diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:26:58 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:26:58 -0700 |
| commit | c993294096af85c8d8e31e3356c2dc75f1bc80dd (patch) | |
| tree | 2ae50182387b895c3518256e1a9a412361088d60 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-8.txt | 14410 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 321072 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 338500 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-h/26439-h.htm | 14565 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/f001.png | bin | 0 -> 11756 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/f002.png | bin | 0 -> 22302 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/f003.png | bin | 0 -> 26144 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/f004.png | bin | 0 -> 31160 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p293.png | bin | 0 -> 33411 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p294.png | bin | 0 -> 45873 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p295.png | bin | 0 -> 44198 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p296.png | bin | 0 -> 43440 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p297.png | bin | 0 -> 43278 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p298.png | bin | 0 -> 44578 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p299.png | bin | 0 -> 44163 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p300.png | bin | 0 -> 43950 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p301.png | bin | 0 -> 45497 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p302.png | bin | 0 -> 46480 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p303.png | bin | 0 -> 44179 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p304.png | bin | 0 -> 46171 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p305.png | bin | 0 -> 44199 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p306.png | bin | 0 -> 44096 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p307.png | bin | 0 -> 44004 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p308.png | bin | 0 -> 43611 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p309.png | bin | 0 -> 46195 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p310.png | bin | 0 -> 45907 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p311.png | bin | 0 -> 43282 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p312.png | bin | 0 -> 42723 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p313.png | bin | 0 -> 43466 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p314.png | bin | 0 -> 41317 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p315.png | bin | 0 -> 41908 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p316.png | bin | 0 -> 43078 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p317.png | bin | 0 -> 47646 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p318.png | bin | 0 -> 46094 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p319.png | bin | 0 -> 45544 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p320.png | bin | 0 -> 43079 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p321.png | bin | 0 -> 39896 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p322.png | bin | 0 -> 45453 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p323.png | bin | 0 -> 45250 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p324.png | bin | 0 -> 38159 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p325.png | bin | 0 -> 45134 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p326.png | bin | 0 -> 44269 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p327.png | bin | 0 -> 45122 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p328.png | bin | 0 -> 43691 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p329.png | bin | 0 -> 44646 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p330.png | bin | 0 -> 42868 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p331.png | bin | 0 -> 44303 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p332.png | bin | 0 -> 41398 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p333.png | bin | 0 -> 37703 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p334.png | bin | 0 -> 37601 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p335.png | bin | 0 -> 44022 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p336.png | bin | 0 -> 42074 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p337.png | bin | 0 -> 43699 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p338.png | bin | 0 -> 45537 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p339.png | bin | 0 -> 37347 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p340.png | bin | 0 -> 36429 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p341.png | bin | 0 -> 39416 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p342.png | bin | 0 -> 35836 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p343.png | bin | 0 -> 38967 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p344.png | bin | 0 -> 42363 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p345.png | bin | 0 -> 39537 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p346.png | bin | 0 -> 28200 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p347.png | bin | 0 -> 45173 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p348.png | bin | 0 -> 45860 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p349.png | bin | 0 -> 45840 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p350.png | bin | 0 -> 37995 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p351.png | bin | 0 -> 45153 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p352.png | bin | 0 -> 44326 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p353.png | bin | 0 -> 45380 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p354.png | bin | 0 -> 44074 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p355.png | bin | 0 -> 40427 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p356.png | bin | 0 -> 44552 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p357.png | bin | 0 -> 46290 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p358.png | bin | 0 -> 46372 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p359.png | bin | 0 -> 45399 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p360.png | bin | 0 -> 45677 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p361.png | bin | 0 -> 44042 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p362.png | bin | 0 -> 44467 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p363.png | bin | 0 -> 43400 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p364.png | bin | 0 -> 43575 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p365.png | bin | 0 -> 45107 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p366.png | bin | 0 -> 44739 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p367.png | bin | 0 -> 43205 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p368.png | bin | 0 -> 43652 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p369.png | bin | 0 -> 44427 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p370.png | bin | 0 -> 43152 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p371.png | bin | 0 -> 43878 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p372.png | bin | 0 -> 43183 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p373.png | bin | 0 -> 46437 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p374.png | bin | 0 -> 42854 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p375.png | bin | 0 -> 45114 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p376.png | bin | 0 -> 44104 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p377.png | bin | 0 -> 45393 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p378.png | bin | 0 -> 45171 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p379.png | bin | 0 -> 44044 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p380.png | bin | 0 -> 44507 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p381.png | bin | 0 -> 46243 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p382.png | bin | 0 -> 46045 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p383.png | bin | 0 -> 34986 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p384.png | bin | 0 -> 41286 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p385.png | bin | 0 -> 42387 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p386.png | bin | 0 -> 41739 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p387.png | bin | 0 -> 42090 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p388.png | bin | 0 -> 44680 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p389.png | bin | 0 -> 44335 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p390.png | bin | 0 -> 45156 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p391.png | bin | 0 -> 44787 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p392.png | bin | 0 -> 44645 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p393.png | bin | 0 -> 43942 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p394.png | bin | 0 -> 43743 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p395.png | bin | 0 -> 37514 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p396.png | bin | 0 -> 43346 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p397.png | bin | 0 -> 44886 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p398.png | bin | 0 -> 41053 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p399.png | bin | 0 -> 44571 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p400.png | bin | 0 -> 46687 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p401.png | bin | 0 -> 44074 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p402.png | bin | 0 -> 45640 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p403.png | bin | 0 -> 40305 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p404.png | bin | 0 -> 45210 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p405.png | bin | 0 -> 43900 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p406.png | bin | 0 -> 44297 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p407.png | bin | 0 -> 42624 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p408.png | bin | 0 -> 44864 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p409.png | bin | 0 -> 44228 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p410.png | bin | 0 -> 42768 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p411.png | bin | 0 -> 44107 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p412.png | bin | 0 -> 44561 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p413.png | bin | 0 -> 27764 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p414.png | bin | 0 -> 40336 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p415.png | bin | 0 -> 43023 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p416.png | bin | 0 -> 44060 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p417.png | bin | 0 -> 44832 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p418.png | bin | 0 -> 44573 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p419.png | bin | 0 -> 43490 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p420.png | bin | 0 -> 45347 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p421.png | bin | 0 -> 45902 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p422.png | bin | 0 -> 45843 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p423.png | bin | 0 -> 45686 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p424.png | bin | 0 -> 42415 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p425.png | bin | 0 -> 44549 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p426.png | bin | 0 -> 42182 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p427.png | bin | 0 -> 44285 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p428.png | bin | 0 -> 45778 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p429.png | bin | 0 -> 45144 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p430.png | bin | 0 -> 45270 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p431.png | bin | 0 -> 43168 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p432.png | bin | 0 -> 45290 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p433.png | bin | 0 -> 45379 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p434.png | bin | 0 -> 42516 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p435.png | bin | 0 -> 42307 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p436.png | bin | 0 -> 42947 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p437.png | bin | 0 -> 46668 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p438.png | bin | 0 -> 44552 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p439.png | bin | 0 -> 44628 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p440.png | bin | 0 -> 44581 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p441.png | bin | 0 -> 45069 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p442.png | bin | 0 -> 35561 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p443.png | bin | 0 -> 42823 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p444.png | bin | 0 -> 46536 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p445.png | bin | 0 -> 46822 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p446.png | bin | 0 -> 45242 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p447.png | bin | 0 -> 46053 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p448.png | bin | 0 -> 46371 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p449.png | bin | 0 -> 46104 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p450.png | bin | 0 -> 46063 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p451.png | bin | 0 -> 46643 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p452.png | bin | 0 -> 46034 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p453.png | bin | 0 -> 44644 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p454.png | bin | 0 -> 46818 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p455.png | bin | 0 -> 45514 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p456.png | bin | 0 -> 43990 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p457.png | bin | 0 -> 42110 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p458.png | bin | 0 -> 44968 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p459.png | bin | 0 -> 44083 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p460.png | bin | 0 -> 41228 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p461.png | bin | 0 -> 46127 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p462.png | bin | 0 -> 43745 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p463.png | bin | 0 -> 44765 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p464.png | bin | 0 -> 43932 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p465.png | bin | 0 -> 45498 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p466.png | bin | 0 -> 43701 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p467.png | bin | 0 -> 40610 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p468.png | bin | 0 -> 43056 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p469.png | bin | 0 -> 44180 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p470.png | bin | 0 -> 41797 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p471.png | bin | 0 -> 40302 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p472.png | bin | 0 -> 41179 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p473.png | bin | 0 -> 37434 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p474.png | bin | 0 -> 41916 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p475.png | bin | 0 -> 42315 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p476.png | bin | 0 -> 39518 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p477.png | bin | 0 -> 45071 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p478.png | bin | 0 -> 45688 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p479.png | bin | 0 -> 45925 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p480.png | bin | 0 -> 41875 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p481.png | bin | 0 -> 40742 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p482.png | bin | 0 -> 42961 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p483.png | bin | 0 -> 42583 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p484.png | bin | 0 -> 43866 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p485.png | bin | 0 -> 44679 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p486.png | bin | 0 -> 43834 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p487.png | bin | 0 -> 43068 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p488.png | bin | 0 -> 45410 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p489.png | bin | 0 -> 41867 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p490.png | bin | 0 -> 43400 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p491.png | bin | 0 -> 41283 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p492.png | bin | 0 -> 39843 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p493.png | bin | 0 -> 44141 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p494.png | bin | 0 -> 46390 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p495.png | bin | 0 -> 43088 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p496.png | bin | 0 -> 41388 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p497.png | bin | 0 -> 42188 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p498.png | bin | 0 -> 44424 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p499.png | bin | 0 -> 41231 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p500.png | bin | 0 -> 29840 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p501.png | bin | 0 -> 41399 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p502.png | bin | 0 -> 43808 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p503.png | bin | 0 -> 43519 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p504.png | bin | 0 -> 43244 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p505.png | bin | 0 -> 44107 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p506.png | bin | 0 -> 42541 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p507.png | bin | 0 -> 41280 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p508.png | bin | 0 -> 42859 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p509.png | bin | 0 -> 44158 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p510.png | bin | 0 -> 44245 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p511.png | bin | 0 -> 43895 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p512.png | bin | 0 -> 45520 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p513.png | bin | 0 -> 46174 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p514.png | bin | 0 -> 43226 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p515.png | bin | 0 -> 43331 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p516.png | bin | 0 -> 45194 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p517.png | bin | 0 -> 44824 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p518.png | bin | 0 -> 40537 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p519.png | bin | 0 -> 46995 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p520.png | bin | 0 -> 45818 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p521.png | bin | 0 -> 42736 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p522.png | bin | 0 -> 42511 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p523.png | bin | 0 -> 45104 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p524.png | bin | 0 -> 45205 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p525.png | bin | 0 -> 44784 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p526.png | bin | 0 -> 42799 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p527.png | bin | 0 -> 44223 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p528.png | bin | 0 -> 43985 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p529.png | bin | 0 -> 45064 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p530.png | bin | 0 -> 44634 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p531.png | bin | 0 -> 44070 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p532.png | bin | 0 -> 44418 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p533.png | bin | 0 -> 45534 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p534.png | bin | 0 -> 46163 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p535.png | bin | 0 -> 44363 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p536.png | bin | 0 -> 44850 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p537.png | bin | 0 -> 44824 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p538.png | bin | 0 -> 44982 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p539.png | bin | 0 -> 44865 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p540.png | bin | 0 -> 45837 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p541.png | bin | 0 -> 46000 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p542.png | bin | 0 -> 44835 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p543.png | bin | 0 -> 42337 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p544.png | bin | 0 -> 40167 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p545.png | bin | 0 -> 45078 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p546.png | bin | 0 -> 46109 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p547.png | bin | 0 -> 45402 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p548.png | bin | 0 -> 45027 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p549.png | bin | 0 -> 44133 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p550.png | bin | 0 -> 46011 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p551.png | bin | 0 -> 44546 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p552.png | bin | 0 -> 42525 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p553.png | bin | 0 -> 44785 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p554.png | bin | 0 -> 44666 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p555.png | bin | 0 -> 44297 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p556.png | bin | 0 -> 41847 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p557.png | bin | 0 -> 43419 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p558.png | bin | 0 -> 44108 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p559.png | bin | 0 -> 44447 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p560.png | bin | 0 -> 44723 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p561.png | bin | 0 -> 45220 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p562.png | bin | 0 -> 43891 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p563.png | bin | 0 -> 43533 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p564.png | bin | 0 -> 44582 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p565.png | bin | 0 -> 39555 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p566.png | bin | 0 -> 45156 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p567.png | bin | 0 -> 44655 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p568.png | bin | 0 -> 44151 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p569.png | bin | 0 -> 42988 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p570.png | bin | 0 -> 42212 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p571.png | bin | 0 -> 44825 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p572.png | bin | 0 -> 43272 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p573.png | bin | 0 -> 46134 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p574.png | bin | 0 -> 44495 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p575.png | bin | 0 -> 43236 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p576.png | bin | 0 -> 44757 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p577.png | bin | 0 -> 42724 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p578.png | bin | 0 -> 45754 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p579.png | bin | 0 -> 44350 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p580.png | bin | 0 -> 20510 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p581.png | bin | 0 -> 43038 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p582.png | bin | 0 -> 55419 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p583.png | bin | 0 -> 53446 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p584.png | bin | 0 -> 51493 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p585.png | bin | 0 -> 46592 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p586.png | bin | 0 -> 51926 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p587.png | bin | 0 -> 49894 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439-page-images/p588.png | bin | 0 -> 46544 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439.txt | 14410 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 26439.zip | bin | 0 -> 320839 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
309 files changed, 43401 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/26439-8.txt b/26439-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fa6dd9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14410 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, +April, 1886, 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: The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: August 27, 2008 [EBook #26439] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERLY REVIEW, APRIL, 1886 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + +THE + +QUARTERLY REVIEW. + +NO. CCCXXIV. APRIL, 1886. VOL. CLXII. + + + + +CONTENTS: + + +I. Matthew Parish + +II. The Christian Brothers.--Religious Schools in France and England. + +III. Archives of the Venetian Republic. + +IV. Yeomen Farmers in Norway. + +V. Oliver Cromwell: his character illustrated by himself. + +VI. Travels in the British Empire. + +VII. The Bishop of Durham on the Ignatian Epistles. + +VIII. Books and Reading. + +IX. Characteristics of Democracy. + +X. The Gladstone-Morley Administration. + + +PHILADELPHIA: +LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY, +1104 WALNUT STREET. + + + + +THE + +LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION CO'S., + +PERIODICALS. + +Single Copies for sale by the following Dealers in Cities named: + +BALTIMORE, MD., Baltimore News Co., Sun. Iron Building. +BOSTON, MASS., Cupples, Upham & Co., 283 Washington St. +CHICAGO, ILL., Brentano Bros., 101 State St. +CINCINNATI, OHIO. Robert Clarke & Co., 61 West 4th, St. +HALIFAX, NOVA SCO., T. C. Allen & Co., 124 Granville St. +HAMILTON, CANADA. J. Eastwood & Co., +MONTREAL, CANADA. Dawson Bros., 233 St. James St. +NEW ORLEANS, LA., Geo. F. Wharton & Bro., 5 Carondelet St. +NEW YORK CITY, N. Y., Brentano Bros., 5 Union Square. +PHILADELPHIA, PA., Leonard Scott Pub. Co., 1104 Walnut St. +PROVIDENCE, R. I., S. S. Rider. +RICHMOND, VA., Beckwith & Parham. +SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., J. C. Scott. 22 Third St. +ST. JOHN, N. B., A. & J. McMillan. 98 Prince William St. +ST. LOUIS, MO., St. Louis News Co., +TORONTO, CANADA. Hart & Co., 31 King St., W. +VICTORIA, BR. COL., T. H. Hibben & Co., Masonic Building. +WASHINGTON, D. C., Brentano Bros., 1015 Penna. Av. + +_Annual Subscriptions Received by all Booksellers and Newsdealers._ + + +THE LEONARD SCOTT PUB. CO., +1104 WALNUT STREET. +PHILADELPHIA, PA. + + + + +CONTENTS OF NO. 324. + + +Art. Page + +I.--Matthæi Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica +Majora. Edited by Henry Richards Luard, D.D., Fellow of +Trinity College, Registrary of the University, and Vicar of +Great St. Mary's Cambridge. Published by the Authority of +the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the +direction of the Master of the Rolls. 7 vols. 8vo. London, +Vol I. 1872--Vol. VII. 1883. 293 + + +II.--1. The Christian Brothers, their Origin and Work, with +a sketch of the Life of their Founder, The Venerable Jean +Baptiste de la Salle. By Mrs. R. F. Wilson. London, 1883. + +2. La Première Année d'Instruction Morale et Civique: +notions de droit et d'économie politique (Textes et Récits) +pour répondre à la loi du 28 Mars 1882 sur l'enseignement +primaire obligatoire: ouvrage accompagné de Résumé, de +Questionnaires, de Devoirs, et d'un Lexique des mots +difficiles. Par Pierre Laloi. Quatorzième Edition. Paris, +1885. + +3. Report of the Committee of Council on Education (England +and Wales). 1884-85. + +4. Seventy-fourth Annual Report of the Incorporated National +Society. 1885. 325 + + +III.--The State Papers of the Venetian Republic; namely, +Cancelleria Inferiore, Cancelleria Ducale, Cancelleria +Secreta, preserved in the Convent of the Frari, at Venice. + 356 + + +IV.--1. Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years +1834, 1835, and 1836. By Samuel Laing, Esq. London, 1837. + +2. Le Royaume de Norvège et le Peuple Norvégien. Par le Dr. +O. I. Broch. Christiania, 1878. + +3. Official Reports of Prefects on the Economic Condition of +the Provinces of Norway in 1876-80. Christiania, 1884. + +4. Publications of the Statistical Bureau Christiania. 384 + + +V.--A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; +Secretary, first to the Council of State, and afterwards to +the Two Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell. In Seven +Volumes, containing authentic Memorials of the English +affairs from the year 1638 to the Restoration of King +Charles II. Vol. III. London, 1742. 414 + + +VI.--1. Oceana, or England and her Colonies. By James +Anthony Froude. London, 1886. + +2. Through the British Empire. By Baron von Hübner. 2. vols. +London, 1886. + +3. The Western Pacific and New Guinea. By Hugh Hastings +Romilly, Deputy Commissioner of the Western Pacific. London, +1886. 443 + + +VII.--The Apostolic Fathers: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp. +Revised Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and +Translations. By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., +Bishop of Durham. London, 1885. 2 vols. 467 + + +VIII.--1. An Address delivered to the Students of Edinburgh +University on Nov. 3, 1885. By the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord +Rector of the University of Edinburgh. + +2. Hearing, Reading and Thinking: an address to the Students +attending the Lectures of the London Society for the +Extension of University Teaching. By the Rt. Hon. G. J. +Goschen, M.P. + +3. The Choice of Books and other Literary Pieces. By +Frederic Harrison. London, 1886. 501 + + +IX.--1. Popular Government. Four Essays. By Sir Henry Sumner +Maine. Second Edition. London, 1886. + +2. Democracy in America. By Alexis de Tocqueville. +Translated by Henry Reeve. New Edition. London, 1862. + +3. On the State of Society in France before the Revolution +of 1789. Translated by Henry Reeve. Second Edition. London, +1873. 518 + +And other Works. + + +X.--1. Fourth Midlothian Campaign. Political Speeches +delivered, November, 1885, by the Right Hon. W. E. +Gladstone, M.P. Edinburgh, 1886. + +2. John Morley: The Irish Record of the New Chief Secretary, +1886. + +3. Ireland: A Book of Light on the Irish Problem. Edited by +Andrew Reid. London, 1886. 544 + +And other Works. + + + + +ART. I.--_Matthæi Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora._ +Edited by Henry Richards Luard, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, +Registrary of the University, and Vicar of Great St. Mary's, Cambridge. +Published by the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's +Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. 7 vols. 8vo. +London, Vol. I. 1872--Vol. VII. 1883. + + +Some of our readers are not likely yet to have forgotten the remarkable +essay which the late Professor Brewer contributed to our pages in 1871, +and which has since been reprinted in the volume of 'English Studies,' +published shortly after the author's death in 1879. English History owes +a larger debt to few men of our time than it owes to Mr. Brewer. As a +teacher whose pupils were always eager to listen to all that fell from +his lips, and whose enthusiasm never failed to awake a kindred spark in +the minds of those who looked to him for light in dark places and +guidance along tortuous paths of research, Mr. Brewer has had few +equals, and perhaps has left no successor who can compare with him. As a +writer he was always brilliant, lucid, and vigorous, and his unrivalled +'Introductions' to the Calendars of Letters and Papers, concerned with +the reign of Henry VIII., will long continue to be read by all students +of our History, as necessary and indispensable interpreters of the vast +storehouses of original documents which he did so much to rescue from +the oblivion or obscurity to which they had previously been consigned. +But it was as an organizer of research that Mr. Brewer earned his +greatest fame and achieved his greatest success, and it was to him more +than to any one man, to his immense persistence in urging upon the +powers that be a more generous freedom of access to our Records, and to +his prodigious powers of work in arranging and tabulating the enormous +masses of documents of all kinds which constitute the _Apparatus_ of +English History, that this country stands indebted, and will remain +indebted as long as our literature lasts. + +In the Essay on 'New Sources of English History' the learned author has +given us a startling account of the deplorable condition into which some +of the most precious of our national manuscripts had been allowed to +fall--of the utterly chaotic state of our depositories--of the +hopelessness, the despair which must needs have come upon one student +after another who might be fortunate enough to be turned loose into the +various prison-houses of our muniments--and of the efforts made, and +happily at last made with splendid success, to cleanse the Augean +stable, and to let the world know something of the wealth it contained. +With characteristic modesty Mr. Brewer said nothing of his own part in +all that laborious and sagacious organization which resulted in our +obtaining the magnificent _Calendars_, which have opened out to us all +'that new world which is the old' that had become almost forgotten or +unknown. He was not the man to assert himself, he knew that posterity +would give him his due, but with a simple desire to stimulate research, +and to show how much remained to be done, and how much to be discovered +and made known, he drew the attention of his readers chiefly and +primarily to the value of the Calendars, and to the important results +which those Calendars had already produced, and were destined to produce +hereafter. He had quite enough to say upon this point, and if his life +had been spared, it is probable that he would eventually have given us a +more comprehensive account of the series of volumes which, though now +issuing from the press _pari passu_ with the Calendars, were originally +undertaken a little later. Such an Essay by such a master would indeed +have been an important aid to the student, but at the time of Mr. +Brewer's lamented death the day had hardly come for such a _résumé_; and +even now, though so much has been achieved, so much and so well, the +hour has hardly arrived nor the man for taking a comprehensive survey, +and giving to the public an intelligent and intelligible account of that +other Library of Chronicles, and biographies, and letters, and +cartularies, and those other memorials of the Middle Ages in England, +which it is to be feared are hardly as well known as they ought to be, +nor as widely studied as they deserve. + +Meanwhile it is high time that attention should be drawn to that noble +series of volumes now issuing from the press under the editorship of +scholars whose reputation is assured, and whose work continues to +enhance their reputation--high time that we should begin to do something +like justice to the labourers, who have deserved so well at the hands +of such Englishmen as have any sentiment of loyalty to the great +thoughts, the great doings, and the noble lives of their forefathers. +The philosopher, who 'holds the mirror up to nature,' has not of late, +as a rule, missed his reward. The historian, who in his dogged, patient, +toilsome fashion holds the mirror up to the life of bygone ages, has +received among us scant recognition, and generally is rewarded with but +barren honour. What has been done and still is doing will be best +understood by briefly reviewing the progress of that movement, which has +brought about the great revival of English Historical study, and under +the influence of which the opinions and convictions of educated men have +passed through a very decided change, one destined to produce still +greater and more unlooked for changes of sentiment and belief before the +present century shall have closed. + +It is just fifty years since 'the Father of Record Reform,' as he has +been justly called, received his patent creating him Master of the +Rolls. Although as far back as the year 1800 a Commission was issued for +the methodizing and digesting the National Records, and for printing +such calendars and indexes as should be thought advisable; and though +during the next twenty-seven years many works of supreme interest and +importance were printed at the public expense, the enormous extent of +our National Records were known to few, and the difficulty of consulting +them, (dispersed as they were through a score of different depositories) +was enough to deter all but the most resolute enquirers. It was Lord +Langdale who first set himself to reduce the chaos of our archives into +something like order. When the old Record Commission expired in 1837, it +was by Lord Langdale's influence that the Public Record Act was passed +on the 14th of August, 1838, whereby the Records named therein were +placed under the custody of the Master of the Rolls for the time being, +and hereupon a new era began. Nevertheless it was not till July 1850 +that a vote was obtained from the Treasury for the erection of a +national depository, wherein our vast archives should be assembled under +a single roof, and not till 1855 that the magnificent _Tabularium_ in +Fetter Lane was opened for the reception of our muniments. + +Lord Langdale died in April 1851;[1] he was succeeded in the Mastership +of the Rolls by Lord Romilly, then Sir John. A happier choice could not +have been made. To Lord Langdale belongs the credit of carrying out the +grand scheme for consolidating the various collections of documents, +which, as we have said, had up to this time been widely dispersed, and +the very existence of the larger mass of which was known only to a few +experts. To Lord Romilly we owe it that the great original sources of +English History so assembled have been rendered accessible to any +student who desires to consult them; and it is to him, too, that we are +indebted for the issue of that unrivalled series of 'Chronicles and +Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland, from the Invasion of the Romans +to the Reign of Henry VIII.,' which has laid the foundation for a +science of history firmer and deeper and wider than before was believed +to be even attainable. + +Great men are at once the leaders and the product of their age. When +Lord Langdale set himself to his task he was only attempting that which +had been talked of since the reign of Edward II. For five centuries the +unification of our National Records had been recommended and advised by +lawyers, statesmen, and scholars from generation to generation, but no +practical scheme had ever been suggested, and the difficulties in the +way of reform were supposed to be insuperable. It was a Herculean task, +and one that grew ever more arduous the longer it was postponed. During +the first quarter of the present century profound dissatisfaction had +begun to be felt at the condition of our historical literature. The +ordinary text-books were full of fables, more than suspected to be +fables, and which yet it was extremely difficult to disprove +satisfactorily. Theories which had long passed current were being rudely +assailed, and yet--in the face of the obstacles that hindered +research--stubbornly held their ground, or were repeated with peremptory +dogmatism. A deep distrust of the old methods and the old assumptions +had given rise to a widespread desire to drag forth from their +hiding-places any documents, however dry or recondite, which might throw +some clear light upon our national life and manners, and not only upon +mere events of national importance during Medieval times. A desire to +know the truth was _in the air_. The science of history had passed out +of its infancy, and the stirrings of a new craving--the passion of +Research--were making themselves felt in that mysterious restlessness +which indicates that the old smooth-faced docility, the old childish +submission to tutelage, the old unquestioning acceptance of authority, +has gone for ever, and a new life has begun. The year before Lord +Langdale received his appointment as Master of the Rolls, the Surtees +Society had been founded for the printing of unedited MSS. illustrative +of the history of the northern counties; and in the same year that the +old Record Commission expired, the English Historical Society was +started, a society which numbered amongst its promoters such men as the +late Mr. Kemble, Mr. H. O. Coxe, Sir T. Duffus Hardy, and Mr. +Stevenson--the leaders and teachers of that school of younger men who +have so ably followed in the steps of their seniors, and who, mounting +on the shoulders of the giants, have gained a wider view than it was +given to those others to attain. The five years that followed saw the +foundation of the Camden, the Percy, and the Chetham Societies, not to +mention many another that has done useful work in its way. The labours +of these pioneers soon made it quite apparent that the sources of our +national history--social, ecclesiastical, and political--were quite too +voluminous for private enterprise to deal with, and would demand the +co-operation of a body of trained scholars and the resources of the +public exchequer to make them available as apparatus for the teachers of +the future. + +On the 26th of January, 1857, Sir John Romilly submitted to the Treasury +his memorable proposal for the publication of certain materials for the +History of England;[2] and on the 9th of February a Treasury Minute was +put forth approving of the plan that had been drawn up as one 'well +calculated for the accomplishment of this important national object in +an effectual and satisfactory manner within a reasonable time.' +Forthwith arrangements were made for the issue of that series of works +which is now known as the 'Rolls Series,' a collection which has already +extended to upwards of 200 volumes. + +The lines laid down by Sir John Romilly were almost exactly those which +had been followed by the English Historical Society. Every editor was to +'give an account of the MSS. employed by him, of their age and their +peculiarities;' he was to add 'a brief account of the life and times of +the author, and any remarks necessary to explain the chronology; _but no +other note or comment_ was to be allowed, except what might be necessary +to establish the correctness of the text.' The restriction was +absolutely necessary if only for this, that when the 'Rolls Series' was +first commenced even the most accomplished of its editors were mere +learners. The time had not yet arrived for comments. The text was wanted +first in its completeness and integrity. + +Looking back to this period--little more than a quarter of a century +ago--it is difficult for us to realize the deplorable condition into +which our historical literature had been allowed to fall. Kemble's great +work, the 'Codex Diplomaticus ævi Saxonici,' the first volume of which +appeared in 1839, and his 'History of the Saxons in England,' published +in 1849, came upon the great body of intelligent men as the revelation +of new things. It is sufficient to turn to the chapter on the +Constitutional History of England before the Conquest, in Hallam's +'History of the Middle Ages,' to be assured how meagre and superficial +even Hallam's knowledge was of everything before the Norman invasion. It +was no fault of his; he made good use of all such materials as were then +accessible to the student--that is, all such as had been printed; for +that incomparably larger _apparatus_ which since Hallam's days has been +published to the world, it was for all practical purposes as if it had +never existed at all. Even men of culture and learning were persuaded +that all that was ever likely to be known about the religious houses had +been collected in the new edition of Dugdale's 'Monasticon.' It is +hardly too much to say that of the history of English monasticism Hallam +knew nothing. Dr. Lingard himself had very little more to say of the +great Abbeys than his predecessors, and had a very inadequate conception +of the part they played in the development of our institutions; and when +Dr. Maitland wrote his brilliant 'Essays on the Dark Ages,' he hardly +names St. Edmundsbury or St. Alban's, and though one of his most +fascinating chapters is concerned with the early days of Croyland, his +only authority for the beautiful story, which he has handled so +skilfully, is a romantic narrative attributed to Ingulphus, which has +been demonstrated to be a somewhat clumsy though a clever forgery. Of +the Mendicant Orders--of the work they did, of the influence they +exercised, and of the attitude adopted towards them in the 13th century +by the parochial clergy on the one hand, and by the monks on the +other--even less was known, if less were possible, than of their +wealthier rivals. + +Two years had scarcely elapsed since the issue of the Treasury Minute of +February, 1857, before it began to be said that the history of England +would have to be written anew. In the single year 1858 _eleven_ works of +the highest importance were printed, and it was evident that neither +original materials nor scholarly editors would be wanting to make the +'Rolls Series' all that it was desired it should become. The 'Chronicles +of the Monasteries of Abingdon and of St. Augustine at Canterbury,' the +contemporary 'Life of Edward the Confessor,' and the priceless +'Monumenta Franciscana,' telling the wonderful story of the settlement +of the Minorites among us, were printed from unique MSS. Next year the +'Chronicle of John of Oxnedes' was brought out by Sir Henry Ellis, and +the 'Historia Anglicana' of Bartholomew Cotton, by Dr. Luard, neither +work having ever before been printed. Volume followed volume in rapid +succession, a steady improvement becoming observable in the style of +editing, as the several editors became more familiar with the results of +their predecessors' labours. + +It was while working at Bartholomew Cotton that Dr. Luard was brought +into intimate relations with the 13th century. Hitherto the _composite_ +character of such chronicles as had been published had indeed been +perceived, but no attempt had been made to trace the original authority +for statements repeated in the same words by one writer after another. +Dr. Luard opened out a new line of enquiry, and in his edition of +Cotton's Chronicle he endeavoured to distinguish in every instance the +material which might fairly be called original from that which his +author had borrowed from older writers and incorporated into his text. +The borrowed matter was printed in smaller type, and the sources from +which it had been derived were indicated by references given at the foot +of the page. Cottons' own additions were printed in a bolder type, so as +at once to catch the eye. While conducting the laborious researches +necessitated by this new method of editing his text, it became clear to +Dr. Luard that Cotton had borrowed largely from Matthew Paris--who had +lived just a generation before him--and that he had also borrowed from a +mysterious writer much read in the 14th and 15th centuries, who went by +the name of Matthew of Westminster. As to this Matthew of Westminster, +Dr. Luard postponed dealing with him till some future time. He might +prove a mere mythic personage, and it was suspected he would; but +Matthew Paris was certainly no shadow, but a very real man, whose +greatness seemed to grow greater the more he was studied and the better +he was known. Yet as Dr. Luard became more familiar with the text of +Paris, he was soon convinced that in its printed form it was bristling +with the grossest inaccuracies of all kinds. Originally it had been +published under the authority of Archbishop Parker in 1571; and though +other editions had appeared, in this country and on the Continent, +several times since then, Paris's great work had remained exactly in the +same state as Parker (or whoever his agent was) had left it three +centuries ago. That is to say, that by far the most important work on +English history during the 13th century--not to mention European +affairs--and by far the most minute and trustworthy picture of English +life and manners during the reign of Henry III.--a record, too, drawn +up by a contemporary writer of rare genius and literary skill--was +defaced by blunders, audacious tampering with the text and gross +inaccuracies, to such an extent that no conscientious student could +allow himself to quote the printed work without first referring to one +of the very MSS. which the Archbishop professed to have used. + +Nevertheless, the task of bringing out a critical edition of the +'Chronica Majora' did not appear less formidable as fresh sources of +information cropped up; and Dr. Luard shrank from the immense labour +that such an edition involved, it was because he had formed a correct +notion of its magnitude. In 1861 he brought out in the same series the +'Letters of Robert Grosseteste,' the heroic and magnanimous Bishop of +Lincoln; and while working at this volume, the England of the 13th +century became more and more alive and present to the mind of the +student. + +But distinctly and grandly as one noble character after another revealed +itself, there was a strange mist that required to be dispelled before +even the importance of great events could be rightly estimated. The +inner life of the monasteries, great and small, must be enquired into, +so far as it was possible to get any information on so obscure a +subject; and, above all, the paramount influence which so magnificent an +institution as the Abbey of St. Alban's exercised upon the intellectual +life of the country must be studied with patient impartiality. Before a +scholar with so lofty an ideal of an editor's duty could venture upon +his _magnum opus_, there was indeed an enormous mass of preliminary work +to get through. The horizon seemed to widen everywhere as the years of +historical discovery went on. It was left to Mr. Riley to attack that +wonderful collection of documents to which he gave the title of +'Chronica Monasterii Sancti Albani'--a series occupying twelve thick +volumes, and which furnish us not only with a priceless _apparatus_, by +the help of which a hundred problems perplexing the historian are +furnished with a clue towards their solution--but which afford such an +insight into the life of the greatest monastery in England during its +best times as nobody expected could ever be forthcoming. While Mr. Riley +was occupied with the _Chronicles_ of St. Alban's and the lives of its +Abbots, Dr. Luard was engaged in collecting all the _Annals_ of the +lesser monasteries which he could lay his hands on. Some of these had +already been printed more or less carelessly; others had never seen the +light since they were written. Such as were printed were extremely +difficult to procure--scarce and costly. Dr. Luard took six years in +bringing out his five volumes--volumes referring to the golden age of +English Monasticism, which threw all sorts of side-light upon Mr. +Riley's 'Chronicles,' while they were in turn continually being +explained and illustrated by them. + +While the 'Monastic Annals' were passing through the press, a very +startling announcement was made by no less a person than Sir Frederick +Madden, Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. +Sir Frederick declared that he had come upon a copy of what was commonly +called the 'Historia Minor' of Matthew Paris, not only written by the +author himself, but actually annotated, corrected, and illustrated with +drawings by his own hand. Such an announcement made by an expert of +European reputation, one who had been handling MSS. all his life, +necessarily created a sensation in the literary world. If it were +accepted and proved true, it was one of the most curious romances in the +history of literature. But was it true? To most critics the antecedent +improbability of the theory put forth by Sir Frederick was so great as +to relegate it to the domain of extravagant paradox; but the name and +fame of its supporter were too high to allow of its being dismissed +without refutation. For two or three years no one ventured to enter the +lists against so formidable a champion who had staked his reputation +upon the issue. At last another great specialist, not a whit less +competent than the other, came forward to controvert the opinions and +theory which had been so confidently maintained by Sir Frederick. In +1871 Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy brought out the third volume of his +_Catalogue_, and it was in the famous Introduction to this volume that +the Madden Hypothesis was first assailed with damaging effect. Sir +Thomas, it must be remembered, was Deputy Keeper of the Records. Sir +Frederick was Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts at the British +Museum. Each was the representative man in his own department, and a +very pretty quarrel arose. Into the merits of that quarrel it is +impossible to enter here; it is a matter for specialists, not for +outsiders, to pronounce upon. This, however, may be said with +confidence, that if we except that school of very able and accomplished +experts which the British Museum has trained, experts whose _range_ of +diplomatic knowledge must needs be wider than that of any 'Record man,' +the refutation of Sir Frederick Madden by Sir Thomas Duffus was +generally regarded as unanswerable and triumphant. With the exception +indicated--a very important exception indeed--the Madden Hypothesis was +believed to be utterly demolished, in fact 'blown into the air.' +Nevertheless there are those, from whom something may be expected some +day in the way of rejoinder who are by no means sure that the last word +on this question has been said that deserve to be said, and even so +scrupulous and sagacious a critic as Dr. Luard seems to be less certain +than he was that Madden was quite wrong in _all_ he affirmed, and Hardy +quite right in _all_ he denied. + +The attention which had been drawn to Matthew Paris by this remarkable +controversy could not but have its effect in awakening a desire for that +critical edition of the larger Chronicle which Dr. Luard had been so +long preparing. The way was cleared for such an edition now; it was not +likely that any more MSS. of the author would be discovered. Such as +were deposited in the various libraries had been carefully scrutinized, +or their homes were known, and the long years of preparatory study had +been turned to good account--no pains had been spared nor any labour +grudged. In 1872 the first volume of the 'Chronica Majora' appeared in +the 'Rolls Series.' In 1884 the seventh and last volume was issued, +containing the learned editor's last preface, glossary, and emendations, +and an Index to the whole work, extending over nearly 600 pages. It is a +long time since an English scholar has had the good fortune to carry to +its completion so important a work as this, projected on so large a +scale, executed with such conscientious care--characterized by so much +critical skill and scrupulous accuracy--all this achieved single-handed +in the midst of other duties, professional and academical, which would +be quite sufficient to exhaust the energies of an ordinary man. + +Now that the work has been done, and done so thoroughly that it may +safely be asserted the _standard edition_ of the 'Chronic Majora' has +been published once for all, we are in a better position than we ever +were heretofore for taking a survey of the life and labours of its +author, and for answering the enquiries which of late have been made +with increasing frequency, and made too among those who might have been +expected to be able to answer them. Who and what was Matthew Paris? What +did he do, and what did he write that the learned few should speak of +him with so much reverence, though to the unlearned many he is little +more than a famous and familiar name? + +Perhaps before dealing with his personal history, or entering into any +examination of his literary labours, it will be well first to answer the +question--_What_ was Matthew Paris? for it is simply impossible to +estimate rightly the debt we owe to him, or to understand the brief +account that could be drawn up of his career till we have learned to +know something of the _profession_ to which he belonged, and the great +foundation of which he was so distinguished an ornament. By profession +Matthew Paris was a monk. A monk 'professed' is a term indicating the +higher grade to which not every brother in a monastery attained. The +very term 'profession' may be traced to the cloister. In its usual +acceptation it is modern. + +To dilate upon the various monastic orders, which were almost as +numerous in the 13th century as the different religious denominations +are in the 19th, would be out of place here. Suffice it to say that the +English monasteries in Henry III.'s time counted by hundreds. But there +were monasteries and monasteries. Some the homes of the scholar, the +devout and the high-minded, the seats of learning and the resting-places +of the studious and the aged, who hated war and tumult, and only longed +for repose. Some that were mere hiding holes for the lazy and the +incompetent, the failures among the younger sons of the gentry, who had +not the power of pushing their way in the world, or whose career had +been a disappointment. Such men, where all else failed, could get +themselves admitted into some smaller religious house by the interest of +the patron; sometimes bringing in a trifling addition to the common +property, sometimes simply 'pitchforked' into a vacancy, it is difficult +to say how. Then they became 'brethren' of the monastery, and sharers in +most of the good things that it could offer; they were almost exactly in +the same position as Fellows of Colleges were twenty years ago, holding +their preferment for life, with this difference, that a Fellowship at +the smallest College in Oxford or Cambridge always implied _some_ +qualification for the post. A College Fellow, at the worst, must have +had some claims to learning or culture; whereas in the smaller and more +remote monasteries a man might be scandalously ignorant, and yet gain +admittance as a brother of the house. + +Between the highest and the lowest of that great army of monks, +dispersed through the length and breadth of the land, when English +monarchism had declined from its earlier ideal, there was as great a +distance as there is at this moment between the Fellows of Balliol or +Trinity, and the poor brethren of the Charterhouse, or the bedesmen in +the cathedrals of the old foundation. + +In the first half of the 13th century English monarchism was at its +best; the 12th century was emphatically the reformation age of British +monarchism. All the many schemes for starting new orders with improved +_Rules_, and all the efforts to improve the discipline of the religious +houses and fan the fire of devotion among their members, assumed that +the monasteries were then living institutions with vast powers for good; +and institutions which needed only to be reformed to make them all that +the most earnest and ardent enthusiast claimed that they ought to be, +and might become. In the fifty years preceding the accession of King +John, more than 200 monasteries had been built and endowed--some of them +munificently endowed, and the only purely English order (that of St. +Gilbert of Sempringham) had been founded, and in little more than fifty +years could count no less than fourteen considerable houses. Englishmen +believed in the monastic system as they have never believed in anything +else since then; never have such prodigious sacrifices been made, never +has such lavish munificence been shown by the _upper classes_ as during +the century ending with the accession of Edward I. In the next hundred +years they were chiefly the townsmen and traders, not the landed +proprietors, who emptied their money-bags into the lap of the Begging +friars. Certainly the great religious houses at the end of the 13th +century had the entire confidence of the country, and it is impossible +to understand the long reign of Henry III. unless we are fully awake to +the fact that then, too, the monasteries were not only thriving and +powerful, but were institutions on whose help and power the people leant +with an assured confidence, because they were pre-eminently the people's +friends. But between the old foundations which had a history and the new +houses that were springing up in every shire, some feeling of jealousy +and soreness was sure to arise. The old abbeys, with a history that +looked back into a past all clouds and mist, but none the less glorious +for that, affected a supercilious tone towards the mushrooms that had of +late sprouted into vigorous life. A man need not be an old man who can +remember when the Eton and Winchester boys at the Universities affected +an air of contempt for all the 'modern' places of education, and +disdained to number such institutions as Cheltenham or Clifton among the +'public schools.' These were all very well in their way, but where were +their traditions? So with the older and grander Benedictine monasteries, +with charters from Saxon kings, let alone anything else. Glastonbury, +where men said two of the Apostles had built themselves a house of +prayer, and where St. Patrick and St. Dunstan lay entombed; Canterbury, +where Augustine, the English apostle, found a home; Malmesbury, where +St. Aldhelm preached to the barbarous people, and when they tired of his +sermon played to them upon his harp, and, anticipating Mr. Sankey, sang +David's Psalms to the crowds that moved by him as they passed over the +bridge of Avon. These venerable foundations, about whose origin a +glamour of mystery had gathered, whose history had become strangely +obscured by the body of myths that had grown up in the lapse of +centuries--which had survived pillage and anarchy, and all the horrors +of fire and sword, desolating, devastating--were there before men's +eyes, testifying to the amazing vitality which a millennium of strange +vicissitude had not only not destroyed, but not even impaired. Such a +mighty pile of buildings, as had risen up to heaven there in the old +Roman town of Verulam, appealed to the imagination of mankind--the very +materials of the massive tower, ruddy in the blaze of the noon-day, must +have been a wonder and astonishment to many an awe-struck pilgrim +perplexed at the first sight of Roman bricks burnt on the spot a +thousand years ago. There stood the mighty Roman rampart, vast, +enormous--the ground beneath his feet teeming with the tangible memories +of grisly conflict, or of an old civilization that had been blotted out +long ago--the swords of Roman legionaries, the bones of British heroes, +coins with legends that few could read turned up by the ploughman's +share. Yonder, men said, away there at Redburn, the heathen pursuers had +come upon England's proto-martyr and slain the saint of God, whose bones +since then had been gathered up, and were now resting in their sumptuous +shrine. When the Norman came, and the new order was set up in the +land--not a day before it was needed--the thirteenth Abbot of St. +Alban's was of the blood royal, and heir, they said, to Cnut, the Danish +king, who had passed away. It was to him that the awful Conqueror made +oath he would bind himself by the Confessor's laws, an oath which, if he +ever meant to keep, he meant to interpret according to his mood. Even +the very laxity and shortcomings of the abbots of generations back, +which tradition, and something more to be trusted than tradition, +declared to have been matters of scandal, proved no more than that the +great Abbey could live through evil times, outride the storms which +would wreck weaker vessels, and right itself, though overloaded with +abuses which timid pilots would have shrunk from throwing overboard: and +now that 400 years had passed since Offa, the Saxon king--(stirred +thereto by Karl, the Emperor)--had founded the monastery in St. Alban's +honour, and from generation to generation vast building operations had +been going on almost without interruption, and the old Abbey still held +up its head proudly, its Abbot taking precedence of every other in the +land; any man might be excused for thinking that to become a monk of St. +Alban's Abbey was to become a personage of no small consideration. + +Verily it was a great abbey in the days of King John. There, in the +eighth year of that King's reign, was held that memorable council +which, if it had been let alone, would doubtless have issued its protest +against the intolerable aggression of the Pope and his _curia_. There, +six years afterwards, another assembly was convened; the first occasion +on which we find any historical proof that representatives were summoned +to a national council in England. Eight times during his reign the +ruffian King was himself a guest at the Abbey. Once after John's death, +when Louis was desperately struggling to hold his own against young +Henry's friends and supporters, he too came to St. Alban's, and +threatened to give it over to fire and sword: only money saved it from a +sack. There was always something to take, and yet always wonderful state +kept up. The magnates in Church and State were for ever going in and +out; the mere domestic expenditure was enormous. Yet, even when the +country was groaning under horrible anarchy, and grinding taxation, and +war and poverty, the building went on as if men lived only to glorify +the great house, and to raise its church tower, or beautify the west +front, or fill the windows with stained glass, or erect the splendid +pulpit in the nave--a miracle of art. + +It would be a very great mistake to conclude that all this lavish +expenditure implied the enjoyment of large rents from land. The revenue +derived from the tenants of the Abbey and the profits of farming were no +doubt considerable; but that revenue could never have sufficed alone to +defray the cost of keeping up the establishment. In point of fact, when +a monastery, great or small, depended wholly upon its landed property, +it invariably got into debt; sometimes it got hopelessly into debt. It +is clear that before the Dissolution a very large number of the +religious houses were insolvent. The striking paucity in the number of +'religious' at the time of the suppression--for hardly one house in ten +had its full complement of inmates--is by no means wholly to be +attributed to the reluctance on the part of people in general to take +upon themselves the monastic vows. Where a monastery was financially in +a critical condition, the brotherhood resorted to the expedient which is +at this moment being carried out at more than one College in Oxford and +Cambridge. Now, when times are bad, we temporarily suppress a +Fellowship; then, on the death of a brother of the house, they chose no +monk into his place. + +The income from landed estates at St. Alban's was probably at no time +equal to what may be called the extraordinary income. The offerings at +the shrines of SS. Alban and Amphibalus, the proceeds of the offertory +at those magnificent and dramatic functions in which the multitude +delighted, and the _douceurs_ that were always expected and almost +always given in return for hospitality, which only in theory was +free,--these and many another source of profit, which the universal +habit of giving money for 'pious uses' supplied, all made up a sum +total, in comparison with which the proceeds of the rent-roll were +insignificant. In the taxation of Pope Nicholas (A. D. 1291) the whole +revenue of the Abbey from rent and dues in the liberty of St. Alban's is +set down at 392l. 8s. 3-1/4d., a sum which in those days would go as far +as 5000l. a-year now. Even granting that this was only half the net +income derivable from the Abbey's estates, which were widely +distributed, an expenditure of 10,000l. a year would go in our own time +a very little way towards meeting the charges which such an enormous +establishment involved. The mere keeping up the buildings at all times +entailed a very heavy annual outlay. Already in the 13th century the +precincts of the Abbey were overcrowded with palatial edifices, which +were never pulled down except to make room for larger ones. There were +acres of roofs within the Abbey walls. + +And what return was being made to the nation, that every rank and every +class were keeping up a rivalry in munificence in favour of such an +institution as this? What had they done, what were they doing, these +seventy men, with their Abbot at their head, who were in the enjoyment +of an income larger than that of many a principality? How was it that no +one _in those days_ accused them of being indolent drones? Mere burdens +upon the earth, as they were called frequently enough, and loudly +enough, and angrily enough, three centuries later? It was the age for +the expansion of the monastic system--none then wished to sweep the +monks away. One of the reasons why the monasteries had retained their +hold upon the affection of the people, and were regarded with reverence +and pride and confidence, lay in this, that they had moved with the +times, and that the monasticism of the 13th was very different indeed +from the monasticism of the 9th century. The primitive asceticism had +almost vanished; it had not, however, died, leaving nothing in its +place. No one now expected to find the religious houses filled with +religious people, everyone holy, devout, and fervent; the personal +sanctity of the inmates was one thing, the sanctity of their churches +and shrines was quite another. In the old days the monks were separate +from the world, living to save their own souls at best; examples to such +as trembled at the wrath of God, and longed for the life to come. As +time went on they mixed more boldly with the sinful world, and gradually +they became more and more the illuminators of the darkness round them. +Now they were regarded as in great measure the salt of the earth, and if +that salt should lose its savour, where was such virtue elsewhere to be +found? Personally, the men might be worldly--vicious, as a rule, they +certainly were not--they were, _mutatis mutandis_, what in our time +would be called cultured gentlemen, courteous, highly educated and +refined, as compared with the great mass of their contemporaries; a +privileged class who were not abusing their privileges; a class from +whence all the art and letters and accomplishments of the time emanated, +allied in blood as much with the low as the high, the aristocracy of +intellect, and the pioneers of scientific and material progress. The +model farming of the 13th century would be regarded as barbaric by our +modern theorists; but such as it was, it was only to be met with on the +demesne lands of the larger monasteries, and was a prodigious advance +upon the _petite culture_ of the open fields. The Priory at Norwich made +an income out of its garden in the days of Edward III., and probably +much earlier; the pisciculture of the religious houses remains a mystery +as yet unsolved; the skill exhibited in the management of the +water-power of many a district round even the smaller houses, still +awakes wonder in those who think it worth their while to study it. At +St. Alban's, as at Glastonbury, St. Edmund's Abbey, and elsewhere, the +culture of the vine was made profitable for generations. The monasteries +were the first to give personal freedom to the villeins, and the first +to commute for money payments the vexatious _services_ which worried the +best men and maddened the worst. The landlords in the 13th century were +real _lords_ of the _land_. They were, as a class, very poor, spite of +the privileges they enjoyed and the power that they possessed of making +themselves disagreeable; and though the constitution of a _manor_ was a +limited monarchy, and the _limits_ were very many, yet the lord could +exercise a great deal of petty tyranny in his little kingdom if he were +so disposed. In the manors which were in the possession of the religious +houses the lord was necessarily non-resident, and the tenants were left +to manage their own affairs with very little interference. The tenants +of the monasteries were in a far more favoured condition than the +tenants of some small lord, needy and greedy, who extorted his dues +literally to the last farthing, and who knew exactly what the best beast +was, on the land that owed him a heriot; and, when the tenant was _in +extremis_, kept a sharp look-out that a fat bullock or a promising young +horse should not be driven off before the owner died. + +So the monasteries at the time we are now concerned with were regarded +at once with pride and affection by the great bulk of the people; they +were places of refuge where, in a turbulent time, men and women who had +been stricken, bereaved or wronged, might find a quiet refuge and hide +their heads and be forgotten and fall asleep, with the prayers of other +sufferers to console and support them in their passage through the +valley of the shadow of death. The gentlest spirits here could taste the +bliss of a holy tranquillity; the ascetic could indulge his most +fantastic self-immolation; the morbid visionary could dream at his will +and give his imagination full play, none hindering him; evil demons +might chatter and gibe and twit him at his prayers; choirs of angels +might calm his despair with celestial lullabies; awful forms might rise +from clouds of incense as the gorgeous procession moved along the vast +church aisles, or stopped before some glittering shrine. What then? Who +would question the reality of a miracle, or doubt that sublime +revelations might be made to any holy monk as he wrestled in prayer with +a rapture of the soul, and found himself lifted to the seventh heaven in +ecstasy unutterable? + +What has been said applies mainly to the older houses, those which were +under what may be called the _primitive_ Benedictine rule. If men were +moved to rigid asceticism, however, and had a taste for bald simplicity; +if art, and music, and ornate architecture, had no charm for them, and +they dreamt that God could only be sought and found in the wilderness, +the Cistercian houses offered such a congenial asylum. The Cistercians +were the Puritans of the monasteries, and appealed to that mysterious +sentiment which makes some minds shrink with fear from the touch of +luxury, and regard culture as antagonistic to personal holiness. The +sentiment was strong in the reign of Henry II., when nineteen Cistercian +houses were founded; but it is not improbable that other motives, beside +mere taste for a stricter discipline, led to the foundation of eight +more in the reign of King John. Meanwhile the Benedictines had become by +far the most learned and most _educating_ body in the land, and +pre-eminent above them all was the great Abbey of St. Alban's. If it was +not at this time the centre of intellectual life in England, it was +because at this time centralization was unknown. Eadmer, Florence of +Worcester, Gervase of Canterbury, William of Malmesbury, Simeon of +Durham, were all 12th-century Benedictines. They were all students and +writers of history, and history meant _literature_ till Peter Lombard +arose at the end of the 12th century and revolutionized the world of +thought--at any rate the domain of logic. John of Salisbury fiercely +assails the intellectual innovators of his time on the ground that the +new lights of the 12th century disdained to be students of history and +affected contempt for the past. It was the old story; literary culture +found itself in antagonism with scientific culture, and the vigorous +childhood of scientific research was aggressive, insolent, and noisily +insubordinate. The old seminaries, whose homes were in the Benedictine +monasteries, refused to welcome the new learning. Its teachers settled +themselves elsewhere; at Paris, on the other side of the water, they had +a hard fight of it. Once in 1209 the Synod of Paris actually prohibited +the reading of Aristotle's 'Metaphysics.' At Oxford they seem to have +met with a more generous reception. Perhaps it was because that +reception was too enthusiastic that King Stephen at the close of his +miserable reign expelled Vacarius, the first teacher of scientific law +in England. Whereupon young men of parts and ambition crossed the +Channel, seeking and finding at Pavia and Bologna what was not to be had +at home. The monastic schools held their own, and went on in the old +groove; the intellectual revolution which soon came about by the agency +of the Mendicant Orders was not yet dreamt of. St. Alban's, Malmesbury, +and other such mighty foundations, stuck to the old studies, just as +Eton and Winchester stuck to Latin Verse as the one thing needful, and +reluctantly gave into the newfangled notion of having a 'modern side.' + +Outside the Abbey precincts, a hundred yards from the great gate, and +separated from it by the _Rome land_, which may possibly have served the +boys as a playground, stood the Grammar School. Whether it offered a +different training from that which was usually supplied to the scholars +who were under training in the cloister, it is difficult to say. Within +the precincts, when the 13th century began, there stood the great +church--enriched by the accumulated offerings of centuries, and glowing +with dazzling splendour of jewels and cloth of gold, and glass that +glorified the very sunshine, and wonders of sculpture and colour and +needlework filling the heart to overflowing with inexplicable hopes and +longings for an ideal that seemed possible of realization, if only the +Church in heaven should be as far removed above the actual of the Church +on earth, as the glories of the Church on earth were removed above the +squalid life of the common workday world. All this in witness that the +great Abbey was, first and foremost, a religious foundation, raised in +the first instance to the glory of God, and meant to help forward the +worship of God, and make the worship worthy of the Most High. + +But besides being primarily and emphatically a religious foundation, the +Abbey in the 13th century had grown into something else, and had become +the home of a corporation of scholars and students, who were the leaders +of art and culture in an age when art and culture were to be met with +nowhere outside the walls of a great monastery. There, in what might be +called the museum of the Abbey, you might see no mean collection of +antique gems that had once been the pride of Roman magistrates. +Mysterious specimens of barbaric goldwork, fashioned by unknown +craftsmen for the necks of nameless chieftains who had drawn the sword +and perished, none knew when. Engraved gems that had been dug up in +mysterious sepulchres, about which even imagination despaired of telling +any story; relics of saints and martyrs, charters of Saxon kings, +granted centuries before the Normans came to ring out the old and ring +in the new. The wealth of mere archæological specimens at St. Alban's +made it such a museum of antiquities as provokes wonder and bitterness, +as we read the catalogue of what was once there, and has perished +utterly and for ever.[3] + +The range of buildings to the south of the church covered a far larger +area than that which the church itself occupied. Uncertain though the +exact site may be and is, there had already been added in Brother +Matthew's time what we should now call an Art school, a Library, and, +almost more famous than all, the Scriptorium. By-and-bye, too, came the +printing-press which John Herford set up in 1480. Wynkyn de Worde was +sometime schoolmaster of Saint Alban's, and Lady Juliana Berners' famous +volume issued from the Abbey Press, while Caxton was still pursuing his +craft in the almonry of another monastery at Westminster. + +In the days of King John, however, people had so little idea of the +possibility of the printing-press, that they were almost equally +ignorant of such a material as paper for literary purposes. Yet it is a +huge mistake which has not yet been exploded, as it ought to be, that +reading and writing were rare accomplishments in the 13th century. +Knowledge of a certain kind was disseminated far more effectively and +far more universally than is generally believed. The country parson was +expected to be the schoolmaster of his parish, and generally was so, and +there was hardly a village in England during the reign of Henry III, in +which there were not one or more persons who could write a _clerkly_ +hand, draw up accounts in _Latin_, and keep the records of the various +petty courts and gatherings that were continually being held, sometimes +to the annoyance and grievous vexation of the rural population. The +professional _writers_ were so numerous, and their training so severe, +that they had got for themselves privileges of a very exceptional kind; +the _clerk_ took rank with the _clergyman_, and the _writer_ of a book +was almost as much esteemed as its _author_. + +The scriptorium of a great monastery was at once the printing-press and +the publishing office. It was the place where books were written, and +whence they issued to the world. With the traditional exclusiveness of +the older monasteries there was less desire, no doubt, to diffuse and +disperse than to accumulate books, but the composing and the +multiplication of books was always going on. The scriptorium was a great +writing school too, and the rules of the art of writing which were laid +down there were so rigidly and severely adhered to, that to this day it +is difficult to decide at a glance whether a book was written in St. +Alban's or St. Edmund's Abbey. Sometimes as many as twenty writers were +employed at once, and besides these there were occasionally +supernumeraries, who were professional scribes, and who were paid for +their services; but nothing short of perfect penmanship, such trained +skill, for instance, as would now be required for an engraver, would +qualify a copyist to take part in the finished work, which the copying +of important books required. + +One of the conclusions which Sir Thomas Hardy arrived at during the +course of his minute examination of Sir Frederick Madden's theory is so +curious, and opens out such an unexpected view of the way in which our +monasteries may have been brought under the influence of foreign +literature, that it is worth while in this connection to quote the great +critic's own words: + + 'After minutely examining every page of the manuscripts in + question, as well as others, which were undoubtedly written + in the monastery of St. Alban's, and comparing them with + others executed in various parts of England and on the + Continent, I can come to no other conclusion than that + during the latter half of the 13th century, and perhaps a + little earlier, there prevailed among the scribes in the + Scriptorium of St. Alban's, a peculiar character of writing + which is not recognizable in any other religious house in + England during that period; but which is traceable in some + foreign manuscripts, and even in private deeds executed in + England in the neighbourhood of St. Alban's during the 12th + and 13th centuries. These facts lead me to the inference, + that _the schoolmaster who taught the art of writing to + Matthew Paris and the other members and scholars of the + establishment at St. Alban's was a foreigner_; that his + pupils not only imitated their instructor in the formation + of his letters, but also in his exceptional orthography.' + +What questions suggest themselves as we accept the conclusion arrived +at! Who was he, this 'foreigner,' who had come from across the sea to +bring in his outlandish novelties into the great scriptorium? Was he +some 'Frenchman' imported from sunny Champagne, where Thibaut, the +mawkish singer was making verses which his people loved to listen to? +Did he teach the young novices French as well as writing? Did he touch +the lute himself on Feast-days, and charm them with some new lyric of +Gasse Bruslé, or delight them with one of Rutebeuf's merry ditties? +France was all alive with song at this time, and princes were rivals now +for poetic fame. It may be that this 'foreigner' brought in a taste for +light literature as well as for a new fashion in penmanship, and made +known to his pupils such alluring novelties as the 'Roman d'Alexandre, +soon to be eclipsed by the 'Roman de la Rose.' + +The scriptorium at St. Alban's was founded by Abbot Paul, a kinsman of +Archbishop Lanfrance, when the great Abbey had already existed for three +centuries. Paul became Abbot eleven years after the Conquest, and he +showed himself an able and earnest administrator. From this time +learning and a love of books became a tradition of the house. Abbot +after abbot continued to add to the collection of MSS., and to increase +the value of the library. But St. Alban's had never had a great +historian of its own. Strange and shameful fact! East and west and north +and south, all over the land, there were great writers holding up their +proud heads. Out in the desolate wilds there at Peterborough, they had +been actually keeping up a chronicle for centuries--aye, and written in +the vernacular too. The lonely monastery of Ely, among the swamps, had +its historian. Malmesbury boasted her learned William; and Worcester, +which St. Wulstan had raised from the dust, as it were, only the other +day, had already her Florence. In the great houses of the Northern +Province there had been no lack of writers to whom the past was an open +book. Even Westminster had long ago had her _chronographer_, and far +away in furthest Wales, Geoffrey, the Monmouth man, was making men open +their eyes very wide indeed with tales--idle tales they might be, but +they were well worth the reading--and there was talk too of another +young Welshman, Giraldus, who was on the way towards outdoing the other +by-and-bye. What are we coming to? Holy St. Alban, shalt thou and thy +house be put to shame?--that be far from us! + +Thus it came to pass that about a century after the foundation of the +scriptorium, and when the library had grown to an imposing size, Abbot +Simon bestirred himself, and a new office was created in the Abbey, to +wit, that of Historiographer. In our time we should have given this +functionary a grander title, and called him Professor of History; but in +the 12th century, they called him what he was, a writer of history, and +from this time, in fact, the writing of history, after a certain +authorized method, began, and what had been called, and deserves to be +called, the St. Alban's School of History took its rise. + +It is evident that before the 13th century had well begun, an historical +compendium of great value had already been drawn up, which must have +been compiled by careful students with a command of books such as during +this age was rare. + + 'The compilation,' says Dr. Luard, 'whenever and by + whomsoever it was written must be regarded as a very curious + and remarkable one. The very large number of sources + consulted, the miscellaneous character of many of the + extracts, the mixture of history and legend, the giving + fixed years to stories which even writers like Geoffrey of + Monmouth had left undated, the care at one time and the + carelessness at another, the slavishness with which one + authority is followed, and the recklessness with which + another is altered, the frequent confusion of dates, their + ignorance and want of care, the blunders displayed in many + instances from the compiler not understanding the author + whom he is copying, as is especially the case in the + extracts from the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;" all these + characteristics may well earn for the author the title that + Lappenberg has given to him, though under the name of + "Matthew of Westminster," namely, that of the "Verwirrer der + Geschichte." At the same time there is no doubt that he had + access to some materials which we no longer possess: and my + object has been to trace all his statements, where possible, + to their source, and to distinguish any additions that the + compiler has made when they are merely rhetorical + amplifications of his own, or when they are really from some + source not now extant.'--Pref. to vol. i., p. xxxiii. + +After all that can be said, the work surprises us by the erudition it +displays. Nor is that surprise lessened when we have gone through the +masterly analysis of its contents, which Dr. Luard has given us in the +Preface to his first vol. Such as it was, it became the great text-book +on which Roger of Wendover founded his own labours when he incorporated +it into the chronicle which he left behind him. Roger of Wendover did +good work, and laboriously epitomized, supplemented and improved, but he +was a mere literary monk after all; a student, a bookworm, simple, +conscientious, and truthful; a trustworthy reporter, 'a picker-up of +learning's crumbs,' a monkish historiographer, in short; but by no means +a historian of large views and of original mind. Roger of Wendover died +in 1236, and Matthew Paris succeeded to his office and work. + +From what has been said, the reader may be presumed to have gained +something like an answer to our first question: _What_ was Brother +Matthew? Briefly, he was a representative monk of the most powerful +monastery in England during the 13th century, when that monastery was at +its best, and doing the work which in after times the Universities and +great schools of the country took out of the hands of the religious +houses; work, too, which since those days has been done by the +printing-press, and by many other institutions better fitted to deal +with the requirements of an immensely larger population, and to be the +instruments of diffusing culture and refinement through the nation after +it had outgrown the older machinery. + +When we come to look into the personal history of Brother Matthew, the +details of his biography need not detain us long. Sir Henry Taylor's +famous line is only half true, after all; + + 'The world knows nothing of its greatest men' + +really means that the world knows less about them than it would like to +know. And yet the world knows almost as much about them as is good for +it. The leading facts of a man's career are all that concern most of +us--the main lines--not the details. Of Matthew Paris we know enough, +because he has himself given us so faithful a picture of his times, and +so charming an insight into the daily life which he led. + +Unnecessary doubt has been suggested as to his parentage, and whether +his extraction was or was not from a stock that could boast of gentle +blood. For our part we incline strongly to the belief, that Brother +Matthew was called Paris because that was his name, and had been his +father's name before him. A family of that name held lands in +Bedfordshire in Henry III.'s time; others of the same stock were settled +in Lincolnshire earlier still; and the Cambridgeshire family (one of +whom was among the visitors of the monasteries under Henry VIII.) +boasted of a long line of ancestors, and retained their estates in the +Eastern Counties till late in the 17th century. Young Matthew probably +received his education in the school at St. Alban's, and soon showed a +decided taste for learning and the student's life, and that in the 13th +century meant an inclination for the life of the cloister. Many a +precocious lad is even now taught from his childhood to look forward to +the glories of a College Fellowship, and the career which such an +academic success may open to him; and in the 13th century a schoolboy's +ambition was directed to the goal of admission to a great +monastery--that step on the ladder which whosoever could reach, there +was no knowing how high he might climb--how high above the common sons +of earth or, if he preferred it, how high towards the heaven that is +above the earth. + +Matthew was probably born about the year 1200, and in January 1217 he +became a monk at St. Alban's, _i. e._, he became a _novice_. At this +time a lad could commence his noviciate at 15; but the age was +subsequently advanced to 19, the younger limit having been found, as a +rule, too early even for the preliminary discipline required. On the day +after the lad was admitted, a frightful scene took place in the +monastery. A band of Fawkes de Breauté's cut-throats had stormed the +town of St. Alban's, burst into the Abbey, and slaughtered at the door +of the church one Robert Mai, a servant of the Abbot. William de +Trumpington was Abbot at this time, a vigorous and resolute personage, +who ruled the convent with a firm hand. Like all really able men, he was +ably seconded, for he knew how to choose his subordinates. At first the +monks had repented of their choice, and there were quarrels and +litigation and appeals to the Pope, and many serious 'unpleasantnesses;' +but as time went on, Abbot William had won the allegiance of all the +convent, and they were proud of him. He was a man of books, among his +other virtues, and had an eye for bookish men; and when he deposed Roger +de Wendover from being Prior of Belvoir with a somewhat high hand, and +brought him back to St. Alban's, he doubtless did so because he knew +that at Belvoir he was a square man in a round hole, while in the +scriptorium of the Abbey he would be in his right place. Certainly the +event proved that the Abbot was right, and it was to this judicious +removal of a student and man of letters to his proper home that we owe +so much of our knowledge of those interesting minutiæ of English history +which the writer has revealed. It was under the eye of Robert de +Wendover that Matthew Paris grew up, rendering him every year more and +more substantial assistance in the library and in the scriptorium. + +But the young man was not only a bookworm and a copyist, he soon got to +be looked upon as a prodigy. He was a universal genius; he could do +whatever he set his hand to, and better than any one else. He could +draw, and paint, and illuminate, and work in metals. Some said he could +even construct maps; he was versed in everything, and noticed everything +from 'the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop upon the wall;' he was +an expert in heraldry; he could tell you about whales, and camels, and +buffaloes, and elephants--he could even draw an elephant--illustrate his +history, in fact, with the elephant's portrait, the first elephant, he +says, that had ever been seen in our northern climes. It was centuries +before men had dreamt of what the science of geology would one day +reveal. Then, too, he had vast capacity for work, and was a courtly +person, and he had the gift of tongues, and had been a great traveller; +he had early been sent by the convent to study at the University of +Paris, and wherever he went, he was the man to make friends. When the +Benedictines in Norway had convinced themselves that there was sore need +of a reform of their rule and discipline, they applied to Pope Innocent +IV. to send them a Visitor furnished with the necessary authority for +carrying out so delicate and difficult a mission, and they made choice +of Matthew Paris as the fittest possible person for such a work. +Reluctantly Brother Matthew was compelled to undertake the task; he +started on his northern voyage in 1248, and was absent about a year. In +Norway he soon grew into high favour with King Hacon, who peradventure +would have kept him at his side if he could. This seems to have been the +most important episode in his otherwise uneventful life. But the +advantages and opportunities which were at the command of any ambitious +and studious young monk at St. Alban's were in themselves extraordinary. +We have said that building was always going on. It was going on on a +very large scale indeed in Abbot William's time. That means that there +were the plans and sections and working drawings to be copied for the +architect, and measurements and calculations by the thousand to be +made--_a school of architecture_, in short: and besides that, what Roger +de Wendover was in the scriptorium, that Walter of Colchester, _pictor +et sculptor incomparabilis_, was in the painting room. Walter was a +sculptor; indeed he wrought at his marvellous pulpit which the Abbot set +up in the middle of the church: and he carved the story of St. Alban +upon the great beam over the high altar, and did many another thing of +which we have only too brief descriptions. Then, too, there was Richard, +the monk who decorated the grand new guests' hall _deliciose_, as we are +told, and who painted pictures and carried out other works of +embellishment at a pace which none could have kept up, but that he had +his father to help him with his brush, and another artist, John of +Wallingford, to carry out his great designs, and many more skilled +limners whose names have gone down into silence. + +When Abbot William's reign came to an end, the monks were unanimous in +choosing John of Hertford as his successor, and the new Abbot lost no +time in showing favour to Matthew Paris. Next year Roger de Wendover +died, and who could there be so worthy to succeed him as historiographer +as the versatile and accomplished brother, who by this time was the +boast of the great house? And historiographer accordingly Matthew +became--_mutatis mutandis_, a sort of 13th-century editor of the +'Times;' his business was to gather from all points of the compass, if +not the latest news, yet the best and most trustworthy reports upon +whatever was worth recording. He had his correspondents all over Europe, +and that he sifted the evidence as it came to him we know. + +Wherever there was any great event that deserved a place in the Abbey +Chronicle, some splendid pageant to describe, some battle, or treaty, or +pestilence, or flood, or famine, straightway tidings came to the +vigilant historiographer; and there was a comparison of the evidence +brought in, and some testing of witnesses, and finally the narrative was +drawn up and incorporated into Matthew's history. Again and again it +happened that a great personage who, while himself _making_ history, was +anxious that his own part in a transaction should be represented +favourably, would try and get the right side of the famous chronicler, +and would furnish him with private information. Even the King himself +thought it no scorn to communicate facts and documents to Brother +Matthew. Once when Henry saw him in a crowd on a memorable occasion, he +picked him out, and bade him take his seat by his side, and see to it +that he made a true and faithful report of what was going on; and it is +evident that the royal favour which he enjoyed through life must have +extended to furnishing him with many a story and many a detail which +none but the King could have supplied. The minute account of the attempt +to assassinate Henry in 1238; the curious State paper giving a narrative +of the dispute between the King and his nobles in 1242; the strange +scene at the tomb of William Marshall in 1245, and scores of other +incidents in the career of Bishop Grossteste and Richard of Cornwall, +were evidently 'inspired,' and can only have come from eye-witnesses of +the events recorded. Nevertheless Matthew, though he was willing enough +to receive information, and to utilise facts and documents, was by no +means the man to reproduce them exactly in the form in which they came +to him. More than once he ventured to remonstrate with the King, and +very much oftener than once he expresses his opinion of him in no +measured terms. Some of the severest censures he had marked for +omission, and some expressions he modified considerably, for we have the +good fortune to possess his chronicle both in an earlier and in a later +form; but even though the fuller and more outspoken record had perished, +we should still have had enough proof to make it clear that we have in +Matthew Paris an instance of a born historian, one who never consented +to be a mere advocate, taking a side and seeing only half the truth of +anything; but a man gifted with the judicial faculty, that precious gift +without which a man may be anything you please--a rhetorician, a special +pleader, a picturesque writer, a laborious collector of facts; but an +historian never. And yet Matthew Paris was a magnificent hater, with a +fund of indignant scorn and righteous anger which never fails him upon +occasion. Friend of King and nobles as he was, he will not spare his +words of wrathful censure upon the tyrant, or upon any that he held +deserving of rebuke for cruelty, oppression and avarice. When he has to +lay the lash on such as had proved themselves enemies to his much-loved +Abbey, or who had wronged and defrauded it, he is well-nigh as fierce as +Dante. He singles them out--the doomed wretches--and holds them, as it +were, over the fire of hell before he drops them down into the burning +flame. + +Did Ralph Cheinduit, that blustering, burly knight, cry aloud 'A fig for +St. Alban and his monks! Since they excommunicated me--look you! I have +only increased in girth, behold me fat and jolly, in faith almost too +big for my saddle. A fig for them all!' Did he say so, the impious +wretch? Be it known that from that very day Sir Knight began to shrink +and waste and pine, and if he had not repented and been absolved in +time, he had gone down to the bottomless pit with never a hope of +deliverance. + +Did not Sir Adam Fitz William show the evil spirit that was in him when +he sided against us time and again? And now, look to his awful end! +Gorged with meat and drink one night, he sprawled upon his bed, +_indigestus_, as you may say, and he never woke more. Aye! and he died +intestate too. And as though that was not bad enough, his wife too died, +straightway, like another Sapphira slain by the shock of the tidings. +And then there was Alan de Beccles, too, always notorious for setting +himself against us and our house, he too perished as the other did, for +he loved choice dainties overmuch, and he dined late and he ate as none +should eat, and when he could eat no more, suddenly his speech failed +him and his veins burst, smitten with an apoplexy. And many another, +whom it would take too long to name, following his evil course, and +being prosecutors of Holy Alban's Church, perished for ever by God's +vengeance. + +It is no longer the fashion now to denounce the Pope and his myrmidons, +but if the rage of Exeter Hall should ever recur, and the orators of the +old platform should revive a taste for anti-papal agitation, they might +find in Matthew Paris as rich a repertory of testimonials against Roman +aggression and greed as the most rabid Irish Protestant could desire. 'O +thou Pope,' he bursts out once, 'thou the father of all the fathers in +Christ, how it is that thou sufferest the realms of Christendom to be +fouled by such creatures as are thine?' The 'creatures' were the papal +legates and nuncios and all their belongings, who were plundering +England without shame. 'Harpies they were and blood-suckers,' says +Matthew, 'mere plunderers, skinning the sheep, not shearing them only.' +Then there were the King's Justiciars--'Justice'--nay, with that they +had nothing to do. Why tell of their unrighteous deeds? he asks. 'Better +forbear from vainly writing about the _wrongers_, and return to the +story of the wronged.' + +Of course the friars come in for their share of strong words--chiefly +because the Pope made use of them so vilely, and not less because they +set themselves above their betters--us, to wit--monks of the old houses. + + 'They started with such fair professions, they were going to + be so very poor, and so very unworldly, and were going to + supplement our work and interfere with nobody, and give us + all a helping hand. Look at them now!' says Matthew; 'they + march through the streets in pompous array with banners + flaunting in the sun and waxen tapers, and rich burghers in + holiday garments joining in the long train, and if they have + no land they have money, good store, and as for their + churches, they are eclipsing us all. Their invasion of our + territory is a dreadful scandal, and they sneer at us and at + all other religious men and women and they flout the parish + priests and call them humdrums, and schism is at work + horribly, and the people are running away from the old + guides, and there is no end to them. Actually in the year of + grace 1257,' he says, 'a new order of these fellows turned + up in London. Friars of the sack, forsooth, because they + were clothed in sackcloth! Of course they came armed with a + papal licence as usual. What did these fellows come for? Was + it to make confusion worse confounded? Alas! Alas! If we had + only been as we were in the golden age, these friars would + never have had a chance--not they! We too are not as the + monks of old were; they lived the guileless life--austere, + hard, self-denying, saintly! What are we in comparison with + them? + + 'Did not we find the bones of our brethren there, hard by + the High Altar, when we were beautifying the same? O ye + degenerate sons of this degenerate age! Two centuries ago + and our monks were men of faith and prayer. In the year of + grace one thousand two hundred and fifty-one, we found more + than thirty of them buried together, and their bones were + lying there, white and sweet, redolent with the odor of + sanctity every one; each man had been buried as he died, in + his monastic habit, and his shoes upon his feet too. Aye, + and _such_ shoes--shoes made for wear and not for + wantonness. The soles of these shoes were sound and strong, + they might have served the purpose for poor men's naked feet + even now, after centuries of lying in the grave. Blush ye! + ye with your buckles, and your pointed toes and your fiddle + faddle. These shoes upon the holy feet that we dug up were + as round at the toe as at the heel, and the latchets were + all of one piece with the uppers. No rosettes in those days, + if you please! They fastened their shoes with a thong, and + they wound that thong around their blessed ankles, and they + cared not in those holy days whether their shoes were _a + pair_. Left foot and right foot each was as the other: and + we, when we gazed at the holy relics--we bowed our heads at + the edifying sight, and we were dumbfounded, even to awe, as + we swung our censers over the sacred graves of the ages + past!' + +The anecdotes and out-of-the-way pieces of information in the 'Chronica +Majora,' which may be said to represent the _paragraphs_ of modern +journalism, are countless. Brother Matthew enlivens his history with +these cross-lights at every page, and what gives to these scraps an +added charm is that Matthew himself seems to be always with us when he +prattles on. Not even Herodotus has succeeded more entirely in +impressing his quaint personality upon his narrative. It is always +something which he has seen, or heard from some living man who saw it +with his own eyes. + + 'There was my friend John of Basingstoke, had studied at + Paris, and a wonder of learning he was, but he told me + himself that his best teacher by far was the young lady + Constantina, daughter of an archbishop she. Archbishop of + Athens, too--archbishops may marry out there! Before she was + twenty she knew all that men may know; she was worth two + universities of Paris any day; she foretold the coming of + plagues and storms, and eclipses--and--more wonderful + still--the coming of earthquakes too: and John of + Basingstoke was her scholar, and whatever he knew that was + deep and rare, he learnt it of the lady Constantina, the + Archbishop's daughter.' + +Matthew is very great when he has to tell of omens and portents: + + 'We were scurvily treated by Pope Innocent III.,' he says, + 'in the days of Abbot John. Spite of all our privileges and + indulgences, the Pope would have him come to Rome every + third year; a sore burden and harm to us all. Forthwith evil + omens came. Thrice in three years was our tower struck by + lightning. After that wrong of his Holiness it was no wonder + that the impression of the papal seal in wax, which we had + taken good care to fix on the top of the steeple, availed + not to keep off the thunderbolt--small good you see in that + kind of thing.' + +Besides the miscellaneous paragraphs, there are periodical reports of +the weather, and the storms, and the droughts, and the harvests. +Moreover, there are what answer to our police reports, and details of +criminal proceedings against Jew and Gentile, and births and deaths and +marriages, and now and then brief notes upon the state of the markets, +and sometimes hints and reflections upon the desirability of certain +reforms in Church and State; and all this not in the spirit of modern +journalism, which at its best too often bears the marks of haste, and +betrays the literary soldier of fortune paid for his work at so much a +column, but genuine, hearty, throbbing with a certain passionate loyalty +to a tradition, or an idea which you may say is exploded, grotesque, or +fanciful, but which in the 13th century honest men and devout ones lived +by and lived for, and were trying in their own way to carry out into +action. + +But now that we have got this precious 'Chronicle,' not to mention other +works in the composition of which Brother Matthew had at least a large +share--though our space forbids us dwelling upon them or their contents, +and we must refer our readers to Dr. Luard's elaborate prefaces if they +would desire to know all about them--another question suggests itself, +which sooner or later will become a pressing question--What are we going +to do with such a national work of which this country has great reason +to be proud? + +The days are gone by when a man was supposed to be educated in +proportion as he was familiar with the literature of Greece and Rome and +ignorant of everything else. Already at Oxford candidates for the +highest honours in the final schools think it no shame to read their +Plato or their Aristotle in English translations, and in half the time +that was needed under the old plan they get a mastery of their +Thucydides or Herodotus, devoting themselves to the subject-matter after +they have proved at 'Moderations' that they have a respectable +acquaintance with the language of the authors. + +May the day be far off when Homer and Æschylus shall cease to be read in +the original! The great writers of Hellas and Italy were poets or +orators, great teachers or great thinkers; but they were something more. +They were perfect instrumentalities too. Their thoughts, their lessons, +their aspirations, their regrets, you may interpret and transfer into +the speech and the idioms of the moderns; but the music of their +language, the subtleties of melody and rhythm, and harmony and tone, can +no more be translated than a symphony for the strings can be adequately +represented upon the organ. You may persuade yourself that you have got +the substance; you have missed the perfection of the form. Yet who but a +narrow pedant will insist that the study of any literature, ancient or +modern, is valuable chiefly for familiarizing us with the language, not +for enriching our minds with the subject matter? Do we desire to +understand the past and so to be better able to estimate the importance +of great movements that are going on in the present or, by the help of +the experience of bygone ages, to forecast the future? Then it behoves +us to see that our induction shall be made from as wide a view as may +be, and to avail ourselves of any light that may be gained. But it is +mere waste of time to be for ever staring at the lamp which may be +pretty to look at in itself, but is then most precious when it serves as +a means to an end. If we are ever to construct a Science of History, the +old methods must give place to something which may approximate to +philosophic enquiry. When we come to think of it, how very small an area +of time or space is covered by the historians of Greece and Rome: how +small an area and how superficially dealt with! Even Thucydides hardly +ventures to lift the veil which separates the civilization of his own +age from that of an earlier period; he lifts it for a moment, then drops +the curtain and passes on. It is true indeed that Herodotus introduces +us to a world that is not Hellenic, and brings us into some sort of +relation with men whose habits and art and religion had a character of +their own; but then these nations were not as we, and not as men even of +our race could ever become. We never seem to be _in touch_ with Egypt or +Assyria, and when he prattles on about these nations it is less as a +historian than as an observant traveller that Herodotus delights and +allures. Xenophon's passing notices of the manners and education, of the +_feudalism_ and the social life of the Medes, are too brief to be +anything but tantalizing; but the neglect of Xenophon by professed +students is not creditable, however significant. Perhaps of all the +Greek writers Polybius was the man who had the truest conception of the +historian's vocation; perhaps, too, it was just because he was so much +before his age that his voluminous and ambitious work has come down to +us little more than a fragment. Because he was something better than a +compiler of annals, they who read history only to be amused found him +dull, and the moderns have not yet reversed the verdict which was passed +upon him. Who ever heard of a candidate for honours taking Polybius into +the schools? + +It is from the Latin historians that we might have expected so much and +from whom we get so little. What do they tell us of ancient Spain--the +Spain that Sertorius pretended he was going to regenerate, and whose +civilization, literature, and national life he did so much to +extinguish? If it were not for what Aristotle has told us in the +_Politics_, what should we know of that mighty commercial Republic which +monopolized the carrying trade of the old world? It never seems to have +occurred to Livy that the political organization of Carthage could be +worth his notice. His business was to glorify Rome, and to tell how Rome +grew to greatness--grew by war and conquest and pillage, and the +ferocious might of her relentless soldiery. The 'Germania' of Tacitus +stands alone--unique in ancient literature; but what would we not give +for such a monograph upon the Britain which Cæsar attempted to conquer, +or the Gaul which he plundered and devastated? The great captain's +famous missive might be inscribed as the motto of his 'Commentaries.' +Veni! vidi! vici! sums up in brief the substance of what they contain. +It was always Rome's way! Rome swept a sponge that was soaked in blood +over all the past of the nations she subdued. She came to obliterate, +never to preserve. Her chroniclers disdained to ask how these or those +doughty antagonists had grown formidable, how their national life had +developed; whether their progress had been arrested by the conquerors or +whether they had become weak and enervated by social deterioration or +moral corruption. Enough that they were _Barbarians_. + +The science of history can be but little advanced by writers such as +these, who pass from battlefield to battlefield-- + + 'Crimson-footed, like the stork, + Through great ruts of slaughter,' + +and to whom the silent growth of institutions and the evolution of +ethical sentiments and the development of the arts of peace were matters +which never presented themselves as worthy of their attention. You may +call this history if you will, in truth it is little better than +Empiricism. The world is a larger world than Rome or Athens dreamt of, +and students of history are beginning to realize that not quite the last +thing they have to do is 'to look at _home_.' Such a work as the +'Chronica Majora' of Matthew Paris is a national heritage which it is +shameful to allow much longer to be known only by the curious and +erudite. Now that there is no excuse for our neglect, is it too much to +hope that the day may not be far distant when the name of this great +Englishman may become as familiar to schoolboys as that of Sallust or +Livy, of Cornelius Nepos or Cæsar--his name as familiar, and his +writings better known and more loved? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Lord Langdale resigned three weeks before his death. + +[2] The proposal to print and publish the _Calendars_ had been approved +by authority of the new Record Commissioners as early as January 1840. +_See_ preface to Mr. Lemons' 'Calendar' (Domestic, 1547-1580), p. viii. + +[3] In Luard's sixth volume there are two facsimiles of certain coloured +drawings of the more precious gems at St. Alban's, with careful +descriptions of them, these and the illustrations being most probably +_executed by Mathew Paris himself_. + + + + +Art. II. 1.--_The Christian Brothers, their Origin and Work, with a +sketch of the Life of their Founder, The Venerable Jean Baptiste de la +Salle._ By Mrs. R. F. Wilson, London, 1883. + +2. _La Première Année d'Instruction Morale et Civique: notions de droit +et d'économie politique (Textes et Récits) pour répondre à la loi du 28 +Mars 1882 sur l'enseignement primaire obligatoire: ouvrage accompagné de +Résumé, de Questionnaires, de Devoirs, et d'un Lexique des mots +difficiles._ Par Pierre Laloi. Quatorzième Edition. Paris, 1885. + +3. _Report of the Committee of Council on Education_ (England and +Wales). 1884-85. + +4. _Seventy-fourth Annual Report of the Incorporated National Society._ +1885. + + +Most travellers in France will have met occasionally in Paris and in the +provincial towns a school of boys walking two and two, and followed by a +serious-looking superintendent of very solemn deportment. The boys are +in no marked respect different from other boys, but they are orderly and +well conducted. They are probably on their way to a church; and if you +watch them, you will see them march in with much propriety. The +superintendent is evidently not an ordinary schoolmaster; you would +suppose that he is an ecclesiastic of some kind. He wears a loose black +cloak, a hat with a low crown and a portentous brim, and bands such as +were much worn by English clergymen till late years, and which, when +strongly developed, were supposed to indicate a sympathy with +Calvanistic theology. Nevertheless, the solemn-featured young man is not +an ecclesiastic, neither is he a Protestant minister. He is one of the +Frères Chrétiens, or Christian Brothers; and the boys whom he has under +his charge are pupils in one of the Écoles Chrétiennes, or Christian +Schools. + +We will venture to assume, that some of our readers are not well +acquainted with the story and the principles of the remarkable +institution known as the Schools of the Christian Brothers, or with the +life of their remarkable founder. We propose in this article to supply +some information upon the subject, not only because we think that such +information will be interesting in itself, but also because we believe +that from the story of the work and principles of the French schools of +the Christian Brothers, we may proceed without difficulty, and almost by +necessary consequence, to some useful considerations with respect to +English schools as now established and conducted amongst ourselves. + +Jean Baptiste de la Salle was born in Rheims, April 30, 1651. The house +in which he was born is still standing, and is regarded with reverence. +He came of a noble family, which was originally of Bearn. His +grandfather settled at Rheims, of which he became an honoured citizen, +but was apparently in no way himself remarkable. His second son, Louis, +was the father of a child, who received the name of Jean Baptiste on the +same day as that upon which he was born. + +This child, whose career we purpose briefly to follow as that of the +founder of the Christian Brothers, exhibited early signs of a devotional +spirit; he learned to recite the Breviary from his grandfather, and +continued to do so even before being bound to the practice by his +ordination vows; and he soon made it clear to himself and to others that +his vocation was that of the priestly office. His conduct as a student +in the University of Rheims, which he entered at eight years old, was +marked by diligence in study and gentle docility. + +Before he had reached the age of sixteen he was made a canon of the +cathedral; such were the strange ecclesiastical possibilities of those +times. An aged relative resigned in his favour, and died the following +year. The preferment, however, did not spoil him; he looked upon it as a +call to duty. He was diligent in attendance upon the offices of the +Church, diligent in private prayer, diligent in study--in every way a +remarkable boy-canon! + +In October 1670 he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, where, +amongst other fellow-students, was Fénelon, subsequently the great +Archbishop of Cambrai. Little is recorded of his seminary life, except +that it was gentle, modest, blameless. In 1672 he lost his father, and +in the same year returned to Rheims to take charge of his younger +brothers and sisters. The responsible position in which he was thus +placed seems to have shaken for a time his persuasion that he had a true +vocation for the priesthood; but after consultation with a friend who +knew him well, his doubts vanished, and on the eve of Trinity Sunday in +this same year he was admitted to the subdiaconate. + +Then follow six years of quiet home work and retirement. During this +time he attended the theological course of the University, provided for +the education of his brothers and sisters, and gave himself very +earnestly to prayer and good works. In the year 1678, on Easter Eve, he +was ordained Priest. + +During all this time De la Salle's attention does not seem to have been +turned to that which ultimately became the great work of his life. As +not unfrequently happens, the real bent was given to his energies by +what might be described as accidental circumstances. The friend whom he +consulted when in doubt concerning holy orders was one Canon Roland. +This good man had interested himself much about an orphanage for girls +at Rheims, which had fallen under bad management, and urgently needed +reform. Canon Roland was taken ill just before De la Salle's ordination, +and, dying not long after, left the young priest his executor, +commending to his special care the orphanage just mentioned. De la Salle +could not refuse the charge; it was not much to his taste, but it was +the bequest of his friend; it was the leading of God; and he girded +himself to the task. He applied through the Archbishop to the King for +letters patent recognizing the institution, and thus put it upon a +lasting foundation; he bore the expense of the whole transaction; then +he supplemented the funds out of his own means; and having thus +satisfied his obligations to his deceased friend, he returned to his +quiet devotional life. The thought that this orphanage for girls would +constitute a valuable training school for schoolmistresses seems already +to have crossed his mind. + +Now comes the turning-point of De la Salle's life, and it comes in a +curious way. There was a certain rich, fashionable, and extravagant +married lady living in Rouen, who, like the rich man in the parable, was +clothed in fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, while Lazarus lay +at the gate. One day a poor beggar, who had been harshly repulsed from +the door, touched the heart of a servant by his manifest misery, and was +received into the stables, where he died the same night. The dead man +must needs be buried; so the servant went to the mistress, confessed his +fault, received some violent language and notice of dismissal, but at +the same time procured a sheet to serve as a shroud for the corpse. At +dinner-time the lady perceived the very sheet, which she had given for +the burial, folded up and lying in her own chair; some mysterious hand +had brought back the ungracious present, as though the deceased beggar +would not receive a favour in death from one who had been so cruel to +him in life. + +This strange and apparently not very important occurrence changed the +whole course of the lady's life. She gave up all her old habits of +magnificence and extravagance, lived the life of a devotee, and soon +succeeded in separating from herself all her old companions and friends, +who, in fact, deemed her mad. After her husband's death she became still +more strict in her habits, and devoted to the service of the poor a +large part of her fortune. + +Amongst other charities which she assisted was the female orphanage, of +which we have already spoken as having been cared for by Canon Roland, +and after his death by M. de la Salle. She conceived the idea of +establishing something of the same kind for boys in her native town of +Rheims, and she consulted Canon Roland on the subject. Ultimately she +engaged a devout layman, named Adrien Nyel, who had experience of poor +schools in Rouen, promised him maintenance for himself and a young +assistant, gave him a letter of introduction to her relative M. de la +Salle, and sent him to Rheims to open a school there for poor boys. + +This school, which was commenced in 1679, was the germ of the great +system of _Écoles Chrétiennes_. Its success led a pious lady in Rheims +to wish to establish another of the same kind in a different part of the +town. She consulted M. de la Salle, who had become patron of the first +school, on the subject; and thus he became, without any special wish or +intention of his own, drawn into the work of the education of poor boys. +His own account of the matter is worth quoting:-- + + 'It was,' he wrote, 'by the chance meeting with M. Nyel, and + by hearing of the proposal made by that lady [to whom + reference has been made], that I was led to begin to + interest myself about boys' schools. I had no thought of it + before. It was not that the subject had not been suggested + to me. Many of M. Roland's friends had tried to interest me + about it, but it took no hold of my mind, and I had not the + least intention of occupying myself with it. If I had ever + thought that the care which out of pure charity I was taking + of schoolmasters would have brought me to feel it a duty to + live with them, I should have given it up at once; for as I + naturally felt myself very much above those whom I was + obliged to employ as schoolmasters, especially at first, the + bare idea of being obliged to live with such persons would + have been insupportable to me. In fact, it was a great + trouble to me when first I took them into my house, and the + dislike of it lasted for two years. It was apparently for + this reason that God, who orders all things with wisdom and + gentleness, and who does not force the inclinations of men, + when He willed to employ me entirely in the care of schools, + wrought imperceptibly and during a long space of time, so + that one engagement led to another in an unforeseen way.' + +This passage somewhat anticipates events; but it is convenient for the +condensed character of this narrative that it should be so. We will +therefore briefly fill up the gap left by M. de la Salle's own statement +by saying, that he found the work of directing schools for the poor +increase upon his hands in a wonderful manner. The success of those +which he visited and superintended led to the establishment of others. +Soon the masters themselves formed a small body which required +superintendence and guidance. He took a house in which he placed them; +the home of course needed rules for its orderly and efficient working; +these M. de la Salle supplied. But still all was not quite as it should +be. Cathedral duties took up much of the Canon's time; these duties were +of primary obligation, and left comparatively little of the day to be +given to the superintendence of schoolmasters. But more than this, the +difference of station and comfort and habits between a well-endowed +Canon of a Cathedral, enjoying in addition a private fortune of his own, +and poor schoolmasters taken from the humblest ranks, and living in the +most humble manner, was quite immeasurable. It was comparatively easy to +have the whole company to dine with him, and so to meet them half way +down the social hill; but this was not enough. M. de la Salle began +gradually to realize the fact, that his great undertaking of supplying +schools and schoolmasters for the gratuitous education of the poor, +could only be crowned with complete success on the condition of his own +adoption of poverty in all its thoroughness. Accordingly he determined +to resign his canonry and spend his fortune upon the poor. Not +altogether so easy a thing as might at first sight appear. Great +opposition was made by his friends: the Archbishop was unwilling to +accept his resignation: nothing but persevering determination on the +part of De la Salle could have carried the business through; but he was +full of perseverance and full of determination, and in 1683 he at last +succeeded in divesting himself of his Cathedral preferment. The sale of +his property, and spending the money upon the poor, was an easier +matter, especially as the year 1684 was one of dearth; in the course of +that year and the following he managed to get rid of all. + +This parting with his money, instead of spending it upon his great work, +may well seem to be a conduct of doubtful wisdom; especially as at a +later period much difficulty was encountered for want of funds. But it +is hard, and perhaps not justifiable, to find fault with a man, who +adopts the course of selling all that he has and giving to the poor, +after using devoutly such a prayer as the following:-- + + 'My God, I do not know whether to endow or not. It is not + for me to found communities, or to know how they should be + founded. It, is for Thee, Oh my God. Thou knowest how, and + canst do it in the way which is pleasing to Thee. If Thou + foundest them, they will be well founded. If Thou foundest + them not, they will be without foundation. I beseech Thee, + my God, make me know Thy will.' + +Soon after the last livre was spent, De la Salle had occasion to make a +journey in connection with his work. He went on foot, as needs he must, +and begged his way. An old woman gave him a piece of black bread; he ate +it with joy, feeling that now he was indeed a poor man. He had at this +time reached the age of thirty-three years. + +Behold the Society of the Christian Brothers, and the Christian Schools, +taking form at last with De la Salle at the head! Let us examine that +work and see how matters stand. + +In the first place, so far as the founder was himself concerned, his +life was one of asceticism, but still more of prayer:-- + + 'He prayed by day and by night--his life was one incessant + communion with God. He would fain have avoided even the + interruption caused by sleep, and he grudged every moment + given to it, because it shortened his time of prayer. He + slept on the ground, or sometimes in his chair, and was the + first to rise at the sound of the morning bell. While at + Rheims he regularly spent Friday night in the Church of + Saint Rémi; he made the sacristan lock him in, and there + poured out his soul in prayer for help, and guidance, and + success in his work.' + +The Superior and the Brothers of course lived a common life. The great +principle of bringing himself exactly to the level of those who worked +under him, which had led to his resignation of his stall and the sale of +his property, made it quite certain that he would not call upon the +Brothers to do or to bear anything which he was not willing to do and to +bear himself. But the burden was heavier to him than to them. They were +poor men originally, accustomed to hard work and rough fare; while he +had been brought up in ease and plenty, and had never known what want +and poverty were. Consequently it cost De la Salle much effort and +self-denial to enter upon his new life; but he was satisfied with no +half measures; the sacrifice was to be absolute and complete; he fought +the battle and gained it,--yet not he, but the grace of God that was in +him. At the first starting of the Society there was no distinct rule, +but the following arrangements were made:-- + +The food was to be substantial but frugal, fit for labourers engaged in +hard toil; nothing costly, nothing but what was necessary; on the other +hand no special rigour of abstinence, beyond that demanded of other +Christians. + +For dress was adopted a capote, such as was common in the country, made +of coarse material, and black; together with a black cassock, thick +shoes, and a broad-brimmed hat. + +For a name they chose that of 'Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes,' or, as +commonly abbreviated, 'Frères Chrétiens.' + +With regard to vows, De la Salle decided that they should take the +three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but for three years +only. They might make them perpetual the following year. + +As to the Superior himself, he had little difficulty with regard to the +first two points, for his only possessions were a New Testament, a copy +of the 'Initiation,' a Crucifix and a Rosary; and to celibacy he was +already committed. With regard to obedience, the fulfilment of the vow +was not easy to a man in his position; but he endeavoured to find a way +to make this vow also a practical one, by the method of resigning his +post and putting one of the Brothers in his place; this he ultimately +succeeded in doing, though only for a short time. + +We must leave to the reader's imagination the manner in which the work +grew under such remarkable auspices, the growth of M. de la Salle's +reputation as a saint, and the constantly increasing load of +responsibilities of all kinds which rested upon his shoulders. + +In the year 1688 the work extended to Paris. When De la Salle arrived +there he left behind him in Rheims a principal house containing sixteen +Brothers, and a training college for country schoolmasters, containing +thirty men, besides fifteen lads in their noviciate. For the purpose of +his work in Paris he hired a house in the village of Vaugirard; this he +occupied for seven years, collecting the Brothers about him in their +vacations, and making it a home for the sick and weary, and a place +where postulants might make proof of their profession. We shall not +follow his footsteps during this time, except to say that the work +flourished wonderfully well under his hand, as it always did, +notwithstanding all kinds of difficulties. We may produce, however, a +striking document of self-dedication which belongs to this period. The +Brothers seem to have been strongly moved by the desire of making their +vows perpetual, instead of only for three years; the Superior opposed +the innovation, but finding them resolute, he at length gave way, and +commenced the new system by a formal dedication of himself, expressed in +the following remarkable words:-- + + 'Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, prostrate in + deepest reverence before Thine infinite and adorable + Majesty, I consecrate myself wholly to Thee, to seek Thy + glory in all ways possible to me, or to which Thou shalt + call me. And to this end I, Jean Baptiste de la Salle, + Priest, promise and vow to unite myself to, and abide in + society with, the Brothers [here follow twelve names], and + in union and association with them to hold free schools in + any place whatsoever (even though, in order to do so, I + should have to beg for alms, and live on dry bread), or to + do in the said Society any work which may be appointed for + me, whether by the Community or by the Superior who shall + have the direction of it. For which reason I promise and vow + obedience as well to the Society itself as to the Superior + of it. And these vows of association with, and steadfastness + in, the said Community, and of obedience, I promise to keep + inviolable during my whole life; in witness whereof I have + signed. Done at Vaugirard, this sixth day of June, being the + Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, in the year 1694. + + '(Signed) DE LA SALLE.' + +Having taken this step, De la Salle made a great effort to divest +himself of his post as Superior, but in vain. He argued, but the +Brothers were not convinced. He insisted upon an election, and every +single vote was given for him. He begged for a second voting, but the +result was the same. The Brothers said it would be time enough for them +to elect his successor, when death had deprived them of him. So in his +post of Superior he remained; and doubtless the Brothers were right, and +he was wrong, as to the point in dispute between them. + +Let us now look for a moment at the rule of the Christian Brothers in +the complete form which it ultimately assumed. + +The first article sets forth the purpose of the Society as follows:-- + + 'The Institute of the Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes is a + Society, the profession of whose members is to hold schools + gratuitously. The object of this Institute is to give a + Christian education to children, and it is for this purpose + that schools are held, in order that the masters, who have + charge of the children from morning to night, may bring them + up to lead good lives, by instructing them in the mysteries + of our Holy Religion and filling their minds with Christian + maxims, while they give them such an education as is fitting + for them.' + +Thus the schools were to be free, and they were to be essentially and +fundamentally Christian; but there was no intention of making them +exclusively religious and banishing secular studies. On the other hand, +the greater part of the time given to the children was devoted, as in +reason it must be, to secular teaching; and only a small portion +retained for teaching of a more solemn kind. No doubt De la Salle +depended for the religious results of schooling more upon the men who +taught and the general atmosphere of his schools, than upon amount of +religious lessons actually taught and learnt: this is indicated by the +following article of the Rule:-- + + 'The Brothers of the Society will have a very deep reverence + for the Holy Scriptures, and in token of it they will always + carry about them a copy of the New Testament, and will pass + no day without reading a portion of it, in faith, respect, + and veneration for the Divine Words which it contains. They + will look upon it as their prime and principal Rule.' + +Again:-- + + 'The spirit of the Institute consists in a burning zeal for + the instruction of children, that they may be brought up in + the fear and love of God, and led to preserve their + innocence, where they have not already lost it; to keep them + from sin, and to instil into their minds a great horror of + evil, and of everything that might rob them of purity.' + +The great purpose of De la Salle was to form men suitable for the work +of education as thus conceived; and one notable feature of his scheme +was that they should be laymen; even with regard to the Superior of the +Society, De la Salle, though himself a Priest, bound the Brethren down +to a pledge that they would not, when he was gone, elect a Priest into +his room. It is needless to say that he had no prejudice against the +priestly office as such; but he was genuinely persuaded that the work +which he wished to have done could best be performed by laymen; partly +because they could give themselves up to it more completely, partly +because they could be had more cheaply, and partly because poor men such +as he enlisted, and intended to enlist, were more thoroughly on a level +with the poor, whose children he desired to educate. It was in the same +spirit that he forbade to the Brothers the knowledge of Latin. + +There are five vows in the Society. Brothers who have not attained the +age of twenty-five years can take them for only three years. No one may +take them even for three years, until he has been at least two years in +the Society, and has had one year's experience of the Noviciate, and one +year's teaching in the schools. The vows are as follows:-- + + 1. Poverty. + 2. Chastity. + 3. Obedience. + 4. Steadfastness. + 5. Giving gratuitous instruction to children. + +By this last vow they also bind themselves to take all possible pains to +teach them well and to bring them up Christianly; and they promise +neither to ask nor to accept, from the scholars, or from their parents, +anything, be it what it may, either as a gift, or in any other form of +remuneration whatsoever. + +The rule of daily life is given by the following table:-- + + 4.30 A.M. Hour of rising. + + 5. Prayer and meditation. + + 6. Attend Mass, reading, &c. + + 7.15. Breakfast; prayer and preparation for school. + + 8 till 11. School, and children taken to Church. + + 11.30. Particular examination of conscience; dinner and + recreation. + + 1 P.M. Prayer in oratory, and depart to various schools. + + 1.30 till 5. School; half an-hour given to catechism. + + 5.30. Spiritual reading and mental prayer. The reading + begins with a portion of the New Testament, read upon the + knees. + + 6. Mental prayer, and confession of faults one to another. + + 6.30. Supper; reading at all meals; recreation. + + 8. Study of catechism. + + 8.30. Prayers in oratory. + + 9. Retire to dormitory; in bed by 9.15. + +So much for the Rule of the Christian Brothers. It is sufficiently +strict; but, as before remarked, not intensified by any special +austerities. The general order prescribed is, however, strengthened by +injunctions against unnecessary communications with persons outside the +Brotherhood, unnecessary possessions, unnecessary exercise of the will: +the devotion to the rule is absolute, the poverty complete, the +submission of the will unbounded. Very wonderful all this, but quite +true. + +In connection with the rule, it may be well to say a few words +concerning the manuals which De la Salle composed for the guidance of +the Brothers. The principal was a book entitled, 'Conduite à l'usage des +Écoles Chrétiennes;' this was circulated in manuscript, and a copy given +to each Brother in charge of a school, but was not printed during the +author's lifetime. He revised it in 1717, when he had retired from his +post as Superior, and it was printed in 1720, a year after his death. It +has been the guide of the Brothers ever since, and is read through twice +a year in every one of their houses. The book shows great insight and +good sense. Here is an instruction for a lesson in arithemetic:-- + + 'After the children have done their sums on the paper, + instead of correcting them himself the master will make the + children find out their mistakes for themselves, by rational + explanation of the processes. He will ask them, for + instance, why in addition of money they begin with the + lowest coin, and other questions of the same sort, so as to + make sure that they have an intelligent understanding of + what they do.' + +When the subject is religious teaching, the tone of the book rises to +the occasion:-- + + 'The masters will take such great care in the instruction of + all their scholars, that not one shall be left in ignorance, + at least of the things which a Christian ought to believe + and do. And to the end they may not neglect a thing of such + great importance, they will often meditate earnestly on the + account which they will have to give to God, and that they + will be guilty in his sight of the ignorance of the children + who shall have been under their care, and also of the sins + into which their ignorance may have caused them to fall.' + +The faults which De la Salle regards as worthy of being treated with +most severity are these: untruthfulness, quarrelling, theft, impurity, +misbehaviour in church. It is notable that idleness and inattention to +lessons, sauciness, and other boyish faults, which have brought much +trouble upon many thousands of urchins, are not here enumerated at all; +probably the wise Superior of the Christian Brothers thought that these +and the like infirmities could be more successfully treated by other +means than by severe punishment. We incline to believe that he was +right. Certainly we shall have no difficulty in assenting to the wisdom +of the rules laid down as to the conditions of punishment being useful: +it must be (1) disinterested, that is, free from all feeling of revenge; +(2) charitable, that is, inflicted from a real love to the child; (3) +just; (4) proportioned to the fault; (5) moderate; (6) free from anger; +(7) prudent; (8) voluntary on the part of the scholar, that is, +understood and accepted by him; (9) received with respectful submission; +(10) in silence on both sides. + +These samples must suffice to indicate M. de la Salle's practical and +simple wisdom. + +The thought of all that we wish to say before concluding this article +compels us once more to appeal to the reader's imagination with regard +to the success of De la Salle's work. His fame went through France and +beyond it; he became the recognized apostle of elementary education; +when he made an expedition to Calais and the north in the latter part of +his career, it was almost a triumphal progress; nothing, however, could +spoil the sweet simplicity of his character, or interfere with his utter +devotion to his work, and his humble desire to shift the burden upon +what he believed to be stronger shoulders than his own. This desire was +at length accomplished, and on the 8th of May, 1717, after much earnest +consideration and religious observance, a second Superior of their +Society was unanimously elected by the Christian Brothers. + +And now this remarkable man had nothing more to do in this world but to +await his call and to depart in peace. At the earnest entreaty of the +Brethren he took up his abode with them in their house at Rouen; and +there, in the midst of increasing infirmities, and in the exercise (so +far as was possible) of his priestly office, he tarried the Lord's +leisure. We give the closing scene in the words of the interesting +volume, the title of which heads this article, and from which we have +been drawing the materials of our sketch. + + 'The Festival of St. Joseph, March 19, was approaching. He + had always had a special veneration for that great Saint, + whom he had chosen for patron of his Society, and he had a + great wish to celebrate once more on that Festival. He could + hardly have hoped to do so, for he had now for some time + been quite unable to leave his bed; but in the evening of + the 18th, about ten o'clock, his pain was unexpectedly + relieved, and he was conscious of some return of strength. + The night was quiet, and on the morning of the Festival he + was able to crawl to the Altar, and to celebrate the Holy + Mysteries in the presence of all the Brothers, who could + scarcely believe their eyes. All that day he continued + better, was able to converse with the Brothers, listened for + the last time to their confidential talk, and gave them some + last counsels. But the pain came on again, and he was + obliged to go to bed. + + 'The Curé of the parish, hearing that he was worse, hastened + to visit him, and thinking from the bright cheerfulness of + his face that the dying man was not aware of his own + condition, said to him, "Do you know that you are dying, and + must soon appear before the presence of God?" "I know it," + was the answer, "and I wait His commands; my lot is in His + hands, His will be done." In truth, his soul dwelt + continually in unbroken communion with God, and he only + waited with longing for the moment when the last ties that + bound him to earth should be severed. Several days passed + thus. Feeling that he was getting worse, he asked for the + Viaticum, and it was arranged that he should receive it on + the following day, which was Wednesday in Holy Week. He + spent the whole night in preparation, and his little cell + was decorated as well as the poverty of the house allowed. + When the time came, he insisted on being taken out of bed, + and dressed, and placed in a chair, vested in a surplice and + stole. At the sound of the bell announcing the approach of + the Priest, he threw himself on his knees, and received his + last Communion with the same wonderful devotion which had + often formerly struck those who assisted at his Mass, only + with even more of the fire of love in his face. It was the + last gleam of a dying light, which was being extinguished on + earth, to shine with undiminished brightness "as the stars + for ever and ever." + + 'The next day he received Extreme Unction. His mind was + still quite clear, and the Superior asked him to give his + blessing to the Brothers who were kneeling round him, as + well as to all the rest of the Community. He raised his eyes + to heaven, stretched out his hands, and said, "The Lord + bless you all." + + 'Later in the day he became unconscious, and the prayers for + the dying were said; but again he revived. About midnight + the death agony came on: it was the night of the Agony in + Gethsemane. It lasted till after two: then there was another + interval of comparative ease, and he was able to speak. The + Superior asked him whether he accepted willingly all his + sufferings. "Yes," he replied, "I adore in all things the + dealings of God with me." These were his last words; at + three o'clock the agony returned, but only for a short hour. + At four o'clock in the morning of Good Friday, the 7th of + April, 1719, he fell asleep. + + 'As soon as the news of his death was spread abroad, the + house was beset by crowds desiring to see him. All revered + him as a Saint, and wanted to look once more on the + venerable face, and to carry away something in remembrance + of him. He had nothing belonging to him but a Crucifix, a + New Testament, and a copy of the Imitation; but his poor + garments were cut up, and distributed in little bits to + satisfy the people.' + +The Christian Brothers since the death of their great founder have +steadily continued their charitable self-denying work. They have +received much encouragement from high authorities in Church and State, +much also from the good opinion which their work has gained for them +wherever it has been known. Their history, however, records reverses: +the chief of them connected with the catastrophe of the great +Revolution. With regard to this, it might have been expected on general +grounds, that in a social upheaval, which was essentially a rising of +the poor and oppressed against the rich and the privileged, a society +which had poverty as its foundation principle, and the free education of +the children of the poor as its only reason of existence, must have been +spared by general consent in the midst of the social ruin by which so +much was overwhelmed. At first it seemed that this might have been so; +when the Religious Orders were suppressed by decree of the National +Assembly in 1790, exception was made in favour of those engaged in +public instruction and the care of the sick; but in 1792 all +corporations, specially including the Christian Brothers, were +abolished, on the ground that their existence was incompatible with the +conditions of a really free State. During the Reign of Terror the +Institute was broken up, the Brothers scattered, and many suffered. +There was a revival under Napoleon, which lasted till the Revolution of +1830. At this time the Institute was shaken, as was almost everything +else in France; but the recognized merits of the Christian Brothers +carried them safely through the storm, and one of the most telling and +triumphant facts in their history is the confidence reposed in them by +M. Guizot, when Minister of Public instruction under Louis Philippe. +More than once M. Guizot endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade the +Superior to accept the Cross of the Legion of Honour. + +The work of the Christian Brothers in France at the present time is of +special value; but also carried on under much chilling discouragement. A +systematic attempt is being made to secularize education, and to drive +every indication of religious faith from the primary schools. It remains +to be seen what will be the result of the fanatical opposition to all +that is dear to the minds of many French men and almost all French +women, which is carried on so persistently by the Legislature and the +Government. Already there are signs of reaction; the result of the late +elections, which has substantially changed the proportion of parties in +the representative Chamber, is probably not a little connected with the +enforcement of an utterly godless education.[4] Meanwhile it would seem, +as a matter of fact, that the number of children under the teaching of +the Christian Brothers has increased instead of diminishing: there are +still some French people left who have not bowed the knee to Secularism, +and Materialism, and Atheism: even those who tremble at Priestcraft can +accept the ministration of the Christian Brothers, who cannot (as we +have seen) be Priests, according to their fundamental rule: and so, +although the secularist flood is just now frightfully high, there is a +gleam of hope to be found in the work of the Christian Schools, and the +light which shines in them and from them may serve as a witness for God +till the tyranny be overpast, and then may perhaps serve as a light at +which the torch of religious teaching will be lighted again once more. + +We have placed at the head of this article the title of one of the +manuals in use in the primary schools of France. It is worth studying in +connection with the work of the Christian Brothers, and on other grounds +as well. The entire absence of all reference to God or to any kind of +religious knowledge or religious principle in connection with duty is +startling, and gives the book a complexion somewhat strange to an +English mind; and there are portions which can scarcely fail to strike +an Englishman as droll; but is full of French ingenuity. It contains a +vast amount of compressed information, and the dry instruction of the +text is enforced, or rather sweetened and made palatable, by a series of +stories in the form of a running commentary or collection of foot-notes, +in which the heroes of the stories illustrate the lessons which the +scholars have to learn. + +We take two or three specimens from the manual, which we will present in +a free translation:-- + + OUR DUTIES TOWARDS OURSELVES + + 'As you grow older, you become more serious. Consider what + your duties are. + + 'You have duties towards yourselves, that is, towards your + bodies and towards your souls. + + 'Sound health must be taken care of; weak health must be + strengthened by a good hygiene. + + 'Hygiene demands cleanliness; wash your whole body carefully + and frequently. + + 'Keep nothing dirty upon you, nor in your house, nor near + your house. + + 'Hygiene demands good air: air your bed, your chamber, and + all places in which you live and work. + + 'Hygiene forbids all excess, and the use of injurious + things, as alcohol and tobacco. It prescribes temperance and + sobriety. + + 'Hygiene requires you to avoid a sudden change from heat to + cold. When you are in a perspiration, do not lie down upon + the ground, do not expose yourself to draughts, and do not + drink cold water. + + 'Hygiene requires gymnastic exercises, which make the body + supple, healthy, and strong. + + '_Attention to health gives a chance of long life._ + + 'In order to fulfil your duties towards your soul, you must + continue to cultivate your intelligence and to educate + yourself. + + 'Do not forget that you can educate yourself at any age. + + 'You must fight against sensuality, which would make you + gluttons, drunkards, and debauchees; against idleness, which + would make you useless to others and a burden to them; + against selfishness and vanity, which would make others + detest you; envy, which would render you unhappy and + hateful; anger and hatred, which might lead you to all kinds + of evil deeds.' + +These lessons are enforced by an extract from the French Law, which +informs scholar that the persons found in a condition of manifest +intoxication in the street or a public-house are punished by a fine of +from 1 to 15 francs; that for a second offence the punishment is +imprisonment for three days; and that for a third breach of the law the +offender may be sentenced to imprisonment for from six days to a month, +and to a fine of from 16 to 300 francs. In addition to this, the +offenders will be declared incapable of exercising their political +rights for two years. + +This is a very practical teaching; but the duties which little boys owe +to their bodies and souls are rendered more attractive, than either the +dicta concerning hygiene or the threatened results of evil ways are +likely to make them, by the history of a certain Dr. John Burnett, a +physician, who made an immense fortune in New York. This is found as a +_feuilleton_ at the foot of the page, under the title 'Un Bon +Charlatan.' + +The pith of the teaching under the head of Morals, is contained in the +following summary:-- + + '1. I will fulfil my duties towards myself. My duties + towards my body are, cleanliness, sobriety, temperance, + precaution against the inclemency of the seasons, exercise. + + '2. I will fulfil my duties towards my soul by continuing to + educate myself, and by combating all bad passions. + + '3. I will not do to another that which I would not that he + should do to me. + + '4. I will not do him wrong, either by striking him, or + robbing him, or deceiving him, or lying to him, or by + breaking my promise, or by speaking evil of him, or by + calumniating him. + + '5. I will do to another that which I should wish him to do + to me. + + '6. I will love him, I will be grateful, exact, discreet, + charitable.' + +Very good resolutions these, but one cannot avoid the thought that the +little scholar might estimate 3 and 5 not the less, perhaps the more, if +informed of the life and character of Him who first spoke these apparent +simple rules in such a manner as to impress them upon the heart of the +world. Would not all the resolutions gain strength from the belief that +duty towards God is the true spring of duty towards our neighbours and +ourselves, and that the grace of God is necessary to make the best +resolutions practically operative in the life? + +We will now give our readers a specimen of the tales by which the +lessons of the manual are illustrated and enforced. It shall be taken +from the section entitled _Society_, the second subsection of which is +as follows:-- + + 'FREEDOM OF LABOUR. + + 'In France; labour is free; every one employs, as he + pleases, his intelligence and his arms. + + 'You may choose any profession you please; but everybody + else has the same right as yourself. + + 'Competition is therefore permitted; never complain of + competition. + + 'If you hinder your neighbour from working as he pleases, + you may yourself be hindered in like manner. + + 'Competition excites the workman to do his best and at the + cheapest rate. + + 'Thus competition is advantageous to all. _Never ask Society + to interfere with the freedom of labour, but work hard + yourself._' + +These wholesome lessons on competition are illustrated by the following +tale:-- + + GREGORY'S VIEWS ON COMPETITION. + + 'Our friend Gregory is a good husband; but he sometimes has + little arguments with his wife. + + 'The other day, Mrs. Gregory was angry, because she had + found out that a shoemaker was going to establish himself in + the village. "What do we want another shoemaker for," said + she "when you and I are here already? The Government ought + to prevent such things." + + 'Gregory, who was at his work, lifted his head and said: + "The Government ought to prevent women from talking + nonsense. Suppose that I was the shoemaker who had just + established himself in the village; what would you say if + any one interfered with my carrying on my trade? You would + not be very well pleased, I fancy." + + 'He then explained to his wife the necessity of competition. + + '"There is plenty of work for everybody," said he. "If there + had been already two or three shoemakers in the place, this + new fellow would not have come to settle here. He would have + seen that there was nothing for him to do. I am surprised + that no competing shoemaker has come here before. You know + very well that we have sometimes to refuse work, and that + there are people in the village who have to go to the town + to get their shoes. Beyond doubt the newcomer will take some + of our custom; but it is our business to look after that. We + must work better than we have done hitherto; and that's all + about it." + + 'Mrs. Gregory was not convinced, but she said nothing. + + '"You see," continued Gregory, "you must look a little + beyond the end of your nose. You wish that there should be + only one shoemaker in the place. The linendraper wishes that + there should be only one linendraper; the grocer only one + grocer; and so on through all the trades. Very well; don't + you remember when we had only one linendraper how dear + shirts used to be? And don't you remember some twenty years + ago, when there was only one smith? You could never get hold + of him; and when you did, his charges were tremendous. I + recollect him putting a bell to our front door. When he gave + me the bill, and I had seen the amount, I said to him, 'my + good fellow, I didn't order a silver bell.' 'And I have not + put up a silver bell,' was the reply. 'Oh! I thought from + the price it must have been silver,' said I. This vexed him, + and he answered, 'If you are not satisfied, go elsewhere.' + That was well enough; he was the only smith in the + neighbourhood. I could not send for a man from Pekin: he + would have been sure to be lost on the road, and I should + have been obliged to provide for his family." + + 'Gregory made some other good remarks to show that if + competition prevents a shopkeeper from selling his goods at + a high price, it enables him to buy from others at a cheap + rate. "So on the whole," concluded he, "do not let us fuss + and make ourselves ill. I would much rather have some + coffee, than be compelled to take medicine."' + +Gregory must have had some of the saintly qualities of his great +namesakes to enable him to take so calm a view of the invasion of his +shoemaking monopoly. We trust that Mrs. Gregory was eventually convinced +by his wise and philosophical arguments, and still more, that the +generation of Frenchmen who enjoy such teaching from their early years +may emulate so bright an example. + +We cannot refrain from making one more extract from our little manual. +The thirteenth section deals with 'The Rights and Duties of the Citizen' +and the third subsection treats as follows of:-- + + 'POLITICAL DUTIES. + + 'The French people ought more than any other people, to + respect the law made by its own deputies. + + 'It ought without murmuring to pay the taxes voted by the + Chambers, and to fulfil its military duties. + + 'It ought to respect the authority of all the agents of the + Government, from the lowest to the highest, from the _garde + champêtre_ to the Ministers and the President of the + Republic, for the agents of authority are the servants of + the law, and all are chosen directly or indirectly, by the + deputies of the people. + + '_The greater the rights of citizens, the greater their + duties._ + + 'It used to be said, _Noblesse oblige_. This meant: a + nobleman ought to behave himself better than another, to be + worthy of his nobility. + + 'It should now be said, _Liberté oblige_. This means that a + free citizen ought to behave himself better than another, in + order to be worthy of liberty. + + 'You have the duty of putting your name upon the electoral + roll at the Mairie of the Commune in which you reside. + + 'You have the duty of voting, and you must vote according to + your conscience. + + 'You have not the right of being indifferent to public + affairs, and of saying that they do not concern you. + + 'You have an interest in securing to your Commune good + Municipal Councillors, who will look well after the + finances, will take care of the schools, and of the roads, + and attend to all wants. + + 'You have an interest in securing to your Department good + General Councillors, who will do for the Department what the + Municipal Councillors do for the Commune. + + 'You have an interest in nominating good Deputies and good + Senators, who may make useful and just laws, choose a + President of the Republic worthy of that supreme honour, and + keep the Government in good ways. + + 'You ought to make a good choice, not merely for your own + interest, but for the love of your country. + + '_Love those republican institutions which France has + provided for herself._ + + 'Endeavour to make them loved, respecting the while your + neighbour's opinions, and restraining yourself from all + hatred and from all violence. + + 'The future of the Republic depends upon each of you. If + each of you does his duty, it will be strong: strong enough + to make our lives happy, and to restore to us one day the + brothers whom we have lost--the BROTHERS OF ALSACE AND + LORRAINE.' + +This is the conclusion of the manual. All works up to ALSACE AND +LORRAINE. (The capital letters are in the original.) Is it not +delightful? Is it not most truly French? + +We should be sorry to see a parody or parallel to this French manual +introduced into our schools. At the same time we think there is +something to be learnt from studying it. Our neighbours seem to have in +some respect learnt better than ourselves the maxim of Horace:-- + + 'pueris dant crustula blandi + Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.' + +The pages of our manual are full of literary _crustula_; and we imagine +that most boys would find themselves sufficiently amused to read and +study the book, whether they were desirous of profiting by the contents +or not. And after all it is a great thing to _get hold_ of a boy, +whether it be by the loving and evidently self-sacrificing efforts of +the Christian Brothers, or by the ingenious mental food provided by the +Minister of Public Instruction. Notwithstanding such ingenuity, we do +not, however, believe that the present system of French teaching can +answer: it is hollow and unsound: it ignores the deepest of motives, and +disregards the most potent of influences: it may breed a desire to fight +with Germany for the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine, but it can +scarcely produce the highest class of citizens and heroes, because it +does not acknowledge the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom, and the +love of God as the best foundation of the love of man. The principles of +duty inculcated in the manual from which we have been exhibiting a few +elegant extracts will never rear such a character as De la Salle, nor +supply the foundation of such an institution as that of the Christian +Brothers. + +But we must come nearer home-- + + 'Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.' + +We have not yet arrived in England at the complete secularization of our +elementary schools; but we are, in the opinion of some and in the wish +of others, within measurable distance of the Paradisiacal terminus of +secularism and secular reform; and therefore, with the thought of what +has been going on and is still going on in France, we may do well to +look for a few moments to our own country, and examine what has been +going on and is going on there. + +Let us beware, however, of exaggeration or alarmism. We do not at all +desire to imply that there is anything approaching to parallelism in the +conditions and possibilities of the two countries. Had it been proposed +to do in England what has been done in France, the opposition would have +been indignant and overwhelming. There is no such desire for +emancipation from Priests and Priestcraft in England as has long existed +and still exists in France. To be sure we hear something on this side of +the Channel of sacerdotal pretensions and unwarrantable clerical claims; +but the men by whom the offence comes are few in number, and, at the +worst, they and their conduct are but as a drop in the great bucket of +the English Church and its influence upon the nation. In France matters +are painfully different. While the women are largely _dévotes_, the men +are very sparingly _dévots_. Unfortunately the admission of +superstitious practices, the practical hiding of Holy Scripture, the +adoption under the patronage of the Church of foolish tales of miracles, +and the absence of effectual protest against the unwarrantable +assumptions of the Vatican, have combined to offer to the intellect of +France an unnecessary obstacle, which in too many instances causes +shipwreck to faith; and so, while in England the men, who make the laws, +are, speaking broadly, Christian believers, in France the men, who +equally make the laws, are as broadly unbelievers. This difference is +not likely to disappear. France has reached a point at which the disease +of unbelief may be said to have become chronic; England, on the other +hand, although there have been of late, and are still, symptoms of +infidel proclivities, appears nevertheless, so far as her condition can +be tested to be sound at heart, and in some respects in a more healthy +state of religious conviction and activity than has been manifested +hitherto. + +The question of the comparative conditions of France and England is one +with which we have no desire to enter at length; and indeed a native of +one of the countries is very unlikely to be in a condition to take a +quite just and fair view of the other. We only desire to guard ourselves +from appearing to assume the probability of the secularization of our +English schools on the ground of the step having been already taken in +France. And having premised this caution, we will ask our readers to +accompany us in the consideration of some details, suggested by the +Report of the National Society, and by that of the Committee of the +Privy Council on Education. Afterwards we will submit a few general +reflections, and so close our article. + +It was feared by some and hoped by others fifteen years ago, when the +law of compulsory education and School Boards was enacted in this +country, that Voluntary Schools would undergo what was described at the +time as a 'process of painless extinction,' and that Board Schools would +reign supreme. These fears and hopes have been curiously falsified; the +Voluntary Schools have not been extinguished either painlessly or +otherwise; on the other hand, they have increased, both in work done and +in support given, to an extent which could never have been anticipated. +It will be observed that the question is not purely and simply between +Board and Voluntary Schools; it may be so in some parishes, where with +unanimity on the part of the parishioners, one Parish School can be made +to supply the wants of all; but generally the question is that of +supporting Voluntary Schools and paying towards Board Schools as well; +the support of one does not exclude the legal claim of the other, as it +has been frequently argued that it ought in equity to do; consequently +Voluntary Schools are heavily handicapped, and nothing but a deep sense +of the advantage of freedom in religious teaching, and an utter dread of +secularism, can account for the remarkable results exhibited by the +progress of Voluntary Schools under such manifest difficulties. + +The following Tables are so exceedingly instructive, that we make no +apology for introducing them:-- + +_Accommodation._ + + +Day Schools, Year ended August 31 1882. 1883. 1884. + +Church 2,385,374 2,413,676 2,454,788 +British, &c. 384,060 386,839 394,009 +Wesleyan 200,909 200,564 203,253 +Roman Catholic 269,231 272,760 284,514 +Board 1,298,746 1,396,604 1,490,174 + + 4,538,320 4,670,443 4,826,738 + +_Number on the Registers._ + +Day Schools, Year ended August 31. 1882. 1883. 1884. + +Church 2,133,978 2,134,719 2,121,728 +British, &c. 339,812 337,531 333,510 +Wesleyan 177,840 175,826 172,284 +Roman Catholic 232,620 226,567 226,082 +Board 1,305,362 1,398,661 1,483,717 + + 4,189,612 4,273,304 4,337,321 + +_Average Attendance._ + +Day Schools, Year ended August 31. 1882. 1883. 1884. + +Church 1,538,408 1,562,507 1,607,823 +British, &c 245,493 247,990 253,044 +Wesleyan 125,109 125,503 128,584 +Roman Catholic 160,910 162,310 167,841 +Board 945,231 1,028,904 1,115,832 + + 3,015,151 3,127,214 3,273,124 + +_Voluntary Contributions._ + +Day Schools, Year ended 1882. 1883. 1884. + August 31. + + £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. +Church 581,179 5 3 577,313 16 5 585,071 11 10 +British, &c 75,132 11 8 71,519 2 9 72,978 10 0 +Wesleyan 15,705 2 2 15,271 14 1 16,802 2 0 +Roman Catholic 51,283 11 7 51,564 15 2 57,672 1 2 +Board 1,545 2 2 1,420 1 3 1,603 7 10 + + 724,845 12 10 717,089 9 8 734,127 12 10 + +From these Tables it appears that in spite of the surrender of some +Church Schools to Boards, a process which is always to some extent going +on, and which causes an increase in the number of Board Schools beyond +that produced by actual building, the accommodation in Church Schools +rose in 1884 by 41,112, and the average attendance by 45,316. The Church +was also educating about half as many again as were being educated in +Board Schools, and the amount voluntarily contributed during the year +was more than 585,000l., in addition to a large sum expended on +buildings and improvements. + +This does not look much like speedy extinction, and we sincerely trust +that that event is still far distant. It is not so much that we are +opposed to Board schools on principle, still less that we disapprove of +the national determination that every child shall be educated, which +logically leads to some national machinery involving the principle of +Board Schools in some form or other,--not so much this, as that we are +persuaded that the existence of Voluntary Schools is an unspeakable +benefit even to the Board Schools themselves. We hold that a definite +system of religious teaching, according to which the religious studies +of the school and the secular are co-ordinate and equally regarded, and +the religious atmosphere which such consideration implies, are of the +very essence of a rightly ordered school; the ideal may be reached in a +Voluntary School, it is impossible that it should be reached in a Board +School; nevertheless, there may be Board schools _and_ Board Schools; in +some there may be simple secularism, and in others there may be a good +religious spirit and fair religious teaching; and the degree in which +the average quality of Board Schools will approximate to the latter +limit rather than the former, will depend very much upon the standard +set up by the Voluntary Schools. A reference to the Report of the +Committee of Council on Education proves that Voluntary Schools are +worked more cheaply, and, so far as can be judged by the results of +examination, are secularly not less successful than schools upon the +Board system; and therefore even with reference to economy there is some +advantage in keeping the two classes of school going side by side. But +all questions of comparative economy, and of advantages arising from an +honourable competition, are as nothing compared with the reflected +influence in the direction of bringing up the average religious +character of Board Schools to the highest point which the shackles of +legislation allow. + +In addition to the work of voluntary elementary schools, there are two +other departments in which voluntary efforts are doing much in support +of the religious and Christian character of English Education. + +There are no less than thirty Training Colleges in connection with the +Church. The pupils trained in these Colleges are not in general bound by +any rule to accept posts only in Church schools; as a matter of fact, +many are drafted into Board Schools; but it is impossible to exaggerate +the importance to the subsequent influence for good, in a school of +whatever kind, of a thorough religious training in youth upon definite +religious principles. So far as an opinion can be formed, it would seem +that these Training Colleges must always rest upon a voluntary +foundation; it is difficult to conceive of their being carried on upon +State principles; you may make religious teaching optional in an +elementary day school, and the evil results may be not easily +perceptable; but when eighty or a hundred young men or young women are +brought together into one home, to lead a common family life with common +purposes and prospects, the religious equality principle breaks down; +you must have common religious teaching and common worship, and these +must be utterly vapid and miserable, unless there be a hearty agreement +upon the grounds and articles of faith, such as is only possible for +those who are of one Church, or at all events of one denomination. +Doubtless on this very account efforts have been made, and efforts will +be made, to break down the Church Training College system, or to erect +something on broader principles which shall gradually extinguish it; but +on all grounds we trust that these efforts may fail, and that at all +events no change may be introduced which shall be successful in +rendering impossible the carrying on of institutions, to which we are +convinced that the education of the poor children of England is indebted +more than to almost any other. We have but been working out under new +conditions the great problem which De la Salle perceived to lie at the +root of elementary education: the forming of the instrument wherewith to +do the work was, as he clearly perceived, the great thing to be +accomplished; and for that purpose personal influence was needed; it was +necessary to stir up in each young aspirant to the office of a teacher +something of the enthusiasm of teaching, to breed a high conception of +the value and responsibilities of the office, to make it felt that +self-denial and self-devotion were essential conditions of any lasting +success. English Training Colleges differ very widely from that +community which De la Salle established, and over which he presided; in +our opinion, they, at least their managers, might profit by studying his +work and emulating his spirit; but after all, they will still be widely +different, and any attempt at exact imitation amongst ourselves would +perhaps produce a parody rather than an adequate copy. Any one who can +remember the early work of Derwent Coleridge at St. Mark's, Chelsea, and +the vast change which was brought about in the training of the +schoolmaster, the estimate of his qualifications, and his general +status, by the admirable and laborious efforts of that good and able +man, will be conscious that a work has been done amongst us in these +latter days, upon which De la Salle himself would have looked with a +kindly smile of approval, though in some respects he might have +imagined, and perhaps with justice, that it was not so thorough as his +own. + +The other department of voluntary action to which we proposed to refer, +is that which is known as Diocesan Inspection. + +This system of inspection is carried on by Clergymen, who are appointed +with the approval and in connection with the Bishops, and whose stipends +are provided by voluntary contribution. The action is not uniform +throughout the Dioceses, but there is scarcely a Diocese in which the +work is not carried on with great energy. These Inspectors visit the +schools, in some Dioceses and Board Schools as well as those in +connection with the Church; they examine the children, confer with the +masters and mistresses, give advice and encouragement as may seem to be +necessary and fitting, and make a report upon the general condition of +the school with reference to religious knowledge. In most Dioceses there +is in addition some kind of prize scheme, by means of which children are +encouraged to give special attention to the religious side of their +education. + +We think it worth while to call attention to this system of Diocesan +Inspection, because it is well that Englishmen, and especially English +Churchmen, should be awake to the religious needs of our times, and the +efforts which are being made to meet them. We are aware that all such +machinery as that which we have described must be ineffectual in +implanting in the minds of children that 'fear of the Lord,' which is +'the beginning of wisdom.' No system of inspection and examination, and +no careful grinding of certain lessons, whether they be taken from Holy +Scripture or from any other book, into the minds of little children, can +be a substitute for the true influence of heart upon heart; the teacher +who would generate religious life in the soul of a child must imitate +the Prophet, who put his mouth to the child's mouth, and his eyes upon +his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and prayed that the child might +awake to new life; nevertheless on the supposition that no pains are +spared in obtaining suitable masters and mistresses, much may be done to +encourage them in their difficult work by making it manifest that the +heart of England and of England's Church is with them. And indeed it +_is_ a difficult work: the education of children will never be a simple +and easy thing as long as the world lasts: the value of the finished +article may generally be taken as some measure of the labour and care +necessary to produce it: and the value of a pure, simple-hearted, +well-taught Christian child is so immeasurably and indescribably great, +that we may safely conclude that the workmen and workwomen employed in +producing the result must have spent upon their work an incredible +amount of honest self-denying toil: a perfunctory discharge of the +office of schoolmaster,--so many hours a week, and so much pay,--will +never do: the master of the Elementary School must ever be a Christian +Brother in reality, if not in name. + +Passing for a moment from the religious side of the educational +question, the reader may be interested by looking at a few statistics, +indicating the general position of England, or rather England and Wales, +with reference to elementary education. + +In the year ending August 31, 1884, Her Majesty's Inspectors visited +18,761 day schools, having on their registers the names of 4,337,321 +children. Of these, 3,273,134 were, on an average, in daily attendance +throughout the year. The amount of income arising from school-pence, it +may be worth while noting, was 1,734,115l., or nearly two millions. The +Government grants reached 2,722,351l., or nearly three millions. + +Besides the day schools, 847 night schools were examined. In many parts +of the country these night schools were very important: they afford big +boys the only opportunity of keeping up their knowledge, or +intellectually improving themselves. Nearly twenty-five thousand +scholars over twelve years of age are, on an average, in attendance each +night. + +There are nearly forty thousand certificated teachers at work; and 3214 +students are being prepared in forty-one Training Colleges. + +The expense of education at different places varies remarkably, and +apparently without any intelligible principle. Thus the income per +scholar from voluntary contributions in Voluntary Schools, and from +rates in Board Schools, is in certain selected towns as follows:-- + + Voluntary + contributions. Rates. + £ s. d. £ s. d. +London 0 9 0-1/4 1 9 9 +Brighton 0 11 7-1/2 0 17 7 +Birmingham 0 5 3-3/4 0 13 10-3/4 +Bradford 0 2 11-3/4 0 13 2 +Sheffield 0 2 4-3/4 0 9 8 +Manchester 0 4 7 0 10 10 + +We submit the above figures and facts to the reader's consideration, and +we are compelled to confess that we do not find ourselves in a condition +to offer a satisfactory solution of the difficulties which they suggest. +We should probably have expected that London would be in an exceptional +position with regard to this as to many other matters; but the +magnificent manner in which its Board contributions exceed those of any +other town quite baffles us; it will be observed that the odd shillings +and pence of London more than pay the whole expense at Sheffield. +Possibly the practical difficulty of understanding this economical +anomaly may have had something to do with the results of the late Board +election in London. + +On the whole, we English people seem to be solving the national +education question _more nostro_. We have got a system not quite +symmetrical, not quite logical, not the perfect exponent of the +crotchets of any particular school, but nevertheless one which has on +the whole produced remarkable results, and seems to have in it +sufficient powers of adaptation and development. Of late a new question +has been opened--and an important one--namely, that of making elementary +education entirely gratuitous. There is something to be said in favour +of the proposal, and it is a pity that the merits of the question should +have been somewhat obscured by the intolerable, but to some persons +perhaps attractive, suggestion that the additional expenditure necessary +for making education gratuitous should be supplied by the robbery of the +Church, or (in politer phrase) by the appropriation to the purposes of +education of the national property hitherto supplied to the support of +religion. This cat can scarcely be said to have been let out of the bag, +for her head was no sooner seen peeping out than the alarm created was +dangerously great, and Puss was concealed again in a twinkling; _but she +is inside the bag still_. A much less objectionable proposal was +speedily made, namely, that the deficiency created by the remission of +school-pence should be supplied by a Parliamentary grant. And this +proposal, we presume, may be regarded as at present before the country. + +Looking upon the matter from a Chancellor of the Exchequer point of +view, it is a serious thing to think of having to make an addition of +about two millions to the annual national expenditure; and it may be +observed that leading statesmen on both sides of politics may be found +who are at present unconvinced. Doubtless an expenditure of two millions +would not be grudged by the nation for any necessary purpose; but when +the proposal is to substitute a payment of two millions by the Exchequer +for the two millions paid in driblets by the persons most interested, +for the most part gladly and with special provisions for preventing the +payment pressing hardly upon the exceptionally poor, it may well be that +many sensible persons will ask the question, _Cui bono_? + +Independently, however, of any fiscal considerations, it seems to us +that there are weighty arguments against the proposal of a gratuitous +education. + +It may be observed, and we think it an important observation, that the +proposal of free education is in the teeth of all our recent policy; and +some pressing reasons ought to be given for a complete and sudden +reversal of all that we have hitherto been doing. There are many free +schools in the country, endowed by 'pious founders,' and established for +the special purpose of giving free education to the children of +particular parishes. Some of these schools have had to pass through the +hands of the School Commissioners and to receive new schemes. It has +been, we believe, the invariable practice to insert into these new +schemes the condition of school-pence; the portion of the endowment so +saved has been applied to the foundation of exhibitions and other +methods of assisting deserving children. The inhabitants of the parishes +in which this innovation has been introduced have grumbled and +submitted; it has in some cases been a bitter pill, but the law-abiding +character of the Englishman has caused it to be swallowed without noisy +remonstrance. We cannot, without raising a suspicion of having practised +educational quackery, retreat from the position which we have thus taken +up. + +What is the argument for the position? It is sometimes stated thus, that +people value a thing more when it costs them something to get it. The +argument is not to be despised; but we think that it yields in +importance to the consideration, that the payment of the school fees is +almost the only indication left of the great truth, that the parent is +responsible for his children's education. We have sometimes trembled +when we have seen in Board Schools directions concerning the doings of +the children, which would seem to have had a right to come from parents, +but which do in fact come 'by order of the Board.' We have almost feared +lest in the Fifth Commandment our boys and girls of the rising +generation should be tempted to substitute 'Board' for 'father and +mother.' Certainly there is great danger in virtue of modern social +arrangements lest parents should forget their highest duties to their +children, and children cease to honour their parents in the good +old-fashioned way. We confess, therefore, that we are jealous of the +proposal to take away from the father the proud privilege of paying for +his children's schooling, even though it may sometimes cost him an +effort to do so. + +It may be said, of course, that every man does pay indirectly, because +he pays according to his means to the taxes of the country, and that +therefore the proposal only gives him of his own. The argument is +defective, because it ignores the fact that whatever a man may pay +indirectly in taxes, there is a conscious effort in finding the pence +for the children's schooling, which morally is of great importance. But +the argument fails also on other grounds: it assumes that all men have +children equally; it asserts that the married man with his five children +has no more responsibility than the elderly spinster who lives next +door; it supposes that the parents have not a special interest in their +children, distinct from that which can be felt by any other person +whatever. It may be further urged, that if a man pays for his children +while they are in process of education, the pressure comes upon him when +he is in full vigour, and most able to bear it; whereas if the payment +of pence be commuted for a perpetual tax, the pressure becomes one of a +lifelong character, and is not relieved when the powers of earning begin +to diminish. + +We do not deny that painful cases have occurred, and are likely to still +occur, in which parents are summoned before the magistrates for the +non-attendance of children at school. But free education will not get +rid of these painful cases. Already arrangements are made by law for the +payment of fees for very poor parents who make the proper application; +and if there be any obstacle in the way of the smooth working of the +law, the matter should be looked into and the law amended; but the great +difficulty in the way of good attendance on the part of very poor +children lies, as we apprehend, not more with school-pence, than with +school-clothes, and school-dinners. Attendance cannot be enforced +completely all round, unless free education comprise in its idea free +food and clothing, as well as free books and lessons. + +We cannot but fear also lest the remission of school-pence should be +another step towards the destruction of Voluntary Schools. It is evident +that the proposal is so regarded; and though it may not be difficult to +find arguments to show, that if the loss from school-pence be made up +from the Exchequer, the compensation will work equally and fairly with +respect to all schools, whether Voluntary or Board, still there can be +little doubt that the additional grant will give a handle for proposing +to introduce some more direct interference with the management of +Voluntary Schools than has existed hitherto: and it is probably a true +instinct which leads many friends of Voluntary Schools to look upon the +free system with sincere apprehension. Certainly the indirect abolition +of Voluntary Schools would be a great calamity; and if the views already +expressed be correct, the abolition would leave a legacy of weakness, +and a permanent injury to the Board Schools, when they found themselves +'monarchs of all they survey,' and without the wholesome rivalry of +Voluntary Schools. + +There was no such objection to the free education offered to his poor +brethren by the hero of this article, the sainted De la Salle. He made +himself poor and bound all his disciples to a life of poverty, in order +that they might have fullest sympathy with the poor, and might teach +their children for no other payment or purpose but the love of God. The +atmosphere of a school conducted upon such principles would be so +saturated with the spirit of holiness and godly love, that there would +be no danger of duty to parents, or indeed of any duty either to God or +man, being left out of sight. It would never be forgotten in such +schools that the formation of character is the chief aim of education: +_manners makyth man_--as William of Wickham, our great English father of +liberal education, has taught us: and _manners_, taken in the broadest +and best sense, even more than the three Rs and all the extra subjects +of all the standards, is what we want in our elementary schools, and +what we shall never get, except upon the condition of a religious tone +and a pure atmosphere, and teachers whose hearts are animated by the +love of little children and by the love of God. + +We gladly turn once more, before laying down our pen, to the volume +which we have already introduced to the reader, and out of which we have +told the tale of De la Salle, and the Christian Brothers. We do so for +the purpose of showing what kind of men these good Brothers are, when +put to the test in a severe and unexampled manner. + + 'After the disasters of the Prussian invasion in 1871,' says + our author, 'the City of Boston, in America, placed at the + disposal of the French Academy a special prize of two + thousand francs to be given to whoever should be judged most + worthy of the honour, on account of services rendered during + the siege and in presence of the enemy. The Academy could + find no more fitting recipient of this distinction than the + Community, which during the whole time of the war had sent + five hundred infirmarians into the battlefields, one of whom + had fallen under the fire of the Prussians, among the + wounded at Bourget. Public opinion fully endorsed the + decision, when the first literary body in the world adjudged + this reward to the humble and despised corps of the Frères + des Écoles Chrétiennes. At the same time the National + Defence Government insisted on decorating their venerable + Superior with a cross of honour. He would have refused it, + as he and his predecessors had already done many times, and + he only yielded when he was told that there was nothing + personal in the honour; that it belonged to his Institute; + and that it was only as the representative of the Society + that he was asked to wear it. The eminent Dr. Ricord, who + had been an eyewitness of the devotion of the Brothers, was + charged with the office of fastening the cross on the + cassock of Frère Philippe, in the great hall of the + mother-house. This was the most embarrassing moment in the + life of that man of God. He could not bear to wear the cross + of honour, and in fact he never did wear it. When he + returned after conducting the Doctor to the door at the end + of the ceremony, he somehow managed that no one should + perceive his decoration. The cross was not to be seen; and + it has remained ever since as a kind of myth, or mysterious + souvenir; it was never found.' + +Thus in France Ministers of Public Instruction and Superiors of the +Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes agree in removing the cross from +elementary schools: but how marvellous the distance between the +religious principles which lead to the two kinds of removal! + +And now, in these days of payment by results, let us look for one moment +to the Écoles Chrétiennes from this point of view; and then we will bid +the Brothers a respectful farewell. + + 'For the last forty years a certain number of exhibitions or + scholarships (bourses) have been offered by the City of + Paris for competition amongst the scholars of elementary or + primary schools, which give to the successful candidates a + right of free education in the higher class schools. The + number of scholarships which are offered varies. In 1848 + there were twenty-nine; in 1871, fifty; in 1874, eighty; and + in 1877 the number was raised to a hundred. Competition is + open to all elementary schools, whether taught by the + Christian Brothers, or by lay teachers of no religious order + or society. + + 'The result, taking the thirty years from 1847 to 1877, has + been that of 1445 exhibitions gained by scholars, 1148 have + been won by boys from the Christian schools, and 297 by + those from other schools. Or to take the last seven years of + that period, during which every effort has been made by the + Government, at a lavish outlay, to promote the efficiency of + the secular schools, the results, though the numbers are not + quite so disproportioned, yet show a marked superiority in + the schools of the Christian Brothers. Out of 490 + exhibitions, 364 have been adjudged to their pupils, and 126 + to those of the secular schools.' + +Well done, Christian Brothers! You have preached an admirable sermon to +all those who take an interest in the education of children upon those +comprehensive and deep-reaching words of Christ, 'Take no thought, +saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal +shall we be clothed?... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His +righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] 'The policy of the late Chamber with regard to religion, education, +and the army had very much greater weight with the electors.... The +persistent threat held out by certain Republicans to destroy the Church, +either by a hypocritical fulfillment of the Concordat or by the forcible +separation of Church and State, has been skilfully used by their +adversaries amongst the peasantry, who dread nothing so much as having +to pay their curé themselves. The Government was so well aware of this +fact, that in some of the departments the Catechism was ordered to be +recited in the schools during the last week before the elections, though +only two months earlier the teachers had been strictly forbidden to use +it. This childish stratagem had, as might have been expected, no great +success.'--Gabriel Monod, in 'Contemporary Review,' of December, 1885. + + + + +Art. III.--_The State Papers of the Venetian Republic_; namely, +_Cancelleria Inferiore, Cancelleria Ducale, Cancelleria Secreta,_ +preserved in the Convent of the Frari, at Venice. + + +In recent years a new tendency has been given to historical studies by +the avidity with which scholars have investigated the masses of State +documents accumulated through centuries, almost untouched, in the Record +Offices of various nations. This tendency has been in the direction of +minuteness and accuracy of detail. The finer shades of policy, the +subtler turns in the game of nations, have been revealed by this +intimate study of the documents which record them. Among the archives of +Europe there is none superior, in historical value and richness of +minutiæ, to the Archives of the Venetian Republic, preserved now in the +convent of the Frari at Venice. The importance of these archives is due +to three causes: the position of the Republic in the history of Europe, +the fullness of the archives themselves, and the remarkable preservation +and order which distinguishes them, in spite of the many dangers and +vicissitudes through which they have passed. Venice enjoyed a position, +unique among the States of Europe, for two reasons. Until the discovery +of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, she was the mart of Europe +in all commercial dealings with the East--a position secured to her by +her supremacy in the Levant, and by the strength of her fleet; and, in +the second place, the Republic was the bulwark of Europe against the +Turk. These are the two dominant features of Venice in general history; +and under both aspects she came into perpetual contact with every +European Power. The universal importance of her position is faithfully +reflected in the diplomatic documents contained in her archives. The +Republic maintained ambassadors and residents at every Court. These men +were among the most subtle and accomplished diplomatists of their time, +and the government they served was exacting and critical to the highest +degree. The result is that the dispatches, newsletters and reports of +the Venetian diplomatic agents, form the most varied, brilliant, and +singular gallery of portraits, whether of persons or of peoples, that +exists. There is hardly a nation in Europe that will not find its +history illustrated by the papers which belong to the Venetian +department for foreign affairs. Nor are the papers which relate to the +home government of the Republic less copious and valuable. Each +magistracy has its own series of documents, the daily record of its +proceedings: in this we find the whole of that elaborate machinery of +State laid bare before us in all its intricacy of detail; and we are +enabled to study the construction, the origin, development, and +ossification, of one of the most rigid and enduring constitutions that +the world has ever seen; a constitution so strong in its component +parts, so compact in its rib-work, that it sufficed to preserve a +semblance of life in the body of the Republic long after the heart and +brain had ceased to beat. + +Admirable as are the preservation and order of these masses of State +papers, it is not to be expected that each series, each magisterial +archive, should be complete. There are many broad lacunæ, especially in +the earlier period, which must ever be a cause for regret: for Venice +growing is a more attractive and profitable subject than Venice dying. +During the nine hundred and eighty-seven years that the Government of +the Republic held its seat in Venice, the State papers passed through +many dangers from fire, revolution, neglect, or carelessness. When we +recal the fires of 1230, 1479, 1574, and 1577, it is rather matter for +congratulation that so much has escaped, than for surprise that so much +has been destroyed. The losses would, undoubtedly, have been much more +severe had all the papers and documents been preserved in one place, as +they are now. But the Venetians stored the archives of the various +magistracies either at the offices of those magistrates, or in some +public building especially set apart for the purpose. The Secret +Chancellery, which was always an object of great solicitude, containing +as it did all the more private papers of the State, was deposited in a +room on the second floor of the Ducal Palace. Many of the criminal +records belonging to the Council of Ten were stored in the Piombi under +the roof of the Palace; and the famous adventurer Casanova relates how +he beguiled some of his prison hours by reading the trial of a Venetian +nobleman, which he found among other papers piled at the end of the +corridor where he was allowed to take exercise. Soon after the fall of +the Republic, the following disposition of the papers was made. The +political archive was stored at the Scuola di S. Teodoro; the judicial, +at the convent of S. Giovanni Laterano; the financial, at S. Procolo. In +the year 1815, the Austrian Government resolved to collect and arrange +all State papers in one place. The building chosen was the convent of +the Frari; and the work was entrusted to Jacopo Chiodo, the first +director of the archives. The scheme suggested by Chiodo has served as a +basis for the arrangement that has been already carried out, or is still +in hand. + +Under the Republic it was natural that access to important diplomatic +papers and to secrets of State should be granted with reserve, and only +to persons especially authorized to make research. The directors +appointed by the Austrian Government showed a disposition to maintain +that precedent; and M. Baschet relates that it was only by a personal +appeal to the Emperor that he obtained access to the archives of the +Ten. The Italian Government allow nearly absolute liberty; and nothing +can exceed the courtesy of the officials under their distinguished +director, the Commendatore Cecchetti. + +Any attempt to explain the archives of Venice and to display their +contents, must be preceded by a statement of the main features of the +constitution of the Republic upon which the order and the arrangement of +the archives is based. The constitution of Venice has frequently been +likened to a pyramid, with the Great Council for its base and the Doge +for apex. The figure is more or less correct; but it is a pyramid that +has been broken at its edges by time and by necessity. The legislative +and political body was originally constructed in four groups, or +tiers--if we are to preserve the pyramidal simile--one rising above the +other. These four tiers were the Maggior Consiglio or Great Council, the +Lower House; the Pregadi or Senate, the Upper House; the Collegio, or +the Cabinet; and the Doge. The famous Council of Ten and its equally +famous Commission, the Three Inquisitors of State, did not enter into +the original scheme; they are an appendix to the State, an intrusion, a +break in the symmetry of the pyramid. Later on we shall explain their +construction and relation to the main body of government. For the +present we leave them aside, and confine our attention to the four +departments of the Venetian constitution above mentioned. + +The Great Council, as is well known, did not assume its permanent form +and place in the Venetian constitution till the year 1296. At that date +the famous revolution, known as the closing of the Great Council, took +place. By that act, which was only the final step in a revolution that +had been for long in process, those citizens who were excluded from the +Great Council remained for ever outside the constitution; all functions +of government were concentrated in the hands of those nobles who were +included by the Council; the constitution of the Republic was +stereotyped as a rigid oligarchy. Previous to the year 1296, a great +council had existed, created first in the reign of Pietro Ziani (1172); +but this council was really democratic in character, not oligarchic; it +was elected each September, and its members were chosen from the whole +body of the citizens. Earlier still than the reign of Ziani, the +population used to meet tumultuously and express their opinion upon +matters of public interest, such as the election of a Doge or a +declaration of war, first in the _Concione_ under their tribunes, while +Venetia was still a confederation of lagoon-islands; and then in the +_Arengo_ under their Doge, when the confederation was centralized at +Rialto. But of these assemblies the latter was disorderly and irregular, +and the former was of doubtful authority. It is from the closing of the +Great Council that we must date the positive establishment of the +Venetian oligarchy, and the completion of that constitution which +endured for five hundred years, from 1296 till the fall of the Republic +in 1797. + +The age at which the young nobles might take their seats in the Council, +that is to say, might enter upon public life, was fixed at twenty-five, +except in the cases of the Barbarelli, or thirty nobles between the ages +of twenty and twenty-five, who were elected by ballot on the fourth of +each December, St. Barbara's day; and in the case of those who, in +return for money advanced to the State, obtained a special grace to take +their seats before their twenty-fifth year. + +The chief functions of the Great Council were the passing of laws, and +the election of magistrates. But in process of time the legislative +duties of the Council were almost entirely absorbed by the Senate; and +the Maggior Consiglio only retained its great and distinguished +function, the election of almost every officer of State, from the Doge +downwards. The large number of these magistracies, and the various +seasons of the year at which they fell vacant, engaged the Great Council +in a perpetual series of elections. It is not our intention to explain +in detail the elaborate process by which the Venetians carried out their +political elections; such an explanation would carry us beyond our +scope, which is to state the position and functions of each member in +the constitution of the Republic. But, briefly, the process was this. +The law required either two or four competitors for every vacant +magistracy, and the election to that magistracy was said to take place +_a due_ or _a quattro mani_, respectively. If the office to be filled +required _quattro mani_, the whole body of the Great Council balloted +for four groups of nine members each, who were chosen by drawing a +golden ball from among the silver ones in the balloting urn. Each of +these groups retired to a separate room, and there each group elected +one candidate to go to the poll for the vacant office. The names of the +four candidates were then presented to the Council and balloted. The +candidate who secured the largest number of votes, above the half of +those present, was elected to the vacant office. Thus the election to +the magistracy was a triple process; first, the election of the +nominators, then the election of the candidates, and finally the +election to the office. + +The Great Council, as representing the whole Republic, possessed certain +judicial functions, which were used on rare occasions only, when the +State believed itself placed in grave danger through the fault of its +commanders. The famous case of Vettor Pisani, after his defeat at Pola, +in 1379, and the case of Antonio Grimani, in the year 1499, were both +sent to the Grand Council, who passed sentence on those generals. But, +broadly speaking, the judicial functions of the Maggior Consiglio hardly +existed, its legislative functions dwindled away, and were absorbed by +the Senate, and its chief duty and prerogative lay in the election of +almost every State official. + +Coming now to the second tier in the pyramid of the constitution, the +Senate, or Pregadi,--the invited, we find that the Senate proper was +composed of sixty members, elected in the Great Council, six at a time. +The elections took place once a week, and were so arranged that they +should be complete by the first of October in each year. In addition to +the Senate proper, another body of sixty, called the _Zonta_ or +addition, was elected by the outgoing Senate at the close of its year of +office; but it was necessary that the names of the _Zonta_ should be +approved by the Great Council before their election was valid. The +Senate and the Zonta together formed one hundred and twenty members; and +besides these, the Doge, his six councillors, the Council of Ten, the +Supreme Court of Appeal, and many special magistrates, who presided over +departments of Finance, Customs, and Justice, belonged _ex officio_ to +the Senate, and brought the number of votes up to two hundred and +forty-six. Further, fifty-one magistrates of minor departments also sat, +with the right to debate, but without the right to vote. + +The Senate was the real core of the Administration. The presence, _ex +officio_, of so many and such various officers of State sufficiently +indicates the wide field which was covered by the authority of the +Pregadi. The large number of the Senatorial body, and the diversity of +subjects with which it dealt, required that business should be carried +on with parsimony of time and precision of method; and therefore private +members were restricted to the right of debate. Only the Doge, his +councillors, the Savii Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma had the right +to move the Senate; and their propositions related to peace, war, +foreign affairs, instructions to ambassadors, and representatives of +foreign Courts, to commercial treaties, finance, and home legislation. +The various measures were spoken to by their proposers, and by the +magistrates whose offices they affected. As in the case of the Great +Council, the Senate also on rare occasions exercised judicial functions. +It was in the discretion of the College to send a faulty commander for +trial either to the Great Council or to the Senate; but in that case the +charge must be one of negligence or misjudgment; if the charge implied +treason, it was taken before the Council of Ten. A few of the higher +officers of State were elected in the Senate, among them the Savii +Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma, and the Admiral of the Fleet. The +functions of the Senate were legislative, judicial, and elective. But +just as the Great Council was pre-eminently the elective body, so the +Senate was pre-eminently the legislative body in the constitution of +Venice. + +The Collegio or Cabinet of Ministers, formed the third tier in the +pyramid. The College was composed of the following members: The Doge, +his six councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal; these +ten persons formed the Collegio minore, or Serenissima Signoria; in +addition to these there were the six Savii Grandi; the five Savii di +Terra ferma, and the five Savii da mar; a body of twenty-six persons in +all, forming the College. Beginning with the lowest in rank, the Savii +agli ordini, or da mar, were, as their name implies, a Board of +Admiralty; but they acted in that capacity under the orders of the Savii +Grandi upon whom the naval affairs of the Republic immediately depended. +The Savii agli ordini had a vote but no voice in the College; this post +was given, for the most part, to young and promising politicians; it was +a training school for statesmen: 'Officio loro,' says Giannotti, 'è +tacere ed ascoltare.' The office lasted for six months only; and so +there was a constant stream of young men passing through the political +school, and becoming intimately acquainted with the affairs of the +Republic and the methods of government. How excellent that school must +have been will become apparent as we proceed to note the functions of +the College of which the Savii agli ordini formed a silent part. + +Next in order above the Savii agli ordini came the Savii di Terra ferma. +This Board was composed of five members; the Savio alia Scrittura, or +Minister for War; the Savio Cassier, or Chancellor of the Exchequer; the +Savio alle ordinanze, or minister for the native militia in the cities +on the mainland; the Savio ai da mò, or minister for the execution of +all measures voted urgent; the Savio ai Ceremoniali, or Minister for +Ceremonies of State. These Savii di Terra ferma, like the Savii agli +ordini, held office for six months only. + +The six Savii Grandi, who came above the Savii di Terra ferma, +superintended the actions of the two boards below them, and, if +necessary, issued orders which would override those of the other +ministers. They were, in fact, the responsible directors of the State. +The Savii Grandi were required to prepare all business to be laid before +the College, where it was first discussed and arranged before being +submitted to the Senate for approval. To facilitate this labour of +preparation, each of the Savii Grandi took a week in turn, and the Savio +of the week was, in fact, Prime Minister of Venice. It was he who read +dispatches, granted audiences to ambassadors, and prepared official +replies. The Doge presided in the College, it is true, but it was the +Savio of the week who opened the business, and suggested the various +measures to be adopted. + +Besides these boards of Savii, the College included the Ducal +Councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal. We shall speak +of these latter when we come to the judicial department of the +constitution. The office of Ducal Councillor was, perhaps, the most +venerable in Venice. These six men held, as it were, the Ducal honours +and functions in commission; they embodied the authority of the Doge to +such an extent, that without their presence he could not act; he became +a nonentity unless supported by four at least of his council; while, on +the other hand, the absence of the Doge in no way diminished the +authority of the Ducal Councillors. For example, the Doge without his +council could not preside, neither in the Maggior Consiglio, nor in the +Senate, nor in the College, but four Ducal Councillors had the power to +preside without the Doge. The Doge might not open dispatches except in +the presence of his council, but his council might open dispatches in +the absence of the Doge. Yet, great as were the external honours of the +Ducal Councillors, the office was rather ornamental than important. It +was the Savii Grandi who were the directing spirit through all the +multitudinous affairs of the College. As we have seen, those affairs +embraced the whole field of government, except the field of Justice. The +College had no judicial functions, nor did it legislate. As the Maggior +Consiglio was the elective member, and the Senate the legislative, so +the College was the initiative and executive member of the State. The +College proposed measures which became law in the Senate; and the +execution of those laws was entrusted to the College which had the +machinery of State at its disposal. It is this right of initiating which +distinguishes the College; and it is just upon this point that the Ducal +Councillors appear to have a slight pre-eminence; for the Doge, his +council, and the Savii alone, had the right to initiate in the Senate; +the Doge, his council, and the chiefs of the Ten alone, had the right to +initiate in the Council of Ten; the Doge and his council alone had the +right to initiate in the Maggior Consiglio. The Doge and his council +alone move through all departments of government, presiding and +initiating, embodying the spirit of the Republic; and yet in no case is +their power great; for the Savii had more influence in the Senate, the +Chiefs of the Ten in the Council of Ten; and the Great Council, where +the Doge and his councillors had the field to themselves, was of little +importance in the direction of affairs. + +At the apex of the constitutional pyramid we find the Doge. The Doge +also had his distinctive functions in the State; his duties were +ornamental rather than administrative. Though all the acts of the +Government were executed in his name, laws passed, dispatches sent, +treaties made, and war declared, yet it is not in these departments that +the Doge stands pre-eminent; it is throughout the pomp and display of +the Republic that he is supreme; and the archive wherein his glory shows +most brightly is the _Ceremoniali_. + +The Doge was elected for life. When a Doge died, the eldest Ducal +Councillor filled the office of Vice-Doge until the election of the new +Prince. The remains of the deceased Doge were laid out in the Chamber of +the Pioveghi, on the first floor of the Ducal Palace, dressed in robes +of State, the mantle of cloth of gold and the ducal beretta. Twenty +Venetian noblemen were appointed to attend in the chapelle ardente. On +the third day the Doge was buried; and the Great Council on the same day +elected the officers who were to revise the coronation oath, and to +render its provisions more stringent if the conduct of the deceased had +revealed any point where a future Doge could exercise even the smallest +independence in constitutional matters. At the same time the Council +elected another body of officers, who were required to examine the +conduct of the late Doge, and, if he had violated his coronation oath, +his heirs paid the penalty by a fine. Immediately after the appointment +of these officers, the Maggior Consiglio proceeded to create the +forty-one electors to the dukedom. The process of election was long and +intricate, and occupied five days at the least; for there was a +quintuple series of ballots and votings to be concluded before the +forty-one were finally chosen. When the forty-one noblemen had been +appointed they were taken to a chamber specially prepared for them, +where, as in the case of a papal election, they were obliged to stay +until they had determined upon the new Doge. They were bound by oath +never to reveal what took place inside this election chamber. But this +oath was not always observed in the spirit; and memoranda of the +proceedings of the forty-one are still preserved in the private archives +of the Marcello family. The first step was to elect three priors, or +presidents, and two secretaries. The presidents took their seats at a +table on which stood a ballot-box and an urn. The secretaries gave to +every elector a slip of paper, upon which each one wrote the name of the +man whom he proposed as Doge. The forty-one slips of paper were then +placed in the urn, and one was drawn out at hazard. If the noble, whose +name was written upon the slip, chanced to be an elector, he was +required to withdraw. Then each of the electors was at liberty to attack +the candidate, to point out defects and recal misdeeds. These hostile +criticisms, which covered the whole of a candidate's private life, his +physical qualities and his public conduct, were written down by the +secretaries, and the candidate was recalled. The objections urged +against him were read over to the aspirant, without the names of the +urgers appearing, and he was invited to defend himself. Attack and +defence continued till no further criticisms were offered, and then the +name of the candidate was balloted before the priors. If it received +twenty-five favourable votes, its owner was declared Doge; if less than +twenty-five, a fresh name was drawn from the urn, and the whole process +was repeated until some candidate secured the necessary five-and-twenty +votes. As soon as this issue was reached, the Signoria was informed of +the result, and the new Doge, attended by the electors, descended to +Saint Mark's, where, from the pulpit on the left side of the choir, the +Prince was shown to the people, and where, before the high altar, he +took the coronation oath and received the standard of Saint Mark. The +great doors of the Basilica were then thrown open, and the Doge passed +in procession round the Piazza and returned to the Porta della Carta. At +the top of the Giants' Stair the eldest Ducal Councillor placed the +beretta on his head, and he was brought to the Sala dei Pioveghi, where +the late Doge had lain in state, and where he too would one day come. +Then the Doge retired to his private apartments, and the ceremony of +election closed. + +As we have already observed, the position of the Doge in the Republic of +Venice was almost purely ornamental. The Doge presided, either in person +or by commission through his councillors, at every Council of State; he +presided, however, not as a guiding and deliberating chief, but as a +symbol of the Majesty of Venice. He is there not as an individual, a +personality, but as the outward and visible sign of an idea, the idea of +the Venetian oligarchy. The history of the personal authority of the +Doge falls into three periods. A period of great vigour and almost +despotic power dates from the foundation of the Dukedom, in the year +697, down to the reign of Pietro Ziani in 1172. During this first +period, the Ducal authority showed a tendency to become concentrated, +and almost hereditary in the hands of one or two powerful families. For +example, we have seen Doges of the Partecipazio house, five Doges of the +Candiani, and three of the Orseoli. But the rivalry and balanced power +of these great families eventually exhausted one another, and preserved +the Dukedom of Venice from ever becoming a kingdom. A second period +extends from the year 1172 down to 1457, and is marked by the emergence +of the great commercial houses, and the development of the oligarchy +upon the basis of a Great Council. The aristocracy during this period +were engaged in excluding the people from any share in the government, +and in curbing and finally crushing the authority of the Doge. The steps +in this process are indicated by the closing of the Great Council, the +revolution of Tiepolo, the trials of Marino Faliero, Lorenzo Celsi, and +the Foscari. The third period covers what remains of the Republic, from +1457 down to 1797. During this period the Doge was little other than the +figurehead of the Republic; the point of least weight and greatest +splendour; the brilliant apex to the pyramid of the Venetian +constitution. + +So far, then, we have examined the four tiers in the original structure +of the constitution, the Doge, the College, the Senate, and the Great +Council; and we have seen that, broadly speaking these were, +respectively, ornamental, initiative and executive, legislative, and +elective. But this pyramid of the constitution was not perfectly +symmetrical; its edges were broken. This interruption of outline was +caused by the Council of Ten. The exact position in the Venetian +constitution occupied by this famous Council, and its relations to the +other members of the government, have proved a constant source of +difficulty and error to students of Venetian history. Leaving aside the +obscure problem of the origin of the Ten, it is still possible for us to +indicate the constitutional necessity which called that Council into +existence. As we have pointed out, the College could not act on its own +responsibility without the Senate; the Senate could not initiate without +the College, for the preparation of all affairs passed through the hands +of the College. To establish connection between these two branches of +the administration was a process that required some time; it could not +be done swiftly and secretly. In all crises of political importance, +whether home or foreign, some instrument, more expeditious than the +Senate, was required to sanction the propositions of the College. That +instrument, acting swiftly and secretly, with a speed and secrecy +impossible in so large a body as the Senate, was created with the +Council of Ten. The Ten were an extraordinary magistracy, devised to +meet unexpected pressure upon the ordinary machine of government. The +emergence of the Ten proves this view. Without determining whether the +Council existed previous to the year 1310, we may take that year as the +date of its first appearance as a potent element in the State. The +rebellion of Tiepolo and Querini, an aristocratic revolt against the +growing power of the new commercial nobility, paralysed the ordinary +machinery of State, and revealed the danger inherent in a large and +slow-moving body of rulers. The Ten were called to power, just as the +Romans created the Dictatorship, in order to save the State in a +dangerous crisis. + +The place of the Ten in the constitutional structure is below the +College and parallel with the Senate. Below the College the +administration bifurcates, the ordinary course of business flows through +the Senate, the extraordinary through the Ten. The Ten possessed an +authority equal to that of the Senate; the choice of which instrument +should be used, rested with the College. The Ten appear to be of more +importance than the Senate, solely because they were used upon more +critical and dramatic occasions. Wherever the machinery of the College +and Senate moves too slowly, we find the swifter machinery of the +College and the Ten in motion. And so not only in political affairs, +home and foreign, but also in affairs financial and judicial, the +Council of Ten takes its part. The Ten, as being the readier instrument +to the hands of the College, gradually absorbed more and more of the +functions which originally belonged to the Senate. This process of +absorption, and the extension of the province of the Ten, is marked by +the establishment of its sub-commissions, that took their place in every +department side by side with the delegations of the Senate and the +ordinary magistrates. In politics and foreign affairs there is the +famous office of the Three Inquisitors of State. In the region of +Justice all cases of treason and coining, and certain cases of outrage +on public morals, came before the Ten; and it was always open to the +College to remove a case from the ordinary courts to the Ten, when State +reasons rendered it expedient to do so. In the Police department the +Esecutori contro la Bestemmia, and in Finance the Camerlenghi, were +officers of that Council. In the War Office the artillery was under +their control; and in the arsenal certain galleys, marked C.X., were +always at their disposal. + +These five great members of the State, four regular and one irregular, +formed the political and legislative departments of the Venetian +Government. It would require too many details to give a similar account +of the Judicial, Educational, and Religious machinery. + +One of the most remarkable features in the Venetian constitution is the +infinite subdivision of government, and the number of offices to be +filled. Nobles alone were eligible for the majority of these offices, +and if we consider how small a body the Great Council really was, it is +clear that the larger number of Venetian noblemen must have been +employed in the service of the State at some time in their lives. The +great political and administrative activity which reigned inside the +comparatively small body that formed the ruling caste, as compared with +the absolute stagnation and quiet which marked the life of the ordinary +citizen, is one of the most noteworthy points in the history of Venice. +Every noble above the age of twenty-five was a member of the Maggior +Consiglio; every week that council had to fill up some office of State, +had some new candidate before it. The tenure of all offices, except the +Dukedom and the Procuratorship of St. Mark, was so brief, rarely +exceeding a year, or sixteen months, that the fret and activity of +elections must have been nearly incessant. This constant unrest bore its +fruit in perpetual intrigues, and the censors were appointed to check +the rampant canvassing and bribery. But the main point which is +impressed upon us is the universality of political training to which all +the nobles of Venice were subjected. No matter how frivolous a young +patrician might be, he would be obliged to sit in the Great Council; he +would be called upon to assist in electing the Ten, whose omniscience +and severity he had every reason to dread; he might even find himself +named to fill some minor post. It was impossible, under these +circumstances, that he should fail to be educated politically, or that +he should ever lose the keenest interest in every movement of the State. +It is to this political activity that we may possibly look for one of +the reasons which conduced to that extraordinary longevity which the +constitution of Venice displayed. + +Each of the Government offices, many as they were, possessed its own +collection of papers. These are either still in loose sheets, just as +they left the office, or bound in volumes. They are indicated by the +name of the Government department, the subject dealt with, and the date. +The pages are of three kinds; first, there are the files or _filze_, the +original minutes of the Board, written down in actual Council by the +secretaries, and with the _filze_ are the dispatches or other documents +upon which the Council took measures. In many of the more important +departments, such as the Senate, the Ten, or the College, these _filze_ +were epitomized; the substance of each day's business was written out in +large volumes known as _Registri_; each entry was signed by the +secretary who had made the digest, and was accepted as authentic for all +purposes of reference. These registers are, in many cases, of the +greatest value where the files have been destroyed or lost. They were +more constantly in use, and therefore more carefully preserved; and now +they frequently form our sole authority for certain periods. As a rule +the registers are very full and good; they contain all that is of +importance in the files; but in making research upon any point it is +never safe to ignore the files where they exist. In some cases the +secretaries made a further digest of the registers in volumes known as +Rubrics, which contain in brief the headings of all materials to be +found in the registers. As the registers sometimes supply the place of +lost files, so the rubrics are occasionally our only authority where +registers and files are both missing. The rubrics are often of the +highest value. As an instance, we may cite the twenty volumes of rubrics +to the dispatches from England between the years 1603 and 1748. The +method of research, therefore, where all three kinds of documents exists +is this, to examine first the rubrics, then the registers, and then the +files. But the infinite subdivisions of the Government offices in Venice +render the task of research somewhat bewildering; and a student cannot +be certain that he has exhausted all the information on his subject, +until he has examined a large number of these minor offices. He will +probably find some notice of the point he is examining in the papers of +the Senate or of the Ten, and, if it be a matter of home affairs, he can +trace it thence through the various magistracies under whose cognizance +it would come; or if it be a matter of foreign policy, he will find +further information in the papers of the College. + +Under the Republic these collections of State papers were not known as +archives, but as chancelleries. The collections of highest interest, the +papers to which the student is most likely to turn his attention, are +those relating to the ceremony, to the home, and to the foreign policy +of Venice. These three groups are contained in the Ducal, the Secret, +and the Inferior Chancelleries. The three chancelleries were committed +to the charge of the Grand Chancellor and his staff of secretaries, who +received, arranged, and registered the official papers as they issued +from the various Councils of State. The Grand Chancellor was not a +patrician; he was chosen from that upper class of commoners known as +_cittadini originarii_, an inferior order of nobility, ranking below the +governing caste, but bearing coat armour. The office of Grand Chancellor +was of great dignity and antiquity, and was held for life. The +Chancellor was head and representative of the people, as the Doge was +head and representative of the patricians; and, when the nobility began +to exclude the people from all share in the government, the Grand +Chancellor was allowed to be present at all sessions of the Great +Council and of the Senate as the silent witness of the people, +confirming the acts of the Government, and bridging, though by the +finest thread, the gulf that otherwise separated the governed from the +governing. The part which the Grand Chancellor took in the business of +the Maggior Consiglio and of the Senate was a constant and an active +part. It was his duty to superintend the arrangements for every +election, to direct the secretaries in attendance, to announce the names +of the candidates for office, and to proclaim the successful competitor. +His seat in the Great Council Hall was on the left-hand of the Doge's +daïs, and his secretaries sat below him. But the custody of the State +papers was by far the most important function which the Grand Chancellor +had to perform. To assist him in these labours he was placed at the head +of a large College of Secretaries, trained in a school especially +established to fit them for their duties. In the year 1443 a decree of +the Great Council required the Doge and the Signoria to elect each year +twelve lads to be taught Latin, rhetoric and philosophy, and the number +of the pupils was gradually increased. From this school they passed out +by examination, and became first extra-ordinaries and ordinaries, called +Notaries Ducal, then secretaries to the Senate, and finally secretaries +to the Ten. The post of secretary was one which required much diligence +and discretion. The secretaries were in constant attendance on the +various Councils of State, and thus became intimately acquainted with +all the secret affairs of the Republic. They were frequently sent on +delicate missions. It was a secretary of the Ten who brought Carmagnola +to Venice to stand his trial; and, as we shall presently relate, it was +a secretary of the Senate who announced to Thomas Killigrew, the English +Minister, his dismissal from Venice. The secretaries were sometimes +accredited as Residents to foreign Courts, though they were not eligible +for the post of Ambassador. Inside the Chancellery the secretaries were +entirely at the disposal of the Grand Chancellor, and their duties were +to study, to invent, and to read cipher; to transcribe the registers +and rubrics; to keep the annals of the Council of Ten, and to enter the +laws in the statute book. + +We may now turn our attention to the principal series of State papers +which issued from the five great members of the Constitution, the +Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, the Ten, the College, and the Doge, and +show how these papers were arranged under the three Chancelleries of +which we have spoken. + +The Cancelleria Inferiore was preserved in one large room near the head +of the Giants' Staircase in the Ducal Palace, and was entrusted to the +care of the Notaries Ducal, the lowest order of secretaries. The +documents in this Chancellery related chiefly to the Doge; his rights, +his official possessions, his restrictions, and his state. Among these +papers, accordingly, we find the coronation oaths, the Reports of the +Commissioners appointed to examine those oaths, and the Reports of the +Commissioners appointed to review the life of each Doge deceased. This +series is valuable as revealing the steps by which the aristocracy +slowly curtailed the personal authority of the Doge, and bound his +office about with iron fetters, and crushed his power. In addition to +these papers the Inferior Chancellery contained the documents relating +to the dignitaries of St. Mark's in its capacity as Ducal Chapel; the +order and ceremony of the Ducal household; the expenditure of the Civil +List; and the archives of the Procurators of Saint Mark, which contained +the will, trusts, and bequests of private citizens. + +The Ducal Chancellery, which the Council of Ten once called 'cor nostri +status,' was preserved on the upper floor of the palace, and was reached +by the Scala d'oro. The papers were arranged in a number of cupboards +surmounted by the arms of the various Grand Chancellors who had presided +in that office. The documents of the Ducal Chancellery are of far higher +importance than those contained in the Cancelleria Inferiore; they +consist of political papers which it was not necessary to keep secret. +Among the many interesting series of documents which fell to the Ducal +Chancellery, the most valuable are the 'Compilazione delle Leggi,' or +statute-books distinguished by the various colours of their +bindings--gold, roan, and green--to mark the statutes which relate to +the Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, and the College respectively; the +Secretario alle voci, or record of all elections in the Great Council; +the Libri gratiarum, or special privileges. But most important of all is +the great series of documents which include the whole legislation of the +State relating to Venetian affairs on sea and land. Of this vast series +those marked _Terra_ contain 3128 volumes of files, 411 volumes of +registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics; those marked _Mar_ number 1286 +volumes of files, 247 volumes of registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics. It +will easily be seen how important the Ducal Chancellery is both for the +verification of dates, and also as displaying so large a tract of the +Venetian home administration. + +But important as the Ducal Chancellery undoubtedly is, it cannot vie in +interest with the Cancelleria Secreta, which might, with every justice, +have been called 'cor nostri status', for it is in the papers of that +Chancellery that the long history of the growth, splendour, and decline +of the Republic is to be traced in all its manifold details and +complicated relations. The Secret Chancellery was established by a +decree of the Great Council in the year 1402. Its object was to preserve +those papers of the highest State importance, from the publicity to +which the Ducal Chancellery was exposed. The regulation of the Secret +Chancellery was undertaken by the Council of Ten, and the rigorous +orders which they issued from time to time abundantly prove the +difficulty they experienced in securing the secrecy which they desired. +The Secret Chancellery became the depository of all State papers of +great moment; and if we take the chief members of the constitution in +order, and note the documents issuing from them which fell to the +custody of the Secreta, we shall see how the great flow of Venetian +history is to be followed here rather than in any other department of +the archives. + +To begin with the Maggior Consiglio, we have the long series of +registers containing the deliberations of the Council from the year 1232 +down to the fall of the Republic in 1797, occupying forty-two volumes, +and distinguished, at first, by such capricious names as Capricornus, +Philosus, Presbiter, and Fronesis; and later on by the names of the +secretaries who prepared them, Ottobonus primus, Ottobonus filius, +Busenellus, and Vianolus. In the special archive of the Avogadori di +Commun a contemporary series of registers is to be found; it covers from +1232 to 1547, and should be consulted together with the first series, +for it is more voluminous and minute. The first reference to England +that occurs in the Venetian archives is in the volume Fronesis +(1318-1385). This, and all other documents relating to Great Britain, +have been collected and rendered accessible in the splendid and +monumental series of the 'Calendar of State Papers,' edited with such +diligence and care by the late Mr. Rawdon Brown. Mr. Brown's published +work goes down to the year 1552; and it is only after that date that any +work relating to England remains to be done. That work, however, is +voluminous, for the regular and unbroken series of dispatches from +England does not begin till the reign of James I. Little more respecting +England is to be expected from the papers of the Great Council, however; +for at the date where Mr. Brown's work ends, the Maggior Consiglio had +ceased to occupy a high position in the direction of Venetian foreign +policy; its functions were chiefly confined to the election of +magistrates. + +The Senate supplied a far larger number of papers to the Secret +Chancellery than that yielded by the Great Council. This was to be +expected, owing to the central position of the Senate in the +constitution, and its prominent place in the management of Venetian +policy, home and foreign. The oldest documents in the archives of Venice +belong to the Senate. They are contained among the volumes of Pacts or +treaties, seven in number, without including the volume Albus, which is +devoted to treaties between the Republic and the Eastern Empire, nor the +volume Blancus, which contains the treaties between Venice and the +Emperors of the West. The thirty-three volumes of Commemoriali formed a +sort of commonplace book for the use of statesmen; in them were +registered briefly the most important events and abstracts of principal +documents which passed through the hands of the Government. The +Commemoriali cover the years 1293 to 1797; but after the middle of the +sixteenth century they were neglected, and they are chiefly valuable +down to that date only. After the Patti and Commemoriali we begin the +record of the regular proceedings in the Senate. This series contains +papers relating to home government, foreign policy, the dominions of +Venice on the mainland, in Dalmatia and the Levant, ecclesiastical +matters, relations with Rome, instructions to ambassadors and reports +from governors. So widely spread and so varied were the attributes of +the Senate, that the analysis of a single day's proceedings in that +house would prove most instructive to the student of the Venetian +constitution, and would, in all probability, bring him into contact with +a large number of the leading magistracies of the Republic. The series +of senatorial papers proceeds in almost unbroken completeness from the +year 1293 down to the close of the Republic; and counting files, +registers and rubrics, numbers 1599 volumes. This main series is known +by different names at different periods, and shows signs of that +tendency to subdivision which characterizes all Venetian Government +offices. The volumes which run from the year 1293 to 1440 were known as +Registri misti; those covering from 1491 to 1630, and overlapping the +first Misti, were called Registri secreti. After the year 1630 the +papers of the Senate are divided into those known as Corti, relating to +foreign Powers; and those known as Rettori, relating to the government +of the Venetian dominion. + +Besides this great series of Deliberazioni, containing the general +movement of business in the Senate, there is another voluminous series +of documents, equally important, and even more interesting to the +student of general history, the dispatches received from Venetian +representatives in foreign Courts, and the Relazioni, or reports which +ambassadors read before the Senate upon their return from abroad. +Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of this series; and the value of the +Relazioni at least has been fully recognized. Yet it should be borne in +mind that the Relazioni are only a part of the series, and that, taken +alone and isolated from the dispatches, they lose much of their value. +For we must not forget that the Relazioni were drawn up on more or less +conventional lines; the headings, under which the report was to fall, +were indicated by the Government, and were invariable; and, further, the +home-coming ambassador handed his report to his successor, who +frequently used it as a basis in drawing up his own. The result is that, +except in the descriptions of Court life, and in the sketches of +prominent characters, the Relazioni are apt to repeat themselves. But, +taken with the dispatches, which arrived almost daily, they form the +most varied, brilliant, and minute gallery of national portraits that +the world possesses. The reports and dispatches were made by men whose +whole political training had rendered them the acutest of observers, and +they were presented to critics who were filled with the keenest +curiosity, and were accustomed to demand full and precise information. +Not a detail is omitted as unimportant; the diurnal gossip of the Court, +the daily movements of the sovereign and his favourites; are all +recorded with impartial and unerring observation. The relation of the +Dispacci to the Relazioni is the relation of the study to the picture. +The Relazioni are the large canvas upon which the whole nation is +broadly depicted, the Dispacci are the patient and minute studies upon +which the excellence of the picture depends. The majority of the +Venetian Relazioni between the years 1492 and 1699 have been published; +the earlier part by Signor Alberi, and the later by Signori Barozzi and +Berchet. The eighteenth century still remains to be worked out. In the +series of Relazioni and Dispacci, Great Britain occupies a comparatively +small space. While France, Germany, and Constantinople, each give five +volumes of reports, England gives one only, dating from 1531 to 1763. Of +dispatches from England there are 139 volumes in all; while from +Constantinople we have 242, from France 276, from Milan, 230, and from +Germany 202. + +Previous to the year 1603, when the regular series of dispatches from +England begins, there had been intermittent relations between the +Republic and the English Court. Sebastian Giustiniani was Venetian +ambassador in London in the reign of Henry VIII. (1515-1519); and in the +reign of Mary, Giovanni Michiel represented the Republic for four +years--from 1554 to 1558. The Protestant reign of Elizabeth caused a +long break, during which the Republic received its information about the +affairs of England from its ambassadors in France and Spain. Permanent +relations were not resumed between the two Powers till the accession of +James I., one of whose earliest acts was to send Sir Henry Wotton to +Venice as his ambassador. The appointment of Sir Henry Wotton was a +movement of gratitude on the part of the King; and the cause of it +cannot be better told than in the words of Sir Henry's biographer, who +thus describes this 'notable accident:' + + 'Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to + Florence--which was about a year before the death of Queen + Elizabeth--Ferdinand, the Great Duke of Tuscany, had + intercepted certain letters that discovered a design to take + away the life of James, the then King of Scots. The Duke + abhorring this fact, and resolving to endeavour a prevention + of it, advised with his Secretary Vietta, by what means a + caution might be best given to that King; and after + consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry + Wotton, whom Vietta first commended to the Duke, and the + Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that + frequented his Court. + + 'Sir Henry was gladly called by his friend Vietta to the + Duke, who dispatched him into Scotland with letters to the + King, and with those letters such Italian antidotes against + poison as the Scots till then had been strangers to. + + 'Having parted from the Duke, he took up the name and + language of an Italian; and thinking it best to avoid the + line of English intelligence and danger, he posted into + Norway, and through that country towards Scotland, where he + found the King at Stirling. Being there, he used means, by + Bernard Lindsey, one of the King's bed-chamber, to procure + him a speedy and private conference with his Majesty. + + 'This being by Bernard Lindsey made known to the King, the + King required his name--which was said to be Octavio + Baldi--and appointed him to be heard privately at a fixed + hour that evening. + + 'When Octavio Baldi came to the Presence-chamber door, he + was requested to lay aside his long rapier--which, + Italian-like, he then wore;--and being entered the chamber, + he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords + standing distant in several corners of the chamber; at the + sight of whom he made a stand; which the King observing, + bade him be bold and deliver his message; for he would + undertake for the secrecy of all that were present. Then did + Octavio Baldi deliver his letters and message to the King in + Italian; which when the King had graciously received, after + a little pause, Octavio Baldi steps to the table, and + whispers to the King in his own language that he was an + Englishman, beseeching him for a more private conference + with his Majesty, and that he might be concealed during his + stay in that nation; which was promised and really performed + by the King, during all his abode there, which was about + three months. All which time was spent with much + pleasantness to the King, and with as much to Octavio Baldi + himself as that country could afford; from which he departed + as true an Italian as he came thither.' + +The presence of Sir Henry in Venice, where he was a _persona +gratissima_, both for his love of Italy and his knowledge of the +language, did much to strengthen the new relations between England and +the Republic. The feeling between Venice and the Stuart kings became +extremely cordial; but on the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1642, the +Republic suspended the commission of Vincenzo Contarina, who had been +appointed to succeed Giovanni Giustinian as ambassador to England. The +secretary Girolamo Agostino, however, continued to discharge Venetian +affairs till the year 1645; and his dispatches contain minute +particulars concerning the progress of the Civil War. In the year 1645, +Agostino was recalled, and the interests of Venice in England were +entrusted to Salvetti, the Florentine resident. Agostino left behind him +in England a secret agent, with instructions to forward a weekly report +on the progress of affairs to the Venetian ambassador in France, among +whose dispatches we find these newsletters from London. After the death +of Charles I it is not likely that the Republic would have been +represented at the Court of Cromwell, towards whom the feeling of Venice +was not cordial, had she not been in great straits for help against the +Turk. But in the year 1652 she resolved to dismiss the representative of +Charles II, then in Venice; and, at the same time, the Government +instructed the ambassador at Paris to send his secretary, Lorenzo +Pauluzzi, to London to open negociations with Cromwell. With Pauluzzi +the series of dispatches from London recommences; but these dispatches +are to be found among the communications from the Venetian ambassador in +Paris, by whom they were forwarded to the Senate. The dispatches of +Pauluzzi are of great importance, and give us a vivid though hostile +picture of Cromwell and his surroundings. 