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diff --git a/23690-8.txt b/23690-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d19b39c --- /dev/null +++ b/23690-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9419 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, +No. 378, April, 1847, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 3, 2007 [EBook #23690] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine +Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + + + + + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +No. CCCLXXVIII. APRIL, 1847. VOL. LXI + + + + +CROMWELL. + + +Mr Carlyle's services to history in collecting and editing these +letters[1] and speeches of Cromwell, all men will readily and gratefully +acknowledge. A work more valuable as a guide to the study of the +singular and complex character of our pious revolutionist, our religious +demagogue, our preaching and praying warrior and usurper, has not been +produced. There is another portion of Mr Carlyle's labours which will +not meet so unanimous an approbation. As _editor_, Mr Carlyle has given +us a valuable work; as _commentator_, the view which he would teach us +to take of English Puritanism is, to our thinking, simply the most +paradoxical, absurd, unintelligible, mad business we ever encountered in +our lives. + +Our Hero-worshipper, it must be allowed, has been more fortunate this +time in the selection of his object of devotion than when he shouted to +the skies his Mirabeaus and Dantons. But he makes an unfortunate species +of compensation. In proportion as his hero is more within the bounds of +humanity has his worship become more extravagant and outrageous. He +out-puritans the Puritans; he is more fanatic than his idol; he has +chosen to express himself with such a righteous truculence, such a +sanguinary zeal, such a pious contempt for human virtue and human +sympathies, as would have startled Old Noll himself. It is a bad +religion this hero-worship--at least as practised by Mr Carlyle. Here is +our amiable countryman rendered by it, in turn, a terrorist and a +fanatic. All his own intellectual culture he throws down and abandons. +Such dire transformation ensues as reminds us of a certain hero-worship +which Milton has celebrated: + + "Horror on him falls, + _And horrid sympathy_; for what he sees + He feels himself, now changing; down his arms, + Down falls the spear and shield; down he as fast; + And the dire hiss renews, and the dire form, + Catched by contagion." + +But to our task--which is no light one; for in our survey of this book +we have to keep in view both hero and hero-worshipper, Cromwell and +Carlyle, both somewhat slippery personages, abnormal, enigmatical. + +The speeches of Oliver Cromwell have a formidable reputation for +prolixity, confusion, and excessive tediousness; yet we have not, for +our own part, found these volumes to be of the dry and scarce readable +description which their title foreboded; and we would caution others not +to be deterred by any fears of this nature from their perusal. They will +find an interest grow upon them as they proceed, and the last volume to +be more attractive than the first. As the work advances, the letters and +speeches of Cromwell become more intimately connected with the great +transactions of the period, and the editor himself more frequently +favours us with some specimen of his happier manner, where concentration +of style, a spirit of humour and reflection, and a power of vivid +portraiture, have _not_ degenerated into mere quaintness, into a species +of slang, into _Carlylisms_, into vague generalities about infinitudes +and eternities. At all times the interspersed commentary--written in +that peculiar, fantastic, jingling manner which, illegitimate as it is, +disorderly and scandalous to all lovers of propriety in style and +diction, is at all events the very opposite to dulness--forms perhaps +the most fortunate contrast that could have been devised with the +Cromwellian period, so arid and colourless, so lengthy and so tortuous, +tinged often with such a dismal obscurity, and valuable in fact only as +showing _the man_, utterly valueless as an exposition of thought. +Perhaps, as models of style, a critic would be as little disposed to +applaud the writing of Mr Carlyle as the compositions of Cromwell, but +they form here all admirable relief the one to the other; taken +together, one can consume a considerable quantity of both. Your dry +bread is weary mastication, and your potted anchovies have a somewhat +too stinging flavour; but taken together, sandwich-fashion, as they are +here, the consumption may go on rapidly enough. + +But, whether dry or not, the letters and speeches of Cromwell should be +read by every one desirous of obtaining an insight into the character of +not the least extraordinary, nor the least misrepresented personage in +history. If there is any one who still believes that Cromwell was a +thorough hypocrite, that his religion was a systematic feint to cover +his ambitious designs, the perusal of these volumes will entirely +undeceive him. We look upon this hypothesis, this Machiavelian +explanation of Cromwell's character, as henceforth entirely dismissed +from all candid and intelligent minds. It was quite natural that such a +view should be taken of their terrible enemy by the royalists of the +Restoration, hating his memory with a most cordial hatred, and +accustomed, in their blinding licentiousness, to look upon _all_ +religion as little better than cant and hypocrisy. It was quite natural +that such a portrait of him should be drawn by the men who unearthed his +bones, and vented their rage upon a senseless corpse. We see it was +quite inevitable that some such coarse caricature should be thus limned +and transmitted to us. But it has lasted long enough. We believe, +indeed, that by most persons it has already been dismissed and disowned. +It may now be torn into shreds, and cast aside as utterly faithless. + +Cromwell was a _genuine Puritan_. There is no doubt of that. He was no +youth when the war broke out, nor a man who had yet to seek his +religious party or principles. As the farmer of St Ives, we see him, as +distinctly as if he still lived upon the earth, the man of fierce +sectarian piety, in natural temper not unamiable, somewhat gloomy and +hypochondriacal, but, above all, distinguished by whatsoever of good or +ill the sort of Calvinistic divinity prevalent at the time could infuse +into its professors. Such the war found him, and such he continued to +be; throughout his whole career we never for a moment lose sight of "the +saint," the title which, then as now, the profane world gave to this +class of men. + +Was Cromwell, then, always sincere in his utterances? was there no cant, +_no_ hypocrisy? Did he never conceal the ambition and domineering spirit +of the soldier under the humility of the saint? Another matter quite. +Because a man is religious in the main, it follows not that he is +incapable of occasionally practising hypocrisy: he may lapse as well +into this, as into any crime of the decalogue. Although we might find it +difficult to put our finger exactly upon the spot, and say, Here speaks +the hypocrite, we are not without suspicion that Cromwell was at times +practising dissimulation. But if he dissembled, if he used with artifice +the language of religion, it was no new and foreign disguise that he +put on. He had but to draw the folds a little higher over his face of a +robe that he had long worn in all times and seasons, and which was +verily his own. + +In common with almost all men who in times of civil broil have risen +from a lowly station to great power, Cromwell had occasion, no doubt, at +times for dissimulation. His religion, genuine as it was, would no more +prevent him from the practice of this necessary craft than from the +sanguinary deeds not more necessary to the triumph of his cause. Nay, it +was precisely of that enthusiastic order which, in the most liberal +manner, justifies the means for the end. Now, at a period when the +saints were in the ascendant, dissimulation would unavoidably take a +religious form, and when most deceiving men, or most faithfully +addressing them, he would still colour all his language with the same +hue of piety. As, in an age of chivalry, the dissembler would have the +boast of honour and the parade of knightly courtesy for ever on his +lips, so in these times of saintship he would lull the suspicions of men +by a gross emblazonry of religion. It might well happen, therefore, that +such a man as Cromwell, working his way upward to the highest post of +authority, would deal in much insincerity of phrase, and yet have "the +root of the matter" in him. Indeed, nothing is more common in the world +than this combination of genuine feelings of piety with a great +abundance of cant, habitual or designed. It would betray a very slender +knowledge of mankind, and none at all of what is called the religious +world, to conclude that a man is destitute of sincere piety because he +sometimes makes use of the language of religion for ulterior purposes +not peculiarly pious. + +It is to be observed, moreover, that to readers unfamiliar with the +peculiarities of _professing_ Christians, whether Puritans or of other +denomination, the expressions of humility and self-abasement which +Cromwell frequently makes use of have appeared to be plain symptoms of +hypocrisy. They are nothing but the habits of the sect. Such expressions +are supposed to have been employed to blind men to his ambitious +projects, to shelter him from the jealous scrutiny of rivals and +superiors. Such a purpose they may have sometimes answered, and been +intended to answer; but in the main they are nothing more nor less than +the dialect of the tribe. Because is a Christian virtue, certain +religious people have thought fit to indulge in a false vituperation of +themselves. Striving avariciously after _all_ virtues, however +incompatible the one with the other, they counterfeit vice and meanness, +that, good men as they are, they may have abundance of contrition. How +far there can be Christianity or piety in an abuse and degradation of +ourselves, when that abuse and degradation must be felt all along to be +untrue--if any reflection whatever accompanies such language--we leave +such people to settle amongst themselves. Certain it is that the +Puritans excelled in this as in every other kindred extravagance. The +elect of the Lord were fond of describing themselves as the most +contemptible of sinners; the salt of the earth as being rottenness and +corruption. It is to this habit of unmeaning self-disparagement that we +are to attribute many of those phrases which have been thought in +Cromwell to be studied artifices to cloak ambitious designs. + +They are rife on all occasions, and their frequency and energy bear no +relation to the supposed exigencies of his political career. Take the +following instance. No man surely knew better than he, that at the +conclusion of the civil war the army had become paramount. He could +sometimes speak of this army with the natural pride of a soldier, with +the full consciousness of the power it possessed, and had conferred on +him; and yet, at other times, he would talk of this terrible force in +the puling strain, in more than the drawl and drivel of the conventicle. +As Lord High Protector, addressing his first parliament, he says:--"I +had the approbation of the officers of the army, in the three nations of +England, Scotland, and Ireland. I say of the officers: I had that by +their express remonstrances, and under signature. But there went along +with that express consent of theirs, an implied consent also of a body +of persons who had had somewhat to do in the world; who had been +instrumental, by God, to fight down the enemies of God, and his people, +in the three nations. And truly, until my hands were bound, and I was +limited, (to my own great satisfaction, as many can bear me witness,) +while I had in my hands so great a power and arbitrariness--the soldiery +were a very considerable part of these nations, especially all +government being dissolved. I say, when all government was thus +dissolved, and nothing to keep things in order but the sword!" There can +be no doubt of it--the soldiery were a very considerable part of the +nation. But the Lord High Protector, in a speech he makes to his second +parliament, referring to the very same period, narrating the very same +events, can talk of this army as "a company of poor men," "your poor +army," "those poor contemptible men." To attempt to detect any political +motive for this absurd phraseology, would be a very idle speculation, +mere waste of ingenuity: he was simply more in the puritanic vein in the +one case than the other. + +In his letters to the parliament, giving an account of his successes in +the war, he generally concludes with some expression of this strained +evangelical modesty, and seems very much afraid lest Speaker Lenthall +and other honourable members should attribute the victories he +announces, in any measure to the army and the general who won them. He +might be very sure, however, that, notwithstanding these +self-renunciations, the parliament knew very well who was fighting their +battles. Such a mode of speech would not endanger his reputation, nor +diminish from his claims; might perhaps--though we will not say this was +present to his thoughts--induce the parliament to presume that _he_ +would not insist on any very egregious reward for services he was so +anxious to disclaim. We will quote one instance of this self-denying +style; and perhaps the following passage contains altogether as much of +a certain fanatical mode of reasoning as could be well found in so short +a compass. Prince Rupert, then at Worcester, had sent two thousand men +across the country, to his majesty at Oxford, to convoy his majesty's +person and the artillery over to him at Worcester. Cromwell attacked and +routed this convoy; he also took Bletchington House. After giving an +account of the transaction, he continues:--"This was the mercy of God; +and nothing is more due than a real acknowledgment. And though I have +had greater mercies, yet none clearer: because, in the first place, God +brought them to our hands when we looked not for them; and delivered +them out of our hands, when we laid a reasonable design to surprise +them, and which we carefully endeavoured. His mercy appears in this +also, that I did much doubt the storming of the house, it being strong +and well manned, and I having few dragoons, and this being not my +business; and yet we got it. I hope you will pardon me if I say, God is +not enough owned. _We look too much to men and visible helps_: this hath +much hindered our success." This from Oliver, who so well knew how "to +keep his powder dry!" from Oliver, who, enthusiast himself, could yet +shrewdly calculate on the military efficacy of enthusiasm, and set it +down amongst the ways and means! Cant or not, it is sad stuff. + +But, Puritan as he was, we can admire Cromwell. Every great man, in +whatever times, or in whatever part of the world he has made his +appearance, has earned his title to fame and distinction, not by +qualities peculiar to the sect or religion to which he may have +belonged, but qualities which, though connected with his own especial +faith or tenets, are recognised as the common property of mankind; he +has been great not as Catholic, as Puritan, as Pagan, as Mahometan, but +as _man_; he has been great, because he was pious, brave, patriotic, +sagacious, resolute, and has achieved great enterprises on the theatre +of life. The greatness of Cromwell was indeed allied to Puritanism, +inasmuch as his mind grew up under this peculiar form of religion; but +what we, and all posterity must admire in Cromwell, is by no means the +puritan. His steadiness of purpose, his unshaken resolution, his +military prowess, his eminent talent to govern and command, and his +religious sense of duty to the Supreme, might all have existed under +other modes of religion. In our admiration we entirely separate these +qualities from that least gainly and least wholesome of the forms of +Christian piety with which they are here found connected. History gives +us examples of every kind of virtue, and every kind of talent, united +with every species of fanaticism that has afflicted civilised life. It +follows not that we applaud the fanaticism. The early caliphs were +several of them distinguished by exalted virtues, temperance, +self-denial, justice, patriotism: we praise these virtues, we +acknowledge, too, that they are here linked with the profession of the +faith of Islam; but for all this we do not admire the religion of +Mahomet, nor that fanaticism which writ its texts upon the sword. + +We insist upon this obvious distinction, because, whilst agreeing--_to a +certain extent_--in Mr Carlyle's view of the character of Cromwell, we +beg not to be implicated in that esteem and reverence which he professes +to entertain for Puritanism, or the Puritans as a body. And this brings +us to the extraordinary part of Mr Carlyle's performance--his ardent +sympathy, nay his acquiescence with, and adherence to the Puritans, to +that point that he adopts their convictions, their feelings, and even +some of their most grotesque reasonings. Their violence and ferocity, we +were prepared to see Mr Carlyle, in his own sardonic fashion, abet and +encourage; his sympathy is always with the party _who strikes_; but that +he should identify himself with their mumming thoughts, their "plentiful +reasons," their gloomiest superstitions, was what no one could have +anticipated. On this subject we must quote his own words; our own would +not be credited; they would seem to any one who had not read his work to +be scandalous misrepresentations. The extravagance runs through the +whole book, but we have it perhaps more concentrated in the +Introduction. + +This Introduction, which we sat down to with keen expectations, +disappointed us extremely, at least in those parts where any general +views are taken. We feel, and have elsewhere ungrudgingly expressed, a +certain admiration for the talents of Mr Carlyle. We shall never forget +the surprise and pleasure with which we read the "Sartor Resartus," as +it one day burst suddenly and accidentally upon us; and no one who has +once read his graphic and passionate history of the French Revolution, +can ever forget the vivid pictures that were there presented to him. We +opened this book, therefore, with a sort of anticipatory relish. But we +found very little of his genius, and very much of his extravagance; less +of the one and more of the other, than we thought could possibly have +been brought together. Metaphors and allusions, already worn +thread-bare, are introduced as stock phrases, as if he had inserted them +in his dictionary of the English language. All his vices of manner are +exaggerated, while the freshness of thought, which half excused them, is +departed. These strange metaphors, these glaring colours, which are +ready spread out upon his palette, he transfers with hasty profusion to +his canvass, till--(as it has been said of Mr Turner's, pictures)--the +canvass and the palette-plate very nearly resemble. But were it +otherwise, were there all and more than the wit, and humour, and +sarcasm, and pungent phrase, and graphic power, which may be found +scattered through Mr Carlyle's best performances, there is here a +substratum of sheer and violent absurdity, which all these together +would fail to disguise or compensate. Certainly there are pages of +writing in this Introduction which contain such an amount of extravagant +assertion, uttered in such fantastic jargon, as we think could nowhere +be paralleled. Dulness could never have attained to any thing so +extraordinary; and surely genius never before condescended to such +workmanship. + +"What and how great," thus commences the book, "are the interests which +connect themselves with the hope that England may yet attain to some, +practical belief and understanding of its history during the seventeenth +century, need not be insisted on at present, such hope being still very +distant, very uncertain. We have wandered far away from the ideas which +guided us in that century, _and indeed which had guided us in all +preceding centuries, but of which that century was the ultimate +manifestation_. We have wandered very far, and must endeavour to return +and connect ourselves therewith again! It is with other feelings than +those of poor peddling dilettantism, other aims than the writing of +successful or unsuccessful publications, that an earnest man occupies +himself in those dreary provinces of the dead and buried. The _last +glimpse of the godlike_ vanishing from this England; conviction and +veracity giving place to hollow cant and formalism--antique 'Reign of +God,' which all true men in their several dialects and modes have always +striven for, giving place to the modern reign of the No-God, whom men +name devil; this, in its multitudinous meanings and results, is a sight +to create reflections in the earnest man! One wishes there were a +history of English Puritanism, _the last of all our heroisms_, but sees +small prospect of such a thing at present." + +Then, beginning to quote himself, as his manner is, changing his voice +and adopting another key, as if by this thin disguise to obtain somewhat +more license for the wildness and vehemence of his speech--an artifice +surely not necessary here--he thus continues:-- + +"'Few nobler heroisms,' says a well-known writer, long occupied on this +subject, 'at bottom, perhaps, _no nobler heroism_, ever transacted +itself on this earth; and it lies as good as lost to us, overwhelmed +under such an avalanche of human stupidities as no heroism before ever +did. Intrinsically and extrinsically it may be considered inaccessible +to these generations. Intrinsically, the spiritual purport of it has +become inconceivable, incredible to the modern mind. Extrinsically, the +documents and records of it, scattered waste as a shoreless chaos, are +not legible. They lie there printed, written, to the extent of tons of +square miles, as shot-rubbish; unedited, unsorted, not so much as +indexed; full of every conceivable confusion; yielding light to very +few; yielding darkness, in several sorts, to very many.' ... + +"'This, then,' continues our impatient friend, 'is the Elysium we +English have provided for our heroes! The Rushworthian Elysium. +Dreariest continent of shot-rubbish the eye ever saw. Confusion piled on +confusion to your utmost horizon's edge; obscure in lurid twilight as of +the shadow of death; trackless, without index, without finger-post, or +mark of any human foregoer; where your human footstep, if you are still +human, echoes bodeful through the gaunt solitude, peopled only by +somnambulant pedants, dilettants, and doleful creatures, by phantasms, +errors, inconceivabilities, by nightmares, pasteboard norroys, griffins, +wiverns, and chimeras dire! There, all vanquished, overwhelmed under +such waste lumber mountains, the wreck and dead ashes of some six +unbelieving generations, does the age of Cromwell and his Puritans lie +hidden from us. This is what we, for our share, have been able to +accomplish towards keeping _our heroic ones_ in memory.'" + +After some further diatribe against all preceding historians, +collectors, and editors, he drops his ventriloquism, and, resuming a +somewhat more natural voice, he proceeds:-- + +"Nay, in addition to the sad state of our historical books, and what +indeed is fundamentally the cause and origin of that, our common +spiritual notions, if any notion of ours may still deserve to be called +spiritual, are fatal to a right understanding of that seventeenth +century. _The Christian doctrines, which then dwelt alive in every +heart, have now in a manner died out of all hearts_--very mournful to +behold--and are not the guidance of this world any more. Nay, worse +still, the cant of them does yet dwell alive with us, little doubting +that it is cant, in which fatal intermediate state the eternal +sacredness of this universe itself, of this human life itself, has +fallen dark to the most of us, and we think that, too, a cant and a +creed." + +So!--as our honest German friend would exclaim, puffing from his mouth +at the same time a huge volume of symbolic smoke. We have withdrawn it +seems, from the path of light ever since the reign of the army and its +godly officers established A.D. 1649. We must return and connect +ourselves therewith; it is our only salvation; though, indeed, if +Puritanism was the manifestation of the ideas of all preceding +centuries--if the same current of thought can be traced from William the +Conqueror to Oliver the conqueror--a very little ingenuity would suffice +to trace the same ideas, the same current of thought, somewhat farther +still. But this reign of the puritanical army was really "the last +glimpse of the godlike!"--it was "the reign of God!" and we live under +the reign of ----, psha! Why, he does not even give us a substantial +devil, but coins a strange personification of a negative. Such was not +the devil, by the way, at the time of "the noblest heroism ever +transacted on the earth." Such a definition of the "roaring lion," +would, in those days of light and happiness, have procured its author, +at the very least, a trip to Barbadoes. Even Cromwell himself would have +_Barbadoesed_ him. + +"This last of our heroisms!" God grant it is the last! It is only out of +another religious war that another such heroism can arise. If church and +dissent should take up arms, and, instead of controversies carried on in +pamphlets, upon tradition and white surplices, should blow out each +other's brains with gunpowder, then Mr Carlyle would see his "heroic +ones" revive upon the earth. + +"The Christian doctrines which then dwelt alive in every heart, have now +in a manner died out of all hearts." Only the cant of them dwells alive +with us. The same clear-sighted author, who sees the Christian doctrines +so beautifully and pre-eminently developed in the Ironsides of Cromwell, +in the troopers of Lambert and Harrison, sacking, pillaging, +slaughtering, and in all that tribe of men who ever shed blood the +readier after prayer-time--men who had dropped from their memory +Christ's own preaching, to fill their mouths with the curses which the +Hebrew prophets had been permitted, under a past dispensation, to +denounce against the enemies of Judea, who had constructed their +theology out of the darkest parts of the New, and the most fearful +portion of the Old Testament;--this same author, opening his eyes and +ears upon his own day and generation, finds that Christianity has died +out of all hearts, and its phraseology, as he expresses himself +elsewhere, "become mournful to him when spouted as frothy cant from +Exeter Hall." If Mr Carlyle would visit Exeter Hall, and carry there one +tithe of the determination to approve, that he exhibits in favour of the +Puritan, he would find a Christian piety as sincere, as genuine, and far +more humane, than his heroes of Naseby, or Dunbar, or Drogheda were +acquainted with. He would see the descendants of his Puritans, relieved, +at least we may say, from the necessity of raising their psalm on the +battle-field, indulging in none of the ferocities of our nature, +assembling in numerous but peaceful meetings, raising annually, by a +quiet but no contemptible sacrifice, their millions for the +dissemination of Gospel truth. But Mr Carlyle would call this cant; he +sees nothing good, or generous, or high-minded in any portion of the +world in which he lives; he reserves his sympathies for the past--for +the men of buckram and broad-sword, who, on a question of church +government, were always ready "to hew Agag to pieces," let Agag stand +for who, or what number it might. + +If there is one spectacle more odious than another of all which history +presents to us, whether it take place amongst Mahometan or Christian, +Catholic or Protestant, it is this:--to see men practising all the +terrible brutalities of war, treading down their enemies, doing all that +rage and the worst passions prompt, and doing all amidst exclamations of +piety, devout acknowledgments of submission to Divine will, and +professions of gratitude to God. Other religious factions have committed +far greater atrocities than the Puritans, but nowhere in history is this +same spectacle exhibited with more distasteful and sickening +accompaniments. The Moslem thanked God upon his sword in at least a +somewhat soldierly manner; and the Catholic, by the very pomp with which +he chants his _Te Deum_, somewhat conceals the meaning of his act, and, +keeping God a little out of sight, makes his mass express the natural +feeling of a human triumph. But the sleek Puritan, at once grovelling +and presumptuous, mingles with his sanguinary mood all the morbid +sickly conceit, all the crawling affected humility of the conventicle. +All his bloodsheds are "mercies," and they are granted in answer to his +long and miserable prayers--prayers which, to a man of rational piety, +sound very much like blasphemies. He carries with him to the +battle-field, to the siege, to the massacre, not one even of those +generous feelings which war itself permits towards a foe. He chooses to +call his enemy the enemy of God, and kneels before he fights, that the +inexpressible _mercy_ may be granted of cutting his throat! + +"That the sense of difference between right and wrong," says Mr Carlyle, +"had filled all time and all space for man, and bodied itself forth into +a heaven and hell for him,--this constitutes the grand feature of those +Puritan, old-Christian ages; this is the element which stamps them as +heroic, and has rendered their works great, manlike, fruitful to all +generations." Quite on the contrary. The sense of right and wrong was +obscured, confused, lost sight of, in the promptings of a presumptuous +enthusiasm; and it is exactly _this_ which constitutes the perilous +characteristic of such men as the Puritans and Cameronians, and similar +sectaries. How can the sense of right and wrong keep its footing in an +enthusiasm which has brought itself to believe that all its successes +are a direct answer to its prayers? Success becomes the very measure of +right and wrong. The two extremes of Atheism and Fanaticism have met; +they may both dispense with conscience, and make the event the criterion +of the deed. Hear how the pious heroes of Mr Carlyle reason on one of +the most solemn occasions of the civil war. The army is remonstrating +with the Parliament because it appeared slow to shed the blood of their +conquered and captured King, and it actually speaks of the death of +Charles "as appeasing the wrath of God" against that sovereign! and bids +the Parliament "sadly to consider, as men accountable to the Highest," +how far an accommodation with the King, "when God hath given him so +clearly into your power to do justice, can be just before God or good +men." The _power_ to do the act is full authority, is absolute command +to do it. What other doctrine could a Cæsar Borgia, or an Eccelino, the +tyrant of Padua, desire to be governed, or rather to be manumitted by +from all government? + +The argument drawn from the success given to their cause, is perpetually +in the mouth of Cromwell and of his Puritans. It establishes, without a +doubt, that they have used the sword justly, and are still further to +use it. Every "mercy" of this kind is in answer to prayer. Basing-House, +a private residence, cannot be sacked and plundered, and the inhabitants +put to the sword, but the pious historian of the feat, Mr Peters, adds, +that it, and the like triumphs, were "answers to the prayers and +trophies of the faith of some of God's servants." When Greek meets +Greek, when the Scottish Covenanter encounters the English Puritan, and +the former, being worsted, finds out "that he had not so learned Christ +as to hang the equity of a cause upon events," Cromwell answers, "Did +not you solemnly appeal and pray? Did not we do so too? And ought not +you and we to think, with fear and trembling, of the hand of the Great +God, in this mighty and strange appearance of His, instead of slightly +calling it an 'event'? Were not both your and our expectations renewed +from time to time, whilst we waited upon God, to see which way He would +manifest himself upon our appeals? And shall we, after all these our +prayers, fastings, tears, expectations, and solemn appeals, call these +bare 'events'? The Lord pity you." + +Men prayed in those days! says Mr Carlyle, "actually prayed! It was a +capability old London and its preachers and populations had; to us the +incredibilest." Beyond a doubt the Puritans and the Covenanters prayed, +and in such a manner and at such a length, that the strange doctrine on +which Southey has founded his "Curse of Kehama," of the essential and +irresistible force of prayer, seems to have got mixed up with their +Christianity.[2] But we do not think that the voice of prayer has quite +died out amongst us. It is curious to observe what a vivid perception +this author has for the historical past, and what a voluntary blindness +and deafness for the actually present. It is a fact! he frequently +exclaims, with all the energy of a discoverer,--a fact! that men in +these ages prayed, and had a religious faith. Our churches and chapels +are not facts. The control--none the worse for being exercised without +pike or musket--which the religious public, meeting in that very Exeter +Hall, have over the measures of government, and all political +transactions,--is not a fact. Were he writing, some centuries hence, the +history of this our age, he would detect these facts. What facts, +indeed, might he not detect, and what exaggerated significance might he +not give to them! Why, in those days, he might exclaim, in his +enthusiasm, the very beggars in the street, in asking charity, poured +God's blessing on you! It was a credible thing, in those days, God's +blessing!--and men gave their money for it! + +A passage in one of Cromwell's letters instances, in rather a touching +manner, what school of piety this army of saints must have proved. At +the battle of Marston Moor a Colonel Walton had lost his son. "He was a +gallant young man, exceedingly gracious," and Cromwell, giving an +account of his death, in his consolatory letter to the father, writes +thus,--"A little after, he said, one thing lay upon his spirit. I asked +him what that was. He told me it was that God had not suffered him to be +any more _the executioner of his enemies!_" + +But nothing disturbs the equanimity of our editor, or interrupts his +flow of rapture over the fanaticism of these times, especially when +expressed in the letters of Cromwell. Over the theological effusions +which the general of the Puritan army addresses, from his camp, to the +Edinburgh clergy, Mr Carlyle thus expatiates:--"Dryasdust, carrying his +learned eye over these, and the like letters, finds them, of course, +full of 'hypocrisy,' &c. Unfortunate Dryasdust! they are corruscations +terrible as lightning, and beautiful as lightning, from the innermost +temple of the human soul; intimations, still credible, of what a human +soul does mean when it _believes_ in the Highest--a thing poor Dryasdust +never did, nor will do. The hapless generation that now reads these +words ought to hold its peace when it has read them, and sink into +unutterable reflections, not unmixed with tears, and some substitute for +'sackcloth and ashes,' if it liked. In its poor canting, sniffling, +flimsy vocabulary, there is no word that can make any response to them. +This man has a living God-inspired soul in him, not an enchanted +artificial 'substitute for salt,' as our fashion is. They that have +human eyes can look at him; they that have only owl-eyes need not." + +And then follows something upon _light_ and _lightning_. "As lightning +is to light, so is a Cromwell to a Shakspere. The light is beautifuller. +Ah, yes; but, until by lightning and other fierce labour your foul chaos +has become a world, you cannot have any light, or the smallest chance +for any!... The melodious speaker is great, but the melodious worker is +greater than he. Our Time cannot speak at all, but only cant and sneer, +and argumentatively jargon and recite the multiplication-table: +neither, as yet, can it work, except at mere railroads and +cotton-spinning. It will, apparently, return to chaos soon, and then +more lightnings will be needed, lightning enough,--to which Cromwell's +was but a mild matter,--to be followed by light, we may hope!"--by +another Shakspeare, as the tenor of the passage would imply. + +Strange jumble this of Cromwell and Shakspeare, of light and lightning! +There is one species of light which we are often reminded of here; a +certain fitful, flickering beam, which partakes indeed of a luminous +nature, but which chooses its path for ever over bottomless bog. + +The sincerity of Oliver Cromwell, in these his letters and speeches, has +been questioned and discussed; the sincerity of their present editor may +become a question at least as difficult and perplexing. Is there any +genuine conviction at the bottom of all this rant and raving? Our +extravagant worshipper of the "old heathen" Goëthe, stands forth the +champion and admirer of certain harsh, narrow-thoughted, impetuous +sectaries, proclaims _them_ the only "Reformers" of the world; descends +to their lowest prejudices, to their saddest bigotries, to their gloomy +puerilities; arguing with them solemnly against the sinfulness of +drinking healths, and quite fraternising with them in all their +animosity against Popery and Prelacy. What does he mean? Is it a case of +conversion? Is it an outpouring merely, by a strange vent, of certain +acrid humours? Is he honest, and in earnest? or is he making sport of +those hapless Englishmen whom he pronounces "in human stupidity to have +no fellow?" + +Observers of a curious and speculative turn might, perhaps, explain it +thus:--Mr Carlyle is evidently a writer of strong religious feelings. +Marry, when he would exhibit them to the world, he is under the +necessity of borrowing a creed from some one else. His own philosophy +has nothing palpable enough for ordinary vision; nothing, as we +remember, but vague infinities and eternities, with an "everlasting +_yes_," and an "everlasting _no_." As the choice lay quite open to him, +there was no reason why he should not select the very hottest creed he +could any where find lying about in our history. From contemporaries it +was not likely that he should borrow: he loves nothing, praises nothing, +esteems nothing of this poor visible present; but it was an additional +recommendation to the Puritanic piety, that it had left a detestable +memory behind it, and was in declared hostility with all contemporaneous +ways of thinking. What could he better do, therefore, than borrow this +old volcanic crater of Puritanism, and pour out from it his religion and +his anger upon a graceless world? + +Others, not given to such refinements, would explain the phenomenon upon +more ordinary principles, and reduce the enigma to a case merely of +literary monomania. Mr Carlyle, they would say, has been striving to +understand these Puritans till he has grown, for the time, to resemble +them. In the effort to project his mind into their mind, he has overshot +the mark; he has not been able yet to get his own mind back again. It is +a case, they would say, of mere imagination. Could you bring Mr Carlyle +into contact with a live Puritan, the charm would be instantly +dispelled. If one of Harrison's troopers would but ask him to step aside +with him, under a hedge, to wrestle for a blessing, or would kindly +undertake to catechise him on some point of divinity,--on that notion of +his, for instance, of "Right and Wrong bodying themselves into Hell and +Heaven,"--the alliance would be dissolved, not, perhaps, without violent +rupture. + +For ourselves, we sometimes think that Mr Carlyle is in earnest. Men +should be honest. One who talks so loudly about _faith_, ought to be +sincere in his utterances to the public. At other times, the mummery +becomes too violent, grows too "fast and furious," to permit us to +believe that what we witness is the sane carriage of a sane man. At all +events, we can but look on with calm surprise. If our philosopher will +tuck his robe high up about his loins, and play the merry-andrew, if he +will grimace, and paint thick, and hold dialogue with himself, who shall +hinder him?--only we would rather not wear, on such an occasion, the +docile aspect of admiring pupils; we prefer to stand aside, and look on +with Mr Dryasdust. + +It is worthy of note, that however Mr Carlyle extols his "Heroic Ones" +in a body, Cromwell is the only individual that finds a good word +throughout the work. Every one else, Hampden not excepted, is spoken of +with slight and disparagement. Amongst all the "godlike," there is but +one who finds favour in his sight,--him, however, he never deserts,--and +the very parties who have before been applauded, in general terms, +become the subjects of ridicule or castigation the moment they are seen +in opposition to Cromwell. + +To Cromwell, then, let us turn our attention. Him we also can admire. We +admire his great practical sagacity, his eminent talents for war and for +government, the moderation and the conscientiousness which, though a +usurper and a zealot, he displayed in the use of power. He was, as we +have said, a genuine Puritan. This must be understood, or no +intelligible view of his character can be taken. It is not only +hostility to his memory which has attributed to him a studied hypocrisy; +the love of the marvellous has lent its aid. Such a supposition was +thought to magnify his talents and his genius. It was more dramatic to +make him the "honest Iago" of the piece. A French writer, M. Villemain, +in his History of Cromwell, expresses this feeling very naïvely, and +speaks of an hypocrisy "que l'histoire atteste, et qu'on ne saurait +mettre en doute sans ôter quelque chose à l'idée de son génie; car les +hommes verront toujours moins de grandeur dans un fanatique de bonne +foi, que dans une ambition qui fait des enthusiastes. Cromwell mena les +hommes par la prise qu'ils lui donnaient sur eux. _L'ambition seule lui +inspira des crimes, qu'il fit executer par le fanatisme des autres._" +That he thus employed the spirit of the age without sharing it, is a +theory which will not stand the light for a moment. Besides, it is not +in this manner that history is transacted: we may all be puppets, if you +will, upon the scene, but it is not in this fashion that any one man +gets hold of the wires. The supposition, whatever honour it may do the +genius of Cromwell, will do very little honour to the speculative genius +of any writer who adopts it. But this is evident, that to whatever +extent Cromwell shared the distempered feelings of a sectarian party, +nothing ever clouded his penetration upon any affair of conduct, any +question of means to an end. The hour never came that found him wanting. +At every phase of the revolution he is there to lead, or control, or +predominate over it. + +Starting from this point of view--understanding him, in the first place, +as the conscientious zealous Puritan, and endeavouring to estimate, as +the history proceeds, the modifications which the soldier and the +general, and finally the Protector, would induce upon this original +substratum--the character of Cromwell becomes intelligible, and his +conduct, in a measure, consistent. Whilst yet a private man, he had +warmly espoused the extreme opinions of that religious party who looked +on Popery as antichrist, and the Church of England as little better than +Popery in disguise, as the same scarlet lady in a somewhat more modest +attire. He was one of a class occasionally met with in the most quiet +walks of life, men who torment their spirit on some public question till +it becomes a personal grievance, or rather a corroding passion. What +were bishops personally to him? He might have prayed, and expounded, and +walked meditative in his fields, and left a public question to be +decided by the movements, necessarily slow, of public opinion. But no; +he was constituted quite otherwise. From a spiritual jurisdiction, +claimed though not exercised over him, his soul revolted. And this +hatred to prelacy, to any spiritual authority over him or his--this +determination to be his own priest--is, if not the strongest, certainly +the steadiest and most constant feeling that he manifests. We trace it +throughout his whole career. The first thing we hear of him in the House +of Commons is a protest, a sort of ominous growl, against the promotion +of some Arminian or semi-Popish divine. "If these are the steps to +church preferment, what are we to expect!" Almost the first glimpse we +catch of him when he has taken arms, is as the captain of a troop +entering some cathedral church, and bidding the surpliced priest, who +was reading the liturgy, "to cease his fooling, and come down!" And +throughout the letters which he addresses to the Speaker from the seat +of war, he rarely omits the opportunity of hinting, that the soldiers +are worthy of that religious liberty for which they have fought so well. +"We pray you, own His people more and more; for they are the chariots +and horsemen of Israel." And in one of his latest speeches, he describes +it as the great "extremity" of past times, that men were not permitted +to preach in public unless they were ordained. + +A rooted animosity to prelatical or other spiritual domination, is the +key-note of this "melodious worker," as Mr Carlyle calls him. Cromwell +entered the civil war provided with no theory or plan of civil +government, animated with no republican zeal; it was not patriotism in +any ordinary sense of the word, it was his controversy with the church +of England that brought him on the field of battle. After fighting +against episcopacy, he fought with equal zeal against presbyterianism; +but against monarchy, or for the republic, he can hardly be said to have +drawn the sword. We all applaud the sagacity which saw at once that the +strongest antagonist to the honour and fidelity of the royalist, was to +be found in the passion of the zealot. He enlisted his praying regiment. +From that time the battle was won. But the cause was lost. What hope +could there be for the cause of civil freedom, of constitutional rights, +when the champion who won its victories was fanatical zeal, and the rage +of theological controversy? + +It is the glaring defect in Cromwell--a defect which he had in common +with many others of his time--that he threw himself into a revolution +having for its first object to remodel the civil government, animated +only with the passions of the collateral controversy upon ecclesiastical +government. He fought the battle which was to destroy the monarchy, +without any fixed idea or desire for the republican government which +must be its substitute. This was not the subject that had engaged his +thoughts or inflamed his ardour. When, therefore, the royalists had been +conquered, it is not at all surprising that he should have seen nothing +but the difficulties in the way of forming a republic. At this point of +his history some excuse for him may be drawn from the very defect we are +noticing. His mind had dwelt on no theory of civil government--to the +cause of the commonwealth his heart had never been pledged--and we can +hardly call him, with justice, as Godwin does, a traitor to the +republic. But, on the other hand, what a gap, what a void, does this +disclose in the mind of our hero? What should we say of one who had +plunged heart and soul into the French Revolution, conducted only by his +rage against the Roman Catholic hierarchy? Such a one, had he risen to +take a leading part in that drama, might have acted with greater wisdom +and moderation than ardent and patriotic men; the very absence of any +political opinion or passion might have enabled him to see more clearly +than others the position which they all occupied; but this would not +justify or palliate the original error, the rash, exclusive, +self-blinding zeal which had brought him into that position. + +To the ecclesiastical controversy, Cromwell clings throughout with an +utter recklessness of the fate of civil government. When episcopacy had +been vanquished, and presbyterianism threatened to take its place, he +was quite as willing to plunge the whole kingdom into confusion and +anarchy in his opposition to this new enemy, as to the old. Those who +would defend him from the charge of personal ambition--all who excuse +his conduct at this period of the history, put this plea upon +record,--and without a doubt his hostility to presbyterianism was a very +great and leading motive with him in his opposition to the Parliament, +and his determination to prevent a reconciliation between the House and +the King. When Charles was a prisoner at the Isle of Wight, it is well +known that the Parliament were anxious to come to some terms of +reconcilement, and the concessions which he then made were voted to be +"a sufficient ground for the future settlement of the kingdom." Why did +Cromwell interfere at this juncture between the two parties, in such a +way as entirely to destroy both? His best public ground is his hostility +to presbyterianism. And what was the presbytery, that to him it should +be so distasteful, and an object of so great animosity? Its forms of +worship, the doctrines preached by its divines, were exactly those he +himself practised and approved. There were no altars here, no surplices, +no traditions, no sympathies with Rome, no stealthy approximations to +her detested idolatries. But there was a claim put forward to +ecclesiastical supremacy, to ordain, and authorise, and control public +preachers, which he could not tolerate; and if no other motive had +existed, he was ready to oppose every settlement, at every risk, having +for its object to establish a claim of this description. + +We will open the Letters and Speeches of Cromwell at this period of the +history, and present our readers with a specimen of his epistolary +style, and one which will go far to show how little his mind was +influenced, even at this great crisis, by any thing which we should +describe as political reasoning. Cromwell was a great _administrator_, +but he had no vocation for speculative politics, and little attachment +to forms of government. Framers of constitutions are not in repute at +present; they have not covered themselves with applause, rather with +confusion; and this defect in Cromwell's mind will probably be looked +upon with great indulgence. Nevertheless, people who go to war to +demolish an existing government, ought to have taken thought for a +substitute; on _them_ it is incumbent to have a political creed, and a +constitution to set up. At this very moment when the question is no +less, than whether the king should be put to death, and monarchy rooted +out of the land--ay, and the Parliament coerced, in order to effect +these objects--our Puritan general reasons--like a Puritan and nothing +better. + +The following letter was addressed to Colonel Hammond, then governor of +the Isle of Wight. The colonel had been distressed by his scruples at +the extreme course the army was disposed to take, and had solicited this +appointment to the Isle of Wight as a retreat from the scene of faction +and violence. But it was precisely in this quiet little island that the +king took refuge; his perplexities, therefore, were increased and not +diminished. Cromwell writes to him to remove his scruples, and makes a +characteristic allusion to this circumstance--_improves_ it, as we +should say. + +We must apprise the reader, however, that it would be dangerous to form +any opinion upon the religious sincerity or insincerity of Cromwell, +upon extracts from his letters and speeches, or even upon any single +letter or speech. From the incongruity we feel between the solemnity of +the subject of religion, and the manner and occasion in which it is +introduced, and from the use of certain expressions long since +consecrated to ridicule, it is impossible for a modern reader, on +falling upon some isolated passages, not to exclaim, that this is cant +and hypocrisy! But when the whole series, or the greater part of it, is +read--when the same strain of thought and feeling, in season and out of +season, is constantly observed--it is equally impossible not to feel +persuaded that these letters and speeches body forth the genuine +character of the man, and that the writer was verily a solemn and most +serious person, in whom religious zeal was the last quality which needed +reinforcement. + + "DEAR ROBIN,--No man rejoiceth more to see a line from thee + than myself. I know thou hast long been under trial. Thou shalt + be no loser by it. All things must work for the best. + + "Thou desirest to hear of my experiences. I can tell thee, I am + such a one as thou did formerly know, having a body of sin and + death; but I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, there is + no condemnation though much infirmity; and I wait for the + redemption. And in this poor condition I obtain mercy, and + sweet consolation through the Spirit. And find abundant cause + every day to exalt the Lord and abase flesh--and herein I have + some exercise. + + "As to outward dispensations, if we may so call them, we have + not been without our share of beholding some remarkable + providences and appearances of the Lord. His presence hath been + amongst us, and by the light of his countenance we have + prevailed (_alludes to the battle of Preston_.) We are sure the + goodness of Him who dwelt in the bush has shined upon us; and + we can humbly say, we know in whom we have believed; who can + and will perfect what remaineth, and us also in doing what is + well-pleasing in His eye-sight. + + "I find some trouble in your spirit, occasioned first not only + by your sad and heavy burden, as you call it, but also by the + dissatisfaction you take at the ways of some good men whom you + love with your heart, who through the principle, that it is + lawful for a lesser part, if in the right, to force a numerical + majority, &c. &c. + + "To the first: call not your burden sad or heavy. If your + Father laid it on you, He intended neither. He is the Father of + light, from whom comes every good and perfect gift; who of His + own will begot us.... Dear Robin, our fleshly reasonings + ensnare us. These make us say 'heavy,' 'sad,' 'pleasant,' + 'easy.' Was there not a little of this when Robert Hammond, + through dissatisfaction too, desired retirement from the army, + and thought of quiet in the Isle of Wight? Did not God find him + out there? I believe he will never forget this. And now I + perceive he is to seek again; partly through his sad and heavy + burden, and partly through his dissatisfaction with friends' + actings. + + "Dear Robin, thou and I were never worthy to be door-keepers in + this service. If thou wilt seek, seek to know the mind of God + in all that chain of providence, whereby God brought thee + thither, and that person (_the king_) to thee; how, before and + since, God hath ordered him, and affairs concerning him; and + then tell me, whether there be not some glorious and high + meaning in all this, above what thou hast yet attained? And, + laying aside thy fleshly reason, seek of the Lord to teach thee + what that is; and He will do it. I dare be positive to say, It + is not that the wicked should be exalted that God should so + appear as indeed He hath done. For there is no peace to _them_. + No; it is set upon the hearts of such as fear the Lord, and we + have witness upon witness, that it shall go ill with them and + their partakers. + + "As to thy dissatisfaction with friends' actings upon that + supposed principle--I wonder not at that. If a man take not his + own burden well, he shall hardly others'; especially if + involved by so near a relation of love and Christian + brotherhood as thou art, I shall not take upon me to satisfy; + but I hold myself bound to lay my thoughts before so dear a + friend. The Lord do His own will. + + "You say, 'God hath appointed authorities among the nations, to + which active or passive obedience is to be yielded. This + resides, in England, in the Parliament. Therefore, active or + passive resistance,' &c. &c. + + "Authorities and powers are the ordinance of God. This or that + species is of human institution, and limited some with larger, + others with stricter bands, each one according to its + constitution. But I do not therefore think that the authorities + may do _any thing_, and yet such obedience be due. All agree + that there are cases in which it is lawful to resist. If so, + your ground fails, and so likewise the inference. Indeed, dear + Robin, not to multiply words, the query is,--Whether ours be + such case? This, ingenuously, is the true question. + + "To this I shall say nothing, though I could say very much; but + only desire thee to see what thou findest in thy own heart to + two or three plain considerations. _First_, Whether _Salus + populi_ be a sound position? _Secondly_, Whether, in the way in + hand (_the parliamentary treaty with the king_,) really and + before the Lord, before whom conscience has to stand, this be + provided for--or if the whole fruit of the war is not likely to + be frustrated, and all most like to turn to what it was, and + worse? And this contrary to engagements, explicit covenants + with those who ventured their lives upon those covenants and + engagements, without whom, perhaps in equity, relaxation ought + not to be? _Thirdly_, Whether this army be not a lawful power, + called by God to oppose and fight against the king upon some + stated grounds; and being in power to such ends, may not oppose + one name of authority, for those ends, as well as another + name--since it was not the outward authority summoning them + that by its power made the quarrel lawful, but the quarrel was + lawful in itself? If so, it may be, acting will be justified + _in foro humano_. _But truly this kind of reasoning may be but + fleshly, either with or against: only it is good to try what + truth may be in them. And the Lord teach us._ + + "My dear friend, let us look into providences; surely they mean + somewhat. They hang so together; have been so constant, so + clear, unclouded. Malice, swoln malice against God's people, + now called 'saints,' to root out their name;--and yet they + these poor saints getting arms and therein blessed with defence + and more! I desire he that is for a principle of suffering + (_passive obedience_) would not too much slight this. I slight + not him who is so minded; but let us beware lest fleshly + reasoning see more safety in making use of this principle than + in acting! Who acts, if he resolve not through God to be + willing to part with all? Our hearts are very deceitful, on the + right and on the left. + + "What think you of providence disposing the hearts of so many + of God's people this way--especially in this poor army, wherein + the great God has vouchsafed to appear! I know not one officer + but is on the increasing side (_come over to this opinion_.) ... + + "Thou mentionest somewhat as if by acting against such + opposition as is like to be, there will be a tempting of God. + Dear Robin, tempting of God ordinarily is either by acting + presumptuously in carnal confidence, or in unbelief through + diffidence: both these ways Israel tempted God in the + wilderness, and He was grieved by them. Not the encountering of + difficulties, therefore, makes us to tempt God; but the acting + before and without faith. If the Lord have in any measure + persuaded His people, as generally He hath, of the lawfulness, + nay of the _duty_,--this persuasion prevailing upon the heart + is faith; and acting thereupon is acting in faith; and the more + the difficulties are the more the faith. And it is most sweet + that he who is not persuaded have patience towards them that + are, and judge not; and this will free thee from the trouble of + others' actings, which thou sayest adds to thy grief.... + + "Robin, I have done. Ask we our hearts whether we think that + after all these dispensations, the like to which many + generations cannot afford, should end in so corrupt reasonings + of good men, and should so hit the designings of bad? Thinkest + thou in thy heart that the glorious dispensations of God point + out to this? Or to teach his people to trust in Him and wait + for better things--when, it may be, better are sealed to many + of their spirits (_indubitably sure to many of them_.) + + "This trouble I have been at because my soul loves thee, and I + would not have thee swerve or lose any glorious opportunity the + Lord puts into thy hand. The Lord be thy counsellor. Dear + Robin, I rest thine, + + "OLIVER CROMWELL." + +For ourselves, we cannot read this, and other letters breathing the same +spirit, without being convinced that Cromwell fully shared in those +fanatical sentiments which prompted the army to insist upon the king's +death. A contemporary account, from which Mr Carlyle, some pages before +this letter occurs, has quoted largely, represents this chief of the +Puritans in exactly the same point of view. The officers of the army had +made certain overtures to the king, certain efforts at a reconciliation, +which had been fruitless; and which had been, moreover, attended with +much division and contention amongst themselves. They had turned aside, +it seems, from "that path of _simplicity_ they had been blessed in, to +walk in a _politic_ path," and were, accordingly, afflicted, "as the +wages of their backsliding hearts," with tumults, and jealousies, and +divisions. But the godly officers, says the pious record of Adjutant +Allen, met at _Windsor Castle_! "and there we spent one day together in +prayer; inquiring into the causes of that sad dispensation. And, on the +morrow, we met again in the morning; where many spake from the Word and +prayed; and the then Lieutenant-General Cromwell did press very +earnestly on all there present, to a thorough consideration of our +actions as an army, and of our ways particularly as private Christians; +to see if any iniquity could be found in them; and what it was; that, if +possible, he might find it out, and so remove the cause of such sad +rebukes as were upon us, (by reason of our iniquities, as we judged,) at +that time. And the way, more particularly, the Lord led us to herein was +this: to look back and consider what time it was when, with joint +satisfaction, we could last say, to the best of our judgments, The +presence of the Lord was amongst us, and rebukes and judgments were not, +as then, upon us.... By which means we were, by a gracious hand of the +Lord, led to find out the very steps, (as were all there jointly +convinced,) by which we had departed from the Lord, and provoked Him to +depart from us, which we found to be those cursed carnal conferences, +our own conceited wisdom, our fears, and want of faith, had prompted us, +the year before, to entertain with the king and his party. And at this +time, and on this occasion, did the then Major Goffe, (as I remember was +his title,) make use of that good word, Proverbs 1st and 23d, _Turn you +at my reproof; behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make +known my words unto you._" In fine, their "iniquities," their want of +faith, their carnal conferences--that is to say, all desire for peace, +all humanity, all moderation, all care for their country--were cast +aside, and they came to the solitary gloomy resolution, "That it is our +duty to call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for that +blood he had shed, and mischief he had done to his utmost, against the +Lord's cause and people in these poor nations." + +Let no one suppose that, because Cromwell, and other officers of the +army, had been negotiating with the king, bidding for him, in fact, +against the Parliament, and offering terms such as it was mere +infatuation upon his part not to accept, that they were, therefore, not +sincere in this their fanaticism, which now so clearly told them they +should be doing the express will of God in putting him to death. Those +who have paid attention to this disease of the mind, know well, that +while nothing is more violent at one moment, nothing is more flexible at +another. Against the assaults of reason it is rock,--it is adamant; but +to self-interest, or a covert passion, it is often surprisingly ductile. +The genuine fanatic is gifted with a power which will equally uphold +him, whether he walks to the right or to the left, and lets him change +his course as often as he will. He has a logic that is always +triumphant--which proves him always in the right--whether he would +advance or recede. Success--it is God's own sanction; failure--it is +what you please,--God's disapproval if you would retreat--a trial only +of your faith, if you have the heart to advance. In the present case, +our pious army, having found it impossible to treat with the king, has +but to spend "its day in prayer," and its fierce zeal resumes its former +channel with greater violence than ever. It has been led astray, it +finds, by carnal reasonings and sinful weakness; and, rushing back to +its old "path of simplicity," it raises the cry of death! + +This account, which Adjutent Allan gives of diseased piety and perilous +fanaticism, Mr Carlyle accompanies with interjections of applause, and +cheers of encouragement. To him, also, it seems quite fit that the army +should return to its path of "simplicity." The King must die. + +How little, up to the very last, did that unfortunate monarch know of +the terrible spirit of those enemies into whose hands he had fallen! He +saw himself necessary to the tranquillisation and stable government of a +nation still imbued with the love of monarchy, he therefore thought +himself and the monarchy were safe; he knew not that he was contending +with men who, when they rose to their high "heroic" mood, had a supreme +contempt for all considerations touching mere human polity,--the mere +peace and government of mankind. He trusted much to the sacredness of +royalty, the majesty of the purple, the divinity of a King; he was +delivered over to the power of enemies, whose glory it was to tread down +the glories of the world; who, so far from finding any sacredness in his +royalty, had classed him amongst all the wicked kings of the Old +Testament, sentenced to be exterminated with the idolatry they fostered, +and with whom the very audacity and fearful temerity of the deed, (if +this at all affected them,) would add only to its merit. Unfortunate +monarch! The tide of sympathy runs now against him, but we confess still +to retain our compassion for the fallen prince,--our compassion, very +little, it may be, of admiration. We see him contending against fearful +odds, keeping up a high and kingly spirit to the last. So far he braved +it nobly, and played a desperate game, if not wisely, yet with unshaken +nerves. His character, without a doubt, bears, as Lingard writes, "the +taint of duplicity." But it was a duplicity which, in his father's +court, would have been chuckled over as good practice of state-craft. We +are strangely fashioned--kings, and all of us--made up of fragments of +virtue, ill-assorted parcels of morality. Charles, when he had given his +parole of honour, would not escape from his imprisonment in the Isle of +Wight, though the means of escape were offered to him. But the wily and +diplomatic monarch thought he was entitling himself to the praise of all +men of spirit and intelligence, when, by fallacious promises and +protestations, he strove to play off one party of his enemies against +the other. He was practising, to the best of his ability, all the +traditionary maxims and manoeuvres of a subtle policy. Nor was it +ability that he wanted. On an Italian soil, these Italian arts might +have availed him. But what were the sleights and contrivances of a +traditionary state-craft against the rude storm of tumultuous passions +which had been conjured up around him! He was fencing with the +whirlwind. Perhaps no prince, trained in a court, can be a match for the +rude adversaries which revolutionary times raise up against him. What +chance is there that he should ever learn the nature of his new and +terrible enemy? You have taught him, according to all the laws of +woodcraft, to chase the stag and the fox, and now you let loose upon him +the wild beast of the forest! How was Charles to learn what manner of +being was a Puritan, and how it struck its prey? His courtiers would +have taught him to despise and ridicule--his bishops to look askance +with solemn aversion,--but who was there to teach him to fear this +Puritan?