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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15549-8.txt b/15549-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e6efbb --- /dev/null +++ b/15549-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2483 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, New +Series, February 14, 1852, 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: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, New Series, February 14, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: April 5, 2005 [EBook #15549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + No. 424. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2 _d_. + + + + +THE PATTERN NATION. + + +It seems to be the destiny of France to work out all sorts of problems +in state and social policy. It may be said to volunteer experiments in +government for the benefit of mankind. All kinds of forms it tries, +one after the other: each, in turn, is supposed to be the right thing; +and when found to be wrong, an effort, fair or unfair, is made to try +something else. It would surely be the height of ingratitude not to +thank our versatile neighbour for this apparently endless series of +experiments. + +Unfortunately, the novel projects extemporised by the French are not +on all occasions easily laid aside. What they have laid hold on, they +cannot get rid of. We have a striking instance of this in the practice +of subdividing lands. Forms of state administration may be altered, +and after all not much harm done; it is only changing one variety of +power at the Tuileries for another. A very different thing is a +revolution in the method of holding landed property. Few things are +more dangerous than to meddle with laws of inheritance: if care be not +taken, the whole fabric of society may be overthrown. The unpleasant +predicament which the French have got into on this account is most +alarming--far more terrible than the wildest of their revolutions. How +they are to get out of it, no man can tell. + +Latterly, the world has heard much of Socialism. This is the term +applied to certain new and untried schemes of social organisation, by +which, among other things, it is proposed to supersede the ordinary +rights of property and laws of inheritance--the latter, as is +observed, having, after due experience, failed to realise that +happiness of condition which was anticipated sixty years ago at their +institution. As it is always instructive to look back on the first +departure from rectitude, let us say a few words as to how the French +fell into their present unhappy position. + +At the Revolution of 1789-93, it will be recollected that the laws of +primogeniture were overthrown, and it was ordained that in future +every man's property should be divided equally among his children at +his death: there can be no doubt that considerations of justice and +humanity were at the foundation of this new law of inheritance. +Hitherto, there had been a great disparity in the condition of high +and low: certain properties, descending from eldest son to eldest son, +had become enormously large, and were generally ill managed; while +prodigious numbers of people had no property at all, and were +dependents on feudal superiors. The country was undoubtedly in a bad +condition, and some modification of the law was desirable. Reckless of +consequences, the system as it stood was utterly swept away, and that +of equal partition took its place. About the same period, vast domains +belonging to the crown, the clergy, and the nobility, were +sequestrated and sold in small parcels; so that there sprang up almost +at once a proprietary of quite a new description. Had the law of equal +partition been extended only to cases in which there was no +testamentary provision, it could not have inflicted serious damage, +and would at all events have been consistent with reason and +expediency: but it went the length of depriving a parent of the right +to distribute his property in the manner he judged best, and handed +over every tittle of his earnings in equal shares to his children. One +child might be worthless, and another the reverse; no matter--all were +to be treated alike. No preference could be shewn, no posthumous +reward could be given for general good-conduct or filial respect. In +all this, there was something so revolting to common sense, that one +feels a degree of wonder that so acute a people as the French should +have failed to observe the error into which they were plunging. + +For every law, however bad, there is always some justification or plea +of necessity. Besides tending to level the position of individuals, +the plan of equal distribution of property was said to be justifiable +on the ground that there are more than two parties concerned. Society, +it was alleged, comes in as a third, and says to the parent: 'You must +provide for this son, however worthless; you must not throw him +destitute on our hands; for that is to shift the responsibility from +yourself, who brought him into the world, to us, who have nothing to +do with him.' This plea, more plausible than sound, had its effect. +That an occasional wrong might not be inflicted, a great national +error, practically injurious, was committed. + +A compulsory law of equal division of lands among the children of a +deceased proprietor, may be long in revealing its horrors in a country +where the redundant population sheds habitually off. In Switzerland, +for example, the evil of a subdivision of lands is marked but in a +moderate degree--though bad enough in the main--because a certain +proportion of each generation emigrates in quest of a livelihood--the +young men going off to be mercenary soldiers in Italy, waiters at +hotels, and so forth; and the young women to be governesses and +domestic servants. France, on the contrary, is the last nation in the +world to try the subdivision principle. Its people, with some trifling +exceptions, go nowhere, as if affecting to despise all the rest of the +world. Contented with moderate fortunes, inclined to make amusement +their occupation, unwilling or unable to learn foreign languages, or +to care for anything abroad, and having so intense a love of France, +that they will not emigrate, they necessarily settle down in a +gradually aggregating mass, and are driven to the very last shifts for +existence. Only two things have saved the nation from anarchy: the +remarkable circumstance of few families consisting of more than two, +or at most three children, any more being deemed a culpable +monstrosity; and the draughting of young men for the army. In other +words, the war-demon is an engine to keep the population in check; for +if it does not at once kill off men, it occupies them in military +affairs at the public expense. The prodigious number of civil posts +under government--said to be upwards of half a million--acts also as a +means for absorbing the overplus rural population. + +Circumstances of the nature here pointed out have modified the evil +effects of the law of subdivision; but after making every allowance on +this and every other score that can be suggested, it is undeniable +that the partition of property has gone down and down, till at length, +in some situations, it can go no further. The morsels of land have +become so small, that they are not worth occupying, and will barely +realise the expense of legal transfer. In certain quarters, we are +informed, the individual properties are not larger than a single +furrow, or a patch the size of a cabbage-garden. A good number of +these landed estates--one authority says a million and a quarter--are +about five acres in extent, which is considered quite a respectable +property; but as, at the death of each proprietor, there is a further +partition, the probability would seem to be that, ultimately, the +surface of France will resemble the worst parts of Ireland, with a +population sunk to the lowest grade of humanity. Perhaps, however, the +evils inflicted on society through the agency of subdivision, are +mainly incidental. General injury goes on at a more rapid rate than +the actual partition of property. From the causes above mentioned, the +population in France is long in doubling itself; and the slower the +increase, the slower the subdivision. Already, however, the properties +are so small, that they do not admit of that profitable culture +enjoined by principles of improved husbandry and correct social +policy. In the proper cultivation of the soil, other parties besides +agriculturists are concerned; for whatever limits production, affects +the national wealth. The meagre husbandry of the small properties in +France is thus a serious loss to the country, and tends to general +impoverishment. But there is another and equally calamitous +consequence of excessive subdivision. The small proprietors in France +are for the greater part owners only in name: practically, they are +tenants. Desperate in their circumstances, they have borrowed money on +their wretched holdings; and so poor is the security, and so limited +is the capital at disposal on loan, that the interest paid on mortgage +runs from 8 to 10 per cent.--often is as high as 20 per cent. After +paying taxes, interest on loans, and other necessary expenses, such is +the exhaustion of resources, that thousands of these French peasant +proprietors may be said to live in a continual battle with famine. +According to official returns, there are in France upwards of 348,000 +dwellings with no other aperture than the door; and nearly 2,000,000 +with only one window. And to this the 'pattern nation' has brought +itself by its headlong haste to upset, not simply improve, a bad +institution. The living in these windowless and single-windowed abodes +is not living, in the proper sense of the word: it is existence +without comfort, without hope. The next step is to burrow in holes +like rabbits. + +It will thus be observed, that the subdivision of real estate has +brought France pretty much back to the point where it started--a small +wealthy class, and a very numerous poor class. The computation is, +that in a population of 36,000,000, only 800,000 are in easy +circumstances. A considerable proportion of this moneyed class are +usurers, living in Paris and other large towns. They are the lenders +of cash on bonds, which squeeze out the very vitals of the nation--the +gay flutterers and loungers of the streets, theatres, and cafés, +drawing the means of luxurious indulgence from the myriads who toil +out their lives in the fields. + +Obtaining a glimpse of these facts, we can no longer wonder at the +submission of the French peasantry to a thinning of their families by +military conscription; at the eager thirst for office which afflicts +the whole nation; or at the morbid desire to overturn society, and +strike out a better organisation. As matters grow worse, this passion +for wholesale change becomes more fervidly manifested. The +_jacqueries_ of the middle ages are renewed. Various districts of +country, in which poverty has reached its climax, break into universal +insurrection. It is a war levied by those who have nothing against +those who have something. To have coin in the pocket, is to be the +enemy. The cry is: Down with the rich; take all they have got, and +divide the plunder amongst us. Such are the avowed principles of the +Socialists. According to them, all property is theft, and taking by +violence is only recovering stolen goods! When a nation has come to +this deplorable pass, what, it may be asked, can cure it? The malady +is not political; it is social. Perhaps, under a right development of +industry, France has not too great a population; but, subject to the +present misdirection of its energies, the position of the country is +assuming a gravity of aspect which may well engage the most earnest +consideration. The least that could be recommended is an immediate +change in the law which so unscrupulously subdivides and ruins landed +property. + +The history of the Revolution of 1789-93, must have made a feeble +impression, if it has failed to print a deep and indelible conviction +on the mind, that the acts of that great and wicked drama would some +day be bitterly expiated. To expect anything else would be to impeach +the principles of everlasting justice. Bearing in remembrance the +horrid excesses of almost an entire nation, nothing that now occurs in +France affords us the least surprise. The anarchical revolts of 1851, +are only a sequence of crimes committed upwards of half a century ago. +Philosophically, the beginning and the end are one thing. Blind with +rage against all that was noble, holy, and simply respectable, the +innocent were dragged in crowds to the scaffold, and their property +confiscated and disposed of. See the consequence after a lapse of +sixty years, 'My sin hath found me out.' The ill-gotten wealth has +been the very instrument to punish and prostrate. A robbery followed +by divisions among the spoilers. Waste succeeded by clamorous +destitution. What a lesson! + +It is needless to say, that Socialism, which proposes a universal +re-distribution of property, with some unintelligible organisation of +labour--all on an equality, no rich and no poor, no masters and no +servants, everybody sharing his dinner with his neighbour--is a fancy +as baseless as any crotchet which even the 'pattern nation' has ever +concocted. Yet, it is not the less likely to be carried into +execution, perhaps only the more likely from its practical absurdity. +Of course, the more educated and wealthy portion of the nation view +the doctrines of Socialism, as far as they can comprehend them, with +serious apprehension; but unhappily for France, these classes +uniformly submit to any folly or crime, which comes with the emphasis +of authority, valid or usurped. At present, they may be said to have +made a compromise, bartering civil liberty for bare safety--permission +to live! But how long this will last, and what form the tenure of +property is to assume, are questions not easy to answer. It would not +surprise us to see the nation, in its corporate capacity, assume the +position of universal lender of money on, or proprietor of, +embarrassed estates; in which case the 'ryot system' of India will, +strangely enough, have found domestication in Europe! Is this to be +the next experiment? + +A curious and saddening problem is the future of this great country. +'France,' said Robespierre in one of his moments of studied +inspiration, 'has astonished all Europe with her prodigies of reason!' +We are now witnessing the development of several of these astonishing +prodigies; and the spectacle, to say the least of it, is instructive. + + + + +MY TRAVELLING COMPANION. + + +My picture was a failure. Partial friends had guaranteed its success; +but the Hanging Committee and the press are not composed of one's +partial friends. The Hanging Committee thrust me into the +darkest corner of the octagon-room, and the press ignored my +existence--excepting in one instance, when my critic dismissed me in a +quarter of a line as a 'presumptuous dauber.' I was stunned with the +blow, for I had counted so securely on the L.200 at which my grand +historical painting was dog-cheap--not to speak of the deathless fame +which it was to create for me--that I felt like a mere wreck when my +hopes were flung to the ground, and the untasted cup dashed from my +lips. I took to my bed, and was seriously ill. The doctor bled me till +I fainted, and then said, that he had saved me from a brain-fever. +That might be, but he very nearly threw me into a consumption, only +that I had a deep chest and a good digestion. Pneumonic expansion and +active chyle saved me from an early tomb, yet I was too unhappy to be +grateful. + +But why did my picture fail? Surely it possessed all the elements of +success! It was grandly historical in subject, original in treatment, +pure in colouring; what, then, was wanting? This old warrior's head, +of true Saxon type, had all the majesty of Michael Angelo; that young +figure, all the radiant grace of Correggio; no Rembrandt shewed more +severe dignity than yon burnt umber monk in the corner; and Titian +never excelled the loveliness of this cobalt virgin in the foreground. +Why did it not succeed? The subject, too--the 'Finding of the Body of +Harold by Torch-light'--was sacred to all English hearts; and being +conceived in an entirely new and original manner, it was redeemed from +the charge of triteness and wearisomeness. The composition was +pyramidal, the apex being a torch borne aloft for the 'high light,' +and the base shewing some very novel effects of herbage and armour. +But it failed. All my skill, all my hope, my ceaseless endeavour, my +burning visions, all--all had failed; and I was only a poor, +half-starved painter, in Great Howland Street, whose landlady was +daily abating in her respect, and the butcher daily abating in his +punctuality; whose garments were getting threadbare, and his dinners +hypothetical, and whose day-dreams of fame and fortune had faded into +the dull-gray of penury and disappointment. I was broken-hearted, ill, +hungry; so I accepted an invitation from a friend, a rich manufacturer +in Birmingham, to go down to his house for the Christmas holidays. He +had a pleasant place in the midst of some ironworks, the blazing +chimneys of which, he assured me, would afford me some exquisite +studies of 'light' effects. + +By mistake, I went by the Express train, and so was thrown into the +society of a lady whose position would have rendered any acquaintance +with her impossible, excepting under such chance-conditions as the +present; and whose history, as I learned it afterwards, led me to +reflect much on the difference between the reality and the seeming of +life. + +She moved my envy. Yes--base, mean, low, unartistic, degrading as is +this passion, I felt it rise up like a snake in my breast when I saw +that feeble woman. She was splendidly dressed--wrapped in furs of the +most costly kind, trailing behind; her velvets and lace worth a +countess's dowry. She was attended by obsequious menials; surrounded +by luxuries; her compartment of the carriage was a perfect palace in +all the accessories which it was possible to collect in so small a +space; and it seemed as though 'Cleopatra's cup' would have been no +impracticable draught for her. She gave me more fully the impression +of luxury, than any person I had ever met with before; and I thought I +had reason when I envied her. + +She was lifted into the carriage carefully; carefully swathed in her +splendid furs and lustrous velvets; and placed gently, like a wounded +bird, in her warm nest of down. But she moved languidly, and fretfully +thrust aside her servants' busy hands, indifferent to her comforts, +and annoyed by her very blessings. I looked into her face: it was a +strange face, which had once been beautiful; but ill-health, and care, +and grief, had marked it now with deep lines, and coloured it with +unnatural tints. Tears had washed out the roses from her cheeks, and +set large purple rings about her eyes; the mouth was hard and pinched, +but the eyelids swollen; while the crossed wrinkles on her brow told +the same tale of grief grown petulant, and of pain grown soured, as +the thin lip, quivering and querulous, and the nervous hand, never +still and never strong. + +The train-bell rang, the whistle sounded, the lady's servitors stood +bareheaded and courtesying to the ground, and the rapid rush of the +iron giant bore off the high-born dame and the starveling painter in +strange companionship. Unquiet and unresting--now shifting her +place--now letting down the glass for the cold air to blow full upon +her withered face--then drawing it up, and chafing her hands and feet +by the warm-water apparatus concealed in her _chauffe-pied_, +while shivering as if in an ague-fit--sighing deeply--lost in +thought--wildly looking out and around for distraction--she soon made +me ask myself whether my envy of her was as true as deep sympathy and +pity would have been. + +'But her wealth--her wealth!' I thought. 'True she may suffer, but how +gloriously she is solaced! She may weep, but the angels of social life +wipe off her tears with perfumed linen, gold embroidered; she may +grieve, but her grief makes her joys so much the more blissful. Ah! +she is to be envied after all!--envied, while I, a very beggar, might +well scorn my place now!' + +Something of this might have been in my face, as I offered my sick +companion some small attention--I forget what--gathering up one of her +luxurious trifles, or arranging her cushions. She seemed almost to +read my thoughts as her eyes rested on my melancholy face; and saying +abruptly: 'I fear you are unhappy, young man?' she settled herself in +her place like a person prepared to listen to a pleasant tale. + +'I am unfortunate, madam,' I answered. + +'Unfortunate?' she said impatiently. 'What! with youth and health, can +you call yourself unfortunate? When the whole world lies untried +before you, and you still live in the golden atmosphere of hope, can +you pamper yourself with sentimental sorrows? Fie upon you!--fie upon +you! What are your sorrows compared with mine?' + +'I am ignorant of yours, madam,' I said respectfully; 'but I know my +own; and, knowing them, I can speak of their weight and bitterness. By +your very position, you cannot undergo the same kind of distress as +that overwhelming me at this moment: you may have evils in your path +of life, but they cannot equal mine.' + +'Can anything equal the evils of ruined health and a desolated +hearth?' she cried, still in the same impatient manner. 'Can the worst +griefs of wayward youth equal the bitterness of that cup which you +drink at such a time of life as forbids all hope of after-assuagement? +Can the first disappointment of a strong heart rank with the terrible +desolation of a wrecked old age? You think because you see about me +the evidences of wealth, that I must be happy. Young man, I tell you +truly, I would gladly give up every farthing of my princely fortune, +and be reduced to the extreme of want, to bring back from the grave +the dear ones lying there, or pour into my veins one drop of the +bounding blood of health and energy which used to make life a long +play-hour of delight. Once, no child in the fields, no bird in the +sky, was more blessed than I; and what am I now?--a sickly, lonely old +woman, whose nerves are shattered and whose heart is broken, without +hope or happiness on the earth! Even death has passed me by in +forgetfulness and scorn!' + +Her voice betrayed the truth of her emotion. Still, with an accent of +bitterness and complaint, rather than of simple sorrow, it was the +voice of one fighting against her fate, more than of one suffering +acutely and in despair: it was petulant rather than melancholy; angry +rather than grieving; shewing that her trials had hardened, not +softened her heart. + +'Listen to me,' she then said, laying her hand on my arm, 'and perhaps +my history may reconcile you to the childish depression, from what +cause soever it may be, under which you are labouring. You are young +and strong, and can bear any amount of pain as yet: wait until you +reach my age, and then you will know the true meaning of the word +despair! I am rich, as you may see,' she continued, pointing to her +surroundings--'in truth, so rich that I take no account either of my +income or my expenditure. I have never known life under any other +form; I have never known what it was to be denied the gratification of +one desire which wealth could purchase, or obliged to calculate the +cost of a single undertaking. I can scarcely realise the idea of +poverty. I see that all people do not live in the same style as +myself, but I cannot understand that it is from inability: it always +seems to me to be from their own disinclination. I tell you, I cannot +fully realise the idea of poverty; and you think this must make me +happy, perhaps?' she added sharply, looking full in my face. + +'I should be happy, madam, if I were rich,' I replied. 'Suffering now +from the strain of poverty, it is no marvel if I place an undue value +on plenty.' + +'Yet see what it does for me!' continued my companion. 'Does it give +me back my husband, my brave boys, my beautiful girl? Does it give +rest to this weary heart, or relief to this aching head? Does it +soothe my mind or heal my body? No! It but oppresses me, like a heavy +robe thrown round weakened limbs: it is even an additional misfortune, +for if I were poor, I should be obliged to think of other things +beside myself and my woes; sand the very mental exertion necessary to +sustain my position would lighten my miseries. I have seen my daughter +wasting year by year and day by day, under the warm sky of the +south--under the warm care of love! Neither climate nor affection +could save her: every effort was made--the best advice procured--the +latest panacea adopted; but to no effect. Her life was prolonged, +certainly; but this simply means, that she was three years in dying, +instead of three months. She was a gloriously lovely creature, like a +fair young saint for beauty and purity--quite an ideal thing, with her +golden hair and large blue eyes! She was my only girl--my youngest, my +darling, my best treasure! My first real sorrow--now fifteen years +ago--was when I saw her laid, on her twenty-first birthday, in the +English burial-ground at Madeira. It is on the gravestone, that she +died of consumption: would that it had been added--and her mother of +grief! From the day of her death, my happiness left me!' + +Here the poor lady paused, and buried her face in her hands. The first +sorrow was evidently also the keenest; and I felt my own eyelids moist +as I watched this outpouring of the mother's anguish. After all, here +was grief beyond the power of wealth to assuage: here was sorrow +deeper than any mere worldly disappointment. + +'I had two sons,' she went on to say after a short time--'only two. +They were fine young men, gifted and handsome. In fact, all my +children were allowed to be very models of beauty. One entered the +army, the other the navy. The eldest went with his regiment to the +Cape, where he married a woman of low family--an infamous creature of +no blood; though she was decently conducted for a low-born thing as +she was. She was well-spoken of by those who knew her; but what +_could_ she be with a butcher for a grandfather! However, my poor +infatuated son loved her to the last. She was very pretty, I have +heard--young, and timid; but being of such fearfully low origin, of +course she could not be recognised by my husband or myself! We forbade +my son all intercourse with us, unless he would separate himself from +her; but the poor boy was perfectly mad, and he preferred this +low-born wife to his father and mother. They had a little baby, who +was sent over to me when the wife died--for, thank God! she did die in +a few years' time. My son was restored to our love, and he received +our forgiveness; but we never saw him again. He took a fever of the +country, and was a corpse in a few hours. My second boy was in the +navy--a fine high-spirited fellow, who seemed to set all the accidents +of life at defiance. I could not believe in any harm coming to _him_. +He was so strong, so healthy, so beautiful, so bright: he might have +been immortal, for all the elements of decay that shewed themselves in +him. Yet this glorious young hero was drowned--wrecked off a +coral-reef, and flung like a weed on the waters. He lost his own life +in trying to save that of a common sailor--a piece of pure gold +bartered for the foulest clay! Two years after this, my husband died +of typhus fever, and I had a nervous attack, from which I have never +recovered. And now, what do you say to this history of mine? For +fifteen years, I have never been free from sorrow. No sooner did one +grow so familiar to me, that I ceased to tremble at its hideousness, +than another, still more terrible, came to overwhelm me in fresh +misery. For fifteen years, my heart has never known an hour's peace; +and to the end of my life, I shall be a desolate, miserable, +broken-hearted woman. Can you understand, now, the valuelessness of my +riches, and how desolate my splendid house must seem to me? They have +been given me for no useful purpose here or hereafter; they encumber +me, and do no good to others. Who is to have them when I die? +Hospitals and schools? I hate the medical profession, and I am against +the education of the poor. I think it the great evil of the day, and I +would not leave a penny of mine to such a radical wrong. What is to +become of my wealth?'-- + +'Your grandson,' I interrupted hastily: 'the child of the officer.' + +The old woman's face gradually softened. 'Ah! he is a lovely boy,' she +said; 'but I don't love him--no, I don't,' she repeated vehemently. +'If I set my heart on him, he will die or turn out ill: take to the +low ways of his wretched mother, or die some horrible death. I steel +my heart against him, and shut him out from my calculations of the +future. He is a sweet boy: interesting, affectionate, lovely; but I +will not allow myself to love him, and I don't allow him to love me! +But you ought to see him. His hair is like my own daughter's--long, +glossy, golden hair; and his eyes are large and blue, and the lashes +curl on his cheek like heavy fringes. He is too pale and too thin: he +looks sadly delicate; but his wretched mother was a delicate little +creature, and he has doubtless inherited a world of disease and poor +blood from her. I wish he was here though, for you to see; but I keep +him at school, for when he is much with me, I feel myself beginning to +be interested in him; and I do not wish to love him--I do not wish to +remember him at all! With that delicate frame and nervous temperament, +he _must_ die; and why should I prepare fresh sorrow for myself, by +taking him into my heart, only to have him plucked out again by +death?' + +All this was said with the most passionate vehemence of manner, as if +she were defending herself against some unjust charge. I said +something in the way of remonstrance. Gently and respectfully, but +firmly, I spoke of the necessity for each soul to spiritualise its +aspirations, and to raise itself from the trammels of earth; and in +speaking thus to her, I felt my own burden lighten off my heart, and I +acknowledged that I had been both foolish and sinful in allowing my +first disappointment to shadow all the sunlight of my existence. I am +not naturally of a desponding disposition, and nothing but a blow as +severe as the non-success of my 'Finding the Body of Harold by +Torch-light' could have affected me to the extent of mental +prostration as that under which I was now labouring. But this was very +hard to bear! My companion listened to me with a kind of blank +surprise, evidently unaccustomed to the honesty of truth; but she bore +my remarks patiently, and when I had ended, she even thanked me for my +advice. + +'And now, tell me the cause of your melancholy face?' she asked, as we +were nearing Birmingham. 'Your story cannot be very long, and I shall +have just enough time to hear it.' + +I smiled at her authoritative tone, and said quietly: 'I am an artist, +madam, and I had counted much on the success of my first historical +painting. It has failed, and I am both penniless and infamous. I am +the "presumptuous dauber" of the critics--despised by my +creditors--emphatically a failure throughout.' + +'Pshaw!' cried the lady impatiently; 'and what is that for a grief? a +day's disappointment which a day's labour can repair! To me, your +troubles seem of no more worth than a child's tears when he has broken +his newest toy! Here is Birmingham, and I must bid you farewell. +Perhaps you will open the door for me? Good-morning: you have made my +journey pleasant, and relieved my ennui. I shall be happy to see you +in town, and to help you forward in your career.' + +And with these words, said in a strange, indifferent, matter-of-fact +tone, as of one accustomed to all the polite offers of good society, +which mean nothing tangible, she was lifted from the carriage by a +train of servants, and borne off the platform. + +I looked at the card which she placed in my hand, and read the address +of 'Mrs Arden, Belgrave Square.' + +I found my friend waiting for me; and in a few moments was seated +before a blazing fire in a magnificent drawing-room, surrounded with +every comfort that hospitality could offer or luxury invent. + +'Here, at least, is happiness,' I thought, as I saw the family +assemble in the drawing-room before dinner. 'Here are beauty, youth, +wealth, position--all that makes life valuable. What concealed +skeleton can there be in this house to frighten away one grace of +existence? None--none! They must be happy; and oh! what a contrast to +that poor lady I met with to-day; and what a painful contrast to +myself!' + +And all my former melancholy returned like a heavy cloud upon my brow; +and I felt that I stood like some sad ghost in a fairy-land of beauty, +so utterly out of place was my gloom in the midst of all this gaiety +and splendour. + +One daughter attracted my attention more than the rest. She was the +eldest, a beautiful girl of about twenty-three, or she might have been +even a few years older. Her face was quite of the Spanish style--dark, +expressive, and tender; and her manners were the softest and most +bewitching I had ever seen. She was peculiarly attractive to an +artist, from the exceeding beauty of feature, as well as from the +depth of expression which distinguished her. I secretly sketched her +portrait on my thumb-nail, and in my own mind I determined to make her +the model for my next grand attempt at historical composition--'the +Return of Columbus.' She was to be the Spanish queen; and I thought of +myself as Ferdinand; for I was not unlike a Spaniard in appearance, +and I was almost as brown. + +I remained with my friend a fortnight, studying the midnight effects +of the iron-foundries, and cultivating the acquaintance of Julia. In +these two congenial occupations the time passed like lightning, and I +woke as from a pleasant dream, to the knowledge of the fact, that my +visit was expected to be brought to a close. I had been asked, I +remembered, for a week, and I had doubled my furlough. I hinted at +breakfast, that I was afraid I must leave my kind friends to-morrow, +and a general regret was expressed, but no one asked me to stay +longer; so the die was unhappily cast. + +Julia was melancholy. I could not but observe it; and I confess that +the observation caused me more pleasure than pain. Could it be sorrow +at my departure? We had been daily, almost hourly, companions for +fourteen days, and the surmise was not unreasonable. She had always +shewn me particular kindness, and she could not but have seen my +marked preference for her. My heart beat wildly as I gazed on her pale +cheek and drooping eyelid; for though she had been always still and +gentle, I had never seen--certainly I had never noticed--such evident +traces of sorrow, as I saw in her face to-day. Oh, if it were for me, +how I would bless each pang which pained that beautiful heart!--how I +would cherish the tears that fell, as if they had been priceless +diamonds from the mine!--how I would joy in her grief and live in her +despair! It might be that out of evil would come good, and from the +deep desolation of my unsold 'Body' might arise the heavenly +blessedness of such love as this! I was intoxicated with my hopes; and +was on the point of making a public idiot of myself, but happily some +slight remnant of common-sense was left me. However, impatient to +learn my fate, I drew Julia aside; and, placing myself at her feet, +while she was enthroned on a luxurious ottoman, I pretended that I +must conclude the series of lectures on art, and the best methods of +colouring, on which I had been employed with her ever since my visit. + +'You seem unhappy to-day, Miss Reay,' I said abruptly, with my voice +trembling like a girl's. + +She raised her large eyes languidly. 'Unhappy? no, I am never +unhappy,' she said quietly. + +Her voice never sounded so silvery sweet, so pure and harmonious. It +fell like music on the air. + +'I have, then, been too much blinded by excess of beauty to have been +able to see correctly,' I answered. 'To me you have appeared always +calm, but never sad; but to-day there is a palpable weight of sorrow +on you, which a child might read. It is in your voice, and on your +eyelids, and round your lips; it is on you like the moss on the young +rose--beautifying while veiling the dazzling glory within.' + +'Ah! you speak far too poetically for me,' said Julia, smiling. 'If +you will come down to my level for a little while, and will talk to me +rationally, I will tell you my history. I will tell it you as a lesson +for yourself, which I think will do you good.' + +The cold chill that went to my soul! Her history! It was no diary of +facts that I wanted to hear, but only a register of feelings--a +register of feelings in which I should find myself the only point +whereto the index was set. History! what events deserving that name +could have troubled the smooth waters of her life? + +I was silent, for I was disturbed; but Julia did not notice either my +embarrassment or my silence, and began, in her low, soft voice, to +open one of the saddest chapters of life which I had ever heard. + +'You do not know that I am going into a convent?' she said; then, +without waiting for an answer, she continued: 'This is the last month +of my worldly life. In four weeks, I shall have put on the white robe +of the novitiate, and in due course I trust to be dead for ever to +this earthly life.' + +A heavy, thick, choking sensation in my throat, and a burning pain +within my eyeballs, warned me to keep silence. My voice would have +betrayed me. + +'When I was seventeen,' continued Julia, 'I was engaged to my cousin. +We had been brought up together from childhood, and we loved each +other perfectly. You must not think, because I speak so calmly now, +that I have not suffered in the past. It is only by the grace of +resignation and of religion, that I have been brought to my present +condition of spiritual peace. I am now five-and-twenty--next week I +shall be six-and-twenty: that is just nine years since I was first +engaged to Laurence. He was not rich enough, and indeed he was far too +young, to marry, for he was only a year older than myself; and if he +had had the largest possible amount of income, we could certainly not +have married for three years. My father never cordially approved of +the engagement, though he did not oppose it. Laurence was taken +partner into a large concern here, and a heavy weight of business was +immediately laid on him. Youthful as he was, he was made the sole and +almost irresponsible agent in a house which counted its capital by +millions, and through which gold flowed like water. For some time, he +went on well--to a marvel well. He was punctual, vigilant, careful; +but the responsibility was too much for the poor boy: the praises he +received, the flattery and obsequiousness which, for the first time, +were lavished on the friendless youth, the wealth at his command, all +turned his head. For a long time, we heard vague rumours of irregular +conduct; but as he was always the same good, affectionate, respectful, +happy Laurence when with us, even my father, who is so strict, and +somewhat suspicious, turned a deaf ear to them. I was the earliest to +notice a slight change, first in his face, and then in his manners. At +last the rumours ceased to be vague, and became definite. Business +neglected; fatal habits visible even in the early day; the frightful +use of horrible words which once he would have trembled to use; the +nights passed at the gaming-table, and the days spent in the society +of the worst men on the turf--all these accusations were brought to my +father by credible witnesses; and, alas! they were too true to be +refuted. My father--Heaven and the holy saints bless his gray +head!--kept them from me as long as he could. He forgave him again and +again, and used every means that love and reason could employ to bring +him back into the way of right; but he could do nothing against the +force of such fatal habits as those to which my poor Laurence had now +become wedded. With every good intention, and with much strong love +for me burning sadly amid the wreck of his virtues, he yet would not +refrain: the Evil One had overcome him; he was his prey here and +hereafter. O no--not hereafter!' she added, raising her hands and eyes +to heaven, 'if prayer, if fasting, patient vigil, incessant striving, +may procure him pardon--not for ever his prey! Our engagement was +broken off; and this step, necessary as it was, completed his ruin. He +died'--Here a strong shudder shook her from head to foot, and I half +rose, in alarm. The next instant she was calm. + +'Now, you know my history,' continued she. 'It is a tragedy of real +life, which you will do well, young painter, to compare with your +own!' With a kindly pressure of the hand, and a gentle smile--oh! so +sweet, so pure, and heavenly!