'Nell' universale,' he says, +'ha pochissimo affetto;' and further on, 'non ardiscono tentare alcuna +cosa nè parlare che tra i denti; ma ognuno sta sperando un giorno +verificate le profizie che questo governo non possa a lungo durare.' In +1655 the negociations between England and Venice had advanced so far +that the Republic had determined to send an Ambassador Extraordinary to +the Protector's Court. Giovanni Sagredo, ambassador at Paris, was +chosen, and the closing paragraph of his first dispatch shows how +strongly Cromwell's personality impressed him. 'Per il resto,' he +writes, 'è uomo di 56 anni, con pochissima barba, di complessione +sanguigna, di statura media e robusta e di presenza marziale. Ha una +fisonomia cupa e profonda. Porta una gran spada al fianco. Soldato +insieme ed oratore, e dotato di talenti per persuadere e per operare.' +The result of Sagredo's mission is contained in the long and brilliant +Relazione which he read in the Senate on his return to Venice in 1656. +In this splendid specimen of a Venetian report, he gives, with singular +lucidity and grasp, a brief sketch of the condition of Great Britain; of +the causes of the Civil War; of Cromwell's rise to power; of his foreign +relations; and closes with a portrait of the Protector which confirms +Pauluzzi's unfavourable view, and draws a terrible picture of that +restlessness and dread which clouded Cromwell's last days--'più temuto +che amato ... vive con sempiterno sospetto.' When Sagredo returned to +Venice, his secretary Francesco Giavarnia was left behind in England, as +Venetian resident, and continued to hold that post till the Restoration, +sending dispatches every week direct to Venice, detailing the close of +the Protectorate, and the return of Charles II., whom he was the first +to welcome at Canterbury the day after his landing. In 1661 the Republic +gladly re-opened full relations with the Stuarts. Giavarnia was +superseded by two Ambassadors Extraordinary, who conveyed to Charles two +gondolas for the water in St. James's Park, and from that date onwards +the diplomatic connection between England and the Republic followed the +ordinary course. + +We come now to the papers of the Council of Ten; all of these were +committed to the custody of the Secret Chancellery. We have already seen +that the Council of Ten was an extraordinary office, used upon +extraordinary occasions, where secrecy and speed were required. Its +chief occupations may be summed up under three heads--safety of the +State, protection of citizens, and public morals. That being the case, +the number and interest of its documents is very great--greater than +that of any other Council of State; but this interest is confined, for +the most part, to matters affecting the home policy of the Republic; +foreign affairs finds comparatively little illustration among the +papers of the Ten. The series of documents, containing the ordinary +business of the Ten, dates from the year 1315 to the close of the +Republic. The documents are arranged according to the matter they deal +with, that is to say political matter, _parti communi_ and _secreti_, or +criminal matter, _parti crimminali_. The immense importance and interest +attaching to the papers of the Ten will be illustrated by the statement, +that there we find the cases of Marino Faliero, of the Carraresi, of +Carmagnola, of Foscari, of Caterina Cornaro, and of Foscarini. + +Among the papers of the Collegio we find ourselves once more in the +general current of foreign politics. The ordinary proceedings of the +College, the papers containing the arrangement and discussion of affairs +to be presented to the Senate, are included in the volumes of files and +registers, known as the Notatorii del Collegio. The College was +entrusted, as we have said, to receive all the representatives of +foreign Powers and to open all letters and dispatches addressed to the +Government. It is in the three series known as Lettere Principi, +Espozioni Principi, and Ceremoniali, that we obtain the fullest +information about the action of the agents from foreign Courts resident +in Venice. The series called Lettere Principi, letters from royal +personages, covers the years between 1500 and 1797, and is contained in +fifty-four volumes of _filze_. England is represented by two of these, +beginning with the year 1570, and ending with 1796, entitled 'Collegio, +Secreta, Lettere. Rè e Regina d'Inghilterra.' These volumes contain one +hundred and seventy-one letters, thus distributed among the various +sovereigns; there are thirteen in the reign of Elizabeth; forty in that +of James I.; four in that of Charles I.; three from Oliver Cromwell; one +from Richard Cromwell; one from Speaker Lenthal: ten during the reign of +Charles II.; five during that of his brother; three during the reign of +William, including one from the Old Pretender; seven in the reign of +Anne; eight in that of George I.; twenty-one from George II; and +fifty-five from George III. These letters are concerned with formal +announcements and the exchange of courtesies, the credentials of +ambassadors and notices of royal births, marriages and deaths. Their +historical importance is very slight. The long series of George III. is +almost entirely occupied by noting the yearly increase of his family. +The autographs of the ministers who countersigned the letters, form +their greatest attraction. The late Mr. Rawdon Brown has published +facsimiles of these autographs down to the year 1659; but after that +date we find such interesting endorsements as those of Lauderdale, +Arlington, Bolingbroke, Carteret, Pitt, Halifax, Henry Conway, +Shelburne, and Charles James Fox. On a loose parchment among these +letters is one very curious document. It is dated Bologna, 21st +February, 1671, and begins 'Carlo Dudley per la gratia di Dio Duca di +Northumbria et del Sacro Romano Impero, Conte di Woruih e di Licester, +et Pari d'Ingliterra.' The document goes on to state that Charles +Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in consideration of the affection and +partiality always shown towards his person and house, grants to Ottavio +Dionisio, noble of Verona, the title of Marquis to him and to his eldest +son, to his younger sons and to his brothers and their sons the title of +Count, in perpetuity; and this in virtue of the declaration and +authority of His Holiness Pope Urban VIII., which conferred on Charles +Dudley and his eldest born the right to exercise all the privileges of +an independent prince. At the date which this document bears, 1671, +there was no Duke of Northumberland; that title had lately been bestowed +by Charles II. on an illegitimate son, and had perished with him. This +Charles Dudley was probably some pretender to the honours of the Dudley +family who once held the dukedom of Northumberland. The document is +curious, for the noble family on whom Charles Dudley conferred this +title of Marquis still exists, and we do not know if any British +subject, either before or after, has even claimed to be a fountain of +honour. But Charles Dudley is not the only English pretender who figures +among the papers at the Frari. Filza 8 of the loose papers, titled +'Miscellanea Diversi Manoscritti,' contains the marriage certificate and +will of James Henry de Boveri Rossano Stuart, natural son of Charles +II., and seven letters from his son James Stuart, dated Milan, Gemona +and Padua, 1722 to 1728. The majority of these letters are addressed to +Cardinal Panighetti, from whom this 'povero principe Stuardo,' as he +calls himself, hoped to receive money and support in some imaginary +claims on the Crown of England. The letters are full of a certain +pathos--the pathos which cannot fail to attach itself to fallen royalty. +The handwriting is that of an uneducated man; and James Stuart, in these +letters, certainly shows no signs of the ability required to meet so +trying a situation. He appeals to the Cardinal first on the grounds of +his creed. It is 'for the Faith that he finds himself in the miserable +little town' of Gemona. Failing upon this line, James Stuart abandons +himself to astrology, in the hope that the stars may give an answer +favourable to his hopes. But to all his appeals the Cardinal replies +with cold reserve, and when he hears of astrology, he adds a sharp and +crushing reprimand. + +Leaving the Lettere Principi we come to the last two series of State +papers of which we shall speak, the Espozioni Principi, or record of +all audiences granted to ambassadors and of the communications made by +them in the name of the Power they represented; and the Libri +Ceremoniali, or record of the great functions of State, coronations and +funerals of the Doges, the elections of the Grand Chancellors, the +reception accorded to ambassadors, princes and distinguished travellers. +The Republic of Venice was as punctilious as any Court of Europe upon +the points of precedence, ceremony, and etiquette. The reader will not +have forgotten the amusing account, given by the elder Disraeli, of the +long struggle between the Master of the Ceremonies and the Venetian +ambassador at the Court of St. James. The Government required from its +representatives a minute account of every detail of etiquette observed +towards them, and replied in kind in their treatment of foreign +ministers in Venice. The Republic was punctilious abroad, and no less so +at home. Every stage in the public entry, first audience and _congé_ of +foreign ambassadors were carefully regulated and based upon precedent. +The ambassadors of Spain and France had each a special volume devoted to +the ceremonies and etiquette which the Republic observed towards them. +M. Baschet describes at length the receptions of the French ambassadors, +for whom he claims the highest rank among the representatives of foreign +Powers at Venice. Great Britain sent fifty-eight embassies, in all, to +the Republic, between the years 1340 and 1797. Of these ambassadors, Sir +Gregory Cassalis filled the office twice, Sir Henry Wotton thrice, the +Earl of Manchester twice, and Elizeus Burgess twice. The ceremony to +which the ambassador was entitled may be gathered from the accounts of +these embassies preserved in the Esposizioni Principi and the +Ceremoniali. + +The reception of Lord Northampton in the year 1762 will afford us the +most detailed view of the ceremony, for on that occasion some questions +of precedent arose, and the Cavaliere Ruzzini, who was entrusted with +the conduct of the affair, presented a long report to the Senate on the +subject. The ambassador was not officially recognized by the Government +until he had made his public entry, and presented his credentials at his +first audience in the College. Until that had taken place, he remained +incognito, and was in fact supposed not to be in Venice. Before the +ambassador arrived, the English Consul was expected to hire a palace for +his use. There was no fixed embassy in Venice; Thomas Killigrew lodged +at San Cassano, Lord Holdernesse at San Benedetto, Lord Manchester at +San Stae. John Udny, who was consul at the time of Lord Northampton's +Embassy, rented the Palazzo Grimani at Cannaregio for the ambassador +whenever his appointment was announced, and an amusing and +characteristic story attaches to this affair. The palace belonged to a +Contessa Grimani, and was in bad repair; but the owner promised to +restore and fit it up for the ambassador. When the consul went to see +the palace, shortly before the ambassador's arrival, he found that +nothing had been done to it, and moreover that a gondolier and his wife +occupied the ground-floor and refused to move. He wrote at once to the +Contessa requesting her to remove the gondolier, to which he received +for answer that the gondolier's wife had been nurse to one of the +Countess's boys, and the Grimanis had promised her twenty ducats a-year; +if the ambassador liked to pay that amount, the gondolier would turn +out; if not, they must manage to share the palace between them. The +consul appealed to the English Resident, John Murray, who wrote an angry +letter to the Government, complaining of this treatment; 'La carità +della nobile donna,' he says, 'verso la moglie del gondoliere merita +senza dubbio gran lode, ma il sottoscritto s'imagina che l'avvocato più +scaltro si troverebbe bene intrigato di produrre una legge o esempio per +incaricare l'Ambasciatore Inglese di questa carità.' + +The matter was probably arranged, for on the 22nd of October Lord +Northampton arrived, incognito, of course, with all his suite, and took +up his residence. Lord Northampton was ill, and it was not until the +beginning of the next year that he took the necessary steps to make his +entry and to secure his first audience. The etiquette observed upon such +occasions required that the ambassador should send his secretary to +leave copies of his credentials at the door of the College, and to ask +on what day the Doge would receive him. The College reply through one of +their secretaries that an answer will be sent. The Doge was then +consulted what day would suit him, and he answers by putting himself at +the disposal of the College. The Senate is then informed of the +ambassador's arrival, and sixty senators, under the direction of a +leader, are appointed to attend the ambassador until the ceremonies of +his reception shall be completed. The days selected for Lord +Northampton's reception were the 29th and 30th of May, 1763; and the +Caveliere Ruzzini was named as head of the sixty senators who were to +attend the ambassador. Ruzzini informed Lord Northampton of these +arrangements, and at the same time sent him a programme of the ceremony, +which was based upon that observed towards Lord Holdernesse, and was +identical with that which the Republic offered to the ambassador of the +King of Sardinia. Before his public entry, the ambassador and all his +suite went to the island of San Spirito, in the lagoon towards +Malamocco. The fiction of the ceremony supposed all ambassadors to be +lodged there until they had presented their credentials. San Spirito was +chosen as the point of departure for the ambassadorial procession +because the distance between that island and Venice was supposed to +correspond exactly with the distance between London and Greenwich, +whence the Venetian ambassador was wont to begin his progress. Sir Henry +Wotton's second embassy forms a rare exception to this rule, for the +Venetians were so fond of that charming and accomplished poet, that they +allowed him to make his entry from San Giorgio Maggiore, which is much +nearer the city and more convenient. After midday on the 29th, Ruzzini +and his sixty senators, each in his gondola, arrived at San Spirito, and +found the household of the ambassador drawn up along the landing-place +_en grande tenue_. Lord Northampton was informed of Ruzzini's arrival, +and came to meet him on the staircase. After exchanging the prescribed +compliments, Ruzzini, with the ambassador on his right hand, descended, +and both entered the Cavaliere's gondola. The whole procession left San +Spirito and proceeded by the Grand Canal to the ambassador's lodging at +San Girolamo, accompanied, as Ruzzini says, by 'un immenso popolo +spettatore del nostro viaggio;' for these official entries were among +the most popular of the Venetian spectacles, and the whole city went out +to witness them. At the palace fresh speeches and compliments followed. +Lord Northampton was suffering acutely from an illness of which he died +that same year, but Ruzzini reports with obvious satisfaction that he +did not spare him a single ceremony, 'adempi ad ogni parte del consueto +ceremoniale.' The next day Ruzzini and the sixty senators again attended +at the ambassador's palace to conduct him to his audience in the +College. Lord Northampton was worse than he had been the day before; but +Ruzzini was implacable. It cost the ambassador three-quarters of an hour +to ascend the Giant's Stair. When at last he reached the door of the +Collegio, the Doge and all the College rose; the ambassador uncovered +and made three bows, and, leaving his suite behind him, he mounted the +daïs and took his seat on the right hand of the Doge. The ambassador +then covered his head, and simultaneously one of each order of the Savii +did the same. The ambassador handed his credentials to the Doge, and +remained uncovered while they were being read. The Doge made a brief and +formal reply, welcoming the ambassador to Venice, and each time the +King's name occurred, the ambassador raised his cap. After repeating his +three bows, the ambassador retired, and was accompanied to his palace +by the sixty senators who had waited for him at the door of the +Collegio. This closed the ceremony of entry. + +The English Ambassador Extraordinary enjoyed certain privileges which +were established on the precedent of the embassy of Lord Falconberg, +Cromwell's son-in-law. Among these privileges was the right to lodging +and maintenance at the cost of the Republic, a right which the +ambassador usually compounded for the sum of five or six hundred ducats; +a box at each theatre in Venice was placed at his disposal, and when he +took his _congé_ the Senate voted him a gold chain and medal of the +value of two thousand scudi. The ambassadors ordinary enjoyed certain +exemptions from customs dues. These exemptions were frequently abused, +and were the cause of constant friction between the Government and the +representatives of the Powers. In the year 1763 Mr. John Murray's +Istrian wine was seized, and he only recovered it after expressing +himself _ben mortificato_. Mr. Murray was constantly in trouble on this +subject. The year before he had addressed an indignant letter to the +Government because 'a certain official of the Custom House had accused +him of allowing his servants to sell wine and flour at the door of the +Residency. It is but a poor satisfaction after so long a period of +suspicion to know that that official is bankrupt and no proof of the +accusation is forthcoming.' But by far the most curious episode of this +nature was that which befell Tom Killigrew, the poet, grandfather of the +Mrs. Anne Killigrew of Dryden's famous ode and a friend of Pepys, who +recals him as 'a merry droll, but a gentleman of great esteem with the +King, who told us many merry stories,' this, perhaps, among the number. +Killigrew was sent to represent Charles II. at Venice in 1649, just +after the execution of Charles I., and while his son was _a ramingo_, or +knocking about, as the Venetian ambassador politely puts it. Killigrew +was received in the usual way on February 10, 1650, and made his address +'in lingua cattiva,' as the report affirms. But the Republic soon tired +of its alliance with an exiled king, and resolved to dismiss Killigrew +as soon as possible. Killigrew was poor, and his master had little or +nothing to give him, so he hit upon the expedient of keeping a butcher's +shop, where he could sell meat, cheaper than any one else in Venice, by +availing himself of his exemptions from octroi. The Senate resolved to +fasten upon this illicit traffic as a pretext for dismissing Killigrew; +and on the 22d of June, 1652, they sent their Secretary, Busenello, to +tell Killigrew, _vivâ voce_, that he must go. Busenello went to San +Fantin, and there found one of Killigrew's butchers, who told him that +the Resident only kept his shop there, but lived himself at San Cassano. +At San Cassano Busenello was told that Killigrew was dining at Murano, +and would not be home till evening; but very soon after he saw the +Resident at his window, and insisted on being announced. He explained +'with all possible delicacy,' as he says, the order of the Senate; but +Killigrew received the message with every sign of anger and pain. With +tears in his eyes he declared that it was the other ambassadors who +robbed the customs, while he had all the blame. It was true that he did +keep 'a little bit of a butcher's shop to support himself,' but that +could not hurt the revenue; and he added that, under any circumstance he +should leave Venice, for he had received his letters of recall from +France, four days previously. The Senate no more than their secretary +believed in the existence of this letter of recall; but Killigrew really +had the letter, dated March 14th, and it was sent into the College, +along with a brief exculpatory epistle from the Resident, on the 27th of +June. Killigrew left Venice the same day as he was bound to do by +ambassadorial etiquette; and Charles had not another recognized agent to +the Republic until his restoration; for the Venetians definitely adopted +the policy of courting Cromwell, in the vain hope that he would assist +them against the Turk. + +With the papers of the College we close this notice of the political +documents in the archives at the Frari. The other departments of the +Government had each their own series of papers, equally copious and +valuable. The heraldic and genealogical archives of the Avvogadori di +Commun, for example, the Charters of the German and Turkish Exchanges +and the records of the Mint and the public Banks, offer a wide and a +rich field for study; and in spite of the profound and extensive labours +of such scholars as Thomas, Checchetti, Barozzi, Berchet, Fulin, +Lamansky, Mas Latrie, and Rawdon Brown, it will be long before the +materials in the vast storehouse of the Frari are exhausted or even +adequately displayed. + + + + +Art. IV.--1. _Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years 1834, +1835 and 1836._ By Samuel Laing, Esq. London, 1837. + +2. _Le Royaume de Norvège et le Peuple Norvègien._ Par le Dr. O. I. +Broch. Christiania, 1878. + +3. _Official Reports of Prefects on the Economic Condition of the +Provinces of Norway in 1876-80._ Christiania, 1884. + +4. _Publications of the Statistical Bureau, Christiania._ + + +The advocates of a general redistribution of landed property in Ireland, +as well as those who are holding out to the agricultural labours of +other portions of the United Kingdom the Arcadian lure figuratively +known as the 'three acres and a cow,' will find in the work cited at the +head of this article the amplest materials for the justification of the +views they are pressing for adoption partly as a remedy for agricultural +distress, but essentially in application of the Socialist doctrine that +the people of a country have an inherent right to an absolute, +proportionate possession of its soil. + +Mr. Laing's 'Journal' is, indeed, not a record of travel and adventure, +but a treatise, admirably written and replete with facts, in +demonstration of the great superiority of the Norwegian system of land +tenure over that of any other part of civilized Europe. His views have, +moreover, been to a great extent adopted in the numerous works that have +since been produced by British travellers who, after a rapid drive over +the main routes of Norway, have described in terms equally glowing the +happy and enviable condition of the _Bonde_ or yeoman farmer of that +country. + +Considering there is much in common in regard to race, religion, +language, character, and civilization, between the inhabitants of that +interesting little country and its maritime neighbours--the populations, +more especially, of England and Scotland, it will be instructive, on the +eve of the agrarian revolution with which the United Kingdom is +threatened, to study and analyse the statements and conclusions of Mr. +Laing, and to trace the subsequent and present operation of the peculiar +land laws which he so highly extolled in the earlier part of this +century. + +With that object we proceed to describe, almost in Mr. Laing's own +words, the condition of the peasant proprietors of Norway at a period +(1835) when, out of a population of 1,194,827, only about eleven per +cent. inhabited towns, the land in rural districts being held by 103,192 +proprietors and tenants, the proportion of the two latter being +respectively seventy and thirty per cent. + + 'The Norwegians,' wrote Mr. Laing, 'are the most interesting + and singular group of people in Europe. They live under + ancient laws and social arrangements totally different in + principle from those which regulate society and property in + the feudally constituted states. Their country is peculiarly + interesting to the political economist. It is the only part + of Europe in which property from the earliest ages has been + transmitted upon the principle of partition among all the + children. The feudal structure of society with its law of + primogeniture, and its privileged class of hereditary + nobles, never prevailed in Norway. In this remote corner of + the civilized world we may therefore see the effects upon + the condition of society of the peculiar distribution of + property; it will exhibit, on a small scale, what America + and France will be a thousand years hence.... Here are the + Highland glens without the Highland lairds.... If there be a + happy class of people in Europe it is the Norwegian _Bonde_, + king of his own land, and landlord as well as king.' + +This state of happiness is, according to Mr. Laing, the result of the +still existing _Odels ret_ or Allodial Right, under which, he asserts, +the land of Norway was always the property of the people, not of a +feudal class of high nobility. But although this assertion does not much +affect the main and practical object of our enquiry, it may be as well +to point out at once that, whatever might have been the inherent right +of every Norwegian to a portion of the soil on which he was born, Dr. +Broch, an eminent native authority, maintains that a considerable +portion of the land belonged anciently to the kings of Norway, and had +been acquired, as in other countries, partly by confiscation from +nobles. Those lands were leased and, gradually, to a certain extent, +sold. In the days of Roman Catholicism, the Church also held great +landed estates, which the State appropriated at the Reformation. No +inconsiderable part of the State domains was then leased, and, in short, +before the middle of the seventeenth century, leases comprised a little +more than half of the landed property of the country; while even in +1814, they constituted one-third of it. Later, the State lands, and +those which had been distributed among nobles at the Reformation, were +repartitioned among the bulk of the population or sold. + +But to return to the _Odels ret_. It gives, Mr. Laing shows, + + 'to all the kindred of the Odelsmand in possession, in the + order of consanguinity, a certain interest in it. If the + Odelsmand should sell or alienate his land, the next of kin + is entitled to redeem it on paying the purchase-money; and + should he decline to do so, it is in the power of the one + next to him to claim his _Odelsbaarn ret._' + +At the present time, the allodial right is acquired only by the +uninterrupted possession of the same person, his descendants or his +wife, during a period of at least twenty years, and it is lost if the +property has been in strange hands for three years. Testamentary +dispositions, in the case of persons leaving issue, are now limited to +one quarter of the testator's property; whereas before 1854, a testator +could not bequeath anything individually. Since the year 1860, also, +there is perfect equality between the two sexes in the division of real +and personal property. At the period when Mr. Laing visited Norway, the +division of land among children had + + 'not had the effect of reducing properties to the minimum + size that would barely support human existence. One sells to + the other and turns his capital and industry to pursuits + that would enable him to acquire the necessaries of life. + The heirs who sell, very often, instead of a sum of money, + which is seldom at the command of the parties, take a + life-rent payment or annuity of so much grain, the keep of + so many cows, so much firewood, a dwelling-house on the + property, or some equivalent of that kind. Few properties + have no such burthens.' He argued that 'in a country where + land is held, not in tenancy merely, as in Ireland, but in + full ownership, its aggregation by the death of co-heirs, + and by the marriages of female heirs,[5] will balance its + subdivision by the equal succession of children; and also, + that in such a condition of society, the whole mass of + property would be found in such a State to consist of as + many estates of 1000l., as many of 100l., as many of 10l. a + year, at one period as at another.' + + 'Norway,' our author urges, 'affords a strong confutation of + the dreaded excessive subdivision of land. Notwithstanding, + the partition system, continued for ages, it contains farms + of such extent that the owner possesses forty cows.' + +On the whole, the farms appeared to him to be of various sizes: many so +large that a bell was used to call the labourers to or from their work; +while some were so small as to have only a few sheaves of corn, or a rig +or two of potatoes, scattered among the trunks of the trees. These, +however, were occupied by the farm servants, or cotters, paying for +their houses and land in work (_Husmoena_). Twenty to forty cows could +be counted on the large farms. In the district of Verdal +(Trondhjemsfiord) Mr. Laing saw beautiful little farms of forty to fifty +acres, each having a pasturage or grass tract in the mountains, where +the cattle were kept during the summer until the crops were taken in, +and upon each such out-farm, or _Soeter_, there was a house and +regular dairy, to which, he informs us, 'the whole of the cattle and +the dairy-maids, with their sweethearts, are sent to junket and to amuse +themselves for three or four months of the year.[6] We can well believe +that, in such circumstances, Mr. Laing found 'this class of _Bönder_ the +most interesting people in Norway,' and that 'there are none similar to +them in the feudal countries of Europe.' He appears to have been more +particularly impressed with + + 'the farms large enough to keep a score of cows, six horses + and a small flock of sheep and goats, and to maintain a + family and servants in all that land usually produces, + leaving a surplus for sale sufficient to pay taxes, wages, + and to provide the comforts and necessaries of life to a + fair extent,' all which could be bought 'for 1000l. or + 1200l., or even less.' + +As regards the agricultural labourer, or cotter, Mr. Laing conceived +'his average condition to be that of holding land on which he could sow +three-quarters of an imperial quarter of corn and three imperial +quarters of potatoes, and which would enable him to keep two cows, or an +equivalent number of sheep or goats.' His wages are stated to have been +4-1/2d. to 6d. per diem, in addition to his food. It was consequently +'amusing to recollect the benevolent speculations in our Agricultural +Reports, of the Sir Johns and Sir Thomases in our midland counties of +England, for bettering the condition of labourers in husbandry, by +giving them, at a reasonable rent, a quarter of an acre of land to keep +a cow on, or by allowing them to cultivate the slips of land on the +roadside, outside of their hedges.' He also derides 'the agricultural +writers' who 'tell us, indeed, that labourers in agriculture are much +better off as farm servants, than they would be as small proprietors,' +for 'if property is a good and desirable thing, the very smallest +quantity of it is good and desirable.' It was obvious to Mr. Laing that +the forty families of two or three Norwegian highland glens, 'each +possessing and living on its own little spot of ground and farming well +or ill, as the case might be, were in a better and happier state, and +formed a more rationally constituted society, than if the whole belonged +to one of these families (and it would be no great estate), while the +other thirty-nine families were tenants and farmers.' + +Mr. Laing found the happy agricultural population of Norway 'much +better lodged than our labouring and middling classes, even in the south +of Scotland;' and that no nation was at that period either better +housed, or so well provided with fuel. The standard of living appeared +to be higher in Norway than in most of our Scotch highland districts, +although the materials were the same, namely, oatmeal, barley meal, +potatoes, fish--fresh and salted--cheese, butter, and milk. He +understood that it was even usual for the yeoman farmers to have animal +food--'salt beef and black-puddings'--at least twice a week. At all +events, he says, four meals a day formed the regular fare, and with two +of those meals even the labourers had a glass of home-made brandy, +distilled from potatoes by the yeoman, who 'could malt and distil in +every way he pleased,' and thereby 'make free use of his agricultural +produce,' with the result of 'increasing the general prosperity, +improving the condition of the people, and promoting the increase of +their numbers.'[7] + +There was, at the time of Mr. Laing's residence in Norway, 'small +difference in the way of living between high and low, because every man +lived from the produce of his farm, and observed the utmost simplicity +and economy with regard to everything that took money out of his +pocket.' Furniture and clothes, except the yeoman's Sunday hat, were all +home-made. 'Here was a whole population, in an old European country, +dealing direct with Nature, as it were, for every article, without the +intervention of money, or even of barter.' It was only the small yeomen +on the verge of the Fjeld, or in the glens, far above the level of the +land producing corn, and the inhabitants of districts less favoured by +nature, 'whose common bread consisted of the bark of trees, mixed and +ground up with ill-ripened oats; but even in their case, trout, dried +and salted for winter, was no inconsiderable part of their provision, +their houses being, at the same time, comfortable, though small, with +wooden floors and glass windows. + +Apart from these exceptionally situated proprietors, Mr. Laing found +there really was 'no difference between the residence of a public +functionary, of a clergyman, or of a gentleman of larger property and +that of a _Bonde_, or peasant. The latter are as well, as commodiously +and even showily, lodged as the former can be, and the properties are as +good.' Mr. Laing, however, makes a reservation under this head in +respect of the 'cultivated classes,' as being indisputably superior in +mental acquirements to the yeoman farmer, and who lived in the same +manner as the corresponding classes in England. + +Towards the end of his stay in Norway, Mr. Laing often heard 'from the +most intelligent men in the country' that the yeoman farmer lived too +high; indulged too much in expensive luxuries, as coffee and sugar; in +frequent and expensive entertainments at each other's houses; in +carrioles, sledges, and harness of a costly kind; and even in a horse or +two more than the farm work required; and he certainly thought this had +resulted in a general want of money among them to pay even the most +trifling taxes and other sums. A man with land worth three or four +thousand dollars, and with horses, cows, and all sorts of products in +abundance, was often at a loss for five or ten dollars. Nevertheless, he +was of opinion that 'the increase of the tastes and habits which belong +to property tended to keep population within the bounds of what can be +comfortably subsisted, and without which the increase of subsistence +would tend to evil rather than good.' It was, indeed, 'a good thing that +they all had the ideas, habits, and character of people possessed of +independent property upon which they were living without any care about +increasing it, and free from the anxiety and fever of money making or +money losing.' + +Their subsistence, Mr. Laing exultingly and repeatedly points out, was +derived mainly from husbandry, carried on under less favourable +conditions of soil, climate, crops, and pasturage than in the Scotch +highlands;-- + + 'but on the simple Norwegian system, to live on the produce + of the land being the main object, and the labourer (the + cotter) being paid chiefly in land, a good crop would be an + unmingled blessing; whereas in countries where agriculture + is carried on as a manufacture, a succession of good crops + may glut the markets, ruin the tenant, and even reduce the + money wages of the labourer. In Norway neither good nor bad + crops can affect the proportion of population to the land + that could in ordinary seasons subsist on it. Paying no + rent, the Norwegian yeoman farmer is not usually employed in + prospective improvements, but simply in raising food, so + that he can see at once whether the land is sufficient to + produce subsistence for himself and his labourers. If grain + and potatoes for the use of the farm, and a little surplus + for sale to pay the land-tax and buy luxuries with, can be + raised by the farm, all the purposes of farming in Norway + are answered. + +On the subject of pauperism, Mr. Laing alleges that 'the dread of +poverty was less influential in Norway, where extreme destitution is as +rare as great wealth, and where there is so much less difference in the +comforts and consideration of the richer and poorer classes.' The +indigent were farmed out for a week or so at a time among the yeomen +farmers, 'whose poor-rate like the tithes of the Church, was too +inconsiderable to mention.' The state of property, and its general +diffusion throughout the social body, had also, he had no doubt, a +beneficial effect on the moral condition of the people. 'The desire for +wealth being considerably blunted, it was not the same actuating, +engrossing principle of human action, the spring of much that was evil +and immoral being thus removed.' Only one case of downright +drunkenness--that of a Laplander--had come under his personal +observation, and it was only on special occasions that the yeoman farmer +could be seen a little elated. His theory, however (we may remark in +passing), respecting the influence of property on the moral condition of +the people is not supported by other facts which he quotes, namely, that +owing to the restraints upon marriage, 'exercised as in Paris or London, +by a high standard of living,' the 'proportion of illegitimate to +legitimate children in Norway was 1 in 5,' while in a parish he +specifies, it was (between 1826 and 1830) 'as high as 1 in 3-26/136.' He +mentions that engagements between couples lasted generally one, two, and +often several years, especially in the case of servants in husbandry +waiting for a house and land to settle in as cotters. In such cases, he +says, 'it too often happened that the privileged kindness between +betrothed parties was carried too far,' and 'the betrothed became a +mother before she was a wife.' + +We quit this painful phase of peasant proprietorship with the +observation that, notwithstanding a still wider diffusion of property +and of moral qualities which, according to Mr. Laing, that diffusion is +calculated to engender, 8.38[8] per cent. of the live children born in +Norway between 1866 and 1870 were born out of wedlock, the corresponding +proportion in 1836 having been 7.07 per cent. It is natural to find, +under these circumstances, that the marriage rate was 6.84 per 1000 of +the population in 1866-75 against 7.31 per 1000 between 1834 and 1836, +with a fractional decrease of the total number of births in the former +period, the average per family remaining slightly over four. + +The ancient Allodial Right and the happy social system based upon it, +Mr. Laing found jealously guarded by the yeomanry, 'who have not only +the legislative power and the election of the Storthing' (or Parliament) +'almost entirely in their own hands, but also the whole civil business +of the community.' He may, therefore, well say, without fear of +contradiction, that 'the Norwegian people enjoy a greater share of +liberty, have the framing and administering of their own laws more +entirely in their own hands, than any European nation of the present +time;' and, further, that 'it is not a little extraordinary that almost +the only result' of the universal delirium of 1790,[9] 'which approaches +in reality to the theories of that period, has been the Norwegian +Constitution.' + +The paramount influence of the agrarian class over the destinies of the +kingdom may be judged by the circumstances that the rural districts are +permanently represented in the Storthing by two-thirds of the total +number of members, limited by the Constitution to 114; and that +practically the suffrage is now universal, the principal conditions of +its possession being, under recent legislation, a qualification of age +(25 years) and a residence of five years in the country. It is well +known that the Parliament thus elected (under a system of double +election), with its _de facto_ single Chamber, subdivided for the more +rapid and effective discharge of certain business into what Mr. Laing +chooses to call an 'Upper House' and a 'House of Commons,' has, within +very recent days, in virtue of the largely predominant rural, radical +vote, exercised its power of impeaching and punishing, by fine and +dismissal from office, an entire Cabinet, for the crime of having +advised the King that his veto was not merely suspensive, but absolute, +in the matter of any Bill affecting the principles of the Constitution, +and that the questions in dispute between the Sovereign and the +Storthing were of a constitutional character, involving indirectly not +only the stability of a monarchical form of government, but also that of +the personal union between the crowns of Norway and Sweden--a stability +pre-eminently essential in both respects to the highest interests of +Scandinavia, and in no small degree also to the maritime and political +interests of this country. It is this form of Parliament that Mr. Laing +extols 'as a working model of a constitutional government on a small +scale, and one which works so well as highly to deserve the +consideration of the people of Great Britain.' + +We have at last done with Mr. Laing's remarkable statements, views, and +recommendations; and the principal question we now have to consider is: +What is the latest phase (after an interval of half a century) of the +development of the peculiar social organization of Norway, and +especially of its system of land tenure, differing, as both do, from the +organization and system evolved out of feudality in Great Britain and +Ireland? We therefore intend to enquire: (1) Has the system of land +tenure in Norway prevented, as foretold by Mr. Laing, an excessive +subdivision of land? (2) Has a dead level of ease and contentment been +maintained? (3) Has the diffusion of land by a natural process, under +the widest form of home rule, kept the rural population of Norway within +the bounds of possible modern existence? (4) Has no pauperism affected +the taxation of landed property? and (5) generally, Is the Norwegian +yeoman farmer in a more thriving condition at the present time than the +tenants and agricultural labourers elsewhere, from whom is still +withheld the freehold possession of land to which, it is alleged by a +certain school of politicians, they have a natural right, disputed only +by monopolists and land-grabbers? + +These are the questions we shall endeavour to answer with the aid, +exclusively, of the latest publications of the Norwegian Government. We +must, however, preface our replies by sketching roughly the influences +that have sprung into operation since Mr. Laing published the Journal of +his residence in Norway. + +In his time the towns contained only about eleven per cent. of the total +population of the kingdom, whereas at the present moment the proportion +is double that of 1835.[10] This urban agglomeration, Dr. Broch shows, +has been 'due principally to causes which have operated in the rest of +Europe. Facilitated means of communication promoted the migration of the +agricultural population towards the towns, where the development of +industry and commerce offered the lure of gains or salaries higher than +those in rural districts.' One of the causes, he justly adds, of the +displacement of the population has been the immense and laudable +progress of public instruction, 'and the growing taste for intellectual +and material enjoyments which gave a great force of attraction to the +towns.' + +As in other advancing countries, the attraction of towns, and the +facilities for obtaining employment in them, operate also in Norway, to +the disadvantage of the yeomen farmers of the present day. Among the +causes of the economic decline of the Province of North Bergen, the +Prefect mentions that + + 'the disinclination of young men of the yeoman farmer class + to take permanent service is very general in this district, + and is easily explained by the ease with which men in the + prime of their strength obtain occupation as labourers in + the fisheries. The great bulk of the day labourers do not + seek with any great eagerness for work in the fields, so + long as they hold previously acquired means sufficient to + provide them with the necessaries of life, however scantily. + As a rule, so long as want does not look in at the window, + they will not engage themselves for such work, except at + very good wages. The wages for a yearly labourer have + doubled during the last twenty years.[11] At the same time + the houseman has lost the command he previously had over his + workmen, and consequently does not get the same amount of + work out of them as formerly. Fishing attracts labour by a + larger immediate return, acquired with less bodily exertion + than in husbandry. It gives the population less taste for + harder work.' + +We leave Mr. Laing in doubt whether the steam-engine could 'ever be +brought to perfection.' That doubt was speedily removed, and in 1852 +Norway followed in the wake of other European nations by building +railways, their total length in 1883 having reached very little short of +a thousand English miles. Nor did their construction, with capital +raised chiefly abroad and punctually repaid, arrest the improvement or +the laying down of ordinary roads, to the extent of 4000 miles, between +1845 and 1875. In addition to this extensive opening-out of +communication by rail and road, the introduction of steamers on inland +waters and their employment as coasters and sea-going vessels, the +construction of telegraphs, and development of fisheries, of ship +building, of banking and other companies, and generally of trade and +industry, produced gradually a wide disturbance in the social economy +found by Mr. Laing. The expansion and prosperity of the towns, as well +as the more refined habits of life adopted by the clergy and the +officials of Government, were viewed by the yeomen farmers with a +jealousy that was undoubtedly the original cause of their present +radical proclivities, the old conservatism being relegated to towns, +contrary to the experience of other European countries, and particularly +to that of Great Britain, until the metaphorical three acres and a cow +were dangled before the eyes of its rural population. + +Under all these influences, and we may include among them the effect of +a constantly-increasing number of travellers, equipped with the modern +appliances of civilization, and demanding accommodation and other +material comforts of a more and more superior character, the Robinson +Crusoe existence of the yeoman farmer, as depicted by Mr. Laing, has +suffered so much invasion that it has well-nigh disappeared. + +In the matter of clothing, an assimilation to general, central European +dress has for years past been noticeable even in districts the most +remote, to the prejudice of home-spinning and weaving. Ancient silver +ornaments have been largely discarded by the women, and converted, first +into money, and eventually into articles of modern use or embellishment, +to an extent that now renders travellers more and more suspicious of the +Brummagem origin of the objects that remain for sale. And it is the same +with old furniture and with the multifarious knicknacks which travellers +less recent delighted to find in the country at reasonable prices. + +The value of money has become more generally appreciated since Mr. Laing +admired the absence of all incentive to 'money-making and money-losing,' +and the previously unambitious character of the yeoman and his sons has +undergone a tolerably complete change since education has opened out the +widest avenues to personal advancement, even from the plough. They no +longer live by bread alone, and therefore their artificial wants have +been increasing at a greater ratio than their means of satisfying them +out of the produce of the land. Without entering here upon the important +effect of the corn supplies from America, and of the depreciation of the +value of the Norwegian timber, owing to the increased competition of +America and other countries, we may sum up this imperfect prefatory +sketch by stating that, from a general point of view, the Gamle Norge +(Old Norway) of Mr. Laing's days has for many years been passing through +a process of transformation, the latest results of which we shall now +describe.[12] + +Mr. Laing's contention, that when land is held in freehold, not as a +rule in tenancy, the relative size or value of the estates into which +the land is divided will remain the same at one period as at another, is +entirely refuted by the official statistics of Norway. In the first +place, the total number of properties, which was about 111,000 in 1838, +had grown, in 1870, to 149,000 (34-1/2 per cent.), and is still higher +at the present day, with a continued tendency to multiplication by +partition. Secondly, the proportion that existed in 1838 between the +various sizes of agricultural holdings has undergone a notable change, +marking a very considerable increase in the relative number of small +plots. + +As it was found practically impossible to estimate the value of landed +property on the basis of its acreage (the physical conditions of the +country giving such great variety to the value of estates), the +'Cadastre' introduced in 1836, established, for purposes of assessment, +a classification based on 'skylddaler,' or taxable, value. This unit of +taxation was assumed to represent a mean capital value of about 89l., +arrived at by estimating the net income derived at that period from the +working of land during an average year. + +The following statement exhibits the cadastral classification of +properties,[13] and the changes that have occurred in the several groups +between 1838 and 1870. + + 1838. 1870. +Estates below 0.2 skylddaler in value 8,866 26,048 + " between 0.2 and 1 " 31,265 52,067 + " " 1 " 2 " 28,652 33,427 + " " 2 " 5 " 32,854 29,498 + " " 5 " 10 " 7,043 6,012 + " " 10 " 20 " 1,791 1,617 + " above 20 " 315 344 + Total 110,786 149,013 + +It is thus evident that, even fifteen years ago, the increase in the +total number of properties, as compared with the number in 1838, had +affected only the three groups of smaller holdings, and particularly the +group (below 0.2) which, according to Dr. Broch, 'includes the sites of +houses and cottages owned by labourers, fishermen, seamen, and artizans, +but estimated to yield an average of 5-1/2 bushels of corn, 8 bushels of +potatoes, and grass for half a cow. The holdings more purely +agricultural, and designated by the same authority as 'small +properties,' are those comprised in the two next categories, namely, +parcels of land over 0.2 and under 2 skylddaler in value. In 1870, we +find that a little more than one-half of the landed properties in Norway +and one-third of the total cadastral area, were included in those two +groups. The average yield of those small properties is estimated by Dr. +Broch at '55 bushels (20 hectol) of cereals, and 82-1/2 bushels (30 +hectol) of potatoes, with fodder for four cows, seven sheep or goats, +and half a horse.' He states, nevertheless, that-- + + 'without subsidiary means of existence, the most frugal + families cannot subsist on them, even when free from debt + and other incumbrances. There can be no question of + employing hired labour on such farms, although a domestic + servant is sometimes kept. The owners or tenants of such + small properties seek their principal means of existence in + fishing, forest work, and a variety of other occupations.' + +The group of properties more particularly admired by Mr. Laing is that +which is officially classed under 'Properties of medium size,' ranging +between two and ten skylddaler in cadastral value. They represented in +1870 only 24 per cent. of the total number of properties, but 59 per +cent. of the cadastral area of Norway. These are the farms which can, on +an average, feed fifteen head of cattle, thirty or forty sheep or goats, +and a couple of pigs, and yield 30 imperial quarters of cereals, 40 +imperial quarters of potatoes, and fodder for a couple of horses. + + 'Agriculture on these properties,' continues Dr. Broch, 'is + not only the most important means of existence, but also in + many cases the only resource. _They suffice for a family of + simple habits, provided the proprietor is not crippled with + debt, that he has not to pay too heavy "föderåa"_ + (annuities, incumbrances) _and on condition that he lives as + a peasant, assisting personally in the work of the + firm_,[14] + +Estates of an assessed value of more than ten 'skylddaler' are +designated as 'Large Properties.' They cover 13.4 per cent. of the total +cadastral area, but represent only 1.3 per cent. of the total number of +properties; and it is exclusively these that afford, according to Dr. +Broch, 'easy circumstances to their possessors, who are not infrequently +ship-owners, forest-owners, engaged in the fishery-trade,' &c. + +It is thus manifest that, in 1878, when Dr. Broch drew up his Report for +the Universal Exhibition at Paris, the diffusion of property in Norway +had left only about 25 per cent. of the yeomen farmers (excluding the +group of 'Large Properties') capable of maintaining themselves and their +families on their freeholds on conditions which, as we shall presently +show, no longer exist, and that the great bulk of the landed proprietors +were in occupation of such small patches of land that their subsistence +was entirely dependent upon other employments. This view is very fully +borne out by the 'Reports of the Norwegian Prefects for the Quinquennial +Period 1876-80.' Their observations on the growing subdivision of land +as one of the causes by which the agricultural economy has been +disturbed, to its great disadvantage, are well worth attention. + +An increasing subdivision of land is reported from the provinces of +North Bergen, Romsdal, South Trondhjem, and Tromsö. The Prefect of North +Bergen points to it as one of the reasons of the unfavorable condition +of the province:-- + + 'It may,' he writes, 'with just cause be said to exist when + the properties parcelled out are insufficient for the + maintenance of a family, and when the farms are situated in + a locality which does not afford the opportunity of some + kind of subsidiary employment, or if the proprietor of such + a small holding cannot attach himself to another man as a + labourer for hire. When utilised, however, by the + inhabitants of the coast, such subdivision cannot be + regarded as excessive, for the owners of the small patches + are able to obtain for themselves and their families the + necessaries of life by fishing. When, however, a landowner, + on account of the insignificant extent or the small + productiveness of his farm, finds himself unable to subsist + without seeking the wages of a labourer, his position is not + better, or but little better, than that of the cotter + (Husmand) alongside of him, notwithstanding that the latter + is not owner of the land he cultivates. It is a matter of + course that such farmers will be destitute of economical + power, and unable to give the communal or the provincial + exchequer any visible contribution towards the funds that + have to be raised in order to meet the public expenditure. + The existence of such small proprietors is not, on the + whole, desirable.' + +In the province of South Trondhjem the great increase of the +indebtedness of the landowners is ascribed in part to the subdivision of +property by the creation of _Myrmoend_, literally 'bogmen' +(bog-trotters?), or men supplied gratuitously, in recent times, with +small plots of waste land, for the purpose of qualifying them as voters. +Subdivision has likewise resulted from the partition of holdings in +common, which, according to Dr. Broch, formed, in 1870, 13.4 per cent. +of all the properties in Norway; principally in the Western Provinces, +from the Naze to the Fiord of Trondhjem, where they constituted at that +period, on the average as much as 30 per cent. of the landed property. +Under a law passed in 1857, those lands are now divisible or +exchangeable, and it appears from the report of the Prefects that the +demands in that direction cannot be satisfied by the Government +officials with sufficient promptness. In the province of South +Trondhjem, for instance, about 40 per cent. of the properties were still +held in common in 1875, but between 1876 and 1880 the partition of such +lands was advancing 'at the rate of about twenty farms per annum.' + +The Prefect of Romsdal enumerates the causes of an increasing +subdivision of landed property as follows: 1. The clearing of land for +fields and meadows with the view of affording support to more families +than one. 2. The desire of a proprietor to let more of his children than +the nearest _Odelsberretige_[15] come into the possession of his estate. +3. In the case of an indebted proprietor, the necessity of parting with +a portion of his land in order to get clear of his creditors; and 4. The +desire on the part of persons who have no real property to come into the +possession of land, especially tenants and cotters. The yeomen farmers +themselves, he reports: + + 'bring forward as a substantial reason for the increasing + subdivision of land the fact that, owing to the growing + difficulty of obtaining labourers, _it does not pay to + remain in possession of a larger estate than can be worked + by the family itself_.' + +Consequently, the number of holdings was increased in that province by +nearly 10 per cent. between 1876 and 1880. A corroboration of this view +is to be found in other Reports, particularly in the Report from the +Province of North Trondhjem, in which the yeomen farmers are declared to +be compelled to 'cultivate the land with the resources of their own +households.' The effect of the conversion of cotters into small +proprietors may be estimated from the following opinion of another +Prefect: 'The burden of bad times is often felt more heavily by the +proprietor than by the cotter;' and all the Reports show that 'the +times' are as bad in Norway as they are in the United Kingdom, with this +aggravation, that 70 to 80 per cent. of the population of Norway is +settled on the land, and steeped in debt. + +Most of the Prefects report unfavourably on the condition and prospects +of agriculture, and on the depressing influence of American competition +in corn, which began to make itself distinctly felt about the year +1875,[16] when also the forest industry, so intimately connected with +agriculture, first encountered the effects of a greatly increased +shipment of timber from America and other countries to Europe. But these +are not the only reasons, over and above the subdivision of property +already dwelt upon, to which they ascribe a very general decline in the +economic condition of the yeomen farmer. In one province, 'habits of +thrift and providence had been awakened and replaced by new habits of +life, with greater demands for comforts and enjoyments.' High prices +previously realized for timber had caused luxury to enter into all the +circumstances of life, stimulating in many quarters a reckless waste of +money earned.' In another, 'the demand for comforts of life has risen, +and it is not all that have found it easy to limit the satisfaction of +their wants,' and 'more has been consumed than means allowed.' The +female part, more particularly, of the population of North Bergen, is +reproached with an inability to withstand the temptation of buying the +wares of all kinds, 'neither useful nor necessary,' which the present +great number of country storekeepers insidiously placed before their +eyes. 'The improved mode of living introduced during a previous, +flourishing period, has also contributed to ruin the economic condition +of the people, who in the harder times that have succeeded have not +known how to cut their coats according to their cloth.' At the same +time, the Prefect adds, 'the mode of living, taking the rural population +as a whole, is very frugal; yes, far too frugal. It is very desirable +that they should have more substantial food than they have at present, +but they must first have the means to obtain it.' Even so far north as +the Provinces of Nordland and Tromsö, a similar tendency to live beyond +means, the absence of good economy, and the dissipation of money 'on no +particular system,' are reported to be the present characteristics of +the people who are largely engaged in the fisheries. + +No one who has travelled in Norway can fail to endorse the assertion, +that the fare of the yeomen farmer, however many may be his cows, is of +a character which no English agricultural labourer would be satisfied +with. Oatmeal cakes, potatoes, porridge, butter and milk, and of late +years American pork (when within reach of the yeoman's means) are the +principal articles of food; and the hardiest traveller, whether native +or alien, would not venture to leave the main arteries of communication +without making his own provision of potted meats, or trusting for his +sustenance to the fish and game to be killed by himself. Mr. Laing's +'salted meat and black-puddings' are certainly not to be found, except +at farms that are few and far between. On the high roads, where +tourists' gold circulates, the traveller suffers no deprivation, and the +houses and stations are so comfortable and well-appointed, that only the +most exacting foreigner can find fault with the accommodation provided. +Mr. Laing's observations in this respect apply at present only to +establishments of this kind, and to the very few farms at which the +servants are still 'called to and from their work by means of a bell.' + +Except, therefore, along the course of the tourists' gold stream, and in +the vicinity of towns, the mode of living is rude in the extreme, and +the lament of the Prefect of North Bergen is in reality applicable to +the great bulk of the yeomen farmers of Norway, as well as to their +tenants and cotters. Nor is there any trace of that equality in the mode +of living which Mr. Laing found in existence among the several classes +of the rural population--'the public functionary, the clergyman, the +gentleman of larger property, and the _Bonde_ or peasant.' Refinement +and culture, equal to what exists amongst corresponding classes of this +country, are wanting only to the yeomen farmers; and their efforts to +adopt a 'higher standard of living,' and to acquire the 'comforts of +life,' have in no small degree conduced to the encumbrance of their +estates. From the Reports of the Prefects it is evident that the gravest +symptom of the decline of the rural economy in Norway, and, at the same +time, one of its principle causes, is the heavy indebtedness of the +yeomen farmers, great and small. Its origin is traceable to the year +1816, when the Bank of Norway was founded, chiefly for the purpose of +'advancing on its own notes, upon first securities over land, any sum +not exceeding two-thirds of the value of the property' mortgaged to it. +Mr. Laing alludes to it as 'the peculiar, and for the wants of the +country, well-imagined, Bank of Norway,' which 'facilitates greatly the +family arrangements with regard to land.' Its capital was originally +raised by a forced loan or tax upon all landed property, and the +landholders became shareholders according to the amount of their +respective shares. The borrower repaid half-yearly to the Bank the +interest of the sum that might be to his debit at the rate of 4 per +cent. per annum, and was also bound to pay off 5 per cent. yearly of the +principal, which was thus liquidated in twenty years. Although Mr. Laing +was of opinion that 'a circulation of paper money on such a basis is +evidently next, in point of security, to that of the precious metals,' +he fails to mention that the Bank was forced to suspend specie payments +three years after its establishment, and that the resumption of those +payments was not commenced until 1823, when the notes of the Bank began +to be convertible at little over half their original value; the +operation of raising them to par, on a graduated scale, having been +completed only in 1842, a period since which the Bank, with an increased +Reserve Fund, has maintained an uninterrupted and unimpeachable +stability. But while the Bank still advances money on the security of +landed property, two-thirds of its resources are now employed in the +discount of mercantile bills. At the end of 1883, its loans to the +landed proprietors amounted only to 626,000l. + +In 1852, however, the State had come again to the assistance of the +landowners for the extinction of private mortgages and the consolidation +of old debts by the creation of a special 'State Mortgage Bank,' with an +original capital of 291,000l., increased by successive issues of bonds +representing advances on the security of real property, bearing interest +at the rate of 4 per cent, (at present 4-1/2 per cent.), and repayable +by drawings over a period of thirty years. The amount of the bonds +issued up to 1884 was about 3,812,000l., and in 1878 about +three-quarters of the bonds were held in the country itself, their +market value being still almost at par. + +It is principally into this Bank that the yeomen farmers have been +dipping their estates at a rapidly increasing rate. Thus, while the +loans on the security of real property in rural districts averaged +57,500l. per annum between 1853 and 1855, and 220,600l. between 1876 and +1880, the advances made in 1883 amounted to 396,500l. At the end of that +year the balance of outstanding loans had reached the sum of +3,752,000l., of which about 77 per cent., or 2,889,000l., represented +advances in rural districts, the remaining 23 per cent, having been +borrowed in towns. The interest payable on those loans is respectively +4-1/4 and 4-3/4 per cent., according to whether the borrowers have been +supplied with bonds bearing interest at the rate of 4 or 4-1/2 per cent. +per annum; and 3 per cent. of the capital is repayable per annum until +the extinction of the debt over a period of thirty years. + +There is a third public source available to the landed proprietors for +loans on mortgages and on bonds or bills, namely the Savings Banks. In +1884, the savings-banks, in rural districts alone, held in 'mortgage +bonds' and in 'bonds and bills' a sum of about 3,553,000l.; but in what +proportion that debt was incurred by local traders and by farmers, it is +impossible to say. It is, however, clear that the yeomen farmers have +benefited largely by the deposits made in those banks by the +comparatively few who have been able to accumulate, instead of +borrowing, money. Thus, the Prefect of Hedemarken reports that, 'while +large amounts, realized by the sale of timber, were deposited in the +savings-banks, extensive loans were made by those establishments to +persons in less favourable circumstances,' and that 'the savings-banks, +to be found in so many parishes, have, by the easy access they afford to +loans, beguiled many into a needless borrowing of money, subsequently +squandered.' + +Over and above these facilities for borrowing money from public +institutions, the yeomen farmers are undoubtedly heavily in debt to +local storekeepers, and to merchants and traders in the towns. In fact +the great bulk of the landed proprietors have been borrowing in every +direction as much as they could raise by mortgage or by bill. Owing to +the excellent system of registration that exists in Norway, there is no +difficulty in ascertaining the extent to which the charges on real +property in rural districts have increased between the years 1876 and +1880. It appears from the Reports of the Prefects that, between those +dates, the balance of mortgages newly effected over those extinguished +in rural districts amounted to a sum of about four millions sterling. +The State Mortgage Bank is bound not to advance more than six-tenths of +the value of land and buildings (forests excepted), and it is supposed +that the loans have so far not exceeded four-tenths of the value of +mortgaged property; but as the yeomen farmers generally contrive to +borrow on second mortgages, it may safely be assumed, that their estates +are charged with interest at 4-1/4 to 6 per cent. on a considerable part +of the nominal value of what is not purely forest land, in addition to +an annual repayment of 3 per cent. of the capital borrowed from the +State Mortgage Bank. The forests, on the other hand, have been largely +used up in paying the interest and capital on those loans, either by +cutting them down, or by leasing or pawning them to traders, or to +yeomen who have been able to keep their heads above water and to profit +by the economic distress of the great majority of their +fellow-landowners. The difficulty experienced by that majority in +meeting the payment of interest and capital, especially at a time when +the value of agricultural produce has been considerably diminished by +American competition, and when also the competition of American and +Baltic timber has simultaneously reduced the profits of the forest +industry to a point that hardly repays the felling of trees, is clearly +shown from the statistics of forced sales, of auctions and of distraints +in the rural districts, and from an accompanying increase in the number +of lawsuits before Courts of First Instance. It appears from the +Reports of the Prefects that the sales of real property for debt have +increased in every Province between the two periods 1871-1875 and +1876-1880 to an extent that ranges from 30 per cent. to 600 per cent., +the greatest increase having taken place in the Provinces of +Kristiansamt (600 per cent.), Norland, Nedenæs, Buskerud, Hedemarken and +Akershus, where it ranged between 600 per cent. and 146 per cent. From +another official source we obtain the following statement:-- + +1876-1880. + + Number. Amount. +1. Compulsory sales + of real property + in rural districts. 2513 563,000l. averaging 224l. per sale. +2. Do. of personal + property. 5136 134,000l. ditto 26l. per sale. +3. Distraints for arrears + of taxes, &c. -- 1,089,000l. + +But since real property is of comparatively low value in Norway, and +personal property limited mostly to the veriest necessities of life, it +is not so much the total of the amounts realized by forced sales, or the +sums for which 'executions' and 'distraints' were effected, that give +the measure of the depressed condition of the yeomen farmers, as the +great and steady increase that took place between 1876 and 1880 in the +number of those operations. Thus, while the number of forced sales of +real property in towns, as well as in rural districts, was 424 in 1876, +it had grown to 1378 in 1880. It is therefore not surprising to find in +the Reports of the Prefects from which we have so largely drawn our +figures that 'the means of meeting liabilities and of paying taxes at +the proper time have grown more feeble, and recourse to legal +enforcement of pecuniary claims has consequently become more frequent.' +'The condition of this Province' (Kristiansamt) 'is all the worse from a +pretty widespread misuse of credit during the previous period' +(1871-75). In another province (N. Bergen) we find that the depression +in 1879 and 1880 'compelled those who had claims to enforce them +rigorously. Mortgages, distraints, sales, &c., have therefore increased, +and there has been an exceptionally, large number of suits before the +Courts of Mutual Agreement. 'The value of agricultural produce has +fallen, owing to a great extent to a scarcity of money and to great +competition from a desire to convert as much produce as possible into +money.' In the northern province of Tromsö 'merchants have suffered from +the impoverishment of their customers' (mostly fishermen as well as +landowners), 'and have caused them to be made bankrupts. Credit has +been misused on a large scale. Its facility induces the population to +live beyond its means. It also encourages traders to set up in business +and get customers with ease, without having capital or means of their +own. The one misuse reacts on the other. All products are sunk +considerably in value, and this fall is even greater in the case of real +estate.' + +The latter statement is not generally applicable to the remaining +provinces, for we find that while the average value of the 'skylddaler,' +or unit of assessment, was 153l.,[17] according to prices paid for land +in 1871-1875, it has risen to about 180l. in 1876-1880, thus confuting +Mr. Laing's theory, that the peculiar succession of property would tend +to keep land at a low value. It would not, however, be right to conclude +from these figures that landed property has, on the whole, increased of +late years in value, despite the general indebtedness of its owners. +Land in the vicinity of towns and railways must naturally become more +and more valuable, and the relatively much higher prices paid for such +land have no doubt had the effect of raising the total average deduced +from sales of every description of landed property. It may also be +assumed that the demand for land is artificially increased by the +facility with which it may be purchased, since at least one-half of the +purchase money generally remains on mortgage, in addition to other +encumbrances. At the same time, the financial institutions, to which so +large a proportion of the real property in Norway is mortgaged, are +interested in maintaining its value, and attain their object by +abstaining from offering at any one period too many defaulting +properties for sale; and it may also be suspected that the statistics of +forced sales represent only cases in which no compromise could be +effected, or in which it was expedient or possible to have recourse to +the ultimate means of recovery without sensibly deteriorating locally +the value of landed property. Cases are, in fact, not infrequent in +which the mortgagees find themselves compelled to retain the property of +the defaulter, and either to place it in the hands of caretakers, with +the hope of future realization on more favourable terms, or to sell it +in small lots as opportunity occurs. In any case, the full and exact +effect of the pawning of all the landed property of the country at a +time when its agriculture has to compete with American cereals, its +timber industry with supplies from America and the Baltic, and its +wooden ships with iron steamers transporting cargoes at an almost +nominal freight, is not yet to be found in statistical records. + +The indisputable fact remains that, notwithstanding the existence of a +system of land tenure which, according to Mr. Laing, was so perfect +between 1834 and 1836 as to render its adoption in this country, and +especially in Ireland, highly desirable, the yeomen farmers of +Norway--framers of their own laws and absolute masters of their own +destinies--are not only at present suffering from the commercial and +agricultural depression that obtains in other countries of Europe, in +which the social state is more or less differently constituted, but also +find themselves, in face of that depression, with exceptionally heavy +burdens on their backs in the form of pecuniary indebtedness at a rate +of interest which mere agriculture, under the most favourable +circumstances, cannot possibly afford to pay. + +This heavy indebtedness has not, as a rule, been incurred for productive +purposes, such as drainage, improved methods of agriculture, the +increase of stock, &c.; and although the use of simple agricultural +machinery is somewhat on the increase in Norway, yet agriculture remains +very much in the same primitive condition in which it was found by Mr. +Laing.[18] The Prefects attribute this backwardness to want of skill on +the part of the proprietors (Romsdal), to the poverty of the soil, to +the dearness of agricultural labour, and generally to the unremunerative +results of husbandry since the depreciation of the value of its +products. In a letter addressed last year to the 'Morgenblad,' the +leading Journal at Christiania, by a native authority on the subject of +agriculture, it is urged that the landed proprietors of Norway have 'for +some years past been going down hill;' the hopes of improving the +condition of agriculture, entertained about thirty years ago, when +efforts were first commenced in that direction, being now entirely +dissipated. + + 'It is painful,' he says 'to see how the forests are + decreasing and how land once under cultivation is lying + unused. When asked the reason, the proprietors reply that + the prices of corn and other agricultural products are so + low and the wages of labour so high, owing to emigration, + that they have not the means to cultivate a large portion of + the land, and could derive no advantage from it even if the + means were available.' + +The yeomen farmers, being therefore in a distressed condition, and +their children and best hands forced to leave their homes in order to +cultivate the fruitful soil of America, to the growing detriment of +those who remain to till the soil of Norway--those farmers, he points +out with great force of argument, must have the same protection which is +accorded to the industrial classes, if agriculture is to be saved from +final ruin. In fact, this remarkable letter points to an agitation in +favour of the imposition of a 'fiscal duty,'[19] on corn, food of all +kind, cattle, dairy produce, &c.; and supports this conclusion with the +argument used by Prince Bismarck on the second reading of his recent +Corn Duties Bill: + + 'The trade of the Baltic will suffer nothing from protective + duties. As regards agriculture, I am opposed to all + legislation against the subdivision of land ... but if you + want to have small occupiers of land, you must vote for + duties on corn.' + +Account must at the same time be taken of the heavy and increasing +charges that fall on landed property for the administration of rural +districts in Norway. While the inhabitants of the rural communities +contribute towards the support of the Central Administration only in the +form of Customs and Excise duties, stamps, succession duties, and +contributions towards the construction of highways, the burthen of local +administration, justice, police, prisons, the Church, public +instruction, poor relief, sanitary service, parochial roads, posting +stations, interest on communal loans, &c., falls on their landed +property. This self-assessed and self-imposed burthen has naturally been +growing more heavy, from year to year, under the exigencies of modern +progress. Thus, while the total communal expenditure in 1853 was +167,000l., it had risen to 497,000l. in 1880, or 197-1/2 per cent. About +one half of the requisite resources is derived from a tax on the +cadastral value of real property; the remaining half is raised by a tax +on capital and income. In 1880 the communal impositions on land +represented a taxation of about 6s. 7d. per head of the rural +population. That the whole of the communal expenditure is not covered by +taxation is apparent from the fact, that in the same year the rural +districts had increased the amount of their total debts to about half a +million sterling, from 312,000l. in 1874. + +In this respect it is certainly significant to discover that Poor +Relief, organized by a law passed in 1863, is the largest item of +communal expenditure, being indeed very little less than half of the +total annual liabilities of the rural districts, in a country in which, +in the halcyon days of Mr. Laing, only the infirm were supported for a +few days at a time by the yeomen farmers. He appears to have attributed +this to the absence of collieries, the introduction of coal as fuel +having, he argues, been coëval in England with the imposition of a rate +for the poor, deprived by that industry of the work of chopping up +firewood which gave so much employment to idle hands in Norway. However +that might be, in 1880 and 1881 the number of persons in receipt of +relief or maintained in hospital, at the charge of rural communities +alone, was respectively 109,688 and about 114,000, or in both years a +little over 7 per cent. of the total rural population. Inclusive of +urban districts the same totals amounted in those years to 81 and 83 per +1000, or above 8 per cent. of the population of the kingdom, the cost of +support having been about 3s. 10d. per head of the entire population, +which contributed 2s. 9d. per head in special taxation for that object, +and the balance in an indirect manner, apparently by housing paupers, +&c. + +These paupers include cotters and labourers, as well as the ruined among +the smaller yeomen. Farmers who had previously been able to employ +labour, 'no longer find their advantage in it,' and consequently-- + + 'even able-bodied workmen (in Hedemarken) were compelled to + seek relief from the Poor Fund when their families were + large. The smaller farmers and the labourers are in the + worst plight, since the falling off in the timber trade has + made them feel the want of the usual steady demand for + labour at high wages.' Further: 'it has become very + difficult for the least affluent and for labourers to gain a + livelihood in the prevailing money and timber crisis.... The + depression must for a long time be felt by many. + +We need only point out that, in the United Kingdom, the percentage of +persons in receipt of relief during the year 1881 was 3 per cent. in +England and Wales, 2.6 per cent. in Scotland, and 11 per cent. in +Ireland,[20] involving an expenditure at the rate respectively of 6s. +3d., 4s. 6d., and 3s. 9d. per head of population. + +Obviously, the relatively greater cost of relieving the poor in Great +Britain is due to the more expensive character of the support afforded, +and to the very heavy sums paid for salaries and other establishment +charges; but it is unquestionably a damaging fact against the system of +land tenure in Norway, that the pauperism by which it is in the present +day accompanied, with a strong tendency to increase, is equalled only by +the state of things in Ireland, which certain legislators now desire to +remedy by the creation of peasant proprietors. + +The relative state of matters in Great Britain and in Norway has +therefore greatly changed since Mr. Laing wrote: + + 'The distribution of the wealth and employment of a country + has much more to do, than the amount, with the well-being + and condition of the people. The wealth and employment of + the British nation far exceed those of any other nation; yet + in no country is so large a proportion of the inhabitants + sunk in pauperism and wretchedness.' + +An increasing rate of pauperism is one of the symptoms of agricultural +distress in Norway, but the strong tide of emigration from rural and +urban districts marks with equal force the depression and congestion +from which the country is suffering in the same degree as the United +Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Aided by improved and cheapened +means of transport, the number of emigrants from Norway ranged between +20,212 in 1880 and 22,167 in 1883, giving an average of 1.3 to 1.5 per +cent. of the total population, the contingent of the rural districts +being about 70 per cent. of the total number. As in the case of +pauperism, the corresponding rate of emigration from Ireland, namely 1.5 +per cent., exhibits a remarkable similarity, and affords another +convincing proof that peasant proprietorship is no _panacea_ for rustic +indigence. + +Those who have not studied the present economic condition of the yeoman +farmer and agricultural labourer in Norway, or who have not taken into +consideration the change that has come over the entire country, and the +ambition, as distinguished from previous apathy, which education and +communication with an outer world, no longer closed to them, has +awakened among the classes with which we are dealing, are inclined to +attribute a good part of this emigrating tendency to the influence and +the material assistance of those who have gone before. Indisputably, the +Norwegian emigrant, by his persevering labour and steady conduct, rarely +fails to succeed in Wisconsin and other States, in which he is always a +welcome settler; and consequently he soon finds himself able to transmit +money for the purpose of enabling his brothers and sisters, and not +seldom his father and mother, to join him. No State or other aid is +afforded for such purposes to Norwegians, although it is occasionally +the case, that the hard cash with which the emigrant leaves his home is +derived from the proceeds of a loan raised by the head of his family for +the purpose of buying out co-heirs under the _Odels ret_, adding +thereby, as we have already shown, to the indebtedness with which the +land is burdened. Others, also, maintain that many young men emigrate +from Norway in order to avoid military conscription, which, although +milder there in its demands than in most other European countries where +that system exists, undoubtedly diminishes the quantity and deteriorates +the quality of agricultural labour. The strongest incentive to +emigration, however, is the desire to escape from the misery and penury +which accompany in Norway, as in every other part of Europe, the +condition of a small landowner, cotter, or labourer who is unable to +find regular employment on adjoining estates that can be kept going, if +nothing more, with the aid of scientific knowledge, machinery and +capital. + +There is, however, yet another proof of the prevalent material _malaise_ +in Norway, particularly among its rural classes, and strangely enough it +bears the same character as that which has brought the 'three acres and +a cow' and Irish land bills, past and expected, into such prominent +relief in our country of lack-lands, namely political agitation. +Whatever may be its merits or demerits on this side of the North Sea, +our readers will scarcely be prepared to learn that a corresponding +ferment has been engendered of late years on the opposite shores. We are +told this by the Prefect of South Trondhjem, one of the most important +provinces of a country where, in the days of Mr. Laing, there was a +dead-level of contentment, where the widest form of home-rule has been +in operation since the early part of the present century, and where the +Crown Administration has all that time been more pure, blameless and +efficient than in any other country on the Continent of Europe. His +significant words are: + + 'As everywhere else in Norway, particularly in rural + districts, politicians (_i. e. agitators_) are here taking + more and more hold over the minds of the people. Political + unrest increases, and immature and extreme opinions are + being advanced more than is desirable. The quiet, temperate, + but progressive development to which Norway had previously + been accustomed, and with which the great bulk of the nation + had been well content, is in danger of being replaced by a + progress in fits and starts, accompanied by leaps in the + dark.' + +No less painful and suggestive is it to find, in the Report from the +Prefect of Hedemarken, that 'the Christian earnestness of the people has +suffered under the influence of the many misleading writings and +tendencies which have in recent times found their way into every stratum +of society.' As at home, so in Norway, the question of Church +Disestablishment, with all its consequences, is approaching within +measurable distance of practical solution.[21] + +Supported by official publications, we have now described the present +condition of the yeomen farmers of Norway, and from the facts and +figures we have marshalled, the following replies may confidently be +given to the Socialistic theories and conclusions of Mr. Laing: + +1. Notwithstanding, or rather in part owing to, the existence of the +Allodial Right [which has proved in its results to be an exaggerated +form of primogeniture involving a greater multiplication of encumbrances +even than exists under the system of land tenure in the United Kingdom], +an excessive subdivision of the land has occurred and is still +proceeding in Norway, to the prejudice of estates which in 1836, and +even later, afforded moderate ease and contentment to their owners, and +relatively well remunerated labour to the workman and the cotter. + +2. The dead-level of comfortable subsistence, attributed by Mr. Laing to +the parcelling-out of land into small estates, has been converted, by +the influence of irresistible economic laws, into one of general +distress and discontent among the rural classes. + +3. The rates of pauperism and emigration prove that the agrarian +population has not, as prophesied by Mr. Laing, kept 'within the bounds +of possible modern existence.' + +4. The taxation of landed property, for local purposes, has greatly +increased, particularly under the head of Poor Relief; and + +5. The distressed condition of the yeoman farmer in Norway is strongly +attested by his heavy and growing indebtedness. He may now, in fact, be +classed with the proverbially derided Fife laird, owning 'A wee bit of +land, a great lump of debt, and a dookit.'[22] + +Such being the result of our enquiries into the economic condition of +the great bulk of the yeoman farmers of Norway, the ideal fabric reared +by Mr. Laing at a time when the Norse old world was still asleep, falls +utterly to the ground, and there remains but one of his statements that +we can with any advantage submit to the earnest attention of our +readers, namely, that '_A single fact brought home from such a country +is worth a volume of speculations._' We go further and say, that facts +in relation to the question of land tenure collected in any other part +of Europe are of equally inestimable value; and they have already been +supplied in great abundance from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and +Switzerland.[23] Nothing can truly be more fatal to the successful +solution of such intricate problems than the relief of the agricultural +distress of England and Scotland, or the satisfaction of the alleged +earth-hunger of the Celtic population of Ireland, than to initiate +legislation on the hypothesis that circumstances alter cases, and that +our own country can with impunity be withdrawn from the operation of +economic laws that have asserted their supremacy throughout the entire +Continent of Europe. + +As history repeats itself, so are the laws of civilized development both +general and inexorable. Even in the extreme case of Russia, it has been +proved, in an article we published a few years ago,[24] that a heavy and +ruinous price has been paid for the emancipation of the serfs on a +Socialistic and partly Communistic basis, and on the erroneous +assumption, that the continued existence of the 'Mir' (the ancient +village community even of India) was an institution indigenous to the +country itself, and therefore worthy of being perpetuated by +legislation. Millions of a rural population, freed from personal +servitude, were chained anew to the land by the indebtedness incurred in +the expropriation of the lords of the soil. The allotments, averaging +ten acres, parcelled out among them in 1861, were estimated to be +sufficiently large and productive to provide not only for their support, +but also, firstly, for the payment of the 'redemption dues' with which +the allotted lands were charged for a limited period of years at an +average rate of only 1s. 9d. per acre, and secondly, for the punctual +payment of the moderate poll-tax, which the exigencies of the State +required them to contribute. Those expectations began to vanish soon +after they had been formed, and at the present time we see the +previously rich agricultural plains of Russia, abandoned, as they almost +wholly are, to the slovenly husbandry of a rude and greatly demoralized +peasantry, deteriorating from year to year in the quality of their +produce, and thereby opposing less and less impediment to the successful +competition of other corn-growing countries.[25] The great fall that has +taken place in the value of Russian cereals is apparent from the fact +that, notwithstanding the depreciation of the paper currency of the +country to the extent of about 25 per cent. since the serfs were +emancipated (and nearly 37 per cent. from the par value of the standard +rouble), the corn-grower in Russia actually receives for his produce, in +paper money, some 40 per cent, less than he obtained for it when the +currency was less debased. + +Despair, and the absence of that restraint which education, and the +moral elevation inseparable from it, are establishing in other European +countries, have driven the rural inhabitants of entire districts, and +even provinces, into habits of drunkenness stronger and more general +than those which existed before the autocratic creation of 'peasant +proprietors' in Russia. + +Among the earliest measures adopted in Russia during the present reign +was that of a reduction and partial remission of the 'redemption dues,' +which, on the 1st of January, 1885, represented the interest and sinking +fund on nearly 113 millions sterling,[26] expended by the Government in +the partial expropriation of the now ruined landlords of the +country.[27] + +During the year 1884, alone, those reductions and remissions inflicted a +loss of 1,135,000l.[28] on the Imperial Treasury. The most recent +measure of alleviation has been the total abolition of the poll-tax[29] +(to be completed by the end of the present year); and, consequently, the +State-contribution of at least 85 per cent. of the population of Russia +is being limited to the excise duty on drink, an item of revenue with +which the Imperial Government cannot possibly dispense, since it brings +in a sum more than adequate for the maintenance of the imposing military +forces of the Empire. + +Simultaneously, 'Peasant Land Banks' have been established by the State +in order to facilitate the purchase of still more land by the ex-serfs. +The Minister of Finance was authorized in 1882 to issue annually for +that purpose a sum of 500,000l. in bonds, bearing 5-1/2 per cent. +interest. But, by the 1st of January, 1886, these banks had already +advanced over three millions sterling to 785 Communes, 1576 +'partnerships,' and 359 individual peasants, representing an aggregate +number of 112,765 householders. On loans for 24-1/2 years the interest +and sinking fund, payable by the borrowers, amount to 8-1/2 per cent., +and on those for 34-1/2 years, to 7-1/2 per cent., the lands purchased +by such means remaining inalienable until the extinction of the +mortgages, except with the consent of the mortgagees, _i. e._ the banks. +The effects of this new departure in the direction of providing small +landed proprietors with State funds, will no doubt soon be apparent. + +Whether, therefore, we examine the experience of a civilized, orderly, +home-ruled country like Norway, with a steady, laborious, and, we may +almost say, abstemious, population in many respects akin to our own, or +that of a State still at an immensely distant stage of social +development,--and under a very different form of Government,--the +salient results of bolstering up, by means of State loans, or of +artificially creating, equally at the cost of the State, a numerous body +of small landed proprietors, have been strikingly identical in regard to +the ultimate economic condition of the agrarian classes. + +Insisting, as we do, on the strength of the facts we have adduced, that, +in old Europe, the operation of economic laws affecting land tenure, +admits of no exceptions or extenuating circumstances in favour of their +violation, it appears impossible, without presumptuous sophistry or +political dishonesty, to resist the conclusion, that the infringement of +those laws in any part of the United Kingdom could only terminate, +infallibly and speedily, in damage to the State, after ruin to the +individual. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] The physical results of intermarriage with the object of +concentrating property, are very apparent in many of the older _Bonde_ +families in Norway. + +[6] It would not be right to allow this observation to pass without +mentioning, even at the cost of destroying so fascinating a picture of +pastoral felicity, that the hard-working dairy-maids of Norway are never +accompanied by their sweethearts to the soeters, where, except from +Saturday night until Monday morning, when the young men find time to +visit them, they lead the most solitary lives, and are busy all day in +milking cows and goats and making butter and cheese. + +[7] In 1833 the total production of spirits in the rural districts +amounted to about 3-1/2 gallons per head of the population. The +demoralization that resulted from its increase necessitated the +enactment of restrictive measures, and at last, in 1848, the small +stills were purchased by the State, and private distillation was +prohibited. As in Great Britain, the vice of drunkeness is now +decreasing in Norway, owing partly to the reduced means of the +population, but chiefly to the influence of education and of temperance +societies. + +[8] The average proportion of 1851-52 was 9.32 per cent. There is a +difference of only 1 per cent, between the rates of illegitimacy in +rural and urban districts, to the disadvantage of the latter. + +[9] 'The French Constitution of 1791 is one of the principal sources of +the Fundamental Law of Norway. The suspensive veto has been derived from +it.'--O. I. Broch. + +[10] At the end of 1882, the total population was estimated at +1,922,500, or a decrease 3900 as compared with 1881, when the increase +was only 1000 from the year preceding. + +[11] In 1880, the average rate of wages for labourers engaged by the +year in agricultural districts was 8l. 10s. per annum, and that of daily +labour, without food, 1s. 9d. per diem; the corresponding rates in towns +having been 11l. 6s. 8d. and 2s. + +[12] Our readers must, however, bear in mind that we are dealing only +with the rural economy of Norway, and that the facts we shall submit on +that subject affect but slightly the general financial condition of a +country which continues to derive its earnings mainly from the supply of +timber, fish, wood-pulp, ice, &c., to foreign countries, and from its +extensive carrying trade in sailing vessels and steamers. The prosperity +of the towns is influenced chiefly by the state of trade in the rest of +Europe, while being (to the extent of 122 out of 128) situated on the +seaboard, their successful development reacts but little on the +prosperity of the inland agricultural districts. + +[13] In the 'Tables of Landed Property,' published in 1880, the holdings +(in 1865) are classified as follows:-- + +Properties under 5 acres 34,224 or 15.5 per cent. + " between 5 and 12-1/2 acres 42,984 " 32.1 " + " " 12-1/2 and 50 " 48,575 " 36.2 " + " above 50 acres 8,208 " 6.2 " + +[14] The italics our own. The author states that it is the custom among +the peasants of Norway that when the eldest son or the daughter of the +house (when there is no son), marries, the parents surrender the +property, but retain a right of subsistence upon it. This, he shows, +explains the existence of the large number of detached dwellings on the +same estate, for very often cottages have to be built for the +accommodation of persons who have a right to subsistence, which is not, +however, limited to a dwelling-house, but frequently includes the +usufruct of a small plot of land and, almost always fodder for a certain +number of cows and goats. See also p. 386. + +[15] The eldest of kin having allodial right. + +[16] Between 1871 and 1875 Norway imported about 46 per cent. of the +cereals required for home consumption, in addition to pork, butter, and +other articles of food. + +[17] From statistics recently published, it appears that between 1881 +and 1883 the price of land, estimated on actual sales, has shown a +tendency to rise in the Provinces which have a coast line, populated by +fisherman, &c., and to fall in most of the inland, more purely +agricultural districts. + +[18] Dr. Broch shows that in 1875, which was an average year for crops, +the production of cereals and potatoes (reduced to the value of barley) +was 3125 hectol. per 1000 inhabitants in Norway; whereas the average +crops in France yielded 7400 hectol. per 1000 of the population. + +[19] In 1884 a motion to that effect was made in the Swedish Rigsdag by +a peasant proprietor. At present the duty on cereals imported into +Norway is merely nominal, averaging about 2-1/2 per cent. _ad valorem_. + +[20] From special causes, the number of persons relieved in 1881 and +1882 was exceptionally high in Ireland. In 1879 it was 7-1/2 per cent., +and in 1883 about 8 per cent. of the population. + +[21] Hereditary nobility is already abolished. Under a law passed in +1821, all titles of nobility become extinct in the persons of those who +were born before 1822. + +[22] _I. e._ dovecot. + +[23] Lady Verney's 'Cottier-owners, Little Takes and Peasant +Proprietors,' published last year, is replete with facts drawn from +actual life, showing that small peasant-proprietorship is proving +ruinous on the Continent, even where the system has grown up naturally. + +[24] In No. 302, April 1881. + +[25] It is certainly remarkable to find that Australian tallow, Indian +linseed, and German barley are being imported at St. Petersburg, whence +those articles were, in the days of large landed properties, extensively +exported. The Minister of Finance, following the example of Prince +Bismarck, attempts to check this competition with the staple products of +the small landed proprietors by imposing protective duties. + +[26] Rs. 846,068,368, at the exchange of 32d., current when the great +bulk of the expropriations were effected. + +[27] In provinces of Russia Proper alone, the landed proprietors +(exclusive of the ex-serfs) have mortgaged their estates in various land +and other banks to the extent of 30-3/4 per cent. of their aggregate +acreage, the total remaining debt on such lands being about 49 millions +sterling at the present reduced value of the rouble, or 65 millions +sterling at the rate of exchange adopted in estimating the indebtedness +of the peasantry. + +[28] At the same rate of exchange. + +[29] This tax had previously given to the Imperial Treasury a sum of +about 5-1/2 millions sterling, at the depreciated rate of exchange. It +was assessed at rates that varied in the different Provinces between 2s. +7d. and 4s. 4d. per head of the male registered population, or 'per +soul.' + + + + +Art. V.--_A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; +Secretary, First to the Council of State, and afterwards to the Two +Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell._ In Seven Volumes, containing +authentic Memorials of the English affairs from the year 1638 to the +Restoration of King Charles II. Vol. III. London, 1742. + + +The character of Oliver Cromwell might, for our part, have rested +undisturbed among the 'old, unhappy, far off things' of history, had it +been our intention to fight over again, on the old lines, the contention +whether he was a hero or a knave. On the contrary, towards the solution +of that question a method, as yet untried, has been adopted. Instead of +attempting a review of Cromwell's whole career, to gain an idea of what +manner of man he was, a single train of events, in which his hand was +visible throughout, has been subjected to some degree of scrutiny. A +man's words and deeds, although arising only on one occasion, may supply +an effectual test of his real self. There could, for instance, be hardly +any doubt regarding the leading bias of his disposition, if a supremely +able ruler, that he may procure his safety, consents to-- + + 'play one scene + Of excellent dissembling, and let it look + Like perfect honour.' + +These lines disclose our case. With prescient genius Shakspeare has +described the part that Cromwell took in an event which occurred under +his Protectorate, the so-called Insurrection of March 1655; and in our +examination into the secret history of that occurrence lies the test +that we have applied to Cromwell's character. + +The revelation that we are attempting is not, however, free from +inherent difficulty. In these days of literature made easy, the products +of close research are not readily acceptable. To open up a new vista in +history, much has to be cut down, much put into new order; and the +reader must unavoidably share in the labours of the writer. And though +some curiosity may be aroused by the discovery of that which has +remained hidden, for over two centuries; still, to gratify that +curiosity, many an ingrained idea must be laid aside. Difficult as it +may seem to many, Cromwell at the outset must be regarded not as 'our +heroic One,' but as a man who sold himself to falsehood, that he might +'ride in gilt coaches, escorted by the flunkeyisms, and most sweet +voices.' Nor to appreciate the secret of our character-test, can the +assertion of any historian, from Clarendon down to Carlyle's last +imitator, be credited, that 'a universal rising of Royalists combined +with Anabaptists' broke out in March 1655. On the contrary, it must be +accepted as a preliminary condition in this investigation that England +was, at that time, in a state of immovable tranquillity, and that any +insurrectionary movement during the year 1655 sprang from a far-reaching +design, which Cromwell practised alike on friends, neutrals, and +enemies. + +That this was the case has hitherto escaped notice. Every historian, who +has taken part in the Cromwelliad, regards that revolt as 'a very tragic +reality;' they all agree, that it was 'prevented from breaking into a +dangerous flame by vigilance, prompt action, and by necessary severity.' +That this event might be regarded in a very different light was an idea +far from every one of them. Proof, however, goes before disproof. The +historians should have their say first; and our readers must endure, for +a few moments, what may be termed the received version of the +Insurrection of March 1655. + +According to Godwin, 'A general rising was meditated about the beginning +of March 1655, by the Royalist party in various parts of +England,--Yorkshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Devon and Wilts,' and +also in North Wales. 'Wilmot, about this time created Earl of Rochester, +came over to England' to head the enterprise, 'accompanied by Sir J. +Wagstaff. Charles II., who had spent the winter at Cologne, now came +privately to Middleburg in Holland, that he might be ready to pass over +to England, if the condition of affairs authorized such a measure. The +activity of Cromwell and his assistants speedily defeated these +multiplied intrigues. It does not appear that hostilities anywhere were +actually commenced, except in Yorkshire and the West of England.' + +As historians persist that on Marston Moor, the scene of the +'hostilities' in Yorkshire, an actual affray occurred,--Carlyle throws +in 'a few shots fired';--we must turn to the 'Perfect Proceedings' News +Letter, of March 1655, for a truer description of that event:-- + + 'York. The 8th of March instant, there was a meeting + appointed by the Malignants in Yorkshire to surprise York + City. To that end a party was to come on the west side of + the City, where Sir Richard Malliverer, with divers others, + was on their March. About 100 horse came with a cart load of + arms and ammunition to Hessey (i. e. Marston) Moor. And at + the wynd-mill upon the Moor there came some intelligence, + that a party, that sh'd' have come on the other side of the + City, was not ready that night. And more company failing, + which they expected to meet them that night upon the Moor + they suddenly and disorderly retreated; some Pistols was + scattered and found next morning, and a led horse, with a + velvet saddle, left in Skipbrig Lane, which was found next + day.' + +In Wiltshire, however, the Royalists effected a brief revolt, an +incident which the following quotation from Carlyle will readily recall +to mind:-- + + 'Sunday, March 11th, 1655, in the City of Salisbury, about + midnight, there occurs a thing worth noting. Salisbury was + awakened from its slumbers by a real advent of Cavaliers. + Sir John Wagstaff, "a jolly knight" of those parts, once a + Royalist Colonel: he, with Squire, or Major Penruddock, "a + gentleman of fair fortune," Squire, or Major Grove, and + about two hundred others, did actually rendezvous in arms + about the Big Steeple, that Sunday night, and ring a loud + alarm in those parts. It was Assize time; the Judges had + arrived the day before. Wagstaff seizes the Judges in their + beds, seizes the High Sheriff, and otherwise makes night + hideous;--proposes on the morrow to hang the Judges, as a + useful warning; but is overruled by Penruddock and the rest. + He orders the High Sheriff to proclaim King Charles; High + Sheriff will not, not though you hang him; Town-crier will + not, not even though you hang him. The Insurrection does not + spread in Salisbury, it would seem. The Insurrection quits + Salisbury on Monday night, marches with all speed towards + Cornwall, hoping for better luck there. Marches;--but + Captain Unton Crook marches also in the rear of it; marches + swiftly, fiercely; overtakes it at South Molton in + Devonshire, "on Wednesday about ten at night," and there, in + a few minutes, put an end to it. We took Penruddock, Grove, + and long lists of others; Wagstaff unluckily escaped ... and + this Royalist conflagration, which should have blazed all + over England, is entirely damped out. Indeed so prompt and + complete is the extinction, thankless people begin to say + there had never been anything considerable to extinguish. + Had they stood in the middle of it,--had they seen the + nocturnal rendezvous at Marston Moor, seen what Shrewsbury, + what Rufford Abbey, what North Wales in general, would have + grown to on the morrow,--in that case, thinks the Lord + Protector, not without some indignation, they had + known!--Carlyle's 'Cromwell,' vol. iv. pp. 129, 130. + +If Carlyle had been more heedful he might have taken the hint furnished +by those 'thankless people.' Men are not usually thankless if preserved +from a real and obvious danger. Carlyle, however, thought that he knew +more about those transactions than the men who might have witnessed +them; and so we will accept his somewhat incautious invitation, and our +readers, if they choose to do so, shall perceive, perhaps, 'not without +some indignation,' what the Lord Protector 'had known' about the +insurrection of March 1655; they shall, to a certain extent at least, +regard that event from his point of view. And to enable them to do so +as promptly as possible, they may be at once informed, that the +Protector himself admitted the Earl of Rochester, Sir John Wagstaff, and +their associates into England, in order that they might, in his behalf, +play the part of the conspirator. The circumstance being appreciated, +the Protector's position becomes quite clear. It is obvious that he +wished his subjects to believe, in common with his historians, that +England was, during the opening months of 1655, 'from end to end of it, +ripe for an explosion.' + +Taking then for granted, upon Cromwell's own showing, that he wanted an +insurrection, the assistance toward that end on which he could rely, and +the obstacles that stood in his way, must be considered. The assistance +which Cromwell had at hand, lay in the little band of courtiers who hung +in penury, and vexation of heart, round Charles II. Wanderers on the +Continent, in total ignorance of English opinion, acutely sensible of +their own discomfort, raging against their great Tormentor, the King's +'over sea' counsellors were, by irritation and by 'zeal, made so blind,' +that they were 'soon persuaded of good success' in any possible attempt +to overthrow the Protector.[30] The chief hindrance to Cromwell's +projected insurrection was his palpable prosperity. It was notorious +during the winter and spring of the year 1655, that he had appeased +discontent among his soldiery; had quieted, in prison, Harrison, +Wildman, and the leaders of the Anabaptists; that the Levellers were +reduced to inaction; and that therefore the Royalists were powerless. +And for this reason. Every Englishman, even the most 'Wildrake' among +the Cavaliers, knew full well, that they, unassisted, could not for a +moment stand before Cromwell's armies; and they knew equally well, that +if the King landed on our shores, at the head of a foreign army, all +England would meet him with passionate resistance. Even at the best, the +most confident Royalists knew that a young man, nurtured by a popish +mother, and amidst papists, would not be readily accepted as our King. + +But one chance, therefore, remained to the Royalists, both at home and +abroad: and that was the possibility that Anabaptist fanaticism and army +discontent might unite together against the Protector. If that could be +reckoned on, and if a rising of the Royalists, all over England, could +be timed so as to explode, when the Levellers broke into action, that +would offer a chance indeed, especially if some of the mutineers could +be won over to the King. That chance was, at this season, wholly denied +to the Royalists. The King's most trusted English advisers, the Council +styled 'The Sealed Knot,' repeatedly warned him during January 1655, +that 'since no rising of the Army is to be hoped for, any rising of the +King's party would only be to their destruction.'[31] + +To a person who desired to stimulate an insurrection against the +Protector the course was therefore clear. He must act on the impatient +credulity of those who shared in their King's exile. Far from the scene +of action, they might be persuaded that the Anabaptists and the +discontented soldiers had leagued together, and that the warnings of the +'Sealed Knot' might be set at naught. Charles was thus acted upon. As +the wicked King of Israel was lured on to his destruction by the cry of +false prophets bidding him to go up and prosper, the King was persuaded +to disregard his best counsellors, to believe that 30,000 Royalists were +armed and ready to join in an organized revolt, so skilfully planned +that it would break out, at one moment, all over England, with the +co-operation of the Levellers, and of a portion of Cromwell's army. +Charles was also assured, that if he would but fix the day, the +insurrection would immediately take place. + +The King was hard to persuade; young as he was, his sagacity was not +wanting. He long remained incredulous: he did not believe the +'expresses' which reached him 'every day' from England: he felt sure +that those zealous emissaries were deceived. More messengers accordingly +crossed the water: they were confident that 'the rising would be +general, and many places seized upon, and some declare for the King +which were in the hands of the army, for they still pretended, and did +believe, "that a part of the army would declare against Cromwell, at +least, though not for the King."' + +Those messengers, however, would promise nothing, if Charles did not, +when the Earl of Rochester and his associates started for England, +approve the reality of the plot, by stationing himself on the sea coast, +that he might 'quickly put himself into the head of the Army, which +would be ready to receive him.' And he was warned that this was his last +chance, and that 'if he neglected that opportunity,' his followers would +desert him, as one hopelessly apathetic. Besides these threats, the +persons, who dispatched those messengers from England, resorted to other +means to force Charles into the enterprise. They appointed the day for +the outbreak: he was not able 'to send orders to contradict it:' so he +felt constrained, 'with little noise,' to quit Cologne for Middleburg, +to await there the summons to England. + +Whilst Charles was being thus cajoled, the bright anticipations of his +companions were suddenly saddened. In the midst of their preparations, +Cromwell arrested several noted Royalists in London: it was obvious that +he had discovered 'the design.' But that dark cloud had its silver +lining; it was even converted into an augury of success. The +conspirators at Cologne were 'cheered by letters' from their colleagues +in England, assuring them 'that none of their particular friends at the +intended sea-ports were known.' + +Clarendon, and his associates, little knew how much was known by +Cromwell. He afterwards repeated in public, almost word for word, 'all +those particulars' which these 'expresses' 'communicated in confidence' +to the Royal Court 'to let them know in how happy condition the King's +affairs were in England;' he was forewarned of the very day when Charles +would 'with little noise' quit Cologne for Middleburg 'ten days before +he did stir;' and if so, even Clarendon would have perceived, that the +Protector felt quite assured about the safety of his sea-ports.[32] + +That the project proved in the end, as Charles expected at the +beginning, a weak and improbable attempt, Clarendon admits, and that +they had been befooled; but he maintained, to the end, that those +messengers were 'very honest men, and sent by those who were such.' +Clarendon's opinion is not so indisputable, but that it may be +questioned. The utter failure of the promises that those messengers held +out, might have aroused his doubt as to their good faith. Who was it +then that instructed those false prophets? So improbable were the +expectations which they urged upon Charles, that it is impossible to +credit any true Royalist with the creation of those false hopes: to +dispel them, the King's wisest English advisers did their utmost. Those +encouragements then must have been the counsels of false friends. And +who could be, as we shall prove, a warmer, or a falser friend to the +enterprise of March 1655, than Cromwell? + +Even without direct proof of Cromwell's guilty complicity in that +attempt, it is brought home to him by a variety of antecedent +circumstances. He knew precisely how to spread the only lure that could +ensnare the King; for the counsels of the 'Sealed Knot' were no secret +to Cromwell. He was aware that the King had, in consequence, written, +4th Jan. 1655, to Mr. Roles, 'his loving friend,' and probably also the +Protector's friend, in a tone of utter despair.[33] And who could set +against the King a stream of systematic false encouragement, sufficient +to dispel his just despair, except Cromwell, who had all the secret +agents at home and abroad at his command? or who would undertake so +difficult a task as the creation of such an elaborate scheme of +deception, but one who was anxious that the outbreak should take place? +And we know that such was his wish. + +In every way this is apparent. Even though no actual assistance be +given, still complete foreknowledge of a coming mischief, unfollowed by +corresponding precautions, implies a sanction. And this form of sanction +Cromwell gave to the Insurrection. In a tone of triumphant cunning he +assured his Parliament, during the ensuing year, that he had possessed +'full intelligence of' the conspiracy; though, with characteristic +craft, he concealed the most effectual informant 'of these things,' the +clerk who wrote out the despatches in the King's closet; and poor +Manning, 'as he was dead,' was credited with the discovery; although his +term of espial was not commenced soon enough to supply that 'full +intelligence,' of which his employer boasted.[34] + +Cromwell could even have informed his corps of informers, of the course +that the coming movement would pursue. Two months before they began to +reflect back to him an account of his own design, Cromwell's detection +office in Whitehall contained a report from a supposed Leveller, who had +passed from Essex to Cornwall, and then from Cornwall to Scotland, that +a rumour was afloat, that the republicans in the army who were 'resolved +to stand by their first principles, in opposition to the Government,' +had banded together, under noted leaders, and had chosen the very places +afterwards selected by the Royalists, namely, Salisbury Plain and +Marston Moor for the rendezvous where they might show their strength. +Other informers reported to Cromwell that the Royalists in London, and +in Northumberland, hoped, that if they appeared in arms, they would be +able to 'make use of a good part of the army;' and similar evidence +warned the Government that a man claiming to be a Royalist had been at +work, during February, journeying to and fro between Gloucestershire and +Wiltshire, tempting Royalists to join with him in an insurrection, +because 'the design was first put on foot by the Levellers, who were to +be aiding and assisting the Cavaliers.'[35] + +This information reached Cromwell in ample time for action. A word from +him to his agents abroad, a hint to the editors of the News Letters, or +a proclamation, would have dispersed those mischievious rumours, and +would have reduced Charles to inaction. Although he knew that Charles +based his sole hope of success upon an Anabaptist revolt, and a mutiny +in the army, Cromwell did nothing of the kind. Not that he failed to +secure himself by some ostensible precautions. 'It having pleased God to +make some further notable discovery to Us of the Conspiracy, and the +particular Persons engaged therein,' Cromwell arrested some Royalists, +shortly before the outbreak, but, as we know on the best authority, he +touched none of those 'engaged therein.' He secured London: he moved +troops from Ireland to Liverpool, and may thereby have disconcerted the +Lancashire Cavaliers; but he did not forewarn the Customs House officers +at Dover, or guard that port; just as he, subsequently, somehow failed +to station soldiers near those obvious points of danger, Marston Moor +and Salisbury Plain.[36] 'Oliver, Protector,' evidently 'understood his +Protectorship moderately well, and what Plots and Hydra-Coils were +inseparable from it.' + +Cromwell thus assisting us, we had before us the relative positions of +all engaged in the Insurrection, during the last weeks of February 1655. +Charles was on the Dutch coast awaiting a possible summons to England; +to that end he had despatched the expedition, composed of the Earl of +Rochester, Sir John Wagstaff, Major Armourer, Mr. O'Neale, and their +companions, about fourteen in number; and Cromwell was watching them, +and was preparing for their reception at Dover, not soldiers, but the +friendly assistance of his servant, Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage. +In true Cavalier fashion the Earl of Rochester and his comrades +approached our shores, with ostentatious contempt of danger. They came +not in a small party, dropping over one by one, selecting different and +out-of-the-way spots for landing, but almost in a body, in quick +succession, they alighted at Dover. That was the most public port they +could have chosen; and being courtier Cavaliers, long resident abroad, +they were, in dress and look, marked men, and most unfitted to play the +part they chose, of traders resident in France or Holland. Their +selection of Dover was not, however, so ill-advised as it seemed, for +they also reckoned on the help of Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage. + +Thus in appearance, at least, the conspirators did everything they could +to get themselves into trouble. And, as might be anticipated, Major +Armourer, alias 'Mr. Wright,' and his man 'Morris,' that is to say, Mr. +O'Neale, the first of that company to set foot in Dover, were +immediately arrested. Armourer was imprisoned in the Castle, and O'Neale +in the Sergeant's house. Their detention, however, was of but brief +duration. Armourer at once sought for help through Mr. Day's agency; but +one greater than the Clerk interposed; and after about three days +captivity, Mr. Wright, together with some other captured suspects, was +released by the Dover Port Commissioners 'on receipt of a Commission +from H.H.' the Protector.[37] + +That Commission from His Highness was no ordinary proceeding. By it +Cromwell disturbed order and discipline in the chief entrance-gate to +England, and drove the Port Commissioners into direct collision with the +officers of Dover Castle. Captain Wilson, the Deputy-Lieutenant, who had +charge over the Castle prisoners, was, as shown by his letters, a +straightforward servant of the Protector. Such a serious interference +with his duties, as the release of one of his own prisoners, disturbed +him; and the more so, as it was authorized by the Protector himself. +Accordingly he wrote to Thurloe, greatly troubled, to free himself from +any connection with so untoward an event as the escape of Mr. Wright, +who,--of all the men that Wilson 'had secured'--was the very one with +whom he was most unsatisfied.' Thurloe also felt that it was an awkward +affair; and to avert suspicion from his Master and himself, he reverted +to a mean trick, the causeless accusation of an innocent man. He +reproved Wilson for neglecting to warn Whitehall of the detention of +such a noted suspect as Mr. Wright; although Thurloe was in no ignorance +of that event, and knew all about the prisoner. For besides the +knowledge which he shared with Cromwell, of the near advent of the Earl +of Rochester and his associates, Thurloe held a letter signed 'N. +Wright,' dated 'Dover Castell, 14th February,' to Sir R. Stone, a +supposed friend, who, forwarding it to Thurloe, informed him that Morris +therein mentioned was a 'gentleman to the Princess Royal;' whilst it +was evidently presupposed by Stone, that the Secretary would know who it +was 'that writ' the enclosed letter; as, indeed, is proved by Thurloe's +indorsement, '_Nicholas Armourer to Sir Robert Stone_.' And +again, within seven days after Armourer's release, a similar +'cross-providence' occurred. A Mr. Broughton, evidently another +Royalist, was taken out of Captain Wilson's custody, much to his +surprise and vexation, and set free by the Mayor of Dover. + +The release of one or two prisoners under a Commission from H.H. the +Protector does not, however, prove that he purposely admitted into +England that gang of conspirators. But even that can be proved. Thurloe +and Cromwell knew on the best authority that the Royalists regarded Mr. +Day as their ally; for Armourer, in that letter, mentions 'Mr. Robert +Day, Clarke of the Passage' as a man ready to do him service. Yet +Cromwell, knowing that Armourer and O'Neale were the precursors of even +more dangerous associates, who would also resort to Mr. Day, retained +him in his post; and in spite of prompt and repeated warnings from the +Continent, that Day was a traitor, he acted as Clerk of the Passage +until, during the following July, he had seen safe back across the +Channel the conspirators whom he had admitted in March. And as if the +more fully to trick the Royalists, Day was permitted by the Protector to +intervene actively in their behalf. The Clerk of the Passage obtained, +by his personal undertaking for Armourer's good conduct, the requisite +pass inward, and certified that he was, in truth, a merchant from +Rotterdam.[38] + +It follows from the assistance which the Protector gave to Armourer, +that his man 'Morris' was restored to his master, and that the Earl of +Rochester, after repeated detention and examination, was set free. And +again Cromwell reappears as the patron of the conspiracy. According to +information imparted to the King by Cromwell's nephew, Colonel William +Cromwell, 'my Lord of Rochester was known to Cromwell to be in England +as soon as he landed,' and was met by pretended agents from the army, +Rochester's friends 'in show,' but the Protector's 'really,' who, to +make the Earl 'have the greater confidence' in the enterprise, gave him +false offers of co-operation, and assurances that Cromwell's soldiers +were ripe for mutiny.[39] And facts confirm Colonel Cromwell's words. + +Immediately after his final escape from the custody of Captain Wilson, +the Earl of Rochester 'found Mr. Morton, who carries on their trade +there, ready to come, with some account of his business.'[40] If Morton +had been a true Royalist, in momentary fear for himself, and for the +success of an insurrection that was to overthrow the Protector, would he +have risked a meeting with the Earl of Dover, in a place where he had +been twice arrested, instead of awaiting his arrival in the security of +London? Such a strange course arouses strong suspicion that Morton was +the Protector's emissary referred to by Col. Cromwell; and assuredly a +Mr. Morton is mentioned to Thurloe, by one of his continental agents, as +a friend, and fellow sham-Royalist, who might assist him in enticing +some of the King's retinue into projects, such as the 'murther of H. H. +the Protector.'[41] + +Nor was Mr. Morton the only agent busy in doing all he could 'to ripen +the design of a general rising.' During January and February, 1655, +messengers passed to and fro through the Northern and Western districts +of England to prepare the way for the Earl of Rochester and his +associates, who spread abroad rumours that the 'Levellers were to be +aiding and abetting the Cavaliers,' and that on the 8th of March, a +general rising would take place. Two men can be traced who thus prepared +Wiltshire for insurrection, one of whom was the chief instigator of +Wagstaff's rising at Salisbury. + +Both of them were obscure men, not known in that part of England. An +unnamed emissary came from Yorkshire, passing through London, to +Dorsetshire, taking, on the way, the house, near Lewes, of Col. Bishop, +a Leveller, one of the Wildman faction.[42] The other, Mr. Douthwaite, +reached Wiltshire from Somersetshire. This circumstance, of itself, +aroused suspicion; and he was asked why, if the revolt, as he asserted, +was to be throughout all England, he did not choose Somersetshire, +instead of Wiltshire, for the scene of action. The reason he gave for +that choice had in it a strong dash of unreality. His motive was, he +declared, because 'if he did any mischief, or killed anybody,' he +preferred to do mischief 'among strangers, where he was not known.' So +unsatisfactory was his demeanour, that a recruit, whom he endeavoured to +cajole, refused to join the conspiracy, declaring that 'he was confident +this was a plot of my Lord Protector's own devising, and that he had +some of his own agents in it.' And as, during that winter, the +Dorsetshire Cavaliers had 'whispered that the plot' then 'so loudly +talked on at Court, is nothing but a trick of the great Oliver's,' this +idea seems to have been prevalent in the West of England. Some such +whisper, undoubtedly, had a marked influence on the Wiltshire revolt. +Not a single landowner of importance went out with Wagstaff. Though he +had been told off by the King expressly for that service, no Royalist of +eminent position answered the King's call. They, also, doubtless +suspected Douthwaite, an unknown, low-class stranger, who took upon +himself to summon them to arms against the Protector. And Douthwaite was +undoubtedly the chief instigator of that attempt, 'the very principal +verb' in the affair: a very capable witness, Major Butler, so described +him. In itself this was a suspicious circumstance. And another reason +may be urged for deeming that Cromwell, and not the King, was served by +Douthwaite. Like a shady witness, he proved too much. Antedating the +event by at least three weeks, he asserted in February, that Charles had +left Cologne for the Dutch coast, 'for an opportunity to sail for +England.' This was a startling piece of news, and most arousing to a +hearty Royalist: and the King did take that step on the 4th of March. +But it is noteworthy that a foreknowledge of the King's movements, which +was undoubtedly possessed by Cromwell and Thurloe in London, should have +been so speedily communicated to Douthwaite, in the depths of +Somersetshire.[43] + +Whilst England was thus being prepared for the coming insurrection, the +Earl of Rochester went to London, where, although soldiers were +stationed at the ends of the streets, and extra precautions taken +against the Royalists, 'he consulted,' as Clarendon observes, 'with +great freedom with the King's friends.' Nor were he and his comrades +hindered from traversing England, and passing on into Wiltshire and +Yorkshire, that they might head the intended rendezvous of the Royalists +on Salisbury Plain and Marston Moor; the very places, it should be +remembered, that rumour had designated for a gathering of the Levellers. +Cromwell was powerless: he dared not touch the men he had passed into +England: the object for which he had admitted them must be fulfilled, +even to the end. + +That the end, which Cromwell desired, followed the lines indicated by +his master hand, might be anticipated. But he could not allow the +project to become too real; a necessity that rather stood in his way. +His power of creating the semblance of an actual insurrection was +limited. Of the 'hidden works,' all over England, which he attributed +to the Royalists, but one mine actually exploded, one nearly went off, +and the rest remained dormant. The tameness of that shadowy meeting on +Marston Moor evidently caused Cromwell much vexation. As his dupes +refused to exhibit themselves, and as not a soldier was near at hand, +paragraphs in the News Letters, 'some pistols scattered' on the heath, +and 'a led horse, with a velvet saddle,' were all the proofs that +Cromwell could show that aught had happened on Marston Moor, during the +night of the 8th of March. Nor could he solemnize the event, as he +desired, by the appearance on the scaffold of a single Yorkshireman. + +He sent, for that purpose, to York as Judges, Baron Thorpe, Mr. Justice +Newdigate, and Mr. Serjeant Hutton; but they refused to obey his +bidding. They declined to try upon a capital charge the men that had +been arrested by the Protector's informers, not in arms nor on +horseback, nor even on the highway, but in their own houses. The judges +were doubtful 'whether in point of law,' a possible midnight ride could +be declared by them 'to be treason.' It was in vain that Colonel +Lilbourne used 'diligence' to 'pick up such as are right,' to serve on +the jury. The judges even left York altogether, objecting that due +notice, under which they could try that 'great affair,' had not been +given. + +Pressure was renewed upon Newdigate and Hutton; they were despatched +back to York, to undertake the trial of the Marston Moor prisoners. +Cromwell's law officer, however, found them at Doncaster, on their +return to London, and in a very contrary state of mind. They again +refused to act; and they based their refusal on an objection, which +affected not those prisoners alone, but all Cromwell's prisoners. They +asserted, evidently reckoning on Baron Thorpe's concurrence, that they +could not, as judges, put in force the Ordinance, by which Cromwell had +adapted the Statute Law of England to meet the crime of high treason +against himself, because it was of no validity! They thus anticipated, +in the most unpleasant way, Mr. Coney's refusal to pay taxes imposed, +not by an Act of Parliament, but by an 'Ordinance.' Cromwell was forced +to yield; the Yorkshiremen preserved their lives, but not their liberty +or their estates; and almost immediately, 'Judges Thorpe and Newdigate +were put out of their places, for not observing the Protector's pleasure +in all his commands.'[44] + +Cromwell's 'pleasure' was, however, served by Mr. Serjeant Glyn and Mr. +Recorder Steele, and by the jurymen, 'such as were right,' over whom +they presided, in the trial of the Salisbury insurgents. Those poor +dupes pleaded what may be termed, Baron Thorpe's plea. They argued that +their indictment was not founded on an Act of Parliament, and that +'there can be no treason by an Ordinance.' They urged that a sentence +pronounced by the Serjeant and the Recorder, who were mere 'pleaders, +servants to the Lord Protector,' would be illegal; and they asserted +their right to be tried by Baron Thorpe, 'a sworn judge.' The prisoners, +who could not be convicted of high treason, were condemned to death as +horse stealers. They vainly pleaded, that to requisition a horse for a +warlike enterprise was not felony, and that 'the country knew we did not +intend to steal,' but acted 'as the soldiers did now at London, and +elsewhere, who came against us.'[45] About fourteen of those poor +fellows were put to death, with Grove and Penruddock; and seventy were +sold into West Indian slavery. Accordingly Cromwell was able, as Thurloe +exulted, to prove 'that the Plot was real,' as 'the persons were real,' +who, in consequence, lost their lives, or were condemned to lifelong +misery. + +Thus Cromwell, by a deliberate course of fraud, compassed the death of +men, who might otherwise have lived void of offence against his +government. He next proceeded to delude all his subjects by means of the +sham conspiracy by which he had ensnared his victims on to the scaffold. +This development in Cromwell's course of deception brings us back to the +ordinary path of history. Every historical text-book mentions that +Cromwell, within a few months after the Insurrection of March 1655, +subjected England to the authority, almost unlimited, of twelve +Major-Generals. To each one a separate province was allotted, with power +to imprison, fine, or sell as slaves, all that he might select. The +Major-Generals also were directed by Cromwell to pay themselves, and the +soldiers under them, by the levy of a tax of ten per cent. on the +incomes of all but the poorest Royalists, which he imposed for that +purpose. As historians have believed in the reality of the Insurrection +of March 1655, they hold that Cromwell, therefore, 'found himself +compelled to divide England into districts, over which he set +Major-Generals,' and to inflict upon the Royalists the tax, 'known by +the name of the Decimation.' Yet, curiously enough, these hearty +believers in Cromwell have ignored that solemn confirmation of their +opinion, which he addressed to his subjects, namely, the 'Declaration of +his Highness, by the advice of his Council, showing the Reasons of their +Proceedings for Securing the Peace of the Commonwealth, upon occasion +of the late Insurrection and Rebellion,--October 31, 1655.' + +Than this document, no more admirable illustration could be given of the +manner in which Cromwell carried on his Protectorate. By that +'Declaration' he engrafts into his policy the deception he had practised +on the Royalists, and adapts it to the benefit of the whole nation, by a +description of the pious uses to which it could be applied. And for our +purposes this document is especially convenient, for, whilst it proves +what Cromwell wished his people to believe about the Insurrection, it +enables us to disprove throughout the statements that he makes. But +before we can reach that portion of our disclosure, the operative +clauses of the 'Declaration' must be dealt with. It commences with a +justificatory recital of the misdeeds of the Royalists. As God, Cromwell +argues, 'by His gracious dispensation,' had 'subjected' the Royalists +'to the power of those whom they had designed to enslave and ruin,' 'the +Parliament's party' might, Cromwell asserts, have 'extirpated those men, +with designs of possessing their Estates and Fortunes.' Their +conquerors, however, refrained themselves, 'it having pleased God in his +providence, so to order things;' and the Royalists were allowed to live +and 'enjoy their freedom, and have equal protection in their persons and +estates, with the rest of the Nation.' But what return, the Protector +declares, has been made by the Malignants for the lenity thus extended +to them? 'The actings of that party' proves that 'neither the +dispensations of God, nor kindness of men, would work upon them;' that +'they were implacable in their malice and revenge'; and he cites 'the +late Insurrection and Rebellion,' 'as the greatest and most dangerous' +of all 'their hidden works of darkness.' + +The Protector therefore announces, that as 'he knows by experience, that +nothing but the Sword will restrain the late King's party from blood and +violence,'--'We do now not only find Ourselves satisfied, but obliged in +duty, both towards God and this Nation, to proceed upon other grounds +than formerly,'--and that, to secure 'the Peace of this Commonwealth, We +have been necessitated to erect a new and standing Militia of Horse, in +all the Counties of England, under such Pay as might be a fitting +encouragement to the officers and soldiers. And We, therefore, have +thought fit, to lay the burthen of Maintaining those forces, upon those +who have been engaged in the late Wars against the State.' And Cromwell +declares, in conclusion, that 'We can with comfort appeal to God, +whether this way of proceeding with 'the Royalists' hath been the matter +of Our Choice, or that which We have sought occasion for; or whether +contrary to Our own inclinations, We have not been constrained and +necessitated hereunto, and without the doing whereof, We should have +been wanting to Our Duty to God and these Nations.' + +Such words uttered by a man who, with utmost fervour, has claimed for +himself, that 'I have learned too much of God, to dally with Him, and to +make bold with Him in these things,' ought surely to be believed; and if +there be any one who is still unconvinced that Cromwell, of his own +'choice,' enticed the Earl of Rochester and his associates across the +Channel, and admitted them into England, that they might constrain and +necessitate him to appoint those Major-Generals, 'we can with comfort +appeal' to that 'Declaration' and ask such a believer in Cromwell to +follow us in a comparison between what he really did, with what he +declared he did, 'for securing the Peace of the Commonwealth upon the +occasion of the late Insurrection.' + +In order that his subjects might appreciate the skill and vigilance, by +which the 'contrivements' of the 'cruel and bloody enemy had been +thwarted, Cromwell commenced the account of his execution of his duty as +England's Protecter by a general description of the projects of the +Royalists in March 1655. He asserted that they intended to surprise and +seize London, and all the principal ports and cities throughout England, +and that they reckoned on the support of more than 30,000 armed men. +This description of the projects and resources of the Royalists may be +at once, and contemptuously set aside: it was founded upon lies supplied +by such men as Manning, the spy, or Bamfield, the informer. Cromwell's +words were contradicted by the abortive and petty nature of the +insurrection, by the obvious refusal of all England to join in the +enterprise, and by the conduct of the Protector himself. For he would +not have placed England at the mercy of the Earl of Rochester and his +companions, had he thought that they could call 30,000 men to arms, or +that every important town from London to York, was in danger. Having +thus dealt out fiction by wholesale, and ascribed the overthrow of that +'great and general design' to 'The Lord,' Cromwell proceeds, according +to this method, to show how that was accomplished. + +Beginning with the rising at Salisbury, he declared that + + 'the Insurrection in the West was bold and dangerous in + itself, and had in all likelihood increased to great Numbers + of Horse and Foot by the conjunction of others of their own + party, besides such Foreign forces, as in case of their + success, and seizing upon some place of Strength, were to + have landed in those parts, had they not been prevented by + the motion of some troops, and diligence of the officers, + in apprehending divers of that Party a few days before; and + also been closely pursued by some of our Forces, and in the + conclusion supprest by a handful of men, through the great + goodness of God.' + +As Charles had not at his disposal a single ship, or one soldier in the +pay of any foreign Power, the possibility of a foreign invasion needs no +disproof. And how did Cromwell deal with his enemies at home? Shortly +before the rising of the 11th of March, troops were undoubtedly moved +about in Wiltshire: their course can be traced from day to day. As the +Protector, according to his habit, bases his statements as far as he +can, on facts, so far we can agree with him. But as certainly as they +were marched about, Cromwell's soldiers were marched not towards, but +away from Salisbury. + +During the latter part of February, Major Butler, the officer in charge +over Wiltshire, wrote to Thurloe, telling him that as Bristol was in 'a +peaceable state,' the Major intended to leave that city. He did so: just +eleven days before the outbreak he was on the march to his central +station, at Marlborough, when a messenger from the Protector, summoned +him back to Bristol. Butler was, in consequence, detained there, whilst +the event took place; nor did he reach Salisbury until the third day +after the insurgents had left the town. Cromwell knew what he was about: +on the very Sunday when Wagstaff took possession of Salisbury, Cromwell +occupied Chichester by horsemen, sent there at daybreak; and he +dispatched a warning to Portsmouth, that 'some desperate design was on +foot.' But he kept his soldiers away from Salisbury. He took this +course, although he knew that Salisbury Plain had been named as a +Levellers' rendezvous; and although he had received a report, about +three weeks before the 11th of March, from an officer sent to Salisbury +on police duty, 'that it would be convenient for some horse to be +quartered hereabouts,'[46] because the Royalists in the neighbourhood +were restless. + +And Cromwell himself proves why Major Butler was detained at Bristol: +for when he did reach the scene of the revolt, though the insurgents had +been two days at large in the neighbourhood, and were disbanding, +drifting aimlessly towards Devonshire, Butler was withheld from active +operations by orders from Whitehall. He was directed to keep at a +distance from the insurgents for fear of a mishap. This is shown by the +opening words of Butler's letter of remonstrance to the Protector. 'Now, +my Lord,' Butler wrote, 'though I know it would be of sad consequence if +we assaulting them should be worsted,' still, he pleaded with much +earnestness that he, under 'the good providence of The Lord' would +assuredly be successful. So palpably absurd it was to suppose that his +four troops of horsemen could not make short work of that undisciplined, +badly armed, and disheartened band of men, that Butler declared, that he +could not 'with any confidence stay' here at Salisbury, 'nor look the +country in the face, and let them alone.''[47] + +The Protector, however, was resolute. Butler was forced to let the enemy +alone; and, after four days' delay, they yielded at South Molton to one +troop of horse sent after them from Weymouth. Thus it was Cromwell, and +not Butler, as was surmised by a contemporary observer, who kept his +troopers 'at a distance in the rear' of the Royalists, 'to give them an +opportunity of increasing.'[48] + +With this suspicion afloat, and Major Butler unable 'to look the country +in the face,' Cromwell felt that to ascribe the suppression of +Wagstaff's attempt mainly to the 'close' pursuit of the enemy 'by some +of Our Forces,' would hardly suffice. He accordingly also attributed +that happy result 'to the goodness of God,' and to 'the diligence of the +officers in apprehending some of the party.' In this statement Cromwell +made some approach to the truth. Butler had been diligent; and though he +failed to seize Douthwait, that mysterious 'principal verb', still, +during the last two weeks of February, he did arrest suspects in the +West of England, but none within the district round Salisbury.[49] +Wagstaff and his comrades were undisturbed, whilst preparing for their +attempt. Nor is it an unfounded assumption, if their security is +attributed to the same influence which sanctioned Wagstaff's repair to +the rendezvous, and which protected him from Major Butler's horsemen. + +Having thus dealt with that 'bold and dangerous insurrection in the +West,' Cromwell turned northward, and took in hand that rather vague +affair at Marston Moor, on which, as he asserted, 'the enemy most +relied.' His account of that event was, that the Royalists who met there +dispersed and ran away in confusion, partly because of a failure among +the plotters; but also, 'in respect that Our Forces, by their marching +up and down in the country, and some of them providentially, at that +time, removing their Quarters, near to the place of Rendezvous, gave +them no opportunity to reassemble.' Again, Cromwell is, to a certain +extent, correct. Divided counsels did keep one of the principal +Yorkshire Royalists from the meeting, and he may have had followers; +and others were stayed, when on the march, by a timely warning that they +were on a fool's errand. But the assertion, that the Royalists were +dispersed by a providential movement of troops, and by 'Our Forces +marching up and down' Yorkshire, is utterly false. And, as before, the +witness against Cromwell is one of Cromwell's servants. An officer, +responsible for the peace of Yorkshire, reported to his chief in London +regarding himself and his comrades, that 'notwithstanding all our +frequent alarums from London of the certainty of this plot, carried on +with such secrecy on the traitor's part, though we were upon duty, and +in close quarters, we had no positive notice of it till the day was +past.' And no other soldiers were in that neighbourhood during the night +of the 8th of March. The only martial display that the occasion called +forth, was the march of two troops of horsemen into York about three or +four days subsequently; and the officer in command reported that if more +men were wanted, they must be drawn from Durham, Newark, or Hull.[50] + +Thus it was that Cromwell dealt with 'the Insurrection of Yorkshire.' If +the Royalists had, in truth, 'reckoned on 8000 in the North,' or if York +had been in danger, soldiers, and not 'alarums' would have been sent +into Yorkshire. Nor was he mistaken in deeming that the Royalists relied +most on that attempt. Hoping to find a large gathering of Levellers in +arms against the Protector, many of the principal Yorkshire landowners, +of higher rank and more influential than poor Penruddock or any of his +comrades, met that night on Marston Moor. And probably it was owing to +their social position, that the trick was not fully played out, and +that, sorely to Cromwell's disappointment, they saved their lives. + +Besides the insurrectionary displays at Salisbury and Marston Moor, it +was arranged that on the 8th of March similar symptoms should appear in +various other places, to create the idea that 'the Design was great and +general.' Cromwell was accordingly able to declare that 'the coming of +300 foot from Berwick' dispersed 'those who had rendezvoused near +Morpeth to surprise Newcastle:'--that in North Wales and Shropshire, +where they intended to surprise Shrewsbury, 'some of the chief persons +being apprehended, the rest fled:'--and that, 'at Rufford Abbey, Notts, +was another rendezvous, where about 500 horse met, and had with them a +cart load of horse-arms, to arm such as should come to them; but upon a +sudden, a great Fear fell upon them,' and they, also, dispersed +themselves, and 'cast their arms into the pond.' Nor did the Protector +omit to describe the action of 'other smaller Parties,' also in motion +during the night of the 8th of March, who, 'as in the Town of Chester +designed the surprise of the Castle there, but they, failing in their +expectations, were discouraged for that time.' 'And thus by the goodness +of God, these hidden works of darkness' were discovered. 'Fear' was 'put +into the hearts' of the cruel and bloody enemy, and their great and most +dangerous design was 'defeated, and brought to nothing.' + +The depositions on which Cromwell based his description of the minor +passages of the Insurrection are all mere informers' tales, none rising +above the inanity of the story of a tobacco-pipe-maker's attack on +Chester Castle, of which more anon; and, from Carlyle's point of view, +this sample of Thurloe's papers might assuredly be classed among 'human +stupidities.' But Carlyle has overlooked the fact, that to Cromwell +these depositions were an important element in his government, and were +worked up into his speeches and the 'Declaration of October 1655. Hence +the greater the absurdity of those documents, the greater their +historical importance, as showing, not only how the Royalists were +duped, and how Cromwell duped his subjects, but also that the tricks of +his trepanners were so clumsy that, almost without exception' no +Cavaliers of any standing were drawn into the Protector's game. + +An apt example of the kind of evidence on which Cromwell based his +statements, and also a comical illustration of his propensity to cling +to fact in the midst of fraud, is afforded by that alleged 'rendezvous' +of Royalists 'to surprise Newcastle.' If his spies are to be believed, +presumably with that object, on the 8th of March, 'about 3 score and 10 +horsemen armed with swords and pistols' met by night 'at a place called +Duddo;' and then vanished, not, however, for fear 'of 300 foot coming +from Berwick,' but because the conspirators were warned 'that there was +300 sail of ships come into Newcastle, for fear of whom they durst not +fall upon Newcastle at that time.' Much in the same way, and during the +same night, a party of Royalist gentlemen and their servants, repaired +to the inn on Rufford Abbey Green; and a real cart was driven to the +door containing 'horse-arms,' fifty-six pair of pistols, two buff coats, +two suits of arms, &c., and was then driven away, and the party broke +up. So far the Protector's words are verified by the very full +information that Thurloe collected regarding the Rufford Abbey incident; +but if to the conspirators therein specifically mentioned, a large +addition be made for 'divers unnamed gentlemen,' seen 'coming in and +going out of the inn-door,' the plotters cannot be rated at much above +20, instead of at Cromwell's 500. + +The Protector's concluding statements may be briefly disposed of. +Shrewsbury Castle was to have been taken by 'two men in the apparel of +gentlewomen,' acting in combination with their comrades, 'in certain +alehouses near unto the said castle;' and the determined purpose of +these plotters may be tested by the temper of their ringleader, who +urged his recruits to appear at the rendezvous, but refused for his +part, to join with them, 'because his wife was not well.'[51] The +Shropshire insurrection was, indeed, of so visionary a nature, that +zealous Commissary Reynolds could not manipulate it into any definite +shape. Though sent to Shrewsbury that he might develop the existence of +'a general plot of the malignants' in the West of England, he entirely +failed. And so annoyed was he at his failure, that he suggests to +Thurloe, that it would 'not to be unfit to make' the malignants 'speak +forcibly, by tying matches, or some kind of pain, whereby they may be +made to discover the plot;' and as he re-urges his craving to inflict +torture on his prisoners, the proposal had drawn no disapproval from the +Secretary.[52] + +An account of the 'great and signal disappointment, as great as any this +age can produce,' which the 'goodness of God' inflicted upon that +'smaller party,' 'who' according to Cromwell, 'designed the surprise of +the castle' of Chester, forms an appropriate close to this portion of +our narrative. An 'exceeding poor' dupe, Francis Pickering, tells the +story, and the duper was a Colonel Worthing. After enticing Pickering +into the plot by assurances of a general rising against the Protector, +on the night of the 8th of March, Worthing announced that his part in +the design 'was principally to surprise the Castle of Chester;' and as +related by Pickering, while he and the Colonel remained quietly at home. + + 'Accordingly that night three or four went, sent by Col. + Worthing' to seize the Castle: they were all inhabitants of + Chester, and one of them is commonly known by the name of + Alexander, the tobacco-pipe-maker. These persons brought + back word to Col. Worthing that at the place where they + intended to raise a ladder to surprise the Castle, they + heard a sentinel walk and cough. At which report Col. + Worthing was very much startled! and sent them back again to + seize any other convenient place; and they brought back word + that they had centinels walking.'[53] + +No third attempt was made by Mr. Alexander and his friends; and next day +Pickering was told by Worthing 'that he was much troubled, for that he +could not contrive how to take said Castle;' and, in due time, Pickering +found himself in custody. + +In singular contrast to the vague and absurd stories told by 'exceeding +poor' and foolish men, such as Mr. Pickering and his fellow plotters, +are the numerous and positive assurances that Cromwell received from his +own officers, that all was well with England both before, during, and +after the Insurrection of March 1655. Headed by Thurloe, they are all +unanimous in reporting 'that the nation was much more ready to rise +against, than for Charles Stuart;' that, in the town of Leeds, 'not +thirty men were disaffected to the present Government;' and that 'there +was no design on foot' even in 'the most corrupt and rotten places of +the Nation,' such as Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Kent, and the Eastern +Counties. From Bristol to York all was quiet, or wished to be so, during +February, March, and April, 1655.[54] + +Further illustration of this statement is needless. For, if Cromwell had +thought otherwise, even though he might in his wisdom have admitted the +Earl of Rochester and his associates into England, he certainly would +not have allowed them to remain here, apparently as long as they chose, +after their enterprise was over. That the Protector gave them this +freedom of action is made singularly clear by the Thurloe Papers': they +contain repeated indications of the 'whereabouts' of the Earl of +Rochester, the leader of the revolt. He and Major Armourer did not, +after the Marston Moor failure, fly to the coast, or seek separate +hiding-places. They journeyed together, with two servants, leisurely +through England towards London: and to guard his safety, Rochester would +not disturb his bedtime, or his dinner-hour. After the outbreak, people +were naturally anxious to pick up what they could, by arresting 'the +great ones.' Of these, Rochester was the greatest; and he and Armourer +were arrested at Aylesbury. The resident magistrate gave a warrant to +the constable, desiring him to keep safely the bodies of the Earl and +his three companions, 'in the name of my Lord Protector.' The warrant +was acted upon; the prisoners evidently were 'persons of great quality.' +Yet somehow, both magistrate and constable left the Earl and the Major +in charge of the innkeeper 'where they lay;' and naturally enough, 'when +the constable came in the morning, he found that the innkeeper had let +the two chiefs escape,' taking with them 'all their rich apparel.'[55] +Had this been merely a sample of Aylesbury carelessness, the incident +need not have been noticed. But the example of the magistrate and +constable was followed by Cromwell. Although the escape of Rochester and +Armourer was promptly known, and their course was closely tracked, and +though Cromwell was informed where they might be found, they 'wrote very +comfortably from London;' and they endeavoured 'to lay the foundation of +some new design.' And at last, as if he were an ordinary traveller, +sending his servants before him, Rochester left England for the +Continent, having been a resident here for about five months; and the +latter part of his stay in England was a season of extraordinary +severity against the Royalists. In like manner, every one of his +thirteen comrades returned 'weekly without difficulty' to their King's +presence, apparently at their pleasure; whilst Cromwell's continental +informers repeated their warnings that 'Day, the Clerk of the Passage,' +is 'a rogue,' and that if the Protector had 'been ruled' by them 'all +these had not escaped.'[56] + +In this matter, and indeed throughout his connection with the +Insurrection of March 1655, Cromwell was not his own master. The +conditions under which he obtained the espial of one of the King's most +trusted friends, and a member of the 'Sealed Knot,' formed a complete +protection to the Earl of Rochester and his associates. Nor for his own +sake could he touch those conspirators. Their seizure would have +disclosed the fact, that 'persons in the very bosom of our enemies' gave +him 'intelligence;' and hence, if 'he once discovered the grounds, he +would destroy the intelligence.'[57] Anyhow, it is evident that Cromwell +could with entire safety allow his most determined enemies to remain in +England, and lay foundations for new projects against him. + +Having seen Cromwell's conspirators safe home again, tribute must be +paid to his amazing dexterity. The Prince of Wire-Pullers, he made his +puppets perform what part he chose. Some jerked the royal doll Charles, +against his liking, from Cologne to Middleburg, and some warned him to +keep quiet, and others seemed to fight against the manager of the show, +though in reality they fought in his behalf: all played Cromwell's game, +whilst they thought they were playing their own; and even the most +innocent outsiders were pressed into his service. With comic audacity he +assured his audience that the more trivial was the scene at Salisbury, +the more they ought to recognize its dramatic force. 'Observe,' he said, +'when this Attempt was made--it was made when nothing but a well-formed +Power could hope to put us into disorder. Do you think that' such a +company of mean fellows 'would have attacked Us, if they had not been +supported by vast unseen forces behind the scenes.'[58] With what cruel +craft, but seeming indifference, the artful old showman treated his +manikins! He cut off the heads of some amongst those who responded most +vigorously to his touch; whilst others, not less free upon the wire, +were carefully packed up, and sent home safe. By seizing and boxing up +in the Tower mere bystanders, wholly unconcerned in the sport, he made +his 'little tin soldiers' fancy that he did not see their antics. The +only hitch in his 'knavish piece of work' arose when, too assured, he +placed upon the boards a real live judge, who refused to take the bench +in the manager's sham Court of Justice. In every other respect the +mystery play was a complete success; everybody was puzzled, players, +spectators, and the gentlemen of the press; not one even guessed at the +true meaning of the performance; though a few 'men of wicked spirits' +would try to peep behind the curtain. But they never found him out; they +all danced to Cromwell's tune, but none discovered that the pipe they +heard was in their Protector's mouth. Even Ludlow, with all the +proverbial opportunities of a bystander, though most anxious to know his +great opponent's game, never guessed that he had patched up the +Insurrection of March 1655, from the beginning to the end. + +And such was Cromwell's power of deception, that though dead, he still +deceived; his works did follow him, as he desired, out of sight. He +seems to have anticipated that the records of his detective department +might remain as a witness against him, and to have cast over the +'Thurloe Papers' a spell, that has hitherto rendered them invisible. For +nearly 150 years these evidences of his 'hidden works of darkness' have +been before the world; but Cromwell has preserved his secret; he has +humbugged every historian as effectually as he hoodwinked his +contemporaries. The 'Thurloe Papers' were published in 1742, well +edited and indexed; they contain the documents which Cromwell himself +read and handled, the notes of his speeches, the information of his +spies, the letters of his enemies and of his clerks. Though called after +Thurloe, those papers are, in fact, Cromwell's own. Yet such is the +glamour that he has cast over all that has approached him, that they +have accepted his words without question, or, if they have read his +writings, they have read them according to his inspiration. + +Yet there was much even in that Insurrection itself to arouse suspicion. +Cromwell, in January 1655, assured his Parliament that he had crushed +the various conspiracies which were then on foot against him, all most +'real dangers,' and that he had disarmed and rendered powerless those +conspirators; yet within six weeks they had organized a universal +revolt, and had secreted stores of arms and ammunition all over England. +This universal revolt broke out at Salisbury, 'bold and dangerous'; and +it was put down by a single troop of horsemen, after the rebels had +paraded, disheartened and deserted, across England. Except on that +occasion, the vast design was suppressed without the aid of a single +soldier or even a beadle. And, strangely enough, the Protector himself +supplied a hint which might have provoked some curiosity about the +nature of that 'Rebellion.' + +For surely it is odd that 'such a terrible Protector this; no getting of +him overset!' should have been compelled to contend with the notorious +and obstinate incredulity of the members of his Parliament regarding the +late attempt to overset him? Yet Cromwell's speech of September 1656 is +pervaded with expressions such as these, regarding the 'bold and +dangerous Insurrection' of March 1655,--'I think the world must know and +acknowledge, that it was a general design,'--'I doubt if it be believed, +that there was any rising,' either in North Wales or at Shrewsbury, or +on Marston Moor, 'at the very time when there was an Insurrection at +Salisbury'--' therefore, how men of wicked spirits may traduce Us in +that matter--I leave it!'[59] Surely 'sluggish mortals, saved from +destruction,' not caused by secret agencies, but from an actual +'Rebellion,' which threatened to bring every one of them into 'blood and +confusion,' need not be required to believe in the very existence of so +great and conspicuous a danger! + +And Cromwell felt that he could not afford to leave that 'matter' +untouched. A suspicion was prevalent, during the whole of Cromwell's +reign, that plots were manufactured to suit his purposes. He knew that +full well; he knew also the danger of such a suspicion. The surmises of +the 'men of wicked spirits,' were those 'half tales,' that 'be truths.' +It had been hoped that such a 'real plot' as 'the late Insurrection,' +would give that suspicion a quietus. When it was safely transacted, +Thurloe and his associates congratulated each other over that hope.[60] +But it was not fulfilled. Hence arises the tone of angered honesty, +which Cromwell so repeatedly assumed when he addressed his Parliament, +and Carlyle's indignant protest--'What a position for a hero, to be +reduced continually to say he does not lie!' + +But what was Cromwell's motive in the fabrication of this Insurrection +of March, 1655? It was not, as might be suggested, a device to thwart by +a premature explosion, a dangerous conspiracy during a critical moment +in the Protectorate. Cromwell himself asserts in his 'Declaration,' that +'this Attempt was made, when nothing but a well-formed Power could hope +to put Us into disorder; Scotland and Ireland being perfectly reduced; +Differences with most Neighbour Nations composed; our Forces, both by +Sea and Land, in order and consistency.' Nay, he artfully converted the +very security of his Government into a proof that 'the pretended King' +would not have sent over his servants, and that the Royalists would not +'have actually risen' at Salisbury, had the insurrection been other than +'a general design,' based on a vast secret organization. No one in all +England possessed more certain knowledge, than did Cromwell, that such +was not the case, and that he could not plead in his behalf the poor +excuse, that the Nation as a Nation needed a severe lesson, or that it +was to save England from civil war that he had sacrificed the lives of +those fourteen victims of his deception, and consigned that band of +seventy or eighty Englishmen to the horrors of West Indian slavery. + +But if Cromwell could not claim that excuse, what then was his motive? +Dark as was the light within him, he was not in such utter darkness as +to encompass himself about with written, spoken, and acted lies merely +to gratify caprice, or that he might indulge in causeless cruelty. His +motive was a very simple one. He was forced to obey his servant, the +Army. The men whom he had made, and who had made him, demanded a visible +share in the power and profit that he enjoyed. Reverting to the autumn +of 1654, much had then occurred to disquiet the Army. Cromwell had taken +a distinct step towards Kingship, by attempting to persuade Parliament +to make the Protectorate hereditary. Parliament had made a distinct +movement towards a large reduction in the Army and Navy. If rumour be +evidence, there was, during November, 'a great division in the army.' +And it is certain that, at the close of that month, Cromwell and his +military men came to terms. At a meeting held in St. James's Palace, the +staff of the army agreed 'to live and die with Cromwell.'[61] And a +train of events, occurring in direct sequence after that meeting, proves +that it was at this conjuncture that Cromwell agreed to parcel out his +Protectorship among the leading officers of the Army. Parliament was +dissolved 22nd January, 1655, on the pretext that under its shadow, +conspiracy and discontent had thriven; and Cromwell gave an alarming +account of the 'real dangers,' of imminent insurrection and anarchy, +that threatened England. That speech was the prologue; then came the +tragedy itself, the Insurrection of March, 1655; then came its +consequence, the appointment of the Major-Generals. And in the end, the +reason why they were appointed, was brought to light by a state of +affairs, very identical with that which had raised them to power. + +Cromwell had renewed the attempt that he had made in the autumn of 1654, +and in his quest after Kingship he had come, during February 1657, +almost within sight of the throne. Again the army officers interfered; +and again Cromwell was forced to meet them face to face; to receive, on +this occasion, their protest against his acceptance of the Crown. He +made a compromise as he had done before; but in speech, he was not +conciliatory. If the Protectorate had been a failure, he told his former +comrades, it was their fault. It was they, and not he who had governed; +as for himself, 'they had made him their drudge upon all occasions: to +dissolve the Long Parliament,' and 'to call a Parliament or Convention +of their naming,' which proved so unsuccessful; and then another +Parliament, alike in unsuccess; and he concluded that catalogue of their +untoward interferences with his government, by reminding his hearers +that they thought it was necessary to have Major-Generals; adding that +so they 'might have gone on,' if they had not insisted on his calling +the Parliament of 1656, against his will, which had given them 'a +foil.'[62] + + +That speech is the most exceptional, in some respects the most +important, of all Cromwell's speeches. Spoken if not 'in haste,' +certainly 'out of the fulness of the heart,' that is caused by anger, it +is, though unusually brief, delightfully incautious. Being addressed to +men who could not well be deceived, the speech must be true, at least so +far as they are concerned, in every particular; it does not contain a +single appeal to God; and of no other among Cromwell's speeches, are the +original MS. notes in existence. This speech, of the utmost historic +importance, is essentially unheroic in tone and circumstance,--the +querulous complaint of a master against servants who have overmastered +him,--an assertion of supremacy made by a man, who felt that he was not +really supreme. But the singularity that attends the address to the +recalcitrant officers is not yet exhausted. Surprise may well be felt +that Carlyle, with this speech before him, ventured on the construction +of his false image of Cromwell, the Hero. Judged even as an ordinary +ruler, he must have been a very sorry Protector who, according to his +own showing, was only a sham supreme magistrate,--the minister, the +'drudge,' of his servants but real masters--who had compelled him to +call, and to dissolve Parliaments, and to impose on England those +military despots. + +Carlyle has endowed his ideal Protector 'with the virtue to create +belief,' by the force of self-assertion, which still finds its +imitators, by pouring out contempt on all who differ from him, and by +implying that, as all other Cromwellian authorities are 'stupidities and +falsities,' he alone was wise and true. This was but a risky basis on +which to exhibit 'this Oliver' to the world, as the noblest Hero 'among +the noblest of Human Heroisms, this English Puritanism of ours,' and as +'not a Man of falsehoods, but a Man of truths.' But reading over these +words, and calling to mind the confidence with which Carlyle compels all +to join with him in his Cromwell-worship, it is impossible to resist the +conviction, that it was with good faith that he could see in Cromwell +'the glimpses,' even the revelation 'of the god-like,' and that he would +not attend to aught that disclosed Cromwell 'not' as 'august and divine, +but hypocritical, pitiable, detestable.' Even though he claimed a +familiar acquaintance with the 'Thurloe Papers,' he must have been +ignorant, it is impossible to think otherwise, of the black stories +which Cromwell's 'expertest of secretaries' could publish against his +master. + +And passing from the worshipper to the Idol; surely it is but in +accordance with common sense and common charity to hope that, as with +Carlyle, so also with his Oliver, the real Cromwell was wholly shrouded +from Cromwell's sight. That hope might, indeed, be forbidden by some. It +might be argued that, although many a wrong-doing, such as bloodshed, +oppression, or even treachery, has been committed by men in the sincere +belief that they were doing God service, Cromwell cannot be placed among +that group of self-deceivers: that he stands by himself, and on a lower +level. It was to save himself, to propitiate a gang of mutinous +servants, that Cromwell contrived and wrought out the deception of +March, 1655, and obtained in the bloodshed that it produced, the +essential result that he desired. And then, to give validity to his +imposture, to grace it with the Divine sanction, he ascribed his course +of acted and uttered lies, and the cruelty and misery they had +engendered, to God himself. + +Undoubtedly that statement is true. But yet on the other hand it may be +pleaded, that nothing but an intense living conviction, that God was +with him in all his ways, could have enabled Cromwell to make 'with +comfort' his 'appeal to God, whether' the Insurrection of March 1655 +'hath been the matter of Our Choice' or 'according to Our own +inclinations?' + +This is but a sorry plea to urge in Cromwell's behalf. The blackness and +the fury of the storm, which roared across England during his dying +hours, cannot have exceeded the blinding energy of that strong delusion, +that ever drove him onward, through his cruel and crooked devices, fully +persuaded that 'God was even such a one as' himself. Though all may +agree in believing that it was not from the lips, but truly from the +heart--not to cheat his hearers, but in a veritable ecstasy--that +Cromwell claimed to stand before God, as one who 'had learned too much +of God, to dally with him,' still it must be felt, that such an +assertion, coming from such a Protector, reveals a mental condition that +baffles the understanding. But as man, when he shrinks from passing +judgment on another, ever takes the better part; and as even with the +best amongst us, the relation of the soul to God is a question which, of +all others, should not be intermeddled with, assuredly we must leave +Cromwell, whose being is one of 'the deep things of God,' to His +judgment.--'Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then +the hearts of the children of men?' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] 'Report of French Ambassador in Holland.' Thurloe, iii. 322. + +[31] 'Clarendon' (Bodleian Papers), iii. II. + +[32] 'Clarendon,' ed. 1839, 871. 'Clarendon' (Bodleian Papers), Cal. +iii. 13 Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2535. fo. 637. + +[33] We thus found this conjecture: Cromwell held an intercepted letter +from the King to Mr. Roles, addressed to him under his alias, Mr. Upton, +expressed in terms of entire confidence (Thurl. iii. 75); but Roles was +not arrested. And the suspicion inspired by the immunity which Cromwell +granted to such a conspicuous Royalist, was confirmed by finding that +Thurloe in a letter (dated 6th April, 1655) to Manning the spy, refers +to 'Mr. Upton' as their common friend. (Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2542. +fo. 166.) + +[34] Masonet. See Note, 'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian) Cal. iii. 14 +Carlyle, iv. 108. + +[35] Information of J. Dallington, R. Glover, J. Stradling, E. Turner.' +Thurloe iii. 35, 74, 146, 181, 222. + +[36] Several Proceedings, &c. Thurs., 8th Feb.--15th Feb. 1655. +'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian Cal.) iii. 16. + +[37] Thurloe, iii. 164. + +[38] Thurloe, iii. 137, 180, 190, 198, 224. + +[39] Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2535, fo. 637. This communication appears +in an anonymous letter addressed to Nicholas. Mr. Warner, with that +ready help that he and his department afford, by a comparison of the +handwriting, attributes that letter to Col. Price, who shared in +Rochester's expedition. + +[40] 'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian), Cal. iii. 23. + +[41] Thurloe, iii. 573. + +[42] Ibid., iv. 344. + +[43] Thurloe, iii. 122, 182. Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus., 2535, fo. 627 + +[44] Whitlock, 625. Thurloe, iii. 359, 382. + +[45] Thurloe, iii. 391. + +[46] Thurloe, iii. 162 172, 177, 182, 219, 243, Rolls Cal. (1655), 73. + +[47] Thurloe, iii. 238, 243. + +[48] Heath's Chronicle, 367. + +[49] Thurloe, iii. 176, 181, 191. + +[50] 'Rolls Cal.' (1655), p. 216; Baynes Coll., Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. +21,424 fo. 50; Thurloe, iii. 226. + +[51] Thurloe, iii. 210, 222, 228, 241, 253. + +[52] Ibid., iii. 298, 356. In addition to constant terror of 'the +Barbadoes,' to which all Cromwell's prisoners were subject, a Royalist +in the Tower mentions, in a pencilled letter, that he had been +threatened with torture; and that the Protector himself used the menace +of the rack rests on the evidence of another prisoner's +brother.--'Clarendon Papers,' Bodleian Cal., iii. 82, 87. + +[53] Thurloe, iii. 676. + +[54] Pell Coll. Landsdowne MSS., 752. fo. 275, 282. Baynes Coll. Add. +MSS. 21, 423, fo. 74. Thurloe, iii. 170, 224, 246, 248, 253, 281, 284. +'Rolls Cal., 1655, 81, 84, 88, 99, 200. + +[55] Thurloe, iii. 281, 335. + +[56] 'Clarendon Papers,' Bodleian Cal., iii. 27, 34, 36. 'Rolls Cal' +(1655), 193, 245. Thurloe, iii. 358, 530, 561, 659. + +[57] Whalley's Statement; Burton, iv, 155. + +[58] Adapted from the 'Declaration' of Oct. 1655, and Speech. Carlyle, +iv. 107, Vol. 162.--_No. 324_ + +[59] Carlyle, iv. 108, 111. + +[60] Pell Corresp., Landsdowne MSS. Brit. Mus. 752, fo 275, 289. Hist +Rec. Comn. 6th Report, 438. + +[61] 1 Dec. 1654. Pell Corr., Lans. MSS. Brit. Mus., 752 fo. 215, 220. + +[62] 27 Feb. 1657. Burton, i. 383. Carlyle, iv. 177. + + + + +Art. VI.--1. _Oceana, or England and her Colonies._ By James Anthony +Froude. London, 1886. + +2. _Through the British Empire._ By Baron von Hübner. 2 vols. London, +1886. + +3. _The Western Pacific and New Guinea._ By Hugh Hastings Romilly, +Deputy Commissioner of the Western Pacific. London, 1886. + + +In days when proposals for the dismemberment of the Empire can be put +forward by great leaders of public opinion without exciting either +indignation or surprise, it may be worth the while of Englishmen to +spend a few hours in making themselves acquainted with the volumes which +we have cited at the head of this article. Most men are so absorbed in +what is going on immediately under their eyes, that they seldom bestow a +thought upon the remoter portions of the vast territory which +acknowledge allegiance to the Queen. They have but the most vague ideas, +or none at all, concerning the thoughts, wishes, and purposes, of the +large and growing communities which sprung from these islands, and which +have hitherto been proud of their English origin. It is true that this +pride has not been increasing of late years. The neglect or contempt +with which the Colonies have been treated by successive Liberal +Administrations did much to estrange the people, especially of Canada +and Australasia, and the whole foreign policy of England under Mr. +Gladstone's rule served to strengthen the general impression that our +decadence had not only set in, but was advancing with a rapidity which +was palpable to all the world except to those who were chiefly concerned +in arresting it. Mr. Froude tells us that one of the shrewdest and most +eminent of all the colonists whom he met expressed his amazement at the +popularity in this country of Mr. Gladstone,--an amazement which, Mr. +Froude adds, is felt 'wherever the English language is spoken' outside +England itself. We can fully confirm this statement. The hold which Mr. +Gladstone retains upon the country, after the long series of +unparallelled mistakes which a faithful view of his career must forever +associate with his name--the mistakes abroad, the mistakes at home, the +crowning and almost incredible mistakes in Ireland; that he should still +keep his hold of power and popularity after all this, absolutely passes +the understanding of our fellow-subjects abroad, no matter what politics +they profess. To them, we appear to be a people controlled by some +Circean spell, having cast common-sense and prudence to the winds, and +decided to be ruled henceforth by the man who can tickle our ears with +the longest speeches and the smoothest words. Byron was accustomed to +say that he looked upon the opinion of America as the verdict of +posterity. It is certain that our own kinsfolk beyond the seas are +sometimes in a far better position to realize the consequences of what +we are doing here than those who are actually playing the game. We are +too much wrapped up in self-complacency to allow their opinions to have +any weight with us, but they have the satisfaction, such as it is, of +seeing all their prognostications verified one after the other, and of +knowing that a rude and stern awakening from our dreams is hanging over +us. + +Of the three books to which we invite attention, Mr. Froude's is least +like the average book of travel, and undoubtedly is the most suggestive +of thought. Whether we agree with Mr. Froude or whether we do not, it is +always a pleasure to read him. The 'shoddy' work which extends to +everything in the present day, and which is eating into the very heart +of our new literature, has not corrupted the older handicraftsmen among +us. Not one record of travel in a hundred deserves to be mentioned in +the same breath with 'Oceana;' there are not very many books of the kind +in the language which excel it in variety, in vigour of style, in +picturesqueness of description, or in vivid glimpses of insight into +personal character. Baron Hübner is a more genial, discursive, and +garrulous traveller. He tells us everything that comes into his mind, +and has a note about everything he saw. We must add that these notes +are, generally speaking, of great interest, and often very amusing. He +undertook a journey over the greater part of the British Dominions, at a +somewhat advanced period of life, for his readers ought to be reminded +that he is the last survivor of the Congress of Paris, and that few men +have had more valuable experience in the diplomatic service. Before he +started, the Baron heard that his project was freely discussed at the +Traveller's Club. Some said, 'what a plucky old fellow he is!' His +comment upon this shows that he knows something of men as well as of +places: 'If any harm befals me, they will say, "what an old fool he +was!"' Happily, there was no occasion for pronouncing this judgment upon +him. He followed out his prescribed route with wonderful success, and he +has presented a graceful and highly interesting narrative of his +adventures. His observations may, in many respects, be usefully compared +with those of Mr. Froude, though it will not do to carry this comparison +much further. We must, however, do the Baron the justice to acknowledge, +that he always manifests an earnest desire to be fair and just. As for +the third book on our list, it has the advantage of being short and to +the point, and the additional advantage of being founded upon a +personal residence in one of the islands of the Western Pacific. Travels +based upon something more substantial than a mere flying visit are not +too common, and we are grateful to Mr. Romilly for making a very +entertaining addition to the number. We should be equally glad to +receive the account of North New Guinea which a Russian gentleman, Mr. +Miklaho Maclay, is so well able to furnish. It so chanced that he was +landed one night on the north coast of New Guinea, and in the morning +the natives found him sitting upon his portmanteau, like a man waiting +for a train. They took him for a being of supernatural origin, but by +way of making sure, they fired arrows at the stranger, tied him to a +tree, and forced spears down his throat. As he survived these injuries, +though by a narrow chance, the first impression of the natives was +confirmed, and Mr. Maclay was afterwards treated in a manner which seems +to have left him little ground for complaint. Thus far Mr. Maclay, as +Mr. Romilly informs us, has declined to commit any account of his +experience to paper; but a resolution of this kind is seldom unalterable +when a man has anything new to tell the world. + +Mr. Froude, as we have already intimated, intersperses the records of +travel with weighty reflections, or with valuable information, no part +of which can be prudently ignored by the reader. We do not know, for +instance, where in a short compass the arguments for and against +Colonial Federation have been so clearly set forth. As a rule, the +colonists everywhere view with great aversion the idea of placing +themselves under the direct authority of Downing Street, and no one will +be surprised at this who recollects the treatment they have almost +invariably received from that quarter. On the other hand, they are by no +means impatient or eager to proclaim their independence. 'British they +are,' says Mr. Froude, 'and British they wish to remain.' It will not be +their fault, but ours, if total separation ever becomes a popular cry in +Australasia or in Canada. There have been projects of a purely _local_ +colonial confederation, but they are not regarded with much favour by +the leading public men. Mr. Dalley of Sydney, expressed strongly his +disapproval of the scheme, and he also objected to the plan of having +the colonies represented in the Imperial Parliament by Colonial +Agents-general. The one thing which seems at present to be universally +desired is a better organization of the Navy. 'Let there be one Navy,' +Mr. Dalley said, 'under the rule of a single Admiralty--a Navy in which +the colonies should be as much interested as the mother country, which +should be theirs as well as ours, and on which they might all rely in +time of danger.' In these respects, the ideas of modern colonists differ +widely from those held in the last century. The great grievance of the +American colonists was that they were not represented in the British +Parliament. Had that demand been conceded, Mr. Froude is of opinion that +'Franklin and Washington would have been satisfied.' We do not quite +agree with him, for the party of Independence, though small at first, +was never likely to remain long contented with any compromise. +Originally, indeed, as we all remember, the leaders of the Revolution +disclaimed any intention of bringing about a separation. Franklin to the +last protested his desire to keep the colonies united to the mother +country; but Franklin was not the most sincere or straightforward of +men. Undoubtedly, however, the American colonists did not begin the +Revolution with the least desire to create a separate nationality, any +more than in the great civil war of 1861-65 there was at first, or for a +long time, any intention of effecting the abolition of slavery. Both +ideas were acquired by the people by slow degrees. Massachusetts, New +Hampshire, Virginia, and other States gave emphatic instructions to +their delegates in 1774 to 'restore union and harmony between Great +Britain and her Colonies,' and the party of independence was thoroughly +unpopular down even to the close of the struggle. One of its leading +spirits gave emphatic testimony on this point. 'For my own part,' wrote +John Adams, 'there was not a moment in the Revolution when I would not +have given everything I possessed for a restoration to the state of +things before the contest began, provided we could have a sufficient +security for its continuance.' This feeling had no small share in +misleading George III. on the American question, and in deepening his +determination not to let the colonies go--a fact which was brought out +for the first time, we believe, by one of the ablest and most judicious +of modern historians--Mr. Lecky. He also was the first to show, in a +very striking manner, that the American Revolution was practically the +work of a small minority, who, as he remarks--and the remark has no +slight application to the other revolution now going on in our +midst--'succeeded in committing an undecided and fluctuating majority to +courses for which they had little love, and leading them step by step to +a position from which it was impossible to recede.'[63] Nearly one-half +of the Revolutionary army consisted of Irish, who have ever since played +so important a part in the politics of the United States. + +In the present day, our colonists do not seek for separation, +neither--if Mr. Froude is right--do they ask for representation at +Westminster. They 'are passionately attached to their Sovereign,' and +they desire that their Governors 'should be worthy always of the great +person whom they represent.' They wish to have their trade encouraged, +as it might so easily have been a few years ago, if we had possessed +foresight enough to adopt a system of differential duties; they wish to +have good immigrants, and they see the growing necessity for a strong +navy. The information on these subjects which Baron Hübner acquired +should be considered in connection with Mr. Froude's statements. It will +be found that the two writers substantially agree. Baron Hübner found +that the Australian colonists fully comprehend the disadvantage which +complete independence would be to them. They are practically independent +now, but they are spared the political and social turmoil in which the +periodical election of a President would necessarily involve them. 'The +Queen,' said one of the Baron's friends, 'sends every five years a +Governor, who is not an autocrat like the President of the United +States, but the representative of constitutional royalty. In America +every four years, business is arrested, public order is disturbed, and +passions are let loose to the point sometimes of threatening even public +life itself. And why? In order that the nation may elect an absolute +master, irremovable by law during his period of office. Here every one +understands this, and every one knows how to leave well alone.' We do +not quite see how the President of the United States can be described as +an 'autocrat' or as an 'absolute master,' but the Australians are right +in their conclusion, that the American system would be a sorry +substitute for the arrangement which gives them a Governor without +inconvenience to themselves, and without any risk of infringement upon +their liberties. + +In the Cape Colony, the problem presents itself in a different form. In +its origin--as everybody ought to know, but does not--it is not an +English, but a Dutch Colony, and the Boers have never been disposed to +render to English sovereignty more than a passive obedience. The chief +facts in their recent history are but too easily recalled. When the +Transvaal was annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the people at first +submitted quietly; but the new Commissioner aroused first their fears, +and then their anger, by various encroachments which were regarded as +invasions of their rights. The Boers took up arms, English troops were +despatched from the Cape to suppress the rising, and these troops were +beaten at Lang's Neck. General Colley, who then commanded the forces at +Natal, hastened forward with more troops in the hope of retrieving this +disaster, but was himself beaten at Ingogo. He then, without waiting for +the reinforcements which were on their way to him, took up a new +position, was attacked by the Boers, and defeated in the memorable +disaster at Majuba Hill. Mr. Gladstone forthwith surrendered everything, +and since that time the Boers have been, as a matter of course, more and +more antagonistic to the English power. 'They came to Africa,' says +Baron Hübner, 'in 1652, with the intention of remaining there, and they +do remain there. The future and Africa belong to them, unless they are +expelled by a stronger power, the blacks or the English. They accept the +struggle with the blacks, and they avoid all contact with the English.' +Mr. Froude takes now, as he has always taken, a very strong view of our +own responsibility for all the difficulties which have arisen with the +Boers. We have, he says with some bitterness, 'treated them unfairly as +well as unwisely, and we never forgive those whom we have injured.' The +story is long, and it has been treated more than once, and we believe +with strict fairness and impartiality, in these pages. Mr. Froude +himself does not deny, that the effect of the surrender after Majuba +Hill 'was to diminish infallibly the influence of England in South +Africa, and to elate and encourage the growing party whose hope was and +is to see it vanish altogether.' The work was not half done. We insisted +upon a new Treaty, which was immediately broken by the Boers. Mr. Froude +once more recommends us to 'leave the Cape alone'--not to get out of it, +but to allow the Boers to manage their affairs in their own way. 'Our +interferences,' he tells us, 'have been dictated by the highest motives; +but experience has told us, and ought to have taught us, that in what we +have done or tried to do, we have aggravated every evil which we most +desired to prevent. We have conciliated neither person nor party.' + +Baron Hübner arrived at his conclusions by a totally different road from +that pursued by Mr. Froude, but the burden of his story is much the +same. It is the indecision of the Central Government, the uncertainty in +which the Colony is always kept as to what will happen to them next, +which causes nearly all the mischief. We have treated the Cape Colony as +we have treated Ireland, and with every prospect of bringing about the +same results. First 'coercion,' then abject surrender, then coercion +again--'a process,' as Mr. Froude justly remarks, 'which drives nations +mad, as it drives children, yet is inevitable in every dependency +belonging to us which is not entirely servile, so long as it lies at the +will and mercy of so uncertain a body as the British Parliament.' Baron +Hübner, who stands beyond the influence of our party politics, tells us +the same thing in other words. We want a policy, he says, in effect, +which shall be permanent in its application, and therefore not affected +by changes in Ministries. The fact is that we want such a policy for +many parts of our Empire besides South Africa, and we are likely to want +it. With Parliaments elected at short and frequent intervals, and +depending largely on shifting caprices, there is not likely to be any +fixed principle in dealing with political problems arising either at our +own doors or thousands of miles away. + +There is one question in which all the colonists take a deep interest, +and that is the condition and prospects of our trade. The Colonies are +now our best customers, and we sincerely hope they will continue to be +so, for with them we may possibly get, even yet, something like Free +Trade, whereas no chance of securing even an approach to it can be +looked for in the rest of the world. The Colonies will always raise at +the Custom House the greater part of the money they want for the +expenses of internal government, but they may be induced to offer +England more favourable terms than other nations receive. In Australia, +as elsewhere, it begins to be doubted whether 'England can trust +entirely to Free Trade and competition to keep the place she has +hitherto held.' If all our Colonies were bound with us in one commercial +federation, we could make sure of Free Trade over a large part of the +world's surface. 'We should have purchasers for our goods,' remarks Mr. +Froude, 'from whom we should fear no rivalry; we should turn in upon +them the tide of our emigrants which now flows away.' But at present, +and with the fiscal system of 1846 still regarded as sacred and +inviolable, nothing can be done. When we are prepared to acknowledge +that the world has moved since 1846, and that we must move with it, +there may be a possibility of widening the field of our +commerce--unless, indeed, we delay too long. Public opinion in England +is beginning to stir upon the subject. The demand for a great and +radical change will come, when it does come, from the working men, and +they are already showing signs of deep interest in a matter which +concerns the very means of their livelihood. They are in advance of +Parliament and Ministries on this subject. Mr. Froude is well within +bounds in asserting that 'those among us who have disbelieved all along +that a great nation can venture its whole fortunes safely on the power +of underselling its neighbours in calicoes and iron-work, no longer +address a public opinion entirely cold.' What, perhaps, has tended as +much as anything else to open our eyes is the discovery, that other +nations begin to be able to undersell us, not only in foreign markets, +but even in our own--here in England, at Sheffield, Birmingham, and +Manchester. Carlyle usually defined the Free Trade theory as the system +of 'cheap and nasty.' As we have never had Free Trade, and therefore as +it has never been properly tested, it is impossible to say what effects +it was capable of producing, properly worked out. The great fact which +confronts us to-day is that no other nation in the world, and not even +our own colonists, will have anything whatever to do with it on any +terms. This fact, at least, the English workingmen are beginning to see +and to understand, and results will flow from it at present not +anticipated by 'statesmen,' who know little or nothing about the hard +matter-of-fact conditions under which trade is carried on, and who are +assiduously primed by underlings with statistics which they repeat by +rote, and as to the real value or signification of which they are +completely and hopelessly in the dark. + +According to Baron Hübner, the Australian colonists have not abandoned +the hope of forming a customs' union with the mother country, and they +are far from regarding the proposals for giving them representation in +Parliament with the indifference which Mr. Froude imagines that he +detected. No one yet seems to have made even an effort to settle the +details of a scheme by which a navy could be kept up for the defence of +the Colonies, and an Imperial Zollverein formed between England and her +foreign possessions. But the 'advanced men,' according to Baron Hübner, +feel convinced that the idea can be carried out, and they are desirous +of finding, as a preliminary, direct representation in some form at +Westminster. The growth of this idea, says Baron Hübner, 'of a grand +confederation, which would completely revolutionize Old England, or +rather, which would create a new England by the handiwork and after the +pattern of her children in Australia--the growth of this idea among the +masses is, to my mind, an indubitable fact.' More improbable things have +happened than that England, weakened at home by the selfish ambition of +her statesmen, and by the frenzy of party warfare, may be saved by the +patriotism of her descendants in other lands. The first opportunity +which the colonists have had of evincing their determination to stand by +the old country was promptly taken advantage of, and with a heartiness +of spirit that we hope is not yet forgotten, quickly as all events, +great or small, are nowadays crammed into 'the wallet of oblivion.' The +offers of colonial aid during the Egyptian war roused a feeling +throughout the Colonies which astonished all Europe, and probably took +many of the colonists themselves by surprise. 'When English interests +were in peril,' Mr. Froude tells us, 'I found the Australians, not cool +and indifferent, but _ipsis Anglicis Angliciores_, as if at the +circumference the patriotic spirit was more alive than at the centre. +There was a general sense that our affairs were being strangely +mismanaged.' The men who think and talk like this are not struggling for +place and power amid the demoralizing surroundings of modern +Parliamentary life. They are able to take a cool and dispassionate view +of us and our affairs, and they begin to think that public life has +degenerated into a mere scramble for the spoils of office. Their +indignation, when Gordon was deserted by the Government which he had +tried to serve, was far greater than we seem to have had any experience +of amongst ourselves. They looked upon him as 'the last of the race of +heroes who had won for England her proud position among the nations; he +had been left to neglect and death, and the national glory was sullied.' +They volunteered to come over and help us fight our battles. The +Colonial Office, then under Lord Derby, was for a few days disposed to +turn the cold shoulder to these efforts of assistance. But the feeling, +which had been aroused in the country by the first announcements in the +newspapers, was too deep to be mistaken. It broke through the ice in +which the Colonial Office is usually imbedded, and compelled Lord Derby +to make a warm and grateful response to the Colonies. In reality, the +people there are, as many travellers besides Mr. Froude have remarked, +more English than the English themselves in their sensitiveness as +regards the national honour. We talk very coolly here of 'standing +aside,' of 'having seen our best days,' and of giving up one part of our +inheritance after another; but the Englishmen abroad are animated by +very different sentiments. The love of the 'old home' is strong in them, +even though they may have been born in the Colonies. It shows itself in +a thousand different ways. At Ballarat, Mr. Froude seems to have been +struck with a garden which might have been attached to an old cottage in +Surrey or Devonshire. There were cabbage-roses, pinks, columbines, +sweet-williams, laburnums, and honey-suckle--all prized because they +were the flowers of Old England. The people everywhere speak the +language with remarkable purity. The aspirate is rarely misplaced, +unless by a recent immigrant. The misuse of the aspirate is, indeed, a +peculiar part of the birthright of an Englishman. No one ever yet heard +it from the poorest or most illiterate class in the United States. In +Australia, says Mr. Froude, 'no provincialism has yet developed itself. +The tone is soft, the language good.' The young people looked fresh and +healthy, 'not lean and sun-dried, but fair, fleshy, lymphatic.' Mr. +Froude could not see any difference between his countrymen at home and +those who had settled down in this new and wider field of industry. 'The +leaves that grow on one branch of an oak are not more like the leaves +that grow upon another, than the Australian swarm is like the hive it +sprung from.' Mr. Service, the Prime Minister of Victoria, fully shares +the English predilections of his fellow colonists, but he appears to +feel some irritation at the tone so frequently adopted by the Liberal +press and party in this country, and emphatically urged in their day by +Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. This tone is founded upon the argument, 'The +Colonies are of no use to us; therefore the sooner they take themselves +off the better.' If some leaders and members of the Liberal party had +their way, we should be without a colony in the world, without India, +and with Ireland close to our own doors a hostile and an independent +Foreign Power. + +With regard to India it is to Baron Hübner's records of a very +remarkable journey, that we must turn for the notes of the most recent +traveller. The work is not so exhaustive, especially as regards the +Native States, as M. Rousselet's 'L'Inde des Rajahs,' but it is +eminently readable and lively, and the author gives abundant evidence, +that he took with him everywhere an earnest desire to arrive at the +truth, and a determination to form his conclusions with strict +impartiality. It is evident that in India he soon began to feel the +influence of that peculiar spell which the country exercises over most +persons of a susceptible or imaginative temperament. 'India,' he says, +'has always fascinated me, 'and few who have travelled there will not be +ready to make the same confession. It is much to be hoped that the +Radicals will be induced to listen to Baron Hübner's testimony +concerning the way in which we carry on government in our great Eastern +dependency. Nowhere, strange as it may appear, but in our own country is +English rule misunderstood or misrepresented. Injustice is +systematically done to the purest, most conscientious, and most +industrious Civil Service in the whole world; and our countrymen who are +spending the best part of their lives in the effort to promote the +welfare and prosperity of India, are too often held up to opprobrium as +examples of merciless tyrants, whose only object is to grind down the +natives into the dust. We seem to be losing many of the characteristics +which formerly distinguished us in the world, but there is one which +marks us out very plainly from all other nations--the habit of +disparaging our own achievements and vilifying our own reputation. We do +not find the Germans pertinaciously seeking to bring into disrepute the +efforts now being made to extend their colonial possessions; the +Americans have a motto, upon which they invariably act: 'our +country--right or wrong.' This may be carrying a good principle a little +too far; but it is better than the course we pursue, of striving with +might and main to dishonour our past, and to place our country in the +most contemptible light before the rest of mankind. Instead of our +having any reason to be ashamed of what we have done in and for India, +we have every cause to be proud of it; and, if English people had an +adequate knowledge of that work, and were in a position to exercise +their common-sense on the question, untrammelled by agitators and +demagogues, they would acknowledge gladly that they were heartily proud +of it. We believe that the great body of Englishmen in India are +honestly endeavouring to do their duty, according to the measure of +their abilities, and that, if any event occurred to cause our removal +from the country, it would inflict the direst forms of suffering and +calamity upon the people. It is important to hear what a foreigner, not +unduly prejudiced in our favour, has to say upon these points. First, +then, in reference to the men who are engaged in the practical work of +government--the Civil Service--Baron Hübner says:-- + + 'I have met everywhere men devoted to their service, working + from morning till evening, and finding time, notwithstanding + the mutiplicity of their daily labours, to occupy themselves + with literature and serious studies. India is governed + bureaucratically, but this bureaucracy differs in more than + one respect from ours in Europe. To the public servant in + Europe one day is like another; some great revolution, some + European war, is needed to disturb the placid monotony of + his existence. In India it is not so. The variety of his + duties enlarges and fashions the mind of the Anglo-Indian + official; and the dangers to which he is occasionally + exposed serve to strengthen and give energy to his + character. He learns to take large views and to work at his + desk while the ground is trembling beneath his feet. I do + not think I am guilty of exaggeration in declaring that + there is not a bureaucracy in the world better educated, + better trained to business, more thoroughly stamped with the + qualities which make a statesman; and, what none will + dispute, more pure and upright than that which administers + the government of India.' + +Of late years, as everybody is aware, a demand has sprung up for 'local +self-government' in India--a demand not originating with natives +themselves, but with the sentimentalists and philosophers who are doing +their best and their worst to take all the manliness out of the English +character. Lord Ripon was the mechanical mouthpiece of this sect, and +there can be no doubt whatever that no Governor-General or Viceroy of +India ever did so much harm in so short space of time. He and his school +tried their utmost to persuade the natives that what they want is 'Home +Rule'--that panacea for all the evils of modern life which is likely to +entail so many new burdens and trials upon us. The natives of India +never suspected, until Lord Ripon strove to impress it upon them, that +Home Rule is indispensable to their happiness. They are perfectly well +aware that if our hold upon the country is ever relaxed, there will be +nothing but chaos all through the land,--internecine wars, rebellions, +and massacres, such as marked the history of India until our rule became +well established there. Lord Ripon closed his eyes to all +this--_doctrinaire_ at heart, he could see nothing but his own +crotchets. The native, he declared, must have local self-government. But +Baron Hübner found that the people did not understand or desire this +much vaunted contrivance. The native, he says, 'refuses to be elected by +his equals. He wishes to be chosen by his superiors, and his superiors +are the English officials, represented in this case by the district +officer or magistrate. In the North-Western Provinces, this opposition +was so strong that the Supreme Government have been obliged, much +against their own views, to give to the Governor of those Provinces the +power of constituting the municipalities.' The sentimentalists may try +to develop the 'native mind' as they please, but they will never +persuade Hindoos or Mussulmans to trust their own countrymen as they +trust us. We have a reputation among them for fairness and for justice +which no native would ever aim to deserve, although he is not incapable +of understanding and admiring it. An East Indian of any race or religion +will never speak the truth if he can possibly help himself, but he has a +certain respect for the man who can and does. No doubt, the very +earnestness, with which we seek to dispense equal justice among all +classes, is a stumbling-block in our path, and always has been so. The +native likes to deal with a judge who will wink at perjury, and who is +not above taking a bribe. Yet the Englishman is everywhere trusted. 'If +proof were needed,' says Baron Hübner, 'to show how deeply rooted among +the populations is English prestige, I would quote the fact that +throughout the peninsula the native prefers, in civil and still more in +criminal cases, to be tried by an English judge. It would be +impossible, I think, to render a more flattering testimony to British +rule.' But these are facts which had no signification for Lord Ripon. He +pursued a policy which, designedly or undesignedly, was calculated to +bring our rule to an end. 'Lord Ripon's resolution,' some one told +Baron Hübner, 'means nothing or means this: The Government foresees that +the time will come when we must leave India to herself.' Then there was +the Ilbert Bill, placing Europeans in the country districts under the +jurisdiction of native judges. How could the natives of all classes fail +to look upon this as another evidence that the reins of power were +dropping from our nerveless hands? The point of the whole matter was +thus put by one of the civilians to Baron Hübner:--'The principle, that +the jurisdiction over European subjects of the Crown must be reserved +for judges and magistrates who are also European subjects, has always +been maintained. And it has always been recognized that in this +principle lies the only possible effectual guarantee to Europeans living +in country districts against the perjury and false witness so common +among the rural populations.' The Ilbert Bill proposed to take away +these safeguards from the European, and would have left him at the mercy +of native judges and native witnesses, whose only idea of justice is to +make a few rupees out of its administration. + +The school of Radicals represented only too numerously in the present +Parliament--unreasoning, ignorant of India, impulsive, narrow and +insular--is also represented among the more recent importations of +'competition wallahs.' Baron Hübner met with many of them. 'In their +opinion,' he says, 'the ideal of a sound English policy is the +dismemberment of the British Empire, and above all the abandonment of +India. To save England, it is necessary first to destroy her.' To the +shrewd and experienced Austrian diplomatist, these ideas seem to be +absolutely ruinous, but the oddity of it is that thousands of persons in +England cling to them with a sort of idolatry, as if within them was +compressed the sum and substance of human wisdom. The Radical party +to-day lives upon these theories of dismemberment, although it is +careful to keep its ultimate aim as much as possible in the background. +In India, its adherents are doing an immense amount of harm. Baron +Hübner seems to have been struck with amazement at the phenomenon. 'This +is, indeed,' he exclaims, 'a curious and perhaps a unique spectacle--an +immense administration, managed according to doctrines which are +repudiated by the large majority of those who compose it.' The natives +who are educated in our schools and colleges emerge from them filled +with ideas of Socialism and Atheism. We break down their faith in their +own creeds, without succeeding in inducing them to adopt Christianity. +They find themselves free to construct a religion of their own, or to do +without any religion. As regards the Government, they are led to +believe that it ought not to be where it is, and that India should be +ruled by its own people. The native press is full of sedition. Let us +hear what Baron Hübner has to say upon this subject, for it is worth +attention:-- + + 'Is there any public opinion in India? It is declared that + there is none. And yet people agree in saying that the + natives who have been educated in the State colleges have + become singularly importunate of late years, that they are + beginning to adopt a high tone, and that they take especial + delight in criticising the acts of the Government, who, + unwisely, as it seems to me, encourage if not provoke such + criticism. These baboos and their newspapers, I am told, + would only become dangerous at a crisis; and by a crisis is + understood a disastrous European war. But the life of + nations, like that of individuals, is nothing but a series + of successes and reverses. Looked at from this point of + view, the baboo is not such an insignificant being as he + appears to be considered.' + +No doubt our Radicals would contend that the Austrian's notion, that it +is unwise on the part of the Government to encourage criticism directed +against itself, is worthy of a man who has seen the Napoleonic _régime_, +and who perhaps admires the 'one man' form of government. But what is +the English Radical party itself living under now? Was ever the 'one man +form of government' carried out in so relentless a fashion as we see it +now in Parliament? Is there not one man in the Government, surrounded by +a crowd of nonentities--the one man filling the exact position for which +the Americans have invented the significant word 'Boss'? All liberty of +thought or freedom of action is gone. The principle insisted upon is 'do +whatever our leader tells us; go where he leads; give what he asks--all +without murmuring or discontent. The man who murmurs must be drummed out +of the ranks.' If we saw the French submitting to this system, no words +that we could use would be strong enough to express our contempt for +them. As we happen to be doing it ourselves, it must, of course, be good +and wise. Granted that it is so, we may fairly ask even the Radicals +whether they are quite sure that it is wise to think of giving up India? +With what do they propose to replace our government? The testimony of +every fair-minded man is that we have accomplished an incalculable +amount of excellent work there. Our magnificent highways and railroads, +our appliances for irrigation, would alone make our name immortal in the +country. The people thrive under our rule; every man is secure in the +possession of his property; war no longer devastates the country. We +recommend everybody who is unaware of these and similar facts to +consider well the evidence adduced by Baron Hübner:-- + + 'Materially speaking, India has never been as prosperous as + she is now. The appearance of the natives, for the most part + well clothed, and of their villages and well-furnished + cottages, and of their well-cultivated fields, seems to + prove this. In their bearing there is nothing servile; in + their behaviour towards their English masters there is a + certain freedom of manner, and a general air of + self-respect; nothing of that abject deference which strikes + and shocks new comers in other Eastern countries. I have no + means of comparing the natives of to-day with the natives of + former generations, but I have been able to compare the + populations who owe direct allegiance to the Empress with + the subjects of the feudatory princes. For example, when you + cross the frontier of Hyderabad, the climate, the soil, the + race, are the same as those you have just quitted, but the + difference between the two States is remarkable, and + altogether to the advantage of the Presidency of Madras or + of Bombay.' + +He goes on to say, that no one can deny that the British India of to-day +presents a spectacle that has no parallel in the history of the world: + + 'What do we see? Instead of periodical, if not permanent, + wars, profound peace firmly established throughout the whole + Empire; instead of the exactions of chiefs always greedy for + gold, and not shrinking from any act of cruelty to extort + it, moderate taxes, much lower than those imposed by the + feudatory princes; arbitrary rule replaced by even-handed + justice; the tribunals, once proverbially corrupt, by + upright judges whose example is already beginning to make + its influence felt on native morality and notions of right; + no more Pindarris, no more armed bands of thieves; perfect + security in the cities as well as in the country districts, + and on all the roads; the former bloodthirsty manners and + customs now softened, and, save for certain restrictions + imposed in the interests of public morality, a scrupulous + regard for religious worship, and traditional usages and + customs; materially, an unexampled bound of prosperity, and + even the disastrous effects of the periodical famines, which + afflict certain parts of the peninsula, more and more + diminished by the extension of railways which facilitate the + work of relief. And what has wrought all these miracles? The + wisdom and the courage of a few directing statesmen, the + bravery and the discipline of an army composed of a small + number of Englishmen and a large number of natives, led by + heroes; and lastly, and I will venture to say principally, + the devotion, the intelligence, the courage, the + perseverance, and the skill, combined with an integrity + proof against all temptation, of a handful of officials and + magistrates who govern and administer the Indian Empire.' + +Such is the testimony of an Austrian. It ought to bring a flush of shame +to the faces of not a few Englishmen. + +We have scarcely alluded to the lighter parts of Baron Hübner's +volumes--to the excellent touches of description or sketches of +character which enliven his pages, or to the numerous pleasantly-told +anecdotes of personal adventure. One of these anecdotes is worth +repeating, though the author must pardon us if we tell it in our own +way. It is too characteristic of life in New York--too full of valuable +hints for future travellers--to be lost sight of. + +It appears that on his last morning in New York, the Baron found that +his note-book had been taken from his room in the hotel. His servant and +his baggage had already gone on to the steamer, and the Baron prepared +to follow. First, however, as he still had two hours to spare, he +thought he would take a final glimpse of Fifth Avenue. These are the +little accidents which generally decide our fate in life--the visit to +some friend, the call on a stranger, the unpremeditated walk. As the +Baron was passing along, a carriage suddenly stopped, a +'fashionably-dressed gentleman' jumped out, and ran up to the traveller +with a cordial salutation. He introduced himself as a guest who had +dined, with the Baron, at a dinner given by Lord Augustus Loftus in +Sydney. 'I am one of the admirers,' he said, 'of your "Promenade autour +du Monde," and I venture to ask you to do me the favour of writing your +name in my copy of that book. In return, pray accept a volume of +Longfellow's poems, with the author's autograph.' The fashionable +stranger had skilfully touched the weak place in an author's heart. +Baron Hübner consented to be driven back to his hotel, where his new +friend was also residing. On the way, the stranger suddenly bethought +himself that the two books were at the house of an acquaintance, 'two +steps from the hotel.' He put his head out of the window, gave some +fresh directions to the coachman, and the Baron soon found himself being +whirled along at a furious rate along streets which he did not +recognize. Still, the old traveller had no suspicion of anything wrong. +His voyages and adventures certainly seem to have left him in a more +than ordinarily unsophisticated condition. At last the carriage stopped, +our author was conducted into the dark passage of a small house, and +then into a little dirty room, where he found a tall man seated before a +table, with his back to a mirror. In that mirror, the Baron saw his dear +friend from Sydney gently lock the door, and put the key in his pocket. +Then he understood all about it. + +Of course the tall man was polite, and after promising to go and fetch +the volume of Longfellow, he proposed to the gentleman from Sydney a +game at cards. While the two men played their sham game, the Baron had +time to reflect; he saw that he had been pounced upon very skilfully--in +less than two hours the 'Bothnia' would sail, all the people at the +hotel would think he had gone by her, no one would miss him, no one +would search for him. He might be murdered with impunity--with what +impunity the Baron would have fully realized if he had known a little +more of New York. No city in the world presents greater facilities for +getting rid of the evidences of foul play. We have not seen the recent +statistics of murders in New York, and doubt whether they have been +published; but in the five years between 1870 and 1875, we happen to +know that 281 'homicides' were committed there, and that only seven of +the murderers were hanged. Twenty-four were sent to prison--nominally +for life, although that is a mere form--and more than one-fourth of the +criminals were never brought to trial at all. If Baron Hübner had known +all this, he would have regarded his two new acquaintances with even +greater interest than he did. + +How and why they let him go scot-free is to us a mystery. They invited +him to take a hand in the game, and he declined. They pretended to play +for him; won, and offered him the stakes. He told them he had no money +with him, that they would get nothing for their trouble, that the French +Consul was to meet him on board the 'Bothnia' to bid him adieu; if he +were not there a hue and cry at once would be raised. 'Then,' adds the +Baron, 'turning to my friend from Sydney, I said to him, "Open the +door." The ruffians gave in without further trouble. There was an +exchange of looks between them, and the tall man said to the other, +'show him out.' We have heard of many strange things happening in New +York, but never of one so strange as that.' When I stepped upon the deck +of the "Bothnia," says the Baron, 'a few minutes before departure, I +felt that I had had a narrow escape.' Very narrow; we should advise +Baron Hübner, if ever again he finds himself in New York, not to tempt +his good fortune by taking a drive with strangers who admire his +writings. + +For the novel and stirring incidents of travel, we must turn to Mr. +Romilly's narrative of his experiences in the Western Pacific. He +transports us to a comparatively little known region, and it was his +good or ill fortune to come into contact with phases of life which must, +it is to be hoped, for ever remain unknown to most of us. Few living +men, for instance, have been present at a great feast on human flesh, +cannibalism being one of the habits of savage life which is found to +yield at the first touch of civilization. In New Ireland, however, Mr. +Romilly happened to be present at a sort of state banquet, given in +honour of a victory over the enemy. The enemy himself supplied the +materials of the repast. The details of the preparation of the horrible +food may be read in Mr. Romilly's pages by all who have a curiosity on +the subject. Some few particulars concerning a compound called 'Sak-sak' +may here be given:-- + + 'They, [the heads of the victims] were then disposed of in + various ways, and when I asked what would be done with them, + I was told, "They will go to improve the sak-sak." The + natives on the East coast of New Ireland prepare a very + excellent composition of sago and cocoa-nut, called sak-sak. + I used to buy a supply of this every morning, as it would + not keep, for my men. Now it appeared that for the next week + or so, a third ingredient would be added to the sak-sak, + namely, brains. I need hardly say that for the next two days + of my stay I did not taste sak-sak, though my men made no + secret of doing so. The flesh in the ovens had to be cooked + for three days, or until the tough leaves in which it was + wrapped were nearly consumed. When taken out of the ovens + the method of eating it is as follows. The head of the eater + is thrown back, somewhat after the fashion of an Italian + eating macaroni. The leaf is opened at one end, and the + contents are pressed into the mouth until they are finished. + As Bill, my interpreter put it, "they cookum that fellow + three day; by-and-by cookum finish, that fellow all same + grease." For days afterwards, when everything is finished, + they abstain from washing, lest the memory of the feast + should be too fleeting.' + +Mr. Romilly was informed by the natives that human flesh tastes even +better than pork. One is satisfied to take their word for it. In the New +Hebrides it appears that the people prefer to eat it dried, or 'jerked.' +At present, we are told, + + 'the cannibals in the world may be numbered by millions. + Probably a third of the natives of the country where I am + now writing (New Guinea) are cannibals; so are about + two-thirds of the occupants of the New Hebrides, and the + same proportion of the Solomon Islanders. All the natives of + the Santa Cruz group, Admiralties, Hermits, Louisiade, + Engineer, D'Entrecasteaux groups are cannibals, and even + some well-authenticated cases have occurred among the "black + fellows" of Northern Australia. I do not know that the fact + of a native being a cannibal makes him a greater savage. + Some of the most treacherous savages on this coast are + undoubtedly not cannibals, while most of the Louisiade + cannibals are a mild-tempered, pleasant set of men.' + +This testimony can do no harm in England, but it is to be hoped that Mr. +Romilly will not repeat it too often among his black friends, or the +moral of it might be misunderstood. + +The Solomon Islands still form a part of the world of which very little +is known. They are rarely visited, and travellers who have gone for the +purpose of 'taking notes,' have either altered their minds in good +season, or never returned. Some years ago, Mr. Benjamin Boyd, a member +of the Royal Yacht Squadron went out in his yacht, the 'Wanderer,' and +was captured by the natives. Search was made for him from time to time, +and his initials were found carved on trees. A notice was placed on all +the goods sent to the natives to this effect: 'B. B., we are looking for +you'--but no tidings were ever heard of the missing man. Mr. Romilly was +told by the captain of a labour schooner that somewhere on the south +coast he had noticed a European skull in a sort of temple; he recognized +it as European from its size, and he also observed that one of the teeth +was stopped with gold. We take it for granted that the dentists among +the Solomon Islanders do not use gold for filling teeth. This, then, was +probably the skull of the hapless owner of the 'Wanderer.' The Solomon +Islanders now make a practice of killing white men, if it can be done +safely, in revenge for the way in which they have been 'kidnapped' for +the labour traffic. The diseases introduced by their treacherous white +friends have made terrible ravages among them, and their own habits tend +still further to reduce their numbers. There are several places,' says +Mr. Romilly, 'where it is the custom to kill all, or nearly all, of the +children soon after they are born.' This is the only region we ever +heard of where so frightful and unnatural a custom exists. Female +children are, or used to be, destroyed in many countries; but the +indiscriminate slaughter of all children is decidedly uncommon. These +islanders have another device which is supported by an argument not +entirely devoid of strength. 'In a battle the victorious party, if they +can surprise their enemies sufficiently to admit of a wholesale +massacre, kill not only the men, but also the women and children. "We +should be fools," say they, "if we did not. This must be revenged some +day, if there are any men to do it; but how can they get men if we kill +the women and children?"' The same thought has doubtless occurred to +modern conquerors elsewhere, though, happily, circumstances have not +enabled them to carry it into practical effect. Some other curious +details respecting this group of islands, are given by Mr. Romilly. The +old women it appears, become adepts in the occult sciences, and the men +occasionally find the trade of wizard lucrative. They are chiefly called +upon to bring about a change in the weather, and their plan of +operations is to gain time. It resembles, in some striking features, the +method adopted by the 'inspired statesman' of our own latitudes when he +is trying to feel his way towards the development of some scheme which +he is half afraid of himself, and which the public view with profound +suspicion. Surely the most of us could find a counterpart to the +individual described in the following passage:-- + + 'One old sorcerer of my acquaintance was a most interesting + study. If he was asked for fine weather (which, by the way, + in the Solomons is the usual request, the rainfall being + enormous), he used to temporize in a truly masterly manner. + First he would hold out for more payment. This policy he + could continue for an indefinite length of time, as he would + of course require payment in a form which he knew was + difficult or impossible for the natives to comply with. + Then, if he thought there was any likelihood of fine weather + for a day or two, he would become possessed of a devil which + would leave him at once if the sun made its appearance, but + if the bad weather lasted the devil would last too; and + finally, if the bad weather was very obstinate and would not + come, he would hold out again for more payment. In this + manner my old sorcerer was very seldom mistaken in his + forecasts, and the influence he exerted over the clerk of + the weather must have been very irksome to that functionary. + +This leader of his tribe, we are further informed, had a 'great hold +over the imagination of his dupes.' We are more civilized--or _we_ think +so--than the islanders of the Western Pacific; but human nature is +pretty much the same there as here. As for the philosophy of such +matters, it is thus summed up by Mr. Romilly: 'I have often wondered +what the sorcerer thinks of himself; whether he really believes himself +to be a magician, or whether he realizes the fact that he is an arrant +old humbug. I think there is a mixture of both feelings.' It would be +useless to pursue this enquiry any further. + +Another of the unexplored islands of these seas forms a part of the +Admiralty group, and is called Jesus Maria. It was visited by the +'Challenger' in 1875, and again by Mr. Romilly on two occasions, the +last in 1881, in H.M.S. 