--to teach him that he must forthwith conciliate, if he could +not crush? + +It is worth while to continue the narrative a little further. We adopt +Mr Carlyle's words. "At London, matters are coming rapidly to a crisis. +The resumed debate, 'shall the army remonstrance be taken into +consideration?' does not come out affirmative; on the contrary, on +Thursday the 31st, it comes out negative, by a majority of ninety. 'No, +we will not take it into consideration.' 'No?' The army at Windsor +thereupon spends again 'a day in prayer.' The army at Windsor has +decided on the morrow, that it will march to London; marches, arrives +accordingly, on Saturday, December 2d; quarters itself in Whitehall, in +St James's, 'and other great vacant houses in the skirts of the city and +villages about, no offence being given any where.' In the drama of +modern history, one knows not any graver, more note-worthy scene; +earnest as very death and judgment. They have decided to have justice, +these men; to see God's justice done, and his judgments executed on this +earth." + +Adjutant Allen and Mr Carlyle are both of the same mind,--take the same +views of public matters, political and religious. But the Adjutant +himself would open great eyes at the sentence which next follows:-- + +"The abysses where the thunders and splendours are bred--the reader sees +them again laid bare and black. Madness lying close to the wisdom which +is brightest and highest;--and owls and godless men who hate the +lightning and the light, and love the mephitic dusk and darkness, are no +judges of the actions of heroes! Shedders of blood? Yes, blood is +occasionally shed. The healing surgeon, the sacrificial priest, the +august judge, pronouncer of God's oracles to man, these and the +atrocious murderer are alike shedders of blood; and it is an owl's eye, +that, except for the _dresses_ they wear, discerns no difference in +these! Let us leave the owl to his hootings; let us get on with our +chronology and swift course of events." + +By forcibly expelling more than one hundred of the members of +Parliament, and thus converting a minority into a majority, these +"sacrificial priests" contrived to accomplish their very righteous act. +In the face of raving such as this, it would be absurd to enter +seriously upon any consideration, moral or political, touching the +King's death. We would rather that Mr Carlyle occupied the field alone. +We saw him just now dealing with his "abysses," and his "lightning;" we +quote his concluding comment on this event, which will present a +specimen of his more facetious style of eloquence, and the singular +_taste_ he is capable of displaying:-- + +"This action of the English regicides did in effect strike a damp like +death through the heart of _flunkeyism_ universally in this world. +Whereof flunkeyism, cant, cloth-worship, or whatever ugly name it have, +has gone about incurably sick ever since; and is now at length, in these +generations, very rapidly dying. The like of which action will not be +needed for a thousand years again. Needed, alas! not till a new genuine +hero-worship has arisen, has perfected itself; and had time to +degenerate into a flunkeyism and cloth-worship again! which I take to be +a very long date indeed. + +"Thus ends the second civil war: in regicide, in a Commonwealth, and +keepers of the liberties of England: In punishment of delinquents, in +abolition of cobwebs;--if it be possible, in a government of Heroism +and veracity; at lowest of anti-flunkeyism, anti-cant, and the +_endeavour_ after heroism and veracity." + +Flunkeyism! Such is the title which our _many-sided_ man thinks fit to +bestow on the loyalty of England! But serious indignation would be out +of place. A buffoon expression has this advantage, it is unanswerable. +Yet will we venture to say, that it is a losing game this which you are +playing, Mr Carlyle, this defiance of all common sense and all good +taste. There is a respectability other than that which, in the +unwearying love of one poor jest, you delight to call "gig +respectability," a respectability based on intelligence and not on +"Long-Acre springs," whose disesteem it cannot be wise to provoke, nor +very pleasant to endure. + +The Commonwealth is proclaimed by sound of trumpet. The king and the +lords are cashiered and dismissed. A house of representatives and a +council of state form the constitution of England. Cromwell is one of +the council. But for the present the war in Ireland carries him away +from the scene of politics. + +On this Irish campaign, Mr Carlyle breaks out, as may be supposed, in a +strain of exultation. He always warms at blood and battle. His piety, or +his poetry--not admirable whichever it may be--glows here to a red heat. +We are as little disposed perhaps as himself, to stand "shrieking out" +over the military severities of this campaign, but if we could bring +ourselves to believe that Mr Carlyle is really serious in what he +writes, we should say that the most impracticable maudlin of peace +societies, or "Rousseau-sentimentalism," were wisdom itself compared to +his own outrageous and fanatical strain. If the apologist of Cromwell +will be content to rest his case on the plain ground open to all +generals and captains on whom has devolved the task of subjecting a +rebellious and insurrectionary country--on the plain ground that the +object is to be more speedily effected, and with less bloodshed and +misery to the inhabitants, by carrying on the war at the commencement +with the utmost severity, (thus breaking down at once the spirit of +insurrection,) than by prolonging the contest through an exercise of +leniency and forbearance--we are not aware that any decisive answer can +be given to him. It is an awful piece of surgery to contemplate--one may +be excused, if one shudders both at it and the operator--but, +nevertheless, it may have been the wisest course to pursue. As a general +rule, every one will admit that--if war there must be--it is better that +it should be short and violent, than long and indecisive; for there is +nothing so mischievous, so destructive of the industry and moral +character of a people, as a war which, so to speak, _domesticates_ +itself amongst them. Put aside "the saint" entirely,--let us see only +the soldier,--and Cromwell's campaign in Ireland may present nothing +more terrible than what elsewhere, and in the campaigns of other +generals, we are accustomed to regard as the necessary evils of war; +nothing more than what a Turenne, a Condé, or a Frederic of Prussia, +might have applauded or practised. But this is precisely the last thing +our editor would be disposed to do; any so common-place, and commonsense +view of the matter, would have been utterly distasteful: he _does_ bring +the saint very prominently upon the field, and we are to recognise in +Cromwell--"an armed soldier, terrible as Death, relentless as Doom; +_doing God's judgments on the enemies of God!_" + +"It is a phenomenon," he continues, "not of joyful nature; no, but of +awful, to be looked at with pious terror and awe. Not a phenomenon which +you are taught to recognise with bright smiles, and fall in love with at +sight:--thou, art thou worthy to love such a thing; worthy to do other +than hate it, and shriek over it? Darest thou wed the Heaven's +lightning, then; and say to it, Godlike One? Is thy own life beautiful +and terrible to thee; steeped in the eternal depths, in the eternal +plendours?"--(Vol. ii. p. 53.) + +In the despatch which Cromwell addresses to the Speaker, Lenthall, after +the storm of Tredah, otherwise Drogheda, we observe that the Puritan is +as strong as ever, but that the Soldier and the great Captain speak out +with increased boldness. Our sectarian farmer of St Ives, who brooded, +by the dark waters of the Ouse, over the wickedness of surpliced +prelacy, whose unemployed spirit sank at times into hypochondria, and +was afflicted with "strange fancies about the town-cross," has been +moving for some time in the very busiest scene the world could furnish +him, and has become the great general of his age. The spirit of the "big +wars" has entered, and grown up side by side with his Puritanism. The +ardour of the battle fully possesses him; he is the conqueror always in +the tremendous charge he makes at the head of his Ironsides; and he lets +appear, notwithstanding his self-denying style, a consciousness and a +triumph in his own skill as a tactician. He is still the genuine +Puritan; but the arduous life, the administrative duties of a soldier +and a general, have also been busy in modifying his character, and +calling forth and exercising that self-confidence, which he will by and +by recognise as "faith" and the leading of Providence, when he assumes +the place of dictator of his country. + +From one passage in this despatch it would appear that his severity at +the storm of Drogheda was not wholly the result of predetermined policy, +but rose, in part, from the natural passion which the sword, and the +desperate struggle for life, call forth. + +"Divers of the enemy retreated into the Mill-Mount, a place very strong +and of difficult access. The Governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and divers +considerable officers being there, our men getting up to them, were +ordered by me to put them all to the sword. _And, indeed, being in the +heat of action_, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the +town; and, I think, that night they put to the sword about 2000 men: +divers of the officers and soldiers being fled over the bridge into the +other part of the town, where about 100 of them possessed St Peter's +church steeple, some the west gate, and others a strong round tower next +the gate called St Sunday's. These being summoned to yield to mercy, +refused; whereupon I ordered the steeple of St Peter's church to be +fired, when one of them was heard to say in the midst of the flames, +'God damn me, God confound me! I burn, I burn.'" + +In the same despatch there is rather a noticeable passage, which +illustrates the manner in which the Puritan general was accustomed to +regard the Roman Catholics and their worship. There may be some who have +been so far deceived by the frequent use of the terms "religious +toleration" in conjunction with the name of Cromwell, as to attribute to +him a portion of that liberal spirit which is the greatest boast of +cultivated minds in the present century. His religious toleration +extended only to the small circle of sects whose Christian doctrine, +whose preaching, and whose forms of worship were almost identical; it +was just the same toleration that a Baptist dissenter of our day may be +supposed to extend towards an Independent dissenter, or a member of the +Countess of Huntingdon's connexion. The Independents differed from the +Presbyterians in no one definite article of creed, with this +exception--that they set no value upon _ordination_, and violently +objected to the restraining any good man from public preaching, or any +of the ministrations of a pastor, because he wanted this authorisation +of a visible church. For this point of "religious freedom" (an +expression which in their mouths has little other than this narrow +signification) they had to contend with the Presbyterians. The sect +which has to resist oppression, or the restraints of power, uses, of +course, the language of toleration. The Independents used it in their +controversy with the Presbyterians, just as the latter had employed it +in their controversy with Episcopacy. But Independents and Presbyterians +were alike intolerant of the Episcopalian or the Roman Catholic. All +sects of that age preached toleration when a powerful adversary was to +be deprecated--preached it then, and then only. The Independents coming +last upon the field, preached it last; but they have no title beyond +others to the spirit of toleration. Cromwell put down the mass as he +would put down a rebellion--as openly, as decidedly, as rigorously. + +"It is remarkable," continued the despatch, "that these people, at the +first, set up the mass in some places of the town that had been +monasteries; but afterwards grew so insolent, that, the last Lord's day +before the storm, the Protestants were thrust out of the great church +called St Peter's, and they had public mass there; and in this very +place near 1000 of them (_the Catholics--a clear judgment_) were put to +the sword, fleeing thither for safety. I believe all their friars were +knocked on the head promiscuously but two; the one of which was Father +Peter Taaff, brother to the Lord Taaff, whom the soldiers took the next +day and made an end of. The other was taken in the Round Tower, under +the repute, (_the disguise_) of a lieutenant, and when he understood +that the officers in that tower had no quarter, he confessed he was a +friar; but that did not save him." + +Ireland was no sooner subjected by this unflinching and terrific +severity, than the presence of the great general of the Commonwealth was +needed in Scotland. The Scots had no predilection for a republic, no +desire whatever for it; they were bent solely on their covenant, their +covenant and a Stuart king. It was a combination very difficult to +achieve. Nevertheless they took their oath to both, and marched into +England to establish them both over the United Kingdom. Here was +sufficient enthusiasm at all events; sufficient, and of the proper kind, +one would think, to earn the sympathies of our editor. And he does look +upon the Scots at this time as an "heroic nation." But, unfortunately, +it is precisely the heroic nation that his own great hero is about to +combat and subdue. He is compelled, therefore, upon his part, as the +faithful bard and minstrel of his chosen champion, to give them +up--them, and their covenant, and Stuart king--to merciless sarcasm. +Indeed, he tells us, that the great, the sole fault of the Scots, was +precisely this--that they did not produce a Cromwell. "With Oliver born +Scotch," he says or sings, "one sees not but the whole world might have +become Puritan!" + +However, he launches his Puritan hero against the godly and heroic +nation with full sound of trumpet, not unmixed with a certain vague and +solemn voice of prophecy. + +"In such spirit goes Oliver to the wars--a god-intoxicated man, as +Novalis elsewhere phrases it. I have asked myself, if any where in +modern European history, or even in ancient Asiatic, there was found a +man practising this mean world's affairs with a heart more filled by the +idea of the Highest? Bathed in the eternal splendours--it is so he walks +our dim earth: this man is one of few. He is projected with a terrible +force out of the Eternities, and in the Times and their arenas there is +nothing that can withstand him. It is great; to us it is tragic; a thing +that should strike us dumb! My brave one, thy noble prophecy _is_ +divine; older than Hebrew David; old as the origin of man; and shall, +though in wider ways than those supposed, be fulfilled."--(P. 172.) + +We feel no disposition to follow Cromwell to the Scottish wars, though +"bathed in the eternal splendours." We hardly know of any thing in +history to our taste more odious than this war between the Scottish +Covenanter and the English Puritan; the one praying clamorously for +victory against "a blaspheming general and a sectarian army;" the other +animating his battle with a psalm, and charging with a "Lord, arise! and +let thy enemies be scattered," or some such exclamation. Both generals, +in the intervals of actual war, sermonise each other, and with much the +same spirit that they fight. Their diplomacy is a tangled preachment, +and texts are their war-cries. Meanwhile, both are fighting for the +gospel of Christ! only one will have it _with_, the other _without_ the +covenant! Such "eternal splendours" are not inviting to us. We will step +on at once to the battle of Worcester, which concluded both the Scottish +war, and all hopes for the present of the royalist party. + +This last of his battles and his victories dismisses the great Puritan +from the wars. It is a striking despatch he writes from the field of +Worcester. He is still the unmitigated Puritan; he still preaches to +Speaker Lenthall, but he preaches somewhat more dogmatically. There is +an air of authority in the sermon. We all know that godly exhortation +may be made to express almost every shade of human passion; as what son +and what wife has not felt who has lived under the dominion and +discourse of one of these "rulers in Israel." The Parliament felt, no +doubt, the difference between the sermons of their general and those of +their chaplain. + +Cromwell and the army return to London. It is now that the Commonwealth +is to be really put upon its trial. Hitherto the army, that had made and +could unmake it, had been occupied first in Ireland, then in Scotland; +and the minds of people at home had been equally occupied in watching +its achievements. The Commonwealth has lived upon the expectations of +men. It has been itself an expectation. It is now to be perfected, its +organisation to be completed, its authority established. + +But Cromwell was not a Washington. Not only did he want that serene and +steady virtue which counselled the champion of American independence to +retire into the ranks of the constitution--commander in the field, +private soldier in the city--not only did he fail in this civic virtue, +and found it hard to resign the sway and authority he had so long +exercised; but the inestimable advantages of a constitutional government +his mind had not been cultivated to appreciate. His thoughts had +hitherto taken another direction. His speculative habits theology had +moulded; his active habits had been formed in the camp. He felt that he +could administer the government better than any of the men around him: +we will give him credit, too, for the full intention to administer it +conscientiously, and for the good of the nation; but for those enlarged +views of the more enlightened patriot, who is solicitous to provide not +alone for the present necessities, but for the future long life of a +people--he had them not. He grew afterwards into the statesman, as he +had grown into the soldier; but at this time the Puritan general had +very little respect for human institutions. + +We are far from asserting, that even with the assistance of Cromwell a +republic could have been established in England. But he lent no helping +hand; his great abilities, his fervent zeal, were never employed in this +service. He kept aloof--aloof with the army. He gathered himself to his +full height, standing amidst the ruins of the civil war: all men might +see that he alone kept his footing there. When the unhappy Parliament, +struggling with its cruel embarrassments, not knowing how to dissolve +itself with safety, had brought down on it the impatience, the distrust, +the contempt of men--when he had allowed its members to reap the full +harvest of a people's jealousies and suspicions--when at length they +were on the point of extricating themselves by a bill determining the +mode of electing a successor--_then_ he interfered, and dissolved them! + +A question may be raised, how far Cromwell had the power, if such had +been his wish, to take over the army to the side of the Parliament, to +lead it into due allegiance to the Commonwealth. The officers of the +army and the members of the Parliament formed the two rival powers in +the kingdom. Cromwell, it may be said, _could_ not have united them, +could only make his choice between them. It would have been only a +fraction of the army that he could have carried over with him. The +division between the council of officers and the Parliament was too +wide, the alienation too confirmed and inveterate, to have been healed +by one man, though it was the Lord General himself. Thus, it may be said +that Cromwell, in the part he acted against the Long Parliament, was +thrust forward by a revolutionary movement, which, according to the law +of such movements, must either have carried him forward in the van, or +left him deserted or down-trodden in the rear. + +This would be no flattering excuse. But whatever truth there may be in +this view of the case, Cromwell never manifested any intention or any +desire to quit the cause of the army for that of the Parliament. He was +heart and soul with the army; it was there his power lay; it was there +he found the spirits he most sympathised with. He walked at the head of +the army here as in the war. It was alone that he entered the House of +Parliament--alone "in his gray stockings and black coat," with no staff +of officers about him, no military parade, only a few of his Ironsides +in the lobby. Though aware he should have the support of his officers, +there is no proof that he had consulted them. The daring deed was _his_. +And it is one of the most daring deeds on record. The execution of the +King--in that day when kings were something more in the imagination of +men than they are now--was indeed an audacious act. But it was shared +with others. This dissolution of the Parliament, and assumption of the +dictatorship--this facing alone all his old compeers, met in due +legislative dignity, and bidding them one and all depart--strikes us as +the bolder deed. + +The scene has been often described, but nowhere so well, or so fully, as +by Mr Carlyle. We cannot resist the pleasure of quoting his spirited +account of this notable transaction. + + "The Parliament sitting as usual, and being in debate upon the + bill, which it was thought would have been passed that day, + 'the Lord General Cromwell came into the House, clad in plain + black clothes and gray worsted stockings, and sat down, as he + used to do, in an ordinary place.' For some time he listens to + this interesting debate on the bill, beckoning once to + Harrison, who came over to him, and answered dubitatingly. + Whereupon the Lord General sat still for about a quarter of an + hour longer. But now the question being to be put, That this + bill do now pass, he beckons again to Harrison, says, 'This is + the time; I must do it!' and so 'rose up, put off his hat, and + spake. At the first, and for a good while, he spake to the + commendation of the Parliament, for their pains and care of the + public good; but afterwards he changed his style, told them of + their injustice, delays of justice, self-interest, and other + faults,' rising higher and higher into a very aggravated style + indeed. An honourable member, Sir Peter Wentworth by name, not + known to my readers, and by me better known than trusted, rises + to order, as we phrase it; says, 'It is a strange language + this; unusual within the walls of Parliament this! And from a + trusted servant, too; and one whom we have so highly honoured; + and one--' Come, come,' exclaims my Lord General, in a very + high key, 'we have had enough of this'--and in fact my Lord + General, now blazing all up into clear conflagration, exclaims, + 'I will put an end to your prating,' and steps forth into the + floor of the House, and 'clapping on his hat,' and occasionally + 'stamping the floor with his feet,' begins a discourse which no + man can report! He says--Heavens! he is heard saying: 'It is + not fit that you should sit here any longer!' You have sat too + long here for any good you have been doing lately, 'You shall + now give place to better men! Call them in!' adds he, briefly, + to Harrison, in way of command; and some 'twenty or thirty' + grim musketeers enter, with bullets in their snaphances; grimly + prompt for orders; and stand in some attitude of carry arms + there. Veteran men: men of might and men of war, their faces + are as the faces of lions, and their feet are swift as the roes + upon the mountains; not beautiful to honourable gentlemen at + this moment! + + "'You call yourselves a Parliament,' continues my Lord General, + in clear blaze of conflagration. 'You are no Parliament! Some + of you are drunkards,' and his eye flashes on poor Mr Chalmer, + an official man of some value, addicted to the bottle; 'some of + you are'--and he glares into Henry Martin and the poor Sir + Peter, who rose to order, lewd livers both--'living in open + contempt of God's, commandments. Following your own greedy + appetites, and the devil's commandments. Corrupt, unjust + persons,' and here I think he glanced 'at Sir Bulstrode + Whitlocke, one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal, giving + him and others very sharp language, though he named them not.' + 'Corrupt, unjust persons, scandalous to the profession of the + Gospel:' how can you be a Parliament for God's people? Depart, + I say, and let us have done with you. In the name, of God--go! + + "The House is of course all on its feet--uncertain, almost, + whether not on its head: such a scene as was never seen before + in any House of Commons. History reports with a shudder that my + Lord General, lifting the sacred mace itself, said, 'What shall + we do with this bauble? Take it away!'--and gave it to a + musketeer. And now--'Fetch him down!' says he to Harrison, + flashing on the Speaker. Speaker Lenthall, more an ancient + Roman than any thing else, declares, He will not come till + forced. 'Sir,' said Harrison, 'I will lend you a hand;' on + which Speaker Lenthall came down, and gloomily vanished. They + all vanished; flooding gloomily, clamorously out, to their + ulterior businesses, and respective places of abode: the Long + Parliament is dissolved! 'It's you that have forced me to + this,' exclaims my Lord General, 'I have sought the Lord night + and day, that He would rather slay me than put me upon the + doing of this work.' 'At their going out, some say the Lord + General said to young Sir Harry Vane, calling him by his name, + That _he_ might have prevented this; but that he was a juggler, + and had not common honesty.' 'O Sir Harry Vane,' thou, with thy + subtle casuistries and abstruse hair-splittings, thou art other + than a good one, I think! 'The Lord deliver me from thee, Sir + Harry Vane!' 'All being gone out, the door of the House was + locked, and the key, with the mace, as I heard, was carried + away by Colonel Otley,' and it is all over, and the unspeakable + catastrophe has come, and remains."--(Vol. ii. p. 361.) + +The usurpation of Cromwell is, we believe, generally considered as the +most fortunate event which, under the peculiar circumstances of the +country, could have occurred. The people, it is said; were not prepared +for a republic. The attempt, therefore, to establish one, would have +been attended by incessant tumults; its short and precarious existence +would have been supported by the scaffold and the prison. It would have +terminated indeed, as did the Protectorate, in a Restoration, but the +interval between the death of Charles I. and the accession of his son, +would have been passed in a very different manner. Under the +Protectorate the country rallied its strength, put forth its naval +power, obtained peace at home, and respect abroad. Under a republic, it +would have probably spent its force, and demoralised itself, in +intestine strife and by a succession of revolutionary movements. + +But if this view be quite correct, it will not justify Cromwell. It is +one thing to be satisfied with the course of events, quite another with +the conduct of the several agents in them. Cromwell, in the position in +which he stood, as an honest man and a patriot, should have done his +best for the establishment of the Commonwealth; and this he did not. We +are far, as we have said, from venturing to give a decisive opinion on +the probability (with the united efforts of the victorious general and +the Parliament) of forming a republic. But we are not disposed to think +that the cause was hopeless. Had the Parliament been allowed to recruit +its numbers without dissolving itself--the measure which it constantly +desired, and which Cromwell would not hear of, though, without a doubt, +it was the very line of conduct which his own practical sagacity would +have led him to, if his heart had been in the business--the minds of men +would have had time to settle and reflect, and a mode of government, +which had already existed for some years, might have been adopted by the +general consent. + +_We_ look upon the Restoration very calmly, very satisfactorily, for +whom a second revolution has placed another dynasty upon the throne, +governing upon principles quite different from those which were rooted +in the Stuarts. We see the Restoration, with the Revolution of 1688 at +its back, and almost consider them as one event. But a most loyal and +contented subject of Queen Victoria, would have been a Commonwealthsman +in those days. How could it then have been foreseen that all the power, +and privilege, and splendour of royalty, should exist only to _protect_ +the law, to secure the equal rights of all--that monarchy, retaining a +traditionary awe and majesty derived from remote times, should remain +amongst us to supply to a representative government that powerful, +constant, and impartial executive which, from the mere elements of a +republic, it is so difficult to extract? Who could have imagined that a +popular legislature, and the supremacy of the law, could have been so +fortunately combined and secured under the shadow of the monarchy? +Enlightened minds at that time could not have looked calmly towards a +Restoration; they probably thought, or would have been led to think, +that, in the position they then were, it was better to take the +constitution of Holland, than the government of France, for their model. + +But the multitude--with what enthusiasm they welcomed the restoration of +the Stuarts! Very true. But the Protectorate was no antagonist to +monarchy. Republican pride was never called forth to contend in the +public mind against the feeling of loyalty, and an attachment to kings. +The Protectorate was itself a monarchy without its splendour, or the +prestige of hereditary greatness. It was a monarchy under the Geneva +gown. Was it likely that the populace would accept of this in lieu of +the crowned and jewelled royalty which was wont to fill its imagination? + +However, the experiment--fortunately for us, as the result has turned +out--was never destined to be made. Cromwell dissolved the Long +Parliament. He now stood alone, he and the army, the sole power in the +state. His first measure, that of sending a summons in his own name, to +persons of his own choice, and thus, without any popular election +whatever, assembling what is called the Little Parliament, or Barebones +Parliament, shows a singular audacity, and proves how little trammelled +he was himself by traditionary or constitutional maxims. He who would +not allow the Long Parliament to recruit its numbers, and thus escape +the perils of a free election of an altogether new assembly, extricates +himself from the same embarrassment by electing the whole Parliament +himself. Some historians have represented this measure as having for its +very object to create additional confusion, and render himself, and his +own dictatorial power, more necessary to the state. It has not appeared +to us in this light. We see in it a bold but rude assay at government. +In this off-hand manner of constituting a Parliament, we detect the +mingled daring of the Puritan and the Soldier. In neither of these +characters was he likely to have much respect for legal maxims, or rules +of merely human contrivance. Cromwell was educating himself for the +Statesman: at this juncture it is the Puritan General that we have +before us. + +The Little Parliament having blundered on till it had got itself +entangled in the Mosaic dispensation, resigned its power into the hands +of him who had bestowed it. Thereupon a new _Instrument of Government_ +is framed, with the advice of the council of officers, appointing +Cromwell Protector, and providing for the election of a Parliament. + +This Parliament being elected, falls, of course, on the discussion of +this very Instrument of government. Henceforth Cromwell's great +difficulty is the management of his Parliaments. The speeches he +delivered to them at various times, and which occupy the third volume of +the work before us, are of high historical interest. They are in every +respect superior to his letters. Neither will their perusal be found to +be of that arduous and painful nature which, from the reputation they +have had, most persons will be disposed to expect. The _sermon_ may +weary, but the _speech_ is always fraught with meaning; and the mixture +of sermon and speech together, portray the man with singular +distinctness. We see the Puritan divine, the Puritan soldier, becoming +the Puritan statesman. His originally powerful mind is excited to fresh +exertion by his onerous and exalted position. But he is still constant +to himself. Very interesting is the exhibition presented to us of this +powerful intellect, breaking out in flashes of strong sense, and +relapsing again into the puerilities of the sect. But as it falls upon +the strong sense to _act_, and on the puerilities only to _preach_, the +man comes out, upon the whole, as a great and able governor. + +The reputation which Oliver's speeches have borne, as being involved, +spiritless, tortuous, and even purposely confused, has resulted, we +think, from this--that an opinion of the whole has been formed from an +examination of a few, and chiefly of those which were delivered on the +occasion of his refusing the offered title of king. His conduct on this +occasion, it would be necessary for an historian particularly to +investigate, and in the discharge of this duty he would have to peruse a +series of discourses undoubtedly of a very bewildering character. They +are the only speeches of Cromwell of which it can be said that their +meaning is not clearly, and even forcibly expressed. And in this case it +is quite evident, that he had no distinct meaning to express; he had no +definite answer to give the Parliament who were petitioning him to take +the title of king. He was anxious to gain time--he was talking _against +time_--an art which we moderns only have thoroughly mastered. How could +Cromwell, who was no great rhetorician, be otherwise than palpably +confused, and dubious and intricate? Nothing can be clearer than that he +himself leant towards the opinion of the Parliament, that it would be +good policy to adopt the royal title. It was so connected with the old +attachments and associations of Englishmen, it had so long given force +to the language of the law, its claims were so much better known, its +prerogatives so much better understood than those of the new title of +Protector, that the resumption of it must have appeared very advisable. +But the army had been all along fighting against _the King_. Whilst to +the lawyer and the citizen the title was still the most honourable and +ever to be venerated, to the soldier of the Commonwealth it had become a +term of reproach, of execration, of unsparing hostility. Oliver Cromwell +might well hesitate before assuming a title which might forfeit for him +the allegiance of a great portion of the army. He deferred his answer, +to have an opportunity for estimating the nature and amount of the +resistance he might expect from that quarter; and he came to the +conclusion, that the risk of unsettling the affections of the army was +not to be incurred for either any personal gratification to himself +(which we take to have not weighed much with him) in assuming the title +of king, or for the advantages which might accrue from it in the +ultimate settlement of the nation. His addresses, therefore, to the +Parliament on this occasion not being definite answers to the +Parliament, nor intended to be such, but mere postponements of his +answer, were necessarily distinguished by indecision, uncertainty, and +all sorts of obscurities. But, these excepted, his speeches, however +deficient in what pertains to the _art of composition_, in terseness, or +method, or elegance of phrase, are never wanting in the great +essentials--the expression of his meaning in a very earnest and forcible +manner. The mixture of sermon and speech, we allow, is not inviting; but +the sermon is just as clear, perhaps, as any which the chaplain of the +House would have preached to them, and it must be remembered, that to +explain _his_ meaning, _his_ political sentiments, the sermon was as +necessary as the speech. + +By the new instrument of government, the Protector, with his council, +was authorised, in the interval before the meeting of Parliament, to +issue such ordinances as might be deemed necessary. This interval our +Puritan governor very consistently employed, first of all, in +establishing a gospel ministry throughout the nation. Thirty-eight +chosen men, "the acknowledged flower of English Puritanism," were +nominated a Supreme Commission, for the trial of public preachers. Any +person holding a church-living, or pretending to the tithes or +clergy-dues, was to be tried and approved of by these men. "A very +republican arrangement," says Mr Carlyle, "such as could be made on the +sudden, but was found in practice to work well." + +This and other ordinances having been issued, his first Parliament +meets. It cannot be said that our Puritan Protector does not rise to the +full level of his position. One might describe him as something of a +propagandist, disposed to teach his doctrine of _the rights of +Christian men_ to the world at large. It is thus he opens his +address:--"GENTLEMEN, You are met here on the greatest occasion that, I +believe, England ever saw; having upon your shoulders the interests of +three great nations, with the territories belonging to them: and truly I +believe I may say it without any hyperbole, you have upon your shoulders +_the interest of all the Christian people in the world_. And the +expectation is, that I should let you know, as far as I have cognisance +of it, the occasion of your assembling together at this time." + +But this Parliament fell upon the discussion, as we have said, of the +very instrument of government under which they had been called together. +Mr Carlyle is as impatient as was Oliver himself at this proceeding of +the "Talking apparatus." But how could it be otherwise? Every thing +that had taken place since the dissolution of the Long Parliament was +done by mere arbitrary authority. The present Parliament, however called +together, must consider itself the only legitimate, the only +constitutional power: it _must_ look into this instrument of government. +But if it was impossible not to commence the discussion, it was equally +impossible ever to conclude it. We all know to what length a debate will +run upon a constitutional question; and here there was not one such +question, but a whole constitution to be discussed. In vain they debated +"from eight in the morning to eight at night, with an hour for +refreshment about noon:" there was no probability of their ever coming +to a conclusion. + +This would never do. Oliver shuts up the Parliament-house, stations his +musketeers at the door, calls the members to him, presents them with a +parchment, "a little thing," to sign, acknowledging his authority, and +tells them he will open the door of the House to such only as shall put +their names to it. We will quote some parts of the speech he made to +them on this occasion, and our readers shall judge whether such a +speech, delivered by the living man Cromwell, was likely to fail in +effect, whether it was deficient in meaning or in energy. We shall omit +the parenthetical comments of the editor, because, however these may +amuse and relieve the reader who is making his way through the whole +work, and who becomes familiarised with their style, they would only +confuse and distract the attention in a brief extract. The single words +or phrases which he has introduced, merely to make the sense clear, are +retained whenever they are really necessary for this purpose, and +without the inverted commas by which they are properly distinguished in +the text. We will premise, that the protestations which Cromwell here +makes, that he did not seek the government, but was earnestly petitioned +to undertake it, may well, in part, be true. When he had once dissolved +the Long Parliament, it was no longer a matter of choice for himself or +others whether he would take the reins of government. To whom could he +commit them? From that time, the government rested upon his shoulders. +If he had manifested a wish to withdraw from the burden he had thus +brought down upon himself, there is no doubt but that he would have been +earnestly petitioned to remain at his post. The greatest enemy of +Cromwell, if he had been a lover of his country, would have joined in +such a petition; would have besought him to remain at the helm, now he +had thrown all other steersmen overboard. No; he must not quit it now. +He is there for the rest of his life, to do battle with the waves, and +navigate amongst rocks and quicksands as best he may. + +Let us hear his own statement and defence of the manner in which he +became advanced and "captive" to his high and perilous place. + + "GENTLEMEN,--It is not long since I met you in this place, upon + an occasion which gave me much more content and comfort than + this doth. That which I have now to say to you will need no + preamble to let me into my discourse; for the occasion of this + meeting is plain enough. I could have wished, with all my + heart, there had been no cause for it. + + "At our former meeting I did acquaint you what was the first + rise of this government which hath called you hither, and by + the authority of which you have come hither. Among other things + which I then told you of, I said you were a Free Parliament; + and so you are, whilst you own the government and authority + which called you hither. But certainly that word (Free + Parliament) implied a reciprocity, or it implied nothing at + all. Indeed, there was a reciprocity implied and expressed; and + I think your actions and carriages ought to be suitable. But I + see it will be necessary for me now a little to magnify my + office, which I have not been apt to do. I have been of this + mind, I have been always of this mind, since I first entered + upon my office. If God will not bear it up, let it sink!--but + if a duty be incumbent upon me, to bear my testimony to it, + (which in modesty I have hitherto forborne,) I am, in some + measure, necessitated thereunto: and therefore that will be the + prologue to my discourse. + + "I called not myself to this place. I say again, I called not + myself to this place! Of that God is witness: and I have many + witnesses who, I do believe, could lay down their lives bearing + witness to the truth of that, namely, that I called not myself + to this place! And, being in it, I bear not witness to myself + or my office; but God and the people of these nations have also + borne testimony to it. If my calling be from God, and my + testimony from the people, _God and the people shall take it + from me, else I will not part with it!_ I should be false to + the trust that God hath placed in me, and to the interest of + the people of these nations if I did. + + "I was by birth a gentleman; living neither in any considerable + height, nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several + employments in the nation--to serve in Parliament and others; + and, not to be over-tedious, I did endeavour to discharge the + duty of an honest man, in those services, to God and his + people's interest, and to the Commonwealth; having, when time + was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men, and some + evidences thereof. I resolve not to recite the times, and + occasions, and opportunities, which have been appointed me by + God to serve him in; nor the presence and blessing of God, + therein bearing testimony to me. + + "Having had some occasion to see, together with my brethren and + countrymen, a happy period put to our sharp wars and contests + with the then common enemy, I hoped, in a private capacity, to + have reaped the fruit and benefit, together with my brethren, + of our hard labours and hazards: the enjoyment, to wit, of + peace and liberty, and the privileges of a Christian and a man, + in some equality with others, according as it should please the + Lord to dispense unto me. And when I say God had put an end to + our wars, or at least brought them to a very hopeful issue, + very near an end,--after Worcester fight,--I came up to London + to pay my service and duty to the Parliament which then sat, + hoping that all minds would have been disposed to answer what + seemed to be the mind of God, namely, to give peace and rest to + his people, and especially to those who had bled more than + others in the carrying on of the military affairs,--I was much + disappointed of my expectation. For the issue did not prove so. + _Whatever may be boasted or misrepresented, it was not so, not + so!_ + + "I can say in the simplicity of my soul, I love not, I love + not,--I declined it in my former speech,--I say, I love not to + rake into sores, or to discover nakednesses! The thing I drive + at is this: I say to you, I hoped to have had leave to retire + to a private life. I begged to be dismissed of my charge; I + begged it again and again; and God be judge between me and all + men if I lie in this matter! That I lie not in matter of fact, + is known to very many; but whether I tell a lie in my heart, as + labouring to represent to you what was not upon my heart, I say + the Lord be judge. Let uncharitable men, who measure others by + themselves, judge as they please. As to the matter of fact, I + say it is true. As to the ingenuity and integrity of my heart + in that desire--I do appeal, as before, upon the truth of that + also. But I could not obtain what my soul longed for. And the + plain truth is, I did afterwards apprehend some more of + opinion, (such the differences of their judgment from mine,) + that it could not well be. + + "I confess I am in some strait to say what I could say, and + what is true, of what then followed. I pressed the Parliament, + as a member, to period themselves; once and again, and again, + and ten, nay twenty times over. I told them, for I knew it + better than any one man in the parliament could know it, + because of my manner of life, which had led me every where up + and down the nation, thereby giving me to see and know the + temper and spirits of all men, and of the best of men--that the + nation loathed their sitting. I knew it. And so far as I could + discern, when they _were_ dissolved, _there was not so much as + the barking of a dog_, or any general or visible repining at + it. + + "And that there was high cause for their dissolution, is most + evident: not only in regard there was a just fear of that + parliament's perpetuating themselves, but because it actually + was their design. Had not their heels been trod upon by + importunities from abroad, even to threats, I believe there + never would have been any thoughts of rising, or of going out + of that room, to the world's end. I myself was sounded, and by + no mean persons tempted; and proposals were made me to that + very end: that the parliament might be thus perpetuated; that + the vacant places might be supplied by new elections, and so + continue from generation to generation." + +He proceeds to object to the measure which the Parliament was really +about to pass, that it would have established an uninterrupted +succession of Parliaments, that there would have been "a legislative +power always sitting," which would thereby have encroached upon the +executive power. The speech then enlarges on the general assent of the +people, of the army, of the judges, of the civic powers, to the +instrument of government, to the Protectorate, and on the implied +assent which they themselves had given by accepting their commissions +under it. + + "And this being so, though I told you in my last speech that + you were a free Parliament, yet I thought it was understood + withal that I was the Protector, and the authority that called + you! That I was in possession of the government by a good right + from God and man. And I believe, that if the learnedest men in + this nation were called to show a precedent equally clear of a + government so many ways approved of, they would not in all + their search find it. And if the fact be so, why should we + sport with it? With a business so serious!... For you to disown + or not to own it; for you to act with parliamentary authority + especially, in the disowning of it, contrary to the very + fundamental things, yea against the very root itself of this + establishment, to sit and not own the authority by which you + sit--is that which I believe astonisheth more men than myself; + and doth as dangerously disappoint and discompose the nation, + as any thing that could have been invented by the greatest + enemy to our peace and welfare." + +After drawing the distinction between fundamentals, which may not be +shaken, and circumstantials, which it is in the power of Parliament to +alter and modify, he continues:-- + + "I would it had not been needful for me to call you hither to + expostulate these things with you, and in such a manner as + this! But necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary + necessities, are the greatest cozenage which man can put upon + the providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules + by. But it is as legal, as carnal, and as stupid to think that + there are _no_ necessities which are manifest and real, because + necessities may be abused or feigned. I have to say, the wilful + throwing away of this government, such as it is, so owned by + God, so approved by men, so witnessed to, as was mentioned + above, were a thing which--and in reference to the good of + these nations and of posterity--_I can sooner be willing to be + rolled into my grave and buried with infamy, than I can give my + consent unto!_ + + "You have been called hither to save a nation--nations. You had + the best people, indeed, of the Christian world put into your + trust, when you came hither. You had the affairs of these + nations delivered over to you in peace and quiet; you were, and + we all are, put into an undisturbed possession, nobody making + title to us: Through the blessing of God, our enemies were + hopeless and scattered. We had peace at home; peace with almost + all our neighbours round about. To have our peace and interest, + whereof those were our hopes the other day, thus shaken, and + put under such a confusion; and ourselves rendered hereby + almost the scorn and contempt of those strangers who are + amongst us to negotiate their masters' affairs!... Who shall + answer for these things to God or to men? To men, to the people + who sent you hither? who looked for refreshment from you; who + looked for nothing but peace and quietness, and rest and + settlement? When we come to give an account to them, we shall + have it to say, 'Oh, we quarrelled for the _Liberty of + England_; we contested, and went to confusion for + that!--_Wherein, I pray you, for the Liberty of England?_ I + appeal to the Lord, that the desires and endeavours we have + had--nay, the things will speak for themselves,--the liberty of + England, the liberty of the people, the avoiding of tyrannous + impositions either upon men as men, or Christians as + Christians,--is made so safe by this act of settlement, that it + will speak for itself." + +The Protector then tells them that, "seeing the authority which +called them is so little valued and so much slighted, he had +caused a stop to be put to their entrance into the Parliament-house," +until a certain "somewhat," which would be found "in the lobby +without the Parliament-door"--an adhesion to the government in its +fundamentals--should be signed. + +This extract, as will be readily supposed, would lead to a far too +favourable opinion of Cromwell's oratory, if understood as a specimen of +his usual manner of speaking; but our readers will probably confess, +that they did not expect that the speeches of Cromwell would have +yielded such an extract. + +Oliver has, it will be observed, a singularly modest way of speaking of +his political remedies and projects. In referring, on a later occasion, +to his major-generals, he says, "Truly when that insurrection was, we +did find out a _little poor invention_, which I hear has been much +regretted. I say there was _a little thing_ invented, which was the +erecting of your major-generals, to have a little inspection upon the +people thus divided, thus discontented, thus dissatisfied." On the +present occasion, the "somewhat which was to be found at the lobby of +the Parliament-door," was, after a little demur, accepted and signed by +all but a certain number of declared republicans. The parliament +afterwards fell from the discussion of a whole constitution, to debates +apparently as warm, and as endless, upon poor Biddle the Quaker, and +other kindred subjects. Thus their allotted session of five months +passed; at the end of which time Cromwell dissolved them. + +"I do not know what you have been doing," he tells them in his speech on +this occasion. "I do not know whether you have been alive or dead. I +have not once heard from you all this time--I have not--and that you all +know." + +Cromwell's second parliament manifested a wiser industry, and a more +harmonious temper--thanks to one of the Protector's "little inventions." +Each member was to be provided with a certificate before entering the +house; "but near one hundred honourable gentlemen can get no +certificate--none provided for _them_--and without certificate there is +no admittance. Soldiers stand ranked at the door; no man enters without +his certificate!" The stiff republicans, and known turbalent persons, +are excluded. From this Parliament Cromwell accepts again the title of +Protector, and is installed with great state; things take a more legal +aspect; the major-generals are suppressed; a House of Lords is +instituted; and a settlement of the nation seems at last effected. + +But the second session of this Parliament relapsed again into a restive +and republican humour. The excluded members had been admitted, and +debates arose about this "other house," as they were disposed to +nominate the Lords. So much confusion resulted in the country from this +unsettled state of the representative assembly, and so many +insurrectionary designs were fostered by it, that the Protector was +compelled abruptly to dissolve the Parliament. He tells them:-- + + "That which brought me into the capacity I now stand in, was + the petition and advice given me by you, who, in reference to + the ancient constitution, did draw me to accept the place of + Protector. _There is not a man living can say I sought it; no, + not a man nor a woman treading upon English ground._ But, + contemplating the sad condition of these nations, relieved from + an intestine war into a six or seven years' peace, I did think + the nation happy therein. But to be petitioned thereunto, and + to be advised by you to undertake such a government, a burden + too heavy for any creature--and this to be done by the House + which then had the legislative capacity--certainly I did look + that the same men who made the frame, should make it good unto + me. _I can say, in the presence of God, in comparison with whom + we are but like poor creeping ants upon the earth, I would have + been glad to have lived under any woodside, to have kept a + flock of sheep, rather then have undertaken such a government + as this._ But, undertaking it by the advice and petition of + you, I did look that you who had offered it unto me, should + make it good." + +He concludes thus:-- + + "It hath been not only your endeavour to pervert the army while + you have been sitting, and to draw them to state the question + about a 'Commonwealth;' but some of you have been listing of + persons, by commission of Charles Stuart, to join with any + insurrection that may be made. And what is like to come upon + this, the enemy being ready to invade us, but even present + blood and confusion? And if this be so, I do assign it to this + cause--your not assenting to what you did invite me to by your + petition and advice, as that which might prove the settlement + of the nation. And if this be the end of your sitting, and this + be your carriage, I think it high time that an end be put to + your sitting. And I do dissolve this Parliament! And let God be + judge between you and me!" + +It is at this latter period of his career that the character of +Cromwell, to our apprehension, stands out to greatest advantage, becomes +more grave, and solemn, and estimable. Other dictators, other men of +ambitious aims and fortunes, show themselves, for the most part, less +amiable, more tyrannous than ever, more violent and selfish, when they +have obtained the last reward of all their striving, and possessed +themselves of the seat of power. It was otherwise with Cromwell. He +became more moderate, his views more expanded, his temper milder and +more pensive. The stormy passions of the civil war were overblown, the +intricate and ambiguous passages of his political course had been left +behind; and _now_, whatever may have been the errors of the past, and +however his own ambition or rashness may have led him to it, he occupied +a position which he might say with truth he held for his country's good. +Forsake it he could not. Repose in it he could not. A man of religious +breeding, of strong conscientiousness, though tainted with superstition, +he could not but feel the great responsibility of that position. A +vulgar usurper is found at this era of his career to sink into the +voluptuary, or else to vent his dissatisfied humour in acts of cruelty +and oppression. Cromwell must govern, and govern to his best. The +restless and ardent spirit that had ever prompted him onwards and +upwards, and which had carried him to that high place, was now upon the +wane. It had borne him to that giddy pinnacle, and threatened to leave +him there. Men were now aiming at his life; the assassin was abroad; +one-half the world was execrating him; we doubt not that he spoke with +sincerity when he said, that "he would gladly live under any woodside, +and keep a flock of sheep." He would gladly lay down his burden, but he +cannot; can lay it down only in the grave. The sere and yellow leaf is +falling on the shelterless head of the royal Puritan. The asperity of +his earlier character is gone, the acrimony of many of his prejudices +has, in his long and wide intercourse with mankind, abated; his great +duties have taught him moderation of many kinds; there remains of the +fiery sectarian, who so hastily "turned the buckle of his girdle behind +him," little more than his firmness and conscientiousness: his firmness +that, as he truly said, "could be bold with men;" his conscientiousness, +which made the power he attained by that boldness, a burden and a heavy +responsibility. + +"We have not been now four years and upwards in this government," says +the Protector, in one of his speeches, "to be totally ignorant of what +things may be of the greatest concernment to us." No; this man has not +been an idle scholar. Since the Lord General took the reins of civil +government, and became Lord Protector, he has thought and learned much +of statemanship. But as a statesman, he is still first of all the +Puritan. It is worth while to observe how his foreign policy, which has +been justly admired, took its turn and direction from his religious +feelings. He made alliances with the Protestant powers of the north, and +assumed a firm attitude of hostility towards Spain--and reasons of state +may have had some sway in determining him to these measures; but his +great motive for hostility with Spain was, that she stood "at the head +of the antichristian interest"--"was described in the Scriptures to be +papal and antichristian." + +"Why, truly your great enemy is the Spaniard. He is a natural enemy. He +is naturally so throughout, by reason of that enmity that is in him +against whatever is of God.... Your enemy, as I tell you, naturally, by +that antipathy which is in him,--and also providentially, (that is, by +special ordering of Providence.) An enmity is put in him by God. 'I will +put an enmity between thy seed and her seed,' which goes but for little +among statesmen, but is more considerable than all things. And he that +considers not such natural enmity, the _providential_ enmity as well as +the _accidental_, I think he is not well acquainted with the Scripture, +and the things of God,"--(_Speech_ 5.) + +In fine, we see in Cromwell, every where and throughout, the genuine, +fervid Puritan--the Puritan general, the Puritan statesman. He was a +man, and, therefore, doubtless ambitious; he rose through a scene of +civil as well as military contest, and, doubtless, was not unacquainted +with dissimulation; but if we would describe him briefly, it is as the +GREAT PURITAN that he must, ever be remembered in history. + +In parting company with the editor of these letters and speeches, we +feel that we have not done justice to the editorial industry and +research which these volumes display. Our space would not permit it. For +the same reason we have been unable to quote several instances of vivid +narrative, which we had hoped to transfer to our own pages. And as to +our main quarrel with him--this outrageous adoption of Puritanical bile +and superstition,--we have been haunted all along by a suspicion we have +occasionally expressed, that the man _cannot_ be in earnest. He could +not have been so abandoned by his common sense. He has been so +accustomed to mingle sport, and buffoonery, and all sorts of wilful +extravagance, with his most serious mood, that he perhaps does not know +himself when, and how far, he is in earnest. In turning over the leaves +of his work, we light, towards the end of the second volume, upon the +following passage, which may, _perhaps_, explain the temper of the +writer, when he is abetting and encouraging his fanatical heroes. He is +uttering some sarcasms upon the poor "art of speech." + +"Is there no sacredness, then, any longer in the miraculous tongue of +man? Is his head become a wretched cracked pitcher, on which you jingle +to frighten crows, and makes bees hive? He fills me with terror, this +two-legged rhetorical phantasm! I could long for an Oliver without +rhetoric at all. I could long for a Mahomet, whose persuasive eloquence, +with wild-flashing heart and scimiter, is, 'Wretched moral, give up +that; or by the Eternal, thy maker and mine, I will kill thee! Thou +blasphemous scandalous misbirth of Nature, is not even _that_ the +kindest thing I can do for thee, if thou repent not, and alter in the +name of Allah?'" + +To this sort of satirical humour--to "the truth of a song,"--not +Dryasdust himself would call upon him to swear. And may not all his +rhapsodies upon his "sword-in-hand" Puritans be little more than an +amplification of this one passage? And, if we insist upon it, that a +reform by the pen, or even by speech-making, is better than one by pike +and musket--if we should suggest that matters of civil government are +better decided by civil and political reasoning than by metaphorical +texts of Scripture, interpreted by prejudice and passion--if we contend +for such truisms as these, shall we not be in danger of occupying some +such position as the worthy prelate whose sagacity led him to discover +that _some facts_ in Gulliver's Travels had surely been overcharged? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, with Elucidations by Thomas +Carlyle._ + +[2] Take the following instance from the early and more moderate times +of the Revolution, and wherein the most staid and sober of this class of +people is concerned. When Essex left London to march against the king, +then at Oxford, he requested the assembly of divines to keep a fast for +his success. Baillie informs us how it was celebrated. "We spent from +nine to five graciously. After Dr Twisse had begun with a brief prayer, +Mr Marshall prayed large two hours, most divinely confessing the sins of +the members of the assembly in a wonderful, pathetic, and prudent way. +After Mr Arrowsmith preached an hour, then a psalm; thereafter Mr Vines +prayed near two hours, and Mr Palmer preached an hour, and Mr. Seaman +prayed near two hours, then a psalm; after Mr Henderson brought them to +a sweet conference of the heat confessed in the assembly, and other seen +faults to be remedied, and the conveniency to preach against all sects, +especially anabaptists and antinomians. Dr Twisse closed with a short +prayer and blessing. God was so evidently in all this exercise that we +expect certainly a blessing."--_Baillie_, quoted from _Lingard_. + + + + +LAYS AND LEGENDS OF THE THAMES. + +PART III. + + +----On passing the little village of Erith, once one of the prettiest +rustic spots in Kent, where the parson and the surgeon formed the heads +of the community, and its only intelligence of the living world depended +on the casual arrival of a boat from the Margate Hoy in search of fresh +eggs for the voyage, a small house was pointed out to me, embosomed in a +dell, which would have completely suited the solitary tastes of a poet +weary of the world: + + "Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness, + Where rumour of oppression and deceit, + Of unsuccessful, or successful war, + Might never reach me more!" + +Fifty years ago, a weekly newspaper was the only remembrancer to either +parson or doctor, of the world which they had left, and that one only +sent by the member for the county, when he thought it desirable to awake +the general gratitude on the approach of a general election. The Thames +certainly might remind the village population that there were merchants +and mariners among mankind; but what were those passing phantoms to +them? John the son of Thomas lived and died as Thomas the father of John +had lived and died from generation to generation. The first news of the +American war reached it in the firing of the Woolwich guns for peace; +and the original tidings of the French Revolution, in similar rejoicings +for the Battle of Waterloo. + + "O happy ye, the happiest of your kind, + Who leave alike life's woes and joys behind!" + +says the philosophic Cowley; and with Cowley I perfectly agree. + +But Erith is this scene of philosophy no more. It has now shared the +march of mind: it has become almost a watering-place; it has a library, +a promenade, lodgings for gouty gentlemen, a conventicle, several +vigorous politicians, three doctors, and, most fatal of all, four +steam-boat arrivals every day. Solitude has fled, and meditation is no +more. + +But, to my story. In that lonely house, lived for several years, in the +beginning of the century, a singular character, of whom nothing more was +known, than that he had come from some distant place of abode; that he +never received a letter; and that he never hunted, shot, or fished with +the squiredom of the country. He was of large form, loud voice, had a +sullen look, and no trust in her Majesty's ministers for the time being. +At length, on some occasion of peculiar public excitement, the recluse +had gone to Gravesend, where, tempted by the impulse of the moment, he +had broken through his reserve, dashed out into a diatribe of singular +fierceness, but of remarkable power, accused England of all kinds of +oppression to all kinds of countries, and finished his speech by a +recapitulation of all the wishes, wants, woes, and wrongs, as he called +them, of Ireland, + + "First flower of the west, and first gem of the ocean." + +Within the next twelve hours, a pair of Bow Street officers were seen +galloping into the village in a post-chaise and four. They brought a +warrant from the Secretary of State to arrest the Irish orator, as a +leader of the late Rebellion returned from transportation, on his own +authority. He was captured, and conveyed to the Tower. And this was the +last intelligence of the patriot; except that he appealed to the +government against all repetition of his Australian voyage, and swore +that he preferred the speedier performance of the law to the operations +on the Coal-mine river. A remarkable tempest, which broke all the +windows, and threw down half the chimneys of the city, a few weeks +after; was supposed by the imaginative to be connected with his +disappearance. At all events, he was heard of no more. + + +THE VISION. + + Thunder pealed and lightning quivered, + Gusts a prison's casements shivered. + From its dungeon rose a scream, + Where, awakened by the gleam, + From his pallet rose and ran, + Wild with fear, a stalwart man. + Saw he in his tortured sleep, + Things that make the heart-veins creep? + Swept he through the world of flame, + Chased by shapes that none may name? + Still, as bars and windows clanged, + Still he roared--"I _will_ be hanged." + + Sleep had swept him o'er the seas, + To the drear antipodes; + There he saw a felon band, + Chains on neck, and spade in hand, + Orators, all sworn to die + In "Old Ireland's" cause--or fly! + Now, divorced from pike and pen, + Digging ditch, and draining fen, + Sky their ceiling, sand their bed, + Fed and flogged, and flogged and fed. + "Operatives!" he harangued; + "Ere I'm banished--I'll be hanged." + + Now, he strove to strike a light, + But, a form of giant height + Through the crashing casement sprang; + Shattered stanchions round him rang, + From his eyes a light within + Showed the blackness of his skin; + In his lips a huge cigar + Smouldered, like a dying star; + Holding to the culprit's eyes, + Writ in flame, a scroll of lies, + Champing jaws with iron fanged, + "Friend," cried he, "you _shall_ be hanged." + + 'Twixt the tempter and the rogue, + Then began the dialogue: + --"Master--shall I rob the state?" + "Not, unless you'd dine off plate." + --"Shall I try my hand at law?" + "You'll be sure to make a flaw." + --"Shall I job in Parliament?" + "You'll be richer, cent per cent." + --"Shall I truckle, or talk big?" + "You'll but get a judge's wig, + Blockheads may be conscience-panged, + Knaves are pensioned, but, _not_ hanged!" + + --"Master, _must_ I then escape?" + "No," exclaimed the knowing shape, + "You shall perish by Lynch-Law." + Through his skull he struck a claw, + On the tempest burst a wail, + Through the bars a serpent-tail, + Flashing like a lightning spire, + Seemed to set the cell on fire; + Far and wide was heard the clang, + Through the whirlwind as they sprang. + Many a year the sulphurous fume + Stung the nostril in that room. + +The river widens, and we sweep along by the rich slopes and deep wooded +vales of the Kentish shore. From time to time little pastoral villages +emerge, from plantations of willows and poplars, and all water-loving +trees. Before coming to Purfleet, we had passed a noble hill, looking +over a vast expanse of country, on which stands a princely +mansion,--Belvedere, with its battlements glittering above groves as +thick as the depths of the Black Forest. This was once the mansion of +Lord Eardley, one of the greatest humorists of the age,--the companion +of George the Fourth, before he ceased to be a wit and became a king. + +How many delightful things are lost to the world, by the world's own +laziness. Why have we not a Boswell in every city? Her majesty pays a +laureate, who writes nothing but the annual receipt for his pension. Why +not transfer the office to a Boswell? why not establish a Cabinet-dinner +Boswell? a Buckingham-palace Boswell? a Windsor Boswell? with orders to +make their weekly returns of gaiety and gossipry to the Home Department; +to be thence issued by instalments of anecdote, in volumes, like "Lord +Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors," or in columns, like the protocols +of the Montpensier marriage, for the laughter of mankind? + +But the report of a heavy gun, and all eyes turned to a huge shell, +making its curve a mile above our heads, reminded us that the artillery +had a field-day as we passed Woolwich, and that there was every +possibility that this vagrant messenger of destruction, might plump into +our midships. The consternation on board grew, as it descended, looking +bigger and blacker every instant. If it had come on board, it must have +torn us up like paper. The catastrophe would have been invaluable to the +journals of the empire, at this moment of a dearth of news, enough to +make bankrupts of all the coffee-houses in London, and close every club +from Charing Cross to Hyde Park Corner. _We_ should all have been +immortal in paragraphs without number. Coroners, surgeons, poets, and +special juries, would have made their reputation out of _us_; and for a +month of hot weather, we should have been a refreshing topic in the +mouths of mankind. But it was otherwise decreed: the shell dropped +within a foot of the steamer, and we were _quittes pour la peur_. + +I fired a poetic shot at Woolwich in return. + + THE ROYAL ARSENAL. + + Woolwich--Woolwich, + The Thames is thy ditch, + And stout hearts are thy fortification. + Let come who come may, + All is open as day, + Thy gates are as free as thy nation. + + Let the King of the French + Build wall, or dig trench, + Though he has no more princes to marry, + _Our_ trench is the sea, + And _our_ walls are the free, + And we laugh at thy "_grande enceinte, Paris._" + + Deep and dark on their quay, + Like lions at bay, + Stand the guns that set earth at defiance; + With mountains of ball, + Which, wherever they fall, + With their message make speedy compliance. + + Along the Parade + Lies the brisk carronade, + With Wellington's joy, the twelve-pounder. + And the long sixty-eight, + Made for matters of weight, + The world has no arguments sounder. + + There stands the long rocket, + That shot, from its socket, + Puts armies, pell-mell, to the rout, sir; + At Leipsic, its tail + Made Napoleon turn pale, + And sent all his _braves_ right about, sir. + + And there gapes the mortar, + That seldom gives quarter, + When speaking to ship or to city; + For, although deaf and dumb, + Its tongue is a bomb-- + And so, there's an end of my ditty. + +The sun had now overcome the mists of the morning, and was throwing a +rich lustre over the long sheets of foliage which screened, but without +concealing, a large and classic villa on the Essex side. The park +reached to the water's edge, in broad vistas, green as the emerald; deer +were moving in groups over the lawn, or on standing still to gaze on the +wonder of our flying ship. A few boats were slowly passing near the +shore, along with the tide; the water was without a ripple,--the air was +soft and fragrant, as it flowed from grove and garden; and the whole was +a scene of sylvan and summer beauty. The thought suddenly shot across my +mind, what a capital prize this would be, in a revolution! How +handsomely it would repay a patriot for his trouble in uprooting lords +and commons! What a philosophic consummation of a life of husting +harangues, and league itinerancy, it would be, to lie on the +drawing-room sofa of a mansion so perfectly Greek, railing at the +tyranny of thrones, the bigotry of bishops, and the avarice of +aristocracies; lamenting the privations of the poor, over a table of +three courses, and drinking confusion to all monopolies in _Vin de +Comete!_ + +But, who was the present possessor? I asked the name and heard it. But, +from the captain to the cabin-boy, not a soul could give me another +syllable of information. Like the gravedigger in Hamlet, they might +"cudgel their brains," but all came to the gravedigger's confession at +last,--"Mass, I cannot tell." + +Such, thought I, are the chances of the world. The owner of this marine +palace,--of these gardens, groves, deer, and dovecotes,--cannot have +less than £10,000 a-year; yet his name has never reached the auricular +sensibilities of man, beyond the fence of his own park. Was he +philosopher, statesman, lawyer, orator, historian? inventor of +steam-engine, of spinning jenny, of gunpowder, or of gun-cotton? No, I +searched every cell of memory for some "trivial fond record" which might +justify his title to a mansion and grounds fit for Sophocles, Schiller, +or Shakspeare, the master of them all. I could not find, in all the +rolls of the court of reminiscences, a single scrape of the pen to +inform me; not so much as the commemorative smoke of a candle on the +ceiling of the alcove of Mnemosyne; not a vestige of the "light +fantastic toe," of those sylphs who treasure the flippancies of noble +pens, and live in the fragrance of albums, otto-perfumed. Still I was +driven to the confession, "Mass, I cannot tell." + +I had brought a volume of poor Tom Campbell in my pocket, and had been +glancing over his _chef-d'oeuvre_, "Ye Mariners of England," when this +stately edifice first checked my inspiration. In the wrath of my spirit +I tossed the volume overboard. "Psha!" I involuntarily exclaimed, "what +is the use of being a genius? What is the gratitude of a country, where +a cotton-spinner can purchase the fee-simple of a province, while the +man who spreads its fame over the world is left to gather his +contemplations over a stove in an attic, watch the visage of his +landlady, and shudder at the rise of coals! + + 'England, with all thy faults I love thee still.' + +But it must be confessed, that thou art the most pitiful, paltry, +beggarly, blind--" I shall say no more. Thy whole munificence, thy whole +magnanimity, thy whole generosity, to the living lights of thy sullen +region of toil, trimming, and tribulation, of the dulness of dukes and +the mountainous fortunes of pinmakers--is exactly £1200 a-year! and this +to be divided among the whole generation of the witty and the wise, of +the sons and daughters of the muse,--the whole "school of the prophets," +the lustres of the poetry and the science of England! £1200 a-year for +the only men of their generation who will be remembered for five minutes +by the generation to come. £1200 a-year, the salary of an Excise +commissioner, of a manipulator of the penny post, of a charity +inspector, of a police magistrate, of a register of cabs, of any thing +and every body: and this, reduced to decimals, is to be the national +prize, the luxurious provision, the brilliant prospect, the illustrious +tribute of a treasury of fifty millions sterling a-year, to the whole +literature of a land which boasts of its being the intellectual leader +of the world! + +I have found the poems of our living bards on the shores of Hudson's +Bay, and heard men talking of them round a stove, while the thermometer +outside the window was 30° below zero. I have found them in a +plantain-thatched hovel on the banks of the Niger, and forgotten while I +read them that the thermometer was 110° in the shade. I have found them +in the hands of a learned pundit on the banks of the Ganges, whom they +were seducing into dreams of dewy pastures and crystal rills. And one of +the pleasantest evenings I ever remember to have spent, was, by the help +of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," as I sat at a supper of rice milk, +after a day of fire on the eastern branch of the Nile, a thousand miles +above Tourists, sheltered under the wagon of a Moorish ambassador from +Sultaun Abderahman to the monarch of Gondar. "England!" exclaimed this +ebony-visaged worshipper of the Beaux Arts, as he displayed the volume +before me. It was the only civilised word in his vocabulary. But I felt +the compliment with patriotic fervency, and in spirit thanked the bard +for the barbarian's acknowledgment of my poetic and penurious country. + +I have not done with the theme yet. On returning from the equator, I saw +Campbell's funeral. Westminster Abbey was a mob of dukes, statesmen, +privy-councillors, and men of countless acres. Poor Tom's whole life had +been thankless toil; wasting in meagre industry the powers which ought +to have been cherished by his country for purposes of national honour. +Such is always the course of things. The very stones of Burns' pillars +would have made the great poet happy for life, if their price had been +given to him to cheer his melancholy fireside. Why has the poetic spirit +of England folded its wings, and been content to abandon its brilliant +region to the butterflies of albums, but that the spirit of England has +suffered itself to be fettered by the red tape of a peddling parsimony? +Should we have had a Shakspeare without the smiles of an Elizabeth, and +the generosity of a Southampton? No. He would have split his pen after +his first tragedy; have thrown his ink-stand into the Thames; have taken +the carrier's cart to Stratford, and there finished his days in writing +epitaphs in the churchyard, laughing at Sir Thomas Lucy, and bequeathing +deathless scoffs, to the beggary of mankind. + +I was growing into what the dramatists call a "towering passion," and +meditating general reforms of Civil Lists, Chancellors of the Exchequer, +and Lord Chamberlains, when my attention was turned to a very animated +scene going on between a pair who seemed perfectly unconscious of all +the external creation. One of the parties was a showy-looking fellow, +with the mingled expression of _rouéism_ and half-pay, which is so +frequent and so unmistakeable in the neighbourhood of St James's. The +lady was a calm and composed personage, whom, on a second glance, I +remembered to have seen wherever the world could bow down to the fair +possessor of countless "consols." But the passion for a handsome +mansion, a handsome stud, and a handsome rental, is indefatigable, and +the ex-staff man poured his adorations into her ear with all the glow of +a suitor ten thousand pounds worse than nothing. + +Poesy! sweetest of all the maids of Parnassus! it is thou that givest +thy votary power to read the soul: it is thou that canst translate the +glance into a speech, and give eloquence to the clasp of a hand. It is +thou alone to whom the world is indebted for this _true_ version of the +pleadings of the Guardsman. + + + + +TRUE LOVE. + + + Exquisite Miss Millionaire! + Hear a lover's genuine prayer: + Let the world adore your charms, + Swan-like neck, or snowy arms, + Rosy smile, or dazzling glance, + Making all our bosoms dance; + For your purse alone I care, + Exquisite Miss Millionaire! + Ringlets blackest of the black, + Ivory shoulders, Grecian back, + Tresses so divinely twined, + That we long to be the wind, + Waiting till the lady's face + Turns, to give the _coup de grace_. + All those spells to _me_ are air. + Truth is truth, Miss Millionaire. + + Let them talk of finger-tips, + Pearly teeth, or coral lips, + Cheeks the morning rose that mock, + _Still_ there _is_ a charm in Stock! + Solid mortgage, five per cent, + Freehold with "improving" rent, + Russia bond, and railroad share, + Steal _my_ soul, Miss Millionaire. + + Let your rhymers (all are crackt) + Rave of cloud or cataract; + On the Rhine, or Rhone, or Arve, + Let romancers stroll and starve. + Cupid loves a gilded cage, + (Let _me_ choose your equipage,) + Passion pants for Portman Square, + (Be but mine,) Miss Millionaire. + + There you'll lead a London life, + More a goddess than a wife; + Fifty thousand pounds a-year + Making our expenses clear; + Giving, once a-week, a _fête_, + Simply to display our plate. + Never earth saw such a pair, + Exquisite Miss Millionaire! + +But a steeple starts up from its green thickets; not one of the hideous +objects which the architects of our district churches perpetrate, to +puzzle the passer-by as to the purpose of its being,--whether a brewer's +chimney, or a shot-tower,--a perch for city pigeons, or a standing +burlesque on the builders of the nineteenth age of the fine arts in +England. This steeple is an old grey turret, ivy-mantled, modest, and +with that look of venerable age which instinctively makes us feel, that +it has witnessed memorable things in its time. + +And it _has_ witnessed them. On the slope of the hill above this church +once waved the banners of a king, and the opposing banners of his +nobles: the one receiving the lesson, that kings have duties as well as +their subjects; and the others enforcing the lesson by the sight of +lines and columns of the stout bowmen and billmen of the Norman +chivalry.--On this spot, just this day six hundred and thirty years ago, +was held the grand conference between John and the Barons. + +Further inland, but rising on the view, is Swainscomb, the hill on which +the Danish armies encamped, in their pirate rovings of the British seas, +and their invasions of the Thames. + +What a contrast between the green landscape of this moment, and the camp +of Sweno. All before me was the luxury of cultivation, the yellowing +crop, the grazing cattle, the cottage smoke curling slowly upward on the +back-ground of noble beech, ash, and sycamore. On the summit, the sun +gleamed on a rectory house, half buried in roses, where the most learned +of our Orientalists perused the Koran in the peace of a Mahometan +paradise, and doubtless saw, on the dancing waters of the mighty river +at his feet, perpetual visions of houris. + +Yet those pastures once echoed with the barbarian cries of the Cimbric +warriors; tents of seal-skin and white bear fur covered the hill; the +smokes of savage feasting and Scandinavian sacrifice clouded the skies; +and on the summit, surrounded by iron guards and spectral-looking +priests, stood the magic standard of the north, the image of the Raven, +which flapped its wings on the coming of battle, and gave the oracular +cry of victory. + +But, what sounds of harmony sweep along the water! I see a range of +showy figures on the shore; it is a whole brass band, seducing us, in +the style of the syrens of old, to bring our ship to an anchor, and +hazard the enchantments of the most delicious of tea-gardens.--We are +within a hundred yards of the pier of Rosherville. + +Within five minutes, we might be roaming through this paradise of the +Thames, climbing rustic slopes carpeted with flowers, or gazing at a +menagerie, where the monkeys bound, chatter, and take apples out of your +hand; or sipping coffee of the most fragrant growth, or dancing the +polka under alcoves of painted canvass, large enough to manoeuvre a +brigade of the Horse-guards. By day the scene is romantic, but by night +it is magical. By day the stranger roams through labyrinths of exotic +vegetation, but by night he is enchanted with invisible music, dazzled +with fireworks, and goes to his pillow to dream of the Arabian Nights. +Honour to the name of Jeremiah Rosher, the discoverer of the +"capabilities" of this Garden of the Hesperides. He found it a lime +quarry, and made it a bower of Armida. If, as the great moralist said, +"the man who makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, +is a benefactor to mankind," what honours should be paid to the genius, +which substituted human beings for lime-burners, and made the élite of +the east end of the mighty metropolis dance by thousands, where nothing +but the top of a thistle ever danced before. There have been more "first +affections" awakened in the rambles through the shades of Rosherville +than in fifty Almacks, and five hundred times more matches in +consequence, than ever took refuge in Gretna; and all this--for a +shilling! + +As we neared the pier, I observed a small but elegant yacht, lying to; +with several groups of dark-featured and cloak-covered men listening, +with all the eagerness of foreign gesture, to the brazen harmony. My +Italian _compagnon de voyage_, instantly bounded from his seat, ran to +the ship's side, and held a rapid dialogue with the crew of the little +vessel. They were just from Rome, and were bringing over the newly +appointed Archbishop from the Vatican! The novelty of the voyage did not +seem to agree with the pleasurable faculties of those sons of "Bella +Italia," for nothing could be conceived more deplorable than their +physiognomies. + +The scene reminded me of one which I had witnessed at Naples, on the +arrival of the first steam-boat from Rome, conveying the Cardinal Legate +to the Court of his Majesty of the Two Sicilies. + +I disdain all the formalities of poetry. Let others prepare their +parchment-bound portfolios, throw their visages into the _penseroso_, +fling their curls back from their brows, unbutton their shirt-collars, +and, thus Byronised, begin. To _me_ all times and places are the +same.--The inspiration rushes on me, and I pour out my "unpremeditated +song" in the original rapture of Bardism! + + + + +THE CARDINAL'S VOYAGE. + + + I have seen some queer things, + Both in people and kings, + Since first I began as a dreamer; + But I ne'er thought to hear + Any thing half so queer + As a Cardinal's trip in a steamer. + + I once saw a Rabbi, + The prince of the shabby, + In a gale of wind playing the screamer, + Till we plumped him o'erboard, + Towed along by a cord, + For a bath at the tail of the steamer. + + 'Tis true, the Chinese + Looked as black as their teas, + When battered by brave Sir John Bremer: + But John Chinaman's slaughter + Was all milk and water, + To the havoc on board of the steamer. + + On a coil of the cable, + Right under the table, + With the glass at 500 of Reaumur, + Busy "making his soul," + As he felt every roll, + Lay his Highness, on board of the steamer. + + Around him ten chaplains, + And none of them saplings, + Lay pale as a quarantine streamer. + With six dozen of monks, + All as helpless as trunks, + All rolling about in the steamer. + + As she steered down the Tiber, + It shook every fibre + Of the conclave from forehead to _femur_; + But, 'twas when in her glee, + She got sight of the sea, + That she showed them the tricks of the steamer. + + At Civita Vecchia, + Oh, mie orecchie! + What howls called the Saints to redeem her. + But she darted along + Like a stone from a thong, + In the style of a true British steamer. + + She now ruled the roast, + As she sprang from the coast, + Through such surges no buckets could teem her: + The Lipari Isles + Got but very few smiles + From the brethren on board of the steamer. + + "As sure as we're born, + We'll ne'er see Leghorn." + "Peccavi!" cried out every schemer: + The whole of the friars. + In that court were "criers," + While thundered the wheels of the steamer. + + I'd not stand in their shoes, + As they passed Syracuse, + Where thy frigate lay moored, Captain Seymour: + At the top of their throats + Yelling out for thy boats, + While teeth to the wind went the steamer. + + As they swept by Messina-- + Thy birth-place, Christina!-- + Old Etna was scarce such a beamer: + In vain they cried--"Stop!" + With a blaze at her top, + Like a pillar of flame rushed the steamer. + + She bounced by Charybdis, + With limestone which ribb'd is; + A touch from a pebble might seam her; + Made a curtsey to Scylla, + As the Turks say, "Bismillah," + 'Twas a very close shave for the steamer. + + But the surges grew brown, + And the night hurried down, + And they saw in each flash a death-gleamer; + While the peals from the clouds, + And the wind in the shrouds, + Made them all very sick of the steamer. + + When they made Capri's lights + It redoubled their frights, + And the friars all bellowed--"Tenemur!" + One and all made confessions, + (E'en popes have transgressions,) + There was some heavy work in the steamer. + + But they soon smelt the apples + And fish-shops of Naples, + And the cargo began to esteem her-- + "No witch in a sieve, + They could ever believe, + Had sailed half so fast as the steamer." + + Could my pen give a sketch + Of each wo-begone wretch, + Like Gilray, H. B., or old Damer, + You should have the whole troop + That lay stretched on the poop, + As up by the mole dashed the steamer. + + Were I Guizot, or Florian, + Or "Oxford Historian," + Or "Orator" like Dr Cremer, + In my grand paragraphs, + You should have all the laughs + Of the mob as they rushed from the steamer! + + + + +LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. + + +II.--VAMPYRISM. + +Dear Archy,--In acknowledging my former letter, you express an eager +desire to learn, as you phrase it, "all about vampyrs, if there ever +were such things." I will not delay satisfying your curiosity, wondering +only how my friend, your late tutor, Mr H., should have left you in a +state of uncertainty upon a point on which, in my time, schoolboys many +years your juniors had fully made up their minds. + +"Were there ever such things as vampyrs?" _tantamne rem tam +negligenter?_ I turn to the learned pages of Horst for a luminous and +precise definition of the destructive and mysterious beings, whose +existence you have ventured to consider problematical. + +"A vampyr is a dead body, which continues to live in the grave, which it +leaves, however, by night, for the purpose of sucking the blood of the +living, whereby it is nourished, and preserved in good condition, +instead of becoming decomposed like other dead bodies." + +Upon my word, you really deserve--Since Mr George Combe has clearly +shown in his admirable work "On the Constitution of Man, and its +adaptation to the world around him," that ignorance is a statutable +crime before Nature, and punishable, and punished by the laws of +Providence,--you deserve, I say, unless you contrive to make Mr H. your +substitute, which I think would be just, yourself to be the subject of +the nocturnal visit of a vampyr. Your scepticism will abate pretty +considerably, when you see him stealthily entering your room, yet are +powerless under the fascination of his fixed and leaden eye--when you +are conscious, as you lie motionless with terror, of his nearer and +nearer approach,--when you feel his face, fresh with the smell of the +grave, bent over your throat, while his keen teeth make a fine incision +in your jugular, preparatively to his commencing his plain, but +nutritive repast. + +You would look a little paler the next morning, but that would be all +for the moment; for Fischer informs us, that the bite of a vampyr leaves +in general no mark upon the person. But he fearfully adds, "it (the +bite) is nevertheless speedily fatal, unless the bitten person protect +himself by eating some of the earth from the grave of the vampyr, and +smearing himself with his blood." Unfortunately, indeed, these measures +are only of temporary use. Fischer adds, "if through these precautions +the life of the victim be prolonged for a period, sooner or later he +ends with becoming a vampyr himself; that is to say, he dies, and is +buried, but continues to lead a vampyr life in the grave, nourishing +himself by infecting others, and promiscuously propagating vampyrism." + +Now this is no romancer's dream. It is a succinct account of a +superstition, which to this day survives in the east of Europe, where +little more than a century ago it was frightfully prevalent. At that +epoch, vampyrism spread like, an epidemic pestilence through Servia and +Wallachia, causing innumerable deaths, and disturbing all the land with +apprehension of the mysterious visitation, against which no one felt his +life secure. + +This is something like a good solid practical popular delusion. Do I +believe it?--to be sure I do; the facts are matter of history. The +people died like sheep, and the cause and method of their dying was, in +their belief, what has just been stated. You suppose, then, they died, +frightened out of their lives; as men have died, whose pardon has been +proclaimed when their necks were already on the block, of the belief +that they were going to die? Well, if that were all, the subject would +be worth examining; but there is more in it than that, as the following +o'er true tale will convince you, the essential parts of which are +attested by perfect documentary evidence. + +It was in the spring of 1727 that there returned from the Levant to the +village of Meduegna, near Belgrade, one Arnod Paole, who, in a few years +of military service and varied adventure, had amassed enough to purchase +him a cottage, and an acre or two of land in his native place, where he +gave out he meant to pass the remainder of his days. He kept his word. +Arnod had yet scarcely reached the prime of manhood; and though he must +have encountered the rough, as well as the smooth of life, and have +mingled with many a wild and reckless companion, yet his natural good +disposition, and honest principle, had preserved him unscathed amid the +scenes he had passed through. At all events, such were the thoughts +expressed by his neighbours, as they discussed his return and settlement +among them in the stube of the village Hof. Nor did the frank and open +countenance of Arnod, his obliging habits, and steady conduct, argue +their judgment incorrect. Nevertheless, there was something +occasionally, noticeable in his ways, a look and tone that betrayed +inward inquietude. Often would he refuse to join his friends, or on some +sudden plea abruptly quit their society. And he still more +unaccountably, and as it seemed systematically, avoided meeting his +pretty neighbour, Nina, whose father occupied the next tenement to his +own. At the age of seventeen, Nina was as charming a picture as you +could have seen, of youth, cheerfulness, innocence, and confidence in +all the world. You could not look into her limpid eyes, which steadily +returned your gaze, without seeing to the bottom of the pure and +transparent spring of her thoughts. Then why did Arnod shrink from +meeting her? He was young, had a little property, had health and +industry, and he had told his friends he had formed no ties in other +lands. Why, then, did he avoid the fascination of the pretty Nina, who +seemed a being made to chase from any brow the clouds of gathering care? +But he did so. Yet less and less resolutely; for he felt the charm of +her presence; who could have done otherwise? and how could he at last +resist--he didn't--the impulse of his fondness for the innocent girl who +often sought to cheer his fits of depression? + +And they were to be united; were betrothed; yet still an anxious gloom +would fitfully overcast his countenance even in the sunshine of those +hours. + +"What is it, dear Arnod, that makes you sad? it cannot be on my account, +I know; for you were sad before you ever noticed me; and that I think," +and you should have seen the deepening rose upon her cheek, as she +added, "surely first made me notice you." + +"Nina," he answered, "I have done, I fear, a great wrong in trying to +gain your affections. Nina, I have a fixed impression that I shall not +live; yet, knowing this, I have selfishly made my existence necessary to +your happiness." + +"How strangely you talk, dear Arnod! Who in the village is stronger and +healthier than you? You feared no danger when you were a soldier; what +danger do you fear as a villager of Meduegna?" + +"It haunts me, Nina." + +"But, Arnod, you were sad before you thought of loving me. Did you then +fear to die?" + +"Ah, Nina, it is something worse than death:" and his vigorous frame +shook with agony. + +"Arnod, I conjure you, tell me." + +"It was in Cossova this fate befel me. Here we have hitherto escaped the +terrible scourge. But there they died, and the dead visited the living. +I experienced a first frightful visitation, and I fled, but not till I +had sought his grave, and exacted the dread expiation from the vampyr." + +Nina uttered a piercing cry, and fell senseless. Afterwards, they found +a consolation in the length of time, now months, that had elapsed, since +Arnod had left Cossova, during which no fearful visitant had again +approached him; and they fondly began to hope _that_ gave them security. +For the poor girl well knew from many a village tale the danger to which +Arnod had been exposed. + +It is a strange world. The ills we fear often never befall us: the blows +that reach us are for the most part unforeseen ones. One day, about a +week after this conversation, Arnod missed his footing and fell from the +top of his loaded hay-wagon. He was picked up stunned and insensible. +They carried him home; where, after lingering some hours, he died; was +buried; but _not_ forgotten. + +Twenty or thirty days after his decease, says the perfectly +authenticated report of these transactions, several in the neighbourhood +made complaints that they had been haunted by the deceased Arnod; and +four of the number (among whom, there being nothing in the report to the +contrary, I am afraid we may include poor Nina) died. To put a term to +this fearful evil, the villagers were advised by their Heyduke, who had +had before some experience in such matters, to disinter the body of +Arnod Paole. This step was accordingly taken _forty days after his +burial_. + +"The body," says the report, "was found in a perfectly fresh state, with +no sign of decomposition. Fresh blood had recently escaped from its +mouth, with which its shirt was wet. The skin (the epidermis, no doubt) +had separated together with the nails, and there were new skin and nails +underneath. As it was perfectly clear from these signs that he was a +vampyr, conformably to the use established in such cases, they drove a +stake through his heart. + +"Whereupon he gave an audible groan, and a quantity of blood flowed from +him. The same day his body was burned to ashes, which were returned to +the grave." + +The authorities further staked and burned the bodies of the four others, +who were supposed to have been infected by Arnod: but no mention is +made of the condition in which they were found. + +The adoption of this decisive, measure did not, however, entirely +extinguish the evil, which continued still to hang about the village. +About five years afterwards it had again become rife and very prevalent, +and many again died of it. Whereupon the authorities determined to make +a general clearance of the vampyrs in the churchyard of Meduegna, and +for that purpose they had all the graves to which suspicion was +directed, opened, and their contents dealt with conformably to the state +in which they were found, of which the following is the medical report, +here and there _abridged_ only:-- + +1. A woman of the name of Stana, 20 years of age, who had died 3 months +before of a 3 days' illness following her confinement. She had before +her death avowed that she had anointed herself with the blood of a +vampyr, to liberate herself from his persecution. Nevertheless she, as +well as her infant, whose body through careless interment had been +half-eaten by dogs, both had died. Her body was entirely free from +decomposition. On opening it, the chest was found full of recently +effused blood. The heart and blood-vessels contained no coagulated +blood, and the bowels had exactly the appearances of sound health. The +skin and nails of the hands and feet were loose and came off, but +underneath lay new skin and nails. + +2. A woman of the name of Miliza, who had died at the end of a 3 months' +illness. The body had been buried 90 and odd days. In the chest was +liquid blood. The viscera were as in the former instance. The body was +declared by the Heydukes who recognised it, to be in better condition +and fatter than it had been in the woman's legitimate lifetime. + +3. The body of a child of 8 years old, that had likewise been buried 90 +days; it was in the vampyr condition. + +4. The son of a Heyduke, named Milloc 16 years old. The body had lain in +the grave 9 weeks. He had died after 3 days' indisposition, and was in +the condition of a vampyr. + +5. Joachim, likewise a Heyduke's son, 17 years old. He had died after a +3 days' illness; had been buried 8 weeks and 4 days; was found in the +vampyr state. + +6. A woman of the name of Rusha, who had died of an illness of 10 days' +duration, and had been buried 6 weeks, in whom likewise fresh blood was +found in the chest. + +[The reader will understand, that to see blood in the chest it is first +necessary to _cut_ the chest open.] + +7. The body of a girl of 10 years of age, who had died 2 months before. +It was likewise in the vampyr state, perfectly undecomposed, with blood +in the chest. + +8. The body of the wife of one Hadnuck, buried 7 weeks before; and that +of her infant, 8 weeks old, buried only 21 days. They were both in a +state of decomposition, though buried in the same ground, and closely +adjoining the others. + +9. A servant of the Heyduke of the place, by name Rhade, 23 years old; +he had died after an illness of 3 months' duration, and the body had +been buried 5 weeks. It was in a state of decomposition. + +10. The body of the Heyduke Stanco, 60 years of age, who had died six +weeks before: there was much blood and other fluid in the chest and +abdomen, and the body was in the vampyr condition. + +11. Milloc, a Heyduke, 25 years old. The body had been in the earth 6 +weeks. It was in the perfect vampyr condition. + +12. Stanjoika, the wife of a Heyduke, 20 years old; had died after an +illness of three days, and had been buried 18 days. The countenance was +florid, and of a high colour. There was blood in the chest and in the +heart. The viscera were perfectly sound. The skin remarkably fresh. + +The document which gives these particulars is signed by three regimental +surgeons, and formally countersigned by the lieutenant-colonel and a +sub-lieutenant, it bears the date of June 7, 1732, Meduegna near +Belgrade. No doubt can be entertained of its authenticity, nor of its +_general_ fidelity; the less so, that it does not stand alone, but is +supported by heaps of parallel evidence, only less rigorously +verifiable. It appears to me to establish beyond a question, that, +where the fear and belief of vampyrism is prevailing, and there occur +several deaths after short illnesses, the bodies, when disinterred, +weeks after burial, present the appearance of corpses, from which life +has only recently departed. + +What inference shall we draw from this fact?--that vampyrism is true in +the popular sense, and that these fresh-looking and well-conditioned +corpses had some mysterious way of preternaturally nourishing +themselves? That would be to adopt, not to solve the superstition. Let +us content ourselves for the present with a notion less monstrous, but +still startling enough: That the bodies, which were found in the +so-called vampyr state, instead of being in a new and mystical +condition, were simply alive in the common way; that, in short, they +were the bodies of persons who had been buried alive; and whose life was +only extinguished by the ignorance and barbarity of those who +disinterred them. In the following sketch of a similar scene to that +above described, the truth of this inference comes out with terrific +force and vividness. + +Erasmus Francisi, in his remarks upon the description of the Archdukedom +of Krain, by Valvasor, speaks of a man of the name of Grando, in the +district of Kring, who died, was buried, and became a vampyr, and as +such was exhumed for the purpose of having a stake thrust through him. + +"When they opened his grave, after he had been long buried, his face was +found with a colour, and his features made natural sorts of movements, +as if the dead man smiled. He even opened his mouth, as if he would +inhale fresh air. They held the crucifix before him, and called in a +loud voice, 'See, this is Jesus Christ who redeemed your soul from hell, +and died for you.' After the sound had acted on his organs of hearing, +and he had connected, perhaps, some ideas with it, tears began to flow +from the dead man's eyes. Finally, when, after a short prayer for his +poor soul, they proceeded to hack off his head, the corpse uttered a +screech, and turned and rolled just as if it had been alive, and the +grave was full of blood." + +Alive, then, the bodies surely were. And it is from this position, as a +starting point, that we must follow and unravel the whole mystery, _if +we dare_. + +Not that there is any particular virulence in this superstition, but +that all superstitions are awkward things to deal with. They have their +own laws, and run through definite stages, but always menace those who +meddle with them. A superstition waxes and flourishes--that is its first +stage; it then wanes in public opinion, is discredited, and is declared +obsolete; that is stage the second. Eventually comes more enlightenment; +its wonders are again admitted, but explained; the false in it separated +from the true; this is its third and last period. And it may be +remarked, that society is never safe against the reproduction of a +superstition, till it has gone through this third stage (analogous to +the disinterment and dissection of a vampyr); till then, it is always +capable of "walking" again. But, which is singular, to the end the +operation of explaining a superstition is unsafe, that is to say, if you +step a quarter of an inch before the sagacious nose of the public. Of +course, if any one should attempt to explain away a flourishing +superstition, he would encounter, not martyrdom, perhaps, any more, but +the persecution of opinion certainly, and the ban of society. But if he +ventures upon the same process, even with one that is already put down, +he is liable to be viewed and attacked as a credulous person, disposed +to revive forgotten rubbish; for he has unwittingly affronted public +opinion by asserting that to be worth examining, which society had +proclaimed an error. Doubly wo to him if his explanation contain some +startling novelty! But, courage! again,-- + +The bodies disinterred and found in the so-called vampyr state, were +then alive. + +But how could they, you ask, be alive after an interment of days or +weeks? How is it possible they could lie without air, boxed up in a +manner which would certainly kill a strong and healthy person in a few +minutes or hours, and yet retain their vitality? I will not bring +forward as favourable cases in point, the instances of frogs and toads +that have been discovered in rocks, where they must have been encased +for years or centuries, alive: first, because, although they are true, +you might equally question these; secondly, because a human being cannot +compete in vitality with a cold-blooded reptile. I shall content myself +with falling back upon the evidence already adduced. The disinterred +bodies _proved_, by their appearance, some even by their behaviour, that +they were alive; and I shall retort upon you the question, how came you +not to know that bodies could live under such circumstances a +considerable length of time, and that many cases have transpired in +which, totally _apart from vampyrism_, bodies have been found turned +over in the coffin, through efforts made by them, when, after their +burial, they had unhappily recovered consciousness? + +But what, then, was the pathological condition in which these persons +continued to exist, after they had ceased to appear alive? + +It is just one of the profitable results of examining the superstition +before us, that the above question becomes explicitly propounded, and +its solution demanded of physiologists. Its solution cannot fail of +being full of interest, but it is yet, unluckily, a desideratum, or, +like the principle which gives motion to the divining rod, as yet only +indicated and partially outlined. + +What is wanted is direct scientific examination, and verification by +competent persons, of all the phenomena the body presents in these +strange circumstances. In the absence, however, of recorded observation, +let us imagine how the thing might come about. + +The series of effects surmised would not begin in the heart; analogy +leads us to suppose that primary interruption of the heart's action for +a very brief period is fatal. Somewhere in the Indian seas, death is +inflicted by a backward blow with the elbow on the region of the heart; +a sudden angina is produced, which is promptly fatal. Neither, upon +similar showing, can it commence in obstructed breathing. Then the +commencement of the changes must be sought in the brain. Now it is +analogically by no means very improbable, that the functions of the +nervous system admit of being brought to a complete stand-still, the +wheels of the machinery locking, as it were, of a sudden, through some +influence directly exerted upon _it_, and that this state of interrupted +function should continue for a very considerable period, without loss of +power of recovery. Nor would it be contrary to analogy that such an +arrest of activity in the nervous system should stop, more or less +completely, the act of breathing and the action of the heart, without at +the same time the consequences following which result from either of +these changes, _when they are primary_. The heart, when _not acting by +order_, need not be supposed to lose its contractile force and tendency. +The blood, though not moving, being in contact with living vessels, need +not coagulate. There is no physiological absurdity in supposing such a +general arrest of function, originating in the nervous system, and +continuing an indefinite period without life being extinguished. If a +swimmer be taken with cramp and sink, he is irretrievably dead in five +minutes. But if he sink from a fit of epilepsy, he may remain a longer +time under water, yet recover. But epilepsy is a form of loss of +consciousness beginning in the nervous system--a kind of fit which may, +under certain circumstances, be thus preservative of life. So may we +presume, that in the singular cases we are considering, the body is but +in another and deeper fit, which suspends the vital phenomena, and +reduces its vitality to that of the unincubated egg, to simple life, +without change, without waste or renewal. The body does not putrefy, +because it is alive; it does not waste or require nourishment, because +every action is stilled within it. + +But this must be a dull subject of speculation for you, and your mind is +perhaps wandering thence to more practical views. It has struck you +possibly, not without an uncomfortable misgiving, that this obscure, but +unpleasant event may happen to yourself, and what on earth is there to +prevent _your_ being buried alive? + +If you wish individually to be as safe as possible, leave by will to +some eminent surgeon, not your habitual attendant, £50, and his railway +expenses, &c., to be paid him for opening your body, when you are +certainly dead; £25 if he opens you, finds you alive, and succeeds in +sewing you up, and keeping you so; £200, on the contrary, to be expended +in indicting him for manslaughter if you die under his hands. I do not +venture to affirm that with all these precautions you would be perfectly +safe. The eminent Vesalius, surgeon, and a favourite of the Emperor +Charles V., with all his experience and knowledge, was unlucky enough to +open a Spanish nobleman by mistake, while he was yet alive. The +consequences, no doubt, were more serious than they would be now. +Vesalius hardly escaped the claws of the Inquisition, and died during +his expiatory pilgrimage to the Holy Land. + +If, more comprehensively, you should wish to save others, as well as +yourself, from this awful risk, and have a friend in the legislature, +urge him, or otherwise Mr Wakley, to move for the insertion in any +convenient bill a clause to appoint in every district a qualified +officer to license burials; he had better not be a practising doctor, +but his office might embrace necroscopic inquiries for the coroner, and +the registrarship of births and deaths. + +In either case, I would recommend you to offer publicly a premium of +£500, to be paid at the expiration of three years, for the best treatise +upon the signs of death; the same being calculated to form a useful body +of instruction, as yet wanting, either for your private surgeon, or the +new officials. + +In England, indeed, our decent respect for the dead, which leads us to +postpone interment as long as possible, is a tolerable security against +being buried alive. The coffin is seldom closed upon the remains, before +decomposition has already commenced. _That_ is death's certain seal; +nor, in the present state of our knowledge, special cases of course +excepted, is it right to consider life surely extinct, till the impress +of that seal is perceptible to the senses. + +On the Continent, generally, the interval observed before burial is far +too short for safety. They calculate that in France from twenty to +thirty are annually interred alive, computing from the number of those +who, after supposed death, come to life before the funeral is completed. +I cannot help imagining that this seeming death must be much less +frequent in England than in some other countries; (is that owing to the +more vigorous practice for which English medical men are celebrated, +they either cure or kill?) In Germany, interment is forbidden by law for +three days after death. And there is a curious and humane provision in +the grave-houses attached to the cemeteries of some of the principal +towns: Bodies which are brought too soon, not having performed the three +days' quarantine, are received and lodged, being disposed upon tressles, +with rings on their toes and fingers which are attached to bell-pulls. +The corpse thus, on coming to itself, may have immediate attendance +merely by ringing for it; some one is always there on the watch. But the +humanity of this arrangement, though perfect as long as it lasts, is +finite in duration. As soon as the seventy-two hours prescribed by law +are expired, it is another thing. The body is then legally dead, and +must comport itself accordingly. At any rate, it is at its own risk if +it behaves otherwise than as a corpse, and gives itself any airs of +vitality. This is appalling enough, and would certainly justify any +body, if it could, in getting out at nights and turning vampyr. + +And now, to return again to our inquiry. We have got thus far. The +bodies found in the so-called vampyr state are alive. They are in a sort +of fit, the possible duration of which is undetermined. The same fit may +occur, and does occur continually, with no reference to the superstition +of vampyrism. But where the belief in vampyrism is rife, these fits are +more prevalent, and spread sometimes like an epidemic. + +The question naturally follows, how is this malady, viewing it as one in +these cases, propagated? + +At such seasons, it is far from improbable that there is some physical +cause in operation, some meteorological influence perhaps, electrical or +otherwise, disposing the system to be a readier prey to the seizure. As +certain constitutions of the year alter the blood and lead to fever or +cholera, why should not others render the nervous system irritable and +proner to derangement? + +Then it is well known that fright will bring on certain kinds of +fits--in women hysteric fits, in the youth of either sex epileptic fits; +and certainly no ghastlier terror can there be than the accredited +apprehension of vampyrism. And it deserves remark, that impressions upon +the mind are known to be capable of shaping particular kinds of fits, +and especially of exciting and determining the features of sensorial +illusions, that seem adjuvants in vampyrism. + +We are able to creep yet a step nearer to the mark. There is great +reason to believe that some human beings have had the power of throwing +themselves into the state of seeming death, _voluntarily_. In Gooch's +surgical works, there is an account of a Colonel Townsend, who asserted +this of himself, and challenged Gooch to witness the performance. And +you may read in the narrative of Gooch, how he and two or three other +competent witnesses saw Colonel Townsend dispose himself to favour the +invasion of this fit, and how he gradually fell into a state apparently +devoid of animation. A very few years ago there was a story in the +papers of a native in India, who undertook for a reward to do the same +feat, and to allow himself to be buried for a stipulated period. A +gentleman, certainly not of a credulous turn in general, told me he was +in India at the time with his regiment; and, though not on the spot, +that he knew the parties who brought the conjuror to work; and that he +believed they positively buried him, and, at the end of the time agreed +upon, disinterred him, and found him alive. But be _this_ story true or +false, the case of Colonel Townsend remains to show the thing asserted +to have been possible--and this remark may be safely added: Whatever +change of the kind the will can bring about, can be twice as readily +wrought by fear or a disturbed imagination. + +You are, I hope, or fear rather, by this time satiated with the +marvellous and with the subject. What!--yet another question? Ay. How +came this superstition to arise? + +The answer is ready. In those days the belief in ghosts was absolute, +and a vampyr was a sort of ghost. When an ignorant person, that is, when +any one in those days became the subject of a sensorial illusion +representing a human being, to a certainty he identified the creation of +his fancy as somebody he had seen or heard of; then he would tell his +acquaintances that the ghost of such a person haunted him. If the fright +brought on a fit, or seemed to cause his death, the neighbours would +remember how he had before been haunted. Then, in any case, what more +natural than to disinter the body of a supposed visitant, to know why he +is unquiet in the grave? Then, if once a body so disinterred were found +in the fresh and undecomposed state, the whole delusion would start into +existence. The violence used would force blood from the corpse; and that +would be construed into the blood of a victim. The absence of a scar on +the throat of the victim, would throw no difficulty in the way to the +vampyr theory, because vampyrs enjoyed the ghostly character, and all +its privileges. Supposing, again, that at any time chance had brought to +light a body interred alive, and lying still in this fit, the whole yarn +of superstition might again have been spun from that clue. + +Do you want more than this? I shall begin to think you at heart +superstitious. I tell you it is contrary to the rules of inductive +logic, to look for, or to use more principles than are sufficient for +the reasonable explanation of phenomena. Yet you urge, do you, that it +is no less unphilosophical, in an obscure and unsettled inquiry, wholly +to exclude the consideration of unlikely possibilities?--Well! it is +nothing to me. Have it your own way: suppose, if you like, that the man +in the grave _had_ something to do with spreading the disease, and that +his nervous system, in its abnormal state, could put itself in relation +with that of another person at a distance. If you like it, have it so. +In one sense, it simplifies the matter. But though I cannot deny your +supposition to be possible, you will excuse me if I profess to hold the +solution, which I have myself given, to be sufficient. + +Well! _there_ is an end of the subject, at all events; and I accept your +thanks for having told you all I know about vampyrism. I deserve them +more than you are aware. At the churchyard in Meduegna, my dear Archy, I +had you thoroughly in my power. I saw how your curiosity was raised, and +that an picture I had drawn would have been accepted by you with +avidity; and I must confess it did at one moment occur to me, to +describe to you the exact dress and deportment of the three regimental +surgeons, or Feldscherers, (a handsome word signifying field-barbers), +John Flickinger, Isaac Stegel, and John Fredrick Baumgartner, as well as +the behaviour and remarks of a drummer boy, who held the instrument case +during the _intermortem_ examination, an event he witnessed for the +first time. But I would not abuse my advantage; so I let you off cheaply +with the sole fabrication of Nina, and the personal characteristics of +Arnod Paole, of whom unfortunately nothing has come down to posterity, +but that he was haunted by a vampyr at Cossova, fell from a hay-cart at +Meduegna, and died, and lived a vampyr himself. + + I remain, dear Archy, + Yours, &c. + MAC DAVUS. + + +LETTER III. + + +SPIRITS, GOBLINS, GHOSTS. + +Dear Archy.