--Julia Reay left me; while I sat +perfectly awed--that is the only word I can use--with the revelation +which she had made both of her history and of her own grand soul. + +'Come with me to my study,' said Mr Reay, entering the room; 'I have a +world to talk to you about. You go to-morrow, you say. I am sorry for +it; but I must therefore settle my business with you in good time +to-day.' + +I followed him mechanically, for I was undergoing a mental castigation +which rather disturbed me. Indeed, like a young fool--as eager in +self-reproach as in self-glorification--I was so occupied in inwardly +calling myself hard names, that even when my host gave me a commission +for my new picture, 'The Return of Columbus,' at two hundred and fifty +pounds, together with an order to paint himself, Mrs Reay, and +half-a-dozen of their children, I confess it with shame, that I +received the news like a leaden block, and felt neither surprise nor +joy--not though these few words chased me from the gates of the Fleet, +whither I was fast hastening, and secured me both position and daily +bread. The words of that beautiful girl were still ringing in my ears, +mixed up with the bitterest self-accusations; and these together shut +out all other sound, however pleasant. But that was always my way. + +I went back to London, humbled and yet strengthened, having learned +more of human nature and the value of events, in one short fortnight, +than I had ever dreamed of before. The first lessons of youth +generally come in hard shape. I had sense enough to feel that I had +learned mine gently, and that I had cause to be thankful for the +mildness of the teaching. From a boy, I became a man, judging more +accurately of humanity than a year's ordinary experience would have +enabled me to do. And the moral which I drew was this: that under our +most terrible afflictions, we may always gain some spiritual good, if +we suffer them to be softening and purifying rather than hardening +influences over us. And also, that while we are suffering the most +acutely, we may be sure that others are suffering still more acutely; +and if we would but sympathise with them more than with +ourselves--live out of our ownselves, and in the wide world around +us--we would soon be healed while striving to heal others. Of this I +am convinced: the secret of life, and of all its good, is in love; and +while we preserve this, we can never fail of comfort. The sweet waters +will always gush out over the sandiest desert of our lives while we +can love; but without it--nay, not the merest weed of comfort or of +virtue would grow under the feet of angels. In this was the +distinction between Mrs Arden and Julia Reay. The one had hardened her +heart under her trials, and shut it up in itself; the other had opened +hers to the purest love of man and love of God; and the result was to +be seen in the despair of the one and in the holy peace of the other. + +Full of these thoughts, I sought out my poor lady, determined to do +her real benefit if I could. She received me very kindly, for I had +taken care to provide myself with a sufficient introduction, so as to +set all doubts of my social position at rest: and I knew how far this +would go with her. We soon became fast friends. She seemed to rest on +me much for sympathy and comfort, and soon grew to regard me with a +sort of motherly fondness that of itself brightened her life. I paid +her all the attention which a devoted son might pay--humoured her +whims, soothed her pains; but insensibly I led her mind out from +itself--first in kindness to me, and then in love to her grandson. + +I asked for him just before the midsummer holidays, and with great +difficulty obtained an invitation for him to spend them with her. She +resisted my entreaties stoutly, but at last was obliged to yield; not +to me, nor to my powers of persuasion, but to the holy truth of which +I was then the advocate. The child came, and I was there also to +receive him, and to enforce by my presence--which I saw without vanity +had great influence--a fitting reception. He was a pensive, clever, +interesting little fellow; sensitive and affectionate, timid, gifted +with wonderful powers, and of great beauty. There was a shy look in +his eyes, which made me sure that he inherited much of his loveliness +from his mother; and when we were great friends, he shewed me a small +portrait of 'poor mamma;' and I saw at once the most striking likeness +between the two. No human heart could withstand that boy, certainly +not my poor friend's. She yielded, fighting desperately against me and +him, and all the powers of love, which were subduing her, but yielding +while she fought; and in a short time the child had taken his proper +place in her affections, which he kept to the end of her life. And +she, that desolate mother, even she, with her seared soul and +petrified heart, was brought to the knowledge of peace by the glorious +power of love. + +Prosperous, famous, happy, blessed in home and hearth, this has become +my fundamental creed of life, the basis on which all good, whether of +art or of morality, is rested: of art especially; for only by a +tender, reverent spirit can the true meaning of his vocation be made +known to the artist. All the rest is mere imitation of form, not +insight into essence. And while I feel that I can live out of myself, +and love others--the whole world of man--more than myself, I know that +I possess the secret of happiness; ay, though my powers were suddenly +blasted as by lightning, my wife and children laid in the cold grave, +and my happy home desolated for ever. For I would go out into the +thronged streets, and gather up the sorrows of others, to relieve +them; and I would go out under the quiet sky, and look up to the +Father's throne; and I would pluck peace, as green herbs from active +benevolence and contemplative adoration. Yes; love can save from the +sterility of selfishness, and from the death of despair: but love +alone. No other talisman has the power; pride, self-sustainment, +coldness, pleasure, nothing--nothing--but that divine word of Life +which is life's soul! + + + + +POPULAR MUSIC--MAINZER. + + +In our days, vocal music is beginning to assert in this country the +place it has long held abroad as a great moral educator; no longer +regarded as a superfluity of the rich, it is now established as a +branch of instruction in almost every school, and is gradually finding +its way into many nooks and corners, where it will act as an antidote +to grosser pleasures, by supplying the means of an innocent and +elevating recreation. + +The apostle of music, considered as a boon and privilege of 'the +million,' has lately passed away from the scene of his active labours; +and it is but a tribute due to his memory as a philanthropist and man +of genius, while we deplore his loss, to pause for a moment and +briefly trace his career. + +Joseph Mainzer was born, on the 21st October 1801, at Tręves, of +parents in the middle rank of life. When quite a child, the +predominating taste of his life was so strongly developed, that in +spite of harsh masters he learned to play on the piano, violin, +bassoon, and several wind-instruments; and at the age of twelve could +read at sight the most difficult music, and even attempted +composition. Music, however, was not intended to be his profession, +and was only carried on as a relaxation from the severer studies to +which Mainzer devoted himself at the university of Tręves, where he +took the highest degree in general merit, and the first prize for +natural science. At the age of twenty-one, he left college to descend +into the heart of the Saarbruck Mountains as an engineer of mines, +where, according to custom, he had to commence with the lowest grade +of labour, and for months drag a heavy wheel-barrow, and wield the +pickaxe. Yet here, in reality, dawned his mission as the apostle of +popular music: he relieved the tedium of those interminable nights of +toil--for days there were none--by composing and teaching choruses, +thus leading the miners both in labour and in song. This underground +life, however, was too severe for his constitution; and he was obliged +to return home in impaired health. He now studied divinity and music; +and, after a time, was advised to travel in order to perfect himself +in the latter branch of art. Under Rinck at Darmstadt, and at Vienna +and Rome, he enjoyed every advantage; and, on leaving the Eternal +City, was invited to a farewell _fęte_ by Thorwaldsen, where all the +eminent artists of the day were present, and joined in singing his +compositions. On returning home, after two years' absence, he adopted +music as his vocation, and published his first elementary work--the +_Singschule_, which was introduced in Prussia and Germany as the +_méthode_ in schools; and soon after, the king of Prussia sent him the +gold medal awarded to men eminent in the arts and sciences. Paris, +however, soon offered more attractions to Mainzer than his native +place, and thither he repaired and pitched his tent for ten years. +During this period, he established his reputation as a composer of +dramatic, sacred, and domestic music, and as an acute and elegant +writer and critic. His opera of _La Jacquerie_ had a run of seventeen +nights consecutively at the theatre. He was soon welcomed into the +literary and artistic circles of Paris; and one evening, at an elegant +_réunion_, being invited to play, he _improvised_ a piece, which was +taken for a composition of Palestrina's. Many were moved to tears, one +pair of pre-eminently bright eyes especially; and the consequence was, +that the composer and the bright eyes were soon after united in +marriage! + +But amid these captivating _salons_ and congenial occupations, what +had become of the apostle of popular music? He was not asleep; only +digesting and preparing a system which should, by its simplicity and +clearness, bring scientific music within the reach of the humblest as +well as the highest classes of society. At last it was matured, and +the working-classes were invited to come and test it--gratuitously of +course. A few accepted the invitation; but their success and delight +in the new art thus opened up to them, was so great, that the 'two or +three' pioneers soon swelled into an army of 3000 _ouvriers_! But a +band of 3000 workmen in Paris was considered dangerous: it could not +be credited that they met merely for social improvement and +relaxation; some political design must surely lurk under it: +government was alarmed, the police threatened; and it was left to +Mainzer's choice either to remain in Paris without his artisan +classes, or to seek elsewhere a field for his popular labours. He +decided at once on the latter alternative, and departed for England, +amidst the heartfelt regrets of those whom he had attached so strongly +to himself, while he inculcated peace, order, and every social virtue. +On his revisiting Paris long after, his old pupils serenaded him +unmolested; and in 1849, the Institute of France voluntarily placed +his name on their list for the membership vacant by the death of +Donizetti; yet he would not accept the proposal of a later French +government to return and establish his system: he preferred the +freedom of action which he enjoyed in Britain. + +In London, a period of arduous labour commenced. Mainzer arrived +without patronage, without the _prestige_ that his name had earned +abroad, and, what was a greater drawback, without any knowledge of +English! But, nothing daunted, with his usual energy he set about the +task of acquiring the language, which he did in an incredibly short +time--commencing, like a child, by naming all familiar objects, and +going on, until, without perplexing himself with rules or their +exceptions, he had acquired facility enough to lecture in public. His +work on _Music and Education_ shows with what force and purity of +style he could afterwards write in English. It was the same +principle--that of commencing with practice and letting theory +follow--which he carried out in his system of 'Singing for the +Million.' He argued, that as children learn to speak before they can +read or construct language grammatically, so they ought to be taught +vocal music in such a way as to introduce the rules of harmony +gradually, and prepare them for the manipulation of an instrument, if +it is intended they should learn one; while for the great masses of +both children and adults, _the voice_ is the best and only instrument, +and one that can be trained, with _very few exceptions_, to take part +in choral, if not in solo singing, and at the same time be made a +powerful and pleasing agent in moral culture. On this subject, we +shall quote Dr Mainzer's own words, when speaking of the compositions +introduced into his classes, he says: 'Besides religious compositions, +there are others, which refer to the Creator, by calling attention to +the beauty and grandeur of his works. Songs, shewing in a few touching +lines the wondrous instinct of the sparrow, the ant, the bee, and +cultivating a feeling of respect for all nature's children. Besides +these, there are songs intended to promote social and domestic +virtues--order, cleanliness, humility, contentment, unity, temperance, +etc.; thus impressing, not the letter of the law of charity on +immature minds, but the spirit of it in the memory, and so identifying +them with the very fibres of the heart.' + +With such views and principles, Mainzer arrived in England, to +propagate his humanising art; and London soon became the centre of a +series of lectures and classes, held in the principal towns accessible +by railway--such as Brighton, Oxford, Reading, etc. But this divided +work was not satisfactory, and the national schools and popular field +in London were preoccupied by Hullah, who had some time previously +introduced Wilhem's system, under the sanction of government. There +was room and to spare, however, for every system, and Mainzer wished +every man good-speed who advanced the cause; but as a fresh field for +his own exertions, after two years spent in England, he turned his +thoughts towards Edinburgh, where he had been invited by requisition, +and warmly received in 1842. + +On his return to Scotland, he found his cause somewhat damaged in his +absence, by the attempt of precentors to teach his system in +congregational classes. Unlike the church-organists of England, the +Scotch precentors are not educated musicians--a naturally good voice +and ear is their only pre-requisite. Dr Mainzer soon repaired this +mistake in those congregations which invited his personal +superintendence; and in one church (Free St Andrew's) the good effects +of his system are still to be heard, in a congregation forming their +own choir, and singing in _four parts_. + +To restore this country to the standard of musical eminence which we +know from old authorities that it held in the sixteenth century, was +the object of Dr Mainzer's energetic endeavours. The elements, he +believed, were not wanting. In Scotland, the musical capacity of the +people he found to be above rather than below the average of other +nations: all that was wanting was to convince the people of this by +the cultivation of their neglected powers. As a preliminary step, he +excited those friendly to the object to found the 'Association for the +Revival of Sacred Music in Scotland,' of which he was the director and +moving spring; and under its auspices he commenced a course of +_gratuitous_ teaching to classes formed of pupils from the parish and +district schools of Edinburgh, precentors, teachers, and operatives. +The success of these normal classes was so great and so rapid, that at +the end of the first year the pupils were able to become teachers in +their turn in their own schools or homes; and at the close of the +second and third sessions, concerts and rural fętes were held, at +which many hundreds of young voices joined in giving true and powerful +expression to such works of the great masters as _Judas Maccabćus_; +while for the delight of their parents' firesides, and their own moral +improvement, the children carried home with them those simple but +touching and expressive melodies, composed by Mainzer for their use. +At the same time, Mr Mainzer carried on classes for the upper ranks, +especially for young children; gave lectures on the history of music +from the earliest times and in all countries; and published a talented +work on _Music and Education_, of which very favourable reviews +appeared at the time.[1] Mainzer had a peculiar predilection for +Scotland: its scenery, its history, its music, all supplied food for +his various tastes. With a poetic appreciation of the beauties of +nature, he desired no greater pleasure than to wander in perfect +freedom among our lochs and hills; and his descriptions of Edinburgh, +the Highlands, and Western Islands, which appeared in the _Augsburg +Gazette_, have brought some and inspired more with the wish to visit +the Switzerland of Britain. The history and music of Scotland threw +fresh light upon each other under his researches. He delighted to +trace the reciprocal influence of national events and national music, +from the time of the Culdee establishments of the sixth century, when +'Iona was the Rome of the north,' down to the _Covenanter's Lament_, +and the Jacobite songs of the last century. Since these days, the +spirit that invented and handed down popular song has passed away with +the national and clannish feuds which gave rise to the gathering song +and the lament. The age of peace has been heralded in by the songs of +Burns and Lady Nairne, the authoress of _The Land o' the Leal_, who +has done much to restore the taste for our beautiful old melodies, by +wedding them to pure and appropriate verse.[2] + +In such pursuits, Mainzer--by this time dubbed doctor by a German +university--passed five years very pleasantly, but, in a worldly point +of view, very unprofitably. He had failed on first coming to Edinburgh +in obtaining the musical chair, which seemed so appropriate a niche +for him; and however reluctant to leave his favourite normal classes +and his adopted home, still when he looked to the future, he was +compelled to think of leaving Edinburgh--for the German proverb still +held true: 'Kunst geht nach brod;' and if man cannot live by bread +_alone_, neither can the artist live _without_ bread! At this +juncture, the Chevalier Neukomm, of European celebrity as a composer +and organist, and a valued friend of Dr Mainzer, came to Edinburgh to +inspect his friend's normal classes. He was so much delighted with +them, and considered Dr Mainzer so little appreciated by the general +public, that he persuaded him to try Manchester as his future field of +exertion. + +In the autumn of 1848, accordingly, Neukomm introduced Mainzer to the +leading men of that city, who received him so cordially, that he at +once took his proper position, and entered on a career both useful and +profitable, and which continued to be increasingly successful, until +at Christmas 1850, he was laid aside by ill-health. Over-exertion had +brought on a complication of diseases, to which he was a martyr for +ten months, and which terminated fatally on the 10th November 1851. +During that long period of intense suffering, his active mind was +never clouded nor repining, and at every interval of comparative ease, +he read or listened to reading with avidity. During the first months +of his illness, he superintended the publication of a new musical +work, called _The Orpheon_, two numbers of which appeared; and his +last exertion in this way was arranging two songs: _The Sigh_ of +Charles Swain, and Longfellow's _Footsteps of Angels_, adapted to +Weber's last song. Prophetic requiems both! + +A few weeks after his death, the hall which had been built in +Edinburgh for the classes of the Association which he founded, was +opened by an amateur concert given as a tribute to his memory. He had +promised to preside on this occasion; but his place was filled by his +aged, but still vigorous friend, the Chevalier Neukomm, who had come +to Edinburgh, at the request of the Association, to compose a series +of psalms, one of which was sung by the pupils. Music for the Psalms, +_adapted to the varying meaning of each verse_, has hitherto been a +desideratum in the musical world; now being supplied in Chevalier +Neukomm's work, and already subscribed for by no mean judges--the +Queen and Prince Albert, the king of Prussia, &c. It was touching, and +yet gratifying, to see one of Dr Mainzer's oft-cherished hopes +realised for the first time that evening--that of the _musical union_ +of accomplished amateurs of private life with the pupils of the normal +classes. + +Having thus briefly traced Dr Mainzer's life, it now remains to offer +a few remarks on his general character. His talents were of a +diversified and high order; and those who knew him only as the author +of 'Singing for the Million,' were not aware of his general +cultivation of mind. In the dead and living languages, he was equally +at home: now he would be speculating on the formation of the Greek +chorus, and again mastering some dialect of modern Europe, in order to +elucidate the history of the people or their music and poetry. His +literary articles were sought after by all the leading journals in +Germany and Paris; and his volumes of _Sketches of Travel_, and of +_The Lower Orders in Paris_, are graphic and entertaining. A year or +two ago, a _Notice Bibliographique_ of his works appeared in Paris, +which contained a list of above thirty publications. Great diligence, +joined to enthusiasm, enabled him to accomplish so much in these +various departments of literature. His manners, too, were of that +frank, cordial, and agreeable tone which inspires confidence, and +prepossessed every one in his favour; so that from all he could obtain +the information which he wished, and they could afford. Over his +pupils, his influence was immense. He had the rare art of engaging the +entire attention of children; and while he maintained strict +discipline, he gained their warmest affection: his own earnestness was +reflected on the countenances of his pupils. + +Those alone who knew him in private life could thoroughly estimate +that purity of mind and heart which eminently characterised him, along +with a childlike simplicity and unworldliness, which often, indeed, +made him the prey of designing persons, but which, joined to his +general information and cheerfulness, made his society most +attractive. His personal appearance was indicative of a delicate and +nervous organisation: slight and fragile in figure, with an +intellectual forehead and eye, that spoke of the preponderance of the +_spirituelle_ in his idiosyncrasy; one of those minds which are ever +working beyond the powers of the body; ever planning new achievements +and new labours of love, and which too often, alas! go out at noonday, +while half their fond projects are unaccomplished, yet not before they +have made a name to live, and left the world their debtors! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See _Chambers's Journal_, No. 226, New Series. + +[2] See _Lays from Strathearn_, 4to. + + + + +A NEWCASTLE PAPER IN 1765-6. + + +There is scarcely anything more entertaining and instructive than a +leisurely look over an old newspaper file. A newspaper of any age is +an attraction, and the current newspaper something more, for it is now +a necessity. But the next place to it in point of interest is perhaps +due to the journal half a century, or two-thirds of a century old. It +introduces us, if we be youthful, to the habits of our grandsires; and +if we be in 'the sere, the yellow leaf,' to the habits of our fathers, +more fully than the pleasantest novel or most elaborate essay, and far +more intimately than the most correct and complete historical records. +It enables us to observe freely the position and avocations of the +denizens of the past, and catch hasty, but most suggestive glances at +bygone days; it 'shews the very age and body of the time, its form and +pressure.' It is a milestone from which we may reckon our progress, +and must delight as well as surprise us by the advancement it shews us +to have made in social and political life, particularly with regard to +those 'triumphs of mind over matter,' for which recent times have been +pre-eminently distinguished. + +The writer of this article had lately an opportunity of inspecting a +file of the _Newcastle Chronicle_ for 1765-6, and the contrast between +journals and things in general which that examination forced on the +attention, was in some respects sufficiently striking or curious to +be, in his opinion, deserving of some permanent record. At present, +the journal in question almost, if not entirely, reaches 'the largest +size allowed by law;' at that time, it consisted merely of a single +demy sheet. Now, the Newcastle people would be amazed beyond measure +if they did not receive at breakfast-time, on the morning of +publication, the parliamentary, and all other important news of the +night; then, the latest London news was four days old. But a better +idea of the journal can perhaps be given, by stating what it lacked +than what it then contained. It had no leaders, no parliamentary +reports, and very little indeed, in any shape, that could be termed +political news. In these matters, its conductor had to say, with +Canning's knife-grinder: 'Story! God bless you, I have none to tell, +sir.' Not that the political world was unfruitful in affairs of +moment; it was a time of no small change, interest, and excitement. In +the period referred to, the Grenville ministry had endeavoured to +burden the American colonies, by means of the stamp-duties, with some +of the debt contracted in the late war. Thereupon, immense discontent +had arisen at home and abroad; that administration had fallen; and the +Rockingham ministry, which was then formed, found full employment (in +1766) in undoing what had been effected in the previous year. How the +Grafton ministry was next formed; how the unfortunate design of taxing +the colonists was revived; and how that policy ended, readers of +English history know full well. John Wilkes, too, had been already +persecuted into prominence, although not yet forced up to the height +of his popularity with the masses. But, notwithstanding these and +other stirring incidents, the _Chronicle_ was, politically speaking, +almost a blank. From time to time, it was stated that the royal assent +had been given to certain measures; but concerning the preparation and +discussion of those measures, nothing was known. A few other political +facts of interest, indeed, such as the arrival of Wilkes in London +from France; the repeal of the obnoxious Stamp Act; the riots of the +Spitalfields weavers on account of the importation of French silks; +and an attack upon the Speaker, and many of the members of the Dublin +parliament, who were grossly insulted, and kept from going to the +House, in consequence of 'a report that parliament designed to impose +more taxes,' were also curtly noticed. Political rumours abounded, +although positive knowledge of that kind was exceedingly scanty; and +the little that could be obtained was eked out by inuendo, rather than +by venturing on any direct statement. The familiarity which, according +to the proverb, is apt to breed contempt, was not then indulged in +with reference to rulers, parliaments, or even agitators. The emperor +of Russia was alluded to under the title of 'a great northern +potentate;' parliament was spoken of as 'a certain august assembly;' +and Wilkes was usually entitled, 'a certain popular gentleman.' + +Some of the political rumours are worthy of republication. The +subjoined, from the London news of July 29, 1766, serves to shew how +long a political change may be mooted before its effect is tried in +this country: 'It is said, a bill will be brought into parliament next +session, binding elections for members of parliament to be by ballot.' + +And, without at all entering into the discussion of political topics, +it may perhaps be observed that the following, taken from the +_Chronicle_ of August 10, 1765, points out how an evil of the present +day has long been felt and acknowledged: 'We hear the electors of a +certain borough have been offered 3000 guineas for a seat, though +there is but so short a time for the session of the present +parliament.' + +Great surprise is expressed (1766) that the consumption of coal in +London 'hath increased from 400,000 odd to 600,000 chaldrons yearly.' +We find that the coal imported into London during the first six months +of 1851, amounted to 1,527,527 tons, besides 90,975 tons brought into +the metropolis during the same period by railway and canal. 'Carrying +coal to Newcastle' proved a successful speculation on September 25, +1765, when, on account of a strike among the pitmen, 'several pokes of +coal were brought to this town by one of the common carriers, and sold +on the Sandhill for 9d. a poke, by which he cleared 6d. a poke.' About +the same time, wheat was selling in Darlington and Richmond for 4s. +and 4s. 6d. per bushel, after having been nearly double that price +only two or three weeks previously. In the number for June 25, 1766, +we have the following quotation from a Doncaster letter:--'Corn sold +last market-day from 12s. to 14s. per quarter; meat, from 2-1/2d. to +3d. per pound; fowls, and other kinds of poultry, had no price, being +mostly carried home. I wish a scheme was set on foot, to run many such +articles to London by land-carriage; there is plenty here.' In the +same paper, the prices of grain in London are given: wheat, 36s. to +41s.; barley, 22s. to 25s.; oats, 16s. to 20s. + +Recently, the Newcastle papers, led on by the _Chronicle_, have been +making strenuous efforts to extend the French coal-trade, but such +exertions formed no part of the 'wisdom of our ancestors.' The number +for June 15, 1765, informs us that 'some sinister designs for +exporting a very considerable quantity of coals to France and +elsewhere, have lately been discovered and prevented.' Sturdy Britons +had then far too much hatred for 'our natural enemies' to wish to +exchange aught but hostilities with them. About the same time, we +learn that 'clubs of young gentlemen of fortune' had come to the +magnanimous resolve, 'to toast no lady who has so much inconsideration +as to lavish her money away in French fopperies, to the detriment of +her own country.' + +The style of advertising then in vogue occasionally gave the paper a +somewhat pictorial appearance. Cockfighting was in great force, and +the public announcements relative to this barbarous sport were +invariably headed by a portraiture of a couple of game-birds facing +each other with a most belligerent aspect; while the numerous +advertisements of horses 'stolen or strayed,' were embellished by a +representation of the supposed thief, mounted on the missing animal, +which was forced into a breakneck pace, while Satan himself, _in +propria persona_, was perched on the crupper, in an excited and +triumphant attitude. In the local paragraphs, we note several +indicating a strong feeling of animosity between the Scotch and +English borderers. We observe also that the Newcastle dogs--to this +day a very numerous fraternity--were at times quite unmanageable, and +caused, either by their ravenous exploits, or their downright madness, +no small uneasiness to the town and neighbourhood. It must be +confessed, that in its marriage-notices, at least, the _Chronicle_ was +far superior to anything that journalism can now exhibit in Newcastle +or in Great Britain. These interesting announcements must have +intensely delighted our grandmothers; and, we fear, have frequently +tempted our grandsires into a somewhat precipitate plunge into the +gulf of matrimony. Instead of barely specifying, as papers now do, +that Mr Smith married Miss Brown, the _Chronicle_ uniformly tantalised +its bachelor readers with an account of the personal, mental, and, if +such there were, metallic charms of the bride; so that how any single +gentleman, in the teeth of such notifications, could retain his +condition for long, is really marvellous. Most of the young ladies who +had thus bestowed themselves on their fortunate admirers, are +described as 'sprightly,' and many as 'genteel and agreeable;' some +have 'a genteel fortune,' other's 'a considerable fortune,' and +others, again, rejoice in the possession of 'a large fortune:' one man +gains 'a well-accomplished young lady, with a fortune of L.1000;' +another takes unto himself 'an agreeable widow lady, with a fortune of +L.2000;' a third marches off with 'a young lady endowed with every +accomplishment to make the marriage state happy, with a fortune of +L.5000;' while a fourth _Benedict_, more lucky still, obtains 'a most +amiable, affable, and agreeable young lady, with a fortune of +L.10,000.' We suppose that the best excuse newspaper editors now have +for being less florid in their matrimonial announcements is, that +where the papers formerly had one, they have now at least a dozen of +these interesting notices; so that their brevity may be less owing to +the want of gallantry than to the want of space. + +So extremely meagre was the news, both foreign and domestic, that a +considerable portion of the four small pages of the _Chronicle_ was +usually devoted to literature. Extracts were frequently given from the +works of Johnson, Smollett, and other popular writers, and a column +was often occupied by an essay from a contributor to the paper, +generally treating of some social evil or peculiarity, but never +intermeddling with local or general politics. These effusions +displayed a very respectable amount of ability, and the general +getting-up, or what would now be termed the sub-editing of the paper, +was also performed with care and ability. The scraps of news were +always presented rewritten and carefully condensed, instead of the +loose 'scissors-and-paste' style of publication adopted by many +provincial papers of the present day. Notices not only of local +theatricals, but of histrionic matters at Old Drury, were occasionally +given; the number for March 15, 1766, containing a well-written +criticism of '_The Clandestine Marriage; a New Comedy_,' performed +there. As the _Chronicle_ thus had to leave politics for literature, +we may perhaps, in our turn, digress from a consideration of its +pages, to note briefly that this period was set in the very midst of +the celebrated Georgian era, in which this country could boast of more +distinguished men--especially in literature--than at any other period. +In about twenty previous years, many great ones had departed--notably +Pope, Thomson, Fielding. Richardson also had died in 1761, and +Shenstone in 1763; the author of the _Night-Thoughts_ survived till +1765, when his burial was announced in the _Chronicle_ of April 27. +At this time (1765-6), Dr Johnson had reached the zenith of his fame; +Gray was becoming popular; Smollett had written most of his novels; +Goldsmith was about to present the world with his exquisite _Vicar of +Wakefield_; Gibbon had returned to England from Rome with the idea of +_The Decline and Fall_ floating in his brain; Thomas Chatterton, + + ----'the marvellous boy, + The sleepless soul that perished in his pride,' + +had already given proofs of his wondrous precocity; the genuine +sailor-poet, Falconer, had lately published _The Shipwreck_; Laurence +Sterne had just collected the materials for his _Sentimental Journey_; +Sir William Blackstone had published his celebrated _Commentaries_; +Wesley and Whitefield had not yet ended their useful career; the star +of Edmund Burke was rising; and Jeremy Bentham, being then (1766) but +seventeen years of age, had taken his master's degree at Oxford, +although, it is true, the first literary performance of the eccentric +philosopher did not appear till some years later. Home, Moore, and +Colman, had appeared successfully as dramatists, and were about to be +followed by Macklin, Cumberland, Goldsmith, and Sheridan. Newcastle or +district celebrities of the time included Mark Akenside, the author of +_The Pleasures of the Imagination_; Dr Thomas Percy, dean of Carlisle, +who published, in 1765, his _Reliques of English Poetry_; and Dr John +Langhorne, a northern divine of no small popularity in his day as a +poet. Among other illustrious living men, were Horace Walpole, Henry +Mackenzie, Blair, Hume, Adam Smith, Dr Robertson, Garrick, Reynolds; +and last, not least, William Pitt, who, in 1766, was created Earl of +Chatham. + +But let us return to our more immediate purpose--that of making a few +selections from the _Chronicle_, some of which will doubtless reflect +far less credit on the age than the enumeration we have just made of +eminent individuals. Now and then, a duel took place in Hyde Park. The +amusements of some of our aristocrats did not always exhibit them in +any very dignified position, as witness the subjoined:--'Sir Charles +Bunbury ran 100 yards at Newmarket for 1000 guineas, against a tailor +with 40 lb. weight of cabbage, _alias_ shreds.' + +Here is a paragraph, from the number for March 15, 1766, relative to +the recreations of some less elevated in the social scale: 'Sunday +morning, a little before three o'clock, a match at marbles was played +under the piazza at Covent Garden by the light of thirty-two links (by +several rogues well known in that circle), for twenty guineas a side.' + +A few other quotations may be deemed worthy of republication, although +some of them may have no direct or important bearing. The audacity of +highway robbers at this period is known to everybody. The following, +dated December 21, 1765, gives a tolerably correct idea of the usual +style adopted by those gentlemen of the road:--'Thursday, the Leeds +and Leicester stage-coaches were stopped on Finchley Common by a +highwayman, who took from the passengers a considerable sum of money. +A nobleman's cook, a young woman about twenty-five, declared she would +not be robbed, when the highwayman, admiring her courage, let her +alone. He broke the coach-glass with his pistol, and gave the coachman +half-a-crown to get it mended.' News from London, dated January 9, +1765, says: 'Early on Tuesday morning, a member of parliament, on his +return home in a chair to his house in New Palace Yard, was stopped +and robbed by a single footpad of his purse, in which were sixty-three +guineas.' + +About the same time, we are informed that 'the celebrated J.J. +Rousseau hath for the present taken up his residence at a friend's +house in Putney.'--The number for October 26, 1765, contains an +advertisement of a 'beggar's stand' (copied from the _Public +Advertiser_), 'to be let, in a charitable neighbourhood. Income, about +30s. a week.' + +The following reference to our acquaintances, the Sikhs, now +sufficiently well known, is curious, as it is doubtless one of their +first appearances in the columns of the English press. It is dated +July 5, 1766: 'The Seyques, an idolatrous people inhabiting the +neighbourhood of Cachemire, whose name was hardly known two years ago, +have beaten Abdaly and the Patanes whom he commanded.' Modern Cockneys +would stare to read a paragraph like this: 'A great deal of grass hath +been cut down about Islington, Kentish-Town,' &c. + +We will conclude our selections, which have now grown quite desultory +and miscellaneous, by the brief obituary of a 'remarkable' man, from +the _Chronicle_ of July 26, 1766: 'Thursday, died at his house near +Hampstead, the Rev. Mr Southcote, remarkable for having a leg of +mutton every night for supper during a course of forty years, smoking +ten pipes as constantly, and drinking three bottles of port.' + + + + +GENIUS FOR EMIGRATION. + + +Lady E. Stuart Wortley, in the account of her journey in America, +mentions that she saw a man proceeding on foot across the Isthmus of +Panama, bound for the Pacific, carrying a huge box on his back that +would almost have contained a house. It was really a dreadful thing to +see the poor man, full-cry for California, toiling along with his +enormous burden, under a tropical sun, the heat of which he required +to endure through forty miles of wilderness, and no chance of relief +or refreshment by the way. Yet this serio-comic spectacle is not +singular. Multitudes seem to have gone to the diggings with every +species of encumbrance, and in a totally unsuitable garb. Splendid +dress-coats and waistcoats, boots and pantaloons, but no +working-clothes, nor implements for camping, and in many instances not +even a cloak: everything suitable for the enjoyment of their golden +promises, with nothing to assist in realising them. + +Nearly the same thing has occurred in innumerable instances as regards +Australia. The men going thither must in general be shepherds or their +masters; and to be either to any purpose, they must go far into the +bush. For this they required a talent for constructing huts for +themselves and servants, and hurdles for the cattle, and consequently +tools to assist them; but they often went without either tools or +talents, and so had to pay extravagantly for very common services. +They may have had common clothes, but they had made no provision for +living far from the assistance of women; and consequently, if a +coat-sleeve was torn, it must hang just as it was; if a stocking was +out at heel, having neither needles nor worsted, nor the power of +using them, they had no other resource but to _tie_ the _hole_ +together. They had no idea of washing and dressing, and consequently +must want clean linen, or stockings, and every other article of clean +apparel, till a woman could be heard of, and bribed to assist them. +The consequence was, that it was cheaper to buy new articles than +either wash or mend the old. It is doubtful whether many had not +omitted to learn to shave themselves, or to provide razors or strops, +or even scissors. + +Then as to baking bread, or cooking the humblest meal, they were +equally at a loss. They seem to have had no idea of the humblest +grate, or even of a flat and easily-cleaned stone for a hearth; and +so, having kneaded their 'damper,' it is never said how they thrust it +in the ashes till it was partially heated, and comparatively fit to +be eaten. They have mutton, and mutton only; but how cooked is equally +unknown. It is not known that they have any apparatus whatever, stew +or frying pan, or even a hook and string. Yet the natives of Scotland +may have seen many things nicely baked by means of a hot hearthstone +below, a griddle with live coals above, and burning turf all round. A +single pot with water is a boiler; with the juice of the meat, or +little more, a stew-pan; or merely surrounded by fire, an oven: but it +is believed many have not that single pot. Even the cheap crock that +holds salted meat might also be turned into a pudding-dish; and such a +vessel as that which of old held the ashes of the dead, and now +occasionally holds salt, the French peasant often turns into a +_pot-au-feu_--a pot for boiling his soup--and makes that soup out of +docks and nettles collected by the wayside, with a little +meal--delicious if seasoned with salt and a scrap of meat, or a +well-picked lark or sparrow, or even a nicely-skinned and washed thigh +of a frog! + +The natives of New Holland themselves get fat upon serpents +well-killed--that is, with the heads adroitly cut off, so as not to +suffer the poison to go through the body; or upon earth or tree worms +nicely roasted. The Turks roast their _kebabs_--something near to +mutton-chops--by holding them to the fire on skewers. But the +inhabitants of Great Britain, accustomed to comforts unknown to any +other part of the world, are, when deprived of these comforts, the +most helpless in the world. + +The natives of Ireland might be supposed to be excellent subjects for +emigration, for at home they have often only straw and rags for beds, +stones for seats, and one larger in the middle for a table; while the +basket or 'kish' that washes the potatoes, receives them again when +boiled: so that the pot and basket are the only articles of furniture. +Simplicity beyond this is hardly conceivable: there is but one step +beyond it--wanting the pot, and throwing the potatoes, however cooked, +broadcast upon the stone-table; and this is possible by roasting +the potatoes in the embers. The Guachos of South America teach how +even the most savoury meal of beef may be obtained without pot +or oven--namely, by roasting it in the skin! It is called +_carne-con-cuero_--flesh in the skin--and is pronounced delicious. +Diogenes threw away his dish, his only article of furniture, upon +seeing a boy drink from his hand; and after this example, an Irishman +might throw away his pot; though we would not recommend him to do so. + +Unless people know how to prepare food, they may starve in the midst +of comparative plenty. It is alleged--though we do not vouch for the +fact--that when wheat and maize were carried into Ireland and given +gratis, the famine was not stayed. Though they had the wheat and +maize, they could not grind them; if ground, they could not cook +them--they had neither vessels nor fuel; if vessels and fuel were +given, they were still unable to assist themselves--they had not skill +to cook them; and if cooked, they could not eat them--they had never +been accustomed to do so! Such are the effects of carrying contentment +too far: the individual becomes wholly resourceless. + +We try to induce them to fish with the same results. If we give them +boats, they have no nets; give them nets, they know not how to use +them; teach them to use them, and they can neither cook nor eat the +fish; and as to selling them for other comforts, there is no market! +Without a knowledge of agriculture, or fishing, or even talents to +feed themselves, such men are useless in any quarter, unless as +subjects to be taught; and now at last, but greatly too late, they are +being taught, and the much-abused railway will carry their produce to +the market. + +The Scottish Celt is more shifty. In the old days when he had flesh +and little else to eat, he could broil it on the coals; and a Scotch +collop is perhaps equal to a Turkish kebob. We wonder if in Australia +the long-forgotten Scotch collop has been revived? It requires no +cooking-vessels. It may be held to the fire on a twig, or laid on the +coals and turned by a similar twig--bent into a collop-tongs--or even +by the fingers. + +In the Rebellion of 1745, the Scoto-Celt could knead into a cake the +meal, which he carried as his sole provision, and knew that it ought +to be fired upon a griddle; but if he had no other convenience, he +could knead it in his bonnet, and eat it raw, and go forth to meet and +conquer the best-appointed soldiers in Europe. It was only when at +last he had neither rest nor food that he was dispersed--not +conquered. A lowland Scot is better. With a dish and hot water, and of +course the meal and salt, he can make _brose_, and live and thrive +upon it. + +How John Bull, who in his own country is carnivorous, and will have +his roast-pig on Sunday, if he should slave all the week--how he gets +on in a new country, is more doubtful. Very likely, having more wants, +he makes more provision for them; but as below a certain rank he is +not a writing animal, less is known of his successes or difficulties. +For our own part, we think we would have made an excellent Crusoe, and +your Crusoe is the only man for a new country. + +Some years ago, we travelled over the backbone of Scotland, and +returned somewhat on its western fin, both on foot; and all our +equipments were a travelling dress, a stout umbrella, and a parcel in +wax-cloth strapped on our left shoulder, not larger than is generally +seen in the hands of a commercial traveller--that is, twelve inches by +six or eight; and yet we never wanted for anything. It is true we had +generally the convenience of inns by the way; but if by our +_Traveller's Guide_ (which we also carried) we saw the stage was to be +long, an oaten cake, with a _plug_ of wheaten bread for the last +mouthful, to keep down heartburn, and a slice of cold beef or ham, or +a hard-boiled egg, were ample provisions. Drink? There was no lack of +drink. Springs of the most beautiful water were frequent by the +roadside, and constantly bubbling up, without noise or motion, through +the purest sand, though heaven only was looking upon them; and a +single leaf from our memorandum-book, formed into the shape of a +grocer's twist as wanted, served us as a drinking-cup throughout the +journey. Had we even been overtaken by night, it was summer, and a bed +under whins, or upon heather, with our umbrella set against the wind, +and secured to us, would have been delightful. Once, indeed, we feared +this would have been our fate; for on the very top of Corryarrick, and +consequently nine miles or more from house or home in any direction, +we sprained our ankle, or rather an old sprain returned. To all +appearance, we were done for, and might have sat stiff for days or +weeks by the solitary spring that happened to be near at the instant. +But a piece of flannel from the throat, and a tape from the wondrous +parcel, enabled us again to wag; and we finished our allotted journey +to Dalwhinnie in time for dinner, tea, and supper in one--and then to +our journal with glorious serenity! + +Our arrangements for the continent were equally simple. When we were +asked to shew our luggage, on entering France, we produced a +portmanteau nine inches by six. 'Voila ma magasin!' It was opened, and +there were certainly some superfluities, though natural enough in an +incipient traveller. 'Une plume pour écrire l'Histoire de la +France!'