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diff --git a/19781-0.txt b/19781-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccde09e --- /dev/null +++ b/19781-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5317 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli + +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: Sketches + The Carrier Pigeon, The Consul’s Daughter, Walstein--Or + A Cure For Melancholy, The Court Of Egypt, The Valley Of + Thebes, Egyptian Thebes, Shoubra Eden And Lebanon, A Syrian + Sketch, The Bosphorus, An Interview With A Great Turk, + Munich, The Spirit Of Whiggism + +Author: Benjamin Disraeli + +Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19781] +Last Updated: September 7, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +SKETCHES + +By Benjamin Disraeli + + + + +THE CARRIER PIGEON + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + _Charolois and Branchimont_ + +ALTHOUGH the deepest shades of twilight had descended upon the broad +bosom of the valley, and the river might almost be recognised only +by its rushing sound, the walls and battlements of the castle of +Charolois, situate on one of the loftiest heights, still blazed in the +reflected radiance of the setting sun, and cast, as it were, a glance of +triumph at the opposing castle of Branchimont, that rose on the western +side of the valley, with its lofty turrets and its massy keep black and +sharply defined against the resplendent heaven. + +Deadly was the hereditary feud between the powerful lords of these high +places--the Counts of Charolois and the Barons of Branchimont, but the +hostility which had been maintained for ages never perhaps raged with +more virulence than at this moment; since the only male heir of the +house of Charolois had been slain in a tournament by the late Baron of +Branchimont, and the distracted father had avenged his irreparable loss +in the life-blood of the involuntary murderer of his son. + +Yet the pilgrim, who at this serene hour might rest upon his staff +and gaze on the surrounding scene, would hardly deem that the darkest +passions of our nature had selected this fair and silent spot for the +theatre of their havoc. + +The sun set; the evening star, quivering and bright, rose over the dark +towers of Branchimont; from the opposite bank a musical bell summoned +the devout vassals of Charolois to a beautiful shrine, wherein was +deposited the heart of their late young lord, and which his father had +raised on a small and richly wooded promontory, distant about a mile +from his stern hold. + +At the first chime on this lovely eve came forth a lovelier maiden from +the postern of Charolois--the Lady Imogene, the only remaining child of +the bereaved count, attended by her page, bearing her book of prayers. +She took her way along the undulating heights until she reached +the sanctuary. The altar was illumined; several groups were already +kneeling,--faces of fidelity well known to their adored lady; but as she +entered, a palmer, with his broad hat drawn over his face, and closely +muffled up in his cloak, dipped his hand at the same time with hers in +the fount of holy water placed at the entrance of of the shrine, and +pressed the beautiful fingers of the Lady Imogene. A blush, unperceived +by the kneeling votaries, rose to her cheek; but apparently such was her +self-control, or such her deep respect for the hallowed spot, that she +exhibited no other symptom of emotion, and, walking to the high altar, +was soon buried in her devotions. + +The mass was celebrated--the vassals rose and retired. According to her +custom, the Lady Imogene yet remained, and knelt before the tomb of her +brother. A low whisper, occasionally sounding,-assured her that someone +was at the confessional; and soon the palmer, who was now shrived, knelt +at her side. ‘Lothair!’ muttered the lady, apparently at her prayers, +‘beloved Lothair, thou art too bold!’ + +‘Oh, Imogene! for thee what would I not venture?’ was the hushed reply. + +‘For the sake of all our hopes, wild though they be, I counsel caution.’ + +‘Fear naught. The priest, flattered by my confession, is fairly duped. +Let me employ this golden moment to urge what I have before entreated. +Your father, Imogene, can never be appeased. Fly, then, my beloved! oh, +fly!’ + +‘Oh, my Lothair! it never can be. Alas! whither can we fly?’ + +‘Sweet love! I pray thee listen:--to Italy. At the court of my +cousin, the Duke of Milan, we shall be safe and happy. What care I +for Branchimont, and all its fortunes? And for that, my vassals are +no traitors. If ever the bright hour arrive when we may return in joy, +trust me, sweet love, my flag will still wave on my father’s walls.’ + +‘Oh, Lothair! why did we meet? Why, meeting, did we not hate each other +like our fated race? My heart is distracted. Can this misery be love? +Yet I adore thee------’ + +‘Lady!’ said the page, advancing, ‘the priest approaches.’ + +The Lady Imogene rose, and crossed herself before the altar. + +‘To-morrow, at this hour,’ whispered Lothair. + +The Lady Imogene nodded assent, and, leaning on her page, quitted the +shrine. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + _A Pert Page_ + +‘DEAREST Lady,’ said the young page, as they returned to the castle, +‘my heart misgives me. As we quitted the shrine, I observed Rufus, the +huntsman, slink into the adjoining wood.’ ‘Hah! he is my father’s most +devoted instrument: nor is there any bidding which he would hesitate to +execute--a most ruthless knave!’ + +‘And can see like a cat in the dark, too,’ observed young Theodore. + +‘I never loved that man, even in my cradle,’ said the Lady Imogene; +‘though he can fawn, too. Did he indeed avoid us?’ + +‘Indeed I thought so, madam.’ + +‘Ah! my Theodore, we have no friend but you, and you are but a little +page.’ + +‘I would I were a stout knight, lady, and I would fight for you.’ + +‘I warrant you,’ said Imogene; ‘you have a bold heart, little Theodore, +and a kind one. O holy Virgin. I pray thee guard in all perils my +bright-eyed Lothair!’ + +‘Lord Branchimont is the finest knight I ever set eyes upon,’ said +Theodore. ‘I would I were his squire.’ + +‘Thou shalt be his squire, too, little Theodore, if all goes well.’ + +‘Oh! glorious day, when I shall wear a sword instead of a scarf! Shall I +indeed be his squire, lady sweet?’ + +‘Indeed I think thou wilt make a very proper squire.’ + +‘I would I were a knight like Lord Branchimont; as tall as a lance, and +as strong as a lion; and such a fine beard too!’ + +‘It is indeed a beard, Theodore,’ said the Lady Imogene. ‘When wilt thou +have one like it?’ + +‘Another summer, perchance,’ said Theodore, passing his small palm +musingly over his smooth chin. + +‘Another summer!’ said the Lady Imogene, laughing; ‘why, I may as soon +hope to have a beard myself.’ + +‘I hope you will have Lord Branchimont’s,’ said the page. + +‘Amen!’ responded the lady. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + _Love’s Messenger_ + +THE apprehensions of the little Theodore proved to be too well founded. +On the morning after the meeting of Lady Imogene with Lord Branchimont +at the shrine of Charolois, she was summoned to the presence of her +father, and, after having been loaded with every species of reproach and +invective for her clandestine meeting with their hereditary foe, she was +confined to a chamber in one of the loftiest towers of the castle, which +she was never permitted to quit, except to walk in a long gloomy gallery +with an old female servant remarkable for the acerbity of her mind and +manners. Her page escaped punishment by flight; and her only resource +and amusement was her mandolin. + +The tower in which the Lady Imogene was imprisoned sprang out of a steep +so precipitous that the position was considered impregnable. She was +therefore permitted to open her lattice, which was not even barred. The +landscape before her, which was picturesque and richly wooded, consisted +of the en-closed chase of Charolois; but her jailers had taken due care +that her chamber should not command a view of the castle of Branchimont. +The valley and all its moving life were indeed entirely shut out from +her. Often the day vanished without a human being appearing in sight. +Very unhappy was the Lady Imo-gene, gazing on the silent woods, or +pouring forth her passion over her lonely lute. + +A miserable week had nearly elapsed. It was noon; the Lady Imogene was +seated alone in her chamber, leaning her head upon her hand in thought, +and dreaming of her Lothair, when a fluttering noise suddenly roused +her, and, looking up, she beheld, to her astonishment, perched on the +high back of a chair, a beautiful bird-a pigeon whiter than snow, with +an azure beak, and eyes blazing with a thousand shifting tints. Not +alarmed was the beautiful bird when the Lady Imogene gently approached +it; but it looked up to her with eyes of intelligent tenderness, and +flapped with some earnestness its pure and sparkling plume. The Lady +Imogene smiled with marvelling pleasure, for the first time since her +captivity; and putting forth her hand, which was even whiter than +the wing, she patted the bright neck of the glad stranger, and gently +stroked its soft plumage. + +‘Heaven hath sent me a friend,’ exclaimed the beautiful Imogene; ‘Ah! +what--what is this?’ + +‘Didst thou call, Lady Imogene?’ inquired the harsh voice of acid +Martha, whom the exclamation of her mistress had summoned to the door. + +‘Nothing--nothing--I want nothing,’ quickly answered Imogene, as she +seized the bird with her hand, and, pressing it to her bosom, answered +Martha over her shoulder. ‘Did she see thee, my treasure?’ continued the +agitated Imogene, ‘Oh! did she see thee, my joy? Methinks we were +not discovered.’ So saying, and tripping along on the lightest step +imaginable, the captive secured the door; then bringing forth the bird +from its sweet shelter, she produced a letter, which she had suddenly +detected to be fastened under its left wing, and which she had +perceived, in an instant, to be written by Lord Branchimont. + +Her sight was dizzy, her cheek pale, her breath seemed to have deserted +her. She looked up to heaven, she looked down upon the letter, and then +she covered it with a thousand kisses; then, making a vigorous effort to +collect herself, she read its strange and sweet contents:-- + + +_‘Lothair to Imogene_. + +‘Soul of my existence! Mignon, in whom you may place implicit trust, has +promised me to bear you this sign of my love. Oh, I love you, Imogene! I +love you more even than this bird can the beautiful sky! Kiss the dove +a thousand times, that I may steal the kisses again from his neck, and +catch, even at this distance, your fragrant breath. My beloved, I am +planning your freedom and our happiness. Each day Mignon shall come to +tell you how we speed; each day shall he bring back some testimony of +your fidelity to your own + +Lothair.’ + + +It was read--it was read with gushing and fast-flowing tears--tears of +wild joy. A thousand times, ay, a thousand times, Imogene embraced the +faithful Mignon; nor could she indeed have ever again parted with him, +had she not remembered that all this time her Lothair was anxiously +awaiting the return of his messenger. So she tore a leaf from her +tablets and inscribed her devotion; then, fastening it with care under +the wing, she bore Mignon to the window, and, bestowing upon him a last +embrace, permitted him to extend his beautiful wings and launch into the +air. + +Bright in the sun glanced the white bird as it darted into the deep-blue +sky. Imogene watched it until the sparkling form changed into a dusky +shade, and the dusky shade vanished into the blending distance. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + _A Cruel Dart_ + +IT WAS now a principal object with the fair captive of Charolois, that +her unsympathising attendant should enter her chamber as little as +possible, and only at seasons when there was no chance of a visit +from Mignon. Faithful was the beautiful bird in these daily visits of +consolation; and by his assistance, the correspondence with Lothair +respecting her escape was actively maintained. A thousand plans were +formed by the sanguine lovers-a thousand plans were canvassed, and then +decided to be impracticable. One day, Martha was to be bribed; another, +young Theodore was to re-enter the castle disguised as a girl, and +become, by some contrivance, her attendant; but reflection ever proved +that these were as wild as lovers’ plans are wont to be; and another +week stole away without anything being settled. Yet this second week was +not so desolate as the first. On the contrary, it was full of exciting +hope; and each day to hear that Lothair still adored her, and each day +to be enabled to breathe back to him her own adoration, solaced the +hours of her captivity. But Fate, that will often frown upon the +fortunes of true love, decided that this sweet source of consolation +should flow on no longer. Rufus, the huntsman, who was ever prowling +about, and who at all times had a terribly quick eye for a bird, one day +observed the carrier-pigeon sallying forth from the window of the tower. +His practised sense instantly assured him that the bird was trained, and +he resolved to watch its course. + +‘Hah, hah!’ said Rufus, the huntsman, ‘is Branchimont thy dovecot? +Methinks, my little rover, thou bearest news I long to read.’ + +Another and another day passed, and again and again Rufus observed the +visits of Mignon; so, taking his cross-bow one fair morning, ere the dew +had left the flowers, he wandered forth in the direction of Branchimont. +True to his mission, Mignon soon appears, skimming along the sky. +Beautiful, beautiful bird! Fond, faithful messenger of love! Who can +doubt that thou well comprehendest the kindly purpose of thy consoling +visits! Thou bringest joy to the unhappy, and hope to the despairing! +She shall kiss thee, bright Mignon! Yes! an embrace from lips sweeter +than the scented dawn in which thou revelest, shall repay thee for all +thy fidelity! And already the Lady Imogene is at her post, gazing upon +the unclouded sky, and straining her beautiful eyes, as it were, to +anticipate the slight and gladsome form, whose first presence ever makes +her heart tremble with a host of wild and conflicting emotions. + +Ah! through the air an arrow from a bow that never erred--an arrow +swifter than thy swiftest flight, Mignon, whizzes with fell intent. The +snake that darts upon its unconscious prey less fleet and fatal! + +It touches thy form--it transfixes thy beautiful breast! Was there no +good spirit, then, to save thee, thou hope of the hopeless? Alas, +alas! the blood gushes from thy breast, and from thine azure beak! Thy +transcendent eye grows dim--all is over! The carrier-pigeon falls to the +earth! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + _Another Message_ + +A DAY without hearing from Lothair was madness; and, indeed, when hour +after heavy hour rolled away without the appearance of Mignon, and +the Lady Imogene found herself gazing upon the vanishing twilight, +she became nearly frantic with disappointment and terror. While light +remained, an indefinite hope maintained her; but when it was indeed +night, and nothing but the outline of the surrounding hills was +perceptible, she could no longer restrain herself; and, bursting into +hysteric tears, she threw herself upon the floor of her chamber. Were +they discovered? Had Lothair forgotten her? Wearied with fruitless +efforts, had he left her to her miserable, her solitary fate? There was +a slight sound--something seemed to have dropped. She looked up. At her +side she beheld a letter, which, wrapped round a stone, had been thrown +in at the window. She started up in an ecstasy of joy. She cursed +herself for doubting for an instant the fidelity of her lover! She tore +open the letter; but so great was her emotion that some minutes elapsed +before she could decipher its contents. At length she learned that, +on the ensuing eve, Lothair and Theodore, disguised as huntsmen of +Charolois, would contrive to meet in safety beneath her window, and for +the rest she must dare to descend. It was a bold, a very perilous plan. +It was the project of desperation. But there are moments in life when +desperation becomes success. Nor was the spirit of the Lady Imogene one +that would easily quail. Hers was a true woman’s heart; and she could +venture everything for love. She examined the steep; she cast a rapid +glance at the means of making the descent: her shawls, her clothes, the +hangings of her bed--here were resources--here was hope! + +Full of these thoughts, some time elapsed before she was struck at the +unusual mode in which the communication reached her. Where was Mignon? +But the handwriting was the handwriting of Lothair. That she could not +mistake. She might, however, have observed that the characters were +faint--that the paper had the appearance of being stained or washed; +but this she did not observe. She was sanguine--she was confident in the +wisdom of Lothair. She knelt before an image of the Virgin, and poured +forth her supplications for the success of their enterprise. And then, +exhausted by all the agitation of the day, the Lady Imogene sunk into a +deep repose. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + _Flight and Discovery_ + +MORN came at length, but brought no Mignon. ‘He has his reasons,’ +answered the Lady Imogene: ‘Lothair is never wrong. And soon, right +soon, I hope, we shall need no messenger.’ Oh, what a long, long day was +this, the last of her captivity! Will the night never come--that night +she had once so much dreaded? Sun, wilt thou never set? There is no +longer gladness in thy beams. The shadows, indeed, grow longer, and yet +thine orb is as high in heaven as if it were an everlasting noon! +The unceasing cry of the birds, once so consoling, now only made her +restless. She listened, and she listened, until at length the rosy +sky called forth their last thrilling chant, and the star of evening +summoned them to roost. + +It was twilight: pacing her chamber, and praying to the Virgin, the +hours at length stole away. The chimes of the sanctuary told her that +it wanted but a quarter of an hour to midnight. Already she had formed +a rope of shawls: now she fastened it to the-lattice with all her force. +The bell struck twelve, and the Lady Imogene delivered herself to her +fate. Slowly and fearfully she descended, long suspended in the air, +until her feet at length touched a ledge of rock. Cautiously feeling her +footing, she now rested, and looked around her. She had descended about +twenty feet. The moon shone bright on the rest of the descent, which was +more rugged. It seemed not impracticable--she clambered down. + +‘Hist! hist!’ said a familiar voice, ‘all is right, lady--but why did +you not answer us?’ + +‘Ah! Theodore, where is my Lothair?’ + +‘Lord Branchimont is shaded by the trees--give me thy hand, sweet lady. +Courage! all is right; but indeed you should have answered us.’ + +Imogene de Charolois is in the arms of Lothair de Branchimont. + +‘We have no time for embraces,’ said Theodore; ‘the horses are ready. +The Virgin be praised, all is right. I would not go through such an +eight-and-forty hours again to be dubbed a knight on the spot. Have you +Mignon?’ + +‘Mignon, indeed! he has not visited me these two days.’ + +‘But my letter,’ said Lothair-’you received it?’ + +‘It was thrown in at my window,’ said the Lady Imogene. + +‘My heart misgives me,’ said little Theodore. ‘Away! there is no time +to lose. Hist! I hear footsteps. This way, dear friends. Hist! a shout! +Fly! fly! Lord Branchimont, we are betrayed!’ + +And indeed from all quarters simultaneous sounds now rose, and torches +seemed suddenly to wave in all quarters. Imogene clung to the neck of +Lothair. + +‘We will die together!’ she exclaimed, as she hid her face in his +breast. + +Lord Branchimont placed himself against a tree, and drew his mighty +sword. + +‘Seize him!’ shouted a voice, instantly recognised by Imogene; ‘seize +the robber!’ shouted her father. + +‘At your peril!’ answered Lothair to his surrounding foes. + +They stood at bay--an awful group! The father and his murdering minions, +alike fearful of encountering Branchimont and slaying their chieftain’s +daughter; the red and streaming torches blending with the silver +moonlight that fell full upon the fixed countenance of their entrapped +victim and the distracted form of his devoted mistress. + +There was a dead, still pause. It was broken by the denouncing tone of +the father, ‘Cowards! do you fear a single arm? Strike him dead! spare +not the traitress!’ + +But still the vassals would not move; deep as was their feudal devotion, +they loved the Lady Imogene, and dared to disobey. + +‘Let me, then, teach you your duty!’ exclaimed the exasperated father. +He advanced, but a wild shriek arrested his extended sword; and as thus +they stood, all alike prepared for combat, yet all motionless, an arrow +glanced over the shoulder of the Count and pierced Lord Branchimont to +the heart. His sword fell from his grasp, and he died without a groan. + +Yes! the same bow that had for ever arrested the airy course of Mignon, +had now, as fatally and as suddenly, terminated the career of the master +of the carrier-pigeon. Vile Rufus, the huntsman, the murderous aim was +thine! + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + _The Dove Returns to Imogene_ + +THE bell of the shrine of Charolois is again sounding; but how different +its tone from the musical and inspiring chime that summoned the weary +vassals to their grateful vespers! The bell of the shrine of Charolois +is again sounding. Alas! it tolls a gloomy knell. Oh! valley of sweet +waters, still are thy skies as pure as when she wandered by thy banks +and mused over her beloved! Still sets thy glowing sun; and quivering +and bright, like the ascending soul of a hero, still Hesperus rises from +thy dying glory! But she, the maiden fairer than the fairest eve--no +more shall her light step trip among the fragrance of its flowers; no +more shall her lighter voice emulate the music of thy melodious birds. +Oh, yes! she is dead--the beautiful Imogene is dead! Three days of +misery heralded her decease. But comfort is there in all things; for +the good priest who had often administered consolation to his unhappy +mistress over her brother’s tomb, and who knelt by the side of her dying +couch, assured many a sorrowful vassal, and many a sympathising pilgrim +who loved to listen to the mournful tale, that her death was indeed a +beatitude; for he did not doubt, from the distracted expressions that +occasionally caught his ear, that the Holy Spirit, in that material form +he most loves to honour, to wit, the semblance of a pure white dove, +often solaced by his presence the last hours of Imogene de Charolois! + + + + + +THE CONSUL’S DAUGHTER + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + _Henrietta_ + +AT ONE of the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean Major Ponsonby +held the office of British Consul. The Parliamentary interest of the +noble family with which he was connected had obtained for him this +office, after serving his country, with no slight distinction, during +the glorious war of the Peninsula. Major Ponsonby was a widower, and his +family consisted of an only daughter, Henrietta, who was a child of +very tender years when he first obtained his appointment, but who had +completed her eighteenth year at the period, memorable in her life, +which these pages attempt to commemorate. A girl of singular beauty +was Henrietta Ponsonby, but not remarkable merely for her beauty. Her +father, a very accomplished gentleman, had himself superintended her +education with equal care and interest. In their beautiful solitude, +for they enjoyed the advantage of very little society save that of +those passing travellers who occasionally claimed his protection and +hospitality, the chief, and certainly the most engaging pursuit of Major +Ponsonby, had been to assist the development of the lively talents of +his daughter, and to watch with delight, not unattended with anxiety, +the formation of her ardent and imaginative character: he had himself +imparted to her a skilful practice in those fine arts in which he +himself excelled, and a knowledge of those exquisite languages which +he himself not only spoke with facility, but with whose rich and +interesting literature he was intimately acquainted. He was careful, +also, that, although almost an alien from her native country, she should +not be ignorant of the progress of its mind; and no inconsiderable +portion of his income had of late years been expended in importing from +England the productions of those eminent writers of which we are justly +as proud as of the heroes under whose flag he had himself conquered in +Portugal and Spain. + +The progress of the daughter amply repaid the father for his care, and +rewarded him for his solicitude: from the fond child of his affections +she had become the cherished companion of his society: her lively fancy +and agreeable conversation prevented solitude from degenerating into +loneliness: she diffused over their happy home that indefinable charm, +that spell of unceasing, yet soothing excitement, with which the +constant presence of an amiable, a lovely and accomplished woman +can alone imbue existence; without which life, indeed, under any +circumstances, is very dreary; and with which life, indeed, under any +circumstances, is never desperate. + +There were moments, perhaps, when Major Ponsonby, who was not altogether +inexperienced in the great world, might sigh, that one so eminently +qualified as his daughter to shine even amid its splendour, should be +destined to a career so obscure as that which necessarily attended +the daughter of a Consul in a distant country. It sometimes cost the +father’s heart a pang that his fair and fragrant flower should blush +unseen, and waste its perfume even in their lovely wilderness; and then, +with all a father’s pride, and under all the influence of that worldly +ambition from which men are never free, he would form plans by which she +might visit, and visit with advantage, her native country. All the noble +cousins were thought over, under whose distinguished patronage she might +enter that great and distant world she was so capable of adorning; and +more than once he had endeavoured to intimate to Henrietta that it might +be better for them both that they should for a season part: but the +Consul’s daughter shrunk from these whispers as some beautiful tree from +the murmurs of a rising storm. She could not conceive existence without +her father--the father under whose breath and sight she had ever lived +and flourished--the father to whom she was indebted, not only for +existence, but all the attributes that made life so pleasant; her sire, +her tutor, her constant company, her dear, dear friend. To part from +him, even though but for a season, and to gain splendour, appeared to +her pure, yet lively imagination, the most fatal of fortunes; a terrible +destiny--an awful dispensation. They had never parted, scarcely for an +hour; once, indeed, he had been absent for three days; he had sailed +with the fleet on public business to a neighbouring port; he had +been obliged to leave his daughter, and the daughter remembered those +terrible three days like a frightful dream, the recollection of which +made her shudder. + +Major Ponsonby had inherited no patrimony--he possessed only the small +income derived from his office, and a slender pension, which rewarded +many wounds; but, in the pleasant place in which their lot was cast, +these moderate means obtained for them not merely the necessaries, but +all the luxuries of life. They inhabited in the town a palace worthy +of the high, though extinct nobility, whose portraits and statues +lined their lofty saloons, and filled their long corridors and graceful +galleries; and about three miles from the town, on a gentle ascent +facing the ocean, and embowered in groves of orange and olive trees, the +fanciful garden enclosed in a thick wall of Indian fig and blooming +aloes, was a most delicate casino, rented at a rate for which a garret +may not be hired in England; but, indeed, a paradise. Of this pavilion +Miss Ponsonby was the mistress; and here she lived amid fruit and +flowers, surrounded by her birds: and here she might be often seen at +sunset glancing amid its beauties, with an eye as brilliant, and a step +as airy, as the bright gazelle that ever glided or bounded at her side. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + _A Fair Presentment_ + +ONE summer day, when everybody was asleep in the little sultry city +where Major Ponsonby, even in his siesta, watched over the interests +of British commerce--for it was a city, and was blessed with the holy +presence of a bishop--a young Englishman disembarked from an imperial +merchant brig just arrived from Otranto, and, according to custom, took +his way to the Consul’s house. He was a man of an age apparently verging +towards thirty; and, although the native porter, who bore his luggage +and directed his path, proved that, as he was accompanied not even by +a single servant, he did not share the general reputation of his +countrymen for wealth, his appearance to those practised in society +was not undistinguished. Tall, slender, and calm, his air, though +unaffected, was that of a man not deficient in self-confidence; and +whether it were the art of his tailor, or the result of his own good +frame, his garb, although remarkably plain, had that indefinable style +which we associate with the costume of a man of some mark and breeding. + +On arriving at the Consul’s house, he was ushered through a large, dark, +cool hall, at the end of which was a magnificent staircase leading to +the suite of saloons, into a small apartment on the ground floor fitted +up in the English style, which, although it offered the appearance of +the library of an English gentleman, was, in fact, the consular office. +Dwarf bookcases encircled the room, occasionally crowned by a marble +bust, or bronze group. The ample table was covered with papers, and a +vacant easy-chair was evidently the consular throne. A portrait of his +Britannic majesty figured on the walls of one part of the chamber; and +over the mantel was another portrait, which immediately engaged the +attention of the traveller, and, indeed, monopolised his observation. He +had a very ample opportunity of studying it, for nearly a quarter of an +hour elapsed before he was disturbed. It was the full-length portrait of +a young lady. She stood on a terrace in a garden, and by her side was a +gazelle. Her form was of wonderful symmetry; but although her dress was +not English, the expression of her countenance reminded the traveller of +the beauties of his native land. The dazzling complexion, the large deep +blue eye, the high white forehead, the clustering brown hair, were all +northern, but northern of the highest order. She held in her small hand +a branch of orange-blossom-the hand was fairer than the flower. + +‘Signor Ferrers, I believe,’ said a shrill voice. The traveller started, +and turned round. Before him stood a little, parched-up, grinning, +bowing Italian, holding in his hand the card that the traveller had sent +up to the Consul. + +‘My name is Ferrers,’ replied the traveller, slightly bowing, and +speaking in a low, sweet tone. + +‘Signor Ponsonby is at the casino,’ said the Italian: ‘I have the honour +to be the chancellor of the British Consulate.’ + +It is singular that a mercantile agent should be styled a Consul, and +his chief clerk a chancellor. + +‘I have the honour to be the chancellor of the British Consulate,’ said +the Italian; ‘and I will take the earliest opportunity of informing the +Consul of your arrival. From Otranto, I believe? All well, I hope, at +Otranto?’ + +‘I hope so too,’ replied the traveller; ‘and so I believe.’ + +‘You will be pleased to leave your passport, sir, with me--the Consul +will be most happy to see you at the casino: about sunset he will be +very happy to see you at the casino. I am sorry that I detained you for +a moment, but I was at my siesta. I will take the earliest opportunity +of informing the Consul of your arrival; but at present all the consular +messengers are taking their siesta; the moment one is awake I shall send +him to the casino. May I take the liberty of inquiring whether you have +any letters for the Consul?’ + +‘None,’ replied the traveller. + +The chancellor shrugged his shoulders a little, as if he regretted +he had been roused from his siesta for a traveller who had not even a +letter of introduction, and then turned on his heel to depart. + +The traveller took up his hat, hesitated a moment, and then said, ‘Pray, +may I inquire of whom this is a portrait?’ + +‘Certainly,’ replied the chancellor; ‘’tis the Signora Ponsonby.’ + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + _The Mysterious Stranger_ + +IT WAS even upon as ignoble an animal as a Barbary ass, goaded by a +dusky little islander almost in a state of nudity, that, an hour before +sunset on the day of his arrival, the English traveller approached the +casino of the Consul’s daughter, for there a note from Major Ponsonby +had invited him to repair, to be introduced to his daughter, and to +taste his oranges. The servant who received him led Mr. Ferrers to a +very fine plane-tree, under whose spreading branches was arranged a +banquet of fruit and flowers, coffee in cups of oriental filigree, and +wines of the Levant, cooled in snow. The worthy Consul was smoking his +chibouque, and his daughter, as she rose to greet their guest, let her +guitar fall upon the turf. The original of the portrait proved that the +painter had no need to flatter; and the dignified, yet cordial manner, +the radiant smile, and the sweet and thrilling voice with which she +welcomed her countryman would have completed the spell, had, indeed, the +wanderer been one prepared, or capable of being enchanted. As it was, +Mr. Ferrers, while he returned his welcome, with becoming complaisance, +exhibited the breeding of a man accustomed to sights of strangeness +and of beauty; and, while he expressed his sense of the courtesy of his +companions, admired their garden, and extolled the loveliness of the +prospect, he did not depart for a moment from that subdued, and even +sedate manner, which indicates, the individual whom the world has little +left to astonish, and less to enrapture, although, perhaps, much to +please. Yet he was fluent in conversation, sensible and polished, and +very agreeable. It appeared that he had travelled much, though he was +far from boasting of his exploits. He had been long absent from England, +had visited Egypt and Arabia, and had sojourned at Damascus. While he +refused the pipe, he proved, by his observations on its use, that he was +learned in its practice; and he declined his host’s offer of a file of +English journals, as he was not interested in their contents. His host +was too polished to originate any inquiry which might throw light upon +the connections or quality of his guest, and his guest imitated his +example. Nothing could be more perfectly well-bred than his whole +demeanour--he listened to the major with deference, and he never paid +Miss Ponsonby a single compliment: he never even asked her to sing; +but the fond father did not omit this attention. Henrietta, in the most +unaffected manner, complied with his request, because, as she was in the +habit of singing every evening to her father, she saw no reason why he +should, on this occasion, be deprived of an amusement to which he was +accustomed. As the welcome sea-breeze rose and stirred the flowers and +branches, her voice blended with its fresh and fragrant breath. It was +a beautiful voice; and the wild and plaintive air in which she indulged, +indigenous to their isle, harmonised alike with the picturesque scene +and the serene hour. Mr. Ferrers listened with attention, and thanked +her for her courtesy. Before they withdrew to the casino he even +requested the favour of her repeating the gratification, but in so quiet +a manner that most young ladies would have neglected to comply with a +wish expressed with so little fervour. + +The principal chamber of the casino was adorned with drawings by the +Consul’s daughter: they depicted the surrounding scenery, and were +executed by the hand of a master. Mr. Ferrers examined them with +interest--his observations proved his knowledge, and made them more than +suspect his skill. He admitted that he had some slight practice in the +fine arts, and offered to lend his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, if she +thought it would amuse her. Upon the subject of scenery he spoke with +more animation than on any other topic: his conversation, indeed, teemed +with the observations of a fine eye and cultivated taste. + +At length he departed, leaving behind him a very favourable impression. +Henrietta and her father agreed that he was a most gentlemanlike +personage-that he was very clever and very agreeable; and they were glad +to know him. The major detailed all the families and all the persons of +the name of Ferrers Of whom he had ever heard, and with whom he had been +acquainted; and, before he slept, wondered, for the fiftieth time, what +Ferrers he was. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + _Mr. Ferrers Dines with the Consul_ + +THE next morning, Mr. Ferrers sent his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, +to the Consuls house, in the city; and her father called upon him +immediately afterwards, to return his original visit, and to request him +to dine with them. Mr. Ferrers declined the invitation; but begged to be +permitted to pay his respects again at the casino, in the evening. The +major, under the circumstances, ventured to press his new acquaintance +to comply with their desire; but Mr. Ferrers became immediately very +reserved, and the Consul desisted. + +Towards sunset, however, mounted on his Barbary ass, Mr. Ferrers again +appeared at the gate of the casino, as mild and agreeable as before. +They drank their coffee and ate their fruit, chatted and sang, and +again repaired to the pavilion. Here they examined the contents of the +portfolio:--they were very rich, for it contained drawings of all +kinds, and almost of every celebrated place in the vicinity of the +Mediterranean shores; Saracenic palaces, Egyptian temples, mosques of +Damascus, and fountains of Stamboul. Here was a Bedouin encampment, +shaded by a grove of palms; and there a Spanish Señorita, shrouded in +her mantilla, glided along the Alameda. There was one circumstance, +however, about these drawings, which struck Miss Ponsonby as at least +remarkable. It was obvious that some pencil-mark in the corner of each +drawing, in all probability containing the name and initials of the +artist, had been carefully obliterated. + +Among the drawings were several sketches of a yacht, which Mr. Ferrers +passed over quickly, and without notice. The Consul, however, who was an +honorary member of the yacht club, and interested in every vessel of the +squadron that visited the Mediterranean, very naturally inquired of Mr. +Ferrers, to whom the schooner in question belonged. Mr. Ferrers seemed +rather confused; but at length he said: ‘Oh, they are stupid things: I +did not know they were here. The yacht is a yacht of a friend of mine, +who was at Cadiz.’ + +‘Oh, I see the name,’ said the major; ‘“_The Kraken_.” Why, that is Lord +Bohun’s yacht!’ + +‘The same,’ said Mr. Ferrers, but perfectly composed. + +‘Ah! do you know Lord Bohun?’ said Miss Ponsonby. ‘We have often +expected him here. I wonder he has never paid us a visit, papa. They say +he is the most eccentric person in the world. Is he so?’ + +‘I never heard much in his favour,’ said Mr. Ferrers. ‘I believe he has +made himself a great fool, as most young nobles do.’ + +‘Well, I have heard very extraordinary things of him,’ said the Consul. +‘He is a great traveller, at all events, which I think a circumstance in +every man’s favour.’ + +‘And then he has been a guerilla chieftain,’ said Miss Ponsonby; ‘and a +Bedouin robber, and--I hardly know what else; but Colonel Garth, who was +here last summer, told us the most miraculous tales of his lordship.’ + +‘Affectations!’ said Mr. Ferrers, with a sneer. ‘Bohun, however, has +some excuses for his folly: for he was an orphan, I believe, in his +cradle.’ + +‘Is he clever?’ inquired Miss Ponsonby. + +‘Colonel Garth is a much better judge than I am,’ replied Mr. Ferrers. +‘I confess I have no taste for guerilla chieftains, or Bedouin robbers. +I am not at all romantic.’ + +And here he attracted her attention to what he called an attempt at a +bull-fight; the conversation dropped, and Lord Bohun was forgotten. + +A fortnight passed away, and Mr. Ferrers was still a visitant of our +Mediterranean isle. His intimacy with the Consul and his daughter +remained on the same footing. Every evening he paid them a visit; and +every evening, when he had retired, the major and his daughter agreed +that he was a most agreeable person, though rather odd; the worthy +Consul always adding his regret that he would not dine with him, and his +wonder as to what Ferrers he was. + +Now, it so happened that it was a royal birthday; and the bishop, and +several of the leading persons of the town, had agreed to partake of +the hospitality of the British Consul. The major was anxious that Mr. +Ferrers should meet them. He discussed this important point with his +daughter. + +‘My darling, I don’t like to ask him: he really is such a very odd man. +The moment you ask him to dinner, he looks as if you had offered him an +insult. Shall we send him a formal invitation? I wonder what Ferrers he +is? I should be gratified if he would dine with us. Besides, he would +see something of our native society here, which is amusing. What shall +we do?’ + +‘I will ask him,’ replied Miss Ponsonby. ‘I don’t think he could refuse +me.’ + +‘I am sure I could not,’ replied the major, smiling. + +And so Miss Ponsonby seized an opportunity of telling Mr. Ferrers that +she had a favour to ask him. He was more fortunate than he imagined, was +his courteous reply. + +‘Then you must dine with papa, to-morrow.’ + +Mr. Ferrers’ brow immediately clouded. + +‘Now, do not look so suspicious,’ said Miss Ponsonby. ‘Do you think that +ours is an Italian banquet? Is there poison in the dish? Or do you live +only on fruit and flowers?’ continued Miss Ponsonby. ‘Do you know,’ she +added, with an arch smile, ‘I think you must be a ghoul.’ + +A sort of smile struggled with a scowl over the haughty countenance of +the Englishman. + +‘You will come!’ said Miss Ponsonby, most winningly. + +‘I have already trespassed too much upon Major Ponsonby’s hospitality,’ +muttered Mr. Ferrers; ‘I have no claim to it.’ + +‘You are our countryman.’ + +‘Unknown.’ + +‘The common consequence of being a traveller.’ + +‘Yes--but--in short--I--’ + +‘You must come,’ said Miss Ponsonby, with a glance like sunshine. + +‘You do with me what you like,’ exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, with animation. +‘Beautiful--weather,’ he concluded. + +Mr. Ferrers was therefore their guest; and strange it is to say, that +from this day, from some cause, which it is now useless to ascertain, +this gentleman became an habitual guest at the Consul’s table; accepting +a general invitation without even a frown; and, what is more remarkable, +availing himself of it, scarcely with an exception. + +Could it be the Consul’s daughter that effected this revolution? Time +may perhaps solve this interesting problem. Certainly, whether it were +that she was seldom seen to more advantage than when presiding over +society; or whether, elate with her triumph, she was particularly +pleasing because she was particularly pleased; certainly Henrietta +Ponsonby never appeared to greater advantage than she did upon the day +of this memorable festival. Mr. Ferrers, when he quitted the house, +sauntered to the mole, and gazed upon the moonlight sea.-A dangerous +symptom. Yet the eye of Mr. Ferrers had before this been fixed in mute +abstraction on many a summer wave, when Dian was in her bower; and +this man, cold and inscrutable as he seemed, was learned in woman, and +woman’s ways. Shall a Consul’s daughter melt a heart that boasted of +being callous, and clear a brow that prided itself upon its clouds? + +But if the state of Mr. Ferrers’ heart were doubtful, I must perforce +confess that, as time drew on, Henrietta Ponsonby, if she had ventured +to inquire, could have little hesitated as to the state of her own +feelings. Her companion, her constant companion, for such Mr. Ferrers +had now insensibly become, exercised over her an influence, of the power +of which she was unconscious,--only because it was unceasing. Had for +a moment the excitement of her novel feelings ceased, she would have +discovered, with wonder, perhaps with some degree of fear, how changed +she had become since the first evening he approached their pleasant +casino. And yet Mr. Ferrers was not her lover. No act,--no word of +gallantry,--no indication of affection, to her inexperienced sense, ever +escaped him. All that he did was, that he sought her society; but, then, +there was no other. The only wonder was, that he should remain among +them; but, then, he had been everywhere. The vague love of lounging and +repose, which ever and anon falls upon men long accustomed to singular +activity and strange adventure, sufficiently accounted for his conduct. +But, whatever might be his motives, certain it is, that the English +stranger dangerously interested the feelings of the Consul’s daughter; +and when she thought the time must arrive for his departure, she drove +the recollection from her mind with a swiftness which indicated the pang +which she experienced by its occurrence. And no marvel either, that the +heart of this young and lovely maiden softened at the thought, and in +the presence of her companion: no marvel, and no shame, for nature +had invested the Englishman with soul-subduing qualities. His elegant +person; his tender, yet reserved manners; his experienced, yet ornate +mind; the flashes of a brilliant, yet mellowed imagination, which ever +and anon would break forth in his conversation: perhaps, too, the air +of melancholy, and even of mystery, which enveloped him, were all spells +potent in the charm that enchants the heart of woman. And the major, +what did he think? The good Consul was puzzled. The confirmed intimacy +between his daughter and his guest alike perplexed and pleased him. He +certainly never had become acquainted with a man whom he would sooner +have preferred for a son-in-law, if he had only known who he was. But +two months, and more than two months, had elapsed, and threw no light +upon this most necessary point of knowledge. The Consul hesitated as +to his conduct. His anxiety almost mastered his good breeding. Now he +thought of speaking to Mr. Ferrers, and then to his daughter. There were +objections to each line of conduct, and his confidence in Mr. Ferrers +was very great, although he did not exactly know who he was: he was +decidedly a gentleman; and there was, throughout his conduct and +conversation, a tone of such strict propriety; there was so much +delicacy, and good feeling, and sound principle, in all he said and did, +that the Consul at length resolved, that he had no right to suspect, +and no authority to question him. He was just on the point, however, of +conferring with his daughter, when the town was suddenly enlivened, and +his attention suddenly engrossed, by the arrival of two other English +gentlemen. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + _A Tender Avowal_ + +IT MUST be confessed that Captain Ormsby and Major M’Intyre were two +very different sort of men to Mr. Ferrers. Never were two such gay, +noisy, pleasant, commonplace persons. They were ‘_on leave_’ from one +of the Mediterranean garrisons, had scampered through Italy, shot +red-legged partridges all along the Barbary coast, and even smoked a +pipe with the Dey of Algiers. They were intoxicated with all the sights +they had seen, and all the scrapes they had encountered, which they +styled ‘regular adventures’: and they insisted upon giving everyone a +description of what everybody had heard or seen. In consequence of their +arrival, Mr. Ferrers discontinued dining with his accustomed host; and +resumed his old habit of riding up to the casino, every evening, on his +Barbary ass, to eat oranges and talk to the Consul’s daughter. + +‘I suppose you know Florence, Mr. Ferrers?’ said Major M’Intyre. + +Mr. Ferrers bowed. + +‘St. Peter’s, of course, you have seen?’ said Captain Ormsby. + +‘But have you seen it during Holy Week?’ said the major. ‘That’s the +thing.’ + +‘Ah, I see you have been everywhere,’ said the captain: ‘Algiers, of +course?’ + +‘I never was at Algiers,’ replied Mr. Ferrers, quite rejoiced at the +circumstance; and he walked away, and played with the gazelle. + +‘By Jove,’ said the major, with elevated eyes, ‘not been at Algiers! +why, Mr. Consul, I thought you said Mr. Ferrers was a very great +traveller indeed; and he has not been at Algiers! I consider Algiers +more worth seeing than any place we ever visited. Don’t you, Ormsby?’ + +The Consul inquired whether he had met any compatriots at that famous +place. The military travellers answered that they had not; but that Lord +Bohun’s yacht was there; and they understood his lordship was about to +proceed to this island. The conversation for some time then dwelt upon +Lord Bohun, and his adventures, eccentricities, and wealth. But Captain +Ormsby finally pronounced ‘Bohun a devilish good fellow.’ + +‘Do you know Lord Bohun?’ inquired Mr. Ferrers. + +‘Why, no!’ confessed Captain Ormsby: ‘but he is a devilish intimate +friend of a devilish intimate friend of mine.’ + +Mr. Ferrers made a sign to Miss Ponsonby; she rose, and followed him +into the garden. ‘I cannot endure the jabber of these men,’ said Mr. +Ferrers. + +‘They are very good-natured,’ said Miss Ponsonby. + +‘It may be so; and I have no right to criticise them. I dare say they +think me very dull. However, it appears you will have Lord Bohun here in +a short time, and then I shall be forgotten.’ + +‘That is not a very kind speech. You would not be forgotten, even if +absent; and you have, I hope, no thought of quitting us.’ + +‘I have remained here too long. Besides, I have no wish to play a second +part to Lord Bohun.’ + +‘Who thinks of Lord Bohun? and why should you play a second part to +anyone? You are a little perverse, Mr. Ferrers.’ + +‘I have been in this island ten weeks,’ said Mr. Ferrers, thoughtfully. + +‘When we begin to count time, we are generally weary,’ said Miss +Ponsonby. + +‘You are in error. I would willingly compound that the rest of my +existence should be as happy as the last ten weeks. They have been +very happy,’ said Mr. Ferrers, musingly; ‘very happy, indeed. The only +_happy_ time I ever knew. They have been so serene, and so sweet.’ + +‘And why not remain, then?’ said Miss Ponsonby, in a low voice. + +‘There are many reasons,’ said Mr. Ferrers; and he offered his arm +to Miss Ponsonby, and they walked together, far away from the casino. +‘These ten weeks have been so serene, and so sweet,’ he continued, but +in a calm voice, ‘because you have been my companion. My life has +taken its colour from your character. Now, listen to me, dearest Miss +Ponsonby, and be not alarmed. I love you!’ + +Her arm trembled in his. + +‘Yes, I _love_ you; and, believe me, I use that word with no common +feeling. It describes the entire devotion of my existence to your life; +and my complete sympathy with every attribute of your nature. Calm as +may be my speech, I love you with a burning heart.’ + +She bowed her head, and covered her face with her right hand. + +‘Most beauteous lady,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, ‘pardon me if I agitate +you; for my respect is equal to my love. I stand before you a stranger, +utterly unknown; and I am so circumstanced that it is not in my +power, even at _this_ moment, to offer any explanation of my equivocal +position. Yet, whatever I may be, I offer my existence, and all its +accidents, good or bad, in homage to your heart. May I indulge the +delicious hope that, if not now accepted, they are at least considered +with kindliness and without suspicion?’ + +‘Oh, yes! without _suspicion_,’ murmured Miss Ponsonby--‘without +suspicion. Nothing, nothing in the world shall ever make me believe that +you are not so good as you are------gifted.’ + +‘Darling Henrietta!’ exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, in a voice of melting +tenderness; and he pressed her to his heart, and sealed his love upon +her lips. ‘This, this is confidence; this, this is the woman’s love I +long have sighed for. Doubt me not, dearest; never doubt me! Say you are +mine; once more pledge yourself to me. I leave our isle this night. Nay, +start not, sweet one. ‘Tis for our happiness; this night. I shall return +to claim my bride. Now, listen, darling! our engagement, our sweet and +solemn engagement, is secret. You will never hear from me until we meet +again; you may hear _of_ me and not to my advantage. What matter? You +love me; you cannot doubt me. I leave with you my honour: an honour +_never sullied_. Mind that. Oh no, you cannot doubt me!’ + +‘I am yours: I care not what they say: if there be no faith and truth in +you, I will despair of them for ever.’ + +‘Beautiful being! you make me mad with joy. Has fate reserved for me, +indeed, this treasure? Am I at length loved, and loved only for myself!’ + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + _The Famous Lord Bohun_ + +He has gone; Mr. Ferrers has departed. What an event! What a marvellous +event! A revolution has occurred in the life of Henrietta Ponsonby: she +was no longer her own mistress; she was no longer her father’s child. +She belonged to another; and that other a stranger, an unknown, and +departed being! How strange! And yet how sweet! This beautiful young +lady passed her days in pondering over her singular position. In vain +she attempted to struggle with her destiny. In vain she depicted +to herself the error, perhaps the madness, of her conduct. She was +fascinated. She could not reason; she could not communicate to her +father all that had happened. A thousand times her lips moved to reveal +her secret; a thousand times an irresistible power restrained them. She +remained silent, moody, and restless: she plucked flowers, and threw +them to the wind: she gazed upon the sea, and watched the birds in +abstraction wilder than their wing: and yet she would not doubt her +betrothed. That voice so sweet and solemn, and so sincere, still +lingered in her ear: the gaze of that pure and lofty brow was engraven +on her memory: never could she forget those delicate adieus! + +This change in his daughter was not unmarked by the Consul, who, after +some reflection, could not hesitate in considering it as the result of +the departure of Mr. Ferrers. The thought made him mournful. It pained +his noble nature, that the guest whom he so respected might have trifled +with the affections of the child whom he so loved. He spoke to the +maiden; but the maiden said she was happy. And, indeed, her conduct +gave evidence of restlessness rather than misery; for her heart seemed +sometimes exuberantly gay; often did she smile, and ever did she sing. +The Consul was conscious there was a mystery he could not fathom. It is +bitter for a father at all times to feel that his child is unhappy; but +doubly bitter is the pang when he feels that the cause is secret. + +Three months, three heavy months passed away, and the cloud still rested +on this once happy home. Suddenly Lord Bohun arrived, the much talked-of +Lord Bohun, in his more talked-of yacht. The bustle which the arrival of +this celebrated personage occasioned in the consular establishment was +a diversion from the reserve, or the gloom, which had so long prevailed +there. Lord Bohun was a young, agreeable, and somewhat affected +individual. He had a German chasseur and a Greek page. He was very +luxurious, and rather troublesome; but infinitely amusing, both to the +Consul and his daughter. He dined with them every day, and recounted +his extraordinary adventures with considerable self-complacency. In the +course of the week he scampered over every part of the island; and gave +a magnificent entertainment on board the _Kraken_, to the bishop and the +principal islanders, in honour of the Consul’s daughter. Indeed it was +soon very evident that his lordship entertained feelings of no ordinary +admiration for his hostess. He paid her on all occasions the most marked +attention; and the Consul, who did not for a moment believe that these +attentions indicated other than the transient feelings that became a +lord, and so adventurous a lord, began to fear that his inexperienced +Henrietta might again become the victim of the fugitive admiration of a +traveller. + +One evening at the casino, his lordship noticed a drawing of his own +yacht, and started. The Consul explained to him, that the drawing had +been copied by his daughter from a sketch by an English traveller, who +preceded him. His name was inquired, and given. + +‘Ferrers!’ exclaimed his lordship. ‘What, has Ferrers been here?’ + +‘You know Mr. Ferrers, then?’ inquired Henrietta, with suppressed +agitation. + +‘Oh yes, I know Ferrers.’ + +‘A most agreeable and gentleman-like man,’ said the Consul, anxious, he +knew not why, that the conversation would cease. + +‘Oh yes, Ferrers is a very agreeable man. He piques himself on being +agreeable,--Mr. Ferrers.’ + +‘From what I have observed of Mr. Ferrers,’ said Henrietta, in a firm, +and rather decided tone, ‘I should not have given him credit for any +sentiment approaching to _conceit_.’ + +‘He is fortunate in having such a defender,’ said his lordship, bowing +gallantly. + +‘Our friends are scarcely worth possessing,’ said Miss Ponsonby, ‘unless +they defend us when absent. But I am not aware that Mr. Ferrers needs +any defence.’ + +His lordship turned on his heel, and hummed an opera air. + +‘Mr. Ferrers paid us a long visit,’ said the Consul, who was now +desirous that the conversation should proceed. + +‘He had evidently a great inducement,’ said Lord Bohun. ‘I wonder he +ever departed.’ + +‘He is a great favourite in this house,’ said Miss Ponsonby. + +‘I perceive it,’ said Lord Bohun. + +‘What Ferrers is he?’ inquired the Consul. + +‘Oh, he has gentle blood in his veins,’ said Lord Bohun. ‘I never heard +his breeding impeached.’ + +‘And I should think, nothing else,’ said Miss Ponsonby. + +‘Oh, I never heard anything particular against Ferrers,’ said his +lordship; ‘except that he was a _roué_, and a little mad. That is all.’ + +‘Enough, I should think,’ said Major Ponsonby, with a clouded brow. + +‘What a _roué_ may be, I can scarcely be supposed to judge,’ said +Henrietta. ‘If, however, it be a man remarkable for the delicacy of his +thoughts and conduct, Mr. Ferrers has certainly some claim to the title. +As for his madness, he was our constant companion for nearly three +months: if he be mad, it must be a very _little_ indeed.’ + +‘He was a great favourite of Henrietta,’ said her father, with a forced +smile. + +‘Fortunate man!’ said the lord. ‘Fortunate Ferrers!’ + +Lord Bohun stepped into the garden with the Consul: Miss Ponsonby was +left alone. Firm as had been her previous demeanour, now, that she +was alone, her agitated countenance denoted the tumult of her mind. A +_roué!_ Could it be so! Could it be possible! Was she, while she had +pledged the freshness of her virgin mind to this unknown man, was she, +after all, only a fresh sacrifice to his insatiable vanity! Ferrers a +_roué!_ That lofty-minded man, who spoke so eloquently and so wisely, +was he a _roué,_ an eccentric _roué_; one whose unprincipled conduct +could only be excused at the expense of the soundness of his intellect? +She could not credit it; she would not credit it: and yet his conduct +had been so strange, so mysterious, so unnecessarily mysterious: and +then she recollected his last dark-muttered words: ‘_You may hear of me, +and not to my advantage._’ Oh, what a prophecy! And _from_ him she had +never heard. He had, at least, kept this sad promise. Very sorrowful was +the Consul’s daughter. And then she bethought herself of his pledge, +and his honour that had been _never sullied_. She buried her face in her +hands,--she conjured up to her recollection all that had happened since +his arrival, perhaps his fatal arrival, in their island; all he had said +and done, and seemed to think. She would not doubt him. It was madness +for a moment to doubt him. No desolation seemed so complete, no misery +so full of anguish, as such suspicion: she could not doubt him; all her +happiness was hope. A gentle touch roused her. It was her gazelle; the +gazelle that he had so loved. She caressed it, she caressed it for his +sake: she arose and joined her father and Lord Bohun in the garden, if +not light-hearted, at least serene. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + _More Mystery_ + +THERE must have been something peculiarly captivating in the air of our +island; for Lord Bohun, who, according to his own account, had never +remained in any place a week in the whole course of his life, exhibited +no inclination to quit the city where Major Ponsonby presided over the +interests of our commerce. He had remained there nearly a month, +made himself very agreeable, and, on the whole, was a welcome guest, +certainly with the Consul, if not with the Consul’s daughter. As for the +name of Mr. Ferrers, it occasionally occurred in conversation. Henrietta +piqued herself upon the unsuspected inquiries which she carried on +respecting her absent friend. She, however, did not succeed in eliciting +much information. Lord Bohun was so vague, that it was impossible to +annex a precise idea to anything he ever uttered. Whether Ferrers were +rich or poor, really of good family, or, as she sometimes thought, of +disgraceful lineage; when and where Lord Bohun and himself had been +fellow-travellers--all was alike obscure and shadowy. Not that her noble +guest was inattentive to her inquiries; on the contrary, he almost +annoyed her by his constant devotion: she was almost, indeed, inclined +to resent his singularly marked expressions of admiration as an insult; +when, to her utter astonishment, one morning her father astounded her by +an announcement that Lord Bohun had done her the honour of offering her +his hand and heart. The beautiful Henrietta was in great perplexity. +It was due to Lord Bohun to reject his flattering proposal without +reservation: it was difficult, almost impossible, to convince her father +of the expediency of such a proceeding. There was in the proposal of +Lord Bohun every circumstance which could gratify Major Ponsonby. In +the wildest dreams of his paternal ambition, his hopes had never soared +higher than the possession of such a son-in-law: high born, high +rank, splendid fortune, and accomplished youth, were combined in the +individual whom some favouring destiny, it would seem, had wafted to +this distant and obscure isle to offer his vows to its accomplished +mistress. That his daughter might hesitate, on so brief an acquaintance, +to unite her eternal lot in life with a comparative stranger, was what +he had in some degree, anticipated; but that she should unhesitatingly +and unreservedly decline the proposal, was conduct for which he was +totally unprepared. He was disappointed and mortified--for the first +time in his life he was angry with his child. It is strange that Lord +Bohun, who had required a deputy to make, a proposition which, of all +others, the most becomes and most requires a principal, should, when +his fate was decided, have requested a personal interview with Miss +Ponsonby. It was a favour which she could not refuse, for her father +required her to grant it. She accordingly prepared herself for a +repetition of the proposal from lips, doubtless unaccustomed to sue in +vain. It was otherwise: never had Lord Bohun conducted himself in a more +kind and unaffected manner than during this interview: it pained Miss +Ponsonby to think she had pained one who was in reality so amiable: she +was glad, however, to observe that he did not appear very much moved or +annoyed. Lord Bohun expressed his gratitude for the agreeable hours he +had spent in her society; and then most delicately ventured to inquire +whether time might, perhaps, influence Miss Ponsonby’s determination. +And when he had received her most courteous, though hopeless answer, he +only expressed his wishes for her future happiness, which he could not +doubt. + +‘I feel,’ said Lord Bohun, as he was about to depart; ‘I feel,’ he +said, in a very hesitating voice, ‘I am taking a great, an unwarrantable +liberty; but believe me, dear Miss Ponsonby, the inquiry, if I could +venture to make it, is inspired by the sincerest desire for your +welfare. + +Speak with freedom, Lord Bohun; you will ever, I am sure, speak with +kindness.’ + +‘I would not willingly despair then, unless I believed that heart were +engaged to another.’ + +Miss Ponsonby bent down and plucked a flower, and, her brow covered with +blushes, with an agitated hand tore the flower to pieces. + +‘Is this a fair inquiry?’ she murmured. ‘It is for your sake I inquire,’ +answered Lord Bohun. + +Now an irresistible conviction came over her mind that Lord Bohun was +thinking of Ferrers, and a desire on her part as strong to learn at +length something of her mysterious lover. + +‘What, indeed, if I be not mistress of my heart?’ She spoke without +raising her head. + +‘In that case I will believe that it belongs to one worthy of such a +treasure.’ + +‘You speak of Edmund Ferrers?’ said Miss Ponsonby. + +‘The same.’ + +‘You know him?’ she inquired, in a choking voice. + +‘I know and honour him. I have long believed that the world did not +boast a man more gifted; now I know that it does not possess a man more +blessed.’ + +‘Shall you see him?’ she inquired in a quick tone. + +‘Probably you will see him first; I am sufficiently acquainted with his +movements to know that he will soon be here. This Greek boy whom you +have sometimes noticed is his page; I wish him to join his master again; +and methinks the readiest way will be to leave him in this isle. Here, +Spiridion, bow to your new mistress, and be dutiful for her sake, as +well as that of your lord’s. Adieu! dearest Miss Ponsonby!’ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + _A Welcome Message_ + +THIS strange conversation with Lord Bohun at parting, was not without +a certain wild, but not unpleasing influence over the mind of Henrietta +Ponsonby. Much as it at first had agitated her, its result, as she often +mused over it, was far from being without solace. It was consoling, +indeed, to know that one person, at least, honoured that being in whom +she had so implicitly relied: Lord Bohun, also, had before spoken of +Ferrers in a very different tone; but she felt confidence in the unusual +seriousness of his last communication; and with satisfaction contrasted +it with the heedlessness, or the levity, of his former intimations. +Here, too, was the page of Ferrers, at her side--the beautiful and +bright-eyed Spiridion. How strange it was! how very strange! Her simple +life had suddenly become like some shifting fairy-tale; but love, +indeed, is a fairy, and full of marvels and magic--it changes all +things; and the quietest domestic hearth, when shadowed by its wing, +becomes as rife with wonders and adventure as if it were the passionate +theatre of some old romance. Yes! the bright-eyed Greek page of her +mysterious and absent lover was at her side-but then he spoke only +Greek. In vain she tried to make him comprehend how much she desired to +have tidings of his master. The graceful mute could only indulge in airy +pantomime, point to the skies and ocean, or press his hand to his heart +in token of fidelity. Henrietta amused herself in teaching Spiridion +Italian, and repaid herself for all her trouble in occasionally +obtaining some slight information of her friend. In time she learned +that Ferrers was in Italy, and had seen Lord Bohun before the departure +of that nobleman. In answer to her anxious and often-repeated inquiries +whether he would soon return, Spiridion was constant to his consoling +affirmative. Never was such a sedulous mistress of languages as +Henrietta Ponsonby. She learned, also, that an Albanian scarf, which +the page wore round his waist, had been given him by his master when +Spiridion quitted him; and Henrietta instantly obtained the scarf for a +Barbary shawl of uncommon splendour. + +Now, it happened one afternoon towards sunset, as the Greek page, +rambling, as was his custom, over the neighbouring heights, beheld below +the spreading fort, the neighbouring straits, and the distant sea, that +a vessel appeared in sight, and soon entered the harbour. It was an +English vessel--it was the yacht of Lord Bohun. The page started and +watched the vessel with a fixed and earnest gaze; soon he observed +the British Consul in his boat row to the side of the vessel, and also +immediately return. At that moment the yacht hoisted a signal--upon +a white ground a crimson heart--whereupon Spiridion, drawing from his +breast a letter, kissed it twice, and bounded away. + +He bounded away towards the city, and scarcely slackened his pace +until he arrived at the Consul’s mansion--he rushed in, dashed up the +staircase, and entered the saloons. At the window of one, gazing on the +sunset, was Henrietta Ponsonby--her gaze was serious, but her +beautiful countenance was rather tinged by melancholy than touched +by gloom--pensive, not sorrowful. By her side lay her guitar, still +echoing, as it were, with her touch; and near it the Albanian scarf, on +which she had embroidered the name of her beloved. Of him, then, were +her gentle musings? Who can doubt it? Her gentle musings were of +him whom she had loved with such unexampled trust. Fond, beautiful, +confiding maiden! It was the strength of thy mind as much as the +simplicity of thy heart that rendered thee so faithful and so firm! Who +would not envy thy unknown adorer? Can he be false? Suspicion is for +weak minds and cold-blooded spirits. Thou never didst doubt; and thou +wast just, for, behold, he is true! + +A fluttering sound roused her--she turned her head, and expected to see +her gazelle: it was Spiridion; his face was wreathed with smiles as he +held towards her a letter. She seized it--she recognised in an instant +the handwriting she had so often studied--it was his! Yes! it was his. +It was the handwriting of her beloved. Her face was pale, her hand +trembled; a cloud moved before her vision; yet at length she read, and +she read these words:-- + +‘If, as I hope, and as I believe, you are faithful to those vows which +since my departure have been my only consolation, you will meet me +to-morrow, two hours before noon, in our garden. I come to claim my +bride; but until my lips have expressed to you how much I adore you, let +nothing be known to our father.’ + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + _The Mystery Revealed_ + +MY DEAREST Henrietta,’ said the Consul as he entered, ‘who, think you, +has returned? Lord Bohun.’ + +‘Indeed!’ said Henrietta. ‘Have you seen him?’ ‘No. I paid my respects +to him immediately, but he was unwell. He breakfasts with us to-morrow, +at ten.’ + +The morrow came, but ten o’clock brought no Lord Bohun; and even eleven +sounded: the Consul sought his daughter to consult her--he was surprised +to learn that Miss Ponsonby had not returned from her early ramble. At +this moment a messenger arrived from the yacht to say that, from some +error, Lord Bohun had repaired to the casino, where he awaited the +Consul. The major mounted his barb, and soon reached the pavilion. As +he entered the garden, he beheld, in the distance, his daughter and--Mr. +Ferrers. He was, indeed, surprised. It appeared that Henrietta was +about to run forward to him; but her companion checked her, and she +disappeared down a neighbouring walk. Mr. Ferrers advanced, and saluted +her father-- + +‘You are surprised to see me, my dear sir?’ + +‘I am surprised, but most happy. You came, of course, with Lord Bohun?’ + +Mr. Ferrers bowed. + +‘I am very desirous of having some conversation with you, my dear Major +Ponsonby,’ continued Mr. Ferrers. + +‘I am ever at your service, my dearest sir, but at the present moment I +must go and greet his lordship.’ + +‘Oh, never mind Bohun,’ said Mr. Ferrers, carelessly. ‘I have no +ceremony with him--he can wait.’ + +The major was a little perplexed. + +‘You must know, my dearest sir,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, ‘that I wish to +speak to you on a subject in which my happiness is entirely concerned.’ + +‘Proceed, sir,’ said the Consul, looking still more puzzled. + +‘You can scarcely be astonished, my dearest sir, that I should admire +your daughter.’ + +The Consul bowed. + +‘Indeed,’ said Mr. Ferrers; ‘it seems to me impossible to know her and +not admire: I should say, adore her.’ + +‘You flatter a father’s feelings,’ said the Consul. + +‘I express my own,’ replied Mr. Ferrers. ‘I love her--I have long loved +her devotedly.’ + +‘Hem!’ said Major Ponsonby. + +‘I feel,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, ‘that there is a great deal to +apologise for in my conduct, towards both you and herself: I feel that +my conduct may, in some degree, be considered even unpardonable: I will +not say that the end justifies the means, Major Ponsonby, but my end +was, at least, a great, and, I am sure a virtuous one.’ + +‘I do not clearly comprehend you, Mr. Ferrers.’ + +‘It is some consolation to me,’ continued that gentleman, ‘that the +daughter has pardoned me; now let me indulge the delightful hope that I +may be as successful with the father.’ + +‘I will, at least, listen with patience, to you, Mr. Ferrers; but I must +own your meaning is not very evident to me: let me, at least, go and +shake hands with Lord Bohun.’ + +‘I will answer for Lord Bohun excusing your momentary neglect. Pray, my +dear sir, listen to me. I wish to make you acquainted, Major Ponsonby, +with the feelings which influenced me when I first landed on this +island. This knowledge is necessary for my justification.’ + +‘But what is there to justify?’ inquired the major. + +‘Conceive a man born to a great fortune,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, without +noticing the interruption, ‘and to some accidents of life, which many +esteem above fortune; a station as eminent as his wealth--conceive this +man master of his destiny from his boyhood, and early experienced in +that great world with which you are not unacquainted--conceive him with +a heart, gifted, perhaps, with too dangerous a sensibility; the dupe and +the victim of all whom he encounters--conceive him, in disgust, flying +from the world that had deceived him, and divesting himself of those +accidents of existence which, however envied by others, appeared to his +morbid imagination the essential causes of his misery--conceive this +man, unknown and obscure, sighing to be valued for those qualities of +which fortune could not deprive him, and to be loved only for his own +sake--a miserable man, sir!’ + +‘It would seem so,’ said the Consul. + +‘Now, then, for a moment imagine this man apparently in possession +of all for which he had so long panted; he is loved, he is loved for +himself, and loved by a being surpassing the brightest dream of his +purest youth: yet the remembrance of the past poisons, even now, his +joy. He is haunted by the suspicion that the affection, even of this +being, is less the result of his own qualities, than of her inexperience +of life--he has everything at stake--he dares to submit her devotion to +the sharpest trial--he quits her without withdrawing the dark curtain +with which he had enveloped himself--he quits her with the distinct +understanding that she shall not even hear from him until he thinks fit +to return; and entangles her pure mind, for the first time, in a secret +from the parent whom she adores. He is careful, in the meanwhile, that +his name shall be traduced in her presence--that the proudest fortune, +the loftiest rank, shall be offered for her acceptance, if she only will +renounce him, and the dim hope of his return. A terrible trial, Major +Ponsonby!’ + +‘Indeed, most terrible.’ + +‘But she is true--truer even than truth--and I have come back to claim +my unrivalled bride. Can you pardon me? Can you sympathise with me?’ + +‘I speak, then-----’ murmured the astounded Consul-- + +‘To your son, with your permission-to Lord Bohun!’ + + + + +WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + _A Philosophical Conversation between a Physician and + His Patient._ + +DR. DE SCHULEMBOURG was the most eminent physician in Dresden. He was +not only a physician; he was a philosopher. He studied the idiosyncrasy +of his patients, and was aware of the fine and secret connection between +medicine and morals. One morning Dr. de Schulembourg was summoned to +Walstein. The physician looked forward to the interview with his patient +with some degree of interest. He had often heard of Walstein, but had +never yet met that gentleman, who had only recently returned from his +travels, and who had been absent from his country for several years. + +When Dr. de Schulembourg arrived at the house of Walstein, he was +admitted into a circular hall containing the busts of the Caesars, and +ascending a double staircase of noble proportion, was ushered into a +magnificent gallery. Copies in marble of the most celebrated ancient +statues were ranged on each side of this gallery. Above them were +suspended many beautiful Italian and Spanish pictures, and between them +were dwarf bookcases full of tall volumes in sumptuous bindings, and +crowned with Etruscan vases and rare bronzes. Schulembourg, who was a +man of taste, looked around him with great satisfaction. And while he +was gazing on a group of diaphanous cherubim, by Murillo, an artist of +whom he had heard much and knew little, his arm was gently touched, and +turning round, Schulembourg beheld his patient, a man past the prime of +youth, but of very distinguished appearance, and with a very frank and +graceful manner. ‘I hope you will pardon me, my dear sir, for permitting +you to be a moment alone,’ said Walstein, with an ingratiating smile. + +‘Solitude, in such a scene, is not very wearisome,’ replied the +physician. ‘There are great changes in-this mansion since the time of +your father, Mr. Walstein.’ + +‘’Tis an attempt to achieve that which we are all sighing for,’ replied +Walstein, ‘the Ideal. But for myself, although I assure you not a +_pococurante_, I cannot help thinking there is no slight dash of the +commonplace.’ + +‘Which is a necessary ingredient of all that is excellent,’ replied +Schulembourg. + +Walstein shrugged his shoulders, and then invited the physician to be +seated. ‘I wish to consult you, Dr. Schulembourg,’ he observed, +somewhat abruptly. ‘My metaphysical opinions induce me to believe that +a physician is the only philosopher. I am perplexed by my own case. I +am in excellent health, my appetite is good, my digestion perfect. My +temperament I have ever considered to be of a very sanguine character. +I have nothing upon my mind. I am in very easy circumstances. Hitherto +I have only committed blunders in life and never crimes. Nevertheless, +I have, of late, become the victim of a deep and inscrutable melancholy, +which I can ascribe to no cause, and can divert by no resource. Can you +throw any light upon my dark feelings? Can you remove them?’ + +‘How long have you experienced them?’ inquired the physician. + +‘More or less ever since my return,’ replied Walstein; ‘but most +grievously during the last three months.’ + +‘Are you in love?’ inquired Schulembourg. + +‘Certainly not,’ replied Walstein, ‘and I fear I never shall be.’ + +‘You have been?’ inquired the physician. + +‘I have had some fancies, perhaps too many,’ answered the patient; ‘but +youth deludes itself. My idea of a heroine has never been realised, and, +in all probability, never will be.’ + +‘Besides an idea of a heroine,’ said Schulembourg, ‘you have also, if I +mistake not, an idea of a hero?’ + +‘Without doubt,’ replied Walstein. ‘I have preconceived for myself a +character which I have never achieved.’ + +‘Yet, if you have never met a heroine nearer your ideal than your hero, +why should you complain?’ rejoined Schulembourg. + +‘There are moments when my vanity completes my own portrait,’ said +Walstein. + +‘And there are moments when our imagination completes the portrait of +our mistress,’ rejoined Schulembourg. + +‘You reason,’ said Walstein. ‘I was myself once fond of reasoning, but +the greater my experience, the more I have become convinced that man is +not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from +passion.’ + +‘Passion is the ship, and reason is the rudder,’ observed Schulembourg. + +‘And thus we pass the ocean of life,’ said Walstein. ‘Would that I +could discover a new continent of sensation!’ + +‘Do you mix much in society?’ said the physician. + +‘By fits and starts,’ said Walstein. ‘A great deal when I first +returned: of late little.’ + +‘And your distemper has increased in proportion with your solitude?’ + +‘It would superficially appear so,’ observed Walstein; ‘but I consider +my present distemper as not so much the result of solitude, as the +reaction of much converse with society. I am gloomy at present from a +sense of disappointment of the past.’ + +‘You are disappointed,’ observed Schulembourg. ‘What, then, did you +expect?’ + +‘I do not know,’ replied Walstein; ‘that is the very thing I wish to +discover.’ + +‘How do you in general pass your time?’ inquired the physician. + +‘When I reply _in doing nothing_, my dear Doctor,’ said Walstein, +‘you will think that you have discovered the cause of my disorder. But +perhaps you will only mistake an effect for a cause.’ + +‘Do you read?’ + +‘I have lost the faculty of reading: early in life I was a student, but +books become insipid when one is rich with the wisdom of a wandering +life.’ + +‘Do you write?’ + +‘I have tried, but mediocrity disgusts me. In literature a second-rate +reputation is no recompense for the evils that authors are heirs to.’ + +‘Yet, without making your compositions public, you might relieve your +own feelings in expressing them. There is a charm in creation.’ + +‘My sympathies are strong,’ replied Walstein. ‘In an evil hour I might +descend from my pedestal; I should compromise my dignity with the herd; +I should sink before the first shaft of ridicule.’ + +‘You did not suffer from this melancholy when travelling?’ + +‘Occasionally: but the fits were never so profound, and were very +evanescent.’ + +‘Travel is action,’ replied Schulembourg. ‘Believe me, that in action +you alone can find a cure.’ + +‘What is action?’ inquired Walstein. ‘Travel I have exhausted. The world +is quiet. There are no wars now, no revolutions. Where can I find a +career?’ + +‘Action,’ replied Schulembourg, ‘is the exercise of our faculties. Do +not mistake restlessness for action. Murillo, who passed a long life +almost within the walls of his native city, was a man of great action. +Witness the convents and the churches that are covered with his +exploits. A great student is a great actor, and as great as a marshal or +a statesman. You must act, Mr. Walstein, you must act; you must have an +object in life; great or slight, still you must have an object. Believe +me, it is better to be a mere man of pleasure than a dreamer.’ + +‘Your advice is profound,’ replied Walstein, ‘and you have struck upon a +sympathetic chord. But what am I to do? I have no object.’ + +‘You are a very ambitious man,’ replied the physician. + +‘How know you that?’ said Walstein, somewhat hastily, and slightly +blushing. + +‘We doctors know many strange things,’ replied Schulembourg, with a +smile. ‘Come now, would you like to be prime minister of Saxony?’ + +‘Prime minister of Oberon!’ said Walstein, laughing; ‘’tis indeed a +great destiny.’ + +‘Ah! when you have lived longer among us, your views will accommodate +themselves to our limited horizon. In the meantime, I will write you a +prescription, provided you promise to comply with my directions.’ + +‘Do not doubt me, my dear Doctor.’ + +Schulembourg seated himself at the table, and wrote a few lines, which +he handed to his patient. + +Walstein smiled as he read the prescription. + +‘Dr. de Schulembourg requests the honour of the Baron de Walstein’s +company at dinner, to-morrow at two o’clock.’ + +Walstein smiled and looked a little perplexed, but he remembered his +promise. ‘I shall, with pleasure, become your guest, Doctor.’ + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + _Containing Some Future Conversation_ + +WALSTEIN did not forget his engagement with his friendly physician. The +house of Schulembourg was the most beautiful mansion in Dresden. It was +situated in a delicious garden in the midst of the park, and had been +presented to him by a grateful sovereign. It was a Palladian villa, +which recalled the Brenda to the recollection of Walstein, with flights +of marble steps, airy colonnades, pediments of harmonious proportion, +all painted with classic frescoes. Orange trees clustered in groups upon +the terrace, perfumed the summer air, rising out of magnificent vases +sculptured in high relief; and amid the trees, confined by silver chains +were rare birds of radiant plumage, rare birds with prismatic eyes and +bold ebon beaks, breasts flooded with crimson, and long tails of violet +and green. The declining sun shone brightly in the light blue sky, +and threw its lustre upon the fanciful abode, above which, slight and +serene, floated the airy crescent of the young white moon. + +‘My friend, too, I perceive, is a votary of the Ideal,’ exclaimed +Walstein. + +The carriage stopped. Walstein mounted the marble steps and was ushered +through a hall, wherein was the statue of a single nymph, into an +octagonal apartment. Schulembourg himself had not arrived. Two men moved +away, as he was announced, from a lady whom they attended. The lady was +Madame de Schulembourg, and she came forward, with infinite grace, to +apologise for the absence of her husband, and to welcome her guest. + +Her appearance was very remarkable. She was young and strangely +beautiful. Walstein thought that he had never beheld such lustrous locks +of ebon hair shading a countenance of such dazzling purity. Her +large and deep blue eyes gleamed through their long black lashes. The +expression of her face was singularly joyous. Two wild dimples played +like meteors on her soft round cheeks. A pink veil worn over her head +was carelessly tied under her chin, and fastened with a white rose of +pearls. Her vest and train of white satin did not conceal her sylphlike +form and delicate feet. She held forth a little white hand to Walstein, +adorned only by a single enormous ruby, and welcomed him with inspiring +ease. + +‘I do not know whether you are acquainted with your companions, Mr. +Walstein,’ said Madame de Schulembourg. Walstein looked around, +and recognised the English minister, and had the pleasure of being +introduced, for the first time, to a celebrated sculptor. + +‘I have heard of your name, not only in Germany,’ said Walstein, +addressing the latter gentleman. ‘You have left your fame behind you +at Rome. If the Italians are excusably envious, their envy is at least +accompanied with admiration.’ The gratified sculptor bowed and slightly +blushed. Walstein loved art and artists. He was not one of those frigid, +petty souls who are ashamed to evince feeling in society. He felt keenly +and expressed himself without reserve. But nature had invested him with +a true nobility of manner as well as of mind. He was ever graceful, even +when enthusiastic. + +‘It is difficult to remember we are in the North,’ said Walstein to +Madame Schulembourg, ‘amid these colonnades and orange trees.’ + +‘It is thus that I console myself for beautiful Italy,’ replied the +lady, ‘and, indeed, to-day the sun favours the design.’ + +‘You have resided long in Italy?’ inquired Walstein. + +‘I was born at Milan,’ replied Madame de Schulembourg, ‘my father +commanded a Hungarian regiment in garrison.’ + +‘I thought that I did not recognise an Italian physiognomy,’ said +Walstein, looking somewhat earnestly at the lady. + +‘Yet I have a dash of the Lombard blood in me, I assure you,’ replied +Madame de Schulembourg, smiling; ‘is it not so, Mr. Revel?’ + +The Englishman advanced and praised the beauty of the lady’s mother, +whom he well knew. Then he asked Walstein when he was at Milan; then +they exchanged more words respecting Milanese society; and while they +were conversing, the Doctor entered, followed by a servant: ‘I must +compensate for keeping you from dinner,’ said their host, ‘by having the +pleasure of announcing that it is prepared.’ + +He welcomed Walstein with warmth. Mr. Revel led Madame to the +dining-room. The table was round, and Walstein seated himself at her +side. + +The repast was light and elegant, unusual characteristics of a German +dinner. Madame de Schulembourg conversed with infinite gaiety, but with +an ease that showed that to charm was with her no effort. The Englishman +was an excellent specimen of his nation, polished and intelligent, +without that haughty and graceless reserve which is so painful to +a finished man of the world. The host was himself ever animated and +cheerful, but calm and clear--and often addressed himself to the artist, +who was silent, and, like students in general, constrained. Walstein +himself, indeed, was not very talkative, but his manner indicated that +he was interested, and when he made an observation it was uttered with +facility, and arrested attention by its justness or its novelty. It was +an agreeable party. + +They had discussed several light topics. At length they diverged to the +supernatural. Mr. Revel, as is customary with Englishmen, who are very +sceptical, affected for the moment a belief in spirits. With the rest +of the society, however, it was no light theme. Madame de Schulembourg +avowed her profound credulity. The artist was a decided votary. +Schulembourg philosophically accounted for many appearances, but he +was a magnetiser, and his explanations were more marvellous than the +portents. + +‘And you, Mr. Walstein,’ said Madame de Schulembourg, ‘what is your +opinion?’ + +‘I am willing to yield to any faith that distracts my thoughts from the +burthen of daily reality,’ replied Walstein. + +‘You would just suit Mr. Novalis, then,’ observed Mr. Revel, bowing to +the sculptor. + +‘Novalis is an astrologer,’ said Madame Schulembourg; ‘I think he would +just suit you.’ + +‘Destiny is a grand subject,’ observed Walstein, ‘and although I am not +prepared to say that I believe in fate, I should nevertheless not be +surprised to read my fortunes in the stars.’ + +‘That has been the belief of great spirits,’ observed the sculptor, his +countenance brightening with more assurance. + +‘It is true,’ replied Walstein, ‘I would rather err with my great +namesake and Napoleon than share the orthodoxy of ordinary mortality.’ + +‘That is a dangerous speech, Baron,’ said Schulembourg. + +‘With regard to destiny,’ said Mr. Revel, who was in fact a materialist +of the old school, ‘everything depends upon a man’s nature; the +ambitious will rise, and the grovelling will crawl--those whose volition +is strong will believe in fate, and the weak-minded accounts for the +consequences of his own incongruities by execrating chance.’ + +Schulembourg shook his head. ‘By a man’s nature you mean his structure,’ +said the physician, ‘much, doubtless, depends upon structure, but +structure is again influenced by structure. All is subservient to +sympathy.’ + +‘It is true,’ replied the sculptor; ‘and what is the influence of the +stars on human conduct but sympathy of the highest degree?’ + +‘I am little accustomed to metaphysical discussions,’ remarked Walstein; +‘this is, indeed, a sorry subject to amuse a fair lady with, Madame de +Schulembourg.’ + +‘On the contrary,’ she replied, ‘the mystical ever delights me.’ + +‘Yet,’ continued Walstein, ‘perceiving that the discontent and +infelicity of man generally increase in an exact ratio with his +intelligence and his knowledge, I am often tempted to envy the ignorant +and the simple.’ + +‘A man can only be content,’ replied Schulembourg, ‘when his career is +in harmony with his organisation. Man is an animal formed for great +physical activity, and this is the reason why the vast majority, in +spite of great physical suffering, are content. The sense of existence, +under the influence of the action which is necessary to their living, +counterbalances all misery. But when a man has a peculiar structure, +when he is born with a predisposition, or is, in vulgar language, a man +of genius, his content entirely depends upon the predisposition being +developed and indulged. And this is philosophical education, that +sublime art so ill-comprehended!’ + +‘I agree with you,’ said Revel, who recollected the nonsense-verses of +Eton, and the logic of Christ Church; ‘all the scrapes and unhappiness +of my youth, and I assure you they were not inconsiderable, are to be +ascribed to the obstinate resolution of my family to make a priest out +of a man who wished to be a soldier.’ + +‘And I was disinherited because I would be a physician,’ replied +Schulembourg; ‘but instead of a poor, insignificant baron, I am now a +noble in four kingdoms and have the orders of all Europe, and that lady +was not ashamed to marry me.’ + +‘I was a swineherd in the wilds of Pomerania,’ said Novalis, his eyes +flashing with enthusiasm. ‘I ran away to Italy, but I broke my poor +mother’s heart.’ + +There was a dead, painful pause, in which Walstein interposed. ‘As for +myself, I suppose I have no predisposition, or I have not found it out. +Perhaps nature intended me for a swineherd, instead, of a baron. This, +however, I do know, that life is an intolerable burthen--at least it +would be,’ he added, turning with a smile to his fair hostess, ‘were it +not for occasionally meeting some one so inspiring as you.’ + +‘Come,’ said Madame, rising, ‘the carriages are at the door. Let us take +a drive. Mr. Walstein, you shall give me your opinion of my ponies.’ + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + _Containing a Drive in the Park with a Very Charming Lady._ + +MADAME DE SCHULEMBOURG’S carriage, drawn by two beautiful Hanoverian +ponies, cream in colour, with long manes and tails like floss silk, was +followed by a britzka; but despatches called away Mr. Revel, and Novalis +stole off to his studio. The doctor, as usual, was engaged. ‘Caroline,’ +he said, as he bid his guest adieu, ‘I commend Mr. Walstein to your +care. When I return in the evening, do not let me find that our friend +has escaped.’ + +‘I am sure that though unhappy he is not ungallant,’ replied Caroline, +with a smile; and she took his offered arm, and ascended her seat. + +Swiftly the little ponies scudded along the winding roads. The Corso was +as yet but slightly attended. Caroline passed through the wide avenue +without stopping, but sometimes recognising with bow and smile a +flitting friend. They came to a wilder and woodier part of the park, the +road lined on each side with linden trees, and in the distance were vast +beds of tall fern, tinged with the first rich hues of autumn. + +‘Here, Mr. Walstein,’ said Caroline, ‘with your permission, I shall take +my afternoon walk.’ Thus speaking, she stopped the carriage, which +she and her companion quitted. Walstein offered her his arm, but she +declined it, folding herself up in her shawl. + +‘Which do you like best, Mr. Walstein, Constantinople or Dresden?’ said +Madame de Schulembourg. + +‘At this moment, decidedly Dresden,’ replied her companion. + +‘Ah! that is a compliment,’ said Madame de Schulembourg, after a +moment’s musing. ‘My dear Mr. Walstein,’ she continued, looking up with +an arch expression, ‘never pay me compliments.’ + +‘You mistake me: it was not a compliment,’ replied Walstein. ‘It was a +sincere and becoming tribute of gratitude for three hours of endurable +existence.’ + +‘You know that you are my patient,’ rejoined Madame de Schulembourg. +‘I have orders to cure your melancholy. I am very successful in such +complaints.’ + +‘I have no doubt of it,’ replied Walstein, with a slight bow. + +‘If we could but find out the cause!’ continued Caroline. ‘I venture to +believe that, after all, it will turn out an affair of the heart. Come, +be frank with your physician. Tell me, have you left it captive with +a fair Greek of the Isles, or a dark-eyed maiden of the Nile? Is our +heroine a captive behind a Spanish jalousie, or in an Italian convent?’ + +‘Women ever believe that all moods and tempers of man are consequences +of their influence,’ replied Walstein, ‘and in general they are right.’ + +‘But in your case?’ + +‘Very wrong.’ + +‘I am determined to find it out,’ said Madame de Schulembourg. + +‘I wish to heaven you could,’ said Baron de Walstein. + +‘I think a wandering life has spoiled you,’ said Caroline. ‘I think it +must be civilisation that you find wearisome.’ + +‘That would be very sublime,’ replied Walstein. ‘But I assure you, +if there be one thing that disgusts me more than another, it is the +anticipation of renewed travel! I have seen all that I wish, and more +than I ever expected. All that I could experience now would be exertion +without excitement, a dreadful doom. If I am not to experience pleasure, +let me at least have the refuge of repose. The magic of change of scene +is with me exhausted. If I am to live, I do not think that I could be +tempted to quit this city; sometimes I think, scarcely even my house.’ + +‘I see how it is,’ exclaimed Madame de Schulembourg, shaking her head +very knowingly, ‘you must marry.’ + +‘The last resource of feminine fancy!’ exclaimed Walstein, almost +laughing. ‘You would lessen my melancholy, I suppose, on the principle +of the division of gloom. I can assure you, my dear Madame de +Schulembourg,’ he continued, in a very serious tone, ‘that, with +my present sensations, I should consider it highly dishonourable to +implicate any woman in my destiny.’ + +‘Ha! ha! ha!’ laughed Madame; ‘I can assure you, my dear Mr. Walstein, +that I have a great many very pretty friends who will run the risk. ‘Tis +the best cure for melancholy, believe me. I was serious myself at times +before I married, but you see I have got over my gloom.’ + +‘You have, indeed,’ said Walstein; ‘and perhaps, were I Doctor de +Schulembourg, I might be as gay.’ + +‘Another compliment! However, I accept it, because it is founded on +truth. The fact is, I think you are too much alone.’ + +‘I have lived in a desert, and now I live in what is called the world,’ +replied Walstein. ‘Yet in Arabia I was fairly content, and now I +am-----what I shall not describe, because it will only procure me your +ridicule.’ + +‘Nay! not ridicule, Mr. Walstein. Do not think that I do not sympathise +with your affliction, because I wish you to be as cheerful as myself. +If you were fairly content in Arabia, I shall begin to consider it an +affair of climate.’ + +‘No,’ said Walstein, still very serious, ‘not an affair of +climate--certainly not. The truth is, travel is a preparation, and we +bear with its yoke as we do with all that is initiatory--with the solace +of expectation. But my preparation can lead to nothing, and there appear +to be no mysteries in which I am to be initiated.’ + +‘Then, after all, you want something to do?’ + +‘No doubt.’ + +‘What shall it be?’ inquired Madame de Schulembourg, with a thoughtful +air. + +‘Ah! what shall it be?’ echoed Walstein, in accents of despondence; ‘or, +rather, what can it be? What can be more tame, more uninteresting, more +unpromising than all around? Where is there a career?’ + +‘A career!’ exclaimed Caroline. ‘What, you want to set the world in +a blaze! I thought you were a poetic dreamer, a listless, superfine +speculator of an exhausted world. And all the time you are very +ambitious!’ + +‘I know not what I am,’ replied Walstein; ‘but I feel that my present +lot is an intolerable burthen.’ + +‘But what can you desire? You have wealth, youth, and station, all the +accidents of fortune which nature can bestow, and all for which men +struggle. Believe me, you are born to enjoy yourself; nor do I see that +you require any other career than the duties of your position. Believe +me, my dear Mr. Walstein, life is a great business, and quite enough to +employ any man’s faculties.’ + +‘My youth is fast fading, which I don’t regret,’ replied Walstein, ‘for +I am not an admirer of youth. As for station, I attribute no magic to +it, and wealth I value only because I know from experience its capacity +of producing pleasure; were I a beggar tomorrow, I should be haunted by +no uneasy sensations. Pardon me, Madame de Schulembourg; your philosophy +does not appear to be that of my friend, the Doctor. We were told this +afternoon that, to produce happiness, the nature of a being and his +career must coincide. Now, what can wealth and station produce of +happiness to me, if I have the mind of a bandit, or, perhaps, even of a +mechanic?’ + +‘You must settle all this with Augustus,’ replied Madame de +Schulembourg; ‘I am glad, however, to hear you abuse youth. I always +tell Sidonia that he makes his heroes too young, which enrages him +beyond description. Do you know him?’ + +‘Only by fame.’ + +‘He would suit you. He is melancholy too, but only by fits. Would you +like to make his acquaintance?’ + +‘Authors are best known by their writings,’ replied Walstein; ‘I admire +his, because, amid much wildness, he is a great reader of the human +heart, and I find many echoes in his pages of what I dare only to think +and to utter in solitude.’ + +‘I shall introduce you to him. He is exceedingly vain, and likes to make +the acquaintance of an admirer.’ + +‘I entreat you not,’ replied Walstein, really alarmed. ‘It is precisely +because I admire him very much that I never wish to see him. What +can the conversation of Sidonia be compared with his writings? His +appearance and his manner will only destroy the ideal, in which it is +always interesting to indulge.’ + +‘Well, be not alarmed! He is not now in Dresden. He has been leading a +wild life for some time in our Saxon Switzerland, in a state of despair. +I am the unhappy nymph who occasions his present desperation,’ continued +Madame de Schulembourg, with a smile. ‘Do not think me heartless; all +his passion is imagination. Change of scene ever cures him; he has +written to me every week--his letters are each time more reasonable. +I have no doubt he has by this time relieved his mind in some mad work +which will amuse us all very much, and will return again to Dresden +quite cool. I delight in Sidonia--he is my especial favourite.’ + +After some little time the companions re-entered the carriage. The +public drive was now full of sparkling equipages. Madame de Schulembourg +gaily bowed, as she passed along, to many a beautiful friend. + +‘Dear girls, come home with us this eve,’ she exclaimed, as she curbed +her ponies by the side of an open carriage, and addressed two young +ladies who were seated within it with their mother. ‘Let me introduce +Mr. Walstein to you-Madame de Man-heim, the Misses de Manheim, otherwise +Augusta and Amelia. Ask any of our friends whom you pass. There is +Emilius--How do you do? Count Voyna, come home with us, and bring your +Bavarian friend.’ + +‘How is Sidonia, Madame de Schulembourg?’ inquired Augusta. + +‘Oh, quite mad. He will not be sane this week. There is his last letter; +read it, and return it to me when we meet. Adieu, Madame de Manheim; +adieu, dear girls; do not stay long: adieu, adieu.’ So they drove away. + + + + +IBRAHIM PASHA + +THE eyes of all Europe have been lately directed with feverish anxiety +towards the East. With the early history of the present ruler of Egypt, +and with his projects of military reform, our readers are doubtless +well acquainted. We shall, therefore, only rapidly glance at the present +condition of Syria, as on the causes that led to the astonishing success +of a campaign that at one time threatened to construct, upon a new +basis, the political geography of the East. + +In contemplating the state of degradation and impotency into which have +fallen Syria, and that vast Peninsula which extends westward of the +Euphrates, after having occupied so proud a place in the page of +history, from the earliest traditionary periods down to the time when +the Turkish Sultans abandoned Broussa for Adrianople, we naturally +inquire what has become of the intellectual inheritance which the +ancient inhabitants of these countries left behind them? Where are the +successors of the skilful workmen of Damascus, of Mossul, and of Angora; +the navigators of Phoenicia, the artists of Ionia, and the wise men of +Chaldea? Several distinct characters of civilisation have successively +flourished in this part of Asia. To the primitive ages, to the reign of +the Pelasgi, correspond the subterraneous excavations of Macri, and the +Phrygian monuments of Seïdï Gazi; to the Babylonian power, the ruins of +Bagdad, and the artificial mountains of Van; to the Hellenic period, +the baths, the amphitheatres, and the ruins which strew the coast of the +Archipelago; to the Roman empire, the military roads which traverse in +every direction the whole Peninsula; to the Greeks of the middle ages, +the church of Iznik. + +And now that Mussulman civilisation, which at its brightest periods +produced the beautiful mosque of the Sultan Bayazid at Amasia, is at +its last gasp; for we can, with safety, affirm that not a single grand +thought, either social, religious, or political, any longer connects +together the four millions of inhabitants which the Porte numbers in +this part of her dominions. All unity has disappeared, and the Asmoulis, +who compose the predominating race, no longer obey but some old habits +and recollections. The downfall of the Janizary system destroyed their +last connecting link. Forgetting that their destiny was conquest--that +they were only encamped in the land--that they had received a military +organisation for a permanent state of warfare--that their headquarters +was Constantinople--they have become attached to the soil, and shut +themselves up in their harems, have established a feudal system, are +divided among themselves by hereditary enmities, and their contempt for +foreigners is no longer founded on their courage and power. + +Near the coasts of the Archipelago European intercourse has, in some +degree, civilised the manners of the Turks, but as the traveller +advances into the interior, civilisation sensibly decreases. On +approaching the central plateau of Asia Minor, he perceives that +cultivation seldom extends beyond the distance of half a league round +a village; the inhabitants are secreted in the mountains, and carefully +avoid the vicinity of the great roads; it is a well-known statistical +phenomenon, that the most inaccessible districts are the most populous +and the richest. This will be easily understood, when it is told that +the passage of troops through a district is a pest more dreaded than +the fatal plague itself. The once flourishing and magnificent plains of +Eske-Seher have been deserts since the Sultan Amurath traversed them, at +the head of 300,000 men, to lay siege to Bagdad. His passage was marked +by all the devastating effects of the hurricane. When a body of those +horsemen called Delhis, who are attached to the suite of every Pasha, +enters a village, the consternation is general, and followed by a system +of exaction that to the unfortunate villager is equivalent to ruin. To +complain to the Pasha would be to court instant destruction. + +From this we can conceive the horror of the peasantry of Anatolia at +the passage of large bodies of troops through their country, and +consequently the obstacles a European army would encounter which should +ever be masters of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Turcomans, +a Nornase tribe, who sometimes pitch their tents on the shores of the +Archipelago, and who pay but a moderate tribute to the Porte, are also +another cause of devastation. But it is the Musseleins, the farmers +of the Pasha, who are the oppressors _par excellence_; they are always +present to despoil the unfortunate fellah, to leave him, to use a common +expression in the mouths of this oppressed race, ‘but eyes wherewith to +weep.’ The welfare of the people, respect for the orders of the Porte, +are things to them of the utmost indifference; to govern is to raise +men and taxes; to obey, is to fear. Thus the law of force reigns almost +exclusively at forty or fifty leagues from the capital. + +But on a nearer approach to the Euphrates, the dissolution of every +social tie becomes more striking. We find ourselves amid the independent +tribes--the cruel Lendes; among the Tezdis--a people who adore the +spirit of Erib. Towards the north we fall in with the Lazzi, and +all those fierce natives who are entrenched like vultures amid the +fastnesses of the Caucasus. Again, in the South we discover the +wandering Arabs, the pirates of the desert, and the mountaineers of +Lebanon, who live in a state of perpetual discord. Over this immense +line of countries centuries have passed, and left no trace behind; +all that the ancients and the crusaders have related to us of them, is +typical of their condition at this day. The bows and arrows, the armour, +exhibited as objects of curiosity in our museums, are still in use +among them. It is only by chance, or by profiting by their intestine +divisions, that the authority of the Porte is recognised. The Pashas are +mostly hereditary, and live in a state of perpetual insurrection. Thus +from the shores of the Archipelago to the banks of the Euphrates and +the Tigris, civilisation and vegetation appear to obey the same law of +decrease. + +It is incontestable that Syria and the Pashalics on the confines of +Upper Asia are of no real importance to the Sultan; and that the pride +of this monarch would be the only sufferer by their loss. Desolation has +reached such a point in the Ottoman Empire, that it is almost impossible +to regenerate her, unless the branches of the tree, lopped of all +those parts so eccentric by their position, are detached from it, and +organised into independent states. Towards the North, Russia has +pushed on her battalions as far as Erzeroum, but it will be found +more difficult, to govern Armenia from St. Petersburg than from +Constantinople. In politics, the calculation of distances is an +important element. In the South of Asia, Egypt lays claim to Syria, +and that part of Caramania situated between Mount Taurus and the sea--a +territory in which she will find those resources she at present stands +so much in need of, such as timber for shipbuilding, etc., a Christian +population, among whom the seeds of European civilisation will be more +easily implanted. She will thus form an empire that will one day become +powerful, if not prematurely exhausted by that system of monopoly so +rigorously put in force by her present ruler. + +The history of the quarrels of the Pasha of Acre with Mehemet Ali, +justifies, in some degree, the pretensions of the latter. Abdallah Pasha +had rendered himself famous by his extortions, and in 1822 took it +into his head to seize Damascus. The neighbouring Pasha formed a league +against him, and laid siege to his capital, when Mehemet Ali negotiated +his pardon for a sum of 60,000 purses, which of course the people paid. +Interest soon prevailed over gratitude; the Pasha of Acre felt there +was more to be gained from Constantinople than from Cairo--that the +authority of the Sultan in the Pashalic would never be more than +nominal, and that the Porte, satisfied by some presents, would not be +in a condition to prevent his exactions; he therefore sought, on every +occasion, to get rid of the influence of Mehemet Ali, and to excite the +jealousy of the Porte against him. An opportunity soon offered itself. +Some Egyptian fellahs had taken refuge under the guns of Abdallah Pasha; +Mehemet Ali demanded these men, but the Governor of Acre refused to give +them up, on the plea that they were subjects of the Grand Signor, and +referred the matter to the Porte, who on this occasion was seized with +a fit of humanity, and _bewailed_ the oppression of the peasantry of the +Valley of the Vale--_Inde Bellum_.’ This was at the close of 1831. + +The moment was favourable for the Viceroy’s great designs. Europe was +sufficiently agitated to leave him no apprehensions of an intervention +on the part of Russia. The Albanians and the Borneans were in open +revolt, and insurrections had broken out also in several Pashalics +on the side of Upper Asia. The Sultan was considered the slave of the +Russians, and his conduct excited the contempt and hatred of the whole +empire. In the meantime, since the revolution the exactions of the +government had extended to every object of production and industry, +while the conscription decimated the most industrious portion of the +population; and if to this organised system of spoliation we farther +add the ravages of the plague and cholera, we may form some idea of the +wretched state of those provinces, and shall be no longer surprised that +the Egyptians were everywhere hailed as deliverers. + +Ibrahim Pasha, the step-son of Mehemet Ali, was placed at the head +of the Egyptian army. Of a short, thick-set figure, he possesses that +gigantic strength which Homer so loved in his heroes, and which inspires +such respect among barbarous nations. To strike off the head of a bull +with a blow of his scimitar--to execute, like Peter the Great, his +victims with his own hand--to fall, dead drunk, amid the broken wrecks +of champagne bottles, are three diversions of his. But latterly his +manners, from his intercourse with Europeans, have been somewhat +polished, and in deference to them, he has displayed both clemency and +dignity--in fact, Ibrahim is excessively anxious to acquire the good +opinion of Europe. He possesses all that strong common-sense that so +distinguishes the Turks, rather than an elevated intelligence of mind. +Soliman Bey, a renegade Frenchman, formerly an officer on the staff +of Marshal Grouchy, was associated with him, and it is to him that the +success of the Egyptian army may be chiefly attributed. + +Syria, with her various productions, was the first country which offered +itself to the conquest of the Egyptians. Closed entirely on the side of +Asia by Mount Amanus, which belongs to the chain of Taurus, and extends +from the Gulf of Scanderoun to the Euphrates, she is bounded on one side +by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the desert. Her length from +Aintab to Gaza is one hundred and fifty leagues, and the mean breadth +about thirty. By a single glance at the map we perceive the most +important military points for the defence of Syria are the fortress of +Saint Jean d’Acre; Tyre, which ought to be fortified; Bolbeck, as +the key to several valleys; Antakea, the passage of the Beilan; +Alexandretta, situated upon a tongue of land between the marshes and the +sea; and lastly, Aentab and Zenyma, which command the two passages on +the right side of Mount Amanus. + +We have entered into details in order to show how destitute of all +strategetical combinations was the whole plan of campaign in Syria. +Malte Brun estimates the population of the district of Sham at +two millions, but we are inclined to question the accuracy of this +calculation, since no two travellers are agreed as to the numbers of the +Druses, some estimating them at 120,000, others at a million. The Turks +form two-fifths of the population--they inhabit the large towns with the +Greeks; the remainder of the population is composed of Arab fellahs, +of Kurds, and of Turcomans, who wander in the valley of the Orontes; +of Bedouin Arabs, who pitch their tents on the banks of the Jordan and +along the edge of the desert of Ansarich, worshippers of the sun, the +descendants of the servants of the Old Man of the Mountain of Maronites, +who profess the Catholic ritual; of Druses, whose creed is doubtful; +of all the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon; of Mebualis, Mussulmans of the +sect of Ali; of Naplonsins and other tribes who have preserved a state +of independence. We shall not be astonished to know that amidst this +prodigious diversity of races Syria is more easy to conquer than to keep +possession of. With the exception of the Ansarich, who inhabit the north +of Syria, all of them obeyed, at the moment when the war broke out, the +Emir Bechir, a Druse, prince of the family of the celebrated Fakr el +Din, who revolted against Amurath the Fourth. The Emir Bechir, when +Abdallah raised the standard of revolt in 1822, sought the protection of +Mehemet Ali, who re-established him in his government. + +Let us now follow Ibrahim in his march. At the head of 32,000 regular +troops, and four or five thousand Bedouin Arabs and Hassouras, he took +the same route as Bonaparte, and rapidly advanced against Saint Jean +d’Acre. Without firing a shot, he made himself master of Jaffa, Caipha, +Jerusalem, Naplonsia. Tabaneh and all the country between Gaza and +Acre submitted at his approach. Master of the sea, by which he expected +reinforcements both in men and material, he made haste to occupy the +whole line of coast as far as Ladikich, and set down on the 27th of +November, before Saint Jean d’Acre, with a corps of 15,000 regular +infantry, two regiments of lancers, 1,000 Bedouins, two companies of +sappers, one of cannoniers, one of bombardiers, and a train of field +and siege artillery. The place is situated on a promontory surrounded on +three sides by the sea, and defended on the fourth by a fort, crowned +by a tower, which serves as a citadel. This last fort, the bastions +of which, from their retiring flanks being too short, is the only one +accessible on the land side, but it was enfiladed from a neighbouring +height. Bonaparte, at the siege of Saint Jean d’Acre, was destitute of +siege artillery, and was not master of the sea. He had, therefore, many +more obstacles to encounter than Ibrahim. + +During the first ten days the cannonade of the besiegers was not very +vigorous, but on the 9th of December, five frigates having cast anchor +before the place, with some gun-boats under sail, a general attack was +made, and from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon the +fleet and the batteries on shore kept up a well-directed fire. The +besieged on their side were not inactive. The Egyptians experienced a +heavy loss, and several of their ships were much cut up. From the 9th +to the 18th the bombardment lasted night and day. On the 10th some heavy +guns were placed in battery. The operations of the siege were now +pushed forward with great ardour, but yet nothing denoted the immediate +reduction of the place. The defence of Ab-dallah Pasha was marked by +the most determined energy. He had sworn, it was reported, that he would +blow up the town. It was, however, of the utmost importance to push +forward the operations with the greatest activity. The first disposition +of the population, which had been favourable, might undergo a change +should not Ibrahim succeed in striking a great blow. The mountaineers of +Lebanon and of Naplonsia had sent their chiefs to the Egyptian camp, and +were ready to furnish a contingent of their warriors. + +The news of the invasion of Syria by the army of Mehemet Ali, spread +terror at Constantinople. The Porte, with her usual craft, dissimulated, +and feigning to see in this event but a quarrel between two Pashas, she +summoned them to lay before her their respective griefs; but finding her +orders were disregarded, she made preparations for war. On the 16th of +December, 1831, Mehemet Pasha, already governor of Racca, was appointed +governor of Aleppo, and Seraskier of Syria and Arabia. Orders were sent +to the directors of the Imperial Mines, Osman Pasha, to the Musselims +of Marash, of Sevas, of Adana, and of Payas, to levy troops. Strict +injunctions were also given to the governors of Caramania, and of +Caesarea, to hold themselves in readiness; but this movement of Tartars +was insufficient to produce a numerous army; the lukewarm devotion of +the subjects of the Porte found ample means of evasion; and every +day the efforts of the Turkish government in Syria to reestablish its +authority, encountered new obstacles. + +The son of the Emir Bechir assembled troops in the mountains, and held +out for Mehemet Ali. Damascus armed itself through fear, but retained as +an hostage the Pasha appointed to conduct the caravan to Mecca. Memiran +Osman Pasha had been selected by the Porte for the government of +Tripoli, but it was necessary to take possession of it by force of arms. +-This port was already occupied, in the name of Mehemet Ali, by Mustapha +Agar Barbar, a man of considerable note in the country. The Seraskier +Mehemet Pasha consented to furnish Osman with some thousand irregular +horsemen, and fourteen small field-pieces. + +The latter arrived before his capital early in April. Believing the +Egyptian Commander-in-Chief still occupied with the siege of Saint +Jean d’Acre, all his dispositions of attack consisted in scattering his +troops over the surrounding hills, and in ordering his artillery to play +upon the town, which did not displace a single stone; the guns of the +castle were also so badly pointed that the Turkish horsemen galloped +up to the very houses, and were only beaten off by a brisk fire of +musketry, which, galling them severely, drove them across the heights. +Night put an end to the affair. + +A few days after this skirmish, Ibrahim Pasha, having left to one of his +lieutenants the direction of the siege of Saint Jean d’Acre and wishing +to reconnoitre the country, appeared at the head of 800 men, with six +field-pieces, before Osman’s camp, who, seized with a panic, immediately +abandoned it to the enemy, and hastened to form a junction with the +Pasha of Aleppo, who was posted near Hameh. The Egyptian general +immediately pursued him, and took up a position at Horn. But, threatened +upon this point by three brigades of the Seraskier Mehemet Pasha, he +retired, after some skirmishes, to Bolbeck, where he established his +camp, and was joined by Abaz Pasha, his nephew, at the head of 800 men. +But his presence was required in other quarters. Divisions had broken +out at several points, and the slowness with which the operations of the +siege of Saint Jean d’Acre was carried on had damped the ardour of his +partisans. + +At Tripoli a conspiracy was discovered, in which were implicated the +Cadi, the Mufti, and the principal Turks. After receiving a considerable +reinforcement of troops from Candia, and making some defensive +dispositions to the south of Bolbeck, Ibrahim encamped before Saint Jean +d’Acre, to bring the siege to a conclusion by a decisive attack. On the +19th of May the fire was recommenced with great vigour; the Egyptians +made the most extraordinary efforts to get into the city, and +experienced a heavy loss; but no sooner was a breach effected than it +was again closed up. Nothing was left standing in the town. The palace +was destroyed, and Abdullah Pasha obliged to retire to the caves dug by +Djezzar. The garrison was reduced to less than 2,000 men. At last, +on the 27th of May, a general assault was made. Three breaches were +practicable, one on the tower of Kapon Bourdjon, the other two at Nebieh +Zaleh, and at Zavieh. Six battalions had the horrors of the attack, +which commenced at daybreak and lasted twelve hours. + +At Kapon Bourdjon the Arabs were on the point of giving ground, but +Ibrahim having with his own hand struck off the head of a captain, and +having turned a battery against them, they returned to the assault. +Unfortunately for Abdullah, his gunners ran from their pieces, and he +was obliged to capitulate. The Egyptians confessed a loss but of 1,429 +wounded, and 512 killed. Thus fell Saint Jean d’Acre, after a memorable +defence of six months. The capture of this place insured to Ibrahim +the possession of Lower Syria, and enabled him to advance in perfect +security. + +While the son of Mehemet Ali was thus vigorously pushing forward the +war, the Porte was still occupied with her preparations. In the month of +March, Hussein Pasha, celebrated by the destruction of Janizaries, and +by the extraordinary bravery he displayed in the Russian Campaign, but +in other respects, a soldier _à la Turc_, was appointed chief of the +expedition to Arabia. To this soldier was confided the safety of the +empire, with the title of field-marshal of Anatolia. He was solemnly +invested with the Har-vani (a short cloak) with an embroidered collar. +He received a sabre set in brilliants, and two Arabian horses, superbly +caparisoned; and, on the 17th of April, he received orders to join the +army which Horsen Pasha had organised, the headquarters of which was at +Konisk. + +By the formation and rapid assembly of the new regular regiments, the +army had been raised to 60,000 men, including artillery and engineers. +The mass of their forces was composed of Beckir Pasha’s brigade of +infantry, with the 2nd regiment of cavalry and a strong brigade of +irregulars, under the orders of the governor of Silistria; of Skender +Pasha’s brigade of infantry, and the 6th cavalry; and Delaver Pasha’s +brigade, with the cavalry of the guard. Each of these corps was +accompanied by its batteries. An European organisation had been given +to the different services, such as the paymaster-general’s department, +commissariat, etc. The Sultan had written out many of the regulations +with his own hand. + +The young general of division, Mehemet Pasha, a manumitted slave of +Hussein, was specially charged with the direction of the regular troops, +under the orders of Hussein Pasha. He was tolerably well acquainted with +all our manoeuvres, and possessed some military talent. The European +instructors were attached to his suite. They were the captain of +artillery, Thernin, whose counsels would have saved the Turkish army +had they been listened to; the engineer officer, Reully, a brave and +experienced soldier; and the captain of the cavalry, Colosso. The two +former (Frenchmen) saw almost the whole of the war. Taken prisoners by +the Egyptians, they refused to enter their service, and were sent back. +As for Colosso, he sojourned but a short time in the camp; for, on his +endeavouring to put a stop to the frightful abuses that pervaded every +branch of the service, the generals and colonels formed a league against +him, and he retired in disgust. + +On the 14th of May the field-marshal arrived at Koniah, where he +displayed the most culpable negligence and carelessness. It was in +vain that the European inspectors requested him to put in force ‘the +regulation for troops in the field,’ of the French general Prevan, which +had been translated into Turkish; they were no more listened to than +were their complaints on the bad state of the camp, and on the indolence +and negligence of the chiefs. + +The generalissimo never even deemed it once requisite to review his +army. The most frightful disorder prevailed in the Turkish military +administrations, which subsequently led to all their reverses; in fact, +it was evident to every experienced eye that an army so constituted, +once overtaken by defeat, would soon be totally disorganised, and that +the Porte ought to place no reliance upon its army. But there was an +arm which, in the flourishing times of Islamism, was worth 100,000 +Janizaries. This was excommunication. The Sultan at last resolved to +unsheathe this weapon. The fatal fetva was launched against the traitor +Mehemet Ali, and his son, the indolent Ibrahim. Those who have studied +the Turkish history must have thought that the Viceroy of Egypt would +find at last his master--the executioner; but since the late victories +of the Russians, all national faith is extinguished among the Osmanlis. +Excommunication is an arm as worn out at Constantinople as at Rome. + +Whilst the Porte was fulminating her bull of excommunication, she +directed a note to the corps diplomatique at Constantinople, in which +she explained the quarrel with her subjects, and in which she demanded +the strictest neutrality on the part of the great powers, and declared +Egypt in a state of blockade. The Emperor Nicholas recalled his consul +from Alexandria, and even made an offer of a fleet, and an auxiliary +corps d’armee. Austria, an enemy to all revolutions, went so far as +to threaten the Viceroy. England appeared to preserve the strictest +neutrality, while France strenuously employed all her influence to bring +about an accommodation; but in vain. + +The Divan refusing the demands of Mehemet Ali, the solution of the +question was referred to Field-Marshal Hussein, who proceeded with that +calculated exertion which the Ottomans take for dignity; and thus three +weeks were lost before the army advanced on Mount Taurus. It was only on +the 1st of June that Mehemet Pasha arrived with the vanguard and Beker’s +brigade at Adana. A reconnaissance, pushed forward as far as Tarsons, +brought back the news of the fall of Saint Jean d’Acre. It became, +therefore, an imperative necessity to occupy the passes of Syria, and to +march upon Antioch, in order to cover Beylau. A Tartar was despatched to +Hussein, who posted off in great haste to Adana, only to halt there for +a fortnight. At last the movement was effected, and the army reached +Antioch, where the cholera broke out in its ranks, and where eight days +were lost. Instead of profiting by Ibrahim’s delay to take up a more +advanced position, the latter descended into the valley of the Orontes, +and entered Damascus on the 15th of June, after a short engagement with +the Turkish irregulars. + +But all Ibrahim’s operations were marked by a want of rapidity. After +securing Antioch, the Turkish army should have marched upon Horns, +which offered an excellent position, where they might have established +a communication with the Druses, upon whom some hopes were founded, and +whence they would have commanded the road to Damascus. But it was not +till the 6th of July that Hussein would execute this movement. Mehemet +Pasha commenced his march; but in their haste they forgot to issue +rations to the troops, who reached Horns at ten in the morning, almost +dead with hunger and fatigue. The Seraskier of Aleppo was encamped, with +his irregular troops, at the gates of the city; but without deigning +even to think of the enemy, whom they thought to be at some distance, or +to issue rations to the serving troops, they wasted their time in vain +ceremonies. + +The young Mehemet Pasha was carried, under a salute of artillery, into +a magnificent tent pitched upon the bank of the river. There the +two viziers made a long interchange of compliments, and smoked the +hargueleh. + +Midst of all this mummery, intelligence was brought in that the Egyptian +army was within two hours’ march of them. The disorder that ensued was +dreadful. The hungry soldiers dragged themselves in masses to meet the +Arabs. The latter waited for them, with their front masked by light +troops, presenting twenty-seven battalions deployed in line, the left of +which rested on the Orontes, and the right upon a hamlet at the foot of +a hill. The Egyptians, who were ignorant of the presence of the Turkish +regular infantry, had adopted this vicious disposition against their +irregular cavalry. But no one really commanded among the Turks, and thus +the opportunity of striking a decisive blow was lost. Every colonel had +an opinion of his own. One Pasha wished to retreat, while the European +instructors insisted on an immediate attack. In short, the artillery +even refused to advance to the front. However, Ibrahim Pasha did not +remain inactive; he pressed the Turks closely, doubled his line from +right to left, and pushed forward some battalions on the side of the +Orontes, but they were checked by part of Beker’s brigade and two pieces +of cannon. Then the whole Egyptian line halted and opened their fire. +In the course of twenty minutes the left of the Turks suffered +considerably. + +Mehemet Pasha resolved to charge the enemy with the bayonet; but instead +of remaining with the second line in order to direct the movement, +he put himself at the head of his soldiers to attack the Arabs, who +immediately formed in column. Before he reached them, he was abandoned +by his artillery, while his cavalry, which should have turned the enemy, +fell back in disorder before a battery which they might have carried. +The second line of infantry did not support the movement with vigour; +and on the Egyptian columns deploying into line, preparatory to a +decisive charge, the whole Turkish army went to the right-about in +the most disgraceful manner, pursued by the enemy’s cavalry. It was a +general _sauve qui peut_. The approach of night alone saved the Turkish +army from total destruction. The loss of the Sultan’s forces in this +affair amounted to 2,000 killed and 2,500 prisoners. + +The wrecks of the Turkish corps retired pell-mell upon Antioch. Instead +of rallying them, Ned-geb Pasha’s brigade, which was encamped at two +hours’ march from the field of battle, fled with them. + +The field-marshal, on learning this disaster, took post at the _tête du +pont_ on Djezzer, on the Orontes. He received the fugitives at the +point of the bayonet, and cut off the heads of the first mutineers who +endeavoured to cross. It was in such moments that Hussein showed himself +to be above the ordinary stamp of mankind. His energy was admirably +calculated for quelling a revolt; but, on the other hand, though he was +able to master the confusion of a retreat, he knew not how to avoid it. +Such was his military incapacity that he was incapable of foreseeing +anything. In a short time he expended all the money in the military +chest, impoverishing all the districts through which he passed, paying +nowhere and holding up the name of his master to universal execration. +At the action of Horns, the mass of his forces were not engaged, so that +there yet remained 40,000 regular troops; but the field-marshal +allowed an army to perish, to which Horsen Pasha had given a tolerable +organisation. Instead of taking any measures of defence, he set out for +Antioch, with the view of effecting a junction with some troops in the +neighbourhood of Aleppo; but finding no provisions in those districts, +he returned by forced marches to Alexandretta, after fatiguing his +troops by a march of eight hundred leagues. + +However, Ibrahim was advancing, having recalled all his garrisons, and +made new levies in the mountains. As he advanced, the whole country +declared in his favour, and the castle of Aleppo was delivered up to +him. His conduct was marked by great skill and generosity. Under his +protection the numerous Christians began to raise their heads. There +now only remained, to complete the entire occupation of Syria, to seize +Antioch and Alexandretta; but his operations were pushed forward with +extreme slowness, because he always expected from Constantinople a +decision favourable to the pretensions of his father-in-law. The Turkish +field-marshal had thus plenty of time to stop his passage into Carmania. + +Antioch offered a position for an entrenched camp; but this he +disregarded, and made his advanced posts fall back upon the defile +of Beylau. This defile, formed by a deep valley, is so narrow in some +places that a camel can scarcely pass. Nevertheless, this is the grand +route of the Mecca caravan. Nothing was more easy than to defend it; yet +on the 5th of August the Egyptians made themselves masters of it, after +an action of two hours. The passage of the Beylau delivered to the +conqueror Alexandretta, its immense magazines, and one hundred pieces +of cannon. The Turks, instead of rallying in the rear, in the favourable +positions which the ground afforded, fled in the direction of Adana. +Ibrahim pursued them with his cavalry, which passed the Djihun at a +ford, Hussein Pasha having blown up the superb bridge of nine arches +that crossed that river at Missis. + +The Ottoman troops continued their retreat across the plain of Adana, +but they had scarcely reached that city before they were dislodged by +the enemy, who were on the point of capturing the field-marshal. The +whole district of Adana declared for Ibrahim, who had at length +reached the new line of frontiers which Mehemet Ali wished to make the +boundaries of his empire. There was now nothing to prevent the march of +the Egyptians upon Constantinople itself, for the demoralised soldiers +of Hussein Pasha deserved not the name of an army. The Kurds and the +Anatolian peasantry murdered the Turkish regulars wherever they could +find them, which was not