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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/22617-8.txt b/22617-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec08d15 --- /dev/null +++ b/22617-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2467 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454 + Volume 18, New Series, September 11, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: William Chambers + Robert Chambers + +Release Date: September 16, 2007 [EBook #22617] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + No. 454. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2_d._ + + + + +MONETARY SENSATIONS. + + +The poorest and most unlucky dog in the world either has or had some +small portion of money. No matter how small, how hardly, or how +precariously earned, he has seen, from time to time, a glimpse of the +colour of his own cash, and rejoiced accordingly as that colour was +brown, white, or yellow. It follows, therefore, that even the poorest +and most unlucky dog in the world has experienced monetary sensations. +It may appear paradoxical, but it is no less true, that it is the very +rich, born to riches, the heirs to great properties, or no end of +consolidated stock, who have never enjoyed or feared the sensation to +which we allude. To them, money is a thing of course; it pours in upon +them with the regularity of the succeeding seasons. Rent-day comes of +itself, and there is the money; dividend-day is as sure as Christmas, +and there lie the receipts. These are the people who know nothing of +the commodity with which they are so well endowed, or, at most, their +knowledge is but skin-deep. They take and spend, just as they sit or +walk. Both seem natural processes; they have performed them since they +were born. Their money is a bit of themselves--an extra and uncommonly +convenient limb with which they are endowed. It is only when some +sudden catastrophe bursts upon and cuts off the supplies, that this +class of ladies and gentlemen experience, like the shock of a thousand +freezing shower-baths, their first 'monetary sensation.' + +But the men and women who work either with head or hands--who fight +their way--who plan to gain and plan to spend, so that the latter +shall counterbalance the former--who lie sleepless in their beds, +intent on how to make both ends meet--who are lucky and unlucky--who +travel the ups and the downs of life, here grasping fortunes, there +turning out the linings of penniless pockets: these are the people +whose whole lives are one long succession of monetary sensations. +Among them mainly is cultivated the art of looking at two sides of a +shilling. They know how to value half-crowns and sovereigns in calling +up the long arrear of hard-worked hours, which are, as it were, the +small-change of quarters' salaries and weeks' wages. How many strokes +of the steady-going pen are encircled in those bright yellow +disks--how many thumps of the ponderous hammer has it taken to produce +this handful of silver. Or on a larger scale--as the successful +speculator sweeps to himself the mass of notes and bills, all as good +as gold, for which he has set every penny of his worldly means upon +the stake, and feels with a thrill which makes him clutch the precious +paper, that had things not turned out as, thank Heaven! they have, +that then, and then!----He has had a tolerably vigorous monetary +sensation. + +But the whole of the money-getting classes, and, to some extent, the +classes who merely spend what others got and gave them, can look very +well back upon a series of monetary sensations which have marked +epochs in their lives. Our remembrances of that kind are, of course, +most deeply engraved, and most clearly recollected, in the cases in +which we are working for ourselves, and have ourselves achieved steps +and triumphed over difficulties in life--each step and triumph marked +by a lengthening of the purse. But there are early monetary +impressions common to almost all the juvenile world, rich and poor--to +the children of the duke or of the mechanic, to the boy who has +obtained the price of a pony or a watch, and the boy who has been made +a present of what will buy him a twopenny story-book, or a twopenny +bun. Boys and girls commonly have poses--to adopt a phrase not known +south of the Tweed, where it must be explained, that to have a pose, +is to possess a little private and secret, or quasi-secret, hoard of +treasure. This pose frequently imparts the first monetary sensation. +It instils the first distinct idea of the value of money; it gives the +first notion of the accumulation of precious things; and the little +proprietor or proprietrix comes to rattle the box with the narrow slit +as a sort of sly enjoyment. To break into a pose would be quite +profane and irreverent. Pose-boxes do not open, and so far read a +philosophic lesson to the proprietors. Always save, always add, always +hold as a sort of sacred deposit, the mysteriously precious +pose-boxes. Occasionally, again, a child gets a present of a +sovereign, or an old-fashioned guinea, which it would be dreadful +sacrilege to change. Every one will remember how Sophy and Livy +Primrose 'never went without money themselves, as my wife always let +them have a guinea each to keep in their pockets, but with strict +injunctions never to change it.' There are hundreds of thousands of +Sophies and Livies possessed of the same sacred store, or having given +it to their parents 'to keep,' over whose minds the remembrance of the +secret hoard every now and then sends flashing across the mind +of the child a sense of importance, or richness, or a general +self-complacency which varies with the individuality. Boys and girls +in the next stages of their growth care little and think little about +money, except as a means of obtaining some trifling passing +indulgence. The childish reverence for the pose has passed. The +unopenable box has been long since opened, and the unchangeable guinea +long since changed. We allude here, of course, to the children of the +well-to-do. With the children of the poor, the case is different. +They never lose the faculty of monetary sensation. Money is too +valuable to them, because as soon as the mere childish period is past, +and sometimes before it, money to the young poor is always +translatable into good food and new clothes. There is nothing more +sadly frequent in the squalid lanes and alleys of London, than to see +a little creature, boy or girl, toddle with a chance-penny, not into +the toy-shop or the sweet-shop, but into the cook-shop, and there +spend the treasure in food, taking care, with melancholy precocity, to +have the full weight, and only a due proportion of gristle or fat. +Further on in life, when a poor boy earns a chance-sixpence or a +shilling, there is so much added to the store laying up for the new +jacket, the new cap, or the new boots; or, not unfrequently, there is +so much gained for the family exigencies of Saturday night. Here there +are monetary sensations in abundance. The life of such people is full +of them. The annuitant or the proprietor who listlessly, and without +one additional throb of his pulse, drops hundreds into his purse, has +not the ghost of an idea of the thrill of pleasure--invoking, perhaps, +a score of delightful associations--with which the boy who holds his +horse receives the sixpence, which is tossed him as the capitalist in +his normal condition rides coolly and unmovedly away. To experience +monetary sensations, you must earn the money first, and have a score +of urgent purposes disputing for its application. + +But perhaps one of the most vivid monetary sensations which a man +experiences, is when he is paid the first instalment of the price of +his labours. In an instant, he seems to rise and take a footing in the +world. He has struck the first blow in his Battle of Life, and +prostrated his antagonist, for whom, however, as soon as he has taken +him captive, he conceives a particular affection. The glow of assured +independence is a proud and manly feeling. The money is not _given_. +That is the overmastering sensation. It is fairly earned. The +recipient swells with honest pride as he thinks he is now a man +working his way, and strides off a couple of inches higher than he +came. This elevation of sentiment of course gradually dies away. The +monetary sensation of the first-earned payment is not supported, but +it is not forgotten, and insensibly, perhaps, to the recipient, it has +at once heightened and deepened the moral qualities and tendencies of +his spiritual being. From time to time, as remuneration ascends, a +shade, as it were, of the first impression is recalled, particularly +when the recipient perceives that at last--that great change in a +young man's life--his 'settlement' may be accomplished. Here is +another sensational era in his monetary experiences--the realisation +of the grand fact that the struggle, always promising, is at length +successful, and that he is now enlisted in the regular army of +society. The elder Stephenson, when an occasional wage of a shilling +per day was raised to a permanent two, flung up his hat, and +exclaimed: 'Thank God! I'm a made man for life!' Here was a fine +monetary sensation. + +But there are also monetary sensations of quite a different species +from those to which we have alluded. The sun shines on both sides of +the hedge, and blank and dreary, if not dismaying and crushing, is the +first trial of monetary difficulty. People, long struggling, get +blunted to the _res angustæ_, precisely as people fast prospering do +to the steady tide of wealth. The man who leaps heart-struck from his +seat, as for the first time he contemplates a quarter's rent due and +unprovided for, or the foolish fellow who groans in spirit over a +protested bill returned upon the hand which he 'set' to it, merely for +the convenience of acquaintance, and who has never thought of stamped +paper since--such are two of the negative monetary associations which +checker life; of course, their number is legion. The man who found his +fairy gold transmuted into oak leaves, experienced a decided monetary +sensation; but not more so than fell to the lot of many a speculator, +who had bought to his last available penny in the Mississippi or the +South-sea Bubbles; or, to come to more recent days, in the stock of +fly-away English projected railways. To the mass of monetary +sensations of the kind, we fear, must be added at the present day +those produced by betting-offices. In these swindling dens, it is by +no means uncommon to see children, whose heads hardly come above the +counter, staking their shillings; even servant-maids haunt the +'office;' working-men abound, and clerks and shop-boys are great +customers. Among these people, there ought to be a good crop of +monetary sensations. In success, the little man-boy sees a grand +vision of cheap cigars, and copper and paste jewellery; for the urchin +early initiated in practical London-life, thinks of such things, and +worse, when the country lad of the same age would dream of nothing +beyond kites, fishing-tackle, or perhaps a gun. Molly, the housemaid, +has her prospects of unbounded 'loves of dresses' and 'ducks of +bonnets;' and the clerk and the shopman very possibly count upon their +racing gains as the fruitful origin of 'sprees' and 'larks' +innumerable. On the other hand, how has the money staked been +acquired? The pawnbroker's shop and the till will very frequently +figure in the answer. Pilfered half-crowns, or perhaps sovereigns, +kept back from collected accounts; or, in domestic service, pledged +spoons and forks, are frequently at the bottom of the betting +transactions of these 'noble sportsmen.' Then comes the period of +anticipation, and hope and fear. Bright visions of luck, on one hand; +a black and down-sloping avenue, stopping at the jail door, on the +other. Luck--and the stolen property can be replaced, with a handsome +profit; the reverse--and the police-office, the magistrate, and the +sessions, float before the tortured imagination of the 'sportsman.' +Here, then, are some of the saddest, and--whether the result in any +case be winning or losing--the most wearing and degrading of monetary +sensations. + +We turn, however, to a concluding and a more cheering experience +connected with money, and which may be regarded as a sequel to the +sensation of the first earnings. We allude to the first interest, to +the receipt of the first sum which properly belongs to the recipient, +and yet for which he has not immediately and directly toiled. Here +another great step has been achieved. To earn money, was the first +triumph; to make money earn money, is the second. There is something +more significantly pleasing in the sensation with which the young +up-struggler of the world receives his first instalment of interest, +and yet remembers that all his original investment is still entire, +than in all the lazy satisfaction with which a great stockholder--born +perhaps to stockholding--gathers in his mighty dividends. For the +first time, the former begins to feel a taste, just a taste, of the +sweets of property, of the fruits of realisation, and of the double +profits which labour, judiciously managed, will at length bestow. It +is getting money for which he has worked and yet not worked, it is +picking up the returning bread thrown upon the waters; and it is the +first experienced sensation of a stable and assured position, of +standing upon one's own feet, independent more or less absolutely of +the caprices of fortune and the liking of employers. The first +received amount of interest, however small it may be, assuredly calls +up one of the not easily-forgotten eras of a man's life. There is +nothing selfish or miserly in the fact. On the contrary, it is founded +upon pure and natural feelings and impulses. The most generous man in +the world likes to prosper, and the first received sum which his own +money has bred, is a palpable proof that he is prospering. From his +childish pose, he can recall the mental results attendant upon each +step of his worldly career, and look back with interest and curiosity +over what, in the course of his life, may have been his 'Monetary +Sensations.' + + + + +THE POSTHUMOUS PORTRAIT. + + +A country town is not a very hopeful arena for the exercise of the +portrait-painter's art. Supposing an artist to acquire a local +celebrity in such a region, he may paint the faces of one generation, +and then, haply finding a casual job once a year or so, may sit down +and count the hours till another generation rises up and supplies him +with a second run of work. In a measure, the portrait-painter must be +a rolling-stone, or he will gather no moss. So thought Mr Conrad +Merlus, as he packed up his property, and prepared to take himself off +from the town of C----, in Wiltshire, to seek fresh fields and +pastures new, where the sun might be disposed to shine upon +portrait-painting, and where he might manage to make hay the while. +Conrad was a native of C----. In that congenial spot he had first +pursued the study of his art, cheered by the praises of the good folks +around him, and supported by their demands upon his talents. While, in +a certain fashion, he had kept the spirit of art alive in the place, +the spirit of art, in return, had kept him alive. But now all the work +was done for a long time to come; every family had its great +portraits, and would want him no more yet awhile; and Conrad saw, that +if he could not turn his hand to something else, and in place of +pencils and brushes, work with last, spade, needle, or quill, make +shoes, coats, till the ground, or cast up accounts, he should shortly +be hardly put to it to keep himself going. He had made and saved a +pretty tolerable little purse during his short season of patronage, +and determined to turn that to account in seeking, in other places, a +continuation of commissions. His father and mother were both dead, +and, so far as he knew, he had no near relative alive. Therefore, +there were no ties, save those of association, to bind him to his +native place--'No ties,' sighed Conrad, 'no ties at all.' + +It was Monday evening, and the next day, Tuesday, was to behold his +departure. His rent was paid, his traps were all packed up in +readiness, and he had nothing to think about, saving whither he should +proceed. He walked out, for the last time, into the little garden +behind the modest house in which he had dwelt, pensive and somewhat +_triste_; for one cannot, without sorrowful emotions of some sort, +leave, perhaps for ever, a spot in which the stream of life has flowed +peacefully and pleasantly for many years, and where many little +enjoyments, successes, and triumphs have been experienced. Even a +Crusoe cannot depart from his desolate island without a pang, although +he goes, after years of miserable solitude, to rejoin the human +family. It was the month of August, and the glory of the summer was +becoming mellowed and softened. The nights were gradually growing +longer and the days shorter, the reapers were in the harvest-fields, +the woods and groves were beginning to shew the autumn tint, the sun +sank behind the hills earlier and earlier day by day, and the broad +harvest-moon reigned throughout the sweet and fragrant nights. Conrad +felt the influence of the season, and though he had for some time +contemplated his departure from his home with all the cheerfulness +which the spirit of adventure imparts to young men, he now, as the +time arrived, felt inclined to weep over the separation. He was +indulging in reveries of a mournful complexion, when he observed his +landlady leave the house, and, entering the garden, bustle towards him +in a great hurry. Assured by the manner of the worthy old lady that he +was wanted, and urgently, by some one or other, he rose from the +rustic seat on which he had been sitting, and went to meet her. A +gentleman had called to see him, in a phaeton, and was waiting in the +parlour in a state of impatience and excitement which Mrs Farrell had +never seen the like of. Wondering who the visitor could be, Conrad +hastened into the parlour. He found there an elderly individual of +gentlemanly appearance, who was walking to and fro restlessly, and +whose countenance and demeanour bore affecting evidences of agitation +and sorrow. He approached Conrad quickly. + +'You are a portrait-painter, Mr Merlus?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'The only one, I believe, in this neighbourhood?' + +'Yes.' + +'I am anxious,' continued the gentleman, speaking in a low tone, and +with a tremulous earnestness that rendered his speech peculiarly +emphatic--'I am anxious to have painted the portrait of one who +is--who was--very very dear to me, immediately--_immediately_, for a +few hours may make such a performance impossible. May I beg that you +will submit to some sacrifice of convenience--that you will be good +enough to set aside your arrangements for a day or two to execute this +work? Do so, and you shall find that you have lost nothing.' + +'Without entertaining any consideration of that sort, sir,' answered +Conrad, deeply touched by the manner of his visitor, which betokened +recent and heavy affliction, 'my best abilities, such as they are, are +immediately at your service.' + +'Many thanks,' answered the gentleman, pressing his hand warmly. 'Had +you declined, I know not what I should have done; for there is no +other of the profession in this neighbourhood, and there is no time to +seek further. Come; for Heaven's sake, let us hasten.' + +Conrad immediately gave the necessary intimation to his landlady; his +easel, pallet, and painting-box were quickly placed in the phaeton; +the gentleman and himself took their places inside; and the coachman +drove off at as great a pace as a pair of good horses could command. + +Twilight was deepening into dusk when, after a silent and rapid ride +of some ten miles, the phaeton stopped before the gates of a park-like +demesne. The coachman shouted; when a lad, who appeared to have been +waiting near the spot, ran and opened the gates, and they resumed +their way through a beautiful drive--the carefully-kept sward, the +venerable trees, and the light and elegant ha-has on either side, +testifying that they were within the boundaries of an estate of some +pretensions. Half a mile brought them to the portal of a sombre and +venerable mansion, which rose up darkly and majestically in front of +an extensive plantation of forest-like appearance. Facing it was a +large, level lawn, having in the centre the pedestal and sun-dial so +frequently found in such situations. + +A footman in livery came forth, and taking Conrad's easel and +apparatus, carried them into the house. The young artist, who had +always lived and moved among humble people, was surprised and abashed +to find himself suddenly brought into contact with wealth and its +accompaniments, and began to fear that more might be expected of him +than he would be able to accomplish. The occasion must be urgent +indeed, thought he nervously, which should induce wealthy people to +have recourse to him--a poor, self-taught, obscure artist--merely +because he happened to be the nearest at hand. However, to draw back +was impossible; and, although grief is always repellent, there was +still an amount of kindness and consideration in the demeanour of his +new employer that reassured him. Besides, he knew that, let his +painting be as crude and amateur-like as any one might please to +consider it, he had still the undoubted talent of being able to catch +a likeness--indeed, his ability to do this had never once failed him. +This reflection gave him some consolation, and he resolved to +undertake courageously whatever was required of him, and do his best. + +When they had entered the house, the door was softly closed, and the +gentleman, whose name we may here mention was Harrenburn, conducted +Conrad across the hall, and up stairs to an apartment on the second +storey, having a southern aspect. The proportions of the house were +noble. The wide entrance-hall was boldly tesselated with white and +black marble; the staircase was large enough for a procession of +giants; the broad oaken stairs were partly covered with thick, rich +carpet; fine pictures, in handsome frames, decorated the walls; and +whenever they happened in their ascent to pass an opened door, Conrad +could see that the room within was superbly furnished. To the poor +painter, these evidences of opulence and taste seemed to have +something of the fabulous about them. The house was good enough for a +monarch; and to find a private gentleman of neither rank nor title +living in such splendour, was what he should never have expected. Mr +Harrenburn placed his finger on his lips, as he opened the door of the +chamber already indicated; Conrad followed him in with stealthy steps +and suppressed breath. The room was closely curtained, and a couple of +night-lights shed their feeble and uncertain rays upon the objects +within it. The height of the apartment, and the absorbing complexion +of the dark oaken wainscot, here and there concealed by falls of +tapestry, served to render such an illumination extremely inefficient. +But Conrad knew that this must be the chamber of death, even before he +was able to distinguish that an apparently light and youthful figure +lay stretched upon the bed--still, motionless, impassive, as death +alone can be. Two women, dressed in dark habiliments--lately nurses of +the sick, now watchers over the dead--rose from their seats, and +retired silently to a distant corner of the room as Mr Harrenburn and +Conrad entered. Where does the poor heart suffer as it does in the +chamber of the dead, where lies, as in this instance, the corpse of a +beloved daughter? A hundred objects, little thought of heretofore, +present themselves, and by association with the lost one, assume a +power over the survivor. The casual objects of everyday life rise up +and seize a place in the fancy and memory, and, become invested with +deep, passionate interest, as relics of the departed. There is the +dress which lately so well became her; there the little shoes in which +she stepped so lightly and gracefully; there the book which she was +reading only yesterday, the satin ribbon still between the pages at +which she had arrived when she laid it down for ever; there the cup +from which she drank but a few hours back; there the toilet, with all +its little knick-knacks, and the glass which so often mirrored her +sweet face. + +Thus Conrad instinctively interpreted the glances which Mr Harrenburn +directed at the objects around him. The bereaved father standing +motionless, regarded one thing and then another with a sort of absent +attention, which, under other circumstances, would have appeared like +imbecility or loss of self-command, but now was full of a +deeply-touching significance, which roused the sympathies of the young +painter more powerfully than the finest eloquence could have done. He +seemed at first to shun the bed, as if the object lying there were too +powerful a source of grief to bear--seemed to be anxious to discover +in some minor souvenirs of sorrow, a preparatory step, which should +enable him to approach with seemly and rational composure the mute +wreck of his beloved child--the cast-shell of the spirit which had +been the pride and joy, the hope and comfort of his life. But +presently he succeeded in mastering this sensibility, and approaching +the bed, motioned Conrad to follow him. He gently drew aside the +curtain which had concealed the face of the figure that was lying +there. Conrad started. Could that be death? That hair, so freshly +black and glossy; those slightly-parted lips, on which the light of +fancy still seemed to play; the teeth within, so white and +healthy-looking; the small, well-shapen hand and arm, so listlessly +laid along the pillow: could these be ready for the grave? It seemed +so much like sleep, and so little like death, that Conrad, who had +never looked upon the dead before, was amazed. When he saw the eyes, +however, visible betwixt the partly-opened lids, his scepticism +vanished. The cold, glazed, fixed unmeaningness of them chilled and +frightened him--they did really speak of the tomb. + +'My daughter,' said Mr Harrenburn, to whose tone the effort of +self-command now communicated a grave and cold severity. 'She died at +four this afternoon, after a very short illness--only in her twentieth +year. I wish to have her represented exactly as she lies now. From the +window there, in the daytime, a strong light is thrown upon this spot; +so that I do not think it will be needful to make any new disposition +either of the bed or its poor burden. Your easel and other matters +shall be brought here during the night. I will rouse you at five in +the morning, and you will then, if you please, use your utmost +expedition.' + +Conrad promised to do all he could to accomplish the desire of the +afflicted parent, and after the latter had approached the bed, leaned +over it, and kissed the cold lips of his child, they left the room to +the dead and its silent watchers. + +After a solemn and memorable evening, Conrad was shewn to his bedroom, +and there dreamed through the livelong night--now, that he was riding +at frightful speed through woods and wilds with Mr Harrenburn, +hurrying with breathless haste to avert some catastrophe that was +about to happen somewhere to some one; now, that he was intently +painting a picture of the corpse of a beautiful young lady--terribly +oppressed by nervousness, and a fretful sense of incapacity most +injurious to the success of his labours--when suddenly, O horror! he +beheld the body move, then rise, in a frightful and unnatural manner, +stark upright, and with opened lips, but rigidly-clenched teeth, utter +shriek upon shriek as it waved its white arms, and tore its streaming +hair; then, that his landlady, Mrs Farrell, came up to him, as he +crouched weeping and trembling by, and bade him be comforted, for that +they who were accustomed to watch by the dead often beheld such +scenes; then that Mr Harrenburn suddenly entered the room, and sternly +reproached him for not proceeding with his work, when, on looking +towards the bed, they perceived that the corpse was gone, and was +nowhere to be seen, upon which Mr Harrenburn, with a wild cry, laid +hands upon him, as if to slay him on the spot. + +'You do not sleep well.' A hand was gently laid upon his shoulder; a +kind voice sounded in his ear: he opened his eyes; Mr Harrenburn was +standing at his bedside. 'You have not slept well, I regret to find. +I have knocked at your door several times, but, receiving no reply, +ventured to enter. I have relieved you from an unpleasant dream, I +think.' + +Conrad, somewhat embarrassed by the combined influence of the +nightmare, and being awakened suddenly by a stranger in a strange +place, informed his host that he always dreamed unpleasantly when he +slept too long, and was sorry that he had given so much trouble. + +'It is some minutes past five o'clock,' said Mr Harrenburn. 'Tea and +coffee will be waiting for you by the time you are dressed: doubtless, +breakfast will restore you, and put you in order for your work; for +really you have been dreaming in a manner which appeared very painful, +whatever the experience might have been.' + +Conrad rose, dressed, breakfasted, and did undoubtedly feel much more +comfortable and lighthearted than during the night. He was shortly +conducted to the chamber in which he had received so many powerful +impressions on the preceding evening, and forthwith commenced the task +he had engaged to perform. Conrad was by no means a young man of a +romantic or sentimental turn, but it is not to be wondered at, that +his present occupation should produce a deep effect upon his mind. The +form and features he was now endeavouring to portray were certainly +the most beautiful he had as yet exercised his art upon--indeed, +without exception, the most beautiful he had ever beheld. The +melancholy spectacle of youth cut off in the first glow of life's +brightest season, and when surrounded by everything that wealth and +education can contribute towards rendering existence brilliant and +delightful, can never fail to excite deep and solemn emotion. As the +artist laboured to give a faithful representation of the sweetly +serene face, the raven hair, the marble forehead, the delicately +arched brow, the exquisitely formed nose and mouth, and thought how +well such noble beauty seemed to suit one who was fit to die--a pure, +spotless, bright being--he had more than once to pause in his work +while he wiped the tears from his eyes. Few experiences chasten the +heart so powerfully as the sight of the early dead; those who live +among us a short while, happy and good, loving and beloved, and then +are suddenly taken away, ere the rough journey of life is well begun, +leaving us to travel on through the perilous and difficult world by +ourselves; no more sweet words for us, no more songs, no more +companionship, no more loving counsel and assistance--nothing now, +save the remembrance of beauty and purity departed. How potent is that +remembrance against the assaults of evil thoughts! How impressive the +thought of virtue in the shroud! + +With one or two necessary intervals, Conrad worked throughout the day, +and until the declining light warned him to desist. The next morning +he resumed his pallet, and in about four or five hours brought his +task to a conclusion, taking, in addition to the painting he was +commissioned to make, a small crayon sketch for himself. It was his +wish to preserve some memento of what he regarded as the most +remarkable of his experiences, and likewise to possess a 'counterfeit +presentment' of a face the beauty of which he had never seen equalled. +Mr Harrenburn expressed himself highly gratified by the manner in +which Conrad had acquitted himself--he only saw the painting, of +course--and taking him into his study, bade him persevere in his art, +and paid him fifty guineas; a sum which almost bereft the young man of +his senses, it seemed so vast, and came so unexpectedly, after all his +misgivings, especially in the presence of one who, to judge from the +taste he had exhibited in his collection, must be no ordinary +connoisseur. + +It is difficult to describe the remarkable influence which this +adventure exercised upon the young artist. His susceptible mind +received an impression from this single association with a scene of +death on the one hand, and an appreciating patron on the other, which +affected the whole of his future life. He returned to C----, bade +adieu to his landlady and friends, and, placing himself and his +luggage upon the London coach, proceeded to the metropolis. Here, +after looking about him for some time, and taking pains to study the +various masters in his art, he made a respectful application to one +who stood among the highest in repute, and whose works had pleased his +own taste and fancy better than any he had seen. After much earnest +pleading, and offering very nearly all the little wealth he possessed, +he was accepted as a pupil, to receive a course of ten lessons. With +great assiduity he followed the instructions of the master, and +learned the mysteries of colouring, and a great number of artistic +niceties, all tending to advance him towards perfection of execution. +He was really possessed of natural talents of a high order, and in the +development of these he now evinced great acuteness, as well as +industry. His master, an artist who had made a reputation years +before, and who had won high patronage, and earned for himself a large +fortune, thus being beyond the reach of any feelings of professional +jealousy, was much delighted with Conrad's progress, was proud to have +discovered and taught an artist of really superior talent; and +generously returning to him the money he had lately received with so +much mistrust and even nausea--for a raw pupil is the horror of +_cognoscenti_--he forthwith established him as his protégé. Thanks to +his introduction, Conrad shortly received a commission of importance, +and had the honour of painting the portrait of one of the most +distinguished members of the British aristocracy. He exerted all his +powers in the work, and was rewarded with success; the portrait caused +some sensation, and was regarded as a _chef-d'oeuvre_. Thus +auspiciously wooed, Fortune opened her arms, and gave him a place +among her own favoured children. The first success was succeeded by +others, commission followed commission; and, to be brief, after four +years of incessant engagements and unwearied industry, he found +himself owner of a high reputation and a moderate independence. + +During all this time, and throughout the dazzling progress of his +fortunes, the crayon sketch of poor Miss Harrenburn was preserved and +prized, and carried wherever he went with never-failing care and +solicitude. Sanctified by indelible associations, it was to him a +sacred amulet--a charm against evil thoughts, a stimulant to virtue +and purity--this picture of the young lady lying dead, gone gently to +the last account in the midst of her beauty and untainted goodness. +Its influence made him a pure-minded, humble, kind, and charitable +man. Living quietly and frugally, he constantly devoted a large +proportion of his extensive earnings to the relief of the miseries of +the unfortunate; and such traits did not pass without due recognition: +few who knew him spoke of his great talents without bearing testimony +to the beauty of his moral character. + +But everything may be carried to excess; even the best feelings may be +cherished to an inordinate degree. Many of the noblest characters the +world has produced have overreached their intentions, and sunk into +fanaticism. Conrad, in the fourth year of his success, was fast +merging from a purist into an ascetic; he began to weary of the world, +and to desire to live apart from it, employing his life, and the +fortune he had already accumulated, solely in works of charity and +beneficence. While in this state of mind, he determined to proceed on +a continental tour. After spending some time in France, where many an +Hôtel Dieu was benefited by his bounty, he travelled into Switzerland. +At Chamouni, he made a stay of some days, residing in the cottage of +an herbalist named Wegner, in preference to using the hotels so well +known to tourists. + +One evening, he had walked some distance along the road towards Mont +Blanc, and, in a tranquil and contemplative mood, had paused to watch +the various effects of sunset. He leaned against a tree by the +roadside, at the corner of a path which led from the highway to a +private residence. Again it was August, exactly four years since he +had quitted C----, exactly four years since the most singular event of +his life had occurred. He took from his breast the little crayon +sketch, carefully preserved in a black morocco-case, and, amid the +most beautiful scenery in the world, gave way to a reverie in which +the past blended with the future--his thoughts roaming from the +heavenly beauty of the death-bed scene to the austere sanctity of St +Bernard or La Trappe. Strange fancies for one who had barely completed +his twenty-seventh year, and who was in the heyday of fame and +fortune! Suddenly, the sound of approaching footsteps was heard. +Conrad hastily closed the morocco-case, replaced it in his breast, and +was preparing to continue his walk, when an elegant female figure +abruptly emerged from the bypath; and the features, turned fully +towards him--O Heavens!--who could mistake? The very same he had +painted!--the same which had dwelt in his heart for years! The shock +was too tremendous: without a sigh or exclamation, Conrad fell +senseless to the ground. + +When he revived, he found himself lying upon a sofa in a +well-furnished chamber, with the well-remembered form and features of +Mr Harrenburn bending over him. It seemed as if the whole course of +the last four years had been a long dream--that Mr Harrenburn, in +fact, was rousing him to perform the task for which he had sought him +out at C----. For awhile Conrad was dreadfully bewildered. + +'I can readily comprehend this alarm and amazement,' said his host, +holding Conrad's hand, and shaking it as if it were that of an old +friend, newly and unexpectedly met. 'But be comforted; you have not +seen a spirit, but a living being, who, after undergoing a terrible +and perilous crisis four years ago, awoke from her death-sleep to heal +her father's breaking heart, and has since been his pride and joy as +of yore--her health completely restored, and her heart and mind as +light and bright as ever.' + +'Indeed!--indeed!' gasped Conrad. + +'Yes,' continued Mr Harrenburn, whose countenance, Conrad observed, +wore an appearance very different from that which affliction had +imparted to it four years previously. 'The form on the bed which your +pencil imitated so well, remained so completely unchanged, that my +heart began to tremble with a new agony. I summoned an eminent +physician the very day on which you completed the sad portrait, and, +detailing the particulars of her case, besought him to study it, +hoping--I hardly dared to confess what. God bless him! he did study +the case: he warned me to delay interment; and, three days after, my +daughter opened her eyes and spoke. She had been entranced, +catalepsed, no more--though, had it not been for this stubborn +unbelief of a father's heart, she had been entombed! But it harrows me +to think of this! Are you better now, and quite reassured as to the +object of your alarm? I have watched your career with strong interest +since that time, my young friend, and let me congratulate you on your +success--a success which has by no means surprised me, although I +never beheld more than _one_ of your performances.' + +Mr Harrenburn had passed the summer, with his daughter, at Chamouni, +in a small but convenient and beautifully situated château. He +intended to return to England in a few weeks, and invited Conrad to +spend the interim with him--an invitation which the latter accepted +with much internal agitation. For three weeks he lived in the same +house, walked in the same paths, with the youthful saint of his +reveries--heard her voice, marked her thoughts, observed her conduct, +and found with rapture that his ideal was living indeed. + + * * * * * + +After a sequence, which the reader may easily picture to himself, +Conrad Merlus and Julia Harrenburn were married. Among the prized +relics at Harrenburn House, in Wiltshire, where he and his wife are +living, are the 'posthumous' portrait and the crayon sketch; and +these, I suppose, will be preserved as heirlooms in the family +archives. + + + + +SAMPLES OF UNCLE SAM'S 'CUTENESS. + + +In some respects, Uncle Sam and Brother Jonathan are 'familiar as +household words' on the lips of John Bull; but it may be safely +affirmed, notwithstanding, that the English know less of the Americans +than the Americans know of the English. We are in the way of meeting +with our transatlantic cousins very frequently, and never without +having our present affirmation abundantly confirmed. This mingled +ignorance and indifference on the part of Englishmen to what is going +on in Yankeedom, besides being discreditable, will soon be injurious, +as any one may satisfy himself by a perusal of a couple of pleasant +volumes from the pen of Captain Mackinnon,[2] who travelled through +the States lately, with his eyes open, not to their faults only, as +might have been expected in an officer of Her Majesty's navy, but to +their virtues, attainments, and enterprises. He has been out spying +the land, and brings back a report which, though not new to those in +the habit of reading American newspapers, and talking with American +visitors, will be both new and interesting--we should hope +stimulative--to the majority of our countrymen. We shall fulfil a +duty, and confer benefit as well as pleasure, by picking out of the +captain's log-book some of the choicest samples of Uncle Sam's +'cuteness, which will serve to shew, at the same time, the progress +and prospects of that great commonwealth. + +Captain Mackinnon believes the mind of the Americans to be the keenest +and most adaptable in the world. They acquire information of any kind +so rapidly, and have such ready dexterity in mechanical employments, +that the very slightest efforts put them on a par with Europeans of +far greater experience. After describing New York--which we shall +return to, if we have space--the author gives the results of a visit +to the dockyards at Brooklyn, Boston, and other places. Brooklyn +'contains perhaps the finest dry-dock in the world.' Here he saw all +the latest English improvements improved! He was informed, on +unquestionable authority, that no new instrument of war is elaborated +in England, without being immediately known to the authorities in the +United States; and that the commission of naval officers, now sitting +at Washington to re-organise the navy ordnance and gunnery exercise, +are assisted materially by the experience of men educated in Her +Majesty's ship _Excellent_. + +The first object of interest in approaching the Fulton Ferry was a +large ship, which was loading with wheat for Europe. To accelerate the +introduction of the cargo, a grain-elevator was employed. This novel +machine pumped the grain from barges or canal-boats, on one side, in a +continuous stream into the ship's hold, at the rate of 2000 bushels +per hour. It was not only passed into the vessel at this prodigious +rate, but likewise accurately measured in the operation. American +naval officers have taken a hint from this ingenious labour-saving +contrivance, and successfully adapted it to the purpose of supplying +powder with great speed and regularity to the batteries of large +ships. + +What are those huge castles rushing madly across the East River? Let +us cross in the _Montauk_ from Fulton Ferry, and survey the freight. +There are fourteen carriages; and the passengers are countless--at +least 600. Onward she darts at headlong speed, until, apparently in +perilous proximity to her wharf, a frightful collision appears +inevitable. The impatient Yankees press--each to be the first to jump +ashore. The loud 'twang' of a bell is suddenly heard; the powerful +engine is quickly reversed, and the way of the vessel is so +instantaneously stopped, that the dense mass of passengers insensibly +leans forward from the sudden check. These boats cost about L.6000. In +economy, beauty, commodiousness, and speed, they form a striking +contrast to the steam-ferry from Portsmouth to Gosport, which cost, it +is said, L.20,000. The author strongly advises persons in Europe, who +have any intention of projecting steam-ferries, to take a leaf out of +the Yankee book. As an example: If the Portsmouth Ferry had been +conducted on the same principles as the Fulton Ferry, a very large +profit would have ensued, instead of the concern being overwhelmed in +debt. + +Here is another sample of Yankee _go-aheadism_. A launch! We are in +Webb's shipbuilding-yard. Look around. Five huge vessels are on the +stocks: three are to be launched at highwater. The first is a liner of +1708 tons, built for running, and, with a fair wind, it will outsail +any man-of-war afloat. The second is a steamer of 2500 tons. The third +is a gigantic yacht of 1500 tons, nearly as sharp as any yacht in +England. Five thousand seven hundred and eight tons were launched from +one builder, and within thirty minutes! + +The clipper-ships, although certainly the finest class of vessels +afloat, are very uneasy in a sea. Mr Steers, the builder of the +far-famed yacht _America_, is very sanguine that he will produce a +faster vessel than has yet ploughed the seas, and Captain Mackinnon is +inclined to believe that he will. His new clipper-vessels will be as +easy in motion as superior in sailing. The great merit of Mr Steers, +as the builder of the _America_, is in his having invented a perfectly +original model, as new in America as in Europe. He informed our author +that the idea, so successfully carried out in the _America's_ model, +struck him when a boy of eight years old. He was looking on at the +moulding of a vessel by his father (an Englishman), when suddenly it +occurred to him that a great improvement might be made in the +construction; and the _modus operandi_ speedily took possession of his +mind. Mr Steers thinks that a shallow vessel, with a sliding keel, can +be built to outsail any vessel even on his improved model. This is +likely to be tested next summer in England, as a sloop, the _Silvia_, +built by Steers on this construction, is preparing to try her speed at +Cowes next season. The author carefully noted this craft when on the +stocks alongside the _America_,[1] and he believes, 'that no vessel in +England has the ghost of a chance against her.' + +The English ship-builders have a great deal to learn from Brother +Jonathan, not only in the fashion of build, but likewise in the +'fitting and rigging.' An American London liner is sailed with half +the number of men required by an English ship of the same size, and +yet the work is got through as well and as expeditiously. The various +mechanical contrivances to save labour might be beneficially copied by +English ships. + +A merchant-vessel, on the clipper principle, can be turned out by a +Baltimore builder for from L.10 to L.12 a ton, complete in all her +fittings. This is much cheaper than in England, which appears +unaccountable, considering the rate of wages; but so much more work is +done by the workmen for their wages, that labour is as cheap, if not +cheaper, there than here. 