--'Un cahier pour la męme!' And the intending historian of +France, even with his imported pen and paper-book, and also three +shirts and some pairs of socks, was allowed to go to his dinner, with +his _magasin_ in his hand, and start by the first conveyance; while +his less fortunate fellow-travellers had to dine in absence of their +luggage, and perhaps give the town that had the honour of being their +landing-place, the profit of their company for the night. + +But what is the use of all these insinuations of aptitude for +colonisation, when there is not such another man in the world? We beg +pardon; but we have actually discovered such another, and to introduce +him suitably has been the sole aim of our existence in writing this +interesting preface. In a most authentic newspaper, we find the +following admirable history, copied from the _New York Express_:-- + +'A man who had been an unsuccessful delver in the mines of Georgia, on +hearing the thrilling news of the gold placers of California, had his +spirit quickened within him; and although he had arrived at an +age--being about sixty--when the fires of youth usually cease to burn +with vigour, he fixed his eyes upon the far-distant and but +little-known country, and resolved that he would wend his way thither +alone, and even in the absence of that friend, generally thought +indispensable, money, of which he was wholly destitute. + +'Under such circumstances, it would not avail to think of a passage +round "The Horn," or by the more uncertain, and at the same time +imperfected route, across the Isthmus. But as California was on this +continent, he knew that there was a way thither, though it might lead +through trackless deserts and barren wastes. These were not enough to +daunt his determined spirit. He bent his way to the "Father of +Waters," and worked his way as he could, till he found himself at +"Independence," in health, and with no less strength, and with 150 +dollars in his purse. He had no family to provide for, or even +companion to care for, on the route which he was about to enter. Yet +some things were necessary for himself; and to relieve his body from +the pressure of a load, he provided himself with a wheel-barrow, on +which to place his traps. + +'It must not be supposed that our hero was ignorant of the large +number of emigrants that was moving over the plains, and it is quite +probable that his sagacity was precocious enough to look ahead at the +result of attempting to carry forward such ponderous loads, and such a +variety of at least dispensable things as the earlier parties started +with. A detailed list of the 'amount and variety of goods and wares, +useful and superfluous, including many of the appendages of refined +and fashionable life, would astonish the reader. Our hero was not in a +hurry. He reasoned thus: "The world was not made in a day; the race is +not always for the swift." He trundled along his barrow, enjoying the +comforts of his pipe, the object of wonder to many, and the subject of +much sportive remark to those who were hurried along by their fresh +and spirited teams on their first days. + +'Many weeks had not passed, however, before our traveller had tangible +evidence that trouble had fallen to the lot of some who had preceded +him. A stray ox was feeding on his track: the mate of which, he +afterwards learned, was killed, and this one turned adrift as useless. +He coaxed this waif to be the companion of his journey, taking care to +stop where he could provide himself with the needful sustenance. He +had not travelled far before he found a mate for his ox, and ere long +a wagon, which had given way in some of its parts, and been abandoned +by its rightful owner, and left in the road. Our travelling genius was +aroused to turn these mishaps to his own advantage; so he went +straightway to work to patch and bolster up the wagon, bound his +faithful oxen to it, and changed his employment from trundling a +wheel-barrow to driving a team. Onward moved the new establishment, +the owner gathering as he went, from the superabundance of those who +had gone before him, various articles of utility--such as flour, +provisions of all kinds, books, implements, even rich carpets, &c. +which had been cast off as burdensome by other travellers. He would +occasionally find poor worn-out animals that had been left behind, and +as it was not important for him to speed his course, he gathered them +together, stopping where there was abundance of grass, long enough for +his cattle to gain a little strength and spirit. Time rolled on, and +his wagon rolled with it, till he reached the end of his journey, when +it was discovered that he had an uncommon fine team and a good wagon, +&c. which produced him on the sale 2500 dollars. + +'Being now relieved of the care of his team, and in the midst of the +gold-diggings, he soon closed his prospecting by a location; and while +all around him were concentrating their strength to consummate the +work of years in a few months, he deliberately commenced building, +finishing, and, as fast as he could, furnishing, a comfortable cabin. +His wood he gathered and regularly piled in a straight line and +perpendicular by the door, convenient as though the old lady had been +within to provide his meals. He acted upon the adage, "Never to start +till you are ready." Now our hero was ready to commence working his +"claim;" and this he did, as he did everything else, steadily and +systematically. + +'He may yet be seen at his work, with the prospect--if he lives to be +an old man--of being rich; for in the last two years he has +accumulated 10,000 dollars.' + +Need we add a word? This is decidedly the kind of man for +emigrating--or, indeed, for remaining at home. We, being of his own +character, can conceive his delicious nights of camping out, his head +under his wheel-barrow, until he arrived at the dignity of a wagon; +his principal luggage being perhaps a coverlet, to preserve him from +the cold in sleep, and a gun that unscrewed, and its appendages, to +provide him a fresh bird or beef. It is very probable that he sought +neither of these, but was contented with something concentrated and +preserved, and thus feasted; and with a drink from some delicious +spring, or from a bottle--that could not be broken--supplied at the +last spring he had passed, lay down conscious of his progress, well +satisfied with the past, and hopeful of the future. + +On his arrival at his destination, his conduct is equally exemplary. +Every one should provide for the preservation of life and health as +first measures; and if not done at a rate which future exertions are +likely to render profitable, why make the expenditure? Now, many +are in all these new adventures expending on inevitable +necessities--having made no previous provision for them--such sums as +render all their exertions hopeless; while at the same time they are +sacrificing health and strength. + +The government of Australia has certainly been very successful in +preserving order at the gold placers there, and has given its sanction +upon moderate terms; for here, we believe, gold and silver mines are +_inter regalia_, and could have been entirely seized by the crown. We +sincerely trust it will appropriate the great and unexpected revenue +thence arising in improving the roads through this magnificent +country, and providing shelter for the traveller; for at this moment, +many of the roads being over the steepest mountains, and the gradients +unmitigated by cuttings, or any other act of engineering whatever, +they are all but impassable, and are travelled with the greatest +torture to the unfortunate animals concerned. It was the reproach of +Spain, that though in possession of South America for centuries, she +had formed few roads; and that the few formed were bad, and the +accommodation in their neighbourhood of the worst description--often +open sheds, without food or furniture, or indeed inhabitants; or if +inhabited, with only stones for seats, and raised mounds of earth for +beds. Even now, in little more than half a century, things are better +in Australia than this, at least wherever government has extended. But +there is a vast deal more to be done; and it is a pity that in the +first place suitable schools are not formed for the persons intending +to emigrate, and opportunity given them to do so, without the +degradation of crime, and the expense and disgrace of conviction. + + + + +EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED. + + +The _Westminster Review_ for January, in an able and temperate +article, entitled _Employers and Employed_, delineates the progress of +the working power from the original condition of _serfdom_, through +that of _vassalage_, which prevailed in the middle ages, to the system +of simple contract in which we now find it in France and America. This +the writer regards as part of a universal progress towards a more and +more equalised condition of the various orders of men--'an equality, +not perhaps of wealth, or of mind, or of inherent power, but of social +condition, and of individual rights and freedom.' In England, however, +we are only in a state of transition from that relation of protection +on the one hand, and respect or loyalty on the other, which +constituted the system of vassalage, to the true democratic relation +which assumes a perfect equality and independence in the contracting +parties. 'The master cannot divest himself of the idea, that in virtue +of his rank he is entitled to deference and submission; and the +workman conceives that, in virtue of his comparative poverty, he is +entitled to assistance in difficulty, and to protection from the +consequences of his own folly and improvidence. Each party expects +from the other something more than is expressed or implied in the +covenant between them. The workman, asserting his equality and +independence, claims from his employer services which only inferiority +can legitimately demand; the master, tacitly and in his heart denying +this equality and independence, repudiates claims which only the +validity of this plea of equality and independence can effectually +nonsuit or liquidate.' + +Arguing that 'the reciprocal duties of employers and employed, _as +such_, are comprised within the limits of their covenant,' the writer +goes on to say, that nevertheless there remains a relation of +'fellow-citizenship and of Christian _neighbourhood_,' by virtue of +which the employer owes service to his work-people, seeing that 'every +man owes service to every man whom he is in a position to serve.' Let +not the Pharisaic fundholder and lazy mortgagee suppose that the great +employers of labour are thus under a peculiar obligation from which +_they_ are exempt. The obligation is assumed to be equal upon all who +have power and means; and it only lies with special weight at the door +of the employer of multitudes, in as far as he is in a situation to +exercise influence over their character and conduct, and usually has +greater means of rendering aid suited to their particular necessities. + +Before proceeding to expound the various duties thus imposed upon the +employer, the writer lays down a primary duty as essential to the due +performance of the rest--namely, he must see to making his business +succeed; and for this end he must possess a sufficient capital at +starting; and he must not, for any reasons of vanity or benevolence, +or through laxness, pay higher wages than the state of the +labour-market and the prospects of trade require. Of the secondary +duties which next come in course--and which, be it remembered, arise +not from the mastership, but from the neighbourship--the first is that +of 'making his factory, and the processes carried on there, as healthy +as care and sanitary science can render them.' 'This is the more +incumbent upon him, as it is little likely to be thought of or +demanded by his workmen. It is a topic on which his cultivated +intelligence is almost sure to place him far ahead of them; and out of +the superiority, as we have seen, springs the obligation.' Our +reviewer adds the remark, that, 'in the minor workshops, and +especially in the work-rooms of tailors and seamstresses, the +employers are still, for the most part, unawakened to the importance +and imperativeness of this class of obligations. The health of +thousands is sacrificed from pure ignorance and want of thought.' + +One mode of serving those who work for him, which the circumstances +render appropriate, is to provide them with decent and comfortable +dwellings. Much has been done in this way. 'In almost all country +establishments, and in most of those in the smaller towns, the +employers have been careful to surround their mills with substantial +and well-built cottages, often with gardens attached to them, +containing four rooms--kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms: cottages +which are let for rents which at once remunerate the owner and are +easy for the occupier.' Even in large towns, where there are great +local difficulties, something has been done by the building of Model +Lodging-houses, and by the efforts of Societies for improving the +Dwellings of the Poor. The writer specifies one of the greatest +difficulties as existing in the working-people themselves: when +provided with a variety of rooms for the separation of the various +members of their families, they are very apt to defeat the whole plan +by taking in lodgers, and contenting themselves with the filthy and +depraving huddlement out of which their benevolent superiors +endeavoured to rescue them. But it may be hoped that, by promoting +only a few of the more intelligent and better-disposed to such +improved dwellings, and thus setting up good examples, the multitude +might in time be trained to an appreciation of the decency and comfort +of ampler accommodation. Another wide field of usefulness is open to +the employers in the establishment of schools, reading-rooms, baths, +wash-houses, and the like. + +It strikes us that the writer of this article is not true to his own +principle in his view of the duties of the employer. We readily grant +the duty of making his business prosperous and his workshops healthy. +To fail in the latter particular especially, were not merely to fail +in a duty, but to incur a heavy positive blame. But we cannot see how +it is incumbent on the employer to provide houses for the persons who +enter into the labour-contract with him, any more than to see that +they get their four-pound loaf of a certain quality or price. It may +be a graceful thing, a piece of noble benevolence, to enter into these +building schemes, but it is also to go back into that system of +vassalage out of which it is assumed that the relation of employer and +employed is passing. Either the new buildings will pay as +speculations, or they will not. If they are sure to pay, ordinary +speculators will be as ready to furnish them as bakers are to sell +bread. If the contrary be the case, why burden with the actual or +probable loss the party in a simple contract which involves no such +obligation? Clearly, there must be no great reason to expect a fair +return for capital laid out in this way, or we should see building +schemes for the working-classes taken up extensively by ordinary +speculators. For employers, then, to enter into such plans, must in +some degree be the result of benevolent feelings towards their men; +and, so far, we must hold there is an acknowledgment on both sides +that the system of vassalage is not yet extinct amongst us, and that +the time for its extinction is not yet come. + +If we look, however, at the entire condition of the working-people of +England, we shall see that it acknowledges the same truth in some of +its broadest features. When a time of depression comes, and factories +do not require half of their usual number of hands, or even so many, +it is never expected, on any hand, that the superfluous labourers are +to maintain themselves till better times return. The employer is +expected to keep them in his service, at least on short time, and at a +reduced remuneration, although at a ruinous loss to himself. The +workmen, though well aware of the contingency, make little or no +provision against it, but calmly trust to the funds of their +employers, or the contributions of the class to which these belong. +Now, while such a practice exists, the relation of employer and +employed is not that of independent contractors, but so far that of +the feudal baron and his villeins, or of a chieftain and his +'following.' It is, in effect, a voluntarily maintained slavery on the +part of the operatives--a habit as incompatible with political liberty +as with moral dignity and progress, and therefore a sore evil in our +state. Obviously, to perfect the system of independent contract, the +workmen would need to redeem themselves from that condition of utter +_unprovidedness_ in which the great bulk of them are for the present +content to live. Instead of what we see so prevalent now--a sort of +hopelessness as to the benefits of saving--a dread to let it be known +or imagined of them that they possess any store, lest it lead to a +reduction of their wages (a foolish fallacy), or deprive them of a +claim on their employer's consideration in the event of a period of +depression (a mean and unworthy fear), we must see a dignified sense +of independence, resting on the possession of some kind of property, +before we can expect that even this stage in the Progress of Labour +shall be truly reached. + +But is it not just one of the essential disadvantages attending the +contract system, or may we rather call it the system of weekly hire, +that while it prompts the employer to frugality, by the obvious +benefits to him of constant accumulation, it leaves the employed, as a +mass, without a sufficient motive to the same virtue, and thus insures +their being retained in that unprovidedness which forbids independence +and true social dignity? On this point, were we a workman, we should +be sorry to rest in an affirmative, or to allow it to slacken our +exertions or sap our self-denial; because if there is a higher +development of the labouring state in store for society, it can only +be attained by the more speedy perfection of the contract state in +_the entire independence of the workman_. The writer from whom we have +quoted thinks, and with his sentiments we entirely concur, that +'society, in its progress towards an ideal state, may have to undergo +modifications, compared with which all previous ones will seem +trifling and superficial. Of one thing only can we feel +secure--namely, that the loyal and punctual discharge of all the +obligations arising out of existing social relations will best hallow, +beautify, and elevate those relations, if they are destined to be +permanent; and will best prepare a peaceful and beneficent advent for +their successors, if, like so much that in its day seemed eternal, +they too are doomed to pass away.' + + + + +ANECDOTE OF THE FIELD OF SHERRIFMUIR. + + +My grandfather, William Wilson, was born in the farmhouse of Drumbrae, +on the estate of Airthrey, at no great distance from the field of +Sherrifmuir. At the rebellion of 1715, he was a lad of fifteen years +of age, and learning that the rebels under the Earl of Mar had met +with the royal forces under the Duke of Argyle in the neighbourhood, +on the morning of Sunday the 12th November, while it was still dusk, +he went to the top of a neighbouring hill named Glentye, from which +the whole of the moor was discernible, and on which a number of +country people were stationed, attracted to the spot, like himself, by +curiosity. Being at no great distance from both armies, he could see +them distinctly. The Highlanders, who observed no regular order, he +compared to a large, dark, formless cloud, forming a striking contrast +to the regular lines and disciplined appearance of the royal army. +After observing them for some space of time, an orderly dragoon, sent +by the Duke of Argyle, rode up to the spot where the spectators stood, +warning them to remove from a position in which they were in as great +danger as the combatants themselves. My grandfather accordingly +returned home, listening with awe to the sharp report of musketry, +intermixed with the booming of cannon, which now informed him that the +battle had commenced. He had not been long in the house when a +dismounted dragoon made his appearance, requesting to have his left +wrist bandaged, so as to stop the blood. The hand had been cut off, +and his horse killed under him, and he was on his way to Stirling to +seek surgical aid. While his wishes were being complied with, he +occupied himself in taking some refreshment, till one of the +farm-servants came in and warned him that four armed Highlanders were +coming down the hill in the direction of the house. The soldier, who +had no doubt been taught at the Marlborough school, and served perhaps +at Ramillies and Blenheim, immediately went out to the front of the +house, which concealed him from his enemies. Presently, he heard by +the footsteps that one was near, when he instantly presented himself +at the gable, and shot the foremost Highlander with his carbine; then, +seeing that the others came on in Indian file, with short distances +between, he advanced to meet them, dropped the second with a bullet +from his pistol, and cut down the third with his sword. The fourth, +seeing the fate of his comrades, took to flight. After this wholesale +execution, the dragoon, with perfect coolness, returned to the house, +finished his repast, tranquilly said his thanks and adieus, and went +off in the direction of Stirling. The next morning the country people +were summoned to bury the dead. The ground was thickly covered with +cranreuch, and life still remained in numbers of both armies, who +begged earnestly for water. But what struck my grandfather +particularly was, that the heads and bodies of a great many of the +slain royalists were horribly mutilated by the claymores of the +Highlanders; while on those of the Highlanders themselves nothing was +observed but the wound which had caused their death.--_Communicated by +Mr Alexander Wilson, shoemaker, Stirling._ + + + + +THINNESS OF A SOAP-BUBBLE. + + +A soap-bubble as it floats in the light of the sun reflects to the eye +an endless variety of the most gorgeous tints of colour. Newton +shewed, that to each of these tints corresponds a certain thickness of +the substance forming the bubble; in fact, he shewed, in general, that +all transparent substances, when reduced to a certain degree of +tenuity, would reflect these colours. Near the highest point of the +bubble, just before it bursts, is always observed a spot which +reflects no colour and appears black. Newton shewed that the thickness +of the bubble at this black point was the 2,500,000th part of an inch! +Now, as the bubble at this point possesses the properties of water as +essentially as does the Atlantic Ocean, it follows that the ultimate +molecules forming water must have less dimensions than this +thickness.--_Lardner's Handbook._ + + + + +ENGLISH PLOUGHING. + + +The following, written from England, is going the round of the papers, +and is as true as the gospel, in my opinion. I have seen better +ploughing here with a pair of oxen than in the old country with five +horses; but Johnny won't learn. 'Lord! only look at five great, +elephant-looking beasts in one plough, with one great lummokin fellow +to hold the handle, and another to carry the whip, and a boy to lead, +whose boots have more iron on them than the horses' hoofs have, all +crawling as if going to a funeral! What sort of a way is that to do +work? It makes me mad to look at 'em. If there is any airthly clumsy +fashion of doin' a thing, that's the way they are always sure to git +here. They're a benighted, obstinate, bull-headed people the English, +that's the fact, and always was.' Well done, Jonathan--quite +true!--_From a private Letter from Boston._ + + + + +JOHN BUNYAN AND MINCE-PIES. + + +In No. 417 of this Journal it is chronicled that John Bunyan scrupled +to eat mince-pies, because of the superstitious character popularly +attached to them; but it would appear from an anecdote sent to us by a +correspondent, that if this was true at all of the author of the +_Pilgrim's Progress_, he must have received new light upon the +subject at a later period of life. When he was imprisoned for +preaching--so says the anecdote--in Bedford jail, a superstitious +lady, thinking to entrap him, sent a servant to request his acceptance +of a Christmas pie; whereupon Banyan replied: 'Tell your mistress that +I accept her present thankfully, for I have learned to distinguish +between a mince-pie and superstition.' + + + + +FOREST-TEACHINGS. + + + There was travelling in the wild-wood + Once, a child of song; + And he marked the forest-monarchs + As he went along. + Here, the oak, broad-eaved and spreading; + Here, the poplar tall; + Here, the holly, forky-leaved; + Here, the yew, for the bereaved; + Here, the chestnut, with its flowers, and its spine-bestudded ball. + + Here, the cedar, palmy-branchčd; + Here, the hazel low; + Here, the aspen, quivering ever; + Here, the powdered sloe. + Wondrous was their form and fashion, + Passing beautiful to see + How the branches interlaced, + How the leaves each other chased, + Fluttering lightly hither, thither on the wind-arousčd tree. + + Then he spake to those wood-dwellers: + 'Ye are like to men, + And I learn a lesson from ye + With my spirit's ken. + Like to us in low beginning, + Children of the patient earth; + Born, like us, to rise on high, + Ever nearer to the sky, + And, like us, by slow advances from the minute of your birth. + + 'And, like mortals, ye have uses-- + Uses each his own: + Each his gift, and each his beauty, + Not to other known. + Thou, O oak, the strong ship-builder, + For thy country's good, + Givest up thy noble life, + Like a patriot in the strife, + Givest up thy heart of timber, as he poureth out his blood. + + 'Thou, O poplar, tall and taper, + Reachest up on high; + Like a preacher pointing upward-- + Upward to the sky. + Thou, O holly, with thy berries, + Gleaming redly bright, + Comest, like a pleasant friend, + When the dying year hath end, + Comest to the Christmas party, round the ruddy fire-light. + + 'Thou, O yew, with sombre branches, + And dark-veilčd head-- + Like a monk within the church-yard, + When the prayers are said, + Standing by the newly-buried + In the depth of thought-- + Tellest, with a solemn grace, + Of the earthly dwelling-place, + Of the soul to live for ever--of the body come to nought, + + 'Thou, O cedar, storm-enduring, + Bent with years, and old, + Standest with thy broad-eaved branches, + Shadowing o'er the mould; + Shadowing o'er the tender saplings, + Like a patriarch mild, + When he lifts his hoary head, + And his hands a blessing shed, + On the little ones around him--on the children of his child. + + 'And the light, smooth-barkčd hazel, + And the dusky sloe, + Are the poor men of the forest-- + Are the weak and low. + Yet unto the poor is given + Power the earth to bless; + And the sloe's small fruit of down, + And the hazel's clusters brown, + Are the tribute they can offer--are their mite of usefulness. + + 'When the awful words were spoken, + "It is finishčd!"-- + When the all-loving heart was broken, + Bowed the patient head; + When the earth grew dark as midnight + In her solemn awe-- + Then the forest-branches all + Bent, with reverential fall-- + Bent, as bent the Jewish foreheads at the giving of the law. + + 'But one tree was in the forest + That refused to bow; + Then a sudden blast came o'er it, + And a whisper low + Made the leaves and branches quiver-- + Shook the guilty tree; + And the voice was: "Tremble ever + To eternity: + Be a lesson from thee read-- + He that boweth not his head, + And obeyeth not his Maker, let him fear eternally!" + + 'So thou standest ever shaking, + Ever quivering with fear, + For the voice is still upon thee, + And the whisper near. + Like the guilty, conscience-haunted; + And the name for thee + Is, "The tree of many thoughts"-- + Is, "The tree of many doubts;" + And thy leaves are thoughts and doubtings--for thou art the + sinner's tree. + + 'Thou, O chestnut, richly branched, + Standest in thy might, + Rising like a leafy tower + In the summer light. + And thy branches are fruit-laden, + Waving bold and free; + And the beams upon thee shed + Are like blessings on thy head: + Thou art strong, and fair, and fruitful--for thou art the good + man's tree. + + 'So, farewell, great forest-teachers: + There is a spirit dwells + In the veinings of each leaflet, + In each flower's cells: + Ye have each a voice and lesson, + And ye seem to say: + "Open, man, thine eyes to see + In each flower, stone, and tree, + Something pure and something holy, as thou passest on thy way."' + F.C.W. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and K. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W.S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D.N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, +New Series, February 14, 1852, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + +***** This file should be named 15549-8.txt or 15549-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/4/15549/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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February 14, 1852. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + max-width: 40em;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify; font-size: 0.9em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.8em;} + .returnTOC {text-align: right; font-size: 70%;} + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + .sc {font-variant: small-caps;} + .note + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + .fnanchor { + font-size: smaller; /* discreet [X] */ + vertical-align: 2px; /* bumped up a trace from baseline */ + } + .contents + {margin-left:30%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem + {margin-left:20%; margin-right:0%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i20 {margin-left: 10em;} + .poem span.i52 {display: block; margin-left: 26em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + // --> + /*]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, New +Series, February 14, 1852, 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: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, New Series, February 14, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: April 5, 2005 [EBook #15549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL</h1> + +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents">CONTENTS</a></h2> + +<div class="contents"> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> + <a href="#THE_PATTERN_NATION"><b>THE PATTERN NATION.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#MY_TRAVELLING_COMPANION"><b>MY TRAVELLING COMPANION.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#POPULAR_MUSIC_MAINZER"><b>POPULAR MUSIC—MAINZER.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#A_NEWCASTLE_PAPER_IN_1765-6"><b>A NEWCASTLE PAPER IN 1765-6.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#GENIUS_FOR_EMIGRATION"><b>GENIUS FOR EMIGRATION.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#EMPLOYEES_AND_EMPLOYED"><b>EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#ANECDOTE_OF_THE_FIELD_OF_SHERRIFMUIR"><b>ANECDOTE OF THE FIELD OF SHERRIFMUIR.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THINNESS_OF_A_SOAP-BUBBLE"><b>THINNESS OF A SOAP-BUBBLE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#ENGLISH_PLOUGHING"><b>ENGLISH PLOUGHING.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#JOHN_BUNYAN_AND_MINCE-PIES"><b>JOHN BUNYAN AND MINCE-PIES.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#FOREST-TEACHINGS"><b>FOREST-TEACHINGS.</b></a><br /> + </p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> +</div> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> + +<img src="images/banner.png" + width="100%" + alt="Banner: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal" /> + +<h4>CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S +INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.</h4> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<table width="100%" + summary="Volume, Date and Price"> +<tr> +<td align="left"><b>No. 424. NEW SERIES.</b></td> +<td align="left"><b>SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1852.</b></td> +<td align="right"><b>PRICE 1½<i>d</i>.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2><a name="THE_PATTERN_NATION" id="THE_PATTERN_NATION"></a>THE PATTERN NATION.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">It</span> seems to be the destiny of France to work out all sorts of problems +in state and social policy. It may be said to volunteer experiments in +government for the benefit of mankind. All kinds of forms it tries, +one after the other: each, in turn, is supposed to be the right thing; +and when found to be wrong, an effort, fair or unfair, is made to try +something else. It would surely be the height of ingratitude not to +thank our versatile neighbour for this apparently endless series of +experiments.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the novel projects extemporised by the French are not +on all occasions easily laid aside. What they have laid hold on, they +cannot get rid of. We have a striking instance of this in the practice +of subdividing lands. Forms of state administration may be altered, +and after all not much harm done; it is only changing one variety of +power at the Tuileries for another. A very different thing is a +revolution in the method of holding landed property. Few things are +more dangerous than to meddle with laws of inheritance: if care be not +taken, the whole fabric of society may be overthrown. The unpleasant +predicament which the French have got into on this account is most +alarming—far more terrible than the wildest of their revolutions. How +they are to get out of it, no man can tell.</p> + +<p>Latterly, the world has heard much of Socialism. This is the term +applied to certain new and untried schemes of social organisation, by +which, among other things, it is proposed to supersede the ordinary +rights of property and laws of inheritance—the latter, as is +observed, having, after due experience, failed to realise that +happiness of condition which was anticipated sixty years ago at their +institution. As it is always instructive to look back on the first +departure from rectitude, let us say a few words as to how the French +fell into their present unhappy position.</p> + +<p>At the Revolution of 1789-93, it will be recollected that the laws of +primogeniture were overthrown, and it was ordained that in future +every man's property should be divided equally among his children at +his death: there can be no doubt that considerations of justice and +humanity were at the foundation of this new law of inheritance. +Hitherto, there had been a great disparity in the condition of high +and low: certain properties, descending from eldest son to eldest son, +had become enormously large, and were generally ill managed; while +prodigious numbers of people had no property at all, and were +dependents on feudal superiors. The country was undoubtedly in a bad +condition, and some modification of the law was desirable. Reckless of +consequences, the system as it stood was utterly swept away, and that +of equal partition took its place. About the same period, vast domains +belonging to the crown, the clergy, and the nobility, were +sequestrated and sold in small parcels; so that there sprang up almost +at once a proprietary of quite a new description. Had the law of equal +partition been extended only to cases in which there was no +testamentary provision, it could not have inflicted serious damage, +and would at all events have been consistent with reason and +expediency: but it went the length of depriving a parent of the right +to distribute his property in the manner he judged best, and handed +over every tittle of his earnings in equal shares to his children. One +child might be worthless, and another the reverse; no matter—all were +to be treated alike. No preference could be shewn, no posthumous +reward could be given for general good-conduct or filial respect. In +all this, there was something so revolting to common sense, that one +feels a degree of wonder that so acute a people as the French should +have failed to observe the error into which they were plunging.</p> + +<p>For every law, however bad, there is always some justification or plea +of necessity. Besides tending to level the position of individuals, +the plan of equal distribution of property was said to be justifiable +on the ground that there are more than two parties concerned. Society, +it was alleged, comes in as a third, and says to the parent: 'You must +provide for this son, however worthless; you must not throw him +destitute on our hands; for that is to shift the responsibility from +yourself, who brought him into the world, to us, who have nothing to +do with him.' This plea, more plausible than sound, had its effect. +That an occasional wrong might not be inflicted, a great national +error, practically injurious, was committed.</p> + +<p>A compulsory law of equal division of lands among the children of a +deceased proprietor, may be long in revealing its horrors in a country +where the redundant population sheds habitually off. In Switzerland, +for example, the evil of a subdivision of lands is marked but in a +moderate degree—though bad enough in the main—because a certain +proportion of each generation emigrates in quest of a livelihood—the +young men going off to be mercenary soldiers in Italy, waiters at +hotels, and so forth; and the young women to be governesses and +domestic servants. France, on the contrary, is the last nation in the +world to try the subdivision principle. Its people, with some trifling +exceptions, go nowhere, as if affecting to despise all the rest of the +world. Contented with moderate fortunes, inclined to make amusement +their occupation, unwilling or unable to learn foreign languages, or +to care for anything abroad, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> +and having so intense a love of France, +that they will not emigrate, they necessarily settle down in a +gradually aggregating mass, and are driven to the very last shifts for +existence. Only two things have saved the nation from anarchy: the +remarkable circumstance of few families consisting of more than two, +or at most three children, any more being deemed a culpable +monstrosity; and the draughting of young men for the army. In other +words, the war-demon is an engine to keep the population in check; for +if it does not at once kill off men, it occupies them in military +affairs at the public expense. The prodigious number of civil posts +under government—said to be upwards of half a million—acts also as a +means for absorbing the overplus rural population.</p> + +<p>Circumstances of the nature here pointed out have modified the evil +effects of the law of subdivision; but after making every allowance on +this and every other score that can be suggested, it is undeniable +that the partition of property has gone down and down, till at length, +in some situations, it can go no further. The morsels of land have +become so small, that they are not worth occupying, and will barely +realise the expense of legal transfer. In certain quarters, we are +informed, the individual properties are not larger than a single +furrow, or a patch the size of a cabbage-garden. A good number of +these landed estates—one authority says a million and a quarter—are +about five acres in extent, which is considered quite a respectable +property; but as, at the death of each proprietor, there is a further +partition, the probability would seem to be that, ultimately, the +surface of France will resemble the worst parts of Ireland, with a +population sunk to the lowest grade of humanity. Perhaps, however, the +evils inflicted on society through the agency of subdivision, are +mainly incidental. General injury goes on at a more rapid rate than +the actual partition of property. From the causes above mentioned, the +population in France is long in doubling itself; and the slower the +increase, the slower the subdivision. Already, however, the properties +are so small, that they do not admit of that profitable culture +enjoined by principles of improved husbandry and correct social +policy. In the proper cultivation of the soil, other parties besides +agriculturists are concerned; for whatever limits production, affects +the national wealth. The meagre husbandry of the small properties in +France is thus a serious loss to the country, and tends to general +impoverishment. But there is another and equally calamitous +consequence of excessive subdivision. The small proprietors in France +are for the greater part owners only in name: practically, they are +tenants. Desperate in their circumstances, they have borrowed money on +their wretched holdings; and so poor is the security, and so limited +is the capital at disposal on loan, that the interest paid on mortgage +runs from 8 to 10 per cent.—often is as high as 20 per cent. After +paying taxes, interest on loans, and other necessary expenses, such is +the exhaustion of resources, that thousands of these French peasant +proprietors may be said to live in a continual battle with famine. +According to official returns, there are in France upwards of 348,000 +dwellings with no other aperture than the door; and nearly 2,000,000 +with only one window. And to this the 'pattern nation' has brought +itself by its headlong haste to upset, not simply improve, a bad +institution. The living in these windowless and single-windowed abodes +is not living, in the proper sense of the word: it is existence +without comfort, without hope. The next step is to burrow in holes +like rabbits.</p> + +<p>It will thus be observed, that the subdivision of real estate has +brought France pretty much back to the point where it started—a small +wealthy class, and a very numerous poor class. The computation is, +that in a population of 36,000,000, only 800,000 are in easy +circumstances. A considerable proportion of this moneyed class are +usurers, living in Paris and other large towns. They are the lenders +of cash on bonds, which squeeze out the very vitals of the nation—the +gay flutterers and loungers of the streets, theatres, and cafés, +drawing the means of luxurious indulgence from the myriads who toil +out their lives in the fields.</p> + +<p>Obtaining a glimpse of these facts, we can no longer wonder at the +submission of the French peasantry to a thinning of their families by +military conscription; at the eager thirst for office which afflicts +the whole nation; or at the morbid desire to overturn society, and +strike out a better organisation. As matters grow worse, this passion +for wholesale change becomes more fervidly manifested. The +<i>jacqueries</i> of the middle ages are renewed. Various districts of +country, in which poverty has reached its climax, break into universal +insurrection. It is a war levied by those who have nothing against +those who have something. To have coin in the pocket, is to be the +enemy. The cry is: Down with the rich; take all they have got, and +divide the plunder amongst us. Such are the avowed principles of the +Socialists. According to them, all property is theft, and taking by +violence is only recovering stolen goods! When a nation has come to +this deplorable pass, what, it may be asked, can cure it? The malady +is not political; it is social. Perhaps, under a right development of +industry, France has not too great a population; but, subject to the +present misdirection of its energies, the position of the country is +assuming a gravity of aspect which may well engage the most earnest +consideration. The least that could be recommended is an immediate +change in the law which so unscrupulously subdivides and ruins landed +property.</p> + +<p>The history of the Revolution of 1789-93, must have made a feeble +impression, if it has failed to print a deep and indelible conviction +on the mind, that the acts of that great and wicked drama would some +day be bitterly expiated. To expect anything else would be to impeach +the principles of everlasting justice. Bearing in remembrance the +horrid excesses of almost an entire nation, nothing that now occurs in +France affords us the least surprise. The anarchical revolts of 1851, +are only a sequence of crimes committed upwards of half a century ago. +Philosophically, the beginning and the end are one thing. Blind with +rage against all that was noble, holy, and simply respectable, the +innocent were dragged in crowds to the scaffold, and their property +confiscated and disposed of. See the consequence after a lapse of +sixty years, 'My sin hath found me out.' The ill-gotten wealth has +been the very instrument to punish and prostrate. A robbery followed +by divisions among the spoilers. Waste succeeded by clamorous +destitution. What a lesson!</p> + +<p>It is needless to say, that Socialism, which proposes a universal +re-distribution of property, with some unintelligible organisation of +labour—all on an equality, no rich and no poor, no masters and no +servants, everybody sharing his dinner with his neighbour—is a fancy +as baseless as any crotchet which even the 'pattern nation' has ever +concocted. Yet, it is not the less likely to be carried into +execution, perhaps only the more likely from its practical absurdity. +Of course, the more educated and wealthy portion of the nation view +the doctrines of Socialism, as far as they can comprehend them, with +serious apprehension; but unhappily for France, these classes +uniformly submit to any folly or crime, which comes with the emphasis +of authority, valid or usurped. At present, they may be said to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> +have +made a compromise, bartering civil liberty for bare safety—permission +to live! But how long this will last, and what form the tenure of +property is to assume, are questions not easy to answer. It would not +surprise us to see the nation, in its corporate capacity, assume the +position of universal lender of money on, or proprietor of, +embarrassed estates; in which case the 'ryot system' of India will, +strangely enough, have found domestication in Europe! Is this to be +the next experiment?</p> + +<p>A curious and saddening problem is the future of this great country. +'France,' said Robespierre in one of his moments of studied +inspiration, 'has astonished all Europe with her prodigies of reason!' +We are now witnessing the development of several of these astonishing +prodigies; and the spectacle, to say the least of it, is instructive.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="MY_TRAVELLING_COMPANION" id="MY_TRAVELLING_COMPANION"></a>MY TRAVELLING COMPANION.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">My</span> picture was a failure. Partial friends had guaranteed its success; +but the Hanging Committee and the press are not composed of one's +partial friends. The Hanging Committee thrust me into the +darkest corner of the octagon-room, and the press ignored my +existence—excepting in one instance, when my critic dismissed me in a +quarter of a line as a 'presumptuous dauber.' I was stunned with the +blow, for I had counted so securely on the L.200 at which my grand +historical painting was dog-cheap—not to speak of the deathless fame +which it was to create for me—that I felt like a mere wreck when my +hopes were flung to the ground, and the untasted cup dashed from my +lips. I took to my bed, and was seriously ill. The doctor bled me till +I fainted, and then said, that he had saved me from a brain-fever. +That might be, but he very nearly threw me into a consumption, only +that I had a deep chest and a good digestion. Pneumonic expansion and +active chyle saved me from an early tomb, yet I was too unhappy to be +grateful.