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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/18337-8.txt b/18337-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bd6785 --- /dev/null +++ b/18337-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2483 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 430, 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. 430 + Volume 17, New Series, March 27, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: May 7, 2006 [EBook #18337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + NO. 430. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2_d._ + + + + +PRONOUNCERS. + + +Do you not find, in almost every company, one who pronounces +decisively upon every matter which comes in question? His voice is +loud and firm, his eye bold and confident, and his whole manner +oracular. No cold hesitations as to points of fact ever tease him. +Little time does he require to make up his mind on any speculative +subject. He is all _yes_ or all _no_ at once and without appeal. +Opposite opinions he treats with, at the best, a sublime pity, meant +to be graceful, but, in reality, galling. He is often a goose; but, be +he what he may, it is ten to one that he carries off the majority of +the company in the mere sweep of his gown. They are led by him for the +time, fascinated by the energy of his pronunciations. They may all +recover from him afterwards--some after one day, some after two, and +particularly weak men after, perhaps, a week. At the moment, however, +the pronouncer has vast influence, and, if immediate action can be +determined on, it is very likely that he drags his victims into some +committal of themselves, from which subsequent escape may not be very +easy. + +While pronouncing is thus the prominent quality of a few, it is more +or less the vice of nearly all. Men feel that they have an inherent +right to their opinion, and to the promulgation of it, and are not +very apt to reflect that there is another question--as to whether +their opinion be worth delivering; whether it has been formed upon a +good basis of knowledge or experience, or upon any basis at all; +whether it is the emanation of ripe judgment and reflection, or of +some mere passing gust of ideas springing from the whim of the minute. +Hence, when any question arises, it is seldom found that any one is +quite unprepared to give some sort of decision. Even the giddy girl of +seventeen will have something to say upon it, albeit she may never +have heard of the matter before. It is thought foolish-looking not to +be able to pronounce, as if one imperiled the right of private +judgment itself by not being prepared in every case to act upon it. In +consequence, what absurd opinions do we hear in all kinds of companies +upon all kinds of topics! How the angels, who know better, must weep! + +A conversational party even of tolerably well-educated persons, often +presents itself in a ludicrous light. Some question has arisen amongst +them. No one has any clear or definite information upon it. They have +had disputes about the simplest matters of fact involved in it. Yet no +person there, down to the youngest, but would take scorn to be held as +incapable of pronouncing upon it. There are as many opinions as there +are persons present, and not one less confident than another. What is +very natural in such circumstances, no one has the least respect for +the opinions of any of the rest. Each, in fact, does justice upon his +neighbour for the absurdity of pronouncing without grounds, while +incapable of seeing the absurdity in himself. And thus an hour will be +passed in a most unprofitable manner, and perhaps the social spirit of +the company be not a little marred. How much better to say: 'Well, +that is a subject I know nothing about: I will not undertake to +judge.' Supposing all who are present to be in the same predicament, +they might dismiss the barren subject, and start another on which some +one could throw real light, and from which, accordingly, all might +derive some benefit. + +Is not this habit of pronouncing without preparation in inquiry and +reflection just one of the causes of that remarkable diversity of +opinion which is so often deplored for its unpleasant consequences? In +ignorance--fancy, whim, and prejudice usurp the directing power. If we +take no time for consideration, we shall be apt to plunge into an +error, and afterwards persevere in it for the sake of consistency, or +because it has become a thing which we regard as our own. In such +circumstances, no wonder there are as many 'minds' as 'men.' But when +any one can speak on the ground of well-ascertained facts, and after +some deliberation on the bearings of the question, he must carry +others with him, not by fascination, but by real conviction, and thus +greatly reduce the proportion of opinions to men. Very likely, some +other man has got hold of a somewhat different range of facts, and +come to different conclusions: he, too, will have his party of +followers. But there being two or three discrepant views on the +subject, is a much less evil than there being as many as there are +individuals. + +The right of pronouncing upon public affairs is one that would be +particularly clung to if there were any danger of its being lost, and +it certainly is not in England that any writer would be found ready to +challenge so valued a privilege. At the same time, no one will +seriously deny, that if this right were used more generally with the +advantage of a tolerable knowledge of the subject, it would be an +improvement. Public men may be acting, as, indeed, they must generally +do, upon certain data carefully brought out by inquiry: they may judge +and act amiss after all, for human judgment is fallible. But when we +contrast their means of forming a judgment with those of many persons +who hesitate not to pronounce upon their measures, it cannot be denied +that they stand in a strong position. When we hear a bold condemnation +of their acts from men who, so far from having gone through the same +process of inquiry, have not even perused the documents in which the +grounds of the administrative policy were explained, can we do +otherwise than smile at the pretensions of the _pseudo_-judges? Is not +the frequency of this unfounded judging much more apt to harden an +unlucky statesman than to make him amenable to counsel? On the other +hand, when a public man finds himself and his actions criticised by +men who have knowledge, he must be a hardy one indeed who can entirely +disregard the judgment. + +If we attentively study the progress of any man who has acquired +influence over his fellow-creatures--apart from certain matters in +which the feelings are mainly concerned--we shall find that he has +distinguished himself by a habit of not pronouncing where he has no +means of forming a judgment. Such a man has had the good sense to see +and confess that he could not be expected to know many things +sufficiently well to entitle him to pronounce authoritatively upon +them. He has probably given some considerable share of attention to +certain subjects that are of some importance to his fellow-creatures, +and thus fitted himself, with regard to them, to speak with more or +less decision. Never found guilty of giving a vague, crudely-formed +judgment on things a hundred miles out of his way, but, on the +contrary, obtaining credit occasionally for the manner in which he +treats those with which he is conversant, he irresistibly acquires +character and influence. Young hasty minds laugh at his taking such +care not to commit himself: he is perhaps taxed with getting credit +for merely looking grave and holding his tongue. But this very holding +of the tongue when there is nothing to say, is, in reality, one of the +greatest, though often one of the last-learned virtues. Were his +merits purely negative, they would be great; tending as they do to +save truth from that obscuration which a multitude of ill-formed +opinions necessarily throw upon it. But we shall usually discover in +such men a positive merit also in their power to illustrate and give a +guiding opinion upon certain subjects of importance to public or +private interests. + +There is not one sentence in this little essay which may not be justly +set down as mere commonplace. We acknowledge the fault; but defend it +on the ground that sound and useful commonplaces require a continual +refreshing and re-presentment, so many persons being, after all, +unaware or forgetful of them. + +On a similar ground of defence, we would take leave to remind mankind +of the good old maxim, 'Hear the other party.' Familiar to most +people, observed by some, there are multitudes who uniformly act as if +they had never heard of it. To be quite candid, we often catch +ourselves neglecting it; and always, at the best, it takes a struggle +to make it a reality in our conduct. Experience, however, impresses us +more and more with a sense of its being absolutely essential to the +ascertainment of truth in any disputable case. There is so much bias +from self-love, so much recklessness about truth in general, and so +much of even a sincere faithlessness of narration, that no partial +account of anything is to be trusted. It is but a small concession to +the cause of truth, to wait till we hear the statement of the opposite +party, or not to pronounce without it. If anything were required to +prove how little this is reflected on, it would be the readiness of +nearly all persons to tell their own story, without intimating the +slightest doubt that it is to be implicitly received on their own +shewing. One cannot walk along a street, but some friend will come up +and inflict a narration, limited entirely to his own view of a case in +which he is interested or aggrieved, practically ignoring that there +can and must be another way of stating it. And so great is the +complaisance of mankind, that no one thinks of intimating any +necessity for consulting another authority before giving judgment. +Here the vicious habit of thoughtless pronouncing is doubly bad, as it +involves also a kind of flattery. + +There are some novel doctrines and theories, which seem doomed to meet +with prejudice and opposition, but which yet must have some vitality +about them, seeing that they survive so much ill-treatment. It is +curious to observe how little regard to the rules of reasoning is +usually felt to be necessary in opposing these theories--how mere +pronouncing comes to stand in their case in the stead of evidence and +argument. Although they may have been brought forward as mere forms of +possible truth--ideal points round which to rally the scattered forces +of investigation--and only advanced as far as facts would go, and no +further--you will find them denounced as visions, tending to the +breach of the philosophic peace; while, on the other hand, those who +oppose them, albeit on no sort of ground but a mere pronunciation of +contrary opinion, obtain all the credit due to the genuine +philosopher. Abstractly, it would be generally admitted that any +doctrine for which a certain amount of evidence is shewn, can only be +overthrown by a superior force of evidence on the other side. But +practically this is of no avail. Doubt and denial are so important to +philosophy, and confer such an air of superior wisdom, that merely to +doubt and deny will be pretty sure to carry both the educated and the +uneducated vulgar. To get a high character in that position is of +course very easy. Little more than pronouncing is required. As to the +respective positions of the affirmer and denier in some future time, +when truth has attained the power of asserting her reign against +prejudice, that is another thing. + +To return to the general question--If any one be impressed by our +remarks with a sense of the absurdity of pronouncing without knowledge +and reflection, let him endeavour to avoid it, and he will confer a +sensible benefit on society. When next he is in company, and a subject +occurs to tempt him into an expression of opinion, let him pause a +moment, and say to himself: 'Now, do I know anything about it--or if I +know something, do I know enough--to enable me to speak without fear +of being contradicted? Have I ever given it any serious reflection? Am +I sure that I have an opinion about it at all? Am I sure that I +entertain no prejudice on the point?' Were every one of us children of +British freedom to take these precautions, there would be more power +amongst us to pronounce wisely. There would be a more vigorous and +healthful public opinion, and the amenity, as well as instructiveness +of private society would be much increased. + + + + +COOLING THE AIR OF ROOMS IN HOT CLIMATES. + + +In our last number, allusion was made to a process for cooling the air +of apartments in hot climates, with a view to health and comfort. The +intolerable heat of the climate in India, during certain hours of the +day, is well known to be the cause of much bad health among European +settlers. By way of rendering the air at all endurable, the plan of +agitating it with punkahs, hung to the roofs of apartments, the +punkahs being moved by servants in attendance for the purpose, is +adopted. Another plan of communicating a sensation of coolness, is to +hang wet mats in the open windows. But by neither of these expedients +is the end in view satisfactorily gained. Both are nothing else than +make-shifts. + +The new process of cooling now to be described, is founded on a +scientific principle, certain and satisfactory in its operation, +provided it be reduced to practice in a simple manner. The discoverer +is Professor Piazzi Smyth, who has presented a minute account of it in +a paper in the _Practical Mechanic's Journal_ for October 1850, and +also separately in a pamphlet. We invite public attention to this +curious but simple invention, of which we shall proceed to present a +few principles from the pamphlet just referred to. + +Mr Smyth first speaks of the uselessness of the punkah, and the danger +of the wet mats. 'The wet mats in the windows for the wind to blow +through, cannot be employed but when the air is dry as well as hot, +and even then are most unhealthy, for although the air may feel dry to +the skin, there is generally far more moisture in it than in our own +climate; but the height of the temperature increasing the capacity of +the air for moisture, makes that air at 80 degrees feel very dry, +which at 40 degrees would be very damp. Now, one of the reasons of the +lassitude felt in warm climates is, that the air expanding with the +heat, while the lungs remain of the same capacity, they must take in a +smaller quantity by _weight_, though the same by _measure_, of oxygen, +the supporter of life; but if, in addition to the air being rarefied, +it be also still further distended by the vapour of water being mixed +with it, it is evident that a certain number of cubic inches by +measure, or the lungs full, will contain a less weight of oxygen than +ever; so little, indeed, that life can barely be supported; and we +need not wonder at persons lying down almost powerless in the hot and +damp atmosphere, and gasping for breath. Hence we see that any method +of cooling the air for Indians, instead of adding moisture, should +rather take it out of the air, so as to make oxygen predominate as +much as possible in the combined draught of oxygen, azote, and a +certain quantity of the vapour of water, which will always be present; +and hardly any plan could be more pernicious than the favourite though +dreaded one by those who have watched its results--of the wet mats. +Cold air--that is, air in which the thermometer actually stands at a +low reading--by reason of its density, gives us oxygen, the food of +the lungs, in a compressed and concentrated form; and men can +accordingly do much work upon it. But air which is merely cold to the +feelings--air in which the thermometer stands high, but which merely +gives us one of the external sensations of coolness--on being made by +a punkah, or any other mere blowing machine, to move rapidly over our +skin--or on being charged with watery vapour, or on being contrasted +with previous excessive heat--such air must, nevertheless, be rarefied +to the full extent indicated by the mercurial thermometer, and give +us, therefore, our supply of vital oxygen in a very diluted form, and +of a meagre, unsupporting, and unsatisfying consistence.... The _sine +quâ non_, therefore, for healthy and robust life in tropical +countries, is air cold and dry--cold to the thermometer and dry to the +hygrometer; or, in other words, dense, and containing little else than +the necessary oxygen and azote, and this supplied to a room, fresh and +fresh, in a continual current.' + +He next goes on to describe the principle of his new plan of +cooling:--'The method by which I propose to accomplish this +consummation, so devoutly to be desired, is chiefly by taking +advantage of the well-known property of air to rise in temperature on +compression, and to fall on expansion. If air of any temperature, high +or low, be compressed with a certain force, the temperature will rise +above what it was before, in a degree proportioned to the compression. +If the air be allowed immediately to escape from under the pressure, +it will recover its original temperature, because the fall in heat, on +air expanding from a certain pressure, is equal to the rise on its +being compressed to the same; but if, _while the air is in its +compressed state, it be robbed of its acquired heat of compression_, +and then be allowed to escape, it will issue at a temperature as much +below the original one, as it rose above it on compression. Thus the +air, being at 90 degrees, will rise, if compressed to a certain +quantity, to 120 degrees; if it be kept in this compressed and +confined state until all the extra 30 degrees of heat have been +conveyed away by radiation and conduction, and the air be then allowed +to escape, it will be found, on issuing, to be of 60 degrees of +temperature. If a cooler be formed by a pipe under water, and air be +forced in under a given compression at one end, and be made to pass +along to the other, it may thereby, if the cooler be sufficiently +extensive, be robbed of all its heat of compression; and if the +apparatus is so arranged, as it easily may be, that at every stroke of +the pump forcing in air at one end of the pipe, an equivalent quantity +of the cooled compressed air escape from under a loaded valve at the +other, there will be an intermittent stream of cooled air produced +thereby, of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, in an atmosphere of 90 degrees, +which may be led away in a pipe to the room desired to be cooled.' + +The only difficulty to be encountered consists in the erection and +working of machinery. There can be little fear on this score. We have +no doubt that any London engine-maker would hit off the whole scheme +of an air-cooling machine in half an hour. What is wanted is a +forcing-pump wrought by a one horse or two bullock-power. This being +erected and wrought outside of a dwelling, the air will be forced into +a convolution of pipe passing through a tank of water, like the worm +of a still, and will issue by a check-valve at every stroke of the +piston into the apartments to be cooled. Properly arranged, and with a +suitable supply of water trickling through the tank, air at 90 degrees +will be reduced to 60 degrees or thereabouts, which is the temperature +of ordinary sitting-rooms in England. What, it may be asked, will be +the expense of such an apparatus for cooling the air of a +dwelling-house? We are informed that it will not be greater than that +usually paid for heating with fires in this country; and if so, the +expense cannot be considered a serious obstacle to the use of the +apparatus. In the case of barracks for soldiers, hospitals, and other +public establishments, the process will prove of such important +service, that the cost, even if greater than it is likely to be, +should present no obstacle to its application. + + + + +THE CHURCH OF THE CUP OF COLD WATER. + + +One beautiful evening, in the year 1815, the parish priest of San +Pietro, a village a few miles distant from Sevilla, returned much +fatigued to his little cottage, where he found his aged housekeeper, +the Señora Margarita, watching for him. Notwithstanding that one is +well accustomed to the sight of poverty in Spain, it was impossible to +help being struck by the utter destitution which appeared in the house +of the good priest; the more so, as every imaginable contrivance had +been resorted to, to hide the nakedness of the walls, and the +shabbiness of the furniture. Margarita had prepared for her master's +supper a rather small dish of _olla-podriga_, which consisted, to say +the truth, of the remains of the dinner, seasoned and disguised with +great skill, and with the addition of some sauce, and a _name_. As she +placed the savoury dish upon the table, the priest said: 'We should +thank God for this good supper, Margarita; this olla-podriga makes +one's mouth water. My friend, you ought to be grateful for finding so +good a supper at the house of your host!' At the word host, Margarita +raised her eyes, and saw a stranger, who had followed her master. Her +countenance changed, and she looked annoyed. She glanced indignantly +first at the unknown, and then at the priest, who, looking down, said +in a low voice, and with the timidity of a child: 'What is enough for +two, is always enough for three; and surely you would not wish that I +should allow a Christian to die of hunger? He has not tasted food for +two days.' + +'A Christian! He is more like a brigand!' and Margarita left the room +murmuring loudly enough to be heard. + +Meanwhile, the unwelcome guest had remained standing at the door. He +was a man of great height, half-dressed in rags, and covered with mud; +while his black hair, piercing eyes, and carbine, gave him an +appearance which, though hardly prepossessing, was certainly +interesting. 'Must I go?' said he. + +The priest replied with an emphatic gesture: 'Those whom I bring under +my roof are never driven forth, and are never unwelcome. Put down your +carbine. Let us say grace, and go to table.' + +'I never leave my carbine, for, as the Castilian proverb says, "Two +friends are one." My carbine is my best friend; and I always keep it +beside me. Although you allow me to come into your house, and do not +oblige me to leave it until I wish to do so, there are others who +would think nothing of hauling me out, and, perhaps, with my feet +foremost. Come--to your good health, mine host, and let us to supper.' + +The priest possessed an extremely good appetite, but the voracity of +the stranger soon obliged him to give up, for, not contented with +eating, or rather devouring, nearly the whole of the olla-podriga, the +guest finished a large loaf of bread, without leaving a crumb. While +he ate, he kept continually looking round with an expression of +inquietude: he started at the slightest sound; and once, when a +violent gust of wind made the door bang, he sprang to his feet, and +seized his carbine, with an air which shewed that, if necessary, he +would sell his life dearly. Discovering the cause of the alarm, he +reseated himself at table, and finished his repast. + +'Now,' said he, 'I have one thing more to ask. I have been wounded, +and for eight days my wound has not been dressed. Give me a few old +rags, and you shall be no longer burdened with my presence.' + +'I am in no haste for you to go,' replied the priest, whose guest, +notwithstanding his constant watchfulness, had conversed very +entertainingly. 'I know something of surgery, and will dress your +wound.' + +So saying, he took from a cupboard a case containing everything +necessary, and proceeded to do as he had said. The stranger had bled +profusely, a ball having passed through his thigh; and to have +travelled in this condition, and while suffering, too, from want of +food, shewed a strength which seemed hardly human. + +'You cannot possibly continue your journey to-day,' said the host. +'You must pass the night here. A little rest will get up your +strength, diminish the inflammation of your wound, and'---- + +'I must go to-day, and immediately,' interrupted the stranger. 'There +are some who wait for me,' he added with a sigh--'and there are some, +too, who follow me.' And the momentary look of softness passed from +his features between the clauses of the sentence, and gave place to an +expression almost of ferocity. 'Now, is it finished? That is well. +See, I can walk as firmly as though I had never been wounded. Give me +some bread; pay yourself for your hospitality with this piece of gold, +and adieu.' + +The priest put back the gold with displeasure. 'I am not an +innkeeper,' said he; 'and I do not sell my hospitality.' + +'As you will, but pardon me; and now, farewell, my kind host.' + +So saying, he took the bread, which Margarita, at her master's +command, very unwillingly gave him, and soon his tall figure +disappeared among the thick foliage of a wood which surrounded the +house, or rather the cabin. An hour had scarcely passed, when +musket-shots were heard close by, and the unknown reappeared, deadly +pale, and bleeding from a deep wound near the heart. + +'Take these,' said he, giving some pieces of gold to his late host; +'they are for my children--near the stream--in the valley.' + +He fell, and the next moment several police-officers rushed into the +house. They hastily secured the unfortunate man, who attempted no +resistance. The priest entreated to be allowed to dress his wound, +which they permitted; but when this was done, they insisted on +carrying him away immediately. They would not even procure a carriage; +and when they were told of the danger of removing a man so severely +wounded, they merely said: 'What does it matter? If he recovers, it +will only be to receive sentence of death. He is the famous brigand, +José!' + +José thanked the intercessor with a look. He then asked for a little +water, and when the priest brought it to him, he said in a faint +voice: 'Remember!' The reply was merely a sign of intelligence. When +they were gone, notwithstanding all Margarita could say as to the +danger of going out at night, the priest crossed the wood, descended +into the valley, and soon found, beside the body of a woman, who had +doubtless been killed by a stray ball of the police, an infant, and a +little boy of about four years old, who was trying in vain to awaken +his mother. Imagine Margarita's amazement when the priest returned +with two children in his arms. + +'May all good saints defend us! What have you done, señor? We have +barely enough to live upon, and you bring two children! I suppose I +must beg from door to door, for you and for them. And, for mercy's +sake, who are these children? The sons of that brigand, gipsy, thief, +murderer, perhaps! I am sure they have never been baptised!' At this +moment the infant began to cry. 'And pray, Señor Clérigo, how do you +mean to feed that child? You know very well that we have no means of +paying a nurse. We must spoon-feed it, and nice nights that will give +me! It cannot be more than six months old, poor little creature,' she +added, as her master placed it in her arms. 'Fortunately, I have a +little milk here;' and forgetting her anger, she busied herself in +putting some milk on the fire, and then sat down beside it to warm the +infant, who seemed half-frozen. Her master watched her in silence, and +when at last he saw her kiss its little cheek, he turned away with a +quiet smile. + +When at length the little one had been hushed into a gentle slumber, +and when Margarita, with the assistance of her master's cloak, and +some of her own clothes, had made a bed for the elder boy, and placed +him in it, the good man told her how the children had been committed +to his care, and the promise he had made, though not in words, to +protect them. + +'That is very right and good, no doubt,' said Margarita; 'I only want +to know how we are all to live?' The priest opened his Bible, and read +aloud: + +'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of +cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward.' + +'Amen!' said Margarita. + +Twelve years passed by. The parish priest of San Pietro, who was now +more than seventy years old, was sitting in the sunshine at his door. +Near him, a boy of about twelve years old was reading aloud from the +Bible, looking occasionally towards a tall, fine-looking young man, +who was hard at work in a garden close by. Margarita, who was now +become blind, sat and listened. Suddenly, the sound of wheels was +heard, and the boy exclaimed: 'Oh! the beautiful carriage!' A splendid +carriage approached rapidly, and stopped before the door. A +richly-dressed servant approached, and asked for a cup of water for +his master. + +'Carlos,' said the priest to the younger boy, 'go, bring water to the +gentleman; and add some wine, if he will accept it. Go quickly!' At +this moment, the carriage-door opened, and a gentleman, apparently +about fifty years old, alighted. + +'Are these your nephews?' said he to the priest. + +'They are more than that, señor; they are my children--the children of +my adoption.' + +'How is that?' + +'I will tell you, señor; for I am old and poor, and know but little of +the world, and am in much need of advice; for I know not what to do +with these two children.' He related the story we have just told. 'And +now, señor, what do you advise me to do?' + +'Apply to one of the nobles of the court, who must assign you a +pension of four thousand ducats.' + +'I asked you for advice, señor, and not for jest.' + +'And then, your church must be rebuilt. We will call it the Church of +the Cup of Cold Water. Here is the plan. See, this is to be the +vicarage; and here, divided by this paling'---- + +'What does this mean? What would you say? And, surely, I remember that +voice, that face'---- + +'I am Don José della Ribeira; and twelve years ago, I was the brigand +José. I escaped from prison; and--for the revolution made great +changes--am now powerful. My children'---- + +He clasped them in his arms. And when at length he had embraced them a +hundred times, with tears, and smiles, and broken sentences; and when +all had in some degree recovered their composure, he took the hand of +the priest and said: 'Well, father, will you not accept the Church of +the Cup of Cold Water?' The old man, deeply affected, turned to +Margarita, and repeated: + +'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of +cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward.' + +'Amen!' replied the aged woman, her voice tremulous from emotion. + +A short time afterwards, Don José della Ribeira and his +two sons were present at the consecration of the church of +San-Pietro-del-Vaso-di-Aqua-Fria, one of the prettiest churches in the +neighbourhood of Sevilla. + + + + +MUSIC-GRINDERS OF THE METROPOLIS. + + +Perhaps the pleasantest of all the out-door accessories of a London +life are the strains of fugitive music which one hears in the quiet +by-streets or suburban highways--strains born of the skill of some of +our wandering artists, who, with flute, violin, harp, or brazen tube +of various shape and designation, make the brick-walls of the busy +city responsive with the echoes of harmony. Many a time and oft have +we lingered entranced by the witchery of some street Orpheus, +forgetful, not merely of all the troubles of existence, but of +existence itself, until the strain had ceased, and silence aroused us +to the matter-of-fact world of business. One blind fiddler, we know +him well, with face upturned towards the sky, has stood a public +benefactor any day these twenty years, and we know not how much +longer, to receive the substantial homage of the music-loving million. +But that he is scarcely old enough, he might have been the identical +Oxford-Street Orpheus of Wordsworth:-- + + 'His station is there; and he works on the crowd, + He sways them with harmony merry and loud; + He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim-- + Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him?' + +Decidedly not--there is nothing to match it; and so thinks 'the +one-pennied boy' who spares him his one penny, and deems it well +bestowed. Then there are the harpers, with their smooth +French-horn-breathing and piccola-piping comrades, who at the soothing +hour of twilight affect the tranquil and retired paved courts or snug +enclosures far from the roar and rumble of chariot-wheels, where, +clustered round with lads and lasses released from the toils of the +day, they dispense romance and sentiment, and harmonious cadences, in +exchange for copper compliments and the well-merited applause of fit +audiences, though few. Again, there are the valorous brass-bands of +the young Germans, who blow such spirit-stirring appeals from their +travel-worn and battered tubes--to say nothing of the thousand +performers of solos and duets, who, wherever there is the chance of a +moment's hearing, are ready to attempt their seductions upon our ears +to the prejudice of our pockets. All these we must pass over with this +brief mention upon the present occasion; our business being with their +numerous antitheses and would-be rivals--the incarnate nuisances who +fill the air with discordant and fragmentary mutilations and +distortions of heaven-born melody, to the distraction of educated ears +and the perversion of the popular taste. + +'Music by handle,' as it has been facetiously termed, forms our +present subject. This kind of harmony, which is not too often +deserving of the name, still constitutes, notwithstanding the large +amount of indisputable talent which derives its support from the +gratuitous contributions of the public, by far the larger portion of +the peripatetic minstrelsy of the metropolis. It would appear that +these grinders of music, with some few exceptions which we shall +notice as we proceed, are distinguished from their praiseworthy +exemplars, the musicians, by one remarkable, and to them perhaps very +comfortable characteristic. Like the exquisite Charles Lamb--if his +curious confession was not a literary myth--they have ears, but no +ear, though they would hardly be brought to acknowledge the fact so +candidly as he did. They may be divided, so far as our observation +goes, into the following classes:--1. Hand-organists; 2. +Monkey-organists; 3. Handbarrow-organists; 4. Handcart-organists; 5. +Horse-and-cart-organists; 6. Blindbird-organists; 7. Piano-grinders; +8. Flageolet-organists and pianists; 9. Hurdy-gurdy players. + +1. The hand-organist is most frequently a Frenchman of the +departments, nearly always a foreigner. If his instrument be good for +anything, and he have a talent for forming a connection, he will be +found to have his regular rounds, and may be met with any hour in the +week at the same spot he occupied at that hour on the week previous. +But a man so circumstanced is at the head of the vagabond profession, +the major part of whom wander at their own sweet will wherever chance +may guide. The hand-organ which they lug about varies in value from +L.10 to L.150--at least, this last-named sum was the cost of a +first-rate instrument thirty years ago, such as were borne about by +the street-organists of Bath, Cheltenham, and the fashionable +watering-places, and the grinders of the West End of London at that +period, when musical talent was much less common than it is now. We +have seen a contract for repairs to one of these instruments, +including a new stop and new barrels, amounting to the liberal sum of +L.75: it belonged to a man who had grown so impudent in prosperity, as +to incur the penalty of seven years' banishment from the town in which +he turned his handle, for the offence of thrashing a young nobleman, +who stood between him and his auditors too near for his sense of +dignity. Since the invention of the metal reed, however, which, under +various modifications and combinations, supplies the sole utterance of +the harmonicon, celestina, seraphina, colophon, accordian, concertina, +&c. &c. and which does away with the necessity for pipes, the street +hand-organ has assumed a different and infinitely worse character. +Some of them yet remain what the old Puritans called 'boxes of +whistles'--that is, they are all pipes; but many of them might with +equal propriety be called 'boxes of Jews-harps,' being all reeds, or +rather vibrating metal tongues--and more still are of a mixed +character, having pipes for the upper notes, and metal reeds for the +bass. The effect is a succession of sudden hoarse brays as an +accompaniment to a soft melody, suggesting the idea of a duet between +Titania and Bottom. But this is far from the worst of it. The +profession of hand-organist having of late years miserably declined, +being in fact at present the next grade above mendicancy, the element +of cheapness has, per force, been studied in the manufacture of the +instrument. The barrels of some are so villainously pricked that the +time is altogether broken, the ear is assailed with a minim in the +place of a quaver, and _vice versâ_--and occasionally, as a matter of +convenience, a bar is left out, or even one is repeated, in utter +disregard of suffering humanity. But what is worse still, these metal +reeds, which are the most untunable things in the whole range of +sound-producing material, are constantly, from contact with fog and +moisture, getting out of order; and howl dolorously as they will in +token of their ailments, their half-starved guardian, who will grind +half an hour for a penny, cannot afford to medicate their pains, even +if he is aware of them, which, judging from his placid composure +during the most infamous combination of discords, is very much to be +questioned.[1] + +2. The monkey-organist is generally a native of Switzerland or the +Tyrol. He carries a worn-out, doctored, and flannel-swathed +instrument, under the weight of which, being but a youth, or very +rarely an adult, he staggers slowly along, with outstretched back and +bended knees. On the top of his old organ sits a monkey, or sometimes +a marmoset, to whose queer face and queerer tricks, he trusts for +compensating the defective quality of his music. He dresses his +shivering brute in a red jacket and a cloth cap; and, when he can, he +teaches him to grind the organ, to the music of which he will himself +dance wearily. He wears an everlasting smile upon his countenance, +indicative of humour, natural and not assumed for the occasion: and +though he invariably unites the profession of a beggar with that of +monkey-master and musician, he has evidently no faith in a melancholy +face, and does not think it absolutely necessary to make you +thoroughly miserable in order to excite your charity. He will leave +his monkey grinding away on a door-step, and follow you with a +grinning face for a hundred yards or more, singing in a kind of +recitative: 'Date qualche cosa, signer! per amor di Dio, eccellenza, +date qualche cosa!' If you comply with his request, his voluble thanks +are too rapid for your comprehension; and if you refuse, he laughs +merrily in your face as he turns away to rejoin his friend and +coadjutor. He is a favourite subject with the young artists about +town, especially if he is very good-looking, or, better still, +excessively ugly; and he picks up many a shilling for sitting, +standing, or sprawling on the ground, as a model in the studio. It +sometimes happens that he has no organ--his monkey being his only +stock in trade. When the monkey dies--and one sees by their melancholy +comicalities, and cautious and painful grimaces, that the poor brutes +are destined to a short time of it--he takes up with white mice, or, +lacking these, constructs a dancing-doll, which, with the aid of a +short plank with an upright at one end, to which is attached a cord +passing through the body of the doll, and fastened to his right leg, +he keeps constantly on the jig, to the music of a tuneless +tin-whistle, bought for a penny, and a very primitive parchment tabor, +manufactured by himself. These shifts he resorts to in the hope of +retaining his independence and personal freedom--failing to succeed in +which, he is driven, as a last resource, to the comfortless drudgery +of piano-grinding, which we shall have to notice in its turn. + +3. The handbarrow-organist is not uncommonly some lazy Irishman, if he +be not a sickly Savoyard, who has mounted his organ upon a handbarrow +of light and somewhat peculiar construction, for the sake of +facilitating the task of locomotion. From the nature of his equipage, +he is not given to grinding so perpetually as his heavily-burdened +brethren. He cannot of course grind, as they occasionally do, as he +travels along, so he pursues a different system of tactics. He walks +leisurely along the quiet ways, turning his eyes constantly to the +right and left, on the look-out for a promising opening. The sight of +a group of children at a parlour-window brings him into your front +garden, where he establishes his instrument with all the deliberation +of a proprietor of the premises. He is pretty sure to begin his +performance in the middle of a tune, with a hiccoughing kind of sound, +as though the pipes were gasping for breath. He puts a sudden period +to his questionable harmony the very instant he gets his penny, having +a notion, which is tolerably correct, that you pay him for his silence +and not for his sounds. In spite of his discordant gurglings and +squealings, he is welcomed by the nursery-maids and their infant +tribes of little sturdy rogues in petticoats, who flock eagerly round +him, and purchase the luxury of a half-penny grind, which they perform +_con amore_, seated on the top of his machine. If, when your front +garden is thus invaded, you insist upon his decamping without a fee, +he shews his estimate of the peace and quietness you desiderate by his +unwillingness to retire, which, however, he at length consents to do, +though not without a muttered remonstrance, delivered with the air of +an injured man. He generally contrives to house himself as night draws +on in some dingy taproom, appertaining to the lowest class of +Tom-and-Jerry shops, where, for a few coppers and 'a few beer,' he +will ring all the changes on his instrument twenty times over, until +he and his admiring auditors are ejected at midnight by the +police-fearing landlord. + +4. The handcart-organists are a race of a very different and more +enterprising character, and of much more lofty and varied pretensions. +They generally travel in firms of two, three, or even four partners, +drawing the cart by turns. Their equipage consists of an organ of very +complicated construction, containing, besides a deal of very +marvellous machinery within its entrails, a collection of bells, +drums, triangles, gongs, and cymbals, in addition to the usual +quantity of pipes and metal-reeds that go to make up the travelling +organ. The music they play is of a species which it is not very easy +to describe, as it is not once in a hundred times that a stranger can +detect the melody through the clash and clangor of the gross amount of +brass, steel, and bell-metal put in vibration by the machinery. This, +however, is of very little consequence, as it is not the music in +particular which forms the principal attraction: if it serve to call a +crowd together, that is sufficient for their purpose; and it is for +this reason, we imagine, that the effect of the whole is contrived to +resemble, as it very closely does, the hum and jangle of Greenwich +Fair when heard of an Easter Monday from the summit of the Observatory +Hill. No, the main attraction is essentially dramatic. In front of the +great chest of heterogeneous sounds there is a stage about five or six +feet in width, four in height, and perhaps eighteen inches or two feet +in depth. Upon this are a variety of figures, about fourteen inches +long, gorgeously arrayed in crimson, purple, emerald-green, blue, and +orange draperies, and loaded with gold and tinsel, and sparkling +stones and spangles, all doubled in splendour by the reflection of a +mirror in the background. The figures, set in motion by the same +machinery which grinds the incomprehensible overture, perform a drama +equally incomprehensible. At the left-hand corner is Daniel in the +lion's den, the lion opening his mouth in six-eight time, and an angel +with outspread wings, but securely transfixed through the loins by a +revolving brass pivot, shutting it again to the same lively movement. +To the right of Daniel is the Grand Turk, seated in his divan, and +brandishing a dagger over a prostrate slave, who only ventures to rise +when the dagger is withdrawn. Next to him is Nebuchadnezzar on all +fours, eating painted grass, with a huge gold crown on his head, which +he bobs for a bite every other bar. In the right-hand corner is a sort +of cavern, the abode of some supernatural and mysterious being of the +fiend or vampire school, who gives an occasional fitful start, and +turns an ominous-looking green glass-eye out upon the spectators. All +these are in the background. In the front of the stage stands +Napoleon, wearing a long sword and cocked hat, and the conventional +gray smalls--his hand of course stuck in his breast. At his right are +Tippoo Saib and his sons, and at his left, Queen Victoria and Prince +Albert. After a score or so of bars, the measure of the music suddenly +alters--Daniel's guardian angel flies off--the prophet and the lion +lie down to sleep together--the Grand Turk sinks into the arms of the +death-doomed slave. Nebuchadnezzar falls prostrate on the ground, and +the fiend in the gloomy cavern whips suddenly round and glares with +his green eye, as if watching for a spring upon the front row of +actors, who have now taken up their cue and commenced their +performance. Napoleon, Tippoo Saib, and Queen Victoria, dance a +three-handed reel, to the admiration of Prince Albert and a group of +lords and ladies in waiting, who nod their heads approvingly--when +br'r'r! crack! bang! at a tremendous crash of gongs and grumbling of +bass-notes, the fiend in the corner rushes forth from his lair with a +portentous howl. Away, neck or nothing, flies Napoleon, and Tippoo +scampers after him, followed by the terrified attendants; but lo! at +the precise nick of time, Queen Victoria draws a long sword from +beneath her stays, while up jumps the devouring beast from the den of +the prophet, and like a true British lion--as he doubtless was all the +while--flies at the throat of the fiend, straight as an arrow to its +mark. Then follows a roar of applause from the discriminating +spectators, amidst which the curtain falls, and, with an extra +flourish of music, the collection of copper coin commences. This is +always a favourite spectacle with the multitude, who never bother +themselves about such trifles as anachronisms and unities; and the +only difficulty the managers have to overcome in order to insure a +remunerative exhibition, is that of finding a quiet locality, which +shall yet be sufficiently frequented