'Cotton-duck' sails are almost exclusively +used by American vessels under 300 tons, which for such vessels, as +well as for yachts, is much better and cheaper than canvas. Another +circumstance which struck the author at Baltimore--and which is +equally striking to hear of to those who are accustomed to the sight +of the Thames barges ascending and descending the river, in all their +ugliness and filth, with the flow and ebb of each tide--was, that the +vessels intended for the lowest and most degrading offices, such as +carrying manure, oysters, and wood, were of 'elegant and symmetrical +proportions!' + +The most potent proofs of Uncle Sam's 'cuteness are to be found in the +patent office at Washington. Inventions pour in in such abundance, +that already the space allotted to them is so completely crammed, as +to preclude the possibility of any close investigation. The dockyard +at Washington furnished matter for fresh reflection; the iron for +cables, furnished by contract, being so superior to the old, that the +testing-links were all broken on the first trial, the model-anchors +being 'an immense improvement,' &c. + +'And to whom do you suppose we are indebted for all these +improvements, and many more too tedious to mention?' asked the +officer. 'Why, to an English dockyard-master from Devonport.' + +So much for their progress on the eastern coast: now let us turn +westward, ascending the Hudson by one of the river--steamers. Without +doubt, these steam--vessels are the swiftest and best arranged known; +but the speed and size are improving so rapidly, that what is correct +now, may be far behind the mark a year hence. The _Isaac Newton_ is at +present the largest. The saloon, which is gorgeously decorated, is 100 +yards long. In this vast, vaulted apartment, the huge mirrors, elegant +carving, and profuse gilding, absolutely dazzle the eye. On first +entering one of these magnificent floating saloons, it is difficult +for the imagination to realise its position. All comparison is at once +defied, as there is nothing like it afloat in the world. + +The extent of the lake-trade is prodigious. Its aggregate value for +1850, imports and exports, amounts to 186,484,905 dollars, which is +more by 40,000,000 dollars than the whole foreign export-trade of the +country! The aggregate tonnage employed on the lakes is equal to +203,041 tons, of which 167,137 tons are American, and 35,904 British. +The passenger-trade is not included in the preceding sum; it is valued +at 1,000,000 dollars. 'The mind is lost in astonishment at so +prodigious a commerce. It is not ten years since the first steamer ran +round the chain of lakes. Population, and its commercial concomitants, +are increasing so rapidly, that before twenty years, the lake-trade +alone will be of greater extent and importance than the whole trade of +any other nation on the globe!' The number of emigrants from Europe +and the eastern states annually passing through Buffalo for the Far +West is now one million, and likely, by and by, to increase to two +millions! Cities are consequently rising up with extraordinary +rapidity. The population of Detroit, for example, has increased, +during the last ten years, from 11,000 to 26,000--an advance which is +mainly owing to the facilities afforded by the Michigan Central +Railway, for concentrating on their passage the westward-bound +emigrants. An absurd spirit of speculation has likewise contributed to +the increase. A building and farming mania, similar to the railway +mania in England six years ago, has seized the people. The only +salvation for the speculators is the continued increase of vast swarms +of emigrants from Europe. Chicago is another example of rapid +increase--namely, from 3000 in 1840, to above 20,000 in 1850; a growth +which it mainly owes to its advantageous site at the head of the +navigation of the chain of lakes. Milwaukie is also a wonderful +instance of progress. In 1838, there was not a single house on the +spot: in 1840, there was a village with 1700 inhabitants; in 1850, +there was a city of 20,000! Twenty years ago, the land on which it +stands was not worth more than the government price, which is about +5s. 5d. per acre: at present, the lots are valued, in good locations, +at L.40 a foot frontage. The result is speculation; with sudden +fortunes on the one hand, and sudden ruin on the other. Emigrants, as +well as citizens themselves, have to 'move on' further west; and hence +they are covering Wisconsin, Minesota, and other territories. Nothing +can now arrest the flowing tide till it dash against the Rocky +Mountains, and meet the counter-tide setting in from the coast of the +Pacific. + +The district around Lake Winnebago seems, according to our author's +account, to be a tempting spot for emigrants; and as there cannot be +the least suspicion of his having an interest in trumpeting it up, it +may be as well that the reader should know where 'Paradise Restored' +is to be found. Lake Winnebago is not one of those huge inland oceans, +with winds and waves, storms and shipwrecks upon it, but a quiet, snug +sheet of water like Loch Lomond, which it resembles in size, and, if +we may judge from a paper-description, in appearance. 'It is about +thirty miles long, and ten to twelve broad. A high ridge of limestone +bounds it on the east, sloping gradually down to the edge of the +water. Numerous natural clearings or prairies relieve the sameness of +the luxuriant forests. On the western side, the land invades the lake +in long, low capes and peninsulas. The fragrance of the air, the +exquisite verdure of the trees, the gorgeous colours of the prairie +flowers, and the artist-like arrangements of the "oak openings," and +wild meadows, are delights never to be forgotten. The most elaborate +and cultivated scenery in Europe falls into insignificance in +comparison. I was struck with astonishment that such "a garden of +Eden" should be so little known, even in the eastern states--that such +extraordinary advantages should be neglected. After a careful +examination of many places in the western portion of the United +States, I advisedly assert, that Lake Winnebago District is the most +desirable and the finest in the world for emigrants.' + +His reasons for this opinion are briefly, that it has communication +with the Atlantic on each border of the state--by the Mississippi on +the west, and Lake Michigan on the east; that the soil is very +fertile, and the climate remarkably healthy, being more equable than +the same latitude on sea-board, and quite free from fever or ague. +With great glee, the captain details a sporting excursion in this +romantic district, in the course of which he fell in with an old +acquaintance in the shape of an under-keeper from one of the Scottish +moors. He had emigrated two years, and become a 'laird.' His remarks +displayed great 'cuteness, and as it was on Uncle Sam's soil, it must +be placed to Uncle Sam's credit. Their conversation was so amusing as +well as instructive, that we quote it. + +'"Ah, sir," said the Scotchman, "if the quality in England only knew +there was a place like this, do you think they would go and pay such +extravagant rents for the mere shooting in Scotland? No, sir, not +they. My old master paid five hundred pounds a year for his moor +adjacent to Loch Ness." + +"And pray what did he get for it?" + +"Why, not half such sport as he can get here," replied he. + +"Truly," I rejoined; "but remember the distance, and expense of coming +here." + +"As for the distance, you can, at present, be here from London in +fourteen days. In two years, the rail will be finished to Fond-du-Lac, +and you will be enabled to get here in eleven days. The expense, as I +will prove, will not only be far less, but it may be turned into a +positive gain." + +'I pricked up my ears at this assertion, and requested my old +acquaintance, the ex-keeper, to proceed. + +"Well, sir, look 'ee here: suppose a party of five gentlemen subscribe +five hundred pounds apiece, that will be two thousand five hundred +pounds. With one thousand five hundred pounds, they can purchase a +quantity of land, and build an excellent house, stable, and offices on +Doty Island, in a position which, in ten years' time, will increase +greatly in value as an eligible site for building allotments. The very +fact of such an establishment by wealthy English gentlemen will cause +the land to rise in value enormously; and I will warrant that in five +years it will be worth ten times the present cost. From their location +on Doty Island, they would have the finest fresh-water fishing in the +world. They would have thirty miles lake-shore for deer-shooting; and +dense woods, forty miles back to Lake Michigan, where bears, and +catamounts, and other wild animals are plentiful. Abundance of wild +fowl, quail, and wood-cocks would be found everywhere." + +"Stop," exclaimed I, interrupting him; "what are we to do about the +main point--the grouse-shooting? Besides, remember there is another +thousand pounds to account for." + +"Don't interrupt, please sir; I am coming to that. I know several +districts of country in this neighbourhood with natural boundaries, +such as creeks, rivers, thick belts of trees, &c. These districts vary +from five thousand to twenty thousand acres, and are so fertile that +Europeans cannot even imagine such richness. Five hundred pounds you +could lend to the farmers at twelve per cent. per annum. Many of them +pay from two to eight per cent. _per month_. You would thus, by +accommodating the farmers, have the best-stocked preserves, and the +most friendly occupiers of the soil that can be found. The remaining +five hundred pounds you might keep to improve your lands, or invest at +twelve per cent. as the other half. If thus invested, you would get +twelve per cent. on one thousand pounds, nearly equal to five per +cent. upon the whole sum laid out, and the land increasing in value in +a prodigious ratio." + +"Wonderful!" thought I, with enthusiasm. "I will pop you in print, my +lad."' + +We 'pop him in print' with similar good-will. His scheme would be an +admirable one, save and except that there is an ocean to cross before +reaching Doty Island. We commend it to the New Yorkers and gentlemen +of the eastern states, who wish to have a hunting-field such as the +old monarchs of Europe would have envied. The scheme, notwithstanding, +does credit to the ingenuity of its propounder, who thereby proves +himself the right sort of man for the country he has chosen to call +his own. + +Another conversation which our author relates, affords an unequivocal +sample of real aboriginal 'cuteness. Captain Mackinnon impresses us, +as he did the Americans, as a frank, hearty fellow, who can make +himself at home at once, anywhere, and with any one. During his short +sporting excursion, he seems to have picked acquaintance with nearly +all the happy inhabitants of that western Eden with which he had +become so enraptured. Strolling along one day, he met with a tall, +gaunt Yankee, who knew him, and invited him into his log-cabin for a +social glass and a 'crack' after it. This semi-savage-looking fellow +had been a soldier, and delighted, like his guest, in the title of +captain. He had been fighting in Mexico and California with the +'Injuns.' As he of Doty Island had a proposal to make to British +sportsmen, so Captain Ezekiah Conclin Brum had 'a proposal to make to +the British government.' He had heard of our Cape and Caffre war, and +wondering how and why we did not make a shorter work of that awkward +business, he sent to England for a British infantry musket, which he +produced. 'Well, captin, did ever you see such a clumsy varment in all +your born days? Now, captin, look out of the doorway: do you see that +_blazed_ stump? It is seven feet high, and broader than any man. It's +exactly one hundred and fifty yards from my door. I have fired that +clumsy varment at the stump till my head ached and my shoulder was +quite sore, and have hardly hit it once. Now, then, captin, look 'ee +here (taking up his seven-barrelled revolving rifle, and letting fly +one barrel after the other): I guess you will find seven bullets in +the _blazed_ stump. I will, however, stick seven playing cards on the +stump, in different places, and, if you choose, hit them all.' After +sundry but unaccepted offers to his English brother-militant for a +trial of mutual destructiveness, he made his offer to the British +government through its representative, but which that loyal subject, +in a fit of mortification, declined to convey, on the ground that if +he 'made the finest offer in the world to the British government, they +would only sneer' at him. However (to give, as before, the substance +of what is here detailed with amusing effect), the offer of Captain +Brum was to enlist 5000 Yankee marksmen, each armed with a +seven-barrelled revolving rifle, and kill 'all the Injuns' at the Cape +in six months for the sum of 5,000,000 dollars! 'We should be ekal,' +quoth he, 'to thirty thousand troops with such tarnal, stiff, clumsy +consarns as them reg'lation muskets is. We should do it slick, right +away.' This may seem only a piece of fun, but such it does not appear +to the author, who turns from fun to facts and figures, and calculates +what would be the result of an encounter between English and American +men-of-war, if the latter had ten men in each top handling Captain +Brum's weapon with Captain Brum's skill; and the result he comes to +is, that they could, in one minute and a half, dispose of 210 men on +the opposite deck. _This would amount to the destruction of the whole +crew stationed on the upper deck!_ The undoubted _possibility_ of such +a summary mode of annihilating an enemy, must soon change the system +of warfare, and at least demands grave consideration. We make no +comment upon this, as we should be inclined to do were we not +announcing the forebodings of a naval officer, who must be supposed to +see cause of apprehension before he would venture to express it. + +Turning now to a more civil aspect of affairs than the picture of +thirty death-dealing demons in the tops of a Yankee frigate, let us +see how they manage their aggressions upon the untamed field and +forest. During his various ramblings, our traveller's free-and-easy +manner gained him the confidence of several able and energetic men--an +advantage which enabled him to peep behind the scenes in many of the +western movements. The following incident, which came under his own +knowledge, comes within the design of this article, which is to +illustrate the go-aheadism of our transatlantic cousins, and how they +find the ways and means where other men fail. + +Near Green Bay (in the aforesaid Garden of Eden), a small village +suddenly peers out from the woods. The site was chosen by one of those +extraordinary men (educated pioneers), who had silently selected a +position, and established himself as proprietor before any one was +acquainted with his object. Once fixed, the working pioneers, well +aware of the sagacity and ability of their forerunner, begin to drop +in likewise. In a few months, a town is laid out, and a population +makes its appearance. A plank-road is necessary, a charter is +obtained, and a meeting summoned of all interested in the said road. +About a hundred persons attend; the charter is read; and before it can +become a valid instrument, 500 shares must be subscribed for, and one +dollar each paid up. The whole capital required is L.10,000--a sum +which, probably, could not be mustered in cash within a hundred miles. +One citizen believes he can get the 500 dollars from a relative in the +Gennessee Valley. Who, then, is to take stock, and supply the sinews +of war? There is not ten dollars (cash) in the township. Up starts +another, who has credit with a provision-merchant down east, and +offers to supply the workmen with pork, molasses, tea, and sugar, out +of his friend's store; making a speech at the same time. Others +similarly pledged their credit for shoes, soap, clothing, &c. The bulk +of the meeting, consisting of hard-working 'bonnet-lairds,' undertake +to go to work immediately; taking for part-payment the necessaries of +life, and receiving road-stock for the balance. Without a cent of +capital, they began a work which would eventually cost 50,000 dollars, +in full confidence that something would turn up to procure the +wherewithal. The beauty of the matter is, that the project succeeded. +The road has not only quadrupled the value of property all around, but +it bids fair to pay a dividend in five years of 50 per cent. If a +steam-boat is wanted, it is acquired in the same way. Large vessels +have been completely built and equipped, without the owners possessing +one farthing, and they have not only paid for themselves, but have +made handsome fortunes for the lucky and enterprising projectors. +Speculation of this kind, which would be justly deemed dishonourable +in a settled country, is apt to be less rigidly considered in the +pioneers of a new world. What country can attempt to cope with such +energy and enterprise as this? It is frequently a subject of remark, +that men born in England, and educated in the States, are among the +foremost in these enterprising projects. + +There are many other facts in these interesting volumes which we +should like to call attention to; but the reader who has accompanied +us through this sketch cannot do better than read the volumes +themselves--only remembering, that the enthusiasm of his guide might +have been considerably moderated had he been an emigrant instead of a +gentleman traveller. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Atlantic and Transatlantic Sketches, Afloat and Ashore._ By +Captain Mackinnon, R.N. 2 vols. Colburn & Co. 1852. + +[2] The _America_ lost her laurels at Cowes a few weeks ago. + + + + +MRS GRIMSHAWE'S TREATISE ON HOLDFASTS. + + +I am ready to maintain, against all assailants of the position, that +the person who can feel so deep an interest in any of the works of God +as to find, in the investigation of them, employment for time which +might otherwise hang a little heavily on hand, and occupation of an +innocent and even of a useful nature for an active mind, has a decided +advantage over one who has no such resource. And I further maintain, +that there is not one single object in created nature, from the drop +of ditch-water which occupies the attention of Herr von Creep-crawl, +up to the 'serried host' of angels and archangels who inhabit the +realms of light, which does not present matter worthy of the study and +attention of an inquiring and intelligent mind. Having delivered this +defiance, I shall now ask my readers to take another walk round my +garden, and examine the climbers which cover my walls, and listen to +my Treatise on Holdfasts, as I call those appendages of plants which +assist them in climbing.[3] + +The very first specimen to which we come, is one of that very pretty +tribe the _Clematideæ_, the _Clematis montana_, which is closely +covering a wall of ten feet high, and at least twenty in width, thence +throwing out its branches, extending itself over the adjacent wall of +the house, and occasionally sending a stray shoot or two to adorn my +neighbour's garden. Now, how do those slight, long stems, which +stretch, some of them twenty or thirty feet from the parent stalk, +support and arrange themselves so as to preserve a neat and ornamental +appearance without my having had the least trouble in training them? +If you gather one of those loose branches, you will see that it has no +tendril of any kind, or other apparent means of support; but this, +like all others of the clematideæ or clematis tribe, possesses a power +of twisting the leaf-stalk round a wire, twig, or anything else that +comes in its way, so as to tie the plant to the support with as firm a +knot as could be made with a piece of string; and after thus +encircling the wire, it returns the leaf to its former position, with +the upper side outwards, exactly as it was before. Some of the +clematis tribe make this fulcrum from one part of the leaf-stalk, and +some from another. In that which we are examining, it is formed from +the lowest part next the main stalk of the plant. In the wild clematis +(_C. vitalba_)--that kind which runs so freely over hedges and +thickets in the southern counties, adorning the country in winter with +snowy tufts of feathers, formed by its seed-vessels--a part of the +stalk between two pair of the leaflets forms this twist; whilst in the +sweet-scented garden-clematis, other parts of the stem give the +support: but it is always by means of some portion or other of this +member, that plants of this tribe are sustained in their rapid and +extensive climbing. It is curious to observe what instinctive aptitude +to curve towards suitable objects, and towards them only, is exhibited +in the holdfasts of climbing-plants. They never bend towards a wall, +board, or other flat substance, when there is nothing to lay hold of; +but the moment they touch a suitable object, they instantly fix on it, +forming closely compacted rings, which can be untwisted only when +young. As the plant rises from one height to another, the little green +shoots above send out fresh leaves, each having the same prehensile +properties, which they keep in reserve till called on to apply them to +their proper use; whilst at the same time, the lower rings are +becoming indurated, so that, as the plant grows longer and heavier, +its supports become stronger and harder. There are other plants +besides the clematideæ which thus support themselves, of which the +_Maurandya Barclayana_ and the _Canariensis_ are examples; and the +manner in which these accommodate themselves to the exact form of the +object on which they seize, is very remarkable. If the support is +round, the ring is also round; but if they fix on a square lath, or +other angular thing, the stem forms to it, so that when the prop is +removed, the ring retains the exact form of that prop, every angle +being as sharp and true, as if it were moulded in wax. + +Now, the next plant which greets us is the ivy (_Hedera helix_), and +this differs wholly in its means of support from almost any other +creeper; yet there is none that takes firmer hold, or maintains more +strongly its position, than this beautiful creeper, whose ceaseless +verdure well deserves the name of ivy--a word derived from the Celtic, +and signifying _green_. It is supported by means of a whitish fringe +of fibres, that are thrust out from one side of every part of the stem +which comes in contact with any wall or other supporting object to +which it can cling. Should a foreign substance, such as a leaf, +intervene between it and that object, the fibres lengthen until they +extend beyond the impediment; and then they fix on the desired object, +and cease to grow. + +These fibres, however; are not true roots--a branch with only such +roots, would not grow if planted in the earth--they are mere +holdfasts, and the plant does not receive any portion of its +nourishment through them. The upper part of the plant, where it has +mounted above the wall and become arborescent, is wholly devoid of +such fibres, which never appear but when they have some object to fix +upon. + +And now, let us look at that which is the very pride of my garden, and +which well deserves the name bestowed on it by a poetic-minded +friend--'the patrician flower:' I mean the beautiful _Cobea scandens_; +and here we are introduced to quite a different class of holdfasts +from either of those which we have examined. The blossom of the cobea +is formed of a curious and elegantly-formed calyx of five angles, +exquisitely veined, and of a tender green--itself a flower, or, at +least, when divested of its one bell-shaped petal, _looking_ like one. +From this calyx slowly unfolds a noble bell, at first of a soft, +creamy green; but the second day of its existence it becomes tinged +and veined with a delicate plum colour, which on the third day is its +prevailing hue. The blossom is then in its full perfection; the +vigorous green filaments supporting the anthers curve outwards; the +long anthers, in the same manner as those of the white lily, open +lengthways, and disclose rich masses of yellow pollen; whilst the +single pistil stands gracefully between its five supporters, crowned +with a globular purple style. On the last day or two of its existence, +the bell is of a full, deep puce colour, and then drops, leaving the +calyx bare, from which in due time is developed a handsome fruit, +something like that of the passion-flower. The flower-stalk is from +four to six inches long, and stands finely out from the wall, many +blossoms being exhibited at the same time in different stages of +development. + +But now of the holdfast, which is our special subject. And this needs +to be of a strong kind, for the branches of this plant have been +known, in an English conservatory, to run to the length of 200 feet in +one summer; and no doubt, in its native Mexico, where it has nothing +to impede its growth, its shoots run even more freely. Behold, then, +at distances of from three to four inches, all up the main stem; and +also, on every shoot and branch which that stem throws out, grows a +leaf, composed of three pair of leaflets, beautifully veined, and +tinted with reddish purple, from between the last pair of which +springs a tendril of extreme elegance. Indeed, noble as is this plant +in every part, I think this tendril is the crowning grace of the +whole: it is exceedingly slender, throwing off side-branches, which, +again, repeatedly fork off at acute angles in pairs, and each +extremity of each branch is furnished with a minute and delicate hook, +so small as to be scarcely perceptible, but so strong and +sharp-pointed as to lay hold of every object in its way--which hold it +retains, when once well fixed, in spite of wind or weather. If this +tendril remains long unattached, it becomes elongated to ten or twelve +inches, or even more; and certainly a more elegant object than it +presents when in this state can scarcely be seen, nor one which forms +a more graceful ornament to a vase of flowers, if introduced as it +grows, depending from one of the vigorous young purple shoots, itself +shining with a sort of metallic lustre, and richly coloured with green +and purple. But it is only on the loose young shoots that it assumes +this very graceful appearance. If it is sufficiently near to a wall, +or other support, instead of thus hanging pendent, its main stalk +nearest the leaf contracts into a spiral form, thus shortening the +tendril, and giving it greater power than so frail and slight a thing +could otherwise possess; and the elasticity produced by the +convolutions enables the branch slightly to yield to the influence of +the wind, which makes it less likely to be torn down. Each extremity, +as I have said, is armed with a hook, which hook, as soon as it +touches, lays firm hold on the wall; and these tendrils occurring +close together, and a large proportion of them fixing on some object, +a wonderfully strong support is afforded to the plant. This plant is +called by some people, 'the violet-bearing ivy,' although no leaf or +blossom can be less like the ivy or the violet than that of the cobea. + +And now, let us pass onwards. There is another tendriled plant, the +passion-vine; and this has a cirrus or tendril quite of a different +kind from that we have just examined. It is simple and unbranched, +springing from the axil of the leaf, straight when young, but speedily +becoming spiral, and forming a very close twist round whatever object +it seizes. It is spiral to within an inch, or less, of its root, and +encircles its support with six or seven circlets like a corkscrew, +thus clasping it with great firmness. This has no hook or other +appendage which would enable it to fix on a wall or other flat +substance; and therefore, unless there are wires, or some other +extraneous supports near, it must be nailed until it reaches a certain +height, when its own stalks supply the requisite props on which the +tendrils may lay hold. The grape and many other vines are furnished +with tendrils, which spring from the root of the leaf-stalk; that of +the grapevine is slightly branched, but not furnished with any hook. +One of its tendrils usually grows close to the stem of the fruit, and +thus sustains the heavy bunch of grapes which must otherwise, when it +increases to a weight of many pounds, either break from its stem, or +else pull down the branch on which it grows. + +And now we approach the beautiful _Ipomoea_, or major convolvulus, +which affords us a specimen of quite a different mode of progression +from that displayed in any creeper we have as yet looked at, for it +has neither tendril nor fibrous roots. 'Oh, that _must_ be a mistake!' +says some fine lady. 'My last Berlin pattern was of convolvuli, and +that lovely group of flowers I copied had several blossoms in it, and +I am sure there were _plenty_ of tendrils in both.' No doubt, fair +lady; but convolvuli in Berlin patterns, and those which are wrought +in 'nature's looms,' differ wonderfully. In the former, not only the +climbing convolvulus, but the common blue one (_C. minor_), is richly +furnished with tendrils, whilst those of Dame Nature display no such +appendage. Now, take a real flower of this tribe--the common bind-weed +from the hedge will do as well as any other--and you will see that the +means provided for it to run up any stick or stem it may meet, is a +peculiar property it has, of twining its _stem_ round and round that +of any other plant near it; and so strong is this necessity to assume +a spiral coil, or rather to twist and unite itself with some other +stem, that you may often see two, three, or four sister-stalks of the +same plant inwreathed into one stout cable, which union, though it +does not enable the feeble stems to ascend, yet seems to increase +their strength. But supply the young shoot with a stick or wire, or +even a bit of twine, and see how rapidly it will then climb, and +clasp, and throw out longer and stronger shoots, and overspread your +wall with its large bell-shaped flowers, so brilliant with every tint +of white, lilac, pink, and rose colour, and so exquisitely delicate in +their texture, expanding at earliest dawn, and closing, never to +reopen, when the fervid rays of the noonday sun fall on them! But I +must not attempt to depict every variety of holdfast, or every +provision for climbing with which it has pleased God to invest and +beautify the different kinds of creeping-plants: it would detain us +far too long; yet Mrs Grimshawe owes it to herself, to justify her +devotion to the holdfast of the Virginian creeper (_Ampelopsis +hederacea_), and that must be described. + +Every one knows this plant, for although a native of North America, it +is now one of the commonest coverings of our walls, as well as one of +the prettiest we see. Its beautiful cut leaves are divided into five +lobes, which, when first developed, are of a bright light-green, while +the whole of the young stem and shoot is red; those take, by degrees, +a deeper hue of green, and early in the autumn assume a brilliant +scarlet tint, at which time they are very lovely. The means by which +this plant takes so firm a hold of whatever supports it, is highly +curious. From the stem of the tree is sent out on one side a leaf, and +exactly opposite to it a shining, thread-like tendril, tinged with +red, from one to one and a half inches long, dividing into five +branches, and each terminating in a little hook. When one of these +little hooks touches a wall, or comes in contact with anything it is +able to cling to, it begins to thicken, expands into a granulated mass +of a bright-red hue, loses the form of a hook and assumes that of a +club, from the edges of which club a thin membrane extends, and +attaches itself firmly to the wall after the manner of a sucker. If +all five of the extremities happen to touch, they all go through the +same process; and when all are spread out on the wall, each with its +extension complete, the tendril looks much like the foot of a bird; +but none of the hooks change in this way, unless they are so situated +as to be able to fix on the wall. One of these strong holdfasts occurs +at about every two inches on every stem and branch; and as a very +large proportion of them get hold of some substance or other, the vine +becomes more strongly fixed in its place than those which have been +nailed or otherwise artificially fastened; and if the wall on which it +climbs is at all rough, it must be very boisterous weather indeed that +can dislodge its pretty covering. If by any means a branch is forced +away from the wall, you will generally find either that it has brought +away a portion of the stucco with it, or else that the stems of the +tendril have broken, and left the sucker-like extremities still +adhering. The appearance of one of these tendrils when young is +beautiful; and if you place it under a microscope while it is assuming +its knobby form, you will admire its exquisite texture and colouring. +This, like the ivy, when it rises above the wall, becomes arborescent, +and ceases to throw out tendrils. + +There are many other provisions for aiding plants in climbing. Some +ascend simply by means of the friction which the hairy or gummy +cuticle of their stems affords--that sort of Galium commonly called +'cleavers' or 'cliver,' and the wild madder (_Rubia pelegrina_), are +instances of this--then there are others which send out simple +tendrils from the point of each leaf. There is also a plant called the +'heartseed' or 'balloon vine,' from its inflated membraneous capsule, +in which the tendrils grow from the flower-stalks; and another, one of +the custard-apple tribe (_Annona hexapetala_), of which Smith tells +us--'the flower-stalk of this tree forms a hook, and grasps the +neighbouring branch, serving to suspend the fruit, which is very +heavy, resembling a bunch of grapes.' The pea and vetch tribe, the +pompion and cucumber, and various other plants, afford instances of +provisions of these and similar kinds. But as I hope I may have +succeeded in leading some of my readers to see what abundant subjects +of interest may be found in the contemplation of even the appendages +of plants, I shall now take my leave, only strongly advising all who +wish to find a country life profitable and agreeable, to endeavour to +supply themselves with some simple natural pursuit, such as gardening +or botany, either of which may lead to investigations that will well +repay their trouble, even should they refer to nothing more than the +structure of the leaves or tendrils of the trees and shrubs which grow +around their dwelling. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] See 'Mrs Grimshawe's Garden,' No. 413. + + + + +A DAY'S PLEASURING IN INDIA. + + +Parell[4] was full of guests; and in order to afford them a greater +diversity of amusement than the daily routine of a monotonous Eastern +life affords, our excellent host resolved on a day's excursion to the +island of Salsette, accepting an invitation to rest for an hour on his +return at the house of a wealthy Parsee, whose liberality and zeal for +the interests of the Company had won him the favour of the merchant +princes' representative. In order to be ready for our departure at +daybreak, we were called at three o'clock. In this country, such an +hour sounds uncomfortable; we are all inclined to sympathise with the +writer of the old Scotch ballad, and declare-- + + 'Up in the morning's no for me, + Up in the morning early;' + +but in India, it is a luxurious theft from sleep; and even now the +remembrance of my starlit bath of that Indian morning comes pleasantly +across my mind. The bath was literally taken by starlight; for the +tumbler of oil, with its floating wick--which is the ordinary lamp of +the country--was hardly seen in its far-off corner, when I unclosed +the jalousies, and admitted the solemn, silvery planet-light. The +window above the bath opened into the garden; and it is scarcely +possible to conceive greater physical enjoyment than reclining in the +warm element, listening to the soft sounds proceeding from +without--the castanet music of the singing-tree, the rustling of the +fan-palm, the trickling of the fountain: even the distant cry of the +retiring jackal was pleasant; whilst above the giant palms, I could +see the dark violet of the sky, on which the + + ----'Ship of Heaven + Came sailing from Eternity,' + +and from whence Canopus threw its laughing lustre full on the water in +which I was immersed, and kept me for a time motionless, lest I should +break or mar its beautiful reflection. But every enjoyment has its +dark shadow: as life has its 'insect cares,' so Eastern night has its +mosquitoes; and a sore contest one has with them on issuing from the +bath at such an hour. How they flit about, imps of evil as they are, +and sound their horn of defiance in our ear!--a very marvellous sound +to proceed from such tiny creatures, and, to persons of irritable +nerves, worse even than their sting, or at least an additional horror. +They proved strong incentives to a hasty toilette; and the whole +gipsying-party was speedily assembled in the hall, where coffee and +biscuits were handed round. Then followed a pleasant drive through the +fresh morning air; and it was not without regret that we exchanged the +open carriages for the close imprisonment of the palanquins, in which +shortly after we threaded the mazes of the jungle. It was still early +morning when we reached the cave in which we purposed remaining +during the heat of the day. Outside, a tent had been pitched for +the servants; within, a splendid breakfast was spread for +ourselves--tables, chairs, food, and cooks having preceded the party +thither. Books and prints were also provided, to beguile the tedium of +our inevitable seclusion, and pleasant companionship promised a still +greater resource against _ennui_. + +The caves of Salsette have been already so often described--once by +the pen of Heber--that I shall not attempt a repetition, but content +myself with informing my readers, that we occupied the large one, +dedicated to the ancient worship of the Buddhists; a gloomy temple, +but cool, and possessing a certain interest from having been the scene +of superstitious horrors round which hang the mystery of an almost +unknown past. + +After dinner, we prepared to mount the hill, and explore the smaller +cells in which the hermits of Buddhism had formerly dwelt. The ascent, +though very steep, was not difficult, and, once gained, afforded a +glorious view of the island and the distant sea. The caves, with their +singular stone-carvings and reliefs, were also very interesting, and +must have been pleasant abodes for the worthy men who there had aimed +at a pleasanter saintship than that attained by the tortures to which +the followers of Brahma, and of his legion of subordinate deities, +often subject themselves. We amused ourselves for some time examining +these cells, and not till the sun was sinking behind the taller trees +of the jungle below, did we think of returning. Our descent, however, +was to be effected by another and far more difficult pathway than that +by which we had mounted the hill--steps or niches irregularly cut in +the mountain's side, offering the only means of reaching the cave +below. My head turns at the very recollection! The chief of the hamals +had followed us; I looked at his naked feet, that with such a charming +certainty grasped the rock, and resolved on making him my _cavalier +servente_, backing my gracious intimation to that effect with the +promise of a rupee for guerdon, at which he appeared more pleased than +at the honour of the selection; and thus grasping the arm of my black +knight, I began the terrible task before me, having purposely lingered +out of sight till the rest of the party were at the bottom. + +But, alas! a very kind, very good-natured, very stout gentleman in +tight boots--I had not observed how _very_ tight they were!--perceived +my incongruous escort, and hastened back to take his place. In vain I +represented my partiality for my companion of shoeless feet and steady +eye; he was as incredulous as Desdemona's father was of her love for +the Moor. In vain I deprecated 'giving him so much trouble;' his +politeness was resolute; and I was compelled to accept the assistance +of his hand, and with a beating heart to make the first step. Alas! in +this instance it was not only _la premier pas qui coute_; the fourth +and fifth were worse; at the sixth my courage failed me utterly, and I +felt an insane desire to throw myself over the precipice, and thus +terminate the horror of fear and giddiness that distracted me. I +begged my companion to let me go, but he good-naturedly suggested that +I might as well try to live a little longer, and therefore advised me +to shut my eyes, and let him lift my feet from step to step. I was +obliged to comply, and thus, to the great amusement of the party +beneath, we made our tedious way down the hillside. If any of my +readers have ever felt the kind of panic I have tried to describe, +they will understand and sympathise with me on the occasion. The +precipice below was really very alarming, and there was nothing on the +bare side of the mountain that could soothe the imagination with the +hope of something to clutch at. Still, I felt more ridiculous than I +had ever thought I could be, when, on reaching the foot, I received +the bantering congratulations of the others; and my assistant, with a +bow, assured me 'that we had effected our descent with the agility and +grace of two antelopes!' + +We returned to the principal cave to have coffee, and then, +re-entering our palanquins, were soon again in the depth of the +jungle. I was tired--one soon wearies in that climate; the light was +dim and solemn; and the chant of the bearers, by its monotony, helped +to lull me into a sound slumber, for which the palanquin is always an +agreeable cradle; and thus, in deep sleep, I was borne onwards, till +the halt, to which my bearers at last came, roused me; and with a very +dim recollection of where I was, I started and awoke. For a single +instant, I thought myself still dreaming, however, for an unexpected +and surprising vision was before me. + +The palanquin had stopped in a large garden, or rather grove, which +was brilliantly illuminated with coloured lamps; even the lofty +cocoa-nut trees were not without a crown of rainbow tinted light. As I +was assisted in my exit from the palanquin, two young Parsee boys, in +flowing white robes, girt with a scarlet shawl round the waist, +advanced and presented me, the one with a large bouquet of roses, +tied, after their usual fashion, round a slender stick, and dripping +with rose-water; the other, with a thin long chip of sandal-wood, +having at the end a small piece of white cotton, steeped in delicious +attar of roses. After receiving their gifts, I was conducted by them +to the house, where the owner, a Parsee merchant, met and welcomed me +with the ordinary salutation, pressing his hand to his head and heart, +and then offering it to me. My palanquin had arrived last, and I found +all the rest of the party seated round a table covered with a splendid +repast--a regular hot supper, intermingled with fruit and flowers in +profusion. The chief ornament of the table was a handsome silver vase, +presented to our host by the East India Company, of which he appeared +very proud, lifting it from the table, to shew the inscription on it +to each of the party individually. At the end of the banquet, the +quiet attendants moved round with a very elegant silver flagon of +rose-water, the neck of which was very long, and as thin as the tube +of a china pipe; from it they poured a few drops on the head of each +of the guests. The sensation produced by this sudden trickling of cold +rose-water is very pleasant, though a little startling to strangers. +We had so recently had refreshment, that we were not inclined to do +justice to the hospitality proffered, and the supper was scarcely +tasted; but on rising to go, our host explained to the 'Governor +Sahib,' 'that the feast was his: it had been prepared for him; he had +looked on it! it was his!' These polite assertions were a little +mystifying, till one of the staff-officers, well versed in the manners +of the natives, explained that the governor was expected to carry off +what remained of the entertainment. It was really difficult to help +laughing at the whimsical notion of carrying away the roast turkeys, +kid, fruit, &c., which was before us; but all was actually the +perquisite of the train of attendant servants, and I suppose they took +possession of it. The gifts offered to the governor when travelling +are also theirs, when not too valuable; that is to say, when they only +consist--as they generally do in mere villages--of fruit, eggs, nuts, +and sweetmeats. If the present be, as it occasionally is, a camel, +with its head painted green or red, it is usual to accept it, re-paint +it blue or yellow, and make a return present of it, to the original +donor, who, of course, feigns to be totally unacquainted with the +animal thus 'translated.' Gifts made to the governor become the +property of the East India Company, as no servant of the Company is +permitted to receive a private present; and it would be the height of +discourtesy to refuse the wonted and time-honoured 'offering' made on +the occasion of a visit to the Burra Sahib. + +After many courteous salaams and farewells on the part of our host, we +resumed our journey, gratified at this glimpse of the interior of a +native home. The Parsees are generally rich, and their houses or +_bungalows_ are large and handsome. Their adoration of light tends +greatly to the embellishment of their dwellings, as to every upper +panel of the wainscoting they attach a branch for wax-candles, which +are lighted every night, and give to the building the appearance of +being illuminated. These 'children of the light' are a fine race, very +handsome and intelligent. The upper servants at Parell were all +Parsees; one, named Argiesia was an especial favourite with us all, +having always a shrewd and amusing answer for every question put to +him. We remember on the occasion of a total eclipse of the sun, which +took place during our stay in Bombay, asking him why the people of the +village near the house made such a noise with their tom-toms. His +reply was: + +'Because ignorant people, Ma'am Sahib, think great serpent is +swallowing the sun, and they try to frighten him away with big noise.' + +'And what do you think the shadow is, Argiesia?' we asked. He looked +grave for a minute--one never sees an Oriental look puzzled!