</p> + +<p>But why did my picture fail? Surely it possessed all the elements of +success! It was grandly historical in subject, original in treatment, +pure in colouring; what, then, was wanting? This old warrior's head, +of true Saxon type, had all the majesty of Michael Angelo; that young +figure, all the radiant grace of Correggio; no Rembrandt shewed more +severe dignity than yon burnt umber monk in the corner; and Titian +never excelled the loveliness of this cobalt virgin in the foreground. +Why did it not succeed? The subject, too—the 'Finding of the Body of +Harold by Torch-light'—was sacred to all English hearts; and being +conceived in an entirely new and original manner, it was redeemed from +the charge of triteness and wearisomeness. The composition was +pyramidal, the apex being a torch borne aloft for the 'high light,' +and the base shewing some very novel effects of herbage and armour. +But it failed. All my skill, all my hope, my ceaseless endeavour, my +burning visions, all—all had failed; and I was only a poor, +half-starved painter, in Great Howland Street, whose landlady was +daily abating in her respect, and the butcher daily abating in his +punctuality; whose garments were getting threadbare, and his dinners +hypothetical, and whose day-dreams of fame and fortune had faded into +the dull-gray of penury and disappointment. I was broken-hearted, ill, +hungry; so I accepted an invitation from a friend, a rich manufacturer +in Birmingham, to go down to his house for the Christmas holidays. He +had a pleasant place in the midst of some ironworks, the blazing +chimneys of which, he assured me, would afford me some exquisite +studies of 'light' effects.</p> + +<p>By mistake, I went by the Express train, and so was thrown into the +society of a lady whose position would have rendered any acquaintance +with her impossible, excepting under such chance-conditions as the +present; and whose history, as I learned it afterwards, led me to +reflect much on the difference between the reality and the seeming of +life.</p> + +<p>She moved my envy. Yes—base, mean, low, unartistic, degrading as is +this passion, I felt it rise up like a snake in my breast when I saw +that feeble woman. She was splendidly dressed—wrapped in furs of the +most costly kind, trailing behind; her velvets and lace worth a +countess's dowry. She was attended by obsequious menials; surrounded +by luxuries; her compartment of the carriage was a perfect palace in +all the accessories which it was possible to collect in so small a +space; and it seemed as though 'Cleopatra's cup' would have been no +impracticable draught for her. She gave me more fully the impression +of luxury, than any person I had ever met with before; and I thought I +had reason when I envied her.</p> + +<p>She was lifted into the carriage carefully; carefully swathed in her +splendid furs and lustrous velvets; and placed gently, like a wounded +bird, in her warm nest of down. But she moved languidly, and fretfully +thrust aside her servants' busy hands, indifferent to her comforts, +and annoyed by her very blessings. I looked into her face: it was a +strange face, which had once been beautiful; but ill-health, and care, +and grief, had marked it now with deep lines, and coloured it with +unnatural tints. Tears had washed out the roses from her cheeks, and +set large purple rings about her eyes; the mouth was hard and pinched, +but the eyelids swollen; while the crossed wrinkles on her brow told +the same tale of grief grown petulant, and of pain grown soured, as +the thin lip, quivering and querulous, and the nervous hand, never +still and never strong.</p> + +<p>The train-bell rang, the whistle sounded, the lady's servitors stood +bareheaded and courtesying to the ground, and the rapid rush of the +iron giant bore off the high-born dame and the starveling painter in +strange companionship. Unquiet and unresting—now shifting her +place—now letting down the glass for the cold air to blow full upon +her withered face—then drawing it up, and chafing her hands and feet +by the warm-water apparatus concealed in her <i>chauffe-pied</i>, +while shivering as if in an ague-fit—sighing deeply—lost in +thought—wildly looking out and around for distraction—she soon made +me ask myself whether my envy of her was as true as deep sympathy and +pity would have been.</p> + +<p>'But her wealth—her wealth!' I thought. 'True she may suffer, but how +gloriously she is solaced! She may weep, but the angels of social life +wipe off her tears with perfumed linen, gold embroidered; she may +grieve, but her grief makes her joys so much the more blissful. Ah! +she is to be envied after all!—envied, while I, a very beggar, might +well scorn my place now!'</p> + +<p>Something of this might have been in my face, as I offered my sick +companion some small attention—I forget what—gathering up one of her +luxurious trifles, or arranging her cushions. She seemed almost to +read my thoughts as her eyes rested on my melancholy face; and saying +abruptly: 'I fear you are unhappy, young man?' she settled herself in +her place like a person prepared to listen to a pleasant tale.</p> + +<p>'I am unfortunate, madam,' I answered.</p> + +<p>'Unfortunate?' she said impatiently. 'What! with youth and health, can +you call yourself unfortunate? When the whole world lies untried +before you, and you still live in the golden atmosphere of hope, can +you pamper yourself with sentimental sorrows? Fie upon you!—fie upon +you! What are your sorrows compared with mine?'</p> + +<p>'I am ignorant of yours, madam,' I said respectfully; 'but I know my +own; and, knowing them, I can speak of their weight and bitterness. By +your very position, you cannot undergo the same kind of distress as +that overwhelming me at this moment: you may have evils in your path +of life, but they cannot equal mine.' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> +</p> + +<p>'Can anything equal the evils of ruined health and a desolated +hearth?' she cried, still in the same impatient manner. 'Can the worst +griefs of wayward youth equal the bitterness of that cup which you +drink at such a time of life as forbids all hope of after-assuagement? +Can the first disappointment of a strong heart rank with the terrible +desolation of a wrecked old age? You think because you see about me +the evidences of wealth, that I must be happy. Young man, I tell you +truly, I would gladly give up every farthing of my princely fortune, +and be reduced to the extreme of want, to bring back from the grave +the dear ones lying there, or pour into my veins one drop of the +bounding blood of health and energy which used to make life a long +play-hour of delight. Once, no child in the fields, no bird in the +sky, was more blessed than I; and what am I now?—a sickly, lonely old +woman, whose nerves are shattered and whose heart is broken, without +hope or happiness on the earth! Even death has passed me by in +forgetfulness and scorn!'</p> + +<p>Her voice betrayed the truth of her emotion. Still, with an accent of +bitterness and complaint, rather than of simple sorrow, it was the +voice of one fighting against her fate, more than of one suffering +acutely and in despair: it was petulant rather than melancholy; angry +rather than grieving; shewing that her trials had hardened, not +softened her heart.</p> + +<p>'Listen to me,' she then said, laying her hand on my arm, 'and perhaps +my history may reconcile you to the childish depression, from what +cause soever it may be, under which you are labouring. You are young +and strong, and can bear any amount of pain as yet: wait until you +reach my age, and then you will know the true meaning of the word +despair! I am rich, as you may see,' she continued, pointing to her +surroundings—'in truth, so rich that I take no account either of my +income or my expenditure. I have never known life under any other +form; I have never known what it was to be denied the gratification of +one desire which wealth could purchase, or obliged to calculate the +cost of a single undertaking. I can scarcely realise the idea of +poverty. I see that all people do not live in the same style as +myself, but I cannot understand that it is from inability: it always +seems to me to be from their own disinclination. I tell you, I cannot +fully realise the idea of poverty; and you think this must make me +happy, perhaps?' she added sharply, looking full in my face.</p> + +<p>'I should be happy, madam, if I were rich,' I replied. 'Suffering now +from the strain of poverty, it is no marvel if I place an undue value +on plenty.'</p> + +<p>'Yet see what it does for me!' continued my companion. 'Does it give +me back my husband, my brave boys, my beautiful girl? Does it give +rest to this weary heart, or relief to this aching head? Does it +soothe my mind or heal my body? No! It but oppresses me, like a heavy +robe thrown round weakened limbs: it is even an additional misfortune, +for if I were poor, I should be obliged to think of other things +beside myself and my woes; sand the very mental exertion necessary to +sustain my position would lighten my miseries. I have seen my daughter +wasting year by year and day by day, under the warm sky of the +south—under the warm care of love! Neither climate nor affection +could save her: every effort was made—the best advice procured—the +latest panacea adopted; but to no effect. Her life was prolonged, +certainly; but this simply means, that she was three years in dying, +instead of three months. She was a gloriously lovely creature, like a +fair young saint for beauty and purity—quite an ideal thing, with her +golden hair and large blue eyes! She was my only girl—my youngest, my +darling, my best treasure! My first real sorrow—now fifteen years +ago—was when I saw her laid, on her twenty-first birthday, in the +English burial-ground at Madeira. It is on the gravestone, that she +died of consumption: would that it had been added—and her mother of +grief! From the day of her death, my happiness left me!'</p> + +<p>Here the poor lady paused, and buried her face in her hands. The first +sorrow was evidently also the keenest; and I felt my own eyelids moist +as I watched this outpouring of the mother's anguish. After all, here +was grief beyond the power of wealth to assuage: here was sorrow +deeper than any mere worldly disappointment.</p> + +<p>'I had two sons,' she went on to say after a short time—'only two. +They were fine young men, gifted and handsome. In fact, all my +children were allowed to be very models of beauty. One entered the +army, the other the navy. The eldest went with his regiment to the +Cape, where he married a woman of low family—an infamous creature of +no blood; though she was decently conducted for a low-born thing as +she was. She was well-spoken of by those who knew her; but what +<i>could</i> she be with a butcher for a grandfather! However, my poor +infatuated son loved her to the last. She was very pretty, I have +heard—young, and timid; but being of such fearfully low origin, of +course she could not be recognised by my husband or myself! We forbade +my son all intercourse with us, unless he would separate himself from +her; but the poor boy was perfectly mad, and he preferred this +low-born wife to his father and mother. They had a little baby, who +was sent over to me when the wife died—for, thank God! she did die in +a few years' time. My son was restored to our love, and he received +our forgiveness; but we never saw him again. He took a fever of the +country, and was a corpse in a few hours. My second boy was in the +navy—a fine high-spirited fellow, who seemed to set all the accidents +of life at defiance. I could not believe in any harm coming to <i>him</i>. +He was so strong, so healthy, so beautiful, so bright: he might have +been immortal, for all the elements of decay that shewed themselves in +him. Yet this glorious young hero was drowned—wrecked off a +coral-reef, and flung like a weed on the waters. He lost his own life +in trying to save that of a common sailor—a piece of pure gold +bartered for the foulest clay! Two years after this, my husband died +of typhus fever, and I had a nervous attack, from which I have never +recovered. And now, what do you say to this history of mine? For +fifteen years, I have never been free from sorrow. No sooner did one +grow so familiar to me, that I ceased to tremble at its hideousness, +than another, still more terrible, came to overwhelm me in fresh +misery. For fifteen years, my heart has never known an hour's peace; +and to the end of my life, I shall be a desolate, miserable, +broken-hearted woman. Can you understand, now, the valuelessness of my +riches, and how desolate my splendid house must seem to me? They have +been given me for no useful purpose here or hereafter; they encumber +me, and do no good to others. Who is to have them when I die? +Hospitals and schools? I hate the medical profession, and I am against +the education of the poor. I think it the great evil of the day, and I +would not leave a penny of mine to such a radical wrong. What is to +become of my wealth?'—</p> + +<p>'Your grandson,' I interrupted hastily: 'the child of the officer.'</p> + +<p>The old woman's face gradually softened. 'Ah! he is a lovely boy,' she +said; 'but I don't love him—no, I don't,' she repeated vehemently. +'If I set my heart on him, he will die or turn out ill: take to the +low ways of his wretched mother, or die some horrible death. I steel +my heart against him, and shut him out from my calculations of the +future. He is a sweet boy: interesting, affectionate, lovely; but I +will not allow myself to love him, and I don't allow him to love me! +But you ought to see him. His hair is like my own daughter's—long, +glossy, golden hair; and his eyes are large and blue, and the lashes +curl on his cheek like +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> +heavy fringes. He is too pale and too thin: he +looks sadly delicate; but his wretched mother was a delicate little +creature, and he has doubtless inherited a world of disease and poor +blood from her. I wish he was here though, for you to see; but I keep +him at school, for when he is much with me, I feel myself beginning to +be interested in him; and I do not wish to love him—I do not wish to +remember him at all! With that delicate frame and nervous temperament, +he <i>must</i> die; and why should I prepare fresh sorrow for myself, by +taking him into my heart, only to have him plucked out again by +death?'</p> + +<p>All this was said with the most passionate vehemence of manner, as if +she were defending herself against some unjust charge. I said +something in the way of remonstrance. Gently and respectfully, but +firmly, I spoke of the necessity for each soul to spiritualise its +aspirations, and to raise itself from the trammels of earth; and in +speaking thus to her, I felt my own burden lighten off my heart, and I +acknowledged that I had been both foolish and sinful in allowing my +first disappointment to shadow all the sunlight of my existence. I am +not naturally of a desponding disposition, and nothing but a blow as +severe as the non-success of my 'Finding the Body of Harold by +Torch-light' could have affected me to the extent of mental +prostration as that under which I was now labouring. But this was very +hard to bear! My companion listened to me with a kind of blank +surprise, evidently unaccustomed to the honesty of truth; but she bore +my remarks patiently, and when I had ended, she even thanked me for my +advice.</p> + +<p>'And now, tell me the cause of your melancholy face?' she asked, as we +were nearing Birmingham. 'Your story cannot be very long, and I shall +have just enough time to hear it.'</p> + +<p>I smiled at her authoritative tone, and said quietly: 'I am an artist, +madam, and I had counted much on the success of my first historical +painting. It has failed, and I am both penniless and infamous. I am +the "presumptuous dauber" of the critics—despised by my +creditors—emphatically a failure throughout.'</p> + +<p>'Pshaw!' cried the lady impatiently; 'and what is that for a grief? a +day's disappointment which a day's labour can repair! To me, your +troubles seem of no more worth than a child's tears when he has broken +his newest toy! Here is Birmingham, and I must bid you farewell. +Perhaps you will open the door for me? Good-morning: you have made my +journey pleasant, and relieved my ennui. I shall be happy to see you +in town, and to help you forward in your career.'</p> + +<p>And with these words, said in a strange, indifferent, matter-of-fact +tone, as of one accustomed to all the polite offers of good society, +which mean nothing tangible, she was lifted from the carriage by a +train of servants, and borne off the platform.</p> + +<p>I looked at the card which she placed in my hand, and read the address +of 'Mrs Arden, Belgrave Square.'</p> + +<p>I found my friend waiting for me; and in a few moments was seated +before a blazing fire in a magnificent drawing-room, surrounded with +every comfort that hospitality could offer or luxury invent.</p> + +<p>'Here, at least, is happiness,' I thought, as I saw the family +assemble in the drawing-room before dinner. 'Here are beauty, youth, +wealth, position—all that makes life valuable. What concealed +skeleton can there be in this house to frighten away one grace of +existence? None—none! They must be happy; and oh! what a contrast to +that poor lady I met with to-day; and what a painful contrast to +myself!'</p> + +<p>And all my former melancholy returned like a heavy cloud upon my brow; +and I felt that I stood like some sad ghost in a fairy-land of beauty, +so utterly out of place was my gloom in the midst of all this gaiety +and splendour.</p> + +<p>One daughter attracted my attention more than the rest. She was the +eldest, a beautiful girl of about twenty-three, or she might have been +even a few years older. Her face was quite of the Spanish style—dark, +expressive, and tender; and her manners were the softest and most +bewitching I had ever seen. She was peculiarly attractive to an +artist, from the exceeding beauty of feature, as well as from the +depth of expression which distinguished her. I secretly sketched her +portrait on my thumb-nail, and in my own mind I determined to make her +the model for my next grand attempt at historical composition—'the +Return of Columbus.' She was to be the Spanish queen; and I thought of +myself as Ferdinand; for I was not unlike a Spaniard in appearance, +and I was almost as brown.</p> + +<p>I remained with my friend a fortnight, studying the midnight effects +of the iron-foundries, and cultivating the acquaintance of Julia. In +these two congenial occupations the time passed like lightning, and I +woke as from a pleasant dream, to the knowledge of the fact, that my +visit was expected to be brought to a close. I had been asked, I +remembered, for a week, and I had doubled my furlough. I hinted at +breakfast, that I was afraid I must leave my kind friends to-morrow, +and a general regret was expressed, but no one asked me to stay +longer; so the die was unhappily cast.</p> + +<p>Julia was melancholy. I could not but observe it; and I confess that +the observation caused me more pleasure than pain. Could it be sorrow +at my departure? We had been daily, almost hourly, companions for +fourteen days, and the surmise was not unreasonable. She had always +shewn me particular kindness, and she could not but have seen my +marked preference for her. My heart beat wildly as I gazed on her pale +cheek and drooping eyelid; for though she had been always still and +gentle, I had never seen—certainly I had never noticed—such evident +traces of sorrow, as I saw in her face to-day. Oh, if it were for me, +how I would bless each pang which pained that beautiful heart!—how I +would cherish the tears that fell, as if they had been priceless +diamonds from the mine!—how I would joy in her grief and live in her +despair! It might be that out of evil would come good, and from the +deep desolation of my unsold 'Body' might arise the heavenly +blessedness of such love as this! I was intoxicated with my hopes; and +was on the point of making a public idiot of myself, but happily some +slight remnant of common-sense was left me. However, impatient to +learn my fate, I drew Julia aside; and, placing myself at her feet, +while she was enthroned on a luxurious ottoman, I pretended that I +must conclude the series of lectures on art, and the best methods of +colouring, on which I had been employed with her ever since my visit.</p> + +<p>'You seem unhappy to-day, Miss Reay,' I said abruptly, with my voice +trembling like a girl's.</p> + +<p>She raised her large eyes languidly. 'Unhappy? no, I am never +unhappy,' she said quietly.</p> + +<p>Her voice never sounded so silvery sweet, so pure and harmonious. It +fell like music on the air.</p> + +<p>'I have, then, been too much blinded by excess of beauty to have been +able to see correctly,' I answered. 'To me you have appeared always +calm, but never sad; but to-day there is a palpable weight of sorrow +on you, which a child might read. It is in your voice, and on your +eyelids, and round your lips; it is on you like the moss on the young +rose—beautifying while veiling the dazzling glory within.'</p> + +<p>'Ah! you speak far too poetically for me,' said Julia, smiling. 'If +you will come down to my level for a little while, and will talk to me +rationally, I will tell you my history. I will tell it you as a lesson +for yourself, which I think will do you good.'</p> + +<p>The cold chill that went to my soul! Her history! It was no diary of +facts that I wanted to hear, but only a register of feelings—a +register of feelings in which I should find myself the only point +whereto the index +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span> +was set. History! what events deserving that name +could have troubled the smooth waters of her life?</p> + +<p>I was silent, for I was disturbed; but Julia did not notice either my +embarrassment or my silence, and began, in her low, soft voice, to +open one of the saddest chapters of life which I had ever heard.</p> + +<p>'You do not know that I am going into a convent?' she said; then, +without waiting for an answer, she continued: 'This is the last month +of my worldly life. In four weeks, I shall have put on the white robe +of the novitiate, and in due course I trust to be dead for ever to +this earthly life.'</p> + +<p>A heavy, thick, choking sensation in my throat, and a burning pain +within my eyeballs, warned me to keep silence. My voice would have +betrayed me.</p> + +<p>'When I was seventeen,' continued Julia, 'I was engaged to my cousin. +We had been brought up together from childhood, and we loved each +other perfectly. You must not think, because I speak so calmly now, +that I have not suffered in the past. It is only by the grace of +resignation and of religion, that I have been brought to my present +condition of spiritual peace. I am now five-and-twenty—next week I +shall be six-and-twenty: that is just nine years since I was first +engaged to Laurence. He was not rich enough, and indeed he was far too +young, to marry, for he was only a year older than myself; and if he +had had the largest possible amount of income, we could certainly not +have married for three years. My father never cordially approved of +the engagement, though he did not oppose it. Laurence was taken +partner into a large concern here, and a heavy weight of business was +immediately laid on him. Youthful as he was, he was made the sole and +almost irresponsible agent in a house which counted its capital by +millions, and through which gold flowed like water. For some time, he +went on well—to a marvel well. He was punctual, vigilant, careful; +but the responsibility was too much for the poor boy: the praises he +received, the flattery and obsequiousness which, for the first time, +were lavished on the friendless youth, the wealth at his command, all +turned his head. For a long time, we heard vague rumours of irregular +conduct; but as he was always the same good, affectionate, respectful, +happy Laurence when with us, even my father, who is so strict, and +somewhat suspicious, turned a deaf ear to them. I was the earliest to +notice a slight change, first in his face, and then in his manners. At +last the rumours ceased to be vague, and became definite. Business +neglected; fatal habits visible even in the early day; the frightful +use of horrible words which once he would have trembled to use; the +nights passed at the gaming-table, and the days spent in the society +of the worst men on the turf—all these accusations were brought to my +father by credible witnesses; and, alas! they were too true to be +refuted. My father—Heaven and the holy saints bless his gray +head!—kept them from me as long as he could. He forgave him again and +again, and used every means that love and reason could employ to bring +him back into the way of right; but he could do nothing against the +force of such fatal habits as those to which my poor Laurence had now +become wedded. With every good intention, and with much strong love +for me burning sadly amid the wreck of his virtues, he yet would not +refrain: the Evil One had overcome him; he was his prey here and +hereafter. O no—not hereafter!' she added, raising her hands and eyes +to heaven, 'if prayer, if fasting, patient vigil, incessant striving, +may procure him pardon—not for ever his prey! Our engagement was +broken off; and this step, necessary as it was, completed his ruin. He +died'—Here a strong shudder shook her from head to foot, and I half +rose, in alarm. The next instant she was calm.</p> + +<p>'Now, you know my history,' continued she. 'It is a tragedy of real +life, which you will do well, young painter, to compare with your +own!' With a kindly pressure of the hand, and a gentle smile—oh! so +sweet, so pure, and heavenly!—Julia Reay left me; while I sat +perfectly awed—that is the only word I can use—with the revelation +which she had made both of her history and of her own grand soul.</p> + +<p>'Come with me to my study,' said Mr Reay, entering the room; 'I have a +world to talk to you about. You go to-morrow, you say. I am sorry for +it; but I must therefore settle my business with you in good time +to-day.'</p> + +<p>I followed him mechanically, for I was undergoing a mental castigation +which rather disturbed me. Indeed, like a young fool—as eager in +self-reproach as in self-glorification—I was so occupied in inwardly +calling myself hard names, that even when my host gave me a commission +for my new picture, 'The Return of Columbus,' at two hundred and fifty +pounds, together with an order to paint himself, Mrs Reay, and +half-a-dozen of their children, I confess it with shame, that I +received the news like a leaden block, and felt neither surprise nor +joy—not though these few words chased me from the gates of the Fleet, +whither I was fast hastening, and secured me both position and daily +bread. The words of that beautiful girl were still ringing in my ears, +mixed up with the bitterest self-accusations; and these together shut +out all other sound, however pleasant. But that was always my way.</p> + +<p>I went back to London, humbled and yet strengthened, having learned +more of human nature and the value of events, in one short fortnight, +than I had ever dreamed of before. The first lessons of youth +generally come in hard shape. I had sense enough to feel that I had +learned mine gently, and that I had cause to be thankful for the +mildness of the teaching. From a boy, I became a man, judging more +accurately of humanity than a year's ordinary experience would have +enabled me to do. And the moral which I drew was this: that under our +most terrible afflictions, we may always gain some spiritual good, if +we suffer them to be softening and purifying rather than hardening +influences over us. And also, that while we are suffering the most +acutely, we may be sure that others are suffering still more acutely; +and if we would but sympathise with them more than with +ourselves—live out of our ownselves, and in the wide world around +us—we would soon be healed while striving to heal others. Of this I +am convinced: the secret of life, and of all its good, is in love; and +while we preserve this, we can never fail of comfort. The sweet waters +will always gush out over the sandiest desert of our lives while we +can love; but without it—nay, not the merest weed of comfort or of +virtue would grow under the feet of angels. In this was the +distinction between Mrs Arden and Julia Reay. The one had hardened her +heart under her trials, and shut it up in itself; the other had opened +hers to the purest love of man and love of God; and the result was to +be seen in the despair of the one and in the holy peace of the other.</p> + +<p>Full of these thoughts, I sought out my poor lady, determined to do +her real benefit if I could. She received me very kindly, for I had +taken care to provide myself with a sufficient introduction, so as to +set all doubts of my social position at rest: and I knew how far this +would go with her. We soon became fast friends. She seemed to rest on +me much for sympathy and comfort, and soon grew to regard me with a +sort of motherly fondness that of itself brightened her life. I paid +her all the attention which a devoted son might pay—humoured her +whims, soothed her pains; but insensibly I led her mind out from +itself—first in kindness to me, and then in love to her grandson.</p> + +<p>I asked for him just before the midsummer holidays, and with great +difficulty obtained an invitation for him +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> +to spend them with her. She +resisted my entreaties stoutly, but at last was obliged to yield; not +to me, nor to my powers of persuasion, but to the holy truth of which +I was then the advocate. The child came, and I was there also to +receive him, and to enforce by my presence—which I saw without vanity +had great influence—a fitting reception. He was a pensive, clever, +interesting little fellow; sensitive and affectionate, timid, gifted +with wonderful powers, and of great beauty. There was a shy look in +his eyes, which made me sure that he inherited much of his loveliness +from his mother; and when we were great friends, he shewed me a small +portrait of 'poor mamma;' and I saw at once the most striking likeness +between the two. No human heart could withstand that boy, certainly +not my poor friend's. She yielded, fighting desperately against me and +him, and all the powers of love, which were subduing her, but yielding +while she fought; and in a short time the child had taken his proper +place in her affections, which he kept to the end of her life. And +she, that desolate mother, even she, with her seared soul and +petrified heart, was brought to the knowledge of peace by the glorious +power of love.</p> + +<p>Prosperous, famous, happy, blessed in home and hearth, this has become +my fundamental creed of life, the basis on which all good, whether of +art or of morality, is rested: of art especially; for only by a +tender, reverent spirit can the true meaning of his vocation be made +known to the artist. All the rest is mere imitation of form, not +insight into essence. And while I feel that I can live out of myself, +and love others—the whole world of man—more than myself, I know that +I possess the secret of happiness; ay, though my powers were suddenly +blasted as by lightning, my wife and children laid in the cold grave, +and my happy home desolated for ever. For I would go out into the +thronged streets, and gather up the sorrows of others, to relieve +them; and I would go out under the quiet sky, and look up to the +Father's throne; and I would pluck peace, as green herbs from active +benevolence and contemplative adoration. Yes; love can save from the +sterility of selfishness, and from the death of despair: but love +alone. No other talisman has the power; pride, self-sustainment, +coldness, pleasure, nothing—nothing—but that divine word of Life +which is life's soul!</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="POPULAR_MUSIC_MAINZER" id="POPULAR_MUSIC_MAINZER"></a>POPULAR MUSIC—MAINZER.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">In</span> our days, vocal music is beginning to assert in this country the +place it has long held abroad as a great moral educator; no longer +regarded as a superfluity of the rich, it is now established as a +branch of instruction in almost every school, and is gradually finding +its way into many nooks and corners, where it will act as an antidote +to grosser pleasures, by supplying the means of an innocent and +elevating recreation.</p> + +<p>The apostle of music, considered as a boon and privilege of 'the +million,' has lately passed away from the scene of his active labours; +and it is but a tribute due to his memory as a philanthropist and man +of genius, while we deplore his loss, to pause for a moment and +briefly trace his career.</p> + +<p>Joseph Mainzer was born, on the 21st October 1801, at Trêves, of +parents in the middle rank of life. When quite a child, the +predominating taste of his life was so strongly developed, that in +spite of harsh masters he learned to play on the piano, violin, +bassoon, and several wind-instruments; and at the age of twelve could +read at sight the most difficult music, and even attempted +composition. Music, however, was not intended to be his profession, +and was only carried on as a relaxation from the severer studies to +which Mainzer devoted himself at the university of Trêves, where he +took the highest degree in general merit, and the first prize for +natural science. At the age of twenty-one, he left college to descend +into the heart of the Saarbruck Mountains as an engineer of mines, +where, according to custom, he had to commence with the lowest grade +of labour, and for months drag a heavy wheel-barrow, and wield the +pickaxe. Yet here, in reality, dawned his mission as the apostle of +popular music: he relieved the tedium of those interminable nights of +toil—for days there were none—by composing and teaching choruses, +thus leading the miners both in labour and in song. This underground +life, however, was too severe for his constitution; and he was obliged +to return home in impaired health. He now studied divinity and music; +and, after a time, was advised to travel in order to perfect himself +in the latter branch of art. Under Rinck at Darmstadt, and at Vienna +and Rome, he enjoyed every advantage; and, on leaving the Eternal +City, was invited to a farewell <i>fête</i> by Thorwaldsen, where all the +eminent artists of the day were present, and joined in singing his +compositions. On returning home, after two years' absence, he adopted +music as his vocation, and published his first elementary work—the +<i>Singschule</i>, which was introduced in Prussia and Germany as the +<i>méthode</i> in schools; and soon after, the king of Prussia sent him the +gold medal awarded to men eminent in the arts and sciences. Paris, +however, soon offered more attractions to Mainzer than his native +place, and thither he repaired and pitched his tent for ten years. +During this period, he established his reputation as a composer of +dramatic, sacred, and domestic music, and as an acute and elegant +writer and critic. His opera of <i>La Jacquerie</i> had a run of seventeen +nights consecutively at the theatre. He was soon welcomed into the +literary and artistic circles of Paris; and one evening, at an elegant +<i>réunion</i>, being invited to play, he <i>improvised</i> a piece, which was +taken for a composition of Palestrina's. Many were moved to tears, one +pair of pre-eminently bright eyes especially; and the consequence was, +that the composer and the bright eyes were soon after united in +marriage!</p> + +<p>But amid these captivating <i>salons</i> and congenial occupations, what +had become of the apostle of popular music? He was not asleep; only +digesting and preparing a system which should, by its simplicity and +clearness, bring scientific music within the reach of the humblest as +well as the highest classes of society. At last it was matured, and +the working-classes were invited to come and test it—gratuitously of +course. A few accepted the invitation; but their success and delight +in the new art thus opened up to them, was so great, that the 'two or +three' pioneers soon swelled into an army of 3000 <i>ouvriers</i>! But a +band of 3000 workmen in Paris was considered dangerous: it could not +be credited that they met merely for social improvement and +relaxation; some political design must surely lurk under it: +government was alarmed, the police threatened; and it was left to +Mainzer's choice either to remain in Paris without his artisan +classes, or to seek elsewhere a field for his popular labours. He +decided at once on the latter alternative, and departed for England, +amidst the heartfelt regrets of those whom he had attached so strongly +to himself, while he inculcated peace, order, and every social virtue. +On his revisiting Paris long after, his old pupils serenaded him +unmolested; and in 1849, the Institute of France voluntarily placed +his name on their list for the membership +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> +vacant by the death of +Donizetti; yet he would not accept the proposal of a later French +government to return and establish his system: he preferred the +freedom of action which he enjoyed in Britain.</p> + +<p>In London, a period of arduous labour commenced. Mainzer arrived +without patronage, without the <i>prestige</i> that his name had earned +abroad, and, what was a greater drawback, without any knowledge of +English! But, nothing daunted, with his usual energy he set about the +task of acquiring the language, which he did in an incredibly short +time—commencing, like a child, by naming all familiar objects, and +going on, until, without perplexing himself with rules or their +exceptions, he had acquired facility enough to lecture in public. His +work on <i>Music and Education</i> shows with what force and purity of +style he could afterwards write in English. It was the same +principle—that of commencing with practice and letting theory +follow—which he carried out in his system of 'Singing for the +Million.' He argued, that as children learn to speak before they can +read or construct language grammatically, so they ought to be taught +vocal music in such a way as to introduce the rules of harmony +gradually, and prepare them for the manipulation of an instrument, if +it is intended they should learn one; while for the great masses of +both children and adults, <i>the voice</i> is the best and only instrument, +and one that can be trained, with <i>very few exceptions</i>, to take part +in choral, if not in solo singing, and at the same time be made a +powerful and pleasing agent in moral culture. On this subject, we +shall quote Dr Mainzer's own words, when speaking of the compositions +introduced into his classes, he says: 'Besides religious compositions, +there are others, which refer to the Creator, by calling attention to +the beauty and grandeur of his works. Songs, shewing in a few touching +lines the wondrous instinct of the sparrow, the ant, the bee, and +cultivating a feeling of respect for all nature's children. Besides +these, there are songs intended to promote social and domestic +virtues—order, cleanliness, humility, contentment, unity, temperance, +etc.; thus impressing, not the letter of the law of charity on +immature minds, but the spirit of it in the memory, and so identifying +them with the very fibres of the heart.'</p> + +<p>With such views and principles, Mainzer arrived in England, to +propagate his humanising art; and London soon became the centre of a +series of lectures and classes, held in the principal towns accessible +by railway—such as Brighton, Oxford, Reading, etc. But this divided +work was not satisfactory, and the national schools and popular field +in London were preoccupied by Hullah, who had some time previously +introduced Wilhem's system, under the sanction of government. There +was room and to spare, however, for every system, and Mainzer wished +every man good-speed who advanced the cause; but as a fresh field for +his own exertions, after two years spent in England, he turned his +thoughts towards Edinburgh, where he had been invited by requisition, +and warmly received in 1842.</p> + +<p>On his return to Scotland, he found his cause somewhat damaged in his +absence, by the attempt of precentors to teach his system in +congregational classes. Unlike the church-organists of England, the +Scotch precentors are not educated musicians—a naturally good voice +and ear is their only pre-requisite. Dr Mainzer soon repaired this +mistake in those congregations which invited his personal +superintendence; and in one church (Free St Andrew's) the good effects +of his system are still to be heard, in a congregation forming their +own choir, and singing in <i>four parts</i>.</p> + +<p>To restore this country to the standard of musical eminence which we +know from old authorities that it held in the sixteenth century, was +the object of Dr Mainzer's energetic endeavours. The elements, he +believed, were not wanting. In Scotland, the musical capacity of the +people he found to be above rather than below the average of other +nations: all that was wanting was to convince the people of this by +the cultivation of their neglected powers. As a preliminary step, he +excited those friendly to the object to found the 'Association for the +Revival of Sacred Music in Scotland,' of which he was the director and +moving spring; and under its auspices he commenced a course of +<i>gratuitous</i> teaching to classes formed of pupils from the parish and +district schools of Edinburgh, precentors, teachers, and operatives. +The success of these normal classes was so great and so rapid, that at +the end of the first year the pupils were able to become teachers in +their turn in their own schools or homes; and at the close of the +second and third sessions, concerts and rural fêtes were held, at +which many hundreds of young voices joined in giving true and powerful +expression to such works of the great masters as <i>Judas Maccabæus</i>; +while for the delight of their parents' firesides, and their own moral +improvement, the children carried home with them those simple but +touching and expressive melodies, composed by Mainzer for their use. +At the same time, Mr Mainzer carried on classes for the upper ranks, +especially for young children; gave lectures on the history of music +from the earliest times and in all countries; and published a talented +work on <i>Music and Education</i>, of which very favourable reviews +appeared at the time.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Mainzer had a peculiar predilection for +Scotland: its scenery, its history, its music, all supplied food for +his various tastes. With a poetic appreciation of the beauties of +nature, he desired no greater pleasure than to wander in perfect +freedom among our lochs and hills; and his descriptions of Edinburgh, +the Highlands, and Western Islands, which appeared in the <i>Augsburg +Gazette</i>, have brought some and inspired more with the wish to visit +the Switzerland of Britain. The history and music of Scotland threw +fresh light upon each other under his researches. He delighted to +trace the reciprocal influence of national events and national music, +from the time of the Culdee establishments of the sixth century, when +'Iona was the Rome of the north,' down to the <i>Covenanter's Lament</i>, +and the Jacobite songs of the last century. Since these days, the +spirit that invented and handed down popular song has passed away with +the national and clannish feuds which gave rise to the gathering song +and the lament. The age of peace has been heralded in by the songs of +Burns and Lady Nairne, the authoress of <i>The Land o' the Leal</i>, who +has done much to restore the taste for our beautiful old melodies, by +wedding them to pure and appropriate verse.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>In such pursuits, Mainzer—by this time dubbed doctor by a German +university—passed five years very pleasantly, but, in a worldly point +of view, very unprofitably. He had failed on first coming to Edinburgh +in obtaining the musical chair, which seemed so appropriate a niche +for him; and however reluctant to leave his favourite normal classes +and his adopted home, still when he looked to the future, he was +compelled to think of leaving Edinburgh—for the German proverb still +held true: 'Kunst geht nach brod;' and if man cannot live by bread +<i>alone</i>, neither can the artist live <i>without</i> bread! At this +juncture, the Chevalier Neukomm, of European celebrity as a composer +and organist, and a valued friend of Dr Mainzer, came to Edinburgh to +inspect his friend's normal classes. He was so much delighted with +them, and considered Dr Mainzer so little appreciated by the general +public, that he persuaded him to try Manchester as his future field of +exertion.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1848, accordingly, Neukomm introduced Mainzer to the +leading men of that city, who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> +received him so cordially, that he at +once took his proper position, and entered on a career both useful and +profitable, and which continued to be increasingly successful, until +at Christmas 1850, he was laid aside by ill-health. Over-exertion had +brought on a complication of diseases, to which he was a martyr for +ten months, and which terminated fatally on the 10th November 1851. +During that long period of intense suffering, his active mind was +never clouded nor repining, and at every interval of comparative ease, +he read or listened to reading with avidity. During the first months +of his illness, he superintended the publication of a new musical +work, called <i>The Orpheon</i>, two numbers of which appeared; and his +last exertion in this way was arranging two songs: <i>The Sigh</i> of +Charles Swain, and Longfellow's <i>Footsteps of Angels</i>, adapted to +Weber's last song. Prophetic requiems both!