to insure them an audience. There +are equipages of this description of very various pretensions and +perfection, but they all combine the allurements of music and the +drama in a greater or less degree. + +5. The horse-and-cart-organists are a race of enterprising +speculators, who, relying upon the popular penchant for music, have +undertaken to supply the demand by wholesale. It is impossible by mere +description to impart an adequate idea of the truly appalling and +tremendous character of their performances. Their machines are some of +them vast structures, which, mounted upon stout wheels, and drawn by a +couple of serviceable horses, might be mistaken for wild-beast vans. +They are crammed choke-full with every known mechanical contrivance +for the production of ear-stunning noises. Wherever they burst forth +into utterance, the whole parish is instantly admonished of their +whereabouts, and, with the natural instinct of John Bull for a row--no +matter how it originates--forth rushes the crowd to enjoy the +dissonance. The piercing notes of a score of shrill fifes, the squall +of as many clarions, the hoarse bray of a legion of tin trumpets, the +angry and fitful snort of a brigade of rugged bassoons, the +unintermitting rattle of a dozen or more deafening drums, the clang of +bells firing in peals, the boom of gongs, with the sepulchral roar of +some unknown contrivance for bass, so deep that you might almost count +the vibrations of each note--these are a few of the components of the +horse-and-cart-organ, the sum-total of which it is impossible to add +up. Compared to the vicinity of a first-rater in full blow, the inside +of a menagerie at feeding-time would be a paradise of tranquillity and +repose. The rattle and rumble of carts and carriages, which drive the +professors and possessors of milder music to the side-streets and +suburbs, sink into insignificance when these cataracts of uproar begin +to peal forth; and their owners would have no occasion to seek an +appropriate spot for their volcanic eruptions, were it not that the +police, watchful against accident, have warned them from the principal +thoroughfares, where serious consequences have already ensued through +the panic occasioned to horses from the continuous explosion of such +unwonted sounds. In fact, an honourable member of the Commons' House +of Parliament made a motion in the House, towards the close of the +last session, for the immediate prohibition of these monster +nuisances, and quoted several cases of alarm and danger to life of +which they had been the originating cause. These formidable erections +are for the most part the property and handiwork of the men who travel +with them, and who must levy a pretty heavy contribution on the public +to defray their expenses. They perform entire overtures and long +concerted pieces, being furnished with spiral barrels, and might +probably produce a tolerable effect at the distance of a mile or +so--at least we never heard one yet without incontinently wishing it a +mile off. By a piece of particular ill-fortune, we came one day upon +one undergoing the ceremony of tuning, on a piece of waste-ground at +the back of Coldbath Prison. The deplorable wail of those tortured +pipes and reeds, and the short savage grunt of the bass mystery, +haunted us, a perpetual day-and-night-mare, for a month. We could not +help noticing, however, that the jauntily-dressed fellow, whose +fingers were covered with showy rings, and ears hung with long drops, +who performed the operation, managed it with consummate skill, and +with an ear for that sort of music most marvellously discriminating. + +6. Blind bird-organists. Though most blind persons either naturally +possess or soon acquire an ear for music, there are yet numbers who, +from the want of it or from some other cause, never make any +proficiency as performers on an instrument. Blindness, too, is often +accompanied with some other disability, which disqualifies its victims +for learning such trades as they might otherwise be taught. Hence +many, rather than remain in the workhouse, take to grinding music in +the streets. Here we are struck with one remarkable fact: the +Irishman, the Frenchman, the Italian, or the Savoyard, at least so +soon as he is a man, and able to lug it about, is provided with an +instrument with which he can make a noise in the world, and prefer his +clamorous claim for a recompense; while the poor blind Englishman has +nothing but a diminutive box of dilapidated whistles, which you may +pass fifty times without hearing it, let him grind as hard as he will. +It is generally nothing more than an old worn-out bird-organ, in all +likelihood charitably bestowed by some compassionate Poll +Sweedlepipes, who has already used it up in the education of his +bull-finches. The reason, we opine, must be that the major part, if +not the whole, of the peripatetic instruments of the metropolis are +the property of speculators, who let them out on hire, and that the +blind man, not being considered an eligible customer, is precluded +from the advantage of their use. However this may be, the poor blind +grinder is almost invariably found furnished as we have described him, +jammed up in some cranny or corner in a third-rate locality, where, +having opened or taken off the top of his box, that the curious +spectator may behold the mystery of his too quiet music--the revolving +barrel, the sobbing bellows, and the twelve leaden and ten wooden +pipes--he turns his monotonous handle throughout the live-long day, in +the all but vain appeal for the commiseration of his fellows. This is +really a melancholy spectacle, and one which we would gladly miss +altogether in our casual rounds. + +7. The piano-grinders are by far the most numerous of the +handle-turning fraternity. The instrument they carry about with them +is familiar to the dwellers in most of the towns in England. It is a +miniature cabinet-piano, without the keys or finger-board, and is +played by similar mechanical means to that which gives utterance to +the hand-organ; but of course it requires no bellows. There is one +thing to be said in favour of these instruments--they do not make much +noise, and consequently are no very great nuisance individually. The +worst thing against them is the fact, that they are never in tune, and +therefore never worth the hearing. After grinding for twelve or +fourteen hours a day for four or five years, they become perfect +abominations; and luckless is the fate of the poor little stranger +condemned to perpetual companionship with a villainous machine, whose +every tone is the cause of offence to those whose charity he must +awaken into exercise, or go without a meal. These instruments are +known to be the property of certain extensive proprietors in the city, +some of whom have hundreds of them grinding daily in every quarter of +the town. Some few are let out on hire--the best at a shilling a day; +the old and worn-out ones as low as two or three pence; but the great +majority of them are ground by young Italians shipped to this country +for the especial purpose by the owners of the instruments. These +descendants of the ancient Romans figure in Britain in a very +different plight from that of their renowned ancestors. They may be +encountered in troops sallying forth from the filthy purlieus of +Leather Lane, at about nine or ten in the morning, each with his +awkward burden strapped to his back, and supporting his steps with a +stout staff, which also serves to support the instrument when playing. +Each one has his appointed beat, and he is bound to bring home a +certain prescribed sum to entitle him to a share in the hot supper +prepared for the evening meal. We have more than once, when startled +by the sound of the everlasting piano within an hour of midnight, +questioned the belated grinder, and invariably received for answer, +that he had not yet been able to collect the sum required of him. +Still there can be no doubt that some of them contrive to save money; +inasmuch as we occasionally see an active fellow set up on his own +account, and furnished with an instrument immensely superior to those +of his less prosperous compatriots. So great is the number of these +wandering Italian pianists, that their condition has attracted the +attention of their more wealthy countrymen, who, in conjunction with a +party of benevolent English gentlemen, have set on foot an association +for the express purpose of imparting instruction to poor Italians of +all grades, of whom the vagabond musicians form the largest section. + +It is easy to recognise the rule adopted in the distribution of the +instruments among the grinders: the stoutest fellow, or he who can +take the best care of it, gets the best piano; while the shattered and +rickety machine goes to the urchin of ten or twelve, who can scarcely +drag it a hundred yards without resting. It is to be supposed that the +instruments are all rated according to their quality. There is at this +moment wandering about the streets of London a singular and pitiable +object, whose wretched lot must be known to hundreds of thousands, and +who affords in his own person good evidence of the strictness of the +rule above alluded to, as well as of the rigour with which the trade +is carried on. We refer to a ragged, shirtless, and harmlessly insane +Italian lad, who, under the guardianship of one of the piano-mongers, +is driven forth daily into the streets, carrying a blackened and +gutted, old piano-case, in which two strings only of the original +scale remain unbroken. The poor unwashed innocent transports himself +as quickly as possible to the genteelest neighbourhood he can find, +and with all the enthusiasm of a Jullien, commences his monotonous +grind. Three turns of the handle, and the all but defunct instrument +ejaculates 'tink;' six more inaudible turns, and then the responding +string answers 'tank.' 'Tink--tank' is the sum-total of his +performance, to any defects in which he is as insensible as a blind +man is to colour. As a matter of course, he gets ill-treated, mobbed, +pushed about, and upset by the blackguard scamps about town; and were +it not for the police, who have rescued him times without number from +the hands of his persecutors, he would long ere now have been reduced +to as complete a ruin as his instrument. In one respect, he is indeed +already worse off than the dilapidated piano: he is dumb as well as +silly, and can only utter one sound--a cry of alarm of singular +intensity; this cry forms the climax of pleasure to the wretches who +dog his steps, and this, unmoved by his silent tears and woful looks, +they goad him to shriek forth for their express gratification. We have +stumbled upon him at near eleven at night, grinding away with all his +might in a storm of wind and rain, perfectly unconscious of either, +and evidently delighted at his unusual freedom from interruption. + +8. Flageolet-organists and pianists. It is a pleasure to award praise +where praise is due, and it may be accorded to this class of grinders, +who are, to our minds, the elite of the profession. We stated above +that some of the piano-grinders contrive, notwithstanding their +difficult position, to save money and set up for themselves. It is +inevitable that the faculty of music must be innate with some of these +wandering pianists, and it is but natural that these should succeed +the best, and be the first to improve their condition. The instrument +which combines a flageolet-stop with a piano is generally found in the +possession of young fellows who, by dint of a persevering and savage +economy, have saved sufficient funds to procure it. Indeed, in common +hands, it would be of less use than the commonest instrument, because +it requires frequent--more than daily--tuning, and would therefore be +of no advantage to a man with no ear. Unless the strings were in +strict unison with the pipes, the discordance would be unbearable, and +as this in the open air can hardly be the case for many hours +together, they have to be rectified many times in the course of a +week. As might be reasonably supposed, these instruments are +comparatively few. When set to slow melodies, the flageolet taking the +air, and the piano a well-arranged accompaniment, the effect is really +charming, and, there is little reason to doubt, is found as profitable +to the producer as it is pleasing to the hearer. They are to be met +with chiefly at the west end of the town, and on summer evenings +beneath the lawyers' windows in the neighbourhood of some of the Inns +of Court. + +9. The hurdy-gurdy player. We have placed this genius last, because, +though essentially a most horrid grinder, he, too, is in some sort a +performer. In London, there may be said to be two classes of +them--little hopping, skipping, jumping, reeling Savoyard or Swiss +urchins, who dance and sing, and grind and play, doing, like Cæsar, +four things at once, and whom you expect every moment to see rolling +on the pavement, but who continue, like so many kittens, to pitch on +their feet at last, notwithstanding all their antics--and men with +sallow complexions, large dark eyes, and silver ear-rings, who stand +erect and tranquil, and confer a dignity, not to say a grace, even +upon the performance of the hurdy-gurdy. The boys for the most part do +not play any regular tune, having but few keys to their instruments, +often not even a complete octave. The better instruments of the adult +performers have a scale of an octave and a half, and sometimes two +octaves, and they perform melodies and even harmonies with something +like precision, and with an effect which, to give it its due praise, +supplies a very tolerable caricature of the Scotch bagpipes. These +gentry are not much in favour either with the genuine lovers of music +or the lovers of quiet, and they know the fact perfectly well. They +hang about the crowded haunts of the common people, and find their +harvest in a vulgar jollification, or an extempore 'hop' at the door +of a suburban public-house on a summer night. There are a few +old-women performers on this hybrid machine, one of whom is familiar +to the public through the dissemination of her _vera effigies_ in a +contemporary print. + +The above are all the grinders which observation has enabled us to +identify as capable of classification. The reader may, if he likes, +suppose them to be the metropolitan representatives of the nine +Muses--and that, in fact, in some sort they are, seeing that they are +the embodiments to a certain extent of the musical tastes of a section +at least of the inhabitants of London; though, if we are asked which +is Melpomene? which is Thalia? &c. &c. we must adopt the reply of the +showman to the child who asked which was the lion and which was the +dog, and received for answer: 'Whichever you like, my little dear.' + +With respect to all these grinders, one thing is remarkable: they are +all, with the exception of a small savour of Irishmen, foreigners. +Scarcely one Englishman, not one Scot, will be found among the whole +tribe; and this fact is as welcome to us as it is singular, because it +speaks volumes in favour of the national propensity, of which we have +reason to be proud, to be ever doing something, producing something, +applying labour to its legitimate purpose, and not turning another +man's handle to grind the wind. Yet there is, alas! a scattered and +characteristic tribe of vagabond English music-grinders, and to these +we must turn a moment's attention ere we finally close the list. +We must call them, for we know no more appropriate name, +cripple-grinders. It is impossible to carry one's explorations very +far through the various districts of London without coming upon one or +more samples of this unfortunate tribe. Commerce maims and mutilates +her victims as effectually as war, though not in equal numbers; and +men and lads without arms, or without legs, or without either, and men +doubled up and distorted, and blasted blind and hideous with +gunpowder, who have yet had the misfortune to escape death, are left +without limbs or eyesight, often with shattered intellects, to fight +the battle of life, at fearful odds. Had they been reduced to a like +miserable condition while engaged in killing their fellow-creatures on +the field of battle or on the deck of carnage, a grateful country +would have housed them in a palace, and abundantly supplied their +every want; but they were merely employed in procuring the necessaries +of life for their fellows in the mine or the factory, and as nobody +owes them any gratitude for that, they must do what they can. And +behold what they do: they descend, being fit for nothing else, to the +level of the foreign music-grinder, and, mounted on a kind of +bed-carriage, are drawn about the streets of London by their wives or +children; being furnished with a blatant hand-organ of last century's +manufacture, whose ear-torturing growl draws the attention of the +public to their woful plight, they extort that charity which would +else fail to find them out. If there be something gratifying in the +fact, that this is the only class of Britons who follow such an +inglorious profession, there is nothing very flattering in the +consideration, that even these are compelled to it by inexorable +necessity. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Among some of the continental nations, Justice, though blind, is +not supposed to be deaf; she has, on the contrary, a musical ear, and +compels the various grinders of harmony to keep their instruments in +tune, under the penalty of a heavy fine. In some of the German cities, +the police have summary jurisdiction in offences musical, and are +empowered to demand a certificate, with which every grinder is bound +to be furnished, shewing the date of the last tuning of his +instrument. If he perpetrate false harmony, and his certificate be run +out, he is mulcted in the fine. Such a by-law would be a real bonus in +London. + + + + +A VOICE FROM THE DIGGINGS. + + +The voices that have come from the diggings in California and +Australia have hitherto been so loud and so many, that they have +served only to confuse. We have the image before our fancy of a vast +crowd of human beings hastening over seas and deserts towards certain +geographical points, where they meet, struggle, fix. We see them +picking up lumps of gold from the surface, or digging them out of the +earth, or collecting the glittering dust by sifting and washing; and +then we hear of vast torrents of the precious metal finding their way +into Europe, threatening to swamp us all with absolute wealth, and +confound and travesty the whole monetary transactions of the world. +What we don't see, is the gold itself. We should like, if it were only +out of curiosity, to feel a handful of it in our pocket: but we grope +in vain. A sovereign costs twenty shillings, as before; and twenty +shillings are as hard to come at as ever. Nevertheless, we believe in +the unseen presence of that slave-genius, who lends himself, with a +sickly smile, to the service of mankind, and buys when we think he is +sold! We have faith in bills of lading, and accept without question +any amount that is reported to lie dormant in the reservoir of the +Bank of England: only we wonder in private whether the importations of +the precious metal are likely to increase permanently in greater +proportion than the population in this quarter of the globe, and the +spread of taste, comfort, and luxury, calling every day new arts into +existence, perfecting old ones, and distributing wealth throughout the +constantly widening circle of talent and industry. + +But our present business is with the diggings and the diggers. We have +often wished we could interrogate one of those unquiet spirits in the +manner of Macbeth--'What is't ye do?' How do you manage? By what signs +do you know a locality that is likely to repay your pains? What are +your instruments, your machinery? What do you conceive to be the +prospects of your singular trade? And, in fact, our curiosity is at +this moment to a certain extent gratified: a Voice has been wafted +across the ocean to our private ear, and, undisturbed by the thousand +other tongues of the diggings, we can listen to an account, distinct +so far as it goes, of the whole process of gold-hunting. The voice +emanates from Mr S. Rutter, of Sydney, whose experience has lain both +in the Californian and Australian mines, and we propose putting +together, in as intelligible a way as we can, the rough hints with +which we have been favoured. + +Mr Rutter, on the 24th of May last, left Sydney for the Ophir +diggings, with a party, including himself, of four individuals. A +sleeping partner remained behind, whose duty it was to furnish the +means of conveyance for the first trip; but the four travellers +entered with each other into a more precise agreement, the chief +articles of which we give, as being common in such adventures:-- + +I. We solemnly agree to stand by each other in all circumstances. + +II. Each man is to come provided with firearms. + +III. The capital is to be contributed equally, or credit given, as may +be agreed to by the majority. + +IV. The profit or loss to be equally divided. + +V. In the event of death or disablement occurring to any of the party, +his share of the stock and profits is to be immediately handed over to +his friends. + +On this paction being signed, the party set forth, provided with +L.100 worth of goods, a cart and a team of horses, and reached +Paramatta, a distance of eighteen miles, the first night, although +they were obliged to send back one of the horses, which had proved to +be useless. Here Mr Rutter slept in a bed for the last time during +four months; and the next day, having purchased another horse, and +sold some of their goods to lighten the wagon, they set forth again +towards evening. The road was nothing more than a dray-track, to which +the horses were unequal; and after proceeding a few miles, they were +detained at the village of Prospect for a week, till one of the +partners had returned to Sydney, and brought back a pair of +bush-horses and a new cart. As they proceeded the next day, they found +the track over which they travelled become more and more populous; +till, on crossing the Macquarrie, they encamped in the midst of +thirteen teams of cattle and their thirteen companies, all bound upon +the same errand as themselves. + +On the 12th of June, in the dusk of the evening, they reached the +summit of a hill overlooking their destination. The Summerhill Creek +lay before them, with the camp-fires of fifty or sixty huts; and as +they descended into the midst, the inhabitants of this village of the +desert were returning from work with laughter and rude merriment. +After pitching their camp, and taking some refreshment, they proceeded +anxiously to inquire the news; and that night they turned in with no +very bright anticipations, after learning that the creek was high and +goods low, the weather alternating between rain and frost, the mines +overcrowded, and superfluous hands deserting them fast. They struggled +for awhile against these evil auguries; they even contrived, with +great labour, to pick up an ounce or two of gold; but at length, +losing heart, the party broke up on the 23d, and all went home but our +adventurer. + +His geological and mechanical knowledge enabled him to obtain a +partnership with another band of gold-hunters then at work; and after +spending some days in _prospecting_ on account of the new concern, he +found 'a chink he liked the look of,' which appeared to have been +partially worked. Licences were accordingly taken out, the +commissioner being on the spot, and forty-five feet of frontage to the +creek were marked off. As soon as the river became a little lower, +they began in earnest to dig a race for turning the course of the +water. Their pump was made and fixed ready to drain; a dam was +emptied; six ounces of gold were obtained as an earnest of what they +might expect; and then it began to rain, and the creek to roar, and +the whole of their machinery was swept away. + +Here was a new mishap: but these things will happen in the diggings; +and so our adventurers, agreeing to pay the commissioner a monthly +licence for their ground, intending to return in the dry weather to +work it, removed bag and baggage to another part of the river. Here +they dug away, but it appears with no tempting success; and they took +care to return to the commissioner in time, as they thought, to +implement their monthly bargain. On tendering the money for their +licence, however, they discovered that they were just half an hour too +late, and that the functionary had disposed of their forty-five feet +to another bidder. What to do now? They fell in with a man, an old +friend of Mr Rutter, just setting off on a journey of sixty-two miles +to the north, where he told them a piece of gold had been found +weighing 106 lbs. This invaluable man they instantly took into +partnership, and purchasing fresh horses, they struck their camp, and +followed their new companion across the country, in search of a place +called the Devil's Hole, near the World's End. It is no wonder they +lost their way. As there was no such thing as a road, they were +obliged to transport their goods on the horses' backs; and the +interesting nature of their journey may be guessed at from the fact, +that they had to cross a creek with steep banks sixteen times in the +course of five miles. + +They at length reached the Louisa Diggings, near those quartz-ridges +where, in fact, a 106 lb. lump of gold had been found. They encamped +in the dark; and getting up betimes the next morning, looked eagerly +out on this land of promise. It was a dull, dreary morning, and a +heavy continuous rain plashed upon the earth. About 200 persons were +taking the air in this watery atmosphere, their dress and movements +corresponding well with the aspect of the hour. Some were covered with +an old sack, some with a blanket, some with a dripping cloak, but all +glided slowly about in the rain, with a stick in their hands, and +their eyes fixed upon the ground. These phantoms were gold-hunters; +and the silent company was immediately joined by our adventurers, who +glided and poked like the rest. The ground was new, and during two +days gold was obtained in this way, from a particle the size of a +pin's head to a lump of nearly an ounce. When the surface was +exhausted, digging commenced; but the soil was too tough for the +common cradle, and although rich in gold, it would not repay the +trouble of washing. Upon this, the company broke up, each pursuing his +own way; and our adventurer and another agreed to go down the country +together to Maitland, prospecting on the way. + +The place where the large mass of gold was found is an intersection +between two quartz-ridges, rising from a high table-land in the midst +of a congeries of mountains, offshoots from the range that extends +from Wilson's Point, on the south, to Cape York, on the north. The +clay soil covers many acres below and around the ridges, and wherever +it was prospected by our adventurer, gold was found. On the 12th of +September, he reached Maitland; and here he found a letter awaiting +him, which determined him to choose a new hunting-ground. Some years +before, it seems, a man he knew, who was at that time a shepherd in +the Wellington District, while crossing the country on his master's +business, lost his way in the gullies, and did not find it again for +two days. While sitting down, in his dilemma, on a quartz-rock, he +observed something glittering beside him, and breaking off with his +tomahawk a piece of the stone, he carried it home with him as a +curiosity. At home it lay for years, till the reported discoveries of +gold induced him to offer it for sale to a goldsmith in Sydney. The +result was, that he connected himself with a party of adventurers, and +they all set forth for the place where he had rested among the +gullies. His companions proved treacherous; and when they had come +sufficiently near to be able, as they thought, to find the spot +without his assistance, they turned him adrift. They sought the golden +rock for three days--but in vain; and he went back to Sydney, to +invite Mr Rutter to accompany him. Here ends our narrative for the +present; and a most instructive one it is. The search for gold, our +informant tells us plainly, is a mere lottery, its results depending +almost wholly upon chance. Plenty as the metal is, it frequently costs +twenty shillings the sovereign's worth; and, in short, we are at that +point of transition when the mania is dying away, and the science has +not begun. When capital and skill are brought to bear upon the process +of mining in Australia, it will become a regular, though by no means a +miraculously profitable business; and even at present, steady +labouring-men may spread themselves over thousands of miles of the +auriferous creeks, if they will be satisfied with a profit of seven or +eight shillings a day. + +According to his experience, the place to look for gold is in the +neighbourhood of distinct traces of volcanic action, or in small +streams coming direct from hills of volcanic formation, or rivers fed +by these streams. An abundance of quartz (commonly called spar) is +universally reckoned an indication of the presence of gold; and if +trap-rock is found cropping up amid this quartz, and perforated with +streaks of it, so much the better. Sometimes the solid quartz itself +is pounded, and gold extracted by the aid of quicksilver. When the +gold is found in rivers, or on their banks, prediction is vain: +nothing will do but the actual trial by the wash-pan. But where there +is a bar or sand-bank, the richest deposit will always be on the side +of the bank presented to the descending stream. The metal in such +digging is almost invariably found in small spangles, that appear to +have been granular particles crushed or rolled flat by some enormous +pressure. In California, these spangles were the beginning of the +gold-finding. When the streams and their banks were well searched, the +crowds of adventurers tried, in desperation, what they could do by +digging deep holes in the plains; and there the metal was found in +such different forms as to indicate quite a different process of +deposition. Some of these holes were productive--although it was +severe labour to dig fifteen or eighteen feet through a hard soil +merely as an experiment; and in the course of time the plains were +covered with tents. The influx of adventurers continued; and the old +diggers, dissatisfied with gains that seemed to the new prodigious, +retired further and further back, and began to grope in the terraces +on the sides of volcanic hills, and among the detritus of extinct +craters. Here the harvest was rich, and as the crowning effort of the +gold-passion, unassisted by machinery, they actually in some cases cut +away the sides of the hills! 'My own impression is,' concludes our +informant on this subject, 'that, both in California and Australia, +the chances of individual enterprise, and even of small companies, are +decreasing rapidly; but that when the mines so wrought have ceased to +pay, capital and machinery, directed by science, will receive +profitable employment for ages to come.' + +The wash-pan we have mentioned may be of tin, if not required to be +used with quicksilver, otherwise of copper or wood; but of whatever +material made, it should be some 15 inches in diameter at the top, 10 +or 11 at the bottom, and 5, or 5-1/2 inches deep. The manner of using +this is learned only by practice and observation, and consists in a +peculiar motion, by which the heavier substances sink to the bottom +and remain there, while the soluble and lighter parts are washed out. +The principal use of the wash-pan is in rewashing the partially washed +'stuff' taken from the rocker, and in prospecting to ascertain by +trial the value of a new place. + +This rocker, or cradle, may be made of half-inch softwood, and +consists of a trough 10 inches deep, 18 inches broad, and 4 feet long, +closed at the broad end, and open at the other; with a transverse bar +at the upper part, two feet from the broad end, to receive the tray. +This machine is placed on rockers, like a cradle, and deposited so +near the water that, when at work, the man who rocks with his left +hand may be able to reach the water with a small tin baler, provided +with a wooden handle two feet long. A bucketful of the earth to be +washed is thrown into the tray, and the person who is to rock the +cradle taking a balerful of water, throws it uniformly on the mass in +the tray, and keeps rocking and washing till the gold becomes obvious. +These are the simpler implements of gold-hunting; and provided with +them, the little company of adventurers pitch their tent and continue +to dig, till they come to earth they think will pay for washing. The +next morning, they get up perhaps at daylight, for the sake of the +coolness of the hour, and pass through the sieve ten or fifteen +buckets before breakfast. After breakfast, all hands resume work till +about twelve o'clock, when they dine, then rest through the heat of +the day till three o'clock, and go on again till dark. They usually +divide the work as follows: one in the hole digs, fills the bucket +with earth, and, if necessary, bales the water out of the hole; +another takes the bucket and empties it into the tray of the machine; +while a third rocks, supplies the machine with water, and empties the +tray of the large stones. This, it will be seen, is no child's play: +your gold-hunter is no idle wanderer, but a hard-working man, +subjected to a thousand discomforts unknown in civilised life. + +The quicksilver cradle is a more complicated and expensive machine, +requiring six men instead of three to work it. It is understood, +however, to save at least 20 per cent. of the metal, and indeed to be +indispensable in some places in California, where the gold is in too +fine particles to be detected by the common rocker. Quicksilver has so +strong an affinity for gold, that the minutest particle of the latter +having once touched, it is deprived of the possibility of escape; and +when the process of washing has been completely gone through, the +whole mass of gold particles will be found bound together by the +quicksilver into a compact lump, in size and shape often resembling an +egg. The gold is thus obtained in the form of an amalgam; but the +quicksilver is easily evaporated, if its loss be of no consequence, or +separated without loss by a more scientific process. + +We have more than once used the word _prospecting_, which, we believe, +is peculiar to this kind of mining. The deposits of gold are so +capricious, that the adventurers, in order to lose as little time as +possible in removing from place to place, detach one of their number +on the hunt for a mine--and this is called prospecting. He sets out +with a few provisions, a rifle, a pick and shovel, at all events, with +a pan and large knife; and on reaching some hopeful-looking locality, +he makes experiments on the soil by washing. The considerations that +determine his calling the company to the spot are of course influenced +by the circumstance of their having a common or a quicksilver cradle. +He calculates the average value of the gold he finds in several +panfuls of the soil at different depths; and he takes into account the +distance it has to be carried for washing, the means of transit there +exist, and how far off is the nearest store. The prospector, +therefore, is a very important member of the concern, and in many +cases the success of the adventure depends upon his experience and +sagacity. + + + + +THE HISTORY OF JANE A POOLE. + + +In the latter part of the fourteenth century, an incident occurred in +the family of the Earl of Suffolk, which affords a curious +illustration of old manners in England. We shall follow the account of +the circumstance, given in a manuscript in the British Museum. + +Sir Michel Poole, second Earl of Suffolk, had several sons and +daughters. First was Mighell, son and heir; then William, second son; +and afterwards ten additional olive branches, of diverse names and +both sexes--all of whom, however, died, and went down unmarried to the +cold tomb. Some fell off like nipped blossoms in their infancy; +convents and wars absorbed the rest, till only the eldest two were +left of all that numerous family to perpetuate the name of Poole, and +raise the fortunes of the race. In due course of time, Sir Mighell +married Elizabeth, daughter of the right noble knight, Thomas Duke of +Norfolk; and these together had two children, Jane and Katharine, but, +alas! no son. Years passed on, and the hope of an heir was at an end; +but before that hope was quite laid aside, the tragedy of the house +began. + +Jane, as yet heiress and darling, a round, bright, wilful cherub, +beautiful and loving, but mighty in her passionate force, and +indomitable in her infant will, beyond all power of control--the one +most cared for, and on whom was anchored such a rich argosy of hopes +and first fond love--was one day given into the safe keeping of Maud, +a young serving-girl, a rough, untutored peasant-girl, who was one of +the underwomen to the bower-maidens. The king was coming to the castle +that night, and every female finger that could work was employed on +the last stitches of a dainty tapestry-bed, which was to receive His +Majesty as became his lordly dignity. Even the mother's care must give +way to the housewife's duty; even love must yield to loyalty. + +Left alone in an upper apartment with her young charge, Maud became +weary of confinement, and resolved at all hazards to descend to the +great hall, and have her share of the general amusement. Down, +accordingly, she went. Jane, of course, accompanied her, and, contrary +to orders, was allowed to romp about at pleasure. The day was cold, +and the fire burned brightly in the open hearth. Nearer and nearer the +little one crept to the blazing logs, watching the sparks fly up in a +golden shower when the crackling masses fell to the ground, or when +some rough soldier struck them with his mailed hand. No one looked to +her while she played by the open hearth, and tried to seize the vivid +sparks; once only, a trooper caught her roughly back; but again she +stole towards the great blazing logs, and this time she was less +fortunate. Suddenly, a cry was heard. Jane's clothes were in flames. +Maud extinguished them as she best could. She crushed the burning with +her hands in such haste as she might make; but, alas! to what a wreck +had the fire reduced the child! Her long fair hair was withered to its +roots; her pretty eyes were closed, and the curling lashes scorched to +the skin; her pure neck was blackened and blistered; and, a mass of +pain and sore, she lay like a dead thing, but for the wailing moans +which shewed her sad title yet to a ruined existence. Alas for her +that she did not die! Wo, that life was so strong in her now, when, +blemished and disfigured for ever, she might not hold its honours or +taste its joys!--now, when she must endure a worse thing than death +for the sake of her family name! 'Therefore,' says the chronicle, 'she +was in a manner loathed of her parents, and kept forth secretly from +the common knowledge of the people.' + +'The house of Poole must have no charred mummy for its heiress,' said +old Dame Katharine; and Sir Mighell and his lady bowed their heads and +acquiesced. + +It was agreed, then, that she should be sent to a house of 'close +nuns,' to be made a woman of religion, and so kept out of the sight of +all men's eyes. With this view, she was brought up; taught nothing +else; suffered to hope for nothing else; suffered to speak of nothing +else. But they could not bind her thoughts; and by a strange +perversity of will, these went always to the open fields and the +unfettered limb, to the vague picturing of freedom, and the dreamy +forecast of love. Yet she kept her peace; not daring to tell her mind +to any, and nourishing all the more strongly, because in silence, the +characteristics which destroyed the charm of a conventual life. When +she came to the years of discretion, she was to be professed; but, in +accordance with an old custom, before her profession she required to +enter the world for a season, that her 'vocation' might be judged of, +whether it were true or not, or simply the effect of education on the +one hand, and of ignorance on the other; and thus, when she was +fifteen years of age, she was dismissed to her father's house for the +space of six months' nominal trial, after which time she must return +to the convent for ever. + +Now, Dame Katharine a Poole, Jane's paternal grandmother, was a +fierce, proud old woman, whose heart was set on the creation of her +son's house, and whose very virtue was her family pride. When she +heard of Jane's return to the outer world of men, she hastily rode +over to see this ugly, despised thing, and to take her from her +father's castle to the grim quiet of her own dungeon-like home, if so +be that she was as unlovely as report had spoken her. They met; and +for a moment the proud old dame was struck as by death. The seamed and +scarred face, the closed eyes--one perfectly sightless, the other +well-nigh so--the burnt and withered hair growing in long, ragged +patches only, the awkward gait and downcast look; all were like +daggers in Dame Katharine's heart; and 'she rebuked her greatly, +seeing that she was too loathly for any gentleman who was equal to her +in birth.' + +Poor Jane bore all these coarse reproaches with much outward meekness; +but the spirit which they woke up in her was little interpreted by the +drooping head and tearful eyes. A fiery demon, breathing rage and +vowing revenge, took such meek-seeming as this, and blinded the old +grandam to the mischief she was working, until it was too late to +repair it. Dame Katharine took the girl home; Sir Mighell and his wife +consenting in gratitude to be so well delivered from such a heavy +burden. Dame Elizabeth, the girl's mother, truly shed a few tears, +quickly dried; and so young Jane parted for ever from her father's +house. + +Like a dead thing, revived by the fresh winds of heaven, Jane's +comparative freedom aroused in her the most passionate abhorrence of +the life to which she was destined, and the most passionate desire for +liberty and affection. With each breath she drew by the open casement, +with each glance cast into the depths of the dark woods beyond, rose +up the strong instincts of her age, and turned her for ever from the +convent gate. In vain the dame insisted; Jane stood firm; and declared +that she would still refuse, at the very altar, to take the vow. Yet +was she timid in all things but those of love and liberty; and Dame +Katharine, by violence and threats, so worked on her fears, that she +at last consented, amid grievous tears and bitter reproaches, to be +deprived of her name and state, and given forth to the castle people +as a poor gentlewoman, godchild to the dame. + +'Anything for freedom!' sighed Jane, as she took the oath of secrecy. +'Any deprivation rather than that living tomb of the nun!' + +It was now the dame's chief care to be rid of her charge. She cast +about for suitors, but even the lowest squire shook his head at the +offer. At last, she married her grandchild to the son of an honest +yeoman of Suffolk, and so sent her forth to take her place in the +world as the wife of a common peasant, and the mother of a family of +peasants. Such was the fate allotted to Jane a Poole, daughter of the +proud Earl of Suffolk! + +Of her issue, we need say but little. Suffice it to know, that Jane +and her ploughman William had four children, three sons and one +daughter; of whom William, the second son, married an honest man's +daughter, whose name was Alice Gryse, and whose children were living +in 1490, when this chronicle was written. + +Return we now to the puissant lord, Sir Mighell, Earl of Suffolk. He +was not long suffered to enjoy his home; indeed, so ardent a soul as +his would have eaten its way through his castle walls, as a chrysalis +through its silken tomb, if he had been long inactive. If war had not +been his duty, he must have made it his crime; if foreign foes had not +called upon his valour, too surely would domestic friends have +suffered from his disloyalty. Born for the fight, he would have +fulfilled his destiny by force if he might not by right. At the battle +of Agincourt (1415), he perished along with many other of England's +nobles. + +Sir Mighell having died without a son, his titles and estates went to +his brother, Sir William. Dame Elizabeth, widow of Sir Mighell, and +her daughter Katharine, shortly afterwards, as was usual in these +times, went to reside in the Abbey of Brasenode; and there they +ultimately died. + +Meanwhile, and for years afterwards, no one knew anything of Jane, +who, though exiled from her rank and family, perhaps enjoyed more real +happiness than those who had been guilty of her maltreatment. At +length, her husband died, which was a source of grief. Honest William +had thought her queer in manners; but he loved her for all that, and +was proud of her, as the daughter of a poor gentleman. He blessed her +on his death-bed; and she remained a widow for his sake. Many yeomen +wished to marry her, but she refused them all. This went on for many +years--long after Sir William a Poole had become fourth Earl of +Suffolk, and had had children born to him; long after Alice Gryse had +become Jane's daughter-in-law, and made her more than once a +grandmother too; and then the whole of this strange story became +known. Jane had kept her vow of secrecy with perfect fidelity; never +had she breathed a syllable to her husband or children as to the +family to which she belonged. It was only, late in life, through +confession she made to a priest, that who and what she had been was +revealed. Shocked with the depravity of her unnatural parents, this +pious and learned doctor, says the chronicle, 'commanded her to +publish this account to her children and their issues, that they might +know of what race they came, if so be, by the great mercy of +Providence, they might claim their own again. And not only to them, +but also to make it known to all men, as far as was consistent with +her own safety; for he said, that the great power of Almighty God +should be published to all the world. For this reason was the +chronicle written--that all men might take warning; for no deed of +wickedness is done in the dark, which shall not be dragged forth to +the light; and no oppression on the innocent shall prosper before the +right hand of Eternal Justice.' + + + + +THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON. + + _March 1852._ + + +The lecture experiment at the Museum of Practical Geology, in Jermyn +Street, has proved eminently successful. There were a thousand more +applications for tickets than could be supplied, in consequence of +which the executive very wisely determined, that the course should be +repeated until the demand was satisfied. This fact of numbers speaks +highly in favour of the working-men of London--none others are +admitted to the course here referred to; and once having got the +knowledge, it is to be hoped they will be able to turn it to good +account. One of the lecturers told me, that the hall is always +crowded, and that a better-behaved auditory has seldom been seen in +any quarter, which we may consider to be an encouraging sign of the +times. The other courses are also going on for those who are able to +pay high fees, and attend during the day. The titles of a few of the +lectures will give you an idea of the nature of the instruction +offered; namely--The Relations of Natural History to Geology and the +Arts; On the Value of an Extended Knowledge of Mineralogy and the +Processes of Mining; On the Science of Geology and its Applications; +On the Importance of Special Scientific Knowledge to the Practical +Metallurgist; and On the Importance of Cultivating Habits of +Observation. You must remember, that the institution is a government +school of mines as well as a museum of geology. + +In connection with this, it may be mentioned that the Society of Arts +are discussing a project for the 'affiliation' of all the literary, +philosophical, scientific, and mechanics' institutions throughout the +kingdom, with a view to render them less languid and more beneficial +than too many of them now are. Unity of purpose effected wonders with +the Great Exhibition; and it is thought that the same cause should +produce a similar result in the educational and recreative +establishments alluded to. There is a talk, also, of an assembling of +most of the learned societies of our great city under one roof--a sort +of Palace of Science, which has long been wanting in London, but which +has long existed in Paris. Should this scheme be carried out, the +philosophers might then adopt Brother Jonathan's motto--_E pluribus +unum_. And, next, the Suburban Artisan School of Drawing and +Modelling, established last year at Camden-Town, has succeeded so well +that the committee, with Prince Albert as patron, have determined to +establish four additional schools in our other suburban districts. +These schools are to be open every evening for instruction, at a +charge per month of 2s. No working-man in the metropolis after this +need be ignorant of drawing. Then, again, a 'Department of Practical +Art' is organised in connection with the Board of Trade, which, by +means of travelling and stationary superintendents, and other +officers, is to assist in the development of artistic talent, and its +application to useful purposes, wherever it may be found. + +Co-operation of some sort or other is the order of the day; and now a +good deal of attention is excited by the announcement of an 'Athenæum +Institute for Authors and Artists,' something different from the Guild +of Literature and Art set afoot last winter, the object being to +endeavour to form an incorporated association of the two classes +mentioned--of course for their common benefit. The aid of the +possessors of rank and wealth is to be asked at starting, because, as +the promoters say, 'we think literature has a right to ask the +assistance of these other two great powers of society, because it so +materially assists them; and because, in many of its branches, it has +no other mode of being paid by society. The severely scientific, the +highly imaginative, the profoundly legislative authors, do not produce +promptly marketable, though they produce priceless, works. La Place, +Wordsworth, Bentham, could not have existed had they depended on the +first product of their works; they would have perished before an +acknowledging world could have given them bread.' They say, further, +that 'the humblest literary man works for something more than hire, +and produces something more effective than a mere piece of +merchandise. His book is not only sold to the profit of the +bookseller, but to the benefit of the public. The publisher pays for +its mercantile value, but the public should reward the author for its +moral and social effect, as they take upon themselves to punish, if it +have an evil tendency.' + +Whether the promoters are right or wrong in their views, will be best +proved by the result; meantime, they put forth some good names as +provisional president, vice-president, and managers, and propose that +the Institute shall comprise four branches--namely, a Protective +Society, a Philanthropic and Provident Fund, an Educational +Association, and a Life-Assurance Department. The subscribers are to +consist of two classes: those who give contributions for the benefit +of the Institute, and those who seek to benefit themselves. The former +are to be asked to insure their lives, for different rates of premium, +the amounts to fall into the corporation at the decease of the +subscribers; and thus a fund would be raised out of which, on certain +conditions, participating subscribers would be able to secure a +provision for old age, or premature decay of mental power, the means +of educating their children, and leaving a _solatium_ to their widows. +If all this can be carried out, and if literary men, as a class, are +capable of all that the prospectus of the new scheme implies, how much +of distress and heart-breaking misery will be saved to society! + +There are several subjects which, having recently been brought before +our Horticultural Society, have somewhat interested gardening folk. At +one of the meetings, there was exhibited 'a very fine specimen of +common mignonette,' which 'was stated to have been a single plant +pricked out into a pot in January 1851, and shifted on until it had +attained a large size. It was mentioned, that mignonette is not an +annual, as many imagine it to be; but that it will become a woody +shrub, and last for years, provided it is well managed, and kept free +from frost and damp.' So runs the report in the society's journal. + +There was, likewise, an exhibition of black Hamburg grapes by Mr Fry, +a Kentish gardener, who made thereupon some observations, which appear +to be deserving of wider circulation. The grapes were grown in a +building seldom heated artificially, and were much attacked by mildew +during the last two seasons, on which prompt measures were taken to +diffuse perfectly dry 'sulphur vivum' throughout the house by means of +a sulphurator, until fruit and foliage were completely but lightly +coated. 