquire whether you deserve a loaf +of bread. Here," said I, giving, them a sovereign, "get something to eat, +for God's sake, and put a little colour, if you can, into those little +faces when they wake again." + +The man started suddenly from his chair, and walked quickly to the window. +His wife followed him, alarmed, and took the infant from his arms, whilst +he himself pressed his hand to his heart, as though he would prevent its +bursting. His face grew deathly pale. The female watched him earnestly, +and the hitherto silent and morose man, convulsed by excess of feeling, +quivered in every limb, whilst he said with difficulty-- + +"Anna, I shall die--I am suffocated--air--air--my heart beats like a +hammer." + +I threw the window open, and the man drooped on the sill, and wept +fearfully. + +"What does this mean?" I asked, speaking in a low tone to the wife. + +"Your sudden kindness, sir. He is not able to bear it. He is proof against +cruelty and persecution--he has grown reckless to them, but constant +illness has made him so weak, that any thing unusual quite overcomes him." + +"Well, there, take the money, and get some food as quickly as you can. I +will not wait to distress him now. I will call again to-morrow; he will be +quieter then, and we'll see what can be done for you. Those children must +be cold. Have you no blankets?" + +"None, sir. We have nothing in the world. What, you see here, even to the +straw, belongs, to the landlord of the house, who has been charitable +enough to give us shelter." + +"Well, never mind--don't despond--don't give way--keep the poor fellow's +sprits up. Here's another crown. Let him have a glass of wine, it will +strengthen him; and do you take a glass too. I shall see you again +to-morrow. There, good-by." + +And, fool and woman that I was, on I went, and stood for some minutes, +ashamed of myself, in the passage below, because, forsooth, I had been +talking and exciting myself until my eyes had filled uncomfortably with +water. + +It was impossible for me to go to sleep again until I had purchased +blankets for these people, and so I resolved at once to get them. I was +leaving the house for that purpose, when a porter with a bundle entered +it. + +"Whom do you want, my man?" said I. + +"One Warton, sir", said he. + +"Top of the house," said I again--"back room--to the right. What have you +got there?" + +"Some sheets and blankets, sir." + +"From whom?" + +"My master sir, here's his card." + +It was the card of an upholsterer living within a short distance of where +I stood. I directed the porter again, and forthwith sallied to the man of +furniture. Here I learnt that I had been forestalled by an individual as +zealous in the cause of poor Warton as myself. I was glad of this, for I +knew very well, in doing any little piece of duty, how apt our dirty +vanity is to puff us up, and to make us assume so much more than we have +any title to; and it is nothing short of relief to be able to extinguish +this said vanity in the broad light of other men's benevolence. The +upholsterer, however, could not inform me who this generous man was, or +how he had been made aware of Warton's indigence. It appears that he had +called only a few minutes before I arrived, and had requested that the +articles which he purchased should be sent, without a moment's delay, to +the address which he gave. He waited in the shop until the porter quitted +it, and then departed, having, at the request of the upholsterer, who was +curious for the name of his customer, described himself in the day-book as +Mr Jones. "He was not a gentleman," said the man of business, "certainly +not, and he didn't look like a tradesman. I should say," he added, "that +he was a gentleman's butler, for he was mighty consequential, ordered +every body about, and wanted me to take off discount." + +My mind being made easy in respect of the blankets, I had nothing to do +but to return, as diligently as I could, to the house of my friend, Mr +Treherne. I reached his dwelling in time to prepare for dinner, at which +repast, as on the previous evening, I encountered a few select friends and +opulent business men. These were a different set. Before joining them, +Treherne had given me to understand that they were all very wealthy, and +very liberal in their politics, and before quitting them I heartily +believed him. There was a great deal of talk during dinner, and, as the +newspapers say, after the cloth was removed, on the aspect of affairs in +general. The corn-laws were discussed, the condition of the Irish was +lamented, the landed gentry were abused, the Church was threatened, the +Tories were alluded to as the enemies of mankind and the locusts of the +earth; whilst the people, the poor, the labouring classes, the masses, and +whatever was comprised within these terms, had their warmest sympathy and +approbation. My habits are somewhat retired, and I mix now little with +men. I can conscientiously affirm, that I never in my life heard finer +sentiments or deeper philanthropy than I did on this occasion from the +guests of my friend, and with what pleasure I need not say, when it +suddenly occurred to me to call upon them for a subscription on behalf of +the starving family whom I had met that day. + +"You must take care, my dear sir," said a gentleman, before I had half +finished my story, (he might be called the leader of the opposition from +the precedence which he took in the company in opposing all existing +institutions,)--"You must, indeed; you are a stranger here. You must not +believe all you hear. These fellows will trump up any tale. I know them of +old. Don't you be taken in. Take my word--it's a man's own fault if he +comes to want. Depend upon it." + +"So it is--so it is; that's very true," responded half-a-dozen gentlemen +with large bellies, sipping claret as they spoke. + +"I do not think, gentlemen," I answered, "that I am imposed upon in this +case." + +"Ah, ah!" said many Liberals at once, shaking their heads in pity at my +simplicity. + +"At all events," I added, "you'll not refuse a little aid." + +"Certainly, I shall," replied the leader; "it's a rule, sir. I wouldn't +break through it. I act entirely upon principle! I can't encourage robbery +and vagrancy. It's Quixotic." + +"Quite so--quite so!" murmured the bellies. + +"Besides, there's the Union; we are paying for that. Why don't these +people go in? Why, they tell me they may live in luxury there!" + +"He has a wife and three children--it's hard to separate, perhaps--" + +"Pooh, pooh, sir!" + +"Pooh, pooh!" echoed the bellies. + +"And, I'll tell you what, sir," said the gentleman emphatically in +conclusion, "if you want to do good to society, you mustn't begin at the +fag end of it; leave the thieves to the jailers, and the poor to the +guardians. Repeal the corn-laws--give us free trade--universal +suffrage--and religious liberty; that's what we want. I don't ask you to +put a tax upon tallow--why do you want to put a tax upon corn? I don't +ask you to pay my minister--why do you want me to pay your parson? I +don't ask you--" + +"Oh! don't let us hear all that over again, there's a good fellow," said +Treherne, imploringly. "Curse politics. Who is for whist? The tables are +ready." + +The company rose to a man at the mention of whist, and took their places +at the tables. I did not plead again for poor Warton; but his wretched +apartment came often before my eyes in the glitter of the wax-lit room in +which I stood, surrounded by profusion. His unhappy but faithful wife--his +sleeping children--his own affecting expression of gratitude, occupied my +mind, and soothed it. What a blessed thing it is to minister to the +necessities of others! How happy I felt in the knowledge that they would +sleep peacefully and well that night! I had been for some time musing in a +corner of the room, when I was roused by the loud voice of the Liberal. + +"Well, I tell you what, Treherne, I'll bet you five to one on the game." + +"Done!" said Treherne. + +"Crowns?" added the Liberal. + +"Just as you like--go on--your play." + +In a few minutes the game was settled. The Liberal lost his crowns, and +Treherne took them. Madmen both! Half of that sum would have given a +month's bread to the beggars. Did it enrich or serve the wealthy winner? +No. What was it these men craved? They could part with their money freely +when they chose. Was it excitement? And is none to be derived from +appeasing the hunger, and securing the heartfelt prayers of the naked and +the poor? I withdrew from the noisy party, and retired to my room, +determined to investigate the affairs of my new acquaintances at an early +hour in the morning, and effectually to help them if I could. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + + +Mr Treherne readily acquiesced in my wish to delay the execution of our +business for another day, when I made the proposition to him on our +meeting the following morning at his breakfast table. He seemed so +thoroughly engrossed in his own affairs, so overwhelmed with his peculiar +labours, that he was, I believe, grateful to me for the reprieve. For my +own part, I had engaged to afford myself a week's recreation, and I had no +wish to revisit London until the last moment of my holiday had been +accomplished. It is little pastime that the employments of the present day +enable a man to take, who would fain retain his position, and not be +elbowed out of it by the ninety and nine unprovided gentlemen who are +waiting for a scramble. The race of life has grown intense--the runners +are on each other's heels. Woe be to him who rests, or stays to tie his +shoe-string! Our repast concluded, and Mr Treherne, again taking leave of +me until dinner-time, I set out at once for the attic of my unhappy +bread-stealer. What was the object of my visit? I had given him a +sovereign. What did I intend further to do for him? I had, in truth, no +clear conception of my purpose. The man was ill, friendless, without +employment, and had "_the incumbrances_," wife and children, as the sick +and unemployed invariably do have; but although these facts, coming +before a man, presented a fair claim upon his purse (if he chanced to +have one) to the extent of that purse's ability, yet the demand closed +legitimately here, and the hand of charity being neither grudgingly nor +ostentatiously proffered, the conscience of the donor and the heart of +the receiver had no reason whatever to complain. Still my conscience was +not at ease, and it _did_ complain whenever I hesitated and argued the +propriety of engaging any further in the business of a man whom I had +known only a few hours, and whose acquaintance had been made, certainly, +not under the most favourable circumstances. It is a good thing to obey +an instinct, if it be stimulated toward that which is honourable or good +for man to do; yes, though cold deliberation will not give it sanction. +It was an urging of this kind that led me on. Convinced that I had done +enough for this unhappy man, I was provoked, importuned to believe that I +ought to do still more. "It may be"--the words forced their way into my +ears--"that the interest which has been excited in me for this family, is +not the result of a mere accident. Providence may have led me to their +rescue, and confided their future welfare to my conduct. _He_ is an +outcast--isolated amongst men--may be a worthy and deserving creature, +crushed and kept down by his misfortunes. Is a trifling exertion enough +to raise him, and shall I not give it to him?" Then passed before my eyes +visions, the possibility of realizing which, made me blush with shame for +a moment's indecision or delay. First, I pictured myself applying to my +friend Pennyfeather, who lives in that dark court near the Bank of +England, and sleeps in Paradise at his charming villa in Kent, and +gaining through his powerful interest a situation--say of eighty pounds +per annum--for the father of the family; then visiting that incomparable +and gentle lady, Mrs Pennyfeather, whose woman's heart opens to a tale of +sorrow, as flowers turn their beauty to the sun, and obtaining a firm +promise touching the needle-work for Mrs Warton. And then the scene +changed altogether, and I was walking in the gayest spirits, whistling +and singing through Camden town on my way to their snug lodgings in the +vale of Hampstead heath--and the time is twilight. And first I meet the +children, neatly dressed, clean, and wholesome looking, jumping and +leaping about the heather at no particular sport, but in the very joy and +healthiness of their young blood--and they catch sight of me, and rush to +greet me, one and all. They lead me to their mother. How beautiful she +has become in the subsidence of mental tumult, in quiet, grateful labour, +and, more than all, in the sunlight of her husband's gradual restoration! +She is busy with her needle, and her chair is at the window, so that she +may watch the youngsters even whilst she works; and near her is the +table, already covered with a snow-white cloth, and ready for "dear +Warton" when he comes home, an hour hence, to supper. "Well, you are +happy, Mrs Warton, now, I think," say I. "Yes, thanks to you, kind sir," +is the reply. "We owe it all to you;" and the children, as if they +understand my claim upon their love, hang about my chair;--one at my +knee, looking in my face; another with my hand, pressing it, with all his +little might, in his; a third inactive, but ready to urge me to prolong +my stay, as soon as I should think of quitting them. What a glow of +comfort and self-respect passed through my system, as the picture, bright +with life and colour, fixed itself upon my brain, stepping, as I was, +into the unwholesome lane, and shrinking from the foetid atmosphere. I +could hesitate no longer. I began to make my plans as I trudged up the +filthy stairs. The measured tones of a voice, engaged apparently with a +book, made me stop short at the attic floor. I recognised the sound, and +caught the words. The mendicants were at their prayers. "The benevolent +stranger" was not forgotten in the supplication, nor was he unmoved as be +listened in secret to the fervent accents of his fellow man. Whilst I +have no pretension to the character of a saint, I am free to confess, +that amongst the fairest things of earth few look so sublime as piety, +steadfast and serene, amidst the cloud and tempest of calamity. Was it so +here? I had yet to learn. A striking improvement had taken place in the +aspect of the room since the preceding evening. The straw was gone. Its +place had been supplied by the gift of the anonymous benefactor, of whom, +by the way, nothing was known, or had since been heard. The beds were +already removed to an angle of the apartment--the pieces of carpet were +converted into a rug for the fire place, and a chair or two were ready +for visitors. Warton himself looked a hundred per cent better--his wife +was all smiles, when she could refrain from tears; and the children had +been too much astonished by their sumptuous fare, to be any thing but +satiated, contented, happy. My vision was already half realized. When I +had submitted for an inconvenient space of time to their reiterated +thanks and protestations, I put an end to further expressions of +gratitude, by informing them that my stay in the city was limited--that I +had no time for any thing but business, and that we must have as few +_words_ as possible. I wished to know in what way I could effectually +serve them. + +"You said, sir, yesterday," replied Warton, "that you would take no steps +in our favour, until you had satisfied yourself that we, at least, +deserved your bounty. Had you not said it, I should not have been happy +until I had afforded you all the satisfaction in my power. Heaven knows I +owe it to you! It is to you, sir--" + +"Come, my good fellow, remember what I told you. No protestations. Let us +come to the point." + +"Thank you, sir--I will. Are you acquainted with London?" + +"Tolerably well. What then?" + +"You may have heard, sir, of a merchant there of the name of ----" + +"Ay have I. One of our first men. Do you know him? Will he give you a +character?" + +"He is my uncle, sir--my mother's brother. Apply to him, and he will tell +you I am a plunderer and a villain." + +I looked at Mr Warton, somewhat startled by his frank communication, and +waited to hear more. + +"It is false--it is false!" continued the speaker emphatically. "I cannot +melt a rock. I cannot penetrate a heart of stone. If I could do so, he +would be otherwise." + +"You surprise me!" I exclaimed. + +"That I live, sir, is a miracle to myself. That I have not been destroyed +by the misery which I have borne, is marvellous. A giant's strength must +yield before oppression heaped upon oppression. But there, sir"--he added, +pointing to his wife, and struggling for composure--"there has been my +stay, my hope, my incitement; but for her--God bless her"--The wife +motioned him to be silent, and he paused. + +"This excitement is too much for him, is it not?" I asked. "Come, Mr +Warton, you are still weak and unwell. I will not distress you now." + +"I ask your pardon, sir. Three years' illness, annoyance, irritation, +poverty, have made me what you see me. It has not been so always. I was +vigorous and manly until the flesh gave way, and refused to bear me longer +up. But I will be calm. It is very strange, sir, but even now one look +from her subdues me, and restores me to myself." + +"You have received a good education--have you not, Mr Warton?" + +"Will you spare an hour, sir, to listen to my history?" + +"I should be glad to hear it," I replied, "but it will be as well to wait, +perhaps--" + +I looked enquiringly at his wife. + +"No, sir," resumed the man, "I am tranquil now. It is a hard task, but I +have strength for it. You shall know every thing. Before you do a second +act of charity, you shall hear of the trials of those whom you have saved +already. You shall be satisfied." + +"Well, be it so," I answered. "Proceed, and I will listen patiently." + +Warton glanced at his wife, who rose immediately and quitted the room with +her three children. The latter were evidently staggered by the sudden +change in their circumstances, and they stared full in my face until the +latest moment. Being left alone with my new acquaintance, I felt, for a +short time, somewhat ill at ease; but when the poor fellow commenced his +history, my attention was excited, and I soon became wholly engrossed in +his recital, which proved far more strange and striking than I had any +reason to expect. + +Mr Warton, as well as I can remember, spoke to me as follows:-- + +"Knowing what you do, sir," he began, "you will smile, and hardly believe +me, when I tell you that the sin of _Pride_ has been my ruin. Yes, +criminal as I was yesterday--beggar as I am to-day--surrounded by every +sign and evidence of want, I confess it to my shame--Pride, has helped to +bring me where I am--Pride, not resulting from the consciousness of blood, +or the possession of dignities and wealth--but pride, founded upon +nothing. I am one of three children. I had two sisters--both are dead. My +father was a workhouse boy, and his parentage was unknown. I told you that +I had little reason to build a self-esteem upon my family descent; yet +there was a period in my life when I would have given all I had in the +world for an honourable pedigree--to know that I had bounding in my veins +a portion of the blood that ages since had fallen to secure a nation's +liberties, or in any way had served to perpetuate its fame. Wealth, simple +wealth, I always regarded with disdain. I revered the well-born. My father +was apprenticed from the workhouse to a maker of watch-springs, living in +Clerkenwell; but after remaining with his master a few months, during +which time he was treated with great severity, he ran away. He obtained a +situation in the establishment of a silk-merchant in the city, and began +life on his own account as helper to the porter of the house. My father, +sir--we may speak well of the departed--had great abilities. He was a +wonderful man--not so much on account of what he accomplished, (and, in +his station, this was not a little,) as for what he proved himself to be, +under every disadvantage that could retard a man struggling through the +world, even from his infancy. His perseverance was remarkable, and he had +a depth of feeling which no ill treatment or vicissitude could diminish. +He must have risen amongst men; for mind is buoyant, and leaps above the +grosser element. He had resolved, in his first situation, to do his duty +strictly, rather to overdo than to fall short of it, and to make himself, +if possible, essential to his employers. He saw, likewise, the advantage +of respectful behaviour, and cheerfulness of temper. Whatever he did, he +did with a good grace, and with a willingness to oblige, that secured for +him the regard of those he served. He was not long in discovering, that it +was impossible for him to advance far with his present amount of +attainment, however sanguine he might be, and resolute in purpose. The +porter's boy might lead in time to the office of porter; but there was no +material rise from this, and the emolument was, at the best, sufficient +only for the necessities of life. He learned that the head of the firm +himself had been originally a servant in the establishment, and had been +promoted gradually from the desk, on account of his industry, +trustworthiness, and skill in figures. Now, honest and industrious my +father knew himself to be, but of skill in figures he had none. He +determined at once to make himself a good accountant, and every leisure +hour was employed thenceforward with that object. At the same time he was +diligent in improving his handwriting, in storing his mind with useful +information, and in preparing himself for any vacancy which might occur at +the desk, when his age would justify him in offering himself to fill it. +He had held his situation for three years, when an accident happened that +materially helped him on. A fire broke out in his master's warehouse. The +gentleman was from home, and nobody was on the premises at the time but +the porter and himself, who lived and slept in the house. It was in the +middle of the night. A fierce wind set in when the flames were at their +highest, and, before morning, the place was a heap of ruins. In the first +alarm, my father remembered that, in the counting-house, a tin box had +been left by his master, which previously had always been carefully locked +away in the iron chest. He was sure that it contained papers of great +value, and that its loss would be severely felt. He determined to secure +it, or, at the least, to make every endeavour. He succeeded, and gained +the treasure almost at the expense of life. He was not mistaken in his +supposition. In the box were deposited documents of the highest importance +to his master; and the latter, delighted with the boy's acuteness, and +grateful for the service, was eager to remunerate him. My father made +known his wishes, and his acquaintance with accounts, and in less than six +months as soon, indeed, as the house was rebuilt--he had his foot on the +first step of the ladder, and took his place amongst the clerks in the +counting-house. Ah, sir! there is nothing like perseverance. My father +knew his powers, and was the man to exert them. He worked at the desk from +morning till night. He gave his heart to his business, and no time was his +which could be given to that. What was the consequence? His less energetic +brethren envied and hated him, but his employer esteemed and valued him. +And he ascended rapidly. It is said that circumstances make the man. I +doubt the truth of this. The highest order of minds controls them, moulds +them to his purposes, and makes them what he will. Time and opportunity +are the crutches of the timid and the helpless. In the course of a few +years, my father became the youngest partner in the firm--the youngest, +but the most active and the most useful. He began to accumulate. He +remained in this position until he reached his thirtieth year, when he +looked abroad for a companion and a home. He proposed as a suitor to the +daughter of his senior partner--a vain and foolish, although a wealthy +man, who had made great plans for his child, and looked for an alliance +with nobility. She, a proud and handsome girl, scorned the approaches of +the silk-merchant, and wondered at his boldness. One word, sir, of her, +before I follow my father in his career. Oh, the vicissitudes of life--the +changes--the sudden rise--the violent fall of men! Well may the player +say, 'The spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.' They do, +they do, what a spectacle for gods is man! The woman, sir this arrogant, +this supercilious damsel, cradled in gold and satin, and bred in the +glossy lap of luxury--died--rotted on a dunghill. Her father gained his +nobleman--she, a paramour. She eloped with a marquis, who deserted her. +She returned to her home, and found it shut against her. She who had +feasted upon the choice morsels of abundance, must, like me, commit crime +for a loaf of bread. She is carried abroad by a new protector, and +strangers bear her to a pauper's grave. This was her fate, sir. But to +return. In consequence of the refusal, a coolness arose between the +partners. An angry word or two took place--a taunt--something too galling +for my father's pride was spoken, and there was a separation. My father +then commenced business on his own foundation--it is hardly necessary for +me to say with success. He could not but prosper. To fail whilst reason +was left him was impossibility. He soon married. His wife--my mother--was +the daughter of a rich merchant. You know the name, sir. Her brother, my +uncle, bears the same. I told it you just now. There could not have been a +more unfortunate union. My father was full of feeling and noble impulses, +intelligent, active, passionate, and required, if not his own qualities in +a partner, at least a milder reflex of himself--a woman that could +appreciate his nature, encourage, help, support him; a woman, in a word, +with a heart and mind, and both devoted. My mother, unfortunately for her, +for all, had no sympathy for her husband--had nothing to offer him but the +portion which she brought, and the hand which her father bade her give. +She was a cold--must I say it?--unfeeling woman, with little thought +beyond herself, her apparel, and her pleasures. I hope, sir, I shall make +you understand me. It is hard to speak disparagingly of her who gave me +life. Let me be careful that I do her justice. _I_ bring against her no +charge of vice. I believe her _not_ vicious. I ever considered her too +weak to be so. I would have you imagine a woman apathetic and +characterless; her mental powers just equal to providing her with a +becoming garment; her feelings capable, perhaps, of their full expansion +if a stranger moved them with some hollow compliment upon her good taste, +or, easier still, her beauty--for she was not without this dangerous +gift--a lovely image, sir. I have myself, as a boy, often seen a radiance +upon her countenance at such a season, when the pretty gambols of my +infant sister has failed to draw one smile of approbation. The little +sensibility she had waited on a paltry vanity. I may say with truth, that +her children caused her no pain. By a fortunate physical constitution, she +bore the burden of a mother without the pangs that usually attend a +mother's state. In this respect she was considered a remarkable woman by +those who deemed their judgement in such matters sound. Once in the world, +her care was at an end. I have heard, sir--I have read of mother's love. I +can feel what it should be; I can guess what wonders it may work in the +wayward spirit of man; for I longed and yearned for it, but it never came. +My elder sister died when a child of two years. My father was then in the +zenith of his prosperity, and was absorbed in his affairs; yet this +loss--this heavy blow--came upon him like a thunderstroke. Many things +occupied his time, but this alone his mind. Deep sighs would escape him +in the active prosecution of his business, and his cheeks were suffused +with tears as he sped along the city's streets, sacred only to gain and +worldly commerce. He doated on his girls, and to lose one was to lose +half the joy of his existence. The effect of this calamity was otherwise +on my mother; and I revert to the difference in order to make clear to +you their respective natures. My mother wept at the death of her +child--she would not else have been a woman; but as I have seen weak +watery clouds pass across the moon's surface, leaving the planet +untouched and tranquil in their transit, so the thin veil of her sorrows +did not disturb the palpable unconcern--the neutrality of soul that were +behind. One easy flow of tears, and the claim of the departed was +satisfied. In a day, the privation had ceased to be one. Here then, sir, +are the seeds of a wilderness of after woe: my father, overflowing with +affection, and craving, as it were, for sympathy, turning to my mother, +and finding there a blank--nothing to rest upon. 'What is fortune,' says +the poet, 'to a heart yearning for affection, and finding it not? Is it +not as a triumphal crown to the brows of one parched with fever, and +asking for one fresh, healthful draught--_the cup of cold water_?' So it +was here, and hence husband and wife became soon estranged from one +another. The former, busy from hour to hour in his counting-house, had +little time to spare upon his children; the latter, with all her time at +her disposal, took no delight in the task. My sister and I, in our +infancy, were made over to strangers; and from the hands of the nurse we +were transmitted to those of the schoolmistress. When I was old enough, I +was removed from my sister's school, and placed, with a select number of +young gentlemen, under the care of a highly respectable master. It was +here that my pride began to take root. One of my schoolfellows was the +son of a general, another the son of a large landed proprietor, a third +was heir to a peerage, a fourth traced his ancestors to a period when the +soil was yet untrodden by a Norman foot. I was chagrined at my +position--irritated--humbled, but the boys, especially those to whom I +have alluded, behaved towards me with extreme kindness, and whilst I felt +humbled, I did not envy them, because I loved them. I had one advantage, +I was the son of a rich _merchant_, as he was called in the school, +although _I_ knew that title to be one of courtesy only, and I was +ashamed of the little superiority which that advantage gave me. What +cause for pride can there be in the possession of so much dross? You will +smile, sir, when I tell you of the resolution which fixed itself in the +mind of a boy scarcely in his teens. My playfellows were respected on +account of the considerations which I have named. Why should I not be +respected? I vowed that I would become so. And how? For what? For nothing +less, sir, than _myself_; for my own high principle and integrity of +conduct. It is true, sir. There were the sons of a noble ancestry about +me who would condescend to tell a falsehood, the nephew of an officer who +was mean enough to borrow money and not repay it. There were many whose +notions of honour were lax and unbecoming. Had I entertained them, they +must have been fatal to me. Discarding them for ever, and speaking and +acting on all occasions, of trifling or of serious moment, with the most +jealous regard to truth and honesty, I relied upon securing for myself +what my predecessors had failed to leave me--the respect of my +fellow-men, and a good and honourable name. It seems a noble resolution. +I repent it to this hour. It is true that I rose rapidly in the +estimation of my master, and that I was regarded even with deference, as +I grew up, by boys of my own age, and of better standing; but it is no +less true, that, from the moment my determination was made, I became +morbidly anxious for the good opinion of men, painfully alive to +ridicule, and as fearful of the breath of slander or reproach as though +it came loaded with the plagues of Egypt. With such an idiosyncrasy, what +becomes of happiness on earth? But I tire you, sir." + +"Go on, I beg of you," I answered, deeply interested in the narrative, and +no less surprised at the language and manner of the speaker, both of which +convinced me that he was a man of genius and of education. The whole thing +was a mystery, and I was impatient for the solution and the end. "Do not +fatigue yourself," I continued. "For my own part I listen with the +greatest interest." + +"I remember, sir," proceeded Mr Warton, "as if it were yesterday, my first +return home. It was for the midsummer holidays, and gay enough were my +spirits then. All was sunshine and hope. I had not seen my parents for two +years. It seemed as if twenty had passed over my father's head since our +leave-taking. His hair had become blanched, and a settled frown had grown +upon his brow. His forehead was full of lines and wrinkles; his lips were +constantly pressed together; anger was the predominant expression of his +face. The openness of countenance which had so well become him, and which +inspired me even as a child with loving confidence, was chased away, and +disappointment and vexation had seated themselves in its place. He relaxed +for a moment when he saw me, and pressed me, even then, passionately to +his arms; but the clouds soon gathered again, and asserted their right of +possession. I, boylike and apprehensive, concluded that his affairs were +in a disordered state. I had but one thought at the time. I prayed that +misfortune, and not _dishonesty_, might appear to the world as the +occasion of his difficulties. My mother looked younger than ever. She was +dressed with much care, and there was a bloom upon her cheek that would +have adorned a country maiden. Not a line, not a shadow of a line, was +visible on her soft skin--not a tooth had departed from the ivory and +well-formed set. She had retained all that was valueless, and had lost +entirely and irreparably the priceless treasure of her husband's love. At +supper-time, on the very first evening of my arrival, I was made +thoroughly aware of the fearful change which, in so short a time, had come +over the spirit of our home. Joy, I knew, had long since fled from it--now +peace had been startled, and there was discord, nothing but discord, at +the hearth. My father drew his chair to the table, in the sullen and angry +temper which I have told you was visible on his countenance at our +meeting. It seemed at first as though he had received offence elsewhere, +and was resolved to remain discomforted. I could not understand it, but I +was awed by his frown, and sat in terror. In a few minutes, the flame +burst forth. My father required a silver spoon. There was one within arm's +reach of him. 'But why was it not _before_ him?' He repeated the question +again and again, until he forced an answer, which gave him no +satisfaction, but provoked fresh rage. Then came insipid remonstrances +from my mother, foolish argument--passionless, but not on that account +less irritating, allusions to the past. There was little incitement +required, and a word from her lips scarcely worth noticing was sufficient +to maintain a quarrel for an hour. To a stranger, the scene would have +been lamentable; to me, their child, it was sad and sickening indeed. I +have no terms to express to you the fierceness of my father's anger. By +degrees, he lost all mastery over himself; he used the most opprobrious +epithets, and, but for me, he would have struck her. For three hours this +state of things continued, and at midnight they withdrew, to retire to +separate beds, and separate rooms. + +"'And all this,' said my mother as she closed her door--'all this for the +sake of a paltry spoon!' Ah! poor woman, could she but have understood how +guiltless of offence was that said spoon, she would have learnt the secret +of her troubles; but we are not all physicians, sir, and we do not trouble +ourselves concerning the _seat_ of our complaint, whilst its effects are +killing us with pain. It was evident that every spark of affection was +extinguished in my father's breast, that his disposition was soured, and +that, cause or no cause, misery must be our daily bread. I could not sleep +that night, and I rose from my bed in the morning, determined to speak +boldly to my father on what had taken place. I loved him--child never +loved parent better--and I knew I could speak respectfully-- +affectionately--yes, and solemnly to him; for, God bless him--he was proud +of me, and he listened with regard to my words--on account of my little +education, already so superior to his own. I was better able to +remonstrate with him, because I had taken no part in the contest which I +had witnessed, further than placing myself between them when _his_ rage +seemed to have robbed him of reason. + +"I stepped into his bed-room before he quitted it. + +"Father"--said I. + +"'What? Edgar,' he replied kindly, 'what can I do for you?' + +"I had arranged in my mind the words which I proposed to utter, but they +vanished suddenly, and I could do nothing but weep. + +"My father, sir, was the strangest of men. Indeed, since his alienation +from his wife, the most unaccountable. Rude and violent as he could be to +her--he was the tenderest, the most anxious of fathers. He turned pale as +death when he saw me in tears, and entreated me to tell him what I +suffered. I gained confidence from his anxiety, and spoke. + +"'Father,' I said, 'you must not be angry with me for speaking boldly. +Poor mother! you will kill her--you do not treat her well. I am sure +nothing could justify all you said and did last night. You called her +cruel names. It is not right. I am certain it is not.' + +"'Edgar,' said my father, frowning as he went on, 'be silent. You are a +child, and I love you. I will do any thing for your happiness. I forbid +you to speak to me of your mother.' + +"'But if you love me,' I answered quickly, 'you ought to love my mother, +too. Oh! do, dear father--do be kind and loving to her.' + +"'Edgar,' exclaimed my parent passionately, 'you are very young now--you +will be older if you live, and then I can speak to you as a friend. You +cannot understand me now. She has broken your father's heart--she has +rendered me the most miserable of men. I would I could speak to you, dear +Edgar but this tongue will perhaps be cold and immovable before you can +understand the tale. I am wretched, wretched, indeed!' + +"My father was overcome. He could not himself refrain from tears. I felt +deeply for him, and would have given any thing to hear this secret cause +of grief. But his expressions kept me silent; and I clasped his hands in +pity. + +"'Edgar,' he continued in a loud voice, and speaking through his tears, +'listen to my words. They are sacred. Receive them as you would my dying +syllables. You may be distant when the blow falls which divides us. Edgar, +I implore you, when you become a man, to let one consideration only guide +you in your selection of a partner. Mark me--only one--see that she has a +heart--a _virtuous_ heart--and that it be yours entire. Despise wealth-- +beauty--family--look to nothing but that. Would to Heaven that I had!-- +Edgar--your happiness--your salvation, every thing, depends upon it. I +have lost all--I am crushed and ruined; but do you, dear child, learn +wisdom from your father's wreck.' + +"He said no more. I could not answer him, for my heart was choked. In a +few minutes he bade me, in a quiet tone, retire to the breakfast room; and +shortly afterwards he made his own appearance there, looking as moodily +and cross when he beheld my mother, as when he had encountered her at +supper on the night before. + +"Now, sir, I am ashamed to confess to you--but I have asked you to hear my +history--and you shall hear the truth in the teeth of shame--that all my +sympathy was, from this hour, towards my father, and against my mother. It +may be wrong--wicked--but I could not control the strong feeling within +me. His words had left a powerful impression upon my mind. His tone, his +tears--his man's tears--stamped those words with truth, and I believed him +wronged. In what way I knew not--nor did I care. It was sufficient for me +to hear it, as I did, from his lips, and to be told that it was not +possible to reveal more. Besides, sir, I have already intimated to you +that there was little tenderness in my mother's heart for me. She was +cold, indifferent, and had never had part in all my little joys and +griefs. My father, even with his heavy fault--a fault almost pardoned, as +I believed; by the provocation--watched my boyish steps, and rejoiced with +me in my well-doing. Nothing had interest for me which was not important +to him. He encouraged me in learning. He grudged no money that could be +spent in my improvement--he had no joy so great as that which waited on my +desire for knowledge. He had been to me a playmate, counsellor, friend, +whenever his slender opportunities permitted him to escape to me; and +evidences of the most devoted affection had disturbed my youthful heart +with an emotion too deep for utterance in the silence and solitude of my +schoolboy hours. Yes--right or wrong--by necessity--my sympathy was all +for him. And to convince you, sir, that my feelings were enlisted in his +cause, irrespectively of self, without the most distant view to my own +interest, I have but to refer to the life which I passed under his roof, +until I left it, to return, for a second time, to the enjoyments and +consolations--as they were always--of my school. Although his affection +for me was unbounded, it was not long before I perceived, with bitterness +and trouble, that it was impossible for him to save me from the fury of a +temper which he had no longer power to govern. I could read, or I believed +I could, his inmost soul, and I could see the hourly struggle for +forbearance and self-control. It was in vain. If his passion obtained the +rein for an instant--it was wild--away--beyond his reach--and he thought +not, in the paroxysm, of the sufferer, whose smile he would not have +ruffled in the season of sobriety and quiet. I did not fail again and +again to remonstrate on behalf of my mother--for the scene which I have +described to you became an endless one; but perceiving at length that +representation added only fuel to the fire, I desisted. My lively habits +soon appeared to be unsuited to the new order of things. My father would +once have smiled with enjoyment at some piece of boyish mischief which now +roused him to anger, and before excuse could be offered, or pardon +asked--the severest chastisement--I cannot tell how severe, was inflicted +on my flesh." + +"Madman!" I exclaimed involuntarily, interrupting Warton in his narrative. + +"Madman do you say, sir?" he answered quickly. "Yes, I have often thought +so--and to an extent, I grant you--if it be madness to have the reason +prostrate before passion. But it is profitless to define the malady. I +would have you dwell, sir, on the _cause_--_her_ fatal apathy--her +indifference--_I know not what besides_--which made him what he was. You +may imagine, sir, that my blood has boiled beneath the punishment--that I +have burned with indignation beneath the weight of it, undeserved and +cruel as it was. Oh, sir! God has visited me these many years with sore +affliction. I am a forlorn, disabled, cast-off creature--nothing lives +viler than the thing I have become; and yet in this dark hour I thank my +Maker with an overflowing grateful heart that He tied down my hands when +they have tingled in my agony to return the father's blow. I never did--I +never did." + +The speaker grew more and more excited, and his voice at last failed him. +I rose, and retired to the window, but he proceeded whilst my face was +turned away. I know not why--but my own eyes smarted. + +"Yes, sir, time after time the horrible desire to be avenged, and to give +back blow for blow, has possessed me; and, as if eternal torture were to +be the immediate penalty of the unnatural act, I have thrown my arms +behind me, clasped hand in hand, and held them tiger-like together, until +the fit was passed away. And then who could be more penitent, more +sorrowful, than he! Within an hour of perpetrating this barbarity, he has +met me with a look pleading for forgiveness, which I would have given him +had he offended me, oh much--much more. What could he say to his child? +What could his child allow him to utter? Nothing. I have kissed him; he +has taken me by the hand, we have walked abroad together; and he has +loaded me with gifts for the joy of our reconciliation." + +Curious as I was to hear more, I deemed it expedient, for the present, to +close the history. The man seemed carried away by the subject, and his +cheeks were scorched with this burning flush which the unusual exertion of +mind and body had summoned up. He spoke vehemently--hurriedly--at the top +of his voice, and I knew not how far his agitation might carry him. I +again proposed to him to abstain from fatigue, and to leave his history +unfinished for the present. He paused for a few minutes, wiped the heavy +perspiration from his brow, and answered me in a calm and steady voice-- + +"I will transgress no more, sir. I have never spoken of these things +yet--and they come before my mind too vividly--they inflame and mislead +me. I ask your pardon. But let me finish now--the tale is soon told--I +cannot for a second time revert to it." + +"Go on," I answered, yielding once more to his wish, and in the same +composed and quiet voice he _began_ again. + +"The first watch which I called my own, was given to me on one of these +occasions. My father had requested me to execute some small commission. I +forgot to do it. In his eyes the fault for a moment assumed the form of +wilful disobedience. That moment was enough--he was roused--the paroxysm +prevailed--and I was beaten like a dog. An hour afterwards he was +persuaded that his child was not undutiful. His reason had returned to +him, and, with it a load of miserable remorse. He offered me, with a +tremulous hand, the bauble, which I accepted; and, as I took it, I saw a +weight of sorrow tumble from his unhappy breast. This was my father, sir. +A man who would have been the best of fathers--had he been permitted, as +his heart directed him, to be the tenderest of husbands. I could see in my +boyhood that blame attached to my mother--to what extent I did not know. I +lived in the hope of hearing at some future time. That time never came. I +remained at home two months, and then went back to school. I received a +letter from one of my father's clerks, who was an especial favourite of +mine. It must have been about a week after my departure. It told me that +my father had drooped since I quitted him. On the morning that I came +away, he left his business and locked himself in my bedroom. He was shut +up at least two hours there. Fifty different matters required his presence +in the counting-house, and at length my friend, the clerk, disturbed him. +When the door was opened he found his master, his eyes streaming with +tears, intent upon a little book in which he had seen me reading many days +before. Oh, it was like him, sir! Within a few days I received another +letter from the same hand. My father was dangerously ill, and I was +summoned home. I flew, and arrived to find him delirious. He had been +seized with inflammation the day before. The fire blazed in a system that +was ripe for it. The doctors were baffled. Mortification had already +begun. He did not recognize me, but he spoke of me in his delirium in +terms of endearment, whilst curses against my mother rolled from his +unconscious lips. Three hours after my arrival he was a corpse. And such a +corpse! They told me it was my father, and I believed them. + +"Are _you_, sir, fatherless?" asked Warton suddenly. + +I told him, and he continued. "You have felt then the lightning shock +that has altered the very face of nature. Earth, before and after that +event, is not the same. It never was to human being yet. It cannot be. +What a secret is learnt upon that day! How tottering and insecure have +become the things of life that seemed so firm and fixed! The penalty is +heavy which we pay for the privilege to be our own master. Oh, the +desolation of a fatherless home! My father died, having made no will. So +it was said at first--but in a few days there was another version. My +mother's brother--the uncle that I spoke of--then appeared upon the +stage, and was most active for his sister's interests. He had never been +a friend of my father's. They had not spoken for years. I did not know +why. I had never enquired--for the man was a stranger to me, and since my +birth he had not crossed our threshold. My father believed that his +relative had wronged him--of this I was sure--and I hated him therefore +when he appeared. When my father was buried, this man produced a will. I +was present when it was read--bodily present; but my heart and soul were +away with him in the grave--and with him, sir, in heaven, beyond it. They +told me at the conclusion of the ceremony, that my father had died worth +fifty thousand pounds--that he had left my mother the bulk of his +property--to my sister a fortune of ten thousand pounds, and to me the +sum of a hundred and fifty pounds per annum. But they might have talked +to stone. What cared my young and inexperienced, and still bleeding +heart, for particulars and sums? A crust without him was more than +enough. It was more than I could swallow now--and what was _wealth_ to +me? My uncle, I heard afterwards, watched me as the different items were +read over, and seemed pleased to observe upon my face no sign of +disappointment. That he was pleased, I am certain, for he spoke kindly to +me when all was over, and said that I was a good boy, and should be taken +care of. "-Taken care of-!"--and so I was--and so I am--for look about +you, sir, and observe the evidences of my uncle's love. The clerk, to +whom I have alluded, took an early opportunity to remind me of the nature +of my father's will--and to hint to me suspicions of foul play. I readily +believed him. It was not that I cared for the money. At that age I was +ignorant of its value, and my little portion seemed a mine of wealth. But +I wished to dislike my uncle, because he had given pain to my dear +father. I avoided his presence as much as I could, and I made him feel +that my aversion was hearty. We never became _friends_. We seldom +spoke--and never but when obliged. He was a coarse man then--I have not +seen him for many years--ungentlemanly and unfeeling in his deportment. +It would have been as easy for him to alter the framework of his body as +to have shown regard for the sensibilities of other men. He lived to +amass. He counts his tens of thousands now--they may have been scraped +together amidst the groans and shrieks of the distressed, but there they +are--he has them, and he is happy. I asked, and obtained from my mother, +permission to return to school. I remained there without visiting my home +again for three years. My mother did not once write to me, or come to see +me. I did not write to her. My expenses were paid from my income. My +father's business was still conducted by my mother with her assistants, +and she resided in the old house. Did I tell you that my uncle was the +appointed executor of my father's will, and my guardian? He managed my +affairs, and for the present I suffered him to do as he thought proper. +In the meanwhile my happiness at school was unbounded. My existence there +was sweet and tranquil, like the flow of a small secluded stream. I loved +my master. Ill-taught and self-neglected nearly till the time that I came +under his instruction, I believed that I owed all my education to him; +and whilst I thirsted for knowledge as the means of raising myself and my +own mind, he supplied me with the healthful sustenance, and helped me +forward with his precepts. I had neither taste nor application for the +severer studies. Science was too hard and real for the warm imagination +with which Providence had liberally endowed me. It was a scarecrow in the +garden of knowledge, and I looked at it with fear from the sunny heights +of poesy on which I basked and dreamed. History--fiction--the strains of +Fletcher, Shakspeare--the lore of former worlds--these had unspeakable +charms for me; and such information as they yielded, I imbibed greedily. +Admiration of the beautiful creations of mind leads rapidly in ardent +spirits to an emulative longing; and the desire to achieve--to a firm +belief of capability. The grateful glow of love within is mistaken for +the gift divine. I burned to follow in the steps of the immortal, and +already believed myself inspired. Hours and days I passed in +compositions, which have since helped to warm our poverty-stricken room; +for they had all one destination--the fire. I shall, however, never +consider the days ill-spent which were engaged in such pursuits. The +pleasure was intense--the advantage, if unseen and indirect, was not +insignificant. Whatever _tends_ to elevate and purify, is in itself good +and noble. We cannot withdraw ourselves from the selfishness of life, and +incline our souls to the wisdom of the speaking dead, and not advance--be +it but one step--heavenward. And in my own case--the intellectual +character was associated with all that is lofty in principle, and exalted +in conduct. _Sans peur et sans reproche_ was its fit motto. Falsehood and +dishonesty must not attach to it. In my own mind I pictured a moral +excellence which it was necessary to attain; and in my strivings for +intellectual fame, _that_, as the essential accompaniment, was never once +lost sight of. Pride still clung to me--and was fed throughout. I was +eighteen years of age, and I desired to enter the university. I fixed +upon Oxford, as holding out a better prospect of success than the sister +seat of learning. I enquired what sum of money was necessary for my +education there; and received for answer, that two hundred pounds a-year +might carry me comfortably through, but that, with some economy and +self-denial, a hundred and fifty might be sufficient. It is a curious +circumstance that the very post which brought this information, brought +likewise a letter from my uncle, offering, as my guardian, and at his own +expense, to send me to the university. I was indignant at the +proposition, and vowed, before his letter was half read, that I would +rather live upon a meal a-day, than owe my bread to one whom I regarded +as my father's foe. Does it not strike you, sir, as somewhat singular, +that my father should make this man executor, trustee, and guardian? Men +do not generally appoint their enemies to such offices. I wrote to my +uncle in reply, declined coldly but respectfully his offer, and told him +my intention. Here our correspondence ended, and six months afterwards my +name was on the boards of my college. I went up knowing no one, but +carrying from my friend, the schoolmaster, a letter of introduction to a +clergyman who had been his college friend, and who (now married and the +father of one child) earned his subsistence by taking pupils. I was +received by this poor but worthy man with extreme kindness. He read the +character which I had brought with me, and bade me make his house my +home. His hospitality was at first a great advantage to me. My slender +income compelled me to exercise rigid economy--and to avoid all company. +Although very poor, I have told you that I was already very proud. I +would not receive a favour which I could not pay back--I would not permit +the breath of slander to whisper a syllable against my name. There were +hours in which no book could be read with pleasure, which no study could +make light. Such were passed in delightful converse with my friend, and +thus I was spared even the temptation to walk astray. I need not tell you +that I had no tutor. It was a luxury I could not afford. I worked the +harder, and was all the happier for the victory I had gained--such I +deemed it--over my uncle. At the end of a twelve-month, I found my +expenses were even within my income. It was a sweet discovery. I had paid +my way. I did not owe a penny. I was respected, and no one knew my mode +of life, or the amount of income that I possessed. My friend, I said, had +one child. She was a daughter. During my first year's residence I had +never seen her. She was away in Dorsetshire nursing a cousin, who died at +length in her arms. She returned home at the commencement of my second +year, and I was introduced to her. She fell upon my solitary life like +the primrose that comes alone to enliven the dull earth--a simple flower +of loveliness and promise, graceful in herself--but to the gazer's eye +more beautiful, no other flower being present to provoke comparison. We +met often. She was an artless creature sir, and gave her love to me long, +long before she knew the price of such a gift. She doated on her father, +and it was a virtue that I understood. She was very fair to look at; +timid as the fawn--as guileless; a creature of poetry, sent to be a +dream, and to shed about her a beguiling unsubstantial brightness. All +things looked practicable and easy in the light in which she moved. The +difficulties of life were softened--its rewards and joys coloured and +enhanced. I thought of her as a wife, and the tone of my existence was +from the moment changed. If you could have seen her, sir--the angel of +that quiet house--gliding about, ministering happiness--her innocent +expression--her lovely form--her golden hair falling to her swelling +bosom--her truthfulness and cultivated mind--you would, like me, have +blessed the fortune which had brought her to your side, and revealed the +treasure to your youthful heart. I told her that I loved, and her tears +and maiden blushes made her own affection manifest. Her father spoke to +me, bade me reflect, take counsel, and be cautious. He gave at last no +opposition to our wishes--but requested that time might be allowed for +trial, and my settlement in life. And so it was agreed. I prosecuted my +studies more diligently than ever, and looked with impatience for the +hour when my profession (for I had gone to the university with a view to +the church) and my little income would justify me in offering to my +darling one a home. Did I now mourn over the inequality of my fortune? +Did I upbraid the dead--accuse the living? I did not, sir. Too pleased to +labour for the girl whom I had chosen--I rejoiced to owe my bread to my +exertion. She then, as now--for it was her--my Anna, sir--the wreck whom +you have seen--cruelly misused by poverty and grief--robbed of her beauty +and her strength--the miserable outline of her former self--she then, +even as now, was in all things actuated by the highest motives--a serious +and religious maid. She cheered me with her smiles--her perfect patience +and tranquil hope. It was to her a privilege to be united to a clergyman, +and to find her earthly joy combined with usefulness and good. In our +walks, I have painted the future which was never to be--the bliss we were +never to experience. I have spoken of the parsonage, and its little lawn +and many flowers--pictured myself at work--visiting the poor--comforting +the sick--herself my dear attendant at the cottage doors, with hosts of +little ones about her, whom she might call her children, and for whom she +might exercise more than a mother's care. She could not listen to such +promises, and not grow happier in her inexperience than reality could +ever render her; and yet sighs, sighs, ominous sighs, would from the +first escape her. Still for a twelvemonth our nook of earth was Paradise, +and sorrow, the universal lot, was banished from our door. The tales +which I had been accustomed to hear of the world's deceit and falsehood +seemed groundless and cruel--the inventions of envious disappointed +minds--whose ambition had betrayed them into hopes, too preposterous for +fulfilment Happiness was on earth--did I not find her in my daily +walk?--for such as were not loth to greet her with a lowly and contented +spirit. I had no present care. The days were prosperous. I obtained a +scholarship in my college at the end of the first year, which was worth +to me at least fifty pounds per annum. This, not requiring, I saved up. I +worked hard during the day--withdrew myself from all intercourse with +men, and every evening was rewarded with the smiles of her for whose dear +sake all labour was so easy. Oh, the tranquillity and ineffable bliss of +those distant bygone days! _Bygone_, did I say? No--they exist still. +Poverty--misery--persecution--such things pass away, and are in truth a +dream. The troubles of yesterday vanish with the sun that set upon +them--but those hours, deeply impressed upon the soul, have left their +mark indelible; the intense, unspeakable joy that filled them, lingers +yet, and brightens up one spot that stands alone, distinct in life. Cast +when I will one single glance there, and I behold the stationary sun +shine. I do so now. None feel so vigorous and well as they who are on the +eve of some prostrating sickness. Dreaming of security, and as I looked +about, perceiving from no side the probability or show of evil, I was in +truth entangled in a maze of peril. My summer's day was at an end. The +cloud had gathered--was overhead, and ready to burst and overwhelm me. +For one twelvemonth, as I have said, I felt the perfect enjoyment of +life, and was blest. At the end of that period I received a letter from +my uncle. It was full of tenderness and affection. The first few lines +were taken up with enquiries--and immediately afterwards there came a +proposition. It was to this effect. "My mother wished to retire from +business; it was still a lucrative one, and she offered it to me. She +undertook to leave in the firm a capital sufficiently large to carry it +on, and receiving a moderate interest only for this sum, she would +relinquish all other profit in favour of her son." I read the letter, and +had faith in its sincerity. _As_ I read it, a devil whispered delusively +into my ear, and the sounds were music there, until my ruin was +completed. I knew the business to be affluent and thriving. The income +derived from it enabled my mother to live luxuriously. _Half the sum +would afford every wished-for comfort to my Anna, and much less would +enable us at once to marry_. Here was the rock on which I went to +pieces--here was the giddy light that blinded me to all +considerations--here was the sophistry that made all other reasoning dull +and valueless. I did not stop to enquire what movement of feeling could +operate so generously upon my uncle. If an unfavourable suggestion forced +itself upon me, it was expelled at once; and persuasion of the purity of +his motives was too easy, where my wish was father to the thought. If I +remained at college, years might elapse before our union. _Now, +immediately_, if I accepted this unlooked-for offer--she was mine, and a +home, such as in other circumstances I could never hope to give her, was +ready for her reception! I could think of nothing else, but I beheld in +the unexpected good--the outstretched hand of Providence. Full of my +delight, I communicated the intelligence to Anna; but very different was +its effect on her. She read the letter, and looked at me as if she wished +to read the most hidden of my secret wishes. + +"'What have you thought of doing, then?' she asked. + +"'Accepting the proposal, Anna,' I replied, 'with your consent.' + +"'Never with that,' she answered almost solemnly. 'My lips shall never bid +you turn from the course which you have chosen, and to which you have been +called. You do not require wealth--you have said so many times--and I am +sure it is not necessary for your happiness.' + +"'I think not of myself, dear Anna,' I replied. 'I have more than enough +for my own wants. It is for your sake that I would accept their offer, and +become richer than we can ever be if I refuse it. Our marriage now depends +upon a hundred things--is distant at the best, and may never be. The +moment that I consent to this arrangement, you are mine for ever.' + +"'Warton,' she said, more seriously than ever, 'I am yours. You have my +heart, and I have engaged to give you, when you ask it, this poor hand. In +any condition of life--I am yours. But I tell you that I never can +deliberately ask you to resign the hopes which we have cherished--with, as +we have believed, the approbation and the blessing of our God. Your line +of duty is, as I conceive it--marked. Whilst you proceed, steadily and +with a simple mind--come what may, your pillow will never be moistened +with tears of remorse. If affliction and trial come--they will come as the +chastening of your Father, who will give you strength to bear the load you +have not cast upon yourself. But once diverge from the straight and narrow +path, and who can see the end of difficulty and danger? You are unused to +business, you know nothing of its forms, its ways--you are not fit for it. +Your habits--your temperament are opposed to it, and you cannot enter the +field as you should--to prosper. Think not of me. I wish--my happiness, +and joy, and pride will be to see you a respected minister of God. I am +not impatient. If we do right, our reward will come at last. Let years +intervene, and my love for you will burn as steadily as now. Do not be +tempted--and do not let us think that good can result--if, for my sake, +you are unfaithful--_there_!' She pointed upwards as she spoke, and for a +moment the sinfulness of my wishes blazed before me--startled, and +silenced me. I resolved to decline my uncle's offer; yet a week elapsed, +and the letter was not written. But another came from _him_. It was one of +tender reproach for my long silence, and it requested an immediate answer +to the munificent proposal of my mother. If I refused it, a stranger would +be called upon to enjoy my rights, and the opportunity for realizing a +handsome fortune would never occur again. Such were its exciting terms, +and once more, perplexed by desire and doubt, I appealed to the purer +judgment of my Anna. + +"She wept when she came to the close of the epistle, and had not a word to +say. + +"'I distress you, Anna,' said I, 'by my indecision. Dry your tears, my +beloved; I will hesitate no longer.' + +"'I know not what to do,' she faltered; 'if you should act upon my advice, +and afterwards repent, you would never forgive me. Yet, I believe from my +very soul that you should flee from this temptation. But do as you +will--as seems wisest and best--and trust not to a weak woman. Do what +reason and principle direct, and happen what will--I will be satisfied. +One thing occurs to me. Can you trust your uncle?" + +I hesitated. + +"'I ask,' she continued, 'because you have often spoken of him as if you +could not confidently. May he not have--I judge of him only from your +report--some motive for his present conduct which we cannot penetrate? It +is an unkind world, and the innocent and guileless are not safe from the +schemes and contrivances of the wicked. I speak at random, but I am filled +with alarm for you. You are safe now--but one step may be your ruin.' + +"'You are right, Anna,' I replied; 'it is too great a venture, I cannot +trust this man. I will not leave the path of duty. I will refuse his offer +this very night.' + +"And I did so. In her presence I wrote an answer to his letter, and +declined respectfully the brilliant prospect which he had placed before +me. The letter was dispatched--Anna was at peace, and my own mind was +satisfied. + +"It was, however, not my fate to pass safely through this fiery ordeal. +Nothing but my destruction, final and entire, would satisfy my greedy +persecutor--and artfully enough did he at length encompass it. In a few +days, there arrived a third communication on the same subject, but from +another hand. My mother became the correspondent, and she conjured me by +my filial love and duty, not to disobey her. She desired to retire into +privacy. She was growing old and it was time to make arrangements for +another world. Her son, if he would, might enable her to carry out her +pious wish--or, by his obstinate refusal, hurry her with sorrow to the +grave. There was much more to this effect. Appeal upon appeal was made +_there_, where she knew me to be most vulnerable, and the choice of +action was not left me. To deny her longer--would be to stand convicted +of disobedience, undutifulness, and all unfilial faults. From this +period, I was lost. One word before I hurry to the end. I absolve my +mother from all participation in the crimes of which boldly I accuse my +uncle. She, poor helpless woman, was but his instrument, and believed, +when she urged me, that it was with a view to my advancement and lasting +benefit. I conveyed my mother's communication immediately to Anna. She +made no observation on its contents--bade me seek counsel of her father; +and with her eyes streaming with agonizing tears, left me to pray upon my +knees for counsel and direction from on high. Her father--I could not +blame him--a man who had struggled hardly for his bread as a clergyman +and a scholar--and seen more of the dark shadows than the light of +life--received my intelligence with unmingled satisfaction. He charged +me, as I loved his child, and valued her future welfare, to accept the +princely kindness of my friends--to see them instantly, and secure my +fortune whilst time and circumstances served. And then, as if to appease +his own qualms of conscience, and to justify his counsel, he reasoned +about the usefulness which, even to a pious mind, was permitted in the +exercise of trade. Infinite was the good that I might do. Yea, more, +perhaps, than if I persisted in my first design, and remained for ever a +poor clergyman; I might relieve the poor even to my heart's content. What +privilege so great as this! What suffering so acute as the desire to help +the sick and needy with no ability to do it! 