--On what subject shall I next address you? Elves, goblins, +ghosts, real and unreal; dreams, witchcraft, second-sight? Bless me! the +field of marvels seems more thronged, as I approach it closer. The +spirits I have evoked begin to scare me with their numbers. How on earth +shall I ever get them fairly laid? But some, I see, can now only limp +along--they are scotched already; I will begin with finishing these. Yet +they deserve gentle treatment. They sprang from our nature, which seems +expressly made to procreate and rear them. Thick, within and around us, +lie the rich veins of illusive suggestion from which they spring. + +The thing nearest us is our mental constitution, the world of +consciousness. It is of it we first learn, though it be the last we +understand. It is that through which we perceive and apprehend all other +things; and nothing becomes part of our knowledge but as it has been +shaped and coloured by its magic reflexion. Nay, more, it is not only +our mirror but our archetype for every thing. So we spiritualise the +material universe, and afterwards, by an incongruous consistency, +anthropomorphise spirit. + +Reason in vain reclaims against this misuse of analogy. Feeling, +imagination, instinct are too many for her; and any mood, from fun to +earnest, from nonsense to sublimity, may hear a responsive note when +this chord is touched. + +Address to that ingenuous young American a remark upon the slightness of +the legs of her work-table,--she blushes--her lively fancy has given +them personality. Were she a wealthier miss, she would give them, +besides, neat cambric trowsers with lace borders. With less refinement, +and with inexcusable warmth, I take shame to myself for having bestowed +a kick upon a similar mahogany limb, which had, however, begun the +contest by breaking my shin. + +To the poet's eye, nature is instinct with life. Greece may be "living +Greece no more"--in the soul of her people; but her immortal plains, and +streams, and hills have their own vitality. + + "The mountains _look_ on Marathon, + And Marathon _looks_ on the sea." + +You go to visit them; they meet you half-way: "spectatum veniunt." + +Amid the Alps--with glacier, torrent, forest around--you still evoke +the fancied spirit of the scene, though it be but + + "To gaze upon her beauty--nothing more." + +And where, in sublimer grandeur, snowclad, upreared against the nearer +sun, are seen the towering Andes; to the poet's eye, the Cordillera lies +no huge backbone of earth; but lives, a Rhoetus or Enceladus of the +West, and + + "over earth, air, wave, + Glares with his Titan eye." + +This is but the calm, the dignified, the measured march of poetical +conception. No wonder, when superstition steps in to prick on +imagination, that all should vividly team with spirit life. Or that on +Walpurgis' night, bush and streamlet and hill bustle and hurry, with +unequal pace, towards the haunted Brocken: the heavy ones lag, indeed, a +little, and are out of breath-- + + "The giant-snouted crags, ho! ho! + How they snort and how they blow!" + +No wonder that to the dreamer's eye, in tranquil scenes of sylvan +solitude the fawn of yore skipped in the forest dell, the dryad peeped +from behind the shadowy oak, the fay tripped lightly over the moonlit +sward. + +But enough, and too much, of "your philosophy." Yet there are those +still who may be the wiser for it. Let me sketch you a believer in the +creed it would dispel. + +He was a Spanish West-Indian--in his active years had been an extensive +planter and slave-owner in Porto Rico. His manners were grave and +dignified, as due to himself; courteous, as not denying equal or +superior worth in others. He had seen the world, and spoke of it +habitually with a fine irony. We had many a walk together. He was +nervous about his health. One day, as our path lay along the banks of +the Rhine, his conversation took this turn:-- + +"Do you believe in spirits?" he asked me; and upon my intimating the +polite but qualified assent which suited the tone in which the question +was put--"It may be superstition," he continued, "but I am often +inclined to think that the pucks and goblins, which, as they say, once +haunted these scenes, are not entirely visionary beings. You may +smile--but this has happened, nay, often, happens, to me in my walks. I +see a big clod before me in the path, and form the intention of avoiding +it; when close to it, I step to one side, when pr-r-rt, my toe strikes +against it." + +I edged slightly away from my companion with the disagreeable impression +that he was gone mad. + +He went on;--"When I lived in the West Indies, the children of the +slaves, about my house, were treated with great kindness and indulgence. +They would come about my table at dessert, and often had little presents +given them. So they grew into objects of affection. But, out of several, +some, of course, took ill and died. I cannot tell you what grief it +caused me. Then this has happened several times, after the death of one +or other of my little favourites:--a bird has flown into the hall, and +into my sitting-room, and has hovered near me, and, after a while, has +flown away. For a few days it has regularly returned, and then finally +disappeared. I thought it was tenanted by the spirit of my lost +favourite, which had come to bid me farewell." + +I drew nearer again to my companion. I felt I was in all events safe +from violence from him. And I contrasted, with humiliation, his +beautiful superstition with the commonplace remembrance of a school-boy +conviction of my own, one dark night, upon Blackheath, that a +direction-post was a ghost. + +My friend had not, indeed, always been a dreamer: and although this is +no place to narrate his course of daring and hazardous adventure, on +which I am therefore silent, yet I wish to be allowed to re-establish +his credit for intelligence, by reporting the answer which he made, on +another occasion, to a question, as to what he thought of the +emancipation of the Negroes in our colonies. "The principle," answered +my friend, "was good, but you were in too great a hurry. Before giving +them freedom, you should have made them fit for it. They were not +impatient. Slavery is an African institution. Some outlay of public +money, and extreme care and prudence in your measures, would have +enabled you to secure their humane treatment in the interval. As fast +as they became innoculated with the wants and habits of civilised life, +you might have made _freedmen_ of the most advanced, and given them +official occupation, or allotted them land under proper conditions. One +sheep would have followed another. The fag-end you might have +emancipated together. Thirty or forty years, and a million of money, +would have done the thing. The results would have been, from first to +last, beneficial to the colonists. It would have set an example which +other nations _could_ have followed. It would have been a noble return +for having, temporarily, used the race as unmitigated slaves. It would +have been an act of enlightened philanthropy. It would have become +statesmen. What you did reads and works like the puerile suggestion of a +school-boy's theme. What you are further doing, to suppress, by force, +the trade in slaves, would have been worthy my distinguished countryman +whose biography has immortalised Cervantes. Humanity would smile at it, +but that she shudders and sickens." + +But, to leave the region of dreams, which are no longer realisable, let +us shift the scene. + +The churchyard has its nightly terrors. One heard of corpse-lights seen +dancing over graves--but over some alone. A few only had witnessed this; +but _they_ had no doubt on the matter. Things looked "uncanny;" but time +did not pause, and the story was forgotten. Even when the tale was +fresh, what was it but superstition? Who of those who hugged its +sympathetic terrors by the Christmas fireside, thought they could be +true on the bright frosty morning of the morrow? It was mere fancy. +There was nothing in it. Yet there _was_ something. And now and then a +striking and mysterious event would occur to bring back the old idea. +There was a cottage, (this I heard of a certainty,) in a hamlet I could +name, to which a bad report attached. A room in it was haunted. More +than one who had slept there had seen, at midnight, the luminous +apparition of a little child standing upon the hearth-stone. At length +suspicion became active. The hearth-stone was raised, and there were +found, buried beneath it, the remains of an infant. A story was now +divulged, how the former tenant and a female of the neighbourhood had, a +very few years before, abruptly left the village. The apparition here +was real and significant enough. + + "It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood. + Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak: + Augurs and understood relations have, + By magot-pyes, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth + The secret'st man of blood." + +But tales like these, though true, gradually lose the sharpness of their +evidence for want of an accredited contemporary narrator, and so become +valueless. But time brings round every thing. + +And at length a marvellous narrative, to the same effect with the above, +made its appearance in a trustworthy German work, _P. Kieffer's +Archives_, the complete authentication of which caused it to make a deep +impression. The narrative was communicated by Herr Ehrman of Strasburg, +the son-in-law of the well-known German writer Pfeffel, from whom he +received it. + +The ghost-seer was a young candidate for orders, eighteen years of age, +of the name of Billing. He was known to have very excitable nerves,--had +already experienced sensorial illusions, and was particularly sensitive +to the presence of human remains, which made him tremble and shudder in +all his limbs. Pfeffel, being blind, was accustomed to take the arm of +this young man, and they walked thus together in Pfeffel's garden, near +Colmar. At one spot in the garden Pfeffel remarked, that his companion's +arm gave a sudden start, as if he had received an electric shock. Being +asked what was the matter, Billing replied, "nothing." But, on their +going over the same spot again, the same effect recurred. The young man +being pressed to explain the cause of his disturbance, avowed that it +arose from a peculiar sensation which he always experienced when in the +vicinity of human remains; that it was his impression a human body must +be interred there; but that if Pfeffel would return with him at night, +he should be able to speak with more confidence. Accordingly, they went +to the garden together when it was dark, and as they approached the +spot, Billing observed a faint light over it. At two paces from it, he +stopped and would go no further; for he saw hovering over it, or +self-supported in the air, its feet only a few inches from the ground, a +luminous female figure, nearly five feet high, with the right arm folded +on her breast, the left hanging by her side. When Pfeffel himself +stepped forward and placed himself about where the figure was, Billing +said it was now on his right hand, now on his left, now behind, now +before him. When Pfeffel cut the air with his stick, it seemed as if it +went through and divided a light flame, which then united again. The +visit, repeated the next night, in company with some of Pfeffel's +relatives, gave the same result. _They_ did not see any thing. Pfeffel, +then, unknown to the ghost-seer, had the ground dug up, when there was +found at some depth, beneath a layer of quicklime, a decomposing human +body. The remains were removed, and the earth carefully replaced. Three +days afterwards, Billing, from whom this whole proceeding had been kept +concealed, was again led to the spot by Pfeffel. He walked over it now +without experiencing any unusual impression whatever. + +This extraordinary phenomenon, it is now generally known, has been +completely elucidated through the discoveries of Von Reichenbach, to +which, in a former letter, I had occasion to make allusion. + +You are probably aware, that the individuals whose nerves Von +Reichenbach found to be so sensitive to the proximity of crystals, +magnets, &c., would, in the dark, see flames issuing from the same +substances. Then, in the progress of his inquiries, Von Reichenbach +found that chemical decomposition was a rich source of the new power he +had discovered, by its action on the nerves. And being acquainted with +the story of the ghost in Pfeffel's garden at Colmar, it occurred to him +as not unlikely, that Billing had just been in the same condition with +his own sensitive patients, and that graves very likely would present to +all of them a luminous _aura_; and that thus the mystery might find a +very simple explanation. + +Accordingly, Miss Reichel, one of his most sensitive subjects, was taken +at night to an extensive burying-ground, near Vienna, where many +interments take place daily, and there were some thousand graves. The +result did not disappoint Von Reichenbach's expectations. Whithersoever +Miss Reichel turned her eyes, she saw masses of flame. This appearance +manifested itself most about recent graves. About very old ones it was +not visible. She described the appearance as resembling less bright +flame than fiery vapour, something between fog and flame. In several +instances, the light extended four feet in height above the ground. When +Miss Reichel placed her hand in it, it seemed to her involved in a cloud +of fire. When she stood in it, it came up to her throat. She expressed +no alarm, being accustomed to the appearance. + +The mystery has thus been entirely solved. For it is evident that the +spectral character of the luminous apparition in the two instances I +have narrated had been supplied by the imagination of the seers. So the +superstition has vanished, leaving, as is usual, a very respectable +truth behind it. + +It is indeed a little unlucky for this new truth, which reveals either a +new power in nature or an unexpected operation of familiar ones, that +the phenomena which attest it are verifiable by a few only who are +possessed of highly sensitive temperaments. And it is the use of the +world to look upon these few as very suspicious subjects. This is +unjust. Their evidence, the parties having otherwise a character for +honesty, should be accepted with the same faith and the same distrust +with which all evidence is to be viewed; with neither more nor less than +in other cases. Nothing should be received in scientific inquiry which +it is not compulsory on our understanding to believe. It is not a whit +more difficult in these than in other cases to obtain inductive +certainty. Nature is not here peculiarly coy or averse from being +interrogated. + +Philosophers occasionally regret the limited number of their senses, and +think a world of knowledge would flow from their possessing but one +more. Now, persons of highly-wrought nervous systems have what is +equivalent to a new sense, in their augmentation of natural sensibility. +But philosophers will not accept this equivalent. They must have the +boon from nature their own way, or not at all. + +To turn elsewhere.--We may now look into a broader seam of illusive +power--one which lies entirely within ourselves, and needs no objective +influence to bring its ghost-producing fertility into play. Let me +exemplify it in operation. + +A young gentleman, who has recently left Oxford, told me, that he was +one evening at a supper-party in college, when they were joined by a +common friend on his return from hunting. They expected him, but were +struck with his appearance. He was pale and agitated. On questioning +him, they learned the cause. During the latter part of his ride home, he +had been accompanied by a horseman, who kept exact pace with him, the +rider and horse being facsimiles of himself and the steed he rode, even +to the copy of a newfangled bit he sported that day for the first time. +The apparition vanished on his entering the town. He had, in fact, seen +his double or fetch, and it had shaken his nerves pretty considerably. +His friends advised him to consult the college tutor, who failed not to +give him some good advice, and hoped the warning would not be thrown +away. My informant, who thought the whole matter very serious, and was +disposed to believe the unearthly visit to have been no idle one, added, +that it _had_ made the ghost-seer, for the time at all events, a wiser +and better man. + +In more ignorant times, the appearance of one's fetch was held to be of +very alarming import, and to menace either death or serious personal +harm. Now, it is known to be one of the commonest forms in which +_sensorial illusions_ shape themselves. And these are matters of +every-day occurrence. + +It would seem, that when the blood is heated or the nervous system +over-strained, we are liable to attach reality to the mere productions +of the imagination. There must be few who have not had personal +experience of this affection. In the first night of a febrile attack, +and often in the progress of fever, the bed-hangings appear to the +patient swarming with human faces, generally of a disagreeable and +menacing expression. With some, opium will produce a host of similar +visitants. In much illness, I have often myself taken this drug, and +always hoped it would provide me a crop of apparitions that I might +analyse. But I was disappointed; opium I found to give me only a great +tranquillity and clearness of thought. Once or twice only have I had a +vision, and that but a transitory landscape. I used in vain to look upon +that _black mixture_ which lies before one in the dark, and try to make +its fragmentary lights arrange themselves into definite shapes. And I +have imaged to my mind familiar scenes or faces, (as in the daytime a +strong conception will half realise such,) but they were not more +distinct then than formerly,--ideas only and perfectly transient. But, +as I have said, once or twice I have had the satisfaction of seeing a +bright and coloured landscape spread before my view; yet unlike reality, +and more resembling a diorama, occupying a rectangle on the black +mixture before my eyes. It was not a known and familiar scene, but a +brilliant sketch, made out of materials I remembered, but could not by a +deliberate effort _have combined_ so effectively. It was a spontaneous +throe of the imagination, which had force to overpersuade the organs of +perception. + +How well did Shakspeare understand this creative power of the +fancy!--the air-drawn dagger of Macbeth, and his test--"come, let me +clutch thee!" are physiologically perfect. Nor less perfect or true to +nature, is the conception of the ghost of Banquo haunting the kingly +murderer. The ghost, it is obvious, however, should not in the play +appear bodily. The audience are in the position of the guests at the +royal supper-table, who saw it not. I wonder how in Shakspeare's time +the stage-directions ran upon this point. Probably as now. Though +Shakspeare wrote for all times, he was probably wise enough to act for +the present. Or perhaps, with no disrespect to his unequalled genius, he +understood not the principles of which he exactly portrayed the +workings, and was, like Shelley's poet, + + "Hidden in the light of thought." + +So, some say the sun may be dark as another planet; and that the spots +on it are its common earth seen through the gaps in its luminous +atmosphere. + +To the world, the alpha and omega of this piece of philosophy were +furnished by the publication of the case of Nicolai, the bookseller of +Berlin. Its details were read before the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, +in 1799. The _substance_ ran thus. Nicolai had had some family troubles +which much annoyed him. Then, on the 21st of February 1791, there stood +before him, at the distance of ten paces, the ghost of his eldest son. +He pointed at it, directing his wife to look. She saw it not, and tried +to convince him that it was an illusion. In a quarter of an hour it +vanished. In the afternoon, at four o'clock, it came again. Nicolai was +alone. He went to his wife's room--the ghost followed him. About six +other apparitions joined the first, and they walked about, among, and +through each other. After some days the apparition of his son stayed +away; but its place was filled with the figures of a number of persons, +some known, some unknown to Nicolai--some of dead, others of living +persons. The known ones were distant acquaintances only. The figures of +none of Nicolai's habitual friends were there. The appearances were +almost always human: exceptionally, a man on horseback, with dogs and +birds would present themselves. The apparitions came mostly after +dinner, at the commencement of digestion. They were just like real +persons; the colouring a thought fainter. The apparitions were equally +distinct whether Nicolai was alone or in society, by day as in the dark, +in his own house or those of others; but in the latter case they were +less frequent, and they very seldom presented themselves in the streets. +During the first eight days they seemed to take very little notice of +each other, but walked about like people at a fair, only here and there +communing with each other. They took no notice of Nicolai, or of his +remarks about them to his wife and physician. No effort of his would +dismiss them, or bring an absent one back. When he shut his eyes, they +sometimes disappeared, sometimes remained; when he opened his eyes, they +were there as before. After a week they became more numerous, and began +to converse. They conversed with each other, and then addressed him. +Their remarks were short and unconnected, but sensible and civil. His +acquaintances inquired after his health, and expressed sympathy for him, +and spoke in terms comforting him. The apparitions were most conversible +when he was alone; nevertheless they mingled in the conversation when +others were by, and their voices had the same sound as those of real +persons. This illusion went on thus from the 24th of February to the +20th of April; so that Nicolai, who was in good bodily health, had time +to become tranquillised about them, and to observe them at his ease. At +last they rather amused him. Then the doctors thought of an efficient +plan of treatment. They prescribed leeches: and then followed the +_denouement_ to this interesting representation. The apparitions became +pale and vanished. On the 20th of April, at the time of applying the +leeches, Nicolai's room was full of figures moving about among each +other. They first began to have a less lively motion; shortly afterwards +their colours became paler--in another half hour fainter still, though +the forms still remained. About seven o'clock in the evening, the +figures had became colourless, and they moved scarcely at all, but their +outline was still tolerably perfect. Gradually that became less and less +defined. At last they disappeared, breaking into air, fragments only +remaining, which at last all vanished. By eight o'clock all were gone, +and Nicolai subsequently saw no more of them. + +Other cases are on record in which there was still greater facility of +ghost-production than Nicolai evinced. One patient could, for instance, +by thinking of a person, summon his apparition to join the others. He +could not, however, having done this, subsequently banish him. The sight +is the sense most easily and frequently tricked; next, the hearing. In +some extraordinary cases the touch, also, has participated in the +delusion. + +Herr von Baczko, already subject to visual hallucinations, of a diseased +nervous system, his right side weak with palsy, his right eye blind, and +the vision of the left imperfect, was engaged one evening, shortly after +the battle of Jena, as he tells us in his autobiography, in translating +a brochure into Polish, when he felt a poke in his loins. He looked +round, and found that it proceeded from a Negro or Egyptian boy, +seemingly about twelve years of age. Although he was persuaded the whole +was an illusion, he thought it best to knock the apparition down, when +he felt that it offered a sensible resistance. The Negro then attacked +him on the other side, and gave his left arm a particularly disagreeable +twist, when Baczko pushed him off again. The Negro continued to visit +him constantly during four months, preserving the same appearance, and +remaining tangible; then he came seldomer; and, after finally appearing +as a brown-coloured apparition with an owl's head, he took his leave. + +The illusion and its principle having been thus elucidated, it is hardly +worth while to look into its operation in tales of vulgar terror. But it +is highly interesting to trace its effects on minds of a high order, +when its suggestions have been received and interpreted as the visits +and communications of superior beings. You have heard, I dare say, my +dear Archy, of the mysticism of Schwedenborg. Now that they are +explained, the details of his hallucinations are highly gratifying to +one's curiosity. + +Schwedenborg, the son of a Swedish clergyman of the name of Schwedberg, +ennobled as Schwedenborg, was, up to the year 1743, which was the +fifty-fourth of his age, an ordinary man of the world, distinguished +only in literature, having written many volumes of philosophy and +science, and being Professor in the Mineralogical school, where he was +much respected. On a sudden, in the year 1743, he believed himself to +have got into a commerce with the world of spirits, which so fully took +possession of his thoughts, that he not only published their +revelations, but was in the habit of detailing, with the greatest +equanimity, his daily chat with them. Thus he says, "I had a +conversation the other day on that very point with the Apostle Paul," or +with Luther, or some other dead person. Schwedenborg continued in what +he believed to be daily communion with spirits till his death, in 1772. +He was, without doubt, in the fullest degree convinced of the reality of +his spiritual commerce. So in a letter to the Wirtemburg prelate, +Oetinger, dated November 11, 1766, he uses the following words:--"If I +have spoken with the Apostles? To this I answer, I conversed with St +Paul during a whole year, particularly on the text, Romans iii. 28. I +have three times conversed with St John, once with Moses, and a hundred +times with Luther, who allowed that it was against the warning of an +angel that he professed '_fidem solam_,' and that he stood alone upon +the separation from the Pope. With angels, finally, have I these +twenty-two years conversed, and converse daily. + +"Of the angels," he says, "they have human forms, the appearance of men +that I have a thousand times seen; for I have spoken with them as a man +with other men, often with several together; and have seen nothing in +the least to distinguish them from ordinary men." [They had evidently +just the appearance of Nicolai's visitors.] "Lest any one should call +this an illusion, or imaginary perception, it is to be understood that I +am accustomed to see them, when perfectly myself wide awake, and in full +exercise of my observation. The speech of an angel or of a spirit sounds +like, and as loud as, that of a man, but it is not heard by the +bystanders; the reason is, that the speech of an angel or a spirit finds +entrance first into a man's thoughts, and reaches his organs of hearing +from within outwards." This is indeed _cum ratione insanire_! how just +an analysis of the illusion, when he is most deceived by it! + +"The angels who converse with men, speak not in their own language, but +in the language of men, and likewise in other languages which are +inwardly known to man, not in languages which he does not understand." +Schwedenborg here took up the angels, and to explain their own ideas to +them observed, that they most likely appeared to speak his mother +tongue, _because, in fact_, it was not they who spoke, but himself by +their suggestion. The angels held out, however, and went away +unconvinced. + +"When approaching, the angels often appear like a ball of light; and +they travel in companies so grouped together--they are allowed so to +unite by the Lord--that they may act as one being, and share each +others' ideas and knowledge; and in this form they bound through the +universe, from planet to planet." + +I will, in conclusion, add another different, but equally interesting +sketch. + +"It is now seven years ago," so spoke, before her judges, the simple, +but high-minded Joan of Arc--"the beginning of the year 1431; it was a +summer day, towards the middle hour, I was about thirteen years old, and +was in my father's garden, that I heard for the first time, on my right +hand towards the church, a voice, and there stood a figure in a bright +radiance before my eyes. It had the appearance and look of a right good +and virtuous man, bore wings, was surrounded with light on all sides, +and by the angels of Heaven. It was the Archangel Michael. The voice +seemed to me to command respect; but I was yet a child, and was +frightened at the figure, and doubted very much whether it was the +archangel! I saw him and the angels as distinctly before my eyes as I +now see you, my judges." With words of encouragement the archangel +answered to her, that God had taken pity upon France, and that she must +hasten to the assistance of the king. At the same time he promised her +that St Catherine and St Margaret would shortly visit her; he told her +that she should do what they commanded her, because they were sent by +God to guide and conduct her. "Upon this," continued Joan, "St Catherine +and St Margaret appeared to me, as the angel had foretold. They ordered +me to get ready to go to Robert de Beaudricourt, the king's captain. He +would several times refuse me, but at last would consent, and give me +people, who would conduct me to the king. Then should I raise the siege +of Orleans. I replied to them that I was a poor child, who understood +nothing about riding on horseback and making war. They said I should +carry my banner with courage; God would help me, and win back for my +king his entire kingdom. As soon as I knew," continued Joan, "that I was +to proceed on this errand, I avoided, as much as I could, afterwards +taking part in the sports and amusements of my young companions."----"So +have the Saints conducted me during seven years, and have given me +support and assistance in all my need and labours; and now at present," +said she to her judges, "no day goes by, but they come to me."----"I +seldom see the Saints that they are not surrounded with a halo of light; +they wear rich and precious crowns, as it is reasonable they should. I +see them always under the same forms, and have never found in their +discourse any discrepancies. I know how to distinguish one from the +other, and distinguish them as well by the sound of their voices as by +their salutation. They come often without my calling upon them. But when +they do not come, I pray to the Lord that he will send them to me; and +never have I needed them but they have visited me." + +Such is part of the defence of the high-spirited Joan of Arc, who was +taken prisoner by the Duke of Burgundy on the 23d of May 1430--sold by +him for a large sum to the English, and by them put on her trial as a +heretic, idolatress, and magician--condemned, and finally burned alive, +the 30th of May 1431. Ill-fated heroine! I seem to be thinking of +writing her epitaph, but I am considering only that there is more to +come out of her evidence. For although her heavenly visitants were +simply sensorial illusions, there yet remains something unexplained. How +came she to foresee the path she was destined to follow? The inquiry +would launch us on a broad and wild sea of conjecture, for the +navigation of which we have not yet the requisite charts on board, and +it grows late--so good-night, dear Archy. + + "Suadentque cadentia sidera somnum." + "Cras ingens iterabimus æquor." + + Yours, &c., + MAC DAVUS. + + + + +A NEW SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. + +THE BATHS OF MONT DOR. + + +There is a tremendous valley opening all the way down, from the central +summits of the ridge of the Monts Dor, quite into the undulating, and +thence into the flat country, lying westward of this mountain chain. +Where the valley commences, it is nothing more than a combination of +mountain gullies, and is like a wild and precipitous ravine; but by +degrees it widens out into spacious amphitheatres, and at times +contracts itself again so as barely to allow of a struggling river to +make its way betwixt the rocky sides. In some places, the valley makes a +straight reach four or five miles in extent, but in others, winds and +turns about in abrupt and varied curves; its descent is now gradual, and +now rapid, where the stream dashes over ledges of rock or cuts its way +through some rough and stubborn pass. Nearly all the ravines and smaller +valleys that open into it bring down their contributions of mountain +torrents; and the whole collection of waters, thus wending their way to +the ocean, form what is called the Dor. This river meets with the Dogne +lower down in its course; and, under the joint name of the two waters, +the flood rushes broad and strong through Guienne into the Gironde. The +high and bare mountain whence the Dor derives its principal source is +the Pic de Sancy, the loftiest hill in the middle of France; it is the +king of all the volcanoes of this vast igneous chain, and has its sides +deeply furrowed and excavated into immense craters or volcanic vents. +From it proceed numerous branches or arms, composed of basaltic currents +congealed into columnar masses in the early days of the world. These +stretch out league after league, away from their parent head, and +present on their tops vast plateaux of green and moory pasture-land; +while their sides are either abrupt precipices of basaltic columns, or +else are clothed with primeval forests, which have sprung up and still +flourish on the rich materials of their decomposing slopes. The valley +of the Dor is therefore shut in either by precipitous volcanic walls, or +is guarded by sombre woods. Once on the tops of the plateaux, and you +may ride a whole day on unbroken turf; or, if you penetrate within the +forest lands, you may wander for any time you please, days or weeks, +without seeing either their beginning or their end. On the summits of +the mountains around, snow is to be found in patches, even in the +hottest days of summer; and as the Pic de Sancy is more than six +thousand feet above the level of the sea, almost every gradation of +climate is to be found amongst these lonely hills. In the dog-days, the +valleys are so hot that you gladly escape to the upper lands for air and +coolness; but the winter sets in, in October, and the valley of the Dor +is then covered deep with snow for many a long month. The Dor itself is +a pleasant lively stream: it can boast of some picturesque falls here +and there, but it is commonly a "brawling brook," winding about at its +pleasure; allowing itself to be forded every now and then; and producing +plenty of small trout for those who like to waste their time in fishing. + +The urchins of the peasant tribe know how to get these finny creatures +more cannily than the professed angler; you may see them on a summer's +morning wading up the stream, and hunting under every stone, and in each +little pool, for the objects of their search. As soon as they see a +trout, they drive it into little convenient nooks that they know of, and +there--how they manage it nobody knows, but the result is certain--they +catch them with their hands or knock them on the head with their sticks; +and will always produce you a respectable dish at a few hours' notice. + +About a couple of leagues below the Pic de Sancy, towards the west, one +of the plateaux on the northern side of the valley assumes an +exceedingly bold and regular appearance; it is called the Plateau de +l'Angle--perhaps from its making, by an abrupt termination, the corner +of two valleys; and it towers out like a promontory at sea, soaring +some four or five hundred feet above the bed of the river. Not very far +from where this plateau is cut off--a mile or so--there is a bold +cascade dashing over its side, and carrying off the superfluous waters +of a pool and morass higher up in the bosom of the mountains. Here the +basaltic precipice is hollowed out into a circling chasm, and over its +black face rushes the impetuous stream upon a huge chaos of rocks and +debris below, foaming and roaring until it finds its way into the Dor +far down in the valley at its foot. A few hundred feet to the westward +of this cascade, and at the lowest part of the precipitous columnar +cliff, burst forth several copious fountains of hot mineral waters, +half-way to boiling heat when they leave their rocky cells, and ever +keeping up the same degree both of heat and quantity. These are the +springs which give celebrity to the place, and constitute the baths of +Mont Dor. + +The Romans--those true "rerum domini"--knew of the spot, as they did of +most other good things within their wide empire; and they frequented +these springs so much that they erected over them a magnificent bathing +establishment, and adorned the spot with a beautiful temple. In the +midst of the present village stand the remains of one and the other of +their buildings; and thus the hydropathic system of the ancients is +allied with the practice of the modern Académie de Médecine. No records +of the destruction, nor indeed of the existence, of this Roman +watering-place have been preserved; probably, the buildings fell into +natural decay, and during the middle ages were allowed to remain +unrepaired and unheeded. Only foundations, broken shafts of columns, +cornices, capitals, and altars are now discernible; but they are enough +to add greatly to the interest of the locality. + +At Saint Nectaire, two leagues further down the valley, and indeed at +other spots in it, thermal sources not much inferior to those of Mont +Dor are to be met with; the whole district bears intimate evidence of +its volcanic nature, and the rheumatic or dyspeptic invalid may here get +stewed or washed out to his full satisfaction and lasting benefit. + +The village of Mont Dor-les-Bains is, however, that which has been +selected by the _beau monde_ of France as one of their choicest places +of resort; and here public money has been added to the efforts of +private speculation in order to render the baths at once ample and +commodious. Over the best sources is erected a large edifice, the lower +story of which is occupied by halls, and bathing-rooms for every variety +of medical purpose; while above are assembly-rooms, and the apartments +of the Government physician. + +The distribution below is most convenient. The water, after issuing from +the rock, is conveyed by distinct channels into numerous baths contained +in small chambers on either side of a large central hall: while other +conduits take it to plunging and swimming baths, to douches, and to +other medical contrivances. In the small single baths you receive the +water piping hot from the rock, at about one hundred degrees of +Fahrenheit; and you may lie there, bolling away--for a constant supply +of the same natural water keeps running into and through your bath--for +hours together, upon payment of _a franc_. The water costs nothing; the +building has been erected at the public expense, and the visitor +therefore enjoys this luxury at a moderate rate. For the poorer class of +patients gratuitous baths are provided; and in fact the gifts of nature +are here grudged to no one, but every man's wants may be gratified in a +liberal manner. + +By four o'clock in the morning of a summer day, you may see a train of +ghost-like beings winding along the village street, clad in the simple +attire of a chemise, a blanket, and the eternal nightcap--lean, +sallow-faced, or crippled mortals, who have had the wise precaution to +undress at home, and not being afraid of shocking the wood-nymphs from +their propriety, sally forth to court the Goddess of Health. They +congregate in a dark cellar-like chamber, round an ample and steaming +pool, and then sink into it, to forget for a while all their pains and +maladies, and to enjoy that indescribably delightful sensation of having +the joints gently unscrewed and fresh oiled. Others, whose shoulders +and backs have known the pangs of lumbago and acute rheumatism, are put +under one of the douches; and down comes on them a discharge of the hot +fluid as if from the hose of a fire-engine, or as though shot out from +some bursting steam-boiler. Away fly the pains and troubles of humanity; +the rickety machine is put in order for that day at least, and +twenty-four hours of peaceful enjoyment is the almost invariable +consequence. + +Later on in the morning, the fashionable visitors crawl forth to the +baths; but not so late that nine o'clock does not see them all safely +housed again after their ablutions, shaving or curling away with might +and main to get ready for a grand _déjeuner_. For here, as at Bath, not +only is it well to remember the inscription,-- + + "[Greek: ariston men udôr]" + +but it would be advisable to add, + + "[Greek: Brôma de megistôn]:" + +seeing that the appetite which is got up by all this early rising, and +steaming, and washing, is doomed to be satisfied in a way fully worthy +of the most refined French _cuisine_. + +In the village there are numerous hotels and boarding-houses, capable of +suiting the pockets and the wishes of all the middling, and even of the +lower classes of society:--but there are three or four principal +houses,--and especially two, reserved for the aristocracy; and here all +the _élite_ of the visitors congregate. We wealthy English may laugh at +the moderate expense for which this kind of thing can be done in France, +but we are not apt to grumble at it when we find it suit our pockets; +and, therefore, take with you at once the description of the kind of +fare you are likely to meet with here, and the amount of damage it will +do to your fortune. In these large hotels, then, which are commodious +houses, a vast number of bedrooms are provided for the guests, and two +good reception-rooms; besides an immense _salle-à-manger_. Some sixty or +a hundred guests can be accommodated in each house, and can sit down at +table together. Breakfast is served between nine and ten,--and a +glorious breakfast it is! All kinds of good things, which an old +_artiste_ from Paris comes down for the season to cook: ending with +fruits of many kinds and _café-au-lait_--that Continental beverage which +John Bull can no more imitate than he can the wines of the Rhone or the +Rhine:--in short, 'tis as good a breakfast as they could put on the +table at Verey's. Dinner is ready at six, and maintains its proper +superiority over the breakfast, both in the number of dishes and in the +length of its service. The wines are good, and the fruits delicious, for +they all come from Clermont--whence many a wagon-load of comestibles is +tugged weekly over the mountains to satisfy the exigencies of the +fastidious invalids! + +Well: they give you these two glorious spreads, your room, your light, +your linen, and your attendance, for _five francs a-day_. + +And how is this day passed? Why, 'tis a true castle of indolence, is +Mont Dor-les-Bains; "a pleasing land of sleepy-head," where every one +follows the bent of his own fancy, and where the only serious occupation +is, to forget all care and to do nothing. After rising from the +breakfast table, parties are immediately formed for the promenade or the +distant excursion; and, for the latter, some two or three score of boys +and girls are stationed on the Grande Place, each in charge of an animal +disguised with the name of a horse, which you hire for the whole day, to +go where, and how far you please, for the enormous sum of _two francs_. +It is true that the animal has neither symmetry nor blood, but it is the +indigenous pony of these mountains; it is a slow, sure-footed beast, and +it will carry you up and down the steepest hill-side with exemplary +patience and sagacity. Do not lose your own patience, however, if you +mount one of them. They have no trotting, nor galloping, nor any other +pace whatever in them, out of the half-amble half-walk at which they +commonly proceed. But then, they know no better food than +mountain-grass, or the occasional luxury of some chopped straw, and they +will follow you all round the village for a slice of bread held before +their noses. Nevertheless they suit the country; they accommodate the +visitors; and there is not a spare horse to be got in the village by +half-past ten, for love or money. + +The day's ramble ended, and dinner duly dismissed, every body--that is +to say, every body who is any body at all--adjourns to the _salle de +réunion_, the large assembly-room built over the baths. This is really a +handsome well-arranged ball-room, full of mirrors, ottomans, and +benches; at one end is a billiard and card room, and behind are rooms +for robing. Here, upon the payment of a napoleon, you have the _entrée_ +for the season; and here the guests meet, more upon the terms of a large +family than as though they were strangers. Etiquette is relaxed; every +body knows every body. The elder men take to billiards and +_écarté_,--the graver ladies form into little _côteries_; a younger one +goes to the piano, a circle is made, a romance is sung; and then, as the +strain becomes lighter, the feet beat in sympathy, and the gay quadrille +is formed. At eight or nine o'clock the room is at its fullest; the +village minstrels are called in--some half-dozen violins, a clarionet, +and a cornet; the music becomes louder, the mazy waltz is danced, and +the enjoyment of the day is at its crowning point. + +Happy, happy days! still happier, still more delightful nights! No +trouble, no excess--health and cheerfulness going hand-in-hand. The most +refined society in France, and yet the most simple and most unaffected; +good-humour and politeness ruling all things: all calculated for +enjoyment, nought for disquietude and regret! + +At eleven o'clock it is understood that every body vacates the room; +and, within half an hour after, not a sound is to be heard in the +village, save the dash of the cascade, and the murmuring of the silvery +Dor. + + +THE COMPANY. + +Well: 'tis a motley assemblage this! The world is checkered here not +less than in the noisy and elegant capital; and man's peculiarities, +man's excellencies, and man's defects, follow him even into the heart of +these wild mountains, showing themselves in these smaller groups, not +less strongly than amid the crowded streets of Paris! How should it be +otherwise? Does not every one come hither to unbend, to throw off the +stiff mask of metropolitan society for the moment, and to become +themselves natural while they invoke the aid of nature's healthy +influence? The strict etiquette of the Faubourg St Germain may here be +safely laid aside awhile; and the inspirations of country life, the +happy the delightful inspirations of youth, may be once more resumed. +What a comfort to be able to get out of the buckram and taffetas of the +court, to put on one's _négligé_, or one's shooting-jacket, and to keep +company awhile with no less cheerful companions than the songsters and +the rangers of the forest! Why it does one's inmost soul good to fly +away from the din and turmoil, even of the pleasure-seeking Parisians, +and to revert to the simple, yet grand and expansive ideas which scenery +such as this of Mont Dor brings into the mind in an instant. + +True: the mountains increase in magnitude and grandeur as you approach +them; once within their lofty and austere recesses, and their sublimity +makes itself felt. You are brought into immediate contact with some of +the mightiest works of the Creator, and the mind expands of itself, +unconsciously and irresistibly, till it becomes capable of imbibing, of +comprehending, and of enjoying the full magnificence of nature! + +But does the courtier, does the citizen lay aside his pack of habits, as +well as his pack of cares, when he becomes a temporary denizen of the +country? Would that it were so! He is cast in a mould--his mind has been +warped: his body requires moistening with the freshest and the earliest +dews of many an "incense-breathing morn," ere it can resume the full +elasticity and joyous lightness of rustic activity; and his soul wants a +long oblivion of all conventional preoccupation, all trouble and all +intrigue, ere it can recover the tone and temper of younger days. + +Now, I had been saying all this to myself, and should have gone on +moralising till the weary hour of noon, perhaps; but while I was +leaning over the balustrade of my window, looking down into the Grande +Place----Oh yes, to be sure! there is a Grande Place at Mont +Dor-les-Bains, as well as at any other town, village, or city. Did you +ever in your life hear or see any thing French to which the epithet of +_Grand_ had not been, by some means or other, tacked on? From the _Grand +Monarque_ at the head of the _Grande Armée_ of the _Grande Nation_, down +to the _Grand limonadier_ of the _Grand Café_ of the _Grande Place_, it +is all _Grand_. Oh, this villanous spirit of exaggeration! this attempt +at the sublime so inevitably linked to the ridiculous!----Just so! I was +leaning over the balustrade of my window, which, from the third story of +the hotel, "gave," as they term it, into the Grande Place. Now it is one +of the most delightful things imaginable, after you have indulged in +your morning's ablutions, and have produced that indefinable lilac tint +on your chin, which tells of easy shaving soap and a Rogers's true old +English razor, to don your shawl dressing-gown, and, having adjusted +your _bonnet grec_ towards the right side of your head, so as to allow +the glossy curl to escape and hang pendant on the left; when all this is +done, to "light the brown cigar," to put yourself in an elegant +reclining posture between your opening _jalousies_, and, with both +elbows resting on the red velvet cushion that crowns the hard edge of +the balustrade, to puff forth light wreaths of blue vapour into the +balmy air, and to see the bathers come back from the baths. There you +may "think down hours to moments:" and so was it with myself; for I took +my post at my window by half-past six, and at nine I was still there. +Every now and then went forth my curling column; then my eye would catch +the glorious "mountain-tops bathed in the golden light of morn;" then I +would give a glance at sublunary things awhile, and speculate on the +moving animals below; then puff, and gaze, and speculate again; and all +that while be the happiest of men, in the absolute absence of any thing +but perfect idleness. + +You may say what you please, but it does the mind good to think of +nothing at times; to let the impressions of passing events glide through +the soul, and titillate the imagination, but to "leave no trace behind." +Oh yes! this fairy dancing on the sands of life's dull shore, is very +pleasant occupation for a summer morn, and eke a summer eve. It is +poetical, to say the least of it; and day-dreams may sometimes prove not +less agreeable than those mysterious scenes of night, when the soul +quits her corporeal shackles, and roams in pure fancy through the world +of thought, seeing sights of beauty, and scenes of paradisaical +splendour, which the dull organs of bodily vision can never attain unto. +Why! the happiest portion of my life is that which I have passed in the +land of dreams: one third of my existence has been spent there--and I +have friends, and well-known faces, and peaceful valleys, and bright +streams, and strains of ethereal music, which are still and ever vivid +in my waking mind, but at night call me to themselves, and wrap me in a +state of enjoyment which certainly this poor weak body of mind never +could be capable of experiencing. I have positively new, altogether new +and unheard-of ideas--I do not mean irrational ones, nor those +phantasmagoric combinations that haunt the diseased brains of some +wretched mortals--but reasonable, possible, natural ideas of form and +substance, which I am persuaded have their types in some corner or other +of the universe, and which it may perhaps be hereafter my too happy +destiny to witness, and to dwell amongst for ever and for aye. I would +not exchange my dreams for all the realities of---- + +"_Monsieur! veut-il déjeuner au salon?_" said the slip-shod _garçon_ of +the hotel, tapping me on the shoulder. "The company have all taken their +seats, and I have kept a chair for Monsieur. Does Monsieur prefer +Burgundy or claret? The _vin ordinaire_ is not sufferable: _au reste_, +here is the _carte_, and Monsieur has only to choose." + +"'Tis a reality, my friend, that I was not then exactly thinking of--but +breakfast I must, and will. But just tell me, for a minute, where these +people come from, that I see down in the Place there, at that +corner--the old gentleman in nankeen, with the green shade over his +eyes, and the fat little dame by his side; and those young ladies at the +door of the large hotel opposite, and the spruce _militaire_ there at +the window, and that knot of men in long brown surtouts, one of whom is +gesticulating so vehemently." + +"_Excusez_, Monsieur, those _gentlemen_ are great politicians," (_grand_ +again, thought I!) "and one of them is deputy for the Department--M. de +Beauparler: he has just been voting against the Ministry, sir; he is a +great friend of M. Lafitte, sir; oh, sir! _c'est le plus grand orateur +de notre pays!_ You ought to hear him, sir. As for the young ladies, +sir, they are _les Demoiselles Leroy_: it was their father that you were +remarking just now--the old gentleman--very short-sighted, sir--he is +immensely rich; _Pardi! que sais-je?_" (here he shrugged up his +shoulders to his ears,) "they say he has 50,000 francs a-year!--_c'est +assommant!_" (here he shut his eyes and raised his nose at an angle of +forty-five degrees.) "_Quant aux demoiselles, elles sont_"----(he was +evidently at a loss for an expression; so he extended his first two +fingers to his lips, closing tightly the others and his thumb, and then +blew a kiss with them to the winds.) + +Tap! tap! at the door. "Pierre! are you coming down, then? they are +asking for you every where!" And the tightly girded, and somewhat +_altius accincta, fille-de-chambre_--a spruce little black-eyed +_Auvergnate_,--tripped into the room. "_Excusez, milor!_ but Pierre is +such a gossip!" "My good girl, I will detain neither Pierre nor +yourself: give me my coat, dust my room well, and now show me to the +_salle-à-manger_." + +As good luck would have it, Pierre had placed a chair for me next to +Madame de Mirepoix, her husband was on the other side of his +lady,--'twas impossible to be in better company. Opposite to me was a +venerable white-haired mustached gentleman, evidently a military man, +and next to me was a lady, some five-and-forty, or thereabouts, with a +strong Spanish cast of countenance and complexion, and her husband, a +short thick-necked apoplectic-looking man, by her side. The rest of the +company, though various enough in their physiognomical aspect, were +evidently persons of the upper ranks of society, and among them were +several choice specimens of the best and oldest nobility of France. They +seemed all to make one joyous family party, as if they had been +relations rather than strangers; every body was laughing and chatting +with his neighbour; they were plying their forks most vigorously, and +the noise and bustle was excessive. + +"What do you think of our baths?" said my lovely neighbour; "for of +course you have already been immersed in, and have tasted the waters." I +humbly alleged the negative. "Well! I declare this _phlegme Britannique_ +is insupportable. Why, sir, we were at the bath-house before six this +morning." + +"Had I but known it, Madame"---- + +"Ah, just so!" said the little apoplectic gentleman leaning across his +wife to me: "_Monsieur est Anglais! c'est très bien, c'est très bien!_ +Monsieur, you do us great honour to come to visit this savage +wilderness. But _voyez-vous_, you would have done much better to have +stopped at Paris; there's nothing here, sir--absolutely nothing! What +are these mountains? Bare rocks! forests, indeed, there are; but there +are forests every where. Give me, sir, the Forêt de Montmorency, even +the Bois de Boulogne; and for rocks, I wish for nothing better than the +Rocher de Cancale." (Here he rubbed his hands excessively, and looked +round the table for a smile at the _bon-mot_.) + +"M. Bouton will pardon me," observed the old officer, "but if he had +travelled all over Europe as I have done, he would not wonder at the +desire to change an every-day scene for something new. When our _corps +d'armée_ was traversing the Mont St Bernard, I assure you I never felt +the slightest regret at having quitted Paris:--we could have gone on to +the end of the world with the spirits we then were in. It was the same +in the Pyrenees:--for more reasons than one I was extremely sorry when +we had to quit Pampeluna for Bayonne"--and the old gentleman sighed, and +looked wistfully up at the ceiling, as though many a painful +recollection came across his mind at that moment. + +"Which are the finer mountains sir," was my inquiry--"the Pyrenees or +these of Auvergne?" + +"You can hardly draw a comparison between them," he replied. "There is +vast extent, width, and height in the Pyrenees, and a certain degree of +savage horror about them, which you do not feel even amidst the +Alps:--they partake of the nature both of France and Spain:--they are +unlike any mountains I know of. But for all this, sir, do not allow +yourself to hold a poor opinion of these heights of Mont Dor: you will +find here scope and exercise for all your enthusiasm, all your love of +the picturesque. Are you fond of shooting and hunting?--well, then, if +you were to remain here during September and October, braving the early +snows which come upon these mountains even in autumn, you would have +your choice of all animals from the wolf to the _chevreuil_ and the +hare, and of all birds from the eagle to the partridge. There are plenty +of snipes on these hills." + +"M. le Baron de Bretonville," said Madame Bouton, "do not go to tempt +the English gentleman to any of your hare-brained expeditions: he is +come here to enjoy the baths:--he is a victim to the spleen; he must be +danced and talked and bathed into good health, and a little vivacity +first of all. When we all leave the baths, we will give him permission +to stop behind with you, and you may kill all the game you can find. At +present we want a cavalier for our expedition: there is Madame +d'Arlincourt, and Madame de Tourzel, and the Duchesse de Vauvilliers, +and Madame de Mirepoix there, on your right--why these ladies are all +here by themselves; they want a cavalier this very morning. +_Figurez-vous_, Monsieur!" and the lady turned towards me--"we want +somebody to come and find our ponies for us, and to take care of our +shawls, and to carry our books, and our stools, and positively, with the +exception of two officers who are at the other hotel, I do not know whom +to ask. We engage you, sir, for the whole of this very day: our +husbands"---- + +"I thought, Madame, that these ladies were all alone here." + +"Ah!--our husbands, _ça va sans dire_!--but gentlemen of that kind do +nothing else than play billiards all the morning." + +"It is only the young and the gallant," here interposed Madame de +Mirepoix "that dare to face our forests.--You shall teach us all some +English as we ride along: I could give any thing to master your +barbarous language:--you have only one musical word in it--_moonlight_." + +Now, I know not what there was in the pronunciation of Madame de +Mirepoix, but though the word had never before entered into my +imagination as any thing but one of the most commonplace of our +vocabulary, there was a witchery in the sound as it flowed forth from +her swelling lips that riveted my attention, and set my imagination on +fire. 'Tis the same with French:--how refined and how mellow soever may +be the utterance of the most polished courtier of France, of the most +learned academician of the Institute, there is sometimes a rich pouting +sound, a sort of velvety and oily intonation, that distinguishes the +speech of the women of high birth such as I never heard in any other +country. It is not to be defined: but whoso has drunk in the golden +tones of such a syren, will know what I mean. Moonlight! yes, 'tis a +pleasing word, by its signification and its associated ideas, if not by +its own innate harmony: yes; I have learned the full influence and +sweetness of moonlight, whether in the summer woodland or in the wintry +cloister; true, there is both music and poetry, ay and something else, +in moonlight. + +"I agree to the thing, Madame la Marquise, if not to the sound; nothing +could be more beautiful than the latter as you have pronounced it, +except the reality, amidst these mountains and these retired deep-green +glades." + +"Nous le verrons, peut-être." + + +THE FOREST. + +All the great valleys that branch out from the sides of the volcanic +chain of Auvergne were once, no doubt, filled with impenetrable forests: +gloomy wildernesses, thick as those of American wilds, where scarcely +the light of the sun could penetrate, and tenanted only by the wolf, +the bear, the boar, and the stag. Now these forests have disappeared +from the eastern and western skirts of the chain, and are to be found in +primitive luxuriance only in the centre, where civilisation and the +destroying step of man have not made their way. Here the original forest +is still to be seen in all its pride; untouched, untrimmed, unheeded by +man: full of all its sublime grandeur--solemn, vast, and mysterious as +forests have ever been; sobering, soothing, and beautiful as forests +will ever be. In some of the valleys the trees are principally of the +deciduous kind; enormous oaks, and chestnuts, and beeches, filling up +the vacant space left by the granitic walls on either side: but in the +higher regions of the mountainous district, in the more hidden recesses +of the hills, they are all of the silver-fir species, and they attain a +luxuriance of growth not to be imagined but by those who have studied +this, the noblest of the whole tribe of pines. Here forests occur, +leagues upon leagues in extent, filling up wide and winding valleys; +running out upon the elevated plateaux of the mountains; and wrapping +the whole country in gloomy majesty. You may ride day after day through +these intricate sylvan scenes, and never cross the track of a human +being: or you may emerge from the depth of the wood, at some unexpected +turn of a valley, upon a delightful little farm or village in a green +glade of welcome verdure; and you may there witness the extreme +simplicity of the hardy mountaineers. Still higher up on the hills, and +on the vast pasture grounds that reach up to their summits, along the +gently descending plateaux, occurs the birch, luxuriating in the cold +exposure of its habitation as though it were in Siberia instead of +France: and ever and anon, whether high up or low down the sides of the +hills, you will find the box and the juniper bushes flourishing in +perennial perfection. + +It is curious to see the enormous size to which the silver-fir will here +attain. Sometimes this tree rises with the utmost regularity--sending +out its branches at equal intervals, tier above tier--itself tapering +upwards, and each circle of branches decreasing in diameter until a +hundred and fifty feet are gained. The stems of some of these giants of +the forest are eighteen feet in circumference at the height of a man +from the ground, and their lower branches would of themselves form trees +such as many a trim and well-kept park could never boast of. At other +times the original tree will have met with an accidental fracture when +young, and after going up twenty or thirty feet from the ground, as an +immense wooden column, will throw out three or four other trees from its +summit, which will all shoot up parallel to each other into the air and +form a little forest of themselves. Very frequently, however, it happens +that the tree has been contorted in its early growth, and then broken +afterwards: in such cases it seems to have forgotten its nature +completely, and to have gone mad in its spirit of increase; for it turns +and forces itself into the strangest convolutions and intricacies of +form. It becomes like a short stunted oak, or a thickly knotted thorn: +or it might sometimes be mistaken for a willow, at others for a +cedar--for any thing but one of the same species as the stately spire of +wood that soars up into the heaven close by its side. + +When the tree becomes quite dead, blasted by lightning, or injured by +the attacks of animals at its base, it does not therefore lose all its +beauty; for it becomes immediately covered with a peculiar gray lichen +of great length and luxuriance; occupying every branch and twig of the +dead tree, and clothing it, as it were, with a second but a new kind of +foliage. This lichen will sometimes hang down from the branches in +strings of weeping vegetation to the length of five feet and more. You +may sometimes ride under the living tree where this parasitical foliage +is mixed with the real covering of the boughs, forming the most +anomalous, and yet the most picturesque of contrasts. + +In forests of this kind, the undergrowth of brushwood of every variety +is exceedingly abundant and beautiful: every woodland shrub is to be +found there--the hazel especially--and the thickets thereby formed are +quite impenetrable. As the older and larger trees decay, they lose +their footing in the soil, and fall in every variety of strange +position--presenting a picture of desolation, the effect of which is at +first strange to the mind, and at last becomes even painful. But +wherever a tree falls, there a luxuriant growth of moss succeeds: a +little peat-bed forms itself underneath: generations after generations +of mosses and watery plants succeed one another; and in time the +prostrate trunk is entirely buried under a bright-green bed, soft as +down, but treacherous to the foot as a quicksand. Often may the wanderer +amid these wild glades think to throw himself on one of these inviting +couches; and, bounding on to it, he sinks five or six feet through moss +and weed and dirty peat, till his descent is stopped by the skeleton of +the vast tree that lies beneath. Wild flowers grow all around: and every +spot of ground that will produce them is covered in the summer season +with the tempting little red strawberry, or the wild raspberry, or the +blushing rose. Above all, still keep peering, in solemn and interminable +array, the vast monarchs of the wood, the stately and elegant +silver-firs. + +When you attempt to leave the forests and advance towards the upper +grounds, you commonly find yourself stopped by a precipitous wall of +basaltic columns, ranging from sixty to seventy feet in height in one +unbroken shaft, and forming a vast barrier for miles and miles in +length. In some places, these gray basaltic walls come circling round, +and constitute an immense natural theatre, sombre and grand as the +forest itself. No sound is there heard save the dashing of a distant +cascade, or the wind in deep symphony rushing through the slow-waving +tops of the trees. Below is a carpet of the most lively green, +variegated with turfs of wild flowers and fruits--one of nature's +secret, yet choicest gardens. Through the midst trickles a silvery +stream, coming you know not whence, but musical in its course, and soon +losing itself in the thick underwood that borders the spot all around. +Such is the Salle de Mirabeau--one of the loveliest of the many lovely +hiding-places of these sublime forests. + +The feathered tenants of these woods are mostly birds of prey, or at all +events such as the raven, the jay, the pie, and others which can either +defend themselves against, or escape from, the falcons that consider +these solitudes as their own especial domains. The voices of few +singing-birds are to be heard; they have taken refuge nearer the +habitations of man: but the hooting of the owl, the beating of the +woodpecker, and the screaming of kites and hawks, are all the living +sounds that proceed here from the air. Red-deer, wolves, wild-boars, +roebucks, and foxes, are the denizens of these forests and these +mountains: there is room here for them all to live at their ease; and +they abound. No one with a good barrel and a sure aim, ever entered +these forests in vain: his burden is commonly more than he can carry +home. It is in fact a glorious country for the sportsman; for the lower +ranges of the hills abound in hares, the cultivated grounds have plenty +of partridges and quails, and the forests are tenanted as has been seen. +He who can content himself with his gun or his rod--for the streams are +full of trout--may here pass a golden age, without a thought for the +morrow, without a desire unfulfilled. + +Certainly, if I wished to retire from the world and lead a life of +philosophic indifference, not altogether out of the reach of society +when I wanted it, these hills and these forests of Auvergne, and the +Mont Dor, would be the spots I should select. The mind here would become +attuned to the grand harmonies of nature's own making; here, philosophy +might be cultivated in good earnest; here, books might be studied and +theories digested, without interruption and with inward profit. Here, a +man might cultivate both science and art, and he might become again the +free and happy being which, until he betook himself to congregating in +towns, he was destined to be. Yes! when I do withdraw from this world's +vanities and troubles, give me forests and mountains like those of Mont +Dor. + + + + +THE FIGHTING EIGHTY-EIGHTH.[3] + + +The pugnacity of Irishmen has grown into a proverb, until, in the belief +of many, a genuine Milesian is never at peace but when fighting. With +certain nations, certain habits are inseparably associated as peculiarly +characterising them. Thus, in vulgar apprehension, the Frenchman dances, +the German smokes, the Spaniard serenades; and on all hands it is agreed +that the Irishman fights. Naturally bellicose, his practice is +pugnacious: antagonism is his salient and distinctive quality. Born in a +squabble, he dies in a shindy: in his cradle he squeals a challenge; his +latest groan is a sound of defiance. Pike and pistol are manifest in his +well-developed bump of combativeness; his name is FIGHT, there can be no +mistake about it. From highest to lowest--in the peer and the +bog-trotter, the inherent propensity breaks forth, more or less modified +by station and education. + +Be its expression parliamentary or popular, in Donnybrook or St +Stephen's, out it will. "Show me the man who'll tread on my coat!" +shouts ragged Pat, flourishing his shillelagh as he hurls his +dilapidated garment on the shebeen-house floor. From his seat in the +senate, a joint of the "Tail" intimates, in more polished but equally +intelligible phrase, his inclination for a turn upon the turf. Wherever +blows are rife, Hibernia's sons appear; in big fights or little wars the +shamrock gleams in the van. No matter the cloth, so long as the quarrel +be there. In Austrian white, or Spanish yellow, or Prussian blue,--even +in the blood-coloured breeks of Gallia's legions, but especially, and +preferred above all, in the "old red rag" of the British grenadier, have +Irishmen displayed their valour. And on the list of heroes whom the +Green Isle has produced, a proud and prominent place is justly held by +that gallant corps, the Rangers of Connaught. + +Those of our civilian readers to whom the word "Ranger" is more +suggestive of bushes and kangaroos, or of London parks and princes of +the blood, than of parades and battle-fields, are referred to page 49 of +the Army List. They will there find something to the following effect:-- + + 88th, CONNAUGHT RANGERS. + + The Harp and Crown. + + _"Quis Separabit?"