'Fires were lighted, and the temperature kept up to from 80 to +90 degrees, ventilation being considerably diminished, and water in +any form discontinued. After being subject to this treatment for about +four or five days, the vines received a thorough syringing, which +cleansed them from every particle of sulphur. With respect to the use +of sulphur in killing mildew, many ladies and gentlemen,' adds Mr Fry, +'with whom I have conversed, consider it highly objectionable: they +say, that they do not like the idea of eating sulphur with grapes; +neither would any one, and I can prove to them that this need never be +done; and, moreover, that the use of sulphur, when timely and +judiciously applied, does not in any way deteriorate the fruit. I much +question if the most practised eye could detect sulphur on the grapes +exhibited, although they have been twice covered with it; and as to +the mildew itself among vines, I fear it no more than I do green-fly +among cucumbers, which is so soon deprived of existence by the fumes +of tobacco.' + +What is called 'a French sulphurator,' whose great merit appears to be +'simplicity and cheapness,' was also exhibited. It is described as 'a +tin box for holding the sulphur, placed on the upper side of the pipe +of a pair of common bellows. The sulphur gets into the pipe through +small holes made for the purpose in the bottom of the box, and, in +order that no stoppage may take place, a small hammer-head attached at +the end of a slight steel-spring, is fixed on the under side of the +bellows, a gentle tap from which, now and then, keeps up a continuous +fall of sulphur into the pipe.' It is said, that 'these appliances, +which may be attached to a pair of bellows for little more than +sixpence, answer every purpose for which they are intended, equally as +well as a more expensive machine.' + +At the same time with this contrivance, some bunches of black Prince +Grapes were shewn to the assembled horticulturists, which could only +be preserved from mildew by frequent applications of sulphur. The +bunches are to be afterwards cleaned by dipping in water, or what is +considered preferable, 'syringing on all sides with a fine syringe,' +which process, it is well to remember, disturbs the _bloom_ on the +fruit least when directed 'downwards, or obliquely, as rain would +fall.' + +As the season for gardening operations is coming on, Mr Rivers' +account may be mentioned of his mode of growing strawberries in pots; +it will be found to involve certain combinations opposed to ordinary +practice. 'About the second week in July,' he says, he filled a number +of six-inch pots 'with a compost of two-thirds loam, and one-third +rotten dung, as follows: three stout pieces of broken pots were placed +in the bottom, and a full handful of the compost put in; a stout +wooden pestle was then used with all the force of a man's arm to pound +it, then another handful and a pounding, and another, till the pot was +brimful, and the compressed mould as hard as a barn-floor. The pots +were then taken to the strawberry-bed, and a runner placed in the +centre of each, with a small stone to keep it steady. They were +watered in dry weather, and have had no other care or culture. For two +or three years, I have had the very finest crops from plants after +this method, and those under notice promise well. If the pots are +lifted, it will be apparent that a large quantity of food is in a +small space. I may add, that from some recent experiments with +compressed earth to potted fruit-trees, I have a high opinion of its +effect, and I fully believe that we have yet much to learn on the +subject.' + +There is a committee sitting at the Admiralty, to devise a method for +the uniform lighting of ships and steamers at night, the object being +to diminish the chances of accident or error to vessels at sea. And +apropos of this, Mr Babbage has published a plan which will +effectually prevent one lighthouse being mistaken for another: it is, +that every lighthouse, wherever situated, shall have a number--the +numbers not to run consecutively--and no two adjoining lights to have +the same numeral digits in the same place of figures. There would then +be no need for revolving or flashing lights, as the only thing to be +done would be to make each lighthouse repeat its own number all night +long, or whenever it was illuminated. This is to be 'accomplished by +enclosing the upper part of the glass cylinders of the argand burner +by a thin tube of tin or brass, which, when made to descend slowly +before the flame, and then allowed suddenly to start back, will cause +an occultation and reappearance of the light.' The number of +occultations denotes the number of the lighthouse. For instance, +suppose the Eddystone to be 243, the two is denoted by two hidings of +the light in quick succession; a short pause, and four hidings; +another short pause, and three hidings, followed by a longer pause; +after which the same process is repeated. It would not be easy to make +a mistake, for the numbers of the lighthouses nearest to the Eddystone +would be very different; and supposing that the boy sent aloft to +watch for the light were to report 253 instead of 243, without waiting +to correct his view, the captain, by turning to his book, would +perhaps find that No. 253 was in the Straits of Sunda, or some equally +remote situation, and would easily recognise the error. When we take +into account the number of vessels lost by mistaking one lighthouse +for another, the value of this proposal becomes apparent. Mr Babbage +shews, that bell-strokes might be employed to announce the number of a +beacon in foggy weather; and he believes that the time is not far +distant when buoys will also be indicated by a light. Now that +lighthouse dues are to be reduced one-half, we may hope to see +improvement in more ways than one. + +This is but a small part of what promises more and more to become a +great question--that of navigation. It is felt that, in these go-ahead +days, we must be paying not less attention to our maritime than to our +inland arm of commerce; and this has brought the question of wood +_versus_ iron ships again into prominent notice. The advocates of iron +shew that the dry-rot, so destructive to wood, cannot enter metal; +that lightness and speed, those prime essentials, are insured by the +use of iron; that iron ships are safer, more easily repaired, and +cheaper than vessels built of wood; and that they are more lasting. +The chief objection hitherto has been the liability of iron to become +foul in tropical climates; but this now appears to be in a measure +overcome. According to Mr Lindsay: 'An admixture has been applied, +termed "Anti-Sargassian Paint," which has been found to answer the +purpose better than any yet discovered. From the experience of its +properties, we cannot say that in itself it is yet sufficient; but it +appears a fair substitute till some other preparation is discovered. A +gentleman at Glasgow,' he adds, 'has already discovered a compound, +which, being mixed in a fluid state with the iron, is expected to +answer the desired purpose. There is another disadvantage which will +soon be overcome--the greater liability to error in the compasses of +iron ships; an error which, however, also occurs, though perhaps to a +less extent, in every wooden ship. By a most ingenious invention, +which will shortly be made public, such errors in any ships, under any +circumstances, can at all times be at once detected.' + +An important patented process for producing tapered iron, has been +explained before the Franklin Institute at Philadelphia--one by which +every variety of taper may be produced, or combinations of taper, with +flat or other forms; and seeing how much tapered iron is used on +railways, in many kinds of machinery, in ships and steamers, the +subject may be considered worthy of more than a mere passing notice. +Tapered iron is a form to which machinery has been thought +inapplicable, and only to be produced by hand-labour. The new method, +however, which has been successfully carried into practice at the +Phoenixville Ironworks, is thus described: 'The principle on which it +acts is that of hydrostatic pressure, or, more properly, _hydrostatic +resistance_. A small chamber, similar to that of the common +hydrostatic press, is set on the top of each housing; the closed end +of the press being uppermost, and a plunger entering from below; but +instead of water being forced _into_ the press, the chamber is at +first filled with water, and the pressure of the iron in passing +between the rollers, tends to lift the top one, which is held down by +the plunger. An escape-pipe, provided with a valve, is inserted into +the top of the chamber. When any upward pressure acts on the top +roller, it is communicated by the plunger to the water, which escapes +through the valve, and the roller rises. + +'When the valve is partially closed, the water escapes more slowly; +and the rise of the roller, and consequently the taper of the iron, +are more gradual. + +'Any rate of taper may thus be had by regulating the rise of the +opening of the escape-valve. If the water is all driven out before the +bar is entirely through the rollers, the top roller ceases to rise, +and the iron becomes parallel from that point. Then, if the ends of +the bar be reversed, and it be again passed between the rollers, the +parallel portion will become tapered; thus we can get a bar.' + +At the same time, a 'Thermometrical Ventilator' was exhibited, which +is described as circular in form, with a well-balanced movable plate. +'Upon the side of the valve is an inverted syphon, with a bulb at one +end, the other being open; the lower part of the tube contains +mercury; the bulb, atmospheric air. An increase of temperature expands +the air in the bulb, drives the mercury down one side and up the +other, thereby destroying the balance, and causing the valve to open +by turning on its axis. A diminution of temperature contracts the air +in the bulb, causes the mercury to rise in the side of the tube, and +closes the valve.' Besides this, there was 'an improved +magneto-electric machine, for medical use, with a new arrangement, by +which the shock is graduated by means of a glass tube, in which a wire +is made to communicate with water, so as to produce at first a slight +shock; by gradually pressing down the wire attached to a spiral +spring, the shock is received in its full force.' + +It now appears that Mr Robertson of Brighton claims priority of +discovery touching the boring power of _Pholades_. His statements are +founded on daily observation of the creatures at work for three +months. 'The _Pholas dactylus_' he says, 'makes its hole by grating +the chalk with its rasp-like valves, licking it up, when pulverised, +with its foot, forcing it up through its principal or bronchial +syphon, and squirting it out in oblong nodules. The crypt protects the +_Pholas_ from confervæ, which, when they get at it, grow not merely +outside, but even within the lips of the valves, preventing the action +of the syphons. In the foot there is a gelatinous spring or style, +which, even when taken out, has great elasticity, and which seems the +mainspring of the motions of the _Pholas dactylus_.' + +At last, steam communication with Australia seems about to become a +reality, for the first vessel is announced to start in May for Sydney, +to touch at the Cape and other colonies on her way out; and +accommodation is promised for two hundred passengers of different +classes. There is also a project on foot for a line of steamers from +Panama to Australia, and to Valparaiso, which, if brought into +operation, will make a voyage round the world little more than a +bagman's journey. Apropos of Australia, Mr Clarke, who first predicted +that gold would be found in that country, says, 'that just 90 degrees +west of the auriferous range in Australia, we find an auriferous band +in the Urals; and just 90 degrees west of the Urals, occur the +auriferous mountains of California.' A speculation for cosmogonists. +In our own country, we are finding metalliferous deposits: vast +accumulations of lead-ore have come to light in Wales, which are said +to contain six ounces of silver, and fifteen hundredweight of lead to +the ton; and in Northamptonshire, an abundant and timely supply of +iron-ore has just been met with. We might perhaps turn our metallic +treasures to still better account, if some one would only set to work +and win the prize offered by Louis Napoleon; namely, 'a reward of +50,000 francs to such person as shall render the voltaic pile +applicable, with economy, to manufactures, as a source of heat, or to +lighting, or chemistry, or mechanics, or practical medicine.' The +offer is to be kept open for five years, to allow full time for +experiment, and people of all nations have leave to compete. One of +the electric telegraph companies intends to ask parliament to abolish +the present monopoly as regards the despatch of messages; in another +quarter, an under-sea telegraph to Ostend is talked about, with a view +to communicate with Belgium independently of France; and there is no +reason why it should not be laid down, for the Dover and Calais line +is paying satisfactorily. And, finally, another ship-load of 'marbles' +and sculptures has just arrived from Nineveh; and the appointment of +Mr Layard as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (though now but +temporary) is regarded as a praiseworthy recognition of his merits and +services; and now that we have a government which combines a few +_littérateurs_ among its members, it is thought that literature will +be relieved of some of its trammels. + + + + +CHILDREN'S JOYS AND SORROWS. + + +I can endure a melancholy man, but not a melancholy child; the former, +in whatever slough he may sink, can raise his eyes either to the +kingdom of reason or of hope; but the little child is entirely +absorbed and weighed down by one black poison-drop of the present. +Think of a child led to the scaffold, think of Cupid in a Dutch +coffin; or watch a butterfly, after its four wings have been torn off, +creeping like a worm, and you will feel what I mean. But wherefore? +The first has been already given; the child, like the beast, only +knows purest, though shortest sorrow; one which has no past and no +future; one such as the sick man receives from without, the dreamer +from himself into his asthenic brain; finally, one with the +consciousness not of guilt, but of innocence. Certainly, all the +sorrows of children are but shortest nights, as their joys are but +hottest days; and indeed both so much so, that in the latter, often +clouded and starless time of life, the matured man only longingly +remembers his old childhood's pleasures, while he seems altogether to +have forgotten his childhood's grief. This weak remembrance is +strangely contrasted with the opposing one in dreams and fevers in +this respect, that in the two last it is always the cruel sorrows of +childhood which return; the dream this mock-sun of childhood--and the +fever, its distorting glass--both draw forth from dark corners the +fears of defenceless childhood, which press and cut with iron fangs +into the prostrate soul. The fair scenes of dreams mostly play on an +after-stage, whereas the frightful ones choose for theirs the cradle +and the nursery. Moreover, in fever, the ice-hands of the fear of +ghosts, the striking one of the teachers and parents, and every claw +with which fate has pressed the young heart, stretch themselves out to +catch the wandering man. Parents, consider then, that every +childhood's Rupert--the name given in Germany to the fictitious being +employed to frighten children into obedience--even though it has lain +chained for tens of years, yet breaks loose and gains mastery over the +man so soon as it finds him on a sick-bed. The first fright is more +dangerous the sooner it happens: as the man grows older, he is less +and less easily frightened; the little cradle or bed-canopy of the +child is more easily quite darkened than the starry heaven of the +man.--_Jean Paul Richter._ + + + + +A REJECTED LOVER. + + + You 'never loved me,' Ada!--Those slow words + Dropped softly from your gentle woman's tongue, + Out of your true and tender woman's heart, + Dropped--piercing into mine like very swords, + The sharper for their brightness! Yet no wrong + Lies to your charge; nor cruelty, nor art; + Even while you spoke, I saw the ready tear-drop start. + + You 'never loved me?'--No, you never knew-- + You, with youth's dews yet glittering on your soul-- + What 'tis _to love_. Slow, drop by drop, to pour + Our life's whole essence, perfumed through and through + With all the best we have, or can control, + For the libation; cast it down before + Your feet--then lift the goblet, dry for evermore! + + I shall not die, as foolish lovers do: + A man's heart beats beneath this breast of mine; + The breast where--Curse on that fiend's whispering, + '_It might have been!_'--Ada, I will be true + Unto myself--the self that worshipped thine. + May all life's pain, like those few tears that spring + For me--glance off as rain-drops from my white dove's wing! + + May you live long, some good man's bosom-flower, + And gather children round your matron knees! + Then, when all this is past, and you and I + Remember each our youth but as an hour + Of joy--or torture; one, serene, at ease, + May meet the other's grave yet steadfast eye, + Thinking, 'He loved me well!'--clasp hands, and so pass by. + + + + +THE TEARS OF OYSTERS. + + +Glancing round this anatomical workshop (the oyster), we find, amongst +other things, some preparations shewing the nature of pearls. Examine +them, and we find that there are dark and dingy pearls, just as there +are handsome and ugly men; the dark pearl being found on the dark +shell of the fish, the white brilliant one upon the smooth inside +shell. Going further in the search, we find that the smooth, +glittering lining, upon which the fish moves, is known as the _nacre_, +and that it is produced by a portion of the animal called the +_mantle_; and, for explanation's sake, we may add that gourmands +practically know the mantle as the beard of the oyster. When living in +its glossy house, should any foreign substance find its way through +the shell to disturb the smoothness so essential to its ease, the fish +coats the offending substance with nacre, and a pearl is thus formed. +The pearl is, in fact, a little globe of the smooth, glossy substance +yielded by the oyster's beard; yielded ordinarily to smooth the narrow +home to which his nature binds him, but yielded in round drops, real +pearly tears, if he is hurt. When a beauty glides among a throng of +her admirers, her hair clustering with pearls, she little thinks that +her ornaments are products of pain and diseased action, endured by the +most unpoetical of shell-fish.--_Leisure Hours._ + + + + +'ROBESPIERRE.' + + +In our recent notice of Robespierre, it was mentioned that, at the +period of his capture in the Hôtel de Ville, he was shot in the jaw by +a pistol fired by one of the gendarmes. Various correspondents point +to the discrepancy between this account and that given by Thiers, and +some other authorities, who represent that Robespierre fired the +pistol himself, in the attempt to commit self-destruction. In our +account of the affair, we have preferred holding to Larmartine +(_History of the Girondists_), not only in consequence of his being +the latest and most graphic authority on the subject, but because his +statement seems to be verified by the appearance of the half-signed +document which it was our fortune to see in Paris in 1849. + +The following is Lamartine's statement:--'The door soon yielded to the +blows given by the soldiers with the but-end of their muskets, amid +the cries of "Down with the tyrant!" "Which is he?" inquired the +soldiers; but Léonard Bourdon durst not meet the look of his fallen +enemy. Standing a little behind the men, and hidden by the body of a +gendarme, named Méda; with his right hand he seized the arm of the +gendarme who held a pistol, and pointing with his left hand to the +person to be aimed at, he directed the muzzle of the weapon towards +Robespierre, exclaiming: "That is the man." The man fired, and the +head of Robespierre dropped on the table, deluging with blood the +proclamation he had not finished signing.' Next morning, adds this +authority, Léonard Bourdon 'presented the gendarme who had fired at +Robespierre to the notice of the Convention.' Further: on Robespierre +being searched while he lay on the table, a brace of loaded pistols +were found in his pocket. 'These pistols, shut up in their cases still +loaded, abundantly testify that Robespierre did not shoot himself.' +Accepting these as the true particulars of the incident, Robespierre +cannot properly be charged with an attempt at suicide. + +In the article referred to, the name Barras was accidentally +substituted for Henriot, in connection with the insurrectionary +movement for rescuing Robespierre. Barras led the troops of the +Convention. + +A correspondent asks us to state what was the actual number of persons +slaughtered by the guillotine, and otherwise, during the progress of +the Revolution. The question cannot be satisfactorily answered. Alison +(vol. iv. p. 289) presents a list, which shews the number to have been +1,027,106; but this enumeration does not comprehend the massacres at +Versailles, the prisons of Paris, and some other places. A million and +a half would probably be a safe calculation. One thing is certain, +that from the 2d of September 1792, to the 25th of October 1795, a +space of little more than three years, 18,613 persons perished by the +guillotine. Strangely enough, the chief destruction of life was among +the humbler classes of society, those who mainly promoted the +revolution; and still more strange, the greater number of victims were +murdered by the verdicts of juries--a striking example of that general +subserviency which has since become the most significant defect in the +French character. + + * * * * * + +_Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover,_ + +CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a LITERARY COMPANION for the +RAILWAY, the FIRESIDE, or the BUSH. + +VOLUME IV. + +To be continued in Monthly Volumes. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAM, 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 Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 430, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 18337-8.txt or 18337-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/3/18337/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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March 27, 1852 + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + max-width: 40em;} + p {text-align: justify;} + p.center {text-align: center;} + p.right {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%;} + 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;} + .smcap {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;} + .footnote {font-size: 0.9em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {font-size: smaller; text-decoration: none; + vertical-align: 0.25em;} + .contents + {margin-left:20%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem + {margin-left:20%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /*]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 430, 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. 430 + Volume 17, New Series, March 27, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: May 7, 2006 [EBook #18337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</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="#PRONOUNCERS"><b>PRONOUNCERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#COOLING_THE_AIR_OF_ROOMS_IN_HOT_CLIMATES"><b>COOLING THE AIR OF ROOMS IN HOT CLIMATES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_CHURCH_OF_THE_CUP_OF_COLD_WATER"><b>THE CHURCH OF THE CUP OF COLD WATER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MUSIC-GRINDERS_OF_THE_METROPOLIS"><b>MUSIC-GRINDERS OF THE METROPOLIS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_VOICE_FROM_THE_DIGGINGS"><b>A VOICE FROM THE DIGGINGS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_HISTORY_OF_JANE_A_POOLE"><b>THE HISTORY OF JANE A POOLE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON"><b>THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHILDRENS_JOYS_AND_SORROWS"><b>CHILDREN'S JOYS AND SORROWS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_REJECTED_LOVER"><b>A REJECTED LOVER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_TEARS_OF_OYSTERS"><b>THE TEARS OF OYSTERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ROBESPIERRE"><b>'ROBESPIERRE.'</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<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><span class="sc">No.</span> 430. <span class="sc">New Series.</span></b></td> +<td align="left"><b>SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1852.</b></td> +<td align="right"><b><span class="sc">Price</span> 1½<i>d</i>.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2><a name="PRONOUNCERS" id="PRONOUNCERS"></a>PRONOUNCERS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>Do you not find, in almost every company, one who pronounces +decisively upon every matter which comes in question? His voice is +loud and firm, his eye bold and confident, and his whole manner +oracular. No cold hesitations as to points of fact ever tease him. +Little time does he require to make up his mind on any speculative +subject. He is all <i>yes</i> or all <i>no</i> at once and without appeal. +Opposite opinions he treats with, at the best, a sublime pity, meant +to be graceful, but, in reality, galling. He is often a goose; but, be +he what he may, it is ten to one that he carries off the majority of +the company in the mere sweep of his gown. They are led by him for the +time, fascinated by the energy of his pronunciations. They may all +recover from him afterwards—some after one day, some after two, and +particularly weak men after, perhaps, a week. At the moment, however, +the pronouncer has vast influence, and, if immediate action can be +determined on, it is very likely that he drags his victims into some +committal of themselves, from which subsequent escape may not be very +easy.</p> + +<p>While pronouncing is thus the prominent quality of a few, it is more +or less the vice of nearly all. Men feel that they have an inherent +right to their opinion, and to the promulgation of it, and are not +very apt to reflect that there is another question—as to whether +their opinion be worth delivering; whether it has been formed upon a +good basis of knowledge or experience, or upon any basis at all; +whether it is the emanation of ripe judgment and reflection, or of +some mere passing gust of ideas springing from the whim of the minute. +Hence, when any question arises, it is seldom found that any one is +quite unprepared to give some sort of decision. Even the giddy girl of +seventeen will have something to say upon it, albeit she may never +have heard of the matter before. It is thought foolish-looking not to +be able to pronounce, as if one imperiled the right of private +judgment itself by not being prepared in every case to act upon it. In +consequence, what absurd opinions do we hear in all kinds of companies +upon all kinds of topics! How the angels, who know better, must weep!</p> + +<p>A conversational party even of tolerably well-educated persons, often +presents itself in a ludicrous light. Some question has arisen amongst +them. No one has any clear or definite information upon it. They have +had disputes about the simplest matters of fact involved in it. Yet no +person there, down to the youngest, but would take scorn to be held as +incapable of pronouncing upon it. There are as many opinions as there +are persons present, and not one less confident than another. What is +very natural in such circumstances, no one has the least respect for +the opinions of any of the rest. Each, in fact, does justice upon his +neighbour for the absurdity of pronouncing without grounds, while +incapable of seeing the absurdity in himself. And thus an hour will be +passed in a most unprofitable manner, and perhaps the social spirit of +the company be not a little marred. How much better to say: 'Well, +that is a subject I know nothing about: I will not undertake to +judge.' Supposing all who are present to be in the same predicament, +they might dismiss the barren subject, and start another on which some +one could throw real light, and from which, accordingly, all might +derive some benefit.</p> + +<p>Is not this habit of pronouncing without preparation in inquiry and +reflection just one of the causes of that remarkable diversity of +opinion which is so often deplored for its unpleasant consequences? In +ignorance—fancy, whim, and prejudice usurp the directing power. If we +take no time for consideration, we shall be apt to plunge into an +error, and afterwards persevere in it for the sake of consistency, or +because it has become a thing which we regard as our own. In such +circumstances, no wonder there are as many 'minds' as 'men.' But when +any one can speak on the ground of well-ascertained facts, and after +some deliberation on the bearings of the question, he must carry +others with him, not by fascination, but by real conviction, and thus +greatly reduce the proportion of opinions to men. Very likely, some +other man has got hold of a somewhat different range of facts, and +come to different conclusions: he, too, will have his party of +followers. But there being two or three discrepant views on the +subject, is a much less evil than there being as many as there are +individuals.</p> + +<p>The right of pronouncing upon public affairs is one that would be +particularly clung to if there were any danger of its being lost, and +it certainly is not in England that any writer would be found ready to +challenge so valued a privilege. At the same time, no one will +seriously deny, that if this right were used more generally with the +advantage of a tolerable knowledge of the subject, it would be an +improvement. Public men may be acting, as, indeed, they must generally +do, upon certain data carefully brought out by inquiry: they may judge +and act amiss after all, for human judgment is fallible. But when we +contrast their means of forming a judgment with those of many persons +who hesitate not to pronounce upon their measures, it cannot be denied +that they stand in a strong position. When we hear a bold condemnation +of their acts from men who, so far from having gone through the same +process of inquiry, have not even perused the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[pg 194]</a></span> documents in which the +grounds of the administrative policy were explained, can we do +otherwise than smile at the pretensions of the <i>pseudo</i>-judges? Is not +the frequency of this unfounded judging much more apt to harden an +unlucky statesman than to make him amenable to counsel? On the other +hand, when a public man finds himself and his actions criticised by +men who have knowledge, he must be a hardy one indeed who can entirely +disregard the judgment.</p> + +<p>If we attentively study the progress of any man who has acquired +influence over his fellow-creatures—apart from certain matters in +which the feelings are mainly concerned—we shall find that he has +distinguished himself by a habit of not pronouncing where he has no +means of forming a judgment. Such a man has had the good sense to see +and confess that he could not be expected to know many things +sufficiently well to entitle him to pronounce authoritatively upon +them. He has probably given some considerable share of attention to +certain subjects that are of some importance to his fellow-creatures, +and thus fitted himself, with regard to them, to speak with more or +less decision. Never found guilty of giving a vague, crudely-formed +judgment on things a hundred miles out of his way, but, on the +contrary, obtaining credit occasionally for the manner in which he +treats those with which he is conversant, he irresistibly acquires +character and influence. Young hasty minds laugh at his taking such +care not to commit himself: he is perhaps taxed with getting credit +for merely looking grave and holding his tongue. But this very holding +of the tongue when there is nothing to say, is, in reality, one of the +greatest, though often one of the last-learned virtues. Were his +merits purely negative, they would be great; tending as they do to +save truth from that obscuration which a multitude of ill-formed +opinions necessarily throw upon it. But we shall usually discover in +such men a positive merit also in their power to illustrate and give a +guiding opinion upon certain subjects of importance to public or +private interests.</p> + +<p>There is not one sentence in this little essay which may not be justly +set down as mere commonplace. We acknowledge the fault; but defend it +on the ground that sound and useful commonplaces require a continual +refreshing and re-presentment, so many persons being, after all, +unaware or forgetful of them.</p> + +<p>On a similar ground of defence, we would take leave to remind mankind +of the good old maxim, 'Hear the other party.' Familiar to most +people, observed by some, there are multitudes who uniformly act as if +they had never heard of it. To be quite candid, we often catch +ourselves neglecting it; and always, at the best, it takes a struggle +to make it a reality in our conduct. Experience, however, impresses us +more and more with a sense of its being absolutely essential to the +ascertainment of truth in any disputable case. There is so much bias +from self-love, so much recklessness about truth in general, and so +much of even a sincere faithlessness of narration, that no partial +account of anything is to be trusted. It is but a small concession to +the cause of truth, to wait till we hear the statement of the opposite +party, or not to pronounce without it. If anything were required to +prove how little this is reflected on, it would be the readiness of +nearly all persons to tell their own story, without intimating the +slightest doubt that it is to be implicitly received on their own +shewing. One cannot walk along a street, but some friend will come up +and inflict a narration, limited entirely to his own view of a case in +which he is interested or aggrieved, practically ignoring that there +can and must be another way of stating it. And so great is the +complaisance of mankind, that no one thinks of intimating any +necessity for consulting another authority before giving judgment. +Here the vicious habit of thoughtless pronouncing is doubly bad, as it +involves also a kind of flattery.</p> + +<p>There are some novel doctrines and theories, which seem doomed to meet +with prejudice and opposition, but which yet must have some vitality +about them, seeing that they survive so much ill-treatment. It is +curious to observe how little regard to the rules of reasoning is +usually felt to be necessary in opposing these theories—how mere +pronouncing comes to stand in their case in the stead of evidence and +argument. Although they may have been brought forward as mere forms of +possible truth—ideal points round which to rally the scattered forces +of investigation—and only advanced as far as facts would go, and no +further—you will find them denounced as visions, tending to the +breach of the philosophic peace; while, on the other hand, those who +oppose them, albeit on no sort of ground but a mere pronunciation of +contrary opinion, obtain all the credit due to the genuine +philosopher. Abstractly, it would be generally admitted that any +doctrine for which a certain amount of evidence is shewn, can only be +overthrown by a superior force of evidence on the other side. But +practically this is of no avail. Doubt and denial are so important to +philosophy, and confer such an air of superior wisdom, that merely to +doubt and deny will be pretty sure to carry both the educated and the +uneducated vulgar. To get a high character in that position is of +course very easy. Little more than pronouncing is required. As to the +respective positions of the affirmer and denier in some future time, +when truth has attained the power of asserting her reign against +prejudice, that is another thing.</p> + +<p>To return to the general question—If any one be impressed by our +remarks with a sense of the absurdity of pronouncing without knowledge +and reflection, let him endeavour to avoid it, and he will confer a +sensible benefit on society. When next he is in company, and a subject +occurs to tempt him into an expression of opinion, let him pause a +moment, and say to himself: 'Now, do I know anything about it—or if I +know something, do I know enough—to enable me to speak without fear +of being contradicted? Have I ever given it any serious reflection? Am +I sure that I have an opinion about it at all? Am I sure that I +entertain no prejudice on the point?' Were every one of us children of +British freedom to take these precautions, there would be more power +amongst us to pronounce wisely. There would be a more vigorous and +healthful public opinion, and the amenity, as well as instructiveness +of private society would be much increased.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="COOLING_THE_AIR_OF_ROOMS_IN_HOT_CLIMATES" id="COOLING_THE_AIR_OF_ROOMS_IN_HOT_CLIMATES"></a>COOLING THE AIR OF ROOMS IN HOT CLIMATES.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">In</span> our last number, allusion was made to a process for cooling the air +of apartments in hot climates, with a view to health and comfort. The +intolerable heat of the climate in India, during certain hours of the +day, is well known to be the cause of much bad health among European +settlers. By way of rendering the air at all endurable, the plan of +agitating it with punkahs, hung to the roofs of apartments, the +punkahs being moved by servants in attendance for the purpose, is +adopted. Another plan of communicating a sensation of coolness, is to +hang wet mats in the open windows. But by neither of these expedients +is the end in view satisfactorily gained. Both are nothing else than +make-shifts.</p> + +<p>The new process of cooling now to be described, is founded on a +scientific principle, certain and satisfactory in its operation, +provided it be reduced to practice in a simple manner. The discoverer +is Professor Piazzi Smyth, who has presented a minute account of it in +a paper in the <i>Practical Mechanic's Journal</i> for October 1850, and +also separately in a pamphlet. We invite public attention to this +curious but simple invention,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[pg 195]</a></span> of which we shall proceed to present a +few principles from the pamphlet just referred to.</p> + +<p>Mr Smyth first speaks of the uselessness of the punkah, and the danger +of the wet mats. 'The wet mats in the windows for the wind to blow +through, cannot be employed but when the air is dry as well as hot, +and even then are most unhealthy, for although the air may feel dry to +the skin, there is generally far more moisture in it than in our own +climate; but the height of the temperature increasing the capacity of +the air for moisture, makes that air at 80 degrees feel very dry, +which at 40 degrees would be very damp. Now, one of the reasons of the +lassitude felt in warm climates is, that the air expanding with the +heat, while the lungs remain of the same capacity, they must take in a +smaller quantity by <i>weight</i>, though the same by <i>measure</i>, of oxygen, +the supporter of life; but if, in addition to the air being rarefied, +it be also still further distended by the vapour of water being mixed +with it, it is evident that a certain number of cubic inches by +measure, or the lungs full, will contain a less weight of oxygen than +ever; so little, indeed, that life can barely be supported; and we +need not wonder at persons lying down almost powerless in the hot and +damp atmosphere, and gasping for breath. Hence we see that any method +of cooling the air for Indians, instead of adding moisture, should +rather take it out of the air, so as to make oxygen predominate as +much as possible in the combined draught of oxygen, azote, and a +certain quantity of the vapour of water, which will always be present; +and hardly any plan could be more pernicious than the favourite though +dreaded one by those who have watched its results—of the wet mats. +Cold air—that is, air in which the thermometer actually stands at a +low reading—by reason of its density, gives us oxygen, the food of +the lungs, in a compressed and concentrated form; and men can +accordingly do much work upon it. But air which is merely cold to the +feelings—air in which the thermometer stands high, but which merely +gives us one of the external sensations of coolness—on being made by +a punkah, or any other mere blowing machine, to move rapidly over our +skin—or on being charged with watery vapour, or on being contrasted +with previous excessive heat—such air must, nevertheless, be rarefied +to the full extent indicated by the mercurial thermometer, and give +us, therefore, our supply of vital oxygen in a very diluted form, and +of a meagre, unsupporting, and unsatisfying consistence.... The <i>sine +quâ non</i>, therefore, for healthy and robust life in tropical +countries, is air cold and dry—cold to the thermometer and dry to the +hygrometer; or, in other words, dense, and containing little else than +the necessary oxygen and azote, and this supplied to a room, fresh and +fresh, in a continual current.'