'Be sure, young man, the +hand of Providence is here; it would be sinful to deny it.' O +_interest--interest!--self--self_!--words of magic and of power; they +rendered my poor friend blind as they did me. I listened to his advice +with eagerness and delight; and though I knew that to obey it was to cast +myself from security into turmoil and danger, I laboured to persuade +myself that he was right, and that hesitation was now criminal. Again I +saw my betrothed, and I approached her--innocent and truthful as she +was--with shame and self-abasement. I repeated her father's words, and +she shook her head sadly, but made no reply. What need was there of +reply? Had she not already spoken? + +"'Let me, at least, dear Anna, go to London,' I said, 'and implore my +mother to retract this wish, unsay her words. I would rather give up the +world, than take it without your cheerful acquiescence. Your happiness is +every thing to me. You shall decide for me.' + +"'No, Warton,' she replied--'you and my father must decide, and may Heaven +direct you both. Go to London--do as you wish. I am resigned. I am +presumptuous, and may be wrong. All will be for the best. Go! God bless +you and support you.' + +"And I went, traitor and renegade that I was, prepared to surrender to the +bitterest foe that ever hunted victim down. Believe me not, sir, when I +say that any sense of filial duty actuated me in my resolve, that any +feeling influenced this unsteady heart but one--The desire to call my Anna +mine--the pride I felt in the consciousness of wealth--and of the power +to bestow it all on her. + +"My reception in London was as favourable as I could wish it. My uncle was +an altered man--at least he appeared so. He met me with smiles and honied +words, and made such promises of friendship and protection, that I stood +before him convicted of uncharitableness and gross misconduct. I +reproached myself for the old prejudices, and for the malice which I had +always borne him, and attributed them all to boyish inexperience, and +stubbornness. I was older now, and could see with the eyes of a man. Not +only did I acquit him of all intention of wrong, but I could have fallen +on my knees before him, and asked his pardon for my own offences. I wrote +a long letter to Anna, and described in lively colours my own agreeable +surprise, desired her to be of good heart, and to rely upon my prudence. I +engaged to write daily, to announce the progress of my mission--and to +advise her of the proposed arrangements. This was my first communication. +Before she could receive a second, I had put my hand to paper, and signed +my death-warrant. I had irretrievably committed myself. I was living with +my uncle. His wine was of the best. He could drink freely of it, and get +cooler and more collected at each glass, but frequent draughts animated +and inflamed my younger head. He spoke to me with kindness, and I grew +confiding and loquacious. I told him of my engagement with Anna, described +her beauty, extolled her virtues. He seized the golden opportunity, and +reproved me gently for the little consideration which I exhibited for one +so worthy of my love. It was unpardonably selfish to hesitate one instant +longer. It was due to her, and to our future offspring, to make every +provision for their maintenance and comfort. It was madness to overlook +the advantages which my mother's offer gave. She herself, the lovely Anna, +as her cares increased, would mourn over the cruel obstinacy of him who +might have placed her beyond anxiety and apprehension, but who preferred +to keep her poor, dependent, joyless. She was young, and spoke, doubtless, +as she felt--but time would dissipate romance, and bitterly would she +regret that he who professed to love her had not taken pains to prove that +love more thoughtful and sincere. So he went on--and, in the height of his +appeal, a visitor was announced--Mr Gilbert, an old friend, an intimate, +who was immediately admitted. I was requested not to mind him, for he knew +every secret of my uncle's. The latter repeated my story, and ended with +an account of my ingratitude to Anna. Mr Gilbert could scarcely speak for +his astonishment. He shook his head severely, and vowed the case was quite +unparalleled. I drank on--the thought of the immediate possession of my +Anna flashed once powerfully and effectually across my brain, and I held +out no longer. I yielded to the sweet solicitation--and was lost. + +"On the following morning, Mr Gilbert arrived to breakfast. The subject +was resumed. My uncle produced a paper, which he had hastily drawn up. It +should be signed by all. Mr Gilbert, as a friend, could witness it. It was +a rough draught, but would answer every purpose for the present. The +statement was very simple. My mother left in the firm twenty thousand +pounds in stock, and cash and book debts. For this I made myself +responsible, and undertook to pay an interest of five per cent. All +profits in the business were my own. Fool that I was, I signed the +document without reflection--gave, with one movement of the pen, my +liberty, my happiness, and life, into the power of one who had for years +resolved to get them in his clutch. My uncle followed with his +signature--then Mr Gilbert. To make all sure, however, a clerk of the +former was summoned to the room, and requested to act as second witness +to the deed. + +"You are perfectly satisfied with the contents?' said Mr Gilbert to my +uncle, when the clerk had finished. + +"'Quite so,' was the answer. + +"'And you, sir?' he continued, turning then to me. + +"'I answered, '_Yes_,' whilst a sickening shudder crept through my blood, +and the remonstrance of Anna sounded in my ears like a knell. + +"I remained in London, and a week after this ceremony I entered upon my +duties at the counting-house. _At the earnest recommendation of my +uncle_, I carried into the business, as additional capital, the sum of +money from which I had hitherto derived my income. This amounted to +nearly four thousand pounds. It may seem strange to you, sir, as it does +to me now, that I should so readily have adopted the statement of my +uncle, and so deeply involved myself upon the strength of his simple +_ipse dixit_. It was a mad-man's act, and yet there were many excuses for +it at the time. I was but a boy--fresh from a life of retirement and +study--unused to the ways of men--unprepared for fraud. Satisfied of my +own integrity, I believed implicitly in the ingenuousness of others. I +had no friend to act for me--to investigate and warn--my heart was +burthened with its love, and all my thoughts were far away. The business +had prospered for years, and it was conducted externally as in the days +of my poor father. All was decorous and business-like, and the reputation +of the house was high and unblemished. There was nothing in the +appearance of things to excite suspicion--and not a breath was suggested +from my own too easy and confiding nature. The father of my betrothed! +was delighted at the step which I had taken. He wrote me an impassioned +letter, full of praise and brilliant prophecies, none of which he lived +to see fulfilled. His daughter, he assured me, would yet be grateful to +me for the firmness I had evinced, and that the blessing of Heaven must +attend conduct so estimable and wise. Anna herself wrote in another +strain. The act which she had so long dreaded was accomplished--it was +useless to look back--she could only hope and pray for the future. She +entreated me to be careful of my health, and to accustom myself gradually +to my new employment. It was a consolation to behold her father so very +happy, and to find me contented in my position. Nothing would give her +now such satisfaction, as to be convinced that she had been wrong +throughout, and that I had done well in giving up my former occupations. +A month passed quickly by. The engagements of the firm were met--and its +affairs were carried on as usual. No change took place. The only +difference was my presence, and the appearance of my name in all the +transactions of the house. I saw my mother frequently--but my uncle, by +degrees, withdrew. His own affairs required his constant attention, but +he provided me with help and countenance in the person of Mr Gilbert. +This gentleman, in addition to the character of a bosom friend, sustained +another--that of _legal adviser_ to my uncle! He visited me daily, and +helped me marvellously. He procured from my uncle my patrimony of four +thousand pounds--drew up in return for it a release, which I +executed--paid the money into my banker's hands--received my mother's +dividend--inspected the accounts--advised summary proceedings against +defaulters--and settled, at a certain rate, to purchase a few outstanding +debts, which it would cost some trouble and manoeuvring to get in. I +could not choose but act upon advice that was at once so very friendly +and professional. My inexperience, for a time, gratefully reposed in Mr +Gilbert. Exactly two months after I had entered the concern, I married. +Sun never rose more promisingly upon a wedding-day--a lovelier bride had +never graced it. I pass over the few intoxicating weeks during which life +assumes a form and hue which it never wore before--never puts forth +again. The novelty of my situation--the joy I had in her possession, and +in the knowledge that she was wholly mine--lived now and breathed for +me--the pride with which I gazed upon her blooming beauty, and communed +with her, as with a new-found better self--all combined to render one +brief season a sweet delirium--an ecstatic dream. It is time to wake from +it. I return to the business. I had agreed to pay my mother's dividend +every quarter--and, as I told you, Mr Gilbert received the money for her. +She did not live to enjoy it. A short illness removed her from a world +which had never been one of sorrow to her. Her heart was adamant, and +troubled waters passed over--did not enter and disturb it. All that she +had became my uncle's, and he was now my creditor. I beg you, sir, to +mark this. Twice had he inherited the property which should have been my +own. It was about a twelvemonth after the death of my mother, that small, +dark shadows appeared in the horizon, foretelling storm and tempest. At +first they gave me no uneasiness, but they increased and gathered, and +soon compelled me to take measures for the outbreak. I continued to +discharge my uncle's claim with undeviating regularity. Mr Gilbert +sharply saw to that; but a difficulty arose at length of meeting +punctually all the demands which came upon me in the way of business. +This was overcome in the beginning, by enforcing payment from customers +who had traded previously on a liberal credit. The evil thus temporarily +repaired gave rise, however, to a greater evil. Our friends withdrew +their favours, and offered them else where. This critical state of things +did not improve, but caused me daily fresh alarm. Money became more +scarce--the difficulty of meeting payments more imminent and harassing. +It was very strange. It had not been so in my father's time; nor later, +when my mother had the management of affairs. Was it my fault? What had I +done amiss. Frightful thoughts began to haunt my bosom, and my sleep was +broken, as a criminal's might be. One day I had a heavy sum to pay. It +was on the fourth of the month--a serious day to many--and, although I +had made every exertion to meet this payment, I found myself, on the very +morning, at least two hundred pounds deficient. I have told you, that the +credit of our house was without a spot. Its reputation stood high amongst +the highest. Slander had not dared to breathe one syllable against it. To +me was entrusted this precious jewel, and I was now upon the very brink +of losing it. I rose from my pillow before daylight, and endeavoured to +contrive a plan for my relief. Fear and excitement prevented all +deliberate thought, and I walked to the counting-house confounded--almost +delirious. I had taken no food. I could not break my fast until the +exigency had passed away. I was sitting in the little room, filled with +dismal apprehensions, when Mr Gilbert was announced, and suddenly +appeared. As suddenly I resolved to tell him of my necessity, and to ask +his aid or counsel. Blushing to the forehead, I confided my situation to +him, and asked what it was possible to do. He smiled in answer produced +his pocket-book, and gave me, without a word; a draft upon his banker for +the sum required. At that moment, sir, I felt what it was to be respited +after sentence of death--to be rescued from drowning--to awaken into life +from horrible and numbing dreams. I pressed the hand of my deliverer with +the most affectionate zeal, and assured him of my everlasting gratitude. + +"'No occasion, my dear sir,' answered Mr Gilbert. 'This is a very common +case in business, and will happen to the best of men. Never hesitate to +ask me when you are in need. When I have the cash, you shall command me +always. Give me your IOU--that will be quite sufficient, and pay the money +back when it is quite convenient.' Disinterested, most praiseworthy man! +He left me, impressed with his benevolence, and with my spirit at rest. +With the dismissal of my incubus, my appetite was restored. I partook of a +hearty dinner, and returned home, happy as a boy again. At the end of a +week, I was enabled to repay my benefactor; but, at the end of a +fortnight; I was again in need of his assistance. Emboldened by his offer, +I did not hesitate to apply; as freely as before he responded to my call; +and I felt that I had gained a friend indeed. Men who have committed +heinous crimes, will tell you that it is the first divergence from the +point of rectitude that gives them pain and anguish. The false direction +once obtained, and the moral sense is blunted. So in matters of this kind. +There was no blushing or palpitation when I begged a third time for a +temporary loan. The occasion soon presented itself, and I asked +deliberately for the sum I wanted. Mr Gilbert likewise had grown familiar +with these demands; and familiarity, they say, does not heighten our +politeness and respect. He had not the money by him, but he might get it, +though, from a friend, he thought, if it were absolutely necessary. But +then a friend is not like one's self. He must be paid for what he did. +Well, for once in the way, I could afford it. I must borrow as cheaply, as +I could, and give my note of hand, &c. Sir, in less than three months; I +was in a mesh of difficulties, from which it was impossible to tear +myself. Bill after bill had I accepted and given to this Gilbert--pounds +upon pounds had he sucked from me in the way of interest; He grew greedier +every hour. If I hesitated; he spoke to me of exposure--I refused, he +threatened enforcement of his previous claims. And, what was worse than +all, notwithstanding the heavy sums which he advanced, and for which he +held securities, my affairs remained disordered, and the demand for money +increased with every new supply. I could not understand it. I had not +communicated with my uncle. I was afraid to do it; but I took care to pay +his dividend the instant it was due. Had I omitted it, Mr Gilbert would +have looked to me; for he was even more anxious than myself to keep my +affairs a secret from my uncle. It was not long before I got bewildered by +the accumulated anxieties of my position. My mind was paralyzed. My days +were wretched. Home had no delight for me; and neither there nor elsewhere +could I find repose. Before daybreak, I quitted my bed, and until +midnight, I was occupied in arranging for the engagements of the coming +day. Legitimate and profitable business was neglected; lost sight of, and +all my faculties were engrossed in the one great object of obtaining +_money_ to appease the present and the pressing importunity. In the midst +of my trouble, I was thrown, for the first time, upon a bed of sickness. I +was attacked with fever, but I rallied in a day or two, and was prepared +once more to cast myself into the vortex from which I saw no hope or +possibility of escape. It was the evening before the day on which I had +determined to resume the whirl of my sickening occupation. I was in bed, +and, tired with the thought that weighed upon my brain, had fallen into a +temporary sleep, from which I woke too soon, to find my wife, now about to +become a mother, weeping as if her heart were broken, at my side. Trouble, +sir, had soured my temper, and I had ceased to be as tender as she +deserved. I was base enough to speak unkindly to her. + +"'You are discontented, Anna,' I exclaimed. You are not satisfied--you +repent now that you married me'--I see you do.' + +"'Warton,' she exclaimed, 'if you love me, leave this cruel business. Let +us live upon a crust. I will work for you. I will submit to any thing to +see you calm and happy. This will kill you.' + +"'It will, it must!' I cried out in misery. 'I cannot help it. What is to +be done?' + +"'Retire from it--resign all--every thing--but save us both. This +agitation--this ceaseless wear and tear--must eventually, and soon, +destroy you. What, then, becomes of me?' + +"'Show me, Anna, how I can do what you desire with honour. Show me the +way, and I will bless you. Oh, why did I not heed your words before! Why +did I suffer myself to be entrapped'-- + +"She stopped me in my exclamations. + +"'You have promised, dear,' said she, 'never to look upon the past. You +acted for the best. So did we all. It is our consolation and support. But +the present is sad and mournful, and, I believe, it rests with ourselves +to secure our happiness for the future. Are you content to do it?' + +"'Oh, can you ask me, Anna? Tell me how I may escape without +discredit--without shame and one dishonourable taint--and you take me +from the depths of my despair. I see no end to this career. I am fixed to +the stake, and I must burn.' + +"'Listen to me, dearest. You shall write to your uncle without delay, and +explain to him your wishes. You shall tell him of your difficulties +frankly and unreservedly. Make known to him your state of health, and tell +him firmly that you are unequal to the burden which is laid upon you. +Should he insist upon a recompense for your loss, you have money of your +own there--yield it to him, and these hands shall never rest until they +have earned for you every shilling of it back again. Be tranquil, +resolute, cheerful, and all will yet be well, I trust--I feel it will.' + +"I had once refused to act on her advice, and the consequences had been +dire enough. When compliance was too late, I implicitly obeyed her. The +letter was written, and an answer came as speedily as we could wish it. It +was a kind reply. My uncle was sorry for my illness, and was content to +take the business off my hands, if I was ready to resign it in the +condition that I had found it. And this, I thanked my God with tears of +joy, I was prepared to do. My personal expenses had been trifling. The +amount of business done was large--my the profits had not been withdrawn. +Although my sufferings had been great, and difficulties had met me which I +could neither prevent nor comprehend, still reason told me that the +property must have increased in value. It was with alacrity that I +engaged, at my uncle's particular request, an accountant to investigate +the proceedings of the house, and to pronounce upon its present state. The +result of the examination could not but be most satisfactory. It did not +occur to me at the time, that my uncle had deemed no accountant necessary +when he heaped upon me the responsibility which I had borne so ill. It +would have been but fair, methinks. A time was fixed for a meeting with my +uncle, and for producing the result of the enquiry. The accountant had +been closely engaged at his work for many days, and had brought it to an +end only on the evening preceding the day of our appointment. He submitted +his estimate to me, and you shall judge my horror when I perused it. There +were many sheets of paper, but in one line my misery was summed up. EIGHT +THOUSAND POUNDS _were deficient and unaccounted for_. Yes, and my own +small fortune had been included in the amount of capital. The accountant +had been careful and exact--there was not a flaw in his reckoning. The +glaring discrepancy stared me in the face, and pronounced my ruin. I knew +not what to think or do. In accents of the most earnest supplication, I +entreated the accountant to pass the night in reviewing his labours, and +to afford me, if possible, the means of rescuing my name from the obloquy +which, in a few hours, must attach to it. I offered him any sum of +money--all that he could ask--for his pains, and he promised to comply +with my request. The idea that I had been the victim of a trick, a fraud, +never glanced across my mind. No, when my wretchedness permitted me to +think at all, I suspected and accused no one but myself. I could imagine +and believe that, inadvertently, I had committed some great error when my +soul had been darkened by the daily and hourly anxieties which had +followed it so long. But how to discover it? How to make my innocence +apparent to the world? How to face my uncle? How to brave the taunts of +men? How, above all, to meet the huge demands which soon would press and +fall upon me? The tortures of hell cannot exceed in acuteness all that I +suffered that long and bitter night. The accountant was waiting for me in +the parlour when I left my bed. He had spent the night as I had wished +him but had not found one error in his calculations. I tore the papers +from his hands, and strained my eyes upon the pages to extract the lie +which existed there to damn me. It would not go--it could not be removed. +I was a doomed, lost man. Whatever might be the consequence, I resolved +to see my uncle, and to speak the truth. I relied upon the sympathy which +I believed inherent in the nature of man. I relied upon my own integrity, +and the serenity which conscious innocence should give. I met my uncle. I +shall never forget that interview. He received me in his private +house--in his drawing-room. We were alone. He sat at a table: his face +was somewhat pale, but he was cool and undisturbed--ah, how much more so +than his trembling sacrifice! I placed before him the condemning paper. +It was that only that he cared to see. He looked at once to the result, +and then, without a word, he turned his withering eye upon me. + +"'I know it,' I cried out, not permitting him to speak. 'I know what you +would say. It is a mystery, and I cannot solve it. There is a fearful +error somewhere--but where I know not. I am as innocent--' + +"'Innocent!' exclaimed my uncle, in a tone of bitterness, 'Well, go on, +sir.' + +"'Yes, innocent,' I repeated. 'Time will prove it, and make the mystery +clear. My brain is now confused; but it cannot be that this gigantic error +can escape me when I am calm--composed. Grant me but time.' + +"'I grant nothing,' said my uncle, fiercely. 'Plunderer! I show no mercy. +You would have shown me none--you would have left me in the lurch, and +laughed at me as you made merry with your stolen wealth. Mark me, +sir--restore it--labour till you have made it good, or I crush you--once, +and for ever.' + +"I was rendered speechless by these words. I attempted to make answer; but +my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth--my throat grew dry and hot--my +brain was dizzy, and the room swam round me. I thought of the name which I +had been striving for years to build up--the honourable name which I had +gained--the height from which I was about to fall--the yawning gulf +below--a thousand painful thoughts rushed in one instant to my mind, and +overcame me. I should have fallen to the earth, had not my heart found in +my eyes a passage for its grief, and rendered me weaker than a child +before a creature who had never felt the luxury of one human tear. I wept +aloud and fearfully. + +"'Guilt, guilt, palpable guilt!' exclaimed my uncle. 'None but the guilty +weep. You do not take me by surprise, young man. I was prepared for +this--I have but a word to say. Restore this money, or undertake to pay +it back to me--to the last farthing of my lawful claim. Do this, and I +forgive you, and forget your indiscretion. Refuse, and to-morrow you are +a bankrupt and a beggar. Leave me, and take time for your decision. Come +to me again this evening. If you fail--_you_ may expect a visit in the +morning.' + +"This was said deliberately, but in a tone most expressive of sincerity. I +staggered from his presence, and hurried homeward. A sickening sensation +checked me as I approached my door. I could not enter it. I rushed away; +and in the open fields, where I could weep and rave unnoticed and alone, I +cursed my fate, and entreated heaven to smite me with its thunders. My +mind was tottering. Hours passed before I reached the house again, how, +when, or by what means I arrived there, I could not tell. The servant girl +who gave me admittance looked savagely upon me, as I thought. It was +sorrow, and not anger, that was written in her face; but how could I +discriminate? Her mistress was seriously ill. She had been alarmed by the +visit of a gentleman, who waited for me in the parlour, and by my +protracted absence; and her agitation had brought on the pangs of labour. +A physician was now with her. Who was this gentleman? I entered the room, +and there the fiend sate, white with irritation and gnawing +disappointment. I started back, but he advanced to me--held my papers to +my face, and pointed to one portion of them with a finger that was alive +with rage and agitation. + +"'Is it true?' asked my uncle, gnashing his teeth. 'Answer me--yes or +no?--one word, is it true?' + +"'It is a lie!' I answered, ignorant of his meaning, and half crazed with +the excitement. 'I am innocent--innocent--Heaven knows I am.' + +"'Have you, or have you not given to Gilbert, for these heavy sums, a +power of attorney? Has he got it? Answer me in a word.' + +"'He advanced me money,' I replied, 'and I gave him such documents as he +required.' + +"'Enough!' said my uncle. 'You are a beggar!'--and without another word he +left me. + +"For a week my wife remained in a dangerous condition. Threatened with the +loss of her, I did not leave her side. What was the business to me at such +a time?--what was reputation--what life? Life!--sir, I carried about with +me a potent poison, and I waited only for her latest breath to drink it +off, and join her in the grave. She rallied, however, and once more I +walked abroad--to find myself a bankrupt and a castaway. The very day that +my uncle quitted me, he called my creditors together--exposed the state of +my affairs--and accused me of the vilest practices. A docket was struck +against me. Every thing that I possessed was dragged away--even to the bed +on which my Anna had been cast, and which she so much needed now. Every +thing was gone; but the blow had fallen, and I was callous to the loss. In +the midst of the desolation I struggled to preserve one trifle from the +common wreck. Do not smile, sir, when I mention _my reputation_. Yes, I +felt that if it could be rescued all might be spared, and I might yet defy +and shame my persecutors. I appealed to the commissioner who had charge of +my estate. I proclaimed aloud, and in the face of men, my innocence. I +conjured him to subject me to the severest trial--to compel the closest +examination of my affairs--my books--and every individual connected with +the house. I demanded it for the sake of justice--for my own sake, and for +the sake of the poor creatures--I was a father now--whose fortunes were +linked with mine, whose bread depended upon the verdict which should be +pronounced against me. My passionate supplication was not in vain. The +affairs of our house were looked into--the business that had been done for +years was sifted--and clerks and men were subjected to every interrogatory +that could elucidate a fact. At the end of six months it was publicly +announced that an important error had been discovered--that the estimate +given to me was incorrect, _and by many thousand pounds greater than the +true value_. + +"There had been a _mistake_! The bankrupt departed from the court without +a blemish on his character. He had been indiscreet in entering heedlessly +upon so large an undertaking, and must pay dearly for that in discretion. +He was strictly liable and bound to pay what he had acknowledged with his +hand to be a lawful debt. There was no help for him. The young man was +worthy of commiseration, and his creditors should show him mercy." This +was the verdict of the commissioner, spoken in the ears of one who was a +stranger to mercy, and who had vowed to show me _none_. Guilt, however, +attached to my good name no longer, and I smiled at his malignity. It was +too soon _to smile_. The secret of all my difficulty was now explained. +Trading upon a false capital, to an extravagant extent beyond the real +one--draining my exchequer of its resources to pay an ever-recurring +interest, whilst the principal was but a fiction in the estate, it was no +wonder that I became hemmed in by claims impossible to meet, and that the +services of Mr Gilbert were so soon in requisition. In giving to Mr +Gilbert a power over the firm, I acted according to my ideas of justice. +When I was impoverished, he furnished me with the means of keeping up the +credit of the house. But for him it must have fallen. I believed that I +was solvent. Why should I hesitate to make this man secure? But it is for +this preference, which rendered my uncle's dividend comparatively nothing, +that I have been followed through my life with rancour and malevolence +unparalleled. Mark me, sir; the _mistake_, as it was called--the vital +_error_--was a deliberate fraud committed by my uncle at the outset. + +He had withdrawn this heavy sum of money at the beginning--he had resolved +to keep me for my life his servant and his slave--to feast upon the +dropping sweat of my exhausted mind--to convert my heart's blood into +gold, which was his god. He hated me for my conduct towards him in my +boyhood, which he had neither forgotten nor forgiven; and his detestation +gave zest to his hellish desire of accumulating wealth at any cost. Had I +applied to _him_, had I entered into new engagements with _him_, given to +_him_ the securities which, from a notion of right, I had presented to +Gilbert--had I made over to the fiend soul as well as body, I might still +have retained his friendship, still been permitted to labour and to toil +for his aggrandizement and ease. It was Gilbert himself who revealed to me +his patron's villany. It was time for the vultures to quarrel when they +could not both fatten on my prostrate carcass; but they were bound +together by the dark doings of years, and it was only by imperfect hints +and innuendoes that I was made aware of their treachery. If proofs existed +to convict my uncle, Gilbert could not afford to produce them. The price +was life, or something short of it; but I heard enough for satisfaction. +Although I was deprived of everything that I possessed, my mind recovered +its buoyancy, and my spirit, after the first shock, grew sanguine. I had +been proclaimed an innocent and injured man, and my beloved Anna was at my +side smiling and rejoicing. In our overthrow, she beheld only the dark +storm of morning, that sometimes ushers in the glorious noon and golden +sunset. I spoke of the past with anger; she reverted to it with the +chastened sorrow of a repentant angel. I looked to the future with +distrust and apprehension, she, with a bright, abiding confidence. Never +had she appeared so happy, so contented--never had the smile remained so +constant to her cheek, so unalloyed with touch of care, as when we stood +houseless and homeless in the world, and nothing but her fortitude and +love were left me to rely upon. My first care after my dismission into +life again, was to obtain my certificate from my creditors, and with +almost all of them I was successful. The exceptions were my uncle, and +three individuals--his creatures, and willing instruments of torture. They +were sufficient to brand me with disgrace, and to affix for ever to my +name that mark of infamy which an after life of virtue shall never wash +away or hide. UNCERTIFICATED BANKRUPT was the badge I carried with me. +From this period my decline was rapid and unequivocal. A creditor, who had +not proved his debt upon the estate, hearing tell of my defenceless +situation, cast me forthwith into prison. I will not tell you of the +sufferings we endured during a two years' cruel incarceration. Starvation +and its horrors came gradually upon us. Application upon application was +made to my uncle; entreaties for nothing more than justice; and my poor +meek Anna was turned with contumely from his doors. After years of +privation, a glimmering of light stole in upon us, to be soon +extinguished. I obtained temporary employment in a school far away from +the scenes of my misery, and hither my evil fortune followed me. The +schoolmaster was an ignorant, gross man. He gained my services for a song, +and he treated me with disrespect in consequence. I had been with him +about six months when some silver spoons were stolen from his house. The +thief escaped detection; but the master received an anonymous +communication, containing a false history of my life, with a true +statement of my unfortunate position. He at once charged me with the crime +of being an uncertificated bankrupt. I confessed to it, and the very day I +was dragged before a magistrate on suspicion of felony. I was acquitted, +it is true, for want of evidence; but what could acquit me--what could +release me from the super-added stigma? _An uncertificated bankrupt, and a +suspected felon_! Alas! the charity of man will not look further than the +surface of things, and is it not secretly pleased to find there, rather an +excuse for neglect, than a reason for exertion? Excited almost to madness +by privation and want, and unable to get assistance from a human being, I +visited my uncle. I could not see my wife and children drooping and +sinking day by day, and not make one great struggle for their rescue. I +resolved to accost him with meekness and humility--yes, to fall upon my +knees and kiss the dust before him, so that he would fill their famished +mouths. He would not see me. I watched for him in the street, and there +addressed him. He reviled me--cast me off--provoked me to exasperation, +and finally gave me into custody for an attempt upon his life. Again I was +taken to the magistrate, but not again discharged so easily. My character +and previous _offences_ were exhibited. The magistrate, serious with +judicial sorrow, looked upon me as you would turn an eye towards a reptile +that defiles the earth. I appealed to him, and in a loud and animated +voice proclaimed my grievances. It was suggested that I was a lunatic, and +whilst the justice committed me to hard labour, he benevolently promised +that the prison surgeon should visit me, and pronounce upon my fitness for +Saint Luke's. It was during my temporary confinement for this offence, +that I was seized with the illness from which I have never since been +free. For three years I was unable to work for my family, and by the end +of that period we were sunk into the lowest depths. My Anna sickened +likewise; but as long as she was able she laboured for our support. We +have been hunted and driven from place to place, and the little which we +have been able to earn in our wanderings, has hardly kept us alive. Twice +have I stolen a loaf of bread to appease the children's hunger. What could +I do? I could not bear to see their languid glassy eyes, and hear their +little voices imploring for the food--God knows, I could not let them die +before my face--I could not be their murderer--I could not--" + +"Stay, Mr Warton," said I, interrupting the narrator, "I have heard +enough. Spare me for the present. Your statements must be corroborated. +This is all I ask. Leave the rest to me." + + + +If the reader has perused, with painful interest, the account that I have +laid before him, let me gratify him with the intelligence that I have +accomplished for this unfortunate family all that I could wish. Warton's +account of himself was strengthened and confirmed by the strict enquiry +which I set on foot immediately. He was, as he asserted, _an innocent and +injured man_. Satisfied of this, I transmitted to the worthy judge, who +had been moved by the man's misfortunes, a faithful history of his life. I +was not disappointed here. It was that functionary who obtained for Warton +the situation which he at present fills--and for his children the +education which they are now receiving. Nor was this his first exertion on +their behalf. It was he who furnished them with clothing on the night of +the criminal's discharge. They are restored to happiness, to comfort, and +to health. The moderate ambition of the faithful Anna is realized, and my +vision is a vision no longer. + +Reader, I have nothing more to add. I have told you a simple tale and a +true one. It is for you to say whether it shall be--useless and +uninstructive. + + + * * * * * + + + + +FREDERICK SCHLEGEL.[1] + + +[Footnote A: 1. _Geschichte der alten und neuen Literatur von_ FRIEDRICH +SCHLEGEL. _Neue auflage. Berlin_, 1842. + +2. Lectures on the History of Ancient and Modern Literature, from the +German of Frederick Schlegel. New edition. Blackwood: Edinburgh and +London, 1841. + +3. The Philosophy of History, translated from the German of FRIEDRICH VON +SCHLEGEL, with a Memoir of the Author, by JAMES BURTON ROBERTSON, Esq. In +two vols. London, 1835. Reprinted in America, 1841. + +4. _Philosophie des Lebens_ von FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL. Wien, 1828.] + + +"I would not have you pin your faith too closely to these SCHLEGELS," said +FICHTE one day at Berlin to VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, or one of his friends, in +his own peculiar, cutting, commanding style--"I would not have you pin +your faith to these Schlegels. I know them well. The elder brother wants +depth, and the younger clearness. One good thing they both have--that is, +hatred of mediocrity; but they have also both a great jealousy of the +highest excellence; and, therefore, where they can neither be great +themselves nor deny greatness in others, they, out of sheer desperation, +fall into an outrageous strain of eulogizing. Thus they have bepraised +Goethe, and thus they have bepraised me."[B] + +[Footnote B: _Denkwuerdigkeiten_ von K. A. VARNHAGEN VON ENSE. Mannheim, +1837. Vol. ii. p. 60.] + +Some people, from pride, don't like to be praised at all; and all +sensible people, from propriety, don't like to be praised extravagantly: +whether from pride or from propriety, or from a mixture of both, +philosopher Fichte seemed to have held in very small account the +patronage with which he was favoured at the hands of the twin aesthetical +dictators, the Castor and Pollux of romantic criticism; and, strange +enough also, poet Goethe, who had worship enough in his day, and is said +to have been somewhat fond of the homage, chimes in to the same tune +thus: "the Schlegels, with all their fine natural gifts, have been +unhappy men their life long, both the one and the other; they wished both +to be and do something more than nature had given them capacity for; and +accordingly they have been the means of bringing about not a little harm +both in art and literature. From their false principles in the fine +arts--principles which, however much trumpeted and gospeled about, were +in fact egotism united with weakness--our German artists have not yet +recovered, and are filling the exhibitions, as we see, with pictures +which nobody will buy. Frederick, the younger of these Dioscouri, choked +himself at last with the eternal chewing of moral and religious +absurdities, which, in his uncomfortable passage through life, he had +collected together from all quarters, and was eager to hawk about with +the solemn air of a preacher to every body: he accordingly betook +himself, as a last refuge, to Catholicism, and drew after him, as a +companion to his own views, a man of very fair but falsely overwrought +talent--Adam Mueller. + +"As for their Sanscrit studies again, that was at bottom only a _pis +aller_. They were clear-sighted enough to perceive that neither Greek nor +Latin offered any thing brilliant enough for them; they accordingly threw +themselves into the far East; and in this direction, unquestionably, the +talent of Augustus William manifests itself in the most honourable way. +All that, and more, time will show. Schiller never loved them: hated them +rather; and I think it peeps out of our correspondence how I did my best, +in our Weimar circles at least, to keep this dislike from coming to an +open difference. In the great revolution which they actually effected, I +had the luck to get off with a whole skin, (_sie liessen mich noth duerftig +stehen_,) to the great annoyance of their romantic brother Novalis, who +wished to have me _simpliciter_ deleted. 'Twas a lucky thing for me, in +the midst of this critical hubbub, that I was always too busy with myself +to take much note of what others were saying about me. + +"Schiller had good reason to be angry with them. With their aesthetical +denunciations and critical club-law, it was a comparatively cheap matter +for them to knock him down in a fashion; but Schiller had no weapons that +could prostrate them. He said to me on one occasion, displeased with my +universal toleration even for what I did not like. 'KOTZEBUE, with his +frivolous fertility, is more respectable in my eyes than that barren +generation, who, though always limping themselves, are never content with +bawling out to those who have legs--STOP!'"[C] + +[Footnote C: Briefwechse Zwischen GOETHE und ZELTER. Berlin, 1834. Vol. vi. +p. 318.] + +That there is some truth in these severe remarks, the paltry personal +squibs in the _Leipzig Almanach_ for 1832, which called them forth, with +regard to Augustus Schlegel at least, sufficiently show: but there is a +general truth involved in them also, which the worthy fraternity of us +who, in this paper age, wield the critical pen, would do well to take +seriously to heart; and it is this, that great poets and philosophers have +a natural aversion as much to be praised and patronized, as to be rated +and railed at by great critics; and very justly so. For as a priest is a +profane person, who makes use of his sacred office mainly to show his gods +about, (so to speak,) that people may stare at them, and worship him; so a +critic who forgets his inferior position in reference to creative genius, +so far as to assume the air of legislation and dictatorship, when +explanation and commentary are the utmost he can achieve, has himself only +to blame, if, after his noisy trumpet has blared itself out, he reaps only +ridicule from the really witty, and reproof from the substantially wise. +Not that a true philosopher or poet shrinks from, and does not rather +invite, true criticism. The evil is not in the deed, but in the manner of +doing it. Here, as in all moral matters, the tone of the thing is the soul +of the thing. And in this view, the blame which Fichte and Goethe attach +to the Schlegels, amounts substantially to this, not that in their +critical vocation the romantic brothers wanted either learning or judgment +generally, but that they were too ambitious, too pretenceful, too +dictatorial that they must needs talk on all subjects, and always as if +they were the masters and the lions, when they were only the servants and +the exhibitors; that they made a serious business of that which is often +best done when it is done accidentally, viz. discussing what our +neighbours are about, instead of doing something ourselves; and that they +attempted to raise up an independent literary reputation, nay, and even to +found a new poetical school, upon mere criticism--an attempt which, with +all due respect for Aristarchus and the Alexandrians, is, and remains, a +literary impossibility. + +But was Frederick Schlegel merely a critic? No He was a philosopher also, +and not a vulgar one; and herein lies the foundation of his fame. His +criticism, also, was thoroughly and characteristically a philosophical +criticism; and herein mainly, along with its vastness of erudition and +comprehensiveness of view, lies the foundation of its fame. To understand +the criticism thoroughly, one must first understand the philosophy. Will +the _un_philosophical English reader have patience with us for a few +minutes while we endeavour to throw off a short sketch of the philosophy +of Frederick Schlegel? If the philosophical system of a transcendental +German and _Viennese_ Romanist, can have small intrinsic practical value +to a British Protestant, it may extrinsically be of use even to him as +putting into his hands the key to one of the most intellectual, useful, an +popular books of modern times--"The history of ancient and modern +literature, by Frederick Von Schlegel,"--a book, moreover, which is not +merely "a great national possession of the Germans," as by one of +themselves it has been proudly designated, but has also, through the +classical translation of Mr Lockhart,[D] been made the peculiar property of +English literature. + +[Footnote D: Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern. +Blackwoods, Edinburgh, 1841.] + +In the first chapter of his "_Philosophie des Lebens_," the Viennese +lecturer states very clearly the catholic and comprehensive ground which +all philosophy must take that would save itself from dangerous error. The +philosopher must start from the complete living totality of man, formed as +he is, not of flesh merely, a Falstaff--or of spirit merely, a Simon +Pillarman and Total Abstinence Saint--but of both flesh and spirit, body +and soul, in his healthy and normal condition. For this reason +clearly--true philosophy is not merely sense-derived and material like +the French philosophy of Helvetius, nor altogether ideal like that of +Plotinus, and the pious old mathematical visionaries at Alexandria; but +it stands on mother earth, like old Antaeus drinking strength therefrom, +and filches fire at the same time, Prometheus-like, from heaven, feeding +men with hopes--not, as Aeschylus says, altogether "blind," ([Greek: +tuphlas d eu autois eloidas katokioa)] but only blinking. Don't court, +therefore, if you would philosophize wisely, too intimate an acquaintance +with your brute brother, the baboon--a creature, whose nature speculative +naturalists have most cunningly set forth by the theory, that it is a +parody which the devil, in a fit of ill humour, made upon God's noblest +work, man; and don't hope, on the other hand, as many great saints and +sages have done, by prayer and fasting, or by study and meditation, to +work yourself up to a god, and jump bodily out of your human skin. Assume +as the first postulate, and lay it down as the last proposition of your +"philosophy of life," that a man is neither a brute, nor a god nor an +angel, but simply and sheerly a MAN. Furthermore, as man is not only a +very comprehensive and complex, but also, (to appearance at least,) in +many points, a very contrary and contradictory creature, see that you +take the _whole_ man along with you into your metaphysical chamber; for +if there be one paper that has a bearing in the case amissing out of your +green bag, (which has happened only too often,) the evidence will be +imperfect, and the sentence false or partial--shake your wig as you +please. Remember, that though you may be a very subtle logician, the soul +of man is not all made up of logic; remember that reason, (_Vernunft_,) +the purest that Kant ever criticized withal, is not the proper vital soul +in man; is not the creative and productive faculty in intellect at all, +but is merely the tool of that which, in philosophers no less than in +poets, is the proper inventive power, IMAGINATION, as Wordsworth phrases +it: Schlegel's word is _fantasie_. Remember that in more cases than +academic dignities may be willing to admit, the heart (where a man has +one) is the only safe guide, the only legitimate ruler of the head; and +that a mere metaphysician, and solitary speculator, however properly +trimmed, + + "One to whose smooth-rubb'd soul can cling + Nor form nor feeling, great nor small; + A reasoning, self-sufficing thing, + An intellectual all-in-all," + +may write very famous books, profound even to unintelligibility, but can +never be a philosopher. Therefore reject Hegel, "that merely thinking, on +a barren heath speculating, self-sufficient, self-satisfied little EGO;"[E] +and consider Kant as weighed in the balance and found wanting on his own +showing: for if that critical portal of pure reason had indeed been +sufficient, as it gave itself out to be, for all the purposes of a human +philosophy, what need was there of the "practical back-door" which, at the +categorical command of conscience, was afterwards laid open to all men in +the "Metaphysic of Ethics?" As little will you allow your philosophical +need to be satisfied with any thing you can get from SCHELLING; for +however well it sounds to "throw yourself from the transcendental +emptiness of ideal reason into the warm embrace of living and luxuriant +nature," here also you will find yourself haunted by the intellectual +phantom of absolute identity, (say absolute inanity,) or in its best +phasis a "pantheizing deification of nature." Strange enough as it may +seem, the true philosophy is to be found any where rather than among +philosophers. Each philosopher builds up a reasoned system of a part of +existence; but life is based upon God-given instincts and emotions, with +which reason has nothing to do; and nature contains many things which it +is not given to mortal brain to comprehend, much less to systematize. True +philosophy is not to be found in any intellectual system, much less in any +of the Aristotelian quality, where the emotional element in man is +excluded or subordinated; but in a living experience. To know philosophy, +therefore, first know life. To learn to philosophize, learn to live; and +live not partially, but with the full outspread vitality of human reason. +You go to college, and, as if you were made altogether of head, expect +some Peter Abelard forthwith, by academic disputation, to _reason_ you +into manhood; but neither manhood nor any vital WHOLE ever was learned by +reasoning. Pray, therefore, to the Author of all good, in the first place, +that you may _be_ something rather than that you may _know_ something. Get +yourself planted in God's garden, and learn to GROW. Woo the sun of life, +which is love, and the breeze which is enthusiasm, an impulse from that +same creative Spirit, which, brooding upon the primeval waters, out of +void brought fulness, and out of chaos a world. + +[Footnote E: This is Menzel's phrase, not Schlegel's. "Hegel's _centrum war +ein blos denkendes, auf oeder Heide spekulirendes, kleines, suffisantes, +selbstgenuegsames Ichlein_." The untranslatable beauty of the German is in +the diminutive with which the sentence closes. It is difficult to say +whether Menzel or Schlegel shows the greater hostility to the poor Berlin +philosopher.] + +Such, shortly, so far as we can gather, is the main scope, popularly +stated, of Frederick Schlegel's philosophy, as it is delivered in his two +first lectures on the philosophy of life, the first being titled, "Of the +thinking soul, or the central point of consciousness;" and the second, "Of +the loving soul, or the central point of moral life." The healthy-toned +reader, who has been exercised in speculations of this kind, will feel at +once that there is much that is noble in all this, and much that is true; +but not a little also, when examined in detail, of that sublime-sounding +sweep of despotic generality, (so inherent a vice of German literature,) +which delights to confound the differences, rather than to discriminate +the characters, of things; much that seems only too justly to warrant that +oracular sentence of the stern Fichte with which we set out, "_The younger +brother wants clearness_;" much that, when applied to practice, and +consistently followed out in that grand style of consistency which belongs +to a real German philosopher, becomes what we in English call Puseyism and +Popery, and what Goethe in German called a "_chewing the cud of moral and +religious absurdities_." But we have neither space nor inclination, in +this place, to make an analysis of the Schlegelian philosophy, or to set +forth how much of it is true and how much of it is false. Our intention +was merely to sketch a rapid outline, in as popular phrase as philosophy +would allow itself to be clothed in; to finish which outline without +extraneous remark, with the reader's permission, we now proceed. + +If man be not, according to Aristotle's phrase, a [Greek: zoon logikon] in +his highest faculty, a _ratiocinative_, but rather an emotional and +imaginative animal; and if to start from, as to end, in mere reason, be in +human psychology a gross one-sidedness, much more in theology is such a +procedure erroneous, and altogether perverse. If not the smallest poem of +a small poet ever came to him from mere reason, but from something deeper +and more vital, much less are the strong pulsations of pure emotion, the +deep-seated convictions of religious faith in the inner man, to be spoke +of as things that mere reason can either assert or deny; and in fact we +see, when we look narrowly into the great philosophical systems that have +been projected by scheming reasoners in France and Germany, each man out +of his own brain, that they all end either in materialism and atheism on +the one hand, or in idealism and pantheism on the other. All our +philosophers have stopped short of that one living, personal, moral God, +on whose existence alone humanity can confidently repose--who alone can +give to the trembling arch of human speculation that keystone which it +demands. The idea of God, in fact, is not a thing that individual reason +has first to strike out, so to speak, by the collision or combination of +ideas, the collocation of proofs, and the concatenation of arguments. It +is a living growth rather of our whole nature, a primary instinct of all +moral beings, a necessary postulate of healthy humanity, which is given +and received as our life and our breath is, and admits not of being +reasoned into any soul that has it not already from other sources. And as +no philosopher of Greek or German times that history tells of, ever +succeeded yet in inventing a satisfactory theology, or establishing a +religion in which men could find solace to their souls, therefore it is +clear that that satisfactory Christian theology and Christian religion +which we have, and not only that, but all the glimpses of great +theological truth that are found twinkling through the darkness of a +widespread superstition, came originally from God by common revelation, +and not from man by private reasoning. The knowledge of God and a living +theology is, in fact, a simple science of experience like any other, only +of a peculiar quality and higher in degree. All true human knowledge in +moral matters rests on experience, internal or external, higher or lower, +on tradition, on language as the bearer of tradition, on revelation; +while that false, monstrous, and unconditioned science to which the pride +of human reason has always aspired, which would grasp at every thing at +once by one despotic clutch, and by a violent bound of logic bestride and +beride the ALL, is, and remains, an oscillating abortion that always +would be something, and always can be nothing. A living, personal, moral +God, the faith of nations, the watch-word of tradition, the cry of +nature, the demand of mind, received not invented, existing in the soul +not reasoned into it--this is the gravitating point of the moral world, +the only intelligible centre of any world; from which whatsoever is +centrifugal errs, and to which whatsoever is opposed is the devil. + +Not private speculation, therefore, or famous philosophies of any kind, +but the living spiritual man, and the totality of the living flow of +sacred tradition on which he is borne, and with which he is encompassed, +are the two grand sources of "the philosophy of life." Let us follow these +principles, now, into a few of their wide-spread streams and multiform +historical branchings. First, the Bible clearly indicates what the +profoundest study of the earliest and most venerable literatures confirms, +that man was not created at first in a brutish state, crawling with a slow +and painful progress out of the dull slime of a half organic state into +apehood, and from apehood painfully into manhood; but he was created +perfect in the image of God, and has fallen from his primeval glory. This +is to be understood not only of the state of man before the Fall as +recorded in the two first chapters of Genesis; but every thing in the +Bible, and the early traditions of famous peoples, warrants us to believe, +that the first ages of men before the Flood, were spiritually enlightened +from one great common source of extraordinary aboriginal revelation; so +that the earliest ages of the world were not the most infantine and +ignorant to a comprehensive survey, as modern conceit so fondly imagines, +but the most gigantic and the most enlightened. That beautiful but +material and debasing heathenism, with which our Greek and Latin education +has made us so familiar, is only a defaced fragment of the venerable whole +which preceded it, that old and true heathenism of the holy aboriginal +fathers of our race. "There were GIANTS on the earth in those days." We +read this; but who believes it? We ought seriously to consider what it +means, and adopt it _bona fide_ into our living faith of man, and man's +history. Like the landscape of some Alpine country, where the primeval +granite Titans, protruding their huge shoulders every where above us and +around, make us feel how petty and how weak a thing is man; so ought our +imagination to picture the inhabitants of the world before the Flood. +Nobility precedes baseness always, and truth is more ancient than error. +Antediluvian man--antediluvian nature, is to be imaged as nobler in every +respect, more sublime and more pure than postdiluvian man, and +postdiluvian nature. But mighty energies, when abused, produce mighty +corruptions; hence the gigantic scale of the sins into which the +antediluvian men fell; and the terrible precipitation of humanity which +followed. This is a point of primary importance, in every attempt to +understand how to estimate the value of that world-famous Greek +philosophy, which is commonly represented as the crown and the glory of +the ancient world. All that Pythagoras and Plato ever wrote of noble and +elevating truths, are merely flashes of that primeval light, in the full +flood of which, man, in his more perfect antediluvian state, delighted to +dwell; and it is remarkable in the case of Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Thales, +and so many other of the Greek philosophers, that the further we trace +them back, we come nearer to the divine truth, which, in the systems of +Epicurus, Aristippus, Zeno, or the shallow or cold philosophers of later +origin, altogether disappears. Pythagoras and Plato were indeed divinely +gifted with a scientific presentiment of the great truths of Christianity +soon to be revealed, or say rather restored to the world; while Aristotle, +on the other hand, is to be regarded as the father of those unhappy +academical schismatics from the Great Church of living humanity, who +allowed the ministrant faculty of reason to assume an unlawful supremacy +over the higher powers of intellect, and gave birth to that voracious +despotism of barren dialectics, in the middle ages commonly called the +scholastic philosophy. The Greek philosophy, however, even its noblest +Avatar, Plato, much less in the case of a Zeno or an Aristotle, was never +able to achieve that which must be the practically proposed end of all +higher philosophy that is in earnest; viz. the coming out of the narrow +sphere of the school and the palaestra, uniting itself with actual life, +and embodying itself completely in the shape of that which we call a +CHURCH. This Platonism could not do. Christianity did it. Revelation did +it. God Incarnate did it. Now once again came humanity forth, fresh from +the bosom of the divine creativeness, conquering and to conquer. There was +no Aristotle and Plato--no Abelard and Bernard here--reason carping at +imagination, and imagination despising reason. But once, if but once in +four thousand years, man appeared in all the might of his living +completeness. Love walked hand in hand with knowledge, and both were +identified in life. The spirit of divine peace brooded in the inner +sanctuary of the heart, while the outer man was mailed for the sternest +warfare. Such was pure Christianity, so long as it lasted--for the +celestial plant was condemned to grow in a terrestrial atmosphere; and +there, alas! it could only grow with a stunted likeness of itself. It +was more than stunted also--it was tainted; for are not all things tainted +here? Do we not live in a tainted atmosphere? do we not live in a time out +of joint? Does not the whole creation literally groan? Too manifestly it +does, however natural philosophers may affect to speak of the book of +nature, as if it were the clear and uncorrupted text of the living book of +God. Not only man, but the whole environment of external nature, which +belongs to him, has been deranged by the Fall. In such a world as this, +wherein whoso will not believe a devil cannot believe a God, it was +impossible for Christianity to remain in that state of blissful vital +harmony with itself with which it set out. It became divided. Extravagant +developments of ambitious, monopolizing faculties became manifest on every +side. Self-sufficing Pelagianisn and Arianism, here; self-confounding +Gnosticism and Manichaeism there. Then came those two great strifes and +divisions of the middle ages--the one, that old dualism of the inner man, +the ever-repeated strife between reason and imagination, to which we have +so often alluded--the other, a no less serious strife of the outward +machinery of life, the strife between the spiritual and the temporal +powers, between the Pope and the Emperor. This was bad enough; that the +two vicars of God on earth should not know to keep the peace among +themselves, when the keeping of the peace among others was the very end +and aim of the appointment. But worse times were coming. For in the +middle ages, notwithstanding the rank evils of barren scholasticism, +secular-minded popes, and intrusive emperors, there was still a church, a +common Christian religion, a common faith of all Christians; but now, +since that anarchical and rebellious movement, commonly called the +Reformation, but more fitly termed the revolution, the overturning and +overthrowing of the religion of Christendom, we have no more a mere +internal strife and division to vex us, but there is an entire separation +and divorce of one part of the Christian church (so called) from the main +mother institution. The abode of peace has become the camp of war and the +arena of battles; that dogmatical theology of the Christian church, +which, if it be not the infallible pure mathematics of the moral world, +has been deceiving men for 1800 years, and is a liar--that theology is +now publicly discussed and denied, scorned and scouted by men who do not +blush to call themselves Christians; there is no universal peace any +longer to be found in that region where it is the instinct of humanity, +before all things, to seek repose; the only religious peace which the +present age recognises, is that of which the Indian talks, when he says +of certain epochs of the world's history, _Brahma sleeps_! Those who +sleep and are indifferent in spiritual matters find peace; but those who +are alive and awake must beat the wind, and battle, belike, with much +useless loss of strength, before they can arrive even at that first +postulate of all healthy thinking--there is a God. "_Ueber Gott werd ich +nie streiten_," said Herder. "About God I will never dispute." Yet look +at German rationalism, look at Protestant theology--what do you see +there? Reason usurping the mastery in each individual, without control of +the higher faculties of the soul, and of those institutions in life by +which those faculties are represented; and as one man's reason is as good +as another's, thence arises war of each self-asserted despotism against +that which happens to be next it, and of all against all--a spiritual +anarchy, which threatens the entire dissolution of the moral world, and +from which there is no refuge but in recurring to the old traditionary +faith of a revolted humanity, no redemption but in the venerable +repository of those traditions--the one and indivisible holy Catholic +church of Christ, of whom, as the inner and eternal keystone is God, so +the outer and temporal is the Pope. + +Such is a general outline of the philosophy of Frederick Schlegel--a +philosophy belonging to the class theological and supernatural, to the +genus Christian, to the species sacerdotal and Popish. Now, without +stopping here to blame its sublime generalities and beautiful confusions, +on the one hand, or to praise its elevated tendency, its catholic and +reconciling tone on the other, we shall merely call attention, in a single +sentence, physiologically, to its main and distinguishing character. It +was, in fact, (in spirit and tendency, though not in outward +accomplishment,) to German literature twenty years ago what Puseyism is +now to the English church--it was a bold and grand attempt to get rid of +those vexing doubts and disputes on the most important subjects that will +ever disquiet minds of a certain constitution, so long as they have +nothing to lean on but their own judgment; and as Protestantism, when +consistently carried out, summarily throws a man back on his individual +opinion, and subjects the vastest and most momentous questions to the +scrutiny of reason and the torture of doubt, therefore Schlegel in +literary Germany, and Pusey in ecclesiastical England, were equally +forced, if they would not lose Christianity altogether, to renounce +Protestantism, and to base their philosophy upon sacerdotal authority and +ecclesiastical tradition. That Schlegel became a Romanist at Cologne, and +Dr Pusey an Anglo-Catholic at Oxford, does not affect the kinship. Both, +to escape from the anarchy of Protestant individualism, (as it was felt by +them,) were obliged to assert not merely Christianity, but a +hierarchy--not merely the Bible, but an authoritative interpretation of +the Bible; and both found, or seemed to find, that authoritative +interpretation and exorcism of doubt there, where alone in their +circumstances, and intellectually constituted as they were, it was to be +found. Dr Pusey did not become a Papist like Frederick Schlegel, for two +plain reasons--first, because he was an Englishman, second, because he +was an English churchman. The authority which he sought for lay at his +door; why should he travel to Rome for it? Archbishop Laud had taught +apostolical succession before--Dr Pusey might teach it again. But this +convenient prop of Popery without the Pope was not prepared for Frederick +Schlegel. There was no Episcopal church, no Oxford in Germany, into whose +bosom he could throw himself, and find relief from the agony of religious +doubt. He was a German, moreover, and a philosopher. To his searching eye +and circumspective wariness, the general basis of tradition which might +satisfy a Pusey, though sufficiently broad, did not appear sure enough. +To his lofty architectural imagination a hierarchical aristocracy, +untopped by a hierarchical monarch, did not appear sufficiently sublime. +To his all-comprehending and all-combining historical sympathies, a +Christian priesthood, with Cyprian, Augustine, and Jerome, but without +Hildebrand, Innocent, and Boniface, would have presented the appearance +of a fair landscape, with a black yawning chasm in the middle, into which +whoever looked shuddered. Therefore Frederick Schlegel, spurning all half +measures, inglorious compromises, and vain attempts to reconcile the +irreconcilable, vaulted himself at once, with a bold leap, into the +central point of sacerdotal Christianity. The obstacles that would have +deterred ordinary minds had no effect on him. All points of detail were +sunk in the over-whelming importance of the general question. +Transubstantiation or consubstantiation, conception, maculate or +immaculate, were a matter of small moment with him. What he wanted was a +divinely commissioned church with sacred mysteries--a spiritual house of +refuge from the weary battle of intellectual east winds, blasting and +barren, with which he saw Protestant Germany desolated. This house of +refuge he found in Cologne, in Vienna; and having once made up his mind +that spiritual unity and peace were to be found only in the one mother +church of Christendom, not being one of those half characters who, +"making _I dare not_ wait upon _I would_," are continually weaving a net +of paltry external _no's_ to entangle the progress of every grand decided +_yes_ of the inner man, Schlegel did not for a moment hesitate to make +his thought a deed, and publicly profess his return to Romanism in the +face of enlightened and "ultra-Protestant" Germany. To do this certainly +required some moral courage; and no just judge of human actions will +refuse to sympathize with the motive of this one, however little he may +feel himself at liberty to agree with the result. + +But Frederick Schlegel, a well informed writer has said,[F] "became +Romanist in a way peculiar to himself, and had in no sense given up his +right of private judgment." We have not been able to see, from a careful +perusal of his works, (in all of which there is more or less of +theology,) that there is any foundation for this assertion of Varnhagen. +Frederick Schlegel, the German, was as honest and stout a Romanist in +this nineteenth century as any Spanish Ferdinand Catholicus in the +fifteenth. Freedom of speculation indeed, within certain known limits, +and spirituality of creed above what the meagre charity of some +Protestants may conceive possible in a Papist, we do find in this man; +but these good qualities a St Bernard, a Dante, a Savonarola, a Fenelon, +had exhibited in the Romish Church before Schlegel, and others as great +may exhibit them again. Freedom of thought, however, in the sense in +which it is understood by Protestants, was the very thing which Schlegel, +Goeres, Adam Mueller, and so many others, did give up when they entered the +Catholic Church. They felt as Wordsworth did when he wrote his beautiful +ode to "Duty;" they had more liberty than they knew how to use-- + + "Me this uncharter'd freedom tires; + I feel the weight of chance desires; + My hopes no more must change their name-- + I long for a repose that ever is the same." + +And if it seem strange to any one that Frederick Schlegel, the learned, +the profound, the comprehensive, should believe in Transubstantiation,[G] +let him look at a broader aspect of history than that of German books, +and ask himself--Did Isabella of Castile--the gentle, the noble, the +generous--establish the Inquisition, or allow Ximenes to establish it? In +a world which surrounds us on all sides with apparent contradictions, he +who admits a real one now and then into his faith, or into his practice, +is neither a fool nor a monster. + +[Footnote F: Varnhagen Von Ense, Rahel's Umgang, i. p. 227. "Er war +auf besondere Weise Katholisch, und hatte seine Geistesfreiheit dabei +gar nicht aufgegeben."] + +[Footnote G: The following is Schlegel's philosophy of +transubstantiation--"Though it be true, that in the Holy Scriptures, in +accordance with the symbolical nature of man, there is much that is +generally symbolical, and symbolically to be understood; yet when a +symbol proceeds immediately from God, it can in this case be nothing less +than substantial; it cannot be a mere sign, it must also be something +actual; otherwise it would be as if one would palm on the eternal LOGOS, +who is the ground of all existence and all knowledge, words without +meaning and without power. Quite natural, therefore, it must be regarded, +i.e. quite suitable to the nature of the thing, although _per se_ +certainly supernatural, and surpassing all comprehension, when that +highest symbol which forms the proper principle of unity, and the living +central point of Christianity, is perceived to possess this character, +that it is at once the sign and the thing signified. For now, that on the +high altar of divine love the one great sacrifice has been accomplished +for ever, and no flame more can rise from it save the inspiration of a +pure God-united will, that solemn act by which the bond formed between +the soul and God is from time to time revealed, can consist in nothing +else than this--that here the essential substance of the divine power and +the divine love is in all its lively fullness communicated to, and +received by man, as the miraculous sign of his union with +God."