_ + + The Sphinx, "Egypt." + "Talavera." "Busaco." + "Fuentes d'Onore." + "Cindad Rodrigo." + "Badajoz." "Salamanca." + "Vittoria." + "Nivelle." "Orthes." + "Toulouse." + "Peninsula." + +There is a forest of well-won laurels in this dozen of names. They form +a proud blazon for any corps, and one that might satisfy the most +covetous of honour. But of all men in the world, old soldiers are the +hardest to content. They are patented grumblers. Napoleon knew it, and +christened his _vieille garde_ his _grognards_: tough and true as steel, +they yet would have their growl. Now the lads of the Eighty-Eighth, +having proved themselves better men even than the veteran guards of the +Corsican corporal, also claim the grumbler's privilege, setting forth +sundry griefs and grave causes of complaint. They are not allowed the +word "Pyrenees" upon their colours, although, at the fight of that name, +they not only were present, but rendered good service:--whilst for +Waterloo many a man got a medal who, during the whole battle, was scarce +within boom of cannon. During more than four years of long marches, +short commons, severe hardships, and frequent fighting, the general +commanding the third division--the fighting division, as it was +called--viewed the Connaughters with dislike, even stigmatised them as +confirmed marauders, and recommended none of their officers for +promotion, although many greatly distinguished themselves, and +some,--the brave Mackie, at Ciudad Rodrigo, for instance--successfully +led forlorn-hopes. Finally, passing over the old sore of non-decoration +for Peninsular services, since that, common to many regiments, is at +last about to be healed,--Mr Robinson, the biographer of Sir Thomas +Picton, has dared, in order to vindicate the harsh and partial conduct +of his hero, to cast dust upon the facings of the brave boys of +Connaught. It need hardly be said that they have found defenders. Of +these, the most recent is Lieutenant Grattan, formerly an officer of the +Eighty-eighth, and who, after making a vigorous stand, in the pages of a +military periodical, against the calumniators of his old corps, has +brought up his reserves and come to its support in a book of his own. +His volumes, however, are not devoted to mere controversy. He has +understood that he should best state the case, establish the merits, and +confound the enemies of his regiment, by a faithful narrative of his and +its adventures, triumphs, and sufferings. Thus, whilst he has seized the +opportunity to deal out some hard knocks to those who have blamed the +conduct (none have ever impugned the courage) of the Connaught Rangers, +he has produced an entertaining book, thoroughly Irish in character, +where the ludicrous and the horrible, the rollicking and the +slaughtering, mingle and alternate. Even when most indignant, good +humour and a love of fun peep through his pages. His prologue or +preamble, entitled "An Answer to some attacks in Robinson's Life of +Picton," although redolent of "slugs in a sawpit," is full of the +national humour. "Frequently," Mr Robinson has asserted, "just before +going into battle, it would be found, upon inspection, that one-half of +the Eighty-eighth regiment were without ammunition, having acquired a +pernicious habit of exchanging the cartridge for _aguardiente_, and +substituting in their places pieces of wood, cut and coloured to +resemble them." Such things have been heard of, even in very +well-regulated regiments, as the exchange of powder and ball for brandy +and other creature comforts; but it is very unlikely that the practice +should have prevailed to any thing like the extent here set down, in a +British army in active service and under Wellington's command, and the +artfully prepared quaker-cartridges increase the improbability of the +statement. Lieutenant Grattan scouts the tale as a base fabrication, +lashes out in fine style at its propagator, and claims great merit for +the officers who taught their men to beat the best troops in the world +with timber ammunition. He puts forward a more serious refutation by a +string of certificates from men and officers of all ranks who served +with him in the Peninsula, and who strenuously repel the charge as a +malignant calumny. + +It was at the close of the campaign of 1809, that the historian of the +Connaught Rangers, then a newly commissioned youngster, joined, within a +march of Badajoz, the first battalion of his regiment. The palmy and +triumphant days of the British army in the Peninsula could then hardly +be said to have begun. True, they had had victories; the hard-earned one +of Talavera had been gained only three months previously, but the +general aspect of things was gloomy and disheartening. The campaign had +been one of much privation and fatigue; rations were insufficient, +quarters unhealthy, and Wellington's little army, borne on the +muster-rolls as thirty thousand men, was diminished one-third by +disease. The Portuguese, who numbered nearly as many, were raw and +untried troops, scarce a man of whom had seen fire, and little reliance +could be placed upon them. In spite of Lord Wellington's judicious and +reiterated warnings, the incompetent and conceited Spanish generals +risked repeated engagements, in which their armies--numerous enough, but +ill disciplined, ill armed, and half-starved--were crushed and +exterminated. The French side of the medal presented a very different +picture. Elated by their German victories, their swords yet red with +Austrian blood, Napoleon's best troops and ablest marshals hurried +southwards, sanguinely anticipating, upon the fields of the Peninsula, +an easy continuation of their recent triumphs. Three hundred and sixty +thousand men-at-arms--French, Germans, Italians, Poles, even +Mamelukes--spread themselves over Spain, occupied her towns, and +invested her fortresses. Ninety thousand soldiers, under Massena, +"_l'enfant chéri de la Victoire_," composed the so-called "army of +Portugal," intended to expel from that country, if not to annihilate, +the English leader and his small but resolute band, who, undismayed, +awaited the coming storm. In the ever-memorable lines of Torres Vedras, +the legions of Buonaparte met a stern and effectual dike to their +torrent of headlong aggression. Upon the happy selection and able +defence of those celebrated positions, were based the salvation of the +Peninsula and the subsequent glorious progress of the British arms. +Whilst referring to them, Mr Grattan seizes the opportunity to enumerate +the services rendered by the army in Spain. "The invincible men," he +says, "who defended those lines, aided no doubt by Portuguese and +Spanish soldiers, afterwards fought for a period of four years, during +which time they never suffered one defeat; and from the first +commencement of this gigantic war to its final and victorious +termination, the Peninsular army fought and won nineteen pitched +battles, and innumerable combats; they made or sustained ten sieges, +took four great fortresses, twice expelled the French from Portugal, +preserved Alicant, Carthagena, Cadiz, and Lisbon; they killed, wounded, +and took about _two hundred thousand enemies_, and the bones of forty +thousand British soldiers lie scattered on the plains and mountains of +the Peninsula." And thereupon our friend, the Connaughter, bursts out +into indignation that warriors who did such deeds, and, on _fifteen_ +different occasions received the thanks of parliament, should have been +denied a medal for their services. Certainly, when men who went through +the whole, or the greater part, of those terrible campaigns, which they +began as commissioned officers, are now seen holding no higher than a +lieutenant's rank, one cannot but recognise their title to some +additional recompense, and marvel that the modest and well-merited badge +they claim should so long have been refused them. Mr Grattan puts much +of the blame of such refusal at the door of the Duke of Wellington. Not +that he is usually a depreciator of his former leader, of whose military +genius and great achievements he ever speaks with respect amounting to +veneration. But he does not hesitate to accuse him of having sacrificed +his old followers and friends to his own vanity, which petty feeling, he +maintains, made the Duke desire that the only medal granted for the war +against Napoleon, should be given for the only victory in which he beat +the Emperor in person. We believe that many Peninsular officers, puzzled +to account for the constant and seemingly causeless refusal of the +coveted decoration, hold the same opinion with Mr Grattan. We esteem it +rather plausible than sound. The names Of WELLINGTON and WATERLOO would +not the less be immortally associated because a cross bearing those of +PENINSULA and PYRENEES, or any other appropriate legend, shone upon the +breasts of that "old Spanish infantry," of whom the Duke always spoke +with affection and esteem, and to whom he unquestionably is mainly +indebted for the wealth, honours, and fame which, for more than thirty +years, he has tranquilly enjoyed. Moreover, we cannot credit such +selfishness on the part of such a man, or believe that he, to whom a +grateful sovereign and country decerned every recompense in their power +to bestow, would be so thankless to the men to whose sweat and blood he +mainly owed his success--to men who bore him, it may truly be said, upon +their shoulders, to the highest pinnacle of greatness a British subject +can possibly attain. Waterloo concluded the war: its results were +immense, the conduct of the troops engaged heroic; but when we compare +the amount of glory there gained with the renown accumulated during six +years' warfare--a renown undimmed by a single reverse;--still more, when +we contrast the dangers and hardships of one short campaign, however +brilliant, with those of half-a-dozen long ones crowded with battles and +sieges, we must admit that if the victors of La Belle Alliance nobly +earned their medal, the veterans of Salamanca and Badajoz, Vittoria and +Toulouse, have a threefold claim to a similar reward. They have long +been unjustly deprived of it, and now comparatively few remain to +receive the tardily-accorded distinction. + +The first action to which Mr Grattan refers, as having himself taken +share in, is that of Busaco. The name is familiar to every body, but +yet, of all the Peninsular battles, it is perhaps the one of which least +is generally known. It was not a very bloody fight--the loss in killed +and wounded having been barely seven per cent of the numbers engaged; +still it was a highly important one, as testing the quality of the +Portuguese levies, upon which much depended. Upon the whole, they +behaved pretty well, although they committed one or two awkward +blunders, and one of their militia regiments took to flight at the first +volley fired by their own friends. Mr Grattan does not usually set +himself up as a historical authority with respect to battles, except in +matters pertaining to his own regiment or brigade, and which came under +his own observation. Nevertheless, concerning Busaco, he speaks boldly +out, and asserts his belief that no correct report of the action exists +in print. Napier derives his account of it from Colonel Waller, whose +statement is totally incorrect, and has been expressly contradicted by +various officers (amongst others, by General King) who fought that day +with Picton's division. Colonel Napier's strong partiality to the light +division sometimes prevents his doing full justice to other portions of +the army. In this instance, however, any error he has fallen into, +arises from his being misinformed. He himself was far away to the left, +fighting with his own corps, and could know nothing, from personal +observation, of the proceedings of Picton's men. Opposed to a very +superior force, including some of the best regiments of the whole French +army, they had their hands full; and the Eighty-eighth, especially, +covered themselves with glory. At one time, the Rangers had not only the +French fire to endure, but also that of the Eighth Portuguese, whose +ill-directed volleys crossed their line of march. An officer sent to +warn the Senhores of the mischief they did, received, before he could +fulfil his mission, a French and a Portuguese bullet, and the Eighth +continued their reckless discharge. But no cross-fire could daunt the +men of Connaught. "Push home to the muzzle!" was the word of their +gallant lieutenant-colonel, Wallace; and push home they did, totally +routing their opponents, and nearly destroying the French Thirty-sixth, +a pet battalion of the Emperor's. Stimulus was not wanting; Wellington +stood by, and, with his staff and several generals, watched the charge. +The Eighty-eighth were greatly outnumbered, and Marshal Beresford, their +colonel, "expressed some uneasiness when he saw his regiment about to +plunge into this unequal contest. But when they were mixed with +Regnier's division, and putting them to flight down the hill, Lord +Wellington, tapping Beresford on the shoulder, said to him, 'Well +Beresford, look at them now!'" And when the work was done, and the fight +over, Wellington rode up to Colonel Wallace, and seizing him warmly by +the hand, said, "Wallace, I never witnessed a more gallant charge than +that made by your regiment!" Beresford spoke to several of the men by +name, and shook the officers' hands; and even Picton forgot his +prejudice against the regiment, whom he had once designated as the +"Connaught foot-pads," and expressed himself satisfied with their +conduct. Many of the men shed tears of joy. So susceptible are soldiers +to praise and kindness, and so easy is it by a few well-timed words to +repay their toils and perils, and renew their store of confidence and +hope. And numerous were the occasions during the Peninsular contest when +they needed all the encouragement that could be given them. After +Busaco, when blockaded in the lines of Torres Vedras, their situation +was far from agreeable. The wet season set in, and their huts, roofed +with heather--a pleasant shelter when the sun shone, but very +ineffectual to resist autumnal rains--became untenable. Every device was +resorted to for the exclusion of the deluge, but in vain. Fortunately, +the French were in a still worse plight. In miserable cantonments, short +of provisions and attacked by disease, the horses died, and the men +deserted; until, on the 14th November, Massena broke up his camp, and +retired upon Santarem. The Anglo-Portuguese army made a corresponding +movement into more comfortable quarters, and rumours were abroad of an +approaching engagement; but it did not take place, and a period of +comparative relaxation succeeded one of severe hardship and arduous +duty. Men and officers made the most of the holiday. There was never any +thing of the martinet about the Duke. He was not the man to harass with +unnecessary and vexations drills, or rigidly to enforce unimportant +rules. Those persons, whether military or otherwise, who consider a +strictly regulation uniform as essential to the composition of a British +soldier, as a stout heart and a strong arm, and who stickle for a +closely buttoned jacket, a stiff stock, and the due allowance of +pipe-clay, would have been somewhat scandalised, could they have beheld +the equipment of Wellington's army in the Peninsula. Mr Grattan gives a +comical account of the various fantastical fashions and conceits +prevalent amongst the officers. "Provided," he says, "we brought our men +into the field well-appointed, and with sixty rounds of good ammunition +each, he (the Duke) never looked to see whether their trousers were +black, blue, or grey; and as to ourselves, we might be rigged out in all +the colours of the rainbow, if we fancied it." The officers, especially +the young subs, availed themselves largely of this judicious laxity, and +the result was a medley of costume, rather picturesque than military. +Braided coats, long hair, plumed hats, and large mustaches, were amongst +the least of the eccentricities displayed. In a curious spirit of +contradiction, the infantry adopted brass spurs, anticipatory, perhaps, +of their promotion to field-officers' rank; and, bearing in mind, that +"there is nothing like leather," exhibited themselves in ponderous +over-alls, _à la Hongroise_, topped and strapped, and loaded down the +side with buttons and chains. One man, in his rage for singularity, took +the tonsure, shaving the hair off the crown of his head; and another, +having covered his frock-coat with gold tags and lace, was furiously +assaulted by a party of Portuguese sharpshooters, who, seeing him, in +the midst of the enemy's riflemen, whither his headlong courage had led +him, mistook him for a French general, and insisted upon making him +prisoner. And three years later, when Mr Grattan and a party of his +comrades landed in England, in all the glories of velvet waistcoats, +dangling Spanish buttons of gold and silver, and forage caps of fabulous +magnificence, they could hardly fancy that they belonged to the same +service as the red-coated, white-breeched, black-gaitered gentlemen of +Portsmouth garrison. + +The embarkation of the British army, which in the summer of 1810 was +deemed imminent both in England and the Peninsula and considered +probable by Lord Liverpool himself, was no longer thought of after +Busaco, save by a few of those croaking gentlemen, who, in camps as in +council-houses, view every thing through smoked spectacles. +Reinforcements, both English and Spanish, reached the lines of Torres +Vedras, which Wellington continued to strengthen, and Massena dared not +attack. The accession of General Drouet's corps increased the army of +the Prince of Essling to upwards of 70,000 men. His cavalry, too, was +twice as strong as that of the British; but, notwithstanding this +superiority, and the desire which he must have felt to retrieve his +fame, tarnished by the repulse at Busaco, and by his fruitless movement +on the lines of Lisbon, Massena remained inert, in front of the man whom +Napoleon's _Moniteur_ contemptuously designated as the "Sepoy General." +Spring approached without either army assuming the offensive, until, on +the 5th of March 1811, the French began their retreat from Portugal, +closely followed up by Wellington. There was little difficulty in +tracing them: they left a broad trail of blood, and desolation. With +bare blade, and blazing brand, they swept across the land; church and +convent, town and village, the farm and the cottage, were given to the +flames; on the most frivolous pretexts, often without one, women, +children, and unarmed men were barbarously murdered; and many a +Portuguese lost his life for refusing to point out treasures which +existed only in the imagination of the fierce and greedy Frenchman. +Enraged at the dearth of provisions, of which they stood in great need, +and which had been every-where removed or destroyed, the retreating army +abandoned themselves to frightful cruelties and excesses. All along the +line of march, the pursuers found piles of bodies, groups of murdered +peasantry, and, mingled with them, the corpses of Frenchmen, often +hideously mutilated, according to the barbarous usage which has been +continued in more recent wars by the vindictive population of the +Peninsula. The retaliation was terrible, but the provocation had been +extreme. Mr Grattan's details of some of the scenes he himself +witnessed, are painfully minute and vivid; and whilst reading them, we +cease to wonder that, after the lapse of a third of a century, hatred of +the French exists almost undiminished in the countries they so cruelly +and wantonly ravaged. + +However orderly and well-conducted, there is always something +discouraging in a retreat, as there is a cheerful and exhilarating +feeling attendant on an advance. Nevertheless, during their progress +across Portugal, the French maintained their high reputation. Their +rear-guard, commanded by Marshal Ney, made good fight when pressed by +the British, but their losses were heavy before they reached the Spanish +frontier. This they crossed early in April, and a month later they had +to recross it, to convey supplies to the fortress of Almeida, the only +place in Portugal over which the tricolor still floated. The result of +this movement was the bloody combat of Fuentes d'Onore, a complete but +dearly-bought triumph for our arms. Here the Eighty-eighth nobly +distinguished themselves. At first they were in reserve, whilst for +eight hours two Highland regiments, the Eighty-third and some light +companies, fought desperately in the town, opposed to the fresh troops +which Massena continually sent up. Their loss was very heavy, the +streets were heaped with dead, the heat was excessive, and ammunition +grew scarce. The Highlanders and the French grenadiers fought in the +cemetery, across the graves and tombstones. "Wallace, with his regiment, +the Eighty-eighth, was in reserve on the high ground which overlooked +the churchyard, and was attentively viewing the combat which raged +below, when Sir Edward Pakenham galloped up to him, and said, 'Do you +see that, Wallace?'--'I do,' replied the colonel; 'and I would rather +drive the French out of the town than cover a retreat across the +Coa.'--'Perhaps,' said Sir Edward, 'his lordship don't think it +tenable.' Wallace answering, said, 'I shall take it with my regiment, +and keep it too.'--'Will you?' was the reply; 'I'll go and tell Lord +Wellington so.' In a moment or two, Pakenham returned at a gallop, and +waving his hat, called out, 'He says you may go.--Come along, Wallace!'" + +Poor Pakenham! ever foremost to lead a charge or brave a peril. He +deserved a better fate, after his glorious exploits in the Peninsula, +than to be picked off by a sneaking Yankee rifle, in the swampy plains +of New Orleans. But the same "boiling spirit and hasty temper" that won +him laurels in Europe, led him to his death in another hemisphere. +Over-confidence may be pardoned in a man who had so often driven before +him the redoubtable cohorts of the modern Alexander. And one mistake +cannot obliterate the memory of fifty gallant feats.--Full of fight, and +led on by Pakenham, Mackinnon, and Wallace, the Eighty-eighth advanced +at a smart trot into the town, where the French Ninth regiment and a few +hundreds of the Imperial Guard awaited them. Their charge was +irresistible; they cleared the place and drove the enemy into the river. +They even pursued them through it, and several Rangers fell on the +French side of the stream. About a hundred and fifty of the Old Guard +ran into a street, of which the further end was barricaded. Mr Grattan, +whose account of the affair is a graphic and interesting piece of +military narrative, is amusingly cool and _naïf_ in referring to this +incident. "Mistakes of this kind," he says, "will sometimes occur, and +when they do, the result is easily imagined.... In the present instance, +every man was put to death; but our soldiers, _as soon as they had +leisure_, paid the enemy that respect which is due to brave men." We +apprehend that, with the Connaughters, _leisure_, in this sense, was +scanty, at least at Fuentes d'Onore; but, in so close and desperate a +fight, hot blood is apt to drown mercy. The dashing charge of the +Eighty-eighth nearly closed the day's performances, although the French +batteries, admirably served, still peppered the town. Men and officers +sheltered themselves as well as they could, but many were killed; whilst +Pakenham, with reckless bravery, rode about the streets, a mark for the +enemy's shot, which tore up the ground around him whenever he stood +still. "He was in a violent perspiration and covered with dust, his left +hand bound round with a handkerchief, as if he had been wounded; he was +ever in the hottest of the fire: and, if the whole fate of the battle +had depended on his exertions, he could not have fought with more +devotion." + +Amongst the many daring acts witnessed on the bloody day of Fuentes +d'Onore, that of the Spanish guerilla chief, Julian Sanchez, deserves +notice. At the head of his ragged and ill-disciplined band, he had the +temerity to charge a crack French regiment, and, as might be expected, +was sent back with a sore head. Whilst on the subject of guerillas, Mr +Grattan combats an opinion which he believes many persons in this +country entertain, "that the Spaniards and Portuguese did as much, if +not more, during the Peninsular contest, than the British." Here he is +certainly mistaken. Very few persons, out of the Peninsula, have any +such notion. The French know well enough by whom they were beaten. Loth +as they are to acknowledge a thrashing at the hands of their old +antagonists, they do not dream of attributing their defeats to the +"_brigands_," of whom they declare they would have had a very cheap +bargain, but for the intervention of the troublesome English. And +certainly, if the Spaniards and Portuguese had been left to themselves, +although, favoured by the mountainous configuration of the country, they +might long have kept up a desultory contest, they would never have +succeeded in expelling the invaders; for the simple reason that they +were wholly unable to meet them in the plain. Most true it is that, +during the war of independence, the people of the Peninsula gave +numerous examples of bravery and devotion, and still more of long +suffering and patient endurance for their country's sake. The irregular +mode of warfare adopted by the peasantry, the great activity and +constant skirmishings, stratagems, and ambuscades of Mina, the +Empecinado, Sanchez, and many other patriotic and valiant men, greatly +harassed and annoyed the French; and, by compelling them to employ large +bodies of troops in garrison and escort duty, prevented their opposing +an overwhelming force to the comparatively small army under Wellington. +But all that sort of thing, however useful and efficacious as a general +system, and as weakening the enemy, was very petty work when examined in +detail. The great victories, the mighty feats of war that figure in +history's page, were due to British discipline, pluck, and generalship. +And whatever merit remains with the Spaniards, is to be attributed to +their guerillas and irregular partisans. As to their regular troops, +after they had overthrown Dupont at Baylen, they seemed to think they +might doze upon their laurels, which were very soon wrenched from them. +Baylen was their grand triumph, and subsequently to it they did little +in the field. Behind stone walls they still fought well: Spaniards are +brave and tenacious in a fortress, and Saragossa is a proud name in +their annals. Nothing could be better than old General Herrasti's +valiant defence of Cuidad Rodrigo against Ney and his thirty thousand +Frenchmen. The garrison, six thousand strong, lost seven hundred men by +the first day's fire. Only when their guns were silenced, when the town +was on fire in various places, and when several yards of wall were +thrown down by a mine, did the brave governor hoist the white flag. +Other instances of the kind might be cited, when Spanish soldiers fought +as well as mortal men could do. But with respect to pitched battles, +another tale must be told. At Ocaña, Almonacid, and on a dozen other +disastrous fields, Baylen was amply revenged. The loss at Ocaña alone is +rated by Spanish accounts at thirty thousand men, chiefly prisoners. Mr +Grattan estimates it at twenty-five thousand men, and _thirteen thousand +eight hundred and seventy-seven guitars_. Of these latter, he tells us +twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty-two were in cases, and the +remainder without; Indeed he is so exceedingly circumstantial that we +presume he counted them himself. Otherwise, although well aware of the +Spaniard's predilection for the fascinating tinkle of his national +instrument, we could hardly credit the accuracy of the figures. Even a +_Spanish_ general, we should think, would hardly allow his men thus to +encumber themselves with harmony. The march of such an army of +Orpheuses, in which every third soldier shouldered a fiddle-case as a +pendant to his musket, must have been curious to behold; suggesting the +idea that the melodious warriors designed subduing their foes by the +soothing strains of _jotas_ and _cachuchas_, rather than by the more +cogent arguments of sharp steel and ball-cartridge. Great must have been +the tinkling at eventide, exceeding that of the most extensive flock of +merinos that ever cropped Castilian herbage. Was it because they were +certain of a dance that these barrack-yard minstrels came provided with +music, sure, in any case, to have the piper to pay? If the instruments +were provided to celebrate a triumph, they might as well have been left +at home. In Spain, however, time has effaced, or greatly weakened, the +remembrance of many reverses, whilst slight and dubious successes, +carefully treasured up, have swollen by the keeping into mighty +victories; and at the present day, foreigners who should be so +uncourteous and impolitic as to express, in the hearing of Spaniards, a +doubt that Spanish valour was the main agent in driving the French from +the Peninsula, might reckon, not on a stab--knifeing being less in vogue +beyond the Bay of Biscay than is often imagined--but certainly on a +scowl, and probably on an angry contradiction. And in every province, +almost in every town, in Spain the traveller may, if he so pleaseth, be +regaled with marvellous narratives of signal victories, gained over the +_gavachos_, in that immediate neighbourhood, by valiant generals whose +names, so partial is fame, have never transpired beyond the scenes of +their problematical exploits. Under the constitutional system, and owing +to the long civil war, Spanish troops have improved in discipline and in +various other respects; and with good generals, there is no manifest +reason why they should not successfully cope with Frenchmen, although we +doubt whether they could. But in Napoleon's day matters were very +different, and in the open field their chance was desperate. The +Portuguese were doubtless of a better quality; and in the pages of +Napier and other historians, we find them spoken of in terms of praise. +They had British officers to head them, and there is much in good +leading; they had British troops to emulate, and national pride spurred +them on. At the same period, Italians--certainly very poor soldiers when +left to themselves--fought gallantly under French generals, and with +French example before them. Of the general bearing of the Portuguese, +however, we have heard few Peninsular men speak very highly. They appear +to have been extremely inconsistent; brave one day, dastards the next. + +At, Ciudad Rodrigo, Mr Grattan greatly lauds their gallantry, which +struck him the more as being unexpected. At Salamanca, on the other +hand, he records their weakness, and the easy repulse of Pack's brigade, +two thousand strong, by four hundred Frenchmen. "Notwithstanding all +that has been said and written of the Portuguese troops, I still hold +the opinion that they are utterly incompetent to stand unsupported and +_countenanced_ by British troops, with any chance of success, against +even half their own numbers of Frenchmen." Again, after Salamanca, when +Wellington and his victorious army advanced on Madrid, the Portuguese +dragoons fled, without striking a blow, before the French lancers, +exposing the reserve of German cavalry to severe loss, abandoning the +artillery to its fate, and tarnishing the triumphal entry of the British +into the capital--within a march of which this disgraceful affair +occurred. Still, to encourage these wavering heroes, it was necessary to +speak civilly of them in despatches; to pat them on the back, and tell +them they were fine fellows. And this has sometimes been misunderstood +by simple persons, who believe all they see in print, and look upon +despatches and bulletins as essentially veracious documents. "I remember +once," says Mr Grattan, "upon my return home in 1813, getting myself +closely cross-examined by an old lawyer, because I said I thought the +Portuguese troops inferior to the French, still more to the British. +'Inferior to the British, sir! I have read Lord Wellington's last +despatch, and he says the Portuguese fought as well as the British; and +I suppose you won't contradict him?' I saw it was vain to convince this +pugnacious old man of the necessity of saying these civil things, and we +parted mutually dissatisfied with each other; he taking me, no doubt, +for a forward young puppy, and I looking upon him as a monstrous old +bore." + +The Eighty-eighth, we gather from Mr Grattan's narrative, whilst +respected by all as a first-rate battle regiment, was, when the stirring +and serious events of that busy time left a moment for trifling, a +fertile source of amusement to the whole third division. This is not +wonderful. Many of the officers, and all the men, with the exception of +three or four, were Irish, not Anglicised Irishmen, tamed by long +residence amongst the Saxon, but raw, roaring Patlanders, who had grown +and thriven on praties and potheen, and had carried with them to Spain +their rich brogue, their bulls, and an exhaustless stock of gaiety. The +amount of fun and blunders furnished by such a corps was naturally +immense. But if in quarters they were made the subject of much +good-humoured quizzing, in the field their steady valour was justly +appreciated. No regiment in the service contained a larger proportion of +"lads that weren't aisy," which metaphorical phrase, current among the +Rangers, is translated by Mr Grattan as signifying fellows who would +walk into a cannon's month, and think the operation rather a pleasant +one. Whenever a desperate service was to be done, "the boys," as they, +_more Hibernico_, familiarly termed themselves, were foremost in the +ranks of volunteers. The contempt of danger, or non-comprehension of it, +manifested by some of these gentlemen, was perfect. "My fine fellow," +said an engineer officer, during the unsuccessful siege of Badajoz in +May 1811, to a man under Lieutenant Grattan's orders, who sat outside a +battery, hammering at a fascine; "my fine fellow, you are too much +exposed; get inside the embrasure, and you will do your work nearly as +well." "I'm almost finished, colonel," was the reply, "and it isn't +worth while to move now. Those fellows can't hit me, for they've been +trying it these fifteen minutes." Just then, a round-shot gave the lie +to his prediction by cutting him in two; and, according to their custom, +the French gunners set up a shout of triumph at their successful +practice. Some of the Connaughters, who had never lost sight of their +native bogs till exported to the Peninsula, understood little or no +English beyond the words of command. On an inspection parade, one of +this class was asked by General Mackinnon, to whose squad he belonged. +Bewildered and puzzled, Darby Rooney applied to his sergeant for a +translation of the general's question--thus conveying to the latter an +idea that this was the first time he had heard such a thing as a squad +spoken of. The story got abroad--was, of course, much embellished--and +an hour afterwards the third division was enjoying a prodigious chuckle +at the notion that not one of the Connaughters knew what a squad meant. +The young men laughed, the old officers shook their heads and deplored +the benighted state of the Irishmen; whilst all the time, Mr Grattan +assures us, "the Eighty-eighth was a more really _efficient_ regiment +than almost any _two_ corps in the third division." As efficient as any +they undoubtedly were, when fighting was to be done; but in some other +respects their conduct was less irreproachable. According to their +historian and advocate's own showing, their knapsacks were often too +light and their havresacks too heavy. "A watchcoat, a piece of +pipe-clay, and a button-brush," compose rather a scanty kit: yet those +three articles formed--with the exception of the clothes he stood +in--the entire wardrobe and means of personal adornment of the Rooney +above-named; and many of his comrades were scarce better provided. But +if the back was neglected and left bare, the belly, on the contrary, +was cared for with vigilant affection. On occasion, the Eighty-eighth +could do their work on meagre diet as well, or better than any other +corps. They would march two days on a pipe of tobacco; or for a week, +with the addition of a biscuit and a dram. But when they did such +things, it was no sign of any abstract love of temperance, or wish to +mortify the flesh; it was simply a token of the extreme poverty of the +district in which they found themselves. For the article provend they +always kept a bright look-out. A greasy havresack, especially on the +line of march, is the soldier's first desideratum; and it was rare that +a very respectable workhouse soup could not have been produced by +infusing that of a Connaughter in a proper quantity of water. When +rations were scanty, or commissaries lagged in the rear, none understood +better than the Eighty-eighth how to forage for themselves. "Every man +his own quartermaster" was then their motto. Nothing came amiss to them; +sweet or savoury, from a pig to a bee-hive, they sacked every thing; and +their "taking ways" were often cast in their teeth. The natives were +compelled to mount guard over their sheepfolds; but the utmost force +they could muster was of small avail against the resolute onslaught of +the half-famished Irishmen. Even the exertions of the Provost-marshal, +and the liberal application of the cat, proved ineffectual to check +these depredations; whilst the whimsical arguments used by the fellows +in their defence sometimes disarmed the severity of Picton himself. + +It would have been quite out of character for an Irish regiment to march +without ladies in their train, and accordingly the female following of +the Rangers was organised on the most liberal scale. Motley as it was +numerous, it included, besides English and Irish women, a fair +sprinkling of tender-hearted Spaniards and Portuguese, who had been +unable to resist the fascinations of the insinuating Connaughters. The +sufferings of these poor creatures, on long marches, over bad roads and +in wet and cold seasons, were of course terrible, and only to be +equalled by their fidelity to those to whom they had attached +themselves. Their endurance of fatigue was wonderful; their services +were often great; and many a soldier, stretched disabled on the field of +some bloody battle, and suffering from the terrible thirst attendant on +wounds, owed his life to their gentle ministry. In circumstances of +danger, they showed remarkable courage. At the assault of Ciudad +Rodrigo, the baggage-guard, eager to share in the fight, deserted +their post and rushed to the trenches. Immediately a host of +miscreants--fellows who hung on the skirts of the army, watching +opportunities to plunder--made a dash at the camp, but the women +defended it valiantly, and fairly beat them off. Of course feminine +sensibility got a little blunted by a life of this kind, and it was +rarely with very violent emotion that the ladies saw their husbands go +into action. Persuaded of their invincibility, they looked upon success +as certain, and if, unfortunately, the victory left them widows, they +deemed a very short mourning necessary before contracting a new +alliance. Now and then a damsel of birth and breeding would desert the +paternal mansion to follow the drum; and Mr Grattan tells a romantic +history of a certain Jacinta Cherito, the beautiful daughter of a +wealthy judge, who blacked her face and tramped off as a cymbal boy +under the protection of the drum-major of the Eighty-eighth--a +magnificent fellow, whose gorgeous uniform and imposing cocked hat +caused him to be taken by the Portuguese for nothing less than a general +of division. The young lady had not forgotten to take her jewels with +her, and the old judge made a great fuss, and appealed to the colonel, +who requested him to inspect the regiment as it left the town. But the +sooty visage and uniform jacket baffled his penetration, and at the +first halt, the drummer and the lady were made one flesh. Thorp, the +lucky bridegroom, was a fine dashing fellow, bent upon distinguishing +himself. He was often wounded, but never missed an engagement, even when +his hurts were unhealed. He fell gloriously at Toulouse, and the next +day came the gazette with his promotion to an ensigncy, which, if it was +then of little value to him, was at any rate "a great consolation to his +poor afflicted widow, and the means of reconciling her father to the +choice she had made; and her return once more to her home was a scene of +great rejoicing." When the British troops embarked at Bordeaux, for +America and England, a crowd of poor Spanish and Portuguese women, who +had long followed their fortunes and were now forbidden to accompany +their husbands and lovers, watched their departure with tearful eyes. +"They were fond and attached creatures, and had been useful in many +ways, and under many circumstances, not only to their husbands, but to +the corps they belonged to generally. Many of them, the Portuguese in +particular, had lived with our men for years, and had borne them +children." But the stern rules of the service prevailed. The battalions +bound for America were allowed but a limited number of soldiers' wives, +and the surplus were of necessity left to their fate. Some had money; +more were penniless, and nearly naked. Men and officers were then +greatly in arrear, but nevertheless a subscription was got up, and its +amount divided amongst the unfortunates, thus abandoned upon a foreign +shore, and at many hundreds of miles from their homes. + +General Picton was a man of action, not of words. There was no palaver +about him, nothing superfluous in the way of orations, but he spoke +strongly and to the point. Long harangues, as Mr Grattan justly +observes, are not necessary to British soldiers. Metaphor and flowers of +rhetoric are thrown away upon them. Something plain, pithy, and +appropriate is what they like; the shorter the better. "Rangers of +Connaught!" said Picton, as he passed the Eighty-eighth, drawn up for +the assault of Ciudad Rodrigo, "it is not my intention to expend any +powder this evening. We'll do this business with the cold iron." This +was a very unpretending speech; nothing of the clap-trap or melodramatic +about it; a mere declaration in the fewest possible words, of the +speaker's intentions, implying what he expected from those he addressed. +That it was just what was wanted, was proved by the hearty respondent +cheer of the brave Irishmen. The result of the attack is well known; the +Rangers took a gallant share in it. The next morning the troops were +ordered out of the captured town, which they had ransacked to some +purpose, and the Eighty-eighth, drawn up on their bivouac ground, were +about to march away to the village of Atalaya, when Picton again rode +past. "Some of the soldiers, who were more than usually elevated in +spirits," (they had passed the night in bursting open doors and drinking +brandy,) "called out, 'Well, General, we gave you a cheer last night: +it's your turn now!' The general smiled, took off his hat, and said, +'Here, then, you drunken set of brave rascals--hurrah! we'll soon be at +Badajoz.'" A prophecy which was not long unaccomplished. With all +deference to Mr Grattan, we cannot but think that the Eighty-eighth were +very appropriately placed under Picton's orders. Excellent fighting men +though they were, they certainly, according to their champion's own +showing, needed a strict hand over them. We should like to know how they +would have got on under such an officer as Mr Grattan tells us of, who, +when in command of a regiment, came to mess one day in very low spirits, +because, having sent his adjutant to inquire of an ensign why he did not +attend parade, the ensign returned no answer, and, on subsequently +meeting his commanding officer, cut him dead. The colonel told the story +at the mess-table, and concluded by saying, "I thought nothing of his +not answering my message, but I cannot express how much I am hurt at the +idea of his cutting me as he did when I wished to speak to him!" +Field-officers of such susceptible feelings, and such very loose ideas +on the subject of discipline, were not plentiful in the Peninsula, and +this one, we are given to understand, did not long retain his regiment. +He would hardly have done at the head of the high-spirited Connaughters. +But if Picton's severity to the men of the Eighty-eighth may be +justified, his neglect of the officers is far more difficult to excuse. +"_Not one of them was ever promoted through his recommendation._" The +conduct of Lieutenant Mackie at Ciudad Rodrigo was chivalrous in the +extreme. General Mackinnon--who commanded the brigade and was blown to +pieces at its head by the explosion of a mine--wished to confer a mark +of distinction on the gallant Eighty-eighth, and ordered that one of its +subalterns should lead the forlorn-hope. The moment this was announced +to the assembled officers, "Mackie stepped forward, and lowering his +sword, said, 'Major Thompson, I am ready for that service.'" Mackinnon +had promised a company to the forlorn-hope leader, if he survived. But +it must be observed that Mackie was senior lieutenant, and consequently +sure of early promotion. The Eighty-eighth was to be in the van at the +assault, and the probabilities were that at least one captain would be +knocked off. Or, if not that day, it would happen the next. So that +Mackie, in volunteering on the most desperate of all services, could +have little to actuate him beyond an honourable desire for glory. How +was he repaid? Gurwood, who led the forlorn-hope at the lesser breach, +got his company; Mackie remained a lieutenant--no captain of the +Eighty-eighth having been killed, and General Mackinnon not being alive +to fulfil his promise. And whilst all the other officers who had been +forward in the attack, had their names recorded in Picton's +division-order, poor Mackie was denied even the word of barren praise so +gratifying to a soldier's heart. + +The loss of Ciudad Rodrigo was a stunning blow to the French. They could +not understand it at all. Herrasti and his Spaniards had held out the +place a month against Ney and Massena, with thirty or forty thousand +veterans, and that in fine weather, a great advantage to the +besiegers--in eleven days, and in the depth of winter, Wellington +reduced it, with twenty thousand men and opposed by a French garrison. +The contrast was great, and quite inexplicable to the French. "On the +16th," wrote Marmont to Berthier, "the English batteries opened their +fire at a great distance. On the 19th the place was taken by storm, and +fell into the power of the enemy. There is something so incomprehensible +in this event, that I allow myself no observation. I am not provided +with the requisite information." No testimony could be more +complimentary to the brave captors of Rodrigo. That great success, +however, was only a forerunner of greater ones. Badajoz was the next +place to be taken, preparatory to marching into the interior of Spain. +To conceal his intentions from the enemy, Wellington had recourse to an +elaborate stratagem. A powerful battering train, supplied by the men of +war in the Tagus, was shipped at Lisbon, on board vessels of large size, +which put out to sea, and, when out of sight of land, transhipped their +cargo into smaller craft. These carried them up the Tagus into the heart +of the country. At the same time the necessary magazines were formed; +and at Elvas, only three leagues from Badajoz, a large quantity of +fascines and gabions were prepared. All this, however, was done so +quietly, Wellington appeared so supine, and Badajoz was so well +provided, that Soult was lulled into security; and when at last he took +the alarm, and marched from Seville at the head of twenty-five thousand +men, it was too late. Philippon, and his brave garrison, did all that +skill and courage could; but in vain. When Soult reached Villafranca, +two days' march from Badajoz, the fortress had already been two days in +the power of the English. This, to the French, was another unaccountable +business; they, even yet, had not learned fully to appreciate the +sovereign virtues of British bayonets. "I think the capture of Badajoz a +very extraordinary event," Lery, Soult's chief engineer, wrote to +General Kellerman, "and I am much at a loss to account for it in a clear +and distinct manner." This comes at the end of a mysterious sort of +epistle, in which the engineer general talks of fatality, and seems to +think that the British had no right to take Badajoz, defended as it was. +But Wellington and his army were great despisers of that sort of +_right_, and, in spite of the really glorious defence, in spite of the +strategy of the governor and the valour of the garrison, of _chevaux de +frise_ of sword-blades, and of the deadly accuracy of the French +artillery and musketeers, Badajoz was taken. The triumph was fearfully +costly. Nearly four thousand five hundred men fell on the side of the +besiegers;--Picton's division was reduced to a skeleton, and the +Connaught Rangers lost more than half their numbers. + +Shot through the body at Badajoz, Mr Grattan was left there when his +division marched away. He gives a terrible account of the sacking of the +town; but on such details, even had they not been many times +recapitulated, it is not pleasant to dwell. The frightful crimes +perpetrated during those two days of unbridled excess and violence, rest +at the door of the man whose boundless ambition occasioned that most +desolating war. From an ignorant and sensual soldiery, excited to +madness by a prolonged resistance, and by one of the most sanguinary +conflicts recorded in the history of sieges, forbearance could hardly be +expected. The horrible saturnalia, in which murder and rape, pillage and +intoxication, are pushed to their utmost limits, are the necessary +condition of a successful assault on a desperately defended fortress; +and supposing them prohibited, and that such prohibition could be +enforced, we agree with Mr Grattan in believing that many a town that +has been victoriously carried, might have been found impregnable. But +one must ever deplore the disgraceful scenes enacted in the streets and +houses of Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo, and St Sebastian. Unsurpassed in +atrocity, they remain everlasting blots upon the bright laurels gathered +by the British in the Peninsula. And it is small palliation, that under +similar circumstances, the armies of all nations have acted in like +manner. Here the sufferers were not enemies. To the garrison, when their +resistance ceased, quarter was given; they were marched away scatheless, +and treated with that humanity which England, notwithstanding the lying +assertions of foreign historians, has ever used towards her prisoners. +No, the victims were friends and allies. The very nation in whose behalf +our soldiers had fought, saw their houses ransacked, their property +wasted, their wives and daughters brutally outraged, by those whose +mission was to protect and defend. Let us hope they have forgotten, or +at least forgiven, such gloomy episodes in the struggle for their +liberation. + +The advocates of universal peace might adduce many potent and practical +arguments in favour of their doctrine from the pages of Mr Grattan's +book. He is unsparing in his details of the inevitable horrors of war; +and some of his descriptions, persons of tender hearts and sensitive +nerves will do well to pass over. They may be read with profit by those +who, accustomed to behold but the sunny side of military life, think too +lightly of the miseries war entails. Let such accompany Mr Grattan +though the streets of Badajoz, on the morning of the 7th April, 1812, +and into the temporary hospital of Villa Formosa, after the fierce +conflict of Fuentes d'Onore, where two hundred soldiers still awaited, +twenty-four hours after the action, the surgeons' leisure, for the +amputation of their limbs. Let them view with him the piles of +unsuccoured wounded on the breach of Badajoz, and hear the shrieks and +groans of men dying in helpless agony, without a friendly hand to prop +their head, or a drop of water to cool their fevered lips. From such +harrowing scenes it is pleasant to turn to the more humane and redeeming +features of civilised warfare, and to note the courteous and amicable +relations that existed between the contending armies when, as sometimes +happened, they lay near together without coming to blows. This occurred +previously to the battle of Salamanca. From the 3d to the 12th of July, +the French and British were in presence of each other, encamped on +either side the Douro, at that season little more than a rivulet. Of +course all were on the alert; there was no laxity or negligence that +could tempt to surprise; but neither was there any useless skirmishing +or picket firing; every thing was conducted in the most gentlemanly and +correct manner. The soldiers bathed together and exchanged their +rations, and the officers were on equally good terms. "The part of the +river of which I speak was occupied, on our side, by the Third division; +on the French side by the Seventh division. The French officers said to +us at parting, 'We have met, and have been for some time friends. We are +about to separate, and may meet as enemies. As friends we received each +other warmly; as enemies we shall do the same.' Ten days afterwards the +British Third and the French Seventh division were opposed to each other +at Salamanca, and the Seventh French was destroyed by the British +Third." Mr Grattan's wound was healed in ample time for him to assist at +the battle of Salamanca; a glorious victory, which would have been even +more complete had the British been properly seconded by their Portuguese +allies. The behaviour of these was any thing but creditable to their +nation. One detachment of caçadores actually threw themselves on their +faces to avoid the enemy's fire, and not all the blows showered on them +by their commander, Major Haddock, could induce them to exchange their +recumbent attitude for one more dignified. Notwithstanding this, and the +more fatal feebleness of Pack's brigade, the French were totally beaten, +and their loss was nearly four times that of the British. Lord +Wellington's opinion of the battle--a particularly honourable one to our +troops, inasmuch as they not only _fought_ better, but (which was not +always the case) moved and manoeuvred better, than the picked veterans +of the French army--is sufficiently shown by the fact that "he selected +it in preference to all his other victories, as the most fitting to be +fought over in sham-fight on the plains of St Denis, in the presence of +the three crowned heads who occupied Paris after the second abdication +of the Emperor Napoleon, in 1815." + +At Salamanca, the right brigade of the Third division, including the +Connaught Rangers, charged the entire division of the French General +Thomière. So awful was the volley that welcomed them, that more than +half the officers, and nearly the whole front rank, were swept away. +Doubtless the French thought this would prove a sickener, for great was +their consternation when, before the smoke had well cleared away, they +saw the shattered but dauntless brigade advancing fiercely and steadily +upon them. Panic-stricken, they wavered; "the three regiments ran +onward, and the mighty phalanx, which a moment before was so formidable, +loosened and fell in pieces before fifteen hundred invincible British +soldiers fighting in a line of only two deep." In this memorable charge, +the standard-pole of the Eighty-eighth was struck by a bullet, the same +that killed Major Murphy, who commanded the battalion. New colours have +since been presented to the regiment, but the wounded pole is still +preserved, and on it is engraved, on a plate of silver, the day and the +manner of its mutilation. + +An advance on Madrid was consequent on the triumph at Salamanca, and on +the 12th of August, Wellington and his army reached the Spanish capital. +Their entrance has often been described, but in default of novelty, Mr +Grattan's account of it possesses spirit and interest. It was one of +those scenes that repay soldiers for months of fatigue and danger. The +troops were almost carried into the city in the arms of the delighted +populace. The steady, soldier-like bearing of the men, the appearance of +the officers, nearly all mounted, inspired respect and increased the +general enthusiasm. For miles from Madrid, the road was thronged; when +the army got into the streets, it was no longer possible to preserve the +order of march. The ranks were broken by the pressure of the crowd, and +the officers (lucky dogs!) were half-smothered in the embraces of the +charming Madrileñas. Young and old, ugly and handsome, all came in for +their share of hugs and kisses. Still, although patriotism impelled the +Spanish fair to look with favour upon the scarlet-coated Britons, the +painful confession must be made that as individuals they gave the +preference to the lively, light-hearted Frenchmen. Napoleon was the +fiend himself, incarnate in the form of an under-sized Corsican, and the +_gavachos_ were his imps, whom it was praise-worthy to shoot at from +behind every hedge, and to poniard whenever the opportunity offered. +Such was the creed inculcated by the priests, and devoutly entertained +by their petticoated penitents--that is to say, by every Christian woman +in the Peninsula. But somehow or other, when French regiments were +quartered in Spanish towns, the female part of the population forgot the +anathemas of their spiritual consolers, and looked complacently upon +those they were enjoined to abhor. It was a case of "_nos amis les +ennemis_," and the French, beaten every where in the field, obtained +facile and frequent triumphs in the boudoir. "It is a singular fact, and +I look upon it as a degrading one," says Mr Grattan with diverting +seriousness, "that the French officers, whilst at Madrid, made in the +ratio of five to one more conquests than we did." The dignity of the +admission might be questioned; the degree of degradation is matter of +opinion; the singularity is explained away by Mr Grattan himself. He +blames his comrades for their stiff, unbending manners, and for their +non-conformance to the customs of the country. They were nearly three +months at Madrid, and yet he declares that, at the end of that time, +they knew little more of the inhabitants than of the citizens of Pekin. +And he opines that the impression left in Spain by the Peninsular army +was rather one of respect for their courage, than of admiration of their +social graces and general affability. If Mr Grattan, whilst reposing at +ease upon his well-earned bays, would devise and promulgate an antidote +to the mixture of shyness, reserve, and hauteur, which renders +Englishmen, wherever they travel, the least popular of the European +family, he would have a claim on his country's gratitude stronger even +than the one he established whilst defending her with his sword in the +well-contested fields of the Peninsula. Notwithstanding, however, the +unamiability with which he reproaches his companions in arms, there was +much fun and feasting, and sauntering in the Prado, and bull-fighting +and theatre-going, whilst the British were at Madrid. But it was too +pleasant to last long. The best a soldier can expect in war-time, is an +alternation of good quarters and severe hardship. The "_quart-d'heure de +Rabelais_" was at hand, when all the dancing, drinking, masking, and +other pleasant things should be paid for, and the brief enjoyment +forgotten, amidst the sufferings of the most painful retreat--excepting, +of course, that of Corunna--effected by a British army during the whole +war. We refer to the retrograde movement that followed the unsuccessful +siege of Burgos. + +The high reputation of the British soldier rests far more upon his arms +than upon his legs; in other words, he is a fighting rather than a +marching man. Slowness of movement, in the field as on the route, is the +fault that has most frequently been imputed to him. One thing is pretty +generally admitted; that, to work well, he must be well fed. And even +then he will hardly get over the ground as rapidly, or endure fatigue as +long, as the lean lathy Frenchman, who has never known the liberal +rations and fat diet the other is accustomed to. When a certain period +of active service and long marches has given the English soldier his +campaigning legs, he must still have his regular grog, or he soon flags, +if he does not grumble and become insubordinate. Rations were bad, and +hard to be got, on the retreat from Burgos. Then, Mr Grattan tells us, +the superior marching qualities of the Irish were manifest. There had +been very little beef-steak and bacon expended in _their_ bringing up; +scanty fare was nothing new to them, and by no means affected their +gaiety and good-humour. And when shoes were scarce, what cared they? The +stones in Connaught are not a bit softer than those in Spain; and +nine-tenths of the boys had trotted about, from infancy upwards, with +"divel a brogue, save the one on their tongues." Some of the English +regiments--the Forty-fifth for instance, chiefly composed of Nottingham +weavers--would, under ordinary circumstances, march as well as any +Irishman of them all: "But if it came to a hard tug, and that we had +neither rations nor shoes, then, indeed, the Connaught Rangers would be +in their element, and out-march almost any battalion in the service." On +the retreat from Burgos to Portugal, they gave proof of their toughness +and endurance; for whilst other regiments were decimated by fatigue and +sickness, the Eighty-eighth scarcely lost a man, except by the enemy's +fire. It was a time when the good qualities of all were severely tested. +The movement began in a most unfavourable season. The roads were nearly +impassable from heavy rains, and for days together there was not a dry +jacket in the army. At night they lay in the open country, often in a +swamp, without a tent to shelter them; the baggage was detached, and +they never saw it till they reached Ciudad Rodrigo. It was share and +share alike amongst men and officers, and many of the latter were mere +striplings, who had but lately left the comforts of their English homes. +When they halted from their weary day's march, the ill-conditioned +beasts collected for rations had to be slaughtered; sometimes they came +too late to be of any use, or the camp-kettles did not arrive in time to +cook them; and the famished soldiers had to set out again, with a few +pieces of dry biscuit rattling in their neglected stomachs, and driven +to satisfy the cravings of hunger with the acorns that strewed the +forests. There was little money afloat, for pay was four months in +arrear, but millions would have been useless where there was nothing to +buy. The country was deserted; every where the inhabitants fled on the +approach of the two armies. Disease was the natural consequence of so +many privations; ague and dysentery undermined the men's strength, and +many poor fellows, unable to proceed, were left upon the road. Horses +died by hundreds, and those which held out were for the most part +sore-backed, one of the greatest calamities that can happen to cavalry +and artillery on the march. Fortunately Soult, who, with ninety thousand +men, followed the harassed army, had some experience of British troops. +And what he had seen of them, especially at Albuera and on the Corunna +retreat, had inspired him with a salutary respect for their prowess. +They might retreat, but he knew what they could and would do when driven +to stand at bay. And therefore, although Wellington was by no means +averse to fight, and actually offered his antagonist battle on the very +ground where, four months previously, that of Salamanca had occurred, +the wary Duke of Dalmatia declined the contest. He played a safe game: +without risking a defeat by a general action, or attempting to drive the +British before him with the bayonet, he hovered about their rear, +disquieted them by a flank movement of part of his force, and had the +satisfaction of knowing that their loss by the casualties and fatigues +of the march and inclemency of the weather, was as great as it would +probably have been had he engaged them. For, besides those who perished +on the road, when the army got into winter quarters, a vast number of +men and officers went into hospital, and months elapsed before the +troops were fully reorganised and fit for the field. At a day's march +from Ciudad Rodrigo, Wellington's rear-guard had a smart skirmish, and +then Soult desisted from his pursuit, and the Anglo-Portuguese were +allowed to proceed without further molestation. Although disastrous, and +in some respects ill managed, the retreat was in no way disgraceful. The +French, very superior in numbers, had, whenever they pressed forward, +been bravely met, and invariably repulsed. + +With this retreat, Mr Grattan's Peninsular campaigns closed. He returned +to Ireland, and in the summer of 1814, embarked for Canada. He rather +refers to, than records the service he saw there; taking occasion, +however, for a strong censure on Sir George Prevost, who, after forcing +our ill-appointed fleet on Lake Champlain into action, refused to allow +Brisbane and his brigade of "Peninsulars" to take the fort of +Platsburgh, an enterprise easy of achievement, and which would have +placed the captured ships, and the victorious but disabled American +flotilla, at the mercy of the British. But we have not space to follow +the Ranger across the Atlantic, nor is it essential so to do; for, +although he gives some amusing sketches of Canada and the Canadians, the +earlier portion of his book is by far the most interesting, and +certainly the most carefully written. We could almost quarrel with him +for defacing his second volume with perpetual and not very successful +attempts at wit. We have rarely met with more outrageous specimens of +punning run mad, than are to be found in its pages. Barring that fault, +we have nothing but what is favourable to say of the book. Its tone is +manly, and soldier-like, and it is creditable both to the writer and to +the service, by which, during the last thirty years, our stores of +military and historical literature have been so largely and agreeably +increased. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] _Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, from 1808 to 1814._ By W. +GRATTAN, Esq. London. 1847. + + + + +LORD SIDMOUTH'S LIFE AND TIME.[4] + + +To read a memoir of the late Lord Sidmouth, is like taking a walk +through Westminster Abbey. All the literature, is inscriptions; all the +figures are monumental; and all the names are those of men whose +characters and distinctions have been echoing in our ears since we had +the power to understand national renown. The period between 1798, when +the subject of this memoir made his first step in parliamentary life as +Speaker, and 1815, when the close of the war so triumphantly finished +the long struggle between liberty and jacobinism, was beyond all +comparison the most memorable portion of British history. + +In this estimate, we fully acknowledge the imperishable fame of +Marlborough in the field, and the high ability of Bolingbroke in the +senate. The gallantry of Wolfe still throws its lustre over the +concluding years of the second George; and the brilliant declamation of +Chatham will exact the tribute due to daring thought, and classic +language, so long as oratory is honoured among men. But the age which +followed was an age of realities, stern, stirring, and fearful. There +was scarcely a trial of national fortitude, or national Vigour, through +which the sinews of England were not then forced to give proof of their +highest power of endurance. All was a struggle of the elements; in which +every shroud and tackle of the royal ship of England was strained; and +the tempest lasted through nearly a quarter of a century. England, the +defender of all, was the sufferer for all. Every principle of her +financial prosperity, every material of her military prowess, every +branch of her constitutional system, every capacity of her political +existence, her Church, her State, and her Legislature, were successively +compelled into the most perilous yet most powerful display; and the +close of the most furious hostility which Europe had ever seen, only +exhibited in a loftier point of view the victorious strength which +principle confers upon a people. + +Compared with this tremendous scene, the political conflicts of the +preceding age were a battle on the stage, compared with the terrors of +the field. The spectators came to enjoy a Spectacle, and sit tranquilly +admiring the brilliancy of the caparisons and the dexterity of the +charge; but perfectly convinced that all would end without harm to the +champions, and that the fall of the curtain would extinguish the war. +But, in the trials of the later time, there were moments when we seemed +to be throwing our last stake; when the trumpets of Europe, leagued +against us, seemed to be less challenging us to the field, than +preceding us to the tomb; and when the last hope of the wise and good +might be, to give the last manifestation of a life of patriotic virtue. + +In language like this, we are not abasing the national courage. We are +paying the fullest homage to the substantial claims of the English +heart. It is only by the severest national struggles that the +superiority of national powers can be developed; and without doubting +the qualities of the Marlboroughs and Chathams--or even without +doubting, that if thrown into the battle of the last fifty years, they +would have exhibited the same intellectual stature and powerful +adroitness which distinguished their actual displays--yet they wanted +the strong necessities of a time like ours, to place them on a similar +height of renown. Still their time continues in admirable study. But it +is like the story of the Volscian and Samnite combats, read in the day +when the consul, flying through the streets of Rome, brought the news of +Cannæ. + +The wars and politics of the eighteenth century were the manoeuvres of +a _garde du corps_, and the intrigues of a boudoir. Our fathers saw no +nation of thirty millions rushing to the field; frantic with the +passion for overthrow, no Napoleon thundering at the head of vassal +Europe against England; no conspiracy of peoples against thrones; no +train of crouching sovereignties, half in terror and half in servility, +ready to do the wildest will of the wildest despot of the world; no army +of five hundred thousand men ready to spring upon our shores, and +turning off only to the overthrow of empires. All was on a smaller +scale; the passions feebler, the means narrower, the objects more +trivial, the triumphs more temporary, the catastrophe more powerless, +and the glory more vanishing. + +All has since subsided; and the mind of man is turned to efforts in +directions totally new. All now is the rigid struggle with the physical +difficulties of society. The grand problems are, how to level the +mountain, and to drain the sea: or, if we must leave the Alps to be +still the throne of the thunder, and suffer even the Zuyder-zee to roll +its sullen waves over its incorrigible shallows; yet to tunnel the +mountain and pass the sea with a rapidity, which makes us regardless of +the interposition of obstacles that once stopped the march of armies, +and made the impregnable fortresses of kingdoms. But the still severer +trials of human intelligence are, how to clothe, feed, educate, and +discipline the millions which every passing year pours into the world. +The mind may well be bewildered with a prospect so vast, so vivid, and +yet so perplexing. Every man sees that old things are done away, that +physical force is resuming its primitive power over the world, and that +we are approaching a time when Mechanism will have the control of +nature, and Multitude the command of society. + + * * * * * + +There are many families in England which, without any change of +circumstances, without any increase of fortune, or any discoverable +vicissitudes, have existed for centuries, in possession of the same +property, generally a small one, and handed down from father to son as +if by a law of nature. The family of Lord Sidmouth is found to have held +the proprietorship of the small estate of Fringford, in Oxfordshire, +from the year 1600, and to have had a residence in Bannebury about a +century and a half before;--the first descendant of this quiet race who +became known beyond the churchyard where "his village fathers sleep," +being Dr Addington, who died in 1799. Genealogies like those give a +striking view of the general security of landed possession, which the +habits of national integrity, and the influence of law, must alone have +effected, during the turbulent times which so often changed the +succession to the throne of England. + +Dr Addington, who had been educated at Winchester school, and Trinity +College, Oxford, having adopted medicine as his profession, commenced +his practice at Reading, where he married the daughter of the Rev. Dr +Niley, head-master of the grammar-school. The well-known trial of the +wretched parricide, Miss Blandy, for poisoning, in which he was a +principal witness, brought him into considerable notice; and probably on +the strength of this notice, he removed to London, and took a house in +Bedford Row, where the late Lord Sidmouth, his fourth child, but eldest +son, was born. He next removed to Clifford Street, a more fashionable +quarter, which brought him into intercourse with many persons of +distinction. Among these were Louth, Bishop of London, the Duke of +Montagu, Earl Rivers, and, first of the first, the great Earl of +Chatham. With this distinguished man, Dr Addington seems to have been on +terms of familiar friendship, as the following extracts show:--Chatham +writes from Burton Pynsent, in 1771. + +"All your friends here, the flock of your care, are truly sensible of +the kind attentions of the good shepherd. My last fit of the gout left +me as it had visited me, very kindly. I am many hours every day in the +field, and, as I live like a farmer abroad, I return home and eat like +one. * * + +"Ale goes on admirably, and agrees perfectly. My reverence for it, too, +is increased, having just read in the manners of our remotest Celtic +ancestors much of its antiquity and invigorating qualities. The boys all +long for ale, seeing papa drink it, but we do not try such an +experiment. Such is the force of example, that I find I must watch +myself in all I do, for fear of misleading. If your friend William saw +me smoke, he would certainly call for a pipe." + +Lord Chatham died May 11th, 1788, which event was thus notified by Dr +Addington to his son Henry. + +"You will be grieved to hear that Lord Chatham is no more. It pleased +Providence to take him away this morning, as if it were in mercy that he +might not be a spectator of the total ruin of a country which he was not +permitted to save." + +The doctor was a croaker, as was the fashion of the time, with all who +pretended to peculiar political sagacity. Of course the family physician +of the ex-minister was in duty bound to echo the ex-minister's +discontent. It is clear that, whatever professional gifts the doctor +inherited from Apollo, he did not share the gift of prophecy. The +doctor, after realising enough by his profession to purchase an estate +in Devonshire, retired to Reading, where, in 1790, he died, having had, +in the year before, the enviable gratification of seeing his son elected +to the Speakership of the House of Commons. + +Henry Viscount Sidmouth was born in 1757, on the 30th of May. At the age +of five years, he was placed under the care of the Rev. William Gilpin, +author of the Essays on the Picturesque, who for many years kept a +school at Cheam, in Surrey. + +Lord Sidmouth had but one brother, Hiley, who subsequently figured so +often in the caustic rhymes of Canning, and who, under his brother's +auspices, was successively secretary of the treasury, paymaster of the +forces, and under-secretary of state. In his twelfth year, Henry, +followed by Hiley, was sent to Winchester, then under the government of +the well-known Dr Joseph Wharton, with George Isaac Huntingford as one +of the assistants. + +The author of the biography gives Huntingford credit for the singular +degree of attachment exhibited in his occasional letters to his pupil. +It certainly seems singular; when we know the slenderness, if not +sternness of the connexion generally subsisting between the teachers at +a great English seminary, and the pupils. In one of those epistles +Huntingford says to this boy of fifteen. + +"For my own part, to you I lay open _my whole heart without reserve_. I +divest myself of the little superiority which age may have given me. +With you I can enter into conversation with all the familiarity of an +intimate companion. The few hours of intercourse which we thus enjoy +with each other give more relief to my wearied body and mind than _any +other amusement on earth_. What I am to do when you leave school, _a +melancholy thought, I cannot foresee_. May the _evil hour be postponed_ +as late as possible. Yet let me add, whenever it shall be most for your +advantage to leave me, I will not doubt to sacrifice _my own peace_ and +comfort for your interest. _I love myself, but you better_." + +We hope that this style is not much in fashion in our public schools. +Dean Pellew tells us that numerous letters of this kind were written by +this tutor to his pupil in after life, and adds with a ludicrous +solemnity, "It will readily be imagined how _efficacious_ they must have +proved, in forming the character of the future statesman, and erecting +Spartan and Roman virtues on the noble foundation of Christianity." + +For our part, we know not what to make of such communications: they seem +to us intolerably silly, and we think ought _not_ to have been +published. In later life, their writer was made Bishop of Hereford and +Warden of Winchester. He seems to have been a fellow of foresight! + +In 1773, Henry and Hiley were both removed from Winchester, and put +under the tuition of Dr Goodenough, who took private pupils at Ealing, +and who was afterwards Bishop of Carlisle. In the next year, Henry +entered as commoner in Brazen-Nose College under the tuition of +Radcliffe, then a tutor of some celebrity. In this college he became +acquainted with Abbot, afterwards Lord Colchester, and William Scott, +afterwards Lord Stowell. He took his degree in 1778, and in this year +had the misfortune to lose his mother, who seems to have been an amiable +and sensible person. In the next year, he obtained the Chancellor's +prize for an English essay on "the affinity between painting and writing +in point of composition;" and at the recital of this essay in the +theatre he first became acquainted with Lord Mornington, afterwards +Marquis Wellesley, an intimacy which lasted for sixty-two years. He now +adopted law as his profession, took chambers in Paper Buildings, and +kept his terms regularly at Lincoln's Inn. In 1781, he married Ursula +Mary, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Leonard Hammond, Esq. of Cheam, +in Surrey, and took a house in Southampton Street, Bloomsbury, where he +determined to follow the profession of the law. But this determination +was speedily over-ruled by the success of the celebrated son of Chatham. +On the 26th of February, 1781, William Pitt, then only in his +twenty-second year, made his first speech in the House of Commons, in +support of Burke's bill for the regulation of the civil list. This epoch +in parliamentary annals is noticed in a brief letter from Dr Goodenough +to Pitt's early tutor, Wilson, who sent it to Mr Addington, among whose +papers it was found:-- + +"Dear Sir,--I cannot resist the natural impulse of giving pleasure, by +telling you that the famous William Pitt, who made so capital a figure +in the last reign, is happily restored to his country. He made his first +public re-appearance in the senate last night. All the old members +recognised him instantly, and most of the young ones said he appeared +the very man they had so often heard described: the language, the +manner, the gesture, the action were the same; and there wanted only a +few wrinkles in the face, and some marks of age, to identify the +absolute person of the late Earl of Chatham." + +Addington, at this period, had a good deal of intercourse with Pitt, who +became Chancellor of the Exchequer at the age of twenty-three, and whose +brilliant success in parliament evidently stimulated his friend to +political pursuits. But the infamous coalition broke in, and Pitt was +dismissed from the ministry. Its existence, however, was brief: it not +merely fell, but was crushed amidst a universal uproar of national +scorn; and Pitt, not yet twenty-five, was appointed prime minister. In +the course of the month, an interview took place between Pitt and +Addington, which gave his friends strong hopes of seeing him in +immediate office. His friend Bragge thus writes to him: + +"I give you joy of the effects of the interview of last Sunday, of which +I am impatient to hear the particulars. Secretary, either official or +confidential, I should wish you, and indeed all the boards are already +filled." + +Still, he remained unappointed, though his intimacy with the minister +grew more confidential from day to day. Pitt was at this time engaged in +a desperate struggle with the Opposition, who, ruined as they were in +character, yet retained an overwhelming majority in parliament. On this +occasion, the young statesman gave perhaps the most triumphant evidence +of his remarkable sagacity. Every one was astonished, that he had not at +once dissolved a parliament which it seemed impossible for him either to +convince or conquer. But, with the House of Lords strongly disposed +towards him, and the King for his firm friend, Pitt fought the House +night after night, until he found the national feeling wholly on his +side. Then, on the 25th of March, 1784, he dissolved the parliament, and +by that act extinguished the whole power of Whiggism for twenty years. +There never was a defeat more ruinous; more than a hundred and sixty +members, who had generally been of the Foxite party, were driven +ignominiously from their seats, and the party was thenceforth condemned +to linger in an opposition equally bitter, fruitless, and unpopular. In +the new parliament, Addington was returned for the borough of Devizes in +place of Sutton, his brother-in-law, who, being advanced in life, made +over his interest to his young relative. On this occasion, he received a +letter from his old master, Joseph Wharton:-- + +"I cannot possibly forbear expressing to you the sincere pleasure I +feel, in giving you joy of being elected into a parliament that I hope +and trust will save this country from destruction, by crushing the most +shameful and the most pernicious coalition that I think ever disgraced +the annals of any kingdom, ancient or modern. I am, dear sir, with true +regard, yours, &c.--JOSEPH WHARTON." + +There are few more remarkable instances of contrasted character and +circumstance than Addington's ultimate rise to power. The anecdote is +mentioned, that on one occasion, when they were riding together to Holl +Wood, then Mr Pitt's seat near Bromley in Kent, that on Pitt's urging +him to follow up politics with vigour, and the latter alleging in excuse +the distaste and disqualification for public life created by early +habits and natural disposition, Pitt burst forth in the following +quotation from Waller:-- + + "The lark that shuns on lofty boughs to build + Her humble nest, lies silent in the field: + But should the promise of a brighter day, + Aurora smiling, bid her rise and play; + Quickly she'll show 'twas not for want of voice, + Or power to climb, she made so low a choice: + Singing she mounts, her airy notes are stretch'd + Towards heav'n, as if from heav'n alone her notes she fetch'd." + +With these words, he set spurs to his horse, and left his companion to +ponder on the moral of the poetry. + +But neither poetry nor prose could inspire Addington's mind with the +ardour of his glowing friend. Parliament was indeed open to him, but the +true gate to parliamentary distinction would never have been opened by +his own hand. There are two kinds of speaking, and but two, which ever +make distinguished way in the House. The first is, that superior order +which alone deserves the name of eloquence, and which must carry +distinction with it wherever men are gathered together. The next is, +that adroit and practical style of speaking by which the details of +public business are carried forward; a style which requires briskness of +capacity, united to extent of information, and in which the briskness +must not be suffered to become flippant, and the detail to become dull. +We are perfectly confident, that, beyond those two classes, no speaker +can ever expect to retain the ear of the House. Our theory, however, is +not the favourite one with that crowd, whose diatribes nightly fill the +columns of the newspapers; where bitterness is perpetually mistaken for +pungency, and petulance for power, dryness for business and commonplace +for conviction. But failure is the inevitable consequence; the archer +showers his shafts in vain; they are pointed with lead, and they always +fall blunt on the ground. Some of the noisiest haranguers of our time +utterly "waste their sweetness on the desert air," their hearers drop +away with fatal rapidity, and the orator is reminded of his triumph only +by the general flight of his auditory. Then comes some favourite of the +House: the coffee-room is thinned in its turn; the benches are crowded +once more; and some statesmanlike display consoles the House for its +lost time. Addington's habits were those of a student, and he brought +them with him into parliament. In the House of Commons, there are nearly +as many classes of character, as there are in life outside the walls. +There are the men made for the operations of public life, bold, active, +and with an original sense of superiority. Another class is made for +under-secretaries and subordinates, sharp, and ingenious men, the real +business-men of the House. Another class, perfectly distinct, is that of +the matter-of-fact men, largely recruited from among opulent merchants, +bankers sent from country constituencies, and others of that calibre, +who are formidable on every question of figures, are terrible on +tariffs, and evidently think, that there is no book of wisdom on earth +but a ledger. Then come the country gentlemen, generally an excellent +and honest race, but to whom a life in London, in the majority of +instances, has a strong resemblance to a life in the Millbank +Penitentiary; driven into parliament, by what is called a "sense of +their position in the country," which generally means the commands of +their wives, &c., &c., their sojourn within the circuit of the +metropolis is a purgatory. They sicken of the life of lounging through +London, where they are nothing, and long to get back to the country +where they are "magistrates;" generally too old to dance, the +fashionable season has no charms for them: even the clubs seem to them +a sort of condemned cell, where the crowd, guilty of unpardonable +idleness, cluster together with no earthly resource but gazing into the +street, or poring over a newspaper. If this service is severe enough to +shake their philosophy during the sleety showers of February, and the +withering blasts of March; the first break of sunshine, and the first +streak of blue sky, makes their impatience amount to agony. The rest of +the season only renders their suffering more inveterate; until at last +the discharge of cannon from the Park, and the sound of trumpets at the +doors of the House of Lords, a gracious speech from the throne, and a +still more gracious smile from the sitter on it, let them loose from +their task, and they are free, facetious, and foxhunters once more. +There are still half-a-dozen other classes, "fine by degrees, and +beautifully less," which may be left to the imagination of the reader, +and the experience of the well-bred world. + +Addington soon made himself useful on committees. The strong necessities +of the case, much more than the Reform Bill, have remarkably shortened +the longevity of election committees. The committee, in general, was +fortunate, which could accomplish its business within three months. Some +took twice the number, some even crossed over from session to session. +The first committee on which Addington was engaged had this unfortunate +duration, and he was re-appointed to it in the second session of the +parliament of 1785. + +At this period, whether from a sense of disappointment, or from the +silent dulness of this drudgery, his health appears to have been in a +feeble state. In a letter to his father, he apologises for listlessness +and stupidity by illness, and says, "that he does not come up to the +definition of man as a risible animal." Yet the man who could live to +eighty-seven, and retain his health in a retirement of nearly a quarter +of a century, could not complain of his constitution. + +In 1786 Pitt availed himself of the opening of the session to induce his +friend to break ground. He proposed that he should second the address; +and almost condescended to coax him into further exertion of his +abilities.--"I will not disguise," says his letter, "that, in asking +this favour of you, (the speech,) I look beyond the immediate object of +the first day's debate; from a persuasion that whatever induces you to +take a part in public, will equally contribute to your personal credit, +and that of the system to which I have the pleasure of thinking you are +so warmly attached. Believe me to be, with great truth and regard, my +dear sir, faithfully and sincerely yours,--W. PITT." Addington complied +with a part of the proposal, seconded the Address, and was considered to +have performed his task with effect. But the effort went no farther. His +ability lay in another direction; and though a clear, well-informed, and +influential debater in his more public days, and when the urgency of +office compelled the exertion, he left for four years the honours of +debate to the multitude of his competitors. + +In the course of the memoir, there is a letter of Addington's, speaking +of Sheridan's famous speech on the Begum question. Addington voted in +the majority against Hastings; but, though he does not exactly say that +Sheridan's famous speech was the cause of his vote, he yet joins in the +general acclamation. + +It has been the habit of late critics to decry the merits of this famous +oration, and even to charge it with being frivolous, outrageous, and +bombastic, an immense accumulation of calumny and clap-trap, which the +craft of Sheridan would not submit to the public ordeal, and which he +has therefore left to its chance of a fantastic and visionary fame. But +this we find it impossible to believe. That in a speech of five hours +and a half, there may have been--nay, there must have been, passages of +extravagance, and even errors of taste, is perfectly probable; but they +must have been overcome by countless passages of lustre and beauty,--by +powerful conceptions and brilliant examples of language; at once +resistless and refined,--by living descriptions, and thoughts of daring +and dazzling energy, sufficient to have made it one of the most +memorable triumphs of senatorial eloquence in the world. How, on any +other supposition, is it possible to account for the effects which we +know it to have produced? + +Addington's letter, alluding to this subject, says "The papers will +convey but a faint idea of a speech, which I heard Fox declare to be the +most wonderful effort of the human mind that perhaps had ever been made. +Mr Pitt, and indeed the whole House, spoke of it in terms of admiration +and astonishment, scarcely inferior to those of Mr Fox." + +The papers, indeed, convey a worse than inadequate idea of this +wonderful oration, for they give merely a few fragments, in which they +have contrived either to select their examples with the most curious +infelicity, or to blunder them into bombast. But nothing can be more +childish than to suppose, that Pitt would have given his praise to +tawdry metaphor, that Burke would have done honour to feeble truisms, +that Fox should have been unable to distinguish between logic and +looseness of reasoning, or that the whole assembly, who had been in the +habit of hearing those pre-eminent orators, should have been tricked by +theatric dexterity or charlatan rhetoric into homage. The oration must +have been a most magnificent performance, and we have only to deplore +the loss of a great work of genius. + +Another young phenomenon shot across the parliamentary horizon within +the same month. It was the late Earl Grey. A letter of Addington to his +father thus describes the debut of this young Liberal. + +"Feb. 22, 1787.--We had a glorious debate last night, upon the motion +for an address of thanks to the King, for having negotiated the +commercial treaty. A new speaker presented himself to the House, and +went through his first performance with an éclat that has not been +equalled within my recollection. His name is Grey; he is not more than +twenty-two years of age, and he took his seat, which is for +Northumberland, only in the present session. I do not go too far in +declaring, that in the advantages of figure, elocution, voice, and +manner, he is not surpassed by any one member of the House; and I grieve +to say, that he was last night in the ranks of Opposition, from which +there is no prospect of his being detached." + +It is curious to see, how easily the exigencies of party mould men, and +how readily under that pressure they unsay their maxims, and retract +their principles. The object of the commercial treaty was, to put our +commerce in some degree on a fair footing with that of France. The +object of Mr Grey's rhetoric was, to show that the commercial treaty was +altogether a blunder, which, as being a Tory and ministerial +performance, it must be in the eyes of a Whig and an oppositionist. But +the maxim on which he chiefly relied, was the wisdom of that established +system of our policy, in which France had always been regarded with the +most suspicious jealousy at least--if not as our natural foe. Of course +this Whig maxim lasted just so long as the Whigs were out of office, and +could use it as a weapon against the Minister. But, from the moment when +France became actually dangerous, when her councils became demoniac, and +her factions frenzied, Whiggism, despairing of turning out the Minister +by argument, resolved to make the attempt by menace. Hopeless in the +House, it appealed to the rabble, and France was extolled to the skies. +We then heard nothing of the "natural enmity," but a vast deal of the +instinctive friendship. England and France were no longer to be two +hostile powers sitting on their respective shores, with flashing eyes +and levelled spears, but like a pair of citizen's wives loaded with +presents and provisions for each other, and performing their awkward +courtesies across the Channel. + +It must be acknowledged, however, that the Whig maxim, though a +watchword of faction, was no blunder of fact. A commercial treaty with +the French in that day, or in any other day before or since, was a +dream. To bring the Frenchman to any rational agreement on the subject +of trade, or to keep him steady to any agreement whatever, has been a +problem, which no British statesman has been able to solve. No +commercial treaty, even with all the genius of Pitt, has ever produced +to England the value of the paper on which it is written. Whether, if +they were two Englands in the world, they might not establish commercial +treaties with each other, may be a question. But we regard it as an +absolute waste of time, to think of trading on fair terms with any of +the slippery tariffs of foreign countries. In fact, this is now so +perfectly understood, that England has nearly given up the notion of +commercial treaties. She trades now, where the necessities of the +foreigner demand her trade. The foreigner hates John Bull, Just as the +Athenian peasant hated Aristides, and for the same reason. He hates him +for being honest, manly, and sincere; he hates him for the integrity of +his principles, for the purity of his faith, and for the _reality_ of +his freedom; he hates him for his prosperity, for his progress, and for +his power. And while the Frenchman capers in his fetters, and takes his +promenade under the shadow of the fortifications of Paris; while the +German talks of constitutions in the moon; and while the Holy Alliance +amuses itself with remodelling kingdoms, John Bull may be well content +to remain as he is, and leave them to such enjoyment as they can find in +sulkiness and sneering. + +Grey's brilliant debut appears not to have been sustained: he spoke +little during the session, but talked much--a fatal distinction to a +parliamentary aspirant. Ambitious of figuring, he attempted to figure on +all occasions; and, once or twice, unluckily daring the great champion +of the treasury bench to the field, he was driven from it with wounds +which, if they did not teach him a sense of his weakness, at least +taught him a sense of his danger. Mr Grey's credit, says Addington in a +letter, "as a man of discretion and temper, remains to be established. +His reputation for abilities has not increased within the last two +months, while he has in all respects enhanced that of the person (Pitt) +to whom he ventured to oppose himself." + +In alluding to the intercourse of Addington with Wilberforce, the +biographer, we think very justly, complains of the sillinesses which +have transpired in the latter's diary. Addington took higher views on +ecclesiastical subjects; and was less _rapid_ in his movements for the +abolition of the slave-trade; being of opinion that precipitate measures +would only increase the traffic to an enormous extent, deprive England +of all power of restraining the frightful atrocities of the middle +passage; and, by throwing the whole trade into the hands of foreigners, +leave it open to all the reckless abominations of mankind. + +The result was, unfortunately, all that rational men anticipated. The +trade carried on by the foreigner has been tripled, or even quadrupled; +the horrors of the middle passage are without restraint; and the +sufferings of the victims, on their march to the coast, by fatigue, want +of food, and the cruelty of their treatment, are estimated to destroy +nearly twice the number of those who ever cross the Atlantic. The very +powers with whom we have already made treaties for the purpose of +extinguishing this infernal traffic, are deepest in its commerce; and +its extinction now seems hopeless, except through some of those +tremendous visitations, by which Providence scourges crimes which have +grown too large for the jurisdiction of man. + +Lord Sidmouth, then far advanced in life, when he saw those remarks in +the diary, naturally felt offended, but he bore the offence with +dignity, merely saying, as he closed the volume, "Well, Wilberforce does +not speak of me as he spoke to me, I am sorry to say." Of Wilberforce, +no one can desire to doubt the general honesty; but that he was +singularly trifling and inconstant, was evidently the opinion of his +contemporaries in the House. The following anecdote is given from the +author's notes on this point. "Lord Sidmouth told us, that one morning, +at a cabinet meeting, after an important debate in the House of Commons, +some one said, 'I wonder how Wilberforce voted last night:' on which +Lord Liverpool observed, 'I do not know how he voted, but of this I am +pretty sure, that in whatever way he voted, he repents of his vote this +morning.' Lord Sidmouth added, 'It was odd enough, that I had no sooner +returned to my office, than Wilberforce was announced, who said,--Lord +Sidmouth, you will be surprised at the vote I gave last night, and, +indeed, I am not myself altogether satisfied with it;'--to which I +replied, My dear Wilberforce, I shall never be _surprised_ at any vote +you give.'" + +During this session the abolition of Negro slavery first seriously +attracted the notice of parliament. The conduct of it, in the House of +Commons, was intrusted to Wilberforce; but, in his absence, in +consequence of indisposition, Pitt, on the 9th of May 1798, moved the +resolution, "that the House would, early in the next session, proceed to +take into consideration the circumstances of the slave trade." In a +cause like this, the humane and magnanimous mind of Burke naturally +enlisted at once. But he was by no means of that school of humanity +which gains the race, only by riding over every thing in its way. +Red-hot humanity had no charms for the great philosopher; and, +philanthropist as he was, he could discover no wisdom in measures which +changed only one violence for another, pauperised the whites without +liberating the blacks; and, while it cost twenty millions sterling to +repair about third of the injury, left the unhappy African at the mercy +of avarice round the circumference of the globe. + +A letter from Huntingford says:--"Dr Lawrence, our Winchester +acquaintance, called on me lately. He talked much on Mr Burke's ideas +respecting the slave-trade. I found by him that Mr Burke foresaw the +total ruin of the West-India colonies, if the trade were _at once_ +prohibited. He is for a better regulation of the ships which carry on +that infamous commerce: he would lay the captains under restrictions, +and punish them with rigour for wanton severity or brutal inhumanity to +the slaves; and, when the poor creatures are purchased at the West-India +islands, he would have them instructed in religion; and be permitted to +purchase their own freedom, when by industry they should acquire a +sufficient sum for that purpose. For their religious instruction he +would erect more churches; and, to enable them in time to accumulate the +price of their ransom, he would enact that the property of a slave +should be as sacred as that of a freeman." Burke went further than +opinions, for he embodied his sentiments in a paper entitled, "Sketch of +a Negro Code," all outline of a bill in parliament, which is to be found +in the collection of his works. + +In August of this year, Addington mentioned that Lord Grenville passed a +month with him at Lyme, and that one day visiting Lord Rolle, a party +were speculating on the probable successor to the Speaker +(Cornwall)--Grenville and Addington giving it as their opinion, that +neither of them had any chance. He adds, "within twelve months, we were +both Speakers ourselves." + +An important and melancholy event, however, threw the cabinet and the +country alike into confusion. Early in November, it was ascertained that +the King was taken dangerously ill. Three successive notes from +Grenville represented the illness as most alarming, and giving room for +apprehening of incurable disorder. As Dr Addington was known to have +paid particular attention to cases of insanity, Pitt proposed his being +summoned to visit the royal patient. In consequence, he visited his +Majesty for several days, and on examination with the other physicians +before the Privy Council, expressed a strong expectation of the royal +recovery, founded on the circumstance that this illness had not, for its +forerunner, any of the symptoms which usually precede a serious attack +of this nature. The debates on the Regency Bill now brought out all the +vigour of the House. The Whigs thundered at the gate of the cabinet; but +there was a strong hand within, and it was still kept shut. The Prince +of Wales, then under all the captivations of Whig balls and banquets, +and worshiping at the feet of Fox, was no sooner to be master of the +state by an unlimited Regency Bill, than Fox was to be master of every +thing. Pitt still fought the battle with all the cool determination of +one determined never to capitulate. Fox became in succession fierce, +factious, and half frantic; still his great adversary stood on the +vantage ground of law, and was imperturbable. But the contest now began +to spread beyond the walls of parliament. The spirit of the nation, +always siding with the brave defence, daily felt an increasing interest +in the gallantry with which Pitt almost alone fought the ablest +Opposition that had ever been ranged within the walls of Westminster, +and inflamed by the sight of power almost within their grasp. + +But the announcement of a sudden change in his Majesty's indisposition +abated the contest at once. From the 8th to the 20th of February, the +progress to health was palpable. On the 19th, the discussions on the +Regency Bill were suspended in the House of Lords; and on the 6th of +March, the Speaker and several members of the administration were +admitted to present their congratulations to the King, at Kew, on his +recovery. + +We cannot resist the temptation of exhibiting Lord Sidmouth in the +unsuspected character of a poet. As several millions of verses were +poured out as the offerings of the Muse on the joyful occasion, as +Parnassus was rifled by the Universities, and as every village school in +the kingdom hung a pen-and-ink garland on the altar of Æsculapius or +Hygeia; it was felt to be the bounden duty of every candidate for +cabinet honours, to put his desk "in order," and rhyme, to the best of +his power. Addington, in consequence, produced the following-- + + ON THE KINGS RECOVERY. + + "When sinks the orb of day, a borrow'd light + The moon displays, pale _Regent_ of the night. + Vain are her beams to bid the golden grain + Spread plenty's blessings o'er the smiling plain; + No power has she, except from shore to shore + To bid the ocean's troubled billows roar. + With hungry cries the wolf her coming greets; + Then Rapine stalks triumphant through the streets; + Avarice and Fraud in secret ambush lurk, + And Treason's sons their desperate purpose work. + But, lo! the Sun with orient splendour shines,"---- + &c. &c. &c. + +We cannot indulge ourselves with any more of this loyal lucubration--we +think that the slur at the _Regency_ was not quite fair; we were by no +means aware that the moon was so mischievous; and, as our general +conclusion, we must admit that, if his lordship did not gain the +Laureateship, he amply deserved it. However, better times were at hand. +Pitt, like all other eminent men, had a keen insight into character, and +he had long known the especial qualities of Addington. This solves the +difficulty of accounting at once for his continued personal intercourse, +and yet his apparent official neglect. He knew him to be well-informed, +intelligent, and honest; although his retiring habits had already given +full evidence of his indisposition to face the storms of party. + +On Mr Grenville's promotion to the Home department, in 1789, Addington +was proposed for the Speaker's chair, and was elected by two hundred and +fifteen to one hundred and forty-two, who voted for the Opposition +candidate, Sir Gilbert Elliot. In the private correspondence which was +so frequent between him and the minister, various suggestions had been +thrown out by Pitt of the Irish secretaryship, a seat at the treasury, +&c. But the man and the place were now found together, incomparably +adapted to each other. The place implies an honourable neutrality, and +Addington was true to the trust. It requires the favourable opinion of +the House to the man as well as the officer; and Sheridan's first +address to him, as the spokesman of the Opposition, was, "we were all +very sorry to have voted against you." It required considerable +knowledge of general and parliamentary law, and the new Speaker had +devoted years to their acquisition. Even the minor merits of a grave and +commanding presence were there; for Addington, in his early years, was +of as striking a countenance and figure as in old age he was gentle and +amiable. + +Characteristic anecdotes are scattered through the volumes: these we +think their most attractive portion; and of such Addington's memory was +full in his later years. One night, on his crying out, in the usual +form, to hush some chattering in the House, "Order, order, or I shall +name names!" Charles Fox, then standing beside the chair, told him that +Wilkes once asked the Speaker, Onslow, what would be the consequence of +his naming names? "Heaven above only knows," was the solemn reply. + +One night Fox himself put the same question to Sir Fletcher Norton (the +Speaker,) who nonchalantly answered, "Happen! hang me, if I know or +care!" + +A substantial proof of the general approval was given to the new +official, in the addition of £1000 a-year to his salary; thus giving him +£6000 a-year--which, besides a house, with some other emoluments on +public and private bills, and the sale of certain clerkships connected +with the business of the Commons, is generally calculated as equivalent +to about £10,000 yearly. For this, however, the Speaker is expected to +keep up considerable state, to give occasional banquets during the +session to successive parties of the members; to have evening receptions +and levées; and, in general, to lead a rather laborious life; the least +part of whose labour is in the Speaker's chair. He has also the +appointment of a chaplain to the House, which is equivalent to the +disposal of valuable church patronage, the chaplain being always +provided for, after a few years' attendance, by a request of the House +to the crown. To complete this accumulation of good things, the Speaker +who exhibits intelligence, is frequently promoted to the higher offices +of the cabinet, and generally receives a peerage. + +But those were the "piping times of peace;" times of trouble and terror +were at hand. The French democracy had already burst on Europe; and +every throne was heaving on the surge which it had raised. Pitt alone, +of all the great ministers of Europe, seemed to disregard its hazards. +Customary as it is for the pamphleteers of later times to assail his +memory, as the promoter of hostilities, the chief outcry against Pitt in +the year 1790, was his tardiness in thinking that those hostilities +could ever force England to take a share in the struggles of the +Continent. The whole aristocracy, the whole property, the whole +mercantile interest, and even the whole moral feeling of the empire, had +become from hour to hour more convinced that a war was inevitable. Even +the Opposition, whose office it was to screen the atrocities of every +national enemy, and who, for a time, had looked to Jacobinism as an +auxiliary in the march to power, had at last shrunk from this horrible +alliance--had felt the natural disgust of Englishmen for an association +with the undisguised vice and vileness of the Republic, and had at last +sunk into silence, if not into shame. Burke had published his immortal +"Reflections," and their sound had gone forth like the tolling of a vast +funeral bell for the obsequies of European monarchy. Still, nothing +could move Pitt. By nature, a financier, and by genius the most +magnificent of all financiers, he calculated the force of nations by the +depths of their treasuries; and seeing France bankrupt, conceived that +she was on the verge of conviction, and waited only to see her sending +her humbled Assembly to beg for a general loan, and for a general peace +at the same moment. + +But those were days made to show the shortsightedness of human sagacity. +The lesson was rapidly given; it was proved in European havoc, that +utter powerlessness for good was not merely compatible with tremendous +power for evil, but was actually the means of accumulating that power; +that the more wretched, famishing, and haggard a nation might become at +home, the more irresistible it might prove abroad: that, like the +madman, it might be fevered and tortured by mental disease, into +preternatural strength of frame, and might spring out of the bed where +it had lain down to die, with a force which drove before it all the +ordinary resistance of man. Pitt had still to learn, that this was a +war of Opinion; and had to learn also, that Opinion was a new material +of explosion, against whose agency all former calculation was wholly +unprovided, and whose force was made to fling all the old buttresses and +battlements of European institutions like dust and embers into the air. + +It is not worth the trouble now to inquire, whether Pitt's sagacity +equally failed him in estimating the probable effect of the French +Revolution on England. His expression at a dinner party, where +Addington, Grenville, and Burke formed the guests, "Never mind, Mr +Burke, we shall go on as we are until the day of judgment;" shows his +feeling of the stability of the constitution. As we have no love for +discovering the + + "Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise," + +we are gratified by thinking that both were partly in the right: Burke, +in regarding the Revolution as destined to sweep the Continent with long +and tremendous violence, and Pitt as believing it likely to make but +little _permanent_ impression on the habits, the power, or the heart of +England. Burke argued from the weakness of the Continental governments; +Pitt from the strength of the British constitution: the former having no +connexion with the national interests, the latter being formed from +those interests, for those interests, and being as much supported by +them as a tree by its roots. There was not a portion of that stately +tree, from its solid trunk to the highest ornament of its foliage, which +was not fed from the ground. The truth was, that the Jacobinisim of +England was confined to adventurers, and never obtained any hold on the +great body of the proprietors and the people. Its spirit evaporated in +tavern harangues, to which the multitude went to listen, as to the +chattering and grimaces of a mountebank. + +No man of distinction, no man of birth, and no man of property was ever +engaged in those coffee-house conspiracies; their Jaffiers and Pierres +were cobblers and tinkers, with a sprinkling of petty pamphleteers, and +ruined declaimers. When Hardy and Horne Took, were the priests, what +must be the worshippers at the Jacobin shrine? But in France, the temple +of that idol of confusion was crowded with the chiefs of the Noblesse, +the Church, the Law; headed by the Prince of the blood next to the +throne; all stimulated by a ferocity of folly unexampled in the history +of infatuation, and all unconsciously urged to their ruin by a race of +beings inferior in rank, and almost objects of their scorn, yet, rather +embodied malignities, and essential mischiefs, than men. France in that +fearful time reminded the spectator of Michael Angelo's great picture of +the "Last Judgment"--general convulsion above, universal torment below; +the mighty of the earth falling, kings, nobles, hierarchs, warriors, +plunging down, and met by fiends, at once their tempters, their +taunters, and their torturers; a scene of desolation and destiny. + +Pitt's sentiment on the safety of England from revolutionary movements +was so decided, that if France had not invaded Holland, and thus +actually compelled a war, we should probably have had none at this +period. + +A distinction between the state of France and England not less +memorable, if not still more effective, than in property, was religion. +In France infidelity was not merely frequent, but was the _fashion_. No +man of any literary name condescended even to the pretence of religion; +but in England, infidelity was a stigma; when it began to take a public +form, it was only in the vilest quarter; and when it assailed religion, +it was instantly put down at once by the pen, by the law, and by the +more decisive tribunal of national opinion. Paine, the chief writer of +the Satanic faction, was a bankrupt staymaker, and a notorious +profligate: his pamphlet had only the effect of making the public +protest against its abominations; he was prosecuted, was forced to leave +the country, and finally died in beggary in America. + +It is remarkable to find so cautious a man as Addington at this period +speaking of the Church as "an honest _drone_, who, if she did not stir +herself very soon, would be stung by the wasps of the conventicle." The +metaphor is not good for much, for the drone can sting too, and does +nothing but sting. But what is it that, at any time, makes the church +ineffective? The abuse of the ministerial patronage. The clergy +altogether depend on the guidance, the character, and the activity of +their bishops. If ministers regard the mitre as merely a sort of +donative for their own private tutors, or the chaplains of their noble +friends, or as provision for a relative, dependent, or the brother of a +Treasury clerk, they not merely degrade the office, but they paralyse +the church. Of the living prelacy we do not speak: but it is impossible +to look upon the list of archbishops and bishops (a few excepted) during +the last century, without surprise that the inferior clergy have done so +much, rather than that they have done so little. Where there was no +encouragement for literary exertion, ability naturally relaxed its +efforts; where preferment was lavished on heads "that could not teach, +and would not learn," disgust extinguished diligence; and where +character for intelligence, practical capacity, and public effect, were +evidently overlooked in the calculation of professional claims, it is +only in the natural course of things that their exercise should be +abandoned, in fastidiousness or in contempt, in disgust or in despair. +The church was never in a more ineffective condition than at the close +of the last century; and if the sin was to be laid at the right +threshold, it must have been laid at the door of Whitehall. + +Addington certainly deserves the credit of having formed a just estimate +of the French Revolution from the beginning. In a letter to his brother +he inserts this stanza,-- + + "France shall perish, write that word + In the blood that she has spilt; + Perish hopeless and abhorr'd, + Deep in ruin as in guilt." + +He, however, fell into the common error of the time, and looked upon her +overthrow as certain in the first campaign. + +It was on the second reading of the Alien Bill that the dagger scene, of +which so much was said at the time, occurred in the House of +Commons--thus described by the Speaker: "Burke, after a few preliminary +remarks, the house being totally unprepared, fumbled in his bosom, and +suddenly drew out the dagger, and threw it on the floor. His extravagant +gesture excited a general disposition to smile, by which most men would +have been disconcerted; but he suddenly collected himself, and by a few +brilliant sentences recalled the seriousness of the house. 'Let us,' +said he, 'keep French principles from our heads and French daggers from +our hearts; let us preserve all our blandishments in life, and all our +consolations in death; all the blessings of time, and all the hopes of +eternity.'" + +As all partisanship hated Burke, who had trampled it in the mire, this +dagger scene was sneered at as a stage trick; but Burke was above all +pantomime. The dagger was one which had been sent from France to a +Birmingham manufacturer, with an order for a large number of the same +pattern: and Burke had received it only on that day--and received it +from Sir James Bland Burgess only on his way down to the house--so that +there could have been no preparation for public exhibition. It was a +natural impulse of the moment, in a time when all was emotion. + +The murder of the unfortunate King of France, on the 21st of January +1793, perhaps the most wanton murder in all royal history, instantly +brought out a full display of the _real_ feelings of England. The +universal sentiment was horror, mingled with indignation; and when the +royal message came down to the house on the 28th, stating that, in +consequence of the regicide, the king had ordered M. Chauvelin, minister +from the late king, to leave the country, as being no longer accredited +by the sovereign, the message seemed rather the echo of the national +voice than the dictate of the government. + +From this period the Whig party diminished day by day. They were chiefly +the great landholders of the kingdom, and they saw in this atrocious act +a declaration against all property; but they had also the higher motive +of its being a declaration against all government. The chief persons of +the Opposition at once crossed the house; but as Horne Tooke, in his apt +and short style, described the party on his trial, "We all," said he, +"entered the revolutionary coach at Reading; but one got out at +Maidenhead, another at Slough, a third at Hounslow, and a fourth at +Brentford. It was _my_ misfortune, my lord, as it was also Mr Fox's, to +go on to London." + +The French now threw off all political form, and all diplomatic decorum, +and exhibited the whole savagism of republicanism. On the motion of a +ruffian of the name of Garnier, the Convention publicly resolved that +"Pitt was an enemy to the human race." The same ruffian then proceeded +to move, "that every body had a right to assassinate him." This, +however, was _not_ carried; but an order was sent, on the proposal of +Robespierre, to the armies, that "no quarter should be given to the +English troops;" an order which was not repealed until his death by the +guillotine. + +Those were stirring times, and in every instance of success in the +campaign, Pitt sent an immediate courier to Addington when out of town, +of which the Speaker gave the signal to the surrounding country by +lighting up his house. On one occasion of this kind, a friend of his, +travelling on the coach from Bath, heard the coachman say, "I'm sure +there's good news come, for there's the Speaker's house all in a blaze." + +In this year Addington was offered the high promotion of Secretary of +State, in the room of Dundas. He consulted Huntingford, who strongly +advised him against giving up his pleasant, safe, and lucrative office, +for the toilsome, hazardous, and unpopular office of the secretary. A +letter from the Solicitor-general Mitford, (afterwards Lord Redesdale,) +confirmed the opinion. It is justly observed by the biographer, that +Mitford, who could be so wise for his friend, was not equally so for +himself; for, after having obtained the speakership in his own person, +he gave it up to assume the office of Irish Chancellor, a situation of +great responsibility, and great labour, in which he was assailed on all +sides, and from which, on the first change of the cabinet, he was +insultingly recalled. + +The war had now become almost wholly naval, and it was a war of +successive triumphs. The dominion of Europe seemed about to be divided +between England and France: England mistress of the sea--France sweeping +every thing before her on the land. The famous battle of the 1st of June +extinguished the first revolutionary fleet, seven sail of the line being +captured, and the remainder of the fleet escaping with difficulty into +the French ports. + +The minister was also triumphant at home, and the chief persons of the +Whig party were gazetted as taking office under his administration. Earl +Fitzwilliam as President of the Council, the Duke of Portland as +Secretary of State, Earl Spencer, Privy Seal, the Duke of Gordon, Privy +Seal of Scotland, and Windham, Secretary at War. + +It had been frequently remarked, that Pitt never sought for coadjutors +of any remarkable ability, from confidence in his own extraordinary +attainments. As Fox candidly and bitterly concluded one of his speeches +in Parliament, saying, "There is one point, and only one on which I +entirely agree with the right honourable gentleman, and that is, in the +high opinion he entertains of his own talents." + +It is certain that those accessions to his cabinet were not likely to +excite any jealousy on his part, yet there was one whose absence from +the cabinet may have been justly regretted as detracting at once from +the strength of the administration, and the glory of the minister. The +name of Burke was _not_ found there, though no man had operated so +powerfully in producing the change; no man had so amply deserved the +distinction; and no man would have thrown so permanent a lustre round +the councils in which he shared. There can be no doubt that Burke felt +this neglect, and that he was justified in feeling himself defrauded of +an honour conferred before his face on men who were not fit to be named +in the same breath. + +But he has had his noble revenge. Posterity, of all tribunals the most +formidable, yet the most faithful, has done him Justice. While the +favourites of fortune have passed away into the forgetfulness for which +they were made, his services assume a higher rank in the records of +national preservation, and his genius continually fills a prouder place +among the intellectual triumphs of mankind. + +In 1794 Burke closed his parliamentary career, by retiring from the +borough of Malton, for which his son became member. In this year, also, +closed the memorable trial of Warren Hastings, which had extended over +ten sessions of parliament, (from February 1788 to 5th April 1795)--the +actual trial lasting for seven years, two months, and ten days. The +legal expenses of the defence amounted to seventy-one thousand and +eighty pounds, which the proprietors of East India stock, by a majority +of three hundred, on a ballot, paid. What the expenses of the +prosecution were, is not told; probably twice the sum. + +The whole holds forth an important lesson for the punishment of public +delinquency. If, instead of the masquerade of an impeachment before the +peers and king, Hastings had been called on to answer before the common +law courts, for any one of the hundred acts of personal injury alleged +against him, the decision would have been secured as soon as the +witnesses could have been brought from Calcutta. Of course the world +would have lost a great deal of parliamentary parade and some capital +speeches; all the _poetic_ pomp would have been wanting; and the +court-dresses would have been left at the tailors. But justice would +have been done, which no one now believes to have been done. + +The obvious fact is, that the country had grown tired of a trial which +seemed likely to last for life. After the first sounding of trumpets, +the flourish excited curiosity no more. The topic had been a toy in the +great parliamentary nursery, and the children were grown weary of their +tinselled and painted doll. Even the horrors--and some of the details +had all the terrible atrocity of barbarism with its passions inflamed by +impunity--had ceased to startle; the eloquence of the managers had +become commonplace by the repetition which had deprived the horrors of +their sting. The prosecution was yawned to death. + +Perhaps there was not a peer in the seats of Westminster Hall, nor a +member of the committee, nor a man in the kingdom, except Burke and +Pitt, who would not have forgiven Hastings twice the amount of his +offences, to have silenced the subject at once and for ever. + +With Burke, the impeachment was a vision, half Roman, half Oriental--the +august severity of a Roman senate, combining with the mysterious +splendour of the throne of Aurungzebe. He was the Cicero impeaching +Verres in the presence of the eighteenth century, or a high-priest of +some Indian oracle promulgating the decrees of eternal justice to the +eastern world. + +With Pitt, the whole event was a fortunate diversion of the enemy, a +relief from the restless assaults of a Whig opposition, a perpetual +drain on Whig strength, and by a result more effective still, a fruitful +source of popular ridicule on the lingering impotence of Whig labours. + +On the acquittal of Hastings, Burke wrote several letters to Addington +as Speaker, which have a tone of the deepest despondency. He writes in +the impassioned anguish of a man to whom the earth exhibited but one +aspect of despair. They were letters such as Priam might have indited on +the night when his Troy was in a blaze. It was evident that the powerful +genius of Burke was partially bewildered by the bent of his feelings. He +raised an imaginary sepulchre for England on the spot where he had +contemplated the erection of a dungeon for Indian crime through all ages +to come. + +The Indian directors voted Hastings, an annuity of five thousand pounds, +which he enjoyed to a very advanced age: yet his acquittal has not +received the seal of posterity. A calmer view has regarded him as the +daring agent of acts fitter for the meridian of Hindoo morality than +European. To serve the struggling interests of the Company seems to +have been his highest motive, and there can be no doubt that he served +them with equal sagacity and success. That he was a vigorous +administrator, an enterprising statesman, and a popular governor, is +beyond denial; that he was personally unstained by avarice or extortion, +is admitted. But history demands higher proofs of principle; and no +governor since his time has ever attempted to imitate his example, or +ever ventured to excuse his own errors, by alleging the conduct or the +acquittal of Hastings. + +There are some men, whom no position can render ridiculous, and there +are some quite the reverse: of the latter class was Ferguson of Pitfour. +Ferguson's notion of the essential quality of a Lord Advocate was +tallness. "We Scotch members," said he, "always vote with the Lord +Advocate, and we therefore require to see him in a division. Now I can +see Mr Pitt, and I can see Mr Addington, but I cannot see the Lord +Advocate." His lordship evidently not rising to Ferguson's regulation +size of a statesman. + +One evening as Ferguson was taking his dinner in the coffee-room, some +one ran in, to say, that "Pitt was on his legs." Every one rose to leave +the room, except Ferguson. "What!" said they, "won't you go to hear Mr +Pitt?" "No," he replied, "Why should I? do you think Mr Pitt would go to +hear me?" + +At a dinner given by Dundas, at Wimbledon, where Addington, Sheridan, +and Erskine were present, the latter was rallied on his not taking so +prominent a part in the debates as his fame required. Sheridan said +(with a roughness unusual with him,) "I tell you how it happens: +Erskine, you are afraid of Pitt, and that's the flabby part of your +character." + +This piece of candour, however, was probably owing to the claret. But +Erskine's comparative taciturnity in the House may be accounted for on +more honourable terms. Erskine was no poltroon: he was the boldest +speaker at the bar. But the bar was his place, and no man has ever +attained perfection in the two styles of oratory. It is true, that +distinguished barristers have sometimes been distinguished in the House +of Commons, but they have not been of the race of orators; they have +been sharp, shrewd, bitter men, ready on vexatious topics, quick in +peevish speech, and willing to plunge themselves into subjects whose +labour or license is disdained by higher minds. But Erskine was an +_orator_, vivid, high-toned, and sensitive; shrinking from the +common-place subjects which common-place men take up as their natural +portion; rather indolent, as is common with men of genius; and rather +careless of fame in the senate, from his consciousness of the +unquestioned fame which he had already won at the bar. + +Of Fox some pretty anecdotes are told, substantiating that eminent man's +character for courtesy. One day, as Addington was riding by the grounds +of St Ann's Hill, he was seen over the palings by Fox, who called out to +him to stop, invited him in, and displayed the beauties of his garden, +to which he had always devoted a great deal of care. As Addington +particularly