</p> + +<p>He next goes on to describe the principle of his new plan of +cooling:—'The method by which I propose to accomplish this +consummation, so devoutly to be desired, is chiefly by taking +advantage of the well-known property of air to rise in temperature on +compression, and to fall on expansion. If air of any temperature, high +or low, be compressed with a certain force, the temperature will rise +above what it was before, in a degree proportioned to the compression. +If the air be allowed immediately to escape from under the pressure, +it will recover its original temperature, because the fall in heat, on +air expanding from a certain pressure, is equal to the rise on its +being compressed to the same; but if, <i>while the air is in its +compressed state, it be robbed of its acquired heat of compression</i>, +and then be allowed to escape, it will issue at a temperature as much +below the original one, as it rose above it on compression. Thus the +air, being at 90 degrees, will rise, if compressed to a certain +quantity, to 120 degrees; if it be kept in this compressed and +confined state until all the extra 30 degrees of heat have been +conveyed away by radiation and conduction, and the air be then allowed +to escape, it will be found, on issuing, to be of 60 degrees of +temperature. If a cooler be formed by a pipe under water, and air be +forced in under a given compression at one end, and be made to pass +along to the other, it may thereby, if the cooler be sufficiently +extensive, be robbed of all its heat of compression; and if the +apparatus is so arranged, as it easily may be, that at every stroke of +the pump forcing in air at one end of the pipe, an equivalent quantity +of the cooled compressed air escape from under a loaded valve at the +other, there will be an intermittent stream of cooled air produced +thereby, of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, in an atmosphere of 90 degrees, +which may be led away in a pipe to the room desired to be cooled.'</p> + +<p>The only difficulty to be encountered consists in the erection and +working of machinery. There can be little fear on this score. We have +no doubt that any London engine-maker would hit off the whole scheme +of an air-cooling machine in half an hour. What is wanted is a +forcing-pump wrought by a one horse or two bullock-power. This being +erected and wrought outside of a dwelling, the air will be forced into +a convolution of pipe passing through a tank of water, like the worm +of a still, and will issue by a check-valve at every stroke of the +piston into the apartments to be cooled. Properly arranged, and with a +suitable supply of water trickling through the tank, air at 90 degrees +will be reduced to 60 degrees or thereabouts, which is the temperature +of ordinary sitting-rooms in England. What, it may be asked, will be +the expense of such an apparatus for cooling the air of a +dwelling-house? We are informed that it will not be greater than that +usually paid for heating with fires in this country; and if so, the +expense cannot be considered a serious obstacle to the use of the +apparatus. In the case of barracks for soldiers, hospitals, and other +public establishments, the process will prove of such important +service, that the cost, even if greater than it is likely to be, +should present no obstacle to its application.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_CHURCH_OF_THE_CUP_OF_COLD_WATER" id="THE_CHURCH_OF_THE_CUP_OF_COLD_WATER"></a>THE CHURCH OF THE CUP OF COLD WATER.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">One</span> beautiful evening, in the year 1815, the parish priest of San +Pietro, a village a few miles distant from Sevilla, returned much +fatigued to his little cottage, where he found his aged housekeeper, +the Señora Margarita, watching for him. Notwithstanding that one is +well accustomed to the sight of poverty in Spain, it was impossible to +help being struck by the utter destitution which appeared in the house +of the good priest; the more so, as every imaginable contrivance had +been resorted to, to hide the nakedness of the walls, and the +shabbiness of the furniture. Margarita had prepared for her master's +supper a rather small dish of <i>olla-podriga</i>, which consisted, to say +the truth, of the remains of the dinner, seasoned and disguised with +great skill, and with the addition of some sauce, and a <i>name</i>. As she +placed the savoury dish upon the table, the priest said: 'We should +thank God for this good supper, Margarita; this olla-podriga makes +one's mouth water. My friend, you ought to be grateful for finding so +good a supper at the house of your host!' At the word host, Margarita +raised her eyes, and saw a stranger, who had followed her master. Her +countenance changed, and she looked annoyed. She glanced indignantly +first at the unknown, and then at the priest, who, looking down, said +in a low voice, and with the timidity of a child: 'What is enough for +two, is always enough for three; and surely you would not wish that I +should allow a Christian to die of hunger? He has not tasted food for +two days.'</p> + +<p>'A Christian! He is more like a brigand!' and Margarita left the room +murmuring loudly enough to be heard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the unwelcome guest had remained standing at the door. He +was a man of great height, half-dressed in rags, and covered with mud; +while his black hair, piercing eyes, and carbine, gave him an +appearance which, though hardly prepossessing, was certainly +interesting. 'Must I go?' said he.</p> + +<p>The priest replied with an emphatic gesture: 'Those whom I bring under +my roof are never driven forth, and are never unwelcome. Put down your +carbine. Let us say grace, and go to table.'</p> + +<p>'I never leave my carbine, for, as the Castilian proverb says, "Two +friends are one." My carbine is my best friend; and I always keep it +beside me. Although you allow me to come into your house, and do not +oblige me to leave it until I wish to do so, there are others who +would think nothing of hauling me out, and, perhaps, with my feet +foremost. Come—to your good health, mine host, and let us to supper.'</p> + +<p>The priest possessed an extremely good appetite, but the voracity of +the stranger soon obliged him to give up, for, not contented with +eating, or rather devouring, nearly the whole of the olla-podriga, the +guest finished a large loaf of bread, without leaving a crumb. While +he ate, he kept continually looking round with an expression of +inquietude: he started at the slightest sound; and once, when a +violent gust of wind made the door bang, he sprang to his feet, and +seized his carbine, with an air which shewed that, if necessary, he +would sell his life dearly. Discovering the cause of the alarm, he +reseated himself at table, and finished his repast.</p> + +<p>'Now,' said he, 'I have one thing more to ask. I have been wounded, +and for eight days my wound has not been dressed. Give me a few old +rags, and you shall be no longer burdened with my presence.'</p> + +<p>'I am in no haste for you to go,' replied the priest, whose guest, +notwithstanding his constant watchfulness, had conversed very +entertainingly. 'I know something of surgery, and will dress your +wound.'</p> + +<p>So saying, he took from a cupboard a case containing everything +necessary, and proceeded to do as he had said. The stranger had bled +profusely, a ball having passed through his thigh; and to have +travelled in this condition, and while suffering, too, from want of +food, shewed a strength which seemed hardly human.</p> + +<p>'You cannot possibly continue your journey to-day,' said the host. +'You must pass the night here. A little rest will get up your +strength, diminish the inflammation of your wound, and'——</p> + +<p>'I must go to-day, and immediately,' interrupted the stranger. 'There +are some who wait for me,' he added with a sigh—'and there are some, +too, who follow me.' And the momentary look of softness passed from +his features between the clauses of the sentence, and gave place to an +expression almost of ferocity. 'Now, is it finished? That is well. +See, I can walk as firmly as though I had never been wounded. Give me +some bread; pay yourself for your hospitality with this piece of gold, +and adieu.'</p> + +<p>The priest put back the gold with displeasure. 'I am not an +innkeeper,' said he; 'and I do not sell my hospitality.'</p> + +<p>'As you will, but pardon me; and now, farewell, my kind host.'</p> + +<p>So saying, he took the bread, which Margarita, at her master's +command, very unwillingly gave him, and soon his tall figure +disappeared among the thick foliage of a wood which surrounded the +house, or rather the cabin. An hour had scarcely passed, when +musket-shots were heard close by, and the unknown reappeared, deadly +pale, and bleeding from a deep wound near the heart.</p> + +<p>'Take these,' said he, giving some pieces of gold to his late host; +'they are for my children—near the stream—in the valley.'</p> + +<p>He fell, and the next moment several police-officers rushed into the +house. They hastily secured the unfortunate man, who attempted no +resistance. The priest entreated to be allowed to dress his wound, +which they permitted; but when this was done, they insisted on +carrying him away immediately. They would not even procure a carriage; +and when they were told of the danger of removing a man so severely +wounded, they merely said: 'What does it matter? If he recovers, it +will only be to receive sentence of death. He is the famous brigand, +José!'</p> + +<p>José thanked the intercessor with a look. He then asked for a little +water, and when the priest brought it to him, he said in a faint +voice: 'Remember!' The reply was merely a sign of intelligence. When +they were gone, notwithstanding all Margarita could say as to the +danger of going out at night, the priest crossed the wood, descended +into the valley, and soon found, beside the body of a woman, who had +doubtless been killed by a stray ball of the police, an infant, and a +little boy of about four years old, who was trying in vain to awaken +his mother. Imagine Margarita's amazement when the priest returned +with two children in his arms.</p> + +<p>'May all good saints defend us! What have you done, señor? We have +barely enough to live upon, and you bring two children! I suppose I +must beg from door to door, for you and for them. And, for mercy's +sake, who are these children? The sons of that brigand, gipsy, thief, +murderer, perhaps! I am sure they have never been baptised!' At this +moment the infant began to cry. 'And pray, Señor Clérigo, how do you +mean to feed that child? You know very well that we have no means of +paying a nurse. We must spoon-feed it, and nice nights that will give +me! It cannot be more than six months old, poor little creature,' she +added, as her master placed it in her arms. 'Fortunately, I have a +little milk here;' and forgetting her anger, she busied herself in +putting some milk on the fire, and then sat down beside it to warm the +infant, who seemed half-frozen. Her master watched her in silence, and +when at last he saw her kiss its little cheek, he turned away with a +quiet smile.</p> + +<p>When at length the little one had been hushed into a gentle slumber, +and when Margarita, with the assistance of her master's cloak, and +some of her own clothes, had made a bed for the elder boy, and placed +him in it, the good man told her how the children had been committed +to his care, and the promise he had made, though not in words, to +protect them.</p> + +<p>'That is very right and good, no doubt,' said Margarita; 'I only want +to know how we are all to live?' The priest opened his Bible, and read +aloud:</p> + +<p>'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of +cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward.'</p> + +<p>'Amen!' said Margarita.</p> + +<p>Twelve years passed by. The parish priest of San Pietro, who was now +more than seventy years old, was sitting in the sunshine at his door. +Near him, a boy of about twelve years old was reading aloud from the +Bible, looking occasionally towards a tall, fine-looking young man, +who was hard at work in a garden close by. Margarita, who was now +become blind, sat and listened. Suddenly, the sound of wheels was +heard, and the boy exclaimed: 'Oh! the beautiful carriage!' A splendid +carriage approached rapidly, and stopped before the door. A +richly-dressed servant approached, and asked for a cup of water for +his master.</p> + +<p>'Carlos,' said the priest to the younger boy, 'go, bring water to the +gentleman; and add some wine, if he will accept it. Go quickly!' At +this moment, the carriage-door opened, and a gentleman, apparently +about fifty years old, alighted.</p> + +<p>'Are these your nephews?' said he to the priest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>'They are more than that, señor; they are my children—the children of +my adoption.'</p> + +<p>'How is that?'</p> + +<p>'I will tell you, señor; for I am old and poor, and know but little of +the world, and am in much need of advice; for I know not what to do +with these two children.' He related the story we have just told. 'And +now, señor, what do you advise me to do?'</p> + +<p>'Apply to one of the nobles of the court, who must assign you a +pension of four thousand ducats.'</p> + +<p>'I asked you for advice, señor, and not for jest.'</p> + +<p>'And then, your church must be rebuilt. We will call it the Church of +the Cup of Cold Water. Here is the plan. See, this is to be the +vicarage; and here, divided by this paling'——</p> + +<p>'What does this mean? What would you say? And, surely, I remember that +voice, that face'——</p> + +<p>'I am Don José della Ribeira; and twelve years ago, I was the brigand +José. I escaped from prison; and—for the revolution made great +changes—am now powerful. My children'——</p> + +<p>He clasped them in his arms. And when at length he had embraced them a +hundred times, with tears, and smiles, and broken sentences; and when +all had in some degree recovered their composure, he took the hand of +the priest and said: 'Well, father, will you not accept the Church of +the Cup of Cold Water?' The old man, deeply affected, turned to +Margarita, and repeated:</p> + +<p>'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of +cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward.'</p> + +<p>'Amen!' replied the aged woman, her voice tremulous from emotion.</p> + +<p>A short time afterwards, Don José della Ribeira and his +two sons were present at the consecration of the church of +San-Pietro-del-Vaso-di-Aqua-Fria, one of the prettiest churches in the +neighbourhood of Sevilla.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="MUSIC-GRINDERS_OF_THE_METROPOLIS" id="MUSIC-GRINDERS_OF_THE_METROPOLIS"></a>MUSIC-GRINDERS OF THE METROPOLIS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">Perhaps</span> the pleasantest of all the out-door accessories of a London +life are the strains of fugitive music which one hears in the quiet +by-streets or suburban highways—strains born of the skill of some of +our wandering artists, who, with flute, violin, harp, or brazen tube +of various shape and designation, make the brick-walls of the busy +city responsive with the echoes of harmony. Many a time and oft have +we lingered entranced by the witchery of some street Orpheus, +forgetful, not merely of all the troubles of existence, but of +existence itself, until the strain had ceased, and silence aroused us +to the matter-of-fact world of business. One blind fiddler, we know +him well, with face upturned towards the sky, has stood a public +benefactor any day these twenty years, and we know not how much +longer, to receive the substantial homage of the music-loving million. +But that he is scarcely old enough, he might have been the identical +Oxford-Street Orpheus of Wordsworth:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'His station is there; and he works on the crowd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sways them with harmony merry and loud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Decidedly not—there is nothing to match it; and so thinks 'the +one-pennied boy' who spares him his one penny, and deems it well +bestowed. Then there are the harpers, with their smooth +French-horn-breathing and piccola-piping comrades, who at the soothing +hour of twilight affect the tranquil and retired paved courts or snug +enclosures far from the roar and rumble of chariot-wheels, where, +clustered round with lads and lasses released from the toils of the +day, they dispense romance and sentiment, and harmonious cadences, in +exchange for copper compliments and the well-merited applause of fit +audiences, though few. Again, there are the valorous brass-bands of +the young Germans, who blow such spirit-stirring appeals from their +travel-worn and battered tubes—to say nothing of the thousand +performers of solos and duets, who, wherever there is the chance of a +moment's hearing, are ready to attempt their seductions upon our ears +to the prejudice of our pockets. All these we must pass over with this +brief mention upon the present occasion; our business being with their +numerous antitheses and would-be rivals—the incarnate nuisances who +fill the air with discordant and fragmentary mutilations and +distortions of heaven-born melody, to the distraction of educated ears +and the perversion of the popular taste.</p> + +<p>'Music by handle,' as it has been facetiously termed, forms our +present subject. This kind of harmony, which is not too often +deserving of the name, still constitutes, notwithstanding the large +amount of indisputable talent which derives its support from the +gratuitous contributions of the public, by far the larger portion of +the peripatetic minstrelsy of the metropolis. It would appear that +these grinders of music, with some few exceptions which we shall +notice as we proceed, are distinguished from their praiseworthy +exemplars, the musicians, by one remarkable, and to them perhaps very +comfortable characteristic. Like the exquisite Charles Lamb—if his +curious confession was not a literary myth—they have ears, but no +ear, though they would hardly be brought to acknowledge the fact so +candidly as he did. They may be divided, so far as our observation +goes, into the following classes:—1. Hand-organists; 2. +Monkey-organists; 3. Handbarrow-organists; 4. Handcart-organists; 5. +Horse-and-cart-organists; 6. Blindbird-organists; 7. Piano-grinders; +8. Flageolet-organists and pianists; 9. Hurdy-gurdy players.</p> + +<p>1. The hand-organist is most frequently a Frenchman of the +departments, nearly always a foreigner. If his instrument be good for +anything, and he have a talent for forming a connection, he will be +found to have his regular rounds, and may be met with any hour in the +week at the same spot he occupied at that hour on the week previous. +But a man so circumstanced is at the head of the vagabond profession, +the major part of whom wander at their own sweet will wherever chance +may guide. The hand-organ which they lug about varies in value from +L.10 to L.150—at least, this last-named sum was the cost of a +first-rate instrument thirty years ago, such as were borne about by +the street-organists of Bath, Cheltenham, and the fashionable +watering-places, and the grinders of the West End of London at that +period, when musical talent was much less common than it is now. We +have seen a contract for repairs to one of these instruments, +including a new stop and new barrels, amounting to the liberal sum of +L.75: it belonged to a man who had grown so impudent in prosperity, as +to incur the penalty of seven years' banishment from the town in which +he turned his handle, for the offence of thrashing a young nobleman, +who stood between him and his auditors too near for his sense of +dignity. Since the invention of the metal reed, however, which, under +various modifications and combinations, supplies the sole utterance of +the harmonicon, celestina, seraphina, colophon, accordian, concertina, +&c. &c. and which does away with the necessity for pipes, the street +hand-organ has assumed a different and infinitely worse character. +Some of them yet remain what the old Puritans called 'boxes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[pg 198]</a></span> +whistles'—that is, they are all pipes; but many of them might with +equal propriety be called 'boxes of Jews-harps,' being all reeds, or +rather vibrating metal tongues—and more still are of a mixed +character, having pipes for the upper notes, and metal reeds for the +bass. The effect is a succession of sudden hoarse brays as an +accompaniment to a soft melody, suggesting the idea of a duet between +Titania and Bottom. But this is far from the worst of it. The +profession of hand-organist having of late years miserably declined, +being in fact at present the next grade above mendicancy, the element +of cheapness has, per force, been studied in the manufacture of the +instrument. The barrels of some are so villainously pricked that the +time is altogether broken, the ear is assailed with a minim in the +place of a quaver, and <i>vice versâ</i>—and occasionally, as a matter of +convenience, a bar is left out, or even one is repeated, in utter +disregard of suffering humanity. But what is worse still, these metal +reeds, which are the most untunable things in the whole range of +sound-producing material, are constantly, from contact with fog and +moisture, getting out of order; and howl dolorously as they will in +token of their ailments, their half-starved guardian, who will grind +half an hour for a penny, cannot afford to medicate their pains, even +if he is aware of them, which, judging from his placid composure +during the most infamous combination of discords, is very much to be +questioned.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>2. The monkey-organist is generally a native of Switzerland or the +Tyrol. He carries a worn-out, doctored, and flannel-swathed +instrument, under the weight of which, being but a youth, or very +rarely an adult, he staggers slowly along, with outstretched back and +bended knees. On the top of his old organ sits a monkey, or sometimes +a marmoset, to whose queer face and queerer tricks, he trusts for +compensating the defective quality of his music. He dresses his +shivering brute in a red jacket and a cloth cap; and, when he can, he +teaches him to grind the organ, to the music of which he will himself +dance wearily. He wears an everlasting smile upon his countenance, +indicative of humour, natural and not assumed for the occasion: and +though he invariably unites the profession of a beggar with that of +monkey-master and musician, he has evidently no faith in a melancholy +face, and does not think it absolutely necessary to make you +thoroughly miserable in order to excite your charity. He will leave +his monkey grinding away on a door-step, and follow you with a +grinning face for a hundred yards or more, singing in a kind of +recitative: 'Date qualche cosa, signer! per amor di Dio, eccellenza, +date qualche cosa!' If you comply with his request, his voluble thanks +are too rapid for your comprehension; and if you refuse, he laughs +merrily in your face as he turns away to rejoin his friend and +coadjutor. He is a favourite subject with the young artists about +town, especially if he is very good-looking, or, better still, +excessively ugly; and he picks up many a shilling for sitting, +standing, or sprawling on the ground, as a model in the studio. It +sometimes happens that he has no organ—his monkey being his only +stock in trade. When the monkey dies—and one sees by their melancholy +comicalities, and cautious and painful grimaces, that the poor brutes +are destined to a short time of it—he takes up with white mice, or, +lacking these, constructs a dancing-doll, which, with the aid of a +short plank with an upright at one end, to which is attached a cord +passing through the body of the doll, and fastened to his right leg, +he keeps constantly on the jig, to the music of a tuneless +tin-whistle, bought for a penny, and a very primitive parchment tabor, +manufactured by himself. These shifts he resorts to in the hope of +retaining his independence and personal freedom—failing to succeed in +which, he is driven, as a last resource, to the comfortless drudgery +of piano-grinding, which we shall have to notice in its turn.</p> + +<p>3. The handbarrow-organist is not uncommonly some lazy Irishman, if he +be not a sickly Savoyard, who has mounted his organ upon a handbarrow +of light and somewhat peculiar construction, for the sake of +facilitating the task of locomotion. From the nature of his equipage, +he is not given to grinding so perpetually as his heavily-burdened +brethren. He cannot of course grind, as they occasionally do, as he +travels along, so he pursues a different system of tactics. He walks +leisurely along the quiet ways, turning his eyes constantly to the +right and left, on the look-out for a promising opening. The sight of +a group of children at a parlour-window brings him into your front +garden, where he establishes his instrument with all the deliberation +of a proprietor of the premises. He is pretty sure to begin his +performance in the middle of a tune, with a hiccoughing kind of sound, +as though the pipes were gasping for breath. He puts a sudden period +to his questionable harmony the very instant he gets his penny, having +a notion, which is tolerably correct, that you pay him for his silence +and not for his sounds. In spite of his discordant gurglings and +squealings, he is welcomed by the nursery-maids and their infant +tribes of little sturdy rogues in petticoats, who flock eagerly round +him, and purchase the luxury of a half-penny grind, which they perform +<i>con amore</i>, seated on the top of his machine. If, when your front +garden is thus invaded, you insist upon his decamping without a fee, +he shews his estimate of the peace and quietness you desiderate by his +unwillingness to retire, which, however, he at length consents to do, +though not without a muttered remonstrance, delivered with the air of +an injured man. He generally contrives to house himself as night draws +on in some dingy taproom, appertaining to the lowest class of +Tom-and-Jerry shops, where, for a few coppers and 'a few beer,' he +will ring all the changes on his instrument twenty times over, until +he and his admiring auditors are ejected at midnight by the +police-fearing landlord.</p> + +<p>4. The handcart-organists are a race of a very different and more +enterprising character, and of much more lofty and varied pretensions. +They generally travel in firms of two, three, or even four partners, +drawing the cart by turns. Their equipage consists of an organ of very +complicated construction, containing, besides a deal of very +marvellous machinery within its entrails, a collection of bells, +drums, triangles, gongs, and cymbals, in addition to the usual +quantity of pipes and metal-reeds that go to make up the travelling +organ. The music they play is of a species which it is not very easy +to describe, as it is not once in a hundred times that a stranger can +detect the melody through the clash and clangor of the gross amount of +brass, steel, and bell-metal put in vibration by the machinery. This, +however, is of very little consequence, as it is not the music in +particular which forms the principal attraction: if it serve to call a +crowd together, that is sufficient for their purpose; and it is for +this reason, we imagine, that the effect of the whole is contrived to +resemble, as it very closely does, the hum and jangle of Greenwich +Fair when heard of an Easter Monday from the summit of the Observatory +Hill. No, the main attraction is essentially dramatic. In front of the +great chest of heterogeneous sounds there is a stage about five or six +feet in width, four in height, and perhaps eighteen inches or two feet +in depth. Upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[pg 199]</a></span> this are a variety of figures, about fourteen inches +long, gorgeously arrayed in crimson, purple, emerald-green, blue, and +orange draperies, and loaded with gold and tinsel, and sparkling +stones and spangles, all doubled in splendour by the reflection of a +mirror in the background. The figures, set in motion by the same +machinery which grinds the incomprehensible overture, perform a drama +equally incomprehensible. At the left-hand corner is Daniel in the +lion's den, the lion opening his mouth in six-eight time, and an angel +with outspread wings, but securely transfixed through the loins by a +revolving brass pivot, shutting it again to the same lively movement. +To the right of Daniel is the Grand Turk, seated in his divan, and +brandishing a dagger over a prostrate slave, who only ventures to rise +when the dagger is withdrawn. Next to him is Nebuchadnezzar on all +fours, eating painted grass, with a huge gold crown on his head, which +he bobs for a bite every other bar. In the right-hand corner is a sort +of cavern, the abode of some supernatural and mysterious being of the +fiend or vampire school, who gives an occasional fitful start, and +turns an ominous-looking green glass-eye out upon the spectators. All +these are in the background. In the front of the stage stands +Napoleon, wearing a long sword and cocked hat, and the conventional +gray smalls—his hand of course stuck in his breast. At his right are +Tippoo Saib and his sons, and at his left, Queen Victoria and Prince +Albert. After a score or so of bars, the measure of the music suddenly +alters—Daniel's guardian angel flies off—the prophet and the lion +lie down to sleep together—the Grand Turk sinks into the arms of the +death-doomed slave. Nebuchadnezzar falls prostrate on the ground, and +the fiend in the gloomy cavern whips suddenly round and glares with +his green eye, as if watching for a spring upon the front row of +actors, who have now taken up their cue and commenced their +performance. Napoleon, Tippoo Saib, and Queen Victoria, dance a +three-handed reel, to the admiration of Prince Albert and a group of +lords and ladies in waiting, who nod their heads approvingly—when +br'r'r! crack! bang! at a tremendous crash of gongs and grumbling of +bass-notes, the fiend in the corner rushes forth from his lair with a +portentous howl. Away, neck or nothing, flies Napoleon, and Tippoo +scampers after him, followed by the terrified attendants; but lo! at +the precise nick of time, Queen Victoria draws a long sword from +beneath her stays, while up jumps the devouring beast from the den of +the prophet, and like a true British lion—as he doubtless was all the +while—flies at the throat of the fiend, straight as an arrow to its +mark. Then follows a roar of applause from the discriminating +spectators, amidst which the curtain falls, and, with an extra +flourish of music, the collection of copper coin commences. This is +always a favourite spectacle with the multitude, who never bother +themselves about such trifles as anachronisms and unities; and the +only difficulty the managers have to overcome in order to insure a +remunerative exhibition, is that of finding a quiet locality, which +shall yet be sufficiently frequented to insure them an audience. There +are equipages of this description of very various pretensions and +perfection, but they all combine the allurements of music and the +drama in a greater or less degree.</p> + +<p>5. The horse-and-cart-organists are a race of enterprising +speculators, who, relying upon the popular penchant for music, have +undertaken to supply the demand by wholesale. It is impossible by mere +description to impart an adequate idea of the truly appalling and +tremendous character of their performances. Their machines are some of +them vast structures, which, mounted upon stout wheels, and drawn by a +couple of serviceable horses, might be mistaken for wild-beast vans. +They are crammed choke-full with every known mechanical contrivance +for the production of ear-stunning noises. Wherever they burst forth +into utterance, the whole parish is instantly admonished of their +whereabouts, and, with the natural instinct of John Bull for a row—no +matter how it originates—forth rushes the crowd to enjoy the +dissonance. The piercing notes of a score of shrill fifes, the squall +of as many clarions, the hoarse bray of a legion of tin trumpets, the +angry and fitful snort of a brigade of rugged bassoons, the +unintermitting rattle of a dozen or more deafening drums, the clang of +bells firing in peals, the boom of gongs, with the sepulchral roar of +some unknown contrivance for bass, so deep that you might almost count +the vibrations of each note—these are a few of the components of the +horse-and-cart-organ, the sum-total of which it is impossible to add +up. Compared to the vicinity of a first-rater in full blow, the inside +of a menagerie at feeding-time would be a paradise of tranquillity and +repose. The rattle and rumble of carts and carriages, which drive the +professors and possessors of milder music to the side-streets and +suburbs, sink into insignificance when these cataracts of uproar begin +to peal forth; and their owners would have no occasion to seek an +appropriate spot for their volcanic eruptions, were it not that the +police, watchful against accident, have warned them from the principal +thoroughfares, where serious consequences have already ensued through +the panic occasioned to horses from the continuous explosion of such +unwonted sounds. In fact, an honourable member of the Commons' House +of Parliament made a motion in the House, towards the close of the +last session, for the immediate prohibition of these monster +nuisances, and quoted several cases of alarm and danger to life of +which they had been the originating cause. These formidable erections +are for the most part the property and handiwork of the men who travel +with them, and who must levy a pretty heavy contribution on the public +to defray their expenses. They perform entire overtures and long +concerted pieces, being furnished with spiral barrels, and might +probably produce a tolerable effect at the distance of a mile or +so—at least we never heard one yet without incontinently wishing it a +mile off. By a piece of particular ill-fortune, we came one day upon +one undergoing the ceremony of tuning, on a piece of waste-ground at +the back of Coldbath Prison. The deplorable wail of those tortured +pipes and reeds, and the short savage grunt of the bass mystery, +haunted us, a perpetual day-and-night-mare, for a month. We could not +help noticing, however, that the jauntily-dressed fellow, whose +fingers were covered with showy rings, and ears hung with long drops, +who performed the operation, managed it with consummate skill, and +with an ear for that sort of music most marvellously discriminating.</p> + +<p>6. Blind bird-organists. Though most blind persons either naturally +possess or soon acquire an ear for music, there are yet numbers who, +from the want of it or from some other cause, never make any +proficiency as performers on an instrument. Blindness, too, is often +accompanied with some other disability, which disqualifies its victims +for learning such trades as they might otherwise be taught. Hence +many, rather than remain in the workhouse, take to grinding music in +the streets. Here we are struck with one remarkable fact: the +Irishman, the Frenchman, the Italian, or the Savoyard, at least so +soon as he is a man, and able to lug it about, is provided with an +instrument with which he can make a noise in the world, and prefer his +clamorous claim for a recompense; while the poor blind Englishman has +nothing but a diminutive box of dilapidated whistles, which you may +pass fifty times without hearing it, let him grind as hard as he will. +It is generally nothing more than an old worn-out bird-organ, in all +likelihood charitably bestowed by some compassionate Poll +Sweedlepipes, who has already used it up in the education of his +bull-finches. The reason, we opine, must be that the major part, if +not the whole, of the peripatetic instruments of the metropolis are +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[pg 200]</a></span> property of speculators, who let them out on hire, and that the +blind man, not being considered an eligible customer, is precluded +from the advantage of their use. However this may be, the poor blind +grinder is almost invariably found furnished as we have described him, +jammed up in some cranny or corner in a third-rate locality, where, +having opened or taken off the top of his box, that the curious +spectator may behold the mystery of his too quiet music—the revolving +barrel, the sobbing bellows, and the twelve leaden and ten wooden +pipes—he turns his monotonous handle throughout the live-long day, in +the all but vain appeal for the commiseration of his fellows. This is +really a melancholy spectacle, and one which we would gladly miss +altogether in our casual rounds.</p> + +<p>7. The piano-grinders are by far the most numerous of the +handle-turning fraternity. The instrument they carry about with them +is familiar to the dwellers in most of the towns in England. It is a +miniature cabinet-piano, without the keys or finger-board, and is +played by similar mechanical means to that which gives utterance to +the hand-organ; but of course it requires no bellows. There is one +thing to be said in favour of these instruments—they do not make much +noise, and consequently are no very great nuisance individually. The +worst thing against them is the fact, that they are never in tune, and +therefore never worth the hearing. After grinding for twelve or +fourteen hours a day for four or five years, they become perfect +abominations; and luckless is the fate of the poor little stranger +condemned to perpetual companionship with a villainous machine, whose +every tone is the cause of offence to those whose charity he must +awaken into exercise, or go without a meal. These instruments are +known to be the property of certain extensive proprietors in the city, +some of whom have hundreds of them grinding daily in every quarter of +the town. Some few are let out on hire—the best at a shilling a day; +the old and worn-out ones as low as two or three pence; but the great +majority of them are ground by young Italians shipped to this country +for the especial purpose by the owners of the instruments. These +descendants of the ancient Romans figure in Britain in a very +different plight from that of their renowned ancestors. They may be +encountered in troops sallying forth from the filthy purlieus of +Leather Lane, at about nine or ten in the morning, each with his +awkward burden strapped to his back, and supporting his steps with a +stout staff, which also serves to support the instrument when playing. +Each one has his appointed beat, and he is bound to bring home a +certain prescribed sum to entitle him to a share in the hot supper +prepared for the evening meal. We have more than once, when startled +by the sound of the everlasting piano within an hour of midnight, +questioned the belated grinder, and invariably received for answer, +that he had not yet been able to collect the sum required of him. +Still there can be no doubt that some of them contrive to save money; +inasmuch as we occasionally see an active fellow set up on his own +account, and furnished with an instrument immensely superior to those +of his less prosperous compatriots. So great is the number of these +wandering Italian pianists, that their condition has attracted the +attention of their more wealthy countrymen, who, in conjunction with a +party of benevolent English gentlemen, have set on foot an association +for the express purpose of imparting instruction to poor Italians of +all grades, of whom the vagabond musicians form the largest section.</p> + +<p>It is easy to recognise the rule adopted in the distribution of the +instruments among the grinders: the stoutest fellow, or he who can +take the best care of it, gets the best piano; while the shattered and +rickety machine goes to the urchin of ten or twelve, who can scarcely +drag it a hundred yards without resting. It is to be supposed that the +instruments are all rated according to their quality. There is at this +moment wandering about the streets of London a singular and pitiable +object, whose wretched lot must be known to hundreds of thousands, and +who affords in his own person good evidence of the strictness of the +rule above alluded to, as well as of the rigour with which the trade +is carried on. We refer to a ragged, shirtless, and harmlessly insane +Italian lad, who, under the guardianship of one of the piano-mongers, +is driven forth daily into the streets, carrying a blackened and +gutted, old piano-case, in which two strings only of the original +scale remain unbroken. The poor unwashed innocent transports himself +as quickly as possible to the genteelest neighbourhood he can find, +and with all the enthusiasm of a Jullien, commences his monotonous +grind. Three turns of the handle, and the all but defunct instrument +ejaculates 'tink;' six more inaudible turns, and then the responding +string answers 'tank.' 'Tink—tank' is the sum-total of his +performance, to any defects in which he is as insensible as a blind +man is to colour. As a matter of course, he gets ill-treated, mobbed, +pushed about, and upset by the blackguard scamps about town; and were +it not for the police, who have rescued him times without number from +the hands of his persecutors, he would long ere now have been reduced +to as complete a ruin as his instrument. In one respect, he is indeed +already worse off than the dilapidated piano: he is dumb as well as +silly, and can only utter one sound—a cry of alarm of singular +intensity; this cry forms the climax of pleasure to the wretches who +dog his steps, and this, unmoved by his silent tears and woful looks, +they goad him to shriek forth for their express gratification. We have +stumbled upon him at near eleven at night, grinding away with all his +might in a storm of wind and rain, perfectly unconscious of either, +and evidently delighted at his unusual freedom from interruption.</p> + +<p>8. Flageolet-organists and pianists. It is a pleasure to award praise +where praise is due, and it may be accorded to this class of grinders, +who are, to our minds, the elite of the profession. We stated above +that some of the piano-grinders contrive, notwithstanding their +difficult position, to save money and set up for themselves. It is +inevitable that the faculty of music must be innate with some of these +wandering pianists, and it is but natural that these should succeed +the best, and be the first to improve their condition. The instrument +which combines a flageolet-stop with a piano is generally found in the +possession of young fellows who, by dint of a persevering and savage +economy, have saved sufficient funds to procure it. Indeed, in common +hands, it would be of less use than the commonest instrument, because +it requires frequent—more than daily—tuning, and would therefore be +of no advantage to a man with no ear. Unless the strings were in +strict unison with the pipes, the discordance would be unbearable, and +as this in the open air can hardly be the case for many hours +together, they have to be rectified many times in the course of a +week. As might be reasonably supposed, these instruments are +comparatively few. When set to slow melodies, the flageolet taking the +air, and the piano a well-arranged accompaniment, the effect is really +charming, and, there is little reason to doubt, is found as profitable +to the producer as it is pleasing to the hearer. They are to be met +with chiefly at the west end of the town, and on summer evenings +beneath the lawyers' windows in the neighbourhood of some of the Inns +of Court.</p> + +<p>9. The hurdy-gurdy player. We have placed this genius last, because, +though essentially a most horrid grinder, he, too, is in some sort a +performer. In London, there may be said to be two classes of +them—little hopping, skipping, jumping, reeling Savoyard or Swiss +urchins, who dance and sing, and grind and play, doing, like Cæsar, +four things at once, and whom you expect every moment to see rolling +on the pavement, but who continue, like so many kittens, to pitch on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[pg 201]</a></span> +their feet at last, notwithstanding all their antics—and men with +sallow complexions, large dark eyes, and silver ear-rings, who stand +erect and tranquil, and confer a dignity, not to say a grace, even +upon the performance of the hurdy-gurdy. The boys for the most part do +not play any regular tune, having but few keys to their instruments, +often not even a complete octave. The better instruments of the adult +performers have a scale of an octave and a half, and sometimes two +octaves, and they perform melodies and even harmonies with something +like precision, and with an effect which, to give it its due praise, +supplies a very tolerable caricature of the Scotch bagpipes. These +gentry are not much in favour either with the genuine lovers of music +or the lovers of quiet, and they know the fact perfectly well. They +hang about the crowded haunts of the common people, and find their +harvest in a vulgar jollification, or an extempore 'hop' at the door +of a suburban public-house on a summer night. There are a few +old-women performers on this hybrid machine, one of whom is familiar +to the public through the dissemination of her <i>vera effigies</i> in a +contemporary print.</p> + +<p>The above are all the grinders which observation has enabled us to +identify as capable of classification. The reader may, if he likes, +suppose them to be the metropolitan representatives of the nine +Muses—and that, in fact, in some sort they are, seeing that they are +the embodiments to a certain extent of the musical tastes of a section +at least of the inhabitants of London; though, if we are asked which +is Melpomene? which is Thalia? &c. &c. we must adopt the reply of the +showman to the child who asked which was the lion and which was the +dog, and received for answer: 'Whichever you like, my little dear.'