--and then +answered: + +'Sun angry men are so wicked. In anger, him hide his face.' This +ready-witted and poetical Ghebir met his death, not long after, in one +of his own sacred elements, being drowned in the Mahr River, 'where +ford there is none.' He once expressed great surprise to me that a +nation possessing Regent Street--a description of which he had +received from his father--'should come to live in India.' + +It was night when we reached Parell after our day's pleasuring; and we +all agreed that the climate of India, during the winter months, is of +all others the best adapted for picnics, which are so often marred in +England by ill-timed showers or gloom; and yet, certain memories came +back half reproachfully as we spoke, painting to our mental vision the +pretty lanes and fresh green dells and dingles of England, the soft +cool breeze, the varied and flitting shadows, the open-air enjoyment +of many a past summer-day, when in our own merry island we + + 'Went a gipsying a long time ago,' + +and we gave an involuntary sigh for the country of our birth. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] Residence of the governor of the Bombay presidency. + + + + +THE LONDON PRISONS OF THE LAST CENTURY. + + +In the year 1728, an opinion was entertained that much cruelty and +rapacity were exercised by the keepers of the great prisons in London. +It was known that they had almost unlimited power in their hands, that +they were not subject to regular inspection, and that it was scarcely +possible to bring them to justice for their treatment of those +committed to their charge. It was argued, that it is impossible to +depend upon the lenity of men who have such powers over their +fellow-creatures, and that these officers must be supposed more than +human if they did not occasionally abuse their authority. Of their +having actually done so, many rumours had from time to time reached +parliament. But in making out a case for inquiry, its strongest +supporters had but a very slight forecast of the horrors it was to +divulge. It may here be remarked, that before the proper arrangements +for official responsibility and regular systematic management in such +matters as prison discipline or the custody of the insane were +devised, our free parliament did incalculable service by its inquiries +and exposures. In that august assembly, every tale of formidable +injustice or oppression was sure to receive a ready auditory; and its +power was so transcendent, that every door flew open at its command, +and no influence could protect the wrong-doer from its sweeping +vengeance. With such a body in existence, even the worst governments +which Britain has known could not keep up those mysterious agents of +tyranny, secret state-prisons, which continue to be the curse of every +despotic country. Yet it will be seen, that for want of some more +immediate and direct responsibility, the abuses in the prisons even of +this country had risen to a very dreadful height. + +The member who headed the inquiry was Colonel Oglethorpe. He was a man +of literary talent--a dashing and intrepid soldier, but still more +renowned for his wide and active benevolence. It is to him that Pope +alludes in the lines: + + One driven by strong benevolence of soul, + Shall fly like Oglethorpe from pole to pole. + +A committee obtained by his influence, did not conduct its inquiry in +easy state in St Stephen's, but appalled the guilty parties by +immediately repairing to the prisons, and diving to the furthest +recesses of their dungeons. In the Marshalsea, it found that even +those who paid excessive fees for their lodgings, were laid in lairs +above each other on boards set on tressels, where they were packed so +close together, that many were believed to have died from mere +deficiency of air. There was no doubt that many others, debtors, had +come to a miserable end by starvation. Some were found in the last +stage of attenuation. Those who could not provide for themselves, had +nothing to feed on but a scanty charity-allowance from the benevolence +of individuals, which, when distributed among the whole, furnished +each with sometimes only a few peas in the day; and at intervals of +several days, an ounce and a half of meat. 'When the miserable +wretch,' say the committee in their report, 'hath worn out the charity +of his friends, and consumed the money which he hath raised upon his +clothes and bedding, and hath ate his last allowance of provisions, +he usually in a few days grows weak for want of food, with the +symptoms of a hectic fever; and when he is no longer able to stand, if +he can raise 3d. a day to pay the fee of the common nurse of the +prison, he obtains the liberty of being carried into the sick-ward, +and lingers on for about a month or two, by the assistance of the +above-mentioned prison portion of provision, and then dies.' The +committee made more lifelike this horrible description of the state of +the prison by describing the results of their efforts to relieve the +sufferers. They said: 'On the giving food to these poor +wretches--though it was done with the utmost caution, they being only +allowed the smallest quantities, and that of liquid nourishment--one +died; the vessels of his stomach were so disordered and contracted for +want of use, that they were totally incapable of performing their +office, and the unhappy creature perished about the time of +digestion.' These prisoners were debtors, not criminals. We make our +extracts from the reports, just after having heard in a scientific +society an examination of the dietary of a large district of prisons. +The difficulty appeared to be, to find the medium that would preserve +health without making the criminal's living in some measure luxurious; +and it appeared that, by almost every dietary in actual use in the +district, the prisoners fattened; in fact, they profited so much in +constitution by sobriety, good air, and regular food, however simple, +that it was found a difficult matter to give them what might be +considered a bare sufficiency, without raising their physical +condition, and sending them out of prison with improved constitutions. +So different is imprisonment for crime in the present age, from +imprisonment for debt a hundred and twenty years ago. + +The condition of many of the prisoners for debt in England, though few +knew the actual extent of its horrors, was well known to be wretched, +and several humane persons had made charitable bequests for their +support. Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee made inquiry as to the +employment of these charities, and disclosed incidents of singular +villainy. It appeared, for instance, that in the Marshalsea there were +several charities; and that the prisoners might be sure of benefiting +by them, it was arranged that they should elect six constables, and +that these constables should choose a steward, who was to receive and +disburse the charities. Like a corporation, the steward had a seal +which he appended to the receipts for the money received for the +charities. The officers of the prison had carried on a systematic +perversion of these charities, either through connivance of the +steward elected by the constables, or by imposing on him. In the year +1722, however, it happened that a man named Matthew Pugh, an active, +clever exponent of abuses, was chosen steward. He discovered several +charities, the knowledge of which had been entirely suppressed, the +proceeds being drawn by the officers of the prison. He found, that to +facilitate their fraud, they had got a counterpart of the common seal, +with which they certified the receipts. Pugh got a new seal made; and +to prevent a new system of fraud being carried out, he got a +safety-chest fixed to the prison wall, with six locks, requiring for +opening it six separate keys, which were put into the hands of the six +constables. The committee, in describing how audaciously these +precautions were defeated, shew distinctly how slight were the checks +on the conduct of prison-officers in the reign of George II. They say: +'But this public and just manner of receiving and disbursing the +charities was disliked by the keeper and his servants; and they +complained to the judge of the Palace Court, and gave information that +the said Pugh was a very turbulent fellow, and procured a rule by +which it was ordered, that Matthew Pugh should no longer be permitted +to have access to the said prison or court; and the prisoners are +allowed to choose another steward; and accordingly, John Grace, then +clerk to the keeper, was chosen steward by those in the keeper's +interest; but the constables, in behalf of the prisoners, refused to +deliver up the keys of the chest, where their seal was, insisting that +all receipts should be sealed as usual in a public manner, that they +might know what money was received; and thereupon the said chest was +broke down, and carried away by the said William Acton (the keeper) +and John Grace.'--_Parliamentary History_, viii. 736. Hence the deaths +from starvation reported by Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee. + +The reports of the committee were varied by statements of atrocious +cruelties committed on the prisoners, by their committal, whenever the +prison-officers thought fit, to damp and loathsome dungeons full of +filth, by heavy irons being forced on them, and even by the +application of the thumbkins, and other such tortures as were applied +in the previous century to the Covenanters. Thus, after narrating an +attempt made to escape, and the severities used on those who had +participated in it, the committee say: 'One of them was seen to go in +(to the keeper's lodge) perfectly well, and when he came out again, he +was in the greatest disorder; his thumbs were much swollen, and very +sore; and he declared that the occasion of his being in that condition +was, that the keeper, in order to extort from him a confession of the +names of those who had assisted him and others in their attempt to +escape, had screwed certain instruments of iron upon his thumbs, so +close, that they had forced the blood out of them with exquisite pain. +After this, he was carried into the strong room, where, besides the +other irons which he had on, they fixed on his neck and hands an iron +instrument called a collar, like a pair of tongs; and he being a large +lusty man, when they screwed the said instrument close, his eyes were +ready to start out of his head, the blood gushed out of his ears and +nose, he foamed at the mouth, and he made several motions to speak, +but could not: after these tortures, he was confined in the strong +room for many days with a heavy pair of irons called sheers on his +legs.' + +It is not to be denied that some of the charges made by the committee +were not ultimately confirmed. It is natural for humane men, becoming +for the first time acquainted with extensive cruelties, to tinge their +narrative with the indignation they feel, and thus give it a +prejudiced and exaggerated tone. Even committees of the House of +Commons are not entirely exempt from such failings. But for our +purpose, which is that of noticing the progress of civilisation and +humanity in the period that has elapsed since the inquiry, it is +sufficient to know, that there must have been an extensive foundation +in facts for the horrors detailed by the committee. If it could not be +distinctly proved that an individual officer had murdered any prisoner +by the use of a particular torture, yet the instruments of torture +described in the above extract were in the prisons--they were seen and +handled by the committee, who were not to suppose that they were kept +for no use. They state, that it had become the practice for the +keepers 'unlawfully to assume to themselves a pretended authority as +magistrates, and not only to judge and decree punishments arbitrarily, +but also to execute the same unmercifully.' + +In the exercise of this authority, the keepers seem to have imitated +the cruelties of the classical tyrant Mezentius, commemorated by +Virgil as chaining the living to the dead, for the committee say: 'The +various tortures and cruelties before mentioned not contenting these +wicked keepers in their said pretended magistracy over the prisoners, +they found a way of making within the prison a confinement more +dreadful than the strong room itself, by coupling the living with the +dead; and have made a practice of locking up debtors who displeased +them in the yard with human carcasses. One particular instance of +this sort of inhumanity, was of a person whom the keepers confined in +that part of the lower yard which was then separated from the rest, +whilst two dead bodies had lain there four days; yet was he kept there +with them six days longer; in which time the vermin devoured the flesh +from the faces, ate the eyes out of the heads of the carcasses, which +were bloated, putrid, and turned green during the poor debtor's dismal +confinement with them.' + +Some of the accounts given by the committee are as grotesque, without +being so horrible. A certain Captain John M'Phaedris had been a person +of considerable fortune, and, like many of his contemporaries, had +been a victim to the South-sea speculation, which appears to have made +all the debtors' prisons more than usually full between the years 1720 +and 1725. He refused to pay the exorbitant fees demanded by the keeper +for accommodation, and maintained that they were illegal. To silence +so troublesome a person, he was turned, unsheltered, into the yard, +where he had to remain exposed to the weather day and night. 'He sat +quietly,' said the committee, 'under his wrongs, and, getting some +poor materials, built a little hut to protect himself as well as he +could from the injuries of the weather.' The keeper, seeing this +ingenious abode, exclaimed with an oath that the fellow made himself +easy, and ordered the hut to be pulled down. 'The poor prisoner,' we +are told, 'being in an ill state of health, and the night rainy, was +put to great distress.' + +In another instance, a prisoner had been committed to a cell so damp, +as the witnesses described it, that they could sweep the water from +the wall like dew from the grass. A feather-bed happened by some odd +accident to be in the place, and the prisoner tore it up, and, for +warmth, buried himself in the contents. Being covered with cutaneous +sores, the feathers stuck to him, as if he had been subject to the +operation of tarring and feathering. One Sunday, the door of the cell +being left open, he rushed out, and entered the prison chapel during +divine service--a horribly ludicrous figure. The committee, on the +conclusion of the incident, say, 'he was immediately seized and +carried back into the sad dungeon; where, through the cold, and the +restraint, and for want of food, he lost his senses, languished, and +perished.' + +Such were the features of the system of mistreatment pursued in the +London prisons, thirty years after the general liberties of the +subject had been secured by the Revolution. We may in a subsequent +paper advert to some of the particular cases which came under the +attention of courts of justice. + + + + +LIFE-ASSURANCE OFFICES OF RECENT DATE. + + +The remarkable prosperity of life-assurance business in these +realms--where alone it is a flourishing business--has naturally had +the effect of causing 'offices' to multiply very fast. In the last +eight years, 241 were projected, being at the rate of one for every +twelve days nearly. Two or three bustling persons thereby obtain +situations; there is a show of business for a time; but such concerns +are often exceedingly weak, and the interests of the public are much +imperiled by them. In consequence of an order of parliament, returns +of the accounts of a large proportion of the recent offices have been +made and published; so that the public may now form some opinion of +the stability of these institutions. The general fact resulting is, +that the greater number appear to have been started with small means, +and are not now in hopeful circumstances. The business they have +obtained is generally small in proportion to the expenses incurred; so +that many of them are much behind the point at which they started. + +Mr Robert Christie, of Edinburgh, has done the public the good service +of publishing a small pamphlet in which the leading features of the +accounts are presented in an intelligible form.[5] Here it appears +that a life-assurance company will launch into business with an +imposing name, a flourishing prospectus, and--L.3000! After three +years, it will have received L.4000 of premiums. In that time, L.1300 +will have been spent in salaries, L.600 in establishing agencies, +L.700 in rent; in all, in expenses of management, upwards of L.5000, +leaving little more than half the premium receipts to stand against +the obligations towards the assured. There is one which has been in +business upwards of four years, and which only possesses L.2869 of +funds, out of which to pay policies represented by L.3094 of premiums, +L.2379 of moneys received for investment, and L.1895 of deposits on +shares. Another, which makes no small bustle in the world, received in +two years and a half L.13,219 of premiums, spent in the same time +L.6993, whereof L.1213 was for advertising, and L.539 for directors +and auditors, and at the end of the period possessed, to make good its +obligations, only L.7045, nearly one-half of which was composed of the +original guarantee fund. + +It is very likely that few or none of these establishments were +commenced with a fraudulent design; but they were not required by the +public, and their expenses have eaten them up. By most, if not all of +them, loss and disappointment will be incurred. It is therefore highly +desirable that the public should be warned against new offices +generally. While there are so many old ones of perfectly established +character both in England and Scotland--and we have some pride in +remarking, that there is not one dangerous office known to us in the +latter country--it is quite unnecessary to resort to any other. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] _Letter to the Right Hon. Joseph W. Henley, M.P., President of the +Board of Trade, regarding Life-Assurance Institutions._ By Robert +Christie, Esq. Edinburgh: Constable & Co. + + + + +ANECDOTE OF BURNS IN THE '93. + + +A public library had been established by subscription among the +citizens of Dumfries in September 1792, and Burns, ever eager about +books, had been from the first one of its supporters. Before it was a +week old, he had presented to it a copy of his poems. He does not seem +to have been a regularly admitted member till 5th March 1793, when +'the committee, by a great majority, resolved to offer to Mr Robert +Burns a share in the library, free of any admission-money [10s. 6d.] +and the quarterly contributions [2s. 6d.] to this date, out of respect +and esteem for his abilities as a literary man; and they directed the +secretary to make this known to Mr Burns as soon as possible, that the +application which they understood he was about to make in the ordinary +way might be anticipated.' This is a pleasing testimony to Burns as a +poet, but still more so to Burns as a citizen and member of society. +His name appears in September as a member of committee--an honour +assigned by vote of the members. + +On the 30th of this month, the liberal poet bestowed four books upon +the library--namely, _Humphry Clinker_, _Julia de Roubigné_, _Knox's +History of the Reformation_, and _Delolme on the British +Constitution_. The present intelligent librarian, Mr M'Robert, +reports, respecting the last-mentioned work, a curious anecdote, which +he learned directly from the late Provost Thomson of Dumfries. Early +in the morning after Delolme had been presented, Burns came to Mr +Thomson's bedside before he was up, anxiously desiring to see the +volume, as he feared he had written something upon it 'which might +bring him into trouble.' On the volume being shewn to him, he looked +at the inscription which he had written upon it the previous night, +and, having procured some paste, he pasted over it the fly-leaf in +such a way as completely to conceal it. + +The gentleman who has been good enough to communicate these +particulars, adds: 'I have seen the volume, which is the edition of +1790, neatly bound, with a portrait of the author at the beginning. +Some stains of ink shine through the paper, indicating that there is +something written on the back of the engraving; but the fly-leaf being +pasted down upon it, there is nothing legible. On holding the leaf up +to the light, however, I distinctly read, in the undoubted manuscript +of the poet, the following words:-- + +"Mr Burns presents this book to the Library, and begs they will take +it as a creed of British liberty--until they find a better. R. B." + +'The words, "until they find a better," are evidently those which the +poet feared "might bring him into trouble." Probably, if the +inscription had not been written on the back of the engraving, he +might have removed it altogether: at all events, his anxiety to +conceal it shews what trivial circumstances were in those days +sufficient to constitute a political offence.' Ay, and to think of +this happening in the same month with the writing of _Scots, wha hae +wi' Wallace bled_! + +Fully to appreciate the feelings of alarm under which Burns acted on +this occasion, it must be kept in view that the trial of Mr Thomas +Muir for sedition had taken place on the 30th of August, when, in the +evidence against him, appeared that of his servant, Ann Fisher, to the +effect that he had purchased and distributed certain copies of Paine's +_Rights of Man_. The stress laid upon that testimony by the +crown-counsel had excited much remark. It might well appear to a +government officer like Burns, that his own conduct at such a crisis +ought to be in the highest degree circumspect. We do not know exactly +the time when the incident which we are about to relate took place, +but it appears likely to have been nearly that of Muir's trial. Our +poet one day called upon his quondam neighbour, George Haugh, the +blacksmith, and, handing him a copy of Paine's _Common Sense_ and +_Rights of Man_, desired him to keep these books for him, as, if they +were found in his own house, he should be a ruined man. Haugh readily +accepted the trust, and the books remained in possession of his family +down to a recent period.--_Chambers's Life and Works of Burns, Vol. +IV._, _just published._ + + + + +CURIOUS EXPERIMENT IN WOOL-GROWING. + + +The following is worthy of notice, as exemplifying what may be done, +by judicious attention, to improve an important national staple:-- + +'In a lecture recently delivered by Mr Owen at the Society of Arts, +the learned professor detailed the particulars of a highly interesting +experiment, which resulted in the establishment of one of the very few +instances in which the origination of a distinct variety of a domestic +quadruped could be satisfactorily traced, with all the circumstances +attending its development well authenticated. We must premise it by +stating, that amongst the series of wools shewn in the French +department of the Great Exhibition, were specimens characterised by +the jury as a wool of singular and peculiar properties; the hair, +glossy and silky, similar to mohair, retaining at the same time +certain properties of the merino breed. This wool was exhibited by J. +L. Graux, of the farm of Mauchamp, Commune de Juvincourt, and the +produce of a peculiar variety of the merino breed of sheep, and it +thus arose. In the year 1828, one of the ewes of the flock of merinos +in the farm of Mauchamp, produced a male lamb, which, as it grew up, +became remarkable for the long, smooth, straight, and silky character +of the fibre of the wool, and for the shortness of its horns. It was +of small size, and presented certain defects in its conformation which +have disappeared in its descendants. In 1829, M. Graux employed this +ram with a view to obtain other rams, having the same quality of wool. +The produce of 1830 only included one ram and one ewe, having the +silky quality of the wool; that of 1831 produced four rams and one ewe +with the fleece of that quality. In 1833, the rams, with the silky +variety of wool, were sufficiently numerous to serve the whole flock. +In each subsequent year the lambs have been of two kinds--one +preserving the character of the ancient race, with the curled elastic +wool, only a little longer and finer than in the ordinary merinos; the +other resembling the rams of the new breed, some of which retained the +large head, long neck, narrow chest, and long flanks of the abnormal +progenitor, whilst others combined the ordinary and better-formed body +with the fine silky wool. M. Graux, profiting by the partial +resumption of the normal type of the merino in some of the descendants +of the malformed original variety, at length succeeded, by a judicious +system of crossing and interbreeding, in obtaining a flock combining +the long silky fleece with a smaller head, shorter neck, broader +flanks, and more capacious chest. Of this breed the flocks have become +sufficiently numerous to enable the proprietor to sell examples for +exportation. The crossing of the Beauchamp variety with the ordinary +merino has also produced a valuable quality of wool, known in France +as the "Mauchamp Merino." The fine silky wool of the pure Mauchamp +breed is remarkable for its qualities, as combining wool, owing to the +strength as well as the length and fineness of the fibre. It is found +of great value by the manufacturers of Cashmere shawls, being second +only to the true Cashmere fleece in the fine flexible delicacy of the +fabric, and of particular utility when combined with the Cashmere wool +in imparting to the manufacture qualities of strength and consistence, +in which the pure Cashmere is deficient. Although the quantity of the +wool yielded by the Mauchamp variety is less than in the ordinary +merinos, the higher price which it obtains in the French market--25 +per cent. above the best merino wools--and the present value of the +breed, have fully compensated M. Graux for the pains and care +manifested by him in the establishment of the variety, and a council +medal was awarded to him.' + +We find the above abstract in the _Critic_ (London Literary Journal); +and our chief object in making the quotation, is to bring the subject +under the notice of wool-growers in the home country, as well as in +Australia. What, it may be asked, could not be done by every +store-farmer following the example of M. Graux? + + + + +A DIRGE OF LOVE. + +BY W. E. L. + + + Yes! she is dead: the splendour of her eyes + Sleeps 'neath the lids for ever; on my sight + Never again shall flash their high delight, + Tender and rich with love's sweet ecstasies. + + Never again, deep down from vulgar ken, + Shall the pure gushing of her soul rejoice, + And we stand silent, as to hear the voice + Of waters falling to a soundless glen. + + And scarce again from other lips shall come + Such beauteous truths, such fresh imaginings, + As, like the warm south-wind, upon their wings + Bear off our fancy to their own bright home. + + Yet am I calm: though hard it be to smooth + Waters upshaken from the deepest deep; + Though it be hard to watch, yet never weep, + The darkening cynosure of passionate youth; + + Yet am I calm. The heart I had to bring + Was marred with imperfection and decay, + Now the free spirit, riven from the clay, + Drinks at the fountain whence all love must spring. + + O passed from earthly to celestial love! + O reft from me and from my clinging grasp, + And circled straightway by the close, warm clasp + Of seraph bosoms in the land above! + + I will not weep thee more. But if I long + Too sorrowfully for thy presence here, + Not vainly on thy turf shall fall the tear, + But thy dead name shall blossom into song. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +MAXWELL & CO., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 22617-8.txt or 22617-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/1/22617/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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September 11, 1852 + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + max-width: 40em;} + p {text-align: justify;} + p.center {text-align: center;} + blockquote {text-align: justify; font-size: 0.9em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.8em;} + .returnTOC {text-align: right; font-size: 70%;} + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + .sc {font-variant: small-caps;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + sup {vertical-align: 0.25em;} + .note {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + .footnotes {border: none;} + .footnote .label {float:left; text-align:left; width:2em;} + .fnanchor {font-size: smaller; text-decoration: none; + font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; + font-weight: normal; vertical-align: 0.25em;} + .footnote {font-size: 0.9em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .contents + {margin-left:30%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem + {margin-left:30%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /*]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454 + Volume 18, New Series, September 11, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: William Chambers + Robert Chambers + +Release Date: September 16, 2007 [EBook #22617] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL</h1> + +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents">CONTENTS</a></h2> + +<div class="contents"> +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#MONETARY_SENSATIONS"><b>MONETARY SENSATIONS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_POSTHUMOUS_PORTRAIT"><b>THE POSTHUMOUS PORTRAIT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SAMPLES_OF_UNCLE_SAMS_CUTENESS"><b>SAMPLES OF UNCLE SAM'S 'CUTENESS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MRS_GRIMSHAWES_TREATISE_ON_HOLDFASTS"><b>MRS GRIMSHAWE'S TREATISE ON HOLDFASTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_DAYS_PLEASURING_IN_INDIA"><b>A DAY'S PLEASURING IN INDIA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_LONDON_PRISONS_OF_THE_LAST_CENTURY"><b>THE LONDON PRISONS OF THE LAST CENTURY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LIFE-ASSURANCE_OFFICES_OF_RECENT_DATE"><b>LIFE-ASSURANCE OFFICES OF RECENT DATE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ANECDOTE_OF_BURNS_IN_THE_93"><b>ANECDOTE OF BURNS IN THE '93.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CURIOUS_EXPERIMENT_IN_WOOL-GROWING"><b>CURIOUS EXPERIMENT IN WOOL-GROWING.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_DIRGE_OF_LOVE"><b>A DIRGE OF LOVE.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<img src="images/banner.png" + width="100%" + alt="Banner: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal" /> + +<h4>CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S +INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.</h4> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<table width="100%" + summary="Volume, Date and Price"> +<tr> +<td align="left"><b><span class="sc">No.</span> 454. <span class="sc">New Series.</span></b></td> +<td align="left"><b>SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1852.</b></td> +<td align="right"><b><span class="sc">Price</span> 1½<i>d</i>.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2><a name="MONETARY_SENSATIONS" id="MONETARY_SENSATIONS"></a>MONETARY SENSATIONS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> poorest and most unlucky dog in the world either has or had some +small portion of money. No matter how small, how hardly, or how +precariously earned, he has seen, from time to time, a glimpse of the +colour of his own cash, and rejoiced accordingly as that colour was +brown, white, or yellow. It follows, therefore, that even the poorest +and most unlucky dog in the world has experienced monetary sensations. +It may appear paradoxical, but it is no less true, that it is the very +rich, born to riches, the heirs to great properties, or no end of +consolidated stock, who have never enjoyed or feared the sensation to +which we allude. To them, money is a thing of course; it pours in upon +them with the regularity of the succeeding seasons. Rent-day comes of +itself, and there is the money; dividend-day is as sure as Christmas, +and there lie the receipts. These are the people who know nothing of +the commodity with which they are so well endowed, or, at most, their +knowledge is but skin-deep. They take and spend, just as they sit or +walk. Both seem natural processes; they have performed them since they +were born. Their money is a bit of themselves—an extra and uncommonly +convenient limb with which they are endowed. It is only when some +sudden catastrophe bursts upon and cuts off the supplies, that this +class of ladies and gentlemen experience, like the shock of a thousand +freezing shower-baths, their first 'monetary sensation.'</p> + +<p>But the men and women who work either with head or hands—who fight +their way—who plan to gain and plan to spend, so that the latter +shall counterbalance the former—who lie sleepless in their beds, +intent on how to make both ends meet—who are lucky and unlucky—who +travel the ups and the downs of life, here grasping fortunes, there +turning out the linings of penniless pockets: these are the people +whose whole lives are one long succession of monetary sensations. +Among them mainly is cultivated the art of looking at two sides of a +shilling. They know how to value half-crowns and sovereigns in calling +up the long arrear of hard-worked hours, which are, as it were, the +small-change of quarters' salaries and weeks' wages. How many strokes +of the steady-going pen are encircled in those bright yellow +disks—how many thumps of the ponderous hammer has it taken to produce +this handful of silver. Or on a larger scale—as the successful +speculator sweeps to himself the mass of notes and bills, all as good +as gold, for which he has set every penny of his worldly means upon +the stake, and feels with a thrill which makes him clutch the precious +paper, that had things not turned out as, thank Heaven! they have, +that then, and then!—--He has had a tolerably vigorous monetary +sensation.</p> + +<p>But the whole of the money-getting classes, and, to some extent, the +classes who merely spend what others got and gave them, can look very +well back upon a series of monetary sensations which have marked +epochs in their lives. Our remembrances of that kind are, of course, +most deeply engraved, and most clearly recollected, in the cases in +which we are working for ourselves, and have ourselves achieved steps +and triumphed over difficulties in life—each step and triumph marked +by a lengthening of the purse. But there are early monetary +impressions common to almost all the juvenile world, rich and poor—to +the children of the duke or of the mechanic, to the boy who has +obtained the price of a pony or a watch, and the boy who has been made +a present of what will buy him a twopenny story-book, or a twopenny +bun. Boys and girls commonly have poses—to adopt a phrase not known +south of the Tweed, where it must be explained, that to have a pose, +is to possess a little private and secret, or quasi-secret, hoard of +treasure. This pose frequently imparts the first monetary sensation. +It instils the first distinct idea of the value of money; it gives the +first notion of the accumulation of precious things; and the little +proprietor or proprietrix comes to rattle the box with the narrow slit +as a sort of sly enjoyment. To break into a pose would be quite +profane and irreverent. Pose-boxes do not open, and so far read a +philosophic lesson to the proprietors. Always save, always add, always +hold as a sort of sacred deposit, the mysteriously precious +pose-boxes. Occasionally, again, a child gets a present of a +sovereign, or an old-fashioned guinea, which it would be dreadful +sacrilege to change. Every one will remember how Sophy and Livy +Primrose 'never went without money themselves, as my wife always let +them have a guinea each to keep in their pockets, but with strict +injunctions never to change it.' There are hundreds of thousands of +Sophies and Livies possessed of the same sacred store, or having given +it to their parents 'to keep,' over whose minds the remembrance of the +secret hoard every now and then sends flashing across the mind of the +child a sense of importance, or richness, or a general +self-complacency which varies with the individuality. Boys and girls +in the next stages of their growth care little and think little about +money, except as a means of obtaining some trifling passing +indulgence. The childish reverence for the pose has passed. The +unopenable box has been long since opened, and the unchangeable guinea +long since changed. We allude here, of course, to the children of the +well-to-do. With the children of the poor, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[pg 162]</a></span>the case is different. +They never lose the faculty of monetary sensation. Money is too +valuable to them, because as soon as the mere childish period is past, +and sometimes before it, money to the young poor is always +translatable into good food and new clothes. There is nothing more +sadly frequent in the squalid lanes and alleys of London, than to see +a little creature, boy or girl, toddle with a chance-penny, not into +the toy-shop or the sweet-shop, but into the cook-shop, and there +spend the treasure in food, taking care, with melancholy precocity, to +have the full weight, and only a due proportion of gristle or fat. +Further on in life, when a poor boy earns a chance-sixpence or a +shilling, there is so much added to the store laying up for the new +jacket, the new cap, or the new boots; or, not unfrequently, there is +so much gained for the family exigencies of Saturday night. Here there +are monetary sensations in abundance. The life of such people is full +of them. The annuitant or the proprietor who listlessly, and without +one additional throb of his pulse, drops hundreds into his purse, has +not the ghost of an idea of the thrill of pleasure—invoking, perhaps, +a score of delightful associations—with which the boy who holds his +horse receives the sixpence, which is tossed him as the capitalist in +his normal condition rides coolly and unmovedly away. To experience +monetary sensations, you must earn the money first, and have a score +of urgent purposes disputing for its application.</p> + +<p>But perhaps one of the most vivid monetary sensations which a man +experiences, is when he is paid the first instalment of the price of +his labours. In an instant, he seems to rise and take a footing in the +world. He has struck the first blow in his Battle of Life, and +prostrated his antagonist, for whom, however, as soon as he has taken +him captive, he conceives a particular affection. The glow of assured +independence is a proud and manly feeling. The money is not <i>given</i>. +That is the overmastering sensation. It is fairly earned. The +recipient swells with honest pride as he thinks he is now a man +working his way, and strides off a couple of inches higher than he +came. This elevation of sentiment of course gradually dies away. The +monetary sensation of the first-earned payment is not supported, but +it is not forgotten, and insensibly, perhaps, to the recipient, it has +at once heightened and deepened the moral qualities and tendencies of +his spiritual being. From time to time, as remuneration ascends, a +shade, as it were, of the first impression is recalled, particularly +when the recipient perceives that at last—that great change in a +young man's life—his 'settlement' may be accomplished. Here is +another sensational era in his monetary experiences—the realisation +of the grand fact that the struggle, always promising, is at length +successful, and that he is now enlisted in the regular army of +society. The elder Stephenson, when an occasional wage of a shilling +per day was raised to a permanent two, flung up his hat, and +exclaimed: 'Thank God! I'm a made man for life!' Here was a fine +monetary sensation.</p> + +<p>But there are also monetary sensations of quite a different species +from those to which we have alluded. The sun shines on both sides of +the hedge, and blank and dreary, if not dismaying and crushing, is the +first trial of monetary difficulty. People, long struggling, get +blunted to the <i>res angustæ</i>, precisely as people fast prospering do +to the steady tide of wealth. The man who leaps heart-struck from his +seat, as for the first time he contemplates a quarter's rent due and +unprovided for, or the foolish fellow who groans in spirit over a +protested bill returned upon the hand which he 'set' to it, merely for +the convenience of acquaintance, and who has never thought of stamped +paper since—such are two of the negative monetary associations which +checker life; of course, their number is legion. The man who found his +fairy gold transmuted into oak leaves, experienced a decided monetary +sensation; but not more so than fell to the lot of many a speculator, +who had bought to his last available penny in the Mississippi or the +South-sea Bubbles; or, to come to more recent days, in the stock of +fly-away English projected railways. To the mass of monetary +sensations of the kind, we fear, must be added at the present day +those produced by betting-offices. In these swindling dens, it is by +no means uncommon to see children, whose heads hardly come above the +counter, staking their shillings; even servant-maids haunt the +'office;' working-men abound, and clerks and shop-boys are great +customers. Among these people, there ought to be a good crop of +monetary sensations. In success, the little man-boy sees a grand +vision of cheap cigars, and copper and paste jewellery; for the urchin +early initiated in practical London-life, thinks of such things, and +worse, when the country lad of the same age would dream of nothing +beyond kites, fishing-tackle, or perhaps a gun. Molly, the housemaid, +has her prospects of unbounded 'loves of dresses' and 'ducks of +bonnets;' and the clerk and the shopman very possibly count upon their +racing gains as the fruitful origin of 'sprees' and 'larks' +innumerable. On the other hand, how has the money staked been +acquired? The pawnbroker's shop and the till will very frequently +figure in the answer. Pilfered half-crowns, or perhaps sovereigns, +kept back from collected accounts; or, in domestic service, pledged +spoons and forks, are frequently at the bottom of the betting +transactions of these 'noble sportsmen.' Then comes the period of +anticipation, and hope and fear. Bright visions of luck, on one hand; +a black and down-sloping avenue, stopping at the jail door, on the +other. Luck—and the stolen property can be replaced, with a handsome +profit; the reverse—and the police-office, the magistrate, and the +sessions, float before the tortured imagination of the 'sportsman.' +Here, then, are some of the saddest, and—whether the result in any +case be winning or losing—the most wearing and degrading of monetary +sensations.</p> + +<p>We turn, however, to a concluding and a more cheering experience +connected with money, and which may be regarded as a sequel to the +sensation of the first earnings. We allude to the first interest, to +the receipt of the first sum which properly belongs to the recipient, +and yet for which he has not immediately and directly toiled. Here +another great step has been achieved. To earn money, was the first +triumph; to make money earn money, is the second. There is something +more significantly pleasing in the sensation with which the young +up-struggler of the world receives his first instalment of interest, +and yet remembers that all his original investment is still entire, +than in all the lazy satisfaction with which a great stockholder—born +perhaps to stockholding—gathers in his mighty dividends. For the +first time, the former begins to feel a taste, just a taste, of the +sweets of property, of the fruits of realisation, and of the double +profits which labour, judiciously managed, will at length bestow. It +is getting money for which he has worked and yet not worked, it is +picking up the returning bread thrown upon the waters; and it is the +first experienced sensation of a stable and assured position, of +standing upon one's own feet, independent more or less absolutely of +the caprices of fortune and the liking of employers. The first +received amount of interest, however small <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[pg 163]</a></span>it may be, assuredly calls +up one of the not easily-forgotten eras of a man's life. There is +nothing selfish or miserly in the fact. On the contrary, it is founded +upon pure and natural feelings and impulses. The most generous man in +the world likes to prosper, and the first received sum which his own +money has bred, is a palpable proof that he is prospering. From his +childish pose, he can recall the mental results attendant upon each +step of his worldly career, and look back with interest and curiosity +over what, in the course of his life, may have been his 'Monetary +Sensations.'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_POSTHUMOUS_PORTRAIT" id="THE_POSTHUMOUS_PORTRAIT"></a>THE POSTHUMOUS PORTRAIT.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">A country</span> town is not a very hopeful arena for the exercise of the +portrait-painter's art. Supposing an artist to acquire a local +celebrity in such a region, he may paint the faces of one generation, +and then, haply finding a casual job once a year or so, may sit down +and count the hours till another generation rises up and supplies him +with a second run of work. In a measure, the portrait-painter must be +a rolling-stone, or he will gather no moss. So thought Mr Conrad +Merlus, as he packed up his property, and prepared to take himself off +from the town of C——, in Wiltshire, to seek fresh fields and +pastures new, where the sun might be disposed to shine upon +portrait-painting, and where he might manage to make hay the while. +Conrad was a native of C——. In that congenial spot he had first +pursued the study of his art, cheered by the praises of the good folks +around him, and supported by their demands upon his talents. While, in +a certain fashion, he had kept the spirit of art alive in the place, +the spirit of art, in return, had kept him alive. But now all the work +was done for a long time to come; every family had its great +portraits, and would want him no more yet awhile; and Conrad saw, that +if he could not turn his hand to something else, and in place of +pencils and brushes, work with last, spade, needle, or quill, make +shoes, coats, till the ground, or cast up accounts, he should shortly +be hardly put to it to keep himself going. He had made and saved a +pretty tolerable little purse during his short season of patronage, +and determined to turn that to account in seeking, in other places, a +continuation of commissions. His father and mother were both dead, +and, so far as he knew, he had no near relative alive. Therefore, +there were no ties, save those of association, to bind him to his +native place—'No ties,' sighed Conrad, 'no ties at all.'