</p> + +<p>A few weeks after his death, the hall which had been built in +Edinburgh for the classes of the Association which he founded, was +opened by an amateur concert given as a tribute to his memory. He had +promised to preside on this occasion; but his place was filled by his +aged, but still vigorous friend, the Chevalier Neukomm, who had come +to Edinburgh, at the request of the Association, to compose a series +of psalms, one of which was sung by the pupils. Music for the Psalms, +<i>adapted to the varying meaning of each verse</i>, has hitherto been a +desideratum in the musical world; now being supplied in Chevalier +Neukomm's work, and already subscribed for by no mean judges—the +Queen and Prince Albert, the king of Prussia, &c. It was touching, and +yet gratifying, to see one of Dr Mainzer's oft-cherished hopes +realised for the first time that evening—that of the <i>musical union</i> +of accomplished amateurs of private life with the pupils of the normal +classes.</p> + +<p>Having thus briefly traced Dr Mainzer's life, it now remains to offer +a few remarks on his general character. His talents were of a +diversified and high order; and those who knew him only as the author +of 'Singing for the Million,' were not aware of his general +cultivation of mind. In the dead and living languages, he was equally +at home: now he would be speculating on the formation of the Greek +chorus, and again mastering some dialect of modern Europe, in order to +elucidate the history of the people or their music and poetry. His +literary articles were sought after by all the leading journals in +Germany and Paris; and his volumes of <i>Sketches of Travel</i>, and of +<i>The Lower Orders in Paris</i>, are graphic and entertaining. A year or +two ago, a <i>Notice Bibliographique</i> of his works appeared in Paris, +which contained a list of above thirty publications. Great diligence, +joined to enthusiasm, enabled him to accomplish so much in these +various departments of literature. His manners, too, were of that +frank, cordial, and agreeable tone which inspires confidence, and +prepossessed every one in his favour; so that from all he could obtain +the information which he wished, and they could afford. Over his +pupils, his influence was immense. He had the rare art of engaging the +entire attention of children; and while he maintained strict +discipline, he gained their warmest affection: his own earnestness was +reflected on the countenances of his pupils.</p> + +<p>Those alone who knew him in private life could thoroughly estimate +that purity of mind and heart which eminently characterised him, along +with a childlike simplicity and unworldliness, which often, indeed, +made him the prey of designing persons, but which, joined to his +general information and cheerfulness, made his society most +attractive. His personal appearance was indicative of a delicate and +nervous organisation: slight and fragile in figure, with an +intellectual forehead and eye, that spoke of the preponderance of the +<i>spirituelle</i> in his idiosyncrasy; one of those minds which are ever +working beyond the powers of the body; ever planning new achievements +and new labours of love, and which too often, alas! go out at noonday, +while half their fond projects are unaccomplished, yet not before they +have made a name to live, and left the world their debtors!</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See <i>Chambers's Journal</i>, No. 226, New Series.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <i>Lays from Strathearn</i>, 4to.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="A_NEWCASTLE_PAPER_IN_1765-6" id="A_NEWCASTLE_PAPER_IN_1765-6"></a>A NEWCASTLE PAPER IN 1765-6.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">There</span> is scarcely anything more entertaining and instructive than a +leisurely look over an old newspaper file. A newspaper of any age is +an attraction, and the current newspaper something more, for it is now +a necessity. But the next place to it in point of interest is perhaps +due to the journal half a century, or two-thirds of a century old. It +introduces us, if we be youthful, to the habits of our grandsires; and +if we be in 'the sere, the yellow leaf,' to the habits of our fathers, +more fully than the pleasantest novel or most elaborate essay, and far +more intimately than the most correct and complete historical records. +It enables us to observe freely the position and avocations of the +denizens of the past, and catch hasty, but most suggestive glances at +bygone days; it 'shews the very age and body of the time, its form and +pressure.' It is a milestone from which we may reckon our progress, +and must delight as well as surprise us by the advancement it shews us +to have made in social and political life, particularly with regard to +those 'triumphs of mind over matter,' for which recent times have been +pre-eminently distinguished.</p> + +<p>The writer of this article had lately an opportunity of inspecting a +file of the <i>Newcastle Chronicle</i> for 1765-6, and the contrast between +journals and things in general which that examination forced on the +attention, was in some respects sufficiently striking or curious to +be, in his opinion, deserving of some permanent record. At present, +the journal in question almost, if not entirely, reaches 'the largest +size allowed by law;' at that time, it consisted merely of a single +demy sheet. Now, the Newcastle people would be amazed beyond measure +if they did not receive at breakfast-time, on the morning of +publication, the parliamentary, and all other important news of the +night; then, the latest London news was four days old. But a better +idea of the journal can perhaps be given, by stating what it lacked +than what it then contained. It had no leaders, no parliamentary +reports, and very little indeed, in any shape, that could be termed +political news. In these matters, its conductor had to say, with +Canning's knife-grinder: 'Story! God bless you, I have none to tell, +sir.' Not that the political world was unfruitful in affairs of +moment; it was a time of no small change, interest, and excitement. In +the period referred to, the Grenville ministry had endeavoured to +burden the American colonies, by means of the stamp-duties, with some +of the debt contracted in the late war. Thereupon, immense discontent +had arisen at home and abroad; that administration had fallen; and the +Rockingham ministry, which was then formed, found full employment (in +1766) in undoing what had been effected in the previous year. How the +Grafton ministry was next formed; how the unfortunate design of taxing +the colonists was revived; and how that policy ended, readers of +English history know full well. John Wilkes, too, had been already +persecuted into prominence, although not yet forced up to the height +of his popularity with the masses. But, notwithstanding these and +other stirring incidents, the <i>Chronicle</i> was, politically speaking, +almost a blank. From time to time, it was stated that the royal assent +had been given to certain measures; but concerning the preparation and +discussion of those measures, nothing was known. A few other political +facts of interest, indeed, such as the arrival of Wilkes in London +from France; the repeal of the obnoxious Stamp Act; the riots of the +Spitalfields weavers on account of the importation of French silks; +and an attack upon the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span> + Speaker, and many of the members of the Dublin +parliament, who were grossly insulted, and kept from going to the +House, in consequence of 'a report that parliament designed to impose +more taxes,' were also curtly noticed. Political rumours abounded, +although positive knowledge of that kind was exceedingly scanty; and +the little that could be obtained was eked out by inuendo, rather than +by venturing on any direct statement. The familiarity which, according +to the proverb, is apt to breed contempt, was not then indulged in +with reference to rulers, parliaments, or even agitators. The emperor +of Russia was alluded to under the title of 'a great northern +potentate;' parliament was spoken of as 'a certain august assembly;' +and Wilkes was usually entitled, 'a certain popular gentleman.'</p> + +<p>Some of the political rumours are worthy of republication. The +subjoined, from the London news of July 29, 1766, serves to shew how +long a political change may be mooted before its effect is tried in +this country: 'It is said, a bill will be brought into parliament next +session, binding elections for members of parliament to be by ballot.'</p> + +<p>And, without at all entering into the discussion of political topics, +it may perhaps be observed that the following, taken from the +<i>Chronicle</i> of August 10, 1765, points out how an evil of the present +day has long been felt and acknowledged: 'We hear the electors of a +certain borough have been offered 3000 guineas for a seat, though +there is but so short a time for the session of the present +parliament.'</p> + +<p>Great surprise is expressed (1766) that the consumption of coal in +London 'hath increased from 400,000 odd to 600,000 chaldrons yearly.' +We find that the coal imported into London during the first six months +of 1851, amounted to 1,527,527 tons, besides 90,975 tons brought into +the metropolis during the same period by railway and canal. 'Carrying +coal to Newcastle' proved a successful speculation on September 25, +1765, when, on account of a strike among the pitmen, 'several pokes of +coal were brought to this town by one of the common carriers, and sold +on the Sandhill for 9d. a poke, by which he cleared 6d. a poke.' About +the same time, wheat was selling in Darlington and Richmond for 4s. +and 4s. 6d. per bushel, after having been nearly double that price +only two or three weeks previously. In the number for June 25, 1766, +we have the following quotation from a Doncaster letter:—'Corn sold +last market-day from 12s. to 14s. per quarter; meat, from 2½d. to +3d. per pound; fowls, and other kinds of poultry, had no price, being +mostly carried home. I wish a scheme was set on foot, to run many such +articles to London by land-carriage; there is plenty here.' In the +same paper, the prices of grain in London are given: wheat, 36s. to +41s.; barley, 22s. to 25s.; oats, 16s. to 20s.</p> + +<p>Recently, the Newcastle papers, led on by the <i>Chronicle</i>, have been +making strenuous efforts to extend the French coal-trade, but such +exertions formed no part of the 'wisdom of our ancestors.' The number +for June 15, 1765, informs us that 'some sinister designs for +exporting a very considerable quantity of coals to France and +elsewhere, have lately been discovered and prevented.' Sturdy Britons +had then far too much hatred for 'our natural enemies' to wish to +exchange aught but hostilities with them. About the same time, we +learn that 'clubs of young gentlemen of fortune' had come to the +magnanimous resolve, 'to toast no lady who has so much inconsideration +as to lavish her money away in French fopperies, to the detriment of +her own country.'</p> + +<p>The style of advertising then in vogue occasionally gave the paper a +somewhat pictorial appearance. Cockfighting was in great force, and +the public announcements relative to this barbarous sport were +invariably headed by a portraiture of a couple of game-birds facing +each other with a most belligerent aspect; while the numerous +advertisements of horses 'stolen or strayed,' were embellished by a +representation of the supposed thief, mounted on the missing animal, +which was forced into a breakneck pace, while Satan himself, <i>in +propria persona</i>, was perched on the crupper, in an excited and +triumphant attitude. In the local paragraphs, we note several +indicating a strong feeling of animosity between the Scotch and +English borderers. We observe also that the Newcastle dogs—to this +day a very numerous fraternity—were at times quite unmanageable, and +caused, either by their ravenous exploits, or their downright madness, +no small uneasiness to the town and neighbourhood. It must be +confessed, that in its marriage-notices, at least, the <i>Chronicle</i> was +far superior to anything that journalism can now exhibit in Newcastle +or in Great Britain. These interesting announcements must have +intensely delighted our grandmothers; and, we fear, have frequently +tempted our grandsires into a somewhat precipitate plunge into the +gulf of matrimony. Instead of barely specifying, as papers now do, +that Mr Smith married Miss Brown, the <i>Chronicle</i> uniformly tantalised +its bachelor readers with an account of the personal, mental, and, if +such there were, metallic charms of the bride; so that how any single +gentleman, in the teeth of such notifications, could retain his +condition for long, is really marvellous. Most of the young ladies who +had thus bestowed themselves on their fortunate admirers, are +described as 'sprightly,' and many as 'genteel and agreeable;' some +have 'a genteel fortune,' other's 'a considerable fortune,' and +others, again, rejoice in the possession of 'a large fortune:' one man +gains 'a well-accomplished young lady, with a fortune of L.1000;' +another takes unto himself 'an agreeable widow lady, with a fortune of +L.2000;' a third marches off with 'a young lady endowed with every +accomplishment to make the marriage state happy, with a fortune of +L.5000;' while a fourth <i>Benedict</i>, more lucky still, obtains 'a most +amiable, affable, and agreeable young lady, with a fortune of +L.10,000.' We suppose that the best excuse newspaper editors now have +for being less florid in their matrimonial announcements is, that +where the papers formerly had one, they have now at least a dozen of +these interesting notices; so that their brevity may be less owing to +the want of gallantry than to the want of space.</p> + +<p>So extremely meagre was the news, both foreign and domestic, that a +considerable portion of the four small pages of the <i>Chronicle</i> was +usually devoted to literature. Extracts were frequently given from the +works of Johnson, Smollett, and other popular writers, and a column +was often occupied by an essay from a contributor to the paper, +generally treating of some social evil or peculiarity, but never +intermeddling with local or general politics. These effusions +displayed a very respectable amount of ability, and the general +getting-up, or what would now be termed the sub-editing of the paper, +was also performed with care and ability. The scraps of news were +always presented rewritten and carefully condensed, instead of the +loose 'scissors-and-paste' style of publication adopted by many +provincial papers of the present day. Notices not only of local +theatricals, but of histrionic matters at Old Drury, were occasionally +given; the number for March 15, 1766, containing a well-written +criticism of '<i>The Clandestine Marriage; a New Comedy</i>,' performed +there. As the <i>Chronicle</i> thus had to leave politics for literature, +we may perhaps, in our turn, digress from a consideration of its +pages, to note briefly that this period was set in the very midst of +the celebrated Georgian era, in which this country could boast of more +distinguished men—especially in literature—than at any other period. +In about twenty previous years, many great ones had departed—notably +Pope, Thomson, Fielding. Richardson also had died in 1761, and +Shenstone in 1763; the author of the <i>Night-Thoughts</i> survived till +1765, when his burial was announced in the <i>Chronicle</i> of April 27. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> + +At this time (1765-6), Dr Johnson had reached the zenith of his fame; +Gray was becoming popular; Smollett had written most of his novels; +Goldsmith was about to present the world with his exquisite <i>Vicar of +Wakefield</i>; Gibbon had returned to England from Rome with the idea of +<i>The Decline and Fall</i> floating in his brain; Thomas Chatterton,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">——'the marvellous boy,<br /></span> +<span>The sleepless soul that perished in his pride,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>had already given proofs of his wondrous precocity; the genuine +sailor-poet, Falconer, had lately published <i>The Shipwreck</i>; Laurence +Sterne had just collected the materials for his <i>Sentimental Journey</i>; +Sir William Blackstone had published his celebrated <i>Commentaries</i>; +Wesley and Whitefield had not yet ended their useful career; the star +of Edmund Burke was rising; and Jeremy Bentham, being then (1766) but +seventeen years of age, had taken his master's degree at Oxford, +although, it is true, the first literary performance of the eccentric +philosopher did not appear till some years later. Home, Moore, and +Colman, had appeared successfully as dramatists, and were about to be +followed by Macklin, Cumberland, Goldsmith, and Sheridan. Newcastle or +district celebrities of the time included Mark Akenside, the author of +<i>The Pleasures of the Imagination</i>; Dr Thomas Percy, dean of Carlisle, +who published, in 1765, his <i>Reliques of English Poetry</i>; and Dr John +Langhorne, a northern divine of no small popularity in his day as a +poet. Among other illustrious living men, were Horace Walpole, Henry +Mackenzie, Blair, Hume, Adam Smith, Dr Robertson, Garrick, Reynolds; +and last, not least, William Pitt, who, in 1766, was created Earl of +Chatham.</p> + +<p>But let us return to our more immediate purpose—that of making a few +selections from the <i>Chronicle</i>, some of which will doubtless reflect +far less credit on the age than the enumeration we have just made of +eminent individuals. Now and then, a duel took place in Hyde Park. The +amusements of some of our aristocrats did not always exhibit them in +any very dignified position, as witness the subjoined:—'Sir Charles +Bunbury ran 100 yards at Newmarket for 1000 guineas, against a tailor +with 40 lb. weight of cabbage, <i>alias</i> shreds.'</p> + +<p>Here is a paragraph, from the number for March 15, 1766, relative to +the recreations of some less elevated in the social scale: 'Sunday +morning, a little before three o'clock, a match at marbles was played +under the piazza at Covent Garden by the light of thirty-two links (by +several rogues well known in that circle), for twenty guineas a side.'</p> + +<p>A few other quotations may be deemed worthy of republication, although +some of them may have no direct or important bearing. The audacity of +highway robbers at this period is known to everybody. The following, +dated December 21, 1765, gives a tolerably correct idea of the usual +style adopted by those gentlemen of the road:—'Thursday, the Leeds +and Leicester stage-coaches were stopped on Finchley Common by a +highwayman, who took from the passengers a considerable sum of money. +A nobleman's cook, a young woman about twenty-five, declared she would +not be robbed, when the highwayman, admiring her courage, let her +alone. He broke the coach-glass with his pistol, and gave the coachman +half-a-crown to get it mended.' News from London, dated January 9, +1765, says: 'Early on Tuesday morning, a member of parliament, on his +return home in a chair to his house in New Palace Yard, was stopped +and robbed by a single footpad of his purse, in which were sixty-three +guineas.'</p> + +<p>About the same time, we are informed that 'the celebrated J.J. +Rousseau hath for the present taken up his residence at a friend's +house in Putney.'—The number for October 26, 1765, contains an +advertisement of a 'beggar's stand' (copied from the <i>Public +Advertiser</i>), 'to be let, in a charitable neighbourhood. Income, about +30s. a week.'</p> + +<p>The following reference to our acquaintances, the Sikhs, now +sufficiently well known, is curious, as it is doubtless one of their +first appearances in the columns of the English press. It is dated +July 5, 1766: 'The Seyques, an idolatrous people inhabiting the +neighbourhood of Cachemire, whose name was hardly known two years ago, +have beaten Abdaly and the Patanes whom he commanded.' Modern Cockneys +would stare to read a paragraph like this: 'A great deal of grass hath +been cut down about Islington, Kentish-Town,' &c.</p> + +<p>We will conclude our selections, which have now grown quite desultory +and miscellaneous, by the brief obituary of a 'remarkable' man, from +the <i>Chronicle</i> of July 26, 1766: 'Thursday, died at his house near +Hampstead, the Rev. Mr Southcote, remarkable for having a leg of +mutton every night for supper during a course of forty years, smoking +ten pipes as constantly, and drinking three bottles of port.'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="GENIUS_FOR_EMIGRATION" id="GENIUS_FOR_EMIGRATION"></a>GENIUS FOR EMIGRATION.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">Lady E. Stuart Wortley</span>, in the account of her journey in America, +mentions that she saw a man proceeding on foot across the Isthmus of +Panama, bound for the Pacific, carrying a huge box on his back that +would almost have contained a house. It was really a dreadful thing to +see the poor man, full-cry for California, toiling along with his +enormous burden, under a tropical sun, the heat of which he required +to endure through forty miles of wilderness, and no chance of relief +or refreshment by the way. Yet this serio-comic spectacle is not +singular. Multitudes seem to have gone to the diggings with every +species of encumbrance, and in a totally unsuitable garb. Splendid +dress-coats and waistcoats, boots and pantaloons, but no +working-clothes, nor implements for camping, and in many instances not +even a cloak: everything suitable for the enjoyment of their golden +promises, with nothing to assist in realising them.</p> + +<p>Nearly the same thing has occurred in innumerable instances as regards +Australia. The men going thither must in general be shepherds or their +masters; and to be either to any purpose, they must go far into the +bush. For this they required a talent for constructing huts for +themselves and servants, and hurdles for the cattle, and consequently +tools to assist them; but they often went without either tools or +talents, and so had to pay extravagantly for very common services. +They may have had common clothes, but they had made no provision for +living far from the assistance of women; and consequently, if a +coat-sleeve was torn, it must hang just as it was; if a stocking was +out at heel, having neither needles nor worsted, nor the power of +using them, they had no other resource but to <i>tie</i> the <i>hole</i> +together. They had no idea of washing and dressing, and consequently +must want clean linen, or stockings, and every other article of clean +apparel, till a woman could be heard of, and bribed to assist them. +The consequence was, that it was cheaper to buy new articles than +either wash or mend the old. It is doubtful whether many had not +omitted to learn to shave themselves, or to provide razors or strops, +or even scissors.</p> + +<p>Then as to baking bread, or cooking the humblest meal, they were +equally at a loss. They seem to have had no idea of the humblest +grate, or even of a flat and easily-cleaned stone for a hearth; and +so, having kneaded their 'damper,' it is never said how they thrust it +in the ashes till it was partially heated, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> +comparatively fit to +be eaten. They have mutton, and mutton only; but how cooked is equally +unknown. It is not known that they have any apparatus whatever, stew +or frying pan, or even a hook and string. Yet the natives of Scotland +may have seen many things nicely baked by means of a hot hearthstone +below, a griddle with live coals above, and burning turf all round. A +single pot with water is a boiler; with the juice of the meat, or +little more, a stew-pan; or merely surrounded by fire, an oven: but it +is believed many have not that single pot. Even the cheap crock that +holds salted meat might also be turned into a pudding-dish; and such a +vessel as that which of old held the ashes of the dead, and now +occasionally holds salt, the French peasant often turns into a +<i>pot-au-feu</i>—a pot for boiling his soup—and makes that soup out of +docks and nettles collected by the wayside, with a little +meal—delicious if seasoned with salt and a scrap of meat, or a +well-picked lark or sparrow, or even a nicely-skinned and washed thigh +of a frog!</p> + +<p>The natives of New Holland themselves get fat upon serpents +well-killed—that is, with the heads adroitly cut off, so as not to +suffer the poison to go through the body; or upon earth or tree worms +nicely roasted. The Turks roast their <i>kebabs</i>—something near to +mutton-chops—by holding them to the fire on skewers. But the +inhabitants of Great Britain, accustomed to comforts unknown to any +other part of the world, are, when deprived of these comforts, the +most helpless in the world.</p> + +<p>The natives of Ireland might be supposed to be excellent subjects for +emigration, for at home they have often only straw and rags for beds, +stones for seats, and one larger in the middle for a table; while the +basket or 'kish' that washes the potatoes, receives them again when +boiled: so that the pot and basket are the only articles of furniture. +Simplicity beyond this is hardly conceivable: there is but one step +beyond it—wanting the pot, and throwing the potatoes, however cooked, +broadcast upon the stone-table; and this is possible by roasting +the potatoes in the embers. The Guachos of South America teach how +even the most savoury meal of beef may be obtained without pot +or oven—namely, by roasting it in the skin! It is called +<i>carne-con-cuero</i>—flesh in the skin—and is pronounced delicious. +Diogenes threw away his dish, his only article of furniture, upon +seeing a boy drink from his hand; and after this example, an Irishman +might throw away his pot; though we would not recommend him to do so.</p> + +<p>Unless people know how to prepare food, they may starve in the midst +of comparative plenty. It is alleged—though we do not vouch for the +fact—that when wheat and maize were carried into Ireland and given +gratis, the famine was not stayed. Though they had the wheat and +maize, they could not grind them; if ground, they could not cook +them—they had neither vessels nor fuel; if vessels and fuel were +given, they were still unable to assist themselves—they had not skill +to cook them; and if cooked, they could not eat them—they had never +been accustomed to do so! Such are the effects of carrying contentment +too far: the individual becomes wholly resourceless.</p> + +<p>We try to induce them to fish with the same results. If we give them +boats, they have no nets; give them nets, they know not how to use +them; teach them to use them, and they can neither cook nor eat the +fish; and as to selling them for other comforts, there is no market! +Without a knowledge of agriculture, or fishing, or even talents to +feed themselves, such men are useless in any quarter, unless as +subjects to be taught; and now at last, but greatly too late, they are +being taught, and the much-abused railway will carry their produce to +the market.</p> + +<p>The Scottish Celt is more shifty. In the old days when he had flesh +and little else to eat, he could broil it on the coals; and a Scotch +collop is perhaps equal to a Turkish kebob. We wonder if in Australia +the long-forgotten Scotch collop has been revived? It requires no +cooking-vessels. It may be held to the fire on a twig, or laid on the +coals and turned by a similar twig—bent into a collop-tongs—or even +by the fingers.</p> + +<p>In the Rebellion of 1745, the Scoto-Celt could knead into a cake the +meal, which he carried as his sole provision, and knew that it ought +to be fired upon a griddle; but if he had no other convenience, he +could knead it in his bonnet, and eat it raw, and go forth to meet and +conquer the best-appointed soldiers in Europe. It was only when at +last he had neither rest nor food that he was dispersed—not +conquered. A lowland Scot is better. With a dish and hot water, and of +course the meal and salt, he can make <i>brose</i>, and live and thrive +upon it.</p> + +<p>How John Bull, who in his own country is carnivorous, and will have +his roast-pig on Sunday, if he should slave all the week—how he gets +on in a new country, is more doubtful. Very likely, having more wants, +he makes more provision for them; but as below a certain rank he is +not a writing animal, less is known of his successes or difficulties. +For our own part, we think we would have made an excellent Crusoe, and +your Crusoe is the only man for a new country.</p> + +<p>Some years ago, we travelled over the backbone of Scotland, and +returned somewhat on its western fin, both on foot; and all our +equipments were a travelling dress, a stout umbrella, and a parcel in +wax-cloth strapped on our left shoulder, not larger than is generally +seen in the hands of a commercial traveller—that is, twelve inches by +six or eight; and yet we never wanted for anything. It is true we had +generally the convenience of inns by the way; but if by our +<i>Traveller's Guide</i> (which we also carried) we saw the stage was to be +long, an oaten cake, with a <i>plug</i> of wheaten bread for the last +mouthful, to keep down heartburn, and a slice of cold beef or ham, or +a hard-boiled egg, were ample provisions. Drink? There was no lack of +drink. Springs of the most beautiful water were frequent by the +roadside, and constantly bubbling up, without noise or motion, through +the purest sand, though heaven only was looking upon them; and a +single leaf from our memorandum-book, formed into the shape of a +grocer's twist as wanted, served us as a drinking-cup throughout the +journey. Had we even been overtaken by night, it was summer, and a bed +under whins, or upon heather, with our umbrella set against the wind, +and secured to us, would have been delightful. Once, indeed, we feared +this would have been our fate; for on the very top of Corryarrick, and +consequently nine miles or more from house or home in any direction, +we sprained our ankle, or rather an old sprain returned. To all +appearance, we were done for, and might have sat stiff for days or +weeks by the solitary spring that happened to be near at the instant. +But a piece of flannel from the throat, and a tape from the wondrous +parcel, enabled us again to wag; and we finished our allotted journey +to Dalwhinnie in time for dinner, tea, and supper in one—and then to +our journal with glorious serenity!</p> + +<p>Our arrangements for the continent were equally simple. When we were +asked to shew our luggage, on entering France, we produced a +portmanteau nine inches by six. 'Voila ma magasin!' It was opened, and +there were certainly some superfluities, though natural enough in an +incipient traveller. 'Une plume pour écrire l'Histoire de la +France!'—'Un cahier pour la même!' And the intending historian of +France, even with his imported pen and paper-book, and also three +shirts and some pairs of socks, was allowed to go to his dinner, with +his <i>magasin</i> in his hand, and start by the first conveyance; while +his less fortunate fellow-travellers had to dine in absence of their +luggage, and perhaps give the town that had the honour of being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> +their +landing-place, the profit of their company for the night.</p> + +<p>But what is the use of all these insinuations of aptitude for +colonisation, when there is not such another man in the world? We beg +pardon; but we have actually discovered such another, and to introduce +him suitably has been the sole aim of our existence in writing this +interesting preface. In a most authentic newspaper, we find the +following admirable history, copied from the <i>New York Express</i>:—</p> + +<p>'A man who had been an unsuccessful delver in the mines of Georgia, on +hearing the thrilling news of the gold placers of California, had his +spirit quickened within him; and although he had arrived at an +age—being about sixty—when the fires of youth usually cease to burn +with vigour, he fixed his eyes upon the far-distant and but +little-known country, and resolved that he would wend his way thither +alone, and even in the absence of that friend, generally thought +indispensable, money, of which he was wholly destitute.</p> + +<p>'Under such circumstances, it would not avail to think of a passage +round "The Horn," or by the more uncertain, and at the same time +imperfected route, across the Isthmus. But as California was on this +continent, he knew that there was a way thither, though it might lead +through trackless deserts and barren wastes. These were not enough to +daunt his determined spirit. He bent his way to the "Father of +Waters," and worked his way as he could, till he found himself at +"Independence," in health, and with no less strength, and with 150 +dollars in his purse. He had no family to provide for, or even +companion to care for, on the route which he was about to enter. Yet +some things were necessary for himself; and to relieve his body from +the pressure of a load, he provided himself with a wheel-barrow, on +which to place his traps.</p> + +<p>'It must not be supposed that our hero was ignorant of the large +number of emigrants that was moving over the plains, and it is quite +probable that his sagacity was precocious enough to look ahead at the +result of attempting to carry forward such ponderous loads, and such a +variety of at least dispensable things as the earlier parties started +with. A detailed list of the 'amount and variety of goods and wares, +useful and superfluous, including many of the appendages of refined +and fashionable life, would astonish the reader. Our hero was not in a +hurry. He reasoned thus: "The world was not made in a day; the race is +not always for the swift." He trundled along his barrow, enjoying the +comforts of his pipe, the object of wonder to many, and the subject of +much sportive remark to those who were hurried along by their fresh +and spirited teams on their first days.</p> + +<p>'Many weeks had not passed, however, before our traveller had tangible +evidence that trouble had fallen to the lot of some who had preceded +him. A stray ox was feeding on his track: the mate of which, he +afterwards learned, was killed, and this one turned adrift as useless. +He coaxed this waif to be the companion of his journey, taking care to +stop where he could provide himself with the needful sustenance. He +had not travelled far before he found a mate for his ox, and ere long +a wagon, which had given way in some of its parts, and been abandoned +by its rightful owner, and left in the road. Our travelling genius was +aroused to turn these mishaps to his own advantage; so he went +straightway to work to patch and bolster up the wagon, bound his +faithful oxen to it, and changed his employment from trundling a +wheel-barrow to driving a team. Onward moved the new establishment, +the owner gathering as he went, from the superabundance of those who +had gone before him, various articles of utility—such as flour, +provisions of all kinds, books, implements, even rich carpets, &c. +which had been cast off as burdensome by other travellers. He would +occasionally find poor worn-out animals that had been left behind, and +as it was not important for him to speed his course, he gathered them +together, stopping where there was abundance of grass, long enough for +his cattle to gain a little strength and spirit. Time rolled on, and +his wagon rolled with it, till he reached the end of his journey, when +it was discovered that he had an uncommon fine team and a good wagon, +&c. which produced him on the sale 2500 dollars.</p> + +<p>'Being now relieved of the care of his team, and in the midst of the +gold-diggings, he soon closed his prospecting by a location; and while +all around him were concentrating their strength to consummate the +work of years in a few months, he deliberately commenced building, +finishing, and, as fast as he could, furnishing, a comfortable cabin. +His wood he gathered and regularly piled in a straight line and +perpendicular by the door, convenient as though the old lady had been +within to provide his meals. He acted upon the adage, "Never to start +till you are ready." Now our hero was ready to commence working his +"claim;" and this he did, as he did everything else, steadily and +systematically.</p> + +<p>'He may yet be seen at his work, with the prospect—if he lives to be +an old man—of being rich; for in the last two years he has +accumulated 10,000 dollars.'</p> + +<p>Need we add a word? This is decidedly the kind of man for +emigrating—or, indeed, for remaining at home. We, being of his own +character, can conceive his delicious nights of camping out, his head +under his wheel-barrow, until he arrived at the dignity of a wagon; +his principal luggage being perhaps a coverlet, to preserve him from +the cold in sleep, and a gun that unscrewed, and its appendages, to +provide him a fresh bird or beef. It is very probable that he sought +neither of these, but was contented with something concentrated and +preserved, and thus feasted; and with a drink from some delicious +spring, or from a bottle—that could not be broken—supplied at the +last spring he had passed, lay down conscious of his progress, well +satisfied with the past, and hopeful of the future.</p> + +<p>On his arrival at his destination, his conduct is equally exemplary. +Every one should provide for the preservation of life and health as +first measures; and if not done at a rate which future exertions are +likely to render profitable, why make the expenditure? Now, many +are in all these new adventures expending on inevitable +necessities—having made no previous provision for them—such sums as +render all their exertions hopeless; while at the same time they are +sacrificing health and strength.</p> + +<p>The government of Australia has certainly been very successful in +preserving order at the gold placers there, and has given its sanction +upon moderate terms; for here, we believe, gold and silver mines are +<i>inter regalia</i>, and could have been entirely seized by the crown. We +sincerely trust it will appropriate the great and unexpected revenue +thence arising in improving the roads through this magnificent +country, and providing shelter for the traveller; for at this moment, +many of the roads being over the steepest mountains, and the gradients +unmitigated by cuttings, or any other act of engineering whatever, +they are all but impassable, and are travelled with the greatest +torture to the unfortunate animals concerned. It was the reproach of +Spain, that though in possession of South America for centuries, she +had formed few roads; and that the few formed were bad, and the +accommodation in their neighbourhood of the worst description—often +open sheds, without food or furniture, or indeed inhabitants; or if +inhabited, with only stones for seats, and raised mounds of earth for +beds. Even now, in little more than half a century, things are better +in Australia than this, at least wherever government has extended. But +there is a vast deal more to be done; and it is a pity that in the +first place suitable schools are not formed for the persons +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> +intending +to emigrate, and opportunity given them to do so, without the +degradation of crime, and the expense and disgrace of conviction.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="EMPLOYEES_AND_EMPLOYED" id="EMPLOYEES_AND_EMPLOYED"></a>EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> <i>Westminster Review</i> for January, in an able and temperate +article, entitled <i>Employers and Employed</i>, delineates the progress of +the working power from the original condition of <i>serfdom</i>, through +that of <i>vassalage</i>, which prevailed in the middle ages, to the system +of simple contract in which we now find it in France and America. This +the writer regards as part of a universal progress towards a more and +more equalised condition of the various orders of men—'an equality, +not perhaps of wealth, or of mind, or of inherent power, but of social +condition, and of individual rights and freedom.' In England, however, +we are only in a state of transition from that relation of protection +on the one hand, and respect or loyalty on the other, which +constituted the system of vassalage, to the true democratic relation +which assumes a perfect equality and independence in the contracting +parties. 'The master cannot divest himself of the idea, that in virtue +of his rank he is entitled to deference and submission; and the +workman conceives that, in virtue of his comparative poverty, he is +entitled to assistance in difficulty, and to protection from the +consequences of his own folly and improvidence. Each party expects +from the other something more than is expressed or implied in the +covenant between them. The workman, asserting his equality and +independence, claims from his employer services which only inferiority +can legitimately demand; the master, tacitly and in his heart denying +this equality and independence, repudiates claims which only the +validity of this plea of equality and independence can effectually +nonsuit or liquidate.'</p> + +<p>Arguing that 'the reciprocal duties of employers and employed, <i>as +such</i>, are comprised within the limits of their covenant,' the writer +goes on to say, that nevertheless there remains a relation of +'fellow-citizenship and of Christian <i>neighbourhood</i>,' by virtue of +which the employer owes service to his work-people, seeing that 'every +man owes service to every man whom he is in a position to serve.' Let +not the Pharisaic fundholder and lazy mortgagee suppose that the great +employers of labour are thus under a peculiar obligation from which +<i>they</i> are exempt. The obligation is assumed to be equal upon all who +have power and means; and it only lies with special weight at the door +of the employer of multitudes, in as far as he is in a situation to +exercise influence over their character and conduct, and usually has +greater means of rendering aid suited to their particular necessities.</p> + +<p>Before proceeding to expound the various duties thus imposed upon the +employer, the writer lays down a primary duty as essential to the due +performance of the rest—namely, he must see to making his business +succeed; and for this end he must possess a sufficient capital at +starting; and he must not, for any reasons of vanity or benevolence, +or through laxness, pay higher wages than the state of the +labour-market and the prospects of trade require. Of the secondary +duties which next come in course—and which, be it remembered, arise +not from the mastership, but from the neighbourship—the first is that +of 'making his factory, and the processes carried on there, as healthy +as care and sanitary science can render them.' 'This is the more +incumbent upon him, as it is little likely to be thought of or +demanded by his workmen. It is a topic on which his cultivated +intelligence is almost sure to place him far ahead of them; and out of +the superiority, as we have seen, springs the obligation.' Our +reviewer adds the remark, that, 'in the minor workshops, and +especially in the work-rooms of tailors and seamstresses, the +employers are still, for the most part, unawakened to the importance +and imperativeness of this class of obligations. The health of +thousands is sacrificed from pure ignorance and want of thought.'</p> + +<p>One mode of serving those who work for him, which the circumstances +render appropriate, is to provide them with decent and comfortable +dwellings. Much has been done in this way. 'In almost all country +establishments, and in most of those in the smaller towns, the +employers have been careful to surround their mills with substantial +and well-built cottages, often with gardens attached to them, +containing four rooms—kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms: cottages +which are let for rents which at once remunerate the owner and are +easy for the occupier.' Even in large towns, where there are great +local difficulties, something has been done by the building of Model +Lodging-houses, and by the efforts of Societies for improving the +Dwellings of the Poor. The writer specifies one of the greatest +difficulties as existing in the working-people themselves: when +provided with a variety of rooms for the separation of the various +members of their families, they are very apt to defeat the whole plan +by taking in lodgers, and contenting themselves with the filthy and +depraving huddlement out of which their benevolent superiors +endeavoured to rescue them. But it may be hoped that, by promoting +only a few of the more intelligent and better-disposed to such +improved dwellings, and thus setting up good examples, the multitude +might in time be trained to an appreciation of the decency and comfort +of ampler accommodation. Another wide field of usefulness is open to +the employers in the establishment of schools, reading-rooms, baths, +wash-houses, and the like.</p> + +<p>It strikes us that the writer of this article is not true to his own +principle in his view of the duties of the employer. We readily grant +the duty of making his business prosperous and his workshops healthy. +To fail in the latter particular especially, were not merely to fail +in a duty, but to incur a heavy positive blame. But we cannot see how +it is incumbent on the employer to provide houses for the persons who +enter into the labour-contract with him, any more than to see that +they get their four-pound loaf of a certain quality or price. It may +be a graceful thing, a piece of noble benevolence, to enter into these +building schemes, but it is also to go back into that system of +vassalage out of which it is assumed that the relation of employer and +employed is passing. Either the new buildings will pay as +speculations, or they will not. If they are sure to pay, ordinary +speculators will be as ready to furnish them as bakers are to sell +bread. If the contrary be the case, why burden with the actual or +probable loss the party in a simple contract which involves no such +obligation? Clearly, there must be no great reason to expect a fair +return for capital laid out in this way, or we should see building +schemes for the working-classes taken up extensively by ordinary +speculators. For employers, then, to enter into such plans, must in +some degree be the result of benevolent feelings towards their men; +and, so far, we must hold there is an acknowledgment on both sides +that the system of vassalage is not yet extinct amongst us, and that +the time for its extinction is not yet come.