</p> + +<p>With respect to all these grinders, one thing is remarkable: they are +all, with the exception of a small savour of Irishmen, foreigners. +Scarcely one Englishman, not one Scot, will be found among the whole +tribe; and this fact is as welcome to us as it is singular, because it +speaks volumes in favour of the national propensity, of which we have +reason to be proud, to be ever doing something, producing something, +applying labour to its legitimate purpose, and not turning another +man's handle to grind the wind. Yet there is, alas! a scattered and +characteristic tribe of vagabond English music-grinders, and to these +we must turn a moment's attention ere we finally close the list. +We must call them, for we know no more appropriate name, +cripple-grinders. It is impossible to carry one's explorations very +far through the various districts of London without coming upon one or +more samples of this unfortunate tribe. Commerce maims and mutilates +her victims as effectually as war, though not in equal numbers; and +men and lads without arms, or without legs, or without either, and men +doubled up and distorted, and blasted blind and hideous with +gunpowder, who have yet had the misfortune to escape death, are left +without limbs or eyesight, often with shattered intellects, to fight +the battle of life, at fearful odds. Had they been reduced to a like +miserable condition while engaged in killing their fellow-creatures on +the field of battle or on the deck of carnage, a grateful country +would have housed them in a palace, and abundantly supplied their +every want; but they were merely employed in procuring the necessaries +of life for their fellows in the mine or the factory, and as nobody +owes them any gratitude for that, they must do what they can. And +behold what they do: they descend, being fit for nothing else, to the +level of the foreign music-grinder, and, mounted on a kind of +bed-carriage, are drawn about the streets of London by their wives or +children; being furnished with a blatant hand-organ of last century's +manufacture, whose ear-torturing growl draws the attention of the +public to their woful plight, they extort that charity which would +else fail to find them out. If there be something gratifying in the +fact, that this is the only class of Britons who follow such an +inglorious profession, there is nothing very flattering in the +consideration, that even these are compelled to it by inexorable +necessity.</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> Among some of the continental nations, Justice, though +blind, is not supposed to be deaf; she has, on the contrary, a musical +ear, and compels the various grinders of harmony to keep their +instruments in tune, under the penalty of a heavy fine. In some of the +German cities, the police have summary jurisdiction in offences +musical, and are empowered to demand a certificate, with which every +grinder is bound to be furnished, shewing the date of the last tuning +of his instrument. If he perpetrate false harmony, and his certificate +be run out, he is mulcted in the fine. Such a by-law would be a real +bonus in London.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="A_VOICE_FROM_THE_DIGGINGS" id="A_VOICE_FROM_THE_DIGGINGS"></a>A VOICE FROM THE DIGGINGS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> voices that have come from the diggings in California and +Australia have hitherto been so loud and so many, that they have +served only to confuse. We have the image before our fancy of a vast +crowd of human beings hastening over seas and deserts towards certain +geographical points, where they meet, struggle, fix. We see them +picking up lumps of gold from the surface, or digging them out of the +earth, or collecting the glittering dust by sifting and washing; and +then we hear of vast torrents of the precious metal finding their way +into Europe, threatening to swamp us all with absolute wealth, and +confound and travesty the whole monetary transactions of the world. +What we don't see, is the gold itself. We should like, if it were only +out of curiosity, to feel a handful of it in our pocket: but we grope +in vain. A sovereign costs twenty shillings, as before; and twenty +shillings are as hard to come at as ever. Nevertheless, we believe in +the unseen presence of that slave-genius, who lends himself, with a +sickly smile, to the service of mankind, and buys when we think he is +sold! We have faith in bills of lading, and accept without question +any amount that is reported to lie dormant in the reservoir of the +Bank of England: only we wonder in private whether the importations of +the precious metal are likely to increase permanently in greater +proportion than the population in this quarter of the globe, and the +spread of taste, comfort, and luxury, calling every day new arts into +existence, perfecting old ones, and distributing wealth throughout the +constantly widening circle of talent and industry.</p> + +<p>But our present business is with the diggings and the diggers. We have +often wished we could interrogate one of those unquiet spirits in the +manner of Macbeth—'What is't ye do?' How do you manage? By what signs +do you know a locality that is likely to repay your pains? What are +your instruments, your machinery? What do you conceive to be the +prospects of your singular trade? And, in fact, our curiosity is at +this moment to a certain extent gratified: a Voice has been wafted +across the ocean to our private ear, and, undisturbed by the thousand +other tongues of the diggings, we can listen to an account, distinct +so far as it goes, of the whole process of gold-hunting. The voice +emanates from Mr S. Rutter, of Sydney, whose experience has lain both +in the Californian and Australian mines, and we propose putting +together, in as intelligible a way as we can, the rough hints with +which we have been favoured.</p> + +<p>Mr Rutter, on the 24th of May last, left Sydney for the Ophir +diggings, with a party, including himself, of four individuals. A +sleeping partner remained behind, whose duty it was to furnish the +means of conveyance for the first trip; but the four travellers +entered with each other into a more precise agreement, the chief +articles of which we give, as being common in such adventures:—</p> + +<p>I. We solemnly agree to stand by each other in all circumstances.</p> + +<p>II. Each man is to come provided with firearms.</p> + +<p>III. The capital is to be contributed equally, or credit given, as may +be agreed to by the majority.</p> + +<p>IV. The profit or loss to be equally divided.</p> + +<p>V. In the event of death or disablement occurring to any of the party, +his share of the stock and profits is to be immediately handed over to +his friends.</p> + +<p>On this paction being signed, the party set forth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[pg 202]</a></span> provided with +L.100 worth of goods, a cart and a team of horses, and reached +Paramatta, a distance of eighteen miles, the first night, although +they were obliged to send back one of the horses, which had proved to +be useless. Here Mr Rutter slept in a bed for the last time during +four months; and the next day, having purchased another horse, and +sold some of their goods to lighten the wagon, they set forth again +towards evening. The road was nothing more than a dray-track, to which +the horses were unequal; and after proceeding a few miles, they were +detained at the village of Prospect for a week, till one of the +partners had returned to Sydney, and brought back a pair of +bush-horses and a new cart. As they proceeded the next day, they found +the track over which they travelled become more and more populous; +till, on crossing the Macquarrie, they encamped in the midst of +thirteen teams of cattle and their thirteen companies, all bound upon +the same errand as themselves.</p> + +<p>On the 12th of June, in the dusk of the evening, they reached the +summit of a hill overlooking their destination. The Summerhill Creek +lay before them, with the camp-fires of fifty or sixty huts; and as +they descended into the midst, the inhabitants of this village of the +desert were returning from work with laughter and rude merriment. +After pitching their camp, and taking some refreshment, they proceeded +anxiously to inquire the news; and that night they turned in with no +very bright anticipations, after learning that the creek was high and +goods low, the weather alternating between rain and frost, the mines +overcrowded, and superfluous hands deserting them fast. They struggled +for awhile against these evil auguries; they even contrived, with +great labour, to pick up an ounce or two of gold; but at length, +losing heart, the party broke up on the 23d, and all went home but our +adventurer.</p> + +<p>His geological and mechanical knowledge enabled him to obtain a +partnership with another band of gold-hunters then at work; and after +spending some days in <i>prospecting</i> on account of the new concern, he +found 'a chink he liked the look of,' which appeared to have been +partially worked. Licences were accordingly taken out, the +commissioner being on the spot, and forty-five feet of frontage to the +creek were marked off. As soon as the river became a little lower, +they began in earnest to dig a race for turning the course of the +water. Their pump was made and fixed ready to drain; a dam was +emptied; six ounces of gold were obtained as an earnest of what they +might expect; and then it began to rain, and the creek to roar, and +the whole of their machinery was swept away.</p> + +<p>Here was a new mishap: but these things will happen in the diggings; +and so our adventurers, agreeing to pay the commissioner a monthly +licence for their ground, intending to return in the dry weather to +work it, removed bag and baggage to another part of the river. Here +they dug away, but it appears with no tempting success; and they took +care to return to the commissioner in time, as they thought, to +implement their monthly bargain. On tendering the money for their +licence, however, they discovered that they were just half an hour too +late, and that the functionary had disposed of their forty-five feet +to another bidder. What to do now? They fell in with a man, an old +friend of Mr Rutter, just setting off on a journey of sixty-two miles +to the north, where he told them a piece of gold had been found +weighing 106 lbs. This invaluable man they instantly took into +partnership, and purchasing fresh horses, they struck their camp, and +followed their new companion across the country, in search of a place +called the Devil's Hole, near the World's End. It is no wonder they +lost their way. As there was no such thing as a road, they were +obliged to transport their goods on the horses' backs; and the +interesting nature of their journey may be guessed at from the fact, +that they had to cross a creek with steep banks sixteen times in the +course of five miles.</p> + +<p>They at length reached the Louisa Diggings, near those quartz-ridges +where, in fact, a 106 lb. lump of gold had been found. They encamped +in the dark; and getting up betimes the next morning, looked eagerly +out on this land of promise. It was a dull, dreary morning, and a +heavy continuous rain plashed upon the earth. About 200 persons were +taking the air in this watery atmosphere, their dress and movements +corresponding well with the aspect of the hour. Some were covered with +an old sack, some with a blanket, some with a dripping cloak, but all +glided slowly about in the rain, with a stick in their hands, and +their eyes fixed upon the ground. These phantoms were gold-hunters; +and the silent company was immediately joined by our adventurers, who +glided and poked like the rest. The ground was new, and during two +days gold was obtained in this way, from a particle the size of a +pin's head to a lump of nearly an ounce. When the surface was +exhausted, digging commenced; but the soil was too tough for the +common cradle, and although rich in gold, it would not repay the +trouble of washing. Upon this, the company broke up, each pursuing his +own way; and our adventurer and another agreed to go down the country +together to Maitland, prospecting on the way.</p> + +<p>The place where the large mass of gold was found is an intersection +between two quartz-ridges, rising from a high table-land in the midst +of a congeries of mountains, offshoots from the range that extends +from Wilson's Point, on the south, to Cape York, on the north. The +clay soil covers many acres below and around the ridges, and wherever +it was prospected by our adventurer, gold was found. On the 12th of +September, he reached Maitland; and here he found a letter awaiting +him, which determined him to choose a new hunting-ground. Some years +before, it seems, a man he knew, who was at that time a shepherd in +the Wellington District, while crossing the country on his master's +business, lost his way in the gullies, and did not find it again for +two days. While sitting down, in his dilemma, on a quartz-rock, he +observed something glittering beside him, and breaking off with his +tomahawk a piece of the stone, he carried it home with him as a +curiosity. At home it lay for years, till the reported discoveries of +gold induced him to offer it for sale to a goldsmith in Sydney. The +result was, that he connected himself with a party of adventurers, and +they all set forth for the place where he had rested among the +gullies. His companions proved treacherous; and when they had come +sufficiently near to be able, as they thought, to find the spot +without his assistance, they turned him adrift. They sought the golden +rock for three days—but in vain; and he went back to Sydney, to +invite Mr Rutter to accompany him. Here ends our narrative for the +present; and a most instructive one it is. The search for gold, our +informant tells us plainly, is a mere lottery, its results depending +almost wholly upon chance. Plenty as the metal is, it frequently costs +twenty shillings the sovereign's worth; and, in short, we are at that +point of transition when the mania is dying away, and the science has +not begun. When capital and skill are brought to bear upon the process +of mining in Australia, it will become a regular, though by no means a +miraculously profitable business; and even at present, steady +labouring-men may spread themselves over thousands of miles of the +auriferous creeks, if they will be satisfied with a profit of seven or +eight shillings a day.</p> + +<p>According to his experience, the place to look for gold is in the +neighbourhood of distinct traces of volcanic action, or in small +streams coming direct from hills of volcanic formation, or rivers fed +by these streams. An abundance of quartz (commonly called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[pg 203]</a></span> spar) is +universally reckoned an indication of the presence of gold; and if +trap-rock is found cropping up amid this quartz, and perforated with +streaks of it, so much the better. Sometimes the solid quartz itself +is pounded, and gold extracted by the aid of quicksilver. When the +gold is found in rivers, or on their banks, prediction is vain: +nothing will do but the actual trial by the wash-pan. But where there +is a bar or sand-bank, the richest deposit will always be on the side +of the bank presented to the descending stream. The metal in such +digging is almost invariably found in small spangles, that appear to +have been granular particles crushed or rolled flat by some enormous +pressure. In California, these spangles were the beginning of the +gold-finding. When the streams and their banks were well searched, the +crowds of adventurers tried, in desperation, what they could do by +digging deep holes in the plains; and there the metal was found in +such different forms as to indicate quite a different process of +deposition. Some of these holes were productive—although it was +severe labour to dig fifteen or eighteen feet through a hard soil +merely as an experiment; and in the course of time the plains were +covered with tents. The influx of adventurers continued; and the old +diggers, dissatisfied with gains that seemed to the new prodigious, +retired further and further back, and began to grope in the terraces +on the sides of volcanic hills, and among the detritus of extinct +craters. Here the harvest was rich, and as the crowning effort of the +gold-passion, unassisted by machinery, they actually in some cases cut +away the sides of the hills! 'My own impression is,' concludes our +informant on this subject, 'that, both in California and Australia, +the chances of individual enterprise, and even of small companies, are +decreasing rapidly; but that when the mines so wrought have ceased to +pay, capital and machinery, directed by science, will receive +profitable employment for ages to come.'</p> + +<p>The wash-pan we have mentioned may be of tin, if not required to be +used with quicksilver, otherwise of copper or wood; but of whatever +material made, it should be some 15 inches in diameter at the top, 10 +or 11 at the bottom, and 5, or 5½ inches deep. The manner of using +this is learned only by practice and observation, and consists in a +peculiar motion, by which the heavier substances sink to the bottom +and remain there, while the soluble and lighter parts are washed out. +The principal use of the wash-pan is in rewashing the partially washed +'stuff' taken from the rocker, and in prospecting to ascertain by +trial the value of a new place.</p> + +<p>This rocker, or cradle, may be made of half-inch softwood, and +consists of a trough 10 inches deep, 18 inches broad, and 4 feet long, +closed at the broad end, and open at the other; with a transverse bar +at the upper part, two feet from the broad end, to receive the tray. +This machine is placed on rockers, like a cradle, and deposited so +near the water that, when at work, the man who rocks with his left +hand may be able to reach the water with a small tin baler, provided +with a wooden handle two feet long. A bucketful of the earth to be +washed is thrown into the tray, and the person who is to rock the +cradle taking a balerful of water, throws it uniformly on the mass in +the tray, and keeps rocking and washing till the gold becomes obvious. +These are the simpler implements of gold-hunting; and provided with +them, the little company of adventurers pitch their tent and continue +to dig, till they come to earth they think will pay for washing. The +next morning, they get up perhaps at daylight, for the sake of the +coolness of the hour, and pass through the sieve ten or fifteen +buckets before breakfast. After breakfast, all hands resume work till +about twelve o'clock, when they dine, then rest through the heat of +the day till three o'clock, and go on again till dark. They usually +divide the work as follows: one in the hole digs, fills the bucket +with earth, and, if necessary, bales the water out of the hole; +another takes the bucket and empties it into the tray of the machine; +while a third rocks, supplies the machine with water, and empties the +tray of the large stones. This, it will be seen, is no child's play: +your gold-hunter is no idle wanderer, but a hard-working man, +subjected to a thousand discomforts unknown in civilised life.</p> + +<p>The quicksilver cradle is a more complicated and expensive machine, +requiring six men instead of three to work it. It is understood, +however, to save at least 20 per cent. of the metal, and indeed to be +indispensable in some places in California, where the gold is in too +fine particles to be detected by the common rocker. Quicksilver has so +strong an affinity for gold, that the minutest particle of the latter +having once touched, it is deprived of the possibility of escape; and +when the process of washing has been completely gone through, the +whole mass of gold particles will be found bound together by the +quicksilver into a compact lump, in size and shape often resembling an +egg. The gold is thus obtained in the form of an amalgam; but the +quicksilver is easily evaporated, if its loss be of no consequence, or +separated without loss by a more scientific process.</p> + +<p>We have more than once used the word <i>prospecting</i>, which, we believe, +is peculiar to this kind of mining. The deposits of gold are so +capricious, that the adventurers, in order to lose as little time as +possible in removing from place to place, detach one of their number +on the hunt for a mine—and this is called prospecting. He sets out +with a few provisions, a rifle, a pick and shovel, at all events, with +a pan and large knife; and on reaching some hopeful-looking locality, +he makes experiments on the soil by washing. The considerations that +determine his calling the company to the spot are of course influenced +by the circumstance of their having a common or a quicksilver cradle. +He calculates the average value of the gold he finds in several +panfuls of the soil at different depths; and he takes into account the +distance it has to be carried for washing, the means of transit there +exist, and how far off is the nearest store. The prospector, +therefore, is a very important member of the concern, and in many +cases the success of the adventure depends upon his experience and +sagacity.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_HISTORY_OF_JANE_A_POOLE" id="THE_HISTORY_OF_JANE_A_POOLE"></a>THE HISTORY OF JANE A POOLE.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">In</span> the latter part of the fourteenth century, an incident occurred in +the family of the Earl of Suffolk, which affords a curious +illustration of old manners in England. We shall follow the account of +the circumstance, given in a manuscript in the British Museum.</p> + +<p>Sir Michel Poole, second Earl of Suffolk, had several sons and +daughters. First was Mighell, son and heir; then William, second son; +and afterwards ten additional olive branches, of diverse names and +both sexes—all of whom, however, died, and went down unmarried to the +cold tomb. Some fell off like nipped blossoms in their infancy; +convents and wars absorbed the rest, till only the eldest two were +left of all that numerous family to perpetuate the name of Poole, and +raise the fortunes of the race. In due course of time, Sir Mighell +married Elizabeth, daughter of the right noble knight, Thomas Duke of +Norfolk; and these together had two children, Jane and Katharine, but, +alas! no son. Years passed on, and the hope of an heir was at an end; +but before that hope was quite laid aside, the tragedy of the house +began.</p> + +<p>Jane, as yet heiress and darling, a round, bright, wilful cherub, +beautiful and loving, but mighty in her passionate force, and +indomitable in her infant will, beyond all power of control—the one +most cared for,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[pg 204]</a></span> and on whom was anchored such a rich argosy of hopes +and first fond love—was one day given into the safe keeping of Maud, +a young serving-girl, a rough, untutored peasant-girl, who was one of +the underwomen to the bower-maidens. The king was coming to the castle +that night, and every female finger that could work was employed on +the last stitches of a dainty tapestry-bed, which was to receive His +Majesty as became his lordly dignity. Even the mother's care must give +way to the housewife's duty; even love must yield to loyalty.</p> + +<p>Left alone in an upper apartment with her young charge, Maud became +weary of confinement, and resolved at all hazards to descend to the +great hall, and have her share of the general amusement. Down, +accordingly, she went. Jane, of course, accompanied her, and, contrary +to orders, was allowed to romp about at pleasure. The day was cold, +and the fire burned brightly in the open hearth. Nearer and nearer the +little one crept to the blazing logs, watching the sparks fly up in a +golden shower when the crackling masses fell to the ground, or when +some rough soldier struck them with his mailed hand. No one looked to +her while she played by the open hearth, and tried to seize the vivid +sparks; once only, a trooper caught her roughly back; but again she +stole towards the great blazing logs, and this time she was less +fortunate. Suddenly, a cry was heard. Jane's clothes were in flames. +Maud extinguished them as she best could. She crushed the burning with +her hands in such haste as she might make; but, alas! to what a wreck +had the fire reduced the child! Her long fair hair was withered to its +roots; her pretty eyes were closed, and the curling lashes scorched to +the skin; her pure neck was blackened and blistered; and, a mass of +pain and sore, she lay like a dead thing, but for the wailing moans +which shewed her sad title yet to a ruined existence. Alas for her +that she did not die! Wo, that life was so strong in her now, when, +blemished and disfigured for ever, she might not hold its honours or +taste its joys!—now, when she must endure a worse thing than death +for the sake of her family name! 'Therefore,' says the chronicle, 'she +was in a manner loathed of her parents, and kept forth secretly from +the common knowledge of the people.'</p> + +<p>'The house of Poole must have no charred mummy for its heiress,' said +old Dame Katharine; and Sir Mighell and his lady bowed their heads and +acquiesced.</p> + +<p>It was agreed, then, that she should be sent to a house of 'close +nuns,' to be made a woman of religion, and so kept out of the sight of +all men's eyes. With this view, she was brought up; taught nothing +else; suffered to hope for nothing else; suffered to speak of nothing +else. But they could not bind her thoughts; and by a strange +perversity of will, these went always to the open fields and the +unfettered limb, to the vague picturing of freedom, and the dreamy +forecast of love. Yet she kept her peace; not daring to tell her mind +to any, and nourishing all the more strongly, because in silence, the +characteristics which destroyed the charm of a conventual life. When +she came to the years of discretion, she was to be professed; but, in +accordance with an old custom, before her profession she required to +enter the world for a season, that her 'vocation' might be judged of, +whether it were true or not, or simply the effect of education on the +one hand, and of ignorance on the other; and thus, when she was +fifteen years of age, she was dismissed to her father's house for the +space of six months' nominal trial, after which time she must return +to the convent for ever.</p> + +<p>Now, Dame Katharine a Poole, Jane's paternal grandmother, was a +fierce, proud old woman, whose heart was set on the creation of her +son's house, and whose very virtue was her family pride. When she +heard of Jane's return to the outer world of men, she hastily rode +over to see this ugly, despised thing, and to take her from her +father's castle to the grim quiet of her own dungeon-like home, if so +be that she was as unlovely as report had spoken her. They met; and +for a moment the proud old dame was struck as by death. The seamed and +scarred face, the closed eyes—one perfectly sightless, the other +well-nigh so—the burnt and withered hair growing in long, ragged +patches only, the awkward gait and downcast look; all were like +daggers in Dame Katharine's heart; and 'she rebuked her greatly, +seeing that she was too loathly for any gentleman who was equal to her +in birth.'</p> + +<p>Poor Jane bore all these coarse reproaches with much outward meekness; +but the spirit which they woke up in her was little interpreted by the +drooping head and tearful eyes. A fiery demon, breathing rage and +vowing revenge, took such meek-seeming as this, and blinded the old +grandam to the mischief she was working, until it was too late to +repair it. Dame Katharine took the girl home; Sir Mighell and his wife +consenting in gratitude to be so well delivered from such a heavy +burden. Dame Elizabeth, the girl's mother, truly shed a few tears, +quickly dried; and so young Jane parted for ever from her father's +house.</p> + +<p>Like a dead thing, revived by the fresh winds of heaven, Jane's +comparative freedom aroused in her the most passionate abhorrence of +the life to which she was destined, and the most passionate desire for +liberty and affection. With each breath she drew by the open casement, +with each glance cast into the depths of the dark woods beyond, rose +up the strong instincts of her age, and turned her for ever from the +convent gate. In vain the dame insisted; Jane stood firm; and declared +that she would still refuse, at the very altar, to take the vow. Yet +was she timid in all things but those of love and liberty; and Dame +Katharine, by violence and threats, so worked on her fears, that she +at last consented, amid grievous tears and bitter reproaches, to be +deprived of her name and state, and given forth to the castle people +as a poor gentlewoman, godchild to the dame.</p> + +<p>'Anything for freedom!' sighed Jane, as she took the oath of secrecy. +'Any deprivation rather than that living tomb of the nun!'</p> + +<p>It was now the dame's chief care to be rid of her charge. She cast +about for suitors, but even the lowest squire shook his head at the +offer. At last, she married her grandchild to the son of an honest +yeoman of Suffolk, and so sent her forth to take her place in the +world as the wife of a common peasant, and the mother of a family of +peasants. Such was the fate allotted to Jane a Poole, daughter of the +proud Earl of Suffolk!</p> + +<p>Of her issue, we need say but little. Suffice it to know, that Jane +and her ploughman William had four children, three sons and one +daughter; of whom William, the second son, married an honest man's +daughter, whose name was Alice Gryse, and whose children were living +in 1490, when this chronicle was written.</p> + +<p>Return we now to the puissant lord, Sir Mighell, Earl of Suffolk. He +was not long suffered to enjoy his home; indeed, so ardent a soul as +his would have eaten its way through his castle walls, as a chrysalis +through its silken tomb, if he had been long inactive. If war had not +been his duty, he must have made it his crime; if foreign foes had not +called upon his valour, too surely would domestic friends have +suffered from his disloyalty. Born for the fight, he would have +fulfilled his destiny by force if he might not by right. At the battle +of Agincourt (1415), he perished along with many other of England's +nobles.</p> + +<p>Sir Mighell having died without a son, his titles and estates went to +his brother, Sir William. Dame Elizabeth, widow of Sir Mighell, and +her daughter Katharine, shortly afterwards, as was usual in these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[pg 205]</a></span> +times, went to reside in the Abbey of Brasenode; and there they +ultimately died.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, and for years afterwards, no one knew anything of Jane, +who, though exiled from her rank and family, perhaps enjoyed more real +happiness than those who had been guilty of her maltreatment. At +length, her husband died, which was a source of grief. Honest William +had thought her queer in manners; but he loved her for all that, and +was proud of her, as the daughter of a poor gentleman. He blessed her +on his death-bed; and she remained a widow for his sake. Many yeomen +wished to marry her, but she refused them all. This went on for many +years—long after Sir William a Poole had become fourth Earl of +Suffolk, and had had children born to him; long after Alice Gryse had +become Jane's daughter-in-law, and made her more than once a +grandmother too; and then the whole of this strange story became +known. Jane had kept her vow of secrecy with perfect fidelity; never +had she breathed a syllable to her husband or children as to the +family to which she belonged. It was only, late in life, through +confession she made to a priest, that who and what she had been was +revealed. Shocked with the depravity of her unnatural parents, this +pious and learned doctor, says the chronicle, 'commanded her to +publish this account to her children and their issues, that they might +know of what race they came, if so be, by the great mercy of +Providence, they might claim their own again. And not only to them, +but also to make it known to all men, as far as was consistent with +her own safety; for he said, that the great power of Almighty God +should be published to all the world. For this reason was the +chronicle written—that all men might take warning; for no deed of +wickedness is done in the dark, which shall not be dragged forth to +the light; and no oppression on the innocent shall prosper before the +right hand of Eternal Justice.'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON" id="THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON"></a>THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.</h2> + +<p class="right"><i>March 1852.</i></p> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> lecture experiment at the Museum of Practical Geology, in Jermyn +Street, has proved eminently successful. There were a thousand more +applications for tickets than could be supplied, in consequence of +which the executive very wisely determined, that the course should be +repeated until the demand was satisfied. This fact of numbers speaks +highly in favour of the working-men of London—none others are +admitted to the course here referred to; and once having got the +knowledge, it is to be hoped they will be able to turn it to good +account. One of the lecturers told me, that the hall is always +crowded, and that a better-behaved auditory has seldom been seen in +any quarter, which we may consider to be an encouraging sign of the +times. The other courses are also going on for those who are able to +pay high fees, and attend during the day. The titles of a few of the +lectures will give you an idea of the nature of the instruction +offered; namely—The Relations of Natural History to Geology and the +Arts; On the Value of an Extended Knowledge of Mineralogy and the +Processes of Mining; On the Science of Geology and its Applications; +On the Importance of Special Scientific Knowledge to the Practical +Metallurgist; and On the Importance of Cultivating Habits of +Observation. You must remember, that the institution is a government +school of mines as well as a museum of geology.</p> + +<p>In connection with this, it may be mentioned that the Society of Arts +are discussing a project for the 'affiliation' of all the literary, +philosophical, scientific, and mechanics' institutions throughout the +kingdom, with a view to render them less languid and more beneficial +than too many of them now are. Unity of purpose effected wonders with +the Great Exhibition; and it is thought that the same cause should +produce a similar result in the educational and recreative +establishments alluded to. There is a talk, also, of an assembling of +most of the learned societies of our great city under one roof—a sort +of Palace of Science, which has long been wanting in London, but which +has long existed in Paris. Should this scheme be carried out, the +philosophers might then adopt Brother Jonathan's motto—<i>E pluribus +unum</i>. And, next, the Suburban Artisan School of Drawing and +Modelling, established last year at Camden-Town, has succeeded so well +that the committee, with Prince Albert as patron, have determined to +establish four additional schools in our other suburban districts. +These schools are to be open every evening for instruction, at a +charge per month of 2s. No working-man in the metropolis after this +need be ignorant of drawing. Then, again, a 'Department of Practical +Art' is organised in connection with the Board of Trade, which, by +means of travelling and stationary superintendents, and other +officers, is to assist in the development of artistic talent, and its +application to useful purposes, wherever it may be found.</p> + +<p>Co-operation of some sort or other is the order of the day; and now a +good deal of attention is excited by the announcement of an 'Athenæum +Institute for Authors and Artists,' something different from the Guild +of Literature and Art set afoot last winter, the object being to +endeavour to form an incorporated association of the two classes +mentioned—of course for their common benefit. The aid of the +possessors of rank and wealth is to be asked at starting, because, as +the promoters say, 'we think literature has a right to ask the +assistance of these other two great powers of society, because it so +materially assists them; and because, in many of its branches, it has +no other mode of being paid by society. The severely scientific, the +highly imaginative, the profoundly legislative authors, do not produce +promptly marketable, though they produce priceless, works. La Place, +Wordsworth, Bentham, could not have existed had they depended on the +first product of their works; they would have perished before an +acknowledging world could have given them bread.' They say, further, +that 'the humblest literary man works for something more than hire, +and produces something more effective than a mere piece of +merchandise. His book is not only sold to the profit of the +bookseller, but to the benefit of the public. The publisher pays for +its mercantile value, but the public should reward the author for its +moral and social effect, as they take upon themselves to punish, if it +have an evil tendency.'</p> + +<p>Whether the promoters are right or wrong in their views, will be best +proved by the result; meantime, they put forth some good names as +provisional president, vice-president, and managers, and propose that +the Institute shall comprise four branches—namely, a Protective +Society, a Philanthropic and Provident Fund, an Educational +Association, and a Life-Assurance Department. The subscribers are to +consist of two classes: those who give contributions for the benefit +of the Institute, and those who seek to benefit themselves. The former +are to be asked to insure their lives, for different rates of premium, +the amounts to fall into the corporation at the decease of the +subscribers; and thus a fund would be raised out of which, on certain +conditions, participating subscribers would be able to secure a +provision for old age, or premature decay of mental power, the means +of educating their children, and leaving a <i>solatium</i> to their widows. +If all this can be carried out, and if literary men, as a class, are +capable of all that the prospectus of the new scheme implies, how much +of distress and heart-breaking misery will be saved to society!</p> + +<p>There are several subjects which, having recently been brought before +our Horticultural Society, have somewhat interested gardening folk. At +one of the meetings,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[pg 206]</a></span> there was exhibited 'a very fine specimen of +common mignonette,' which 'was stated to have been a single plant +pricked out into a pot in January 1851, and shifted on until it had +attained a large size. It was mentioned, that mignonette is not an +annual, as many imagine it to be; but that it will become a woody +shrub, and last for years, provided it is well managed, and kept free +from frost and damp.' So runs the report in the society's journal.</p> + +<p>There was, likewise, an exhibition of black Hamburg grapes by Mr Fry, +a Kentish gardener, who made thereupon some observations, which appear +to be deserving of wider circulation. The grapes were grown in a +building seldom heated artificially, and were much attacked by mildew +during the last two seasons, on which prompt measures were taken to +diffuse perfectly dry 'sulphur vivum' throughout the house by means of +a sulphurator, until fruit and foliage were completely but lightly +coated. 'Fires were lighted, and the temperature kept up to from 80 to +90 degrees, ventilation being considerably diminished, and water in +any form discontinued. After being subject to this treatment for about +four or five days, the vines received a thorough syringing, which +cleansed them from every particle of sulphur. With respect to the use +of sulphur in killing mildew, many ladies and gentlemen,' adds Mr Fry, +'with whom I have conversed, consider it highly objectionable: they +say, that they do not like the idea of eating sulphur with grapes; +neither would any one, and I can prove to them that this need never be +done; and, moreover, that the use of sulphur, when timely and +judiciously applied, does not in any way deteriorate the fruit. I much +question if the most practised eye could detect sulphur on the grapes +exhibited, although they have been twice covered with it; and as to +the mildew itself among vines, I fear it no more than I do green-fly +among cucumbers, which is so soon deprived of existence by the fumes +of tobacco.'</p> + +<p>What is called 'a French sulphurator,' whose great merit appears to be +'simplicity and cheapness,' was also exhibited. It is described as 'a +tin box for holding the sulphur, placed on the upper side of the pipe +of a pair of common bellows. The sulphur gets into the pipe through +small holes made for the purpose in the bottom of the box, and, in +order that no stoppage may take place, a small hammer-head attached at +the end of a slight steel-spring, is fixed on the under side of the +bellows, a gentle tap from which, now and then, keeps up a continuous +fall of sulphur into the pipe.' It is said, that 'these appliances, +which may be attached to a pair of bellows for little more than +sixpence, answer every purpose for which they are intended, equally as +well as a more expensive machine.'</p> + +<p>At the same time with this contrivance, some bunches of black Prince +Grapes were shewn to the assembled horticulturists, which could only +be preserved from mildew by frequent applications of sulphur. The +bunches are to be afterwards cleaned by dipping in water, or what is +considered preferable, 'syringing on all sides with a fine syringe,' +which process, it is well to remember, disturbs the <i>bloom</i> on the +fruit least when directed 'downwards, or obliquely, as rain would +fall.'</p> + +<p>As the season for gardening operations is coming on, Mr Rivers' +account may be mentioned of his mode of growing strawberries in pots; +it will be found to involve certain combinations opposed to ordinary +practice. 'About the second week in July,' he says, he filled a number +of six-inch pots 'with a compost of two-thirds loam, and one-third +rotten dung, as follows: three stout pieces of broken pots were placed +in the bottom, and a full handful of the compost put in; a stout +wooden pestle was then used with all the force of a man's arm to pound +it, then another handful and a pounding, and another, till the pot was +brimful, and the compressed mould as hard as a barn-floor. The pots +were then taken to the strawberry-bed, and a runner placed in the +centre of each, with a small stone to keep it steady. They were +watered in dry weather, and have had no other care or culture. For two +or three years, I have had the very finest crops from plants after +this method, and those under notice promise well. If the pots are +lifted, it will be apparent that a large quantity of food is in a +small space. I may add, that from some recent experiments with +compressed earth to potted fruit-trees, I have a high opinion of its +effect, and I fully believe that we have yet much to learn on the +subject.'</p> + +<p>There is a committee sitting at the Admiralty, to devise a method for +the uniform lighting of ships and steamers at night, the object being +to diminish the chances of accident or error to vessels at sea. And +apropos of this, Mr Babbage has published a plan which will +effectually prevent one lighthouse being mistaken for another: it is, +that every lighthouse, wherever situated, shall have a number—the +numbers not to run consecutively—and no two adjoining lights to have +the same numeral digits in the same place of figures. There would then +be no need for revolving or flashing lights, as the only thing to be +done would be to make each lighthouse repeat its own number all night +long, or whenever it was illuminated. This is to be 'accomplished by +enclosing the upper part of the glass cylinders of the argand burner +by a thin tube of tin or brass, which, when made to descend slowly +before the flame, and then allowed suddenly to start back, will cause +an occultation and reappearance of the light.' The number of +occultations denotes the number of the lighthouse. For instance, +suppose the Eddystone to be 243, the two is denoted by two hidings of +the light in quick succession; a short pause, and four hidings; +another short pause, and three hidings, followed by a longer pause; +after which the same process is repeated. It would not be easy to make +a mistake, for the numbers of the lighthouses nearest to the Eddystone +would be very different; and supposing that the boy sent aloft to +watch for the light were to report 253 instead of 243, without waiting +to correct his view, the captain, by turning to his book, would +perhaps find that No. 253 was in the Straits of Sunda, or some equally +remote situation, and would easily recognise the error. When we take +into account the number of vessels lost by mistaking one lighthouse +for another, the value of this proposal becomes apparent. Mr Babbage +shews, that bell-strokes might be employed to announce the number of a +beacon in foggy weather; and he believes that the time is not far +distant when buoys will also be indicated by a light. Now that +lighthouse dues are to be reduced one-half, we may hope to see +improvement in more ways than one.</p> + +<p>This is but a small part of what promises more and more to become a +great question—that of navigation. It is felt that, in these go-ahead +days, we must be paying not less attention to our maritime than to our +inland arm of commerce; and this has brought the question of wood +<i>versus</i> iron ships again into prominent notice. The advocates of iron +shew that the dry-rot, so destructive to wood, cannot enter metal; +that lightness and speed, those prime essentials, are insured by the +use of iron; that iron ships are safer, more easily repaired, and +cheaper than vessels built of wood; and that they are more lasting. +The chief objection hitherto has been the liability of iron to become +foul in tropical climates; but this now appears to be in a measure +overcome. According to Mr Lindsay: 'An admixture has been applied, +termed "Anti-Sargassian Paint," which has been found to answer the +purpose better than any yet discovered. From the experience of its +properties, we cannot say that in itself it is yet sufficient; but it +appears a fair substitute till some other preparation is discovered. A +gentleman at Glasgow,' he adds, 'has already discovered a compound, +which, being mixed in a fluid state with the iron, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[pg 207]</a></span> expected to +answer the desired purpose. There is another disadvantage which will +soon be overcome—the greater liability to error in the compasses of +iron ships; an error which, however, also occurs, though perhaps to a +less extent, in every wooden ship. By a most ingenious invention, +which will shortly be made public, such errors in any ships, under any +circumstances, can at all times be at once detected.'