'Beagle.' The natives, a fierce and warlike +race, crowded round the vessel, eager to sell everything they had +including their babies. Bottles and hoop-iron were eagerly sought for. +While engaged in carrying on this simple traffic, the party on board +noticed, to their amazement a white man on shore who fired off a gun to +attract their attention. The next day a boat rowed to the beach, and +there stood the white man. He proved to be a Scotchman named David Dow, +who was collecting _béche de mer_, and found his trade prospects so good +that he desired to remain where he was. The Admiralty Islanders have +some 'very singular customs,' not to be met with anywhere else; but +after thus piquing our curiosity, Mr. Romilly ruthlessly balks it by +remarking 'that they are, unfortunately, of a nature which cannot be +described here.' We share his regret upon his being obliged to keep the +secret; for when a traveller has found out anything absolutely fresh and +startling, common humanity should, in these dull and overcast times, +induce him to disclose it. But no doubt Mr. Romilly has his reasons for +silence, and we must submit to them. The Germans have recently hoisted +their flag upon several of these islands, and we may trust them to tell +all that they can find out, and more. + +In the Laughlan islands--a small group--the Germans are also to be +found. Indeed, they are spreading rapidly, over the Pacific Isles. As +the spirit of adventure is dying out among Englishmen, it appears to be +increasing in other nations. The genius for colonization appears to have +fled from us to Germany. Certain it is that Germans are everywhere +displaying that daring and enterprise in which we once shone above all +other people in the world. They will probably end by becoming masters of +the larger part of the Western Pacific. As for the Laughlan Islands, it +cannot be said that any one whose lot takes him there need be regarded +as an object of pity. The climate is good; food is abundant; life is +tolerably easy. True, there are no newspapers and no Parliament; but +existence has often been found supportable in the absence of these +things. The natives are friendly; and there are no animals anywhere, not +even rats. The men are decently clad, and the women wear a very +voluminous kilt, sometimes two or three of them, over each other. These +garments are made of grass, leaves, or fibre, stained various colours. +'In wearing two or three, care is taken to produce an æsthetic mixture +of colours--a little vanity which is met with sometimes at home amongst +ladies who like to display petticoats of many colours. It is considered +just as essential here to walk well as it is at home, but the two styles +are not quite the same. The Laughlan lady, in walking, at each step +gives a little twist to the hips, which has the effect of making the +kilts fly out right and left, in what is considered a highly fashionable +and beautiful manner. Though a somewhat similar effect to this may, I am +informed, occasionally be seen in petticoats at home, still I fear that +the firm stride of the Laughlan lady could hardly be reproduced in +English boots. To see ten or twelve of these ladies walking in the +unsociable formation of single file, which they adopt, with their +many-coloured kilts flying out on either side, is a very pretty sight.' +Evidently, a judicious traveller and observer might do worse than take a +tour to the Laughlans. + +Two other interesting spots to visit are Thursday Island and Norfolk +Island, both British possessions, and the first a place of some +importance, as the centre of the Torres Straits pearl-shell fishery. +This trade has demoralized the natives, who now seem to spend a great +part of their time in getting drunk, the Europeans too often setting the +example, 'It is a common thing,' says Mr. Romilly, 'for a diver to go +down three-parts drunk. The dress is supposed to have a very sobering +effect.' Here is a little story which will produce a pang of regret in +the minds of the jewellers of Bond Street:-- + + 'The best pearl I ever saw was in the possession of a + celebrated diver who was a shipmate of mine from Thursday + Island to Brisbane. He was offered on board the ship two + hundred pounds for it, which could not have been a third of + its value. But he refused every offer, as he had just been + paid off, and had plenty of money. I felt sure it would go + the way of all pearls when his money was finished, and + accordingly I informed a Sydney jeweller of it, and where he + could see it. When I was in Sydney a few weeks later I made + inquiries about it, and the jeweller told me that it was the + finest pear-shaped pearl he had ever seen, but that it was + unsaleable at its proper value in Australia, and he had + therefore made no attempt to buy it.' + +But the pearl fishery on these coasts is becoming less lucrative every +year, and it is now falling almost entirely into the hands of natives, +who can stay under water longer than men of our own race, and seem to be +endowed with greater powers of endurance. As for the 'labour trade' of +which we all have heard so much, Mr. Romilly gives us to understand that +it is dying out. It arose under the stimulus which the American war gave +to cotton growing, and to the sudden necessity for procuring assistance +for the planters. At first, the natives were found ready enough to +volunteer for the service, but the treatment they received was not +calculated to encourage the spirit of volunteering. Then all sorts of +artifices were tried to deceive them. Sometimes the labour-hunters +pretended to be missionaries. 'On the usual question being asked, "Where +shippy come?" they would reply, "Missionary." Perhaps they would all +pretend to sing a hymn very slowly, while the hatches would be left +open, and several tins of biscuits would be put into the hold.' +Curiosity would gradually draw the natives aboard, and then the hatches +would be clapped on, and the man-stealers made off for Queensland or +Fiji. It is to be hoped that Mr. Romilly is right in stating that these +practices have ceased, but unless we are mistaken, accounts have +appeared in colonial journals, within a very recent period, of organized +raids upon these coasts for the purpose of carrying off the natives. It +is needless to say, that a sentiment of hostility to all white men is +likely to remain as the permanent result of this abominable system. + +The fact is, that the white men who had the run of these islands down to +a few years ago were chiefly the off-scourings of other countries. They +found among the savages far fewer vices than they brought with them from +the civilized world. Some of them had run away to escape from the +vengeance of the laws which they had outraged; others were attracted by +the freedom which an entirely new life opened up to them. From them have +sprung a brood of half-castes who are the curse of the islands--like +many other half-castes, they manage to combine the evil qualities of +both races. The chief traders along the Pacific are now becoming much +more respectable. Some of them, indeed, appear to emulate the style and +condition of the prosperous English merchant. Mr. Romilly knows such a +man, living 'within a day's march' of the wildest cannibals in the +Pacific, who keeps up an establishment of forty or fifty men, with a +French _chef_. 'In a hitherto almost unknown island, he will give you a +dinner, every night, which could not be equalled at any private house or +club in Australia.' He keeps a yacht for private exploring expeditions, +and is to-day the principal 'trader and pioneer in the Pacific.' A +narrative of his observations and experiences would be of very unusual +interest, but like the Russian settler before referred to, he reserves +for his own benefit the knowledge he has acquired. The Germans are +pushing us hard, and in many respects they are better fitted for their +work than English traders. There seems a fair prospect of a gradual +elevation of social as well as of commercial life throughout the +Pacific. Already, lawlessness is discouraged. Not so very many years +ago, piracy was carried on openly in these seas. Mr. Romilly gives a +very interesting and curious account of one of the last pirates, a +desperado known as 'Bully Hayes,' once a boatman on the Mississippi. +This man began life by robbing his father, and soon afterwards made his +appearance on the Pacific coast the proud proprietor of a fifty-ton +schooner. 'How he had obtained possession of this schooner,' says Mr. +Romilly, 'was a matter of surmise, but he had been seen at Singapore not +long before this time, and a fifty-ton schooner had mysteriously +disappeared from that port without the knowledge of her captain and +owner.' He carried on a bold career of plunder for many years, and only +came to grief at last by an accident which he could not have foreseen. +He had stolen another vessel, and was making for some of his favourite +haunts along the coast, when the cook, who was steering, happened to +give him some offence. At that time, Hayes was accustomed to settle all +disputes off-handed with his revolver, and in accordance with this plan +he ran below to get his 'shooting irons.' Mr. Romilly thus relates the +sequel:-- + + 'The cook objected, and, catching up the first piece of wood + he saw, got on to the top of the little deck-house over the + ladder, and, the moment Hayes showed his head above deck, + gave him a blow which killed him on the spot. This cook + seems to have been some what doubtful as to whether Hayes + was even now dead, so he fetched the largest anchor the + cutter possessed, and bound the body to it, after which he + hove anchor and body overboard, remarking, "For sure Massa + Hayes dead this time."' + +Mr. Romilly, in the course of his wanderings, made a journey to New +Guinea, a portion of which has now been placed under British protection. +Little is known of the resources of this country, trading operations +having hitherto been almost entirely confined to the south coast. Mr. +Romilly's visit was brief, and he was not enabled to add much to our +previous stock of information. He does not seem to be aware of the +progress which the Germans are making in this island, or of the results +of the energetic support which Prince Bismarck invariably extends to his +adventurous countrymen. + +Here, then, are three works which ought to have the effect of reviving +the interest of the English people in their possessions abroad, if they +have not sunk into a hopeless state of indifference and apathy on the +subject. We do not for a moment believe that the working men are +indifferent to the present and future welfare of our Colonies, but they +need to be instructed as to the true value of their great inheritance, +and therefore it is that we earnestly wish such books as these could be +made readily accessible to them. It would be difficult to exaggerate the +importance of convincing them that it is our duty as a nation to hold +fast to all that we have added, from time to time, to the dominions of +the Crown. The foreign policy of the country, no less than the domestic +policy, must henceforth be directed mainly in accordance with their +opinions; and if those opinions are left to be influenced and guided by +the hereditary dislike of the Colonies which infects all Radicalism, our +position in the world will soon be reduced to one of comparative +insignificance. Baron Hübner concludes his volumes with these words: +'Had I to sum up the impressions derived from my travels, I should say, +"British rule is firmly seated in India; England has only one enemy to +fear--herself."' That is the whole truth of the matter. We have to fear +our own party divisions, the want of true public spirit among too many +of our 'politicians,' the tendency of Radical leaders to teach the +doctrine that England ought to shut herself within her own island +boundaries, and cast off all outside responsibilities. Sentiments of +this kind may be, and are, loudly cheered in the House of Commons, but +very few Liberals are daring enough to advocate them in the country. +Lancashire knows how valuable India is to her, and the manufacturing +districts generally see the growing importance to them, merely from a +commercial point of view, of the Australian Colonies. The anti-Colonial +policy is growing less and less popular among the people. To discredit +it altogether, it is only necessary to distribute, far and wide among +the working men, facts and considerations of the kind furnished in the +works to which we have endeavoured to call attention. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[63] See Mr. Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' +vol. ii, p. 443, &c. + + + + +ART. VII.--_The Apostolic Fathers: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp._ Revised +Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations. By J. +B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Bishop of Durham. London, 1885. 2 +vols. + + +This a great book, dealing principally with a great subject--the +'Ignatian Epistles.' The two volumes contain altogether 1849 Pages, 1311 +being devoted to St. Ignatius, the remainder to St. Polycarp. It is no +exaggeration to say that they are full of the most valuable information, +dealing with matters of vital ecclesiastical importance, the whole +presented in the most lucid style, and marked by broad, strong, +scholarship. They are the result of 'a keen interest in the Ignatian +controversy conceived long ago' by the Bishop of Durham. 'The subject +has been before me,' he writes in his Preface, 'for nearly thirty years, +and during this period it has engaged my attention off and on in the +intervals of other literary pursuits and official duties.' The +conception, execution, and production of the work had therefore been +protracted. The volumes as they are issued to-day are not in the form +they were originally written. Thus, the 'Appendix Ignatiana' was in type +several years before the commentary on the genuine Epistles of Ignatius, +and the Introduction and texts of the 'Ignatian Acts of Martyrdom' +passed through the press in 1878. In 1879 Cambridge and London +surrendered their great teacher to Durham; and there in the intervals, +few enough, snatched from official duties, the first volume has been +written, and from thence sent forth. It is necessary to bear this in +mind; because it will, on the one hand, explain absence of reference to +some works published since 1878; and on the other hand it increases the +value of the Bishop's results, when reached in entire independence of, +and yet in entire accordance with, those of other scholars in the same +field. + +This work testifies to the truth, that it is a mark of true greatness to +be modest. The most superficial examination of these volumes exhibits a +_Corpus Ignatianum_ superior to anything yet published. It is, says Dr. +Harnack,[64] 'without exaggeration the most learned and careful +Patristic monograph which has appeared in the nineteenth century.' It +exhibits 'a diligence and knowledge of the subject which show that Dr. +Lightfoot has made himself master of this department, and placed himself +beyond the reach of any rival.... There is nothing in it that is not up +to date, and the whole treatise forms a well-knit unity.' This is the +willing testimony of one of the ablest of the scholars of Germany who +have handled the great questions connected with Ignatius; the testimony, +moreover, of one who, as we shall see presently, finds himself at +variance with the Bishop upon two points, especially which, more than +any other, materially affect the genuineness of the Epistles and their +date. Such, however, is not the Bishop of Durham's thought. As he looks +back upon the work to which he has consecrated the prime of his life, he +speaks of it in language touching in its modesty-- + + 'I have striven to make the materials for the text as + complete as I could.... Of the use which I have made of the + critical materials I must leave others to judge. Of the + introductions, exegetical notes, and dissertations, I need + say nothing, except that I have spared no pains to make them + adequate, so far as my knowledge and ability permitted. The + translations are intended not only to convey to English + readers the sense of the original, but also (where there was + any difficulty of construction) to serve as commentaries on + the Greek. My anxiety not to evade these difficulties forbad + me in many cases to indulge in a freedom which I should have + claimed, if a literary standard alone had been kept in + view.' + +He follows up such words by others, conveying his thanks to those who +have helped him in his work, and the generosity of his recognition of +their services does but enhance the reserveful simplicity with which he +comments upon his own. The 'English reader' and the 'others' whose +judgment he desires, will, at least in England, unite in rendering to +him a respectful and grateful homage. The subject treated by the Bishop +is in a very real sense an Englishman's subject. For three centuries +English critics have not only entered the literary arena, in which the +great historic and ecclesiastical questions connected with his subject +have been discussed, but they have contributed largely to the materials, +offensive and defensive, which the combatants have employed. Ussher, +Pearson, Churton, and Cureton, have been English champions whose merits +all have acknowledged. The Bishop of Durham has now entered the lists to +support what has been proved sound in their conclusions, to remove what +was weak, and do battle for the truth. An impartial English public will +appreciate the gravity of this challenge, and may be trusted to grant or +withhold the victory he puts forth his best powers to win. + +The volumes lend themselves by their construction to an easy statement +of their contents, if those contents by their fulness must be of +necessity the despair of critic and reviewer. First there is the life of +the Saint, then the discussion of the manuscripts and versions which +delineate the Saint and his literary remains. These are followed by +exhaustive discussions upon all that tells for or against their +genuineness, the whole being treated both historically and critically. +Such will be found, briefly stated, the mode of discussing the life and +works both of St. Ignatius of Antioch and of St. Polycarp of Smyrna; and +two results will reward a patient persual of these volumes. The Bishop +has indeed limited these results to the study of the Ignatian Epistles, +but--under his guidance--the reader will find what is affirmed of one to +be true of both:-- + + 'The Ignatian Epistles are an exceptionally good + training-ground for the student of early Christian + literature and history. They present in typical and + instructive forms the most varied problems, textual, + exegetical, doctrinal, and historical. One who has + thoroughly grasped these problems will be placed in + possession of a master key which will open to him vast + storehouses of knowledge. + + 'But' (continues the Bishop) 'I need not say that their + educational value was not the motive which led me to spend + so much time over them. The destructive criticism of the + last half century is, I think, fast spending its force. In + its excessive ambition it has "o'erleapt itself." It has not + indeed been without its use. It has led to a thorough + examination and sifting of ancient documents. It has + exploded not a few errors, and discovered or established not + a few truths. For the rest, it has by its directness and + persistency stimulated investigation and thought on these + subjects to an extent which a less aggressive criticism + would have failed to secure. The immediate effect of the + attack has been to strew the vicinity of the fortress with + heaps of ruins. Some of these were best cleared away without + hesitation or regret; but in other cases the rebuilding is a + measure demanded by truth and prudence alike. I have been + reproached by my friends for allowing myself to be diverted + from the more congenial task of commenting on St. Paul's + Epistles; but the importance of the position seemed to me to + justify the expenditure of much time and labour in + "repairing a breach" not indeed in the "House of the Lord" + itself, but in the immediately outlying buildings.' + +St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp (together with St. Clement of Rome) are +the links which connect the Apostolic age proper with the Fathers of the +second and third centuries; and this fact has made them and their scanty +literature the hope and despair, the pride and the scorn, of opposing +factions. In the whirl and confusion of discordant criticisms it is +everything to study and to build up by the help of one who has caught +the spirit of the master-lives he expounds. There breathes throughout +the volumes of the Bishop of Durham the spirit of St. Ignatius's +counsel-- + + 'Speak to each man severally after the manner of God. Bear + the maladies of all, as a perfect athlete. Where there is + much toil, there is much gain. If thou lovest good scholars, + this is not thankworthy in thee. Rather bring the more + pestilent to submission by gentleness.... The season + requireth thee, as pilots require winds, or as a + storm-tossed mariner a haven, that it may attain unto God. + Be sober, as God's athlete. The prize is incorruption and + life eternal, concerning which thou also art + persuaded.'--(Ep. of St. Ignatius to St. Polycarp, I, 2.) + +Ignatius of Antioch: Men of old loved to find in his name (or its +Syriace quivalent, Nurono, [Greek: youra = phyr], _fire_) a prescience +of the torch of divine love which blazed in him. The fancy may pass, if +etymologically unsound; for Ignatius, 'the Inflamed,' was a true child +of the fiery East. Contrast him and his letters with St. Clement of Rome +and his Epistle to the Corinthians. Nothing is more notable in the Roman +'than the calm equable temper,' the 'sweet reasonableness.' He is +essentially a _moderator_. On the other hand, impetuosity, fire, +strong-headedness, are impressed on every sentence in the Epistles of +Ignatius. He is by his very nature an _impeller_ of men. Both are +intense, though in different ways. In Clement, the intensity of +moderation dominates and guides his conduct. In Ignatius it is the +intensity of passion--passion for doing and suffering--which drives him +onward. In Clement we listen to the voice of a judge delivering calmly +his sentence from his throne; in Ignatius we + + 'are startled by the ringing cry of the trumpet-call--sharp, + stirring, penetrating--sounding for the battle. The fire of + the hot East bursts in, like a sun, strong and impassioned; + a vivid personality, in flame with love, flashes in upon + the world, quivering as a sword of the cherubim; a rhetoric + in which the rapid, electric thought breaks out of the + strained and formless chaos of the _imagination_, as + lightning out of the rolling and dark thunder-cloud; a + theology, which, by the intense passion of metaphor, forces + an almost violent entrance into the secrets of the Most + High; a morality which can carry forward into the heights of + holiness the madness of faith, the extravagance of zeal, the + recklessness of enthusiasm, the audacity of love, dragging + them into the service of Christ at the chariot-wheels of + God's triumph--such are the characteristics of Ignatius of + Antioch.'[65] + +The Roman name of Ignatius (or Egnatius) tells nothing as to his birth +or origin. It was not unknown in Syria and Palestine, and was sometimes +borne by Jews. But another and a second name--Theophorus--of regular +recurrence in the seven genuine Epistles records at least his spiritual +birth. Ignatius probably assumed the name of 'the God-bearer' at the +time of his conversion or his baptism; the precedent lay before him of a +Saul commemorating a critical incident in his career (Acts xiii. 9) by a +similar adoption of a name; and that assumed by Ignatius became in its +turn an epithet freely applied to the Fathers at the Oecumenical +councils. The name gave birth to more than one beautiful legend. Was not +Ignatius, according to the Eastern belief, the 'God-borne' [Greek: +theophoros], the very child whom the Lord took into His arms (St. Mark +ix. 36, 37)? Was he not the 'God-bearer' [Greek: theophoros] on the +fragments of whose heart according to Western tradition, was found +stamped in golden letters the name of Jesus Christ? Whether he were a +slave or not must remain uncertain. It is a more probable deduction from +his own language that he--the 'untimely birth,'[66]--the 'one born out +of due time' and 'the last' of the faithful, had been rescued from a +pagan life, such as Antioch on the Orontes, the home of panders and +dancing girls, and 'Daphnici mores' would have applauded. + + 'His,' says Bishop Lightfoot, 'was one of those "broken" + natures out of which God's heroes are made. If not a + persecutor of Christ, if not a foe to Christ, as seems + probable, he had at least been for a considerable portion of + his life an alien from Christ. Like St. Paul, like + Augustine, like Francis Xavier, like Luther, like John + Bunyan, he could not forget that his had been a dislocated + life; and the memory of the catastrophe, which had shattered + his former self, filled him with awe and thanksgiving, and + fanned the fervour of his devotion to a white heat. + +There is no chronological inconsistency in supposing that Ignatius was a +disciple of some Apostle, if nothing can be affirmed as to the date of +his accession to the ministry or episcopate. On the supposition that he +was martyred, as an old man, about A. D. 110, his birth may be placed +about A. D. 40. When 25 years of age, or in A. D. 65, companionship +would still have been opened to him with St. Peter and St. Paul; or, if +his teacher were St. John, his conversion may be brought to A. D. 90, +when he would be about 50 years of age. Confessedly all this is +conjectural or traditional, as are also any details of episcopal +administration.' A 'pitchy darkness' envelopes the life and work of +Ignatius, till it is 'at length illumined by a vivid but transient flash +of light.' The story of Ignatius begins and ends with the story of his +death. 'If his martyrdom had not rescued him from obscurity, he would +have remained like his predecessor Euodius, a mere name.' His martyrdom +has made him a distinct and living personality, a true father of the +Church, a teacher and example to all time.' + +Thrilling though the narrative of this martyrdom must ever be, the +barest outline only can be given here. The Martyrologies, if they are to +be set aside as not containing authentic history, will fascinate afresh +the student who turns to them to find in the notes and discussions light +cast upon many a critical and ecclesiastical problem. The genuine +Epistles have furnished the Bishop with the materials of a sketch of +terror which every one will read with the deepest interest. + +For some unknown reason the Church of Antioch was by God's will deprived +of its venerable head; and with other 'convicts,' collected from the +provinces to be + + 'Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday.' + +Ignatius was led Romeward. His journey lay along a route which in part +had been traversed by Xerxes. The procession of the Persian, foremost +among his myriads of men for beauty and stature, halting near Sardis to +decorate a beautiful plane-tree with golden ornaments, and commit it to +the custody of an 'immortal'[67] is in vivid contrast to the procession +of 'criminals,' the Christian leader 'bound amidst ten leopards (or +soldiers) who wax worse when kindly treated,' halting also at Sardis, +his own decoration the 'bonds' which are to him 'spiritual pearls,' and +at Smyrna, writing letters which shall make him immortal.[68] At Troas, +like another St. Paul, he looked upon the shores of the Europe which was +in later ages to rise up and call them blessed; and from thence he +wrote how prepared, how eager he was to meet the 'fire, the sword, the +wild beasts,' how to be 'near to the sword was to be near to God; to be +encircled by wild beasts was to be encircled by God.' And then Rome at +last!--among those who thirsted for his blood, among those whose very +love he dreaded lest it should do him the injury of keeping him from +martyrdom. Touching is the appeal he had sent before him to the Church +'filled with the grace of God without wavering and filtered clear from +every foreign stain':-- + + 'Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can + attain unto God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the + teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of + Christ. Entice the wild beasts that they may become my + sepulchre and may leave no part of my body behind, so that I + may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to any one.' + +Into the colossal pile, erected for the display of the bloodiest of +inhuman crimes, he was led; and his own impassioned appeal was answered: + + 'Come fire and cross, and grapplings with wild beasts! Come + cuttings and manglings, wrenching of bones, hacking of + limbs, crushings of my whole body! Come cruel tortures of + the devil to assail me! Only be it mine to attain unto Jesus + Christ!' + +Men, with tear-stained faces, looked away from his death to 'form +themselves'--as he had bidden them-- + + 'into a chorus in love and sing to the Father in Jesus + Christ. God had vouchsafed that the Bishop from Syria should + be found in the West, having summoned him from the East. + Good was it to set from this world unto God, that he might + rise unto Him.' + +Love is perhaps wrong in asserting that his remains were brought back to +Antioch: it is unerringly right in having raised the Epistle to the +Romans--'his pæan prophetic of his coming victory'--to be the martyr's +manual of a grateful posterity. + + 'The glory of Ignatius as a martyr,' writes the Bishop of + Durham, 'has commended his lessons as a doctor. His teaching + on matters of theological truth and ecclesiastical order was + barbed and fledged by the fame of his constancy in that + supreme trial of his faith.' + +If interest in the heresies he combated may be said to be confined +to-day to scholars who study them as a chapter in heresiology, or seek +in them a bone of contention, the interest in the points of +ecclesiastical order delineated by him was never more intense than now. +Only last year the testimony of the Ignatian Epistles to the burning +question of Apostolical succession was one point in the discussion +between Canon Liddon of St. Paul's and Dr. Hatch; this year, the view +presented by the Bishop of Durham meets with its ablest antagonist in +Dr. Harnack. In very truth the letters of the martyr have been the +battlefield of the controversy, which affirms or disallows the threefold +ministry of the Church of Christ. + +It will be perceived at once how much turns, not first upon the +interpretation of the Epistles, but upon the genuineness of the text +presenting itself for interpretation. What is the text? Never before +have the lovers of textual criticism had the opportunity of examining +and answering this question as they have now in the Bishop of Durham's +volumes. He first describes at length the Manuscripts and Versions, on +which a true text may be reasonably founded, and then gives the text, +together with the Versions, accompanied by Introductions and Notes which +leave nothing to desire. The labour necessary for massing and bringing +together all this information is only equalled by the exactness and +orderliness with which it is presented. But the Bishop writes not only +for the scholar, but for the man of general culture and intelligence, +who can enter with interest into a problem historical and antiquarian, +as well as textual and critical. To many the battle of the giants, over +the 'long,' the 'middle,' and the 'short,' form or recension of the +Ignatian Epistles, will be an intellectual treat, as he watches the +fence and scholarship of the various disputants. He will see that in +literary as in political controversy the spirit of compromise is to-day +in the ascendant, and that 'middle'-men have for once their value. + +To explain these terms. By the 'short' form is meant that which consists +of _three_ Epistles only--to St. Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to the +Romans. This exists only in a Syraic version. By the second, 'the middle +form,' are understood these three Epistles, and four more, namely, +Epistles to the Smyrnæans, Magnesians, Philadelphians, and Trallians. +This form is originally Greek, and is found also in Latin, Armenian, +and--in a fragmentary state--in Syriac and Coptic. The third or 'long' +form, contains the seven already enumerated in a more expanded state, +together with six others, the recension being in a Greek and in a Latin +translation.[69] + +Practically the contest as to the truest form has been reduced to a +duel between the 'short' and the 'middle.' The 'long' form can be shown +to be the work of an unknown author, probably of the latter half of the +fourth century, and constructed from the genuine Ignatian Epistles by +interpolation, alteration and omission. But the 'long' form died hard, +and mainly through the thrusts of our own Ussher. + + 'The history of the Ignatian Epistles,' says the Bishop, 'in + Western Europe before and after the revival of letters, is + full of interest. In the Middle Ages the spurious and + interpolated letters alone have any wide circulation. + Gradually, as the light advances, the forgeries recede into + the background. Each successive stage diminishes the bulk of + the Ignatian literature, which the educated mind accepts as + genuine; till at length the true Ignatius alone remains, + divested of the accretions which perverted ingenuity has + gathered about him.' + +In the 'long' recension there is a letter to one Mary of Cassobola. This +was made the parent of a 'correspondence between St. John and the +Virgin,' bearing the name of Ignatius: and it is not improbably +connected with the outburst of Mariolatry in the eleventh and following +centuries. But with 'the first streak of intellectual dawn this Ignatian +spectre vanished into its kindred darkness.' The forgery was 'consigned +to the limbo of foolish and forgotten things.' This pretender set aside, +St. Ignatius was represented in Western Europe by the epistles of the +'Long' recension. The Latin text was printed in 1498, and the Greek in +1557. At first no doubt was felt about their genuineness. Gradually, +however, unwelcome critics pointed out gross anachronisms and blunders. +Men, with unpleasant habits of comparison, noted that Eusebius, the +Church historian (C. A. D. 310-25), quoted from only seven epistles, and +that the divergence of the 'long' text from that given by early +Christian writers[70] fully warranted the comment of Ussher, that it was +difficult to imagine 'eundem legere se Ignatium qui veterum ætate +legebatur.' Theological and ecclesiastical prejudice lent bitterness to +the rising strife. On the Continent, Reformer and Romanist ranged +themselves in opposite camps: the one quoting with delight passages +which favoured Roman supremacy, or advocated Episcopacy; the other +throwing them over as 'nursery stories' (or 'silly tales,' _nænia_), and +denouncing 'the insufferable impudence of those who equipped themselves +with ghosts like these for the purpose of deceiving' (Calvin). After the +publication of the edition of Vedelius, a Genevan Professor, in 1623, +Anglican writers, such as Whitgift, Hooker, and Andrewes, seem to have +accepted without hesitation the twelve (the seven named by Eusebius and +five others) contained in that edition; but in England as on the +Continent, the absence of so much, which could alone lead men to a right +conclusion, prevented the consideration of the question on its true +merits:-- + + 'Episcopacy was the burning question of the day; and the + sides of the combatants in the Ignatian controversy were + already predetermined for them by their attitude towards + this question. Every allowance should be made for their + following their prepossessions, where the evidence seemed so + evenly balanced. On the one hand, external testimony was so + strongly in favour of the genuineness of certain Ignatian + letters; on the other hand, the only Ignatian letters known + were burdened with difficulties. At the very eve of Ussher's + revelation, a fierce literary war broke out on this very + subject of Episcopacy--evoked by the religious and political + troubles of the times.' + +On the one side were Hall's (Bishop of Exeter) 'Episcopacy by Divine +Right asserted' (1639), and 'An Humble Remonstrance' on behalf of +Liturgy and Episcopacy (1641); Ussher's 'The original of Bishops and +Metropolitans,' and Jeremy Taylor's 'Of the Sacred Order and Offices of +Episcopacy' (1642); on the other, the five Presbyterian ministers whose +initials composed the monstrous name Smectymnuus,[71] issued their +'Answer to the Book entituled an Humble Remonstrance' (1641), and +Milton, in his short treatise 'Of Prelatical Episcopacy' (1641), +fulminated with 'fiery eloquence and reckless invective' against Ussher. + + 'Had God,' wrote Milton, 'intended that we should have + sought any part of useful instruction from Ignatius, + doubtless He would not have so ill-provided for our + knowledge as to send him to our hands in this broken and + disjointed plight; and if He intended no such thing, we do + injuriously in thinking to taste better the pure evangelic + manna by seasoning our mouths with the tainted scraps and + fragments from an unknown table, and searching among the + verminous and polluted rags dropped overworn from the + toiling shoulders of Time, with these deformedly to quilt + and interlace the entire, the spotless, and undecaying robe + of Truth. What impiety,' he added, 'the confronting and + paralleling the sacred verity of St. Paul with the offals + and sweepings of antiquity, that met as accidently and + absurdly as Epicurus his atoms to patch up a Leucippean + Ignatius.' + +'Out of his own mouth,' says Bishop Lightfoot, 'he was soon convicted.' +The "better provision for knowledge" came full soon. To the critical +genius of Ussher belongs the honour of restoring the true Ignatius. +Ussher observed that the quotations from this Father in three English +writers, Robert (Grosseteste) of Lincoln (c. 1250), John Tyssington (c. +1381), and William Wodeford (c. 1396), agreed--not with texts hitherto +known (the Greek and Latin of the 'long' Recension), but--with the +quotations in Eusebius and Theodoret. He concluded that somewhere in the +libraries of England he ought to find MSS. of a version corresponding to +this earlier text of Ignatius: and he discovered two--(1.) _Caiensis_ +395 [L1], a MS. given to Gonville and Cains College, Cambridge, in +1444 by Walter Crome; and (2.) _Montacutianus_ [L2], a parchment from +the library of Bishop Montague or Montacute, of Norwich. Of the first a +transcript was made for Archbishop Ussher, and is still in the library +of Dublin University (D.3.II), and is dated 20 June, 1631. It is full of +inaccuracies, arising sometimes from indifference to spelling on the +part of the transcriber, or to carelessness and inattention, but most +frequently from ignorance of the numerous and perplexing contractions. +The second has disappeared, probably on the day when Parliament ordered +the Archbishop's books to be seized and confiscated (1643). Bishop +Lightfoot has in part restored it by drawing attention to the collation +of this Montacute MS., which occurs between the lines or in the margin +of the Dublin transcript of the Caius MS. Archbishop Ussher's +examination of the Latin version, thus discovered, induced in his mind a +suspicion that Bishop Grosseteste was himself the translator. A marginal +note, for example, betrayed the nationality of its author; 'Incus est +instrumentum fabri; dicitur Anglice _anfeld_ [anvil].' Who so likely to +have had the ability to translate from a Greek version as Robert +Grosseteste, one of the very few Greek scholars of his age? Evidence is +not wanting that the Ignatian Epistles were imported from Greece, and +translated under the Bishop's direction by one or other of the Greek +scholars who were with him: and it is significant, in connection with +this point, that Tyssington and Wodeford belonged to the Franciscan +Convent at Oxford to which Grosseteste left his books. + +The result of Ussher's discovery was to determine, that this Latin +translation--valuable for critical purposes on account of its extreme +literalness[72]--represented the Ignatius known to the Fathers of the +fourth and fifth centuries. The Greek text still remained unknown, and +Ussher attempted to restore it from the 'long' recension by the aid of +his newly discovered Latin version. This he did by bringing the former +as nearly as possible into conformity with the latter. Ussher's book +appeared in 1644. It was marred by one blot. Eusebius had mentioned +seven Epistles, but Ussher--deceived by a mistake on the part of St. +Jerome--exscinded the Epistle to Polycarp, and condemned it as spurious. +Two years later, Isaac Voss published the Greek of six Epistles from a +Florentine MS., the Epistle to the Romans having disappeared from the +copy; and this omission was finally rectified in 1689 by Ruinart. From +the middle of the seventeenth century disputants ceased to trouble +themselves about the 'long' form. Controversy, presently to be noted, +raged about the Vossian letters, Daillé (1666) attacking them, Pearson +defending them. + +It is a great leap to the year 1845, but not till then did a new era +dawn upon the questions at issue. It was in that year that Cureton +published the 'Antient Syriac Version of the Epistles of St. Ignatius to +St. Polycarp, the Ephesians, and the Romans.' This version was +discovered in two MSS. at the British Museum, and contained the Epistles +named in a shorter form than either of the Greek or Latin texts.[73] +Cureton's contention was that he had discovered the genuine Ignatius, +and that the remaining four Epistles of the Vossian collection, as well +as the additional portions of these three, were forgeries. Cureton was +opposed by Dr. Wordsworth, the late Bishop of Lincoln, then Canon of +Westminster, and defended by Bunsen. There followed quickly the +_Vindiciæ Ignatianæ_ (1846) and _Corpus Ignatianum_ (1849), in which +Cureton was considered to have not only refuted his adversary, but also +to have presented arguments which rallied to his standard Ritschl, +Lipsius, Pressensé, Ewald, Milman, and Böhringer. Opposition to +Cureton's view was not, however, wanting. The Orientalists, Petermann +and Merx, united with the Conservative critical school, represented by +Denzinger and Uhlhorn, in preferring the Vossian collection; while the +Tübingen school (Baur and Hilgenfeld) opposed itself to Ignatian +letters, short, middle, or long, as utterly subversive of their theories +of the growth of the Canon, and of the history of the Early Church. The +Bishop of Durham was himself, at that time on Cureton's side, 'led +captive' (as he says) 'for a time by the tyranny of this dominant +force.' We can but record the change in his opinions, and leave to the +reader to follow, in the Bishop's own pages, the reasons which induced +him to abandon a method and decline results that would not stand the +test of a searching criticism. Independent investigation of the +phenomena of the Armenian version and of the Syriac fragments led him to +regard the 'short' or Curetonian recension as an abridgment or +mutilation, rather than the nucleus, of the 'middle' or Vossian form; +and Zahn's monograph, _Ignatius von Antiochien_(1873), never yet +answered, dealt a fatal blow at the claims of the Curetonian letters. +Since then Lipsius has been convinced by Merx; Renan and Harnack are +agreed; and most scholars will come to the conclusion, that through the +Bishop of Durham's own serious investigation of the diction and style of +the 'short' form, 'the last sparks of its waning life have been +extinguished.' The collection was directed by no doctrinal, Eutychian or +Monophysite, motive, nor composed (as Hefele suggested) in support of +moral aim or monastic piety. It is simply a 'loose and perfunctory +curtailment of the middle form, neither epitome nor extract, but +something between the two,' and to be dated about the year A. D. 400 or +somewhat earlier. + +The ground having been thus cleared from the accretions of the 'long' +form and the mutilations of the 'short,' the Bishop of Durham considers +in the next place the genuineness of the seven Epistles known to +Eusebius, and preserved to us not only in the original Greek, but also +in Latin and other translations. It is a bitter reflection, that +discussion on this subject was (and--in a less degree--is still) evoked, +not so much by critical and textual variations and difficulties, as by +the exigencies of party spirit and theological animosity. A dreary, if +necessary, page of ecclesiastical history has to be studied, when French +Protestant and English Puritan turned passionately against the discovery +of Ussher and Voss. It is small comfort to the charitably minded to be +told that, had no Daillé attacked[74] the Ignatian letters, Pearson +would not have stepped forward as their champion. + +The consideration of the genuineness of the Seven Epistles falls +naturally under the head of external and internal evidence. + +The Bishop gives his conclusion on the external evidence in the +following words:-- + + '(1.) No Christian writings of the second century, very few + writings of antiquity, whether Christian or pagan, are so + well authenticated as the Epistles of Ignatius. If the + Epistle of Polycarp be accepted as genuine, the + authentication is perfect. (2.) The main ground of objection + against the genuineness of the Epistle of Polycarp is its + authentication of the Ignatian Epistles. Otherwise there is + every reason to believe that it would have passed + unquestioned. (3.) The Epistle of Polycarp itself is + exceptionally well authenticated by the testimony of his + disciple Irenæus. (4.) All attempts to explain the phenomena + of the Epistle of Polycarp, as forged or interpolated to + give colour to the Ignatian Epistles, have signally failed.' + +These four propositions sum up an examination minute and masterful. Not +only is the testimony of the Epistle of Polycarp adduced, but also that +of Irenæus; that of the letter of the Smyrnæans, giving the account of +the martyrdom of Polycarp; that of Lucian, and that of Origen (middle of +third century). After the age of Eusebius (half a century later than +Origen) 'no early Christian writing outside the Canon is attested by +witnesses so many and so various in the ages of the Councils and +subsequently.' Dr. Harnack, however, is opposed to the Bishop's +conclusions, and considers that, 'if we do not retain the Epistle of +Polycarp, the external evidence on behalf of the Ignatian Epistles is +exceedingly weak, and hence is highly favourable to the suspicion that +they are spurious.' This is not the place to enter into the dispute. We +can but record our opinion, that in the Bishop's pages Dr. Harnack's +objections are met by anticipation. + + * * * * * + +The internal evidence is treated by the Bishop under six heads. + +1. The Historical and Geographical Circumstances dealing specially with +the condemnation and the journey to Rome. Under this section are +collected also the personal notices yielding their testimony to the +genuineness of the letters in a manner not less striking, because +incidental and allusive, than the testimony of the geographical section. +The reader will linger here over the thought of the consolation and +refreshment brought to the good Ignatius on his way to martydom. We +learn to love Crocus and Alce, 'names,' says Ignatius, 'beloved by me,' +Burrhus and the widow of Epitropus, for the love they bore the Saint; we +learn to see in the Bishop of Durham's pages how such names bear +undesigned testimony to the Epistles which record them. + +2. The Theological Polemics. + +3. The Ecclesiastical Conditions. To these we shall return immediately, +after a few words on-- + +4. The Literary Obligations, 5, The Personality of the Writer, and 6, +The Style and Diction of the Letters. As regards the Literary +Obligations, the Bishop lays down the following maxim: 'A primary test +of age in any early Christian writing is the relation which the notices +of the words and deeds of Christ and His Apostles bear to the Canonical +writings;' and he adds, 'Tried by this test, the Ignatian Epistles +proclaim their early date. There is no sign whatever in them of a Canon +or authoritative collection of Books of the New Testament.' There are +frequent references to the facts of Christ's life, death, and +resurrection, and Gospel sayings are given; but there is 'not a single +reference to written evangelical records, such as the "Memoirs of the +Apostles," which occupy so large a place in Justin Martyr.' The same +holds good of the Apostolic Epistles. + + 'I would ask,' the Bishop concludes, 'any reader who desires + to apprehend the full force of these (facts with reference + to Ignatius) to read a book or two of Irenæus continually, + and mark the contrast in the manner of dealing with the + Evangelical narratives and the Apostolic letters. He will + probably allow that an interval of two generations or more + is not too long a period to account for the difference of + treatment.' + +The personality of the writer is no doubt unusual. A power of +communication with angels,[75] 'extravagant' humility and +self-depreciation;[76] and a not less 'extravagant' desire for martyrdom +(confined, however, to the Epistle to the Romans), are not certainly +what a later age commended or found in the Martyrs; but due allowance +being made for the temperament of the Saint and the circumstances of the +case, 'it is a picture much more explicable as the autotype of a real +person than as the invention of a forger.' + +Once more, the Style and Diction of the Letters may be, as Daillé and +his followers have thought, 'forced and unnatural' in the use of images, +'confused' as to language, and 'bombastic' as to diction. But what then? +asks the Bishop:-- + + 'What security did his position as an Apostolic Father give + that he should write simply and plainly, that he should + avoid solecisms, that his language should never he + disfigured by bad taste or faulty rhetoric?' + + 'It may not,' he continues, 'be considered very good taste + to draw out the metaphor of a hauling engine (Ephes. 9)--to + compare the Holy Spirit to the rope, the faith of the + believers to the windlass, &c. But on what grounds, prior to + experience, have we any more right to expect either a + faultless taste or a pure diction in a genuine writer at the + beginning of the second century, than in a spurious writer + at the end of the same?' + +Elaborate compounds, Latinisms, reiterations, are no proof of +spuriousness. + +It is not, however, so much on these as on so-called anachronisms that +assailants have attacked the letters. In every instance a supposed +success has ended in a reverse. Thus the term 'leopard,' applied to the +soldiers who conveyed Ignatius,[77] was said to have been unknown before +the age of Constantine; and it was argued that the forger of these +letters had antedated the word by two centuries. Pearson pointed out an +example of the word about A. D. 202; but the Bishop of Durham has found +it in a rescript of the Emperors Marcus and Commodus (A. D. 177-80), and +in an early treatise written by Galen, which carries it back within +about half a century of Ignatius. Evidently it was then a familiar term. +Another alleged anachronism is the use of the term 'Catholic +Church.'[78] Cureton and others have urged, that a period of full fifty +years must have intervened between the time when Ignatius wrote and the +first trace we find of the term 'Catholic Church.' This, says Bishop +Lightfoot, 'is founded on the confusion of two wholly different +things'--Catholic as a technical, and Catholic as a general term. +Centuries before the Christian era, the word Catholic [Greek: +katholikos] is found in the sense of 'universal'; both before and +after the age of Ignatius it is common in writers, classical and +ecclesiastical. 'In this sense the word might have been used at any +time, and by any writer, from the first moment that the Church began to +spread, while yet the conception of its unity was present to the mind.' +It was only later that the term 'Catholic' acquired a technical +meaning--orthodoxy as opposed to heresy, conformity as opposed to +dissent. In Smyrn. 8, 'where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic +Church,' the word is used in its sense of 'universal,' as contrasted +with the Smyrnæan or local Church over which Polycarp presided. Not only +is its use here not indicative of a later date, but this archaic sense +emphasizes an early one. After the word 'Catholic' had acquired its +later and technical use, it could not have been employed in its earliest +meaning without the risk of considerable confusion. + +We must refer our readers to a similarly thorough refutation of the +charge of anachronism brought against these letters on account of their +use of the term 'Christian,' and suggest to them an examination of the +interesting proofs of the position next secured,[79] that certain +characteristics of style and diction tell largely in favour of their +genuineness. + +We turn, after noting the summary of the internal evidences attesting +the genuineness of these letters, to the headings omitted (2, 3) on the +Theological Polemics and the Ecclesiastical Conditions. That summary is +as follows (i. 407):-- + + 'The external testimony to the Ignatian Epistles being so + strong, only the most decisive marks of spuriousness in the + Epistles themselves, as, for instance, proved anachronism, + would justify us in suspecting them as interpolated, or + rejecting them as spurious.--But so far is this from being + the case, that one after another the anachronisms urged + against these letters have vanished in the light of further + knowledge.--As regards the argument which Daillé calls + "palmary"--the prevalence of episcopacy as a recognized + institution--we may say boldly that all the facts point the + other way. If the writer of these letters had represented + the churches of Asia Minor as under presbyterial government, + he would have contradicted all the evidence which, without + one dissentient voice, points to episcopacy as the + established form of Church government in these districts + from the close of the first century.--The circumstances of + the condemnation, captivity, and journey of Ignatius, which + have been a stumbling-block to some modern critics, did not + present any difficulty to those who lived near the time, and + therefore knew best what might be expected under the + circumstances; and they are sufficiently borne out by + example, more or less analogous, to establish their + credibility.--The objections to the style and language are + beside the purpose.--A like answer holds with regard to any + extravagances in sentiment, or opinion, or character.--While + the investigation of the contents of these Epistles has + yielded this negative result in dissipating the objections, + it has at the same time had a high positive value, as + revealing indications of a very early date, and therefore + presumably of genuineness, in the surrounding circumstances, + more especially in the types of false doctrine which it + combats, in the ecclesiastical status which it presents, and + in the manner in which it deals with the evangelical and + apostolic documents.--Moreover, we discover in the personal + environments of the assumed writer, and more especially in + the notices of his route, many subtle coincidences which we + are constrained to regard as undesigned, and which seem + altogether beyond the reach of a forger.--So likewise the + peculiarities in style and diction of the Epistles, as also + in the representation of the writer's character, are much + more capable of explanation in a genuine writing than in a + forgery.--While external and internal evidence thus combine + to assert the genuineness of these writings, no satisfactory + account has been or apparently can be given of them as a + forgery of a later date than Ignatius. They would be quite + purposeless as such; for they entirely omit all topics which + would especially interest any subsequent age.' + +The Section upon 'Ecclesiastical Conditions' deals with the ministry of +men, the ministry of women, and the liturgy of the Church. Interesting +though the two last points are of necessity to any student of Church +organization and ritual, we pass them by to consider the 'Ecclesiastical +Polemics.' The Bishop of Durham's view of the ministry of +men--especially of episcopacy--as furnished by the Seven Epistles is +briefly as follows. The name of Ignatius is inseparably connected with +the championship of episcopacy. Such extracts as the following +sufficiently attest the prominence and authority he assigns to the +office: 'We ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself; 'Vindicate' +(O Polycarp) 'thine office in things, temporal as well as spiritual. Let +nothing be done without thy consent, and do thou nothing without the +consent of God;' 'Give heed (ye Smyrnæans) to your bishop, that God also +may give heed to you;' 'Let no man do anything pertaining to the Church +without the bishop.' Further, the extension of the episcopate in the +time of Ignatius is quite clear. He is himself the bishop 'belonging to +Syria.' He salutes and names the Bishops of Ephesus, of Magnesia, and +Tralles. In those parts of Asia Minor and Syria, with which he is +brought into contact, the episcopate properly so called is an +established and recognized institution. This is in accordance with what +the Bishop of Durham traces elsewhere in the history of the origin and +development of episcopacy;[80] but it is not in accordance with Dr. +Harnack's view. 'The evidence,' says the Bishop, 'points to episcopacy +as the established form of Church government in these districts from the +close of the first century.' Not so, says Dr. Harnack:-- + + 'Ignatius' conception of the position and significance of + the bishop has its earliest parallel in the original + conception of the author of the Apostolic Constitutions (_i. + e._ the end of the 3d cent.); and the Epistles show that the + Monarchical Episcopate in Asia Minor was so firmly rooted, + so highly elevated above all other offices, so completely + beyond dispute, that on the ground of what we know from + other sources of early Church history, no single + investigator would assign the statements under consideration + to the second, but at the earliest to the third century.' + +Let the reader, however, look up the references under the head of +"Apostolical Constitutions" in the Index to vol. i. of the Bishop's +work, and we shall be very much surprised if he agree with Dr. Harnack's +first conclusion. Will there not be even a lurking apprehension that Dr. +Harnack, in arguing from the 'original conception of the author of the +Apostolic Constitutions,' is confounding the 'long' and the 'middle' +Recensions of the letters? Possibly the anxiety of determination to fix +upon the third century rather than the close of the first as the date of +the establishment of Episcopacy may have been tolerable in the time of +Daillé, but is it tolerable or should it be repeated now when the means +of a far more critical study of the question is open to all? In fact, +Dr. Harnack is evidently disturbed by the _parti pris_ of his position; +and he may be said to abandon it immediately for a more negative one: +but even so, how can a critic with the authorities placed before him +come even to his second and modified conclusion:--'The statements of +Ignatius regarding the rank to which the Episcopate has attained, +occupy, so far as our knowledge goes, an altogether isolated position in +the second century.' Isolated! This can be examined upon evidence. The +point is this: Are there, or are there not, witnesses to show that +monarchical Episcopacy had been developed in the later years of the +Apostolic Age? Irenæus (born c. 130, according to Lipsius) was a scholar +of Polycarp, and Polycarp was a scholar of St. John. He delighted to +recal the reminiscences of his teacher, as did Polycarp those of St. +John. He was a travelled scholar; if born in Asia Minor, he lived at +Rome during middle life, and was Bishop of Lyons in Gaul in his later +years. He was probably the most learned Christian of his time. 'The +appreciation of the position of the man,' urges Bishop Lightfoot, 'is a +first requisite to an estimate of his evidence.' And what is his +evidence? Just that which is marked by such development as the man, his +time, and circumstances, would lead us to expect, when compared with the +Ignatius, from whom he is separated by about two generations. To +Ignatius, the bishop is the centre of ecclesiastical unity; so Irenæus, +the depositary of Apostolic tradition. Irenæus overlooks the identity of +'bishop' and 'presbyter' in the New Testament, and speaks of 'bishops +_and_ presbyters from Ephesus and the other cities adjoining' coming to +St. Paul at Miletus. It is to him an undisputed fact, that the bishops +of his own age traced their succession back in an unbroken line to men +appointed to the episcopate by the Apostles themselves. Thus he points +out the sequence of the bishops of the Church of Rome 'founded by the +blessed Apostles,' St. Peter and St. Paul, up to his own day; and in the +case of the Church in Smyrna, he finds in Polycarp not only one +'instructed by Apostles and who had conversed with many who had seen +Christ,' but also 'one who was appointed bishop in the Church of Smyrna +by Apostles in Asia.'[81] Similar opinions are reflected in many +passages, and they lead up to this conclusion:-- + + 'After every reasonable allowance made for the possibility + of mistakes in details, the language (of Irenæus) from a man + standing in his position with respect to the previous and + contemporary history of the Church leaves no room for doubt + as to the early and general diffusion of episcopacy in the + regions with which he was acquainted.' + +Yet it is by fastening upon alleged 'mistakes in details,' and through +counter-conclusions with respect to some of the passages quoted, that +Dr. Harnack affirms that 'from the words of Irenæus there is absolutely +nothing gained in regard to the origin of the episcopate and its spread +during the period between A. D. 90 and 140.' His method is somewhat +vexatious. He takes, for example, the list of the Bishops of Rome, and +he says, 'Irenæus communicates this list, and declares that the Apostles +had _ordained_ Linus as Bishop of Rome;' and he adds, 'that this is +false can be proved, and is not denied even by Lightfoot.' The +marvellous part of this statement is, that Irenæus says nothing of the +kind. The word 'ordination' does not occur in the passage in question. +The sentence is far from faithfully translated by the Bishop of +Durham:[82] Linus 'was entrusted with the office of the bishopric' by +the Apostles. Again, what is 'false'? the whole list, or the statement +as regards Linus individually? Neither is false when rightly understood, +and no denial is therefore forthcoming from the Bishop of Durham, or +required for what is not questioned. But Dr. Harnack--not satisfied with +having refuted an imaginary foe--next proceeds to ask, 'What reliance +then can we have in the statement of Irenæus, that Polycarp was ordained +a bishop by the Apostles'? It might be answered, 'Your first premiss was +wrong, and until that be mended, further argument is unnecessary.' But +examine the question on its own merits--viz. that due to 'an +appreciation of the position' of Irenæus--and its veracity is beyond +question. + +The Bishop of Durham supports the language of Irenæus by the testimony +of Polycrates, of Ephesus, his contemporary, if junior; but without +dwelling upon that and other passages of more general reference, we can +come nearer to the time of Ignatius by reference to his contemporary, +Polycarp. We assume, with Bishop Lightfoot, that the testimony of +Irenæus to Polycarp is of the highest value; but that assumption is no +rash one. Every one can verify the value of the testimony by perusing +the Bishop's interesting pages on the subject. The relation of Polycarp +to the Apostles has been given above. It is to his language about +episcopacy that we wish to refer. In Polycarp's letter to the +Philippians, the Bishop of Smyrna speaks at length about the duties of +presbyters, deacons, widows, &c., but he makes no mention either of the +bishop, or--in other parts where it might have been expected--of +obedience due to him. This is naturally explained on the supposition +that the see was then vacant, or that ecclesiastical organization was +not fully developed at Philippi. How rash, however, it would be to +affirm the non-existence of episcopacy, or to raise objections to it +such as would render incredible the statements of Ignatius, may be +inferred from the 'Letter of the Smyrnæans,' which, speaking of 'the +glorious martyr Polycarp, who was found an Apostolic and prophetic +teacher in our own time, a bishop of the Holy Church which is in +Smyrna,' attests at once the respect paid to the office by the writer of +the Letter and to the title by which Polycarp himself was usually +called. + +Other contemporaries of Polycarp's were Clement of Rome and Papias. Do +they give no testimony to the development of monarchical episcopacy in +the later years of the Apostolic Age? Polycarp, if not acquainted with +Clement personally, was yet intimately acquainted with his genuine +letter, the first Epistle to the Corinthians. In this letter there is no +mention of episcopacy properly so-called. With St. Clement, as in the +New Testament, bishop and presbyter are convertible terms. He even drops +all mention of his own name though bishop of the Church in Rome. There +is not even the 'I' of Polycarp, but a 'we,' which defines that the +letter is written in the name of the Church and speaks with the +authority of the Church. The name and personality of the individual are +absorbed in the Church of which he is the spokesman.[83] The same +phenomena are observed in the letter written by Ignatius to the very +Church--Rome--in which alone they are noticed as occurring. The Epistle +of Ignatius to the Romans--save for the mention of his own +rank--contains no indication of the existence of the episcopal office, +inculcates no obedience to bishops, and says not a word about a bishop +of Rome. A like phenomenon is to be noticed in the next (chronologically +speaking) document, emanating from the Church of Rome--viz. the Shepherd +of Hermas. What does this contrast throughout mean, but that where--as +in Asia Minor--false doctrine and schismatical teachers prevailed, there +episcopacy was a safeguard; where these were absent--as in Rome--there +the episcopate had not yet assumed the same sharp and well-defined +monarchical character as in the Eastern churches: and what does this +contrast tend to disprove but the opinion of Dr. Harnack?--'Apart from +the Epistles of Ignatius we do not possess a single witness to the +existence of the monarchical episcopate in the churches of Asia Minor so +early as the times of Trajan or Hadrian' (_i. e._ A. D. 98-138). + +Turning to the other point--the Theological Polemics--disputed by +Harnack, Bishop Lightfoot has dealt with the subject on its positive and +negative sides respectively. The positive side yields results of real +importance in attestation of the date of the letters. The heresy +combated by Ignatius is a type of Gnostic Judaism, the Gnostic element +manifesting itself in a sharp form of Docetism. This marked type of +Docetism, far from being a difficulty, is an indication of early date, +since the tendency of Docetism was to mitigation, as time went on. The +negative side is educed by cross-questioning the writer's silence. There +were certain controversies which rent the Church in the middle and +latter half of the second century. These were such as, first, the +Paschal controversy (the proper day and mode of celebrating the Paschal +festival); secondly, the controversy about Montanism, the theatre of +which was the very region with which these Epistles are concerned. Yet, +not a word, not a hint is there, that the writer felt any interest in, +or was disturbed by, anxieties about either. A similar silence points to +the same conclusion, when we consider the absence of allusion to the +three great heresiarchs, Basilides, Marcion, and Valentinus. Give to the +first a period of notoriety conterminous with the reign of Hadrian (A. +D. 117-38), yet there is not the slightest allusion in Ignatius to the +tenets of the leader or his followers. Place Marcion some years before +the middle of the second century. Remember that he was a native of Asia +Minor and taught at Rome that there he was denounced by Polycarp as the +'first born of Satan;'[84] and that he enjoyed a world-wide reputation +for evil (according to some), for good (according to others). Yet in the +Ignatian letters there is not the faintest aquaintance with the man or +his teaching. Valentinus also taught at Rome (c. A. D. 140-60), and his +strange theories about _Æons_ and Ogdoads, about spiritual, psychical, +and material men, or any other fantasy of his speculative mythology, +were not thought beneath the criticism of an Irenæus, a Clement of +Alexandria and a Tertullian. Yet no hint is there in the Seven Epistles +that these thoughts were familiar to the writer. At one time an exultant +Daillé found in his reading of 'Magn.' 8 an attack on Valentinianism, +and consequently a welcome anachronism which proved the writer of the +letters a forger. The discovery of the true reading has been followed +not only by the collapse of the objection, but also by the adhesion to +the belief, that the writer's use of certain expressions is a testimony +to his existence in a pre-Valentinian epoch, when language had not been +abused to heretical ends. + +Dr. Harnack has little to say against the Bishop of Durham's conclusions +from the negative side of the investigation of these theological +polemics; but he has much to say against the Bishop's deductions from +the positive aspect of them. Though, says Bishop Lightfoot, + + 'in the Trallian and Smyrnæan letters the writer deals + chiefly with Docetism, while in the Magnesian and + Philadelphian letters he seems to be attacking Judaism, yet + a nearer examination shows the two to be so closely + interwoven that they can only be regarded as different sides + of one and the same heresy.' + +Not so Dr. Harnack. To him + + 'the identification of the Judaists and Gnostics in the + Ingnatian Epistles is quite inadmissible. Ignatius combats + the Doketists in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the + Trallians, and the Smyrnæans, while in the Epistles to the + Magnesians and Philadelphians he warns against the + Ebionistic danger. In the last-named Epistle he warns + against other tendencies which threatened the unity of the + Church.' + +In fact, it is this Epistle to the Philadelphians which, in his opinion, +has led scholars astray. No one he thinks would have misunderstood 'the +fact--that the Judaists in the Epistle to the Magnesians were certainly +not Doketists, and the Doketists described in the Epistles to the +Ephesians, Trallians, and Smyrnæans were not Judaists--had the Epistles +of Ignatius come to us without the Epistle to the Philadelphians.' It +would be beyond the province of this Review to enter into an +examination of the arguments adduced on each side; it would also be an +injustice to the disputants to infer that each selects or presses what +tells most of his view, but certainly a calm and dispassionate +inspection of these arguments will lead most men to think Uhlhorn, +Lipsius, and Lightfoot more correct in their unanimous verdict, that but +one heresy is attacked in the Ignatian letters, than Hilgenfeld and +Harnack in their preference of two distinct heresies--Ebionism and +Docetism. This latter conclusion can only be reached by treating the +Letters of Ignatius as Hilgenfeld has treated St. Paul's Epistles to the +Colossians; the former is attained by critical methods defining the +Judaism and Gnosticism observable to be but web and woof of one and the +same fabric. + +The very early date, and the consequent genuineness of these Epistles +are thus the legitimate conclusion from the study of the internal as +well as external evidences. That date is placed by the Bishop of Durham +between A. D. 100-118 in the time of Trajan. Wieseler had placed the +date of the martyrdom (upon which depends the date of the letters) as +early as A. D. 107, Harnack as late as A. D. 138; and the latter still +prefers to place them and the Epistle of Polycarp after the year A. D. +130. The earlier date reached by the Bishop of Durham is to him 'a mere +possibility which is highly improbable, because it is not supported by +any word in the Epistle, and because it rests only upon a late and very +problematic witness (Eusebius).' Dr. Harnack's present view is, in all +essentials, the same as that which he previously held. He has had the +advantage--which he courteously acknowledges--of examining Bishop +Lightfoot's 'painstaking consideration' of his views held in 1878; but +nevertheless he considers that the Bishop's method of considering the +whole question is 'not the proper' one--that his 'admittedly profound +learning has contributed little or nothing to the main question,' and +that 'he has not rightly comprehended the problem.'[85] Yet the ordinary +reader, who examines Dr. Harnack's re-statement of some of his views, +will feel that to ask the Bishop of Durham to re-examine them will be +but to ask him to slay afresh the slain. Dr. Harnack still clings, for +example, to his view, that Polycarp is attacking the Docetism of +Marcion; a view which, if sound, would convince the writer of an +anachronism; because in pretending to write between A. D. 100 and 118 he +has introduced a heresiarch not then notorious. But his view has been +shown by Bishop Lightfoot to be fallacious; and all that Dr. Harnack can +now answer is to repeat his preference for his own interpretation of +two passages adduced in the argument. + +From the amenities of this battlefield of friendly criticism we turn for +a few concluding remarks to the second and shorter life--that of +Polycarp--which these monumental volumes discuss. + +In point of method and treatment, the consideration of the history and +writings of this saint of the early Church follows the same lines, as +those followed in the case of St. Ignatius. First, the biography proper. +Next, one of those collections of passages and documents which render +these volumes so remarkable. In seventy pages the student will find a +_corpus_ of original extracts embellished with notes explanatory and +critical--Such as Imperial acts and ordinances relating to or affecting +Christianity; Acts and notices of martyrdoms. Passages from heathen +writers, containing notices of the Christians; Passages from Christian +writers illustrating the points at issue--most helpful to him in +apprehending not only the history of the persecutions, but also the +relations between the Church and the Empire, in the reigns of Hadrian +(A. D. 117-38), Antoninus Pius (A. D. 138-61), and Marcus Aurelius (A. +D. 161-80). Then come in successive order the examination of the MSS and +Versions, a collection of quotations and references, the consideration +of the genuineness of the 'Epistle of Polycarp' and of the 'Letter to +the Smyrnæans,' closed by a discussion upon the date of the Martyrdom. + +The Church of Christ owes a great debt to Polycarp:-- + + 'In him one single link connected the earthly life of Christ + with the close of the second century, though five or six + generations had intervened. St. John, Polycarp, + Irenæus--this was the succession which guaranteed the + continuity of the evangelical record and of the Apostolic + teaching. The long life of St. John, followed by the long + life of Polycarp, had secured this result. What the Church + towards the close of the second century was--how full was + its teaching--how complete its canon--how adequate its + organization--how wise its extension--we know well enough + from Irenæus' extant work. But the intervening period had + been disturbed by feverish speculation and grave anxieties + on all sides. Polycarp saw teacher after teacher spring up, + each introducing some fresh system, and each professing to + teach the true Gospel. Menander, Cerinthus, Carpocrates, + Saturninus, Basilides, Cerdon, Valentinus, Marcion--all + these flourished during his lifetime, and all taught after + he had grown up to manhood. Against all such innovations of + doctrine and practice there lay the appeal to Polycarp's + personal knowledge. With what feelings he regarded such + teachers we may learn not only from his own epistle (§ 7), + but from the sayings recorded by Irenæus, "O good God, for + what times hast Thou kept me, I recognize the firstborn of + Satan." He was eminently fitted, too, by his personal + qualities to fulfil this function as a depositary of + tradition.... Polycarp's mind was essentially unoriginative. + It had no creative power. His Epistle is largely made up of + quotations from the Evangelical and Apostolic writings, from + Clement of Rome, from the Epistles of Ignatius.... A + stedfast, stubborn adherence to the lessons of his youth and + early manhood, an unrelaxing, unwavering hold of "the word + that was delivered to him from the beginning"--this, so far + as we can read the man from his own utterances or from the + notices of others, was the characteristic of Polycarp. His + religious convictions were seen to be "founded," as Ignatius + had said long before (Polyc. 1) "on an immovable rock." He + was not dismayed by the plausibilities of false teachers, + but "stood firm as an anvil under the hammer's stroke." + (_ib._ 3).' + +The Church has ever claimed for her Saint not so much the reverence paid +to the martyr, or the deference due to the ruler, or the teachableness +powerful in the writer, as the attention obligatory to an 'elder.' Why? +We may give the reason in the Bishop's words: + + 'While the oral tradition of the Lord's life and of the + Apostolic teaching was still fresh, the believers of + succeeding generations not unnaturally appealed to it for + confirmation against the many counterfeits of the Gospel + which offered themselves for acceptance. The authorities for + this tradition were "the Elders." To the testimony of these + Elders appeal was made by Papias in the first, and by + Irenæus in the second generation after the Apostles. With + Papias the Elders were those who themselves had seen the + Lord, or had been eye-witnesses of the Apostolic history: + with Irenæus the term included likewise persons who, like + Papias himself, had been acquainted with these + eye-witnesses. And among these Polycarp held the foremost + place.' + +The existing letter to the Philippians is now recognized as a genuine +work of the Saint; and this on the testimony of internal evidence, quite +as much as on the direct testimony of Irenæus, his own disciple. The +arbitrary method of a Daillé, the interpolation-theory of Ritschl, and +the wholesale rejection of the Epistle by Schwegler, Zeller, and +Hilgenfeld, have ceased to command attention or demand refutation. The +Epistle is too closely confined to the letters and martyrdom of Ignatius +to warrant our looking for much refutation in it of existing error; but +the spirit and counsel of the 'elder' is truly there warning against +false and hypocritical brethren, and impelling his readers to turn unto +the word delivered unto them from the beginning. + +Never was Christian counsel and sturdy faith more needed than in the +period covered by the lifetime of Polycarp. The Bishop of Durham +describes it as 'the most tumultuous period in the religious history of +the world'; and in connection with the Bishop of Smyrna he notes that 'a +chief arena of the struggle between creeds and cults was Asia Minor.' If +in the earlier part of the second century (A. D. 112) Pliny, in his +celebrated letter to Trajan,[86] deplored what Polycarp may have +witnessed--on the one hand, heathen temples deserted and heathen +sacrifices starved as to their victims; on the other, young and old, man +and woman, patrician and peasant, bond and free, attracted to and +mastered by a 'superstition' which affected alike the city and the +village, the nobleman's mansion and the herdsman's hut, yet the splendid +successes of Christianity did not blind either saint or philosopher. 'A +veritable Pagan propaganda,' as Renan calls it, also set in in the +second century; and when Polycarp died, it was at its height. Everywhere +was it supported by the reigning emperors. 'The political and truly +Roman instincts of Trajan were not more friendly to it than the +archæological tastes, the cosmopolitan interests, and the theological +levity of Hadrian. From their immediate successors, Antoninus Pius and +Marcus Aurelius, it received even more solid and efficient support.' + +Smyrna, the see of Bishop Polycarp, was fully exposed to the influences +of this reviving Paganism. The rhetorician, Aristides--true type of the +Pagan charlatan who summoned to his aid in subjugating a superstitious +people the mysterious and occult powers with which astrology and dreams, +auguries and witchcrafts, invested their possessors--was himself a +frequent dweller in Smyrna. Often must he have heard of and despised the +man branded by the titles, 'the teacher of Asia, the father of the +Christians, the puller-down of our gods, who teacheth numbers not to +sacrifice nor worship'[87] which--like the inscription over his +crucified Lord--did unconsciously proclaim the very and only truth. +Twice did the city of Smyrna, during Polycarp's prime, receive fresh +honours and privileges for her devotion to the worship of Imperial +deities. The religious guild of the temples of the Augusti celebrated +here their festivals with exceptional splendour; the 'theologians' and +'choristers,' who owed their existence and affluence to the magnificence +of a Hadrian, not only saluted him as their 'god,' their 'saviour and +founder,' but by senatorial decree established games--the Olympia +Hadrianea--grotesquely pompous in titular magnificence. Naturally this +affected the well-being of the infant Church of Christ in Smyrna; but +that Church was assailed from another quarter, and by the sharpened +weapons, not of a scornful superiority, but of fanatical hatred. The +Jews were both numerous and powerful in Smyrna, and two cruel episodes +in their late national history accentuated their fury against the +Christians wherever they met with them. The first was the destruction of +Jerusalem (A. D. 70). The fugitives from Palestine, who found refuge in +Smyrna with their fellow-countrymen already settled there, found +sympathy also--save from one class, the Christians. Compassion these +last could feel for men whose best blood had welled over the courts of +the Temple, whose dearest and nearest had perhaps perished in Jerusalem, +that 'cage of furious madmen, a city of howling wild beasts and of +cannibals--a hell' (Renan); but they knew to be true what a Titus had +acknowledged, that 'the hand of God' was in the victory of Rome. They +saw in the downfall of the Holy City the retribution of the Heavenly +Father for the crucifixion of the Messiah; and sorrow with the sorrow of +the weeping patriots of Israel they could not and would not. Their +refusal was the signal for a determination to seize every opportunity of +revenge; and the second episode, to which we have alluded, is connected +with a specially furious outburst of maddened passion against Christians +on the part of the Jews. Hadrian, fifty years after the fall of +Jerusalem, had resolved upon rearing on its ruins the city of Ælia +Capitolina. Then flashed forth the rebellion of the Jew Bar-cochba (A. +D. 132-4). The 'Son of the Star,' supported by his standard-bearer, +Akiba, the greatest of the Rabbins, measured his strength with Rome. +With mouth breathing forth flames,[88] he inspired his partisans with +confidence, and his enemies with terror. Flung back, disappointed, and +slain at Bither, the 'Son of a Lie,' as his disappointed countrymen had +found him to their cost and re-named him, had yet found opportunities of +inflicting terrible tortures and agonizing deaths upon those Christians +in Palestine, who had dared to reject his Messianic claims, and refused +to blaspheme Christ. And the spirit of vengeance spread from the Holy +Land to the provinces. Twenty years after the death of the rebel leader, +the Jews of Smyrna--probably to Polycarp 'a synagogue of Satan,' as in +earlier times St. John his master had described + +them (Rev. ii. 9)--found their opportunity. Their vengeance then was +only slaked by the blood of the Christian Bishop. + +The Saint's martyrdom was the crowning consummation of the Saint's life. +With the Bishop of Durham's help we can now collect all that we shall +probably ever know of both; and to this we turn in conclusion.[89] + +The date of his martyrdom may be accepted as about 155 A. D.[90] If +Polycarp was then 86 years of age, his birth may be placed in A. D. 60 +or 70, at a time nearly coincident with the date of the destruction of +Jerusalem. That event was the cause which drove St. John to fix his +abode ultimately at Ephesus, the traditional home of St. Andrew, and +near to the Phrygian Hierapolis, where St. Philip the Apostle died and +was buried. The proximity of Smyrna to Ephesus, and the reputation +accorded to both in the flattering designation of 'the two eyes' of +proconsular Asia, would make intercourse between the cities familiar and +frequent. In the Christian advantages consequent upon such intercourse +Polycarp had his full share, if it be impossible to assert positively +that he was a Smyrnæan by birth, and of Christian parentage. But the +legends at the close of the fourth century, as embodied in the story of +Pionius, sought and found for his origin a more romantic, if sad, +beginning. One night, God's Angel appeared to a widow of Smyrna named +Callisto, rich in worldly wealth, but still more rich in good work. +'Go,' he bade her, 'to the Ephesian gate. There you will find two men. +They have with them a young lad for sale. Give them their price, and +take and keep the child. He is by birth an Eastern.' The child was +Polycarp. She did as she was bid. She bought and reared him, and +eventually left to him all her substance. The fact implied in the last +words, that Polycarp was a comparatively well-to-do man, is the one fact +out of the above story supported by more authentic documents. Perhaps +also the picture of the man, so pleasing and natural, drawn by Pionius, +may present traits faithful to the original:-- + + 'The love of knowledge and the fondness of the Scriptures, + which distinguishes the people of the East, bore rich fruit + in him. He offered himself a whole offering to God, by + prayer and study of the Scriptures, by spareness of diet and + simplicity of clothing, by liberal almsgiving. He was + bashful and retiring, shunning the busy throngs of men, and + consorting only with those who needed his assistance. When + he met an aged wood-carrier outside the walls, he would + purchase his burden, would carry it himself to the city, and + would give it to the widows living near the gate. The + Bishop Bucolus cherished him as a son, and he in turn + requited his love with filial care and devotion.' + +But we may catch from real and genuine sources three glimpses of the +man: in youth as the disciple of St. John, in middle age as the champion +of Ignatius, in closing life as the teacher of Irenæus. Of the circle of +disciples who gathered round St. John, Polycarp is indubitably the most +famous. He delighted, in his declining years, to tell his younger +friends what he had himself heard from eye-witnesses of the Lord's life +on earth; and he would dwell especially on his intercourse with the +Apostle of Love. There is nothing improbable in the belief, that he was +ordained to the episcopate by the venerable Apostle. Among his +contemporaries were Clement, Papias, and Ignatius. Polycarp knew, as has +been stated, the letter of the great Bishop of Rome, and Papias--his +'companion,' as Irenæus[91] calls him--became his neighbour at +Hierapolis. But it is with Ignatius that the younger man is inseparably +linked. They met, probably for the first (and only) time, at Smyrna when +the great Bishop of Antioch was on his way to martyrdom at Rome. +Touching in their affectionateness are the remarks which each passes +upon each. Polycarp inspires Ignatius with 'love.' The younger man is to +the older 'most blessed,' 'clothed with grace,' marked by 'fervid +sincerity,' a man 'whose godly mind is grounded on an immovable rock' +(Letter to Polycarp). To Polycarp, Ignatius 'the blessed' is the pattern +of men, 'obedient unto the word of righteousness and practising all +endurance,' 'encircled in saintly bonds which are the diadems of them +that be truly chosen of God and our Lord.' The two men parted, never +again to meet on earth, yet to be linked together by 'martyrdom +comformable to the Gospel' But ere that 'birthday' arrived, Polycarp had +to live for nearly half a century; and potent was his influence upon the +men of a younger generation. Melito, Claudius Apollinaris, and +Polycrates, famous among the Fathers of Asia, must have known him well; +Justin Martyr visited him from Ephesus; but mightiest and dearest of all +was his pupil Irenæus, the champion of orthodoxy against Gnosticism. + + 'When I was still a boy,' wrote Irenæus, '(I was) in company + with Polycarp in Asia Minor.... I can tell the very place in + which the blessed Polycarp used to sit when he discoursed, + his goings out and comings in, his manner of life and his + personal appearance, his discourses which he gave to the + people, and his description of his intercourse with John, + and the rest of those who had seen the Lord.'[92] + +Those were reminiscences and lessons never forgotten by the future +Bishop of Lyons. To him, as to 'all the churches of Asia and to the +successors of Polycarp' himself, the pupil of St. John was 'a much more +trustworthy and safe witness of the truth than Valentinus and Marcion, +and all such wrong-minded men.'[93] + +The end came at last. A persecution was raging; how or why we know not. +All that can be known is told in the 'Letter of the Smyrnæans.'[94] The +simplicity and pathos of the story, as told by this ancient document, so +moved the great Scaliger, that he felt hardly master of himself. We +cannot tell the tale of triumph in better words than in those of that +exquisite piece of ecclesiastical antiquity. The great annual festival +was being held at Smyrna, presided over by the Asiarch and 'high +priest'[95] Philip, a wealthy citizen of the wealthy Tralles, and graced +by the presence of the Proconsul Statius Quadratus. The persecutor had +asked for blood, and blood had been granted him. Already several +victims, Philadelphians, 'so torn by lashes that the mechanism of their +flesh was visible even as far as the inward veins and arteries,' had +'endured patiently;' showing to the weeping bystanders such bravery that +the explanation became current--'(these) martyrs of Christ being +tortured, were absent from the flesh, or rather the Lord was standing by +and conversing with them.' Others 'condemned to the wild beasts, endured +fearful punishments, being made to lie on sharp shells and buffeted with +other forms of manifold tortures, that the devil might, if possible, by +the persistence of the punishment bring them to a denial; for he tried +many wiles against them.' Men remembered afterwards how 'the right noble +Germanicus,' scorning the pity the Proconsul would have extended to his +youth, 'used violence, and dragged the wild beast towards him.' Such +bravery, 'the bravery of the God-fearing and God-beloved people of the +Christians,' only whetted the pagan thirst for blood. There rang out the +shout, 'Away with the atheists![96] Let search be made for Polycarp!' +He had gone against his will into the country, probably to one of his +own farms; and he was found without much difficulty. He placed before +his captors food and drink, and asked but a single boon of them--'one +hour that he might pray unmolested.' Those mounted soldiers, 'wondering +why there should be such eagerness for the apprehension of an old man +like him,' gave their consent. 'He stood up and prayed; and being full +of the grace of God, for two hours he could not hold his peace, so that +they who heard him were amazed, and many repented that they had come +against such a venerable old man.' They brought him to the city, seated +on an ass. Steadily did he refuse the real and sincere endeavours of +compassionate heathen to 'save himself.' 'What harm,' they asked, 'is +there in saying, Cæsar is Lord, and offering incense?' He would only +answer, 'I am not going to do what you counsel me.' As he entered the +stadium, the human roar, fiercer and more cruel than that of wild +beasts, rose above every other sound. Polycarp did not heed it; a voice +came to him from heaven, 'Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man;' and, +nerved by what other Christians had also heard, he stood at last before +Statius. Words, at first pitiful, greeted him: 'Have respect to thine +age!--Swear by the genius of Cæsar! Say, "Away with the atheists."' The +Saint caught up the last word. He 'looked with solemn countenance upon +that vast multitude of lawless heathen; and groaning and looking up to +heaven, he said, 'Away with the atheists.' Was he then yielding? The +Proconsul had misunderstood him, but he pressed him hard and said 'Swear +the oath, and I will release thee. Revile the Christ!' Polycarp looked +him in the face, and gave him the answer which can never die. 'Fourscore +and six years have I been His servant, and He hath done me no wrong. How +then can I blaspheme my King Who saved me?' The words of pity changed +into threats. 'I have wild beasts here,' said Statius, 'and I will throw +thee to them except thou change thy mind.' 'Call them,' was the +unflinching answer. 'If thou despisest the wild beasts, I will cause +thee to be consumed by fire.' Polycarp remembered a dream of three days +before in which he had seen his pillow burning with fire, and which he +had interpreted to those with him as signifying that he would be burnt +alive. He answered now, 'Thou threatenest that fire which burneth for a +season and after a little while is quenched. For thou art ignorant of +the fire of the future judgment and eternal punishment, which is +reserved for the ungodly:' and then he added--in his impatience to be +'made a partaker with Christ'--'But why delayest thou? Come, do what +thou wilt.' Saying this, 'he was inspired with courage and joy, and his +countenance was filled with grace.' + +The herald's proclamation was soon heard announcing three times, +'Polycarp hath confessed himself to be a Christian;' and again the human +yell broke forth from Gentile and Jew, this time fashioning itself into +distinct speech: 'This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the +Christians, the puller down of our gods, who teacheth numbers not to +sacrifice nor worship.... Let the lion loose upon him!' 'That is +impossible' was the answer of the Asiarch, 'for the sports have closed.' +They shouted out 'with one accord, "Burn him alive!" Quicker than words +could tell, the crowds collected timber and faggots from workshops and +baths, and the Jews especially assisted in this with zeal, as was their +wont.' They placed around him the 'instruments prepared for the pile,' +and were going to nail him to the stake. He interposed with his last +request of men, 'Leave me as I am. He that hath granted me to endure the +fire, will grant me also to remain at the pile unmoved, without the +security you seek from nails.' They 'tied him to the stake.' He stood up +'like a noble ram out of a great flock for an offering, a +burnt-sacrifice made ready and acceptable to God;' and looking up to +heaven, made his last request of God in one of the noblest prayers +preserved in ancient or modern literature. His Amen said, 'the firemen +lighted the fire. The mighty flame flashed forth,' and men saw then, +what in later days they saw repeated at the martyrdom of a Savonarola +and of a Hooper,[97] the fire, 'like the sail of a vessel filled with +wind, surrounding as with a wall the body of the martyr. It was there in +the midst, not like flesh burning, but like gold and silver refined in a +furnace.' Could he not die? + + 'Lawless men, seeing that his body could not be consumed by + the fire, ordered an executioner to go up to him and stab + him with a dagger. And when he had done this, there came + forth a quantity of blood,[98] so that it extinguished the + fire; and all the multitude marvelled that there should be + so great a difference between the unbelievers and the + elect.' + +The Christians hoped to have taken away the 'poor body,' but 'the +jealous and envious Evil One, the adversary of the family of the +righteous,' instigated the Jews to urge upon the magistrate not to give +up his body, lest they (the Christians) should abandon the crucified One +and begin to worship this man,... 'not knowing' (add the narrators) 'how +impossible it would be for them to forsake at any time the Christ Who +suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are +saved--suffered, though sinless, for sinners--not to worship any other.' +The body was placed again on the pile and consumed. Then 'the bones, +more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold,' were +taken up and laid in a suitable place. + +So died a Polycarp as had died an Ignatius, both martyred, and both +memorable for 'nobleness, patient endurance, and loyalty to their +Master.' The motto of their deaths was the motto of their lives, +condensed into the saying of the martyr of Antioch to the martyr of +Smyrna:-- + + '[Greek: hopou pleiôn kopos, poly kerdos.] + + 'The greater the pain, the greater the gain.' + +We know nothing certain of the tombs which tradition or affection have +pointed out as the last resting-place of the calcined remains of either +Saint, but we need no longer such perishable monuments. The +English-speaking and English-reading race have in the volumes of the +Bishop of Durham a fitting shrine for those literary remains which +survive destruction. Scholarship and piety, study and prayer, have here +combined to shed light upon the writings, and to raise a monument to the +lives, of those champions of early Christianity, who in their day +wrought a good work, and still speak, though dead. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[64] Bishop Lightfoot's 'Ignatius and Polycarp,' by Prof. A. Harnack, +Ph.D, in 'Expositor' for December, 1885, p. 401. + +[65] 'The Apostolic Fathers,' p. 116. By Canon Scott Holland. + +[66] [Greek: hechtroma], 'Ep. to the Romans,' 9, with Bp. Lightfoot's +note. Compare 1 Corinth. xv. 8. + +[67] Herod, vii. 31, 187. + +[68] 'Ep. to the Rom.' 5, 'to the Ephes.' II, with note + +[69] See the useful Table in i. 222, and the excursus on 'Spurious and +Interpolated Epistles' in i. 223-266. Cf. also the 'Appendix Ignatiana,' +ii. 587, &c. + +[70] Such as Eusebius and Theodoret. Cf. i., pp. 137-40, 161-4. The +catena of quotations and references from the second to the ninth +century, given in i. 127-221 (cf. the hint on p. 220) is most important +for the construction of the text, and as a preliminary to the +determination of the priority and authenticity of the Epistles. +Harnack's objections to the quotation from Lucian (i. 129) are not +shared by Baur or Renan, and are indirectly met by Bishop Lightfoot, i. +331-5. + +[71] Stephen Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, +William Spurstow. + +[72] i, 79 For example, as regards the order of the words in the Greek +text this latin translation may be treated as an authority. The Greek is +rigidly followed without any regard for Latin usage. So also Greek +articles are scrupulously reproduced, in violation of Latin idiom. New +or unusual Latin words are introduced to correspond as exactly as +possible to the original; _e.g._ ingloriatio = [Greek: akanchêsia]; +multibona ordinatio = [Greek: to polyeutaktan], &c. + +[73] See i. 72. For the text edited by Dr. W. Wright, see ii. 657., &c.; +and for a translation, ii. 670, &c. + +[74] 'De scriptis quæ sub Dionysii Areopagitæ et Ignati Antiocheni +nominibus circumferuntur,' &c. (1666). The Bishop of Durham +characterizes Daille's treatment of the Ignatian writings as marked 'by +deliberate confusion.' He knows the facts, but makes the Vossian letters +bear all the odium attached to the 'long' recension. Pearson's work, +'Vindiciæ Epistolarum S. Ignatii,' appeared six years later in 1672. +This reply as compared with the attack was 'as light to darkness.' In +England it closed the controversy. + +[75] Trall. 5. + +[76] See, for example, Rom. 4, 9: Trall. 3, 13; Ephes. 1, 3, 21. + +[77] Rom. 5. + +[78] Smyrn. 8. + +[79] See i. 400, 405. + +[80] Consult Bishop Lightfoot's Essay on this subject in his Commentary +on the Epistle to the Philippians (p. 181, &c.). The 'Teaching of the +Twelve Apostles,' published in 1884, is rightly referred to now by the +Bishop of Durham as confirming his positions. + +[81] Comp. Irenæus, 'Hær.' iii. 3, § § 3,4; iii. 14, § 2. + +[82] Essay in 'Philippians,' p. 218. + +[83] Cf. Bishop Lightfoot's edition of 'St. Clement of Rome,' App. p. +252, &c. + +[84] Iren. 'Hær.' iii. 3, 4. + +[85] Cf. i. 568, &c. + +[86] See i. 50, &c.; ii. 532. The Bishop of Durham's collection of facts +and references dealing with this subject is an admirable +specimen--everywhere repeated--of the exhaustive treatment he applies to +single points. + +[87] Letter of the Smyrnæans, § 12. + +[88] He had learnt the trick of keeping lighted tow or straw in his +mouth. See other instances in Milman's 'History of the Jeos,' ii. 429, +n. _x_. + +[89] Cf. Justin Martyr in Eusebius, 'Hist.' iv, 8. + +[90] i. 422, 629, &c. Mr. Rendell, in the 'Studia Biblica' (oxf. 1885), +has come to the same conclusion by an independent treatment. + +[91] Hær. v. 33, 34. + +[92] Euseb. 'Hist. Eccl.' v. 20 + +[93] Iren. 'Hær.' iii. 3. + +[94] The genuineness of the main document (at least) is unaffected by +recent attacks. The impugning process of Schürer, Lipsius, and Kelm has +been successfully resisted by Renan, Hilgenfeld (in part), and the +Bishop of Durham (i 588, &c.). + +[95] The subjects of the Asiarchate, of the identity of Asiarch and +high-priest, have suggested to the Bishop of Durham another of those +exhaustive discussions which will win for him the gratitude of the +students (see ii. 987, &c.) + +[96] The name given by the heathen to the Christians, whom they counted +godless because they had neither image nor visible representation of the +Deity. See ii. 160, note to line 1. + +[97] See i. 599 nn. 1, 6. + +[98] On the celebrated reading, 'there came forth a dove and a quantity +of blood, see ii. 974, note to i. 3. It is to be explained by the +belief, that the soul departed from the body at death in the form of a +bird; the dove most readily suggesting itself as the emblem of a +Christian soul. + + + + +Art. VIII.--1. _An Address delivered to the Students of Edinburgh +University on Nov. 3, 1885._ By the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord Rector of +the University of Edinburgh. + +2. _Hearing, Reading and Thinking: an address to the Students attending +the Lectures of the London Society for the Extension of University +Teaching._ By the Rt. Hon. G.J. Goschen, M.P. + +3. _The Choice of Books and other Literary Pieces._ By Frederic +Harrison. London, 1886. + + +The subject of Books and Reading is _in the air_ at the present time; +Lord Iddlesleigh raised the question last November, by his admirable +discourse on Desultory Reading, delivered at Edinburgh. Sir John Lubbock +was not slow to follow the lead, in his lecture at the Working Men's +College; and lastly, we have Mr. Goschen's more abstract and despondent +remarks on Hearing, Reading, and Thinking. The discussion has been +carried forward from Newspaper to Journal, and from Journal to Magazine, +and has attracted representatives of the most heterogeneous elements +into the ever widening circle. Sir John Lubbock wound up by enumerating +a _hundred_ of the books-- + + 'most frequently mentioned with approval by those who have + referred directly or indirectly to the pleasure of reading, + and I have ventured to include some, which though less + frequently mentioned, are especial favourites of my own. I + have abstained for obvious reasons from mentioning works by + living authors.' ('Self Help,' however, is admitted into Sir + John's revised list), 'though from many of them, Tennyson, + Ruskin, and others, I have myself derived the keenest + enjoyment; and have omitted works of Science, with one or + two exceptions, because the subject is so progressive. I + feel that the attempt is over bold, and must beg for + indulgence; but indeed one object I have had in view is to + stimulate others, more competent far than I am, to give us + the advantage of their opinions. If we had such lists drawn + up by a few good guides, they would be most useful.' + +The challenge thus thrown down was quickly taken up by the Editor of the +'Pall Mall Gazette,' who forthwith sent out a Circular to certain +eminent men of the day, inviting them 'to jot down such a list--not +necessarily containing a hundred volumes--as would help the present +generation to choose their reading more wisely.' Whether the majority of +the 'guides' thus appealed to have responded to the call, we are not +informed; the replies of several have been published; and our thanks are +due to those who have been instrumental in opening up a discussion of +great variety and universal interest; though we must confess to some +regret that the initiative was not given in a different form. Why the +number should be fixed at one hundred; why works of Science should be +excluded; why Biography and Travels should enjoy so meagre a +representation on Sir John Lubbock's list, are questions to which no +satisfactory answer has been given. + +Who is it, we would ask in the first place, for whom this list is +primarily intended? Not the man whose love of books is firmly +established, for he will have chosen for himself his own walk among the +innumerable highways and byepaths of literature; nor he whose tastes are +just forming, for the field is too wide, and he would hardly prefer the +Analects of Confucius, the Shahnameh, and the Sheking, to 'Marco's +Polo's Travels,' Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' and 'Æsop's Fables.' No +list, however, that could be drawn up would escape criticism, and our +desire is not so much to suggest in what manner the present list might +be amended, as to indicate how, in our opinion, it might have been made +to serve some practical purpose. + +'Books have brought some men to knowledge and some to madness. As +fulness sometimes hurteth the stomach more than hunger, so fareth it +with arts; and as of meats, so likewise of books, the use ought to be +limited according to the quality of him that useth them.' Thus wrote +Petrarch, and the comparison between the bodily and mental digestion, if +trite, is very far from being a mere superficial analogy. + +Those who are blessed with a judicial friend, quite competent to make a +diagnosis of their literary capacity and prescribe a diet, are indeed +fortunate--'sua si bona norint.' Such prescriptions have been long since +made, and handed down to us. That written out by Doctor Johnson, for his +friend the Rev. Mr. Astle of Ashbourne, is brief enough, and savours of +the drastic remedies fashionable in the last century.[99] If on glancing +over the Doctor's list our readers are inclined to assume that the Rev. +Mr. Astle was possessed of a very healthy digestion, we would remind +them that solid joints and heavy folios were more in vogue at that time +than in these days of French cookery and periodical literature. + +In later times Comte also, among others, has furnished a catalogue, or +syllabus of books for general reading; but even his faithful follower +Mr. Harrison admits, half apologetically, that it 'has no special +relation to current views of education, to English literature, much less +to the literature of the day. It was drawn up thirty years ago by a +French philosopher, who passed his life in Paris, and who had read no +new book for twenty years.' + +'What shall I read?' There are few questions more frequently asked than +this; few, perhaps, to which a thoughtless answer is more frequently +given. Coming from one of that large class to which Lord Iddesleigh has +given the name of 'indolent readers,' it might be assumed to be lightly +asked, and might be as lightly answered by the recommendation of some +three-volume novel, or the more fashionable shilling's-worth of gruesome +mystery; but if the enquirer be a young book-lover, a worthy answer is +far to seek. The diagnosis and opinion of the physician do not present +greater difficulties, and in many cases are not attended by more +momentous results. To turn a juvenile adrift in Sir John Lubbock's list +would be to prescribe an exclusive diet of richly seasoned dishes and +rare wines to a convalescent patient--to feed him on strong meats, on +cavaire and truffles, and to omit the simple, wholesome, homely fare on +which, in his condition, health and efficient progress must in the main +depend. + +How often has the young enquirer been imbued with a distaste for solid +literature by being compelled to read 'masterpieces' long before he was +able to appreciate their value, or even to comprehend their history! The +system at many of our schools is much to blame in this respect. There +are, we believe, comparatively few boys who acquire, until they seek it +for themselves, even the roughest general outline of the world's +history, to which their various episodic studies may be applied, so that +each may fall into its proper place and order. 'Periods' and 'Epochs' +are studied minutely and painfully, without any knowledge of the grand +structure of which they form but a single fragment; and history is too +often divorced from geography. A schoolboy is set to work on a play of +Aristophanes before he has made acquaintance with the social and +political movements of which Pericles and Cleon were the +representatives. He reads his Bible and his Homer, his Virgil and +Horace, his Cæsar and Livy, but probably with the vaguest ideas of their +relations to one another, or their respective positions in the world's +chronology. Or it may be that the whole of one term is devoted to one or +two books of 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey,' 'the Æneid' or the 'Odes,' +which are ground out line by line and word by word, all the interest and +flavour of the complete work being inevitably and hopelessly dissipated +in the process. Even 'the college prizeman, and the college tutor cannot +read a chorus in the Trilogy but what his mind instinctively wanders on +optatives, choriambi, and that happy conjecture of Smelfungus in the +antistrophe.'[100] But certain books having to be got up for an +examination by the cramming process, the receptacle for all this +erudition only looks forward to the time when he may throw his Classics +behind the fire for ever. No book with the least pretention to permanent +value can be read purely by and for itself; inevitably it must draw on +the reader--if he be in any sense worthy of the name--from point to +point beyond its own immediate sphere, until he finds his interest +expanding and his tastes forming under a natural and rapid process of +evolution. Can any intelligent person read his Homer or his 'Æneid,' his +Boswell, his 'Old Mortality,' or 'The Voyage of the Beagle' without +asking himself who are these strange characters, and where are these +strange lands that seem so familiar to us? + +He who stands on a hill and surveys a wide landscape, easily recognizes +the leading features of the country--the river and the homestead, the +church and the corn-field--they need no guide, they tell their own tale. +In like manner the great landmarks of the literature of the past are +well defined and unmistakable to him who has eyes to see and a mind to +comprehend. The traveller may choose his line, and as he goes his way he +will not fail to find guides who will give him the directions which +passing doubts and difficulties may render necessary. The world's great +books stand out as the old stone walls of some great feudal +fortress--prominent and indestructible. Their original uses have been +superseded by the world's advance; but time and change add greatly to +their interest. He, however, who finds himself entangled in the dense +jungle of books that are not 'masterpieces,' and are so plentiful in +modern literature, is in a sorry plight; his way lies through this +jungle, be it long or short, and he cannot escape it altogether. He has +heard of the quiet groves of the Academy, and of the heights of +Parnassus, but he is rarely able to catch a glimpse of them. He is +whirled along and loses his foothold in the eddying torrent of +periodical literature; or he is entangled in the briars of controversy, +and, torn and vexed, is apt to lose his way. Here then it is that he +particularly needs a guide, and here it is that Sir John Lubbock bids +good-bye to him, and leaves him to his own resources. + +The student, thus perplexed, may be surprised to learn from Mr. Ruskin +that 'any bank clerk could write a history as good as Grote's,' and that +Gibbon only chronicled 'putrescence and corruption; 'he may be deeply +interested in the information that Professor Bryce prefers Pindar to +Hesiod, that the Lord Chief Justice knows nothing of Chinese or +Sanskrit, and that Miss Braddon has spent 'great part of a busy life +reading the "Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews."' But all this does not +help him in his bewildering journey among the 10,000 books which are +annually flooding the world of English speaking readers--a mass of which +we fear that the quality advances in inverse ratio to the quantity. + +Sir John Lubbock's list, as it stands, suggests a gathering of +illustrious Generals and officers, without any men. They are very +distinguished and admirable in appearance and qualifications, but would +be doubly so if seen at the head of the army which they lead and +represent. Had Sir John commenced by marshalling his hundred books in +groups, either of subjects to be studied or of readers to be provided +for, and then called upon the 'guides' to fill up the gaps, and supply +the rank and file of his army, he would have earned the thanks of all +book-lovers. + +In the selection of books two considerations must alternately be +paramount. One of these would have reference to the subjects to be +studied, the other would have reference to the readers to be provided +for. We are aware of the long controversies and technical difficulties +involved in this question of Classification, which has stirred the +hearts of Librarians from time immemorial, but for our present purpose +the elaboration of an exhaustive scientific system is unnecessary; a +statement of the rough headings and divisions, under which the books for +general readers should be grouped, presents no insurmountable obstacles. +Various minor considerations may subsequently assert themselves; as, for +example, whether the books are required with the ultimate object of the +formation of a library, and 'the cultivation of literature is an object +which cannot be accomplished without the acquisition of a library of a +greater or less extent,' or for the mere purpose of amusement. To draw +up such a catalogue as we propose would exceed the capacity of any +single individual; each section should be the work of one or more +persons specially versed in the subject. + +We are, of course, dealing rather with those who are aspiring to be book +lovers than with those who, having already attained to that distinction, +can trust to the guidance of their own inclinations. These aspirants +must seek first an able and judicious guide for each department of +study. One guide may be fully competent to make a list of works in +history or biography, but may lack experience in philosophy or in art; +while, on the other hand, the regimen prescribed for the country curate +would hardly be appropriate for the mechanic or the soldier. + +But, first, we must endeavour to define, by a rough process of +elimination, the book lover, whether mature or in embryo. He is not the +mere 'glutton of the lending library,' who bolts the contents of the +monthly box without discrimination and without reflection, his main +object being to while away an idle day or to gain a superficial +reputation at the next dinner party at which he may be present; nor is +he the collector of gaudy bindings; nor one who has never possessed nor +desired to possess a library of his own, who has never read a book more +than once, and has never committed to memory a single passage. He is not +the man, in short, who fails to realize that 'the utility of reading +depends not on the swallow but on the digestion.' + +From the American Westerner who buys an Encyclopædia in parts, and finds +in it all that he requires of instruction and amusement, to the princely +founders of libraries--the Spencers and Parkers, the De Thous, the +Sunderlands, and the Beckfords--is a wide interval, and includes all +sorts and conditions of men, diverse from one another in everything but +their love of books. + +Sir John Lubbock, by his eminence in the world of science and the world +of commerce, is admirably qualified to draw up a list of works on +science and trade. But these he has unfortunately excluded from his +consideration. Such lists would be invaluable to the thousands who from +intellectual, or more purely mercenary motives, are now seeking for +light. Had Sir John classified his list on some simple and +discriminating plan, such as we have suggested, we might, as a result of +the discussion, have obtained a summary of works on art by Mr. Ruskin, +or a soldier's library by Lord Wolseley. Others, whose replies have been +published, would have furnished special lists; and a still wider circle +would, no doubt, have seen their way to rendering much help and service. +We should, moreover, have been spared some rather irrelevant and wayward +criticisms to which the discussion has given rise. + +Two or three of the 'guides' have, with more or less success, adopted +for themselves a definite system. Mr. William Morris has given us a +list, the perusal of which may perchance arouse serious misgivings in +the heart of the general reader, who cannot 'even _with_ great +difficulty read Old German,' and who has not yet been educated up to the +point of regarding Virgil and Juvenal as 'sham classics.' The +'Admiral's' list is good, if somewhat too technical; and we would plead +for the admission of Southey's 'Life of Nelson,' even, if need be, to +the exclusion of the 'Annual Register' in 110 volumes. The Head Master +of Harrow 'tried to think how he should answer a boy's question if he +were to ask, at any point of his school life, what books it were best +worth while to read before the end (let me say) of his thirtieth year;' +and we venture to regard Mr. Welldon's list as the best of all in point +of conciseness and practical value. + +The last to enter the lists, though not under the auspices of the 'Pall +Mall Gazette,' is Mr. Frederic Harrison, who comes armed with a volume +entitled 'The Choice of Books,' though four-fifths of the contents have +strayed far away into such remote pastures as 'The Opening of the Courts +of Justice,' 'A Plea for the Tower of London,' and 'The Æsthete.' With +the small residue of the book, which has remained faithful to the +titlepage, we have little fault to find. Mr. Harrison, as might be +expected, regards everything through the spectacles of Auguste +Comte--'hinc omne principium, huc refer exitum.' Comte's 'Syllabus,' to +which we have already referred, was the basis of at least one of his +essays, and is the subject of his closing remarks. + +For our present purpose, the first article, 'How to Read,' is +undoubtedly the most valuable and practicable. It deals in a +straightforward and vigorous manner with many of the snares and +difficulties by which the reader is beset, and sweeps away much of the +sentimental, sickly, criticism which is unfortunately prevalent at the +present time. We think, however, that Mr. Harrison is inclined to raise +the standard of taste too high for the mass of general readers. + + 'Putting aside the iced air of the difficult mountain tops + of epic, tragedy, or psalm, there are some simple pieces + which may serve as an unerring test of a healthy or vicious + taste for imaginative work. If the "Cid," the "Vita Nuova," + the "Canterbury Tales," Shakspeare's "Sonnets," and + "Lycidas" pall on a man; if he care not for Malory's "Morte + d'Arthur" and the "Red Cross Knight"; if he thinks "Crusoe" + and the "Vicar" books for the young; if he thrill not with + the "Ode to the West Wind" and the "Ode to a Grecian Urn"; + if he have no stomach for "Christabelle," or the lines + written on "The Wye above Tintern," he should fall on his + knees and pray for a cleanlier and quieter spirit.' + +Now we believe that there is many a humble aspirant to literary taste on +whom the above paragraph will produce an effect similar to that of 'iced +air and mountain tops' by taking his breath away. Literary palates are +mercifully endowed with tastes and appreciations as varied as mere +bodily palates, and we must protest against any such Procrustean method +of ascertaining whether a man's 'spirit be cleanly and quiet,' or, which +is terrible to contemplate, the reverse. On another page Mr. Harrison +himself loudly deprecates and disclaims any narrow or sectarian view; he +is nothing if not Catholic in his tastes. 'I protest that I am devoted +to no school in particular; I condemn no school; I reject none. I am for +the school of all the great men; and I am against the school of the +smaller men.' + +All taste must be founded on knowledge, and between the hard, dry +teaching of the Board School or the Examination Room on the one hand, +and the ætherial atmosphere of Desultory Reading and the purest literary +discernment on the other, there lies an intermediate region, a +'penumbral zone,' which differs from the first in that it is entered +voluntarily, and from the second in that it is attainable by all who +care to enter it. The way through this region, though pleasant is +laborious; system, accuracy, and discipline are essential to him who +would traverse it. To be a desultory reader, in the sense defined by +Lord Iddesleigh, a man must first have been a student; and not to every +student is given the temperament, capacity, and opportunity, to become a +desultory reader--still less can every student aspire to that refined +literary taste, which Mr. Harrison possesses in so large a measure, and +which, in its characteristics, he describes so well. + +So far as modern literature is concerned, it may be said, that the +Reviewers are, by their skill and experience, qualified to direct, and +ever ready to aid the wayfarer; and in theory this is true. But, putting +aside the few leading journals and periodicals, daily and weekly--of +which we would only speak with the greatest respect--we fear that the +reviewer's art is at a low ebb in these days. Often the side breezes of +controversy, of private jealousy, or of personal interest, intervene to +divert straightforward criticism; still more often does absolute +incompetence render these guides worthless. A score of books may be +seen, huddled together in an unbroken column of so-called criticism, +with no other bond of union than their publication in course of the same +week. The interested author, wading through this disconnected mass, +suddenly stumbles on a few words extracted--possibly perverted--from his +own preface, to which a line of commonplace commendation is affixed; and +he then suddenly encounters a subject as far removed from his own as the +'Republic' of Plato is distant from 'Called Back.' + +Among all these discordant voices, who shall help us to detect the true +ring? Thrice happy are those privileged few who enjoy the loving care +and supervision of some wise mentor to guide their choice and to watch +their progress; but for the multitude, to whom such a privilege is +denied, a good classified list, not excluding recent works, carefully +sifted and added to by the most prominent men of the day, would be of +inestimable value. + +In the first place, a connected chain of histories, from the earliest +times to the present day, with a selected list of contemporary memoirs +and biographies, would throw a guiding gleam of light on thousands who +are wandering, dark and aimless, in a labyrinth of 'masterpieces.' In +this enquiry system is essential. Of desultory comments, charming and +instructive in themselves and valuable in the formation of taste, we +have abundant store. Who that has read Emerson's 'Essay on Books,' or +Charles Lamb's 'Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading,' or Isaac +Disraeli's 'Curiosities of Literature' and 'Literary Character,' or +Byron's brilliant and impulsive criticisms on books and authors, can be +without some kindling of enthusiasm and of desire to know more fully the +great works thus passed in critical review? But the essential +characteristics of such commentaries as these are snares to the student. +The temptation to pass from one subject to another is inseparable from +treatment of this kind, and so becomes a hindrance to more earnest +application. + +Dibdin's 'Library Companion' in some respects fulfils the requirements +we have mentioned; but apart from the fact, that the information it +contains is now in a great measure obsolete, too much space is devoted +to the description and value of choice and rare editions. It is a +book-buyer's rather than a reader's guide. Perkins's 'The Best Reading' +is too bald a catalogue, and requires a vast amount of sifting, and the +addition of a few words of running comment to render it serviceable. It +lacks, in short, the characteristics of a _catalogue raisonnée_. + +The Historical List which we have proposed should be prefaced by a +chronological table, indicating the epochs into which the World's +History divides itself, and the periods covered by each of the works +recommended. This would give the student a bird's-eye view of the field +which he is about to explore, and enable him, at any moment in his +exploration, to take his reckonings and verify his position. + +Careful distinction should be made between Chroniclers and Historians, +between those who have provided the materials and those who have +designed and reared the complete structure. Sometimes these chroniclers +have furnished merely rough and unhewn stones, useful in themselves, +but with no pretence to artistic finish or individuality of character; +and these have been absorbed into the building. Other chronicles, again, +are perfected in form, and are not merely integral, essential portions +of the complicated structure, but become a source of endless pleasure +from the merit of their workmanship. Thucydides and Clarendon are +universally read, while Hecatæus has all but vanished; and Thomas May's +'History of the Long Parliament,' though pronounced by Lord Chatham to +be a 'much honester and more instructive book of the same period than +Lord Clarendon's,' is relegated to the shelves of the specialist or the +bookworm. + +Histories are scarcely less ephemeral than books of science; and the +object of the list we are advocating is not to provide an exhaustive +catalogue, a task which in these days would overtax the capacity of +half-a-dozen Dr. Johnsons, but to select those works which will give the +best continuous narrative of the period under discussion, and represent +the most recent scholarship; omitting those which have been absorbed or +superseded. + +Mitford and Gillies have given place to Thirwall and Grote; and even the +star of Hallam, outshining De Lolme, is beginning to wane before the +searching light which, by the publication of State Papers and other +archives, is being brought to bear on the History of England and of +Modern Europe. But such materials, though ruthlessly relegating much of +what we have hitherto regarded as the 'Pearls of History' to the +category of 'Mock Pearls,' cannot immediately be made available for the +ordinary student, or become absorbed into the popular histories of the +day. We can ill spare from our list the names of those writers, who, +from Livy to Lord Macaulay, have added a fascination to the study of +history; though in their works most beautiful Mock Pearls abound. But +the student should be warned against implicit reliance on their records. + +To Clarendon has been ascribed the honor of being the first Englishman +who wrote History, as we regard it; his predecessors having been in the +main mere chroniclers or annalists. Clarendon elaborated the picture of +which these annalists had merely supplied the materials; and the +eighteenth century saw the development of this new method in the +brilliant triad of contemporaries, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon. Our own +age has witnessed a further advance in the school of philosophical +historians, who, without aiming at any connected narrative of events, +present to us the profound lessons which history teaches; pointing out +the far-reaching causes which have influenced and are influencing +events occurring in widely distant countries; causes and events which to +the superficial observer seem totally disconnected. This philosophical +category would form one of the most interesting, and in these days, when +political empiricism shows a growing tendency to supplant statesmanlike +research, not the least important portion of our historical list. If to +this main stem of History there be added the due complement of branches +and leaves--memoirs and biographies--the Plutarchs and Pepyses, the +Walpoles and St. Simons, the Crokers and Grevilles of each +generation--we shall have a tree of knowledge which would yield to none +in point of interest and utility. + +We have dwelt at some length on this part of the subject, first, because +of its almost unlimited extent; and secondly, because, owing to this +extent, there is such difficulty in making a genuine and trustworthy +selection. There is, besides, an apparently constant antagonism in +history between the qualities of strict accuracy and literary +brilliancy. The two are not incompatible, but the striving after +literary merit is as great a snare to the writer as its attainment by +the writer is, in too many cases, to the student. + +Of voyages and travels, 'I would also have good store, especially the +earlier, when the world was fresh and unhackneyed, and men saw things +invisible to the modern eye: They are fast-sailing ships to waft away +from present troubles to the Fortunate Islands.'[101] Grouped under each +quarter of the globe, we should have selections of the works of those +travellers, who, from Herodotus to Mr. Stanley, and from Marco Polo or +Captain Cook down to Miss Bird, have made us who stay at home familiar +with the remotest corners of the earth. Much of the romance of travel +has of necessity perished in these matter-of-fact days; but as the +writing of history has developed from a mere chronicle of events into a +scientific and philosophical method, so the art of travelling is now +assuming a political form under pressure of the gigantic problems which +are exercising the mind of the civilized world; and a section of +political travels, of which Mr. Froude and Baron von Hübner have +recently given us examples, should not be omitted. + +Without pretending to enumerate all the departments which our catalogue +should comprise--and most of them are too obvious to require +enumeration--we would suggest a good selection of the best translations +and editions of the Greek and Roman Classics. In mentioning translations +we, of course, disclaim any recommendation of the common 'crib,' but +refer to those scholarly works which have brought the classical +masterpieces to the very doors of the general public; such, for example, +as Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' or Prof. Jowett's 'Plato and Thucydides;' as +Lord Derby's 'Iliad,' Gifford's 'Juvenal,' or Conington's 'Virgil:' nor +is the crib more widely removed from such works as these, than, in the +matter of editions, is Anthon's 'Virgil,' for example, from Munro's +'Lucretius.' In the opinion of Mr. Harrison, this 'is the age of +accurate translation. The present generation has produced a complete +library of versions of the great Classics, chiefly in prose, partly in +verse, more faithful, true, and scholarly than anything ever produced +before.' Mr. Harrison's own essay on the 'Poets of the Old World,' goes +far to supply one at least of the branches of this section. Last, but by +no means least, do we plead for a guide to 'Children's Books.' We run +some risk in these days of competitive examinations and 'higher +education,' of placing instruction too prominently in the front, to the +exclusion of pure amusement; forgetting that it is through the +imagination that the interest of a child is most readily aroused, and +that, unless the interest be aroused, our educational labours will be +worthless. A child can live in an atmosphere of genial fiction, and +appreciate it, without the danger which lurks in a misrepresentation of +what passes around him in his daily experience. It is exaggeration, not +fiction, that is liable to injure the mind of a child. + +On the vital question, 'how to read,' the student has received matter +for careful and deliberate consideration, alike from Lord Iddesleigh and +Mr. Goschen, from Mr. Harrison and Mr. Lowell. The burden of their +advice is the same, though the forms differ; they all unite in +deprecating and deploring the hurry, the want of application, the want +of restraint which prevail in the present day. The hurrying reader, on +the one hand, and the indolent reader, on the other, are the types to be +avoided with the most scrupulous care. We suffer from an excess of +opportunities, and require to be constantly reminded that 'it is +impossible to give any method to our reading till we get nerve enough to +reject.' + +If we look through the long list of English literary celebrities, we +cannot but be struck with the large proportion of those who have +received little or no regular education in their early days, and whose +opportunities of study have been of the scantiest. Ben Jonson working as +a bricklayer with his book in his pocket: Wm. Cobbett reading his +hard-earned 'Tale of a Tub' under the haystack, or mastering his grammar +when he was a private soldier on the pay of 6d. a day; when 'the edge of +my berth or that of my guard-bed was my seat to study in; my knapsack +was my bookcase; a bit of board lying on my lap was my writing table, +and the task did not demand anything like a year of my life:' Gifford, +as a cobbler's apprentice, working out his problems on scraps of waste +leather; or Bunyan, confined for twelve years in Bedford jail with only +his Bible and 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs,' are but a few among scores of +instances which will immediately suggest themselves. + +There are many persons who are possessed with a strange and +unaccountable conviction, that to read a book and to write a book are +processes which require little, if any, previous training or +preparation. The one error is sufficiently obvious to all who pay any +attention to the great mass of cheap literature which is pouring from +our printing-presses; the other is less easy of detection. 'The first +lesson in reading is that which teaches us to distinguish between +literature and merely printed matter,' is the admirable maxim laid down +by Mr. Lowell, and this is one of the essential points in which the +personal influence of an experienced friend is of inestimable value. As +the latent beauties of some great masterpiece of art unfold themselves +to our eye under the guidance of a Kugler or a Ruskin, and we are thus +enabled to detect their presence or their absence in the works of other +hands and other schools, so in the masterpieces of literature the +realization of the points, wherein the chief merits of each lie, places +us in a position to form a standard--to possess a talisman, which shall +enable us unerringly to detect the true from the false. Mrs. Knowles +said of Dr. Johnson, 'He knows how to read better than any one; he gets +at the substance of a book directly; he tears the heart out of it.' This +faculty, which was exhibited in a marvellous degree also in Southey and +Macaulay, is as rare as it is enviable; but there are not a few who +erroneously suppose themselves to be possessed of it. The hurried, +careless, method of reading is one of the chief dangers a student should +guard against. In studying a work of biography, for example--but above +all in studying the classics--the first requisite, and one which is, as +we have said, sadly overlooked in public school teaching, is the +acquisition of a simple, general outline of the period to which the work +relates. In the fashionable phrase of the day, the books so read are +frequently not in correspondence with their environment. To him whose +views of Roman history are but a shapeless mist, if not an absolute +void, Virgil and Horace are sealed books; nor can any one who is +ignorant of Scotland and her traditions penetrate beyond the husk of +'Waverley' or 'Old Mortality.' To the young beginner a few judicious +words of explanation at the commencement of a book may serve to awaken +that interest without which reading is useless, and to make darkness +light; and, similarly, a few words of discussion, when the book is +completed, will have the effect of consolidating the floating ideas to +which the perusal has given rise. The habit of casting aside a book as +soon as the last page is read, without pondering over its contents and +recalling the argument and refreshing the memory where it has failed, or +allowing the 'frenzied current of the eye to be stopped for many moments +of calm reflection or thought,' is apt to render worthless all the +previous effort. Lord Erskine, we are told, was in the habit of making +long extracts from Burke, and Lord Eldon is said to have copied out +'Coke upon Littleton' twice with his own hand. 'Writing an analysis,' +says Archibishop Whately,[102] 'or table of contents, or index, or +notes, is very important for the study, properly so called, of any +subject. And so also is the practice of previously conversing or writing +on the subject you are about to study.' Reading can produce a beneficial +result only in proportion to the extent and accuracy of information +previously stored in the mind of the reader. Such information is like +the roots of some flourishing oak; every fresh fact is, as it were, a +new fibre confirming and strengthening the growth of the tree, and +attracting nourishment from new soil. + +'The moment you have a definite aim, attention is quickened, the mother +of memory; and all that you acquire groups and arranges itself in an +order that is lucid, because everywhere and always it is in intelligent +relation to a central object of constant and growing interest.'[103] +Bearing this in mind, we would urge the student to investigate every +unfamiliar allusion which may occur in the course of his reading or +conversation. A fact or subject thus sought out fixes itself more firmly +in the memory than most of those which are merely passed in the ordinary +course of reading. + +The use of odd moments should not be overlooked. 'Blockheads,' wrote Sir +Walter Scott, 'can never find out how folks cleverer than themselves +came by their information. They never know what is done at +dressing-time, meal-time even, or in how few minutes they can get at the +sense of many pages.' It is not possible always to have a book at hand, +but any one who will take the trouble to copy out, from time to time, +passages which have attracted his attention, and carry them about with +him to learn by heart at odd moments, may perhaps be astonished to find +how much may be acquired in this manner. + +There are some books which by their nature lend themselves to a snatchy +method of perusal, and a few minutes may often be well employed in +reading an ode of Horace, or the disjointed conversations of Dr. +Johnson, but such moments should as a rule be devoted to books which are +already more or less familiar. The habit of frivolously taking up, and +as frivolously casting aside, a book is, however, one which should be +guarded against with the utmost care. It was a strict rule in the family +of Goethe the elder, that any book once commenced should be read through +to the end. Dr. Johnson, on the other hand, considered a rule of this +kind 'strange advice; you may as well resolve that whatever men you +happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep them for life.' + +A snare, which did not exist in the time of Goethe or of Dr. Johnson, +presents itself in these days to the reader, in the ever-increasing mass +of periodical literature. But the busy man, who has not time to turn +aside from his own work to the thorough investigation of the topic of +the hour, may sometimes, in the pages of a magazine, find the case +stated tersely by distinguished advocates on both sides; and he may thus +at least discern the main positions of assailant and assailed. An +exhaustive and genuine review of a book is occasionally afforded by +periodical literature, more rarely perhaps than is generally believed; +but such essays to have any value, should be read only after the work to +which they relate, a condition that is, we fear, seldom fulfilled. + +The 'desultory reader' has now been defined and elevated. We can hardly +be mistaken in considering that by reason of Lord Iddesleigh's admirable +remarks the expression has acquired a new signification; at least a +large number of those who may have fondly imagined themselves to be +desultory readers have now been effectually eliminated from the +category. + +We live in days of 'specialism,' and the book-making specialist of our +generation probably yields to none of his predecessors in the literary +roll in respect of industry, skill, and accuracy; but his subject, as a +rule, is his business, his breadwinner. The desultory reader regards +literature as his pastime and recreation. Happy is he who has the time, +the opportunity, and the education, to become a desultory reader, in +Lord Iddlesleigh's sense of the word. + +But admitting that Desultory Dilettanteism may under certain favourable +conditions be both profitable and a fascinating attainment, and claiming +as we do a very high value for good guidance in the choice of books, we +must not lose sight of the fact, that the basis on which the main +practical question of the selection and proper use of books rests, is +not what is good in general, or in special literature, but what is +fitted for each individual man. And to discover this the man himself, or +his immediate ancestor, the youth or boy, must be examined. The +foundation of success in any sphere of life is physical and mental, +nervous and moral aptitude; and those who have to direct, or to decide +for, or to advise the young respecting their career in life, should make +the personal condition of their protégés their careful study. From the +ascertained condition the capacity of each may be discerned, and his +future capabilities may be, to some extent, foreseen. These capabilities +are the indicators of the course of reading first required; by them the +youth's career should chiefly be selected and decided on. Unfortunately +in most cases careful forethought is neglected. Qualities that actually +make the man are, in a decision that affects his hopes and happiness for +life, too often overlooked; and some mere transient incident, esteemed +perhaps a stroke of fortune, is accepted, without any hesitating thought +about the suitability of its results, as a sufficient introduction to +the business of the world. The consequence of this neglect is obvious +enough. In every social and commercial sphere we find men drudging on in +hopeless slavery, or ruined by the natural revolt of sensibilities that +could not be controlled, against the influence of circumstances wholly +inappropriate, and for which these sensibilities, most useful in their +proper sphere, were not of course designed. + +A young man's very desultory reading will perhaps be one of the most +useful means for finding what his life's career should be. Knowing +himself, or being known, as has been said, by those directing him, and +by his own discursive reading having learnt what work for his peculiar +abilities is open for him in the world, he probably will judge quite +readily what line of study he should at first pursue, and following out +this clue, at first by the aid of judicious external guidance, he will, +with ever-increasing self-reliance and discrimination, proceed to fulfil +the requirements of education and the inclination of his own mental +disposition. This method of development is the natural order by which +intellectual growth, by means of books, or any other means, proceeds. To +make a choice of certain hundred books for any man's perusal, in his +youth or afterwards, is but a feat of cleverness, arousing curiosity or +wonder, but evolving nothing--ending in the choice. A man may be +possessed of any number of good books; and possibly a thousand books +might be selected, all of which would be by general consent called +excellent, and worth possessing; and perhaps he would be none the +better for them all. Young men do not require a hundred books at once. +Indeed the fewer well-selected books a youth has to begin with, the more +safe he is against excessive loss of time. His most important question +is not, what shall I read? but, what need I read? The student's care +should be to read as little, and to think as much as possible. Thus, he +will find what thing it is that he at any time immediately requires to +know, and he will make this pressing need the object of his next +acquirement in books. This method tends to education; it develops mental +power, and makes a cultivated man. A hundred books procured and read +without appropriate sympathy, and interest, and thought, will merely +make an animated bookcase of the man. + +Not only should the student's books be few, but as he reads he should be +constantly upon his guard. Most readers read to be informed or to be +entertained; and books of information are absorbed as if all printed +statements must of course be true, or even if not true must, as a +record, be worth knowing. This omnivorous, careless style of reading is +a grievous waste of life and energy. Were books read with critical, +enquiring thought, the time misspent in reading would be wholesomely +reduced, and readers would increase in mental power in due proportion to +their increased information. + +In books of entertainment, and especially of fiction, corresponding +carefulness is necessary. There are books among the best which are, in +various degrees and ways, of evil influence, and should be read with +caution and reserve. To yield one's self to the enjoyment of an +entertaining book may be as foolish as to give one's self into the hands +of an untried agreeable companion. Ability to please is to these +incautious subjects of it a most dangerous influence; and books as well +as men when most attractive should be treated warily. In Rabelais and +Swift, in Fielding and Smollett, coarse manners must be reprobated. In +George Eliot's novels, with exceptions, and in 'Jane Eyre,' there is a +subtle taint that is unwholesome to the unguarded reader. Thackeray too +frequently compels us to associate with evil company; and, while +admiring the writer's skill, the reader should keep well outside of +almost every group in Thackeray's novels. + +Distinct alike from the progressive student and the discriminating +reader, is an abundant class who, without individuality, and mere +omnivorous devotees of books, chiefly reading the lighter literature of +the day. These people, through excess and self-indulgence, become +feeble-minded, intellectually dissipated, and incapable of serious +study. In every rank of life the book-devouring vice abounds; but +chiefly among women, girls, and boys; men finding in the newspapers +their daily pabulum. This thoughtless, fragmentary, reading has +debilitated the contemporary mental fibre of the nation; and has so +absorbed the time, we cannot say the attention, of the immense majority +of the reading public, that many of them are ignorant even of the +existence of the standard works of literature. The late discussion, +therefore, about books has been of use; it has made known to the great +community of people, who now can read, the fact, that there are certain +books, a hundred more or less, far more worth reading than the popular +and periodical literature of the day. If this discovery could be +impressed upon the public mind with practical effect, the result would +be a beneficial change in their condition. The abundant tattle and +affected interest about names and things of mean and transient +notoriety, and the discursive dinner-table gossip of the world would +then perhaps subside; and English conversation would become a constant +and a beneficial intellectual enjoyment. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[99] Croker's 'Boswell,' pp. 767, 8vo. ed. + +[100] 'The Choice of Books,' p. 37. + +[101] Mr Lowell's Address at the dedication of the Free Public Library, +Chelsea, Massachusetts. + +[102] Notes to Bacon's 'Essays.' + +[103] Mr. Lowel. + + + + +Art. IX.--1. _Popular Government. Four Essays._ By Sir Henry Sumner +Maine. Second Edition. London, 1886. + +2. _Democracy in America._ By Alexis de Tocqueville. Translated by Henry +Reeve. New Edition. London, 1862. + +3. _On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789._ +Translated by Henry Reeve. Second Edition. London, 1873. + +4. _Correspondence and Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with +Nassau W. Senior, 1834-59._ London, 1872. + +5. _On the Government of Dependencies._ By Sir George Cornewall Lewis. +London, 1841. + +6. _On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion._ By the Same. +London, 1849. + +7. _A Dialogue on the best Form of Government._ By the Same. London, +1863. + +8. _The English Constitution._ By Walter Bagehot. Revised Edition. +London, 1883. + + +Of the latest Work on the Characteristics of Democracy we are precluded +from speaking, as Sir Henry Maine's valuable Essays first appeared in +the pages of this Review. But we desire on the present occasion to call +attention to some writers on the subject, who are almost unknown to a +younger generation, or known only by occasional references made to them +by those who were well acquainted with the writers and their works. And +among these half-forgotten names few perhaps will recur more frequently +in the recollections of the best-informed men of from forty-five to +sixty, or more surprise those who have entered on life since their +owners left it, than those of Alexis de Tocqueville, Nassau William +Senior, and Walter Bagehot. Among the statesmen of the last generation, +few who will fill so small a space in history are so often or so +reverently quoted by those who remember Lord Palmerston's Government, +the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny, as Sir George Cornewall Lewis. +Most men under forty will hear with surprise that in the City, at least, +he was deemed a sounder and safer financier than Mr. Gladstone; honoured +as the Chancellor of the Exchequer who first redeemed the financial +reputation of the Whigs from the discredit that had clung to the party +of retrenchment and reform for a whole generation. Of the small minority +who know him as the founder of the English school of historical +sceptics, how many have heard of his multifarious literary and political +works, or his shrewd, genial, two-edged, criticisms on public and social +life? It seems too probable that our grandchildren will retain nothing +of his save the characteristic saying, that 'life would be very +tolerable but for its pleasures;' and _that_, probably, will be assigned +to some more famous and far less wise _causeur_ or phrasemaker, losing +half its force in the transfer. Even Mill is known to the passing and +the rising generation by different works and diverse characteristics. To +the one he is little more than the greatest, most original, and most +heretical of English economists; a standard author on logic and +metaphysics. The other prefers to remember him by his later and lesser +writings; those sexagenarian and posthumous Essays, in which the riper +wisdom of a mind, very slow to learn the lessons of practical life, was +gathered, and the wilder errors of his earlier theories modified or +corrected. Much of that which is really best in his thought and +teaching, set forth in these last writings, bears a close analogy to the +views of Tocqueville Senior, and Bagehot, and shows that a tardy, +hardly-acquired, unwillingly accepted, knowledge of men and women, of +the real and ineradicable tendencies of human nature, brought the giant +of the closet into nearer accord with the practical philosophy of a man +like Sir George Cornewall Lewis, wise, calm, and judicial, by natural +temper, wiser yet by the closet-study which had analysed the experiences +of the literary, business, and political, world, of administration, +Parliament, and the Cabinet. + +One common and very striking feature characterizes the political +thought of all these men--all of them Liberals in more than mere nominal +profession or party connection. All regarded the triumph of Democracy as +near and inevitable, and all, from different points of view, regarded it +with a mixture of resignation and distrust, strangely significant in men +of such different views, of such diverse character, mental training, and +personal experience. None of them were fatalists, much less pessimists; +none inclined _à priori_ to that political superstition which +recognizes, in the tendencies of a thing so uncertain and changeful as +the spirit of the age, the hand of Providence, or the indication of +'manifest destiny.' All were men of more than average independence of +temper, an independence which, in one or two, approached nearly to that +which practical politicians call impracticability. None of them were +disposed to be silent when the many-headed Cæsar had spoken. Mill's most +striking, and--to the credit of Democracy be it spoken--most popular +characteristic, was a stern and almost pardoxical defiance alike of +personal consequences and of public opinion. On the verge of his +entrance into public life he affronted the working-classes by telling +them, with more than Carlylese directness and exaggeration, that they +were 'mostly liars.' If ever there were a man sure to protest to the +last against false doctrines and mischievous tendencies, to protest the +more fiercely the more certain their victory seemed, it was John Stuart +Mill. + +Tocqueville, conscious of no common political and administrative +capacity--a statesman whose strong popular sympathies, practical wisdom, +contempt of popular catchwords, knowledge of and respect for concrete +facts; above all, whose signal freedom from the characteristic +weaknesses and vices of French statesmanship, rendered him the fittest +of all men to direct the destiny of France, whose counsels and guidance +would have saved her from all the worst mistakes and most signal +disasters--was content to spend a lifetime first in opposition, +afterwards in absolute exile from public life, rather than go 'the way +that was not his way for an inch.' An Orleanist, an enthusiastic lover +of Parliamentary institutions, he would not stoop with Guizot and Thiers +to serve a King whose power was founded on corruption. A minister of the +President, he held aloof as sternly from the despotism of the Empire as +from the factions of the Republican Assembly. He never designed to +conceal or soften the expressions of the most unpopular sentiments or +convictions. + +Sir George Cornewall Lewis was an eminently English statesman, fully +aware of the necessity of mutual concession--more willing than most to +be guided as a Minister by the tradition of his office, to leave the +administration for which he must answer in Parliament to the practical +experience of his permanent subordinates--but one whom, assuredly, no +one ever accused of undue pliancy, or excessive deference to party or +popular feeling. + +Mr. Bagehot alone of the three was a man likely, _coeteris paribus,_ +to prefer the winning side; to believe that the belief of the many was +likely to be right; looking, however, to the opinion of the many +educated and thoughtful rather than of the many ignorant and +over-occupied. Yet all agree at once in treating the coming rule of +numbers almost as a law of nature, which it were folly to criticize and +madness to resist; and in anticipating its advent with doubt and +distrust, with deep and sometimes gloomy apprehension. Their constant, +thoughtful concurrence in both convictions, their equal assurance that +pure Democracy was dangerous and that it was inevitable, deserves a +profound significance from their utterly distinct points of view; from +the utter unlikeness of their tempers, their experience, and their +natural bias. + +Sir George Cornewall Lewis, as a Liberal politician, was decidedly +distrustful of electoral reform, and accepted it only as a party +necessity. His personal delight in the exposure of popular errors, his +insistence on the value of authority, and the immense extent of the +sphere in which the thought and conduct of the many are necessarily +controlled by the authority of the few, the spirit of such books as his +'Essay on the Government of Dependencies' are those of a mind wholly +adverse to democratic theories, and intensely mistrustful of popular +judgments. He was not fascinated by what he describes as 'the splendid +_vision_ of a community bound together by the ties of fraternity, +liberty, and equality, exempt from hereditary privilege, giving all +things to merit, and presided over by a government in which all the +national interests are faithfully represented.' He put these words into +the mouth of the advocate of Democracy in his 'Dialogue on the best form +of Government,' which he published shortly before his death. In this +work his own views are expressed in the person of Crito. + + 'Even if I were to decide in favour of one of these forms, + and against the two others, I should not find myself nearer + the solution of the practical problem. A nation does not + change the form of its government with the same facility + that a man changes his coat. A nation in general only + changes the form of its government by means of a violent + revolution.... The history of forcible attempts to improve + governments is not cheering. Looking back upon the course of + revolutionary movements, and upon the character of their + consequences, the practical conclusion which I draw is, that + it is the part of wisdom and prudence to acquiesce in any + form of government, which is tolerably well administered, + and affords tolerable security to person and property. I + would not, indeed, yield to apathetic despair or acquiesce + in the persuasion that a merely tolerable government is + incapable of improvement. I would form an individual model, + suitable to the character, disposition, wants, and + circumstances of the country, and I would make all + exertions, whether by action or by writing, within the + limits of the existing law, for ameliorating its existing + condition, and bringing it nearer to the model selected for + imitation; but I should consider the problem of the best + form of government as purely ideal, and as unconnected with + practice; and should abstain from taking a ticket in the + lottery of revolution, unless there was a well-founded + expectation that it would come out a prize.' + +The conservatism of Lewis was that of a profoundly sceptical instinct, +of practical cautious incredulity. Bagehot's was the conservatism of +middle-class English thought and experience. Tocqueville's was that of +wide observation and bitter disappointment. Mill was a Conservative only +so far as conservatism was forced upon a mind essentially radical and +even revolutionary, imbued with a profound faith in abstract principles +leading far beyond universal suffrage to, if not across the verge of +communism, by the danger which he foresaw to individual liberty and +unfettered intellectual freedom from the ascendency of mere numbers. +Upon this point he agreed closely with Tocqueville, though upon nearly +every other their views were as opposite as their character and +experience; and their teaching has been fully confirmed by the actual +working of the most successful, the most tolerant, and the most +fortunately situated democracy that the world has ever seen. + +The tendency of Democracy to naked despotism is obvious enough in the +recent history of France; but sanguine democrats ascribe the special +experience of France to the intense centralization inherited, as +Tocqueville shows, by the Republic, the Constitutional Monarchy and the +Empire from the _Ancien Régime_; the absence of any local school of +practical discussion, mutual tolerance, and co-operation; the bitterness +of factions fighting not for administrative or legislative control, but +for fundamentally incompatible forms of Government,--to anything rather +than the unfitness of the French nation for Teutonic liberties. +Conservative pessimists and democratic optimists can only find a common +ground, a test which both will accept, in the experience of the United +States. Whatever vices are found in American democracy must be inherent +in democracy itself; and it must be granted that, looking on the surface +of public life, the larger facts of national history, and the material +condition of the people, there is no evidence, obvious to the hasty +observer, of interference with personal freedom, of any demoralizing or +weakening influence on individual character exercised by political or +social equality. It is outside of the proper field of politics, in facts +invisible to distant observers, and not visible at a glance to +thoughtful travellers, that we must seek for proof of the bearing of +democratic institutions and ideas upon personal and social liberty, upon +the maintenance of individual and collective rights. + +Upon such a point the remarks of a leisurely, thoughtful, cultivated +writer, like Richard Grant White, a man who had enjoyed exceptional +opportunities of comparing the effect upon daily life of English +aristocracy and American democracy, are more instructive than the +elaborate treatises of political theorists or the generalizations of +historians. The testimony of such writers bears out the inference which +careful students might draw from English history, that the influence of +a local and landed aristocracy is far more favourable, than that even of +a landed democracy, to the jealous and resolute assertion of legal +rights, to a strenuous and successful resistance to the encroachments of +power, social or political, upon the property, the comfort, the liberty, +and the privileges, of individuals or communities. The moral of Mr. +Grant White's sketches of English and American life is, that the English +peasant or tradesman is far safer from practical oppression or injustice +than the American farmer or citizen; that an Englishman, whatever his +rank, is far more free to speak his mind, and far more likely to have a +mind worth speaking, than one of the same position in France, or even in +Massachusetts. The lively interest in, the diffused knowledge of, +politics and public matters, found among educated, and even +half-educated men and women throughout the upper and middle classes of +England, evidently impressed Mr. White by the contrast it presented to +the indifference of American 'Society' to State and Federal politics. He +notes particularly the higher tone, the wider knowledge, the freedom +from petty class and personal concerns, the broader range of thought, +the familiarity with subjects of general human interest, which +characterize the conversation of an English dinner-table or +drawing-room, as compared with that of American clubs and parlours. He +speaks, with the bitterness of a man often and deeply bored, of the +limited range of American table-talk, the prominence of the 'shop,' the +professional interests of each chance assemblage; the price of stocks +and railway shares, and the chances and changes of Wall Street; the +inferior tone of thought among men and women alike, in the best or at +least the wealthiest society of New York and Philadelphia. In this he is +incidentally confirmed by so observant and candid a social critic as +Laurence Oliphant. There is an American society of higher cultivation +and loftier interests; but that society, except in Boston, is +necessarily scattered and somewhat exclusive; and, standing wholly aloof +from politics, lacks the knowledge of history, of legislation, of social +and economic interests, of current opinion, of foreign affairs--which is +in itself a sort of liberal, if necessarily superficial, education. +American ladies, and even gentlemen, hardly know who are the Senators +for their State, much less who is the representative of their district; +care nothing for, and know little of, the debates in Congress, still +less in the State Legislature, deeply as these may affect the well-being +of the community, the laws under which they and their children are to +live. + +But this lack of interest in public affairs has a deeper and far more +reaching consequence. Everybody's business is nobody's business. In a +community really democratic there are no natural leaders; none bound by +rank, station, and recognized primacy, to originate resistance; none too +strong to be crushed by the animosity of a Fiske or a Gould, or +grievously wronged by a corrupt corporation like that of New York, a +dishonest political organization like Tammany Hall, or a powerful +Tramway or Railway Company. The consequence is, that not only the +individual citizen, but a whole community submits to high-handed +oppression, to administrative and judicial corruption, to impudent +usurpation and flagrant illegalities, such as the greatest of English +corporations would never dream of attempting. Perhaps the most +oppressive and insolent exactions, to which living Englishmen have as +yet submitted, are those of the Water Companies of London; but the +offenders have repeatedly been resisted and brought to justice; and it +is in London alone, the one English city which lacks natural leaders and +protectors, which is too large for any citizen or body of citizens--save +that great City Corporation which English Radicalism has marked for +destruction--to speak and act in its name, that the Water Companies +would have been endured for five years. Even in London, no such +high-handed interference with the rights of property and the comfort of +families, as the Elevated Railways of New York, with their uncompensated +destruction of individual privacy and comfort throughout many of the +wealthiest streets of the first city in the Union, would have been +obviously and utterly impossible. + +The tolerance of Democracy for what seem to English ideas the grossest +form of oppression--oppression systematic and legal, arbitrary power and +class privilege, formally embodied in the law and made a fundamental +principle of government--is illustrated by that clause of the Code +Napoleon, which exempts the whole bureaucracy of France from civil or +criminal liability. No official can be prosecuted, no redress sought at +law for the abuse of powers the most extensive, affecting every man's +daily life--powers which enable their holder to harass and almost ruin +individuals and communities at his pleasure--save by permission of the +Council of State, a body of officials inclined of course to believe and +to shield its subordinates. This law has been sustained by each +successive Government that has seized the reins of centralized power; +nor are we aware that any serious effort has been made to repeal it. + +The tyranny of democracy is, as Mill insists, the most formidable, +searching, and irresistible of all. Under an autocracy or oligarchy, +public opinion is the protector of the injured, and imposes limits on +arbitrary power. Assassination is the resort of the victim driven to +frenzy by individual oppression, and tempers the sternest despotism; but +Demos wields opinion and defies the dagger. By general confession life +is far less free, individual taste, caprice or eccentricity is kept +under far sharper restraint by fashion and feeling, in America than in +aristocratic England. At every epoch of American history, the freedom of +opinion has been curtailed at certain points within strict if +ill-defined limits. The patriots of Virginia proclaimed in 1775 that any +who dared 'by speech or writing to maintain' Royalist or Constitutional +views should be treated as an enemy of his country. A similar ban was +put some fifty years ago upon the Abolitionists of Illinois and +Connecticut. A time came when it was almost equally dangerous to +maintain the constitutional doctrines which the Abolitionists had +assailed. Nowadays, of actual persecution there is little, because there +is little need; because the repression acts, save with the most +independent, original and contradictious tempers, upon thought rather +than expression. No human intellect or character can resist the +universal, insensible, unconscious, pressure of the atmosphere which +surrounds it from the cradle. Upon certain political, social, and +ethical dogmas, wherever national pride and democratic prejudice are +touched, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that the 'unanimous +opinion' of the North and West has demoralized or extinguished thought +itself. + +Demos is not only tyrant but Pope. He feels, and his courtiers venture +openly to claim for him, not only the royalty which can do no wrong, but +the infallibility which can define right and wrong themselves. He +resents, we are told upon democratic authority, all pretension to +special knowledge. + + 'No observer of American polities' (Mr. Godkin admits in his + reply to Sir Henry Maine) 'can deny that, with regard to + matters which can become the subject of legislation, the + American voter listens with extreme impatience to anything + which has the air of instruction; but the reason is to be + found not in his dislike of instruction so much as his + dislike in the political field of anything which savours of + superiority. The passion for equality is one of the very + strongest influences in American politics. This is so fully + recognized now by politicians, that self-depreciation, even + in the matter of knowledge, has become one of the ways of + commending one's self to the multitude, which even the + foremost men of both parties do not disdain. In talking on + such subjects as the currency, with a view of enlightening + the people, skilful orators are very careful to repudiate + all pretence of knowing anything more about the matter than + their hearers. The speech is made to wear as far as possible + the appearance of being simply a reproduction of things with + which the audience is just as familiar as the speaker. + Nothing is more fatal to a stump orator than an air of + superior wisdom on any subject. He has, if he means to + persuade, to keep carefully, in outward seeming at all + events, on the same intellectual level as those whom he is + addressing. Orators of a demagogic turn, of course, push + this caution to its extreme, and often affect ignorance, and + boast of the smallness of the educationale opportunities + enjoyed by them in their youth, and of the extreme + difficulty they had in acquiring even the little they know. + There is nothing, in fact, people are less willing to + tolerate in a man, who seek office at their hands, than any + sign that he does not consider himself as belonging to the + same class as the bulk of the voters--that either birth, or + fortune, or education has taken him out of sympathy with + them, or caused him, in any sense, to look down on them.' + +Historians treat the vote of the present generation as decisive, morally +as well as practically, on the issues of the past. The people has, by +chance or caprice, passed judgment upon questions, in discussing which +consummate statesmen with intimate practical knowledge of their bearings +profoundly differed; and that judgment concludes the controversy, +determines the right or wrong, the wisdom or folly, of men like J.Q. +Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun. We have seen too +much of this abject superstition in recent English historical essays, as +well as in political polemics. It is needless to point out the debasing +effect upon all discussion of such anticipatory appeal to the arbitrary +decision of Pope or posterity. No man can reason vigorously, frankly, +forcibly, and fully, who feels that he, or the heirs of his thought, may +be forced not merely to accept defeat, but to cry '_peccavi_.' The maxim +'_securus judicat orbis terrarum_' has no place in historical +criticism; and if it had, one nation is not the world, nor the next +generation a posterity on whose experience and impartiality reliance +might be placed. + +M. de Tocqueville is known to the world chiefly by two great works. His +'Democracy in America' was the production of his early manhood. In New +England he saw democracy at its best and brightest; saw nothing of that +deterioration which the decay of the old Puritan severity, the infusion +of a strong foreign element, the corruption and the passions of the +Civil War, have confessedly caused. The colonial traditions and +principles were still in modified force; simple habits of life, a +general prevalence of competence, the absence of ostentatious wealth and +luxury, left women content to be mothers and housekeepers; a position of +which, as trustworthy witnesses allege, modern luxury, culture, and love +of leisure, have rendered them impatient; while the impossibility of +devolving their domestic duties upon servants makes the family a burden, +and maternity no longer the deepest instinct and strongest hope of +womanhood. He saw no beginning of that manifold change of morals and +manners which the survivors of an elder generation now regard with deep +dismay. His portrait of Democracy, as seen in New England, is decidedly +rose-coloured. He saw enough in the Middle and Southern States of the +working of democracy under different social conditions, to tinge that +picture with the hues of doubt, if not yet with the sombre colours of +deep apprehension. + +How apt to be partial is the widest and closest political observation is +shown by the very partial lessons derived from the experience of the New +World. Few observe how signally the history of Central and South America +contradicts the inferences so confidently drawn from the United +States--or rather from the New England of yesterday, and the present +condition of California and the States bounded by the Lakes and the +Ohio, the Mississippi and the Alleghanies. Among the States of Spanish +and Portuguese speech and civilization--it would be too much to say +blood--the failure of democracy has been complete, glaring, and ruinous. +Social and political anarchy, utter insecurity of life and property, +incessant revolution and murderous war, have been its only fruits. The +happy accident of hereditary princes, exceptionally wise, able, and +forbearing, has barely saved Brazil. The one prosperous, solvent, +orderly State between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn is the aristocratic +republic of Chili. So large, striking, and impressive a fact can hardly +have escaped a thinker like Tocqueville, whose French birth and +experience protected him in great measure from the insular ignorance, +rather than arrogance, which leads the ablest English writers to base +their political philosophy exclusively upon Anglo-Saxon experience and +examples: yet it is strange to find so striking a lesson so lightly +touched by the wisest, widest, most reflective, and best-informed, among +the political teachers of his age. + +In the _Ancien Régime_ we see the seeds of all that is worst and most +dangerous in the modern French polity: the hothouse which fostered into +a growth, unknown elsewhere, that passion of envy, which Tocqueville +regards as the radical vice, the paramount impulse, the fundamental +principle, of Democracy. The peculiar reasons for this dominant +sentiment of hatred and jealousy in the democracy of France will be +found in his own writings. Much as there was to admire in the old +nobility of France, the people saw it only in an aspect calculated to +excite unmingled hatred and contempt. It had ceased to govern, to render +any service in return for privileges, exemptions, and exactions so +odious, vexatious, and oppressive that no service could atone for them. +Even these were forgiven to the resident aristocracy of La Vendée. But +absentees supported by such exactions, an Order known to the people not +even by neglected duties and ill-directed interference, but solely by +demands and extortions unconnected with any remaining or remembered +functions, a class whose wealth and luxury were supported not by rents +or other returns paid by the tillers of the soil to its original owners, +holders, or 'lords,' but by rates, tithes, fines, heriots, monopolies +(to use the nearest English equivalents) levied for their benefit, and +levied in the worst possible way--what feelings could these excite among +a people consciously fainting beneath the load of taxes, _corvées_, +restrictions and imposts, fees and stamps, of which only a part ever +reached the empty Treasury of the State? Is it strange that so monstrous +a fabric, when those on whose living bodies it was built rose in revolt, +should have fallen with a great ruin, and have crushed all whom it had +sheltered? 'The guilt of an Order cannot palliate the massacre of its +Innocents.' True; but human nature being what it is, the unreasoning +burst of fury which strove to stamp out every trace of old institutions, +to exterminate the race of the unconscious oppressors, was less strange +than the fidelity of the Vendéans. + +And yet that massacre is in itself suggestive. The wholesale butcheries +of the Terror are accountable; even the attempt of Robespierre, St. +Just, and Barère to suppress revolt and discontent by _noyades_ and +_mitraitlades_, if fiendish, is intelligible. It had a political aim. It +satisfied a definite if diabolical desire. But the executions of +veteran philosophers, of grey-haired parish-priests, of harmless +nuns--the deliberate cold-blooded cruelty which punished with death the +resentment, the imprudence, often the mere birth, of orphaned lads; the +prayers or the tears of schoolgirls who might well hav urged the piteous +plea of Sejanus' infant daughter--these recal the indiscriminate +ferocity of wild beasts, the atrocities occasionally committed by +destructive maniacs in an excess of fury, or the infectious frenzies of +lycanthropy and similar forms of epidemic madness, rather than such +human cruelty as prompted the massacre of Drogheda, the butchery of +Melos, or the destruction of Carthage. What could schoolboys have done +worthy of the guillotine, even in the eyes of the Jacobin Club? Girls, +like children, can try the temper and patience of manhood, and among +rough men or in rough times get roughly punished; but when, save in +1793, did men ever think of killing them? There was but one fault +besides their birth--a fault almost inseparable from their birth--which +the boy-ensigns and pages, the convent-bred demoiselles, shared with +their parents; that inalienable, instinctive, inborn grace, that sense, +air, and bearing of superiority, which we find acknowledged alike by the +noble and the _bourgeois_, the _von Adel_ and the _bürger_, acknowledged +by those who regret or resent as distinctly as by those who would uphold +it. The unpardonable sin of the _noblesse_, the inheritance of which +they could not be deprived but with their lives, the secret sting that +maddened the Jacobin to slay not merely the beardless heirs but the +innocent and helpless daughters of the captured chateau, may perhaps be +hinted in a question and answer like the following, between Senior and +De Tocqueville, after the third Revolution had proved its impotence to +efface the footmarks of nature:-- + + 'I said that I was told that the distinction between noble + and _roturier_ existed in its full force in real life. + + '"Yes," said Tocqueville, "it does, meaning by noble, + _gentilhomme_; and it is a great misfortune, since it keeps + up distinctions and animosities of caste; but it is + incurable--at least, it has not been cured, or perhaps much + palliated, by our sixty years of revolution. It is a sort of + Freemasonry. When I talk to a _gentilhomme_, though we have + not two ideas in common, though all his opinions, wishes, + and thoughts are opposed to mine, yet I feel at once that we + belong to the same family, that we speak the same language, + that we understand one another. I may like a bourgeois + better, but he is a stranger." I mentioned the remark to me + of a very sensible Prussian, _bürger_ himself, that it was + unwise to send out as ambassador any not noble. I said it + did not matter in England, where the distinction is unknown. + "Yes," he replied, "unknown with you; but you may be sure + that when any of our _bürger_ ministers meets one who is + _von Adel_, he does not negociate with him on equal terms; + he is always wishing to sneak under the table."' + +In these conversations, preserved in a separate series of Senior's +Journals, we have the best, latest, and wisest, of De Tocqueville's +thoughts; none the less valuable, and to English readers all the more +intelligible and impressive, that we have them in undress; put into the +terse, pithy, concentrated style of summarized oral conversation by the +recorder, instead of being elaborately tricked out in all the formal +grace of French literary diction by one of the most fastidious of French +writers. Senior, who habitually wrote down in his Journals the +conversation of the great, wise, and thoughtful--the leaders of +political action or literary criticism, the statesmen and thinkers--with +whom in the course of a leisurely life of social observation he was +brought into intimate intercourse, had a gift of getting from each man +the best he had to give. His friends knew that their table-talk was +recorded, often themselves read and corrected the record, and therefore +gave him what they were willing to give not to the contemporary world, +but to posterity; those opinions upon the current facts of the day by +which they were willing to be judged hereafter. No opinions upon the +tendencies and consequences, the prospects and passions, the strength +and weakness of democracy, could well be more valuable than those which +the painter of Democracy in America--after the experience of many years +in the public life of France, in the Representative Chamber of the +Orleans Monarchy, and in the Legislature of the Republic,--delivered for +the benefit of readers far removed by time and distance, during the +latter months of the rickety infancy of that ill-starred Government and +the first period of the Second Empire. Tocqueville spoke from a point of +vantage, such as few other men have attained, upon a theme which he had +studied profoundly in youth, and upon which Fate had ever since been +writing elaborate commentaries. He spoke with a mind naturally calm, +candid, and judicial, enriched by a deeper knowledge than any other +Continental writer enjoyed of the working of popular institutions in +England and America, matured by the experience of a lifetime; spoke +while the most critical experiments in democratic Constitutionalism and +democratic Cæsarism were being worked out before his eyes. + +Founding a so-called Constitutional Monarchy upon a corruption as gross +as that of Walpole, Louis Phillippe had rendered his power absolute at +the price of sapping its foundation; and Tocqueville had predicted the +Revolution long before accident precipitated it--predicted it as an +inevitable result of the corruption he denounced, and indicated the +forces of silent discontent which were sure to overthrow it. In 1848, +and still more in 1871, the people of France at large turned +instinctively to those natural leaders whom at all other times they had +so persistently ostracized. Alarmed in the first case by an unexpected +and undesired triumph of the Parisian populace--in the second, chastened +by a great national disaster, without definite views or objects of their +own--they deliberately trusted their interests to the larger landowners, +whose interests must coincide with theirs; to the men of hereditary +culture, of thoughtful habits, and wider experience, in whom they +recognized a natural capacity to deal with problems that bewildered +themselves, with events that had taken them utterly unawares. But, save +at such times, and under the sobering influence of such lessons, +equality, and not liberty, is the root of French Democracy. To equality, +liberty is readily and unhesitatingly sacrificed. + + _'"Égalité,"_ said Tocqueville, "is an expression of envy. + It means in the real heart of every Republican, 'No one + shall be better off than I am;' and while this is preferred + to good government, good government is impossible. In fact, + no party desires good government. The first object of the + reactionary party is to keep down the Republicans; the + second, if it be the second, object of each branch of that + party, is to keep down the two others. The object of the + Republicans is, as they admit, _égalité_--but as for + liberty, or security, or education, or the other ends of + government, no one cares for them."' + +It was the passion for Equality that made the Second Empire possible. +The city _prolètariat_ would endure anything but a privilege of class, a +constitutional monarchy associated in their experience with an +artificial peerage and a narrow uniform franchise; the _bourgeoisie_, +terrified by socialism--that is, confiscation--would accept any +Government strong enough to put and keep down the Reds, the Anarchists, +who under the Republic had kept Paris always within a week--had brought +her more than once within twenty-four hours--of sack and pillage. The +peasantry hated privilege and Socialism with an equal and impartial +hatred. The First Empire had given them much of what they most prized in +their actual condition, and was credited with all. Its one hateful +association was incessant and at last disastrous war, anticipated +conscriptions, and foreign invasion. The Second Empire, with its promise +of peace, was the embodiment of their ideal. It promised work to the +operative, opportunities of fortune to the restless, and safe investment +to the prudent among the middle-class. Its protectorate of the Pope +secured the clergy and the women; and it mattered nothing that, crushing +under foot the freedom at once of the press and the tribune, it incurred +the bitter hatred of the intellectual classes in a country where pure +intellect is more ambitious and more immediately powerful than in any +other. It stood firm and unshaken while it kept its promise of peace and +prosperity--the firmer that it embodied so distinctly the errors and +illusions of the many, and not the less popular that it showed so +profound and cynical a contempt for the intelligence of the few. Its +Budgets alone would have been fatal to a Government resting on and +responsible to Opinion, for the rapid growth of the Debt in a time of +peace and plenty would have terrified men accustomed to sift the +'capital' and 'revenue' accounts of great Companies, and to calculate +the resources of Empires as a peasant the yield of his farm. But the +millions were content; the worse the credit of the State, the higher the +interest on their savings; the embellishment of Paris and other great +public works were a practical acknowledgement of the _droit au travail_; +and the calculations of those, who criticised the fearful waste +(_coulage_) of such a system, proved to demonstration that a spendthrift +State must come to the end of a spendthrift _rentier_--with what +consequences the Commune of 1871 bare witness--found no attention; spoke +in a tongue not understood by the people. The masses were not even +alarmed by the warnings of veteran statesmen, consummate financiers, and +_doctrinaires_ of every school. Only in those great crises when all that +is left to wisdom is a choice of calamities, as in 1848 and 1871, does +Demos abdicate; recognize for a moment that all men are not born, much +less trained to remain, free _and equal_, and entreat the pilots by +hereditary profession to see the ship of State through the breakers. + +In the criticism, and especially in the best, most thoughtful, and least +obvious criticism, provoked by the long foreseen electoral settlement of +last year, the direct and indirect influence of Mr. Bagehot's writings +was constantly to be traced. On this subject he had looked back and +looked forward farther than most political reasoners. Household suffrage +seemed to him the inevitable consequence, the logical development, of +the reform of 1832. It was at that point, as he considered, that the +right and wrong path had diverged; that chance and destiny, rather than +choice, determined at the moment the adoption of that which led +necessarily and logically to sheer Democracy. The practice of the old +system had become throughly vicious, but the underlying principle was +sound and safe. All classes, all interests, were represented; but +accident had given, not to wealth or birth, but to a particular kind of +wealth, a certain set of families, an enormously disproportionate +representation. The landed interest was wronged in the utterly +inadequate representation of the counties. Ireland was misrepresented; +and the Scotch people could not be said to be represented at all. But +every class, every great interest, had its spokesmen; exercised a direct +and independent influence in the national councils. Rotten or pocket +boroughs were not only nurseries of professional statesmanship, but a +back door through which interests, whose direct representation was +impossible, found access to Parliament. The West Indian interest, the +East India Company, and the statesmen trained in its service, with their +special knowledge and zealous care for the welfare of our Oriental +empire, could secure a hearing for views to which no English +constituency would listen. Under such a system our Australian Colonies, +the great Dominion of Canada, the English minority which sustains the +Imperial cause in South Africa, would never have complained, as now, +that their voice was unheard, their feelings unreflected, in an assembly +which is no longer merely the Parliament of Great Britain, but the +Senate of an Empire greater than that of Rome. + +The working classes were represented through those numerous +constituencies in which the scot and lot franchise prevailed. It was +imperative that the abuses of the system should be redressed; that the +new communities which had grown up since the Restoration should be +directly represented; that the borough proprietors and the great +families should be deprived of their excessive weight in Parliament; +that the middle class should acquire a power more adequate to its new +social and political importance; that Scotland, again, should be really +and directly represented. But in Mr. Bagehot's view universal and varied +representation was of more consequence than arithmetical proportion. No +class, no interest, represented in the House of Commons, was likely to +be grossly wronged, none could be neglected or unheard. No class +intelligent enough to understand its own grievances, to have distinct +ideas and desires of its own, would have failed, under a reform +retaining the principle of the old system, to command attention and +secure redress. Had Pitt been able to carry out his well-known and +thoroughly sincere scheme of practical reform, or had Canning and his +followers sided with the Whigs upon this as upon almost every other +question, reform might have anticipated revolution. It was the weakness, +rather than the will, of the Whigs that compelled them to go not only +farther and faster, but in another direction, than their actual opinions +and traditional inclinations would have carried them. They were +compelled to present a scheme broad, simple, and extreme enough, to +attract irresistible support. + +When once uniformity of franchise and proportionate representation were +made the basis of the electoral system, the extension of the former, the +more and more accurate adjustment of the latter, became a mere question +of time. The poorest class of householders in towns in 1886 are probably +as intelligent and competent as were the ten-pounders of 1832. The +masses might have been satisfied with the gradual enlargement of their +old representation; having been once disfranchised by wholesale, it was +certain that they would ere long demand and ultimately secure that +wholesale enfranchisement, by which every other class must necessarily +be swamped. Minority representation, electoral districts, and single +seats, are at best lame and unsatisfactory methods of engrafting on pure +democracy securities and checks, which were essential and natural parts +of the old representation of classes and interests. When once every +borough below a certain numerical standard had been extinguished, and +all below another deprived of their second member, the upward extension +of the principle became a logical and historical necessity. So again +much, perhaps most, of what has been written upon the contrast between +the American and English constitutions--the two great types of popular +government, Parliamentary and Presidential, the direct and indirect +election of the actual Executive, terms fixed by law or dependent upon +Parliamentary favour--was anticipated in the best chapters of Mr. +Bagehot's 'English Constitution.' + +Few writers so terse, compact, and clear, have been so completely free +from the temptation of deliberate phrase making as Mr. Bagehot; yet few +professional phrase-makers have left in the minds of their readers so +many telling, forcible, and suggestive phrases; sentences in which a +novel or striking thought, an impressive view of new or old truth, a +principle apt to be forgotten or imperfectly appreciated, is vivified +and incarnated in a few emphatic words. It would be difficult to quote +any passage of ten times the length half so suggestive of the +exceptional conditions that have secured to England peace and stability +during the last two centuries of storm and shipwreck, revolution, and +reaction abroad, any phrase so expressive of the distinctive character +of the nation and its Government, as the two aptly chosen epithets +employed by Mr. Bagehot--the 'dignified parts' of the English +Constitution and the 'deferential tendency' of the English people. In +both instances he has, as we think, overstated his point. The dignified +parts of the Constitution are more real and living, are more intimately +associated with the practical work of Government, than he was disposed +to allow. Popular deference is paid more to truth and less to fiction +than he supposed. It is eminently characteristic of the cautious English +temper, the distrust of sharp contrasts and clever paradoxes engrained +in his nature, that (so far as we remember) he never adopts the familiar +saying of Thiers, that a constitutional Prince _règne et ne gouverne +pas_. But his actual conception of the English monarchy approaches far +too near that misleading and mischievous fallacy. + +It is a little strange that so devoted a disciple of Darwin, a writer +who applied the principle of Evolution with so much skill, insight, and +success, to the life of nations and the course of politics, should have +allowed so little weight to the natural selection which operates so +powerfully upon the character of hereditary Princes and aristocracies. +It is far from obvious why so close and careful an observer should have +drawn his illustrations of the working of constitutional monarchy so +exclusively from the past, and especially from the examples of George +III. and William IV., ignoring so completely the experience of the +present reign; the deep, lasting, and for the most part wholesome, +influence exercised in European politics by men like Leopold I., Prince +Albert, and the present Emperor of Germany. Prince Bismarck owes to +Royal favour and trust the foundation of his power, the strength which +enabled him in the teeth of a short-sighted Liberal opposition to create +that Prussian army, to carry out that ruthless but eminently successful +policy of blood and steel, which excluded Austria from her place in the +Confederation, put an end to the old dualism, and achieved the union of +Germany. Italy owes everything to Cavour; but she owed Cavour to Victor +Emmanuel. The selection of Russian, Austrian, and German ministers, the +consistency of their policy, the power or rather authority, most +judiciously used by the Crown at more than one critical period of recent +English history, completely refute Mr. Bagehot's theoretical and +historical doctrine that a Parliament must be wiser than an average +sovereign. He forgets that a Prince is exempt from the influence of +party, whose disastrous action in the great crisis of the national +fortunes has been brought home of late with painful force to all +thoughtful Englishmen. + +Nor has he escaped that influence in his criticism of George III. It +would be easy to show that the modern theory of Parliamentary +Government, the theory accepted by his immediate predecessors and now +firmly established, was one on which no scrupulous and conscientious +Prince in the position of George III. could possibly have acted. The +King found throughout the earlier years of his reign, until the younger +Pitt obtained an actual potent and controlling influence in the Houses +and in the closet, that the influence which secured a Parliamentary +majority was not his ministers' but his own. The dismissal of the elder +Pitt and Newcastle broke at once the strongest coalition of aristocratic +and popular influence, the mightiest league between intellect sustained +by national confidence, borough-mongering wealth, and family interest, +that ever dominated the unreformed Parliament. It was in the King's +power to give the control of the House to whom he would--to Chatham, +Grafton, Rockingham, or North. The one thoroughly unconstitutional use +of the Royal influence, with which the King can fairly be charged, was +employed to defeat the most unconstitutional and indefensible measure +ever brought forward by a corrupt and unprincipled coalition--the India +Bill, which endeavoured to secure for Fox and North personally the power +and patronage of our Oriental Empire. The King could not shift the +responsibility of administration upon ministers who owed office and +Parliamentary support to himself. The American war was not his work. The +Stamp Act was brought in during his first illness by the minister he +most hated. The Tea Duty was the madness of Townshend; and the step, +which gave the signal for revolt, was really a remission of two-thirds +of that duty. True that the King was the last man to agree to the +disruption of the empire, the abandonment of thousands of American loyal +subjects, to lower the flag of England before her coalesced European +enemies; but in that perseverance, surely not unkingly, he had one +enthusiastic supporter; and those who censure the King pass the same +censure on the dying speech of Lord Chatham. The one fatal error of a +long and conscientious reign should be laid to the account less of +George III. than of those who betrayed Pitt's counsels and played upon +the conscientious vagaries of a half-crazed brain. + +Mr. Bagehot dwells exclusively upon the unfavourable incidents of a +royal education. He overlooks the direct and indirect influences which +are brought to bear from the very cradle upon an hereditary Prince--the +sense of responsibility, the consciousness of a great position, the +familiarity with the gravest interests, a youth passed under the tuition +of the ablest masters, and above all that constant intercourse with the +finest intellects of the age, which secure for a future King a moral and +intellectual training unequalled in its excellence. The effect of that +training we see in our own Royal family, unfortunate as they have been +in the withdrawal at the most critical period of a father's control and +guidance. Of the Queen's daughters it is needless to speak. Her sons +are, by general admission, soldiers and sailors of more than average +professional ability. The Crown Prince of Germany, the late King of +Spain, the present heir of the House of France, Leopold II. of Belgium, +and King Humbert of Italy, are generally credited with high ability; and +more than one of them would take rank among the first statesmen of his +Kingdom. A Prince of fair abilities, with such a training and such +knowledge of the men with whom he is necessarily brought into contact, +has every means of knowing, at least as well as Parliament, who are the +most competent and most trustworthy statesmen to whom he can commit the +fortunes of his Kingdom. His continuous, experience of politics, +legislation, and government, his access, especially with regard to +foreign affairs, to wider and more impartial sources of information, +lend to his counsels an authority which no prudent or thoughtful +statesman will disregard. He looks at affairs from a higher point of +view, with a wider survey as a rule, and also with a calmer and more +unbiassed judgment. + +Mr. Bagehot dwells at length on what may be called the fictitious value +of Constitutional Monarchy; and this he was evidently inclined to +exaggerate. The English people, he thought, are, as a rule, too ignorant +to understand what the Queen's Government really is--how completely it +is carried on in the Royal name by Parliamentary Ministers. For them the +law is really incarnate in the Sovereign; in yielding obedience to +magistrates and policemen, to common law and Parliamentary statutes, in +forbearing or resisting riot, they obey or uphold the Royal authority. +Were they aware that at each general election they choose their real and +effective rulers for an indefinite period, they would be confused, +alarmed, and bewildered, to a degree which would render them incapable +of a real and intelligent choice. The people--the lower orders--may have +been, when Mr. Bagehot wrote, and probably are now, somewhat wiser and +better informed as to the real character of the Government--the actual +responsibility for particular measures--than their critic supposed. But +it is beyond doubt that the Queen's name is a great power. The law is +too mere an abstraction, the names of Ministers represent too much party +feeling, excite too much antagonism, to command the prompt obedience, +the loyal reverence, the enthusiastic support which is rendered to the +name of the Sovereign. In France and America a very different feeling +prevails. + +Mr. Senior, than whom no Englishman of his day was more intimate with a +number of French statesmen of different parties, views and +character--than whom there was, perhaps, no cooler, closer, or more +constant observer of French politics--remarks that Frenchmen are always +weak and timid in upholding, daring, resolute, and even fierce in +resisting the powers that be. Confidence, enthusiasm, conviction, seem +in every case of insurrection and dangerous riot to be on the side of +the mob. The revolution of 1848 afforded very striking examples of this +contrast. The overthrow of Louis Philippe, deeply as the King himself +was disliked and despised, narrow as was the electorate, unpopular as +was the Ministry, was the act of a small minority. The Republic was +imposed upon France by a knot of reckless journalists and +semi-communistic dreamers, backed by the dreaded populace of Paris, +against the will of the peasantry who formed four-fifths of the voters, +and of the educated or semi-educated classes, amounting to one half of +the remaining fifth. Again and again was the Provisional +Government--though backed by all who had anything to lose, by all who +dreaded anarchy--on the point of overthrow, and saved only by +Lamartine's eloquence from the conspiracy of a few thousand desperadoes, +and the stormy passions of a mob that hardly knew what it wanted. The +Assembly itself was invaded and terrorized for several hours: the lives +of the leaders, to whom all France looked up with reverence, were in +imminent peril at the hands of a faction numerically insignificant. Only +in the terrible days of June did the National Guard, after four months +of distress and incessant panic, of daily and hourly fear of sack and +pillage, act with energy and decision; and even then the struggle +between the army, supported by the National Guard and the Anarchist +faction of the barricades, was long balanced and doubtful: yet the party +of order in Paris itself constituted an overwhelming majority. + +In America, New England perhaps excepted, the mob and the people, the +party of lawless force and law-abiding principle, meet on more equal +terms. No one dreams of disputing, in the last resort, the authority of +the Sovereign, but that Sovereign is invisible and inaccessible. It must +be remembered, moreover, that more than one of the hundred popular +risings, that the Union has seen during its hundred years' existence, +were risings, not against the law, but for the law against the laxity of +its administrators. This very fact makes it the more clear how uncertain +and ineffective is the authority of abstract law and an impersonal +Sovereign. The legal authorities, State or Federal, are not necessarily +representative of the power by which they are elected. In California, +after a period of anarchy, the respectable classes rose with the tacit +support of the people against the State Government which the people had +elected; deposed it almost without an effort, and established in its +place the arbitrary rule of a self-appointed Vigilance Committee, whose +members no one knew. That lawless Government hanged as many rowdies, +pilferers, highway robbers and card sharpers as it thought fit; +banished hundreds under penalty of death--a penalty sure to be +enforced--re-established order, and laid down its power without having +encountered the shadow of legal or popular resistance. We have seen an +actual insurrection of the better elements of society provoked by the +escape of murderers and other criminals through the hands of lax or +corrupt juries, and of an administration whose use of the prerogative of +mercy was imputed to partisanship or to bribery. But in a great majority +of instances, riots that have reached the proportions of insurrection +have been simply anarchical or rebellious. It is not so long since the +railway employes of Pennsylvania, striking work upon an every-day +quarrel between employer and employed, took possession of the iron +highways of the State, intercepted communication, seized the great +railway arsenal of Pittsburg, and fought a pitched battle against the +militia, as obstinate and almost as sanguinary as the minor combats of +the Civil War. While we write, another strike of the same class has +suspended the traffic of the great Western railway line. In three States +the militia have been called out to protect property and liberty, the +rights of capital, the freedom of labour, the interest of the public, +against a class insurrection; the public authorities have been forcibly +resisted, and lives have been lost in a skirmish with fire-arms between +the _posse_ of the Sheriff and the insurgent Knights of Labour. Every +American mob feels itself invested with something of the majesty of the +sovereign people. Every body of English rioters--political, social, or +simply lawless--knows and feels itself guilty of resistance to the +Sovereign. The truncheon of the police, the uniform of the soldier, +unquestionably represents the legal will of the Sovereign; and before +that will the largest and most excited multitude gives way at once. + +Mr. Bagehot overlooks the _certainty_ which personal sovereignty gives: +the absence of a moment's possible doubt on which side is that supreme +arbiter, sure to be backed by nine-tenths of the physical forces of +society. He underrates, if he does not altogether ignore, the much wider +and deeper influence of the Royal name; its power over passion as well +as over ignorance. The omnipotence of Parliament, even when, in the +belief of half the nation, a Parliamentary majority represents a +minority of the people, is due less to traditional respect for the House +of Commons, or superstitious reverence for a majority vote, such as +prevails in America, than to the fact, that resistance means rebellion, +visible, unmistakable disobedience to the Queen. It is therefore deeply +to be regretted, not for any sentimental reason, but for the sake of +order and the protection of life and property, that the democratic +changes in our Constitution are gradually undermining the habit of +submission to the Queen's Majesty which still characterizes, to a great +extent, the English people. The Services still feel proud to consider +that they serve, in their own phrase--not the State but--'the Queen.' +That sentiment of loyalty, which Mr. Bagehot ascribes to the ignorant +alone, is as strong in the upper or middle as in the lower orders; has a +far wider, deeper influence than he allows, than it was consistent with +the whole scope of his work on the English constitution to recognize. + +One of the most remarkable and interesting points in Tocqueville's +conversations, as recorded by Mr. Senior, is the value which he and +other interlocutors ascribe to the English Poor Law. Mr Senior had seen +its essential principle, the right of subsistence, worked out +farther--to extremer and more dangerous consequences--than perhaps any +other political or social experiment, before the practical common sense +of England interfered. Under the old Poor Law, at least in the rural +districts, the income of a household was regulated by its number. Every +head of a family was entitled to an allowance, increasing with its +increase, and wholly independent of his earnings. Nominal wages had been +actually forced down _below_ the starvation point. The law had +demoralized industry by placing the idlest ditcher on a level of comfort +with the best ploughman, and threatened to swallow up property in the +support of poverty. Tocqueville and his friends had seen the danger from +another point of view. The most popular and most formidable of the +dogmas of that Socialism, which had infected so deeply the _prolétariat_ +of Paris and other French cities, was in another and yet more insidious +and destructive form the doctrine of the Poor Law. The right of +subsistence was admitted by the establishment of the _ateliers +nationaux_, and asserted by the insurgents of June, 1848, under the +nobler and more dignified guise of the _droit au travail_. The State was +bound, according to that doctrine, not to keep the idle alive, but to +furnish the industrious with work suited to their skill at market rate +of wages; a rate which had no right to fall below the average standard +of an artizan's needs, or rather of his habits. + +A principle which contradicts the laws of nature is obviously false; and +the right to subsistence--if claimed not for all who do, but for all who +may, exist in a given country--yet more clearly the _droit au travail_ +of which this is the practical meaning--involves the demand, that +agricultural production shall keep pace with population. But, save for +checks all ultimately reducible to the fear of want, checks which it is +the essential object of a Poor Law to relax, population would rapidly, +in any old country, overtake subsistence. That, were the population of +England or France to multiply at an American rate, it would soon lack +standing room, is mathematically demonstrable. A poor law then must be +attended by checks on population as effective as those of Nature +herself; and from their artificial character necessarily more offensive, +revolting, and difficult to enforce. None the less, Englishmen familiar +as Senior with the ruinous operation of the old Poor Law, Frenchmen +confronted like Tocqueville by the terrible theory of the _droit au +travail_, the alarming experience of the _ateliers nationaux_, were +inclined to regard that admission of the right to subsistence--limited +to those actually born--which is the fundamental principle of the +present Poor Law, as a most valuable, if not an indispensable, guarantee +of social security; a signal instance of that practical English wisdom, +which refuses to push admitted principles, sound or false, to +consequences undeniably logical, but practically dangerous. + +It might be thought that in a Christian, and especially a Roman Catholic +country, the danger of starvation could never be very practical--that +men, and still more women and children, bearing in their forms and faces +the stamp of actual want, of pinching hunger, would never be denied. But +Senior's experiences of the Irish famine pointed to a different +conclusion. Death by famine is at last rapid, sudden, and unexpected. On +the road to Kenmare, from which many Irish emigrants were despatched to +America, corpses were daily found with collapsed stomachs _and money in +their pockets_. Hoping to reach the port, keeping their money to pay +their passage, death had overtaken them unawares; and this in the face +of organized measures of relief, the largest and most liberal that +public or private charity has ever provided. In cases of prolonged and +extreme distress, but for the Poor Law, hundreds would die of want +almost unawares, before want had overcome their reluctance to beg. And +if actual starvation were rare, yet in the absence of a recognized right +to food and shelter, the fear of starvation must be ever present. This +spectral horror, Tocqueville evidently thought, haunted the imagination +of the French operative; and had much to do with the popularity of +Socialism in a country of diffused property and general thrift, and with +the ferocity of Socialistic or Red Republican insurrections. Charity, +however liberal, is an uncertain and--to their credit be it spoken--to +the majority of French operatives, a repulsive and degrading resource. +It cannot exorcise the hideous spectre of actual famine, which, though +remote, seems ever to threaten them, their wives and their children; and +which in times of distress and depression looms terribly near, distinct, +and horrible. No wonder that men haunted by such a spectre should be +driven to gloomy envy, sullen hate, and outbreaks of ferocity worse than +those provoked by actual suffering. No wonder that any schemes, however +frantic and however unrighteous, should have charms for a class whose +reason is disturbed by the perpetual vision of that ultimate but +undeniably possible horror. We have seen in France within the last few +weeks moral portents which can hardly be ascribed to any other final +cause an atrocious murder committed by workmen, and, what is infinitely +worse, extenuated and almost approved by responsible legislators. It is +probable that the Belgian riots approach as near as any witnessed in +Europe during the last two centuries to a revolt of actual want. Belgium +has secured an artificial manufacturing prominence--a disproportionate +trade to hard toil and low wages. The latter had lately been forced down +to the _minimum_, as profits had been well-nigh extinguished, by the +general depression of business. In fear of actual want, the populace +rose, wasted farms, destroyed factories, plundered and levied +blackmail--in a word, tried to inflict on others the misery that had +maddened themselves. The word has been given to the most quiet and +law-abiding people in Europe _to defend themselves_: a step far more +significant of stern intentions than the sharpest military repression. +Yet the Government is forced to accompany its preventive measures with +an expenditure of 20_s_ per head of the population on public +works--equivalent to an English rate in aid of twenty millions! Could +there be a more conclusive proof that the dread of hunger is a real and +a terrible power for evil among Continental nations; that their choice +lies, in a word, between a recognition of the right to subsistence--a +Poor Law with severe labour tests and restrictions--and periodical, +spasmodic measures of relief enforced by insurrection? Or can there be a +doubt, that the latter is infinitely the more dangerous and demoralizing +alternative: that only the adoption of a Poor law can prevent the +lessons of 1886 from shaking the very foundations of order, property and +civil government in countries situate as are France and Belgium? + +It seems strange that French Democracy should not have long since +insisted on laying for ever the spectre of starvation by a Poor Law more +liberal than that of England. It must be remembered, however, that the +democracy of France is a propertied and landed democracy, heavily +burdened with taxes and interest on mortgages, pinched by necessity, +and pinching itself by thrift. No class is so hard to want, so ruthless +to idleness, as a peasantry which wins for itself a bare subsistence by +constant toil, and provides for the future by constant self-denial. + +The temper of a progressive and prosperous democracy is very different. +Many, perhaps most of the American States, are without a Poor Law. +Slavery dispensed with it, and the race antagonism consequent on the +manner and circumstances of emancipation has rendered a thorough +revision of social relations--a systematic attempt to meet the new and +very exceptional conditions of Southern society in its present +form--hitherto impossible. Yet, by the confession of one of their +bitterest enemies, no people are so tender, so generous, so lavish of +active sympathy towards the sick, the bereaved, and the unfortunate. In +States which, probably from an instinct under their circumstances just +and wise, refuse to recognize the right to subsistence by a legal +provision for the poor, whereby the idle and vicious would chiefly +benefit, nevertheless paupers by the visitation of God--the aged and +infirm, the blind, the deaf, and dumb, lunatics and idiots--are amply +provided by public and private charity with all that can alleviate their +lot: or teach them, as far as possible, the means of self-dependence. +American charity towards the victims of great natural catastrophes, far +more common there than here--communities burned out by a forest fire, or +ruined by a flood--and yet more the personal sacrifices made, the +readiness with which men and women devote their leisure thought, and +energy to the supervision of public institutions, the efficient +distribution of public subscriptions, the succour and nursing of a +community stricken by pestilence, are above praise. A careful study of +Transatlantic examples might put our own boasted lavishness of charity +to shame. + +Even in England, organized private charity, wisely directed, might +surely contrive to effect a discrimination between those who are paupers +by vice, unthrift, and idleness, and those whom God has striken for no +fault that humanity is entitled to pass judgment upon; between the +fitting inmates of the workhouse, and those--helpless from age, +infirmity, accident, and disease--to whom the associations of the +workhouse are humiliating, painful and demoralizing. Nothing is more +essential, under democratic rule, than the maintenance of due severity +towards those who will not work; nothing more likely to relax that +needful severity than its indiscriminate application to those who +cannot. + + + + +ART. X.--1. _Fourth Midlothian Campaign._ Political speeches delivered, +November, 1885, by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. Edinburgh, 1886. + +2. John Morley: _The Irish Record of the New Chief Secretary, 1886._ + +3. _Ireland; A Book of Light on the Irish Problem._ Edited by Andrew +Reid. London, 1886. + +4. _Home Rule._ Reprint from the 'Times' correspondence, &c. 1886. + +5. _Social Order in Ireland. Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union._ Dublin, +1886. + +6. _Speech of Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons, April 8, 1886, on +moving for leave to bring in a Bill to make provision for the future +Government of Ireland._ + + +The fate of the scheme for the Government of Ireland, which Mr. +Gladstone disclosed in the House of Commons last week, has been +practically determined. Whether the Bill be rejected on the second +reading, whether amidst the currents of adverse opinion which have +already set in, it slowly goes to wreck upon the shoals of Parliamentary +procedure, its ultimate doom is already settled, but the mischief which +has been done will not be removed so promptly. A great blow has been +struck at the United Kingdom. The proposal to recognize Irish +nationality as a political force apart from Great Britain--a proposal +made by a Prime Minister, a leader of a great Parliamentary party--will +for many a day to come stimulate in Ireland all the elements of +disorder, which a noble series of statesmen, from Burke to Peel, have +resolutely laboured to eradicate. + +It was no surprise to the House that had listened to the marvellous +dream of Mr. Gladstone, when Mr. Parnell rose to express his gratitude +in terms almost of emotion:-- + + 'It will prove a happy and fortunate thing, both for Ireland + and England, that there was one man living, one English + statesman living, with the great power and the extraordinary + ability of the right hon. gentleman to lend his voice on + behalf of poor helpless Ireland. He had devoted his great + mind, his extraordinary energy to the unravelling of this + question and to the construction of this Bill.... To none of + the sons of Ireland--at any time has there ever been given + the genius and talent of the right hon. gentleman--certainly + nothing approaching to it in these days.' + +The people, whom a few months ago Mr. Parnell denounced as representing +to him and his friends 'imprisonment, chains and death,' now came to +offer him a scheme of Irish nationality, and Shylock, recognizing the +wisdom of the sham Balthazar, was not more appreciative: 'A Daniel come +to judgment, yea a Daniel,' but, like Shylock, Mr. Parnell relied upon +his bond. Whilst he accepted the offering with the effusion of a +successful speculator, he took care to remind his hearers that he was +not bound to take it in discharge of his claim. He reserved any +'definite or positive expression of opinion;' 'there were undoubtedly +great faults and blots in the measure,' but he could safely say, +'whavever might be the fate of the Bill, the cause of Ireland, the cause +of Irish autonomy, will enormously gain by the genius of the right hon. +gentleman.' This is the solid result of the strange events which have +been passing for the last three months. A distinguished public man has +been called to office by the Parnellite vote. He has demanded and +obtained ample time to consider the difficulties of his position and +offer his solution. + +A glance at the new scheme shows that the proposal is at once +disingenuous and fantastic. The Prime Minister shrinks from admitting +the nature of the work he is engaged in. He breaks up the unity of the +Kingdom, but he will not allow that his Bill involves the repeal of the +Union. But whatever quibbles may be indulged in, the main principle of +the Act of Union, that Ireland should be represented at Westminster is +swept away. As Irish nationality is not to be ignored, it finds +expression in a Parliament in Dublin; but Ireland is to pay a +contribution towards the debt and towards public defence, and in the +application of this money is to have no voice. Thus we have Irish +nationality started with machinery which sets aside the first principle +of free governments, that there should be no taxation without +representation; and the internal arrangements of the Dublin Parliament +are equally suggestive of confusion in the future. + +The Prime Minister does not ask Parliament to disregard the risks to +which property and loyalty will be exposed in the Dublin Assembly, and +he proposes to satisfy our conscience by giving them the security of +representation in Dublin by a special Order. The Dublin Parliament is +divided into two Orders, each of which shall have a veto on the +legislation of the majority. The First Order consists of persons who +must be possessors of 4000l. or an equivalent income. That is their +personal qualification, and they are to be elected by occupiers rated at +25l. Property qualification for Members of Parliament was abolished in +England some thirty years ago. Rating, as a qualification for electors, +has been abandoned in a series of deliberate public measures from 1866 +to 1885; but it is these old clothes of English Parliaments which Mr. +Gladstone offers to his new nationality. Why should these expedients be +adopted in Ireland? Checks upon legislative action, a second Chamber, a +Second or a First Order, are questions upon which theorists are divided. +They are certainly not questions which have occupied the National +League. These 'Orders' in Parliamentary life are not native Irish ideas. +These reproductions of quaint customs, such as we might find in some +ecclesiastical synod, or in the village organization of some old +Scandinavian community, are England's guarantees for the security of +property in the Sister Island. That Island, we know, has been abandoned +for some years to the National League, whose power was founded on their +opportunities of excommunicating any one who did not subscribe to their +funds and obey their decrees. The principle of the National League was +that property in land was an outrage on Irish opinion; and we are asked +to believe that this American-Irish organization, clothed with +Parliamentary power in Dublin, will be kept in check by a device, which +has no sanction in ancient tradition, in local sympathy, in recognized +opinion. The First Order in the new Chamber will be so many people +marked out for plunder. If any one possessing 4000l. worth of property, +which he can convert into cash, is venturesome enough to accept a seat +in the Chamber, what will become of him and his electors, people who are +scheduled in each locality as the owners of property rated at 25l. a +year? The majority of them in the South and West will be tenants who +have not dared to pay their rents, because the National League +prohibited the payment. Let us suppose people are found to constitute +the First Order, and they veto some scheme of the majority, and a +general election occurs, will the expedients which have made the League +what it is be suddenly forgotten? Can we doubt that the First Order and +its electors would be straightway boycotted out of existence? The +Ministerial proposal is an attempt to meet the views of Mr. Parnell; +and, without admitting that it is all he requires, the Irish leader +cordially accepts it, but he wants, he has told us, 'the full and +complete right to arrange our own affairs and make ours a nation--to +secure for her, free from outside control, the right to direct her own +course among the peoples of the world.' We are asked to suppose that he +and his friends, started in their new career, will be stopped by such a +ridiculous invention as this First Order. And it is a project like this, +inconsistent with itself, implying constitutional degradation of the +very people whom it is supposed to conciliate, patched up with strange +curiosities as unknown in England as in Ireland, which Parliament is +asked to accept as a 'final settlement' of our Irish difficulties. + +The Bill proposed settles nothing. Its only result is a renewed +manifestation of the power and influence of the Irish agitator. In this +extraordinary state of affairs men are apt to forget the series of +events which have brought about our present condition. Ministries come +and go at the bidding of Mr. Parnell. English policy in the future, +important schemes affecting the gravest concerns of England, of +Scotland, of Ireland, depend not on any principle accepted by the +British public, but on the humour of the Irish leader. The existence of +the House of Lords, the legal position of the Church of Scotland, the +maintenance of our most important military reserve, the right of the +Sovereign in relation to peace and war, are exposed to critical +divisions, not because British opinion is eager for revolution, or has +become indifferent to the vast interests involved, but because the +Nationalist party wish to remind us of their voting power. + +Our alarm at all this should not make us lose sight of the antecedent +facts which have built up this force of mischief. Mr. Gladstone is Prime +Minister by the favour of the Irish party, and this party is the outcome +of Mr. Gladstone's own policy. Whether the fluent rhetorician foresaw +his present position, whether perched on his slender ledge of power he +now enjoys it, we need not stop to consider. What we would remind our +readers is that for nearly twenty years past he has, in the main line of +his public life, notwithstanding some convulsive oscillations, pursued +with the pertinacity of one possessed the policy of which the present +Irish organization is the natural and the logical development. The +National League represents the spirit to which Mr. Gladstone appealed at +Southport in 1867. In the December of that year he charged the new +voters, in words of solemn adjuration, to look at Ireland from the Irish +point of view. This appeal had an electric effect upon the population of +that island. In the years which have passed since, his own injunction +has been sometimes rudely disregarded by Mr. Gladstone himself, but he +never long delayed to turn again to his favourite theory, to make +another effort to justify the principle with which he had started, and +at each renewal of his enterprise he plunged himself and his party +deeper into the morass of Hibernian disorder. Mr. Gladstone's admirers +are very proud of his numerous successes in carrying important Bills +through Parliament, but it is forgotten that his Irish Bills, though +carried, have never attained the ends for which they were passed. Twice +have all the resources of his genius, all the machinery of his party, +been called into requisition to bring about a final settlement of the +Irish Land question, and yet the work is still to be done. The +explanation is not far to seek. Mr. Gladstone's passionate recklessness +committed him in 1867 to an enterprise, the magnitude of which excited +his vanity, the actual nature of which he only dimly perceived. + +In the year we have named he was trying to recover his footing after a +heavy fall in his first start as leader of the Liberal Party. A scheme +of Parliamentary reform, carried by his political opponent, had marked +the commencement of another epoch. In the new arena of public life two +centres of political energy were certain to be strongly represented in +the organization which Mr. Gladstone hoped to lead back to office. The +Spirit of Dissent was all powerful among the English householders. The +Irish tenant, whose electoral strength, directed by the Roman +priesthood, had been exhibited with much effect in 1852, was sure to +receive a great increase of power under the new Reform Bill. To combine +these influences was one of the conditions of any prolonged tenure of +office by the Liberal party. The Irish Establishment had been forsaken +by English opinion in previous years. Its overthrow would be hailed with +enthusiasm by the Dissenting communities, whilst the Irish priesthood +would regard disestablishment with undoubted satisfaction. The condition +of Irish Land Tenure was admitted by all parties to require amendment, +and its settlement would be a substantial benefit to the Irish farmer. + +These were subjects which naturally tempted the daring energies of a man +occupying Mr. Gladstone's position in the winter of 1867. Turned out of +office after the death of Lord Palmerston, his subsequent management of +the reform question, as leader of the Opposition, had only increased the +distrust of his party. He was without a constituency at the coming +election, and he went down to Lancashire to seek in that great centre of +hard-headed Englishmen the confiding constituency which he subsequently +found in Midlothian. New legislation on the Irish Church, a reform in +Irish Land Tenure, were subjects for which his party, for which the +majority of Englishmen were pretty well prepared. The Liberal Churchmen, +like Sir Roundell Palmer, who held back on the subject of +Disestablishment, were more than counterbalanced by the Dissenters, who +were attracted by the scheme. Popular Legislation on these subjects +might have been granted to Ireland as the matured outcome of British +opinion. Such a mode of approaching the work in hand did not suit the +exuberant temperament of Mr. Gladstone. Whilst the report of the +Clerkenwell explosion was still echoing through the land, he announced +his policy as one to be recommended, not because the great British +community had examined and adopted the proposed measures, but because +Irish opinion was to be henceforth accepted as our guide in Irish +Legislation. With characteristic recklessness he hurried to turn to the +account of his own ambition the throb of excitement which he saw +traversing the nation. He appealed to his audience to regard the Fenian +outrages as a sort of revelation from heaven, to commune with their own +hearts, not on the state of Ireland, and the remedies sensible men could +offer, but on the sentiments of Irishmen. His final test of legislation +was to be, not its consonance with the judgment of the British people, +but with the demand of the Irish crowd. + + 'Ireland is at your doors. Providence has placed her there. + Law and legislation have been a compact between you. You + must face these obligations. You must deal with them and + discharge them. As to the modes of giving effect to this + principle I do not now enter upon them. I am of opinion they + should be dictated, as a general rule, by that which may + appear to be the mature, well-considered, and general sense + of the Irish people.'--20th Dec. 1867. + +At this date 'the general sense of the Irish people' was, to Mr. +Gladstone's mind, the policy formulated by the Irish Episcopacy, the +scheme which at a later stage of the campaign in the following year he +described as the lopping off the three branches of the Upas tree of +Protestant ascendancy. He failed in Lancashire, but his success in other +parts of the kingdom was complete; and then ensued the abolition of the +Irish Establishment and an adjustment of the land question which carried +the recognition of local customs farther than Englishmen had +anticipated. + +The Liberal party had been charged to consult Irish opinion. As long as +Cardinal Cullen and Mr. Gladstone were agreed all went merrily, even if +some rude coercion like the Westmeath Act was required to deal with +Irish ideas which did not find expression in the Cardinal. But whilst +the English Minister and the Irish Primate declared, that Ribbonism was +an impudent pretender to any representative character and must be rooted +out, a third organ of opinion claimed the benefit of the Southport +principle in the form of the Home Rule Association, and Mr. Gladstone at +Aberdeen replied with angry scorn: + + 'Can any sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that, + at this time of day, in this condition of the world, we are + going to disintegrate the capital institutions of this + country for the purpose of making ourselves ridiculous in + the sight of all mankind, and crippling any power we possess + for bestowing benefits, through legislation, on the country + to which we belong?'--26th Sept. 1871. + +The ideas expressed by the Roman hierarchy, attracted by the +Disestablishment, substantially interested in the better position of the +farmer, and confidently anticipating for themselves the acquisition of a +power over public education such as their order enjoyed nowhere else in +the world, these were ideas which Mr. Gladstone recognized as national. +On the subject of education, however, he was not able to go as far as +the Ultramontane party required. They directed the Irish members to vote +against him. The coalition between Dissent and the Roman Hierarchy was +dissolved. The Minister, who had brought it about, suddenly awoke to a +sense of the evil teaching of his late allies in the government of +Ireland, and '_Vaticanism_' held them up to the reprobation of +Protestant England. + +The new Liberal discovery, the principle of Irish ideas, had broken down +as a party engine. It had made the Ministry of 1868, but it had failed +to preserve it. Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of the party +to the greater freedom of an independent member of Parliament, and in +this capacity led the stormy agitation against Lord Beaconsfield, making +the foreign policy of England a party question. + +Meanwhile the theory of the Southport speech, and the results which had +attended it, were not forgotten in Ireland. The Home Rule movement, +which was denounced so angrily at Aberdeen, enlisted all the resources +of local sentiment, feelings similar to those which make a Lancashireman +proud of Lancashire, a Scotchman delight in Scotch associations. Among +its promoters were professors, poets, Irish Catholics, who were glad to +show themselves on a public platform without being the puppets or the +opponents of their bishops, Irish Protestants, who were irritated at the +desertion of the Irish Church, a number of well-meaning people who were +attracted by the opportunity of talking eloquently and vaguely about +nothing in particular. This Academic scheme of Home Rule found an +admirable exponent in Mr. Butt, an able lawyer of ambitious politics. + +What answer were Liberals to give to this new embodiment of their great +statesman's theory? They denounced Mr. Butt, pondering feebly meanwhile +what it all meant; but the Home Rule organization, once set a-going, was +soon permeated by the Fenian spirit. Platitudes about 'patriotism' and +'green Erin' meant to an Irish crowd, 'Down with England and with +landlords.' That great hotbed of disatisfaction, Irish popular feeling, +supplied stimulating nutriment to the new party. In proportion as +hostility to England was more openly declared, funds came in rapidly +from the Irish in America. Year by year the Home Rule members gained in +parliamentary power, one section of the Liberal party after another +giving them encouragement--in the first place because they were +troublesome to a Tory Ministry, in the second because the flaccid +thought of modern Liberalism made them welcome any organization, which +would save them the trouble of facing the difficulties of Irish +administration. + +In 1880 the public took no heed to Lord Beaconsfield's historic warning, +that danger was brewing in Ireland. The Liberal legislation of ten years +before had, they tried to believe, disposed of Irish difficulties in +their most serious aspect. Both before and after the General Election +they were assured by Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone, that Irish affairs +were proceeding satisfactorily. The new Ministry had, however, to face a +formidable parliamentary party, who refused to recognize the legislation +of 1869 and 1870 as any settlement of the Irish question. Their first +device was to abandon the Act of their predecessors, passed in 1875, +which applied some of the milder provisions of the Westmeath Act to the +whole of Ireland. A reconstruction of the Local Government of the United +Kingdom, and a new Reform Bill, were the tasks assigned by public +opinion to the second Gladstone Ministry; but finding the abandonment of +coercion did not conciliate the Irish party, the Premier returned with a +rush to the policy of 1867. He determined to justify his claim to be the +statesman who had found out the secret of Irish administration. Within +two months after the Ministry was formed the public were warned that +they were within measurable distance of civil war. This danger was not +urged as a reason for recurring to accepted principles of government; on +the contrary, it was a plea for new expeditions in pursuit of the _ignis +fatuus_ of Irish opinion. We know the events which followed. + +The Compensation for Disturbance Bill seemed a small matter in itself, +but involved principles fatal to all security for property. During the +next autumn and winter, Ireland was abandoned to the savage dominion of +the Land League. The quiescence of the Government excited remonstrance +even from advanced Radicals like Mr. Leonard Courtney. That stalwart +Liberal had not been then in office, had not had the experience he has +since acquired. He had not yet learned the dutiful lesson that, whatever +his own convictions, the probabilities were in favour of the view that +his great leader was in the right, or at least, might be successful. As +a concession to public opinion, a Coercion Act was passed, new fangled +and hesitating. But it was not so much on effective legislation and a +resolute determination to curb disorder that the Ministry relied, as on +the recognition of Irish opinion which the Land Act of 1881 embodied. +It was truly said of that measure by an exulting Radical, that it struck +a blow at property which was felt in every country in Europe. In his +main calculation, his purpose to win popularity in Ireland, Mr. +Gladstone failed, as he has so often failed; and as usual the failure +was due to the wickedness or perversity of some one else. In 1874 it was +Pius IX. and the Jesuits who had misled his Irish friends. In 1881 the +evil influence was Mr. Parnell. + +In the autumn the Prime Minister startled his hearers at Leeds by a +passionate complaint, that-- + + 'a small band of men had arisen who were not ashamed to + preach in Ireland the doctrine of public plunder ... now + that Mr. Parnell is afraid, lest the people of England by + their long continued efforts should win the hearts of the + whole Irish nation, he has a new and enlarged gospel of + plunder to proclaim.' + +He went back with a swing to the high-handed policy he had so often +denounced. Irishmen must be made to recognize Gladstone, and not +Parnell, as their true friend. The Land League was dissolved by +proclamation, its principal leaders, including Mr. Parnell, were clapped +into jail, and it was proclaimed at Knowsley that the Cabinet were going +'to relieve the people of Ireland from the weight of a tyrannical yoke.' + +These speeches, full as they were of denunciation of Mr. Parnell, were +still on the lines of the Southport speech. They were not declarations +of the opinion of the British community, warnings to Ireland to take +account of the settled judgment of the nation, of which the sister +island must always form part. They contrasted with the manly utterance +of Mr. Chamberlain on this subject, the same month, at Birmingham. They +were angry appeals to Ireland to quarrel with her chosen leaders. Mr. +James Lowther was denounced for stating, that 'the party headed by Mr. +Parnell commanded the support of the large majority of the people of +Ireland.' Mr. Gladstone added, 'The proposition here made is one on +which we are entirely at issue. I profoundly disbelieve it; I utterly +protest against it. I believe a greater calumny on the Irish nation,... +a more gross and injurious statement could not possibly be made against +the Irish nation.' + +In the following year it was found that the recognition of Mr. +Gladstone, as the father of the Irish people was still remote; whilst +Mr. Forster declared, that a stronger Coercion Bill was necessary, if +life was to be protected in Ireland. Then came another plunge after the +coveted ideal. Mr. Forster, who had so generously devoted himself to +his party and his leader in the pursuit of a new Irish policy, was +abandoned to the Irish members, and to Mr. John Morley's crusade against +him in the columns of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' Mr. Parnell was called +out of jail to secure votes to the Government, and order in Ireland, by +the help of Mr. Sheridan and other ex-convicts. The Phoenix Park +murder, following on the Kilmainham Treaty, postponed the full carrying +out of this arrangement. The sort of measure, which Mr. Forster had been +refused a month before, was now passed with provisions of excessive +stringency; and Lord Spencer, who had been sent to Ireland to win that +popularity, which the late Chief Secretary had been unable to obtain, +was chiefly occupied in curbing the violence which that Minister had +denounced, in bringing to justice the criminals whom he had not been +allowed to reach. We recollect that the new Viceroy was exposed to a +storm of unpopularity so violent and outrageous, that the public readily +forgot the discreditable folly of his original enterprise, and honoured +the resolution and dignity with which he discharged the laborious duties +of a thankless office. + +The construction of the Irish Government at this time was such as to +make the Lord Lieutenant personally responsible for the administration +of justice, and the carrying out of the main provisions of the Crimes +Act. He was in the Cabinet, whilst his chief Secretaries, Mr. Trevelyan +and Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, were only subordinate members of the +Ministry. They conducted Irish business in the House of Commons, +representing in their relations with the Irish members, as far as +circumstances allowed, their leader's yearning after Irish popularity, +whilst Lord Spencer, the Whig Earl, who belonged to things that had been +rather than to the rising power of the Radical party, bore all the odium +of unpopular imprisonments or executions. + +The significance of such an arrangement was not lost on the Irish crowd. +By the end of 1882 the Land League was reconstructed under the name of +the National League. The new organization, of which 'United Ireland' was +the especial organ, gradually established branches from one end of +Ireland to the other. Strong as the provisions of the Crimes Prevention +Act were, no attempt was made to bring the new society under its +operation. The columns of 'United Ireland,' on the other hand, bore +plenty of evidence of a disposition to move on. The Irish farmers were +reproachfully asked if they were content with a paltry reduction of +rent. 