</p> + +<p>It was Monday evening, and the next day, Tuesday, was to behold his +departure. His rent was paid, his traps were all packed up in +readiness, and he had nothing to think about, saving whither he should +proceed. He walked out, for the last time, into the little garden +behind the modest house in which he had dwelt, pensive and somewhat +<i>triste</i>; for one cannot, without sorrowful emotions of some sort, +leave, perhaps for ever, a spot in which the stream of life has flowed +peacefully and pleasantly for many years, and where many little +enjoyments, successes, and triumphs have been experienced. Even a +Crusoe cannot depart from his desolate island without a pang, although +he goes, after years of miserable solitude, to rejoin the human +family. It was the month of August, and the glory of the summer was +becoming mellowed and softened. The nights were gradually growing +longer and the days shorter, the reapers were in the harvest-fields, +the woods and groves were beginning to shew the autumn tint, the sun +sank behind the hills earlier and earlier day by day, and the broad +harvest-moon reigned throughout the sweet and fragrant nights. Conrad +felt the influence of the season, and though he had for some time +contemplated his departure from his home with all the cheerfulness +which the spirit of adventure imparts to young men, he now, as the +time arrived, felt inclined to weep over the separation. He was +indulging in reveries of a mournful complexion, when he observed his +landlady leave the house, and, entering the garden, bustle towards him +in a great hurry. Assured by the manner of the worthy old lady that he +was wanted, and urgently, by some one or other, he rose from the +rustic seat on which he had been sitting, and went to meet her. A +gentleman had called to see him, in a phaeton, and was waiting in the +parlour in a state of impatience and excitement which Mrs Farrell had +never seen the like of. Wondering who the visitor could be, Conrad +hastened into the parlour. He found there an elderly individual of +gentlemanly appearance, who was walking to and fro restlessly, and +whose countenance and demeanour bore affecting evidences of agitation +and sorrow. He approached Conrad quickly.</p> + +<p>'You are a portrait-painter, Mr Merlus?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir.'</p> + +<p>'The only one, I believe, in this neighbourhood?'</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'I am anxious,' continued the gentleman, speaking in a low tone, and +with a tremulous earnestness that rendered his speech peculiarly +emphatic—'I am anxious to have painted the portrait of one who +is—who was—very very dear to me, immediately—<i>immediately</i>, for a +few hours may make such a performance impossible. May I beg that you +will submit to some sacrifice of convenience—that you will be good +enough to set aside your arrangements for a day or two to execute this +work? Do so, and you shall find that you have lost nothing.'</p> + +<p>'Without entertaining any consideration of that sort, sir,' answered +Conrad, deeply touched by the manner of his visitor, which betokened +recent and heavy affliction, 'my best abilities, such as they are, are +immediately at your service.'</p> + +<p>'Many thanks,' answered the gentleman, pressing his hand warmly. 'Had +you declined, I know not what I should have done; for there is no +other of the profession in this neighbourhood, and there is no time to +seek further. Come; for Heaven's sake, let us hasten.'</p> + +<p>Conrad immediately gave the necessary intimation to his landlady; his +easel, pallet, and painting-box were quickly placed in the phaeton; +the gentleman and himself took their places inside; and the coachman +drove off at as great a pace as a pair of good horses could command.</p> + +<p>Twilight was deepening into dusk when, after a silent and rapid ride +of some ten miles, the phaeton stopped before the gates of a park-like +demesne. The coachman shouted; when a lad, who appeared to have been +waiting near the spot, ran and opened the gates, and they resumed +their way through a beautiful drive—the carefully-kept sward, the +venerable trees, and the light and elegant ha-has on either side, +testifying that they were within the boundaries of an estate of some +pretensions. Half a mile brought them to the portal of a sombre and +venerable mansion, which rose up darkly and majestically in front of +an extensive plantation of forest-like appearance. Facing it was a +large, level lawn, having in the centre the pedestal and sun-dial so +frequently found in such situations.</p> + +<p>A footman in livery came forth, and taking Conrad's easel and +apparatus, carried them into the house. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[pg 164]</a></span>young artist, who had +always lived and moved among humble people, was surprised and abashed +to find himself suddenly brought into contact with wealth and its +accompaniments, and began to fear that more might be expected of him +than he would be able to accomplish. The occasion must be urgent +indeed, thought he nervously, which should induce wealthy people to +have recourse to him—a poor, self-taught, obscure artist—merely +because he happened to be the nearest at hand. However, to draw back +was impossible; and, although grief is always repellent, there was +still an amount of kindness and consideration in the demeanour of his +new employer that reassured him. Besides, he knew that, let his +painting be as crude and amateur-like as any one might please to +consider it, he had still the undoubted talent of being able to catch +a likeness—indeed, his ability to do this had never once failed him. +This reflection gave him some consolation, and he resolved to +undertake courageously whatever was required of him, and do his best.</p> + +<p>When they had entered the house, the door was softly closed, and the +gentleman, whose name we may here mention was Harrenburn, conducted +Conrad across the hall, and up stairs to an apartment on the second +storey, having a southern aspect. The proportions of the house were +noble. The wide entrance-hall was boldly tesselated with white and +black marble; the staircase was large enough for a procession of +giants; the broad oaken stairs were partly covered with thick, rich +carpet; fine pictures, in handsome frames, decorated the walls; and +whenever they happened in their ascent to pass an opened door, Conrad +could see that the room within was superbly furnished. To the poor +painter, these evidences of opulence and taste seemed to have +something of the fabulous about them. The house was good enough for a +monarch; and to find a private gentleman of neither rank nor title +living in such splendour, was what he should never have expected. Mr +Harrenburn placed his finger on his lips, as he opened the door of the +chamber already indicated; Conrad followed him in with stealthy steps +and suppressed breath. The room was closely curtained, and a couple of +night-lights shed their feeble and uncertain rays upon the objects +within it. The height of the apartment, and the absorbing complexion +of the dark oaken wainscot, here and there concealed by falls of +tapestry, served to render such an illumination extremely inefficient. +But Conrad knew that this must be the chamber of death, even before he +was able to distinguish that an apparently light and youthful figure +lay stretched upon the bed—still, motionless, impassive, as death +alone can be. Two women, dressed in dark habiliments—lately nurses of +the sick, now watchers over the dead—rose from their seats, and +retired silently to a distant corner of the room as Mr Harrenburn and +Conrad entered. Where does the poor heart suffer as it does in the +chamber of the dead, where lies, as in this instance, the corpse of a +beloved daughter? A hundred objects, little thought of heretofore, +present themselves, and by association with the lost one, assume a +power over the survivor. The casual objects of everyday life rise up +and seize a place in the fancy and memory, and, become invested with +deep, passionate interest, as relics of the departed. There is the +dress which lately so well became her; there the little shoes in which +she stepped so lightly and gracefully; there the book which she was +reading only yesterday, the satin ribbon still between the pages at +which she had arrived when she laid it down for ever; there the cup +from which she drank but a few hours back; there the toilet, with all +its little knick-knacks, and the glass which so often mirrored her +sweet face.</p> + +<p>Thus Conrad instinctively interpreted the glances which Mr Harrenburn +directed at the objects around him. The bereaved father standing +motionless, regarded one thing and then another with a sort of absent +attention, which, under other circumstances, would have appeared like +imbecility or loss of self-command, but now was full of a +deeply-touching significance, which roused the sympathies of the young +painter more powerfully than the finest eloquence could have done. He +seemed at first to shun the bed, as if the object lying there were too +powerful a source of grief to bear—seemed to be anxious to discover +in some minor souvenirs of sorrow, a preparatory step, which should +enable him to approach with seemly and rational composure the mute +wreck of his beloved child—the cast-shell of the spirit which had +been the pride and joy, the hope and comfort of his life. But +presently he succeeded in mastering this sensibility, and approaching +the bed, motioned Conrad to follow him. He gently drew aside the +curtain which had concealed the face of the figure that was lying +there. Conrad started. Could that be death? That hair, so freshly +black and glossy; those slightly-parted lips, on which the light of +fancy still seemed to play; the teeth within, so white and +healthy-looking; the small, well-shapen hand and arm, so listlessly +laid along the pillow: could these be ready for the grave? It seemed +so much like sleep, and so little like death, that Conrad, who had +never looked upon the dead before, was amazed. When he saw the eyes, +however, visible betwixt the partly-opened lids, his scepticism +vanished. The cold, glazed, fixed unmeaningness of them chilled and +frightened him—they did really speak of the tomb.</p> + +<p>'My daughter,' said Mr Harrenburn, to whose tone the effort of +self-command now communicated a grave and cold severity. 'She died at +four this afternoon, after a very short illness—only in her twentieth +year. I wish to have her represented exactly as she lies now. From the +window there, in the daytime, a strong light is thrown upon this spot; +so that I do not think it will be needful to make any new disposition +either of the bed or its poor burden. Your easel and other matters +shall be brought here during the night. I will rouse you at five in +the morning, and you will then, if you please, use your utmost +expedition.'</p> + +<p>Conrad promised to do all he could to accomplish the desire of the +afflicted parent, and after the latter had approached the bed, leaned +over it, and kissed the cold lips of his child, they left the room to +the dead and its silent watchers.</p> + +<p>After a solemn and memorable evening, Conrad was shewn to his bedroom, +and there dreamed through the livelong night—now, that he was riding +at frightful speed through woods and wilds with Mr Harrenburn, +hurrying with breathless haste to avert some catastrophe that was +about to happen somewhere to some one; now, that he was intently +painting a picture of the corpse of a beautiful young lady—terribly +oppressed by nervousness, and a fretful sense of incapacity most +injurious to the success of his labours—when suddenly, O horror! he +beheld the body move, then rise, in a frightful and unnatural manner, +stark upright, and with opened lips, but rigidly-clenched teeth, utter +shriek upon shriek as it waved its white arms, and tore its streaming +hair; then, that his landlady, Mrs Farrell, came up to him, as he +crouched weeping and trembling by, and bade him be comforted, for that +they who were accustomed to watch by the dead often beheld such +scenes; then that Mr Harrenburn suddenly entered the room, and sternly +reproached him for not proceeding with his work, when, on looking +towards the bed, they perceived that the corpse was gone, and was +nowhere to be seen, upon which Mr Harrenburn, with a wild cry, laid +hands upon him, as if to slay him on the spot.</p> + +<p>'You do not sleep well.' A hand was gently laid upon his shoulder; a +kind voice sounded in his ear: he opened his eyes; Mr Harrenburn was +standing at his bedside. 'You have not slept well, I regret to find.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[pg 165]</a></span> +I have knocked at your door several times, but, receiving no reply, +ventured to enter. I have relieved you from an unpleasant dream, I +think.'</p> + +<p>Conrad, somewhat embarrassed by the combined influence of the +nightmare, and being awakened suddenly by a stranger in a strange +place, informed his host that he always dreamed unpleasantly when he +slept too long, and was sorry that he had given so much trouble.</p> + +<p>'It is some minutes past five o'clock,' said Mr Harrenburn. 'Tea and +coffee will be waiting for you by the time you are dressed: doubtless, +breakfast will restore you, and put you in order for your work; for +really you have been dreaming in a manner which appeared very painful, +whatever the experience might have been.'</p> + +<p>Conrad rose, dressed, breakfasted, and did undoubtedly feel much more +comfortable and lighthearted than during the night. He was shortly +conducted to the chamber in which he had received so many powerful +impressions on the preceding evening, and forthwith commenced the task +he had engaged to perform. Conrad was by no means a young man of a +romantic or sentimental turn, but it is not to be wondered at, that +his present occupation should produce a deep effect upon his mind. The +form and features he was now endeavouring to portray were certainly +the most beautiful he had as yet exercised his art upon—indeed, +without exception, the most beautiful he had ever beheld. The +melancholy spectacle of youth cut off in the first glow of life's +brightest season, and when surrounded by everything that wealth and +education can contribute towards rendering existence brilliant and +delightful, can never fail to excite deep and solemn emotion. As the +artist laboured to give a faithful representation of the sweetly +serene face, the raven hair, the marble forehead, the delicately +arched brow, the exquisitely formed nose and mouth, and thought how +well such noble beauty seemed to suit one who was fit to die—a pure, +spotless, bright being—he had more than once to pause in his work +while he wiped the tears from his eyes. Few experiences chasten the +heart so powerfully as the sight of the early dead; those who live +among us a short while, happy and good, loving and beloved, and then +are suddenly taken away, ere the rough journey of life is well begun, +leaving us to travel on through the perilous and difficult world by +ourselves; no more sweet words for us, no more songs, no more +companionship, no more loving counsel and assistance—nothing now, +save the remembrance of beauty and purity departed. How potent is that +remembrance against the assaults of evil thoughts! How impressive the +thought of virtue in the shroud!</p> + +<p>With one or two necessary intervals, Conrad worked throughout the day, +and until the declining light warned him to desist. The next morning +he resumed his pallet, and in about four or five hours brought his +task to a conclusion, taking, in addition to the painting he was +commissioned to make, a small crayon sketch for himself. It was his +wish to preserve some memento of what he regarded as the most +remarkable of his experiences, and likewise to possess a 'counterfeit +presentment' of a face the beauty of which he had never seen equalled. +Mr Harrenburn expressed himself highly gratified by the manner in +which Conrad had acquitted himself—he only saw the painting, of +course—and taking him into his study, bade him persevere in his art, +and paid him fifty guineas; a sum which almost bereft the young man of +his senses, it seemed so vast, and came so unexpectedly, after all his +misgivings, especially in the presence of one who, to judge from the +taste he had exhibited in his collection, must be no ordinary +connoisseur.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to describe the remarkable influence which this +adventure exercised upon the young artist. His susceptible mind +received an impression from this single association with a scene of +death on the one hand, and an appreciating patron on the other, which +affected the whole of his future life. He returned to C——, bade +adieu to his landlady and friends, and, placing himself and his +luggage upon the London coach, proceeded to the metropolis. Here, +after looking about him for some time, and taking pains to study the +various masters in his art, he made a respectful application to one +who stood among the highest in repute, and whose works had pleased his +own taste and fancy better than any he had seen. After much earnest +pleading, and offering very nearly all the little wealth he possessed, +he was accepted as a pupil, to receive a course of ten lessons. With +great assiduity he followed the instructions of the master, and +learned the mysteries of colouring, and a great number of artistic +niceties, all tending to advance him towards perfection of execution. +He was really possessed of natural talents of a high order, and in the +development of these he now evinced great acuteness, as well as +industry. His master, an artist who had made a reputation years +before, and who had won high patronage, and earned for himself a large +fortune, thus being beyond the reach of any feelings of professional +jealousy, was much delighted with Conrad's progress, was proud to have +discovered and taught an artist of really superior talent; and +generously returning to him the money he had lately received with so +much mistrust and even nausea—for a raw pupil is the horror of +<i>cognoscenti</i>—he forthwith established him as his protégé. Thanks to +his introduction, Conrad shortly received a commission of importance, +and had the honour of painting the portrait of one of the most +distinguished members of the British aristocracy. He exerted all his +powers in the work, and was rewarded with success; the portrait caused +some sensation, and was regarded as a <i>chef-d'œuvre</i>. Thus +auspiciously wooed, Fortune opened her arms, and gave him a place +among her own favoured children. The first success was succeeded by +others, commission followed commission; and, to be brief, after four +years of incessant engagements and unwearied industry, he found +himself owner of a high reputation and a moderate independence.</p> + +<p>During all this time, and throughout the dazzling progress of his +fortunes, the crayon sketch of poor Miss Harrenburn was preserved and +prized, and carried wherever he went with never-failing care and +solicitude. Sanctified by indelible associations, it was to him a +sacred amulet—a charm against evil thoughts, a stimulant to virtue +and purity—this picture of the young lady lying dead, gone gently to +the last account in the midst of her beauty and untainted goodness. +Its influence made him a pure-minded, humble, kind, and charitable +man. Living quietly and frugally, he constantly devoted a large +proportion of his extensive earnings to the relief of the miseries of +the unfortunate; and such traits did not pass without due recognition: +few who knew him spoke of his great talents without bearing testimony +to the beauty of his moral character.</p> + +<p>But everything may be carried to excess; even the best feelings may be +cherished to an inordinate degree. Many of the noblest characters the +world has produced have overreached their intentions, and sunk into +fanaticism. Conrad, in the fourth year of his success, was fast +merging from a purist into an ascetic; he began to weary of the world, +and to desire to live apart from it, employing his life, and the +fortune he had already accumulated, solely in works of charity and +beneficence. While in this state of mind, he determined to proceed on +a continental tour. After spending some time in France, where many an +Hôtel Dieu was benefited by his bounty, he travelled into Switzerland. +At Chamouni, he made a stay of some days, residing in the cottage of +an herbalist named Wegner, in preference to using the hotels so well +known to tourists.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>One evening, he had walked some distance along the road towards Mont +Blanc, and, in a tranquil and contemplative mood, had paused to watch +the various effects of sunset. He leaned against a tree by the +roadside, at the corner of a path which led from the highway to a +private residence. Again it was August, exactly four years since he +had quitted C——, exactly four years since the most singular event of +his life had occurred. He took from his breast the little crayon +sketch, carefully preserved in a black morocco-case, and, amid the +most beautiful scenery in the world, gave way to a reverie in which +the past blended with the future—his thoughts roaming from the +heavenly beauty of the death-bed scene to the austere sanctity of St +Bernard or La Trappe. Strange fancies for one who had barely completed +his twenty-seventh year, and who was in the heyday of fame and +fortune! Suddenly, the sound of approaching footsteps was heard. +Conrad hastily closed the morocco-case, replaced it in his breast, and +was preparing to continue his walk, when an elegant female figure +abruptly emerged from the bypath; and the features, turned fully +towards him—O Heavens!—who could mistake? The very same he had +painted!—the same which had dwelt in his heart for years! The shock +was too tremendous: without a sigh or exclamation, Conrad fell +senseless to the ground.</p> + +<p>When he revived, he found himself lying upon a sofa in a +well-furnished chamber, with the well-remembered form and features of +Mr Harrenburn bending over him. It seemed as if the whole course of +the last four years had been a long dream—that Mr Harrenburn, in +fact, was rousing him to perform the task for which he had sought him +out at C——. For awhile Conrad was dreadfully bewildered.</p> + +<p>'I can readily comprehend this alarm and amazement,' said his host, +holding Conrad's hand, and shaking it as if it were that of an old +friend, newly and unexpectedly met. 'But be comforted; you have not +seen a spirit, but a living being, who, after undergoing a terrible +and perilous crisis four years ago, awoke from her death-sleep to heal +her father's breaking heart, and has since been his pride and joy as +of yore—her health completely restored, and her heart and mind as +light and bright as ever.'</p> + +<p>'Indeed!—indeed!' gasped Conrad.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' continued Mr Harrenburn, whose countenance, Conrad observed, +wore an appearance very different from that which affliction had +imparted to it four years previously. 'The form on the bed which your +pencil imitated so well, remained so completely unchanged, that my +heart began to tremble with a new agony. I summoned an eminent +physician the very day on which you completed the sad portrait, and, +detailing the particulars of her case, besought him to study it, +hoping—I hardly dared to confess what. God bless him! he did study +the case: he warned me to delay interment; and, three days after, my +daughter opened her eyes and spoke. She had been entranced, +catalepsed, no more—though, had it not been for this stubborn +unbelief of a father's heart, she had been entombed! But it harrows me +to think of this! Are you better now, and quite reassured as to the +object of your alarm? I have watched your career with strong interest +since that time, my young friend, and let me congratulate you on your +success—a success which has by no means surprised me, although I +never beheld more than <i>one</i> of your performances.'</p> + +<p>Mr Harrenburn had passed the summer, with his daughter, at Chamouni, +in a small but convenient and beautifully situated château. He +intended to return to England in a few weeks, and invited Conrad to +spend the interim with him—an invitation which the latter accepted +with much internal agitation. For three weeks he lived in the same +house, walked in the same paths, with the youthful saint of his +reveries—heard her voice, marked her thoughts, observed her conduct, +and found with rapture that his ideal was living indeed.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>After a sequence, which the reader may easily picture to himself, +Conrad Merlus and Julia Harrenburn were married. Among the prized +relics at Harrenburn House, in Wiltshire, where he and his wife are +living, are the 'posthumous' portrait and the crayon sketch; and +these, I suppose, will be preserved as heirlooms in the family +archives.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="SAMPLES_OF_UNCLE_SAMS_CUTENESS" id="SAMPLES_OF_UNCLE_SAMS_CUTENESS"></a>SAMPLES OF UNCLE SAM'S 'CUTENESS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">In</span> some respects, Uncle Sam and Brother Jonathan are 'familiar as +household words' on the lips of John Bull; but it may be safely +affirmed, notwithstanding, that the English know less of the Americans +than the Americans know of the English. We are in the way of meeting +with our transatlantic cousins very frequently, and never without +having our present affirmation abundantly confirmed. This mingled +ignorance and indifference on the part of Englishmen to what is going +on in Yankeedom, besides being discreditable, will soon be injurious, +as any one may satisfy himself by a perusal of a couple of pleasant +volumes from the pen of Captain Mackinnon,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> who travelled through +the States lately, with his eyes open, not to their faults only, as +might have been expected in an officer of Her Majesty's navy, but to +their virtues, attainments, and enterprises. He has been out spying +the land, and brings back a report which, though not new to those in +the habit of reading American newspapers, and talking with American +visitors, will be both new and interesting—we should hope +stimulative—to the majority of our countrymen. We shall fulfil a +duty, and confer benefit as well as pleasure, by picking out of the +captain's log-book some of the choicest samples of Uncle Sam's +'cuteness, which will serve to shew, at the same time, the progress +and prospects of that great commonwealth.</p> + +<p>Captain Mackinnon believes the mind of the Americans to be the keenest +and most adaptable in the world. They acquire information of any kind +so rapidly, and have such ready dexterity in mechanical employments, +that the very slightest efforts put them on a par with Europeans of +far greater experience. After describing New York—which we shall +return to, if we have space—the author gives the results of a visit +to the dockyards at Brooklyn, Boston, and other places. Brooklyn +'contains perhaps the finest dry-dock in the world.' Here he saw all +the latest English improvements improved! He was informed, on +unquestionable authority, that no new instrument of war is elaborated +in England, without being immediately known to the authorities in the +United States; and that the commission of naval officers, now sitting +at Washington to re-organise the navy ordnance and gunnery exercise, +are assisted materially by the experience of men educated in Her +Majesty's ship <i>Excellent</i>.</p> + +<p>The first object of interest in approaching the Fulton Ferry was a +large ship, which was loading with wheat for Europe. To accelerate the +introduction of the cargo, a grain-elevator was employed. This novel +machine pumped the grain from barges or canal-boats, on one side, in a +continuous stream into the ship's hold, at the rate of 2000 bushels +per hour. It was not only passed into the vessel at this prodigious +rate, but likewise accurately measured in the operation. American +naval officers have taken a hint from this ingenious labour-saving +contrivance, and successfully adapted it to the purpose of supplying +powder with great speed and regularity to the batteries of large +ships.</p> + +<p>What are those huge castles rushing madly across the East River? Let +us cross in the <i>Montauk</i> from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[pg 167]</a></span> Fulton Ferry, and survey the freight. +There are fourteen carriages; and the passengers are countless—at +least 600. Onward she darts at headlong speed, until, apparently in +perilous proximity to her wharf, a frightful collision appears +inevitable. The impatient Yankees press—each to be the first to jump +ashore. The loud 'twang' of a bell is suddenly heard; the powerful +engine is quickly reversed, and the way of the vessel is so +instantaneously stopped, that the dense mass of passengers insensibly +leans forward from the sudden check. These boats cost about L.6000. In +economy, beauty, commodiousness, and speed, they form a striking +contrast to the steam-ferry from Portsmouth to Gosport, which cost, it +is said, L.20,000. The author strongly advises persons in Europe, who +have any intention of projecting steam-ferries, to take a leaf out of +the Yankee book. As an example: If the Portsmouth Ferry had been +conducted on the same principles as the Fulton Ferry, a very large +profit would have ensued, instead of the concern being overwhelmed in +debt.</p> + +<p>Here is another sample of Yankee <i>go-aheadism</i>. A launch! We are in +Webb's shipbuilding-yard. Look around. Five huge vessels are on the +stocks: three are to be launched at highwater. The first is a liner of +1708 tons, built for running, and, with a fair wind, it will outsail +any man-of-war afloat. The second is a steamer of 2500 tons. The third +is a gigantic yacht of 1500 tons, nearly as sharp as any yacht in +England. Five thousand seven hundred and eight tons were launched from +one builder, and within thirty minutes!</p> + +<p>The clipper-ships, although certainly the finest class of vessels +afloat, are very uneasy in a sea. Mr Steers, the builder of the +far-famed yacht <i>America</i>, is very sanguine that he will produce a +faster vessel than has yet ploughed the seas, and Captain Mackinnon is +inclined to believe that he will. His new clipper-vessels will be as +easy in motion as superior in sailing. The great merit of Mr Steers, +as the builder of the <i>America</i>, is in his having invented a perfectly +original model, as new in America as in Europe. He informed our author +that the idea, so successfully carried out in the <i>America's</i> model, +struck him when a boy of eight years old. He was looking on at the +moulding of a vessel by his father (an Englishman), when suddenly it +occurred to him that a great improvement might be made in the +construction; and the <i>modus operandi</i> speedily took possession of his +mind. Mr Steers thinks that a shallow vessel, with a sliding keel, can +be built to outsail any vessel even on his improved model. This is +likely to be tested next summer in England, as a sloop, the <i>Silvia</i>, +built by Steers on this construction, is preparing to try her speed at +Cowes next season. The author carefully noted this craft when on the +stocks alongside the <i>America</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and he believes, 'that no vessel in +England has the ghost of a chance against her.'</p> + +<p>The English ship-builders have a great deal to learn from Brother +Jonathan, not only in the fashion of build, but likewise in the +'fitting and rigging.' An American London liner is sailed with half +the number of men required by an English ship of the same size, and +yet the work is got through as well and as expeditiously. The various +mechanical contrivances to save labour might be beneficially copied by +English ships.</p> + +<p>A merchant-vessel, on the clipper principle, can be turned out by a +Baltimore builder for from L.10 to L.12 a ton, complete in all her +fittings. This is much cheaper than in England, which appears +unaccountable, considering the rate of wages; but so much more work is +done by the workmen for their wages, that labour is as cheap, if not +cheaper, there than here. 'Cotton-duck' sails are almost exclusively +used by American vessels under 300 tons, which for such vessels, as +well as for yachts, is much better and cheaper than canvas. Another +circumstance which struck the author at Baltimore—and which is +equally striking to hear of to those who are accustomed to the sight +of the Thames barges ascending and descending the river, in all their +ugliness and filth, with the flow and ebb of each tide—was, that the +vessels intended for the lowest and most degrading offices, such as +carrying manure, oysters, and wood, were of 'elegant and symmetrical +proportions!'</p> + +<p>The most potent proofs of Uncle Sam's 'cuteness are to be found in the +patent office at Washington. Inventions pour in in such abundance, +that already the space allotted to them is so completely crammed, as +to preclude the possibility of any close investigation. The dockyard +at Washington furnished matter for fresh reflection; the iron for +cables, furnished by contract, being so superior to the old, that the +testing-links were all broken on the first trial, the model-anchors +being 'an immense improvement,' &c.</p> + +<p>'And to whom do you suppose we are indebted for all these +improvements, and many more too tedious to mention?' asked the +officer. 'Why, to an English dockyard-master from Devonport.'</p> + +<p>So much for their progress on the eastern coast: now let us turn +westward, ascending the Hudson by one of the river—steamers. Without +doubt, these steam—vessels are the swiftest and best arranged known; +but the speed and size are improving so rapidly, that what is correct +now, may be far behind the mark a year hence. The <i>Isaac Newton</i> is at +present the largest. The saloon, which is gorgeously decorated, is 100 +yards long. In this vast, vaulted apartment, the huge mirrors, elegant +carving, and profuse gilding, absolutely dazzle the eye. On first +entering one of these magnificent floating saloons, it is difficult +for the imagination to realise its position. All comparison is at once +defied, as there is nothing like it afloat in the world.</p> + +<p>The extent of the lake-trade is prodigious. Its aggregate value for +1850, imports and exports, amounts to 186,484,905 dollars, which is +more by 40,000,000 dollars than the whole foreign export-trade of the +country! The aggregate tonnage employed on the lakes is equal to +203,041 tons, of which 167,137 tons are American, and 35,904 British. +The passenger-trade is not included in the preceding sum; it is valued +at 1,000,000 dollars. 'The mind is lost in astonishment at so +prodigious a commerce. It is not ten years since the first steamer ran +round the chain of lakes. Population, and its commercial concomitants, +are increasing so rapidly, that before twenty years, the lake-trade +alone will be of greater extent and importance than the whole trade of +any other nation on the globe!' The number of emigrants from Europe +and the eastern states annually passing through Buffalo for the Far +West is now one million, and likely, by and by, to increase to two +millions! Cities are consequently rising up with extraordinary +rapidity. The population of Detroit, for example, has increased, +during the last ten years, from 11,000 to 26,000—an advance which is +mainly owing to the facilities afforded by the Michigan Central +Railway, for concentrating on their passage the westward-bound +emigrants. An absurd spirit of speculation has likewise contributed to +the increase. A building and farming mania, similar to the railway +mania in England six years ago, has seized the people. The only +salvation for the speculators is the continued increase of vast swarms +of emigrants from Europe. Chicago is another example of rapid +increase—namely, from 3000 in 1840, to above 20,000 in 1850; a growth +which it mainly owes to its advantageous site at the head of the +navigation of the chain of lakes. Milwaukie is also a wonderful +instance of progress. In 1838, there was not a single house on the +spot: in 1840, there was a village with 1700 inhabitants; in 1850, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[pg 168]</a></span>there was a city of 20,000! Twenty years ago, the land on which it +stands was not worth more than the government price, which is about +5s. 5d. per acre: at present, the lots are valued, in good locations, +at L.40 a foot frontage. The result is speculation; with sudden +fortunes on the one hand, and sudden ruin on the other. Emigrants, as +well as citizens themselves, have to 'move on' further west; and hence +they are covering Wisconsin, Minesota, and other territories. Nothing +can now arrest the flowing tide till it dash against the Rocky +Mountains, and meet the counter-tide setting in from the coast of the +Pacific.</p> + +<p>The district around Lake Winnebago seems, according to our author's +account, to be a tempting spot for emigrants; and as there cannot be +the least suspicion of his having an interest in trumpeting it up, it +may be as well that the reader should know where 'Paradise Restored' +is to be found. Lake Winnebago is not one of those huge inland oceans, +with winds and waves, storms and shipwrecks upon it, but a quiet, snug +sheet of water like Loch Lomond, which it resembles in size, and, if +we may judge from a paper-description, in appearance. 'It is about +thirty miles long, and ten to twelve broad. A high ridge of limestone +bounds it on the east, sloping gradually down to the edge of the +water. Numerous natural clearings or prairies relieve the sameness of +the luxuriant forests. On the western side, the land invades the lake +in long, low capes and peninsulas. The fragrance of the air, the +exquisite verdure of the trees, the gorgeous colours of the prairie +flowers, and the artist-like arrangements of the "oak openings," and +wild meadows, are delights never to be forgotten. The most elaborate +and cultivated scenery in Europe falls into insignificance in +comparison. I was struck with astonishment that such "a garden of +Eden" should be so little known, even in the eastern states—that such +extraordinary advantages should be neglected. After a careful +examination of many places in the western portion of the United +States, I advisedly assert, that Lake Winnebago District is the most +desirable and the finest in the world for emigrants.'</p> + +<p>His reasons for this opinion are briefly, that it has communication +with the Atlantic on each border of the state—by the Mississippi on +the west, and Lake Michigan on the east; that the soil is very +fertile, and the climate remarkably healthy, being more equable than +the same latitude on sea-board, and quite free from fever or ague. +With great glee, the captain details a sporting excursion in this +romantic district, in the course of which he fell in with an old +acquaintance in the shape of an under-keeper from one of the Scottish +moors. He had emigrated two years, and become a 'laird.' His remarks +displayed great 'cuteness, and as it was on Uncle Sam's soil, it must +be placed to Uncle Sam's credit. Their conversation was so amusing as +well as instructive, that we quote it.</p> + +<p>'"Ah, sir," said the Scotchman, "if the quality in England only knew +there was a place like this, do you think they would go and pay such +extravagant rents for the mere shooting in Scotland? No, sir, not +they. My old master paid five hundred pounds a year for his moor +adjacent to Loch Ness."</p> + +<p>"And pray what did he get for it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, not half such sport as he can get here," replied he.</p> + +<p>"Truly," I rejoined; "but remember the distance, and expense of coming +here."</p> + +<p>"As for the distance, you can, at present, be here from London in +fourteen days. In two years, the rail will be finished to Fond-du-Lac, +and you will be enabled to get here in eleven days. The expense, as I +will prove, will not only be far less, but it may be turned into a +positive gain."</p> + +<p>'I pricked up my ears at this assertion, and requested my old +acquaintance, the ex-keeper, to proceed.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, look 'ee here: suppose a party of five gentlemen subscribe +five hundred pounds apiece, that will be two thousand five hundred +pounds. With one thousand five hundred pounds, they can purchase a +quantity of land, and build an excellent house, stable, and offices on +Doty Island, in a position which, in ten years' time, will increase +greatly in value as an eligible site for building allotments. The very +fact of such an establishment by wealthy English gentlemen will cause +the land to rise in value enormously; and I will warrant that in five +years it will be worth ten times the present cost. From their location +on Doty Island, they would have the finest fresh-water fishing in the +world. They would have thirty miles lake-shore for deer-shooting; and +dense woods, forty miles back to Lake Michigan, where bears, and +catamounts, and other wild animals are plentiful. Abundance of wild +fowl, quail, and wood-cocks would be found everywhere."</p> + +<p>"Stop," exclaimed I, interrupting him; "what are we to do about the +main point—the grouse-shooting? Besides, remember there is another +thousand pounds to account for."</p> + +<p>"Don't interrupt, please sir; I am coming to that. I know several +districts of country in this neighbourhood with natural boundaries, +such as creeks, rivers, thick belts of trees, &c. These districts vary +from five thousand to twenty thousand acres, and are so fertile that +Europeans cannot even imagine such richness. Five hundred pounds you +could lend to the farmers at twelve per cent. per annum. Many of them +pay from two to eight per cent. <i>per month</i>. You would thus, by +accommodating the farmers, have the best-stocked preserves, and the +most friendly occupiers of the soil that can be found. The remaining +five hundred pounds you might keep to improve your lands, or invest at +twelve per cent. as the other half. If thus invested, you would get +twelve per cent. on one thousand pounds, nearly equal to five per +cent. upon the whole sum laid out, and the land increasing in value in +a prodigious ratio."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!" thought I, with enthusiasm. "I will pop you in print, my +lad."'</p> + +<p>We 'pop him in print' with similar good-will. His scheme would be an +admirable one, save and except that there is an ocean to cross before +reaching Doty Island. We commend it to the New Yorkers and gentlemen +of the eastern states, who wish to have a hunting-field such as the +old monarchs of Europe would have envied. The scheme, notwithstanding, +does credit to the ingenuity of its propounder, who thereby proves +himself the right sort of man for the country he has chosen to call +his own.</p> + +<p>Another conversation which our author relates, affords an unequivocal +sample of real aboriginal 'cuteness. Captain Mackinnon impresses us, +as he did the Americans, as a frank, hearty fellow, who can make +himself at home at once, anywhere, and with any one. During his short +sporting excursion, he seems to have picked acquaintance with nearly +all the happy inhabitants of that western Eden with which he had +become so enraptured. Strolling along one day, he met with a tall, +gaunt Yankee, who knew him, and invited him into his log-cabin for a +social glass and a 'crack' after it. This semi-savage-looking fellow +had been a soldier, and delighted, like his guest, in the title of +captain. He had been fighting in Mexico and California with the +'Injuns.' As he of Doty Island had a proposal to make to British +sportsmen, so Captain Ezekiah Conclin Brum had 'a proposal to make to +the British government.' He had heard of our Cape and Caffre war, and +wondering how and why we did not make a shorter work of that awkward +business, he sent to England for a British infantry musket, which he +produced. 'Well, captin, did ever you see such a clumsy varment in all +your born days? Now, captin, look out of the doorway: do you see that +<i>blazed</i> stump? It is seven feet high, and broader than any man. It's +exactly one hundred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[pg 169]</a></span>and fifty yards from my door. I have fired that +clumsy varment at the stump till my head ached and my shoulder was +quite sore, and have hardly hit it once. Now, then, captin, look 'ee +here (taking up his seven-barrelled revolving rifle, and letting fly +one barrel after the other): I guess you will find seven bullets in +the <i>blazed</i> stump. I will, however, stick seven playing cards on the +stump, in different places, and, if you choose, hit them all.' After +sundry but unaccepted offers to his English brother-militant for a +trial of mutual destructiveness, he made his offer to the British +government through its representative, but which that loyal subject, +in a fit of mortification, declined to convey, on the ground that if +he 'made the finest offer in the world to the British government, they +would only sneer' at him. However (to give, as before, the substance +of what is here detailed with amusing effect), the offer of Captain +Brum was to enlist 5000 Yankee marksmen, each armed with a +seven-barrelled revolving rifle, and kill 'all the Injuns' at the Cape +in six months for the sum of 5,000,000 dollars! 'We should be ekal,' +quoth he, 'to thirty thousand troops with such tarnal, stiff, clumsy +consarns as them reg'lation muskets is. We should do it slick, right +away.' This may seem only a piece of fun, but such it does not appear +to the author, who turns from fun to facts and figures, and calculates +what would be the result of an encounter between English and American +men-of-war, if the latter had ten men in each top handling Captain +Brum's weapon with Captain Brum's skill; and the result he comes to +is, that they could, in one minute and a half, dispose of 210 men on +the opposite deck. <i>This would amount to the destruction of the whole +crew stationed on the upper deck!