admired some weeping ash trees, Fox promised him some +cuttings. Some months elapsed, when one evening, Fox, after going +through a stormy meeting, in Palace-yard, went up to the Speaker in the +chair, and said--"I have not forgotten your cuttings, but have brought +them up to town with me," giving him directions at the same time for +their treatment. In a few minutes after, he was warmly engaged in debate +with Pitt and Burke. + +Fox's enjoyment of St Ann's Hill was proverbial. On some one's asking +General Fitzpatrick, in the midst of one of the hottest periods of the +debates on the French war--Where is Fox? the answer was, "I daresay he +is at home, sitting on a hay-cock, reading novels, and watching the jays +stealing his cherries." + +The year 1796 was a formidable year for England. Prussia and Spain had +given up her alliance. Belgium and Holland had been taken possession of +by the French. Austria was still firm, but her armies were dispirited, +her generals had lost their reputation, her statesmen had been baffled, +her finances were supported only by English loans, and France was +already by anticipation marking out a campaign under the walls of +Vienna. The English Opposition, at once embittered by defeat, and +stimulated by a new hope of storming the cabinet, carried on a perpetual +assault in the shape of motions for peace. The remnants of Jacobinism in +England united their strength with the populace once more; and, taking +advantage of the continental defeats, of the general timidity of our +allies, and of the apparent hopelessness of all success against an enemy +who grew stronger every day, made desperate efforts to reduce the +government to the humiliation of a forced treaty of peace. + +The necessity for raising eighteen millions, followed by seven millions +and a half more, increased the public discontent; and, although the +solid strength of England was still untouched, and the _real_ opinion of +the country was totally opposed to their rash demands for peace, there +can be no question, that the louder voice of the multitude seemed to +carry the day. A bad harvest also had increased the public difficulties; +and, as if every thing was to be unfortunate at this moment, Admiral +Christian's expedition--one of the largest which had ever left an +English port, and which was prepared to sweep the French out of the West +Indies--sailing in December, encountered such a succession of gales in +the chops of the Channel that a great part of this noble armament was +lost, and the admiral reached the West Indies with the survivors, only +to see them perish by the dreadful maladies of the climate. + +But, to complete the general disastrous aspect of affairs, a new +phenomenon suddenly blazed over Europe. The year 1796 first saw Napoleon +Buonaparte at the head of an army. Passing the Alps on the 9th of April, +he fell with such skill and vigour on the Austrian and Italian troops, +that in his first campaign he destroyed five successive Austrian armies; +broke up the alliances of that cluster of feeble and contemptible +sovereignties which had so long disgraced Italy in the eyes of Europe; +trampled on their effeminate and debauched population, with the +sternness of an executioner rather than the force of a conqueror; and +after sending the plunder of their palaces to Paris, in the spirit and +with the pomp of the old Roman triumphs, dragged their princes after him +to swell his own triumphal progress through Italy. + +The war now engrossed every feeling of the nation; and England showed +her national spirit in her gallant defiance of the threat of invasion. +The whole kingdom was ready to rise in arms on the firing of the first +beacon;--men of the highest rank headed their tenantry; men even of +those grave and important avocations and offices, which might seem to +imply a complete exemption from arms, put themselves at the head of +corps in every part of the empire; and England showed her prime minister +as Colonel Pitt of the Walmer volunteers, and the speaker of her House +of Commons, as Captain Addington of the Woodley cavalry. + +But a brilliant change was at hand. In September, Addington received the +following note from Pitt, enclosing the bulletin of the battle of the +Nile:-- + + "I have just time to send you the enclosed Bulletin (_vive la + Marine Anglaise_,) and to tell you, that we mean, (out of + precaution) the meeting of Parliament for the 6th of November. + + "Sir, ever yours, W. P." + +The bulletin which gave value to this note, belongs to history, and +gives to history one of the noblest events of our naval annals. It +exhibits a singular contrast to the present rapidity of communication, +that even the "rumour" of Nelson's immortal victory did not reach until +fifty-seven days after the event. The Gazette could not be published +until the 2d of October. + +But the star of Pitt, which had hitherto shone with increasing +brightness from year to year, and which had passed through all the +clouds of time uneclipsed, was now to wane. The Irish attempt to +establish a separate Regency, the Irish Rebellion, and the growing +influence of the Popish party, combined with Liberalism in the Irish +legislature, had determined Pitt to unite the parliaments of the two +kingdoms. For this purpose, he made overtures to the Popish party, +whose influence he most dreaded in the Irish House; and, in a species of +"understanding" rather than a distinct compact, he proposed to the +Popish body the measure which has been subsequently called +"Emancipation," with some general intimation of pensioning their +priesthood. + +The Union was carried; and Lord Castlereagh, who had conducted it in +Ireland, was appointed to bring the Popish proposition forward. It had +been a subject of deliberation in the cabinet for nearly six months +before they mentioned it to the king. His Majesty virtually pronounced +it irreconcilable to his conscience; and, after having received the +opinion of Lord Kenyon, the chief-justice, in complete confirmation of +his own, he sent for the speaker. Pitt had written, in the meantime, to +the king, that he must carry the measure or resign. The king then +proposed that Addington should take the conduct of the government. On +his entreating to decline the proposal, the king said emphatically "Put +your hand upon your heart, and ask yourself where I am to turn for +support, if _you_ do not stand by me?" Addington then honourably +attempted once more to induce Pitt to be reconciled to the king's +desire, who replied, as to Addington's taking the cabinet, "I see +nothing but _ruin_ if you hesitate." A letter from the king to Pitt +still left an opening for his return, but his answer was still +inflexible; and, on the 5th of January, 1801, the correspondence was +concluded by the royal announcement that "a new arrangement would be +made without delay." + +The determination of George III. was personal and purely conscientious. +An anecdote is given by General Garth strikingly in accordance with this +opinion. The General, who was one of the royal equerries, was riding out +with the king one day at this time, when his Majesty said to him, "I +have not had any sleep this night, and am very bilious and unwell;" he +added, "that it was in consequence of Mr Pitt's applying to him on the +subject of Catholic Emancipation." + +On his arrival at Kew, he desired Garth to read the Coronation Oath, and +then followed the exclamation,--"Where is that power on earth to absolve +me from the due observance of every sentence of that oath, particularly +the one requiring me to maintain the Protestant religion? Was not my +family seated on the throne for that express purpose? And shall I be the +first to suffer it to be undermined, perhaps overturned? No. I had +rather beg my bread from door to door throughout Europe, than consent to +any such measure." + +This was the language of an honest man, and it was also the language of +a wise one. What has the introduction of Papists into parliament +occasioned to England, but political confusion? What benefit has it +produced to Ireland? No country in the wildest portion of the earth has +exhibited a more lamentable picture of insubordination, dissension, and +public misery. The peasantry gradually sinking into the most abject +poverty; the gentry living on loans; the laws set at defiance; the +demand for rents answered by assassination; a fierce faction existing in +the bowels of the land, as if for the express purpose of inflaming every +passion of an ignorant people into frenzy, and deepening every +visitation of nature into national ruin. At this moment, England is +paying for the daily food of two millions of people; employing seven +hundred thousand labourers, simply to keep them alive; and burthening +the most heavily-taxed industry in the world with millions of pounds +more, for the sole object of rescuing Ireland from the last extremities +of famine. + +We take our leave of this most distressing subject, by the obvious +remark, that Pitt and the politicians, in treating popery as a political +object, have all alike overlooked the true nature of the question. +Popery is a _religion_, and if that religion be _false_, no crime can be +greater in the sight of Heaven, nor more sure to bring evil on man, than +to give it any assistance in its temptations, progress, or power, by any +means whatever. To propagate a false religion is to declare war against +the Divine will, and in that warfare suffering must follow. But what +Protestant can have a doubt upon the subject? England may regard +herself as signally fortunate, if the just penalty of her weakness is +already paid. + +Mr Addington's Ministry began auspiciously, with the peace of Amiens. +The world was weary of war. France had just learned the power of the +British army, by the capture of her army in Egypt; she was without a +ship on the seas; Napoleon was desirous of consolidating his power, and +ascending a throne; and thus, all interests coinciding, peace was +proclaimed. + +Lord Sidmouth's life from this period was connected with the highest +transactions of the state, until 1822, when he retired from office, +followed by the universal respect of the country, and bearing with him +into his retirement a conscience as void of offence, as perhaps ever +belonged to any Minister of England. + +Then followed a period, which might have been regarded as, even here, +the fitting reward of such a life. Prom 1822 to 1844, he lived in the +enjoyment of health, and that honour, and those troops of friends, which +are the noblest human evidence of a well-spent existence. + +Old age came on him at last, but with singular gentleness. Some of his +maxims exhibit the mild philosophy of his temperament. "In youth," said +he, "the absence of pleasure is pain, in age the absence of pain is +pleasure." He characteristically observed, "At my age, it strikes me +very much, what little proportion there is between man's ambition, and +the shortness of his life." Of the wars during his time he said, "I used +to think all the sufferings of war lost in its glory; I now consider all +its glory lost in its sufferings." In allusion to the desponding tone of +some public men, he said, "I have always fought under the standard of +hope, and I never shall desert it." At another time, he expressed the +truth, which only the wise man feels--"It is a very important part of +wisdom, to know what to overlook." He repeated a fine expression of +George III, of which he acknowledged the full value,--"Give me the man +who judges _one_ human being with severity, and every other with +indulgence." + +His religious feelings were such as might be expected from his +well-spent life,--pure, benevolent, and high-toned. Speaking to his +family, in his last illness, he said, "Kind, dutiful, affectionate +children, all have been to me; and if I am permitted to attain to that +happy state to which I aspire, and am permitted to look down, how often +shall I be with you, my children!" + +On the 3d of February, 1844, he was seized with an attack of influenza, +which on the 10th became hopeless; and on the 15th he calmly died, in +his 87th year. + +We have preferred giving an abstract of the leading portions of this +able and amiable man's ministerial career, to following it minutely +through his later public years, as the earlier were those which decided +the character of the whole: and we have also preferred the tracing the +course of the individual, to criticisms on the volumes of his +biographer. But the work deserves much approval, for its general +intelligence, the clearness of its arrangement, and the fulness of its +information. It exercises judgment in the spirit of independence, and, +expressing its opinions without severity, exhibits the grave sagacity of +a man of sense, the style of a scholar, and the temper of a divine. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] _The Life and Correspondence of the Right Honourable Henry +Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth._ By the Honourable GEORGE PELLEW, +D.D., Dean of Norwich. 3 vols. J. Murray. + + + + +HOW THEY MANAGE MATTERS IN THE MODEL REPUBLIC. + + +In our last April number--on the appropriate Day of Fools--we laid +before our readers a few stray flowers of speech, culled with little +labour in that rich garden of oratorical delight--the Congress of the +United States. Sweets to the sweet!--We confess that we designed that +salutary exposure less for the benefit of our readers and subscribers in +the Old World, than of those who are our readers, but not our +subscribers, in the New. For, in the absence of an international +copyright law, Maga is extensively pirated in the United States, +extensively read, and we fear very imperfectly digested. This +arrangement appears to us to work badly for all the parties concerned. +It robs the British publisher, and impoverishes the native author. As to +the American public, if our precepts had exercised any influence upon +their practice, they would have learned long ago that ill-gotten goods +never prosper, and that they who make booty of other men's wits, are not +excepted from the general condemnation of wrong-doers. Some day, +perhaps, they will consent to profit by what they prig, and thus, like +the fat knight, turn their diseases to commodity--the national disease +of _appropriation_ to the commodity of self-knowledge and self-rebuke. + +An American journalist, however, has put the matter in quite a new +light, so far as we are concerned. Lord Demus, it appears, like other +despots, is a hard master, and exacts from his most oppressed slaves a +tribute of constant adulation. We, too, are invited to applaud his +felonious favours, and assured that the honour and glory of being read +by him on his own free and easy terms, is enough for the like of us. + +"So long," says the editor of the _New York Gazette_ and _Times_ "as our +National Legislature refuses to give the Republic an International +Copyright Law, so that American periodicals of a higher class may be +supported among us, the English reviews will do the thinking of our +people upon a great variety of subjects. They make no money, indeed, +directly, by their circulation here; but their conductors cannot but +feel the importance, and value the influence of having the whole +American literary area to themselves. _Blackwood_, whose circulation on +this side of the Atlantic is, on account of its cheapness, double +perhaps that which it can claim in the British islands, is more and more +turning its attention to American subjects, which it handles generally +with its wonted humorous point, and witty spitefulness." + +This is very fine; but we can assure our friendly critic, that we feel +no call whatever to undertake the gratuitous direction of the American +conscience. Our ambition to "do the thinking" of our Yankee cousins is +materially damped by the unpleasant necessity which it involves, of +being "done" ourselves. They seem, however, to claim a prescriptive +right to the works of the British press, as well as to the funds of the +British public. They read our books, on the same principle as they +borrow our money, and abuse their benefactors into the bargain with more +than Hibernian asperity. After all, however, we believe that the candour +of Maga has as much to do with their larcenous admiration of her pages, +as the "cheapness" to which our New York editor alludes. To use their +own phrase, "they go in for excitement considerable;" and, to be told of +their faults, is an excitement which they seldom enjoy at the hands of +their own authors. Now, we are accustomed to treat our own public as a +rational, but extremely fallible personage, and to think that we best +deserve his support, by administering to his failings the language of +unpalatable truth. And we greatly mistake the character of Demus, and +even of that conceited monster the American Demus,-- + + [Greek: agroikos orgên, kuamotrôx, akracholos upokôphos--] + +if this be not the direction in which the interest, as well as the duty, +of the public writer lies. Certain it is, that even in the United States +those books circulate most freely, which lash most vigorously the vices +of the Republic. Honest Von Raumer's dull encomium fell almost +still-born from the press, while the far more superficial pages of +Dickens and Trollope were eagerly devoured by a people who are daily +given to understand, by their own authors, that they are the greatest, +the wisest, the most virtuous nation under the sun. Let a European +author be never so well disposed towards them, his partial applause +contributes but little to their full-blown complacency. But, when they +hear that the Republic has been traduced by a foreign, and especially a +British pen, their vanity is piqued, their curiosity excited, and their +conscience smitten. Every one denounces the libel in public, and every +one admits its truth to himself--"What!" say they, "does the Old World +in truth judge us thus harshly? Is it really scandalised by such trifles +as the repudiation of our debts, and the enslavement of our fellow +creatures? Must we give up our playful duels, and our convenient +spittoons, before we can hope to pass muster as Christians and gentlemen +beyond our own borders? O free Demus! O wise Demus! O virtuous Demus! +Will you betake yourself to cleanly, and well-ordered ways at the +bidding of this scribbler?" Thus "they eat, and eke they swear;" vowing +all the time that they "will horribly revenge." No doubt, however, the +bitter pill of foreign animadversion, though distasteful to the palate, +relieves the inflation of their stomachs, and leaves them better and +lighter than before. But when will a native Aristophanes arise to purge +the effeminacy of the American press, and show up the sausage-venders +and Cleons of the Republic in their true light? How long will the +richest field of national folly in the world remain unreaped, save by +the crotchety sickles of dull moralists and didactic pamphleteers? + +Not that moral courage is entirely wanting in the United States; but it +is a kind of courage altogether too moral, and sadly deficient in animal +spirits. The New Englanders especially, set up, in their solemn way, to +admonish the vices of the Republic, and to inoculate them with the +virulent virtues of the Puritanical school. The good city of Boston +alone teems with transcendental schemes for the total and immediate +regeneration of mankind. There we find Peace Societies, and New Moral +World Societies, and Teetotal Societies, and Anti-Slavery Societies, all +"in full blast," each opposing to its respective bane the most sweeping +and exaggerated remedies. The Americans never do things by halves; their +vices and their virtues are alike in extremes, and the principles of the +second book of the Ethics of Aristotle[5] are altogether unknown to +their philosophy. At one moment they are all for "brandy and bitters," +at the next, tea and turn-out is the order of the day, Here, you must +"liquor or fight"--there, a little wine for the stomach's sake is +sternly denied to a fit of colic, or an emergency of gripes. The moral +soul of Boston thrills with imaginings of perpetual peace, while St +Louis and New Orleans are volcanoes of war. Listen to the voice of New +England, and you would think that negro slavery was the only crime of +which a nation ever was, or could by possibility be guilty; go to South +Carolina, and you are instructed that "the Domestic Institution" is the +basis of democratic virtue, the cornerstone of the Republican edifice. +Cant, indeed, in one form or other, is the innate vice of the "earnest" +Anglo-Saxon mind, on both sides of the Atlantic, and ridicule is the +weapon which the gods have appointed for its mitigation. You must lay on +the rod with a will, and throw "moral suasion" to the dogs. Above all, +your demagogue dreads satire as vermin the avenging thumb--'Any thing +but that,' squeaks he, 'an you love me. Liken me to Lucifer, or Caius +Gracchus; charge me with ambition, and glorious vices; let me be the +evil genius of the commonwealth, the tinsel villain of the political +melodrama; but don't threaten me with the fool's cap, or write me down +with Dogberry; above all, don't quote me in cold blood, that the foolish +people may see, after the fever heat has subsided, what trash I have +palmed upon them in the name of liberty!' Yet this is the way, Jonathan, +to deal with demagogues. You make too much of yours, man. You are not +the blockhead we take you for after all; but you delight to see your +public men in motley, and the rogues will fool you to the top of your +bent, till it is your pleasure to put down the show. So now that the +piper has to be paid, and a lucid interval appears to be dawning upon +you, to the pillory at once with these "stump" orators, and pot-house +politicians, who have led you into such silly scrapes; turn them about, +and look at them well in the rough, that you may know them again when +you see them, and learn to avoid for the future their foolish and +mischievous counsels. + +It is remarkable that while a perception of the ridiculous, perhaps to +excess, is characteristic of the British mind, and is at the bottom of +many defects in the national manners, commonly attributed to less venial +feelings, our Transatlantic descendants err in just the opposite +direction. The Americans seldom laugh at any body, or any thing--never +at themselves; and this, next to an unfortunate trick of insolvency, and +a preternatural abhorrence of niggers, is perhaps the besetting sin of +an otherwise "smart" people. As individuals, their peculiarities are not +very marked; in truth there is a marvellous uniformity of bad habits +amongst them; but when viewed in their collective capacity, whenever two +or three of them are gathered together, shades of Democritus! commend us +to a seven-fold pocket-handkerchief. The humours of most nations expend +themselves on carnivals and feast-days, at the theatre, the ball-room, +or the public garden; but the fun of the United States is to be looked +for at public meetings, and philanthropical gatherings, in the halls of +lyceums, female academies, and legislative bodies. There they spout, +there they swell, and cover themselves with adulation as with a garment. +From the inauguration of a President, to the anniversary of the fair +graduates of the Slickville female Institute, no event is allowed to +pass without a grand palaver, in which things in general are extensively +discussed, and their own things in particular extensively praised. They +got the trick no doubt from us, whose performances in this line are +quite unrivalled in the Old World, but they have added to our platform +common-places a variety and "damnable iteration" entirely their own. +Besides, when Bull is called upon to make an ass of himself on such +occasions, he seems for the most part to have a due appreciation of the +fact, while Jonathan's imperturbability and apparent good faith are +quite sublime. The things that we have been compelled to hear of that +"star-spangled banner!"--and all as if they were spoken in real earnest, +and meant to be so understood. We look back upon those side-rending +moments with a kind of Lucretian pleasure, and indemnify ourselves for +past constraint by a hearty guffaw. All this magniloquence and bad +taste, however, is intelligible enough. It springs partly from a want of +discipline in their society, and partly from the absence of those +studies which purify the taste, enlighten the judgment, and make, even +dulness respectable. American audiences are not critical--not merely +because they are not learned, but because they all take it in turns to +be orators, as they do to be colonels of militia and justices of the +peace. Thus they learn to bear each other's burdens, and Dulness is +fully justified of her children. In a country where all men, at least in +theory, are equal, and where every man does in fact exercise a certain +influence on public affairs, it is not surprising that a large number of +persons should possess a certain facility of public speaking, which even +in England is far from universal, and is elsewhere possessed by very +few. No man in the United States is deterred from offering his views +upon matters of state, by the feeling that neither his education nor his +position justify his interference. It is difficult in England to realise +the practical equality which obtains as a fundamental principle in the +Republic. There every man feels himself to be, and in fact is, or at +least may be, a potential unit in the community. As a man, he is a +citizen--as a citizen, a sovereign, whose caprices are to be humoured, +and whose displeasure is to be deprecated. Judge Peddle, for instance, +from the backwoods, is not perhaps as eloquent as Webster, nor as +subtile as Calhoun, but he has just as good a right to be heard when he +goes up to Congress for all that. Is he not accounted an exemplary +citizen "and a pretty tall talker" in his own neighbourhood, and where +on "the univarsal airth" would you find a more enlightened public +opinion? It would never do to put Peddle down; that would be +_leze-majesté_ against his constituents, the sovereign people who dwell +in Babylon, which is in the county of Lafayette, on the banks of the +Chattawichee. Thus endorsed, Peddle soon lays aside his native +bashfulness, and makes the walls of Congress vocal to that bewitching +eloquence which heretofore captivated the Babylonish mind. He was +"raised a leettle too far to the west of sun-down" to be snubbed by +Down-easters, any how; he's a cock of the woods, he is; an "etarnal +screamer," "and that's a fact"--with a bowie knife under his waistcoat, +and a patent revolver in his coat pocket, both very much at the service +of any gentleman who may dispute his claims to popular or personal +consideration. + +To meet the case of these volcanic statesmen, + + "Aw'd by no shame, by no respect controll'd," + +and in order that the noble army of dunces (a potent majority, of +course) may have no reason to complain that the principles of equality +are violated in their persons, the House of Representatives has adopted +a regulation, commonly called "the one-hour rule." Upon this principle, +whenever a question of great interest comes up, each member is allotted +one hour by the Speaker's watch--as much less as he pleases, but no more +on any consideration. Of course it occasionally happens that a man who +has something to say, is not able to say it effectively within the hour; +but then, for one such, there are at least a dozen who would otherwise +talk for a week without saying any thing at all. Upon the whole, +therefore, this same one-hour rule is deserving of all praise--the time +of the country is saved by it, the sufferings of the more sensible +members are abbreviated, while the dunces, to do them justice, make the +most of their limited opportunities. Who knows, but that the peace of +the world may be owing to it? For as there are about 230 +representatives, we should have had, but for it, just as many masterly +demonstrations of the title of the Republic to the whole of Oregon--and +something more. In such a cause, they would make nothing of beginning +with the creation of the world, and ending with the last protocol of Mr +Buchanan! Decidedly, but for "the one-hour rule" we Britishers should +have been "everlastingly used up--and no two ways about it." Poor old +Adams actually did begin his Oregon speech with the first chapter of +Genesis. The title-deeds of the Republic, he said, were to be found in +the words, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth!" Happily, +the fatal hammer of the Speaker put down the venerable antediluvian, +before he got to the end of the chapter. + +In the Senate, on the other hand, which is a less numerous, and somewhat +more select body, things still go on in the old-fashioned way. There, +when a member has once caught the Speaker's eye, his fortune is made for +the day--perhaps for the week. Accordingly, he takes things easy from +the very first--kicks his spittoon to a convenient angle, offers a +libation of cold water to his parched entrails, and begins. When he +leaves off, is another matter altogether--but not generally till he has +gone through the round of human knowledge, explored the past, touched +lightly upon the present, and cast a piercing glance into the darkness +of the future. Soon after three, the Senate adjourns for dinner, and the +orator of the day goes to his pudding with the rest, happy in the +reflection that he has done his duty by his country, and will do it +again on the morrow. We have somewhere read of a paradise of fools. +Undoubtedly, Congress is that place. There they enjoy a perfect +impunity, and revel in the full gratification of their instincts. Nobody +thinks of coughing them down, or swamping them with ironical cheers. +There-- + + "Dulness, with transport, eyes each lively dunce, + Remembering she herself was Pertness once, + And tinsel'd o'er in robes of varying hues, + With self-applause her wild creation views. + Sees momentary monsters rise and fall, + And with her own fool's colours gilds them all." + +Indeed, all the arrangements of Congress favour the influence of the +sable goddess. In the first place, the members are paid by the +day--eight dollars each. Permit us to observe, Jonathan, that you +scarcely display your usual "smartness" here. It would be much better to +contract with them by the _scrape_. As for instance--To involving the +country in a war with Mexico, so much--To ditto with Great Britain, so +much more. One year you might lay down a lumping sum for a protective +tariff, with an understanding, that it was to be repealed the next at a +moderate advance. You would thus insure the greatest possible variety of +political catastrophes, with the least possible friction and expense. +Again, the furniture of the Capitol is altogether too luxurious. Each +member is provided with a private desk, stationery _ad lib._, a stuffed +arm-chair, and a particular spittoon. No wonder, then, that your Simmses +and Chipmans are listened to with complacency. It's all in the day's +work--it's considered in the wages. While these worthies hold forth for +the benefit of distant Missouri and Michigan, their colleagues write +their letters, read the newspapers, chew tobacco, as little boys do +toffy in England, and expectorate at leisure. No one cheers, no one +groans, no one cries Oh! Oh!--all the noise that is made is on private +account, and not at all personal to the gentleman on his legs. Yet, such +is the deceitfulness of the human heart, that the Americans are much +given to boast of the dignity and decorum of their Legislature, and to +thank God that it is not a bear-garden like another place of the kind +that they wot of. We must have been asked at least six times a-day +during our visit at Washington, "How Congress compared with the British +Parliament?" To which we used to reply, "That they did not compare at +all," an answer which fully met the truth of the case, without in the +least wounding the self-love of the querist. + +When these malignant pages arrive in New York, every inhabitant of that +good city will abuse us heartily, except our publisher. But great will +be the joy of that furacious individual, as he speculates in secret on +the increased demand of his agonised public. Immediately he will put +forth an advertisement, notifying the men of "Gotham," that he has on +hand a fresh sample of BRITISH INSOLENCE, and hinting that, although he +knows they care nothing about such things, the forthcoming piracy of +Maga will be on the most extensive scale. Then, all the little +newspapers will take us in hand, and bully us in their little way. It is +perhaps a shame to forestall the acerbities of these ingenious +gentlemen, but we know they will call us "anonymous scribbler," and +"bagman," amongst the rest. They called us "bagman" for our last +article, and we were sure they would. The fact is, that since Lord +Morpeth's visit to the United States, the Americans have taken a very +high tone indeed. Their gratitude to that amiable nobleman for not +writing a book about them, is unbounded, and they put him down (why, it +is difficult to say) as the aristocratic, and therefore impartial +champion of Demus. Whenever we fell into the bilious moods to which our +plebeian nature is addicted, we were gravely admonished of his bright +example, and assured that to speak evil of the Republic was the +infirmity of vulgar minds. There is, it would appear, a sympathy betwixt +"great ones;" a kind of free-masonry betwixt the sovereign people and +the British peerage, which neither party suspected previously, but which +is confessed on the slightest acquaintance. + +As generally happens in such cases, the conceit of the Americans takes +the most perverse direction. It is certain that they do many things +better than any people under the sun. Their merchant navy is the finest +in the world--their river steamers are miracles of ingenuity,--at +felling timber and packing pork they are unrivalled; and their smartness +in the way of trade is acknowledged by those who know them best. All +this, and much more to the same effect, may be admitted without demur, +but all these admissions will avail the traveller nothing. He will be +expected to congratulate them on the elegance of their manners, the +copiousness of their literature, and the refinement of their tastes. He +will be confidentially informed that "Lord Morpeth's manners were much +improved by mixing with our first circles, sir;" and what is worse, he +will be expected to believe it, and to carry himself accordingly. "Ripe +scholars" who make awful false quantities, second-rate demagogues +passing for "distinguished statesmen," literary empirics, under the name +of "men of power," will claim his suffrages at every turn; and in vain +will he draw upon his politeness to the utmost, in vain assent, +ejaculate, and admire--no amount of positive praise will suffice, till +America Felix is admitted to be the chosen home of every grace and every +muse. "Did Mr Bull meet with any of _our_ literary characters at +Boston?" Mr Bull had that happiness. "Well, he was very much pleased of +course?" Bull hastens to lay his hand upon his heart, and to reply with +truth that he _was_ pleased. "Yes, sir, we do expect that our Boston +literature is about first-rate. We are a young people, sir, but we are a +great people, and we are bound to be greater still. There is a moral +power, sir, an elevation about the New England mind, which +Europeans can scarcely realise. Did you hear Snooks lecture, sir? +the Rev. Amos Snooks of Pisgah? Well, sir, you ought to have heard +Snooks. All Europeans calculate to hear Snooks--he's a fine man, +sir, a man of power--one of the greatest men, sir, in this, or perhaps +any other country." + + "Semper ego auditor tantum, nunquam ne reponam, + Vexatus toties."---- + +You leave Boston somewhat snubbed and subdued, and betake yourself to +the more cosmopolitan regions of New York. Here, too, "men of power" are +to be found in great numbers--but "our first circles" divide the +attention and abuse the patience of the traveller. Boston writes the +books, but New York sets the fashions of the Republic, and is the +Elysium of mantua-makers and upholders. We doubt whether any city in the +world of its size can boast so many smart drawing rooms and so many +pretty young women. Indeed, from the age of fifteen to that of +five-and-twenty, female beauty is the rule rather than the exception in +the United States, and neither cost nor pains are spared to set it forth +to the best advantage. The American women dress well, dance well, and in +all that relates to what may be called the mechanical part of social +intercourse, they appear to great advantage. Nothing can exceed the +self-possession of these pretty creatures, whose confidence is never +checked by the discipline of society, or the restraints of an education +which is terminated almost as soon as it is begun. There is no childhood +in America--no youth--no freshness. We look in vain for the + + "Ingenui vultus puer, ingenuique pudoris." + +or + + "The modest maid deck'd with a blush of honour, + Whose feet do tread green paths of youth and love." + + DANIEL. + +There is scarcely a step from the school to the forum--from the nursery +to the world. Young girls, who in England would be all blushes and bread +and butter, boldly precede their mammas into the ball-room; and the code +of a mistaken gallantry supplies no corrective to their caprice, for +youth and beauty are here invested with regal prerogatives, and can do +no wrong. In short, the Americans carry their complaisance to the sex +beyond due bounds--at least in little things--for we by no means think +that the real influence of their women is great, notwithstanding the +tame and submissive gallantry with which the latter are treated in +public. We doubt whether the most limited gynocracy would tolerate the +use of tobacco as an article of daily diet, or permit ferocious murders +to go unwhipped of justice under the name of duels. But the absorbing +character of the pursuits of the men forbids any strong sympathy betwixt +the sexes; and perhaps the despotism which the women exercise in the +drawing-room arises from the fact that all that relates to the graces +and embellishments of life is left entirely to them. We do not know +that this can be avoided under the circumstances of the country, but it +has a most injurious effect upon social intercourse. The Americans of +both sexes want tact and graciousness of manner, and that prompt and +spontaneous courtesy which is the child of discipline and +self-restraint. They are seldom absolutely awkward, because they are +never bashful; they have no _mauvaise honte_, because they are all on an +equality; hence they never fail to display a certain dry composure of +bearing, which, though not agreeable, is less ludicrous than the +_gaucherie_ so commonly observed in all classes of English society, +except the very highest. + +It is curious to observe how the manners of two nations of the same +origin, and, in a great degree, of similar instincts, are modified by +their political institutions. Neither the British nor the Americans are +distinguished for that natural politeness and _savoir vivre_, which is +to be found more or less in all other civilised countries. They are both +too grave, too busy, and too ambitious to lay themselves out for +trifles, which, after all, go far to make up the sum of human happiness. +As for the Americans, the general aspect of their society is dreary and +monotonous in the extreme. Whatever "our first circles" may say to the +contrary, there is a great equality of manners, as of other things, +amongst them; but if the standard is nowhere very high, it never falls +so low as with us; if there is less refinement and cultivation amongst +the higher classes, (we beg Demus' pardon for the expression,) there is +on the other hand less grossness, certainly less clownishness, among the +mass. Of course there are many individuals in this, as in other +countries, remarkable for natural grace and genteel bearing; but the +class which is pre-eminent in these respects, is very small and +ill-defined. The great national defect is a want of sprightliness and +vivacity, and an impartial _insouciance_ in their intercourse with all +classes and conditions of men. For if inequality has its evils, it has +also its charms; as the prospect of swelling mountains and lowly vales +is more pleasing to the eye than that of the monotonous, though more +fertile champaign. Now, as the relation of patrician and plebeian, of +patron and client, of master and servant, of superior and inferior, can +scarcely be said to exist in the United States, so all the nice +gradations of manner which are elicited by those relations, are wanting +also. The social machine rubs on with as little oil as possible--there +is but small room for the exercise of the amenities and charities of +life. The favours of the great are seldom rewarded by the obsequiousness +of the small. No leisure and privileged class exists to set an example +of refined and courtly bearing; but there are none, however humble, who +may not affect the manners of their betters without impertinence, and +aspire to the average standard of the Republic. Hence, almost every +native American citizen is capable of conducting himself with propriety, +if not with ease, in general society. What are fine ladies and gentlemen +to him, that he should stand in awe of them? Simply persons who have +been smarter or earlier in the field of fortune than himself, who will +"burst up" some fine morning, and leave the road open to others. The +principle of rotation[6] is not confined to the political world of the +United States, but obtains in every department of life. It is throughout +the same song-- + + "Here we go up, up, up, + And here we go down, down, down." + +Law and opinion, and the circumstances of the country, are alike +opposed to the accumulation of property, so that it is rare for two +successive generations of the same family to occupy the same social +position. The ease with which fortunes are made, or repaired, is only +equalled by the recklessness with which they are lost. Prosperity, at +some time or other, appears to be the birth-right of every citizen; and, +where all are _parvenus_ alike, there are none to assume the airs of +exclusiveness, or to crush the last comer beneath the weight of +traditional and time-honoured grandeur. + +It is not easy to dismiss the peculiarities of our British society in a +paragraph. Bull, however, to be appreciated, must be seen in the midst +of his own household gods, with his family and bosom friends about him. +This is what may be called the normal state of that fine fellow--and +here Jonathan can't hold a candle to him. American interiors want relief +and variety of colouring. Their children are not like the children of +the Old World: they don't romp, or prattle, or get into mischief, or +believe in Bogie. They seem to take brevet rank, from the first, as men +and women, and are quite inaccessible to nursery humbug of any kind. +They are never whipped, and eat as much pastry as they think proper; +whereby they grow up dyspeptic and rational beyond their years. Parents +don't appear to exercise any particular functions, masters (we again beg +Demus's pardon for the poverty of the vernacular) have nothing +magisterial about them, and servants won't stomach even the name, at +least if they wear white skins, and know it. After the first burst of +admiration at the philosophy of the thing, it grows tiresome to live +amongst people who are all so much alike. Now in England the +distinctions of age, and rank, and sex, are much more strongly marked; +while in those countries of Europe which are still less under the +influence of the equalising spirit of the age, the social landscape is +still more variegated and picturesque. With us, two adverse principles +are at work; and this is the reason why our British society is so +anomalous to ourselves, and so entirely beyond the comprehension of +foreigners. Whenever our brave Bull is thrown into a mixed company +abroad, or even at home, where the social position of those with whom he +is brought into contact is unknown to him, there is no end to the +blundering and nonsense of the worthy fellow. Go where he will, he is +haunted by the traditions of his eccentric island, and desperately +afraid of placing himself in what he calls a false position. At home, he +has one manner for his nobleman, another for his tradesman, another for +his valet; and he would rather die than fail in the orthodox intonation +appropriate to each. Who has not observed the strange mixture of +petulance and _mauvaise honte_ which distinguishes so many of our +English travellers on the Continent? Decidedly, we appear to less +advantage in public than any people in the world. Place a Briton and an +American, of average parts and breeding, on board a Rhine steam-boat, +and it is almost certain that the Yankee will mix up, so to speak, the +better of the two. The gregarious habits of our continental neighbours +are more familiar to him than to his insular kinsman, and he is not +tormented like the latter by the perpetual fear of failing, either in +what is due to himself or to others. His manners will probably want +polish and dignity; he will be easy rather than graceful, communicative +rather than affable; but he will at least preserve his Republican +composure, alike in his intercourse with common humanity, or in the +atmosphere of more courtly and exclusive circles. + +The art of pleasing is nowhere well understood in the United States: but +the beauty of the women, though transient, is unrivalled while it lasts, +and perhaps in no country is the standard of female virtue so high. The +formal and exaggerated attention which the sex receives from all classes +in public, is at least a proof of the high estimation in which it is +held, and must, we think, be put down as an amiable trait in the +American character. + +We are quite sure, for instance, that females may travel unattended in +the United States with far more ease and security than in any country of +the Old World: and the deference paid to them is quite irrespective of +the rank of the fair objects--it is a tribute paid to the _woman_ and +not to the _lady_. Some travellers we believe have denied this. We can +only say, that during a pretty extensive tour we do not recollect a +single instance in which even the unreasonable wishes of women were not +complied with as of course. We _did_ remark with less satisfaction the +ungracious manner in which civilities were received by these spoilt +children of the Republic--the absence of apologetic phrases, and those +courtesies of voice and expression, with which women usually acknowledge +the deference paid to their weakness and their charms. But this is a +national failing. The Americans are too independent to confess a sense +of obligation, even in the little conventional matters of daily +intercourse. They have almost banished from the language such phrases +as, "Thank you," "If you please," "I beg your pardon," and the like. The +French, who are not half so attentive to women as the Americans, pass +for the politest nation in Europe, because they know how to veil their +selfishness beneath a profusion of bows and pretty speeches. Now, when +your Yankee is invited to surrender his snug seat in a stage or a +railroad carriage in favour of a fair voyager, he does not hesitate for +a moment. He expectorates, and retires at once. But no civilities are +interchanged; no smiles or bows pass betwixt the parties. The gentleman +expresses no satisfaction--the lady murmurs no apologies. + +Even now we see in our mind's eye the pert, pretty little faces, and the +loves of bonnets which flirt and flutter along Broadway in the bright +sunshine--_Longum Vale_! In the flesh we shall see them no more. No more +oysters at Downing's, no more terrapins at Florence's, no more fugacious +banquets at the Astor House. We have traduced the State, and for us +there is no return. The commercial house which we represent, has offered +to renew its confidence, but it has failed to restore ours. No amount of +commission whatever, will tempt us to affront the awful majesty of +Lynch, or to expose ourselves to the tar-and-feathery tortures which he +prepares for those who blaspheme the Republic. We have ordered our buggy +for the Home Circuit, and propose, by a course of deliberate +mastication, and unlimited freedom of speech, to repair the damage which +our digestion, and we fear our temper, has sustained during our travels +in "the area of freedom." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] [Greek: Estig ara ê aretê exisproaixetikt, en mesotêtizusa tê pros +êmas ôrismenê dogô] + +[6] The principle of rotation in office is a favourite crochet of the +Democratic party, and is founded upon the Republican jealousy of power. +General Jackson went so far as to recommend that all official +appointments whatever should be limited by law to the Presidential term +of four years. As it is, whenever a change of parties occurs, a clean +sweep is made of all the officers of government, from the highest to the +lowest. Custom-house officers, jailers, &c., all share the fate of their +betters. It is only surprising that the business of the country is +carried on as well as it is, under the influence of this corrupting +system. + + + + +HORÆ CATULLIANÆ. + + +LETTER TO EUSEBIUS. + +You are far more anxious, my dear Eusebius, to know somewhat of the +progress or the result of the Curate's misfortune, than to read his or +my translations from Catullus. I have a great mind to punish that love +of mischief in you, by burying the whole affair in profound secresy. It +is fortunate for him that you are not here, or you would surely indulge +your propensity, and with malicious invention put the whole parish, with +the Curate, into inextricable confusion. It is bad enough as it is. +There!--it cannot be helped--I must tell you at once the condition we +are in, if I would have you read the rest of my letter with any +patience. + +A committee has been sitting these two days, to sift, as they pronounce +them, "the late disgraceful proceedings;" so that you see, they are of +the school of Rhadamanthus,--condemn first, and hear afterwards. We +have, in this little township, two "general shopkeepers," dealers in +groceries, mops, calicoes, candles, and the usual "_omnium-gatherum_" of +household requirements. + +These are great rivals--envious rivals--back-biting rivals; both, in the +way of tale-bearing, what Autolicus calls himself, "pickers-up of +unconsidered trifles." And truly, in the trade of this commodity, if in +no other, this may be called a "manufacturing district." Now the Curate, +unhappily, can buy his tea and sugar, and trifling matters, but of +one--for to patronise both, would be to make enemies of both; the poor +Curate, then, in preferring the adulterated goods of Nicolas Sandwell, +to the adulterated goods of Matthew Miffins, has made an implacable +enemy. Really, Eusebius, here is machinery enough for a heroic poem: for +Virgil's old Lady Fame on the top of the roof we have three, active and +lusty--and you may make them the Fates or the Furies, or what you +please, except the Graces. Prateapace, Gadabout, and Brazenstare--there +are characters enough for episodes; and a hero--but what, you will say, +are we to do for a heroine? Here is one, beat out of the brain of Mathew +Miffins, a ready-armed Minerva. You will smile, but it is so. The three +above-named ladies first made their way to the shop of Mr Miffins, +narrated what had passed and what had not. Having probably just +completed "sanding the sugar and watering the tobacco," he raised both +his hands and his eyes, and, to lose no time in business, dropped them +as soon as he decently could, and, pressing both palms strongly on the +counter, he asked, if they entertained any suspicion of a particular +person as being the object of the Curate's most unbecoming passion? +Lydia Prateapace remembered, certainly, a name being mentioned--it was +Lesby or Lisby, or something like that. "Indeed!" said Miffins, arching +his brows, and significantly touching the tip of his nose with his +forefinger--"ah! indeed! a foreigner, depend upon it--a Lisbon lady; +that, Miss, is the capital of Portugal, where them figs comes from. Only +think, a foreign lady--a lady from Lisbon--that is too bad!" to which +the three readily assented. "I doubt not, ladies," he continued, "it's +one of them foreigners as lives near Ashford, about five miles +off--where I knows the Curate goes two or three times in a week." + +Thus, Eusebius, is Catullus's Lesbia, who herself stood for another, +converted into a Portuguese lady, whom the Curate visits some five miles +off--or, as the three ladies say, _protects_. + +If you ask how I came by this accurate information, learn that our +Gratian's _Jahn_ was at the further counter, making a purchase of +mole-traps, and saw and heard, and reported. The first meeting was held +in Miffins' back-parlour; but fame had beat up for recruits, and that +was found far too small; so they have adjourned to the Blue Boar, where, +the tap being good, and the landlord a busybody, they are likely to +remain a little longer than Muzzle-brains can see to draw up a report. +The Curate's door is chalked, and adjacent walls--"No Kissing," "The +Clerical Judas," "Who Kissed the School-mistress?" and many such-like +morsels. But if fame has thus been playing with the kaleidoscope of +lies, multiplying and giving every one its match, she has likewise shown +them about through her magnifying glass, and brought the most distantly +circulated home to the poor Curate. In a little town a few miles off, it +has been reported that Miss Lydia Prateapace has been obliged to "swear +the peace against him," which "swearing the _peace_" is, in most cases, +a declaration of _war_. + +Meanwhile the Curate has taken his cue, to do nothing and say nothing +upon the subject; and, as in all his misadventures, that was the part +taken by Yorick, if his friends do not rescue him, he may have Yorick's +penalty. Thus much at present, my dear Eusebius; I will occasionally +report progress, but it is now time that we resume our translations, +hoping you will find amusement in our + + +HORÆ CATULLIANÆ. + +I told you Gratian, worthy veracious Gratian, had hastened away to an +Agricultural meeting, to vindicate the character of his Belgian carrots. +This vindication inundated us for some days with agricultural visitors. +And Gratian was proud, and, like Virgil, "tossed about the dung with +dignity." We saw little of him, and when he did appear, "his talk was of +bullocks;" so how could he "have understanding," at least for Catullus? +Had not a neighbouring fair taken off the agriculturists after a few +days, his ideas, like his stick, would have become porcine. He rode his +hobby, and at a brisk pace; and, when a little tired of him, stabled him +and littered him, and seemed glad of a little quiet and leg-tapping in +his easy-chair. He had worked off the lessened excitement by an +evening's nap, and awoke recruited; and, with a pleasant smile, asked +the Curate if he had had recently any communication with his friend +Catullus. + +CURATE.--We left him, I believe, in the very glory of kissing--his +insatiable glory. He now comes to a check--Lesbia is weary, if he is +not. + +AQUILIUS.--It is a mere lovers' quarrel, and is only the prelude to more +folly, like the blank green baize curtain, between the play and the +farce. He affects anger--a thin disguise: he would give worlds to "kiss +and be friends again." His vexation is evident. + +GRATIAN.--Ah! it is an old story--and not the worse for that--come, Mr +Curate, show up Catullus in his true motley. He was privileged at his +age to play the fool--so are we all at one time or another, if we do it +not too wisely. A wise fool is the only Asinine.--Now for Catullus's +folly. + +CURATE.--Thus, then, to himself:-- + + AD CATULLUM. + + Sad Catullus, cease your moan, + Or your folly you'll deplore; + What you see no more your own, + Think of as your own no more. + + Once the suns shone on you clearly, + When it was your wont to go + Seeking her you loved so dearly,-- + Will you e'er love woman so? + + Then those coquetries amusing + Were consented to by both-- + Done at least of your free choosing, + Nor was she so very loth. + + Then, indeed, the suns shone clearly, + Now their light is half gone out; + She is loth--and you can merely + Learn the way to do without. + + Cease, then, your untimely wooing, + Steel your purpose, and be strong; + If she flies you, why, pursuing, + Make your sorrow vain and long? + + Farewell, Fair!--Catullus hardens; + Where he is, will he remain; + He is not a man who pardons + One that must be asked again. + + She'll be sad in turn, the charmer, + When the shades of eventide + Bring no gallants to alarm her, + No Catullus to her side. + + Lost to every sense of duty, + Say, what can you, will you do? + Who'll find out that you have beauty? + Who'll be loved in turn by you? + + Whose will you be called of right? + Whom will you in future kiss? + Whose lips will you have to bite?-- + O Catullus, keep to this! + +GRATIAN.--Well, now, I think your choice of metre a little too much of +the measured elegiac, for the bursts of alternate passion, love, and +anger--those sudden breaks of vexation, which I see, or fancy I see, in +the original Latin. Now, Aquilius, let us hear you personate the "vexed +lover." + +AQUILIUS. + + AD SEIPSUM. + + Foolish Catullus--trifling ever-- + Dismiss so fruitless an endeavour; + Let by-gone days be days by-gone, + Though fine enough some days have shone,-- + When if _she_ but held up her finger + Whom you so loved--and still you linger, + Nor dare to part with--you observant, + Were at her beck her humble servant; + Follow'd her here and there: and did + Such things! which she would not forbid-- + Love's follies, without stint or doubt: + Oh! then your days shone finely out. + But now 'tis quite another thing,-- + She likes not your philandering: + And you yourself! But be it over-- + Act not again the silly lover-- + But let her go--be hard as stone; + So let her go--and go alone. + Adieu, sweet lady! 'Tis in vain! + Catullus is himself again-- + Will neither love, want, nor require, + But gives you up as you desire. + Wretch! you will grieve for this full sore, + When lovers come to you no more. + For think you, false one, to what pass, + Your wretched days will come? Alas! + No beauty yours--not one to say + How beautiful she looks to-day! + Whom will you have to love--to hear + Yourself called by _his_ name, _his_ dear? + Whom will you have to kiss,--be kiss'd + And bind your names, in true-love twist? + Whose lips to bite so?--yes--to bite.} + --Catullus, spare thy love or spite:} + Be firm as rock--or conquered quite.} + +CURATE.--I protest against this as a translation. He has indeed, as he +professed, brought his puppet Catullus upon the stage, and, like +Shakspeare's bad actor, has put more words in his mouth than the author +bargained for. The very last words are quite contradicted by the text. +Catullus does not hint at the possibility of being conquered, of giving +in. + +GRATIAN.--Oh! that, is always implied in these cases. Besides Catullus +evidently doubts, or he would not have so enforced the caution; "At tu, +Catulle"--the translation may be a little free, but still admissible. + +AQUILIUS.--My friend the Curate has committed the fault himself, if it +be one: his "O Catullus, keep to this!" so evidently means, If you do +not, it is all over with you. + +GRATIAN.--Give me the book.--Oh!--I see we have next that very elegant +and very affectionate welcome home to his friend Verannius, on his +return from Spain, whither he had gone with Caius Piso. There is much +heart in it, and true joy and gratulation. This is the sort of welcome +that throws a sunshine upon the path of the days of human life. There is +no trouble when friend greets friend. Have you translated this? + +AQUILIUS.--I fear your commendation will resemble too rich a frame to a +poor picture, and make all more dingy by the glow of the genuine gold. + +But here I venture to offer, my translation:--the warmth of the +original--the tenderness, is not perhaps in it: + + AD VERANNIUM. + + Sweet friend, Verannius, welcome home at last! + Had I a thousand friends, all were surpass'd + By my Verannius! Art thou _home_ return'd, + To thine own household gods, and hearts that yearn'd + To greet thee--brothers happy in one mind, + And thy dear mother, too,--all fond, all kind? + O happy, happy news! and now again + To see thee safe! and hear thee talk of Spain-- + Its history, places, people, and array, + Telling of all in thy old pleasant way! + And shall I hold thee in a friend's embrace, + Gaze on thy mouth, and in thine eyes, and trace + The features of the well-remember'd face! + Oh, if one happiest man on earth there be, + Amongst the happy, I, dear friend, am he! + +CURATE.--This Verannius, and his friend Fabullus, seem to have been upon +the most intimate and familiar terms with our poet. Little presents, +pledges of their mutual friendship, had doubtless been given and +received. Catullus elsewhere complains against Marrucinus Asinius, that +he had stolen a handkerchief, sent him out of Spain by Verannius and +Fabullus. + +AQUILIUS.--Have you not translated it? + +CURATE.--No. + +AQUILIUS.--I have, and will read it, after yours to Verannius: and it is +curious as showing that the Romans had the practice of using +handkerchiefs, or napkins, of value,--perhaps such a fashion as is now +revived by the other sex,--and embroidered with lace. + +GRATIAN.--Now, Mr Curate.--If you let our friend digress thus, we shall +never have your version. + +CURATE.-- + + AD VERANNIUM. + + My friend, the dearest and the best, + E'en though ten thousand I possess'd!-- + My own Verannius! art thou come + To greet again thy gods of home, + And brethren that so well agree + Together, and in loving thee-- + And come to thy sweet mother, too? + O blessed news! and it is true, + That I shall see thee safe at last; + And hear thee tell thy travel pass'd-- + Of Spanish places, things, and tribes, + (While every word my heart imbibes,) + In thine old way: shall I embrace + Thy neck--and kiss thy pleasant face? + Find me the happy where you can, + I still shall be the happiest man. + +GRATIAN.--What are we to have next? + +AQUILIUS.--An invitation to dinner, or, as the Romans made it, +supper--and a curious invitation it is. Fabullus, to whom it was +addressed, was companion to his friend Verannius--and both were with the +pestilent Piso, in Spain. + +CURATE.--And brought little out of it; but returned poorer than they +went--as did, it should seem, Catullus himself from Bithynia. So that I +should imagine the invitation to Fabullus was a mere jest upon their +mutual poverty. For it does not appear that Fabullus was in a condition +to indulge in luxuries. + +AQUILIUS.--Perhaps, when the invitation was sent, Catullus was not aware +that his friend had been as unsuccessful, under Piso, as he had himself +been, under Memmius. Thus stands the invitation:-- + + AD FABULLUM. + + A few days hence, my dear Fabullus, + If the gods grant you that high favour, + You shall sup well with your Catullus; + For, to ensure the dishes' savour, + Yourself shall cater, and shall cull us + Best fruits--and wines of choicest flavour. + And with you bring your lass--fun--laughter-- + All plenty: nor confine your wishes + To supernumerary dishes;-- + Bring all--and pay the piper after. + Rich be your fare--and all fruition, + Taste, elegance, and sweet discourses + Familiar, on that one condition. + For, truth to tell, my wretched purse is + In its last stage of inanition, + And not a single coin disburses: + A cobweb's over it, and in it-- + That Spider Want there loves to spin it. + + Setting aside this lack of coffer, + Which you can supply, Fabullus, + Accept good welcome--and I offer, + For company, your friend Catullus. + Yet, though so hard my purse's case is, + With such rare unguents I'll present you, + Compounded by the Loves and Graces + For my dear girl, that you shall scent you + With perfume more divine than roses; + And after, pray the gods, within you, + To change sense, nerve, bone, muscle, sinew, + And make you all compact of noses. + +CURATE.--There you are again bolting out of the course. Sending poor +Fabullus to market, without money in his purse,--not a word in the +original of fruit-culling and "paying the piper." + +AQUILIUS.--If Gratian had not the book in his hand, I would boldly +assert that it is all there. He will admit it is the entire meaning. + +CURATE.--With the elegant diction, "paying the piper," indeed! "Hæc si, +inquam, attuleris, venuste noster." + +GRATIAN.--Well, I almost think "venuste noster," "my good fellow," or +"my pleasant fellow," will allow the freedom of the translation, for it +is a free and easy appellative. Come, then, Curate, let us have your +accurate version. + +CURATE.--Perhaps you may think, when you hear it, that I am in the same +predicament of blame with Aquilius, and that my criticism was a ruse, to +divide the censure pretty equally. + + AD FABULLUM. + + Fabullus, if the gods will let you, + Before a table I will set you, + A few days hence, with welcome hearty, + To my domestic dinner-party. + That is to say--you bring the food, + (Which must be plentiful and good,) + With wine--remembering, I presume, + For one fair girl I've always room. + On these conditions you shall dine + Luxurious, boon-companion mine. + Seeing that your Catullus' purse + Has nought but cobwebs left to nurse, + I can but give you in return + The loves that undiluted burn; + And, something sweeter, neater still-- + A scented unguent I'll impart, + Which Venus and her Loves distil + To please the girl that owns my heart: + Which when you smell, this boon--this solely + You'll ask the gods to recompose; + And metamorphose you, and wholly, + To one extensive Roman nose. + +AQUILIUS.--What nose would a Roman wish to have? I object to Roman, +though it is not a bad one for the purpose. The metamorphosed would +certainly have a ballad written on him and sung about the streets. Write +it, and call him "The Man-mountain, or real and undoubted Promontory of +Noses." + +GRATIAN.