'Had they no other account to settle with England?' The leaders +reminded their followers that the Crimes Act would expire before long. +They renewed with savage energy that campaign against the _personnel_ +of the Irish administration, which Mr. John Morley had so warmly +espoused up to the murder of Mr. Burke. A continual storm of abuse and +calumny was directed against Lord Spencer and every one else concerned +with Irish government. Mr. Clifford Lloyd and Mr. Trevelyan were removed +by way of warning, that there was no room in Ireland for public servants +who did their duty. The National League, in fact, became in each +district a conspicuous and formidable power. Their representatives in +Parliament received much attention from the Prime Minister and his +colleagues. They exercised great influence and had many chances before +them in the new organization of the electorate. With all these +advantages on the side of the Irish Revolution, the Queen's Government +had nobody to champion it but the not imposing personality of Lord +Spencer. + +It is not surprising that in such a state of things Ireland was already, +at the commencement of 1885, like a country occupied by two hostile +armies. There was the National League camp with its scouts and +emissaries all over the country, with a vigorous Press proclaiming its +policy and success. The Government forces remained within their lines, +attempting nothing, doing nothing, unless some outrage by a moonlight +gang compelled them to make some show of interference to check violation +of the truce between treason and loyalty. The greatest care was taken +not to identify the Government with the scattered Loyalists. They might +be very worthy persons, but they were the special aversion of the +Nationalist party, and the business of the Government was not to protect +or encourage loyalty, but to prevent Nationalism from going too fast. +The Nationalist aspirations of Mr. Gladstone's friends were not to be +irritated by attentions shown to their adversaries. + +When Parliament reassembled in the spring of 1885, men asked what +provision was made for renewing the Crimes Act, which would expire in +the autumn. Week after week passed, month after month; and it was +impossible to extract from the Ministry what their policy was as regards +the government of Ireland. At length, in the summer, it was announced +that on a day, which was never fixed, a Bill would be introduced +renewing certain provisions of the expiring Act. This announcement from +the Treasury Bench was followed at once by a notice from Mr. John Morley +to oppose the Bill. So much time had already been lost, that it was +practically impossible for any Ministry to carry a Coercion Bill against +the determined opposition of the Irish members, without the most +resolute effort on the part of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues. Were +they prepared to make these exertions? One of the conditions, on which +the Reform question had been settled, was the definite postponement of a +dissolution until after the 1st November. Each day men became more and +more engrossed with the great question of the winter--the new +election--more indifferent to the business of the Session; the +Parnellite party more exultant and defiant. Rumours of dissensions in +the Cabinet, had been already rife, and grew more frequent every day. +The country awoke one morning to find that the second Gladstone +Ministry, with its clear majority of over eighty, was at an end. Rather +than confess their disunion, the ministry had allowed themselves to be +defeated on another question, and Mr. Parnell came before his countrymen +as the avenger who had chastised the suggestion of renewed coercion by +destroying the Government which made it. + +In this collapse of administration the only course open to the Tory +party was to prepare as rapidly as possible for an appeal to the +country, doing what they could meanwhile in foreign and in home affairs +to mitigate the mischief which they were powerless to remedy. When the +dissolution came, Mr. Gladstone opened his canvass in Midlothian by many +sneers at the election policy of the Irish Nationalists. He reminded his +hearers, that the subject of extending local government in Ireland must +come forward in the new Parliament, and urged that, 'in dealing with +this question the unity of the empire was not to be compromised or be +put in jeopardy.' 'Nothing was to be done which should tend to +impair,--visibly or sensibly to impair,--the unity of the Empire.' +Auditors who had made no special study of Mr. Gladstone's phraseology +interpreted these words as a declaration against a separate Parliament +in Dublin. He apparently was prepared for large schemes of +decentralization, either specially for Ireland or in connection with the +projected reform of local government in England; but there was to be +nothing which should 'visibly impair' the Imperial unity. He went on to +dwell on the danger of 'condescending either to clamour or to fear,' and +added:-- + + 'But quite apart from the names of Whig and Tory, one thing + I will say, and will endeavour to impress, and it is this, + that it will be 'a _vital danger_ to the country if at the + time that the demand of Ireland for large powers of + self-government is to be dealt with--it will be a _vital + danger_ to the Empire if there is not in Parliament ready to + deal with that subject, ready to influence the proceedings + upon that subject, _a party totally independent of the Irish + vote_.' + +Even the most enthusiastic followers of the Liberal chief have learnt to +be very cautious in saying what meaning is to be attributed to his +utterances, but there can be no doubt that this language was read by +the public as saying, 'whatever lengths I may go in working out the +principle of local government, whatever may be the understanding between +the Home Rulers and the Tories, I at least will not accept the principle +of an Irish Parliament.' Not only was this the natural reading of Mr. +Gladstone's declarations at the election, but nearly every member of his +party, who referred to this question at all, spoke in the same sense. +Mr. Campbell Bannerman denounced the Parnellite demands as 'separation +under one name or another,' and many other Liberals were equally +emphatic, whilst a still larger number never alluded to the subject. + +Well may Lord Hartington protest against the competence of the present +Parliament to deal with the legislation now proposed. + + 'There was no thought, no warning held out to the country, + that a radical reform in the relations between Great Britain + and Ireland would be the main work of the present + Parliament.... The country had no sufficient warning--I + think I may say the country had no warning at all--that any + proposals of the magnitude and vastness of those which were + unfolded to us last night were to be considered in the + present Parliament, much less were to form the first subject + of consideration upon the meeting of this Parliament. I am + perfectly aware that there exists in our Constitution no + principle of the mandate. I know that the mandate of the + constituencies is as unknown to our Constitution, as the + distinction between fundamental laws and laws which are of + an inferior sanction. But, although no principle of a + mandate may exist, I maintain that there are certain limits + which Parliament is bound to observe, and beyond which + Parliament has morally not the right to go in its relations + with the constituencies. The constituencies of Great Britain + are the source of the power, at all events, of this branch + of Parliament, and I maintain that in the presence of an + emergency which could not have been foreseen, the House of + Commons has no moral right to initiate legislation, + especially upon its first meeting, of which the + constituencies were not informed, and of which the + constituencies might have been informed, and as to which, if + they had been so informed, there is, at all events, the very + greatest doubt what their decision might be.' + +Over and over again in the Parliament of 1874 and of 1880 have we heard +Mr. Gladstone appealing to this principle, that schemes of crucial +importance ought to be discussed before the constituencies; yet the most +important proposal made in Parliament for some generations is presented +after a general election, in which the constituencies were invited by +the Prime Minister and his colleagues to believe, that this particular +question was outside the region of practical politics. + +No sooner had it become apparent that the country had refused that +renewal of power which Mr. Gladstone had asked for, than his resolution +not to accept defeat was promptly manifested. Public men remembered his +use of the Royal prerogative in 1872, to carry into execution a scheme +for which he had sought and failed to obtain the consent of Parliament. +He had not been a week at Hawarden after his journey from Scotland, when +people became conscious that the return to office, which he had told the +country would be their security against Mr. Parnell, he was now ready to +seek with the aid of that leader. + +It was on the 8th of December, just after the main results of the +elections were settled, that Mr. Herbert Gladstone wrote from Hawarden +to a casual correspondent, 'If five-sixths of the Irish people wish to +have a Parliament in Dublin, for the management of their own local +affairs, I say in the name of justice and wisdom, let them have it.' A +few days afterwards the Press announced that the Liberal chief had, in +consultation with some former colleagues, matured a scheme which +embodied the points desired by Mr. Parnell. The announcement was +immediately followed by a telegram from Hawarden, denying the accuracy +of the scheme as sketched in the Press. On the main point, whether he +was prepared to co-operate with the Home Rule Party, whether he had +recovered from the fear he expressed at Edinburgh, that it would be a +'vital danger' to the Empire, if Home Rule came on for discussion +'without the presence in Parliament of a party totally independent of +the Irish vote,' on these questions, with which all England was busy, +Mr. Gladstone said never a word. He relied on the virtue he assumed to +protect him from inconvenient questionings, and meanwhile the +Nationalists were invited to reflect during the Christmas holidays, that +perhaps after all their best friend was at Hawarden. + +Mr. Chamberlain followed up the rumour of a settled scheme by a prompt +denial that he was a party to it, and added an emphatic statement of the +way in which he and his friends read the Midlothian speeches--'all +sections of the party were determined that the integrity of the Empire +should be a reality, and not an empty phrase.' Mr. Chamberlain had +listened to his great leader too long not to be aware of the importance +of marking the distinction between a 'reality' and a 'phrase.' In a few +days Lord Hartington too wrote to say, that he was no party to the +suggested policy. + +The ultimate result of the elections left the government at Christmas +only 251 votes, and the Liberals 333. Had it been clear that the +Liberal party were united in a scheme, which was consistent with the +current of British opinion, the solution would have been simple enough. +Had the appeals for straightforward dealing, made more than once during +the election by Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph Churchill, been +responded to, the Government might have made way for a Liberal Ministry, +the best men on both sides recognizing, what the soundest public opinion +required, that the Irish vote of 86 should be disregarded on questions +affecting the existence of a Cabinet; but before the elections were all +over, the divisions in the Liberal party were obvious. Mr. Gladstone had +returned with more eagerness than ever to the policy of Irish ideas, +whilst experience had at length opened the eyes of his ablest +lieutenants. + +In such a condition of affairs, the only course for Lord Salisbury's +Government was to await the onset of their opponents, meanwhile applying +themselves to settle that scheme of Irish policy which they as a party +were prepared to champion in office or out of office. They met +Parliament with an emphatic declaration to maintain the Union, and a few +days afterwards announced that further legislation in defence of public +order was necessary. This announcement was made on the 26th of January, +when several of the Amendments in the Address were still on the paper. +Before the House rose, the Government had ceased to exist. By a majority +of 79, in a House of 583; a Resolution in support of a policy advocated +by the Radical section of the Liberal party was carried against the +Government. The motion of Mr. Jesse Collings was, it must be remembered, +not a necessary assertion of a particular principle. The importance of +the questions of allotments was acknowledged by the Ministry +collectively and individually. It was not supposed, even by Mr. Collings +himself, that the carrying of this particular Motion on the Address +would advance legislation on the subject by a single day. The motion was +one of those demonstrations of opinions, ordinary enough in Parliament, +and generally resulting in a debate without a division or if pushed to a +division, in the withdrawal from the House of all but declared +partizans. On this particular occasion the motion was taken up and +pressed to a division, in order that the National League was to be put +down, was followed in a few hours by a vote which, in the existing +constitution of parties, necessarily involved the restoration of Mr. +Gladstone to power. So transparent was the object of the division that +13 Liberals voted with the Ministers, among others such staunch +adherents of Liberalism as Lord Hartington and Sir Henry James. + +When the new Ministry was formed, two extraordinary circumstances came +to light. Lord Hartington, the heir-apparent to the Liberal Leadership, +Lord Derby, Mr. Gladstone's most distinguished proselyte, Lord Selborne, +and other eminent colleagues in the conduct of the Liberal party, would +have nothing to do with the new scheme for the final settlement of +Ireland for the third time. Another still more singular fact was soon +disclosed. All the members of the new Cabinet, who had any future before +them, had come in with reservations of a right of further consideration, +when the subject of Irish policy should be brought up for discussion. + +One remarkable ally, however, Mr. Gladstone had found in his momentous +enterprise. The appointment of Mr. John Morley to the principal post in +the Government of the part of the kingdom, which had fallen under the +sway of such an organization as the National League, was in itself a +revolution. The new Chief Secretary had no official experience, and no +parliamentary position. A favoured person, who had audience of great +Trades' Union gatherings, he was observed with some interest by the late +Parliament, busy with speculations on the character of the new +Electorate. But, if his parliamentary work had been slight, he had +considerable literary reputation, and had taken an active part, in the +press, in discussions on the Irish question. The apologist of Danton, +the champion of the Jacobin Club, he was the one English political +writer who believed himself able to find in the throes of the French +Revolution valuable examples of public policy. The figures of that +terrible convulsion did not attract him so much by their range of human +passion, by the largeness of the space they filled in a great drama of +humanity. It was their fanaticism which inspired him. Their capacity to +combine, with the perpetration of atrocious crimes, an ardent apostolate +of abstract ideals, had for him a vivid fascination. A gentle critic of +Robespierre, he could see in the execution of Marie Antoinette traces of +discriminating statesmanship. Entering on political work with such +dispositions, he was early attracted to the seething cauldron of Mr. +Gladstone's Irish policy. Having satisfied himself that Ireland was in a +state of revolution, he regarded murder and robbery as necessary +incidents. When an unfortunate lady driving in the evening along a +country road was shot dead beside her husband, whose only offence was +that of being a landlord, the public were lectured for the inconsequence +of their indignation. On the Dublin conspirators, who were watching to +murder Mr. Forster, were not lost the lessons which Mr. Morley had been +preaching on the vileness of the permanent officials at the Castle. They +determined to murder Mr. Burke, and in killing him slew his companion +also; and Mr. Morley deprecatingly reminded his readers, that the death +of Lord Frederick Cavendish was 'almost an accident.' With these +professed opinions, it was easy for him to acknowledge what Mr. +Gladstone might have hesitated to confess, that Mr. Parnell and the +National League were the true expression of 'the general sense of the +Irish people.' + +The Nationalist party had long recognised the value of his aid in +Parliament. They felt the truth of the saying, that he was 'Mr. Parnell +in an Englishman's skin,' and consequently enjoying more freedom of +action, able, on occasion, to do more service for the National League in +a Parnellite Cabinet than Mr. Parnell himself. Although the principles +he had laid down, strictly applied, would oblige him to say, let Ireland +take care of herself and work out her own destiny, he has qualified his +faith--he has never very clearly explained why--by a declaration in +favour of the integrity of the Kingdom. A believer in revolution, Mr. +Morley is astute enough to be ready to take what he can get. 'We do +wrong,' he said, writing after the breakdown of the Kilmainham Treaty, +'in being content with nothing short of perfection and finality. If we +see our way to the next step, that is enough.' 'Perfection' in Irish +affairs would perhaps be that Irish opinion should be organized in a +convention at Dublin, and then, tempered by a full course of revolution, +should come to the conclusion, that the Union after all was the best +thing for both islands. As the public are not yet prepared for trying +this experiment, we are to have a succession of 'next steps.' + +As a set off to Mr. Morley's want of official experience and of weight +in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone placed the consideration he +enjoyed with the Parnellite party and a disposition, composed of +fanaticism and adroitness, fitting him well to co-operate in the schemes +which were to follow from the wild passion of the National League in +combination with the skill of the 'old Parliamentary hand.' + +No sooner was the new Ministry formed than the Nationalist party +recognized the greatness of their opportunity. An attitude of reserve +was taken up by the Nationalist members and their Press. The Ministry +had not been a week in office, when the most advanced and outspoken of +the Irish leaders, Mr. John Dillon, presiding at a meeting of the +National League, frankly declared 'he never felt more inclined to say +nothing than to-day, the present Ministry had been formed on one +question and on one question alone, and that was the rights of the Irish +nation.' With Mr. Gladstone in office, the policy of the League was to +apply the policy of silence so often inculcated by Mr. Parnell. Speaking +out might only embarrass their new allies. + +The country, up to a week ago, knew nothing of the momentous scheme on +which the Ministry were engaged. One Cabinet council considered it with +the result, that the collective action of the Cabinet ceased for the +next fortnight; and then the only two public men of weight, whom Mr. +Gladstone had induced to give his scheme the compliment of a hearing, +retired from the Ministry. Our readers are now in possession of so much +of the new scheme as they may be able to discern through the glamour of +Mr. Gladstone's rhetoric; but the condition of affairs during the last +three months is a picture to remember for all time. + +When the Hawarden scheme was disclosed before Christmas, Mr. Gladstone's +principal organ in the London Press declared within a week that the game +was up. The public would have none of it. The return of Mr. Gladstone to +office, with Mr. John Morley as Irish Secretary, suddenly revived the +hopes of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' His new start in pursuit of the Irish +ideal banished the despair which had settled upon even the most reckless +of his adherents. The age, the physical power of the Premier, his long +public career, called up reflections which could not be disposed of in a +moment by foes, still less by former allies. He claimed time, and he has +taken the most important part of the Session, to mature his plans, +amidst the silence of the Opposition and of his Home Rule allies. + +But, if his opponents were silent, his nomination of Mr. Morley to the +most important place in his Cabinet was not lost upon the motly crowd +outside. All the dancing dervishes of politics rushed upon the scene to +amaze a bewildered public with fantastical gyrations. 'The Empire of +Liberty,' cried one, 'can never employ coercion.' Another enthusiast +exclaimed, after reviewing the course of events since the Hawarden +revelations, 'To call these things to mind does one's heart good. It +seems as if nothing need be despaired of, as if words of hope need never +be empty words.' A well-known economist tried to ease the public +conscience, and to neutralize the resistance of the unfortunate Irish +landlord, by a nebulous scheme for buying up the landlords' rights, but +what the supply of money is to be, and who is to supply it, are +questions to which the answers vary every hour. A separate Parliament is +to be accompanied by a system of guarantees, and Professor Rogers +declares that the surest guarantee was the hostages we have in the two +millions of Irish inhabiting Great Britain; as if these unfortunate +persons could be made liable to imprisonment or torture in order to +secure the good conduct of Mr. Parnell's Dublin Cabinet, as if such an +arrangement, if made, would have the slightest effect upon the Irish +revolutionists. + +But whilst Mr. Gladstone lingered, waiting to see how far the outer +public could be brought into sympathy with his schemes, he did not +hesitate a moment to consolidate the power of the National League. The +subject of evictions for non-payment of rent was brought before the new +Government in the form of a question, alleging that a particular +eviction was not in strict conformity with the landlord's right. Mr. +Morley offered to consider the question of right, and added that what +was much wanted in Ireland was 'a strict and scrupulous and literal +spirit of legality.' Later on the same evening, Mr. Dillon made a +vigorous appeal to the Chief Secretary not to give the aid of armed +force to carry out evictions. Mr. Morley responded with alacrity. 'I for +one am not prepared to admit that we are justified in every case, in +which a shadow of legal title is made out, to bring out the military +force to execute decrees which, on the ground of public policy as well +as that of equity, may seem inadvisable and unnecessary.' Legal right, +if it is relied on in favour of the subjects of the Land League, must be +interpreted in a 'scrupulous and literal spirit.' If it is acted on by +the landlord, there come in considerations of public policy and of +equity. + +The result of a long debate was that organized resistance to the +execution of the law would not be interfered with, unless the Government +were satisfied that in particular circumstances equity required such +interference. We have thus arrived at once at a system of official +despotism. The law is not to be a guarantee of the rights of the +subject, unless so far as the Minister may think fit to permit it. And +this dispensing power is to be exercised in favour of the subjects of +the National League. + +The self-sufficiency of the Liberal party had been vigorously appealed +to during the years 1883-5. Liberals tried to persuade themselves, that +the comparative repose of Ireland was due to, or was likely to generate, +a Conservative feeling amongst the farmer class. Their harvests were +good, and they had got so much from the Land Bill, they had so much, in +fact, to lose now, in comparison with their condition in former years, +men argued, that they would not care to risk their well-being in pursuit +of Nationalist projects, with the certainty of being subject to the +village ruffians Mr. Forster had described whilst the struggle was going +on, with the probability of having to share what they had with these +same ruffians as soon as an Irish Parliament obtained power. + +This reasoning took little account of historical experience in cases +where property is suddenly given to one class by an arbitrary act. Care +for what one possesses, forethought to avoid its loss, come only with +habits of acquisition. The Irish farmer was confessedly careless in the +past, because, it was said, providence could be of so little use to him +in the then state of the law, but his prosperity under the legislation +of 1881 was not the result of his own industry. It was due to a long +course of agrarian outrage in Ireland and of Parliamentary outrage at +Westminster. A favourite commonplace of Land Reformers is the +conservatism of the French peasant, turned into a proprietor by the +decrees of the Legislative Assembly of 1791. We are reminded of his +industry, his self-denial, his distrust of the revolutionary spirit +which rages in the towns, but we forget the date at which this sober, +assiduous, conservatism made its appearance in history. The immediate +result of the change made in 1791 was a savage orgie of bloodshed and +outrage, nor was the wild fury, once let loose, sated by the blood of +Frenchmen. It was nearly a generation before the fire of Revolution +burnt itself out. The French peasantry of 1815 only came to value the +land they acquired, to devote their lives to its cultivation, after +twenty-three years of savage warfare had strewed the bones of their +fathers and their brothers over every battlefield from Salamanca to +Borodino, after Teuton and Cossack and Saxon had traversed French +territory from end to end. + +Nor does the work of revolution produce other effects among the backward +turbulent British population, whom Irish rhetoric describes as the Irish +nation. Whatever we might hope from the children or grandchildren of +those farmers who profited by the change which Mr. Parnell had already +brought about, to suppose that prudence and a judicious spirit of +self-interest would come to them as rapidly as the reduction of their +rents, was to ignore all the facts of human nature. The desire for +further winnings possessed them, as the passion of a gambler. Mr. +Parnell's triumphant personality was the first thought in their minds. +He had already taken 20 per cent. off their rents. Next time they were +confident he would take off 50 per cent. or abolish rent altogether. + +The Liberals who had been dreaming complacently about the happy results +of Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy awoke to find Ireland in possession of +the powerful, well-organized, hostile, combination known as the National +League. + +To make our readers understand what this power means, we should like to +be able to bring them within the closed doors of the room where the +League Committee sits in the remote country village. We should then hear +the report of the member, respecting the funds obtained, their review of +the wealth and independence around them, within their reach, but not yet +brought under tribute, the gleeful narrative of resistance subdued, the +dark hints of resources for future conquest. The details of the action +of the League, as avowed by their press, have been published by the +Loyal and Patriotic Union, and would fill many pages of this Review. + +The rapid growth of the new organization is easily understood. They had +the past success of Mr. Parnell to work on, and this success was both +appreciable in their balance of unpaid rent at the Bank, and stimulating +to the imagination. The whole island was busy observing the execution of +Mr. Parnell's behests in the re-adjustment of contracts for land. The +Ministry, which had rebelled against his criticism and sprung at his +throat, had been compelled to bring him out of jail supplicating for his +alliance. The object of creating the new body was not so much to move +forward as to keep Mr. Parnell's friends well together, to take +advantage of the effect on the popular mind, which Mr. Parnell's +achievements were producing in every hamlet. The practical advantages +already won were an earnest of the future, secured new support, and +would give greater momentum and unity to the Parnellite movement; when +the time came for another attack upon property. The suspects who had +been imprisoned by Mr. Forster, constituted local centres for the +establishment of branches of the League. Every country public-house was +a place of meeting for the branches or their agents. Once the League was +organized in a particular district, the next point was to secure +subscriptions. Land-grabbing, that is, becoming tenant of land from +which some one else had been evicted, was the offence against which the +League in the first place directed its energies, and this disregard of +popular opinion was punished by social excommunication; but the system +of boycotting once called into requisition involved new duties and +responsibilities. If a man had not taken land himself, he might have +worked for some one who had, or bought cattle from a land-grabber. The +League in Kerry enjoined the following procedure on their subscribers:-- + + 'That any person found communicating with a few obnoxious + individuals in this locality will be expelled from the + league. That every person presenting cattle for sale at a + fair shall produce his card, and that no buyers shall + purchase from any person without producing the same. + + 'That no individual shall sell to any dealer without + presenting his card, as it is the only way to detect those + employed by the Defence Unionists, and that we call on the + other branches to follow this example.'--'United Ireland,' + Dec. 12th, 1885. + +As the power of the League became better established, the subscribers +were guaranteed against the caprice of their customers by such +resolutions as the following, adopted at New Ross:-- + + 'That we hereby give final notice to Mr. Murtagh Stafford, + that if he does not give back his work to the Nationalist + blacksmiths, Messrs. Bowe and Busher, we cannot retain him + on our league. That we inform all members of our branch that + we expect them to patronize National blacksmiths, artisans, + etc., if they wish to remain members.'--'New Ross Standard,' + Jan. 9th, 1886. + +The complicated equities, which arose under the operation of these local +tribunals, are illustrated by another case reported from Wexford. + + 'Farrell and a man named Shee had been partners in a + thrashing machine. Shee was boycotted in 1883 for having + taken an evicted farm, and accordingly the machine was + allowed to remain idle. Under these circumstances both + agreed to dissolve partnership, and Farrell purchased Shee's + share in the machine for 370l., a sum of 60l. being paid in + ready cash and the remainder being secured by a bill of + sale. Farrell then went to the Tullogher branch to get + "absolution for the machine," but his application was + refused, it being decided that Shee still had a certain + interest in it. In the "New Ross Standard," on Sept. 30th, + 1885, Farrell, it is reported, being desirous of appealing + to the Central League in Dublin, had forwarded his statement + to the Tullogher branch and declared he was now ready to + verify it on oath. His request to have it sent on to the + Central League was, however, refused by the local + branch.'--'New Ross Standard.' + +The election to local public offices soon engaged the attention of the +League. The branches were not content with nominating candidates and +interfering with the elections; they next assumed the direction of the +proceedings of Boards of Guardians and Town Councils. At Ennis this +intervention was publicly announced by resolution. + + 'That in every future election to any office under the + board, no candidate shall be supported by the National + Guardians _unless he be a member of the National League_ for + at least six months previous to the date of the election, + and produces his certificate, signed by the chairman and + secretary of the branch, and further, that when selecting a + candidate to be put forward for election, the minority of + the National guardians should be bound to act on vote with + the majority present and voting.'--'Clare Journal,' Nov. + 11th, 1885. + +Contracts were only to be given to Members of the League. No one could +be elected to a country dispensary or engaged as solicitor by any +electoral body without the sanction of the League. A large portion of +the struggling professional classes in the South and West were forced by +a sense of self preservation to join the local associations. To remain +outside the ranks of the League was to forfeit a man's best chances of +getting on in life, and might any day become a personal danger. Mr. +Harrington M.P., who has been for some years in charge of the Central +Office of the League, tells us that 'at Meetings of the branches of the +Organization discussions frequently occur upon incidents in the +locality.' We can quite believe it, and are not surprised to find from +the columns of 'United Ireland' what is the result of these discussions. + +In a system of pillage and tyranny so elaborated, there was no necessity +to perpetrate acts of violence, frequently or continually. The daily +operation of the League was a standing outrage, bringing a proof of its +power to every man's door. A limited number of conspicuous crimes was +sufficient for the purposes of the League. Curtin was murdered in +November; Finlay, in the West of Ireland, in February; and the local +persecution of the families of the victims was even a more awful tribute +to the sway of the popular organization. + +It is not surprising that Mr. Lecky, in former years the most +distinguished advocate of Irish Nationalism, in what may be called its +social aspects, should say of the organ of the National League, 'United +Ireland,' 'any English statesman who reads that paper, and then proposes +to hand over the property and the virtual government of Ireland to the +men whose ideas it represents, must be either a traitor or a fool.' + +There is no occasion to dwell on the existence of this body or the +character of its operations. They are part of the case of the +Government. Mr. Morley has frankly told us, that we ought to pass the +new Bill, because the League is so strong. If we did not, we should have +to quarrel with the League, and to meet not only this great association +as we knew it in its times of prosperity, but the League as supported by +all the reserve forces of Mr. Egan and Mr. Ford. At present these +leaders of public opinion send money; but if the National League, its +staff, its secretaries, its branches, its newspapers and Members of +Parliament, are not enough, they are ready to send dynamite. + +One remarkable fact, however, in connection with the National League +deserves special consideration, for it illustrates the singularly +disastrous character of Mr. Gladstone's interposition in Irish affairs. +The society, which we have endeavoured to describe, and which Mr. +Morley recommends to our attention as the _locum tenens_ of dynamite and +the dagger, is now officered in nearly every village by the priests of +the Roman Church. At the beginning of his career, Mr. Parnell personally +was regarded by the Roman Catholic hierarchy with suspicion, if not with +hostility. Mr. Butt had never succeeded in securing their hearty +co-operation in his Home Rule scheme. Mr. Parnell was not only a +Protestant, but expressed his contempt very freely for the adherents of +the Roman Church, whilst he avowed his sympathy with Revolutionists, +whom the Irish Catholic had been taught to regard as enemies of the Holy +Father. We can always trace in the history of this Church two forces at +work; the principle of order and authority, worldly and calculating, in +sympathy with the powers that be, trusting by skill and caution to +manipulate them for its own ends; and on the other hand, the wilder +spirit of sacerdotal ambition ready to ride the storm and dare +catastrophe. Before Mr. Gladstone's second Administration, the former +influence was gaining much strength in Ireland. Even if we make +allowance for the social origin of the Irish priests, filled from their +infancy with the rebel sentiment of the peasantry, there are many sins +that the disposition of their Church was until very recently to rely +upon intrigue and organization for gaining its ends, rather than to ally +itself openly with the Irish Revolution. Even after Mr. Parnell had +secured the allegiance of the farmer class by his great largess in the +shape of 20 per cent. reduction of rent, not only did Cardinal McCabe +continue to oppose him, but Archbishop Croke evinced a desire to act on +the side of Government. + +Such a line of action, however, was only possible on the supposition, +that government was to be maintained in Ireland; and the tenure of +Ireland by Lord Spencer gave no such assurance. We know the passionate +efforts which Mr. Gladstone made to exclude Archbishop Walsh from the +See of Dublin. Sir George Errington was sent to Rome to get the Pope to +do what Mr. Gladstone dare not do himself--bid defiance to the Irish +leader. That resolute politician had a policy; the English Minister had +none. A quarrel with the Nationalist party meant to the Roman Church +loss of income, loss of influence--influence which, in these +iconoclastic days, it might take them generations to recover; and, after +all their sacrifices, they might find that Mr. Gladstone had +capitulated, and had handed them and the rest of Ireland over to the +National League. Their only practical course, as discreet politicians, +was to throw in their lot with the great Nationalist leader, relying on +the old traditions of the Irish peasant to protect clerical interests +against the host of Revolutionists, who would, on Mr. Parnell's triumph, +flock into Ireland from all the ends of the earth. The priests do not +forget that the member for Cork denounced their co-religionists. They +have no enthusiasm for a revolutionary dictator, who, whatever his +opinions on religious matters, cannot be claimed as a son of the Church. +Mr. Gladstone, however, left the sacerdotal power no choice but to make +the best terms they could with the Irish leader, who was only too glad +to secure their co-operation. Archbishop Walsh has been accepted as a +sort of ecclesiastical assessor to Mr. Parnell's government, and at the +last election the priests went as one man for the National League. + +It is an Ireland, thus abandoned for years to the evil spirits evoked by +the rhetorician of Southport--an Ireland, in which the natural springs +of Conservatism have been dried up by the fever of slumbering +revolution--that England is now called upon to deal with, and the remedy +of the Ministry is to call into power a public opinion schooled in +conspiracy and violence; for now at length Mr. Gladstone has given up +the notion of intervening between Mr. Parnell and the Irish crowd. The +preachers of the gospel of plunder are invited to share in the +government of a part of the Kingdom. + +We shall not attempt to examine further the scheme which Mr. Gladstone +has foreshadowed, but which, as we write, is not yet published in +detail. One characteristic, we may note, in the Prime Minister's speech +was very unusual with him. It is full of admissions which seem to be due +not so much to his habitual daring as to unconsciousness of their +import. He is ready to buy out the landlords at a great cost to the +English taxpayer, because the idea of landed property came to the +Irishman in English garb, and is therefore not likely to be respected in +the new system; but why should he be obliged to make special provision +for the Irish judges? They are men of ability, of stainless character. +They do not belong to any particular party, or race, or creed; they are +members of a great profession which all civilized societies require. +They have that experience of their profession which would make their +services particularly useful to a community entering on a new social +stage; but the mere fact, that they have been engaged in applying the +law, makes their position dangerous, and Mr. Gladstone is obliged to ask +England to provide that they shall not suffer in purse from the opening +of the new era which he proposes in that part of the United Kingdom +where he has undertaken to reconstruct society. + +For the moment Mr. Morley prefers the _rôle_ of Siéyes rather than of +Danton, but the outcome of the legislation, proposed by the Ministry +with the assent of Mr. Parnell, must be to advance, if not to +consummate, the theory of Irish Independence. We thus arrive at that +result which Mr. Morley, on his own principles, would find it difficult +to refuse assent to. He has told us that his policy is to be 'thorough.' +A separate Irish nationality or reconquest must be the ultimate +consequence of any substitution of local institutions in Ireland for the +Parliament at Westminster, unless so far as the proposed substitution +were part of a scheme common to all four components of the kingdom. Most +people will agree with the old Duke of Wellington, that 'the repeal of +the Union must be the dissolution of the connection between the two +countries.' + +To withdraw the English flag from Ireland as we did from the Ionian +Isles, to have a Convention called at Dublin to determine the future +government of the Island, such a plan would have the advantage that it +recognizes the one political opinion, which we can trace in Irish +popular expression--the desire to be done with England. It is true, that +the policy of Irish ideas declared at Southport was a means to an +end--the better union of the two countries--but pledged to two +antagonistic principles, Mr. Gladstone must some time choose which he +will abandon. + +On the other hand, in accepting Irish independence we shrink from +responsibility for the acts of England. We know that the disorder now +ruling in Ireland is, to some extent, the result of English +misgovernment in past generations, and instead of attempting by firmness +and patience to remedy the mischief our fathers have done, we leave the +future to Providence. In this aspect of the question, we would remind +our readers of the words used in our article on 'Disintegration' not +three years ago:-- + + 'The highest interests of the Empire, as well as the most + sacred obligations of honour, forbid us to solve this + question by conceding any species of independence to + Ireland; or, in other words, any licence to the majority in + that country to govern the rest of Irishmen as they please. + To the minority, to those who have trusted us, and on the + faith of our protection have done our work, it would be a + sentence of exile or of ruin. All that is Protestant--nay, + all that is loyal--all who have land or money to lose, all + by whose enterprize and capital industry and commerce are + still sustained, would be at the mercy of the adventurers + who have led the Land League, if not of the darker + counsellors by whom the Invincibles have been inspired. If + we have failed after centuries of effort to make Ireland + peaceable and civilized, we have no moral right to abandon + our post and leave all the penalty of our failure to those + whom we have persuaded to trust in our power. It would be an + act of political bankruptcy, an avowal that we were unable + to satisfy even the most sacred obligations, and that all + claims to protect or govern any one beyond our own narrow + island were at an end.'--'Quarterly Review,' October, 1883, + pp. 593, 594. + +Mr. Gladstone assured his hearers last week, that he was bent on +consolidating the unity of the kingdom; he would not tolerate that his +new constitution should be called a repeal of the Union; but his final +argument was this, 'Do not let us disguise this from ourselves. We stand +face to face with what is termed "Irish nationality."' Now, what is this +'Irish nationality'? Let us examine it from the point of view of the +welfare of the Irish population. It may be conceded at once that there +is a strong current of local sentiment running through the Irish +population of the south and west. This is a tender, home feeling--a very +different thing from the stronger, more complex, and more highly +developed, conception round which a political nationality gathers. It is +such a sentiment as exists in one form or another in every group of +counties, in every county, in every country-side, in almost every +village. It is a kindly recollection of old memories, associated with a +disposition to stand up for our own. It is the result of intimate +knowledge of certain habits and ideas, and a tender reminiscence of the +best types of character associated with those habits. This sentiment of +local feeling is the germ of nationality, but it exists in many regions +where the wider ideas of nationality have never supervened. There are +many other places again, where this same feeling remains fresh and +vigorous after the political nationality connected with it has passed +away, merged in larger conceptions, in a sense of more extended +interests. + +Such was the feeling of Cicero when he said that he had two countries. +His Volscian home was the country of his affection, but Rome that of +duty and right. Arpinum will always be my country, said he, but Rome +still more my country, for Arpinum has its share in the honours and +dominion of Rome. + +Such is the feeling of the proud and vigorous nationality occupying +North Britain, various in race, in creed, and in social condition, but +united in mutual knowledge, in local sympathies, and in self-respect. +The Scotch, as an aggregate, are intellectually, physically, and in +their local institutions and habits one of the most distinct national +types existing. They are drawn together by a strong sentiment of +patriotism, but they are as little likely to demand a separate political +system, a parliament sitting at Edinburgh, as the members from +Hampshire and Wiltshire are likely to combine for the establishment of +parliamentary government on the banks of the Itchin. + +Now what is Ireland, and what indications has that portion of the +population known as Nationalist given of a capacity to form itself into +a nation? Ireland has a geographical boundary in a sea channel crossed +from Great Britain in three hours or in an hour and a-half, according to +the line of passage selected. It is inhabited by some five millions, +whose native language is English, with the exception of a decimal +percentage of mountaineers, who nearly all speak English as well as +Irish. The race is more mixed than in any other district of the kingdom +containing the same amount of population. The northern coasts are +thickly peopled by Scotch settlers. In the south and west are many +varieties of race not of English introduction, but strongly different +from each other. In many of the most Catholic districts of Munster and +Leinster we find, in the names, physique, and temper, of the people, +evident results of the Cromwellian settlements, although the faith and +political principles of their forefathers have passed away. With this +mixed population we have a social cleavage probably the most remarkable +in Europe. The mass of the people, except in about one-fifth of the +island on the north-east coast, are Roman Catholic, Celtic in their +traditions and habits, and extremely poor. The Northern fifth is +industrious, order-loving, prosperous, Protestant, and British in +sentiment. Next to the masses of the population in importance are the +great landowners, of whom six-sevenths are Protestants, and nearly the +whole of Norman, Scotch, or English origin. There is no important +mercantile class, except in the towns of Belfast, Dublin, and Cork; and +the professional classes, with the exception of the Catholic priesthood, +are chiefly Protestant and British. + +This population, so strangely wanting in homogeneity, have no history +which might attract them into unconsciousness of their differences. It +has been well said, that 'anybody who knew nothing of the Irish past, +except what he got from the speeches of Irish Nationalists, would +suppose that at some comparatively recent period the green flag had +floated over fleets and armies, and that Irish kings had played a part +of some kind in the field of modern European politics.' But as a matter +of fact Ireland has no part in European history before its conquest by +England. Not only was the kingdom of Ireland, as the style of the island +went before 1800, an English creation; but the name of Ireland has never +had any political significance except in connection with the English +crown. + +External signs of difference between English and Irish there are many; +nimble apprehension, fluent utterance, genial demeanour, the attraction +of the flashing Celtic face, distinguish an Irish from an English group, +but characteristics like this do not prove any original or consistent +power of thought. They rather perhaps indicate the absence of it. It is +not on qualities like these, cemented even by strong feelings of home +sentiment, that we can expect to see the foundation of a new Nationality +happily laid. With one exception there is not a single idea, which an +orator could present to an Irish crowd, that could not be urged with +equal chance of sympathy upon an English crowd. Personal liberty, the +principles of no taxation without representation, of trial by jury, +freedom of conscience, sympathy with the prosperity of the greatest +number, all these are English ideas and must be illustrated, where they +need illustration, by the events of history peculiar to England or +common to the British dominion. The one topic, which is specially +attractive to an Irish meeting, is abuse of England as the source of +Irish misery. Community of hatred the mixed Nationalist population has, +but whether such a passion is sufficiently creative to build up a new +national type the reader can judge for himself. With this exception, +laws, political teachings, commercial habits, are all of English origin. + +Mr. Gladstone, in recommending to the House of Commons his scheme for +the establishment of an independent Parliament in Ireland, cited as +precedents the independent Legislatures of Sweden and Norway, and of +Austria and Hungary. He dwelt particularly upon the precedent of +Norway:-- + + 'The Legislature of Norway has had serious controversies, + not with Sweden, but with the King of Sweden, and it has + fought out those controversies successfully upon the + strictest constitutional and Parliamentary grounds. And yet + with two countries so united, what has been the effect? Not + discord, not convulsion, not danger to peace, not hatred, + not aversion, but a constantly-growing sympathy; and every + man who knows their condition knows that I speak the truth + when I say, that in every year that passes the Norwegians + and the Swedes are more and more feeling themselves to be + the children of a common country, united by a tie which + never is to be broken.' + +If Mr. Gladstone had been better acquainted with the recent historic and +economic condition of Norway, of which we have given some account in our +present number,[104] he might have quoted that country as a warning +rather than an example. The 'Storthing,' or Parliament of Norway, is +omnipotent, and two-thirds of its representatives are permanently in the +hands of the peasant proprietor. The King has only a suspensive veto on +Bills enacted by the Storthing, which therefore become law, if passed in +their original form by three successive triennial Parliaments. The +recent dispute between the King and the Parliament, to which Mr. +Gladstone alluded, related to the right of the King to exercise an +absolute veto in the case of Bills affecting the principles of the +Constitution. The existence of such a right was denied by the Radical +majority in the Storthing, which established in 1884 a Supreme Court of +Justice composed exclusively of Radical members, and the Judges of the +ordinary High Court of Justice. It was a packed Court, bound to secrecy; +and the tribunal thus constituted condemned, in violation of the first +principles of justice, all the King's Ministers in Norway to deprivation +of office and to pecuniary fines, for having advised their master, that +the Constitution could not be altered without his sanction. The King was +compelled to yield, though he was supported in his opposition to the +Storthing by his Swedish Cabinet; and his ultimate submission to the +Radical majority in Norway was followed by a Ministerial crisis in +Sweden. The Swedes rightly argue that, if the King has no absolute veto +on matters affecting the principles of the Constitution in Norway, there +is no obstacle to an abolition of the Monarchical form of government in +that kingdom, or to a repeal of the union between the two countries. +There is in consequence much discontent in Sweden at the conduct of +Norway; and the Norwegians, on their side, have an intense and +ever-growing 'hatred and aversion' to the Swedes. Hence has arisen a +considerable tension in the official relations between the two countries +instead of the 'constantly growing sympathy' of which Mr. Gladstone +spoke. It is characteristic of the Prime Minister's mode of stating a +case, that he tells us the Norwegian controversies are 'not with Sweden +but with the King of Sweden.' Sweden has nothing to say in Norwegian +affairs, except in the person of the King. The King is the only +connecting link between the two countries. If the Dublin Parliament +should impeach the Irish Viceroy, we suppose Mr. Gladstone would tell us +that the difficulty was not with England but with Queen Victoria. + +Nor was Mr. Gladstone much happier in his allusion to Hungarian +Nationality in recent times. For more than 150 years Austria endeavoured +to extinguish the national life of Hungary. In 1867 this policy was +definitely abandoned, and Hungary was called to a share in the Empire of +the Hapsburgs. As recently as last October Mr. Parnell, when insisting +that Ireland must have an independent Parliament, said: 'We can point +to the example of other countries--to Austria and to Hungary--to the +fact that Hungary, having been conceded self-government, became one of +the strongest factors in the Austrian Empire.' The favour, with which +these references have been received by the Liberal party, is a singular +example how far afield they are ready to go in search of an argument. +Austria, in 1867, was a great military despotism, tottering to its fall +amidst a group of eager rivals. A general appeal to the nation, such as +France made at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, was out of the +question. Differences of race, differences of language, differences of +social condition, made national unity impossible within the wide +dominions of the House of Austria. The government at Vienna consented to +the division of its territories into groups of nearly equal strength. In +each of these groups various alien nationalities were clustered round a +central power more advanced in politics, in civilization, and in wealth, +than the adjacent territories. Instead of trying to weld their multiple +varieties of race into one great popular community, Austria, smitten at +Sadowa, shared her dominion with Hungary, and asked her to take charge +of the Government of the East Leithan Slavs, whilst the German +population of Austria dealt with the Czechs and Moravians and +Carinthians on the western side of the river. + +Sir Henry Elliott has well pointed out, that what success the experiment +has had is in no small degree due to the large powers still enjoyed by +the Crown, and to the personal character and influence of the Emperor +Francis, the connecting link between the two dominions; but apart from +this actual result, the feasibility of the dual scheme depended on the +following considerations. In the first place, there was no alternative +in the condition in which the House of Austria found itself in 1867, +defeated in battle and bankrupt in finance. Without some such +arrangement civil war was inevitable, with the ultimate prospect of the +absorption of the various races by the hostile neighbouring Powers. In +the second place, the allies were pretty nearly equal in strength as +regards each other, whilst they were each similarly weighted by the +difficulty of holding their own within the respective territories +assigned them. They were each so busy with their subordinate territories +and the less advanced populations inhabiting them, that it was not their +interest or their inclination to bring about conflicts with each other. +Hungary boasts a larger area than Austria, and a population equal to +three-fourths that of the Western Monarchy. On the western side of the +Leitha the dominant race, dominant by force of nature, by brain power, +and the traditions and acquirements this power has given them, are 36 +per cent. of the whole population. In the Transleithan provinces the +race similarly situated, the Magyar, constitutes about 40 per cent. of +the whole population. + +There is not a single circumstance in the relations between England and +Ireland to make reference to the creation of the Empire-Kingdom anything +but an absurdity. Ireland never can compare with Great Britain in +material resources. Her population is hardly one-sixth that of the +larger island, whilst her area is little more than a third. She is +deficient in climate, in soil, in mineral resources, and in population. +Not only is she without a well-organized aristocracy skilled in +political science, such as Hungary boasted; Ireland, as the term is +understood by the National League, is without an educated class. Her +intellect is represented by the moonlight maurauder and the fanatic +priest. As regards England, the parallel is still more preposterous: She +is not a military despotism, but a well-organized community, boasting +parliamentary traditions of a thousand years. Her shores are guarded by +sea from foreign interference. Notwithstanding many scandalous +shortcomings in her rulers, her influence and her power are still +unrivalled in the world. However long Mr. Gladstone may rule, her Sadowa +is yet to come; and, if it did come, the example of the Dual State would +offer no solution of our Irish difficulties, for none of the conditions +which made the Dual State possible exist in the case of the two chief +British Islands. + +The delusive character of Mr. Gladstone's reference to the Dual State is +best illustrated by the facts, that the council for common affairs +consist of an equal number of representatives from each side of the +dominion, that this council is concerned with military and foreign +affairs, two subjects on which, according to the new scheme, Ireland is +to have no vote. + +It will be found, on a little examination, that appeals to the example +of the foreigner are as misleading as the theory of nationality. All +such arguments are only endeavours to divert the public from the +exercise of their own judgment and common-sense in dealing with the +mischiefs which the perverse genius of Mr. Gladstone has created. +Recognized principles of government, the ordinary traditions of England +applied with the happy immunity from friction, which the commercial +policy of modern times makes possible, would have long since settled the +difficulty, but it would have been settled in disregard of that popular +Irish feeling which, in 1867, Mr. Gladstone pledged himself to follow. +He would have had to admit that his new Irish policy was a mistake; and +he never admits that he has made any mistake--unless it be in Egypt--or +in acting on the opinion of other people. When he has discovered a new +line of policy, he believes himself infallible. Let us assume for a +moment, that the combination of the personal adherents of Mr. Gladstone +and of Mr. Parnell enables the Prime Minister to pass some measure on +the lines he has selected, or on those laid down by Mr. Davitt, and that +the rowdy treason of a Dublin Cabinet proceeds to bring within the +sphere of its operations what wealth and civilization has hitherto +escaped the National League. + +In the struggle which must ensue, we shall have within three hours of +our shores a raging volcano of revolution, threatening the peace of +Europe and our own. Fenians, Nihilists, and Irish Yankees, will flock to +the new vantage ground. The conflict between Socialism and property, +between infidelity and superstition, will be fought out amidst the +strangest complications of local hatred and of fiscal disorder. If +foreign governments abstain from interfering, and we escape consequent +difficulties with them, are we sure that we ourselves will be able to +remain passive spectators? Many of us are old enough to recollect the +agitation which shook this kingdom during the struggle between North and +South on the other side of the Atlantic. No question of Home politics +for generations past had so deeply moved our people. It required all the +exertions of the most sober part of the nation to prevent our becoming +involved in the conflict, and we recollect the help this party of wisdom +got from the impulsive statesman who has undertaken for the third time +the final settlement of the Irish question. If the great American Civil +War, desolating a country three thousand miles away, thus stirred +popular feeling, what will be the result of a Civil War between, on the +one side, the Irish Celt animated by religious hatred and love of +plunder, and supported by the Irish American, and on the other the +loyalty, endurance and Protestantism of Ulster--a Civil War almost +within sight of our shores? + +But, if we turn from the suggestions of empiricism and vanity and come +to those practical considerations which affect men's minds in matters so +important as political organization, the main argument pressed on +English people is that we cannot go on as we are. 'Irish Government is a +failure.' 'We must close this terrible crisis as rapidly as possible.' +'Separation itself, could not be worse than the present state of +things.' 'The Act of Union has completely failed. After eighty-four +years it has given an Ireland more hostile to England than at any period +of its history.' Mr. Gladstone recites the number of Coercion Acts, +which have been passed since 1832, and declares 'we are like the man +who, knowing that medicine may be the means of his restoration to +health, endeavours to live upon medicine.' + +Before considering whether this confession of failure is true, we would +remind our readers what it implies, what it leads up to. It is now +proposed as an argument for establishing a separate Parliament in +Dublin. The establishment of this separate Parliament is necessary, +because we must give Ireland the opportunity of doing what we ourselves +are unable to do, to find the best machinery they can to carry on the +business of government. But, when this machinery is once found and +invested with the resources and influence of a Government, we cannot +suppose that our troubles will be at an end. If disputes arise in the +working out of the new Irish Constitution, the popular majority will not +be slow to call in the aid of the American Irish who have founded the +National League. Mr. Jennings, whose opinion on this matter is entitled +to great weight, from his long residence in the United States, reminded +the House that + + 'one consideration which they must bear in mind was that of + the formidable difficulties which would inevitably arise + from the action of the great body of Irish Americans. If + this Bill granted to Ireland a free and independent + Parliamentary Assembly with full powers over the Executive, + as proposed by the Prime Minister, there would inevitably + come a time when either the payment of the interest due, or + some other cause, would bring the Irish Parliament into + antagonism with the English. If they were to endeavour to + demand what was necessary, whether payment of interest or + what not, and to threaten to use force, could any one + suppose that the great body of Irish Americans would stand + by silently and see that done? He believed that the United + States would say to them: "You have acknowledged your + incompetence to govern Ireland; you have given her practical + independence, now you must take your hands off her; we will + not stand by and see her crushed." He believed that there + was no government in the United States which could withstand + such pressure as that which would be brought to bear on it + by the Irish Americans, especially if a Presidential + election were near.' + +But is this allegation of failure actually true? For our part we are +inclined to agree with Lord Hartington, that the argument founded on the +paralysis of government in Ireland in recent years is allowed more +weight in this question than it should have. In the first place, it is +difficult to see how any government conducted as ours has been during +the last few years, could be other than disastrous, Mr. Gladstone, at +the commencement of his career as leader of the Liberal party, pledged +himself to the policy of Irish ideas, ignorant, if not reckless, of what +the term meant. Year by year he has been getting a closer view of the +creed he had unconsciously adopted, and, after a struggle, he accepts +one dogma, then another. The great dogma of all in the Home Ruler's +creed, that Englishmen should be sent bag and baggage out of Ireland, +has not yet been adopted; and naturally the Home Ruler keeps his +resources ready for that ringing of the chapel bell to which Mr. +Gladstone alluded in speaking of the Clerkenwell explosion and its +effect on the question of the Irish Establishment. The 'dynamite and the +dagger,' to which Mr. Morley recently appealed as conclusive reasons for +passing the Cabinet scheme, retain their fascination for the Irish mind. + +As long as Mr. Gladstone is a power in English public life, and his +pledges given in Lancashire are unredeemed or unrepudiated, the Home +Rule party will press him without mercy; but it is not reasonable to +argue from their success, a success which Mr. Gladstone has given them, +that they exercise a permanent influence on Irish affairs. When the +Southport pledges were given, the Irish land laws were yet without that +reform which a series of Governments, Tory as well as Whig, had admitted +to be necessary. It could not be said until after 1870 that the book of +English neglect of Irish interests was finally closed, and that is only +sixteen years ago. During this period we have seen the great English +Parliamentary Ruler continually plunging after coercion, and returning +to make some other big concession to agitation. Thus Ireland has had no +chance of trying what a good system of laws consistently administered +could supply. The principle of the Land Act of 1870 was a provision for +the protection of property--the tenants' property recognized by custom +during a long course of years, although ignored by the law and exposed +to confiscation by the reckless Whig legislation of 1850-2. The Land Act +of 1881 was an arbitrary attempt to remedy the misfortunes of an +improvident agricultural interest by legislative interference with +contract. Contracts were readjusted and finally settled for fifteen +years to come. Political economy was bidden to take itself off, but +prices varied quite regardless of Mr. Gladstone's arrangements, and the +weather did not pay them the least consideration. The passion for +revolution was stimulated, and a large number of Mr. Gladstone's clients +are as badly off as before. Might it not be worth while to try for a +time how far good government, after the removal of all substantial +grievances, might supply that 'real settlement,' 'that finality,' which +the country is now asked to find in Dublin Parliaments, First Orders, +and bribes at the cost of the English taxpayer? + +This counter-policy of maintaining order and good government in Ireland +should be emphasized by measures to make that island, even more +completely than she now is, a part of the United Kingdom. The Queen's +laws in Ireland are the same, except in some slight details, as in +England. The Irish judicature might be made part of the High Court at +Westminster. The Queen's writs from Westminster should run throughout +Ireland as they have done for hundreds of years throughout Wales. +Limerick or Sligo are not so remote from London now as Harlech or Durham +were in the reign of George I. The Irish judges would form no +undistinguished addition to the English Bench, while the presence of +English judges on circuit in Ireland would have the best effect in +disarming the animosity of the people against the law. It is too often +forgotten in these days that, however rapidly we move from place to +place, however swift the transmission of intelligence, the human mind +has not yet acquired the nimbleness of the telegraph needle. Habits of +thought are not changed as rapidly as the fashions of our dress. It is +only sixteen years since our Irish legislation has assumed its present +form, and we are ready to throw to the winds all maxims of statecraft, +all principles hitherto recognized in the delicate work of government. +We are in despair, and call in the company of _à priori_ statesmen--men +whose sole qualification to deal with complex questions is the fact that +they have studied the science of revolution. Why should we not try, now +that we have provided for manifest Irish grievances, what time, and +resolution, and common-sense, might do for us and our Irish +fellow-subjects? + +The first part of the Government policy is disclosed. We have still to +learn what its complement, the Land Purchase Bill, is to be, what +proposal is to be made about loyal Ulster, the subject on which Mr. +Gladstone was so strangely vague, on which Mr. Parnell was discreetly +silent. These further manifestations of Cabinet wisdom can hardly save +the scheme now lingering on to death. We wish we could be certain, that +this collapse would rid Parliament and Ireland of all such projects for +the future. But, whatever be the fate of the present Ministry, we may be +sure that the end is not yet, unless Mr. Parnell's faction is completely +broken, unless the policy urged by Lord Hartington is firmly adopted, +and party life reorganized in England, on the principle of excluding the +Irish vote from consideration in our party conflicts. If no such +resolution is enforced by English patriotism, Irish Nationalists will +return to their demands, enhanced in power and renown by the tribute +they have extorted from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. + +On these events of the future we shall not now speculate; but if past +history throws any light on the character of our population, one thing +may be confidently predicted. If Home Rule should be ultimately conceded +to Ireland, the political party which may be responsible for the +carrying of the scheme, will have to look forward to a long period of +exclusion from public confidence. However the British people may be +worried or deluded into forgetfulness of their duty to themselves and to +Ireland, the working of a Dublin Parliament will soon rouse them, the +reaction will set in; and the authors of the scheme will have before +them as lengthened a banishment from power, as the country gentlemen +suffered when their chivalrous devotion to the House of Stuart blinded +them for a time to the practical interests of England; as was the fate +of the Whigs at the beginning of this century, when they identified +their party with implacable opposition to Pitt's struggle to deliver +Europe from the tyranny of Bonaparte. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[104] See Art. IV. 'Yeomen Farmers in Norway.' + + + + +INDEX TO THE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SECOND VOLUME OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. + + +A. + +St. Alban's Abbey, 305 + its revenue, 307 + culture of the vine, 308 + its Grammar School, 310 + the Scriptorium, 312, 313 + Historiographers, 314 + Abbot's, 316, 317. + +Alford, Dean, on the severance of the Church from the State, 7. + +Apostolic Fathers, the, by the Bishop of Durham, 467 + Ignatius contrasted with St. Clement, 470 + his uncertain birth and origin, 471 + martyrdom, 472, 473 + testimony to the Apostolical succession, 474 + the 'short,' 'middle' and 'long' form, _ib._ + forgery in the 'long' recension, 475 + literary war on episcopacy, 476 + Milton's invective, _ib._ + Archbp. Ussher's discovery, 477 + condemns the Epistle to Polycarp, 478 + Cureton's version, _ib._ + genuineness of the seven Epistles known to Eusebius 479, 480 + style and diction, 481 + external testimony, 483 + 'Apostolical Constitutions,' 485 + Irenæus on Apostolic succession, 485, 486 + Linus at Rome, 486 + Polycarp on episcopacy, 487 + Clement of Rome and Papias, _ib._ + Theological Polemics, 488 + Judaists and Gnostics, 489 + _S. Polycarp_, his history and writings, 491 + reverence paid to him, 492 + reviving Paganism, 493 + legend of his youth, 495 + meets Ignatius, 496 + reminiscences by Irenæus, _ib._ + his martyrdom, 498, 499. + +Aracan. _See_ Burma. + +Archives of the Venetian Republic, 356. _See_ Venetian. + +d'Aumale, Duc his 'Histoire des Princes de Condé,' 80 + his tribute to Gen. France d'Houdetot, 107. + + +B. + +Bagehot, Mr. Walter, his 'English Constitution,' 518 + his character, 521 + influence of his writings, 532 + universal and varied representation, 533 + clear style, 534 + the principle of evolution, 535 + on royal education, 536 + Constitutional monarchy, 537. + +Banker, the Country, by Mr. George Rae, 133 + Joint Stock Banking, 134 + loanable capital, 135 + trade interests, 136 + individual responsibility, _ib._ + limited liability, 137 + uncovered advances, _ib._ + prosperity of Scotland, 138 + difference between a mortgage and a bill of exchange, 139 + fixed capital, 140 + floating capital, 141 + telegraphic transfer, _ib._ + personal security, 142 + 'runs' on a bank, 143-145 + banking reserve, 145 + panics, 146, 147 + the Act of 1844, 147 + the Golden Age, 149 + Bank Law of Germany, 149, 150 + National Banks of the U.S., 150 + Swedish Banks, 151 + banking system of Australasia, 152 + 'Popular Banks in Italy, 153 + contrasted with the Post Office Savings-banks in England, 154. + +Batchelor, Rev. H., sermon upon 'The Bishops on Disestablishment,' 38. + +Beaconsfield, Lord, his historic warning in 1880 of danger in Ireland, 551. + +Bismarck, Prince, his opinion of Mr. Gladstone, 281, 282. + +Books and Reading, 501 + Sir John Lubbock's list, _ib._ + Comte's catalogue or syllabus, 502 + indolent readers, 503 + perplexity of the student, 504 + difficulties in classification, 505 + Mr. Weldon's practical list, 507 + Mr. F. Harrison's 'Choice of Books, _ib._ + the desultory reader, 508 + Dibdin's 'Library Companion,' 509 + Chroniclers and Historians, _ib._ + philosophical histories, 510 + Voyages and Travels, 511 + Children's Books, 512 + Mr. Lowell's maxim for reading, 513 + use of odd moments, 514 + periodical literature, 515 + selection of books, 516 + students' books, 517 + fragmentary reading, 518. + +Brewer, Prof., his 'Introductions,' 293 + Essay on 'New Sources of English History,' 294 + draws attention to the value of the 'Calendars,' _ib._ + +British Empire. _See_ Travels. + +Broch, Dr., '_Le Royaume de Norvège et le Peuple Norvégien_,' 384 + his Report for the Exhibition at Paris, 397 + production of cereals and potatoes in Norway, in 1875, 405 _note_. + _See_ Yeomen. + +Brown, Rev., on the control exercised in the Dissenting Churches, 37. + +----, Mr. Rawdon, the late, his facsimiles of the Autographs in the + _Lettere Principi_, 377. + _See_ Venetian. + +Burma, Past and Present, 210 + number of rivers, 211 + influence of India and China, _ib._ + chief nationalities, 213 + the Karens, _ib._ + influence of Buddhism, 214 + affinity with Ceylon, _ib._ + Hindoo nomenclature, 215 + architectural remains, _ib._ + the city of Pagân, 216 + Niccolo de' Conti's geographical accuracy, 217 + Pegu captured, _ib._ + the _Yuva Raja's_ gorgeous court, 218 + extravaganzas of F. M. Pinto, _ib._ + splendour of the monarchy, 219 + internal and external wars, _ib._ + reign of Nicote, 220 + his execution, 221 + decay of the power of Ava, _ib._ + resistance of Alompra, _ib._ + his successes and death, 222, 223 + Ran-gûn founded, 222 + conquest of Aracan, _ib._ + peace concluded between China and Ava, _ib._ + Capt. Symes, Envoy to the Burmese Court, 224 + Lord Wellesley's endeavours for a treaty of alliance, _ib._ + geographical extent of the Empire, 225 + Sir A. Campbell's conquests, 226 + Col. H. Burney's residence, 227 + Lord Dalhousie annexes Pegu, _ib._ + Capt. A. Phayre's successful administration of Pegu, 228 + death of Mengdûn-Meng, and succession of Theebau, _ib._ + massacre of the prisoners, 229 + revolt at Hlain, 230 + English Residency withdrawn, 231 + relations with France cultivated, 232 + Gen. D'Orgoni's mission, 233 + the French Envoy's secret articles disavowed, 234 + French occupation of the Anamite provinces, _ib._ + Franco-Burmese Treaty, 235 + and Bank at Mandalay, 236 + the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation, 237 + Ultimatum of the Indian Government, 238 + resources of, 287. + + +C. + +'Calendars,' the, of Letters and Papers, Prof. Brewer's 'Introductions' to, +293, 294. + +Cape Colony, the, treatment of, 448. + +Carlyle's account of the Royalist attack on Salisbury, 416 + his false image of Cromwell, 441. + _See_ Cromwell. + +Cervantes, Life of, 58. + _See_ 'Don Quixote.' + +Chamberlain, Mr., his bribe to the rural voters, 258 + on Mr. Gladstone's manifesto, 290. + _See_ Parliament. + +Christian Brothers, the, Religious Schools in France and England, 325 + the _Frères Chrétiens_ founded by De la Salle, 330 + work at Paris, 331 + vow of dedication, _ib._ + Articles of rules for the Society, 332 + laymen appointed in preference to priests, 333 + the five vows and rule of daily life, _ib._ + Manuals for their guidance, 334 + conditions of punishment, 335 + success of the work, _ib._ + abolished during the Reign of Terror, 337 + revived under Napoleon, _ib._ + discouragements, 338 + Our Duties towards Ourselves, 339 + Morals, 340 + Freedom of Labour, _ib._ + Gregory on Competition, 341 + Political Duties, 342 + Cross of honour awarded after the Prussian invasion, 354 + scholarships gained, 355. + +Church and State, 2 + Lord Hartington's loyalty, 3 + imputation on the Tories, _ib._ + Liberationist tactics, 4, 7 + Mr. Gladstone's manifesto, 5, 6 + finances of the Liberation Society, 8, 9 + Scottish subscriptions, 10 + Welsh Nonconformists, 11 + characteristics of Democracy, _ib._ + Liberation leaflets, 13-16 + cost of 'voluntary schools,' 16 + Pope Gelasius on tithes, 17 + the Church in Wales and London, 18-21 + number of adult baptisms, 21 + Mr. G. Rogers on Disendowment, 22 + the 'Radical programme,' 23, 24 + Bp. Magee on Disestablishment, 25 + M. Scherer on Democracy, 27 + the question of inequality, 28 + history and effects of Establishment, 29 + misstatements, 30 + spiritual influence, 31 + example of the United States, _ib._ + results of the voluntary system, 32, 33 + denominational rivalry, 34 + Mr. Bancroft on the Church in Virginia, 35 + danger of rashness in any change, 36 + control in the Dissenting Church, 37 + case of Jones _v._ Stannard, _ib._ + Rev. H. Batchelor's sermon, 38 + decrease of Baptist and Congregational pastors, 39 + the Bp. of Rochester's estimate of the parishes that would suffer, 40 + Bp. of Derry's experience, _ib._ + +Cid, the, Poem of, 46. + _See_ 'Don Quixote.' + +Clement, St., compared to Ignatius, 470. + +Colonies, the British. _See_ Travels in British Empire. + +Condé, the House of, 80 + character of Henri, the third Prince, 81 + married to Charlotte de Montmorency, 82 + avidity for wealth, 83 + applies for a bishopric for his infant son, 84 + Richelieu's reply, 85 + imprisonment, 85-89 + joined by his wife, 89 + birth of his son Duc d'Anguien, 90 + his education, 91-93 + at the Military Coll., Paris, 94 + government of Burgundy, _ib._ + his child-bride, 95 + imprisonment at Vincennes, 96 + first campaign, 97 + Richelieu's domination, 98 + efforts for his safety, 99 + treatment of the Cardinal-Archb., _ib._ + changes on Richelieu's death, 100 + his appearance described, 101 + military talents, 102 + generals, 103 + personal courage, 104. + +Constitution, English, 518 _sqq._ + +Cowper, Lord, his letter on supporting the Land-Act of 1881, 277. + +Cromwell, Oliver: + his character illustrated by himself, 414 + received version of the Insurrection of March, 1655, 415 + meeting at Marston Moor, _ib._ + attack on Salisbury, 416 + endeavours to stimulate an insurrection, 417 + counsels of false friends, 419 + secret agents, 420 + intercepted letter to Mr. Roles, 420 _note_ + Earl of Rochester and his comrades land at Dover, 421 + arrested and released, 422, 423 + Morton, the sham-Royalist, 424 + Mr. Douthwaite's movements, suspected, 424, 425 + the Judges refuse to try the Marston Moor prisoners, 428 + trial of Salisbury insurgents, 427 + twelve Major-Generals, _ib._ + 'Declaration' to secure the Peace of the Commonwealth, 428 + projects of the Royalists in March, 1655, 429 + officers and soldiers kept from Salisbury, 430 + Major Butler forbidden to take active operations, _ib._ + his account of the dispersal of the Royalists at Marston Moor, 432 + alleged 'rendezvous' of Royalists to surprise Newcastle, 433 + the Rufford Abbey incident, _ib._ + Shropshire insurrection, 434 + Pickering's story about Chester Castle, _ib._ + Earl of Rochester and Armourer arrested at Aylesbury, 435 + their escape, 436 + power of deception, 437 + the 'Thurloe Papers,' _ib._ + incredulity of the members of his Parliament, 438 + motive for the fabrication of the Insurrection, 439 + speech on the dissolution of Parliament in Jan. 1655, 440 + Carlyle's false image of the Hero, 441 + claims the Divine sanction, 442. + + +D. + +Dalley, Mr., of Sidney, on a better organization of the Navy for + the Colonies. + _See_ Travels. + +Darwin's view of primitive human society, 182. + _See_ Patriarchal Theory. + +Davitt, Mr., on Irish landlords, 292. + +Democracy, M. Scherer on, 2 + characteristics of, 518 + its tendency to despotism, 522 + Mr. G. White on English aristocracy and American democracy, 523 + its tolerance of oppression, 525 + Mr. Godkin on American politics, 526 + failure of, in the Spanish and Portuguese States, 527 + political aim of the Reign of Terror, 528, 529 + real meaning of equality, 531 + Mr. Bagehot's views, 532 + universal and varied representation, 533 + influence exercised by hereditary Princes and aristocracies, 535 + errors of George III.'s reign, 536 + royal education, _ib._ + of Constitutional Monarchy, 537 + 'Vigilance Committee' in California, 538 + strikes in Pennsylvania, 539 + value of the English Poor Law, 540 + Irish famine, 541 + Belgian riots, 532 + American charity, 543. + +Democracy, 11, 25. + _See_ Church. + +Dibdin, Mr., on the present features of Establishment, 29. + _See_ Church. + +'Don Quixote,' Mr. Ormsby's, 43 + ignorance of Spanish literature in England, _ib._ + a key to the history of Europe, 45 + popularity of the work, 46 + translations, 47-49 + Doré's illustrations, 50 + proverbs, 51, 52 + opening of the 2nd Part, 53 + emendations, 54 + 'Life of Cervantes,' 58 + his personal history little known, 59 + early years, 61 + at Rome, and at the battle of Lepanto, _ib._ + prisoner in Algiers, 62 + liberated, 63 + marriage, 64 + collector of revenue at Granada, _ib._ + life in Madrid, 65 + death, 66 + no known portrait of him, 67 + describes his own features, _ib._ + theories for the popularity of his work, 68-71 + broad humour, 71 + chivalry, 72 + C. Kingsley's opinion, 73 + madness of the knight, 74 + Sancho's character, 76 + ordinances for good government, 78. + +Dörpfeld, on the method of lighting at Tiryns, 122. + _See_ Tiryns. + +Doyle, Sir F., translation of the Olympian Ode, 178. + _See_ Pindar. + + +E. + +Education, royal, 536 + religious, in France. _See_ Christian Brothers. + +Eusebius. _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + + +F. + +Fergusson, Mr. J., on lighting the Parthenon, 123. + _See_ Tiryns. + +France, primary schools of, 338. + _See_ Christian Brothers. + +Froude, J. A., his 'Oceana, or England and her Colonies,' 443 + our responsibility with the Boers, 448 + Free Trade, 449 + love of 'old home' in the Colonies, 451. + _See_ Travels. + +Fustel de Coulanges, M., his 'Recherches sur quelques problèmes +d'Histoire', 187. + + +G. + +Gaius, the Commentaries of, found by Niebuhr, 183. + +Gasparin, Comte Agenor, on the titles of landowners, &c., 17. + _See_ Church. + +Gildersleeve, Prof., his contribution to Pindaric literature, 161, _note_. + +Gladstone, Mr., his manifesto on Church Establishment, 5 + ambiguity, 6 + preparations for Home Rule in 1882, 261 + enigmatical replies, 263 + 'healing measures' for Ireland, 265 + his 'Divine light' and Irish policy, 266 + coercions and concessions, 268 + speech at Leeds, 273 belief in him, 275 + on the Irish question, 275, 276 + foreign policy, 281 + the advances of Russia, 282, 283. + +Gladstone-Morley Administration, the, 544 + the two 'Orders' for the Irish Parliament, 545 + voting power of the Nationalists, 547 + Mr. Gladstone's appeal to Southport in 1867, 547-549 + abolition of Irish Establishment, 549 + the Home Rule Association denounced at Aberdeen, _ib._ + Mr. Butt on Home Rule, 550 + Lord Beaconsfield's warning in 1880, 551 + the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, and a Coercion Act, _ib._ + the Land League dissolved, Mr. Parnell and its leaders in jail, 552 + Mr. Forster's exertions, 553 + Lord Spencer's responsibilities, _ib._ + the National League, _ib._ + removal of Mr. Clifford Lloyd and Mr. Trevelyan, 554 + delay in renewing the Crimes Act, _ib._ + declarations of Imperial unity, 555 + Mr. C. Bannerman on the Parnellite demands, 556 + Lord Hartington's protestation, _ib._ + Mr. Gladstone's telegram denying the scheme as sketched in the Press, 557 + Mr. Chamberlain's denial of being a party to it, _ib._ + declaration of Lord Salisbury's Government to maintain the Union, 558 + Mr. J. Collings's motion, _ib._ + new Ministry, 559 + Mr. J. Morley's appointment; his inexperience, 560 + system of guarantees, 561 + evictions, 562 + example of the French peasantry, 563 + power of the National League, 563, 564 + instance of Farrell and Shee, _ib._ + election to local public offices, _ib._ + Mr. Lecky on the National League, 566 + sympathy of the Irish priests, 567 + Archbp. Walsh, 567, 568 + provision for Irish judges, 568 + our responsibilities to Ireland, 569 + Irish nationality, 570 + population, 571 + compared to Norway and Hungary, 572-574 + deficient resources of Ireland, 575 + Mr. Jennings on an Irish Parliament, 577 + the Land Purchase Bill, 579. + +Goschen, Mr., his 'Hearing, Reading, Thinking,' 501. + _See_ Books. + +Grant White, Mr. R., his sketches of English and American Life, 523. + +Grosseteste's Letters, 300. + + +H. + +Hahn, F. von, on Roman Law, 187. + +Hallam's 'Hist. of the Middle Ages,' ignorance of English Monasticism, 298. + +Harcourt, Sir William, his prophecy about the Tory party, 261. + +Hardy, Sir T. Duffus, on the Madden Hypothesis, 301 + on the St. Albans Scriptorium, 312. + +Harnack, Dr. on episcopacy, 484-486. + _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + +Harrison, Mr., 'Choice of Books', 507. + +Hartington, Lord, on Disestablishment, 3 + on the Law of the Land League, 267 + no warning being given of the proposed legislation for Ireland, 556. + +Haxthausen, Baron von, on Slavonic and Russian society, 193-195. + +Historians of Greece and Rome, their superficial area, 323. + +Historical Commission, the, publication of the House of Lords MSS., 242. + _See_ Lords. + +Home Rulers, increased strength of, 260. + _See_ Parliament, Gladstone, &c. + +Homicides, number in New York, 459. + +Horses, breed of, upheld in Hellas, 159. + +d'Houditot, Gen. C., tribute to his memory by the Duc d'Aumale, 107. + +Hübner, Baron, his 'Through the British Empire,' 444 + on the disadvantage of complete independence to the Australian + Colonist, 447 + the Boers in Africa, 448 + idea of a grand confederation, 450 + the Civil Service of India, 452 + devotion and daily labours of the officials, 453 + no desire for self-government, 454 + Socialism and Atheism, 455 + the native Press, 456 + prosperity, 457 + his adventure in New York, 458. + +Hughes, Mr., on the voluntary system in the United States, 32. + + +I. + +Iddesleigh, Earl of, address to the Students at Edinburgh, 501. + +Ignatian Epistles, the Bp. of Durham on the, 467. + _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + +Ignatius, meaning of his name, 470. + +Indemnity, the Act of, 249. + +India, our administrations of, 453. + +Italy, the Popular Banks of, 152. + +Ireland. _See_ Gladstone-Morley, Land Bill, National League. + + +J. + +Jennings, Mr., on an Irish Parliament, 577. + _See_ Gladstone-Morley. + + +K. + +Killigrew, Tom, Charles II.'s representative at Venice, 382, 383. + + +L. + +Labour trade in the Pacific, 464. + +Laing, Mr., his 'Journal of a Residence in Norway during 1834, 35 + and 36,' 384. + _See_ Yeomen Farmers. + +Land Bill, the, for Ireland, effect of it, 278 + progress in Scotland and Wales, 279. + _See_ Parliament. + +Lewis, Sir G. C., his practical philosophy, 519 + an eminent statesman, 520 + distrustful of electoral reform, 521 + his Conservatism, 522. + +Liberal Press, the, activity of, 257. + +Liberation Society, the, financial report of, 8, 9 + its ability and skill, 11 + its publications, 13-16. + +'Liberator,' the, on Mr. Gladstone's ambiguity, 7. + +Lords, the, and Popular Rights, 239 + vague accusations, 241 + discovery of the House of Lords MSS., 242 + attitude towards constitutional freedom, _ib._ + moderate counsels and religious toleration, 242, 252 + important position in the early years of Charles I., 244 + appeals and petitions, 244-246 + extensive jurisdiction, 246 + protection of private rights, 247 + intervention for peace, 248 + the Restoration, 249 + the Acts of Indemnity, &c., _ib._ + restitution of property, 250, 251 + execution of Vane, 251 + the Act of Uniformity, 252 + the Five Mile Act, 253 + opposed to the re-establishment of Popery, 254 + the Declaration of Indulgence and the Test Act, _ib._ + advantage of the bicameral system, 255 + excesses of the House of Commons, 255, 256. + +Luard, Dr., his edition of Cotton's Chronicle, 299 + 'Letters of Robert Grosseteste,' 300 + 'Chronica Majora,' 302 + on the St. Alban's School of History, 314. + +Lubbock, Sir John, his list of books for reading, 501, 505. + + +M. + +Maclay, Mr. Miklaho, his reception in New Guinea, 445. + _See_ Travels. + +Madden, Sir F., Hypothesis about the 'Historia Minor,' 301 + +Magee, Bp., on Disestablishment, 25. + +Mahaffy Mr., on the destruction of Tiryns and Mycenæ, 114. + +Maillé-Bréze, Clemence de, her marriage with Condé, 95 + heads an insurrection in his favour, 96 + imprisoned for life at Châteauroux, _ib._ + +Maine, Sir H. S., on the lowering effect of democracy, 12 + describes the Patriarchal Theory, 182 + on monogamy, 206. + _See_ Patriarchal. + +Maitland, Dr., his 'Essays on the Dark Ages,' 298. + +Mayne, Mr. J. D., his article on the Patriarchal Theory, 190. + +Mezger, Prof. F., his '_Pindar's Siegeslieder_,' 163. + +Milton on the Ignatian Epistles, 476. + +Monachism, British, in the 13th century, 303. + _See_ Paris, Matthew. + +Monasteries at end of 13th century, 304 + popularity, 307 + farming and pisciculture, 308 + a place of refuge, 309. + +Monod, G., on the policy of the late Chamber in France, 338, _note_. + +Morgan, Mr. L. E., on 'group marriage,' 205. + _See_ Patriarchal Theory. + +Morice, Rev. F. D., his 'Pindar for English Readers, 156. + _See_ Pindar. + +Morley, Mr. J. _See_ Gladstone-Morley. + +Mortgages & Bills of Exchange, 139. + + +N. + +National League, the, 563-565. + +---- Records, the, Commission for methodizing and digesting, 295. + +Navy, the, and the Colonies, 445. + +Norway, the Bank of, 400 + State Mortgage Bank, and Savings Bank, 401. + _See_ Yeomen. + + +O. + +Oldham, business record of the co-operative spinners for 1885, 285. + +Ormsby, Mr., his 'Don Quixote,' 43 + 'Poem of the Cid,' 46. + + +P. + +Pacific Islands. _See_ Romilly, Travels. + +Paris, Mathew, 293 + early years, 315 + a monk at St. Alban's, 316 + various accomplishments, _ib._ + sent to Norway, 317 + succeeds Roger of Wendover as historiographer, _ib._ + utilizes facts and documents, 318 + lashes the enemies of the abbey, 319 + his denunciations of the Pope, 319, 320 + anecdotes, 321 + omens and portents, _ib._ + weather reports, _ib._ + +Parliament, the New, 257 + activity of the Liberal press, _ib._ + Radicalism based on pure ignorance, 258 + Mr. Chamberlain's bribe to the rural voters, 258, 259 + state of parties in 1880 and 1885, 260 + the Home Rulers, 261 + Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule in 1882, _ib._ + Lord Salisbury's remarks on it, 262 + the 'Quarterly Review' of Jan. 1882, _ib._ + the scheme of separation and two Parliaments, 264 + Mr. Gladstone's 'healing measures' for Ireland, 265-268 + Sir J. Stephen on the Irish Parliament, 269 + English capital in Ireland, 271 + Davitt on landlordism, 272 + Parnell on Home Rule, _ib._ + dissentients in the press, 276 + 'strenuous policy' of the American war, _ib._ + Lord Cowper on the Land Act of 1881, 277 + opinions on the Land Bill, 278 + its progress in Scotland and Wales, 279 + Mr. G. Smith on concession, _ib._ + good effect of Lord Salisbury's accession to power, _ib._ + tone of European opinion, 280 + Mr. Gladstone's foreign policy, 281 + Prince Bismark's opinion of great orators, 282 + Russian advances, 282, 283 + state of trade, 284 + the co-operative spinners of Oldham, 285 + indifference of the Liberals, 286 + new channel for trade in Burma, 286, 287 + formation of a German Syndicate, 288 + discordant element of the Liberal party, 290, 291. + +Parnell, Mr., on national independence, 267 + Protective tariffs, 270 + private property, 271 + Home Rule, 272 + encomium on Mr. Gladstone, 544. + +Patriarchal Theory, the, 181 + described by Sir H. Maine, 182 + Darwin's view, _ib._ + the Patria Potestas and Agnation, 185 + analogy in England, 186 + Teutonic and Roman families, 187 + Salic Law, 188 + family system of the Hindus, 189 + Agnates and Cognates, _ib._ + Mr. J. D. Maynes's article, 190 + religious origin of Civil law, 191 + Mahommedan law, 191, 192 + system among the Arabian tribes, 192 + Slavonic and Russian society, 193-195 + legend of Queen Libussa, 196 + rejection of Roman law, 198 + maternal uncles and nephews, 200 + want of history with savages, _ib._ + theory of the origin and growth of the Family, 201 + Hordes and their Totems, _ib._ + infanticide, _ib._ + fewness of women, 202 + female descents, 203 + Exogamy, 204 + Polyandry, _ib._ + two schools of 'agriologists,' 205 + Sir H. Maine on monogamy, 206 + Darwin on the habits of primitive men, 207 + ancestor worship, 208. + +Peddie, Mr. Dick on Liberationist Literature, 10. + +Pegu, annexation of, 227. + _See_ Burma. + +Pentecost, Dr. G. F., on Denominational rivalry in America, 34. + +Phayre, Sir A., his works on Burma, 210 + wise ministration in Pegu, 228. + +Pindar's Odes of Victory, 156 + reverence paid to him, _ib._ + imperfectly comprehended, 157 + Voltaire's opinion, _ib._ + the English and the ancient Greek mind, 158 + public games, 159 + Olympic festivals, 160 + constructive skill of the Odes, 161 + Prof. Mezger's work, 163 + names of the members of the Terpandrian nome, _ib._ + structural phenomena, 165 + fifth Isthmian Ode, _ib._ + innovation in the structure, 169 + word-pictures, 170 + reference to architecture, 171-173 + structure, 173, 174 + turgidity and bombast explained, 175 + main source of obscurity, 176 + the love of Apollo and Cyrene, _ib._ + the genius of Pindar and Bossuet compared, 178 + his human sympathies, 180. + +Polycarp, St. _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + +Poor Law, the English, its value, 540 + in Norway, 408. + _See_ Democracy. + + +R. + +'Radical Programme,' the, 23. + +Radicalism based on ignorance, 258. + +Rae, Mr. George, 'The Country Banker,' 133. + _See_ Banker. + +Rangoon founded, 222. + _See_ Burma. + +Religious Schools in England, 344 + Tables of Accommodation, 345 + Registers, attendance, and voluntary contributions, 346 + Training Colleges, 347 + Diocesan Inspection, 349 + schools visited in 1884, 350 + expense of education, _ib._ + question of gratuitous elementary education, 351. + +_Revue Contemporaine_, the, on Lord Salisbury's accession to power, 280. + +Richelieu, Cardinal. _See_ Condé. + +Riley, Mr., his 'Chronica Monasterii Sancti Albani,' 300. + +Rochester, Bishop of, his estimate of the number of parishes which would +suffer from Disendowment, 40. + +Rogers, Mr. Guinness, on the good work of the Church, 22. + +Romilly, Sir John, of the Rolls, 295 + proposal for the publication of the 'Rolls Series,' 297. + +----, Mr., his 'Western Pacific and New Guinea,' 445 + cannibalism, 459 + the Solomon Islands, 461 + a sorcerer, 462 + the ladies of Laughlan Islands, 463 + describes a fine pearl, 464 + labour trade, _ib._ + 'Bully Hayes,' 465. + _See_ Travels. + +Russia, advances of, in Asia, 282 + effect of allotments upon the emancipated serfs, 411 + fall in value of cereals, _ib._ + 'redemption' dues, 412 + Peasant Land Banks, 412. + + +S. + +Sagredo, Giovanni, his mission from Venice to Cromwell, 376. + +Salisbury, Lord, on the Home Rulers, 262. + _See_ Parliament. + +Salle, J. B. de la, 325 + Canon of the Cathedral of Rheims, 326 + takes charge of an orphanage for girls, 327 + patron of other schools, 328 + spends his fortune on the poor, 329 + prayer for guidance, _ib._ + founder of the Christian Brothers, 330 + his self-dedication, 331 + success of his work, 335 + death, 337. + +Scherer, M., on Democracy, 11, 27. + +Schliemann, Dr. H. _See_ Tiryns. + +Schmidt, C. A., on Roman Law, 187. + +Scottish Council, its contribution to the Liberation Society, 10. + +Senior, Nassau, W., 'Correspondence and Conversations of A. de +Tocqueville,' 518 + his intimate acquaintance with French statesmen, 537 + the English Poor Law, 540 + the Irish famine, 541. + _See_ Democracy. + +Smith, Mr. Goldwin, on concession in Ireland, 279. + +----, Rev. G. Vance, on the control exercised in Dissenting churches, 37. + +Spain. _See_ Don Quixote. + +Stephen, Sir James, on an Irish Parliament, 269. + _See_ Parliament. + + +T. + +Theebau, King, atrocities at the beginning of his reign, 228. + +Tiryns, Schliemann's 108 + the excavations mainly architectural, 110 + the plain of Argolis, 111 + site of the citadel, _ib._ + history, 113 + Mr. Mahaffy's theory, 114 + style of pottery, 116 + upper citadel, 117 + arrangements of the palace, 118 + propylæum, 120 + men's forecourt, _ib._ + portico, 121 + megaron and hearth, 122 + basilican lighting, 123 + bath-room, 124 + women's apartments, 125 + cyanus frieze, 127 + Cyclopean walls, 128 + Phoenician origin asserted by Dörpfeld, 129 + Greek architecture, 130, 131 + date of the fall, 132. + +Tocqueville, M. Alexis de, 'Democracy in America,' 518 + his practical wisdom, 520 + conservatism, 522 + rose-coloured portrait of democracy, 527 + his _Ancien Régime_, 528 + the distinction between noble and _roturier_, 529 + _Égalite_, 531. + +Travels in the British Empire, 443 + Colonial Federation, 445 + better organization of the Navy, 445 + the American Revolution, 446 + no desire for separation in our Colonists, 447 + Cape Colony, _ib._ + its treatment from England, 448 + conditions and prospects of trade, 449 + Free Trade, 449, 450 + offers of aid in the Egyptian war, 450 + love of 'old home,' 451 + purity of language, _ib._ + India and its Civil Service, 452 + Lord Ripon's endeavours to promote 'self-government,' 454 + the Ilbert Bill, 455 + Radical ideas of dismemberment, _ib._ + native press of India, 456 + prosperity of British India, 457 + cannibalism in New Ireland, 460 + murder of children in the Solomon Islands, 461 + sorcerers, 462 + David Dow, _ib._ + the Admiralty, Laughlan, Thursday, and Norfolk Islands, 462-463 + the labour trade, 464 + 'Bully Hayes,' 465 + commercial importance of the Australian Colonies, 467. + + +U. + +Uniformity, Act of, 252. + _See_ Lords. + +United States, National Banks of the, 150. + _See_ Banker. + + +V. + +Venetian Republic, Archives of the, 356 + their preservation and order, 357 + Constitution and the Great Council, 358 + the Senate or Pregadi, 360 + the Zonta, _ib._ + Collegio or Cabinet of Ministers, 361 + the Savii, _ib._ + Ducal Councillors, 362 + the Doge, 363 + election of, 363, 364 + Council of Ten, 365 + political training of the nobles, 367 + the Ducal, Secret, and Inferior Chancelleries, 368, 370, 371 + duties of the Grand Chancellor, 369 + College of Secretaries, _ib._ + Senatorial papers, 372 + the Relazioni, 373 + Paullizzi's despatches, 375 + Sagredo's mission to Cromwell, 376 + diplomatic connection with England, _ib._ + of the Collegio and the Lettere Principi, 377 + curious document of one Charles Dudley, 378 + letters from James Stuart, _ib._ + 'Espozione Principi,' _ib._ + reception of Lord Northampton, 479-482 + Tom Killigrew's expedient, 482. + +Verney, Lady, 'Cottier-owners and Peasant Proprietors,' 410, _note_. + +Villemain, M., his comparison of the genius of Pindar and Bossuet, 178. + + +W. + +Wales, the Church in, 18-21. + +Water Companies of London, oppressive and insolent exactions, 524. + +Wendover, Roger of, a monkish historiographer, 314 + at St. Albans, 316, 317. + +Westphal, R., his examination of the Choric Odes of Æschylus, 163. + +Wotton, Sir H., goes to Scotland from Venice to warn James VI. of a design +on his life, 374. + + +Y. + +Yeomen Farmers in Norway, 384 + condition of peasant proprietors in 1834, 385 + the _Odels ret_, or Allodial Right, _ib._ + division of land, 386 + life on the _Soeters_, 387 + private distillation of spirits prohibited, 388, + pauperism, _ib._ + illegitimacy, 390 + the agrarian class permanently represented in the Storthing, 391, _ib._ + attraction of the rural population to towns, 392 + rate of wages, 393 + railways, _ib._ + dress and ornaments, 394 + value of money, _ib._ + classification of properties, 395 + increasing subdivisions of land, 397, 398 + creation of _Myrmænd_ in South Trondhjem, 397 + influence of American competition in corn, _ib._ + absence of good economy, 399 + fare of the rural population, _ib._ + heavy indebtedness of the farmers, 400 + Banks and Savings Banks, 401-402 + sales of real property for debt, 403 + primitive condition of agriculture, 405 + heavy and increasing charges on landed properties, 406 + Poor Relief, _ib._ + increase of paupers, 407, 408 + emigration, _ib._ + political agitators, 409 + Church Disestablishment, _ib._ + hereditary nobility abolished, 409, _note_ + effects of subdivision of land in Norway, &c., 410 + Lady Verney on peasant proprietors, 410, _note_. + + +END OF THE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SECOND VOLUME. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. +324, April, 1886, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERLY REVIEW, APRIL, 1886 *** + +***** This file should be named 26439-8.txt or 26439-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/4/3/26439/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/26439-8.zip b/26439-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..342c4e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-8.zip diff --git a/26439-h.zip b/26439-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d51c4b --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-h.zip diff --git a/26439-h/26439-h.htm b/26439-h/26439-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b825490 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-h/26439-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14565 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .tocnum {position: absolute; top: auto; right: 4%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i11 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i26 {display: block; margin-left: 13em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, +April, 1886, 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: The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: August 27, 2008 [EBook #26439] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERLY REVIEW, APRIL, 1886 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h4>THE</h4> + +<h1>QUARTERLY REVIEW.</h1> + +<h3>NO. CCCXXIV. APRIL, 1886. VOL. CLXII.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS:</h2> + +<p> +I. <a href="#ART_I_Matthaei_Parisiensis_Monachi_Sancti_Albani_Chronica_Majora">Matthew Parish<br /></a> +<br /> +II. <a href="#Art_II_1_The_Christian_Brothers_their_Origin_and_Work_with_a">The Christian Brothers.—Religious Schools in France and England.</a><br /> +<br /> +III. <a href="#Art_III_The_State_Papers_of_the_Venetian_Republic_namely">Archives of the Venetian Republic.</a><br /> +<br /> +IV. <a href="#Art_IV_1_Journal_of_a_Residence_in_Norway_during_the_years_1834">Yeomen Farmers in Norway.</a><br /> +<br /> +V. <a href="#Art_V_A_Collection_of_the_State_Papers_of_John_Thurloe_Esq">Oliver Cromwell: his character illustrated by himself.</a><br /> +<br /> +VI. <a href="#Art_VI_1_Oceana_or_England_and_her_Colonies_By_James_Anthony">Travels in the British Empire.</a><br /> +<br /> +VII. <a href="#ART_VII_The_Apostolic_Fathers_S_Ignatius_S_Polycarp_Revised">The Bishop of Durham on the Ignatian Epistles.</a><br /> +<br /> +VIII. <a href="#Art_VIII_1_An_Address_delivered_to_the_Students_of_Edinburgh">Books and Reading.</a><br /> +<br /> +IX. <a href="#Art_IX_1_Popular_Government_Four_Essays_By_Sir_Henry_Sumner">Characteristics of Democracy.</a><br /> +<br /> +X. <a href="#ART_X_1_Fourth_Midlothian_Campaign_Political_speeches_delivered">The Gladstone-Morley Administration.</a><br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"> +PHILADELPHIA:<br /> +LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY,<br /> +1104 <span class="smcap">Walnut Street</span>.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>THE</h4> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Leonard Scott Publication Co's</span>.,</h3> + +<h2>PERIODICALS.</h2> + +<h4>Single Copies for sale by the following Dealers in Cities named:</h4> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>BALTIMORE, MD.,</td><td align='left'>Baltimore News Co.,</td><td align='left'>Sun. Iron Building.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BOSTON, MASS.,</td><td align='left'>Cupples, Upham & Co.,</td><td align='left'>283 Washington St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHICAGO, ILL.,</td><td align='left'>Brentano Bros.,</td><td align='left'>101 State St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CINCINNATI, OHIO.</td><td align='left'>Robert Clarke & Co.,</td><td align='left'>61 West 4th, St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>HALIFAX, NOVA SCO.,</td><td align='left'>T. C. Allen & Co.,</td><td align='left'>124 Granville St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>HAMILTON, CANADA.</td><td align='left'>J. Eastwood & Co.,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>MONTREAL, CANADA.</td><td align='left'>Dawson Bros.,</td><td align='left'>233 St. James St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>NEW ORLEANS, LA.,</td><td align='left'>Geo. F. Wharton & Bro.,</td><td align='left'>5 Carondelet St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.,</td><td align='left'>Brentano Bros.,</td><td align='left'>5 Union Square.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>PHILADELPHIA, PA.,</td><td align='left'>Leonard Scott Pub. Co.,</td><td align='left'>1104 Walnut St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>PROVIDENCE, R. I.,</td><td align='left'>S. S. Rider.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>RICHMOND, VA.,</td><td align='left'>Beckwith & Parham.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.,</td><td align='left'>J. C. Scott.</td><td align='left'>22 Third St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>ST. JOHN, N. B.,</td><td align='left'>A. & J. McMillan.</td><td align='left'>98 Prince William St.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>ST. LOUIS, MO.,</td><td align='left'>St. Louis News Co.,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>TORONTO, CANADA.</td><td align='left'>Hart & Co.,</td><td align='left'>31 King St., W.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VICTORIA, BR. COL.,</td><td align='left'>T. H. Hibben & Co.,</td><td align='left'>Masonic Building.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>WASHINGTON, D. C.,</td><td align='left'>Brentano Bros.,</td><td align='left'>1015 Penna. Av.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><i>Annual Subscriptions Received by all Booksellers and Newsdealers.</i></p> + + +<p class="center"> +THE LEONARD SCOTT PUB. CO.,<br /> +1104 WALNUT STREET.<br /> +PHILADELPHIA, PA.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS OF NO. 324.</h2> + + +<p> +Art. <span class="tocnum">Page</span><br /> +<br /> +I.—Matthæi Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica +Majora. Edited by Henry Richards Luard, D.D., Fellow of +Trinity College, Registrary of the University, and Vicar of +Great St. Mary's Cambridge. Published by the Authority of +the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the +direction of the Master of the Rolls. 7 vols. 8vo. London, +Vol I. 1872—Vol. VII. 1883. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_293'>293</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +II.—1. The Christian Brothers, their Origin and Work, with +a sketch of the Life of their Founder, The Venerable Jean +Baptiste de la Salle. By Mrs. R. F. Wilson. London, 1883.<br /> +<br /> +2. La Première Année d'Instruction Morale et Civique: +notions de droit et d'économie politique (Textes et Récits) +pour répondre à la loi du 28 Mars 1882 sur l'enseignement +primaire obligatoire: ouvrage accompagné de Résumé, de +Questionnaires, de Devoirs, et d'un Lexique des mots +difficiles. Par Pierre Laloi. Quatorzième Edition. Paris, +1885.<br /> +<br /> +3. Report of the Committee of Council on Education (England +and Wales). 1884-85.<br /> +<br /> +4. Seventy-fourth Annual Report of the Incorporated National +Society. 1885.<span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_325'>325</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +III.—The State Papers of the Venetian Republic; namely, +Cancelleria Inferiore, Cancelleria Ducale, Cancelleria +Secreta, preserved in the Convent of the Frari, at Venice. +<span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_356'>356</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +IV.—1. Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years +1834, 1835, and 1836. By Samuel Laing, Esq. London, 1837.<br /> +<br /> +2. Le Royaume de Norvège et le Peuple Norvégien. Par le Dr. +O. I. Broch. Christiania, 1878.<br /> +<br /> +3. Official Reports of Prefects on the Economic Condition of +the Provinces of Norway in 1876-80. Christiania, 1884.<br /> +<br /> +4. Publications of the Statistical Bureau Christiania. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_384'>384</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +V.—A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; +Secretary, first to the Council of State, and afterwards to +the Two Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell. In Seven +Volumes, containing authentic Memorials of the English +affairs from the year 1638 to the Restoration of King +Charles II. Vol. III. London, 1742. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_414'>414</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +VI.—1. Oceana, or England and her Colonies. By James +Anthony Froude. London, 1886.<br /> +<br /> +2. Through the British Empire. By Baron von Hübner. 2. vols. +London, 1886.<br /> +<br /> +3. The Western Pacific and New Guinea. By Hugh Hastings +Romilly, Deputy Commissioner of the Western Pacific. London, +1886. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_443'>443</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +VII.—The Apostolic Fathers: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp. +Revised Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and +Translations. By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., +Bishop of Durham. London, 1885. 2 vols. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_467'>467</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +VIII.—1. An Address delivered to the Students of Edinburgh +University on Nov. 3, 1885. By the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord +Rector of the University of Edinburgh.<br /> +<br /> +2. Hearing, Reading and Thinking: an address to the Students +attending the Lectures of the London Society for the +Extension of University Teaching. By the Rt. Hon. G. J. +Goschen, M.P.<br /> +<br /> +3. The Choice of Books and other Literary Pieces. By +Frederic Harrison. London, 1886. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_501'>501</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +<br /> +IX.—1. Popular Government. Four Essays. By Sir Henry Sumner +Maine. Second Edition. London, 1886.<br /> +<br /> +2. Democracy in America. By Alexis de Tocqueville. +Translated by Henry Reeve. New Edition. London, 1862.<br /> +<br /> +3. On the State of Society in France before the Revolution +of 1789. Translated by Henry Reeve. Second Edition. London, +1873. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_518'>518</a></span> <br /> +<br /> +And other Works.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +X.—1. Fourth Midlothian Campaign. Political Speeches +delivered, November, 1885, by the Right Hon. W. E. +Gladstone, M.P. Edinburgh, 1886.<br /> +<br /> +2. John Morley: The Irish Record of the New Chief Secretary, +1886.<br /> +<br /> +3. Ireland: A Book of Light on the Irish Problem. Edited by +Andrew Reid. London, 1886. <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_544">544</a></span><br /> +<br /> +And other Works.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="ART_I_Matthaei_Parisiensis_Monachi_Sancti_Albani_Chronica_Majora" id="ART_I_Matthaei_Parisiensis_Monachi_Sancti_Albani_Chronica_Majora"></a>ART. I.—<i>Matthæi Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora.</i> +Edited by Henry Richards Luard, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, +Registrary of the University, and Vicar of Great St. Mary's, Cambridge. +Published by the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's +Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. 7 vols. 8vo. +London, Vol. I. 1872—Vol. VII. 1883.</h2> + + +<p>Some of our readers are not likely yet to have forgotten the remarkable +essay which the late Professor Brewer contributed to our pages in 1871, +and which has since been reprinted in the volume of 'English Studies,' +published shortly after the author's death in 1879. English History owes +a larger debt to few men of our time than it owes to Mr. Brewer. As a +teacher whose pupils were always eager to listen to all that fell from +his lips, and whose enthusiasm never failed to awake a kindred spark in +the minds of those who looked to him for light in dark places and +guidance along tortuous paths of research, Mr. Brewer has had few +equals, and perhaps has left no successor who can compare with him. As a +writer he was always brilliant, lucid, and vigorous, and his unrivalled +'Introductions' to the Calendars of Letters and Papers, concerned with +the reign of Henry VIII., will long continue to be read by all students +of our History, as necessary and indispensable interpreters of the vast +storehouses of original documents which he did so much to rescue from +the oblivion or obscurity to which they had previously been consigned. +But it was as an organizer of research that Mr. Brewer earned his +greatest fame and achieved his greatest success, and it was to him more +than to any one man, to his immense persistence in urging upon the +powers that be a more generous freedom of access to our Records, and to +his prodigious powers of work in arranging and tabulating the enormous +masses of documents of all kinds which constitute the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> <i>Apparatus</i> of +English History, that this country stands indebted, and will remain +indebted as long as our literature lasts.</p> + +<p>In the Essay on 'New Sources of English History' the learned author has +given us a startling account of the deplorable condition into which some +of the most precious of our national manuscripts had been allowed to +fall—of the utterly chaotic state of our depositories—of the +hopelessness, the despair which must needs have come upon one student +after another who might be fortunate enough to be turned loose into the +various prison-houses of our muniments—and of the efforts made, and +happily at last made with splendid success, to cleanse the Augean +stable, and to let the world know something of the wealth it contained. +With characteristic modesty Mr. Brewer said nothing of his own part in +all that laborious and sagacious organization which resulted in our +obtaining the magnificent <i>Calendars</i>, which have opened out to us all +'that new world which is the old' that had become almost forgotten or +unknown. He was not the man to assert himself, he knew that posterity +would give him his due, but with a simple desire to stimulate research, +and to show how much remained to be done, and how much to be discovered +and made known, he drew the attention of his readers chiefly and +primarily to the value of the Calendars, and to the important results +which those Calendars had already produced, and were destined to produce +hereafter. He had quite enough to say upon this point, and if his life +had been spared, it is probable that he would eventually have given us a +more comprehensive account of the series of volumes which, though now +issuing from the press <i>pari passu</i> with the Calendars, were originally +undertaken a little later. Such an Essay by such a master would indeed +have been an important aid to the student, but at the time of Mr. +Brewer's lamented death the day had hardly come for such a <i>résumé</i>; and +even now, though so much has been achieved, so much and so well, the +hour has hardly arrived nor the man for taking a comprehensive survey, +and giving to the public an intelligent and intelligible account of that +other Library of Chronicles, and biographies, and letters, and +cartularies, and those other memorials of the Middle Ages in England, +which it is to be feared are hardly as well known as they ought to be, +nor as widely studied as they deserve.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile it is high time that attention should be drawn to that noble +series of volumes now issuing from the press under the editorship of +scholars whose reputation is assured, and whose work continues to +enhance their reputation—high time that we should begin to do something +like justice to the labourers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> who have deserved so well at the hands +of such Englishmen as have any sentiment of loyalty to the great +thoughts, the great doings, and the noble lives of their forefathers. +The philosopher, who 'holds the mirror up to nature,' has not of late, +as a rule, missed his reward. The historian, who in his dogged, patient, +toilsome fashion holds the mirror up to the life of bygone ages, has +received among us scant recognition, and generally is rewarded with but +barren honour. What has been done and still is doing will be best +understood by briefly reviewing the progress of that movement, which has +brought about the great revival of English Historical study, and under +the influence of which the opinions and convictions of educated men have +passed through a very decided change, one destined to produce still +greater and more unlooked for changes of sentiment and belief before the +present century shall have closed.</p> + +<p>It is just fifty years since 'the Father of Record Reform,' as he has +been justly called, received his patent creating him Master of the +Rolls. Although as far back as the year 1800 a Commission was issued for +the methodizing and digesting the National Records, and for printing +such calendars and indexes as should be thought advisable; and though +during the next twenty-seven years many works of supreme interest and +importance were printed at the public expense, the enormous extent of +our National Records were known to few, and the difficulty of consulting +them, (dispersed as they were through a score of different depositories) +was enough to deter all but the most resolute enquirers. It was Lord +Langdale who first set himself to reduce the chaos of our archives into +something like order. When the old Record Commission expired in 1837, it +was by Lord Langdale's influence that the Public Record Act was passed +on the 14th of August, 1838, whereby the Records named therein were +placed under the custody of the Master of the Rolls for the time being, +and hereupon a new era began. Nevertheless it was not till July 1850 +that a vote was obtained from the Treasury for the erection of a +national depository, wherein our vast archives should be assembled under +a single roof, and not till 1855 that the magnificent <i>Tabularium</i> in +Fetter Lane was opened for the reception of our muniments.</p> + +<p>Lord Langdale died in April 1851;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> he was succeeded in the Mastership +of the Rolls by Lord Romilly, then Sir John. A happier choice could not +have been made. To Lord Langdale belongs the credit of carrying out the +grand scheme for consolidating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> the various collections of documents, +which, as we have said, had up to this time been widely dispersed, and +the very existence of the larger mass of which was known only to a few +experts. To Lord Romilly we owe it that the great original sources of +English History so assembled have been rendered accessible to any +student who desires to consult them; and it is to him, too, that we are +indebted for the issue of that unrivalled series of 'Chronicles and +Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland, from the Invasion of the Romans +to the Reign of Henry VIII.,' which has laid the foundation for a +science of history firmer and deeper and wider than before was believed +to be even attainable.</p> + +<p>Great men are at once the leaders and the product of their age. When +Lord Langdale set himself to his task he was only attempting that which +had been talked of since the reign of Edward II. For five centuries the +unification of our National Records had been recommended and advised by +lawyers, statesmen, and scholars from generation to generation, but no +practical scheme had ever been suggested, and the difficulties in the +way of reform were supposed to be insuperable. It was a Herculean task, +and one that grew ever more arduous the longer it was postponed. During +the first quarter of the present century profound dissatisfaction had +begun to be felt at the condition of our historical literature. The +ordinary text-books were full of fables, more than suspected to be +fables, and which yet it was extremely difficult to disprove +satisfactorily. Theories which had long passed current were being rudely +assailed, and yet—in the face of the obstacles that hindered +research—stubbornly held their ground, or were repeated with peremptory +dogmatism. A deep distrust of the old methods and the old assumptions +had given rise to a widespread desire to drag forth from their +hiding-places any documents, however dry or recondite, which might throw +some clear light upon our national life and manners, and not only upon +mere events of national importance during Medieval times. A desire to +know the truth was <i>in the air</i>. The science of history had passed out +of its infancy, and the stirrings of a new craving—the passion of +Research—were making themselves felt in that mysterious restlessness +which indicates that the old smooth-faced docility, the old childish +submission to tutelage, the old unquestioning acceptance of authority, +has gone for ever, and a new life has begun. The year before Lord +Langdale received his appointment as Master of the Rolls, the Surtees +Society had been founded for the printing of unedited MSS. illustrative +of the history of the northern counties; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> in the same year that the +old Record Commission expired, the English Historical Society was +started, a society which numbered amongst its promoters such men as the +late Mr. Kemble, Mr. H. O. Coxe, Sir T. Duffus Hardy, and Mr. +Stevenson—the leaders and teachers of that school of younger men who +have so ably followed in the steps of their seniors, and who, mounting +on the shoulders of the giants, have gained a wider view than it was +given to those others to attain. The five years that followed saw the +foundation of the Camden, the Percy, and the Chetham Societies, not to +mention many another that has done useful work in its way. The labours +of these pioneers soon made it quite apparent that the sources of our +national history—social, ecclesiastical, and political—were quite too +voluminous for private enterprise to deal with, and would demand the +co-operation of a body of trained scholars and the resources of the +public exchequer to make them available as apparatus for the teachers of +the future.</p> + +<p>On the 26th of January, 1857, Sir John Romilly submitted to the Treasury +his memorable proposal for the publication of certain materials for the +History of England;<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and on the 9th of February a Treasury Minute was +put forth approving of the plan that had been drawn up as one 'well +calculated for the accomplishment of this important national object in +an effectual and satisfactory manner within a reasonable time.' +Forthwith arrangements were made for the issue of that series of works +which is now known as the 'Rolls Series,' a collection which has already +extended to upwards of 200 volumes.</p> + +<p>The lines laid down by Sir John Romilly were almost exactly those which +had been followed by the English Historical Society. Every editor was to +'give an account of the MSS. employed by him, of their age and their +peculiarities;' he was to add 'a brief account of the life and times of +the author, and any remarks necessary to explain the chronology; <i>but no +other note or comment</i> was to be allowed, except what might be necessary +to establish the correctness of the text.' The restriction was +absolutely necessary if only for this, that when the 'Rolls Series' was +first commenced even the most accomplished of its editors were mere +learners. The time had not yet arrived for comments. The text was wanted +first in its completeness and integrity.</p> + +<p>Looking back to this period—little more than a quarter of a century +ago—it is difficult for us to realize the deplorable condition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> into +which our historical literature had been allowed to fall. Kemble's great +work, the 'Codex Diplomaticus ævi Saxonici,' the first volume of which +appeared in 1839, and his 'History of the Saxons in England,' published +in 1849, came upon the great body of intelligent men as the revelation +of new things. It is sufficient to turn to the chapter on the +Constitutional History of England before the Conquest, in Hallam's +'History of the Middle Ages,' to be assured how meagre and superficial +even Hallam's knowledge was of everything before the Norman invasion. It +was no fault of his; he made good use of all such materials as were then +accessible to the student—that is, all such as had been printed; for +that incomparably larger <i>apparatus</i> which since Hallam's days has been +published to the world, it was for all practical purposes as if it had +never existed at all. Even men of culture and learning were persuaded +that all that was ever likely to be known about the religious houses had +been collected in the new edition of Dugdale's 'Monasticon.' It is +hardly too much to say that of the history of English monasticism Hallam +knew nothing. Dr. Lingard himself had very little more to say of the +great Abbeys than his predecessors, and had a very inadequate conception +of the part they played in the development of our institutions; and when +Dr. Maitland wrote his brilliant 'Essays on the Dark Ages,' he hardly +names St. Edmundsbury or St. Alban's, and though one of his most +fascinating chapters is concerned with the early days of Croyland, his +only authority for the beautiful story, which he has handled so +skilfully, is a romantic narrative attributed to Ingulphus, which has +been demonstrated to be a somewhat clumsy though a clever forgery. Of +the Mendicant Orders—of the work they did, of the influence they +exercised, and of the attitude adopted towards them in the 13th century +by the parochial clergy on the one hand, and by the monks on the +other—even less was known, if less were possible, than of their +wealthier rivals.</p> + +<p>Two years had scarcely elapsed since the issue of the Treasury Minute of +February, 1857, before it began to be said that the history of England +would have to be written anew. In the single year 1858 <i>eleven</i> works of +the highest importance were printed, and it was evident that neither +original materials nor scholarly editors would be wanting to make the +'Rolls Series' all that it was desired it should become. The 'Chronicles +of the Monasteries of Abingdon and of St. Augustine at Canterbury,' the +contemporary 'Life of Edward the Confessor,' and the priceless +'Monumenta Franciscana,' telling the wonderful story of the settlement +of the Minorites among us, were printed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> from unique MSS. Next year the +'Chronicle of John of Oxnedes' was brought out by Sir Henry Ellis, and +the 'Historia Anglicana' of Bartholomew Cotton, by Dr. Luard, neither +work having ever before been printed. Volume followed volume in rapid +succession, a steady improvement becoming observable in the style of +editing, as the several editors became more familiar with the results of +their predecessors' labours.</p> + +<p>It was while working at Bartholomew Cotton that Dr. Luard was brought +into intimate relations with the 13th century. Hitherto the <i>composite</i> +character of such chronicles as had been published had indeed been +perceived, but no attempt had been made to trace the original authority +for statements repeated in the same words by one writer after another. +Dr. Luard opened out a new line of enquiry, and in his edition of +Cotton's Chronicle he endeavoured to distinguish in every instance the +material which might fairly be called original from that which his +author had borrowed from older writers and incorporated into his text. +The borrowed matter was printed in smaller type, and the sources from +which it had been derived were indicated by references given at the foot +of the page. Cottons' own additions were printed in a bolder type, so as +at once to catch the eye. While conducting the laborious researches +necessitated by this new method of editing his text, it became clear to +Dr. Luard that Cotton had borrowed largely from Matthew Paris—who had +lived just a generation before him—and that he had also borrowed from a +mysterious writer much read in the 14th and 15th centuries, who went by +the name of Matthew of Westminster. As to this Matthew of Westminster, +Dr. Luard postponed dealing with him till some future time. He might +prove a mere mythic personage, and it was suspected he would; but +Matthew Paris was certainly no shadow, but a very real man, whose +greatness seemed to grow greater the more he was studied and the better +he was known. Yet as Dr. Luard became more familiar with the text of +Paris, he was soon convinced that in its printed form it was bristling +with the grossest inaccuracies of all kinds. Originally it had been +published under the authority of Archbishop Parker in 1571; and though +other editions had appeared, in this country and on the Continent, +several times since then, Paris's great work had remained exactly in the +same state as Parker (or whoever his agent was) had left it three +centuries ago. That is to say, that by far the most important work on +English history during the 13th century—not to mention European +affairs—and by far the most minute and trustworthy picture of English +life and manners during the reign of Henry III.—a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> record, too, drawn +up by a contemporary writer of rare genius and literary skill—was +defaced by blunders, audacious tampering with the text and gross +inaccuracies, to such an extent that no conscientious student could +allow himself to quote the printed work without first referring to one +of the very MSS. which the Archbishop professed to have used.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the task of bringing out a critical edition of the +'Chronica Majora' did not appear less formidable as fresh sources of +information cropped up; and Dr. Luard shrank from the immense labour +that such an edition involved, it was because he had formed a correct +notion of its magnitude. In 1861 he brought out in the same series the +'Letters of Robert Grosseteste,' the heroic and magnanimous Bishop of +Lincoln; and while working at this volume, the England of the 13th +century became more and more alive and present to the mind of the +student.</p> + +<p>But distinctly and grandly as one noble character after another revealed +itself, there was a strange mist that required to be dispelled before +even the importance of great events could be rightly estimated. The +inner life of the monasteries, great and small, must be enquired into, +so far as it was possible to get any information on so obscure a +subject; and, above all, the paramount influence which so magnificent an +institution as the Abbey of St. Alban's exercised upon the intellectual +life of the country must be studied with patient impartiality. Before a +scholar with so lofty an ideal of an editor's duty could venture upon +his <i>magnum opus</i>, there was indeed an enormous mass of preliminary work +to get through. The horizon seemed to widen everywhere as the years of +historical discovery went on. It was left to Mr. Riley to attack that +wonderful collection of documents to which he gave the title of +'Chronica Monasterii Sancti Albani'—a series occupying twelve thick +volumes, and which furnish us not only with a priceless <i>apparatus</i>, by +the help of which a hundred problems perplexing the historian are +furnished with a clue towards their solution—but which afford such an +insight into the life of the greatest monastery in England during its +best times as nobody expected could ever be forthcoming. While Mr. Riley +was occupied with the <i>Chronicles</i> of St. Alban's and the lives of its +Abbots, Dr. Luard was engaged in collecting all the <i>Annals</i> of the +lesser monasteries which he could lay his hands on. Some of these had +already been printed more or less carelessly; others had never seen the +light since they were written. Such as were printed were extremely +difficult to procure—scarce and costly. Dr. Luard took six years in +bringing out his five volumes—volumes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> referring to the golden age of +English Monasticism, which threw all sorts of side-light upon Mr. +Riley's 'Chronicles,' while they were in turn continually being +explained and illustrated by them.</p> + +<p>While the 'Monastic Annals' were passing through the press, a very +startling announcement was made by no less a person than Sir Frederick +Madden, Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. +Sir Frederick declared that he had come upon a copy of what was commonly +called the 'Historia Minor' of Matthew Paris, not only written by the +author himself, but actually annotated, corrected, and illustrated with +drawings by his own hand. Such an announcement made by an expert of +European reputation, one who had been handling MSS. all his life, +necessarily created a sensation in the literary world. If it were +accepted and proved true, it was one of the most curious romances in the +history of literature. But was it true? To most critics the antecedent +improbability of the theory put forth by Sir Frederick was so great as +to relegate it to the domain of extravagant paradox; but the name and +fame of its supporter were too high to allow of its being dismissed +without refutation. For two or three years no one ventured to enter the +lists against so formidable a champion who had staked his reputation +upon the issue. At last another great specialist, not a whit less +competent than the other, came forward to controvert the opinions and +theory which had been so confidently maintained by Sir Frederick. In +1871 Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy brought out the third volume of his +<i>Catalogue</i>, and it was in the famous Introduction to this volume that +the Madden Hypothesis was first assailed with damaging effect. Sir +Thomas, it must be remembered, was Deputy Keeper of the Records. Sir +Frederick was Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts at the British +Museum. Each was the representative man in his own department, and a +very pretty quarrel arose. Into the merits of that quarrel it is +impossible to enter here; it is a matter for specialists, not for +outsiders, to pronounce upon. This, however, may be said with +confidence, that if we except that school of very able and accomplished +experts which the British Museum has trained, experts whose <i>range</i> of +diplomatic knowledge must needs be wider than that of any 'Record man,' +the refutation of Sir Frederick Madden by Sir Thomas Duffus was +generally regarded as unanswerable and triumphant. With the exception +indicated—a very important exception indeed—the Madden Hypothesis was +believed to be utterly demolished, in fact 'blown into the air.' +Nevertheless there are those, from whom something may be expected some +day in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> the way of rejoinder who are by no means sure that the last word +on this question has been said that deserve to be said, and even so +scrupulous and sagacious a critic as Dr. Luard seems to be less certain +than he was that Madden was quite wrong in <i>all</i> he affirmed, and Hardy +quite right in <i>all</i> he denied.</p> + +<p>The attention which had been drawn to Matthew Paris by this remarkable +controversy could not but have its effect in awakening a desire for that +critical edition of the larger Chronicle which Dr. Luard had been so +long preparing. The way was cleared for such an edition now; it was not +likely that any more MSS. of the author would be discovered. Such as +were deposited in the various libraries had been carefully scrutinized, +or their homes were known, and the long years of preparatory study had +been turned to good account—no pains had been spared nor any labour +grudged. In 1872 the first volume of the 'Chronica Majora' appeared in +the 'Rolls Series.' In 1884 the seventh and last volume was issued, +containing the learned editor's last preface, glossary, and emendations, +and an Index to the whole work, extending over nearly 600 pages. It is a +long time since an English scholar has had the good fortune to carry to +its completion so important a work as this, projected on so large a +scale, executed with such conscientious care—characterized by so much +critical skill and scrupulous accuracy—all this achieved single-handed +in the midst of other duties, professional and academical, which would +be quite sufficient to exhaust the energies of an ordinary man.</p> + +<p>Now that the work has been done, and done so thoroughly that it may +safely be asserted the <i>standard edition</i> of the 'Chronic Majora' has +been published once for all, we are in a better position than we ever +were heretofore for taking a survey of the life and labours of its +author, and for answering the enquiries which of late have been made +with increasing frequency, and made too among those who might have been +expected to be able to answer them. Who and what was Matthew Paris? What +did he do, and what did he write that the learned few should speak of +him with so much reverence, though to the unlearned many he is little +more than a famous and familiar name?</p> + +<p>Perhaps before dealing with his personal history, or entering into any +examination of his literary labours, it will be well first to answer the +question—<i>What</i> was Matthew Paris? for it is simply impossible to +estimate rightly the debt we owe to him, or to understand the brief +account that could be drawn up of his career till we have learned to +know something of the <i>profession</i> to which he belonged, and the great +foundation of which he was so distinguished an ornament. By profession +Matthew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> Paris was a monk. A monk 'professed' is a term indicating the +higher grade to which not every brother in a monastery attained. The +very term 'profession' may be traced to the cloister. In its usual +acceptation it is modern.</p> + +<p>To dilate upon the various monastic orders, which were almost as +numerous in the 13th century as the different religious denominations +are in the 19th, would be out of place here. Suffice it to say that the +English monasteries in Henry III.'s time counted by hundreds. But there +were monasteries and monasteries. Some the homes of the scholar, the +devout and the high-minded, the seats of learning and the resting-places +of the studious and the aged, who hated war and tumult, and only longed +for repose. Some that were mere hiding holes for the lazy and the +incompetent, the failures among the younger sons of the gentry, who had +not the power of pushing their way in the world, or whose career had +been a disappointment. Such men, where all else failed, could get +themselves admitted into some smaller religious house by the interest of +the patron; sometimes bringing in a trifling addition to the common +property, sometimes simply 'pitchforked' into a vacancy, it is difficult +to say how. Then they became 'brethren' of the monastery, and sharers in +most of the good things that it could offer; they were almost exactly in +the same position as Fellows of Colleges were twenty years ago, holding +their preferment for life, with this difference, that a Fellowship at +the smallest College in Oxford or Cambridge always implied <i>some</i> +qualification for the post. A College Fellow, at the worst, must have +had some claims to learning or culture; whereas in the smaller and more +remote monasteries a man might be scandalously ignorant, and yet gain +admittance as a brother of the house.</p> + +<p>Between the highest and the lowest of that great army of monks, +dispersed through the length and breadth of the land, when English +monarchism had declined from its earlier ideal, there was as great a +distance as there is at this moment between the Fellows of Balliol or +Trinity, and the poor brethren of the Charterhouse, or the bedesmen in +the cathedrals of the old foundation.</p> + +<p>In the first half of the 13th century English monarchism was at its +best; the 12th century was emphatically the reformation age of British +monarchism. All the many schemes for starting new orders with improved +<i>Rules</i>, and all the efforts to improve the discipline of the religious +houses and fan the fire of devotion among their members, assumed that +the monasteries were then living institutions with vast powers for good; +and institutions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> which needed only to be reformed to make them all that +the most earnest and ardent enthusiast claimed that they ought to be, +and might become. In the fifty years preceding the accession of King +John, more than 200 monasteries had been built and endowed—some of them +munificently endowed, and the only purely English order (that of St. +Gilbert of Sempringham) had been founded, and in little more than fifty +years could count no less than fourteen considerable houses. Englishmen +believed in the monastic system as they have never believed in anything +else since then; never have such prodigious sacrifices been made, never +has such lavish munificence been shown by the <i>upper classes</i> as during +the century ending with the accession of Edward I. In the next hundred +years they were chiefly the townsmen and traders, not the landed +proprietors, who emptied their money-bags into the lap of the Begging +friars. Certainly the great religious houses at the end of the 13th +century had the entire confidence of the country, and it is impossible +to understand the long reign of Henry III. unless we are fully awake to +the fact that then, too, the monasteries were not only thriving and +powerful, but were institutions on whose help and power the people leant +with an assured confidence, because they were pre-eminently the people's +friends. But between the old foundations which had a history and the new +houses that were springing up in every shire, some feeling of jealousy +and soreness was sure to arise. The old abbeys, with a history that +looked back into a past all clouds and mist, but none the less glorious +for that, affected a supercilious tone towards the mushrooms that had of +late sprouted into vigorous life. A man need not be an old man who can +remember when the Eton and Winchester boys at the Universities affected +an air of contempt for all the 'modern' places of education, and +disdained to number such institutions as Cheltenham or Clifton among the +'public schools.' These were all very well in their way, but where were +their traditions? So with the older and grander Benedictine monasteries, +with charters from Saxon kings, let alone anything else. Glastonbury, +where men said two of the Apostles had built themselves a house of +prayer, and where St. Patrick and St. Dunstan lay entombed; Canterbury, +where Augustine, the English apostle, found a home; Malmesbury, where +St. Aldhelm preached to the barbarous people, and when they tired of his +sermon played to them upon his harp, and, anticipating Mr. Sankey, sang +David's Psalms to the crowds that moved by him as they passed over the +bridge of Avon. These venerable foundations, about whose origin a +glamour of mystery had gathered, whose history had become strangely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +obscured by the body of myths that had grown up in the lapse of +centuries—which had survived pillage and anarchy, and all the horrors +of fire and sword, desolating, devastating—were there before men's +eyes, testifying to the amazing vitality which a millennium of strange +vicissitude had not only not destroyed, but not even impaired. Such a +mighty pile of buildings, as had risen up to heaven there in the old +Roman town of Verulam, appealed to the imagination of mankind—the very +materials of the massive tower, ruddy in the blaze of the noon-day, must +have been a wonder and astonishment to many an awe-struck pilgrim +perplexed at the first sight of Roman bricks burnt on the spot a +thousand years ago. There stood the mighty Roman rampart, vast, +enormous—the ground beneath his feet teeming with the tangible memories +of grisly conflict, or of an old civilization that had been blotted out +long ago—the swords of Roman legionaries, the bones of British heroes, +coins with legends that few could read turned up by the ploughman's +share. Yonder, men said, away there at Redburn, the heathen pursuers had +come upon England's proto-martyr and slain the saint of God, whose bones +since then had been gathered up, and were now resting in their sumptuous +shrine. When the Norman came, and the new order was set up in the +land—not a day before it was needed—the thirteenth Abbot of St. +Alban's was of the blood royal, and heir, they said, to Cnut, the Danish +king, who had passed away. It was to him that the awful Conqueror made +oath he would bind himself by the Confessor's laws, an oath which, if he +ever meant to keep, he meant to interpret according to his mood. Even +the very laxity and shortcomings of the abbots of generations back, +which tradition, and something more to be trusted than tradition, +declared to have been matters of scandal, proved no more than that the +great Abbey could live through evil times, outride the storms which +would wreck weaker vessels, and right itself, though overloaded with +abuses which timid pilots would have shrunk from throwing overboard: and +now that 400 years had passed since Offa, the Saxon king—(stirred +thereto by Karl, the Emperor)—had founded the monastery in St. Alban's +honour, and from generation to generation vast building operations had +been going on almost without interruption, and the old Abbey still held +up its head proudly, its Abbot taking precedence of every other in the +land; any man might be excused for thinking that to become a monk of St. +Alban's Abbey was to become a personage of no small consideration.</p> + +<p>Verily it was a great abbey in the days of King John. There, in the +eighth year of that King's reign, was held that memorable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> council +which, if it had been let alone, would doubtless have issued its protest +against the intolerable aggression of the Pope and his <i>curia</i>. There, +six years afterwards, another assembly was convened; the first occasion +on which we find any historical proof that representatives were summoned +to a national council in England. Eight times during his reign the +ruffian King was himself a guest at the Abbey. Once after John's death, +when Louis was desperately struggling to hold his own against young +Henry's friends and supporters, he too came to St. Alban's, and +threatened to give it over to fire and sword: only money saved it from a +sack. There was always something to take, and yet always wonderful state +kept up. The magnates in Church and State were for ever going in and +out; the mere domestic expenditure was enormous. Yet, even when the +country was groaning under horrible anarchy, and grinding taxation, and +war and poverty, the building went on as if men lived only to glorify +the great house, and to raise its church tower, or beautify the west +front, or fill the windows with stained glass, or erect the splendid +pulpit in the nave—a miracle of art.</p> + +<p>It would be a very great mistake to conclude that all this lavish +expenditure implied the enjoyment of large rents from land. The revenue +derived from the tenants of the Abbey and the profits of farming were no +doubt considerable; but that revenue could never have sufficed alone to +defray the cost of keeping up the establishment. In point of fact, when +a monastery, great or small, depended wholly upon its landed property, +it invariably got into debt; sometimes it got hopelessly into debt. It +is clear that before the Dissolution a very large number of the +religious houses were insolvent. The striking paucity in the number of +'religious' at the time of the suppression—for hardly one house in ten +had its full complement of inmates—is by no means wholly to be +attributed to the reluctance on the part of people in general to take +upon themselves the monastic vows. Where a monastery was financially in +a critical condition, the brotherhood resorted to the expedient which is +at this moment being carried out at more than one College in Oxford and +Cambridge. Now, when times are bad, we temporarily suppress a +Fellowship; then, on the death of a brother of the house, they chose no +monk into his place.</p> + +<p>The income from landed estates at St. Alban's was probably at no time +equal to what may be called the extraordinary income. The offerings at +the shrines of SS. Alban and Amphibalus, the proceeds of the offertory +at those magnificent and dramatic functions in which the multitude +delighted, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> <i>douceurs</i> that were always expected and almost +always given in return for hospitality, which only in theory was +free,—these and many another source of profit, which the universal +habit of giving money for 'pious uses' supplied, all made up a sum +total, in comparison with which the proceeds of the rent-roll were +insignificant. In the taxation of Pope Nicholas (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 1291) the whole +revenue of the Abbey from rent and dues in the liberty of St. Alban's is +set down at 392<i>l.</i> 8<i>s.</i> 3-1/4d., a sum which in those days would go as far +as 5000<i>l.</i> a-year now. Even granting that this was only half the net +income derivable from the Abbey's estates, which were widely +distributed, an expenditure of 10,000<i>l.</i> a year would go in our own time +a very little way towards meeting the charges which such an enormous +establishment involved. The mere keeping up the buildings at all times +entailed a very heavy annual outlay. Already in the 13th century the +precincts of the Abbey were overcrowded with palatial edifices, which +were never pulled down except to make room for larger ones. There were +acres of roofs within the Abbey walls.</p> + +<p>And what return was being made to the nation, that every rank and every +class were keeping up a rivalry in munificence in favour of such an +institution as this? What had they done, what were they doing, these +seventy men, with their Abbot at their head, who were in the enjoyment +of an income larger than that of many a principality? How was it that no +one <i>in those days</i> accused them of being indolent drones? Mere burdens +upon the earth, as they were called frequently enough, and loudly +enough, and angrily enough, three centuries later? It was the age for +the expansion of the monastic system—none then wished to sweep the +monks away. One of the reasons why the monasteries had retained their +hold upon the affection of the people, and were regarded with reverence +and pride and confidence, lay in this, that they had moved with the +times, and that the monasticism of the 13th was very different indeed +from the monasticism of the 9th century. The primitive asceticism had +almost vanished; it had not, however, died, leaving nothing in its +place. No one now expected to find the religious houses filled with +religious people, everyone holy, devout, and fervent; the personal +sanctity of the inmates was one thing, the sanctity of their churches +and shrines was quite another. In the old days the monks were separate +from the world, living to save their own souls at best; examples to such +as trembled at the wrath of God, and longed for the life to come. As +time went on they mixed more boldly with the sinful world, and gradually +they became more and more the illuminators of the darkness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> round them. +Now they were regarded as in great measure the salt of the earth, and if +that salt should lose its savour, where was such virtue elsewhere to be +found? Personally, the men might be worldly—vicious, as a rule, they +certainly were not—they were, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, what in our time +would be called cultured gentlemen, courteous, highly educated and +refined, as compared with the great mass of their contemporaries; a +privileged class who were not abusing their privileges; a class from +whence all the art and letters and accomplishments of the time emanated, +allied in blood as much with the low as the high, the aristocracy of +intellect, and the pioneers of scientific and material progress. The +model farming of the 13th century would be regarded as barbaric by our +modern theorists; but such as it was, it was only to be met with on the +demesne lands of the larger monasteries, and was a prodigious advance +upon the <i>petite culture</i> of the open fields. The Priory at Norwich made +an income out of its garden in the days of Edward III., and probably +much earlier; the pisciculture of the religious houses remains a mystery +as yet unsolved; the skill exhibited in the management of the +water-power of many a district round even the smaller houses, still +awakes wonder in those who think it worth their while to study it. At +St. Alban's, as at Glastonbury, St. Edmund's Abbey, and elsewhere, the +culture of the vine was made profitable for generations. The monasteries +were the first to give personal freedom to the villeins, and the first +to commute for money payments the vexatious <i>services</i> which worried the +best men and maddened the worst. The landlords in the 13th century were +real <i>lords</i> of the <i>land</i>. They were, as a class, very poor, spite of +the privileges they enjoyed and the power that they possessed of making +themselves disagreeable; and though the constitution of a <i>manor</i> was a +limited monarchy, and the <i>limits</i> were very many, yet the lord could +exercise a great deal of petty tyranny in his little kingdom if he were +so disposed. In the manors which were in the possession of the religious +houses the lord was necessarily non-resident, and the tenants were left +to manage their own affairs with very little interference. The tenants +of the monasteries were in a far more favoured condition than the +tenants of some small lord, needy and greedy, who extorted his dues +literally to the last farthing, and who knew exactly what the best beast +was, on the land that owed him a heriot; and, when the tenant was <i>in +extremis</i>, kept a sharp look-out that a fat bullock or a promising young +horse should not be driven off before the owner died.</p> + +<p>So the monasteries at the time we are now concerned with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> were regarded +at once with pride and affection by the great bulk of the people; they +were places of refuge where, in a turbulent time, men and women who had +been stricken, bereaved or wronged, might find a quiet refuge and hide +their heads and be forgotten and fall asleep, with the prayers of other +sufferers to console and support them in their passage through the +valley of the shadow of death. The gentlest spirits here could taste the +bliss of a holy tranquillity; the ascetic could indulge his most +fantastic self-immolation; the morbid visionary could dream at his will +and give his imagination full play, none hindering him; evil demons +might chatter and gibe and twit him at his prayers; choirs of angels +might calm his despair with celestial lullabies; awful forms might rise +from clouds of incense as the gorgeous procession moved along the vast +church aisles, or stopped before some glittering shrine. What then? Who +would question the reality of a miracle, or doubt that sublime +revelations might be made to any holy monk as he wrestled in prayer with +a rapture of the soul, and found himself lifted to the seventh heaven in +ecstasy unutterable?</p> + +<p>What has been said applies mainly to the older houses, those which were +under what may be called the <i>primitive</i> Benedictine rule. If men were +moved to rigid asceticism, however, and had a taste for bald simplicity; +if art, and music, and ornate architecture, had no charm for them, and +they dreamt that God could only be sought and found in the wilderness, +the Cistercian houses offered such a congenial asylum. The Cistercians +were the Puritans of the monasteries, and appealed to that mysterious +sentiment which makes some minds shrink with fear from the touch of +luxury, and regard culture as antagonistic to personal holiness. The +sentiment was strong in the reign of Henry II., when nineteen Cistercian +houses were founded; but it is not improbable that other motives, beside +mere taste for a stricter discipline, led to the foundation of eight +more in the reign of King John. Meanwhile the Benedictines had become by +far the most learned and most <i>educating</i> body in the land, and +pre-eminent above them all was the great Abbey of St. Alban's. If it was +not at this time the centre of intellectual life in England, it was +because at this time centralization was unknown. Eadmer, Florence of +Worcester, Gervase of Canterbury, William of Malmesbury, Simeon of +Durham, were all 12th-century Benedictines. They were all students and +writers of history, and history meant <i>literature</i> till Peter Lombard +arose at the end of the 12th century and revolutionized the world of +thought—at any rate the domain of logic. John of Salisbury fiercely +assails the intellectual innovators of his time on the ground that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +new lights of the 12th century disdained to be students of history and +affected contempt for the past. It was the old story; literary culture +found itself in antagonism with scientific culture, and the vigorous +childhood of scientific research was aggressive, insolent, and noisily +insubordinate. The old seminaries, whose homes were in the Benedictine +monasteries, refused to welcome the new learning. Its teachers settled +themselves elsewhere; at Paris, on the other side of the water, they had +a hard fight of it. Once in 1209 the Synod of Paris actually prohibited +the reading of Aristotle's 'Metaphysics.' At Oxford they seem to have +met with a more generous reception. Perhaps it was because that +reception was too enthusiastic that King Stephen at the close of his +miserable reign expelled Vacarius, the first teacher of scientific law +in England. Whereupon young men of parts and ambition crossed the +Channel, seeking and finding at Pavia and Bologna what was not to be had +at home. The monastic schools held their own, and went on in the old +groove; the intellectual revolution which soon came about by the agency +of the Mendicant Orders was not yet dreamt of. St. Alban's, Malmesbury, +and other such mighty foundations, stuck to the old studies, just as +Eton and Winchester stuck to Latin Verse as the one thing needful, and +reluctantly gave into the newfangled notion of having a 'modern side.'</p> + +<p>Outside the Abbey precincts, a hundred yards from the great gate, and +separated from it by the <i>Rome land</i>, which may possibly have served the +boys as a playground, stood the Grammar School. Whether it offered a +different training from that which was usually supplied to the scholars +who were under training in the cloister, it is difficult to say. Within +the precincts, when the 13th century began, there stood the great +church—enriched by the accumulated offerings of centuries, and glowing +with dazzling splendour of jewels and cloth of gold, and glass that +glorified the very sunshine, and wonders of sculpture and colour and +needlework filling the heart to overflowing with inexplicable hopes and +longings for an ideal that seemed possible of realization, if only the +Church in heaven should be as far removed above the actual of the Church +on earth, as the glories of the Church on earth were removed above the +squalid life of the common workday world. All this in witness that the +great Abbey was, first and foremost, a religious foundation, raised in +the first instance to the glory of God, and meant to help forward the +worship of God, and make the worship worthy of the Most High.</p> + +<p>But besides being primarily and emphatically a religious foundation, the +Abbey in the 13th century had grown into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> something else, and had become +the home of a corporation of scholars and students, who were the leaders +of art and culture in an age when art and culture were to be met with +nowhere outside the walls of a great monastery. There, in what might be +called the museum of the Abbey, you might see no mean collection of +antique gems that had once been the pride of Roman magistrates. +Mysterious specimens of barbaric goldwork, fashioned by unknown +craftsmen for the necks of nameless chieftains who had drawn the sword +and perished, none knew when. Engraved gems that had been dug up in +mysterious sepulchres, about which even imagination despaired of telling +any story; relics of saints and martyrs, charters of Saxon kings, +granted centuries before the Normans came to ring out the old and ring +in the new. The wealth of mere archæological specimens at St. Alban's +made it such a museum of antiquities as provokes wonder and bitterness, +as we read the catalogue of what was once there, and has perished +utterly and for ever.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The range of buildings to the south of the church covered a far larger +area than that which the church itself occupied. Uncertain though the +exact site may be and is, there had already been added in Brother +Matthew's time what we should now call an Art school, a Library, and, +almost more famous than all, the Scriptorium. By-and-bye, too, came the +printing-press which John Herford set up in 1480. Wynkyn de Worde was +sometime schoolmaster of Saint Alban's, and Lady Juliana Berners' famous +volume issued from the Abbey Press, while Caxton was still pursuing his +craft in the almonry of another monastery at Westminster.</p> + +<p>In the days of King John, however, people had so little idea of the +possibility of the printing-press, that they were almost equally +ignorant of such a material as paper for literary purposes. Yet it is a +huge mistake which has not yet been exploded, as it ought to be, that +reading and writing were rare accomplishments in the 13th century. +Knowledge of a certain kind was disseminated far more effectively and +far more universally than is generally believed. The country parson was +expected to be the schoolmaster of his parish, and generally was so, and +there was hardly a village in England during the reign of Henry III, in +which there were not one or more persons who could write a <i>clerkly</i> +hand, draw up accounts in <i>Latin</i>, and keep the records of the various +petty courts and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> gatherings that were continually being held, sometimes +to the annoyance and grievous vexation of the rural population. The +professional <i>writers</i> were so numerous, and their training so severe, +that they had got for themselves privileges of a very exceptional kind; +the <i>clerk</i> took rank with the <i>clergyman</i>, and the <i>writer</i> of a book +was almost as much esteemed as its <i>author</i>.</p> + +<p>The scriptorium of a great monastery was at once the printing-press and +the publishing office. It was the place where books were written, and +whence they issued to the world. With the traditional exclusiveness of +the older monasteries there was less desire, no doubt, to diffuse and +disperse than to accumulate books, but the composing and the +multiplication of books was always going on. The scriptorium was a great +writing school too, and the rules of the art of writing which were laid +down there were so rigidly and severely adhered to, that to this day it +is difficult to decide at a glance whether a book was written in St. +Alban's or St. Edmund's Abbey. Sometimes as many as twenty writers were +employed at once, and besides these there were occasionally +supernumeraries, who were professional scribes, and who were paid for +their services; but nothing short of perfect penmanship, such trained +skill, for instance, as would now be required for an engraver, would +qualify a copyist to take part in the finished work, which the copying +of important books required.</p> + +<p>One of the conclusions which Sir Thomas Hardy arrived at during the +course of his minute examination of Sir Frederick Madden's theory is so +curious, and opens out such an unexpected view of the way in which our +monasteries may have been brought under the influence of foreign +literature, that it is worth while in this connection to quote the great +critic's own words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'After minutely examining every page of the manuscripts in +question, as well as others, which were undoubtedly written +in the monastery of St. Alban's, and comparing them with +others executed in various parts of England and on the +Continent, I can come to no other conclusion than that +during the latter half of the 13th century, and perhaps a +little earlier, there prevailed among the scribes in the +Scriptorium of St. Alban's, a peculiar character of writing +which is not recognizable in any other religious house in +England during that period; but which is traceable in some +foreign manuscripts, and even in private deeds executed in +England in the neighbourhood of St. Alban's during the 12th +and 13th centuries. These facts lead me to the inference, +that <i>the schoolmaster who taught the art of writing to +Matthew Paris and the other members and scholars of the +establishment at St. Alban's was a foreigner</i>; that his +pupils not only imitated their instructor in the formation +of his letters, but also in his exceptional orthography.'</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> + +<p>What questions suggest themselves as we accept the conclusion arrived +at! Who was he, this 'foreigner,' who had come from across the sea to +bring in his outlandish novelties into the great scriptorium? Was he +some 'Frenchman' imported from sunny Champagne, where Thibaut, the +mawkish singer was making verses which his people loved to listen to? +Did he teach the young novices French as well as writing? Did he touch +the lute himself on Feast-days, and charm them with some new lyric of +Gasse Bruslé, or delight them with one of Rutebeuf's merry ditties? +France was all alive with song at this time, and princes were rivals now +for poetic fame. It may be that this 'foreigner' brought in a taste for +light literature as well as for a new fashion in penmanship, and made +known to his pupils such alluring novelties as the 'Roman d'Alexandre, +soon to be eclipsed by the 'Roman de la Rose.'</p> + +<p>The scriptorium at St. Alban's was founded by Abbot Paul, a kinsman of +Archbishop Lanfrance, when the great Abbey had already existed for three +centuries. Paul became Abbot eleven years after the Conquest, and he +showed himself an able and earnest administrator. From this time +learning and a love of books became a tradition of the house. Abbot +after abbot continued to add to the collection of MSS., and to increase +the value of the library. But St. Alban's had never had a great +historian of its own. Strange and shameful fact! East and west and north +and south, all over the land, there were great writers holding up their +proud heads. Out in the desolate wilds there at Peterborough, they had +been actually keeping up a chronicle for centuries—aye, and written in +the vernacular too. The lonely monastery of Ely, among the swamps, had +its historian. Malmesbury boasted her learned William; and Worcester, +which St. Wulstan had raised from the dust, as it were, only the other +day, had already her Florence. In the great houses of the Northern +Province there had been no lack of writers to whom the past was an open +book. Even Westminster had long ago had her <i>chronographer</i>, and far +away in furthest Wales, Geoffrey, the Monmouth man, was making men open +their eyes very wide indeed with tales—idle tales they might be, but +they were well worth the reading—and there was talk too of another +young Welshman, Giraldus, who was on the way towards outdoing the other +by-and-bye. What are we coming to? Holy St. Alban, shalt thou and thy +house be put to shame?—that be far from us!</p> + +<p>Thus it came to pass that about a century after the foundation of the +scriptorium, and when the library had grown to an imposing size, Abbot +Simon bestirred himself, and a new office<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> was created in the Abbey, to +wit, that of Historiographer. In our time we should have given this +functionary a grander title, and called him Professor of History; but in +the 12th century, they called him what he was, a writer of history, and +from this time, in fact, the writing of history, after a certain +authorized method, began, and what had been called, and deserves to be +called, the St. Alban's School of History took its rise.</p> + +<p>It is evident that before the 13th century had well begun, an historical +compendium of great value had already been drawn up, which must have +been compiled by careful students with a command of books such as during +this age was rare.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The compilation,' says Dr. Luard, 'whenever and by +whomsoever it was written must be regarded as a very curious +and remarkable one. The very large number of sources +consulted, the miscellaneous character of many of the +extracts, the mixture of history and legend, the giving +fixed years to stories which even writers like Geoffrey of +Monmouth had left undated, the care at one time and the +carelessness at another, the slavishness with which one +authority is followed, and the recklessness with which +another is altered, the frequent confusion of dates, their +ignorance and want of care, the blunders displayed in many +instances from the compiler not understanding the author +whom he is copying, as is especially the case in the +extracts from the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;" all these +characteristics may well earn for the author the title that +Lappenberg has given to him, though under the name of +"Matthew of Westminster," namely, that of the "Verwirrer der +Geschichte." At the same time there is no doubt that he had +access to some materials which we no longer possess: and my +object has been to trace all his statements, where possible, +to their source, and to distinguish any additions that the +compiler has made when they are merely rhetorical +amplifications of his own, or when they are really from some +source not now extant.'—Pref. to vol. i., p. xxxiii.</p></div> + +<p>After all that can be said, the work surprises us by the erudition it +displays. Nor is that surprise lessened when we have gone through the +masterly analysis of its contents, which Dr. Luard has given us in the +Preface to his first vol. Such as it was, it became the great text-book +on which Roger of Wendover founded his own labours when he incorporated +it into the chronicle which he left behind him. Roger of Wendover did +good work, and laboriously epitomized, supplemented and improved, but he +was a mere literary monk after all; a student, a bookworm, simple, +conscientious, and truthful; a trustworthy reporter, 'a picker-up of +learning's crumbs,' a monkish historiographer, in short; but by no means +a historian of large views and of original mind. Roger of Wendover died +in 1236, and Matthew Paris succeeded to his office and work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> + +<p>From what has been said, the reader may be presumed to have gained +something like an answer to our first question: <i>What</i> was Brother +Matthew? Briefly, he was a representative monk of the most powerful +monastery in England during the 13th century, when that monastery was at +its best, and doing the work which in after times the Universities and +great schools of the country took out of the hands of the religious +houses; work, too, which since those days has been done by the +printing-press, and by many other institutions better fitted to deal +with the requirements of an immensely larger population, and to be the +instruments of diffusing culture and refinement through the nation after +it had outgrown the older machinery.</p> + +<p>When we come to look into the personal history of Brother Matthew, the +details of his biography need not detain us long. Sir Henry Taylor's +famous line is only half true, after all;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The world knows nothing of its greatest men'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>really means that the world knows less about them than it would like to +know. And yet the world knows almost as much about them as is good for +it. The leading facts of a man's career are all that concern most of +us—the main lines—not the details. Of Matthew Paris we know enough, +because he has himself given us so faithful a picture of his times, and +so charming an insight into the daily life which he led.</p> + +<p>Unnecessary doubt has been suggested as to his parentage, and whether +his extraction was or was not from a stock that could boast of gentle +blood. For our part we incline strongly to the belief, that Brother +Matthew was called Paris because that was his name, and had been his +father's name before him. A family of that name held lands in +Bedfordshire in Henry III.'s time; others of the same stock were settled +in Lincolnshire earlier still; and the Cambridgeshire family (one of +whom was among the visitors of the monasteries under Henry VIII.) +boasted of a long line of ancestors, and retained their estates in the +Eastern Counties till late in the 17th century. Young Matthew probably +received his education in the school at St. Alban's, and soon showed a +decided taste for learning and the student's life, and that in the 13th +century meant an inclination for the life of the cloister. Many a +precocious lad is even now taught from his childhood to look forward to +the glories of a College Fellowship, and the career which such an +academic success may open to him; and in the 13th century a schoolboy's +ambition was directed to the goal of admission to a great +monastery—that step on the ladder which whosoever could reach, there +was no knowing how high he might climb—how high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> above the common sons +of earth or, if he preferred it, how high towards the heaven that is +above the earth.</p> + +<p>Matthew was probably born about the year 1200, and in January 1217 he +became a monk at St. Alban's, <i>i. e.</i>, he became a <i>novice</i>. At this +time a lad could commence his noviciate at 15; but the age was +subsequently advanced to 19, the younger limit having been found, as a +rule, too early even for the preliminary discipline required. On the day +after the lad was admitted, a frightful scene took place in the +monastery. A band of Fawkes de Breauté's cut-throats had stormed the +town of St. Alban's, burst into the Abbey, and slaughtered at the door +of the church one Robert Mai, a servant of the Abbot. William de +Trumpington was Abbot at this time, a vigorous and resolute personage, +who ruled the convent with a firm hand. Like all really able men, he was +ably seconded, for he knew how to choose his subordinates. At first the +monks had repented of their choice, and there were quarrels and +litigation and appeals to the Pope, and many serious 'unpleasantnesses;' +but as time went on, Abbot William had won the allegiance of all the +convent, and they were proud of him. He was a man of books, among his +other virtues, and had an eye for bookish men; and when he deposed Roger +de Wendover from being Prior of Belvoir with a somewhat high hand, and +brought him back to St. Alban's, he doubtless did so because he knew +that at Belvoir he was a square man in a round hole, while in the +scriptorium of the Abbey he would be in his right place. Certainly the +event proved that the Abbot was right, and it was to this judicious +removal of a student and man of letters to his proper home that we owe +so much of our knowledge of those interesting minutiæ of English history +which the writer has revealed. It was under the eye of Robert de +Wendover that Matthew Paris grew up, rendering him every year more and +more substantial assistance in the library and in the scriptorium.</p> + +<p>But the young man was not only a bookworm and a copyist, he soon got to +be looked upon as a prodigy. He was a universal genius; he could do +whatever he set his hand to, and better than any one else. He could +draw, and paint, and illuminate, and work in metals. Some said he could +even construct maps; he was versed in everything, and noticed everything +from 'the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop upon the wall;' he was +an expert in heraldry; he could tell you about whales, and camels, and +buffaloes, and elephants—he could even draw an elephant—illustrate his +history, in fact, with the elephant's portrait, the first elephant, he +says, that had ever been seen in our northern climes. It was centuries +before men had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> dreamt of what the science of geology would one day +reveal. Then, too, he had vast capacity for work, and was a courtly +person, and he had the gift of tongues, and had been a great traveller; +he had early been sent by the convent to study at the University of +Paris, and wherever he went, he was the man to make friends. When the +Benedictines in Norway had convinced themselves that there was sore need +of a reform of their rule and discipline, they applied to Pope Innocent +IV. to send them a Visitor furnished with the necessary authority for +carrying out so delicate and difficult a mission, and they made choice +of Matthew Paris as the fittest possible person for such a work. +Reluctantly Brother Matthew was compelled to undertake the task; he +started on his northern voyage in 1248, and was absent about a year. In +Norway he soon grew into high favour with King Hacon, who peradventure +would have kept him at his side if he could. This seems to have been the +most important episode in his otherwise uneventful life. But the +advantages and opportunities which were at the command of any ambitious +and studious young monk at St. Alban's were in themselves extraordinary. +We have said that building was always going on. It was going on on a +very large scale indeed in Abbot William's time. That means that there +were the plans and sections and working drawings to be copied for the +architect, and measurements and calculations by the thousand to be +made—<i>a school of architecture</i>, in short: and besides that, what Roger +de Wendover was in the scriptorium, that Walter of Colchester, <i>pictor +et sculptor incomparabilis</i>, was in the painting room. Walter was a +sculptor; indeed he wrought at his marvellous pulpit which the Abbot set +up in the middle of the church: and he carved the story of St. Alban +upon the great beam over the high altar, and did many another thing of +which we have only too brief descriptions. Then, too, there was Richard, +the monk who decorated the grand new guests' hall <i>deliciose</i>, as we are +told, and who painted pictures and carried out other works of +embellishment at a pace which none could have kept up, but that he had +his father to help him with his brush, and another artist, John of +Wallingford, to carry out his great designs, and many more skilled +limners whose names have gone down into silence.</p> + +<p>When Abbot William's reign came to an end, the monks were unanimous in +choosing John of Hertford as his successor, and the new Abbot lost no +time in showing favour to Matthew Paris. Next year Roger de Wendover +died, and who could there be so worthy to succeed him as historiographer +as the versatile and accomplished brother, who by this time was the +boast of the great house? And historiographer accordingly Matthew +became—<i>mutatis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> mutandis</i>, a sort of 13th-century editor of the +'Times;' his business was to gather from all points of the compass, if +not the latest news, yet the best and most trustworthy reports upon +whatever was worth recording. He had his correspondents all over Europe, +and that he sifted the evidence as it came to him we know.</p> + +<p>Wherever there was any great event that deserved a place in the Abbey +Chronicle, some splendid pageant to describe, some battle, or treaty, or +pestilence, or flood, or famine, straightway tidings came to the +vigilant historiographer; and there was a comparison of the evidence +brought in, and some testing of witnesses, and finally the narrative was +drawn up and incorporated into Matthew's history. Again and again it +happened that a great personage who, while himself <i>making</i> history, was +anxious that his own part in a transaction should be represented +favourably, would try and get the right side of the famous chronicler, +and would furnish him with private information. Even the King himself +thought it no scorn to communicate facts and documents to Brother +Matthew. Once when Henry saw him in a crowd on a memorable occasion, he +picked him out, and bade him take his seat by his side, and see to it +that he made a true and faithful report of what was going on; and it is +evident that the royal favour which he enjoyed through life must have +extended to furnishing him with many a story and many a detail which +none but the King could have supplied. The minute account of the attempt +to assassinate Henry in 1238; the curious State paper giving a narrative +of the dispute between the King and his nobles in 1242; the strange +scene at the tomb of William Marshall in 1245, and scores of other +incidents in the career of Bishop Grossteste and Richard of Cornwall, +were evidently 'inspired,' and can only have come from eye-witnesses of +the events recorded. Nevertheless Matthew, though he was willing enough +to receive information, and to utilise facts and documents, was by no +means the man to reproduce them exactly in the form in which they came +to him. More than once he ventured to remonstrate with the King, and +very much oftener than once he expresses his opinion of him in no +measured terms. Some of the severest censures he had marked for +omission, and some expressions he modified considerably, for we have the +good fortune to possess his chronicle both in an earlier and in a later +form; but even though the fuller and more outspoken record had perished, +we should still have had enough proof to make it clear that we have in +Matthew Paris an instance of a born historian, one who never consented +to be a mere advocate, taking a side and seeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> only half the truth of +anything; but a man gifted with the judicial faculty, that precious gift +without which a man may be anything you please—a rhetorician, a special +pleader, a picturesque writer, a laborious collector of facts; but an +historian never. And yet Matthew Paris was a magnificent hater, with a +fund of indignant scorn and righteous anger which never fails him upon +occasion. Friend of King and nobles as he was, he will not spare his +words of wrathful censure upon the tyrant, or upon any that he held +deserving of rebuke for cruelty, oppression and avarice. When he has to +lay the lash on such as had proved themselves enemies to his much-loved +Abbey, or who had wronged and defrauded it, he is well-nigh as fierce as +Dante. He singles them out—the doomed wretches—and holds them, as it +were, over the fire of hell before he drops them down into the burning +flame.</p> + +<p>Did Ralph Cheinduit, that blustering, burly knight, cry aloud 'A fig for +St. Alban and his monks! Since they excommunicated me—look you! I have +only increased in girth, behold me fat and jolly, in faith almost too +big for my saddle. A fig for them all!' Did he say so, the impious +wretch? Be it known that from that very day Sir Knight began to shrink +and waste and pine, and if he had not repented and been absolved in +time, he had gone down to the bottomless pit with never a hope of +deliverance.</p> + +<p>Did not Sir Adam Fitz William show the evil spirit that was in him when +he sided against us time and again? And now, look to his awful end! +Gorged with meat and drink one night, he sprawled upon his bed, +<i>indigestus</i>, as you may say, and he never woke more. Aye! and he died +intestate too. And as though that was not bad enough, his wife too died, +straightway, like another Sapphira slain by the shock of the tidings. +And then there was Alan de Beccles, too, always notorious for setting +himself against us and our house, he too perished as the other did, for +he loved choice dainties overmuch, and he dined late and he ate as none +should eat, and when he could eat no more, suddenly his speech failed +him and his veins burst, smitten with an apoplexy. And many another, +whom it would take too long to name, following his evil course, and +being prosecutors of Holy Alban's Church, perished for ever by God's +vengeance.</p> + +<p>It is no longer the fashion now to denounce the Pope and his myrmidons, +but if the rage of Exeter Hall should ever recur, and the orators of the +old platform should revive a taste for anti-papal agitation, they might +find in Matthew Paris as rich a repertory of testimonials against Roman +aggression and greed as the most rabid Irish Protestant could desire. 'O +thou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> Pope,' he bursts out once, 'thou the father of all the fathers in +Christ, how it is that thou sufferest the realms of Christendom to be +fouled by such creatures as are thine?' The 'creatures' were the papal +legates and nuncios and all their belongings, who were plundering +England without shame. 'Harpies they were and blood-suckers,' says +Matthew, 'mere plunderers, skinning the sheep, not shearing them only.' +Then there were the King's Justiciars—'Justice'—nay, with that they +had nothing to do. Why tell of their unrighteous deeds? he asks. 'Better +forbear from vainly writing about the <i>wrongers</i>, and return to the +story of the wronged.'</p> + +<p>Of course the friars come in for their share of strong words—chiefly +because the Pope made use of them so vilely, and not less because they +set themselves above their betters—us, to wit—monks of the old houses.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'They started with such fair professions, they were going to +be so very poor, and so very unworldly, and were going to +supplement our work and interfere with nobody, and give us +all a helping hand. Look at them now!' says Matthew; 'they +march through the streets in pompous array with banners +flaunting in the sun and waxen tapers, and rich burghers in +holiday garments joining in the long train, and if they have +no land they have money, good store, and as for their +churches, they are eclipsing us all. Their invasion of our +territory is a dreadful scandal, and they sneer at us and at +all other religious men and women and they flout the parish +priests and call them humdrums, and schism is at work +horribly, and the people are running away from the old +guides, and there is no end to them. Actually in the year of +grace 1257,' he says, 'a new order of these fellows turned +up in London. Friars of the sack, forsooth, because they +were clothed in sackcloth! Of course they came armed with a +papal licence as usual. What did these fellows come for? Was +it to make confusion worse confounded? Alas! Alas! If we had +only been as we were in the golden age, these friars would +never have had a chance—not they! We too are not as the +monks of old were; they lived the guileless life—austere, +hard, self-denying, saintly! What are we in comparison with +them?</p> + +<p>'Did not we find the bones of our brethren there, hard by +the High Altar, when we were beautifying the same? O ye +degenerate sons of this degenerate age! Two centuries ago +and our monks were men of faith and prayer. In the year of +grace one thousand two hundred and fifty-one, we found more +than thirty of them buried together, and their bones were +lying there, white and sweet, redolent with the odor of +sanctity every one; each man had been buried as he died, in +his monastic habit, and his shoes upon his feet too. Aye, +and <i>such</i> shoes—shoes made for wear and not for +wantonness. The soles of these shoes were sound and strong, +they might have served the purpose for poor men's naked feet +even now, after centuries of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> lying in the grave. Blush ye! +ye with your buckles, and your pointed toes and your fiddle +faddle. These shoes upon the holy feet that we dug up were +as round at the toe as at the heel, and the latchets were +all of one piece with the uppers. No rosettes in those days, +if you please! They fastened their shoes with a thong, and +they wound that thong around their blessed ankles, and they +cared not in those holy days whether their shoes were <i>a +pair</i>. Left foot and right foot each was as the other: and +we, when we gazed at the holy relics—we bowed our heads at +the edifying sight, and we were dumbfounded, even to awe, as +we swung our censers over the sacred graves of the ages +past!'</p></div> + +<p>The anecdotes and out-of-the-way pieces of information in the 'Chronica +Majora,' which may be said to represent the <i>paragraphs</i> of modern +journalism, are countless. Brother Matthew enlivens his history with +these cross-lights at every page, and what gives to these scraps an +added charm is that Matthew himself seems to be always with us when he +prattles on. Not even Herodotus has succeeded more entirely in +impressing his quaint personality upon his narrative. It is always +something which he has seen, or heard from some living man who saw it +with his own eyes.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'There was my friend John of Basingstoke, had studied at +Paris, and a wonder of learning he was, but he told me +himself that his best teacher by far was the young lady +Constantina, daughter of an archbishop she. Archbishop of +Athens, too—archbishops may marry out there! Before she was +twenty she knew all that men may know; she was worth two +universities of Paris any day; she foretold the coming of +plagues and storms, and eclipses—and—more wonderful +still—the coming of earthquakes too: and John of +Basingstoke was her scholar, and whatever he knew that was +deep and rare, he learnt it of the lady Constantina, the +Archbishop's daughter.'</p></div> + +<p>Matthew is very great when he has to tell of omens and portents:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'We were scurvily treated by Pope Innocent III.,' he says, +'in the days of Abbot John. Spite of all our privileges and +indulgences, the Pope would have him come to Rome every +third year; a sore burden and harm to us all. Forthwith evil +omens came. Thrice in three years was our tower struck by +lightning. After that wrong of his Holiness it was no wonder +that the impression of the papal seal in wax, which we had +taken good care to fix on the top of the steeple, availed +not to keep off the thunderbolt—small good you see in that +kind of thing.'</p></div> + +<p>Besides the miscellaneous paragraphs, there are periodical reports of +the weather, and the storms, and the droughts, and the harvests. +Moreover, there are what answer to our police<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> reports, and details of +criminal proceedings against Jew and Gentile, and births and deaths and +marriages, and now and then brief notes upon the state of the markets, +and sometimes hints and reflections upon the desirability of certain +reforms in Church and State; and all this not in the spirit of modern +journalism, which at its best too often bears the marks of haste, and +betrays the literary soldier of fortune paid for his work at so much a +column, but genuine, hearty, throbbing with a certain passionate loyalty +to a tradition, or an idea which you may say is exploded, grotesque, or +fanciful, but which in the 13th century honest men and devout ones lived +by and lived for, and were trying in their own way to carry out into +action.</p> + +<p>But now that we have got this precious 'Chronicle,' not to mention other +works in the composition of which Brother Matthew had at least a large +share—though our space forbids us dwelling upon them or their contents, +and we must refer our readers to Dr. Luard's elaborate prefaces if they +would desire to know all about them—another question suggests itself, +which sooner or later will become a pressing question—What are we going +to do with such a national work of which this country has great reason +to be proud?</p> + +<p>The days are gone by when a man was supposed to be educated in +proportion as he was familiar with the literature of Greece and Rome and +ignorant of everything else. Already at Oxford candidates for the +highest honours in the final schools think it no shame to read their +Plato or their Aristotle in English translations, and in half the time +that was needed under the old plan they get a mastery of their +Thucydides or Herodotus, devoting themselves to the subject-matter after +they have proved at 'Moderations' that they have a respectable +acquaintance with the language of the authors.</p> + +<p>May the day be far off when Homer and Æschylus shall cease to be read in +the original! The great writers of Hellas and Italy were poets or +orators, great teachers or great thinkers; but they were something more. +They were perfect instrumentalities too. Their thoughts, their lessons, +their aspirations, their regrets, you may interpret and transfer into +the speech and the idioms of the moderns; but the music of their +language, the subtleties of melody and rhythm, and harmony and tone, can +no more be translated than a symphony for the strings can be adequately +represented upon the organ. You may persuade yourself that you have got +the substance; you have missed the perfection of the form. Yet who but a +narrow pedant will insist that the study of any literature, ancient or +modern, is valuable chiefly for familiarizing us with the language, not +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> enriching our minds with the subject matter? Do we desire to +understand the past and so to be better able to estimate the importance +of great movements that are going on in the present or, by the help of +the experience of bygone ages, to forecast the future? Then it behoves +us to see that our induction shall be made from as wide a view as may +be, and to avail ourselves of any light that may be gained. But it is +mere waste of time to be for ever staring at the lamp which may be +pretty to look at in itself, but is then most precious when it serves as +a means to an end. If we are ever to construct a Science of History, the +old methods must give place to something which may approximate to +philosophic enquiry. When we come to think of it, how very small an area +of time or space is covered by the historians of Greece and Rome: how +small an area and how superficially dealt with! Even Thucydides hardly +ventures to lift the veil which separates the civilization of his own +age from that of an earlier period; he lifts it for a moment, then drops +the curtain and passes on. It is true indeed that Herodotus introduces +us to a world that is not Hellenic, and brings us into some sort of +relation with men whose habits and art and religion had a character of +their own; but then these nations were not as we, and not as men even of +our race could ever become. We never seem to be <i>in touch</i> with Egypt or +Assyria, and when he prattles on about these nations it is less as a +historian than as an observant traveller that Herodotus delights and +allures. Xenophon's passing notices of the manners and education, of the +<i>feudalism</i> and the social life of the Medes, are too brief to be +anything but tantalizing; but the neglect of Xenophon by professed +students is not creditable, however significant. Perhaps of all the +Greek writers Polybius was the man who had the truest conception of the +historian's vocation; perhaps, too, it was just because he was so much +before his age that his voluminous and ambitious work has come down to +us little more than a fragment. Because he was something better than a +compiler of annals, they who read history only to be amused found him +dull, and the moderns have not yet reversed the verdict which was passed +upon him. Who ever heard of a candidate for honours taking Polybius into +the schools?</p> + +<p>It is from the Latin historians that we might have expected so much and +from whom we get so little. What do they tell us of ancient Spain—the +Spain that Sertorius pretended he was going to regenerate, and whose +civilization, literature, and national life he did so much to +extinguish? If it were not for what Aristotle has told us in the +<i>Politics</i>, what should we know of that mighty commercial Republic which +monopolized the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> carrying trade of the old world? It never seems to have +occurred to Livy that the political organization of Carthage could be +worth his notice. His business was to glorify Rome, and to tell how Rome +grew to greatness—grew by war and conquest and pillage, and the +ferocious might of her relentless soldiery. The 'Germania' of Tacitus +stands alone—unique in ancient literature; but what would we not give +for such a monograph upon the Britain which Cæsar attempted to conquer, +or the Gaul which he plundered and devastated? The great captain's +famous missive might be inscribed as the motto of his 'Commentaries.' +Veni! vidi! vici! sums up in brief the substance of what they contain. +It was always Rome's way! Rome swept a sponge that was soaked in blood +over all the past of the nations she subdued. She came to obliterate, +never to preserve. Her chroniclers disdained to ask how these or those +doughty antagonists had grown formidable, how their national life had +developed; whether their progress had been arrested by the conquerors or +whether they had become weak and enervated by social deterioration or +moral corruption. Enough that they were <i>Barbarians</i>.</p> + +<p>The science of history can be but little advanced by writers such as +these, who pass from battlefield to battlefield—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Crimson-footed, like the stork,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through great ruts of slaughter,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and to whom the silent growth of institutions and the evolution of +ethical sentiments and the development of the arts of peace were matters +which never presented themselves as worthy of their attention. You may +call this history if you will, in truth it is little better than +Empiricism. The world is a larger world than Rome or Athens dreamt of, +and students of history are beginning to realize that not quite the last +thing they have to do is 'to look at <i>home</i>.' Such a work as the +'Chronica Majora' of Matthew Paris is a national heritage which it is +shameful to allow much longer to be known only by the curious and +erudite. Now that there is no excuse for our neglect, is it too much to +hope that the day may not be far distant when the name of this great +Englishman may become as familiar to schoolboys as that of Sallust or +Livy, of Cornelius Nepos or Cæsar—his name as familiar, and his +writings better known and more loved?</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Lord Langdale resigned three weeks before his death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The proposal to print and publish the <i>Calendars</i> had been +approved by authority of the new Record Commissioners as early as +January 1840. <i>See</i> preface to Mr. Lemons' 'Calendar' (Domestic, +1547-1580), p. viii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> In Luard's sixth volume there are two facsimiles of certain +coloured drawings of the more precious gems at St. Alban's, with careful +descriptions of them, these and the illustrations being most probably +<i>executed by Mathew Paris himself</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Art_II_1_The_Christian_Brothers_their_Origin_and_Work_with_a" id="Art_II_1_The_Christian_Brothers_their_Origin_and_Work_with_a"></a>Art. II. 1.—<i>The Christian Brothers, their Origin and Work, with a +sketch of the Life of their Founder, The Venerable Jean Baptiste de la +Salle.</i> By Mrs. R. F. Wilson, London, 1883.</h2> + +<h2>2. <i>La Première Année d'Instruction Morale et Civique: notions de droit +et d'économie politique (Textes et Récits) pour répondre à la loi du 28 +Mars 1882 sur l'enseignement primaire obligatoire: ouvrage accompagné de +Résumé, de Questionnaires, de Devoirs, et d'un Lexique des mots +difficiles.</i> Par Pierre Laloi. Quatorzième Edition. Paris, 1885.</h2> + +<h2>3. <i>Report of the Committee of Council on Education</i> (England and +Wales). 1884-85.</h2> + +<h2>4. <i>Seventy-fourth Annual Report of the Incorporated National Society.</i> +1885.</h2> + + +<p>Most travellers in France will have met occasionally in Paris and in the +provincial towns a school of boys walking two and two, and followed by a +serious-looking superintendent of very solemn deportment. The boys are +in no marked respect different from other boys, but they are orderly and +well conducted. They are probably on their way to a church; and if you +watch them, you will see them march in with much propriety. The +superintendent is evidently not an ordinary schoolmaster; you would +suppose that he is an ecclesiastic of some kind. He wears a loose black +cloak, a hat with a low crown and a portentous brim, and bands such as +were much worn by English clergymen till late years, and which, when +strongly developed, were supposed to indicate a sympathy with +Calvanistic theology. Nevertheless, the solemn-featured young man is not +an ecclesiastic, neither is he a Protestant minister. He is one of the +Frères Chrétiens, or Christian Brothers; and the boys whom he has under +his charge are pupils in one of the Écoles Chrétiennes, or Christian +Schools.</p> + +<p>We will venture to assume, that some of our readers are not well +acquainted with the story and the principles of the remarkable +institution known as the Schools of the Christian Brothers, or with the +life of their remarkable founder. We propose in this article to supply +some information upon the subject, not only because we think that such +information will be interesting in itself, but also because we believe +that from the story of the work and principles of the French schools of +the Christian Brothers, we may proceed without difficulty, and almost by +necessary consequence, to some useful considerations with respect to +English schools as now established and conducted amongst ourselves.</p> + +<p>Jean Baptiste de la Salle was born in Rheims, April 30,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> 1651. The house +in which he was born is still standing, and is regarded with reverence. +He came of a noble family, which was originally of Bearn. His +grandfather settled at Rheims, of which he became an honoured citizen, +but was apparently in no way himself remarkable. His second son, Louis, +was the father of a child, who received the name of Jean Baptiste on the +same day as that upon which he was born.</p> + +<p>This child, whose career we purpose briefly to follow as that of the +founder of the Christian Brothers, exhibited early signs of a devotional +spirit; he learned to recite the Breviary from his grandfather, and +continued to do so even before being bound to the practice by his +ordination vows; and he soon made it clear to himself and to others that +his vocation was that of the priestly office. His conduct as a student +in the University of Rheims, which he entered at eight years old, was +marked by diligence in study and gentle docility.</p> + +<p>Before he had reached the age of sixteen he was made a canon of the +cathedral; such were the strange ecclesiastical possibilities of those +times. An aged relative resigned in his favour, and died the following +year. The preferment, however, did not spoil him; he looked upon it as a +call to duty. He was diligent in attendance upon the offices of the +Church, diligent in private prayer, diligent in study—in every way a +remarkable boy-canon!</p> + +<p>In October 1670 he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, where, +amongst other fellow-students, was Fénelon, subsequently the great +Archbishop of Cambrai. Little is recorded of his seminary life, except +that it was gentle, modest, blameless. In 1672 he lost his father, and +in the same year returned to Rheims to take charge of his younger +brothers and sisters. The responsible position in which he was thus +placed seems to have shaken for a time his persuasion that he had a true +vocation for the priesthood; but after consultation with a friend who +knew him well, his doubts vanished, and on the eve of Trinity Sunday in +this same year he was admitted to the subdiaconate.</p> + +<p>Then follow six years of quiet home work and retirement. During this +time he attended the theological course of the University, provided for +the education of his brothers and sisters, and gave himself very +earnestly to prayer and good works. In the year 1678, on Easter Eve, he +was ordained Priest.</p> + +<p>During all this time De la Salle's attention does not seem to have been +turned to that which ultimately became the great work of his life. As +not unfrequently happens, the real bent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> was given to his energies by +what might be described as accidental circumstances. The friend whom he +consulted when in doubt concerning holy orders was one Canon Roland. +This good man had interested himself much about an orphanage for girls +at Rheims, which had fallen under bad management, and urgently needed +reform. Canon Roland was taken ill just before De la Salle's ordination, +and, dying not long after, left the young priest his executor, +commending to his special care the orphanage just mentioned. De la Salle +could not refuse the charge; it was not much to his taste, but it was +the bequest of his friend; it was the leading of God; and he girded +himself to the task. He applied through the Archbishop to the King for +letters patent recognizing the institution, and thus put it upon a +lasting foundation; he bore the expense of the whole transaction; then +he supplemented the funds out of his own means; and having thus +satisfied his obligations to his deceased friend, he returned to his +quiet devotional life. The thought that this orphanage for girls would +constitute a valuable training school for schoolmistresses seems already +to have crossed his mind.</p> + +<p>Now comes the turning-point of De la Salle's life, and it comes in a +curious way. There was a certain rich, fashionable, and extravagant +married lady living in Rouen, who, like the rich man in the parable, was +clothed in fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, while Lazarus lay +at the gate. One day a poor beggar, who had been harshly repulsed from +the door, touched the heart of a servant by his manifest misery, and was +received into the stables, where he died the same night. The dead man +must needs be buried; so the servant went to the mistress, confessed his +fault, received some violent language and notice of dismissal, but at +the same time procured a sheet to serve as a shroud for the corpse. At +dinner-time the lady perceived the very sheet, which she had given for +the burial, folded up and lying in her own chair; some mysterious hand +had brought back the ungracious present, as though the deceased beggar +would not receive a favour in death from one who had been so cruel to +him in life.</p> + +<p>This strange and apparently not very important occurrence changed the +whole course of the lady's life. She gave up all her old habits of +magnificence and extravagance, lived the life of a devotee, and soon +succeeded in separating from herself all her old companions and friends, +who, in fact, deemed her mad. After her husband's death she became still +more strict in her habits, and devoted to the service of the poor a +large part of her fortune.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p> + +<p>Amongst other charities which she assisted was the female orphanage, of +which we have already spoken as having been cared for by Canon Roland, +and after his death by M. de la Salle. She conceived the idea of +establishing something of the same kind for boys in her native town of +Rheims, and she consulted Canon Roland on the subject. Ultimately she +engaged a devout layman, named Adrien Nyel, who had experience of poor +schools in Rouen, promised him maintenance for himself and a young +assistant, gave him a letter of introduction to her relative M. de la +Salle, and sent him to Rheims to open a school there for poor boys.</p> + +<p>This school, which was commenced in 1679, was the germ of the great +system of <i>Écoles Chrétiennes</i>. Its success led a pious lady in Rheims +to wish to establish another of the same kind in a different part of the +town. She consulted M. de la Salle, who had become patron of the first +school, on the subject; and thus he became, without any special wish or +intention of his own, drawn into the work of the education of poor boys. +His own account of the matter is worth quoting:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It was,' he wrote, 'by the chance meeting with M. Nyel, and +by hearing of the proposal made by that lady [to whom +reference has been made], that I was led to begin to +interest myself about boys' schools. I had no thought of it +before. It was not that the subject had not been suggested +to me. Many of M. Roland's friends had tried to interest me +about it, but it took no hold of my mind, and I had not the +least intention of occupying myself with it. If I had ever +thought that the care which out of pure charity I was taking +of schoolmasters would have brought me to feel it a duty to +live with them, I should have given it up at once; for as I +naturally felt myself very much above those whom I was +obliged to employ as schoolmasters, especially at first, the +bare idea of being obliged to live with such persons would +have been insupportable to me. In fact, it was a great +trouble to me when first I took them into my house, and the +dislike of it lasted for two years. It was apparently for +this reason that God, who orders all things with wisdom and +gentleness, and who does not force the inclinations of men, +when He willed to employ me entirely in the care of schools, +wrought imperceptibly and during a long space of time, so +that one engagement led to another in an unforeseen way.'</p></div> + +<p>This passage somewhat anticipates events; but it is convenient for the +condensed character of this narrative that it should be so. We will +therefore briefly fill up the gap left by M. de la Salle's own statement +by saying, that he found the work of directing schools for the poor +increase upon his hands in a wonderful manner. The success of those +which he visited and superintended led to the establishment of others. +Soon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> masters themselves formed a small body which required +superintendence and guidance. He took a house in which he placed them; +the home of course needed rules for its orderly and efficient working; +these M. de la Salle supplied. But still all was not quite as it should +be. Cathedral duties took up much of the Canon's time; these duties were +of primary obligation, and left comparatively little of the day to be +given to the superintendence of schoolmasters. But more than this, the +difference of station and comfort and habits between a well-endowed +Canon of a Cathedral, enjoying in addition a private fortune of his own, +and poor schoolmasters taken from the humblest ranks, and living in the +most humble manner, was quite immeasurable. It was comparatively easy to +have the whole company to dine with him, and so to meet them half way +down the social hill; but this was not enough. M. de la Salle began +gradually to realize the fact, that his great undertaking of supplying +schools and schoolmasters for the gratuitous education of the poor, +could only be crowned with complete success on the condition of his own +adoption of poverty in all its thoroughness. Accordingly he determined +to resign his canonry and spend his fortune upon the poor. Not +altogether so easy a thing as might at first sight appear. Great +opposition was made by his friends: the Archbishop was unwilling to +accept his resignation: nothing but persevering determination on the +part of De la Salle could have carried the business through; but he was +full of perseverance and full of determination, and in 1683 he at last +succeeded in divesting himself of his Cathedral preferment. The sale of +his property, and spending the money upon the poor, was an easier +matter, especially as the year 1684 was one of dearth; in the course of +that year and the following he managed to get rid of all.</p> + +<p>This parting with his money, instead of spending it upon his great work, +may well seem to be a conduct of doubtful wisdom; especially as at a +later period much difficulty was encountered for want of funds. But it +is hard, and perhaps not justifiable, to find fault with a man, who +adopts the course of selling all that he has and giving to the poor, +after using devoutly such a prayer as the following:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'My God, I do not know whether to endow or not. It is not +for me to found communities, or to know how they should be +founded. It, is for Thee, Oh my God. Thou knowest how, and +canst do it in the way which is pleasing to Thee. If Thou +foundest them, they will be well founded. If Thou foundest +them not, they will be without foundation. I beseech Thee, +my God, make me know Thy will.'</p></div> + +<p>Soon after the last livre was spent, De la Salle had occasion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> to make a +journey in connection with his work. He went on foot, as needs he must, +and begged his way. An old woman gave him a piece of black bread; he ate +it with joy, feeling that now he was indeed a poor man. He had at this +time reached the age of thirty-three years.</p> + +<p>Behold the Society of the Christian Brothers, and the Christian Schools, +taking form at last with De la Salle at the head! Let us examine that +work and see how matters stand.</p> + +<p>In the first place, so far as the founder was himself concerned, his +life was one of asceticism, but still more of prayer:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'He prayed by day and by night—his life was one incessant +communion with God. He would fain have avoided even the +interruption caused by sleep, and he grudged every moment +given to it, because it shortened his time of prayer. He +slept on the ground, or sometimes in his chair, and was the +first to rise at the sound of the morning bell. While at +Rheims he regularly spent Friday night in the Church of +Saint Rémi; he made the sacristan lock him in, and there +poured out his soul in prayer for help, and guidance, and +success in his work.'</p></div> + +<p>The Superior and the Brothers of course lived a common life. The great +principle of bringing himself exactly to the level of those who worked +under him, which had led to his resignation of his stall and the sale of +his property, made it quite certain that he would not call upon the +Brothers to do or to bear anything which he was not willing to do and to +bear himself. But the burden was heavier to him than to them. They were +poor men originally, accustomed to hard work and rough fare; while he +had been brought up in ease and plenty, and had never known what want +and poverty were. Consequently it cost De la Salle much effort and +self-denial to enter upon his new life; but he was satisfied with no +half measures; the sacrifice was to be absolute and complete; he fought +the battle and gained it,—yet not he, but the grace of God that was in +him. At the first starting of the Society there was no distinct rule, +but the following arrangements were made:—</p> + +<p>The food was to be substantial but frugal, fit for labourers engaged in +hard toil; nothing costly, nothing but what was necessary; on the other +hand no special rigour of abstinence, beyond that demanded of other +Christians.</p> + +<p>For dress was adopted a capote, such as was common in the country, made +of coarse material, and black; together with a black cassock, thick +shoes, and a broad-brimmed hat.</p> + +<p>For a name they chose that of 'Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes,' or, as +commonly abbreviated, 'Frères Chrétiens.'</p> + +<p>With regard to vows, De la Salle decided that they should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> take the +three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but for three years +only. They might make them perpetual the following year.</p> + +<p>As to the Superior himself, he had little difficulty with regard to the +first two points, for his only possessions were a New Testament, a copy +of the 'Initiation,' a Crucifix and a Rosary; and to celibacy he was +already committed. With regard to obedience, the fulfilment of the vow +was not easy to a man in his position; but he endeavoured to find a way +to make this vow also a practical one, by the method of resigning his +post and putting one of the Brothers in his place; this he ultimately +succeeded in doing, though only for a short time.</p> + +<p>We must leave to the reader's imagination the manner in which the work +grew under such remarkable auspices, the growth of M. de la Salle's +reputation as a saint, and the constantly increasing load of +responsibilities of all kinds which rested upon his shoulders.</p> + +<p>In the year 1688 the work extended to Paris. When De la Salle arrived +there he left behind him in Rheims a principal house containing sixteen +Brothers, and a training college for country schoolmasters, containing +thirty men, besides fifteen lads in their noviciate. For the purpose of +his work in Paris he hired a house in the village of Vaugirard; this he +occupied for seven years, collecting the Brothers about him in their +vacations, and making it a home for the sick and weary, and a place +where postulants might make proof of their profession. We shall not +follow his footsteps during this time, except to say that the work +flourished wonderfully well under his hand, as it always did, +notwithstanding all kinds of difficulties. We may produce, however, a +striking document of self-dedication which belongs to this period. The +Brothers seem to have been strongly moved by the desire of making their +vows perpetual, instead of only for three years; the Superior opposed +the innovation, but finding them resolute, he at length gave way, and +commenced the new system by a formal dedication of himself, expressed in +the following remarkable words:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, prostrate in +deepest reverence before Thine infinite and adorable +Majesty, I consecrate myself wholly to Thee, to seek Thy +glory in all ways possible to me, or to which Thou shalt +call me. And to this end I, Jean Baptiste de la Salle, +Priest, promise and vow to unite myself to, and abide in +society with, the Brothers [here follow twelve names], and +in union and association with them to hold free schools in +any place whatsoever (even though, in order to do so, I +should have to beg for alms, and live on dry bread), or to +do in the said Society any work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> which may be appointed for +me, whether by the Community or by the Superior who shall +have the direction of it. For which reason I promise and vow +obedience as well to the Society itself as to the Superior +of it. And these vows of association with, and steadfastness +in, the said Community, and of obedience, I promise to keep +inviolable during my whole life; in witness whereof I have +signed. Done at Vaugirard, this sixth day of June, being the +Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, in the year 1694.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'(Signed) <span class="smcap">De la Salle</span>.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Having taken this step, De la Salle made a great effort to divest +himself of his post as Superior, but in vain. He argued, but the +Brothers were not convinced. He insisted upon an election, and every +single vote was given for him. He begged for a second voting, but the +result was the same. The Brothers said it would be time enough for them +to elect his successor, when death had deprived them of him. So in his +post of Superior he remained; and doubtless the Brothers were right, and +he was wrong, as to the point in dispute between them.</p> + +<p>Let us now look for a moment at the rule of the Christian Brothers in +the complete form which it ultimately assumed.</p> + +<p>The first article sets forth the purpose of the Society as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Institute of the Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes is a +Society, the profession of whose members is to hold schools +gratuitously. The object of this Institute is to give a +Christian education to children, and it is for this purpose +that schools are held, in order that the masters, who have +charge of the children from morning to night, may bring them +up to lead good lives, by instructing them in the mysteries +of our Holy Religion and filling their minds with Christian +maxims, while they give them such an education as is fitting +for them.'</p></div> + +<p>Thus the schools were to be free, and they were to be essentially and +fundamentally Christian; but there was no intention of making them +exclusively religious and banishing secular studies. On the other hand, +the greater part of the time given to the children was devoted, as in +reason it must be, to secular teaching; and only a small portion +retained for teaching of a more solemn kind. No doubt De la Salle +depended for the religious results of schooling more upon the men who +taught and the general atmosphere of his schools, than upon amount of +religious lessons actually taught and learnt: this is indicated by the +following article of the Rule:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Brothers of the Society will have a very deep reverence +for the Holy Scriptures, and in token of it they will always +carry about them a copy of the New Testament, and will pass +no day without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> reading a portion of it, in faith, respect, +and veneration for the Divine Words which it contains. They +will look upon it as their prime and principal Rule.'</p></div> + +<p>Again:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The spirit of the Institute consists in a burning zeal for +the instruction of children, that they may be brought up in +the fear and love of God, and led to preserve their +innocence, where they have not already lost it; to keep them +from sin, and to instil into their minds a great horror of +evil, and of everything that might rob them of purity.'</p></div> + +<p>The great purpose of De la Salle was to form men suitable for the work +of education as thus conceived; and one notable feature of his scheme +was that they should be laymen; even with regard to the Superior of the +Society, De la Salle, though himself a Priest, bound the Brethren down +to a pledge that they would not, when he was gone, elect a Priest into +his room. It is needless to say that he had no prejudice against the +priestly office as such; but he was genuinely persuaded that the work +which he wished to have done could best be performed by laymen; partly +because they could give themselves up to it more completely, partly +because they could be had more cheaply, and partly because poor men such +as he enlisted, and intended to enlist, were more thoroughly on a level +with the poor, whose children he desired to educate. It was in the same +spirit that he forbade to the Brothers the knowledge of Latin.</p> + +<p>There are five vows in the Society. Brothers who have not attained the +age of twenty-five years can take them for only three years. No one may +take them even for three years, until he has been at least two years in +the Society, and has had one year's experience of the Noviciate, and one +year's teaching in the schools. The vows are as follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">1. Poverty.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">2. Chastity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">3. Obedience.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">4. Steadfastness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">5. Giving gratuitous instruction to children.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>By this last vow they also bind themselves to take all possible pains to +teach them well and to bring them up Christianly; and they promise +neither to ask nor to accept, from the scholars, or from their parents, +anything, be it what it may, either as a gift, or in any other form of +remuneration whatsoever.</p> + +<p>The rule of daily life is given by the following table:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>4.30 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> Hour of rising.</p> + +<p>5. Prayer and meditation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p> + +<p>6. Attend Mass, reading, &c.</p> + +<p>7.15. Breakfast; prayer and preparation for school.</p> + +<p>8 till 11. School, and children taken to Church.</p> + +<p>11.30. Particular examination of conscience; dinner and +recreation.</p> + +<p>1 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> Prayer in oratory, and depart to various schools.</p> + +<p>1.30 till 5. School; half an-hour given to catechism.</p> + +<p>5.30. Spiritual reading and mental prayer. The reading +begins with a portion of the New Testament, read upon the +knees.</p> + +<p>6. Mental prayer, and confession of faults one to another.</p> + +<p>6.30. Supper; reading at all meals; recreation.</p> + +<p>8. Study of catechism.</p> + +<p>8.30. Prayers in oratory.</p> + +<p>9. Retire to dormitory; in bed by 9.15.</p></div> + +<p>So much for the Rule of the Christian Brothers. It is sufficiently +strict; but, as before remarked, not intensified by any special +austerities. The general order prescribed is, however, strengthened by +injunctions against unnecessary communications with persons outside the +Brotherhood, unnecessary possessions, unnecessary exercise of the will: +the devotion to the rule is absolute, the poverty complete, the +submission of the will unbounded. Very wonderful all this, but quite +true.</p> + +<p>In connection with the rule, it may be well to say a few words +concerning the manuals which De la Salle composed for the guidance of +the Brothers. The principal was a book entitled, 'Conduite à l'usage des +Écoles Chrétiennes;' this was circulated in manuscript, and a copy given +to each Brother in charge of a school, but was not printed during the +author's lifetime. He revised it in 1717, when he had retired from his +post as Superior, and it was printed in 1720, a year after his death. It +has been the guide of the Brothers ever since, and is read through twice +a year in every one of their houses. The book shows great insight and +good sense. Here is an instruction for a lesson in arithemetic:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'After the children have done their sums on the paper, +instead of correcting them himself the master will make the +children find out their mistakes for themselves, by rational +explanation of the processes. He will ask them, for +instance, why in addition of money they begin with the +lowest coin, and other questions of the same sort, so as to +make sure that they have an intelligent understanding of +what they do.'</p></div> + +<p>When the subject is religious teaching, the tone of the book rises to +the occasion:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The masters will take such great care in the instruction of +all their scholars, that not one shall be left in ignorance, +at least of the things which a Christian ought to believe +and do. And to the end they may not neglect a thing of such +great importance, they will often meditate earnestly on the +account which they will have to give to God, and that they +will be guilty in his sight of the ignorance of the children +who shall have been under their care, and also of the sins +into which their ignorance may have caused them to fall.'</p></div> + +<p>The faults which De la Salle regards as worthy of being treated with +most severity are these: untruthfulness, quarrelling, theft, impurity, +misbehaviour in church. It is notable that idleness and inattention to +lessons, sauciness, and other boyish faults, which have brought much +trouble upon many thousands of urchins, are not here enumerated at all; +probably the wise Superior of the Christian Brothers thought that these +and the like infirmities could be more successfully treated by other +means than by severe punishment. We incline to believe that he was +right. Certainly we shall have no difficulty in assenting to the wisdom +of the rules laid down as to the conditions of punishment being useful: +it must be (1) disinterested, that is, free from all feeling of revenge; +(2) charitable, that is, inflicted from a real love to the child; (3) +just; (4) proportioned to the fault; (5) moderate; (6) free from anger; +(7) prudent; (8) voluntary on the part of the scholar, that is, +understood and accepted by him; (9) received with respectful submission; +(10) in silence on both sides.</p> + +<p>These samples must suffice to indicate M. de la Salle's practical and +simple wisdom.</p> + +<p>The thought of all that we wish to say before concluding this article +compels us once more to appeal to the reader's imagination with regard +to the success of De la Salle's work. His fame went through France and +beyond it; he became the recognized apostle of elementary education; +when he made an expedition to Calais and the north in the latter part of +his career, it was almost a triumphal progress; nothing, however, could +spoil the sweet simplicity of his character, or interfere with his utter +devotion to his work, and his humble desire to shift the burden upon +what he believed to be stronger shoulders than his own. This desire was +at length accomplished, and on the 8th of May, 1717, after much earnest +consideration and religious observance, a second Superior of their +Society was unanimously elected by the Christian Brothers.</p> + +<p>And now this remarkable man had nothing more to do in this world but to +await his call and to depart in peace. At the earnest entreaty of the +Brethren he took up his abode with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> them in their house at Rouen; and +there, in the midst of increasing infirmities, and in the exercise (so +far as was possible) of his priestly office, he tarried the Lord's +leisure. We give the closing scene in the words of the interesting +volume, the title of which heads this article, and from which we have +been drawing the materials of our sketch.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Festival of St. Joseph, March 19, was approaching. He +had always had a special veneration for that great Saint, +whom he had chosen for patron of his Society, and he had a +great wish to celebrate once more on that Festival. He could +hardly have hoped to do so, for he had now for some time +been quite unable to leave his bed; but in the evening of +the 18th, about ten o'clock, his pain was unexpectedly +relieved, and he was conscious of some return of strength. +The night was quiet, and on the morning of the Festival he +was able to crawl to the Altar, and to celebrate the Holy +Mysteries in the presence of all the Brothers, who could +scarcely believe their eyes. All that day he continued +better, was able to converse with the Brothers, listened for +the last time to their confidential talk, and gave them some +last counsels. But the pain came on again, and he was +obliged to go to bed.</p> + +<p>'The Curé of the parish, hearing that he was worse, hastened +to visit him, and thinking from the bright cheerfulness of +his face that the dying man was not aware of his own +condition, said to him, "Do you know that you are dying, and +must soon appear before the presence of God?" "I know it," +was the answer, "and I wait His commands; my lot is in His +hands, His will be done." In truth, his soul dwelt +continually in unbroken communion with God, and he only +waited with longing for the moment when the last ties that +bound him to earth should be severed. Several days passed +thus. Feeling that he was getting worse, he asked for the +Viaticum, and it was arranged that he should receive it on +the following day, which was Wednesday in Holy Week. He +spent the whole night in preparation, and his little cell +was decorated as well as the poverty of the house allowed. +When the time came, he insisted on being taken out of bed, +and dressed, and placed in a chair, vested in a surplice and +stole. At the sound of the bell announcing the approach of +the Priest, he threw himself on his knees, and received his +last Communion with the same wonderful devotion which had +often formerly struck those who assisted at his Mass, only +with even more of the fire of love in his face. It was the +last gleam of a dying light, which was being extinguished on +earth, to shine with undiminished brightness "as the stars +for ever and ever."</p> + +<p>'The next day he received Extreme Unction. His mind was +still quite clear, and the Superior asked him to give his +blessing to the Brothers who were kneeling round him, as +well as to all the rest of the Community. He raised his eyes +to heaven, stretched out his hands, and said, "The Lord +bless you all."</p> + +<p>'Later in the day he became unconscious, and the prayers for +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> dying were said; but again he revived. About midnight +the death agony came on: it was the night of the Agony in +Gethsemane. It lasted till after two: then there was another +interval of comparative ease, and he was able to speak. The +Superior asked him whether he accepted willingly all his +sufferings. "Yes," he replied, "I adore in all things the +dealings of God with me." These were his last words; at +three o'clock the agony returned, but only for a short hour. +At four o'clock in the morning of Good Friday, the 7th of +April, 1719, he fell asleep.</p> + +<p>'As soon as the news of his death was spread abroad, the +house was beset by crowds desiring to see him. All revered +him as a Saint, and wanted to look once more on the +venerable face, and to carry away something in remembrance +of him. He had nothing belonging to him but a Crucifix, a +New Testament, and a copy of the Imitation; but his poor +garments were cut up, and distributed in little bits to +satisfy the people.'