</p> + +<p>If we look, however, at the entire condition of the working-people of +England, we shall see that it acknowledges the same truth in some of +its broadest features. When a time of depression comes, and factories +do not require half of their usual number of hands, or even so many, +it is never expected, on any hand, that the superfluous labourers are +to maintain themselves till better times return. The employer is +expected to keep them in his service, at least on short time, and at a +reduced remuneration, although at a ruinous loss to himself. The +workmen, though well aware of the contingency, make little or no +provision against it, but calmly trust to the funds of their +employers, or the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span> +contributions of the class to which these belong. +Now, while such a practice exists, the relation of employer and +employed is not that of independent contractors, but so far that of +the feudal baron and his villeins, or of a chieftain and his +'following.' It is, in effect, a voluntarily maintained slavery on the +part of the operatives—a habit as incompatible with political liberty +as with moral dignity and progress, and therefore a sore evil in our +state. Obviously, to perfect the system of independent contract, the +workmen would need to redeem themselves from that condition of utter +<i>unprovidedness</i> in which the great bulk of them are for the present +content to live. Instead of what we see so prevalent now—a sort of +hopelessness as to the benefits of saving—a dread to let it be known +or imagined of them that they possess any store, lest it lead to a +reduction of their wages (a foolish fallacy), or deprive them of a +claim on their employer's consideration in the event of a period of +depression (a mean and unworthy fear), we must see a dignified sense +of independence, resting on the possession of some kind of property, +before we can expect that even this stage in the Progress of Labour +shall be truly reached.</p> + +<p>But is it not just one of the essential disadvantages attending the +contract system, or may we rather call it the system of weekly hire, +that while it prompts the employer to frugality, by the obvious +benefits to him of constant accumulation, it leaves the employed, as a +mass, without a sufficient motive to the same virtue, and thus insures +their being retained in that unprovidedness which forbids independence +and true social dignity? On this point, were we a workman, we should +be sorry to rest in an affirmative, or to allow it to slacken our +exertions or sap our self-denial; because if there is a higher +development of the labouring state in store for society, it can only +be attained by the more speedy perfection of the contract state in +<i>the entire independence of the workman</i>. The writer from whom we have +quoted thinks, and with his sentiments we entirely concur, that +'society, in its progress towards an ideal state, may have to undergo +modifications, compared with which all previous ones will seem +trifling and superficial. Of one thing only can we feel +secure—namely, that the loyal and punctual discharge of all the +obligations arising out of existing social relations will best hallow, +beautify, and elevate those relations, if they are destined to be +permanent; and will best prepare a peaceful and beneficent advent for +their successors, if, like so much that in its day seemed eternal, +they too are doomed to pass away.'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="ANECDOTE_OF_THE_FIELD_OF_SHERRIFMUIR" id="ANECDOTE_OF_THE_FIELD_OF_SHERRIFMUIR"></a>ANECDOTE OF THE FIELD OF SHERRIFMUIR.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>My grandfather, William Wilson, was born in the farmhouse of Drumbrae, +on the estate of Airthrey, at no great distance from the field of +Sherrifmuir. At the rebellion of 1715, he was a lad of fifteen years +of age, and learning that the rebels under the Earl of Mar had met +with the royal forces under the Duke of Argyle in the neighbourhood, +on the morning of Sunday the 12th November, while it was still dusk, +he went to the top of a neighbouring hill named Glentye, from which +the whole of the moor was discernible, and on which a number of +country people were stationed, attracted to the spot, like himself, by +curiosity. Being at no great distance from both armies, he could see +them distinctly. The Highlanders, who observed no regular order, he +compared to a large, dark, formless cloud, forming a striking contrast +to the regular lines and disciplined appearance of the royal army. +After observing them for some space of time, an orderly dragoon, sent +by the Duke of Argyle, rode up to the spot where the spectators stood, +warning them to remove from a position in which they were in as great +danger as the combatants themselves. My grandfather accordingly +returned home, listening with awe to the sharp report of musketry, +intermixed with the booming of cannon, which now informed him that the +battle had commenced. He had not been long in the house when a +dismounted dragoon made his appearance, requesting to have his left +wrist bandaged, so as to stop the blood. The hand had been cut off, +and his horse killed under him, and he was on his way to Stirling to +seek surgical aid. While his wishes were being complied with, he +occupied himself in taking some refreshment, till one of the +farm-servants came in and warned him that four armed Highlanders were +coming down the hill in the direction of the house. The soldier, who +had no doubt been taught at the Marlborough school, and served perhaps +at Ramillies and Blenheim, immediately went out to the front of the +house, which concealed him from his enemies. Presently, he heard by +the footsteps that one was near, when he instantly presented himself +at the gable, and shot the foremost Highlander with his carbine; then, +seeing that the others came on in Indian file, with short distances +between, he advanced to meet them, dropped the second with a bullet +from his pistol, and cut down the third with his sword. The fourth, +seeing the fate of his comrades, took to flight. After this wholesale +execution, the dragoon, with perfect coolness, returned to the house, +finished his repast, tranquilly said his thanks and adieus, and went +off in the direction of Stirling. The next morning the country people +were summoned to bury the dead. The ground was thickly covered with +cranreuch, and life still remained in numbers of both armies, who +begged earnestly for water. But what struck my grandfather +particularly was, that the heads and bodies of a great many of the +slain royalists were horribly mutilated by the claymores of the +Highlanders; while on those of the Highlanders themselves nothing was +observed but the wound which had caused their death.—<i>Communicated by +Mr Alexander Wilson, shoemaker, Stirling.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THINNESS_OF_A_SOAP-BUBBLE" id="THINNESS_OF_A_SOAP-BUBBLE"></a>THINNESS OF A SOAP-BUBBLE.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>A soap-bubble as it floats in the light of the sun reflects to the eye +an endless variety of the most gorgeous tints of colour. Newton +shewed, that to each of these tints corresponds a certain thickness of +the substance forming the bubble; in fact, he shewed, in general, that +all transparent substances, when reduced to a certain degree of +tenuity, would reflect these colours. Near the highest point of the +bubble, just before it bursts, is always observed a spot which +reflects no colour and appears black. Newton shewed that the thickness +of the bubble at this black point was the 2,500,000th part of an inch! +Now, as the bubble at this point possesses the properties of water as +essentially as does the Atlantic Ocean, it follows that the ultimate +molecules forming water must have less dimensions than this +thickness.—<i>Lardner's Handbook.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="ENGLISH_PLOUGHING" id="ENGLISH_PLOUGHING"></a>ENGLISH PLOUGHING.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>The following, written from England, is going the round of the papers, +and is as true as the gospel, in my opinion. I have seen better +ploughing here with a pair of oxen than in the old country with five +horses; but Johnny won't learn. 'Lord! only look at five great, +elephant-looking beasts in one plough, with one great lummokin fellow +to hold the handle, and another to carry the whip, and a boy to lead, +whose boots have more iron on them than the horses' hoofs have, all +crawling as if going to a funeral! What sort of a way is that to do +work? It makes me mad to look at 'em. If there is any airthly clumsy +fashion of doin' a thing, that's the way they are always sure to git +here. They're a benighted, obstinate, bull-headed people the English, +that's the fact, and always was.' Well done, Jonathan—quite +true!—<i>From a private Letter from Boston.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="JOHN_BUNYAN_AND_MINCE-PIES" id="JOHN_BUNYAN_AND_MINCE-PIES"></a>JOHN BUNYAN AND MINCE-PIES.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>In No. 417 of this Journal it is chronicled that John Bunyan scrupled +to eat mince-pies, because of the superstitious character popularly +attached to them; but it would appear from an anecdote sent to us by a +correspondent, that if this was true at all of the author of the +<i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>, he must have received new light upon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span> +the +subject at a later period of life. When he was imprisoned for +preaching—so says the anecdote—in Bedford jail, a superstitious +lady, thinking to entrap him, sent a servant to request his acceptance +of a Christmas pie; whereupon Banyan replied: 'Tell your mistress that +I accept her present thankfully, for I have learned to distinguish +between a mince-pie and superstition.'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="FOREST-TEACHINGS" id="FOREST-TEACHINGS"></a>FOREST-TEACHINGS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sc">There</span> was travelling in the wild-wood<br /> +<span class="i2">Once, a child of song;<br /></span> +<span>And he marked the forest-monarchs<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As he went along.<br /></span> +<span>Here, the oak, broad-eaved and spreading;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here, the poplar tall;<br /></span> +<span>Here, the holly, forky-leaved;<br /></span> +<span>Here, the yew, for the bereaved;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here, the chestnut, with its flowers, and its spine-bestudded ball.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Here, the cedar, palmy-branchèd;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here, the hazel low;<br /></span> +<span>Here, the aspen, quivering ever;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here, the powdered sloe.<br /></span> +<span>Wondrous was their form and fashion,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Passing beautiful to see<br /></span> +<span>How the branches interlaced,<br /></span> +<span>How the leaves each other chased,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fluttering lightly hither, thither on the wind-arousèd tree.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Then he spake to those wood-dwellers:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Ye are like to men,<br /></span> +<span>And I learn a lesson from ye<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With my spirit's ken.<br /></span> +<span>Like to us in low beginning,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Children of the patient earth;<br /></span> +<span>Born, like us, to rise on high,<br /></span> +<span>Ever nearer to the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, like us, by slow advances from the minute of your birth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'And, like mortals, ye have uses—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Uses each his own:<br /></span> +<span>Each his gift, and each his beauty,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Not to other known.<br /></span> +<span>Thou, O oak, the strong ship-builder,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For thy country's good,<br /></span> +<span>Givest up thy noble life,<br /></span> +<span>Like a patriot in the strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Givest up thy heart of timber, as he poureth out his blood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Thou, O poplar, tall and taper,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Reachest up on high;<br /></span> +<span>Like a preacher pointing upward—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upward to the sky.<br /></span> +<span>Thou, O holly, with thy berries,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gleaming redly bright,<br /></span> +<span>Comest, like a pleasant friend,<br /></span> +<span>When the dying year hath end,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Comest to the Christmas party, round the ruddy fire-light.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Thou, O yew, with sombre branches,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And dark-veilèd head—<br /></span> +<span>Like a monk within the church-yard,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When the prayers are said,<br /></span> +<span>Standing by the newly-buried<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the depth of thought—<br /></span> +<span>Tellest, with a solemn grace,<br /></span> +<span>Of the earthly dwelling-place,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the soul to live for ever—of the body come to nought,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Thou, O cedar, storm-enduring,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bent with years, and old,<br /></span> +<span>Standest with thy broad-eaved branches,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shadowing o'er the mould;<br /></span> +<span>Shadowing o'er the tender saplings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like a patriarch mild,<br /></span> +<span>When he lifts his hoary head,<br /></span> +<span>And his hands a blessing shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the little ones around him—on the children of his child.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'And the light, smooth-barkèd hazel,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the dusky sloe,<br /></span> +<span>Are the poor men of the forest—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are the weak and low.<br /></span> +<span>Yet unto the poor is given<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Power the earth to bless;<br /></span> +<span>And the sloe's small fruit of down,<br /></span> +<span>And the hazel's clusters brown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are the tribute they can offer—are their mite of usefulness.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'When the awful words were spoken,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"It is finishèd!"—<br /></span> +<span>When the all-loving heart was broken,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bowed the patient head;<br /></span> +<span>When the earth grew dark as midnight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In her solemn awe—<br /></span> +<span>Then the forest-branches all<br /></span> +<span>Bent, with reverential fall—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bent, as bent the Jewish foreheads at the giving of the law.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'But one tree was in the forest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That refused to bow;<br /></span> +<span>Then a sudden blast came o'er it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a whisper low<br /></span> +<span>Made the leaves and branches quiver—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shook the guilty tree;<br /></span> +<span>And the voice was: "Tremble ever<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To eternity:<br /></span> +<span>Be a lesson from thee read—<br /></span> +<span>He that boweth not his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And obeyeth not his Maker, let him fear eternally!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'So thou standest ever shaking,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ever quivering with fear,<br /></span> +<span>For the voice is still upon thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the whisper near.<br /></span> +<span>Like the guilty, conscience-haunted;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the name for thee<br /></span> +<span>Is, "The tree of many thoughts"—<br /></span> +<span>Is, "The tree of many doubts;"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thy leaves are thoughts and doubtings—for thou art the sinner's tree.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Thou, O chestnut, richly branched,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Standest in thy might,<br /></span> +<span>Rising like a leafy tower<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the summer light.<br /></span> +<span>And thy branches are fruit-laden,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Waving bold and free;<br /></span> +<span>And the beams upon thee shed<br /></span> +<span>Are like blessings on thy head:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou art strong, and fair, and fruitful—for thou art the good man's tree.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'So, farewell, great forest-teachers:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There is a spirit dwells<br /></span> +<span>In the veinings of each leaflet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In each flower's cells:<br /></span> +<span>Ye have each a voice and lesson,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And ye seem to say:<br /></span> +<span>"Open, man, thine eyes to see<br /></span> +<span>In each flower, stone, and tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Something pure and something holy, as thou passest on thy way."'<br /></span> +<span class="i52">F.C.W.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Printed and Published by W. and K. <span class="sc">Chambers</span>, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W.S. <span class="sc">Orr</span>, Amen Corner, London; D.N. <span class="sc">Chambers</span>, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. <span class="sc">M'Glashan</span>, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.—Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +<span class="sc">Maxwell & Co.</span>, 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, +New Series, February 14, 1852, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + +***** This file should be named 15549-h.htm or 15549-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/4/15549/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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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: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, New Series, February 14, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: April 5, 2005 [EBook #15549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + No. 424. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2 _d_. + + + + +THE PATTERN NATION. + + +It seems to be the destiny of France to work out all sorts of problems +in state and social policy. It may be said to volunteer experiments in +government for the benefit of mankind. All kinds of forms it tries, +one after the other: each, in turn, is supposed to be the right thing; +and when found to be wrong, an effort, fair or unfair, is made to try +something else. It would surely be the height of ingratitude not to +thank our versatile neighbour for this apparently endless series of +experiments. + +Unfortunately, the novel projects extemporised by the French are not +on all occasions easily laid aside. What they have laid hold on, they +cannot get rid of. We have a striking instance of this in the practice +of subdividing lands. Forms of state administration may be altered, +and after all not much harm done; it is only changing one variety of +power at the Tuileries for another. A very different thing is a +revolution in the method of holding landed property. Few things are +more dangerous than to meddle with laws of inheritance: if care be not +taken, the whole fabric of society may be overthrown. The unpleasant +predicament which the French have got into on this account is most +alarming--far more terrible than the wildest of their revolutions. How +they are to get out of it, no man can tell. + +Latterly, the world has heard much of Socialism. This is the term +applied to certain new and untried schemes of social organisation, by +which, among other things, it is proposed to supersede the ordinary +rights of property and laws of inheritance--the latter, as is +observed, having, after due experience, failed to realise that +happiness of condition which was anticipated sixty years ago at their +institution. As it is always instructive to look back on the first +departure from rectitude, let us say a few words as to how the French +fell into their present unhappy position. + +At the Revolution of 1789-93, it will be recollected that the laws of +primogeniture were overthrown, and it was ordained that in future +every man's property should be divided equally among his children at +his death: there can be no doubt that considerations of justice and +humanity were at the foundation of this new law of inheritance. +Hitherto, there had been a great disparity in the condition of high +and low: certain properties, descending from eldest son to eldest son, +had become enormously large, and were generally ill managed; while +prodigious numbers of people had no property at all, and were +dependents on feudal superiors. The country was undoubtedly in a bad +condition, and some modification of the law was desirable. Reckless of +consequences, the system as it stood was utterly swept away, and that +of equal partition took its place. About the same period, vast domains +belonging to the crown, the clergy, and the nobility, were +sequestrated and sold in small parcels; so that there sprang up almost +at once a proprietary of quite a new description. Had the law of equal +partition been extended only to cases in which there was no +testamentary provision, it could not have inflicted serious damage, +and would at all events have been consistent with reason and +expediency: but it went the length of depriving a parent of the right +to distribute his property in the manner he judged best, and handed +over every tittle of his earnings in equal shares to his children. One +child might be worthless, and another the reverse; no matter--all were +to be treated alike. No preference could be shewn, no posthumous +reward could be given for general good-conduct or filial respect. In +all this, there was something so revolting to common sense, that one +feels a degree of wonder that so acute a people as the French should +have failed to observe the error into which they were plunging. + +For every law, however bad, there is always some justification or plea +of necessity. Besides tending to level the position of individuals, +the plan of equal distribution of property was said to be justifiable +on the ground that there are more than two parties concerned. Society, +it was alleged, comes in as a third, and says to the parent: 'You must +provide for this son, however worthless; you must not throw him +destitute on our hands; for that is to shift the responsibility from +yourself, who brought him into the world, to us, who have nothing to +do with him.' This plea, more plausible than sound, had its effect. +That an occasional wrong might not be inflicted, a great national +error, practically injurious, was committed. + +A compulsory law of equal division of lands among the children of a +deceased proprietor, may be long in revealing its horrors in a country +where the redundant population sheds habitually off. In Switzerland, +for example, the evil of a subdivision of lands is marked but in a +moderate degree--though bad enough in the main--because a certain +proportion of each generation emigrates in quest of a livelihood--the +young men going off to be mercenary soldiers in Italy, waiters at +hotels, and so forth; and the young women to be governesses and +domestic servants. France, on the contrary, is the last nation in the +world to try the subdivision principle. Its people, with some trifling +exceptions, go nowhere, as if affecting to despise all the rest of the +world. Contented with moderate fortunes, inclined to make amusement +their occupation, unwilling or unable to learn foreign languages, or +to care for anything abroad, and having so intense a love of France, +that they will not emigrate, they necessarily settle down in a +gradually aggregating mass, and are driven to the very last shifts for +existence. Only two things have saved the nation from anarchy: the +remarkable circumstance of few families consisting of more than two, +or at most three children, any more being deemed a culpable +monstrosity; and the draughting of young men for the army. In other +words, the war-demon is an engine to keep the population in check; for +if it does not at once kill off men, it occupies them in military +affairs at the public expense. The prodigious number of civil posts +under government--said to be upwards of half a million--acts also as a +means for absorbing the overplus rural population. + +Circumstances of the nature here pointed out have modified the evil +effects of the law of subdivision; but after making every allowance on +this and every other score that can be suggested, it is undeniable +that the partition of property has gone down and down, till at length, +in some situations, it can go no further. The morsels of land have +become so small, that they are not worth occupying, and will barely +realise the expense of legal transfer. In certain quarters, we are +informed, the individual properties are not larger than a single +furrow, or a patch the size of a cabbage-garden. A good number of +these landed estates--one authority says a million and a quarter--are +about five acres in extent, which is considered quite a respectable +property; but as, at the death of each proprietor, there is a further +partition, the probability would seem to be that, ultimately, the +surface of France will resemble the worst parts of Ireland, with a +population sunk to the lowest grade of humanity. Perhaps, however, the +evils inflicted on society through the agency of subdivision, are +mainly incidental. General injury goes on at a more rapid rate than +the actual partition of property. From the causes above mentioned, the +population in France is long in doubling itself; and the slower the +increase, the slower the subdivision. Already, however, the properties +are so small, that they do not admit of that profitable culture +enjoined by principles of improved husbandry and correct social +policy. In the proper cultivation of the soil, other parties besides +agriculturists are concerned; for whatever limits production, affects +the national wealth. The meagre husbandry of the small properties in +France is thus a serious loss to the country, and tends to general +impoverishment. But there is another and equally calamitous +consequence of excessive subdivision. The small proprietors in France +are for the greater part owners only in name: practically, they are +tenants. Desperate in their circumstances, they have borrowed money on +their wretched holdings; and so poor is the security, and so limited +is the capital at disposal on loan, that the interest paid on mortgage +runs from 8 to 10 per cent.--often is as high as 20 per cent. After +paying taxes, interest on loans, and other necessary expenses, such is +the exhaustion of resources, that thousands of these French peasant +proprietors may be said to live in a continual battle with famine. +According to official returns, there are in France upwards of 348,000 +dwellings with no other aperture than the door; and nearly 2,000,000 +with only one window. And to this the 'pattern nation' has brought +itself by its headlong haste to upset, not simply improve, a bad +institution. The living in these windowless and single-windowed abodes +is not living, in the proper sense of the word: it is existence +without comfort, without hope. The next step is to burrow in holes +like rabbits. + +It will thus be observed, that the subdivision of real estate has +brought France pretty much back to the point where it started--a small +wealthy class, and a very numerous poor class. The computation is, +that in a population of 36,000,000, only 800,000 are in easy +circumstances. A considerable proportion of this moneyed class are +usurers, living in Paris and other large towns. They are the lenders +of cash on bonds, which squeeze out the very vitals of the nation--the +gay flutterers and loungers of the streets, theatres, and cafes, +drawing the means of luxurious indulgence from the myriads who toil +out their lives in the fields. + +Obtaining a glimpse of these facts, we can no longer wonder at the +submission of the French peasantry to a thinning of their families by +military conscription; at the eager thirst for office which afflicts +the whole nation; or at the morbid desire to overturn society, and +strike out a better organisation. As matters grow worse, this passion +for wholesale change becomes more fervidly manifested. The +_jacqueries_ of the middle ages are renewed. Various districts of +country, in which poverty has reached its climax, break into universal +insurrection. It is a war levied by those who have nothing against +those who have something. To have coin in the pocket, is to be the +enemy. The cry is: Down with the rich; take all they have got, and +divide the plunder amongst us. Such are the avowed principles of the +Socialists. According to them, all property is theft, and taking by +violence is only recovering stolen goods! When a nation has come to +this deplorable pass, what, it may be asked, can cure it? The malady +is not political; it is social. Perhaps, under a right development of +industry, France has not too great a population; but, subject to the +present misdirection of its energies, the position of the country is +assuming a gravity of aspect which may well engage the most earnest +consideration. The least that could be recommended is an immediate +change in the law which so unscrupulously subdivides and ruins landed +property. + +The history of the Revolution of 1789-93, must have made a feeble +impression, if it has failed to print a deep and indelible conviction +on the mind, that the acts of that great and wicked drama would some +day be bitterly expiated. To expect anything else would be to impeach +the principles of everlasting justice. Bearing in remembrance the +horrid excesses of almost an entire nation, nothing that now occurs in +France affords us the least surprise. The anarchical revolts of 1851, +are only a sequence of crimes committed upwards of half a century ago. +Philosophically, the beginning and the end are one thing. Blind with +rage against all that was noble, holy, and simply respectable, the +innocent were dragged in crowds to the scaffold, and their property +confiscated and disposed of. See the consequence after a lapse of +sixty years, 'My sin hath found me out.' The ill-gotten wealth has +been the very instrument to punish and prostrate. A robbery followed +by divisions among the spoilers. Waste succeeded by clamorous +destitution. What a lesson! + +It is needless to say, that Socialism, which proposes a universal +re-distribution of property, with some unintelligible organisation of +labour--all on an equality, no rich and no poor, no masters and no +servants, everybody sharing his dinner with his neighbour--is a fancy +as baseless as any crotchet which even the 'pattern nation' has ever +concocted. Yet, it is not the less likely to be carried into +execution, perhaps only the more likely from its practical absurdity. +Of course, the more educated and wealthy portion of the nation view +the doctrines of Socialism, as far as they can comprehend them, with +serious apprehension; but unhappily for France, these classes +uniformly submit to any folly or crime, which comes with the emphasis +of authority, valid or usurped. At present, they may be said to have +made a compromise, bartering civil liberty for bare safety--permission +to live! But how long this will last, and what form the tenure of +property is to assume, are questions not easy to answer. It would not +surprise us to see the nation, in its corporate capacity, assume the +position of universal lender of money on, or proprietor of, +embarrassed estates; in which case the 'ryot system' of India will, +strangely enough, have found domestication in Europe! Is this to be +the next experiment? + +A curious and saddening problem is the future of this great country. +'France,' said Robespierre in one of his moments of studied +inspiration, 'has astonished all Europe with her prodigies of reason!' +We are now witnessing the development of several of these astonishing +prodigies; and the spectacle, to say the least of it, is instructive. + + + + +MY TRAVELLING COMPANION. + + +My picture was a failure. Partial friends had guaranteed its success; +but the Hanging Committee and the press are not composed of one's +partial friends. The Hanging Committee thrust me into the +darkest corner of the octagon-room, and the press ignored my +existence--excepting in one instance, when my critic dismissed me in a +quarter of a line as a 'presumptuous dauber.' I was stunned with the +blow, for I had counted so securely on the L.200 at which my grand +historical painting was dog-cheap--not to speak of the deathless fame +which it was to create for me--that I felt like a mere wreck when my +hopes were flung to the ground, and the untasted cup dashed from my +lips. I took to my bed, and was seriously ill. The doctor bled me till +I fainted, and then said, that he had saved me from a brain-fever. +That might be, but he very nearly threw me into a consumption, only +that I had a deep chest and a good digestion. Pneumonic expansion and +active chyle saved me from an early tomb, yet I was too unhappy to be +grateful. + +But why did my picture fail? Surely it possessed all the elements of +success! It was grandly historical in subject, original in treatment, +pure in colouring; what, then, was wanting? This old warrior's head, +of true Saxon type, had all the majesty of Michael Angelo; that young +figure, all the radiant grace of Correggio; no Rembrandt shewed more +severe dignity than yon burnt umber monk in the corner; and Titian +never excelled the loveliness of this cobalt virgin in the foreground. +Why did it not succeed? The subject, too--the 'Finding of the Body of +Harold by Torch-light'--was sacred to all English hearts; and being +conceived in an entirely new and original manner, it was redeemed from +the charge of triteness and wearisomeness. The composition was +pyramidal, the apex being a torch borne aloft for the 'high light,' +and the base shewing some very novel effects of herbage and armour. +But it failed. All my skill, all my hope, my ceaseless endeavour, my +burning visions, all--all had failed; and I was only a poor, +half-starved painter, in Great Howland Street, whose landlady was +daily abating in her respect, and the butcher daily abating in his +punctuality; whose garments were getting threadbare, and his dinners +hypothetical, and whose day-dreams of fame and fortune had faded into +the dull-gray of penury and disappointment. I was broken-hearted, ill, +hungry; so I accepted an invitation from a friend, a rich manufacturer +in Birmingham, to go down to his house for the Christmas holidays. He +had a pleasant place in the midst of some ironworks, the blazing +chimneys of which, he assured me, would afford me some exquisite +studies of 'light' effects. + +By mistake, I went by the Express train, and so was thrown into the +society of a lady whose position would have rendered any acquaintance +with her impossible, excepting under such chance-conditions as the +present; and whose history, as I learned it afterwards, led me to +reflect much on the difference between the reality and the seeming of +life. + +She moved my envy. Yes--base, mean, low, unartistic, degrading as is +this passion, I felt it rise up like a snake in my breast when I saw +that feeble woman. She was splendidly dressed--wrapped in furs of the +most costly kind, trailing behind; her velvets and lace worth a +countess's dowry. She was attended by obsequious menials; surrounded +by luxuries; her compartment of the carriage was a perfect palace in +all the accessories which it was possible to collect in so small a +space; and it seemed as though 'Cleopatra's cup' would have been no +impracticable draught for her. She gave me more fully the impression +of luxury, than any person I had ever met with before; and I thought I +had reason when I envied her. + +She was lifted into the carriage carefully; carefully swathed in her +splendid furs and lustrous velvets; and placed gently, like a wounded +bird, in her warm nest of down. But she moved languidly, and fretfully +thrust aside her servants' busy hands, indifferent to her comforts, +and annoyed by her very blessings. I looked into her face: it was a +strange face, which had once been beautiful; but ill-health, and care, +and grief, had marked it now with deep lines, and coloured it with +unnatural tints. Tears had washed out the roses from her cheeks, and +set large purple rings about her eyes; the mouth was hard and pinched, +but the eyelids swollen; while the crossed wrinkles on her brow told +the same tale of grief grown petulant, and of pain grown soured, as +the thin lip, quivering and querulous, and the nervous hand, never +still and never strong. + +The train-bell rang, the whistle sounded, the lady's servitors stood +bareheaded and courtesying to the ground, and the rapid rush of the +iron giant bore off the high-born dame and the starveling painter in +strange companionship. Unquiet and unresting--now shifting her +place--now letting down the glass for the cold air to blow full upon +her withered face--then drawing it up, and chafing her hands and feet +by the warm-water apparatus concealed in her _chauffe-pied_, +while shivering as if in an ague-fit--sighing deeply--lost in +thought--wildly looking out and around for distraction--she soon made +me ask myself whether my envy of her was as true as deep sympathy and +pity would have been. + +'But her wealth--her wealth!' I thought. 'True she may suffer, but how +gloriously she is solaced! She may weep, but the angels of social life +wipe off her tears with perfumed linen, gold embroidered; she may +grieve, but her grief makes her joys so much the more blissful. Ah! +she is to be envied after all!--envied, while I, a very beggar, might +well scorn my place now!' + +Something of this might have been in my face, as I offered my sick +companion some small attention--I forget what--gathering up one of her +luxurious trifles, or arranging her cushions. She seemed almost to +read my thoughts as her eyes rested on my melancholy face; and saying +abruptly: 'I fear you are unhappy, young man?' she settled herself in +her place like a person prepared to listen to a pleasant tale. + +'I am unfortunate, madam,' I answered. + +'Unfortunate?' she said impatiently. 'What! with youth and health, can +you call yourself unfortunate? When the whole world lies untried +before you, and you still live in the golden atmosphere of hope, can +you pamper yourself with sentimental sorrows? Fie upon you!--fie upon +you! What are your sorrows compared with mine?' + +'I am ignorant of yours, madam,' I said respectfully; 'but I know my +own; and, knowing them, I can speak of their weight and bitterness. By +your very position, you cannot undergo the same kind of distress as +that overwhelming me at this moment: you may have evils in your path +of life, but they cannot equal mine.' + +'Can anything equal the evils of ruined health and a desolated +hearth?' she cried, still in the same impatient manner. 'Can the worst +griefs of wayward youth equal the bitterness of that cup which you +drink at such a time of life as forbids all hope of after-assuagement? +Can the first disappointment of a strong heart rank with the terrible +desolation of a wrecked old age? You think because you see about me +the evidences of wealth, that I must be happy. Young man, I tell you +truly, I would gladly give up every farthing of my princely fortune, +and be reduced to the extreme of want, to bring back from the grave +the dear ones lying there, or pour into my veins one drop of the +bounding blood of health and energy which used to make life a long +play-hour of delight. Once, no child in the fields, no bird in the +sky, was more blessed than I; and what am I now?--a sickly, lonely old +woman, whose nerves are shattered and whose heart is broken, without +hope or happiness on the earth! Even death has passed me by in +forgetfulness and scorn!' + +Her voice betrayed the truth of her emotion. Still, with an accent of +bitterness and complaint, rather than of simple sorrow, it was the +voice of one fighting against her fate, more than of one suffering +acutely and in despair: it was petulant rather than melancholy; angry +rather than grieving; shewing that her trials had hardened, not +softened her heart. + +'Listen to me,' she then said, laying her hand on my arm, 'and perhaps +my history may reconcile you to the childish depression, from what +cause soever it may be, under which you are labouring. You are young +and strong, and can bear any amount of pain as yet: wait until you +reach my age, and then you will know the true meaning of the word +despair! I am rich, as you may see,' she continued, pointing to her +surroundings--'in truth, so rich that I take no account either of my +income or my expenditure. I have never known life under any other +form; I have never known what it was to be denied the gratification of +one desire which wealth could purchase, or obliged to calculate the +cost of a single undertaking. I can scarcely realise the idea of +poverty. I see that all people do not live in the same style as +myself, but I cannot understand that it is from inability: it always +seems to me to be from their own disinclination. I tell you, I cannot +fully realise the idea of poverty; and you think this must make me +happy, perhaps?' she added sharply, looking full in my face. + +'I should be happy, madam, if I were rich,' I replied. 'Suffering now +from the strain of poverty, it is no marvel if I place an undue value +on plenty.' + +'Yet see what it does for me!' continued my companion. 'Does it give +me back my husband, my brave boys, my beautiful girl? Does it give +rest to this weary heart, or relief to this aching head? Does it +soothe my mind or heal my body? No! It but oppresses me, like a heavy +robe thrown round weakened limbs: it is even an additional misfortune, +for if I were poor, I should be obliged to think of other things +beside myself and my woes; sand the very mental exertion necessary to +sustain my position would lighten my miseries. I have seen my daughter +wasting year by year and day by day, under the warm sky of the +south--under the warm care of love! Neither climate nor affection +could save her: every effort was made--the best advice procured--the +latest panacea adopted; but to no effect. Her life was prolonged, +certainly; but this simply means, that she was three years in dying, +instead of three months. She was a gloriously lovely creature, like a +fair young saint for beauty and purity--quite an ideal thing, with her +golden hair and large blue eyes! She was my only girl--my youngest, my +darling, my best treasure! My first real sorrow--now fifteen years +ago--was when I saw her laid, on her twenty-first birthday, in the +English burial-ground at Madeira. It is on the gravestone, that she +died of consumption: would that it had been added--and her mother of +grief! From the day of her death, my happiness left me!' + +Here the poor lady paused, and buried her face in her hands. The first +sorrow was evidently also the keenest; and I felt my own eyelids moist +as I watched this outpouring of the mother's anguish. After all, here +was grief beyond the power of wealth to assuage: here was sorrow +deeper than any mere worldly disappointment. + +'I had two sons,' she went on to say after a short time--'only two. +They were fine young men, gifted and handsome. In fact, all my +children were allowed to be very models of beauty. One entered the +army, the other the navy. The eldest went with his regiment to the +Cape, where he married a woman of low family--an infamous creature of +no blood; though she was decently conducted for a low-born thing as +she was. She was well-spoken of by those who knew her; but what +_could_ she be with a butcher for a grandfather! However, my poor +infatuated son loved her to the last. She was very pretty, I have +heard--young, and timid; but being of such fearfully low origin, of +course she could not be recognised by my husband or myself! We forbade +my son all intercourse with us, unless he would separate himself from +her; but the poor boy was perfectly mad, and he preferred this +low-born wife to his father and mother. They had a little baby, who +was sent over to me when the wife died--for, thank God! she did die in +a few years' time. My son was restored to our love, and he received +our forgiveness; but we never saw him again. He took a fever of the +country, and was a corpse in a few hours. My second boy was in the +navy--a fine high-spirited fellow, who seemed to set all the accidents +of life at defiance. I could not believe in any harm coming to _him_. +He was so strong, so healthy, so beautiful, so bright: he might have +been immortal, for all the elements of decay that shewed themselves in +him. Yet this glorious young hero was drowned--wrecked off a +coral-reef, and flung like a weed on the waters. He lost his own life +in trying to save that of a common sailor--a piece of pure gold +bartered for the foulest clay! Two years after this, my husband died +of typhus fever, and I had a nervous attack, from which I have never +recovered. And now, what do you say to this history of mine? For +fifteen years, I have never been free from sorrow. No sooner did one +grow so familiar to me, that I ceased to tremble at its hideousness, +than another, still more terrible, came to overwhelm me in fresh +misery. For fifteen years, my heart has never known an hour's peace; +and to the end of my life, I shall be a desolate, miserable, +broken-hearted woman. Can you understand, now, the valuelessness of my +riches, and how desolate my splendid house must seem to me? They have +been given me for no useful purpose here or hereafter; they encumber +me, and do no good to others. Who is to have them when I die? +Hospitals and schools? I hate the medical profession, and I am against +the education of the poor. I think it the great evil of the day, and I +would not leave a penny of mine to such a radical wrong. What is to +become of my wealth?'