--It should seem they were like enough to feast--like their gods +they so irreverently prayed to--on the smell and the smoke only; so they +needed good noses and bad appetites. There is something a little abrupt +in the latter part, which I doubt if I like: the Loves and Graces should +not be made parties to the making of such a monster; and as _monster_ is +now-a-days all adopted adjective, follow the fashion of speech, and call +it "One extensive Monster-Nose."--Well, what next? + +AQUILIUS.--A little piece of extravagant badinage. It seems Calvus +Licinius had sent Catullus a collection of miserable poems, and that, +too, on commencement of the Saturnalia, dedicated to joy, and freedom +from care and annoyance. Our author writes to complain of the malicious +present. There is some force, and a fair fling of contempt at the bad +poets of the day in it. + + AD CALVUM LICINIUM, ORATOREM. + + Now if I loved you less, my friend, + Facetious Calvus, than these eyes, + You merit hatred in such wise + As men Vatinius hate. To send + Such stuff to me! Have I been rash + In word or deed? The gods forfend! + That you should kill me with such trash, + Of vile and deleterious verse-- + Volumes on volumes without end, + Of ignominious poets, worse + Than their own works. May gods be pliant, + And grant me this: that poison--pest + Light on 'em all, and on that client + Who sent 'em you; and you in jest + Transfer them, odious, and mephitic, + And execrable. I suspect 'em + Sent you by that grammarian critic, + Sulla. If so, and you have lost + No precious labour to collect 'em, + 'Tis well indeed; and little cost + To you, with malice aforethought, + To send (and with intent to kill him, + And on this blessed day, when nought + But Saturnalian joys should fill him) + Your friend Catullus such a set + Of murderous authors; but the debt + I'll pay, be even with you yet-- + For no perfidious friend I spare. + At early dawn, ere the sun shine, I + Will rise, and ransack shop and stall, + Collect your Cæsii and Aquini, + And that Suffenus: and with care + And diligence, will have all sent + To you, for a like punishment. + Hence, poets! with your jingling chimes: + Hence, miserables! halt and lame; + Be off, ye troublers of our times! + I send you packing whence ye came. + +GRATIAN.--Kicking about the volumes, doubtless, as the "Friend of +Humanity" did the "Needy Knife-grinder." + +CURATE.--I did not translate that--for I thought the authors might +easily have been burned for writing bad verses (no hint to you, +Aquilius; nothing personal); and that Calvus Licinius, having that +remedy, need not have written about them. And I confess I don't see much +in what he has written. This Suffenus, however, was no fool, but a man +of wit and sense. + +AQUILIUS.--Yes,--and Catullus writes to Varrus specially about him. I +have translated that too. Here it is:-- + + AD VARRUM. + + This man Suffenus, whom you know, + Varrus, is not without some show + Of parts, and gift of speech befitting + A man of sense. Yet he mistakes + His talents wondrously, and makes + His thousand verses at a sitting. + And troth, he makes them _look_ their best: + For, not content with palimpsest, + He has them writ on royal vellum, + Emboss'd and gilded, rubb'd and polish'd: + But read 'em, and you wish abolish'd + The privilege to make or sell 'em. + You read them, and the man is quite + Another man: no more polite-- + No more "the man about the town," + But metamorphosed to a clown-- + Milker of goats, a hedger, digger, + So thoroughly is changed his figure, + So quite unlike himself. 'Tis odd, + Most strange, the man for wit so noted, + Whose repartees so much were quoted, + Is changed into a very clod! + And stranger still--he never seems + Quite to himself to be himself, + As when of poetry he dreams, + And writes and writes, and fills his reams + With poems destined for the shelf. + We are deceived--in this twin-brothers + All. There's one vanity between us, + And our self-knowledge stands to screen us + From our true portraits. Knowing others, + We ticket each man with his vice; + And find, most accurately nice, + In all a something of Suffenus. + Thus every man one knowledge lacks; + Our error is--we read the score + Of each man as he walks before, + And bear our tickets at our backs. + +GRATIAN.--True, indeed--as old fables mostly are. There is in them the +depth of wisdom acquired by experience. + +CURATE.--I fear experience alone won't do much. It seems thrown away +upon most people. They continue follies to the end. I suppose Cicero +thought himself a poet; though it may be doubted if he wrote the line as +Juvenal gives it, + + "O fortunatam natam me consule Romam." + +Perhaps most men's natural common sense has a less wide range than they +think. For there are some things obvious to all besides, that the wisest +cannot see. + +AQUILIUS.--Cicero was less likely to see any defect in himself than most +men. He had consummate vanity--which must have led him into many a +ridiculous position. But there were no Boswells in those days. I never +could understand how it is that so great an admiration of Cicero has +come over mankind. Even in language he has had an evil influence; and +our literature for a long period was tainted with it. Sensible himself, +he taught the art of writing fluently without sense. The flow and +period--the _esse videatur_--a style too common with us less than half a +century ago--you might read page after page, and pause to wonder what +you had been reading about. The upper current of the book did not +disturb the under current of your own thoughts, perhaps aided by the +lulling music. + +CURATE.--The vanity of Cicero was too manifest. It is a pity, for the +sake of his reputation, that the letter to his friend, in which he +requested him to write his life, is extant. To tell him plainly that it +is the duty of a friend to exaggerate his virtues, is a mean +vanity--unworthy such a man. + +GRATIAN.--Come, come! let him rest; our business is with Catullus. +Curate, let us have your translation. + +CURATE.--I pass by the account of Suffenus, as well as some other +pieces, and come to that very short one in which he complains of the +mortgage which is on his villa. It is a wretched pun on the word +"opponere," and was scarcely worth translating;--take it, however: + + AD FURIUM. + + You, Furius, ask against what wind + My little villa stands-- + If Auster, or Favonius kind + Who comes o'er western lands, + Or cruel Boreas, or that one + That rises with the morning sun? + + Alas--it stands against a breeze + Which beats against the door, + Of fifteen thousand sesterces, + And twice a hundred more. + I challenge you on earth to find + So foul and pestilent a wind. + +AQUILIUS.--What! do you look for a wind _on_ earth,--it blows over it; +and catch it who can. + +GRATIAN.--It blows every where. The worst I know is that which blows +down the chimney. And that reminds me to tell you what a town-bred +chimney-sweeper said, the other day, to a friend of mine, in the valley +yonder, who wanted to have a smoky chimney cured. My friend inquired if +he could teach it not to smoke. "How can I tell?" said he, "I must take +out a brick first and look into his _intellects_." + +CURATE.--Not the march--but the sweep of intellect spoke there. + +AQUILIUS.--And spoke not amiss; it was merely to see if he _had a mind_ +to be cured. + +GRATIAN.--Perhaps you have translated that sweep's language better than +your passages from Catullus. + +AQUILIUS.--I did not attempt to translate that little piece,--but ran +quite out of course, as the Curate would tell me, in a long paraphrase. +The idea is, however, furnished by Catullus,--so I dedicate it + + AD FURIUM. + + You ask me if my villa lies + Exposed to north, east, west, or south: + I answer,--every wind that flies, + Flies at it, and with open mouth. + + From every quarter winds assail, + But that which comes from _quarter_-day, + Though it four times a-year prevail, + It does but whistle, and not pay. + + Some blow from far, and some hard by; + One, mortgage-wind, takes shortest journey, + Only across the way from Sly, + And blasts with "power of attorney." + + But what is worse than windy racks is, + My windows leak at every pane, + And are not tight 'gainst rates and taxes. + My roof and doors _let_ in the rain-- + + The only _let_ my villa knows. + So that with taxes, wind, and wet, + From whatsoever point it blows, + My house is blown upon _unlet_. + +Now, I hope my friend the Curate will admit so far to be rather a +lengthy translation. I say nothing of addenda--thus:-- + + "Winds blow, and crack your cheeks,"--alack, + Who said it, wanted house and halls, + Nor knew winds have no cheeks to crack, + In short crack nothing but my walls. + + My friends console--"the winds will drop:" + 'Tis equal trouble to my mind; + For if it tumbles on the top, + You know I cannot _raise the wind_. + + To sum up all--for its location;-- + The question's of importance vital;-- + In Chancery--wretched situation; + A rascal there disputes my title. + +CURATE.--You are coming it pretty strong, and quite blowing up Catullus +with your hurricane of winds. After all the household miseries in your +lines, a cheering glass may set things to rights a little. Here, then, +is what he says to his wine-server:-- + + AD PUERUM. + + Boy, that at my drinking-bout + Servest old Falernian out, + Fill me faster cups, and quicker, + With the spirit-stirring liquor. + So Posthumia's law doth say,-- + Mistress of the feast to-day; + She more vinous than the grape. + Springs of water--bane of wine-- + Where ye please for me and mine, + Avaunt, begone, escape! + Emigrate to men demure. + My bumper is Thyonian pure. + +GRATIAN.--I am afraid, Curate, that if you were to take what you please +to call "the cheering glass," such as the jade Posthumia would +recommend, we should have to put you to bed pretty early. It was the +custom, it should seem, of the ancients to make a throw of the dice to +determine the arbiter of the feast--to appoint the drinking. Who threw +_Venus_ (three sixes) was the _magister_; but the _magistra_ is a +novelty; a "Venus Ebria," whose drinking law would throw all; for "wine +is a wrestler, and a shrewd one too." Doesn't Shakspeare say so? Now for +your version, Aquilius. + +AQUILIUS.--Curate will say, I am not so close to the original. But, on +such a subject, we may be allowed to walk not quite straight;--a little +zig-zaggy. Spite the coming criticism I venture:-- + + AD PUERUM SUUM, + + (To his Wine-server.) + + Pour me out, boy, the generous juice. + The racy, true, the old Falernus; + Such wines as, to Posthumia's thinking, + Are only fit for mortals' use; + When in her glory, drunk, and winking, + The dame would quaff, and wisely learn us + The good old simple law of drinking. + + But water shun;--Hence, waters! go, + E'en as ye will, to chill Avernus, + Or whereso'er ye please to flow;-- + Be drink for all the dull, the slow, + The sad, the serious, the phlegmatic; + But leave this juice, this pure stomachic, + Its own, its unadulterate glow;-- + This--this alone is genuine Bacchic! + +GRATIAN.--Well, then, that must be our parting cup for the night, and a +pretty good "_night-cap_" it is. I was afraid, Aquilius, when you came +to the "phlegmatic" you would rhyme it to "rheumatic," and so on to the +"water-cure." You know that is recommended in rheumatic cases; but +perhaps you don't know that I tried it. I had the water-drinking, the +wet sheets, and all the rest of it. + +AQUILIUS.--And are here to tell of it! + +GRATIAN.--Yes, and return to the old _tap_, (tapping his thigh and leg +pretty smartly;) and I suppose I must _stick_ to it. + +CURATE.--A medical friend told me the other day of a discussion upon +this subject, which I thought very amusing, as he narrated it remarkably +well, imitating the tones and dialect (Somersetshire) of at least one of +the speakers. He had some years before attended an old man in the +country--a farmer well to do in the world--a man of very strong natural +understanding, but entirely uneducated. He had lost sight of him for +some years, when, not long since, he was sent for to the old farm-house. +Instead of the old stone floor, there was a carpet laid down, and an air +of smartness over every thing, which he had never seen before. It turned +out, that the old man's daughter had married: a smartish man, the +husband, was in the room, and to show his general knowledge of things, +and acquaintance with the world, he advocated the water-cure, and +questioned my medical friend as to his opinion. A voice from the +chimney-corner (the settle in it) cried out, "It ain't na'tral." My +friend had not before seen the old man, he was so retired into the +recess. After having given his opinion to the bridegroom, he turned to +his old acquaintance, and said "You remarked that it is not natural. +What do you mean by _natural?_" "Why," replied the old man, "I do think, +most dumb critturs knows what's good for 'em; and when a dog's sick +doesn't he eat grass? If a sheep's ill, don't he lick chalk or salt if +he can get it? And if a beast's ill," (I forget what he said was the +cure for a beast);--"but did you ever see any of them go and lie down in +the water, or fill themselves wi' it? There's plenty of it in ditches, +and every where else, too, hereabouts. No, you never did." Then, looking +up in the face of his orator son-in-law, he added, "And you don't know +why you never see'd it, nor why they don't do it. No, I know you don't. +Vy, I do--because they ha' got more zense." This was said with a kind of +contempt which was quite a floorer to the new wiseacre. + +GRATIAN.--Thanks for the story! now that is just the sense that I have +acquired at some cost, and no cure; but I didn't get at it naturally as +your old friend did. So now for sleep, and good-night. + +The Curate and I did not part so soon. Time flew, and we seemed to +shorten the night--"noctem vario sermone," as sayeth Virgil of poor +Dido, who must have found the conversation considerably flag with the +stupid Æneas. + +"Noctem vario sermone _trahebat_--it was a sad _drag_. It must have +become very tiresome, a little while before that, when ill-mannered +Bitias drank up all the wine, and buried his face in the cup, "pleno se +proluit auro." And they had been obliged to resort to singing, always +the refuge from the visible awkwardness of _nothing to say_. And here I +cannot but remark, Eusebius, what dull things their songs must have been +on natural philosophy, sun, moon, and stars--songs, Virgil tells you, +edited by the old Astronomer-general Atlas. But as this was before the +foundation of Rome, they had not that variety for their selection, +which was as much in fashion afterwards in Rome as Moore's Melodies in +England, as we learn from Mr Macaulay, and his version and edition of +the "Lays." They had no piccolo pianofortes in those days, or they would +have had something lighter than the Lays, as the better after-supper +Poet calls it--a + + "Something more exquisite still." + +But I am apparently, Eusebius, leaving the Curate to sleep or to +meditate upon his own unhappy condition while I thus turn the current of +my talk upon you. Unhappy condition, did I say? He seems to bear it +wonderfully lightly; and once or twice, when the subject has been +mentioned, indulged in an irreverend laugh. Now, I know you will ask how +a laugh can be irreverend. Don't you know the world well enough, +Eusebius, to know, that before a very great number of men, women, and +children, a curate must not laugh, dare not laugh--blessed indeed, and +divested of the wretched rags of humanity, if he _cannot_ laugh. None +but a Bishop, or a Dean, who, in the eyes of the many, is a kind of +extra-parochial nonentity, can really, in these times of severe +reprobation for trifling peccadillos, afford to laugh; and they had +better do it in private, and with aprons off--never before the Chapter, +who all, themselves, laugh in private. Man, you know, is the only +risible creature; but a Curate must begin to know, from the moment he +has put on his surplice, that he is to discard at once, and for ever, +this human and irreverend instinct. Had you lived in the triumphal days +of the Puritans, what penalties would you not have had to undergo, what +buffetings and duckings, ere you could finally have overcome your strong +natural wicked propensity, and have sobered down, and riveted in iron +gravity and moroseness those flexible, those mockingly flexible features +of yours. As it is, in these days of "revival," you only meet with +considerable contempt, and evil opinion, which, as it comes rather late +upon you, comes as an amusing novelty and additional provocative. But +you may be sure what you can afford to do, the Curate cannot. For the +present, therefore, let his few indulgences that way be a secret. He +will mend in time. For so it happens, that though the longer we live the +more we have to laugh at, we lose considerably our power of laughing. +And that--between ourselves be it said, Eusebius--is, I think, a strong +proof of our deterioration. A man, to laugh well, must be an honest +man--mind, I say _laugh_: when Shakspeare says + + "A man may smile and smile, + And be a villain," + +he purposely says _smile_, in contradistinction to laugh. He cannot +laugh and be a villain. A man cannot plot and laugh. A man may be much +less innocent even when he thinks himself devout, than in his hour of +merriment, when he assuredly has no guile; but a man may even pray with +a selfish and a narrow mind, and his very prayers partake of his +iniquity: no bad argument for a prescribed form. A man that laughs well +is your half-made friend, Eusebius, from the moment you hear him. It is +better to trust the ear than the eye in this matter--such a man is a man +after your own heart. _After your own heart_, did I say, Eusebius? Words +are the _ignes fatui_ to thoughts, and lead to strange vagaries--of +which you have here a specimen; but these few words remind me to tell +you an anecdote, in this lull of the _Horæ Catullianæ_, which I would on +no account keep from you. And you will see at once in it a large history +in the epitome and the very pith of a fable--such as Æsop's. But I +assure you it is no fable, but the simple plain truth; and I will vouch +for it, for I had it from the month of our friend S., the truest, +honestest of men, who saw with his own eyes, and heard with his own +ears, the persons and the sayings. S. was travelling some time ago, +beyond the directions of railroads, in a coach. There were two +companions--preachers as he found, self-dubb'd Reverends of some +denomination or other, besides that reverend one of their own. Their +conversation, as is usual with them, was professional, and they spoke of +their brethren. In speaking of different preachers, one was mentioned, +of whom one of the speakers said emphatically--"Now that's what I call +a really good man--that's _a man after my own heart_--a man quite after +my own heart!" The other said with rather doubtful and hesitating +confirmation, "Ye-s." "You don't seem to think so highly of him as I +do," said the first speaker. "Why," replied the doubter, "I can't say I +do; you remember some time ago he _failed_, and certainly upon that +occasion he behaved _very ill_ to, not to say _cheated_, his creditors." +"Ah!" said the first commendator again, "that is very likely--I should +have expected _that_ of him."--Henceforth, Eusebius, whenever I hear +such a commendation, I shall look out for a map of the gentleman's heart +who ventures upon this mode of expressing his admiration. Oh! what a +world we live in! This is a fact which would have been immortal, because +true and from nature, in the hands of Le Sage; and is worthy of a place +in a page of a modern "Gil Blas." + +And so all this digression has arisen from a laugh of the Curate's, to +whom it is time to turn; or you will think we have been but bad company +to each other. I will, however, end this passage with the remark, that a +man may do a worse thing than laugh, and happy is he that can do a +better. + +The Curate and I, then, for the rest of the night conversed upon the +affair of his, which so unaccountably was making no little stir in the +place. The Curate told me, he was quite sure that his movements had been +watched; for that only yesterday, as he was entering the gate of his +friends, the family at Ashford, he saw Miffins's boy not far behind him +on a poney; and he thinks he came out for the purpose of watching him, +for he had scarcely reached the door, when he saw the lad ride hastily +back. The Curate likewise confessed to me, that he did entertain some +tender sentiments towards one of the inmates, Miss Lydia ----, that the +family had lived much abroad, and that they had a French lady's-maid, +whom on one or two occasions he had certainly seen in this township. You +see the thread, Eusebius, which will draw out innumerable proofs for +such a mind as Miffins's. Taking a paper out of his pocket, he said it +was put into his hands as he was coming away, and he had not opened it. +"Perhaps," said he, "it may throw some light on the affair, as it was +given me by one who is, I know, on the all-important committee." He +broke the seal, read, laughed immoderately for five minutes, and put it +into my hands:-- + +"REV. SIR,--Wishing to do the handsome to you, and straightforward and +downright honest part, the committee inform you that they have reported +your misconduct to the Lord Bishop, and I am desired accordingly to send +you a copy of their letter. By order of committee.--I am, sir, + + "JAMES JONES." + +Enclosed was the following, which these wiseacres had concocted--and I +have no doubt it was their pride in the composition, and in the +penmanship, which induced them to send the copy to the Curate. + +"TO MY LORD, YOUR LORDSHIP THE BISHOP. + +"We the undersigned, the respectable inhabitants parishioners, approach +most dutifully our Bishop's worshipful Lordship. Hoping humbly that you +will be pleased to dismiss our curate, who, we are credibly informed, +and particularly by three exemplary and virtuous ladies, they having +been cautioned against him by one who knows him well, and is a friend +likewise to said ladies, and doing all the good kindness he can. We +learn with sorrow, that our curate has confessed to unbecomingly +behaviour, and that he has been seen even kissing. My Lord, our wives +and daughters are not safe--we implore your Honour's Lordship to dismiss +the curate, and take them under your protection and keeping: We are +informed the curate has a foreign lady, not far from this, whom he +almost daily visits--and a Papist, which is an offence to your Lordship, +and the glorious Protestant cause, to which we are uniformly and +respectfully attached, and to your worshipful Lordship very devoted--" +here follow the names, headed by Matthew Miffins. + +"And what steps do you intend to take?" said I. + +"None whatever," said he. + +"Let it wear itself out. I won't lengthen the existence of this scandal +by the smallest patronage. I will not take it up, so it will die." + +"But the Bishop?" said I. + +"Is a man of sense," he replied, "and good feeling; so all is safe, in +his hands." + +We parted for the night. + +The Curate called rather early the following morning, and we thought to +have an hour over Catullus, and went to seek our host Gratian. We found +him in his library in consultation with his factotum Jahn. He was +eloquent on the salting, and not burning his weeds, on Dutch +clover--"and mind, Jahn," said he, "every orchard should have a +pig-stye: where pigs are kept, there apple-trees will thrive well, and +bear well, if there be any fruit going:" and he moved his stick on the +floor from habit, as if he were rubbing his pigs' backs; and then +turning to us he said,--"Why, Jahn has been telling me strange things: +Prateapace and Gadabout have gone over to the chapel--left the church; +not there last Sunday. But I saw that Brazenstare there, trying, as she +sat just before you, to put you, Mr Curate, out of countenance. Well, +Jahn tells me that the Reverend the Cow-doctor preached last evening a +stirring sermon on the occasion, and was very hot upon the impurities +and idolatries of the 'Establishment.' And Jahn tells me they don't +speak quite so well of me as they should; for when he plainly told +Miffins in his own shop, that he was sure his master would not +countenance any thing wrong, the impudent fellow only said, 'May be not; +but he and his master might not be of the same opinion as to what _is_ +wrong.' The rogue! I should like to have put all his weights in the +inspector's scales." + +"Yes," quoth Jahn, "but I am 'most ashamed to tell your honour what Tom +Potts, the exciseman, said, who happened to be present." + +"Out with it, by all means, Jahn," said our friend. + +"Well then, sir, as true as you are there, he said that your honour was +a very kind gentleman, and your word was worth any other ten men's in +most things; but where it might be to get a friend out of trouble, and, +for aught he knew, foe either, why then, he thought your honour might +fib a bit." + +"Surely," said Gratian, "he didn't say quite that?" + +"Yes," quoth Jahn, "quite that, and more; something remarkable." + +"Remarkable!" said I,--"what could that be?" + +"Why, something I shan't forget; and I don't think it was religious and +proper," said Jahn; and lowering his voice, and addressing me and the +Curate rather than his master, he added,--"He thought his honour had a +kind heart, too kind; for that if Belzebub should come of a wet and dark +night, and knock at his honour's door, and just say in a humble voice +that he was weary and foot-sore, that his honour would be sure to take +him in, give him a bed, and a stiff tumbler of brandy and water, and +send for the farrier in the morning to fresh shoe him unknowingly; for +he would make him stoop, put his claws on the ground, and throw a +blanket over him, and make the farrier believe that, out of a whim, he +was only a shoeing a great big goat." + +Gratian laughed at the whimsical idea of the exciseman, called him a +true and good spirit-gauger; then giving some sharp taps to his hip, his +knee, and his legs with his stick, rose from his seat, and said, "Come, +Curate, you and I must take a walk amongst these people, and see what we +can do: it is most time to put a stop to this mischievous absurdity, +and, I fear me, of our own making." + +Away they went, and I put up my remaining translations from Catullus, +took down a book, read awhile, and then meditated this letter to you. +And now, my dear Eusebius, when you publish it in Maga, as you did my +last, folk will say--"Why, what is all this about? _Horæ Catullianæ!_ It +is no such thing." Be it, then, I say, what you will. Do you think I am +writing an essay?--no, a letter; and I may, if I please, entitle it, as +Montaigne did--"On coach horses," and still make it what I please. It +shall be a novel, if they please, for that is what they look for now: so +let the Curate be the hero,--and the heroine--but must it be a love +story? Then I won't forestall the interest, so wait to the end; and in +my next, Eusebius, we will repeat Catullus for the play, and say with +the announcing actor, "to conclude with an after-piece which will be +expressed in the bills." + + My dear Eusebius, ever yours, + + AQUILIUS. + + + + +LESSONS FROM THE FAMINE. + + +The two great parties into which the country was divided on the subject +of our commercial relations with foreign states, maintained principles +diametrically opposite on the effects to be anticipated from the +adoption of their respective systems. The Free-Traders constantly +alleged, that the great thing was to increase our _importations_; and +that, provided this was done, government need not disquiet themselves +about our _exportations_. Individuals, it was said, equally with +nations, do not give their goods for nothing: if foreign produce of some +sort comes in, British produce of some sort must go out. Both parties +will gain by the exchange. The inhabitants of this country will devote +their attention to those branches of industry in which we can undersell +foreign nations, and they will devote their attention to those branches +of industry in which they can undersell us. Neither party will waste +their time, or their labour, upon vain attempts to raise produce for +which nature has not given them the requisite facilities. Both will buy +cheaper than they could have done if an artificial system of protection +had forced the national industry into a channel which nature did not +intend, and experience does not sanction. We may be fed by the world, +but we will clothe the world. The abstraction of the precious metals is +not to be dreaded under such a system, for how are the precious metals +got but in exchange for manufactures? Their existence in this country +presupposes the exit of a proportionate amount of the produce of British +industry. Nobody gives dollars, any more than corn, for nothing. Our +farmers must take to dairy and pasture cultivation to a greater extent +than heretofore. A certain number of agricultural labourers, may, it is +true, be thrown out of employment by the displacing of rural industry in +making the transition from the one species of country labour to the +other; but the evil will only be temporary, and they will speedily be +absorbed in the vast extension of our manufacturing industry. High +prices need never be feared under such a system: a bad season is never +universal over the world at the same time; and free-trade will +permanently let in the superfluity of those countries where food is +abundant, to supply the deficiencies of those in which, from native +sources, it is scanty. + +The Protectionists reasoned after an entirely different manner. The +doctrines of free-trade, they observed, perfectly just in their +application to different provinces of the same empire, are entirely +misplaced if extended to different _countries_ of the world, the more +especially if placed in similar, or nearly similar, circumstances. The +state of smothered or open hostility in which they are in general placed +to each other, if their interests are at all at variance; the necessity +of sheltering infant manufacturing industry from the dangerous +competition of more advanced civilisation, or protecting old-established +agricultural industry from the ruinous inroad of rude produce from +poorer states, in which it is raised cheaper because money is less +plentiful, render it indispensable that protection should exist on both +sides. If it does not, the inevitable result will be, that the +cultivators of the young state will destroy the agriculture of the old +one, and the manufacturers of the old one extinguish the fabrics of the +young. This effect is necessary, and, to all appearance, will ever +continue; for the experience of every age has demonstrated that, so +great is the effect of capital and civilisation applied to manufactures, +and so inconsiderable, comparatively speaking, their influence upon +agriculture, that the old state can always undersell the new one in the +industry of towns, and the new one undersell the old one in the industry +of the country. The proof of this is decisive. England, by the aid of +the steam-engine, can undersell the inhabitants of Hindostan in the +manufacture of muslins from cotton growing on the banks of the Ganges; +but with all the advantages of chemical manure and tile draining, it is +undersold in the supply of food by the cultivators on the Mississippi. + +This being a fixed law of nature, evidently intended to check the growth +of old states, and promote the extension of mankind in the uncultivated +parts of the earth, it is in vain to contend against it. So violently +does free-trade displace industry on both sides, where it is fully +established, that it is scarcely possible to conceive that two nations +should at the same time run into the same glaring mistake; and thence +the common complaint that no benefit is gained, but an infinite loss +sustained, by its establishment in any one country, and that reciprocity +is on one side only. As no adequate exchange of manufactures for +subsistence is thus to be looked for, there must arise, in the old +state, a constant exportation of the precious metals, attended by +frequent commercial crises, and a constant increase in the weight of +direct taxation. Should it prove otherwise, and two nations both go into +the same system, it could lead to no other result but the stoppage of +the growth of civilisation in the young one, and the destruction of +national independence in the old. The former would never succeed in +establishing commerce or manufactures, from the competition of the +steam-engine in its aged neighbour; the latter would become dependent +for subsistence on the plough of the young one. The rising agricultural +state would be chained for ever to the condition of the serfs in Poland, +or the boors in America; the stationary commercial state would fall into +the degrading dependence of ancient Rome on the harvests of Egypt and +Lybia. + +Had it not been for the calamitous issue of the last harvest, in a part +of the empire, it might have been difficult to say, to which side the +weight of reason preponderated in these opposite arguments; and probably +the people of the country would have continued permanently divided on +them, according as their private interests or wishes were wound up with +the buying and selling, or raising and producing classes in society. But +an external calamity has intervened;--Providence has denied for a +season, to one of the fruits of the earth, its wonted increase. The +potato-rot has appeared; and nearly the whole subsistence of the people +in the south and west of Ireland, and in the western Highlands of +Scotland, has been destroyed. Between the failure in the potato crop, +and the deficiency in that of oats, at least £15,000,000 worth of the +wonted agricultural produce has disappeared in the British Islands. And +the appearances which we now see around us are solely and entirely to be +ascribed to that deficiency. No one need be told what these appearances +are, or how deeply they have trenched upon the usual sources of +prosperity in the empire: they have been told again and again, in +parliament, at public meetings, and in the press, _usque ad nauseam_. +Government has acted, if not judiciously, at least in the right spirit; +its errors have been those of information, not of intention. The monster +meetings, the flagrant ingratitude, the broken promises of the Irish +Catholics, have been forgotten. England, as a nation, has acted nobly; +she has overlooked her wrongs: she saw only her fellow-subjects in +distress. £10,000,000 sterling have been voted by parliament in a single +year for the relief of Irish suffering. Magnificent subscriptions, from +the throne downwards, have attested the sympathy of the British heart +with the tale of Irish and Highland suffering. But, notwithstanding all +these astonishing exertions, and notwithstanding the existence of an +unprecedented demand for labour in most parts of the country, in +consequence of vast railway undertakings being on foot, on which at +least £30,000,000 a-year must be expended for three or four years to +come, distress is in many places most acute, in all severely felt. And +what is very remarkable, and may be considered, as a distinctive sign of +the times, specially worthy of universal attention, the suffering has +now spread to those classes which are _furthest removed_ from the blight +of nature, and fastened upon those interests which, according to the +generally received opinion, should have been _benefited rather than +injured_ by the calamity which has occurred. + +That some millions of cultivators in the southwest of Ireland, and some +hundred thousand in the west Highlands of Scotland, should be involved, +literally speaking, in the horrors of famine, in consequence of the +universal failure of the crop which constituted at once their sole +object of labour and only means of subsistence, may easily be +understood. That this alarming failure should raise prices of every sort +of food to the scarcity-level in every part of the empire, is equally +intelligible; and that government, in conformity with the _universal_ +sense of the nation, should, in such an extremity, throw open the ports +to all kinds of food, and thereby let in an unexampled amount of foreign +produce to supply the failure of that usually raised at home, is an +equally intelligible consequence. It may not be considered surprising, +that starving multitudes should issue in all directions from the scene +of wo in the Emerald Isle, to seek relief in the industry or charity of +Great Britain; and that all the great towns in the west of the island +should be overwhelmed with pauperism and typhus fever, in consequence of +their being the first to be reached by the destructive flood; although +it was hardly to be expected that a hundred and thirty-two thousand +applications for relief were to be made to the parochial authorities of +Liverpool in a _single week_; and that they returned thanks to Heaven +when the influx of Irish paupers was reduced to _two thousand a-week_! +But the remarkable thing, and the thing which the commercial classes +certainly did not expect, is this:--_The calamity has now reached +themselves_, although the hand of Providence has only stricken the +producing agricultural classes. Trade never was lower, monied distress +never more severe, markets of all sorts never were more rapidly +DECLINING, than during a period when IMPORTATIONS of all sorts have been +MOST RAPIDLY INCREASING. Nearly all the manufactories in Lancashire and +Lanarkshire are put on short time; the public funds and stocks of all +sorts are falling; the rate of bankers' advances in Scotland is raised +to _six per cent_;[7] seven per cent is charged in Liverpool and Glasgow +on railway advances, and permanent loans are taken on railway debentures +by the most experienced persons for three years at five per cent; the +Bank of England has raised its discounts; our exports are rapidly +declining; and all at a time, when the importation of all sorts of rude +produce is on an unprecedented scale of magnitude, and the warehouses of +Liverpool and Glasgow are literally _bursting_ with the prodigious mass +of grain stored in them from all parts of the world! + +Fortunately, statistical documents exist, derived from official sources, +which demonstrate beyond the possibility of doubt the coexistence of +this _vast increase_ in the amount of subsistence imported, and _vast +diminution_ in the amount of manufactures raised or exported in all +parts of the British empire. A paper has lately been presented to +parliament, showing the amount of imports, exports, and shipping during +the year 1846, compared with 1845; from which this important and +luminous fact is decisively established, how hard soever it may be to +comprehend on the part of a large and influential portion of our +politicians. From it it appears that the amount of subsistence imported +in 1846 was six times greater than in 1845, although free-trade only +commenced in the middle of the former year. It had reached the +unparalleled amount in the latter year, of grain or flour, equal to +_five millions and a half quarters of grain_. The tonnage _inwards_ had +turned five millions of tons; the custom-house duties, notwithstanding +the numerous reductions of duties on imported articles, had risen +£700,000 above the preceding year, and still kept above £22.000,000 +sterling. Here, then, were all the sources and marks of prosperity, so +far as they depended on importations, in a state of unexampled vigour +and efficiency. Was this attended, as we were constantly told it would +be, by a corresponding impulse given to our fabrics? Has the increased +activity of our manufacturing cities compensated for the sterility of so +large a part of our fields? The fact is just the reverse. Though +free-trade has only been in operation for the last six months of 1846, +they were signalised by a universal _decline_ in all the principal +articles of our exportation; and, by the unanimous voice of all +practical men, trade, so far as exports or production is concerned, +never was in a more depressed state than when, so far as imports are +concerned, it had attained an unprecedented _extension_. + +Never was a truer observation than is made by the Free-Traders, when +they assert that goods will not be sent into a nation for nothing; and +that, if our imports increase, something that goes out must have +received a proportional augmentation. They forget only one circumstance, +which, however, is of some little consequence, namely, that two things +may go out, goods or SPECIE. We have melancholy proof, in the present +state of the money market, that the latter occurrence has taken place to +an inconvenient and distressing extent, and that that is the direct +cause of the extravagant rate of interest charged on bankers' advances, +and the general scarcity of money felt throughout the country. That the +_capital_ of the country is not only sufficient, but abundant, is +decisively proved by the fact that, notwithstanding the vast extent of +the railway and other undertakings of a public character going on both +in Great Britain and Ireland, government has borrowed the loan of +£8,000,000 for the relief of Ireland at £3, 7s. 6d. per cent. The three +per cents are about 90, yielding about the same return for money. But is +_currency_ equally abundant? So far from it, the bankers are charging +six, and the persons making advances on railway concerns seven per cent. +The holder of capital is glad if he can get three and a half per cent; +but the holder of currency will not let his notes or sovereigns out of +his hand for less than six or seven per cent. Can there be a more +convincing proof that the currency of the country has been unduly +drained away, and that the present monetary system, which forbids any +extension of it in paper when the specie is abstracted, is based on a +wrong foundation? Nor is it surprising that the currency should be +straitened when it is notorious that every packet which goes out to +America takes out vast sums to that continent to pay for the immense +quantities of grain which are brought in. That drain only began to be +felt in a serious manner within the last two months, because the great +shipments from America took place in November and December last, when +the failure of the potato crop in this country was fully ascertained; +and consequently, the payments made in bills at three months, required +to be made in February and March. And when it is recollected that the +quantity of grain imported in seven months only--viz. from 5th July +1846, to 5th February 1847--exceeded _six millions_ of quarters, at the +very time that all our exports were diminishing; it may be imagined how +prodigious must have been the drain upon the metallic resources of the +country to make up the balance.[8] + +Sorely perplexed with results so diametrically opposite to all their +doctrines as to an increase of importation being necessarily attended +with a proportionate increase of exportation, and of all apprehension of +an undue pressure thence arising on the money market being chimerical, +the Free-Traders lay it all upon the famine at home or abroad. The +potato-rot, it is said, has _concealed_ the effects of free-trade: +distress in foreign nations has disabled them to purchase our +manufactures in return for their rude produce; the increase of British +importation has come too soon to operate as yet on their purchase of our +manufactures. Here again the facts come decisively to disprove the +theoretical anticipations. So far has the increase of our importations +been from being sudden, and come last year for the first time on foreign +nations, it has been _remarkably gradual_, and has gone on for years, +having received only a great impulse in the articles on which the duty +was lessened or removed last summer. Our general imports have steadily +advanced for the last three years; and in particular articles the same +progress has been conspicuous.[9] How, then, has it happened that this +general, continued, and steady _increase_ of imports has issued only in +a _diminution_ to an alarming extent of exports? And observe, the +countries from which we have imported so largely last year of grain and +articles of subsistence, have not only not suffered by the scarcity +general on the Continent, but have profited immensely by it. America has +been blessed with a splendid crop of every species of grain; and, in +consequence of the famine in Ireland and severe scarcity in France, +prices of grain have risen to triple their former amount in the United +States. It has risen so much in the southern states of Russia, that the +Emperor of Russia has prohibited the farther exportation of it from the +Black Sea. But all these floods of wealth flowing into the great grain +states from the failure of the crops in France and Ireland, have been +unavailing to produce any increased activity in our manufactures. On the +contrary, they are all declining; and our immense importations of food +are almost all paid for in direct exportations of the precious metals. + +In truth, the general depression of manufactures in all the chief seats +of our fabrics is so serious, that it is evidently owing to a much more +general and stringent cause than the decline, considerable as it is, in +our exports. It is not a decrease of two millions out of fifty-three +millions--in other words, of less than a _five-and-twentieth_ +part--which will explain the general putting of mills in Lancashire and +Lanarkshire on short time, the fall in the value of all kinds of stock +and general decline in the vent for all kinds of manufactured produce. +It is in the _home markets_ that the real and blighting deficiency is +experienced. And what is the cause of this decline in the home market? +The Free-Traders are the first to tell us what has done it. It is the +famine in Ireland. The total manufactured produce of the island is +certainly not under £200,000,000[10] annually, of which somewhat above +£51,000,000 is for the foreign markets of the world. What is a +deficiency of £2,000,000 in such a mass? If that had been the _only_ +decline that had taken place, it would have been scarcely perceptible, +and would have left no visible effects on our commercial activity or +general prosperity. It is clear that the great falling off must have +been in the home market. Nor is it difficult to see how this has +happened. Fifteen millions' worth of agricultural produce has +disappeared; prices of wheat have risen in consequence to 80s. +a-quarter, and oats in a still higher proportion; and an alarming drain +upon the metallic resources of the country taken place. It is this which +has paralysed the manufactures and depressed the commerce of the +country. And when it is recollected that the home market now consumes +little short of £150,000,000 a-year, it may easily be conceived what a +serious check to industry a diminution to the amount of even an eighth +or a tenth of the usual domestic purchases must occasion. + +The Free-Traders say, that the famine in Ireland has _concealed_ the +effects of the adoption of their system of policy; and that all the +distress and suffering which has ensued is to be ascribed to that cause. +From the observations now made, however, it is apparent that the effect +of the famine has been, not to conceal the effects of free-trade, but to +_accelerate_ them. For what has the famine done? It has simply caused +fifteen millions' worth of domestic agricultural produce to be exchanged +for fifteen millions' worth of foreign agricultural produce. The potato +crop, which has perished in Ireland, is estimated at fifteen millions' +worth; and, supposing that statement is a little exaggerated, it is +probable that, taking into account the simultaneous failure in the crop +of oats, both there and in Great Britain, the total amount of home +agricultural produce that is deficient may amount to that value. _But +foreign agricultural produce, to an equal or greater amount, has been +imported._ Six millions of quarters, between grain of all sorts and +flour, have been entered for home consumption in seven months preceding +5th February 1847. Taking these quarters, on an average, as worth fifty +shillings to the consumer--which is certainly no extravagant estimate, +seeing wheat is up at seventy-nine shillings--we shall have, then, six +millions of quarters, worth fifteen millions sterling. The home +agricultural produce that has failed is just equal in value to the +foreign agricultural produce that has been imported. The distress that +prevails, therefore, is not owing to any deficiency of food for man or +animals in the United Kingdom, for as much has come in, of foreign +produce, as has disappeared of domestic. It is entirely to be ascribed +to the supplanting, _in the national subsistence, of a large part of +home produce by an equally large part of foreign produce_. And in the +social, commercial, and national effects which we see around us, we may +discern, as in a mirror, not merely the probable but certain effects of +such a substitution if perpetuated to future times. + +This view of the subject is of such vast importance that we deem it +impossible to impress it too strongly on our readers. We have been +always told that the great thing is to secure a great importation; that +such a thing must necessarily lead to a corresponding increase of +exportation;--that all apprehension about the imports being paid in +gold, and not in manufactures, are chimerical;--that the sooner the +inferior lands in the British islands go out of cultivation the +better;--that ample food for the inhabitants will be obtained from +foreign states; and that the agriculturists thrown out of employment by +the change will be rapidly absorbed, and more profitably employed in +sustaining our extended manufactures. Well, the thing has been done, +and the desired consummation has taken place, from an extraneous cause, +even more rapidly than was anticipated. The Free-Traders contemplated +the substitution of foreign for British agricultural produce to the +extent of fifteen or twenty millions as a most desirable result; but +they only lamented it could not be looked for for three or four years. +It would take that time to beat down the British farmer; to convince the +cultivators of inferior lands of the folly of attempting a competition +with the great grain districts of the Continent. Providence has done the +thing at once. We have got on at railway speed to the blessings of the +new system. Free-trade was to lead to the much-desired substitution of +six million quarters of home for six million quarters of foreign grain +in three years. But the potato-rot has done it in one. The free-trade +rot could not have done it nearly so expeditiously, but it would have +done it as effectually. It is a total mistake, therefore, to represent +the famine in Ireland and the West of Scotland, as an external calamity +which has concealed the natural effects of free-trade. It has only +brought them to light at once. + +Had British agriculture, instead of being stricken with sterility by the +hand of Providence, in the poorest and worst cultivated part of the two +islands, been suffered gradually to waste away, under the effects of a +great and increasing foreign importation in all parts of the empire, the +destruction of home produce would have been equally extensive, but it +would have been more general. It would have risen to as great an amount, +but it would not have been so painfully concentrated in particular +districts. Hundreds would not have been dying of famine in Skibbereen; +seed-corn would not have been awanting in Skye and Mull; cultivation +would not have been abandoned in Tipperary; but the cessation of +agricultural produce over the whole empire would have been quite as +great. Low prices would have done the business as effectually, though +not quite so speedily, as the pestilence which has smitten the +potato-field. Whoever casts his eye on the table of prices given +below[11] for twenty years in London and Dantzic, must at once see +that, under a free-trade system, as large an importation of foreign +produce, and as extensive a contraction of home, as has taken place this +year is to be permanently looked for. The exportation and return of the +precious metals, and contraction of credit now felt as so distressing, +may be expected to be permanent. Providence has given us a warning of +the effects of our policy, before they have become irreparable. We have +only to suppose the present state of commerce and manufactures lasting, +and we have a clear vision of the blessings of free-trade. + +Nor is there any difficulty in understanding how it happens that the +substitution of a large portion of foreign, for an equal amount of +home-grown produce, occasions such disastrous effects, and in particular +proves so injurious to the commercial classes, who in the first instance +generally suppose they are to be benefited by the change. If two or +three millions of rural labourers in the poorest and worst cultivated +districts of the island, are thrown out of employment, either by a +failure in the vegetable on which alone, in their rude state, they can +employ their labour, or by the gradual substitution of foreign for home +produce in the supply of food for the people, it is a poor compensation +to them to say that an equal amount of foreign grain has been brought +into the commercial emporiums of the empire--that if they will leave +Skibbereen or Skye, and come to Liverpool or Glasgow, they will find +warehouses amply stored with grain, which at the highest current prices +they will obtain to any extent they desire. The plain answer is, that +they are starving; that their employment as well as subsistence is gone; +that they have neither the means of transport, nor any money to buy +grain when they reach the neighbourhood of the bursting warehouses. But +then they will be absorbed in the great manufacturing districts, where +their labour will be more profitable to themselves and others, than in +their native wilds! Yes, there is a process of absorption goes on, on +the occurrence of such a crisis; but it is not the absorption of labour +by capital, but of capital by pauperism. Floods of starving destitutes +inundate every steam-boat, harbour, and road, on the route to the scene +of wo; and while the interior of the warehouses in the great commercial +cities are groaning beneath the weight of foreign grain, the streets in +their vicinity are thronged by starving multitudes, who spread typhus +fever wherever they go, and fall as a permanent burden on the poor-rates +of the yet solvent portions of the community. + +And the effect of this importation of foreign grain, from whatever cause +it arises, necessarily is to _prevent_ this absorption of rural +pauperism by manufacturing capital, to which the Free-traders so +confidently look for the adjustment of society after the change has been +made. The nations who supply us with grain _do not want our +manufactures_. They will not buy them. What they want, is our money. +They have not, and will not have, the artificial wants requisite for the +general purchase of manufactures for a century to come. Generations must +go to their graves during the transition from rustic content to +civilised wants. America has sent us some millions of quarters of grain +this year, but there _is no increase in her orders for our +manufactures_. On the contrary, they are diminishing. Even the Free +Trade Journals now admit this; constrained by the evidence of their +senses to admit the entire failure of all their predictions.[12] The +reason is evident. They want our money, and our money they will have; +and if they find our manufactures are beginning to flow in, in enlarged +quantities, in consequence of our purchase of their grain, they will +soon stop the influx by a tariff. This is what we did, when situated as +they are--it is what all mankind will, and must do, in similar +circumstances. It was distinctly perceived and foretold by the +Protectionists that this effect would follow from free-trade, and that, +unless something was done to enlarge the currency to meet it, a +commercial crisis would ensue. These words published a year ago might +pass for the history of the time in which we now live:--"Under the +proposed reduced duties during the next three years, and trifling duty +after that period on all sorts of grain, there can be no doubt that a +very great impulse will be given to the corn-trade. It being now +ascertained, by a comparison of the prices during the last twenty years, +that there is annually a difference of from twenty to thirty shillings +a-quarter between the price that wheat bears in the British islands and +at the shores of the Baltic, while the cost of importation is only five +or six shillings a-quarter, there can be no question that the opening of +the ports will occasion a very large importation of foreign grain. It +may reasonably be expected that, in the space of a few years, the +quantity imported will amount to _four or five millions of quarters +annually_, for which the price paid by the importers cannot be supposed +to be less, on the most moderate calculation, than seven or eight +millions sterling. The experience of the year 1839 sufficiently tells us +what will be the effect of such an importation of grain, paid for, as it +must be, for the most part in specie, upon _the general monetary +concerns and commercial prosperity of the empire_. It is well known that +it was this condition of things which produced the commercial crisis in +this country, led to three years of unprecedented suffering in the +manufacturing districts, and, as is affirmed, destroyed property in the +manufacturing districts of Lancashire, to the amount of +£40,000,000."[13] + +Lastly, the famine has taught the empire an important lesson as to Irish +Repeal. For many years past, that country has been convulsed, and the +empire harassed by the loud and threatening demand for the Repeal of the +Union, and the incessant outcry that the Irish people are perfectly +equal to the duties of self-government, and that all their distresses +have been owing to the oppression of the Saxon. The wind of adversity +has blown, and where are these menaces now? Had Providence punished them +by granting their prayer--had England cut the rope, as Mr Roebuck said, +and let them go, where would Ireland have been at this moment? Drifting +away on the ocean of starvation. Let this teach them their dependence +upon their neighbours, and let another fact open their eyes to what +those neighbours are. England has replied to the senseless clamour, the +disgraceful ingratitude, by voting ten millions sterling in a single +year to relieve the distresses which the heedlessness and indolence of +the Irish had brought upon themselves. We say advisedly, _brought upon +themselves_. For, mark-worthy circumstance! the destruction of the +potato crop has been just as complete, and the food of the people has +been just as entirely swept away in the West Highlands of Scotland, as +in Ireland, but _there has been no grant of public money to Scotland_. +The cruel Anglo-Saxons have given IT ALL to the discontented, untaxed +Gael in the Emerald isle. + + +_Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Viz. 5-1/2 per cent on all advances on cash or current accounts, and +1/2 per cent commission on all sums overdrawn. + +[8] Table showing the quantity of grain, including flour and meal, +entered for home consumption, from 5th July 1846, to 5th February 1847, +from the _London Gazette_ official returns:-- + +Quarters of grain (including flour and meal) entered for qrs. + home consumption, in the months from 5th July to 5th + January as reported, 1st February, 5,148,449 +Quantity duty paid in month ending 5th Feb. 539,418 + Do. do. flour and meal, 427,036 cwts. 142,345 + _______ 681,763 + _________ +Quantity duty paid up to 5th January, 5,830,212 + + In bond, 5th February, 68,939 + Do. do. flour and meal, 318,240 cwts. 106,080 + _______ 175,019 + _______ + Quantity in qrs. of duty paid and presently in bond,} 6,005,231 + from month ending 5th July to 5th Feb.} _________ + + +[9] + 1844. 1845. 1846. +Imports, total official value, £75,441,555 £85,281,958 +Sugar, cwts. " 4,139,983 4,880,780 5,231,818 +Tea, lbs. " 41,369,351 44,195,321 46,728,208 +Coffee, lbs. " 31,391,297 34,318,121 36,781,391 +Butter, cwts. " 180,965 240,118 255,130 +Cheese, cwts. " 212,286 258,246 327,490 +Live animals, No. " 8,007 34,426 140,752 +Brandy, " 1,033,650 1,058,777 1,515,954 +Geneva, " 14,937 15,536 40,266 +Rum, " 2,198,870 2,469,485 2,683,515 + +[10] In 1840, the total amount was estimated at £180,000,000, of which +£47,000,000, at that period, was for exportation, and £133,000,000 for +the home market. As this £47,000,000 had swelled, in 1846, to +£53,000,000, it is reasonable to suppose that those for the home market +had undergone a similar increase, and are now about £200,000 +annually.--See _Speckman's Stat. Tables for_ 1842, p. 45. + +[11] + +_Table of Average Prices of Wheat in Prussia and in England, from 1816 +to 1837._ + + |Average prices |Average prices|Average |Difference |Foreign Wheat | + |in Prussia |in Brandenburg|prices per|between English|and Flour | + |Proper including|and Pomerania |London |Prices and Mean|consumed in | + |Dantzig and | |Gazette. |of Prussian |Great Britain.| + |Konigsburg. | | |Prices. | | +----+----------------+--------------+----------+---------------+--------------+ + | s. d. | s. d. | s. d. | s. d. | Qrs. | +1816| 36 9 | 44 6 | 76 2 | 35 6 | 225,263 | +1817| 52 7 | 60 9 | 94 0 | 37 8 | 1,020,949 | +1818| 49 6 | 53 5 | 83 8 | 32 2 | 1,593,518 | +1819| 34 3 | 37 6 | 72 3 | 36 4 | 122,133 | +1820| 27 3 | 30 0 | 65 10 | 37 2 | 34,274 | +1821| 25 6 | 28 9 | 54 5 | 27 3 | 2 | +1822| 26 0 | 26 8 | 43 3 | 16 11 | ---- | +1823| 24 2 | 26 9 | 51 9 | 26 5 | 12,137 | +1824| 18 6 | 20 0 | 62 0 | 43 3 | 15,777 | +1825| 17 3 | 17 9 | 66 6 | 49 0 | 525,231 | +1826| 18 6 | 21 0 | 56 11 | 37 2 | 315,892 | +1827| 22 3 | 25 9 | 56 9 | 32 9 | 572,733 | +1828| 27 2 | 28 9 | 60 5 | 32 5 | 842,050 | +1829| 32 3 | 35 0 | 66 3 | 32 7 | 1,364,220 | +1830| 29 6 | 34 0 | 64 3 | 32 6 | 1,701,885 | +1831| 39 6 | 39 0 | 66 4 | 27 1 | 1,491,631 | +1832| 34 0 | 33 6 | 58 8 | 24 11 | 325,435 | +1833| 25 0 | 23 6 | 52 11 | 28 8 | 82,346 | +1834| 23 9 | 23 0 | 46 2 | 21 10 | 64,653 | +1835| 23 0 | 24 0 | 39 4 | 15 10 | 28,483 | +1836| 21 0 | 23 0 | 48 6 | 26 6 | 30,046 | +1837| 22 6 | 26 0 | 56 10 | 32 7 | 244,085 | + +[12] "The excessive consumption of these and other articles has, +however, only led to a drain of bullion to the extent of three millions +and a half, while, upon a moderate computation, they would appear to +call for three times that amount. This is to be accounted for by two +facts--The first being that we have not imported, and paid for as much +as we have consumed, since, conjointly with our importations, we have +been steadily eating up former reserves, so that our stock of all +kinds--coffee, sugar, rice, &c., are low; and, next, because we have +diminished our importations of raw material in a remarkable degree, and +hence, while paying for provisions, have lessened our usual payments on +this score. Here, too, in like manner, _we have been drawing upon our +reserves_. Our manufactures have been carried on with hemp, flax, and +cotton, which had been paid for in former years, and we have left +ourselves at the present moment short of all these articles, the stock +of the latter alone, on the 1st of January last, as compared with the +preceding year, being 545,790 against 1,060,560 bales. We are not only +poorer, therefore, by all the bullion we have lost, but by all the stock +we have thus consumed. + +"This _process cannot go on any longer_. We have now no accumulations to +eat into, and must, consequently, _pay for what we use_. Concurrently, +therefore, with our importations of corn and other provisions, (which +are now going on at a much greater rate, and at much higher prices than +in 1846,) and just in proportion as they beget a demand for our +manufactures, we must have importations of raw material. Large purchases +of hemp and flax are alleged to have been made in the north of Europe, +for spring shipment, and cotton from the United States is only delayed +by the want of ships. Wool from Spain, and the Mediterranean, saltpetre, +oil-seeds, &c., from India, and a host of minor articles, have also been +kept back by the same cause, and will pour in upon us to make up our +deficiencies directly any relaxation shall take place (if such could be +foreseen) of the universal influx of grain. In this way, just as one +cause of demand diminishes the other will increase, and the balance will +be kept up against us for a period to which at present it is impossible +to fix a limit. + +"_We thus see that no call that can possibly arise for our manufactures +can have the effect of preventing a continuous drain of bullion_. That a +large trade will occur no one can doubt, but at present it is scarcely +even in prospect. From India and China each account comes less +favourable than before; from Russia we are told that 'no great demand +can be expected for British goods under the present high duties' in that +country; while even from the United States, the point from whence relief +will most rapidly come, we hear of a shrewd conviction that we are +approaching _a period of low prices_, and that, consequently, for the +present 'the less they order from us the better.'"--_Times_, March 10, +1847. + +[13] _England in 1815 and 1845_, pp. v-vii. Preface to third edition, +published in _June_ 1846. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +61, No. 378, April, 1847, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 23690-8.txt or 23690-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/9/23690/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine +Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. 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