</i> The undoubted <i>possibility</i> of such +a summary mode of annihilating an enemy, must soon change the system +of warfare, and at least demands grave consideration. We make no +comment upon this, as we should be inclined to do were we not +announcing the forebodings of a naval officer, who must be supposed to +see cause of apprehension before he would venture to express it.</p> + +<p>Turning now to a more civil aspect of affairs than the picture of +thirty death-dealing demons in the tops of a Yankee frigate, let us +see how they manage their aggressions upon the untamed field and +forest. During his various ramblings, our traveller's free-and-easy +manner gained him the confidence of several able and energetic men—an +advantage which enabled him to peep behind the scenes in many of the +western movements. The following incident, which came under his own +knowledge, comes within the design of this article, which is to +illustrate the go-aheadism of our transatlantic cousins, and how they +find the ways and means where other men fail.</p> + +<p>Near Green Bay (in the aforesaid Garden of Eden), a small village +suddenly peers out from the woods. The site was chosen by one of those +extraordinary men (educated pioneers), who had silently selected a +position, and established himself as proprietor before any one was +acquainted with his object. Once fixed, the working pioneers, well +aware of the sagacity and ability of their forerunner, begin to drop +in likewise. In a few months, a town is laid out, and a population +makes its appearance. A plank-road is necessary, a charter is +obtained, and a meeting summoned of all interested in the said road. +About a hundred persons attend; the charter is read; and before it can +become a valid instrument, 500 shares must be subscribed for, and one +dollar each paid up. The whole capital required is L.10,000—a sum +which, probably, could not be mustered in cash within a hundred miles. +One citizen believes he can get the 500 dollars from a relative in the +Gennessee Valley. Who, then, is to take stock, and supply the sinews +of war? There is not ten dollars (cash) in the township. Up starts +another, who has credit with a provision-merchant down east, and +offers to supply the workmen with pork, molasses, tea, and sugar, out +of his friend's store; making a speech at the same time. Others +similarly pledged their credit for shoes, soap, clothing, &c. The bulk +of the meeting, consisting of hard-working 'bonnet-lairds,' undertake +to go to work immediately; taking for part-payment the necessaries of +life, and receiving road-stock for the balance. Without a cent of +capital, they began a work which would eventually cost 50,000 dollars, +in full confidence that something would turn up to procure the +wherewithal. The beauty of the matter is, that the project succeeded. +The road has not only quadrupled the value of property all around, but +it bids fair to pay a dividend in five years of 50 per cent. If a +steam-boat is wanted, it is acquired in the same way. Large vessels +have been completely built and equipped, without the owners possessing +one farthing, and they have not only paid for themselves, but have +made handsome fortunes for the lucky and enterprising projectors. +Speculation of this kind, which would be justly deemed dishonourable +in a settled country, is apt to be less rigidly considered in the +pioneers of a new world. What country can attempt to cope with such +energy and enterprise as this? It is frequently a subject of remark, +that men born in England, and educated in the States, are among the +foremost in these enterprising projects.</p> + +<p>There are many other facts in these interesting volumes which we +should like to call attention to; but the reader who has accompanied +us through this sketch cannot do better than read the volumes +themselves—only remembering, that the enthusiasm of his guide might +have been considerably moderated had he been an emigrant instead of a +gentleman traveller.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Atlantic and Transatlantic Sketches, Afloat and Ashore.</i> +By Captain Mackinnon, R.N. 2 vols. Colburn & Co. 1852.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The <i>America</i> lost her laurels at Cowes a few weeks ago.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="MRS_GRIMSHAWES_TREATISE_ON_HOLDFASTS" id="MRS_GRIMSHAWES_TREATISE_ON_HOLDFASTS"></a>MRS GRIMSHAWE'S TREATISE ON HOLDFASTS.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">I am</span> ready to maintain, against all assailants of the position, that +the person who can feel so deep an interest in any of the works of God +as to find, in the investigation of them, employment for time which +might otherwise hang a little heavily on hand, and occupation of an +innocent and even of a useful nature for an active mind, has a decided +advantage over one who has no such resource. And I further maintain, +that there is not one single object in created nature, from the drop +of ditch-water which occupies the attention of Herr von Creep-crawl, +up to the 'serried host' of angels and archangels who inhabit the +realms of light, which does not present matter worthy of the study and +attention of an inquiring and intelligent mind. Having delivered this +defiance, I shall now ask my readers to take another walk round my +garden, and examine the climbers which cover my walls, and listen to +my Treatise on Holdfasts, as I call those appendages of plants which +assist them in climbing.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The very first specimen to which we come, is one of that very pretty +tribe the <i>Clematideæ</i>, the <i>Clematis montana</i>, which is closely +covering a wall of ten feet high, and at least twenty in width, thence +throwing out its branches, extending itself over the adjacent wall of +the house, and occasionally sending a stray shoot or two to adorn my +neighbour's garden. Now, how do those slight, long stems, which +stretch, some of them twenty or thirty feet from the parent stalk, +support and arrange themselves so as to preserve a neat and ornamental +appearance without my having had the least trouble in training them? +If you gather one of those loose branches, you will see that it has no +tendril of any kind, or other apparent means of support; but this, +like all others of the clematideæ or clematis tribe, possesses a power +of twisting the leaf-stalk round a wire, twig, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[pg 170]</a></span>or anything else that +comes in its way, so as to tie the plant to the support with as firm a +knot as could be made with a piece of string; and after thus +encircling the wire, it returns the leaf to its former position, with +the upper side outwards, exactly as it was before. Some of the +clematis tribe make this fulcrum from one part of the leaf-stalk, and +some from another. In that which we are examining, it is formed from +the lowest part next the main stalk of the plant. In the wild clematis +(<i>C. vitalba</i>)—that kind which runs so freely over hedges and +thickets in the southern counties, adorning the country in winter with +snowy tufts of feathers, formed by its seed-vessels—a part of the +stalk between two pair of the leaflets forms this twist; whilst in the +sweet-scented garden-clematis, other parts of the stem give the +support: but it is always by means of some portion or other of this +member, that plants of this tribe are sustained in their rapid and +extensive climbing. It is curious to observe what instinctive aptitude +to curve towards suitable objects, and towards them only, is exhibited +in the holdfasts of climbing-plants. They never bend towards a wall, +board, or other flat substance, when there is nothing to lay hold of; +but the moment they touch a suitable object, they instantly fix on it, +forming closely compacted rings, which can be untwisted only when +young. As the plant rises from one height to another, the little green +shoots above send out fresh leaves, each having the same prehensile +properties, which they keep in reserve till called on to apply them to +their proper use; whilst at the same time, the lower rings are +becoming indurated, so that, as the plant grows longer and heavier, +its supports become stronger and harder. There are other plants +besides the clematideæ which thus support themselves, of which the +<i>Maurandya Barclayana</i> and the <i>Canariensis</i> are examples; and the +manner in which these accommodate themselves to the exact form of the +object on which they seize, is very remarkable. If the support is +round, the ring is also round; but if they fix on a square lath, or +other angular thing, the stem forms to it, so that when the prop is +removed, the ring retains the exact form of that prop, every angle +being as sharp and true, as if it were moulded in wax.</p> + +<p>Now, the next plant which greets us is the ivy (<i>Hedera helix</i>), and +this differs wholly in its means of support from almost any other +creeper; yet there is none that takes firmer hold, or maintains more +strongly its position, than this beautiful creeper, whose ceaseless +verdure well deserves the name of ivy—a word derived from the Celtic, +and signifying <i>green</i>. It is supported by means of a whitish fringe +of fibres, that are thrust out from one side of every part of the stem +which comes in contact with any wall or other supporting object to +which it can cling. Should a foreign substance, such as a leaf, +intervene between it and that object, the fibres lengthen until they +extend beyond the impediment; and then they fix on the desired object, +and cease to grow.</p> + +<p>These fibres, however; are not true roots—a branch with only such +roots, would not grow if planted in the earth—they are mere +holdfasts, and the plant does not receive any portion of its +nourishment through them. The upper part of the plant, where it has +mounted above the wall and become arborescent, is wholly devoid of +such fibres, which never appear but when they have some object to fix +upon.</p> + +<p>And now, let us look at that which is the very pride of my garden, and +which well deserves the name bestowed on it by a poetic-minded +friend—'the patrician flower:' I mean the beautiful <i>Cobea scandens</i>; +and here we are introduced to quite a different class of holdfasts +from either of those which we have examined. The blossom of the cobea +is formed of a curious and elegantly-formed calyx of five angles, +exquisitely veined, and of a tender green—itself a flower, or, at +least, when divested of its one bell-shaped petal, <i>looking</i> like one. +From this calyx slowly unfolds a noble bell, at first of a soft, +creamy green; but the second day of its existence it becomes tinged +and veined with a delicate plum colour, which on the third day is its +prevailing hue. The blossom is then in its full perfection; the +vigorous green filaments supporting the anthers curve outwards; the +long anthers, in the same manner as those of the white lily, open +lengthways, and disclose rich masses of yellow pollen; whilst the +single pistil stands gracefully between its five supporters, crowned +with a globular purple style. On the last day or two of its existence, +the bell is of a full, deep puce colour, and then drops, leaving the +calyx bare, from which in due time is developed a handsome fruit, +something like that of the passion-flower. The flower-stalk is from +four to six inches long, and stands finely out from the wall, many +blossoms being exhibited at the same time in different stages of +development.</p> + +<p>But now of the holdfast, which is our special subject. And this needs +to be of a strong kind, for the branches of this plant have been +known, in an English conservatory, to run to the length of 200 feet in +one summer; and no doubt, in its native Mexico, where it has nothing +to impede its growth, its shoots run even more freely. Behold, then, +at distances of from three to four inches, all up the main stem; and +also, on every shoot and branch which that stem throws out, grows a +leaf, composed of three pair of leaflets, beautifully veined, and +tinted with reddish purple, from between the last pair of which +springs a tendril of extreme elegance. Indeed, noble as is this plant +in every part, I think this tendril is the crowning grace of the +whole: it is exceedingly slender, throwing off side-branches, which, +again, repeatedly fork off at acute angles in pairs, and each +extremity of each branch is furnished with a minute and delicate hook, +so small as to be scarcely perceptible, but so strong and +sharp-pointed as to lay hold of every object in its way—which hold it +retains, when once well fixed, in spite of wind or weather. If this +tendril remains long unattached, it becomes elongated to ten or twelve +inches, or even more; and certainly a more elegant object than it +presents when in this state can scarcely be seen, nor one which forms +a more graceful ornament to a vase of flowers, if introduced as it +grows, depending from one of the vigorous young purple shoots, itself +shining with a sort of metallic lustre, and richly coloured with green +and purple. But it is only on the loose young shoots that it assumes +this very graceful appearance. If it is sufficiently near to a wall, +or other support, instead of thus hanging pendent, its main stalk +nearest the leaf contracts into a spiral form, thus shortening the +tendril, and giving it greater power than so frail and slight a thing +could otherwise possess; and the elasticity produced by the +convolutions enables the branch slightly to yield to the influence of +the wind, which makes it less likely to be torn down. Each extremity, +as I have said, is armed with a hook, which hook, as soon as it +touches, lays firm hold on the wall; and these tendrils occurring +close together, and a large proportion of them fixing on some object, +a wonderfully strong support is afforded to the plant. This plant is +called by some people, 'the violet-bearing ivy,' although no leaf or +blossom can be less like the ivy or the violet than that of the cobea.</p> + +<p>And now, let us pass onwards. There is another tendriled plant, the +passion-vine; and this has a cirrus or tendril quite of a different +kind from that we have just examined. It is simple and unbranched, +springing from the axil of the leaf, straight when young, but speedily +becoming spiral, and forming a very close twist round whatever object +it seizes. It is spiral to within an inch, or less, of its root, and +encircles its support with six or seven circlets like a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[pg 171]</a></span>corkscrew, +thus clasping it with great firmness. This has no hook or other +appendage which would enable it to fix on a wall or other flat +substance; and therefore, unless there are wires, or some other +extraneous supports near, it must be nailed until it reaches a certain +height, when its own stalks supply the requisite props on which the +tendrils may lay hold. The grape and many other vines are furnished +with tendrils, which spring from the root of the leaf-stalk; that of +the grapevine is slightly branched, but not furnished with any hook. +One of its tendrils usually grows close to the stem of the fruit, and +thus sustains the heavy bunch of grapes which must otherwise, when it +increases to a weight of many pounds, either break from its stem, or +else pull down the branch on which it grows.</p> + +<p>And now we approach the beautiful <i>Ipomœa</i>, or major convolvulus, +which affords us a specimen of quite a different mode of progression +from that displayed in any creeper we have as yet looked at, for it +has neither tendril nor fibrous roots. 'Oh, that <i>must</i> be a mistake!' +says some fine lady. 'My last Berlin pattern was of convolvuli, and +that lovely group of flowers I copied had several blossoms in it, and +I am sure there were <i>plenty</i> of tendrils in both.' No doubt, fair +lady; but convolvuli in Berlin patterns, and those which are wrought +in 'nature's looms,' differ wonderfully. In the former, not only the +climbing convolvulus, but the common blue one (<i>C. minor</i>), is richly +furnished with tendrils, whilst those of Dame Nature display no such +appendage. Now, take a real flower of this tribe—the common bind-weed +from the hedge will do as well as any other—and you will see that the +means provided for it to run up any stick or stem it may meet, is a +peculiar property it has, of twining its <i>stem</i> round and round that +of any other plant near it; and so strong is this necessity to assume +a spiral coil, or rather to twist and unite itself with some other +stem, that you may often see two, three, or four sister-stalks of the +same plant inwreathed into one stout cable, which union, though it +does not enable the feeble stems to ascend, yet seems to increase +their strength. But supply the young shoot with a stick or wire, or +even a bit of twine, and see how rapidly it will then climb, and +clasp, and throw out longer and stronger shoots, and overspread your +wall with its large bell-shaped flowers, so brilliant with every tint +of white, lilac, pink, and rose colour, and so exquisitely delicate in +their texture, expanding at earliest dawn, and closing, never to +reopen, when the fervid rays of the noonday sun fall on them! But I +must not attempt to depict every variety of holdfast, or every +provision for climbing with which it has pleased God to invest and +beautify the different kinds of creeping-plants: it would detain us +far too long; yet Mrs Grimshawe owes it to herself, to justify her +devotion to the holdfast of the Virginian creeper (<i>Ampelopsis +hederacea</i>), and that must be described.</p> + +<p>Every one knows this plant, for although a native of North America, it +is now one of the commonest coverings of our walls, as well as one of +the prettiest we see. Its beautiful cut leaves are divided into five +lobes, which, when first developed, are of a bright light-green, while +the whole of the young stem and shoot is red; those take, by degrees, +a deeper hue of green, and early in the autumn assume a brilliant +scarlet tint, at which time they are very lovely. The means by which +this plant takes so firm a hold of whatever supports it, is highly +curious. From the stem of the tree is sent out on one side a leaf, and +exactly opposite to it a shining, thread-like tendril, tinged with +red, from one to one and a half inches long, dividing into five +branches, and each terminating in a little hook. When one of these +little hooks touches a wall, or comes in contact with anything it is +able to cling to, it begins to thicken, expands into a granulated mass +of a bright-red hue, loses the form of a hook and assumes that of a +club, from the edges of which club a thin membrane extends, and +attaches itself firmly to the wall after the manner of a sucker. If +all five of the extremities happen to touch, they all go through the +same process; and when all are spread out on the wall, each with its +extension complete, the tendril looks much like the foot of a bird; +but none of the hooks change in this way, unless they are so situated +as to be able to fix on the wall. One of these strong holdfasts occurs +at about every two inches on every stem and branch; and as a very +large proportion of them get hold of some substance or other, the vine +becomes more strongly fixed in its place than those which have been +nailed or otherwise artificially fastened; and if the wall on which it +climbs is at all rough, it must be very boisterous weather indeed that +can dislodge its pretty covering. If by any means a branch is forced +away from the wall, you will generally find either that it has brought +away a portion of the stucco with it, or else that the stems of the +tendril have broken, and left the sucker-like extremities still +adhering. The appearance of one of these tendrils when young is +beautiful; and if you place it under a microscope while it is assuming +its knobby form, you will admire its exquisite texture and colouring. +This, like the ivy, when it rises above the wall, becomes arborescent, +and ceases to throw out tendrils.</p> + +<p>There are many other provisions for aiding plants in climbing. Some +ascend simply by means of the friction which the hairy or gummy +cuticle of their stems affords—that sort of Galium commonly called +'cleavers' or 'cliver,' and the wild madder (<i>Rubia pelegrina</i>), are +instances of this—then there are others which send out simple +tendrils from the point of each leaf. There is also a plant called the +'heartseed' or 'balloon vine,' from its inflated membraneous capsule, +in which the tendrils grow from the flower-stalks; and another, one of +the custard-apple tribe (<i>Annona hexapetala</i>), of which Smith tells +us—'the flower-stalk of this tree forms a hook, and grasps the +neighbouring branch, serving to suspend the fruit, which is very +heavy, resembling a bunch of grapes.' The pea and vetch tribe, the +pompion and cucumber, and various other plants, afford instances of +provisions of these and similar kinds. But as I hope I may have +succeeded in leading some of my readers to see what abundant subjects +of interest may be found in the contemplation of even the appendages +of plants, I shall now take my leave, only strongly advising all who +wish to find a country life profitable and agreeable, to endeavour to +supply themselves with some simple natural pursuit, such as gardening +or botany, either of which may lead to investigations that will well +repay their trouble, even should they refer to nothing more than the +structure of the leaves or tendrils of the trees and shrubs which grow +around their dwelling.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See 'Mrs Grimshawe's Garden,' No. 413.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="A_DAYS_PLEASURING_IN_INDIA" id="A_DAYS_PLEASURING_IN_INDIA"></a>A DAY'S PLEASURING IN INDIA.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">Parell</span><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> was full of guests; and in order to afford them a greater +diversity of amusement than the daily routine of a monotonous Eastern +life affords, our excellent host resolved on a day's excursion to the +island of Salsette, accepting an invitation to rest for an hour on his +return at the house of a wealthy Parsee, whose liberality and zeal for +the interests of the Company had won him the favour of the merchant +princes' representative. In order to be ready for our departure at +daybreak, we were called at three o'clock. In this country, such an +hour sounds uncomfortable; we are all inclined to sympathise with the +writer of the old Scotch ballad, and declare—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Up in the morning's no for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up in the morning early;'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but in India, it is a luxurious theft from sleep; and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[pg 172]</a></span>even now the +remembrance of my starlit bath of that Indian morning comes pleasantly +across my mind. The bath was literally taken by starlight; for the +tumbler of oil, with its floating wick—which is the ordinary lamp of +the country—was hardly seen in its far-off corner, when I unclosed +the jalousies, and admitted the solemn, silvery planet-light. The +window above the bath opened into the garden; and it is scarcely +possible to conceive greater physical enjoyment than reclining in the +warm element, listening to the soft sounds proceeding from +without—the castanet music of the singing-tree, the rustling of the +fan-palm, the trickling of the fountain: even the distant cry of the +retiring jackal was pleasant; whilst above the giant palms, I could +see the dark violet of the sky, on which the</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">——'Ship of Heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came sailing from Eternity,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and from whence Canopus threw its laughing lustre full on the water in +which I was immersed, and kept me for a time motionless, lest I should +break or mar its beautiful reflection. But every enjoyment has its +dark shadow: as life has its 'insect cares,' so Eastern night has its +mosquitoes; and a sore contest one has with them on issuing from the +bath at such an hour. How they flit about, imps of evil as they are, +and sound their horn of defiance in our ear!—a very marvellous sound +to proceed from such tiny creatures, and, to persons of irritable +nerves, worse even than their sting, or at least an additional horror. +They proved strong incentives to a hasty toilette; and the whole +gipsying-party was speedily assembled in the hall, where coffee and +biscuits were handed round. Then followed a pleasant drive through the +fresh morning air; and it was not without regret that we exchanged the +open carriages for the close imprisonment of the palanquins, in which +shortly after we threaded the mazes of the jungle. It was still early +morning when we reached the cave in which we purposed remaining during +the heat of the day. Outside, a tent had been pitched for the +servants; within, a splendid breakfast was spread for +ourselves—tables, chairs, food, and cooks having preceded the party +thither. Books and prints were also provided, to beguile the tedium of +our inevitable seclusion, and pleasant companionship promised a still +greater resource against <i>ennui</i>.</p> + +<p>The caves of Salsette have been already so often described—once by +the pen of Heber—that I shall not attempt a repetition, but content +myself with informing my readers, that we occupied the large one, +dedicated to the ancient worship of the Buddhists; a gloomy temple, +but cool, and possessing a certain interest from having been the scene +of superstitious horrors round which hang the mystery of an almost +unknown past.</p> + +<p>After dinner, we prepared to mount the hill, and explore the smaller +cells in which the hermits of Buddhism had formerly dwelt. The ascent, +though very steep, was not difficult, and, once gained, afforded a +glorious view of the island and the distant sea. The caves, with their +singular stone-carvings and reliefs, were also very interesting, and +must have been pleasant abodes for the worthy men who there had aimed +at a pleasanter saintship than that attained by the tortures to which +the followers of Brahma, and of his legion of subordinate deities, +often subject themselves. We amused ourselves for some time examining +these cells, and not till the sun was sinking behind the taller trees +of the jungle below, did we think of returning. Our descent, however, +was to be effected by another and far more difficult pathway than that +by which we had mounted the hill—steps or niches irregularly cut in +the mountain's side, offering the only means of reaching the cave +below. My head turns at the very recollection! The chief of the hamals +had followed us; I looked at his naked feet, that with such a charming +certainty grasped the rock, and resolved on making him my <i>cavalier +servente</i>, backing my gracious intimation to that effect with the +promise of a rupee for guerdon, at which he appeared more pleased than +at the honour of the selection; and thus grasping the arm of my black +knight, I began the terrible task before me, having purposely lingered +out of sight till the rest of the party were at the bottom.</p> + +<p>But, alas! a very kind, very good-natured, very stout gentleman in +tight boots—I had not observed how <i>very</i> tight they were!—perceived +my incongruous escort, and hastened back to take his place. In vain I +represented my partiality for my companion of shoeless feet and steady +eye; he was as incredulous as Desdemona's father was of her love for +the Moor. In vain I deprecated 'giving him so much trouble;' his +politeness was resolute; and I was compelled to accept the assistance +of his hand, and with a beating heart to make the first step. Alas! in +this instance it was not only <i>la premier pas qui coute</i>; the fourth +and fifth were worse; at the sixth my courage failed me utterly, and I +felt an insane desire to throw myself over the precipice, and thus +terminate the horror of fear and giddiness that distracted me. I +begged my companion to let me go, but he good-naturedly suggested that +I might as well try to live a little longer, and therefore advised me +to shut my eyes, and let him lift my feet from step to step. I was +obliged to comply, and thus, to the great amusement of the party +beneath, we made our tedious way down the hillside. If any of my +readers have ever felt the kind of panic I have tried to describe, +they will understand and sympathise with me on the occasion. The +precipice below was really very alarming, and there was nothing on the +bare side of the mountain that could soothe the imagination with the +hope of something to clutch at. Still, I felt more ridiculous than I +had ever thought I could be, when, on reaching the foot, I received +the bantering congratulations of the others; and my assistant, with a +bow, assured me 'that we had effected our descent with the agility and +grace of two antelopes!'</p> + +<p>We returned to the principal cave to have coffee, and then, +re-entering our palanquins, were soon again in the depth of the +jungle. I was tired—one soon wearies in that climate; the light was +dim and solemn; and the chant of the bearers, by its monotony, helped +to lull me into a sound slumber, for which the palanquin is always an +agreeable cradle; and thus, in deep sleep, I was borne onwards, till +the halt, to which my bearers at last came, roused me; and with a very +dim recollection of where I was, I started and awoke. For a single +instant, I thought myself still dreaming, however, for an unexpected +and surprising vision was before me.</p> + +<p>The palanquin had stopped in a large garden, or rather grove, which +was brilliantly illuminated with coloured lamps; even the lofty +cocoa-nut trees were not without a crown of rainbow tinted light. As I +was assisted in my exit from the palanquin, two young Parsee boys, in +flowing white robes, girt with a scarlet shawl round the waist, +advanced and presented me, the one with a large bouquet of roses, +tied, after their usual fashion, round a slender stick, and dripping +with rose-water; the other, with a thin long chip of sandal-wood, +having at the end a small piece of white cotton, steeped in delicious +attar of roses. After receiving their gifts, I was conducted by them +to the house, where the owner, a Parsee merchant, met and welcomed me +with the ordinary salutation, pressing his hand to his head and heart, +and then offering it to me. My palanquin had arrived last, and I found +all the rest of the party seated round a table covered with a splendid +repast—a regular hot supper, intermingled with fruit and flowers in +profusion. The chief ornament of the table was a handsome silver vase, +presented to our host by the East India Company, of which he appeared +very proud, lifting it from the table, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[pg 173]</a></span>to shew the inscription on it +to each of the party individually. At the end of the banquet, the +quiet attendants moved round with a very elegant silver flagon of +rose-water, the neck of which was very long, and as thin as the tube +of a china pipe; from it they poured a few drops on the head of each +of the guests. The sensation produced by this sudden trickling of cold +rose-water is very pleasant, though a little startling to strangers. +We had so recently had refreshment, that we were not inclined to do +justice to the hospitality proffered, and the supper was scarcely +tasted; but on rising to go, our host explained to the 'Governor +Sahib,' 'that the feast was his: it had been prepared for him; he had +looked on it! it was his!' These polite assertions were a little +mystifying, till one of the staff-officers, well versed in the manners +of the natives, explained that the governor was expected to carry off +what remained of the entertainment. It was really difficult to help +laughing at the whimsical notion of carrying away the roast turkeys, +kid, fruit, &c., which was before us; but all was actually the +perquisite of the train of attendant servants, and I suppose they took +possession of it. The gifts offered to the governor when travelling +are also theirs, when not too valuable; that is to say, when they only +consist—as they generally do in mere villages—of fruit, eggs, nuts, +and sweetmeats. If the present be, as it occasionally is, a camel, +with its head painted green or red, it is usual to accept it, re-paint +it blue or yellow, and make a return present of it, to the original +donor, who, of course, feigns to be totally unacquainted with the +animal thus 'translated.' Gifts made to the governor become the +property of the East India Company, as no servant of the Company is +permitted to receive a private present; and it would be the height of +discourtesy to refuse the wonted and time-honoured 'offering' made on +the occasion of a visit to the Burra Sahib.</p> + +<p>After many courteous salaams and farewells on the part of our host, we +resumed our journey, gratified at this glimpse of the interior of a +native home. The Parsees are generally rich, and their houses or +<i>bungalows</i> are large and handsome. Their adoration of light tends +greatly to the embellishment of their dwellings, as to every upper +panel of the wainscoting they attach a branch for wax-candles, which +are lighted every night, and give to the building the appearance of +being illuminated. These 'children of the light' are a fine race, very +handsome and intelligent. The upper servants at Parell were all +Parsees; one, named Argiesia was an especial favourite with us all, +having always a shrewd and amusing answer for every question put to +him. We remember on the occasion of a total eclipse of the sun, which +took place during our stay in Bombay, asking him why the people of the +village near the house made such a noise with their tom-toms. His +reply was:</p> + +<p>'Because ignorant people, Ma'am Sahib, think great serpent is +swallowing the sun, and they try to frighten him away with big noise.'</p> + +<p>'And what do you think the shadow is, Argiesia?' we asked. He looked +grave for a minute—one never sees an Oriental look puzzled!—and then +answered:</p> + +<p>'Sun angry men are so wicked. In anger, him hide his face.' This +ready-witted and poetical Ghebir met his death, not long after, in one +of his own sacred elements, being drowned in the Mahr River, 'where +ford there is none.' He once expressed great surprise to me that a +nation possessing Regent Street—a description of which he had +received from his father—'should come to live in India.'</p> + +<p>It was night when we reached Parell after our day's pleasuring; and we +all agreed that the climate of India, during the winter months, is of +all others the best adapted for picnics, which are so often marred in +England by ill-timed showers or gloom; and yet, certain memories came +back half reproachfully as we spoke, painting to our mental vision the +pretty lanes and fresh green dells and dingles of England, the soft +cool breeze, the varied and flitting shadows, the open-air enjoyment +of many a past summer-day, when in our own merry island we</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Went a gipsying a long time ago,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and we gave an involuntary sigh for the country of our birth.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Residence of the governor of the Bombay presidency.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_LONDON_PRISONS_OF_THE_LAST_CENTURY" id="THE_LONDON_PRISONS_OF_THE_LAST_CENTURY"></a>THE LONDON PRISONS OF THE LAST CENTURY.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">In</span> the year 1728, an opinion was entertained that much cruelty and +rapacity were exercised by the keepers of the great prisons in London. +It was known that they had almost unlimited power in their hands, that +they were not subject to regular inspection, and that it was scarcely +possible to bring them to justice for their treatment of those +committed to their charge. It was argued, that it is impossible to +depend upon the lenity of men who have such powers over their +fellow-creatures, and that these officers must be supposed more than +human if they did not occasionally abuse their authority. Of their +having actually done so, many rumours had from time to time reached +parliament. But in making out a case for inquiry, its strongest +supporters had but a very slight forecast of the horrors it was to +divulge. It may here be remarked, that before the proper arrangements +for official responsibility and regular systematic management in such +matters as prison discipline or the custody of the insane were +devised, our free parliament did incalculable service by its inquiries +and exposures. In that august assembly, every tale of formidable +injustice or oppression was sure to receive a ready auditory; and its +power was so transcendent, that every door flew open at its command, +and no influence could protect the wrong-doer from its sweeping +vengeance. With such a body in existence, even the worst governments +which Britain has known could not keep up those mysterious agents of +tyranny, secret state-prisons, which continue to be the curse of every +despotic country. Yet it will be seen, that for want of some more +immediate and direct responsibility, the abuses in the prisons even of +this country had risen to a very dreadful height.</p> + +<p>The member who headed the inquiry was Colonel Oglethorpe. He was a man +of literary talent—a dashing and intrepid soldier, but still more +renowned for his wide and active benevolence. It is to him that Pope +alludes in the lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One driven by strong benevolence of soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall fly like Oglethorpe from pole to pole.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A committee obtained by his influence, did not conduct its inquiry in +easy state in St Stephen's, but appalled the guilty parties by +immediately repairing to the prisons, and diving to the furthest +recesses of their dungeons. In the Marshalsea, it found that even +those who paid excessive fees for their lodgings, were laid in lairs +above each other on boards set on tressels, where they were packed so +close together, that many were believed to have died from mere +deficiency of air. There was no doubt that many others, debtors, had +come to a miserable end by starvation. Some were found in the last +stage of attenuation. Those who could not provide for themselves, had +nothing to feed on but a scanty charity-allowance from the benevolence +of individuals, which, when distributed among the whole, furnished +each with sometimes only a few peas in the day; and at intervals of +several days, an ounce and a half of meat. 'When the miserable +wretch,' say the committee in their report, 'hath worn out the charity +of his friends, and consumed the money which he hath raised upon his +clothes and bedding, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[pg 174]</a></span>hath ate his last allowance of provisions, +he usually in a few days grows weak for want of food, with the +symptoms of a hectic fever; and when he is no longer able to stand, if +he can raise 3d. a day to pay the fee of the common nurse of the +prison, he obtains the liberty of being carried into the sick-ward, +and lingers on for about a month or two, by the assistance of the +above-mentioned prison portion of provision, and then dies.' The +committee made more lifelike this horrible description of the state of +the prison by describing the results of their efforts to relieve the +sufferers. They said: 'On the giving food to these poor +wretches—though it was done with the utmost caution, they being only +allowed the smallest quantities, and that of liquid nourishment—one +died; the vessels of his stomach were so disordered and contracted for +want of use, that they were totally incapable of performing their +office, and the unhappy creature perished about the time of +digestion.' These prisoners were debtors, not criminals. We make our +extracts from the reports, just after having heard in a scientific +society an examination of the dietary of a large district of prisons. +The difficulty appeared to be, to find the medium that would preserve +health without making the criminal's living in some measure luxurious; +and it appeared that, by almost every dietary in actual use in the +district, the prisoners fattened; in fact, they profited so much in +constitution by sobriety, good air, and regular food, however simple, +that it was found a difficult matter to give them what might be +considered a bare sufficiency, without raising their physical +condition, and sending them out of prison with improved constitutions. +So different is imprisonment for crime in the present age, from +imprisonment for debt a hundred and twenty years ago.</p> + +<p>The condition of many of the prisoners for debt in England, though few +knew the actual extent of its horrors, was well known to be wretched, +and several humane persons had made charitable bequests for their +support. Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee made inquiry as to the +employment of these charities, and disclosed incidents of singular +villainy. It appeared, for instance, that in the Marshalsea there were +several charities; and that the prisoners might be sure of benefiting +by them, it was arranged that they should elect six constables, and +that these constables should choose a steward, who was to receive and +disburse the charities. Like a corporation, the steward had a seal +which he appended to the receipts for the money received for the +charities. The officers of the prison had carried on a systematic +perversion of these charities, either through connivance of the +steward elected by the constables, or by imposing on him. In the year +1722, however, it happened that a man named Matthew Pugh, an active, +clever exponent of abuses, was chosen steward. He discovered several +charities, the knowledge of which had been entirely suppressed, the +proceeds being drawn by the officers of the prison. He found, that to +facilitate their fraud, they had got a counterpart of the common seal, +with which they certified the receipts. Pugh got a new seal made; and +to prevent a new system of fraud being carried out, he got a +safety-chest fixed to the prison wall, with six locks, requiring for +opening it six separate keys, which were put into the hands of the six +constables. The committee, in describing how audaciously these +precautions were defeated, shew distinctly how slight were the checks +on the conduct of prison-officers in the reign of George II. They say: +'But this public and just manner of receiving and disbursing the +charities was disliked by the keeper and his servants; and they +complained to the judge of the Palace Court, and gave information that +the said Pugh was a very turbulent fellow, and procured a rule by +which it was ordered, that Matthew Pugh should no longer be permitted +to have access to the said prison or court; and the prisoners are +allowed to choose another steward; and accordingly, John Grace, then +clerk to the keeper, was chosen steward by those in the keeper's +interest; but the constables, in behalf of the prisoners, refused to +deliver up the keys of the chest, where their seal was, insisting that +all receipts should be sealed as usual in a public manner, that they +might know what money was received; and thereupon the said chest was +broke down, and carried away by the said William Acton (the keeper) +and John Grace.'—<i>Parliamentary History</i>, viii. 736. Hence the deaths +from starvation reported by Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee.</p> + +<p>The reports of the committee were varied by statements of atrocious +cruelties committed on the prisoners, by their committal, whenever the +prison-officers thought fit, to damp and loathsome dungeons full of +filth, by heavy irons being forced on them, and even by the +application of the thumbkins, and other such tortures as were applied +in the previous century to the Covenanters. Thus, after narrating an +attempt made to escape, and the severities used on those who had +participated in it, the committee say: 'One of them was seen to go in +(to the keeper's lodge) perfectly well, and when he came out again, he +was in the greatest disorder; his thumbs were much swollen, and very +sore; and he declared that the occasion of his being in that condition +was, that the keeper, in order to extort from him a confession of the +names of those who had assisted him and others in their attempt to +escape, had screwed certain instruments of iron upon his thumbs, so +close, that they had forced the blood out of them with exquisite pain. +After this, he was carried into the strong room, where, besides the +other irons which he had on, they fixed on his neck and hands an iron +instrument called a collar, like a pair of tongs; and he being a large +lusty man, when they screwed the said instrument close, his eyes were +ready to start out of his head, the blood gushed out of his ears and +nose, he foamed at the mouth, and he made several motions to speak, +but could not: after these tortures, he was confined in the strong +room for many days with a heavy pair of irons called sheers on his +legs.'</p> + +<p>It is not to be denied that some of the charges made by the committee +were not ultimately confirmed. It is natural for humane men, becoming +for the first time acquainted with extensive cruelties, to tinge their +narrative with the indignation they feel, and thus give it a +prejudiced and exaggerated tone. Even committees of the House of +Commons are not entirely exempt from such failings. But for our +purpose, which is that of noticing the progress of civilisation and +humanity in the period that has elapsed since the inquiry, it is +sufficient to know, that there must have been an extensive foundation +in facts for the horrors detailed by the committee. If it could not be +distinctly proved that an individual officer had murdered any prisoner +by the use of a particular torture, yet the instruments of torture +described in the above extract were in the prisons—they were seen and +handled by the committee, who were not to suppose that they were kept +for no use. They state, that it had become the practice for the +keepers 'unlawfully to assume to themselves a pretended authority as +magistrates, and not only to judge and decree punishments arbitrarily, +but also to execute the same unmercifully.'