</p> + +<p>An important patented process for producing tapered iron, has been +explained before the Franklin Institute at Philadelphia—one by which +every variety of taper may be produced, or combinations of taper, with +flat or other forms; and seeing how much tapered iron is used on +railways, in many kinds of machinery, in ships and steamers, the +subject may be considered worthy of more than a mere passing notice. +Tapered iron is a form to which machinery has been thought +inapplicable, and only to be produced by hand-labour. The new method, +however, which has been successfully carried into practice at the +Phœnixville Ironworks, is thus described: 'The principle on which +it acts is that of hydrostatic pressure, or, more properly, +<i>hydrostatic resistance</i>. A small chamber, similar to that of the +common hydrostatic press, is set on the top of each housing; the +closed end of the press being uppermost, and a plunger entering from +below; but instead of water being forced <i>into</i> the press, the chamber +is at first filled with water, and the pressure of the iron in passing +between the rollers, tends to lift the top one, which is held down by +the plunger. An escape-pipe, provided with a valve, is inserted into +the top of the chamber. When any upward pressure acts on the top +roller, it is communicated by the plunger to the water, which escapes +through the valve, and the roller rises.</p> + +<p>'When the valve is partially closed, the water escapes more slowly; +and the rise of the roller, and consequently the taper of the iron, +are more gradual.</p> + +<p>'Any rate of taper may thus be had by regulating the rise of the +opening of the escape-valve. If the water is all driven out before the +bar is entirely through the rollers, the top roller ceases to rise, +and the iron becomes parallel from that point. Then, if the ends of +the bar be reversed, and it be again passed between the rollers, the +parallel portion will become tapered; thus we can get a bar.'</p> + +<p>At the same time, a 'Thermometrical Ventilator' was exhibited, which +is described as circular in form, with a well-balanced movable plate. +'Upon the side of the valve is an inverted syphon, with a bulb at one +end, the other being open; the lower part of the tube contains +mercury; the bulb, atmospheric air. An increase of temperature expands +the air in the bulb, drives the mercury down one side and up the +other, thereby destroying the balance, and causing the valve to open +by turning on its axis. A diminution of temperature contracts the air +in the bulb, causes the mercury to rise in the side of the tube, and +closes the valve.' Besides this, there was 'an improved +magneto-electric machine, for medical use, with a new arrangement, by +which the shock is graduated by means of a glass tube, in which a wire +is made to communicate with water, so as to produce at first a slight +shock; by gradually pressing down the wire attached to a spiral +spring, the shock is received in its full force.'</p> + +<p>It now appears that Mr Robertson of Brighton claims priority of +discovery touching the boring power of <i>Pholades</i>. His statements are +founded on daily observation of the creatures at work for three +months. 'The <i>Pholas dactylus</i>' he says, 'makes its hole by grating +the chalk with its rasp-like valves, licking it up, when pulverised, +with its foot, forcing it up through its principal or bronchial +syphon, and squirting it out in oblong nodules. The crypt protects the +<i>Pholas</i> from confervæ, which, when they get at it, grow not merely +outside, but even within the lips of the valves, preventing the action +of the syphons. In the foot there is a gelatinous spring or style, +which, even when taken out, has great elasticity, and which seems the +mainspring of the motions of the <i>Pholas dactylus</i>.'</p> + +<p>At last, steam communication with Australia seems about to become a +reality, for the first vessel is announced to start in May for Sydney, +to touch at the Cape and other colonies on her way out; and +accommodation is promised for two hundred passengers of different +classes. There is also a project on foot for a line of steamers from +Panama to Australia, and to Valparaiso, which, if brought into +operation, will make a voyage round the world little more than a +bagman's journey. Apropos of Australia, Mr Clarke, who first predicted +that gold would be found in that country, says, 'that just 90 degrees +west of the auriferous range in Australia, we find an auriferous band +in the Urals; and just 90 degrees west of the Urals, occur the +auriferous mountains of California.' A speculation for cosmogonists. +In our own country, we are finding metalliferous deposits: vast +accumulations of lead-ore have come to light in Wales, which are said +to contain six ounces of silver, and fifteen hundredweight of lead to +the ton; and in Northamptonshire, an abundant and timely supply of +iron-ore has just been met with. We might perhaps turn our metallic +treasures to still better account, if some one would only set to work +and win the prize offered by Louis Napoleon; namely, 'a reward of +50,000 francs to such person as shall render the voltaic pile +applicable, with economy, to manufactures, as a source of heat, or to +lighting, or chemistry, or mechanics, or practical medicine.' The +offer is to be kept open for five years, to allow full time for +experiment, and people of all nations have leave to compete. One of +the electric telegraph companies intends to ask parliament to abolish +the present monopoly as regards the despatch of messages; in another +quarter, an under-sea telegraph to Ostend is talked about, with a view +to communicate with Belgium independently of France; and there is no +reason why it should not be laid down, for the Dover and Calais line +is paying satisfactorily. And, finally, another ship-load of 'marbles' +and sculptures has just arrived from Nineveh; and the appointment of +Mr Layard as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (though now but +temporary) is regarded as a praiseworthy recognition of his merits and +services; and now that we have a government which combines a few +<i>littérateurs</i> among its members, it is thought that literature will +be relieved of some of its trammels.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="CHILDRENS_JOYS_AND_SORROWS" id="CHILDRENS_JOYS_AND_SORROWS"></a>CHILDREN'S JOYS AND SORROWS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>I can endure a melancholy man, but not a melancholy child; the former, +in whatever slough he may sink, can raise his eyes either to the +kingdom of reason or of hope; but the little child is entirely +absorbed and weighed down by one black poison-drop of the present. +Think of a child led to the scaffold, think of Cupid in a Dutch +coffin; or watch a butterfly, after its four wings have been torn off, +creeping like a worm, and you will feel what I mean. But wherefore? +The first has been already given; the child, like the beast, only +knows purest, though shortest sorrow; one which has no past and no +future; one such as the sick man receives from without, the dreamer +from himself into his asthenic brain; finally, one with the +consciousness not of guilt, but of innocence. Certainly, all the +sorrows of children are but shortest nights, as their joys are but +hottest days; and indeed both so much so, that in the latter, often +clouded and starless time of life, the matured man only longingly +remembers his old childhood's pleasures, while he seems altogether to +have forgotten his childhood's grief. This weak remembrance is +strangely contrasted with the opposing one in dreams and fevers in +this respect, that in the two last it is always the cruel sorrows of +childhood which return; the dream this mock-sun of childhood—and the +fever, its distorting glass—both draw forth from dark corners the +fears of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[pg 208]</a></span> defenceless childhood, which press and cut with iron fangs +into the prostrate soul. The fair scenes of dreams mostly play on an +after-stage, whereas the frightful ones choose for theirs the cradle +and the nursery. Moreover, in fever, the ice-hands of the fear of +ghosts, the striking one of the teachers and parents, and every claw +with which fate has pressed the young heart, stretch themselves out to +catch the wandering man. Parents, consider then, that every +childhood's Rupert—the name given in Germany to the fictitious being +employed to frighten children into obedience—even though it has lain +chained for tens of years, yet breaks loose and gains mastery over the +man so soon as it finds him on a sick-bed. The first fright is more +dangerous the sooner it happens: as the man grows older, he is less +and less easily frightened; the little cradle or bed-canopy of the +child is more easily quite darkened than the starry heaven of the +man.—<i>Jean Paul Richter.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="A_REJECTED_LOVER" id="A_REJECTED_LOVER"></a>A REJECTED LOVER.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><span class="sc">You</span> 'never loved me,' Ada!—Those slow words<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dropped softly from your gentle woman's tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Out of your true and tender woman's heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dropped—piercing into mine like very swords,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sharper for their brightness! Yet no wrong<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lies to your charge; nor cruelty, nor art;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even while you spoke, I saw the ready tear-drop start.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">You 'never loved me?'—No, you never knew—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You, with youth's dews yet glittering on your soul—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What 'tis <i>to love</i>. Slow, drop by drop, to pour<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our life's whole essence, perfumed through and through<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With all the best we have, or can control,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For the libation; cast it down before<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your feet—then lift the goblet, dry for evermore!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">I shall not die, as foolish lovers do:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A man's heart beats beneath this breast of mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The breast where—Curse on that fiend's whispering,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">'<i>It might have been!</i>'—Ada, I will be true<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Unto myself—the self that worshipped thine.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">May all life's pain, like those few tears that spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For me—glance off as rain-drops from my white dove's wing!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">May you live long, some good man's bosom-flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And gather children round your matron knees!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then, when all this is past, and you and I<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Remember each our youth but as an hour<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of joy—or torture; one, serene, at ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">May meet the other's grave yet steadfast eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thinking, 'He loved me well!'—clasp hands, and so pass by.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_TEARS_OF_OYSTERS" id="THE_TEARS_OF_OYSTERS"></a>THE TEARS OF OYSTERS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>Glancing round this anatomical workshop (the oyster), we find, amongst +other things, some preparations shewing the nature of pearls. Examine +them, and we find that there are dark and dingy pearls, just as there +are handsome and ugly men; the dark pearl being found on the dark +shell of the fish, the white brilliant one upon the smooth inside +shell. Going further in the search, we find that the smooth, +glittering lining, upon which the fish moves, is known as the <i>nacre</i>, +and that it is produced by a portion of the animal called the +<i>mantle</i>; and, for explanation's sake, we may add that gourmands +practically know the mantle as the beard of the oyster. When living in +its glossy house, should any foreign substance find its way through +the shell to disturb the smoothness so essential to its ease, the fish +coats the offending substance with nacre, and a pearl is thus formed. +The pearl is, in fact, a little globe of the smooth, glossy substance +yielded by the oyster's beard; yielded ordinarily to smooth the narrow +home to which his nature binds him, but yielded in round drops, real +pearly tears, if he is hurt. When a beauty glides among a throng of +her admirers, her hair clustering with pearls, she little thinks that +her ornaments are products of pain and diseased action, endured by the +most unpoetical of shell-fish.—<i>Leisure Hours.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="ROBESPIERRE" id="ROBESPIERRE"></a>'ROBESPIERRE.'</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">In</span> our recent notice of Robespierre, it was mentioned that, at the +period of his capture in the Hôtel de Ville, he was shot in the jaw by +a pistol fired by one of the gendarmes. Various correspondents point +to the discrepancy between this account and that given by Thiers, and +some other authorities, who represent that Robespierre fired the +pistol himself, in the attempt to commit self-destruction. In our +account of the affair, we have preferred holding to Larmartine +(<i>History of the Girondists</i>), not only in consequence of his being +the latest and most graphic authority on the subject, but because his +statement seems to be verified by the appearance of the half-signed +document which it was our fortune to see in Paris in 1849.</p> + +<p>The following is Lamartine's statement:—'The door soon yielded to the +blows given by the soldiers with the but-end of their muskets, amid +the cries of "Down with the tyrant!" "Which is he?" inquired the +soldiers; but Léonard Bourdon durst not meet the look of his fallen +enemy. Standing a little behind the men, and hidden by the body of a +gendarme, named Méda; with his right hand he seized the arm of the +gendarme who held a pistol, and pointing with his left hand to the +person to be aimed at, he directed the muzzle of the weapon towards +Robespierre, exclaiming: "That is the man." The man fired, and the +head of Robespierre dropped on the table, deluging with blood the +proclamation he had not finished signing.' Next morning, adds this +authority, Léonard Bourdon 'presented the gendarme who had fired at +Robespierre to the notice of the Convention.' Further: on Robespierre +being searched while he lay on the table, a brace of loaded pistols +were found in his pocket. 'These pistols, shut up in their cases still +loaded, abundantly testify that Robespierre did not shoot himself.' +Accepting these as the true particulars of the incident, Robespierre +cannot properly be charged with an attempt at suicide.</p> + +<p>In the article referred to, the name Barras was accidentally +substituted for Henriot, in connection with the insurrectionary +movement for rescuing Robespierre. Barras led the troops of the +Convention.</p> + +<p>A correspondent asks us to state what was the actual number of persons +slaughtered by the guillotine, and otherwise, during the progress of +the Revolution. The question cannot be satisfactorily answered. Alison +(vol. iv. p. 289) presents a list, which shews the number to have been +1,027,106; but this enumeration does not comprehend the massacres at +Versailles, the prisons of Paris, and some other places. A million and +a half would probably be a safe calculation. One thing is certain, +that from the 2d of September 1792, to the 25th of October 1795, a +space of little more than three years, 18,613 persons perished by the +guillotine. Strangely enough, the chief destruction of life was among +the humbler classes of society, those who mainly promoted the +revolution; and still more strange, the greater number of victims were +murdered by the verdicts of juries—a striking example of that general +subserviency which has since become the most significant defect in the +French character.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="center"><i>Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover,</i></p> + +<p>CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a <span class="smcap">Literary Companion</span> for the +<span class="smcap">Railway</span>, the <span class="smcap">Fireside</span>, or the <span class="smcap">Bush</span>.</p> + +<p class="center">VOLUME IV.</p> + +<p class="center">To be continued in Monthly Volumes.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p>Printed and Published by W. and R. <span class="smcap">Chambers</span>, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W. S. <span class="smcap">Orr</span>, Amen Corner, London; D. N. <span class="smcap">Chambers</span>, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. <span class="smcap">M'Glasham</span>, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.—Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +<span class="smcap">Maxwell</span> & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 430, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 18337-h.htm or 18337-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/3/18337/ + +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. 430 + Volume 17, New Series, March 27, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: May 7, 2006 [EBook #18337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + NO. 430. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2_d._ + + + + +PRONOUNCERS. + + +Do you not find, in almost every company, one who pronounces +decisively upon every matter which comes in question? His voice is +loud and firm, his eye bold and confident, and his whole manner +oracular. No cold hesitations as to points of fact ever tease him. +Little time does he require to make up his mind on any speculative +subject. He is all _yes_ or all _no_ at once and without appeal. +Opposite opinions he treats with, at the best, a sublime pity, meant +to be graceful, but, in reality, galling. He is often a goose; but, be +he what he may, it is ten to one that he carries off the majority of +the company in the mere sweep of his gown. They are led by him for the +time, fascinated by the energy of his pronunciations. They may all +recover from him afterwards--some after one day, some after two, and +particularly weak men after, perhaps, a week. At the moment, however, +the pronouncer has vast influence, and, if immediate action can be +determined on, it is very likely that he drags his victims into some +committal of themselves, from which subsequent escape may not be very +easy. + +While pronouncing is thus the prominent quality of a few, it is more +or less the vice of nearly all. Men feel that they have an inherent +right to their opinion, and to the promulgation of it, and are not +very apt to reflect that there is another question--as to whether +their opinion be worth delivering; whether it has been formed upon a +good basis of knowledge or experience, or upon any basis at all; +whether it is the emanation of ripe judgment and reflection, or of +some mere passing gust of ideas springing from the whim of the minute. +Hence, when any question arises, it is seldom found that any one is +quite unprepared to give some sort of decision. Even the giddy girl of +seventeen will have something to say upon it, albeit she may never +have heard of the matter before. It is thought foolish-looking not to +be able to pronounce, as if one imperiled the right of private +judgment itself by not being prepared in every case to act upon it. In +consequence, what absurd opinions do we hear in all kinds of companies +upon all kinds of topics! How the angels, who know better, must weep! + +A conversational party even of tolerably well-educated persons, often +presents itself in a ludicrous light. Some question has arisen amongst +them. No one has any clear or definite information upon it. They have +had disputes about the simplest matters of fact involved in it. Yet no +person there, down to the youngest, but would take scorn to be held as +incapable of pronouncing upon it. There are as many opinions as there +are persons present, and not one less confident than another. What is +very natural in such circumstances, no one has the least respect for +the opinions of any of the rest. Each, in fact, does justice upon his +neighbour for the absurdity of pronouncing without grounds, while +incapable of seeing the absurdity in himself. And thus an hour will be +passed in a most unprofitable manner, and perhaps the social spirit of +the company be not a little marred. How much better to say: 'Well, +that is a subject I know nothing about: I will not undertake to +judge.' Supposing all who are present to be in the same predicament, +they might dismiss the barren subject, and start another on which some +one could throw real light, and from which, accordingly, all might +derive some benefit. + +Is not this habit of pronouncing without preparation in inquiry and +reflection just one of the causes of that remarkable diversity of +opinion which is so often deplored for its unpleasant consequences? In +ignorance--fancy, whim, and prejudice usurp the directing power. If we +take no time for consideration, we shall be apt to plunge into an +error, and afterwards persevere in it for the sake of consistency, or +because it has become a thing which we regard as our own. In such +circumstances, no wonder there are as many 'minds' as 'men.' But when +any one can speak on the ground of well-ascertained facts, and after +some deliberation on the bearings of the question, he must carry +others with him, not by fascination, but by real conviction, and thus +greatly reduce the proportion of opinions to men. Very likely, some +other man has got hold of a somewhat different range of facts, and +come to different conclusions: he, too, will have his party of +followers. But there being two or three discrepant views on the +subject, is a much less evil than there being as many as there are +individuals. + +The right of pronouncing upon public affairs is one that would be +particularly clung to if there were any danger of its being lost, and +it certainly is not in England that any writer would be found ready to +challenge so valued a privilege. At the same time, no one will +seriously deny, that if this right were used more generally with the +advantage of a tolerable knowledge of the subject, it would be an +improvement. Public men may be acting, as, indeed, they must generally +do, upon certain data carefully brought out by inquiry: they may judge +and act amiss after all, for human judgment is fallible. But when we +contrast their means of forming a judgment with those of many persons +who hesitate not to pronounce upon their measures, it cannot be denied +that they stand in a strong position. When we hear a bold condemnation +of their acts from men who, so far from having gone through the same +process of inquiry, have not even perused the documents in which the +grounds of the administrative policy were explained, can we do +otherwise than smile at the pretensions of the _pseudo_-judges? Is not +the frequency of this unfounded judging much more apt to harden an +unlucky statesman than to make him amenable to counsel? On the other +hand, when a public man finds himself and his actions criticised by +men who have knowledge, he must be a hardy one indeed who can entirely +disregard the judgment. + +If we attentively study the progress of any man who has acquired +influence over his fellow-creatures--apart from certain matters in +which the feelings are mainly concerned--we shall find that he has +distinguished himself by a habit of not pronouncing where he has no +means of forming a judgment. Such a man has had the good sense to see +and confess that he could not be expected to know many things +sufficiently well to entitle him to pronounce authoritatively upon +them. He has probably given some considerable share of attention to +certain subjects that are of some importance to his fellow-creatures, +and thus fitted himself, with regard to them, to speak with more or +less decision. Never found guilty of giving a vague, crudely-formed +judgment on things a hundred miles out of his way, but, on the +contrary, obtaining credit occasionally for the manner in which he +treats those with which he is conversant, he irresistibly acquires +character and influence. Young hasty minds laugh at his taking such +care not to commit himself: he is perhaps taxed with getting credit +for merely looking grave and holding his tongue. But this very holding +of the tongue when there is nothing to say, is, in reality, one of the +greatest, though often one of the last-learned virtues. Were his +merits purely negative, they would be great; tending as they do to +save truth from that obscuration which a multitude of ill-formed +opinions necessarily throw upon it. But we shall usually discover in +such men a positive merit also in their power to illustrate and give a +guiding opinion upon certain subjects of importance to public or +private interests. + +There is not one sentence in this little essay which may not be justly +set down as mere commonplace. We acknowledge the fault; but defend it +on the ground that sound and useful commonplaces require a continual +refreshing and re-presentment, so many persons being, after all, +unaware or forgetful of them. + +On a similar ground of defence, we would take leave to remind mankind +of the good old maxim, 'Hear the other party.' Familiar to most +people, observed by some, there are multitudes who uniformly act as if +they had never heard of it. To be quite candid, we often catch +ourselves neglecting it; and always, at the best, it takes a struggle +to make it a reality in our conduct. Experience, however, impresses us +more and more with a sense of its being absolutely essential to the +ascertainment of truth in any disputable case. There is so much bias +from self-love, so much recklessness about truth in general, and so +much of even a sincere faithlessness of narration, that no partial +account of anything is to be trusted. It is but a small concession to +the cause of truth, to wait till we hear the statement of the opposite +party, or not to pronounce without it. If anything were required to +prove how little this is reflected on, it would be the readiness of +nearly all persons to tell their own story, without intimating the +slightest doubt that it is to be implicitly received on their own +shewing. One cannot walk along a street, but some friend will come up +and inflict a narration, limited entirely to his own view of a case in +which he is interested or aggrieved, practically ignoring that there +can and must be another way of stating it. And so great is the +complaisance of mankind, that no one thinks of intimating any +necessity for consulting another authority before giving judgment. +Here the vicious habit of thoughtless pronouncing is doubly bad, as it +involves also a kind of flattery. + +There are some novel doctrines and theories, which seem doomed to meet +with prejudice and opposition, but which yet must have some vitality +about them, seeing that they survive so much ill-treatment. It is +curious to observe how little regard to the rules of reasoning is +usually felt to be necessary in opposing these theories--how mere +pronouncing comes to stand in their case in the stead of evidence and +argument. Although they may have been brought forward as mere forms of +possible truth--ideal points round which to rally the scattered forces +of investigation--and only advanced as far as facts would go, and no +further--you will find them denounced as visions, tending to the +breach of the philosophic peace; while, on the other hand, those who +oppose them, albeit on no sort of ground but a mere pronunciation of +contrary opinion, obtain all the credit due to the genuine +philosopher. Abstractly, it would be generally admitted that any +doctrine for which a certain amount of evidence is shewn, can only be +overthrown by a superior force of evidence on the other side. But +practically this is of no avail. Doubt and denial are so important to +philosophy, and confer such an air of superior wisdom, that merely to +doubt and deny will be pretty sure to carry both the educated and the +uneducated vulgar. To get a high character in that position is of +course very easy. Little more than pronouncing is required. As to the +respective positions of the affirmer and denier in some future time, +when truth has attained the power of asserting her reign against +prejudice, that is another thing. + +To return to the general question--If any one be impressed by our +remarks with a sense of the absurdity of pronouncing without knowledge +and reflection, let him endeavour to avoid it, and he will confer a +sensible benefit on society. When next he is in company, and a subject +occurs to tempt him into an expression of opinion, let him pause a +moment, and say to himself: 'Now, do I know anything about it--or if I +know something, do I know enough--to enable me to speak without fear +of being contradicted? Have I ever given it any serious reflection? Am +I sure that I have an opinion about it at all? Am I sure that I +entertain no prejudice on the point?' Were every one of us children of +British freedom to take these precautions, there would be more power +amongst us to pronounce wisely. There would be a more vigorous and +healthful public opinion, and the amenity, as well as instructiveness +of private society would be much increased. + + + + +COOLING THE AIR OF ROOMS IN HOT CLIMATES. + + +In our last number, allusion was made to a process for cooling the air +of apartments in hot climates, with a view to health and comfort. The +intolerable heat of the climate in India, during certain hours of the +day, is well known to be the cause of much bad health among European +settlers. By way of rendering the air at all endurable, the plan of +agitating it with punkahs, hung to the roofs of apartments, the +punkahs being moved by servants in attendance for the purpose, is +adopted. Another plan of communicating a sensation of coolness, is to +hang wet mats in the open windows. But by neither of these expedients +is the end in view satisfactorily gained. Both are nothing else than +make-shifts. + +The new process of cooling now to be described, is founded on a +scientific principle, certain and satisfactory in its operation, +provided it be reduced to practice in a simple manner. The discoverer +is Professor Piazzi Smyth, who has presented a minute account of it in +a paper in the _Practical Mechanic's Journal_ for October 1850, and +also separately in a pamphlet. We invite public attention to this +curious but simple invention, of which we shall proceed to present a +few principles from the pamphlet just referred to. + +Mr Smyth first speaks of the uselessness of the punkah, and the danger +of the wet mats. 'The wet mats in the windows for the wind to blow +through, cannot be employed but when the air is dry as well as hot, +and even then are most unhealthy, for although the air may feel dry to +the skin, there is generally far more moisture in it than in our own +climate; but the height of the temperature increasing the capacity of +the air for moisture, makes that air at 80 degrees feel very dry, +which at 40 degrees would be very damp. Now, one of the reasons of the +lassitude felt in warm climates is, that the air expanding with the +heat, while the lungs remain of the same capacity, they must take in a +smaller quantity by _weight_, though the same by _measure_, of oxygen, +the supporter of life; but if, in addition to the air being rarefied, +it be also still further distended by the vapour of water being mixed +with it, it is evident that a certain number of cubic inches by +measure, or the lungs full, will contain a less weight of oxygen than +ever; so little, indeed, that life can barely be supported; and we +need not wonder at persons lying down almost powerless in the hot and +damp atmosphere, and gasping for breath. Hence we see that any method +of cooling the air for Indians, instead of adding moisture, should +rather take it out of the air, so as to make oxygen predominate as +much as possible in the combined draught of oxygen, azote, and a +certain quantity of the vapour of water, which will always be present; +and hardly any plan could be more pernicious than the favourite though +dreaded one by those who have watched its results--of the wet mats. +Cold air--that is, air in which the thermometer actually stands at a +low reading--by reason of its density, gives us oxygen, the food of +the lungs, in a compressed and concentrated form; and men can +accordingly do much work upon it. But air which is merely cold to the +feelings--air in which the thermometer stands high, but which merely +gives us one of the external sensations of coolness--on being made by +a punkah, or any other mere blowing machine, to move rapidly over our +skin--or on being charged with watery vapour, or on being contrasted +with previous excessive heat--such air must, nevertheless, be rarefied +to the full extent indicated by the mercurial thermometer, and give +us, therefore, our supply of vital oxygen in a very diluted form, and +of a meagre, unsupporting, and unsatisfying consistence.... The _sine +qua non_, therefore, for healthy and robust life in tropical +countries, is air cold and dry--cold to the thermometer and dry to the +hygrometer; or, in other words, dense, and containing little else than +the necessary oxygen and azote, and this supplied to a room, fresh and +fresh, in a continual current.' + +He next goes on to describe the principle of his new plan of +cooling:--'The method by which I propose to accomplish this +consummation, so devoutly to be desired, is chiefly by taking +advantage of the well-known property of air to rise in temperature on +compression, and to fall on expansion. If air of any temperature, high +or low, be compressed with a certain force, the temperature will rise +above what it was before, in a degree proportioned to the compression. +If the air be allowed immediately to escape from under the pressure, +it will recover its original temperature, because the fall in heat, on +air expanding from a certain pressure, is equal to the rise on its +being compressed to the same; but if, _while the air is in its +compressed state, it be robbed of its acquired heat of compression_, +and then be allowed to escape, it will issue at a temperature as much +below the original one, as it rose above it on compression. Thus the +air, being at 90 degrees, will rise, if compressed to a certain +quantity, to 120 degrees; if it be kept in this compressed and +confined state until all the extra 30 degrees of heat have been +conveyed away by radiation and conduction, and the air be then allowed +to escape, it will be found, on issuing, to be of 60 degrees of +temperature. If a cooler be formed by a pipe under water, and air be +forced in under a given compression at one end, and be made to pass +along to the other, it may thereby, if the cooler be sufficiently +extensive, be robbed of all its heat of compression; and if the +apparatus is so arranged, as it easily may be, that at every stroke of +the pump forcing in air at one end of the pipe, an equivalent quantity +of the cooled compressed air escape from under a loaded valve at the +other, there will be an intermittent stream of cooled air produced +thereby, of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, in an atmosphere of 90 degrees, +which may be led away in a pipe to the room desired to be cooled.' + +The only difficulty to be encountered consists in the erection and +working of machinery. There can be little fear on this score. We have +no doubt that any London engine-maker would hit off the whole scheme +of an air-cooling machine in half an hour. What is wanted is a +forcing-pump wrought by a one horse or two bullock-power. This being +erected and wrought outside of a dwelling, the air will be forced into +a convolution of pipe passing through a tank of water, like the worm +of a still, and will issue by a check-valve at every stroke of the +piston into the apartments to be cooled. Properly arranged, and with a +suitable supply of water trickling through the tank, air at 90 degrees +will be reduced to 60 degrees or thereabouts, which is the temperature +of ordinary sitting-rooms in England. What, it may be asked, will be +the expense of such an apparatus for cooling the air of a +dwelling-house? We are informed that it will not be greater than that +usually paid for heating with fires in this country; and if so, the +expense cannot be considered a serious obstacle to the use of the +apparatus. In the case of barracks for soldiers, hospitals, and other +public establishments, the process will prove of such important +service, that the cost, even if greater than it is likely to be, +should present no obstacle to its application. + + + + +THE CHURCH OF THE CUP OF COLD WATER. + + +One beautiful evening, in the year 1815, the parish priest of San +Pietro, a village a few miles distant from Sevilla, returned much +fatigued to his little cottage, where he found his aged housekeeper, +the Senora Margarita, watching for him. Notwithstanding that one is +well accustomed to the sight of poverty in Spain, it was impossible to +help being struck by the utter destitution which appeared in the house +of the good priest; the more so, as every imaginable contrivance had +been resorted to, to hide the nakedness of the walls, and the +shabbiness of the furniture. Margarita had prepared for her master's +supper a rather small dish of _olla-podriga_, which consisted, to say +the truth, of the remains of the dinner, seasoned and disguised with +great skill, and with the addition of some sauce, and a _name_. As she +placed the savoury dish upon the table, the priest said: 'We should +thank God for this good supper, Margarita; this olla-podriga makes +one's mouth water. My friend, you ought to be grateful for finding so +good a supper at the house of your host!' At the word host, Margarita +raised her eyes, and saw a stranger, who had followed her master. Her +countenance changed, and she looked annoyed. She glanced indignantly +first at the unknown, and then at the priest, who, looking down, said +in a low voice, and with the timidity of a child: 'What is enough for +two, is always enough for three; and surely you would not wish that I +should allow a Christian to die of hunger? He has not tasted food for +two days.' + +'A Christian! He is more like a brigand!' and Margarita left the room +murmuring loudly enough to be heard. + +Meanwhile, the unwelcome guest had remained standing at the door. He +was a man of great height, half-dressed in rags, and covered with mud; +while his black hair, piercing eyes, and carbine, gave him an +appearance which, though hardly prepossessing, was certainly +interesting. 'Must I go?' said he. + +The priest replied with an emphatic gesture: 'Those whom I bring under +my roof are never driven forth, and are never unwelcome. Put down your +carbine. Let us say grace, and go to table.' + +'I never leave my carbine, for, as the Castilian proverb says, "Two +friends are one." My carbine is my best friend; and I always keep it +beside me. Although you allow me to come into your house, and do not +oblige me to leave it until I wish to do so, there are others who +would think nothing of hauling me out, and, perhaps, with my feet +foremost. Come--to your good health, mine host, and let us to supper.' + +The priest possessed an extremely good appetite, but the voracity of +the stranger soon obliged him to give up, for, not contented with +eating, or rather devouring, nearly the whole of the olla-podriga, the +guest finished a large loaf of bread, without leaving a crumb. While +he ate, he kept continually looking round with an expression of +inquietude: he started at the slightest sound; and once, when a +violent gust of wind made the door bang, he sprang to his feet, and +seized his carbine, with an air which shewed that, if necessary, he +would sell his life dearly. Discovering the cause of the alarm, he +reseated himself at table, and finished his repast. + +'Now,' said he, 'I have one thing more to ask. I have been wounded, +and for eight days my wound has not been dressed. Give me a few old +rags, and you shall be no longer burdened with my presence.' + +'I am in no haste for you to go,' replied the priest, whose guest, +notwithstanding his constant watchfulness, had conversed very +entertainingly. 'I know something of surgery, and will dress your +wound.' + +So saying, he took from a cupboard a case containing everything +necessary, and proceeded to do as he had said. The stranger had bled +profusely, a ball having passed through his thigh; and to have +travelled in this condition, and while suffering, too, from want of +food, shewed a strength which seemed hardly human. + +'You cannot possibly continue your journey to-day,' said the host. +'You must pass the night here. A little rest will get up your +strength, diminish the inflammation of your wound, and'---- + +'I must go to-day, and immediately,' interrupted the stranger. 'There +are some who wait for me,' he added with a sigh--'and there are some, +too, who follow me.' And the momentary look of softness passed from +his features between the clauses of the sentence, and gave place to an +expression almost of ferocity. 'Now, is it finished? That is well. +See, I can walk as firmly as though I had never been wounded. Give me +some bread; pay yourself for your hospitality with this piece of gold, +and adieu.' + +The priest put back the gold with displeasure. 'I am not an +innkeeper,' said he; 'and I do not sell my hospitality.' + +'As you will, but pardon me; and now, farewell, my kind host.' + +So saying, he took the bread, which Margarita, at her master's +command, very unwillingly gave him, and soon his tall figure +disappeared among the thick foliage of a wood which surrounded the +house, or rather the cabin. An hour had scarcely passed, when +musket-shots were heard close by, and the unknown reappeared, deadly +pale, and bleeding from a deep wound near the heart. + +'Take these,' said he, giving some pieces of gold to his late host; +'they are for my children--near the stream--in the valley.' + +He fell, and the next moment several police-officers rushed into the +house. They hastily secured the unfortunate man, who attempted no +resistance. The priest entreated to be allowed to dress his wound, +which they permitted; but when this was done, they insisted on +carrying him away immediately. They would not even procure a carriage; +and when they were told of the danger of removing a man so severely +wounded, they merely said: 'What does it matter? If he recovers, it +will only be to receive sentence of death. He is the famous brigand, +Jose!' + +Jose thanked the intercessor with a look. He then asked for a little +water, and when the priest brought it to him, he said in a faint +voice: 'Remember!' The reply was merely a sign of intelligence. When +they were gone, notwithstanding all Margarita could say as to the +danger of going out at night, the priest crossed the wood, descended +into the valley, and soon found, beside the body of a woman, who had +doubtless been killed by a stray ball of the police, an infant, and a +little boy of about four years old, who was trying in vain to awaken +his mother. Imagine Margarita's amazement when the priest returned +with two children in his arms. + +'May all good saints defend us! What have you done, senor? We have +barely enough to live upon, and you bring two children! I suppose I +must beg from door to door, for you and for them. And, for mercy's +sake, who are these children? The sons of that brigand, gipsy, thief, +murderer, perhaps! I am sure they have never been baptised!' At this +moment the infant began to cry. 'And pray, Senor Clerigo, how do you +mean to feed that child? You know very well that we have no means of +paying a nurse. We must spoon-feed it, and nice nights that will give +me! It cannot be more than six months old, poor little creature,' she +added, as her master placed it in her arms. 'Fortunately, I have a +little milk here;' and forgetting her anger, she busied herself in +putting some milk on the fire, and then sat down beside it to warm the +infant, who seemed half-frozen. Her master watched her in silence, and +when at last he saw her kiss its little cheek, he turned away with a +quiet smile. + +When at length the little one had been hushed into a gentle slumber, +and when Margarita, with the assistance of her master's cloak, and +some of her own clothes, had made a bed for the elder boy, and placed +him in it, the good man told her how the children had been committed +to his care, and the promise he had made, though not in words, to +protect them. + +'That is very right and good, no doubt,' said Margarita; 'I only want +to know how we are all to live?' The priest opened his Bible, and read +aloud: + +'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of +cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward.' + +'Amen!' said Margarita. + +Twelve years passed by. The parish priest of San Pietro, who was now +more than seventy years old, was sitting in the sunshine at his door. +Near him, a boy of about twelve years old was reading aloud from the +Bible, looking occasionally towards a tall, fine-looking young man, +who was hard at work in a garden close by. Margarita, who was now +become blind, sat and listened. Suddenly, the sound of wheels was +heard, and the boy exclaimed: 'Oh! the beautiful carriage!' A splendid +carriage approached rapidly, and stopped before the door. A +richly-dressed servant approached, and asked for a cup of water for +his master. + +'Carlos,' said the priest to the younger boy, 'go, bring water to the +gentleman; and add some wine, if he will accept it. Go quickly!' At +this moment, the carriage-door opened, and a gentleman, apparently +about fifty years old, alighted. + +'Are these your nephews?' said he to the priest. + +'They are more than that, senor; they are my children--the children of +my adoption.' + +'How is that?' + +'I will tell you, senor; for I am old and poor, and know but little of +the world, and am in much need of advice; for I know not what to do +with these two children.' He related the story we have just told. 