difficult, for, deserted by platoons, the +provinces of Upper Asia were in such a state of insurrection that a +single officer of Ibrahim’s would have been sufficient to make the most +considerable town capitulate. + +The Viceroy, at one moment, had the insane idea of himself attacking the +Turkish capital by sea, while Ibrahim should threaten it from Scutari. +But his prudence doubtless prevented the execution of the enterprise, +for however popular the cause of Mehemet Ali may have been, he would +have appeared in Constantinople only as a subject, and certainly could +not have prevented the intervention of Russia. And lastly, had he +succeeded in these projects of unbounded ambition, what would have been +the result? Instead of a compact state bounded by Mount Taurus, he would +have found himself embarrassed with a great empire, tottering to its +base, which no human power can regenerate. + +Mehemet Ali listened, therefore, to the sagacious counsel of France, +and endeavoured to obtain the recognition of his independence. But the +Porte, listening to the perfidious suggestions, and governed by the +blind obstinacy that led to the battle of Navarino and the victories +of the Russians, would make no terms, and reduced Ibrahim, after an +armistice of five months, to conquer her again. Hussein Pasha was +succeeded by the Grand Vizier, Redchid Pasha, the same who had +distinguished himself in Greece, and quelled the revolt of Scodro +Pasha. Brave and accustomed to the camp, a sound politician, Redchid was +superior to his predecessor, but even he was only a Turkish general. +He had been selected principally on account of his great influence +in Turkey in Europe. He therefore received orders to repair to +Constantinople, with considerable levies of Bosnians and Albanians, of +which they knew he could dispose, and with the six regiments of infantry +and cavalry that belonged to them. + +In the meantime the indefatigable Hussein Pasha had succeeded in +re-organising an army with about 40,000 regulars of the reserve; it +was echeloned between the capital and Koniah, reinforced by the troops +brought by the Grand Vizier; it was sufficiently numerous to have +prevented Ibrahim’s further advance; but there was neither skill in +the general nor ardour among the troops; the councils of the European +instructors were, as usual, disregarded, while the Egyptian army, on +the contrary, was almost exclusively under the direction of European +officers. A single piece of artillery would have sufficed to defend the +passage of the Taurus, and yet when Ibrahim appeared on its northern +declivity he had to encounter but a few irregulars, of whom he soon gave +a good account. He then fixed his camp on the plain of Erekli, at one +hundred and sixty days’ march of a camel from Constantinople, and then +advanced upon Koniah. + +Reuff Pasha, who had provisionally assumed the command of the Turkish +army until the arrival of Red-chid Pasha, prudently fell back upon Acken +at the approach of the Egyptians. But forgetting the disastrous day of +Koulaktche, the Grand Vizier merely assumed the offensive instead of +taking up a position in the mountains; and, allowing the unusual rigour +of the season to thin the ranks of the enemy, he precipitately advanced. +The cold was so excessive, the weather so dreadful, and the roads +rendered so impassable by the snow, that only a small portion of the +artillery and ammunition could follow the movement, so that they found +themselves, as at Horns, without provisions in the presence of the +enemy. + +Some distance from Koniah, Redchid Pasha sent forward his selector at +the head of a body of irregulars, with orders to advance across the +mountains up the village of Lilé, which was occupied by a strong +detachment of Arabs, while the Grand Vizier on his side with the grand +army, was to pursue the route of the plain. The attack was to have been +simultaneous, but unfortunately the selector arrived too soon on the +scene of action, and was totally defeated. Undaunted by this check, +the Grand Vizier continued his advance, and did not halt till he was in +presence of the enemy, whom he found strongly entrenched, and prepared +to give him a warm reception. It was the 29th of the Redgeb (21st +of December), and from the advanced hour of the day there was no +alternative but to attack, otherwise he must have passed a night upon +the field, without bread, exposed to the action of an intense cold that +would have paralysed the ardour of the troops. + +Redchid Pasha made therefore no dispositions for attack, but his order +of battle was best: he drew up his army in four lines, thus rendering +useless a great part of his troops, and when he at length resolved to +alter his dispositions for a more extended order of battle, he did not +reconnoitre the ground to ascertain if it would permit such an extension +of front. His left wing therefore was unable to deploy, and remained +formed in columns of attack, while the enemy’s artillery committed +dreadful havoc on their profound masses. He committed also another +fault, that of placing his artillery between the interval of the lines, +so that it did not reach the Egyptians, while theirs on the contrary, +posted in their front, did great execution. + +Mehemet Redchid’s main plan of battle was to attack with the mass of his +forces, composed chiefly of Albanians, the centre of the enemy’s army, +whilst the cavalry should make a demonstration upon the wings. But +Ibrahim, who had foreseen this manoeuvre, leaving only on the point +attacked a sufficient force to make ahead for a short time, turned his +adversary to the gorges of the mountains. On gaining the flanks of the +Ottoman party, he impetuously attacked and routed their cavalry, and +afterwards advanced against the principal Turkish corps, which thus +found itself attacked on both sides. The Albanians, in spite of all the +efforts of the Grand Vizier, broke and fled. + +Redchid Pasha then put himself at the head of his guard for a last +effort, but after performing prodigies of valour, he was again repulsed, +and fell, severely wounded, into the hands of the Egyptians. The loss +of the Turks was immense; one regiment alone, the first infantry of the +line, left 3,000 men upon the field of battle. + +The battle was decisive. The second army of the Grand Seigneur was +annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim; and +the tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved by the intervention of the +Russian Autocrat, who felt that it was his own property that was at +stake rather than that of the unfortunate Sultan. Mehemet Ali is now on +independent sovereign, and it is to the military genius of Europe that +he owes this glory; while the once formidable empire of Mahomet is +rapidly sinking under an accumulation of evils, the operation of which +European diplomacy will in vain attempt to arrest. + + + + +THE COURT OF EGYPT + +TWO or three miles from Cairo, approached by an avenue of sycamores, is +Shoubra, a favourite residence of the Pasha of Egypt. The palace, on the +banks of the Nile, is not remarkable for its size or splendour, but the +gardens are extensive and beautiful, and adorned by a kiosk, which is +one of the most elegant and fanciful creations I can remember. + +Emerging from fragant bowers of orange trees, you suddenly perceive +before you tall and glittering gates rising from a noble range of +marble steps. These you ascend, and entering, find yourself in a large +quadrangular colonnade of white marble. It surrounds a small lake, +studded by three or four gaudy barques, fastened to the land by silken +cords. The colonnade terminates towards the water by a very noble marble +balustrade, the top of which is covered with groups of various kinds of +fish in high relief. At each angle of the colonnade the balustrade gives +way to a flight of steps which are guarded by crocodiles of immense +size, admirably sculptured in white marble. On the farther side the +colonnade opens into a great number of very brilliant banqueting-rooms, +which you enter by withdrawing curtains of scarlet cloth, a colour +vividly contrasting with the white shining marble of which the whole +kiosk is formed. It is a frequent diversion of the Pasha himself to +row some favourite Circassians in one of the barques and to overset +his precious freight in the midst of the lake. As his Highness piques +himself upon wearing a caftan of calico, and a juba or exterior robe of +coarse cloth, a ducking has not for him the same terrors it would offer +to a less eccentric Osmanli. The fair Circassians shrieking, with their +streaming hair and dripping finery, the Nubian eunuchs rushing to their +aid, plunging into the water from the balustrade, or dashing down the t +marble steps,--all this forms an agreeable relaxation after the labours +of the Divan. + +All the splendour of the Arabian Nights is realised in the Court +of Egypt. The guard of Nubian eunuchs with their black, glossy +countenances, clothed in scarlet and gold, waving their glittering +Damascus sabres, and gently bounding on their snow-white steeds, is, +perhaps, the most picturesque corps in the world. The numerous harem, +the crowds of civil functionaries and military and naval officers +in their embroidered Nizam uniforms, the vast number of pages and +pipe-bearers, and other inferior but richly attired attendants, the +splendid military music, for which Mehemet Ali has an absolute passion, +the beautiful Arabian horses and high-bred dromedaries, altogether form +a blending of splendour and luxury which easily recall the golden days +of Bagdad and its romantic Caliph. + +Yet this Court is never seen to greater advantage than in the delicious +summer palace in the gardens of Shoubra. During the festival of the +Bairam the Pasha usually holds his state in this enchanted spot, nor is +it easy to forget that strange and brilliant scene. The banqueting-rooms +were all open and illuminated, the colonnade was full of guests in +gorgeous groups, some standing and conversing, some seated on small +Persian carpets smoking pipes beyond all price, and some young grandees +lounging, in their crimson shawls and scarlet vests, over the white +balustrade, and flinging their glowing shadows over the moonlit water: +from every quarter came bursts of melody, and each moment the river +breeze brought gusts of perfume on its odorous wings. + + + + +THE VALLEY OF THEBES + +UPPER EGYPT is a river flowing through a desert; the banks on each side +affording a narrow margin of extreme fertility. Rocks of granite and +hills of sand form, at slight intervals, through a course of sev-earl +hundred miles, a chain of valleys, reaching from the rapids of the Nile +to the vicinity of Cairo. In one of these valleys, the broadest and the +most picturesque, about half-way between the cataracts and the modern +capital, we find the most ancient, the most considerable, and the most +celebrated of architectural remains. For indeed no Greek, or Sicilian, +or Latin city--Athens, or Agrigentum, or Rome; nor the platforms of +Persepolis, nor the columns of Palmyra, can vie for a moment in extent, +variety, and sublime dimensions, with the ruins of ancient Thebes. + +These remains may be classed, generally, in four considerable divisions: +two of these great quarters of ruins being situated on each side of the +river Nile--Karnak and Luxor towards the Red Sea; the Memnonion and +Medcenet Habu towards the great Libyan Desert. On this side, also, are +the cemeteries of the great city--the mummy-caves of Gornou, two miles +in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, are the tombs of the +queens; and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk, the famous tombs +of the kings. + +The population of the city of a hundred gates now consists of a few +Arab families, who form four villages of mud huts, clustered round those +gigantic columns and those mighty obelisks, a single one of which is +sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their palaces and +museums. Often, indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the +roof of a single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population +of Gornou, numbering between three and four hundred, resides solely in +the tombs. + +I think that Luxor, from its situation, usually first attracts the +notice of the traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a +lofty platform. Its enormous columns are the first specimens of that +colossal genius of the Pharaohs, which the Ptolemies never attempted +to rival. The entrance to this temple is through a magnificent +propylon;-that is, a portal flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two +hundred feet in breadth, and rises nearly sixty feet above the soil. +This gate is entirely covered with sculpture, commemorating the triumph +of a conquering monarch. + +On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of red granite, +buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring thence, to the +top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side of them, a +little in advance, at the time of my visit, were the two most perfect +obelisks remaining. One of them is now at Paris;--that famous obelisk of +Luxor, of which we have heard so much. From the propylon, you pass +into a peristyle court,--about two hundred and thirty feet long, by one +hundred and seventy--the roof of which was once supported by double rows +of columns, many of which now remain: and so on through other pyramidal +gates, and courts, and porticoes, and chambers, which are, in all +probability, of a more ancient date than those first described. + +From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side +of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes, considerably above a mile +in extent, though much broken. All the marvels of the world sink +before the first entrance into Karnak. It is the Alps-the Andes--of +architecture. The obelisks of Luxor may be unrivalled; the sculptures +of Medoenet Habu more exquisite; the colossus of the Memnonion more +gigantic; the paintings of the royal tombs more curious and instructive: +but criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of the halls and +courts of Karnak, and the mind is open only to one general impression of +colossal variety. + +I well remember the morning when I stood before the propylon, or chief +entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue +heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built +of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three +thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader +than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul, and its height exceeds that +of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculpture--a rare omission, +and doubtless intended that the unity of effect should not be broken. +The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height. + +Through this you pass into colonnaded courts, which in any other place +would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front +of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great +hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand +square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches +as our St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this +unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed +of single stones--compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would +appear almost bricks--has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four +colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above +thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and with the walls and +propyla are completely covered with sculptured forms. + +I shall not attempt to describe any other part of Karnak;-the memory +aches with the effort. There are many buildings attached to it, larger +than most temples; and infinite number of gates and obelisks, and +colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred +or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp, +through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in groups +around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure. What feudal +splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies; what tilts and tournaments, and +what ecclesiastical festivals, could rival the vast, the beautiful, and +the solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians? + +Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at two seated colossi, +one of which is the famous musical statue of Memnon. It is fine to see +him still seated on his throne, dignified and serene, on the plain of +Thebes. This colossus is fifty feet in height; and its base is covered +with inscriptions of Greek and Roman travellers, vouching that they +had listened to the wild sunrise melody. This statue and its remaining +companion, though now isolated in their situation, were once part of an +enormous temple, the ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which +may yet be traced. + +The Memnonion itself is now near at hand. In the colossal Caryatides +we recognise the vast genius that excavated the rocks of Ipsambul, and +supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants. From the Memnonion +came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But this figure, +though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far as magnitude +is concerned, into insignificance, when compared with the statue of the +supposed Sesostris, which, broken off at the waist, now lies prostrate +in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is, probably, the most huge +colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red +granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately, the face is +entirely obliterated. It lies upon its back, and in its fall has +destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more than sixty feet +round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly seven feet, and +the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large enough for a +man to walk in. + +Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of +Medoenet Habu, for here, among other vast remains, is that of a +palace; and it is curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find +represented on the walls, in a very admirable style, a Pharaoh playing +chess with his queen. It is these domestic details that render also the +sepulchres of Thebes so interesting. The arts of the Egyptians must be +studied in their tombs; and to learn how this remarkable people lived, +we must frequent their burial-places. A curious instance of this is, +that, in a tomb near Beni-hassan, we learn by what process the Egyptians +procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses of granite with +which they raised the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of Luxor. + +If I were called upon to describe in a word the principal and +primary characteristic of Egyptian architecture, I should at once say +Imagination, as Grace is the characteristic of the architecture of the +Greeks. Thus, when the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs, +they blended the delicate taste of Ionia t with the rich invention +of the Nile, and produced Philoe, Dendera, and Edfou. It is from the +Pharaohs, however, that you must seek for the vast and the gigantic: the +pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, and the +sphinx. + +It was in the early part of the year of the invasion of Syria by the +Egyptians, some eight years gone, that I first visited Thebes. My barque +was stowed against the bank of the river, near the Memnonion; the last +beam of the sun, before it sunk behind the Libyan hills, quivered on the +columns of Luxor; the Nubian crew, after their long and laborious +voyage, were dispersed on shore; and I was myself reposing in the shade, +almost unattended, when a Turk, well mounted, and followed by his +pipe-bearer, and the retinue that accompanies an Oriental of condition, +descended from the hills which contain the tombs of the queens, and +approached the boat. I was surprised, on advancing to welcome him, to be +hailed in my native tongue; and pleased, at such a moment and in such a +place, to find a countryman. While we smoked the pipe of salutation, he +told me that he had lived at Thebes for nearly ten years, studying the +antiquities, the history, and the manners of its ancient inhabitants. I +availed myself of his invitation to his residence, and, accompanying +him, I found that I was a visitor in a tomb, and yet by no means a +gloomy dwelling-place. A platform, carved in the mountain, was +surrounded by a mud wall and tower, to protect it from hostile Arabs. +A couple of gazelles played in this front court, while we, reposing on a +divan, arranged round the first chamber of the tomb, were favoured with +a most commanding view of the valley outspread beneath. There were +several inner chambers, separated from each other by hangings of scarlet +cloth. Many apartments in the Albany have I seen not half as pleasant +and convenient. I found a library, and instruments of art and science; +a companion full of knowledge, profound in Oriental manners, and +thoroughly master of the subject which naturally then most interested +me. Our repast was strictly Eastern, but the unusual convenience of +forks was not wanting, and my host told me that they were the very ones +that he had used at Exeter College. I shall never forget that first day +at Thebes, and this my first interview with one then unknown to fame, +but whom the world has since recognised--the learned, the ingenious, and +amiable Mr. Wilkinson. + + + + +EGYPTIAN THEBES + +THE characteristic of Egyptian architecture is Imagination; of Grecian +architecture, Grace. When the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the +Pharaohs, they blended the delicate taste of Ionia with the rich +invention of the Nile; and they produced the most splendid creations +of architectural power that can now be witnessed. Such is the refined +Philoe--such the magnificent Dendera--such the sumptuous Edfou! + +All the architectural remains of the most famous nations and the +greatest empires,--the amphitheatres, and arches, and columns of +the Romans; the fanes of the Greeks; the temples of the Syrians and +Sicilians; the Colosseum, the Parthenon, the courts of Baalbec, the +pillars of Palmyra and Girgenti,--sink into insignificance when compared +with the structures that line the banks of an African river. The mind +makes a leap amid their vastness, their variety, and their number. New +combinations rise upon our limited invention and contract the +taste,--the pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the +obelisk, the sphinx. + +Take the map; trace the windings of the mysterious stream, whose source +baffles even this age of enterprise, and which remains unknown even when +the Niger is discovered. It flows through a wilderness. On one side are +the interminable wastes of Libya; on the other, a rocky desert, leading +to the ocean: yet its banks are fertile as a garden; and within 150 +miles of the sea it divides into two branches, which wind through an +immense plain, once the granary of the world. + +A Nubian passed me in a state of nudity, armed with a poisoned spear, +and guarded by the skin of a hippopotamus, formed into a shield. In this +country, the animal called man is fine, although his wants are +few,--some rice, a calabash of palm wine, and the fish he himself spears. +Are his ancestors the creators of the adjoining temple, covered with +beautiful sculptures, and supported by colossal figures fifty feet in +height? It is well to ponder, by the roar of the cataracts of the Nile, +over the perfectibility of man. + +A light has at length broken into the darkness of Egyptian ages; and +although we cannot discover the source of the Nile, we can at least +decipher its hieroglyphics. Those who are ignorant of the study are +incredulous as to its fruits; they disbelieve in the sun, because they +are dazzled by its beams. A popular miscellany is not the place to enter +into a history, or a vindication, of the phonetic system. I am desirous +here only of conveying to the general reader, in an intelligible manner, +some idea of the discoveries that are now unfolding themselves to the +Egyptian antiquarian, and of wandering with him for a moment amid the +marvellous creations of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, with a talisman +which shall unfold for his instruction and amusement their mystical and +romantic history. + +I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval, +at once inform me that it was constructed by a ‘Son of the Sun,’ or +a ‘Phrah,’ or ‘Pharaoh.’ It is remarkable that the Greeks never once +mention this memorable title, simply because they have always translated +it by their celebrated personification, ‘Sol,’ or ‘Apollo.’ In the +obelisk of Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore +read, in the third column, instead of ‘the powerful Apollo,’ ‘the +powerful Phrah, the all-splendid Son of the Sun.’ Proceeding with the +inscription, I also discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses +the Second, a monarch of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised +some of the most wonderful monuments of Thebes. + +The first step of the Egyptian student should be to eradicate from his +mind all recollection of ancient authors. When he has arrived at his +own results, he may open Herodotus with interest, read Diodorus with +suspicion; but, above all, he will then learn to estimate the value of +the hitherto reviled Manetho, undoubtedly the fragments of the work of a +genuine Egyptian writer. The history and theology of ancient Egypt must +be studied on the sculptured walls of its palaces and temples, breathing +with sacred mysteries and heroic warfare; its manners and customs in its +catacombs and sepulchres, where the painter has celebrated the minutest +traits of the social life and the domestic economy of the most ancient +of nations. + +Even in the time of Strabo, Egyptian Thebes was a city of enormous +ruins, the origin of which no antiquary could penetrate. We now know +by the inscriptions we decipher that these mighty monuments chiefly +celebrate the achievements of a great conqueror,--Rameses the Second, or +the Great, whom the most rigid critic would be rash to place later than +fifteen hundred years before Christ. These great creations, therefore, +demonstrate the mature civilisation of Egypt far beyond three thousand +years back. Rameses and his illustrious predecessors, the Thothmes +and the Amunophs, are described as monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty. +Thothmes the Fourth, one of these ancestors, cut the great Sphinx of the +Pyramids; as for the Pyramids themselves, it is now undeniable that they +were not raised at the comparatively late period ascribed to them +by Herodotus and Diodorus. No monuments in Egypt can be compared in +antiquity with these buildings; and the names of the predecessors of +Rameses the Great are found in their vicinity, evidently sculptured at +a much later epoch. ‘The Pyramids are at least ten thousand years old,’ +said Champollion to a friend of mine in Egypt, rubbing his hands, with +eyes sparkling with all the enthusiasm of triumphant research. + +It is highly probable that Rameses the Great was the Sesostris of +Herodotus. This name is entirely a Greek invention, and is found on no +Egyptian monuments. The splendid tomb, first opened by Belzoni, in the +Valley of the Kings, is of the grandfather of this monarch--Rameses the +First. It is evident from the Theban sculptures and inscriptions, that +Rameses and his predecessors were engaged in a long war with a most +powerful enemy,’ and that that enemy was an Oriental people, a nation +with fair countenances and flowing robes, dwelling in a hilly and +well-wooded country. It is probable that this nation was the Assyrians, +who, according to ancient writers, invaded Egypt under Ninus and +Semiramis. Thothmes the Third and Fourth, Amunoph, and Rameses the +First, carried on this war with uncertain success. The successor of +Rameses the First, whose phonetic name is doubtful, was not unworthy +of the son whom the gods accorded to him as a reward for his valour +and magnificence. This anonymous sovereign led the war in person, +and probably against degenerate princes. On the walls of Karnak--a +sculptured scroll, more durable than those of his poets and +historians--we find him in his triumphal chariot, leading a host of +infantry and chariots, attacking fortified places, defended by lofty +walls and surrounded by water. The enemy is seen clearing their country +in advance, driving away their cattle, and felling forests to impede the +progress of the invader’s chariots; but at length the victorious Pharaoh +returns to his Nile with crowds of prisoners, bearing every variety of +rich and fantastic tribute. + +The son of this chieftain was Rameses the Second, or the Great. +Following the example of his illustrious predecessor, he soon led +a numerous and chosen army to extend the Oriental conquests of the +Egyptians. He passed along the sea-coast of a country, which is, without +doubt, Syria, since the name of Rameses the Second is still found on +that shore, near the ancient Berytus and modern Beirut. He continued +his march into the interior, where we at length find him opposed by a +powerful force on the banks of a great river, probably the Euphrates. +On the opposite bank of the river is a vast and strongly-fortified city. +The battle is fought and won. The Orientals are defeated, and sue +for peace. The city is not represented as taken, yet sieges are often +sculptured on these walls, and the Egyptian army is always supplied with +scaling-ladders and the testudo. And what was this city? Was it Babylon? +Was it Nineveh? How wonderful is it at this remote period, to read for +the first time, the Gazettes of the Pharaohs! It does not appear to have +been the object of the Egyptians to make a permanent settlement in these +conquered countries. They laid waste the land, they accumulated plunder, +they secured peace by the dread of their arms, and, returning home with +the same rapidity that they advanced, they enjoyed and commemorated +their victories in the embellishment of their majestic cities. The +remainder of the long reign of Rameses the Great was passed in the +cultivation of the arts. A greater number of monuments, statues, and +temples bear the name of this king than of any other who ruled in Egypt, +and there are few remains of any city in that country where it is not +met with. To him we are indebted alike for the rock temples of Nubia, +and the inimitable obelisks of Luxor. He raised that splendid structure +on the western side of Thebes, supported by colossal statues, which is +foolishly styled the Memnonion; he made great additions to Karnak; he +built the temple of Osiris at Abydus; he adorned the great temple of +Memphis with colossal statues, for which he evidently had a passion; +and, finally, amid a vast number of other temples, especially in Nubia, +which it would be tedious to recount, and other remains, he cut the +famous Monticoelian obelisk now at Rome. Whatever may have been the +actions recorded of Sesostris, one thing is certain, that no Egyptian +king ever surpassed or equalled the second Rameses. Let us then allow +that history has painted in too glowing colours the actions of the +former-too great for the limited power of Europe--and remain persuaded, +that, so far from aiming at the conquest of the world, the utmost extent +of his march was confined to the countries bordering on Assyria, Arabia, +and part of Æthiopia, from which country he is represented as receiving +tribute. The conquests of Rameses the Second secured a long peace to +Egypt. The reigns of his two successors, however, are celebrated for the +creation of the great avenue of sphinxes at Thebes, leading from Luxor +to Karnak, a mile and a quarter in extent, a sumptuous evidence of the +prosperity of Egypt and of the genius of the Pharaohs. War, however, +broke out again under Rameses the Third, but certainly against another +power, and it would appear a naval power. Returning victorious, the +third Rameses added a temple to Karnak, and raised the temple and the +palace of Medcenet Habu. Here closes the most interesting period of +Egyptian history. A long succession of princes, many of whom bore the +name of Rameses, followed, but, so far as we can observe, they were +distinguished neither in architecture nor war. There are reasons which +may induce us to believe that the Trojan war happened during the reign +of the third Rameses. The poetical Memnon is not found in Egyptian +records. The name is not Egyptian, although it may be a corruption. It +is useless to criticise this invention of the lying Greeks, to whose +blinded conceit and carelessness we are indebted for the almost total +darkness in which the records of antiquity are enveloped. The famous +musical statue of Memnon is still seated on its throne, dignified and +serene, on the plain of Thebes. It is a colossus, fifty feet in height, +and the base of the figure is covered with inscriptions of the Greek and +Roman travellers, vouching that they had listened to the wild sunrise +melody. The learned and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at +Thebes upwards of ten years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to +me to have solved the mystery of this music. He informed me that having +ascended the statue, he discovered that some metallic substance had been +inserted in its breast, which, when struck, emitted a very melodious +sound. From the attitude of the statue, a priest might easily have +ascended in the night, and remained completely concealed behind the +mighty arms while he struck the breast; or, which is not improbable, +there was probably some secret way to ascend, now blocked up; for this +statue, with its remaining companion, although now isolated in their +situation, were once part of an enormous temple, the ruins of which yet +remain, and the plan of which may yet be traced. Thanks to the phonetic +system, we now know that this musical statue is one of Amunoph the +Second, who lived many centuries before the Trojan war. The truth is, +the Greeks, who have exercised almost as fatal an influence over modern +knowledge as they have a beneficial one over modern taste, had no +conception of anything more ancient than the Trojan war, except Chaos. +Chaos is a poetic legend, and the Trojan war was the squabble of a few +marauding clans. + +‘Where are the records of the great Assyrian monarchy? Where are the +books of the Medes and Persians? Where the learned annals of Pharaohs? + +‘Fortunate Jordan! Fortunate Ilissus! I have waded through the sacred +waters; with difficulty I traced the scanty windings of the classic +stream. Alas! for the exuberant Tigris; alas! for the mighty Euphrates; +alas! for the mysterious Nile!’ + +It is curious that no allusion whatever to the Jews has yet turned up on +any Egyptian monuments. But upon the walls of Medoenet Habu I observed, +more than once repeated, the Ark borne in triumph. This is not a +fanciful resemblance. It responds in every particular. + +I have noticed the history of Ancient Egypt, because some knowledge of +it is necessary to illustrate Thebes. I quit a subject which, however +curious, is probably of too confined an interest for the general reader, +and I enter in his company the City of the Hundred Gates. + +The Nile winds through the valley of Thebes--a valley formed by ranges +of mountains, which on one side defend it from the great Lybian desert, +and on the other from the rocky wilderness that leads to the Red Sea. On +each side of the stream are two great quarters of ruins. On the side of +the Red Sea are Luxor and Karnak, on the opposite bank the great temple +called the Memnonion, and the various piles which, under the general +title of Medoenet Habu, in all probability among other structures +comprise the principal palace of the more ancient Pharaohs. On the +Lybian side, also, are the cemeteries of the great city-the mummy caves +of Gornou, two miles in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, +the tombs of the Queens, and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk +the famous tombs of the Kings. The population of the City of the Hundred +Gates now consists of a few Arab families, who form four villages of +mud huts clustered round those gigantic columns and mighty obelisks, a +single one of which is sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe +for their palaces and museums as the rarest of curious treasures. Often, +indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the roof of a +single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population of +Gornou, in number between three and four hundred, reside solely in the +tombs. + +I think that Luxor, from its situation, first attracts the notice of the +traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty platform. +Its enormous columns are the first specimen of that colossal genius of +the Pharaohs which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The entrance +to this temple is through a magnificent propylon, that is, a portal +flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in breadth, and +rises nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely covered +with sculpture, commemorating the triumph of Rameses the Great over the +supposed Assyrians. On each side of the portal are two colossal statues +of red granite, buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring +thence, to the top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side +of them, a little in advance, rise the two most perfect obelisks that +remain, also of red granite, and each about eighty feet high. From the +propylon you pass into a peristyle court, about two hundred and thirty +feet long by one hundred and seventy, the roof of which was once +supported by double rows of columns, many of which now remain; and so +on through other pyramidal gates and courts and porticoes and chambers +which are, in all probability, of a more ancient date than the gates and +obelisks and colossi first described, which last were perhaps added by +Rameses, who commemorated his triumph by rendering a celebrated building +still more famous. + +From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side +of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes considerably above a mile +in extent; and here I should observe that Egyptian sphinxes are either +_andro_ or _crio_ sphinxes, the one formed by the union of the lion with +the man, and the other of the lion with the ram. Their mystery is at +length penetrated. They are male and never female. They are male and +they are monarchs. This great avenue, extending from Luxor to Karnak, +was raised by the two immediate successors of the great Rameses, and +represents their long line of ancestry. + +All the marvels of the world sink before the first entrance into Karnak. +It may vie with the Alps and the Andes. The obelisks of Luxor may be +unrivalled, the sculptures of Medcenet Habu more exquisite, the colossus +of Memnonion more gigantic, the paintings of the royal tombs more +curious and instructive, but criticism ceases before the multifarious +wonders of the halls and courts of Karnak and the mind is open only to +one general impression of colossal variety. + +I well remember the morning I stood before the propylon, or chief +entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue +heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built +of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three +thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader +than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul’s, and its height exceeds +that of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculptures, a rare +omission, and doubtless intended, that the unity of the effect should +not be broken. The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in +height. + +Through this you pass into columned courts, which, in any other place, +would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front +of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great +hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand +square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches +as our St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this +unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed +of single stones, compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would +appear almost bricks, has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four +colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above +thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and, with the walls and +propyla, are completely covered with sculptured forms. I shall not +attempt to describe any other part of Karnak. The memory aches with +the effort; there are many buildings attached to it, larger than most +temples; there are an infinite number of gates, and obelisks, and +colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred +or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp, +through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in glorious +groups around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure. +What feudal splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies, what tilts and +tournaments, and what ecclesiastic festivals, could rival the vast, the +beautiful, and solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians? + +Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at the two seated +colossi, one of which I have already noticed as the musical Memnon. +These doubtless once guarded the entrance of some temple more ancient +than any remaining, for they were raised by Amunoph the Second, a +predecessor, by some generations, of the great Rameses. They were, +doubtless, once seated on each side of a propylon, as at Luxor, and +in all probability were flanked by obelisks. Whether the temple were +destroyed for materials, for more recent structures, or whether it has +sunk under the accumulations of the slimy soil, may be decided by the +future excavator. + +We arrive at the Memnonion. This temple was raised by Rameses the Great. +In the colossal Caryatides we recognise the same genius that excavated +the rocks of Ipsambul, and supported a cavern temple upon the heads of +giants. From the Memnonion came the statue that is now in the British +Museum. But this figure, though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, +sinks, so far as magnitude is concerned, into insignificance when +compared with the statue of Rameses himself, which, broken off at the +waist, now lies prostrate in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is +probably the most huge colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The +fragment is of red granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately +the face is entirely obliterated. The statue lies upon its back, and +in its fall has destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more +than sixty feet round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly +seven feet, and the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large +enough for a man to walk in. + +Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter +of Medcenet Habu. Most of the buildings are of the time of Rameses the +Third. + +The sculptured walls of the great temples, covered with battles, +chariots, captives, and slaves, have been worthily described by the +vivid pen of Mr. Hamilton. They celebrate the victorious campaigns of +the monarch. Here also the Third Rameses raised his palace. And it is +curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find represented on the +walls, in a very admirable style, Rameses playing chess with his Queen. +Chess is, probably, a most ancient Oriental game. Rameses the Third +lived before the Trojan war, to which the Greeks, as usual, ascribe the +invention of chess. + +The sepulchres of Thebes still remain to be described, a theme more +fertile in interest and instruction than even its palaces and temples. +The arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their tombs, and to learn +how this remarkable people lived, we must even go where they were +buried. To cite no other instances in a sketch which is already too +long, it is from a painting in a tomb near Beni-hassan that we learn how +the Egyptians procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses +of stone and granite with which they raised the columns of Karnak and +the obelisks of Luxor. + +But we must conclude. We have touched a virgin subject rich with +delightful knowledge, and if our readers be not wearied with wandering +on the banks of the Nile, we may perhaps again introduce them to the +company of the Pharaohs. + + + + +SHOUBRA + +ORIENTAL palaces, except perhaps in the great Indian peninsula, do not +realise the dreams and glittering visions of the Arabian Nights, or +indeed the authentic histories written in the flush and fullness of +the success of the children of the desert, the Tartar and the Saracen. +Commerce once followed in the train of the conquerors of Asia, and +the vast buildings which they hastily threw up of slight and perishing +materials, were filled, not only with the plunder of the East, but +furnished with all the productions of art and curious luxury, which the +adventurous spirit of man brought from every quarter of the globe to +Samarcand and Bagdad. The site of these mighty capitals is almost erased +from the map of the modern traveller; but tribute and traffic have also +ceased to sustain even the dilapidated serail of the once omnipotent +Stamboul, and, until very recently, all that remained of the splendour +of the Caliphs of Egypt was the vast Necropolis, which still contains +their palatial sepulchres. + +How the bold Roumelian peasant who in our days has placed himself on +the ancient throne of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, as Napoleon on +the seat of the Merovingian kings, usurping political power by military +prowess, lodged and contented himself in the valley of the Nile, was +not altogether an uninteresting speculation; and it was with no common +curiosity that some fifteen years ago, before he had conquered Syria and +scared Constantinople, I made one morning a visit to Shoubra, the palace +of Mehemet Ali. + +Nothing can be conceived more animated and picturesque than Cairo during +the early morning or at night. It seems the most bustling and populous +city in the world. The narrow streets, abounding with bazaars, present +the appearance of a mob, through which troops of richly dressed +cavaliers force with difficulty their prancing way, arrested often in +their course by the procession of a harem returning from the bath, the +women enveloped in inscrutable black garments, and veils and masks of +white linen, and borne along by the prettiest donkeys in the world. The +attendant eunuchs beat back the multitude; even the swaggering horsemen, +with their golden and scarlet jackets, rich shawls and scarfs, and +shining arms, trampling on those around, succeed in drawing aside; but +all efforts are vain, for at the turning of the street appears the first +still solemn visage of a long string of tall camels bearing provisions +to the citadel, a Nubian astride on the neck of the leader, and beating +a wild drum, to apprise the people of his approach. The streets, too, +in which these scenes occur are in themselves full of variety and +architectural beauty. The houses are lofty and latticed, abounding in +balconies; fountains are frequent and vast and as richly adorned +as Gothic shrines; sometimes the fortified palace of one of the old +Mamlouks, now inhabited by a pasha, still oftener the exquisite shape of +an Arabian mosque. The temples of Stamboul cannot vie with the fanes +of Cairo. Their delicate domes and airy cupolas, their lofty minarets +covered with tracery, and the flowing fancy of their arabesques recalled +to me the glories of the Alhambra, the fantastic grace of the Alcazars +and the shrines of Seville and Cordova. + +At night the illuminated coffee-houses, the streaming population, each +person carrying a lantern, in an atmosphere warmer and softer than our +conservatories, and all the innocent amusements of an out-door life--the +Nubian song, the Arabian tale, the Syrian magic--afford a different, but +not less delightful scene. + +It was many hours before noon, however, that I made my first visit to +Shoubra, beneath a sky as cloudless as it remained during the whole six +months I was in Egypt, during which time I have no recollection that we +were favoured by a single drop of rain; and yet the ever-living breeze +on the great river, and the excellent irrigation of the earth, produce +a freshness in the sky and soil, which are missed in other Levantine +regions, where there is more variety of the seasons. + +Shoubra is about four or five miles from the metropolis. It rises on the +banks of the Nile, and the road to it from Cairo is a broad but shady +avenue, formed of sycamores, of noble growth and colour; on one side +delightful glimpses of the river, with its palmy banks and sparkling +villages, and on the other, after a certain tract of vivid vegetation, +the golden sands of the desert, and the shifting hillocks which it +forms; or, perhaps, the grey peaks of some chain of pyramids. + +The palace of Shoubra is a pile of long low buildings looking to the +river--moderate in its character, and modest in its appointments; but +clean, orderly, and in a state of complete repair; and, if we may +use such an epithet with reference to oriental life, comfortable. It +possesses all the refined conveniences of European manners, of which the +pasha at the time I am referring to was extremely proud. Most of these +had been the recent gift of the French government, and his highness +occasionally amused his guests--some sheikh from Arabia, or some emir +from the Lebanon--by the exhibition of some scientific means of domestic +accommodation with which use has made us familiar, but which I was +assured had sensibly impressed the magnates of the desert and the +mountain with the progress of modern civilisation. + +The gardens of Shoubra, however, are vast, fanciful, and kept in +admirable order. They appeared to me in their character also entirely +oriental. You enter them by long, low, winding walks of impenetrable +shade; you emerge upon an open ground sparkling with roses, arranged in +beds of artificial forms, and leading to gilded pavilions and painted +kiosks. Arched walks of orange trees, with the fruit and the flowers +hanging over your head, lead again to fountains, or to some other +garden-court, where myrtles border beds of tulips, and you wander on +mosaic walks of polished pebbles. A vase flashes amid a group of dark +cypresses, and you are invited to repose under a Syrian walnut tree by a +couch or a summer-house. + +The most striking picture, however, of this charming retreat is a lake +surrounded by light cloisters of white marble, and in its centre a +fountain of crocodiles, carved in the same material. That material as +well as the art, however, are European. It was Carrara that gave the +pure and glittering blocks, and the Tuscan chisel called them into life. +It is a pity that the honourable board of directors, in their recent +offering of the silver fountain to the pasha, had not been aware of +the precedent thus afforded by his highness’s own creation for the +introduction of living forms into Moslem sculpture and carving. They +might have varied their huge present with advantage. Indeed, with the +crocodile and the palm-tree, surely something more beautiful and not +less characteristic than their metallic mausoleum might easily have been +devised. + +This marble pavilion at Shoubra, indeed, with its graceful, terraced +peristyles, its chambers and divans, the bright waters beneath, with +their painted boats, wherein the ladies of the harem chase the gleaming +shoals of gold and silver fish, is a scene worthy of a sultan; but my +attendant, a Greek employed in the garden, told me I ought to view it +on some high festival, crowded by the court in their rich costumes, to +appreciate all its impressive beauty. This was a scene not reserved +for me, yet my first visit to Shoubra closed with an incident not +immemorable. + +I had quitted the marble pavilion and was about to visit the wilderness +where roam, in apparent liberty, many rare animals, when I came, +somewhat suddenly, on a small circular plot into which several walks +emptied, cut through a thick hedge of myrtle. By a sun-dial stood a +little man, robust, though aged, rather stout, and of a very cheerful +countenance; his attire plain and simple, a pelisse of dark silk, and a +turban white as his snowy beard; he was in merry conversation with his +companion, who turned out to be his jester. In the background, +against the myrtle wall, stood three or four courtiers in rich +dresses--courtiers, for the little old man was their princely +master--the great Pasha of Egypt. + + + + +EDEN AND LEBANON + +I FOUND myself high among the mountains, and yet amid a series of green +slopes. All around me sparkled with cultivation--vineyards, gardens, +groves of young mulberry trees, clustering groups of the sycamore and +the walnut. Falling around, the cascades glittered in the sun, until, +reaching the bottom of the winding valley, they mingled with the waters +of a rivulet that glided through a glade of singular vividness. + +On the broad bosom of a sunny hill, behind which rose a pyramid of bare +rock, was a most beautiful village--flat cottages with terraced roofs, +shaded by spreading trees, and surrounded by fruit and flowers. A +cerulean sky above; the breath of an infinite variety of fragrant herbs +around; and a land of silk and wine; everywhere the hum of bees and +the murmur of falling streams; while, on the undulating down, a band of +beauteous children were frolicking with the kids. + +The name of this village, the fairest spot in the region of Lebanon, is +_Eden_, which, rendered from the Arabic into the English tongue, means a +‘Dwelling of Delight.’ + +I ascended the peak that overhung this village. I beheld ridges of +mountains succeeding each other in proportionate pre-eminence, until the +range of the eternal glaciers, with their lustrous cones, flashed in the +Syrian sun. I descended into the deep and solemn valleys, skirted the +edges of rocky precipices, and toiled over the savage monotony of the +dreary table-land. At length, on the brow of a mountain, I observed the +fragments of a gloomy forest--cedar, and pine, and cypress. The wind +moaning through its ancient avenues and the hoarse roar of a cataract +were the only sounds that greeted me. + +In the front was a scanty group of gigantic trees, that seemed the +relics of some pre-Adamite grove. Their grey and massive trunks, each of +which must have been more than twelve yards in girth, were as if quite +dead; while, about twenty feet from the ground, they divided into five +or six huge limbs, each equal to a single tree, but all, as it were, +lifeless amid their apparent power. + +Bare of all foliage, save on their ancient crests--black, blasted, +riven, and surrounded by deep snows--behold the trees that built the +palaces of Solomon! + +When I recall the scene from which I had recently parted, and contrasted +it with the spectacle before me, it seemed that I had quitted the +innocence and infancy of Nature to gaze on its old age--of exhausted +passions and desolate neglect. + + + + +A SYRIAN SKETCH + +THE sun was quivering above the horizon, when I strolled forth from +Jaffa to enjoy the coming breeze amid the beautiful gardens that environ +that agreeable town. Riding along the previous day, my attention had +been attracted by a marble gate, the fragment of some old temple, that +now served as the entrance to one of these enclosures, their secure +boundary otherwise formed by a picturesque and impenetrable hedge of +Indian fig. + +It is not a hundred yards from the town; behind it stretches the plain +of Ramie--the ancient Arimathea-broad and fertile, and, at this moment, +green; for it was just after the latter rains, when Syria is most +charming. The caravan track winding through it led to Jerusalem. + +The air was exquisitely soft and warm, and sweet with the perfume of +the orange bowers. I passed through the marble portal, adorned with some +florid yet skilful sculptures, and found myself in a verdant wilderness +of fruit-trees, rising in rich confusion from the turf, through which +not a single path seemed to wander. There were vast groups of orange +and lemon-trees, varied occasionally with the huge offspring of the +citron-tree, and the glowing produce of the pomegranate; while, ever +and anon, the tall banana raised its head aloft with its green or +golden clusters, and sometimes the graceful and languid crest of the +date-bearing palm. + +While I was in doubt as to the direction I should bend my steps, my +ear was caught by the wild notes of Turkish music; and, following the +sounds, I emerged upon a plot of turf, clear from trees, in the middle +of which was a fountain, and, by its margin, seated on a delicate +Persian carpet, a venerable Turk. Some slaves were near him, one of +whom, at a little distance, was playing on a rude lyre; in the master’s +left hand was a volume of Arabian poetry, and he held in his right the +serpentine tube of his narghileh, or Syrian pipe. When he beheld me, he +saluted me with all the dignity of the Orient, pressing his hand to his +heart, but not rising. I apologised for my intrusion; but he welcomed me +with serene cordiality, and invited me to share his carpet and touch his +pipe. + +Some time elapsed in answering those questions respecting European +horses and European arms, wherein the Easterns delight. At length, the +solemn and sonorous voice of the muezzin, from the minarets of Jaffa, +came floating on the air. The sun had set; and, immediately, my host and +his companions performed their ablutions in the fountain; and kneeling +towards Mecca, repeated their accustomed prayers. Then rising, the +Turkish aga, for such was his rank, invited me to enjoy the evening +breeze, and accompany him in a walk round his garden. + +As we proceeded, my companion plucked an orange, and taking a knife from +his girdle, and cutting the fruit in half, offered me one moiety, and +threw the other away. More than once he repeated this ceremony, which +somewhat excited my surprise. At length he inquired my opinion of his +fruit. I enlarged, and with sincerity, on its admirable quality, the +racy sweetness of its flavour, which I esteemed unequalled; but I could +not refrain from expressing my surprise, that of fruit so exquisite he +should studiously waste so considerable a portion. + +‘Effendi,’ said the Turk, with a grave though gracious smile, ‘to +friends we give only the sunny side.’ + + + + +THE BOSPHORUS + +THE stranger whose felicity it has been to float between the shores of +the Bosphorus will often glance back with mingled feelings of regret +and satisfaction to the memory of those magical waters. This splendid +strait, stretching from the harbour of Constantinople to the mouth +of the Euxine, may be about twenty miles in length, and its ordinary +breadth seldom exceeds one mile. The old Greek story tells that one +might hear the birds sing on the opposite shore. And thus two great +continents are divided by an ocean stream narrower than many rivers +that are the mere boundaries of kingdoms. Yet it is strange that the +character of these two famous divisions of our earth is nowhere more +marked than on the shores of the Bosphorus. The traveller turns without +disappointment from the gay and glittering shores of Europe to the +sublimer beauty and the dusky grandeur of Asia. + +The European side, until you advance within four or five miles of +the Black Sea, is almost uninterruptedly studded with fanciful and +ornamental buildings: beautiful villages, and brilliant summer palaces, +and bright kiosks, painted in arabesque, and often gilt. The green +background to the scene is a sparkling screen of terraced gardens, +rising up a chain of hills whose graceful undulations are crowned with +groves of cypress and of chestnut, occasionally breaking into fair +and delicate valleys, richly wooded, and crossed by a grey and antique +aqueduct. + +But in Asia the hills rise into mountains, and the groves swell into +forests. Everything denotes a vast, rich and prolific land, but there +is something classical, antique, and even mysterious in its general +appearance. An air of stillness and deep repose pervades its less +cultivated and less frequented shores; and the very eagles, as they +linger over the lofty peak of ‘the Giant’s grave,’ seem conscious that +they are haunting some heroic burial-place. + +I remember that one of the most strange, and even sublime, spectacles +that I ever beheld occurred to me one balmy autumnal eve as I returned +home in my caique from Terapia, a beautiful village on the Bosphorus, +where I had been passing the day, to Pera. I encountered an army of +dolphins, who were making their way from the Ægean and the Sea of +Marmora through the Strait to the Euxine. They stretched right across +the water, and I should calculate that they covered, with very little +interval, a space of three or four miles. It is very difficult to form +an estimate of their number, but there must, of course, have been +many thousands. They advanced in grand style, and produced an immense +agitation: the snorting, spouting, and splashing, and the wild panting +rush, I shall never forget. As it was late, no other caique was in +sight, and my boatmen, apprehensive of being run down, stopped to defend +themselves with their oars. I had my pistols with me, and found great +sport, as, although the dolphins made every effort to avoid us, there +were really crowds always in shot. Whenever one was hit, general +confusion ran through the whole line. They all flounced about with +increased energy, ducked their round heads under water, and turned +up their arrowy tails. We remained thus stationary for nearly +three-quarters of an hour, and very diverting I found the delay. At +length the mighty troop of strangers passed us, and, I suppose, must +have arrived at the Symplegades about the same time that I sought the +elegant hospitality of the British Palace at Pera. + + + + +AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK + +WHEN I was in Egypt the great subject of political speculation was the +invasion of Syria; not that the object of the formation of the camp at +Alexandria was generally known; on the contrary, it was a secret,-but a +secret shared by many ears. Forty thousand well-disciplined troops were +assembled at Cairo; and it was whispered at Court that Abdallah Pasha of +Acre might look to himself, a young and valiant chief, by-the-bye, whom +I well know, but indulging in dissipation, extraordinary even in the +Levant. I was exceedingly anxious of becoming in some manner attached +to this expedition; and as I was not without influence in the proper +quarters, there appeared little probability of my wish not being +gratified. With these views I remained in Egypt longer than I had +intended, but it would seem that the invaders were not quite as ardent +as their intended volunteer, for affairs at Alexandria progressed but +indifferently. Orders and counter-orders, marches and counter-marches, +boats pressed on the Nile for the passage of troops from the capital, +which were all liberated the next day, many divans and much smoking; but +still the troops remained within pistol-shot of the citadel, and months +glided away apparently without any material advancement. + +I had often observed that although there was in most subjects an +excellent understanding between the two Pashas, Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim, +a degree of petty jealousy existed between them on the point of their +mutual communications with foreigners; so that if I happened one morning +to attend the divan of the Grand Pasha, as the Franks styled the father, +I was sure, on some excuse or other, of being summoned the next day to +the levee of the son; I was therefore not surprised when, one day, on my +return from paying my respects to the divan at the citadel of Cairo, +I found a Nubian eunuch in attendance at my quarters, telling me that +Ibrahim Pasha was anxious to see me. + +I accordingly repaired without loss of time to the sumptuous palace of +that chieftain: and being ushered into his presence, I found the future +conqueror of Syria attended only by his dragoman, his secretary; and an +aide-de-camp. + +A pipe was immediately brought me, but Ibrahim himself did not smoke. +After the usual compliments, ‘Effendi,’ said Ibrahim, ‘do you think the +English horses would live in Egypt?’ + +I was too practised an observer of the Turkish character to suppose that +English horses were really the occasion of my summons. The Turks are +very diplomatic, and are a long time coming to the point. I answered, +however, that, with English grooms, I was of opinion that English horses +would flourish in any climate. A curt, dry, uninteresting conversation +about English horses was succeeded by some queries, which I had answered +fifty times before, about English pistols: and then came a sly joke or +two about English women. At length the point of the interview began to +poke its horns out of this shell of tittle-tattle. + +‘If you want to go with the army,’ said his Highness, ‘’tis I who am +the person to speak to. They know nothing about those things up there’ +(meaning the citadel). + +I answered his Highness that I had attended the divan merely as a matter +of ceremony, and that I had not interchanged a word with the Grand Pasha +on the subject of the expedition. + +‘I suppose you talked with Boghaz?’ said Ibrahim. + +Boghaz was the favourite of Mehemet Ali. + +‘Neither with Boghaz nor any one else. Your Highness having once +graciously promised me that I should attend you, I should have thought +it both impertinent and unnecessary to apply to any other person +whatever.’ + +‘Tahib!’ exclaimed his Highness, which meant that he was satisfied. +‘After all, I do not know whether the army will march at all. You have +been in Syria?’ + +I answered, in the affirmative, a question which had often been +addressed to me. + +‘Do you think I could march as far as Gaza?’ inquired Ibrahim, with a +smile. + +This was a question of mockery. It was like asking whether the Life +Guards could take Windsor. I therefore only returned the smile, and said +that I did not doubt the enemy would agree to settle affairs upon that +condition. + +‘Tahib! Well I think I can march as far as they speak Arabic!’ This was +a favourite phrase of his Highness. + +I answered that I hoped, if I had the honour of attending his Highness, +the army would march till we could see another ocean. + +‘It is all talk up there,’ replied Ibrahim; ‘but my life is a life of +deeds.’ + +‘Words are very good things sometimes,’ I replied; ‘that is, if we keep +marching at the same time.’ + +‘God is great!’ exclaimed Ibrahim; and looking round to his officers, +‘the Effendi speaks truth; and thus it was that Redchid beat the beys.’ + +Ibrahim alluded to the Albanian campaign of the preceding year, when the +energy of the grand vizier crushed the rebellious beys of the ancient +Epirus. + +‘What do you think of Redchid?’ he inquired. + +‘I think he is worthy of being your Highness’s rival.’ + +‘He has always been victorious,’ said Ibrahim; ‘but I think his sabre is +made of gold. That will not do with me.’ + +‘It’s a pity,’ I observed, ‘that if your Highness find time to march +into Syria, you had not acted simultaneously with the Albanians, or with +the Pasha of Scutari.’ + +‘May I kill my mother but it is true; but up there, they will watch, and +watch, and watch, till they fall asleep.’ + +The truth is, the Orientals have no idea of military diversions; and +even if they combine, each strives to be the latest in the field, in +order that he may take advantage of the other’s success or discomfiture. +Mehemet Ali, at an immense expenditure, had excited two terrible revolts +in European Turkey, and then waited to invade Syria until the armies of +the Porte were unemployed. The result with some will justify his policy; +but in the conquest of Syria, the truth is, Ibrahim himself used a +golden sabre, and the year, before, the contingents of the pashas, whom +he was obliged to bribe, were all busied in Europe. + +The night previous to this conversation the style of the military +oath of the Egyptian army had been altered; and the troops, instead of +swearing allegiance to the Sultan, had pledged themselves to Mehemet +Ali. The Grand Pasha was so nervous about this change, that the order +for it was countermanded twice in four hours; however, what with +gratuities to the troops, and the discreet distribution of promotion +among the officers, everything went off very quietly. There was also +a rumour that Mehemet Ali intended immediately to assume the title of +_Caliph_. + +This piece of information is necessary to explain the following striking +observation of Ibrahim Pasha. + +‘Effendi, do you think that a man can conquer Syria, who is not called a +caliph? Will it make 40,000 men 80,000?’ + +I replied, that I thought the assumption of the title would have a +beneficial effect at foreign courts. + +‘Bah! before the Yahoos hear of it, I shall be at Damascus. Up there, +they are always busying themselves with forms. The eagle in his flight +does not think of his shadow on the earth!’ + + + + +MUNICH + +THE destiny of nations appears to have decreed that a society should +periodically, though rarely, flourish, characterised by its love of +the Fine Arts, and its capacity of ideal creation. These occasional and +brilliant ebullitions of human invention elevate the race of man; they +purify and chasten the taste of succeeding generations; and posterity +accepts them as the standard of what is choice, and the model of what is +excellent. + +Classic Greece and Christian Italy stand out in our universal annals +as the epochs of the Arts. During the last two centuries, while manners +have undergone a rapid transition, while physical civilisation has +advanced in an unprecedented degree, and the application of science to +social life has diverted the minds of men from other pursuits, the Fine +Arts have decayed and vanished. + +I wish to call the attention of my countrymen to another great movement +in the creative mind of Europe; one yet young and little recognised, but +not inferior, in my opinion, either to that of Athens or of Florence. + +It was on a cloudless day of the autumn of last year, that I found +myself in a city that seemed almost visibly rising beneath my eye. The +street in which I stood was of noble dimensions, and lined on each side +with palaces or buildings evidently devoted to public purposes. Few +were completely finished: the sculptor was working at the statues +that adorned their fronts; the painter was still touching the external +frescoes; and the scaffold of the architect was not in every instance +withdrawn. Everywhere was the hum of art and artists. The Byzantine +style of many of these buildings was novel to me in its modern +adaptation, yet very effective. The delicate detail of ornament +contrasted admirably with the broad fronts and noble façades which they +adorned. A church with two very lofty towers of white marble, with their +fretted cones relieved with cerulean blue, gleamed in the sun; and +near it was a pile not dissimilar to the ducal palace at Venice, but of +nobler and more beautiful proportions, with its portal approached by a +lofty flight of steps, and guarded by the colossal statues of poets and +philosophers--suitably guarded, for it was the National Library. + +As I advanced, I found myself in squares and circuses, in every instance +adorned by an obelisk of bronze or the equestrian statue of some royal +hero: I observed a theatre with a lofty Corinthian portico, and a +pediment brilliantly painted in fresco with designs appropriate to its +purpose; an Ionic museum of sculpture, worthy to enshrine the works of +a Phidias or a Praxiteles; and a palace for the painter, of which I was +told the first stone had been rightly laid on the birthday of Raffaelle. +But what struck me most in this city, more than its galleries, temples, +and palaces, its magnificent buildings, splendid paintings, and +consummate statues, was the all-pervading presence and all-inspiring +influence of living and breathing Art. In every street, a school: the +atelier of the sculptor open, the studio of the painter crowded: devoted +pupils, aspiring rivals: enthusiasm, emulation, excellence. Here +the long-lost feudal-art of colouring glass re-discovered; there +fresco-painting entirely revived, and on the grandest scale; while the +ardent researches of another man of genius successfully analyses the +encaustic tenting of Herculaneum, and secures the secret process for the +triumph of modern Art. I beheld a city such as I had mused over amid the +crumbling fanes of Pericles, or, aided alike by memory and fancy, had +conjured up in the palaces and gardens of the Medici. + +Such is Munich, a city which, half a century ago, was the gross and +corrupt capital of a barbarous and brutal people. Baron Reisbech, who +visited Bavaria in 1780, describes the Court of Munich as one not at all +more advanced than those of Lisbon and Madrid. A good-natured prince, +fond only of show and thinking only of the chase; an idle, dissolute, +and useless nobility; the nomination to offices depending on women +and priests; the aristocracy devoted to play, and the remainder of the +inhabitants immersed in scandalous debauch. + +With these recollections of the past, let us enter the palace of the +present sovereign. With habits of extreme simplicity, and a personal +expenditure rigidly economical, the residence of the King of Bavaria, +when completed, will be the most extensive and the most sumptuous palace +in the world. But, then, it is not merely the palace of a king: it is +a temple dedicated to the genius of a nation. The apartments of state, +painted in fresco on the grandest scale, bold in design, splendid in +colour, breathe the very Teutonic soul. The subjects are taken from the +‘Nibelungenlied,’ the Gothic epic, and commemorate all the achievements +of the heroic Siegfried, and all the adventures of the beautiful +Chrimhilde. The heart of a German beats as he gazes on the forms and +scenes of the Teutonic Iliad; as he beholds Haghen the fierce, and +Dankwart the swift; Volker, the minstrel knight, and the beautiful and +haughty Brunhilda. But in point of harmonious dimension and august +beauty, no chamber is perhaps more imposing than the Kaiser Saal, or +Hall of the Sovereigns. It is, I should think, considerably above one +hundred feet in length, broad and lofty in exact proportion. Its +roof is supported on either side by columns of white marble; the +inter-columniations are filled by colossal statues, of gilded brass, of +the electors and kings of the country. Seated on his throne, at the end +of this imperial chamber, Louis of Bavaria is surrounded by the solemn +majesty of his ancestors. These statues are by Schwanthaler, a sculptor +who to the severe and classic taste and profound sentiment of his +master, Thorwaldsen, unites an exuberance of invention which has filled +Munich with the greatest works since Phidias. Cornelius, Julius Schnorr, +and Hess are the principal painters who have covered the galleries, +churches, and palaces of Munich with admirable frescoes. The celebrated +Klenze is known throughout Europe as the first of living architects, and +the favourite of his sovereign when that sovereign did not wear a crown; +but we must not forget the name of Gartner, the architect who has +revived the Byzantine style of building with such admirable effect. + +But it was in the private apartments of the king that I was peculiarly +impressed with the supreme genius of Schwanthaler. These chambers, eight +in number, are painted in encaustic, with subjects from the Greek +poets, of which Schwanthaler supplied the designs. The ante-chambers are +devoted to Orpheus and Hesiod, and the ornaments are in the oldest +Greek style; severely simple; archaic, but not rude; the figures of the +friezes in outline, and without relief. The saloon of reception, on the +contrary, is Homeric; and in its colouring, design, and decoration, as +brilliant, as free, and as flowing as the genius of the great Mæonian. +The chamber of the throne is entirely adorned with white bas-reliefs, +raised on a ground of dead gold; the subjects Pindaric; not inferior +in many instances to the Attic remains, and characterised, at the same +time, by a singular combination of vigour and grace. Another saloon is +devoted to Æschylus, and the library to Sophocles. The gay, wild muse of +Aristophanes laughs and sings in his Majesty’s dressing-room; while +the king is lulled to slumber by the Sicilian melodies and the soothing +landscapes of Theocritus. + +Of these chambers, I should say that they were a perfect creation of +Art. The rooms themselves are beautifully proportioned; the subjects of +their decorations are the most interesting in every respect that could +be selected; and the purity, grace, and invention of the designs, are +equalled only by their colouring, at the same time the most brilliant +and harmonious that can be conceived; and the rich fancy of the +arabesques and other appropriate decorations, which blend with all +around, and heighten the effect of the whole. Yet they find no mean +rivals in the private chambers of the queen, decorated in an analogous +style, but entirely devoted to the poets of her own land. The +Minnesingers occupy her first apartments, but the brilliant saloon is +worthy of Wieland, whose Oberon forms it frieze; while the bedchamber +gleams with the beautiful forms and pensive incidents of Goethe’s +esoteric pen. Schiller has filled the study with his stirring characters +and his vigorous incidents. Groups from ‘Wallenstein’ and ‘Wilhelm Tell’ +form the rich and unrivalled ceiling: while the fight of the dragon and +the founding of the bell, the innocent Fridolin, the inspired maiden of +Orleans, breathe in the compartments of the walls. + +When I beheld these refined creations, and recalled the scenes and +sights of beauty that had moved before me in my morning’s wanderings, I +asked myself, how Munich, recently so Boeotian, had become the capital +of modern Art; and why a country of limited resources, in a brief space, +and with such facility and completeness, should have achieved those +results which had so long and utterly eluded the desires of the richest +and most powerful community in the world? + +It is the fashion of the present age to underrate the influence of +individual character. For myself, I have ever rejected this consolation +of mediocrity. I believe that everything that is great has been +accomplished by great men. It is not what witnessed at Munich, or know +of its sovereign, that should make me doubt the truth of my conviction. +Munich is the creation of its king, and Louis of Bavaria is not only a +king but a poet. A poet on a throne has realised his dreams. + + + + +THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM + +_[In the following pages Lord Beaconsfield expounds that theory of the +English Constitution which he had previously set forth in his pamphlet +‘A Vindication of the English Constitution in a Letter to a Noble and +Learned Lord.’ The same theory is expounded in another way in the three +great novels, ‘Coningsby,’ ‘Sybil,’ and ‘Tancred.’ His contemporaries +never seem to have understood it, while his assailants of a later date +appear to have written and spoken concerning him in absolute ignorance +of his real political creed. The concluding paragraph of the tract +ought, in the minds of all candid men, to disperse at once and forever +the innumerable calumnies levelled at Lord Beaconsfield during and since +the Reform struggle of 1859-1867.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + _Object of the Whigs_ + +ENGLAND has become great by her institutions. Her hereditary Crown has +in a great degree insured us from the distracting evils of a contested +succession; her Peerage, interested, from the vast property and the +national honours of its members, in the good government of the country, +has offered a compact bulwark against the temporary violence of popular +passion; her House of Commons, representing the conflicting sentiments +of an estate of the realm not less privileged than that of the Peers, +though far more numerous, has enlisted the great mass of the lesser +proprietors of the country in favour of a political system which offers +them a constitutional means of defence and a legitimate method of +redress; her Ecclesiastical Establishment, preserved by its munificent +endowment from the fatal necessity of pandering to the erratic fancies +of its communicants, has maintained the sacred cause of learning and +religion, and preserved orthodoxy while it secured toleration; her law +of primogeniture has supplied the country with a band of natural and +independent leaders, trustees of those legal institutions which pervade +the land, and which are the origin of our political constitution. That +great body corporate, styled a nation-a vast assemblage of human beings +knit together by laws and arts and customs, by the necessities of the +present and the memory of the past--offers in this country, through +these its vigorous and enduring members, a more substantial and healthy +framework than falls to the lot of other nations. Our stout-built +constitution throws off with more facility and safety those crude and +dangerous humours which must at times arise in all human communities. +The march of revolution must here at least be orderly. We are preserved +from those reckless and tempestuous sallies that in other countries, +like a whirlwind, topple down in an instant an ancient crown, or sweep +away an illustrious aristocracy. This constitution, which has secured +order, has consequently promoted civilisation; and the almost unbroken +tide of progressive amelioration has made us the freest, the wealthiest, +and the most refined society of modern ages. Our commerce is unrivalled, +our manufacturers supply the world, our agriculture is the most skilful +in Christendom. So national are our institutions, so completely have +they arisen from the temper and adapted themselves to the character of +the people, that when for a season they were apparently annihilated, +the people of England voluntarily returned to them, and established them +with renewed strength and renovated vigour. + +The constitution of England is again threatened, and at a moment when +the nation is more prosperous, more free, and more famous than at any +period of its momentous and memorable career. Why is this? What has +occasioned these distempered times, which make the loyal tremble and +the traitor smile? Why has this dark cloud suddenly gathered in a sky so +serene and so splendid? Is there any analogy between this age and that +of the first Charles? Are the same causes at work, or is the apparent +similarity produced only by designing men, who make use of the perverted +past as a passport to present mischief? These are great questions, which +it may be profitable to discuss and wise to study. + +Rapin, a foreigner who wrote our history, in the course of his frigid +yet accurate pages, indulged in one philosophical observation. Struck +at the same time by our greatness and by the fury of our factions, the +Huguenot exclaimed: ‘It appears to me that this great society can only +be dissolved by the violence of its political parties.’ What are these +parties? Why are they violent? Why should they exist? In resolving +these questions, we may obtain an accurate idea of our present political +position, and by pondering over the past we may make that past not a +prophecy, as the disaffected intend, but a salutary lesson by which the +loyal may profit. + +The two great parties into which England has during the last century and +a half been divided originated in the ancient struggle between the +Crown and the aristocracy. As long as the Crown possessed or aspired to +despotic power, the feeling of the nation supported the aristocracy +in their struggles to establish a free government. The aristocracy of +England formed the constitution of the Plantagenets; the Wars of the +Roses destroyed that aristocracy, and the despotism of the Tudors +succeeded. Renovated by more than a century of peace and the spoils of +the Papacy, the aristocracy of England attacked the first Stuarts, who +succeeded to a despotism which they did not create. When Charles the +First, after a series of great concessions which ultimately obtained for +him the support of the most illustrious of his early opponents, raised +the royal standard, the constitution of the Plantagenets, and more than +the constitution of the Plantagenets, had been restored and secured. But +a portion of the able party which had succeeded in effecting such a vast +and beneficial revolution was not content to part with the extraordinary +powers which they had obtained in this memorable struggle. This section +of the aristocracy were the origin of the English Whigs, though +that title was not invented until the next reign. The primitive +Whigs-’Parliament-men,’ as they liked to call themselves, ‘Roundheads,’ +as they were in time dubbed--aspired to an oligarchy. For a moment they +obtained one; but unable to maintain themselves in power against the +returning sense and rising spirit of a generous and indignant people, +they called to their aid that domestic revolutionary party which exists +in all countries, and an anti-national enemy in addition. These were the +English Radicals, or Root-and-Branch men, and the Scotch Covenanters. To +conciliate the first they sacrificed the Crown; to secure the second +they abolished the Church. The constitution of England in Church +and State was destroyed, and the Whig oligarchy, in spite of their +machinations, were soon merged in the common ruin. + +The ignoble tyranny to which this great nation was consequently subject +produced that reaction which is in the nature of human affairs. The +ancient constitution was in time restored, and the Church and the Crown +were invested with greater powers than they had enjoyed previously to +their overthrow. So hateful had been the consequences of Whig rule, that +the people were inclined rather to trust the talons of arbitrary power +than to take refuge under the wing of these pretended advocates of +popular rights. A worthless monarch and a corrupted court availed +themselves of the offered opportunity; and when James the Second +ascended the throne, the nation was again prepared to second the +aristocracy in a struggle for their liberties. But the Whigs had +profited by their previous experiment: they resolved upon a revolution, +but they determined that that revolution should be brought about by +as slight an appeal to popular sympathies as possible. They studiously +confined that appeal to the religious feelings of the nation. They hired +a foreign prince and enlisted a foreign army in their service. They +dethroned James, they established themselves in power without the aid of +the mass; and had William the Third been a man of ordinary capacity, the +constitution of Venice would have been established in England in 1688. +William the Third told the Whigs that he would never consent to be +a Doge. Resembling Louis Philippe in his character as well as in his +position, that extraordinary prince baffled the Whigs by his skilful +balance of parties; and had Providence accorded him an heir, it is +probable that the oligarchical faction would never have revived in +England. The Whigs have ever been opposed to the national institutions +because they are adverse to the establishment of an oligarchy. Local +institutions, supported by a landed gentry, check them; hence their love +of centralisation and their hatred of unpaid magistrates. + +An independent hierarchy checks them; hence their affected advocacy of +toleration and their patronage of the Dissenters. The power of the Crown +checks them; therefore they always labour to reduce the sovereign to a +nonentity, and by the establishment of the Cabinet they have virtually +banished the King from his own councils. But, above all, the Parliament +of England checks them, and therefore it may be observed that the Whigs +at all times are quarrelling with some portion of those august estates. +They despair of destroying the Parliament; by it, and by it alone, can +they succeed in their objects. Corruption for one part, force for +the other, then, is their motto. In 1640 they attempted to govern the +country by the House of Commons, because the aristocracy was then more +powerful in the House of Commons than in the House of Lords, where a +Peerage, exhausted by civil wars, had been too liberally recruited from +the courtiers of the Tudors and the Stuarts. At the next revolution +which the Whigs occasioned, they attempted to govern the country by +the House of Lords, in which they were predominant; and, in order to +guarantee their power for ever, they introduced a Bill to deprive the +King of his prerogative of making further Peers. The revolution of 1640 +led to the abolition of the House of Lords because the Lords opposed the +oligarchy. Having a majority in the House of Lords, the Whigs introduced +the Peerage Bill, by which the House of Lords would have been rendered +independent of the sovereign; unpopular with the country, the Whigs +attacked the influence of popular election, and the moment that, by +the aid of the most infamous corruption, they had obtained a temporary +majority in the Lower House, they passed the Septennial Act. + +The Whigs of the eighteenth century ‘swamped’ the House of Commons; the +Whigs of the nineteenth would ‘swamp’ the House of Lords. The Whigs +of the eighteenth century would have rendered the House of Lords +unchangeable; the Whigs of the nineteenth remodel the House of Commons. + +I conclude here the first chapter of the ‘Spirit of Whiggism’-a little +book which I hope may be easily read and easily remembered. The Whig +party have always adopted popular cries. In one age it is Liberty, in +another reform; at one period they sound the tocsin against popery, in +another they ally themselves with papists. They have many cries, +and various modes of conduct; but they have only one object--the +establishment of an oligarchy in this free and equal land. I do not +wish this country to be governed by a small knot of great families, and +therefore I oppose the Whigs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + _Parliamentary Reform_ + +WHEN the Whigs and their public organs favour us with their mysterious +hints that the constitution has provided the sovereign with a means to +re-establish at all times a legislative sympathy between the two Houses +of Parliament, it may be as well to remind them that we are not indebted +for this salutary prerogative to the forbearance of their party. Suppose +their Peerage Bill had passed into an Act, how would they have carried +the Reform Bill of 1832? The Whigs may reply, that if the Peerage Bill +had become a law, the Reform Bill would never have been introduced; and +I believe them. In that case, the British House of Lords would have been +transformed into a Venetian Senate, and the old walls of St. James’s +might have witnessed scenes of as degrading mortification as the famous +ducal palace of the Adriatic. + +George III. routed the Whigs, consolidated by half a century of power; +but an ordinary monarch would have sunk beneath the Coalition and +the India Bill. This scheme was the last desperate effort of the +oligarchical faction previous to 1830. Not that they were inactive +during the great interval that elapsed between the advent of Mr. Pitt +and the resurrection of Lord Grey: but, ever on the watch for a cry +to carry them into power, they mistook the yell of Jacobinism for the +chorus of an emancipated people, and fancied, in order to take the +throne by storm, that nothing was wanting but to hoist the tricolour and +to cover their haughty brows with a red cap. This fatal blunder clipped +the wings of Whiggism; nor is it possible to conceive a party that had +effected so many revolutions and governed a great country for so long +a period, more broken, sunk, and shattered, more desolate and +disheartened, than these same Whigs at the Peace of Paris. From that +period till 1830, the tactics of the Whigs consisted in gently and +gradually extricating themselves from their false position as the +disciples of Jacobinism, and assuming their ancient post as the +hereditary guardians of an hereditary monarchy. To make the transition +less difficult than it threatened, they invented Liberalism, a bridge +by which they were to regain the lost mainland, and daintily recross +on tiptoe the chasm over which they had originally sprung with so +much precipitation. A dozen years of ‘liberal principles’ broke up the +national party of England, cemented by half a century of prosperity +and glory, compared with which all the annals of the realm are dim and +lack-lustre. Yet so weak intrinsically was the oligarchical faction, +that their chief, despairing to obtain a monopoly of power for his +party, elaborately announced himself as the champion of his patrician +order, and attempted to coalesce with the liberalised leader of the +Tories. Had that negotiation led to the result which was originally +intended by those interested, the Riots of Paris would not have +occasioned the Reform of London. + +It is a great delusion to believe that revolutions are ever effected by +a nation. It is a faction, and generally a small one, that overthrows a +dynasty or remodels a constitution. A small party, stung by a long +exile from power, and desperate of success except by desperate means, +invariably has recourse to a _coup-d’état_. An oligarchical party is +necessarily not numerous. Its members in general attempt, by noble +lineage or vast possessions, to compensate for their poverty of numbers. +The Whigs, in 1830, found themselves by accident in place, but under +very peculiar circumstances. They were in place but not in power. In +each estate of the realm a majority was arrayed against them. An appeal +to the Commons of England, that constituency which, in its elements, +had undergone no alteration since the time of Elizabeth, either by the +influence of the legislature or the action of time--that constituency +which had elected Pym, and Selden, and Hampden, as well as Somers, +Walpole, and Pulteney--an appeal to this constituency, it was generally +acknowledged, would be fatal to the Whigs, and therefore they determined +to reconstruct it. This is the origin of the recent parliamentary +reform: the Whigs, in place without being in power, resolved as usual +upon a coup-d’état, and looked about for a stalking-horse. In general +the difficult task had devolved upon them of having to accomplish their +concealed purpose while apparently achieving some public object. Thus +they had carried the Septennial Act on the plea of preserving England +from popery, though their real object was to prolong the existence of +the first House of Commons in which they could command a majority. + +But in the present instance they became sincerely parliamentary +reformers, for by parliamentary reform they could alone subsist; and all +their art was dedicated so to contrive, that in this reformation their +own interest should secure an irresistible predominance. + +But how was an oligarchical party to predominate in popular elections? +Here was the difficulty. The Whigs had no resources from their own +limited ranks to feed the muster of the popular levies. They were +obliged to look about for allies wherewith to form their new popular +estate. Any estate of the Commons modelled on any equitable principle, +either of property or population, must have been fatal to the Whigs; +they, therefore, very dexterously adopted a small minority of the +nation, consisting of the sectarians, and inaugurating them as the +people with a vast and bewildering train of hocus-pocus ceremonies, +invested the Dissenters with political power. By this _coup-d’état_ they +managed the House of Commons, and having at length obtained a position, +they have from that moment laid siege to the House of Lords, with the +intention of reducing that great institution and making it surrender at +discretion. This is the exact state of English politics during the last +five years. The Whigs have been at war with the English constitution. +First of all they captured the King; then they vanquished the House of +Commons; now they have laid siege to the House of Lords. But here the +fallacy of their grand scheme of political mystification begins to +develop itself. Had, indeed, their new constituency, as they have long +impudently pretended, really been ‘the people,’ a struggle between +such a body and the House of Lords would have been brief but final. +The absurdity of supposing that a chamber of two or three hundred +individuals could set up their absolute will and pleasure against the +decrees of a legislative assembly chosen by the whole nation is so +glaring that the Whigs and their scribes might reasonably suspect that +in making such allegations they were assuredly proving too much. But +as ‘the people’ of the Whigs is in fact a number of Englishmen not +exceeding in amount the population of a third-rate city, the English +nation is not of opinion that this arrogant and vaunting moiety of a +class privileged for the common good, swollen though it may be by some +jobbing Scots and rebel Irish, shall pass off their petty and selfish +schemes of personal aggrandisement as the will of a great people, as +mindful of its duty to its posterity as it is grateful for the labours +of its ancestors. The English nation, therefore, rallies for rescue +from the degrading plots of a profligate oligarchy, a barbarising +sectarianism, and a boroughmongering Papacy round their hereditary +leaders--the Peers. The House of Lords, therefore, at this moment +represents everything in the realm except the Whig oligarchs, their +tools--the Dissenters, and their masters--the Irish priests. In the +meantime the Whigs bawl aloud that there is a ‘collision’! It is true +there is a collision; but it is not a collision between the Lords and +the people, but between the Ministers and the Constitution. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + _The Menace to England_ + +IT MAY be as well to remind the English nation that a revolutionary +party is not necessarily a liberal one, and that a republic is not +indispensably a democracy. Such is the disposition of property in +England that, were a republic to be established here to-morrow, it would +partake rather of the oligarchical than of the aristocratic character. +We should be surprised to find in how few families the power of the +State was concentrated. And although the framers of the new commonwealth +would be too crafty to base it on any avowed and ostensible principle of +exclusion, but on the contrary would in all probability ostentatiously +inaugurate the novel constitution by virtue of some abstract plea about +as definite and as prodigal of practical effects as the rights of man or +the sovereignty of the people, nevertheless I should be astonished were +we not to find that the great mass of the nation, as far as any share in +the conduct of public affairs was concerned, was as completely shut out +from the fruition and exercise of power as under that Venetian polity +which has ever been the secret object of Whig envy and Whig admiration. +The Church, under such circumstances, would probably have again been +plundered, and therefore the discharge of ecclesiastical duties might +be spared to the nation; but the people would assuredly be practically +excluded from its services, which would swarm with the relations and +connections of the senatorial class; for, whether this country be +governed only by the House of Commons, or only by the House of Lords, +the elements of the single chamber will not materially differ; and +although in the event of the triumph of the Commons, the ceremony of +periodical election may be retained (and we should not forget that the +Long Parliament soon spared us that unnecessary form), the selected +members will form a Senate as irresponsible as any House of Parliament +whose anomalous constitution may now be the object of Whig sneers or +Radical anathemas. + +The rights and liberties of a nation can only be preserved by +institutions. It is not the spread of knowledge or the march of +intellect that will be found a sufficient surety for the public +welfare in the crisis of a country’s freedom. Our interest taints our +intelligence, our passions paralyse our reason. Knowledge and capacity +are too often the willing tools of a powerful faction or a dexterous +adventurer. Life, is short, man is imaginative; our means are limited, +our passions high. + +In seasons of great popular excitement, gold and glory offer strong +temptations to needy ability. The demagogues throughout a country, the +orators of town-councils and vestries, and the lecturers of mechanics’ +institutes present, doubtless in most cases unconsciously, the ready and +fit machinery for the party or the individual that aspires to establish +a tyranny. Duly graduating in corruption, the leaders of the mob become +the oppressors of the people. Cultivation of intellect and diffusion of +knowledge may make the English nation more sensible of the benefits of +their social system, and better qualified to discharge the duties with +which their institutions have invested them, but they will never render +them competent to preserve their liberties without the aid of these +institutions. Let us for a moment endeavour to fancy Whiggism in a state +of rampant predominance; let us try to contemplate England enjoying all +those advantages which our present rulers have not yet granted us, and +some of which they have as yet only ventured to promise by innuendo. +Let us suppose our ancient monarchy abolished, our independent hierarchy +reduced to a stipendiary sect, the gentlemen of England deprived of +their magisterial functions, and metropolitan prefects and sub-prefects +established in the counties and principal towns, commanding a vigorous +and vigilant police, and backed by an army under the immediate orders +of a single House of Parliament. Why, these are threatened changes--aye, +and not one of them that may not be brought about to-morrow, under +the plea of the ‘spirit of the age’ or ‘county reform’ or ‘cheap +government.’ But where then will be the liberties of England? Who will +dare disobey London?