</p></div> + +<p>The Christian Brothers since the death of their great founder have +steadily continued their charitable self-denying work. They have +received much encouragement from high authorities in Church and State, +much also from the good opinion which their work has gained for them +wherever it has been known. Their history, however, records reverses: +the chief of them connected with the catastrophe of the great +Revolution. With regard to this, it might have been expected on general +grounds, that in a social upheaval, which was essentially a rising of +the poor and oppressed against the rich and the privileged, a society +which had poverty as its foundation principle, and the free education of +the children of the poor as its only reason of existence, must have been +spared by general consent in the midst of the social ruin by which so +much was overwhelmed. At first it seemed that this might have been so; +when the Religious Orders were suppressed by decree of the National +Assembly in 1790, exception was made in favour of those engaged in +public instruction and the care of the sick; but in 1792 all +corporations, specially including the Christian Brothers, were +abolished, on the ground that their existence was incompatible with the +conditions of a really free State. During the Reign of Terror the +Institute was broken up, the Brothers scattered, and many suffered. +There was a revival under Napoleon, which lasted till the Revolution of +1830. At this time the Institute was shaken, as was almost everything +else in France; but the recognized merits of the Christian Brothers +carried them safely through the storm, and one of the most telling and +triumphant facts in their history is the confidence reposed in them by +M. Guizot, when Minister of Public instruction under Louis Philippe. +More than once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> M. Guizot endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade the +Superior to accept the Cross of the Legion of Honour.</p> + +<p>The work of the Christian Brothers in France at the present time is of +special value; but also carried on under much chilling discouragement. A +systematic attempt is being made to secularize education, and to drive +every indication of religious faith from the primary schools. It remains +to be seen what will be the result of the fanatical opposition to all +that is dear to the minds of many French men and almost all French +women, which is carried on so persistently by the Legislature and the +Government. Already there are signs of reaction; the result of the late +elections, which has substantially changed the proportion of parties in +the representative Chamber, is probably not a little connected with the +enforcement of an utterly godless education.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Meanwhile it would seem, +as a matter of fact, that the number of children under the teaching of +the Christian Brothers has increased instead of diminishing: there are +still some French people left who have not bowed the knee to Secularism, +and Materialism, and Atheism: even those who tremble at Priestcraft can +accept the ministration of the Christian Brothers, who cannot (as we +have seen) be Priests, according to their fundamental rule: and so, +although the secularist flood is just now frightfully high, there is a +gleam of hope to be found in the work of the Christian Schools, and the +light which shines in them and from them may serve as a witness for God +till the tyranny be overpast, and then may perhaps serve as a light at +which the torch of religious teaching will be lighted again once more.</p> + +<p>We have placed at the head of this article the title of one of the +manuals in use in the primary schools of France. It is worth studying in +connection with the work of the Christian Brothers, and on other grounds +as well. The entire absence of all reference to God or to any kind of +religious knowledge or religious principle in connection with duty is +startling, and gives the book a complexion somewhat strange to an +English mind; and there are portions which can scarcely fail to strike<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> +an Englishman as droll; but is full of French ingenuity. It contains a +vast amount of compressed information, and the dry instruction of the +text is enforced, or rather sweetened and made palatable, by a series of +stories in the form of a running commentary or collection of foot-notes, +in which the heroes of the stories illustrate the lessons which the +scholars have to learn.</p> + +<p>We take two or three specimens from the manual, which we will present in +a free translation:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Our Duties Towards Ourselves</span></p> + +<p>'As you grow older, you become more serious. Consider what +your duties are.</p> + +<p>'You have duties towards yourselves, that is, towards your +bodies and towards your souls.</p> + +<p>'Sound health must be taken care of; weak health must be +strengthened by a good hygiene.</p> + +<p>'Hygiene demands cleanliness; wash your whole body carefully +and frequently.</p> + +<p>'Keep nothing dirty upon you, nor in your house, nor near +your house.</p> + +<p>'Hygiene demands good air: air your bed, your chamber, and +all places in which you live and work.</p> + +<p>'Hygiene forbids all excess, and the use of injurious +things, as alcohol and tobacco. It prescribes temperance and +sobriety.</p> + +<p>'Hygiene requires you to avoid a sudden change from heat to +cold. When you are in a perspiration, do not lie down upon +the ground, do not expose yourself to draughts, and do not +drink cold water.</p> + +<p>'Hygiene requires gymnastic exercises, which make the body +supple, healthy, and strong.</p> + +<p>'<i>Attention to health gives a chance of long life.</i></p> + +<p>'In order to fulfil your duties towards your soul, you must +continue to cultivate your intelligence and to educate +yourself.</p> + +<p>'Do not forget that you can educate yourself at any age.</p> + +<p>'You must fight against sensuality, which would make you +gluttons, drunkards, and debauchees; against idleness, which +would make you useless to others and a burden to them; +against selfishness and vanity, which would make others +detest you; envy, which would render you unhappy and +hateful; anger and hatred, which might lead you to all kinds +of evil deeds.'</p></div> + +<p>These lessons are enforced by an extract from the French Law, which +informs scholar that the persons found in a condition of manifest +intoxication in the street or a public-house are punished by a fine of +from 1 to 15 francs; that for a second offence the punishment is +imprisonment for three days; and that for a third breach of the law the +offender may be sentenced to imprisonment for from six days to a month, +and to a fine of from 16 to 300 francs. In addition to this, the +offenders will be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> declared incapable of exercising their political +rights for two years.</p> + +<p>This is a very practical teaching; but the duties which little boys owe +to their bodies and souls are rendered more attractive, than either the +dicta concerning hygiene or the threatened results of evil ways are +likely to make them, by the history of a certain Dr. John Burnett, a +physician, who made an immense fortune in New York. This is found as a +<i>feuilleton</i> at the foot of the page, under the title 'Un Bon +Charlatan.'</p> + +<p>The pith of the teaching under the head of Morals, is contained in the +following summary:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'1. I will fulfil my duties towards myself. My duties +towards my body are, cleanliness, sobriety, temperance, +precaution against the inclemency of the seasons, exercise.</p> + +<p>'2. I will fulfil my duties towards my soul by continuing to +educate myself, and by combating all bad passions.</p> + +<p>'3. I will not do to another that which I would not that he +should do to me.</p> + +<p>'4. I will not do him wrong, either by striking him, or +robbing him, or deceiving him, or lying to him, or by +breaking my promise, or by speaking evil of him, or by +calumniating him.</p> + +<p>'5. I will do to another that which I should wish him to do +to me.</p> + +<p>'6. I will love him, I will be grateful, exact, discreet, +charitable.'</p></div> + +<p>Very good resolutions these, but one cannot avoid the thought that the +little scholar might estimate 3 and 5 not the less, perhaps the more, if +informed of the life and character of Him who first spoke these apparent +simple rules in such a manner as to impress them upon the heart of the +world. Would not all the resolutions gain strength from the belief that +duty towards God is the true spring of duty towards our neighbours and +ourselves, and that the grace of God is necessary to make the best +resolutions practically operative in the life?</p> + +<p>We will now give our readers a specimen of the tales by which the +lessons of the manual are illustrated and enforced. It shall be taken +from the section entitled <i>Society</i>, the second subsection of which is +as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'<span class="smcap">Freedom of Labour</span>.</p> + +<p>'In France; labour is free; every one employs, as he +pleases, his intelligence and his arms.</p> + +<p>'You may choose any profession you please; but everybody +else has the same right as yourself.</p> + +<p>'Competition is therefore permitted; never complain of +competition.</p> + +<p>'If you hinder your neighbour from working as he pleases, +you may yourself be hindered in like manner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p> + +<p>'Competition excites the workman to do his best and at the +cheapest rate.</p> + +<p>'Thus competition is advantageous to all. <i>Never ask Society +to interfere with the freedom of labour, but work hard +yourself.</i>'</p></div> + +<p>These wholesome lessons on competition are illustrated by the following +tale:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Gregory's Views on Competition</span>.</p> + +<p>'Our friend Gregory is a good husband; but he sometimes has +little arguments with his wife.</p> + +<p>'The other day, Mrs. Gregory was angry, because she had +found out that a shoemaker was going to establish himself in +the village. "What do we want another shoemaker for," said +she "when you and I are here already? The Government ought +to prevent such things."</p> + +<p>'Gregory, who was at his work, lifted his head and said: +"The Government ought to prevent women from talking +nonsense. Suppose that I was the shoemaker who had just +established himself in the village; what would you say if +any one interfered with my carrying on my trade? You would +not be very well pleased, I fancy."</p> + +<p>'He then explained to his wife the necessity of competition.</p> + +<p>'"There is plenty of work for everybody," said he. "If there +had been already two or three shoemakers in the place, this +new fellow would not have come to settle here. He would have +seen that there was nothing for him to do. I am surprised +that no competing shoemaker has come here before. You know +very well that we have sometimes to refuse work, and that +there are people in the village who have to go to the town +to get their shoes. Beyond doubt the newcomer will take some +of our custom; but it is our business to look after that. We +must work better than we have done hitherto; and that's all +about it."</p> + +<p>'Mrs. Gregory was not convinced, but she said nothing.</p> + +<p>'"You see," continued Gregory, "you must look a little +beyond the end of your nose. You wish that there should be +only one shoemaker in the place. The linendraper wishes that +there should be only one linendraper; the grocer only one +grocer; and so on through all the trades. Very well; don't +you remember when we had only one linendraper how dear +shirts used to be? And don't you remember some twenty years +ago, when there was only one smith? You could never get hold +of him; and when you did, his charges were tremendous. I +recollect him putting a bell to our front door. When he gave +me the bill, and I had seen the amount, I said to him, 'my +good fellow, I didn't order a silver bell.' 'And I have not +put up a silver bell,' was the reply. 'Oh! I thought from +the price it must have been silver,' said I. This vexed him, +and he answered, 'If you are not satisfied, go elsewhere.' +That was well enough; he was the only smith in the +neighbourhood. I could not send for a man from Pekin: he +would have been sure to be lost on the road, and I should +have been obliged to provide for his family."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p> + +<p>'Gregory made some other good remarks to show that if +competition prevents a shopkeeper from selling his goods at +a high price, it enables him to buy from others at a cheap +rate. "So on the whole," concluded he, "do not let us fuss +and make ourselves ill. I would much rather have some +coffee, than be compelled to take medicine."'</p></div> + +<p>Gregory must have had some of the saintly qualities of his great +namesakes to enable him to take so calm a view of the invasion of his +shoemaking monopoly. We trust that Mrs. Gregory was eventually convinced +by his wise and philosophical arguments, and still more, that the +generation of Frenchmen who enjoy such teaching from their early years +may emulate so bright an example.</p> + +<p>We cannot refrain from making one more extract from our little manual. +The thirteenth section deals with 'The Rights and Duties of the Citizen' +and the third subsection treats as follows of:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'<span class="smcap">Political Duties</span>.</p> + +<p>'The French people ought more than any other people, to +respect the law made by its own deputies.</p> + +<p>'It ought without murmuring to pay the taxes voted by the +Chambers, and to fulfil its military duties.</p> + +<p>'It ought to respect the authority of all the agents of the +Government, from the lowest to the highest, from the <i>garde +champêtre</i> to the Ministers and the President of the +Republic, for the agents of authority are the servants of +the law, and all are chosen directly or indirectly, by the +deputies of the people.</p> + +<p>'<i>The greater the rights of citizens, the greater their +duties.</i></p> + +<p>'It used to be said, <i>Noblesse oblige</i>. This meant: a +nobleman ought to behave himself better than another, to be +worthy of his nobility.</p> + +<p>'It should now be said, <i>Liberté oblige</i>. This means that a +free citizen ought to behave himself better than another, in +order to be worthy of liberty.</p> + +<p>'You have the duty of putting your name upon the electoral +roll at the Mairie of the Commune in which you reside.</p> + +<p>'You have the duty of voting, and you must vote according to +your conscience.</p> + +<p>'You have not the right of being indifferent to public +affairs, and of saying that they do not concern you.</p> + +<p>'You have an interest in securing to your Commune good +Municipal Councillors, who will look well after the +finances, will take care of the schools, and of the roads, +and attend to all wants.</p> + +<p>'You have an interest in securing to your Department good +General Councillors, who will do for the Department what the +Municipal Councillors do for the Commune.</p> + +<p>'You have an interest in nominating good Deputies and good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +Senators, who may make useful and just laws, choose a +President of the Republic worthy of that supreme honour, and +keep the Government in good ways.</p> + +<p>'You ought to make a good choice, not merely for your own +interest, but for the love of your country.</p> + +<p>'<i>Love those republican institutions which France has +provided for herself.</i></p> + +<p>'Endeavour to make them loved, respecting the while your +neighbour's opinions, and restraining yourself from all +hatred and from all violence.</p> + +<p>'The future of the Republic depends upon each of you. If +each of you does his duty, it will be strong: strong enough +to make our lives happy, and to restore to us one day the +brothers whom we have lost—the <span class="smcap">Brothers of Alsace and +Lorraine</span>.'</p></div> + +<p>This is the conclusion of the manual. All works up to <span class="smcap">Alsace and +Lorraine</span>. (The capital letters are in the original.) Is it not +delightful? Is it not most truly French?</p> + +<p>We should be sorry to see a parody or parallel to this French manual +introduced into our schools. At the same time we think there is +something to be learnt from studying it. Our neighbours seem to have in +some respect learnt better than ourselves the maxim of Horace:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i11">'pueris dant crustula blandi<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The pages of our manual are full of literary <i>crustula</i>; and we imagine +that most boys would find themselves sufficiently amused to read and +study the book, whether they were desirous of profiting by the contents +or not. And after all it is a great thing to <i>get hold</i> of a boy, +whether it be by the loving and evidently self-sacrificing efforts of +the Christian Brothers, or by the ingenious mental food provided by the +Minister of Public Instruction. Notwithstanding such ingenuity, we do +not, however, believe that the present system of French teaching can +answer: it is hollow and unsound: it ignores the deepest of motives, and +disregards the most potent of influences: it may breed a desire to fight +with Germany for the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine, but it can +scarcely produce the highest class of citizens and heroes, because it +does not acknowledge the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom, and the +love of God as the best foundation of the love of man. The principles of +duty inculcated in the manual from which we have been exhibiting a few +elegant extracts will never rear such a character as De la Salle, nor +supply the foundation of such an institution as that of the Christian +Brothers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p> + +<p>But we must come nearer home—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We have not yet arrived in England at the complete secularization of our +elementary schools; but we are, in the opinion of some and in the wish +of others, within measurable distance of the Paradisiacal terminus of +secularism and secular reform; and therefore, with the thought of what +has been going on and is still going on in France, we may do well to +look for a few moments to our own country, and examine what has been +going on and is going on there.</p> + +<p>Let us beware, however, of exaggeration or alarmism. We do not at all +desire to imply that there is anything approaching to parallelism in the +conditions and possibilities of the two countries. Had it been proposed +to do in England what has been done in France, the opposition would have +been indignant and overwhelming. There is no such desire for +emancipation from Priests and Priestcraft in England as has long existed +and still exists in France. To be sure we hear something on this side of +the Channel of sacerdotal pretensions and unwarrantable clerical claims; +but the men by whom the offence comes are few in number, and, at the +worst, they and their conduct are but as a drop in the great bucket of +the English Church and its influence upon the nation. In France matters +are painfully different. While the women are largely <i>dévotes</i>, the men +are very sparingly <i>dévots</i>. Unfortunately the admission of +superstitious practices, the practical hiding of Holy Scripture, the +adoption under the patronage of the Church of foolish tales of miracles, +and the absence of effectual protest against the unwarrantable +assumptions of the Vatican, have combined to offer to the intellect of +France an unnecessary obstacle, which in too many instances causes +shipwreck to faith; and so, while in England the men, who make the laws, +are, speaking broadly, Christian believers, in France the men, who +equally make the laws, are as broadly unbelievers. This difference is +not likely to disappear. France has reached a point at which the disease +of unbelief may be said to have become chronic; England, on the other +hand, although there have been of late, and are still, symptoms of +infidel proclivities, appears nevertheless, so far as her condition can +be tested to be sound at heart, and in some respects in a more healthy +state of religious conviction and activity than has been manifested +hitherto.</p> + +<p>The question of the comparative conditions of France and England is one +with which we have no desire to enter at length; and indeed a native of +one of the countries is very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> unlikely to be in a condition to take a +quite just and fair view of the other. We only desire to guard ourselves +from appearing to assume the probability of the secularization of our +English schools on the ground of the step having been already taken in +France. And having premised this caution, we will ask our readers to +accompany us in the consideration of some details, suggested by the +Report of the National Society, and by that of the Committee of the +Privy Council on Education. Afterwards we will submit a few general +reflections, and so close our article.</p> + +<p>It was feared by some and hoped by others fifteen years ago, when the +law of compulsory education and School Boards was enacted in this +country, that Voluntary Schools would undergo what was described at the +time as a 'process of painless extinction,' and that Board Schools would +reign supreme. These fears and hopes have been curiously falsified; the +Voluntary Schools have not been extinguished either painlessly or +otherwise; on the other hand, they have increased, both in work done and +in support given, to an extent which could never have been anticipated. +It will be observed that the question is not purely and simply between +Board and Voluntary Schools; it may be so in some parishes, where with +unanimity on the part of the parishioners, one Parish School can be made +to supply the wants of all; but generally the question is that of +supporting Voluntary Schools and paying towards Board Schools as well; +the support of one does not exclude the legal claim of the other, as it +has been frequently argued that it ought in equity to do; consequently +Voluntary Schools are heavily handicapped, and nothing but a deep sense +of the advantage of freedom in religious teaching, and an utter dread of +secularism, can account for the remarkable results exhibited by the +progress of Voluntary Schools under such manifest difficulties.</p> + +<p>The following Tables are so exceedingly instructive, that we make no +apology for introducing them:—</p> + +<h4><i>Accommodation.</i></h4> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Day Schools, Year ended August 31</td><td align='center'>1882.</td><td align='center'>1883.</td><td align='center'>1884.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Church</td><td align='right'>2,385,374</td><td align='right'>2,413,676</td><td align='right'>2,454,788</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>British, &c.</td><td align='right'>384,060</td><td align='right'>386,839</td><td align='right'>394,009</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wesleyan</td><td align='right'>200,909</td><td align='right'>200,564</td><td align='right'>203,253</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Roman Catholic</td><td align='right'>269,231</td><td align='right'>272,760</td><td align='right'>284,514</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Board</td><td align='right'>1,298,746</td><td align='right'>1,396,604</td><td align='right'>1,490,174</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>4,538,320</td><td align='right'>4,670,443</td><td align='right'>4,826,738</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p> + +<h4><i>Number on the Registers.</i></h4> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Day Schools, Year ended August 31.</td><td align='center'>1882.</td><td align='center'>1883.</td><td align='center'>1884.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Church</td><td align='right'>2,133,978</td><td align='right'>2,134,719</td><td align='right'>2,121,728</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>British, &c.</td><td align='right'>339,812</td><td align='right'>337,531</td><td align='right'>333,510</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wesleyan</td><td align='right'>177,840</td><td align='right'>175,826</td><td align='right'>172,284</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Roman Catholic</td><td align='right'>232,620</td><td align='right'>226,567</td><td align='right'>226,082</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Board</td><td align='right'>1,305,362</td><td align='right'>1,398,661</td><td align='right'>1,483,717</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>4,189,612</td><td align='right'>4,273,304</td><td align='right'>4,337,321</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<h4><i>Average Attendance.</i></h4> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Day Schools, Year ended August 31.</td><td align='center'>1882.</td><td align='center'>1883.</td><td align='center'>1884.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Church</td><td align='right'>1,538,408</td><td align='right'>1,562,507</td><td align='right'>1,607,823</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>British, &c.</td><td align='right'>245,493</td><td align='right'>247,990</td><td align='right'>253,044</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wesleyan</td><td align='right'>125,109</td><td align='right'>125,503</td><td align='right'>128,584</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Roman Catholic</td><td align='right'>160,910</td><td align='right'>162,310</td><td align='right'>167,841</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Board</td><td align='right'>945,231</td><td align='right'>1,028,904</td><td align='right'>1,115,832</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>3,015,151</td><td align='right'>3,127,214</td><td align='right'>3,273,124</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<h4><i>Voluntary Contributions.</i></h4> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Day Schools, Year ended August 31.</td><td align='center'>1882.</td><td align='center'>1883.</td><td align='center'>1884.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>£. <i>s.</i> d.</td><td align='right'>£. <i>s.</i> d.</td><td align='right'>£. <i>s.</i> d.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Church</td><td align='right'>581,179 5 3</td><td align='left'>577,313 16 5</td><td align='right'>585,071 11 10</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>British, &c.</td><td align='right'>75,132 11 8</td><td align='right'>71,519 2 9</td><td align='right'>72,978 10 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wesleyan</td><td align='right'>15,705 2 2</td><td align='right'>15,271 14 1</td><td align='right'>16,802 2 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Roman Catholic</td><td align='right'>51,283 11 7</td><td align='right'>51,564 15 2</td><td align='right'>57,672 1 2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Board</td><td align='right'>1,545 2 2</td><td align='right'>1,420 1 3</td><td align='right'>1,603 7 10</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>724,845 12 10</td><td align='right'>717,089 9 8</td><td align='right'>734,127 12 10</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>From these Tables it appears that in spite of the surrender of some +Church Schools to Boards, a process which is always to some extent going +on, and which causes an increase in the number of Board Schools beyond +that produced by actual building, the accommodation in Church Schools +rose in 1884 by 41,112, and the average attendance by 45,316. The Church +was also educating about half as many again as were being educated in +Board Schools, and the amount voluntarily contributed during the year +was more than 585,000<i>l.</i>, in addition to a large sum expended on +buildings and improvements.</p> + +<p>This does not look much like speedy extinction, and we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> sincerely trust +that that event is still far distant. It is not so much that we are +opposed to Board schools on principle, still less that we disapprove of +the national determination that every child shall be educated, which +logically leads to some national machinery involving the principle of +Board Schools in some form or other,—not so much this, as that we are +persuaded that the existence of Voluntary Schools is an unspeakable +benefit even to the Board Schools themselves. We hold that a definite +system of religious teaching, according to which the religious studies +of the school and the secular are co-ordinate and equally regarded, and +the religious atmosphere which such consideration implies, are of the +very essence of a rightly ordered school; the ideal may be reached in a +Voluntary School, it is impossible that it should be reached in a Board +School; nevertheless, there may be Board schools <i>and</i> Board Schools; in +some there may be simple secularism, and in others there may be a good +religious spirit and fair religious teaching; and the degree in which +the average quality of Board Schools will approximate to the latter +limit rather than the former, will depend very much upon the standard +set up by the Voluntary Schools. A reference to the Report of the +Committee of Council on Education proves that Voluntary Schools are +worked more cheaply, and, so far as can be judged by the results of +examination, are secularly not less successful than schools upon the +Board system; and therefore even with reference to economy there is some +advantage in keeping the two classes of school going side by side. But +all questions of comparative economy, and of advantages arising from an +honourable competition, are as nothing compared with the reflected +influence in the direction of bringing up the average religious +character of Board Schools to the highest point which the shackles of +legislation allow.</p> + +<p>In addition to the work of voluntary elementary schools, there are two +other departments in which voluntary efforts are doing much in support +of the religious and Christian character of English Education.</p> + +<p>There are no less than thirty Training Colleges in connection with the +Church. The pupils trained in these Colleges are not in general bound by +any rule to accept posts only in Church schools; as a matter of fact, +many are drafted into Board Schools; but it is impossible to exaggerate +the importance to the subsequent influence for good, in a school of +whatever kind, of a thorough religious training in youth upon definite +religious principles. So far as an opinion can be formed, it would seem +that these Training Colleges must always rest upon a voluntary +foundation; it is difficult to conceive of their being carried on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> upon +State principles; you may make religious teaching optional in an +elementary day school, and the evil results may be not easily +perceptable; but when eighty or a hundred young men or young women are +brought together into one home, to lead a common family life with common +purposes and prospects, the religious equality principle breaks down; +you must have common religious teaching and common worship, and these +must be utterly vapid and miserable, unless there be a hearty agreement +upon the grounds and articles of faith, such as is only possible for +those who are of one Church, or at all events of one denomination. +Doubtless on this very account efforts have been made, and efforts will +be made, to break down the Church Training College system, or to erect +something on broader principles which shall gradually extinguish it; but +on all grounds we trust that these efforts may fail, and that at all +events no change may be introduced which shall be successful in +rendering impossible the carrying on of institutions, to which we are +convinced that the education of the poor children of England is indebted +more than to almost any other. We have but been working out under new +conditions the great problem which De la Salle perceived to lie at the +root of elementary education: the forming of the instrument wherewith to +do the work was, as he clearly perceived, the great thing to be +accomplished; and for that purpose personal influence was needed; it was +necessary to stir up in each young aspirant to the office of a teacher +something of the enthusiasm of teaching, to breed a high conception of +the value and responsibilities of the office, to make it felt that +self-denial and self-devotion were essential conditions of any lasting +success. English Training Colleges differ very widely from that +community which De la Salle established, and over which he presided; in +our opinion, they, at least their managers, might profit by studying his +work and emulating his spirit; but after all, they will still be widely +different, and any attempt at exact imitation amongst ourselves would +perhaps produce a parody rather than an adequate copy. Any one who can +remember the early work of Derwent Coleridge at St. Mark's, Chelsea, and +the vast change which was brought about in the training of the +schoolmaster, the estimate of his qualifications, and his general +status, by the admirable and laborious efforts of that good and able +man, will be conscious that a work has been done amongst us in these +latter days, upon which De la Salle himself would have looked with a +kindly smile of approval, though in some respects he might have +imagined, and perhaps with justice, that it was not so thorough as his +own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span></p> + +<p>The other department of voluntary action to which we proposed to refer, +is that which is known as Diocesan Inspection.</p> + +<p>This system of inspection is carried on by Clergymen, who are appointed +with the approval and in connection with the Bishops, and whose stipends +are provided by voluntary contribution. The action is not uniform +throughout the Dioceses, but there is scarcely a Diocese in which the +work is not carried on with great energy. These Inspectors visit the +schools, in some Dioceses and Board Schools as well as those in +connection with the Church; they examine the children, confer with the +masters and mistresses, give advice and encouragement as may seem to be +necessary and fitting, and make a report upon the general condition of +the school with reference to religious knowledge. In most Dioceses there +is in addition some kind of prize scheme, by means of which children are +encouraged to give special attention to the religious side of their +education.</p> + +<p>We think it worth while to call attention to this system of Diocesan +Inspection, because it is well that Englishmen, and especially English +Churchmen, should be awake to the religious needs of our times, and the +efforts which are being made to meet them. We are aware that all such +machinery as that which we have described must be ineffectual in +implanting in the minds of children that 'fear of the Lord,' which is +'the beginning of wisdom.' No system of inspection and examination, and +no careful grinding of certain lessons, whether they be taken from Holy +Scripture or from any other book, into the minds of little children, can +be a substitute for the true influence of heart upon heart; the teacher +who would generate religious life in the soul of a child must imitate +the Prophet, who put his mouth to the child's mouth, and his eyes upon +his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and prayed that the child might +awake to new life; nevertheless on the supposition that no pains are +spared in obtaining suitable masters and mistresses, much may be done to +encourage them in their difficult work by making it manifest that the +heart of England and of England's Church is with them. And indeed it +<i>is</i> a difficult work: the education of children will never be a simple +and easy thing as long as the world lasts: the value of the finished +article may generally be taken as some measure of the labour and care +necessary to produce it: and the value of a pure, simple-hearted, +well-taught Christian child is so immeasurably and indescribably great, +that we may safely conclude that the workmen and workwomen employed in +producing the result must have spent upon their work an incredible +amount of honest self-denying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> toil: a perfunctory discharge of the +office of schoolmaster,—so many hours a week, and so much pay,—will +never do: the master of the Elementary School must ever be a Christian +Brother in reality, if not in name.</p> + +<p>Passing for a moment from the religious side of the educational +question, the reader may be interested by looking at a few statistics, +indicating the general position of England, or rather England and Wales, +with reference to elementary education.</p> + +<p>In the year ending August 31, 1884, Her Majesty's Inspectors visited +18,761 day schools, having on their registers the names of 4,337,321 +children. Of these, 3,273,134 were, on an average, in daily attendance +throughout the year. The amount of income arising from school-pence, it +may be worth while noting, was 1,734,115<i>l.</i>, or nearly two millions. The +Government grants reached 2,722,351<i>l.</i>, or nearly three millions.</p> + +<p>Besides the day schools, 847 night schools were examined. In many parts +of the country these night schools were very important: they afford big +boys the only opportunity of keeping up their knowledge, or +intellectually improving themselves. Nearly twenty-five thousand +scholars over twelve years of age are, on an average, in attendance each +night.</p> + +<p>There are nearly forty thousand certificated teachers at work; and 3214 +students are being prepared in forty-one Training Colleges.</p> + +<p>The expense of education at different places varies remarkably, and +apparently without any intelligible principle. Thus the income per +scholar from voluntary contributions in Voluntary Schools, and from +rates in Board Schools, is in certain selected towns as follows:—</p> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'>Voluntary<br /> contributions.</td><td align='left'>Rates.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>£ <i>s.</i> d.</td><td align='left'>£ <i>s.</i> d.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>London</td><td align='left'>0 9 0¼</td><td align='left'>1 9 9</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Brighton</td><td align='left'>0 11 7½</td><td align='left'>0 17 7</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Birmingham</td><td align='left'>0 5 3¾</td><td align='left'>0 13 10¾</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bradford</td><td align='left'>0 2 11¾</td><td align='left'>0 13 2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sheffield</td><td align='left'>0 2 4¾</td><td align='left'>0 9 8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Manchester</td><td align='left'>0 4 7</td><td align='left'>0 10 10</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>We submit the above figures and facts to the reader's consideration, and +we are compelled to confess that we do not find ourselves in a condition +to offer a satisfactory solution of the difficulties which they suggest. +We should probably have expected that London would be in an exceptional +position with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> regard to this as to many other matters; but the +magnificent manner in which its Board contributions exceed those of any +other town quite baffles us; it will be observed that the odd shillings +and pence of London more than pay the whole expense at Sheffield. +Possibly the practical difficulty of understanding this economical +anomaly may have had something to do with the results of the late Board +election in London.</p> + +<p>On the whole, we English people seem to be solving the national +education question <i>more nostro</i>. We have got a system not quite +symmetrical, not quite logical, not the perfect exponent of the +crotchets of any particular school, but nevertheless one which has on +the whole produced remarkable results, and seems to have in it +sufficient powers of adaptation and development. Of late a new question +has been opened—and an important one—namely, that of making elementary +education entirely gratuitous. There is something to be said in favour +of the proposal, and it is a pity that the merits of the question should +have been somewhat obscured by the intolerable, but to some persons +perhaps attractive, suggestion that the additional expenditure necessary +for making education gratuitous should be supplied by the robbery of the +Church, or (in politer phrase) by the appropriation to the purposes of +education of the national property hitherto supplied to the support of +religion. This cat can scarcely be said to have been let out of the bag, +for her head was no sooner seen peeping out than the alarm created was +dangerously great, and Puss was concealed again in a twinkling; <i>but she +is inside the bag still</i>. A much less objectionable proposal was +speedily made, namely, that the deficiency created by the remission of +school-pence should be supplied by a Parliamentary grant. And this +proposal, we presume, may be regarded as at present before the country.</p> + +<p>Looking upon the matter from a Chancellor of the Exchequer point of +view, it is a serious thing to think of having to make an addition of +about two millions to the annual national expenditure; and it may be +observed that leading statesmen on both sides of politics may be found +who are at present unconvinced. Doubtless an expenditure of two millions +would not be grudged by the nation for any necessary purpose; but when +the proposal is to substitute a payment of two millions by the Exchequer +for the two millions paid in driblets by the persons most interested, +for the most part gladly and with special provisions for preventing the +payment pressing hardly upon the exceptionally poor, it may well be that +many sensible persons will ask the question, <i>Cui bono</i>?</p> + +<p>Independently, however, of any fiscal considerations, it seems<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> to us +that there are weighty arguments against the proposal of a gratuitous +education.</p> + +<p>It may be observed, and we think it an important observation, that the +proposal of free education is in the teeth of all our recent policy; and +some pressing reasons ought to be given for a complete and sudden +reversal of all that we have hitherto been doing. There are many free +schools in the country, endowed by 'pious founders,' and established for +the special purpose of giving free education to the children of +particular parishes. Some of these schools have had to pass through the +hands of the School Commissioners and to receive new schemes. It has +been, we believe, the invariable practice to insert into these new +schemes the condition of school-pence; the portion of the endowment so +saved has been applied to the foundation of exhibitions and other +methods of assisting deserving children. The inhabitants of the parishes +in which this innovation has been introduced have grumbled and +submitted; it has in some cases been a bitter pill, but the law-abiding +character of the Englishman has caused it to be swallowed without noisy +remonstrance. We cannot, without raising a suspicion of having practised +educational quackery, retreat from the position which we have thus taken +up.</p> + +<p>What is the argument for the position? It is sometimes stated thus, that +people value a thing more when it costs them something to get it. The +argument is not to be despised; but we think that it yields in +importance to the consideration, that the payment of the school fees is +almost the only indication left of the great truth, that the parent is +responsible for his children's education. We have sometimes trembled +when we have seen in Board Schools directions concerning the doings of +the children, which would seem to have had a right to come from parents, +but which do in fact come 'by order of the Board.' We have almost feared +lest in the Fifth Commandment our boys and girls of the rising +generation should be tempted to substitute 'Board' for 'father and +mother.' Certainly there is great danger in virtue of modern social +arrangements lest parents should forget their highest duties to their +children, and children cease to honour their parents in the good +old-fashioned way. We confess, therefore, that we are jealous of the +proposal to take away from the father the proud privilege of paying for +his children's schooling, even though it may sometimes cost him an +effort to do so.</p> + +<p>It may be said, of course, that every man does pay indirectly, because +he pays according to his means to the taxes of the country, and that +therefore the proposal only gives him of his own. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> argument is +defective, because it ignores the fact that whatever a man may pay +indirectly in taxes, there is a conscious effort in finding the pence +for the children's schooling, which morally is of great importance. But +the argument fails also on other grounds: it assumes that all men have +children equally; it asserts that the married man with his five children +has no more responsibility than the elderly spinster who lives next +door; it supposes that the parents have not a special interest in their +children, distinct from that which can be felt by any other person +whatever. It may be further urged, that if a man pays for his children +while they are in process of education, the pressure comes upon him when +he is in full vigour, and most able to bear it; whereas if the payment +of pence be commuted for a perpetual tax, the pressure becomes one of a +lifelong character, and is not relieved when the powers of earning begin +to diminish.</p> + +<p>We do not deny that painful cases have occurred, and are likely to still +occur, in which parents are summoned before the magistrates for the +non-attendance of children at school. But free education will not get +rid of these painful cases. Already arrangements are made by law for the +payment of fees for very poor parents who make the proper application; +and if there be any obstacle in the way of the smooth working of the +law, the matter should be looked into and the law amended; but the great +difficulty in the way of good attendance on the part of very poor +children lies, as we apprehend, not more with school-pence, than with +school-clothes, and school-dinners. Attendance cannot be enforced +completely all round, unless free education comprise in its idea free +food and clothing, as well as free books and lessons.</p> + +<p>We cannot but fear also lest the remission of school-pence should be +another step towards the destruction of Voluntary Schools. It is evident +that the proposal is so regarded; and though it may not be difficult to +find arguments to show, that if the loss from school-pence be made up +from the Exchequer, the compensation will work equally and fairly with +respect to all schools, whether Voluntary or Board, still there can be +little doubt that the additional grant will give a handle for proposing +to introduce some more direct interference with the management of +Voluntary Schools than has existed hitherto: and it is probably a true +instinct which leads many friends of Voluntary Schools to look upon the +free system with sincere apprehension. Certainly the indirect abolition +of Voluntary Schools would be a great calamity; and if the views already +expressed be correct, the abolition would leave a legacy of weakness, +and a permanent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> injury to the Board Schools, when they found themselves +'monarchs of all they survey,' and without the wholesome rivalry of +Voluntary Schools.</p> + +<p>There was no such objection to the free education offered to his poor +brethren by the hero of this article, the sainted De la Salle. He made +himself poor and bound all his disciples to a life of poverty, in order +that they might have fullest sympathy with the poor, and might teach +their children for no other payment or purpose but the love of God. The +atmosphere of a school conducted upon such principles would be so +saturated with the spirit of holiness and godly love, that there would +be no danger of duty to parents, or indeed of any duty either to God or +man, being left out of sight. It would never be forgotten in such +schools that the formation of character is the chief aim of education: +<i>manners makyth man</i>—as William of Wickham, our great English father of +liberal education, has taught us: and <i>manners</i>, taken in the broadest +and best sense, even more than the three Rs and all the extra subjects +of all the standards, is what we want in our elementary schools, and +what we shall never get, except upon the condition of a religious tone +and a pure atmosphere, and teachers whose hearts are animated by the +love of little children and by the love of God.</p> + +<p>We gladly turn once more, before laying down our pen, to the volume +which we have already introduced to the reader, and out of which we have +told the tale of De la Salle, and the Christian Brothers. We do so for +the purpose of showing what kind of men these good Brothers are, when +put to the test in a severe and unexampled manner.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'After the disasters of the Prussian invasion in 1871,' says +our author, 'the City of Boston, in America, placed at the +disposal of the French Academy a special prize of two +thousand francs to be given to whoever should be judged most +worthy of the honour, on account of services rendered during +the siege and in presence of the enemy. The Academy could +find no more fitting recipient of this distinction than the +Community, which during the whole time of the war had sent +five hundred infirmarians into the battlefields, one of whom +had fallen under the fire of the Prussians, among the +wounded at Bourget. Public opinion fully endorsed the +decision, when the first literary body in the world adjudged +this reward to the humble and despised corps of the Frères +des Écoles Chrétiennes. At the same time the National +Defence Government insisted on decorating their venerable +Superior with a cross of honour. He would have refused it, +as he and his predecessors had already done many times, and +he only yielded when he was told that there was nothing +personal in the honour; that it belonged to his Institute; +and that it was only as the representative of the Society +that he was asked to wear it. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> eminent Dr. Ricord, who +had been an eyewitness of the devotion of the Brothers, was +charged with the office of fastening the cross on the +cassock of Frère Philippe, in the great hall of the +mother-house. This was the most embarrassing moment in the +life of that man of God. He could not bear to wear the cross +of honour, and in fact he never did wear it. When he +returned after conducting the Doctor to the door at the end +of the ceremony, he somehow managed that no one should +perceive his decoration. The cross was not to be seen; and +it has remained ever since as a kind of myth, or mysterious +souvenir; it was never found.'</p></div> + +<p>Thus in France Ministers of Public Instruction and Superiors of the +Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes agree in removing the cross from +elementary schools: but how marvellous the distance between the +religious principles which lead to the two kinds of removal!</p> + +<p>And now, in these days of payment by results, let us look for one moment +to the Écoles Chrétiennes from this point of view; and then we will bid +the Brothers a respectful farewell.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'For the last forty years a certain number of exhibitions or +scholarships (bourses) have been offered by the City of +Paris for competition amongst the scholars of elementary or +primary schools, which give to the successful candidates a +right of free education in the higher class schools. The +number of scholarships which are offered varies. In 1848 +there were twenty-nine; in 1871, fifty; in 1874, eighty; and +in 1877 the number was raised to a hundred. Competition is +open to all elementary schools, whether taught by the +Christian Brothers, or by lay teachers of no religious order +or society.</p> + +<p>'The result, taking the thirty years from 1847 to 1877, has +been that of 1445 exhibitions gained by scholars, 1148 have +been won by boys from the Christian schools, and 297 by +those from other schools. Or to take the last seven years of +that period, during which every effort has been made by the +Government, at a lavish outlay, to promote the efficiency of +the secular schools, the results, though the numbers are not +quite so disproportioned, yet show a marked superiority in +the schools of the Christian Brothers. Out of 490 +exhibitions, 364 have been adjudged to their pupils, and 126 +to those of the secular schools.'</p></div> + +<p>Well done, Christian Brothers! You have preached an admirable sermon to +all those who take an interest in the education of children upon those +comprehensive and deep-reaching words of Christ, 'Take no thought, +saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal +shall we be clothed?... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His +righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> 'The policy of the late Chamber with regard to religion, +education, and the army had very much greater weight with the +electors.... The persistent threat held out by certain Republicans to +destroy the Church, either by a hypocritical fulfillment of the +Concordat or by the forcible separation of Church and State, has been +skilfully used by their adversaries amongst the peasantry, who dread +nothing so much as having to pay their curé themselves. The Government +was so well aware of this fact, that in some of the departments the +Catechism was ordered to be recited in the schools during the last week +before the elections, though only two months earlier the teachers had +been strictly forbidden to use it. This childish stratagem had, as might +have been expected, no great success.'—Gabriel Monod, in 'Contemporary +Review,' of December, 1885.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Art_III_The_State_Papers_of_the_Venetian_Republic_namely" id="Art_III_The_State_Papers_of_the_Venetian_Republic_namely"></a>Art. III.—<i>The State Papers of the Venetian Republic</i>; namely, +<i>Cancelleria Inferiore, Cancelleria Ducale, Cancelleria Secreta,</i> +preserved in the Convent of the Frari, at Venice.</h2> + + +<p>In recent years a new tendency has been given to historical studies by +the avidity with which scholars have investigated the masses of State +documents accumulated through centuries, almost untouched, in the Record +Offices of various nations. This tendency has been in the direction of +minuteness and accuracy of detail. The finer shades of policy, the +subtler turns in the game of nations, have been revealed by this +intimate study of the documents which record them. Among the archives of +Europe there is none superior, in historical value and richness of +minutiæ, to the Archives of the Venetian Republic, preserved now in the +convent of the Frari at Venice. The importance of these archives is due +to three causes: the position of the Republic in the history of Europe, +the fullness of the archives themselves, and the remarkable preservation +and order which distinguishes them, in spite of the many dangers and +vicissitudes through which they have passed. Venice enjoyed a position, +unique among the States of Europe, for two reasons. Until the discovery +of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, she was the mart of Europe +in all commercial dealings with the East—a position secured to her by +her supremacy in the Levant, and by the strength of her fleet; and, in +the second place, the Republic was the bulwark of Europe against the +Turk. These are the two dominant features of Venice in general history; +and under both aspects she came into perpetual contact with every +European Power. The universal importance of her position is faithfully +reflected in the diplomatic documents contained in her archives. The +Republic maintained ambassadors and residents at every Court. These men +were among the most subtle and accomplished diplomatists of their time, +and the government they served was exacting and critical to the highest +degree. The result is that the dispatches, newsletters and reports of +the Venetian diplomatic agents, form the most varied, brilliant, and +singular gallery of portraits, whether of persons or of peoples, that +exists. There is hardly a nation in Europe that will not find its +history illustrated by the papers which belong to the Venetian +department for foreign affairs. Nor are the papers which relate to the +home government of the Republic less copious and valuable. Each +magistracy has its own series of documents, the daily record of its +proceedings: in this we find the whole of that elaborate machinery of +State laid bare before us in all its intricacy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> detail; and we are +enabled to study the construction, the origin, development, and +ossification, of one of the most rigid and enduring constitutions that +the world has ever seen; a constitution so strong in its component +parts, so compact in its rib-work, that it sufficed to preserve a +semblance of life in the body of the Republic long after the heart and +brain had ceased to beat.</p> + +<p>Admirable as are the preservation and order of these masses of State +papers, it is not to be expected that each series, each magisterial +archive, should be complete. There are many broad lacunæ, especially in +the earlier period, which must ever be a cause for regret: for Venice +growing is a more attractive and profitable subject than Venice dying. +During the nine hundred and eighty-seven years that the Government of +the Republic held its seat in Venice, the State papers passed through +many dangers from fire, revolution, neglect, or carelessness. When we +recal the fires of 1230, 1479, 1574, and 1577, it is rather matter for +congratulation that so much has escaped, than for surprise that so much +has been destroyed. The losses would, undoubtedly, have been much more +severe had all the papers and documents been preserved in one place, as +they are now. But the Venetians stored the archives of the various +magistracies either at the offices of those magistrates, or in some +public building especially set apart for the purpose. The Secret +Chancellery, which was always an object of great solicitude, containing +as it did all the more private papers of the State, was deposited in a +room on the second floor of the Ducal Palace. Many of the criminal +records belonging to the Council of Ten were stored in the Piombi under +the roof of the Palace; and the famous adventurer Casanova relates how +he beguiled some of his prison hours by reading the trial of a Venetian +nobleman, which he found among other papers piled at the end of the +corridor where he was allowed to take exercise. Soon after the fall of +the Republic, the following disposition of the papers was made. The +political archive was stored at the Scuola di S. Teodoro; the judicial, +at the convent of S. Giovanni Laterano; the financial, at S. Procolo. In +the year 1815, the Austrian Government resolved to collect and arrange +all State papers in one place. The building chosen was the convent of +the Frari; and the work was entrusted to Jacopo Chiodo, the first +director of the archives. The scheme suggested by Chiodo has served as a +basis for the arrangement that has been already carried out, or is still +in hand.</p> + +<p>Under the Republic it was natural that access to important diplomatic +papers and to secrets of State should be granted with reserve, and only +to persons especially authorized to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> research. The directors +appointed by the Austrian Government showed a disposition to maintain +that precedent; and M. Baschet relates that it was only by a personal +appeal to the Emperor that he obtained access to the archives of the +Ten. The Italian Government allow nearly absolute liberty; and nothing +can exceed the courtesy of the officials under their distinguished +director, the Commendatore Cecchetti.</p> + +<p>Any attempt to explain the archives of Venice and to display their +contents, must be preceded by a statement of the main features of the +constitution of the Republic upon which the order and the arrangement of +the archives is based. The constitution of Venice has frequently been +likened to a pyramid, with the Great Council for its base and the Doge +for apex. The figure is more or less correct; but it is a pyramid that +has been broken at its edges by time and by necessity. The legislative +and political body was originally constructed in four groups, or +tiers—if we are to preserve the pyramidal simile—one rising above the +other. These four tiers were the Maggior Consiglio or Great Council, the +Lower House; the Pregadi or Senate, the Upper House; the Collegio, or +the Cabinet; and the Doge. The famous Council of Ten and its equally +famous Commission, the Three Inquisitors of State, did not enter into +the original scheme; they are an appendix to the State, an intrusion, a +break in the symmetry of the pyramid. Later on we shall explain their +construction and relation to the main body of government. For the +present we leave them aside, and confine our attention to the four +departments of the Venetian constitution above mentioned.</p> + +<p>The Great Council, as is well known, did not assume its permanent form +and place in the Venetian constitution till the year 1296. At that date +the famous revolution, known as the closing of the Great Council, took +place. By that act, which was only the final step in a revolution that +had been for long in process, those citizens who were excluded from the +Great Council remained for ever outside the constitution; all functions +of government were concentrated in the hands of those nobles who were +included by the Council; the constitution of the Republic was +stereotyped as a rigid oligarchy. Previous to the year 1296, a great +council had existed, created first in the reign of Pietro Ziani (1172); +but this council was really democratic in character, not oligarchic; it +was elected each September, and its members were chosen from the whole +body of the citizens. Earlier still than the reign of Ziani, the +population used to meet tumultuously and express their opinion upon +matters of public interest, such as the election of a Doge or a +declaration of war,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> first in the <i>Concione</i> under their tribunes, while +Venetia was still a confederation of lagoon-islands; and then in the +<i>Arengo</i> under their Doge, when the confederation was centralized at +Rialto. But of these assemblies the latter was disorderly and irregular, +and the former was of doubtful authority. It is from the closing of the +Great Council that we must date the positive establishment of the +Venetian oligarchy, and the completion of that constitution which +endured for five hundred years, from 1296 till the fall of the Republic +in 1797.</p> + +<p>The age at which the young nobles might take their seats in the Council, +that is to say, might enter upon public life, was fixed at twenty-five, +except in the cases of the Barbarelli, or thirty nobles between the ages +of twenty and twenty-five, who were elected by ballot on the fourth of +each December, St. Barbara's day; and in the case of those who, in +return for money advanced to the State, obtained a special grace to take +their seats before their twenty-fifth year.</p> + +<p>The chief functions of the Great Council were the passing of laws, and +the election of magistrates. But in process of time the legislative +duties of the Council were almost entirely absorbed by the Senate; and +the Maggior Consiglio only retained its great and distinguished +function, the election of almost every officer of State, from the Doge +downwards. The large number of these magistracies, and the various +seasons of the year at which they fell vacant, engaged the Great Council +in a perpetual series of elections. It is not our intention to explain +in detail the elaborate process by which the Venetians carried out their +political elections; such an explanation would carry us beyond our +scope, which is to state the position and functions of each member in +the constitution of the Republic. But, briefly, the process was this. +The law required either two or four competitors for every vacant +magistracy, and the election to that magistracy was said to take place +<i>a due</i> or <i>a quattro mani</i>, respectively. If the office to be filled +required <i>quattro mani</i>, the whole body of the Great Council balloted +for four groups of nine members each, who were chosen by drawing a +golden ball from among the silver ones in the balloting urn. Each of +these groups retired to a separate room, and there each group elected +one candidate to go to the poll for the vacant office. The names of the +four candidates were then presented to the Council and balloted. The +candidate who secured the largest number of votes, above the half of +those present, was elected to the vacant office. Thus the election to +the magistracy was a triple process; first, the election of the +nominators, then the election of the candidates, and finally the +election to the office.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Great Council, as representing the whole Republic, possessed certain +judicial functions, which were used on rare occasions only, when the +State believed itself placed in grave danger through the fault of its +commanders. The famous case of Vettor Pisani, after his defeat at Pola, +in 1379, and the case of Antonio Grimani, in the year 1499, were both +sent to the Grand Council, who passed sentence on those generals. But, +broadly speaking, the judicial functions of the Maggior Consiglio hardly +existed, its legislative functions dwindled away, and were absorbed by +the Senate, and its chief duty and prerogative lay in the election of +almost every State official.</p> + +<p>Coming now to the second tier in the pyramid of the constitution, the +Senate, or Pregadi,—the invited, we find that the Senate proper was +composed of sixty members, elected in the Great Council, six at a time. +The elections took place once a week, and were so arranged that they +should be complete by the first of October in each year. In addition to +the Senate proper, another body of sixty, called the <i>Zonta</i> or +addition, was elected by the outgoing Senate at the close of its year of +office; but it was necessary that the names of the <i>Zonta</i> should be +approved by the Great Council before their election was valid. The +Senate and the Zonta together formed one hundred and twenty members; and +besides these, the Doge, his six councillors, the Council of Ten, the +Supreme Court of Appeal, and many special magistrates, who presided over +departments of Finance, Customs, and Justice, belonged <i>ex officio</i> to +the Senate, and brought the number of votes up to two hundred and +forty-six. Further, fifty-one magistrates of minor departments also sat, +with the right to debate, but without the right to vote.</p> + +<p>The Senate was the real core of the Administration. The presence, <i>ex +officio</i>, of so many and such various officers of State sufficiently +indicates the wide field which was covered by the authority of the +Pregadi. The large number of the Senatorial body, and the diversity of +subjects with which it dealt, required that business should be carried +on with parsimony of time and precision of method; and therefore private +members were restricted to the right of debate. Only the Doge, his +councillors, the Savii Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma had the right +to move the Senate; and their propositions related to peace, war, +foreign affairs, instructions to ambassadors, and representatives of +foreign Courts, to commercial treaties, finance, and home legislation. +The various measures were spoken to by their proposers, and by the +magistrates whose offices they affected. As in the case of the Great +Council, the Senate also on rare occasions exercised judicial functions. +It was in the discretion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> of the College to send a faulty commander for +trial either to the Great Council or to the Senate; but in that case the +charge must be one of negligence or misjudgment; if the charge implied +treason, it was taken before the Council of Ten. A few of the higher +officers of State were elected in the Senate, among them the Savii +Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma, and the Admiral of the Fleet. The +functions of the Senate were legislative, judicial, and elective. But +just as the Great Council was pre-eminently the elective body, so the +Senate was pre-eminently the legislative body in the constitution of +Venice.</p> + +<p>The Collegio or Cabinet of Ministers, formed the third tier in the +pyramid. The College was composed of the following members: The Doge, +his six councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal; these +ten persons formed the Collegio minore, or Serenissima Signoria; in +addition to these there were the six Savii Grandi; the five Savii di +Terra ferma, and the five Savii da mar; a body of twenty-six persons in +all, forming the College. Beginning with the lowest in rank, the Savii +agli ordini, or da mar, were, as their name implies, a Board of +Admiralty; but they acted in that capacity under the orders of the Savii +Grandi upon whom the naval affairs of the Republic immediately depended. +The Savii agli ordini had a vote but no voice in the College; this post +was given, for the most part, to young and promising politicians; it was +a training school for statesmen: 'Officio loro,' says Giannotti, 'è +tacere ed ascoltare.' The office lasted for six months only; and so +there was a constant stream of young men passing through the political +school, and becoming intimately acquainted with the affairs of the +Republic and the methods of government. How excellent that school must +have been will become apparent as we proceed to note the functions of +the College of which the Savii agli ordini formed a silent part.</p> + +<p>Next in order above the Savii agli ordini came the Savii di Terra ferma. +This Board was composed of five members; the Savio alia Scrittura, or +Minister for War; the Savio Cassier, or Chancellor of the Exchequer; the +Savio alle ordinanze, or minister for the native militia in the cities +on the mainland; the Savio ai da mò, or minister for the execution of +all measures voted urgent; the Savio ai Ceremoniali, or Minister for +Ceremonies of State. These Savii di Terra ferma, like the Savii agli +ordini, held office for six months only.</p> + +<p>The six Savii Grandi, who came above the Savii di Terra ferma, +superintended the actions of the two boards below them, and, if +necessary, issued orders which would override those of the other +ministers. They were, in fact, the responsible directors of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> the State. +The Savii Grandi were required to prepare all business to be laid before +the College, where it was first discussed and arranged before being +submitted to the Senate for approval. To facilitate this labour of +preparation, each of the Savii Grandi took a week in turn, and the Savio +of the week was, in fact, Prime Minister of Venice. It was he who read +dispatches, granted audiences to ambassadors, and prepared official +replies. The Doge presided in the College, it is true, but it was the +Savio of the week who opened the business, and suggested the various +measures to be adopted.</p> + +<p>Besides these boards of Savii, the College included the Ducal +Councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal. We shall speak +of these latter when we come to the judicial department of the +constitution. The office of Ducal Councillor was, perhaps, the most +venerable in Venice. These six men held, as it were, the Ducal honours +and functions in commission; they embodied the authority of the Doge to +such an extent, that without their presence he could not act; he became +a nonentity unless supported by four at least of his council; while, on +the other hand, the absence of the Doge in no way diminished the +authority of the Ducal Councillors. For example, the Doge without his +council could not preside, neither in the Maggior Consiglio, nor in the +Senate, nor in the College, but four Ducal Councillors had the power to +preside without the Doge. The Doge might not open dispatches except in +the presence of his council, but his council might open dispatches in +the absence of the Doge. Yet, great as were the external honours of the +Ducal Councillors, the office was rather ornamental than important. It +was the Savii Grandi who were the directing spirit through all the +multitudinous affairs of the College. As we have seen, those affairs +embraced the whole field of government, except the field of Justice. The +College had no judicial functions, nor did it legislate. As the Maggior +Consiglio was the elective member, and the Senate the legislative, so +the College was the initiative and executive member of the State. The +College proposed measures which became law in the Senate; and the +execution of those laws was entrusted to the College which had the +machinery of State at its disposal. It is this right of initiating which +distinguishes the College; and it is just upon this point that the Ducal +Councillors appear to have a slight pre-eminence; for the Doge, his +council, and the Savii alone, had the right to initiate in the Senate; +the Doge, his council, and the chiefs of the Ten alone, had the right to +initiate in the Council of Ten; the Doge and his council alone had the +right to initiate in the Maggior Consiglio. The Doge and his council<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +alone move through all departments of government, presiding and +initiating, embodying the spirit of the Republic; and yet in no case is +their power great; for the Savii had more influence in the Senate, the +Chiefs of the Ten in the Council of Ten; and the Great Council, where +the Doge and his councillors had the field to themselves, was of little +importance in the direction of affairs.</p> + +<p>At the apex of the constitutional pyramid we find the Doge. The Doge +also had his distinctive functions in the State; his duties were +ornamental rather than administrative. Though all the acts of the +Government were executed in his name, laws passed, dispatches sent, +treaties made, and war declared, yet it is not in these departments that +the Doge stands pre-eminent; it is throughout the pomp and display of +the Republic that he is supreme; and the archive wherein his glory shows +most brightly is the <i>Ceremoniali</i>.</p> + +<p>The Doge was elected for life. When a Doge died, the eldest Ducal +Councillor filled the office of Vice-Doge until the election of the new +Prince. The remains of the deceased Doge were laid out in the Chamber of +the Pioveghi, on the first floor of the Ducal Palace, dressed in robes +of State, the mantle of cloth of gold and the ducal beretta. Twenty +Venetian noblemen were appointed to attend in the chapelle ardente. On +the third day the Doge was buried; and the Great Council on the same day +elected the officers who were to revise the coronation oath, and to +render its provisions more stringent if the conduct of the deceased had +revealed any point where a future Doge could exercise even the smallest +independence in constitutional matters. At the same time the Council +elected another body of officers, who were required to examine the +conduct of the late Doge, and, if he had violated his coronation oath, +his heirs paid the penalty by a fine. Immediately after the appointment +of these officers, the Maggior Consiglio proceeded to create the +forty-one electors to the dukedom. The process of election was long and +intricate, and occupied five days at the least; for there was a +quintuple series of ballots and votings to be concluded before the +forty-one were finally chosen. When the forty-one noblemen had been +appointed they were taken to a chamber specially prepared for them, +where, as in the case of a papal election, they were obliged to stay +until they had determined upon the new Doge. They were bound by oath +never to reveal what took place inside this election chamber. But this +oath was not always observed in the spirit; and memoranda of the +proceedings of the forty-one are still preserved in the private archives +of the Marcello family. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> first step was to elect three priors, or +presidents, and two secretaries. The presidents took their seats at a +table on which stood a ballot-box and an urn. The secretaries gave to +every elector a slip of paper, upon which each one wrote the name of the +man whom he proposed as Doge. The forty-one slips of paper were then +placed in the urn, and one was drawn out at hazard. If the noble, whose +name was written upon the slip, chanced to be an elector, he was +required to withdraw. Then each of the electors was at liberty to attack +the candidate, to point out defects and recal misdeeds. These hostile +criticisms, which covered the whole of a candidate's private life, his +physical qualities and his public conduct, were written down by the +secretaries, and the candidate was recalled. The objections urged +against him were read over to the aspirant, without the names of the +urgers appearing, and he was invited to defend himself. Attack and +defence continued till no further criticisms were offered, and then the +name of the candidate was balloted before the priors. If it received +twenty-five favourable votes, its owner was declared Doge; if less than +twenty-five, a fresh name was drawn from the urn, and the whole process +was repeated until some candidate secured the necessary five-and-twenty +votes. As soon as this issue was reached, the Signoria was informed of +the result, and the new Doge, attended by the electors, descended to +Saint Mark's, where, from the pulpit on the left side of the choir, the +Prince was shown to the people, and where, before the high altar, he +took the coronation oath and received the standard of Saint Mark. The +great doors of the Basilica were then thrown open, and the Doge passed +in procession round the Piazza and returned to the Porta della Carta. At +the top of the Giants' Stair the eldest Ducal Councillor placed the +beretta on his head, and he was brought to the Sala dei Pioveghi, where +the late Doge had lain in state, and where he too would one day come. +Then the Doge retired to his private apartments, and the ceremony of +election closed.</p> + +<p>As we have already observed, the position of the Doge in the Republic of +Venice was almost purely ornamental. The Doge presided, either in person +or by commission through his councillors, at every Council of State; he +presided, however, not as a guiding and deliberating chief, but as a +symbol of the Majesty of Venice. He is there not as an individual, a +personality, but as the outward and visible sign of an idea, the idea of +the Venetian oligarchy. The history of the personal authority of the +Doge falls into three periods. A period of great vigour and almost +despotic power dates from the foundation of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> Dukedom, in the year +697, down to the reign of Pietro Ziani in 1172. During this first +period, the Ducal authority showed a tendency to become concentrated, +and almost hereditary in the hands of one or two powerful families. For +example, we have seen Doges of the Partecipazio house, five Doges of the +Candiani, and three of the Orseoli. But the rivalry and balanced power +of these great families eventually exhausted one another, and preserved +the Dukedom of Venice from ever becoming a kingdom. A second period +extends from the year 1172 down to 1457, and is marked by the emergence +of the great commercial houses, and the development of the oligarchy +upon the basis of a Great Council. The aristocracy during this period +were engaged in excluding the people from any share in the government, +and in curbing and finally crushing the authority of the Doge. The steps +in this process are indicated by the closing of the Great Council, the +revolution of Tiepolo, the trials of Marino Faliero, Lorenzo Celsi, and +the Foscari. The third period covers what remains of the Republic, from +1457 down to 1797. During this period the Doge was little other than the +figurehead of the Republic; the point of least weight and greatest +splendour; the brilliant apex to the pyramid of the Venetian +constitution.</p> + +<p>So far, then, we have examined the four tiers in the original structure +of the constitution, the Doge, the College, the Senate, and the Great +Council; and we have seen that, broadly speaking these were, +respectively, ornamental, initiative and executive, legislative, and +elective. But this pyramid of the constitution was not perfectly +symmetrical; its edges were broken. This interruption of outline was +caused by the Council of Ten. The exact position in the Venetian +constitution occupied by this famous Council, and its relations to the +other members of the government, have proved a constant source of +difficulty and error to students of Venetian history. Leaving aside the +obscure problem of the origin of the Ten, it is still possible for us to +indicate the constitutional necessity which called that Council into +existence. As we have pointed out, the College could not act on its own +responsibility without the Senate; the Senate could not initiate without +the College, for the preparation of all affairs passed through the hands +of the College. To establish connection between these two branches of +the administration was a process that required some time; it could not +be done swiftly and secretly. In all crises of political importance, +whether home or foreign, some instrument, more expeditious than the +Senate, was required to sanction the propositions of the College. That +instrument, acting swiftly and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> secretly, with a speed and secrecy +impossible in so large a body as the Senate, was created with the +Council of Ten. The Ten were an extraordinary magistracy, devised to +meet unexpected pressure upon the ordinary machine of government. The +emergence of the Ten proves this view. Without determining whether the +Council existed previous to the year 1310, we may take that year as the +date of its first appearance as a potent element in the State. The +rebellion of Tiepolo and Querini, an aristocratic revolt against the +growing power of the new commercial nobility, paralysed the ordinary +machinery of State, and revealed the danger inherent in a large and +slow-moving body of rulers. The Ten were called to power, just as the +Romans created the Dictatorship, in order to save the State in a +dangerous crisis.</p> + +<p>The place of the Ten in the constitutional structure is below the +College and parallel with the Senate. Below the College the +administration bifurcates, the ordinary course of business flows through +the Senate, the extraordinary through the Ten. The Ten possessed an +authority equal to that of the Senate; the choice of which instrument +should be used, rested with the College. The Ten appear to be of more +importance than the Senate, solely because they were used upon more +critical and dramatic occasions. Wherever the machinery of the College +and Senate moves too slowly, we find the swifter machinery of the +College and the Ten in motion. And so not only in political affairs, +home and foreign, but also in affairs financial and judicial, the +Council of Ten takes its part. The Ten, as being the readier instrument +to the hands of the College, gradually absorbed more and more of the +functions which originally belonged to the Senate. This process of +absorption, and the extension of the province of the Ten, is marked by +the establishment of its sub-commissions, that took their place in every +department side by side with the delegations of the Senate and the +ordinary magistrates. In politics and foreign affairs there is the +famous office of the Three Inquisitors of State. In the region of +Justice all cases of treason and coining, and certain cases of outrage +on public morals, came before the Ten; and it was always open to the +College to remove a case from the ordinary courts to the Ten, when State +reasons rendered it expedient to do so. In the Police department the +Esecutori contro la Bestemmia, and in Finance the Camerlenghi, were +officers of that Council. In the War Office the artillery was under +their control; and in the arsenal certain galleys, marked C.X., were +always at their disposal.</p> + +<p>These five great members of the State, four regular and one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> irregular, +formed the political and legislative departments of the Venetian +Government. It would require too many details to give a similar account +of the Judicial, Educational, and Religious machinery.</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable features in the Venetian constitution is the +infinite subdivision of government, and the number of offices to be +filled. Nobles alone were eligible for the majority of these offices, +and if we consider how small a body the Great Council really was, it is +clear that the larger number of Venetian noblemen must have been +employed in the service of the State at some time in their lives. The +great political and administrative activity which reigned inside the +comparatively small body that formed the ruling caste, as compared with +the absolute stagnation and quiet which marked the life of the ordinary +citizen, is one of the most noteworthy points in the history of Venice. +Every noble above the age of twenty-five was a member of the Maggior +Consiglio; every week that council had to fill up some office of State, +had some new candidate before it. The tenure of all offices, except the +Dukedom and the Procuratorship of St. Mark, was so brief, rarely +exceeding a year, or sixteen months, that the fret and activity of +elections must have been nearly incessant. This constant unrest bore its +fruit in perpetual intrigues, and the censors were appointed to check +the rampant canvassing and bribery. But the main point which is +impressed upon us is the universality of political training to which all +the nobles of Venice were subjected. No matter how frivolous a young +patrician might be, he would be obliged to sit in the Great Council; he +would be called upon to assist in electing the Ten, whose omniscience +and severity he had every reason to dread; he might even find himself +named to fill some minor post. It was impossible, under these +circumstances, that he should fail to be educated politically, or that +he should ever lose the keenest interest in every movement of the State. +It is to this political activity that we may possibly look for one of +the reasons which conduced to that extraordinary longevity which the +constitution of Venice displayed.</p> + +<p>Each of the Government offices, many as they were, possessed its own +collection of papers. These are either still in loose sheets, just as +they left the office, or bound in volumes. They are indicated by the +name of the Government department, the subject dealt with, and the date. +The pages are of three kinds; first, there are the files or <i>filze</i>, the +original minutes of the Board, written down in actual Council by the +secretaries, and with the <i>filze</i> are the dispatches or other documents +upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> which the Council took measures. In many of the more important +departments, such as the Senate, the Ten, or the College, these <i>filze</i> +were epitomized; the substance of each day's business was written out in +large volumes known as <i>Registri</i>; each entry was signed by the +secretary who had made the digest, and was accepted as authentic for all +purposes of reference. These registers are, in many cases, of the +greatest value where the files have been destroyed or lost. They were +more constantly in use, and therefore more carefully preserved; and now +they frequently form our sole authority for certain periods. As a rule +the registers are very full and good; they contain all that is of +importance in the files; but in making research upon any point it is +never safe to ignore the files where they exist. In some cases the +secretaries made a further digest of the registers in volumes known as +Rubrics, which contain in brief the headings of all materials to be +found in the registers. As the registers sometimes supply the place of +lost files, so the rubrics are occasionally our only authority where +registers and files are both missing. The rubrics are often of the +highest value. As an instance, we may cite the twenty volumes of rubrics +to the dispatches from England between the years 1603 and 1748. The +method of research, therefore, where all three kinds of documents exists +is this, to examine first the rubrics, then the registers, and then the +files. But the infinite subdivisions of the Government offices in Venice +render the task of research somewhat bewildering; and a student cannot +be certain that he has exhausted all the information on his subject, +until he has examined a large number of these minor offices. He will +probably find some notice of the point he is examining in the papers of +the Senate or of the Ten, and, if it be a matter of home affairs, he can +trace it thence through the various magistracies under whose cognizance +it would come; or if it be a matter of foreign policy, he will find +further information in the papers of the College.</p> + +<p>Under the Republic these collections of State papers were not known as +archives, but as chancelleries. The collections of highest interest, the +papers to which the student is most likely to turn his attention, are +those relating to the ceremony, to the home, and to the foreign policy +of Venice. These three groups are contained in the Ducal, the Secret, +and the Inferior Chancelleries. The three chancelleries were committed +to the charge of the Grand Chancellor and his staff of secretaries, who +received, arranged, and registered the official papers as they issued +from the various Councils of State. The Grand Chancellor was not a +patrician; he was chosen from that upper class<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> of commoners known as +<i>cittadini originarii</i>, an inferior order of nobility, ranking below the +governing caste, but bearing coat armour. The office of Grand Chancellor +was of great dignity and antiquity, and was held for life. The +Chancellor was head and representative of the people, as the Doge was +head and representative of the patricians; and, when the nobility began +to exclude the people from all share in the government, the Grand +Chancellor was allowed to be present at all sessions of the Great +Council and of the Senate as the silent witness of the people, +confirming the acts of the Government, and bridging, though by the +finest thread, the gulf that otherwise separated the governed from the +governing. The part which the Grand Chancellor took in the business of +the Maggior Consiglio and of the Senate was a constant and an active +part. It was his duty to superintend the arrangements for every +election, to direct the secretaries in attendance, to announce the names +of the candidates for office, and to proclaim the successful competitor. +His seat in the Great Council Hall was on the left-hand of the Doge's +daïs, and his secretaries sat below him. But the custody of the State +papers was by far the most important function which the Grand Chancellor +had to perform. To assist him in these labours he was placed at the head +of a large College of Secretaries, trained in a school especially +established to fit them for their duties. In the year 1443 a decree of +the Great Council required the Doge and the Signoria to elect each year +twelve lads to be taught Latin, rhetoric and philosophy, and the number +of the pupils was gradually increased. From this school they passed out +by examination, and became first extra-ordinaries and ordinaries, called +Notaries Ducal, then secretaries to the Senate, and finally secretaries +to the Ten. The post of secretary was one which required much diligence +and discretion. The secretaries were in constant attendance on the +various Councils of State, and thus became intimately acquainted with +all the secret affairs of the Republic. They were frequently sent on +delicate missions. It was a secretary of the Ten who brought Carmagnola +to Venice to stand his trial; and, as we shall presently relate, it was +a secretary of the Senate who announced to Thomas Killigrew, the English +Minister, his dismissal from Venice. The secretaries were sometimes +accredited as Residents to foreign Courts, though they were not eligible +for the post of Ambassador. Inside the Chancellery the secretaries were +entirely at the disposal of the Grand Chancellor, and their duties were +to study, to invent, and to read cipher; to transcribe the registers +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> rubrics; to keep the annals of the Council of Ten, and to enter the +laws in the statute book.</p> + +<p>We may now turn our attention to the principal series of State papers +which issued from the five great members of the Constitution, the +Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, the Ten, the College, and the Doge, and +show how these papers were arranged under the three Chancelleries of +which we have spoken.</p> + +<p>The Cancelleria Inferiore was preserved in one large room near the head +of the Giants' Staircase in the Ducal Palace, and was entrusted to the +care of the Notaries Ducal, the lowest order of secretaries. The +documents in this Chancellery related chiefly to the Doge; his rights, +his official possessions, his restrictions, and his state. Among these +papers, accordingly, we find the coronation oaths, the Reports of the +Commissioners appointed to examine those oaths, and the Reports of the +Commissioners appointed to review the life of each Doge deceased. This +series is valuable as revealing the steps by which the aristocracy +slowly curtailed the personal authority of the Doge, and bound his +office about with iron fetters, and crushed his power. In addition to +these papers the Inferior Chancellery contained the documents relating +to the dignitaries of St. Mark's in its capacity as Ducal Chapel; the +order and ceremony of the Ducal household; the expenditure of the Civil +List; and the archives of the Procurators of Saint Mark, which contained +the will, trusts, and bequests of private citizens.</p> + +<p>The Ducal Chancellery, which the Council of Ten once called 'cor nostri +status,' was preserved on the upper floor of the palace, and was reached +by the Scala d'oro. The papers were arranged in a number of cupboards +surmounted by the arms of the various Grand Chancellors who had presided +in that office. The documents of the Ducal Chancellery are of far higher +importance than those contained in the Cancelleria Inferiore; they +consist of political papers which it was not necessary to keep secret. +Among the many interesting series of documents which fell to the Ducal +Chancellery, the most valuable are the 'Compilazione delle Leggi,' or +statute-books distinguished by the various colours of their +bindings—gold, roan, and green—to mark the statutes which relate to +the Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, and the College respectively; the +Secretario alle voci, or record of all elections in the Great Council; +the Libri gratiarum, or special privileges. But most important of all is +the great series of documents which include the whole legislation of the +State relating to Venetian affairs on sea and land. Of this vast series +those marked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> <i>Terra</i> contain 3128 volumes of files, 411 volumes of +registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics; those marked <i>Mar</i> number 1286 +volumes of files, 247 volumes of registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics. It +will easily be seen how important the Ducal Chancellery is both for the +verification of dates, and also as displaying so large a tract of the +Venetian home administration.</p> + +<p>But important as the Ducal Chancellery undoubtedly is, it cannot vie in +interest with the Cancelleria Secreta, which might, with every justice, +have been called 'cor nostri status', for it is in the papers of that +Chancellery that the long history of the growth, splendour, and decline +of the Republic is to be traced in all its manifold details and +complicated relations. The Secret Chancellery was established by a +decree of the Great Council in the year 1402. Its object was to preserve +those papers of the highest State importance, from the publicity to +which the Ducal Chancellery was exposed. The regulation of the Secret +Chancellery was undertaken by the Council of Ten, and the rigorous +orders which they issued from time to time abundantly prove the +difficulty they experienced in securing the secrecy which they desired. +The Secret Chancellery became the depository of all State papers of +great moment; and if we take the chief members of the constitution in +order, and note the documents issuing from them which fell to the +custody of the Secreta, we shall see how the great flow of Venetian +history is to be followed here rather than in any other department of +the archives.</p> + +<p>To begin with the Maggior Consiglio, we have the long series of +registers containing the deliberations of the Council from the year 1232 +down to the fall of the Republic in 1797, occupying forty-two volumes, +and distinguished, at first, by such capricious names as Capricornus, +Philosus, Presbiter, and Fronesis; and later on by the names of the +secretaries who prepared them, Ottobonus primus, Ottobonus filius, +Busenellus, and Vianolus. In the special archive of the Avogadori di +Commun a contemporary series of registers is to be found; it covers from +1232 to 1547, and should be consulted together with the first series, +for it is more voluminous and minute. The first reference to England +that occurs in the Venetian archives is in the volume Fronesis +(1318-1385). This, and all other documents relating to Great Britain, +have been collected and rendered accessible in the splendid and +monumental series of the 'Calendar of State Papers,' edited with such +diligence and care by the late Mr. Rawdon Brown. Mr. Brown's published +work goes down to the year 1552; and it is only after that date that any +work relating to England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> remains to be done. That work, however, is +voluminous, for the regular and unbroken series of dispatches from +England does not begin till the reign of James I. Little more respecting +England is to be expected from the papers of the Great Council, however; +for at the date where Mr. Brown's work ends, the Maggior Consiglio had +ceased to occupy a high position in the direction of Venetian foreign +policy; its functions were chiefly confined to the election of +magistrates.</p> + +<p>The Senate supplied a far larger number of papers to the Secret +Chancellery than that yielded by the Great Council. This was to be +expected, owing to the central position of the Senate in the +constitution, and its prominent place in the management of Venetian +policy, home and foreign. The oldest documents in the archives of Venice +belong to the Senate. They are contained among the volumes of Pacts or +treaties, seven in number, without including the volume Albus, which is +devoted to treaties between the Republic and the Eastern Empire, nor the +volume Blancus, which contains the treaties between Venice and the +Emperors of the West. The thirty-three volumes of Commemoriali formed a +sort of commonplace book for the use of statesmen; in them were +registered briefly the most important events and abstracts of principal +documents which passed through the hands of the Government. The +Commemoriali cover the years 1293 to 1797; but after the middle of the +sixteenth century they were neglected, and they are chiefly valuable +down to that date only. After the Patti and Commemoriali we begin the +record of the regular proceedings in the Senate. This series contains +papers relating to home government, foreign policy, the dominions of +Venice on the mainland, in Dalmatia and the Levant, ecclesiastical +matters, relations with Rome, instructions to ambassadors and reports +from governors. So widely spread and so varied were the attributes of +the Senate, that the analysis of a single day's proceedings in that +house would prove most instructive to the student of the Venetian +constitution, and would, in all probability, bring him into contact with +a large number of the leading magistracies of the Republic. The series +of senatorial papers proceeds in almost unbroken completeness from the +year 1293 down to the close of the Republic; and counting files, +registers and rubrics, numbers 1599 volumes. This main series is known +by different names at different periods, and shows signs of that +tendency to subdivision which characterizes all Venetian Government +offices. The volumes which run from the year 1293 to 1440 were known as +Registri misti; those covering from 1491 to 1630, and overlapping the +first Misti,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> were called Registri secreti. After the year 1630 the +papers of the Senate are divided into those known as Corti, relating to +foreign Powers; and those known as Rettori, relating to the government +of the Venetian dominion.</p> + +<p>Besides this great series of Deliberazioni, containing the general +movement of business in the Senate, there is another voluminous series +of documents, equally important, and even more interesting to the +student of general history, the dispatches received from Venetian +representatives in foreign Courts, and the Relazioni, or reports which +ambassadors read before the Senate upon their return from abroad. +Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of this series; and the value of the +Relazioni at least has been fully recognized. Yet it should be borne in +mind that the Relazioni are only a part of the series, and that, taken +alone and isolated from the dispatches, they lose much of their value. +For we must not forget that the Relazioni were drawn up on more or less +conventional lines; the headings, under which the report was to fall, +were indicated by the Government, and were invariable; and, further, the +home-coming ambassador handed his report to his successor, who +frequently used it as a basis in drawing up his own. The result is that, +except in the descriptions of Court life, and in the sketches of +prominent characters, the Relazioni are apt to repeat themselves. But, +taken with the dispatches, which arrived almost daily, they form the +most varied, brilliant, and minute gallery of national portraits that +the world possesses. The reports and dispatches were made by men whose +whole political training had rendered them the acutest of observers, and +they were presented to critics who were filled with the keenest +curiosity, and were accustomed to demand full and precise information. +Not a detail is omitted as unimportant; the diurnal gossip of the Court, +the daily movements of the sovereign and his favourites; are all +recorded with impartial and unerring observation. The relation of the +Dispacci to the Relazioni is the relation of the study to the picture. +The Relazioni are the large canvas upon which the whole nation is +broadly depicted, the Dispacci are the patient and minute studies upon +which the excellence of the picture depends. The majority of the +Venetian Relazioni between the years 1492 and 1699 have been published; +the earlier part by Signor Alberi, and the later by Signori Barozzi and +Berchet. The eighteenth century still remains to be worked out. In the +series of Relazioni and Dispacci, Great Britain occupies a comparatively +small space. While France, Germany, and Constantinople, each give five +volumes of reports, England gives one only, dating from 1531 to 1763. Of +dispatches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> from England there are 139 volumes in all; while from +Constantinople we have 242, from France 276, from Milan, 230, and from +Germany 202.</p> + +<p>Previous to the year 1603, when the regular series of dispatches from +England begins, there had been intermittent relations between the +Republic and the English Court. Sebastian Giustiniani was Venetian +ambassador in London in the reign of Henry VIII. (1515-1519); and in the +reign of Mary, Giovanni Michiel represented the Republic for four +years—from 1554 to 1558. The Protestant reign of Elizabeth caused a +long break, during which the Republic received its information about the +affairs of England from its ambassadors in France and Spain. Permanent +relations were not resumed between the two Powers till the accession of +James I., one of whose earliest acts was to send Sir Henry Wotton to +Venice as his ambassador. The appointment of Sir Henry Wotton was a +movement of gratitude on the part of the King; and the cause of it +cannot be better told than in the words of Sir Henry's biographer, who +thus describes this 'notable accident:'</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to +Florence—which was about a year before the death of Queen +Elizabeth—Ferdinand, the Great Duke of Tuscany, had +intercepted certain letters that discovered a design to take +away the life of James, the then King of Scots. The Duke +abhorring this fact, and resolving to endeavour a prevention +of it, advised with his Secretary Vietta, by what means a +caution might be best given to that King; and after +consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry +Wotton, whom Vietta first commended to the Duke, and the +Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that +frequented his Court.</p> + +<p>'Sir Henry was gladly called by his friend Vietta to the +Duke, who dispatched him into Scotland with letters to the +King, and with those letters such Italian antidotes against +poison as the Scots till then had been strangers to.</p> + +<p>'Having parted from the Duke, he took up the name and +language of an Italian; and thinking it best to avoid the +line of English intelligence and danger, he posted into +Norway, and through that country towards Scotland, where he +found the King at Stirling. Being there, he used means, by +Bernard Lindsey, one of the King's bed-chamber, to procure +him a speedy and private conference with his Majesty.</p> + +<p>'This being by Bernard Lindsey made known to the King, the +King required his name—which was said to be Octavio +Baldi—and appointed him to be heard privately at a fixed +hour that evening.</p> + +<p>'When Octavio Baldi came to the Presence-chamber door, he +was requested to lay aside his long rapier—which, +Italian-like, he then wore;—and being entered the chamber, +he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords +standing distant in several corners of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> chamber; at the +sight of whom he made a stand; which the King observing, +bade him be bold and deliver his message; for he would +undertake for the secrecy of all that were present. Then did +Octavio Baldi deliver his letters and message to the King in +Italian; which when the King had graciously received, after +a little pause, Octavio Baldi steps to the table, and +whispers to the King in his own language that he was an +Englishman, beseeching him for a more private conference +with his Majesty, and that he might be concealed during his +stay in that nation; which was promised and really performed +by the King, during all his abode there, which was about +three months. All which time was spent with much +pleasantness to the King, and with as much to Octavio Baldi +himself as that country could afford; from which he departed +as true an Italian as he came thither.'</p></div> + +<p>The presence of Sir Henry in Venice, where he was a <i>persona +gratissima</i>, both for his love of Italy and his knowledge of the +language, did much to strengthen the new relations between England and +the Republic. The feeling between Venice and the Stuart kings became +extremely cordial; but on the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1642, the +Republic suspended the commission of Vincenzo Contarina, who had been +appointed to succeed Giovanni Giustinian as ambassador to England. The +secretary Girolamo Agostino, however, continued to discharge Venetian +affairs till the year 1645; and his dispatches contain minute +particulars concerning the progress of the Civil War. In the year 1645, +Agostino was recalled, and the interests of Venice in England were +entrusted to Salvetti, the Florentine resident. Agostino left behind him +in England a secret agent, with instructions to forward a weekly report +on the progress of affairs to the Venetian ambassador in France, among +whose dispatches we find these newsletters from London. After the death +of Charles I it is not likely that the Republic would have been +represented at the Court of Cromwell, towards whom the feeling of Venice +was not cordial, had she not been in great straits for help against the +Turk. But in the year 1652 she resolved to dismiss the representative of +Charles II, then in Venice; and, at the same time, the Government +instructed the ambassador at Paris to send his secretary, Lorenzo +Pauluzzi, to London to open negociations with Cromwell. With Pauluzzi +the series of dispatches from London recommences; but these dispatches +are to be found among the communications from the Venetian ambassador in +Paris, by whom they were forwarded to the Senate. The dispatches of +Pauluzzi are of great importance, and give us a vivid though hostile +picture of Cromwell and his surroundings. 'Nell' universale,' he says, +'ha pochissimo affetto;' and further on, 'non ardiscono tentare alcuna +cosa nè<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> parlare che tra i denti; ma ognuno sta sperando un giorno +verificate le profizie che questo governo non possa a lungo durare.' In +1655 the negociations between England and Venice had advanced so far +that the Republic had determined to send an Ambassador Extraordinary to +the Protector's Court. Giovanni Sagredo, ambassador at Paris, was +chosen, and the closing paragraph of his first dispatch shows how +strongly Cromwell's personality impressed him. 'Per il resto,' he +writes, 'è uomo di 56 anni, con pochissima barba, di complessione +sanguigna, di statura media e robusta e di presenza marziale. Ha una +fisonomia cupa e profonda. Porta una gran spada al fianco. Soldato +insieme ed oratore, e dotato di talenti per persuadere e per operare.' +The result of Sagredo's mission is contained in the long and brilliant +Relazione which he read in the Senate on his return to Venice in 1656. +In this splendid specimen of a Venetian report, he gives, with singular +lucidity and grasp, a brief sketch of the condition of Great Britain; of +the causes of the Civil War; of Cromwell's rise to power; of his foreign +relations; and closes with a portrait of the Protector which confirms +Pauluzzi's unfavourable view, and draws a terrible picture of that +restlessness and dread which clouded Cromwell's last days—'più temuto +che amato ... vive con sempiterno sospetto.' When Sagredo returned to +Venice, his secretary Francesco Giavarnia was left behind in England, as +Venetian resident, and continued to hold that post till the Restoration, +sending dispatches every week direct to Venice, detailing the close of +the Protectorate, and the return of Charles II., whom he was the first +to welcome at Canterbury the day after his landing. In 1661 the Republic +gladly re-opened full relations with the Stuarts. Giavarnia was +superseded by two Ambassadors Extraordinary, who conveyed to Charles two +gondolas for the water in St. James's Park, and from that date onwards +the diplomatic connection between England and the Republic followed the +ordinary course.</p> + +<p>We come now to the papers of the Council of Ten; all of these were +committed to the custody of the Secret Chancellery. We have already seen +that the Council of Ten was an extraordinary office, used upon +extraordinary occasions, where secrecy and speed were required. Its +chief occupations may be summed up under three heads—safety of the +State, protection of citizens, and public morals. That being the case, +the number and interest of its documents is very great—greater than +that of any other Council of State; but this interest is confined, for +the most part, to matters affecting the home policy of the Republic; +foreign affairs finds comparatively little illustration among the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> +papers of the Ten. The series of documents, containing the ordinary +business of the Ten, dates from the year 1315 to the close of the +Republic. The documents are arranged according to the matter they deal +with, that is to say political matter, <i>parti communi</i> and <i>secreti</i>, or +criminal matter, <i>parti crimminali</i>. The immense importance and interest +attaching to the papers of the Ten will be illustrated by the statement, +that there we find the cases of Marino Faliero, of the Carraresi, of +Carmagnola, of Foscari, of Caterina Cornaro, and of Foscarini.</p> + +<p>Among the papers of the Collegio we find ourselves once more in the +general current of foreign politics. The ordinary proceedings of the +College, the papers containing the arrangement and discussion of affairs +to be presented to the Senate, are included in the volumes of files and +registers, known as the Notatorii del Collegio. The College was +entrusted, as we have said, to receive all the representatives of +foreign Powers and to open all letters and dispatches addressed to the +Government. It is in the three series known as Lettere Principi, +Espozioni Principi, and Ceremoniali, that we obtain the fullest +information about the action of the agents from foreign Courts resident +in Venice. The series called Lettere Principi, letters from royal +personages, covers the years between 1500 and 1797, and is contained in +fifty-four volumes of <i>filze</i>. England is represented by two of these, +beginning with the year 1570, and ending with 1796, entitled 'Collegio, +Secreta, Lettere. Rè e Regina d'Inghilterra.' These volumes contain one +hundred and seventy-one letters, thus distributed among the various +sovereigns; there are thirteen in the reign of Elizabeth; forty in that +of James I.; four in that of Charles I.; three from Oliver Cromwell; one +from Richard Cromwell; one from Speaker Lenthal: ten during the reign of +Charles II.; five during that of his brother; three during the reign of +William, including one from the Old Pretender; seven in the reign of +Anne; eight in that of George I.; twenty-one from George II; and +fifty-five from George III. These letters are concerned with formal +announcements and the exchange of courtesies, the credentials of +ambassadors and notices of royal births, marriages and deaths. Their +historical importance is very slight. The long series of George III. is +almost entirely occupied by noting the yearly increase of his family. +The autographs of the ministers who countersigned the letters, form +their greatest attraction. The late Mr. Rawdon Brown has published +facsimiles of these autographs down to the year 1659; but after that +date we find such interesting endorsements as those of Lauderdale, +Arlington, Bolingbroke, Carteret, Pitt, Halifax, Henry Conway, +Shelburne, and Charles James Fox.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> On a loose parchment among these +letters is one very curious document. It is dated Bologna, 21st +February, 1671, and begins 'Carlo Dudley per la gratia di Dio Duca di +Northumbria et del Sacro Romano Impero, Conte di Woruih e di Licester, +et Pari d'Ingliterra.' The document goes on to state that Charles +Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in consideration of the affection and +partiality always shown towards his person and house, grants to Ottavio +Dionisio, noble of Verona, the title of Marquis to him and to his eldest +son, to his younger sons and to his brothers and their sons the title of +Count, in perpetuity; and this in virtue of the declaration and +authority of His Holiness Pope Urban VIII., which conferred on Charles +Dudley and his eldest born the right to exercise all the privileges of +an independent prince. At the date which this document bears, 1671, +there was no Duke of Northumberland; that title had lately been bestowed +by Charles II. on an illegitimate son, and had perished with him. This +Charles Dudley was probably some pretender to the honours of the Dudley +family who once held the dukedom of Northumberland. The document is +curious, for the noble family on whom Charles Dudley conferred this +title of Marquis still exists, and we do not know if any British +subject, either before or after, has even claimed to be a fountain of +honour. But Charles Dudley is not the only English pretender who figures +among the papers at the Frari. Filza 8 of the loose papers, titled +'Miscellanea Diversi Manoscritti,' contains the marriage certificate and +will of James Henry de Boveri Rossano Stuart, natural son of Charles +II., and seven letters from his son James Stuart, dated Milan, Gemona +and Padua, 1722 to 1728. The majority of these letters are addressed to +Cardinal Panighetti, from whom this 'povero principe Stuardo,' as he +calls himself, hoped to receive money and support in some imaginary +claims on the Crown of England. The letters are full of a certain +pathos—the pathos which cannot fail to attach itself to fallen royalty. +The handwriting is that of an uneducated man; and James Stuart, in these +letters, certainly shows no signs of the ability required to meet so +trying a situation. He appeals to the Cardinal first on the grounds of +his creed. It is 'for the Faith that he finds himself in the miserable +little town' of Gemona. Failing upon this line, James Stuart abandons +himself to astrology, in the hope that the stars may give an answer +favourable to his hopes. But to all his appeals the Cardinal replies +with cold reserve, and when he hears of astrology, he adds a sharp and +crushing reprimand.</p> + +<p>Leaving the Lettere Principi we come to the last two series of State +papers of which we shall speak, the Espozioni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> Principi, or record of +all audiences granted to ambassadors and of the communications made by +them in the name of the Power they represented; and the Libri +Ceremoniali, or record of the great functions of State, coronations and +funerals of the Doges, the elections of the Grand Chancellors, the +reception accorded to ambassadors, princes and distinguished travellers. +The Republic of Venice was as punctilious as any Court of Europe upon +the points of precedence, ceremony, and etiquette. The reader will not +have forgotten the amusing account, given by the elder Disraeli, of the +long struggle between the Master of the Ceremonies and the Venetian +ambassador at the Court of St. James. The Government required from its +representatives a minute account of every detail of etiquette observed +towards them, and replied in kind in their treatment of foreign +ministers in Venice. The Republic was punctilious abroad, and no less so +at home. Every stage in the public entry, first audience and <i>congé</i> of +foreign ambassadors were carefully regulated and based upon precedent. +The ambassadors of Spain and France had each a special volume devoted to +the ceremonies and etiquette which the Republic observed towards them. +M. Baschet describes at length the receptions of the French ambassadors, +for whom he claims the highest rank among the representatives of foreign +Powers at Venice. Great Britain sent fifty-eight embassies, in all, to +the Republic, between the years 1340 and 1797. Of these ambassadors, Sir +Gregory Cassalis filled the office twice, Sir Henry Wotton thrice, the +Earl of Manchester twice, and Elizeus Burgess twice. The ceremony to +which the ambassador was entitled may be gathered from the accounts of +these embassies preserved in the Esposizioni Principi and the +Ceremoniali.</p> + +<p>The reception of Lord Northampton in the year 1762 will afford us the +most detailed view of the ceremony, for on that occasion some questions +of precedent arose, and the Cavaliere Ruzzini, who was entrusted with +the conduct of the affair, presented a long report to the Senate on the +subject. The ambassador was not officially recognized by the Government +until he had made his public entry, and presented his credentials at his +first audience in the College. Until that had taken place, he remained +incognito, and was in fact supposed not to be in Venice. Before the +ambassador arrived, the English Consul was expected to hire a palace for +his use. There was no fixed embassy in Venice; Thomas Killigrew lodged +at San Cassano, Lord Holdernesse at San Benedetto, Lord Manchester at +San Stae. John Udny, who was consul at the time of Lord Northampton's +Embassy, rented the Palazzo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> Grimani at Cannaregio for the ambassador +whenever his appointment was announced, and an amusing and +characteristic story attaches to this affair. The palace belonged to a +Contessa Grimani, and was in bad repair; but the owner promised to +restore and fit it up for the ambassador. When the consul went to see +the palace, shortly before the ambassador's arrival, he found that +nothing had been done to it, and moreover that a gondolier and his wife +occupied the ground-floor and refused to move. He wrote at once to the +Contessa requesting her to remove the gondolier, to which he received +for answer that the gondolier's wife had been nurse to one of the +Countess's boys, and the Grimanis had promised her twenty ducats a-year; +if the ambassador liked to pay that amount, the gondolier would turn +out; if not, they must manage to share the palace between them. The +consul appealed to the English Resident, John Murray, who wrote an angry +letter to the Government, complaining of this treatment; 'La carità +della nobile donna,' he says, 'verso la moglie del gondoliere merita +senza dubbio gran lode, ma il sottoscritto s'imagina che l'avvocato più +scaltro si troverebbe bene intrigato di produrre una legge o esempio per +incaricare l'Ambasciatore Inglese di questa carità.'</p> + +<p>The matter was probably arranged, for on the 22nd of October Lord +Northampton arrived, incognito, of course, with all his suite, and took +up his residence. Lord Northampton was ill, and it was not until the +beginning of the next year that he took the necessary steps to make his +entry and to secure his first audience. The etiquette observed upon such +occasions required that the ambassador should send his secretary to +leave copies of his credentials at the door of the College, and to ask +on what day the Doge would receive him. The College reply through one of +their secretaries that an answer will be sent. The Doge was then +consulted what day would suit him, and he answers by putting himself at +the disposal of the College. The Senate is then informed of the +ambassador's arrival, and sixty senators, under the direction of a +leader, are appointed to attend the ambassador until the ceremonies of +his reception shall be completed. The days selected for Lord +Northampton's reception were the 29th and 30th of May, 1763; and the +Caveliere Ruzzini was named as head of the sixty senators who were to +attend the ambassador. Ruzzini informed Lord Northampton of these +arrangements, and at the same time sent him a programme of the ceremony, +which was based upon that observed towards Lord Holdernesse, and was +identical with that which the Republic offered to the ambassador of the +King of Sardinia. Before his public entry, the ambassador and all his +suite went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> to the island of San Spirito, in the lagoon towards +Malamocco. The fiction of the ceremony supposed all ambassadors to be +lodged there until they had presented their credentials. San Spirito was +chosen as the point of departure for the ambassadorial procession +because the distance between that island and Venice was supposed to +correspond exactly with the distance between London and Greenwich, +whence the Venetian ambassador was wont to begin his progress. Sir Henry +Wotton's second embassy forms a rare exception to this rule, for the +Venetians were so fond of that charming and accomplished poet, that they +allowed him to make his entry from San Giorgio Maggiore, which is much +nearer the city and more convenient. After midday on the 29th, Ruzzini +and his sixty senators, each in his gondola, arrived at San Spirito, and +found the household of the ambassador drawn up along the landing-place +<i>en grande tenue</i>. Lord Northampton was informed of Ruzzini's arrival, +and came to meet him on the staircase. After exchanging the prescribed +compliments, Ruzzini, with the ambassador on his right hand, descended, +and both entered the Cavaliere's gondola. The whole procession left San +Spirito and proceeded by the Grand Canal to the ambassador's lodging at +San Girolamo, accompanied, as Ruzzini says, by 'un immenso popolo +spettatore del nostro viaggio;' for these official entries were among +the most popular of the Venetian spectacles, and the whole city went out +to witness them. At the palace fresh speeches and compliments followed. +Lord Northampton was suffering acutely from an illness of which he died +that same year, but Ruzzini reports with obvious satisfaction that he +did not spare him a single ceremony, 'adempi ad ogni parte del consueto +ceremoniale.' The next day Ruzzini and the sixty senators again attended +at the ambassador's palace to conduct him to his audience in the +College. Lord Northampton was worse than he had been the day before; but +Ruzzini was implacable. It cost the ambassador three-quarters of an hour +to ascend the Giant's Stair. When at last he reached the door of the +Collegio, the Doge and all the College rose; the ambassador uncovered +and made three bows, and, leaving his suite behind him, he mounted the +daïs and took his seat on the right hand of the Doge. The ambassador +then covered his head, and simultaneously one of each order of the Savii +did the same. The ambassador handed his credentials to the Doge, and +remained uncovered while they were being read. The Doge made a brief and +formal reply, welcoming the ambassador to Venice, and each time the +King's name occurred, the ambassador raised his cap. After repeating his +three bows,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> the ambassador retired, and was accompanied to his palace +by the sixty senators who had waited for him at the door of the +Collegio. This closed the ceremony of entry.</p> + +<p>The English Ambassador Extraordinary enjoyed certain privileges which +were established on the precedent of the embassy of Lord Falconberg, +Cromwell's son-in-law. Among these privileges was the right to lodging +and maintenance at the cost of the Republic, a right which the +ambassador usually compounded for the sum of five or six hundred ducats; +a box at each theatre in Venice was placed at his disposal, and when he +took his <i>congé</i> the Senate voted him a gold chain and medal of the +value of two thousand scudi. The ambassadors ordinary enjoyed certain +exemptions from customs dues. These exemptions were frequently abused, +and were the cause of constant friction between the Government and the +representatives of the Powers. In the year 1763 Mr. John Murray's +Istrian wine was seized, and he only recovered it after expressing +himself <i>ben mortificato</i>. Mr. Murray was constantly in trouble on this +subject. The year before he had addressed an indignant letter to the +Government because 'a certain official of the Custom House had accused +him of allowing his servants to sell wine and flour at the door of the +Residency. It is but a poor satisfaction after so long a period of +suspicion to know that that official is bankrupt and no proof of the +accusation is forthcoming.' But by far the most curious episode of this +nature was that which befell Tom Killigrew, the poet, grandfather of the +Mrs. Anne Killigrew of Dryden's famous ode and a friend of Pepys, who +recals him as 'a merry droll, but a gentleman of great esteem with the +King, who told us many merry stories,' this, perhaps, among the number. +Killigrew was sent to represent Charles II. at Venice in 1649, just +after the execution of Charles I., and while his son was <i>a ramingo</i>, or +knocking about, as the Venetian ambassador politely puts it. Killigrew +was received in the usual way on February 10, 1650, and made his address +'in lingua cattiva,' as the report affirms. But the Republic soon tired +of its alliance with an exiled king, and resolved to dismiss Killigrew +as soon as possible. Killigrew was poor, and his master had little or +nothing to give him, so he hit upon the expedient of keeping a butcher's +shop, where he could sell meat, cheaper than any one else in Venice, by +availing himself of his exemptions from octroi. The Senate resolved to +fasten upon this illicit traffic as a pretext for dismissing Killigrew; +and on the 22d of June, 1652, they sent their Secretary, Busenello, to +tell Killigrew, <i>vivâ voce</i>, that he must go. Busenello went to San +Fantin, and there found one of Killigrew's butchers, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> told him that +the Resident only kept his shop there, but lived himself at San Cassano. +At San Cassano Busenello was told that Killigrew was dining at Murano, +and would not be home till evening; but very soon after he saw the +Resident at his window, and insisted on being announced. He explained +'with all possible delicacy,' as he says, the order of the Senate; but +Killigrew received the message with every sign of anger and pain. With +tears in his eyes he declared that it was the other ambassadors who +robbed the customs, while he had all the blame. It was true that he did +keep 'a little bit of a butcher's shop to support himself,' but that +could not hurt the revenue; and he added that, under any circumstance he +should leave Venice, for he had received his letters of recall from +France, four days previously. The Senate no more than their secretary +believed in the existence of this letter of recall; but Killigrew really +had the letter, dated March 14th, and it was sent into the College, +along with a brief exculpatory epistle from the Resident, on the 27th of +June. Killigrew left Venice the same day as he was bound to do by +ambassadorial etiquette; and Charles had not another recognized agent to +the Republic until his restoration; for the Venetians definitely adopted +the policy of courting Cromwell, in the vain hope that he would assist +them against the Turk.</p> + +<p>With the papers of the College we close this notice of the political +documents in the archives at the Frari. The other departments of the +Government had each their own series of papers, equally copious and +valuable. The heraldic and genealogical archives of the Avvogadori di +Commun, for example, the Charters of the German and Turkish Exchanges +and the records of the Mint and the public Banks, offer a wide and a +rich field for study; and in spite of the profound and extensive labours +of such scholars as Thomas, Checchetti, Barozzi, Berchet, Fulin, +Lamansky, Mas Latrie, and Rawdon Brown, it will be long before the +materials in the vast storehouse of the Frari are exhausted or even +adequately displayed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Art_IV_1_Journal_of_a_Residence_in_Norway_during_the_years_1834" id="Art_IV_1_Journal_of_a_Residence_in_Norway_during_the_years_1834"></a>Art. IV.—1. <i>Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years 1834, +1835 and 1836.</i> By Samuel Laing, Esq. London, 1837.</h2> + +<h2>2. <i>Le Royaume de Norvège et le Peuple Norvègien.</i> Par le Dr. O. I. +Broch. Christiania, 1878.</h2> + +<h2>3. <i>Official Reports of Prefects on the Economic Condition of the +Provinces of Norway in 1876-80.</i> Christiania, 1884.</h2> + +<h2>4. <i>Publications of the Statistical Bureau, Christiania.</i></h2> + + +<p>The advocates of a general redistribution of landed property in Ireland, +as well as those who are holding out to the agricultural labours of +other portions of the United Kingdom the Arcadian lure figuratively +known as the 'three acres and a cow,' will find in the work cited at the +head of this article the amplest materials for the justification of the +views they are pressing for adoption partly as a remedy for agricultural +distress, but essentially in application of the Socialist doctrine that +the people of a country have an inherent right to an absolute, +proportionate possession of its soil.</p> + +<p>Mr. Laing's 'Journal' is, indeed, not a record of travel and adventure, +but a treatise, admirably written and replete with facts, in +demonstration of the great superiority of the Norwegian system of land +tenure over that of any other part of civilized Europe. His views have, +moreover, been to a great extent adopted in the numerous works that have +since been produced by British travellers who, after a rapid drive over +the main routes of Norway, have described in terms equally glowing the +happy and enviable condition of the <i>Bonde</i> or yeoman farmer of that +country.</p> + +<p>Considering there is much in common in regard to race, religion, +language, character, and civilization, between the inhabitants of that +interesting little country and its maritime neighbours—the populations, +more especially, of England and Scotland, it will be instructive, on the +eve of the agrarian revolution with which the United Kingdom is +threatened, to study and analyse the statements and conclusions of Mr. +Laing, and to trace the subsequent and present operation of the peculiar +land laws which he so highly extolled in the earlier part of this +century.</p> + +<p>With that object we proceed to describe, almost in Mr. Laing's own +words, the condition of the peasant proprietors of Norway at a period +(1835) when, out of a population of 1,194,827, only about eleven per +cent. inhabited towns, the land in rural districts being held by 103,192 +proprietors and tenants, the proportion of the two latter being +respectively seventy and thirty per cent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Norwegians,' wrote Mr. Laing, 'are the most interesting +and singular group of people in Europe. They live under +ancient laws and social arrangements totally different in +principle from those which regulate society and property in +the feudally constituted states. Their country is peculiarly +interesting to the political economist. It is the only part +of Europe in which property from the earliest ages has been +transmitted upon the principle of partition among all the +children. The feudal structure of society with its law of +primogeniture, and its privileged class of hereditary +nobles, never prevailed in Norway. In this remote corner of +the civilized world we may therefore see the effects upon +the condition of society of the peculiar distribution of +property; it will exhibit, on a small scale, what America +and France will be a thousand years hence.... Here are the +Highland glens without the Highland lairds.... If there be a +happy class of people in Europe it is the Norwegian <i>Bonde</i>, +king of his own land, and landlord as well as king.'</p></div> + +<p>This state of happiness is, according to Mr. Laing, the result of the +still existing <i>Odels ret</i> or Allodial Right, under which, he asserts, +the land of Norway was always the property of the people, not of a +feudal class of high nobility. But although this assertion does not much +affect the main and practical object of our enquiry, it may be as well +to point out at once that, whatever might have been the inherent right +of every Norwegian to a portion of the soil on which he was born, Dr. +Broch, an eminent native authority, maintains that a considerable +portion of the land belonged anciently to the kings of Norway, and had +been acquired, as in other countries, partly by confiscation from +nobles. Those lands were leased and, gradually, to a certain extent, +sold. In the days of Roman Catholicism, the Church also held great +landed estates, which the State appropriated at the Reformation. No +inconsiderable part of the State domains was then leased, and, in short, +before the middle of the seventeenth century, leases comprised a little +more than half of the landed property of the country; while even in +1814, they constituted one-third of it. Later, the State lands, and +those which had been distributed among nobles at the Reformation, were +repartitioned among the bulk of the population or sold.</p> + +<p>But to return to the <i>Odels ret</i>. It gives, Mr. Laing shows,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'to all the kindred of the Odelsmand in possession, in the +order of consanguinity, a certain interest in it. If the +Odelsmand should sell or alienate his land, the next of kin +is entitled to redeem it on paying the purchase-money; and +should he decline to do so, it is in the power of the one +next to him to claim his <i>Odelsbaarn ret.</i>'</p></div> + +<p>At the present time, the allodial right is acquired only by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> +uninterrupted possession of the same person, his descendants or his +wife, during a period of at least twenty years, and it is lost if the +property has been in strange hands for three years. Testamentary +dispositions, in the case of persons leaving issue, are now limited to +one quarter of the testator's property; whereas before 1854, a testator +could not bequeath anything individually. Since the year 1860, also, +there is perfect equality between the two sexes in the division of real +and personal property. At the period when Mr. Laing visited Norway, the +division of land among children had</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'not had the effect of reducing properties to the minimum +size that would barely support human existence. One sells to +the other and turns his capital and industry to pursuits +that would enable him to acquire the necessaries of life. +The heirs who sell, very often, instead of a sum of money, +which is seldom at the command of the parties, take a +life-rent payment or annuity of so much grain, the keep of +so many cows, so much firewood, a dwelling-house on the +property, or some equivalent of that kind. Few properties +have no such burthens.' He argued that 'in a country where +land is held, not in tenancy merely, as in Ireland, but in +full ownership, its aggregation by the death of co-heirs, +and by the marriages of female heirs,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> will balance its +subdivision by the equal succession of children; and also, +that in such a condition of society, the whole mass of +property would be found in such a State to consist of as +many estates of 1000<i>l.</i>, as many of 100<i>l.</i>, as many of 10<i>l.</i> a +year, at one period as at another.'</p> + +<p>'Norway,' our author urges, 'affords a strong confutation of +the dreaded excessive subdivision of land. Notwithstanding, +the partition system, continued for ages, it contains farms +of such extent that the owner possesses forty cows.'</p></div> + +<p>On the whole, the farms appeared to him to be of various sizes: many so +large that a bell was used to call the labourers to or from their work; +while some were so small as to have only a few sheaves of corn, or a rig +or two of potatoes, scattered among the trunks of the trees. These, +however, were occupied by the farm servants, or cotters, paying for +their houses and land in work (<i>Husmœna</i>). Twenty to forty cows could +be counted on the large farms. In the district of Verdal +(Trondhjemsfiord) Mr. Laing saw beautiful little farms of forty to fifty +acres, each having a pasturage or grass tract in the mountains, where +the cattle were kept during the summer until the crops were taken in, +and upon each such out-farm, or <i>Sœter</i>, there was a house and +regular dairy, to which, he informs us, 'the whole of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> cattle and +the dairy-maids, with their sweethearts, are sent to junket and to amuse +themselves for three or four months of the year.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> We can well believe +that, in such circumstances, Mr. Laing found 'this class of <i>Bönder</i> the +most interesting people in Norway,' and that 'there are none similar to +them in the feudal countries of Europe.' He appears to have been more +particularly impressed with</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'the farms large enough to keep a score of cows, six horses +and a small flock of sheep and goats, and to maintain a +family and servants in all that land usually produces, +leaving a surplus for sale sufficient to pay taxes, wages, +and to provide the comforts and necessaries of life to a +fair extent,' all which could be bought 'for 1000<i>l.</i> or +1200<i>l.</i>, or even less.'</p></div> + +<p>As regards the agricultural labourer, or cotter, Mr. Laing conceived +'his average condition to be that of holding land on which he could sow +three-quarters of an imperial quarter of corn and three imperial +quarters of potatoes, and which would enable him to keep two cows, or an +equivalent number of sheep or goats.' His wages are stated to have been +4-1/2<i>d.</i> to 6<i>d.</i> per diem, in addition to his food. It was consequently +'amusing to recollect the benevolent speculations in our Agricultural +Reports, of the Sir Johns and Sir Thomases in our midland counties of +England, for bettering the condition of labourers in husbandry, by +giving them, at a reasonable rent, a quarter of an acre of land to keep +a cow on, or by allowing them to cultivate the slips of land on the +roadside, outside of their hedges.' He also derides 'the agricultural +writers' who 'tell us, indeed, that labourers in agriculture are much +better off as farm servants, than they would be as small proprietors,' +for 'if property is a good and desirable thing, the very smallest +quantity of it is good and desirable.' It was obvious to Mr. Laing that +the forty families of two or three Norwegian highland glens, 'each +possessing and living on its own little spot of ground and farming well +or ill, as the case might be, were in a better and happier state, and +formed a more rationally constituted society, than if the whole belonged +to one of these families (and it would be no great estate), while the +other thirty-nine families were tenants and farmers.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Laing found the happy agricultural population of Norway<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> 'much +better lodged than our labouring and middling classes, even in the south +of Scotland;' and that no nation was at that period either better +housed, or so well provided with fuel. The standard of living appeared +to be higher in Norway than in most of our Scotch highland districts, +although the materials were the same, namely, oatmeal, barley meal, +potatoes, fish—fresh and salted—cheese, butter, and milk. He +understood that it was even usual for the yeoman farmers to have animal +food—'salt beef and black-puddings'—at least twice a week. At all +events, he says, four meals a day formed the regular fare, and with two +of those meals even the labourers had a glass of home-made brandy, +distilled from potatoes by the yeoman, who 'could malt and distil in +every way he pleased,' and thereby 'make free use of his agricultural +produce,' with the result of 'increasing the general prosperity, +improving the condition of the people, and promoting the increase of +their numbers.'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>There was, at the time of Mr. Laing's residence in Norway, 'small +difference in the way of living between high and low, because every man +lived from the produce of his farm, and observed the utmost simplicity +and economy with regard to everything that took money out of his +pocket.' Furniture and clothes, except the yeoman's Sunday hat, were all +home-made. 'Here was a whole population, in an old European country, +dealing direct with Nature, as it were, for every article, without the +intervention of money, or even of barter.' It was only the small yeomen +on the verge of the Fjeld, or in the glens, far above the level of the +land producing corn, and the inhabitants of districts less favoured by +nature, 'whose common bread consisted of the bark of trees, mixed and +ground up with ill-ripened oats; but even in their case, trout, dried +and salted for winter, was no inconsiderable part of their provision, +their houses being, at the same time, comfortable, though small, with +wooden floors and glass windows.</p> + +<p>Apart from these exceptionally situated proprietors, Mr. Laing found +there really was 'no difference between the residence of a public +functionary, of a clergyman, or of a gentleman of larger property and +that of a <i>Bonde</i>, or peasant. The latter are as well, as commodiously +and even showily, lodged as the former can be, and the properties are as +good.' Mr. Laing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> however, makes a reservation under this head in +respect of the 'cultivated classes,' as being indisputably superior in +mental acquirements to the yeoman farmer, and who lived in the same +manner as the corresponding classes in England.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of his stay in Norway, Mr. Laing often heard 'from the +most intelligent men in the country' that the yeoman farmer lived too +high; indulged too much in expensive luxuries, as coffee and sugar; in +frequent and expensive entertainments at each other's houses; in +carrioles, sledges, and harness of a costly kind; and even in a horse or +two more than the farm work required; and he certainly thought this had +resulted in a general want of money among them to pay even the most +trifling taxes and other sums. A man with land worth three or four +thousand dollars, and with horses, cows, and all sorts of products in +abundance, was often at a loss for five or ten dollars. Nevertheless, he +was of opinion that 'the increase of the tastes and habits which belong +to property tended to keep population within the bounds of what can be +comfortably subsisted, and without which the increase of subsistence +would tend to evil rather than good.' It was, indeed, 'a good thing that +they all had the ideas, habits, and character of people possessed of +independent property upon which they were living without any care about +increasing it, and free from the anxiety and fever of money making or +money losing.'</p> + +<p>Their subsistence, Mr. Laing exultingly and repeatedly points out, was +derived mainly from husbandry, carried on under less favourable +conditions of soil, climate, crops, and pasturage than in the Scotch +highlands;—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'but on the simple Norwegian system, to live on the produce +of the land being the main object, and the labourer (the +cotter) being paid chiefly in land, a good crop would be an +unmingled blessing; whereas in countries where agriculture +is carried on as a manufacture, a succession of good crops +may glut the markets, ruin the tenant, and even reduce the +money wages of the labourer. In Norway neither good nor bad +crops can affect the proportion of population to the land +that could in ordinary seasons subsist on it. Paying no +rent, the Norwegian yeoman farmer is not usually employed in +prospective improvements, but simply in raising food, so +that he can see at once whether the land is sufficient to +produce subsistence for himself and his labourers. If grain +and potatoes for the use of the farm, and a little surplus +for sale to pay the land-tax and buy luxuries with, can be +raised by the farm, all the purposes of farming in Norway +are answered.</p></div> + +<p>On the subject of pauperism, Mr. Laing alleges that 'the dread of +poverty was less influential in Norway, where extreme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> destitution is as +rare as great wealth, and where there is so much less difference in the +comforts and consideration of the richer and poorer classes.' The +indigent were farmed out for a week or so at a time among the yeomen +farmers, 'whose poor-rate like the tithes of the Church, was too +inconsiderable to mention.' The state of property, and its general +diffusion throughout the social body, had also, he had no doubt, a +beneficial effect on the moral condition of the people. 'The desire for +wealth being considerably blunted, it was not the same actuating, +engrossing principle of human action, the spring of much that was evil +and immoral being thus removed.' Only one case of downright +drunkenness—that of a Laplander—had come under his personal +observation, and it was only on special occasions that the yeoman farmer +could be seen a little elated. His theory, however (we may remark in +passing), respecting the influence of property on the moral condition of +the people is not supported by other facts which he quotes, namely, that +owing to the restraints upon marriage, 'exercised as in Paris or London, +by a high standard of living,' the 'proportion of illegitimate to +legitimate children in Norway was 1 in 5,' while in a parish he +specifies, it was (between 1826 and 1830) 'as high as 1 in 3-26/136.' He +mentions that engagements between couples lasted generally one, two, and +often several years, especially in the case of servants in husbandry +waiting for a house and land to settle in as cotters. In such cases, he +says, 'it too often happened that the privileged kindness between +betrothed parties was carried too far,' and 'the betrothed became a +mother before she was a wife.'</p> + +<p>We quit this painful phase of peasant proprietorship with the +observation that, notwithstanding a still wider diffusion of property +and of moral qualities which, according to Mr. Laing, that diffusion is +calculated to engender, 8.38<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> per cent. of the live children born in +Norway between 1866 and 1870 were born out of wedlock, the corresponding +proportion in 1836 having been 7.07 per cent. It is natural to find, +under these circumstances, that the marriage rate was 6.84 per 1000 of +the population in 1866-75 against 7.31 per 1000 between 1834 and 1836, +with a fractional decrease of the total number of births in the former +period, the average per family remaining slightly over four.</p> + +<p>The ancient Allodial Right and the happy social system based upon it, +Mr. Laing found jealously guarded by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> yeomanry, 'who have not only +the legislative power and the election of the Storthing' (or Parliament) +'almost entirely in their own hands, but also the whole civil business +of the community.' He may, therefore, well say, without fear of +contradiction, that 'the Norwegian people enjoy a greater share of +liberty, have the framing and administering of their own laws more +entirely in their own hands, than any European nation of the present +time;' and, further, that 'it is not a little extraordinary that almost +the only result' of the universal delirium of 1790,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> 'which approaches +in reality to the theories of that period, has been the Norwegian +Constitution.'</p> + +<p>The paramount influence of the agrarian class over the destinies of the +kingdom may be judged by the circumstances that the rural districts are +permanently represented in the Storthing by two-thirds of the total +number of members, limited by the Constitution to 114; and that +practically the suffrage is now universal, the principal conditions of +its possession being, under recent legislation, a qualification of age +(25 years) and a residence of five years in the country. It is well +known that the Parliament thus elected (under a system of double +election), with its <i>de facto</i> single Chamber, subdivided for the more +rapid and effective discharge of certain business into what Mr. Laing +chooses to call an 'Upper House' and a 'House of Commons,' has, within +very recent days, in virtue of the largely predominant rural, radical +vote, exercised its power of impeaching and punishing, by fine and +dismissal from office, an entire Cabinet, for the crime of having +advised the King that his veto was not merely suspensive, but absolute, +in the matter of any Bill affecting the principles of the Constitution, +and that the questions in dispute between the Sovereign and the +Storthing were of a constitutional character, involving indirectly not +only the stability of a monarchical form of government, but also that of +the personal union between the crowns of Norway and Sweden—a stability +pre-eminently essential in both respects to the highest interests of +Scandinavia, and in no small degree also to the maritime and political +interests of this country. It is this form of Parliament that Mr. Laing +extols 'as a working model of a constitutional government on a small +scale, and one which works so well as highly to deserve the +consideration of the people of Great Britain.'</p> + +<p>We have at last done with Mr. Laing's remarkable statements, views, and +recommendations; and the principal question we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> now have to consider is: +What is the latest phase (after an interval of half a century) of the +development of the peculiar social organization of Norway, and +especially of its system of land tenure, differing, as both do, from the +organization and system evolved out of feudality in Great Britain and +Ireland? We therefore intend to enquire: (1) Has the system of land +tenure in Norway prevented, as foretold by Mr. Laing, an excessive +subdivision of land? (2) Has a dead level of ease and contentment been +maintained? (3) Has the diffusion of land by a natural process, under +the widest form of home rule, kept the rural population of Norway within +the bounds of possible modern existence? (4) Has no pauperism affected +the taxation of landed property? and (5) generally, Is the Norwegian +yeoman farmer in a more thriving condition at the present time than the +tenants and agricultural labourers elsewhere, from whom is still +withheld the freehold possession of land to which, it is alleged by a +certain school of politicians, they have a natural right, disputed only +by monopolists and land-grabbers?</p> + +<p>These are the questions we shall endeavour to answer with the aid, +exclusively, of the latest publications of the Norwegian Government. We +must, however, preface our replies by sketching roughly the influences +that have sprung into operation since Mr. Laing published the Journal of +his residence in Norway.</p> + +<p>In his time the towns contained only about eleven per cent. of the total +population of the kingdom, whereas at the present moment the proportion +is double that of 1835.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> This urban agglomeration, Dr. Broch shows, +has been 'due principally to causes which have operated in the rest of +Europe. Facilitated means of communication promoted the migration of the +agricultural population towards the towns, where the development of +industry and commerce offered the lure of gains or salaries higher than +those in rural districts.' One of the causes, he justly adds, of the +displacement of the population has been the immense and laudable +progress of public instruction, 'and the growing taste for intellectual +and material enjoyments which gave a great force of attraction to the +towns.'</p> + +<p>As in other advancing countries, the attraction of towns, and the +facilities for obtaining employment in them, operate also in Norway, to +the disadvantage of the yeomen farmers of the present day. Among the +causes of the economic decline of the Province of North Bergen, the +Prefect mentions that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'the disinclination of young men of the yeoman farmer class +to take permanent service is very general in this district, +and is easily explained by the ease with which men in the +prime of their strength obtain occupation as labourers in +the fisheries. The great bulk of the day labourers do not +seek with any great eagerness for work in the fields, so +long as they hold previously acquired means sufficient to +provide them with the necessaries of life, however scantily. +As a rule, so long as want does not look in at the window, +they will not engage themselves for such work, except at +very good wages. The wages for a yearly labourer have +doubled during the last twenty years.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> At the same time +the houseman has lost the command he previously had over his +workmen, and consequently does not get the same amount of +work out of them as formerly. Fishing attracts labour by a +larger immediate return, acquired with less bodily exertion +than in husbandry. It gives the population less taste for +harder work.'</p></div> + +<p>We leave Mr. Laing in doubt whether the steam-engine could 'ever be +brought to perfection.' That doubt was speedily removed, and in 1852 +Norway followed in the wake of other European nations by building +railways, their total length in 1883 having reached very little short of +a thousand English miles. Nor did their construction, with capital +raised chiefly abroad and punctually repaid, arrest the improvement or +the laying down of ordinary roads, to the extent of 4000 miles, between +1845 and 1875. In addition to this extensive opening-out of +communication by rail and road, the introduction of steamers on inland +waters and their employment as coasters and sea-going vessels, the +construction of telegraphs, and development of fisheries, of ship +building, of banking and other companies, and generally of trade and +industry, produced gradually a wide disturbance in the social economy +found by Mr. Laing. The expansion and prosperity of the towns, as well +as the more refined habits of life adopted by the clergy and the +officials of Government, were viewed by the yeomen farmers with a +jealousy that was undoubtedly the original cause of their present +radical proclivities, the old conservatism being relegated to towns, +contrary to the experience of other European countries, and particularly +to that of Great Britain, until the metaphorical three acres and a cow +were dangled before the eyes of its rural population.</p> + +<p>Under all these influences, and we may include among them the effect of +a constantly-increasing number of travellers, equipped with the modern +appliances of civilization, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> demanding accommodation and other +material comforts of a more and more superior character, the Robinson +Crusoe existence of the yeoman farmer, as depicted by Mr. Laing, has +suffered so much invasion that it has well-nigh disappeared.</p> + +<p>In the matter of clothing, an assimilation to general, central European +dress has for years past been noticeable even in districts the most +remote, to the prejudice of home-spinning and weaving. Ancient silver +ornaments have been largely discarded by the women, and converted, first +into money, and eventually into articles of modern use or embellishment, +to an extent that now renders travellers more and more suspicious of the +Brummagem origin of the objects that remain for sale. And it is the same +with old furniture and with the multifarious knicknacks which travellers +less recent delighted to find in the country at reasonable prices.</p> + +<p>The value of money has become more generally appreciated since Mr. Laing +admired the absence of all incentive to 'money-making and money-losing,' +and the previously unambitious character of the yeoman and his sons has +undergone a tolerably complete change since education has opened out the +widest avenues to personal advancement, even from the plough. They no +longer live by bread alone, and therefore their artificial wants have +been increasing at a greater ratio than their means of satisfying them +out of the produce of the land. Without entering here upon the important +effect of the corn supplies from America, and of the depreciation of the +value of the Norwegian timber, owing to the increased competition of +America and other countries, we may sum up this imperfect prefatory +sketch by stating that, from a general point of view, the Gamle Norge +(Old Norway) of Mr. Laing's days has for many years been passing through +a process of transformation, the latest results of which we shall now +describe.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Laing's contention, that when land is held in freehold, not as a +rule in tenancy, the relative size or value of the estates into which +the land is divided will remain the same at one period as at another, is +entirely refuted by the official statistics of Norway. In the first +place, the total number of properties,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> which was about 111,000 in 1838, +had grown, in 1870, to 149,000 (34-1/2 per cent.), and is still higher +at the present day, with a continued tendency to multiplication by +partition. Secondly, the proportion that existed in 1838 between the +various sizes of agricultural holdings has undergone a notable change, +marking a very considerable increase in the relative number of small +plots.</p> + +<p>As it was found practically impossible to estimate the value of landed +property on the basis of its acreage (the physical conditions of the +country giving such great variety to the value of estates), the +'Cadastre' introduced in 1836, established, for purposes of assessment, +a classification based on 'skylddaler,' or taxable, value. This unit of +taxation was assumed to represent a mean capital value of about 89<i>l.</i>, +arrived at by estimating the net income derived at that period from the +working of land during an average year.</p> + +<p>The following statement exhibits the cadastral classification of +properties,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and the changes that have occurred in the several groups +between 1838 and 1870.</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>1838.</td><td align='left'>1870.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Estates</td><td align='left'>below</td><td align='right'>0.2</td><td align='left'>skylddaler</td><td align='right'>in</td><td align='left'> value</td><td align='right'>8,866</td><td align='right'>26,048</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>between</td><td align='right'>0.2</td><td align='center'>and</td><td align='right'>1</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>31,265</td><td align='right'>52,067</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>28,652</td><td align='right'>33,427</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>32,854</td><td align='right'>29,498</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'> 10</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7,043</td><td align='right'>6,012</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>10</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'> 20</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,791</td><td align='right'>1,617</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>above</td><td align='right'>20</td><td align='center'></td><td align='center'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>315</td><td align='right'>344</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>110,786</td><td align='right'>149,013</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>It is thus evident that, even fifteen years ago, the increase in the +total number of properties, as compared with the number in 1838, had +affected only the three groups of smaller holdings, and particularly the +group (below 0.2) which, according to Dr. Broch, 'includes the sites of +houses and cottages owned by labourers, fishermen, seamen, and artizans, +but estimated to yield an average of 5-1/2 bushels of corn, 8 bushels of +potatoes, and grass for half a cow. The holdings more purely +agricultural, and designated by the same authority as 'small +properties,' are those comprised in the two next categories, namely, +parcels of land over 0.2 and under 2 skylddaler in value. In 1870, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> +find that a little more than one-half of the landed properties in Norway +and one-third of the total cadastral area, were included in those two +groups. The average yield of those small properties is estimated by Dr. +Broch at '55 bushels (20 hectol) of cereals, and 82-1/2 bushels (30 +hectol) of potatoes, with fodder for four cows, seven sheep or goats, +and half a horse.' He states, nevertheless, that—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'without subsidiary means of existence, the most frugal +families cannot subsist on them, even when free from debt +and other incumbrances. There can be no question of +employing hired labour on such farms, although a domestic +servant is sometimes kept. The owners or tenants of such +small properties seek their principal means of existence in +fishing, forest work, and a variety of other occupations.'</p></div> + +<p>The group of properties more particularly admired by Mr. Laing is that +which is officially classed under 'Properties of medium size,' ranging +between two and ten skylddaler in cadastral value. They represented in +1870 only 24 per cent. of the total number of properties, but 59 per +cent. of the cadastral area of Norway. These are the farms which can, on +an average, feed fifteen head of cattle, thirty or forty sheep or goats, +and a couple of pigs, and yield 30 imperial quarters of cereals, 40 +imperial quarters of potatoes, and fodder for a couple of horses.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Agriculture on these properties,' continues Dr. Broch, 'is +not only the most important means of existence, but also in +many cases the only resource. <i>They suffice for a family of +simple habits, provided the proprietor is not crippled with +debt, that he has not to pay too heavy "föderåa"</i> +(annuities, incumbrances) <i>and on condition that he lives as +a peasant, assisting personally in the work of the +firm</i>,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p></div> + +<p>Estates of an assessed value of more than ten 'skylddaler' are +designated as 'Large Properties.' They cover 13.4 per cent. of the total +cadastral area, but represent only 1.3 per cent. of the total number of +properties; and it is exclusively these that afford, according to Dr. +Broch, 'easy circumstances to their possessors, who are not infrequently +ship-owners, forest-owners, engaged in the fishery-trade,' <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>&c.</p> + +<p>It is thus manifest that, in 1878, when Dr. Broch drew up his Report for +the Universal Exhibition at Paris, the diffusion of property in Norway +had left only about 25 per cent. of the yeomen farmers (excluding the +group of 'Large Properties') capable of maintaining themselves and their +families on their freeholds on conditions which, as we shall presently +show, no longer exist, and that the great bulk of the landed proprietors +were in occupation of such small patches of land that their subsistence +was entirely dependent upon other employments. This view is very fully +borne out by the 'Reports of the Norwegian Prefects for the Quinquennial +Period 1876-80.' Their observations on the growing subdivision of land +as one of the causes by which the agricultural economy has been +disturbed, to its great disadvantage, are well worth attention.</p> + +<p>An increasing subdivision of land is reported from the provinces of +North Bergen, Romsdal, South Trondhjem, and Tromsö. The Prefect of North +Bergen points to it as one of the reasons of the unfavorable condition +of the province:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It may,' he writes, 'with just cause be said to exist when +the properties parcelled out are insufficient for the +maintenance of a family, and when the farms are situated in +a locality which does not afford the opportunity of some +kind of subsidiary employment, or if the proprietor of such +a small holding cannot attach himself to another man as a +labourer for hire. When utilised, however, by the +inhabitants of the coast, such subdivision cannot be +regarded as excessive, for the owners of the small patches +are able to obtain for themselves and their families the +necessaries of life by fishing. When, however, a landowner, +on account of the insignificant extent or the small +productiveness of his farm, finds himself unable to subsist +without seeking the wages of a labourer, his position is not +better, or but little better, than that of the cotter +(Husmand) alongside of him, notwithstanding that the latter +is not owner of the land he cultivates. It is a matter of +course that such farmers will be destitute of economical +power, and unable to give the communal or the provincial +exchequer any visible contribution towards the funds that +have to be raised in order to meet the public expenditure. +The existence of such small proprietors is not, on the +whole, desirable.'</p></div> + +<p>In the province of South Trondhjem the great increase of the +indebtedness of the landowners is ascribed in part to the subdivision of +property by the creation of <i>Myrmœnd</i>, literally 'bogmen' +(bog-trotters?), or men supplied gratuitously, in recent times, with +small plots of waste land, for the purpose of qualifying them as voters. +Subdivision has likewise resulted from the partition of holdings in +common, which, according to Dr. Broch, formed, in 1870, 13.4 per cent. +of all the properties in Norway; principally in the Western Provinces, +from the Naze to the Fiord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> of Trondhjem, where they constituted at that +period, on the average as much as 30 per cent. of the landed property. +Under a law passed in 1857, those lands are now divisible or +exchangeable, and it appears from the report of the Prefects that the +demands in that direction cannot be satisfied by the Government +officials with sufficient promptness. In the province of South +Trondhjem, for instance, about 40 per cent. of the properties were still +held in common in 1875, but between 1876 and 1880 the partition of such +lands was advancing 'at the rate of about twenty farms per annum.'</p> + +<p>The Prefect of Romsdal enumerates the causes of an increasing +subdivision of landed property as follows: 1. The clearing of land for +fields and meadows with the view of affording support to more families +than one. 2. The desire of a proprietor to let more of his children than +the nearest <i>Odelsberretige</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> come into the possession of his estate. +3. In the case of an indebted proprietor, the necessity of parting with +a portion of his land in order to get clear of his creditors; and 4. The +desire on the part of persons who have no real property to come into the +possession of land, especially tenants and cotters. The yeomen farmers +themselves, he reports:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'bring forward as a substantial reason for the increasing +subdivision of land the fact that, owing to the growing +difficulty of obtaining labourers, <i>it does not pay to +remain in possession of a larger estate than can be worked +by the family itself</i>.'</p></div> + +<p>Consequently, the number of holdings was increased in that province by +nearly 10 per cent. between 1876 and 1880. A corroboration of this view +is to be found in other Reports, particularly in the Report from the +Province of North Trondhjem, in which the yeomen farmers are declared to +be compelled to 'cultivate the land with the resources of their own +households.' The effect of the conversion of cotters into small +proprietors may be estimated from the following opinion of another +Prefect: 'The burden of bad times is often felt more heavily by the +proprietor than by the cotter;' and all the Reports show that 'the +times' are as bad in Norway as they are in the United Kingdom, with this +aggravation, that 70 to 80 per cent. of the population of Norway is +settled on the land, and steeped in debt.</p> + +<p>Most of the Prefects report unfavourably on the condition and prospects +of agriculture, and on the depressing influence of American competition +in corn, which began to make itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> distinctly felt about the year +1875,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> when also the forest industry, so intimately connected with +agriculture, first encountered the effects of a greatly increased +shipment of timber from America and other countries to Europe. But these +are not the only reasons, over and above the subdivision of property +already dwelt upon, to which they ascribe a very general decline in the +economic condition of the yeomen farmer. In one province, 'habits of +thrift and providence had been awakened and replaced by new habits of +life, with greater demands for comforts and enjoyments.' High prices +previously realized for timber had caused luxury to enter into all the +circumstances of life, stimulating in many quarters a reckless waste of +money earned.' In another, 'the demand for comforts of life has risen, +and it is not all that have found it easy to limit the satisfaction of +their wants,' and 'more has been consumed than means allowed.' The +female part, more particularly, of the population of North Bergen, is +reproached with an inability to withstand the temptation of buying the +wares of all kinds, 'neither useful nor necessary,' which the present +great number of country storekeepers insidiously placed before their +eyes. 'The improved mode of living introduced during a previous, +flourishing period, has also contributed to ruin the economic condition +of the people, who in the harder times that have succeeded have not +known how to cut their coats according to their cloth.' At the same +time, the Prefect adds, 'the mode of living, taking the rural population +as a whole, is very frugal; yes, far too frugal. It is very desirable +that they should have more substantial food than they have at present, +but they must first have the means to obtain it.' Even so far north as +the Provinces of Nordland and Tromsö, a similar tendency to live beyond +means, the absence of good economy, and the dissipation of money 'on no +particular system,' are reported to be the present characteristics of +the people who are largely engaged in the fisheries.</p> + +<p>No one who has travelled in Norway can fail to endorse the assertion, +that the fare of the yeomen farmer, however many may be his cows, is of +a character which no English agricultural labourer would be satisfied +with. Oatmeal cakes, potatoes, porridge, butter and milk, and of late +years American pork (when within reach of the yeoman's means) are the +principal articles of food; and the hardiest traveller, whether native +or alien, would not venture to leave the main arteries of communication +without making his own provision of potted meats, or trusting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> for his +sustenance to the fish and game to be killed by himself. Mr. Laing's +'salted meat and black-puddings' are certainly not to be found, except +at farms that are few and far between. On the high roads, where +tourists' gold circulates, the traveller suffers no deprivation, and the +houses and stations are so comfortable and well-appointed, that only the +most exacting foreigner can find fault with the accommodation provided. +Mr. Laing's observations in this respect apply at present only to +establishments of this kind, and to the very few farms at which the +servants are still 'called to and from their work by means of a bell.'</p> + +<p>Except, therefore, along the course of the tourists' gold stream, and in +the vicinity of towns, the mode of living is rude in the extreme, and +the lament of the Prefect of North Bergen is in reality applicable to +the great bulk of the yeomen farmers of Norway, as well as to their +tenants and cotters. Nor is there any trace of that equality in the mode +of living which Mr. Laing found in existence among the several classes +of the rural population—'the public functionary, the clergyman, the +gentleman of larger property, and the <i>Bonde</i> or peasant.' Refinement +and culture, equal to what exists amongst corresponding classes of this +country, are wanting only to the yeomen farmers; and their efforts to +adopt a 'higher standard of living,' and to acquire the 'comforts of +life,' have in no small degree conduced to the encumbrance of their +estates. From the Reports of the Prefects it is evident that the gravest +symptom of the decline of the rural economy in Norway, and, at the same +time, one of its principle causes, is the heavy indebtedness of the +yeomen farmers, great and small. Its origin is traceable to the year +1816, when the Bank of Norway was founded, chiefly for the purpose of +'advancing on its own notes, upon first securities over land, any sum +not exceeding two-thirds of the value of the property' mortgaged to it. +Mr. Laing alludes to it as 'the peculiar, and for the wants of the +country, well-imagined, Bank of Norway,' which 'facilitates greatly the +family arrangements with regard to land.' Its capital was originally +raised by a forced loan or tax upon all landed property, and the +landholders became shareholders according to the amount of their +respective shares. The borrower repaid half-yearly to the Bank the +interest of the sum that might be to his debit at the rate of 4 per +cent. per annum, and was also bound to pay off 5 per cent. yearly of the +principal, which was thus liquidated in twenty years. Although Mr. Laing +was of opinion that 'a circulation of paper money on such a basis is +evidently next, in point of security, to that of the precious metals,' +he fails to mention that the Bank was forced to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> suspend specie payments +three years after its establishment, and that the resumption of those +payments was not commenced until 1823, when the notes of the Bank began +to be convertible at little over half their original value; the +operation of raising them to par, on a graduated scale, having been +completed only in 1842, a period since which the Bank, with an increased +Reserve Fund, has maintained an uninterrupted and unimpeachable +stability. But while the Bank still advances money on the security of +landed property, two-thirds of its resources are now employed in the +discount of mercantile bills. At the end of 1883, its loans to the +landed proprietors amounted only to 626,000<i>l.</i></p> + +<p>In 1852, however, the State had come again to the assistance of the +landowners for the extinction of private mortgages and the consolidation +of old debts by the creation of a special 'State Mortgage Bank,' with an +original capital of 291,000<i>l.</i>, increased by successive issues of bonds +representing advances on the security of real property, bearing interest +at the rate of 4 per cent, (at present 4-1/2 per cent.), and repayable +by drawings over a period of thirty years. The amount of the bonds +issued up to 1884 was about 3,812,000<i>l.</i>, and in 1878 about +three-quarters of the bonds were held in the country itself, their +market value being still almost at par.</p> + +<p>It is principally into this Bank that the yeomen farmers have been +dipping their estates at a rapidly increasing rate. Thus, while the +loans on the security of real property in rural districts averaged +57,500<i>l.</i> per annum between 1853 and 1855, and 220,600<i>l.</i> between 1876 and +1880, the advances made in 1883 amounted to 396,500<i>l.</i> At the end of that +year the balance of outstanding loans had reached the sum of +3,752,000<i>l.</i>, of which about 77 per cent., or 2,889,000<i>l.</i>, represented +advances in rural districts, the remaining 23 per cent, having been +borrowed in towns. The interest payable on those loans is respectively +4-1/4 and 4-3/4 per cent., according to whether the borrowers have been +supplied with bonds bearing interest at the rate of 4 or 4-1/2 per cent. +per annum; and 3 per cent. of the capital is repayable per annum until +the extinction of the debt over a period of thirty years.</p> + +<p>There is a third public source available to the landed proprietors for +loans on mortgages and on bonds or bills, namely the Savings Banks. In +1884, the savings-banks, in rural districts alone, held in 'mortgage +bonds' and in 'bonds and bills' a sum of about 3,553,000<i>l.</i>; but in what +proportion that debt was incurred by local traders and by farmers, it is +impossible to say. It is, however, clear that the yeomen farmers have +benefited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> largely by the deposits made in those banks by the +comparatively few who have been able to accumulate, instead of +borrowing, money. Thus, the Prefect of Hedemarken reports that, 'while +large amounts, realized by the sale of timber, were deposited in the +savings-banks, extensive loans were made by those establishments to +persons in less favourable circumstances,' and that 'the savings-banks, +to be found in so many parishes, have, by the easy access they afford to +loans, beguiled many into a needless borrowing of money, subsequently +squandered.'</p> + +<p>Over and above these facilities for borrowing money from public +institutions, the yeomen farmers are undoubtedly heavily in debt to +local storekeepers, and to merchants and traders in the towns. In fact +the great bulk of the landed proprietors have been borrowing in every +direction as much as they could raise by mortgage or by bill. Owing to +the excellent system of registration that exists in Norway, there is no +difficulty in ascertaining the extent to which the charges on real +property in rural districts have increased between the years 1876 and +1880. It appears from the Reports of the Prefects that, between those +dates, the balance of mortgages newly effected over those extinguished +in rural districts amounted to a sum of about four millions sterling. +The State Mortgage Bank is bound not to advance more than six-tenths of +the value of land and buildings (forests excepted), and it is supposed +that the loans have so far not exceeded four-tenths of the value of +mortgaged property; but as the yeomen farmers generally contrive to +borrow on second mortgages, it may safely be assumed, that their estates +are charged with interest at 4-1/4 to 6 per cent. on a considerable part +of the nominal value of what is not purely forest land, in addition to +an annual repayment of 3 per cent. of the capital borrowed from the +State Mortgage Bank. The forests, on the other hand, have been largely +used up in paying the interest and capital on those loans, either by +cutting them down, or by leasing or pawning them to traders, or to +yeomen who have been able to keep their heads above water and to profit +by the economic distress of the great majority of their +fellow-landowners. The difficulty experienced by that majority in +meeting the payment of interest and capital, especially at a time when +the value of agricultural produce has been considerably diminished by +American competition, and when also the competition of American and +Baltic timber has simultaneously reduced the profits of the forest +industry to a point that hardly repays the felling of trees, is clearly +shown from the statistics of forced sales, of auctions and of distraints +in the rural districts, and from an accompanying increase in the number +of lawsuits before Courts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> of First Instance. It appears from the +Reports of the Prefects that the sales of real property for debt have +increased in every Province between the two periods 1871-1875 and +1876-1880 to an extent that ranges from 30 per cent. to 600 per cent., +the greatest increase having taken place in the Provinces of +Kristiansamt (600 per cent.), Norland, Nedenæs, Buskerud, Hedemarken and +Akershus, where it ranged between 600 per cent. and 146 per cent. From +another official source we obtain the following statement:—</p> + +<h4>1876-1880.</h4> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Number.</td><td align='left'>Amount.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1. Compulsory sales of real property in rural districts.</td><td align='right'>2513</td><td align='right'>563,000<i>l.</i></td><td align='right'> averaging 224<i>l.</i> per sale.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2. Do. of personal property.</td><td align='right'>5136</td><td align='right'>134,000<i>l.</i></td><td align='right'> ditto 26<i>l.</i> per sale.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3. Distraints for arrears of taxes, &c.</td><td align='center'>—</td><td align='right'>1,089,000<i>l.</i></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>But since real property is of comparatively low value in Norway, and +personal property limited mostly to the veriest necessities of life, it +is not so much the total of the amounts realized by forced sales, or the +sums for which 'executions' and 'distraints' were effected, that give +the measure of the depressed condition of the yeomen farmers, as the +great and steady increase that took place between 1876 and 1880 in the +number of those operations. Thus, while the number of forced sales of +real property in towns, as well as in rural districts, was 424 in 1876, +it had grown to 1378 in 1880. It is therefore not surprising to find in +the Reports of the Prefects from which we have so largely drawn our +figures that 'the means of meeting liabilities and of paying taxes at +the proper time have grown more feeble, and recourse to legal +enforcement of pecuniary claims has consequently become more frequent.' +'The condition of this Province' (Kristiansamt) 'is all the worse from a +pretty widespread misuse of credit during the previous period' +(1871-75). In another province (N. Bergen) we find that the depression +in 1879 and 1880 'compelled those who had claims to enforce them +rigorously. Mortgages, distraints, sales, &c., have therefore increased, +and there has been an exceptionally, large number of suits before the +Courts of Mutual Agreement. 'The value of agricultural produce has +fallen, owing to a great extent to a scarcity of money and to great +competition from a desire to convert as much produce as possible into +money.' In the northern province of Tromsö 'merchants have suffered from +the impoverishment of their customers' (mostly fishermen as well as +landowners), 'and have caused them to be made bankrupts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> Credit has +been misused on a large scale. Its facility induces the population to +live beyond its means. It also encourages traders to set up in business +and get customers with ease, without having capital or means of their +own. The one misuse reacts on the other. All products are sunk +considerably in value, and this fall is even greater in the case of real +estate.'</p> + +<p>The latter statement is not generally applicable to the remaining +provinces, for we find that while the average value of the 'skylddaler,' +or unit of assessment, was 153<i>l.</i>,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> according to prices paid for land +in 1871-1875, it has risen to about 180<i>l.</i> in 1876-1880, thus confuting +Mr. Laing's theory, that the peculiar succession of property would tend +to keep land at a low value. It would not, however, be right to conclude +from these figures that landed property has, on the whole, increased of +late years in value, despite the general indebtedness of its owners. +Land in the vicinity of towns and railways must naturally become more +and more valuable, and the relatively much higher prices paid for such +land have no doubt had the effect of raising the total average deduced +from sales of every description of landed property. It may also be +assumed that the demand for land is artificially increased by the +facility with which it may be purchased, since at least one-half of the +purchase money generally remains on mortgage, in addition to other +encumbrances. At the same time, the financial institutions, to which so +large a proportion of the real property in Norway is mortgaged, are +interested in maintaining its value, and attain their object by +abstaining from offering at any one period too many defaulting +properties for sale; and it may also be suspected that the statistics of +forced sales represent only cases in which no compromise could be +effected, or in which it was expedient or possible to have recourse to +the ultimate means of recovery without sensibly deteriorating locally +the value of landed property. Cases are, in fact, not infrequent in +which the mortgagees find themselves compelled to retain the property of +the defaulter, and either to place it in the hands of caretakers, with +the hope of future realization on more favourable terms, or to sell it +in small lots as opportunity occurs. In any case, the full and exact +effect of the pawning of all the landed property of the country at a +time when its agriculture has to compete with American cereals, its +timber industry with supplies from America and the Baltic, and its +wooden ships with iron steamers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> transporting cargoes at an almost +nominal freight, is not yet to be found in statistical records.</p> + +<p>The indisputable fact remains that, notwithstanding the existence of a +system of land tenure which, according to Mr. Laing, was so perfect +between 1834 and 1836 as to render its adoption in this country, and +especially in Ireland, highly desirable, the yeomen farmers of +Norway—framers of their own laws and absolute masters of their own +destinies—are not only at present suffering from the commercial and +agricultural depression that obtains in other countries of Europe, in +which the social state is more or less differently constituted, but also +find themselves, in face of that depression, with exceptionally heavy +burdens on their backs in the form of pecuniary indebtedness at a rate +of interest which mere agriculture, under the most favourable +circumstances, cannot possibly afford to pay.</p> + +<p>This heavy indebtedness has not, as a rule, been incurred for productive +purposes, such as drainage, improved methods of agriculture, the +increase of stock, &c.; and although the use of simple agricultural +machinery is somewhat on the increase in Norway, yet agriculture remains +very much in the same primitive condition in which it was found by Mr. +Laing.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> The Prefects attribute this backwardness to want of skill on +the part of the proprietors (Romsdal), to the poverty of the soil, to +the dearness of agricultural labour, and generally to the unremunerative +results of husbandry since the depreciation of the value of its +products. In a letter addressed last year to the 'Morgenblad,' the +leading Journal at Christiania, by a native authority on the subject of +agriculture, it is urged that the landed proprietors of Norway have 'for +some years past been going down hill;' the hopes of improving the +condition of agriculture, entertained about thirty years ago, when +efforts were first commenced in that direction, being now entirely +dissipated.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It is painful,' he says 'to see how the forests are +decreasing and how land once under cultivation is lying +unused. When asked the reason, the proprietors reply that +the prices of corn and other agricultural products are so +low and the wages of labour so high, owing to emigration, +that they have not the means to cultivate a large portion of +the land, and could derive no advantage from it even if the +means were available.'</p></div> + +<p>The yeomen farmers, being therefore in a distressed condition,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> and +their children and best hands forced to leave their homes in order to +cultivate the fruitful soil of America, to the growing detriment of +those who remain to till the soil of Norway—those farmers, he points +out with great force of argument, must have the same protection which is +accorded to the industrial classes, if agriculture is to be saved from +final ruin. In fact, this remarkable letter points to an agitation in +favour of the imposition of a 'fiscal duty,'<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> on corn, food of all +kind, cattle, dairy produce, &c.; and supports this conclusion with the +argument used by Prince Bismarck on the second reading of his recent +Corn Duties Bill:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The trade of the Baltic will suffer nothing from protective +duties. As regards agriculture, I am opposed to all +legislation against the subdivision of land ... but if you +want to have small occupiers of land, you must vote for +duties on corn.'</p></div> + +<p>Account must at the same time be taken of the heavy and increasing +charges that fall on landed property for the administration of rural +districts in Norway. While the inhabitants of the rural communities +contribute towards the support of the Central Administration only in the +form of Customs and Excise duties, stamps, succession duties, and +contributions towards the construction of highways, the burthen of local +administration, justice, police, prisons, the Church, public +instruction, poor relief, sanitary service, parochial roads, posting +stations, interest on communal loans, &c., falls on their landed +property. This self-assessed and self-imposed burthen has naturally been +growing more heavy, from year to year, under the exigencies of modern +progress. Thus, while the total communal expenditure in 1853 was +167,000<i>l.</i>, it had risen to 497,000<i>l.</i> in 1880, or 197-1/2 per cent. About +one half of the requisite resources is derived from a tax on the +cadastral value of real property; the remaining half is raised by a tax +on capital and income. In 1880 the communal impositions on land +represented a taxation of about 6<i>s.</i> 7d. per head of the rural +population. That the whole of the communal expenditure is not covered by +taxation is apparent from the fact, that in the same year the rural +districts had increased the amount of their total debts to about half a +million sterling, from 312,000<i>l.</i> in 1874.</p> + +<p>In this respect it is certainly significant to discover that Poor +Relief, organized by a law passed in 1863, is the largest item of +communal expenditure, being indeed very little less than half of the +total annual liabilities of the rural districts, in a country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> in which, +in the halcyon days of Mr. Laing, only the infirm were supported for a +few days at a time by the yeomen farmers. He appears to have attributed +this to the absence of collieries, the introduction of coal as fuel +having, he argues, been coëval in England with the imposition of a rate +for the poor, deprived by that industry of the work of chopping up +firewood which gave so much employment to idle hands in Norway. However +that might be, in 1880 and 1881 the number of persons in receipt of +relief or maintained in hospital, at the charge of rural communities +alone, was respectively 109,688 and about 114,000, or in both years a +little over 7 per cent. of the total rural population. Inclusive of +urban districts the same totals amounted in those years to 81 and 83 per +1000, or above 8 per cent. of the population of the kingdom, the cost of +support having been about 3<i>s.</i> 10<i>d.</i> per head of the entire population, +which contributed 2<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> per head in special taxation for that object, +and the balance in an indirect manner, apparently by housing paupers, +&c.</p> + +<p>These paupers include cotters and labourers, as well as the ruined among +the smaller yeomen. Farmers who had previously been able to employ +labour, 'no longer find their advantage in it,' and consequently—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'even able-bodied workmen (in Hedemarken) were compelled to +seek relief from the Poor Fund when their families were +large. The smaller farmers and the labourers are in the +worst plight, since the falling off in the timber trade has +made them feel the want of the usual steady demand for +labour at high wages.' Further: 'it has become very +difficult for the least affluent and for labourers to gain a +livelihood in the prevailing money and timber crisis.... The +depression must for a long time be felt by many.</p></div> + +<p>We need only point out that, in the United Kingdom, the percentage of +persons in receipt of relief during the year 1881 was 3 per cent. in +England and Wales, 2.6 per cent. in Scotland, and 11 per cent. in +Ireland,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> involving an expenditure at the rate respectively of 6<i>s.</i> +3d., 4<i>s.</i> 6d., and 3<i>s.</i> 9d. per head of population.</p> + +<p>Obviously, the relatively greater cost of relieving the poor in Great +Britain is due to the more expensive character of the support afforded, +and to the very heavy sums paid for salaries and other establishment +charges; but it is unquestionably a damaging fact against the system of +land tenure in Norway, that the pauperism by which it is in the present +day accompanied, with a strong tendency to increase, is equalled only by +the state<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> of things in Ireland, which certain legislators now desire to +remedy by the creation of peasant proprietors.</p> + +<p>The relative state of matters in Great Britain and in Norway has +therefore greatly changed since Mr. Laing wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The distribution of the wealth and employment of a country +has much more to do, than the amount, with the well-being +and condition of the people. The wealth and employment of +the British nation far exceed those of any other nation; yet +in no country is so large a proportion of the inhabitants +sunk in pauperism and wretchedness.'</p></div> + +<p>An increasing rate of pauperism is one of the symptoms of agricultural +distress in Norway, but the strong tide of emigration from rural and +urban districts marks with equal force the depression and congestion +from which the country is suffering in the same degree as the United +Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Aided by improved and cheapened +means of transport, the number of emigrants from Norway ranged between +20,212 in 1880 and 22,167 in 1883, giving an average of 1.3 to 1.5 per +cent. of the total population, the contingent of the rural districts +being about 70 per cent. of the total number. As in the case of +pauperism, the corresponding rate of emigration from Ireland, namely 1.5 +per cent., exhibits a remarkable similarity, and affords another +convincing proof that peasant proprietorship is no <i>panacea</i> for rustic +indigence.</p> + +<p>Those who have not studied the present economic condition of the yeoman +farmer and agricultural labourer in Norway, or who have not taken into +consideration the change that has come over the entire country, and the +ambition, as distinguished from previous apathy, which education and +communication with an outer world, no longer closed to them, has +awakened among the classes with which we are dealing, are inclined to +attribute a good part of this emigrating tendency to the influence and +the material assistance of those who have gone before. Indisputably, the +Norwegian emigrant, by his persevering labour and steady conduct, rarely +fails to succeed in Wisconsin and other States, in which he is always a +welcome settler; and consequently he soon finds himself able to transmit +money for the purpose of enabling his brothers and sisters, and not +seldom his father and mother, to join him. No State or other aid is +afforded for such purposes to Norwegians, although it is occasionally +the case, that the hard cash with which the emigrant leaves his home is +derived from the proceeds of a loan raised by the head of his family for +the purpose of buying out co-heirs under the <i>Odels ret</i>, adding +thereby, as we have already shown, to the indebtedness with which the +land is burdened. Others, also, maintain that many young men emigrate +from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> Norway in order to avoid military conscription, which, although +milder there in its demands than in most other European countries where +that system exists, undoubtedly diminishes the quantity and deteriorates +the quality of agricultural labour. The strongest incentive to +emigration, however, is the desire to escape from the misery and penury +which accompany in Norway, as in every other part of Europe, the +condition of a small landowner, cotter, or labourer who is unable to +find regular employment on adjoining estates that can be kept going, if +nothing more, with the aid of scientific knowledge, machinery and +capital.</p> + +<p>There is, however, yet another proof of the prevalent material <i>malaise</i> +in Norway, particularly among its rural classes, and strangely enough it +bears the same character as that which has brought the 'three acres and +a cow' and Irish land bills, past and expected, into such prominent +relief in our country of lack-lands, namely political agitation. +Whatever may be its merits or demerits on this side of the North Sea, +our readers will scarcely be prepared to learn that a corresponding +ferment has been engendered of late years on the opposite shores. We are +told this by the Prefect of South Trondhjem, one of the most important +provinces of a country where, in the days of Mr. Laing, there was a +dead-level of contentment, where the widest form of home-rule has been +in operation since the early part of the present century, and where the +Crown Administration has all that time been more pure, blameless and +efficient than in any other country on the Continent of Europe. His +significant words are:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'As everywhere else in Norway, particularly in rural +districts, politicians (<i>i. e. agitators</i>) are here taking +more and more hold over the minds of the people. Political +unrest increases, and immature and extreme opinions are +being advanced more than is desirable. The quiet, temperate, +but progressive development to which Norway had previously +been accustomed, and with which the great bulk of the nation +had been well content, is in danger of being replaced by a +progress in fits and starts, accompanied by leaps in the +dark.'</p></div> + +<p>No less painful and suggestive is it to find, in the Report from the +Prefect of Hedemarken, that 'the Christian earnestness of the people has +suffered under the influence of the many misleading writings and +tendencies which have in recent times found their way into every stratum +of society.' As at home, so in Norway, the question of Church +Disestablishment, with all its consequences, is approaching within +measurable distance of practical solution.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span></p> +<p>Supported by official publications, we have now described the present +condition of the yeomen farmers of Norway, and from the facts and +figures we have marshalled, the following replies may confidently be +given to the Socialistic theories and conclusions of Mr. Laing:</p> + +<p>1. Notwithstanding, or rather in part owing to, the existence of the +Allodial Right [which has proved in its results to be an exaggerated +form of primogeniture involving a greater multiplication of encumbrances +even than exists under the system of land tenure in the United Kingdom], +an excessive subdivision of the land has occurred and is still +proceeding in Norway, to the prejudice of estates which in 1836, and +even later, afforded moderate ease and contentment to their owners, and +relatively well remunerated labour to the workman and the cotter.</p> + +<p>2. The dead-level of comfortable subsistence, attributed by Mr. Laing to +the parcelling-out of land into small estates, has been converted, by +the influence of irresistible economic laws, into one of general +distress and discontent among the rural classes.</p> + +<p>3. The rates of pauperism and emigration prove that the agrarian +population has not, as prophesied by Mr. Laing, kept 'within the bounds +of possible modern existence.'</p> + +<p>4. The taxation of landed property, for local purposes, has greatly +increased, particularly under the head of Poor Relief; and</p> + +<p>5. The distressed condition of the yeoman farmer in Norway is strongly +attested by his heavy and growing indebtedness. He may now, in fact, be +classed with the proverbially derided Fife laird, owning 'A wee bit of +land, a great lump of debt, and a dookit.'<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>Such being the result of our enquiries into the economic condition of +the great bulk of the yeoman farmers of Norway, the ideal fabric reared +by Mr. Laing at a time when the Norse old world was still asleep, falls +utterly to the ground, and there remains but one of his statements that +we can with any advantage submit to the earnest attention of our +readers, namely, that '<i>A single fact brought home from such a country +is worth a volume of speculations.</i>' We go further and say, that facts +in relation to the question of land tenure collected in any other part +of Europe are of equally inestimable value; and they have already been +supplied in great abundance from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and +Switzerland.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Nothing can truly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> be more fatal to the successful +solution of such intricate problems than the relief of the agricultural +distress of England and Scotland, or the satisfaction of the alleged +earth-hunger of the Celtic population of Ireland, than to initiate +legislation on the hypothesis that circumstances alter cases, and that +our own country can with impunity be withdrawn from the operation of +economic laws that have asserted their supremacy throughout the entire +Continent of Europe.</p> + +<p>As history repeats itself, so are the laws of civilized development both +general and inexorable. Even in the extreme case of Russia, it has been +proved, in an article we published a few years ago,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> that a heavy and +ruinous price has been paid for the emancipation of the serfs on a +Socialistic and partly Communistic basis, and on the erroneous +assumption, that the continued existence of the 'Mir' (the ancient +village community even of India) was an institution indigenous to the +country itself, and therefore worthy of being perpetuated by +legislation. Millions of a rural population, freed from personal +servitude, were chained anew to the land by the indebtedness incurred in +the expropriation of the lords of the soil. The allotments, averaging +ten acres, parcelled out among them in 1861, were estimated to be +sufficiently large and productive to provide not only for their support, +but also, firstly, for the payment of the 'redemption dues' with which +the allotted lands were charged for a limited period of years at an +average rate of only 1<i>s.</i> 9d. per acre, and secondly, for the punctual +payment of the moderate poll-tax, which the exigencies of the State +required them to contribute. Those expectations began to vanish soon +after they had been formed, and at the present time we see the +previously rich agricultural plains of Russia, abandoned, as they almost +wholly are, to the slovenly husbandry of a rude and greatly demoralized +peasantry, deteriorating from year to year in the quality of their +produce, and thereby opposing less and less impediment to the successful +competition of other corn-growing countries.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The great fall that has +taken place in the value of Russian cereals is apparent from the fact +that, notwithstanding the depreciation of the paper currency of the +country to the extent of about 25 per cent. since the serfs were +emancipated (and nearly 37 per cent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> from the par value of the standard +rouble), the corn-grower in Russia actually receives for his produce, in +paper money, some 40 per cent, less than he obtained for it when the +currency was less debased.</p> + +<p>Despair, and the absence of that restraint which education, and the +moral elevation inseparable from it, are establishing in other European +countries, have driven the rural inhabitants of entire districts, and +even provinces, into habits of drunkenness stronger and more general +than those which existed before the autocratic creation of 'peasant +proprietors' in Russia.</p> + +<p>Among the earliest measures adopted in Russia during the present reign +was that of a reduction and partial remission of the 'redemption dues,' +which, on the 1st of January, 1885, represented the interest and sinking +fund on nearly 113 millions sterling,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> expended by the Government in +the partial expropriation of the now ruined landlords of the +country.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>During the year 1884, alone, those reductions and remissions inflicted a +loss of 1,135,000<i>l.</i><a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> on the Imperial Treasury. The most recent +measure of alleviation has been the total abolition of the poll-tax<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> +(to be completed by the end of the present year); and, consequently, the +State-contribution of at least 85 per cent. of the population of Russia +is being limited to the excise duty on drink, an item of revenue with +which the Imperial Government cannot possibly dispense, since it brings +in a sum more than adequate for the maintenance of the imposing military +forces of the Empire.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously, 'Peasant Land Banks' have been established by the State +in order to facilitate the purchase of still more land by the ex-serfs. +The Minister of Finance was authorized in 1882 to issue annually for +that purpose a sum of 500,000<i>l.</i> in bonds, bearing 5-1/2 per cent. +interest. But, by the 1st of January, 1886, these banks had already +advanced over three millions sterling to 785 Communes, 1576 +'partnerships,' and 359 individual peasants, representing an aggregate +number of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> 112,765 householders. On loans for 24-1/2 years the interest +and sinking fund, payable by the borrowers, amount to 8-1/2 per cent., +and on those for 34-1/2 years, to 7-1/2 per cent., the lands purchased +by such means remaining inalienable until the extinction of the +mortgages, except with the consent of the mortgagees, <i>i. e.</i> the banks. +The effects of this new departure in the direction of providing small +landed proprietors with State funds, will no doubt soon be apparent.</p> + +<p>Whether, therefore, we examine the experience of a civilized, orderly, +home-ruled country like Norway, with a steady, laborious, and, we may +almost say, abstemious, population in many respects akin to our own, or +that of a State still at an immensely distant stage of social +development,—and under a very different form of Government,—the +salient results of bolstering up, by means of State loans, or of +artificially creating, equally at the cost of the State, a numerous body +of small landed proprietors, have been strikingly identical in regard to +the ultimate economic condition of the agrarian classes.</p> + +<p>Insisting, as we do, on the strength of the facts we have adduced, that, +in old Europe, the operation of economic laws affecting land tenure, +admits of no exceptions or extenuating circumstances in favour of their +violation, it appears impossible, without presumptuous sophistry or +political dishonesty, to resist the conclusion, that the infringement of +those laws in any part of the United Kingdom could only terminate, +infallibly and speedily, in damage to the State, after ruin to the +individual.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The physical results of intermarriage with the object of +concentrating property, are very apparent in many of the older <i>Bonde</i> +families in Norway.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It would not be right to allow this observation to pass +without mentioning, even at the cost of destroying so fascinating a +picture of pastoral felicity, that the hard-working dairy-maids of +Norway are never accompanied by their sweethearts to the sœters, +where, except from Saturday night until Monday morning, when the young +men find time to visit them, they lead the most solitary lives, and are +busy all day in milking cows and goats and making butter and cheese.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> In 1833 the total production of spirits in the rural +districts amounted to about 3-1/2 gallons per head of the population. +The demoralization that resulted from its increase necessitated the +enactment of restrictive measures, and at last, in 1848, the small +stills were purchased by the State, and private distillation was +prohibited. As in Great Britain, the vice of drunkeness is now +decreasing in Norway, owing partly to the reduced means of the +population, but chiefly to the influence of education and of temperance +societies.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The average proportion of 1851-52 was 9.32 per cent. There +is a difference of only 1 per cent, between the rates of illegitimacy in +rural and urban districts, to the disadvantage of the latter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> 'The French Constitution of 1791 is one of the principal +sources of the Fundamental Law of Norway. The suspensive veto has been +derived from it.'—O. I. Broch.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> At the end of 1882, the total population was estimated at +1,922,500, or a decrease 3900 as compared with 1881, when the increase +was only 1000 from the year preceding.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> In 1880, the average rate of wages for labourers engaged +by the year in agricultural districts was 8<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i> per annum, and that +of daily labour, without food, 1<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> per diem; the corresponding rates +in towns having been 11<i>l.</i> 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> and 2<i>s.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Our readers must, however, bear in mind that we are +dealing only with the rural economy of Norway, and that the facts we +shall submit on that subject affect but slightly the general financial +condition of a country which continues to derive its earnings mainly +from the supply of timber, fish, wood-pulp, ice, &c., to foreign +countries, and from its extensive carrying trade in sailing vessels and +steamers. The prosperity of the towns is influenced chiefly by the state +of trade in the rest of Europe, while being (to the extent of 122 out of +128) situated on the seaboard, their successful development reacts but +little on the prosperity of the inland agricultural districts.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In the 'Tables of Landed Property,' published in 1880, the +holdings (in 1865) are classified as follows:—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='center'>Properties</td><td align='left'> under</td><td align='left'>5 acres</td><td align='left'>34,224</td><td align='left'>or</td><td align='left'>15.5</td><td align='left'>per cent.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>between</td><td align='left'>5 and 12-1/2 acres</td><td align='left'>42,984</td><td align='left'>"</td><td align='left'>32.1</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>"</td><td align='left'>12-1/2 and 50 "</td><td align='left'>48,575</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>36.2</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>above</td><td align='left'>50 acres</td><td align='left'>8,208</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>6.2</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The italics our own. The author states that it is the +custom among the peasants of Norway that when the eldest son or the +daughter of the house (when there is no son), marries, the parents +surrender the property, but retain a right of subsistence upon it. This, +he shows, explains the existence of the large number of detached +dwellings on the same estate, for very often cottages have to be built +for the accommodation of persons who have a right to subsistence, which +is not, however, limited to a dwelling-house, but frequently includes +the usufruct of a small plot of land and, almost always fodder for a +certain number of cows and goats. See also p. 386.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The eldest of kin having allodial right.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Between 1871 and 1875 Norway imported about 46 per cent. +of the cereals required for home consumption, in addition to pork, +butter, and other articles of food.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> From statistics recently published, it appears that +between 1881 and 1883 the price of land, estimated on actual sales, has +shown a tendency to rise in the Provinces which have a coast line, +populated by fisherman, &c., and to fall in most of the inland, more +purely agricultural districts.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Dr. Broch shows that in 1875, which was an average year +for crops, the production of cereals and potatoes (reduced to the value +of barley) was 3125 hectol. per 1000 inhabitants in Norway; whereas the +average crops in France yielded 7400 hectol. per 1000 of the +population.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> In 1884 a motion to that effect was made in the Swedish +Rigsdag by a peasant proprietor. At present the duty on cereals imported +into Norway is merely nominal, averaging about 2-1/2 per cent. <i>ad +valorem</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> From special causes, the number of persons relieved in +1881 and 1882 was exceptionally high in Ireland. In 1879 it was 7-1/2 +per cent., and in 1883 about 8 per cent. of the population.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Hereditary nobility is already abolished. Under a law +passed in 1821, all titles of nobility become extinct in the persons of +those who were born before 1822.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>I. e.</i> dovecot.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Lady Verney's 'Cottier-owners, Little Takes and Peasant +Proprietors,' published last year, is replete with facts drawn from +actual life, showing that small peasant-proprietorship is proving +ruinous on the Continent, even where the system has grown up naturally.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> In No. 302, April 1881.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> It is certainly remarkable to find that Australian tallow, +Indian linseed, and German barley are being imported at St. Petersburg, +whence those articles were, in the days of large landed properties, +extensively exported. The Minister of Finance, following the example of +Prince Bismarck, attempts to check this competition with the staple +products of the small landed proprietors by imposing protective duties.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Rs. 846,068,368, at the exchange of 32d., current when the +great bulk of the expropriations were effected.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> In provinces of Russia Proper alone, the landed +proprietors (exclusive of the ex-serfs) have mortgaged their estates in +various land and other banks to the extent of 30-3/4 per cent. of their +aggregate acreage, the total remaining debt on such lands being about 49 +millions sterling at the present reduced value of the rouble, or 65 +millions sterling at the rate of exchange adopted in estimating the +indebtedness of the peasantry.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> At the same rate of exchange.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> This tax had previously given to the Imperial Treasury a +sum of about 5-1/2 millions sterling, at the depreciated rate of +exchange. It was assessed at rates that varied in the different +Provinces between 2<i>s.</i> 7d. and 4<i>s.</i> 4d. per head of the male registered +population, or 'per soul.'</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Art_V_A_Collection_of_the_State_Papers_of_John_Thurloe_Esq" id="Art_V_A_Collection_of_the_State_Papers_of_John_Thurloe_Esq"></a>Art. V.—<i>A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; +Secretary, First to the Council of State, and afterwards to the Two +Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell.</i> In Seven Volumes, containing +authentic Memorials of the English affairs from the year 1638 to the +Restoration of King Charles II. Vol. III. London, 1742.</h2> + + +<p>The character of Oliver Cromwell might, for our part, have rested +undisturbed among the 'old, unhappy, far off things' of history, had it +been our intention to fight over again, on the old lines, the contention +whether he was a hero or a knave. On the contrary, towards the solution +of that question a method, as yet untried, has been adopted. Instead of +attempting a review of Cromwell's whole career, to gain an idea of what +manner of man he was, a single train of events, in which his hand was +visible throughout, has been subjected to some degree of scrutiny. A +man's words and deeds, although arising only on one occasion, may supply +an effectual test of his real self. There could, for instance, be hardly +any doubt regarding the leading bias of his disposition, if a supremely +able ruler, that he may procure his safety, consents to—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i26">'play one scene<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of excellent dissembling, and let it look<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like perfect honour.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These lines disclose our case. With prescient genius Shakspeare has +described the part that Cromwell took in an event which occurred under +his Protectorate, the so-called Insurrection of March 1655; and in our +examination into the secret history of that occurrence lies the test +that we have applied to Cromwell's character.</p> + +<p>The revelation that we are attempting is not, however, free from +inherent difficulty. In these days of literature made easy, the products +of close research are not readily acceptable. To open up a new vista in +history, much has to be cut down, much put into new order; and the +reader must unavoidably share in the labours of the writer. And though +some curiosity may be aroused by the discovery of that which has +remained hidden, for over two centuries; still, to gratify that +curiosity, many an ingrained idea must be laid aside. Difficult as it +may seem to many, Cromwell at the outset must be regarded not as 'our +heroic One,' but as a man who sold himself to falsehood, that he might +'ride in gilt coaches, escorted by the flunkeyisms, and most sweet +voices.' Nor to appreciate the secret of our character-test, can the +assertion of any historian, from Clarendon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> down to Carlyle's last +imitator, be credited, that 'a universal rising of Royalists combined +with Anabaptists' broke out in March 1655. On the contrary, it must be +accepted as a preliminary condition in this investigation that England +was, at that time, in a state of immovable tranquillity, and that any +insurrectionary movement during the year 1655 sprang from a far-reaching +design, which Cromwell practised alike on friends, neutrals, and +enemies.</p> + +<p>That this was the case has hitherto escaped notice. Every historian, who +has taken part in the Cromwelliad, regards that revolt as 'a very tragic +reality;' they all agree, that it was 'prevented from breaking into a +dangerous flame by vigilance, prompt action, and by necessary severity.' +That this event might be regarded in a very different light was an idea +far from every one of them. Proof, however, goes before disproof. The +historians should have their say first; and our readers must endure, for +a few moments, what may be termed the received version of the +Insurrection of March 1655.</p> + +<p>According to Godwin, 'A general rising was meditated about the beginning +of March 1655, by the Royalist party in various parts of +England,—Yorkshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Devon and Wilts,' and +also in North Wales. 'Wilmot, about this time created Earl of Rochester, +came over to England' to head the enterprise, 'accompanied by Sir J. +Wagstaff. Charles II., who had spent the winter at Cologne, now came +privately to Middleburg in Holland, that he might be ready to pass over +to England, if the condition of affairs authorized such a measure. The +activity of Cromwell and his assistants speedily defeated these +multiplied intrigues. It does not appear that hostilities anywhere were +actually commenced, except in Yorkshire and the West of England.'</p> + +<p>As historians persist that on Marston Moor, the scene of the +'hostilities' in Yorkshire, an actual affray occurred,—Carlyle throws +in 'a few shots fired';—we must turn to the 'Perfect Proceedings' News +Letter, of March 1655, for a truer description of that event:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'York. The 8th of March instant, there was a meeting +appointed by the Malignants in Yorkshire to surprise York +City. To that end a party was to come on the west side of +the City, where Sir Richard Malliverer, with divers others, +was on their March. About 100 horse came with a cart load of +arms and ammunition to Hessey (i. e. Marston) Moor. And at +the wynd-mill upon the Moor there came some intelligence, +that a party, that sh<sup>d</sup> have come on the other side of the +City, was not ready that night. And more company failing, +which they expected to meet them that night upon the Moor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> +they suddenly and disorderly retreated; some Pistols was +scattered and found next morning, and a led horse, with a +velvet saddle, left in Skipbrig Lane, which was found next +day.'</p></div> + +<p>In Wiltshire, however, the Royalists effected a brief revolt, an +incident which the following quotation from Carlyle will readily recall +to mind:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Sunday, March 11th, 1655, in the City of Salisbury, about +midnight, there occurs a thing worth noting. Salisbury was +awakened from its slumbers by a real advent of Cavaliers. +Sir John Wagstaff, "a jolly knight" of those parts, once a +Royalist Colonel: he, with Squire, or Major Penruddock, "a +gentleman of fair fortune," Squire, or Major Grove, and +about two hundred others, did actually rendezvous in arms +about the Big Steeple, that Sunday night, and ring a loud +alarm in those parts. It was Assize time; the Judges had +arrived the day before. Wagstaff seizes the Judges in their +beds, seizes the High Sheriff, and otherwise makes night +hideous;—proposes on the morrow to hang the Judges, as a +useful warning; but is overruled by Penruddock and the rest. +He orders the High Sheriff to proclaim King Charles; High +Sheriff will not, not though you hang him; Town-crier will +not, not even though you hang him. The Insurrection does not +spread in Salisbury, it would seem. The Insurrection quits +Salisbury on Monday night, marches with all speed towards +Cornwall, hoping for better luck there. Marches;—but +Captain Unton Crook marches also in the rear of it; marches +swiftly, fiercely; overtakes it at South Molton in +Devonshire, "on Wednesday about ten at night," and there, in +a few minutes, put an end to it. We took Penruddock, Grove, +and long lists of others; Wagstaff unluckily escaped ... and +this Royalist conflagration, which should have blazed all +over England, is entirely damped out. Indeed so prompt and +complete is the extinction, thankless people begin to say +there had never been anything considerable to extinguish. +Had they stood in the middle of it,—had they seen the +nocturnal rendezvous at Marston Moor, seen what Shrewsbury, +what Rufford Abbey, what North Wales in general, would have +grown to on the morrow,—in that case, thinks the Lord +Protector, not without some indignation, they had +known!—Carlyle's 'Cromwell,' vol. iv. pp. 129, 130.</p></div> + +<p>If Carlyle had been more heedful he might have taken the hint furnished +by those 'thankless people.' Men are not usually thankless if preserved +from a real and obvious danger. Carlyle, however, thought that he knew +more about those transactions than the men who might have witnessed +them; and so we will accept his somewhat incautious invitation, and our +readers, if they choose to do so, shall perceive, perhaps, 'not without +some indignation,' what the Lord Protector 'had known' about the +insurrection of March 1655; they shall, to a certain extent at least, +regard that event from his point of view. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> to enable them to do so +as promptly as possible, they may be at once informed, that the +Protector himself admitted the Earl of Rochester, Sir John Wagstaff, and +their associates into England, in order that they might, in his behalf, +play the part of the conspirator. The circumstance being appreciated, +the Protector's position becomes quite clear. It is obvious that he +wished his subjects to believe, in common with his historians, that +England was, during the opening months of 1655, 'from end to end of it, +ripe for an explosion.'</p> + +<p>Taking then for granted, upon Cromwell's own showing, that he wanted an +insurrection, the assistance toward that end on which he could rely, and +the obstacles that stood in his way, must be considered. The assistance +which Cromwell had at hand, lay in the little band of courtiers who hung +in penury, and vexation of heart, round Charles II. Wanderers on the +Continent, in total ignorance of English opinion, acutely sensible of +their own discomfort, raging against their great Tormentor, the King's +'over sea' counsellors were, by irritation and by 'zeal, made so blind,' +that they were 'soon persuaded of good success' in any possible attempt +to overthrow the Protector.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> The chief hindrance to Cromwell's +projected insurrection was his palpable prosperity. It was notorious +during the winter and spring of the year 1655, that he had appeased +discontent among his soldiery; had quieted, in prison, Harrison, +Wildman, and the leaders of the Anabaptists; that the Levellers were +reduced to inaction; and that therefore the Royalists were powerless. +And for this reason. Every Englishman, even the most 'Wildrake' among +the Cavaliers, knew full well, that they, unassisted, could not for a +moment stand before Cromwell's armies; and they knew equally well, that +if the King landed on our shores, at the head of a foreign army, all +England would meet him with passionate resistance. Even at the best, the +most confident Royalists knew that a young man, nurtured by a popish +mother, and amidst papists, would not be readily accepted as our King.</p> + +<p>But one chance, therefore, remained to the Royalists, both at home and +abroad: and that was the possibility that Anabaptist fanaticism and army +discontent might unite together against the Protector. If that could be +reckoned on, and if a rising of the Royalists, all over England, could +be timed so as to explode, when the Levellers broke into action, that +would offer a chance indeed, especially if some of the mutineers could +be won over to the King. That chance was, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> this season, wholly denied +to the Royalists. The King's most trusted English advisers, the Council +styled 'The Sealed Knot,' repeatedly warned him during January 1655, +that 'since no rising of the Army is to be hoped for, any rising of the +King's party would only be to their destruction.'<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>To a person who desired to stimulate an insurrection against the +Protector the course was therefore clear. He must act on the impatient +credulity of those who shared in their King's exile. Far from the scene +of action, they might be persuaded that the Anabaptists and the +discontented soldiers had leagued together, and that the warnings of the +'Sealed Knot' might be set at naught. Charles was thus acted upon. As +the wicked King of Israel was lured on to his destruction by the cry of +false prophets bidding him to go up and prosper, the King was persuaded +to disregard his best counsellors, to believe that 30,000 Royalists were +armed and ready to join in an organized revolt, so skilfully planned +that it would break out, at one moment, all over England, with the +co-operation of the Levellers, and of a portion of Cromwell's army. +Charles was also assured, that if he would but fix the day, the +insurrection would immediately take place.</p> + +<p>The King was hard to persuade; young as he was, his sagacity was not +wanting. He long remained incredulous: he did not believe the +'expresses' which reached him 'every day' from England: he felt sure +that those zealous emissaries were deceived. More messengers accordingly +crossed the water: they were confident that 'the rising would be +general, and many places seized upon, and some declare for the King +which were in the hands of the army, for they still pretended, and did +believe, "that a part of the army would declare against Cromwell, at +least, though not for the King."'</p> + +<p>Those messengers, however, would promise nothing, if Charles did not, +when the Earl of Rochester and his associates started for England, +approve the reality of the plot, by stationing himself on the sea coast, +that he might 'quickly put himself into the head of the Army, which +would be ready to receive him.' And he was warned that this was his last +chance, and that 'if he neglected that opportunity,' his followers would +desert him, as one hopelessly apathetic. Besides these threats, the +persons, who dispatched those messengers from England, resorted to other +means to force Charles into the enterprise. They appointed the day for +the outbreak: he was not able 'to send orders to contradict it:' so he +felt constrained, 'with little noise,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> to quit Cologne for Middleburg, +to await there the summons to England.</p> + +<p>Whilst Charles was being thus cajoled, the bright anticipations of his +companions were suddenly saddened. In the midst of their preparations, +Cromwell arrested several noted Royalists in London: it was obvious that +he had discovered 'the design.' But that dark cloud had its silver +lining; it was even converted into an augury of success. The +conspirators at Cologne were 'cheered by letters' from their colleagues +in England, assuring them 'that none of their particular friends at the +intended sea-ports were known.'</p> + +<p>Clarendon, and his associates, little knew how much was known by +Cromwell. He afterwards repeated in public, almost word for word, 'all +those particulars' which these 'expresses' 'communicated in confidence' +to the Royal Court 'to let them know in how happy condition the King's +affairs were in England;' he was forewarned of the very day when Charles +would 'with little noise' quit Cologne for Middleburg 'ten days before +he did stir;' and if so, even Clarendon would have perceived, that the +Protector felt quite assured about the safety of his sea-ports.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>That the project proved in the end, as Charles expected at the +beginning, a weak and improbable attempt, Clarendon admits, and that +they had been befooled; but he maintained, to the end, that those +messengers were 'very honest men, and sent by those who were such.' +Clarendon's opinion is not so indisputable, but that it may be +questioned. The utter failure of the promises that those messengers held +out, might have aroused his doubt as to their good faith. Who was it +then that instructed those false prophets? So improbable were the +expectations which they urged upon Charles, that it is impossible to +credit any true Royalist with the creation of those false hopes: to +dispel them, the King's wisest English advisers did their utmost. Those +encouragements then must have been the counsels of false friends. And +who could be, as we shall prove, a warmer, or a falser friend to the +enterprise of March 1655, than Cromwell?</p> + +<p>Even without direct proof of Cromwell's guilty complicity in that +attempt, it is brought home to him by a variety of antecedent +circumstances. He knew precisely how to spread the only lure that could +ensnare the King; for the counsels of the 'Sealed Knot' were no secret +to Cromwell. He was aware that the King had, in consequence, written, +4th Jan. 1655, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> Mr. Roles, 'his loving friend,' and probably also the +Protector's friend, in a tone of utter despair.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> And who could set +against the King a stream of systematic false encouragement, sufficient +to dispel his just despair, except Cromwell, who had all the secret +agents at home and abroad at his command? or who would undertake so +difficult a task as the creation of such an elaborate scheme of +deception, but one who was anxious that the outbreak should take place? +And we know that such was his wish.</p> + +<p>In every way this is apparent. Even though no actual assistance be +given, still complete foreknowledge of a coming mischief, unfollowed by +corresponding precautions, implies a sanction. And this form of sanction +Cromwell gave to the Insurrection. In a tone of triumphant cunning he +assured his Parliament, during the ensuing year, that he had possessed +'full intelligence of' the conspiracy; though, with characteristic +craft, he concealed the most effectual informant 'of these things,' the +clerk who wrote out the despatches in the King's closet; and poor +Manning, 'as he was dead,' was credited with the discovery; although his +term of espial was not commenced soon enough to supply that 'full +intelligence,' of which his employer boasted.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>Cromwell could even have informed his corps of informers, of the course +that the coming movement would pursue. Two months before they began to +reflect back to him an account of his own design, Cromwell's detection +office in Whitehall contained a report from a supposed Leveller, who had +passed from Essex to Cornwall, and then from Cornwall to Scotland, that +a rumour was afloat, that the republicans in the army who were 'resolved +to stand by their first principles, in opposition to the Government,' +had banded together, under noted leaders, and had chosen the very places +afterwards selected by the Royalists, namely, Salisbury Plain and +Marston Moor for the rendezvous where they might show their strength. +Other informers reported to Cromwell that the Royalists in London, and +in Northumberland, hoped, that if they appeared in arms, they would be +able to 'make use of a good part of the army;' and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> similar evidence +warned the Government that a man claiming to be a Royalist had been at +work, during February, journeying to and fro between Gloucestershire and +Wiltshire, tempting Royalists to join with him in an insurrection, +because 'the design was first put on foot by the Levellers, who were to +be aiding and assisting the Cavaliers.'<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>This information reached Cromwell in ample time for action. A word from +him to his agents abroad, a hint to the editors of the News Letters, or +a proclamation, would have dispersed those mischievious rumours, and +would have reduced Charles to inaction. Although he knew that Charles +based his sole hope of success upon an Anabaptist revolt, and a mutiny +in the army, Cromwell did nothing of the kind. Not that he failed to +secure himself by some ostensible precautions. 'It having pleased God to +make some further notable discovery to Us of the Conspiracy, and the +particular Persons engaged therein,' Cromwell arrested some Royalists, +shortly before the outbreak, but, as we know on the best authority, he +touched none of those 'engaged therein.' He secured London: he moved +troops from Ireland to Liverpool, and may thereby have disconcerted the +Lancashire Cavaliers; but he did not forewarn the Customs House officers +at Dover, or guard that port; just as he, subsequently, somehow failed +to station soldiers near those obvious points of danger, Marston Moor +and Salisbury Plain.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> 'Oliver, Protector,' evidently 'understood his +Protectorship moderately well, and what Plots and Hydra-Coils were +inseparable from it.'</p> + +<p>Cromwell thus assisting us, we had before us the relative positions of +all engaged in the Insurrection, during the last weeks of February 1655. +Charles was on the Dutch coast awaiting a possible summons to England; +to that end he had despatched the expedition, composed of the Earl of +Rochester, Sir John Wagstaff, Major Armourer, Mr. O'Neale, and their +companions, about fourteen in number; and Cromwell was watching them, +and was preparing for their reception at Dover, not soldiers, but the +friendly assistance of his servant, Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage. +In true Cavalier fashion the Earl of Rochester and his comrades +approached our shores, with ostentatious contempt of danger. They came +not in a small party, dropping over one by one, selecting different and +out-of-the-way spots for landing, but almost in a body, in quick +succession, they alighted at Dover. That was the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> public port they +could have chosen; and being courtier Cavaliers, long resident abroad, +they were, in dress and look, marked men, and most unfitted to play the +part they chose, of traders resident in France or Holland. Their +selection of Dover was not, however, so ill-advised as it seemed, for +they also reckoned on the help of Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage.</p> + +<p>Thus in appearance, at least, the conspirators did everything they could +to get themselves into trouble. And, as might be anticipated, Major +Armourer, alias 'Mr. Wright,' and his man 'Morris,' that is to say, Mr. +O'Neale, the first of that company to set foot in Dover, were +immediately arrested. Armourer was imprisoned in the Castle, and O'Neale +in the Sergeant's house. Their detention, however, was of but brief +duration. Armourer at once sought for help through Mr. Day's agency; but +one greater than the Clerk interposed; and after about three days +captivity, Mr. Wright, together with some other captured suspects, was +released by the Dover Port Commissioners 'on receipt of a Commission +from H.H.' the Protector.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>That Commission from His Highness was no ordinary proceeding. By it +Cromwell disturbed order and discipline in the chief entrance-gate to +England, and drove the Port Commissioners into direct collision with the +officers of Dover Castle. Captain Wilson, the Deputy-Lieutenant, who had +charge over the Castle prisoners, was, as shown by his letters, a +straightforward servant of the Protector. Such a serious interference +with his duties, as the release of one of his own prisoners, disturbed +him; and the more so, as it was authorized by the Protector himself. +Accordingly he wrote to Thurloe, greatly troubled, to free himself from +any connection with so untoward an event as the escape of Mr. Wright, +who,—of all the men that Wilson 'had secured'—was the very one with +whom he was most unsatisfied.' Thurloe also felt that it was an awkward +affair; and to avert suspicion from his Master and himself, he reverted +to a mean trick, the causeless accusation of an innocent man. He +reproved Wilson for neglecting to warn Whitehall of the detention of +such a noted suspect as Mr. Wright; although Thurloe was in no ignorance +of that event, and knew all about the prisoner. For besides the +knowledge which he shared with Cromwell, of the near advent of the Earl +of Rochester and his associates, Thurloe held a letter signed 'N. +Wright,' dated 'Dover Castell, 14th February,' to Sir R. Stone, a +supposed friend, who, forwarding it to Thurloe, informed him that Morris +therein mentioned was a 'gentleman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> to the Princess Royal;' whilst it +was evidently presupposed by Stone, that the Secretary would know who it +was 'that writ' the enclosed letter; as, indeed, is proved by Thurloe's +indorsement, '<i>Nicholas Armourer to Sir Robert Stone</i>.' And again, +within seven days after Armourer's release, a similar +'cross-providence' occurred. A Mr. Broughton, evidently another +Royalist, was taken out of Captain Wilson's custody, much to his +surprise and vexation, and set free by the Mayor of Dover.</p> + +<p>The release of one or two prisoners under a Commission from H.H. the +Protector does not, however, prove that he purposely admitted into +England that gang of conspirators. But even that can be proved. Thurloe +and Cromwell knew on the best authority that the Royalists regarded Mr. +Day as their ally; for Armourer, in that letter, mentions 'Mr. Robert +Day, Clarke of the Passage' as a man ready to do him service. Yet +Cromwell, knowing that Armourer and O'Neale were the precursors of even +more dangerous associates, who would also resort to Mr. Day, retained +him in his post; and in spite of prompt and repeated warnings from the +Continent, that Day was a traitor, he acted as Clerk of the Passage +until, during the following July, he had seen safe back across the +Channel the conspirators whom he had admitted in March. And as if the +more fully to trick the Royalists, Day was permitted by the Protector to +intervene actively in their behalf. The Clerk of the Passage obtained, +by his personal undertaking for Armourer's good conduct, the requisite +pass inward, and certified that he was, in truth, a merchant from +Rotterdam.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>It follows from the assistance which the Protector gave to Armourer, +that his man 'Morris' was restored to his master, and that the Earl of +Rochester, after repeated detention and examination, was set free. And +again Cromwell reappears as the patron of the conspiracy. According to +information imparted to the King by Cromwell's nephew, Colonel William +Cromwell, 'my Lord of Rochester was known to Cromwell to be in England +as soon as he landed,' and was met by pretended agents from the army, +Rochester's friends 'in show,' but the Protector's 'really,' who, to +make the Earl 'have the greater confidence' in the enterprise, gave him +false offers of co-operation, and assurances that Cromwell's soldiers +were ripe for mutiny.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> And facts confirm Colonel Cromwell's words.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span></p> +<p>Immediately after his final escape from the custody of Captain Wilson, +the Earl of Rochester 'found Mr. Morton, who carries on their trade +there, ready to come, with some account of his business.'<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> If Morton +had been a true Royalist, in momentary fear for himself, and for the +success of an insurrection that was to overthrow the Protector, would he +have risked a meeting with the Earl of Dover, in a place where he had +been twice arrested, instead of awaiting his arrival in the security of +London? Such a strange course arouses strong suspicion that Morton was +the Protector's emissary referred to by Col. Cromwell; and assuredly a +Mr. Morton is mentioned to Thurloe, by one of his continental agents, as +a friend, and fellow sham-Royalist, who might assist him in enticing +some of the King's retinue into projects, such as the 'murther of H. H. +the Protector.'<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>Nor was Mr. Morton the only agent busy in doing all he could 'to ripen +the design of a general rising.' During January and February, 1655, +messengers passed to and fro through the Northern and Western districts +of England to prepare the way for the Earl of Rochester and his +associates, who spread abroad rumours that the 'Levellers were to be +aiding and abetting the Cavaliers,' and that on the 8th of March, a +general rising would take place. Two men can be traced who thus prepared +Wiltshire for insurrection, one of whom was the chief instigator of +Wagstaff's rising at Salisbury.</p> + +<p>Both of them were obscure men, not known in that part of England. An +unnamed emissary came from Yorkshire, passing through London, to +Dorsetshire, taking, on the way, the house, near Lewes, of Col. Bishop, +a Leveller, one of the Wildman faction.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The other, Mr. Douthwaite, +reached Wiltshire from Somersetshire. This circumstance, of itself, +aroused suspicion; and he was asked why, if the revolt, as he asserted, +was to be throughout all England, he did not choose Somersetshire, +instead of Wiltshire, for the scene of action. The reason he gave for +that choice had in it a strong dash of unreality. His motive was, he +declared, because 'if he did any mischief, or killed anybody,' he +preferred to do mischief 'among strangers, where he was not known.' So +unsatisfactory was his demeanour, that a recruit, whom he endeavoured to +cajole, refused to join the conspiracy, declaring that 'he was confident +this was a plot of my Lord Protector's own devising, and that he had +some of his own agents in it.' And as, during that winter,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> the +Dorsetshire Cavaliers had 'whispered that the plot' then 'so loudly +talked on at Court, is nothing but a trick of the great Oliver's,' this +idea seems to have been prevalent in the West of England. Some such +whisper, undoubtedly, had a marked influence on the Wiltshire revolt. +Not a single landowner of importance went out with Wagstaff. Though he +had been told off by the King expressly for that service, no Royalist of +eminent position answered the King's call. They, also, doubtless +suspected Douthwaite, an unknown, low-class stranger, who took upon +himself to summon them to arms against the Protector. And Douthwaite was +undoubtedly the chief instigator of that attempt, 'the very principal +verb' in the affair: a very capable witness, Major Butler, so described +him. In itself this was a suspicious circumstance. And another reason +may be urged for deeming that Cromwell, and not the King, was served by +Douthwaite. Like a shady witness, he proved too much. Antedating the +event by at least three weeks, he asserted in February, that Charles had +left Cologne for the Dutch coast, 'for an opportunity to sail for +England.' This was a startling piece of news, and most arousing to a +hearty Royalist: and the King did take that step on the 4th of March. +But it is noteworthy that a foreknowledge of the King's movements, which +was undoubtedly possessed by Cromwell and Thurloe in London, should have +been so speedily communicated to Douthwaite, in the depths of +Somersetshire.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>Whilst England was thus being prepared for the coming insurrection, the +Earl of Rochester went to London, where, although soldiers were +stationed at the ends of the streets, and extra precautions taken +against the Royalists, 'he consulted,' as Clarendon observes, 'with +great freedom with the King's friends.' Nor were he and his comrades +hindered from traversing England, and passing on into Wiltshire and +Yorkshire, that they might head the intended rendezvous of the Royalists +on Salisbury Plain and Marston Moor; the very places, it should be +remembered, that rumour had designated for a gathering of the Levellers. +Cromwell was powerless: he dared not touch the men he had passed into +England: the object for which he had admitted them must be fulfilled, +even to the end.</p> + +<p>That the end, which Cromwell desired, followed the lines indicated by +his master hand, might be anticipated. But he could not allow the +project to become too real; a necessity that rather stood in his way. +His power of creating the semblance of an actual insurrection was +limited. Of the 'hidden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> works,' all over England, which he attributed +to the Royalists, but one mine actually exploded, one nearly went off, +and the rest remained dormant. The tameness of that shadowy meeting on +Marston Moor evidently caused Cromwell much vexation. As his dupes +refused to exhibit themselves, and as not a soldier was near at hand, +paragraphs in the News Letters, 'some pistols scattered' on the heath, +and 'a led horse, with a velvet saddle,' were all the proofs that +Cromwell could show that aught had happened on Marston Moor, during the +night of the 8th of March. Nor could he solemnize the event, as he +desired, by the appearance on the scaffold of a single Yorkshireman.</p> + +<p>He sent, for that purpose, to York as Judges, Baron Thorpe, Mr. Justice +Newdigate, and Mr. Serjeant Hutton; but they refused to obey his +bidding. They declined to try upon a capital charge the men that had +been arrested by the Protector's informers, not in arms nor on +horseback, nor even on the highway, but in their own houses. The judges +were doubtful 'whether in point of law,' a possible midnight ride could +be declared by them 'to be treason.' It was in vain that Colonel +Lilbourne used 'diligence' to 'pick up such as are right,' to serve on +the jury. The judges even left York altogether, objecting that due +notice, under which they could try that 'great affair,' had not been +given.</p> + +<p>Pressure was renewed upon Newdigate and Hutton; they were despatched +back to York, to undertake the trial of the Marston Moor prisoners. +Cromwell's law officer, however, found them at Doncaster, on their +return to London, and in a very contrary state of mind. They again +refused to act; and they based their refusal on an objection, which +affected not those prisoners alone, but all Cromwell's prisoners. They +asserted, evidently reckoning on Baron Thorpe's concurrence, that they +could not, as judges, put in force the Ordinance, by which Cromwell had +adapted the Statute Law of England to meet the crime of high treason +against himself, because it was of no validity! They thus anticipated, +in the most unpleasant way, Mr. Coney's refusal to pay taxes imposed, +not by an Act of Parliament, but by an 'Ordinance.' Cromwell was forced +to yield; the Yorkshiremen preserved their lives, but not their liberty +or their estates; and almost immediately, 'Judges Thorpe and Newdigate +were put out of their places, for not observing the Protector's pleasure +in all his commands.'<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>Cromwell's 'pleasure' was, however, served by Mr. Serjeant Glyn and Mr. +Recorder Steele, and by the jurymen, 'such as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> were right,' over whom +they presided, in the trial of the Salisbury insurgents. Those poor +dupes pleaded what may be termed, Baron Thorpe's plea. They argued that +their indictment was not founded on an Act of Parliament, and that +'there can be no treason by an Ordinance.' They urged that a sentence +pronounced by the Serjeant and the Recorder, who were mere 'pleaders, +servants to the Lord Protector,' would be illegal; and they asserted +their right to be tried by Baron Thorpe, 'a sworn judge.' The prisoners, +who could not be convicted of high treason, were condemned to death as +horse stealers. They vainly pleaded, that to requisition a horse for a +warlike enterprise was not felony, and that 'the country knew we did not +intend to steal,' but acted 'as the soldiers did now at London, and +elsewhere, who came against us.'<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> About fourteen of those poor +fellows were put to death, with Grove and Penruddock; and seventy were +sold into West Indian slavery. Accordingly Cromwell was able, as Thurloe +exulted, to prove 'that the Plot was real,' as 'the persons were real,' +who, in consequence, lost their lives, or were condemned to lifelong +misery.</p> + +<p>Thus Cromwell, by a deliberate course of fraud, compassed the death of +men, who might otherwise have lived void of offence against his +government. He next proceeded to delude all his subjects by means of the +sham conspiracy by which he had ensnared his victims on to the scaffold. +This development in Cromwell's course of deception brings us back to the +ordinary path of history. Every historical text-book mentions that +Cromwell, within a few months after the Insurrection of March 1655, +subjected England to the authority, almost unlimited, of twelve +Major-Generals. To each one a separate province was allotted, with power +to imprison, fine, or sell as slaves, all that he might select. The +Major-Generals also were directed by Cromwell to pay themselves, and the +soldiers under them, by the levy of a tax of ten per cent. on the +incomes of all but the poorest Royalists, which he imposed for that +purpose. As historians have believed in the reality of the Insurrection +of March 1655, they hold that Cromwell, therefore, 'found himself +compelled to divide England into districts, over which he set +Major-Generals,' and to inflict upon the Royalists the tax, 'known by +the name of the Decimation.' Yet, curiously enough, these hearty +believers in Cromwell have ignored that solemn confirmation of their +opinion, which he addressed to his subjects, namely, the 'Declaration of +his Highness, by the advice of his Council, showing the Reasons of their +Proceedings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> for Securing the Peace of the Commonwealth, upon occasion +of the late Insurrection and Rebellion,—October 31, 1655.'</p> + +<p>Than this document, no more admirable illustration could be given of the +manner in which Cromwell carried on his Protectorate. By that +'Declaration' he engrafts into his policy the deception he had practised +on the Royalists, and adapts it to the benefit of the whole nation, by a +description of the pious uses to which it could be applied. And for our +purposes this document is especially convenient, for, whilst it proves +what Cromwell wished his people to believe about the Insurrection, it +enables us to disprove throughout the statements that he makes. But +before we can reach that portion of our disclosure, the operative +clauses of the 'Declaration' must be dealt with. It commences with a +justificatory recital of the misdeeds of the Royalists. As God, Cromwell +argues, 'by His gracious dispensation,' had 'subjected' the Royalists +'to the power of those whom they had designed to enslave and ruin,' 'the +Parliament's party' might, Cromwell asserts, have 'extirpated those men, +with designs of possessing their Estates and Fortunes.' Their +conquerors, however, refrained themselves, 'it having pleased God in his +providence, so to order things;' and the Royalists were allowed to live +and 'enjoy their freedom, and have equal protection in their persons and +estates, with the rest of the Nation.' But what return, the Protector +declares, has been made by the Malignants for the lenity thus extended +to them? 'The actings of that party' proves that 'neither the +dispensations of God, nor kindness of men, would work upon them;' that +'they were implacable in their malice and revenge'; and he cites 'the +late Insurrection and Rebellion,' 'as the greatest and most dangerous' +of all 'their hidden works of darkness.'</p> + +<p>The Protector therefore announces, that as 'he knows by experience, that +nothing but the Sword will restrain the late King's party from blood and +violence,'—'We do now not only find Ourselves satisfied, but obliged in +duty, both towards God and this Nation, to proceed upon other grounds +than formerly,'—and that, to secure 'the Peace of this Commonwealth, We +have been necessitated to erect a new and standing Militia of Horse, in +all the Counties of England, under such Pay as might be a fitting +encouragement to the officers and soldiers. And We, therefore, have +thought fit, to lay the burthen of Maintaining those forces, upon those +who have been engaged in the late Wars against the State.' And Cromwell +declares, in conclusion, that 'We can with comfort appeal to God, +whether this way of proceeding with 'the Royalists' hath been the matter +of Our Choice, or that which We have sought occasion for; or whether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +contrary to Our own inclinations, We have not been constrained and +necessitated hereunto, and without the doing whereof, We should have +been wanting to Our Duty to God and these Nations.'</p> + +<p>Such words uttered by a man who, with utmost fervour, has claimed for +himself, that 'I have learned too much of God, to dally with Him, and to +make bold with Him in these things,' ought surely to be believed; and if +there be any one who is still unconvinced that Cromwell, of his own +'choice,' enticed the Earl of Rochester and his associates across the +Channel, and admitted them into England, that they might constrain and +necessitate him to appoint those Major-Generals, 'we can with comfort +appeal' to that 'Declaration' and ask such a believer in Cromwell to +follow us in a comparison between what he really did, with what he +declared he did, 'for securing the Peace of the Commonwealth upon the +occasion of the late Insurrection.'</p> + +<p>In order that his subjects might appreciate the skill and vigilance, by +which the 'contrivements' of the 'cruel and bloody enemy had been +thwarted, Cromwell commenced the account of his execution of his duty as +England's Protecter by a general description of the projects of the +Royalists in March 1655. He asserted that they intended to surprise and +seize London, and all the principal ports and cities throughout England, +and that they reckoned on the support of more than 30,000 armed men. +This description of the projects and resources of the Royalists may be +at once, and contemptuously set aside: it was founded upon lies supplied +by such men as Manning, the spy, or Bamfield, the informer. Cromwell's +words were contradicted by the abortive and petty nature of the +insurrection, by the obvious refusal of all England to join in the +enterprise, and by the conduct of the Protector himself. For he would +not have placed England at the mercy of the Earl of Rochester and his +companions, had he thought that they could call 30,000 men to arms, or +that every important town from London to York, was in danger. Having +thus dealt out fiction by wholesale, and ascribed the overthrow of that +'great and general design' to 'The Lord,' Cromwell proceeds, according +to this method, to show how that was accomplished.</p> + +<p>Beginning with the rising at Salisbury, he declared that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'the Insurrection in the West was bold and dangerous in +itself, and had in all likelihood increased to great Numbers +of Horse and Foot by the conjunction of others of their own +party, besides such Foreign forces, as in case of their +success, and seizing upon some place of Strength, were to +have landed in those parts, had they not been prevented by +the motion of some troops, and diligence of the officers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> +in apprehending divers of that Party a few days before; and +also been closely pursued by some of our Forces, and in the +conclusion supprest by a handful of men, through the great +goodness of God.'</p></div> + +<p>As Charles had not at his disposal a single ship, or one soldier in the +pay of any foreign Power, the possibility of a foreign invasion needs no +disproof. And how did Cromwell deal with his enemies at home? Shortly +before the rising of the 11th of March, troops were undoubtedly moved +about in Wiltshire: their course can be traced from day to day. As the +Protector, according to his habit, bases his statements as far as he +can, on facts, so far we can agree with him. But as certainly as they +were marched about, Cromwell's soldiers were marched not towards, but +away from Salisbury.</p> + +<p>During the latter part of February, Major Butler, the officer in charge +over Wiltshire, wrote to Thurloe, telling him that as Bristol was in 'a +peaceable state,' the Major intended to leave that city. He did so: just +eleven days before the outbreak he was on the march to his central +station, at Marlborough, when a messenger from the Protector, summoned +him back to Bristol. Butler was, in consequence, detained there, whilst +the event took place; nor did he reach Salisbury until the third day +after the insurgents had left the town. Cromwell knew what he was about: +on the very Sunday when Wagstaff took possession of Salisbury, Cromwell +occupied Chichester by horsemen, sent there at daybreak; and he +dispatched a warning to Portsmouth, that 'some desperate design was on +foot.' But he kept his soldiers away from Salisbury. He took this +course, although he knew that Salisbury Plain had been named as a +Levellers' rendezvous; and although he had received a report, about +three weeks before the 11th of March, from an officer sent to Salisbury +on police duty, 'that it would be convenient for some horse to be +quartered hereabouts,'<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> because the Royalists in the neighbourhood +were restless.</p> + +<p>And Cromwell himself proves why Major Butler was detained at Bristol: +for when he did reach the scene of the revolt, though the insurgents had +been two days at large in the neighbourhood, and were disbanding, +drifting aimlessly towards Devonshire, Butler was withheld from active +operations by orders from Whitehall. He was directed to keep at a +distance from the insurgents for fear of a mishap. This is shown by the +opening words of Butler's letter of remonstrance to the Protector. 'Now, +my Lord,' Butler wrote, 'though I know it would be of sad consequence if +we assaulting them should be worsted,' still, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> pleaded with much +earnestness that he, under 'the good providence of The Lord' would +assuredly be successful. So palpably absurd it was to suppose that his +four troops of horsemen could not make short work of that undisciplined, +badly armed, and disheartened band of men, that Butler declared, that he +could not 'with any confidence stay' here at Salisbury, 'nor look the +country in the face, and let them alone.''<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>The Protector, however, was resolute. Butler was forced to let the enemy +alone; and, after four days' delay, they yielded at South Molton to one +troop of horse sent after them from Weymouth. Thus it was Cromwell, and +not Butler, as was surmised by a contemporary observer, who kept his +troopers 'at a distance in the rear' of the Royalists, 'to give them an +opportunity of increasing.'<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>With this suspicion afloat, and Major Butler unable 'to look the country +in the face,' Cromwell felt that to ascribe the suppression of +Wagstaff's attempt mainly to the 'close' pursuit of the enemy 'by some +of Our Forces,' would hardly suffice. He accordingly also attributed +that happy result 'to the goodness of God,' and to 'the diligence of the +officers in apprehending some of the party.' In this statement Cromwell +made some approach to the truth. Butler had been diligent; and though he +failed to seize Douthwait, that mysterious 'principal verb', still, +during the last two weeks of February, he did arrest suspects in the +West of England, but none within the district round Salisbury.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> +Wagstaff and his comrades were undisturbed, whilst preparing for their +attempt. Nor is it an unfounded assumption, if their security is +attributed to the same influence which sanctioned Wagstaff's repair to +the rendezvous, and which protected him from Major Butler's horsemen.</p> + +<p>Having thus dealt with that 'bold and dangerous insurrection in the +West,' Cromwell turned northward, and took in hand that rather vague +affair at Marston Moor, on which, as he asserted, 'the enemy most +relied.' His account of that event was, that the Royalists who met there +dispersed and ran away in confusion, partly because of a failure among +the plotters; but also, 'in respect that Our Forces, by their marching +up and down in the country, and some of them providentially, at that +time, removing their Quarters, near to the place of Rendezvous, gave +them no opportunity to reassemble.' Again, Cromwell is, to a certain +extent, correct. Divided counsels did keep one of the principal +Yorkshire Royalists from the meeting, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> may have had followers; +and others were stayed, when on the march, by a timely warning that they +were on a fool's errand. But the assertion, that the Royalists were +dispersed by a providential movement of troops, and by 'Our Forces +marching up and down' Yorkshire, is utterly false. And, as before, the +witness against Cromwell is one of Cromwell's servants. An officer, +responsible for the peace of Yorkshire, reported to his chief in London +regarding himself and his comrades, that 'notwithstanding all our +frequent alarums from London of the certainty of this plot, carried on +with such secrecy on the traitor's part, though we were upon duty, and +in close quarters, we had no positive notice of it till the day was +past.' And no other soldiers were in that neighbourhood during the night +of the 8th of March. The only martial display that the occasion called +forth, was the march of two troops of horsemen into York about three or +four days subsequently; and the officer in command reported that if more +men were wanted, they must be drawn from Durham, Newark, or Hull.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>Thus it was that Cromwell dealt with 'the Insurrection of Yorkshire.' If +the Royalists had, in truth, 'reckoned on 8000 in the North,' or if York +had been in danger, soldiers, and not 'alarums' would have been sent +into Yorkshire. Nor was he mistaken in deeming that the Royalists relied +most on that attempt. Hoping to find a large gathering of Levellers in +arms against the Protector, many of the principal Yorkshire landowners, +of higher rank and more influential than poor Penruddock or any of his +comrades, met that night on Marston Moor. And probably it was owing to +their social position, that the trick was not fully played out, and +that, sorely to Cromwell's disappointment, they saved their lives.</p> + +<p>Besides the insurrectionary displays at Salisbury and Marston Moor, it +was arranged that on the 8th of March similar symptoms should appear in +various other places, to create the idea that 'the Design was great and +general.' Cromwell was accordingly able to declare that 'the coming of +300 foot from Berwick' dispersed 'those who had rendezvoused near +Morpeth to surprise Newcastle:'—that in North Wales and Shropshire, +where they intended to surprise Shrewsbury, 'some of the chief persons +being apprehended, the rest fled:'—and that, 'at Rufford Abbey, Notts, +was another rendezvous, where about 500 horse met, and had with them a +cart load of horse-arms, to arm such as should come to them; but upon a +sudden, a great Fear fell upon them,' and they, also, dispersed +themselves, and 'cast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> their arms into the pond.' Nor did the Protector +omit to describe the action of 'other smaller Parties,' also in motion +during the night of the 8th of March, who, 'as in the Town of Chester +designed the surprise of the Castle there, but they, failing in their +expectations, were discouraged for that time.' 'And thus by the goodness +of God, these hidden works of darkness' were discovered. 'Fear' was 'put +into the hearts' of the cruel and bloody enemy, and their great and most +dangerous design was 'defeated, and brought to nothing.'</p> + +<p>The depositions on which Cromwell based his description of the minor +passages of the Insurrection are all mere informers' tales, none rising +above the inanity of the story of a tobacco-pipe-maker's attack on +Chester Castle, of which more anon; and, from Carlyle's point of view, +this sample of Thurloe's papers might assuredly be classed among 'human +stupidities.' But Carlyle has overlooked the fact, that to Cromwell +these depositions were an important element in his government, and were +worked up into his speeches and the 'Declaration of October 1655. Hence +the greater the absurdity of those documents, the greater their +historical importance, as showing, not only how the Royalists were +duped, and how Cromwell duped his subjects, but also that the tricks of +his trepanners were so clumsy that, almost without exception' no +Cavaliers of any standing were drawn into the Protector's game.</p> + +<p>An apt example of the kind of evidence on which Cromwell based his +statements, and also a comical illustration of his propensity to cling +to fact in the midst of fraud, is afforded by that alleged 'rendezvous' +of Royalists 'to surprise Newcastle.' If his spies are to be believed, +presumably with that object, on the 8th of March, 'about 3 score and 10 +horsemen armed with swords and pistols' met by night 'at a place called +Duddo;' and then vanished, not, however, for fear 'of 300 foot coming +from Berwick,' but because the conspirators were warned 'that there was +300 sail of ships come into Newcastle, for fear of whom they durst not +fall upon Newcastle at that time.' Much in the same way, and during the +same night, a party of Royalist gentlemen and their servants, repaired +to the inn on Rufford Abbey Green; and a real cart was driven to the +door containing 'horse-arms,' fifty-six pair of pistols, two buff coats, +two suits of arms, &c., and was then driven away, and the party broke +up. So far the Protector's words are verified by the very full +information that Thurloe collected regarding the Rufford Abbey incident; +but if to the conspirators therein specifically mentioned, a large +addition be made for 'divers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> unnamed gentlemen,' seen 'coming in and +going out of the inn-door,' the plotters cannot be rated at much above +20, instead of at Cromwell's 500.</p> + +<p>The Protector's concluding statements may be briefly disposed of. +Shrewsbury Castle was to have been taken by 'two men in the apparel of +gentlewomen,' acting in combination with their comrades, 'in certain +alehouses near unto the said castle;' and the determined purpose of +these plotters may be tested by the temper of their ringleader, who +urged his recruits to appear at the rendezvous, but refused for his +part, to join with them, 'because his wife was not well.'<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> The +Shropshire insurrection was, indeed, of so visionary a nature, that +zealous Commissary Reynolds could not manipulate it into any definite +shape. Though sent to Shrewsbury that he might develop the existence of +'a general plot of the malignants' in the West of England, he entirely +failed. And so annoyed was he at his failure, that he suggests to +Thurloe, that it would 'not to be unfit to make' the malignants 'speak +forcibly, by tying matches, or some kind of pain, whereby they may be +made to discover the plot;' and as he re-urges his craving to inflict +torture on his prisoners, the proposal had drawn no disapproval from the +Secretary.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + +<p>An account of the 'great and signal disappointment, as great as any this +age can produce,' which the 'goodness of God' inflicted upon that +'smaller party,' 'who' according to Cromwell, 'designed the surprise of +the castle' of Chester, forms an appropriate close to this portion of +our narrative. An 'exceeding poor' dupe, Francis Pickering, tells the +story, and the duper was a Colonel Worthing. After enticing Pickering +into the plot by assurances of a general rising against the Protector, +on the night of the 8th of March, Worthing announced that his part in +the design 'was principally to surprise the Castle of Chester;' and as +related by Pickering, while he and the Colonel remained quietly at home.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Accordingly that night three or four went, sent by Col. +Worthing' to seize the Castle: they were all inhabitants of +Chester, and one of them is commonly known by the name of +Alexander, the tobacco-pipe-maker. These persons brought +back word to Col. Worthing that at the place where they +intended to raise a ladder to surprise the Castle, they +heard a sentinel walk and cough. At which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> report Col. +Worthing was very much startled! and sent them back again to +seize any other convenient place; and they brought back word +that they had centinels walking.'<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p></div> + +<p>No third attempt was made by Mr. Alexander and his friends; and next day +Pickering was told by Worthing 'that he was much troubled, for that he +could not contrive how to take said Castle;' and, in due time, Pickering +found himself in custody.</p> + +<p>In singular contrast to the vague and absurd stories told by 'exceeding +poor' and foolish men, such as Mr. Pickering and his fellow plotters, +are the numerous and positive assurances that Cromwell received from his +own officers, that all was well with England both before, during, and +after the Insurrection of March 1655. Headed by Thurloe, they are all +unanimous in reporting 'that the nation was much more ready to rise +against, than for Charles Stuart;' that, in the town of Leeds, 'not +thirty men were disaffected to the present Government;' and that 'there +was no design on foot' even in 'the most corrupt and rotten places of +the Nation,' such as Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Kent, and the Eastern +Counties. From Bristol to York all was quiet, or wished to be so, during +February, March, and April, 1655.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p>Further illustration of this statement is needless. For, if Cromwell had +thought otherwise, even though he might in his wisdom have admitted the +Earl of Rochester and his associates into England, he certainly would +not have allowed them to remain here, apparently as long as they chose, +after their enterprise was over. That the Protector gave them this +freedom of action is made singularly clear by the Thurloe Papers': they +contain repeated indications of the 'whereabouts' of the Earl of +Rochester, the leader of the revolt. He and Major Armourer did not, +after the Marston Moor failure, fly to the coast, or seek separate +hiding-places. They journeyed together, with two servants, leisurely +through England towards London: and to guard his safety, Rochester would +not disturb his bedtime, or his dinner-hour. After the outbreak, people +were naturally anxious to pick up what they could, by arresting 'the +great ones.' Of these, Rochester was the greatest; and he and Armourer +were arrested at Aylesbury. The resident magistrate gave a warrant to +the constable, desiring him to keep safely the bodies of the Earl and +his three companions, 'in the name of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> Lord Protector.' The warrant +was acted upon; the prisoners evidently were 'persons of great quality.' +Yet somehow, both magistrate and constable left the Earl and the Major +in charge of the innkeeper 'where they lay;' and naturally enough, 'when +the constable came in the morning, he found that the innkeeper had let +the two chiefs escape,' taking with them 'all their rich apparel.'<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> +Had this been merely a sample of Aylesbury carelessness, the incident +need not have been noticed. But the example of the magistrate and +constable was followed by Cromwell. Although the escape of Rochester and +Armourer was promptly known, and their course was closely tracked, and +though Cromwell was informed where they might be found, they 'wrote very +comfortably from London;' and they endeavoured 'to lay the foundation of +some new design.' And at last, as if he were an ordinary traveller, +sending his servants before him, Rochester left England for the +Continent, having been a resident here for about five months; and the +latter part of his stay in England was a season of extraordinary +severity against the Royalists. In like manner, every one of his +thirteen comrades returned 'weekly without difficulty' to their King's +presence, apparently at their pleasure; whilst Cromwell's continental +informers repeated their warnings that 'Day, the Clerk of the Passage,' +is 'a rogue,' and that if the Protector had 'been ruled' by them 'all +these had not escaped.'<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p>In this matter, and indeed throughout his connection with the +Insurrection of March 1655, Cromwell was not his own master. The +conditions under which he obtained the espial of one of the King's most +trusted friends, and a member of the 'Sealed Knot,' formed a complete +protection to the Earl of Rochester and his associates. Nor for his own +sake could he touch those conspirators. Their seizure would have +disclosed the fact, that 'persons in the very bosom of our enemies' gave +him 'intelligence;' and hence, if 'he once discovered the grounds, he +would destroy the intelligence.'<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> Anyhow, it is evident that Cromwell +could with entire safety allow his most determined enemies to remain in +England, and lay foundations for new projects against him.</p> + +<p>Having seen Cromwell's conspirators safe home again, tribute must be +paid to his amazing dexterity. The Prince of Wire-Pullers, he made his +puppets perform what part he chose. Some jerked the royal doll Charles, +against his liking, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> Cologne to Middleburg, and some warned him to +keep quiet, and others seemed to fight against the manager of the show, +though in reality they fought in his behalf: all played Cromwell's game, +whilst they thought they were playing their own; and even the most +innocent outsiders were pressed into his service. With comic audacity he +assured his audience that the more trivial was the scene at Salisbury, +the more they ought to recognize its dramatic force. 'Observe,' he said, +'when this Attempt was made—it was made when nothing but a well-formed +Power could hope to put us into disorder. Do you think that' such a +company of mean fellows 'would have attacked Us, if they had not been +supported by vast unseen forces behind the scenes.'<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> With what cruel +craft, but seeming indifference, the artful old showman treated his +manikins! He cut off the heads of some amongst those who responded most +vigorously to his touch; whilst others, not less free upon the wire, +were carefully packed up, and sent home safe. By seizing and boxing up +in the Tower mere bystanders, wholly unconcerned in the sport, he made +his 'little tin soldiers' fancy that he did not see their antics. The +only hitch in his 'knavish piece of work' arose when, too assured, he +placed upon the boards a real live judge, who refused to take the bench +in the manager's sham Court of Justice. In every other respect the +mystery play was a complete success; everybody was puzzled, players, +spectators, and the gentlemen of the press; not one even guessed at the +true meaning of the performance; though a few 'men of wicked spirits' +would try to peep behind the curtain. But they never found him out; they +all danced to Cromwell's tune, but none discovered that the pipe they +heard was in their Protector's mouth. Even Ludlow, with all the +proverbial opportunities of a bystander, though most anxious to know his +great opponent's game, never guessed that he had patched up the +Insurrection of March 1655, from the beginning to the end.</p> + +<p>And such was Cromwell's power of deception, that though dead, he still +deceived; his works did follow him, as he desired, out of sight. He +seems to have anticipated that the records of his detective department +might remain as a witness against him, and to have cast over the +'Thurloe Papers' a spell, that has hitherto rendered them invisible. For +nearly 150 years these evidences of his 'hidden works of darkness' have +been before the world; but Cromwell has preserved his secret; he has +humbugged every historian as effectually as he hoodwinked his +contemporaries. The 'Thurloe Papers' were published<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> in 1742, well +edited and indexed; they contain the documents which Cromwell himself +read and handled, the notes of his speeches, the information of his +spies, the letters of his enemies and of his clerks. Though called after +Thurloe, those papers are, in fact, Cromwell's own. Yet such is the +glamour that he has cast over all that has approached him, that they +have accepted his words without question, or, if they have read his +writings, they have read them according to his inspiration.</p> + +<p>Yet there was much even in that Insurrection itself to arouse suspicion. +Cromwell, in January 1655, assured his Parliament that he had crushed +the various conspiracies which were then on foot against him, all most +'real dangers,' and that he had disarmed and rendered powerless those +conspirators; yet within six weeks they had organized a universal +revolt, and had secreted stores of arms and ammunition all over England. +This universal revolt broke out at Salisbury, 'bold and dangerous'; and +it was put down by a single troop of horsemen, after the rebels had +paraded, disheartened and deserted, across England. Except on that +occasion, the vast design was suppressed without the aid of a single +soldier or even a beadle. And, strangely enough, the Protector himself +supplied a hint which might have provoked some curiosity about the +nature of that 'Rebellion.'</p> + +<p>For surely it is odd that 'such a terrible Protector this; no getting of +him overset!' should have been compelled to contend with the notorious +and obstinate incredulity of the members of his Parliament regarding the +late attempt to overset him? Yet Cromwell's speech of September 1656 is +pervaded with expressions such as these, regarding the 'bold and +dangerous Insurrection' of March 1655,—'I think the world must know and +acknowledge, that it was a general design,'—'I doubt if it be believed, +that there was any rising,' either in North Wales or at Shrewsbury, or +on Marston Moor, 'at the very time when there was an Insurrection at +Salisbury'—' therefore, how men of wicked spirits may traduce Us in +that matter—I leave it!'<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> Surely 'sluggish mortals, saved from +destruction,' not caused by secret agencies, but from an actual +'Rebellion,' which threatened to bring every one of them into 'blood and +confusion,' need not be required to believe in the very existence of so +great and conspicuous a danger!</p> + +<p>And Cromwell felt that he could not afford to leave that 'matter' +untouched. A suspicion was prevalent, during the whole of Cromwell's +reign, that plots were manufactured to suit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> his purposes. He knew that +full well; he knew also the danger of such a suspicion. The surmises of +the 'men of wicked spirits,' were those 'half tales,' that 'be truths.' +It had been hoped that such a 'real plot' as 'the late Insurrection,' +would give that suspicion a quietus. When it was safely transacted, +Thurloe and his associates congratulated each other over that hope.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> +But it was not fulfilled. Hence arises the tone of angered honesty, +which Cromwell so repeatedly assumed when he addressed his Parliament, +and Carlyle's indignant protest—'What a position for a hero, to be +reduced continually to say he does not lie!'</p> + +<p>But what was Cromwell's motive in the fabrication of this Insurrection +of March, 1655? It was not, as might be suggested, a device to thwart by +a premature explosion, a dangerous conspiracy during a critical moment +in the Protectorate. Cromwell himself asserts in his 'Declaration,' that +'this Attempt was made, when nothing but a well-formed Power could hope +to put Us into disorder; Scotland and Ireland being perfectly reduced; +Differences with most Neighbour Nations composed; our Forces, both by +Sea and Land, in order and consistency.' Nay, he artfully converted the +very security of his Government into a proof that 'the pretended King' +would not have sent over his servants, and that the Royalists would not +'have actually risen' at Salisbury, had the insurrection been other than +'a general design,' based on a vast secret organization. No one in all +England possessed more certain knowledge, than did Cromwell, that such +was not the case, and that he could not plead in his behalf the poor +excuse, that the Nation as a Nation needed a severe lesson, or that it +was to save England from civil war that he had sacrificed the lives of +those fourteen victims of his deception, and consigned that band of +seventy or eighty Englishmen to the horrors of West Indian slavery.</p> + +<p>But if Cromwell could not claim that excuse, what then was his motive? +Dark as was the light within him, he was not in such utter darkness as +to encompass himself about with written, spoken, and acted lies merely +to gratify caprice, or that he might indulge in causeless cruelty. His +motive was a very simple one. He was forced to obey his servant, the +Army. The men whom he had made, and who had made him, demanded a visible +share in the power and profit that he enjoyed. Reverting to the autumn +of 1654, much had then occurred to disquiet the Army. Cromwell had taken +a distinct step towards Kingship, by attempting to persuade Parliament +to make the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> Protectorate hereditary. Parliament had made a distinct +movement towards a large reduction in the Army and Navy. If rumour be +evidence, there was, during November, 'a great division in the army.' +And it is certain that, at the close of that month, Cromwell and his +military men came to terms. At a meeting held in St. James's Palace, the +staff of the army agreed 'to live and die with Cromwell.'<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> And a +train of events, occurring in direct sequence after that meeting, proves +that it was at this conjuncture that Cromwell agreed to parcel out his +Protectorship among the leading officers of the Army. Parliament was +dissolved 22nd January, 1655, on the pretext that under its shadow, +conspiracy and discontent had thriven; and Cromwell gave an alarming +account of the 'real dangers,' of imminent insurrection and anarchy, +that threatened England. That speech was the prologue; then came the +tragedy itself, the Insurrection of March, 1655; then came its +consequence, the appointment of the Major-Generals. And in the end, the +reason why they were appointed, was brought to light by a state of +affairs, very identical with that which had raised them to power.</p> + +<p>Cromwell had renewed the attempt that he had made in the autumn of 1654, +and in his quest after Kingship he had come, during February 1657, +almost within sight of the throne. Again the army officers interfered; +and again Cromwell was forced to meet them face to face; to receive, on +this occasion, their protest against his acceptance of the Crown. He +made a compromise as he had done before; but in speech, he was not +conciliatory. If the Protectorate had been a failure, he told his former +comrades, it was their fault. It was they, and not he who had governed; +as for himself, 'they had made him their drudge upon all occasions: to +dissolve the Long Parliament,' and 'to call a Parliament or Convention +of their naming,' which proved so unsuccessful; and then another +Parliament, alike in unsuccess; and he concluded that catalogue of their +untoward interferences with his government, by reminding his hearers +that they thought it was necessary to have Major-Generals; adding that +so they 'might have gone on,' if they had not insisted on his calling +the Parliament of 1656, against his will, which had given them 'a foil.'<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + + +<p>That speech is the most exceptional, in some respects the most +important, of all Cromwell's speeches. Spoken if not 'in haste,' +certainly 'out of the fulness of the heart,' that is caused by anger, it +is, though unusually brief, delightfully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> incautious. Being addressed to +men who could not well be deceived, the speech must be true, at least so +far as they are concerned, in every particular; it does not contain a +single appeal to God; and of no other among Cromwell's speeches, are the +original MS. notes in existence. This speech, of the utmost historic +importance, is essentially unheroic in tone and circumstance,—the +querulous complaint of a master against servants who have overmastered +him,—an assertion of supremacy made by a man, who felt that he was not +really supreme. But the singularity that attends the address to the +recalcitrant officers is not yet exhausted. Surprise may well be felt +that Carlyle, with this speech before him, ventured on the construction +of his false image of Cromwell, the Hero. Judged even as an ordinary +ruler, he must have been a very sorry Protector who, according to his +own showing, was only a sham supreme magistrate,—the minister, the +'drudge,' of his servants but real masters—who had compelled him to +call, and to dissolve Parliaments, and to impose on England those +military despots.</p> + +<p>Carlyle has endowed his ideal Protector 'with the virtue to create +belief,' by the force of self-assertion, which still finds its +imitators, by pouring out contempt on all who differ from him, and by +implying that, as all other Cromwellian authorities are 'stupidities and +falsities,' he alone was wise and true. This was but a risky basis on +which to exhibit 'this Oliver' to the world, as the noblest Hero 'among +the noblest of Human Heroisms, this English Puritanism of ours,' and as +'not a Man of falsehoods, but a Man of truths.' But reading over these +words, and calling to mind the confidence with which Carlyle compels all +to join with him in his Cromwell-worship, it is impossible to resist the +conviction, that it was with good faith that he could see in Cromwell +'the glimpses,' even the revelation 'of the god-like,' and that he would +not attend to aught that disclosed Cromwell 'not' as 'august and divine, +but hypocritical, pitiable, detestable.' Even though he claimed a +familiar acquaintance with the 'Thurloe Papers,' he must have been +ignorant, it is impossible to think otherwise, of the black stories +which Cromwell's 'expertest of secretaries' could publish against his +master.</p> + +<p>And passing from the worshipper to the Idol; surely it is but in +accordance with common sense and common charity to hope that, as with +Carlyle, so also with his Oliver, the real Cromwell was wholly shrouded +from Cromwell's sight. That hope might, indeed, be forbidden by some. It +might be argued that, although many a wrong-doing, such as bloodshed, +oppression,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> or even treachery, has been committed by men in the sincere +belief that they were doing God service, Cromwell cannot be placed among +that group of self-deceivers: that he stands by himself, and on a lower +level. It was to save himself, to propitiate a gang of mutinous +servants, that Cromwell contrived and wrought out the deception of +March, 1655, and obtained in the bloodshed that it produced, the +essential result that he desired. And then, to give validity to his +imposture, to grace it with the Divine sanction, he ascribed his course +of acted and uttered lies, and the cruelty and misery they had +engendered, to God himself.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly that statement is true. But yet on the other hand it may be +pleaded, that nothing but an intense living conviction, that God was +with him in all his ways, could have enabled Cromwell to make 'with +comfort' his 'appeal to God, whether' the Insurrection of March 1655 +'hath been the matter of Our Choice' or 'according to Our own +inclinations?'</p> + +<p>This is but a sorry plea to urge in Cromwell's behalf. The blackness and +the fury of the storm, which roared across England during his dying +hours, cannot have exceeded the blinding energy of that strong delusion, +that ever drove him onward, through his cruel and crooked devices, fully +persuaded that 'God was even such a one as' himself. Though all may +agree in believing that it was not from the lips, but truly from the +heart—not to cheat his hearers, but in a veritable ecstasy—that +Cromwell claimed to stand before God, as one who 'had learned too much +of God, to dally with him,' still it must be felt, that such an +assertion, coming from such a Protector, reveals a mental condition that +baffles the understanding. But as man, when he shrinks from passing +judgment on another, ever takes the better part; and as even with the +best amongst us, the relation of the soul to God is a question which, of +all others, should not be intermeddled with, assuredly we must leave +Cromwell, whose being is one of 'the deep things of God,' to His +judgment.—'Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then +the hearts of the children of men?'</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> 'Report of French Ambassador in Holland.' Thurloe, iii. +322.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> 'Clarendon' (Bodleian Papers), iii. II.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> 'Clarendon,' ed. 1839, 871. 'Clarendon' (Bodleian Papers), +Cal. iii. 13 Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2535. fo. 637.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> We thus found this conjecture: Cromwell held an +intercepted letter from the King to Mr. Roles, addressed to him under +his alias, Mr. Upton, expressed in terms of entire confidence (Thurl. +iii. 75); but Roles was not arrested. And the suspicion inspired by the +immunity which Cromwell granted to such a conspicuous Royalist, was +confirmed by finding that Thurloe in a letter (dated 6th April, 1655) to +Manning the spy, refers to 'Mr. Upton' as their common friend. (Egerton +MSS., Brit. Mus. 2542. fo. 166.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Masonet. See Note, 'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian) Cal. iii. +14 Carlyle, iv. 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Information of J. Dallington, R. Glover, J. Stradling, E. +Turner.' Thurloe iii. 35, 74, 146, 181, 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Several Proceedings, &c. Thurs., 8th Feb.—15th Feb. 1655. +'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian Cal.) iii. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 164.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 137, 180, 190, 198, 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2535, fo. 637. This communication +appears in an anonymous letter addressed to Nicholas. Mr. Warner, with +that ready help that he and his department afford, by a comparison of +the handwriting, attributes that letter to Col. Price, who shared in +Rochester's expedition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> 'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian), Cal. iii. 23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 573.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Ibid., iv. 344.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 122, 182. Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus., 2535, +fo. 627</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Whitlock, 625. Thurloe, iii. 359, 382.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 391.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 162 172, 177, 182, 219, 243, Rolls Cal. +(1655), 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 238, 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Heath's Chronicle, 367.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 176, 181, 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> 'Rolls Cal.' (1655), p. 216; Baynes Coll., Add. MSS. Brit. +Mus. 21,424 fo. 50; Thurloe, iii. 226.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 210, 222, 228, 241, 253.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Ibid., iii. 298, 356. In addition to constant terror of +'the Barbadoes,' to which all Cromwell's prisoners were subject, a +Royalist in the Tower mentions, in a pencilled letter, that he had been +threatened with torture; and that the Protector himself used the menace +of the rack rests on the evidence of another prisoner's +brother.—'Clarendon Papers,' Bodleian Cal., iii. 82, 87.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 676.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Pell Coll. Landsdowne MSS., 752. fo. 275, 282. Baynes +Coll. Add. MSS. 21, 423, fo. 74. Thurloe, iii. 170, 224, 246, 248, 253, +281, 284. 'Rolls Cal., 1655, 81, 84, 88, 99, 200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Thurloe, iii. 281, 335.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> 'Clarendon Papers,' Bodleian Cal., iii. 27, 34, 36. 'Rolls +Cal' (1655), 193, 245. Thurloe, iii. 358, 530, 561, 659.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Whalley's Statement; Burton, iv, 155.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Adapted from the 'Declaration' of Oct. 1655, and Speech. +Carlyle, iv. 107, Vol. 162.—<i>No. 324</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Carlyle, iv. 108, 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Pell Corresp., Landsdowne MSS. Brit. Mus. 752, fo 275, +289. Hist Rec. Comn. 6th Report, 438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> 1 Dec. 1654. Pell Corr., Lans. MSS. Brit. Mus., 752 fo. +215, 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> 27 Feb. 1657. Burton, i. 383. Carlyle, iv. 177.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Art_VI_1_Oceana_or_England_and_her_Colonies_By_James_Anthony" id="Art_VI_1_Oceana_or_England_and_her_Colonies_By_James_Anthony"></a>Art. VI.—1. <i>Oceana, or England and her Colonies.</i> By James Anthony +Froude. London, 1886.</h2> + +<h2>2. <i>Through the British Empire.</i> By Baron von Hübner. 2 vols. London, +1886.</h2> + +<h2>3. <i>The Western Pacific and New Guinea.</i> By Hugh Hastings Romilly, +Deputy Commissioner of the Western Pacific. London, 1886.</h2> + + +<p>In days when proposals for the dismemberment of the Empire can be put +forward by great leaders of public opinion without exciting either +indignation or surprise, it may be worth the while of Englishmen to +spend a few hours in making themselves acquainted with the volumes which +we have cited at the head of this article. Most men are so absorbed in +what is going on immediately under their eyes, that they seldom bestow a +thought upon the remoter portions of the vast territory which +acknowledge allegiance to the Queen. They have but the most vague ideas, +or none at all, concerning the thoughts, wishes, and purposes, of the +large and growing communities which sprung from these islands, and which +have hitherto been proud of their English origin. It is true that this +pride has not been increasing of late years. The neglect or contempt +with which the Colonies have been treated by successive Liberal +Administrations did much to estrange the people, especially of Canada +and Australasia, and the whole foreign policy of England under Mr. +Gladstone's rule served to strengthen the general impression that our +decadence had not only set in, but was advancing with a rapidity which +was palpable to all the world except to those who were chiefly concerned +in arresting it. Mr. Froude tells us that one of the shrewdest and most +eminent of all the colonists whom he met expressed his amazement at the +popularity in this country of Mr. Gladstone,—an amazement which, Mr. +Froude adds, is felt 'wherever the English language is spoken' outside +England itself. We can fully confirm this statement. The hold which Mr. +Gladstone retains upon the country, after the long series of +unparallelled mistakes which a faithful view of his career must forever +associate with his name—the mistakes abroad, the mistakes at home, the +crowning and almost incredible mistakes in Ireland; that he should still +keep his hold of power and popularity after all this, absolutely passes +the understanding of our fellow-subjects abroad, no matter what politics +they profess. To them, we appear to be a people controlled by some +Circean spell, having cast common-sense and prudence to the winds, and +decided to be ruled henceforth by the man who can tickle our ears with +the longest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span> speeches and the smoothest words. Byron was accustomed to +say that he looked upon the opinion of America as the verdict of +posterity. It is certain that our own kinsfolk beyond the seas are +sometimes in a far better position to realize the consequences of what +we are doing here than those who are actually playing the game. We are +too much wrapped up in self-complacency to allow their opinions to have +any weight with us, but they have the satisfaction, such as it is, of +seeing all their prognostications verified one after the other, and of +knowing that a rude and stern awakening from our dreams is hanging over +us.</p> + +<p>Of the three books to which we invite attention, Mr. Froude's is least +like the average book of travel, and undoubtedly is the most suggestive +of thought. Whether we agree with Mr. Froude or whether we do not, it is +always a pleasure to read him. The 'shoddy' work which extends to +everything in the present day, and which is eating into the very heart +of our new literature, has not corrupted the older handicraftsmen among +us. Not one record of travel in a hundred deserves to be mentioned in +the same breath with 'Oceana;' there are not very many books of the kind +in the language which excel it in variety, in vigour of style, in +picturesqueness of description, or in vivid glimpses of insight into +personal character. Baron Hübner is a more genial, discursive, and +garrulous traveller. He tells us everything that comes into his mind, +and has a note about everything he saw. We must add that these notes +are, generally speaking, of great interest, and often very amusing. He +undertook a journey over the greater part of the British Dominions, at a +somewhat advanced period of life, for his readers ought to be reminded +that he is the last survivor of the Congress of Paris, and that few men +have had more valuable experience in the diplomatic service. Before he +started, the Baron heard that his project was freely discussed at the +Traveller's Club. Some said, 'what a plucky old fellow he is!' His +comment upon this shows that he knows something of men as well as of +places: 'If any harm befals me, they will say, "what an old fool he +was!"' Happily, there was no occasion for pronouncing this judgment upon +him. He followed out his prescribed route with wonderful success, and he +has presented a graceful and highly interesting narrative of his +adventures. His observations may, in many respects, be usefully compared +with those of Mr. Froude, though it will not do to carry this comparison +much further. We must, however, do the Baron the justice to acknowledge, +that he always manifests an earnest desire to be fair and just. As for +the third book on our list, it has the advantage of being short and to +the point, and the additional advantage of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> being founded upon a +personal residence in one of the islands of the Western Pacific. Travels +based upon something more substantial than a mere flying visit are not +too common, and we are grateful to Mr. Romilly for making a very +entertaining addition to the number. We should be equally glad to +receive the account of North New Guinea which a Russian gentleman, Mr. +Miklaho Maclay, is so well able to furnish. It so chanced that he was +landed one night on the north coast of New Guinea, and in the morning +the natives found him sitting upon his portmanteau, like a man waiting +for a train. They took him for a being of supernatural origin, but by +way of making sure, they fired arrows at the stranger, tied him to a +tree, and forced spears down his throat. As he survived these injuries, +though by a narrow chance, the first impression of the natives was +confirmed, and Mr. Maclay was afterwards treated in a manner which seems +to have left him little ground for complaint. Thus far Mr. Maclay, as +Mr. Romilly informs us, has declined to commit any account of his +experience to paper; but a resolution of this kind is seldom unalterable +when a man has anything new to tell the world.</p> + +<p>Mr. Froude, as we have already intimated, intersperses the records of +travel with weighty reflections, or with valuable information, no part +of which can be prudently ignored by the reader. We do not know, for +instance, where in a short compass the arguments for and against +Colonial Federation have been so clearly set forth. As a rule, the +colonists everywhere view with great aversion the idea of placing +themselves under the direct authority of Downing Street, and no one will +be surprised at this who recollects the treatment they have almost +invariably received from that quarter. On the other hand, they are by no +means impatient or eager to proclaim their independence. 'British they +are,' says Mr. Froude, 'and British they wish to remain.' It will not be +their fault, but ours, if total separation ever becomes a popular cry in +Australasia or in Canada. There have been projects of a purely <i>local</i> +colonial confederation, but they are not regarded with much favour by +the leading public men. Mr. Dalley of Sydney, expressed strongly his +disapproval of the scheme, and he also objected to the plan of having +the colonies represented in the Imperial Parliament by Colonial +Agents-general. The one thing which seems at present to be universally +desired is a better organization of the Navy. 'Let there be one Navy,' +Mr. Dalley said, 'under the rule of a single Admiralty—a Navy in which +the colonies should be as much interested as the mother country, which +should be theirs as well as ours, and on which they might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span> all rely in +time of danger.' In these respects, the ideas of modern colonists differ +widely from those held in the last century. The great grievance of the +American colonists was that they were not represented in the British +Parliament. Had that demand been conceded, Mr. Froude is of opinion that +'Franklin and Washington would have been satisfied.' We do not quite +agree with him, for the party of Independence, though small at first, +was never likely to remain long contented with any compromise. +Originally, indeed, as we all remember, the leaders of the Revolution +disclaimed any intention of bringing about a separation. Franklin to the +last protested his desire to keep the colonies united to the mother +country; but Franklin was not the most sincere or straightforward of +men. Undoubtedly, however, the American colonists did not begin the +Revolution with the least desire to create a separate nationality, any +more than in the great civil war of 1861-65 there was at first, or for a +long time, any intention of effecting the abolition of slavery. Both +ideas were acquired by the people by slow degrees. Massachusetts, New +Hampshire, Virginia, and other States gave emphatic instructions to +their delegates in 1774 to 'restore union and harmony between Great +Britain and her Colonies,' and the party of independence was thoroughly +unpopular down even to the close of the struggle. One of its leading +spirits gave emphatic testimony on this point. 'For my own part,' wrote +John Adams, 'there was not a moment in the Revolution when I would not +have given everything I possessed for a restoration to the state of +things before the contest began, provided we could have a sufficient +security for its continuance.' This feeling had no small share in +misleading George III. on the American question, and in deepening his +determination not to let the colonies go—a fact which was brought out +for the first time, we believe, by one of the ablest and most judicious +of modern historians—Mr. Lecky. He also was the first to show, in a +very striking manner, that the American Revolution was practically the +work of a small minority, who, as he remarks—and the remark has no +slight application to the other revolution now going on in our +midst—'succeeded in committing an undecided and fluctuating majority to +courses for which they had little love, and leading them step by step to +a position from which it was impossible to recede.'<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> Nearly one-half +of the Revolutionary army consisted of Irish, who have ever since played +so important a part in the politics of the United States.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span></p> +<p>In the present day, our colonists do not seek for separation, +neither—if Mr. Froude is right—do they ask for representation at +Westminster. They 'are passionately attached to their Sovereign,' and +they desire that their Governors 'should be worthy always of the great +person whom they represent.' They wish to have their trade encouraged, +as it might so easily have been a few years ago, if we had possessed +foresight enough to adopt a system of differential duties; they wish to +have good immigrants, and they see the growing necessity for a strong +navy. The information on these subjects which Baron Hübner acquired +should be considered in connection with Mr. Froude's statements. It will +be found that the two writers substantially agree. Baron Hübner found +that the Australian colonists fully comprehend the disadvantage which +complete independence would be to them. They are practically independent +now, but they are spared the political and social turmoil in which the +periodical election of a President would necessarily involve them. 'The +Queen,' said one of the Baron's friends, 'sends every five years a +Governor, who is not an autocrat like the President of the United +States, but the representative of constitutional royalty. In America +every four years, business is arrested, public order is disturbed, and +passions are let loose to the point sometimes of threatening even public +life itself. And why? In order that the nation may elect an absolute +master, irremovable by law during his period of office. Here every one +understands this, and every one knows how to leave well alone.' We do +not quite see how the President of the United States can be described as +an 'autocrat' or as an 'absolute master,' but the Australians are right +in their conclusion, that the American system would be a sorry +substitute for the arrangement which gives them a Governor without +inconvenience to themselves, and without any risk of infringement upon +their liberties.</p> + +<p>In the Cape Colony, the problem presents itself in a different form. In +its origin—as everybody ought to know, but does not—it is not an +English, but a Dutch Colony, and the Boers have never been disposed to +render to English sovereignty more than a passive obedience. The chief +facts in their recent history are but too easily recalled. When the +Transvaal was annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the people at first +submitted quietly; but the new Commissioner aroused first their fears, +and then their anger, by various encroachments which were regarded as +invasions of their rights. The Boers took up arms, English troops were +despatched from the Cape to suppress the rising, and these troops were +beaten at Lang's Neck. General Colley, who then commanded the forces at +Natal, hastened forward with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> more troops in the hope of retrieving this +disaster, but was himself beaten at Ingogo. He then, without waiting for +the reinforcements which were on their way to him, took up a new +position, was attacked by the Boers, and defeated in the memorable +disaster at Majuba Hill. Mr. Gladstone forthwith surrendered everything, +and since that time the Boers have been, as a matter of course, more and +more antagonistic to the English power. 'They came to Africa,' says +Baron Hübner, 'in 1652, with the intention of remaining there, and they +do remain there. The future and Africa belong to them, unless they are +expelled by a stronger power, the blacks or the English. They accept the +struggle with the blacks, and they avoid all contact with the English.' +Mr. Froude takes now, as he has always taken, a very strong view of our +own responsibility for all the difficulties which have arisen with the +Boers. We have, he says with some bitterness, 'treated them unfairly as +well as unwisely, and we never forgive those whom we have injured.' The +story is long, and it has been treated more than once, and we believe +with strict fairness and impartiality, in these pages. Mr. Froude +himself does not deny, that the effect of the surrender after Majuba +Hill 'was to diminish infallibly the influence of England in South +Africa, and to elate and encourage the growing party whose hope was and +is to see it vanish altogether.' The work was not half done. We insisted +upon a new Treaty, which was immediately broken by the Boers. Mr. Froude +once more recommends us to 'leave the Cape alone'—not to get out of it, +but to allow the Boers to manage their affairs in their own way. 'Our +interferences,' he tells us, 'have been dictated by the highest motives; +but experience has told us, and ought to have taught us, that in what we +have done or tried to do, we have aggravated every evil which we most +desired to prevent. We have conciliated neither person nor party.'</p> + +<p>Baron Hübner arrived at his conclusions by a totally different road from +that pursued by Mr. Froude, but the burden of his story is much the +same. It is the indecision of the Central Government, the uncertainty in +which the Colony is always kept as to what will happen to them next, +which causes nearly all the mischief. We have treated the Cape Colony as +we have treated Ireland, and with every prospect of bringing about the +same results. First 'coercion,' then abject surrender, then coercion +again—'a process,' as Mr. Froude justly remarks, 'which drives nations +mad, as it drives children, yet is inevitable in every dependency +belonging to us which is not entirely servile, so long as it lies at the +will and mercy of so uncertain a body as the British Parliament.' Baron +Hübner, who stands beyond the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span> influence of our party politics, tells us +the same thing in other words. We want a policy, he says, in effect, +which shall be permanent in its application, and therefore not affected +by changes in Ministries. The fact is that we want such a policy for +many parts of our Empire besides South Africa, and we are likely to want +it. With Parliaments elected at short and frequent intervals, and +depending largely on shifting caprices, there is not likely to be any +fixed principle in dealing with political problems arising either at our +own doors or thousands of miles away.</p> + +<p>There is one question in which all the colonists take a deep interest, +and that is the condition and prospects of our trade. The Colonies are +now our best customers, and we sincerely hope they will continue to be +so, for with them we may possibly get, even yet, something like Free +Trade, whereas no chance of securing even an approach to it can be +looked for in the rest of the world. The Colonies will always raise at +the Custom House the greater part of the money they want for the +expenses of internal government, but they may be induced to offer +England more favourable terms than other nations receive. In Australia, +as elsewhere, it begins to be doubted whether 'England can trust +entirely to Free Trade and competition to keep the place she has +hitherto held.' If all our Colonies were bound with us in one commercial +federation, we could make sure of Free Trade over a large part of the +world's surface. 'We should have purchasers for our goods,' remarks Mr. +Froude, 'from whom we should fear no rivalry; we should turn in upon +them the tide of our emigrants which now flows away.' But at present, +and with the fiscal system of 1846 still regarded as sacred and +inviolable, nothing can be done. When we are prepared to acknowledge +that the world has moved since 1846, and that we must move with it, +there may be a possibility of widening the field of our +commerce—unless, indeed, we delay too long. Public opinion in England +is beginning to stir upon the subject. The demand for a great and +radical change will come, when it does come, from the working men, and +they are already showing signs of deep interest in a matter which +concerns the very means of their livelihood. They are in advance of +Parliament and Ministries on this subject. Mr. Froude is well within +bounds in asserting that 'those among us who have disbelieved all along +that a great nation can venture its whole fortunes safely on the power +of underselling its neighbours in calicoes and iron-work, no longer +address a public opinion entirely cold.' What, perhaps, has tended as +much as anything else to open our eyes is the discovery, that other +nations begin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> to be able to undersell us, not only in foreign markets, +but even in our own—here in England, at Sheffield, Birmingham, and +Manchester. Carlyle usually defined the Free Trade theory as the system +of 'cheap and nasty.' As we have never had Free Trade, and therefore as +it has never been properly tested, it is impossible to say what effects +it was capable of producing, properly worked out. The great fact which +confronts us to-day is that no other nation in the world, and not even +our own colonists, will have anything whatever to do with it on any +terms. This fact, at least, the English workingmen are beginning to see +and to understand, and results will flow from it at present not +anticipated by 'statesmen,' who know little or nothing about the hard +matter-of-fact conditions under which trade is carried on, and who are +assiduously primed by underlings with statistics which they repeat by +rote, and as to the real value or signification of which they are +completely and hopelessly in the dark.</p> + +<p>According to Baron Hübner, the Australian colonists have not abandoned +the hope of forming a customs' union with the mother country, and they +are far from regarding the proposals for giving them representation in +Parliament with the indifference which Mr. Froude imagines that he +detected. No one yet seems to have made even an effort to settle the +details of a scheme by which a navy could be kept up for the defence of +the Colonies, and an Imperial Zollverein formed between England and her +foreign possessions. But the 'advanced men,' according to Baron Hübner, +feel convinced that the idea can be carried out, and they are desirous +of finding, as a preliminary, direct representation in some form at +Westminster. The growth of this idea, says Baron Hübner, 'of a grand +confederation, which would completely revolutionize Old England, or +rather, which would create a new England by the handiwork and after the +pattern of her children in Australia—the growth of this idea among the +masses is, to my mind, an indubitable fact.' More improbable things have +happened than that England, weakened at home by the selfish ambition of +her statesmen, and by the frenzy of party warfare, may be saved by the +patriotism of her descendants in other lands. The first opportunity +which the colonists have had of evincing their determination to stand by +the old country was promptly taken advantage of, and with a heartiness +of spirit that we hope is not yet forgotten, quickly as all events, +great or small, are nowadays crammed into 'the wallet of oblivion.' The +offers of colonial aid during the Egyptian war roused a feeling +throughout the Colonies which astonished all Europe, and probably took +many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> of the colonists themselves by surprise. 'When English interests +were in peril,' Mr. Froude tells us, 'I found the Australians, not cool +and indifferent, but <i>ipsis Anglicis Angliciores</i>, as if at the +circumference the patriotic spirit was more alive than at the centre. +There was a general sense that our affairs were being strangely +mismanaged.' The men who think and talk like this are not struggling for +place and power amid the demoralizing surroundings of modern +Parliamentary life. They are able to take a cool and dispassionate view +of us and our affairs, and they begin to think that public life has +degenerated into a mere scramble for the spoils of office. Their +indignation, when Gordon was deserted by the Government which he had +tried to serve, was far greater than we seem to have had any experience +of amongst ourselves. They looked upon him as 'the last of the race of +heroes who had won for England her proud position among the nations; he +had been left to neglect and death, and the national glory was sullied.' +They volunteered to come over and help us fight our battles. The +Colonial Office, then under Lord Derby, was for a few days disposed to +turn the cold shoulder to these efforts of assistance. But the feeling, +which had been aroused in the country by the first announcements in the +newspapers, was too deep to be mistaken. It broke through the ice in +which the Colonial Office is usually imbedded, and compelled Lord Derby +to make a warm and grateful response to the Colonies. In reality, the +people there are, as many travellers besides Mr. Froude have remarked, +more English than the English themselves in their sensitiveness as +regards the national honour. We talk very coolly here of 'standing +aside,' of 'having seen our best days,' and of giving up one part of our +inheritance after another; but the Englishmen abroad are animated by +very different sentiments. The love of the 'old home' is strong in them, +even though they may have been born in the Colonies. It shows itself in +a thousand different ways. At Ballarat, Mr. Froude seems to have been +struck with a garden which might have been attached to an old cottage in +Surrey or Devonshire. There were cabbage-roses, pinks, columbines, +sweet-williams, laburnums, and honey-suckle—all prized because they +were the flowers of Old England. The people everywhere speak the +language with remarkable purity. The aspirate is rarely misplaced, +unless by a recent immigrant. The misuse of the aspirate is, indeed, a +peculiar part of the birthright of an Englishman. No one ever yet heard +it from the poorest or most illiterate class in the United States. In +Australia, says Mr. Froude, 'no provincialism has yet developed itself. +The tone is soft, the language good.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span> The young people looked fresh and +healthy, 'not lean and sun-dried, but fair, fleshy, lymphatic.' Mr. +Froude could not see any difference between his countrymen at home and +those who had settled down in this new and wider field of industry. 'The +leaves that grow on one branch of an oak are not more like the leaves +that grow upon another, than the Australian swarm is like the hive it +sprung from.' Mr. Service, the Prime Minister of Victoria, fully shares +the English predilections of his fellow colonists, but he appears to +feel some irritation at the tone so frequently adopted by the Liberal +press and party in this country, and emphatically urged in their day by +Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. This tone is founded upon the argument, 'The +Colonies are of no use to us; therefore the sooner they take themselves +off the better.' If some leaders and members of the Liberal party had +their way, we should be without a colony in the world, without India, +and with Ireland close to our own doors a hostile and an independent +Foreign Power.</p> + +<p>With regard to India it is to Baron Hübner's records of a very +remarkable journey, that we must turn for the notes of the most recent +traveller. The work is not so exhaustive, especially as regards the +Native States, as M. Rousselet's 'L'Inde des Rajahs,' but it is +eminently readable and lively, and the author gives abundant evidence, +that he took with him everywhere an earnest desire to arrive at the +truth, and a determination to form his conclusions with strict +impartiality. It is evident that in India he soon began to feel the +influence of that peculiar spell which the country exercises over most +persons of a susceptible or imaginative temperament. 'India,' he says, +'has always fascinated me, 'and few who have travelled there will not be +ready to make the same confession. It is much to be hoped that the +Radicals will be induced to listen to Baron Hübner's testimony +concerning the way in which we carry on government in our great Eastern +dependency. Nowhere, strange as it may appear, but in our own country is +English rule misunderstood or misrepresented. Injustice is +systematically done to the purest, most conscientious, and most +industrious Civil Service in the whole world; and our countrymen who are +spending the best part of their lives in the effort to promote the +welfare and prosperity of India, are too often held up to opprobrium as +examples of merciless tyrants, whose only object is to grind down the +natives into the dust. We seem to be losing many of the characteristics +which formerly distinguished us in the world, but there is one which +marks us out very plainly from all other nations—the habit of +disparaging our own achievements and vilifying our own reputation. We do +not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span> find the Germans pertinaciously seeking to bring into disrepute the +efforts now being made to extend their colonial possessions; the +Americans have a motto, upon which they invariably act: 'our +country—right or wrong.' This may be carrying a good principle a little +too far; but it is better than the course we pursue, of striving with +might and main to dishonour our past, and to place our country in the +most contemptible light before the rest of mankind. Instead of our +having any reason to be ashamed of what we have done in and for India, +we have every cause to be proud of it; and, if English people had an +adequate knowledge of that work, and were in a position to exercise +their common-sense on the question, untrammelled by agitators and +demagogues, they would acknowledge gladly that they were heartily proud +of it. We believe that the great body of Englishmen in India are +honestly endeavouring to do their duty, according to the measure of +their abilities, and that, if any event occurred to cause our removal +from the country, it would inflict the direst forms of suffering and +calamity upon the people. It is important to hear what a foreigner, not +unduly prejudiced in our favour, has to say upon these points. First, +then, in reference to the men who are engaged in the practical work of +government—the Civil Service—Baron Hübner says:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I have met everywhere men devoted to their service, working +from morning till evening, and finding time, notwithstanding +the mutiplicity of their daily labours, to occupy themselves +with literature and serious studies. India is governed +bureaucratically, but this bureaucracy differs in more than +one respect from ours in Europe. To the public servant in +Europe one day is like another; some great revolution, some +European war, is needed to disturb the placid monotony of +his existence. In India it is not so. The variety of his +duties enlarges and fashions the mind of the Anglo-Indian +official; and the dangers to which he is occasionally +exposed serve to strengthen and give energy to his +character. He learns to take large views and to work at his +desk while the ground is trembling beneath his feet. I do +not think I am guilty of exaggeration in declaring that +there is not a bureaucracy in the world better educated, +better trained to business, more thoroughly stamped with the +qualities which make a statesman; and, what none will +dispute, more pure and upright than that which administers +the government of India.'</p></div> + +<p>Of late years, as everybody is aware, a demand has sprung up for 'local +self-government' in India—a demand not originating with natives +themselves, but with the sentimentalists and philosophers who are doing +their best and their worst to take all the manliness out of the English +character. Lord Ripon was the mechanical mouthpiece of this sect, and +there can be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> no doubt whatever that no Governor-General or Viceroy of +India ever did so much harm in so short space of time. He and his school +tried their utmost to persuade the natives that what they want is 'Home +Rule'—that panacea for all the evils of modern life which is likely to +entail so many new burdens and trials upon us. The natives of India +never suspected, until Lord Ripon strove to impress it upon them, that +Home Rule is indispensable to their happiness. They are perfectly well +aware that if our hold upon the country is ever relaxed, there will be +nothing but chaos all through the land,—internecine wars, rebellions, +and massacres, such as marked the history of India until our rule became +well established there. Lord Ripon closed his eyes to all +this—<i>doctrinaire</i> at heart, he could see nothing but his own +crotchets. The native, he declared, must have local self-government. But +Baron Hübner found that the people did not understand or desire this +much vaunted contrivance. The native, he says, 'refuses to be elected by +his equals. He wishes to be chosen by his superiors, and his superiors +are the English officials, represented in this case by the district +officer or magistrate. In the North-Western Provinces, this opposition +was so strong that the Supreme Government have been obliged, much +against their own views, to give to the Governor of those Provinces the +power of constituting the municipalities.' The sentimentalists may try +to develop the 'native mind' as they please, but they will never +persuade Hindoos or Mussulmans to trust their own countrymen as they +trust us. We have a reputation among them for fairness and for justice +which no native would ever aim to deserve, although he is not incapable +of understanding and admiring it. An East Indian of any race or religion +will never speak the truth if he can possibly help himself, but he has a +certain respect for the man who can and does. No doubt, the very +earnestness, with which we seek to dispense equal justice among all +classes, is a stumbling-block in our path, and always has been so. The +native likes to deal with a judge who will wink at perjury, and who is +not above taking a bribe. Yet the Englishman is everywhere trusted. 'If +proof were needed,' says Baron Hübner, 'to show how deeply rooted among +the populations is English prestige, I would quote the fact that +throughout the peninsula the native prefers, in civil and still more in +criminal cases, to be tried by an English judge. It would be +impossible, I think, to render a more flattering testimony to British +rule.' But these are facts which had no signification for Lord Ripon. He +pursued a policy which, designedly or undesignedly, was calculated to +bring our rule to an end. 'Lord Ripon's resolution,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> some one told +Baron Hübner, 'means nothing or means this: The Government foresees that +the time will come when we must leave India to herself.' Then there was +the Ilbert Bill, placing Europeans in the country districts under the +jurisdiction of native judges. How could the natives of all classes fail +to look upon this as another evidence that the reins of power were +dropping from our nerveless hands? The point of the whole matter was +thus put by one of the civilians to Baron Hübner:—'The principle, that +the jurisdiction over European subjects of the Crown must be reserved +for judges and magistrates who are also European subjects, has always +been maintained. And it has always been recognized that in this +principle lies the only possible effectual guarantee to Europeans living +in country districts against the perjury and false witness so common +among the rural populations.' The Ilbert Bill proposed to take away +these safeguards from the European, and would have left him at the mercy +of native judges and native witnesses, whose only idea of justice is to +make a few rupees out of its administration.</p> + +<p>The school of Radicals represented only too numerously in the present +Parliament—unreasoning, ignorant of India, impulsive, narrow and +insular—is also represented among the more recent importations of +'competition wallahs.' Baron Hübner met with many of them. 'In their +opinion,' he says, 'the ideal of a sound English policy is the +dismemberment of the British Empire, and above all the abandonment of +India. To save England, it is necessary first to destroy her.' To the +shrewd and experienced Austrian diplomatist, these ideas seem to be +absolutely ruinous, but the oddity of it is that thousands of persons in +England cling to them with a sort of idolatry, as if within them was +compressed the sum and substance of human wisdom. The Radical party +to-day lives upon these theories of dismemberment, although it is +careful to keep its ultimate aim as much as possible in the background. +In India, its adherents are doing an immense amount of harm. Baron +Hübner seems to have been struck with amazement at the phenomenon. 'This +is, indeed,' he exclaims, 'a curious and perhaps a unique spectacle—an +immense administration, managed according to doctrines which are +repudiated by the large majority of those who compose it.' The natives +who are educated in our schools and colleges emerge from them filled +with ideas of Socialism and Atheism. We break down their faith in their +own creeds, without succeeding in inducing them to adopt Christianity. +They find themselves free to construct a religion of their own, or to do +without any religion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span>. As regards the Government, they are led to +believe that it ought not to be where it is, and that India should be +ruled by its own people. The native press is full of sedition. Let us +hear what Baron Hübner has to say upon this subject, for it is worth +attention:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Is there any public opinion in India? It is declared that +there is none. And yet people agree in saying that the +natives who have been educated in the State colleges have +become singularly importunate of late years, that they are +beginning to adopt a high tone, and that they take especial +delight in criticising the acts of the Government, who, +unwisely, as it seems to me, encourage if not provoke such +criticism. These baboos and their newspapers, I am told, +would only become dangerous at a crisis; and by a crisis is +understood a disastrous European war. But the life of +nations, like that of individuals, is nothing but a series +of successes and reverses. Looked at from this point of +view, the baboo is not such an insignificant being as he +appears to be considered.'</p></div> + +<p>No doubt our Radicals would contend that the Austrian's notion, that it +is unwise on the part of the Government to encourage criticism directed +against itself, is worthy of a man who has seen the Napoleonic <i>régime</i>, +and who perhaps admires the 'one man' form of government. But what is +the English Radical party itself living under now? Was ever the 'one man +form of government' carried out in so relentless a fashion as we see it +now in Parliament? Is there not one man in the Government, surrounded by +a crowd of nonentities—the one man filling the exact position for which +the Americans have invented the significant word 'Boss'? All liberty of +thought or freedom of action is gone. The principle insisted upon is 'do +whatever our leader tells us; go where he leads; give what he asks—all +without murmuring or discontent. The man who murmurs must be drummed out +of the ranks.' If we saw the French submitting to this system, no words +that we could use would be strong enough to express our contempt for +them. As we happen to be doing it ourselves, it must, of course, be good +and wise. Granted that it is so, we may fairly ask even the Radicals +whether they are quite sure that it is wise to think of giving up India? +With what do they propose to replace our government? The testimony of +every fair-minded man is that we have accomplished an incalculable +amount of excellent work there. Our magnificent highways and railroads, +our appliances for irrigation, would alone make our name immortal in the +country. The people thrive under our rule; every man is secure in the +possession of his property; war no longer devastates the country. We +recommend everybody who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> is unaware of these and similar facts to +consider well the evidence adduced by Baron Hübner:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Materially speaking, India has never been as prosperous as +she is now. The appearance of the natives, for the most part +well clothed, and of their villages and well-furnished +cottages, and of their well-cultivated fields, seems to +prove this. In their bearing there is nothing servile; in +their behaviour towards their English masters there is a +certain freedom of manner, and a general air of +self-respect; nothing of that abject deference which strikes +and shocks new comers in other Eastern countries. I have no +means of comparing the natives of to-day with the natives of +former generations, but I have been able to compare the +populations who owe direct allegiance to the Empress with +the subjects of the feudatory princes. For example, when you +cross the frontier of Hyderabad, the climate, the soil, the +race, are the same as those you have just quitted, but the +difference between the two States is remarkable, and +altogether to the advantage of the Presidency of Madras or +of Bombay.'</p></div> + +<p>He goes on to say, that no one can deny that the British India of to-day +presents a spectacle that has no parallel in the history of the world:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'What do we see? Instead of periodical, if not permanent, +wars, profound peace firmly established throughout the whole +Empire; instead of the exactions of chiefs always greedy for +gold, and not shrinking from any act of cruelty to extort +it, moderate taxes, much lower than those imposed by the +feudatory princes; arbitrary rule replaced by even-handed +justice; the tribunals, once proverbially corrupt, by +upright judges whose example is already beginning to make +its influence felt on native morality and notions of right; +no more Pindarris, no more armed bands of thieves; perfect +security in the cities as well as in the country districts, +and on all the roads; the former bloodthirsty manners and +customs now softened, and, save for certain restrictions +imposed in the interests of public morality, a scrupulous +regard for religious worship, and traditional usages and +customs; materially, an unexampled bound of prosperity, and +even the disastrous effects of the periodical famines, which +afflict certain parts of the peninsula, more and more +diminished by the extension of railways which facilitate the +work of relief. And what has wrought all these miracles? The +wisdom and the courage of a few directing statesmen, the +bravery and the discipline of an army composed of a small +number of Englishmen and a large number of natives, led by +heroes; and lastly, and I will venture to say principally, +the devotion, the intelligence, the courage, the +perseverance, and the skill, combined with an integrity +proof against all temptation, of a handful of officials and +magistrates who govern and administer the Indian Empire.'</p></div> + +<p>Such is the testimony of an Austrian. It ought to bring a flush of shame +to the faces of not a few Englishmen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span></p> + +<p>We have scarcely alluded to the lighter parts of Baron Hübner's +volumes—to the excellent touches of description or sketches of +character which enliven his pages, or to the numerous pleasantly-told +anecdotes of personal adventure. One of these anecdotes is worth +repeating, though the author must pardon us if we tell it in our own +way. It is too characteristic of life in New York—too full of valuable +hints for future travellers—to be lost sight of.</p> + +<p>It appears that on his last morning in New York, the Baron found that +his note-book had been taken from his room in the hotel. His servant and +his baggage had already gone on to the steamer, and the Baron prepared +to follow. First, however, as he still had two hours to spare, he +thought he would take a final glimpse of Fifth Avenue. These are the +little accidents which generally decide our fate in life—the visit to +some friend, the call on a stranger, the unpremeditated walk. As the +Baron was passing along, a carriage suddenly stopped, a +'fashionably-dressed gentleman' jumped out, and ran up to the traveller +with a cordial salutation. He introduced himself as a guest who had +dined, with the Baron, at a dinner given by Lord Augustus Loftus in +Sydney. 'I am one of the admirers,' he said, 'of your "Promenade autour +du Monde," and I venture to ask you to do me the favour of writing your +name in my copy of that book. In return, pray accept a volume of +Longfellow's poems, with the author's autograph.' The fashionable +stranger had skilfully touched the weak place in an author's heart. +Baron Hübner consented to be driven back to his hotel, where his new +friend was also residing. On the way, the stranger suddenly bethought +himself that the two books were at the house of an acquaintance, 'two +steps from the hotel.' He put his head out of the window, gave some +fresh directions to the coachman, and the Baron soon found himself being +whirled along at a furious rate along streets which he did not +recognize. Still, the old traveller had no suspicion of anything wrong. +His voyages and adventures certainly seem to have left him in a more +than ordinarily unsophisticated condition. At last the carriage stopped, +our author was conducted into the dark passage of a small house, and +then into a little dirty room, where he found a tall man seated before a +table, with his back to a mirror. In that mirror, the Baron saw his dear +friend from Sydney gently lock the door, and put the key in his pocket. +Then he understood all about it.</p> + +<p>Of course the tall man was polite, and after promising to go and fetch +the volume of Longfellow, he proposed to the gentleman from Sydney a +game at cards. While the two men played<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span> their sham game, the Baron had +time to reflect; he saw that he had been pounced upon very skilfully—in +less than two hours the 'Bothnia' would sail, all the people at the +hotel would think he had gone by her, no one would miss him, no one +would search for him. He might be murdered with impunity—with what +impunity the Baron would have fully realized if he had known a little +more of New York. No city in the world presents greater facilities for +getting rid of the evidences of foul play. We have not seen the recent +statistics of murders in New York, and doubt whether they have been +published; but in the five years between 1870 and 1875, we happen to +know that 281 'homicides' were committed there, and that only seven of +the murderers were hanged. Twenty-four were sent to prison—nominally +for life, although that is a mere form—and more than one-fourth of the +criminals were never brought to trial at all. If Baron Hübner had known +all this, he would have regarded his two new acquaintances with even +greater interest than he did.</p> + +<p>How and why they let him go scot-free is to us a mystery. They invited +him to take a hand in the game, and he declined. They pretended to play +for him; won, and offered him the stakes. He told them he had no money +with him, that they would get nothing for their trouble, that the French +Consul was to meet him on board the 'Bothnia' to bid him adieu; if he +were not there a hue and cry at once would be raised. 'Then,' adds the +Baron, 'turning to my friend from Sydney, I said to him, "Open the +door." The ruffians gave in without further trouble. There was an +exchange of looks between them, and the tall man said to the other, +'show him out.' We have heard of many strange things happening in New +York, but never of one so strange as that.' When I stepped upon the deck +of the "Bothnia," says the Baron, 'a few minutes before departure, I +felt that I had had a narrow escape.' Very narrow; we should advise +Baron Hübner, if ever again he finds himself in New York, not to tempt +his good fortune by taking a drive with strangers who admire his +writings.</p> + +<p>For the novel and stirring incidents of travel, we must turn to Mr. +Romilly's narrative of his experiences in the Western Pacific. He +transports us to a comparatively little known region, and it was his +good or ill fortune to come into contact with phases of life which must, +it is to be hoped, for ever remain unknown to most of us. Few living +men, for instance, have been present at a great feast on human flesh, +cannibalism being one of the habits of savage life which is found to +yield at the first touch of civilization. In New Ireland, however, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span> +Romilly happened to be present at a sort of state banquet, given in +honour of a victory over the enemy. The enemy himself supplied the +materials of the repast. The details of the preparation of the horrible +food may be read in Mr. Romilly's pages by all who have a curiosity on +the subject. Some few particulars concerning a compound called 'Sak-sak' +may here be given:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'They, [the heads of the victims] were then disposed of in +various ways, and when I asked what would be done with them, +I was told, "They will go to improve the sak-sak." The +natives on the East coast of New Ireland prepare a very +excellent composition of sago and cocoa-nut, called sak-sak. +I used to buy a supply of this every morning, as it would +not keep, for my men. Now it appeared that for the next week +or so, a third ingredient would be added to the sak-sak, +namely, brains. I need hardly say that for the next two days +of my stay I did not taste sak-sak, though my men made no +secret of doing so. The flesh in the ovens had to be cooked +for three days, or until the tough leaves in which it was +wrapped were nearly consumed. When taken out of the ovens +the method of eating it is as follows. The head of the eater +is thrown back, somewhat after the fashion of an Italian +eating macaroni. The leaf is opened at one end, and the +contents are pressed into the mouth until they are finished. +As Bill, my interpreter put it, "they cookum that fellow +three day; by-and-by cookum finish, that fellow all same +grease." For days afterwards, when everything is finished, +they abstain from washing, lest the memory of the feast +should be too fleeting.'</p></div> + +<p>Mr. Romilly was informed by the natives that human flesh tastes even +better than pork. One is satisfied to take their word for it. In the New +Hebrides it appears that the people prefer to eat it dried, or 'jerked.' +At present, we are told,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'the cannibals in the world may be numbered by millions. +Probably a third of the natives of the country where I am +now writing (New Guinea) are cannibals; so are about +two-thirds of the occupants of the New Hebrides, and the +same proportion of the Solomon Islanders. All the natives of +the Santa Cruz group, Admiralties, Hermits, Louisiade, +Engineer, D'Entrecasteaux groups are cannibals, and even +some well-authenticated cases have occurred among the "black +fellows" of Northern Australia. I do not know that the fact +of a native being a cannibal makes him a greater savage. +Some of the most treacherous savages on this coast are +undoubtedly not cannibals, while most of the Louisiade +cannibals are a mild-tempered, pleasant set of men.'</p></div> + +<p>This testimony can do no harm in England, but it is to be hoped that Mr. +Romilly will not repeat it too often among his black friends, or the +moral of it might be misunderstood.</p> + +<p>The Solomon Islands still form a part of the world of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> very little +is known. They are rarely visited, and travellers who have gone for the +purpose of 'taking notes,' have either altered their minds in good +season, or never returned. Some years ago, Mr. Benjamin Boyd, a member +of the Royal Yacht Squadron went out in his yacht, the 'Wanderer,' and +was captured by the natives. Search was made for him from time to time, +and his initials were found carved on trees. A notice was placed on all +the goods sent to the natives to this effect: 'B. B., we are looking for +you'—but no tidings were ever heard of the missing man. Mr. Romilly was +told by the captain of a labour schooner that somewhere on the south +coast he had noticed a European skull in a sort of temple; he recognized +it as European from its size, and he also observed that one of the teeth +was stopped with gold. We take it for granted that the dentists among +the Solomon Islanders do not use gold for filling teeth. This, then, was +probably the skull of the hapless owner of the 'Wanderer.' The Solomon +Islanders now make a practice of killing white men, if it can be done +safely, in revenge for the way in which they have been 'kidnapped' for +the labour traffic. The diseases introduced by their treacherous white +friends have made terrible ravages among them, and their own habits tend +still further to reduce their numbers. There are several places,' says +Mr. Romilly, 'where it is the custom to kill all, or nearly all, of the +children soon after they are born.' This is the only region we ever +heard of where so frightful and unnatural a custom exists. Female +children are, or used to be, destroyed in many countries; but the +indiscriminate slaughter of all children is decidedly uncommon. These +islanders have another device which is supported by an argument not +entirely devoid of strength. 'In a battle the victorious party, if they +can surprise their enemies sufficiently to admit of a wholesale +massacre, kill not only the men, but also the women and children. "We +should be fools," say they, "if we did not. This must be revenged some +day, if there are any men to do it; but how can they get men if we kill +the women and children?"' The same thought has doubtless occurred to +modern conquerors elsewhere, though, happily, circumstances have not +enabled them to carry it into practical effect. Some other curious +details respecting this group of islands, are given by Mr. Romilly. The +old women it appears, become adepts in the occult sciences, and the men +occasionally find the trade of wizard lucrative. They are chiefly called +upon to bring about a change in the weather, and their plan of +operations is to gain time. It resembles, in some striking features, the +method adopted by the 'inspired statesman' of our own latitudes when he +is trying to feel his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> way towards the development of some scheme which +he is half afraid of himself, and which the public view with profound +suspicion. Surely the most of us could find a counterpart to the +individual described in the following passage:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'One old sorcerer of my acquaintance was a most interesting +study. If he was asked for fine weather (which, by the way, +in the Solomons is the usual request, the rainfall being +enormous), he used to temporize in a truly masterly manner. +First he would hold out for more payment. This policy he +could continue for an indefinite length of time, as he would +of course require payment in a form which he knew was +difficult or impossible for the natives to comply with. +Then, if he thought there was any likelihood of fine weather +for a day or two, he would become possessed of a devil which +would leave him at once if the sun made its appearance, but +if the bad weather lasted the devil would last too; and +finally, if the bad weather was very obstinate and would not +come, he would hold out again for more payment. In this +manner my old sorcerer was very seldom mistaken in his +forecasts, and the influence he exerted over the clerk of +the weather must have been very irksome to that functionary.</p></div> + +<p>This leader of his tribe, we are further informed, had a 'great hold +over the imagination of his dupes.' We are more civilized—or <i>we</i> think +so—than the islanders of the Western Pacific; but human nature is +pretty much the same there as here. As for the philosophy of such +matters, it is thus summed up by Mr. Romilly: 'I have often wondered +what the sorcerer thinks of himself; whether he really believes himself +to be a magician, or whether he realizes the fact that he is an arrant +old humbug. I think there is a mixture of both feelings.' It would be +useless to pursue this enquiry any further.</p> + +<p>Another of the unexplored islands of these seas forms a part of the +Admiralty group, and is called Jesus Maria. It was visited by the +'Challenger' in 1875, and again by Mr. Romilly on two occasions, the +last in 1881, in H.M.S. 'Beagle.' The natives, a fierce and warlike +race, crowded round the vessel, eager to sell everything they had +including their babies. Bottles and hoop-iron were eagerly sought for. +While engaged in carrying on this simple traffic, the party on board +noticed, to their amazement a white man on shore who fired off a gun to +attract their attention. The next day a boat rowed to the beach, and +there stood the white man. He proved to be a Scotchman named David Dow, +who was collecting <i>béche de mer</i>, and found his trade prospects so good +that he desired to remain where he was. The Admiralty Islanders have +some 'very singular customs,' not to be met with anywhere else; but +after thus piquing our curiosity, Mr. Romilly ruthlessly balks it by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span> +remarking 'that they are, unfortunately, of a nature which cannot be +described here.' We share his regret upon his being obliged to keep the +secret; for when a traveller has found out anything absolutely fresh and +startling, common humanity should, in these dull and overcast times, +induce him to disclose it. But no doubt Mr. Romilly has his reasons for +silence, and we must submit to them. The Germans have recently hoisted +their flag upon several of these islands, and we may trust them to tell +all that they can find out, and more.</p> + +<p>In the Laughlan islands—a small group—the Germans are also to be +found. Indeed, they are spreading rapidly, over the Pacific Isles. As +the spirit of adventure is dying out among Englishmen, it appears to be +increasing in other nations. The genius for colonization appears to have +fled from us to Germany. Certain it is that Germans are everywhere +displaying that daring and enterprise in which we once shone above all +other people in the world. They will probably end by becoming masters of +the larger part of the Western Pacific. As for the Laughlan Islands, it +cannot be said that any one whose lot takes him there need be regarded +as an object of pity. The climate is good; food is abundant; life is +tolerably easy. True, there are no newspapers and no Parliament; but +existence has often been found supportable in the absence of these +things. The natives are friendly; and there are no animals anywhere, not +even rats. The men are decently clad, and the women wear a very +voluminous kilt, sometimes two or three of them, over each other. These +garments are made of grass, leaves, or fibre, stained various colours. +'In wearing two or three, care is taken to produce an æsthetic mixture +of colours—a little vanity which is met with sometimes at home amongst +ladies who like to display petticoats of many colours. It is considered +just as essential here to walk well as it is at home, but the two styles +are not quite the same. The Laughlan lady, in walking, at each step +gives a little twist to the hips, which has the effect of making the +kilts fly out right and left, in what is considered a highly fashionable +and beautiful manner. Though a somewhat similar effect to this may, I am +informed, occasionally be seen in petticoats at home, still I fear that +the firm stride of the Laughlan lady could hardly be reproduced in +English boots. To see ten or twelve of these ladies walking in the +unsociable formation of single file, which they adopt, with their +many-coloured kilts flying out on either side, is a very pretty sight.' +Evidently, a judicious traveller and observer might do worse than take a +tour to the Laughlans.</p> + +<p>Two other interesting spots to visit are Thursday Island and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span> Norfolk +Island, both British possessions, and the first a place of some +importance, as the centre of the Torres Straits pearl-shell fishery. +This trade has demoralized the natives, who now seem to spend a great +part of their time in getting drunk, the Europeans too often setting the +example, 'It is a common thing,' says Mr. Romilly, 'for a diver to go +down three-parts drunk. The dress is supposed to have a very sobering +effect.' Here is a little story which will produce a pang of regret in +the minds of the jewellers of Bond Street:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The best pearl I ever saw was in the possession of a +celebrated diver who was a shipmate of mine from Thursday +Island to Brisbane. He was offered on board the ship two +hundred pounds for it, which could not have been a third of +its value. But he refused every offer, as he had just been +paid off, and had plenty of money. I felt sure it would go +the way of all pearls when his money was finished, and +accordingly I informed a Sydney jeweller of it, and where he +could see it. When I was in Sydney a few weeks later I made +inquiries about it, and the jeweller told me that it was the +finest pear-shaped pearl he had ever seen, but that it was +unsaleable at its proper value in Australia, and he had +therefore made no attempt to buy it.'</p></div> + +<p>But the pearl fishery on these coasts is becoming less lucrative every +year, and it is now falling almost entirely into the hands of natives, +who can stay under water longer than men of our own race, and seem to be +endowed with greater powers of endurance. As for the 'labour trade' of +which we all have heard so much, Mr. Romilly gives us to understand that +it is dying out. It arose under the stimulus which the American war gave +to cotton growing, and to the sudden necessity for procuring assistance +for the planters. At first, the natives were found ready enough to +volunteer for the service, but the treatment they received was not +calculated to encourage the spirit of volunteering. Then all sorts of +artifices were tried to deceive them. Sometimes the labour-hunters +pretended to be missionaries. 'On the usual question being asked, "Where +shippy come?" they would reply, "Missionary." Perhaps they would all +pretend to sing a hymn very slowly, while the hatches would be left +open, and several tins of biscuits would be put into the hold.' +Curiosity would gradually draw the natives aboard, and then the hatches +would be clapped on, and the man-stealers made off for Queensland or +Fiji. It is to be hoped that Mr. Romilly is right in stating that these +practices have ceased, but unless we are mistaken, accounts have +appeared in colonial journals, within a very recent period, of organized +raids upon these coasts for the purpose of carrying off the natives. It +is needless to say, that a sentiment of hostility to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> all white men is +likely to remain as the permanent result of this abominable system.</p> + +<p>The fact is, that the white men who had the run of these islands down to +a few years ago were chiefly the off-scourings of other countries. They +found among the savages far fewer vices than they brought with them from +the civilized world. Some of them had run away to escape from the +vengeance of the laws which they had outraged; others were attracted by +the freedom which an entirely new life opened up to them. From them have +sprung a brood of half-castes who are the curse of the islands—like +many other half-castes, they manage to combine the evil qualities of +both races. The chief traders along the Pacific are now becoming much +more respectable. Some of them, indeed, appear to emulate the style and +condition of the prosperous English merchant. Mr. Romilly knows such a +man, living 'within a day's march' of the wildest cannibals in the +Pacific, who keeps up an establishment of forty or fifty men, with a +French <i>chef</i>. 'In a hitherto almost unknown island, he will give you a +dinner, every night, which could not be equalled at any private house or +club in Australia.' He keeps a yacht for private exploring expeditions, +and is to-day the principal 'trader and pioneer in the Pacific.' A +narrative of his observations and experiences would be of very unusual +interest, but like the Russian settler before referred to, he reserves +for his own benefit the knowledge he has acquired. The Germans are +pushing us hard, and in many respects they are better fitted for their +work than English traders. There seems a fair prospect of a gradual +elevation of social as well as of commercial life throughout the +Pacific. Already, lawlessness is discouraged. Not so very many years +ago, piracy was carried on openly in these seas. Mr. Romilly gives a +very interesting and curious account of one of the last pirates, a +desperado known as 'Bully Hayes,' once a boatman on the Mississippi. +This man began life by robbing his father, and soon afterwards made his +appearance on the Pacific coast the proud proprietor of a fifty-ton +schooner. 'How he had obtained possession of this schooner,' says Mr. +Romilly, 'was a matter of surmise, but he had been seen at Singapore not +long before this time, and a fifty-ton schooner had mysteriously +disappeared from that port without the knowledge of her captain and +owner.' He carried on a bold career of plunder for many years, and only +came to grief at last by an accident which he could not have foreseen. +He had stolen another vessel, and was making for some of his favourite +haunts along the coast, when the cook, who was steering, happened to +give him some offence. At that time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> Hayes was accustomed to settle all +disputes off-handed with his revolver, and in accordance with this plan +he ran below to get his 'shooting irons.' Mr. Romilly thus relates the +sequel:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The cook objected, and, catching up the first piece of wood +he saw, got on to the top of the little deck-house over the +ladder, and, the moment Hayes showed his head above deck, +gave him a blow which killed him on the spot. This cook +seems to have been some what doubtful as to whether Hayes +was even now dead, so he fetched the largest anchor the +cutter possessed, and bound the body to it, after which he +hove anchor and body overboard, remarking, "For sure Massa +Hayes dead this time."'</p></div> + +<p>Mr. Romilly, in the course of his wanderings, made a journey to New +Guinea, a portion of which has now been placed under British protection. +Little is known of the resources of this country, trading operations +having hitherto been almost entirely confined to the south coast. Mr. +Romilly's visit was brief, and he was not enabled to add much to our +previous stock of information. He does not seem to be aware of the +progress which the Germans are making in this island, or of the results +of the energetic support which Prince Bismarck invariably extends to his +adventurous countrymen.</p> + +<p>Here, then, are three works which ought to have the effect of reviving +the interest of the English people in their possessions abroad, if they +have not sunk into a hopeless state of indifference and apathy on the +subject. We do not for a moment believe that the working men are +indifferent to the present and future welfare of our Colonies, but they +need to be instructed as to the true value of their great inheritance, +and therefore it is that we earnestly wish such books as these could be +made readily accessible to them. It would be difficult to exaggerate the +importance of convincing them that it is our duty as a nation to hold +fast to all that we have added, from time to time, to the dominions of +the Crown. The foreign policy of the country, no less than the domestic +policy, must henceforth be directed mainly in accordance with their +opinions; and if those opinions are left to be influenced and guided by +the hereditary dislike of the Colonies which infects all Radicalism, our +position in the world will soon be reduced to one of comparative +insignificance. Baron Hübner concludes his volumes with these words: +'Had I to sum up the impressions derived from my travels, I should say, +"British rule is firmly seated in India; England has only one enemy to +fear—herself."' That is the whole truth of the matter. We have to fear +our own party divisions, the want of true public spirit among too many +of our 'politicians,' the tendency of Radical leaders to teach the +doctrine that England ought to shut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> herself within her own island +boundaries, and cast off all outside responsibilities. Sentiments of +this kind may be, and are, loudly cheered in the House of Commons, but +very few Liberals are daring enough to advocate them in the country. +Lancashire knows how valuable India is to her, and the manufacturing +districts generally see the growing importance to them, merely from a +commercial point of view, of the Australian Colonies. The anti-Colonial +policy is growing less and less popular among the people. To discredit +it altogether, it is only necessary to distribute, far and wide among +the working men, facts and considerations of the kind furnished in the +works to which we have endeavoured to call attention.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> See Mr. Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth +Century,' vol. ii, p. 443, &c.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ART_VII_The_Apostolic_Fathers_S_Ignatius_S_Polycarp_Revised" id="ART_VII_The_Apostolic_Fathers_S_Ignatius_S_Polycarp_Revised"></a>ART. VII.—<i>The Apostolic Fathers: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp.</i> Revised +Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations. By J. +B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Bishop of Durham. London, 1885. 2 +vols.</h2> + + +<p>This a great book, dealing principally with a great subject—the +'Ignatian Epistles.' The two volumes contain altogether 1849 Pages, 1311 +being devoted to St. Ignatius, the remainder to St. Polycarp. It is no +exaggeration to say that they are full of the most valuable information, +dealing with matters of vital ecclesiastical importance, the whole +presented in the most lucid style, and marked by broad, strong, +scholarship. They are the result of 'a keen interest in the Ignatian +controversy conceived long ago' by the Bishop of Durham. 'The subject +has been before me,' he writes in his Preface, 'for nearly thirty years, +and during this period it has engaged my attention off and on in the +intervals of other literary pursuits and official duties.' The +conception, execution, and production of the work had therefore been +protracted. The volumes as they are issued to-day are not in the form +they were originally written. Thus, the 'Appendix Ignatiana' was in type +several years before the commentary on the genuine Epistles of Ignatius, +and the Introduction and texts of the 'Ignatian Acts of Martyrdom' +passed through the press in 1878. In 1879 Cambridge and London +surrendered their great teacher to Durham; and there in the intervals, +few enough, snatched from official duties, the first volume has been +written, and from thence sent forth. It is necessary to bear this in +mind; because it will, on the one hand, explain absence of reference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span> to +some works published since 1878; and on the other hand it increases the +value of the Bishop's results, when reached in entire independence of, +and yet in entire accordance with, those of other scholars in the same +field.</p> + +<p>This work testifies to the truth, that it is a mark of true greatness to +be modest. The most superficial examination of these volumes exhibits a +<i>Corpus Ignatianum</i> superior to anything yet published. It is, says Dr. +Harnack,<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> 'without exaggeration the most learned and careful +Patristic monograph which has appeared in the nineteenth century.' It +exhibits 'a diligence and knowledge of the subject which show that Dr. +Lightfoot has made himself master of this department, and placed himself +beyond the reach of any rival.... There is nothing in it that is not up +to date, and the whole treatise forms a well-knit unity.' This is the +willing testimony of one of the ablest of the scholars of Germany who +have handled the great questions connected with Ignatius; the testimony, +moreover, of one who, as we shall see presently, finds himself at +variance with the Bishop upon two points, especially which, more than +any other, materially affect the genuineness of the Epistles and their +date. Such, however, is not the Bishop of Durham's thought. As he looks +back upon the work to which he has consecrated the prime of his life, he +speaks of it in language touching in its modesty—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I have striven to make the materials for the text as +complete as I could.... Of the use which I have made of the +critical materials I must leave others to judge. Of the +introductions, exegetical notes, and dissertations, I need +say nothing, except that I have spared no pains to make them +adequate, so far as my knowledge and ability permitted. The +translations are intended not only to convey to English +readers the sense of the original, but also (where there was +any difficulty of construction) to serve as commentaries on +the Greek. My anxiety not to evade these difficulties forbad +me in many cases to indulge in a freedom which I should have +claimed, if a literary standard alone had been kept in +view.'</p></div> + +<p>He follows up such words by others, conveying his thanks to those who +have helped him in his work, and the generosity of his recognition of +their services does but enhance the reserveful simplicity with which he +comments upon his own. The 'English reader' and the 'others' whose +judgment he desires, will, at least in England, unite in rendering to +him a respectful and grateful homage. The subject treated by the Bishop +is in a very real sense an Englishman's subject. For three centuries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> +English critics have not only entered the literary arena, in which the +great historic and ecclesiastical questions connected with his subject +have been discussed, but they have contributed largely to the materials, +offensive and defensive, which the combatants have employed. Ussher, +Pearson, Churton, and Cureton, have been English champions whose merits +all have acknowledged. The Bishop of Durham has now entered the lists to +support what has been proved sound in their conclusions, to remove what +was weak, and do battle for the truth. An impartial English public will +appreciate the gravity of this challenge, and may be trusted to grant or +withhold the victory he puts forth his best powers to win.</p> + +<p>The volumes lend themselves by their construction to an easy statement +of their contents, if those contents by their fulness must be of +necessity the despair of critic and reviewer. First there is the life of +the Saint, then the discussion of the manuscripts and versions which +delineate the Saint and his literary remains. These are followed by +exhaustive discussions upon all that tells for or against their +genuineness, the whole being treated both historically and critically. +Such will be found, briefly stated, the mode of discussing the life and +works both of St. Ignatius of Antioch and of St. Polycarp of Smyrna; and +two results will reward a patient persual of these volumes. The Bishop +has indeed limited these results to the study of the Ignatian Epistles, +but—under his guidance—the reader will find what is affirmed of one to +be true of both:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Ignatian Epistles are an exceptionally good +training-ground for the student of early Christian +literature and history. They present in typical and +instructive forms the most varied problems, textual, +exegetical, doctrinal, and historical. One who has +thoroughly grasped these problems will be placed in +possession of a master key which will open to him vast +storehouses of knowledge.</p> + +<p>'But' (continues the Bishop) 'I need not say that their +educational value was not the motive which led me to spend +so much time over them. The destructive criticism of the +last half century is, I think, fast spending its force. In +its excessive ambition it has "o'erleapt itself." It has not +indeed been without its use. It has led to a thorough +examination and sifting of ancient documents. It has +exploded not a few errors, and discovered or established not +a few truths. For the rest, it has by its directness and +persistency stimulated investigation and thought on these +subjects to an extent which a less aggressive criticism +would have failed to secure. The immediate effect of the +attack has been to strew the vicinity of the fortress with +heaps of ruins. Some of these were best cleared away without +hesitation or regret; but in other cases the rebuilding is a +measure demanded by truth and prudence alike. I have been +reproached by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> my friends for allowing myself to be diverted +from the more congenial task of commenting on St. Paul's +Epistles; but the importance of the position seemed to me to +justify the expenditure of much time and labour in +"repairing a breach" not indeed in the "House of the Lord" +itself, but in the immediately outlying buildings.'</p></div> + +<p>St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp (together with St. Clement of Rome) are +the links which connect the Apostolic age proper with the Fathers of the +second and third centuries; and this fact has made them and their scanty +literature the hope and despair, the pride and the scorn, of opposing +factions. In the whirl and confusion of discordant criticisms it is +everything to study and to build up by the help of one who has caught +the spirit of the master-lives he expounds. There breathes throughout +the volumes of the Bishop of Durham the spirit of St. Ignatius's +counsel—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Speak to each man severally after the manner of God. Bear +the maladies of all, as a perfect athlete. Where there is +much toil, there is much gain. If thou lovest good scholars, +this is not thankworthy in thee. Rather bring the more +pestilent to submission by gentleness.... The season +requireth thee, as pilots require winds, or as a +storm-tossed mariner a haven, that it may attain unto God. +Be sober, as God's athlete. The prize is incorruption and +life eternal, concerning which thou also art +persuaded.'—(Ep. of St. Ignatius to St. Polycarp, I, 2.)</p></div> + +<p>Ignatius of Antioch: Men of old loved to find in his name (or its +Syriace quivalent, Nurono, υουρα = πυρ, <i>fire</i>) a prescience +of the torch of divine love which blazed in him. The fancy may pass, if +etymologically unsound; for Ignatius, 'the Inflamed,' was a true child +of the fiery East. Contrast him and his letters with St. Clement of Rome +and his Epistle to the Corinthians. Nothing is more notable in the Roman +'than the calm equable temper,' the 'sweet reasonableness.' He is +essentially a <i>moderator</i>. On the other hand, impetuosity, fire, +strong-headedness, are impressed on every sentence in the Epistles of +Ignatius. He is by his very nature an <i>impeller</i> of men. Both are +intense, though in different ways. In Clement, the intensity of +moderation dominates and guides his conduct. In Ignatius it is the +intensity of passion—passion for doing and suffering—which drives him +onward. In Clement we listen to the voice of a judge delivering calmly +his sentence from his throne; in Ignatius we</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'are startled by the ringing cry of the trumpet-call—sharp, +stirring, penetrating—sounding for the battle. The fire of +the hot East bursts in, like a sun, strong and impassioned; +a vivid personality, in flame<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> with love, flashes in upon +the world, quivering as a sword of the cherubim; a rhetoric +in which the rapid, electric thought breaks out of the +strained and formless chaos of the <i>imagination</i>, as +lightning out of the rolling and dark thunder-cloud; a +theology, which, by the intense passion of metaphor, forces +an almost violent entrance into the secrets of the Most +High; a morality which can carry forward into the heights of +holiness the madness of faith, the extravagance of zeal, the +recklessness of enthusiasm, the audacity of love, dragging +them into the service of Christ at the chariot-wheels of +God's triumph—such are the characteristics of Ignatius of +Antioch.'<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p></div> + +<p>The Roman name of Ignatius (or Egnatius) tells nothing as to his birth +or origin. It was not unknown in Syria and Palestine, and was sometimes +borne by Jews. But another and a second name—Theophorus—of regular +recurrence in the seven genuine Epistles records at least his spiritual +birth. Ignatius probably assumed the name of 'the God-bearer' at the +time of his conversion or his baptism; the precedent lay before him of a +Saul commemorating a critical incident in his career (Acts xiii. 9) by a +similar adoption of a name; and that assumed by Ignatius became in its +turn an epithet freely applied to the Fathers at the Œcumenical +councils. The name gave birth to more than one beautiful legend. Was not +Ignatius, according to the Eastern belief, the 'God-borne' ΘΕὁφορος, the very child whom the Lord took into His arms (St. Mark +ix. 36, 37)? Was he not the 'God-bearer' Θεοφὁρος on the +fragments of whose heart according to Western tradition, was found +stamped in golden letters the name of Jesus Christ? Whether he were a +slave or not must remain uncertain. It is a more probable deduction from +his own language that he—the 'untimely birth,'<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a>—the 'one born out +of due time' and 'the last' of the faithful, had been rescued from a +pagan life, such as Antioch on the Orontes, the home of panders and +dancing girls, and 'Daphnici mores' would have applauded.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'His,' says Bishop Lightfoot, 'was one of those "broken" +natures out of which God's heroes are made. If not a +persecutor of Christ, if not a foe to Christ, as seems +probable, he had at least been for a considerable portion of +his life an alien from Christ. Like St. Paul, like +Augustine, like Francis Xavier, like Luther, like John +Bunyan, he could not forget that his had been a dislocated +life; and the memory of the catastrophe, which had shattered +his former self, filled him with awe and thanksgiving, and +fanned the fervour of his devotion to a white heat.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span></p><p>There is no chronological inconsistency in supposing that Ignatius was a +disciple of some Apostle, if nothing can be affirmed as to the date of +his accession to the ministry or episcopate. On the supposition that he +was martyred, as an old man, about <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 110, his birth may be placed +about <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 40. When 25 years of age, or in <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 65, companionship +would still have been opened to him with St. Peter and St. Paul; or, if +his teacher were St. John, his conversion may be brought to <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 90, +when he would be about 50 years of age. Confessedly all this is +conjectural or traditional, as are also any details of episcopal +administration.' A 'pitchy darkness' envelopes the life and work of +Ignatius, till it is 'at length illumined by a vivid but transient flash +of light.' The story of Ignatius begins and ends with the story of his +death. 'If his martyrdom had not rescued him from obscurity, he would +have remained like his predecessor Euodius, a mere name.' His martyrdom +has made him a distinct and living personality, a true father of the +Church, a teacher and example to all time.'</p> + +<p>Thrilling though the narrative of this martyrdom must ever be, the +barest outline only can be given here. The Martyrologies, if they are to +be set aside as not containing authentic history, will fascinate afresh +the student who turns to them to find in the notes and discussions light +cast upon many a critical and ecclesiastical problem. The genuine +Epistles have furnished the Bishop with the materials of a sketch of +terror which every one will read with the deepest interest.</p> + +<p>For some unknown reason the Church of Antioch was by God's will deprived +of its venerable head; and with other 'convicts,' collected from the +provinces to be</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Ignatius was led Romeward. His journey lay along a route which in part +had been traversed by Xerxes. The procession of the Persian, foremost +among his myriads of men for beauty and stature, halting near Sardis to +decorate a beautiful plane-tree with golden ornaments, and commit it to +the custody of an 'immortal'<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> is in vivid contrast to the procession +of 'criminals,' the Christian leader 'bound amidst ten leopards (or +soldiers) who wax worse when kindly treated,' halting also at Sardis, +his own decoration the 'bonds' which are to him 'spiritual pearls,' and +at Smyrna, writing letters which shall make him immortal.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> At Troas, +like another St. Paul, he looked upon the shores of the Europe which was +in later ages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> to rise up and call them blessed; and from thence he +wrote how prepared, how eager he was to meet the 'fire, the sword, the +wild beasts,' how to be 'near to the sword was to be near to God; to be +encircled by wild beasts was to be encircled by God.' And then Rome at +last!—among those who thirsted for his blood, among those whose very +love he dreaded lest it should do him the injury of keeping him from +martyrdom. Touching is the appeal he had sent before him to the Church +'filled with the grace of God without wavering and filtered clear from +every foreign stain':—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can +attain unto God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the +teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of +Christ. Entice the wild beasts that they may become my +sepulchre and may leave no part of my body behind, so that I +may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to any one.'</p></div> + +<p>Into the colossal pile, erected for the display of the bloodiest of +inhuman crimes, he was led; and his own impassioned appeal was answered:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Come fire and cross, and grapplings with wild beasts! Come +cuttings and manglings, wrenching of bones, hacking of +limbs, crushings of my whole body! Come cruel tortures of +the devil to assail me! Only be it mine to attain unto Jesus +Christ!'</p></div> + +<p>Men, with tear-stained faces, looked away from his death to 'form +themselves'—as he had bidden them—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'into a chorus in love and sing to the Father in Jesus +Christ. God had vouchsafed that the Bishop from Syria should +be found in the West, having summoned him from the East. +Good was it to set from this world unto God, that he might +rise unto Him.'</p></div> + +<p>Love is perhaps wrong in asserting that his remains were brought back to +Antioch: it is unerringly right in having raised the Epistle to the +Romans—'his pæan prophetic of his coming victory'—to be the martyr's +manual of a grateful posterity.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The glory of Ignatius as a martyr,' writes the Bishop of +Durham, 'has commended his lessons as a doctor. His teaching +on matters of theological truth and ecclesiastical order was +barbed and fledged by the fame of his constancy in that +supreme trial of his faith.'</p></div> + +<p>If interest in the heresies he combated may be said to be confined +to-day to scholars who study them as a chapter in heresiology, or seek +in them a bone of contention, the interest in the points of +ecclesiastical order delineated by him was never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> more intense than now. +Only last year the testimony of the Ignatian Epistles to the burning +question of Apostolical succession was one point in the discussion +between Canon Liddon of St. Paul's and Dr. Hatch; this year, the view +presented by the Bishop of Durham meets with its ablest antagonist in +Dr. Harnack. In very truth the letters of the martyr have been the +battlefield of the controversy, which affirms or disallows the threefold +ministry of the Church of Christ.</p> + +<p>It will be perceived at once how much turns, not first upon the +interpretation of the Epistles, but upon the genuineness of the text +presenting itself for interpretation. What is the text? Never before +have the lovers of textual criticism had the opportunity of examining +and answering this question as they have now in the Bishop of Durham's +volumes. He first describes at length the Manuscripts and Versions, on +which a true text may be reasonably founded, and then gives the text, +together with the Versions, accompanied by Introductions and Notes which +leave nothing to desire. The labour necessary for massing and bringing +together all this information is only equalled by the exactness and +orderliness with which it is presented. But the Bishop writes not only +for the scholar, but for the man of general culture and intelligence, +who can enter with interest into a problem historical and antiquarian, +as well as textual and critical. To many the battle of the giants, over +the 'long,' the 'middle,' and the 'short,' form or recension of the +Ignatian Epistles, will be an intellectual treat, as he watches the +fence and scholarship of the various disputants. He will see that in +literary as in political controversy the spirit of compromise is to-day +in the ascendant, and that 'middle'-men have for once their value.</p> + +<p>To explain these terms. By the 'short' form is meant that which consists +of <i>three</i> Epistles only—to St. Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to the +Romans. This exists only in a Syraic version. By the second, 'the middle +form,' are understood these three Epistles, and four more, namely, +Epistles to the Smyrnæans, Magnesians, Philadelphians, and Trallians. +This form is originally Greek, and is found also in Latin, Armenian, +and—in a fragmentary state—in Syriac and Coptic. The third or 'long' +form, contains the seven already enumerated in a more expanded state, +together with six others, the recension being in a Greek and in a Latin +translation.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p>Practically the contest as to the truest form has been reduced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span> to a +duel between the 'short' and the 'middle.' The 'long' form can be shown +to be the work of an unknown author, probably of the latter half of the +fourth century, and constructed from the genuine Ignatian Epistles by +interpolation, alteration and omission. But the 'long' form died hard, +and mainly through the thrusts of our own Ussher.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The history of the Ignatian Epistles,' says the Bishop, 'in +Western Europe before and after the revival of letters, is +full of interest. In the Middle Ages the spurious and +interpolated letters alone have any wide circulation. +Gradually, as the light advances, the forgeries recede into +the background. Each successive stage diminishes the bulk of +the Ignatian literature, which the educated mind accepts as +genuine; till at length the true Ignatius alone remains, +divested of the accretions which perverted ingenuity has +gathered about him.'</p></div> + +<p>In the 'long' recension there is a letter to one Mary of Cassobola. This +was made the parent of a 'correspondence between St. John and the +Virgin,' bearing the name of Ignatius: and it is not improbably +connected with the outburst of Mariolatry in the eleventh and following +centuries. But with 'the first streak of intellectual dawn this Ignatian +spectre vanished into its kindred darkness.' The forgery was 'consigned +to the limbo of foolish and forgotten things.' This pretender set aside, +St. Ignatius was represented in Western Europe by the epistles of the +'Long' recension. The Latin text was printed in 1498, and the Greek in +1557. At first no doubt was felt about their genuineness. Gradually, +however, unwelcome critics pointed out gross anachronisms and blunders. +Men, with unpleasant habits of comparison, noted that Eusebius, the +Church historian (C. <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 310-25), quoted from only seven epistles, and +that the divergence of the 'long' text from that given by early +Christian writers<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> fully warranted the comment of Ussher, that it was +difficult to imagine 'eundem legere se Ignatium qui veterum ætate +legebatur.' Theological and ecclesiastical prejudice lent bitterness to +the rising strife. On the Continent, Reformer and Romanist ranged +themselves in opposite camps: the one quoting with delight passages +which favoured Roman supremacy, or advocated Episcopacy; the other +throwing them over as 'nursery stories' (or 'silly tales,' <i>nænia</i>), and +denouncing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> 'the insufferable impudence of those who equipped themselves +with ghosts like these for the purpose of deceiving' (Calvin). After the +publication of the edition of Vedelius, a Genevan Professor, in 1623, +Anglican writers, such as Whitgift, Hooker, and Andrewes, seem to have +accepted without hesitation the twelve (the seven named by Eusebius and +five others) contained in that edition; but in England as on the +Continent, the absence of so much, which could alone lead men to a right +conclusion, prevented the consideration of the question on its true +merits:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Episcopacy was the burning question of the day; and the +sides of the combatants in the Ignatian controversy were +already predetermined for them by their attitude towards +this question. Every allowance should be made for their +following their prepossessions, where the evidence seemed so +evenly balanced. On the one hand, external testimony was so +strongly in favour of the genuineness of certain Ignatian +letters; on the other hand, the only Ignatian letters known +were burdened with difficulties. At the very eve of Ussher's +revelation, a fierce literary war broke out on this very +subject of Episcopacy—evoked by the religious and political +troubles of the times.'</p></div> + +<p>On the one side were Hall's (Bishop of Exeter) 'Episcopacy by Divine +Right asserted' (1639), and 'An Humble Remonstrance' on behalf of +Liturgy and Episcopacy (1641); Ussher's 'The original of Bishops and +Metropolitans,' and Jeremy Taylor's 'Of the Sacred Order and Offices of +Episcopacy' (1642); on the other, the five Presbyterian ministers whose +initials composed the monstrous name Smectymnuus,<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> issued their +'Answer to the Book entituled an Humble Remonstrance' (1641), and +Milton, in his short treatise 'Of Prelatical Episcopacy' (1641), +fulminated with 'fiery eloquence and reckless invective' against Ussher.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Had God,' wrote Milton, 'intended that we should have +sought any part of useful instruction from Ignatius, +doubtless He would not have so ill-provided for our +knowledge as to send him to our hands in this broken and +disjointed plight; and if He intended no such thing, we do +injuriously in thinking to taste better the pure evangelic +manna by seasoning our mouths with the tainted scraps and +fragments from an unknown table, and searching among the +verminous and polluted rags dropped overworn from the +toiling shoulders of Time, with these deformedly to quilt +and interlace the entire, the spotless, and undecaying robe +of Truth. What impiety,' he added,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span> 'the confronting and +paralleling the sacred verity of St. Paul with the offals +and sweepings of antiquity, that met as accidently and +absurdly as Epicurus his atoms to patch up a Leucippean +Ignatius.'</p></div> + +<p>'Out of his own mouth,' says Bishop Lightfoot, 'he was soon convicted.' +The "better provision for knowledge" came full soon. To the critical +genius of Ussher belongs the honour of restoring the true Ignatius. +Ussher observed that the quotations from this Father in three English +writers, Robert (Grosseteste) of Lincoln (c. 1250), John Tyssington (c. +1381), and William Wodeford (c. 1396), agreed—not with texts hitherto +known (the Greek and Latin of the 'long' Recension), but—with the +quotations in Eusebius and Theodoret. He concluded that somewhere in the +libraries of England he ought to find MSS. of a version corresponding to +this earlier text of Ignatius: and he discovered two—(1.) <i>Caiensis</i> +395 [L<sub>1</sub>], a MS. given to Gonville and Cains College, Cambridge, in +1444 by Walter Crome; and (2.) <i>Montacutianus</i> [L<sub>2</sub>], a parchment from +the library of Bishop Montague or Montacute, of Norwich. Of the first a +transcript was made for Archbishop Ussher, and is still in the library +of Dublin University (D.3.II), and is dated 20 June, 1631. It is full of +inaccuracies, arising sometimes from indifference to spelling on the +part of the transcriber, or to carelessness and inattention, but most +frequently from ignorance of the numerous and perplexing contractions. +The second has disappeared, probably on the day when Parliament ordered +the Archbishop's books to be seized and confiscated (1643). Bishop +Lightfoot has in part restored it by drawing attention to the collation +of this Montacute MS., which occurs between the lines or in the margin +of the Dublin transcript of the Caius MS. Archbishop Ussher's +examination of the Latin version, thus discovered, induced in his mind a +suspicion that Bishop Grosseteste was himself the translator. A marginal +note, for example, betrayed the nationality of its author; 'Incus est +instrumentum fabri; dicitur Anglice <i>anfeld</i> [anvil].' Who so likely to +have had the ability to translate from a Greek version as Robert +Grosseteste, one of the very few Greek scholars of his age? Evidence is +not wanting that the Ignatian Epistles were imported from Greece, and +translated under the Bishop's direction by one or other of the Greek +scholars who were with him: and it is significant, in connection with +this point, that Tyssington and Wodeford belonged to the Franciscan +Convent at Oxford to which Grosseteste left his books.</p> + +<p>The result of Ussher's discovery was to determine, that this Latin +translation—valuable for critical purposes on account of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span> its extreme +literalness<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a>—represented the Ignatius known to the Fathers of the +fourth and fifth centuries. The Greek text still remained unknown, and +Ussher attempted to restore it from the 'long' recension by the aid of +his newly discovered Latin version. This he did by bringing the former +as nearly as possible into conformity with the latter. Ussher's book +appeared in 1644. It was marred by one blot. Eusebius had mentioned +seven Epistles, but Ussher—deceived by a mistake on the part of St. +Jerome—exscinded the Epistle to Polycarp, and condemned it as spurious. +Two years later, Isaac Voss published the Greek of six Epistles from a +Florentine MS., the Epistle to the Romans having disappeared from the +copy; and this omission was finally rectified in 1689 by Ruinart. From +the middle of the seventeenth century disputants ceased to trouble +themselves about the 'long' form. Controversy, presently to be noted, +raged about the Vossian letters, Daillé (1666) attacking them, Pearson +defending them.</p> + +<p>It is a great leap to the year 1845, but not till then did a new era +dawn upon the questions at issue. It was in that year that Cureton +published the 'Antient Syriac Version of the Epistles of St. Ignatius to +St. Polycarp, the Ephesians, and the Romans.' This version was +discovered in two MSS. at the British Museum, and contained the Epistles +named in a shorter form than either of the Greek or Latin texts.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> +Cureton's contention was that he had discovered the genuine Ignatius, +and that the remaining four Epistles of the Vossian collection, as well +as the additional portions of these three, were forgeries. Cureton was +opposed by Dr. Wordsworth, the late Bishop of Lincoln, then Canon of +Westminster, and defended by Bunsen. There followed quickly the +<i>Vindiciæ Ignatianæ</i> (1846) and <i>Corpus Ignatianum</i> (1849), in which +Cureton was considered to have not only refuted his adversary, but also +to have presented arguments which rallied to his standard Ritschl, +Lipsius, Pressensé, Ewald, Milman, and Böhringer. Opposition to +Cureton's view was not, however, wanting. The Orientalists, Petermann +and Merx, united with the Conservative critical school, represented by +Denzinger and Uhlhorn, in preferring the Vossian collection; while the +Tübingen school (Baur and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> Hilgenfeld) opposed itself to Ignatian +letters, short, middle, or long, as utterly subversive of their theories +of the growth of the Canon, and of the history of the Early Church. The +Bishop of Durham was himself, at that time on Cureton's side, 'led +captive' (as he says) 'for a time by the tyranny of this dominant +force.' We can but record the change in his opinions, and leave to the +reader to follow, in the Bishop's own pages, the reasons which induced +him to abandon a method and decline results that would not stand the +test of a searching criticism. Independent investigation of the +phenomena of the Armenian version and of the Syriac fragments led him to +regard the 'short' or Curetonian recension as an abridgment or +mutilation, rather than the nucleus, of the 'middle' or Vossian form; +and Zahn's monograph, <i>Ignatius von Antiochien</i>(1873), never yet +answered, dealt a fatal blow at the claims of the Curetonian letters. +Since then Lipsius has been convinced by Merx; Renan and Harnack are +agreed; and most scholars will come to the conclusion, that through the +Bishop of Durham's own serious investigation of the diction and style of +the 'short' form, 'the last sparks of its waning life have been +extinguished.' The collection was directed by no doctrinal, Eutychian or +Monophysite, motive, nor composed (as Hefele suggested) in support of +moral aim or monastic piety. It is simply a 'loose and perfunctory +curtailment of the middle form, neither epitome nor extract, but +something between the two,' and to be dated about the year <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 400 or +somewhat earlier.</p> + +<p>The ground having been thus cleared from the accretions of the 'long' +form and the mutilations of the 'short,' the Bishop of Durham considers +in the next place the genuineness of the seven Epistles known to +Eusebius, and preserved to us not only in the original Greek, but also +in Latin and other translations. It is a bitter reflection, that +discussion on this subject was (and—in a less degree—is still) evoked, +not so much by critical and textual variations and difficulties, as by +the exigencies of party spirit and theological animosity. A dreary, if +necessary, page of ecclesiastical history has to be studied, when French +Protestant and English Puritan turned passionately against the discovery +of Ussher and Voss. It is small comfort to the charitably minded to be +told that, had no Daillé attacked<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span> the Ignatian letters, Pearson +would not have stepped forward as their champion.</p> + +<p>The consideration of the genuineness of the Seven Epistles falls +naturally under the head of external and internal evidence.</p> + +<p>The Bishop gives his conclusion on the external evidence in the +following words:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'(1.) No Christian writings of the second century, very few +writings of antiquity, whether Christian or pagan, are so +well authenticated as the Epistles of Ignatius. If the +Epistle of Polycarp be accepted as genuine, the +authentication is perfect. (2.) The main ground of objection +against the genuineness of the Epistle of Polycarp is its +authentication of the Ignatian Epistles. Otherwise there is +every reason to believe that it would have passed +unquestioned. (3.) The Epistle of Polycarp itself is +exceptionally well authenticated by the testimony of his +disciple Irenæus. (4.) All attempts to explain the phenomena +of the Epistle of Polycarp, as forged or interpolated to +give colour to the Ignatian Epistles, have signally failed.'</p></div> + +<p>These four propositions sum up an examination minute and masterful. Not +only is the testimony of the Epistle of Polycarp adduced, but also that +of Irenæus; that of the letter of the Smyrnæans, giving the account of +the martyrdom of Polycarp; that of Lucian, and that of Origen (middle of +third century). After the age of Eusebius (half a century later than +Origen) 'no early Christian writing outside the Canon is attested by +witnesses so many and so various in the ages of the Councils and +subsequently.' Dr. Harnack, however, is opposed to the Bishop's +conclusions, and considers that, 'if we do not retain the Epistle of +Polycarp, the external evidence on behalf of the Ignatian Epistles is +exceedingly weak, and hence is highly favourable to the suspicion that +they are spurious.' This is not the place to enter into the dispute. We +can but record our opinion, that in the Bishop's pages Dr. Harnack's +objections are met by anticipation.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The internal evidence is treated by the Bishop under six heads.</p> + +<p>1. The Historical and Geographical Circumstances dealing specially with +the condemnation and the journey to Rome. Under this section are +collected also the personal notices yielding their testimony to the +genuineness of the letters in a manner not less striking, because +incidental and allusive, than the testimony of the geographical section. +The reader will linger here over the thought of the consolation and +refreshment brought to the good Ignatius on his way to martydom. We +learn to love Crocus and Alce, 'names,' says Ignatius, 'beloved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> by me,' +Burrhus and the widow of Epitropus, for the love they bore the Saint; we +learn to see in the Bishop of Durham's pages how such names bear +undesigned testimony to the Epistles which record them.</p> + +<p>2. The Theological Polemics.</p> + +<p>3. The Ecclesiastical Conditions. To these we shall return immediately, +after a few words on—</p> + +<p>4. The Literary Obligations, 5, The Personality of the Writer, and 6, +The Style and Diction of the Letters. As regards the Literary +Obligations, the Bishop lays down the following maxim: 'A primary test +of age in any early Christian writing is the relation which the notices +of the words and deeds of Christ and His Apostles bear to the Canonical +writings;' and he adds, 'Tried by this test, the Ignatian Epistles +proclaim their early date. There is no sign whatever in them of a Canon +or authoritative collection of Books of the New Testament.' There are +frequent references to the facts of Christ's life, death, and +resurrection, and Gospel sayings are given; but there is 'not a single +reference to written evangelical records, such as the "Memoirs of the +Apostles," which occupy so large a place in Justin Martyr.' The same +holds good of the Apostolic Epistles.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I would ask,' the Bishop concludes, 'any reader who desires +to apprehend the full force of these (facts with reference +to Ignatius) to read a book or two of Irenæus continually, +and mark the contrast in the manner of dealing with the +Evangelical narratives and the Apostolic letters. He will +probably allow that an interval of two generations or more +is not too long a period to account for the difference of +treatment.'</p></div> + +<p>The personality of the writer is no doubt unusual. A power of +communication with angels,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> 'extravagant' humility and +self-depreciation;<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> and a not less 'extravagant' desire for martyrdom +(confined, however, to the Epistle to the Romans), are not certainly +what a later age commended or found in the Martyrs; but due allowance +being made for the temperament of the Saint and the circumstances of the +case, 'it is a picture much more explicable as the autotype of a real +person than as the invention of a forger.'</p> + +<p>Once more, the Style and Diction of the Letters may be, as Daillé and +his followers have thought, 'forced and unnatural' in the use of images, +'confused' as to language, and 'bombastic' as to diction. But what then? +asks the Bishop:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'What security did his position as an Apostolic Father give +that he should write simply and plainly, that he should +avoid solecisms, that his language should never he +disfigured by bad taste or faulty rhetoric?'</p> + +<p>'It may not,' he continues, 'be considered very good taste +to draw out the metaphor of a hauling engine (Ephes. 9)—to +compare the Holy Spirit to the rope, the faith of the +believers to the windlass, &c. But on what grounds, prior to +experience, have we any more right to expect either a +faultless taste or a pure diction in a genuine writer at the +beginning of the second century, than in a spurious writer +at the end of the same?'</p></div> + +<p>Elaborate compounds, Latinisms, reiterations, are no proof of +spuriousness.</p> + +<p>It is not, however, so much on these as on so-called anachronisms that +assailants have attacked the letters. In every instance a supposed +success has ended in a reverse. Thus the term 'leopard,' applied to the +soldiers who conveyed Ignatius,<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> was said to have been unknown before +the age of Constantine; and it was argued that the forger of these +letters had antedated the word by two centuries. Pearson pointed out an +example of the word about <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 202; but the Bishop of Durham has found +it in a rescript of the Emperors Marcus and Commodus (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 177-80), and +in an early treatise written by Galen, which carries it back within +about half a century of Ignatius. Evidently it was then a familiar term. +Another alleged anachronism is the use of the term 'Catholic +Church.'<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> Cureton and others have urged, that a period of full fifty +years must have intervened between the time when Ignatius wrote and the +first trace we find of the term 'Catholic Church.' This, says Bishop +Lightfoot, 'is founded on the confusion of two wholly different +things'—Catholic as a technical, and Catholic as a general term. +Centuries before the Christian era, the word Catholic καθολικος is found in the sense of 'universal'; both before and +after the age of Ignatius it is common in writers, classical and +ecclesiastical. 'In this sense the word might have been used at any +time, and by any writer, from the first moment that the Church began to +spread, while yet the conception of its unity was present to the mind.' +It was only later that the term 'Catholic' acquired a technical +meaning—orthodoxy as opposed to heresy, conformity as opposed to +dissent. In Smyrn. 8, 'where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic +Church,' the word is used in its sense of 'universal,' as contrasted +with the Smyrnæan or local Church over which Polycarp presided. Not only +is its use here not indicative of a later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> date, but this archaic sense +emphasizes an early one. After the word 'Catholic' had acquired its +later and technical use, it could not have been employed in its earliest +meaning without the risk of considerable confusion.</p> + +<p>We must refer our readers to a similarly thorough refutation of the +charge of anachronism brought against these letters on account of their +use of the term 'Christian,' and suggest to them an examination of the +interesting proofs of the position next secured,<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> that certain +characteristics of style and diction tell largely in favour of their +genuineness.</p> + +<p>We turn, after noting the summary of the internal evidences attesting +the genuineness of these letters, to the headings omitted (2, 3) on the +Theological Polemics and the Ecclesiastical Conditions. That summary is +as follows (i. 407):—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The external testimony to the Ignatian Epistles being so +strong, only the most decisive marks of spuriousness in the +Epistles themselves, as, for instance, proved anachronism, +would justify us in suspecting them as interpolated, or +rejecting them as spurious.—But so far is this from being +the case, that one after another the anachronisms urged +against these letters have vanished in the light of further +knowledge.—As regards the argument which Daillé calls +"palmary"—the prevalence of episcopacy as a recognized +institution—we may say boldly that all the facts point the +other way. If the writer of these letters had represented +the churches of Asia Minor as under presbyterial government, +he would have contradicted all the evidence which, without +one dissentient voice, points to episcopacy as the +established form of Church government in these districts +from the close of the first century.—The circumstances of +the condemnation, captivity, and journey of Ignatius, which +have been a stumbling-block to some modern critics, did not +present any difficulty to those who lived near the time, and +therefore knew best what might be expected under the +circumstances; and they are sufficiently borne out by +example, more or less analogous, to establish their +credibility.—The objections to the style and language are +beside the purpose.—A like answer holds with regard to any +extravagances in sentiment, or opinion, or character.—While +the investigation of the contents of these Epistles has +yielded this negative result in dissipating the objections, +it has at the same time had a high positive value, as +revealing indications of a very early date, and therefore +presumably of genuineness, in the surrounding circumstances, +more especially in the types of false doctrine which it +combats, in the ecclesiastical status which it presents, and +in the manner in which it deals with the evangelical and +apostolic documents.—Moreover, we discover in the personal +environments of the assumed writer, and more especially in +the notices of his route, many subtle coincidences which we +are constrained to regard as undesigned, and which seem +altogether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> beyond the reach of a forger.—So likewise the +peculiarities in style and diction of the Epistles, as also +in the representation of the writer's character, are much +more capable of explanation in a genuine writing than in a +forgery.—While external and internal evidence thus combine +to assert the genuineness of these writings, no satisfactory +account has been or apparently can be given of them as a +forgery of a later date than Ignatius. They would be quite +purposeless as such; for they entirely omit all topics which +would especially interest any subsequent age.'</p></div> + +<p>The Section upon 'Ecclesiastical Conditions' deals with the ministry of +men, the ministry of women, and the liturgy of the Church. Interesting +though the two last points are of necessity to any student of Church +organization and ritual, we pass them by to consider the 'Ecclesiastical +Polemics.' The Bishop of Durham's view of the ministry of +men—especially of episcopacy—as furnished by the Seven Epistles is +briefly as follows. The name of Ignatius is inseparably connected with +the championship of episcopacy. Such extracts as the following +sufficiently attest the prominence and authority he assigns to the +office: 'We ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself; 'Vindicate' +(O Polycarp) 'thine office in things, temporal as well as spiritual. Let +nothing be done without thy consent, and do thou nothing without the +consent of God;' 'Give heed (ye Smyrnæans) to your bishop, that God also +may give heed to you;' 'Let no man do anything pertaining to the Church +without the bishop.' Further, the extension of the episcopate in the +time of Ignatius is quite clear. He is himself the bishop 'belonging to +Syria.' He salutes and names the Bishops of Ephesus, of Magnesia, and +Tralles. In those parts of Asia Minor and Syria, with which he is +brought into contact, the episcopate properly so called is an +established and recognized institution. This is in accordance with what +the Bishop of Durham traces elsewhere in the history of the origin and +development of episcopacy;<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> but it is not in accordance with Dr. +Harnack's view. 'The evidence,' says the Bishop, 'points to episcopacy +as the established form of Church government in these districts from the +close of the first century.' Not so, says Dr. Harnack:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Ignatius' conception of the position and significance of +the bishop has its earliest parallel in the original +conception of the author of the Apostolic Constitutions (<i>i. +e.</i> the end of the 3d cent.); and the Epistles show that the +Monarchical Episcopate in Asia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> Minor was so firmly rooted, +so highly elevated above all other offices, so completely +beyond dispute, that on the ground of what we know from +other sources of early Church history, no single +investigator would assign the statements under consideration +to the second, but at the earliest to the third century.'</p></div> + +<p>Let the reader, however, look up the references under the head of +"Apostolical Constitutions" in the Index to vol. i. of the Bishop's +work, and we shall be very much surprised if he agree with Dr. Harnack's +first conclusion. Will there not be even a lurking apprehension that Dr. +Harnack, in arguing from the 'original conception of the author of the +Apostolic Constitutions,' is confounding the 'long' and the 'middle' +Recensions of the letters? Possibly the anxiety of determination to fix +upon the third century rather than the close of the first as the date of +the establishment of Episcopacy may have been tolerable in the time of +Daillé, but is it tolerable or should it be repeated now when the means +of a far more critical study of the question is open to all? In fact, +Dr. Harnack is evidently disturbed by the <i>parti pris</i> of his position; +and he may be said to abandon it immediately for a more negative one: +but even so, how can a critic with the authorities placed before him +come even to his second and modified conclusion:—'The statements of +Ignatius regarding the rank to which the Episcopate has attained, +occupy, so far as our knowledge goes, an altogether isolated position in +the second century.' Isolated! This can be examined upon evidence. The +point is this: Are there, or are there not, witnesses to show that +monarchical Episcopacy had been developed in the later years of the +Apostolic Age? Irenæus (born c. 130, according to Lipsius) was a scholar +of Polycarp, and Polycarp was a scholar of St. John. He delighted to +recal the reminiscences of his teacher, as did Polycarp those of St. +John. He was a travelled scholar; if born in Asia Minor, he lived at +Rome during middle life, and was Bishop of Lyons in Gaul in his later +years. He was probably the most learned Christian of his time. 'The +appreciation of the position of the man,' urges Bishop Lightfoot, 'is a +first requisite to an estimate of his evidence.' And what is his +evidence? Just that which is marked by such development as the man, his +time, and circumstances, would lead us to expect, when compared with the +Ignatius, from whom he is separated by about two generations. To +Ignatius, the bishop is the centre of ecclesiastical unity; so Irenæus, +the depositary of Apostolic tradition. Irenæus overlooks the identity of +'bishop' and 'presbyter' in the New Testament, and speaks of 'bishops +<i>and</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> presbyters from Ephesus and the other cities adjoining' coming to +St. Paul at Miletus. It is to him an undisputed fact, that the bishops +of his own age traced their succession back in an unbroken line to men +appointed to the episcopate by the Apostles themselves. Thus he points +out the sequence of the bishops of the Church of Rome 'founded by the +blessed Apostles,' St. Peter and St. Paul, up to his own day; and in the +case of the Church in Smyrna, he finds in Polycarp not only one +'instructed by Apostles and who had conversed with many who had seen +Christ,' but also 'one who was appointed bishop in the Church of Smyrna +by Apostles in Asia.'<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> Similar opinions are reflected in many +passages, and they lead up to this conclusion:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'After every reasonable allowance made for the possibility +of mistakes in details, the language (of Irenæus) from a man +standing in his position with respect to the previous and +contemporary history of the Church leaves no room for doubt +as to the early and general diffusion of episcopacy in the +regions with which he was acquainted.'</p></div> + +<p>Yet it is by fastening upon alleged 'mistakes in details,' and through +counter-conclusions with respect to some of the passages quoted, that +Dr. Harnack affirms that 'from the words of Irenæus there is absolutely +nothing gained in regard to the origin of the episcopate and its spread +during the period between <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 90 and 140.' His method is somewhat +vexatious. He takes, for example, the list of the Bishops of Rome, and +he says, 'Irenæus communicates this list, and declares that the Apostles +had <i>ordained</i> Linus as Bishop of Rome;' and he adds, 'that this is +false can be proved, and is not denied even by Lightfoot.' The +marvellous part of this statement is, that Irenæus says nothing of the +kind. The word 'ordination' does not occur in the passage in question. +The sentence is far from faithfully translated by the Bishop of +Durham:<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> Linus 'was entrusted with the office of the bishopric' by +the Apostles. Again, what is 'false'? the whole list, or the statement +as regards Linus individually? Neither is false when rightly understood, +and no denial is therefore forthcoming from the Bishop of Durham, or +required for what is not questioned. But Dr. Harnack—not satisfied with +having refuted an imaginary foe—next proceeds to ask, 'What reliance +then can we have in the statement of Irenæus, that Polycarp was ordained +a bishop by the Apostles'? It might be answered, 'Your first premiss was +wrong, and until that be mended, further argument is unnecessary.' But +examine the question on its own merits—viz.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> that due to 'an +appreciation of the position' of Irenæus—and its veracity is beyond +question.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Durham supports the language of Irenæus by the testimony +of Polycrates, of Ephesus, his contemporary, if junior; but without +dwelling upon that and other passages of more general reference, we can +come nearer to the time of Ignatius by reference to his contemporary, +Polycarp. We assume, with Bishop Lightfoot, that the testimony of +Irenæus to Polycarp is of the highest value; but that assumption is no +rash one. Every one can verify the value of the testimony by perusing +the Bishop's interesting pages on the subject. The relation of Polycarp +to the Apostles has been given above. It is to his language about +episcopacy that we wish to refer. In Polycarp's letter to the +Philippians, the Bishop of Smyrna speaks at length about the duties of +presbyters, deacons, widows, &c., but he makes no mention either of the +bishop, or—in other parts where it might have been expected—of +obedience due to him. This is naturally explained on the supposition +that the see was then vacant, or that ecclesiastical organization was +not fully developed at Philippi. How rash, however, it would be to +affirm the non-existence of episcopacy, or to raise objections to it +such as would render incredible the statements of Ignatius, may be +inferred from the 'Letter of the Smyrnæans,' which, speaking of 'the +glorious martyr Polycarp, who was found an Apostolic and prophetic +teacher in our own time, a bishop of the Holy Church which is in +Smyrna,' attests at once the respect paid to the office by the writer of +the Letter and to the title by which Polycarp himself was usually +called.</p> + +<p>Other contemporaries of Polycarp's were Clement of Rome and Papias. Do +they give no testimony to the development of monarchical episcopacy in +the later years of the Apostolic Age? Polycarp, if not acquainted with +Clement personally, was yet intimately acquainted with his genuine +letter, the first Epistle to the Corinthians. In this letter there is no +mention of episcopacy properly so-called. With St. Clement, as in the +New Testament, bishop and presbyter are convertible terms. He even drops +all mention of his own name though bishop of the Church in Rome. There +is not even the 'I' of Polycarp, but a 'we,' which defines that the +letter is written in the name of the Church and speaks with the +authority of the Church. The name and personality of the individual are +absorbed in the Church of which he is the spokesman.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> The same +phenomena<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span> are observed in the letter written by Ignatius to the very +Church—Rome—in which alone they are noticed as occurring. The Epistle +of Ignatius to the Romans—save for the mention of his own +rank—contains no indication of the existence of the episcopal office, +inculcates no obedience to bishops, and says not a word about a bishop +of Rome. A like phenomenon is to be noticed in the next (chronologically +speaking) document, emanating from the Church of Rome—viz. the Shepherd +of Hermas. What does this contrast throughout mean, but that where—as +in Asia Minor—false doctrine and schismatical teachers prevailed, there +episcopacy was a safeguard; where these were absent—as in Rome—there +the episcopate had not yet assumed the same sharp and well-defined +monarchical character as in the Eastern churches: and what does this +contrast tend to disprove but the opinion of Dr. Harnack?—'Apart from +the Epistles of Ignatius we do not possess a single witness to the +existence of the monarchical episcopate in the churches of Asia Minor so +early as the times of Trajan or Hadrian' (<i>i. e.</i> <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 98-138).</p> + +<p>Turning to the other point—the Theological Polemics—disputed by +Harnack, Bishop Lightfoot has dealt with the subject on its positive and +negative sides respectively. The positive side yields results of real +importance in attestation of the date of the letters. The heresy +combated by Ignatius is a type of Gnostic Judaism, the Gnostic element +manifesting itself in a sharp form of Docetism. This marked type of +Docetism, far from being a difficulty, is an indication of early date, +since the tendency of Docetism was to mitigation, as time went on. The +negative side is educed by cross-questioning the writer's silence. There +were certain controversies which rent the Church in the middle and +latter half of the second century. These were such as, first, the +Paschal controversy (the proper day and mode of celebrating the Paschal +festival); secondly, the controversy about Montanism, the theatre of +which was the very region with which these Epistles are concerned. Yet, +not a word, not a hint is there, that the writer felt any interest in, +or was disturbed by, anxieties about either. A similar silence points to +the same conclusion, when we consider the absence of allusion to the +three great heresiarchs, Basilides, Marcion, and Valentinus. Give to the +first a period of notoriety conterminous with the reign of Hadrian (<span class="smcap">a. +d.</span> 117-38), yet there is not the slightest allusion in Ignatius to the +tenets of the leader or his followers. Place Marcion some years before +the middle of the second century. Remember that he was a native of Asia +Minor and taught at Rome that there he was denounced by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span> Polycarp as the +'first born of Satan;'<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> and that he enjoyed a world-wide reputation +for evil (according to some), for good (according to others). Yet in the +Ignatian letters there is not the faintest aquaintance with the man or +his teaching. Valentinus also taught at Rome (c. <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 140-60), and his +strange theories about <i>Æons</i> and Ogdoads, about spiritual, psychical, +and material men, or any other fantasy of his speculative mythology, +were not thought beneath the criticism of an Irenæus, a Clement of +Alexandria and a Tertullian. Yet no hint is there in the Seven Epistles +that these thoughts were familiar to the writer. At one time an exultant +Daillé found in his reading of 'Magn.' 8 an attack on Valentinianism, +and consequently a welcome anachronism which proved the writer of the +letters a forger. The discovery of the true reading has been followed +not only by the collapse of the objection, but also by the adhesion to +the belief, that the writer's use of certain expressions is a testimony +to his existence in a pre-Valentinian epoch, when language had not been +abused to heretical ends.</p> + +<p>Dr. Harnack has little to say against the Bishop of Durham's conclusions +from the negative side of the investigation of these theological +polemics; but he has much to say against the Bishop's deductions from +the positive aspect of them. Though, says Bishop Lightfoot,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'in the Trallian and Smyrnæan letters the writer deals +chiefly with Docetism, while in the Magnesian and +Philadelphian letters he seems to be attacking Judaism, yet +a nearer examination shows the two to be so closely +interwoven that they can only be regarded as different sides +of one and the same heresy.'</p></div> + +<p>Not so Dr. Harnack. To him</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'the identification of the Judaists and Gnostics in the +Ingnatian Epistles is quite inadmissible. Ignatius combats +the Doketists in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the +Trallians, and the Smyrnæans, while in the Epistles to the +Magnesians and Philadelphians he warns against the +Ebionistic danger. In the last-named Epistle he warns +against other tendencies which threatened the unity of the +Church.'</p></div> + +<p>In fact, it is this Epistle to the Philadelphians which, in his opinion, +has led scholars astray. No one he thinks would have misunderstood 'the +fact—that the Judaists in the Epistle to the Magnesians were certainly +not Doketists, and the Doketists described in the Epistles to the +Ephesians, Trallians, and Smyrnæans were not Judaists—had the Epistles +of Ignatius come to us without the Epistle to the Philadelphians.' It +would be beyond the province of this Review to enter into an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span> +examination of the arguments adduced on each side; it would also be an +injustice to the disputants to infer that each selects or presses what +tells most of his view, but certainly a calm and dispassionate +inspection of these arguments will lead most men to think Uhlhorn, +Lipsius, and Lightfoot more correct in their unanimous verdict, that but +one heresy is attacked in the Ignatian letters, than Hilgenfeld and +Harnack in their preference of two distinct heresies—Ebionism and +Docetism. This latter conclusion can only be reached by treating the +Letters of Ignatius as Hilgenfeld has treated St. Paul's Epistles to the +Colossians; the former is attained by critical methods defining the +Judaism and Gnosticism observable to be but web and woof of one and the +same fabric.</p> + +<p>The very early date, and the consequent genuineness of these Epistles +are thus the legitimate conclusion from the study of the internal as +well as external evidences. That date is placed by the Bishop of Durham +between <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 100-118 in the time of Trajan. Wieseler had placed the +date of the martyrdom (upon which depends the date of the letters) as +early as <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 107, Harnack as late as <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 138; and the latter still +prefers to place them and the Epistle of Polycarp after the year <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> +130. The earlier date reached by the Bishop of Durham is to him 'a mere +possibility which is highly improbable, because it is not supported by +any word in the Epistle, and because it rests only upon a late and very +problematic witness (Eusebius).' Dr. Harnack's present view is, in all +essentials, the same as that which he previously held. He has had the +advantage—which he courteously acknowledges—of examining Bishop +Lightfoot's 'painstaking consideration' of his views held in 1878; but +nevertheless he considers that the Bishop's method of considering the +whole question is 'not the proper' one—that his 'admittedly profound +learning has contributed little or nothing to the main question,' and +that 'he has not rightly comprehended the problem.'<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> Yet the ordinary +reader, who examines Dr. Harnack's re-statement of some of his views, +will feel that to ask the Bishop of Durham to re-examine them will be +but to ask him to slay afresh the slain. Dr. Harnack still clings, for +example, to his view, that Polycarp is attacking the Docetism of +Marcion; a view which, if sound, would convince the writer of an +anachronism; because in pretending to write between <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 100 and 118 he +has introduced a heresiarch not then notorious. But his view has been +shown by Bishop Lightfoot to be fallacious; and all that Dr. Harnack can +now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span> answer is to repeat his preference for his own interpretation of +two passages adduced in the argument.</p> + +<p>From the amenities of this battlefield of friendly criticism we turn for +a few concluding remarks to the second and shorter life—that of +Polycarp—which these monumental volumes discuss.</p> + +<p>In point of method and treatment, the consideration of the history and +writings of this saint of the early Church follows the same lines, as +those followed in the case of St. Ignatius. First, the biography proper. +Next, one of those collections of passages and documents which render +these volumes so remarkable. In seventy pages the student will find a +<i>corpus</i> of original extracts embellished with notes explanatory and +critical—Such as Imperial acts and ordinances relating to or affecting +Christianity; Acts and notices of martyrdoms. Passages from heathen +writers, containing notices of the Christians; Passages from Christian +writers illustrating the points at issue—most helpful to him in +apprehending not only the history of the persecutions, but also the +relations between the Church and the Empire, in the reigns of Hadrian +(<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 117-38), Antoninus Pius (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 138-61), and Marcus Aurelius (<span class="smcap">a. +d.</span> 161-80). Then come in successive order the examination of the MSS and +Versions, a collection of quotations and references, the consideration +of the genuineness of the 'Epistle of Polycarp' and of the 'Letter to +the Smyrnæans,' closed by a discussion upon the date of the Martyrdom.</p> + +<p>The Church of Christ owes a great debt to Polycarp:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'In him one single link connected the earthly life of Christ +with the close of the second century, though five or six +generations had intervened. St. John, Polycarp, +Irenæus—this was the succession which guaranteed the +continuity of the evangelical record and of the Apostolic +teaching. The long life of St. John, followed by the long +life of Polycarp, had secured this result. What the Church +towards the close of the second century was—how full was +its teaching—how complete its canon—how adequate its +organization—how wise its extension—we know well enough +from Irenæus' extant work. But the intervening period had +been disturbed by feverish speculation and grave anxieties +on all sides. Polycarp saw teacher after teacher spring up, +each introducing some fresh system, and each professing to +teach the true Gospel. Menander, Cerinthus, Carpocrates, +Saturninus, Basilides, Cerdon, Valentinus, Marcion—all +these flourished during his lifetime, and all taught after +he had grown up to manhood. Against all such innovations of +doctrine and practice there lay the appeal to Polycarp's +personal knowledge. With what feelings he regarded such +teachers we may learn not only from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span> own epistle (§ 7), +but from the sayings recorded by Irenæus, "O good God, for +what times hast Thou kept me, I recognize the firstborn of +Satan." He was eminently fitted, too, by his personal +qualities to fulfil this function as a depositary of +tradition.... Polycarp's mind was essentially unoriginative. +It had no creative power. His Epistle is largely made up of +quotations from the Evangelical and Apostolic writings, from +Clement of Rome, from the Epistles of Ignatius.... A +stedfast, stubborn adherence to the lessons of his youth and +early manhood, an unrelaxing, unwavering hold of "the word +that was delivered to him from the beginning"—this, so far +as we can read the man from his own utterances or from the +notices of others, was the characteristic of Polycarp. His +religious convictions were seen to be "founded," as Ignatius +had said long before (Polyc. 1) "on an immovable rock." He +was not dismayed by the plausibilities of false teachers, +but "stood firm as an anvil under the hammer's stroke." +(<i>ib.</i> 3).'</p></div> + +<p>The Church has ever claimed for her Saint not so much the reverence paid +to the martyr, or the deference due to the ruler, or the teachableness +powerful in the writer, as the attention obligatory to an 'elder.' Why? +We may give the reason in the Bishop's words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'While the oral tradition of the Lord's life and of the +Apostolic teaching was still fresh, the believers of +succeeding generations not unnaturally appealed to it for +confirmation against the many counterfeits of the Gospel +which offered themselves for acceptance. The authorities for +this tradition were "the Elders." To the testimony of these +Elders appeal was made by Papias in the first, and by +Irenæus in the second generation after the Apostles. With +Papias the Elders were those who themselves had seen the +Lord, or had been eye-witnesses of the Apostolic history: +with Irenæus the term included likewise persons who, like +Papias himself, had been acquainted with these +eye-witnesses. And among these Polycarp held the foremost +place.'</p></div> + +<p>The existing letter to the Philippians is now recognized as a genuine +work of the Saint; and this on the testimony of internal evidence, quite +as much as on the direct testimony of Irenæus, his own disciple. The +arbitrary method of a Daillé, the interpolation-theory of Ritschl, and +the wholesale rejection of the Epistle by Schwegler, Zeller, and +Hilgenfeld, have ceased to command attention or demand refutation. The +Epistle is too closely confined to the letters and martyrdom of Ignatius +to warrant our looking for much refutation in it of existing error; but +the spirit and counsel of the 'elder' is truly there warning against +false and hypocritical brethren, and impelling his readers to turn unto +the word delivered unto them from the beginning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span></p> + +<p>Never was Christian counsel and sturdy faith more needed than in the +period covered by the lifetime of Polycarp. The Bishop of Durham +describes it as 'the most tumultuous period in the religious history of +the world'; and in connection with the Bishop of Smyrna he notes that 'a +chief arena of the struggle between creeds and cults was Asia Minor.' If +in the earlier part of the second century (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 112) Pliny, in his +celebrated letter to Trajan,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> deplored what Polycarp may have +witnessed—on the one hand, heathen temples deserted and heathen +sacrifices starved as to their victims; on the other, young and old, man +and woman, patrician and peasant, bond and free, attracted to and +mastered by a 'superstition' which affected alike the city and the +village, the nobleman's mansion and the herdsman's hut, yet the splendid +successes of Christianity did not blind either saint or philosopher. 'A +veritable Pagan propaganda,' as Renan calls it, also set in in the +second century; and when Polycarp died, it was at its height. Everywhere +was it supported by the reigning emperors. 'The political and truly +Roman instincts of Trajan were not more friendly to it than the +archæological tastes, the cosmopolitan interests, and the theological +levity of Hadrian. From their immediate successors, Antoninus Pius and +Marcus Aurelius, it received even more solid and efficient support.'</p> + +<p>Smyrna, the see of Bishop Polycarp, was fully exposed to the influences +of this reviving Paganism. The rhetorician, Aristides—true type of the +Pagan charlatan who summoned to his aid in subjugating a superstitious +people the mysterious and occult powers with which astrology and dreams, +auguries and witchcrafts, invested their possessors—was himself a +frequent dweller in Smyrna. Often must he have heard of and despised the +man branded by the titles, 'the teacher of Asia, the father of the +Christians, the puller-down of our gods, who teacheth numbers not to +sacrifice nor worship'<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> which—like the inscription over his +crucified Lord—did unconsciously proclaim the very and only truth. +Twice did the city of Smyrna, during Polycarp's prime, receive fresh +honours and privileges for her devotion to the worship of Imperial +deities. The religious guild of the temples of the Augusti celebrated +here their festivals with exceptional splendour; the 'theologians' and +'choristers,' who owed their existence and affluence to the magnificence +of a Hadrian, not only saluted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span> him as their 'god,' their 'saviour and +founder,' but by senatorial decree established games—the Olympia +Hadrianea—grotesquely pompous in titular magnificence. Naturally this +affected the well-being of the infant Church of Christ in Smyrna; but +that Church was assailed from another quarter, and by the sharpened +weapons, not of a scornful superiority, but of fanatical hatred. The +Jews were both numerous and powerful in Smyrna, and two cruel episodes +in their late national history accentuated their fury against the +Christians wherever they met with them. The first was the destruction of +Jerusalem (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 70). The fugitives from Palestine, who found refuge in +Smyrna with their fellow-countrymen already settled there, found +sympathy also—save from one class, the Christians. Compassion these +last could feel for men whose best blood had welled over the courts of +the Temple, whose dearest and nearest had perhaps perished in Jerusalem, +that 'cage of furious madmen, a city of howling wild beasts and of +cannibals—a hell' (Renan); but they knew to be true what a Titus had +acknowledged, that 'the hand of God' was in the victory of Rome. They +saw in the downfall of the Holy City the retribution of the Heavenly +Father for the crucifixion of the Messiah; and sorrow with the sorrow of +the weeping patriots of Israel they could not and would not. Their +refusal was the signal for a determination to seize every opportunity of +revenge; and the second episode, to which we have alluded, is connected +with a specially furious outburst of maddened passion against Christians +on the part of the Jews. Hadrian, fifty years after the fall of +Jerusalem, had resolved upon rearing on its ruins the city of Ælia +Capitolina. Then flashed forth the rebellion of the Jew Bar-cochba (<span class="smcap">a. +d.</span> 132-4). The 'Son of the Star,' supported by his standard-bearer, +Akiba, the greatest of the Rabbins, measured his strength with Rome. +With mouth breathing forth flames,<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> he inspired his partisans with +confidence, and his enemies with terror. Flung back, disappointed, and +slain at Bither, the 'Son of a Lie,' as his disappointed countrymen had +found him to their cost and re-named him, had yet found opportunities of +inflicting terrible tortures and agonizing deaths upon those Christians +in Palestine, who had dared to reject his Messianic claims, and refused +to blaspheme Christ. And the spirit of vengeance spread from the Holy +Land to the provinces. Twenty years after the death of the rebel leader, +the Jews of Smyrna—probably to Polycarp 'a synagogue of Satan,' as in +earlier times St. John his master had described<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span></p> + +<p>them (Rev. ii. 9)—found their opportunity. Their vengeance then was +only slaked by the blood of the Christian Bishop.</p> + +<p>The Saint's martyrdom was the crowning consummation of the Saint's life. +With the Bishop of Durham's help we can now collect all that we shall +probably ever know of both; and to this we turn in conclusion.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> + +<p>The date of his martyrdom may be accepted as about 155 <span class="smcap">a. d.</span><a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> If +Polycarp was then 86 years of age, his birth may be placed in <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 60 +or 70, at a time nearly coincident with the date of the destruction of +Jerusalem. That event was the cause which drove St. John to fix his +abode ultimately at Ephesus, the traditional home of St. Andrew, and +near to the Phrygian Hierapolis, where St. Philip the Apostle died and +was buried. The proximity of Smyrna to Ephesus, and the reputation +accorded to both in the flattering designation of 'the two eyes' of +proconsular Asia, would make intercourse between the cities familiar and +frequent. In the Christian advantages consequent upon such intercourse +Polycarp had his full share, if it be impossible to assert positively +that he was a Smyrnæan by birth, and of Christian parentage. But the +legends at the close of the fourth century, as embodied in the story of +Pionius, sought and found for his origin a more romantic, if sad, +beginning. One night, God's Angel appeared to a widow of Smyrna named +Callisto, rich in worldly wealth, but still more rich in good work. +'Go,' he bade her, 'to the Ephesian gate. There you will find two men. +They have with them a young lad for sale. Give them their price, and +take and keep the child. He is by birth an Eastern.' The child was +Polycarp. She did as she was bid. She bought and reared him, and +eventually left to him all her substance. The fact implied in the last +words, that Polycarp was a comparatively well-to-do man, is the one fact +out of the above story supported by more authentic documents. Perhaps +also the picture of the man, so pleasing and natural, drawn by Pionius, +may present traits faithful to the original:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The love of knowledge and the fondness of the Scriptures, +which distinguishes the people of the East, bore rich fruit +in him. He offered himself a whole offering to God, by +prayer and study of the Scriptures, by spareness of diet and +simplicity of clothing, by liberal almsgiving. He was +bashful and retiring, shunning the busy throngs of men, and +consorting only with those who needed his assistance. When +he met an aged wood-carrier outside the walls, he would +purchase his burden, would carry it himself to the city, and +would give it to the widows living near the gate. The +Bishop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span> Bucolus cherished him as a son, and he in turn +requited his love with filial care and devotion.'</p></div> + +<p>But we may catch from real and genuine sources three glimpses of the +man: in youth as the disciple of St. John, in middle age as the champion +of Ignatius, in closing life as the teacher of Irenæus. Of the circle of +disciples who gathered round St. John, Polycarp is indubitably the most +famous. He delighted, in his declining years, to tell his younger +friends what he had himself heard from eye-witnesses of the Lord's life +on earth; and he would dwell especially on his intercourse with the +Apostle of Love. There is nothing improbable in the belief, that he was +ordained to the episcopate by the venerable Apostle. Among his +contemporaries were Clement, Papias, and Ignatius. Polycarp knew, as has +been stated, the letter of the great Bishop of Rome, and Papias—his +'companion,' as Irenæus<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> calls him—became his neighbour at +Hierapolis. But it is with Ignatius that the younger man is inseparably +linked. They met, probably for the first (and only) time, at Smyrna when +the great Bishop of Antioch was on his way to martyrdom at Rome. +Touching in their affectionateness are the remarks which each passes +upon each. Polycarp inspires Ignatius with 'love.' The younger man is to +the older 'most blessed,' 'clothed with grace,' marked by 'fervid +sincerity,' a man 'whose godly mind is grounded on an immovable rock' +(Letter to Polycarp). To Polycarp, Ignatius 'the blessed' is the pattern +of men, 'obedient unto the word of righteousness and practising all +endurance,' 'encircled in saintly bonds which are the diadems of them +that be truly chosen of God and our Lord.' The two men parted, never +again to meet on earth, yet to be linked together by 'martyrdom +comformable to the Gospel' But ere that 'birthday' arrived, Polycarp had +to live for nearly half a century; and potent was his influence upon the +men of a younger generation. Melito, Claudius Apollinaris, and +Polycrates, famous among the Fathers of Asia, must have known him well; +Justin Martyr visited him from Ephesus; but mightiest and dearest of all +was his pupil Irenæus, the champion of orthodoxy against Gnosticism.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'When I was still a boy,' wrote Irenæus, '(I was) in company +with Polycarp in Asia Minor.... I can tell the very place in +which the blessed Polycarp used to sit when he discoursed, +his goings out and comings in, his manner of life and his +personal appearance, his discourses which he gave to the +people, and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span> description of his intercourse with John, +and the rest of those who had seen the Lord.'<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p></div> + +<p>Those were reminiscences and lessons never forgotten by the future +Bishop of Lyons. To him, as to 'all the churches of Asia and to the +successors of Polycarp' himself, the pupil of St. John was 'a much more +trustworthy and safe witness of the truth than Valentinus and Marcion, +and all such wrong-minded men.'<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p>The end came at last. A persecution was raging; how or why we know not. +All that can be known is told in the 'Letter of the Smyrnæans.'<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> The +simplicity and pathos of the story, as told by this ancient document, so +moved the great Scaliger, that he felt hardly master of himself. We +cannot tell the tale of triumph in better words than in those of that +exquisite piece of ecclesiastical antiquity. The great annual festival +was being held at Smyrna, presided over by the Asiarch and 'high +priest'<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> Philip, a wealthy citizen of the wealthy Tralles, and graced +by the presence of the Proconsul Statius Quadratus. The persecutor had +asked for blood, and blood had been granted him. Already several +victims, Philadelphians, 'so torn by lashes that the mechanism of their +flesh was visible even as far as the inward veins and arteries,' had +'endured patiently;' showing to the weeping bystanders such bravery that +the explanation became current—'(these) martyrs of Christ being +tortured, were absent from the flesh, or rather the Lord was standing by +and conversing with them.' Others 'condemned to the wild beasts, endured +fearful punishments, being made to lie on sharp shells and buffeted with +other forms of manifold tortures, that the devil might, if possible, by +the persistence of the punishment bring them to a denial; for he tried +many wiles against them.' Men remembered afterwards how 'the right noble +Germanicus,' scorning the pity the Proconsul would have extended to his +youth, 'used violence, and dragged the wild beast towards him.' Such +bravery, 'the bravery of the God-fearing and God-beloved people of the +Christians,' only whetted the pagan thirst for blood. There rang out the +shout, 'Away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span> with the atheists!<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> Let search be made for Polycarp!' +He had gone against his will into the country, probably to one of his +own farms; and he was found without much difficulty. He placed before +his captors food and drink, and asked but a single boon of them—'one +hour that he might pray unmolested.' Those mounted soldiers, 'wondering +why there should be such eagerness for the apprehension of an old man +like him,' gave their consent. 'He stood up and prayed; and being full +of the grace of God, for two hours he could not hold his peace, so that +they who heard him were amazed, and many repented that they had come +against such a venerable old man.' They brought him to the city, seated +on an ass. Steadily did he refuse the real and sincere endeavours of +compassionate heathen to 'save himself.' 'What harm,' they asked, 'is +there in saying, Cæsar is Lord, and offering incense?' He would only +answer, 'I am not going to do what you counsel me.' As he entered the +stadium, the human roar, fiercer and more cruel than that of wild +beasts, rose above every other sound. Polycarp did not heed it; a voice +came to him from heaven, 'Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man;' and, +nerved by what other Christians had also heard, he stood at last before +Statius. Words, at first pitiful, greeted him: 'Have respect to thine +age!—Swear by the genius of Cæsar! Say, "Away with the atheists."' The +Saint caught up the last word. He 'looked with solemn countenance upon +that vast multitude of lawless heathen; and groaning and looking up to +heaven, he said, 'Away with the atheists.' Was he then yielding? The +Proconsul had misunderstood him, but he pressed him hard and said 'Swear +the oath, and I will release thee. Revile the Christ!' Polycarp looked +him in the face, and gave him the answer which can never die. 'Fourscore +and six years have I been His servant, and He hath done me no wrong. How +then can I blaspheme my King Who saved me?' The words of pity changed +into threats. 'I have wild beasts here,' said Statius, 'and I will throw +thee to them except thou change thy mind.' 'Call them,' was the +unflinching answer. 'If thou despisest the wild beasts, I will cause +thee to be consumed by fire.' Polycarp remembered a dream of three days +before in which he had seen his pillow burning with fire, and which he +had interpreted to those with him as signifying that he would be burnt +alive. He answered now, 'Thou threatenest that fire which burneth for a +season and after a little while is quenched. For thou art ignorant of +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> fire of the future judgment and eternal punishment, which is +reserved for the ungodly:' and then he added—in his impatience to be +'made a partaker with Christ'—'But why delayest thou? Come, do what +thou wilt.' Saying this, 'he was inspired with courage and joy, and his +countenance was filled with grace.'</p> + +<p>The herald's proclamation was soon heard announcing three times, +'Polycarp hath confessed himself to be a Christian;' and again the human +yell broke forth from Gentile and Jew, this time fashioning itself into +distinct speech: 'This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the +Christians, the puller down of our gods, who teacheth numbers not to +sacrifice nor worship.... Let the lion loose upon him!' 'That is +impossible' was the answer of the Asiarch, 'for the sports have closed.' +They shouted out 'with one accord, "Burn him alive!" Quicker than words +could tell, the crowds collected timber and faggots from workshops and +baths, and the Jews especially assisted in this with zeal, as was their +wont.' They placed around him the 'instruments prepared for the pile,' +and were going to nail him to the stake. He interposed with his last +request of men, 'Leave me as I am. He that hath granted me to endure the +fire, will grant me also to remain at the pile unmoved, without the +security you seek from nails.' They 'tied him to the stake.' He stood up +'like a noble ram out of a great flock for an offering, a +burnt-sacrifice made ready and acceptable to God;' and looking up to +heaven, made his last request of God in one of the noblest prayers +preserved in ancient or modern literature. His Amen said, 'the firemen +lighted the fire. The mighty flame flashed forth,' and men saw then, +what in later days they saw repeated at the martyrdom of a Savonarola +and of a Hooper,<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> the fire, 'like the sail of a vessel filled with +wind, surrounding as with a wall the body of the martyr. It was there in +the midst, not like flesh burning, but like gold and silver refined in a +furnace.' Could he not die?</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Lawless men, seeing that his body could not be consumed by +the fire, ordered an executioner to go up to him and stab +him with a dagger. And when he had done this, there came +forth a quantity of blood,<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> so that it extinguished the +fire; and all the multitude marvelled that there should be +so great a difference between the unbelievers and the +elect.'</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span></p><p>The Christians hoped to have taken away the 'poor body,' but 'the +jealous and envious Evil One, the adversary of the family of the +righteous,' instigated the Jews to urge upon the magistrate not to give +up his body, lest they (the Christians) should abandon the crucified One +and begin to worship this man,... 'not knowing' (add the narrators) 'how +impossible it would be for them to forsake at any time the Christ Who +suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are +saved—suffered, though sinless, for sinners—not to worship any other.' +The body was placed again on the pile and consumed. Then 'the bones, +more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold,' were +taken up and laid in a suitable place.</p> + +<p>So died a Polycarp as had died an Ignatius, both martyred, and both +memorable for 'nobleness, patient endurance, and loyalty to their +Master.' The motto of their deaths was the motto of their lives, +condensed into the saying of the martyr of Antioch to the martyr of +Smyrna:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'ὁπου πλειων κοπος, πολυ κερδος.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The greater the pain, the greater the gain.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We know nothing certain of the tombs which tradition or affection have +pointed out as the last resting-place of the calcined remains of either +Saint, but we need no longer such perishable monuments. The +English-speaking and English-reading race have in the volumes of the +Bishop of Durham a fitting shrine for those literary remains which +survive destruction. Scholarship and piety, study and prayer, have here +combined to shed light upon the writings, and to raise a monument to the +lives, of those champions of early Christianity, who in their day +wrought a good work, and still speak, though dead.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Bishop Lightfoot's 'Ignatius and Polycarp,' by Prof. A. +Harnack, Ph.D, in 'Expositor' for December, 1885, p. 401.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> 'The Apostolic Fathers,' p. 116. By Canon Scott Holland.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> ἑχτρομα, 'Ep. to the Romans,' 9, with Bp. +Lightfoot's note. Compare 1 Corinth. xv. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Herod, vii. 31, 187.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> 'Ep. to the Rom.' 5, 'to the Ephes.' II, with note</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> See the useful Table in i. 222, and the excursus on +'Spurious and Interpolated Epistles' in i. 223-266. Cf. also the +'Appendix Ignatiana,' ii. 587, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Such as Eusebius and Theodoret. Cf. i., pp. 137-40, 161-4. +The catena of quotations and references from the second to the ninth +century, given in i. 127-221 (cf. the hint on p. 220) is most important +for the construction of the text, and as a preliminary to the +determination of the priority and authenticity of the Epistles. +Harnack's objections to the quotation from Lucian (i. 129) are not +shared by Baur or Renan, and are indirectly met by Bishop Lightfoot, i. +331-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Stephen Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew +Newcomen, William Spurstow.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> i, 79 For example, as regards the order of the words in +the Greek text this latin translation may be treated as an authority. +The Greek is rigidly followed without any regard for Latin usage. So +also Greek articles are scrupulously reproduced, in violation of Latin +idiom. New or unusual Latin words are introduced to correspond as +exactly as possible to the original; <i>e.g.</i> ingloriatio = ακανχησια; multibona ordinatio = το πολυευτακταν, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> See i. 72. For the text edited by Dr. W. Wright, see ii. +657., &c.; and for a translation, ii. 670, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> 'De scriptis quæ sub Dionysii Areopagitæ et Ignati +Antiocheni nominibus circumferuntur,' &c. (1666). The Bishop of Durham +characterizes Daille's treatment of the Ignatian writings as marked 'by +deliberate confusion.' He knows the facts, but makes the Vossian letters +bear all the odium attached to the 'long' recension. Pearson's work, +'Vindiciæ Epistolarum S. Ignatii,' appeared six years later in 1672. +This reply as compared with the attack was 'as light to darkness.' In +England it closed the controversy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Trall. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> See, for example, Rom. 4, 9: Trall. 3, 13; Ephes. 1, 3, +21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Rom. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Smyrn. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> See i. 400, 405.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Consult Bishop Lightfoot's Essay on this subject in his +Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians (p. 181, &c.). The +'Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,' published in 1884, is rightly +referred to now by the Bishop of Durham as confirming his positions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Comp. Irenæus, 'Hær.' iii. 3, § § 3,4; iii. 14, § 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Essay in 'Philippians,' p. 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Cf. Bishop Lightfoot's edition of 'St. Clement of Rome,' +App. p. 252, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Iren. 'Hær.' iii. 3, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Cf. i. 568, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> See i. 50, &c.; ii. 532. The Bishop of Durham's collection +of facts and references dealing with this subject is an admirable +specimen—everywhere repeated—of the exhaustive treatment he applies to +single points.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> Letter of the Smyrnæans, § 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> He had learnt the trick of keeping lighted tow or straw in +his mouth. See other instances in Milman's 'History of the Jeos,' ii. +429, n. <i>x</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Cf. Justin Martyr in Eusebius, 'Hist.' iv, 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> i. 422, 629, &c. Mr. Rendell, in the 'Studia Biblica' +(oxf. 1885), has come to the same conclusion by an independent +treatment.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Hær. v. 33, 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Euseb. 'Hist. Eccl.' v. 20</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> Iren. 'Hær.' iii. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> The genuineness of the main document (at least) is +unaffected by recent attacks. The impugning process of Schürer, Lipsius, +and Kelm has been successfully resisted by Renan, Hilgenfeld (in part), +and the Bishop of Durham (i 588, &c.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> The subjects of the Asiarchate, of the identity of Asiarch +and high-priest, have suggested to the Bishop of Durham another of those +exhaustive discussions which will win for him the gratitude of the +students (see ii. 987, &c.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> The name given by the heathen to the Christians, whom they +counted godless because they had neither image nor visible +representation of the Deity. See ii. 160, note to line 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> See i. 599 nn. 1, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> On the celebrated reading, 'there came forth a dove and a +quantity of blood, see ii. 974, note to i. 3. It is to be explained by +the belief, that the soul departed from the body at death in the form of +a bird; the dove most readily suggesting itself as the emblem of a +Christian soul.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Art_VIII_1_An_Address_delivered_to_the_Students_of_Edinburgh" id="Art_VIII_1_An_Address_delivered_to_the_Students_of_Edinburgh"></a>Art. VIII.—1. <i>An Address delivered to the Students of Edinburgh +University on Nov. 3, 1885.</i> By the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord Rector of +the University of Edinburgh.</h2> + +<h2>2. <i>Hearing, Reading and Thinking: an address to the Students attending +the Lectures of the London Society for the Extension of University +Teaching.</i> By the Rt. Hon. G.J. Goschen, M.P.</h2> + +<h2>3. <i>The Choice of Books and other Literary Pieces.</i> By Frederic +Harrison. London, 1886.</h2> + + +<p>The subject of Books and Reading is <i>in the air</i> at the present time; +Lord Iddlesleigh raised the question last November, by his admirable +discourse on Desultory Reading, delivered at Edinburgh. Sir John Lubbock +was not slow to follow the lead, in his lecture at the Working Men's +College; and lastly, we have Mr. Goschen's more abstract and despondent +remarks on Hearing, Reading, and Thinking. The discussion has been +carried forward from Newspaper to Journal, and from Journal to Magazine, +and has attracted representatives of the most heterogeneous elements +into the ever widening circle. Sir John Lubbock wound up by enumerating +a <i>hundred</i> of the books—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'most frequently mentioned with approval by those who have +referred directly or indirectly to the pleasure of reading, +and I have ventured to include some, which though less +frequently mentioned, are especial favourites of my own. I +have abstained for obvious reasons from mentioning works by +living authors.' ('Self Help,' however, is admitted into Sir +John's revised list), 'though from many of them, Tennyson, +Ruskin, and others, I have myself derived the keenest +enjoyment; and have omitted works of Science, with one or +two exceptions, because the subject is so progressive. I +feel that the attempt is over bold, and must beg for +indulgence; but indeed one object I have had in view is to +stimulate others, more competent far than I am, to give us +the advantage of their opinions. If we had such lists drawn +up by a few good guides, they would be most useful.'</p></div> + +<p>The challenge thus thrown down was quickly taken up by the Editor of the +'Pall Mall Gazette,' who forthwith sent out a Circular to certain +eminent men of the day, inviting them 'to jot down such a list—not +necessarily containing a hundred volumes—as would help the present +generation to choose their reading more wisely.' Whether the majority of +the 'guides' thus appealed to have responded to the call, we are not +informed; the replies of several have been published; and our thanks are +due to those who have been instrumental in opening up a discussion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span> of +great variety and universal interest; though we must confess to some +regret that the initiative was not given in a different form. Why the +number should be fixed at one hundred; why works of Science should be +excluded; why Biography and Travels should enjoy so meagre a +representation on Sir John Lubbock's list, are questions to which no +satisfactory answer has been given.</p> + +<p>Who is it, we would ask in the first place, for whom this list is +primarily intended? Not the man whose love of books is firmly +established, for he will have chosen for himself his own walk among the +innumerable highways and byepaths of literature; nor he whose tastes are +just forming, for the field is too wide, and he would hardly prefer the +Analects of Confucius, the Shahnameh, and the Sheking, to 'Marco's +Polo's Travels,' Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' and 'Æsop's Fables.' No +list, however, that could be drawn up would escape criticism, and our +desire is not so much to suggest in what manner the present list might +be amended, as to indicate how, in our opinion, it might have been made +to serve some practical purpose.</p> + +<p>'Books have brought some men to knowledge and some to madness. As +fulness sometimes hurteth the stomach more than hunger, so fareth it +with arts; and as of meats, so likewise of books, the use ought to be +limited according to the quality of him that useth them.' Thus wrote +Petrarch, and the comparison between the bodily and mental digestion, if +trite, is very far from being a mere superficial analogy.</p> + +<p>Those who are blessed with a judicial friend, quite competent to make a +diagnosis of their literary capacity and prescribe a diet, are indeed +fortunate—'sua si bona norint.' Such prescriptions have been long since +made, and handed down to us. That written out by Doctor Johnson, for his +friend the Rev. Mr. Astle of Ashbourne, is brief enough, and savours of +the drastic remedies fashionable in the last century.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> If on glancing +over the Doctor's list our readers are inclined to assume that the Rev. +Mr. Astle was possessed of a very healthy digestion, we would remind +them that solid joints and heavy folios were more in vogue at that time +than in these days of French cookery and periodical literature.</p> + +<p>In later times Comte also, among others, has furnished a catalogue, or +syllabus of books for general reading; but even his faithful follower +Mr. Harrison admits, half apologetically, that it 'has no special +relation to current views of education, to English literature, much less +to the literature of the day. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span> was drawn up thirty years ago by a +French philosopher, who passed his life in Paris, and who had read no +new book for twenty years.'</p> + +<p>'What shall I read?' There are few questions more frequently asked than +this; few, perhaps, to which a thoughtless answer is more frequently +given. Coming from one of that large class to which Lord Iddesleigh has +given the name of 'indolent readers,' it might be assumed to be lightly +asked, and might be as lightly answered by the recommendation of some +three-volume novel, or the more fashionable shilling's-worth of gruesome +mystery; but if the enquirer be a young book-lover, a worthy answer is +far to seek. The diagnosis and opinion of the physician do not present +greater difficulties, and in many cases are not attended by more +momentous results. To turn a juvenile adrift in Sir John Lubbock's list +would be to prescribe an exclusive diet of richly seasoned dishes and +rare wines to a convalescent patient—to feed him on strong meats, on +cavaire and truffles, and to omit the simple, wholesome, homely fare on +which, in his condition, health and efficient progress must in the main +depend.</p> + +<p>How often has the young enquirer been imbued with a distaste for solid +literature by being compelled to read 'masterpieces' long before he was +able to appreciate their value, or even to comprehend their history! The +system at many of our schools is much to blame in this respect. There +are, we believe, comparatively few boys who acquire, until they seek it +for themselves, even the roughest general outline of the world's +history, to which their various episodic studies may be applied, so that +each may fall into its proper place and order. 'Periods' and 'Epochs' +are studied minutely and painfully, without any knowledge of the grand +structure of which they form but a single fragment; and history is too +often divorced from geography. A schoolboy is set to work on a play of +Aristophanes before he has made acquaintance with the social and +political movements of which Pericles and Cleon were the +representatives. He reads his Bible and his Homer, his Virgil and +Horace, his Cæsar and Livy, but probably with the vaguest ideas of their +relations to one another, or their respective positions in the world's +chronology. Or it may be that the whole of one term is devoted to one or +two books of 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey,' 'the Æneid' or the 'Odes,' +which are ground out line by line and word by word, all the interest and +flavour of the complete work being inevitably and hopelessly dissipated +in the process. Even 'the college prizeman, and the college tutor cannot +read a chorus in the Trilogy but what his mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span> instinctively wanders on +optatives, choriambi, and that happy conjecture of Smelfungus in the +antistrophe.'<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> But certain books having to be got up for an +examination by the cramming process, the receptacle for all this +erudition only looks forward to the time when he may throw his Classics +behind the fire for ever. No book with the least pretention to permanent +value can be read purely by and for itself; inevitably it must draw on +the reader—if he be in any sense worthy of the name—from point to +point beyond its own immediate sphere, until he finds his interest +expanding and his tastes forming under a natural and rapid process of +evolution. Can any intelligent person read his Homer or his 'Æneid,' his +Boswell, his 'Old Mortality,' or 'The Voyage of the Beagle' without +asking himself who are these strange characters, and where are these +strange lands that seem so familiar to us?</p> + +<p>He who stands on a hill and surveys a wide landscape, easily recognizes +the leading features of the country—the river and the homestead, the +church and the corn-field—they need no guide, they tell their own tale. +In like manner the great landmarks of the literature of the past are +well defined and unmistakable to him who has eyes to see and a mind to +comprehend. The traveller may choose his line, and as he goes his way he +will not fail to find guides who will give him the directions which +passing doubts and difficulties may render necessary. The world's great +books stand out as the old stone walls of some great feudal +fortress—prominent and indestructible. Their original uses have been +superseded by the world's advance; but time and change add greatly to +their interest. He, however, who finds himself entangled in the dense +jungle of books that are not 'masterpieces,' and are so plentiful in +modern literature, is in a sorry plight; his way lies through this +jungle, be it long or short, and he cannot escape it altogether. He has +heard of the quiet groves of the Academy, and of the heights of +Parnassus, but he is rarely able to catch a glimpse of them. He is +whirled along and loses his foothold in the eddying torrent of +periodical literature; or he is entangled in the briars of controversy, +and, torn and vexed, is apt to lose his way. Here then it is that he +particularly needs a guide, and here it is that Sir John Lubbock bids +good-bye to him, and leaves him to his own resources.</p> + +<p>The student, thus perplexed, may be surprised to learn from Mr. Ruskin +that 'any bank clerk could write a history as good as Grote's,' and that +Gibbon only chronicled 'putrescence and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span> corruption; 'he may be deeply +interested in the information that Professor Bryce prefers Pindar to +Hesiod, that the Lord Chief Justice knows nothing of Chinese or +Sanskrit, and that Miss Braddon has spent 'great part of a busy life +reading the "Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews."' But all this does not +help him in his bewildering journey among the 10,000 books which are +annually flooding the world of English speaking readers—a mass of which +we fear that the quality advances in inverse ratio to the quantity.</p> + +<p>Sir John Lubbock's list, as it stands, suggests a gathering of +illustrious Generals and officers, without any men. They are very +distinguished and admirable in appearance and qualifications, but would +be doubly so if seen at the head of the army which they lead and +represent. Had Sir John commenced by marshalling his hundred books in +groups, either of subjects to be studied or of readers to be provided +for, and then called upon the 'guides' to fill up the gaps, and supply +the rank and file of his army, he would have earned the thanks of all +book-lovers.</p> + +<p>In the selection of books two considerations must alternately be +paramount. One of these would have reference to the subjects to be +studied, the other would have reference to the readers to be provided +for. We are aware of the long controversies and technical difficulties +involved in this question of Classification, which has stirred the +hearts of Librarians from time immemorial, but for our present purpose +the elaboration of an exhaustive scientific system is unnecessary; a +statement of the rough headings and divisions, under which the books for +general readers should be grouped, presents no insurmountable obstacles. +Various minor considerations may subsequently assert themselves; as, for +example, whether the books are required with the ultimate object of the +formation of a library, and 'the cultivation of literature is an object +which cannot be accomplished without the acquisition of a library of a +greater or less extent,' or for the mere purpose of amusement. To draw +up such a catalogue as we propose would exceed the capacity of any +single individual; each section should be the work of one or more +persons specially versed in the subject.</p> + +<p>We are, of course, dealing rather with those who are aspiring to be book +lovers than with those who, having already attained to that distinction, +can trust to the guidance of their own inclinations. These aspirants +must seek first an able and judicious guide for each department of +study. One guide may be fully competent to make a list of works in +history or biography, but may lack experience in philosophy or in art;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> +while, on the other hand, the regimen prescribed for the country curate +would hardly be appropriate for the mechanic or the soldier.</p> + +<p>But, first, we must endeavour to define, by a rough process of +elimination, the book lover, whether mature or in embryo. He is not the +mere 'glutton of the lending library,' who bolts the contents of the +monthly box without discrimination and without reflection, his main +object being to while away an idle day or to gain a superficial +reputation at the next dinner party at which he may be present; nor is +he the collector of gaudy bindings; nor one who has never possessed nor +desired to possess a library of his own, who has never read a book more +than once, and has never committed to memory a single passage. He is not +the man, in short, who fails to realize that 'the utility of reading +depends not on the swallow but on the digestion.'</p> + +<p>From the American Westerner who buys an Encyclopædia in parts, and finds +in it all that he requires of instruction and amusement, to the princely +founders of libraries—the Spencers and Parkers, the De Thous, the +Sunderlands, and the Beckfords—is a wide interval, and includes all +sorts and conditions of men, diverse from one another in everything but +their love of books.</p> + +<p>Sir John Lubbock, by his eminence in the world of science and the world +of commerce, is admirably qualified to draw up a list of works on +science and trade. But these he has unfortunately excluded from his +consideration. Such lists would be invaluable to the thousands who from +intellectual, or more purely mercenary motives, are now seeking for +light. Had Sir John classified his list on some simple and +discriminating plan, such as we have suggested, we might, as a result of +the discussion, have obtained a summary of works on art by Mr. Ruskin, +or a soldier's library by Lord Wolseley. Others, whose replies have been +published, would have furnished special lists; and a still wider circle +would, no doubt, have seen their way to rendering much help and service. +We should, moreover, have been spared some rather irrelevant and wayward +criticisms to which the discussion has given rise.