-- + +'Your grandson,' I interrupted hastily: 'the child of the officer.' + +The old woman's face gradually softened. 'Ah! he is a lovely boy,' she +said; 'but I don't love him--no, I don't,' she repeated vehemently. +'If I set my heart on him, he will die or turn out ill: take to the +low ways of his wretched mother, or die some horrible death. I steel +my heart against him, and shut him out from my calculations of the +future. He is a sweet boy: interesting, affectionate, lovely; but I +will not allow myself to love him, and I don't allow him to love me! +But you ought to see him. His hair is like my own daughter's--long, +glossy, golden hair; and his eyes are large and blue, and the lashes +curl on his cheek like heavy fringes. He is too pale and too thin: he +looks sadly delicate; but his wretched mother was a delicate little +creature, and he has doubtless inherited a world of disease and poor +blood from her. I wish he was here though, for you to see; but I keep +him at school, for when he is much with me, I feel myself beginning to +be interested in him; and I do not wish to love him--I do not wish to +remember him at all! With that delicate frame and nervous temperament, +he _must_ die; and why should I prepare fresh sorrow for myself, by +taking him into my heart, only to have him plucked out again by +death?' + +All this was said with the most passionate vehemence of manner, as if +she were defending herself against some unjust charge. I said +something in the way of remonstrance. Gently and respectfully, but +firmly, I spoke of the necessity for each soul to spiritualise its +aspirations, and to raise itself from the trammels of earth; and in +speaking thus to her, I felt my own burden lighten off my heart, and I +acknowledged that I had been both foolish and sinful in allowing my +first disappointment to shadow all the sunlight of my existence. I am +not naturally of a desponding disposition, and nothing but a blow as +severe as the non-success of my 'Finding the Body of Harold by +Torch-light' could have affected me to the extent of mental +prostration as that under which I was now labouring. But this was very +hard to bear! My companion listened to me with a kind of blank +surprise, evidently unaccustomed to the honesty of truth; but she bore +my remarks patiently, and when I had ended, she even thanked me for my +advice. + +'And now, tell me the cause of your melancholy face?' she asked, as we +were nearing Birmingham. 'Your story cannot be very long, and I shall +have just enough time to hear it.' + +I smiled at her authoritative tone, and said quietly: 'I am an artist, +madam, and I had counted much on the success of my first historical +painting. It has failed, and I am both penniless and infamous. I am +the "presumptuous dauber" of the critics--despised by my +creditors--emphatically a failure throughout.' + +'Pshaw!' cried the lady impatiently; 'and what is that for a grief? a +day's disappointment which a day's labour can repair! To me, your +troubles seem of no more worth than a child's tears when he has broken +his newest toy! Here is Birmingham, and I must bid you farewell. +Perhaps you will open the door for me? Good-morning: you have made my +journey pleasant, and relieved my ennui. I shall be happy to see you +in town, and to help you forward in your career.' + +And with these words, said in a strange, indifferent, matter-of-fact +tone, as of one accustomed to all the polite offers of good society, +which mean nothing tangible, she was lifted from the carriage by a +train of servants, and borne off the platform. + +I looked at the card which she placed in my hand, and read the address +of 'Mrs Arden, Belgrave Square.' + +I found my friend waiting for me; and in a few moments was seated +before a blazing fire in a magnificent drawing-room, surrounded with +every comfort that hospitality could offer or luxury invent. + +'Here, at least, is happiness,' I thought, as I saw the family +assemble in the drawing-room before dinner. 'Here are beauty, youth, +wealth, position--all that makes life valuable. What concealed +skeleton can there be in this house to frighten away one grace of +existence? None--none! They must be happy; and oh! what a contrast to +that poor lady I met with to-day; and what a painful contrast to +myself!' + +And all my former melancholy returned like a heavy cloud upon my brow; +and I felt that I stood like some sad ghost in a fairy-land of beauty, +so utterly out of place was my gloom in the midst of all this gaiety +and splendour. + +One daughter attracted my attention more than the rest. She was the +eldest, a beautiful girl of about twenty-three, or she might have been +even a few years older. Her face was quite of the Spanish style--dark, +expressive, and tender; and her manners were the softest and most +bewitching I had ever seen. She was peculiarly attractive to an +artist, from the exceeding beauty of feature, as well as from the +depth of expression which distinguished her. I secretly sketched her +portrait on my thumb-nail, and in my own mind I determined to make her +the model for my next grand attempt at historical composition--'the +Return of Columbus.' She was to be the Spanish queen; and I thought of +myself as Ferdinand; for I was not unlike a Spaniard in appearance, +and I was almost as brown. + +I remained with my friend a fortnight, studying the midnight effects +of the iron-foundries, and cultivating the acquaintance of Julia. In +these two congenial occupations the time passed like lightning, and I +woke as from a pleasant dream, to the knowledge of the fact, that my +visit was expected to be brought to a close. I had been asked, I +remembered, for a week, and I had doubled my furlough. I hinted at +breakfast, that I was afraid I must leave my kind friends to-morrow, +and a general regret was expressed, but no one asked me to stay +longer; so the die was unhappily cast. + +Julia was melancholy. I could not but observe it; and I confess that +the observation caused me more pleasure than pain. Could it be sorrow +at my departure? We had been daily, almost hourly, companions for +fourteen days, and the surmise was not unreasonable. She had always +shewn me particular kindness, and she could not but have seen my +marked preference for her. My heart beat wildly as I gazed on her pale +cheek and drooping eyelid; for though she had been always still and +gentle, I had never seen--certainly I had never noticed--such evident +traces of sorrow, as I saw in her face to-day. Oh, if it were for me, +how I would bless each pang which pained that beautiful heart!--how I +would cherish the tears that fell, as if they had been priceless +diamonds from the mine!--how I would joy in her grief and live in her +despair! It might be that out of evil would come good, and from the +deep desolation of my unsold 'Body' might arise the heavenly +blessedness of such love as this! I was intoxicated with my hopes; and +was on the point of making a public idiot of myself, but happily some +slight remnant of common-sense was left me. However, impatient to +learn my fate, I drew Julia aside; and, placing myself at her feet, +while she was enthroned on a luxurious ottoman, I pretended that I +must conclude the series of lectures on art, and the best methods of +colouring, on which I had been employed with her ever since my visit. + +'You seem unhappy to-day, Miss Reay,' I said abruptly, with my voice +trembling like a girl's. + +She raised her large eyes languidly. 'Unhappy? no, I am never +unhappy,' she said quietly. + +Her voice never sounded so silvery sweet, so pure and harmonious. It +fell like music on the air. + +'I have, then, been too much blinded by excess of beauty to have been +able to see correctly,' I answered. 'To me you have appeared always +calm, but never sad; but to-day there is a palpable weight of sorrow +on you, which a child might read. It is in your voice, and on your +eyelids, and round your lips; it is on you like the moss on the young +rose--beautifying while veiling the dazzling glory within.' + +'Ah! you speak far too poetically for me,' said Julia, smiling. 'If +you will come down to my level for a little while, and will talk to me +rationally, I will tell you my history. I will tell it you as a lesson +for yourself, which I think will do you good.' + +The cold chill that went to my soul! Her history! It was no diary of +facts that I wanted to hear, but only a register of feelings--a +register of feelings in which I should find myself the only point +whereto the index was set. History! what events deserving that name +could have troubled the smooth waters of her life? + +I was silent, for I was disturbed; but Julia did not notice either my +embarrassment or my silence, and began, in her low, soft voice, to +open one of the saddest chapters of life which I had ever heard. + +'You do not know that I am going into a convent?' she said; then, +without waiting for an answer, she continued: 'This is the last month +of my worldly life. In four weeks, I shall have put on the white robe +of the novitiate, and in due course I trust to be dead for ever to +this earthly life.' + +A heavy, thick, choking sensation in my throat, and a burning pain +within my eyeballs, warned me to keep silence. My voice would have +betrayed me. + +'When I was seventeen,' continued Julia, 'I was engaged to my cousin. +We had been brought up together from childhood, and we loved each +other perfectly. You must not think, because I speak so calmly now, +that I have not suffered in the past. It is only by the grace of +resignation and of religion, that I have been brought to my present +condition of spiritual peace. I am now five-and-twenty--next week I +shall be six-and-twenty: that is just nine years since I was first +engaged to Laurence. He was not rich enough, and indeed he was far too +young, to marry, for he was only a year older than myself; and if he +had had the largest possible amount of income, we could certainly not +have married for three years. My father never cordially approved of +the engagement, though he did not oppose it. Laurence was taken +partner into a large concern here, and a heavy weight of business was +immediately laid on him. Youthful as he was, he was made the sole and +almost irresponsible agent in a house which counted its capital by +millions, and through which gold flowed like water. For some time, he +went on well--to a marvel well. He was punctual, vigilant, careful; +but the responsibility was too much for the poor boy: the praises he +received, the flattery and obsequiousness which, for the first time, +were lavished on the friendless youth, the wealth at his command, all +turned his head. For a long time, we heard vague rumours of irregular +conduct; but as he was always the same good, affectionate, respectful, +happy Laurence when with us, even my father, who is so strict, and +somewhat suspicious, turned a deaf ear to them. I was the earliest to +notice a slight change, first in his face, and then in his manners. At +last the rumours ceased to be vague, and became definite. Business +neglected; fatal habits visible even in the early day; the frightful +use of horrible words which once he would have trembled to use; the +nights passed at the gaming-table, and the days spent in the society +of the worst men on the turf--all these accusations were brought to my +father by credible witnesses; and, alas! they were too true to be +refuted. My father--Heaven and the holy saints bless his gray +head!--kept them from me as long as he could. He forgave him again and +again, and used every means that love and reason could employ to bring +him back into the way of right; but he could do nothing against the +force of such fatal habits as those to which my poor Laurence had now +become wedded. With every good intention, and with much strong love +for me burning sadly amid the wreck of his virtues, he yet would not +refrain: the Evil One had overcome him; he was his prey here and +hereafter. O no--not hereafter!' she added, raising her hands and eyes +to heaven, 'if prayer, if fasting, patient vigil, incessant striving, +may procure him pardon--not for ever his prey! Our engagement was +broken off; and this step, necessary as it was, completed his ruin. He +died'--Here a strong shudder shook her from head to foot, and I half +rose, in alarm. The next instant she was calm. + +'Now, you know my history,' continued she. 'It is a tragedy of real +life, which you will do well, young painter, to compare with your +own!' With a kindly pressure of the hand, and a gentle smile--oh! so +sweet, so pure, and heavenly!--Julia Reay left me; while I sat +perfectly awed--that is the only word I can use--with the revelation +which she had made both of her history and of her own grand soul. + +'Come with me to my study,' said Mr Reay, entering the room; 'I have a +world to talk to you about. You go to-morrow, you say. I am sorry for +it; but I must therefore settle my business with you in good time +to-day.' + +I followed him mechanically, for I was undergoing a mental castigation +which rather disturbed me. Indeed, like a young fool--as eager in +self-reproach as in self-glorification--I was so occupied in inwardly +calling myself hard names, that even when my host gave me a commission +for my new picture, 'The Return of Columbus,' at two hundred and fifty +pounds, together with an order to paint himself, Mrs Reay, and +half-a-dozen of their children, I confess it with shame, that I +received the news like a leaden block, and felt neither surprise nor +joy--not though these few words chased me from the gates of the Fleet, +whither I was fast hastening, and secured me both position and daily +bread. The words of that beautiful girl were still ringing in my ears, +mixed up with the bitterest self-accusations; and these together shut +out all other sound, however pleasant. But that was always my way. + +I went back to London, humbled and yet strengthened, having learned +more of human nature and the value of events, in one short fortnight, +than I had ever dreamed of before. The first lessons of youth +generally come in hard shape. I had sense enough to feel that I had +learned mine gently, and that I had cause to be thankful for the +mildness of the teaching. From a boy, I became a man, judging more +accurately of humanity than a year's ordinary experience would have +enabled me to do. And the moral which I drew was this: that under our +most terrible afflictions, we may always gain some spiritual good, if +we suffer them to be softening and purifying rather than hardening +influences over us. And also, that while we are suffering the most +acutely, we may be sure that others are suffering still more acutely; +and if we would but sympathise with them more than with +ourselves--live out of our ownselves, and in the wide world around +us--we would soon be healed while striving to heal others. Of this I +am convinced: the secret of life, and of all its good, is in love; and +while we preserve this, we can never fail of comfort. The sweet waters +will always gush out over the sandiest desert of our lives while we +can love; but without it--nay, not the merest weed of comfort or of +virtue would grow under the feet of angels. In this was the +distinction between Mrs Arden and Julia Reay. The one had hardened her +heart under her trials, and shut it up in itself; the other had opened +hers to the purest love of man and love of God; and the result was to +be seen in the despair of the one and in the holy peace of the other. + +Full of these thoughts, I sought out my poor lady, determined to do +her real benefit if I could. She received me very kindly, for I had +taken care to provide myself with a sufficient introduction, so as to +set all doubts of my social position at rest: and I knew how far this +would go with her. We soon became fast friends. She seemed to rest on +me much for sympathy and comfort, and soon grew to regard me with a +sort of motherly fondness that of itself brightened her life. I paid +her all the attention which a devoted son might pay--humoured her +whims, soothed her pains; but insensibly I led her mind out from +itself--first in kindness to me, and then in love to her grandson. + +I asked for him just before the midsummer holidays, and with great +difficulty obtained an invitation for him to spend them with her. She +resisted my entreaties stoutly, but at last was obliged to yield; not +to me, nor to my powers of persuasion, but to the holy truth of which +I was then the advocate. The child came, and I was there also to +receive him, and to enforce by my presence--which I saw without vanity +had great influence--a fitting reception. He was a pensive, clever, +interesting little fellow; sensitive and affectionate, timid, gifted +with wonderful powers, and of great beauty. There was a shy look in +his eyes, which made me sure that he inherited much of his loveliness +from his mother; and when we were great friends, he shewed me a small +portrait of 'poor mamma;' and I saw at once the most striking likeness +between the two. No human heart could withstand that boy, certainly +not my poor friend's. She yielded, fighting desperately against me and +him, and all the powers of love, which were subduing her, but yielding +while she fought; and in a short time the child had taken his proper +place in her affections, which he kept to the end of her life. And +she, that desolate mother, even she, with her seared soul and +petrified heart, was brought to the knowledge of peace by the glorious +power of love. + +Prosperous, famous, happy, blessed in home and hearth, this has become +my fundamental creed of life, the basis on which all good, whether of +art or of morality, is rested: of art especially; for only by a +tender, reverent spirit can the true meaning of his vocation be made +known to the artist. All the rest is mere imitation of form, not +insight into essence. And while I feel that I can live out of myself, +and love others--the whole world of man--more than myself, I know that +I possess the secret of happiness; ay, though my powers were suddenly +blasted as by lightning, my wife and children laid in the cold grave, +and my happy home desolated for ever. For I would go out into the +thronged streets, and gather up the sorrows of others, to relieve +them; and I would go out under the quiet sky, and look up to the +Father's throne; and I would pluck peace, as green herbs from active +benevolence and contemplative adoration. Yes; love can save from the +sterility of selfishness, and from the death of despair: but love +alone. No other talisman has the power; pride, self-sustainment, +coldness, pleasure, nothing--nothing--but that divine word of Life +which is life's soul! + + + + +POPULAR MUSIC--MAINZER. + + +In our days, vocal music is beginning to assert in this country the +place it has long held abroad as a great moral educator; no longer +regarded as a superfluity of the rich, it is now established as a +branch of instruction in almost every school, and is gradually finding +its way into many nooks and corners, where it will act as an antidote +to grosser pleasures, by supplying the means of an innocent and +elevating recreation. + +The apostle of music, considered as a boon and privilege of 'the +million,' has lately passed away from the scene of his active labours; +and it is but a tribute due to his memory as a philanthropist and man +of genius, while we deplore his loss, to pause for a moment and +briefly trace his career. + +Joseph Mainzer was born, on the 21st October 1801, at Treves, of +parents in the middle rank of life. When quite a child, the +predominating taste of his life was so strongly developed, that in +spite of harsh masters he learned to play on the piano, violin, +bassoon, and several wind-instruments; and at the age of twelve could +read at sight the most difficult music, and even attempted +composition. Music, however, was not intended to be his profession, +and was only carried on as a relaxation from the severer studies to +which Mainzer devoted himself at the university of Treves, where he +took the highest degree in general merit, and the first prize for +natural science. At the age of twenty-one, he left college to descend +into the heart of the Saarbruck Mountains as an engineer of mines, +where, according to custom, he had to commence with the lowest grade +of labour, and for months drag a heavy wheel-barrow, and wield the +pickaxe. Yet here, in reality, dawned his mission as the apostle of +popular music: he relieved the tedium of those interminable nights of +toil--for days there were none--by composing and teaching choruses, +thus leading the miners both in labour and in song. This underground +life, however, was too severe for his constitution; and he was obliged +to return home in impaired health. He now studied divinity and music; +and, after a time, was advised to travel in order to perfect himself +in the latter branch of art. Under Rinck at Darmstadt, and at Vienna +and Rome, he enjoyed every advantage; and, on leaving the Eternal +City, was invited to a farewell _fete_ by Thorwaldsen, where all the +eminent artists of the day were present, and joined in singing his +compositions. On returning home, after two years' absence, he adopted +music as his vocation, and published his first elementary work--the +_Singschule_, which was introduced in Prussia and Germany as the +_methode_ in schools; and soon after, the king of Prussia sent him the +gold medal awarded to men eminent in the arts and sciences. Paris, +however, soon offered more attractions to Mainzer than his native +place, and thither he repaired and pitched his tent for ten years. +During this period, he established his reputation as a composer of +dramatic, sacred, and domestic music, and as an acute and elegant +writer and critic. His opera of _La Jacquerie_ had a run of seventeen +nights consecutively at the theatre. He was soon welcomed into the +literary and artistic circles of Paris; and one evening, at an elegant +_reunion_, being invited to play, he _improvised_ a piece, which was +taken for a composition of Palestrina's. Many were moved to tears, one +pair of pre-eminently bright eyes especially; and the consequence was, +that the composer and the bright eyes were soon after united in +marriage! + +But amid these captivating _salons_ and congenial occupations, what +had become of the apostle of popular music? He was not asleep; only +digesting and preparing a system which should, by its simplicity and +clearness, bring scientific music within the reach of the humblest as +well as the highest classes of society. At last it was matured, and +the working-classes were invited to come and test it--gratuitously of +course. A few accepted the invitation; but their success and delight +in the new art thus opened up to them, was so great, that the 'two or +three' pioneers soon swelled into an army of 3000 _ouvriers_! But a +band of 3000 workmen in Paris was considered dangerous: it could not +be credited that they met merely for social improvement and +relaxation; some political design must surely lurk under it: +government was alarmed, the police threatened; and it was left to +Mainzer's choice either to remain in Paris without his artisan +classes, or to seek elsewhere a field for his popular labours. He +decided at once on the latter alternative, and departed for England, +amidst the heartfelt regrets of those whom he had attached so strongly +to himself, while he inculcated peace, order, and every social virtue. +On his revisiting Paris long after, his old pupils serenaded him +unmolested; and in 1849, the Institute of France voluntarily placed +his name on their list for the membership vacant by the death of +Donizetti; yet he would not accept the proposal of a later French +government to return and establish his system: he preferred the +freedom of action which he enjoyed in Britain. + +In London, a period of arduous labour commenced. Mainzer arrived +without patronage, without the _prestige_ that his name had earned +abroad, and, what was a greater drawback, without any knowledge of +English! But, nothing daunted, with his usual energy he set about the +task of acquiring the language, which he did in an incredibly short +time--commencing, like a child, by naming all familiar objects, and +going on, until, without perplexing himself with rules or their +exceptions, he had acquired facility enough to lecture in public. His +work on _Music and Education_ shows with what force and purity of +style he could afterwards write in English. It was the same +principle--that of commencing with practice and letting theory +follow--which he carried out in his system of 'Singing for the +Million.' He argued, that as children learn to speak before they can +read or construct language grammatically, so they ought to be taught +vocal music in such a way as to introduce the rules of harmony +gradually, and prepare them for the manipulation of an instrument, if +it is intended they should learn one; while for the great masses of +both children and adults, _the voice_ is the best and only instrument, +and one that can be trained, with _very few exceptions_, to take part +in choral, if not in solo singing, and at the same time be made a +powerful and pleasing agent in moral culture. On this subject, we +shall quote Dr Mainzer's own words, when speaking of the compositions +introduced into his classes, he says: 'Besides religious compositions, +there are others, which refer to the Creator, by calling attention to +the beauty and grandeur of his works. Songs, shewing in a few touching +lines the wondrous instinct of the sparrow, the ant, the bee, and +cultivating a feeling of respect for all nature's children. Besides +these, there are songs intended to promote social and domestic +virtues--order, cleanliness, humility, contentment, unity, temperance, +etc.; thus impressing, not the letter of the law of charity on +immature minds, but the spirit of it in the memory, and so identifying +them with the very fibres of the heart.' + +With such views and principles, Mainzer arrived in England, to +propagate his humanising art; and London soon became the centre of a +series of lectures and classes, held in the principal towns accessible +by railway--such as Brighton, Oxford, Reading, etc. But this divided +work was not satisfactory, and the national schools and popular field +in London were preoccupied by Hullah, who had some time previously +introduced Wilhem's system, under the sanction of government. There +was room and to spare, however, for every system, and Mainzer wished +every man good-speed who advanced the cause; but as a fresh field for +his own exertions, after two years spent in England, he turned his +thoughts towards Edinburgh, where he had been invited by requisition, +and warmly received in 1842. + +On his return to Scotland, he found his cause somewhat damaged in his +absence, by the attempt of precentors to teach his system in +congregational classes. Unlike the church-organists of England, the +Scotch precentors are not educated musicians--a naturally good voice +and ear is their only pre-requisite. Dr Mainzer soon repaired this +mistake in those congregations which invited his personal +superintendence; and in one church (Free St Andrew's) the good effects +of his system are still to be heard, in a congregation forming their +own choir, and singing in _four parts_. + +To restore this country to the standard of musical eminence which we +know from old authorities that it held in the sixteenth century, was +the object of Dr Mainzer's energetic endeavours. The elements, he +believed, were not wanting. In Scotland, the musical capacity of the +people he found to be above rather than below the average of other +nations: all that was wanting was to convince the people of this by +the cultivation of their neglected powers. As a preliminary step, he +excited those friendly to the object to found the 'Association for the +Revival of Sacred Music in Scotland,' of which he was the director and +moving spring; and under its auspices he commenced a course of +_gratuitous_ teaching to classes formed of pupils from the parish and +district schools of Edinburgh, precentors, teachers, and operatives. +The success of these normal classes was so great and so rapid, that at +the end of the first year the pupils were able to become teachers in +their turn in their own schools or homes; and at the close of the +second and third sessions, concerts and rural fetes were held, at +which many hundreds of young voices joined in giving true and powerful +expression to such works of the great masters as _Judas Maccabaeus_; +while for the delight of their parents' firesides, and their own moral +improvement, the children carried home with them those simple but +touching and expressive melodies, composed by Mainzer for their use. +At the same time, Mr Mainzer carried on classes for the upper ranks, +especially for young children; gave lectures on the history of music +from the earliest times and in all countries; and published a talented +work on _Music and Education_, of which very favourable reviews +appeared at the time.[1] Mainzer had a peculiar predilection for +Scotland: its scenery, its history, its music, all supplied food for +his various tastes. With a poetic appreciation of the beauties of +nature, he desired no greater pleasure than to wander in perfect +freedom among our lochs and hills; and his descriptions of Edinburgh, +the Highlands, and Western Islands, which appeared in the _Augsburg +Gazette_, have brought some and inspired more with the wish to visit +the Switzerland of Britain. The history and music of Scotland threw +fresh light upon each other under his researches. He delighted to +trace the reciprocal influence of national events and national music, +from the time of the Culdee establishments of the sixth century, when +'Iona was the Rome of the north,' down to the _Covenanter's Lament_, +and the Jacobite songs of the last century. Since these days, the +spirit that invented and handed down popular song has passed away with +the national and clannish feuds which gave rise to the gathering song +and the lament. The age of peace has been heralded in by the songs of +Burns and Lady Nairne, the authoress of _The Land o' the Leal_, who +has done much to restore the taste for our beautiful old melodies, by +wedding them to pure and appropriate verse.[2] + +In such pursuits, Mainzer--by this time dubbed doctor by a German +university--passed five years very pleasantly, but, in a worldly point +of view, very unprofitably. He had failed on first coming to Edinburgh +in obtaining the musical chair, which seemed so appropriate a niche +for him; and however reluctant to leave his favourite normal classes +and his adopted home, still when he looked to the future, he was +compelled to think of leaving Edinburgh--for the German proverb still +held true: 'Kunst geht nach brod;' and if man cannot live by bread +_alone_, neither can the artist live _without_ bread! At this +juncture, the Chevalier Neukomm, of European celebrity as a composer +and organist, and a valued friend of Dr Mainzer, came to Edinburgh to +inspect his friend's normal classes. He was so much delighted with +them, and considered Dr Mainzer so little appreciated by the general +public, that he persuaded him to try Manchester as his future field of +exertion. + +In the autumn of 1848, accordingly, Neukomm introduced Mainzer to the +leading men of that city, who received him so cordially, that he at +once took his proper position, and entered on a career both useful and +profitable, and which continued to be increasingly successful, until +at Christmas 1850, he was laid aside by ill-health. Over-exertion had +brought on a complication of diseases, to which he was a martyr for +ten months, and which terminated fatally on the 10th November 1851. +During that long period of intense suffering, his active mind was +never clouded nor repining, and at every interval of comparative ease, +he read or listened to reading with avidity. During the first months +of his illness, he superintended the publication of a new musical +work, called _The Orpheon_, two numbers of which appeared; and his +last exertion in this way was arranging two songs: _The Sigh_ of +Charles Swain, and Longfellow's _Footsteps of Angels_, adapted to +Weber's last song. Prophetic requiems both! + +A few weeks after his death, the hall which had been built in +Edinburgh for the classes of the Association which he founded, was +opened by an amateur concert given as a tribute to his memory. He had +promised to preside on this occasion; but his place was filled by his +aged, but still vigorous friend, the Chevalier Neukomm, who had come +to Edinburgh, at the request of the Association, to compose a series +of psalms, one of which was sung by the pupils. Music for the Psalms, +_adapted to the varying meaning of each verse_, has hitherto been a +desideratum in the musical world; now being supplied in Chevalier +Neukomm's work, and already subscribed for by no mean judges--the +Queen and Prince Albert, the king of Prussia, &c. It was touching, and +yet gratifying, to see one of Dr Mainzer's oft-cherished hopes +realised for the first time that evening--that of the _musical union_ +of accomplished amateurs of private life with the pupils of the normal +classes. + +Having thus briefly traced Dr Mainzer's life, it now remains to offer +a few remarks on his general character. His talents were of a +diversified and high order; and those who knew him only as the author +of 'Singing for the Million,' were not aware of his general +cultivation of mind. In the dead and living languages, he was equally +at home: now he would be speculating on the formation of the Greek +chorus, and again mastering some dialect of modern Europe, in order to +elucidate the history of the people or their music and poetry. His +literary articles were sought after by all the leading journals in +Germany and Paris; and his volumes of _Sketches of Travel_, and of +_The Lower Orders in Paris_, are graphic and entertaining. A year or +two ago, a _Notice Bibliographique_ of his works appeared in Paris, +which contained a list of above thirty publications. Great diligence, +joined to enthusiasm, enabled him to accomplish so much in these +various departments of literature. His manners, too, were of that +frank, cordial, and agreeable tone which inspires confidence, and +prepossessed every one in his favour; so that from all he could obtain +the information which he wished, and they could afford. Over his +pupils, his influence was immense. He had the rare art of engaging the +entire attention of children; and while he maintained strict +discipline, he gained their warmest affection: his own earnestness was +reflected on the countenances of his pupils. + +Those alone who knew him in private life could thoroughly estimate +that purity of mind and heart which eminently characterised him, along +with a childlike simplicity and unworldliness, which often, indeed, +made him the prey of designing persons, but which, joined to his +general information and cheerfulness, made his society most +attractive. His personal appearance was indicative of a delicate and +nervous organisation: slight and fragile in figure, with an +intellectual forehead and eye, that spoke of the preponderance of the +_spirituelle_ in his idiosyncrasy; one of those minds which are ever +working beyond the powers of the body; ever planning new achievements +and new labours of love, and which too often, alas! go out at noonday, +while half their fond projects are unaccomplished, yet not before they +have made a name to live, and left the world their debtors! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See _Chambers's Journal_, No. 226, New Series. + +[2] See _Lays from Strathearn_, 4to. + + + + +A NEWCASTLE PAPER IN 1765-6. + + +There is scarcely anything more entertaining and instructive than a +leisurely look over an old newspaper file. A newspaper of any age is +an attraction, and the current newspaper something more, for it is now +a necessity. But the next place to it in point of interest is perhaps +due to the journal half a century, or two-thirds of a century old. It +introduces us, if we be youthful, to the habits of our grandsires; and +if we be in 'the sere, the yellow leaf,' to the habits of our fathers, +more fully than the pleasantest novel or most elaborate essay, and far +more intimately than the most correct and complete historical records. +It enables us to observe freely the position and avocations of the +denizens of the past, and catch hasty, but most suggestive glances at +bygone days; it 'shews the very age and body of the time, its form and +pressure.' It is a milestone from which we may reckon our progress, +and must delight as well as surprise us by the advancement it shews us +to have made in social and political life, particularly with regard to +those 'triumphs of mind over matter,' for which recent times have been +pre-eminently distinguished. + +The writer of this article had lately an opportunity of inspecting a +file of the _Newcastle Chronicle_ for 1765-6, and the contrast between +journals and things in general which that examination forced on the +attention, was in some respects sufficiently striking or curious to +be, in his opinion, deserving of some permanent record. At present, +the journal in question almost, if not entirely, reaches 'the largest +size allowed by law;' at that time, it consisted merely of a single +demy sheet. Now, the Newcastle people would be amazed beyond measure +if they did not receive at breakfast-time, on the morning of +publication, the parliamentary, and all other important news of the +night; then, the latest London news was four days old. But a better +idea of the journal can perhaps be given, by stating what it lacked +than what it then contained. It had no leaders, no parliamentary +reports, and very little indeed, in any shape, that could be termed +political news. In these matters, its conductor had to say, with +Canning's knife-grinder: 'Story! God bless you, I have none to tell, +sir.' Not that the political world was unfruitful in affairs of +moment; it was a time of no small change, interest, and excitement. In +the period referred to, the Grenville ministry had endeavoured to +burden the American colonies, by means of the stamp-duties, with some +of the debt contracted in the late war. Thereupon, immense discontent +had arisen at home and abroad; that administration had fallen; and the +Rockingham ministry, which was then formed, found full employment (in +1766) in undoing what had been effected in the previous year. How the +Grafton ministry was next formed; how the unfortunate design of taxing +the colonists was revived; and how that policy ended, readers of +English history know full well. John Wilkes, too, had been already +persecuted into prominence, although not yet forced up to the height +of his popularity with the masses. But, notwithstanding these and +other stirring incidents, the _Chronicle_ was, politically speaking, +almost a blank. From time to time, it was stated that the royal assent +had been given to certain measures; but concerning the preparation and +discussion of those measures, nothing was known. A few other political +facts of interest, indeed, such as the arrival of Wilkes in London +from France; the repeal of the obnoxious Stamp Act; the riots of the +Spitalfields weavers on account of the importation of French silks; +and an attack upon the Speaker, and many of the members of the Dublin +parliament, who were grossly insulted, and kept from going to the +House, in consequence of 'a report that parliament designed to impose +more taxes,' were also curtly noticed. Political rumours abounded, +although positive knowledge of that kind was exceedingly scanty; and +the little that could be obtained was eked out by inuendo, rather than +by venturing on any direct statement. The familiarity which, according +to the proverb, is apt to breed contempt, was not then indulged in +with reference to rulers, parliaments, or even agitators. The emperor +of Russia was alluded to under the title of 'a great northern +potentate;' parliament was spoken of as 'a certain august assembly;' +and Wilkes was usually entitled, 'a certain popular gentleman.' + +Some of the political rumours are worthy of republication. The +subjoined, from the London news of July 29, 1766, serves to shew how +long a political change may be mooted before its effect is tried in +this country: 'It is said, a bill will be brought into parliament next +session, binding elections for members of parliament to be by ballot.' + +And, without at all entering into the discussion of political topics, +it may perhaps be observed that the following, taken from the +_Chronicle_ of August 10, 1765, points out how an evil of the present +day has long been felt and acknowledged: 'We hear the electors of a +certain borough have been offered 3000 guineas for a seat, though +there is but so short a time for the session of the present +parliament.' + +Great surprise is expressed (1766) that the consumption of coal in +London 'hath increased from 400,000 odd to 600,000 chaldrons yearly.' +We find that the coal imported into London during the first six months +of 1851, amounted to 1,527,527 tons, besides 90,975 tons brought into +the metropolis during the same period by railway and canal. 