--the enlightened and reformed metropolis! And can +we think, if any bold squire, in whom some of the old blood might still +chance to linger, were to dare to murmur against this grinding tyranny, +or appeal to the spirit of those neighbours whose predecessors his +ancestors had protected, can we flatter ourselves that there would not +be judges in Westminster Hall prepared and prompt to inflict on him all +the pains and penalties, the dungeon, the fine, the sequestration, which +such a troublesome Anti-Reformer would clearly deserve? Can we flatter +ourselves that a Parliamentary Star Chamber and a Parliamentary High +Commission Court would not be in the background to supply all the +deficiencies of the laws of England? When these merry times arrive--the +times of extraordinary tribunals and extraordinary taxes--and, if we +proceed in our present course, they are much nearer than we imagine-the +phrase ‘Anti-Reformer’ will serve as well as that of ‘Malignant,’ and +be as valid a plea as the former title for harassing and plundering all +those who venture to wince under the crowning mercies of centralisation. + +Behold the Republic of the Whigs! Behold the only Republic that can be +established in England except by force! And who can doubt the swift +and stern termination of institutions introduced by so unnatural and +irrational a process. I would address myself to the English Radicals. +I do not mean those fine gentlemen or those vulgar adventurers who, in +this age of quackery, may sail into Parliament by hoisting for the +nonce the false colours of the movement; but I mean that honest and +considerable party, too considerable, I fear, for their happiness and +the safety of the State-who have a definite object which they distinctly +avow--I mean those thoughtful and enthusiastic men who study their +unstamped press, and ponder over a millennium of operative amelioration. +Not merely that which is just, but that which is also practicable, +should be the aim of a sagacious politician. Let the Radicals well +consider whether, in attempting to achieve their avowed object, they are +not, in fact, only assisting the secret views of a party whose scheme +is infinitely more adverse to their own than the existing system, whose +genius I believe they entirely misapprehend. The monarchy of the Tories +is more democratic than the Republic of the Whigs. It appeals with +a keener sympathy to the passions of the millions; it studies their +interest with a more comprehensive solicitude. Admitting for a moment +that I have mistaken the genius of the English constitution, what +chance, if our institutions be overthrown, is there of substituting +in their stead a more popular polity? This hazard, both for their own +happiness and the honour of their country, the English Radicals are +bound to calculate nicely. If they do not, they will find themselves, +too late, the tools of a selfish faction or the slaves of a stern +usurper. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + _The English Constitution_ + +A CHAPTER on the English constitution is a natural episode on the spirit +of Whiggism. There is this connection between the subjects--that the +spirit of Whiggism is hostile to the English constitution. No political +institutions ever yet flourished which have been more the topic of +discussion among writers of all countries and all parties than our +famous establishment of ‘King, Lords, and Commons;’ and no institutions +ever yet flourished, of which the character has been more misrepresented +and more misconceived. One fact alone will illustrate the profound +ignorance and the perplexed ideas. The present Whig leader of the +House of Commons, a member of a family who pique themselves on their +constitutional reputation, an author who has even written an elaborate +treatise on our polity, in one of his speeches, delivered only so late +as the last session of Parliament, declared his desire and determination +to uphold the present settlement of the ‘three estates of the realm, +viz.--King, Lords, and Commons.’ Now, his Gracious Majesty is no more an +estate of the realm than Lord John Russell himself. The three estates of +the realm are the estate of the Lords Spiritual, the estate of the Lords +Temporal, and the estate of the Commons. An estate is a popular class +established into a political order. It is a section of the nation +invested for the public and common good with certain powers +and privileges. Lord John Russell first writes upon the English +constitution, and then reforms it, and yet, even at this moment, +is absolutely ignorant of what it consists. A political estate is a +complete and independent body. Now, all power that is independent is +necessarily irresponsible. The sovereign is responsible because he +is not an estate; he is responsible through his Ministers; he is +responsible to the estates and to them alone. + +When the Whigs obtained power in 1830, they found the three estates +of the realm opposed to them, and the Government, therefore, could not +proceed. They resolved, therefore, to remodel them. They declared that +the House of Commons was the House of the people, and that the people +were not properly represented. They consequently enlarged the estate +of the Commons; they increased the number of that privileged order who +appear by their representatives in the Lower House of Parliament. They +rendered the estate of the Commons more powerful by this proceeding, +because they rendered them more numerous; but they did not render their +representatives one jot more the representatives of the people. Throwing +the Commons of Ireland out of the question, for we cannot speculate upon +a political order so unsettled that it has been thrice remodelled during +the present century, some 300,000 individuals sent up, at the last +general election, their representatives to Westminster. + +Well, are these 300,000 persons the people of England? Grant that they +are; grant that these members are divided into two equal portions. Well, +then, the people of England consist of 150,000 persons. I know that +there are well-disposed persons that tremble at this reasoning, because, +although they admit its justice, they allege it leads to universal +suffrage. We must not show, they assert, that the House of the people is +not elected by the people. I admit it; we must not show that the House +of the people is not elected by the people, but we must show that the +House of Commons is not the House of the people, that it never was +intended to be the House of the people, and that, if it be admitted to +be so by courtesy, or become so in fact, it is all over with the English +constitution. + +It is quite impossible that a whole people can be a branch of a +legislature. If a whole people have the power of making laws, it +is folly to suppose that they will allow an assembly of 300 or 400 +individuals, or a solitary being on a throne, to thwart their sovereign +will and pleasure. But I deny that a people can govern itself. +Self-government is a contradiction in terms. Whatever form a government +may assume, power must be exercised by a minority of numbers. I shall, +perhaps, be reminded of the ancient republics. I answer, that the +ancient republics were as aristocratic communities as any that +flourished in the middle ages. The Demos of Athens was an oligarchy +living upon slaves. There is a great slave population even in the United +States, if a society of yesterday is to illustrate an argument on our +ancient civilisation. + +But it is useless to argue the question abstractedly. + +The phrase ‘the people’ is sheer nonsense. It is not a political term. +It is a phrase of natural history. A people is a species; a civilised +community is a nation. Now, a nation is a work of art and a work of +time. A nation is gradually created by a variety of influences--the +influence of original organisation, of climate, soil, religion, laws, +customs, manners, extraordinary accidents and incidents in their +history, and the individual character of their illustrious citizens. +These influences create the nation--these form the national mind, and +produce in the course of centuries a high degree of civilisation. If you +destroy the political institutions which these influences have called +into force, and which are the machinery by which they constantly +act, you destroy the nation. The nation, in a state of anarchy and +dissolution, then becomes a people; and after experiencing all the +consequent misery, like a company of bees spoiled of their queen and +rifled of their hive, they set to again and establish themselves into a +society. + +Although all society is artificial, the most artificial society in the +world is unquestionably the English nation. Our insular situation and +our foreign empire, our immense accumulated wealth and our industrious +character, our peculiar religious state, which secures alike orthodoxy +and toleration, our church and our sects, our agriculture and our +manufactures, our military services, our statute law, and supplementary +equity, our adventurous commerce, landed tenure, and unprecedented +system of credit, form, among many others, such a variety of interests, +and apparently so conflicting, that I do not think even the Abbe Sieyès +himself could devise a scheme by which this nation could be absolutely +and definitely represented. + +The framers of the English constitution were fortunately not of the +school of Abbe Sieyès. Their first object was to make us free; their +next to keep us so. While, therefore, they selected equality as the +basis of their social order, they took care to blend every man’s +ambition with the perpetuity of the State. Unlike the levelling equality +of modern days, the ancient equality of England elevates and creates. +Learned in human nature, the English constitution holds out privilege +to every subject as the inducement to do his duty. As it has secured +freedom, justice, and even property to the humblest of the commonwealth, +so, pursuing the same system of privileges, it has confided the +legislature of the realm to two orders of the subjects--orders, however, +in which every English citizen may be constitutionally enrolled--the +Lords and the Commons. The two estates of the Peers are personally +summoned to meet in their chamber: the more extensive and single estate +of the Commons meets by its representatives. Both are political orders, +complete in their character, independent in their authority, legally +irresponsible for the exercise of their power. But they are the trustees +of the nation, not its masters; and there is a High Court of Chancery +in the public opinion of the nation at large, which exercises a vigilant +control over these privileged classes of the community, and to which +they are equitably and morally amenable. Estimating, therefore, +the moral responsibility of our political estates, it may fairly be +maintained that, instead of being irresponsible, the responsibility of +the Lords exceeds that of the Commons. The House of Commons itself not +being an estate of the realm, but only the representatives of an estate, +owes to the nation a responsibility neither legal nor moral. The House +of Commons is responsible only to that privileged order who are its +constituents. Between the Lords and the Commons themselves there is this +prime difference--that the Lords are known, and seen, and marked; the +Commons are unknown, invisible, and unobserved. The Lords meet in a +particular spot; the Commons are scattered over the kingdom. The eye of +the nation rests upon the Lords, few in number, and notable in position; +the eye of the nation wanders in vain for the Commons, far more +numerous, but far less remarkable. As a substitute the nation appeals to +the House of Commons, but sometimes appeals in vain; for if the majority +of the Commons choose to support their representatives in a course of +conduct adverse to the opinion of the nation, the House of Commons +will set the nation at defiance. They have done so once; may they +never repeat that destructive career! Such are our two Houses of +Parliament--the most illustrious assemblies since the Roman Senate and +Grecian Areopagus; neither of them is the ‘House of the People,’ but +both alike represent the ‘Nation.’ + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + _A True Democracy_ + +THERE are two propositions, which, however at the first glance they may +appear to contradict the popular opinions of the day, are nevertheless, +as I believe, just and true. And they are these:--First. That there is +no probability of ever establishing a more democratic form of government +than the present English constitution. + +Second. That the recent political changes of the Whigs are, in fact, a +departure from the democratic spirit of that constitution. + +Whatever form a government may assume, its spirit must be determined +by the laws which regulate the property of the country. You may have a +Senate and Consuls, you may have no hereditary titles, and you may dub +each householder or inhabitant a citizen; but if the spirit of your laws +preserves masses of property in a particular class, the government of +the country will follow the disposition of the property. So also you may +have an apparent despotism without any formal popular control, and with +no aristocracy, either natural or artificial, and the spirit of the +government may nevertheless be republican. Thus the ancient polity +of Rome, in its best days, was an aristocracy, and the government of +Constantinople is the nearest approach to a democracy on a great +scale, and maintained during a great period, that history offers. +The constitution of France during the last half century has been fast +approaching that of the Turks. The barbarous Jacobins blended modern +equality with the refined civilisation of ancient France; the barbarous +Ottomans blended their equality with the refined civilisation of ancient +Rome. Paris secured to the Jacobins those luxuries that their system +never could have produced: Byzantium served the same purpose to the +Turks. Both the French and their turbaned prototypes commenced +their system with popular enthusiasm, and terminated it with general +subjection. Napoleon and Louis Philippe are playing the same part as the +Suleimans and the Mahmouds. The Chambers are but a second-rate Divan, +the Prefects but inferior Pachas: a solitary being rules alike in the +Seraglio and the Tuileries, and the whole nation bows to his despotism +on condition that they have no other master save himself. + +The disposition of property in England throws the government of the +country into the hands of its natural aristocracy. I do not believe that +any scheme of the suffrage, or any method of election, could divert +that power into other quarters. It is the necessary consequence of our +present social state. I believe, the wider the popular suffrage, the +more powerful would be the natural aristocracy. This seems to me an +inevitable consequence; but I admit this proposition on the clear +understanding that such an extension should be established on a fair, +and not a factious, basis. + +Here, then, arises the question of the ballot, into the merits of which. +I shall take another opportunity of entering, recording only now my +opinion, that in the present arrangement of the constituencies, even the +ballot would favour the power of the natural aristocracy, and that, if +the ballot were simultaneously introduced with a fair and not a factious +extension of the suffrage, it would produce no difference whatever in +the ultimate result. + +Quitting, then, these considerations, let us arrive at the important +point. Is there any probability of a different disposition of property +in England--a disposition of property which, by producing a very general +similarity of condition, would throw the government of the country into +the hands of any individuals whom popular esteem or fancy might select? + +It appears to me that this question can only be decided by ascertaining +the genius of the English nation. What is the prime characteristic +of the English mind? I apprehend I may safely decide upon its being +industry. Taking a general but not a superficial survey of the English +character since the Reformation, a thousand circumstances convince me +that the salient point in our national psychology is the passion for +accumulating wealth, of which industry is the chief instrument. We +value our freedom principally because it leaves us unrestricted in our +pursuits; and that reverence for law and for all that is established, +which also eminently distinguishes the English nation, is occasioned +by the conviction that, next to liberty, order is the most efficacious +assistant of industry. + +And thus we see that those great revolutions which must occur in the +history of all nations when they happen here produce no permanent +effects upon our social state. Our revolutions are brought about by +the passions of creative minds taking advantage, for their own +aggrandisement, of peculiar circumstances in our national progress. +They are never called for by the great body of the nation. Churches are +plundered, long rebellions maintained, dynasties changed, parliaments +abolished; but when the storm is passed, the features of the social +landscape remain unimpaired; there are no traces of the hurricane, the +earthquake, or the volcano; it has been but a tumult of the atmosphere, +that has neither toppled down our old spires and palaces nor swallowed +up our cities and seats of learning, nor blasted our ancient woods, nor +swept away our ports and harbours. The English nation ever recurs to its +ancient institutions--the institutions that have alike secured freedom +and order; and after all their ebullitions, we find them, when the +sky is clear, again at work, and toiling on at their eternal task of +accumulation. + +There is this difference between the revolutions of England and the +revolutions of the Continent--the European revolution is a struggle +against privilege; an English revolution is a struggle for it. If a new +class rises in the State, it becomes uneasy to take its place in the +natural aristocracy of the land: a desperate faction or a wily leader +takes advantage of this desire, and a revolution is the consequence. +Thus the Whigs in the present day have risen to power on the shoulders +of the manufacturing interest. To secure themselves in their posts, the +Whigs have given the new interest an undue preponderance; but the new +interest, having obtained its object, is content. The manufacturer, +like every other Englishman, is as aristocratic as the landlord. The +manufacturer begins to lack in movement. Under Walpole the Whigs played +the same game with the commercial interests; a century has passed, and +the commercial interests are all as devoted to the constitution as the +manufacturers soon will be. Having no genuine party, the Whigs seek +for succour from the Irish papists; Lord John Russell, however, is only +imitating Pym under the same circumstances. In 1640, when the English +movement was satisfied, and the constitutional party, headed by such men +as Falkland and Hyde, were about to attain power, Pym and his friends, +in despair at their declining influence and the close divisions in their +once unanimous Parliament, fled to the Scotch Covenanters, and entered +into a ‘close compact’ for the destruction of the Church of England as +the price of their assistance. So events repeat themselves; but if the +study of history is really to profit us, the nation at the present day +will take care that the same results do not always occur from the same +events. + +When passions have a little subsided, the industrious ten-pounder, who +has struggled into the privileged order of the Commons, proud of having +obtained the first step of aristocracy, will be the last man to +assist in destroying the other gradations of the scale which he or +his posterity may yet ascend; while the new member of a manufacturing +district has his eye already upon a neighbouring park, avails himself of +his political position to become a county magistrate, meditates upon a +baronetcy, and dreams of a coroneted descendant. + +The nation that esteems wealth as the great object of existence will +submit to no laws that do not secure the enjoyment of wealth. Now, we +deprive wealth of its greatest source of enjoyment, as well as of its +best security, if we deprive it of power. The English nation, therefore, +insists that property shall be the qualification for power, and the +whole scope of its laws and customs is to promote and favour the +accumulation of wealth and the perpetuation of property. We cannot +alter, therefore, the disposition of property in this country without we +change the national character. Far from the present age being hostile to +the supremacy of property, there has been no period of our history where +property has been more esteemed, because there has been no period when +the nation has been so industrious. + +Believing, therefore, that no change will occur in the disposition of +property in this country, I cannot comprehend how our government can +become more democratic. The consequence of our wealth is an aristocratic +constitution; the consequence of our love of liberty is an aristocratic +constitution founded on an equality of civil rights. And who can deny +that an aristocratic constitution resting on such a basis, where the +legislative, and even the executive office may be obtained by every +subject of the realm, is, in fact, a noble democracy? The English +constitution, faithful to the national character, secures to all the +enjoyment of property and the delights of freedom. Its honours are a +perpetual reward of industry; every Englishman is toiling to obtain +them; and this is the constitution to which every Englishman will always +be devoted, except he is a Whig. + +In the next Chapter I shall discuss the second proposition. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + _Results of Whiggism_ + +THE Tories assert that the whole property of the country is on their +side; and the Whigs, wringing their hands over lost elections and +bellowing about ‘intimidation,’ seem to confess the soft impeachment. +Their prime organ also assures us that every man with 500L. per annum is +opposed to them. Yet the Whig-Radical writers have recently published, +by way of consolation to their penniless proselytes, a list of some +twenty Dukes and Marquises, who, they assure us, are devoted to +‘Liberal’ principles, and whose revenues, in a paroxysm of economical +rhodomontade, they assert, could buy up the whole income of the rest +of the hereditary Peerage. The Whig-Radical writers seem puzzled to +reconcile this anomalous circumstance with the indisputably forlorn +finances of their faction in general. Now, this little tract on the +‘Spirit of Whiggism’ may perhaps throw some light upon this perplexing +state of affairs. For myself, I see in it only a fresh illustration of +the principles which I have demonstrated, from the whole current of our +history, to form the basis of Whig policy. This union of oligarchical +wealth and mob poverty is the very essence of the ‘Spirit of Whiggism.’ + +The English constitution, which, from the tithing-man to the Peer of +Parliament, has thrown the whole government of the country into the +hands of those who are qualified by property to perform the duties of +their respective offices, has secured that diffused and general freedom, +without which the national industry would neither have its fair play nor +its just reward, by a variety of institutions, which, while they prevent +those who have no property from invading the social commonwealth, in +whose classes every industrious citizen has a right to register himself, +offer also an equally powerful check to the ambitious fancies of those +great families, over whose liberal principles and huge incomes the +Whig-Radical writers gloat with the self-complacency of lackeys at the +equipages of their masters. There is ever an union in a perverted sense +between those who are beneath power and those who wish to be above it; +and oligarchies and despotisms are usually established by the agency of +a deluded multitude. The Crown, with its constitutional influence over +the military services, a Parliament of two houses watching each other’s +proceedings with constitutional jealousy, an independent hierarchy +and, not least, an independent magistracy, are serious obstacles in the +progressive establishment of that scheme of government which a small +knot of great families--these dukes and marquises, whose revenues +according to the Government organ, could buy up the income of the whole +peerage-naturally wish to introduce. We find, therefore, throughout the +whole period of our more modern history, a powerful section of the great +nobles ever at war with the national institutions, checking the Crown, +attacking the independence of that House of Parliament in which they +happen to be in a minority--no matter which, patronising sects to +reduce the influence of the Church, and playing town against country to +overcome the authority of the gentry. + +It is evident that these aspiring oligarchs, as a party, can have little +essential strength; they can count upon nothing but their retainers. +To secure the triumph of their cause, therefore, they are forced to +manoeuvre with a pretext, and while they aim at oligarchical rule, they +apparently advocate popular rights. They hold out, consequently, an +inducement to all the uneasy portion of the nation to enlist under their +standard; they play their discontented minority against the prosperous +majority, and, dubbing their partisans ‘the people,’ they flatter +themselves that their projects are irresistible. The attack is +unexpected, brisk, and dashing, well matured, dexterously mystified. +Before the nation is roused to its danger, the oligarchical object is +often obtained; and then the oligarchy, entrenched in power, count upon +the nation to defend them from their original and revolutionary allies. +If they succeed, a dynasty is changed, or a Parliament reformed, and the +movement is stopped; if the Tories or the Conservatives cannot arrest +the fatal career which the Whigs have originally impelled, then away +go the national institutions; the crown falls from the King’s brow; +the crosier is snapped in twain; one House of Parliament is sure to +disappear, and the gentlemen of England, dexterously dubbed Malignants, +or Anti-Reformers, or any other phrase in fashion, the dregs of the +nation sequester their estates and install themselves in their halls; +and ‘liberal principles’ having thus gloriously triumphed, after a due +course of plunder, bloodshed, imprisonment, and ignoble tyranny, the +people of England, sighing once more to be the English nation, secure +order by submitting to a despot, and in time, when they have got rid of +their despot, combine their ancient freedom with their newly-regained +security by re-establishing the English constitution. + +The Whigs of the present day have made their assault upon the nation +with their usual spirit. They have already succeeded in controlling the +sovereign and in remodelling the House of Commons. They have menaced +the House of Lords, violently assailed the Church, and reconstructed +the Corporations. I shall take the two most comprehensive measures which +they have succeeded in carrying, and which were at the time certainly +very popular, and apparently of a very democratic character,-their +reform of the House of Commons, and their reconstruction of the +municipal corporations. Let us see whether these great measures have, +in fact, increased the democratic character of our constitution or +not--whether they veil an oligarchical project, or are, in fact, popular +concessions inevitably offered by the Whigs in their oligarchical +career. + +The result of the Whig remodelling of the order of the Commons has been +this--that it has placed the nomination of the Government in the hands +of the popish priesthood. Is that a great advance of public intelligence +and popular liberty? Are the parliamentary nominees of M’Hale and Kehoe +more germane to the feelings of the English nation, more adapted to +represent their interests, than the parliamentary nominees of a Howard +or a Percy? This papist majority, again, is the superstructure of a +basis formed by some Scotch Presbyterians and some English Dissenters, +in general returned by the small constituencies of small towns--classes +whose number and influence, intelligence and wealth, have been grossly +exaggerated for factious purposes, but classes avowedly opposed to the +maintenance of the English constitution. I do not see that the cause of +popular power has much risen, even with the addition of this leaven. +If the suffrages of the Commons of England were polled together, the +hustings-books of the last general election will prove that a very +considerable majority of their numbers is opposed to the present +Government, and that therefore, under this new democratic scheme, this +great body of the nation are, by some hocus-pocus tactics or other, +obliged to submit to the minority. The truth is, that the new +constituency has been so arranged that an unnatural preponderance has +been given to a small class, and one hostile to the interests of the +great body. Is this more democratic? The apparent majority in the House +of Commons is produced by a minority of the Commons themselves; so that +a small and favoured class command a majority in the House of Commons, +and the sway of the administration, as far as that House is concerned, +is regulated by a smaller number of individuals than those who governed +it previous to its reform. + +But this is not the whole evil: this new class, with its unnatural +preponderance, is a class hostile to the institutions of the country, +hostile to the union of Church and State, hostile to the House of Lords, +to the constitutional power of the Crown, to the existing system of +provincial judicature. It is, therefore, a class fit and willing to +support the Whigs in their favourite scheme of centralisation, without +which the Whigs can never long maintain themselves in power. Now, +centralisation is the death-blow of public freedom; it is the citadel +of the oligarchs, from which, if once erected, it will be impossible to +dislodge them. But can that party be aiming at centralised government +which has reformed the municipal corporations? We will see. The reform +of the municipal corporations of England is a covert attack on the +authority of the English gentry,-that great body which perhaps forms the +most substantial existing obstacle to the perpetuation of Whiggism in +power. By this democratic Act the county magistrate is driven from the +towns where he before exercised a just influence, while an elective +magistrate from the towns jostles him on the bench at quarter sessions, +and presents in his peculiar position an anomaly in the constitution of +the bench, flattering to the passions, however fatal to the interests, +of the giddy million. Here is a lever to raise the question of county +reform whenever an obstinate shire may venture to elect a representative +in Parliament hostile to the liberal oligarchs. Let us admit, for the +moment, that the Whigs ultimately succeed in subverting the ancient and +hereditary power of the English gentry. Will the municipal corporations +substitute themselves as an equivalent check on a centralising +Government? Whence springs their influence? From property? Not half a +dozen have estates. Their influence springs from the factitious power +with which the reforming Government has invested them, and of which the +same Government will deprive them in a session, the moment they cease +to be corresponding committees of the reforming majority in the House of +Commons. They will either be swept away altogether, or their functions +will be limited to raising the local taxes which will discharge their +expenses of the detachment of the metropolitan police, or the local +judge or governor, whom Downing Street may send down to preside over +their constituents. With one or two exceptions, the English corporations +do not possess more substantial and durable elements of power than +the municipalities of France. What check are they on Paris? These +corporations have neither prescription in their favour, nor property. +Their influence is maintained neither by tradition nor substance. They +have no indirect authority over the minds of their townsmen; they have +only their modish charters to appeal to, and the newly engrossed letter +of the law. They have no great endowments of whose public benefits they +are the official distributers; they do not stand on the vantage-ground +on which we recognise the trustees of the public interests; they neither +administer to the soul nor the body; they neither feed the poor nor +educate the young; they have no hold on the national mind; they have not +sprung from the national character; they were born by faction, and they +will live by faction. Such bodies must speedily become corrupt; they +will ultimately be found dangerous instruments in the hands of a +faction. The members of the country corporations will play the game of a +London party, to secure their factitious local importance and obtain the +consequent results of their opportune services. + +I think I have now established the two propositions with which I +commenced my last chapter: and will close this concluding one of the +‘Spirit of Whiggism’ with their recapitulation, and the inferences which +I draw from them. If there be a slight probability of ever establishing +in this country a more democratic government than the English +constitution, it will be as well, I conceive, for those who love their +rights, to maintain that constitution; and if the more recent measures +of the Whigs, however plausible their first aspect, have, in fact, been +a departure from the democratic character of that constitution, it will +be as well for the English nation to oppose, with all their heart, and +all their soul, and all their strength, the machinations of the Whigs +and the ‘Spirit of Whiggism.’ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES *** + +***** This file should be named 19781-0.txt or 19781-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/7/8/19781/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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