</p> + +<p>In the exercise of this authority, the keepers seem to have imitated +the cruelties of the classical tyrant Mezentius, commemorated by +Virgil as chaining the living to the dead, for the committee say: 'The +various tortures and cruelties before mentioned not contenting these +wicked keepers in their said pretended magistracy over the prisoners, +they found a way of making within the prison a confinement more +dreadful than the strong room itself, by coupling the living with the +dead; and have made a practice of locking up debtors who displeased +them in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[pg 175]</a></span>yard with human carcasses. One particular instance of +this sort of inhumanity, was of a person whom the keepers confined in +that part of the lower yard which was then separated from the rest, +whilst two dead bodies had lain there four days; yet was he kept there +with them six days longer; in which time the vermin devoured the flesh +from the faces, ate the eyes out of the heads of the carcasses, which +were bloated, putrid, and turned green during the poor debtor's dismal +confinement with them.'</p> + +<p>Some of the accounts given by the committee are as grotesque, without +being so horrible. A certain Captain John M'Phaedris had been a person +of considerable fortune, and, like many of his contemporaries, had +been a victim to the South-sea speculation, which appears to have made +all the debtors' prisons more than usually full between the years 1720 +and 1725. He refused to pay the exorbitant fees demanded by the keeper +for accommodation, and maintained that they were illegal. To silence +so troublesome a person, he was turned, unsheltered, into the yard, +where he had to remain exposed to the weather day and night. 'He sat +quietly,' said the committee, 'under his wrongs, and, getting some +poor materials, built a little hut to protect himself as well as he +could from the injuries of the weather.' The keeper, seeing this +ingenious abode, exclaimed with an oath that the fellow made himself +easy, and ordered the hut to be pulled down. 'The poor prisoner,' we +are told, 'being in an ill state of health, and the night rainy, was +put to great distress.'</p> + +<p>In another instance, a prisoner had been committed to a cell so damp, +as the witnesses described it, that they could sweep the water from +the wall like dew from the grass. A feather-bed happened by some odd +accident to be in the place, and the prisoner tore it up, and, for +warmth, buried himself in the contents. Being covered with cutaneous +sores, the feathers stuck to him, as if he had been subject to the +operation of tarring and feathering. One Sunday, the door of the cell +being left open, he rushed out, and entered the prison chapel during +divine service—a horribly ludicrous figure. The committee, on the +conclusion of the incident, say, 'he was immediately seized and +carried back into the sad dungeon; where, through the cold, and the +restraint, and for want of food, he lost his senses, languished, and +perished.'</p> + +<p>Such were the features of the system of mistreatment pursued in the +London prisons, thirty years after the general liberties of the +subject had been secured by the Revolution. We may in a subsequent +paper advert to some of the particular cases which came under the +attention of courts of justice.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="LIFE-ASSURANCE_OFFICES_OF_RECENT_DATE" id="LIFE-ASSURANCE_OFFICES_OF_RECENT_DATE"></a>LIFE-ASSURANCE OFFICES OF RECENT DATE.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> remarkable prosperity of life-assurance business in these +realms—where alone it is a flourishing business—has naturally had +the effect of causing 'offices' to multiply very fast. In the last +eight years, 241 were projected, being at the rate of one for every +twelve days nearly. Two or three bustling persons thereby obtain +situations; there is a show of business for a time; but such concerns +are often exceedingly weak, and the interests of the public are much +imperiled by them. In consequence of an order of parliament, returns +of the accounts of a large proportion of the recent offices have been +made and published; so that the public may now form some opinion of +the stability of these institutions. The general fact resulting is, +that the greater number appear to have been started with small means, +and are not now in hopeful circumstances. The business they have +obtained is generally small in proportion to the expenses incurred; so +that many of them are much behind the point at which they started.</p> + +<p>Mr Robert Christie, of Edinburgh, has done the public the good service +of publishing a small pamphlet in which the leading features of the +accounts are presented in an intelligible form.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Here it appears +that a life-assurance company will launch into business with an +imposing name, a flourishing prospectus, and—L.3000! After three +years, it will have received L.4000 of premiums. In that time, L.1300 +will have been spent in salaries, L.600 in establishing agencies, +L.700 in rent; in all, in expenses of management, upwards of L.5000, +leaving little more than half the premium receipts to stand against +the obligations towards the assured. There is one which has been in +business upwards of four years, and which only possesses L.2869 of +funds, out of which to pay policies represented by L.3094 of premiums, +L.2379 of moneys received for investment, and L.1895 of deposits on +shares. Another, which makes no small bustle in the world, received in +two years and a half L.13,219 of premiums, spent in the same time +L.6993, whereof L.1213 was for advertising, and L.539 for directors +and auditors, and at the end of the period possessed, to make good its +obligations, only L.7045, nearly one-half of which was composed of the +original guarantee fund.</p> + +<p>It is very likely that few or none of these establishments were +commenced with a fraudulent design; but they were not required by the +public, and their expenses have eaten them up. By most, if not all of +them, loss and disappointment will be incurred. It is therefore highly +desirable that the public should be warned against new offices +generally. While there are so many old ones of perfectly established +character both in England and Scotland—and we have some pride in +remarking, that there is not one dangerous office known to us in the +latter country—it is quite unnecessary to resort to any other.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Letter to the Right Hon. Joseph W. Henley, M.P., +President of the Board of Trade, regarding Life-Assurance +Institutions.</i> By Robert Christie, Esq. Edinburgh: Constable & Co.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="ANECDOTE_OF_BURNS_IN_THE_93" id="ANECDOTE_OF_BURNS_IN_THE_93"></a>ANECDOTE OF BURNS IN THE '93.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>A public library had been established by subscription among the +citizens of Dumfries in September 1792, and Burns, ever eager about +books, had been from the first one of its supporters. Before it was a +week old, he had presented to it a copy of his poems. He does not seem +to have been a regularly admitted member till 5th March 1793, when +'the committee, by a great majority, resolved to offer to Mr Robert +Burns a share in the library, free of any admission-money [10s. 6d.] +and the quarterly contributions [2s. 6d.] to this date, out of respect +and esteem for his abilities as a literary man; and they directed the +secretary to make this known to Mr Burns as soon as possible, that the +application which they understood he was about to make in the ordinary +way might be anticipated.' This is a pleasing testimony to Burns as a +poet, but still more so to Burns as a citizen and member of society. +His name appears in September as a member of committee—an honour +assigned by vote of the members.</p> + +<p>On the 30th of this month, the liberal poet bestowed four books upon +the library—namely, <i>Humphry Clinker</i>, <i>Julia de Roubigné</i>, <i>Knox's +History of the Reformation</i>, and <i>Delolme on the British +Constitution</i>. The present intelligent librarian, Mr M'Robert, +reports, respecting the last-mentioned work, a curious anecdote, which +he learned directly from the late Provost Thomson of Dumfries. Early +in the morning after Delolme had been presented, Burns came to Mr +Thomson's bedside before he was up, anxiously desiring to see the +volume, as he feared he had written something upon it 'which might +bring him into trouble.' On the volume being shewn to him, he looked +at the inscription which he had written upon it the previous night, +and, having procured some paste, he pasted over it the fly-leaf in +such a way as completely to conceal it.</p> + +<p>The gentleman who has been good enough to communicate these +particulars, adds: 'I have seen the volume, which is the edition of +1790, neatly bound, with a portrait <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[pg 176]</a></span>of the author at the beginning. +Some stains of ink shine through the paper, indicating that there is +something written on the back of the engraving; but the fly-leaf being +pasted down upon it, there is nothing legible. On holding the leaf up +to the light, however, I distinctly read, in the undoubted manuscript +of the poet, the following words:—</p> + +<p> +"Mr Burns presents this book to the Library, and begs they will take<br /> +it as a creed of British liberty—until they find a better. R. B."<br /> +</p> + +<p>'The words, "until they find a better," are evidently those which the +poet feared "might bring him into trouble." Probably, if the +inscription had not been written on the back of the engraving, he +might have removed it altogether: at all events, his anxiety to +conceal it shews what trivial circumstances were in those days +sufficient to constitute a political offence.' Ay, and to think of +this happening in the same month with the writing of <i>Scots, wha hae +wi' Wallace bled</i>!</p> + +<p>Fully to appreciate the feelings of alarm under which Burns acted on +this occasion, it must be kept in view that the trial of Mr Thomas +Muir for sedition had taken place on the 30th of August, when, in the +evidence against him, appeared that of his servant, Ann Fisher, to the +effect that he had purchased and distributed certain copies of Paine's +<i>Rights of Man</i>. The stress laid upon that testimony by the +crown-counsel had excited much remark. It might well appear to a +government officer like Burns, that his own conduct at such a crisis +ought to be in the highest degree circumspect. We do not know exactly +the time when the incident which we are about to relate took place, +but it appears likely to have been nearly that of Muir's trial. Our +poet one day called upon his quondam neighbour, George Haugh, the +blacksmith, and, handing him a copy of Paine's <i>Common Sense</i> and +<i>Rights of Man</i>, desired him to keep these books for him, as, if they +were found in his own house, he should be a ruined man. Haugh readily +accepted the trust, and the books remained in possession of his family +down to a recent period.—<i>Chambers's Life and Works of Burns, Vol. +IV., just published.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="CURIOUS_EXPERIMENT_IN_WOOL-GROWING" id="CURIOUS_EXPERIMENT_IN_WOOL-GROWING"></a>CURIOUS EXPERIMENT IN WOOL-GROWING.</h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>The following is worthy of notice, as exemplifying what may be done, +by judicious attention, to improve an important national staple:—</p> + +<p>'In a lecture recently delivered by Mr Owen at the Society of Arts, +the learned professor detailed the particulars of a highly interesting +experiment, which resulted in the establishment of one of the very few +instances in which the origination of a distinct variety of a domestic +quadruped could be satisfactorily traced, with all the circumstances +attending its development well authenticated. We must premise it by +stating, that amongst the series of wools shewn in the French +department of the Great Exhibition, were specimens characterised by +the jury as a wool of singular and peculiar properties; the hair, +glossy and silky, similar to mohair, retaining at the same time +certain properties of the merino breed. This wool was exhibited by J. +L. Graux, of the farm of Mauchamp, Commune de Juvincourt, and the +produce of a peculiar variety of the merino breed of sheep, and it +thus arose. In the year 1828, one of the ewes of the flock of merinos +in the farm of Mauchamp, produced a male lamb, which, as it grew up, +became remarkable for the long, smooth, straight, and silky character +of the fibre of the wool, and for the shortness of its horns. It was +of small size, and presented certain defects in its conformation which +have disappeared in its descendants. In 1829, M. Graux employed this +ram with a view to obtain other rams, having the same quality of wool. +The produce of 1830 only included one ram and one ewe, having the +silky quality of the wool; that of 1831 produced four rams and one ewe +with the fleece of that quality. In 1833, the rams, with the silky +variety of wool, were sufficiently numerous to serve the whole flock. +In each subsequent year the lambs have been of two kinds—one +preserving the character of the ancient race, with the curled elastic +wool, only a little longer and finer than in the ordinary merinos; the +other resembling the rams of the new breed, some of which retained the +large head, long neck, narrow chest, and long flanks of the abnormal +progenitor, whilst others combined the ordinary and better-formed body +with the fine silky wool. M. Graux, profiting by the partial +resumption of the normal type of the merino in some of the descendants +of the malformed original variety, at length succeeded, by a judicious +system of crossing and interbreeding, in obtaining a flock combining +the long silky fleece with a smaller head, shorter neck, broader +flanks, and more capacious chest. Of this breed the flocks have become +sufficiently numerous to enable the proprietor to sell examples for +exportation. The crossing of the Beauchamp variety with the ordinary +merino has also produced a valuable quality of wool, known in France +as the "Mauchamp Merino." The fine silky wool of the pure Mauchamp +breed is remarkable for its qualities, as combining wool, owing to the +strength as well as the length and fineness of the fibre. It is found +of great value by the manufacturers of Cashmere shawls, being second +only to the true Cashmere fleece in the fine flexible delicacy of the +fabric, and of particular utility when combined with the Cashmere wool +in imparting to the manufacture qualities of strength and consistence, +in which the pure Cashmere is deficient. Although the quantity of the +wool yielded by the Mauchamp variety is less than in the ordinary +merinos, the higher price which it obtains in the French market—25 +per cent. above the best merino wools—and the present value of the +breed, have fully compensated M. Graux for the pains and care +manifested by him in the establishment of the variety, and a council +medal was awarded to him.'</p> + +<p>We find the above abstract in the <i>Critic</i> (London Literary Journal); +and our chief object in making the quotation, is to bring the subject +under the notice of wool-growers in the home country, as well as in +Australia. What, it may be asked, could not be done by every +store-farmer following the example of M. Graux?</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="A_DIRGE_OF_LOVE" id="A_DIRGE_OF_LOVE"></a>A DIRGE OF LOVE.</h2> + +<p class="center">BY W. E. L.</p> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="sc">Yes</span>! she is dead: the splendour of her eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sleeps 'neath the lids for ever; on my sight<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Never again shall flash their high delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tender and rich with love's sweet ecstasies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Never again, deep down from vulgar ken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall the pure gushing of her soul rejoice,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And we stand silent, as to hear the voice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of waters falling to a soundless glen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And scarce again from other lips shall come<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Such beauteous truths, such fresh imaginings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As, like the warm south-wind, upon their wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear off our fancy to their own bright home.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet am I calm: though hard it be to smooth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Waters upshaken from the deepest deep;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though it be hard to watch, yet never weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The darkening cynosure of passionate youth;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet am I calm. The heart I had to bring<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Was marred with imperfection and decay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now the free spirit, riven from the clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drinks at the fountain whence all love must spring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O passed from earthly to celestial love!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O reft from me and from my clinging grasp,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And circled straightway by the close, warm clasp<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of seraph bosoms in the land above!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I will not weep thee more. But if I long<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Too sorrowfully for thy presence here,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not vainly on thy turf shall fall the tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thy dead name shall blossom into song.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p>Printed and Published by W. and R. <span class="smcap">Chambers</span>, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W. S. <span class="smcap">Orr</span>, Amen Corner, London; D. N. <span class="smcap">Chambers</span>, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. <span class="smcap">M'Glashan</span>, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.—Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +<span class="smcap">Maxwell & Co</span>., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 22617-h.htm or 22617-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/1/22617/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454 + Volume 18, New Series, September 11, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: William Chambers + Robert Chambers + +Release Date: September 16, 2007 [EBook #22617] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + No. 454. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2_d._ + + + + +MONETARY SENSATIONS. + + +The poorest and most unlucky dog in the world either has or had some +small portion of money. No matter how small, how hardly, or how +precariously earned, he has seen, from time to time, a glimpse of the +colour of his own cash, and rejoiced accordingly as that colour was +brown, white, or yellow. It follows, therefore, that even the poorest +and most unlucky dog in the world has experienced monetary sensations. +It may appear paradoxical, but it is no less true, that it is the very +rich, born to riches, the heirs to great properties, or no end of +consolidated stock, who have never enjoyed or feared the sensation to +which we allude. To them, money is a thing of course; it pours in upon +them with the regularity of the succeeding seasons. Rent-day comes of +itself, and there is the money; dividend-day is as sure as Christmas, +and there lie the receipts. These are the people who know nothing of +the commodity with which they are so well endowed, or, at most, their +knowledge is but skin-deep. They take and spend, just as they sit or +walk. Both seem natural processes; they have performed them since they +were born. Their money is a bit of themselves--an extra and uncommonly +convenient limb with which they are endowed. It is only when some +sudden catastrophe bursts upon and cuts off the supplies, that this +class of ladies and gentlemen experience, like the shock of a thousand +freezing shower-baths, their first 'monetary sensation.' + +But the men and women who work either with head or hands--who fight +their way--who plan to gain and plan to spend, so that the latter +shall counterbalance the former--who lie sleepless in their beds, +intent on how to make both ends meet--who are lucky and unlucky--who +travel the ups and the downs of life, here grasping fortunes, there +turning out the linings of penniless pockets: these are the people +whose whole lives are one long succession of monetary sensations. +Among them mainly is cultivated the art of looking at two sides of a +shilling. They know how to value half-crowns and sovereigns in calling +up the long arrear of hard-worked hours, which are, as it were, the +small-change of quarters' salaries and weeks' wages. How many strokes +of the steady-going pen are encircled in those bright yellow +disks--how many thumps of the ponderous hammer has it taken to produce +this handful of silver. Or on a larger scale--as the successful +speculator sweeps to himself the mass of notes and bills, all as good +as gold, for which he has set every penny of his worldly means upon +the stake, and feels with a thrill which makes him clutch the precious +paper, that had things not turned out as, thank Heaven! they have, +that then, and then!----He has had a tolerably vigorous monetary +sensation. + +But the whole of the money-getting classes, and, to some extent, the +classes who merely spend what others got and gave them, can look very +well back upon a series of monetary sensations which have marked +epochs in their lives. Our remembrances of that kind are, of course, +most deeply engraved, and most clearly recollected, in the cases in +which we are working for ourselves, and have ourselves achieved steps +and triumphed over difficulties in life--each step and triumph marked +by a lengthening of the purse. But there are early monetary +impressions common to almost all the juvenile world, rich and poor--to +the children of the duke or of the mechanic, to the boy who has +obtained the price of a pony or a watch, and the boy who has been made +a present of what will buy him a twopenny story-book, or a twopenny +bun. Boys and girls commonly have poses--to adopt a phrase not known +south of the Tweed, where it must be explained, that to have a pose, +is to possess a little private and secret, or quasi-secret, hoard of +treasure. This pose frequently imparts the first monetary sensation. +It instils the first distinct idea of the value of money; it gives the +first notion of the accumulation of precious things; and the little +proprietor or proprietrix comes to rattle the box with the narrow slit +as a sort of sly enjoyment. To break into a pose would be quite +profane and irreverent. Pose-boxes do not open, and so far read a +philosophic lesson to the proprietors. Always save, always add, always +hold as a sort of sacred deposit, the mysteriously precious +pose-boxes. Occasionally, again, a child gets a present of a +sovereign, or an old-fashioned guinea, which it would be dreadful +sacrilege to change. Every one will remember how Sophy and Livy +Primrose 'never went without money themselves, as my wife always let +them have a guinea each to keep in their pockets, but with strict +injunctions never to change it.' There are hundreds of thousands of +Sophies and Livies possessed of the same sacred store, or having given +it to their parents 'to keep,' over whose minds the remembrance of the +secret hoard every now and then sends flashing across the mind +of the child a sense of importance, or richness, or a general +self-complacency which varies with the individuality. Boys and girls +in the next stages of their growth care little and think little about +money, except as a means of obtaining some trifling passing +indulgence. The childish reverence for the pose has passed. The +unopenable box has been long since opened, and the unchangeable guinea +long since changed. We allude here, of course, to the children of the +well-to-do. With the children of the poor, the case is different. +They never lose the faculty of monetary sensation. Money is too +valuable to them, because as soon as the mere childish period is past, +and sometimes before it, money to the young poor is always +translatable into good food and new clothes. There is nothing more +sadly frequent in the squalid lanes and alleys of London, than to see +a little creature, boy or girl, toddle with a chance-penny, not into +the toy-shop or the sweet-shop, but into the cook-shop, and there +spend the treasure in food, taking care, with melancholy precocity, to +have the full weight, and only a due proportion of gristle or fat. +Further on in life, when a poor boy earns a chance-sixpence or a +shilling, there is so much added to the store laying up for the new +jacket, the new cap, or the new boots; or, not unfrequently, there is +so much gained for the family exigencies of Saturday night. Here there +are monetary sensations in abundance. The life of such people is full +of them. The annuitant or the proprietor who listlessly, and without +one additional throb of his pulse, drops hundreds into his purse, has +not the ghost of an idea of the thrill of pleasure--invoking, perhaps, +a score of delightful associations--with which the boy who holds his +horse receives the sixpence, which is tossed him as the capitalist in +his normal condition rides coolly and unmovedly away. To experience +monetary sensations, you must earn the money first, and have a score +of urgent purposes disputing for its application. + +But perhaps one of the most vivid monetary sensations which a man +experiences, is when he is paid the first instalment of the price of +his labours. In an instant, he seems to rise and take a footing in the +world. He has struck the first blow in his Battle of Life, and +prostrated his antagonist, for whom, however, as soon as he has taken +him captive, he conceives a particular affection. The glow of assured +independence is a proud and manly feeling. The money is not _given_. +That is the overmastering sensation. It is fairly earned. The +recipient swells with honest pride as he thinks he is now a man +working his way, and strides off a couple of inches higher than he +came. This elevation of sentiment of course gradually dies away. The +monetary sensation of the first-earned payment is not supported, but +it is not forgotten, and insensibly, perhaps, to the recipient, it has +at once heightened and deepened the moral qualities and tendencies of +his spiritual being. From time to time, as remuneration ascends, a +shade, as it were, of the first impression is recalled, particularly +when the recipient perceives that at last--that great change in a +young man's life--his 'settlement' may be accomplished. Here is +another sensational era in his monetary experiences--the realisation +of the grand fact that the struggle, always promising, is at length +successful, and that he is now enlisted in the regular army of +society. The elder Stephenson, when an occasional wage of a shilling +per day was raised to a permanent two, flung up his hat, and +exclaimed: 'Thank God! I'm a made man for life!' Here was a fine +monetary sensation. + +But there are also monetary sensations of quite a different species +from those to which we have alluded. The sun shines on both sides of +the hedge, and blank and dreary, if not dismaying and crushing, is the +first trial of monetary difficulty. People, long struggling, get +blunted to the _res angustae_, precisely as people fast prospering do +to the steady tide of wealth. The man who leaps heart-struck from his +seat, as for the first time he contemplates a quarter's rent due and +unprovided for, or the foolish fellow who groans in spirit over a +protested bill returned upon the hand which he 'set' to it, merely for +the convenience of acquaintance, and who has never thought of stamped +paper since--such are two of the negative monetary associations which +checker life; of course, their number is legion. The man who found his +fairy gold transmuted into oak leaves, experienced a decided monetary +sensation; but not more so than fell to the lot of many a speculator, +who had bought to his last available penny in the Mississippi or the +South-sea Bubbles; or, to come to more recent days, in the stock of +fly-away English projected railways. To the mass of monetary +sensations of the kind, we fear, must be added at the present day +those produced by betting-offices. In these swindling dens, it is by +no means uncommon to see children, whose heads hardly come above the +counter, staking their shillings; even servant-maids haunt the +'office;' working-men abound, and clerks and shop-boys are great +customers. Among these people, there ought to be a good crop of +monetary sensations. In success, the little man-boy sees a grand +vision of cheap cigars, and copper and paste jewellery; for the urchin +early initiated in practical London-life, thinks of such things, and +worse, when the country lad of the same age would dream of nothing +beyond kites, fishing-tackle, or perhaps a gun. Molly, the housemaid, +has her prospects of unbounded 'loves of dresses' and 'ducks of +bonnets;' and the clerk and the shopman very possibly count upon their +racing gains as the fruitful origin of 'sprees' and 'larks' +innumerable. On the other hand, how has the money staked been +acquired? The pawnbroker's shop and the till will very frequently +figure in the answer. Pilfered half-crowns, or perhaps sovereigns, +kept back from collected accounts; or, in domestic service, pledged +spoons and forks, are frequently at the bottom of the betting +transactions of these 'noble sportsmen.' Then comes the period of +anticipation, and hope and fear. Bright visions of luck, on one hand; +a black and down-sloping avenue, stopping at the jail door, on the +other. Luck--and the stolen property can be replaced, with a handsome +profit; the reverse--and the police-office, the magistrate, and the +sessions, float before the tortured imagination of the 'sportsman.' +Here, then, are some of the saddest, and--whether the result in any +case be winning or losing--the most wearing and degrading of monetary +sensations. + +We turn, however, to a concluding and a more cheering experience +connected with money, and which may be regarded as a sequel to the +sensation of the first earnings. We allude to the first interest, to +the receipt of the first sum which properly belongs to the recipient, +and yet for which he has not immediately and directly toiled. Here +another great step has been achieved. To earn money, was the first +triumph; to make money earn money, is the second. There is something +more significantly pleasing in the sensation with which the young +up-struggler of the world receives his first instalment of interest, +and yet remembers that all his original investment is still entire, +than in all the lazy satisfaction with which a great stockholder--born +perhaps to stockholding--gathers in his mighty dividends. For the +first time, the former begins to feel a taste, just a taste, of the +sweets of property, of the fruits of realisation, and of the double +profits which labour, judiciously managed, will at length bestow. It +is getting money for which he has worked and yet not worked, it is +picking up the returning bread thrown upon the waters; and it is the +first experienced sensation of a stable and assured position, of +standing upon one's own feet, independent more or less absolutely of +the caprices of fortune and the liking of employers. The first +received amount of interest, however small it may be, assuredly calls +up one of the not easily-forgotten eras of a man's life. There is +nothing selfish or miserly in the fact. On the contrary, it is founded +upon pure and natural feelings and impulses. The most generous man in +the world likes to prosper, and the first received sum which his own +money has bred, is a palpable proof that he is prospering. From his +childish pose, he can recall the mental results attendant upon each +step of his worldly career, and look back with interest and curiosity +over what, in the course of his life, may have been his 'Monetary +Sensations.' + + + + +THE POSTHUMOUS PORTRAIT. + + +A country town is not a very hopeful arena for the exercise of the +portrait-painter's art. Supposing an artist to acquire a local +celebrity in such a region, he may paint the faces of one generation, +and then, haply finding a casual job once a year or so, may sit down +and count the hours till another generation rises up and supplies him +with a second run of work. In a measure, the portrait-painter must be +a rolling-stone, or he will gather no moss. So thought Mr Conrad +Merlus, as he packed up his property, and prepared to take himself off +from the town of C----, in Wiltshire, to seek fresh fields and +pastures new, where the sun might be disposed to shine upon +portrait-painting, and where he might manage to make hay the while. +Conrad was a native of C----. In that congenial spot he had first +pursued the study of his art, cheered by the praises of the good folks +around him, and supported by their demands upon his talents. While, in +a certain fashion, he had kept the spirit of art alive in the place, +the spirit of art, in return, had kept him alive. But now all the work +was done for a long time to come; every family had its great +portraits, and would want him no more yet awhile; and Conrad saw, that +if he could not turn his hand to something else, and in place of +pencils and brushes, work with last, spade, needle, or quill, make +shoes, coats, till the ground, or cast up accounts, he should shortly +be hardly put to it to keep himself going. He had made and saved a +pretty tolerable little purse during his short season of patronage, +and determined to turn that to account in seeking, in other places, a +continuation of commissions. His father and mother were both dead, +and, so far as he knew, he had no near relative alive. Therefore, +there were no ties, save those of association, to bind him to his +native place--'No ties,' sighed Conrad, 'no ties at all.' + +It was Monday evening, and the next day, Tuesday, was to behold his +departure. His rent was paid, his traps were all packed up in +readiness, and he had nothing to think about, saving whither he should +proceed. He walked out, for the last time, into the little garden +behind the modest house in which he had dwelt, pensive and somewhat +_triste_; for one cannot, without sorrowful emotions of some sort, +leave, perhaps for ever, a spot in which the stream of life has flowed +peacefully and pleasantly for many years, and where many little +enjoyments, successes, and triumphs have been experienced. Even a +Crusoe cannot depart from his desolate island without a pang, although +he goes, after years of miserable solitude, to rejoin the human +family. It was the month of August, and the glory of the summer was +becoming mellowed and softened. The nights were gradually growing +longer and the days shorter, the reapers were in the harvest-fields, +the woods and groves were beginning to shew the autumn tint, the sun +sank behind the hills earlier and earlier day by day, and the broad +harvest-moon reigned throughout the sweet and fragrant nights. Conrad +felt the influence of the season, and though he had for some time +contemplated his departure from his home with all the cheerfulness +which the spirit of adventure imparts to young men, he now, as the +time arrived, felt inclined to weep over the separation. He was +indulging in reveries of a mournful complexion, when he observed his +landlady leave the house, and, entering the garden, bustle towards him +in a great hurry. Assured by the manner of the worthy old lady that he +was wanted, and urgently, by some one or other, he rose from the +rustic seat on which he had been sitting, and went to meet her. A +gentleman had called to see him, in a phaeton, and was waiting in the +parlour in a state of impatience and excitement which Mrs Farrell had +never seen the like of. Wondering who the visitor could be, Conrad +hastened into the parlour. He found there an elderly individual of +gentlemanly appearance, who was walking to and fro restlessly, and +whose countenance and demeanour bore affecting evidences of agitation +and sorrow. He approached Conrad quickly. + +'You are a portrait-painter, Mr Merlus?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'The only one, I believe, in this neighbourhood?' + +'Yes.' + +'I am anxious,' continued the gentleman, speaking in a low tone, and +with a tremulous earnestness that rendered his speech peculiarly +emphatic--'I am anxious to have painted the portrait of one who +is--who was--very very dear to me, immediately--_immediately_, for a +few hours may make such a performance impossible. May I beg that you +will submit to some sacrifice of convenience--that you will be good +enough to set aside your arrangements for a day or two to execute this +work? Do so, and you shall find that you have lost nothing.' + +'Without entertaining any consideration of that sort, sir,' answered +Conrad, deeply touched by the manner of his visitor, which betokened +recent and heavy affliction, 'my best abilities, such as they are, are +immediately at your service.' + +'Many thanks,' answered the gentleman, pressing his hand warmly. 'Had +you declined, I know not what I should have done; for there is no +other of the profession in this neighbourhood, and there is no time to +seek further. Come; for Heaven's sake, let us hasten.' + +Conrad immediately gave the necessary intimation to his landlady; his +easel, pallet, and painting-box were quickly placed in the phaeton; +the gentleman and himself took their places inside; and the coachman +drove off at as great a pace as a pair of good horses could command. + +Twilight was deepening into dusk when, after a silent and rapid ride +of some ten miles, the phaeton stopped before the gates of a park-like +demesne. The coachman shouted; when a lad, who appeared to have been +waiting near the spot, ran and opened the gates, and they resumed +their way through a beautiful drive--the carefully-kept sward, the +venerable trees, and the light and elegant ha-has on either side, +testifying that they were within the boundaries of an estate of some +pretensions. Half a mile brought them to the portal of a sombre and +venerable mansion, which rose up darkly and majestically in front of +an extensive plantation of forest-like appearance. Facing it was a +large, level lawn, having in the centre the pedestal and sun-dial so +frequently found in such situations. + +A footman in livery came forth, and taking Conrad's easel and +apparatus, carried them into the house. The young artist, who had +always lived and moved among humble people, was surprised and abashed +to find himself suddenly brought into contact with wealth and its +accompaniments, and began to fear that more might be expected of him +than he would be able to accomplish. The occasion must be urgent +indeed, thought he nervously, which should induce wealthy people to +have recourse to him--a poor, self-taught, obscure artist--merely +because he happened to be the nearest at hand. However, to draw back +was impossible; and, although grief is always repellent, there was +still an amount of kindness and consideration in the demeanour of his +new employer that reassured him. Besides, he knew that, let his +painting be as crude and amateur-like as any one might please to +consider it, he had still the undoubted talent of being able to catch +a likeness--indeed, his ability to do this had never once failed him. +This reflection gave him some consolation, and he resolved to +undertake courageously whatever was required of him, and do his best. + +When they had entered the house, the door was softly closed, and the +gentleman, whose name we may here mention was Harrenburn, conducted +Conrad across the hall, and up stairs to an apartment on the second +storey, having a southern aspect. The proportions of the house were +noble. The wide entrance-hall was boldly tesselated with white and +black marble; the staircase was large enough for a procession of +giants; the broad oaken stairs were partly covered with thick, rich +carpet; fine pictures, in handsome frames, decorated the walls; and +whenever they happened in their ascent to pass an opened door, Conrad +could see that the room within was superbly furnished. To the poor +painter, these evidences of opulence and taste seemed to have +something of the fabulous about them. The house was good enough for a +monarch; and to find a private gentleman of neither rank nor title +living in such splendour, was what he should never have expected. Mr +Harrenburn placed his finger on his lips, as he opened the door of the +chamber already indicated; Conrad followed him in with stealthy steps +and suppressed breath. The room was closely curtained, and a couple of +night-lights shed their feeble and uncertain rays upon the objects +within it. The height of the apartment, and the absorbing complexion +of the dark oaken wainscot, here and there concealed by falls of +tapestry, served to render such an illumination extremely inefficient. +But Conrad knew that this must be the chamber of death, even before he +was able to distinguish that an apparently light and youthful figure +lay stretched upon the bed--still, motionless, impassive, as death +alone can be. Two women, dressed in dark habiliments--lately nurses of +the sick, now watchers over the dead--rose from their seats, and +retired silently to a distant corner of the room as Mr Harrenburn and +Conrad entered. Where does the poor heart suffer as it does in the +chamber of the dead, where lies, as in this instance, the corpse of a +beloved daughter? A hundred objects, little thought of heretofore, +present themselves, and by association with the lost one, assume a +power over the survivor. The casual objects of everyday life rise up +and seize a place in the fancy and memory, and, become invested with +deep, passionate interest, as relics of the departed. There is the +dress which lately so well became her; there the little shoes in which +she stepped so lightly and gracefully; there the book which she was +reading only yesterday, the satin ribbon still between the pages at +which she had arrived when she laid it down for ever; there the cup +from which she drank but a few hours back; there the toilet, with all +its little knick-knacks, and the glass which so often mirrored her +sweet face. + +Thus Conrad instinctively interpreted the glances which Mr Harrenburn +directed at the objects around him. The bereaved father standing +motionless, regarded one thing and then another with a sort of absent +attention, which, under other circumstances, would have appeared like +imbecility or loss of self-command, but now was full of a +deeply-touching significance, which roused the sympathies of the young +painter more powerfully than the finest eloquence could have done. He +seemed at first to shun the bed, as if the object lying there were too +powerful a source of grief to bear--seemed to be anxious to discover +in some minor souvenirs of sorrow, a preparatory step, which should +enable him to approach with seemly and rational composure the mute +wreck of his beloved child--the cast-shell of the spirit which had +been the pride and joy, the hope and comfort of his life. But +presently he succeeded in mastering this sensibility, and approaching +the bed, motioned Conrad to follow him. He gently drew aside the +curtain which had concealed the face of the figure that was lying +there. Conrad started. Could that be death? That hair, so freshly +black and glossy; those slightly-parted lips, on which the light of +fancy still seemed to play; the teeth within, so white and +healthy-looking; the small, well-shapen hand and arm, so listlessly +laid along the pillow: could these be ready for the grave? It seemed +so much like sleep, and so little like death, that Conrad, who had +never looked upon the dead before, was amazed. When he saw the eyes, +however, visible betwixt the partly-opened lids, his scepticism +vanished. The cold, glazed, fixed unmeaningness of them chilled and +frightened him--they did really speak of the tomb. + +'My daughter,' said Mr Harrenburn, to whose tone the effort of +self-command now communicated a grave and cold severity. 'She died at +four this afternoon, after a very short illness--only in her twentieth +year. I wish to have her represented exactly as she lies now. From the +window there, in the daytime, a strong light is thrown upon this spot; +so that I do not think it will be needful to make any new disposition +either of the bed or its poor burden. Your easel and other matters +shall be brought here during the night. I will rouse you at five in +the morning, and you will then, if you please, use your utmost +expedition.' + +Conrad promised to do all he could to accomplish the desire of the +afflicted parent, and after the latter had approached the bed, leaned +over it, and kissed the cold lips of his child, they left the room to +the dead and its silent watchers. + +After a solemn and memorable evening, Conrad was shewn to his bedroom, +and there dreamed through the livelong night--now, that he was riding +at frightful speed through woods and wilds with Mr Harrenburn, +hurrying with breathless haste to avert some catastrophe that was +about to happen somewhere to some one; now, that he was intently +painting a picture of the corpse of a beautiful young lady--terribly +oppressed by nervousness, and a fretful sense of incapacity most +injurious to the success of his labours--when suddenly, O horror! he +beheld the body move, then rise, in a frightful and unnatural manner, +stark upright, and with opened lips, but rigidly-clenched teeth, utter +shriek upon shriek as it waved its white arms, and tore its streaming +hair; then, that his landlady, Mrs Farrell, came up to him, as he +crouched weeping and trembling by, and bade him be comforted, for that +they who were accustomed to watch by the dead often beheld such +scenes; then that Mr Harrenburn suddenly entered the room, and sternly +reproached him for not proceeding with his work, when, on looking +towards the bed, they perceived that the corpse was gone, and was +nowhere to be seen, upon which Mr Harrenburn, with a wild cry, laid +hands upon him, as if to slay him on the spot. + +'You do not sleep well.' A hand was gently laid upon his shoulder; a +kind voice sounded in his ear: he opened his eyes; Mr Harrenburn was +standing at his bedside. 