--_Philosophie des Lebene_, p. 376. On the logic of this remarkable +passage, those who are strong in Mill and Whately may decide; its +orthodoxy belongs to the consideration of the Tridentine doctors.] + +In his political opinions, Schlegel maintained the same grand consistency +that characterizes his religious philosophy. He had more sense, however, +and more of the spirit of Christian fraternity in him than, for the sake +of absolutism, to become a Turk or a Russian; nay, from some passages in +the _Concordia_--a political journal, published by him and his friend +Adam Mueller, in 1820, and quoted by Mr Robertson--it would almost appear +that he would have preferred a monarchy limited by states, conceived in +the spirit of the middle ages, to the almost absolute form of monarchical +government, under whose protection he lived and lectured at Vienna. To +some such constitution as that which now exists in Sweden, for instance, +we think he would have had no objections. At the same time, it is certain +he gave great offence to the constitutional party in Germany, by the +anti-popular tone of his writings generally, more perhaps than by any +special absolutist abuses which he had publicly patronized. He was, +indeed, a decided enemy to the modern system of representative +constitutions, and popular checks; a king by divine right according to +the idea of our English nonjurors, was as necessary a corner-stone to his +political, as a pope by apostolical succession to his ecclesiastical +edifice. And as no confessed corruption of the church, represented as it +might be by the monstrous brutality of a Borgia, or the military madness +of a Julius, was, in his view, sufficient to authorize any hasty Luther +to make a profane bonfire of a papal bull; any hot Henry to usurp the +trade of manufacturing creeds; so no "sacred right of insurrection," no +unflinching patriotic opposition, no claim of rights, (by petitioners +having _swords_ in their hands,) are admissible in his system of a +Christian state. And as for the British constitution, and "the glorious +Revolution of 1688," this latter, indeed, is one of the best of a bad +kind, and that boasted constitution as an example of a house divided +against itself, and yet _not_ falling, is a perfect miracle of dynamical +art, a lucky accident of politics, scarcely to be looked for again in the +history of social development, much less to be eagerly sought after and +ignorantly imitated. Nay, rather, if we look at this boasted constitution +a little more narrowly, and instruct ourselves as to its practical +working, what do we see? "Historical experience, the great teacher of +political science, manifestly shows that in these dynamical states, which +exist by the cunningly devised balance and counter-balance of different +powers, what is called governing is, in truth, a continual strife and +contention between the Ministry and the Opposition, who seem to delight +in nothing so much as in tugging and tearing the state and its resources +to pieces between them, while the hallowed freedom of the hereditary +monarch seems to serve only as an old tree, under whose shades the +contending parties may the more comfortably choose their ground, and +fight out their battles."[H] It is but too manifest, indeed, according to +Schlegel's projection of the universe, that all constitutionalism is, +properly speaking, a sort of political Protestantism, a fretful fever of +the social body, having its origin (like the religious epidemic of the +sixteenth century) in the private conceit of the individual, growing by +violence and strife, and ending in dissolution. This is the ever-repeated +refrain of his political discourses, puerile enough, it may be, to our +rude hearing in Britain, but very grateful to polite and patriotic ears +at Vienna, when the cannon of Wagram was yet sounding in audible echo +beneath their towers. The propounder of such philosophy had not only the +common necessity of all philosophers to pile up his political in majestic +consistency with his ecclesiastical creed, but he had also to pay back +the mad French liberalism with something more mad if possible, and more +despotic. And if also Danton, and Mirabeau, and Robespierre, and other +terrible Avatars of the destroying Siva in Paris, had raised his +naturally romantic temperament a little into the febrile and delirious +now and then, what wonder? Shall the devil walk the public streets at +noon day, and men not be afraid? + +[Footnote H: _Philosophie des Lebens_, p.407.] + +We said that Frederick Schlegel's philosophy, political and religious, but +chiefly religious, was the grand key to his popular work on the history of +literature. We may illustrate this now by a few instances. In the first +place, the "many-sided" Goethe seems to be as little profound as he is +charitable, when he sees nothing in the Sanscrit studies of the romantic +brothers but a _pis aller_, and a vulgar ambition to bring forward +something new, and make German men stare. We do not answer for the elder +brother; but Frederick certainly made the cruise to the east, as Columbus +did to the west, from a romantic spirit of adventure. He was not pleased +with the old world--he wished to find a new world more to his mind, and, +beyond the Indus, he found it. The Hindoos to him were the Greeks of the +aboriginal world--"_diese Griechen der Urwelt_"--and so much better and +more divine than the western Greeks, as the aboriginal world was better +and more divine than that which came after it. If imagination was the +prime, the creative faculty in man, here, in the holy Eddas, it had sat +throned for thousands of years as high as the Himalayas. If repose was +sought for, and rest to the soul from the toil and turmoil of religious +wars in Europe, here, in the secret meditations of pious Yooges, waiting +to be absorbed into the bosom of Brahma, surely peace was to be found. +Take another matter. Why did Frederick Schlegel make so much talk of the +middle ages? Why were the times, so dark to others, instinct to him with a +steady solar effluence, in comparison of which the boasted enlightenment +of these latter days was but as the busy exhibition of squibs by +impertinent boys, the uncertain trembling of fire-flies in a dusky +twilight? The middle ages were historically the glory of Germany; and +those who had lived to see and to feel the Confederation of the Rhine, and +the Protectorate of Napoleon, did not require the particular predilections +of a Schlegel to carry them back with eager reaction to the days of the +Henries, the Othos, and the Fredericks, when to be the German emperor was +to be the greatest man in Europe, after the Pope. But to Schlegel the +middle ages were something more. The glory of Germany to the patriot, they +were the glory of Europe to the thinker. Modern wits have laughed at the +enthusiasm of the Crusades. Did they weep over the perfidy of the +partition of Poland? Do they really trust themselves to persuade a +generous mind that the principle of mutual jealousy and mere selfishness, +the meagre inspiration of the so called balance of power in modern +politics, is, according to any norm of nobility in action, a more laudable +motive for a public war, than a holy zeal against those who were at once +the enemies of Christ, and (as future events but too clearly showed) the +enemies of Europe? Modern wits sneer at the scholastic drivelling or the +cloudy mistiness of the writers of the middle ages. Did they ever blush +for the impious baseness of Helvetius, for the portentous scaffolding of +notional skeletons in Hegel? But, alas! we talk of we know not what. What +spectacle does modern life present equal to that of St Bernard, the pious +monk of Clairvaux, the feeble, emaciated thinker, brooding, with his +dove-like eyes, ("_oculos columbinos_,") over the wild motions of the +twelfth century, and by the calm might of divine love, guiding the +sceptre of the secular king, and the crosier of the spiritual pontiff +alike? Was that a weak or a dark age, when the strength of mind and the +light of love could triumph so signally over brute force, and that +natural selfishness of public motive which has achieved its cold, +glittering triumphs in the lives of so many modern heroes and heroines--a +Louis, a Frederick, a Catharine, a Napoleon? But indeed here, as +elsewhere, we see that the modern world has fallen altogether into a +practical atheism by the idolatry of mere reason; whereas all true +greatness comes not down from the head, but up from the heart of man. In +which greatness of the heart, the Bernards and the Barbarossas of the +middle ages excelled; and therefore they were better than we. + +It is by no means necessary for the admirer of Schlegel to maintain that +all this eulogium of the twelfth century, or this depreciation of the +times we live in, is just and well-merited. Nothing is more cheap than to +praise a pretty village perched far away amid the blue skies, and to rail +at the sharp edges and corners of things that fret against our ribs. Let +it be admitted that there is not a little of artistical decoration, and a +great deal of optical illusion, in the matter; still there is some truth, +some great truth, that lay in comparative neglect till Schlegel brought it +into prominency. This is genuine literary merit; it is that sort of +discovery, so to speak, which makes criticism original. And it was not +merely with the bringing forward of new materials, but by throwing new +lights on the old, that Frederick Schlegel enriched aesthetical science. +If the criticism of the nineteenth century may justly boast of a more +catholic sympathy, of a wider flight, of a more comprehensive view, and +more various feast than that which it superseded, it owes this, with +something that belongs to the spirit of the age generally, chiefly to the +special captainship of Frederick Schlegel. If the grand spirit of +combination and comprehension which distinguishes the "Lectures on Ancient +and Modern Literature," be that quality which mainly distinguishes the so +called Romantic from the Classical school of aesthetics, then let us +profess ourselves Romanticists by all means immediately; for the one seems +to include the other as the genus does the species. The beauty of +Frederick Schlegel is, that his romance arches over every thing like a +sky, and excludes nothing; he delights indeed to override every thing +despotically, with one dominant theological and ecclesiastical idea, and +now and then, of course, gives rather a rough jog to whatever thing may +stand in his way; but generally he seeks about with cautious, +conscientious care to find room for every thing; and for a wholesale +dealer in denunciation (as in some views we cannot choose but call him) is +really the most kind, considerate, and charitable Aristarchus that ever +wielded a pen. Hear what Varnhagen Von Ense says on this point--"The +inward character of this man, the fundamental impulses of his nature, the +merit or the results of his intellectual activity, have as yet found none +to describe them in such a manner as he has often succeeded in describing +others. It is not every body's business to attempt an anatomy and +re-combination of this kind. One must have courage, coolness, profound +study, wide sympathies, and a free comprehensiveness, to keep a steady +footing and a clear eye in the midst of this gigantic, rolling +conglomeration of contradictions, eccentricities, and singularities of +all kinds. Here every sort of demon and devil, genius and ghost, Lucinde +and Charlemagne, Alarcos, Maria, Plato, Spinoza and Bonald, Goethe +consecrated and Goethe condemned, revolution and hierarchy, reel about +restlessly, come together, and, what is the strangest thing of all, do +_not_ clash. For Schlegel, however many Protean shapes he might assume, +never cast away any thing that had ever formed a substantial element in +his intellectual existence, but found an _advocatus Dei_ to plead always +with a certain reputable eloquence even for the most unmannerly of them; +and with good reason too, for in his all-appropriating and curiously +combining soul, there did exist a living connexion between the most +apparently contradictory of his ideas. To point out this connexion, to +trace the secret thread of unity through the most distant extremes, to +mark the delicate shade of transition from one phasis of intellectual +development to another, to remove, at every doubtful point, the veil and +to expose the substance, that were a problem for the sagacity of no +common critic."[I] We take the hint. It is not every Byron that finds a +Goethe to take him to pieces and build him up again, and peruse him and +admire him, as Cuvier did the Mammoth. Those who feel an inward vocation +to do so by Schlegel may yet do so in Germany; if there be any in these +busy times, even there, who may have leisure to applaud such a work. To +us in Britain it may suffice to have essayed to exhibit the fruit and the +final results, without attempting curiously to dissect the growth of +Schlegel's criticism. + +[Footnote I: RAHEL'S _Umgang_. FRIEDRICH VON SCHLEGEL, vol. i. p. 325.] + +The outward fates of this great critic's life may be found, like every +thing else, in the famous "Conversations Lexicon;" but as very few +readers of these remarks, or students of the history of ancient and +modern literature, may be in a condition to refer to that most useful +Cyclopaedia of literary reference, we may here sketch the main lines of +Schlegel's biography from the sources supplied by Mr Robertson,[J] in the +preface to his excellent translation of the "Lectures on the philosophy +of history." Whatever we take from a different source will be distinctly +noted. + +[Footnote J: The authorities given by Mr Robertson are, (1.) _La +Biographie des Vivans, Paris_. (2.) An article for July 1829, in the +French _Globe_, apparently an abridgement of the account of Schlegel in +the Conversations Lexicon. (3.) A fuller and truer account of the author, +in a French work published several years ago at Paris, entitled "Memoirs +of distinguished Converts." (4.) Some facts in _Le Catholique_, a +journal, edited at Paris from 1826 to 1829, by Schlegel's friend, the +Baron d'Echstein.] + +The brothers Schlegel belonged to what Frederick in his lectures calls the +third generation of modern German literature. The whole period from 1750 +to 1800, being divided into three generations, the first comprehends all +those whose period of greatest activity falls into the first decade, from +1750 to 1760, and thereabout. Its chief heroes are Wieland, Klopstock, and +Lessing. These men of course were all born before the year 1730. The +second generation extends from 1770 to 1790, and thereabouts, and presents +a development, which stands to the first in the relation of summer to +spring--Goethe and Schiller are the two names by which it will be sent +down to posterity. Of these the one was born in 1749, and the other in +1759. Then follows that third generation to which Schlegel himself +belongs, and which is more generally known in literary history as the era +of the Romantic school--a school answering both in chronology, and in many +points of character also, to what we call the Lake school in England. +Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey, are contemporaries of Tieck, Novalis, +and the Schlegels. Their political contemporaries are Napoleon and +Wellington. The event which gave a direction to their literary +development, no less decidedly than it did to the political history of +Europe, was the French Revolution. Accordingly, we find that all these +great European characters--for so they all are more or less--made the +all-important passage from youth into manhood during the ferment of the +years that followed that ominous date, 1789. This coincidence explains the +celebrity of the famous biographical year 1769--Walter Scott was born in +that year, Wellington and Napoleon, as every body knows--and the elder +Aristarchus of the Romantic school, _the_ translator of Shakspeare, +Augustus William Von Schlegel was born in 1767. At Hanover, five years +later, was born his brother Frederick, that is to say, in May 1772, and +our Coleridge in the same year--and to carry on the parallel for another +year, Ludwig Tieck, Henry Steffens, and Novalis, were all born in 1773. +These dates are curious; when taken along with the great fact of the +age--the French Revolution--they may serve to that family likeness which +we have noted in characterizing the Romanticists in Germany and the Lake +school in England. When Coleridge here was dreaming of America and +Pantisocracy, Frederick Schlegel was studying Plato, and scheming +republics there.[K] In the first years of his literary career Schlegel +devoted himself chiefly to classical literature; and between 1794 and +1797 published several works on Greek and Roman poetry and philosophy, +the substance of which was afterwards concentrated into the four first +lectures on the history of literature. About this time he appears to have +lived chiefly by his literary exertions--a method of obtaining a +livelihood very precarious, (as those know best who have tried it,) and +to men of a turn of mind more philosophical than popular, even in +philosophical Germany, exceedingly irksome. Schlegel felt this as deeply +as poor Coleridge--"to live by literature," says he, in one of those +letters to Rahel from which we have just quoted--"is to me _je laenger je +unertraeglicher_--the longer I try it the more intolerable." Happily, to +keep him from absolute starvation, he married the daughter of Moses +Mendelsohn, the Jewish philosopher, who, it appears, had a few pence in +her pocket, but not many;[L] and between these, and the produce of his +own pen, which could move with equal facility in French as in German, he +managed not merely to keep himself and his wife alive, but to transport +himself to Paris in the year 1802, and remain there for a year or two, +laying the foundation for that oriental evangel which, in 1808, he +proclaimed to his countrymen in the little book, _Ueber die Sprache und +Weisheit der Indier_. Meanwhile, in the year 1805, he had returned from +France to his own Germany--alas, then about to be _one_ Germany no more! +And while the sun of Austerlitz was rising brightly on the then Emperor +of France, and soon to be protector of the Rhine, the future secretary of +the Archduke Charles, and literary evangelist of Prince Metternich, was +prostrating himself before the three holy kings, and swearing fealty to +the shade of Charlemagne in Catholic Cologne. There were some men in +those days base enough to impeach the purity of Schlegel's motives in the +public profession thus made of the old Romish faith. Such men wherever +they are to be found now or then, ought to be whipped out of the world. +If mere worldly motives could have had any influence on such a mind, the +gates of Berlin were as open to him as the gates of Vienna. As it was, +not wishing to expatriate himself, like Winkelmann, he had nowhere to go +to but Vienna; in those days, indeed, mere patriotism and Teutonic +feeling, (in which the Romantic school was never deficient,) +independently altogether of Popery, could lead him nowhere else. To +Vienna, accordingly, he went; and Vienna is not a place--whatever +Napoleon, after Mack's affair, might say of the "stupid Austrians"--where +a man like Schlegel will ever be neglected. Prince Metternich and the +Archduke Charles had eyes in their head; and with the latter, therefore, +we find the great Sanscrit scholar marching to share the glory of Aspern +and the honour of Wagram; while the former afterwards decorated him with +what of courtly remuneration, in the shape of titles and pensions, it is +the policy alike and the privilege of politicians to bestow on poets and +philosophers who can do them service. Nay, with some diplomatic missions +and messages to Frankfurt also, we find the Romantic philosopher +entrusted and even in the great European Congress of Vienna in 1815, he +appears exhibiting himself, in no undignified position, alongside of +Gentz, Cardinal Gonsalvi, and the Prince of Benevento.[M] We are not to +imagine, however, from this, either that the comprehensive philosopher of +history had any peculiar talent for practical diplomacy, or that he is to +be regarded as a thorough Austrian in politics. For the nice practical +problems of diplomacy, he was perhaps the very worst man in the world; +and what Varnhagen states in the place just referred to, that Schlegel +was, what we should call in England, far too much of a high churchman for +Prince Metternich, is only too manifest from the well-known +ecclesiastical policy of the Austrian government, contrasted as it is +with the ultramontane and Guelphic views propounded by the Viennese +lecturer in his philosophy of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. +Frederick Schlegel wished to see the state, with relation to the church, +in the attitude that Frederick Barbarossa assumed before Alexander III. +at Venice--kneeling, and holding the stirrup. + + "An emperor tramples where an emperor knelt." + +Joseph II., in his estimation, had inverted the poles of the moral world, +making the state supreme, and the church subordinate--that degrading +position, which the Non-intrusionsts picture to themselves when they talk +of ERASTIANISM, and which Schlegel would have denominated +simply--PROTESTANTISM. + +[Footnote K: "_Das republikanishe Werk erscheint gewiss nicht vor Zwei +Jahren_."--Letters to Rahel--1802. Varnhagen, as above. Vol. I. p. 234.] + +[Footnote L: "_Das kleine Vermogen meiner Frau_."--Letters to Rahel. +Paris: 1803.] + +[Footnote M: _Das Wiener Congress_ in 1814-15, by VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, in +the fifth volume of his _Denkwuerdigkeiten_, p. 51. By the way here, Mr +Robertson in his list of famous Catholics in Germany, (p. 19,) includes +Gentz. Now, Varnhagen, who knew well, says that Gentz was only +politically an Austrian, and always remained Protestant in his religious +opinions; which is doubtless the fact.] + +During his long residence at Vienna, from 1806 to 1828, Schlegel +delivered four courses of public lectures in the following +order:--One-and-twenty lectures on Modern History,[N] delivered in the +year 1810; sixteen lectures on Ancient and Modern Literature, delivered +in the spring of 1812, fifteen lectures on the Philosophy of Life, +delivered in 1827; and lastly, eighteen lectures on the Philosophy of +History, delivered in 1828. Of these, the Philosophy of life contains the +theory, as the lectures on literature and on history do the application, +of Schlegel's catholic and combining system of human intellect, and, +altogether, they form a complete and consistent body of Schlegelism. +Three works more speculatively complete, and more practically useful in +their way, the production of one consistent architectural mind, are, in +the history of literature, not easily to be found. + +[Footnote N: _Ueber die neuere Geschichte Vorlesungen gehalten zu Wien im +Jahre 1810; Wien, 1811_.] + +Towards the close of the year 1828, Schlegel repaired to Dresden, a city +endeared to him by the recollections of enthusiastic juvenile studies. +Here he delivered nine lectures _Ueber die Philosophie der Sprache, und +des Worts_, on the Philosophy of Language, a work which the present writer +laments much that he has not seen; as it is manifest that the prominency +given in Schlegel's Philosophy of Life above sketched to living experience +and primeval tradition, must, along with his various accomplishments as a +linguist, have eminently fitted him for developing systematically the high +significance of human speech. On Sunday the 11th January 1829, he was +engaged in composing a lecture which was to be delivered on the following +Wednesday, and had just come to the significant words--"_Das ganz +vollendete und voll-kommene Verstehen selbst, aber_"--"The perfect and +complete understanding of things, however"--when the mortal palsy suddenly +seized his hand, and before one o'clock on the same night he had ceased to +philosophize. The words with which his pen ended its long and laborious +career, are characteristic enough, both of the general imperfection of +human knowledge, and of the particular quality of Schlegel's mind. The +Germans have a proverb:--"_Alles waere gut waere kein ABER dabei_"--"every +thing would be good were it not for an ABER--for a HOWEVER--for a BUT." +This is the general human vice that lies in that significant ABER. But +Schlegel's part in it is a virtue--one of his greatest virtues--a +conscientious anxiety never to state a general proposition in philosophy, +without, at the same time, stating in what various ways the eternal truth +comes to be limited and modified in practice. Great, indeed, is the virtue +of a Schlegelian ABER. Had it not been for that, he would have had his +place long ago among the vulgar herds of erudite and intellectual +dogmatists. + +Heinrich Steffens, a well-known literary and scientific character in +Germany, in his personal memoirs recently published,[O] describes +Frederick Schlegel, at Jena in 1798, as "a remarkable man, slenderly +built, but with beautiful regular features, and a very intellectual +expression"--(_im hoechsten Grade gisntreich_.) In his manner there was +something remarkably calm and cool, almost phlegmatic. He spoke with +great slowness and deliberation, but often with much point, and a great +deal of reflective wit. He was thus a thorough German in his temperament; +so at least as Englishmen and Frenchmen, of a more nimble blood, delight +to picture the Rhenish Teut, not always in the most complimentary +contrast with themselves. As it is, his merit shines forth only so much +the more, that being a German of the Germans, he should by one small +work, more of a combining than of a creative character, have achieved an +European reputation and popularity with a certain sphere, that bids fair +to last for a generation or two, at least, even in this book-making age. +Such an earnest devotedness of research; such a gigantic capacity of +appropriation, such a kingly faculty of comprehension, will rarely be +found united in one individual. The multifarious truths which the noble +industry of such a spirit either evolved wisely or happily disposed, will +long continue to be received as a welcome legacy by our studious youth; +and as for his errors in a literary point of view, and with reference to +British use, practically considered they are the mere breadth of +fantastic colouring, which, being removed, does not destroy the drawing. + +[Footnote O: _Was Ich Erlebte_, von HEINRICH STEFFENS. Breslau, 1840-2. +Vol. iv. p. 303.] + + + * * * * * + + + + +MARSTON; OR THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. + + +PART IV. + + "Have I not in my time hear lions roar? + Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind, + Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat? + Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, + And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies? + Have I not in the pitched battle heard + Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?" + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +What that residence and Brighton have since become, is familiar to the +world--the one an oriental palace, and the other an English city. But at +this time all that men saw in the surrounding landscape was almost as it +had been seen by our forefathers the Picts and Saxons. I found the prince +standing, with four or five gentlemen of distinguished appearance, under +the veranda which shaded the front of the cottage from the evening sun. +The day had been one of that sultry atmosphere in which autumn sometimes +takes its leave of us, and the air from the sea was now delightfully +refreshing. The flowers, clustered in thick knots over the little lawn, +were raising their languid heads, and breathing their renewed fragrance. +All was sweetness and calmness. The sunlight, falling on the amphitheatre +of hills, and touching them with diversities of colour as it fell on their +various heights and hollows, gave the whole a glittering and fantastic +aspect; while the total silence, and absence of all look of life, except +an occasional curl of smoke from some of the scattered cottages along the +beach; with the magnificent expanse of the ocean bounding all, smooth and +blue as a floor of lapis-lazuli, completed the character of a scene which +might have been in fairyland. + +The prince, whose politeness was undeviating to all, came forward to meet +me at once, introduced me to his circle, and entered into conversation; +the topic was his beautiful little dwelling. + +"You see, Mr Marston," said he, "we live here like hermits, and in not +much more space. I give myself credit for having made the discovery of +this spot. I dare say, the name of Brighthelmstone may have been in the +journal of some voyager to unknown lands, but I believe I have the honour +of being the first who ever made it known in London." + +I fully acknowledged the taste of his discovery. + +"Why," said he, "it certainly is not the taste of Kew, whose chief +prospect is the ugliest town on the face of the earth, and whose chief +zephyrs are the breath of its brew houses and lime-kilns. Hampton Court +has always reminded me of a monastery, which I should never dream of +inhabiting unless I put on the gown of a monk. St James's still looks the +hospital that it once was. Windsor is certainly a noble +structure--Edward's mile of palaces--but that residence is better +tenanted than by a subject. While, here I have found a desert, it is +true; but as the poet says or sings-- + +'I am monarch of all I survey.'" + +"Yes," I observed. "But still a desert highly picturesque, and capable of +cultivation." + +"Oh! I hope not," he answered laughingly. "The first appearance of +cultivation would put me to flight at once. Fortunately, cultivation is +almost impossible. The soil almost totally prohibits tillage, the sea air +prohibits trees, the shore prohibits trade, nothing can live here but a +fisherman or a shrimp, and thus I am secure against the invasion of all +_improvers_. W----, come here, and assist me to cure Mr Marston of his +skepticism on the absolute impossibility of our ever being surrounded by +London brick and mortar." + +A man of a remarkably graceful air bowed to the call, and came towards us. + +"W----," said the prince, "comfort me, by saying that no man can be +citizenized in this corner of the world." + +"It is certainly highly improbable," was the answer. "And yet, when we +know John Bull's variety of tastes, and heroic contempt of money in +indulging them, such things may be. I lately found one of my country +constituents the inhabitant of a very pretty villa--which he had built, +too, for himself--in Sicily; and of all places, in the Val di Noto, the +most notorious spot in the island, or perhaps on the earth, for all kinds +of desperadoes--the very haunt of Italian smugglers, refugee Catalonians, +expert beyond all living knaves in piracy, and African renegades. Yet +there sat my honest and fat-cheeked friend, with Aetna roaring above him; +declaiming on liberty and property, as comfortably as if he could not be +shot for the tenth of a sixpence, or swept off, chattels and all, at the +nod of an Algerine. No, sir. If the whim takes the Londoner, you will have +him down here without mercy. To the three per cents nothing is +impossible." + +"Well, well," said the good-humoured prince, "that cannot happen for +another hundred years; and in the mean time my prospect will never be shut +out. Let them build, or pull down the pyramids, if they will. The tide of +city wealth will never roll through this valley; the noise of city life +will never fill those quiet fields; the smoke of an insurrection of city +hovels will never mingle with the freshness of such an evening as this. +Here, at all events, I have spent half a dozen of the pleasantest years of +my existence, and here, if I should live so long, I might spend the next +fifty, notwithstanding your prophecies, W----, as far from London, except +in the mere matter of miles, as if I had fixed myself in a valley of the +Crimea." + +His royal highness was clever, but he was no prophet, more than other men. +Need I say that London found him out within the tenth part of his fifty +years; instead of suffering him to escape, compelled him to build: and, +after the outlay of a quarter of a million, shut him up within his own +walls, like the giant of the Arabian tales in a bottle--His village a huge +suburb of the huge metropolis; his lawn surrounded by a circumvallation of +taverns and toyshops; the sea invisible; and the landscape scattered over +with prettinesses of architecture created by the wealth of Cheapside, and +worthy of all the caprices of all the tourists of this much travelled +world. + +But simple as was the exterior of the cottage, all within was costliness, +so far as it can be united with elegance. Later days somewhat impaired the +taste of this accomplished man, and he sought in splendour what was only +to be found in grace. But here, every decoration, from the ceiling to the +floor, exhibited the simplicity of refinement. A few busts of his public +friends, a few statues of the patriots of antiquity, and a few pictures of +the great political geniuses of Europe--among which the broad forehead and +powerful eye of Machiavel were conspicuous--showed at a glance that we +were under the roof of a political personage. Even the figures in chased +silver on the table were characteristic of this taste. A Timoleon, a +Brutus, and a Themistocles, incomparably classic, stood on the plateau; +and a rapier which had belonged to Doria, and a sabre which had been worn +by Castruccio, hung on either side of the mantelpiece. The whole had a +republican tendency, but it was republicanism in gold and +silver--mother-of-pearl republicanism--the Whig principle embalmed in +Cellini chalices and porcelain of Frederic le Grand. Fortunately the +conversation did not turn upon home politics. It wandered lightly through +all the pleasanter topics of the day; slight ventilations of public +character, dexterous allusions to anecdotes which none but the initiated +could understand; and the general easy intercourse of well-bred men who +met under the roof of another well-bred man to spend a few hours as +agreeably as they could. The prince took his full share in the gaiety of +the evening; and I was surprised to find at once so remarkable a +familiarity with the classics, whose sound was scarcely out of my college +ears; and with those habits of the humbler ranks, which could have so +seldom come to his personal knowledge. To his exterior, nature had been +singularly favourable. His figure, though full, still retained all the +activity and grace of youth; his features, though by no means regular, +had a general look of manly beauty, and his smile was cordiality itself. +I have often since heard him praised for supreme elegance; but his manner +was rather that of a man of great natural good-humour, who yet felt his +own place in society, and of that degree of intelligence which qualified +him to enjoy the wit and talents of others, without suffering a sense of +inferiority. Among those at table were C---- and H----, names well known +in the circles of Devonshire House; Sir P---- F----, who struck me at +first sight by his penetrating physiognomy, and who was even then +suspected of being the author of that most brilliant of all libels, +Junius; W----, then in the flower of life, and whose subtilty and whim +might be seen in his fine forehead and volatile eyes; some others, whose +names I did not know, and among them one of low stature, but of +singularly animated features. He was evidently a military man, and of the +Sister Isle, a prime favourite with the prince and every body; and I +think a secretary in the prince's household. He had just returned from +Paris; and as French news was then the universal topic, he took an ample +share in the conversation. The name of La Fayette happening to be +mentioned, as then carrying every thing before him in France-- + +"I doubt his talents," said the prince. + +"I more doubt his sincerity," said W----. + +"I still more doubt whether this day three months he will have his head on +his shoulders," said Sir P----. + +"None can doubt his present popularity," said the secretary. + +"At all events," said his highness, "I cannot doubt that he has wit, which +in France was always something, and now, in the general crash of pedigree, +is the only thing. Any man who could furnish the Parsans with a _bon-mot_ +a-day, would have a strong chance of succeeding to the throne in the +probable vacancy." + +"A case has just occurred in point," said the secretary. "Last week La +Fayette had a quarrel with a battalion of the National Guard on the +subject of drill; they considering the manual exercise as an infringement +of the Rights of Man. The general being of the contrary opinion, a +deputation of corporals, for any thing higher would have looked too +aristocratic, waited on him at the quarters of his staff in the Place +Vendome, to demand--his immediate resignation. On further enquiry, he +ascertained that all the battalions, amounting to thirty thousand men, +were precisely of the same sentiments. Next morning happened to have been +appointed for a general review of the National Guard. La Fayette appeared +on the ground as commandant at the head of his staff, and after a gallop +along the line, suddenly alighted from his horse, and taking a musket on +his shoulder, to the utter astonishment of every body walked direct into +the centre of the line, and took post in the ranks. Of course all the +field-officers flew up to learn the reason. 'Gentlemen,' said he, 'I am +tired of receiving orders as commander-in-chief, and that I may _give_ +them, I have become a _private_, as you see.' The announcement was +received with a shout of merriment; and, as in France a pleasantry would +privilege a man to set fire to a church, the general was cheered on all +sides, was remounted and the citizen army, suspending the 'Rights of Man' +for the day, proceeded to march and manoeuvre according to the drill +framed by despots and kings." + +"Well done, La Fayette," said the prince, "I did not think that there was +so much in him. To be sure, to have one's neck in danger--for the next +step to deposing would probably be to hang him--might sharpen a man's wits +a good deal." + +"Yes," said Sir P----, "so many live by their wits in Paris, that even the +marquis of the mob might have his chance; but a bon-mot actually saved, +within these few days, one even so obnoxious as a bishop from being _sus. +per coll_. In the general system of purifying the church by hanging the +priests, the rabble of the Palais Royal seized the Bishop of Autun, and +were proceeding to treat him 'a la lanterne' as an aristocrat. It must be +owned that the lamps in Paris, swinging by ropes across the streets, offer +really a very striking suggestion for giving a final lesson in politics. +It was night, and the lamp was trimmed. They were already letting it down +for the bishop to be its successor; when he observed, with the coolness of +a spectator--'Gentlemen, if I am to take the place of that lamp, it does +not strike me that the street will be better lighted.' The whimsicality of +the idea caught them at once; a bishop for a _reverbere_ was a new idea; +they roared with laughter at the conception, and bid him go home for a +'_bon enfant_!'" + +"I cannot equal the La Fayette story," said C----, "but I remember one not +unlike it, when the Duke of Rutland was Irish viceroy. Charlemont was +reviewing a brigade of his volunteers when he found a sudden stop in one +of the movements, a troop of cavalry on a flank: choosing to exhibit a +will of their own in an extraordinary way. If the brigade advanced, they +halted; if it halted, they advanced. The captain bawled in vain. +Aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp was sent to enquire the cause; they all +came back roaring with laughter. At length Charlemont, rather irritated +by the ridicule of the display, rode down the line and desired the +captain to order them to move; not a man stirred; they were as immovable +as a wall of brass. He then took the affair upon himself; and angrily +asked, 'if they meant to insult him.' 'Not a bit of it, my lord,' cried +out all the Paddies together. 'But we are not on _speaking terms_ with +the captain.'" + +"How perfectly I can see Charlemont's countenance at that capital answer: +his fastidious look turning into a laugh, and the real dignity of the man +forced to give way to his national sense of ridicule. Is there any hope of +his coming over this season, C----?" asked the prince. + +"Not much. He talks in his letters of England, as a man married to a +termagant might talk of his first love--hopeless regrets, inevitable +destiny, and so forth. He is bound to Ireland, and she treats him as +Catharine treated Petruchio before marriage. But he has not the whip of +Petruchio, nor perhaps the will, since the knot has been tied. He is only +one of the many elegant and accomplished Irishmen who have done just the +same--who find some strange spell in the confusions of a country full of +calamities; prefer clouds to sunshine, and complain of their choice all +their lives." + +"Yes," said W----. "It is like the attempt to put a coat and trousers on +the American Indian. The hero flings them off on the first opportunity, +takes to his plumes and painted skin, and prefers being tomahawked in a +swamp to dying in a feather-bed like a gentleman!" + +"Or," said the prince, "as Goldsmith so charmingly expresses it of the +Swiss--to whom, however, it is much less applicable than his own +countrymen-- + + 'For as the babe, whom rising storms molest, + Clings but the closer to his mother's breast, + So the rude whirlwind and the tempest's roar + But bind him to his native mountains more.'" + +My story next came upon the _tapis_; and the sketch of my capture by the +free-traders was listened to with polite interest. + +"Very possibly I may have some irregular neighbours," was the prince's +remark. "But, it must be confessed, that I am the intruder on their +domain, not they on mine; and, if I were plundered, perhaps I should have +not much more right to complain, than a whale-catcher has of being swamped +by a blow of the tail, or a man fond of law being forced to pay a bill of +costs." + +"On the contrary," said the secretary, "I give them no slight credit for +their forbearance; for the sacking of this cottage would, probably, be an +easier exploit than beating off a revenue cruiser, and the value of their +prize would be worth many a successful run. I make it a point never to go +to war with the multitude. I had a little lesson on the subject myself, +within the week, in Paris"-- + +An attendant here brought in a letter for the prince, which stopped the +narrative. The prince honoured the letter with a smile. + +"It is from Devonshire House," said he--"a very charming woman the +Duchess; just enough of the woman to reconcile us to the wit, and just +enough of the wit to give poignancy to the woman. She laughingly says she +is growing 'heartless, harmless, and old.' What a pity that so fine a +creature should grow any of the three!" + +"There is no great fear of that," observed Sir P----, "if it is to be left +to her Grace's own decision. There is no question in the world on which a +fine woman is more deliberate in coming to a conclusion." + +"Well, well," said the prince; "_she_, at least, is privileged. Diamonds +never grow old." + +"They may require a little resetting now and then, however," said I. + +"Yes, perhaps; but it is only once in a hundred years. If they sparkle +during one generation, what can _we_ ask more? Her Grace tells me an +excellent hit--the last flash of my old friend Selwyn. It happens that +Lady ----"--another fine woman was mentioned--"has looked rather distantly +upon her former associates since her husband was created a marquis. 'I +enquired the other day,' says the duchess, 'for a particular friend of +hers, the wife of an earl.' 'I have not seen her for a long time,' was the +answer. Selwyn whispered at the moment, I dare say, long enough--she has +not seen her since the _creation_.'" + +"If Selwyn," said Sir P----, "had not made such a trade of wit; if he had +not been such a palpable machine for grinding every thing into _bons-mots_; +if his distillation of the dross of common talk into the spirit of +pleasantry were less tardy and less palpable; I should have allowed him to +be"-- + +"What?" asked some one from the end of the table. + +"Less a _bore than he was_," was the succinct answer. + +"For my part," said the prince, "I think that old George was amusing to +the last. He had great observation of oddity, and, you will admit, that he +had no slight opportunities; for he was a member of, I believe, every club +for five miles round St James's. But he _was_ slow. Wit should be like a +pistol-shot; a flash and a hit, and both best when they come closest +together. Still, he was a fragment of an age gone by, and I prize him as I +should a piece of pottery from Herculaneum; its use past away, but its +colours not extinguished, and, though altogether valueless at the time, +curious as the _beau reste_ of a pipkin of antiquity." + +"Sheridan," observed C----, "amounts, in my idea, to a perfect wit, at +once keen and polished; nothing of either violence or virulence--nothing +of the sabre or the saw; his weapon is the stiletto, fine as a needle, yet +it strikes home." + +"_Apropos_," said the prince, "does any one know whether there is to be a +debate this evening? He was to have dined here. What can have happened to +him?" + +"What always happens to him," said one of the party; "he has postponed +it. Ask Sheridan for Monday at seven, and you will have him next week on +Tuesday at eight. 'Procrastination is the thief of time,' to him more +than, I suppose, any other man living." + +"At all events," said H----, "it is the only thief that Sheridan has to +fear. His present condition defies all the skill of larceny. He is +completely in the position of Horace's traveller--he might sing in a +forest of felons." + +At this moment the sound of a post-chaise was heard rushing up the avenue, +and Sheridan soon made his appearance. He was received by the prince with +evident gladness, and by all the table with congratulations on his having +arrived at all. He was abundant in apologies; among the rest "his carriage +had broken down halfway--he had been compelled to spend the morning with +Charles Fox--he had been subpoenaed on the trial of one of the Scottish +conspirators--he had been summoned on a committee of a contested +election." The prince smiled sceptically enough at this succession of +causes to produce the single effect of being an hour behind-hand. + +"The prince bows at every new excuse," said H---- at my side, "as Boileau +took off his hat at every plagiarism in his friend's comedy--on the score +of old acquaintance. If one word of all this is true, it may be the +breaking down of his post-chaise, and even that he probably broke down for +the sake of the excuse. Sheridan could not walk from the door to the +dinner-table without a stratagem." + +I had now, for the first time, an opportunity of seeing this remarkable +man. He was then in the prime of life, his fame, and of his powers. His +countenance struck me at a glance, as the most characteristic that I had +ever seen. Fancy may do much, but I thought that I could discover in his +physiognomy every quality for which he was distinguished: the pleasantry +of the man of the world, the keen observation of the great dramatist, and +the vividness and daring of the first-rate orator. His features were fine, +but their combination was so powerfully intellectual, that, at the moment +when he turned his face to you, you felt that you were looking on a man of +the highest order of faculties. None of the leading men of his day had a +physiognomy so palpably mental. Burke's spectacled eyes told but little; +Fox, with the grand outlines of a Greek sage, had no mobility of feature; +Pitt was evidently no favourite of whatever goddess presides over beauty +at our birth. But Sheridan's countenance was the actual mirror of one of +the most glowing, versatile, and vivid minds in the world. His eyes alone +would have given expression to a face of clay. I never saw in human head +orbs so large, of so intense a black, and of such sparkling lustre. His +manners, too, were then admirable; easy without negligence, and +respectful, as the guest at a royal table, without a shadow of servility. +He also was wholly free from that affectation of epigram, which tempts a +man who cannot help knowing that his good things are recorded. He laughed, +and listened, and rambled through the common topics of the day, with all +the evidence of one enjoying the moment, and glad to contribute to its +enjoyment; and yet, in all this ease, I could see that remoter thoughts, +from time to time, passed through his mind. In the midst of our gaiety, +the contraction of his deep and noble brows showed that he was wandering +far away from the slight topics of the table; and I could imagine what he +might be, when struggling against the gigantic strength of Pitt, or +thundering against Indian tyranny before the Peerage in Westminster Hall. + +I saw him long afterwards, when the promise of his day was overcast; when +the flashes of his genius were like guns of distress; and his character, +talents, and frame were alike sinking. But, ruined as he was, and +humiliated by folly as much as by misfortune, I have never been able to +regard Sheridan but as a fallen star--a star, too, of the first magnitude; +without a superior in the whole galaxy from which he fell, and with an +original brilliancy perhaps more lustrous than them all. + +"Well, Sheridan, what news have you brought with you?" asked the prince. + +The answer was a laugh. "Nothing, but that Downing Street has turned into +Parnassus. The astounding fact is, that Grenville has teemed, and, as the +fruits of the long vacation, has produced a Latin epigram. + + 'Veris risit Amor roses caducas: + Cui Ver--"Vane puer, tuine flores, + Quaeso, perpetuum manent in aevum?'" + +The prince laughed. "He writes on the principle, of course, that in one's +dotage we are privileged to return to the triflings of our infancy, and +that Downing Street cannot be better employed in these days than as a +chapel of ease to Eton." + +"Yet, even there, he is but a translator," said Sir P----. + +"'The tenth transmitter of an idler's line,' + +It is merely a _rechauffe_ of the old Italian. + + 'Amor volea schernir la primavera + Sulla breve durata e passegiera + Dei vaghi fiori suoi. + Ma la belle stagione a lui rispose + Forse i piacere tuoi + Vita piu lunga avran delle mie rose.'" + +The prince, who, under Cyril Jackson, had acquired no trivial scholarship, +now alluded to a singular poetic production, _printed_ in 1618, which +seemed distinctly to announce the French Revolution. + +'Festinat propere cursu jam temporis ordo, +Quo locus, et Franci majestas prisca, senatus, +Papa, sacerdotes, missae, simulacra, Deique +Fictitii, atque omnis superos exosa potestas, +Judicio Domini justo sublata peribunt.[A] + +[Footnote A: + + The time is rushing on + When France shall be undone; + And like a dream shall pass, + Pope, monarch, priest, and mass; + And vengeance shall be just, + And all her shrines be dust, + And thunder dig the grave + Of sovereign and of slave.] + +"The production is certainly curious," remarked W----; "but poets always +had something of the fortune-teller; and it is striking, that in many of +the modern Italian Latinists you will find more instances of strong +declamation against Rome, and against France as its chief supporter, than +perhaps in any other authorship of Europe. Audacity was the result of +terror. All Italy reminds one of the papal palace at Avignon--the +banqueting-rooms above, the dungeons of the Inquisition below; popes and +princes feasting within sound of the rack and the scourge. The Revolution +is but the ripening of the disease; the hydrophobia which has been lurking +in the system for centuries." + +"Why, then," said Sheridan, "shall we all wonder at what all expected? +France may be running mad without waiting for the moon; mad in broad day; +absolutely stripping off, not merely the royal livery, which she wore for +the last five hundred years with so much the look of a well-bred footman; +but tearing away the last coverture of the national nakedness. Well; in a +week or two of this process, she will have got rid not only of church and +king, but of laws, property, and personal freedom. But, I ask, what +business have we to interfere? If she is madder than the maddest of March +hares, she is only the less dangerous; she will probably dash out her +brains against the first wall that she cannot spring over." + +"But, at least, we know that mischief is already done among ourselves. +Those French affairs are dividing our strength in the House," remarked +C----. + +"What then?" quickly demanded Sheridan. "What is it to me if others have +the nightmare, while I feel my eyes open? Burke, in his dreams, may dread +the example of France; but I as little dread it as I should a fire at the +Pole. He thinks that Englishmen have such a passion for foreign +importations, that if the pestilence were raging on the other side of the +Channel, we should send for specimens. My proposition is, that the example +of France is more likely to make slaves of us than republicans." + +"Is it," asked W----, "to make us + + 'Fly from minor tyrants to the throne?'" + +"I laugh at the whole," replied Sheridan, "as a bugbear. I have no fear of +France as either a schoolmaster, or a seducer, of England. France is +lunatic, and who dreads a lunatic after his first paroxysm? Exhaustion, +disgust, decay, perhaps death, are the natural results. If there is any +peril to us, it is only from our meddling. The lunatic never revenges +himself but on his keeper. I should leave the patient to the native +doctors, or to those best of all doctors for mad nations, suffering, +shame, and time. Chain, taunt, or torment the lunatic, and he rewards you +by knocking out your brains." + +"Those are not exactly the opinions of our friend Charles," observed the +prince with peculiar emphasis. + +"No," was the reply. "I think for myself. Some would take the madman by +the hand, and treat him as if in possession of his senses. Burke would +gather all the dignitaries of Church and State, and treat him as a +demoniac; attempt to exorcise the evil spirit, and if it continued +intractable, solemnly excommunicate the possessed by bell, book, and +candle. But, as I do not like throwing away my trouble, I should let him +alone." + +"The doctrine of confiscation is startling to all property," remarked the +prince. "I wish Charles would remember, that his strength lies in the +aristocracy." + +"No man knows it better," observed W----. "But I strongly doubt whether +his consciousness of his own extraordinary talents is not at this moment +tempting him to try a new source of hazard. The people, nay, the populace, +are a new element to him, and to all. I can conceive a man of pre-eminent +ability, as much delighted with difficulty as inferior men are delighted +with ease. Fox has managed the aristocracy so long, and has bridled them +with so much the hand of a master, that what he might have once considered +as an achievement, he now regards as child's play. If Alexander's taming +Bucephalus was a triumph for a noble boy, I scarcely think that, after +passing the Granicus, he would have been proud of his fame as a +horse-breaker. Fox sees, as all men see, that great changes, for either +good or ill, are coming on the world. Next to that of a great king, +perhaps the most tempting rank to ambition would be that of a great +demagogue." + +The glitter of Sheridan's eye, and the glow which passed across his cheek, +as he looked at the speaker, showed how fully he agreed with the +sentiment; and I expected some bold burst of eloquence. But, with that +sudden change of tone and temper which was among the most curious +characteristics of the man, he laughingly said, "At all events, whatever +the Revolution may do to our neighbours, it will do a vast deal of good to +ourselves. The clubs were growing so dull, that I began to think of +withdrawing my name from them all. Their principal supporters were daily +yawning themselves to death. The wiser part were flying into the country, +where, at least, their yawning would not be visible; and the rest remained +enveloped in dry and dreary newspapers, like the herbs of a 'Hortus +siccus.' White's was an hospital of the deaf and dumb; and Brookes's +strongly resembled Westminster Hall in the long vacation. It was in the +midst of this general doze that the news from Paris came. I assure you the +effects were miraculous--the universal spasm of lock-jaw was no more. Men +no longer regarded each other with a despairing glance in St James's +Street, and passed on. All was sudden sociability. Even in the city people +grew communicative, and puns were committed that would have struck their +forefathers with amazement. As Burke said, in one of his sybilline +speeches the other night: 'The tempest had come, at once bending down the +summits of the forest and stirring up the depths of the pool.' One of the +aldermen, on being told that the French were preparing to pass the Waal, +said, that if the Dutch would take _his_ advice, and if iron spikes were +not enough, they should _glass_ their _wall_." + +The newspapers now arrived, and France for a while engrossed the +conversation. The famous Mirabeau had just made an oration with which all +France was ringing. + +"That man's character," said the prince, after reading some vehement +portions of his speech, "perplexes me more and more. An aristocrat by +birth, he is a democrat by passion; but he has palpably come into the +world too early, or too late, for power. Under Louis XIV., he would have +made a magnificent minister; under his successor, a splendid courtier; but +under the present unfortunate king, he must be either the brawler or the +buffoon, the incendiary, or the sport, of the people. Yet he is evidently +a man of singular ability, and if he knows how to manage his popularity, +he may yet do great things." + +"I always," said Sheridan, "am inclined to predict well of the man who +takes advantage of his time. That is the true faculty for public life; the +true test of commanding capacity. There are thousands who have ability, +for one who knows how to make use of it; as we are told that there are +monsters in the depths of the ocean which never come up to the light. But +I prefer your leviathan, which, whether he slumbers in the calm or rushes +through the storm, shows all his magnitude to the eye." + +"And gets himself harpooned for his pains," observed W----. + +"Well, then, at least he dies the death of a hero," was the +reply--"tempesting the brine, and perhaps even sinking the harpooner." He +uttered this sentiment with such sudden ardour, that all listened while he +declaimed--"I can imagine no worse fate for a man of true talent than to +linger down into the grave; to find the world disappearing from him while +he remains in it; his political vision growing indistinct, his political +ear losing the voice of man, his passions growing stagnant, all his +sensibilities palpably paralyzing, while the world is as loud, busy, and +brilliant round him as ever--with but one sense remaining, the unhappy +consciousness that, though not _yet_ dead, he is buried; a figure, if not +of scorn, of pity, entombed under the compassionate gaze of mankind, and +forgotten before he has mouldered. Who that could die in the vigour of his +life, would wish to drag on existence like _Somers_, coming to the Council +day after day without comprehending a word? or Marlborough, babbling out +his own imbecility? If I am to die, let me die in hot blood, let me die +like the lion biting the spear that has entered his heart, or springing +upon the hunter who has struck him--not like the crushed snake, miserable +and mutilated, hiding itself in its hole, and torpid before it is turned +into clay!" + +"Will Mirabeau redeem France?" asked the prince; "or will he overwhelm the +throne?" + +"I never heard of any one but Saint Christopher," said Sheridan, +sportively, "who could walk through the ocean, and yet keep his head above +water. Mirabeau is out of soundings already." + +"Burke," said F----, "predicts that he must perish; that the Revolution +will go on, increasing in terrors; and that it would be as easy to stop a +planet launched through space, as the progress of France to ruin." + +"So be it," said Sheridan with sudden animation. "There have been +revolutions in every age of the world, but the world has outlived them +all. Like tempests, they may wreck a royal fleet now and then, but they +prevent the ocean from being a pond, and the air from being a pestilence. +I am content if the world is the better for all this, though France may be +the worse. I am a political optimist, in spite of Voltaire; or, I agree +with a better man and a greater poet--'All's well that ends well.'" + +The prince looked grave; and significantly asked, "Whether too high a +present price might not be paid for prospective good?" + +Sheridan turned off the question with a smile. "The man who has as little +to pay as I have," said he, "seldom thinks of price one way or the other. +Possibly, if I were his Grace of Bedford, or my Lord Fitzwilliam, I might +begin to balance my rent-roll against my raptures. Or, if I were higher +still, I might be only more prudent. But," said he, with a bow, "if what +was fit for Parmenio was not fit for Alexander, neither would what was fit +for Alexander be fit for Parmenio." + +The prince soon after rose from table, and led the way into the library, +where we spent some time in looking over an exquisite collection of +drawings of Greece and Albania, a present from the French king to his +royal highness. The windows were thrown open, and the fresh scents of the +flower garden were delicious; the night was calm, and the moon gleamed far +over the quiet ocean. + +At this moment a soft sound of music arose at a distance. I looked in vain +for the musicians--none were visible. The strain, incomparably managed, +now approached, now receded, now seemed to ascend from the sea, now to +stoop from the sky. All crowded to the casement--to me, a stranger and +unexpecting, all was surprise and spell. I, almost unconsciously, repeated +the fine lines in the Tempest:-- + + "Where should this music be? I' the air, or the earth? + It sounds no more: and sure, it waits upon + Some god of the island-- + This music crept by me upon the waters, + Allaying both their fury and my passion + With its sweet air--But 'tis gone! + No, it begins again." + +The prince returned my quotation with a gracious smile, and the words of +the great poet, + +"This is no mortal business, nor no sound +This the earth owns." + +The private band, stationed in one of the thickets, had been the +magicians. Supper was laid in this handsome apartment, not precisely + + "The spare Sabine feast, + A radish and an egg," + +but perfectly simple, and perfectly elegant. The service was Sevre, and I +observed on it the arms of the Duke of Orleans, combined with those of the +Prince. It had been a present from the most luxurious, and most +unfortunate, man on earth. And thus closed my first day in the exclusive +world. + + +On the next evening, I had exchanged fresh breezes and bright skies for +the sullen atmosphere and perpetual smoke of the great city; stars for +lamps, and the gentle murmurs of the tide, for the turbid rush and heavy +roar of the million of London. During the day, I had been abandoned +sufficiently to my own meditations. For though we did not leave Brighton +till noon, Marianne remained steadily, and I feared angrily, invisible. +Mordecai, during the journey, consulted nothing but his tablets, and was +evidently plunged in some huge financial speculation; and when he dropped +me at a hotel in St James's, and hurried towards his den in the depths of +the city, like a bat to its cave, I felt as solitary as if I had dropped +from the moon. + +But an English hotel is a cure for most of the sorrows of English life. +The well-served table--the excellent sherry--a blazing fire, not at all +unrequired in the first sharp evenings of our autumn--and the newspaper +"just come in," are capital "medicines for the mind diseased." And like +old Marechal Louvois, who recommended roast pigeons as a cure for +grief--observing that, "whenever he heard of the loss of any of his +friends, he ordered a pair, and found himself always much comforted after +eating them"--I was beginning to sink into that easy oblivion of the +rules of life, which, without actual sleep, has all the placid enjoyment +of slumber; when a voice pronounced my name, and I was startled and half +suffocated by the embrace of a figure who rushed from an opposite box, +and in a torrent of French poured out a torrent of raptures on my +arriving in London. + +When I contrived at last to disengage myself, I saw Lafontaine; but so +hollow-cheeked and pale-visaged, that I could scarcely recognize my showy +friend in the skeleton knight who stood gesticulating his ultra-happiness +before me. + +At length he drew, with a trembling touch and a glistening eye, from his +bosom a letter, which he placed in my hand with a squeeze of eternal +friendship. "Read," said he, "read, and then wonder, if you can, at my +misery and my gratitude." The letter was from Mariamne, and certainly a +very pretty one--gay and tender at once; gracefully alluding to some +little fretfulness on her part, or his, I could scarcely tell which; but +assuring him that all this was at an end--that she foreswore the world +henceforth, and was quite his own. All this was expressed with an elegance +which I was not quite prepared to find in the fair one, and with a tone of +sincerity for which I was still less prepared; yet with the coquette in +every line. + +I should have been glad to see him at any time, but now I received him as +a resource from solitude, or rather from those restless thoughts which +made solitude so painful to me. Another bottle, perhaps, made me more +sensitive, and him more willing to communicate; and before it was +finished, he had opened his whole heart and emptied his letter-case, and I +had consulted him on the _im_probabilities of my ever being able to +succeed in the object which had so strangely, yet so totally, occupied all +my feelings. + +It was clear, from her correspondence, that his pretty Jewess had played +him much as the angler plays the trout which he has secured on his hook. +She evidently enjoyed the display of her skill in tormenting: every second +letter was almost a declaration of breaking off the correspondence +altogether; or, what was even worse, mingled with those menaces, there +were from time to time allusions to my opinions, and quotations of my +chance remarks, which, rather to my surprise, showed me that the proverb, +"_Les absens ont toujours tort_," was true in more senses than one, and +that the Frenchman occasionally lost ground by being fifty miles off. Once +or twice it seemed to me that the little "betrothed" was evidently +thinking of the error of precipitate vows, and was beginning to change her +mind. But her last letter was a complete extinguisher of all my vanity, if +it had ever been awakened. It was a curious mingling of poignancy and +penitence; an acknowledgment of the pain which she felt in ever having +given pain, and almost an entreaty that he would hasten his affairs in +London, and return to Brighton, to "guard her against herself, once and +for ever." + +All this was quite as it should be; but the envelope contained an enormous +postscript, of which I happened to be the theme. It was evidently written +in another mood of mind; and except that passion is blind, and even +refuses to see, when it might, I should probably have had another +rencontre with the best swordsman in the _Chevaux Legers_. After speaking +of me and my prospects in life, with an interest which reached at least to +the full amount of friendship, the subject of my reveries came on the +tapis. "My father and Mr Marston are on the point of going to town," said +the postscript; "the latter to dream of Mademoiselle De Tourville, without +the smallest hope of ever obtaining her hand. But I scarcely know what to +think of him and his feelings--if feelings they can be called--which +change like the fashions of the day, and at the mercy of all the triflers +of the day; or like the butterfly fluttering round the garden, as if +merely to show that it can flutter. This habit must make him for ever +incapable of the generous devotedness of heart and truth of affection +which I so much value in my '_friend_.'" But here Lafontaine interfered, +obviously through fear of my plunging into some discovery of my own +demerits, which had not struck him on his first perusal; and I surrendered +the letter, postscript and all, having first ascertained by a glance, that +the former was dated at the very hour of the discovery of my unlucky +stanzas to Clotilde, and the latter probably after the "fair penitent" had +time to reflect on the matter, and let compassion make its way. Woman is a +brilliant problem--but a problem after all. + +A sudden trampling of cavalry and loud rush of carriages prevented my +attempting the solution--at least for that sitting. All the guests crowded +to the door. "His Majesty was going to Drury-Lane!" It was a performance +"by command." The never-failing pulse in the foreign heart was touched. +Lafontaine crushed his correspondence into his bosom, sprang on his feet, +wiped his eyes of all their sorrows, and proposed that we should see the +display. I was rejoiced to escape a topic too delicate for my handling. A +carriage was called, and by a double fee we contrived, through many a +hazard, in the narrowest and most dangerous defiles of any Christian city, +to reach the stately entrance, just as the troopers were brushing away the +mob from the steps, and the trumpets were outringing the cries of the +orangewomen. + +By another bribe we contrived to make our way into a box, whose doors were +more unrelenting than brass or marble to the crowd in the lobby, less +acquainted with the mode of getting through the English world; and I had +my first view of national loyalty, in the handsomest theatre which I have +ever seen. How often it has been burnt down and built since, is beyond my +calculation. It was then perfection. + +We had galloped to some purpose; for we had distanced the monarch and his +eight carriages. The royal party had not yet entered the house; and I +enjoyed, for a few minutes, one of the most striking displays that the +opulence and animation of a great country can possibly produce--the +_coup-d'oeil_ of a well-dressed audience in a fine and spacious theatre. +Multitudes spread over hill and dale may be picturesque; the aspect of +great public meetings may be startling, stern, or powerfully impressive; +the British House of Lords, on the opening of the session, exhibits a +majestic spectacle; but for a concentration of all the effects of art, +beauty, and magnificence, I have yet seen nothing like one of the English +theatres in their better days. To compare it in point of importance with +any other great assemblage, would in general be idle. But at this time, +even the assemblage before me, collected as it was for indulgence, had a +character of remarkable interest. The times were anxious. The nation was +avowedly on the eve of a struggle of which no human foresight could +discover the termination. The presence of the king was the presence of the +monarchy; the presence of the assemblage was the presence of the nation. +The house was only a levee on a large scale, and the crowd, composed as it +was of the most distinguished individuals of the country--the ministers, +the peerage, the heads of legislature--and the whole completed by an +immense mass of the middle order, gave a strong and admirable +representation of the power and feelings of the empire. + +At length the sound of the trumpets was heard, the door of the royal box +was thrown open, and "God save the King" began. Noble as this noblest of +national songs is, it had, at that period, a higher meaning. It is +impossible to describe the spirit and ardour in which it was received; +nay, the almost sacred enthusiasm in which it was joined by all, and in +which every sentiment was followed with boundless acclamation. It was more +than an honourable and pleased welcome of a popular king. It was a +national pledge to the throne--a proud declaration of public principle--a +triumphant defiance of the enemy and the Earth to strike the stability of +a British throne, or subdue the hearts of a British people. + +The king advanced to the front of the box, and bowed in return to the +general plaudits. It was the first time that I had seen George the Third, +and I was struck at once with the stateliness of his figure and the +kindliness of his countenance. Combined, they perfectly realized all that +I had conceived of a monarch, to whose steadiness of determination, and +sincerity of good-will, the empire had been already indebted in periods of +faction and foreign hostility; and to whom it was to be indebted still +more in coming periods of still wilder faction, and of hostility which +brought the world in arms against his crown. + +As I glanced around for a moment, to see the effect on the house, which +was then thundering with applause, I observed a slight confusion, like a +personal quarrel, in the pit; and in the next instant saw a hand raised +above the crowd, and a pistol fired full in the direction of the royal +box. The King started back a pace or two, and the general apprehension +that he had been struck, produced a loud cry of horror. He evidently +understood the public feeling, and instantly came forward, and by a bow, +with his hand on his heart, at once assured them of his gratitude and his +safety. This was acknowledged by a shout of universal congratulation; and +many a bright eye, and many a manly one, too, streamed with tears. In the +midst of all, the Queen and the royal family rushed into the box, flung +themselves round the king, and all was embracing, fainting, and terror. +Cries for the seizure of the assassin now resounded on every side. He was +grasped by a hundred hands, and torn out of the house. Then the universal +voice demanded "God save the King" once more: the performers came forward +and the national chant, now almost elevated to a hymn, was sung by the +audience with a solemnity scarcely less than an act of devotion. All the +powers of the stage never furnished a more touching, perhaps a more +sublime scene, than the simple reality of the whole occurrence before my +eyes. + +But at length the tumult sank; the order of the theatre was resumed; and +the curtain rose, displaying a remarkably fine view of Roman architecture, +a vista of temples and palaces, the opening scene of Coriolanus. + +The fame of the admirable actor who played the leading character was then +at its height; and John Kemble shared with his splendid sister the honour +of being the twin leaders of the theatrical galaxy. I am not about to +dwell on Shakspeare's conception of the magnificent republican, nor on the +scarcely less magnificent representative which it found in the actor of +the night. But I speak to a generation which have never seen either +Siddons or Kemble, and will probably never see their equals. I may be +suffered, too, to indulge my own admiration of forms and faculties which +once gave me a higher sense of the beauty and the powers of which our +being is capable. Is this a dream? or, if so, is it not a dream that tends +to ennoble the spirit of man? The dimness and dulness of the passing world +require relief, and I look for it in the world of recollections. + +Kemble was, at that time, in the prime of his powers; his features +strongly resembling those of Siddons; and his form the perfection of manly +grace and heroic beauty. His voice was his failing part; for it was hollow +and interrupted; yet its tone was naturally sweet, and it could, at times, +swell to the highest storm of passion. In later days he seemed to take a +strange pride in feebleness, and, in his voice and his person, affected +old age. But when I saw him first, he was all force, one of the handsomest +of human beings, and, beyond all comparison, the most accomplished classic +actor that ever realized the form and feelings of the classic age. His +manners in private life completed his public charm; and, in seeing Kemble +on the stage, we saw the grace and refinement acquired by the +companionship of princes and nobles, the accomplished, the high-born, and +the high-bred of the land. + +From the mingled tenderness and loftiness of Kemble's playing, a new idea +of Coriolanus struck me. I had hitherto imagined him simply a bold +patrician, aristocratically contemptuous of the multitude, indignant at +public ingratitude, and taking a ruthless revenge. But the performance of +the great actor on this night opened another and a finer view to me. Till +now, I had seen the hero, a Roman, merely a gallant chieftain of the most +unromantic of all commonwealths, the land of inflexibility, remorseless +daring, and fierce devotement to public duty. But, by throwing the softer +feelings of the character into light, Kemble made him less a Roman than a +Greek--a loftier and purer Alcibiades, or a republican Alexander, or, most +and truest of all, a Roman Achilles--the same dazzling valour, the same +sudden affections, the same deep conviction of wrong, and the same +generous, but unyielding, sense of superiority. Say what we will of the +subordination of the actor to the author, the great actor shares his +laurels. He, too, is a creator. + +But while I followed, with eye and mind, the movements of the stage, +Lafontaine was otherwise employed. His opera-glass was roving the boxes; +and he continually poured into my most ungrateful ear remarks on the +diplomatic body, and recognitions of the _merveilleux_ glittering round +the circle. At last, growing petulant at being thus disturbed, I turned to +beg of him to be silent, when he simply said--"La Voila!" and pointed to a +group which had just taken their seats in one of the private boxes. From +that moment I saw no more of the tragedy. The party consisted of Clotilde, +Madame la Marechal, and a stern but stately-looking man, in a rich +uniform, who paid them the most marked attention. + +"There is the Marquis," said my companion; "he has never smiled probably, +since he was born, or, I suppose, he would smile to-night; for the +secretary to the embassy told me, not half an hour ago, that his +marriage-contract had just come over, with the king's signature." + +My heart sank within me at the sound. Still my gay informant went on, +without much concerning himself about feelings which I felt alternately +flushing and chilling me. "The match will be a capital one, if matters +hold out for us. For Montrecour is one of the largest proprietors in +France; but, as he is rather of the new noblesse, the blood of the De +Tourvilles will be of considerable service to his pedigree. His new +uniform shows me that he has got the colonelcy of my regiment, and, of +course, I must attend his levee tomorrow. Will you come?" + +My look was a sufficient answer. + +"Ah!" said he, "you will not. Ah! there is exactly the national +difference. Marriage opens the world to a French _belle_, as much as it +shuts the world to an English one. Mademoiselle is certainly very +handsome," said he, pausing, and fixing his opera-glass on her. "The +contour of her countenance is positively fine; it reminds me of a picture +of Clairon in Medea, in the King's private apartments--her smile charming, +her eyes brilliant, and her diamonds perfect." + +I listened, without daring to lift my eyes; he rambled on--"Fortunate +fellow, the Marquis--fortunate in every thing but that intolerable +physiognomy of his--Grand Ecuyer, Gold Key, Cross of Saint Louis, and on +the point of being the husband of the finest woman between Calais and +Constantinople. Of course, you intend to leave your card on the marriage?" + +"No," was my answer. I suppose that there was something in the sound which +struck him. He stared with palpable wonder. + +"What! are you not an old acquaintance? Have you not known her this month? +Have you not walked, and talked, and waltzed, with her?" + +"Never spoke a word to her in my life." + +"Well, then, you shall not be left in such a forlorn condition long. I +must pay my respects to my colonel. I dare say you may do the same to the +_fiancee_. Mademoiselle will be charmed to have some interruption to his +dreary attentions." + +I again refused, but the gay Frenchman was not to be repulsed. He made a +prodigious bow to the box, which was acknowledged by both the ladies. +"There," said he, "the affair is settled. You cannot possibly hesitate +now; that bow is a summons to their box. I can tell you also that you are +highly honoured; for, if it had been in Paris, you could not have got a +sight of the bride except under the surveillance of a pair of chaperons as +grey and watchful as cats, or a couple of provincial uncles as stiff as +their own forefathers armed cap-a-pie." + +I could resist no longer; but with sensations perhaps not unlike those of +one ascending the scaffold, I mounted the stairs. As the door opened, and +Lafontaine, tripping forward, announced my name, Clotilde's cheek suffused +with a burning blush, which in the next instant passed away, and left her +pale as marble. The few words of introduction over, she sank into total +silence; and though she made an effort, from time to time, to smile at +Lafontaine's frivolities, it was but a feeble one, and she sat, with +pallid lips and a hectic spot on her statue-like cheek, gazing on the +carpet. I attempted to take some share in the conversation; but all my +powers of speech were gone, my tongue refused to utter, and I remained the +most complete and unfortunate contrast to my lively friend, who was now +engaged in detailing the attempt on the royal life to Madame la Marechal, +whose later arrival had prevented their witnessing it in person. My nearer +view of the Marquis did not improve the sketch which Lafontaine had given +of his commanding-officer. He was a tall, stiff, but soldierly-looking +person, with an expression, which, as we are disposed to approve or the +reverse, might be called strong sense or sullen temper. But he had some +reputation in the service as a bold, if not an able officer. He had saved +the French troops in America by his daring, from the effects of some +blunders committed by the giddiness of their commander-in-chief; and as +his loyalty was not merely known but violent, and his hatred of the new +faction in France not merely determined but furious, he was regarded as +one of the pillars of the royal cause. The Marquis was evidently in +ill-humour, whether with our introduction or with his bride; yet it was +too early for a matrimonial quarrel, and too late for a lover's one. +Clotilde was evidently unhappy, and after a few common-places we took our +leave; the Marquis himself condescending to start from his seat, and shut +the door upon our parting bow. The stage had now lost all interest for +me, and I prevailed on Lafontaine, much against his will, to leave the +house. The lobby was crowded, the rush was tremendous, and after +struggling our way, with some hazard of our limbs, we reached the door +only just in time to see Montrecour escorting the ladies to their +carriage. + +All was over for the night; and my companion, who now began to think that +he had tormented me too far, was drawing me slowly, and almost +unconsciously, through the multitude, when a flourish of trumpets and +drums announced that their Majesties were leaving the theatre. The life +guards rode up; and the rushing of the crowd, the crash of the carriages, +the prancing and restiveness of the startled horses, and the quarrelling +of the coachmen and the Bow Street officers, produced a scene of uproar. +My first thought was the hazard of Clotilde, and I hastened to the spot +where I had seen her last, but she was gone. + +"All's safe, you see," said Lafontaine, trying to compose his ruffled +costume; "your John Bulls are dangerous, in their loyalty, to coats and +carriages." I agreed with him, and we sprang into one of the wretched +vehicles that held its ground, with English tenacity, in the midst of a +war of coronets. But our adventures were not to close so simply. Our +driver had not remained in the rain for hours, without applying to the +national remedy against all inclemencies of weather. He had no sooner +mounted the box than I found that we were running a race with every +carriage which we approached, sometimes tilting against them, and +sometimes narrowly escaping from being overturned. At last we met with an +antagonist worthy of our prowess. All my efforts to stop our charioteer +had been useless, for he was evidently beyond any kind of appeal but that +of flinging him from his seat; and Lafontaine, with the genuine fondness +of a Gaul for excitement of all kinds, seemed wonderfully amused as we +swept along. But our new rival was evidently in the same condition with +our own Jehu, and after a smart horsewhipping of each other, they rushed +forward at full speed. A sudden scream from within the other carriage +showed the terror of its inmates, as it dashed along; an old woman in full +dress, however, was all that I could discover; for we were fairly +distanced in the race, though it was still kept up, with all the +perseverance of a fool thoroughly intoxicated. In a few minutes more we +heard a tremendous collision in front, and saw by the blaze of half a +hundred flambeaux brandished in all directions, our rival a complete +wreck, plunged into the midst of a crowd of equipages, waiting for their +lordly owners in front of Devonshire house. It had been one of the weekly +balls given by the Duchess, and the fallen vehicle had damaged panels +covered with heraldry as old as the Plantagenets. + +Arriving with almost equal rapidity, but with better fortune, I had but +just time to spring into the street, at the instant when the old lady, +writhing herself out of the window, which was now uppermost, was about to +trust her portly person to chance. I caught her as she clung to the +carriage with her many-braceleted arms, and was almost strangled by the +vigour of her involuntary embrace as she rolled down upon me. + +There was nothing in the world less romantic than my position in the midst +of a circle of sneering footmen; and, as if to put romance for ever out of +the question, I was relieved from my plumed and mantled encumbrance only +by the assistance of Townshend, then the prince of Bow Street officers; +who, knowing every thing and every body, informed me that the lady was a +person of prodigious rank, and that he should 'feel it his duty,' before +he parted with me, to ascertain whether her ladyship's purse had not +suffered defalcation by my volunteering. + +I was indignant, as might be supposed; and my indignation was not at all +decreased by the coming up of half a dozen Bow Street officers, every one +of whom either "believed," or "suspected," or "knew," me to be "an old +offender." But I was relieved from the laughter of the liveried mob round +me, and probably from figuring in the police histories of the morning, by +the extreme terrors of the lady for the fate of her daughter. The carriage +had by this time been raised up, but its other inmate was not to be found. +She now produced the purse, which had been so impudently the cause of +impeaching my honour; "and offered its contents to all who should bring +any tidings of her daughter, her lost child, her Clotilde!" The name +thrilled on my ear. I flew off to renew the search, followed by the +crowd--was unsuccessful, and returned, only to see my _protege_ in strong +hysterics. My situation now became embarrassing; when a way was made +through the crowd by a highly-powdered personage, the chamberlain of the +mansion, who announced himself as sent by "her Grace," to say that the +Countess de Tourville was safe, having been taken into the house; and, +further, conveying "her Grace's compliments to Madame la Marechal de +Tourville, to entreat that she would do her the honour to join her +daughter." This message, delivered with all the pomp of a "gentleman of +the bedchamber," produced its immediate effect upon the circle of cocked +hats and worsted epaulettes. They grew grave at once; and guided by +Townshend, who moved on, hat in hand, and bowing with the obsequiousness +of one escorting a prince of the blood, we reached the door of the +mansion. + +But here a new difficulty arose. The duchess was known to La Marechal, for +to whom in misfortune was not that most generous and kind-hearted duchess +known? But _I_ was still a stranger. However, with my old Frenchwoman, +ceremony was not then the prevailing point. _I_ had been her "preserver," +as she was pleased to term me. _I_ had been "introduced," which was quite +sufficient for knowledge; above all other merits, "I spoke French like a +Parisian;" in short, it was wholly impossible for her to ascend the +crowded staircase, with her numberless dislocations, by the help of any +other arm on earth. The slightest hope of seeing Clotilde would have made +me confront all the etiquette of Spain; and I bore the contrast of my +undress costume with the feathered and silken multitude which filled the +stairs, in the spirit of a philosopher, until, by "many a step and slow," +we reached the private wing of the mansion. + +There, in an apartment fitted up with all the luxury of a boudoir, yet +looking melancholy from the dim lights and the silent attendants, lay +Clotilde on a sofa. But how changed from the being whom I had just seen at +the theatre! She had been in imminent danger, and was literally dragged +from under the horses' feet. A slight wound in her temple was still +bleeding, and her livid lips and half-closed eyes gave me the image of +death. As for Madame, she was in distraction; the volubility of her +sorrows made the well-trained domestics shrink, as from a display at which +they ought not to be present; and at length the only recipients of her +woes were myself and the physician, who, with ominous visage, and drops in +hand, was administering his aid to the passive patient. As Madame's +despair rendered her wholly useless, the doctor called on me to assist him +in raising her from the floor, on which she had flung herself like a +heroine in a tragedy. + +While I was engaged in this most reluctant performance, the accents of a +sweet voice, and the rustling of silk, made me raise my eyes, and a vision +floated across the apartment; it was the duchess herself, glittering in +gold and jewels, turbaned and embroidered, as a Semiramis or a queen of +Sheba; she was brilliant enough for either. She had just left the fancy +ball behind, and was come "to make her personal enquiries for the health +of her young friend." + +My office was rather startling, even to the habitual presence of mind of +the leader of fashion. I might have figured in her eyes, as the husband, +or the lover, or the doctor's apprentice; she almost uttered a scream. But +the sound, slight as it was, recalled the Marechal to her senses. The +explanation was given with promptitude, and received with politeness. My +family, in all its branches, came into her Grace's quick recollection; and +I was thus indebted to my adventure, not only for an introduction to one +of the most elegant women of her time--to the goddess of fashion in her +temple, the Circe of high life, at the "witching hour," but of being most +"graciously" received; and even hearing a panegyric on my chivalry, from +the Marechal, smilingly echoed by lips which seemed made only for smiles. + +A summons from the ball-room soon withdrew the captivating mistress of the +mansion, who retired with the step and glance of the very queen of +courtesy; and I was about to take my leave, when a ceremonial of still +higher interest awaited me. Clotilde, feebly rising from her sofa, and +sustaining herself on the neck of her kneeling mother, murmured her thanks +to me "for the preservation of her dear parent." The sound of her voice, +feeble as it was, fell on my ear like music. I advanced towards her. The +Marechal stood with her handkerchief to her eyes, and venting her +sensibilities in sobs. The fairer object before me shed no tears, but, +with her eyes half-closed, and looking the marble model of paleness and +beauty, she held out her hand. She was, perhaps, unconscious of offering +more than a simple testimony of her gratitude for the services which her +mother had described with such needless eloquence. But in that delicious, +yet unaccountable feeling--that superstition of the heart, which makes +every thing eventful--even that simple pressure of her hand created a +long and living future in my mind. + +Yet let me do myself justice; whether wise or weak in the presence of the +only being who had ever mastered my mind, I was determined not "to point a +moral and adorn a tale." I had other duties and other purposes before me +than to degenerate into a slave of sighs. I was to be no Romeo, bathing my +soul in the luxuries of Italian palace-chambers, moonlight speeches, and +the song of nightingales. I felt that I was an Englishman, and had the +rugged steep of fortune to climb, and climb alone. The time, too, in which +I was to begin my struggle for distinction, aroused me to shake off the +spirit of dreams which threatened to steal over my nature. The spot in +which I lived was the metropolis of mankind. I was in the centre of the +machinery which moved the living world. The wheels of the globe were +rushing, rolling, and resounding in my ears. Every interest, necessity, +stimulant, and passion of mankind, came in an incessant current to London, +as to the universal heart, and flowed back, refreshed and invigorated, to +the extremities of civilization. I saw the hourly operations of that +mighty furnace in which the fortunes of all nations were mingled, and +poured forth remolded. And London itself was never more alive. Every +journal which I took up was filled with the signs of this extraordinary +energy; the projects and meetings, the harangues and political +experiments, of bold men, some rising from the mire into notoriety, if not +into fame; some plunging from the highest rank of public life into the +mire, in the hope of rising, if with darkened, yet a freshened wing. The +debates in parliament, never more vivid than at this crisis, with the two +great parties in full force, and throwing out flashes in every movement, +like the collision of two vast thunder clouds, were a perpetual summons to +action in every breast which felt itself above the dust it trod. But the +French journals were the true excitements to political ardour. They were +more than lamps, guiding mankind along the dusky paths of public +regeneration--they were torches, dazzling the multitude who attempted to +profit by their light; and, while they threw a glare round the head of the +march, blinding all who followed. To one born, like myself, in the most +aristocratic system of society on earth, yet excluded from its advantages +by the mere chance of birth, it was new, and undoubtedly not displeasing, +to see the pride of nobility tamed by the new rush of talent and ambition +which had started up from obscurity in France; village attorneys and +physicians, clerks in offices, journalists, men from the plough and the +pen, supplying the places of the noblesse of Clovis and Capet, possessing +themselves of the highest power while their predecessors were flying +through Europe; conducting negotiations, commanding armies, ruling +assemblies, holding the helm of government in the storm which had +scattered the great names of France upon the waters. I anticipated all the +triumph of the "younger sons." + +Even the brief interval of my Brighton visit had curiously changed the +aspect of the metropolis. The emigration was in full force, and every spot +was crowded with foreign visages. Sallow cheeks and starting eyes, +scowling brows and fierce mustaches, were the order of the day; the monks +and the military had run off together. The English language was almost +overwhelmed by the perpetual jargon of all the loud-tongued +provincialities of France. But the most singular portion was the +ecclesiastical. The streets and parks were filled with the unlucky sheep +of the Gallican church, scattered before the teeth and howl of the +republican wolf; and England saw, for the first time, the secrets of the +monastery poured out before the light of day. The appearance of some among +this sable multitude, though venerable and dignified, could not prevent +the infinite grotesque of the others from having its effect on the +spectator. The monks and priesthood of France amounted to little less than +a hundred and fifty thousand. All were now thrown up from the darkness of +centuries before a wondering world. I had Milton's vision of Limbo before +my eyes. + + "Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars, + A violent cross wind from either coast + Blew them transverse. Then might ye see + Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost, + And flutter'd into rags; their reliques, beads, + Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls, + The sport of winds." + +The mire was fully stirred up in which the hierarchy had enjoyed its sleep +and sunshine for a thousand years. The weeds and worms had been fairly +scraped off, which for a thousand years had grown upon the keel of the +national vessel, and of which the true wonder was, that the vessel had +been able to make sail with them clinging to her so long. In fact, I was +thus present at one of the most remarkable phenomena of the whole +Revolution. The flight of a noblesse was nothing to this change. The +glittering peerage of France, created by a court, and living in perpetual +connexion with the court, as naturally followed its fate as a lapdog +follows the fortunes of its mistress; but here was a digging up of the +moles, an extermination of the bats, a general extrusion of the subversive +principle, to a race of existence which, whether above or below ground, +seemed almost to form a part of the soil. Monkery was broken up, like a +ship dashed against the shores of the bay of Biscay. The ship was not only +wrecked, but all its fragments continued to be tossed on the ceaseless +surge. The Gallican church was flung loose over Europe, at a time when all +Europe itself was in commotion. I own, to the discredit of my political +foresight, that I thought its forms and follies extinguished for ever. The +snake was more tenacious of life than I had dreamed. But if I erred, I did +not err alone. + +Mordecai, whom I found immersed deeper and deeper in continental politics, +and who scarcely denied his being the accredited agent of the emigrant +princes, gave his opinion of this strange portion of French society with +much more promptitude than he probably would of the probable fall or rise +of stocks. + +"Of all the gamblers at the great gambling-table of France," said he, "the +clergy have played their game the worst. By leaving their defence to the +throne, they have only dragged down the throne. By relying on the good +sense of the National Assembly, they have left themselves without a +syllable to say. Like men pleading by counsel, they have been at the mercy +of their counsel, and been ruined at once by their weakness and their +treachery." + +On my observing to him that the church of France was necessarily feebler +than either the throne or the nobles, and that, therefore, its natural +course was to depend on both-- + +"Rely upon it," said the keen Jew "that any one great institution of the +state which suffers itself, in the day of danger, to depend on any other +for existence, will be ruined. When all are pressed, each will be glad to +get rid of the pressure, by sacrificing the most dependent. The church +should have stood on its own defence. The Gallican hierarchy was, beyond +all question, the most powerful in Europe. Rome and her cardinals were +tinsel and toys to the solid strength of the great provincial clergy of +France. They had numbers, wealth, and station. Those things could give +influence among a population of Hottentots. Let other hierarchies take +example. They threw them all away, at the first move of a bloody +handkerchief on the top of a Parisian pike. They had vast power with the +throne; but what had once been energy they turned into encumbrance, and if +the throne is pulled down, it will be by their weight. They had a third of +the land in actual possession, and they allowed themselves to be stripped +of it by a midnight vote of a drunken assembly. If they were caricatured +in Paris, they had three-fourths of the population as fast bound to them +as bigotry and their daily bread could bind. Three months ago, they might +have marched to Paris with their crucifixes in front, and three millions +of stout peasantry in their rear, have captured the capital, and fricaseed +the foolish legislature. And now, they have archbishops learning to live +on a shilling a-day." + +From the Horse guards I had yet obtained nothing, but promises of "being +remembered on the first vacancy;" Clotilde was still a sufferer, and my +time, like that of every man without an object, began to be a deplorable +encumbrance. In short, my vision of high life and its happiness was fairly +vanishing hour by hour. I occasionally met Lafontaine; but, congenial as +our tempers might be, our natures had all the national difference, and I +sometimes envied, and as often disdained, his buoyancy. Even he, too, had +his fluctuations; and a letter from Mariamne, a little more or less +petulant, raised and sank him like the spirits in a thermometer. + +But one day he rushed into my apartment with a look of that despair which +only foreigners can assume, and which actually gave me the idea that he +was about to commit suicide. Flinging himself into a chair, and plunging +his hand deep into his bosom, from which I almost expected to see him draw +the fatal weapon, he extracted a paper, and held it forth to me. "Read!" +he exclaimed, with the most pathetic tones of Talma in tragedy--"read my +ruin!" I read, and found that it was a letter from his domineering little +Jewess, commanding him to throw up his commission on the spot, and +especially not to go to France, on penalty of her eternal displeasure. My +looks asked an explanation. "There!" cried the hero of the romance, +"there!--see the caprice, the cruelty, the intolerable tyranny of that most +uncertain, intractable, and imperious of all human beings!" I had neither +consolation nor contradiction to offer. + +He then let me into his own secret, with an occasional episode of the +secrets of others--the substance of the whole being, that a counter +revolution was preparing in France; that, after conducting the +correspondence in London for some time, he had been ordered to carry a +despatch, of the highest importance, to the secret agency in Paris; and +that the question was now between love and honour--Mariamne having, by +some unlucky hint dropped from her father, received intimation of the +design, and putting her _veto_ on his bearing any part in it in the most +peremptory manner. What was to be done? The unfortunate youth was fairly +on the horns of the dilemma, and he obviously saw no ray of extrication +but the usual Parisian expedient of the pistol. + +While he alternately raved and wept, the thought struck me--"Why might I +not go in his place?" I was growing weary of the world, however little I +knew of it. I had no Mariamne either to prohibit or to weep for me. The +only being for whom I wished to live was lost to me already. I offered +myself as the carrier of the despatch without delay. + +I never saw ecstasy so visible in a human being; his eloquence exhausted +the whole vocabulary of national rapture. "I was his friend, his brother, +his preserver. I was the best, the ablest, the noblest of men." But when I +attempted to escape from this overflow of gratitude, by observing on the +very simple nature of the service, his recollection returned, and he +generously endeavoured, with equal zeal, to dissuade me from an enterprise +of which the perils were certainly neither few nor trifling. He was now in +despair at my obstinacy. The emigration of the French princes had not +merely weakened their cause in France, but had sharpened the malice of +their enemies. Their agents had been arrested in all quarters, and any man +who ventured to carry on a correspondence with them, was now alike in +danger of assassination and of the law. After debating the matter long, +without producing conviction on either side, it was at length agreed to +refer the question to Mordecai, whom Lafontaine now formally acknowledged +to be master of the secret on both sides of the Channel. + + + * * * * * + + + + +A VISION OF THE WORLD. + +BY DELTA. + + + A blossom on a laurel tree--a cloudlet on the sky + Borne by the breeze--a panorama shifting on the eye; + A zig-zag lightning-flash amid the elemental strife-- + Yea! each and all are emblems of man's transitory life! + Brightness dawns on us at our birth--the dear small world of home, + A tiny paradise from which our wishes never roam, + Till boyhood's widening circle brings its myriad hopes and fears, + The guileless faith that never doubts--the friendship that endears. + + Each house and tree--each form and face, upon the ready mind + Their impress leave; and, in old age, that impress fresh we find, + Even though long intermediate years, by joy and sorrow sway'd, + Should there no mirror find, and in oblivion have decay'd. + How fearful first the shock of death! to think that even one + Whose step we knew, whose voice we heard, should see no more the sun; + That though a thousand years were ours, that form should never more + Revisit, with its welcome smiles, earth's once-deserted shore! + + Look round the dwellings of the street--and tell, where now are they + Whose tongues made glad each separate hearth, in childhood's early day; + Now strangers, or another generation, there abide, + And the churchyard owns their lowly graves, green-mouldering side by side! + Spring! Summer! Autumn! Winter! then how vividly each came! + The moonlight pure, the starlight soft, and the noontide sheath'd in flame; + The dewy morning with her birds, and evening's gorgeous dyes, + As if the mantles of the blest were floating through the skies. + + I laid me down, but not in sleep--and Memory flew away + To mingle with the sounds and scenes the world had shown by day; + Now listening to the lark, she stray'd across the flowery hill, + Where trickles down from bowering groves the brook that turns the mill; + And now she roam'd the city lanes, where human tongues are loud, + And mix the lofty and the low amid the motley crowd, + Where subtle-eyed philosophy oft heaves a sigh, to scan + The aspiring grasp, and paltry insignificance of man! + + 'Mid floods of light in festal halls, with jewels rare bedight, + To music's soft and syren sounds, paced damosel with knight; + It seem'd as if the fiend of grief from earthly bounds was driven, + For there were smiles on every cheek that spake of nought but heaven; + But, from that gilded scene, I traced the revellers one by one, + With sad and sunken features each, unto their chambers lone; + And of that gay and smiling crowd whose bosoms leapt to joy, + How many might there be, I ween'd, whom care did not annoy? + + Some folded up their wearied eyes to dark unhallow'd dreams-- + The soldier to his scenes of blood, the merchant to his schemes: + Pride, jealousy, and slighted love, robb'd woman of her rest; + Revenge, deceit, and selfishness, sway'd man's unquiet breast. + Some, turning to the days of youth, sigh'd o'er the sinless time + Ere passion led the heart astray to folly, care, and crime; + And of that dizzy multitude, from found or fancied woes, + Was scarcely one whose slumbers fell like dew upon the rose! + + Then turn'd I to the lowly hearth, where scarcely labour brought + The simplest and the coarsest meal that craving nature sought; + Above, outspread a slender roof, to shield them from the rain, + And their carpet was the verdure with which nature clothes the plain; + Yet there the grateful housewife sat, her infant on her knee, + Its small palms clasp'd within her own, as if likewise pray'd he; + For ere their fingers brake the bread, from toil incessant riven, + Son, sire, and matron bow'd their heads, and pour'd their thanks to Heaven. + + What, then, I thought, is human life, if all that thus we see + Of pageantry and of parade devoid of pleasure be! + If only in the conscious heart true happiness abide, + How oft, alas! has wretchedness but grandeur's cloak to hide? + And when upon the outward cheek a transient smile appears, + We little reck how lately hath its bloom been damp'd by tears, + And how the voice, whose thrillings from a light heart seem'd to rise, + Throughout each sleepless watch of night gave utterance but to sighs. + + This was the moral, calm and deep, which to my musing thought, + From all the varying views of man and life, reflection brought-- + That most things are not what they seem, and that the outward shows + Of grade and rank are only masks that hide our joys and woes; + That with the soul, the soul alone, resides the awful power, + To light with sunshine or o'ergloom the solitary hour; + And that the human heart is but a riddle to be read, + When all the darkness round it now in other worlds hath fled. + + Why, then, should sorrow cloud the brow, should misery crush the heart, + Since all life's varied changes "come like shadows, so depart?" + There is one sun, there is one shower, to evil and to just, + And health, and strength, and length of days, and to all the common dust: + But as the snake throws off its skin, the soul throws off its clay, + And soars, till purpled are its wings with everlasting day; + God, having winnow'd with his flail the chaff from out the wheat, + When those, who seem'd alike when here, approach'd his judgment-seat. + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BANKRUPTCY OF THE GREEK KINGDOM. + + + Come let us drink their memory, + Those glorious Greeks of old-- + On shore and sea the Famed, the Free, + The Beautiful--the Bold! + The mind or mirth that lights each page, + Or bowl by which we sit + Is sunfire pilfer'd from their age-- + Gems splinter'd from their wit. + Then, drink and swear by Greece, that there + Though Rhenish Huns may hive + In Britain we the liberty + She loved will keep alive. + + _Philhellenic Drinking Song._ By B. Simmons. + +In our July No. CCCXXXIII. + + +Sir Robert Peel, Monsieur Guizot, and Count Nesselrode, Great Britain, +France, and All the Russias, have announced to the world that the kingdom +of Greece is bankrupt. The _Morning Chronicle_, at a time when it was +regarded as a semi-official authority on foreign affairs, declared and +certified that the king of Greece was an idiot. Verily! the battle of +Navarino has proved a most "untoward event." + +In these degenerate days, a revolution is by no means so serious a matter +as a bankruptcy, and kings require rather more than the ordinary +proportion of wit to keep their feet steady in their slippery elevation. +Greece is therefore clearly in a most lamentable condition, and the +British public who adopted her, and fed her for a while on every luxury, +now cares very little about her misfortunes. Sir Francis Burdett, Sir John +Hobhouse, and the Right Honourable Edward Ellice, who once acted as her +trustees, and Joseph Hume--the immaculate and invulnerable Joseph himself, +who once stood forward as her champion--have forgotten her existence. + +There can be no permanent sympathy where truth is wanting, but the public +does not attend to the correct translation of _Graecia mendax_; it ought +to convey the fact, that foreigners tell more lies about Greece than the +natives themselves. Old Juvenal calls the Greeks a mendacious set of +fabulists, for recording that Xerxes made a canal through the isthmus to +the north of Mount Athos. Colonel Leake declares that the traces of the +canal are visible to all men at this day, who ride across that desert +plain. The moral we wish to inculcate is, that modern politicians should +learn, from the error of the old Roman satirist, to look before they leap. +We shall now endeavour to supply our readers with an impartial account of +the present condition of the Greeks, without meddling with politics or +political speculation. Our opinion is, that the country ought not to be +put in the _Gazette_,--nor ought the king to be sent to the hospital. +Greece is not quite bankrupt, and King Otho is not quite an idiot. Funds +are scarce every where with borrowers in this unlucky year 1843, and wit +scarcer still with most men. + +Our readers are aware, that Great Britain, France, and Russia, having +constituted themselves into an alliance for protecting Greece, concocted +together a long series of protocols, and selected Prince Otho of Bavaria +to be King of Greece.[A] The prince was then a promising youth of +seventeen years of age, destined by his royal father to be a priest, +and--his holiness the Pope willing--in due time a cardinal. At the time +of King Otho's election, a national assembly was sitting in Greece, and a +military revolution was raging in the country, in consequence of the +assassination of Capo d'Istria. The recognition of King Otho was obtained +from this national assembly by the ministers of the three protecting +powers, amidst scenes of promising, threatening, and stabbing, which will +long form a deep stain on the Greek revolution, and on European +diplomacy. Mr Parish, who was subsequently secretary of the British +Legation in Greece, has described the drama, and the share which the +ministers of the allied powers took in arranging its acts. + +[Footnote A: Three large volumes of papers relative to the affairs of +Greece have been laid before Parliament in 1830, 1832, 1833, and 1836.] + +It was well known that King Otho and his regency could not arrive for +several months; and it appeared to be the duty of the protecting powers, +who had selected a sovereign for Greece, to maintain tranquillity in the +country until the arrival of the new government. The representatives of +the allied powers shrank from this responsibility. The national assembly +seemed determined to vote two addresses--one congratulating King Otho on +his selection to the throne, assuring him of the submission of the nation, +but stating to him the laws and usages of Greece, and informing him that +his new dignity imposed on him the duty of rendering justice to all men +according to the laws and institutions of Greece. This address might have +failed to interest the foreign ministers, but it became known that another +was to follow--thanking the protecting powers for the selection they had +made of a monarch, but calling upon them to maintain order in the country +until the arrival of the young king, or of a legally appointed regency. + +The representatives of the European powers knew that Greece was in a state +of anarchy, and that the irregular troops scattered over the country, were +destroying the resources of the new monarchy; yet to escape the +responsibility of advising their courts to act, they thought fit to +persuade a few of the political leaders of different parties to unite in +silencing the observations of the representatives of the Greek nation, and +looked on while a military insurrection compelled the assembly to adopt a +decree in the following words-- + + "The representatives of the Greek + nation recognise and confirm the selection + of H.R.H. Prince Otho of Bavaria as + King of Greece. + + "The present decree shall be inserted + in the acts of the assembly, and published + by the press." + +The military rabble outside then rushed in and dispersed the +representatives of the Greek nation. No rhetorical Greek ever prepared +this precious decree. It tells its own tale; it is too diplomatically +laconic. It served its purpose in Europe: it looked so well suited to act +as an annex to a protocol. Here, however, we have the source of half the +evils of the Greek monarchy. King Otho's reign commenced with a violation +of law, order, and common sense; and as this violation of every principle +of justice had been openly countenanced by the political agents of the +protecting powers, King Otho was misled into a belief that Great Britain, +France, and Russia, wished to deliver Greece, bound hand and foot, and +despoiled of every right, into his hands. + +Various reasons, at the time, induced the Greeks to submit to these +proceedings without a murmur, and even to turn away from those who +endeavoured to raise a warning voice. The truth is, no sacrifice was too +great, which held out a hope of putting an end to the existing anarchy. +About thirteen thousand irregular troops were occupying the richest part +of Greece, and destroying or consuming every thing that had escaped the +Turks. The cattle and sheep of the peasantry were seized, the olive trees +cut down for fuel; and while the people were dying of hunger, literally +perishing for want of food, these banditti were feasting in abundance. The +political Greeks, the jackals of diplomacy, cajolled the people and the +soldiers, by declaring that the allied powers had furnished the king with +money to pay the troops, and to indemnify every man for the losses +sustained during the revolution. + +King Otho and his regency did at last arrive, and they brought with them +an army of Bavarians. The king was received with a degree of enthusiasm, +and with proofs of devotion which would have touched any hearts not +protected by an impenetrable padding of beer and sour crout. But it was, +unfortunately for the young king, the fashion at the new court to despise +and distrust the Greeks, to underrate their exploits, and to declaim +against their honesty. The revolution was treated as a war of words, the +defence of Missolonghi as a trifle, and the naval warfare as a farce. The +Greeks have since, on the mountains of Maina, and on the plain of +Phthiotis, shown themselves so far superior to the Bavarians when engaged +in the field, that we shall say nothing on that subject. Their honesty has +been generally considered more questionable than their courage; for though +the names of Miaulis, Kanaris, Marco Botzaris, Niketas, Kolocotroni and +Karaiskaki are known to all Europe, the only spotless statesman, in the +opinion of the Greeks themselves, is the unknown Kanakaris. The arrival of +the king, however, afforded singular proof of the strong feeling of +patriotism and honesty which prevailed among the people. + +The Bavarians arrived in Greece early in 1833, and the revenues for that +year were estimated, by competent persons, at four millions of drachmas; +but it was thought that the regency would not succeed in collecting more +than three millions, as their recent arrival prevented their enforcing a +strict system of control. It was necessary, therefore, to trust much to +the honesty of the people, usually a poor guarantee for large payments +into the exchequer of any country. But the Greeks felt that their national +independence was connected with the stability of the new government, and +they acted with true nobility of feeling on the occasion. The revenues +received by the king's government in 1833, amounted to upwards of seven +millions of drachmas, although two months elapsed before some of the +provinces were relieved from the burden of maintaining the irregular +soldiery at free quarters. We believe that there never was a government in +the world which received the amount of the taxes imposed on the people +with such perfect good faith, as the Greek government in 1833. The +expenditure of the government for that year, amounted to something more +than thirteen millions and a half, and if Greece had been governed with +the honesty shown by the Greek people, the expenditure of future years +would never have exceeded that sum. + +[We subjoin a statement of the revenues and expenditure of Greece, for +those in which the Greek government have condescended to publish their +accounts. + + REVENUE. EXPENDITURE. + Drachmas. Drachmas. +1833, . . . . 7,042,653 1833, . . . . 13,630,467 +1834, . . . . 9,455,410 1834, . . . . 20,150,657 +1835, . . . . 10,737,011 1835, . . . . 16,851,070 +1836, . . . . 12,381,000 1836, . . . . 16,447,126 +1837, . . . . 13,313,393 1837, . . . . 16,190,527 + +After the king took the entire direction of public business into his own +hands, he gave up publishing any accounts, and accordingly none have +appeared in the Greek Gazette for the years 1838, 1839, 1840, and 1841. +Financial difficulties pressing hard in 1842, his Majesty resumed the +practice to a certain degree, by publishing a budget:-- + + REVENUE. EXPENDITURE. + Drachmas. Drachmas. +1842, estimated at 17,834,000 1842, . . . . 19,395,022 +1843, . . . . 14,407,795 1843, . . . . 18,666,482 + +We may remark, that not the smallest reliance can be placed on these +budgets for the years 1842 and 1843. We are informed that 1,000,000 +drachmas of the revenue of 1842 were still unpaid in the month of May +1843.] + + +We shall now endeavour to explain why the king's government has proved so +inefficient in improving the country, and afterwards examine the various +causes of its extreme unpopularity. To do this, it is necessary to state +what the government has really done; and also, what it was expected to do. +We shall try as we go along, to explain the part the protecting powers +have acted in thwarting the progress of improvement, and in encouraging +the court in its lavish expenditure and anti-national policy. It must, +indeed, constantly be borne in mind by the reader, that the three +protecting powers in their collective capacity have all along supported +the government of King Otho--and that even when the _Morning Chronicle_ +called King Otho an idiot, and Lord Palmerston quarrelled with him and +scolded him, still England joined the other powers in continuing to supply +him with money to continue his immense palace, and pay his Bavarian +aides-de-camp. We may add, too, that if it had been otherwise, had either +Great Britain, France, or Russia, deliberately abandoned the alliance, +King Otho would immediately have ceased to be King of Greece, unless +supported on his throne by the direct interference of the other two. Had +the Greeks not looked upon him as the pledge that the protecting powers +would maintain order in the country, they would have sent him back to his +royal father, as ornamental at Munich, where an additional king would +make the town look gayer, but as utterly useless in Greece. Though, +England, France, and Russia, have therefore each in their turn acted in +opposition to King Otho, still they have always as a body supported his +doings, right or wrong. + +Let us now see what the government of King Otho has done for Greece. From +1833 until 1837, Greece was governed by Bavarian ministers, and +accordingly the king was not considered directly responsible for the +conduct of the administration. These ministers were Mr Maurer, who, during +1833 and part of 1834, directed the government. He was supported with +great eagerness by France, and opposed with more energy by England. The +liberal and anti-Russian tendency of his measures, alarmed Russia, but +she showed her opposition with considerable moderation. Count Armansperg +succeeded Mr Maurer, and he ruled Greece with almost absolute power for +two years. He was supported by Lord Palmerston with the energy of the most +determined partizanship. The institutions of Greece, liberal policy, and +sound principles of commercial legislation, were all forgotten, because +Count Armansperg was anti-Russian. The opposition of France and Russia was +strongly announced, but restrained within reasonable bounds. Mr Rudhart +succeeded Count Armansperg. He, poor man! was assailed by England with all +the artillery of Palmerston; and as neither France nor Russia would +undertake to support so unfit a person, he was driven from his post. + +The Greek government enjoyed every possible advantage during the +administration of these Bavarians. A loan of L.2,400,000, contracted under +the guarantee of the three protecting powers, kept the treasury full; so +that no plan for the improvement of Greece, or for enriching the +Bavarians, was arrested for want of funds. We shall now pass in review +what was done. + +1. A good monetary system was established. The allies, it is true, +supplied the metal, but the Bavarians deserve the merit of transferring as +much of it as they could into their own pockets, in a very respectable +coinage. + +2. The irregular troops were disbanded, and many of them driven over the +frontier into Turkey. The thing was very clumsily done; but, thank Heaven! +it was done, and Greece was delivered from this horde of banditti. + +3. Every Bavarian officer or cadet was promoted, and every Greek officer +was reduced to a lower rank. We cannot venture to describe the rage of the +Greeks, nor the presumption of the Bavarians. + +4. An order of knighthood was created, of which the decorations were +distributed in the following manner: One hundred and twenty-five grand +crosses, and crosses of grand commanders, were divided as follows: The +protecting powers received ninety-one, that is thirty a-piece if they +agreed to divide fairly. The odd one was really given to Baron Rothschild, +as contractor of the loan. The Bavarians took twenty-three. The Greeks +received ten for services during the war of the revolution, and during the +national assembly which accepted King Otho, and one was bestowed among the +foreigners who had served Greece during the war with Turkey. Six hundred +and fourteen crosses of inferior rank were distributed, and of these the +Greeks received only one hundred and forty-five; so that really the +protecting powers and the Bavarians reserved for themselves rather more +than a fair proportion of this portion of the loan, especially if they +expected the Greeks not to become bankrupt. + +5. All the Greek civil servants of King Otho were put into light blue +uniforms, covered with silver lace, at one hundred pounds sterling a-head. +And, O Gemini! such uniforms! Those who have seen the ambassador of his +Hellenic majesty at the court of St James's, at a levee or a drawing-room, +will not soon forget the merits of his tailor. + +6. Ambassadors were sent to Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Munich, Madrid, +Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople, and Consuls-general to all the ends of +the earth. + +7. A council of state was formed. + +8. The civil government was organized, and royal governors appointed in +all the provinces, who maintain a direct correspondence with the minister +of the interior. + +9. A very respectable judicial administration was formed, and codes of +civil and criminal procedure published. + +10. The Greek Church was organized on a footing which rendered it +independent of the patriarch at Constantinople without causing a schism. +This is unquestionably the ablest act of Mr Maurer's administration, and +it drew on him the whole hatred of Russia. + +11. The communal and municipal system of Greece, the seat of the vitality +of the Greek nation, was adopted as the foundation of the social edifice +in the monarchy. It is true some injudicious Bavarian modifications were +made; but time will soon consign to oblivion these delusions of Teutonic +intellect. + +12. The liberty of the press was admitted to be an inherent right of Greek +citizens. + +The five last-mentioned measures are entirely due to the liberal spirit +and sound legal knowledge of Mr Maurer, who, if he had been restrained +from meddling with diplomacy, and quarreling with the English and Russian +ministers at Nauplia, would have been universally regarded as a most +useful minister. But all the practical good Greece has derived from the +Bavarians, is confined to a few of his acts. + +The accession of Count Armansperg to power, opened a new scene. A certain +number of Greeks were then admitted to high and lucrative employments, on +condition that they would support the Bavarian system, and declare that +their country was not yet fit for the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. +The partizans of Mr Maurer were dismissed and sent back to Bavaria: a few +good bribes were given to newspaper editors and noisy democrats; but the +Bavarians were kept in the possession of the richest part of the spoil. +Accordingly, the cry of the Greeks against Bavarian influence and Bavarian +rapacity never ceased. Rudhart's government was a continuation of that of +Armansperg, only with the difference that he leaned on a different foreign +power for support. Neither Armansperg nor Rudhart conferred any benefit on +Greece. They formed a phalanx or corps of veterans; but as they laid down +no invariable rules for admission, but kept the door open as a means of +creating a party among the military, this institution has become a scene +of jobbing and abuse. + +A law conferring a portion of land on every Greek family was passed; but +as it was intended to serve political purposes, it was never put into +general execution. A number of sales of national lands has been made under +it, in direct violation of every principle of law and justice; and as +detached pieces of the richest plains in Greece have been alienated in +this way, the resources of the country will be found to have been very +seriously diminished by this singular species of wholesale corruption. + +Rudhart was compelled from his weakness to make one or two steps in the +national path. He assembled the council of state, and called the +provincial councils and the university into activity. + +We have now arrived at the period when King Otho assumed the reins of +government. From the year 1838 to the present day, he has been his own +irresponsible prime minister; for the apparent ministers Zographos, +Paikos, Maurocordatos and Rizos, have never enjoyed his unlimited +confidence, nor have they been viewed with much favour by the people. +Indeed, with the exception of Maurocordatos, they are men of inferior +ability, and of no character or standing in the country. Any one who will +take the trouble to read those portions of their diplomatic correspondence +with the ministers of the allied powers at Athens, which have been +published, will be convinced of their utter unfitness for the offices they +have held. Let the reader contrast these precious specimens of inaccuracy +and rigmarole, with the come-to-the-truth style of our own minister, or +the sarcastic, let-us-go-quietly-over-your-reasoning style, in which the +Russian minister answers them. + +In order that our readers may form some idea of the manner in which King +Otho has carried on the government for five years, we shall describe the +political machine he has framed--name it we cannot; for it resembles +nothing the world has yet seen amidst all the multifarious combinations of +cabinet-making, which kings, sultans, krals, emperors, czars, or khans, +have yet presented to the envious contemplation of aspiring statesmen. The +king of Greece, it must be observed, is a monarch whose ministers are held +by a fiction of law to be responsible; and the editor of an Athenian +newspaper has been fined and imprisoned for declaring that this fiction is +not a fact. These ministers are not permitted by King Otho to assemble +together in council, unless he himself be present. The assembly would be +too democratic for Otho's nerves. In short, the king has a ministry, but +his ministers do not form a cabinet; his cabinet is a separate concern. +Each minister waits on his majesty with his portfolio under his arm, and +receives the royal commands. To simplify business, however, and make the +ministers fully sensible of their real insignificancy, King Otho +frequently orders the clerks in the public offices to come to his royal +presence, with the papers on which they have been engaged; and by this +means he shows the ministers, that though they are necessary in +consequence of the fiction of law, they may be rendered very secondary +personages in their own departments. If it were not a useless waste of +time, we could lay before our readers instances of this singularly easy +mode of doing business--instances too, which have been officially +communicated to the allied powers. His majesty carried his love of +performing ministerial duties so far, that for more than a year he +dispensed entirely with a minister of finance, and divided the functions +of that office among three of the clerks: no bad preparation for a +national bankruptcy, we must allow--yet the protecting powers viewed this +political vagary of his majesty with perfect indifference. + +The most singular feature of King Otho's government is his cabinet, or, as +the Greek newspapers call it, "the Camarilla." This cabinet has no +official constitution; yet its members put their titles on the visiting +cards which they leave, as advertisements of the existence of this +irresponsible body, at the houses of the foreign ministers. It consists, +or until the late financial difficulties deranged all the royal plans, it +consisted, of four Bavarians and two Greeks. Its duty is to prepare +projects of laws to be adopted by the different ministers, and to assist +the king in selecting individuals appointed to public offices. This is the +feature which excites the greatest indignation at Athens; the minister of +war does not dare to promote a corporal; the minister of public +instruction would tremble to send a village schoolmaster to a country +_demos_, even at the expense of the citizens; and the minister of finance +would not risk the responsibility of conferring the office of porter of +the customhouse at Parras, before receiving the royal instructions how to +act on such emergencies, and ascertaining what creature of the camarilla +it was necessary to provide for. + +We have already mentioned the council of state; it consists of about +twenty individuals chosen by his majesty, a motley congregation--some +cannot read--others cannot write--some came to Greece after the revolution +was over--some, long after the king himself. This council is, by one of +the fictions of law so common in the Hellenic kingdom, supposed to form a +legislative council, and it is implied that it ought to be considered as +tantamount to a representative assembly. Some of its members are most +brave and respectable men, who have rendered Greece good service; but +since they were decked out in silver uniforms, and received large salaries +to form a portion of the court pageant, they have lost much of their +influence in the country, either for good or evil. The king looks upon +these patriotic members as an insignificant minority, or an ignorant +majority, as the case may be, and he has more than once set aside the +opposition of this council, by publishing laws rejected by a majority of +its members. To speak a plain truth in rude phrase--the council of state +is a farce. + +King Otho, with his Greek ministers, his Bavarian cabinet, and his motley +council of state, is therefore, to all appearance, a more absolute +sovereign than his neighbour, Abdul Meschid. But we must now leave the +royal authority, and turn our attention to an important chapter in the +Greek question; one which nevertheless has not hitherto met with proper +study either from the king, his allies, or the public in Western +Europe--we mean the institutions of the Greek people. + +The inhabitants of Greece consist of two classes, who, from having been +placed for many ages in totally different circumstances, are extremely +different in manners and in civilization. These are the population of the +towns or the commercial class, and the inhabitants of the country or the +agricultural class. The traders have usually been considered by strangers +as affording the true type of the Greek character; but a very little +reflection ought to have convinced any one, that the insecurity of the +Turkish government, and the constant change in the channels of trade in +the East, had given this class of the population a most Hebraical +indifference to "the dear name of country." To the Fanariote and the +Sciote, Wallachia or Trieste were delightful homes, if dollars were +plentiful. But the agricultural population of Greece was composed of very +different materials. We are inclined to consider them as the most +obstinately patriotic race on which the sun shines; their patriotism is a +passion and an instinct, and, from being restricted to their village or +their district, often looks quite as like a vice as a virtue. This class +is altogether so unlike any portion of the population of Western Europe, +that we should be more likely to mislead than to enlighten our readers by +attempting to describe it. The peasants are themselves inclined to +distrust the population of the towns, and look on Bavarians, Fanariotes, +and government officers, as a tribe of enemies embodying different degrees +of rapacity under various names. They have as yet derived little benefit +from the government of King Otho, for their taxes are greater now than +they were under the Turks, and they very sagaciously attribute the +existence of order in Greece to the alliance of the kings of the Franks, +not to the military prowess of the Bavarians. + +There is a third class of men in Greece who hold in some degree the +position of an aristocracy. This class is composed of all those +individuals who from education are entitled to hold government +appointments; and at the head of this class figure the Fanariotes or Greek +families who were in the habit of serving under the Turkish government. +Many of the Fanariotes move about seeking their fortunes, from Greece to +Turkey, Wallachia, and Moldavia, and _vice versa_. One brother will be +found holding an office in the suite of the Prince of Moldavia, and +another in the court of King Otho. This class is more attached to foreign +influence than to Greek independence, and is almost as generally unpopular +in the country as the Bavarians; and perhaps not without reason, as it +supplies the court with abler and more active instruments than could be +found among the dull Germans. + +We must now notice the great peculiarity of the national constitution of +the Greeks as a distinct people. There is indeed a singular difference in +the organization of the European nations, which does not always meet with +due attention from historians. The various governments of Europe are +divided into absolute and constitutional; but it is seldom considered +necessary to explain whether the people are ruled by officers appointed by +the central authority of the state, or by magistrates elected by local +assemblies of the people. Yet, as the character of a nation is more +important in history than the form of its government, it is as much the +duty of the historian to examine the institutions of the people, as it is +the business of the politician to be acquainted with the action of the +government. To illustrate this, we shall describe in general terms the +political constitution of the Greeks, and leave our readers to compare it +with the share enjoyed by the French, and some other of the constitutional +nations, in their own local government. After all the boasted liberty and +equality of the subjects of the Citizen King, we own that we consider that +the Greeks possess national institutions resting on a surer and more solid +basis. + +All Greece is, and always has been, divided into communities enjoying the +right of choosing their own magistrates, and these magistrates decide a +number of police and administrative questions not affecting crimes and +rights of property. The most populous town, and the smallest hamlet, +equally exercise this privilege, and it is to its existence that the +Greeks owe the power of resistance they were enabled to exert against +their Roman and Turkish masters. We shall not enter into the history of +this institution, under the Turks, at present; as it is sufficient for our +purpose to give our readers a correct idea of the existing state of +things. A local elective magistracy is formed, which prevents the central +government from goading the people to insurrection by the insolence of +office which the inferior agents of an ill-organized administration +constantly display. Fortunately for the tranquillity of the country, the +local administration works its way onward through the daily difficulties +which present themselves, independent of king, ministers, councillors of +state, or royal governors. + +In order to make our description as exact as possible, without presenting +a vague statistical view of the whole kingdom, for the accuracy of which +we would not pretend to answer, we confine our observations to the +province of Attica, concerning which we have been able to obtain official +information from all the communes. + +There is, of course, a royal governor in Attica, who resides at Athens; he +is named on the responsibility of the minister of the interior, with whom +he is in daily correspondence, and is the organ of communication between +the royal government and the popular magistracy. Of course, in the present +state of things, the officer is appointed by King Otho himself, who has +made it a point of statesmanship to keep a person in the place quite as +much disposed to serve as a spy on all the ministers, as inclined to +execute with zeal the orders of his immediate superior. + +The population of Attica is divided into seven communes or demarchies.