'And +now, senor, what do you advise me to do?' + +'Apply to one of the nobles of the court, who must assign you a +pension of four thousand ducats.' + +'I asked you for advice, senor, and not for jest.' + +'And then, your church must be rebuilt. We will call it the Church of +the Cup of Cold Water. Here is the plan. See, this is to be the +vicarage; and here, divided by this paling'---- + +'What does this mean? What would you say? And, surely, I remember that +voice, that face'---- + +'I am Don Jose della Ribeira; and twelve years ago, I was the brigand +Jose. I escaped from prison; and--for the revolution made great +changes--am now powerful. My children'---- + +He clasped them in his arms. And when at length he had embraced them a +hundred times, with tears, and smiles, and broken sentences; and when +all had in some degree recovered their composure, he took the hand of +the priest and said: 'Well, father, will you not accept the Church of +the Cup of Cold Water?' The old man, deeply affected, turned to +Margarita, and repeated: + +'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of +cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward.' + +'Amen!' replied the aged woman, her voice tremulous from emotion. + +A short time afterwards, Don Jose della Ribeira and his +two sons were present at the consecration of the church of +San-Pietro-del-Vaso-di-Aqua-Fria, one of the prettiest churches in the +neighbourhood of Sevilla. + + + + +MUSIC-GRINDERS OF THE METROPOLIS. + + +Perhaps the pleasantest of all the out-door accessories of a London +life are the strains of fugitive music which one hears in the quiet +by-streets or suburban highways--strains born of the skill of some of +our wandering artists, who, with flute, violin, harp, or brazen tube +of various shape and designation, make the brick-walls of the busy +city responsive with the echoes of harmony. Many a time and oft have +we lingered entranced by the witchery of some street Orpheus, +forgetful, not merely of all the troubles of existence, but of +existence itself, until the strain had ceased, and silence aroused us +to the matter-of-fact world of business. One blind fiddler, we know +him well, with face upturned towards the sky, has stood a public +benefactor any day these twenty years, and we know not how much +longer, to receive the substantial homage of the music-loving million. +But that he is scarcely old enough, he might have been the identical +Oxford-Street Orpheus of Wordsworth:-- + + 'His station is there; and he works on the crowd, + He sways them with harmony merry and loud; + He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim-- + Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him?' + +Decidedly not--there is nothing to match it; and so thinks 'the +one-pennied boy' who spares him his one penny, and deems it well +bestowed. Then there are the harpers, with their smooth +French-horn-breathing and piccola-piping comrades, who at the soothing +hour of twilight affect the tranquil and retired paved courts or snug +enclosures far from the roar and rumble of chariot-wheels, where, +clustered round with lads and lasses released from the toils of the +day, they dispense romance and sentiment, and harmonious cadences, in +exchange for copper compliments and the well-merited applause of fit +audiences, though few. Again, there are the valorous brass-bands of +the young Germans, who blow such spirit-stirring appeals from their +travel-worn and battered tubes--to say nothing of the thousand +performers of solos and duets, who, wherever there is the chance of a +moment's hearing, are ready to attempt their seductions upon our ears +to the prejudice of our pockets. All these we must pass over with this +brief mention upon the present occasion; our business being with their +numerous antitheses and would-be rivals--the incarnate nuisances who +fill the air with discordant and fragmentary mutilations and +distortions of heaven-born melody, to the distraction of educated ears +and the perversion of the popular taste. + +'Music by handle,' as it has been facetiously termed, forms our +present subject. This kind of harmony, which is not too often +deserving of the name, still constitutes, notwithstanding the large +amount of indisputable talent which derives its support from the +gratuitous contributions of the public, by far the larger portion of +the peripatetic minstrelsy of the metropolis. It would appear that +these grinders of music, with some few exceptions which we shall +notice as we proceed, are distinguished from their praiseworthy +exemplars, the musicians, by one remarkable, and to them perhaps very +comfortable characteristic. Like the exquisite Charles Lamb--if his +curious confession was not a literary myth--they have ears, but no +ear, though they would hardly be brought to acknowledge the fact so +candidly as he did. They may be divided, so far as our observation +goes, into the following classes:--1. Hand-organists; 2. +Monkey-organists; 3. Handbarrow-organists; 4. Handcart-organists; 5. +Horse-and-cart-organists; 6. Blindbird-organists; 7. Piano-grinders; +8. Flageolet-organists and pianists; 9. Hurdy-gurdy players. + +1. The hand-organist is most frequently a Frenchman of the +departments, nearly always a foreigner. If his instrument be good for +anything, and he have a talent for forming a connection, he will be +found to have his regular rounds, and may be met with any hour in the +week at the same spot he occupied at that hour on the week previous. +But a man so circumstanced is at the head of the vagabond profession, +the major part of whom wander at their own sweet will wherever chance +may guide. The hand-organ which they lug about varies in value from +L.10 to L.150--at least, this last-named sum was the cost of a +first-rate instrument thirty years ago, such as were borne about by +the street-organists of Bath, Cheltenham, and the fashionable +watering-places, and the grinders of the West End of London at that +period, when musical talent was much less common than it is now. We +have seen a contract for repairs to one of these instruments, +including a new stop and new barrels, amounting to the liberal sum of +L.75: it belonged to a man who had grown so impudent in prosperity, as +to incur the penalty of seven years' banishment from the town in which +he turned his handle, for the offence of thrashing a young nobleman, +who stood between him and his auditors too near for his sense of +dignity. Since the invention of the metal reed, however, which, under +various modifications and combinations, supplies the sole utterance of +the harmonicon, celestina, seraphina, colophon, accordian, concertina, +&c. &c. and which does away with the necessity for pipes, the street +hand-organ has assumed a different and infinitely worse character. +Some of them yet remain what the old Puritans called 'boxes of +whistles'--that is, they are all pipes; but many of them might with +equal propriety be called 'boxes of Jews-harps,' being all reeds, or +rather vibrating metal tongues--and more still are of a mixed +character, having pipes for the upper notes, and metal reeds for the +bass. The effect is a succession of sudden hoarse brays as an +accompaniment to a soft melody, suggesting the idea of a duet between +Titania and Bottom. But this is far from the worst of it. The +profession of hand-organist having of late years miserably declined, +being in fact at present the next grade above mendicancy, the element +of cheapness has, per force, been studied in the manufacture of the +instrument. The barrels of some are so villainously pricked that the +time is altogether broken, the ear is assailed with a minim in the +place of a quaver, and _vice versa_--and occasionally, as a matter of +convenience, a bar is left out, or even one is repeated, in utter +disregard of suffering humanity. But what is worse still, these metal +reeds, which are the most untunable things in the whole range of +sound-producing material, are constantly, from contact with fog and +moisture, getting out of order; and howl dolorously as they will in +token of their ailments, their half-starved guardian, who will grind +half an hour for a penny, cannot afford to medicate their pains, even +if he is aware of them, which, judging from his placid composure +during the most infamous combination of discords, is very much to be +questioned.[1] + +2. The monkey-organist is generally a native of Switzerland or the +Tyrol. He carries a worn-out, doctored, and flannel-swathed +instrument, under the weight of which, being but a youth, or very +rarely an adult, he staggers slowly along, with outstretched back and +bended knees. On the top of his old organ sits a monkey, or sometimes +a marmoset, to whose queer face and queerer tricks, he trusts for +compensating the defective quality of his music. He dresses his +shivering brute in a red jacket and a cloth cap; and, when he can, he +teaches him to grind the organ, to the music of which he will himself +dance wearily. He wears an everlasting smile upon his countenance, +indicative of humour, natural and not assumed for the occasion: and +though he invariably unites the profession of a beggar with that of +monkey-master and musician, he has evidently no faith in a melancholy +face, and does not think it absolutely necessary to make you +thoroughly miserable in order to excite your charity. He will leave +his monkey grinding away on a door-step, and follow you with a +grinning face for a hundred yards or more, singing in a kind of +recitative: 'Date qualche cosa, signer! per amor di Dio, eccellenza, +date qualche cosa!' If you comply with his request, his voluble thanks +are too rapid for your comprehension; and if you refuse, he laughs +merrily in your face as he turns away to rejoin his friend and +coadjutor. He is a favourite subject with the young artists about +town, especially if he is very good-looking, or, better still, +excessively ugly; and he picks up many a shilling for sitting, +standing, or sprawling on the ground, as a model in the studio. It +sometimes happens that he has no organ--his monkey being his only +stock in trade. When the monkey dies--and one sees by their melancholy +comicalities, and cautious and painful grimaces, that the poor brutes +are destined to a short time of it--he takes up with white mice, or, +lacking these, constructs a dancing-doll, which, with the aid of a +short plank with an upright at one end, to which is attached a cord +passing through the body of the doll, and fastened to his right leg, +he keeps constantly on the jig, to the music of a tuneless +tin-whistle, bought for a penny, and a very primitive parchment tabor, +manufactured by himself. These shifts he resorts to in the hope of +retaining his independence and personal freedom--failing to succeed in +which, he is driven, as a last resource, to the comfortless drudgery +of piano-grinding, which we shall have to notice in its turn. + +3. The handbarrow-organist is not uncommonly some lazy Irishman, if he +be not a sickly Savoyard, who has mounted his organ upon a handbarrow +of light and somewhat peculiar construction, for the sake of +facilitating the task of locomotion. From the nature of his equipage, +he is not given to grinding so perpetually as his heavily-burdened +brethren. He cannot of course grind, as they occasionally do, as he +travels along, so he pursues a different system of tactics. He walks +leisurely along the quiet ways, turning his eyes constantly to the +right and left, on the look-out for a promising opening. The sight of +a group of children at a parlour-window brings him into your front +garden, where he establishes his instrument with all the deliberation +of a proprietor of the premises. He is pretty sure to begin his +performance in the middle of a tune, with a hiccoughing kind of sound, +as though the pipes were gasping for breath. He puts a sudden period +to his questionable harmony the very instant he gets his penny, having +a notion, which is tolerably correct, that you pay him for his silence +and not for his sounds. In spite of his discordant gurglings and +squealings, he is welcomed by the nursery-maids and their infant +tribes of little sturdy rogues in petticoats, who flock eagerly round +him, and purchase the luxury of a half-penny grind, which they perform +_con amore_, seated on the top of his machine. If, when your front +garden is thus invaded, you insist upon his decamping without a fee, +he shews his estimate of the peace and quietness you desiderate by his +unwillingness to retire, which, however, he at length consents to do, +though not without a muttered remonstrance, delivered with the air of +an injured man. He generally contrives to house himself as night draws +on in some dingy taproom, appertaining to the lowest class of +Tom-and-Jerry shops, where, for a few coppers and 'a few beer,' he +will ring all the changes on his instrument twenty times over, until +he and his admiring auditors are ejected at midnight by the +police-fearing landlord. + +4. The handcart-organists are a race of a very different and more +enterprising character, and of much more lofty and varied pretensions. +They generally travel in firms of two, three, or even four partners, +drawing the cart by turns. Their equipage consists of an organ of very +complicated construction, containing, besides a deal of very +marvellous machinery within its entrails, a collection of bells, +drums, triangles, gongs, and cymbals, in addition to the usual +quantity of pipes and metal-reeds that go to make up the travelling +organ. The music they play is of a species which it is not very easy +to describe, as it is not once in a hundred times that a stranger can +detect the melody through the clash and clangor of the gross amount of +brass, steel, and bell-metal put in vibration by the machinery. This, +however, is of very little consequence, as it is not the music in +particular which forms the principal attraction: if it serve to call a +crowd together, that is sufficient for their purpose; and it is for +this reason, we imagine, that the effect of the whole is contrived to +resemble, as it very closely does, the hum and jangle of Greenwich +Fair when heard of an Easter Monday from the summit of the Observatory +Hill. No, the main attraction is essentially dramatic. In front of the +great chest of heterogeneous sounds there is a stage about five or six +feet in width, four in height, and perhaps eighteen inches or two feet +in depth. Upon this are a variety of figures, about fourteen inches +long, gorgeously arrayed in crimson, purple, emerald-green, blue, and +orange draperies, and loaded with gold and tinsel, and sparkling +stones and spangles, all doubled in splendour by the reflection of a +mirror in the background. The figures, set in motion by the same +machinery which grinds the incomprehensible overture, perform a drama +equally incomprehensible. At the left-hand corner is Daniel in the +lion's den, the lion opening his mouth in six-eight time, and an angel +with outspread wings, but securely transfixed through the loins by a +revolving brass pivot, shutting it again to the same lively movement. +To the right of Daniel is the Grand Turk, seated in his divan, and +brandishing a dagger over a prostrate slave, who only ventures to rise +when the dagger is withdrawn. Next to him is Nebuchadnezzar on all +fours, eating painted grass, with a huge gold crown on his head, which +he bobs for a bite every other bar. In the right-hand corner is a sort +of cavern, the abode of some supernatural and mysterious being of the +fiend or vampire school, who gives an occasional fitful start, and +turns an ominous-looking green glass-eye out upon the spectators. All +these are in the background. In the front of the stage stands +Napoleon, wearing a long sword and cocked hat, and the conventional +gray smalls--his hand of course stuck in his breast. At his right are +Tippoo Saib and his sons, and at his left, Queen Victoria and Prince +Albert. After a score or so of bars, the measure of the music suddenly +alters--Daniel's guardian angel flies off--the prophet and the lion +lie down to sleep together--the Grand Turk sinks into the arms of the +death-doomed slave. Nebuchadnezzar falls prostrate on the ground, and +the fiend in the gloomy cavern whips suddenly round and glares with +his green eye, as if watching for a spring upon the front row of +actors, who have now taken up their cue and commenced their +performance. Napoleon, Tippoo Saib, and Queen Victoria, dance a +three-handed reel, to the admiration of Prince Albert and a group of +lords and ladies in waiting, who nod their heads approvingly--when +br'r'r! crack! bang! at a tremendous crash of gongs and grumbling of +bass-notes, the fiend in the corner rushes forth from his lair with a +portentous howl. Away, neck or nothing, flies Napoleon, and Tippoo +scampers after him, followed by the terrified attendants; but lo! at +the precise nick of time, Queen Victoria draws a long sword from +beneath her stays, while up jumps the devouring beast from the den of +the prophet, and like a true British lion--as he doubtless was all the +while--flies at the throat of the fiend, straight as an arrow to its +mark. Then follows a roar of applause from the discriminating +spectators, amidst which the curtain falls, and, with an extra +flourish of music, the collection of copper coin commences. This is +always a favourite spectacle with the multitude, who never bother +themselves about such trifles as anachronisms and unities; and the +only difficulty the managers have to overcome in order to insure a +remunerative exhibition, is that of finding a quiet locality, which +shall yet be sufficiently frequented to insure them an audience. There +are equipages of this description of very various pretensions and +perfection, but they all combine the allurements of music and the +drama in a greater or less degree. + +5. The horse-and-cart-organists are a race of enterprising +speculators, who, relying upon the popular penchant for music, have +undertaken to supply the demand by wholesale. It is impossible by mere +description to impart an adequate idea of the truly appalling and +tremendous character of their performances. Their machines are some of +them vast structures, which, mounted upon stout wheels, and drawn by a +couple of serviceable horses, might be mistaken for wild-beast vans. +They are crammed choke-full with every known mechanical contrivance +for the production of ear-stunning noises. Wherever they burst forth +into utterance, the whole parish is instantly admonished of their +whereabouts, and, with the natural instinct of John Bull for a row--no +matter how it originates--forth rushes the crowd to enjoy the +dissonance. The piercing notes of a score of shrill fifes, the squall +of as many clarions, the hoarse bray of a legion of tin trumpets, the +angry and fitful snort of a brigade of rugged bassoons, the +unintermitting rattle of a dozen or more deafening drums, the clang of +bells firing in peals, the boom of gongs, with the sepulchral roar of +some unknown contrivance for bass, so deep that you might almost count +the vibrations of each note--these are a few of the components of the +horse-and-cart-organ, the sum-total of which it is impossible to add +up. Compared to the vicinity of a first-rater in full blow, the inside +of a menagerie at feeding-time would be a paradise of tranquillity and +repose. The rattle and rumble of carts and carriages, which drive the +professors and possessors of milder music to the side-streets and +suburbs, sink into insignificance when these cataracts of uproar begin +to peal forth; and their owners would have no occasion to seek an +appropriate spot for their volcanic eruptions, were it not that the +police, watchful against accident, have warned them from the principal +thoroughfares, where serious consequences have already ensued through +the panic occasioned to horses from the continuous explosion of such +unwonted sounds. In fact, an honourable member of the Commons' House +of Parliament made a motion in the House, towards the close of the +last session, for the immediate prohibition of these monster +nuisances, and quoted several cases of alarm and danger to life of +which they had been the originating cause. These formidable erections +are for the most part the property and handiwork of the men who travel +with them, and who must levy a pretty heavy contribution on the public +to defray their expenses. They perform entire overtures and long +concerted pieces, being furnished with spiral barrels, and might +probably produce a tolerable effect at the distance of a mile or +so--at least we never heard one yet without incontinently wishing it a +mile off. By a piece of particular ill-fortune, we came one day upon +one undergoing the ceremony of tuning, on a piece of waste-ground at +the back of Coldbath Prison. The deplorable wail of those tortured +pipes and reeds, and the short savage grunt of the bass mystery, +haunted us, a perpetual day-and-night-mare, for a month. We could not +help noticing, however, that the jauntily-dressed fellow, whose +fingers were covered with showy rings, and ears hung with long drops, +who performed the operation, managed it with consummate skill, and +with an ear for that sort of music most marvellously discriminating. + +6. Blind bird-organists. Though most blind persons either naturally +possess or soon acquire an ear for music, there are yet numbers who, +from the want of it or from some other cause, never make any +proficiency as performers on an instrument. Blindness, too, is often +accompanied with some other disability, which disqualifies its victims +for learning such trades as they might otherwise be taught. Hence +many, rather than remain in the workhouse, take to grinding music in +the streets. Here we are struck with one remarkable fact: the +Irishman, the Frenchman, the Italian, or the Savoyard, at least so +soon as he is a man, and able to lug it about, is provided with an +instrument with which he can make a noise in the world, and prefer his +clamorous claim for a recompense; while the poor blind Englishman has +nothing but a diminutive box of dilapidated whistles, which you may +pass fifty times without hearing it, let him grind as hard as he will. +It is generally nothing more than an old worn-out bird-organ, in all +likelihood charitably bestowed by some compassionate Poll +Sweedlepipes, who has already used it up in the education of his +bull-finches. The reason, we opine, must be that the major part, if +not the whole, of the peripatetic instruments of the metropolis are +the property of speculators, who let them out on hire, and that the +blind man, not being considered an eligible customer, is precluded +from the advantage of their use. However this may be, the poor blind +grinder is almost invariably found furnished as we have described him, +jammed up in some cranny or corner in a third-rate locality, where, +having opened or taken off the top of his box, that the curious +spectator may behold the mystery of his too quiet music--the revolving +barrel, the sobbing bellows, and the twelve leaden and ten wooden +pipes--he turns his monotonous handle throughout the live-long day, in +the all but vain appeal for the commiseration of his fellows. This is +really a melancholy spectacle, and one which we would gladly miss +altogether in our casual rounds. + +7. The piano-grinders are by far the most numerous of the +handle-turning fraternity. The instrument they carry about with them +is familiar to the dwellers in most of the towns in England. It is a +miniature cabinet-piano, without the keys or finger-board, and is +played by similar mechanical means to that which gives utterance to +the hand-organ; but of course it requires no bellows. There is one +thing to be said in favour of these instruments--they do not make much +noise, and consequently are no very great nuisance individually. The +worst thing against them is the fact, that they are never in tune, and +therefore never worth the hearing. After grinding for twelve or +fourteen hours a day for four or five years, they become perfect +abominations; and luckless is the fate of the poor little stranger +condemned to perpetual companionship with a villainous machine, whose +every tone is the cause of offence to those whose charity he must +awaken into exercise, or go without a meal. These instruments are +known to be the property of certain extensive proprietors in the city, +some of whom have hundreds of them grinding daily in every quarter of +the town. Some few are let out on hire--the best at a shilling a day; +the old and worn-out ones as low as two or three pence; but the great +majority of them are ground by young Italians shipped to this country +for the especial purpose by the owners of the instruments. These +descendants of the ancient Romans figure in Britain in a very +different plight from that of their renowned ancestors. They may be +encountered in troops sallying forth from the filthy purlieus of +Leather Lane, at about nine or ten in the morning, each with his +awkward burden strapped to his back, and supporting his steps with a +stout staff, which also serves to support the instrument when playing. +Each one has his appointed beat, and he is bound to bring home a +certain prescribed sum to entitle him to a share in the hot supper +prepared for the evening meal. We have more than once, when startled +by the sound of the everlasting piano within an hour of midnight, +questioned the belated grinder, and invariably received for answer, +that he had not yet been able to collect the sum required of him. +Still there can be no doubt that some of them contrive to save money; +inasmuch as we occasionally see an active fellow set up on his own +account, and furnished with an instrument immensely superior to those +of his less prosperous compatriots. So great is the number of these +wandering Italian pianists, that their condition has attracted the +attention of their more wealthy countrymen, who, in conjunction with a +party of benevolent English gentlemen, have set on foot an association +for the express purpose of imparting instruction to poor Italians of +all grades, of whom the vagabond musicians form the largest section. + +It is easy to recognise the rule adopted in the distribution of the +instruments among the grinders: the stoutest fellow, or he who can +take the best care of it, gets the best piano; while the shattered and +rickety machine goes to the urchin of ten or twelve, who can scarcely +drag it a hundred yards without resting. It is to be supposed that the +instruments are all rated according to their quality. There is at this +moment wandering about the streets of London a singular and pitiable +object, whose wretched lot must be known to hundreds of thousands, and +who affords in his own person good evidence of the strictness of the +rule above alluded to, as well as of the rigour with which the trade +is carried on. We refer to a ragged, shirtless, and harmlessly insane +Italian lad, who, under the guardianship of one of the piano-mongers, +is driven forth daily into the streets, carrying a blackened and +gutted, old piano-case, in which two strings only of the original +scale remain unbroken. The poor unwashed innocent transports himself +as quickly as possible to the genteelest neighbourhood he can find, +and with all the enthusiasm of a Jullien, commences his monotonous +grind. Three turns of the handle, and the all but defunct instrument +ejaculates 'tink;' six more inaudible turns, and then the responding +string answers 'tank.' 'Tink--tank' is the sum-total of his +performance, to any defects in which he is as insensible as a blind +man is to colour. As a matter of course, he gets ill-treated, mobbed, +pushed about, and upset by the blackguard scamps about town; and were +it not for the police, who have rescued him times without number from +the hands of his persecutors, he would long ere now have been reduced +to as complete a ruin as his instrument. In one respect, he is indeed +already worse off than the dilapidated piano: he is dumb as well as +silly, and can only utter one sound--a cry of alarm of singular +intensity; this cry forms the climax of pleasure to the wretches who +dog his steps, and this, unmoved by his silent tears and woful looks, +they goad him to shriek forth for their express gratification. We have +stumbled upon him at near eleven at night, grinding away with all his +might in a storm of wind and rain, perfectly unconscious of either, +and evidently delighted at his unusual freedom from interruption. + +8. Flageolet-organists and pianists. It is a pleasure to award praise +where praise is due, and it may be accorded to this class of grinders, +who are, to our minds, the elite of the profession. We stated above +that some of the piano-grinders contrive, notwithstanding their +difficult position, to save money and set up for themselves. It is +inevitable that the faculty of music must be innate with some of these +wandering pianists, and it is but natural that these should succeed +the best, and be the first to improve their condition. The instrument +which combines a flageolet-stop with a piano is generally found in the +possession of young fellows who, by dint of a persevering and savage +economy, have saved sufficient funds to procure it. Indeed, in common +hands, it would be of less use than the commonest instrument, because +it requires frequent--more than daily--tuning, and would therefore be +of no advantage to a man with no ear. Unless the strings were in +strict unison with the pipes, the discordance would be unbearable, and +as this in the open air can hardly be the case for many hours +together, they have to be rectified many times in the course of a +week. As might be reasonably supposed, these instruments are +comparatively few. When set to slow melodies, the flageolet taking the +air, and the piano a well-arranged accompaniment, the effect is really +charming, and, there is little reason to doubt, is found as profitable +to the producer as it is pleasing to the hearer. They are to be met +with chiefly at the west end of the town, and on summer evenings +beneath the lawyers' windows in the neighbourhood of some of the Inns +of Court. + +9. The hurdy-gurdy player. We have placed this genius last, because, +though essentially a most horrid grinder, he, too, is in some sort a +performer. In London, there may be said to be two classes of +them--little hopping, skipping, jumping, reeling Savoyard or Swiss +urchins, who dance and sing, and grind and play, doing, like Caesar, +four things at once, and whom you expect every moment to see rolling +on the pavement, but who continue, like so many kittens, to pitch on +their feet at last, notwithstanding all their antics--and men with +sallow complexions, large dark eyes, and silver ear-rings, who stand +erect and tranquil, and confer a dignity, not to say a grace, even +upon the performance of the hurdy-gurdy. The boys for the most part do +not play any regular tune, having but few keys to their instruments, +often not even a complete octave. The better instruments of the adult +performers have a scale of an octave and a half, and sometimes two +octaves, and they perform melodies and even harmonies with something +like precision, and with an effect which, to give it its due praise, +supplies a very tolerable caricature of the Scotch bagpipes. These +gentry are not much in favour either with the genuine lovers of music +or the lovers of quiet, and they know the fact perfectly well. They +hang about the crowded haunts of the common people, and find their +harvest in a vulgar jollification, or an extempore 'hop' at the door +of a suburban public-house on a summer night. There are a few +old-women performers on this hybrid machine, one of whom is familiar +to the public through the dissemination of her _vera effigies_ in a +contemporary print. + +The above are all the grinders which observation has enabled us to +identify as capable of classification. The reader may, if he likes, +suppose them to be the metropolitan representatives of the nine +Muses--and that, in fact, in some sort they are, seeing that they are +the embodiments to a certain extent of the musical tastes of a section +at least of the inhabitants of London; though, if we are asked which +is Melpomene? which is Thalia? &c. &c. we must adopt the reply of the +showman to the child who asked which was the lion and which was the +dog, and received for answer: 'Whichever you like, my little dear.' + +With respect to all these grinders, one thing is remarkable: they are +all, with the exception of a small savour of Irishmen, foreigners. +Scarcely one Englishman, not one Scot, will be found among the whole +tribe; and this fact is as welcome to us as it is singular, because it +speaks volumes in favour of the national propensity, of which we have +reason to be proud, to be ever doing something, producing something, +applying labour to its legitimate purpose, and not turning another +man's handle to grind the wind. Yet there is, alas! a scattered and +characteristic tribe of vagabond English music-grinders, and to these +we must turn a moment's attention ere we finally close the list. +We must call them, for we know no more appropriate name, +cripple-grinders. It is impossible to carry one's explorations very +far through the various districts of London without coming upon one or +more samples of this unfortunate tribe. Commerce maims and mutilates +her victims as effectually as war, though not in equal numbers; and +men and lads without arms, or without legs, or without either, and men +doubled up and distorted, and blasted blind and hideous with +gunpowder, who have yet had the misfortune to escape death, are left +without limbs or eyesight, often with shattered intellects, to fight +the battle of life, at fearful odds. Had they been reduced to a like +miserable condition while engaged in killing their fellow-creatures on +the field of battle or on the deck of carnage, a grateful country +would have housed them in a palace, and abundantly supplied their +every want; but they were merely employed in procuring the necessaries +of life for their fellows in the mine or the factory, and as nobody +owes them any gratitude for that, they must do what they can. And +behold what they do: they descend, being fit for nothing else, to the +level of the foreign music-grinder, and, mounted on a kind of +bed-carriage, are drawn about the streets of London by their wives or +children; being furnished with a blatant hand-organ of last century's +manufacture, whose ear-torturing growl draws the attention of the +public to their woful plight, they extort that charity which would +else fail to find them out. If there be something gratifying in the +fact, that this is the only class of Britons who follow such an +inglorious profession, there is nothing very flattering in the +consideration, that even these are compelled to it by inexorable +necessity. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Among some of the continental nations, Justice, though blind, is +not supposed to be deaf; she has, on the contrary, a musical ear, and +compels the various grinders of harmony to keep their instruments in +tune, under the penalty of a heavy fine. In some of the German cities, +the police have summary jurisdiction in offences musical, and are +empowered to demand a certificate, with which every grinder is bound +to be furnished, shewing the date of the last tuning of his +instrument. If he perpetrate false harmony, and his certificate be run +out, he is mulcted in the fine. Such a by-law would be a real bonus in +London. + + + + +A VOICE FROM THE DIGGINGS. + + +The voices that have come from the diggings in California and +Australia have hitherto been so loud and so many, that they have +served only to confuse. We have the image before our fancy of a vast +crowd of human beings hastening over seas and deserts towards certain +geographical points, where they meet, struggle, fix. We see them +picking up lumps of gold from the surface, or digging them out of the +earth, or collecting the glittering dust by sifting and washing; and +then we hear of vast torrents of the precious metal finding their way +into Europe, threatening to swamp us all with absolute wealth, and +confound and travesty the whole monetary transactions of the world. +What we don't see, is the gold itself. We should like, if it were only +out of curiosity, to feel a handful of it in our pocket: but we grope +in vain. A sovereign costs twenty shillings, as before; and twenty +shillings are as hard to come at as ever. Nevertheless, we believe in +the unseen presence of that slave-genius, who lends himself, with a +sickly smile, to the service of mankind, and buys when we think he is +sold! We have faith in bills of lading, and accept without question +any amount that is reported to lie dormant in the reservoir of the +Bank of England: only we wonder in private whether the importations of +the precious metal are likely to increase permanently in greater +proportion than the population in this quarter of the globe, and the +spread of taste, comfort, and luxury, calling every day new arts into +existence, perfecting old ones, and distributing wealth throughout the +constantly widening circle of talent and industry. + +But our present business is with the diggings and the diggers. We have +often wished we could interrogate one of those unquiet spirits in the +manner of Macbeth--'What is't ye do?' How do you manage? By what signs +do you know a locality that is likely to repay your pains? What are +your instruments, your machinery? What do you conceive to be the +prospects of your singular trade? And, in fact, our curiosity is at +this moment to a certain extent gratified: a Voice has been wafted +across the ocean to our private ear, and, undisturbed by the thousand +other tongues of the diggings, we can listen to an account, distinct +so far as it goes, of the whole process of gold-hunting. The voice +emanates from Mr S. Rutter, of Sydney, whose experience has lain both +in the Californian and Australian mines, and we propose putting +together, in as intelligible a way as we can, the rough hints with +which we have been favoured. + +Mr Rutter, on the 24th of May last, left Sydney for the Ophir +diggings, with a party, including himself, of four individuals. A +sleeping partner remained behind, whose duty it was to furnish the +means of conveyance for the first trip; but the four travellers +entered with each other into a more precise agreement, the chief +articles of which we give, as being common in such adventures:-- + +I. We solemnly agree to stand by each other in all circumstances. + +II. Each man is to come provided with firearms. + +III. The capital is to be contributed equally, or credit given, as may +be agreed to by the majority. + +IV. The profit or loss to be equally divided. + +V. In the event of death or disablement occurring to any of the party, +his share of the stock and profits is to be immediately handed over to +his friends. + +On this paction being signed, the party set forth, provided with +L.100 worth of goods, a cart and a team of horses, and reached +Paramatta, a distance of eighteen miles, the first night, although +they were obliged to send back one of the horses, which had proved to +be useless. Here Mr Rutter slept in a bed for the last time during +four months; and the next day, having purchased another horse, and +sold some of their goods to lighten the wagon, they set forth again +towards evening. The road was nothing more than a dray-track, to which +the horses were unequal; and after proceeding a few miles, they were +detained at the village of Prospect for a week, till one of the +partners had returned to Sydney, and brought back a pair of +bush-horses and a new cart. As they proceeded the next day, they found +the track over which they travelled become more and more populous; +till, on crossing the Macquarrie, they encamped in the midst of +thirteen teams of cattle and their thirteen companies, all bound upon +the same errand as themselves. + +On the 12th of June, in the dusk of the evening, they reached the +summit of a hill overlooking their destination. The Summerhill Creek +lay before them, with the camp-fires of fifty or sixty huts; and as +they descended into the midst, the inhabitants of this village of the +desert were returning from work with laughter and rude merriment. +After pitching their camp, and taking some refreshment, they proceeded +anxiously to inquire the news; and that night they turned in with no +very bright anticipations, after learning that the creek was high and +goods low, the weather alternating between rain and frost, the mines +overcrowded, and superfluous hands deserting them fast. They struggled +for awhile against these evil auguries; they even contrived, with +great labour, to pick up an ounce or two of gold; but at length, +losing heart, the party broke up on the 23d, and all went home but our +adventurer. + +His geological and mechanical knowledge enabled him to obtain a +partnership with another band of gold-hunters then at work; and after +spending some days in _prospecting_ on account of the new concern, he +found 'a chink he liked the look of,' which appeared to have been +partially worked. Licences were accordingly taken out, the +commissioner being on the spot, and forty-five feet of frontage to the +creek were marked off. As soon as the river became a little lower, +they began in earnest to dig a race for turning the course of the +water. Their pump was made and fixed ready to drain; a dam was +emptied; six ounces of gold were obtained as an earnest of what they +might expect; and then it began to rain, and the creek to roar, and +the whole of their machinery was swept away. + +Here was a new mishap: but these things will happen in the diggings; +and so our adventurers, agreeing to pay the commissioner a monthly +licence for their ground, intending to return in the dry weather to +work it, removed bag and baggage to another part of the river. Here +they dug away, but it appears with no tempting success; and they took +care to return to the commissioner in time, as they thought, to +implement their monthly bargain. On tendering the money for their +licence, however, they discovered that they were just half an hour too +late, and that the functionary had disposed of their forty-five feet +to another bidder. What to do now? They fell in with a man, an old +friend of Mr Rutter, just setting off on a journey of sixty-two miles +to the north, where he told them a piece of gold had been found +weighing 106 lbs. This invaluable man they instantly took into +partnership, and purchasing fresh horses, they struck their camp, and +followed their new companion across the country, in search of a place +called the Devil's Hole, near the World's End. It is no wonder they +lost their way. As there was no such thing as a road, they were +obliged to transport their goods on the horses' backs; and the +interesting nature of their journey may be guessed at from the fact, +that they had to cross a creek with steep banks sixteen times in the +course of five miles. + +They at length reached the Louisa Diggings, near those quartz-ridges +where, in fact, a 106 lb. lump of gold had been found. They encamped +in the dark; and getting up betimes the next morning, looked eagerly +out on this land of promise. It was a dull, dreary morning, and a +heavy continuous rain plashed upon the earth. About 200 persons were +taking the air in this watery atmosphere, their dress and movements +corresponding well with the aspect of the hour. Some were covered with +an old sack, some with a blanket, some with a dripping cloak, but all +glided slowly about in the rain, with a stick in their hands, and +their eyes fixed upon the ground. These phantoms were gold-hunters; +and the silent company was immediately joined by our adventurers, who +glided and poked like the rest. The ground was new, and during two +days gold was obtained in this way, from a particle the size of a +pin's head to a lump of nearly an ounce. When the surface was +exhausted, digging commenced; but the soil was too tough for the +common cradle, and although rich in gold, it would not repay the +trouble of washing. Upon this, the company broke up, each pursuing his +own way; and our adventurer and another agreed to go down the country +together to Maitland, prospecting on the way. + +The place where the large mass of gold was found is an intersection +between two quartz-ridges, rising from a high table-land in the midst +of a congeries of mountains, offshoots from the range that extends +from Wilson's Point, on the south, to Cape York, on the north. The +clay soil covers many acres below and around the ridges, and wherever +it was prospected by our adventurer, gold was found. On the 12th of +September, he reached Maitland; and here he found a letter awaiting +him, which determined him to choose a new hunting-ground. Some years +before, it seems, a man he knew, who was at that time a shepherd in +the Wellington District, while crossing the country on his master's +business, lost his way in the gullies, and did not find it again for +two days. While sitting down, in his dilemma, on a quartz-rock, he +observed something glittering beside him, and breaking off with his +tomahawk a piece of the stone, he carried it home with him as a +curiosity. At home it lay for years, till the reported discoveries of +gold induced him to offer it for sale to a goldsmith in Sydney. The +result was, that he connected himself with a party of adventurers, and +they all set forth for the place where he had rested among the +gullies. His companions proved treacherous; and when they had come +sufficiently near to be able, as they thought, to find the spot +without his assistance, they turned him adrift. They sought the golden +rock for three days--but in vain; and he went back to Sydney, to +invite Mr Rutter to accompany him. Here ends our narrative for the +present; and a most instructive one it is. The search for gold, our +informant tells us plainly, is a mere lottery, its results depending +almost wholly upon chance. Plenty as the metal is, it frequently costs +twenty shillings the sovereign's worth; and, in short, we are at that +point of transition when the mania is dying away, and the science has +not begun. When capital and skill are brought to bear upon the process +of mining in Australia, it will become a regular, though by no means a +miraculously profitable business; and even at present, steady +labouring-men may spread themselves over thousands of miles of the +auriferous creeks, if they will be satisfied with a profit of seven or +eight shillings a day. + +According to his experience, the place to look for gold is in the +neighbourhood of distinct traces of volcanic action, or in small +streams coming direct from hills of volcanic formation, or rivers fed +by these streams. An abundance of quartz (commonly called spar) is +universally reckoned an indication of the presence of gold; and if +trap-rock is found cropping up amid this quartz, and perforated with +streaks of it, so much the better. Sometimes the solid quartz itself +is pounded, and gold extracted by the aid of quicksilver. When the +gold is found in rivers, or on their banks, prediction is vain: +nothing will do but the actual trial by the wash-pan. But where there +is a bar or sand-bank, the richest deposit will always be on the side +of the bank presented to the descending stream. The metal in such +digging is almost invariably found in small spangles, that appear to +have been granular particles crushed or rolled flat by some enormous +pressure. In California, these spangles were the beginning of the +gold-finding. When the streams and their banks were well searched, the +crowds of adventurers tried, in desperation, what they could do by +digging deep holes in the plains; and there the metal was found in +such different forms as to indicate quite a different process of +deposition. Some of these holes were productive--although it was +severe labour to dig fifteen or eighteen feet through a hard soil +merely as an experiment; and in the course of time the plains were +covered with tents. The influx of adventurers continued; and the old +diggers, dissatisfied with gains that seemed to the new prodigious, +retired further and further back, and began to grope in the terraces +on the sides of volcanic hills, and among the detritus of extinct +craters. Here the harvest was rich, and as the crowning effort of the +gold-passion, unassisted by machinery, they actually in some cases cut +away the sides of the hills! 