</p> + +<p>Two or three of the 'guides' have, with more or less success, adopted +for themselves a definite system. Mr. William Morris has given us a +list, the perusal of which may perchance arouse serious misgivings in +the heart of the general reader, who cannot 'even <i>with</i> great +difficulty read Old German,' and who has not yet been educated up to the +point of regarding Virgil and Juvenal as 'sham classics.' The +'Admiral's' list is good, if somewhat too technical; and we would plead +for the admission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span> of Southey's 'Life of Nelson,' even, if need be, to +the exclusion of the 'Annual Register' in 110 volumes. The Head Master +of Harrow 'tried to think how he should answer a boy's question if he +were to ask, at any point of his school life, what books it were best +worth while to read before the end (let me say) of his thirtieth year;' +and we venture to regard Mr. Welldon's list as the best of all in point +of conciseness and practical value.</p> + +<p>The last to enter the lists, though not under the auspices of the 'Pall +Mall Gazette,' is Mr. Frederic Harrison, who comes armed with a volume +entitled 'The Choice of Books,' though four-fifths of the contents have +strayed far away into such remote pastures as 'The Opening of the Courts +of Justice,' 'A Plea for the Tower of London,' and 'The Æsthete.' With +the small residue of the book, which has remained faithful to the +titlepage, we have little fault to find. Mr. Harrison, as might be +expected, regards everything through the spectacles of Auguste +Comte—'hinc omne principium, huc refer exitum.' Comte's 'Syllabus,' to +which we have already referred, was the basis of at least one of his +essays, and is the subject of his closing remarks.</p> + +<p>For our present purpose, the first article, 'How to Read,' is +undoubtedly the most valuable and practicable. It deals in a +straightforward and vigorous manner with many of the snares and +difficulties by which the reader is beset, and sweeps away much of the +sentimental, sickly, criticism which is unfortunately prevalent at the +present time. We think, however, that Mr. Harrison is inclined to raise +the standard of taste too high for the mass of general readers.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Putting aside the iced air of the difficult mountain tops +of epic, tragedy, or psalm, there are some simple pieces +which may serve as an unerring test of a healthy or vicious +taste for imaginative work. If the "Cid," the "Vita Nuova," +the "Canterbury Tales," Shakspeare's "Sonnets," and +"Lycidas" pall on a man; if he care not for Malory's "Morte +d'Arthur" and the "Red Cross Knight"; if he thinks "Crusoe" +and the "Vicar" books for the young; if he thrill not with +the "Ode to the West Wind" and the "Ode to a Grecian Urn"; +if he have no stomach for "Christabelle," or the lines +written on "The Wye above Tintern," he should fall on his +knees and pray for a cleanlier and quieter spirit.'</p></div> + +<p>Now we believe that there is many a humble aspirant to literary taste on +whom the above paragraph will produce an effect similar to that of 'iced +air and mountain tops' by taking his breath away. Literary palates are +mercifully endowed with tastes and appreciations as varied as mere +bodily palates, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span> we must protest against any such Procrustean method +of ascertaining whether a man's 'spirit be cleanly and quiet,' or, which +is terrible to contemplate, the reverse. On another page Mr. Harrison +himself loudly deprecates and disclaims any narrow or sectarian view; he +is nothing if not Catholic in his tastes. 'I protest that I am devoted +to no school in particular; I condemn no school; I reject none. I am for +the school of all the great men; and I am against the school of the +smaller men.'</p> + +<p>All taste must be founded on knowledge, and between the hard, dry +teaching of the Board School or the Examination Room on the one hand, +and the ætherial atmosphere of Desultory Reading and the purest literary +discernment on the other, there lies an intermediate region, a +'penumbral zone,' which differs from the first in that it is entered +voluntarily, and from the second in that it is attainable by all who +care to enter it. The way through this region, though pleasant is +laborious; system, accuracy, and discipline are essential to him who +would traverse it. To be a desultory reader, in the sense defined by +Lord Iddesleigh, a man must first have been a student; and not to every +student is given the temperament, capacity, and opportunity, to become a +desultory reader—still less can every student aspire to that refined +literary taste, which Mr. Harrison possesses in so large a measure, and +which, in its characteristics, he describes so well.</p> + +<p>So far as modern literature is concerned, it may be said, that the +Reviewers are, by their skill and experience, qualified to direct, and +ever ready to aid the wayfarer; and in theory this is true. But, putting +aside the few leading journals and periodicals, daily and weekly—of +which we would only speak with the greatest respect—we fear that the +reviewer's art is at a low ebb in these days. Often the side breezes of +controversy, of private jealousy, or of personal interest, intervene to +divert straightforward criticism; still more often does absolute +incompetence render these guides worthless. A score of books may be +seen, huddled together in an unbroken column of so-called criticism, +with no other bond of union than their publication in course of the same +week. The interested author, wading through this disconnected mass, +suddenly stumbles on a few words extracted—possibly perverted—from his +own preface, to which a line of commonplace commendation is affixed; and +he then suddenly encounters a subject as far removed from his own as the +'Republic' of Plato is distant from 'Called Back.'</p> + +<p>Among all these discordant voices, who shall help us to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span> detect the true +ring? Thrice happy are those privileged few who enjoy the loving care +and supervision of some wise mentor to guide their choice and to watch +their progress; but for the multitude, to whom such a privilege is +denied, a good classified list, not excluding recent works, carefully +sifted and added to by the most prominent men of the day, would be of +inestimable value.</p> + +<p>In the first place, a connected chain of histories, from the earliest +times to the present day, with a selected list of contemporary memoirs +and biographies, would throw a guiding gleam of light on thousands who +are wandering, dark and aimless, in a labyrinth of 'masterpieces.' In +this enquiry system is essential. Of desultory comments, charming and +instructive in themselves and valuable in the formation of taste, we +have abundant store. Who that has read Emerson's 'Essay on Books,' or +Charles Lamb's 'Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading,' or Isaac +Disraeli's 'Curiosities of Literature' and 'Literary Character,' or +Byron's brilliant and impulsive criticisms on books and authors, can be +without some kindling of enthusiasm and of desire to know more fully the +great works thus passed in critical review? But the essential +characteristics of such commentaries as these are snares to the student. +The temptation to pass from one subject to another is inseparable from +treatment of this kind, and so becomes a hindrance to more earnest +application.</p> + +<p>Dibdin's 'Library Companion' in some respects fulfils the requirements +we have mentioned; but apart from the fact, that the information it +contains is now in a great measure obsolete, too much space is devoted +to the description and value of choice and rare editions. It is a +book-buyer's rather than a reader's guide. Perkins's 'The Best Reading' +is too bald a catalogue, and requires a vast amount of sifting, and the +addition of a few words of running comment to render it serviceable. It +lacks, in short, the characteristics of a <i>catalogue raisonnée</i>.</p> + +<p>The Historical List which we have proposed should be prefaced by a +chronological table, indicating the epochs into which the World's +History divides itself, and the periods covered by each of the works +recommended. This would give the student a bird's-eye view of the field +which he is about to explore, and enable him, at any moment in his +exploration, to take his reckonings and verify his position.</p> + +<p>Careful distinction should be made between Chroniclers and Historians, +between those who have provided the materials and those who have +designed and reared the complete structure. Sometimes these chroniclers +have furnished merely rough and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span> unhewn stones, useful in themselves, +but with no pretence to artistic finish or individuality of character; +and these have been absorbed into the building. Other chronicles, again, +are perfected in form, and are not merely integral, essential portions +of the complicated structure, but become a source of endless pleasure +from the merit of their workmanship. Thucydides and Clarendon are +universally read, while Hecatæus has all but vanished; and Thomas May's +'History of the Long Parliament,' though pronounced by Lord Chatham to +be a 'much honester and more instructive book of the same period than +Lord Clarendon's,' is relegated to the shelves of the specialist or the +bookworm.</p> + +<p>Histories are scarcely less ephemeral than books of science; and the +object of the list we are advocating is not to provide an exhaustive +catalogue, a task which in these days would overtax the capacity of +half-a-dozen Dr. Johnsons, but to select those works which will give the +best continuous narrative of the period under discussion, and represent +the most recent scholarship; omitting those which have been absorbed or +superseded.</p> + +<p>Mitford and Gillies have given place to Thirwall and Grote; and even the +star of Hallam, outshining De Lolme, is beginning to wane before the +searching light which, by the publication of State Papers and other +archives, is being brought to bear on the History of England and of +Modern Europe. But such materials, though ruthlessly relegating much of +what we have hitherto regarded as the 'Pearls of History' to the +category of 'Mock Pearls,' cannot immediately be made available for the +ordinary student, or become absorbed into the popular histories of the +day. We can ill spare from our list the names of those writers, who, +from Livy to Lord Macaulay, have added a fascination to the study of +history; though in their works most beautiful Mock Pearls abound. But +the student should be warned against implicit reliance on their records.</p> + +<p>To Clarendon has been ascribed the honor of being the first Englishman +who wrote History, as we regard it; his predecessors having been in the +main mere chroniclers or annalists. Clarendon elaborated the picture of +which these annalists had merely supplied the materials; and the +eighteenth century saw the development of this new method in the +brilliant triad of contemporaries, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon. Our own +age has witnessed a further advance in the school of philosophical +historians, who, without aiming at any connected narrative of events, +present to us the profound lessons which history teaches; pointing out +the far-reaching causes which have influenced and are influencing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span> +events occurring in widely distant countries; causes and events which to +the superficial observer seem totally disconnected. This philosophical +category would form one of the most interesting, and in these days, when +political empiricism shows a growing tendency to supplant statesmanlike +research, not the least important portion of our historical list. If to +this main stem of History there be added the due complement of branches +and leaves—memoirs and biographies—the Plutarchs and Pepyses, the +Walpoles and St. Simons, the Crokers and Grevilles of each +generation—we shall have a tree of knowledge which would yield to none +in point of interest and utility.</p> + +<p>We have dwelt at some length on this part of the subject, first, because +of its almost unlimited extent; and secondly, because, owing to this +extent, there is such difficulty in making a genuine and trustworthy +selection. There is, besides, an apparently constant antagonism in +history between the qualities of strict accuracy and literary +brilliancy. The two are not incompatible, but the striving after +literary merit is as great a snare to the writer as its attainment by +the writer is, in too many cases, to the student.</p> + +<p>Of voyages and travels, 'I would also have good store, especially the +earlier, when the world was fresh and unhackneyed, and men saw things +invisible to the modern eye: They are fast-sailing ships to waft away +from present troubles to the Fortunate Islands.'<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> Grouped under each +quarter of the globe, we should have selections of the works of those +travellers, who, from Herodotus to Mr. Stanley, and from Marco Polo or +Captain Cook down to Miss Bird, have made us who stay at home familiar +with the remotest corners of the earth. Much of the romance of travel +has of necessity perished in these matter-of-fact days; but as the +writing of history has developed from a mere chronicle of events into a +scientific and philosophical method, so the art of travelling is now +assuming a political form under pressure of the gigantic problems which +are exercising the mind of the civilized world; and a section of +political travels, of which Mr. Froude and Baron von Hübner have +recently given us examples, should not be omitted.</p> + +<p>Without pretending to enumerate all the departments which our catalogue +should comprise—and most of them are too obvious to require +enumeration—we would suggest a good selection of the best translations +and editions of the Greek and Roman Classics. In mentioning translations +we, of course, disclaim any recommendation of the common 'crib,' but +refer to those scholarly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span> works which have brought the classical +masterpieces to the very doors of the general public; such, for example, +as Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' or Prof. Jowett's 'Plato and Thucydides;' as +Lord Derby's 'Iliad,' Gifford's 'Juvenal,' or Conington's 'Virgil:' nor +is the crib more widely removed from such works as these, than, in the +matter of editions, is Anthon's 'Virgil,' for example, from Munro's +'Lucretius.' In the opinion of Mr. Harrison, this 'is the age of +accurate translation. The present generation has produced a complete +library of versions of the great Classics, chiefly in prose, partly in +verse, more faithful, true, and scholarly than anything ever produced +before.' Mr. Harrison's own essay on the 'Poets of the Old World,' goes +far to supply one at least of the branches of this section. Last, but by +no means least, do we plead for a guide to 'Children's Books.' We run +some risk in these days of competitive examinations and 'higher +education,' of placing instruction too prominently in the front, to the +exclusion of pure amusement; forgetting that it is through the +imagination that the interest of a child is most readily aroused, and +that, unless the interest be aroused, our educational labours will be +worthless. A child can live in an atmosphere of genial fiction, and +appreciate it, without the danger which lurks in a misrepresentation of +what passes around him in his daily experience. It is exaggeration, not +fiction, that is liable to injure the mind of a child.</p> + +<p>On the vital question, 'how to read,' the student has received matter +for careful and deliberate consideration, alike from Lord Iddesleigh and +Mr. Goschen, from Mr. Harrison and Mr. Lowell. The burden of their +advice is the same, though the forms differ; they all unite in +deprecating and deploring the hurry, the want of application, the want +of restraint which prevail in the present day. The hurrying reader, on +the one hand, and the indolent reader, on the other, are the types to be +avoided with the most scrupulous care. We suffer from an excess of +opportunities, and require to be constantly reminded that 'it is +impossible to give any method to our reading till we get nerve enough to +reject.'</p> + +<p>If we look through the long list of English literary celebrities, we +cannot but be struck with the large proportion of those who have +received little or no regular education in their early days, and whose +opportunities of study have been of the scantiest. Ben Jonson working as +a bricklayer with his book in his pocket: Wm. Cobbett reading his +hard-earned 'Tale of a Tub' under the haystack, or mastering his grammar +when he was a private soldier on the pay of 6d. a day; when 'the edge of +my berth or that of my guard-bed was my seat to study in; my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span> knapsack +was my bookcase; a bit of board lying on my lap was my writing table, +and the task did not demand anything like a year of my life:' Gifford, +as a cobbler's apprentice, working out his problems on scraps of waste +leather; or Bunyan, confined for twelve years in Bedford jail with only +his Bible and 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs,' are but a few among scores of +instances which will immediately suggest themselves.</p> + +<p>There are many persons who are possessed with a strange and +unaccountable conviction, that to read a book and to write a book are +processes which require little, if any, previous training or +preparation. The one error is sufficiently obvious to all who pay any +attention to the great mass of cheap literature which is pouring from +our printing-presses; the other is less easy of detection. 'The first +lesson in reading is that which teaches us to distinguish between +literature and merely printed matter,' is the admirable maxim laid down +by Mr. Lowell, and this is one of the essential points in which the +personal influence of an experienced friend is of inestimable value. As +the latent beauties of some great masterpiece of art unfold themselves +to our eye under the guidance of a Kugler or a Ruskin, and we are thus +enabled to detect their presence or their absence in the works of other +hands and other schools, so in the masterpieces of literature the +realization of the points, wherein the chief merits of each lie, places +us in a position to form a standard—to possess a talisman, which shall +enable us unerringly to detect the true from the false. Mrs. Knowles +said of Dr. Johnson, 'He knows how to read better than any one; he gets +at the substance of a book directly; he tears the heart out of it.' This +faculty, which was exhibited in a marvellous degree also in Southey and +Macaulay, is as rare as it is enviable; but there are not a few who +erroneously suppose themselves to be possessed of it. The hurried, +careless, method of reading is one of the chief dangers a student should +guard against. In studying a work of biography, for example—but above +all in studying the classics—the first requisite, and one which is, as +we have said, sadly overlooked in public school teaching, is the +acquisition of a simple, general outline of the period to which the work +relates. In the fashionable phrase of the day, the books so read are +frequently not in correspondence with their environment. To him whose +views of Roman history are but a shapeless mist, if not an absolute +void, Virgil and Horace are sealed books; nor can any one who is +ignorant of Scotland and her traditions penetrate beyond the husk of +'Waverley' or 'Old Mortality.' To the young beginner a few judicious +words of explanation at the commencement of a book may serve to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span> awaken +that interest without which reading is useless, and to make darkness +light; and, similarly, a few words of discussion, when the book is +completed, will have the effect of consolidating the floating ideas to +which the perusal has given rise. The habit of casting aside a book as +soon as the last page is read, without pondering over its contents and +recalling the argument and refreshing the memory where it has failed, or +allowing the 'frenzied current of the eye to be stopped for many moments +of calm reflection or thought,' is apt to render worthless all the +previous effort. Lord Erskine, we are told, was in the habit of making +long extracts from Burke, and Lord Eldon is said to have copied out +'Coke upon Littleton' twice with his own hand. 'Writing an analysis,' +says Archibishop Whately,<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> 'or table of contents, or index, or +notes, is very important for the study, properly so called, of any +subject. And so also is the practice of previously conversing or writing +on the subject you are about to study.' Reading can produce a beneficial +result only in proportion to the extent and accuracy of information +previously stored in the mind of the reader. Such information is like +the roots of some flourishing oak; every fresh fact is, as it were, a +new fibre confirming and strengthening the growth of the tree, and +attracting nourishment from new soil.</p> + +<p>'The moment you have a definite aim, attention is quickened, the mother +of memory; and all that you acquire groups and arranges itself in an +order that is lucid, because everywhere and always it is in intelligent +relation to a central object of constant and growing interest.'<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> +Bearing this in mind, we would urge the student to investigate every +unfamiliar allusion which may occur in the course of his reading or +conversation. A fact or subject thus sought out fixes itself more firmly +in the memory than most of those which are merely passed in the ordinary +course of reading.</p> + +<p>The use of odd moments should not be overlooked. 'Blockheads,' wrote Sir +Walter Scott, 'can never find out how folks cleverer than themselves +came by their information. They never know what is done at +dressing-time, meal-time even, or in how few minutes they can get at the +sense of many pages.' It is not possible always to have a book at hand, +but any one who will take the trouble to copy out, from time to time, +passages which have attracted his attention, and carry them about with +him to learn by heart at odd moments, may perhaps be astonished to find +how much may be acquired in this manner.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span></p><p>There are some books which by their nature lend themselves to a snatchy +method of perusal, and a few minutes may often be well employed in +reading an ode of Horace, or the disjointed conversations of Dr. +Johnson, but such moments should as a rule be devoted to books which are +already more or less familiar. The habit of frivolously taking up, and +as frivolously casting aside, a book is, however, one which should be +guarded against with the utmost care. It was a strict rule in the family +of Goethe the elder, that any book once commenced should be read through +to the end. Dr. Johnson, on the other hand, considered a rule of this +kind 'strange advice; you may as well resolve that whatever men you +happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep them for life.'</p> + +<p>A snare, which did not exist in the time of Goethe or of Dr. Johnson, +presents itself in these days to the reader, in the ever-increasing mass +of periodical literature. But the busy man, who has not time to turn +aside from his own work to the thorough investigation of the topic of +the hour, may sometimes, in the pages of a magazine, find the case +stated tersely by distinguished advocates on both sides; and he may thus +at least discern the main positions of assailant and assailed. An +exhaustive and genuine review of a book is occasionally afforded by +periodical literature, more rarely perhaps than is generally believed; +but such essays to have any value, should be read only after the work to +which they relate, a condition that is, we fear, seldom fulfilled.</p> + +<p>The 'desultory reader' has now been defined and elevated. We can hardly +be mistaken in considering that by reason of Lord Iddesleigh's admirable +remarks the expression has acquired a new signification; at least a +large number of those who may have fondly imagined themselves to be +desultory readers have now been effectually eliminated from the +category.</p> + +<p>We live in days of 'specialism,' and the book-making specialist of our +generation probably yields to none of his predecessors in the literary +roll in respect of industry, skill, and accuracy; but his subject, as a +rule, is his business, his breadwinner. The desultory reader regards +literature as his pastime and recreation. Happy is he who has the time, +the opportunity, and the education, to become a desultory reader, in +Lord Iddlesleigh's sense of the word.</p> + +<p>But admitting that Desultory Dilettanteism may under certain favourable +conditions be both profitable and a fascinating attainment, and claiming +as we do a very high value for good guidance in the choice of books, we +must not lose sight of the fact, that the basis on which the main +practical question of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span> the selection and proper use of books rests, is +not what is good in general, or in special literature, but what is +fitted for each individual man. And to discover this the man himself, or +his immediate ancestor, the youth or boy, must be examined. The +foundation of success in any sphere of life is physical and mental, +nervous and moral aptitude; and those who have to direct, or to decide +for, or to advise the young respecting their career in life, should make +the personal condition of their protégés their careful study. From the +ascertained condition the capacity of each may be discerned, and his +future capabilities may be, to some extent, foreseen. These capabilities +are the indicators of the course of reading first required; by them the +youth's career should chiefly be selected and decided on. Unfortunately +in most cases careful forethought is neglected. Qualities that actually +make the man are, in a decision that affects his hopes and happiness for +life, too often overlooked; and some mere transient incident, esteemed +perhaps a stroke of fortune, is accepted, without any hesitating thought +about the suitability of its results, as a sufficient introduction to +the business of the world. The consequence of this neglect is obvious +enough. In every social and commercial sphere we find men drudging on in +hopeless slavery, or ruined by the natural revolt of sensibilities that +could not be controlled, against the influence of circumstances wholly +inappropriate, and for which these sensibilities, most useful in their +proper sphere, were not of course designed.</p> + +<p>A young man's very desultory reading will perhaps be one of the most +useful means for finding what his life's career should be. Knowing +himself, or being known, as has been said, by those directing him, and +by his own discursive reading having learnt what work for his peculiar +abilities is open for him in the world, he probably will judge quite +readily what line of study he should at first pursue, and following out +this clue, at first by the aid of judicious external guidance, he will, +with ever-increasing self-reliance and discrimination, proceed to fulfil +the requirements of education and the inclination of his own mental +disposition. This method of development is the natural order by which +intellectual growth, by means of books, or any other means, proceeds. To +make a choice of certain hundred books for any man's perusal, in his +youth or afterwards, is but a feat of cleverness, arousing curiosity or +wonder, but evolving nothing—ending in the choice. A man may be +possessed of any number of good books; and possibly a thousand books +might be selected, all of which would be by general consent called +excellent, and worth possessing; and perhaps he would be none<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span> the +better for them all. Young men do not require a hundred books at once. +Indeed the fewer well-selected books a youth has to begin with, the more +safe he is against excessive loss of time. His most important question +is not, what shall I read? but, what need I read? The student's care +should be to read as little, and to think as much as possible. Thus, he +will find what thing it is that he at any time immediately requires to +know, and he will make this pressing need the object of his next +acquirement in books. This method tends to education; it develops mental +power, and makes a cultivated man. A hundred books procured and read +without appropriate sympathy, and interest, and thought, will merely +make an animated bookcase of the man.</p> + +<p>Not only should the student's books be few, but as he reads he should be +constantly upon his guard. Most readers read to be informed or to be +entertained; and books of information are absorbed as if all printed +statements must of course be true, or even if not true must, as a +record, be worth knowing. This omnivorous, careless style of reading is +a grievous waste of life and energy. Were books read with critical, +enquiring thought, the time misspent in reading would be wholesomely +reduced, and readers would increase in mental power in due proportion to +their increased information.</p> + +<p>In books of entertainment, and especially of fiction, corresponding +carefulness is necessary. There are books among the best which are, in +various degrees and ways, of evil influence, and should be read with +caution and reserve. To yield one's self to the enjoyment of an +entertaining book may be as foolish as to give one's self into the hands +of an untried agreeable companion. Ability to please is to these +incautious subjects of it a most dangerous influence; and books as well +as men when most attractive should be treated warily. In Rabelais and +Swift, in Fielding and Smollett, coarse manners must be reprobated. In +George Eliot's novels, with exceptions, and in 'Jane Eyre,' there is a +subtle taint that is unwholesome to the unguarded reader. Thackeray too +frequently compels us to associate with evil company; and, while +admiring the writer's skill, the reader should keep well outside of +almost every group in Thackeray's novels.</p> + +<p>Distinct alike from the progressive student and the discriminating +reader, is an abundant class who, without individuality, and mere +omnivorous devotees of books, chiefly reading the lighter literature of +the day. These people, through excess and self-indulgence, become +feeble-minded, intellectually dissipated, and incapable of serious +study. In every rank of life the book-devouring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> vice abounds; but +chiefly among women, girls, and boys; men finding in the newspapers +their daily pabulum. This thoughtless, fragmentary, reading has +debilitated the contemporary mental fibre of the nation; and has so +absorbed the time, we cannot say the attention, of the immense majority +of the reading public, that many of them are ignorant even of the +existence of the standard works of literature. The late discussion, +therefore, about books has been of use; it has made known to the great +community of people, who now can read, the fact, that there are certain +books, a hundred more or less, far more worth reading than the popular +and periodical literature of the day. If this discovery could be +impressed upon the public mind with practical effect, the result would +be a beneficial change in their condition. The abundant tattle and +affected interest about names and things of mean and transient +notoriety, and the discursive dinner-table gossip of the world would +then perhaps subside; and English conversation would become a constant +and a beneficial intellectual enjoyment.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Croker's 'Boswell,' pp. 767, 8vo. ed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> 'The Choice of Books,' p. 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Mr Lowell's Address at the dedication of the Free Public +Library, Chelsea, Massachusetts.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Notes to Bacon's 'Essays.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Mr. Lowel.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Art_IX_1_Popular_Government_Four_Essays_By_Sir_Henry_Sumner" id="Art_IX_1_Popular_Government_Four_Essays_By_Sir_Henry_Sumner"></a>Art. IX.—1. <i>Popular Government. Four Essays.</i> By Sir Henry Sumner +Maine. Second Edition. London, 1886.</h2> + +<h2>2. <i>Democracy in America.</i> By Alexis de Tocqueville. Translated by Henry +Reeve. New Edition. London, 1862.</h2> + +<h2>3. <i>On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789.</i> +Translated by Henry Reeve. Second Edition. London, 1873.</h2> + +<h2>4. <i>Correspondence and Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with +Nassau W. Senior, 1834-59.</i> London, 1872.</h2> + +<h2>5. <i>On the Government of Dependencies.</i> By Sir George Cornewall Lewis. +London, 1841.</h2> + +<h2>6. <i>On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion.</i> By the Same. +London, 1849.</h2> + +<h2>7. <i>A Dialogue on the best Form of Government.</i> By the Same. London, +1863.</h2> + +<h2>8. <i>The English Constitution.</i> By Walter Bagehot. Revised Edition. +London, 1883.</h2> + + +<p>Of the latest Work on the Characteristics of Democracy we are precluded +from speaking, as Sir Henry Maine's valuable Essays first appeared in +the pages of this Review. But we desire on the present occasion to call +attention to some writers on the subject, who are almost unknown to a +younger generation, or known only by occasional references made to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> them +by those who were well acquainted with the writers and their works. And +among these half-forgotten names few perhaps will recur more frequently +in the recollections of the best-informed men of from forty-five to +sixty, or more surprise those who have entered on life since their +owners left it, than those of Alexis de Tocqueville, Nassau William +Senior, and Walter Bagehot. Among the statesmen of the last generation, +few who will fill so small a space in history are so often or so +reverently quoted by those who remember Lord Palmerston's Government, +the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny, as Sir George Cornewall Lewis. +Most men under forty will hear with surprise that in the City, at least, +he was deemed a sounder and safer financier than Mr. Gladstone; honoured +as the Chancellor of the Exchequer who first redeemed the financial +reputation of the Whigs from the discredit that had clung to the party +of retrenchment and reform for a whole generation. Of the small minority +who know him as the founder of the English school of historical +sceptics, how many have heard of his multifarious literary and political +works, or his shrewd, genial, two-edged, criticisms on public and social +life? It seems too probable that our grandchildren will retain nothing +of his save the characteristic saying, that 'life would be very +tolerable but for its pleasures;' and <i>that</i>, probably, will be assigned +to some more famous and far less wise <i>causeur</i> or phrasemaker, losing +half its force in the transfer. Even Mill is known to the passing and +the rising generation by different works and diverse characteristics. To +the one he is little more than the greatest, most original, and most +heretical of English economists; a standard author on logic and +metaphysics. The other prefers to remember him by his later and lesser +writings; those sexagenarian and posthumous Essays, in which the riper +wisdom of a mind, very slow to learn the lessons of practical life, was +gathered, and the wilder errors of his earlier theories modified or +corrected. Much of that which is really best in his thought and +teaching, set forth in these last writings, bears a close analogy to the +views of Tocqueville Senior, and Bagehot, and shows that a tardy, +hardly-acquired, unwillingly accepted, knowledge of men and women, of +the real and ineradicable tendencies of human nature, brought the giant +of the closet into nearer accord with the practical philosophy of a man +like Sir George Cornewall Lewis, wise, calm, and judicial, by natural +temper, wiser yet by the closet-study which had analysed the experiences +of the literary, business, and political, world, of administration, +Parliament, and the Cabinet.</p> + +<p>One common and very striking feature characterizes the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span> political +thought of all these men—all of them Liberals in more than mere nominal +profession or party connection. All regarded the triumph of Democracy as +near and inevitable, and all, from different points of view, regarded it +with a mixture of resignation and distrust, strangely significant in men +of such different views, of such diverse character, mental training, and +personal experience. None of them were fatalists, much less pessimists; +none inclined <i>à priori</i> to that political superstition which +recognizes, in the tendencies of a thing so uncertain and changeful as +the spirit of the age, the hand of Providence, or the indication of +'manifest destiny.' All were men of more than average independence of +temper, an independence which, in one or two, approached nearly to that +which practical politicians call impracticability. None of them were +disposed to be silent when the many-headed Cæsar had spoken. Mill's most +striking, and—to the credit of Democracy be it spoken—most popular +characteristic, was a stern and almost pardoxical defiance alike of +personal consequences and of public opinion. On the verge of his +entrance into public life he affronted the working-classes by telling +them, with more than Carlylese directness and exaggeration, that they +were 'mostly liars.' If ever there were a man sure to protest to the +last against false doctrines and mischievous tendencies, to protest the +more fiercely the more certain their victory seemed, it was John Stuart +Mill.</p> + +<p>Tocqueville, conscious of no common political and administrative +capacity—a statesman whose strong popular sympathies, practical wisdom, +contempt of popular catchwords, knowledge of and respect for concrete +facts; above all, whose signal freedom from the characteristic +weaknesses and vices of French statesmanship, rendered him the fittest +of all men to direct the destiny of France, whose counsels and guidance +would have saved her from all the worst mistakes and most signal +disasters—was content to spend a lifetime first in opposition, +afterwards in absolute exile from public life, rather than go 'the way +that was not his way for an inch.' An Orleanist, an enthusiastic lover +of Parliamentary institutions, he would not stoop with Guizot and Thiers +to serve a King whose power was founded on corruption. A minister of the +President, he held aloof as sternly from the despotism of the Empire as +from the factions of the Republican Assembly. He never designed to +conceal or soften the expressions of the most unpopular sentiments or +convictions.</p> + +<p>Sir George Cornewall Lewis was an eminently English statesman, fully +aware of the necessity of mutual concession—more willing than most to +be guided as a Minister by the tradition of his office, to leave the +administration for which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span> must answer in Parliament to the practical +experience of his permanent subordinates—but one whom, assuredly, no +one ever accused of undue pliancy, or excessive deference to party or +popular feeling.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bagehot alone of the three was a man likely, <i>cœteris paribus,</i> +to prefer the winning side; to believe that the belief of the many was +likely to be right; looking, however, to the opinion of the many +educated and thoughtful rather than of the many ignorant and +over-occupied. Yet all agree at once in treating the coming rule of +numbers almost as a law of nature, which it were folly to criticize and +madness to resist; and in anticipating its advent with doubt and +distrust, with deep and sometimes gloomy apprehension. Their constant, +thoughtful concurrence in both convictions, their equal assurance that +pure Democracy was dangerous and that it was inevitable, deserves a +profound significance from their utterly distinct points of view; from +the utter unlikeness of their tempers, their experience, and their +natural bias.</p> + +<p>Sir George Cornewall Lewis, as a Liberal politician, was decidedly +distrustful of electoral reform, and accepted it only as a party +necessity. His personal delight in the exposure of popular errors, his +insistence on the value of authority, and the immense extent of the +sphere in which the thought and conduct of the many are necessarily +controlled by the authority of the few, the spirit of such books as his +'Essay on the Government of Dependencies' are those of a mind wholly +adverse to democratic theories, and intensely mistrustful of popular +judgments. He was not fascinated by what he describes as 'the splendid +<i>vision</i> of a community bound together by the ties of fraternity, +liberty, and equality, exempt from hereditary privilege, giving all +things to merit, and presided over by a government in which all the +national interests are faithfully represented.' He put these words into +the mouth of the advocate of Democracy in his 'Dialogue on the best form +of Government,' which he published shortly before his death. In this +work his own views are expressed in the person of Crito.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Even if I were to decide in favour of one of these forms, +and against the two others, I should not find myself nearer +the solution of the practical problem. A nation does not +change the form of its government with the same facility +that a man changes his coat. A nation in general only +changes the form of its government by means of a violent +revolution.... The history of forcible attempts to improve +governments is not cheering. Looking back upon the course of +revolutionary movements, and upon the character of their +consequences, the practical conclusion which I draw is, that +it is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span> part of wisdom and prudence to acquiesce in any +form of government, which is tolerably well administered, +and affords tolerable security to person and property. I +would not, indeed, yield to apathetic despair or acquiesce +in the persuasion that a merely tolerable government is +incapable of improvement. I would form an individual model, +suitable to the character, disposition, wants, and +circumstances of the country, and I would make all +exertions, whether by action or by writing, within the +limits of the existing law, for ameliorating its existing +condition, and bringing it nearer to the model selected for +imitation; but I should consider the problem of the best +form of government as purely ideal, and as unconnected with +practice; and should abstain from taking a ticket in the +lottery of revolution, unless there was a well-founded +expectation that it would come out a prize.'</p></div> + +<p>The conservatism of Lewis was that of a profoundly sceptical instinct, +of practical cautious incredulity. Bagehot's was the conservatism of +middle-class English thought and experience. Tocqueville's was that of +wide observation and bitter disappointment. Mill was a Conservative only +so far as conservatism was forced upon a mind essentially radical and +even revolutionary, imbued with a profound faith in abstract principles +leading far beyond universal suffrage to, if not across the verge of +communism, by the danger which he foresaw to individual liberty and +unfettered intellectual freedom from the ascendency of mere numbers. +Upon this point he agreed closely with Tocqueville, though upon nearly +every other their views were as opposite as their character and +experience; and their teaching has been fully confirmed by the actual +working of the most successful, the most tolerant, and the most +fortunately situated democracy that the world has ever seen.</p> + +<p>The tendency of Democracy to naked despotism is obvious enough in the +recent history of France; but sanguine democrats ascribe the special +experience of France to the intense centralization inherited, as +Tocqueville shows, by the Republic, the Constitutional Monarchy and the +Empire from the <i>Ancien Régime</i>; the absence of any local school of +practical discussion, mutual tolerance, and co-operation; the bitterness +of factions fighting not for administrative or legislative control, but +for fundamentally incompatible forms of Government,—to anything rather +than the unfitness of the French nation for Teutonic liberties. +Conservative pessimists and democratic optimists can only find a common +ground, a test which both will accept, in the experience of the United +States. Whatever vices are found in American democracy must be inherent +in democracy itself; and it must be granted that, looking on the surface +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> public life, the larger facts of national history, and the material +condition of the people, there is no evidence, obvious to the hasty +observer, of interference with personal freedom, of any demoralizing or +weakening influence on individual character exercised by political or +social equality. It is outside of the proper field of politics, in facts +invisible to distant observers, and not visible at a glance to +thoughtful travellers, that we must seek for proof of the bearing of +democratic institutions and ideas upon personal and social liberty, upon +the maintenance of individual and collective rights.</p> + +<p>Upon such a point the remarks of a leisurely, thoughtful, cultivated +writer, like Richard Grant White, a man who had enjoyed exceptional +opportunities of comparing the effect upon daily life of English +aristocracy and American democracy, are more instructive than the +elaborate treatises of political theorists or the generalizations of +historians. The testimony of such writers bears out the inference which +careful students might draw from English history, that the influence of +a local and landed aristocracy is far more favourable, than that even of +a landed democracy, to the jealous and resolute assertion of legal +rights, to a strenuous and successful resistance to the encroachments of +power, social or political, upon the property, the comfort, the liberty, +and the privileges, of individuals or communities. The moral of Mr. +Grant White's sketches of English and American life is, that the English +peasant or tradesman is far safer from practical oppression or injustice +than the American farmer or citizen; that an Englishman, whatever his +rank, is far more free to speak his mind, and far more likely to have a +mind worth speaking, than one of the same position in France, or even in +Massachusetts. The lively interest in, the diffused knowledge of, +politics and public matters, found among educated, and even +half-educated men and women throughout the upper and middle classes of +England, evidently impressed Mr. White by the contrast it presented to +the indifference of American 'Society' to State and Federal politics. He +notes particularly the higher tone, the wider knowledge, the freedom +from petty class and personal concerns, the broader range of thought, +the familiarity with subjects of general human interest, which +characterize the conversation of an English dinner-table or +drawing-room, as compared with that of American clubs and parlours. He +speaks, with the bitterness of a man often and deeply bored, of the +limited range of American table-talk, the prominence of the 'shop,' the +professional interests of each chance assemblage; the price of stocks +and railway shares, and the chances and changes of Wall Street; the +inferior tone of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> thought among men and women alike, in the best or at +least the wealthiest society of New York and Philadelphia. In this he is +incidentally confirmed by so observant and candid a social critic as +Laurence Oliphant. There is an American society of higher cultivation +and loftier interests; but that society, except in Boston, is +necessarily scattered and somewhat exclusive; and, standing wholly aloof +from politics, lacks the knowledge of history, of legislation, of social +and economic interests, of current opinion, of foreign affairs—which is +in itself a sort of liberal, if necessarily superficial, education. +American ladies, and even gentlemen, hardly know who are the Senators +for their State, much less who is the representative of their district; +care nothing for, and know little of, the debates in Congress, still +less in the State Legislature, deeply as these may affect the well-being +of the community, the laws under which they and their children are to +live.</p> + +<p>But this lack of interest in public affairs has a deeper and far more +reaching consequence. Everybody's business is nobody's business. In a +community really democratic there are no natural leaders; none bound by +rank, station, and recognized primacy, to originate resistance; none too +strong to be crushed by the animosity of a Fiske or a Gould, or +grievously wronged by a corrupt corporation like that of New York, a +dishonest political organization like Tammany Hall, or a powerful +Tramway or Railway Company. The consequence is, that not only the +individual citizen, but a whole community submits to high-handed +oppression, to administrative and judicial corruption, to impudent +usurpation and flagrant illegalities, such as the greatest of English +corporations would never dream of attempting. Perhaps the most +oppressive and insolent exactions, to which living Englishmen have as +yet submitted, are those of the Water Companies of London; but the +offenders have repeatedly been resisted and brought to justice; and it +is in London alone, the one English city which lacks natural leaders and +protectors, which is too large for any citizen or body of citizens—save +that great City Corporation which English Radicalism has marked for +destruction—to speak and act in its name, that the Water Companies +would have been endured for five years. Even in London, no such +high-handed interference with the rights of property and the comfort of +families, as the Elevated Railways of New York, with their uncompensated +destruction of individual privacy and comfort throughout many of the +wealthiest streets of the first city in the Union, would have been +obviously and utterly impossible.</p> + +<p>The tolerance of Democracy for what seem to English ideas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> the grossest +form of oppression—oppression systematic and legal, arbitrary power and +class privilege, formally embodied in the law and made a fundamental +principle of government—is illustrated by that clause of the Code +Napoleon, which exempts the whole bureaucracy of France from civil or +criminal liability. No official can be prosecuted, no redress sought at +law for the abuse of powers the most extensive, affecting every man's +daily life—powers which enable their holder to harass and almost ruin +individuals and communities at his pleasure—save by permission of the +Council of State, a body of officials inclined of course to believe and +to shield its subordinates. This law has been sustained by each +successive Government that has seized the reins of centralized power; +nor are we aware that any serious effort has been made to repeal it.</p> + +<p>The tyranny of democracy is, as Mill insists, the most formidable, +searching, and irresistible of all. Under an autocracy or oligarchy, +public opinion is the protector of the injured, and imposes limits on +arbitrary power. Assassination is the resort of the victim driven to +frenzy by individual oppression, and tempers the sternest despotism; but +Demos wields opinion and defies the dagger. By general confession life +is far less free, individual taste, caprice or eccentricity is kept +under far sharper restraint by fashion and feeling, in America than in +aristocratic England. At every epoch of American history, the freedom of +opinion has been curtailed at certain points within strict if +ill-defined limits. The patriots of Virginia proclaimed in 1775 that any +who dared 'by speech or writing to maintain' Royalist or Constitutional +views should be treated as an enemy of his country. A similar ban was +put some fifty years ago upon the Abolitionists of Illinois and +Connecticut. A time came when it was almost equally dangerous to +maintain the constitutional doctrines which the Abolitionists had +assailed. Nowadays, of actual persecution there is little, because there +is little need; because the repression acts, save with the most +independent, original and contradictious tempers, upon thought rather +than expression. No human intellect or character can resist the +universal, insensible, unconscious, pressure of the atmosphere which +surrounds it from the cradle. Upon certain political, social, and +ethical dogmas, wherever national pride and democratic prejudice are +touched, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that the 'unanimous +opinion' of the North and West has demoralized or extinguished thought +itself.</p> + +<p>Demos is not only tyrant but Pope. He feels, and his courtiers venture +openly to claim for him, not only the royalty which can do no wrong, but +the infallibility which can define<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> right and wrong themselves. He +resents, we are told upon democratic authority, all pretension to +special knowledge.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'No observer of American polities' (Mr. Godkin admits in his +reply to Sir Henry Maine) 'can deny that, with regard to +matters which can become the subject of legislation, the +American voter listens with extreme impatience to anything +which has the air of instruction; but the reason is to be +found not in his dislike of instruction so much as his +dislike in the political field of anything which savours of +superiority. The passion for equality is one of the very +strongest influences in American politics. This is so fully +recognized now by politicians, that self-depreciation, even +in the matter of knowledge, has become one of the ways of +commending one's self to the multitude, which even the +foremost men of both parties do not disdain. In talking on +such subjects as the currency, with a view of enlightening +the people, skilful orators are very careful to repudiate +all pretence of knowing anything more about the matter than +their hearers. The speech is made to wear as far as possible +the appearance of being simply a reproduction of things with +which the audience is just as familiar as the speaker. +Nothing is more fatal to a stump orator than an air of +superior wisdom on any subject. He has, if he means to +persuade, to keep carefully, in outward seeming at all +events, on the same intellectual level as those whom he is +addressing. Orators of a demagogic turn, of course, push +this caution to its extreme, and often affect ignorance, and +boast of the smallness of the educationale opportunities +enjoyed by them in their youth, and of the extreme +difficulty they had in acquiring even the little they know. +There is nothing, in fact, people are less willing to +tolerate in a man, who seek office at their hands, than any +sign that he does not consider himself as belonging to the +same class as the bulk of the voters—that either birth, or +fortune, or education has taken him out of sympathy with +them, or caused him, in any sense, to look down on them.'</p></div> + +<p>Historians treat the vote of the present generation as decisive, morally +as well as practically, on the issues of the past. The people has, by +chance or caprice, passed judgment upon questions, in discussing which +consummate statesmen with intimate practical knowledge of their bearings +profoundly differed; and that judgment concludes the controversy, +determines the right or wrong, the wisdom or folly, of men like J.Q. +Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun. We have seen too +much of this abject superstition in recent English historical essays, as +well as in political polemics. It is needless to point out the debasing +effect upon all discussion of such anticipatory appeal to the arbitrary +decision of Pope or posterity. No man can reason vigorously, frankly, +forcibly, and fully, who feels that he, or the heirs of his thought, may +be forced not merely to accept defeat, but to cry '<i>peccavi</i>.' The maxim +'<i>securus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> judicat orbis terrarum</i>' has no place in historical +criticism; and if it had, one nation is not the world, nor the next +generation a posterity on whose experience and impartiality reliance +might be placed.</p> + +<p>M. de Tocqueville is known to the world chiefly by two great works. His +'Democracy in America' was the production of his early manhood. In New +England he saw democracy at its best and brightest; saw nothing of that +deterioration which the decay of the old Puritan severity, the infusion +of a strong foreign element, the corruption and the passions of the +Civil War, have confessedly caused. The colonial traditions and +principles were still in modified force; simple habits of life, a +general prevalence of competence, the absence of ostentatious wealth and +luxury, left women content to be mothers and housekeepers; a position of +which, as trustworthy witnesses allege, modern luxury, culture, and love +of leisure, have rendered them impatient; while the impossibility of +devolving their domestic duties upon servants makes the family a burden, +and maternity no longer the deepest instinct and strongest hope of +womanhood. He saw no beginning of that manifold change of morals and +manners which the survivors of an elder generation now regard with deep +dismay. His portrait of Democracy, as seen in New England, is decidedly +rose-coloured. He saw enough in the Middle and Southern States of the +working of democracy under different social conditions, to tinge that +picture with the hues of doubt, if not yet with the sombre colours of +deep apprehension.</p> + +<p>How apt to be partial is the widest and closest political observation is +shown by the very partial lessons derived from the experience of the New +World. Few observe how signally the history of Central and South America +contradicts the inferences so confidently drawn from the United +States—or rather from the New England of yesterday, and the present +condition of California and the States bounded by the Lakes and the +Ohio, the Mississippi and the Alleghanies. Among the States of Spanish +and Portuguese speech and civilization—it would be too much to say +blood—the failure of democracy has been complete, glaring, and ruinous. +Social and political anarchy, utter insecurity of life and property, +incessant revolution and murderous war, have been its only fruits. The +happy accident of hereditary princes, exceptionally wise, able, and +forbearing, has barely saved Brazil. The one prosperous, solvent, +orderly State between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn is the aristocratic +republic of Chili. So large, striking, and impressive a fact can hardly +have escaped a thinker like Tocqueville, whose French birth and +experience protected him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> in great measure from the insular ignorance, +rather than arrogance, which leads the ablest English writers to base +their political philosophy exclusively upon Anglo-Saxon experience and +examples: yet it is strange to find so striking a lesson so lightly +touched by the wisest, widest, most reflective, and best-informed, among +the political teachers of his age.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Ancien Régime</i> we see the seeds of all that is worst and most +dangerous in the modern French polity: the hothouse which fostered into +a growth, unknown elsewhere, that passion of envy, which Tocqueville +regards as the radical vice, the paramount impulse, the fundamental +principle, of Democracy. The peculiar reasons for this dominant +sentiment of hatred and jealousy in the democracy of France will be +found in his own writings. Much as there was to admire in the old +nobility of France, the people saw it only in an aspect calculated to +excite unmingled hatred and contempt. It had ceased to govern, to render +any service in return for privileges, exemptions, and exactions so +odious, vexatious, and oppressive that no service could atone for them. +Even these were forgiven to the resident aristocracy of La Vendée. But +absentees supported by such exactions, an Order known to the people not +even by neglected duties and ill-directed interference, but solely by +demands and extortions unconnected with any remaining or remembered +functions, a class whose wealth and luxury were supported not by rents +or other returns paid by the tillers of the soil to its original owners, +holders, or 'lords,' but by rates, tithes, fines, heriots, monopolies +(to use the nearest English equivalents) levied for their benefit, and +levied in the worst possible way—what feelings could these excite among +a people consciously fainting beneath the load of taxes, <i>corvées</i>, +restrictions and imposts, fees and stamps, of which only a part ever +reached the empty Treasury of the State? Is it strange that so monstrous +a fabric, when those on whose living bodies it was built rose in revolt, +should have fallen with a great ruin, and have crushed all whom it had +sheltered? 'The guilt of an Order cannot palliate the massacre of its +Innocents.' True; but human nature being what it is, the unreasoning +burst of fury which strove to stamp out every trace of old institutions, +to exterminate the race of the unconscious oppressors, was less strange +than the fidelity of the Vendéans.</p> + +<p>And yet that massacre is in itself suggestive. The wholesale butcheries +of the Terror are accountable; even the attempt of Robespierre, St. +Just, and Barère to suppress revolt and discontent by <i>noyades</i> and +<i>mitraitlades</i>, if fiendish, is intelligible. It had a political aim. It +satisfied a definite if diabolical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span> desire. But the executions of +veteran philosophers, of grey-haired parish-priests, of harmless +nuns—the deliberate cold-blooded cruelty which punished with death the +resentment, the imprudence, often the mere birth, of orphaned lads; the +prayers or the tears of schoolgirls who might well hav urged the piteous +plea of Sejanus' infant daughter—these recal the indiscriminate +ferocity of wild beasts, the atrocities occasionally committed by +destructive maniacs in an excess of fury, or the infectious frenzies of +lycanthropy and similar forms of epidemic madness, rather than such +human cruelty as prompted the massacre of Drogheda, the butchery of +Melos, or the destruction of Carthage. What could schoolboys have done +worthy of the guillotine, even in the eyes of the Jacobin Club? Girls, +like children, can try the temper and patience of manhood, and among +rough men or in rough times get roughly punished; but when, save in +1793, did men ever think of killing them? There was but one fault +besides their birth—a fault almost inseparable from their birth—which +the boy-ensigns and pages, the convent-bred demoiselles, shared with +their parents; that inalienable, instinctive, inborn grace, that sense, +air, and bearing of superiority, which we find acknowledged alike by the +noble and the <i>bourgeois</i>, the <i>von Adel</i> and the <i>bürger</i>, acknowledged +by those who regret or resent as distinctly as by those who would uphold +it. The unpardonable sin of the <i>noblesse</i>, the inheritance of which +they could not be deprived but with their lives, the secret sting that +maddened the Jacobin to slay not merely the beardless heirs but the +innocent and helpless daughters of the captured chateau, may perhaps be +hinted in a question and answer like the following, between Senior and +De Tocqueville, after the third Revolution had proved its impotence to +efface the footmarks of nature:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I said that I was told that the distinction between noble +and <i>roturier</i> existed in its full force in real life.</p> + +<p>'"Yes," said Tocqueville, "it does, meaning by noble, +<i>gentilhomme</i>; and it is a great misfortune, since it keeps +up distinctions and animosities of caste; but it is +incurable—at least, it has not been cured, or perhaps much +palliated, by our sixty years of revolution. It is a sort of +Freemasonry. When I talk to a <i>gentilhomme</i>, though we have +not two ideas in common, though all his opinions, wishes, +and thoughts are opposed to mine, yet I feel at once that we +belong to the same family, that we speak the same language, +that we understand one another. I may like a bourgeois +better, but he is a stranger." I mentioned the remark to me +of a very sensible Prussian, <i>bürger</i> himself, that it was +unwise to send out as ambassador any not noble. I said it +did not matter in England, where the distinction is unknown. +"Yes," he replied, "unknown with you; but you may be sure +that when any of our <i>bürger</i> ministers meets one who is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> +<i>von Adel</i>, he does not negociate with him on equal terms; +he is always wishing to sneak under the table."'</p></div> + +<p>In these conversations, preserved in a separate series of Senior's +Journals, we have the best, latest, and wisest, of De Tocqueville's +thoughts; none the less valuable, and to English readers all the more +intelligible and impressive, that we have them in undress; put into the +terse, pithy, concentrated style of summarized oral conversation by the +recorder, instead of being elaborately tricked out in all the formal +grace of French literary diction by one of the most fastidious of French +writers. Senior, who habitually wrote down in his Journals the +conversation of the great, wise, and thoughtful—the leaders of +political action or literary criticism, the statesmen and thinkers—with +whom in the course of a leisurely life of social observation he was +brought into intimate intercourse, had a gift of getting from each man +the best he had to give. His friends knew that their table-talk was +recorded, often themselves read and corrected the record, and therefore +gave him what they were willing to give not to the contemporary world, +but to posterity; those opinions upon the current facts of the day by +which they were willing to be judged hereafter. No opinions upon the +tendencies and consequences, the prospects and passions, the strength +and weakness of democracy, could well be more valuable than those which +the painter of Democracy in America—after the experience of many years +in the public life of France, in the Representative Chamber of the +Orleans Monarchy, and in the Legislature of the Republic,—delivered for +the benefit of readers far removed by time and distance, during the +latter months of the rickety infancy of that ill-starred Government and +the first period of the Second Empire. Tocqueville spoke from a point of +vantage, such as few other men have attained, upon a theme which he had +studied profoundly in youth, and upon which Fate had ever since been +writing elaborate commentaries. He spoke with a mind naturally calm, +candid, and judicial, enriched by a deeper knowledge than any other +Continental writer enjoyed of the working of popular institutions in +England and America, matured by the experience of a lifetime; spoke +while the most critical experiments in democratic Constitutionalism and +democratic Cæsarism were being worked out before his eyes.</p> + +<p>Founding a so-called Constitutional Monarchy upon a corruption as gross +as that of Walpole, Louis Phillippe had rendered his power absolute at +the price of sapping its foundation; and Tocqueville had predicted the +Revolution long before accident precipitated it—predicted it as an +inevitable result of the corruption he denounced, and indicated the +forces of silent discontent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> which were sure to overthrow it. In 1848, +and still more in 1871, the people of France at large turned +instinctively to those natural leaders whom at all other times they had +so persistently ostracized. Alarmed in the first case by an unexpected +and undesired triumph of the Parisian populace—in the second, chastened +by a great national disaster, without definite views or objects of their +own—they deliberately trusted their interests to the larger landowners, +whose interests must coincide with theirs; to the men of hereditary +culture, of thoughtful habits, and wider experience, in whom they +recognized a natural capacity to deal with problems that bewildered +themselves, with events that had taken them utterly unawares. But, save +at such times, and under the sobering influence of such lessons, +equality, and not liberty, is the root of French Democracy. To equality, +liberty is readily and unhesitatingly sacrificed.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>'"Égalité,"</i> said Tocqueville, "is an expression of envy. +It means in the real heart of every Republican, 'No one +shall be better off than I am;' and while this is preferred +to good government, good government is impossible. In fact, +no party desires good government. The first object of the +reactionary party is to keep down the Republicans; the +second, if it be the second, object of each branch of that +party, is to keep down the two others. The object of the +Republicans is, as they admit, <i>égalité</i>—but as for +liberty, or security, or education, or the other ends of +government, no one cares for them."'</p></div> + +<p>It was the passion for Equality that made the Second Empire possible. +The city <i>prolètariat</i> would endure anything but a privilege of class, a +constitutional monarchy associated in their experience with an +artificial peerage and a narrow uniform franchise; the <i>bourgeoisie</i>, +terrified by socialism—that is, confiscation—would accept any +Government strong enough to put and keep down the Reds, the Anarchists, +who under the Republic had kept Paris always within a week—had brought +her more than once within twenty-four hours—of sack and pillage. The +peasantry hated privilege and Socialism with an equal and impartial +hatred. The First Empire had given them much of what they most prized in +their actual condition, and was credited with all. Its one hateful +association was incessant and at last disastrous war, anticipated +conscriptions, and foreign invasion. The Second Empire, with its promise +of peace, was the embodiment of their ideal. It promised work to the +operative, opportunities of fortune to the restless, and safe investment +to the prudent among the middle-class. Its protectorate of the Pope +secured the clergy and the women; and it mattered nothing that, crushing +under foot the freedom at once of the press and the tribune, it incurred +the bitter hatred of the intellectual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span> classes in a country where pure +intellect is more ambitious and more immediately powerful than in any +other. It stood firm and unshaken while it kept its promise of peace and +prosperity—the firmer that it embodied so distinctly the errors and +illusions of the many, and not the less popular that it showed so +profound and cynical a contempt for the intelligence of the few. Its +Budgets alone would have been fatal to a Government resting on and +responsible to Opinion, for the rapid growth of the Debt in a time of +peace and plenty would have terrified men accustomed to sift the +'capital' and 'revenue' accounts of great Companies, and to calculate +the resources of Empires as a peasant the yield of his farm. But the +millions were content; the worse the credit of the State, the higher the +interest on their savings; the embellishment of Paris and other great +public works were a practical acknowledgement of the <i>droit au travail</i>; +and the calculations of those, who criticised the fearful waste +(<i>coulage</i>) of such a system, proved to demonstration that a spendthrift +State must come to the end of a spendthrift <i>rentier</i>—with what +consequences the Commune of 1871 bare witness—found no attention; spoke +in a tongue not understood by the people. The masses were not even +alarmed by the warnings of veteran statesmen, consummate financiers, and +<i>doctrinaires</i> of every school. Only in those great crises when all that +is left to wisdom is a choice of calamities, as in 1848 and 1871, does +Demos abdicate; recognize for a moment that all men are not born, much +less trained to remain, free <i>and equal</i>, and entreat the pilots by +hereditary profession to see the ship of State through the breakers.</p> + +<p>In the criticism, and especially in the best, most thoughtful, and least +obvious criticism, provoked by the long foreseen electoral settlement of +last year, the direct and indirect influence of Mr. Bagehot's writings +was constantly to be traced. On this subject he had looked back and +looked forward farther than most political reasoners. Household suffrage +seemed to him the inevitable consequence, the logical development, of +the reform of 1832. It was at that point, as he considered, that the +right and wrong path had diverged; that chance and destiny, rather than +choice, determined at the moment the adoption of that which led +necessarily and logically to sheer Democracy. The practice of the old +system had become throughly vicious, but the underlying principle was +sound and safe. All classes, all interests, were represented; but +accident had given, not to wealth or birth, but to a particular kind of +wealth, a certain set of families, an enormously disproportionate +representation. The landed interest was wronged in the utterly +inadequate representation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span> of the counties. Ireland was misrepresented; +and the Scotch people could not be said to be represented at all. But +every class, every great interest, had its spokesmen; exercised a direct +and independent influence in the national councils. Rotten or pocket +boroughs were not only nurseries of professional statesmanship, but a +back door through which interests, whose direct representation was +impossible, found access to Parliament. The West Indian interest, the +East India Company, and the statesmen trained in its service, with their +special knowledge and zealous care for the welfare of our Oriental +empire, could secure a hearing for views to which no English +constituency would listen. Under such a system our Australian Colonies, +the great Dominion of Canada, the English minority which sustains the +Imperial cause in South Africa, would never have complained, as now, +that their voice was unheard, their feelings unreflected, in an assembly +which is no longer merely the Parliament of Great Britain, but the +Senate of an Empire greater than that of Rome.</p> + +<p>The working classes were represented through those numerous +constituencies in which the scot and lot franchise prevailed. It was +imperative that the abuses of the system should be redressed; that the +new communities which had grown up since the Restoration should be +directly represented; that the borough proprietors and the great +families should be deprived of their excessive weight in Parliament; +that the middle class should acquire a power more adequate to its new +social and political importance; that Scotland, again, should be really +and directly represented. But in Mr. Bagehot's view universal and varied +representation was of more consequence than arithmetical proportion. No +class, no interest, represented in the House of Commons, was likely to +be grossly wronged, none could be neglected or unheard. No class +intelligent enough to understand its own grievances, to have distinct +ideas and desires of its own, would have failed, under a reform +retaining the principle of the old system, to command attention and +secure redress. Had Pitt been able to carry out his well-known and +thoroughly sincere scheme of practical reform, or had Canning and his +followers sided with the Whigs upon this as upon almost every other +question, reform might have anticipated revolution. It was the weakness, +rather than the will, of the Whigs that compelled them to go not only +farther and faster, but in another direction, than their actual opinions +and traditional inclinations would have carried them. They were +compelled to present a scheme broad, simple, and extreme enough, to +attract irresistible support.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span></p> + +<p>When once uniformity of franchise and proportionate representation were +made the basis of the electoral system, the extension of the former, the +more and more accurate adjustment of the latter, became a mere question +of time. The poorest class of householders in towns in 1886 are probably +as intelligent and competent as were the ten-pounders of 1832. The +masses might have been satisfied with the gradual enlargement of their +old representation; having been once disfranchised by wholesale, it was +certain that they would ere long demand and ultimately secure that +wholesale enfranchisement, by which every other class must necessarily +be swamped. Minority representation, electoral districts, and single +seats, are at best lame and unsatisfactory methods of engrafting on pure +democracy securities and checks, which were essential and natural parts +of the old representation of classes and interests. When once every +borough below a certain numerical standard had been extinguished, and +all below another deprived of their second member, the upward extension +of the principle became a logical and historical necessity. So again +much, perhaps most, of what has been written upon the contrast between +the American and English constitutions—the two great types of popular +government, Parliamentary and Presidential, the direct and indirect +election of the actual Executive, terms fixed by law or dependent upon +Parliamentary favour—was anticipated in the best chapters of Mr. +Bagehot's 'English Constitution.'</p> + +<p>Few writers so terse, compact, and clear, have been so completely free +from the temptation of deliberate phrase making as Mr. Bagehot; yet few +professional phrase-makers have left in the minds of their readers so +many telling, forcible, and suggestive phrases; sentences in which a +novel or striking thought, an impressive view of new or old truth, a +principle apt to be forgotten or imperfectly appreciated, is vivified +and incarnated in a few emphatic words. It would be difficult to quote +any passage of ten times the length half so suggestive of the +exceptional conditions that have secured to England peace and stability +during the last two centuries of storm and shipwreck, revolution, and +reaction abroad, any phrase so expressive of the distinctive character +of the nation and its Government, as the two aptly chosen epithets +employed by Mr. Bagehot—the 'dignified parts' of the English +Constitution and the 'deferential tendency' of the English people. In +both instances he has, as we think, overstated his point. The dignified +parts of the Constitution are more real and living, are more intimately +associated with the practical work of Government, than he was disposed +to allow. Popular deference is paid more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span> to truth and less to fiction +than he supposed. It is eminently characteristic of the cautious English +temper, the distrust of sharp contrasts and clever paradoxes engrained +in his nature, that (so far as we remember) he never adopts the familiar +saying of Thiers, that a constitutional Prince <i>règne et ne gouverne +pas</i>. But his actual conception of the English monarchy approaches far +too near that misleading and mischievous fallacy.</p> + +<p>It is a little strange that so devoted a disciple of Darwin, a writer +who applied the principle of Evolution with so much skill, insight, and +success, to the life of nations and the course of politics, should have +allowed so little weight to the natural selection which operates so +powerfully upon the character of hereditary Princes and aristocracies. +It is far from obvious why so close and careful an observer should have +drawn his illustrations of the working of constitutional monarchy so +exclusively from the past, and especially from the examples of George +III. and William IV., ignoring so completely the experience of the +present reign; the deep, lasting, and for the most part wholesome, +influence exercised in European politics by men like Leopold I., Prince +Albert, and the present Emperor of Germany. Prince Bismarck owes to +Royal favour and trust the foundation of his power, the strength which +enabled him in the teeth of a short-sighted Liberal opposition to create +that Prussian army, to carry out that ruthless but eminently successful +policy of blood and steel, which excluded Austria from her place in the +Confederation, put an end to the old dualism, and achieved the union of +Germany. Italy owes everything to Cavour; but she owed Cavour to Victor +Emmanuel. The selection of Russian, Austrian, and German ministers, the +consistency of their policy, the power or rather authority, most +judiciously used by the Crown at more than one critical period of recent +English history, completely refute Mr. Bagehot's theoretical and +historical doctrine that a Parliament must be wiser than an average +sovereign. He forgets that a Prince is exempt from the influence of +party, whose disastrous action in the great crisis of the national +fortunes has been brought home of late with painful force to all +thoughtful Englishmen.</p> + +<p>Nor has he escaped that influence in his criticism of George III. It +would be easy to show that the modern theory of Parliamentary +Government, the theory accepted by his immediate predecessors and now +firmly established, was one on which no scrupulous and conscientious +Prince in the position of George III. could possibly have acted. The +King found throughout the earlier years of his reign, until the younger +Pitt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span> obtained an actual potent and controlling influence in the Houses +and in the closet, that the influence which secured a Parliamentary +majority was not his ministers' but his own. The dismissal of the elder +Pitt and Newcastle broke at once the strongest coalition of aristocratic +and popular influence, the mightiest league between intellect sustained +by national confidence, borough-mongering wealth, and family interest, +that ever dominated the unreformed Parliament. It was in the King's +power to give the control of the House to whom he would—to Chatham, +Grafton, Rockingham, or North. The one thoroughly unconstitutional use +of the Royal influence, with which the King can fairly be charged, was +employed to defeat the most unconstitutional and indefensible measure +ever brought forward by a corrupt and unprincipled coalition—the India +Bill, which endeavoured to secure for Fox and North personally the power +and patronage of our Oriental Empire. The King could not shift the +responsibility of administration upon ministers who owed office and +Parliamentary support to himself. The American war was not his work. The +Stamp Act was brought in during his first illness by the minister he +most hated. The Tea Duty was the madness of Townshend; and the step, +which gave the signal for revolt, was really a remission of two-thirds +of that duty. True that the King was the last man to agree to the +disruption of the empire, the abandonment of thousands of American loyal +subjects, to lower the flag of England before her coalesced European +enemies; but in that perseverance, surely not unkingly, he had one +enthusiastic supporter; and those who censure the King pass the same +censure on the dying speech of Lord Chatham. The one fatal error of a +long and conscientious reign should be laid to the account less of +George III. than of those who betrayed Pitt's counsels and played upon +the conscientious vagaries of a half-crazed brain.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bagehot dwells exclusively upon the unfavourable incidents of a +royal education. He overlooks the direct and indirect influences which +are brought to bear from the very cradle upon an hereditary Prince—the +sense of responsibility, the consciousness of a great position, the +familiarity with the gravest interests, a youth passed under the tuition +of the ablest masters, and above all that constant intercourse with the +finest intellects of the age, which secure for a future King a moral and +intellectual training unequalled in its excellence. The effect of that +training we see in our own Royal family, unfortunate as they have been +in the withdrawal at the most critical period of a father's control and +guidance. Of the Queen's daughters it is needless to speak. Her sons +are, by general admission, soldiers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span> and sailors of more than average +professional ability. The Crown Prince of Germany, the late King of +Spain, the present heir of the House of France, Leopold II. of Belgium, +and King Humbert of Italy, are generally credited with high ability; and +more than one of them would take rank among the first statesmen of his +Kingdom. A Prince of fair abilities, with such a training and such +knowledge of the men with whom he is necessarily brought into contact, +has every means of knowing, at least as well as Parliament, who are the +most competent and most trustworthy statesmen to whom he can commit the +fortunes of his Kingdom. His continuous, experience of politics, +legislation, and government, his access, especially with regard to +foreign affairs, to wider and more impartial sources of information, +lend to his counsels an authority which no prudent or thoughtful +statesman will disregard. He looks at affairs from a higher point of +view, with a wider survey as a rule, and also with a calmer and more +unbiassed judgment.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bagehot dwells at length on what may be called the fictitious value +of Constitutional Monarchy; and this he was evidently inclined to +exaggerate. The English people, he thought, are, as a rule, too ignorant +to understand what the Queen's Government really is—how completely it +is carried on in the Royal name by Parliamentary Ministers. For them the +law is really incarnate in the Sovereign; in yielding obedience to +magistrates and policemen, to common law and Parliamentary statutes, in +forbearing or resisting riot, they obey or uphold the Royal authority. +Were they aware that at each general election they choose their real and +effective rulers for an indefinite period, they would be confused, +alarmed, and bewildered, to a degree which would render them incapable +of a real and intelligent choice. The people—the lower orders—may have +been, when Mr. Bagehot wrote, and probably are now, somewhat wiser and +better informed as to the real character of the Government—the actual +responsibility for particular measures—than their critic supposed. But +it is beyond doubt that the Queen's name is a great power. The law is +too mere an abstraction, the names of Ministers represent too much party +feeling, excite too much antagonism, to command the prompt obedience, +the loyal reverence, the enthusiastic support which is rendered to the +name of the Sovereign. In France and America a very different feeling +prevails.</p> + +<p>Mr. Senior, than whom no Englishman of his day was more intimate with a +number of French statesmen of different parties, views and +character—than whom there was, perhaps, no cooler, closer, or more +constant observer of French politics—remarks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> that Frenchmen are always +weak and timid in upholding, daring, resolute, and even fierce in +resisting the powers that be. Confidence, enthusiasm, conviction, seem +in every case of insurrection and dangerous riot to be on the side of +the mob. The revolution of 1848 afforded very striking examples of this +contrast. The overthrow of Louis Philippe, deeply as the King himself +was disliked and despised, narrow as was the electorate, unpopular as +was the Ministry, was the act of a small minority. The Republic was +imposed upon France by a knot of reckless journalists and +semi-communistic dreamers, backed by the dreaded populace of Paris, +against the will of the peasantry who formed four-fifths of the voters, +and of the educated or semi-educated classes, amounting to one half of +the remaining fifth. Again and again was the Provisional +Government—though backed by all who had anything to lose, by all who +dreaded anarchy—on the point of overthrow, and saved only by +Lamartine's eloquence from the conspiracy of a few thousand desperadoes, +and the stormy passions of a mob that hardly knew what it wanted. The +Assembly itself was invaded and terrorized for several hours: the lives +of the leaders, to whom all France looked up with reverence, were in +imminent peril at the hands of a faction numerically insignificant. Only +in the terrible days of June did the National Guard, after four months +of distress and incessant panic, of daily and hourly fear of sack and +pillage, act with energy and decision; and even then the struggle +between the army, supported by the National Guard and the Anarchist +faction of the barricades, was long balanced and doubtful: yet the party +of order in Paris itself constituted an overwhelming majority.</p> + +<p>In America, New England perhaps excepted, the mob and the people, the +party of lawless force and law-abiding principle, meet on more equal +terms. No one dreams of disputing, in the last resort, the authority of +the Sovereign, but that Sovereign is invisible and inaccessible. It must +be remembered, moreover, that more than one of the hundred popular +risings, that the Union has seen during its hundred years' existence, +were risings, not against the law, but for the law against the laxity of +its administrators. This very fact makes it the more clear how uncertain +and ineffective is the authority of abstract law and an impersonal +Sovereign. The legal authorities, State or Federal, are not necessarily +representative of the power by which they are elected. In California, +after a period of anarchy, the respectable classes rose with the tacit +support of the people against the State Government which the people had +elected; deposed it almost without an effort, and established in its +place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span> the arbitrary rule of a self-appointed Vigilance Committee, whose +members no one knew. That lawless Government hanged as many rowdies, +pilferers, highway robbers and card sharpers as it thought fit; banished +hundreds under penalty of death—a penalty sure to be +enforced—re-established order, and laid down its power without having +encountered the shadow of legal or popular resistance. We have seen an +actual insurrection of the better elements of society provoked by the +escape of murderers and other criminals through the hands of lax or +corrupt juries, and of an administration whose use of the prerogative of +mercy was imputed to partisanship or to bribery. But in a great majority +of instances, riots that have reached the proportions of insurrection +have been simply anarchical or rebellious. It is not so long since the +railway employes of Pennsylvania, striking work upon an every-day +quarrel between employer and employed, took possession of the iron +highways of the State, intercepted communication, seized the great +railway arsenal of Pittsburg, and fought a pitched battle against the +militia, as obstinate and almost as sanguinary as the minor combats of +the Civil War. While we write, another strike of the same class has +suspended the traffic of the great Western railway line. In three States +the militia have been called out to protect property and liberty, the +rights of capital, the freedom of labour, the interest of the public, +against a class insurrection; the public authorities have been forcibly +resisted, and lives have been lost in a skirmish with fire-arms between +the <i>posse</i> of the Sheriff and the insurgent Knights of Labour. Every +American mob feels itself invested with something of the majesty of the +sovereign people. Every body of English rioters—political, social, or +simply lawless—knows and feels itself guilty of resistance to the +Sovereign. The truncheon of the police, the uniform of the soldier, +unquestionably represents the legal will of the Sovereign; and before +that will the largest and most excited multitude gives way at once.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bagehot overlooks the <i>certainty</i> which personal sovereignty gives: +the absence of a moment's possible doubt on which side is that supreme +arbiter, sure to be backed by nine-tenths of the physical forces of +society. He underrates, if he does not altogether ignore, the much wider +and deeper influence of the Royal name; its power over passion as well +as over ignorance. The omnipotence of Parliament, even when, in the +belief of half the nation, a Parliamentary majority represents a +minority of the people, is due less to traditional respect for the House +of Commons, or superstitious reverence for a majority vote, such as +prevails in America, than to the fact,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span> that resistance means rebellion, +visible, unmistakable disobedience to the Queen. It is therefore deeply +to be regretted, not for any sentimental reason, but for the sake of +order and the protection of life and property, that the democratic +changes in our Constitution are gradually undermining the habit of +submission to the Queen's Majesty which still characterizes, to a great +extent, the English people. The Services still feel proud to consider +that they serve, in their own phrase—not the State but—'the Queen.' +That sentiment of loyalty, which Mr. Bagehot ascribes to the ignorant +alone, is as strong in the upper or middle as in the lower orders; has a +far wider, deeper influence than he allows, than it was consistent with +the whole scope of his work on the English constitution to recognize.</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable and interesting points in Tocqueville's +conversations, as recorded by Mr. Senior, is the value which he and +other interlocutors ascribe to the English Poor Law. Mr Senior had seen +its essential principle, the right of subsistence, worked out +farther—to extremer and more dangerous consequences—than perhaps any +other political or social experiment, before the practical common sense +of England interfered. Under the old Poor Law, at least in the rural +districts, the income of a household was regulated by its number. Every +head of a family was entitled to an allowance, increasing with its +increase, and wholly independent of his earnings. Nominal wages had been +actually forced down <i>below</i> the starvation point. The law had +demoralized industry by placing the idlest ditcher on a level of comfort +with the best ploughman, and threatened to swallow up property in the +support of poverty. Tocqueville and his friends had seen the danger from +another point of view. The most popular and most formidable of the +dogmas of that Socialism, which had infected so deeply the <i>prolétariat</i> +of Paris and other French cities, was in another and yet more insidious +and destructive form the doctrine of the Poor Law. The right of +subsistence was admitted by the establishment of the <i>ateliers +nationaux</i>, and asserted by the insurgents of June, 1848, under the +nobler and more dignified guise of the <i>droit au travail</i>. The State was +bound, according to that doctrine, not to keep the idle alive, but to +furnish the industrious with work suited to their skill at market rate +of wages; a rate which had no right to fall below the average standard +of an artizan's needs, or rather of his habits.</p> + +<p>A principle which contradicts the laws of nature is obviously false; and +the right to subsistence—if claimed not for all who do, but for all who +may, exist in a given country—yet more clearly the <i>droit au travail</i> +of which this is the practical meaning—involves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span> the demand, that +agricultural production shall keep pace with population. But, save for +checks all ultimately reducible to the fear of want, checks which it is +the essential object of a Poor Law to relax, population would rapidly, +in any old country, overtake subsistence. That, were the population of +England or France to multiply at an American rate, it would soon lack +standing room, is mathematically demonstrable. A poor law then must be +attended by checks on population as effective as those of Nature +herself; and from their artificial character necessarily more offensive, +revolting, and difficult to enforce. None the less, Englishmen familiar +as Senior with the ruinous operation of the old Poor Law, Frenchmen +confronted like Tocqueville by the terrible theory of the <i>droit au +travail</i>, the alarming experience of the <i>ateliers nationaux</i>, were +inclined to regard that admission of the right to subsistence—limited +to those actually born—which is the fundamental principle of the +present Poor Law, as a most valuable, if not an indispensable, guarantee +of social security; a signal instance of that practical English wisdom, +which refuses to push admitted principles, sound or false, to +consequences undeniably logical, but practically dangerous.</p> + +<p>It might be thought that in a Christian, and especially a Roman Catholic +country, the danger of starvation could never be very practical—that +men, and still more women and children, bearing in their forms and faces +the stamp of actual want, of pinching hunger, would never be denied. But +Senior's experiences of the Irish famine pointed to a different +conclusion. Death by famine is at last rapid, sudden, and unexpected. On +the road to Kenmare, from which many Irish emigrants were despatched to +America, corpses were daily found with collapsed stomachs <i>and money in +their pockets</i>. Hoping to reach the port, keeping their money to pay +their passage, death had overtaken them unawares; and this in the face +of organized measures of relief, the largest and most liberal that +public or private charity has ever provided. In cases of prolonged and +extreme distress, but for the Poor Law, hundreds would die of want +almost unawares, before want had overcome their reluctance to beg. And +if actual starvation were rare, yet in the absence of a recognized right +to food and shelter, the fear of starvation must be ever present. This +spectral horror, Tocqueville evidently thought, haunted the imagination +of the French operative; and had much to do with the popularity of +Socialism in a country of diffused property and general thrift, and with +the ferocity of Socialistic or Red Republican insurrections. Charity, +however liberal, is an uncertain and—to their credit be it spoken—to +the majority of French operatives, a repulsive and degrading resource. +It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span> cannot exorcise the hideous spectre of actual famine, which, though +remote, seems ever to threaten them, their wives and their children; and +which in times of distress and depression looms terribly near, distinct, +and horrible. No wonder that men haunted by such a spectre should be +driven to gloomy envy, sullen hate, and outbreaks of ferocity worse than +those provoked by actual suffering. No wonder that any schemes, however +frantic and however unrighteous, should have charms for a class whose +reason is disturbed by the perpetual vision of that ultimate but +undeniably possible horror. We have seen in France within the last few +weeks moral portents which can hardly be ascribed to any other final +cause an atrocious murder committed by workmen, and, what is infinitely +worse, extenuated and almost approved by responsible legislators. It is +probable that the Belgian riots approach as near as any witnessed in +Europe during the last two centuries to a revolt of actual want. Belgium +has secured an artificial manufacturing prominence—a disproportionate +trade to hard toil and low wages. The latter had lately been forced down +to the <i>minimum</i>, as profits had been well-nigh extinguished, by the +general depression of business. In fear of actual want, the populace +rose, wasted farms, destroyed factories, plundered and levied +blackmail—in a word, tried to inflict on others the misery that had +maddened themselves. The word has been given to the most quiet and +law-abiding people in Europe <i>to defend themselves</i>: a step far more +significant of stern intentions than the sharpest military repression. +Yet the Government is forced to accompany its preventive measures with +an expenditure of 20<i>s</i> per head of the population on public +works—equivalent to an English rate in aid of twenty millions! Could +there be a more conclusive proof that the dread of hunger is a real and +a terrible power for evil among Continental nations; that their choice +lies, in a word, between a recognition of the right to subsistence—a +Poor Law with severe labour tests and restrictions—and periodical, +spasmodic measures of relief enforced by insurrection? Or can there be a +doubt, that the latter is infinitely the more dangerous and demoralizing +alternative: that only the adoption of a Poor law can prevent the +lessons of 1886 from shaking the very foundations of order, property and +civil government in countries situate as are France and Belgium?</p> + +<p>It seems strange that French Democracy should not have long since +insisted on laying for ever the spectre of starvation by a Poor Law more +liberal than that of England. It must be remembered, however, that the +democracy of France is a propertied and landed democracy, heavily +burdened with taxes and interest on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span> mortgages, pinched by necessity, +and pinching itself by thrift. No class is so hard to want, so ruthless +to idleness, as a peasantry which wins for itself a bare subsistence by +constant toil, and provides for the future by constant self-denial.</p> + +<p>The temper of a progressive and prosperous democracy is very different. +Many, perhaps most of the American States, are without a Poor Law. +Slavery dispensed with it, and the race antagonism consequent on the +manner and circumstances of emancipation has rendered a thorough +revision of social relations—a systematic attempt to meet the new and +very exceptional conditions of Southern society in its present +form—hitherto impossible. Yet, by the confession of one of their +bitterest enemies, no people are so tender, so generous, so lavish of +active sympathy towards the sick, the bereaved, and the unfortunate. In +States which, probably from an instinct under their circumstances just +and wise, refuse to recognize the right to subsistence by a legal +provision for the poor, whereby the idle and vicious would chiefly +benefit, nevertheless paupers by the visitation of God—the aged and +infirm, the blind, the deaf, and dumb, lunatics and idiots—are amply +provided by public and private charity with all that can alleviate their +lot: or teach them, as far as possible, the means of self-dependence. +American charity towards the victims of great natural catastrophes, far +more common there than here—communities burned out by a forest fire, or +ruined by a flood—and yet more the personal sacrifices made, the +readiness with which men and women devote their leisure thought, and +energy to the supervision of public institutions, the efficient +distribution of public subscriptions, the succour and nursing of a +community stricken by pestilence, are above praise. A careful study of +Transatlantic examples might put our own boasted lavishness of charity +to shame.</p> + +<p>Even in England, organized private charity, wisely directed, might +surely contrive to effect a discrimination between those who are paupers +by vice, unthrift, and idleness, and those whom God has striken for no +fault that humanity is entitled to pass judgment upon; between the +fitting inmates of the workhouse, and those—helpless from age, +infirmity, accident, and disease—to whom the associations of the +workhouse are humiliating, painful and demoralizing. Nothing is more +essential, under democratic rule, than the maintenance of due severity +towards those who will not work; nothing more likely to relax that +needful severity than its indiscriminate application to those who +cannot.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="ART_X_1_Fourth_Midlothian_Campaign_Political_speeches_delivered" id="ART_X_1_Fourth_Midlothian_Campaign_Political_speeches_delivered"></a>ART. X.—1. <i>Fourth Midlothian Campaign.</i> Political speeches delivered, +November, 1885, by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. Edinburgh, 1886.</h2> + +<h2>2. John Morley: <i>The Irish Record of the New Chief Secretary, 1886.</i></h2> + +<h2>3. <i>Ireland; A Book of Light on the Irish Problem.</i> Edited by Andrew +Reid. London, 1886.</h2> + +<h2>4. <i>Home Rule.</i> Reprint from the 'Times' correspondence, &c. 1886.</h2> + +<h2>5. <i>Social Order in Ireland. Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union.</i> Dublin, +1886.</h2> + +<h2>6. <i>Speech of Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons, April 8, 1886, on +moving for leave to bring in a Bill to make provision for the future +Government of Ireland.</i></h2> + + +<p>The fate of the scheme for the Government of Ireland, which Mr. +Gladstone disclosed in the House of Commons last week, has been +practically determined. Whether the Bill be rejected on the second +reading, whether amidst the currents of adverse opinion which have +already set in, it slowly goes to wreck upon the shoals of Parliamentary +procedure, its ultimate doom is already settled, but the mischief which +has been done will not be removed so promptly. A great blow has been +struck at the United Kingdom. The proposal to recognize Irish +nationality as a political force apart from Great Britain—a proposal +made by a Prime Minister, a leader of a great Parliamentary party—will +for many a day to come stimulate in Ireland all the elements of +disorder, which a noble series of statesmen, from Burke to Peel, have +resolutely laboured to eradicate.</p> + +<p>It was no surprise to the House that had listened to the marvellous +dream of Mr. Gladstone, when Mr. Parnell rose to express his gratitude +in terms almost of emotion:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It will prove a happy and fortunate thing, both for Ireland +and England, that there was one man living, one English +statesman living, with the great power and the extraordinary +ability of the right hon. gentleman to lend his voice on +behalf of poor helpless Ireland. He had devoted his great +mind, his extraordinary energy to the unravelling of this +question and to the construction of this Bill.... To none of +the sons of Ireland—at any time has there ever been given +the genius and talent of the right hon. gentleman—certainly +nothing approaching to it in these days.'</p></div> + +<p>The people, whom a few months ago Mr. Parnell denounced as representing +to him and his friends 'imprisonment, chains and death,' now came to +offer him a scheme of Irish nationality, and Shylock, recognizing the +wisdom of the sham<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span> Balthazar, was not more appreciative: 'A Daniel come +to judgment, yea a Daniel,' but, like Shylock, Mr. Parnell relied upon +his bond. Whilst he accepted the offering with the effusion of a +successful speculator, he took care to remind his hearers that he was +not bound to take it in discharge of his claim. He reserved any +'definite or positive expression of opinion;' 'there were undoubtedly +great faults and blots in the measure,' but he could safely say, +'whavever might be the fate of the Bill, the cause of Ireland, the cause +of Irish autonomy, will enormously gain by the genius of the right hon. +gentleman.' This is the solid result of the strange events which have +been passing for the last three months. A distinguished public man has +been called to office by the Parnellite vote. He has demanded and +obtained ample time to consider the difficulties of his position and +offer his solution.</p> + +<p>A glance at the new scheme shows that the proposal is at once +disingenuous and fantastic. The Prime Minister shrinks from admitting +the nature of the work he is engaged in. He breaks up the unity of the +Kingdom, but he will not allow that his Bill involves the repeal of the +Union. But whatever quibbles may be indulged in, the main principle of +the Act of Union, that Ireland should be represented at Westminster is +swept away. As Irish nationality is not to be ignored, it finds +expression in a Parliament in Dublin; but Ireland is to pay a +contribution towards the debt and towards public defence, and in the +application of this money is to have no voice. Thus we have Irish +nationality started with machinery which sets aside the first principle +of free governments, that there should be no taxation without +representation; and the internal arrangements of the Dublin Parliament +are equally suggestive of confusion in the future.</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister does not ask Parliament to disregard the risks to +which property and loyalty will be exposed in the Dublin Assembly, and +he proposes to satisfy our conscience by giving them the security of +representation in Dublin by a special Order. The Dublin Parliament is +divided into two Orders, each of which shall have a veto on the +legislation of the majority. The First Order consists of persons who +must be possessors of 4000<i>l.</i> or an equivalent income. That is their +personal qualification, and they are to be elected by occupiers rated at +25<i>l.</i> Property qualification for Members of Parliament was abolished in +England some thirty years ago. Rating, as a qualification for electors, +has been abandoned in a series of deliberate public measures from 1866 +to 1885; but it is these old clothes of English Parliaments which Mr. +Gladstone offers to his new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span> nationality. Why should these expedients be +adopted in Ireland? Checks upon legislative action, a second Chamber, a +Second or a First Order, are questions upon which theorists are divided. +They are certainly not questions which have occupied the National +League. These 'Orders' in Parliamentary life are not native Irish ideas. +These reproductions of quaint customs, such as we might find in some +ecclesiastical synod, or in the village organization of some old +Scandinavian community, are England's guarantees for the security of +property in the Sister Island. That Island, we know, has been abandoned +for some years to the National League, whose power was founded on their +opportunities of excommunicating any one who did not subscribe to their +funds and obey their decrees. The principle of the National League was +that property in land was an outrage on Irish opinion; and we are asked +to believe that this American-Irish organization, clothed with +Parliamentary power in Dublin, will be kept in check by a device, which +has no sanction in ancient tradition, in local sympathy, in recognized +opinion. The First Order in the new Chamber will be so many people +marked out for plunder. If any one possessing 4000<i>l.</i> worth of property, +which he can convert into cash, is venturesome enough to accept a seat +in the Chamber, what will become of him and his electors, people who are +scheduled in each locality as the owners of property rated at 25<i>l.</i> a +year? The majority of them in the South and West will be tenants who +have not dared to pay their rents, because the National League +prohibited the payment. Let us suppose people are found to constitute +the First Order, and they veto some scheme of the majority, and a +general election occurs, will the expedients which have made the League +what it is be suddenly forgotten? Can we doubt that the First Order and +its electors would be straightway boycotted out of existence? The +Ministerial proposal is an attempt to meet the views of Mr. Parnell; +and, without admitting that it is all he requires, the Irish leader +cordially accepts it, but he wants, he has told us, 'the full and +complete right to arrange our own affairs and make ours a nation—to +secure for her, free from outside control, the right to direct her own +course among the peoples of the world.' We are asked to suppose that he +and his friends, started in their new career, will be stopped by such a +ridiculous invention as this First Order. And it is a project like this, +inconsistent with itself, implying constitutional degradation of the +very people whom it is supposed to conciliate, patched up with strange +curiosities as unknown in England as in Ireland, which Parliament is +asked to accept as a 'final settlement' of our Irish difficulties.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Bill proposed settles nothing. Its only result is a renewed +manifestation of the power and influence of the Irish agitator. In this +extraordinary state of affairs men are apt to forget the series of +events which have brought about our present condition. Ministries come +and go at the bidding of Mr. Parnell. English policy in the future, +important schemes affecting the gravest concerns of England, of +Scotland, of Ireland, depend not on any principle accepted by the +British public, but on the humour of the Irish leader. The existence of +the House of Lords, the legal position of the Church of Scotland, the +maintenance of our most important military reserve, the right of the +Sovereign in relation to peace and war, are exposed to critical +divisions, not because British opinion is eager for revolution, or has +become indifferent to the vast interests involved, but because the +Nationalist party wish to remind us of their voting power.</p> + +<p>Our alarm at all this should not make us lose sight of the antecedent +facts which have built up this force of mischief. Mr. Gladstone is Prime +Minister by the favour of the Irish party, and this party is the outcome +of Mr. Gladstone's own policy. Whether the fluent rhetorician foresaw +his present position, whether perched on his slender ledge of power he +now enjoys it, we need not stop to consider. What we would remind our +readers is that for nearly twenty years past he has, in the main line of +his public life, notwithstanding some convulsive oscillations, pursued +with the pertinacity of one possessed the policy of which the present +Irish organization is the natural and the logical development. The +National League represents the spirit to which Mr. Gladstone appealed at +Southport in 1867. In the December of that year he charged the new +voters, in words of solemn adjuration, to look at Ireland from the Irish +point of view. This appeal had an electric effect upon the population of +that island. In the years which have passed since, his own injunction +has been sometimes rudely disregarded by Mr. Gladstone himself, but he +never long delayed to turn again to his favourite theory, to make +another effort to justify the principle with which he had started, and +at each renewal of his enterprise he plunged himself and his party +deeper into the morass of Hibernian disorder. Mr. Gladstone's admirers +are very proud of his numerous successes in carrying important Bills +through Parliament, but it is forgotten that his Irish Bills, though +carried, have never attained the ends for which they were passed. Twice +have all the resources of his genius, all the machinery of his party, +been called into requisition to bring about a final settlement of the +Irish Land question, and yet the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span> work is still to be done. The +explanation is not far to seek. Mr. Gladstone's passionate recklessness +committed him in 1867 to an enterprise, the magnitude of which excited +his vanity, the actual nature of which he only dimly perceived.</p> + +<p>In the year we have named he was trying to recover his footing after a +heavy fall in his first start as leader of the Liberal Party. A scheme +of Parliamentary reform, carried by his political opponent, had marked +the commencement of another epoch. In the new arena of public life two +centres of political energy were certain to be strongly represented in +the organization which Mr. Gladstone hoped to lead back to office. The +Spirit of Dissent was all powerful among the English householders. The +Irish tenant, whose electoral strength, directed by the Roman +priesthood, had been exhibited with much effect in 1852, was sure to +receive a great increase of power under the new Reform Bill. To combine +these influences was one of the conditions of any prolonged tenure of +office by the Liberal party. The Irish Establishment had been forsaken +by English opinion in previous years. Its overthrow would be hailed with +enthusiasm by the Dissenting communities, whilst the Irish priesthood +would regard disestablishment with undoubted satisfaction. The condition +of Irish Land Tenure was admitted by all parties to require amendment, +and its settlement would be a substantial benefit to the Irish farmer.</p> + +<p>These were subjects which naturally tempted the daring energies of a man +occupying Mr. Gladstone's position in the winter of 1867. Turned out of +office after the death of Lord Palmerston, his subsequent management of +the reform question, as leader of the Opposition, had only increased the +distrust of his party. He was without a constituency at the coming +election, and he went down to Lancashire to seek in that great centre of +hard-headed Englishmen the confiding constituency which he subsequently +found in Midlothian. New legislation on the Irish Church, a reform in +Irish Land Tenure, were subjects for which his party, for which the +majority of Englishmen were pretty well prepared. The Liberal Churchmen, +like Sir Roundell Palmer, who held back on the subject of +Disestablishment, were more than counterbalanced by the Dissenters, who +were attracted by the scheme. Popular Legislation on these subjects +might have been granted to Ireland as the matured outcome of British +opinion. Such a mode of approaching the work in hand did not suit the +exuberant temperament of Mr. Gladstone. Whilst the report of the +Clerkenwell explosion was still echoing through the land, he announced +his policy as one to be recommended, not because the great British +community had examined and adopted the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span> proposed measures, but because +Irish opinion was to be henceforth accepted as our guide in Irish +Legislation. With characteristic recklessness he hurried to turn to the +account of his own ambition the throb of excitement which he saw +traversing the nation. He appealed to his audience to regard the Fenian +outrages as a sort of revelation from heaven, to commune with their own +hearts, not on the state of Ireland, and the remedies sensible men could +offer, but on the sentiments of Irishmen. His final test of legislation +was to be, not its consonance with the judgment of the British people, +but with the demand of the Irish crowd.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Ireland is at your doors. Providence has placed her there. +Law and legislation have been a compact between you. You +must face these obligations. You must deal with them and +discharge them. As to the modes of giving effect to this +principle I do not now enter upon them. I am of opinion they +should be dictated, as a general rule, by that which may +appear to be the mature, well-considered, and general sense +of the Irish people.'—20th Dec. 1867.</p></div> + +<p>At this date 'the general sense of the Irish people' was, to Mr. +Gladstone's mind, the policy formulated by the Irish Episcopacy, the +scheme which at a later stage of the campaign in the following year he +described as the lopping off the three branches of the Upas tree of +Protestant ascendancy. He failed in Lancashire, but his success in other +parts of the kingdom was complete; and then ensued the abolition of the +Irish Establishment and an adjustment of the land question which carried +the recognition of local customs farther than Englishmen had +anticipated.</p> + +<p>The Liberal party had been charged to consult Irish opinion. As long as +Cardinal Cullen and Mr. Gladstone were agreed all went merrily, even if +some rude coercion like the Westmeath Act was required to deal with +Irish ideas which did not find expression in the Cardinal. But whilst +the English Minister and the Irish Primate declared, that Ribbonism was +an impudent pretender to any representative character and must be rooted +out, a third organ of opinion claimed the benefit of the Southport +principle in the form of the Home Rule Association, and Mr. Gladstone at +Aberdeen replied with angry scorn:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Can any sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that, +at this time of day, in this condition of the world, we are +going to disintegrate the capital institutions of this +country for the purpose of making ourselves ridiculous in +the sight of all mankind, and crippling any power we possess +for bestowing benefits, through legislation, on the country +to which we belong?'—26th Sept. 1871.</p></div> + +<p>The ideas expressed by the Roman hierarchy, attracted by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span> the +Disestablishment, substantially interested in the better position of the +farmer, and confidently anticipating for themselves the acquisition of a +power over public education such as their order enjoyed nowhere else in +the world, these were ideas which Mr. Gladstone recognized as national. +On the subject of education, however, he was not able to go as far as +the Ultramontane party required. They directed the Irish members to vote +against him. The coalition between Dissent and the Roman Hierarchy was +dissolved. The Minister, who had brought it about, suddenly awoke to a +sense of the evil teaching of his late allies in the government of +Ireland, and '<i>Vaticanism</i>' held them up to the reprobation of +Protestant England.</p> + +<p>The new Liberal discovery, the principle of Irish ideas, had broken down +as a party engine. It had made the Ministry of 1868, but it had failed +to preserve it. Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of the party +to the greater freedom of an independent member of Parliament, and in +this capacity led the stormy agitation against Lord Beaconsfield, making +the foreign policy of England a party question.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the theory of the Southport speech, and the results which had +attended it, were not forgotten in Ireland. The Home Rule movement, +which was denounced so angrily at Aberdeen, enlisted all the resources +of local sentiment, feelings similar to those which make a Lancashireman +proud of Lancashire, a Scotchman delight in Scotch associations. Among +its promoters were professors, poets, Irish Catholics, who were glad to +show themselves on a public platform without being the puppets or the +opponents of their bishops, Irish Protestants, who were irritated at the +desertion of the Irish Church, a number of well-meaning people who were +attracted by the opportunity of talking eloquently and vaguely about +nothing in particular. This Academic scheme of Home Rule found an +admirable exponent in Mr. Butt, an able lawyer of ambitious politics.</p> + +<p>What answer were Liberals to give to this new embodiment of their great +statesman's theory? They denounced Mr. Butt, pondering feebly meanwhile +what it all meant; but the Home Rule organization, once set a-going, was +soon permeated by the Fenian spirit. Platitudes about 'patriotism' and +'green Erin' meant to an Irish crowd, 'Down with England and with +landlords.' That great hotbed of disatisfaction, Irish popular feeling, +supplied stimulating nutriment to the new party. In proportion as +hostility to England was more openly declared, funds came in rapidly +from the Irish in America. Year by year the Home Rule members gained in +parliamentary power, one section<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span> of the Liberal party after another +giving them encouragement—in the first place because they were +troublesome to a Tory Ministry, in the second because the flaccid +thought of modern Liberalism made them welcome any organization, which +would save them the trouble of facing the difficulties of Irish +administration.</p> + +<p>In 1880 the public took no heed to Lord Beaconsfield's historic warning, +that danger was brewing in Ireland. The Liberal legislation of ten years +before had, they tried to believe, disposed of Irish difficulties in +their most serious aspect. Both before and after the General Election +they were assured by Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone, that Irish affairs +were proceeding satisfactorily. The new Ministry had, however, to face a +formidable parliamentary party, who refused to recognize the legislation +of 1869 and 1870 as any settlement of the Irish question. Their first +device was to abandon the Act of their predecessors, passed in 1875, +which applied some of the milder provisions of the Westmeath Act to the +whole of Ireland. A reconstruction of the Local Government of the United +Kingdom, and a new Reform Bill, were the tasks assigned by public +opinion to the second Gladstone Ministry; but finding the abandonment of +coercion did not conciliate the Irish party, the Premier returned with a +rush to the policy of 1867. He determined to justify his claim to be the +statesman who had found out the secret of Irish administration. Within +two months after the Ministry was formed the public were warned that +they were within measurable distance of civil war. This danger was not +urged as a reason for recurring to accepted principles of government; on +the contrary, it was a plea for new expeditions in pursuit of the <i>ignis +fatuus</i> of Irish opinion. We know the events which followed.</p> + +<p>The Compensation for Disturbance Bill seemed a small matter in itself, +but involved principles fatal to all security for property. During the +next autumn and winter, Ireland was abandoned to the savage dominion of +the Land League. The quiescence of the Government excited remonstrance +even from advanced Radicals like Mr. Leonard Courtney. That stalwart +Liberal had not been then in office, had not had the experience he has +since acquired. He had not yet learned the dutiful lesson that, whatever +his own convictions, the probabilities were in favour of the view that +his great leader was in the right, or at least, might be successful. As +a concession to public opinion, a Coercion Act was passed, new fangled +and hesitating. But it was not so much on effective legislation and a +resolute determination to curb disorder that the Ministry relied, as on +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span> recognition of Irish opinion which the Land Act of 1881 embodied. +It was truly said of that measure by an exulting Radical, that it struck +a blow at property which was felt in every country in Europe. In his +main calculation, his purpose to win popularity in Ireland, Mr. +Gladstone failed, as he has so often failed; and as usual the failure +was due to the wickedness or perversity of some one else. In 1874 it was +Pius IX. and the Jesuits who had misled his Irish friends. In 1881 the +evil influence was Mr. Parnell.</p> + +<p>In the autumn the Prime Minister startled his hearers at Leeds by a +passionate complaint, that—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'a small band of men had arisen who were not ashamed to +preach in Ireland the doctrine of public plunder ... now +that Mr. Parnell is afraid, lest the people of England by +their long continued efforts should win the hearts of the +whole Irish nation, he has a new and enlarged gospel of +plunder to proclaim.'</p></div> + +<p>He went back with a swing to the high-handed policy he had so often +denounced. Irishmen must be made to recognize Gladstone, and not +Parnell, as their true friend. The Land League was dissolved by +proclamation, its principal leaders, including Mr. Parnell, were clapped +into jail, and it was proclaimed at Knowsley that the Cabinet were going +'to relieve the people of Ireland from the weight of a tyrannical yoke.'</p> + +<p>These speeches, full as they were of denunciation of Mr. Parnell, were +still on the lines of the Southport speech. They were not declarations +of the opinion of the British community, warnings to Ireland to take +account of the settled judgment of the nation, of which the sister +island must always form part. They contrasted with the manly utterance +of Mr. Chamberlain on this subject, the same month, at Birmingham. They +were angry appeals to Ireland to quarrel with her chosen leaders. Mr. +James Lowther was denounced for stating, that 'the party headed by Mr. +Parnell commanded the support of the large majority of the people of +Ireland.' Mr. Gladstone added, 'The proposition here made is one on +which we are entirely at issue. I profoundly disbelieve it; I utterly +protest against it. I believe a greater calumny on the Irish nation,... +a more gross and injurious statement could not possibly be made against +the Irish nation.'</p> + +<p>In the following year it was found that the recognition of Mr. +Gladstone, as the father of the Irish people was still remote; whilst +Mr. Forster declared, that a stronger Coercion Bill was necessary, if +life was to be protected in Ireland. Then came another plunge after the +coveted ideal. Mr. Forster, who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span> so generously devoted himself to +his party and his leader in the pursuit of a new Irish policy, was +abandoned to the Irish members, and to Mr. John Morley's crusade against +him in the columns of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' Mr. Parnell was called +out of jail to secure votes to the Government, and order in Ireland, by +the help of Mr. Sheridan and other ex-convicts. The Phœnix Park +murder, following on the Kilmainham Treaty, postponed the full carrying +out of this arrangement. The sort of measure, which Mr. Forster had been +refused a month before, was now passed with provisions of excessive +stringency; and Lord Spencer, who had been sent to Ireland to win that +popularity, which the late Chief Secretary had been unable to obtain, +was chiefly occupied in curbing the violence which that Minister had +denounced, in bringing to justice the criminals whom he had not been +allowed to reach. We recollect that the new Viceroy was exposed to a +storm of unpopularity so violent and outrageous, that the public readily +forgot the discreditable folly of his original enterprise, and honoured +the resolution and dignity with which he discharged the laborious duties +of a thankless office.</p> + +<p>The construction of the Irish Government at this time was such as to +make the Lord Lieutenant personally responsible for the administration +of justice, and the carrying out of the main provisions of the Crimes +Act. He was in the Cabinet, whilst his chief Secretaries, Mr. Trevelyan +and Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, were only subordinate members of the +Ministry. They conducted Irish business in the House of Commons, +representing in their relations with the Irish members, as far as +circumstances allowed, their leader's yearning after Irish popularity, +whilst Lord Spencer, the Whig Earl, who belonged to things that had been +rather than to the rising power of the Radical party, bore all the odium +of unpopular imprisonments or executions.</p> + +<p>The significance of such an arrangement was not lost on the Irish crowd. +By the end of 1882 the Land League was reconstructed under the name of +the National League. The new organization, of which 'United Ireland' was +the especial organ, gradually established branches from one end of +Ireland to the other. Strong as the provisions of the Crimes Prevention +Act were, no attempt was made to bring the new society under its +operation. The columns of 'United Ireland,' on the other hand, bore +plenty of evidence of a disposition to move on. The Irish farmers were +reproachfully asked if they were content with a paltry reduction of +rent. 'Had they no other account to settle with England?' The leaders +reminded their followers that the Crimes Act would expire before long. +They renewed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span> with savage energy that campaign against the <i>personnel</i> +of the Irish administration, which Mr. John Morley had so warmly +espoused up to the murder of Mr. Burke. A continual storm of abuse and +calumny was directed against Lord Spencer and every one else concerned +with Irish government. Mr. Clifford Lloyd and Mr. Trevelyan were removed +by way of warning, that there was no room in Ireland for public servants +who did their duty. The National League, in fact, became in each +district a conspicuous and formidable power. Their representatives in +Parliament received much attention from the Prime Minister and his +colleagues. They exercised great influence and had many chances before +them in the new organization of the electorate. With all these +advantages on the side of the Irish Revolution, the Queen's Government +had nobody to champion it but the not imposing personality of Lord +Spencer.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that in such a state of things Ireland was already, +at the commencement of 1885, like a country occupied by two hostile +armies. There was the National League camp with its scouts and +emissaries all over the country, with a vigorous Press proclaiming its +policy and success. The Government forces remained within their lines, +attempting nothing, doing nothing, unless some outrage by a moonlight +gang compelled them to make some show of interference to check violation +of the truce between treason and loyalty. The greatest care was taken +not to identify the Government with the scattered Loyalists. They might +be very worthy persons, but they were the special aversion of the +Nationalist party, and the business of the Government was not to protect +or encourage loyalty, but to prevent Nationalism from going too fast. +The Nationalist aspirations of Mr. Gladstone's friends were not to be +irritated by attentions shown to their adversaries.</p> + +<p>When Parliament reassembled in the spring of 1885, men asked what +provision was made for renewing the Crimes Act, which would expire in +the autumn. Week after week passed, month after month; and it was +impossible to extract from the Ministry what their policy was as regards +the government of Ireland. At length, in the summer, it was announced +that on a day, which was never fixed, a Bill would be introduced +renewing certain provisions of the expiring Act. This announcement from +the Treasury Bench was followed at once by a notice from Mr. John Morley +to oppose the Bill. So much time had already been lost, that it was +practically impossible for any Ministry to carry a Coercion Bill against +the determined opposition of the Irish members, without the most +resolute effort on the part of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues. Were +they prepared to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span> these exertions? One of the conditions, on which +the Reform question had been settled, was the definite postponement of a +dissolution until after the 1st November. Each day men became more and +more engrossed with the great question of the winter—the new +election—more indifferent to the business of the Session; the +Parnellite party more exultant and defiant. Rumours of dissensions in +the Cabinet, had been already rife, and grew more frequent every day. +The country awoke one morning to find that the second Gladstone +Ministry, with its clear majority of over eighty, was at an end. Rather +than confess their disunion, the ministry had allowed themselves to be +defeated on another question, and Mr. Parnell came before his countrymen +as the avenger who had chastised the suggestion of renewed coercion by +destroying the Government which made it.</p> + +<p>In this collapse of administration the only course open to the Tory +party was to prepare as rapidly as possible for an appeal to the +country, doing what they could meanwhile in foreign and in home affairs +to mitigate the mischief which they were powerless to remedy. When the +dissolution came, Mr. Gladstone opened his canvass in Midlothian by many +sneers at the election policy of the Irish Nationalists. He reminded his +hearers, that the subject of extending local government in Ireland must +come forward in the new Parliament, and urged that, 'in dealing with +this question the unity of the empire was not to be compromised or be +put in jeopardy.' 'Nothing was to be done which should tend to +impair,—visibly or sensibly to impair,—the unity of the Empire.' +Auditors who had made no special study of Mr. Gladstone's phraseology +interpreted these words as a declaration against a separate Parliament +in Dublin. He apparently was prepared for large schemes of +decentralization, either specially for Ireland or in connection with the +projected reform of local government in England; but there was to be +nothing which should 'visibly impair' the Imperial unity. He went on to +dwell on the danger of 'condescending either to clamour or to fear,' and +added:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'But quite apart from the names of Whig and Tory, one thing +I will say, and will endeavour to impress, and it is this, +that it will be 'a <i>vital danger</i> to the country if at the +time that the demand of Ireland for large powers of +self-government is to be dealt with—it will be a <i>vital +danger</i> to the Empire if there is not in Parliament ready to +deal with that subject, ready to influence the proceedings +upon that subject, <i>a party totally independent of the Irish +vote</i>.'</p></div> + +<p>Even the most enthusiastic followers of the Liberal chief have learnt to +be very cautious in saying what meaning is to be attributed to his +utterances, but there can be no doubt that this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span> language was read by +the public as saying, 'whatever lengths I may go in working out the +principle of local government, whatever may be the understanding between +the Home Rulers and the Tories, I at least will not accept the principle +of an Irish Parliament.' Not only was this the natural reading of Mr. +Gladstone's declarations at the election, but nearly every member of his +party, who referred to this question at all, spoke in the same sense. +Mr. Campbell Bannerman denounced the Parnellite demands as 'separation +under one name or another,' and many other Liberals were equally +emphatic, whilst a still larger number never alluded to the subject.</p> + +<p>Well may Lord Hartington protest against the competence of the present +Parliament to deal with the legislation now proposed.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'There was no thought, no warning held out to the country, +that a radical reform in the relations between Great Britain +and Ireland would be the main work of the present +Parliament.... The country had no sufficient warning—I +think I may say the country had no warning at all—that any +proposals of the magnitude and vastness of those which were +unfolded to us last night were to be considered in the +present Parliament, much less were to form the first subject +of consideration upon the meeting of this Parliament. I am +perfectly aware that there exists in our Constitution no +principle of the mandate. I know that the mandate of the +constituencies is as unknown to our Constitution, as the +distinction between fundamental laws and laws which are of +an inferior sanction. But, although no principle of a +mandate may exist, I maintain that there are certain limits +which Parliament is bound to observe, and beyond which +Parliament has morally not the right to go in its relations +with the constituencies. The constituencies of Great Britain +are the source of the power, at all events, of this branch +of Parliament, and I maintain that in the presence of an +emergency which could not have been foreseen, the House of +Commons has no moral right to initiate legislation, +especially upon its first meeting, of which the +constituencies were not informed, and of which the +constituencies might have been informed, and as to which, if +they had been so informed, there is, at all events, the very +greatest doubt what their decision might be.'</p></div> + +<p>Over and over again in the Parliament of 1874 and of 1880 have we heard +Mr. Gladstone appealing to this principle, that schemes of crucial +importance ought to be discussed before the constituencies; yet the most +important proposal made in Parliament for some generations is presented +after a general election, in which the constituencies were invited by +the Prime Minister and his colleagues to believe, that this particular +question was outside the region of practical politics.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span></p> + +<p>No sooner had it become apparent that the country had refused that +renewal of power which Mr. Gladstone had asked for, than his resolution +not to accept defeat was promptly manifested. Public men remembered his +use of the Royal prerogative in 1872, to carry into execution a scheme +for which he had sought and failed to obtain the consent of Parliament. +He had not been a week at Hawarden after his journey from Scotland, when +people became conscious that the return to office, which he had told the +country would be their security against Mr. Parnell, he was now ready to +seek with the aid of that leader.</p> + +<p>It was on the 8th of December, just after the main results of the +elections were settled, that Mr. Herbert Gladstone wrote from Hawarden +to a casual correspondent, 'If five-sixths of the Irish people wish to +have a Parliament in Dublin, for the management of their own local +affairs, I say in the name of justice and wisdom, let them have it.' A +few days afterwards the Press announced that the Liberal chief had, in +consultation with some former colleagues, matured a scheme which +embodied the points desired by Mr. Parnell. The announcement was +immediately followed by a telegram from Hawarden, denying the accuracy +of the scheme as sketched in the Press. On the main point, whether he +was prepared to co-operate with the Home Rule Party, whether he had +recovered from the fear he expressed at Edinburgh, that it would be a +'vital danger' to the Empire, if Home Rule came on for discussion +'without the presence in Parliament of a party totally independent of +the Irish vote,' on these questions, with which all England was busy, +Mr. Gladstone said never a word. He relied on the virtue he assumed to +protect him from inconvenient questionings, and meanwhile the +Nationalists were invited to reflect during the Christmas holidays, that +perhaps after all their best friend was at Hawarden.</p> + +<p>Mr. Chamberlain followed up the rumour of a settled scheme by a prompt +denial that he was a party to it, and added an emphatic statement of the +way in which he and his friends read the Midlothian speeches—'all +sections of the party were determined that the integrity of the Empire +should be a reality, and not an empty phrase.' Mr. Chamberlain had +listened to his great leader too long not to be aware of the importance +of marking the distinction between a 'reality' and a 'phrase.' In a few +days Lord Hartington too wrote to say, that he was no party to the +suggested policy.</p> + +<p>The ultimate result of the elections left the government at Christmas +only 251 votes, and the Liberals 333. Had it been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span> clear that the +Liberal party were united in a scheme, which was consistent with the +current of British opinion, the solution would have been simple enough. +Had the appeals for straightforward dealing, made more than once during +the election by Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph Churchill, been +responded to, the Government might have made way for a Liberal Ministry, +the best men on both sides recognizing, what the soundest public opinion +required, that the Irish vote of 86 should be disregarded on questions +affecting the existence of a Cabinet; but before the elections were all +over, the divisions in the Liberal party were obvious. Mr. Gladstone had +returned with more eagerness than ever to the policy of Irish ideas, +whilst experience had at length opened the eyes of his ablest +lieutenants.</p> + +<p>In such a condition of affairs, the only course for Lord Salisbury's +Government was to await the onset of their opponents, meanwhile applying +themselves to settle that scheme of Irish policy which they as a party +were prepared to champion in office or out of office. They met +Parliament with an emphatic declaration to maintain the Union, and a few +days afterwards announced that further legislation in defence of public +order was necessary. This announcement was made on the 26th of January, +when several of the Amendments in the Address were still on the paper. +Before the House rose, the Government had ceased to exist. By a majority +of 79, in a House of 583; a Resolution in support of a policy advocated +by the Radical section of the Liberal party was carried against the +Government. The motion of Mr. Jesse Collings was, it must be remembered, +not a necessary assertion of a particular principle. The importance of +the questions of allotments was acknowledged by the Ministry +collectively and individually. It was not supposed, even by Mr. Collings +himself, that the carrying of this particular Motion on the Address +would advance legislation on the subject by a single day. The motion was +one of those demonstrations of opinions, ordinary enough in Parliament, +and generally resulting in a debate without a division or if pushed to a +division, in the withdrawal from the House of all but declared +partizans. On this particular occasion the motion was taken up and +pressed to a division, in order that the National League was to be put +down, was followed in a few hours by a vote which, in the existing +constitution of parties, necessarily involved the restoration of Mr. +Gladstone to power. So transparent was the object of the division that +13 Liberals voted with the Ministers, among others such staunch +adherents of Liberalism as Lord Hartington and Sir Henry James.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the new Ministry was formed, two extraordinary circumstances came +to light. Lord Hartington, the heir-apparent to the Liberal Leadership, +Lord Derby, Mr. Gladstone's most distinguished proselyte, Lord Selborne, +and other eminent colleagues in the conduct of the Liberal party, would +have nothing to do with the new scheme for the final settlement of +Ireland for the third time. Another still more singular fact was soon +disclosed. All the members of the new Cabinet, who had any future before +them, had come in with reservations of a right of further consideration, +when the subject of Irish policy should be brought up for discussion.</p> + +<p>One remarkable ally, however, Mr. Gladstone had found in his momentous +enterprise. The appointment of Mr. John Morley to the principal post in +the Government of the part of the kingdom, which had fallen under the +sway of such an organization as the National League, was in itself a +revolution. The new Chief Secretary had no official experience, and no +parliamentary position. A favoured person, who had audience of great +Trades' Union gatherings, he was observed with some interest by the late +Parliament, busy with speculations on the character of the new +Electorate. But, if his parliamentary work had been slight, he had +considerable literary reputation, and had taken an active part, in the +press, in discussions on the Irish question. The apologist of Danton, +the champion of the Jacobin Club, he was the one English political +writer who believed himself able to find in the throes of the French +Revolution valuable examples of public policy. The figures of that +terrible convulsion did not attract him so much by their range of human +passion, by the largeness of the space they filled in a great drama of +humanity. It was their fanaticism which inspired him. Their capacity to +combine, with the perpetration of atrocious crimes, an ardent apostolate +of abstract ideals, had for him a vivid fascination. A gentle critic of +Robespierre, he could see in the execution of Marie Antoinette traces of +discriminating statesmanship. Entering on political work with such +dispositions, he was early attracted to the seething cauldron of Mr. +Gladstone's Irish policy. Having satisfied himself that Ireland was in a +state of revolution, he regarded murder and robbery as necessary +incidents. When an unfortunate lady driving in the evening along a +country road was shot dead beside her husband, whose only offence was +that of being a landlord, the public were lectured for the inconsequence +of their indignation. On the Dublin conspirators, who were watching to +murder Mr. Forster, were not lost the lessons which Mr. Morley had been +preaching on the vileness of the permanent officials at the Castle. They +determined to murder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span> Mr. Burke, and in killing him slew his companion +also; and Mr. Morley deprecatingly reminded his readers, that the death +of Lord Frederick Cavendish was 'almost an accident.' With these +professed opinions, it was easy for him to acknowledge what Mr. +Gladstone might have hesitated to confess, that Mr. Parnell and the +National League were the true expression of 'the general sense of the +Irish people.'</p> + +<p>The Nationalist party had long recognised the value of his aid in +Parliament. They felt the truth of the saying, that he was 'Mr. Parnell +in an Englishman's skin,' and consequently enjoying more freedom of +action, able, on occasion, to do more service for the National League in +a Parnellite Cabinet than Mr. Parnell himself. Although the principles +he had laid down, strictly applied, would oblige him to say, let Ireland +take care of herself and work out her own destiny, he has qualified his +faith—he has never very clearly explained why—by a declaration in +favour of the integrity of the Kingdom. A believer in revolution, Mr. +Morley is astute enough to be ready to take what he can get. 'We do +wrong,' he said, writing after the breakdown of the Kilmainham Treaty, +'in being content with nothing short of perfection and finality. If we +see our way to the next step, that is enough.' 'Perfection' in Irish +affairs would perhaps be that Irish opinion should be organized in a +convention at Dublin, and then, tempered by a full course of revolution, +should come to the conclusion, that the Union after all was the best +thing for both islands. As the public are not yet prepared for trying +this experiment, we are to have a succession of 'next steps.'</p> + +<p>As a set off to Mr. Morley's want of official experience and of weight +in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone placed the consideration he +enjoyed with the Parnellite party and a disposition, composed of +fanaticism and adroitness, fitting him well to co-operate in the schemes +which were to follow from the wild passion of the National League in +combination with the skill of the 'old Parliamentary hand.'</p> + +<p>No sooner was the new Ministry formed than the Nationalist party +recognized the greatness of their opportunity. An attitude of reserve +was taken up by the Nationalist members and their Press. The Ministry +had not been a week in office, when the most advanced and outspoken of +the Irish leaders, Mr. John Dillon, presiding at a meeting of the +National League, frankly declared 'he never felt more inclined to say +nothing than to-day, the present Ministry had been formed on one +question and on one question alone, and that was the rights of the Irish +nation.' With Mr. Gladstone in office, the policy of the League was to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span> +apply the policy of silence so often inculcated by Mr. Parnell. Speaking +out might only embarrass their new allies.</p> + +<p>The country, up to a week ago, knew nothing of the momentous scheme on +which the Ministry were engaged. One Cabinet council considered it with +the result, that the collective action of the Cabinet ceased for the +next fortnight; and then the only two public men of weight, whom Mr. +Gladstone had induced to give his scheme the compliment of a hearing, +retired from the Ministry. Our readers are now in possession of so much +of the new scheme as they may be able to discern through the glamour of +Mr. Gladstone's rhetoric; but the condition of affairs during the last +three months is a picture to remember for all time.</p> + +<p>When the Hawarden scheme was disclosed before Christmas, Mr. Gladstone's +principal organ in the London Press declared within a week that the game +was up. The public would have none of it. The return of Mr. Gladstone to +office, with Mr. John Morley as Irish Secretary, suddenly revived the +hopes of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' His new start in pursuit of the Irish +ideal banished the despair which had settled upon even the most reckless +of his adherents. The age, the physical power of the Premier, his long +public career, called up reflections which could not be disposed of in a +moment by foes, still less by former allies. He claimed time, and he has +taken the most important part of the Session, to mature his plans, +amidst the silence of the Opposition and of his Home Rule allies.</p> + +<p>But, if his opponents were silent, his nomination of Mr. Morley to the +most important place in his Cabinet was not lost upon the motly crowd +outside. All the dancing dervishes of politics rushed upon the scene to +amaze a bewildered public with fantastical gyrations. 'The Empire of +Liberty,' cried one, 'can never employ coercion.' Another enthusiast +exclaimed, after reviewing the course of events since the Hawarden +revelations, 'To call these things to mind does one's heart good. It +seems as if nothing need be despaired of, as if words of hope need never +be empty words.' A well-known economist tried to ease the public +conscience, and to neutralize the resistance of the unfortunate Irish +landlord, by a nebulous scheme for buying up the landlords' rights, but +what the supply of money is to be, and who is to supply it, are +questions to which the answers vary every hour. A separate Parliament is +to be accompanied by a system of guarantees, and Professor Rogers +declares that the surest guarantee was the hostages we have in the two +millions of Irish inhabiting Great Britain; as if these unfortunate +persons could be made liable to imprisonment or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span> torture in order to +secure the good conduct of Mr. Parnell's Dublin Cabinet, as if such an +arrangement, if made, would have the slightest effect upon the Irish +revolutionists.</p> + +<p>But whilst Mr. Gladstone lingered, waiting to see how far the outer +public could be brought into sympathy with his schemes, he did not +hesitate a moment to consolidate the power of the National League. The +subject of evictions for non-payment of rent was brought before the new +Government in the form of a question, alleging that a particular +eviction was not in strict conformity with the landlord's right. Mr. +Morley offered to consider the question of right, and added that what +was much wanted in Ireland was 'a strict and scrupulous and literal +spirit of legality.' Later on the same evening, Mr. Dillon made a +vigorous appeal to the Chief Secretary not to give the aid of armed +force to carry out evictions. Mr. Morley responded with alacrity. 'I for +one am not prepared to admit that we are justified in every case, in +which a shadow of legal title is made out, to bring out the military +force to execute decrees which, on the ground of public policy as well +as that of equity, may seem inadvisable and unnecessary.' Legal right, +if it is relied on in favour of the subjects of the Land League, must be +interpreted in a 'scrupulous and literal spirit.' If it is acted on by +the landlord, there come in considerations of public policy and of +equity.</p> + +<p>The result of a long debate was that organized resistance to the +execution of the law would not be interfered with, unless the Government +were satisfied that in particular circumstances equity required such +interference. We have thus arrived at once at a system of official +despotism. The law is not to be a guarantee of the rights of the +subject, unless so far as the Minister may think fit to permit it. And +this dispensing power is to be exercised in favour of the subjects of +the National League.</p> + +<p>The self-sufficiency of the Liberal party had been vigorously appealed +to during the years 1883-5. Liberals tried to persuade themselves, that +the comparative repose of Ireland was due to, or was likely to generate, +a Conservative feeling amongst the farmer class. Their harvests were +good, and they had got so much from the Land Bill, they had so much, in +fact, to lose now, in comparison with their condition in former years, +men argued, that they would not care to risk their well-being in pursuit +of Nationalist projects, with the certainty of being subject to the +village ruffians Mr. Forster had described whilst the struggle was going +on, with the probability of having to share what they had with these +same ruffians as soon as an Irish Parliament obtained power.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span></p> + +<p>This reasoning took little account of historical experience in cases +where property is suddenly given to one class by an arbitrary act. Care +for what one possesses, forethought to avoid its loss, come only with +habits of acquisition. The Irish farmer was confessedly careless in the +past, because, it was said, providence could be of so little use to him +in the then state of the law, but his prosperity under the legislation +of 1881 was not the result of his own industry. It was due to a long +course of agrarian outrage in Ireland and of Parliamentary outrage at +Westminster. A favourite commonplace of Land Reformers is the +conservatism of the French peasant, turned into a proprietor by the +decrees of the Legislative Assembly of 1791. We are reminded of his +industry, his self-denial, his distrust of the revolutionary spirit +which rages in the towns, but we forget the date at which this sober, +assiduous, conservatism made its appearance in history. The immediate +result of the change made in 1791 was a savage orgie of bloodshed and +outrage, nor was the wild fury, once let loose, sated by the blood of +Frenchmen. It was nearly a generation before the fire of Revolution +burnt itself out. The French peasantry of 1815 only came to value the +land they acquired, to devote their lives to its cultivation, after +twenty-three years of savage warfare had strewed the bones of their +fathers and their brothers over every battlefield from Salamanca to +Borodino, after Teuton and Cossack and Saxon had traversed French +territory from end to end.</p> + +<p>Nor does the work of revolution produce other effects among the backward +turbulent British population, whom Irish rhetoric describes as the Irish +nation. Whatever we might hope from the children or grandchildren of +those farmers who profited by the change which Mr. Parnell had already +brought about, to suppose that prudence and a judicious spirit of +self-interest would come to them as rapidly as the reduction of their +rents, was to ignore all the facts of human nature. The desire for +further winnings possessed them, as the passion of a gambler. Mr. +Parnell's triumphant personality was the first thought in their minds. +He had already taken 20 per cent. off their rents. Next time they were +confident he would take off 50 per cent. or abolish rent altogether.</p> + +<p>The Liberals who had been dreaming complacently about the happy results +of Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy awoke to find Ireland in possession of +the powerful, well-organized, hostile, combination known as the National +League.</p> + +<p>To make our readers understand what this power means, we should like to +be able to bring them within the closed doors of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span> the room where the +League Committee sits in the remote country village. We should then hear +the report of the member, respecting the funds obtained, their review of +the wealth and independence around them, within their reach, but not yet +brought under tribute, the gleeful narrative of resistance subdued, the +dark hints of resources for future conquest. The details of the action +of the League, as avowed by their press, have been published by the +Loyal and Patriotic Union, and would fill many pages of this Review.</p> + +<p>The rapid growth of the new organization is easily understood. They had +the past success of Mr. Parnell to work on, and this success was both +appreciable in their balance of unpaid rent at the Bank, and stimulating +to the imagination. The whole island was busy observing the execution of +Mr. Parnell's behests in the re-adjustment of contracts for land. The +Ministry, which had rebelled against his criticism and sprung at his +throat, had been compelled to bring him out of jail supplicating for his +alliance. The object of creating the new body was not so much to move +forward as to keep Mr. Parnell's friends well together, to take +advantage of the effect on the popular mind, which Mr. Parnell's +achievements were producing in every hamlet. The practical advantages +already won were an earnest of the future, secured new support, and +would give greater momentum and unity to the Parnellite movement; when +the time came for another attack upon property. The suspects who had +been imprisoned by Mr. Forster, constituted local centres for the +establishment of branches of the League. Every country public-house was +a place of meeting for the branches or their agents. Once the League was +organized in a particular district, the next point was to secure +subscriptions. Land-grabbing, that is, becoming tenant of land from +which some one else had been evicted, was the offence against which the +League in the first place directed its energies, and this disregard of +popular opinion was punished by social excommunication; but the system +of boycotting once called into requisition involved new duties and +responsibilities. If a man had not taken land himself, he might have +worked for some one who had, or bought cattle from a land-grabber. The +League in Kerry enjoined the following procedure on their subscribers:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'That any person found communicating with a few obnoxious +individuals in this locality will be expelled from the +league. That every person presenting cattle for sale at a +fair shall produce his card, and that no buyers shall +purchase from any person without producing the same.</p> + +<p>'That no individual shall sell to any dealer without +presenting his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span> card, as it is the only way to detect those +employed by the Defence Unionists, and that we call on the +other branches to follow this example.'—'United Ireland,' +Dec. 12th, 1885.</p></div> + +<p>As the power of the League became better established, the subscribers +were guaranteed against the caprice of their customers by such +resolutions as the following, adopted at New Ross:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'That we hereby give final notice to Mr. Murtagh Stafford, +that if he does not give back his work to the Nationalist +blacksmiths, Messrs. Bowe and Busher, we cannot retain him +on our league. That we inform all members of our branch that +we expect them to patronize National blacksmiths, artisans, +etc., if they wish to remain members.'—'New Ross Standard,' +Jan. 9th, 1886.</p></div> + +<p>The complicated equities, which arose under the operation of these local +tribunals, are illustrated by another case reported from Wexford.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Farrell and a man named Shee had been partners in a +thrashing machine. Shee was boycotted in 1883 for having +taken an evicted farm, and accordingly the machine was +allowed to remain idle. Under these circumstances both +agreed to dissolve partnership, and Farrell purchased Shee's +share in the machine for 370<i>l.</i>, a sum of 60<i>l.</i> being paid in +ready cash and the remainder being secured by a bill of +sale. Farrell then went to the Tullogher branch to get +"absolution for the machine," but his application was +refused, it being decided that Shee still had a certain +interest in it. In the "New Ross Standard," on Sept. 30th, +1885, Farrell, it is reported, being desirous of appealing +to the Central League in Dublin, had forwarded his statement +to the Tullogher branch and declared he was now ready to +verify it on oath. His request to have it sent on to the +Central League was, however, refused by the local +branch.'—'New Ross Standard.'</p></div> + +<p>The election to local public offices soon engaged the attention of the +League. The branches were not content with nominating candidates and +interfering with the elections; they next assumed the direction of the +proceedings of Boards of Guardians and Town Councils. At Ennis this +intervention was publicly announced by resolution.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'That in every future election to any office under the +board, no candidate shall be supported by the National +Guardians <i>unless he be a member of the National League</i> for +at least six months previous to the date of the election, +and produces his certificate, signed by the chairman and +secretary of the branch, and further, that when selecting a +candidate to be put forward for election, the minority of +the National guardians should be bound to act on vote with +the majority present and voting.'—'Clare Journal,' Nov. +11th, 1885.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span></p> + +<p>Contracts were only to be given to Members of the League. No one could +be elected to a country dispensary or engaged as solicitor by any +electoral body without the sanction of the League. A large portion of +the struggling professional classes in the South and West were forced by +a sense of self preservation to join the local associations. To remain +outside the ranks of the League was to forfeit a man's best chances of +getting on in life, and might any day become a personal danger. Mr. +Harrington M.P., who has been for some years in charge of the Central +Office of the League, tells us that 'at Meetings of the branches of the +Organization discussions frequently occur upon incidents in the +locality.' We can quite believe it, and are not surprised to find from +the columns of 'United Ireland' what is the result of these discussions.</p> + +<p>In a system of pillage and tyranny so elaborated, there was no necessity +to perpetrate acts of violence, frequently or continually. The daily +operation of the League was a standing outrage, bringing a proof of its +power to every man's door. A limited number of conspicuous crimes was +sufficient for the purposes of the League. Curtin was murdered in +November; Finlay, in the West of Ireland, in February; and the local +persecution of the families of the victims was even a more awful tribute +to the sway of the popular organization.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that Mr. Lecky, in former years the most +distinguished advocate of Irish Nationalism, in what may be called its +social aspects, should say of the organ of the National League, 'United +Ireland,' 'any English statesman who reads that paper, and then proposes +to hand over the property and the virtual government of Ireland to the +men whose ideas it represents, must be either a traitor or a fool.'</p> + +<p>There is no occasion to dwell on the existence of this body or the +character of its operations. They are part of the case of the +Government. Mr. Morley has frankly told us, that we ought to pass the +new Bill, because the League is so strong. If we did not, we should have +to quarrel with the League, and to meet not only this great association +as we knew it in its times of prosperity, but the League as supported by +all the reserve forces of Mr. Egan and Mr. Ford. At present these +leaders of public opinion send money; but if the National League, its +staff, its secretaries, its branches, its newspapers and Members of +Parliament, are not enough, they are ready to send dynamite.</p> + +<p>One remarkable fact, however, in connection with the National League +deserves special consideration, for it illustrates the singularly +disastrous character of Mr. Gladstone's interposition in Irish affairs. +The society, which we have endeavoured to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span> describe, and which Mr. +Morley recommends to our attention as the <i>locum tenens</i> of dynamite and +the dagger, is now officered in nearly every village by the priests of +the Roman Church. At the beginning of his career, Mr. Parnell personally +was regarded by the Roman Catholic hierarchy with suspicion, if not with +hostility. Mr. Butt had never succeeded in securing their hearty +co-operation in his Home Rule scheme. Mr. Parnell was not only a +Protestant, but expressed his contempt very freely for the adherents of +the Roman Church, whilst he avowed his sympathy with Revolutionists, +whom the Irish Catholic had been taught to regard as enemies of the Holy +Father. We can always trace in the history of this Church two forces at +work; the principle of order and authority, worldly and calculating, in +sympathy with the powers that be, trusting by skill and caution to +manipulate them for its own ends; and on the other hand, the wilder +spirit of sacerdotal ambition ready to ride the storm and dare +catastrophe. Before Mr. Gladstone's second Administration, the former +influence was gaining much strength in Ireland. Even if we make +allowance for the social origin of the Irish priests, filled from their +infancy with the rebel sentiment of the peasantry, there are many sins +that the disposition of their Church was until very recently to rely +upon intrigue and organization for gaining its ends, rather than to ally +itself openly with the Irish Revolution. Even after Mr. Parnell had +secured the allegiance of the farmer class by his great largess in the +shape of 20 per cent. reduction of rent, not only did Cardinal McCabe +continue to oppose him, but Archbishop Croke evinced a desire to act on +the side of Government.</p> + +<p>Such a line of action, however, was only possible on the supposition, +that government was to be maintained in Ireland; and the tenure of +Ireland by Lord Spencer gave no such assurance. We know the passionate +efforts which Mr. Gladstone made to exclude Archbishop Walsh from the +See of Dublin. Sir George Errington was sent to Rome to get the Pope to +do what Mr. Gladstone dare not do himself—bid defiance to the Irish +leader. That resolute politician had a policy; the English Minister had +none. A quarrel with the Nationalist party meant to the Roman Church +loss of income, loss of influence—influence which, in these +iconoclastic days, it might take them generations to recover; and, after +all their sacrifices, they might find that Mr. Gladstone had +capitulated, and had handed them and the rest of Ireland over to the +National League. Their only practical course, as discreet politicians, +was to throw in their lot with the great Nationalist leader, relying on +the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span> traditions of the Irish peasant to protect clerical interests +against the host of Revolutionists, who would, on Mr. Parnell's triumph, +flock into Ireland from all the ends of the earth. The priests do not +forget that the member for Cork denounced their co-religionists. They +have no enthusiasm for a revolutionary dictator, who, whatever his +opinions on religious matters, cannot be claimed as a son of the Church. +Mr. Gladstone, however, left the sacerdotal power no choice but to make +the best terms they could with the Irish leader, who was only too glad +to secure their co-operation. Archbishop Walsh has been accepted as a +sort of ecclesiastical assessor to Mr. Parnell's government, and at the +last election the priests went as one man for the National League.</p> + +<p>It is an Ireland, thus abandoned for years to the evil spirits evoked by +the rhetorician of Southport—an Ireland, in which the natural springs +of Conservatism have been dried up by the fever of slumbering +revolution—that England is now called upon to deal with, and the remedy +of the Ministry is to call into power a public opinion schooled in +conspiracy and violence; for now at length Mr. Gladstone has given up +the notion of intervening between Mr. Parnell and the Irish crowd. The +preachers of the gospel of plunder are invited to share in the +government of a part of the Kingdom.</p> + +<p>We shall not attempt to examine further the scheme which Mr. Gladstone +has foreshadowed, but which, as we write, is not yet published in +detail. One characteristic, we may note, in the Prime Minister's speech +was very unusual with him. It is full of admissions which seem to be due +not so much to his habitual daring as to unconsciousness of their +import. He is ready to buy out the landlords at a great cost to the +English taxpayer, because the idea of landed property came to the +Irishman in English garb, and is therefore not likely to be respected in +the new system; but why should he be obliged to make special provision +for the Irish judges? They are men of ability, of stainless character. +They do not belong to any particular party, or race, or creed; they are +members of a great profession which all civilized societies require. +They have that experience of their profession which would make their +services particularly useful to a community entering on a new social +stage; but the mere fact, that they have been engaged in applying the +law, makes their position dangerous, and Mr. Gladstone is obliged to ask +England to provide that they shall not suffer in purse from the opening +of the new era which he proposes in that part of the United Kingdom +where he has undertaken to reconstruct society.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[Pg 569]</a></span></p> + +<p>For the moment Mr. Morley prefers the <i>rôle</i> of Siéyes rather than of +Danton, but the outcome of the legislation, proposed by the Ministry +with the assent of Mr. Parnell, must be to advance, if not to +consummate, the theory of Irish Independence. We thus arrive at that +result which Mr. Morley, on his own principles, would find it difficult +to refuse assent to. He has told us that his policy is to be 'thorough.' +A separate Irish nationality or reconquest must be the ultimate +consequence of any substitution of local institutions in Ireland for the +Parliament at Westminster, unless so far as the proposed substitution +were part of a scheme common to all four components of the kingdom. Most +people will agree with the old Duke of Wellington, that 'the repeal of +the Union must be the dissolution of the connection between the two +countries.'</p> + +<p>To withdraw the English flag from Ireland as we did from the Ionian +Isles, to have a Convention called at Dublin to determine the future +government of the Island, such a plan would have the advantage that it +recognizes the one political opinion, which we can trace in Irish +popular expression—the desire to be done with England. It is true, that +the policy of Irish ideas declared at Southport was a means to an +end—the better union of the two countries—but pledged to two +antagonistic principles, Mr. Gladstone must some time choose which he +will abandon.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, in accepting Irish independence we shrink from +responsibility for the acts of England. We know that the disorder now +ruling in Ireland is, to some extent, the result of English +misgovernment in past generations, and instead of attempting by firmness +and patience to remedy the mischief our fathers have done, we leave the +future to Providence. In this aspect of the question, we would remind +our readers of the words used in our article on 'Disintegration' not +three years ago:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The highest interests of the Empire, as well as the most +sacred obligations of honour, forbid us to solve this +question by conceding any species of independence to +Ireland; or, in other words, any licence to the majority in +that country to govern the rest of Irishmen as they please. +To the minority, to those who have trusted us, and on the +faith of our protection have done our work, it would be a +sentence of exile or of ruin. All that is Protestant—nay, +all that is loyal—all who have land or money to lose, all +by whose enterprize and capital industry and commerce are +still sustained, would be at the mercy of the adventurers +who have led the Land League, if not of the darker +counsellors by whom the Invincibles have been inspired. If +we have failed after centuries of effort to make Ireland +peaceable and civilized, we have no moral right to abandon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[Pg 570]</a></span> +our post and leave all the penalty of our failure to those +whom we have persuaded to trust in our power. It would be an +act of political bankruptcy, an avowal that we were unable +to satisfy even the most sacred obligations, and that all +claims to protect or govern any one beyond our own narrow +island were at an end.'—'Quarterly Review,' October, 1883, +pp. 593, 594.</p></div> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone assured his hearers last week, that he was bent on +consolidating the unity of the kingdom; he would not tolerate that his +new constitution should be called a repeal of the Union; but his final +argument was this, 'Do not let us disguise this from ourselves. We stand +face to face with what is termed "Irish nationality."' Now, what is this +'Irish nationality'? Let us examine it from the point of view of the +welfare of the Irish population. It may be conceded at once that there +is a strong current of local sentiment running through the Irish +population of the south and west. This is a tender, home feeling—a very +different thing from the stronger, more complex, and more highly +developed, conception round which a political nationality gathers. It is +such a sentiment as exists in one form or another in every group of +counties, in every county, in every country-side, in almost every +village. It is a kindly recollection of old memories, associated with a +disposition to stand up for our own. It is the result of intimate +knowledge of certain habits and ideas, and a tender reminiscence of the +best types of character associated with those habits. This sentiment of +local feeling is the germ of nationality, but it exists in many regions +where the wider ideas of nationality have never supervened. There are +many other places again, where this same feeling remains fresh and +vigorous after the political nationality connected with it has passed +away, merged in larger conceptions, in a sense of more extended +interests.</p> + +<p>Such was the feeling of Cicero when he said that he had two countries. +His Volscian home was the country of his affection, but Rome that of +duty and right. Arpinum will always be my country, said he, but Rome +still more my country, for Arpinum has its share in the honours and +dominion of Rome.</p> + +<p>Such is the feeling of the proud and vigorous nationality occupying +North Britain, various in race, in creed, and in social condition, but +united in mutual knowledge, in local sympathies, and in self-respect. +The Scotch, as an aggregate, are intellectually, physically, and in +their local institutions and habits one of the most distinct national +types existing. They are drawn together by a strong sentiment of +patriotism, but they are as little likely to demand a separate political +system, a parliament sitting at Edinburgh, as the members from +Hampshire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[Pg 571]</a></span> and Wiltshire are likely to combine for the establishment of +parliamentary government on the banks of the Itchin.</p> + +<p>Now what is Ireland, and what indications has that portion of the +population known as Nationalist given of a capacity to form itself into +a nation? Ireland has a geographical boundary in a sea channel crossed +from Great Britain in three hours or in an hour and a-half, according to +the line of passage selected. It is inhabited by some five millions, +whose native language is English, with the exception of a decimal +percentage of mountaineers, who nearly all speak English as well as +Irish. The race is more mixed than in any other district of the kingdom +containing the same amount of population. The northern coasts are +thickly peopled by Scotch settlers. In the south and west are many +varieties of race not of English introduction, but strongly different +from each other. In many of the most Catholic districts of Munster and +Leinster we find, in the names, physique, and temper, of the people, +evident results of the Cromwellian settlements, although the faith and +political principles of their forefathers have passed away. With this +mixed population we have a social cleavage probably the most remarkable +in Europe. The mass of the people, except in about one-fifth of the +island on the north-east coast, are Roman Catholic, Celtic in their +traditions and habits, and extremely poor. The Northern fifth is +industrious, order-loving, prosperous, Protestant, and British in +sentiment. Next to the masses of the population in importance are the +great landowners, of whom six-sevenths are Protestants, and nearly the +whole of Norman, Scotch, or English origin. There is no important +mercantile class, except in the towns of Belfast, Dublin, and Cork; and +the professional classes, with the exception of the Catholic priesthood, +are chiefly Protestant and British.</p> + +<p>This population, so strangely wanting in homogeneity, have no history +which might attract them into unconsciousness of their differences. It +has been well said, that 'anybody who knew nothing of the Irish past, +except what he got from the speeches of Irish Nationalists, would +suppose that at some comparatively recent period the green flag had +floated over fleets and armies, and that Irish kings had played a part +of some kind in the field of modern European politics.' But as a matter +of fact Ireland has no part in European history before its conquest by +England. Not only was the kingdom of Ireland, as the style of the island +went before 1800, an English creation; but the name of Ireland has never +had any political significance except in connection with the English +crown.</p> + +<p>External signs of difference between English and Irish there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[Pg 572]</a></span> are many; +nimble apprehension, fluent utterance, genial demeanour, the attraction +of the flashing Celtic face, distinguish an Irish from an English group, +but characteristics like this do not prove any original or consistent +power of thought. They rather perhaps indicate the absence of it. It is +not on qualities like these, cemented even by strong feelings of home +sentiment, that we can expect to see the foundation of a new Nationality +happily laid. With one exception there is not a single idea, which an +orator could present to an Irish crowd, that could not be urged with +equal chance of sympathy upon an English crowd. Personal liberty, the +principles of no taxation without representation, of trial by jury, +freedom of conscience, sympathy with the prosperity of the greatest +number, all these are English ideas and must be illustrated, where they +need illustration, by the events of history peculiar to England or +common to the British dominion. The one topic, which is specially +attractive to an Irish meeting, is abuse of England as the source of +Irish misery. Community of hatred the mixed Nationalist population has, +but whether such a passion is sufficiently creative to build up a new +national type the reader can judge for himself. With this exception, +laws, political teachings, commercial habits, are all of English origin.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone, in recommending to the House of Commons his scheme for +the establishment of an independent Parliament in Ireland, cited as +precedents the independent Legislatures of Sweden and Norway, and of +Austria and Hungary. He dwelt particularly upon the precedent of +Norway:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Legislature of Norway has had serious controversies, +not with Sweden, but with the King of Sweden, and it has +fought out those controversies successfully upon the +strictest constitutional and Parliamentary grounds. And yet +with two countries so united, what has been the effect? Not +discord, not convulsion, not danger to peace, not hatred, +not aversion, but a constantly-growing sympathy; and every +man who knows their condition knows that I speak the truth +when I say, that in every year that passes the Norwegians +and the Swedes are more and more feeling themselves to be +the children of a common country, united by a tie which +never is to be broken.'</p></div> + +<p>If Mr. Gladstone had been better acquainted with the recent historic and +economic condition of Norway, of which we have given some account in our +present number,<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> he might have quoted that country as a warning +rather than an example. The 'Storthing,' or Parliament of Norway, is +omnipotent, and two-thirds of its representatives are permanently in the +hands of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[Pg 573]</a></span> peasant proprietor. The King has only a suspensive veto on +Bills enacted by the Storthing, which therefore become law, if passed in +their original form by three successive triennial Parliaments. The +recent dispute between the King and the Parliament, to which Mr. +Gladstone alluded, related to the right of the King to exercise an +absolute veto in the case of Bills affecting the principles of the +Constitution. The existence of such a right was denied by the Radical +majority in the Storthing, which established in 1884 a Supreme Court of +Justice composed exclusively of Radical members, and the Judges of the +ordinary High Court of Justice. It was a packed Court, bound to secrecy; +and the tribunal thus constituted condemned, in violation of the first +principles of justice, all the King's Ministers in Norway to deprivation +of office and to pecuniary fines, for having advised their master, that +the Constitution could not be altered without his sanction. The King was +compelled to yield, though he was supported in his opposition to the +Storthing by his Swedish Cabinet; and his ultimate submission to the +Radical majority in Norway was followed by a Ministerial crisis in +Sweden. The Swedes rightly argue that, if the King has no absolute veto +on matters affecting the principles of the Constitution in Norway, there +is no obstacle to an abolition of the Monarchical form of government in +that kingdom, or to a repeal of the union between the two countries. +There is in consequence much discontent in Sweden at the conduct of +Norway; and the Norwegians, on their side, have an intense and +ever-growing 'hatred and aversion' to the Swedes. Hence has arisen a +considerable tension in the official relations between the two countries +instead of the 'constantly growing sympathy' of which Mr. Gladstone +spoke. It is characteristic of the Prime Minister's mode of stating a +case, that he tells us the Norwegian controversies are 'not with Sweden +but with the King of Sweden.' Sweden has nothing to say in Norwegian +affairs, except in the person of the King. The King is the only +connecting link between the two countries. If the Dublin Parliament +should impeach the Irish Viceroy, we suppose Mr. Gladstone would tell us +that the difficulty was not with England but with Queen Victoria.</p> + +<p>Nor was Mr. Gladstone much happier in his allusion to Hungarian +Nationality in recent times. For more than 150 years Austria endeavoured +to extinguish the national life of Hungary. In 1867 this policy was +definitely abandoned, and Hungary was called to a share in the Empire of +the Hapsburgs. As recently as last October Mr. Parnell, when insisting +that Ireland must have an independent Parliament, said: 'We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[Pg 574]</a></span> can point +to the example of other countries—to Austria and to Hungary—to the +fact that Hungary, having been conceded self-government, became one of +the strongest factors in the Austrian Empire.' The favour, with which +these references have been received by the Liberal party, is a singular +example how far afield they are ready to go in search of an argument. +Austria, in 1867, was a great military despotism, tottering to its fall +amidst a group of eager rivals. A general appeal to the nation, such as +France made at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, was out of the +question. Differences of race, differences of language, differences of +social condition, made national unity impossible within the wide +dominions of the House of Austria. The government at Vienna consented to +the division of its territories into groups of nearly equal strength. In +each of these groups various alien nationalities were clustered round a +central power more advanced in politics, in civilization, and in wealth, +than the adjacent territories. Instead of trying to weld their multiple +varieties of race into one great popular community, Austria, smitten at +Sadowa, shared her dominion with Hungary, and asked her to take charge +of the Government of the East Leithan Slavs, whilst the German +population of Austria dealt with the Czechs and Moravians and +Carinthians on the western side of the river.</p> + +<p>Sir Henry Elliott has well pointed out, that what success the experiment +has had is in no small degree due to the large powers still enjoyed by +the Crown, and to the personal character and influence of the Emperor +Francis, the connecting link between the two dominions; but apart from +this actual result, the feasibility of the dual scheme depended on the +following considerations. In the first place, there was no alternative +in the condition in which the House of Austria found itself in 1867, +defeated in battle and bankrupt in finance. Without some such +arrangement civil war was inevitable, with the ultimate prospect of the +absorption of the various races by the hostile neighbouring Powers. In +the second place, the allies were pretty nearly equal in strength as +regards each other, whilst they were each similarly weighted by the +difficulty of holding their own within the respective territories +assigned them. They were each so busy with their subordinate territories +and the less advanced populations inhabiting them, that it was not their +interest or their inclination to bring about conflicts with each other. +Hungary boasts a larger area than Austria, and a population equal to +three-fourths that of the Western Monarchy. On the western side of the +Leitha the dominant race, dominant by force of nature, by brain power, +and the traditions and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[Pg 575]</a></span> acquirements this power has given them, are 36 +per cent. of the whole population. In the Transleithan provinces the +race similarly situated, the Magyar, constitutes about 40 per cent. of +the whole population.</p> + +<p>There is not a single circumstance in the relations between England and +Ireland to make reference to the creation of the Empire-Kingdom anything +but an absurdity. Ireland never can compare with Great Britain in +material resources. Her population is hardly one-sixth that of the +larger island, whilst her area is little more than a third. She is +deficient in climate, in soil, in mineral resources, and in population. +Not only is she without a well-organized aristocracy skilled in +political science, such as Hungary boasted; Ireland, as the term is +understood by the National League, is without an educated class. Her +intellect is represented by the moonlight maurauder and the fanatic +priest. As regards England, the parallel is still more preposterous: She +is not a military despotism, but a well-organized community, boasting +parliamentary traditions of a thousand years. Her shores are guarded by +sea from foreign interference. Notwithstanding many scandalous +shortcomings in her rulers, her influence and her power are still +unrivalled in the world. However long Mr. Gladstone may rule, her Sadowa +is yet to come; and, if it did come, the example of the Dual State would +offer no solution of our Irish difficulties, for none of the conditions +which made the Dual State possible exist in the case of the two chief +British Islands.</p> + +<p>The delusive character of Mr. Gladstone's reference to the Dual State is +best illustrated by the facts, that the council for common affairs +consist of an equal number of representatives from each side of the +dominion, that this council is concerned with military and foreign +affairs, two subjects on which, according to the new scheme, Ireland is +to have no vote.</p> + +<p>It will be found, on a little examination, that appeals to the example +of the foreigner are as misleading as the theory of nationality. All +such arguments are only endeavours to divert the public from the +exercise of their own judgment and common-sense in dealing with the +mischiefs which the perverse genius of Mr. Gladstone has created. +Recognized principles of government, the ordinary traditions of England +applied with the happy immunity from friction, which the commercial +policy of modern times makes possible, would have long since settled the +difficulty, but it would have been settled in disregard of that popular +Irish feeling which, in 1867, Mr. Gladstone pledged himself to follow. +He would have had to admit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[Pg 576]</a></span> that his new Irish policy was a mistake; and +he never admits that he has made any mistake—unless it be in Egypt—or +in acting on the opinion of other people. When he has discovered a new +line of policy, he believes himself infallible. Let us assume for a +moment, that the combination of the personal adherents of Mr. Gladstone +and of Mr. Parnell enables the Prime Minister to pass some measure on +the lines he has selected, or on those laid down by Mr. Davitt, and that +the rowdy treason of a Dublin Cabinet proceeds to bring within the +sphere of its operations what wealth and civilization has hitherto +escaped the National League.</p> + +<p>In the struggle which must ensue, we shall have within three hours of +our shores a raging volcano of revolution, threatening the peace of +Europe and our own. Fenians, Nihilists, and Irish Yankees, will flock to +the new vantage ground. The conflict between Socialism and property, +between infidelity and superstition, will be fought out amidst the +strangest complications of local hatred and of fiscal disorder. If +foreign governments abstain from interfering, and we escape consequent +difficulties with them, are we sure that we ourselves will be able to +remain passive spectators? Many of us are old enough to recollect the +agitation which shook this kingdom during the struggle between North and +South on the other side of the Atlantic. No question of Home politics +for generations past had so deeply moved our people. It required all the +exertions of the most sober part of the nation to prevent our becoming +involved in the conflict, and we recollect the help this party of wisdom +got from the impulsive statesman who has undertaken for the third time +the final settlement of the Irish question. If the great American Civil +War, desolating a country three thousand miles away, thus stirred +popular feeling, what will be the result of a Civil War between, on the +one side, the Irish Celt animated by religious hatred and love of +plunder, and supported by the Irish American, and on the other the +loyalty, endurance and Protestantism of Ulster—a Civil War almost +within sight of our shores?</p> + +<p>But, if we turn from the suggestions of empiricism and vanity and come +to those practical considerations which affect men's minds in matters so +important as political organization, the main argument pressed on +English people is that we cannot go on as we are. 'Irish Government is a +failure.' 'We must close this terrible crisis as rapidly as possible.' +'Separation itself, could not be worse than the present state of +things.' 'The Act of Union has completely failed. After eighty-four +years it has given an Ireland more hostile to England than at any period +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[Pg 577]</a></span> its history.' Mr. Gladstone recites the number of Coercion Acts, +which have been passed since 1832, and declares 'we are like the man +who, knowing that medicine may be the means of his restoration to +health, endeavours to live upon medicine.'</p> + +<p>Before considering whether this confession of failure is true, we would +remind our readers what it implies, what it leads up to. It is now +proposed as an argument for establishing a separate Parliament in +Dublin. The establishment of this separate Parliament is necessary, +because we must give Ireland the opportunity of doing what we ourselves +are unable to do, to find the best machinery they can to carry on the +business of government. But, when this machinery is once found and +invested with the resources and influence of a Government, we cannot +suppose that our troubles will be at an end. If disputes arise in the +working out of the new Irish Constitution, the popular majority will not +be slow to call in the aid of the American Irish who have founded the +National League. Mr. Jennings, whose opinion on this matter is entitled +to great weight, from his long residence in the United States, reminded +the House that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'one consideration which they must bear in mind was that of +the formidable difficulties which would inevitably arise +from the action of the great body of Irish Americans. If +this Bill granted to Ireland a free and independent +Parliamentary Assembly with full powers over the Executive, +as proposed by the Prime Minister, there would inevitably +come a time when either the payment of the interest due, or +some other cause, would bring the Irish Parliament into +antagonism with the English. If they were to endeavour to +demand what was necessary, whether payment of interest or +what not, and to threaten to use force, could any one +suppose that the great body of Irish Americans would stand +by silently and see that done? He believed that the United +States would say to them: "You have acknowledged your +incompetence to govern Ireland; you have given her practical +independence, now you must take your hands off her; we will +not stand by and see her crushed." He believed that there +was no government in the United States which could withstand +such pressure as that which would be brought to bear on it +by the Irish Americans, especially if a Presidential +election were near.'</p></div> + +<p>But is this allegation of failure actually true? For our part we are +inclined to agree with Lord Hartington, that the argument founded on the +paralysis of government in Ireland in recent years is allowed more +weight in this question than it should have. In the first place, it is +difficult to see how any government conducted as ours has been during +the last few years, could be other than disastrous, Mr. Gladstone, at +the commencement of his career<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[Pg 578]</a></span> as leader of the Liberal party, pledged +himself to the policy of Irish ideas, ignorant, if not reckless, of what +the term meant. Year by year he has been getting a closer view of the +creed he had unconsciously adopted, and, after a struggle, he accepts +one dogma, then another. The great dogma of all in the Home Ruler's +creed, that Englishmen should be sent bag and baggage out of Ireland, +has not yet been adopted; and naturally the Home Ruler keeps his +resources ready for that ringing of the chapel bell to which Mr. +Gladstone alluded in speaking of the Clerkenwell explosion and its +effect on the question of the Irish Establishment. The 'dynamite and the +dagger,' to which Mr. Morley recently appealed as conclusive reasons for +passing the Cabinet scheme, retain their fascination for the Irish mind.</p> + +<p>As long as Mr. Gladstone is a power in English public life, and his +pledges given in Lancashire are unredeemed or unrepudiated, the Home +Rule party will press him without mercy; but it is not reasonable to +argue from their success, a success which Mr. Gladstone has given them, +that they exercise a permanent influence on Irish affairs. When the +Southport pledges were given, the Irish land laws were yet without that +reform which a series of Governments, Tory as well as Whig, had admitted +to be necessary. It could not be said until after 1870 that the book of +English neglect of Irish interests was finally closed, and that is only +sixteen years ago. During this period we have seen the great English +Parliamentary Ruler continually plunging after coercion, and returning +to make some other big concession to agitation. Thus Ireland has had no +chance of trying what a good system of laws consistently administered +could supply. The principle of the Land Act of 1870 was a provision for +the protection of property—the tenants' property recognized by custom +during a long course of years, although ignored by the law and exposed +to confiscation by the reckless Whig legislation of 1850-2. The Land Act +of 1881 was an arbitrary attempt to remedy the misfortunes of an +improvident agricultural interest by legislative interference with +contract. Contracts were readjusted and finally settled for fifteen +years to come. Political economy was bidden to take itself off, but +prices varied quite regardless of Mr. Gladstone's arrangements, and the +weather did not pay them the least consideration. The passion for +revolution was stimulated, and a large number of Mr. Gladstone's clients +are as badly off as before. Might it not be worth while to try for a +time how far good government, after the removal of all substantial +grievances, might supply that 'real settlement,' 'that finality,' which +the country is now asked to find in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[Pg 579]</a></span> Dublin Parliaments, First Orders, +and bribes at the cost of the English taxpayer?</p> + +<p>This counter-policy of maintaining order and good government in Ireland +should be emphasized by measures to make that island, even more +completely than she now is, a part of the United Kingdom. The Queen's +laws in Ireland are the same, except in some slight details, as in +England. The Irish judicature might be made part of the High Court at +Westminster. The Queen's writs from Westminster should run throughout +Ireland as they have done for hundreds of years throughout Wales. +Limerick or Sligo are not so remote from London now as Harlech or Durham +were in the reign of George I. The Irish judges would form no +undistinguished addition to the English Bench, while the presence of +English judges on circuit in Ireland would have the best effect in +disarming the animosity of the people against the law. It is too often +forgotten in these days that, however rapidly we move from place to +place, however swift the transmission of intelligence, the human mind +has not yet acquired the nimbleness of the telegraph needle. Habits of +thought are not changed as rapidly as the fashions of our dress. It is +only sixteen years since our Irish legislation has assumed its present +form, and we are ready to throw to the winds all maxims of statecraft, +all principles hitherto recognized in the delicate work of government. +We are in despair, and call in the company of <i>à priori</i> statesmen—men +whose sole qualification to deal with complex questions is the fact that +they have studied the science of revolution. Why should we not try, now +that we have provided for manifest Irish grievances, what time, and +resolution, and common-sense, might do for us and our Irish +fellow-subjects?</p> + +<p>The first part of the Government policy is disclosed. We have still to +learn what its complement, the Land Purchase Bill, is to be, what +proposal is to be made about loyal Ulster, the subject on which Mr. +Gladstone was so strangely vague, on which Mr. Parnell was discreetly +silent. These further manifestations of Cabinet wisdom can hardly save +the scheme now lingering on to death. We wish we could be certain, that +this collapse would rid Parliament and Ireland of all such projects for +the future. But, whatever be the fate of the present Ministry, we may be +sure that the end is not yet, unless Mr. Parnell's faction is completely +broken, unless the policy urged by Lord Hartington is firmly adopted, +and party life reorganized in England, on the principle of excluding the +Irish vote from consideration in our party conflicts. If no such +resolution is enforced by English patriotism, Irish Nationalists will +return to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[Pg 580]</a></span> their demands, enhanced in power and renown by the tribute +they have extorted from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>On these events of the future we shall not now speculate; but if past +history throws any light on the character of our population, one thing +may be confidently predicted. If Home Rule should be ultimately conceded +to Ireland, the political party which may be responsible for the +carrying of the scheme, will have to look forward to a long period of +exclusion from public confidence. However the British people may be +worried or deluded into forgetfulness of their duty to themselves and to +Ireland, the working of a Dublin Parliament will soon rouse them, the +reaction will set in; and the authors of the scheme will have before +them as lengthened a banishment from power, as the country gentlemen +suffered when their chivalrous devotion to the House of Stuart blinded +them for a time to the practical interests of England; as was the fate +of the Whigs at the beginning of this century, when they identified +their party with implacable opposition to Pitt's struggle to deliver +Europe from the tyranny of Bonaparte.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> See Art. IV. 'Yeomen Farmers in Norway.'</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[Pg 581]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INDEX_TO_THE_HUNDRED_AND_SIXTY-SECOND_VOLUME_OF_THE_QUARTERLY_REVIEW" id="INDEX_TO_THE_HUNDRED_AND_SIXTY-SECOND_VOLUME_OF_THE_QUARTERLY_REVIEW"></a>INDEX TO THE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SECOND VOLUME OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.</h2> + + +<p> +A.<br /> +<br /> +St. Alban's Abbey, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its revenue, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">culture of the vine, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its Grammar School, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Scriptorium, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Historiographers, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Abbot's, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Alford, Dean, on the severance of the Church from the State, 7.<br /> +<br /> +Apostolic Fathers, the, by the Bishop of Durham, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ignatius contrasted with St. Clement, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his uncertain birth and origin, <a href='#Page_471'>471</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">martyrdom, <a href='#Page_472'>472</a>, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">testimony to the Apostolical succession, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the 'short,' 'middle' and 'long' form, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forgery in the 'long' recension, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">literary war on episcopacy, <a href='#Page_476'>476</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Milton's invective, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Archbp. Ussher's discovery, <a href='#Page_477'>477</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">condemns the Epistle to Polycarp, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cureton's version, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">genuineness of the seven Epistles known to Eusebius <a href='#Page_479'>479</a>, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">style and diction, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">external testimony, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Apostolical Constitutions,' <a href='#Page_485'>485</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Irenæus on Apostolic succession, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Linus at Rome, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Polycarp on episcopacy, <a href='#Page_487'>487</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clement of Rome and Papias, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Theological Polemics, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Judaists and Gnostics, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>S. Polycarp</i>, his history and writings, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reverence paid to him, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reviving Paganism, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">legend of his youth, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meets Ignatius, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reminiscences by Irenæus, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his martyrdom, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a>, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Aracan. <i>See</i> Burma.<br /> +<br /> +Archives of the Venetian Republic, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>. <i>See</i> Venetian.<br /> +<br /> +d'Aumale, Duc his 'Histoire des Princes de Condé,' 80<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his tribute to Gen. France d'Houdetot, 107.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +B.<br /> +<br /> +Bagehot, Mr. Walter, his 'English Constitution,' <a href='#Page_518'>518</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his character, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of his writings, <a href='#Page_532'>532</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">universal and varied representation, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">clear style, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the principle of evolution, <a href='#Page_535'>535</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on royal education, <a href='#Page_536'>536</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Constitutional monarchy, <a href='#Page_537'>537</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Banker, the Country, by Mr. George Rae, 133<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Joint Stock Banking, 134</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loanable capital, 135</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trade interests, 136</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">individual responsibility, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">limited liability, 137</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">uncovered advances, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prosperity of Scotland, 138</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">difference between a mortgage and a bill of exchange, 139</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fixed capital, 140</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">floating capital, 141</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegraphic transfer, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personal security, 142</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'runs' on a bank, 143-145</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">banking reserve, 145</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">panics, 146, 147</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Act of 1844, 147</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Golden Age, 149</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bank Law of Germany, 149, 150</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">National Banks of the U.S., 150</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Swedish Banks, 151</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">banking system of Australasia, 152</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Popular Banks in Italy, 153</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with the Post Office Savings-banks in England, 154.</span><br /> +<br /> +Batchelor, Rev. H., sermon upon 'The Bishops on Disestablishment,' 38.<br /> +<br /> +Beaconsfield, Lord, his historic warning in 1880 of danger in Ireland, <a href='#Page_551'>551</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bismarck, Prince, his opinion of Mr. Gladstone, 281, 282.<br /> +<br /> +Books and Reading, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir John Lubbock's list, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Comte's catalogue or syllabus, <a href='#Page_502'>502</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indolent readers, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">perplexity of the student, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">difficulties in classification, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Weldon's practical list, <a href='#Page_507'>507</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. F. Harrison's 'Choice of Books, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the desultory reader, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dibdin's 'Library Companion,' <a href='#Page_509'>509</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chroniclers and Historians, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">philosophical histories, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Voyages and Travels, <a href='#Page_511'>511</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Children's Books, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Lowell's maxim for reading, <a href='#Page_513'>513</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of odd moments, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">periodical literature, <a href='#Page_515'>515</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[Pg 582]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">selection of books, <a href='#Page_516'>516</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">students' books, <a href='#Page_517'>517</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fragmentary reading, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Brewer, Prof., his 'Introductions,' <a href='#Page_293'>293</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Essay on 'New Sources of English History,' <a href='#Page_294'>294</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">draws attention to the value of the 'Calendars,' <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +British Empire. <i>See</i> Travels.<br /> +<br /> +Broch, Dr., '<i>Le Royaume de Norvège et le Peuple Norvégien</i>,' <a href='#Page_384'>384</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his Report for the Exhibition at Paris, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">production of cereals and potatoes in Norway, in 1875, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a> <i>note</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Yeomen.</span><br /> +<br /> +Brown, Rev., on the control exercised in the Dissenting Churches, 37.<br /> +<br /> +----, Mr. Rawdon, the late, his facsimiles of the Autographs in the <i>Lettere Principi</i>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Venetian.</span><br /> +<br /> +Burma, Past and Present, 210<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of rivers, 211</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of India and China, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chief nationalities, 213</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Karens, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of Buddhism, 214</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">affinity with Ceylon, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hindoo nomenclature, 215</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">architectural remains, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the city of Pagân, 216</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Niccolo de' Conti's geographical accuracy, 217</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pegu captured, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the <i>Yuva Raja's</i> gorgeous court, 218</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">extravaganzas of F. M. Pinto, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">splendour of the monarchy, 219</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">internal and external wars, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reign of Nicote, 220</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his execution, 221</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decay of the power of Ava, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resistance of Alompra, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his successes and death, 222, 223</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ran-gûn founded, 222</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conquest of Aracan, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">peace concluded between China and Ava, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Capt. Symes, Envoy to the Burmese Court, 224</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Wellesley's endeavours for a treaty of alliance, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">geographical extent of the Empire, 225</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir A. Campbell's conquests, 226</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Col. H. Burney's residence, 227</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Dalhousie annexes Pegu, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Capt. A. Phayre's successful administration of Pegu, 228</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of Mengdûn-Meng, and succession of Theebau, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">massacre of the prisoners, 229</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">revolt at Hlain, 230</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">English Residency withdrawn, 231</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relations with France cultivated, 232</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gen. D'Orgoni's mission, 233</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the French Envoy's secret articles disavowed, 234</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">French occupation of the Anamite provinces, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Franco-Burmese Treaty, 235</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Bank at Mandalay, 236</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation, 237</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ultimatum of the Indian Government, 238</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resources of, 287.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +C.<br /> +<br /> +'Calendars,' the, of Letters and Papers, Prof. Brewer's 'Introductions' to, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Colony, the, treatment of, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Carlyle's account of the Royalist attack on Salisbury, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his false image of Cromwell, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Cromwell.</span><br /> +<br /> +Cervantes, Life of, 58.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> 'Don Quixote.'</span><br /> +<br /> +Chamberlain, Mr., his bribe to the rural voters, 258<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Mr. Gladstone's manifesto, 290.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Parliament.</span><br /> +<br /> +Christian Brothers, the, Religious Schools in France and England, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the <i>Frères Chrétiens</i> founded by De la Salle, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">work at Paris, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vow of dedication, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Articles of rules for the Society, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">laymen appointed in preference to priests, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the five vows and rule of daily life, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Manuals for their guidance, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conditions of punishment, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of the work, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolished during the Reign of Terror, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">revived under Napoleon, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discouragements, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our Duties towards Ourselves, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morals, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Freedom of Labour, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gregory on Competition, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Political Duties, <a href='#Page_342'>342</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cross of honour awarded after the Prussian invasion, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scholarships gained, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Church and State, 2<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Hartington's loyalty, 3</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imputation on the Tories, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Liberationist tactics, 4, 7</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone's manifesto, 5, 6</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">finances of the Liberation Society, 8, 9</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scottish subscriptions, 10</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Welsh Nonconformists, 11</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of Democracy, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Liberation leaflets, 13-16</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cost of 'voluntary schools,' 16</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pope Gelasius on tithes, 17</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Church in Wales and London, 18-21</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of adult baptisms, 21</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. G. Rogers on Disendowment, 22</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the 'Radical programme,' 23, 24</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bp. Magee on Disestablishment, 25</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">M. Scherer on Democracy, 27</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the question of inequality, 28</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">history and effects of Establishment, 29</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">misstatements, 30</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spiritual influence, 31</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">example of the United States, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of the voluntary system, 32, 33</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denominational rivalry, 34</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Bancroft on the Church in Virginia, 35</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">danger of rashness in any change, 36</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">control in the Dissenting Church, 37</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">case of Jones <i>v.</i> Stannard, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[Pg 583]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rev. H. Batchelor's sermon, 38</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decrease of Baptist and Congregational pastors, 39</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Bp. of Rochester's estimate of the parishes that would suffer, 40</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bp. of Derry's experience, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Cid, the, Poem of, 46.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> 'Don Quixote.'</span><br /> +<br /> +Clement, St., compared to Ignatius, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Colonies, the British. <i>See</i> Travels in British Empire.<br /> +<br /> +Condé, the House of, 80<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character of Henri, the third Prince, 81</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">married to Charlotte de Montmorency, 82</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">avidity for wealth, 83</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">applies for a bishopric for his infant son, 84</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Richelieu's reply, 85</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imprisonment, 85-89</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joined by his wife, 89</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth of his son Duc d'Anguien, 90</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his education, 91-93</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at the Military Coll., Paris, 94</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">government of Burgundy, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his child-bride, 95</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imprisonment at Vincennes, 96</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first campaign, 97</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Richelieu's domination, 98</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">efforts for his safety, 99</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">treatment of the Cardinal-Archb., <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">changes on Richelieu's death, 100</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his appearance described, 101</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">military talents, 102</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">generals, 103</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personal courage, 104.</span><br /> +<br /> +Constitution, English, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a> <i>sqq.</i><br /> +<br /> +Cowper, Lord, his letter on supporting the Land-Act of 1881, 277.<br /> +<br /> +Cromwell, Oliver:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his character illustrated by himself, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">received version of the Insurrection of March, 1655, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meeting at Marston Moor, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attack on Salisbury, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">endeavours to stimulate an insurrection, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">counsels of false friends, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">secret agents, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intercepted letter to Mr. Roles, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a> <i>note</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Earl of Rochester and his comrades land at Dover, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrested and released, <a href='#Page_422'>422</a>, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morton, the sham-Royalist, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Douthwaite's movements, suspected, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Judges refuse to try the Marston Moor prisoners, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trial of Salisbury insurgents, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">twelve Major-Generals, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Declaration' to secure the Peace of the Commonwealth, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">projects of the Royalists in March, 1655, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">officers and soldiers kept from Salisbury, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Major Butler forbidden to take active operations, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his account of the dispersal of the Royalists at Marston Moor, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">alleged 'rendezvous' of Royalists to surprise Newcastle, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Rufford Abbey incident, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shropshire insurrection, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pickering's story about Chester Castle, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Earl of Rochester and Armourer arrested at Aylesbury, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their escape, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">power of deception, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the 'Thurloe Papers,' <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">incredulity of the members of his Parliament, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">motive for the fabrication of the Insurrection, <a href='#Page_439'>439</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech on the dissolution of Parliament in Jan. 1655, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carlyle's false image of the Hero, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">claims the Divine sanction, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +D.<br /> +<br /> +Dalley, Mr., of Sidney, on a better organization of the Navy for the Colonies.<br /> +<i>See</i> Travels.<br /> +<br /> +Darwin's view of primitive human society, 182.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Patriarchal Theory.</span><br /> +<br /> +Davitt, Mr., on Irish landlords, 292.<br /> +<br /> +Democracy, M. Scherer on, 2<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its tendency to despotism, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. G. White on English aristocracy and American democracy, <a href='#Page_523'>523</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its tolerance of oppression, <a href='#Page_525'>525</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Godkin on American politics, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure of, in the Spanish and Portuguese States, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political aim of the Reign of Terror, <a href='#Page_528'>528</a>, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">real meaning of equality, <a href='#Page_531'>531</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Bagehot's views, <a href='#Page_532'>532</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">universal and varied representation, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence exercised by hereditary Princes and aristocracies, <a href='#Page_535'>535</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">errors of George III.'s reign, <a href='#Page_536'>536</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">royal education, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Constitutional Monarchy, <a href='#Page_537'>537</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Vigilance Committee' in California, <a href='#Page_538'>538</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strikes in Pennsylvania, <a href='#Page_539'>539</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">value of the English Poor Law, <a href='#Page_540'>540</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Irish famine, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Belgian riots, <a href='#Page_532'>532</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">American charity, <a href='#Page_543'>543</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Democracy, 11, 25.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Church.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dibdin, Mr., on the present features of Establishment, 29.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Church.</span><br /> +<br /> +'Don Quixote,' Mr. Ormsby's, 43<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ignorance of Spanish literature in England, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a key to the history of Europe, 45</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popularity of the work, 46</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">translations, 47-49</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Doré's illustrations, 50</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proverbs, 51, 52</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opening of the 2nd Part, 53</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emendations, 54</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Life of Cervantes,' 58</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his personal history little known, 59</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early years, 61</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Rome, and at the battle of Lepanto, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prisoner in Algiers, 62</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">liberated, 63</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage, 64</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">collector of revenue at Granada, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">life in Madrid, 65</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death, 66</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[Pg 584]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">no known portrait of him, 67</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">describes his own features, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">theories for the popularity of his work, 68-71</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">broad humour, 71</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chivalry, 72</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">C. Kingsley's opinion, 73</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">madness of the knight, 74</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sancho's character, 76</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordinances for good government, 78.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dörpfeld, on the method of lighting at Tiryns, 122.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Tiryns.</span><br /> +<br /> +Doyle, Sir F., translation of the Olympian Ode, 178.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Pindar.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +E.<br /> +<br /> +Education, royal, <a href='#Page_536'>536</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">religious, in France. <i>See</i> Christian Brothers.</span><br /> +<br /> +Eusebius. <i>See</i> Apostolic Fathers.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +F.<br /> +<br /> +Fergusson, Mr. J., on lighting the Parthenon, 123.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Tiryns.</span><br /> +<br /> +France, primary schools of, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Christian Brothers.</span><br /> +<br /> +Froude, J. A., his 'Oceana, or England and her Colonies,' <a href='#Page_443'>443</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">our responsibility with the Boers, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Free Trade, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">love of 'old home' in the Colonies, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Travels.</span><br /> +<br /> +Fustel de Coulanges, M., his 'Recherches sur quelques problèmes d'Histoire',<br /> +187.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +G.<br /> +<br /> +Gaius, the Commentaries of, found by Niebuhr, 183.<br /> +<br /> +Gasparin, Comte Agenor, on the titles of landowners, &c., 17.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Church.</span><br /> +<br /> +Gildersleeve, Prof., his contribution to Pindaric literature, 161, <i>note</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Gladstone, Mr., his manifesto on Church Establishment, 5<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ambiguity, 6</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">preparations for Home Rule in 1882, 261</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enigmatical replies, 263</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'healing measures' for Ireland, 265</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his 'Divine light' and Irish policy, 266</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">coercions and concessions, 268</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Leeds, 273 belief in him, 275</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the Irish question, 275, 276</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">foreign policy, 281</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the advances of Russia, 282, 283.</span><br /> +<br /> +Gladstone-Morley Administration, the, <a href='#Page_544'>544</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the two 'Orders' for the Irish Parliament, <a href='#Page_545'>545</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">voting power of the Nationalists, <a href='#Page_547'>547</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone's appeal to Southport in 1867, <a href='#Page_547'>547</a>-549</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolition of Irish Establishment, <a href='#Page_549'>549</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Home Rule Association denounced at Aberdeen, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Butt on Home Rule, <a href='#Page_550'>550</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Beaconsfield's warning in 1880, <a href='#Page_551'>551</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, and a Coercion Act, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Land League dissolved, Mr. Parnell and its leaders in jail, <a href='#Page_552'>552</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Forster's exertions, <a href='#Page_553'>553</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Spencer's responsibilities, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the National League, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removal of Mr. Clifford Lloyd and Mr. Trevelyan, <a href='#Page_554'>554</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delay in renewing the Crimes Act, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declarations of Imperial unity, <a href='#Page_555'>555</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. C. Bannerman on the Parnellite demands, <a href='#Page_556'>556</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Hartington's protestation, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone's telegram denying the scheme as sketched in the Press, <a href='#Page_557'>557</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Chamberlain's denial of being a party to it, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declaration of Lord Salisbury's Government to maintain the Union, <a href='#Page_558'>558</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. J. Collings's motion, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">new Ministry, <a href='#Page_559'>559</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. J. Morley's appointment; his inexperience, <a href='#Page_560'>560</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">system of guarantees, <a href='#Page_561'>561</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evictions, <a href='#Page_562'>562</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">example of the French peasantry, <a href='#Page_563'>563</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">power of the National League, <a href='#Page_563'>563</a>, <a href='#Page_564'>564</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instance of Farrell and Shee, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election to local public offices, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Lecky on the National League, <a href='#Page_566'>566</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sympathy of the Irish priests, <a href='#Page_567'>567</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Archbp. Walsh, <a href='#Page_567'>567</a>, <a href='#Page_568'>568</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">provision for Irish judges, <a href='#Page_568'>568</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">our responsibilities to Ireland, <a href='#Page_569'>569</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Irish nationality, <a href='#Page_570'>570</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">population, <a href='#Page_571'>571</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared to Norway and Hungary, <a href='#Page_572'>572</a>-574</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">deficient resources of Ireland, <a href='#Page_575'>575</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Jennings on an Irish Parliament, <a href='#Page_577'>577</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Land Purchase Bill, <a href='#Page_579'>579</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Goschen, Mr., his 'Hearing, Reading, Thinking,' <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Books.