[B] + +[Footnote B: To this population of 33,909, must be added the troops and +strangers in Athens, and at the Piraeus, who are not citizens. They +generally exceed three thousand.] + +1. Athens, containing . 22,309 inhabitants. +2. Piraeus, . . . 2099 ... +3. Kekropia, . . . 2158 ... +4. Marathon, . . . 1214 ... +5. Phyle, . . . 2659 ... +6. Laurion, . . . 1470 ... +7. Kalamos, . . . 2000 ... + ------ + 33,909 + +It will be enough for our purpose to describe the local constitution of +the city of Athens, and then point out the slight variations which +circumstances render necessary in the secluded agricultural communes of +the province. + +The magistrates of Athens consist of a demarch (provost), six paredhroi +(bailies), and a town council composed of eighteen members. The +town-council is selected by all the citizens, who vote by signed lists, +containing the names of thirty-six individuals. The eighteen who have a +majority of votes become members of the town-council, and the remaining +eighteen who have the greatest number form a list of supplementary +members to supply vacancies, and prevent any election being necessary +except at the stated periods provided by law. The election of the demarch +and paredhroi is a more complicated affair. The eighteen members chosen +to form the town-council, and eighteen citizens who are the highest +tax-payers in the community, then meet together under the presidency of +the royal governor of the province. This meeting first proceeds to elect +two of its number to open the ballot-box, and assist and control the +conduct of the royal governor, as vice-presidents of the assembly. The +election proceeds, the persons present voting by ballot. The names of +candidates for the office of demarch must be returned, from which the +king selects one, and six paredhroi chosen, who must all have an absolute +majority of votes. The indirect election of the demarch is extremely +unpopular, as it has no effect except to enable the king to exclude two +popular but uncourtly citizens from every municipal office. + +The plan of election in the country districts is precisely similar, but +the town-council is less numerous, and each village has its own resident +paredhros. The election of the demarch and of the paredhroi is conducted +as at Athens, and the royal governor of the province is compelled to visit +each commune in turn, in order to preside at the election. The whole +system rests on a popular basis. Every citizen possessing property, or +enrolled in the list of citizens from paying taxes, enjoys a vote in the +election of the magistrates of his demos. The royal authority only concurs +in so far as is required to preserve order, and give an official +certificate of the legality of the proceedings. + +We come now to another popular institution, which gives a great degree of +political strength to the municipal organization of Greece, and protects +its liberties in a manner unknown in most other countries. Each province +possesses a provincial council, the members of which are elected by the +citizens of the different demoi into which the province is divided--a +demos containing 2000 inhabitants, sends one representative; a demos with +10,000 but exceeding 2000, sends two representatives; and a demos having +more than 10,000 inhabitants, sends three. Here, however, the electors are +required to pay fifty drachmas of direct taxes to the general government +in order to be entitled to vote.[C] + +[Footnote C: Twenty-eight drachmas make a pound sterling.] + +It will be seen, on referring to the population of the Attic demoi, that +the provincial council of Attica consists of twelve members, and these +members are elected for six years. The restriction on the electors is not +unpopular in Greece, as it is connected with an extended suffrage in the +municipal elections. Upwards of 500 citizens voted in Athens at the last +elections of provincial councillors. The provincial councils meet every +year in the months of February or March, as that is the season when the +landed proprietors in the country can most conveniently absent themselves +from their farms. The council chooses its own president and secretary, but +the royal governor of the province has the right to attend its meeting. +The budget of each demos must be presented to the council and approved by +it, and it has the power of rejecting any item of expenditure; but it can +only recommend, not enforce, any additional expense. It is likewise the +business of the provincial council to examine the grounds on which any +demos solicits the power of imposing local taxes: it proposes also general +improvements for the whole province, and has the power of assessing the +taxes necessary for carrying them into effect. Roads, barracks for +_gendarmes_, prisons, hospitals, and schools, are objects of its +attention. Its acts must all be presented to the minister of the interior +at the conclusion of the session, and they acquire validity only from the +time the minister communicates the royal assent to the proceedings. + +This system of popular government, in all matters directly connected with +the daily business of the citizens, is a wise arrangement, and it has +proved a powerful engine for the preservation of order amidst a population +accustomed to anarchy, revolution, and despotism; and it has also formed a +firm barrier against the tyrannical aspirations of the Bavarians. Indeed, +had King Otho's government not been prevented, by this municipal system, +from coming into daily contact with the people, we are persuaded that it +would long ago have thrown Greece into convulsions, and caused the +massacre of every Bavarian in the country. + +From the account we have given of the royal central government on the one +hand, and of the local magistracy on the other, it will be evident to our +readers that there are two powers at work in Greece, which, unless they +are united in the pursuit of some common objects, must at last engage in a +contest for the mastery. + +We shall now notice the newspaper allegation, that the Greek court is +composed entirely of Bavarians. This was once the case, but it ceased to +be strictly true from the moment Armansperg introduced the system of +bribing the Greeks to join the Bavarian party; and at present the +government is supported almost entirely by Greek deserters from the +national cause. There is now no Bavarian in the ministry, and there are +Greeks in the cabinet. Many of the Greeks who affect with foreigners to be +loud in their complaints against the Bavarians, are, in the +administration, the most strenuous supporters of King Otho's system, and, +like Maurocordatos, the declared opponents of a national assembly and of a +representative form of government. They declare to the king that it is +necessary to retain some Bavarians in Greece, and they really wish it done +in order to exclude their Greek rivals from office. A revolution, followed +by a foreign government, and a lavish expenditure, has demoralized sterner +stuff than Greek politicians are made of, so that it is more to be +regretted than wondered at, when it appears that the Greek court has an +unusually large supply of venal political adventurers always ready to +enter its service. + +This band consists of the Fanariotes, who were trained to official +aptitude and immorality under the Turks--of the politicians of the +revolution who deserted the cause of their country for the service of the +protecting powers at the last national assembly--and of a large class of +educated men not bred to commerce, who have resorted to Greece to make +their fortunes, and are now ready to accept places under any government. +The court, in its ignorance of Greece, has often purchased the services of +these men at their own valuation; and from this cause originates the crowd +of incapable councillors of state, useless ambassadors and consuls, +ignorant ministerial councillors and royal governors, and dishonest +commissaries, who assemble round King Otho in his palace. But time is +rolling on--ten years have elapsed since King Otho first stepped on the +Hellenic soil--the heroes of the war are sinking into the grave--Miaulis, +the best of the brave--Zaimi, the sagacious timid Moreote +noble--Kolocotroni, the sturdy strewd old klephtic chieftain;--these +three representatives and leaders of numerous classes of their +countrymen, now sleep in an honoured grave, and their followers no longer +form a majority in the land. A new race has arisen, a race equal in +education to the Maurocordatos, Rizos, Souizos, Karadjas, Tricoupis, and +Kolettis, and possessing the immense advantage over these men of +occupying a social position of greater independence. The fiery vehemence +of youth placed most of these new men in the opposition when they entered +on life. A political career being closed, they were, fortunately for +their country, obliged to devote all their attention to the cultivation +of their estates, and content themselves with improving their vineyards +and olive plantations instead of governing their country. Years have now +brought an increase of wealth, habits of moderation, steadiness of +purpose, and feelings of independence. + +In a country such as we have described Greece, and we flatter ourselves +our description will bear examination on the part of travellers and +diplomatic gentlemen, we ask if there can be any doubt of the ultimate +success of popular institutions? For our own part, we feel persuaded that +Greece can only escape from a fierce civil war by the convocation of a +national representative assembly.--We adopted this opinion from the moment +that the Bavarian government was unable to destroy the liberty of the +press, after plunging into the contest and awakening the political +passions of the people. When a sovereign attacks a popular institution +without provocation, and fails in his attack, and when the people show +that concentrated energy which inspires the prudence necessary to use +victory with a moderation which produces no reaction against their cause, +their victory is sure. Under such circumstances a nation can patiently +wait the current of events. If Greece exist as a monarchy, we believe it +will soon have a national assembly; and if King Otho remain its sovereign, +we have a fancy that he will not long delay convoking one. Nothing, +indeed, can long prevent some representative body from meeting together, +unless it be the interference, direct or indirect, of the three protecting +powers. They, indeed, have strength sufficient to become the Three +Protecting Tyrants. + +We hope that we have now given a tolerably intelligible account of King +Otho's government, and how it stands. We shall, therefore, proceed to the +second division of our enquiry, and strive to explain the actual state of +public feeling in Greece; what the king's government was expected to do, +and what it has left undone. We may be compelled here to glance at a few +delicate and contested questions in Greek politics, on which, however, we +shall not pretend to offer any opinion of our own, but merely collect the +facts; and we advise all men who wish to form a decided opinion on such a +question, to wait patiently until they have been discussed in a national +assembly of Greeks. + +The first great question on which the government of King Otho was expected +to decide, was the means necessary to be adopted for discharging the +internal debt contracted for carrying on the war against the Turks. This +debt resolved itself into two heads: payment for services, and repayment +of money advanced. The national assemblies which had met during the +revolution, had decreed that every man who served in the army should, at +the conclusion of the war, receive a grant of land. It was proposed that +King Otho should carry these decrees into execution, by framing lists of +all those who had served either in the army, the navy, or in civil +employments. The same registers which contain the lists of the citizens of +the various communes, could have been rendered available for the purpose +of verifying the services of each individual. A fixed number of acres +might then have been destined to each man, according to his rank and time +of service. This measure would have enabled the Greek government to say, +that it had kept faith with the people. It would have induced many of the +military to settle as landed proprietors when the first current of +enthusiasm in favour of peaceful occupations set in, and it would have +been the means of silencing many pretensions of powerful military chiefs, +whose silence has since been dearly purchased. + +The royal government always resisted these demands of the Greeks, and the +consequence was, that when it was necessary to yield from fear, Count +Armansperg adopted a law of dotation, which, under the appearance of being +a general measure, was only carried into application in cases where +partisanship was established; and yet national lands have been alienated +to a far greater extent than would have satisfied every claim arising out +of the revolutionary war. The king, it is true, has in late years made +donations of national land to favoured individuals, to maids of honour, +Turkish neophytes, and Bavarian brides; and he has rewarded several +political renegades with currant lands, and held out hopes of conferring +villages on councillors of state who have been eager defenders of the +court; but all this has been openly done as a matter of royal favour. + +With regard to the second class of claimants. Common honesty, if royal +gratitude go for nothing in Greece, required that those who advanced money +to their country in her day of need, should be repaid their capital. All +interest might have been refused--the glory of their disinterested conduct +was all the reward they wanted; for few of them would have demanded +repayment of the sums due had they been rich enough to offer them as a +gift. The refusal of King Otho to repay these sums when he lavished money +on his Bavarian favourites and Greek partizans, has probably lowered his +character more, both in the East and in Europe, than any of those errors +in diplomacy which induced the _Morning Chronicle_ to publish, that +several Bavarians of rank had written a certificate of his being an idiot, +and forwarded it to his royal father. The sum required to pay up all the +claims of this class, would not have exceeded the agency paid by King Otho +to his Bavarian banker for remitting the loan contracted at Paris to +Greece, by the rather circuitous route of Munich. + +It was also expected by the Greeks that one of the first acts of the royal +government would have been to abolish the duty on all articles carried by +sea from one part of the kingdom to another; this duty amounted to six per +cent, and was not abolished until the late demands of the three protecting +powers for prompt payment of the money due to them by his Hellenic +majesty, rendered King Otho rather more amenable to public opinion than he +had been previously. A decree was accordingly published a few months ago, +abolishing this most injurious tax, the preamble of which declares, with +innocent _naivete_, that the duty thus levied is not based on principles +of equal taxation, but bears oppressively on particular classes.[D] +Alas! poor King Otho! he begins to abolish unjust taxation when his +exchequer is empty, and when his creditors are threatening him with the +Gazette; and yet he delays calling together a national assembly. It is +possible that, little by little, King Otho may be persuaded by +circumstances to become a tolerable constitutional sovereign at last; but +we fear our old friend Hadgi Ismael Bey--may his master never diminish the +length of his shadow!--will say on this occasion, as we have heard him say +on some others, "Machallah! Truly, the sense of the ghiaour doth arrive +after the mischief!" But we hold no opinions in common with Hadgi Ismael +Bey, who drinketh water, despiseth the Greek, and hateth the Frank. Our +own conjecture is, that King Otho has been studying the history of +Theopompus, one of his Spartan predecessors who, like himself, occupied +barely half a throne. Colleagues and ephori were in times past as +unpleasant associates in the duties of government as protecting powers now +are. Now Theopompus looked not lovingly on those who shared his royalty, +but as he understood the signs of the times, he sought to make friends at +Sparta by establishing a popular council, that is to say, he convoked a +national assembly. Thus, by diminishing the pretensions of royalty, he +increased its power. Let King Otho do the same, and if some luckless +Bavarian statesmen upbraid him with having thrown away his power, let him +reply--"No, my friend, I have only rendered the Bavarian dynasty more +durable in Greece." [Greek: Oi deta, paraoioomi gar ten basileian +poluchronioteran.] If King Otho would once a day recall to his mind the +defence of Missolonghi, if he would reflect on the devotion shown to the +cause of their country by the whole population of Greece, he would surely +feel prouder of identifying his name and fortunes with a country so +honoured and adored, than of figuring in Bavarian history as the protector +of the artists who has reared the enormous palace he has raised at Athens. + +[Footnote D: This decree was published in the _Athena_ newspaper, and is +dated the 20th of April 1843. It does not appear to have been published +until some weeks later.] + +The Greeks expected that a civilized government would have taken measures +for improving the internal communications of the country, and exerted +itself to open new channels of commercial enterprise. They had hoped to +see some part of the loan expended in the formation of roads, and in +establishing regular packets to communicate with the islands. The best +road the loan ever made, was one to the marble quarries of Pentelicus in +order to build the new palace, and the only packets in Greece were +converted by his majesty into royal yachts.[E] The regency, it is true, +made a decree announcing their determination to make about 250 miles of +road. But their performances were confined to repairing the road from +Nauplia to Argos, which had been made by Capo d'Istria. The Greek +government, however, has now completed the famous road to the marble +quarries, a road of six miles in length to the Piraeus, and another of +five miles across the isthmus of Corinth. The King of Bavaria very nearly +had his neck broken on a road said to have been then practicable between +Argos and Corinth. We can answer for its being now perfectly impassable +for a carriage. Two considerable military roads are, however, now in +progress, one from Athens to Thebes, and another from Argos to +Tripolitza. But these roads have been made without any reference to +public utility, merely to serve for marching troops and moving artillery, +and consequently the old roads over the mountains, as they require less +time, are alone used for commercial transport. + +[Footnote E: This is no exaggeration. We once visited the island of +Santorin, which has a population of 9000 souls, who own 46 vessels of 200 +tons and upwards, besides many smaller craft. King Otho was sailing about +in one steamer at the time, and another was acting the man-of-war amidst +a fleet of English, French, Prussian, and Austrian frigates in the front +of the Piraeus; yet no post had been forwarded to Santorin for a +fortnight. Santorin is about 90 miles from Athens, and yields a very +considerable revenue to the Greek monarchy.] + +It is evident that a poor peasantry, possessing no other means of +transport than their mules and pack-horses, must reckon distance entirely +by time, and the only way to make them perceive the advantages to be +derived from roads, is forming such bridle-paths as will enable them to +arrive at their journey's end a few hours sooner. The Greek government +never though of doing this, and every traveller who has performed the +journey from Patras to Athens, must have seen fearful proofs of this +neglect in the danger he ran of breaking his neck at the Kaka-scala or +cursed stairs of Megara. + +Nay, King Otho's government has employed its _vis inertiae_ in preventing +the peasantry, even when so inclined, from forming roads at their own +expense; for the peasantry of Greece are far more enlightened than the +Bavarians. In the year 1841, the provincial council of Attica voted that +the road from Kephisia--the marble-quarry road--should be continued +through the province of Attica as far as Oropos. Provision was made for +its immediate commencement by the labour of the communes through which it +was to pass. Every farmer possessing a yoke of oxen was to give three +days' labour during the year, and every proprietor of a larger estate was +to supply a proportional amount of labour, or commute it for a fixed rate +of payment in money. This arrangement gave universal satisfaction. +Government was solicited to trace the line of road; but a year passed--one +pretext for delay succeeding another, and nothing was done. The provincial +council of 1842 renewed the vote, and government again prevented its being +carried into execution. It is said that his Majesty is strongly opposed to +the system of allowing the Greeks to get the direction of any public +business into their own hands; and that he would rather see his kingdom +without roads than see the municipal authorities boasting of performing +that which the central government was unable to accomplish. + +We shall only trouble our readers with a single instance of the manner in +which commercial legislation has been treated in Greece. We could with +great ease furnish a dozen examples. Austrian timber pays an import duty +of six per cent, in virtue of a commercial treaty between Royal Greece and +Imperial Austria. Greek timber cut on the mountains round Athens pays an +excise duty of ten per cent; and the value of the Greek timber on the +mountains is fixed according to the sales made at Athens of Austrian +timber, on which the freight and duty have been paid. The effect can be +imagined. In our visit to Greece we spent a few days shooting woodcocks +with a fellow-countryman, who possesses an Attic farm in the mountains, +near Deceleia. His house was situated amidst fine woods of oak and pine; +yet he informed us that the floors, doors, and windows, were all made of +timber from Trieste, conveyed from Athens on the backs of mules. The house +had been built by contract; and though our friend gave the contractor +permission to cut the wood he required within five hundred yards of the +house, he found that, what with the high duty demanded by the government, +and with the delays and difficulties raised by the officers charged with +the valuation, who were Bavarian forest inspectors, the most economical +plan was to purchase foreign timber. The consequence of this is, the +Greeks burn down timber as unprofitable, and convert the land into +pasturage. We have seen many square miles of wood burning on Mount +Pentelicus; and on expressing our regret to a Greek minister, he shrugged +up his shoulders and said: "That, sir, is the way in which the Bavarian +foresters take care of the forests." Yet this Greek, who could sneakingly +ridicule the folly of the Bavarians, was too mean to recommend the king to +change the law. + +Let us now turn to a more enlivening subject of contemplation, and see +what the Greeks have done towards improving their own condition. We shall +pass without notice all their exertions to lodge and feed themselves, or +fill their purses. We can trust any people on those points; our +observations shall be confined to the moral culture. We say that the +Greeks deserve some credit for turning their attention towards their own +improvement, instead of adopting the Gallican system of reform, and +raising a revolution against King Otho. They seem to have set themselves +seriously to work to render themselves worthy of that liberty, the +restoration of which they have so long required in vain from the allied +powers. There is, perhaps, no feature in the Greek revolution more +remarkable than the eager desire for education manifested by all classes. +The central government threw so many impediments in the way of the +establishment of a university, that the Greeks perceived that no buildings +would be erected either as lecture-rooms for the professors, or to contain +the extensive collections of books which had been sent to Greece by +various patriotic Greeks in Europe. Men of all parties were indignant at +the neglect, and at last a public meeting was held, and it was resolved to +raise a subscription for building the university. The government did not +dare to oppose the measure; fortunately, there was one liberal-minded man +connected with the court at the time, Professor Brandis of Bonn, and his +influence silenced the grumbling of the Bavarians; the subscription +proceeded with unrivalled activity, and upwards of L.4000 was raised in a +town of little more than twenty thousand inhabitants--half the inhabitants +of which had not yet been able to rebuild their own houses. Many +travellers have seen the new university at Athens, and visited its +respectable library, and they can bear testimony to the simplicity and +good sense displayed in the building. + +One of the most remarkable features of the great moral improvement which +has taken place in the population, is the eagerness displayed for the +introduction of a good system of female education. The first female school +established in Greece was founded at Syra, in the time of Capo d'Istria, +by that excellent missionary the late Rev. Dr Korck, who was sent to +Greece by the Church Missionary Society. An excellent female school still +exists in this island, under the auspices of the Rev. Mr Hilner, a German +missionary ordained in England, and also in connexion with the Church +Missionary Society. The first female school at Athens, after the +termination of the Revolution, was established by Mrs Hill, an American +lady, whose exertions have been above all praise. A large female school +was subsequently formed by a society of Greeks, and liberally supported by +the Rev. Mr Leeves, and many other strangers, for the purpose of educating +female teachers. This society raises about L.800 per annum in +subscriptions among the Greeks. We cannot close the subject of female +education without adding a tribute of praise to the exertions of Mrs +Korck, a Greek lady, widow of the excellent missionary whom we have +mentioned as having founded the first female school at Syra; and of Mr +George Constantinidhes, a Greek teacher, who commenced his studies under +the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society, and who has +devoted all his energy to the cause of the education of his countrymen, +and has always inculcated the great importance of a good system of female +education. We insist particularly on the merits of those who devoted their +attention to this subject, as indicating a deep conviction of the +importance of moral and religious instruction. Male education leads to +wealth and honours. Boys gain a livelihood by their learning, but girls +are educated that they may form better mothers. + +Other public institutions have not been neglected. The citizens of Athens +have built a very respectable civil hospital, and we mention this as it is +one of the public buildings which excites the attention of strangers, and +which is often supposed to have been erected by the government, though +entirely built from the funds raised by local taxes. The amount of +municipal taxes which the Greeks pay, is another subject which deserves +attention. The general taxes in Greece are very heavy. Every individual +pays, on an average, twelve shillings, which makes the payment of a family +of five persons amount to L.3 sterling annually. This is a very large sum, +when the poverty and destitution of the people is taken into +consideration, and is greater than is paid by any other European nation +where the population is so thinly scattered over the surface of the +country. Yet as soon as the Greeks became convinced that the general +government would contribute nothing towards improving the country, they +determined to impose on themselves additional burdens rather than submit +to wait. Hospitals, schools, churches, and bridges, built by several +municipalities, attest the energy of the determination of the people to +make every sacrifice to improve their condition. We offer our readers a +statement of the amount of the taxes imposed by the municipalities of +Attica on themselves for local improvements. The town communes of Athens +and the Piraeus find less difficulty in collecting the large revenues they +possess, than the country districts their comparatively trifling +resources. + + Drachmas +Athens, with a population of 22,309 collects 159,000 +Piraeus, ... 2,099 ... 27,300 +Kekropia, ... 2,158 ... 3,759 +Marathon, ... 1,214 ... 1,708 +Phyle, ... 2,659 ... 7,000 +Laurion, ... 1,470 ... 2,356 +Kalamos, ... 2,000 ... 2,747 + ------- ------- + 33,909 ... 203,870 + +From this statement we find that each family of five persons pays, on an +average, thirty drachmas of self-imposed taxes, or about twenty-two +shillings annually, in addition to the L.3 sterling paid to the general +government. + +We think we may now ask: Are the Greeks fit for a representative system of +government? We should like to hear the reasons of those who hold the +opinion, that they are not yet able to give an opinion on the best means +of improving their own country, and the most advantageous mode of raising +the necessary revenue. + +We must now conclude with a few remarks on the line of conduct towards the +Greeks which has been pursued by the three protecting powers. We do not, +however, propose entering at any length on the subject, as we have no +other object than that of rendering our preceding observations more clear +to our readers. We are persuaded that the policy of interfering as little +as possible in the affairs of Greece, which has been adopted, and +impartially acted on by Lord Aberdeen, is the true policy of Great +Britain. + +But in reviewing the general position of the Greek state, it must not be +forgotten that the Greek people have had communications with the great +powers of Europe of a nature very different from those which existed +between the protecting powers and King Otho. As soon as it became evident +that Turkey could not suppress the Greek revolution without suffering most +seriously from the diminution of her resources, Russia and England began +to perceive that it would be a matter of some importance to secure the +good-will of the Greek population. The Greeks scattered over the +countries in the Levant, amount to about five millions, and they are the +most active and intelligent portion of the population of the greater part +of the provinces in which they dwell. The declining state of the Ottoman +empire, and the warlike spirit of the Greek mountaineers and sailors, +induced both Russia and England to commence bidding for the favour of the +insurgents. In 1822 the deputy sent by the Greeks to solicit the +_compassion_ of the European ministers assembled at Verona, was not +allowed to approach the Congress. But the successful resistance of the +Greeks to the whole strength of the Ottoman empire for two years, induced +Russia to communicate a memoir to the European cabinets in 1824, proposing +that the Greek population then in arms should receive a separate, though +independent, political existence. This indiscreet proposition awakened the +jealousy of England, as indicating the immense importance attached by +Russia to securing the good-will of the Greeks. England immediately outbid +the Czar for their favour, by recognising the validity of their blockades +of the Turkish fortresses, thus virtually acknowledging the existence of +the Greek state. The other European powers were compelled most unwillingly +to follow the example of Great Britain. Mr Canning, however, in order to +place the question on some public footing, laid down the principles on +which the British cabinet was determined to act, in a communication to the +Greek government, dated in the month of December 1824. This document +declares that the British government will observe the strictest neutrality +with reference to the war; while with regard to the intermediate state of +independence and subjection proposed in the Russian memorial, it adds +that, as it has been rejected by both parties, it is needless to discuss +its advantages or defects. It also assured the Greeks that Great Britain +would take no part in any attempt to compel them by force to adopt a plan +of pacification contrary to their wishes. + +France now thought fit to enter on the field. According to the invariable +principle of modern French diplomacy, she made no definite proposition +either to the Greeks or the European powers; but she sent semi-official +agents into the country, who made great promises to the Greeks if they +would choose the Duke de Nemours, the second son of the Duke d'Orleans, +now King Louis Philippe, to be sovereign of Greece. The Greeks had seen +something too substantial on the part of Russia and England to follow this +Gallic will-o'-the-wisp. But England and Russia, in order to brush all the +cobwebs of French intrigue from a question which appeared to them too +important to be dealt with any longer by unauthorized agents, signed a +protocol at St Petersburg on the 4th April 1826, engaging to use their +good offices with the Sultan to put an end to the war. The Duke of +Wellington himself negotiated the signature of this protocol, and it is +one of the numerous services he has rendered to his country and to Europe, +as the Greek question threatened to disturb the peace of the East. France, +as well as Austria, refused to join, until it became evident that the two +powers were taking active measures to carry their decisions into effect, +when France gave in her adhesion, and the treaty of the 6th of July 1827, +was signed at London by France, Great Britain, and Russia. + +Events soon ran away with calculations. The Turkish fleet was destroyed +at Navarino on the 20th October 1827, the anniversary (if we may trust +Mitford's _History of Greece_) of the battle of Salamis. France now +embarked in the cause, determined to outbid her allies, and sent an +expedition to the Morea, under Marshal Maison, to drive out the troops of +Ibrahim Pasha. Capo d'Istria assumed the absolute direction of political +affairs, and by his Russian partizanship and anti-Anglican prejudices, +plunged Greece in a new revolution, when his personal oppression of the +family of Mauromichalis caused his assassination. King Otho was then +selected as king of Greece, and the consent of the Greeks was obtained to +his appointment by a loan to the new monarch of L.2,400,000 sterling, and +by a good deal of intrigue and intimidation at the assembly of Pronia.[F] +The Greeks, however, had already solemnly informed the allied powers, +that the acts of their national assemblies, consolidating the +institutions of the Greek state, and by securing the liberties of the +Greek people, "were as precious to Greece as her existence itself;" and +the protecting powers had consecrated their engagement to support these +institutions, by annexing this declaration to their protocol of the 22d +March 1830.[G] + +[Footnote F: Several national assemblies have been held in Greece. The +acts of the following have been printed in a collection composed of +several volumes. The first was held at Pidhavro, near Epidaurus, of which +its name is a corruption, in 1822; the others at Astros in 1823, at +Epidaurus in 1826, at Troezene in 1827, at Argos in 1830 and the last at +Pronia, near Nauplia, in 1832.] + +[Footnote G: Annex A, No. 9.] + +The three allied powers have not displayed more union in their councils, +since the selection of King Otho, than they did before his appointment. In +one thing alone they have been unanimous; but unfortunately this has been +to forget their engagements to the Greek people, to see that the +institutions and liberties of Greece were to be respected. England and +France have, however, displayed at times some compunction on the subject; +but, unluckily for the Greeks, their consciences did not prick them at the +same moment. At one time the Duke de Broglie proposed that Greece should +be reinstated in the enjoyment of her free institutions, but Lord +Palmerston declared, that, her government being very anti-Russian at the +time, institutions and liberty were a mere secondary matter, and he did +not think the Greeks required such luxuries. Times, however, changed, and +King Otho, displaying considerably more affection for Russia than for +England--England conceived it necessary to propose, at one of the +conferences in London on the affairs of Greece, that the Greeks should be +called, in virtue of their national institutions, to exercise a control +over the lavish and injudicious expenditure of the revenues of the kingdom +by the royal government. But Russia and France, though admitting the +incapacity of the king's government, declared that they considered it +better to send commissioners named by the protecting powers, to control +his Hellenic majesty's expenses. Russia, indeed, distinctly declared she +would not allow the constitutional question to be discussed in the +conferences at the Foreign Office, and Lord Palmerston, with unusual +meekness, submitted. France, every ready to play a great game in small +matters, really sent a commissioner to Greece, to control King Otho's +expenses; but his Hellenic majesty soon gave proofs of how grievously the +_Morning Chronicle_ had mistaken his abilities. He gave the French +commissioner a few dinners, a large star, and a good place at all court +pageants in which he could display the uniform of Louis Philippe to +advantage, and thereby made the commissioner the same as one of his own +ministers. England and Russia kept aloof in stern disapprobation of this +paltry comedy. + +The last farthing of the loan has now been expended, and the protecting +powers have intimated to King Otho, in very strong terns, that he must +immediately commence paying the interest and sinking fund, due in terms of +the treaty which placed the crown of Greece on his head. The whole burden +of this payment, of course, falls on the Greek people, who, we have +already shown, have suffered enough from the government of King Otho, +without this aggravation of their misery. Is it, we ask, just that the +Greeks should be compelled to pay sums expended on decorations to European +statesmen, pensions to Bavarian ministers, staff appointments to French +engineer officers, and ambassadors at foreign courts, when they never were +allowed even to express their conviction of the folly of these measures, +except by the public press? The truth is, that the loan was wasted, and +the amount now to be repaid by Greece was very considerably increased by +the allied powers themselves, who neglected to enforce the provisions of +the very treaty they now call upon the Greeks to execute, though not a +party to it. King Otho borrowed largely from Bavaria, as well as from the +protecting powers--he was at liberty to do so without the allies +attempting to interfere. But he was not entitled to repay any part of this +loan from the revenues of Greece, until the claims of the protecting +powers were satisfied. So says the treaty. + +The allies were bound, also, to restrict the auxiliary corps of Bavarians +to 3000 men; yet they allowed King Otho to assemble round his person, at +one time, upwards of 6000 Bavarian troops, and a very great number of +civil officers and forest guards. The King of Bavaria, when he was anxious +to secure the throne for his son, promised "that limited furloughs should +be granted to Bavarian officers, and their pay continued to them. This," +says his Majesty, "will greatly relieve the Greek treasury, by providing +for the service of the state officers of experience, possessing their own +means of subsistence without any charge upon the country." Now, the allies +knew that every Bavarian officer who put his foot in Greece, received the +pay of a higher rank than he previously held in Bavaria from the Greek +treasury. Is it, then, an equal application of the principles of justice +to king and people, to compel the Greeks to pay for the violation of the +King of Bavaria's engagement?[H] + +[Footnote H: The paper from which we have quoted the above passage, is +printed as an annex to the protocol appointing King Otho, in the +Parliamentary papers.] + +We believe that there now remains only one assertion which we have +ventured to make, which we have not yet proved. We repeat it, and shall +proceed to state our proofs. We say that Greece, if equitably treated, is +not bankrupt, but on the contrary she possesses resources amply sufficient +to discharge all just claims on her revenues, to maintain order in the +country, and to defend her institutions. We shall draw our proof from the +budget of King Otho for the present year, as this statement was laid +before the allied powers to excite their compassion, and show them the +absolute impossibility of King Otho paying his debts. + +The revenues of Greece are stated at 14,407,795 drachmas: and we may here +remark, that last year, when his Hellenic majesty expected to persuade the +allies to desist from pressing their claims, he stated the revenues of his + +kingdom at ... 17,834,000 +The national expenses only amount to ... 11,735,546 + +Under the following heads:-- + + Drachmas. +Foreign Affairs, 394,712 +Justice, 904,902 +Interior, 1,073,182 +Religion and Education, 651,658 +War Department, 5,255,804 +Navy, 1,404,465 +Finances, 486,600 +Expenses of managing the Revenue, which, in + all preceding years, has been a part of the + expenses of the Finance Department, 1,564,222 +Another section of Finance Department, 60,000 + ---------- + Making a total of 11,735,546 + +The expenses of the Greek government which have been imposed on the +country by the protecting powers, but never yet approved of by the Greek +nation, are as follows:-- + + Drachmas. +Interest and sinking fund of debt due to the three + protecting powers, debt to Bavaria, and pensions, 4,703,232 +Civil list of King Otho, 1,209,064 + ---------- + 5,912,296 + +It seems that the allies have made a very liberal allowance to King Otho. +The monarch and his council of state cost more than the whole civil +administration of the country, and almost as much as the Greek navy. + +We humbly conceive that a court of equity would strike out the Bavarian +loan as illegally contracted, and forming a private debt between the two +monarchs of Bavaria and Greece--that it would diminish the claim of the +protecting powers, by expunging all those sums which have been spent among +themselves or on strangers, with their consent--that it would reduce the +civil list of the king and the council of state to 500,000 drachmas--and +that it would order the immediate convocation of a national assembly, in +order to take measures for improving the revenues of the country. + +If the allied powers will form themselves into this court of equity, and +follow the course we have suggested, we have no doubt that in a very short +period no kingdom in Europe will have its finances in a more flourishing +condition than Greece. + + + * * * * * + + + + +A SKETCH IN THE TROPICS. + +FROM A SUPERCARGO'S LOG. + + +It was on a November morning of the year 1816, and about half an hour +before daybreak, that the door of an obscure house in the Calle St +Agostino, at the Havannah, was cautiously opened, and a man put out his +head, and gazed up and down the street as if to assure himself that no one +was near. All was silence and solitude at that early hour, and presently +the door opening wider gave egress to a young man muffled in a shabby +cloak, who, with hurried but stealthy step, took the direction of the +port. Hastening noiselessly through the deserted streets and lanes, he +soon reached the quay, upon which were numerous storehouses of sugar and +other merchandize, and piles of dye-woods, placed there in readiness for +shipment. Upon approaching one of the latter, the young man gave a low +whistle, and the next instant a figure glided from between two huge heaps +of logwood, and seizing his hand, drew him into the hiding-place from +which it had just emerged. + +A quarter of an hour elapsed, and the first faint tinge of day just began +to appear, when the noise of oars was heard, and presently in the grey +light a boat was seen darting out of the mist that hung over the water. As +it neared the quay, the two men left their place of concealment, and one +of them, pointing to the person who sat in the stern of the boat, pressed +his companion's hand, and hurrying away, soon disappeared amid the +labyrinth of goods and warehouses. + +The boat came up to the stairs. Of the three persons it contained, two +sailors, who had been rowing, remained in it; the third, whose dress and +appearance were those of the master of a merchant vessel, sprang on shore, +and walked in the direction of the town. As he passed before the logwood, +the stranger stepped out and accosted him. + +The seaman's first movement, and not an unnatural one, considering he was +at the Havannah and the day not yet broken, was to half draw his cutlass +from its scabbard, but the next moment he let it drop back again. The +appearance of the person who addressed him was, if not very prepossessing, +at least not much calculated to inspire alarm. He was a young man of +handsome and even noble countenance, but pale and sickly-looking, and +having the appearance of one bowed down by sorrow and illness. + +"Are you the captain of the Philadelphia schooner that is on the point of +sailing?" enquired he in a trembling, anxious voice. + +The seaman looked hard in the young man's face, and answered in the +affirmative. The stranger's eye sparkled. + +"Can I have a passage for myself, a friend, and two children?" demanded +he. + +The sailor hesitated before he replied, and again scanned his interlocutor +from head to foot with his keen grey eyes. There was something +inconsistent, not to say suspicious, in the whole appearance of the +stranger. His cloak was stained and shabby, and his words humble; but +there was a fire in his eye that flashed forth seemingly in spite of +himself, and his voice had that particular tone which the habit of command +alone gives. The result of the sailor's scrutiny was apparently +unfavourable, and he shook his head negatively. The young man gasped for +breath, and drew a well-filled purse from his bosom. + +"I will pay beforehand," said he, "I will pay whatever you ask." + +The American started; the contrast was too great between the heavy purse +and large offers and the beggarly exterior of the applicant. He shook his +head more decidedly than before. The stranger bit his lip till the blood +came, his breast heaved, his whole manner was that of one who abandons +himself to despair. The sailor felt a touch of compassion. + +"Young man," said he in Spanish, "you are no merchant. What do you want at +Philadelphia?" + +"I want to go to Philadelphia. Here is my passage money, here my pass. You +are captain of the schooner. What do you require more?" + +There was a wild vehemence in the tone and manner in which these words +were spoken, that indisposed the seaman still more against his would-be +passenger. Again he shook his head, and was about to pass on. The young +man seized his arm. + +"_Por el amor de Dios, Capitan_, take me with you. Take my unhappy wife +and my poor children." + +"Wife and children!" repeated the captain. "Have you a wife and children?" + +The stranger groaned. + +"You have committed no crime? you are not flying from the arm of justice?" +asked the American sharply. + +"So may God help me, no crime whatever have I committed," replied the +young man, raising his hand towards heaven. + +"In that case I will take you. Keep your money till you are on board. In +an hour at furthest I weigh anchor." + +The stranger answered nothing, but as if relieved from some dreadful +anxiety, drew a deep breath, and with a grateful look to heaven, hurried +from the spot. + +When Captain Ready, of the smart-sailing Baltimore-built schooner, "The +Speedy Tom," returned on board his vessel, and descended into the cabin, +he was met by his new passenger, on whose arm was hanging a lady of +dazzling beauty and grace. She was very plainly dressed, as were also two +beautiful children who accompanied her; but their clothes were of the +finest materials, and the elegance of their appearance contrasted +strangely with the rags and wretchedness of their husband and father. +Lying on a chest, however, Captain Ready saw a pelisse and two children's +cloaks of the shabbiest description, and which the new-comers had +evidently just taken off. + +The seaman's suspicions returned at all this disguise and mystery, and a +doubt again arose in his mind as to the propriety of taking passengers who +came on board under such equivocal circumstances. A feeling of compassion, +however, added to the graceful manners and sweet voice of the lady, +decided him to persevere in his original intention; and politely +requesting her to make herself at home in the cabin, he returned on deck. +Ten minutes later the anchor was weighed, and the schooner in motion. + +The sun had risen and dissipated the morning mist. Some distance astern of +the now fast-advancing schooner rose the streets and houses of the +Havannah, and the forest of masts occupying its port; to the right frowned +the castle of the Molo, whose threatening embrasures the vessel was +rapidly approaching. The husband and wife stood upon the cabin stairs, +gazing, with breathless anxiety, at the fortress. + +As the schooner arrived opposite the castle, a small postern leading out +upon the jetty was opened, and an officer and six soldiers issued forth. +Four men, who had been lying on their oars in a boat at the jetty stairs, +sprang up. + +The soldiers jumped in, and the rowers pulled in the direction of the +schooner. + +"_Jesus Maria y Jose!_" exclaimed the lady. + +"_Madre de Dios!_" groaned her husband. + +At this moment the fort made a signal. + +"Up with the helm!" shouted Captain Ready. + +The schooner rounded to; the boat came flying over the water, and in a few +moments was alongside. The soldiers and their commander stepped on board. + +The latter was a very young man, possessed of a true Spanish +countenance--grave and stern. In few words he desired the captain to +produce his ship's papers, and parade his seamen and passengers. The +papers were handed to him without an observation; he glanced his eye over +them, inspected the sailors one after the other, and then looked in the +direction of the passengers, who at length came on deck, the stranger +carrying one of the children and his wife the other. The Spanish officer +started. + +"Do you know that you have a state-criminal on board?" thundered he to the +captain. "What is the meaning of this?" + +"_Santa Virgen!_" exclaimed the lady, and fell fainting into her husband's +arms. There was a moment's deep silence. All present seemed touched by the +misfortunes of this youthful pair. The young officer sprang to the +assistance of the husband, and relieving him of the child, enabled him to +give his attention to his wife, whom he laid gently down upon the deck. + +"I am grieved at the necessity," said the officer, "but you must return +with me." + +The American captain, who had been contemplating this scene apparently +quite unmoved, now ejected from his mouth a huge quid of tobacco, replaced +it by another, and then stepping up to the officer, touched him on the +arm, and offered him the pass he had received from his passengers. The +Spaniard waved him back almost with disgust. There was, in fact, something +very unpleasant in the apathy and indifference with which the Yankee +contemplated the scene of despair and misery before him. Such +cold-bloodedness appeared premature and unnatural in a man who could not +yet have seen more than five-and-twenty summers. A close observer, +however, would have remarked that the muscles of his face were beginning +to be agitated by a slight convulsive twitching, when, at that moment, +his mate stepped up to him and whispered something. Approaching the +Spaniard for the second time, Ready invited him to partake of a slight +refreshment in his cabin, a courtesy which it is usual for the captains +of merchant vessels to pay to the visiting officer. The Spaniard +accepted, and they went below. + +The steward was busy covering the cabin table with plates of Boston +crackers, olives, and almonds, and he then uncorked a bottle of fine old +Madeira that looked like liquid gold as it gurgled into the glasses. +Captain Ready seemed quite a different person in the cabin and on deck. +Throwing aside his dry say-little manner, he was good-humour and civility +personified, as he lavished on his guest all those obliging attentions +which no one better knows the use of than a Yankee when he wishes to +administer a dose of what he would call "soft sawder." Ready soon +persuaded the officer of his entire guiltlessness in the unpleasant affair +that had just occurred, and the Spaniard told him by no means to make +himself uneasy, that the pass had been given for another person, and that +the prisoner was a man of great importance, whom he considered himself +excessively lucky to have been able to recapture. + +Most Spaniards like a glass of Madeira, particularly when olives serve as +the whet. The American's wine was first-rate, and the other seemed to find +himself particularly comfortable in the cabin. He did not forget, however, +to desire that the prisoner's baggage might be placed in the boat, and, +with a courteous apology for leaving him a moment, Captain Ready hastened +to give the necessary orders. + +When the captain reached the deck, a heart-rending scene presented itself +to him. His unfortunate passenger was seated on one of the hatchways, +despair legibly written on his pale features. The eldest child had climbed +up on his knee, and looked wistfully into its father's face, and his wife +hung round his neck sobbing audibly. A young negress, who had come on +board with them, held the other child, an infant a few months old, in her +arms. Ready took the prisoner's hand. + +"I hate tyranny," said he, "as every American must. Had you confided your +position to me a few hours sooner, I would have got you safe off. But now +I see nothing to be done. We are under the cannon of the fort, that could +sink us in ten seconds. Who and what are you? Say quickly, for time is +precious." + +"I am a Columbian by birth," replied the young man, "an officer in the +patriot army. I was taken prisoner at the battle of Cachiri, and brought +to the Havannah with several companions in misfortune. My wife and +children were allowed to follow me, for the Spaniards were not sorry to +have one of the first families of Columbia entirely in their power. Four +months I lay in a frightful dungeon, with rats and venomous reptiles for +my only companions. It is a miracle that I am still alive. Out of seven +hundred prisoners, but a handful of emaciated objects remain to testify to +the barbarous cruelty of our captors. A fortnight back they took me out of +my prison, a mere skeleton, in order to preserve my life, and quartered me +in a house in the city. Two days ago, however, I heard that I was to +return to the dungeon. It was my death-warrant, for I was convinced I +could not live another week in that frightful cell. A true friend, in +spite of the danger, and by dint of gold, procured me a pass that had +belonged to a Spaniard dead of the yellow fever. By means of that paper, +and by your assistance, we trusted to escape. _Capitan!