'Carrying +coal to Newcastle' proved a successful speculation on September 25, +1765, when, on account of a strike among the pitmen, 'several pokes of +coal were brought to this town by one of the common carriers, and sold +on the Sandhill for 9d. a poke, by which he cleared 6d. a poke.' About +the same time, wheat was selling in Darlington and Richmond for 4s. +and 4s. 6d. per bushel, after having been nearly double that price +only two or three weeks previously. In the number for June 25, 1766, +we have the following quotation from a Doncaster letter:--'Corn sold +last market-day from 12s. to 14s. per quarter; meat, from 2-1/2d. to +3d. per pound; fowls, and other kinds of poultry, had no price, being +mostly carried home. I wish a scheme was set on foot, to run many such +articles to London by land-carriage; there is plenty here.' In the +same paper, the prices of grain in London are given: wheat, 36s. to +41s.; barley, 22s. to 25s.; oats, 16s. to 20s. + +Recently, the Newcastle papers, led on by the _Chronicle_, have been +making strenuous efforts to extend the French coal-trade, but such +exertions formed no part of the 'wisdom of our ancestors.' The number +for June 15, 1765, informs us that 'some sinister designs for +exporting a very considerable quantity of coals to France and +elsewhere, have lately been discovered and prevented.' Sturdy Britons +had then far too much hatred for 'our natural enemies' to wish to +exchange aught but hostilities with them. About the same time, we +learn that 'clubs of young gentlemen of fortune' had come to the +magnanimous resolve, 'to toast no lady who has so much inconsideration +as to lavish her money away in French fopperies, to the detriment of +her own country.' + +The style of advertising then in vogue occasionally gave the paper a +somewhat pictorial appearance. Cockfighting was in great force, and +the public announcements relative to this barbarous sport were +invariably headed by a portraiture of a couple of game-birds facing +each other with a most belligerent aspect; while the numerous +advertisements of horses 'stolen or strayed,' were embellished by a +representation of the supposed thief, mounted on the missing animal, +which was forced into a breakneck pace, while Satan himself, _in +propria persona_, was perched on the crupper, in an excited and +triumphant attitude. In the local paragraphs, we note several +indicating a strong feeling of animosity between the Scotch and +English borderers. We observe also that the Newcastle dogs--to this +day a very numerous fraternity--were at times quite unmanageable, and +caused, either by their ravenous exploits, or their downright madness, +no small uneasiness to the town and neighbourhood. It must be +confessed, that in its marriage-notices, at least, the _Chronicle_ was +far superior to anything that journalism can now exhibit in Newcastle +or in Great Britain. These interesting announcements must have +intensely delighted our grandmothers; and, we fear, have frequently +tempted our grandsires into a somewhat precipitate plunge into the +gulf of matrimony. Instead of barely specifying, as papers now do, +that Mr Smith married Miss Brown, the _Chronicle_ uniformly tantalised +its bachelor readers with an account of the personal, mental, and, if +such there were, metallic charms of the bride; so that how any single +gentleman, in the teeth of such notifications, could retain his +condition for long, is really marvellous. Most of the young ladies who +had thus bestowed themselves on their fortunate admirers, are +described as 'sprightly,' and many as 'genteel and agreeable;' some +have 'a genteel fortune,' other's 'a considerable fortune,' and +others, again, rejoice in the possession of 'a large fortune:' one man +gains 'a well-accomplished young lady, with a fortune of L.1000;' +another takes unto himself 'an agreeable widow lady, with a fortune of +L.2000;' a third marches off with 'a young lady endowed with every +accomplishment to make the marriage state happy, with a fortune of +L.5000;' while a fourth _Benedict_, more lucky still, obtains 'a most +amiable, affable, and agreeable young lady, with a fortune of +L.10,000.' We suppose that the best excuse newspaper editors now have +for being less florid in their matrimonial announcements is, that +where the papers formerly had one, they have now at least a dozen of +these interesting notices; so that their brevity may be less owing to +the want of gallantry than to the want of space. + +So extremely meagre was the news, both foreign and domestic, that a +considerable portion of the four small pages of the _Chronicle_ was +usually devoted to literature. Extracts were frequently given from the +works of Johnson, Smollett, and other popular writers, and a column +was often occupied by an essay from a contributor to the paper, +generally treating of some social evil or peculiarity, but never +intermeddling with local or general politics. These effusions +displayed a very respectable amount of ability, and the general +getting-up, or what would now be termed the sub-editing of the paper, +was also performed with care and ability. The scraps of news were +always presented rewritten and carefully condensed, instead of the +loose 'scissors-and-paste' style of publication adopted by many +provincial papers of the present day. Notices not only of local +theatricals, but of histrionic matters at Old Drury, were occasionally +given; the number for March 15, 1766, containing a well-written +criticism of '_The Clandestine Marriage; a New Comedy_,' performed +there. As the _Chronicle_ thus had to leave politics for literature, +we may perhaps, in our turn, digress from a consideration of its +pages, to note briefly that this period was set in the very midst of +the celebrated Georgian era, in which this country could boast of more +distinguished men--especially in literature--than at any other period. +In about twenty previous years, many great ones had departed--notably +Pope, Thomson, Fielding. Richardson also had died in 1761, and +Shenstone in 1763; the author of the _Night-Thoughts_ survived till +1765, when his burial was announced in the _Chronicle_ of April 27. +At this time (1765-6), Dr Johnson had reached the zenith of his fame; +Gray was becoming popular; Smollett had written most of his novels; +Goldsmith was about to present the world with his exquisite _Vicar of +Wakefield_; Gibbon had returned to England from Rome with the idea of +_The Decline and Fall_ floating in his brain; Thomas Chatterton, + + ----'the marvellous boy, + The sleepless soul that perished in his pride,' + +had already given proofs of his wondrous precocity; the genuine +sailor-poet, Falconer, had lately published _The Shipwreck_; Laurence +Sterne had just collected the materials for his _Sentimental Journey_; +Sir William Blackstone had published his celebrated _Commentaries_; +Wesley and Whitefield had not yet ended their useful career; the star +of Edmund Burke was rising; and Jeremy Bentham, being then (1766) but +seventeen years of age, had taken his master's degree at Oxford, +although, it is true, the first literary performance of the eccentric +philosopher did not appear till some years later. Home, Moore, and +Colman, had appeared successfully as dramatists, and were about to be +followed by Macklin, Cumberland, Goldsmith, and Sheridan. Newcastle or +district celebrities of the time included Mark Akenside, the author of +_The Pleasures of the Imagination_; Dr Thomas Percy, dean of Carlisle, +who published, in 1765, his _Reliques of English Poetry_; and Dr John +Langhorne, a northern divine of no small popularity in his day as a +poet. Among other illustrious living men, were Horace Walpole, Henry +Mackenzie, Blair, Hume, Adam Smith, Dr Robertson, Garrick, Reynolds; +and last, not least, William Pitt, who, in 1766, was created Earl of +Chatham. + +But let us return to our more immediate purpose--that of making a few +selections from the _Chronicle_, some of which will doubtless reflect +far less credit on the age than the enumeration we have just made of +eminent individuals. Now and then, a duel took place in Hyde Park. The +amusements of some of our aristocrats did not always exhibit them in +any very dignified position, as witness the subjoined:--'Sir Charles +Bunbury ran 100 yards at Newmarket for 1000 guineas, against a tailor +with 40 lb. weight of cabbage, _alias_ shreds.' + +Here is a paragraph, from the number for March 15, 1766, relative to +the recreations of some less elevated in the social scale: 'Sunday +morning, a little before three o'clock, a match at marbles was played +under the piazza at Covent Garden by the light of thirty-two links (by +several rogues well known in that circle), for twenty guineas a side.' + +A few other quotations may be deemed worthy of republication, although +some of them may have no direct or important bearing. The audacity of +highway robbers at this period is known to everybody. The following, +dated December 21, 1765, gives a tolerably correct idea of the usual +style adopted by those gentlemen of the road:--'Thursday, the Leeds +and Leicester stage-coaches were stopped on Finchley Common by a +highwayman, who took from the passengers a considerable sum of money. +A nobleman's cook, a young woman about twenty-five, declared she would +not be robbed, when the highwayman, admiring her courage, let her +alone. He broke the coach-glass with his pistol, and gave the coachman +half-a-crown to get it mended.' News from London, dated January 9, +1765, says: 'Early on Tuesday morning, a member of parliament, on his +return home in a chair to his house in New Palace Yard, was stopped +and robbed by a single footpad of his purse, in which were sixty-three +guineas.' + +About the same time, we are informed that 'the celebrated J.J. +Rousseau hath for the present taken up his residence at a friend's +house in Putney.'--The number for October 26, 1765, contains an +advertisement of a 'beggar's stand' (copied from the _Public +Advertiser_), 'to be let, in a charitable neighbourhood. Income, about +30s. a week.' + +The following reference to our acquaintances, the Sikhs, now +sufficiently well known, is curious, as it is doubtless one of their +first appearances in the columns of the English press. It is dated +July 5, 1766: 'The Seyques, an idolatrous people inhabiting the +neighbourhood of Cachemire, whose name was hardly known two years ago, +have beaten Abdaly and the Patanes whom he commanded.' Modern Cockneys +would stare to read a paragraph like this: 'A great deal of grass hath +been cut down about Islington, Kentish-Town,' &c. + +We will conclude our selections, which have now grown quite desultory +and miscellaneous, by the brief obituary of a 'remarkable' man, from +the _Chronicle_ of July 26, 1766: 'Thursday, died at his house near +Hampstead, the Rev. Mr Southcote, remarkable for having a leg of +mutton every night for supper during a course of forty years, smoking +ten pipes as constantly, and drinking three bottles of port.' + + + + +GENIUS FOR EMIGRATION. + + +Lady E. Stuart Wortley, in the account of her journey in America, +mentions that she saw a man proceeding on foot across the Isthmus of +Panama, bound for the Pacific, carrying a huge box on his back that +would almost have contained a house. It was really a dreadful thing to +see the poor man, full-cry for California, toiling along with his +enormous burden, under a tropical sun, the heat of which he required +to endure through forty miles of wilderness, and no chance of relief +or refreshment by the way. Yet this serio-comic spectacle is not +singular. Multitudes seem to have gone to the diggings with every +species of encumbrance, and in a totally unsuitable garb. Splendid +dress-coats and waistcoats, boots and pantaloons, but no +working-clothes, nor implements for camping, and in many instances not +even a cloak: everything suitable for the enjoyment of their golden +promises, with nothing to assist in realising them. + +Nearly the same thing has occurred in innumerable instances as regards +Australia. The men going thither must in general be shepherds or their +masters; and to be either to any purpose, they must go far into the +bush. For this they required a talent for constructing huts for +themselves and servants, and hurdles for the cattle, and consequently +tools to assist them; but they often went without either tools or +talents, and so had to pay extravagantly for very common services. +They may have had common clothes, but they had made no provision for +living far from the assistance of women; and consequently, if a +coat-sleeve was torn, it must hang just as it was; if a stocking was +out at heel, having neither needles nor worsted, nor the power of +using them, they had no other resource but to _tie_ the _hole_ +together. They had no idea of washing and dressing, and consequently +must want clean linen, or stockings, and every other article of clean +apparel, till a woman could be heard of, and bribed to assist them. +The consequence was, that it was cheaper to buy new articles than +either wash or mend the old. It is doubtful whether many had not +omitted to learn to shave themselves, or to provide razors or strops, +or even scissors. + +Then as to baking bread, or cooking the humblest meal, they were +equally at a loss. They seem to have had no idea of the humblest +grate, or even of a flat and easily-cleaned stone for a hearth; and +so, having kneaded their 'damper,' it is never said how they thrust it +in the ashes till it was partially heated, and comparatively fit to +be eaten. They have mutton, and mutton only; but how cooked is equally +unknown. It is not known that they have any apparatus whatever, stew +or frying pan, or even a hook and string. Yet the natives of Scotland +may have seen many things nicely baked by means of a hot hearthstone +below, a griddle with live coals above, and burning turf all round. A +single pot with water is a boiler; with the juice of the meat, or +little more, a stew-pan; or merely surrounded by fire, an oven: but it +is believed many have not that single pot. Even the cheap crock that +holds salted meat might also be turned into a pudding-dish; and such a +vessel as that which of old held the ashes of the dead, and now +occasionally holds salt, the French peasant often turns into a +_pot-au-feu_--a pot for boiling his soup--and makes that soup out of +docks and nettles collected by the wayside, with a little +meal--delicious if seasoned with salt and a scrap of meat, or a +well-picked lark or sparrow, or even a nicely-skinned and washed thigh +of a frog! + +The natives of New Holland themselves get fat upon serpents +well-killed--that is, with the heads adroitly cut off, so as not to +suffer the poison to go through the body; or upon earth or tree worms +nicely roasted. The Turks roast their _kebabs_--something near to +mutton-chops--by holding them to the fire on skewers. But the +inhabitants of Great Britain, accustomed to comforts unknown to any +other part of the world, are, when deprived of these comforts, the +most helpless in the world. + +The natives of Ireland might be supposed to be excellent subjects for +emigration, for at home they have often only straw and rags for beds, +stones for seats, and one larger in the middle for a table; while the +basket or 'kish' that washes the potatoes, receives them again when +boiled: so that the pot and basket are the only articles of furniture. +Simplicity beyond this is hardly conceivable: there is but one step +beyond it--wanting the pot, and throwing the potatoes, however cooked, +broadcast upon the stone-table; and this is possible by roasting +the potatoes in the embers. The Guachos of South America teach how +even the most savoury meal of beef may be obtained without pot +or oven--namely, by roasting it in the skin! It is called +_carne-con-cuero_--flesh in the skin--and is pronounced delicious. +Diogenes threw away his dish, his only article of furniture, upon +seeing a boy drink from his hand; and after this example, an Irishman +might throw away his pot; though we would not recommend him to do so. + +Unless people know how to prepare food, they may starve in the midst +of comparative plenty. It is alleged--though we do not vouch for the +fact--that when wheat and maize were carried into Ireland and given +gratis, the famine was not stayed. Though they had the wheat and +maize, they could not grind them; if ground, they could not cook +them--they had neither vessels nor fuel; if vessels and fuel were +given, they were still unable to assist themselves--they had not skill +to cook them; and if cooked, they could not eat them--they had never +been accustomed to do so! Such are the effects of carrying contentment +too far: the individual becomes wholly resourceless. + +We try to induce them to fish with the same results. If we give them +boats, they have no nets; give them nets, they know not how to use +them; teach them to use them, and they can neither cook nor eat the +fish; and as to selling them for other comforts, there is no market! +Without a knowledge of agriculture, or fishing, or even talents to +feed themselves, such men are useless in any quarter, unless as +subjects to be taught; and now at last, but greatly too late, they are +being taught, and the much-abused railway will carry their produce to +the market. + +The Scottish Celt is more shifty. In the old days when he had flesh +and little else to eat, he could broil it on the coals; and a Scotch +collop is perhaps equal to a Turkish kebob. We wonder if in Australia +the long-forgotten Scotch collop has been revived? It requires no +cooking-vessels. It may be held to the fire on a twig, or laid on the +coals and turned by a similar twig--bent into a collop-tongs--or even +by the fingers. + +In the Rebellion of 1745, the Scoto-Celt could knead into a cake the +meal, which he carried as his sole provision, and knew that it ought +to be fired upon a griddle; but if he had no other convenience, he +could knead it in his bonnet, and eat it raw, and go forth to meet and +conquer the best-appointed soldiers in Europe. It was only when at +last he had neither rest nor food that he was dispersed--not +conquered. A lowland Scot is better. With a dish and hot water, and of +course the meal and salt, he can make _brose_, and live and thrive +upon it. + +How John Bull, who in his own country is carnivorous, and will have +his roast-pig on Sunday, if he should slave all the week--how he gets +on in a new country, is more doubtful. Very likely, having more wants, +he makes more provision for them; but as below a certain rank he is +not a writing animal, less is known of his successes or difficulties. +For our own part, we think we would have made an excellent Crusoe, and +your Crusoe is the only man for a new country. + +Some years ago, we travelled over the backbone of Scotland, and +returned somewhat on its western fin, both on foot; and all our +equipments were a travelling dress, a stout umbrella, and a parcel in +wax-cloth strapped on our left shoulder, not larger than is generally +seen in the hands of a commercial traveller--that is, twelve inches by +six or eight; and yet we never wanted for anything. It is true we had +generally the convenience of inns by the way; but if by our +_Traveller's Guide_ (which we also carried) we saw the stage was to be +long, an oaten cake, with a _plug_ of wheaten bread for the last +mouthful, to keep down heartburn, and a slice of cold beef or ham, or +a hard-boiled egg, were ample provisions. Drink? There was no lack of +drink. Springs of the most beautiful water were frequent by the +roadside, and constantly bubbling up, without noise or motion, through +the purest sand, though heaven only was looking upon them; and a +single leaf from our memorandum-book, formed into the shape of a +grocer's twist as wanted, served us as a drinking-cup throughout the +journey. Had we even been overtaken by night, it was summer, and a bed +under whins, or upon heather, with our umbrella set against the wind, +and secured to us, would have been delightful. Once, indeed, we feared +this would have been our fate; for on the very top of Corryarrick, and +consequently nine miles or more from house or home in any direction, +we sprained our ankle, or rather an old sprain returned. To all +appearance, we were done for, and might have sat stiff for days or +weeks by the solitary spring that happened to be near at the instant. +But a piece of flannel from the throat, and a tape from the wondrous +parcel, enabled us again to wag; and we finished our allotted journey +to Dalwhinnie in time for dinner, tea, and supper in one--and then to +our journal with glorious serenity! + +Our arrangements for the continent were equally simple. When we were +asked to shew our luggage, on entering France, we produced a +portmanteau nine inches by six. 'Voila ma magasin!' It was opened, and +there were certainly some superfluities, though natural enough in an +incipient traveller. 'Une plume pour ecrire l'Histoire de la +France!'--'Un cahier pour la meme!' And the intending historian of +France, even with his imported pen and paper-book, and also three +shirts and some pairs of socks, was allowed to go to his dinner, with +his _magasin_ in his hand, and start by the first conveyance; while +his less fortunate fellow-travellers had to dine in absence of their +luggage, and perhaps give the town that had the honour of being their +landing-place, the profit of their company for the night. + +But what is the use of all these insinuations of aptitude for +colonisation, when there is not such another man in the world? We beg +pardon; but we have actually discovered such another, and to introduce +him suitably has been the sole aim of our existence in writing this +interesting preface. In a most authentic newspaper, we find the +following admirable history, copied from the _New York Express_:-- + +'A man who had been an unsuccessful delver in the mines of Georgia, on +hearing the thrilling news of the gold placers of California, had his +spirit quickened within him; and although he had arrived at an +age--being about sixty--when the fires of youth usually cease to burn +with vigour, he fixed his eyes upon the far-distant and but +little-known country, and resolved that he would wend his way thither +alone, and even in the absence of that friend, generally thought +indispensable, money, of which he was wholly destitute. + +'Under such circumstances, it would not avail to think of a passage +round "The Horn," or by the more uncertain, and at the same time +imperfected route, across the Isthmus. But as California was on this +continent, he knew that there was a way thither, though it might lead +through trackless deserts and barren wastes. These were not enough to +daunt his determined spirit. He bent his way to the "Father of +Waters," and worked his way as he could, till he found himself at +"Independence," in health, and with no less strength, and with 150 +dollars in his purse. He had no family to provide for, or even +companion to care for, on the route which he was about to enter. Yet +some things were necessary for himself; and to relieve his body from +the pressure of a load, he provided himself with a wheel-barrow, on +which to place his traps. + +'It must not be supposed that our hero was ignorant of the large +number of emigrants that was moving over the plains, and it is quite +probable that his sagacity was precocious enough to look ahead at the +result of attempting to carry forward such ponderous loads, and such a +variety of at least dispensable things as the earlier parties started +with. A detailed list of the 'amount and variety of goods and wares, +useful and superfluous, including many of the appendages of refined +and fashionable life, would astonish the reader. Our hero was not in a +hurry. He reasoned thus: "The world was not made in a day; the race is +not always for the swift." He trundled along his barrow, enjoying the +comforts of his pipe, the object of wonder to many, and the subject of +much sportive remark to those who were hurried along by their fresh +and spirited teams on their first days. + +'Many weeks had not passed, however, before our traveller had tangible +evidence that trouble had fallen to the lot of some who had preceded +him. A stray ox was feeding on his track: the mate of which, he +afterwards learned, was killed, and this one turned adrift as useless. +He coaxed this waif to be the companion of his journey, taking care to +stop where he could provide himself with the needful sustenance. He +had not travelled far before he found a mate for his ox, and ere long +a wagon, which had given way in some of its parts, and been abandoned +by its rightful owner, and left in the road. Our travelling genius was +aroused to turn these mishaps to his own advantage; so he went +straightway to work to patch and bolster up the wagon, bound his +faithful oxen to it, and changed his employment from trundling a +wheel-barrow to driving a team. Onward moved the new establishment, +the owner gathering as he went, from the superabundance of those who +had gone before him, various articles of utility--such as flour, +provisions of all kinds, books, implements, even rich carpets, &c. +which had been cast off as burdensome by other travellers. He would +occasionally find poor worn-out animals that had been left behind, and +as it was not important for him to speed his course, he gathered them +together, stopping where there was abundance of grass, long enough for +his cattle to gain a little strength and spirit. Time rolled on, and +his wagon rolled with it, till he reached the end of his journey, when +it was discovered that he had an uncommon fine team and a good wagon, +&c. which produced him on the sale 2500 dollars. + +'Being now relieved of the care of his team, and in the midst of the +gold-diggings, he soon closed his prospecting by a location; and while +all around him were concentrating their strength to consummate the +work of years in a few months, he deliberately commenced building, +finishing, and, as fast as he could, furnishing, a comfortable cabin. +His wood he gathered and regularly piled in a straight line and +perpendicular by the door, convenient as though the old lady had been +within to provide his meals. He acted upon the adage, "Never to start +till you are ready." Now our hero was ready to commence working his +"claim;" and this he did, as he did everything else, steadily and +systematically. + +'He may yet be seen at his work, with the prospect--if he lives to be +an old man--of being rich; for in the last two years he has +accumulated 10,000 dollars.' + +Need we add a word? This is decidedly the kind of man for +emigrating--or, indeed, for remaining at home. We, being of his own +character, can conceive his delicious nights of camping out, his head +under his wheel-barrow, until he arrived at the dignity of a wagon; +his principal luggage being perhaps a coverlet, to preserve him from +the cold in sleep, and a gun that unscrewed, and its appendages, to +provide him a fresh bird or beef. It is very probable that he sought +neither of these, but was contented with something concentrated and +preserved, and thus feasted; and with a drink from some delicious +spring, or from a bottle--that could not be broken--supplied at the +last spring he had passed, lay down conscious of his progress, well +satisfied with the past, and hopeful of the future. + +On his arrival at his destination, his conduct is equally exemplary. +Every one should provide for the preservation of life and health as +first measures; and if not done at a rate which future exertions are +likely to render profitable, why make the expenditure? Now, many +are in all these new adventures expending on inevitable +necessities--having made no previous provision for them--such sums as +render all their exertions hopeless; while at the same time they are +sacrificing health and strength. + +The government of Australia has certainly been very successful in +preserving order at the gold placers there, and has given its sanction +upon moderate terms; for here, we believe, gold and silver mines are +_inter regalia_, and could have been entirely seized by the crown. We +sincerely trust it will appropriate the great and unexpected revenue +thence arising in improving the roads through this magnificent +country, and providing shelter for the traveller; for at this moment, +many of the roads being over the steepest mountains, and the gradients +unmitigated by cuttings, or any other act of engineering whatever, +they are all but impassable, and are travelled with the greatest +torture to the unfortunate animals concerned. It was the reproach of +Spain, that though in possession of South America for centuries, she +had formed few roads; and that the few formed were bad, and the +accommodation in their neighbourhood of the worst description--often +open sheds, without food or furniture, or indeed inhabitants; or if +inhabited, with only stones for seats, and raised mounds of earth for +beds. Even now, in little more than half a century, things are better +in Australia than this, at least wherever government has extended. But +there is a vast deal more to be done; and it is a pity that in the +first place suitable schools are not formed for the persons intending +to emigrate, and opportunity given them to do so, without the +degradation of crime, and the expense and disgrace of conviction. + + + + +EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED. + + +The _Westminster Review_ for January, in an able and temperate +article, entitled _Employers and Employed_, delineates the progress of +the working power from the original condition of _serfdom_, through +that of _vassalage_, which prevailed in the middle ages, to the system +of simple contract in which we now find it in France and America. This +the writer regards as part of a universal progress towards a more and +more equalised condition of the various orders of men--'an equality, +not perhaps of wealth, or of mind, or of inherent power, but of social +condition, and of individual rights and freedom.' In England, however, +we are only in a state of transition from that relation of protection +on the one hand, and respect or loyalty on the other, which +constituted the system of vassalage, to the true democratic relation +which assumes a perfect equality and independence in the contracting +parties. 'The master cannot divest himself of the idea, that in virtue +of his rank he is entitled to deference and submission; and the +workman conceives that, in virtue of his comparative poverty, he is +entitled to assistance in difficulty, and to protection from the +consequences of his own folly and improvidence. Each party expects +from the other something more than is expressed or implied in the +covenant between them. The workman, asserting his equality and +independence, claims from his employer services which only inferiority +can legitimately demand; the master, tacitly and in his heart denying +this equality and independence, repudiates claims which only the +validity of this plea of equality and independence can effectually +nonsuit or liquidate.' + +Arguing that 'the reciprocal duties of employers and employed, _as +such_, are comprised within the limits of their covenant,' the writer +goes on to say, that nevertheless there remains a relation of +'fellow-citizenship and of Christian _neighbourhood_,' by virtue of +which the employer owes service to his work-people, seeing that 'every +man owes service to every man whom he is in a position to serve.' Let +not the Pharisaic fundholder and lazy mortgagee suppose that the great +employers of labour are thus under a peculiar obligation from which +_they_ are exempt. The obligation is assumed to be equal upon all who +have power and means; and it only lies with special weight at the door +of the employer of multitudes, in as far as he is in a situation to +exercise influence over their character and conduct, and usually has +greater means of rendering aid suited to their particular necessities. + +Before proceeding to expound the various duties thus imposed upon the +employer, the writer lays down a primary duty as essential to the due +performance of the rest--namely, he must see to making his business +succeed; and for this end he must possess a sufficient capital at +starting; and he must not, for any reasons of vanity or benevolence, +or through laxness, pay higher wages than the state of the +labour-market and the prospects of trade require. Of the secondary +duties which next come in course--and which, be it remembered, arise +not from the mastership, but from the neighbourship--the first is that +of 'making his factory, and the processes carried on there, as healthy +as care and sanitary science can render them.' 'This is the more +incumbent upon him, as it is little likely to be thought of or +demanded by his workmen. It is a topic on which his cultivated +intelligence is almost sure to place him far ahead of them; and out of +the superiority, as we have seen, springs the obligation.' Our +reviewer adds the remark, that, 'in the minor workshops, and +especially in the work-rooms of tailors and seamstresses, the +employers are still, for the most part, unawakened to the importance +and imperativeness of this class of obligations. The health of +thousands is sacrificed from pure ignorance and want of thought.' + +One mode of serving those who work for him, which the circumstances +render appropriate, is to provide them with decent and comfortable +dwellings. Much has been done in this way. 'In almost all country +establishments, and in most of those in the smaller towns, the +employers have been careful to surround their mills with substantial +and well-built cottages, often with gardens attached to them, +containing four rooms--kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms: cottages +which are let for rents which at once remunerate the owner and are +easy for the occupier.' Even in large towns, where there are great +local difficulties, something has been done by the building of Model +Lodging-houses, and by the efforts of Societies for improving the +Dwellings of the Poor. The writer specifies one of the greatest +difficulties as existing in the working-people themselves: when +provided with a variety of rooms for the separation of the various +members of their families, they are very apt to defeat the whole plan +by taking in lodgers, and contenting themselves with the filthy and +depraving huddlement out of which their benevolent superiors +endeavoured to rescue them. But it may be hoped that, by promoting +only a few of the more intelligent and better-disposed to such +improved dwellings, and thus setting up good examples, the multitude +might in time be trained to an appreciation of the decency and comfort +of ampler accommodation. Another wide field of usefulness is open to +the employers in the establishment of schools, reading-rooms, baths, +wash-houses, and the like. + +It strikes us that the writer of this article is not true to his own +principle in his view of the duties of the employer. We readily grant +the duty of making his business prosperous and his workshops healthy. +To fail in the latter particular especially, were not merely to fail +in a duty, but to incur a heavy positive blame. But we cannot see how +it is incumbent on the employer to provide houses for the persons who +enter into the labour-contract with him, any more than to see that +they get their four-pound loaf of a certain quality or price. It may +be a graceful thing, a piece of noble benevolence, to enter into these +building schemes, but it is also to go back into that system of +vassalage out of which it is assumed that the relation of employer and +employed is passing. Either the new buildings will pay as +speculations, or they will not. If they are sure to pay, ordinary +speculators will be as ready to furnish them as bakers are to sell +bread. If the contrary be the case, why burden with the actual or +probable loss the party in a simple contract which involves no such +obligation? Clearly, there must be no great reason to expect a fair +return for capital laid out in this way, or we should see building +schemes for the working-classes taken up extensively by ordinary +speculators. For employers, then, to enter into such plans, must in +some degree be the result of benevolent feelings towards their men; +and, so far, we must hold there is an acknowledgment on both sides +that the system of vassalage is not yet extinct amongst us, and that +the time for its extinction is not yet come. + +If we look, however, at the entire condition of the working-people of +England, we shall see that it acknowledges the same truth in some of +its broadest features. When a time of depression comes, and factories +do not require half of their usual number of hands, or even so many, +it is never expected, on any hand, that the superfluous labourers are +to maintain themselves till better times return. The employer is +expected to keep them in his service, at least on short time, and at a +reduced remuneration, although at a ruinous loss to himself. The +workmen, though well aware of the contingency, make little or no +provision against it, but calmly trust to the funds of their +employers, or the contributions of the class to which these belong. +Now, while such a practice exists, the relation of employer and +employed is not that of independent contractors, but so far that of +the feudal baron and his villeins, or of a chieftain and his +'following.' It is, in effect, a voluntarily maintained slavery on the +part of the operatives--a habit as incompatible with political liberty +as with moral dignity and progress, and therefore a sore evil in our +state. Obviously, to perfect the system of independent contract, the +workmen would need to redeem themselves from that condition of utter +_unprovidedness_ in which the great bulk of them are for the present +content to live. Instead of what we see so prevalent now--a sort of +hopelessness as to the benefits of saving--a dread to let it be known +or imagined of them that they possess any store, lest it lead to a +reduction of their wages (a foolish fallacy), or deprive them of a +claim on their employer's consideration in the event of a period of +depression (a mean and unworthy fear), we must see a dignified sense +of independence, resting on the possession of some kind of property, +before we can expect that even this stage in the Progress of Labour +shall be truly reached. + +But is it not just one of the essential disadvantages attending the +contract system, or may we rather call it the system of weekly hire, +that while it prompts the employer to frugality, by the obvious +benefits to him of constant accumulation, it leaves the employed, as a +mass, without a sufficient motive to the same virtue, and thus insures +their being retained in that unprovidedness which forbids independence +and true social dignity? On this point, were we a workman, we should +be sorry to rest in an affirmative, or to allow it to slacken our +exertions or sap our self-denial; because if there is a higher +development of the labouring state in store for society, it can only +be attained by the more speedy perfection of the contract state in +_the entire independence of the workman_. The writer from whom we have +quoted thinks, and with his sentiments we entirely concur, that +'society, in its progress towards an ideal state, may have to undergo +modifications, compared with which all previous ones will seem +trifling and superficial. Of one thing only can we feel +secure--namely, that the loyal and punctual discharge of all the +obligations arising out of existing social relations will best hallow, +beautify, and elevate those relations, if they are destined to be +permanent; and will best prepare a peaceful and beneficent advent for +their successors, if, like so much that in its day seemed eternal, +they too are doomed to pass away.' + + + + +ANECDOTE OF THE FIELD OF SHERRIFMUIR. + + +My grandfather, William Wilson, was born in the farmhouse of Drumbrae, +on the estate of Airthrey, at no great distance from the field of +Sherrifmuir. At the rebellion of 1715, he was a lad of fifteen years +of age, and learning that the rebels under the Earl of Mar had met +with the royal forces under the Duke of Argyle in the neighbourhood, +on the morning of Sunday the 12th November, while it was still dusk, +he went to the top of a neighbouring hill named Glentye, from which +the whole of the moor was discernible, and on which a number of +country people were stationed, attracted to the spot, like himself, by +curiosity. Being at no great distance from both armies, he could see +them distinctly. The Highlanders, who observed no regular order, he +compared to a large, dark, formless cloud, forming a striking contrast +to the regular lines and disciplined appearance of the royal army. +After observing them for some space of time, an orderly dragoon, sent +by the Duke of Argyle, rode up to the spot where the spectators stood, +warning them to remove from a position in which they were in as great +danger as the combatants themselves. My grandfather accordingly +returned home, listening with awe to the sharp report of musketry, +intermixed with the booming of cannon, which now informed him that the +battle had commenced. He had not been long in the house when a +dismounted dragoon made his appearance, requesting to have his left +wrist bandaged, so as to stop the blood. The hand had been cut off, +and his horse killed under him, and he was on his way to Stirling to +seek surgical aid. While his wishes were being complied with, he +occupied himself in taking some refreshment, till one of the +farm-servants came in and warned him that four armed Highlanders were +coming down the hill in the direction of the house. The soldier, who +had no doubt been taught at the Marlborough school, and served perhaps +at Ramillies and Blenheim, immediately went out to the front of the +house, which concealed him from his enemies. Presently, he heard by +the footsteps that one was near, when he instantly presented himself +at the gable, and shot the foremost Highlander with his carbine; then, +seeing that the others came on in Indian file, with short distances +between, he advanced to meet them, dropped the second with a bullet +from his pistol, and cut down the third with his sword. The fourth, +seeing the fate of his comrades, took to flight. After this wholesale +execution, the dragoon, with perfect coolness, returned to the house, +finished his repast, tranquilly said his thanks and adieus, and went +off in the direction of Stirling. The next morning the country people +were summoned to bury the dead. The ground was thickly covered with +cranreuch, and life still remained in numbers of both armies, who +begged earnestly for water. But what struck my grandfather +particularly was, that the heads and bodies of a great many of the +slain royalists were horribly mutilated by the claymores of the +Highlanders; while on those of the Highlanders themselves nothing was +observed but the wound which had caused their death.--_Communicated by +Mr Alexander Wilson, shoemaker, Stirling._ + + + + +THINNESS OF A SOAP-BUBBLE. + + +A soap-bubble as it floats in the light of the sun reflects to the eye +an endless variety of the most gorgeous tints of colour. Newton +shewed, that to each of these tints corresponds a certain thickness of +the substance forming the bubble; in fact, he shewed, in general, that +all transparent substances, when reduced to a certain degree of +tenuity, would reflect these colours. Near the highest point of the +bubble, just before it bursts, is always observed a spot which +reflects no colour and appears black. Newton shewed that the thickness +of the bubble at this black point was the 2,500,000th part of an inch! +Now, as the bubble at this point possesses the properties of water as +essentially as does the Atlantic Ocean, it follows that the ultimate +molecules forming water must have less dimensions than this +thickness.--_Lardner's Handbook._ + + + + +ENGLISH PLOUGHING. + + +The following, written from England, is going the round of the papers, +and is as true as the gospel, in my opinion. I have seen better +ploughing here with a pair of oxen than in the old country with five +horses; but Johnny won't learn. 'Lord! only look at five great, +elephant-looking beasts in one plough, with one great lummokin fellow +to hold the handle, and another to carry the whip, and a boy to lead, +whose boots have more iron on them than the horses' hoofs have, all +crawling as if going to a funeral! What sort of a way is that to do +work? It makes me mad to look at 'em. If there is any airthly clumsy +fashion of doin' a thing, that's the way they are always sure to git +here. They're a benighted, obstinate, bull-headed people the English, +that's the fact, and always was.' Well done, Jonathan--quite +true!--_From a private Letter from Boston._ + + + + +JOHN BUNYAN AND MINCE-PIES. + + +In No. 417 of this Journal it is chronicled that John Bunyan scrupled +to eat mince-pies, because of the superstitious character popularly +attached to them; but it would appear from an anecdote sent to us by a +correspondent, that if this was true at all of the author of the +_Pilgrim's Progress_, he must have received new light upon the +subject at a later period of life. When he was imprisoned for +preaching--so says the anecdote--in Bedford jail, a superstitious +lady, thinking to entrap him, sent a servant to request his acceptance +of a Christmas pie; whereupon Banyan replied: 'Tell your mistress that +I accept her present thankfully, for I have learned to distinguish +between a mince-pie and superstition.' + + + + +FOREST-TEACHINGS. + + + There was travelling in the wild-wood + Once, a child of song; + And he marked the forest-monarchs + As he went along. + Here, the oak, broad-eaved and spreading; + Here, the poplar tall; + Here, the holly, forky-leaved; + Here, the yew, for the bereaved; + Here, the chestnut, with its flowers, and its spine-bestudded ball. + + Here, the cedar, palmy-branched; + Here, the hazel low; + Here, the aspen, quivering ever; + Here, the powdered sloe. + Wondrous was their form and fashion, + Passing beautiful to see + How the branches interlaced, + How the leaves each other chased, + Fluttering lightly hither, thither on the wind-aroused tree. + + Then he spake to those wood-dwellers: + 'Ye are like to men, + And I learn a lesson from ye + With my spirit's ken. + Like to us in low beginning, + Children of the patient earth; + Born, like us, to rise on high, + Ever nearer to the sky, + And, like us, by slow advances from the minute of your birth. + + 'And, like mortals, ye have uses-- + Uses each his own: + Each his gift, and each his beauty, + Not to other known. + Thou, O oak, the strong ship-builder, + For thy country's good, + Givest up thy noble life, + Like a patriot in the strife, + Givest up thy heart of timber, as he poureth out his blood. + + 'Thou, O poplar, tall and taper, + Reachest up on high; + Like a preacher pointing upward-- + Upward to the sky. + Thou, O holly, with thy berries, + Gleaming redly bright, + Comest, like a pleasant friend, + When the dying year hath end, + Comest to the Christmas party, round the ruddy fire-light. + + 'Thou, O yew, with sombre branches, + And dark-veiled head-- + Like a monk within the church-yard, + When the prayers are said, + Standing by the newly-buried + In the depth of thought-- + Tellest, with a solemn grace, + Of the earthly dwelling-place, + Of the soul to live for ever--of the body come to nought, + + 'Thou, O cedar, storm-enduring, + Bent with years, and old, + Standest with thy broad-eaved branches, + Shadowing o'er the mould; + Shadowing o'er the tender saplings, + Like a patriarch mild, + When he lifts his hoary head, + And his hands a blessing shed, + On the little ones around him--on the children of his child. + + 'And the light, smooth-barked hazel, + And the dusky sloe, + Are the poor men of the forest-- + Are the weak and low. + Yet unto the poor is given + Power the earth to bless; + And the sloe's small fruit of down, + And the hazel's clusters brown, + Are the tribute they can offer--are their mite of usefulness. + + 'When the awful words were spoken, + "It is finished!"-- + When the all-loving heart was broken, + Bowed the patient head; + When the earth grew dark as midnight + In her solemn awe-- + Then the forest-branches all + Bent, with reverential fall-- + Bent, as bent the Jewish foreheads at the giving of the law. + + 'But one tree was in the forest + That refused to bow; + Then a sudden blast came o'er it, + And a whisper low + Made the leaves and branches quiver-- + Shook the guilty tree; + And the voice was: "Tremble ever + To eternity: + Be a lesson from thee read-- + He that boweth not his head, + And obeyeth not his Maker, let him fear eternally!" + + 'So thou standest ever shaking, + Ever quivering with fear, + For the voice is still upon thee, + And the whisper near. + Like the guilty, conscience-haunted; + And the name for thee + Is, "The tree of many thoughts"-- + Is, "The tree of many doubts;" + And thy leaves are thoughts and doubtings--for thou art the + sinner's tree. + + 'Thou, O chestnut, richly branched, + Standest in thy might, + Rising like a leafy tower + In the summer light. + And thy branches are fruit-laden, + Waving bold and free; + And the beams upon thee shed + Are like blessings on thy head: + Thou art strong, and fair, and fruitful--for thou art the good + man's tree. + + 'So, farewell, great forest-teachers: + There is a spirit dwells + In the veinings of each leaflet, + In each flower's cells: + Ye have each a voice and lesson, + And ye seem to say: + "Open, man, thine eyes to see + In each flower, stone, and tree, + Something pure and something holy, as thou passest on thy way."' + F.C.W. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and K. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W.S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D.N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 424, +New Series, February 14, 1852, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + +***** This file should be named 15549.txt or 15549.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/4/15549/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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