'You have not slept well, I regret to find. +I have knocked at your door several times, but, receiving no reply, +ventured to enter. I have relieved you from an unpleasant dream, I +think.' + +Conrad, somewhat embarrassed by the combined influence of the +nightmare, and being awakened suddenly by a stranger in a strange +place, informed his host that he always dreamed unpleasantly when he +slept too long, and was sorry that he had given so much trouble. + +'It is some minutes past five o'clock,' said Mr Harrenburn. 'Tea and +coffee will be waiting for you by the time you are dressed: doubtless, +breakfast will restore you, and put you in order for your work; for +really you have been dreaming in a manner which appeared very painful, +whatever the experience might have been.' + +Conrad rose, dressed, breakfasted, and did undoubtedly feel much more +comfortable and lighthearted than during the night. He was shortly +conducted to the chamber in which he had received so many powerful +impressions on the preceding evening, and forthwith commenced the task +he had engaged to perform. Conrad was by no means a young man of a +romantic or sentimental turn, but it is not to be wondered at, that +his present occupation should produce a deep effect upon his mind. The +form and features he was now endeavouring to portray were certainly +the most beautiful he had as yet exercised his art upon--indeed, +without exception, the most beautiful he had ever beheld. The +melancholy spectacle of youth cut off in the first glow of life's +brightest season, and when surrounded by everything that wealth and +education can contribute towards rendering existence brilliant and +delightful, can never fail to excite deep and solemn emotion. As the +artist laboured to give a faithful representation of the sweetly +serene face, the raven hair, the marble forehead, the delicately +arched brow, the exquisitely formed nose and mouth, and thought how +well such noble beauty seemed to suit one who was fit to die--a pure, +spotless, bright being--he had more than once to pause in his work +while he wiped the tears from his eyes. Few experiences chasten the +heart so powerfully as the sight of the early dead; those who live +among us a short while, happy and good, loving and beloved, and then +are suddenly taken away, ere the rough journey of life is well begun, +leaving us to travel on through the perilous and difficult world by +ourselves; no more sweet words for us, no more songs, no more +companionship, no more loving counsel and assistance--nothing now, +save the remembrance of beauty and purity departed. How potent is that +remembrance against the assaults of evil thoughts! How impressive the +thought of virtue in the shroud! + +With one or two necessary intervals, Conrad worked throughout the day, +and until the declining light warned him to desist. The next morning +he resumed his pallet, and in about four or five hours brought his +task to a conclusion, taking, in addition to the painting he was +commissioned to make, a small crayon sketch for himself. It was his +wish to preserve some memento of what he regarded as the most +remarkable of his experiences, and likewise to possess a 'counterfeit +presentment' of a face the beauty of which he had never seen equalled. +Mr Harrenburn expressed himself highly gratified by the manner in +which Conrad had acquitted himself--he only saw the painting, of +course--and taking him into his study, bade him persevere in his art, +and paid him fifty guineas; a sum which almost bereft the young man of +his senses, it seemed so vast, and came so unexpectedly, after all his +misgivings, especially in the presence of one who, to judge from the +taste he had exhibited in his collection, must be no ordinary +connoisseur. + +It is difficult to describe the remarkable influence which this +adventure exercised upon the young artist. His susceptible mind +received an impression from this single association with a scene of +death on the one hand, and an appreciating patron on the other, which +affected the whole of his future life. He returned to C----, bade +adieu to his landlady and friends, and, placing himself and his +luggage upon the London coach, proceeded to the metropolis. Here, +after looking about him for some time, and taking pains to study the +various masters in his art, he made a respectful application to one +who stood among the highest in repute, and whose works had pleased his +own taste and fancy better than any he had seen. After much earnest +pleading, and offering very nearly all the little wealth he possessed, +he was accepted as a pupil, to receive a course of ten lessons. With +great assiduity he followed the instructions of the master, and +learned the mysteries of colouring, and a great number of artistic +niceties, all tending to advance him towards perfection of execution. +He was really possessed of natural talents of a high order, and in the +development of these he now evinced great acuteness, as well as +industry. His master, an artist who had made a reputation years +before, and who had won high patronage, and earned for himself a large +fortune, thus being beyond the reach of any feelings of professional +jealousy, was much delighted with Conrad's progress, was proud to have +discovered and taught an artist of really superior talent; and +generously returning to him the money he had lately received with so +much mistrust and even nausea--for a raw pupil is the horror of +_cognoscenti_--he forthwith established him as his protege. Thanks to +his introduction, Conrad shortly received a commission of importance, +and had the honour of painting the portrait of one of the most +distinguished members of the British aristocracy. He exerted all his +powers in the work, and was rewarded with success; the portrait caused +some sensation, and was regarded as a _chef-d'oeuvre_. Thus +auspiciously wooed, Fortune opened her arms, and gave him a place +among her own favoured children. The first success was succeeded by +others, commission followed commission; and, to be brief, after four +years of incessant engagements and unwearied industry, he found +himself owner of a high reputation and a moderate independence. + +During all this time, and throughout the dazzling progress of his +fortunes, the crayon sketch of poor Miss Harrenburn was preserved and +prized, and carried wherever he went with never-failing care and +solicitude. Sanctified by indelible associations, it was to him a +sacred amulet--a charm against evil thoughts, a stimulant to virtue +and purity--this picture of the young lady lying dead, gone gently to +the last account in the midst of her beauty and untainted goodness. +Its influence made him a pure-minded, humble, kind, and charitable +man. Living quietly and frugally, he constantly devoted a large +proportion of his extensive earnings to the relief of the miseries of +the unfortunate; and such traits did not pass without due recognition: +few who knew him spoke of his great talents without bearing testimony +to the beauty of his moral character. + +But everything may be carried to excess; even the best feelings may be +cherished to an inordinate degree. Many of the noblest characters the +world has produced have overreached their intentions, and sunk into +fanaticism. Conrad, in the fourth year of his success, was fast +merging from a purist into an ascetic; he began to weary of the world, +and to desire to live apart from it, employing his life, and the +fortune he had already accumulated, solely in works of charity and +beneficence. While in this state of mind, he determined to proceed on +a continental tour. After spending some time in France, where many an +Hotel Dieu was benefited by his bounty, he travelled into Switzerland. +At Chamouni, he made a stay of some days, residing in the cottage of +an herbalist named Wegner, in preference to using the hotels so well +known to tourists. + +One evening, he had walked some distance along the road towards Mont +Blanc, and, in a tranquil and contemplative mood, had paused to watch +the various effects of sunset. He leaned against a tree by the +roadside, at the corner of a path which led from the highway to a +private residence. Again it was August, exactly four years since he +had quitted C----, exactly four years since the most singular event of +his life had occurred. He took from his breast the little crayon +sketch, carefully preserved in a black morocco-case, and, amid the +most beautiful scenery in the world, gave way to a reverie in which +the past blended with the future--his thoughts roaming from the +heavenly beauty of the death-bed scene to the austere sanctity of St +Bernard or La Trappe. Strange fancies for one who had barely completed +his twenty-seventh year, and who was in the heyday of fame and +fortune! Suddenly, the sound of approaching footsteps was heard. +Conrad hastily closed the morocco-case, replaced it in his breast, and +was preparing to continue his walk, when an elegant female figure +abruptly emerged from the bypath; and the features, turned fully +towards him--O Heavens!--who could mistake? The very same he had +painted!--the same which had dwelt in his heart for years! The shock +was too tremendous: without a sigh or exclamation, Conrad fell +senseless to the ground. + +When he revived, he found himself lying upon a sofa in a +well-furnished chamber, with the well-remembered form and features of +Mr Harrenburn bending over him. It seemed as if the whole course of +the last four years had been a long dream--that Mr Harrenburn, in +fact, was rousing him to perform the task for which he had sought him +out at C----. For awhile Conrad was dreadfully bewildered. + +'I can readily comprehend this alarm and amazement,' said his host, +holding Conrad's hand, and shaking it as if it were that of an old +friend, newly and unexpectedly met. 'But be comforted; you have not +seen a spirit, but a living being, who, after undergoing a terrible +and perilous crisis four years ago, awoke from her death-sleep to heal +her father's breaking heart, and has since been his pride and joy as +of yore--her health completely restored, and her heart and mind as +light and bright as ever.' + +'Indeed!--indeed!' gasped Conrad. + +'Yes,' continued Mr Harrenburn, whose countenance, Conrad observed, +wore an appearance very different from that which affliction had +imparted to it four years previously. 'The form on the bed which your +pencil imitated so well, remained so completely unchanged, that my +heart began to tremble with a new agony. I summoned an eminent +physician the very day on which you completed the sad portrait, and, +detailing the particulars of her case, besought him to study it, +hoping--I hardly dared to confess what. God bless him! he did study +the case: he warned me to delay interment; and, three days after, my +daughter opened her eyes and spoke. She had been entranced, +catalepsed, no more--though, had it not been for this stubborn +unbelief of a father's heart, she had been entombed! But it harrows me +to think of this! Are you better now, and quite reassured as to the +object of your alarm? I have watched your career with strong interest +since that time, my young friend, and let me congratulate you on your +success--a success which has by no means surprised me, although I +never beheld more than _one_ of your performances.' + +Mr Harrenburn had passed the summer, with his daughter, at Chamouni, +in a small but convenient and beautifully situated chateau. He +intended to return to England in a few weeks, and invited Conrad to +spend the interim with him--an invitation which the latter accepted +with much internal agitation. For three weeks he lived in the same +house, walked in the same paths, with the youthful saint of his +reveries--heard her voice, marked her thoughts, observed her conduct, +and found with rapture that his ideal was living indeed. + + * * * * * + +After a sequence, which the reader may easily picture to himself, +Conrad Merlus and Julia Harrenburn were married. Among the prized +relics at Harrenburn House, in Wiltshire, where he and his wife are +living, are the 'posthumous' portrait and the crayon sketch; and +these, I suppose, will be preserved as heirlooms in the family +archives. + + + + +SAMPLES OF UNCLE SAM'S 'CUTENESS. + + +In some respects, Uncle Sam and Brother Jonathan are 'familiar as +household words' on the lips of John Bull; but it may be safely +affirmed, notwithstanding, that the English know less of the Americans +than the Americans know of the English. We are in the way of meeting +with our transatlantic cousins very frequently, and never without +having our present affirmation abundantly confirmed. This mingled +ignorance and indifference on the part of Englishmen to what is going +on in Yankeedom, besides being discreditable, will soon be injurious, +as any one may satisfy himself by a perusal of a couple of pleasant +volumes from the pen of Captain Mackinnon,[2] who travelled through +the States lately, with his eyes open, not to their faults only, as +might have been expected in an officer of Her Majesty's navy, but to +their virtues, attainments, and enterprises. He has been out spying +the land, and brings back a report which, though not new to those in +the habit of reading American newspapers, and talking with American +visitors, will be both new and interesting--we should hope +stimulative--to the majority of our countrymen. We shall fulfil a +duty, and confer benefit as well as pleasure, by picking out of the +captain's log-book some of the choicest samples of Uncle Sam's +'cuteness, which will serve to shew, at the same time, the progress +and prospects of that great commonwealth. + +Captain Mackinnon believes the mind of the Americans to be the keenest +and most adaptable in the world. They acquire information of any kind +so rapidly, and have such ready dexterity in mechanical employments, +that the very slightest efforts put them on a par with Europeans of +far greater experience. After describing New York--which we shall +return to, if we have space--the author gives the results of a visit +to the dockyards at Brooklyn, Boston, and other places. Brooklyn +'contains perhaps the finest dry-dock in the world.' Here he saw all +the latest English improvements improved! He was informed, on +unquestionable authority, that no new instrument of war is elaborated +in England, without being immediately known to the authorities in the +United States; and that the commission of naval officers, now sitting +at Washington to re-organise the navy ordnance and gunnery exercise, +are assisted materially by the experience of men educated in Her +Majesty's ship _Excellent_. + +The first object of interest in approaching the Fulton Ferry was a +large ship, which was loading with wheat for Europe. To accelerate the +introduction of the cargo, a grain-elevator was employed. This novel +machine pumped the grain from barges or canal-boats, on one side, in a +continuous stream into the ship's hold, at the rate of 2000 bushels +per hour. It was not only passed into the vessel at this prodigious +rate, but likewise accurately measured in the operation. American +naval officers have taken a hint from this ingenious labour-saving +contrivance, and successfully adapted it to the purpose of supplying +powder with great speed and regularity to the batteries of large +ships. + +What are those huge castles rushing madly across the East River? Let +us cross in the _Montauk_ from Fulton Ferry, and survey the freight. +There are fourteen carriages; and the passengers are countless--at +least 600. Onward she darts at headlong speed, until, apparently in +perilous proximity to her wharf, a frightful collision appears +inevitable. The impatient Yankees press--each to be the first to jump +ashore. The loud 'twang' of a bell is suddenly heard; the powerful +engine is quickly reversed, and the way of the vessel is so +instantaneously stopped, that the dense mass of passengers insensibly +leans forward from the sudden check. These boats cost about L.6000. In +economy, beauty, commodiousness, and speed, they form a striking +contrast to the steam-ferry from Portsmouth to Gosport, which cost, it +is said, L.20,000. The author strongly advises persons in Europe, who +have any intention of projecting steam-ferries, to take a leaf out of +the Yankee book. As an example: If the Portsmouth Ferry had been +conducted on the same principles as the Fulton Ferry, a very large +profit would have ensued, instead of the concern being overwhelmed in +debt. + +Here is another sample of Yankee _go-aheadism_. A launch! We are in +Webb's shipbuilding-yard. Look around. Five huge vessels are on the +stocks: three are to be launched at highwater. The first is a liner of +1708 tons, built for running, and, with a fair wind, it will outsail +any man-of-war afloat. The second is a steamer of 2500 tons. The third +is a gigantic yacht of 1500 tons, nearly as sharp as any yacht in +England. Five thousand seven hundred and eight tons were launched from +one builder, and within thirty minutes! + +The clipper-ships, although certainly the finest class of vessels +afloat, are very uneasy in a sea. Mr Steers, the builder of the +far-famed yacht _America_, is very sanguine that he will produce a +faster vessel than has yet ploughed the seas, and Captain Mackinnon is +inclined to believe that he will. His new clipper-vessels will be as +easy in motion as superior in sailing. The great merit of Mr Steers, +as the builder of the _America_, is in his having invented a perfectly +original model, as new in America as in Europe. He informed our author +that the idea, so successfully carried out in the _America's_ model, +struck him when a boy of eight years old. He was looking on at the +moulding of a vessel by his father (an Englishman), when suddenly it +occurred to him that a great improvement might be made in the +construction; and the _modus operandi_ speedily took possession of his +mind. Mr Steers thinks that a shallow vessel, with a sliding keel, can +be built to outsail any vessel even on his improved model. This is +likely to be tested next summer in England, as a sloop, the _Silvia_, +built by Steers on this construction, is preparing to try her speed at +Cowes next season. The author carefully noted this craft when on the +stocks alongside the _America_,[1] and he believes, 'that no vessel in +England has the ghost of a chance against her.' + +The English ship-builders have a great deal to learn from Brother +Jonathan, not only in the fashion of build, but likewise in the +'fitting and rigging.' An American London liner is sailed with half +the number of men required by an English ship of the same size, and +yet the work is got through as well and as expeditiously. The various +mechanical contrivances to save labour might be beneficially copied by +English ships. + +A merchant-vessel, on the clipper principle, can be turned out by a +Baltimore builder for from L.10 to L.12 a ton, complete in all her +fittings. This is much cheaper than in England, which appears +unaccountable, considering the rate of wages; but so much more work is +done by the workmen for their wages, that labour is as cheap, if not +cheaper, there than here. 'Cotton-duck' sails are almost exclusively +used by American vessels under 300 tons, which for such vessels, as +well as for yachts, is much better and cheaper than canvas. Another +circumstance which struck the author at Baltimore--and which is +equally striking to hear of to those who are accustomed to the sight +of the Thames barges ascending and descending the river, in all their +ugliness and filth, with the flow and ebb of each tide--was, that the +vessels intended for the lowest and most degrading offices, such as +carrying manure, oysters, and wood, were of 'elegant and symmetrical +proportions!' + +The most potent proofs of Uncle Sam's 'cuteness are to be found in the +patent office at Washington. Inventions pour in in such abundance, +that already the space allotted to them is so completely crammed, as +to preclude the possibility of any close investigation. The dockyard +at Washington furnished matter for fresh reflection; the iron for +cables, furnished by contract, being so superior to the old, that the +testing-links were all broken on the first trial, the model-anchors +being 'an immense improvement,' &c. + +'And to whom do you suppose we are indebted for all these +improvements, and many more too tedious to mention?' asked the +officer. 'Why, to an English dockyard-master from Devonport.' + +So much for their progress on the eastern coast: now let us turn +westward, ascending the Hudson by one of the river--steamers. Without +doubt, these steam--vessels are the swiftest and best arranged known; +but the speed and size are improving so rapidly, that what is correct +now, may be far behind the mark a year hence. The _Isaac Newton_ is at +present the largest. The saloon, which is gorgeously decorated, is 100 +yards long. In this vast, vaulted apartment, the huge mirrors, elegant +carving, and profuse gilding, absolutely dazzle the eye. On first +entering one of these magnificent floating saloons, it is difficult +for the imagination to realise its position. All comparison is at once +defied, as there is nothing like it afloat in the world. + +The extent of the lake-trade is prodigious. Its aggregate value for +1850, imports and exports, amounts to 186,484,905 dollars, which is +more by 40,000,000 dollars than the whole foreign export-trade of the +country! The aggregate tonnage employed on the lakes is equal to +203,041 tons, of which 167,137 tons are American, and 35,904 British. +The passenger-trade is not included in the preceding sum; it is valued +at 1,000,000 dollars. 'The mind is lost in astonishment at so +prodigious a commerce. It is not ten years since the first steamer ran +round the chain of lakes. Population, and its commercial concomitants, +are increasing so rapidly, that before twenty years, the lake-trade +alone will be of greater extent and importance than the whole trade of +any other nation on the globe!' The number of emigrants from Europe +and the eastern states annually passing through Buffalo for the Far +West is now one million, and likely, by and by, to increase to two +millions! Cities are consequently rising up with extraordinary +rapidity. The population of Detroit, for example, has increased, +during the last ten years, from 11,000 to 26,000--an advance which is +mainly owing to the facilities afforded by the Michigan Central +Railway, for concentrating on their passage the westward-bound +emigrants. An absurd spirit of speculation has likewise contributed to +the increase. A building and farming mania, similar to the railway +mania in England six years ago, has seized the people. The only +salvation for the speculators is the continued increase of vast swarms +of emigrants from Europe. Chicago is another example of rapid +increase--namely, from 3000 in 1840, to above 20,000 in 1850; a growth +which it mainly owes to its advantageous site at the head of the +navigation of the chain of lakes. Milwaukie is also a wonderful +instance of progress. In 1838, there was not a single house on the +spot: in 1840, there was a village with 1700 inhabitants; in 1850, +there was a city of 20,000! Twenty years ago, the land on which it +stands was not worth more than the government price, which is about +5s. 5d. per acre: at present, the lots are valued, in good locations, +at L.40 a foot frontage. The result is speculation; with sudden +fortunes on the one hand, and sudden ruin on the other. Emigrants, as +well as citizens themselves, have to 'move on' further west; and hence +they are covering Wisconsin, Minesota, and other territories. Nothing +can now arrest the flowing tide till it dash against the Rocky +Mountains, and meet the counter-tide setting in from the coast of the +Pacific. + +The district around Lake Winnebago seems, according to our author's +account, to be a tempting spot for emigrants; and as there cannot be +the least suspicion of his having an interest in trumpeting it up, it +may be as well that the reader should know where 'Paradise Restored' +is to be found. Lake Winnebago is not one of those huge inland oceans, +with winds and waves, storms and shipwrecks upon it, but a quiet, snug +sheet of water like Loch Lomond, which it resembles in size, and, if +we may judge from a paper-description, in appearance. 'It is about +thirty miles long, and ten to twelve broad. A high ridge of limestone +bounds it on the east, sloping gradually down to the edge of the +water. Numerous natural clearings or prairies relieve the sameness of +the luxuriant forests. On the western side, the land invades the lake +in long, low capes and peninsulas. The fragrance of the air, the +exquisite verdure of the trees, the gorgeous colours of the prairie +flowers, and the artist-like arrangements of the "oak openings," and +wild meadows, are delights never to be forgotten. The most elaborate +and cultivated scenery in Europe falls into insignificance in +comparison. I was struck with astonishment that such "a garden of +Eden" should be so little known, even in the eastern states--that such +extraordinary advantages should be neglected. After a careful +examination of many places in the western portion of the United +States, I advisedly assert, that Lake Winnebago District is the most +desirable and the finest in the world for emigrants.' + +His reasons for this opinion are briefly, that it has communication +with the Atlantic on each border of the state--by the Mississippi on +the west, and Lake Michigan on the east; that the soil is very +fertile, and the climate remarkably healthy, being more equable than +the same latitude on sea-board, and quite free from fever or ague. +With great glee, the captain details a sporting excursion in this +romantic district, in the course of which he fell in with an old +acquaintance in the shape of an under-keeper from one of the Scottish +moors. He had emigrated two years, and become a 'laird.' His remarks +displayed great 'cuteness, and as it was on Uncle Sam's soil, it must +be placed to Uncle Sam's credit. Their conversation was so amusing as +well as instructive, that we quote it. + +'"Ah, sir," said the Scotchman, "if the quality in England only knew +there was a place like this, do you think they would go and pay such +extravagant rents for the mere shooting in Scotland? No, sir, not +they. My old master paid five hundred pounds a year for his moor +adjacent to Loch Ness." + +"And pray what did he get for it?" + +"Why, not half such sport as he can get here," replied he. + +"Truly," I rejoined; "but remember the distance, and expense of coming +here." + +"As for the distance, you can, at present, be here from London in +fourteen days. In two years, the rail will be finished to Fond-du-Lac, +and you will be enabled to get here in eleven days. The expense, as I +will prove, will not only be far less, but it may be turned into a +positive gain." + +'I pricked up my ears at this assertion, and requested my old +acquaintance, the ex-keeper, to proceed. + +"Well, sir, look 'ee here: suppose a party of five gentlemen subscribe +five hundred pounds apiece, that will be two thousand five hundred +pounds. With one thousand five hundred pounds, they can purchase a +quantity of land, and build an excellent house, stable, and offices on +Doty Island, in a position which, in ten years' time, will increase +greatly in value as an eligible site for building allotments. The very +fact of such an establishment by wealthy English gentlemen will cause +the land to rise in value enormously; and I will warrant that in five +years it will be worth ten times the present cost. From their location +on Doty Island, they would have the finest fresh-water fishing in the +world. They would have thirty miles lake-shore for deer-shooting; and +dense woods, forty miles back to Lake Michigan, where bears, and +catamounts, and other wild animals are plentiful. Abundance of wild +fowl, quail, and wood-cocks would be found everywhere." + +"Stop," exclaimed I, interrupting him; "what are we to do about the +main point--the grouse-shooting? Besides, remember there is another +thousand pounds to account for." + +"Don't interrupt, please sir; I am coming to that. I know several +districts of country in this neighbourhood with natural boundaries, +such as creeks, rivers, thick belts of trees, &c. These districts vary +from five thousand to twenty thousand acres, and are so fertile that +Europeans cannot even imagine such richness. Five hundred pounds you +could lend to the farmers at twelve per cent. per annum. Many of them +pay from two to eight per cent. _per month_. You would thus, by +accommodating the farmers, have the best-stocked preserves, and the +most friendly occupiers of the soil that can be found. The remaining +five hundred pounds you might keep to improve your lands, or invest at +twelve per cent. as the other half. If thus invested, you would get +twelve per cent. on one thousand pounds, nearly equal to five per +cent. upon the whole sum laid out, and the land increasing in value in +a prodigious ratio." + +"Wonderful!" thought I, with enthusiasm. "I will pop you in print, my +lad."' + +We 'pop him in print' with similar good-will. His scheme would be an +admirable one, save and except that there is an ocean to cross before +reaching Doty Island. We commend it to the New Yorkers and gentlemen +of the eastern states, who wish to have a hunting-field such as the +old monarchs of Europe would have envied. The scheme, notwithstanding, +does credit to the ingenuity of its propounder, who thereby proves +himself the right sort of man for the country he has chosen to call +his own. + +Another conversation which our author relates, affords an unequivocal +sample of real aboriginal 'cuteness. Captain Mackinnon impresses us, +as he did the Americans, as a frank, hearty fellow, who can make +himself at home at once, anywhere, and with any one. During his short +sporting excursion, he seems to have picked acquaintance with nearly +all the happy inhabitants of that western Eden with which he had +become so enraptured. Strolling along one day, he met with a tall, +gaunt Yankee, who knew him, and invited him into his log-cabin for a +social glass and a 'crack' after it. This semi-savage-looking fellow +had been a soldier, and delighted, like his guest, in the title of +captain. He had been fighting in Mexico and California with the +'Injuns.' As he of Doty Island had a proposal to make to British +sportsmen, so Captain Ezekiah Conclin Brum had 'a proposal to make to +the British government.' He had heard of our Cape and Caffre war, and +wondering how and why we did not make a shorter work of that awkward +business, he sent to England for a British infantry musket, which he +produced. 'Well, captin, did ever you see such a clumsy varment in all +your born days? Now, captin, look out of the doorway: do you see that +_blazed_ stump? It is seven feet high, and broader than any man. It's +exactly one hundred and fifty yards from my door. I have fired that +clumsy varment at the stump till my head ached and my shoulder was +quite sore, and have hardly hit it once. Now, then, captin, look 'ee +here (taking up his seven-barrelled revolving rifle, and letting fly +one barrel after the other): I guess you will find seven bullets in +the _blazed_ stump. I will, however, stick seven playing cards on the +stump, in different places, and, if you choose, hit them all.' After +sundry but unaccepted offers to his English brother-militant for a +trial of mutual destructiveness, he made his offer to the British +government through its representative, but which that loyal subject, +in a fit of mortification, declined to convey, on the ground that if +he 'made the finest offer in the world to the British government, they +would only sneer' at him. However (to give, as before, the substance +of what is here detailed with amusing effect), the offer of Captain +Brum was to enlist 5000 Yankee marksmen, each armed with a +seven-barrelled revolving rifle, and kill 'all the Injuns' at the Cape +in six months for the sum of 5,000,000 dollars! 'We should be ekal,' +quoth he, 'to thirty thousand troops with such tarnal, stiff, clumsy +consarns as them reg'lation muskets is. We should do it slick, right +away.' This may seem only a piece of fun, but such it does not appear +to the author, who turns from fun to facts and figures, and calculates +what would be the result of an encounter between English and American +men-of-war, if the latter had ten men in each top handling Captain +Brum's weapon with Captain Brum's skill; and the result he comes to +is, that they could, in one minute and a half, dispose of 210 men on +the opposite deck. _This would amount to the destruction of the whole +crew stationed on the upper deck!_ The undoubted _possibility_ of such +a summary mode of annihilating an enemy, must soon change the system +of warfare, and at least demands grave consideration. We make no +comment upon this, as we should be inclined to do were we not +announcing the forebodings of a naval officer, who must be supposed to +see cause of apprehension before he would venture to express it. + +Turning now to a more civil aspect of affairs than the picture of +thirty death-dealing demons in the tops of a Yankee frigate, let us +see how they manage their aggressions upon the untamed field and +forest. During his various ramblings, our traveller's free-and-easy +manner gained him the confidence of several able and energetic men--an +advantage which enabled him to peep behind the scenes in many of the +western movements. The following incident, which came under his own +knowledge, comes within the design of this article, which is to +illustrate the go-aheadism of our transatlantic cousins, and how they +find the ways and means where other men fail. + +Near Green Bay (in the aforesaid Garden of Eden), a small village +suddenly peers out from the woods. The site was chosen by one of those +extraordinary men (educated pioneers), who had silently selected a +position, and established himself as proprietor before any one was +acquainted with his object. Once fixed, the working pioneers, well +aware of the sagacity and ability of their forerunner, begin to drop +in likewise. In a few months, a town is laid out, and a population +makes its appearance. A plank-road is necessary, a charter is +obtained, and a meeting summoned of all interested in the said road. +About a hundred persons attend; the charter is read; and before it can +become a valid instrument, 500 shares must be subscribed for, and one +dollar each paid up. The whole capital required is L.10,000--a sum +which, probably, could not be mustered in cash within a hundred miles. +One citizen believes he can get the 500 dollars from a relative in the +Gennessee Valley. Who, then, is to take stock, and supply the sinews +of war? There is not ten dollars (cash) in the township. Up starts +another, who has credit with a provision-merchant down east, and +offers to supply the workmen with pork, molasses, tea, and sugar, out +of his friend's store; making a speech at the same time. Others +similarly pledged their credit for shoes, soap, clothing, &c. The bulk +of the meeting, consisting of hard-working 'bonnet-lairds,' undertake +to go to work immediately; taking for part-payment the necessaries of +life, and receiving road-stock for the balance. Without a cent of +capital, they began a work which would eventually cost 50,000 dollars, +in full confidence that something would turn up to procure the +wherewithal. The beauty of the matter is, that the project succeeded. +The road has not only quadrupled the value of property all around, but +it bids fair to pay a dividend in five years of 50 per cent. If a +steam-boat is wanted, it is acquired in the same way. Large vessels +have been completely built and equipped, without the owners possessing +one farthing, and they have not only paid for themselves, but have +made handsome fortunes for the lucky and enterprising projectors. +Speculation of this kind, which would be justly deemed dishonourable +in a settled country, is apt to be less rigidly considered in the +pioneers of a new world. What country can attempt to cope with such +energy and enterprise as this? It is frequently a subject of remark, +that men born in England, and educated in the States, are among the +foremost in these enterprising projects. + +There are many other facts in these interesting volumes which we +should like to call attention to; but the reader who has accompanied +us through this sketch cannot do better than read the volumes +themselves--only remembering, that the enthusiasm of his guide might +have been considerably moderated had he been an emigrant instead of a +gentleman traveller. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Atlantic and Transatlantic Sketches, Afloat and Ashore._ By +Captain Mackinnon, R.N. 2 vols. Colburn & Co. 1852. + +[2] The _America_ lost her laurels at Cowes a few weeks ago. + + + + +MRS GRIMSHAWE'S TREATISE ON HOLDFASTS. + + +I am ready to maintain, against all assailants of the position, that +the person who can feel so deep an interest in any of the works of God +as to find, in the investigation of them, employment for time which +might otherwise hang a little heavily on hand, and occupation of an +innocent and even of a useful nature for an active mind, has a decided +advantage over one who has no such resource. And I further maintain, +that there is not one single object in created nature, from the drop +of ditch-water which occupies the attention of Herr von Creep-crawl, +up to the 'serried host' of angels and archangels who inhabit the +realms of light, which does not present matter worthy of the study and +attention of an inquiring and intelligent mind. Having delivered this +defiance, I shall now ask my readers to take another walk round my +garden, and examine the climbers which cover my walls, and listen to +my Treatise on Holdfasts, as I call those appendages of plants which +assist them in climbing.[3] + +The very first specimen to which we come, is one of that very pretty +tribe the _Clematideae_, the _Clematis montana_, which is closely +covering a wall of ten feet high, and at least twenty in width, thence +throwing out its branches, extending itself over the adjacent wall of +the house, and occasionally sending a stray shoot or two to adorn my +neighbour's garden. Now, how do those slight, long stems, which +stretch, some of them twenty or thirty feet from the parent stalk, +support and arrange themselves so as to preserve a neat and ornamental +appearance without my having had the least trouble in training them? +If you gather one of those loose branches, you will see that it has no +tendril of any kind, or other apparent means of support; but this, +like all others of the clematideae or clematis tribe, possesses a power +of twisting the leaf-stalk round a wire, twig, or anything else that +comes in its way, so as to tie the plant to the support with as firm a +knot as could be made with a piece of string; and after thus +encircling the wire, it returns the leaf to its former position, with +the upper side outwards, exactly as it was before. Some of the +clematis tribe make this fulcrum from one part of the leaf-stalk, and +some from another. In that which we are examining, it is formed from +the lowest part next the main stalk of the plant. In the wild clematis +(_C. vitalba_)--that kind which runs so freely over hedges and +thickets in the southern counties, adorning the country in winter with +snowy tufts of feathers, formed by its seed-vessels--a part of the +stalk between two pair of the leaflets forms this twist; whilst in the +sweet-scented garden-clematis, other parts of the stem give the +support: but it is always by means of some portion or other of this +member, that plants of this tribe are sustained in their rapid and +extensive climbing. It is curious to observe what instinctive aptitude +to curve towards suitable objects, and towards them only, is exhibited +in the holdfasts of climbing-plants. They never bend towards a wall, +board, or other flat substance, when there is nothing to lay hold of; +but the moment they touch a suitable object, they instantly fix on it, +forming closely compacted rings, which can be untwisted only when +young. As the plant rises from one height to another, the little green +shoots above send out fresh leaves, each having the same prehensile +properties, which they keep in reserve till called on to apply them to +their proper use; whilst at the same time, the lower rings are +becoming indurated, so that, as the plant grows longer and heavier, +its supports become stronger and harder. There are other plants +besides the clematideae which thus support themselves, of which the +_Maurandya Barclayana_ and the _Canariensis_ are examples; and the +manner in which these accommodate themselves to the exact form of the +object on which they seize, is very remarkable. If the support is +round, the ring is also round; but if they fix on a square lath, or +other angular thing, the stem forms to it, so that when the prop is +removed, the ring retains the exact form of that prop, every angle +being as sharp and true, as if it were moulded in wax. + +Now, the next plant which greets us is the ivy (_Hedera helix_), and +this differs wholly in its means of support from almost any other +creeper; yet there is none that takes firmer hold, or maintains more +strongly its position, than this beautiful creeper, whose ceaseless +verdure well deserves the name of ivy--a word derived from the Celtic, +and signifying _green_. It is supported by means of a whitish fringe +of fibres, that are thrust out from one side of every part of the stem +which comes in contact with any wall or other supporting object to +which it can cling. Should a foreign substance, such as a leaf, +intervene between it and that object, the fibres lengthen until they +extend beyond the impediment; and then they fix on the desired object, +and cease to grow. + +These fibres, however; are not true roots--a branch with only such +roots, would not grow if planted in the earth--they are mere +holdfasts, and the plant does not receive any portion of its +nourishment through them. The upper part of the plant, where it has +mounted above the wall and become arborescent, is wholly devoid of +such fibres, which never appear but when they have some object to fix +upon. + +And now, let us look at that which is the very pride of my garden, and +which well deserves the name bestowed on it by a poetic-minded +friend--'the patrician flower:' I mean the beautiful _Cobea scandens_; +and here we are introduced to quite a different class of holdfasts +from either of those which we have examined. The blossom of the cobea +is formed of a curious and elegantly-formed calyx of five angles, +exquisitely veined, and of a tender green--itself a flower, or, at +least, when divested of its one bell-shaped petal, _looking_ like one. +From this calyx slowly unfolds a noble bell, at first of a soft, +creamy green; but the second day of its existence it becomes tinged +and veined with a delicate plum colour, which on the third day is its +prevailing hue. The blossom is then in its full perfection; the +vigorous green filaments supporting the anthers curve outwards; the +long anthers, in the same manner as those of the white lily, open +lengthways, and disclose rich masses of yellow pollen; whilst the +single pistil stands gracefully between its five supporters, crowned +with a globular purple style. On the last day or two of its existence, +the bell is of a full, deep puce colour, and then drops, leaving the +calyx bare, from which in due time is developed a handsome fruit, +something like that of the passion-flower. The flower-stalk is from +four to six inches long, and stands finely out from the wall, many +blossoms being exhibited at the same time in different stages of +development. + +But now of the holdfast, which is our special subject. And this needs +to be of a strong kind, for the branches of this plant have been +known, in an English conservatory, to run to the length of 200 feet in +one summer; and no doubt, in its native Mexico, where it has nothing +to impede its growth, its shoots run even more freely. Behold, then, +at distances of from three to four inches, all up the main stem; and +also, on every shoot and branch which that stem throws out, grows a +leaf, composed of three pair of leaflets, beautifully veined, and +tinted with reddish purple, from between the last pair of which +springs a tendril of extreme elegance. Indeed, noble as is this plant +in every part, I think this tendril is the crowning grace of the +whole: it is exceedingly slender, throwing off side-branches, which, +again, repeatedly fork off at acute angles in pairs, and each +extremity of each branch is furnished with a minute and delicate hook, +so small as to be scarcely perceptible, but so strong and +sharp-pointed as to lay hold of every object in its way--which hold it +retains, when once well fixed, in spite of wind or weather. If this +tendril remains long unattached, it becomes elongated to ten or twelve +inches, or even more; and certainly a more elegant object than it +presents when in this state can scarcely be seen, nor one which forms +a more graceful ornament to a vase of flowers, if introduced as it +grows, depending from one of the vigorous young purple shoots, itself +shining with a sort of metallic lustre, and richly coloured with green +and purple. But it is only on the loose young shoots that it assumes +this very graceful appearance. If it is sufficiently near to a wall, +or other support, instead of thus hanging pendent, its main stalk +nearest the leaf contracts into a spiral form, thus shortening the +tendril, and giving it greater power than so frail and slight a thing +could otherwise possess; and the elasticity produced by the +convolutions enables the branch slightly to yield to the influence of +the wind, which makes it less likely to be torn down. Each extremity, +as I have said, is armed with a hook, which hook, as soon as it +touches, lays firm hold on the wall; and these tendrils occurring +close together, and a large proportion of them fixing on some object, +a wonderfully strong support is afforded to the plant. This plant is +called by some people, 'the violet-bearing ivy,' although no leaf or +blossom can be less like the ivy or the violet than that of the cobea. + +And now, let us pass onwards. There is another tendriled plant, the +passion-vine; and this has a cirrus or tendril quite of a different +kind from that we have just examined. It is simple and unbranched, +springing from the axil of the leaf, straight when young, but speedily +becoming spiral, and forming a very close twist round whatever object +it seizes. It is spiral to within an inch, or less, of its root, and +encircles its support with six or seven circlets like a corkscrew, +thus clasping it with great firmness. This has no hook or other +appendage which would enable it to fix on a wall or other flat +substance; and therefore, unless there are wires, or some other +extraneous supports near, it must be nailed until it reaches a certain +height, when its own stalks supply the requisite props on which the +tendrils may lay hold. The grape and many other vines are furnished +with tendrils, which spring from the root of the leaf-stalk; that of +the grapevine is slightly branched, but not furnished with any hook. +One of its tendrils usually grows close to the stem of the fruit, and +thus sustains the heavy bunch of grapes which must otherwise, when it +increases to a weight of many pounds, either break from its stem, or +else pull down the branch on which it grows. + +And now we approach the beautiful _Ipomoea_, or major convolvulus, +which affords us a specimen of quite a different mode of progression +from that displayed in any creeper we have as yet looked at, for it +has neither tendril nor fibrous roots. 