_" said the young +man, starting to his feet, and clasping Ready's hand, his hollow sunken +eye gleaming wildly as he spoke, "my only hope is in you. If you give me +up I am a dead man, for I have sworn to perish rather than return to the +miseries of my prison. I fear not death--I am a soldier; but alas for my +poor wife, my helpless, deserted children!" + +The Yankee captain passed his hand across his forehead with the air of a +man who is puzzled, then turned away without a word, and walked to the +other end of the vessel. Giving a glance upwards and around him that +seemed to take in the appearance of the sky, and the probabilities of good +or bad weather, he ordered some of the sailors to bring the luggage of the +passenger upon deck, but not to put it into the boat. He told the steward +to give the soldiers and boatmen a couple of bottles of rum, and then, +after whispering for a few seconds in the ear of his mate, he approached +the cabin stairs. As he passed the Columbian family, he said in a low +voice, and without looking at them, + + "Trust in him who helps when need is at the greatest." + +Scarcely had he uttered the words, when the Spanish officer sprang up the +cabin stairs, and as soon as he saw the prisoners, ordered them into the +boat. Ready, however, interfered, and begged him to allow his unfortunate +passenger to take a farewell glass before he left the vessel. To this +young officer good naturedly consented, and himself led the way into the +cabin. + +They took their places at the table, and the captain opened a fresh +bottle, at the very first glass of which the Spaniard's eye glistened, his +lips smacked. The conversation became more and more lively; Ready spoke +Spanish fluently, and gave proof of a jovialty which no one would have +suspected to form a part of his character, dry and saturnine as his manner +usually was. A quarter of an hour or more had passed in this way, when the +schooner gave a sudden lurch, and the glasses and bottles jingled and +clattered together on the table. The Spaniard started up. + +"Captain!" cried he furiously, "the schooner is sailing!" + +"Certainly," replied the captain, very coolly. "You surely did not expect, +Senor, that we were going to miss the finest breeze that ever filled a +sail." + +Without answering, the officer rushed upon deck, and looked in the +direction of the Molo. They had left the fort full two miles behind them. +The Spaniard literally foamed at the mouth. + +"Soldiers!" vociferated he, "seize the captain and the prisoners. We are +betrayed. And you, steersman, put about." + +And betrayed they assuredly were; for while the officer had been quaffing +his Madeira, and the soldiers and boatmen regaling themselves with the +steward's rum, sail had been made on the vessel without noise or bustle, +and, favoured by the breeze, she was rapidly increasing her distance from +land. Meantime Ready preserved the utmost composure. + +"Betrayed!" repeated he, replying to the vehement ejaculation of the +Spaniard. "Thank God we are Americans, and have no trust to break, nothing +to betray. As to this prisoner of yours, however, he must remain here." + +"Here!" sneered the Spaniard--"We'll soon see about that you +treacherous"-- + +"Here," quietly interrupted the captain. "Do not give yourself needless +trouble, Senor; your soldiers' guns are, as you perceive, in our hands, +and my six sailors well provided with pistols and cutlasses. We are more +than a match for your ten, and at the first suspicious movement you make, +we fire on you." + +The officer looked around, and became speechless when he beheld the +soldiers' muskets piled upon the deck, and guarded by two well armed and +determined-looking sailors. + +"You would not dare"--exclaimed he. + +"Indeed would I," replied Ready; "but I hope you will not force me to it. +You must remain a few hours longer my guest, and then you can return to +port in your boat. You will get off with a month's arrest, and as +compensation, you will have the satisfaction of having delivered a brave +enemy from despair and death." + +The officer ground his teeth together, but even yet he did not give up all +hopes of getting out of the scrape. Resistance was evidently out of the +question, his men's muskets being in the power of the Americans who, with +cocked pistols and naked cutlasses, stood on guard over them. The soldiers +themselves did not seem very full of fight, and the boatmen were negroes, +and consequently non-combatants. But there were several trincadores and +armed cutters cruising about, and if he could manage to hail or make a +signal to one of them, the schooner would be brought to, and the tables +turned. He gazed earnestly at a sloop that just then crossed them at no +great distance, staggering in towards the harbour under press of sail. The +American seemed to read his thoughts. + +"Do me the honour, Senor," said be, "to partake of a slight _dejeuner-a-la +fourchette_ in the cabin. We will also hope for the pleasure of your +company at dinner. Supper you will probably eat at home." + +And so saying, he motioned courteously towards the cabin stairs. The +Spaniard looked in the seaman's face, and read in its decided expression, +and in the slight smile of intelligence that played upon it, that he must +not hope either to resist or outwit his polite but peremptory entertainer. +So, making a virtue of necessity, he descended into the cabin. + +The joy of the refugees at finding themselves thus unexpectedly rescued +from the captivity they so much dreaded, may be more easily imagined than +described. They remained for some time without uttering a word; but the +tears of the lady, and the looks of heartfelt gratitude of her husband +were the best thanks they could offer their deliverer. + +On went the schooner; fainter and fainter grew the outline of the land, +till at length it sank under the horizon, and nothing was visible but the +castle of the Molo and the topmasts of the vessels riding at anchor off +the Havannah. They were twenty miles from land, far enough for the safety +of the fugitive, and as far as it was prudent for those to come who had to +return to port in an open boat. Ready's good-humour and hearty hospitality +had reconciled him with the Spaniard, who seemed to have forgotten the +trick that had been played him, and the punishment he would incur for +having allowed himself to be entrapped. He shook the captain's hand as he +stepped over the side, the negroes dipped their oars into the water, and +in a short time the boat was seen from the schooner as a mere speck upon +the vast expanse of ocean. + +The voyage was prosperous, and in eleven days the vessel reached its +destination. The Columbian officer, his wife and children, were received +with the utmost kindness and hospitality by the young and handsome wife of +Captain Ready, in whose house they took up their quarters. They remained +there two months, living in the most retired manner, with the double +object of economizing their scanty resources, and of avoiding the notice +of the Philadelphians, who at that time viewed the patriots of Southern +America with no very favourable eye. The insurrection against the +Spaniards had injured the commerce between the United States and the +Spanish colonies, and the purely mercantile and lucre-loving spirit of the +Philadelphians made them look with dislike on any persons or circumstances +who caused a diminution of their trade and profits. + +At the expiration of the above-mentioned time, an opportunity offered of a +vessel going to Marguerite, then the headquarters of the patriots, and the +place where the first expeditions were formed under Bolivar against the +Spaniards. Estoval (that was the name by which the Columbian officer was +designated in his passport) gladly seized the opportunity, and taking a +grateful and affectionate leave of his deliverer, embarked with his wife +and children. They had been several days at sea before they remembered +that they had forgotten to tell their American friends their real name. +The latter had never enquired it, and the Estovals being accustomed to +address one another by their Christian names, it had never been mentioned. + +Meantime, the good seed Captain Ready had sown, brought the honest Yankee +but a sorry harvest. His employers had small sympathy with the feelings of +humanity that had induced him to run the risk of carrying off a Spanish +state-prisoner from under the guns of a Spanish battery. Their +correspondents at the Havannah had had some trouble and difficulty on +account of the affair, and had written to Philadelphia to complain of it. +Ready lost his ship, and could only obtain from his employers certificates +of character of so ambiguous and unsatisfactory a nature, that for a long +time he found it impossible to get the command of another vessel. + + +In the autumn of 1824, I left Baltimore as supercargo of the brig +Perverance, Captain Ready. Proceeding to the Havannah, we discharged our +cargo, took in another, partly on our own account, partly on that of the +Spanish government, and sailed for Callao on the 1st December, exactly +eight days before the celebrated battle of Ayacucho dealt the finishing +blow to Spanish rule on the southern continent of America, and established +the independence of Peru. The Spaniards, however, still held the fortress +of Callao, which, after having been taken by Martin and Cochrane four +years previously, had again been treacherously delivered up, and was now +blockaded by sea and land by the patriots, under the command of General +Hualero, who had marched an army from Columbia to assist the cause of +liberty in Peru. + +Of all these circumstances we were ignorant, until we arrived within a few +leagues of the port of Callao. Then we learned them from a vessel that +spoke us, but we still advanced, hoping to find an opportunity to slip in. +In attempting to do so, we were seized by one of the blockading vessels, +and the captain and myself taken out and sent to Lima. We were allowed to +take our personal property with us, but of brig or cargo we heard nothing +for some time. I was not a little uneasy; for the whole of my savings +during ten years' clerkship in the house of a Baltimore merchant were +embarked in the form of a venture on board the Perseverance. + +The captain, who had a fifth of the cargo, and was half owner of the brig, +took things very philosophically, and passed his days with a penknife and +stick in his hand, whittling away, Yankee fashion; and when he had chapped +up his stick, he would set to work notching and hacking the first chair, +bench, or table that came under his hand. If any one spoke to him of the +brig, he would grind his teeth a little, but said nothing, and whittled +away harder than ever. This was his character, however. I had known him +for five years that he had been in the employ of the same house as myself, +and he had always passed for a singularly reserved and taciturn man. +During our voyage, whole weeks had sometimes elapsed without his uttering +a word except to give the necessary orders. + +In spite of his peculiarities, Captain Ready was generally liked by his +brother captains, and by all who knew him. When he did speak, his words +(perhaps the more prized on account of their rarity) were always listened +to with attention. There was a benevolence and mildness in the tones of +his voice that rendered it quite musical, and never failed to prepossess +in his favour all those who heard him, and to make them forget the usual +sullenness of his manner. During the whole time he had sailed for the +Baltimore house, he had shown himself a model of trustworthiness and +seamanship, and enjoyed the full confidence of his employers. It was said, +however, that his early life had not been irreproachable; that when he +first, and as a very young man, had command of a Philadelphian ship, +something had occurred which had thrown a stain upon his character. What +this was, I had never heard very distinctly stated. He had favoured the +escape of a malefactor, ensnared some officers who were sent on board his +vessel to seize him. All this was very vague, but what was positive was +the fact, that the owners of the ship he then commanded, had had much +trouble about the matter, and Ready himself remained long unemployed, +until the rapid increase of trade between the United States and the infant +republics of South America had caused seamen of ability to be in much +request, and he had again obtained command of a vessel. + +We were seated one afternoon outside the French coffeehouse at Lima. The +party consisted of seven or eight captains of merchant vessels that had +been seized, and they were doing their best to kill the time, some +smoking, others chewing, but nearly all with penknife and stick in hand, +whittling as for a wager. On their first arrival at Lima, and adoption of +this coffeehouse as a place of resort, the tables and chairs belonging to +it seemed in a fair way to be cut to pieces by these indefatigable +whittlers; but the coffeehouse keeper had hit upon a plan to avoid such +deterioration of his chattels, and had placed in every corner of the rooms +bundles of sticks, at which his Yankee customers cut and notched, till the +coffeehouse assumed the appearance of a carpenter's shop. + +The costume and airs of the patriots, as they called themselves, were no +small source of amusement to us. They strutted about in all the pride of +their fire-new freedom, regular caricatures of soldiers. One would have on +a Spanish jacket, part of the spoils of Ayacucho--another, an American +one, which he had bought from some sailor--a third a monk's robe, cut +short, and fashioned into a sort of doublet. Here was a shako wanting a +brim, in company with a gold-laced velvet coat of the time of Philip V.; +there, a hussar jacket and an old-fashioned cocked hat. The volunteers +were the best clothed, also in great part from the plunder of the battle +of Ayacucho. Their uniforms were laden with gold and silver lace, and some +of the officers, not satisfied with two epaulettes, had half-a-dozen +hanging before and behind, as well as on their shoulders. + +As we sat smoking, whittling, and quizzing the patriots, a side-door of +the coffeehouse was suddenly opened, and an officer came out whose +appearance was calculated to give us a far more favourable opinion of +South American _militaires_. He was a man about thirty years of age, +plainly but tastefully dressed, and of that unassuming, engaging demeanour +which is so often found the companion of the greatest decision of +character, and which contrasted with the martial deportment of a young man +who followed him, and who, although in much more showy uniform, was +evidently his inferior in rank. We bowed as he passed before us, and he +acknowledged the salutation by raising his cocked hat slightly but +courteously from his head. He was passing on when his eyes suddenly fell +upon Captain Ready, who was standing a little on one side, notching away +at his tenth or twelfth stick, and at that moment happened to look up. The +officer started, gazed earnestly at Ready for the space of a moment, and +then, with delight expressed on his countenance, sprang forward, and +clasped him in his arms. + +"Captain Ready!" + +"That is my name," quietly replied the captain. + +"Is it possible you do not know me?" exclaimed the officer. + +Ready looked hard at him, and seemed a little in doubt. At last he shook +his head. + +"You do not know me?" repeated the other, almost reproachfully, and then +whispered something in his ear. + +It was now Ready's turn to start and look surprised. A smile of pleasure +lit up his countenance as he grasped the hand of the officer, who took his +arm and dragged him away into the house. + +A quarter of an hour elapsed, during which we lost ourselves in +conjectures as to who this acquaintance of Ready's could be. At the end of +that time the captain and his new (or old) friend re-appeared. The latter +walked away, and we saw him enter the government house, while Ready joined +us, as silent and phlegmatic as ever, and resumed his stick and penknife. +In reply to our enquiries as to who the officer was, he only said that he +belonged to the army besieging Callao, and that he had once made a voyage +as his passenger. This was all the information we could extract from our +taciturn friend; but we saw plainly that the officer was somebody of +importance, from the respect paid him by the soldiers and others whom he +met. + +The morning following this incident we were sitting over our chocolate, +when an orderly dragoon came to ask for Captain Ready. The captain went +out to speak to him, and presently returning, went on with his breakfast +very deliberately. + +When he had done, he asked me if I were inclined for a little excursion +out of the town, which would, perhaps, keep us a couple of days away. I +willingly accepted, heartily sick as I was of the monotonous life we were +leading. We packed up our valises, took our pistols and cutlasses, and +went out. + +To my astonishment the orderly was waiting at the door with two +magnificent Spanish chargers, splendidly accoutred. They were the finest +horses I had seen in Peru, and my curiosity was strongly excited to know +who had sent them, and whither we were going. To my questions, Ready +replied that we were going to visit the officer whom he had spoken to on +the preceding day, and who was with the besieging army, and had once been +his passenger, but he declared he did not know his name or rank. + +We had left the town about a mile behind us, when we heard the sound of +cannon in the direction we were approaching; it increased as we went on, +and about a mile further we met a string of carts, full of wounded, going +in to Lima. Here and there we caught sight of parties of marauders, who +disappeared as soon as they saw our orderly. I felt a great longing and +curiosity to witness the fight that was evidently going on--not, however, +that I was particularly desirous of taking share in it, or putting myself +in the way of the bullets. My friend the captain jogged on by my side, +taking little heed of the roar of the cannon, which to him was no novelty; +for having passed his life at sea, he had had more than one encounter with +pirates and other rough customers, and been many times under the fire of +batteries, running in and out of blockaded American ports. His whole +attention was now engrossed by the management of his horse, which was +somewhat restive, and he, like most sailors, was a very indifferent rider. + +On reaching the top of a small rising ground, we beheld to the left the +dark frowning bastions of the fort, and to the right the village of Bella +Vista, which, although commanded by the guns of Callao, had been chosen as +the headquarters of the besieging army--the houses being, for the most +part, built of huge blocks of stone, and offering sufficient resistance to +the balls. The orderly pointed out to us the various batteries, and +especially one which was just completed, and was situated about three +hundred yards from the fortress. It had not yet been used, and was still +masked from the enemy by some houses which stood just in its front. + +While we were looking about us, Ready's horse, irritated by the noise of +the firing, the flashes of the guns, and perhaps more than any thing by +the captain's bad riding, became more and more unmanageable, and at last +taking the bit between his teeth started off at a mad gallop, closely +followed by myself and the orderly, to whose horses the panic seemed to +have communicated itself. The clouds of dust raised by the animals' feet, +prevented us from seeing whither we were going. Suddenly there was an +explosion that seemed to shake the very earth under us, and Ready, the +orderly, and myself, lay sprawling with our horses on the ground. Before +we could collect our senses and get up, we were nearly deafened by a +tremendous roar of artillery close to us, and at the same moment a shower +of stones and fragments of brick and mortar clattered about our ears. + +The orderly was stunned by his fall; I was bruised and bewildered. Ready +was the only one who seemed in no ways put out, and with his usual phlegm, +extricating himself from under his horse, he came to our assistance. I was +soon on my legs, and endeavouring to discover the cause of all this +uproar. + +Our unruly steeds had brought us close to the new battery, at the very +moment that the train of a mine under the houses in front of it had been +fired. The instant the obstacle was removed, the artillerymen had opened a +tremendous fire on the fort. The Spaniards were not slow to return the +compliment, and fortunate it was that a solid fragment of wall intervened +between us and their fire, or all our troubles about the brig, and every +thing else, would have been at an end. Already upwards of twenty balls had +struck the old broken wall. Shot and shell were flying in every direction, +the smoke was stifling, the uproar indescribable. It was so dark with the +smoke and dust from the fallen houses, that we could not see an arm's +length before us. The captain asked two or three soldiers who were +hurrying by, where the battery was; but they were in too great haste to +answer, and it was only when the smoke cleared away a little, that we +discovered we were not twenty paces from it. Ready seized my arm, and +pulling me with him, I the next moment found myself standing beside a gun, +under cover of the breastworks. + +The battery consisted of thirty, twenty-four, and thirty-six pounders, +served with a zeal and courage which far exceeded any thing I had expected +to find in the patriot army. The fellows were really more than brave, they +were foolhardy. They danced rather than walked round the guns, and +exhibited a contempt of death that could not well be surpassed. As to +drawing the guns back from the embrasures while they loaded them, they +never dreamed of such a thing. They stood jeering and scoffing the +Spaniards, and bidding them take better aim. + +It must be remembered, that this was only three months after the battle of +Ayacucho, the greatest feat of arms which the South American patriots had +achieved during the whole of their protracted struggle with Spain. That +victory had literally electrified the troops, and inspired them with a +courage and contempt of their enemy, that frequently showed itself, as on +this occasion, in acts of the greatest daring and temerity. + +At the gun by which Ready and myself took our stand, half the artillerymen +were already killed, and we had scarcely come there, when a cannon shot +took the head off a man standing close to me. The wind of the ball was so +great that I believe it would have suffocated me, had I not fortunately +been standing sideways in the battery. At the same moment, something hot +splashed over my neck and face, and nearly blinded me. I looked, and saw +the man lying without his head before me. I cannot describe the sickening +feeling that came over me. It was not the first man I had seen killed in +my life, but it was the first whose blood and brains had spurted into my +face. My knees shook and my head swam; I was obliged to lean against the +wall, or I should have fallen. + +Another ball fell close beside me, and strange to say, it brought me +partly to myself again; and by the time a third and fourth had bounced +into the battery, I began to take things pretty coolly--my heart beating +rather quicker than usual, I acknowledge; but, nevertheless, I began to +find an indescribable sort of pleasure, a mischievous joy, if I may so +call it, in the peril and excitement of the scene. + +Whilst I was getting over my terrors, my companion was moving about the +battery with his usual _sang-froid_, reconnoitring the enemy. He ran no +useless risk, kept himself well behind the breastworks, stooping down when +necessary, and taking all proper care of himself. When he had completed +his reconnoissance, he, to my no small astonishment, took off his coat and +neck-handkerchief, the latter of which he tied tight round his waist, then +taking a rammer from the hand of a soldier who had just fallen, he +ordered, or rather signed to the artilleryman to draw the gun back. + +There was something so cool and decided in his manner, that they obeyed +without testifying any surprise at his interference, and as though he had +been one of their own officers. He loaded the piece, had it drawn forward +again, pointed and fired it. He then went to the next gun and did the same +thing there. He seemed so perfectly at home in the battery, that nobody +ever dreamed of disputing his authority, and the two guns were entirely +under his direction. I had now got used to the thing myself, so I went +forward and offered my services, which, in the scarcity of men, (so many +having been killed,) were not to be refused, and I helped to draw the guns +backwards and forward, and load them. The captain kept running from one to +the other, pointing them, and admirably well too; for every shot took +effect within a circumference of a few feet on the bastion in front of us. + +This lasted nearly an hour, at the end of which time the fire was +considerably slackened, for the greater part of our guns had become +unserviceable. Only about a dozen kept up the fire, (the ball, I was going +to say,) and amongst them were the two that Ready commanded. He had given +them time to cool after firing, whereas most of the others, in their +desperate haste and eagerness, had neglected that precaution. Although the +patriots had now been fifteen years at war with the Spaniards, they were +still very indifferent artillerymen--for artillery had little to do in +most of their fights, which were generally decided by cavalry and +infantry, and even in that of Ayacucho there were only a few small +field-pieces in use on either side. The mountainous nature of the +country, intersected, too, by mighty rivers, and the want of good roads, +were the reasons of the insignificant part played by the artillery in +these wars. + +Whilst we were thus hard at work, who should enter the battery but the +very officer we had left Lima to visit? He was attended by a numerous +staff, and was evidently of very high rank. He stood a little back, +watching every movement of Captain Ready, and rubbing his hands with +visible satisfaction. Just at that moment the captain fired one of the +guns, and, as the smoke cleared away a little, we saw the opposite bastion +rock, and then sink down into the moat. A joyous hurra greeted its fall, +and the general and his staff sprang forward. + +It would be necessary to have witnessed the scene that followed in order +to form any adequate idea of the mad joy and enthusiasm of its actors. The +general seized Ready in his arms, and eagerly embraced him, then almost +threw him to one of his officers, who performed the like ceremony, and, in +his turn, passed him to a third. The imperturbable captain flew, or was +tossed, like a ball, from one to the other. I also came in for my share of +the embraces. + +I thought them all stark-staring mad; and, indeed, I do not believe they +were far from it. The balls were still hailing into the battery; one of +them cut a poor devil of an orderly nearly in two, but no notice was taken +of such trifles. It was a curious scene enough; the cannon-balls bouncing +about our ears--the ground under our feet slippery with blood--wounded and +dying lying on all sides--and we ourselves pushed and passed about from +the arms of one black-bearded fellow into those of another. There was +something thoroughly exotic, completely South American and tropical, in +this impromptu. + +Strange to say, now that the breach was made, and a breach such that a +determined regiment, assisted by well-directed fire of artillery, could +have had no difficulty in storming the town, there was no appearance of +any disposition to profit by it. The patriots seemed quite contented with +what had been done; most of the officers left the batteries, and the thing +was evidently over for the day. I knew little of Spanish Americans then, +or I should have felt less surprised than I did at their not following up +their advantage. It was not from want of courage; for it was impossible to +have exhibited more than they had done that morning. But they had had +their moment of fury, of wild energy and exertion, and the other side of +the national character, indolence, now showed itself. After fighting like +devils, at the very moment when activity was of most importance, they lay +down and took the _siesta_. + +We were about leaving the battery, with the intention of visiting some of +the others, when our orderly came up in all haste, with orders to conduct +us to the general's quarters. We followed him, and soon reached a noble +villa, at the door of which a guard was stationed. Here we were given over +to a sort of major-domo, who led us through a crowd of aides-de-camp, +staff-officers, and orderlies, to a chamber, whither our valises had +preceded us. We were desired to make haste with our toilet, as dinner +would be served so soon as his Excellency returned from the batteries; +and, indeed, we had scarcely changed our dress, and washed the blood and +smoke from our persons, when the major-domo re-appeared, and announced the +general's return. + +Dinner was laid out in a large saloon, in which some sixty officers were +assembled when we entered it. With small regard to etiquette, and not +waiting for the general to welcome us, they all sprang to meet us with a +"_Buen venidos, capitanes!_" + +The dinner was such as might be expected at the table of a general +commanded at the same time an army and the blockade of a much-frequented +port. The most delicious French and Spanish wines were there in the +greatest profusion; the conviviality of the guests was unbounded, but +although they drank their champagne out of tumblers, no one showed the +smallest symptom of inebriety. + +The first toast given, was--Bolivar. + +The second--Sucre. + +The third--The Battle of Ayacucho. + +The fourth--Union between Columbia and Peru. + +The fifth--Hualero. + +The general rose to return thanks, and we now, for the first time, knew +his name. He raised his glass, and spoke, evidently with much emotion. + +"Senores! Amigos!" said he, "that I am this day amongst you, and able to +thank you for your kindly sentiments towards your general and brother in +arms, is owing, under Providence, to the good and brave stranger whose +acquaintance you have only this day made, but who is one of my oldest and +best friends." And so saying he left his place, and approaching Captain +Ready, affectionately embraced him. The seaman's iron features lost their +usual imperturbability, and his lips quivered as he stammered out the two +words-- + +"Amigo siempre." + +The following day we passed in the camp, and the one after returned to +Lima, the general insisting on our taking up our quarters in his house. + +From Hualero and his lady I learned the origin of the friendship existing +between the distinguished Columbian general and my taciturn Yankee +captain. It was the honourable explanation of the mysterious stain upon +Ready's character. + +Our difficulties regarding the brig were now soon at an end. The vessel +and cargo were returned to us, with the exception of a large quantity of +cigars belonging to the Spanish government. These were, of course, +confiscated, but the general bought them, and made them a present to +Captain Ready, who sold them by auction; and cigars being in no small +demand amongst that tobacco-loving population, they fetched immense +prices, and put thirty thousand dollars into my friend's pocket. + +To be brief, at the end of three weeks we sailed from Lima, and in a +vastly better humour than when we arrived there. + + + * * * * * + + + + +WOMAN'S RIGHTS AND DUTIES. + +BY A WOMAN. + + + "Chose etrange d'aimer, et que pour ces maitresses, + Les hommes soient sujets a de telles foiblesses-- + Tout le monde connoit leur imperfection, + Ce n'est qu'extravagance et qu'indiscretion. + Leur esprit est mechant, et leur ame fragile, + Il n'est rien de plus foible et de plus imbecille, + Rien de plus infidele--et malgre tout cela, + Dans le monde on fait tout pour ces animaux-la." + + _Ecole des Femmes._ + +Such is the language of disappointment--but although a careful examination +of ancient and modern manners might lead to a different conclusion, (for +as the corruption of excessive refinement ends by placing her in the first +condition, so does the brutal assertion of physical superiority begin by +degrading her to the last,) woman is, we firmly believe, neither intended +for a tyrant nor a slave--Not a slave, for till she is raised above the +condition of a beast of burden, man, her companion, must continue +barbarous--Not a tyrant, for terrible as are the evils of irresponsible +authority, with whomsoever it may be vested, in her hands it becomes the +most tremendous instrument that Providence in its indignation can employ +to crush, degrade, and utterly to paralyze the nations within its reach. +The former position will readily be conceded; and the history of Rome +under the Emperors, or of France during the last century, affords but too +striking an exemplification of the second. It is, then, of the last +importance to society, that clear and accurate notions should prevail +among us concerning the education of a being on whom all its refinement, +and much of its prosperity, must depend. It is of the last importance, not +only that the absurd notions which half-a-century ago deprived English +ladies of education altogether, should be consigned to everlasting +oblivion and contempt--not only that the system to which France is +indebted for its Du Deffauds, Pompadours, and Du Barrys should be +extinguished, but that principles well adapted to the habits and +intelligence of man, in the most civilized state in which he has ever yet +existed, should prevail among us, should float upon the very atmosphere we +breathe, and be circulated in every vein that traverses the mighty fabric +of society. Therefore it is, because we are deeply impressed with this +conviction, that we hail with delight the appearance of a work so +profound, eloquent, and judicious; combining in so rare an union so many +kinds of excellence, as that which we now propose to the consideration of +our readers. Since the days of Smith and Montesquieu, no more valuable +addition has been made to moral science; and though the good taste and +modesty of its author, has induced her to put, in the least obtrusive +form, the wisdom and erudition--the least fragment of which would have +furnished forth a host of modern Sciolists with the most ostentatious +paragraphs--the deep thought and nervous eloquence by which almost every +page of the volume before us is illustrated, sufficiently establish her +title to rank among the most distinguished writers of this age and +country. If, indeed, we were ungrateful enough to quarrel with any part of +a work, the perusal of which has afforded us so much gratification, we +should be disposed (in deference, however, rather to the opinions of +others than our own) to alter the title that is prefixed to it. Many a +grave and pompous gentleman, who is "free to confess," and "does not +hesitate to utter" the dullest and most obvious commonplaces, would sit +down to the perusal of a work entitled, "On the Government of +Dependencies," or "Sermons on the Functions of Archdeacons and Rural +Deans," though never so deficient in learning, vigour, and originality, +who will reject with the supercilious ignorance of incurable stupidity, +these volumes, in which the habits, the interests, the inalienable rights, +the sacred duties of one half of the species, (and of that half to which, +at the most pliant and critical period of life, the health, the +disposition, the qualities, moral and intellectual, of the other half must +of necessity be confided,) are discussed with exemplary fairness, and +placed in the most luminous point of view. But we have detained our +readers too long from the admirable work which it is our object to make +known to them. It opens in the following manner:-- + + "It was once suggested by an eminent physiologist, that the + greatest enjoyments of our animal nature might be those which, + from their constancy, escape our notice altogether. + + "His investigations had led him to think, that even the + involuntary motions carried on in our system, were productive of + pleasure; and that the act of respiration was probably attended + by a sensation as delightful as the gratifications of the palate. + It is certain that every sense is a source of unnoticed + pleasures. Sound and light are agreeable in themselves, before + their varied combinations have produced music to our ear, or + conveyed the perceptions of form to our mind. Innumerable are the + emotions of pleasure conveyed to the imagination and the senses, + by the endless diversities of form, colour, and sound; and the + unbought riches poured upon us from these sources, are more + prolific of enjoyment, than any of the far-sought distinctions + which stir the hopes and rivalries of men. Yet, on these and + other spontaneous blessings, no one reflects, or even enumerates + them among the sources of happiness, till some casual suspension + of them revives sensibility to the delight they afford. + + "Such are the lamentations, though rarely so eloquently uttered, + which we daily hear on the loss of some possession, which, while + held, was scarcely noticed; and could preserve its owner, neither + from the gloom of apathy, nor the irritation of discontent. + + "Were it not for this, the necessary effect of habit both in the + physical and moral world, women might be expected to live in + daily and hourly exultation, who have been born in a Christian + and civilized country. Whatever theorists may have thought + occasionally of the happiness of men in barbarous or savage + conditions, no doubt at all can be entertained as to that of + women. It is civilization which has taken the yoke from their + neck, the scourge from their back, and the burden from their + shoulders. It is Christianity chiefly which has raised them from + the state of slaves or menials to that of citizens, and compelled + their rough and unresisted tyrants to call up law in their + defence; that potent spirit which they, who have evoked it, must + ever after themselves submit to. Religion, which extends the + sanctity of the marriage vow to the husband as well as to the + wife, has rescued her from a condition in which her best and most + tender affections were the source of her bitterest misery; a + condition in which her only escape from a sense of suffering too + unremitting for nature to endure, was in that mental degradation + which produces insensibility to wrong. The instances of primitive + communities, in which such injustice has not prevailed, are too + few and far between, to form any solid objection to the truth of + this general picture. The mere increase of numbers infallibly + obliterates the fair but feeble virtues that originate in nothing + but ignorance of ill; and the first inroads of want or discord, + usually settle the doom of the weak and defenceless. In restoring + to women their domestic dignity, religion has done more than + every other cause towards shielding them from the consequences of + weakness and dependence. From the dignified affections of the + other sex, they have gradually acquired some social rights, and + some share of that freedom, without which virtue itself can + scarcely exist. Opinion, the offspring, not of resplendent + genius, whose earliest fires burned indignantly against the + tyrant and oppressor, but of a religion which preached the + equality of all before God, has given them a share of those + blessings, without which life is not worth possession. At length + it has opened to them the portals of knowledge and wisdom, the + gradual, but effective supports against degradation; and has + sanctified its gifts by withholding from them every license that + leads to vice, every knowledge that detracts from their purity, + and every profession that would expose them to insult." + +Then follows a masterly sketch of the condition of woman in uncivilized +life, in which the subject is illustrated by the most apposite quotations +from the works of different travellers and historians. It is the writer's +opinion that in uncivilized life, the degradation of woman, though common, +is not universal. The celebrated passage in Tacitus is quoted in support +of this position; and among other less interesting extracts, is the +following account of Galway by Hardiman, a country which, so great is the +blessing of a paternal and judicious government, may furnish, in the +nineteenth century, illustrations of uncivilized life, equally picturesque +and striking with those which Tacitus has recorded in his day as familiar +among the inhabitants of Pagan Germany. + + "This colony, from time immemorial, has been ruled by one of + their own body, periodically elected, who somewhat resembled the + Brughaid or head village of ancient times, when every clan + resided in its hereditary canton. This individual, who is + decorated with the title of mayor, in imitation of the city, + regulates the community according to their own peculiar customs + and laws, and settles all fishery disputes. His decisions are so + decisive, and so much respected, that the parties are seldom + known to carry their differences before a legal tribunal, or to + trouble the civil magistrate. They neither understand nor trouble + themselves about politics, consequently, in the most turbulent + times, their loyalty has never been questioned. Their mayor is no + way distinguished from other villagers, except that his boat is + decorated with a white sail, and may be seen when at sea, at + which time he acts as admiral, with colours flying at the + masthead, gliding through their fleet with some appearance of + authority.... When on shore, they employ themselves in repairing + their boats, sails, rigging, and cordage, in making, drying, and + repairing their nets and spillets, in which latter part they are + assisted by the women, who spin the hemp and yarn for their nets. + In consequence of their strict attention to these particulars, + very few accidents happen at sea, and lives are seldom lost. + Whatever time remains after these avocations, they spend in + regaling with whisky, and assembling in groups to discuss their + maritime affairs, on which occasions they arrange their fishing + excursions. When preparing for sea, hundreds of their women and + children for days before crowd the strand, seeking for worms to + bait the hooks. The men carry in their boats, potatoes, oaten + cakes, fuel, and water, but never admit any spirituous liquors. + Thus equipped, they depart for their fishing ground, and + sometimes remain away several days. Their return is joyfully + hailed by their wives and children, who meet them on the shore. + The fish instantly becomes the property of the women, (the men, + after landing, never troubling themselves further about it,) and + they dispose of it to a poorer class of fishwomen, who retail it + at market. + + "The inhabitants of the Cloddagh are an unlettered race. They + rarely speak English, and even their Irish they pronounce in a + harsh, discordant tone, sometimes not intelligible to the + townspeople. They are a contented, happy race, satisfied with + their own society, and seldom ambitious of that of others. + Strangers (for whom they have an utter aversion) are never + suffered to reside among them. The women possess an unlimited + control over their husbands, the produce of whose labour they + exclusively manage, allowing the men little more money than + suffices to keep the boat and tackle in repair; but they keep + them plentifully supplied with whisky, brandy, and tobacco. The + women seldom speak English, but appear more shrewd and + intelligent in their dealings than the men; in their domestic + concerns the general appearance of cleanliness is deserving of + particular praise. The wooden ware, with which every dwelling is + well stored, rivals in colour the whitest delft. + + "At an early age they generally marry amongst their own clan. A + marriage is commonly preceded by an elopement, but no + disappointment or disadvantage from that circumstance has ever + been known among them. The reconciliation with the friends + usually takes place the next morning, the clergyman is sent for, + and the marriage celebrated. The parents generally contrive to + supply the price of a boat, or a share in one, as a beginning." + +The writer then proceeds, in a strain of generous yet chastened energy, to +comment on the false measure which people apply to the sufferings of +others. Insensibility to wretchedness, or, as in the vocabulary of +oppression it is called, content, is often a proof of nothing but that +stupefaction of the faculties which is the natural result of long and +blighting misery. A contented slave is a degraded man. His sorrow may be +gone, but so is his understanding. + +In the course of her enquiries into the condition of women under the +Mahometan law, the author is led to make some reflections upon one by whom +Mahometan manners were first presented in an attractive shape to the +English public--a person celebrated for her friends, but still more +celebrated for her enemies--known for her love, but famous for her hate--a +girl without feeling, a woman without tenderness--a banished wife, a +careless mother--on whom extraordinary wit, masculine sense, a clear +judgment, and an ardent love of letters seem to have been lavished for no +other purpose than to show that, without a good heart, they serve only to +make their possessor the most contemptible of mankind. Lady Mary Wortley's +heart was the receptacle of all meanness and sensuality--the prey of a +selfishness as intense as rank, riches, a bad education, natural +malignity, and the extremes of good and bad fortune, ever engendered in +the breast of woman. The remarks on her character, in the volume before +us, are, as might be expected, excellent. + +The condition of women among the more polished nations of antiquity, is a +subject which, if fully examined, would more than exhaust our narrow +limits. It does not appear from Homer, says our author, that the condition +of women was depressed. Achilles, in a very striking passage, declares +that every wise and good man loves and is careful for his wife, and +Hector, in the passage which Cicero is so fond of quoting, urges the +opinion of + + "Troy's proud dames, whose garments sweep the ground," + +as a motive for his conduct. However this may be, certain it is, that the +feelings and affections of domestic life are portrayed by Homer with a +degree of purity, truth, and pathos, that casts every other writer, Virgil +not excepted, into the shade; and which, to carry the panegyric of human +composition as far as it will go, he himself, in his most glorious +passages, has never been able to surpass. It has been so long the fashion +to represent Virgil as the sole master of the pathetic, that this +assertion may appear to many paradoxical; and it is undoubtedly true, that +the fourth book of the Aeneid cannot he read by any one of common +sensibility without strong emotion; but how different is the lamentation +of Andromache over her living husband, uttered in all the glow and +consciousness of returned and "twice blest" love, from the raving of the +slighted woman, abandoned by the lover whom she has too rashly trusted, +and to whom she has too plainly become indifferent! How different is the +character of the patriot warrior, the prop and bulwark of his country, +sacrificing his life to delay that ruin which he knew it was beyond his +power to avert--snatching, amid the bloody scenes around him, a moment for +the indulgence of a father's pride and a husband's tenderness, from the +perfidious paramour flying from the vengeance of the woman he had wronged! + +And how noble is the simplicity of Andromache, how affecting the appeal in +which, after reminding her husband that all else to which she was bound +had been swept away, she tells him that, while he remains, her other +losses are unfelt! Let us trace the episode. "She had not gone," the poet +tells us, "to the mansions of her brothers or of her sisters, with their +floating veils; neither had she gone to the shrine of Minerva, where the +Trojan women strove to appease the terrible wrath of the fair-haired +goddess. No. She had gone to the lofty tower of Ilium, for she had heard +that the Trojans were sore harassed, and that the force of the Greeks was +mighty; thither, like one bereft of reason, had she precipitated her +steps, and the nurse followed with her child." Then follows that +interview, which no one can read without passion, or think of without +delight--that exquisite scene, in which the wife and mother pours out all +her tenderness, her joy, her sadness, her pride, her terror, the memory of +the past, and the presage of future sorrow, in an irresistible torrent of +confiding love. Not less affecting is her husband's answer. Conscious of +his impending doom, he replies, that "not the future misery of his +countrymen, not that of Hecuba herself, and the royal Priam--not that of +all his valiant brethren slain by their enemies, and trampled in the dust, +give him such a pang as the thought of her distress." Then, as if to +relieve his thoughts, he stretches out his hand towards his child, but the +child shrinks backwards, scared at the brazen helm and waving crest--the +father and the mother exchange a smile--Hector lays aside the blazing +helmet, and, clasping his child in his arms, utters the noble prayer which +Dryden has rendered with uncommon spirit and fidelity:-- + + "Parent of gods and men, propitious Jove, + And you, bright synod of the powers above, + On this my son your precious gifts bestow; + Grant him to love, and great in arms to grow, + To reign in Troy, to govern with renown, + To shield the people, and assert the crown: + That when hereafter he from war shall come, + And bring his Trojans peace and triumph home, + Some aged man, who lives this act to see, + And who in former times remember'd me, + May say, 'The son in fortitude and fame, + Outgoes the mark, and drowns his father's name;' + That at these words his mother may rejoice, + And add her suffrage to the public voice." + +"Thus having said, he placed the boy in the arms of his beloved wife, and +she received him on her fragrant breast, sailing amid her tears;" her +husband uttered a few words of melancholy consolation, "and Andromache +went homewards, weeping, and often turning as she went." There is but one +passage in any work, ancient or modern, which can bear comparison with +this, and that is one in the Odyssey, in which is described the meeting of +Ulysses and Penelope; and yet some unfortunate people, who write +commentaries on the classics, only to show how completely nature has +denied them the faculty of taste, affirm that these passages were written +by different people. It is curious to what a pitch pedantry and dulness +may be brought by diligent cultivation. + +As the fanatics of the East, to prove their continence, frequented the +society of women under the most trying circumstances, so these gentlemen +seem to study the writers of antiquity with the view of showing that their +understandings are equally inaccessible. In one respect the analogy does +not hold good. History tells us that the fanatics sometimes sunk under the +temptations to which they exposed themselves; but these gentlemen have +never, in any one instance, yielded to the influence of taste or genius. +Zenophon, in a beautiful treatise, has given an account of the manner in +which an Athenian endeavoured to mould the character of his wife, and to +this we would refer such of our readers as wish for more ample knowledge +on the subject. There is one circumstance, however, which we the rather +mention, as it has not found its way into the work before us, and as it +furnishes the most conclusive and irresistible evidence of the value set +upon matrimonial happiness at Athens, and of the servile vassalage to +which women, in that most polished of all cities, were reduced. By the law +of Athens, a father without sons might bequeath his property away from his +daughter, but the person to whom the property was bequeathed was obliged +to marry her. This was reasonable enough; but the same principle, that of +keeping the inheritance in the stock to which it belonged, occasioned +another law--if the father left his estate to his daughter, and if the +daughter inherited his property after the father's death, her nearest male +relation in the descending line, the [Greek: agchioteus], might, though +she was married to a living husband, lay claim to her, institute a suit +for her recovery, force her from her husband's arms, and make her his +wife. + +Such a law must, alone, have been fatal to that domestic purity which we +justly consider the basis of social happiness--the very word, [Greek: +hetairai], which the Athenians enjoyed to denote the most degraded of all +women, if it proves the exquisite refinement of that wonderful people, +serves also to show how different were the associations with which, among +them, that class was connected. Can we wonder at this? Under that glorious +heaven, such women might, when they chose, behold the statues of Phidias +and the pictures of Zeuxis; they could listen to the wisdom of Socrates, +or they might form part of the crowd, hushed in raptured silence, round +the rhapsodist, as he recited the immortal lines of Homer--or round +Demosthenes, as he poured upon a rival, worthy of himself, the burning +torrent of his more than human eloquence. + +In their hearing the mightiest interests were discussed--the subtle +questions of the Academy propounded--the snares of the sophist +exposed--the sublime thoughts and actions of heroes and demigods, +embodied in the most glorious poetry, were daily exhibited to their view; +while the wife, occupied solely with petty cares and trifling objects, +without charms to win the love, or dignity to command the esteem, of her +husband, was condemned, within the narrow walls of the Gynaeceum, (of +which the drawings of Herculaneum and Pompeii may enable us to form some +notion,) to drag out the insipid round of her monotonous existence. + +True the Hetairai were stigmatized by law--but, as opinion was on their +side, they might well submit to legal condemnation and formal censure, +when they saw every day the youth, the intellect, the eloquence, the +philosophy, and the dignity of Athens crowding round their feet. At Rome, +the wife was not subject to the same rigorous seclusion, she was not cut +off from all possibility of improvement; her influence was gradually felt, +her rights were tacitly extended, and long after the letter of the law +reduced her to the condition of a slave, she held and exercised the +privileges of a citizen. At Rome, domestic virtues were more considered, +domestic ties were held in great esteem. The family was the basis of the +state. The existence of the Roman was not altogether public, it was not +merely intellectual; in what Grecian poet after Homer shall we find lines +that convey such an idea of domestic happiness as these?-- + + "Praeterea neque jam domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor + Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati + Praeripere--et tacita pectus dulcedinet tangent." + +There is no event to which women are more indebted for the improved +situation they hold among us than the propagation of Christianity. It was +reserved for religion to urge the weakness of woman as a reason for +treating her, not with tenderness only, but with respect; it was reserved +for religion to bring the charities that are lovely in private life into +public service; to break down the barriers which had so long separated the +husband from the citizen, and to pour around the private hearth the light +which, up to the time of its revelation, had been reflected almost +exclusively from the school of the philosopher or the forum of the +republic, unless in a few rare and favoured instances when it had shed its +radiance over the cell of the captive and the deathbed of the patriot. It +was for religion to inculcate that purity of heart, without which mere +forbearance from sensuality is a virtue which may be prized in the +precincts of the seraglio, but to which true honour is almost indifferent. +Nothing less powerful than such an influence prescribing a new life, and +commanding its votaries to be new creatures, could have wrenched from +their holdings prejudices as old as the society in which they flourished. +Our limits will not allow us to descant at any length on the condition of +women during the early ages of Christianity; but we transcribe on this +subject, from a recent work, a passage which we are sure our readers will +peruse with pleasure. + + "Ce qui rendit les moeurs des familles Chretiennes si graves, ce + qui les conserva si chastes, c'est ce qui a toujours exerce sur + les moeurs en general l'influence la plus profonde, l'exemple des + femmes. Douees d'une delicatesse d'organes, qui rend, pour ainsi + dire, leur intelligence plus accessible a la voix d'un monde + superieur, leur coeur plus sensible a toutes ces emotions qui + enfantent les vertus, et qui elevent l'homme terrestre au-dessus + de la sphere etroite de la vie presente, les femmes, etrangeres a + l'histoire des travaux speculatifs du genre humain, sont + toujours, dans les revolutions morales et religieuses, les + premieres a saisir, et a propager ce qui est grand, beau, et + celeste. Avec une chaleur entrainante elles embrasserent la cause + Chretienne, et s'y devouerent en heroines, depuis l'annonciation + du Sauveur jusqu'a sa mort; en effet, elles furent les premieres + aux pieds de sa croix, les premieres a son sepulcre. Presentant + avec leur tact si prompt et si fin, tout ce que cette cause leur + deferait d'elevation morale et d'avantages sociaux, elles s'y + attacherent avec un interet toujours croissant. Depuis les + saintes femmes de l'evangile et la marchande de pourpre de + Thyatire jusqu'a l'imperatrice Helene, elles furent les + protectrices les plus zelees des idees Chretiennes. Leur zele ne + fut point sans sacrifices, mais avec empressement elles + renoncerent a leurs gouts les plus chers, a la parure et aux + elegances du luxe, pour rivaliser avec les hommes les plus sages + de la societe Chretienne. Quelques rares exceptions ne se font + remarquer que pour relever tant de merite."--Matter, _Hist. du + Christianime_, Vol. I. + + "The tendency of this creed," to use the words of our author, "is + to direct the aim and purposes of mankind to whatever can exalt + human nature and improve human happiness. It represents us as + gardeners in a vineyard, or servants entrusted with a variety of + means, who are not 'to keep their talent in a napkin,' but to + exert their skill and ingenuity to employ it to the best + advantage. The moral principles themselves are fixed and + unchangeable; but their application to the circumstances by which + we are surrounded, must depend very much on the degree in which + reason has been exercised. By no imaginable instruction could the + mind be so tutored, as to see through all the errors and + prejudices of its times at once, but the principles possess in + themselves a power of progression. The generosity of one time + will be but justice in another; the temperance that brings + respect and distinction in one age, will be but decorum in one + more civilized, yet the principles are at all times the same." + +It is difficult to read without a smile some of the passages in which the +dress and manners of the first ages are described by the Fathers of the +Church; the fair hair, (our classical readers will recollect the + + "Nigrum flavo crinem abscondente galero" + +of the Roman satirist,) which the daughters of the South borrowed from +their Celtic and German neighbours, seems especially to have excited their +indignation. Tertullian, in his treatise "De Cultu Foeminarum," declaims +with his usual fiery rhetoric against this habit. "I see some women," says +the African, "who dye their hair with yellow; they are ashamed of their +very nation, that they are not the natives of Gaul or Germany. Evil and +most disastrous to them is the omen which their fiery head portends, while +they consider such abomination graceful." This charitable hint of future +reprobation, savage as it appears, seems to have been much admired by the +Fathers; it is repeated by St Jerome and St Cyprian with equal triumph. +Well, indeed, might Theophilus of Antioch, in his letter to Autolycus, +place the Christian opinions concerning women in startling contrast with +the revolting scheme proposed in relation to them by the most refined +philosopher of antiquity. Well might the matrons of Antioch refuse to +gratify Julian by a sacrifice to gods whose votaries had steeped their sex +in impurity and degradation. The death of Hypatia is indeed a blot in +Christian annals, but she fell the victim of an infuriated multitude; and +how often had the Proconsul and the Emperor beheld, unmoved, the arena wet +with the blood of Christian virgins, and the earth blackened with their +ashes! Indeed, the deference paid to weakness is the grand maxim, the +practical application of which, in spite of some fantastic notions, and +some most pernicious errors that accompanied it, entitles chivalry to our +veneration, and prevented the dark ages from being one scene of unmixed +violence and oppression. The flashes of generosity that gild with a +momentary splendour the dreadful scenes of feudal tyranny, were struck out +by the force of this principle acting upon the most rugged nature in the +most superstitious ages. While the fire that had consumed the surprised +city was slaked in the blood of its miserable inhabitants, the distress of +high-born beauty, or the remonstrances of the defenceless priest, often +arrested the career of the warrior, who viewed the slaughter of +unoffending peasants and of simple burghers with as much indifference as +that of the wild-boar or the red-deer which it was his pastime and his +privilege to destroy. Who does not remember the beautiful passage in +Tasso, where the crusaders burst into tears at the sight of the holy +sepulchre?-- + + "Nudo ciascuno il pie calca il sentiero, + Ch'l'esempio de duci ogn' altromuove + Serico fregio d'or, piuma e criniero + Superbo dal suo capo ognon rimuove, + _E d'insieme del cor l'abito altero + Depone, e calde e pie lagrime piove_." + +We now enter into the main object of the work, the condition of women in +modern times; and the passage which introduces the subject is so luminous +and eloquent, that we cannot resist the pleasure of laying it before our +readers without mutilation. + + "To pursue the history of woman through the ages of misrule and + violence that corrupted the spirit of chivalry, would be useless. + It is sufficiently evident, that in proportion as the vices of + barbarism renewed their dominion, the condition of women would be + more or less affected by their evils. But, on the whole, society + was improving: two great events were preparing to engage the + attention of Europe--the struggles for religious freedom and the + revival of learning. These produced effects on the human mind + very different from those of any revolutions that had taken place + during the age of barbarism. + + "While the opinion reigned absolute, that war was the most + important affair of life and the most honourable pursuit, the + tendency of society was towards destruction. All the virtue + consistent with so false a principle was, perhaps, brought forth + by chivalry; but in the long run, the false principle overruled + the force of the generous spirit, and chivalry sank like a meteor + that owed its splendour to surrounding darkness. Its spirit gave + an impulse to opinion and sentiment, but its errors and ignorance + disabled it from supplying any corrective to the bad institutions + and mistaken policy which fostered barbarism. It was not every + mind that was capable of imbibing the generous sentiments of + chivalry, but ferocious passions could rarely fail to be + stimulated by the idolatry of war, and the contempt for civil + employments it produced. Among men, poor, restless, and to a + great degree irresponsible, the craving for distinction excited + by chivalry was a dangerous passion. No very general change over + the face of society could be reasonably expected, from the + attempts to engraft a spirit of gentleness and beneficence upon a + principle of war and destruction. The spirit was right, but the + principle was wrong. It was just the reverse in the next + enthusiasm which seized the minds of mankind. In the struggles + for religious freedom which followed, the principle was right, + but it was pursued in the horrible spirit of persecution. Men, + ready to die for the right of professing the truth, could not + divest themselves of that persecuting spirit towards others, + which was leading themselves to the stake. But there is a vigour + in a right principle which gradually clears men's eyes of their + prejudices. The dire and mistaken means by which successive + reformers defended each his own opinion, were abandoned, and men + began to perceive that civil and religious liberty were of more + use to society than martial feats or extended conquests; and that + it is still more important to learn how to reason than how to fight. + + "The tendency of this principle was towards social improvement, + and civilization began to make progress. + + "Before the extinction of chivalry, the airy throne on which + women had been raised was broken down; but the effects of her + elevation were never obliterated. There remained on the surface + of society a tone of gallantry which tended to preserve some + recollection of the station she had once held. As civilization + advanced, the idea that women might be disposed of like property, + seemed to be nearly abandoned all over Europe; but their + subsequent condition partook (as might be expected in the case of + dependent beings) of the character prevailing in each country. + The grave temper and morbid jealousy of the Spaniards, reduced + them almost to Eastern seclusion." + +We entreat the attention of our readers to the following remark, which +explains, in some degree, the mediocrity that characterizes the present +day:-- + + "In the first ages after the rise of literature, the very want of + that multitude of second-rate books we now possess, had the + effect of compelling those who learned any thing to betake + themselves to studies of a solid nature; and there was + consequently less difference then, between the education of the + two sexes, than now. The reader will immediately recollect the + instances of Lady Jane Grey, Mrs Hutchinson, and others of the + same class, and will feel that it is quite fair to assume, that + many such existed when a few came to be known." + +It was during the reign of the last princes of the House of Valois, that +the women of the French court began to exercise that malignant and almost +universal influence, which, for a while, poisoned the well-springs of +refinement and civility. Eclipsed for a while by the mighty luminaries +which, during the life of Louis XIII., and the early part of Louis +XIV.th's reign, were lords of the ascendant when they had sunk beneath +the horizon, their constellation again blazed forth with greater force +and more disastrous splendour. Hence the Dragonnades, the destruction of +Port-Royal, the persecution of the Jansenists, the death of Racine, the +disgrace of Fenelon. Hence, in the reign of Louis XV., orgies that +Messalina would have blushed to share; while cruelties[A] of which +Suwarrow would hardly have been the instrument, were employed to lash +into a momentary paroxysm nerves withered by debauchery. Here let us +pause for a moment, to remark upon the effect which false opinions may +produce upon the happiness and well-being of distant generations. Nothing +is so common as for trivial superficial men--the class to which the +management of empires is for the most part entrusted--to ridicule +theories, and, by a mode reasoning which would place any cabin boy far +above Sir Isaac Newton, to insist upon the mechanical parts of +government, and the routine of ordinary business, as the sole objects +entitled to notice and consideration-- + + "O curvae in terris animae, et coelestium inanes!" + +[Footnote A: This does not apply to Louis XV. personally.] + +We would fain ask these practical people--for such is the eminently +inappropriate metaphor by which they rejoice to be distinguished--we would +fain ask them (if it be consistent with their profound respect for +practice to pay some attention to experience) to cast their eyes upon the +proceedings and manners of the French court (wild and chimerical as such +an appeal will no doubt appear to them) during the dominion of Catharine +of Medicis and her offspring, those execrable deceivers, corrupters, and +executioners of their people. To what are the almost incredible +abominations, familiar as household words to the French court of that day, +to be ascribed? To what are the persecutions, perjuries, the massacres +that pollute the annals of France during that period, to be attributed? To +a false theory. Catharine of Medicis brought into France the practical +atheism of Machiavelli's prince--the Bible, as she blasphemously called +it, of her class. The maxims which, when confined to the petty courts of +Italy, did not undermine the prosperity of any considerable portion of the +human race, when disseminated among a valiant, politic, and powerful +nation, brought Iliads of desolation in their train. We subjoin Jeanne +d'Allrep's account of the private manners of the court of Charles IX:-- + + "J'ai trouve votre lettre fort a mon gre--je la montrerai a + madame, si je puis; quant a la peinture, je l'enverrai querir a + Paris; elle est belle et bien avisee, et de bonne grace, mais + nourrie en la plus maudite et corrompue compagnie qui fut jamais, + car je n'en vois point qui ne s'en sente. Votre cousine la + marquise (l'epouse du jeune Prince de Conde) en est tellement + changee qu'il n'y a apparence de religion en elle; si non + d'autant qu'elle ne va point a la messe; car au reste de sa facon + de vivre, hormis l'idolatrie, elle fait comme les Papistes; et ma + soeur la Princesse (de Conde) encore pis. Je vous l'ecris + privement, le porteur vous dira comme le roi s'emancipe--c'est + pitie; je ne voudrois pour chose du monde que vous y fussiez pour + y demeurer. Voila pourquoi je desire vous marier, et que vous et + votre femme vous vous retiriez de cette corruption; car encore + que je la croyois bien grande, je la trouve encore davantage. Ce + ne sont pas les hommes ici qui prient les femmes--ce sont les + femmes qui prient les hommes; si vous y etiez, vous n'en + echapperiez jamais sans une grande grace de Dieu." + +Thus women were alternately tools and plotters, idols and slaves. The +ornaments of a court became the scourges of a nation; their influence was +an influence made up of falsehood, made up of cruelty, made up of +intrigue, of passions the most unbridled, and of vices the most +detestable, and it seems to the student of history, in this wild and +dreadful era as if all that was generous, upright, noble, and +benevolent--as if faith and honour, and humanity and justice, were +foreign and unnatural to the heart of man. But let us turn to our author. + + "But the times were about to change. The great and stirring + contests in religion and politics, which had given such scope to + the deep fervour of the British character, subsided, as if the + actors were breathless from their past exertions. The struggle + for freedom sank into acquiescence in the dominion of the most + worthless of mankind; and zeal for religion fled before the + spirit of banter and sneer. The enthusiasm of 'fierce wars and + faithful loves,' of piety and of freedom, were succeeded by the + reign of profligacy and levity. + + "During that disastrous period, the sordid and servile vices seem + to have kept pace with the wildest licentiousness; and the dark + and stern persecutions in Scotland form a fearful contrast with + the bacchanalian revels of the court. The effects on the + character and estimation of the female sex, sustain all that has + been said upon the connexion of their interests with the + elevation of morals. It became the habit to satirize and despise + them, and on this they have never entirely recovered. The + demoralization which led to it was, indeed, too much opposed to + the temper of the English to be permanent; but women, for a long + time after, ceased to keep pace with their age. Notwithstanding + the numerous exceptions which must always have existed in a free + and populous country like England, where literature had made + progress, it is certain, that in the days of Pope and Addison, the + women, in general, were grossly ignorant. + + "The tone of gallantry and deference which had arisen from + chivalry, still remained on the surface, but its language was + that of cold, unmeaning flattery; and, from being the arbiters of + honour, they became the mere ministers of amusement. They were + again consigned to that frivolity, into which they _relapse as + easily as men_ do into ferocity. The respect they inspired, was + felt individually or occasionally, but not for their sex. Any + thing serious addressed to them, was introduced with an apology, + or in the manner we now address children whom we desire to + flatter. They were treated and considered as grown children. In + the writings addressed to them expressly for their instruction in + morals, or the conduct of life, though with the sincerest desire + for their welfare, nothing is proposed to them that can either + exalt their sentiments, invigorate their judgment, or give them + any desire to leave the world better than they found it. They + inculcated little beyond the views and the duties of a decent + servant. Views and duties, indeed, very commendable as far as + they go, but lamentable when offered as the standard of morals + and thought for half the human species; that half too, on whom + chiefly depends the first, the often unalterable, bent given to + the character of the whole." + +The dignity of character which rivets our attention on the "high dames and +gartered knights" of the days of Elizabeth, the simplicity and earnestness +and lofty feeling, which lent grace to prejudice and chastened error into +virtue, were exchanged, in the days of Charles II., for undisguised +corruption and insatiable venality, for license without generosity, +persecution without faith, and luxury without refinement. Grammont's +animated _Memoires_ are a complete, and, from the happy unconsciousness of +the writer to the vices he portrays, a faithful picture of the court, to +which the description Polydore Virgil gives of a particular family, "nec +vir fortis nec foemina casta," was almost literally applicable. + +Various as are the beauties of style with which this work +abounds--beauties which, to borrow the phrase of Cicero, rise as +naturally from the subject as a flower from its stem--we doubt whether it +contains a more felicitous illustration than that which we are about to +quote. The reader must bear in mind that the object of the writer is to +establish the proposition, that there is an average inferiority of women +to men in certain qualities, which, slight as it may appear, or +altogether as it may vanish, in particular instances, is, on the whole, +incontestable, and according to which the transactions of daily life are +distributed. + + "All inconvenience is avoided by a slight inferiority of strength + and abilities in one of the sexes. This gradually develops a + particular turn of character, a new class of affections and + sentiments that humanize and embellish the species more than any + others. These lead at once, without art or hesitation, to a + division of duties, needed alike in all situations, and produce + that order without which there can be no social progression. In + the treatise of _The Hand_, by Sir Charles Bell, we learn that + the left hand and foot are naturally a little weaker than the + right; the effect of this is, to make us more prompt and + dexterous than we should otherwise be. If there were no + difference at all between the right and left limbs, the slight + degree of hesitation which hand to use or which foot to put + forward, would create an awkwardness that would operate more or + less every moment of our lives, and the provision to prevent it + seems analogous to the difference nature has made between the + strength of the sexes." + +The domain of woman is the horizon where heaven and earth meet--a sort of +land debatable between the confines where positive institutions end and +intellectual supremacy begins. It includes the whole region over which +politeness should extend, as well as a large portion of the territories +over which the fine arts hold their sway. + +Those lighter and more shifting features which elude the grasp of the +moralist, and escape the pencil of the historian, though they impress upon +every age a countenance and expression of its own, it is her undoubted +province to survey. Consequently, if not for the + + "Troublous storms that toss + The private state, and render life unsweet," + +yet for whatever of elegance or simplicity is wanting in the intercourse +of society, for all that is cumbrous in its proceedings, for any bad +taste, and much for any coarseness that it tolerates, woman, as European +manners are constituted, is exclusively responsible. The habits of daily +intercourse represent her faults and virtues as naturally as a shadow is +cast by the sun, or the image of the tree that overhangs the lake is +reflected from its undisturbed and silent waters. Where the desire of +wealth and respect for rank engross an excessive share of her thoughts, +conversation will be insipid; and instead of that, "nature _ondoyante_," +that disposition to please and be pleased, which is the essence of good +nature and the foundation of good taste--instead of frankness and +urbanity, youth will engraft on its real ignorance the dulness of affected +stupidity--will assume an air of selfish calculation--of arrogance at one +time and servility at another--debased itself, and debasing all around it. +When, on the contrary, whatever may be their real sentiments, the external +demeanour of men to each other is such as benevolence, gratitude, and +equity would dictate--and we do mean this phrase to include Russian +manners--where, whatever may be the principles that ferment within, the +surface of society is brilliant and harmonious--where, if the better +politeness which dwells in the heart be wanting, the imitation of it which +springs from the head is habitual--women are entitled to the praise of +exact taste and skilful discrimination. There are women whom the world +elevates, only afterwards the more effectually to humble. For a time the +best and wisest submit to their caprices, study their humour, are governed +by their wishes--every one avoids as a crime the slightest appearance of +collision with any motive that, for the moment, it may suit their purpose +to entertain--a smile upon their face is hailed with rapture, any faint +proof that humanity is not dead within their breasts draws down the most +enthusiastic applause. During their hour of empire, people are grateful to +them for not being absolutely intolerable--when they deviate into the +least appearance of courtesy or good nature, they are angels. Their sun +sets, and they soon learn what it is to be a fallen tyrant. The woman who +pleases at first, and as your acquaintance advances gains the more in your +esteem, is the most charming of all companions; the countenance of such a +person is the most agreeable of all sights, and her voice the most +musical of all sounds. "Une belle femme qui a les qualites d'un honnete +homme est-ce qu'il y a au monde d'un commerce plus delicieux; l'on trouve +en elle tout le merite des deux sexes." + +"In the heart of the best woman," says a German writer, "there glows a +shovelful, at least, of infernal embers; in that of the worst, there is a +little corner of Paradise." + +The real benefits which depend on the influence of the softer sex are thus +described:-- + + "One of the peculiar offices of women is to refine society. They + are very much shielded by their sex from the stern duties of men, + and from that intercourse with the basest part of mankind which + is opposed to the humanizing influence of mental cultivation. On + them, the improvement of society in these respects chiefly + depends; and they who consider the subject with the views here + offered, will become more and more convinced of the service they + might render. Manners are, in truth, of great importance. If real + refinement be a merit, it is surely desirable that it should show + itself in the general deportment. Real vulgarity is the + expression of something mean or coarse in sentiments or habits. + It betrays the want of fine moral perceptions. The peculiarities + in manner and deportment, which proceed from the selfishness of + the great world, when stripped of the illusory influence of their + apparent refinement, become grossly offensive. A cold repulsive + manner, such as is commonly assumed by persons in high life, is + sometimes a necessary shield against the pushing familiarity of + underbred persons. Their tasteless imitations of habits and + manners which do not belong to their station or character, + deserve the ridicule they meet with. The most offensive form + vulgarity can take, is an affectation of the follies and vices of + high life. It is true that the notion of vulgarity is affixed, in + the fine world, to many trifling modes of dress and deportment, + which in themselves have no demerit whatever, except that + something opposed to them has acquired an ephemeral propriety + from the fancy of the great. But in real good breeding there is + always a reason. It is far too little attended to in England in + any class, though, from acting as a continual corrective to + selfish and unsocial affections, it is peculiarly requisite in + all. Good manners consist in a constant maintenance of + self-respect, accompanied by attention and deference to others; + in correct language, gentle tones of voice, ease, and quietness + in movements and action. They repress no gaiety or animation + which keeps free of offence; they divest seriousness of an air of + severity or pride. In conversation, good manners restrain the + vehemence of personal or party feelings, and promote that + versatility which enables people to converse readily with + strangers, and take a passing interest in any subject that may be + addressed to them." + +The writer takes occasion to regret the narrow spirit which prevents our +nobility, or, to speak more properly, our fashionable coteries, from +acquiring a healthier tone, by mixing with societies in which habits of +more vigorous thought predominate. In France, to whatever degree frivolity +may be carried, a French lady would be ashamed not to affect an interest +in the great writers by whom her country has been ennobled; and to betray +an ignorance of their works, or an indifference to their renown, would be +considered a proof not only of the greatest stupidity, but of bad taste +and unrefined habits. Here we are distinguished unfavourably from our +neighbours--exceptions, of course, there must always be--but in general to +betray an acquaintance with any literature beyond the last novel, or the +current trash and gossip of the day, might provoke the charge of pedantry, +but at any rate would fail in exciting the slightest sympathy. Hence men +of letters, and women of letters, form a caste by themselves much to their +own disadvantage, and still more to the injury of those to the improvement +of whom they might imperceptibly contribute; hence the statesman, or the +lawyer, or the writer, generally keeps aloof from the great world, which +he leaves to idle young men and aged coxcombs; or, if he enters it, takes +care to abstain from those topics on which his conversation would be most +natural, instructing, and entertaining. Instances, indeed, may be found, +where men, eminent for science and literature, or of high professional +reputation, inflamed with a distempered appetite for fashionable society, +"drag their slow lengths along" among the guardsmen and dowagers who +frequent such scenes; but they are rather tolerated than encouraged, and +the sacrifices by which they purchase their admission into the dullest +society of Europe are so numerous, their appearance is so mortifying, and +the effect produced upon themselves so pernicious, that hitherto such +instances have served not as models to imitate, but as bywords to deter. +Instead of improving others, they degrade themselves; instead of inspiring +the frivolous with nobler aims and better principles, they condescend to +be the echoes of imbecility; instead of raising the standard of +conversation, they yield implicitly to any signal, however corrupt, +worthless, or utterly unreasonable may be the quarter from which it +proceeds, that the most submissive votaries of fashion watch for and obey. +The system is denounced by our author in the following vigorous and +eloquent passage:-- + + "The assembly-room or dinner-table _is the very focus of care and + anxiety_, so that a funereal dulness often overhangs it; and + there, where there is the greatest amount of money, time, and + contrivance expended on pleasure--there is least animation of + spirits. For one who is pleased, a dozen are chewing the cud of + some petty annoyance, and _the flow of spirits excited and + animated by rapid interchange of ideas is scarcely known._ When + it occurs, it is seldom owing to those who live for dissipation, + but to men whom the duties of office compel to work very hard. + Notwithstanding their wealth, the pursuits of ambition compel + them to become men of business, and the elasticity of their minds + is preserved. That languid and depressed condition which cankers + the very heart of social enjoyment, loses its solemn character on + occasions of disappointment and vexation. Its pleasures are not + cheerful, but its distresses are ludicrous, and are felt to be + so. Each laughs at his neighbour's mortifications, and the + consciousness he is supplying the same malicious amusement in his + turn, does not take the sting from his own griefs when they + arise. + + "Nor is it merely as destructive of social enjoyment, that the + habits of the great world are unfriendly to happiness. It is not + the place for those who have warm imaginations and tender hearts. + There is scarcely any circumstance in which that sphere differs + more from others, than in the deficiency of strong affections. + The chances are many against their existence; and if a woman be + born to move in the haunts of the worldly, it were almost cruel + to snatch her from that immersion in their follies which may + serve to stifle the pangs of disappointed affection. For after + all that can be said of the misery of its empty pursuits and + corrupted tastes, the disappointments that end its petty + passions, and the mortifications that cling to its apparent + splendours, sorrows like those bear no comparison with tears of + anguish shed by the grave of love. Surrounding pleasures, even + the tranquil and elevating beauty of external nature, seem but a + mockery when offered in place of the one thing needful--perfect + and overflowing affection. The exterior decorum and attention on + the part of an altered husband, which betrays to the world no + dereliction of morals but what its easy code passes over as a + right, is no substitute for love. Not unfrequently there is + something almost appalling in the sense of solitude, which on + occasions of sickness or retirement oppresses a young woman, who + to all appearance is overwhelmed with attendance. The hand is not + there that would render every other superfluous. A voice is + wanting, whose absence leaves the silence and horror of death. + The eyes are missed, whose glances first called forth the fervour + of her affections from their peaceful sleep; or, if looking on + her for a moment, they express nothing but indifference. These + are the occasions that dispel the laboured illusion, wherewith, + under the garb of business, or cares, or natural manner, she had + sought to disguise from herself the marks of an estranged heart. + In these sad and desolate hours her memory retraces her early + years, her mother's tender watchfulness, and the soft voices of + sisters contending for their place by her bedside. The contrast + with her present stately solitude bursts resistless through every + effort to repel it; and life and youth, with their long futurity, + present her with nothing but a frightful chasm." + + "Alas! alas my song is sad; + How should it not be so, + When he, who used to make me glad, + Now leaves me in my woe? + With him my love, my graciousness, + My beauty, all are vain; + I feel as if some guiltiness + Had mark'd me with its stain. + + "One sweet thought still has power o'er me, + In this my heart's great need; + 'Tis, that I ne'er was false to thee, + Dear friend, in word or deed: + I own that nobler virtues fill + Thy heart, love only mine; + Yet why are all thy looks so chill + Till they on others shine? + + "Oh! long-loved friend, I marvel much + Thy heart is so severe, + That it will yield not to the touch + Of love and sorrow's tear. + No, no! it cannot be, that thou + Should seek another's love; + Oh! think upon our early vow, + And thou wilt faithful prove. + + "Thy virtues--pride, thy lofty fame, + Assures me thou art true, + Though fairer ones than I may claim + Thy hand, and deign to sue. + But think, beloved one, that, to bless + With perfect blessing, thou + Must seek for trusting tenderness: + Remember then our vow!" + + "Collectively," says our author, "women might do much to remove + the national stigma of leaving men of science and letters + neglected. But their education is seldom such as enables them to + know the great importance of science and literature to human + improvement; and they are rarely brought up to regard it as any + part of their duty to promote the interests of society. They + would not, indeed, be able directly to reward men of talent by + employment or honours, but they might make them acquainted with + those who could; at all events, mere social distinction, the + attention and approbation of our fellow creatures, is in itself + an advantage to men who seldom possess that passport to English + respect--wealth. Though learning is tacitly discouraged in women, + yet the access to every species of knowledge requisite to direct + their efforts wisely and well, is as open to them as to men. With + this power of forming the mind of the rising generation, this + influence over the opinions, the morals, and the tastes of + society, this direct power in promoting objects both of private + benevolence and national importance--with so many advantages, how + is it that women are still exposed to so many sufferings, from + dependence, oppression, mortification, and contempt? why are + their opinions yet sneered at? why is their influence rather + deprecated than sought? Is it not that they have never learnt + even the selfish policy of connecting themselves with the spirit + of moral and intellectual advancement? Is it not because their + liberty, their privileges, their power, have proceeded in many + respects, less from a spirit of justice in the other sex, or a + sense of moral fitness, than from the love of pleasure and + luxury, of which women are the best promoters?" + +In England, these evils are peculiarly great; for in England they are +without compensation. It is possible to imagine such brilliant +conversation, such varied wit, such graceful manners, such apparent +gentleness, that would stifle the complaints of the moralist, and cause +the half-uttered expostulation to die away upon his lips. So we can +conceive that Arnaud and Nicole may have listened to the enchanting +discourse of Madame de Sevigne, and under an influence so irresistible, +have forborne to scan with severity the faults, glaring as they were, of +the system to which she belonged. But with us the case is +different--compare the English lady in her country-house, hospitable to +her guests, benevolent to her dependents, as a wife spotless, as a mother +most devoted, caring for all around her, dispensing education, relieving +distress, encouraging merit, the guard of innocence, the shame of guilt, +active, contented, gracious, exemplary: and see the same person in +London--her frame worn out with fatigue, her mind ulcerated with petty +mortifications, her brow clouded, her look hardened, her eye averted from +unprofitable friends, her tone harsh, her demeanour restless, her whole +being changed: and were there no higher motive, were it a question of +advantage and convenience only, were dignity, and the good opinion of +others, and consideration in the world, alone at stake, can any one +hesitate as to which situation a wife or daughter should prefer? We +should, indeed, be sorry if our demeanour in those vast crowds where +English people flock together, rather, as it would seem, to assert a +right than to gratify an inclination, were to be taken as an index of our +national character--the want of all ease and simplicity, those essential +ingredients of agreeable society, which distinguish these dreary +meetings, have been long unfortunately notorious. No nation is so careful +of the great, or so indifferent to the lesser, moralities of life as the +English; and in no country is society, indebted, perhaps, to polished +idleness for its greatest charms, more completely misunderstood. Too busy +to watch the feelings of others, and too earnest to moderate our own, +that true politeness which pays respect to age, which strives to put the +most insignificant person in company on a level with the most +considerable--virtues which our neighbours possess in an eminent +degree,--are, except in a few favoured instances, unknown among us; while +affectation, in other countries the badge of ignorance and vulgarity, is +in ours, even in its worst shape, when it borrows the mien of rudeness, +and impertinence, and effrontery, the appanage of those whose station is +most conspicuous, and whose dignity is best ascertained. There is more +good breeding in the cottage of a French peasant than in all the boudoirs +of Grosvenor Square. + +But God forbid that a word should escape from us which should +seem to place the amusements of society, or the charms of +conversation, in competition with those stern virtues which +are the guardians of an English hearth! The austere fanaticism of the +Puritans, tainted with hypocrisy as it was, was preferable a thousand +times to the orgies of the Regent and the _Parc-aux-Cerfs_. If purity and +refined society be, indeed, incompatible--if the love of freedom and +active enterprise necessarily exclude the grace and softness which lessen, +or at least teach us to forget, the burden of existence, let us be what we +are; and, indeed, it is the opinion of many, that the rant of social +pleasure is the price we pay for the excellence of our political +institutions. It is because before the law all men are equal, that in the +world so much care is taken to show that they are different. If to this we +add the mercantile habits of our countrymen, the enormous wealth which +their pursuits enable them to accumulate--the great honours which are the +reward of successful industry and ambition--the absurd value annexed to +technical distinctions--the manner in which, in our as in all free +countries, those distinctions are conferred--and a certain disposition to +sneer at any chivalrous, or elevated feeling, from which few of our ladies +are exempt--we shall find it easy to account for the cold, stiff, +ungraceful, harsh, and mercenary habits which disfigure, to the +astonishment of all foreigners, the patrician class of English society. +Nothing, indeed, can be less graceful than the frivolity of an Englishman. +Naturally grave, serious, contemplative, if his angry stars have endowed +him with enormous wealth, he carries into the pursuit of trifles the same +solemnity and perseverance which, had he been more fortunately situated, +would have been employed in a professional career--he carries a certain +degree of gravity into his follies and his vices; as Pope, no less keen an +observer than finished a poet, observed, he + + "Judicious sups, and greatly daring dines"-- + +devotes himself to an eternal round of puerile follies, with a pompous +self-importance that would be ludicrous were it exhibited in the discharge +of the noblest and most sacred duties. Plate and wine seem his religion, +and a well-furnished room his morality--his dinners engross his +thoughts--his field sports are a nation's care. He writes books on +arm-chairs, hunts with the most ineffable self-sufficiency, and talks of +his dogs and horses as Howard or Clarkson might speak of the jails they +had visited, and the mourners they had set free. He commits errors with a +stolid air of deliberation, which the reckless passions of boiling youth +could hardly palliate, but which, when perpetrated as a title to fashion, +and as a passport to society, no epithets that contempt can suggest are +vehement enough to stigmatize. The Englishman's vice has a business-like +air with it that is intolerable--there is no illusion, no refinement--it +is coarse, direct, groveling brutality--it wears its own hideous aspect +with no garnish or disguise; and how seldom, even among that sex which +these volumes are intended to instruct, does the brow wreathed with +roses, amid the haunts of dissipation, wear a gay, a serene, or even a +contented aspect! Where all the treasures that inanimate nature can +furnish are scattered in profusion--where the air is fragrant with +perfume, and vocal with melody, how vainly do we look for the freshness +and animation, and the simplicity and single-mindedness of buoyant and +delighted youth! We feel inclined, amid this gloomy dissipation and +depressing pleasure, to reverse the most beautiful passage in Euripides, +and to say, that the banquet and the festival do require all the +heightening of art, all the embellishments of luxury, all the illusions +of song, to conceal the struggles of corroding interest, and the pangs of +constant mortification. + + "There" (but we quote one of the most remarkable passages in the + book) "is a general aversion from the labour of thought, in all + who have not had the faculties exercised while they were pliant, + nor been supplied with a certain stock of elementary knowledge, + essential alike to any subject of science that may be presented + to their maturer years. By means of the press, many broken and + ill-sustained rays pierce across the neglect or indifference of + parents, to the minds of the young. Gleams of a rational spirit + and enlarged feeling may often be found among the daughters of + country gentlemen, whose sons are still solely devoted to + sporting and party politics. + + "When we think of those mighty resources we have just been + adverting to, the strength all such tastes acquire by sympathy, + and the observation of nature and of human life they tend to + excite, we might expect they would furnish society with + everlasting sources of excitement and mutual interest, that they + would create a universal sympathy with genius and ability + wherever it was found, and soften the repulsive austerity with + which it is the nature of rank and wealth to look on humble + fortunes. + + "Little or nothing of all this takes place. Frivolity and + insipidity are the prevailing characters of conversation; and + nowhere in Europe, perhaps, does difference of fortune or station + produce more unsocial and illiberal separation. Very few of those + whom fortune has released from the necessity of following some + laborious profession, are capable of passing their time agreeably + without the assistance of company; not from a spirit of gaiety + which calls on society for indulgence--not from any pleasure they + take in conversation, where they are frequently languid and + taciturn, but to rival each other in the luxury of the table, or, + by a great _variety of indescribable airs_, to make others _feel + the pain of mortification_. They meet as if _'to fight the + boundaries' of their rank and fashion_, and the less definite and + perceptible is the line which divides them, the more punctilious + is their pride. It is a great mistake to suppose that this + low-minded folly is peculiar to people of rank: it is an English + disease. But the higher we go in society, the wider the circle of + the excluded becomes, consequently, the greater the range of + human beings cast forth from the pale of sympathy; and the more + contracted do the judgment, experience, and feelings of its + inmates become. The lofty walls, the iron spikes that surround + our villas, and the notices every where affixed 'that trespassers + will be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law,' are meet + emblems of the social spirit that connects the different orders + of society in England. The effect of this is to produce narrow + minds, or, what is worse, narrow hearts on one side, and a host + of dissocial, irritable passions on the other. In each step of + the scale, those beneath see chiefly the unamiable qualities of + their superiors." + +The disproportion of the happiness of society with its means, is a subject +which calls forth all the eloquence and sagacity of this writer. Nor is +this surprising; for it might startle the most sluggish indifference--the +most incurious stupidity. How does it come to pass, that with us misery is +the fruit of successful labour, that with us experience does not teach +caution, that with us the most munificent charity is unable to check the +accumulation of evil, moral and physical, with which it vainly endeavours +to contend? How is it, that while the wealth of England is a proverb among +nations, the distress of her labourers is a byword no less universal; that +while her commerce encircles the globe, while her colonies are spread +through both hemispheres, while regions hitherto unknown are but the +resting-place of her never-ceasing enterprise, the producers of all this +wealth, the causes of all this luxury, the instruments of all this +civilization, lie down in despair to perish by hundreds, amid the miracles +of triumphant industry by which they are surrounded? How happens it, that +as our empire extends abroad, security diminishes at home? that as our +reputation becomes more splendid, and our attitude more commanding, the +fabric of our strength decays, and our social bulwarks rock from their +foundations? Who can say that the skill and valour of the general who has +added a province to our Indian empire--who, triumphing over obstacles +hitherto insurmountable, has caused the tide of victory to flow from East +to West, and make the Sepoy invincible--may not erelong be called upon to +fulfil the thankless task of suppressing insurrection, and to control the +kindling fury of a mistaken, it is true, but of a kindred population? +Shall the day indeed come when in our streets there shall be solitude, and +in our harbours be heard no sound of oars, neither shall gallant ship pass +thereby? Is the vaunted splendour of this country to furnish a melancholy +lesson of the instability of earthly power, and its fate to conclude a +tale more glorious, to point a moral more affecting, than any which Tyre, +or Sidon, or Carthage have furnished, to curb the insolence of prosperity, +and to show the insignificance of man? + + "Quamvis Pontica pinus, + Sylvae filia nobilis, + Jactes et genus et nomen inutile." + +After dwelling on the supply of information which the present age enjoys, +and which is quite without parallel in any former period, and pointing out +the inconsistencies among us, of which, nevertheless, every day affords +perpetual examples, the writer asks-- + + "Do these evils proceed from some moral perversity in the people? + Is there some natural barrier in England against the effects of + capital, industry, science, and religion; or is it not that + ignorance of the laws that regulate and harmonize social + existence, and of those that govern the human mind, has hitherto + been extensively prevalent, and is still resisting the remedies + of riper experience? + + "But the poor and ignorant cannot educate themselves; it must be + the upper classes who give them the means of improvement. In the + natural laws of society, the use of a class who are independent + of labour for subsistence, is, that a certain part of the + community should have leisure to acquire that general knowledge + which is the parent of wise institutions and pure morals. That + they should have such affluence as to give weight to their + example and authority, is also desirable. Government, as has + already been observed, cannot act effectively against a very + great preponderance of error and prejudice, but must legislate in + the spirit of truths that are generally known, and in the service + of interests that excite general sympathy. + + "The object of this work is not to advocate particular measures, + nor even to assume that every thing that is wrong is so through + culpable neglect; but it is to call attention to the grievous + evils, that neither legislation nor zeal and charity can + counteract with effect, till the increased education of all + classes assists their efforts. Something must be wanting, when + such unrivalled knowledge and wealth are accompanied by such + various and wide-spread evils. It is not benevolence that is + deficient, for nowhere can we turn without meeting it in private, + struggling against miseries too great for its power, and in + public devoting abilities of the first order to the cause of + humanity. + + "It is the wider diffusion of knowledge we require: more heads + and hands still are wanted, qualified for acting in concert, or + at least acting generally on right principles. Too many persons + capable of generous feeling are absorbed and corrupted by luxury + and frivolity; too many waste their efforts from shallow, + mistaken, and contradictory views." + +Then follows a splendid description of scientific energy, the +gratification which it affords, and the noble objects to which it points +the way. + + "In examining the prodigious resources at the command of the + upper classes of English society, it is finely remarked, that + 'the fine arts are the materials by which our physical and animal + sensations are converted into moral perceptions.' + + "Every thing in the form of matter, however coarse--the refuse + and dross of more valuable materials--is resolvable, by science, + into elements too subtle for our vision, and yet possessed of + such potency that they effect transmutations more surprising than + the fables of magic. The points that spangle the still blue + vault, and make night lovely to the untaught peasant, interpreted + by science, expand into worlds and systems of worlds: some so + remote, that even the character of light, in which their + existence is declared to us, can scarcely give full assurance of + their reality--some, kindred planets which science has measured, + and has told their movements, their seasons, and the length of + their days. Such resemblances to our own globe are ascertained in + their general laws, and such diversity in their peculiar ones, + that we are led irresistibly to believe they all teem with + beings, sentient and intelligent as we are, yet whose senses, and + powers, and modes of existence, must be very dissimilar, and + indefinitely varied. The regions of space, within the field of + our vision, present us with phenomena the most incomprehensibly + mysterious, and with knowledge the most accurate and + demonstrable. Light, motion, form, and magnitude--the animal, + vegetable, and mineral kingdoms--have their several sciences, and + each would exhaust a life to master it completely. No uneasy + passion follows him who engages in such speculations, where + continual pursuit is made happy by the sense of continual + progress. He leaves his cares at the threshold; for when his + attention is fixed, so great is the pleasure of contemplation, + that it seems good to have been born for this alone. + + "If we turn to the moral world, where, strange as it seems, we + meet with less clearness and grandeur, yet there our deep + interest in its truths supplies a different, perhaps a more + powerful attraction. While we wonder and hope, the general laws + of sentient existence give us glimpses of their harmony with + those of inanimate nature. The latter seems assuredly made for + the use of the former. The identity of benevolence with wisdom + presents itself to our minds as a necessary truth, and, + notwithstanding our perplexities, brings peace to our hearts. + Social distinctions sink to insignificance when contemplating our + place in existence, and the privilege of reading the book of + nature, and sharing the thoughts and the sentiments of the + distinguished among men, atones for obscurity and neglect; + neither would the troubled power of a throne nor the flushing of + victory repay us for the sacrifice of those pleasures." + +The second volume opens with a dissertation on luxury, in which the +subject is treated with the depth and perspicuity that the extracts we +have already made will have prepared our readers to anticipate. Luxury is +a word of relative, and therefore of ambiguous signification; it may be +the test of prosperity--it may be the harbinger of decay: according to the +state of society in which it prevails, its signification will, of course, +be different. The effect of civilization is to increase the number of our +wants. The same degree of education which, during the last century, was +considered, even by the upper classes, a superfluity, is now a necessary +for the middling class, and will soon become a necessary for the lowest, +or all but the lowest, members of society. Most of our readers are +acquainted with the story of the Highland chief who rebuked his son +indignantly for making a pillow of a snowball. Sumptuary laws have always +been inefficient, or efficient only for the purposes of oppression. Public +morality has been their pretext--the private gratification of jealousy +their aim. In republics they were intended to allay the envy of the +poor--in monarchies to flatter the arrogance of the great. The first of +these motives produced, as Say observes, the law Orchia at Rome, which +prohibited the invitation of more than a certain number of guests. The +second was the cause of an edict passed in the reign of Henry II. of +France, by which the use of silken shoes and garments was confined to +princes and bishops. States are ruined by the extravagance, not of their +subjects, but of their rulers. + +Luxury is pernicious when it is purchased at an excessive price, or when +it stands in the way of advantages greater and more attainable. The worse +a government is, the more effect does it produce upon the manners and +habits of its subjects. The influence of a government of favourites and +minions over the community, is as prodigious as it is baneful. Every +innocent pleasure is a blessing. Luxury is innocent, nay, it is desirable, +as far as it can contribute to health and cleanliness--to rational +enjoyment; as far as it serves to prevent gross debauchery; and, as one of +our poets has expressed it, + + "When sensual pleasures cloy, + To fill the languid pause with finer joy," + +it should be encouraged. It does not follow, because the materials for +luxury are wanted, that the bad passions and selfishness, which are its +usual companions, will be wanted also. A Greenlander may display as much +gluttony over his train oil and whale blubber as the most refined epicure +can exhibit with the _Physiologie du Gout_ in his hand, and with all +Monsieur Ude's science at his disposal. When the gratification of our +taste and senses interferes with our duty to our country, or our +neighbours, or our friends--when, for the sake of their indulgence, we +sacrifice our independence--or when, rather than abandon it, we neglect +our duties sacred and imperative as they may be--the most favourable +casuists on the side of luxury allow that it is criminal. But even when it +stops far short of this scandalous excess, the habit of immoderate +self-indulgence can hardly long associate in the same breast with +generous, manly, and enlightened sentiments: its inevitable effect is to +stifle all vigorous energy, as well as to eradicate every softer virtue. +It is the parent of that satiety which is the most unspeakable of all +miseries--a short satisfaction is purchased by long suffering, and the +result is an addition to our stock, not of pleasure, but of pain. + +The next topic to which our attention is directed is the influence of +habit. Habit is thus defined:-- + + "Habit is the aptitude for any actions or impressions produced by + frequent repetition of them." + +The word impressions is used to designate affections of mind and body that +are involuntary, in contradistinction to those which we can originate and +control. For instance, we may choose whether or not we will enter into any +particular enquiry; but when we have entered upon it, we cannot prevent +the result that the evidence concerning it will produce upon our minds. A +person conversant with mathematical studies can no more help believing +that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side, than, if +his hand had been thrust in the fire, he could help feeling heat. The +remarks which follow are ingenious and profound:-- + + "The more amusements," continues the writer, "partake of an useful + character, the more lasting they are. This is never the case with + trifles; when the enjoyment is over, they leave little or nothing + in the mind. They are not steps to something else, they have no + connexion with other and further _results, to be brought out by + further endeavours. The attempt to make life a series of quickly + succeeding emotions, will ever prove a miserable failure;_ + whereas, when the chief part of our time is spent in labour, + active power increases--the exertion of it becomes habit--the + mind gathers strength; and emotion being husbanded, retains its + freshness, and the spirits preserve their alacrity through life. + It follows that the most agreeable labours are those which + superadd to an object of important and lasting interest a due + mixture of intermediate and somewhat diversified results. To a + mechanic, making a set of chairs and tables, for example, is more + agreeable than working daily at a sawpit. But nothing can deprive + the industrious man (however undiversified his employment) of the + advantage of having a constant and important pursuit--viz. + earning the necessaries and comforts of life; and when we + consider the uneasiness of a life without any steady pursuit, and + how slight is the influence that such as one merely voluntary has + over most men, it seems certain that, as a general rule, we do + not err in representing the necessity of labour as a safeguard of + happiness." + +Active habits are such as action gives: passive habits are such as our +condition qualifies us to receive. In emotion, however violent, we may be +passive, the forgiving and the vindictive man are for a time equally +passive in their emotions. It is when the vindictive man proceeds to +retaliation upon an adversary that he becomes a voluntary agent. It is +often difficult to analyse the ingredients of our thought, and to +determine how far they are involuntary and how far they are spontaneous. +Nor is this an enquiry the solution of which can ever affect the majority +of mankind: it is not with such subtleties that the practice of the +moralist is concerned. It is a psychological fact, which never can be +repeated too often, that habit deadens impression and fortifies activity. +It gives energy to that power which depends on the sanction of the +will--it renders the sensations which are nearly passive every day more +languid and insignificant. + +"Mon sachet de fleurs," says Montaigne, "sert d'abord a mon nez; mais, +apres que je m'en suis servi huit jours, il ne sert plus qu'au nez des +assistants." So the taste becomes accustomed to the most irritating +stimulants, and is finally palsied by their continued application, yet +the necessity of having recourse to these provocatives becomes daily more +imperious. + + "Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops + Nec sitim pellit." + +The tanner who lives among his hides till he is insensible to their +exhalations--the surgeon who has conquered the disgust with which the +objects around him must fill an ordinary individual--the sensualist, on +whose jaded appetite all the resources of art and all the loveliness of +nature are employed in vain--may serve as common instances of the first +part of the proposition; and the astonishing facility acquired by +particular men in the business with which they are conversant, are proofs +no less irrefragable of the second. Can any argument be conceived which is +more decisive in favour of the moral economy to which even this lower +world is subject, than the undeniable fact, that virtue is fortified by +exercise, and pain conquered by endurance; while vice, like the bearer of +the sibyl's books, extorts every hour a greater sacrifice for less +enjoyment? The passage in Mammon's speech is no less philosophically +accurate than it is poetically beautiful-- + + "Out torments also may in length of time + Become our elements, these piercing fires + As soft as now severe, our temper changed + Into their temper, which must needs remove + The sensible of pain." + +So does man pass on his way, from youth to manhood, from manhood till the +shadow of death falls upon him; and while his moral and physical structure +adapts itself to the incessant vicissitudes of his being, he imagines +himself the same. The same in sunshine and in tempest--in the temperate +and the torrid zone--in sickness and in health--in joy and sorrow--at +school and in the camp or senate--still, still he is the same. His +passions change, his pleasures alter; what once filled him with rapture, +is now indifferent, it may be loathsome. The friends of his youth are his +friends no longer--other faces are around him--other voices echo in his +ears. Still he is the same--the same, when chilling experience has taught +him its bitter lesson, and when life in all its glowing freshness first +dawned upon his view. The same, when "vanity of vanities" is graven upon +his heart--as when his youthful fancy revelled in scenes of love, of +friendship, and of renown. The same, when cold, cautious, interested, +suspicious, guilty--as when daring, reckless, frank, confiding, innocent. +Still the dream continues, still the vision lasts, until some warning yet +unknown--the tortures of disease, or the loss of the very object round +which his heartstrings were entwined, anguish within, and desolation +without--stir him into consciousness, and remind him of that fast +approaching change which no illusion can conceal. Such is the pliability +of our nature, so varied are the modes of our being; and thus, through the +benevolence of Him who made us, the cause which renders our keenest +pleasures transient, makes pain less acute, and death less terrible. + +It follows from this, that in youth positive attainment is a matter of +little moment, compared with the habits which our instructors encourage us +to acquire. The fatal error which is casting a blight over our plans of +education, is to look merely to the immediate result, totally disregarding +the motive which has led to it, and the qualities of which it is the +indication; yet, would those to whom the delicate and most responsible +task of education is confided, but consider that habits of mind are formed +by inward principle, and not external action, they would adopt a more +rational system than that to which mediocrity owes its present triumph +over us; and which bids fair to wither up, during another generation, the +youth and hopes of England. Such infatuation is equal to that of the +husbandman who should wish to deprive the year of its spring, and the +plants of their blossoms, in hopes of a more nutritious and abundant +harvest. + + "The inward principle required to give habits of industry, + temperance, good temper, and so forth, is the express intention + of being industrious, temperate, and gentle, and regulating one's + actions accordingly. But the inward principle exercised by a + routine of irksome restraints, submitted to passively on no other + grounds but the laws of authority, or the influence of fashion, + or imposed merely as the necessary condition of childhood, may be + only that of yielding to present impression. He who, in youth, + yields passively to fear or force, in after life may be found to + yield equally to pleasure or temper; the habit of yielding to + present impressions, in the first case, prepares the mind for + yielding to them in the second, without any attempt at + self-control. + + "The necessity of reducing the young, in the first instance, to + implicit obedience, and the utility of a strict routine of + duties, is not hereby disputed. The impressions arising from + every species of restraint and coercion, whether from the command + of another or our own reason, being almost invariably unpleasant + at first, it is necessary (on the theory of habit) to weaken + their force by repetition, before the principle of + self-government can be expected to act. But the point insisted on + is, that weakening the pain of restraint and of submission to + rules, will not necessarily create an intention of adhering to + the rules, when coercion ceases. An intention is a mental action, + and even when excited, it is neither impossible nor uncommon that + the practice of forming intentions may be accompanied by the + practice of breaking them; and as the shame and remorse of so + doing wear out through frequency, a character of weakness is + formed." + +Although we regret the omission of some observations on waste and +prodigality--remarks in which the most profound knowledge of the best +authorities on this subject is tempered with a strict attention to +practical interest, and a minute acquaintance with the affairs of ordinary +life--we proceed to the chapters on "Frivolity and Ignorance," with which, +and an admirable dissertation on the authority of reason, the volume +terminates. These chapters yield to none in this admirable work for +utility and importance; there are three subjects on which the influence of +frivolity, baneful as it always is, is most peculiarly dangerous and +destructive--education, politics, and religion. On all these great points, +inseparably connected as they are with human happiness and virtue, the +frivolity of women may give a bias to the character of the individual, +which will be traced in his career to the last moment of his existence. +The author well observes that frivolity and ignorance, rather than +deliberate guilt, are the causes of political error and tergiversation. If +there are few persons ready to devote themselves to the good of their +species, and carrying their attention beyond kindred and acquaintance, to +comprise the most distant posterity and regions the most remote within the +scope of their benevolence; so there are few of those monsters in +selfishness, who would pursue their own petty interests when the happiness +of millions is an obstacle to its gratification; but as a leaf before the +eye will hide a universe, self-love limits the intellectual horizon to a +compass inconceivably narrow; and the prosperity of nations, when placed +in the balance with a riband or a pension, has too often kicked the beam. +Professional business, and the love of detail, which is so deeply rooted +in most English natures, tends also to contract the thoughts, to erect a +false standard of merit, and to fill the mind with petty objects. As an +instance of this, it may be remarked that Lord Somers is the only great +man who, in England, has ever filled a judicial situation. So wide is the +difference between present success and future reputation--so weak on all +sides but one, are those who have limited themselves to one side only--so +technical and engrossing are the avocations of an English lawyer. The +best, if not the only remedy for this evil, is, in the words of our +author, the "study of well-chosen books." + + "Life must often consist of acts or concerns which, taken + individually, are trivial; but the speculations of great minds + relate to important objects. By their eloquence they draw forth + the best emotions of which we are capable, they fill our minds + with the knowledge of great and general truths, which, if they + relate to the works of creation, exalt our nature and almost give + us a new existence; or if they unfold the conditions and duties + of human life, they kindle our desire for worthy ends, and teach + us how to promote them. We learn to consider ourselves not as + single and detached beings, with separate interests from others, + but as parts of that great class who are the support of society-- + that is, the upright, the intelligent, and the industrious. Hence + we cease to be absorbed by one set of narrow ideas; and the least + duties are dignified by being viewed as parts of a general + system. The bulk of mankind must and ought to confine their + attention principally to their own immediate business. But if + they who belong to the higher orders, do not avail themselves of + their command of time, to enlarge their minds and acquire + knowledge, one of the great uses of an upper class will be lost." + +The trite and ridiculous axiom, the common refuge of imbecility, that +women should take no interest in politics, is then sifted and exposed; it +would be as wise to say, that women should take no interest in the blood +that circulates through their bodies because they are not physicians, or +in the air they breathe because they are not chemists. The people who are +most fond of repeating this absurdity, are, it may be observed, the very +people who are most furious with women for not acquiescing at once in any +absurdity which they may think proper to promulgate as an incontrovertible +truth. Ill temper, and rash opinions, and crude notions, are always +mischievous; but it is not in politics alone that they are exhibited, and +the women most applauded for not _meddling_ with politics, (an expression +which, as our author properly observes, assumes the whole matter in +dispute,) are generally those who adhere to the most obsolete doctrines +with the greatest tenacity, and pursue those who differ with them in +opinion with the most unmitigated rancour. In short, it is not till +enquiry supersedes implicit belief, till violence gives place to +reflection, till the study of sound and useful writers takes the place of +sweeping and indiscriminate condemnation, that this aphorism is brought +forward by those who would have listened with delight to the wildest +effusions of bigotry and ignorance. But in the work before us, the author +(convincing as her reasons are) has furnished the most complete practical +refutation of this ridiculous error. + +Infinitely worse, however, than any evil which can arise from this or any +other source, is that which the opinions and ideas of a frivolous woman +must entail upon those unhappy beings of whom she superintends the +education. + + "Turpe est difficiles habere nugas + Et stultus labor est ineptiarum," + +is a text on which, even in this great and free country, many comments may +be found. + +The pursuit of eminence in trifles, the common sign of a bad heart, is an +infallible proof of a feeble understanding. A man may dishonour his birth, +ruin his estate, lose his reputation, and destroy his health, for the sake +of being the first jockey or the favourite courtier of his day. And how +should it be otherwise, when from the lips whence other lessons should +have proceeded, selfishness has been inculcated as a duty, a desire for +vain distinctions and the love of pelf encouraged as virtues, and a +splendid equipage, or it may be some bodily advantage, pointed out as the +highest object of human ambition? To set the just value on every +enjoyment, to choose noble and becoming objects of pursuit, are the first +lessons a child should learn; and if he does not learn their rudiments on +his mother's knees, he will hardly acquire the knowledge of them +elsewhere. The least disparagement of virtue, the slightest admiration for +trifling and merely extrinsic objects, may produce an indelible effect on +the tender mind of youth; and the mother who has taught her son to bow +down to success, to pay homage to wealth and station, which virtue and +genius should alone appropriate, is the person to whom the meanness of the +crouching sycophant, the treachery of the trading politician, the +brutality of the selfish tyrant, and the avarice of the sordid miser, in +after life must be attributed. + +This argument is closed by some very judicious remarks on the degree in +which the perusal of works of imagination is beneficial. + + "It is not easy to explain to a person whose mind is trifling, + the consequences of the over-indulgence in passive impressions + produced by light reading, or to make them understand the + different effect produced by the highest order of works of + imagination, and the trivial compositions which inundate the + press, with no merit but some commonplace moral. Both are classed + together as works of amusement; but the first enrich the mind + with great and beautiful ideas, and, provided they be not + indulged in to an extravagant excess, refine the feelings to + generosity and tenderness. They counteract the sordid or the + petty turn, which we are liable to contract from being wholly + immersed in mere worldly business, or given up to the follies of + the great world; in either case confined too much to intercourse + with barren hearts and narrow minds. It is of great use to the + 'dull, sullen prisoner in the body's cage' sometimes 'to peep + out,' and be made to feel that it has aspirations for somewhat + more excellent than it has ever known; and that its own ideas can + stretch forth into a grandeur beyond what this real existence + provides for it. It is good for us to feel that the vices into + which we are beguiled are hateful to our own minds in + contemplation, and that it is our unconquerable nature to love + and adore that virtue we do not, or cannot, attain to." + +The remarks on the influence of frivolity on religion, on the mistaken +name and worldly spirit introduced amongst its most solemn ordinances, are +no less excellent. After pointing out the danger of mistaking excitement +for devotion, and of separating the duties of man from the will of God, +the sanctions of religion from the lessons of morality, the writer +observes-- + + "The weak and ignorant are peculiarly liable to be infected with + these doctrines, and to them they are peculiarly hurtful. Unable + to take a just view of their particular duties, or of the uses + and purposes of our natural faculties, creatures of impulse, + slaves of circumstances, the pleasures of this hour fill them + with vanity, the devotion of the next with enthusiasm, or perhaps + terror. Charmed by worldly follies because they are ignorant or + idle, and without resistance to vice because they have never + learned self-command, they seek to extirpate all the natural + emotions and desires which they do not know how to regulate, and + so give up the world. But they deceive themselves; their moral + defects are not lessened; they have only changed their objects. + The frivolity which formerly made trifles absorb them, now spends + itself on religion, which it degrades. Whatever the former + defects of their character, whether selfishness, vanity, pride, + ill-temper, indolence, or any other, it remains unconquered, + though the manner in which it exhibits itself is different. In + one respect they are much worse; formerly they were less blind to + their own imperfections; they sometimes suspected they were + wrong; now they are quite satisfied they are right; nor can they + easily be undeceived, because, when about to examine their hearts + and their conduct, the error in their views directs their efforts + to a false standard." + +We think we cannot more appropriately close the faint outline, in which +we have endeavoured, however feebly, to shadow forth the merit of these +volumes, than by placing before our readers the tribute to departed +excellence, which this touching and finished picture is intended to +convey. + + "Leaving the contemplation of feverish excitement, fantastic and + complicated subtleties, angry zeal, and dissocial passions, I + turn to the records of memory, where are graven for ever the + lineaments of one who was indeed a disciple of Christ, and whose + character seemed the earthly reflection of his. Wherever there + was existence her benevolence flowed forth, never enfeebled by + the distance of its object, yet flushing the least of daily + pleasures with its warmth. Her views rose to the most + comprehensive moral grandeur, while her calm, uncompromising + energy against sin, was combined with an ever-flowing sympathy + for weakness and woe. She spent her life in one continued system + of active beneficence, in which her business, her projects, her + pleasures, were but so many varied forms of serving her + fellow-creatures. Never for a moment did a reflection for herself + cross the current of her purposes for them. Her whole heart so + went with their distresses and their joys, that she scarcely + seemed to have an interest apart from theirs. The simplicity of + her character was peculiarly striking, in the unhesitating + readiness with which she received--I might even say, with which + she grasped at--the correction of her errors, and listened to the + suggestions of other persons. One undivided desire possessed her + mind--it was not to seem right, but to do right. + + "What heightened the resemblance between her and the model she + followed, was, that her counsels came not from a bosom that had + never been shaken with the passions she admonished, or the + sorrows she endeavoured to soothe. Her character was one of deep + sensibility and passions strong even to violence; but they were + controlled and directed by such vivid faith as has never been + surpassed. Her long life had tried her with almost every pang + that attends the attachment of such beings to the mortal and the + suffering, the erring and perverse; and when those sorrows came, + that reached her heart through its deepest and most sacred + affections, the passion burst forth, that showed what the energy + of that principle must have been, that could have brought such a + mind to a tenor of habitual calmness and serenity. When every + element of anguish had been mingled together in one dreadful cup, + and reason for a week or two was tottering in its seat, she was + seen to resume the struggle against the passions that for a + moment had conquered. The bonds that attached her to life were + indeed broken for ever, but she recovered her heart-felt + submission to God, and she learned by degrees again to be happy + in the happiness she gave. + + "It was this depth and strength of feeling that gave her a power + over others, seldom surpassed, I believe, by any other mortal. In + her the erring and the wretched found a sure refuge from + themselves. The weakness that shrunk from the censure or the + scorn of others, could be poured out to her as to one whose + mission upon earth was to pity and to heal; for she knew the + whole range of human infirmity, and that the wisest have the + roots of those frailties that conquer the weak. But in restoring + the fallen to their connexion with the honoured, she never held + out a hope that they might parley with their temptations, or + lower their standard of virtue: a confession to her cut off all + self-delusion as to culpable conduct or passions. While she + inspired the most uncompromising condemnation of the thing that + was wrong, she never advised what was too hard for the "bruised + reed;" she chose not the moment of excitement to rebuke the + misguidings of passion, nor of weakness to point out the rigour + of duty. But strength came in her presence: she seemed to bring + with her irresistible evidence that any thing could be done which + she said ought to be done. The truths of religion, stripped of + fantastic disguises, appeared at her call with a living reality, + and for a time, at least, the troubles of life sank down to their + just level. When our sorrows are too big for our own bosoms, if + others receive then with stoicism, it repels all desire to seek + relief at their hands; but the calmness with which she attended + to the effusions and perturbations of grief, seemed the earnest + of safety from one who had passed through the storm. The deep and + tender expression of her noble countenance suggested that feeling + with which a superior being might be supposed to look down from + heaven on the anguish of those who are still in the toils, but + know not the reward that awaits them. + + "Every thing petty seemed to drop off from her mind, but she + imbibed the spirit of essentials so perfectly, she followed it + throughout with such singleness of heart, that its influence + affected her minutest actions, not by an effort of studied + attention, but with the steadiness of a natural law. Nature and + revelation she regarded as the two parts of one great connected + system; she always contemplated the one with reference to the + other; her views were therefore all practical and free from + confusion, and nothing that promoted the welfare of this world + could cease to be a part of her duty to God. It was her maxim + that the motive dignified the action, however trivial in itself; + and all the actions of her life were ennobled by the motive of + obedience to an all-powerful Being, because he is the pure + essence of wisdom and goodness. In the virtue of those who had + not the consoling belief of the Christian, she still saw the + handwriting of God, that cannot be effaced from a generous mind; + and she used to dwell with delight on the idea that the good man, + from whose eyes the light of faith was withheld in this life, + would arise with rapture in the next, to the knowledge that a + happiness was in store for him which he had not dared to believe. + + "It was not the extent of her intellectual endowments that made + her the object of veneration to all who knew her; it was her + extraordinary moral energy. The clear and vigorous view she took + of every subject arose chiefly from her habit of looking directly + for its bearing on virtue or happiness; she saw the essential at + a glance, or could not be diverted from the truth by a passion or + a prejudice. Hence, also, her lofty undeviating justice; her + regard to the rights of others was so scrupulous, that every one + within reach of her influence reposed on her decisions with + unhesitating trust; nor would the certainty that the interests of + those she loved best were involved, have cast a shadow of doubt + over her stainless impartiality. + + "She could be deceived, for she was too simple and lofty always + to conceive the objects of base minds:-- + + "'And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps + At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity + Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill, + Where no ill seems.' + _Paradise Lost._ + + "Nevertheless, she generally read the characters of artifice and + insincerity with intuitive quickness, though it was often + believed she was duped by those whom she saw through completely. + Of this she was aware, but she was so exempt from all desire to + prove her sagacity, that she never cared to correct the + misconception; and she held that it was neither useful nor quite + justifiable to expose all the pretences we may discover, till it + became necessary to set the unwary on their guard. + + "She never renounced the innocent pleasures or pursuits of life, + nor the proprieties of a distinguished station, though she + partook so little of its luxuries, that she could pass from the + splendour of her own establishment to one the most confined, + apparently without sensibility to the change. Wherever she moved, + she inspired joy and cheerfulness; yet she was by no means + unreserved, except to those she tenderly loved, and it was + surprising how any manner so gentle, could at the same time + oppose a barrier so impassable to the advances of the unworthy. + She enjoyed the beauty of nature with passion. Her mind, at an + advanced age, had all the elasticity and animation of the prime + of life, and she could be led to forget half the night in the + excitement of conversation. Happy were the hours spent with her + in the discussion of every subject that could call forth her + opinions, and her wide knowledge of the eventful times in which + she had lived!