'My own impression is,' concludes our +informant on this subject, 'that, both in California and Australia, +the chances of individual enterprise, and even of small companies, are +decreasing rapidly; but that when the mines so wrought have ceased to +pay, capital and machinery, directed by science, will receive +profitable employment for ages to come.' + +The wash-pan we have mentioned may be of tin, if not required to be +used with quicksilver, otherwise of copper or wood; but of whatever +material made, it should be some 15 inches in diameter at the top, 10 +or 11 at the bottom, and 5, or 5-1/2 inches deep. The manner of using +this is learned only by practice and observation, and consists in a +peculiar motion, by which the heavier substances sink to the bottom +and remain there, while the soluble and lighter parts are washed out. +The principal use of the wash-pan is in rewashing the partially washed +'stuff' taken from the rocker, and in prospecting to ascertain by +trial the value of a new place. + +This rocker, or cradle, may be made of half-inch softwood, and +consists of a trough 10 inches deep, 18 inches broad, and 4 feet long, +closed at the broad end, and open at the other; with a transverse bar +at the upper part, two feet from the broad end, to receive the tray. +This machine is placed on rockers, like a cradle, and deposited so +near the water that, when at work, the man who rocks with his left +hand may be able to reach the water with a small tin baler, provided +with a wooden handle two feet long. A bucketful of the earth to be +washed is thrown into the tray, and the person who is to rock the +cradle taking a balerful of water, throws it uniformly on the mass in +the tray, and keeps rocking and washing till the gold becomes obvious. +These are the simpler implements of gold-hunting; and provided with +them, the little company of adventurers pitch their tent and continue +to dig, till they come to earth they think will pay for washing. The +next morning, they get up perhaps at daylight, for the sake of the +coolness of the hour, and pass through the sieve ten or fifteen +buckets before breakfast. After breakfast, all hands resume work till +about twelve o'clock, when they dine, then rest through the heat of +the day till three o'clock, and go on again till dark. They usually +divide the work as follows: one in the hole digs, fills the bucket +with earth, and, if necessary, bales the water out of the hole; +another takes the bucket and empties it into the tray of the machine; +while a third rocks, supplies the machine with water, and empties the +tray of the large stones. This, it will be seen, is no child's play: +your gold-hunter is no idle wanderer, but a hard-working man, +subjected to a thousand discomforts unknown in civilised life. + +The quicksilver cradle is a more complicated and expensive machine, +requiring six men instead of three to work it. It is understood, +however, to save at least 20 per cent. of the metal, and indeed to be +indispensable in some places in California, where the gold is in too +fine particles to be detected by the common rocker. Quicksilver has so +strong an affinity for gold, that the minutest particle of the latter +having once touched, it is deprived of the possibility of escape; and +when the process of washing has been completely gone through, the +whole mass of gold particles will be found bound together by the +quicksilver into a compact lump, in size and shape often resembling an +egg. The gold is thus obtained in the form of an amalgam; but the +quicksilver is easily evaporated, if its loss be of no consequence, or +separated without loss by a more scientific process. + +We have more than once used the word _prospecting_, which, we believe, +is peculiar to this kind of mining. The deposits of gold are so +capricious, that the adventurers, in order to lose as little time as +possible in removing from place to place, detach one of their number +on the hunt for a mine--and this is called prospecting. He sets out +with a few provisions, a rifle, a pick and shovel, at all events, with +a pan and large knife; and on reaching some hopeful-looking locality, +he makes experiments on the soil by washing. The considerations that +determine his calling the company to the spot are of course influenced +by the circumstance of their having a common or a quicksilver cradle. +He calculates the average value of the gold he finds in several +panfuls of the soil at different depths; and he takes into account the +distance it has to be carried for washing, the means of transit there +exist, and how far off is the nearest store. The prospector, +therefore, is a very important member of the concern, and in many +cases the success of the adventure depends upon his experience and +sagacity. + + + + +THE HISTORY OF JANE A POOLE. + + +In the latter part of the fourteenth century, an incident occurred in +the family of the Earl of Suffolk, which affords a curious +illustration of old manners in England. We shall follow the account of +the circumstance, given in a manuscript in the British Museum. + +Sir Michel Poole, second Earl of Suffolk, had several sons and +daughters. First was Mighell, son and heir; then William, second son; +and afterwards ten additional olive branches, of diverse names and +both sexes--all of whom, however, died, and went down unmarried to the +cold tomb. Some fell off like nipped blossoms in their infancy; +convents and wars absorbed the rest, till only the eldest two were +left of all that numerous family to perpetuate the name of Poole, and +raise the fortunes of the race. In due course of time, Sir Mighell +married Elizabeth, daughter of the right noble knight, Thomas Duke of +Norfolk; and these together had two children, Jane and Katharine, but, +alas! no son. Years passed on, and the hope of an heir was at an end; +but before that hope was quite laid aside, the tragedy of the house +began. + +Jane, as yet heiress and darling, a round, bright, wilful cherub, +beautiful and loving, but mighty in her passionate force, and +indomitable in her infant will, beyond all power of control--the one +most cared for, and on whom was anchored such a rich argosy of hopes +and first fond love--was one day given into the safe keeping of Maud, +a young serving-girl, a rough, untutored peasant-girl, who was one of +the underwomen to the bower-maidens. The king was coming to the castle +that night, and every female finger that could work was employed on +the last stitches of a dainty tapestry-bed, which was to receive His +Majesty as became his lordly dignity. Even the mother's care must give +way to the housewife's duty; even love must yield to loyalty. + +Left alone in an upper apartment with her young charge, Maud became +weary of confinement, and resolved at all hazards to descend to the +great hall, and have her share of the general amusement. Down, +accordingly, she went. Jane, of course, accompanied her, and, contrary +to orders, was allowed to romp about at pleasure. The day was cold, +and the fire burned brightly in the open hearth. Nearer and nearer the +little one crept to the blazing logs, watching the sparks fly up in a +golden shower when the crackling masses fell to the ground, or when +some rough soldier struck them with his mailed hand. No one looked to +her while she played by the open hearth, and tried to seize the vivid +sparks; once only, a trooper caught her roughly back; but again she +stole towards the great blazing logs, and this time she was less +fortunate. Suddenly, a cry was heard. Jane's clothes were in flames. +Maud extinguished them as she best could. She crushed the burning with +her hands in such haste as she might make; but, alas! to what a wreck +had the fire reduced the child! Her long fair hair was withered to its +roots; her pretty eyes were closed, and the curling lashes scorched to +the skin; her pure neck was blackened and blistered; and, a mass of +pain and sore, she lay like a dead thing, but for the wailing moans +which shewed her sad title yet to a ruined existence. Alas for her +that she did not die! Wo, that life was so strong in her now, when, +blemished and disfigured for ever, she might not hold its honours or +taste its joys!--now, when she must endure a worse thing than death +for the sake of her family name! 'Therefore,' says the chronicle, 'she +was in a manner loathed of her parents, and kept forth secretly from +the common knowledge of the people.' + +'The house of Poole must have no charred mummy for its heiress,' said +old Dame Katharine; and Sir Mighell and his lady bowed their heads and +acquiesced. + +It was agreed, then, that she should be sent to a house of 'close +nuns,' to be made a woman of religion, and so kept out of the sight of +all men's eyes. With this view, she was brought up; taught nothing +else; suffered to hope for nothing else; suffered to speak of nothing +else. But they could not bind her thoughts; and by a strange +perversity of will, these went always to the open fields and the +unfettered limb, to the vague picturing of freedom, and the dreamy +forecast of love. Yet she kept her peace; not daring to tell her mind +to any, and nourishing all the more strongly, because in silence, the +characteristics which destroyed the charm of a conventual life. When +she came to the years of discretion, she was to be professed; but, in +accordance with an old custom, before her profession she required to +enter the world for a season, that her 'vocation' might be judged of, +whether it were true or not, or simply the effect of education on the +one hand, and of ignorance on the other; and thus, when she was +fifteen years of age, she was dismissed to her father's house for the +space of six months' nominal trial, after which time she must return +to the convent for ever. + +Now, Dame Katharine a Poole, Jane's paternal grandmother, was a +fierce, proud old woman, whose heart was set on the creation of her +son's house, and whose very virtue was her family pride. When she +heard of Jane's return to the outer world of men, she hastily rode +over to see this ugly, despised thing, and to take her from her +father's castle to the grim quiet of her own dungeon-like home, if so +be that she was as unlovely as report had spoken her. They met; and +for a moment the proud old dame was struck as by death. The seamed and +scarred face, the closed eyes--one perfectly sightless, the other +well-nigh so--the burnt and withered hair growing in long, ragged +patches only, the awkward gait and downcast look; all were like +daggers in Dame Katharine's heart; and 'she rebuked her greatly, +seeing that she was too loathly for any gentleman who was equal to her +in birth.' + +Poor Jane bore all these coarse reproaches with much outward meekness; +but the spirit which they woke up in her was little interpreted by the +drooping head and tearful eyes. A fiery demon, breathing rage and +vowing revenge, took such meek-seeming as this, and blinded the old +grandam to the mischief she was working, until it was too late to +repair it. Dame Katharine took the girl home; Sir Mighell and his wife +consenting in gratitude to be so well delivered from such a heavy +burden. Dame Elizabeth, the girl's mother, truly shed a few tears, +quickly dried; and so young Jane parted for ever from her father's +house. + +Like a dead thing, revived by the fresh winds of heaven, Jane's +comparative freedom aroused in her the most passionate abhorrence of +the life to which she was destined, and the most passionate desire for +liberty and affection. With each breath she drew by the open casement, +with each glance cast into the depths of the dark woods beyond, rose +up the strong instincts of her age, and turned her for ever from the +convent gate. In vain the dame insisted; Jane stood firm; and declared +that she would still refuse, at the very altar, to take the vow. Yet +was she timid in all things but those of love and liberty; and Dame +Katharine, by violence and threats, so worked on her fears, that she +at last consented, amid grievous tears and bitter reproaches, to be +deprived of her name and state, and given forth to the castle people +as a poor gentlewoman, godchild to the dame. + +'Anything for freedom!' sighed Jane, as she took the oath of secrecy. +'Any deprivation rather than that living tomb of the nun!' + +It was now the dame's chief care to be rid of her charge. She cast +about for suitors, but even the lowest squire shook his head at the +offer. At last, she married her grandchild to the son of an honest +yeoman of Suffolk, and so sent her forth to take her place in the +world as the wife of a common peasant, and the mother of a family of +peasants. Such was the fate allotted to Jane a Poole, daughter of the +proud Earl of Suffolk! + +Of her issue, we need say but little. Suffice it to know, that Jane +and her ploughman William had four children, three sons and one +daughter; of whom William, the second son, married an honest man's +daughter, whose name was Alice Gryse, and whose children were living +in 1490, when this chronicle was written. + +Return we now to the puissant lord, Sir Mighell, Earl of Suffolk. He +was not long suffered to enjoy his home; indeed, so ardent a soul as +his would have eaten its way through his castle walls, as a chrysalis +through its silken tomb, if he had been long inactive. If war had not +been his duty, he must have made it his crime; if foreign foes had not +called upon his valour, too surely would domestic friends have +suffered from his disloyalty. Born for the fight, he would have +fulfilled his destiny by force if he might not by right. At the battle +of Agincourt (1415), he perished along with many other of England's +nobles. + +Sir Mighell having died without a son, his titles and estates went to +his brother, Sir William. Dame Elizabeth, widow of Sir Mighell, and +her daughter Katharine, shortly afterwards, as was usual in these +times, went to reside in the Abbey of Brasenode; and there they +ultimately died. + +Meanwhile, and for years afterwards, no one knew anything of Jane, +who, though exiled from her rank and family, perhaps enjoyed more real +happiness than those who had been guilty of her maltreatment. At +length, her husband died, which was a source of grief. Honest William +had thought her queer in manners; but he loved her for all that, and +was proud of her, as the daughter of a poor gentleman. He blessed her +on his death-bed; and she remained a widow for his sake. Many yeomen +wished to marry her, but she refused them all. This went on for many +years--long after Sir William a Poole had become fourth Earl of +Suffolk, and had had children born to him; long after Alice Gryse had +become Jane's daughter-in-law, and made her more than once a +grandmother too; and then the whole of this strange story became +known. Jane had kept her vow of secrecy with perfect fidelity; never +had she breathed a syllable to her husband or children as to the +family to which she belonged. It was only, late in life, through +confession she made to a priest, that who and what she had been was +revealed. Shocked with the depravity of her unnatural parents, this +pious and learned doctor, says the chronicle, 'commanded her to +publish this account to her children and their issues, that they might +know of what race they came, if so be, by the great mercy of +Providence, they might claim their own again. And not only to them, +but also to make it known to all men, as far as was consistent with +her own safety; for he said, that the great power of Almighty God +should be published to all the world. For this reason was the +chronicle written--that all men might take warning; for no deed of +wickedness is done in the dark, which shall not be dragged forth to +the light; and no oppression on the innocent shall prosper before the +right hand of Eternal Justice.' + + + + +THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON. + + _March 1852._ + + +The lecture experiment at the Museum of Practical Geology, in Jermyn +Street, has proved eminently successful. There were a thousand more +applications for tickets than could be supplied, in consequence of +which the executive very wisely determined, that the course should be +repeated until the demand was satisfied. This fact of numbers speaks +highly in favour of the working-men of London--none others are +admitted to the course here referred to; and once having got the +knowledge, it is to be hoped they will be able to turn it to good +account. One of the lecturers told me, that the hall is always +crowded, and that a better-behaved auditory has seldom been seen in +any quarter, which we may consider to be an encouraging sign of the +times. The other courses are also going on for those who are able to +pay high fees, and attend during the day. The titles of a few of the +lectures will give you an idea of the nature of the instruction +offered; namely--The Relations of Natural History to Geology and the +Arts; On the Value of an Extended Knowledge of Mineralogy and the +Processes of Mining; On the Science of Geology and its Applications; +On the Importance of Special Scientific Knowledge to the Practical +Metallurgist; and On the Importance of Cultivating Habits of +Observation. You must remember, that the institution is a government +school of mines as well as a museum of geology. + +In connection with this, it may be mentioned that the Society of Arts +are discussing a project for the 'affiliation' of all the literary, +philosophical, scientific, and mechanics' institutions throughout the +kingdom, with a view to render them less languid and more beneficial +than too many of them now are. Unity of purpose effected wonders with +the Great Exhibition; and it is thought that the same cause should +produce a similar result in the educational and recreative +establishments alluded to. There is a talk, also, of an assembling of +most of the learned societies of our great city under one roof--a sort +of Palace of Science, which has long been wanting in London, but which +has long existed in Paris. Should this scheme be carried out, the +philosophers might then adopt Brother Jonathan's motto--_E pluribus +unum_. And, next, the Suburban Artisan School of Drawing and +Modelling, established last year at Camden-Town, has succeeded so well +that the committee, with Prince Albert as patron, have determined to +establish four additional schools in our other suburban districts. +These schools are to be open every evening for instruction, at a +charge per month of 2s. No working-man in the metropolis after this +need be ignorant of drawing. Then, again, a 'Department of Practical +Art' is organised in connection with the Board of Trade, which, by +means of travelling and stationary superintendents, and other +officers, is to assist in the development of artistic talent, and its +application to useful purposes, wherever it may be found. + +Co-operation of some sort or other is the order of the day; and now a +good deal of attention is excited by the announcement of an 'Athenaeum +Institute for Authors and Artists,' something different from the Guild +of Literature and Art set afoot last winter, the object being to +endeavour to form an incorporated association of the two classes +mentioned--of course for their common benefit. The aid of the +possessors of rank and wealth is to be asked at starting, because, as +the promoters say, 'we think literature has a right to ask the +assistance of these other two great powers of society, because it so +materially assists them; and because, in many of its branches, it has +no other mode of being paid by society. The severely scientific, the +highly imaginative, the profoundly legislative authors, do not produce +promptly marketable, though they produce priceless, works. La Place, +Wordsworth, Bentham, could not have existed had they depended on the +first product of their works; they would have perished before an +acknowledging world could have given them bread.' They say, further, +that 'the humblest literary man works for something more than hire, +and produces something more effective than a mere piece of +merchandise. His book is not only sold to the profit of the +bookseller, but to the benefit of the public. The publisher pays for +its mercantile value, but the public should reward the author for its +moral and social effect, as they take upon themselves to punish, if it +have an evil tendency.' + +Whether the promoters are right or wrong in their views, will be best +proved by the result; meantime, they put forth some good names as +provisional president, vice-president, and managers, and propose that +the Institute shall comprise four branches--namely, a Protective +Society, a Philanthropic and Provident Fund, an Educational +Association, and a Life-Assurance Department. The subscribers are to +consist of two classes: those who give contributions for the benefit +of the Institute, and those who seek to benefit themselves. The former +are to be asked to insure their lives, for different rates of premium, +the amounts to fall into the corporation at the decease of the +subscribers; and thus a fund would be raised out of which, on certain +conditions, participating subscribers would be able to secure a +provision for old age, or premature decay of mental power, the means +of educating their children, and leaving a _solatium_ to their widows. +If all this can be carried out, and if literary men, as a class, are +capable of all that the prospectus of the new scheme implies, how much +of distress and heart-breaking misery will be saved to society! + +There are several subjects which, having recently been brought before +our Horticultural Society, have somewhat interested gardening folk. At +one of the meetings, there was exhibited 'a very fine specimen of +common mignonette,' which 'was stated to have been a single plant +pricked out into a pot in January 1851, and shifted on until it had +attained a large size. It was mentioned, that mignonette is not an +annual, as many imagine it to be; but that it will become a woody +shrub, and last for years, provided it is well managed, and kept free +from frost and damp.' So runs the report in the society's journal. + +There was, likewise, an exhibition of black Hamburg grapes by Mr Fry, +a Kentish gardener, who made thereupon some observations, which appear +to be deserving of wider circulation. The grapes were grown in a +building seldom heated artificially, and were much attacked by mildew +during the last two seasons, on which prompt measures were taken to +diffuse perfectly dry 'sulphur vivum' throughout the house by means of +a sulphurator, until fruit and foliage were completely but lightly +coated. 'Fires were lighted, and the temperature kept up to from 80 to +90 degrees, ventilation being considerably diminished, and water in +any form discontinued. After being subject to this treatment for about +four or five days, the vines received a thorough syringing, which +cleansed them from every particle of sulphur. With respect to the use +of sulphur in killing mildew, many ladies and gentlemen,' adds Mr Fry, +'with whom I have conversed, consider it highly objectionable: they +say, that they do not like the idea of eating sulphur with grapes; +neither would any one, and I can prove to them that this need never be +done; and, moreover, that the use of sulphur, when timely and +judiciously applied, does not in any way deteriorate the fruit. I much +question if the most practised eye could detect sulphur on the grapes +exhibited, although they have been twice covered with it; and as to +the mildew itself among vines, I fear it no more than I do green-fly +among cucumbers, which is so soon deprived of existence by the fumes +of tobacco.' + +What is called 'a French sulphurator,' whose great merit appears to be +'simplicity and cheapness,' was also exhibited. It is described as 'a +tin box for holding the sulphur, placed on the upper side of the pipe +of a pair of common bellows. The sulphur gets into the pipe through +small holes made for the purpose in the bottom of the box, and, in +order that no stoppage may take place, a small hammer-head attached at +the end of a slight steel-spring, is fixed on the under side of the +bellows, a gentle tap from which, now and then, keeps up a continuous +fall of sulphur into the pipe.' It is said, that 'these appliances, +which may be attached to a pair of bellows for little more than +sixpence, answer every purpose for which they are intended, equally as +well as a more expensive machine.' + +At the same time with this contrivance, some bunches of black Prince +Grapes were shewn to the assembled horticulturists, which could only +be preserved from mildew by frequent applications of sulphur. The +bunches are to be afterwards cleaned by dipping in water, or what is +considered preferable, 'syringing on all sides with a fine syringe,' +which process, it is well to remember, disturbs the _bloom_ on the +fruit least when directed 'downwards, or obliquely, as rain would +fall.' + +As the season for gardening operations is coming on, Mr Rivers' +account may be mentioned of his mode of growing strawberries in pots; +it will be found to involve certain combinations opposed to ordinary +practice. 'About the second week in July,' he says, he filled a number +of six-inch pots 'with a compost of two-thirds loam, and one-third +rotten dung, as follows: three stout pieces of broken pots were placed +in the bottom, and a full handful of the compost put in; a stout +wooden pestle was then used with all the force of a man's arm to pound +it, then another handful and a pounding, and another, till the pot was +brimful, and the compressed mould as hard as a barn-floor. The pots +were then taken to the strawberry-bed, and a runner placed in the +centre of each, with a small stone to keep it steady. They were +watered in dry weather, and have had no other care or culture. For two +or three years, I have had the very finest crops from plants after +this method, and those under notice promise well. If the pots are +lifted, it will be apparent that a large quantity of food is in a +small space. I may add, that from some recent experiments with +compressed earth to potted fruit-trees, I have a high opinion of its +effect, and I fully believe that we have yet much to learn on the +subject.' + +There is a committee sitting at the Admiralty, to devise a method for +the uniform lighting of ships and steamers at night, the object being +to diminish the chances of accident or error to vessels at sea. And +apropos of this, Mr Babbage has published a plan which will +effectually prevent one lighthouse being mistaken for another: it is, +that every lighthouse, wherever situated, shall have a number--the +numbers not to run consecutively--and no two adjoining lights to have +the same numeral digits in the same place of figures. There would then +be no need for revolving or flashing lights, as the only thing to be +done would be to make each lighthouse repeat its own number all night +long, or whenever it was illuminated. This is to be 'accomplished by +enclosing the upper part of the glass cylinders of the argand burner +by a thin tube of tin or brass, which, when made to descend slowly +before the flame, and then allowed suddenly to start back, will cause +an occultation and reappearance of the light.' The number of +occultations denotes the number of the lighthouse. For instance, +suppose the Eddystone to be 243, the two is denoted by two hidings of +the light in quick succession; a short pause, and four hidings; +another short pause, and three hidings, followed by a longer pause; +after which the same process is repeated. It would not be easy to make +a mistake, for the numbers of the lighthouses nearest to the Eddystone +would be very different; and supposing that the boy sent aloft to +watch for the light were to report 253 instead of 243, without waiting +to correct his view, the captain, by turning to his book, would +perhaps find that No. 253 was in the Straits of Sunda, or some equally +remote situation, and would easily recognise the error. When we take +into account the number of vessels lost by mistaking one lighthouse +for another, the value of this proposal becomes apparent. Mr Babbage +shews, that bell-strokes might be employed to announce the number of a +beacon in foggy weather; and he believes that the time is not far +distant when buoys will also be indicated by a light. Now that +lighthouse dues are to be reduced one-half, we may hope to see +improvement in more ways than one. + +This is but a small part of what promises more and more to become a +great question--that of navigation. It is felt that, in these go-ahead +days, we must be paying not less attention to our maritime than to our +inland arm of commerce; and this has brought the question of wood +_versus_ iron ships again into prominent notice. The advocates of iron +shew that the dry-rot, so destructive to wood, cannot enter metal; +that lightness and speed, those prime essentials, are insured by the +use of iron; that iron ships are safer, more easily repaired, and +cheaper than vessels built of wood; and that they are more lasting. +The chief objection hitherto has been the liability of iron to become +foul in tropical climates; but this now appears to be in a measure +overcome. According to Mr Lindsay: 'An admixture has been applied, +termed "Anti-Sargassian Paint," which has been found to answer the +purpose better than any yet discovered. From the experience of its +properties, we cannot say that in itself it is yet sufficient; but it +appears a fair substitute till some other preparation is discovered. A +gentleman at Glasgow,' he adds, 'has already discovered a compound, +which, being mixed in a fluid state with the iron, is expected to +answer the desired purpose. There is another disadvantage which will +soon be overcome--the greater liability to error in the compasses of +iron ships; an error which, however, also occurs, though perhaps to a +less extent, in every wooden ship. By a most ingenious invention, +which will shortly be made public, such errors in any ships, under any +circumstances, can at all times be at once detected.' + +An important patented process for producing tapered iron, has been +explained before the Franklin Institute at Philadelphia--one by which +every variety of taper may be produced, or combinations of taper, with +flat or other forms; and seeing how much tapered iron is used on +railways, in many kinds of machinery, in ships and steamers, the +subject may be considered worthy of more than a mere passing notice. +Tapered iron is a form to which machinery has been thought +inapplicable, and only to be produced by hand-labour. The new method, +however, which has been successfully carried into practice at the +Phoenixville Ironworks, is thus described: 'The principle on which it +acts is that of hydrostatic pressure, or, more properly, _hydrostatic +resistance_. A small chamber, similar to that of the common +hydrostatic press, is set on the top of each housing; the closed end +of the press being uppermost, and a plunger entering from below; but +instead of water being forced _into_ the press, the chamber is at +first filled with water, and the pressure of the iron in passing +between the rollers, tends to lift the top one, which is held down by +the plunger. An escape-pipe, provided with a valve, is inserted into +the top of the chamber. When any upward pressure acts on the top +roller, it is communicated by the plunger to the water, which escapes +through the valve, and the roller rises. + +'When the valve is partially closed, the water escapes more slowly; +and the rise of the roller, and consequently the taper of the iron, +are more gradual. + +'Any rate of taper may thus be had by regulating the rise of the +opening of the escape-valve. If the water is all driven out before the +bar is entirely through the rollers, the top roller ceases to rise, +and the iron becomes parallel from that point. Then, if the ends of +the bar be reversed, and it be again passed between the rollers, the +parallel portion will become tapered; thus we can get a bar.' + +At the same time, a 'Thermometrical Ventilator' was exhibited, which +is described as circular in form, with a well-balanced movable plate. +'Upon the side of the valve is an inverted syphon, with a bulb at one +end, the other being open; the lower part of the tube contains +mercury; the bulb, atmospheric air. An increase of temperature expands +the air in the bulb, drives the mercury down one side and up the +other, thereby destroying the balance, and causing the valve to open +by turning on its axis. A diminution of temperature contracts the air +in the bulb, causes the mercury to rise in the side of the tube, and +closes the valve.' Besides this, there was 'an improved +magneto-electric machine, for medical use, with a new arrangement, by +which the shock is graduated by means of a glass tube, in which a wire +is made to communicate with water, so as to produce at first a slight +shock; by gradually pressing down the wire attached to a spiral +spring, the shock is received in its full force.' + +It now appears that Mr Robertson of Brighton claims priority of +discovery touching the boring power of _Pholades_. His statements are +founded on daily observation of the creatures at work for three +months. 'The _Pholas dactylus_' he says, 'makes its hole by grating +the chalk with its rasp-like valves, licking it up, when pulverised, +with its foot, forcing it up through its principal or bronchial +syphon, and squirting it out in oblong nodules. The crypt protects the +_Pholas_ from confervae, which, when they get at it, grow not merely +outside, but even within the lips of the valves, preventing the action +of the syphons. In the foot there is a gelatinous spring or style, +which, even when taken out, has great elasticity, and which seems the +mainspring of the motions of the _Pholas dactylus_.' + +At last, steam communication with Australia seems about to become a +reality, for the first vessel is announced to start in May for Sydney, +to touch at the Cape and other colonies on her way out; and +accommodation is promised for two hundred passengers of different +classes. There is also a project on foot for a line of steamers from +Panama to Australia, and to Valparaiso, which, if brought into +operation, will make a voyage round the world little more than a +bagman's journey. Apropos of Australia, Mr Clarke, who first predicted +that gold would be found in that country, says, 'that just 90 degrees +west of the auriferous range in Australia, we find an auriferous band +in the Urals; and just 90 degrees west of the Urals, occur the +auriferous mountains of California.' A speculation for cosmogonists. +In our own country, we are finding metalliferous deposits: vast +accumulations of lead-ore have come to light in Wales, which are said +to contain six ounces of silver, and fifteen hundredweight of lead to +the ton; and in Northamptonshire, an abundant and timely supply of +iron-ore has just been met with. We might perhaps turn our metallic +treasures to still better account, if some one would only set to work +and win the prize offered by Louis Napoleon; namely, 'a reward of +50,000 francs to such person as shall render the voltaic pile +applicable, with economy, to manufactures, as a source of heat, or to +lighting, or chemistry, or mechanics, or practical medicine.' The +offer is to be kept open for five years, to allow full time for +experiment, and people of all nations have leave to compete. One of +the electric telegraph companies intends to ask parliament to abolish +the present monopoly as regards the despatch of messages; in another +quarter, an under-sea telegraph to Ostend is talked about, with a view +to communicate with Belgium independently of France; and there is no +reason why it should not be laid down, for the Dover and Calais line +is paying satisfactorily. And, finally, another ship-load of 'marbles' +and sculptures has just arrived from Nineveh; and the appointment of +Mr Layard as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (though now but +temporary) is regarded as a praiseworthy recognition of his merits and +services; and now that we have a government which combines a few +_litterateurs_ among its members, it is thought that literature will +be relieved of some of its trammels. + + + + +CHILDREN'S JOYS AND SORROWS. + + +I can endure a melancholy man, but not a melancholy child; the former, +in whatever slough he may sink, can raise his eyes either to the +kingdom of reason or of hope; but the little child is entirely +absorbed and weighed down by one black poison-drop of the present. +Think of a child led to the scaffold, think of Cupid in a Dutch +coffin; or watch a butterfly, after its four wings have been torn off, +creeping like a worm, and you will feel what I mean. But wherefore? +The first has been already given; the child, like the beast, only +knows purest, though shortest sorrow; one which has no past and no +future; one such as the sick man receives from without, the dreamer +from himself into his asthenic brain; finally, one with the +consciousness not of guilt, but of innocence. Certainly, all the +sorrows of children are but shortest nights, as their joys are but +hottest days; and indeed both so much so, that in the latter, often +clouded and starless time of life, the matured man only longingly +remembers his old childhood's pleasures, while he seems altogether to +have forgotten his childhood's grief. This weak remembrance is +strangely contrasted with the opposing one in dreams and fevers in +this respect, that in the two last it is always the cruel sorrows of +childhood which return; the dream this mock-sun of childhood--and the +fever, its distorting glass--both draw forth from dark corners the +fears of defenceless childhood, which press and cut with iron fangs +into the prostrate soul. The fair scenes of dreams mostly play on an +after-stage, whereas the frightful ones choose for theirs the cradle +and the nursery. Moreover, in fever, the ice-hands of the fear of +ghosts, the striking one of the teachers and parents, and every claw +with which fate has pressed the young heart, stretch themselves out to +catch the wandering man. Parents, consider then, that every +childhood's Rupert--the name given in Germany to the fictitious being +employed to frighten children into obedience--even though it has lain +chained for tens of years, yet breaks loose and gains mastery over the +man so soon as it finds him on a sick-bed. The first fright is more +dangerous the sooner it happens: as the man grows older, he is less +and less easily frightened; the little cradle or bed-canopy of the +child is more easily quite darkened than the starry heaven of the +man.--_Jean Paul Richter._ + + + + +A REJECTED LOVER. + + + You 'never loved me,' Ada!--Those slow words + Dropped softly from your gentle woman's tongue, + Out of your true and tender woman's heart, + Dropped--piercing into mine like very swords, + The sharper for their brightness! Yet no wrong + Lies to your charge; nor cruelty, nor art; + Even while you spoke, I saw the ready tear-drop start. + + You 'never loved me?'--No, you never knew-- + You, with youth's dews yet glittering on your soul-- + What 'tis _to love_. Slow, drop by drop, to pour + Our life's whole essence, perfumed through and through + With all the best we have, or can control, + For the libation; cast it down before + Your feet--then lift the goblet, dry for evermore! + + I shall not die, as foolish lovers do: + A man's heart beats beneath this breast of mine; + The breast where--Curse on that fiend's whispering, + '_It might have been!_'--Ada, I will be true + Unto myself--the self that worshipped thine. + May all life's pain, like those few tears that spring + For me--glance off as rain-drops from my white dove's wing! + + May you live long, some good man's bosom-flower, + And gather children round your matron knees! + Then, when all this is past, and you and I + Remember each our youth but as an hour + Of joy--or torture; one, serene, at ease, + May meet the other's grave yet steadfast eye, + Thinking, 'He loved me well!'--clasp hands, and so pass by. + + + + +THE TEARS OF OYSTERS. + + +Glancing round this anatomical workshop (the oyster), we find, amongst +other things, some preparations shewing the nature of pearls. Examine +them, and we find that there are dark and dingy pearls, just as there +are handsome and ugly men; the dark pearl being found on the dark +shell of the fish, the white brilliant one upon the smooth inside +shell. Going further in the search, we find that the smooth, +glittering lining, upon which the fish moves, is known as the _nacre_, +and that it is produced by a portion of the animal called the +_mantle_; and, for explanation's sake, we may add that gourmands +practically know the mantle as the beard of the oyster. When living in +its glossy house, should any foreign substance find its way through +the shell to disturb the smoothness so essential to its ease, the fish +coats the offending substance with nacre, and a pearl is thus formed. +The pearl is, in fact, a little globe of the smooth, glossy substance +yielded by the oyster's beard; yielded ordinarily to smooth the narrow +home to which his nature binds him, but yielded in round drops, real +pearly tears, if he is hurt. When a beauty glides among a throng of +her admirers, her hair clustering with pearls, she little thinks that +her ornaments are products of pain and diseased action, endured by the +most unpoetical of shell-fish.--_Leisure Hours._ + + + + +'ROBESPIERRE.' + + +In our recent notice of Robespierre, it was mentioned that, at the +period of his capture in the Hotel de Ville, he was shot in the jaw by +a pistol fired by one of the gendarmes. Various correspondents point +to the discrepancy between this account and that given by Thiers, and +some other authorities, who represent that Robespierre fired the +pistol himself, in the attempt to commit self-destruction. In our +account of the affair, we have preferred holding to Larmartine +(_History of the Girondists_), not only in consequence of his being +the latest and most graphic authority on the subject, but because his +statement seems to be verified by the appearance of the half-signed +document which it was our fortune to see in Paris in 1849. + +The following is Lamartine's statement:--'The door soon yielded to the +blows given by the soldiers with the but-end of their muskets, amid +the cries of "Down with the tyrant!" "Which is he?" inquired the +soldiers; but Leonard Bourdon durst not meet the look of his fallen +enemy. Standing a little behind the men, and hidden by the body of a +gendarme, named Meda; with his right hand he seized the arm of the +gendarme who held a pistol, and pointing with his left hand to the +person to be aimed at, he directed the muzzle of the weapon towards +Robespierre, exclaiming: "That is the man." The man fired, and the +head of Robespierre dropped on the table, deluging with blood the +proclamation he had not finished signing.' Next morning, adds this +authority, Leonard Bourdon 'presented the gendarme who had fired at +Robespierre to the notice of the Convention.' Further: on Robespierre +being searched while he lay on the table, a brace of loaded pistols +were found in his pocket. 'These pistols, shut up in their cases still +loaded, abundantly testify that Robespierre did not shoot himself.' +Accepting these as the true particulars of the incident, Robespierre +cannot properly be charged with an attempt at suicide. + +In the article referred to, the name Barras was accidentally +substituted for Henriot, in connection with the insurrectionary +movement for rescuing Robespierre. Barras led the troops of the +Convention. + +A correspondent asks us to state what was the actual number of persons +slaughtered by the guillotine, and otherwise, during the progress of +the Revolution. The question cannot be satisfactorily answered. Alison +(vol. iv. p. 289) presents a list, which shews the number to have been +1,027,106; but this enumeration does not comprehend the massacres at +Versailles, the prisons of Paris, and some other places. A million and +a half would probably be a safe calculation. One thing is certain, +that from the 2d of September 1792, to the 25th of October 1795, a +space of little more than three years, 18,613 persons perished by the +guillotine. Strangely enough, the chief destruction of life was among +the humbler classes of society, those who mainly promoted the +revolution; and still more strange, the greater number of victims were +murdered by the verdicts of juries--a striking example of that general +subserviency which has since become the most significant defect in the +French character. + + * * * * * + +_Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover,_ + +CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a LITERARY COMPANION for the +RAILWAY, the FIRESIDE, or the BUSH. + +VOLUME IV. + +To be continued in Monthly Volumes. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAM, 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 Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 430, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 18337.txt or 18337.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/3/18337/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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