'Oh, that _must_ be a mistake!' +says some fine lady. 'My last Berlin pattern was of convolvuli, and +that lovely group of flowers I copied had several blossoms in it, and +I am sure there were _plenty_ of tendrils in both.' No doubt, fair +lady; but convolvuli in Berlin patterns, and those which are wrought +in 'nature's looms,' differ wonderfully. In the former, not only the +climbing convolvulus, but the common blue one (_C. minor_), is richly +furnished with tendrils, whilst those of Dame Nature display no such +appendage. Now, take a real flower of this tribe--the common bind-weed +from the hedge will do as well as any other--and you will see that the +means provided for it to run up any stick or stem it may meet, is a +peculiar property it has, of twining its _stem_ round and round that +of any other plant near it; and so strong is this necessity to assume +a spiral coil, or rather to twist and unite itself with some other +stem, that you may often see two, three, or four sister-stalks of the +same plant inwreathed into one stout cable, which union, though it +does not enable the feeble stems to ascend, yet seems to increase +their strength. But supply the young shoot with a stick or wire, or +even a bit of twine, and see how rapidly it will then climb, and +clasp, and throw out longer and stronger shoots, and overspread your +wall with its large bell-shaped flowers, so brilliant with every tint +of white, lilac, pink, and rose colour, and so exquisitely delicate in +their texture, expanding at earliest dawn, and closing, never to +reopen, when the fervid rays of the noonday sun fall on them! But I +must not attempt to depict every variety of holdfast, or every +provision for climbing with which it has pleased God to invest and +beautify the different kinds of creeping-plants: it would detain us +far too long; yet Mrs Grimshawe owes it to herself, to justify her +devotion to the holdfast of the Virginian creeper (_Ampelopsis +hederacea_), and that must be described. + +Every one knows this plant, for although a native of North America, it +is now one of the commonest coverings of our walls, as well as one of +the prettiest we see. Its beautiful cut leaves are divided into five +lobes, which, when first developed, are of a bright light-green, while +the whole of the young stem and shoot is red; those take, by degrees, +a deeper hue of green, and early in the autumn assume a brilliant +scarlet tint, at which time they are very lovely. The means by which +this plant takes so firm a hold of whatever supports it, is highly +curious. From the stem of the tree is sent out on one side a leaf, and +exactly opposite to it a shining, thread-like tendril, tinged with +red, from one to one and a half inches long, dividing into five +branches, and each terminating in a little hook. When one of these +little hooks touches a wall, or comes in contact with anything it is +able to cling to, it begins to thicken, expands into a granulated mass +of a bright-red hue, loses the form of a hook and assumes that of a +club, from the edges of which club a thin membrane extends, and +attaches itself firmly to the wall after the manner of a sucker. If +all five of the extremities happen to touch, they all go through the +same process; and when all are spread out on the wall, each with its +extension complete, the tendril looks much like the foot of a bird; +but none of the hooks change in this way, unless they are so situated +as to be able to fix on the wall. One of these strong holdfasts occurs +at about every two inches on every stem and branch; and as a very +large proportion of them get hold of some substance or other, the vine +becomes more strongly fixed in its place than those which have been +nailed or otherwise artificially fastened; and if the wall on which it +climbs is at all rough, it must be very boisterous weather indeed that +can dislodge its pretty covering. If by any means a branch is forced +away from the wall, you will generally find either that it has brought +away a portion of the stucco with it, or else that the stems of the +tendril have broken, and left the sucker-like extremities still +adhering. The appearance of one of these tendrils when young is +beautiful; and if you place it under a microscope while it is assuming +its knobby form, you will admire its exquisite texture and colouring. +This, like the ivy, when it rises above the wall, becomes arborescent, +and ceases to throw out tendrils. + +There are many other provisions for aiding plants in climbing. Some +ascend simply by means of the friction which the hairy or gummy +cuticle of their stems affords--that sort of Galium commonly called +'cleavers' or 'cliver,' and the wild madder (_Rubia pelegrina_), are +instances of this--then there are others which send out simple +tendrils from the point of each leaf. There is also a plant called the +'heartseed' or 'balloon vine,' from its inflated membraneous capsule, +in which the tendrils grow from the flower-stalks; and another, one of +the custard-apple tribe (_Annona hexapetala_), of which Smith tells +us--'the flower-stalk of this tree forms a hook, and grasps the +neighbouring branch, serving to suspend the fruit, which is very +heavy, resembling a bunch of grapes.' The pea and vetch tribe, the +pompion and cucumber, and various other plants, afford instances of +provisions of these and similar kinds. But as I hope I may have +succeeded in leading some of my readers to see what abundant subjects +of interest may be found in the contemplation of even the appendages +of plants, I shall now take my leave, only strongly advising all who +wish to find a country life profitable and agreeable, to endeavour to +supply themselves with some simple natural pursuit, such as gardening +or botany, either of which may lead to investigations that will well +repay their trouble, even should they refer to nothing more than the +structure of the leaves or tendrils of the trees and shrubs which grow +around their dwelling. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] See 'Mrs Grimshawe's Garden,' No. 413. + + + + +A DAY'S PLEASURING IN INDIA. + + +Parell[4] was full of guests; and in order to afford them a greater +diversity of amusement than the daily routine of a monotonous Eastern +life affords, our excellent host resolved on a day's excursion to the +island of Salsette, accepting an invitation to rest for an hour on his +return at the house of a wealthy Parsee, whose liberality and zeal for +the interests of the Company had won him the favour of the merchant +princes' representative. In order to be ready for our departure at +daybreak, we were called at three o'clock. In this country, such an +hour sounds uncomfortable; we are all inclined to sympathise with the +writer of the old Scotch ballad, and declare-- + + 'Up in the morning's no for me, + Up in the morning early;' + +but in India, it is a luxurious theft from sleep; and even now the +remembrance of my starlit bath of that Indian morning comes pleasantly +across my mind. The bath was literally taken by starlight; for the +tumbler of oil, with its floating wick--which is the ordinary lamp of +the country--was hardly seen in its far-off corner, when I unclosed +the jalousies, and admitted the solemn, silvery planet-light. The +window above the bath opened into the garden; and it is scarcely +possible to conceive greater physical enjoyment than reclining in the +warm element, listening to the soft sounds proceeding from +without--the castanet music of the singing-tree, the rustling of the +fan-palm, the trickling of the fountain: even the distant cry of the +retiring jackal was pleasant; whilst above the giant palms, I could +see the dark violet of the sky, on which the + + ----'Ship of Heaven + Came sailing from Eternity,' + +and from whence Canopus threw its laughing lustre full on the water in +which I was immersed, and kept me for a time motionless, lest I should +break or mar its beautiful reflection. But every enjoyment has its +dark shadow: as life has its 'insect cares,' so Eastern night has its +mosquitoes; and a sore contest one has with them on issuing from the +bath at such an hour. How they flit about, imps of evil as they are, +and sound their horn of defiance in our ear!--a very marvellous sound +to proceed from such tiny creatures, and, to persons of irritable +nerves, worse even than their sting, or at least an additional horror. +They proved strong incentives to a hasty toilette; and the whole +gipsying-party was speedily assembled in the hall, where coffee and +biscuits were handed round. Then followed a pleasant drive through the +fresh morning air; and it was not without regret that we exchanged the +open carriages for the close imprisonment of the palanquins, in which +shortly after we threaded the mazes of the jungle. It was still early +morning when we reached the cave in which we purposed remaining +during the heat of the day. Outside, a tent had been pitched for +the servants; within, a splendid breakfast was spread for +ourselves--tables, chairs, food, and cooks having preceded the party +thither. Books and prints were also provided, to beguile the tedium of +our inevitable seclusion, and pleasant companionship promised a still +greater resource against _ennui_. + +The caves of Salsette have been already so often described--once by +the pen of Heber--that I shall not attempt a repetition, but content +myself with informing my readers, that we occupied the large one, +dedicated to the ancient worship of the Buddhists; a gloomy temple, +but cool, and possessing a certain interest from having been the scene +of superstitious horrors round which hang the mystery of an almost +unknown past. + +After dinner, we prepared to mount the hill, and explore the smaller +cells in which the hermits of Buddhism had formerly dwelt. The ascent, +though very steep, was not difficult, and, once gained, afforded a +glorious view of the island and the distant sea. The caves, with their +singular stone-carvings and reliefs, were also very interesting, and +must have been pleasant abodes for the worthy men who there had aimed +at a pleasanter saintship than that attained by the tortures to which +the followers of Brahma, and of his legion of subordinate deities, +often subject themselves. We amused ourselves for some time examining +these cells, and not till the sun was sinking behind the taller trees +of the jungle below, did we think of returning. Our descent, however, +was to be effected by another and far more difficult pathway than that +by which we had mounted the hill--steps or niches irregularly cut in +the mountain's side, offering the only means of reaching the cave +below. My head turns at the very recollection! The chief of the hamals +had followed us; I looked at his naked feet, that with such a charming +certainty grasped the rock, and resolved on making him my _cavalier +servente_, backing my gracious intimation to that effect with the +promise of a rupee for guerdon, at which he appeared more pleased than +at the honour of the selection; and thus grasping the arm of my black +knight, I began the terrible task before me, having purposely lingered +out of sight till the rest of the party were at the bottom. + +But, alas! a very kind, very good-natured, very stout gentleman in +tight boots--I had not observed how _very_ tight they were!--perceived +my incongruous escort, and hastened back to take his place. In vain I +represented my partiality for my companion of shoeless feet and steady +eye; he was as incredulous as Desdemona's father was of her love for +the Moor. In vain I deprecated 'giving him so much trouble;' his +politeness was resolute; and I was compelled to accept the assistance +of his hand, and with a beating heart to make the first step. Alas! in +this instance it was not only _la premier pas qui coute_; the fourth +and fifth were worse; at the sixth my courage failed me utterly, and I +felt an insane desire to throw myself over the precipice, and thus +terminate the horror of fear and giddiness that distracted me. I +begged my companion to let me go, but he good-naturedly suggested that +I might as well try to live a little longer, and therefore advised me +to shut my eyes, and let him lift my feet from step to step. I was +obliged to comply, and thus, to the great amusement of the party +beneath, we made our tedious way down the hillside. If any of my +readers have ever felt the kind of panic I have tried to describe, +they will understand and sympathise with me on the occasion. The +precipice below was really very alarming, and there was nothing on the +bare side of the mountain that could soothe the imagination with the +hope of something to clutch at. Still, I felt more ridiculous than I +had ever thought I could be, when, on reaching the foot, I received +the bantering congratulations of the others; and my assistant, with a +bow, assured me 'that we had effected our descent with the agility and +grace of two antelopes!' + +We returned to the principal cave to have coffee, and then, +re-entering our palanquins, were soon again in the depth of the +jungle. I was tired--one soon wearies in that climate; the light was +dim and solemn; and the chant of the bearers, by its monotony, helped +to lull me into a sound slumber, for which the palanquin is always an +agreeable cradle; and thus, in deep sleep, I was borne onwards, till +the halt, to which my bearers at last came, roused me; and with a very +dim recollection of where I was, I started and awoke. For a single +instant, I thought myself still dreaming, however, for an unexpected +and surprising vision was before me. + +The palanquin had stopped in a large garden, or rather grove, which +was brilliantly illuminated with coloured lamps; even the lofty +cocoa-nut trees were not without a crown of rainbow tinted light. As I +was assisted in my exit from the palanquin, two young Parsee boys, in +flowing white robes, girt with a scarlet shawl round the waist, +advanced and presented me, the one with a large bouquet of roses, +tied, after their usual fashion, round a slender stick, and dripping +with rose-water; the other, with a thin long chip of sandal-wood, +having at the end a small piece of white cotton, steeped in delicious +attar of roses. After receiving their gifts, I was conducted by them +to the house, where the owner, a Parsee merchant, met and welcomed me +with the ordinary salutation, pressing his hand to his head and heart, +and then offering it to me. My palanquin had arrived last, and I found +all the rest of the party seated round a table covered with a splendid +repast--a regular hot supper, intermingled with fruit and flowers in +profusion. The chief ornament of the table was a handsome silver vase, +presented to our host by the East India Company, of which he appeared +very proud, lifting it from the table, to shew the inscription on it +to each of the party individually. At the end of the banquet, the +quiet attendants moved round with a very elegant silver flagon of +rose-water, the neck of which was very long, and as thin as the tube +of a china pipe; from it they poured a few drops on the head of each +of the guests. The sensation produced by this sudden trickling of cold +rose-water is very pleasant, though a little startling to strangers. +We had so recently had refreshment, that we were not inclined to do +justice to the hospitality proffered, and the supper was scarcely +tasted; but on rising to go, our host explained to the 'Governor +Sahib,' 'that the feast was his: it had been prepared for him; he had +looked on it! it was his!' These polite assertions were a little +mystifying, till one of the staff-officers, well versed in the manners +of the natives, explained that the governor was expected to carry off +what remained of the entertainment. It was really difficult to help +laughing at the whimsical notion of carrying away the roast turkeys, +kid, fruit, &c., which was before us; but all was actually the +perquisite of the train of attendant servants, and I suppose they took +possession of it. The gifts offered to the governor when travelling +are also theirs, when not too valuable; that is to say, when they only +consist--as they generally do in mere villages--of fruit, eggs, nuts, +and sweetmeats. If the present be, as it occasionally is, a camel, +with its head painted green or red, it is usual to accept it, re-paint +it blue or yellow, and make a return present of it, to the original +donor, who, of course, feigns to be totally unacquainted with the +animal thus 'translated.' Gifts made to the governor become the +property of the East India Company, as no servant of the Company is +permitted to receive a private present; and it would be the height of +discourtesy to refuse the wonted and time-honoured 'offering' made on +the occasion of a visit to the Burra Sahib. + +After many courteous salaams and farewells on the part of our host, we +resumed our journey, gratified at this glimpse of the interior of a +native home. The Parsees are generally rich, and their houses or +_bungalows_ are large and handsome. Their adoration of light tends +greatly to the embellishment of their dwellings, as to every upper +panel of the wainscoting they attach a branch for wax-candles, which +are lighted every night, and give to the building the appearance of +being illuminated. These 'children of the light' are a fine race, very +handsome and intelligent. The upper servants at Parell were all +Parsees; one, named Argiesia was an especial favourite with us all, +having always a shrewd and amusing answer for every question put to +him. We remember on the occasion of a total eclipse of the sun, which +took place during our stay in Bombay, asking him why the people of the +village near the house made such a noise with their tom-toms. His +reply was: + +'Because ignorant people, Ma'am Sahib, think great serpent is +swallowing the sun, and they try to frighten him away with big noise.' + +'And what do you think the shadow is, Argiesia?' we asked. He looked +grave for a minute--one never sees an Oriental look puzzled!--and then +answered: + +'Sun angry men are so wicked. In anger, him hide his face.' This +ready-witted and poetical Ghebir met his death, not long after, in one +of his own sacred elements, being drowned in the Mahr River, 'where +ford there is none.' He once expressed great surprise to me that a +nation possessing Regent Street--a description of which he had +received from his father--'should come to live in India.' + +It was night when we reached Parell after our day's pleasuring; and we +all agreed that the climate of India, during the winter months, is of +all others the best adapted for picnics, which are so often marred in +England by ill-timed showers or gloom; and yet, certain memories came +back half reproachfully as we spoke, painting to our mental vision the +pretty lanes and fresh green dells and dingles of England, the soft +cool breeze, the varied and flitting shadows, the open-air enjoyment +of many a past summer-day, when in our own merry island we + + 'Went a gipsying a long time ago,' + +and we gave an involuntary sigh for the country of our birth. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] Residence of the governor of the Bombay presidency. + + + + +THE LONDON PRISONS OF THE LAST CENTURY. + + +In the year 1728, an opinion was entertained that much cruelty and +rapacity were exercised by the keepers of the great prisons in London. +It was known that they had almost unlimited power in their hands, that +they were not subject to regular inspection, and that it was scarcely +possible to bring them to justice for their treatment of those +committed to their charge. It was argued, that it is impossible to +depend upon the lenity of men who have such powers over their +fellow-creatures, and that these officers must be supposed more than +human if they did not occasionally abuse their authority. Of their +having actually done so, many rumours had from time to time reached +parliament. But in making out a case for inquiry, its strongest +supporters had but a very slight forecast of the horrors it was to +divulge. It may here be remarked, that before the proper arrangements +for official responsibility and regular systematic management in such +matters as prison discipline or the custody of the insane were +devised, our free parliament did incalculable service by its inquiries +and exposures. In that august assembly, every tale of formidable +injustice or oppression was sure to receive a ready auditory; and its +power was so transcendent, that every door flew open at its command, +and no influence could protect the wrong-doer from its sweeping +vengeance. With such a body in existence, even the worst governments +which Britain has known could not keep up those mysterious agents of +tyranny, secret state-prisons, which continue to be the curse of every +despotic country. Yet it will be seen, that for want of some more +immediate and direct responsibility, the abuses in the prisons even of +this country had risen to a very dreadful height. + +The member who headed the inquiry was Colonel Oglethorpe. He was a man +of literary talent--a dashing and intrepid soldier, but still more +renowned for his wide and active benevolence. It is to him that Pope +alludes in the lines: + + One driven by strong benevolence of soul, + Shall fly like Oglethorpe from pole to pole. + +A committee obtained by his influence, did not conduct its inquiry in +easy state in St Stephen's, but appalled the guilty parties by +immediately repairing to the prisons, and diving to the furthest +recesses of their dungeons. In the Marshalsea, it found that even +those who paid excessive fees for their lodgings, were laid in lairs +above each other on boards set on tressels, where they were packed so +close together, that many were believed to have died from mere +deficiency of air. There was no doubt that many others, debtors, had +come to a miserable end by starvation. Some were found in the last +stage of attenuation. Those who could not provide for themselves, had +nothing to feed on but a scanty charity-allowance from the benevolence +of individuals, which, when distributed among the whole, furnished +each with sometimes only a few peas in the day; and at intervals of +several days, an ounce and a half of meat. 'When the miserable +wretch,' say the committee in their report, 'hath worn out the charity +of his friends, and consumed the money which he hath raised upon his +clothes and bedding, and hath ate his last allowance of provisions, +he usually in a few days grows weak for want of food, with the +symptoms of a hectic fever; and when he is no longer able to stand, if +he can raise 3d. a day to pay the fee of the common nurse of the +prison, he obtains the liberty of being carried into the sick-ward, +and lingers on for about a month or two, by the assistance of the +above-mentioned prison portion of provision, and then dies.' The +committee made more lifelike this horrible description of the state of +the prison by describing the results of their efforts to relieve the +sufferers. They said: 'On the giving food to these poor +wretches--though it was done with the utmost caution, they being only +allowed the smallest quantities, and that of liquid nourishment--one +died; the vessels of his stomach were so disordered and contracted for +want of use, that they were totally incapable of performing their +office, and the unhappy creature perished about the time of +digestion.' These prisoners were debtors, not criminals. We make our +extracts from the reports, just after having heard in a scientific +society an examination of the dietary of a large district of prisons. +The difficulty appeared to be, to find the medium that would preserve +health without making the criminal's living in some measure luxurious; +and it appeared that, by almost every dietary in actual use in the +district, the prisoners fattened; in fact, they profited so much in +constitution by sobriety, good air, and regular food, however simple, +that it was found a difficult matter to give them what might be +considered a bare sufficiency, without raising their physical +condition, and sending them out of prison with improved constitutions. +So different is imprisonment for crime in the present age, from +imprisonment for debt a hundred and twenty years ago. + +The condition of many of the prisoners for debt in England, though few +knew the actual extent of its horrors, was well known to be wretched, +and several humane persons had made charitable bequests for their +support. Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee made inquiry as to the +employment of these charities, and disclosed incidents of singular +villainy. It appeared, for instance, that in the Marshalsea there were +several charities; and that the prisoners might be sure of benefiting +by them, it was arranged that they should elect six constables, and +that these constables should choose a steward, who was to receive and +disburse the charities. Like a corporation, the steward had a seal +which he appended to the receipts for the money received for the +charities. The officers of the prison had carried on a systematic +perversion of these charities, either through connivance of the +steward elected by the constables, or by imposing on him. In the year +1722, however, it happened that a man named Matthew Pugh, an active, +clever exponent of abuses, was chosen steward. He discovered several +charities, the knowledge of which had been entirely suppressed, the +proceeds being drawn by the officers of the prison. He found, that to +facilitate their fraud, they had got a counterpart of the common seal, +with which they certified the receipts. Pugh got a new seal made; and +to prevent a new system of fraud being carried out, he got a +safety-chest fixed to the prison wall, with six locks, requiring for +opening it six separate keys, which were put into the hands of the six +constables. The committee, in describing how audaciously these +precautions were defeated, shew distinctly how slight were the checks +on the conduct of prison-officers in the reign of George II. They say: +'But this public and just manner of receiving and disbursing the +charities was disliked by the keeper and his servants; and they +complained to the judge of the Palace Court, and gave information that +the said Pugh was a very turbulent fellow, and procured a rule by +which it was ordered, that Matthew Pugh should no longer be permitted +to have access to the said prison or court; and the prisoners are +allowed to choose another steward; and accordingly, John Grace, then +clerk to the keeper, was chosen steward by those in the keeper's +interest; but the constables, in behalf of the prisoners, refused to +deliver up the keys of the chest, where their seal was, insisting that +all receipts should be sealed as usual in a public manner, that they +might know what money was received; and thereupon the said chest was +broke down, and carried away by the said William Acton (the keeper) +and John Grace.'--_Parliamentary History_, viii. 736. Hence the deaths +from starvation reported by Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee. + +The reports of the committee were varied by statements of atrocious +cruelties committed on the prisoners, by their committal, whenever the +prison-officers thought fit, to damp and loathsome dungeons full of +filth, by heavy irons being forced on them, and even by the +application of the thumbkins, and other such tortures as were applied +in the previous century to the Covenanters. Thus, after narrating an +attempt made to escape, and the severities used on those who had +participated in it, the committee say: 'One of them was seen to go in +(to the keeper's lodge) perfectly well, and when he came out again, he +was in the greatest disorder; his thumbs were much swollen, and very +sore; and he declared that the occasion of his being in that condition +was, that the keeper, in order to extort from him a confession of the +names of those who had assisted him and others in their attempt to +escape, had screwed certain instruments of iron upon his thumbs, so +close, that they had forced the blood out of them with exquisite pain. +After this, he was carried into the strong room, where, besides the +other irons which he had on, they fixed on his neck and hands an iron +instrument called a collar, like a pair of tongs; and he being a large +lusty man, when they screwed the said instrument close, his eyes were +ready to start out of his head, the blood gushed out of his ears and +nose, he foamed at the mouth, and he made several motions to speak, +but could not: after these tortures, he was confined in the strong +room for many days with a heavy pair of irons called sheers on his +legs.' + +It is not to be denied that some of the charges made by the committee +were not ultimately confirmed. It is natural for humane men, becoming +for the first time acquainted with extensive cruelties, to tinge their +narrative with the indignation they feel, and thus give it a +prejudiced and exaggerated tone. Even committees of the House of +Commons are not entirely exempt from such failings. But for our +purpose, which is that of noticing the progress of civilisation and +humanity in the period that has elapsed since the inquiry, it is +sufficient to know, that there must have been an extensive foundation +in facts for the horrors detailed by the committee. If it could not be +distinctly proved that an individual officer had murdered any prisoner +by the use of a particular torture, yet the instruments of torture +described in the above extract were in the prisons--they were seen and +handled by the committee, who were not to suppose that they were kept +for no use. They state, that it had become the practice for the +keepers 'unlawfully to assume to themselves a pretended authority as +magistrates, and not only to judge and decree punishments arbitrarily, +but also to execute the same unmercifully.' + +In the exercise of this authority, the keepers seem to have imitated +the cruelties of the classical tyrant Mezentius, commemorated by +Virgil as chaining the living to the dead, for the committee say: 'The +various tortures and cruelties before mentioned not contenting these +wicked keepers in their said pretended magistracy over the prisoners, +they found a way of making within the prison a confinement more +dreadful than the strong room itself, by coupling the living with the +dead; and have made a practice of locking up debtors who displeased +them in the yard with human carcasses. One particular instance of +this sort of inhumanity, was of a person whom the keepers confined in +that part of the lower yard which was then separated from the rest, +whilst two dead bodies had lain there four days; yet was he kept there +with them six days longer; in which time the vermin devoured the flesh +from the faces, ate the eyes out of the heads of the carcasses, which +were bloated, putrid, and turned green during the poor debtor's dismal +confinement with them.' + +Some of the accounts given by the committee are as grotesque, without +being so horrible. A certain Captain John M'Phaedris had been a person +of considerable fortune, and, like many of his contemporaries, had +been a victim to the South-sea speculation, which appears to have made +all the debtors' prisons more than usually full between the years 1720 +and 1725. He refused to pay the exorbitant fees demanded by the keeper +for accommodation, and maintained that they were illegal. To silence +so troublesome a person, he was turned, unsheltered, into the yard, +where he had to remain exposed to the weather day and night. 'He sat +quietly,' said the committee, 'under his wrongs, and, getting some +poor materials, built a little hut to protect himself as well as he +could from the injuries of the weather.' The keeper, seeing this +ingenious abode, exclaimed with an oath that the fellow made himself +easy, and ordered the hut to be pulled down. 'The poor prisoner,' we +are told, 'being in an ill state of health, and the night rainy, was +put to great distress.' + +In another instance, a prisoner had been committed to a cell so damp, +as the witnesses described it, that they could sweep the water from +the wall like dew from the grass. A feather-bed happened by some odd +accident to be in the place, and the prisoner tore it up, and, for +warmth, buried himself in the contents. Being covered with cutaneous +sores, the feathers stuck to him, as if he had been subject to the +operation of tarring and feathering. One Sunday, the door of the cell +being left open, he rushed out, and entered the prison chapel during +divine service--a horribly ludicrous figure. The committee, on the +conclusion of the incident, say, 'he was immediately seized and +carried back into the sad dungeon; where, through the cold, and the +restraint, and for want of food, he lost his senses, languished, and +perished.' + +Such were the features of the system of mistreatment pursued in the +London prisons, thirty years after the general liberties of the +subject had been secured by the Revolution. We may in a subsequent +paper advert to some of the particular cases which came under the +attention of courts of justice. + + + + +LIFE-ASSURANCE OFFICES OF RECENT DATE. + + +The remarkable prosperity of life-assurance business in these +realms--where alone it is a flourishing business--has naturally had +the effect of causing 'offices' to multiply very fast. In the last +eight years, 241 were projected, being at the rate of one for every +twelve days nearly. Two or three bustling persons thereby obtain +situations; there is a show of business for a time; but such concerns +are often exceedingly weak, and the interests of the public are much +imperiled by them. In consequence of an order of parliament, returns +of the accounts of a large proportion of the recent offices have been +made and published; so that the public may now form some opinion of +the stability of these institutions. The general fact resulting is, +that the greater number appear to have been started with small means, +and are not now in hopeful circumstances. The business they have +obtained is generally small in proportion to the expenses incurred; so +that many of them are much behind the point at which they started. + +Mr Robert Christie, of Edinburgh, has done the public the good service +of publishing a small pamphlet in which the leading features of the +accounts are presented in an intelligible form.[5] Here it appears +that a life-assurance company will launch into business with an +imposing name, a flourishing prospectus, and--L.3000! After three +years, it will have received L.4000 of premiums. In that time, L.1300 +will have been spent in salaries, L.600 in establishing agencies, +L.700 in rent; in all, in expenses of management, upwards of L.5000, +leaving little more than half the premium receipts to stand against +the obligations towards the assured. There is one which has been in +business upwards of four years, and which only possesses L.2869 of +funds, out of which to pay policies represented by L.3094 of premiums, +L.2379 of moneys received for investment, and L.1895 of deposits on +shares. Another, which makes no small bustle in the world, received in +two years and a half L.13,219 of premiums, spent in the same time +L.6993, whereof L.1213 was for advertising, and L.539 for directors +and auditors, and at the end of the period possessed, to make good its +obligations, only L.7045, nearly one-half of which was composed of the +original guarantee fund. + +It is very likely that few or none of these establishments were +commenced with a fraudulent design; but they were not required by the +public, and their expenses have eaten them up. By most, if not all of +them, loss and disappointment will be incurred. It is therefore highly +desirable that the public should be warned against new offices +generally. While there are so many old ones of perfectly established +character both in England and Scotland--and we have some pride in +remarking, that there is not one dangerous office known to us in the +latter country--it is quite unnecessary to resort to any other. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] _Letter to the Right Hon. Joseph W. Henley, M.P., President of the +Board of Trade, regarding Life-Assurance Institutions._ By Robert +Christie, Esq. Edinburgh: Constable & Co. + + + + +ANECDOTE OF BURNS IN THE '93. + + +A public library had been established by subscription among the +citizens of Dumfries in September 1792, and Burns, ever eager about +books, had been from the first one of its supporters. Before it was a +week old, he had presented to it a copy of his poems. He does not seem +to have been a regularly admitted member till 5th March 1793, when +'the committee, by a great majority, resolved to offer to Mr Robert +Burns a share in the library, free of any admission-money [10s. 6d.] +and the quarterly contributions [2s. 6d.] to this date, out of respect +and esteem for his abilities as a literary man; and they directed the +secretary to make this known to Mr Burns as soon as possible, that the +application which they understood he was about to make in the ordinary +way might be anticipated.' This is a pleasing testimony to Burns as a +poet, but still more so to Burns as a citizen and member of society. +His name appears in September as a member of committee--an honour +assigned by vote of the members. + +On the 30th of this month, the liberal poet bestowed four books upon +the library--namely, _Humphry Clinker_, _Julia de Roubigne_, _Knox's +History of the Reformation_, and _Delolme on the British +Constitution_. The present intelligent librarian, Mr M'Robert, +reports, respecting the last-mentioned work, a curious anecdote, which +he learned directly from the late Provost Thomson of Dumfries. Early +in the morning after Delolme had been presented, Burns came to Mr +Thomson's bedside before he was up, anxiously desiring to see the +volume, as he feared he had written something upon it 'which might +bring him into trouble.' On the volume being shewn to him, he looked +at the inscription which he had written upon it the previous night, +and, having procured some paste, he pasted over it the fly-leaf in +such a way as completely to conceal it. + +The gentleman who has been good enough to communicate these +particulars, adds: 'I have seen the volume, which is the edition of +1790, neatly bound, with a portrait of the author at the beginning. +Some stains of ink shine through the paper, indicating that there is +something written on the back of the engraving; but the fly-leaf being +pasted down upon it, there is nothing legible. On holding the leaf up +to the light, however, I distinctly read, in the undoubted manuscript +of the poet, the following words:-- + +"Mr Burns presents this book to the Library, and begs they will take +it as a creed of British liberty--until they find a better. R. B." + +'The words, "until they find a better," are evidently those which the +poet feared "might bring him into trouble." Probably, if the +inscription had not been written on the back of the engraving, he +might have removed it altogether: at all events, his anxiety to +conceal it shews what trivial circumstances were in those days +sufficient to constitute a political offence.' Ay, and to think of +this happening in the same month with the writing of _Scots, wha hae +wi' Wallace bled_! + +Fully to appreciate the feelings of alarm under which Burns acted on +this occasion, it must be kept in view that the trial of Mr Thomas +Muir for sedition had taken place on the 30th of August, when, in the +evidence against him, appeared that of his servant, Ann Fisher, to the +effect that he had purchased and distributed certain copies of Paine's +_Rights of Man_. The stress laid upon that testimony by the +crown-counsel had excited much remark. It might well appear to a +government officer like Burns, that his own conduct at such a crisis +ought to be in the highest degree circumspect. We do not know exactly +the time when the incident which we are about to relate took place, +but it appears likely to have been nearly that of Muir's trial. Our +poet one day called upon his quondam neighbour, George Haugh, the +blacksmith, and, handing him a copy of Paine's _Common Sense_ and +_Rights of Man_, desired him to keep these books for him, as, if they +were found in his own house, he should be a ruined man. Haugh readily +accepted the trust, and the books remained in possession of his family +down to a recent period.--_Chambers's Life and Works of Burns, Vol. +IV._, _just published._ + + + + +CURIOUS EXPERIMENT IN WOOL-GROWING. + + +The following is worthy of notice, as exemplifying what may be done, +by judicious attention, to improve an important national staple:-- + +'In a lecture recently delivered by Mr Owen at the Society of Arts, +the learned professor detailed the particulars of a highly interesting +experiment, which resulted in the establishment of one of the very few +instances in which the origination of a distinct variety of a domestic +quadruped could be satisfactorily traced, with all the circumstances +attending its development well authenticated. We must premise it by +stating, that amongst the series of wools shewn in the French +department of the Great Exhibition, were specimens characterised by +the jury as a wool of singular and peculiar properties; the hair, +glossy and silky, similar to mohair, retaining at the same time +certain properties of the merino breed. This wool was exhibited by J. +L. Graux, of the farm of Mauchamp, Commune de Juvincourt, and the +produce of a peculiar variety of the merino breed of sheep, and it +thus arose. In the year 1828, one of the ewes of the flock of merinos +in the farm of Mauchamp, produced a male lamb, which, as it grew up, +became remarkable for the long, smooth, straight, and silky character +of the fibre of the wool, and for the shortness of its horns. It was +of small size, and presented certain defects in its conformation which +have disappeared in its descendants. In 1829, M. Graux employed this +ram with a view to obtain other rams, having the same quality of wool. +The produce of 1830 only included one ram and one ewe, having the +silky quality of the wool; that of 1831 produced four rams and one ewe +with the fleece of that quality. In 1833, the rams, with the silky +variety of wool, were sufficiently numerous to serve the whole flock. +In each subsequent year the lambs have been of two kinds--one +preserving the character of the ancient race, with the curled elastic +wool, only a little longer and finer than in the ordinary merinos; the +other resembling the rams of the new breed, some of which retained the +large head, long neck, narrow chest, and long flanks of the abnormal +progenitor, whilst others combined the ordinary and better-formed body +with the fine silky wool. M. Graux, profiting by the partial +resumption of the normal type of the merino in some of the descendants +of the malformed original variety, at length succeeded, by a judicious +system of crossing and interbreeding, in obtaining a flock combining +the long silky fleece with a smaller head, shorter neck, broader +flanks, and more capacious chest. Of this breed the flocks have become +sufficiently numerous to enable the proprietor to sell examples for +exportation. The crossing of the Beauchamp variety with the ordinary +merino has also produced a valuable quality of wool, known in France +as the "Mauchamp Merino." The fine silky wool of the pure Mauchamp +breed is remarkable for its qualities, as combining wool, owing to the +strength as well as the length and fineness of the fibre. It is found +of great value by the manufacturers of Cashmere shawls, being second +only to the true Cashmere fleece in the fine flexible delicacy of the +fabric, and of particular utility when combined with the Cashmere wool +in imparting to the manufacture qualities of strength and consistence, +in which the pure Cashmere is deficient. Although the quantity of the +wool yielded by the Mauchamp variety is less than in the ordinary +merinos, the higher price which it obtains in the French market--25 +per cent. above the best merino wools--and the present value of the +breed, have fully compensated M. Graux for the pains and care +manifested by him in the establishment of the variety, and a council +medal was awarded to him.' + +We find the above abstract in the _Critic_ (London Literary Journal); +and our chief object in making the quotation, is to bring the subject +under the notice of wool-growers in the home country, as well as in +Australia. What, it may be asked, could not be done by every +store-farmer following the example of M. Graux? + + + + +A DIRGE OF LOVE. + +BY W. E. L. + + + Yes! she is dead: the splendour of her eyes + Sleeps 'neath the lids for ever; on my sight + Never again shall flash their high delight, + Tender and rich with love's sweet ecstasies. + + Never again, deep down from vulgar ken, + Shall the pure gushing of her soul rejoice, + And we stand silent, as to hear the voice + Of waters falling to a soundless glen. + + And scarce again from other lips shall come + Such beauteous truths, such fresh imaginings, + As, like the warm south-wind, upon their wings + Bear off our fancy to their own bright home. + + Yet am I calm: though hard it be to smooth + Waters upshaken from the deepest deep; + Though it be hard to watch, yet never weep, + The darkening cynosure of passionate youth; + + Yet am I calm. The heart I had to bring + Was marred with imperfection and decay, + Now the free spirit, riven from the clay, + Drinks at the fountain whence all love must spring. + + O passed from earthly to celestial love! + O reft from me and from my clinging grasp, + And circled straightway by the close, warm clasp + Of seraph bosoms in the land above! + + I will not weep thee more. But if I long + Too sorrowfully for thy presence here, + Not vainly on thy turf shall fall the tear, + But thy dead name shall blossom into song. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +MAXWELL & CO., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 22617.txt or 22617.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/1/22617/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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