--hours that exalted the feelings, informed the + understandings, and animated the playfulness of younger minds, + who found that forty years of difference between their age and + hers, took nothing from their sympathies, but added a new and + rare delight to their intercourse. + + "But she is gone! To those who knew her, her counsels are silent + and her place void; but there remains the distinct consciousness, + that to them had been given a living evidence of the true + Christian spirit, for if hers were not true, than many errors be + more excellent than truth! Far distant, and with unequal steps, + they endeavour to follow her course and perhaps the distaste with + which they turn from the defective and ill-proportioned models + that are forced on their admiration, is scarcely consistent with + the charity she always taught." + +Great, indeed, is the task assigned to woman. Who can elevate its dignity? +who can exaggerate its importance? Not to make laws, not to lead armies, +not to govern empires, but to form those by whom laws are made, and armies +led, and empires governed; to guard from the slightest taint of possible +infirmity the frail, and as yet spotless creature whose moral, no less +than his physical, being must be derived from her; to inspire those +principles, to inculcate those doctrines, to animate those sentiments, +which generations yet unborn, and nations yet uncivilized, shall learn to +bless; to soften firmness into mercy, to chasten honour into refinement, +to exalt generosity into virtue; by her soothing cares to allay the +anguish of the body, and the far worse anguish of the mind; by her +tenderness to disarm passion; by her purity to triumph over sense; to +cheer the scholar sinking under his toil; to console the statesman for the +ingratitude of a mistaken people; to be the compensation for hopes that +are blighted, for friends that are perfidious, for happiness that has +passed away. Such is her vocation--the couch of the tortured sufferer, the +prison of the deserted friend, the scaffold of the godlike patriot, the +cross of a rejected Saviour; these are the scenes of woman's excellence, +these are the theatres on which her greatest triumphs have been achieved. +Such is her destiny--to visit the forsaken, to attend to the neglected; +amid the forgetfulness of myriads to remember--amid the execrations of +multitudes to bless; when monarchs abandon, when counsellors betray, when +justice persecutes, when brethren and disciples fly, to remain unshaken +and unchanged; and to exhibit, on this lower world, a type of that +love--pure, constant, and ineffable--which in another world we are taught +to believe the best reward of virtue. + + + * * * * * + + + + +A PLEA FOR ANCIENT TOWNS AGAINST RAILWAYS. + + +It is impossible to look, without surprise, to the progress of the railway +system since the first experiment in 1830. The Liverpool and Manchester +line was opened in the September of that year, at an expense of +L.1,200,000; and in the thirteen years since that period, line after line +has been laid down and opened for traffic, till the completed railways +amount to many hundred miles in length, and the expenditure of capital has +been many millions of money. + +The advantages of a line between Manchester and Liverpool were obvious. It +connected the two towns--the importing and the manufacturing--which needed +connexion the most; and, in fact, the harbour gained an enormous +manufacturing population, and the population gained a harbour. The outlay, +prodigious as it was, was found a profitable investment; but the benefits +of the improvement were so great that the mere profits on the undertaking, +as a pecuniary speculation, were lost sight of, in the higher view of the +impetus given to the trade of these two main seats of our commercial +enterprize. It became a national undertaking; Birmingham and the other +wealthy towns were determined to have the same advantage; London became, +of course, the great centre to which every new line tended; and in an +incredibly short space of time, at an incredible expenditure of money, the +iron and cotton emporiums of the north, the packet stations of the south +and south-west, the agricultural and manufacturing districts of the +north-east, all were moved into the actual neighbourhood of the capital. +The beautiful Southampton water flowed within three hours of the Bank. +Ipswich was not much further off than Hammersmith; and Bath and Bristol +were but a morning's drive from Buckingham palace or Windsor. + +What has been the effect of all these improvements, and to what do they +all tend? + +If the whole prosperity of a nation depended on rapidity of conveyance, +there could be but one answer to the enquiry--but even in that case the +prosperity must depend on rapidity of conveyance between the particular +places which the railway unites--Manchester and Liverpool, Birmingham and +London, and generally the great towns at the _termini_, and some +throughout all of the intermediate stations, have cause to rejoice in the +improvement. And land and houses in the neighbourhood have increased in +value, their correspondence is conducted in half the time, and money is of +course distributed in fertilizing rills by the crowds of travellers who +pass through them on their way to join the train. But these advantages are +local, and an opinion is now gaining ground that they are obtained at the +expense of other places. What possible benefit can accrue to a town or +neighbourhood near which the railway passes, but where there is no +station? Can it encourage the trade of such a town as Dangley or Standon +to know, that the five or six thousand beings who are whirled past them, +with almost invisible rapidity, every day, arrive in Liverpool in ten +hours after leaving London? On the contrary, is it not found to be +directly injurious to them by the encouragement it gives to towns and +villages more favourably situated; while their inns become deserted, their +tradespeople are drifted out of the great stream of business, their +turn-pikes are ruined, and grass grows in their streets. Let us take any +one of the great lines, and see the number of towns whose ancient +prosperity it has destroyed. From London to York a few years ago, ten or +twelve coaches gave life and animation to all the places they passed +through. Their hotels and commercial rooms were filled at every blowing +of the guard's horn; tradespeople looked out from behind their counters +with a smile, as, with a dart and rattle, the four thoroughbred greys +pulled the well-known fast coach up the street, loaded inside and out. +They became proud of their Tally-ho, or Phenomenon; they got their +newspapers and parcels "with accuracy and despatch," and enjoyed the +natural advantages of their situation. Now the case is altered; a +two-horse coach, or perhaps an omnibus, jumbles occasionally to the +railway station, and the traveller complains that it takes him longer +time to go the ten or twelve miles across the country than all the rest +of the journey. Then he grumbles at the inconvenience of changing his +mode of conveyance, and only revisits the out-of-the-way place when he +cannot avoid it. + +A person settling in one of these towns twenty years ago, establishing +trade, buying or building premises, in the belief that, however business +may alter from other causes, his geographical position must, at all +events, continue unchanged, must be as much astonished as was Macbeth at +the migratory propensities of Birnam forest, when he perceives that towns +a hundred miles down the road have actually walked between him and London; +get their town parcels much earlier, and have digested and nearly +forgotten their newspaper, while he is waiting in a fever of expectation +to know whether rums is much riz or sugars is greatly fell. He calls for a +branch railway to put him on equal terms; but a vast hill, perhaps, rises +between him and the main line--it would cost forty thousands pounds a +mile--he must bore an enormous tunnel, and fill up a prodigious valley, +and the united wealth of all the shopkeepers in the town would fall far +short of the required half million. He sinks down in sheer despair, or +takes to drinking with the innkeeper, who has already had an attack of +_delirium tremens_, gives up the _Times_ newspaper for the _Weekly +Despatch_, and thinks Mr Frost a much injured character, and Rebecca a +Welsh Hampden. The railway has touched his pocket, and the iron has +entered into his soul. He feels as if he lived at the Land's-End, or had +emigrated to the back woods of America. All the world goes at a gallop, +and he creeps. Finally, he is removed to Hanwell, and endeavours to +persuade Dr Conolly that he is one of Stephenson's engines, and goes +hissing and spurting in fierce imitation of Rapid or Infernal. And all +this is the natural consequence of having settled in an ancient city +inaccessible to rails. A list could easily be made out that would astonish +any one who had not reflected on the subject before, of cities and towns +which must yield up their relative rank to more aspiring neighbourhoods on +whom the gods of steam and iron have smiled. It will be sufficient to +point out a few instances in some of the main lines of mail-coach +travelling, and see what their position is now. + +Let us go to Lincoln, region of fens and enterprize, of fat land and jolly +yeomen. The mail is just ready to start; we pay our fare, and, after +seeing our luggage carefully deposited in the recesses of the boot, we +mount beside the red-faced, much-becoated individual who is flickering his +whip in idle listlessness on the box; the guard gives a triumphal shout on +his short tin horn, the flickering of the whip ceases, the horses snort +and paw, and finally, in a tempest of sound and a whirlwind of dust, we +career onward from the Saracen's head, and watch the stepping of the +stately team with pride and exultation--a hundred and forty miles before +us, and thirteen hours on the road. + +In fifty-five minutes we are at Barnet--pick up a stout gentleman and +plethoric portmanteau in the green shades of Little Heath lane; and +dashing through Hatfield, as if we were announcing Waterloo, change horses +again at Stanborough. Away, away, the coach and we, with two very jolly +fellows on the roof, and cross in due time the beautiful river Lea, +scattering letter-bags at every gentleman's lodge as we pass, with a due +proportion of fish-baskets and other diminutive parcels. Hedges, row +after row, dance past us with all their leaves and blossoms--milestone +after milestone is merrily left behind--we have crossed the Maran, the +Joel; the sluggish Ouse, trotted gaily on under the shadow of the +episcopal towers of Buckden, and perform wonders with a knife and fork, in +the short space of twenty minutes, in the comfortable hotel at Stamford. +Refreshed and invigorated with a couple of ducks and a vast goblet of +home-brewed--for it is well known we and all other good subjects are rigid +anti-Mathewsians--we continue our course through unnumbered villages and +market towns, Coltersworth, Spittlegate, Ponton, Grantham, till Newark +opens her hospitable gates; and finally, as "the shades of eve begin to +fall," we descend from our proud eminence and commit ourselves to the +tender attentions of a civil landlord, two waiters, and a stout +chambermaid, in the chief inn of the good town of Lincoln. + +Many coaches followed our track. Like the waves of the summer, as one +rolled away, another as bright and as shining, came on. Every lane formed +a "terminus," where a motion of the hand gave notice to the coachman that +a passenger wished to get in; and it is impossible to doubt that the +traffic along that smooth and wide highway was a source of prosperity to +the whole neighbourhood. + +The coaches are now off the road--the letters are carried by a mail train, +and forwarded across in a high gig with red wheels, and the liveliness and +bustle of all the villages and country towns are gone--a few more years, +and the ruin of every turnpike trust in England will be another proof of +the irresistible power of steam. + +It is not contended that rapid intercommunication is an evil; or even that +the towns we have mentioned, and hundreds of others, in all parts of the +country, do not participate in the advantage, to the extent of being +within a shorter distance of London than they were before; for it is +evident, that to go to Lincoln would occupy less time if you went to +Leicester by the railroad, and travelled the remaining miles by coach. But +this is what we maintain--that towns or lines of road through which the +railway runs, have an undue advantage--and that the prosperity so +acquired, is at the expense of the towns which are not only at a distance +from the new mode of communication, but are deprived of the old. Twelve +years ago, upwards of a hundred coaches passed through Oxford in the +four-and-twenty hours. We will be bound to say, not half a dozen pass +through it now; and whatever the _University_ may think upon the subject, +it is certain that the alteration is of great detriment to the _town_, +and makes little less difference to the Corn-market and High Street, than +the turning the course of the Thames would do to Westminster and Wapping. +Who is to keep the beautiful roads by Henley and High Wickham in repair? +And who is to restore a value to the inns at the tidy comfortable towns +along the line? Will the prosperity of Steveton bring back the gaieties +of Tetsworth or Beaconsfield, and the numerous villages within an easy +distance of the road? We repeat it--the towns which formerly enjoyed the +natural advantages of their geographical position, are now deprived of +them; they become subordinates instead of principals, and will sink more +and more, as new competitors arise in the towns which will infallibly +gather round every railway station. + +In every county there are numbers of towns whose fate is sealed, unless +some great effort is made to preserve their existence: Marlborough, +Devizes, Hindon, Guildford, Farnham, Petersfield, the whole counties of +Rutland and Dorset, and the greater part of Lincoln, besides hundreds, or +probably thousands, of other places of inferior note. + +But what is the effort that should be made, and how are the parties +interested to bring their powers to bear in staving off the destruction +that threatens them? It is to these points we are now about to address +ourselves; and we trust, in spite of the lightness of some parts of this +paper; the real weight of the subject will command the notice of all who +feel anxious to benefit any neighbourhood in the position of some of those +we have mentioned. And the attention of the trustees of high-roads +throughout the kingdom is solicited to the following suggestions. + +It is conceded on all hands, that where speed is required in draught, the +horse cannot compete with mechanical power. At three miles an hour, the +horse is the most perfect locomotive machine; but if his velocity be +increased to ten, most of his power is consumed in moving himself. The +average exertion in each horse in a four-horse heavy coach, is calculated +by the author of the excellent Treatise on Draught, appended to the work +published on the Horse by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful +Knowledge, not to be equal to a strain of more than 62-1/2 lbs., and at +twelve miles an hour to be barely 40 lbs. It is therefore useless to rely +oh horse-power to enable a neighbourhood to retain its advantages in +competition with a railway. To meet this difficulty many ingenious men +turned their attention to the possibility of inventing a steam-engine +applicable to common roads; and although, in several instances, their +experiments succeeded, and many of the difficulties were overcome, still +it is not to be denied that, on the whole, macadamized roads are not +adapted to locomotive machines. Even when the road is in the best possible +condition, the concussion is found so great as materially to interfere +with the action of the machinery; and if the road be slightly muddy, or +sandy, or newly gravelled, the draught will be double, or even treble what +it is on the same road when free from dirt or dust. The author of the +_Treatise on Draught_, accordingly, concludes against the use of +steam-carriages on common roads, chiefly on account of their want of +uniform hardness and smoothness, and the consequent wear and tear of the +coach. "Perfection in a road," he says, "would be a plain, level, hard +surface;" and in another passage--"Hardness, therefore, and consequently +the absence of dust and dirt, which is easily crushed or displaced, is +the grand desideratum in roads." + +These opinions were published in 1831, and since that period the +desideratum has been supplied. A method of preparing a road has been +discovered, uniting all the qualities required for the perfection of a +highway. We allude to the system recently introduced of paving a road with +wood. On this smooth and hard surface a steam coach goes more easily than +on iron rails, and the expense of laying it down is trifling in +comparison. + +At a meeting of the South-eastern Railway Company in July 1843, a branch +line to Maidstone, ten miles in length, was proposed; and as the directors +were satisfied it would be beneficial to the parent line, they determined +to raise L.149,300, on loan notes or mortgage, to complete it. This gives +an expenditure of L.15,000 a mile, and, judging from the estimate of other +lines, the estimate is exceedingly low. For less than a third of the sum, +the distance could have been laid down in wood without interfering with +the traffic of the present road; for one great advantage of the proposed +method consists in this, that by setting aside a portion of the present +highway, where it is wide enough, or widening it a few feet where it is +too narrow, the turnpike would derive a considerable income from the +steam-coaches, and the traffic would continue in its accustomed channels. +Where a portion of the road was set apart for the sole use of the +steam-coaches, they could travel at a very considerable rate, and at a +third of the expense of horse-power. And even if the wooden lines were +laid down on the common road, with no exclusive barriers between them and +other vehicles, a speed of fifteen or sixteen miles an hour could be +maintained with perfect safety to themselves and the public. On the 27th +of April last year, Mr Squire tried his steam-carriage in the streets of +London, and ran along the macadamized part, then in fine condition, at +the rate of fifteen miles an hour. On coming to the wooden pavement the +difference was at once perceptible; and he pronounced that on such roads +he should have no difficulty in keeping up a velocity of thirty miles an +hour. In other respects, his carriage appeared to be perfect, and was +guided with much greater facility than an ordinary coach. + +This gentleman had run his carriage on common roads with great success; +and the experiments made in 1831 had attracted so much notice, that a +Parliamentary Committee was appointed in that year; and another in 1834, +to examine into the subject. As the decision of these committees was +eminently favourable, in spite of the difficulties, at that time generally +thought insurmountable, arising from the nature of the highways to be +travelled on, we shall quote some portion of their reports, from which it +will be seen that all other difficulties were overcome. + +Mr Goldsworthy Gurney, the first inventor of steam-coaches adapted for +common roads, says in his evidence-- + +"I have always found the most perfect command in guiding these carriages. +Suppose we were going at the rate of eight miles an hour, we could stop +immediately. In case of emergency, we could instantly throw the steam on +the reverse side of the piston, and stop within a few yards. The stop of +the carriage is singular; it would be supposed that the momentum would +carry it far forward, but it is not so; the steam brings it up gradually +and safely, though rather suddenly--I would say within six or seven yards. +On a declivity, we are well stored with apparatus: we have three different +modes of dragging the carriage." + +"You stated in your former evidence, that you anticipated that passengers +would be carried at one-half the rate by your steam-carriages that they +are by the common carriages; what difference in the ordinary expences of +carriage would it make, if you had a paved road for this purpose? + +"I think it would reduce the expense to one-half again." + +"To what velocity could you increase your present rate of travelling with +your engine?" + +"I have stated that the velocity is limited by practical experience only; +theoretically it is limited only by quantity of steam. Twelve miles, I +think, we could keep up steadily, and run with great safety. The extreme +rate that we have run, is between twenty and thirty miles an hour." + +"What is the greatest number of passengers you have taken on that +carriage?" + +"Thirty-six passengers and their luggage. The greatest weight we could +draw by that carriage, at the rate of ten miles an hour, is from forty to +fifty hundred-weight. The greatest weight we ever drew on the common road, +at a rate of from five to six miles an hour, was eleven tons. We made the +experiment on the Bristol road. The weight of the drawing carriage was +upwards of two tons; it drew five times its own weight. The eleven tons +included the weight of the drawing carriage, and I did not consider that +its maximum power." + +In a very scientific and interesting Treatise on Locomotion, by Mr +Alexander Gordon, a civil engineer of eminence, we find an account given +of the trial of power alluded to by Mr Gurney. A pair of three feet wheels +were used on the hind axle, and the engine drew with ease a large waggon +loaded with cast-iron. After going about a mile and a quarter, a cart also +loaded with cast-iron was attached to the waggon. The engine started with +these loaded carriages, and returned to Gloucester. The additional weight +made so little apparent difference to the engine, that on the way back +several persons among the spectators got up and rode; the number +altogether amounted to twenty-six. The united weight amounted to ten tons. +Going into Gloucester, there is a rise of one foot in twenty, or +twenty-five. + +Two great objections were advanced by the opponents of the proposed +innovation, which are most emphatically answered by the Report of the +Committee of 1834. Even in 1831, the Committee reported as follows:-- + +"It has frequently been urged against these carriages, that wherever they +may be introduced, they must effectually prevent all other travelling on +the road, as no horse will bear the noise and smoke of the engine. The +Committee believe that these statements are unfounded. Whatever noise may +be complained of, arises from the present defective construction of the +machinery, and will be corrected as the makers of such carriages gain +greater experience. Admitting even that the present engines do work with +some degree of noise, the effect on horses has been greatly exaggerated. +All the witnesses accustomed to travel in these carriages, even in the +crowded roads adjacent to the metropolis, have stated, that horses are +very seldom frightened in passing." + +But in 1834, the report is still more conclusive on this point. Mr +Macneil, a distinguished civil engineer, gives the following evidence:-- + +"At the time the Committee sat in 1831, I could speak as to having seen +only one steam-carriage on a turnpike road, and as to the effect on horses +that passed it on the road. From considerable experience since that time, +_I am quite certain, that in a very short period there will be no +complaint of horses being frightened by steam-carriages._ I do not know +that I have seen more than two or three horses in all my experience, that +were at all frightened by any of the carriages. I travelled with, and I +have passed many times through some of the most crowded streets in London +and in Birmingham, in steam-carriages. I have also seen horses out in the +morning, led by grooms, which would in all probability be startled by any +object at all likely to frighten a horse, and they did not take the least +notice of the engine. At another time, several ladies passed on horseback +without the least alarm, and some of them rode close after the carriage, +and alongside of it, as long as they could keep up with it." + +This evidence is corroborated by all the other witnesses; and great as the +noise, and fearful as the horrid gasping of the engine may be, we are not +prepared to say that terror may not as naturally be excited in the heart +of the most gallant of Houyeneans by the thunder and glitter of a fast +coach, rushing downhill at the rate of sixteen miles an hour. In fact, the +horse that has ceased--like a young lady after her second season--to be +shy, will care no more for a steam-engine than a tilted waggon. And it is +decidedly our private and confidential opinion, from a long experience of +vivacious roadsters, that a quadruped which maintains its equanimity on +encountering a baker's cart with an awning, will face the noisiest and +most vociferous of boilers. But granting that the committee is right in +coming to this conclusion as far as regards the danger arising to horses, +the other objection we alluded to was a poser, from which we shall be glad +to see how they extricate themselves--we mean the injury done to the +turnpike road. Why, it turns out that a steam-coach does no injury at all; +but, from the necessity it is under to sport the widest and strongest of +wheels, it acts as a sort of roller, and might pass for a deputy Macadam. +Mr Macneil, who has had great experience in road surveying, says that, +even in 1831, he had stated that, from the examination he had made as to +the wear of iron in the shoes of horses, compared with the wear on the +tire of the wheels of carriages, the injury done to the turnpike roads +would be much less by steam-carriages than that done by mail and stage +coaches drawn by horses. Since then, "I have had practical experience on +this point, and have carefully examined the roads in different parts of +the country where steam-carriages have been running, and I have every +reason to believe the opinion I then gave was correct; indeed, I have not +the least doubt in my mind, that if steam-carriages ran generally on the +turnpike roads of the kingdom, _one-half of the annual expense of the +repairs of these roads would be saved_." + +It is supposed that the tolls throughout England are let for more than a +million and a half a-year! A saving of one half in this enormous amount +would fructify in the pockets (now remarkably in need of some process of +the kind) of the public, to the entire satisfaction of Rebecca and all her +daughters. And yet with this evidence, of perhaps the best practical +authority on the subject, before their eyes, let us see what the wiseacres +of certain rural districts did to encourage economy and inland transit. By +means of a tremendous instrument of tyranny called a local act, (for which +the Grand Sultan would be very glad to exchange his firman,) the road +trustees of various neighbourhoods have laid an embargo on all steam +carriages, by enacting _intolerable_ payments. Thus on the Liverpool and +Prescot road, a steam-carriage would be charged L.2, 8s.; while a loaded +stage-coach would pay only four shillings! On the Bathgate road the same +carriage would be charged L.1, 7s. 1d.; while a coach drawn by four horses +would pay five shillings. On the Ashburnham and Totness road, steam would +pay L.2; and a four-horse coach three shillings. And how did these sages +settle the rates of payment? The reader would never guess, so we will tell +him at once-they charged for each horse power as if the boiler contained a +whole stud, all trampling the road to atoms with iron shoes; whereas they +ought have let the broad-wheeled carriage go free, if, indeed, they were +not called on to pay it a certain sum each journey for the benefit it did +the highway. + +Such was the evidence that led the committee to decide, in 1834, on the +practicability, the safety, and economy of running steam-carriages on +common roads. It will be sufficient to give a list of the witnesses +examined, to show that the highest authorities were consulted before the +report was framed. They were-- + + Mr Goldsworthy Gurney. + Walter Hancock. + John Farey, civil engineer. + Richard Trevethick. + Davies Gilbert, M.P., president of the Royal Society. + Nathanael Ogle. + Alexander Gordon, civil engineer. + Joseph Gibbs. + Thomas Telford, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. + William A. Summers. + James Stone. + James Macadam, road surveyor. + John Macneil, civil engineer, and + Colonel Torrens, M.P. + +Since the date of the last Report railways have run their titanic course; +and whether from the opposition of wise road trustees, or a want of +enterprise in steam-carriage proprietors, or from some other cause, steam +locomotion on common roads has not made any progress. But, in spite of the +powerful evidence we have quoted, we cannot conceal from ourselves that +there was always an _if_ or a _but_ attached to the complete triumph of +the new system. The _if_ and the _but_, it will be seen, had reference to +the nature of the road. Mr Macneil and the other able and scientific +gentlemen examined, all concurred in calling for a vast improvement on the +highways to be travelled on--"a smooth and well-dressed pavement"--"a hard +pavement"--"a smooth pavement on a solid foundation"--they all agree in +thinking indispensable to the complete triumph of steam. "If on the road," +says Mr Macneil, "from London to Birmingham, there were a portion laid off +on the side of the road for steam carriages, and if it be made in a solid +manner, with pitching and well-broken granite, it would fall very little +short of a railroad. It would be easy to fence it off from fifteen to +twenty feet without injury to property." And a statement to the same +effect was made in November 1833, to which the following names are +appended:-- + + Thomas Telford, P.I.C.E. + John Rickman, commissioner for Highland roads and bridges. + C.W. Pasley, colonel royal engineers. + Bryan Donkin, manufacturing engineer. + T. Bramah, civil engineer. + James Simpson, manufacturing engineer. + John Thomas, civil engineer. + Joshua Field, manufacturing engineer. + John Macneil, civil engineer. + Alexander Gordon, civil engineer. + William Carpmael, civil engineer. + +"There can be no doubt," say they, "that a well-constructed engine, a +steam-carriage conveyance between London and Birmingham, at a velocity +unattainable by horses, and limited only by safety, may be maintained; and +it is our conviction that such a project might be undertaken with great +advantage to the public, more particularly if, as might obviously be the +case, without interfering with the general use of the road, a portion of +it were to be prepared and kept in a state most suitable for travelling in +locomotive steam-carriages." + +But in this is the whole difficulty as far as regards the best granite +road; for, supposing for a moment that all the other conditions were +fulfilled--that it was hard and smooth--one great element is to be taken +into consideration, from which no skill and science can exempt the best +and firmest Macadam; and that is the effect of atmospheric changes on the +surface of the road. The difference of tractive power in summer and winter +must be immense, and the great disadvantage of mechanical, as compared +with animal draught, is its want of adaptability to the exigencies of an +ordinary road. A steam-carriage of ten horse power cannot under any +circumstances, when it encounters a newly mended part of the road, or a +softer soil, put forth an additional power for a minute or two, as a team +of horses can do; so that equality of exertion is nearly indispensable for +the full advantage of an engine. We accordingly find that the opponents of +steam-travelling on common roads, gained their object by covering the +highway with a coating of broken stones fourteen inches deep. Through this +it was impossible to force the coach without such a strain as to displace +or otherwise injure the machinery. But when a system of locomotion, +containing so many advantages, has so nearly been brought to perfection, +in spite of the many difficulties presented by the common modes of making +a road, it would be inconceivable blindness in the parties interested in +the subject to overlook the certain mode of success offered to them, by +merely laying down a portion of the road in wood. Who those parties are we +have already pointed out. They are the inhabitants and owners of property +in towns and neighbourhoods at some distance from railway traffic; and if +the proprietors of great lines of railway saw their own interest, they +would be foremost in adopting the new method as an auxiliary, and not view +it as a rival or an enemy. For it is very evident that nothing can be so +beneficial to a railway already in operation as a branch line, by which a +hitherto unopened district can be united to their stations. And the +difference of expense between the two systems--namely, between an iron +railway and a wooden pavement--is so great, that the latter is scarcely +beyond the power of the poorest neighbourhood. An iron branch was at one +time proposed between Steventon and Oxford. The same sum which would have +been required for this purpose, according to the estimates, would have +laid down an excellent road in wood from Steventon through Oxford to +Rugby; thus connecting the three great arteries of the country--the Great +Western, the Birmingham, and the Midland Counties Railways. It will be +found that the great lines of railway have been forced, at an unavoidable +and foreseen loss, to spread out minor or tributary lines, which, if the +system of wood-paving had been in existence, might have been laid down at +less than a third of the expense, and producing a proportionate profit. +This view of the case has not been altogether neglected, for it has been +dwelt on at some length in an able pamphlet on "the Use of Mechanical +Power in Draught on Turnpike Roads, with reference to the new system of +Wood Paving." It is evidently the work of a practical man, who has deeply +studied the subject. "No part of the community," he says, "are likely to +benefit so largely by the introduction of the new system as the holders of +railway shares. For though, in all probability, the railroads would not +have been constructed to their present extent had the virtues of wood +paving been earlier known, yet it would be absurd to contend that the +wooden road will ever be able to compete with the existing iron lines. The +new principle, however, may be most usefully adopted by the railway +companies themselves, in the formation of branches or tributary roads, the +completion of which has hitherto entailed on them enormous expense +unattended by corresponding benefits. The proposed system, at all events, +is worth a trial by many other towns besides the one chosen for +illustration by the author of the pamphlet. He fixes on Shrewsbury, a +place already on the decline, and not likely to recover its former +prosperity, unless it can establish steam communication with the great +lines of railway at Wolverhampton. "But capitalists," he adds, "who see +the small amount of dividend paid to their shareholders by the minor +railways, can no longer be induced to embark their money in similar +undertakings. Let a portion, however, of the noble, but now +half-deserted, Holyhead road be paved with wood, and for a comparatively +trifling cost of less than L.50,000, in six months from the present time +steamers could be enabled to run along the entire line with safety, +infinitely greater than, and speed almost equal to, that on the +Birmingham Railway." + +We feel sure that these considerations need only to be stated to have +their due weight, and we shall be greatly surprised if an effort is not +soon made to avoid the ruin impending over so many towns. Among others, +the beautiful town of Salisbury should take an interest in this matter; +for what can be more evident that she will fall rapidly to decay, if she +cannot establish a steam communication with Southampton on one side, and +Bath and Bristol on the other. Salisbury, above all other places, ought to +know the value of a good road; for she has the fate of her elder sister +Sarum before her eyes. Decay--disfranchisement--contempt will assuredly be +her lot, if she allows herself to be treated in the same way as the +venerable Sarum was in the days of her youth--for do not the antiquaries +tell us what was the cause of Sarum's fall? It has, in fact, become so +notorious, that it has even got into Topographical Dictionaries. "About +this time," the reign of Edward the First, "Bishop Bridport built a bridge +at Harnham, and thus changing the direction of the Great Western Road, +which formerly passed through Old Sarum, that place was completely +deserted, and Salisbury became one of the most flourishing cities of the +kingdom." + +The same will be recorded of her by future chroniclers, if she do not +seize this opportunity of retrieving her possession of "the Great Western +Road." "In the reign of Queen Victoria, a railroad being established at +some distance from Salisbury, and the traffic being thus diverted from it, +which once formed the great source of its prosperity, it became completely +deserted; Shaftesbury, Sturminster, and Sherborne, shared in her ruin; and +Swindon became one of the most flourishing places in the kingdom." We +cannot think so meanly of our countrymen, as to suppose that they will +yield like white-livered cravens, and die without a struggle; and in thus +raising the voice of Maga to warn them of their danger, and instruct them +how to avoid it, we consider that we are doing the state some service, and +pointing out new means profitable employment for the capital of the rich, +and the labour of the poor. + + + * * * * * + + + + +COMMERCIAL POLICY--SHIPS, COLONIES, AND COMMERCE. + + +Who, standing on the shore, has not seen, as the gale freshened into storm +and swelled into the hurricane, the waves of the clear green sea gradually +lose their brightness, until raking up from the lowest depths, convulsed +with the mighty strife of the elements, the very obscene dregs and refuse +of all matter terreous, or instinct of life, the mounting billows become +one thick and unsightly mass of turbid waters, chafing with all the foam +and froth of the unclean scourings of the deep, rioting in the ascendant? +As in the world physical, so is it with the order of nature in the world +moral and political. As the social horizon becomes troubled, as reform +careers on to revolution, the empire of mind is overwhelmed--the brute +matter and fiercer spirits of the masses ascend, and ride the tempest +political more triumphantly as incipient confusion thickens into confirmed +chaos. + +The bad eminence popularly of men so devoid of all principle and +integrity, so strangely uncouth and assorted, as the Daniel O'Connells, +the John M'Hales, and the Feargus O'Connors; of men so unlearned in all +principle, political and economical--so wanting, moreover, in the presence +of the higher order of moral sentiments, as the Cobdens, the Brights, the +Rory O'Mores, the Aucklands, and Sydney (he of the League) Smiths, is +among the worst symptoms of the diseased times upon which the country has +fallen. It recalls forcibly to mind, it reproduces the opening scenes and +the progress, the men and the machinery, of the first French Revolution, +the precursor of so many more, upon the last act of the last fashioned +melodrama of which the curtain has not yet probably descended. How then +the meaner spirits succeeded in the whirlwind of change, to the mightier +minds which first conjured and hoped to control it; how the Mirabeaux, the +Lally Tollendals, the Mouniers of the Assembly, were replaced and +popularly displaced by the sophists and intriguers of the Gironde and the +Constituent; how, in the Convention and the hall of the Jacobins, the +coarser men of the whole movement--the Dantons, the Robespierres, the +Marats, the facetious as ferocious Bareres, the stupid Anacharsis +Clootzes--trampled under foot, or finished with the guillotine, the +_phraseurs_ and _meneurs_ of the Gironde, your orators of set speech, +glittering abstractions, and hair-splitting definitions; the Brissots, +Vergniauds, Condorcets, and Rolands, who could degrade, dethrone, and +condemn a king to perpetual imprisonment, but were just too dainty of +conscience to go the whole hog of murder. As history, like an old +almanack, does but repeat itself within a given cycle of years, so the +same round, cast, and change of characters and characteristics, with all +the other paraphernalia of the great drama, Reform and Revolution, as +performed in France, have been, and are in due order enacting and +exhibiting in this country. We have already seen, however, the Greys, +Hollands, and Broughams, the fathers and most eloquent apostles of Reform, +dethroned by a clique of large talkers about great principles, with a +comparatively small stock of ideas to do business on, such as Mr +appropriation Ward, the Tom Duncombes, Villierses, &c., men vastly +inferior in talents and attainments, after all, to the Gironde, of whom +they are the _imitatores servum pecus_; whilst these again "give place" on +the pressure from without of the one-idea endowed tribe of Repealers of +Unions and Corn-Laws--the practical men of the Mountain genus--the +O'Connells, Cobdens, and Brights, who, not yet so fierce as their +predecessors of the Robespierre and Clootz dynasty, are so far content +with patronising the "strap and billy roller" in factories, instead of +carting aristocrats to the guillotine, which may come hereafter, if, as +they say, appetites grow with what they feed on. For it is a fact recorded +in history, that Robespierre himself was naturally a man of mild +temperament and humane disposition, converted into a sanguinary monster, +as some wild beasts are, with the first taste of human blood. Anacharsis +Clootz, his coadjutor, the celebrated "orator of the human race," in his +day, was at least a free trader as thorough-going, as eminently eloquent +and popular a leader, as Mr Cobden himself. + +On the present occasion, our business chiefly lies with the gentleman +known as Mr Alderman Richard Cobden, M.P. for the borough of Stockport, +one of the first samples sent up of municipal and representative reform +achievement. Mr Cobden is an example of successful industry when +translated to a proper sphere of action. Fortunate in the maternal +relationship of a Manchester warehouseman, domiciliated in the classic +regions of cotton and Cheapside, he was taken as an "odd lad" into the +establishment. In process of time he was advanced to the more honourable +grade of traveller, in days of yore styled "bagman," to the concern. +Somewhere about 1825 or 1826, we find him transplanted to Manchester, in +partnership with two other persons of the same craft and trading position, +where they enjoyed the patronage of the late Mr Richard Fort, an extensive +calico-printer, at, and in his latter years member for, the borough of +Clitheroe in the north of Lancashire. He leased to them one of his +print-works near Chorley, and such, it is understood, was the success of +the trio, that when, after a partnership of some thirteen or fourteen +years, they separated, the division of fairly won spoil accruing to each +was not less than L.30,000. Within the space of fourteen years say, +industry had created out of nothing the incredible sum of L.90,000. +During his travels, like Jemmy the sandman, for orders, Mr Cobden became +initiated into the science of "spouting;" he became the oracle and orator +of bars and travellers' rooms; the observed of all observers, from the +gentlemen of the road down to waiters, barmaids, and boots. The roadsters +of his, as of these days, were no longer, however, of the same high-toned +class as that of the "bagmen" in times gone by. Tradition tells now only +of the splendid turns-out, the dinner-table luxury, the educated +commercial polish, the "feast of reason and the flow of soul" enjoyment, +of a race defunct; the degenerate crew of Cobden's association, with +wages cut down to short common commissions, dined not at home; tea and +turn-in, with a sleeping draught of whisky toddy, were the staples of +mine host's bill. Such is briefly the report of the rise and progress of +Mr Cobden in the world, as we have it from quarters entitled to regard; +various exaggerated statements about his hundreds of thousands acquired, +are afloat as usual in cases where men spring from nothing; his trading +career has been sufficiently prosperous and extraordinary, not to be +rendered incredible by ridiculous inventions of friends or foes. About +the locale of his birth and residence, of his origin and antecedents, Mr +Cobden himself ever maintains a guarded silence, as if, with +aristocratical airs growing with his fortunes, he were ashamed, and would +cast the slough of family poverty and plebeianship; or perhaps he +calculates on leaving the world, Sussex at least, hereafter to dispute +the honours of his paternity like another Homer. + +Mr Cobden is but a type, not of the highest cast either, of the +manufacturing operatives of Lancashire. You will find his equal in one at +least out of every ten of the adult factory workmen of Lancashire, whose +wits are sharpened by everyday conflict and debate in clubs and publics; +you will often meet his superior in those self-educated classes. We have +not unfrequently read speeches at public meetings by intelligent +operatives in Lancashire, which showed a more profound acquaintance with, +and greater powers of development of the _rationale_ of political and +economical philosophy, in single instances, than can be discovered in the +mass of harangues poured forth by Mr Cobden, were the flowers ever so +carefully culled and separated from the loads of trashy weed. His forte +consists in a coarse but dauntless intrepidity, with which respectability +and intellect shrink from encounter. The country squire, educated and +intelligent, but retiring and truth-loving, retreats naturally from +contest with a bold, abusive, and unscrupulous demagogue; even the party +he serves, holds off from contact and communion with him. He never quails, +therefore, because never matched, unless before Mr Ferrand, the fearless +member for Knaresborough--a man most ill-used, even abandoned by the very +party he so signally serves; yet who is never slow, as occasion offers, to +chastise the cur which snarls whilst it crouches before him. The eloquence +of Mr Cobden is of that vulgarly-exciting sort, well adapted to the level +of the audiences, the scum of town populations, to which it is habitually +addressed. Without the education of the late Henry Hunt, he has quite as +much capacity and more tact, with the single exception, that when +attempting to soar to the metaphorical he is apt to enact the ludicrous +blunders of Astley's clown aping the affected pomposity of the master; as +_v.g._ in the "demon rising from the Thames with an Act of Parliament in +his hands." Mr Alderman Cobden is, withal, a very ostentatious declaimer +about "great first principles;" but into the nature and the definition of +those principles he is the most abstemious of all men from entering. The +subtlety of a principle escapes the grasp of his intellect; he can deal +with it only as a material substance clear to sight and to touch, like a +common calico. Hence he talks about principles and cotton prints as if +they were convertible terms. + +Such as he is, Mr Cobden, it cannot be denied, fills for the present a +large space in the public eye; and so he will continue to fill until +occult party supports are withdrawn, and, having served the turn, he is +left to the natural operation of the principles of gravitation, and to +sink to the nothingness from which he has been forced up by the political +accidents and agitation of the day. Lamentably astern in economical lore +and political knowledge as he is, and as the want of that educational +preparation upon which alone the foundation of knowledge and of principles +can be raised, has left him, Mr Cobden, it must be conceded, turns the old +rags, the cast-off clothes, of other people's crotchets to good account +popularly; he succeeds where others fail, not because he is less ignorant +but because he is more fearless. But newly come into the world, as it may +be said, with little learning from books, with understanding little +enlarged by study, and furnished only with those clap-trap generalities, +that declamatory trash, which may be gleaned from reading diligently the +Radical weekly papers, Mr Cobden boldly takes for granted that all which +is new to himself must be unknown to the older world about him. Thus he +appropriates, without scruple, because in sheer ignorance, the ideas and +discoveries, such as they are and as they seem to him, of others, his more +experienced Radical contemporaries. He plunders Daniel Hardcastle, in open +day, of his banking and currency dogmas; he fleeces Bowring before his +eyes of his one-sided Free Trade and Anti-corn-Law stock in business; nay, +he mounts Joseph Hume's well-known stalking-horse against "ships, +colonies, and commerce," (colonial,) and forthwith on to the foray. Yet he +alone remains unconscious of the spoliations patent to all the world +besides-- + + "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." + +He retails the worn-out conceits of others as new and wondrous discoveries +of his own genius and profound meditation; and all with such a simplicity +and complacency of self-satisfied conviction, that you never dream or +impugning the good faith with which + + ----"His undoubting mind + Believed the magic wonders which he sung." + +Thus has it been with him specially in the last new case of poaching on +the manor of Mr Joseph Hume, whose game he unhesitatingly appropriates, +disguising it only in a sauce of his own flavouring. After sundry mystical +heraldings forth, at various public meetings, of a mighty state secret for +the cure of all state ills, which was labouring for vent in the swelling +breast of Mr Alderman Cobden, M.P., the hour of parturition at length +arrived; he was--after the one or two hours' agonies of a speech delivered +in the for ever memorable day of June 22, 1843--delivered of the mare's +nest so miraculously conceived. Here is the bantling bodily, stripped of +all the swaddling-clothes of surplus verbiage in which it was enveloped on +entering the world of Westminster--resolved, "That, in the opinion of this +house, it is not expedient that, in addition to the great expense to which +the people of this country are subject for the civil, military, and naval +establishments of the colonies, they should be compelled to pay a higher +price for the productions of those colonies than that at which similar +commodities could be procured from other countries, and that therefore all +protective duties in favour of colonial produce ought to be abolished." +Our "colonial system" was denounced by this colonial Draco as "one of +unmixed evil; ... there was no subject upon which there was greater +misapprehension than this ... the _new_ facts he should lay before the +house would, no doubt, prove his position." Happy the legislature +illumined with the infusion of Cobden's Bude light; thrice blest the +people, both inside and outside of the house, amongst whom, all alike, "a +great deal of misapprehension upon this point prevailed," whose darkness +was about to be discharged by the same master mind which was, and anon is, +busied in the discharge of Turkey reds from cotton chintzes at Chorley +print-works. + +We need not remind the public, that the peculiar phrases of that disease +with which the mind of Cobden is so profoundly impregnated, essentially +resolve themselves into the _moneymania;_ the leading characteristic of +the mental hallucinations with which the patient is tormented, consists in +the inveterate habit of reducing all argument into arithmetical +quantities; of calculating the value of all truth at some standard rate +per pound sterling, of what it might possibly produce as a matter of +trade; of confounding syllogisms with ciphers, and lumbering all logic +into pounds, shillings, and pence. With diagnostics of disease so +unmistakably developed, it would only be exasperation of the symptoms to +exhibit remedially in other than the peculiar form which the patient +fancies for the kill-or-cure-all draught; and since he has raised the +suit, of which he is the self-constituted judge, in which Cocker is pitted +against the colonies, we shall even humour the conceit, and try the +question with him according to the principles of law and logic, as laid +down and reduced by himself into the substantial shape of a _Dr._ and +_Cr._ account, balances struck in hard cash, and no mistake. + +Firstly, to begin with the beginning, which Mr Cobden, with customary +confusion of intellect and arrangement, shoots into the midst of his +arithmetic. The worthlessness of the colonies is argued upon the figures, +which show that, of the total exports of the United Kingdom, but one-third +is absorbed by them, whilst two-thirds are taken by foreign markets; +therefore it follows, not that the colonial trade is by 50 per cent less +important than foreign, but that, relatively, it is not only of no +importance at all, but, by all the amount, an absolute prejudice: such, at +least, is the rule-of-three logic of the Cobden school, as, viz.:-- + + "They should, however, consider what the extent of their trade + with the colonies was. The whole amount of their trade in 1840 + was, exports L.51,000,000; out of that L.16,000,000 was exported + to the colonies, including the East Indies; but not one-third of + their export trade went to the colonies. Take away L.6,000,000 of + this export trade that went to the East Indies, and they had + L.10,000,000 of exports to set against the L.5,000,000 or + L.6,000,000 annually which was voted from the pockets of the + people of this country to support these colonies." + +We shall come in season meet to the five or six millions sterling said to +be voted annually "to support the colonies." Now, admitting that the +sixteen millions, as stated, of exports colonial do contrast unfavourably +with the thirty-five millions of foreign, and that by all the difference, +by more than the difference, colonial trade is disparaged in its +importance, what becomes of this arithmetical illustration of the +superiority of foreign trade, when by the same standard we come to measure +it against the home trade, scarcely less a subject of depreciation and +vituperation than the colonial, with thinkers of the same impenetrable, if +not profound class as the member for Stockport? Here, for his edification, +we consign the resulting figures from the standard set up by himself, as +they may be found calculated and resolved from minute detail into grand +totals in the "General Statistics of the British Empire," by Mr James +Macqueen, an authority, perhaps, who will not be questioned by competent +judges any where without the pale of the Draconian legislators of the +Anti-corn-Law League. + +"The yearly consumption of the population of Great Britain and Ireland for +food, clothing, and lodging, (we give the round numbers only):-- + +Agricultural produce for food, L.295,479,000 +Produce of manufactures, 262,085,000 +Imports, (raw produce, &c.) value as landed, 55,000,000 + ------------- + 612,564,000 +Deduct exports, 51,000,000 + ------------- + L.561,564,000" + +It follows, then, that whilst foreign trade simply consumes something more +than double that of colonial trade, the home trade alone amounts to eleven +times over both foreign and colonial together, and by sixteen times as +much the amount of foreign trade alone. Upon the hypothesis of Mr Cobden, +therefore, foreign trade should be treated as of no value at all in the +national sense. + +Having disposed of Mr Cobden according to Cocker, in reference to his +arithmetical demonstrations of the superiority in point of pounds, +shillings, and pence value of one sort of trade over another, we may +notice some petty trickery, cunningly intended on his part, consisting in +the suppression of figures and facts on the one side, and their +aggregation on the other, &c., by way of bolstering up unfairly a rotten +case. He states the whole colonial trade at L.16,000,000 only, inclusive +of British India, whereas Porter's Tables, which he must have consulted, +give the _total_ exports of Great Britain to all the world for 1840, + +at L.51,406,430 +Of which colonial, 17,378,550 + ------------- +Remaining for foreign trade, L.34,027,880 + +Mr Cobden knew well, however, that Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Isles +are not, and cannot be considered as, colonies. They are in fact military +stations held for political and commercial objects. It would be ridiculous +to suppose that the rock of Gibraltar, with a population of 15,000 souls, +should consume of British imports alone L.1,111,176, the value actually +entered for that port in 1840. That amount should be accounted as to the +credit of foreign export trade, and so Mr Cobden reckoned it, without, +however, drawing the distinction, as he should have done. But that would +have exposed the miserable chicanery of the double dealing he had in hand; +for whilst taking credit for the exports to Gibraltar as part and parcel +of foreign trade, he proceeded, by way of doubly weighing the balance, to +charge all the civil and military expenditure of the garrison and fortress +against colonial trade, so that he treated Gibraltar as a colony in +respect of its cost, and as a foreign country in respect of its trade. +Cunning Isaac! here we have his military arithmetic:--"Upon the 1st of +January in this year, their army numbered 88,000 rank and file. They had +abroad, exclusive of India, 44,589. So that more than one half of that +army was stationed in their colonies; and as it was stated by the noble +lord the member for Tiverton in his evidence, for every 10,000 of these +soldiers that they had in the colonies, 5000 were wanted in England for +the purpose of exchange and recruiting. So that not only one-half, but +actually three-fourths of the army were devoted to the colonies. The army +estimates this year amounted to L.6,225,000, the portion of which sum for +the colonies amounted to L.4,500,000." Now, as the garrison of Gibraltar +alone consists of about 4000 men, to which add 2000 as the proportion for +the reserve in England for recruiting and exchanges, it follows that of +the 44,500 men on colonial duty, to which add the reserve in England, +22,250, one-eleventh are stationed in and wanted for Gibraltar alone, the +charge of which to be rateably deducted from the whole sum of L.4,500,000, +falsely set down as incurred for the colonies, would be about L.410,000. +If to this sum be added L.275,000 for "new works in Gibraltar," as stated +by Mr Cobden himself from the estimates--ordnance expenditure, (1000 +guns,) L.25,000 only--share of navy estimates, L.50,000 only--we have a +gross sum of above three quarters of a million sterling as the cost of a +fortress whose sole utility, in peace or in war, is the favour and +protection of foreign trade--of the trade of the Mediterranean, of which +it is the key; and the nation is saddled with this cost for, among others, +the special behoof of that economical and disinterested patriot Mr Cobden +himself, who trades to the shores laved by the waters of that sea, the +Levant and the Dardanelles, if not the Black Sea. Why, Gibraltar alone, +with its 15,000 of population, is more than double the charge of Canada +with its million of people, one-half just emerged out of a state of +rebellion, if not _quasi_ rebellious yet. So with Malta, its garrison of +about 3000 men; and, besides, a naval squadron for protection, that island +being the headquarters of the Mediterranean fleet--a fleet and a station +exclusively kept up for the protection of foreign trade, if for any +purpose at all. And so also with the Ionian Islands, garrisoned with 3300 +troops. Taking the garrison forces of Malta and these islands at 6000 men +only, with the reserve in England of 3000 more, making altogether 9000, +the rateable share of expense, according to the calculation of Mr Cobden, +for the whole army, would be about L640,000. Add to this sum the estimate +of L410,000 for the garrison alone of Gibraltar, and we have the gross sum +of L1,050,000 for the three dependencies of Gibraltar, Malta, and the +Ionian Islands, under the head of those army estimates, amounting to +L4,500,000, which Mr Cobden veraciously charges to the account of the +colonies. We purposely leave out of question for the present the +consideration of the other heavy charges in naval armaments, ordnance, +&c., to which this country is subjected for the same possessions, because +we have still to deduct other portions of the army expenditure set down as +for colonial account--that is, as the penalty paid for keeping colonies; +whereas a foreign trade of thirty-four or thirty-five millions, costs the +country nothing at all, according to the numeration tables of Mr Cobden, +and therefore should be all profit. + +Passing from Europe, we come to Austral-Asia, where Great Britain, among +others, possesses no less than three penal colonies. It will not be +contended that New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and Norfolk Island, +were established either with economically trading or political objects; +that, in point of fact, they were established in any other sense than as +metropolitan prisons, for the safe keeping, punishment, and moral +reclamation and reform of those _quasi_ incorrigible offenders, those +criminal pests, by which the health of society was distempered, and its +safety endangered in the parent state. Therefore, whatever the military or +other expenditure incurred, it must be as much an obligation in its +supreme or corporate capacities upon the state benefited, as the support +of the criminal jurisdiction at home in all its ramifications, from the +chief judges of the land down to the lowest turnkey at Newgate. We need +not stop to enquire in what proportion the manufacturing system, with the +immoral schools of radicalism, irreligionism, and Anti-corn-Law Cobdenism, +have contributed to people the penal settlements, and, _pro tanto_, to +aggrieve the national treasury. Certain it is, and a truth which will not +be questioned, that by far the largest share of that criminal refuse has +been cast off by and from the manufacturing districts; and of which, +therefore, the colonial trade portion indirectly contributed should be +rateably the minimum, as compared with foreign trade. In his _Statistics +of the Colonies of the British Empire_, Mr Montgomery Martin remarks of +New South Wales, that "it should be observed that a large part of the +military force is required to guard the prisoners." Let us take the number +of troops so employed at 2600, which will not be far from the mark, the +corresponding home reserve of which will be 1300 more, and we then arrive, +with the help of Mr Cobden's arithmetic, and starting from his own fixed +datum of total charge, at a sum, in round numbers, of L265,000 army +expenditure for the three penal colonies; the more considerable proportion +of which must at least be set down as arising indirectly from foreign +trade, and certainly far the least from colonial, so far as chargeable +upon either. + +We have next, taking Mr Cobden's rule of practice, about L.50,000 actual +military expenditure in St Helena, to which add reserve in England, and a +total of about L.70,000 is arrived at; which cannot be placed to colonial +account as for colonial purposes, since the island is purely a military +and refreshment station for vessels _en route_ for China, India, and the +seas circumflowing; and foreign trade, therefore, as much concerned in the +guilt of its expense as colonial traffic. The amount of charge, therefore, +although remaining to be deducted from the colonial head, may be left as a +neutral indeterminate item. But the military expenses for Singapore, +Penang, and Malacca, about L.80,000, cannot be for colonial account at +all, because stations merely for carrying on foreign trade, against which +chargeable, with the civil establishments as well, whether in whole or in +part, paid by the East India Company or not. + +Returning westward, we have the Bay of Honduras with a military +establishment, including reserve as _per_ Cobden, expending about +L.50,000, which ranges for the far greater part within the category of the +cost attending foreign trade. Then, on the West African slave-trading +coast, we have Sierra Leone, with a military expenditure, actual and +contingent, of about L.25,000. There are the Cape Coast Castle, Acera, +Fernando Po, and other small African settlements besides, which cannot +cost less, in military occupation, than some few thousands a-year, say +only L.10,000, all for foreign trade, since colonization and production +are _nil_; and with Sierra Leone, they are only kept, or were established, +for the purpose of suppressing the trade in slaves, and promoting a +foreign trade in that quarter of Africa. Coming to Europe we have +Heligoland, a rock in the North Sea, which, as only costing something more +than L.1000 per annum on foreign trade account, we may leave out of +question. Now, without pretending on the present occasion to make up and +offer an approximate estimate of the proportion of army expenditure +charged against the colonies by Mr Cobden, which should be set down either +to political account, as arising from the possession and maintenance of +outposts necessary for defensive or defensively aggressive purposes, in +case of, or for the prevention of foreign war, or for the protection and +encouragement of foreign trade, in which a right large portion of the +military expenditure for Jamaica, Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, &c., +may be regarded, we shall content ourselves with reducing his wholesale +estimate of colonial army charge by the materials antecedently furnished. +The reductions will stand thus, premising that in respect of Singapore, +Penang, and Malacca, we have not the means of ascertaining what proportion +of the charge falls upon the national treasury, as part is borne by the +East India Company. Of one fact there can, however, be no doubt; namely, +that nearly the whole of that charge is incurred for the support and +maintenance of foreign trade, just in or about the same degree as the +charges for Gibraltar. + +Gibraltar, army estimate, L.410,000 +Malta, Ionian Islands, 640,000 +New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land, Norfolk Island, 265,000 +St Helena, 70,000 +Singapore, Penang, &c., 80,000 +Honduras, 50,000 +Sierra Leone, Cape Coast, &c., 35,000 + ---------- + L1,550,000 + ---------- +Deducting this amount from Mr Cobden's colonial + estimates of 4,500,000 + ---------- + L2,950,000 + +This discount of about 35 per cent at one "fell swoop" from an audaciously +mendacious account-current, would be deemed sufficiently liberal if +dealing with other than the "measureless liars" of the League; it is far, +however, from the whole sum which will be charged upon, and proved against +them, on occasion hereafter when the general question shall be progressed +with. The rogues that fleeced the simple stripling, Lord Huntingtower, out +of 95 per cent for his bills, were not, as shall be proved, more +unscrupulous cheats and abusers of individual, than the League are of +public faith. + +But the discount of Cobden's Cocker veracity here established, with which +for the present we shall conclude, is far (enormous, almost incredible +though it be) from the full measure of his intrepidity in the "art of +misrepresentation;" crediting him, as upon fair consideration we are +bound, with misrepresenting to some extent from sheer ignorance, from want +of that early mental training, or maturer discipline, which alone can +qualify for the severe labour of researches into, and the analysation of +truth. For, unfortunately for the question he has raised, although not so +far entertained by the legislature, the very figures discounted from his +colonial fictions tell against, and must be carried over to the debit of, +his highly cherished foreign trade account, the cost of which to the +country will be approximately verified on another occasion in Blackwood. +It is the distinctive mishap of the family of the Wrongheads, the +illiterate, one-idea'd class of which he is a member, that they never can +contemplate a friendly act without perpetrating mischief, nor intend +mischief without unconsciously achieving discomfiture and disgrace. For of +the L.1,550,000 colonial overcharge in military expenditure _alone_ of +this shallow, unreflecting, and superficial person, not less certainly +than L1,200,000 must be charged to the account of foreign trade, the +special trade he delights to honour. It will constitute, as he will find, +a material item in the general balance-sheet which we purpose to draw +hereafter between the advantages of foreign and colonial trade. + +Sir Robert Peel is not more correct in his so bitterly reproached +"do-nothing" policy about Irish repeal, than in his "do-nothing" emphatic +policy about Corn-law repeal. No man better knows how, left to +themselves, the Brights and Cobdens will turn out to be Marplots. The +dolts cannot see, that however hard the Villierses, and such as them, bid +for popularity against them, in apparently the same cause--they have an +interest diametrically adverse in the general sense, and on the fitting +opportunity will throw them overboard. The most influential part of the +liberal press, both metropolitan and provincial, it is well understood, +concur with the League to some extent in its avowed objects, without at +all liking its leaders, or the means pursued for the end sought, and wait +only for the occasion, which will come, for damaging and finally +overthrowing them in popular estimation. In Manchester, Leeds, and +Birmingham, that is, in the privately known sentiments of the leading +press and other liberal leaders of opinion in each, it is notorious that +this feeling and occult determination prevails. Mr Cobden himself, and +some of his colleagues, are not unaware of the fact, and have, in the +factious and political sense, latterly trimmed their course accordingly. +But, notwithstanding, confidence they have recovered not--never will, +because apostacy or trimming cannot inspire confidence; they are +endured--to be used, and to be laid aside, "steeped in Lethe" and +forgotten, as in time they will be. + +In this brief article we have treated only of the salient points of the +colonial slanders of Mr Cobden and the League. We have challenged them +only with carrying to colonial account above one million and a half +sterling, with which the colonies, so understood in the true sense, have +nothing to do; and we have shown that one million and a quarter nearly of +the charge made against colonial trade, legitimately appertains to foreign +trade. Hereafter we purpose to investigate the respective charges entailed +upon the country by foreign and colonial trade, to apportion to each its +share, and to strike the balance of profit and loss relatively upon each. +Let it suffice for the present that we have shown Mr Cobden and his +figures to be utterly undeserving of credit in a partial point of view +only; we could, as we shall, prove them to be, either through idiotical +ignorance or stupidly malicious intent, more worthless of credit still in +the general and rational sense--in the relative proportions of the +totality of national expenditure. The blunderer, ignorant or malignant, +classed the expenditure for Guernsey and Jersey, and the Channel islands, +under the head of colonial military expenditure, as well as a considerable +portion of the cost of the Chinese war, partly repaid or in course of +being repaid. He took the exports to the colonies for 1840, when the +Chinese war was only in its origin, and expense scarcely incurred; and he +adopted the estimates for 1843, when the expenses of the Chinese war had +to be provided for, a portion of which was charged under colonial heads. +He omitted, as we have said, any account of permanent charge for +conducting and protecting the trade with China, amounting to a +considerable sum yearly under the old system, and which hereafter will be +more--all to the account of "foreign trade." He omitted besides, at the +least, half a million for the war with China--all for "foreign trade." We +shall have other occasions, however, for exposing his dishonesty, and +vindicating the colonies from his calumnies. The only words of something +like truth he spoke, were against that bastard and discreditable system, +purporting to be a "self-supporting system," concocted by adventurers and +land-jobbers for achieving fortunes at the cost, and to the ruin, of the +unsuspecting emigrating public, and to the signal detriment and dishonour +of the state. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- +Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14753.txt or 14753.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/7/5/14753/ + +Produced by Jon Ingram, donlei, Internet Library of Early Journals +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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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