</span><br /> +<br /> +Grant White, Mr. R., his sketches of English and American Life, <a href='#Page_523'>523</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grosseteste's Letters, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +H.<br /> +<br /> +Hahn, F. von, on Roman Law, 187.<br /> +<br /> +Hallam's 'Hist. of the Middle Ages,' ignorance of English Monasticism, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harcourt, Sir William, his prophecy about the Tory party, 261.<br /> +<br /> +Hardy, Sir T. Duffus, on the Madden Hypothesis, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the St. Albans Scriptorium, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Harnack, Dr. on episcopacy, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a>-486.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Apostolic Fathers.</span><br /> +<br /> +Harrison, Mr., 'Choice of Books', <a href='#Page_507'>507</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hartington, Lord, on Disestablishment, 3<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the Law of the Land League, 267</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[Pg 585]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">no warning being given of the proposed legislation for Ireland, 556.</span><br /> +<br /> +Haxthausen, Baron von, on Slavonic and Russian society, 193-195.<br /> +<br /> +Historians of Greece and Rome, their superficial area, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Historical Commission, the, publication of the House of Lords MSS., 242.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Lords.</span><br /> +<br /> +Home Rulers, increased strength of, 260.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Parliament, Gladstone, &c.</span><br /> +<br /> +Homicides, number in New York, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Horses, breed of, upheld in Hellas, 159.<br /> +<br /> +d'Houditot, Gen. C., tribute to his memory by the Duc d'Aumale, 107.<br /> +<br /> +Hübner, Baron, his 'Through the British Empire,' <a href='#Page_444'>444</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the disadvantage of complete independence to the Australian Colonist, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Boers in Africa, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">idea of a grand confederation, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Civil Service of India, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devotion and daily labours of the officials, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">no desire for self-government, <a href='#Page_454'>454</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Socialism and Atheism, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the native Press, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prosperity, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his adventure in New York, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Hughes, Mr., on the voluntary system in the United States, 32.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +I.<br /> +<br /> +Iddesleigh, Earl of, address to the Students at Edinburgh, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ignatian Epistles, the Bp. of Durham on the, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Apostolic Fathers.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ignatius, meaning of his name, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Indemnity, the Act of, 249.<br /> +<br /> +India, our administrations of, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Italy, the Popular Banks of, 152.<br /> +<br /> +Ireland. <i>See</i> Gladstone-Morley, Land Bill, National League.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +J.<br /> +<br /> +Jennings, Mr., on an Irish Parliament, <a href='#Page_577'>577</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Gladstone-Morley.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +K.<br /> +<br /> +Killigrew, Tom, Charles II.'s representative at Venice, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +L.<br /> +<br /> +Labour trade in the Pacific, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Laing, Mr., his 'Journal of a Residence in Norway during 1834, 35 and 36,'<br /> +384.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Yeomen Farmers.</span><br /> +<br /> +Land Bill, the, for Ireland, effect of it, 278<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">progress in Scotland and Wales, 279.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Parliament.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lewis, Sir G. C., his practical philosophy, <a href='#Page_519'>519</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an eminent statesman, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distrustful of electoral reform, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his Conservatism, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Liberal Press, the, activity of, 257.<br /> +<br /> +Liberation Society, the, financial report of, 8, 9<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its ability and skill, 11</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its publications, 13-16.</span><br /> +<br /> +'Liberator,' the, on Mr. Gladstone's ambiguity, 7.<br /> +<br /> +Lords, the, and Popular Rights, 239<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vague accusations, 241</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discovery of the House of Lords MSS., 242</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude towards constitutional freedom, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moderate counsels and religious toleration, 242, 252</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">important position in the early years of Charles I., 244</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appeals and petitions, 244-246</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">extensive jurisdiction, 246</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protection of private rights, 247</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intervention for peace, 248</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Restoration, 249</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Acts of Indemnity, &c., <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">restitution of property, 250, 251</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">execution of Vane, 251</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Act of Uniformity, 252</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Five Mile Act, 253</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposed to the re-establishment of Popery, 254</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Declaration of Indulgence and the Test Act, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advantage of the bicameral system, 255</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">excesses of the House of Commons, 255, 256.</span><br /> +<br /> +Luard, Dr., his edition of Cotton's Chronicle, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Letters of Robert Grosseteste,' <a href='#Page_300'>300</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Chronica Majora,' <a href='#Page_302'>302</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the St. Alban's School of History, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lubbock, Sir John, his list of books for reading, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +M.<br /> +<br /> +Maclay, Mr. Miklaho, his reception in New Guinea, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Travels.</span><br /> +<br /> +Madden, Sir F., Hypothesis about the 'Historia Minor,' <a href='#Page_301'>301</a><br /> +<br /> +Magee, Bp., on Disestablishment, 25.<br /> +<br /> +Mahaffy Mr., on the destruction of Tiryns and Mycenæ, 114.<br /> +<br /> +Maillé-Bréze, Clemence de, her marriage with Condé, 95<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">heads an insurrection in his favour, 96</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imprisoned for life at Châteauroux, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Maine, Sir H. S., on the lowering effect of democracy, 12<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">describes the Patriarchal Theory, 182</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on monogamy, 206.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Patriarchal.</span><br /> +<br /> +Maitland, Dr., his 'Essays on the Dark Ages,' <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mayne, Mr. J. D., his article on the Patriarchal Theory, 190.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[Pg 586]</a></span>Mezger, Prof. F., his '<i>Pindar's Siegeslieder</i>,' 163.<br /> +<br /> +Milton on the Ignatian Epistles, <a href='#Page_476'>476</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Monachism, British, in the 13th century, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Paris, Matthew.</span><br /> +<br /> +Monasteries at end of 13th century, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popularity, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">farming and pisciculture, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a place of refuge, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Monod, G., on the policy of the late Chamber in France, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <i>note</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Morgan, Mr. L. E., on 'group marriage,' 205.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Patriarchal Theory.</span><br /> +<br /> +Morice, Rev. F. D., his 'Pindar for English Readers, 156.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Pindar.</span><br /> +<br /> +Morley, Mr. J. <i>See</i> Gladstone-Morley.<br /> +<br /> +Mortgages & Bills of Exchange, 139.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +N.<br /> +<br /> +National League, the, <a href='#Page_563'>563</a>-565.<br /> +<br /> +---- Records, the, Commission for methodizing and digesting, 295.<br /> +<br /> +Navy, the, and the Colonies, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Norway, the Bank of, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">State Mortgage Bank, and Savings Bank, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Yeomen.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +O.<br /> +<br /> +Oldham, business record of the co-operative spinners for 1885, 285.<br /> +<br /> +Ormsby, Mr., his 'Don Quixote,' 43<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Poem of the Cid,' 46.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +P.<br /> +<br /> +Pacific Islands. <i>See</i> Romilly, Travels.<br /> +<br /> +Paris, Mathew, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early years, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a monk at St. Alban's, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">various accomplishments, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent to Norway, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Roger of Wendover as historiographer, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">utilizes facts and documents, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lashes the enemies of the abbey, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his denunciations of the Pope, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdotes, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">omens and portents, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">weather reports, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Parliament, the New, 257<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">activity of the Liberal press, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Radicalism based on pure ignorance, 258</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Chamberlain's bribe to the rural voters, 258, 259</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state of parties in 1880 and 1885, 260</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Home Rulers, 261</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule in 1882, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Salisbury's remarks on it, 262</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the 'Quarterly Review' of Jan. 1882, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the scheme of separation and two Parliaments, 264</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone's 'healing measures' for Ireland, 265-268</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir J. Stephen on the Irish Parliament, 269</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">English capital in Ireland, 271</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Davitt on landlordism, 272</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Parnell on Home Rule, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dissentients in the press, 276</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'strenuous policy' of the American war, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Cowper on the Land Act of 1881, 277</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinions on the Land Bill, 278</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its progress in Scotland and Wales, 279</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. G. Smith on concession, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">good effect of Lord Salisbury's accession to power, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tone of European opinion, 280</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone's foreign policy, 281</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prince Bismark's opinion of great orators, 282</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Russian advances, 282, 283</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state of trade, 284</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the co-operative spinners of Oldham, 285</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indifference of the Liberals, 286</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">new channel for trade in Burma, 286, 287</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">formation of a German Syndicate, 288</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discordant element of the Liberal party, 290, 291.</span><br /> +<br /> +Parnell, Mr., on national independence, 267<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Protective tariffs, 270</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">private property, 271</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Home Rule, 272</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">encomium on Mr. Gladstone, <a href='#Page_544'>544</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Patriarchal Theory, the, 181<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">described by Sir H. Maine, 182</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Darwin's view, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Patria Potestas and Agnation, 185</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analogy in England, 186</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Teutonic and Roman families, 187</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Salic Law, 188</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">family system of the Hindus, 189</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Agnates and Cognates, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. J. D. Maynes's article, 190</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">religious origin of Civil law, 191</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mahommedan law, 191, 192</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">system among the Arabian tribes, 192</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Slavonic and Russian society, 193-195</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">legend of Queen Libussa, 196</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rejection of Roman law, 198</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">maternal uncles and nephews, 200</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">want of history with savages, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">theory of the origin and growth of the Family, 201</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hordes and their Totems, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">infanticide, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fewness of women, 202</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">female descents, 203</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Exogamy, 204</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Polyandry, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two schools of 'agriologists,' 205</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir H. Maine on monogamy, 206</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Darwin on the habits of primitive men, 207</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ancestor worship, 208.</span><br /> +<br /> +Peddie, Mr. Dick on Liberationist Literature, 10.<br /> +<br /> +Pegu, annexation of, 227.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Burma.</span><br /> +<br /> +Pentecost, Dr. G. F., on Denominational rivalry in America, 34.<br /> +<br /> +Phayre, Sir A., his works on Burma, 210<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wise ministration in Pegu, 228.</span><br /> +<br /> +Pindar's Odes of Victory, 156<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reverence paid to him, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imperfectly comprehended, 157</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Voltaire's opinion, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[Pg 587]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the English and the ancient Greek mind, 158</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public games, 159</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Olympic festivals, 160</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">constructive skill of the Odes, 161</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prof. Mezger's work, 163</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">names of the members of the Terpandrian nome, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">structural phenomena, 165</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fifth Isthmian Ode, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">innovation in the structure, 169</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">word-pictures, 170</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reference to architecture, 171-173</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">structure, 173, 174</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">turgidity and bombast explained, 175</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">main source of obscurity, 176</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the love of Apollo and Cyrene, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the genius of Pindar and Bossuet compared, 178</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his human sympathies, 180.</span><br /> +<br /> +Polycarp, St. <i>See</i> Apostolic Fathers.<br /> +<br /> +Poor Law, the English, its value, <a href='#Page_540'>540</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Norway, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Democracy.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +R.<br /> +<br /> +'Radical Programme,' the, 23.<br /> +<br /> +Radicalism based on ignorance, 258.<br /> +<br /> +Rae, Mr. George, 'The Country Banker,' 133.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Banker.</span><br /> +<br /> +Rangoon founded, 222.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Burma.</span><br /> +<br /> +Religious Schools in England, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tables of Accommodation, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Registers, attendance, and voluntary contributions, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Training Colleges, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Diocesan Inspection, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">schools visited in 1884, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">expense of education, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">question of gratuitous elementary education, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Revue Contemporaine</i>, the, on Lord Salisbury's accession to power, 280.<br /> +Richelieu, Cardinal.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Condé.</span><br /> +<br /> +Riley, Mr., his 'Chronica Monasterii Sancti Albani,' <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rochester, Bishop of, his estimate of the number of parishes which would<br /> +suffer from Disendowment, 40.<br /> +<br /> +Rogers, Mr. Guinness, on the good work of the Church, 22.<br /> +<br /> +Romilly, Sir John, of the Rolls, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposal for the publication of the 'Rolls Series,' <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +----, Mr., his 'Western Pacific and New Guinea,' <a href='#Page_445'>445</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cannibalism, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Solomon Islands, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a sorcerer, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the ladies of Laughlan Islands, <a href='#Page_463'>463</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">describes a fine pearl, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">labour trade, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Bully Hayes,' <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Travels.</span><br /> +<br /> +Russia, advances of, in Asia, 282<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of allotments upon the emancipated serfs, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fall in value of cereals, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'redemption' dues, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peasant Land Banks, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +S.<br /> +<br /> +Sagredo, Giovanni, his mission from Venice to Cromwell, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Salisbury, Lord, on the Home Rulers, 262.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Parliament.</span><br /> +<br /> +Salle, J. B. de la, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Canon of the Cathedral of Rheims, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes charge of an orphanage for girls, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">patron of other schools, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spends his fortune on the poor, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prayer for guidance, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">founder of the Christian Brothers, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his self-dedication, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of his work, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Scherer, M., on Democracy, 11, 27.<br /> +<br /> +Schliemann, Dr. H. <i>See</i> Tiryns.<br /> +<br /> +Schmidt, C. A., on Roman Law, 187.<br /> +<br /> +Scottish Council, its contribution to the Liberation Society, 10.<br /> +<br /> +Senior, Nassau, W., 'Correspondence and Conversations of A. de Tocqueville,' <a href='#Page_518'>518</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his intimate acquaintance with French statesmen, <a href='#Page_537'>537</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the English Poor Law, <a href='#Page_540'>540</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Irish famine, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Democracy.</span><br /> +<br /> +Smith, Mr. Goldwin, on concession in Ireland, 279.<br /> +<br /> +----, Rev. G. Vance, on the control exercised in Dissenting churches, 37.<br /> +<br /> +Spain. <i>See</i> Don Quixote.<br /> +<br /> +Stephen, Sir James, on an Irish Parliament, 269.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Parliament.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +T.<br /> +<br /> +Theebau, King, atrocities at the beginning of his reign, 228.<br /> +<br /> +Tiryns, Schliemann's 108<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the excavations mainly architectural, 110</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the plain of Argolis, 111</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">site of the citadel, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">history, 113</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Mahaffy's theory, 114</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">style of pottery, 116</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">upper citadel, 117</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrangements of the palace, 118</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">propylæum, 120</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">men's forecourt, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">portico, 121</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">megaron and hearth, 122</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">basilican lighting, 123</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bath-room, 124</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women's apartments, 125</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cyanus frieze, 127</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cyclopean walls, 128</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Phœnician origin asserted by Dörpfeld, 129</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greek architecture, 130, 131</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">date of the fall, 132.</span><br /> +<br /> +Tocqueville, M. Alexis de, 'Democracy in America,' <a href='#Page_518'>518</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his practical wisdom, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conservatism, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rose-coloured portrait of democracy, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Ancien Régime</i>, <a href='#Page_528'>528</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the distinction between noble and <i>roturier</i>, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Égalite</i>, <a href='#Page_531'>531</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Travels in the British Empire, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Colonial Federation, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[Pg 588]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">better organization of the Navy, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the American Revolution, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">no desire for separation in our Colonists, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cape Colony, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its treatment from England, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conditions and prospects of trade, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Free Trade, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers of aid in the Egyptian war, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">love of 'old home,' <a href='#Page_451'>451</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">purity of language, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">India and its Civil Service, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Ripon's endeavours to promote 'self-government,' <a href='#Page_454'>454</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Ilbert Bill, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Radical ideas of dismemberment, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">native press of India, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prosperity of British India, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cannibalism in New Ireland, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">murder of children in the Solomon Islands, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sorcerers, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">David Dow, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Admiralty, Laughlan, Thursday, and Norfolk Islands, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>-463</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the labour trade, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Bully Hayes,' <a href='#Page_465'>465</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commercial importance of the Australian Colonies, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +U.<br /> +<br /> +Uniformity, Act of, 252.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Lords.</span><br /> +<br /> +United States, National Banks of the, 150.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Banker.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +V.<br /> +<br /> +Venetian Republic, Archives of the, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their preservation and order, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Constitution and the Great Council, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Senate or Pregadi, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Zonta, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Collegio or Cabinet of Ministers, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Savii, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ducal Councillors, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Doge, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election of, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Council of Ten, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political training of the nobles, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Ducal, Secret, and Inferior Chancelleries, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">duties of the Grand Chancellor, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">College of Secretaries, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Senatorial papers, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Relazioni, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Paullizzi's despatches, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sagredo's mission to Cromwell, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">diplomatic connection with England, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Collegio and the Lettere Principi, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">curious document of one Charles Dudley, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters from James Stuart, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Espozione Principi,' <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reception of Lord Northampton, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a>-482</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tom Killigrew's expedient, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Verney, Lady, 'Cottier-owners and Peasant Proprietors,' <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>, <i>note</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Villemain, M., his comparison of the genius of Pindar and Bossuet, 178.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +W.<br /> +<br /> +Wales, the Church in, 18-21.<br /> +<br /> +Water Companies of London, oppressive and insolent exactions, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wendover, Roger of, a monkish historiographer, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at St. Albans, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Westphal, R., his examination of the Choric Odes of Æschylus, 163.<br /> +<br /> +Wotton, Sir H., goes to Scotland from Venice to warn James VI. of a design on +his life, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Y.<br /> +<br /> +Yeomen Farmers in Norway, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">condition of peasant proprietors in 1834, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the <i>Odels ret</i>, or Allodial Right, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">division of land, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">life on the <i>Sœters</i>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">private distillation of spirits prohibited, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pauperism, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illegitimacy, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the agrarian class permanently represented in the Storthing, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attraction of the rural population to towns, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rate of wages, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">railways, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dress and ornaments, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">value of money, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">classification of properties, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">increasing subdivisions of land, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">creation of <i>Myrmænd</i> in South Trondhjem, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of American competition in corn, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">absence of good economy, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fare of the rural population, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">heavy indebtedness of the farmers, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Banks and Savings Banks, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>-402</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sales of real property for debt, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">primitive condition of agriculture, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">heavy and increasing charges on landed properties, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poor Relief, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">increase of paupers, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emigration, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political agitators, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church Disestablishment, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hereditary nobility abolished, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <i>note</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of subdivision of land in Norway, &c., <a href='#Page_410'>410</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lady Verney on peasant proprietors, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>, <i>note</i>.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<h4>END OF THE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SECOND VOLUME.</h4> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. +324, April, 1886, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERLY REVIEW, APRIL, 1886 *** + +***** This file should be named 26439-h.htm or 26439-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/4/3/26439/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/26439-page-images/f001.png b/26439-page-images/f001.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bcf616 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/f001.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/f002.png b/26439-page-images/f002.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c74bdb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/f002.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/f003.png b/26439-page-images/f003.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f21576e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/f003.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/f004.png b/26439-page-images/f004.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d0c252 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/f004.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p293.png b/26439-page-images/p293.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..15145c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p293.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p294.png b/26439-page-images/p294.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa49190 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p294.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p295.png b/26439-page-images/p295.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfda1fc --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p295.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p296.png b/26439-page-images/p296.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..053eed3 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p296.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p297.png b/26439-page-images/p297.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac03837 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p297.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p298.png b/26439-page-images/p298.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e079c80 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p298.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p299.png b/26439-page-images/p299.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..644d2d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p299.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p300.png b/26439-page-images/p300.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..95f85d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p300.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p301.png b/26439-page-images/p301.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d42663a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p301.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p302.png b/26439-page-images/p302.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2a20f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p302.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p303.png b/26439-page-images/p303.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f914b65 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p303.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p304.png b/26439-page-images/p304.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbf9e6d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p304.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p305.png b/26439-page-images/p305.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f86404b --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p305.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p306.png b/26439-page-images/p306.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b0379c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p306.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p307.png b/26439-page-images/p307.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5d37c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p307.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p308.png b/26439-page-images/p308.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ccfcd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p308.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p309.png b/26439-page-images/p309.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aca44ea --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p309.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p310.png b/26439-page-images/p310.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0e4eec --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p310.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p311.png b/26439-page-images/p311.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b540e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p311.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p312.png b/26439-page-images/p312.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f7fae9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p312.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p313.png b/26439-page-images/p313.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9991215 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p313.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p314.png b/26439-page-images/p314.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2c21ca --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p314.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p315.png b/26439-page-images/p315.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..adb7e1d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p315.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p316.png b/26439-page-images/p316.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca26fe3 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p316.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p317.png b/26439-page-images/p317.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad1844d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p317.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p318.png b/26439-page-images/p318.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..391418d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p318.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p319.png b/26439-page-images/p319.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..441d58e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p319.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p320.png b/26439-page-images/p320.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d864e21 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p320.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p321.png b/26439-page-images/p321.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd1e476 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p321.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p322.png b/26439-page-images/p322.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa0ddfb --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p322.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p323.png b/26439-page-images/p323.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..223919c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p323.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p324.png b/26439-page-images/p324.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0e0d20 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p324.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p325.png b/26439-page-images/p325.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff67e12 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p325.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p326.png b/26439-page-images/p326.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..45b7af4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p326.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p327.png b/26439-page-images/p327.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d80021 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p327.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p328.png b/26439-page-images/p328.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..642d8db --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p328.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p329.png b/26439-page-images/p329.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b69462 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p329.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p330.png b/26439-page-images/p330.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5067ab0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p330.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p331.png b/26439-page-images/p331.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3edad5d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p331.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p332.png b/26439-page-images/p332.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..617ce46 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p332.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p333.png b/26439-page-images/p333.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f541537 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p333.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p334.png b/26439-page-images/p334.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc79bc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p334.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p335.png b/26439-page-images/p335.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e27d0ab --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p335.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p336.png b/26439-page-images/p336.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6f407e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p336.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p337.png b/26439-page-images/p337.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7564f55 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p337.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p338.png b/26439-page-images/p338.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba84f75 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p338.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p339.png b/26439-page-images/p339.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c349124 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p339.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p340.png b/26439-page-images/p340.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..15ca148 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p340.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p341.png b/26439-page-images/p341.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d54b167 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p341.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p342.png b/26439-page-images/p342.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70e53fd --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p342.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p343.png b/26439-page-images/p343.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd62f66 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p343.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p344.png b/26439-page-images/p344.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a9511c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p344.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p345.png b/26439-page-images/p345.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cafc93 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p345.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p346.png b/26439-page-images/p346.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebb715c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p346.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p347.png b/26439-page-images/p347.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4399093 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p347.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p348.png b/26439-page-images/p348.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b661a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p348.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p349.png b/26439-page-images/p349.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7cd6079 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p349.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p350.png b/26439-page-images/p350.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..842bf20 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p350.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p351.png b/26439-page-images/p351.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..280e677 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p351.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p352.png b/26439-page-images/p352.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6adf57d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p352.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p353.png b/26439-page-images/p353.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..86fa7e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p353.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p354.png b/26439-page-images/p354.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc04642 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p354.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p355.png b/26439-page-images/p355.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ff6ff2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p355.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p356.png b/26439-page-images/p356.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f79a476 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p356.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p357.png b/26439-page-images/p357.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..220a7e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p357.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p358.png b/26439-page-images/p358.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e0048f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p358.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p359.png b/26439-page-images/p359.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4304552 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p359.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p360.png b/26439-page-images/p360.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffd9fdb --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p360.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p361.png b/26439-page-images/p361.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..56a230c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p361.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p362.png b/26439-page-images/p362.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f767fc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p362.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p363.png b/26439-page-images/p363.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70e6007 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p363.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p364.png b/26439-page-images/p364.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..27f2c50 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p364.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p365.png b/26439-page-images/p365.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4caa0c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p365.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p366.png b/26439-page-images/p366.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d809da3 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p366.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p367.png b/26439-page-images/p367.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e659b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p367.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p368.png b/26439-page-images/p368.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..058eee0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p368.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p369.png b/26439-page-images/p369.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70ec87d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p369.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p370.png b/26439-page-images/p370.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e65c5e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p370.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p371.png b/26439-page-images/p371.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..55707c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p371.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p372.png b/26439-page-images/p372.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b04786 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p372.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p373.png b/26439-page-images/p373.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6265ba --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p373.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p374.png b/26439-page-images/p374.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..092ad56 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p374.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p375.png b/26439-page-images/p375.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..00fe7aa --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p375.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p376.png b/26439-page-images/p376.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6fdb935 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p376.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p377.png b/26439-page-images/p377.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f201f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p377.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p378.png b/26439-page-images/p378.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..db0dc45 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p378.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p379.png b/26439-page-images/p379.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0cd33f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p379.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p380.png b/26439-page-images/p380.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdd7380 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p380.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p381.png b/26439-page-images/p381.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..09d4790 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p381.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p382.png b/26439-page-images/p382.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ebe916 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p382.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p383.png b/26439-page-images/p383.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fbf2c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p383.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p384.png b/26439-page-images/p384.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..304ce89 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p384.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p385.png b/26439-page-images/p385.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..90af3da --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p385.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p386.png b/26439-page-images/p386.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..771c2e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p386.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p387.png b/26439-page-images/p387.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..598161a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p387.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p388.png b/26439-page-images/p388.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a4b7f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p388.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p389.png b/26439-page-images/p389.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..688b480 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p389.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p390.png b/26439-page-images/p390.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ce9fa9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p390.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p391.png b/26439-page-images/p391.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aeca84e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p391.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p392.png b/26439-page-images/p392.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee04a97 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p392.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p393.png b/26439-page-images/p393.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..79c90a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p393.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p394.png b/26439-page-images/p394.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..515eeef --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p394.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p395.png b/26439-page-images/p395.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dba6493 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p395.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p396.png b/26439-page-images/p396.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b30a87a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p396.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p397.png b/26439-page-images/p397.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a36ce4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p397.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p398.png b/26439-page-images/p398.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5036368 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p398.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p399.png b/26439-page-images/p399.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..acc5cc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p399.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p400.png b/26439-page-images/p400.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d70cd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p400.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p401.png b/26439-page-images/p401.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..24a16ad --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p401.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p402.png b/26439-page-images/p402.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba5458c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p402.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p403.png b/26439-page-images/p403.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f284e5c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p403.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p404.png b/26439-page-images/p404.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c79305 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p404.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p405.png b/26439-page-images/p405.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3eae8a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p405.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p406.png b/26439-page-images/p406.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f693022 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p406.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p407.png b/26439-page-images/p407.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e7deca --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p407.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p408.png b/26439-page-images/p408.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..540c121 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p408.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p409.png b/26439-page-images/p409.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e5123b --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p409.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p410.png b/26439-page-images/p410.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..44bb896 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p410.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p411.png b/26439-page-images/p411.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..137730c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p411.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p412.png b/26439-page-images/p412.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c34961 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p412.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p413.png b/26439-page-images/p413.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3580ff4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p413.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p414.png b/26439-page-images/p414.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..597c020 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p414.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p415.png b/26439-page-images/p415.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4ddf8f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p415.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p416.png b/26439-page-images/p416.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..082d2a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p416.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p417.png b/26439-page-images/p417.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a43a18 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p417.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p418.png b/26439-page-images/p418.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b74bbe --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p418.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p419.png b/26439-page-images/p419.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c44e38 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p419.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p420.png b/26439-page-images/p420.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea0f23f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p420.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p421.png b/26439-page-images/p421.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..51c02a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p421.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p422.png b/26439-page-images/p422.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..48482ca --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p422.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p423.png b/26439-page-images/p423.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..562bee1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p423.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p424.png b/26439-page-images/p424.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a0d961 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p424.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p425.png b/26439-page-images/p425.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4790990 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p425.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p426.png b/26439-page-images/p426.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3902cbe --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p426.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p427.png b/26439-page-images/p427.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdf0043 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p427.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p428.png b/26439-page-images/p428.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..44f3636 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p428.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p429.png b/26439-page-images/p429.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..29f19fe --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p429.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p430.png b/26439-page-images/p430.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..89bddb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p430.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p431.png b/26439-page-images/p431.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c205030 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p431.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p432.png b/26439-page-images/p432.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..07193fc --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p432.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p433.png b/26439-page-images/p433.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b201e92 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p433.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p434.png b/26439-page-images/p434.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eea81af --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p434.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p435.png b/26439-page-images/p435.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..52fd0c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p435.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p436.png b/26439-page-images/p436.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c25f424 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p436.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p437.png b/26439-page-images/p437.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce8f682 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p437.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p438.png b/26439-page-images/p438.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70e2e60 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p438.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p439.png b/26439-page-images/p439.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..652bead --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p439.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p440.png b/26439-page-images/p440.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f70e3bc --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p440.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p441.png b/26439-page-images/p441.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8e82ab --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p441.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p442.png b/26439-page-images/p442.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d86c4e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p442.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p443.png b/26439-page-images/p443.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5470485 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p443.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p444.png b/26439-page-images/p444.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..49cb1b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p444.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p445.png b/26439-page-images/p445.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..76f97a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p445.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p446.png b/26439-page-images/p446.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..32e5cd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p446.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p447.png b/26439-page-images/p447.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bc3de4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p447.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p448.png b/26439-page-images/p448.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4c69b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p448.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p449.png b/26439-page-images/p449.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dc36c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p449.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p450.png b/26439-page-images/p450.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ea47a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p450.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p451.png b/26439-page-images/p451.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d27d4d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p451.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p452.png b/26439-page-images/p452.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e558fa6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p452.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p453.png b/26439-page-images/p453.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..04a14a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p453.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p454.png b/26439-page-images/p454.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1cbaff --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p454.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p455.png b/26439-page-images/p455.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6c62c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p455.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p456.png b/26439-page-images/p456.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7291b7e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p456.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p457.png b/26439-page-images/p457.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..abd40a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p457.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p458.png b/26439-page-images/p458.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..27c2acd --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p458.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p459.png b/26439-page-images/p459.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7eecf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p459.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p460.png b/26439-page-images/p460.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..128d0d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p460.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p461.png b/26439-page-images/p461.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed03cd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p461.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p462.png b/26439-page-images/p462.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..31c4590 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p462.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p463.png b/26439-page-images/p463.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5ce096 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p463.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p464.png b/26439-page-images/p464.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3a281f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p464.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p465.png b/26439-page-images/p465.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0ebc1d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p465.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p466.png b/26439-page-images/p466.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb042d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p466.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p467.png b/26439-page-images/p467.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3c7b51 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p467.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p468.png b/26439-page-images/p468.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20bd0ee --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p468.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p469.png b/26439-page-images/p469.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c4effa --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p469.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p470.png b/26439-page-images/p470.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6280cab --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p470.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p471.png b/26439-page-images/p471.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f3e47f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p471.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p472.png b/26439-page-images/p472.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94846b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p472.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p473.png b/26439-page-images/p473.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a40c62 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p473.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p474.png b/26439-page-images/p474.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1350995 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p474.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p475.png b/26439-page-images/p475.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..77d118b --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p475.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p476.png b/26439-page-images/p476.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd86bb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p476.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p477.png b/26439-page-images/p477.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c8a6f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p477.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p478.png b/26439-page-images/p478.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eec8383 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p478.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p479.png b/26439-page-images/p479.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..15d85fc --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p479.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p480.png b/26439-page-images/p480.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de6328c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p480.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p481.png b/26439-page-images/p481.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..59aa62a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p481.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p482.png b/26439-page-images/p482.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9938a0a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p482.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p483.png b/26439-page-images/p483.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c854420 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p483.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p484.png b/26439-page-images/p484.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..208b837 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p484.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p485.png b/26439-page-images/p485.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4db1b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p485.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p486.png b/26439-page-images/p486.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c725ef --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p486.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p487.png b/26439-page-images/p487.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb9abbf --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p487.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p488.png b/26439-page-images/p488.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcc5a11 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p488.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p489.png b/26439-page-images/p489.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..97895ab --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p489.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p490.png b/26439-page-images/p490.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ad5aa5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p490.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p491.png b/26439-page-images/p491.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f621da --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p491.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p492.png b/26439-page-images/p492.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9cbb823 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p492.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p493.png b/26439-page-images/p493.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0a4612 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p493.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p494.png b/26439-page-images/p494.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6003e68 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p494.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p495.png b/26439-page-images/p495.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..15ba0ad --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p495.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p496.png b/26439-page-images/p496.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4c792c --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p496.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p497.png b/26439-page-images/p497.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2212db4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p497.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p498.png b/26439-page-images/p498.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c0a61e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p498.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p499.png b/26439-page-images/p499.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a44ffe --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p499.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p500.png b/26439-page-images/p500.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7359bf --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p500.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p501.png b/26439-page-images/p501.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2aa74ca --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p501.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p502.png b/26439-page-images/p502.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccb6cf4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p502.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p503.png b/26439-page-images/p503.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9348bc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p503.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p504.png b/26439-page-images/p504.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e519d95 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p504.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p505.png b/26439-page-images/p505.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7583d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p505.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p506.png b/26439-page-images/p506.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94b18bd --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p506.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p507.png b/26439-page-images/p507.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fefc8cf --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p507.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p508.png b/26439-page-images/p508.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f9eb9e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p508.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p509.png b/26439-page-images/p509.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c2a0ca --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p509.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p510.png b/26439-page-images/p510.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9eaf313 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p510.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p511.png b/26439-page-images/p511.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0dedb2f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p511.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p512.png b/26439-page-images/p512.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..18c35e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p512.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p513.png b/26439-page-images/p513.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13c123e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p513.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p514.png b/26439-page-images/p514.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae15c5f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p514.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p515.png b/26439-page-images/p515.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..370abe0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p515.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p516.png b/26439-page-images/p516.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f92c06 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p516.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p517.png b/26439-page-images/p517.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..49fbf23 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p517.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p518.png b/26439-page-images/p518.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3427dc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p518.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p519.png b/26439-page-images/p519.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ffb297 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p519.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p520.png b/26439-page-images/p520.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8056324 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p520.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p521.png b/26439-page-images/p521.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a818f88 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p521.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p522.png b/26439-page-images/p522.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1588127 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p522.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p523.png b/26439-page-images/p523.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c3cda9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p523.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p524.png b/26439-page-images/p524.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a77f9e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p524.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p525.png b/26439-page-images/p525.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b96f286 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p525.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p526.png b/26439-page-images/p526.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6969255 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p526.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p527.png b/26439-page-images/p527.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..61b692a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p527.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p528.png b/26439-page-images/p528.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..21d32b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p528.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p529.png b/26439-page-images/p529.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..df6ae9a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p529.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p530.png b/26439-page-images/p530.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6693278 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p530.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p531.png b/26439-page-images/p531.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4459084 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p531.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p532.png b/26439-page-images/p532.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..53810db --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p532.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p533.png b/26439-page-images/p533.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6dc4985 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p533.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p534.png b/26439-page-images/p534.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae0b4f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p534.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p535.png b/26439-page-images/p535.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7f76c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p535.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p536.png b/26439-page-images/p536.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ced1140 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p536.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p537.png b/26439-page-images/p537.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bb573f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p537.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p538.png b/26439-page-images/p538.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a1d281 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p538.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p539.png b/26439-page-images/p539.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2d0dd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p539.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p540.png b/26439-page-images/p540.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..720bef8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p540.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p541.png b/26439-page-images/p541.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9832bab --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p541.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p542.png b/26439-page-images/p542.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc526e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p542.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p543.png b/26439-page-images/p543.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4d779a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p543.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p544.png b/26439-page-images/p544.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f18628 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p544.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p545.png b/26439-page-images/p545.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfcde47 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p545.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p546.png b/26439-page-images/p546.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a9dbf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p546.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p547.png b/26439-page-images/p547.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0faf89d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p547.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p548.png b/26439-page-images/p548.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b58215 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p548.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p549.png b/26439-page-images/p549.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b559fc --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p549.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p550.png b/26439-page-images/p550.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aaa2ed8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p550.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p551.png b/26439-page-images/p551.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ef60ed --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p551.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p552.png b/26439-page-images/p552.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b46e460 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p552.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p553.png b/26439-page-images/p553.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..813f9dd --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p553.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p554.png b/26439-page-images/p554.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5902d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p554.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p555.png b/26439-page-images/p555.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..082127d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p555.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p556.png b/26439-page-images/p556.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bdd00ac --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p556.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p557.png b/26439-page-images/p557.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..209cfa9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p557.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p558.png b/26439-page-images/p558.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d246c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p558.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p559.png b/26439-page-images/p559.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..627b841 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p559.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p560.png b/26439-page-images/p560.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bef1f42 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p560.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p561.png b/26439-page-images/p561.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f7b721 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p561.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p562.png b/26439-page-images/p562.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef8f353 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p562.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p563.png b/26439-page-images/p563.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec7a602 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p563.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p564.png b/26439-page-images/p564.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbc7516 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p564.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p565.png b/26439-page-images/p565.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e272503 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p565.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p566.png b/26439-page-images/p566.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa60669 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p566.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p567.png b/26439-page-images/p567.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..174bf36 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p567.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p568.png b/26439-page-images/p568.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ac010a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p568.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p569.png b/26439-page-images/p569.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..34ac8d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p569.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p570.png b/26439-page-images/p570.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..66307e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p570.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p571.png b/26439-page-images/p571.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..66ad34f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p571.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p572.png b/26439-page-images/p572.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d4ce74 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p572.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p573.png b/26439-page-images/p573.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7891a9b --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p573.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p574.png b/26439-page-images/p574.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..060a1a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p574.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p575.png b/26439-page-images/p575.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..65fcb30 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p575.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p576.png b/26439-page-images/p576.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9039466 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p576.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p577.png b/26439-page-images/p577.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2cb3b9f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p577.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p578.png b/26439-page-images/p578.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26c1c3f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p578.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p579.png b/26439-page-images/p579.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a5839d --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p579.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p580.png b/26439-page-images/p580.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc0d491 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p580.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p581.png b/26439-page-images/p581.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f42d3f --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p581.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p582.png b/26439-page-images/p582.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbd9c77 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p582.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p583.png b/26439-page-images/p583.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1bf3e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p583.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p584.png b/26439-page-images/p584.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ddd461 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p584.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p585.png b/26439-page-images/p585.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac18d74 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p585.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p586.png b/26439-page-images/p586.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d2f01e --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p586.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p587.png b/26439-page-images/p587.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70478c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p587.png diff --git a/26439-page-images/p588.png b/26439-page-images/p588.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..75ad0ed --- /dev/null +++ b/26439-page-images/p588.png diff --git a/26439.txt b/26439.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee0622a --- /dev/null +++ b/26439.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14410 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, +April, 1886, 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: The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: August 27, 2008 [EBook #26439] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERLY REVIEW, APRIL, 1886 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + +THE + +QUARTERLY REVIEW. + +NO. CCCXXIV. APRIL, 1886. VOL. CLXII. + + + + +CONTENTS: + + +I. Matthew Parish + +II. The Christian Brothers.--Religious Schools in France and England. + +III. Archives of the Venetian Republic. + +IV. Yeomen Farmers in Norway. + +V. Oliver Cromwell: his character illustrated by himself. + +VI. Travels in the British Empire. + +VII. The Bishop of Durham on the Ignatian Epistles. + +VIII. Books and Reading. + +IX. Characteristics of Democracy. + +X. The Gladstone-Morley Administration. + + +PHILADELPHIA: +LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY, +1104 WALNUT STREET. + + + + +THE + +LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION CO'S., + +PERIODICALS. + +Single Copies for sale by the following Dealers in Cities named: + +BALTIMORE, MD., Baltimore News Co., Sun. Iron Building. +BOSTON, MASS., Cupples, Upham & Co., 283 Washington St. +CHICAGO, ILL., Brentano Bros., 101 State St. +CINCINNATI, OHIO. Robert Clarke & Co., 61 West 4th, St. +HALIFAX, NOVA SCO., T. C. Allen & Co., 124 Granville St. +HAMILTON, CANADA. J. Eastwood & Co., +MONTREAL, CANADA. Dawson Bros., 233 St. James St. +NEW ORLEANS, LA., Geo. F. Wharton & Bro., 5 Carondelet St. +NEW YORK CITY, N. Y., Brentano Bros., 5 Union Square. +PHILADELPHIA, PA., Leonard Scott Pub. Co., 1104 Walnut St. +PROVIDENCE, R. I., S. S. Rider. +RICHMOND, VA., Beckwith & Parham. +SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., J. C. Scott. 22 Third St. +ST. JOHN, N. B., A. & J. McMillan. 98 Prince William St. +ST. LOUIS, MO., St. Louis News Co., +TORONTO, CANADA. Hart & Co., 31 King St., W. +VICTORIA, BR. COL., T. H. Hibben & Co., Masonic Building. +WASHINGTON, D. C., Brentano Bros., 1015 Penna. Av. + +_Annual Subscriptions Received by all Booksellers and Newsdealers._ + + +THE LEONARD SCOTT PUB. CO., +1104 WALNUT STREET. +PHILADELPHIA, PA. + + + + +CONTENTS OF NO. 324. + + +Art. Page + +I.--Matthaei Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica +Majora. Edited by Henry Richards Luard, D.D., Fellow of +Trinity College, Registrary of the University, and Vicar of +Great St. Mary's Cambridge. Published by the Authority of +the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the +direction of the Master of the Rolls. 7 vols. 8vo. London, +Vol I. 1872--Vol. VII. 1883. 293 + + +II.--1. The Christian Brothers, their Origin and Work, with +a sketch of the Life of their Founder, The Venerable Jean +Baptiste de la Salle. By Mrs. R. F. Wilson. London, 1883. + +2. La Premiere Annee d'Instruction Morale et Civique: +notions de droit et d'economie politique (Textes et Recits) +pour repondre a la loi du 28 Mars 1882 sur l'enseignement +primaire obligatoire: ouvrage accompagne de Resume, de +Questionnaires, de Devoirs, et d'un Lexique des mots +difficiles. Par Pierre Laloi. Quatorzieme Edition. Paris, +1885. + +3. Report of the Committee of Council on Education (England +and Wales). 1884-85. + +4. Seventy-fourth Annual Report of the Incorporated National +Society. 1885. 325 + + +III.--The State Papers of the Venetian Republic; namely, +Cancelleria Inferiore, Cancelleria Ducale, Cancelleria +Secreta, preserved in the Convent of the Frari, at Venice. + 356 + + +IV.--1. Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years +1834, 1835, and 1836. By Samuel Laing, Esq. London, 1837. + +2. Le Royaume de Norvege et le Peuple Norvegien. Par le Dr. +O. I. Broch. Christiania, 1878. + +3. Official Reports of Prefects on the Economic Condition of +the Provinces of Norway in 1876-80. Christiania, 1884. + +4. Publications of the Statistical Bureau Christiania. 384 + + +V.--A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; +Secretary, first to the Council of State, and afterwards to +the Two Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell. In Seven +Volumes, containing authentic Memorials of the English +affairs from the year 1638 to the Restoration of King +Charles II. Vol. III. London, 1742. 414 + + +VI.--1. Oceana, or England and her Colonies. By James +Anthony Froude. London, 1886. + +2. Through the British Empire. By Baron von Huebner. 2. vols. +London, 1886. + +3. The Western Pacific and New Guinea. By Hugh Hastings +Romilly, Deputy Commissioner of the Western Pacific. London, +1886. 443 + + +VII.--The Apostolic Fathers: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp. +Revised Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and +Translations. By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., +Bishop of Durham. London, 1885. 2 vols. 467 + + +VIII.--1. An Address delivered to the Students of Edinburgh +University on Nov. 3, 1885. By the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord +Rector of the University of Edinburgh. + +2. Hearing, Reading and Thinking: an address to the Students +attending the Lectures of the London Society for the +Extension of University Teaching. By the Rt. Hon. G. J. +Goschen, M.P. + +3. The Choice of Books and other Literary Pieces. By +Frederic Harrison. London, 1886. 501 + + +IX.--1. Popular Government. Four Essays. By Sir Henry Sumner +Maine. Second Edition. London, 1886. + +2. Democracy in America. By Alexis de Tocqueville. +Translated by Henry Reeve. New Edition. London, 1862. + +3. On the State of Society in France before the Revolution +of 1789. Translated by Henry Reeve. Second Edition. London, +1873. 518 + +And other Works. + + +X.--1. Fourth Midlothian Campaign. Political Speeches +delivered, November, 1885, by the Right Hon. W. E. +Gladstone, M.P. Edinburgh, 1886. + +2. John Morley: The Irish Record of the New Chief Secretary, +1886. + +3. Ireland: A Book of Light on the Irish Problem. Edited by +Andrew Reid. London, 1886. 544 + +And other Works. + + + + +ART. I.--_Matthaei Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora._ +Edited by Henry Richards Luard, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, +Registrary of the University, and Vicar of Great St. Mary's, Cambridge. +Published by the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's +Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. 7 vols. 8vo. +London, Vol. I. 1872--Vol. VII. 1883. + + +Some of our readers are not likely yet to have forgotten the remarkable +essay which the late Professor Brewer contributed to our pages in 1871, +and which has since been reprinted in the volume of 'English Studies,' +published shortly after the author's death in 1879. English History owes +a larger debt to few men of our time than it owes to Mr. Brewer. As a +teacher whose pupils were always eager to listen to all that fell from +his lips, and whose enthusiasm never failed to awake a kindred spark in +the minds of those who looked to him for light in dark places and +guidance along tortuous paths of research, Mr. Brewer has had few +equals, and perhaps has left no successor who can compare with him. As a +writer he was always brilliant, lucid, and vigorous, and his unrivalled +'Introductions' to the Calendars of Letters and Papers, concerned with +the reign of Henry VIII., will long continue to be read by all students +of our History, as necessary and indispensable interpreters of the vast +storehouses of original documents which he did so much to rescue from +the oblivion or obscurity to which they had previously been consigned. +But it was as an organizer of research that Mr. Brewer earned his +greatest fame and achieved his greatest success, and it was to him more +than to any one man, to his immense persistence in urging upon the +powers that be a more generous freedom of access to our Records, and to +his prodigious powers of work in arranging and tabulating the enormous +masses of documents of all kinds which constitute the _Apparatus_ of +English History, that this country stands indebted, and will remain +indebted as long as our literature lasts. + +In the Essay on 'New Sources of English History' the learned author has +given us a startling account of the deplorable condition into which some +of the most precious of our national manuscripts had been allowed to +fall--of the utterly chaotic state of our depositories--of the +hopelessness, the despair which must needs have come upon one student +after another who might be fortunate enough to be turned loose into the +various prison-houses of our muniments--and of the efforts made, and +happily at last made with splendid success, to cleanse the Augean +stable, and to let the world know something of the wealth it contained. +With characteristic modesty Mr. Brewer said nothing of his own part in +all that laborious and sagacious organization which resulted in our +obtaining the magnificent _Calendars_, which have opened out to us all +'that new world which is the old' that had become almost forgotten or +unknown. He was not the man to assert himself, he knew that posterity +would give him his due, but with a simple desire to stimulate research, +and to show how much remained to be done, and how much to be discovered +and made known, he drew the attention of his readers chiefly and +primarily to the value of the Calendars, and to the important results +which those Calendars had already produced, and were destined to produce +hereafter. He had quite enough to say upon this point, and if his life +had been spared, it is probable that he would eventually have given us a +more comprehensive account of the series of volumes which, though now +issuing from the press _pari passu_ with the Calendars, were originally +undertaken a little later. Such an Essay by such a master would indeed +have been an important aid to the student, but at the time of Mr. +Brewer's lamented death the day had hardly come for such a _resume_; and +even now, though so much has been achieved, so much and so well, the +hour has hardly arrived nor the man for taking a comprehensive survey, +and giving to the public an intelligent and intelligible account of that +other Library of Chronicles, and biographies, and letters, and +cartularies, and those other memorials of the Middle Ages in England, +which it is to be feared are hardly as well known as they ought to be, +nor as widely studied as they deserve. + +Meanwhile it is high time that attention should be drawn to that noble +series of volumes now issuing from the press under the editorship of +scholars whose reputation is assured, and whose work continues to +enhance their reputation--high time that we should begin to do something +like justice to the labourers, who have deserved so well at the hands +of such Englishmen as have any sentiment of loyalty to the great +thoughts, the great doings, and the noble lives of their forefathers. +The philosopher, who 'holds the mirror up to nature,' has not of late, +as a rule, missed his reward. The historian, who in his dogged, patient, +toilsome fashion holds the mirror up to the life of bygone ages, has +received among us scant recognition, and generally is rewarded with but +barren honour. What has been done and still is doing will be best +understood by briefly reviewing the progress of that movement, which has +brought about the great revival of English Historical study, and under +the influence of which the opinions and convictions of educated men have +passed through a very decided change, one destined to produce still +greater and more unlooked for changes of sentiment and belief before the +present century shall have closed. + +It is just fifty years since 'the Father of Record Reform,' as he has +been justly called, received his patent creating him Master of the +Rolls. Although as far back as the year 1800 a Commission was issued for +the methodizing and digesting the National Records, and for printing +such calendars and indexes as should be thought advisable; and though +during the next twenty-seven years many works of supreme interest and +importance were printed at the public expense, the enormous extent of +our National Records were known to few, and the difficulty of consulting +them, (dispersed as they were through a score of different depositories) +was enough to deter all but the most resolute enquirers. It was Lord +Langdale who first set himself to reduce the chaos of our archives into +something like order. When the old Record Commission expired in 1837, it +was by Lord Langdale's influence that the Public Record Act was passed +on the 14th of August, 1838, whereby the Records named therein were +placed under the custody of the Master of the Rolls for the time being, +and hereupon a new era began. Nevertheless it was not till July 1850 +that a vote was obtained from the Treasury for the erection of a +national depository, wherein our vast archives should be assembled under +a single roof, and not till 1855 that the magnificent _Tabularium_ in +Fetter Lane was opened for the reception of our muniments. + +Lord Langdale died in April 1851;[1] he was succeeded in the Mastership +of the Rolls by Lord Romilly, then Sir John. A happier choice could not +have been made. To Lord Langdale belongs the credit of carrying out the +grand scheme for consolidating the various collections of documents, +which, as we have said, had up to this time been widely dispersed, and +the very existence of the larger mass of which was known only to a few +experts. To Lord Romilly we owe it that the great original sources of +English History so assembled have been rendered accessible to any +student who desires to consult them; and it is to him, too, that we are +indebted for the issue of that unrivalled series of 'Chronicles and +Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland, from the Invasion of the Romans +to the Reign of Henry VIII.,' which has laid the foundation for a +science of history firmer and deeper and wider than before was believed +to be even attainable. + +Great men are at once the leaders and the product of their age. When +Lord Langdale set himself to his task he was only attempting that which +had been talked of since the reign of Edward II. For five centuries the +unification of our National Records had been recommended and advised by +lawyers, statesmen, and scholars from generation to generation, but no +practical scheme had ever been suggested, and the difficulties in the +way of reform were supposed to be insuperable. It was a Herculean task, +and one that grew ever more arduous the longer it was postponed. During +the first quarter of the present century profound dissatisfaction had +begun to be felt at the condition of our historical literature. The +ordinary text-books were full of fables, more than suspected to be +fables, and which yet it was extremely difficult to disprove +satisfactorily. Theories which had long passed current were being rudely +assailed, and yet--in the face of the obstacles that hindered +research--stubbornly held their ground, or were repeated with peremptory +dogmatism. A deep distrust of the old methods and the old assumptions +had given rise to a widespread desire to drag forth from their +hiding-places any documents, however dry or recondite, which might throw +some clear light upon our national life and manners, and not only upon +mere events of national importance during Medieval times. A desire to +know the truth was _in the air_. The science of history had passed out +of its infancy, and the stirrings of a new craving--the passion of +Research--were making themselves felt in that mysterious restlessness +which indicates that the old smooth-faced docility, the old childish +submission to tutelage, the old unquestioning acceptance of authority, +has gone for ever, and a new life has begun. The year before Lord +Langdale received his appointment as Master of the Rolls, the Surtees +Society had been founded for the printing of unedited MSS. illustrative +of the history of the northern counties; and in the same year that the +old Record Commission expired, the English Historical Society was +started, a society which numbered amongst its promoters such men as the +late Mr. Kemble, Mr. H. O. Coxe, Sir T. Duffus Hardy, and Mr. +Stevenson--the leaders and teachers of that school of younger men who +have so ably followed in the steps of their seniors, and who, mounting +on the shoulders of the giants, have gained a wider view than it was +given to those others to attain. The five years that followed saw the +foundation of the Camden, the Percy, and the Chetham Societies, not to +mention many another that has done useful work in its way. The labours +of these pioneers soon made it quite apparent that the sources of our +national history--social, ecclesiastical, and political--were quite too +voluminous for private enterprise to deal with, and would demand the +co-operation of a body of trained scholars and the resources of the +public exchequer to make them available as apparatus for the teachers of +the future. + +On the 26th of January, 1857, Sir John Romilly submitted to the Treasury +his memorable proposal for the publication of certain materials for the +History of England;[2] and on the 9th of February a Treasury Minute was +put forth approving of the plan that had been drawn up as one 'well +calculated for the accomplishment of this important national object in +an effectual and satisfactory manner within a reasonable time.' +Forthwith arrangements were made for the issue of that series of works +which is now known as the 'Rolls Series,' a collection which has already +extended to upwards of 200 volumes. + +The lines laid down by Sir John Romilly were almost exactly those which +had been followed by the English Historical Society. Every editor was to +'give an account of the MSS. employed by him, of their age and their +peculiarities;' he was to add 'a brief account of the life and times of +the author, and any remarks necessary to explain the chronology; _but no +other note or comment_ was to be allowed, except what might be necessary +to establish the correctness of the text.' The restriction was +absolutely necessary if only for this, that when the 'Rolls Series' was +first commenced even the most accomplished of its editors were mere +learners. The time had not yet arrived for comments. The text was wanted +first in its completeness and integrity. + +Looking back to this period--little more than a quarter of a century +ago--it is difficult for us to realize the deplorable condition into +which our historical literature had been allowed to fall. Kemble's great +work, the 'Codex Diplomaticus aevi Saxonici,' the first volume of which +appeared in 1839, and his 'History of the Saxons in England,' published +in 1849, came upon the great body of intelligent men as the revelation +of new things. It is sufficient to turn to the chapter on the +Constitutional History of England before the Conquest, in Hallam's +'History of the Middle Ages,' to be assured how meagre and superficial +even Hallam's knowledge was of everything before the Norman invasion. It +was no fault of his; he made good use of all such materials as were then +accessible to the student--that is, all such as had been printed; for +that incomparably larger _apparatus_ which since Hallam's days has been +published to the world, it was for all practical purposes as if it had +never existed at all. Even men of culture and learning were persuaded +that all that was ever likely to be known about the religious houses had +been collected in the new edition of Dugdale's 'Monasticon.' It is +hardly too much to say that of the history of English monasticism Hallam +knew nothing. Dr. Lingard himself had very little more to say of the +great Abbeys than his predecessors, and had a very inadequate conception +of the part they played in the development of our institutions; and when +Dr. Maitland wrote his brilliant 'Essays on the Dark Ages,' he hardly +names St. Edmundsbury or St. Alban's, and though one of his most +fascinating chapters is concerned with the early days of Croyland, his +only authority for the beautiful story, which he has handled so +skilfully, is a romantic narrative attributed to Ingulphus, which has +been demonstrated to be a somewhat clumsy though a clever forgery. Of +the Mendicant Orders--of the work they did, of the influence they +exercised, and of the attitude adopted towards them in the 13th century +by the parochial clergy on the one hand, and by the monks on the +other--even less was known, if less were possible, than of their +wealthier rivals. + +Two years had scarcely elapsed since the issue of the Treasury Minute of +February, 1857, before it began to be said that the history of England +would have to be written anew. In the single year 1858 _eleven_ works of +the highest importance were printed, and it was evident that neither +original materials nor scholarly editors would be wanting to make the +'Rolls Series' all that it was desired it should become. The 'Chronicles +of the Monasteries of Abingdon and of St. Augustine at Canterbury,' the +contemporary 'Life of Edward the Confessor,' and the priceless +'Monumenta Franciscana,' telling the wonderful story of the settlement +of the Minorites among us, were printed from unique MSS. Next year the +'Chronicle of John of Oxnedes' was brought out by Sir Henry Ellis, and +the 'Historia Anglicana' of Bartholomew Cotton, by Dr. Luard, neither +work having ever before been printed. Volume followed volume in rapid +succession, a steady improvement becoming observable in the style of +editing, as the several editors became more familiar with the results of +their predecessors' labours. + +It was while working at Bartholomew Cotton that Dr. Luard was brought +into intimate relations with the 13th century. Hitherto the _composite_ +character of such chronicles as had been published had indeed been +perceived, but no attempt had been made to trace the original authority +for statements repeated in the same words by one writer after another. +Dr. Luard opened out a new line of enquiry, and in his edition of +Cotton's Chronicle he endeavoured to distinguish in every instance the +material which might fairly be called original from that which his +author had borrowed from older writers and incorporated into his text. +The borrowed matter was printed in smaller type, and the sources from +which it had been derived were indicated by references given at the foot +of the page. Cottons' own additions were printed in a bolder type, so as +at once to catch the eye. While conducting the laborious researches +necessitated by this new method of editing his text, it became clear to +Dr. Luard that Cotton had borrowed largely from Matthew Paris--who had +lived just a generation before him--and that he had also borrowed from a +mysterious writer much read in the 14th and 15th centuries, who went by +the name of Matthew of Westminster. As to this Matthew of Westminster, +Dr. Luard postponed dealing with him till some future time. He might +prove a mere mythic personage, and it was suspected he would; but +Matthew Paris was certainly no shadow, but a very real man, whose +greatness seemed to grow greater the more he was studied and the better +he was known. Yet as Dr. Luard became more familiar with the text of +Paris, he was soon convinced that in its printed form it was bristling +with the grossest inaccuracies of all kinds. Originally it had been +published under the authority of Archbishop Parker in 1571; and though +other editions had appeared, in this country and on the Continent, +several times since then, Paris's great work had remained exactly in the +same state as Parker (or whoever his agent was) had left it three +centuries ago. That is to say, that by far the most important work on +English history during the 13th century--not to mention European +affairs--and by far the most minute and trustworthy picture of English +life and manners during the reign of Henry III.--a record, too, drawn +up by a contemporary writer of rare genius and literary skill--was +defaced by blunders, audacious tampering with the text and gross +inaccuracies, to such an extent that no conscientious student could +allow himself to quote the printed work without first referring to one +of the very MSS. which the Archbishop professed to have used. + +Nevertheless, the task of bringing out a critical edition of the +'Chronica Majora' did not appear less formidable as fresh sources of +information cropped up; and Dr. Luard shrank from the immense labour +that such an edition involved, it was because he had formed a correct +notion of its magnitude. In 1861 he brought out in the same series the +'Letters of Robert Grosseteste,' the heroic and magnanimous Bishop of +Lincoln; and while working at this volume, the England of the 13th +century became more and more alive and present to the mind of the +student. + +But distinctly and grandly as one noble character after another revealed +itself, there was a strange mist that required to be dispelled before +even the importance of great events could be rightly estimated. The +inner life of the monasteries, great and small, must be enquired into, +so far as it was possible to get any information on so obscure a +subject; and, above all, the paramount influence which so magnificent an +institution as the Abbey of St. Alban's exercised upon the intellectual +life of the country must be studied with patient impartiality. Before a +scholar with so lofty an ideal of an editor's duty could venture upon +his _magnum opus_, there was indeed an enormous mass of preliminary work +to get through. The horizon seemed to widen everywhere as the years of +historical discovery went on. It was left to Mr. Riley to attack that +wonderful collection of documents to which he gave the title of +'Chronica Monasterii Sancti Albani'--a series occupying twelve thick +volumes, and which furnish us not only with a priceless _apparatus_, by +the help of which a hundred problems perplexing the historian are +furnished with a clue towards their solution--but which afford such an +insight into the life of the greatest monastery in England during its +best times as nobody expected could ever be forthcoming. While Mr. Riley +was occupied with the _Chronicles_ of St. Alban's and the lives of its +Abbots, Dr. Luard was engaged in collecting all the _Annals_ of the +lesser monasteries which he could lay his hands on. Some of these had +already been printed more or less carelessly; others had never seen the +light since they were written. Such as were printed were extremely +difficult to procure--scarce and costly. Dr. Luard took six years in +bringing out his five volumes--volumes referring to the golden age of +English Monasticism, which threw all sorts of side-light upon Mr. +Riley's 'Chronicles,' while they were in turn continually being +explained and illustrated by them. + +While the 'Monastic Annals' were passing through the press, a very +startling announcement was made by no less a person than Sir Frederick +Madden, Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. +Sir Frederick declared that he had come upon a copy of what was commonly +called the 'Historia Minor' of Matthew Paris, not only written by the +author himself, but actually annotated, corrected, and illustrated with +drawings by his own hand. Such an announcement made by an expert of +European reputation, one who had been handling MSS. all his life, +necessarily created a sensation in the literary world. If it were +accepted and proved true, it was one of the most curious romances in the +history of literature. But was it true? To most critics the antecedent +improbability of the theory put forth by Sir Frederick was so great as +to relegate it to the domain of extravagant paradox; but the name and +fame of its supporter were too high to allow of its being dismissed +without refutation. For two or three years no one ventured to enter the +lists against so formidable a champion who had staked his reputation +upon the issue. At last another great specialist, not a whit less +competent than the other, came forward to controvert the opinions and +theory which had been so confidently maintained by Sir Frederick. In +1871 Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy brought out the third volume of his +_Catalogue_, and it was in the famous Introduction to this volume that +the Madden Hypothesis was first assailed with damaging effect. Sir +Thomas, it must be remembered, was Deputy Keeper of the Records. Sir +Frederick was Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts at the British +Museum. Each was the representative man in his own department, and a +very pretty quarrel arose. Into the merits of that quarrel it is +impossible to enter here; it is a matter for specialists, not for +outsiders, to pronounce upon. This, however, may be said with +confidence, that if we except that school of very able and accomplished +experts which the British Museum has trained, experts whose _range_ of +diplomatic knowledge must needs be wider than that of any 'Record man,' +the refutation of Sir Frederick Madden by Sir Thomas Duffus was +generally regarded as unanswerable and triumphant. With the exception +indicated--a very important exception indeed--the Madden Hypothesis was +believed to be utterly demolished, in fact 'blown into the air.' +Nevertheless there are those, from whom something may be expected some +day in the way of rejoinder who are by no means sure that the last word +on this question has been said that deserve to be said, and even so +scrupulous and sagacious a critic as Dr. Luard seems to be less certain +than he was that Madden was quite wrong in _all_ he affirmed, and Hardy +quite right in _all_ he denied. + +The attention which had been drawn to Matthew Paris by this remarkable +controversy could not but have its effect in awakening a desire for that +critical edition of the larger Chronicle which Dr. Luard had been so +long preparing. The way was cleared for such an edition now; it was not +likely that any more MSS. of the author would be discovered. Such as +were deposited in the various libraries had been carefully scrutinized, +or their homes were known, and the long years of preparatory study had +been turned to good account--no pains had been spared nor any labour +grudged. In 1872 the first volume of the 'Chronica Majora' appeared in +the 'Rolls Series.' In 1884 the seventh and last volume was issued, +containing the learned editor's last preface, glossary, and emendations, +and an Index to the whole work, extending over nearly 600 pages. It is a +long time since an English scholar has had the good fortune to carry to +its completion so important a work as this, projected on so large a +scale, executed with such conscientious care--characterized by so much +critical skill and scrupulous accuracy--all this achieved single-handed +in the midst of other duties, professional and academical, which would +be quite sufficient to exhaust the energies of an ordinary man. + +Now that the work has been done, and done so thoroughly that it may +safely be asserted the _standard edition_ of the 'Chronic Majora' has +been published once for all, we are in a better position than we ever +were heretofore for taking a survey of the life and labours of its +author, and for answering the enquiries which of late have been made +with increasing frequency, and made too among those who might have been +expected to be able to answer them. Who and what was Matthew Paris? What +did he do, and what did he write that the learned few should speak of +him with so much reverence, though to the unlearned many he is little +more than a famous and familiar name? + +Perhaps before dealing with his personal history, or entering into any +examination of his literary labours, it will be well first to answer the +question--_What_ was Matthew Paris? for it is simply impossible to +estimate rightly the debt we owe to him, or to understand the brief +account that could be drawn up of his career till we have learned to +know something of the _profession_ to which he belonged, and the great +foundation of which he was so distinguished an ornament. By profession +Matthew Paris was a monk. A monk 'professed' is a term indicating the +higher grade to which not every brother in a monastery attained. The +very term 'profession' may be traced to the cloister. In its usual +acceptation it is modern. + +To dilate upon the various monastic orders, which were almost as +numerous in the 13th century as the different religious denominations +are in the 19th, would be out of place here. Suffice it to say that the +English monasteries in Henry III.'s time counted by hundreds. But there +were monasteries and monasteries. Some the homes of the scholar, the +devout and the high-minded, the seats of learning and the resting-places +of the studious and the aged, who hated war and tumult, and only longed +for repose. Some that were mere hiding holes for the lazy and the +incompetent, the failures among the younger sons of the gentry, who had +not the power of pushing their way in the world, or whose career had +been a disappointment. Such men, where all else failed, could get +themselves admitted into some smaller religious house by the interest of +the patron; sometimes bringing in a trifling addition to the common +property, sometimes simply 'pitchforked' into a vacancy, it is difficult +to say how. Then they became 'brethren' of the monastery, and sharers in +most of the good things that it could offer; they were almost exactly in +the same position as Fellows of Colleges were twenty years ago, holding +their preferment for life, with this difference, that a Fellowship at +the smallest College in Oxford or Cambridge always implied _some_ +qualification for the post. A College Fellow, at the worst, must have +had some claims to learning or culture; whereas in the smaller and more +remote monasteries a man might be scandalously ignorant, and yet gain +admittance as a brother of the house. + +Between the highest and the lowest of that great army of monks, +dispersed through the length and breadth of the land, when English +monarchism had declined from its earlier ideal, there was as great a +distance as there is at this moment between the Fellows of Balliol or +Trinity, and the poor brethren of the Charterhouse, or the bedesmen in +the cathedrals of the old foundation. + +In the first half of the 13th century English monarchism was at its +best; the 12th century was emphatically the reformation age of British +monarchism. All the many schemes for starting new orders with improved +_Rules_, and all the efforts to improve the discipline of the religious +houses and fan the fire of devotion among their members, assumed that +the monasteries were then living institutions with vast powers for good; +and institutions which needed only to be reformed to make them all that +the most earnest and ardent enthusiast claimed that they ought to be, +and might become. In the fifty years preceding the accession of King +John, more than 200 monasteries had been built and endowed--some of them +munificently endowed, and the only purely English order (that of St. +Gilbert of Sempringham) had been founded, and in little more than fifty +years could count no less than fourteen considerable houses. Englishmen +believed in the monastic system as they have never believed in anything +else since then; never have such prodigious sacrifices been made, never +has such lavish munificence been shown by the _upper classes_ as during +the century ending with the accession of Edward I. In the next hundred +years they were chiefly the townsmen and traders, not the landed +proprietors, who emptied their money-bags into the lap of the Begging +friars. Certainly the great religious houses at the end of the 13th +century had the entire confidence of the country, and it is impossible +to understand the long reign of Henry III. unless we are fully awake to +the fact that then, too, the monasteries were not only thriving and +powerful, but were institutions on whose help and power the people leant +with an assured confidence, because they were pre-eminently the people's +friends. But between the old foundations which had a history and the new +houses that were springing up in every shire, some feeling of jealousy +and soreness was sure to arise. The old abbeys, with a history that +looked back into a past all clouds and mist, but none the less glorious +for that, affected a supercilious tone towards the mushrooms that had of +late sprouted into vigorous life. A man need not be an old man who can +remember when the Eton and Winchester boys at the Universities affected +an air of contempt for all the 'modern' places of education, and +disdained to number such institutions as Cheltenham or Clifton among the +'public schools.' These were all very well in their way, but where were +their traditions? So with the older and grander Benedictine monasteries, +with charters from Saxon kings, let alone anything else. Glastonbury, +where men said two of the Apostles had built themselves a house of +prayer, and where St. Patrick and St. Dunstan lay entombed; Canterbury, +where Augustine, the English apostle, found a home; Malmesbury, where +St. Aldhelm preached to the barbarous people, and when they tired of his +sermon played to them upon his harp, and, anticipating Mr. Sankey, sang +David's Psalms to the crowds that moved by him as they passed over the +bridge of Avon. These venerable foundations, about whose origin a +glamour of mystery had gathered, whose history had become strangely +obscured by the body of myths that had grown up in the lapse of +centuries--which had survived pillage and anarchy, and all the horrors +of fire and sword, desolating, devastating--were there before men's +eyes, testifying to the amazing vitality which a millennium of strange +vicissitude had not only not destroyed, but not even impaired. Such a +mighty pile of buildings, as had risen up to heaven there in the old +Roman town of Verulam, appealed to the imagination of mankind--the very +materials of the massive tower, ruddy in the blaze of the noon-day, must +have been a wonder and astonishment to many an awe-struck pilgrim +perplexed at the first sight of Roman bricks burnt on the spot a +thousand years ago. There stood the mighty Roman rampart, vast, +enormous--the ground beneath his feet teeming with the tangible memories +of grisly conflict, or of an old civilization that had been blotted out +long ago--the swords of Roman legionaries, the bones of British heroes, +coins with legends that few could read turned up by the ploughman's +share. Yonder, men said, away there at Redburn, the heathen pursuers had +come upon England's proto-martyr and slain the saint of God, whose bones +since then had been gathered up, and were now resting in their sumptuous +shrine. When the Norman came, and the new order was set up in the +land--not a day before it was needed--the thirteenth Abbot of St. +Alban's was of the blood royal, and heir, they said, to Cnut, the Danish +king, who had passed away. It was to him that the awful Conqueror made +oath he would bind himself by the Confessor's laws, an oath which, if he +ever meant to keep, he meant to interpret according to his mood. Even +the very laxity and shortcomings of the abbots of generations back, +which tradition, and something more to be trusted than tradition, +declared to have been matters of scandal, proved no more than that the +great Abbey could live through evil times, outride the storms which +would wreck weaker vessels, and right itself, though overloaded with +abuses which timid pilots would have shrunk from throwing overboard: and +now that 400 years had passed since Offa, the Saxon king--(stirred +thereto by Karl, the Emperor)--had founded the monastery in St. Alban's +honour, and from generation to generation vast building operations had +been going on almost without interruption, and the old Abbey still held +up its head proudly, its Abbot taking precedence of every other in the +land; any man might be excused for thinking that to become a monk of St. +Alban's Abbey was to become a personage of no small consideration. + +Verily it was a great abbey in the days of King John. There, in the +eighth year of that King's reign, was held that memorable council +which, if it had been let alone, would doubtless have issued its protest +against the intolerable aggression of the Pope and his _curia_. There, +six years afterwards, another assembly was convened; the first occasion +on which we find any historical proof that representatives were summoned +to a national council in England. Eight times during his reign the +ruffian King was himself a guest at the Abbey. Once after John's death, +when Louis was desperately struggling to hold his own against young +Henry's friends and supporters, he too came to St. Alban's, and +threatened to give it over to fire and sword: only money saved it from a +sack. There was always something to take, and yet always wonderful state +kept up. The magnates in Church and State were for ever going in and +out; the mere domestic expenditure was enormous. Yet, even when the +country was groaning under horrible anarchy, and grinding taxation, and +war and poverty, the building went on as if men lived only to glorify +the great house, and to raise its church tower, or beautify the west +front, or fill the windows with stained glass, or erect the splendid +pulpit in the nave--a miracle of art. + +It would be a very great mistake to conclude that all this lavish +expenditure implied the enjoyment of large rents from land. The revenue +derived from the tenants of the Abbey and the profits of farming were no +doubt considerable; but that revenue could never have sufficed alone to +defray the cost of keeping up the establishment. In point of fact, when +a monastery, great or small, depended wholly upon its landed property, +it invariably got into debt; sometimes it got hopelessly into debt. It +is clear that before the Dissolution a very large number of the +religious houses were insolvent. The striking paucity in the number of +'religious' at the time of the suppression--for hardly one house in ten +had its full complement of inmates--is by no means wholly to be +attributed to the reluctance on the part of people in general to take +upon themselves the monastic vows. Where a monastery was financially in +a critical condition, the brotherhood resorted to the expedient which is +at this moment being carried out at more than one College in Oxford and +Cambridge. Now, when times are bad, we temporarily suppress a +Fellowship; then, on the death of a brother of the house, they chose no +monk into his place. + +The income from landed estates at St. Alban's was probably at no time +equal to what may be called the extraordinary income. The offerings at +the shrines of SS. Alban and Amphibalus, the proceeds of the offertory +at those magnificent and dramatic functions in which the multitude +delighted, and the _douceurs_ that were always expected and almost +always given in return for hospitality, which only in theory was +free,--these and many another source of profit, which the universal +habit of giving money for 'pious uses' supplied, all made up a sum +total, in comparison with which the proceeds of the rent-roll were +insignificant. In the taxation of Pope Nicholas (A. D. 1291) the whole +revenue of the Abbey from rent and dues in the liberty of St. Alban's is +set down at 392l. 8s. 3-1/4d., a sum which in those days would go as far +as 5000l. a-year now. Even granting that this was only half the net +income derivable from the Abbey's estates, which were widely +distributed, an expenditure of 10,000l. a year would go in our own time +a very little way towards meeting the charges which such an enormous +establishment involved. The mere keeping up the buildings at all times +entailed a very heavy annual outlay. Already in the 13th century the +precincts of the Abbey were overcrowded with palatial edifices, which +were never pulled down except to make room for larger ones. There were +acres of roofs within the Abbey walls. + +And what return was being made to the nation, that every rank and every +class were keeping up a rivalry in munificence in favour of such an +institution as this? What had they done, what were they doing, these +seventy men, with their Abbot at their head, who were in the enjoyment +of an income larger than that of many a principality? How was it that no +one _in those days_ accused them of being indolent drones? Mere burdens +upon the earth, as they were called frequently enough, and loudly +enough, and angrily enough, three centuries later? It was the age for +the expansion of the monastic system--none then wished to sweep the +monks away. One of the reasons why the monasteries had retained their +hold upon the affection of the people, and were regarded with reverence +and pride and confidence, lay in this, that they had moved with the +times, and that the monasticism of the 13th was very different indeed +from the monasticism of the 9th century. The primitive asceticism had +almost vanished; it had not, however, died, leaving nothing in its +place. No one now expected to find the religious houses filled with +religious people, everyone holy, devout, and fervent; the personal +sanctity of the inmates was one thing, the sanctity of their churches +and shrines was quite another. In the old days the monks were separate +from the world, living to save their own souls at best; examples to such +as trembled at the wrath of God, and longed for the life to come. As +time went on they mixed more boldly with the sinful world, and gradually +they became more and more the illuminators of the darkness round them. +Now they were regarded as in great measure the salt of the earth, and if +that salt should lose its savour, where was such virtue elsewhere to be +found? Personally, the men might be worldly--vicious, as a rule, they +certainly were not--they were, _mutatis mutandis_, what in our time +would be called cultured gentlemen, courteous, highly educated and +refined, as compared with the great mass of their contemporaries; a +privileged class who were not abusing their privileges; a class from +whence all the art and letters and accomplishments of the time emanated, +allied in blood as much with the low as the high, the aristocracy of +intellect, and the pioneers of scientific and material progress. The +model farming of the 13th century would be regarded as barbaric by our +modern theorists; but such as it was, it was only to be met with on the +demesne lands of the larger monasteries, and was a prodigious advance +upon the _petite culture_ of the open fields. The Priory at Norwich made +an income out of its garden in the days of Edward III., and probably +much earlier; the pisciculture of the religious houses remains a mystery +as yet unsolved; the skill exhibited in the management of the +water-power of many a district round even the smaller houses, still +awakes wonder in those who think it worth their while to study it. At +St. Alban's, as at Glastonbury, St. Edmund's Abbey, and elsewhere, the +culture of the vine was made profitable for generations. The monasteries +were the first to give personal freedom to the villeins, and the first +to commute for money payments the vexatious _services_ which worried the +best men and maddened the worst. The landlords in the 13th century were +real _lords_ of the _land_. They were, as a class, very poor, spite of +the privileges they enjoyed and the power that they possessed of making +themselves disagreeable; and though the constitution of a _manor_ was a +limited monarchy, and the _limits_ were very many, yet the lord could +exercise a great deal of petty tyranny in his little kingdom if he were +so disposed. In the manors which were in the possession of the religious +houses the lord was necessarily non-resident, and the tenants were left +to manage their own affairs with very little interference. The tenants +of the monasteries were in a far more favoured condition than the +tenants of some small lord, needy and greedy, who extorted his dues +literally to the last farthing, and who knew exactly what the best beast +was, on the land that owed him a heriot; and, when the tenant was _in +extremis_, kept a sharp look-out that a fat bullock or a promising young +horse should not be driven off before the owner died. + +So the monasteries at the time we are now concerned with were regarded +at once with pride and affection by the great bulk of the people; they +were places of refuge where, in a turbulent time, men and women who had +been stricken, bereaved or wronged, might find a quiet refuge and hide +their heads and be forgotten and fall asleep, with the prayers of other +sufferers to console and support them in their passage through the +valley of the shadow of death. The gentlest spirits here could taste the +bliss of a holy tranquillity; the ascetic could indulge his most +fantastic self-immolation; the morbid visionary could dream at his will +and give his imagination full play, none hindering him; evil demons +might chatter and gibe and twit him at his prayers; choirs of angels +might calm his despair with celestial lullabies; awful forms might rise +from clouds of incense as the gorgeous procession moved along the vast +church aisles, or stopped before some glittering shrine. What then? Who +would question the reality of a miracle, or doubt that sublime +revelations might be made to any holy monk as he wrestled in prayer with +a rapture of the soul, and found himself lifted to the seventh heaven in +ecstasy unutterable? + +What has been said applies mainly to the older houses, those which were +under what may be called the _primitive_ Benedictine rule. If men were +moved to rigid asceticism, however, and had a taste for bald simplicity; +if art, and music, and ornate architecture, had no charm for them, and +they dreamt that God could only be sought and found in the wilderness, +the Cistercian houses offered such a congenial asylum. The Cistercians +were the Puritans of the monasteries, and appealed to that mysterious +sentiment which makes some minds shrink with fear from the touch of +luxury, and regard culture as antagonistic to personal holiness. The +sentiment was strong in the reign of Henry II., when nineteen Cistercian +houses were founded; but it is not improbable that other motives, beside +mere taste for a stricter discipline, led to the foundation of eight +more in the reign of King John. Meanwhile the Benedictines had become by +far the most learned and most _educating_ body in the land, and +pre-eminent above them all was the great Abbey of St. Alban's. If it was +not at this time the centre of intellectual life in England, it was +because at this time centralization was unknown. Eadmer, Florence of +Worcester, Gervase of Canterbury, William of Malmesbury, Simeon of +Durham, were all 12th-century Benedictines. They were all students and +writers of history, and history meant _literature_ till Peter Lombard +arose at the end of the 12th century and revolutionized the world of +thought--at any rate the domain of logic. John of Salisbury fiercely +assails the intellectual innovators of his time on the ground that the +new lights of the 12th century disdained to be students of history and +affected contempt for the past. It was the old story; literary culture +found itself in antagonism with scientific culture, and the vigorous +childhood of scientific research was aggressive, insolent, and noisily +insubordinate. The old seminaries, whose homes were in the Benedictine +monasteries, refused to welcome the new learning. Its teachers settled +themselves elsewhere; at Paris, on the other side of the water, they had +a hard fight of it. Once in 1209 the Synod of Paris actually prohibited +the reading of Aristotle's 'Metaphysics.' At Oxford they seem to have +met with a more generous reception. Perhaps it was because that +reception was too enthusiastic that King Stephen at the close of his +miserable reign expelled Vacarius, the first teacher of scientific law +in England. Whereupon young men of parts and ambition crossed the +Channel, seeking and finding at Pavia and Bologna what was not to be had +at home. The monastic schools held their own, and went on in the old +groove; the intellectual revolution which soon came about by the agency +of the Mendicant Orders was not yet dreamt of. St. Alban's, Malmesbury, +and other such mighty foundations, stuck to the old studies, just as +Eton and Winchester stuck to Latin Verse as the one thing needful, and +reluctantly gave into the newfangled notion of having a 'modern side.' + +Outside the Abbey precincts, a hundred yards from the great gate, and +separated from it by the _Rome land_, which may possibly have served the +boys as a playground, stood the Grammar School. Whether it offered a +different training from that which was usually supplied to the scholars +who were under training in the cloister, it is difficult to say. Within +the precincts, when the 13th century began, there stood the great +church--enriched by the accumulated offerings of centuries, and glowing +with dazzling splendour of jewels and cloth of gold, and glass that +glorified the very sunshine, and wonders of sculpture and colour and +needlework filling the heart to overflowing with inexplicable hopes and +longings for an ideal that seemed possible of realization, if only the +Church in heaven should be as far removed above the actual of the Church +on earth, as the glories of the Church on earth were removed above the +squalid life of the common workday world. All this in witness that the +great Abbey was, first and foremost, a religious foundation, raised in +the first instance to the glory of God, and meant to help forward the +worship of God, and make the worship worthy of the Most High. + +But besides being primarily and emphatically a religious foundation, the +Abbey in the 13th century had grown into something else, and had become +the home of a corporation of scholars and students, who were the leaders +of art and culture in an age when art and culture were to be met with +nowhere outside the walls of a great monastery. There, in what might be +called the museum of the Abbey, you might see no mean collection of +antique gems that had once been the pride of Roman magistrates. +Mysterious specimens of barbaric goldwork, fashioned by unknown +craftsmen for the necks of nameless chieftains who had drawn the sword +and perished, none knew when. Engraved gems that had been dug up in +mysterious sepulchres, about which even imagination despaired of telling +any story; relics of saints and martyrs, charters of Saxon kings, +granted centuries before the Normans came to ring out the old and ring +in the new. The wealth of mere archaeological specimens at St. Alban's +made it such a museum of antiquities as provokes wonder and bitterness, +as we read the catalogue of what was once there, and has perished +utterly and for ever.[3] + +The range of buildings to the south of the church covered a far larger +area than that which the church itself occupied. Uncertain though the +exact site may be and is, there had already been added in Brother +Matthew's time what we should now call an Art school, a Library, and, +almost more famous than all, the Scriptorium. By-and-bye, too, came the +printing-press which John Herford set up in 1480. Wynkyn de Worde was +sometime schoolmaster of Saint Alban's, and Lady Juliana Berners' famous +volume issued from the Abbey Press, while Caxton was still pursuing his +craft in the almonry of another monastery at Westminster. + +In the days of King John, however, people had so little idea of the +possibility of the printing-press, that they were almost equally +ignorant of such a material as paper for literary purposes. Yet it is a +huge mistake which has not yet been exploded, as it ought to be, that +reading and writing were rare accomplishments in the 13th century. +Knowledge of a certain kind was disseminated far more effectively and +far more universally than is generally believed. The country parson was +expected to be the schoolmaster of his parish, and generally was so, and +there was hardly a village in England during the reign of Henry III, in +which there were not one or more persons who could write a _clerkly_ +hand, draw up accounts in _Latin_, and keep the records of the various +petty courts and gatherings that were continually being held, sometimes +to the annoyance and grievous vexation of the rural population. The +professional _writers_ were so numerous, and their training so severe, +that they had got for themselves privileges of a very exceptional kind; +the _clerk_ took rank with the _clergyman_, and the _writer_ of a book +was almost as much esteemed as its _author_. + +The scriptorium of a great monastery was at once the printing-press and +the publishing office. It was the place where books were written, and +whence they issued to the world. With the traditional exclusiveness of +the older monasteries there was less desire, no doubt, to diffuse and +disperse than to accumulate books, but the composing and the +multiplication of books was always going on. The scriptorium was a great +writing school too, and the rules of the art of writing which were laid +down there were so rigidly and severely adhered to, that to this day it +is difficult to decide at a glance whether a book was written in St. +Alban's or St. Edmund's Abbey. Sometimes as many as twenty writers were +employed at once, and besides these there were occasionally +supernumeraries, who were professional scribes, and who were paid for +their services; but nothing short of perfect penmanship, such trained +skill, for instance, as would now be required for an engraver, would +qualify a copyist to take part in the finished work, which the copying +of important books required. + +One of the conclusions which Sir Thomas Hardy arrived at during the +course of his minute examination of Sir Frederick Madden's theory is so +curious, and opens out such an unexpected view of the way in which our +monasteries may have been brought under the influence of foreign +literature, that it is worth while in this connection to quote the great +critic's own words: + + 'After minutely examining every page of the manuscripts in + question, as well as others, which were undoubtedly written + in the monastery of St. Alban's, and comparing them with + others executed in various parts of England and on the + Continent, I can come to no other conclusion than that + during the latter half of the 13th century, and perhaps a + little earlier, there prevailed among the scribes in the + Scriptorium of St. Alban's, a peculiar character of writing + which is not recognizable in any other religious house in + England during that period; but which is traceable in some + foreign manuscripts, and even in private deeds executed in + England in the neighbourhood of St. Alban's during the 12th + and 13th centuries. These facts lead me to the inference, + that _the schoolmaster who taught the art of writing to + Matthew Paris and the other members and scholars of the + establishment at St. Alban's was a foreigner_; that his + pupils not only imitated their instructor in the formation + of his letters, but also in his exceptional orthography.' + +What questions suggest themselves as we accept the conclusion arrived +at! Who was he, this 'foreigner,' who had come from across the sea to +bring in his outlandish novelties into the great scriptorium? Was he +some 'Frenchman' imported from sunny Champagne, where Thibaut, the +mawkish singer was making verses which his people loved to listen to? +Did he teach the young novices French as well as writing? Did he touch +the lute himself on Feast-days, and charm them with some new lyric of +Gasse Brusle, or delight them with one of Rutebeuf's merry ditties? +France was all alive with song at this time, and princes were rivals now +for poetic fame. It may be that this 'foreigner' brought in a taste for +light literature as well as for a new fashion in penmanship, and made +known to his pupils such alluring novelties as the 'Roman d'Alexandre, +soon to be eclipsed by the 'Roman de la Rose.' + +The scriptorium at St. Alban's was founded by Abbot Paul, a kinsman of +Archbishop Lanfrance, when the great Abbey had already existed for three +centuries. Paul became Abbot eleven years after the Conquest, and he +showed himself an able and earnest administrator. From this time +learning and a love of books became a tradition of the house. Abbot +after abbot continued to add to the collection of MSS., and to increase +the value of the library. But St. Alban's had never had a great +historian of its own. Strange and shameful fact! East and west and north +and south, all over the land, there were great writers holding up their +proud heads. Out in the desolate wilds there at Peterborough, they had +been actually keeping up a chronicle for centuries--aye, and written in +the vernacular too. The lonely monastery of Ely, among the swamps, had +its historian. Malmesbury boasted her learned William; and Worcester, +which St. Wulstan had raised from the dust, as it were, only the other +day, had already her Florence. In the great houses of the Northern +Province there had been no lack of writers to whom the past was an open +book. Even Westminster had long ago had her _chronographer_, and far +away in furthest Wales, Geoffrey, the Monmouth man, was making men open +their eyes very wide indeed with tales--idle tales they might be, but +they were well worth the reading--and there was talk too of another +young Welshman, Giraldus, who was on the way towards outdoing the other +by-and-bye. What are we coming to? Holy St. Alban, shalt thou and thy +house be put to shame?--that be far from us! + +Thus it came to pass that about a century after the foundation of the +scriptorium, and when the library had grown to an imposing size, Abbot +Simon bestirred himself, and a new office was created in the Abbey, to +wit, that of Historiographer. In our time we should have given this +functionary a grander title, and called him Professor of History; but in +the 12th century, they called him what he was, a writer of history, and +from this time, in fact, the writing of history, after a certain +authorized method, began, and what had been called, and deserves to be +called, the St. Alban's School of History took its rise. + +It is evident that before the 13th century had well begun, an historical +compendium of great value had already been drawn up, which must have +been compiled by careful students with a command of books such as during +this age was rare. + + 'The compilation,' says Dr. Luard, 'whenever and by + whomsoever it was written must be regarded as a very curious + and remarkable one. The very large number of sources + consulted, the miscellaneous character of many of the + extracts, the mixture of history and legend, the giving + fixed years to stories which even writers like Geoffrey of + Monmouth had left undated, the care at one time and the + carelessness at another, the slavishness with which one + authority is followed, and the recklessness with which + another is altered, the frequent confusion of dates, their + ignorance and want of care, the blunders displayed in many + instances from the compiler not understanding the author + whom he is copying, as is especially the case in the + extracts from the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;" all these + characteristics may well earn for the author the title that + Lappenberg has given to him, though under the name of + "Matthew of Westminster," namely, that of the "Verwirrer der + Geschichte." At the same time there is no doubt that he had + access to some materials which we no longer possess: and my + object has been to trace all his statements, where possible, + to their source, and to distinguish any additions that the + compiler has made when they are merely rhetorical + amplifications of his own, or when they are really from some + source not now extant.'--Pref. to vol. i., p. xxxiii. + +After all that can be said, the work surprises us by the erudition it +displays. Nor is that surprise lessened when we have gone through the +masterly analysis of its contents, which Dr. Luard has given us in the +Preface to his first vol. Such as it was, it became the great text-book +on which Roger of Wendover founded his own labours when he incorporated +it into the chronicle which he left behind him. Roger of Wendover did +good work, and laboriously epitomized, supplemented and improved, but he +was a mere literary monk after all; a student, a bookworm, simple, +conscientious, and truthful; a trustworthy reporter, 'a picker-up of +learning's crumbs,' a monkish historiographer, in short; but by no means +a historian of large views and of original mind. Roger of Wendover died +in 1236, and Matthew Paris succeeded to his office and work. + +From what has been said, the reader may be presumed to have gained +something like an answer to our first question: _What_ was Brother +Matthew? Briefly, he was a representative monk of the most powerful +monastery in England during the 13th century, when that monastery was at +its best, and doing the work which in after times the Universities and +great schools of the country took out of the hands of the religious +houses; work, too, which since those days has been done by the +printing-press, and by many other institutions better fitted to deal +with the requirements of an immensely larger population, and to be the +instruments of diffusing culture and refinement through the nation after +it had outgrown the older machinery. + +When we come to look into the personal history of Brother Matthew, the +details of his biography need not detain us long. Sir Henry Taylor's +famous line is only half true, after all; + + 'The world knows nothing of its greatest men' + +really means that the world knows less about them than it would like to +know. And yet the world knows almost as much about them as is good for +it. The leading facts of a man's career are all that concern most of +us--the main lines--not the details. Of Matthew Paris we know enough, +because he has himself given us so faithful a picture of his times, and +so charming an insight into the daily life which he led. + +Unnecessary doubt has been suggested as to his parentage, and whether +his extraction was or was not from a stock that could boast of gentle +blood. For our part we incline strongly to the belief, that Brother +Matthew was called Paris because that was his name, and had been his +father's name before him. A family of that name held lands in +Bedfordshire in Henry III.'s time; others of the same stock were settled +in Lincolnshire earlier still; and the Cambridgeshire family (one of +whom was among the visitors of the monasteries under Henry VIII.) +boasted of a long line of ancestors, and retained their estates in the +Eastern Counties till late in the 17th century. Young Matthew probably +received his education in the school at St. Alban's, and soon showed a +decided taste for learning and the student's life, and that in the 13th +century meant an inclination for the life of the cloister. Many a +precocious lad is even now taught from his childhood to look forward to +the glories of a College Fellowship, and the career which such an +academic success may open to him; and in the 13th century a schoolboy's +ambition was directed to the goal of admission to a great +monastery--that step on the ladder which whosoever could reach, there +was no knowing how high he might climb--how high above the common sons +of earth or, if he preferred it, how high towards the heaven that is +above the earth. + +Matthew was probably born about the year 1200, and in January 1217 he +became a monk at St. Alban's, _i. e._, he became a _novice_. At this +time a lad could commence his noviciate at 15; but the age was +subsequently advanced to 19, the younger limit having been found, as a +rule, too early even for the preliminary discipline required. On the day +after the lad was admitted, a frightful scene took place in the +monastery. A band of Fawkes de Breaute's cut-throats had stormed the +town of St. Alban's, burst into the Abbey, and slaughtered at the door +of the church one Robert Mai, a servant of the Abbot. William de +Trumpington was Abbot at this time, a vigorous and resolute personage, +who ruled the convent with a firm hand. Like all really able men, he was +ably seconded, for he knew how to choose his subordinates. At first the +monks had repented of their choice, and there were quarrels and +litigation and appeals to the Pope, and many serious 'unpleasantnesses;' +but as time went on, Abbot William had won the allegiance of all the +convent, and they were proud of him. He was a man of books, among his +other virtues, and had an eye for bookish men; and when he deposed Roger +de Wendover from being Prior of Belvoir with a somewhat high hand, and +brought him back to St. Alban's, he doubtless did so because he knew +that at Belvoir he was a square man in a round hole, while in the +scriptorium of the Abbey he would be in his right place. Certainly the +event proved that the Abbot was right, and it was to this judicious +removal of a student and man of letters to his proper home that we owe +so much of our knowledge of those interesting minutiae of English history +which the writer has revealed. It was under the eye of Robert de +Wendover that Matthew Paris grew up, rendering him every year more and +more substantial assistance in the library and in the scriptorium. + +But the young man was not only a bookworm and a copyist, he soon got to +be looked upon as a prodigy. He was a universal genius; he could do +whatever he set his hand to, and better than any one else. He could +draw, and paint, and illuminate, and work in metals. Some said he could +even construct maps; he was versed in everything, and noticed everything +from 'the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop upon the wall;' he was +an expert in heraldry; he could tell you about whales, and camels, and +buffaloes, and elephants--he could even draw an elephant--illustrate his +history, in fact, with the elephant's portrait, the first elephant, he +says, that had ever been seen in our northern climes. It was centuries +before men had dreamt of what the science of geology would one day +reveal. Then, too, he had vast capacity for work, and was a courtly +person, and he had the gift of tongues, and had been a great traveller; +he had early been sent by the convent to study at the University of +Paris, and wherever he went, he was the man to make friends. When the +Benedictines in Norway had convinced themselves that there was sore need +of a reform of their rule and discipline, they applied to Pope Innocent +IV. to send them a Visitor furnished with the necessary authority for +carrying out so delicate and difficult a mission, and they made choice +of Matthew Paris as the fittest possible person for such a work. +Reluctantly Brother Matthew was compelled to undertake the task; he +started on his northern voyage in 1248, and was absent about a year. In +Norway he soon grew into high favour with King Hacon, who peradventure +would have kept him at his side if he could. This seems to have been the +most important episode in his otherwise uneventful life. But the +advantages and opportunities which were at the command of any ambitious +and studious young monk at St. Alban's were in themselves extraordinary. +We have said that building was always going on. It was going on on a +very large scale indeed in Abbot William's time. That means that there +were the plans and sections and working drawings to be copied for the +architect, and measurements and calculations by the thousand to be +made--_a school of architecture_, in short: and besides that, what Roger +de Wendover was in the scriptorium, that Walter of Colchester, _pictor +et sculptor incomparabilis_, was in the painting room. Walter was a +sculptor; indeed he wrought at his marvellous pulpit which the Abbot set +up in the middle of the church: and he carved the story of St. Alban +upon the great beam over the high altar, and did many another thing of +which we have only too brief descriptions. Then, too, there was Richard, +the monk who decorated the grand new guests' hall _deliciose_, as we are +told, and who painted pictures and carried out other works of +embellishment at a pace which none could have kept up, but that he had +his father to help him with his brush, and another artist, John of +Wallingford, to carry out his great designs, and many more skilled +limners whose names have gone down into silence. + +When Abbot William's reign came to an end, the monks were unanimous in +choosing John of Hertford as his successor, and the new Abbot lost no +time in showing favour to Matthew Paris. Next year Roger de Wendover +died, and who could there be so worthy to succeed him as historiographer +as the versatile and accomplished brother, who by this time was the +boast of the great house? And historiographer accordingly Matthew +became--_mutatis mutandis_, a sort of 13th-century editor of the +'Times;' his business was to gather from all points of the compass, if +not the latest news, yet the best and most trustworthy reports upon +whatever was worth recording. He had his correspondents all over Europe, +and that he sifted the evidence as it came to him we know. + +Wherever there was any great event that deserved a place in the Abbey +Chronicle, some splendid pageant to describe, some battle, or treaty, or +pestilence, or flood, or famine, straightway tidings came to the +vigilant historiographer; and there was a comparison of the evidence +brought in, and some testing of witnesses, and finally the narrative was +drawn up and incorporated into Matthew's history. Again and again it +happened that a great personage who, while himself _making_ history, was +anxious that his own part in a transaction should be represented +favourably, would try and get the right side of the famous chronicler, +and would furnish him with private information. Even the King himself +thought it no scorn to communicate facts and documents to Brother +Matthew. Once when Henry saw him in a crowd on a memorable occasion, he +picked him out, and bade him take his seat by his side, and see to it +that he made a true and faithful report of what was going on; and it is +evident that the royal favour which he enjoyed through life must have +extended to furnishing him with many a story and many a detail which +none but the King could have supplied. The minute account of the attempt +to assassinate Henry in 1238; the curious State paper giving a narrative +of the dispute between the King and his nobles in 1242; the strange +scene at the tomb of William Marshall in 1245, and scores of other +incidents in the career of Bishop Grossteste and Richard of Cornwall, +were evidently 'inspired,' and can only have come from eye-witnesses of +the events recorded. Nevertheless Matthew, though he was willing enough +to receive information, and to utilise facts and documents, was by no +means the man to reproduce them exactly in the form in which they came +to him. More than once he ventured to remonstrate with the King, and +very much oftener than once he expresses his opinion of him in no +measured terms. Some of the severest censures he had marked for +omission, and some expressions he modified considerably, for we have the +good fortune to possess his chronicle both in an earlier and in a later +form; but even though the fuller and more outspoken record had perished, +we should still have had enough proof to make it clear that we have in +Matthew Paris an instance of a born historian, one who never consented +to be a mere advocate, taking a side and seeing only half the truth of +anything; but a man gifted with the judicial faculty, that precious gift +without which a man may be anything you please--a rhetorician, a special +pleader, a picturesque writer, a laborious collector of facts; but an +historian never. And yet Matthew Paris was a magnificent hater, with a +fund of indignant scorn and righteous anger which never fails him upon +occasion. Friend of King and nobles as he was, he will not spare his +words of wrathful censure upon the tyrant, or upon any that he held +deserving of rebuke for cruelty, oppression and avarice. When he has to +lay the lash on such as had proved themselves enemies to his much-loved +Abbey, or who had wronged and defrauded it, he is well-nigh as fierce as +Dante. He singles them out--the doomed wretches--and holds them, as it +were, over the fire of hell before he drops them down into the burning +flame. + +Did Ralph Cheinduit, that blustering, burly knight, cry aloud 'A fig for +St. Alban and his monks! Since they excommunicated me--look you! I have +only increased in girth, behold me fat and jolly, in faith almost too +big for my saddle. A fig for them all!' Did he say so, the impious +wretch? Be it known that from that very day Sir Knight began to shrink +and waste and pine, and if he had not repented and been absolved in +time, he had gone down to the bottomless pit with never a hope of +deliverance. + +Did not Sir Adam Fitz William show the evil spirit that was in him when +he sided against us time and again? And now, look to his awful end! +Gorged with meat and drink one night, he sprawled upon his bed, +_indigestus_, as you may say, and he never woke more. Aye! and he died +intestate too. And as though that was not bad enough, his wife too died, +straightway, like another Sapphira slain by the shock of the tidings. +And then there was Alan de Beccles, too, always notorious for setting +himself against us and our house, he too perished as the other did, for +he loved choice dainties overmuch, and he dined late and he ate as none +should eat, and when he could eat no more, suddenly his speech failed +him and his veins burst, smitten with an apoplexy. And many another, +whom it would take too long to name, following his evil course, and +being prosecutors of Holy Alban's Church, perished for ever by God's +vengeance. + +It is no longer the fashion now to denounce the Pope and his myrmidons, +but if the rage of Exeter Hall should ever recur, and the orators of the +old platform should revive a taste for anti-papal agitation, they might +find in Matthew Paris as rich a repertory of testimonials against Roman +aggression and greed as the most rabid Irish Protestant could desire. 'O +thou Pope,' he bursts out once, 'thou the father of all the fathers in +Christ, how it is that thou sufferest the realms of Christendom to be +fouled by such creatures as are thine?' The 'creatures' were the papal +legates and nuncios and all their belongings, who were plundering +England without shame. 'Harpies they were and blood-suckers,' says +Matthew, 'mere plunderers, skinning the sheep, not shearing them only.' +Then there were the King's Justiciars--'Justice'--nay, with that they +had nothing to do. Why tell of their unrighteous deeds? he asks. 'Better +forbear from vainly writing about the _wrongers_, and return to the +story of the wronged.' + +Of course the friars come in for their share of strong words--chiefly +because the Pope made use of them so vilely, and not less because they +set themselves above their betters--us, to wit--monks of the old houses. + + 'They started with such fair professions, they were going to + be so very poor, and so very unworldly, and were going to + supplement our work and interfere with nobody, and give us + all a helping hand. Look at them now!' says Matthew; 'they + march through the streets in pompous array with banners + flaunting in the sun and waxen tapers, and rich burghers in + holiday garments joining in the long train, and if they have + no land they have money, good store, and as for their + churches, they are eclipsing us all. Their invasion of our + territory is a dreadful scandal, and they sneer at us and at + all other religious men and women and they flout the parish + priests and call them humdrums, and schism is at work + horribly, and the people are running away from the old + guides, and there is no end to them. Actually in the year of + grace 1257,' he says, 'a new order of these fellows turned + up in London. Friars of the sack, forsooth, because they + were clothed in sackcloth! Of course they came armed with a + papal licence as usual. What did these fellows come for? Was + it to make confusion worse confounded? Alas! Alas! If we had + only been as we were in the golden age, these friars would + never have had a chance--not they! We too are not as the + monks of old were; they lived the guileless life--austere, + hard, self-denying, saintly! What are we in comparison with + them? + + 'Did not we find the bones of our brethren there, hard by + the High Altar, when we were beautifying the same? O ye + degenerate sons of this degenerate age! Two centuries ago + and our monks were men of faith and prayer. In the year of + grace one thousand two hundred and fifty-one, we found more + than thirty of them buried together, and their bones were + lying there, white and sweet, redolent with the odor of + sanctity every one; each man had been buried as he died, in + his monastic habit, and his shoes upon his feet too. Aye, + and _such_ shoes--shoes made for wear and not for + wantonness. The soles of these shoes were sound and strong, + they might have served the purpose for poor men's naked feet + even now, after centuries of lying in the grave. Blush ye! + ye with your buckles, and your pointed toes and your fiddle + faddle. These shoes upon the holy feet that we dug up were + as round at the toe as at the heel, and the latchets were + all of one piece with the uppers. No rosettes in those days, + if you please! They fastened their shoes with a thong, and + they wound that thong around their blessed ankles, and they + cared not in those holy days whether their shoes were _a + pair_. Left foot and right foot each was as the other: and + we, when we gazed at the holy relics--we bowed our heads at + the edifying sight, and we were dumbfounded, even to awe, as + we swung our censers over the sacred graves of the ages + past!' + +The anecdotes and out-of-the-way pieces of information in the 'Chronica +Majora,' which may be said to represent the _paragraphs_ of modern +journalism, are countless. Brother Matthew enlivens his history with +these cross-lights at every page, and what gives to these scraps an +added charm is that Matthew himself seems to be always with us when he +prattles on. Not even Herodotus has succeeded more entirely in +impressing his quaint personality upon his narrative. It is always +something which he has seen, or heard from some living man who saw it +with his own eyes. + + 'There was my friend John of Basingstoke, had studied at + Paris, and a wonder of learning he was, but he told me + himself that his best teacher by far was the young lady + Constantina, daughter of an archbishop she. Archbishop of + Athens, too--archbishops may marry out there! Before she was + twenty she knew all that men may know; she was worth two + universities of Paris any day; she foretold the coming of + plagues and storms, and eclipses--and--more wonderful + still--the coming of earthquakes too: and John of + Basingstoke was her scholar, and whatever he knew that was + deep and rare, he learnt it of the lady Constantina, the + Archbishop's daughter.' + +Matthew is very great when he has to tell of omens and portents: + + 'We were scurvily treated by Pope Innocent III.,' he says, + 'in the days of Abbot John. Spite of all our privileges and + indulgences, the Pope would have him come to Rome every + third year; a sore burden and harm to us all. Forthwith evil + omens came. Thrice in three years was our tower struck by + lightning. After that wrong of his Holiness it was no wonder + that the impression of the papal seal in wax, which we had + taken good care to fix on the top of the steeple, availed + not to keep off the thunderbolt--small good you see in that + kind of thing.' + +Besides the miscellaneous paragraphs, there are periodical reports of +the weather, and the storms, and the droughts, and the harvests. +Moreover, there are what answer to our police reports, and details of +criminal proceedings against Jew and Gentile, and births and deaths and +marriages, and now and then brief notes upon the state of the markets, +and sometimes hints and reflections upon the desirability of certain +reforms in Church and State; and all this not in the spirit of modern +journalism, which at its best too often bears the marks of haste, and +betrays the literary soldier of fortune paid for his work at so much a +column, but genuine, hearty, throbbing with a certain passionate loyalty +to a tradition, or an idea which you may say is exploded, grotesque, or +fanciful, but which in the 13th century honest men and devout ones lived +by and lived for, and were trying in their own way to carry out into +action. + +But now that we have got this precious 'Chronicle,' not to mention other +works in the composition of which Brother Matthew had at least a large +share--though our space forbids us dwelling upon them or their contents, +and we must refer our readers to Dr. Luard's elaborate prefaces if they +would desire to know all about them--another question suggests itself, +which sooner or later will become a pressing question--What are we going +to do with such a national work of which this country has great reason +to be proud? + +The days are gone by when a man was supposed to be educated in +proportion as he was familiar with the literature of Greece and Rome and +ignorant of everything else. Already at Oxford candidates for the +highest honours in the final schools think it no shame to read their +Plato or their Aristotle in English translations, and in half the time +that was needed under the old plan they get a mastery of their +Thucydides or Herodotus, devoting themselves to the subject-matter after +they have proved at 'Moderations' that they have a respectable +acquaintance with the language of the authors. + +May the day be far off when Homer and AEschylus shall cease to be read in +the original! The great writers of Hellas and Italy were poets or +orators, great teachers or great thinkers; but they were something more. +They were perfect instrumentalities too. Their thoughts, their lessons, +their aspirations, their regrets, you may interpret and transfer into +the speech and the idioms of the moderns; but the music of their +language, the subtleties of melody and rhythm, and harmony and tone, can +no more be translated than a symphony for the strings can be adequately +represented upon the organ. You may persuade yourself that you have got +the substance; you have missed the perfection of the form. Yet who but a +narrow pedant will insist that the study of any literature, ancient or +modern, is valuable chiefly for familiarizing us with the language, not +for enriching our minds with the subject matter? Do we desire to +understand the past and so to be better able to estimate the importance +of great movements that are going on in the present or, by the help of +the experience of bygone ages, to forecast the future? Then it behoves +us to see that our induction shall be made from as wide a view as may +be, and to avail ourselves of any light that may be gained. But it is +mere waste of time to be for ever staring at the lamp which may be +pretty to look at in itself, but is then most precious when it serves as +a means to an end. If we are ever to construct a Science of History, the +old methods must give place to something which may approximate to +philosophic enquiry. When we come to think of it, how very small an area +of time or space is covered by the historians of Greece and Rome: how +small an area and how superficially dealt with! Even Thucydides hardly +ventures to lift the veil which separates the civilization of his own +age from that of an earlier period; he lifts it for a moment, then drops +the curtain and passes on. It is true indeed that Herodotus introduces +us to a world that is not Hellenic, and brings us into some sort of +relation with men whose habits and art and religion had a character of +their own; but then these nations were not as we, and not as men even of +our race could ever become. We never seem to be _in touch_ with Egypt or +Assyria, and when he prattles on about these nations it is less as a +historian than as an observant traveller that Herodotus delights and +allures. Xenophon's passing notices of the manners and education, of the +_feudalism_ and the social life of the Medes, are too brief to be +anything but tantalizing; but the neglect of Xenophon by professed +students is not creditable, however significant. Perhaps of all the +Greek writers Polybius was the man who had the truest conception of the +historian's vocation; perhaps, too, it was just because he was so much +before his age that his voluminous and ambitious work has come down to +us little more than a fragment. Because he was something better than a +compiler of annals, they who read history only to be amused found him +dull, and the moderns have not yet reversed the verdict which was passed +upon him. Who ever heard of a candidate for honours taking Polybius into +the schools? + +It is from the Latin historians that we might have expected so much and +from whom we get so little. What do they tell us of ancient Spain--the +Spain that Sertorius pretended he was going to regenerate, and whose +civilization, literature, and national life he did so much to +extinguish? If it were not for what Aristotle has told us in the +_Politics_, what should we know of that mighty commercial Republic which +monopolized the carrying trade of the old world? It never seems to have +occurred to Livy that the political organization of Carthage could be +worth his notice. His business was to glorify Rome, and to tell how Rome +grew to greatness--grew by war and conquest and pillage, and the +ferocious might of her relentless soldiery. The 'Germania' of Tacitus +stands alone--unique in ancient literature; but what would we not give +for such a monograph upon the Britain which Caesar attempted to conquer, +or the Gaul which he plundered and devastated? The great captain's +famous missive might be inscribed as the motto of his 'Commentaries.' +Veni! vidi! vici! sums up in brief the substance of what they contain. +It was always Rome's way! Rome swept a sponge that was soaked in blood +over all the past of the nations she subdued. She came to obliterate, +never to preserve. Her chroniclers disdained to ask how these or those +doughty antagonists had grown formidable, how their national life had +developed; whether their progress had been arrested by the conquerors or +whether they had become weak and enervated by social deterioration or +moral corruption. Enough that they were _Barbarians_. + +The science of history can be but little advanced by writers such as +these, who pass from battlefield to battlefield-- + + 'Crimson-footed, like the stork, + Through great ruts of slaughter,' + +and to whom the silent growth of institutions and the evolution of +ethical sentiments and the development of the arts of peace were matters +which never presented themselves as worthy of their attention. You may +call this history if you will, in truth it is little better than +Empiricism. The world is a larger world than Rome or Athens dreamt of, +and students of history are beginning to realize that not quite the last +thing they have to do is 'to look at _home_.' Such a work as the +'Chronica Majora' of Matthew Paris is a national heritage which it is +shameful to allow much longer to be known only by the curious and +erudite. Now that there is no excuse for our neglect, is it too much to +hope that the day may not be far distant when the name of this great +Englishman may become as familiar to schoolboys as that of Sallust or +Livy, of Cornelius Nepos or Caesar--his name as familiar, and his +writings better known and more loved? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Lord Langdale resigned three weeks before his death. + +[2] The proposal to print and publish the _Calendars_ had been approved +by authority of the new Record Commissioners as early as January 1840. +_See_ preface to Mr. Lemons' 'Calendar' (Domestic, 1547-1580), p. viii. + +[3] In Luard's sixth volume there are two facsimiles of certain coloured +drawings of the more precious gems at St. Alban's, with careful +descriptions of them, these and the illustrations being most probably +_executed by Mathew Paris himself_. + + + + +Art. II. 1.--_The Christian Brothers, their Origin and Work, with a +sketch of the Life of their Founder, The Venerable Jean Baptiste de la +Salle._ By Mrs. R. F. Wilson, London, 1883. + +2. _La Premiere Annee d'Instruction Morale et Civique: notions de droit +et d'economie politique (Textes et Recits) pour repondre a la loi du 28 +Mars 1882 sur l'enseignement primaire obligatoire: ouvrage accompagne de +Resume, de Questionnaires, de Devoirs, et d'un Lexique des mots +difficiles._ Par Pierre Laloi. Quatorzieme Edition. Paris, 1885. + +3. _Report of the Committee of Council on Education_ (England and +Wales). 1884-85. + +4. _Seventy-fourth Annual Report of the Incorporated National Society._ +1885. + + +Most travellers in France will have met occasionally in Paris and in the +provincial towns a school of boys walking two and two, and followed by a +serious-looking superintendent of very solemn deportment. The boys are +in no marked respect different from other boys, but they are orderly and +well conducted. They are probably on their way to a church; and if you +watch them, you will see them march in with much propriety. The +superintendent is evidently not an ordinary schoolmaster; you would +suppose that he is an ecclesiastic of some kind. He wears a loose black +cloak, a hat with a low crown and a portentous brim, and bands such as +were much worn by English clergymen till late years, and which, when +strongly developed, were supposed to indicate a sympathy with +Calvanistic theology. Nevertheless, the solemn-featured young man is not +an ecclesiastic, neither is he a Protestant minister. He is one of the +Freres Chretiens, or Christian Brothers; and the boys whom he has under +his charge are pupils in one of the Ecoles Chretiennes, or Christian +Schools. + +We will venture to assume, that some of our readers are not well +acquainted with the story and the principles of the remarkable +institution known as the Schools of the Christian Brothers, or with the +life of their remarkable founder. We propose in this article to supply +some information upon the subject, not only because we think that such +information will be interesting in itself, but also because we believe +that from the story of the work and principles of the French schools of +the Christian Brothers, we may proceed without difficulty, and almost by +necessary consequence, to some useful considerations with respect to +English schools as now established and conducted amongst ourselves. + +Jean Baptiste de la Salle was born in Rheims, April 30, 1651. The house +in which he was born is still standing, and is regarded with reverence. +He came of a noble family, which was originally of Bearn. His +grandfather settled at Rheims, of which he became an honoured citizen, +but was apparently in no way himself remarkable. His second son, Louis, +was the father of a child, who received the name of Jean Baptiste on the +same day as that upon which he was born. + +This child, whose career we purpose briefly to follow as that of the +founder of the Christian Brothers, exhibited early signs of a devotional +spirit; he learned to recite the Breviary from his grandfather, and +continued to do so even before being bound to the practice by his +ordination vows; and he soon made it clear to himself and to others that +his vocation was that of the priestly office. His conduct as a student +in the University of Rheims, which he entered at eight years old, was +marked by diligence in study and gentle docility. + +Before he had reached the age of sixteen he was made a canon of the +cathedral; such were the strange ecclesiastical possibilities of those +times. An aged relative resigned in his favour, and died the following +year. The preferment, however, did not spoil him; he looked upon it as a +call to duty. He was diligent in attendance upon the offices of the +Church, diligent in private prayer, diligent in study--in every way a +remarkable boy-canon! + +In October 1670 he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, where, +amongst other fellow-students, was Fenelon, subsequently the great +Archbishop of Cambrai. Little is recorded of his seminary life, except +that it was gentle, modest, blameless. In 1672 he lost his father, and +in the same year returned to Rheims to take charge of his younger +brothers and sisters. The responsible position in which he was thus +placed seems to have shaken for a time his persuasion that he had a true +vocation for the priesthood; but after consultation with a friend who +knew him well, his doubts vanished, and on the eve of Trinity Sunday in +this same year he was admitted to the subdiaconate. + +Then follow six years of quiet home work and retirement. During this +time he attended the theological course of the University, provided for +the education of his brothers and sisters, and gave himself very +earnestly to prayer and good works. In the year 1678, on Easter Eve, he +was ordained Priest. + +During all this time De la Salle's attention does not seem to have been +turned to that which ultimately became the great work of his life. As +not unfrequently happens, the real bent was given to his energies by +what might be described as accidental circumstances. The friend whom he +consulted when in doubt concerning holy orders was one Canon Roland. +This good man had interested himself much about an orphanage for girls +at Rheims, which had fallen under bad management, and urgently needed +reform. Canon Roland was taken ill just before De la Salle's ordination, +and, dying not long after, left the young priest his executor, +commending to his special care the orphanage just mentioned. De la Salle +could not refuse the charge; it was not much to his taste, but it was +the bequest of his friend; it was the leading of God; and he girded +himself to the task. He applied through the Archbishop to the King for +letters patent recognizing the institution, and thus put it upon a +lasting foundation; he bore the expense of the whole transaction; then +he supplemented the funds out of his own means; and having thus +satisfied his obligations to his deceased friend, he returned to his +quiet devotional life. The thought that this orphanage for girls would +constitute a valuable training school for schoolmistresses seems already +to have crossed his mind. + +Now comes the turning-point of De la Salle's life, and it comes in a +curious way. There was a certain rich, fashionable, and extravagant +married lady living in Rouen, who, like the rich man in the parable, was +clothed in fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, while Lazarus lay +at the gate. One day a poor beggar, who had been harshly repulsed from +the door, touched the heart of a servant by his manifest misery, and was +received into the stables, where he died the same night. The dead man +must needs be buried; so the servant went to the mistress, confessed his +fault, received some violent language and notice of dismissal, but at +the same time procured a sheet to serve as a shroud for the corpse. At +dinner-time the lady perceived the very sheet, which she had given for +the burial, folded up and lying in her own chair; some mysterious hand +had brought back the ungracious present, as though the deceased beggar +would not receive a favour in death from one who had been so cruel to +him in life. + +This strange and apparently not very important occurrence changed the +whole course of the lady's life. She gave up all her old habits of +magnificence and extravagance, lived the life of a devotee, and soon +succeeded in separating from herself all her old companions and friends, +who, in fact, deemed her mad. After her husband's death she became still +more strict in her habits, and devoted to the service of the poor a +large part of her fortune. + +Amongst other charities which she assisted was the female orphanage, of +which we have already spoken as having been cared for by Canon Roland, +and after his death by M. de la Salle. She conceived the idea of +establishing something of the same kind for boys in her native town of +Rheims, and she consulted Canon Roland on the subject. Ultimately she +engaged a devout layman, named Adrien Nyel, who had experience of poor +schools in Rouen, promised him maintenance for himself and a young +assistant, gave him a letter of introduction to her relative M. de la +Salle, and sent him to Rheims to open a school there for poor boys. + +This school, which was commenced in 1679, was the germ of the great +system of _Ecoles Chretiennes_. Its success led a pious lady in Rheims +to wish to establish another of the same kind in a different part of the +town. She consulted M. de la Salle, who had become patron of the first +school, on the subject; and thus he became, without any special wish or +intention of his own, drawn into the work of the education of poor boys. +His own account of the matter is worth quoting:-- + + 'It was,' he wrote, 'by the chance meeting with M. Nyel, and + by hearing of the proposal made by that lady [to whom + reference has been made], that I was led to begin to + interest myself about boys' schools. I had no thought of it + before. It was not that the subject had not been suggested + to me. Many of M. Roland's friends had tried to interest me + about it, but it took no hold of my mind, and I had not the + least intention of occupying myself with it. If I had ever + thought that the care which out of pure charity I was taking + of schoolmasters would have brought me to feel it a duty to + live with them, I should have given it up at once; for as I + naturally felt myself very much above those whom I was + obliged to employ as schoolmasters, especially at first, the + bare idea of being obliged to live with such persons would + have been insupportable to me. In fact, it was a great + trouble to me when first I took them into my house, and the + dislike of it lasted for two years. It was apparently for + this reason that God, who orders all things with wisdom and + gentleness, and who does not force the inclinations of men, + when He willed to employ me entirely in the care of schools, + wrought imperceptibly and during a long space of time, so + that one engagement led to another in an unforeseen way.' + +This passage somewhat anticipates events; but it is convenient for the +condensed character of this narrative that it should be so. We will +therefore briefly fill up the gap left by M. de la Salle's own statement +by saying, that he found the work of directing schools for the poor +increase upon his hands in a wonderful manner. The success of those +which he visited and superintended led to the establishment of others. +Soon the masters themselves formed a small body which required +superintendence and guidance. He took a house in which he placed them; +the home of course needed rules for its orderly and efficient working; +these M. de la Salle supplied. But still all was not quite as it should +be. Cathedral duties took up much of the Canon's time; these duties were +of primary obligation, and left comparatively little of the day to be +given to the superintendence of schoolmasters. But more than this, the +difference of station and comfort and habits between a well-endowed +Canon of a Cathedral, enjoying in addition a private fortune of his own, +and poor schoolmasters taken from the humblest ranks, and living in the +most humble manner, was quite immeasurable. It was comparatively easy to +have the whole company to dine with him, and so to meet them half way +down the social hill; but this was not enough. M. de la Salle began +gradually to realize the fact, that his great undertaking of supplying +schools and schoolmasters for the gratuitous education of the poor, +could only be crowned with complete success on the condition of his own +adoption of poverty in all its thoroughness. Accordingly he determined +to resign his canonry and spend his fortune upon the poor. Not +altogether so easy a thing as might at first sight appear. Great +opposition was made by his friends: the Archbishop was unwilling to +accept his resignation: nothing but persevering determination on the +part of De la Salle could have carried the business through; but he was +full of perseverance and full of determination, and in 1683 he at last +succeeded in divesting himself of his Cathedral preferment. The sale of +his property, and spending the money upon the poor, was an easier +matter, especially as the year 1684 was one of dearth; in the course of +that year and the following he managed to get rid of all. + +This parting with his money, instead of spending it upon his great work, +may well seem to be a conduct of doubtful wisdom; especially as at a +later period much difficulty was encountered for want of funds. But it +is hard, and perhaps not justifiable, to find fault with a man, who +adopts the course of selling all that he has and giving to the poor, +after using devoutly such a prayer as the following:-- + + 'My God, I do not know whether to endow or not. It is not + for me to found communities, or to know how they should be + founded. It, is for Thee, Oh my God. Thou knowest how, and + canst do it in the way which is pleasing to Thee. If Thou + foundest them, they will be well founded. If Thou foundest + them not, they will be without foundation. I beseech Thee, + my God, make me know Thy will.' + +Soon after the last livre was spent, De la Salle had occasion to make a +journey in connection with his work. He went on foot, as needs he must, +and begged his way. An old woman gave him a piece of black bread; he ate +it with joy, feeling that now he was indeed a poor man. He had at this +time reached the age of thirty-three years. + +Behold the Society of the Christian Brothers, and the Christian Schools, +taking form at last with De la Salle at the head! Let us examine that +work and see how matters stand. + +In the first place, so far as the founder was himself concerned, his +life was one of asceticism, but still more of prayer:-- + + 'He prayed by day and by night--his life was one incessant + communion with God. He would fain have avoided even the + interruption caused by sleep, and he grudged every moment + given to it, because it shortened his time of prayer. He + slept on the ground, or sometimes in his chair, and was the + first to rise at the sound of the morning bell. While at + Rheims he regularly spent Friday night in the Church of + Saint Remi; he made the sacristan lock him in, and there + poured out his soul in prayer for help, and guidance, and + success in his work.' + +The Superior and the Brothers of course lived a common life. The great +principle of bringing himself exactly to the level of those who worked +under him, which had led to his resignation of his stall and the sale of +his property, made it quite certain that he would not call upon the +Brothers to do or to bear anything which he was not willing to do and to +bear himself. But the burden was heavier to him than to them. They were +poor men originally, accustomed to hard work and rough fare; while he +had been brought up in ease and plenty, and had never known what want +and poverty were. Consequently it cost De la Salle much effort and +self-denial to enter upon his new life; but he was satisfied with no +half measures; the sacrifice was to be absolute and complete; he fought +the battle and gained it,--yet not he, but the grace of God that was in +him. At the first starting of the Society there was no distinct rule, +but the following arrangements were made:-- + +The food was to be substantial but frugal, fit for labourers engaged in +hard toil; nothing costly, nothing but what was necessary; on the other +hand no special rigour of abstinence, beyond that demanded of other +Christians. + +For dress was adopted a capote, such as was common in the country, made +of coarse material, and black; together with a black cassock, thick +shoes, and a broad-brimmed hat. + +For a name they chose that of 'Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes,' or, as +commonly abbreviated, 'Freres Chretiens.' + +With regard to vows, De la Salle decided that they should take the +three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but for three years +only. They might make them perpetual the following year. + +As to the Superior himself, he had little difficulty with regard to the +first two points, for his only possessions were a New Testament, a copy +of the 'Initiation,' a Crucifix and a Rosary; and to celibacy he was +already committed. With regard to obedience, the fulfilment of the vow +was not easy to a man in his position; but he endeavoured to find a way +to make this vow also a practical one, by the method of resigning his +post and putting one of the Brothers in his place; this he ultimately +succeeded in doing, though only for a short time. + +We must leave to the reader's imagination the manner in which the work +grew under such remarkable auspices, the growth of M. de la Salle's +reputation as a saint, and the constantly increasing load of +responsibilities of all kinds which rested upon his shoulders. + +In the year 1688 the work extended to Paris. When De la Salle arrived +there he left behind him in Rheims a principal house containing sixteen +Brothers, and a training college for country schoolmasters, containing +thirty men, besides fifteen lads in their noviciate. For the purpose of +his work in Paris he hired a house in the village of Vaugirard; this he +occupied for seven years, collecting the Brothers about him in their +vacations, and making it a home for the sick and weary, and a place +where postulants might make proof of their profession. We shall not +follow his footsteps during this time, except to say that the work +flourished wonderfully well under his hand, as it always did, +notwithstanding all kinds of difficulties. We may produce, however, a +striking document of self-dedication which belongs to this period. The +Brothers seem to have been strongly moved by the desire of making their +vows perpetual, instead of only for three years; the Superior opposed +the innovation, but finding them resolute, he at length gave way, and +commenced the new system by a formal dedication of himself, expressed in +the following remarkable words:-- + + 'Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, prostrate in + deepest reverence before Thine infinite and adorable + Majesty, I consecrate myself wholly to Thee, to seek Thy + glory in all ways possible to me, or to which Thou shalt + call me. And to this end I, Jean Baptiste de la Salle, + Priest, promise and vow to unite myself to, and abide in + society with, the Brothers [here follow twelve names], and + in union and association with them to hold free schools in + any place whatsoever (even though, in order to do so, I + should have to beg for alms, and live on dry bread), or to + do in the said Society any work which may be appointed for + me, whether by the Community or by the Superior who shall + have the direction of it. For which reason I promise and vow + obedience as well to the Society itself as to the Superior + of it. And these vows of association with, and steadfastness + in, the said Community, and of obedience, I promise to keep + inviolable during my whole life; in witness whereof I have + signed. Done at Vaugirard, this sixth day of June, being the + Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, in the year 1694. + + '(Signed) DE LA SALLE.' + +Having taken this step, De la Salle made a great effort to divest +himself of his post as Superior, but in vain. He argued, but the +Brothers were not convinced. He insisted upon an election, and every +single vote was given for him. He begged for a second voting, but the +result was the same. The Brothers said it would be time enough for them +to elect his successor, when death had deprived them of him. So in his +post of Superior he remained; and doubtless the Brothers were right, and +he was wrong, as to the point in dispute between them. + +Let us now look for a moment at the rule of the Christian Brothers in +the complete form which it ultimately assumed. + +The first article sets forth the purpose of the Society as follows:-- + + 'The Institute of the Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes is a + Society, the profession of whose members is to hold schools + gratuitously. The object of this Institute is to give a + Christian education to children, and it is for this purpose + that schools are held, in order that the masters, who have + charge of the children from morning to night, may bring them + up to lead good lives, by instructing them in the mysteries + of our Holy Religion and filling their minds with Christian + maxims, while they give them such an education as is fitting + for them.' + +Thus the schools were to be free, and they were to be essentially and +fundamentally Christian; but there was no intention of making them +exclusively religious and banishing secular studies. On the other hand, +the greater part of the time given to the children was devoted, as in +reason it must be, to secular teaching; and only a small portion +retained for teaching of a more solemn kind. No doubt De la Salle +depended for the religious results of schooling more upon the men who +taught and the general atmosphere of his schools, than upon amount of +religious lessons actually taught and learnt: this is indicated by the +following article of the Rule:-- + + 'The Brothers of the Society will have a very deep reverence + for the Holy Scriptures, and in token of it they will always + carry about them a copy of the New Testament, and will pass + no day without reading a portion of it, in faith, respect, + and veneration for the Divine Words which it contains. They + will look upon it as their prime and principal Rule.' + +Again:-- + + 'The spirit of the Institute consists in a burning zeal for + the instruction of children, that they may be brought up in + the fear and love of God, and led to preserve their + innocence, where they have not already lost it; to keep them + from sin, and to instil into their minds a great horror of + evil, and of everything that might rob them of purity.' + +The great purpose of De la Salle was to form men suitable for the work +of education as thus conceived; and one notable feature of his scheme +was that they should be laymen; even with regard to the Superior of the +Society, De la Salle, though himself a Priest, bound the Brethren down +to a pledge that they would not, when he was gone, elect a Priest into +his room. It is needless to say that he had no prejudice against the +priestly office as such; but he was genuinely persuaded that the work +which he wished to have done could best be performed by laymen; partly +because they could give themselves up to it more completely, partly +because they could be had more cheaply, and partly because poor men such +as he enlisted, and intended to enlist, were more thoroughly on a level +with the poor, whose children he desired to educate. It was in the same +spirit that he forbade to the Brothers the knowledge of Latin. + +There are five vows in the Society. Brothers who have not attained the +age of twenty-five years can take them for only three years. No one may +take them even for three years, until he has been at least two years in +the Society, and has had one year's experience of the Noviciate, and one +year's teaching in the schools. The vows are as follows:-- + + 1. Poverty. + 2. Chastity. + 3. Obedience. + 4. Steadfastness. + 5. Giving gratuitous instruction to children. + +By this last vow they also bind themselves to take all possible pains to +teach them well and to bring them up Christianly; and they promise +neither to ask nor to accept, from the scholars, or from their parents, +anything, be it what it may, either as a gift, or in any other form of +remuneration whatsoever. + +The rule of daily life is given by the following table:-- + + 4.30 A.M. Hour of rising. + + 5. Prayer and meditation. + + 6. Attend Mass, reading, &c. + + 7.15. Breakfast; prayer and preparation for school. + + 8 till 11. School, and children taken to Church. + + 11.30. Particular examination of conscience; dinner and + recreation. + + 1 P.M. Prayer in oratory, and depart to various schools. + + 1.30 till 5. School; half an-hour given to catechism. + + 5.30. Spiritual reading and mental prayer. The reading + begins with a portion of the New Testament, read upon the + knees. + + 6. Mental prayer, and confession of faults one to another. + + 6.30. Supper; reading at all meals; recreation. + + 8. Study of catechism. + + 8.30. Prayers in oratory. + + 9. Retire to dormitory; in bed by 9.15. + +So much for the Rule of the Christian Brothers. It is sufficiently +strict; but, as before remarked, not intensified by any special +austerities. The general order prescribed is, however, strengthened by +injunctions against unnecessary communications with persons outside the +Brotherhood, unnecessary possessions, unnecessary exercise of the will: +the devotion to the rule is absolute, the poverty complete, the +submission of the will unbounded. Very wonderful all this, but quite +true. + +In connection with the rule, it may be well to say a few words +concerning the manuals which De la Salle composed for the guidance of +the Brothers. The principal was a book entitled, 'Conduite a l'usage des +Ecoles Chretiennes;' this was circulated in manuscript, and a copy given +to each Brother in charge of a school, but was not printed during the +author's lifetime. He revised it in 1717, when he had retired from his +post as Superior, and it was printed in 1720, a year after his death. It +has been the guide of the Brothers ever since, and is read through twice +a year in every one of their houses. The book shows great insight and +good sense. Here is an instruction for a lesson in arithemetic:-- + + 'After the children have done their sums on the paper, + instead of correcting them himself the master will make the + children find out their mistakes for themselves, by rational + explanation of the processes. He will ask them, for + instance, why in addition of money they begin with the + lowest coin, and other questions of the same sort, so as to + make sure that they have an intelligent understanding of + what they do.' + +When the subject is religious teaching, the tone of the book rises to +the occasion:-- + + 'The masters will take such great care in the instruction of + all their scholars, that not one shall be left in ignorance, + at least of the things which a Christian ought to believe + and do. And to the end they may not neglect a thing of such + great importance, they will often meditate earnestly on the + account which they will have to give to God, and that they + will be guilty in his sight of the ignorance of the children + who shall have been under their care, and also of the sins + into which their ignorance may have caused them to fall.' + +The faults which De la Salle regards as worthy of being treated with +most severity are these: untruthfulness, quarrelling, theft, impurity, +misbehaviour in church. It is notable that idleness and inattention to +lessons, sauciness, and other boyish faults, which have brought much +trouble upon many thousands of urchins, are not here enumerated at all; +probably the wise Superior of the Christian Brothers thought that these +and the like infirmities could be more successfully treated by other +means than by severe punishment. We incline to believe that he was +right. Certainly we shall have no difficulty in assenting to the wisdom +of the rules laid down as to the conditions of punishment being useful: +it must be (1) disinterested, that is, free from all feeling of revenge; +(2) charitable, that is, inflicted from a real love to the child; (3) +just; (4) proportioned to the fault; (5) moderate; (6) free from anger; +(7) prudent; (8) voluntary on the part of the scholar, that is, +understood and accepted by him; (9) received with respectful submission; +(10) in silence on both sides. + +These samples must suffice to indicate M. de la Salle's practical and +simple wisdom. + +The thought of all that we wish to say before concluding this article +compels us once more to appeal to the reader's imagination with regard +to the success of De la Salle's work. His fame went through France and +beyond it; he became the recognized apostle of elementary education; +when he made an expedition to Calais and the north in the latter part of +his career, it was almost a triumphal progress; nothing, however, could +spoil the sweet simplicity of his character, or interfere with his utter +devotion to his work, and his humble desire to shift the burden upon +what he believed to be stronger shoulders than his own. This desire was +at length accomplished, and on the 8th of May, 1717, after much earnest +consideration and religious observance, a second Superior of their +Society was unanimously elected by the Christian Brothers. + +And now this remarkable man had nothing more to do in this world but to +await his call and to depart in peace. At the earnest entreaty of the +Brethren he took up his abode with them in their house at Rouen; and +there, in the midst of increasing infirmities, and in the exercise (so +far as was possible) of his priestly office, he tarried the Lord's +leisure. We give the closing scene in the words of the interesting +volume, the title of which heads this article, and from which we have +been drawing the materials of our sketch. + + 'The Festival of St. Joseph, March 19, was approaching. He + had always had a special veneration for that great Saint, + whom he had chosen for patron of his Society, and he had a + great wish to celebrate once more on that Festival. He could + hardly have hoped to do so, for he had now for some time + been quite unable to leave his bed; but in the evening of + the 18th, about ten o'clock, his pain was unexpectedly + relieved, and he was conscious of some return of strength. + The night was quiet, and on the morning of the Festival he + was able to crawl to the Altar, and to celebrate the Holy + Mysteries in the presence of all the Brothers, who could + scarcely believe their eyes. All that day he continued + better, was able to converse with the Brothers, listened for + the last time to their confidential talk, and gave them some + last counsels. But the pain came on again, and he was + obliged to go to bed. + + 'The Cure of the parish, hearing that he was worse, hastened + to visit him, and thinking from the bright cheerfulness of + his face that the dying man was not aware of his own + condition, said to him, "Do you know that you are dying, and + must soon appear before the presence of God?" "I know it," + was the answer, "and I wait His commands; my lot is in His + hands, His will be done." In truth, his soul dwelt + continually in unbroken communion with God, and he only + waited with longing for the moment when the last ties that + bound him to earth should be severed. Several days passed + thus. Feeling that he was getting worse, he asked for the + Viaticum, and it was arranged that he should receive it on + the following day, which was Wednesday in Holy Week. He + spent the whole night in preparation, and his little cell + was decorated as well as the poverty of the house allowed. + When the time came, he insisted on being taken out of bed, + and dressed, and placed in a chair, vested in a surplice and + stole. At the sound of the bell announcing the approach of + the Priest, he threw himself on his knees, and received his + last Communion with the same wonderful devotion which had + often formerly struck those who assisted at his Mass, only + with even more of the fire of love in his face. It was the + last gleam of a dying light, which was being extinguished on + earth, to shine with undiminished brightness "as the stars + for ever and ever." + + 'The next day he received Extreme Unction. His mind was + still quite clear, and the Superior asked him to give his + blessing to the Brothers who were kneeling round him, as + well as to all the rest of the Community. He raised his eyes + to heaven, stretched out his hands, and said, "The Lord + bless you all." + + 'Later in the day he became unconscious, and the prayers for + the dying were said; but again he revived. About midnight + the death agony came on: it was the night of the Agony in + Gethsemane. It lasted till after two: then there was another + interval of comparative ease, and he was able to speak. The + Superior asked him whether he accepted willingly all his + sufferings. "Yes," he replied, "I adore in all things the + dealings of God with me." These were his last words; at + three o'clock the agony returned, but only for a short hour. + At four o'clock in the morning of Good Friday, the 7th of + April, 1719, he fell asleep. + + 'As soon as the news of his death was spread abroad, the + house was beset by crowds desiring to see him. All revered + him as a Saint, and wanted to look once more on the + venerable face, and to carry away something in remembrance + of him. He had nothing belonging to him but a Crucifix, a + New Testament, and a copy of the Imitation; but his poor + garments were cut up, and distributed in little bits to + satisfy the people.' + +The Christian Brothers since the death of their great founder have +steadily continued their charitable self-denying work. They have +received much encouragement from high authorities in Church and State, +much also from the good opinion which their work has gained for them +wherever it has been known. Their history, however, records reverses: +the chief of them connected with the catastrophe of the great +Revolution. With regard to this, it might have been expected on general +grounds, that in a social upheaval, which was essentially a rising of +the poor and oppressed against the rich and the privileged, a society +which had poverty as its foundation principle, and the free education of +the children of the poor as its only reason of existence, must have been +spared by general consent in the midst of the social ruin by which so +much was overwhelmed. At first it seemed that this might have been so; +when the Religious Orders were suppressed by decree of the National +Assembly in 1790, exception was made in favour of those engaged in +public instruction and the care of the sick; but in 1792 all +corporations, specially including the Christian Brothers, were +abolished, on the ground that their existence was incompatible with the +conditions of a really free State. During the Reign of Terror the +Institute was broken up, the Brothers scattered, and many suffered. +There was a revival under Napoleon, which lasted till the Revolution of +1830. At this time the Institute was shaken, as was almost everything +else in France; but the recognized merits of the Christian Brothers +carried them safely through the storm, and one of the most telling and +triumphant facts in their history is the confidence reposed in them by +M. Guizot, when Minister of Public instruction under Louis Philippe. +More than once M. Guizot endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade the +Superior to accept the Cross of the Legion of Honour. + +The work of the Christian Brothers in France at the present time is of +special value; but also carried on under much chilling discouragement. A +systematic attempt is being made to secularize education, and to drive +every indication of religious faith from the primary schools. It remains +to be seen what will be the result of the fanatical opposition to all +that is dear to the minds of many French men and almost all French +women, which is carried on so persistently by the Legislature and the +Government. Already there are signs of reaction; the result of the late +elections, which has substantially changed the proportion of parties in +the representative Chamber, is probably not a little connected with the +enforcement of an utterly godless education.[4] Meanwhile it would seem, +as a matter of fact, that the number of children under the teaching of +the Christian Brothers has increased instead of diminishing: there are +still some French people left who have not bowed the knee to Secularism, +and Materialism, and Atheism: even those who tremble at Priestcraft can +accept the ministration of the Christian Brothers, who cannot (as we +have seen) be Priests, according to their fundamental rule: and so, +although the secularist flood is just now frightfully high, there is a +gleam of hope to be found in the work of the Christian Schools, and the +light which shines in them and from them may serve as a witness for God +till the tyranny be overpast, and then may perhaps serve as a light at +which the torch of religious teaching will be lighted again once more. + +We have placed at the head of this article the title of one of the +manuals in use in the primary schools of France. It is worth studying in +connection with the work of the Christian Brothers, and on other grounds +as well. The entire absence of all reference to God or to any kind of +religious knowledge or religious principle in connection with duty is +startling, and gives the book a complexion somewhat strange to an +English mind; and there are portions which can scarcely fail to strike +an Englishman as droll; but is full of French ingenuity. It contains a +vast amount of compressed information, and the dry instruction of the +text is enforced, or rather sweetened and made palatable, by a series of +stories in the form of a running commentary or collection of foot-notes, +in which the heroes of the stories illustrate the lessons which the +scholars have to learn. + +We take two or three specimens from the manual, which we will present in +a free translation:-- + + OUR DUTIES TOWARDS OURSELVES + + 'As you grow older, you become more serious. Consider what + your duties are. + + 'You have duties towards yourselves, that is, towards your + bodies and towards your souls. + + 'Sound health must be taken care of; weak health must be + strengthened by a good hygiene. + + 'Hygiene demands cleanliness; wash your whole body carefully + and frequently. + + 'Keep nothing dirty upon you, nor in your house, nor near + your house. + + 'Hygiene demands good air: air your bed, your chamber, and + all places in which you live and work. + + 'Hygiene forbids all excess, and the use of injurious + things, as alcohol and tobacco. It prescribes temperance and + sobriety. + + 'Hygiene requires you to avoid a sudden change from heat to + cold. When you are in a perspiration, do not lie down upon + the ground, do not expose yourself to draughts, and do not + drink cold water. + + 'Hygiene requires gymnastic exercises, which make the body + supple, healthy, and strong. + + '_Attention to health gives a chance of long life._ + + 'In order to fulfil your duties towards your soul, you must + continue to cultivate your intelligence and to educate + yourself. + + 'Do not forget that you can educate yourself at any age. + + 'You must fight against sensuality, which would make you + gluttons, drunkards, and debauchees; against idleness, which + would make you useless to others and a burden to them; + against selfishness and vanity, which would make others + detest you; envy, which would render you unhappy and + hateful; anger and hatred, which might lead you to all kinds + of evil deeds.' + +These lessons are enforced by an extract from the French Law, which +informs scholar that the persons found in a condition of manifest +intoxication in the street or a public-house are punished by a fine of +from 1 to 15 francs; that for a second offence the punishment is +imprisonment for three days; and that for a third breach of the law the +offender may be sentenced to imprisonment for from six days to a month, +and to a fine of from 16 to 300 francs. In addition to this, the +offenders will be declared incapable of exercising their political +rights for two years. + +This is a very practical teaching; but the duties which little boys owe +to their bodies and souls are rendered more attractive, than either the +dicta concerning hygiene or the threatened results of evil ways are +likely to make them, by the history of a certain Dr. John Burnett, a +physician, who made an immense fortune in New York. This is found as a +_feuilleton_ at the foot of the page, under the title 'Un Bon +Charlatan.' + +The pith of the teaching under the head of Morals, is contained in the +following summary:-- + + '1. I will fulfil my duties towards myself. My duties + towards my body are, cleanliness, sobriety, temperance, + precaution against the inclemency of the seasons, exercise. + + '2. I will fulfil my duties towards my soul by continuing to + educate myself, and by combating all bad passions. + + '3. I will not do to another that which I would not that he + should do to me. + + '4. I will not do him wrong, either by striking him, or + robbing him, or deceiving him, or lying to him, or by + breaking my promise, or by speaking evil of him, or by + calumniating him. + + '5. I will do to another that which I should wish him to do + to me. + + '6. I will love him, I will be grateful, exact, discreet, + charitable.' + +Very good resolutions these, but one cannot avoid the thought that the +little scholar might estimate 3 and 5 not the less, perhaps the more, if +informed of the life and character of Him who first spoke these apparent +simple rules in such a manner as to impress them upon the heart of the +world. Would not all the resolutions gain strength from the belief that +duty towards God is the true spring of duty towards our neighbours and +ourselves, and that the grace of God is necessary to make the best +resolutions practically operative in the life? + +We will now give our readers a specimen of the tales by which the +lessons of the manual are illustrated and enforced. It shall be taken +from the section entitled _Society_, the second subsection of which is +as follows:-- + + 'FREEDOM OF LABOUR. + + 'In France; labour is free; every one employs, as he + pleases, his intelligence and his arms. + + 'You may choose any profession you please; but everybody + else has the same right as yourself. + + 'Competition is therefore permitted; never complain of + competition. + + 'If you hinder your neighbour from working as he pleases, + you may yourself be hindered in like manner. + + 'Competition excites the workman to do his best and at the + cheapest rate. + + 'Thus competition is advantageous to all. _Never ask Society + to interfere with the freedom of labour, but work hard + yourself._' + +These wholesome lessons on competition are illustrated by the following +tale:-- + + GREGORY'S VIEWS ON COMPETITION. + + 'Our friend Gregory is a good husband; but he sometimes has + little arguments with his wife. + + 'The other day, Mrs. Gregory was angry, because she had + found out that a shoemaker was going to establish himself in + the village. "What do we want another shoemaker for," said + she "when you and I are here already? The Government ought + to prevent such things." + + 'Gregory, who was at his work, lifted his head and said: + "The Government ought to prevent women from talking + nonsense. Suppose that I was the shoemaker who had just + established himself in the village; what would you say if + any one interfered with my carrying on my trade? You would + not be very well pleased, I fancy." + + 'He then explained to his wife the necessity of competition. + + '"There is plenty of work for everybody," said he. "If there + had been already two or three shoemakers in the place, this + new fellow would not have come to settle here. He would have + seen that there was nothing for him to do. I am surprised + that no competing shoemaker has come here before. You know + very well that we have sometimes to refuse work, and that + there are people in the village who have to go to the town + to get their shoes. Beyond doubt the newcomer will take some + of our custom; but it is our business to look after that. We + must work better than we have done hitherto; and that's all + about it." + + 'Mrs. Gregory was not convinced, but she said nothing. + + '"You see," continued Gregory, "you must look a little + beyond the end of your nose. You wish that there should be + only one shoemaker in the place. The linendraper wishes that + there should be only one linendraper; the grocer only one + grocer; and so on through all the trades. Very well; don't + you remember when we had only one linendraper how dear + shirts used to be? And don't you remember some twenty years + ago, when there was only one smith? You could never get hold + of him; and when you did, his charges were tremendous. I + recollect him putting a bell to our front door. When he gave + me the bill, and I had seen the amount, I said to him, 'my + good fellow, I didn't order a silver bell.' 'And I have not + put up a silver bell,' was the reply. 'Oh! I thought from + the price it must have been silver,' said I. This vexed him, + and he answered, 'If you are not satisfied, go elsewhere.' + That was well enough; he was the only smith in the + neighbourhood. I could not send for a man from Pekin: he + would have been sure to be lost on the road, and I should + have been obliged to provide for his family." + + 'Gregory made some other good remarks to show that if + competition prevents a shopkeeper from selling his goods at + a high price, it enables him to buy from others at a cheap + rate. "So on the whole," concluded he, "do not let us fuss + and make ourselves ill. I would much rather have some + coffee, than be compelled to take medicine."' + +Gregory must have had some of the saintly qualities of his great +namesakes to enable him to take so calm a view of the invasion of his +shoemaking monopoly. We trust that Mrs. Gregory was eventually convinced +by his wise and philosophical arguments, and still more, that the +generation of Frenchmen who enjoy such teaching from their early years +may emulate so bright an example. + +We cannot refrain from making one more extract from our little manual. +The thirteenth section deals with 'The Rights and Duties of the Citizen' +and the third subsection treats as follows of:-- + + 'POLITICAL DUTIES. + + 'The French people ought more than any other people, to + respect the law made by its own deputies. + + 'It ought without murmuring to pay the taxes voted by the + Chambers, and to fulfil its military duties. + + 'It ought to respect the authority of all the agents of the + Government, from the lowest to the highest, from the _garde + champetre_ to the Ministers and the President of the + Republic, for the agents of authority are the servants of + the law, and all are chosen directly or indirectly, by the + deputies of the people. + + '_The greater the rights of citizens, the greater their + duties._ + + 'It used to be said, _Noblesse oblige_. This meant: a + nobleman ought to behave himself better than another, to be + worthy of his nobility. + + 'It should now be said, _Liberte oblige_. This means that a + free citizen ought to behave himself better than another, in + order to be worthy of liberty. + + 'You have the duty of putting your name upon the electoral + roll at the Mairie of the Commune in which you reside. + + 'You have the duty of voting, and you must vote according to + your conscience. + + 'You have not the right of being indifferent to public + affairs, and of saying that they do not concern you. + + 'You have an interest in securing to your Commune good + Municipal Councillors, who will look well after the + finances, will take care of the schools, and of the roads, + and attend to all wants. + + 'You have an interest in securing to your Department good + General Councillors, who will do for the Department what the + Municipal Councillors do for the Commune. + + 'You have an interest in nominating good Deputies and good + Senators, who may make useful and just laws, choose a + President of the Republic worthy of that supreme honour, and + keep the Government in good ways. + + 'You ought to make a good choice, not merely for your own + interest, but for the love of your country. + + '_Love those republican institutions which France has + provided for herself._ + + 'Endeavour to make them loved, respecting the while your + neighbour's opinions, and restraining yourself from all + hatred and from all violence. + + 'The future of the Republic depends upon each of you. If + each of you does his duty, it will be strong: strong enough + to make our lives happy, and to restore to us one day the + brothers whom we have lost--the BROTHERS OF ALSACE AND + LORRAINE.' + +This is the conclusion of the manual. All works up to ALSACE AND +LORRAINE. (The capital letters are in the original.) Is it not +delightful? Is it not most truly French? + +We should be sorry to see a parody or parallel to this French manual +introduced into our schools. At the same time we think there is +something to be learnt from studying it. Our neighbours seem to have in +some respect learnt better than ourselves the maxim of Horace:-- + + 'pueris dant crustula blandi + Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.' + +The pages of our manual are full of literary _crustula_; and we imagine +that most boys would find themselves sufficiently amused to read and +study the book, whether they were desirous of profiting by the contents +or not. And after all it is a great thing to _get hold_ of a boy, +whether it be by the loving and evidently self-sacrificing efforts of +the Christian Brothers, or by the ingenious mental food provided by the +Minister of Public Instruction. Notwithstanding such ingenuity, we do +not, however, believe that the present system of French teaching can +answer: it is hollow and unsound: it ignores the deepest of motives, and +disregards the most potent of influences: it may breed a desire to fight +with Germany for the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine, but it can +scarcely produce the highest class of citizens and heroes, because it +does not acknowledge the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom, and the +love of God as the best foundation of the love of man. The principles of +duty inculcated in the manual from which we have been exhibiting a few +elegant extracts will never rear such a character as De la Salle, nor +supply the foundation of such an institution as that of the Christian +Brothers. + +But we must come nearer home-- + + 'Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.' + +We have not yet arrived in England at the complete secularization of our +elementary schools; but we are, in the opinion of some and in the wish +of others, within measurable distance of the Paradisiacal terminus of +secularism and secular reform; and therefore, with the thought of what +has been going on and is still going on in France, we may do well to +look for a few moments to our own country, and examine what has been +going on and is going on there. + +Let us beware, however, of exaggeration or alarmism. We do not at all +desire to imply that there is anything approaching to parallelism in the +conditions and possibilities of the two countries. Had it been proposed +to do in England what has been done in France, the opposition would have +been indignant and overwhelming. There is no such desire for +emancipation from Priests and Priestcraft in England as has long existed +and still exists in France. To be sure we hear something on this side of +the Channel of sacerdotal pretensions and unwarrantable clerical claims; +but the men by whom the offence comes are few in number, and, at the +worst, they and their conduct are but as a drop in the great bucket of +the English Church and its influence upon the nation. In France matters +are painfully different. While the women are largely _devotes_, the men +are very sparingly _devots_. Unfortunately the admission of +superstitious practices, the practical hiding of Holy Scripture, the +adoption under the patronage of the Church of foolish tales of miracles, +and the absence of effectual protest against the unwarrantable +assumptions of the Vatican, have combined to offer to the intellect of +France an unnecessary obstacle, which in too many instances causes +shipwreck to faith; and so, while in England the men, who make the laws, +are, speaking broadly, Christian believers, in France the men, who +equally make the laws, are as broadly unbelievers. This difference is +not likely to disappear. France has reached a point at which the disease +of unbelief may be said to have become chronic; England, on the other +hand, although there have been of late, and are still, symptoms of +infidel proclivities, appears nevertheless, so far as her condition can +be tested to be sound at heart, and in some respects in a more healthy +state of religious conviction and activity than has been manifested +hitherto. + +The question of the comparative conditions of France and England is one +with which we have no desire to enter at length; and indeed a native of +one of the countries is very unlikely to be in a condition to take a +quite just and fair view of the other. We only desire to guard ourselves +from appearing to assume the probability of the secularization of our +English schools on the ground of the step having been already taken in +France. And having premised this caution, we will ask our readers to +accompany us in the consideration of some details, suggested by the +Report of the National Society, and by that of the Committee of the +Privy Council on Education. Afterwards we will submit a few general +reflections, and so close our article. + +It was feared by some and hoped by others fifteen years ago, when the +law of compulsory education and School Boards was enacted in this +country, that Voluntary Schools would undergo what was described at the +time as a 'process of painless extinction,' and that Board Schools would +reign supreme. These fears and hopes have been curiously falsified; the +Voluntary Schools have not been extinguished either painlessly or +otherwise; on the other hand, they have increased, both in work done and +in support given, to an extent which could never have been anticipated. +It will be observed that the question is not purely and simply between +Board and Voluntary Schools; it may be so in some parishes, where with +unanimity on the part of the parishioners, one Parish School can be made +to supply the wants of all; but generally the question is that of +supporting Voluntary Schools and paying towards Board Schools as well; +the support of one does not exclude the legal claim of the other, as it +has been frequently argued that it ought in equity to do; consequently +Voluntary Schools are heavily handicapped, and nothing but a deep sense +of the advantage of freedom in religious teaching, and an utter dread of +secularism, can account for the remarkable results exhibited by the +progress of Voluntary Schools under such manifest difficulties. + +The following Tables are so exceedingly instructive, that we make no +apology for introducing them:-- + +_Accommodation._ + + +Day Schools, Year ended August 31 1882. 1883. 1884. + +Church 2,385,374 2,413,676 2,454,788 +British, &c. 384,060 386,839 394,009 +Wesleyan 200,909 200,564 203,253 +Roman Catholic 269,231 272,760 284,514 +Board 1,298,746 1,396,604 1,490,174 + + 4,538,320 4,670,443 4,826,738 + +_Number on the Registers._ + +Day Schools, Year ended August 31. 1882. 1883. 1884. + +Church 2,133,978 2,134,719 2,121,728 +British, &c. 339,812 337,531 333,510 +Wesleyan 177,840 175,826 172,284 +Roman Catholic 232,620 226,567 226,082 +Board 1,305,362 1,398,661 1,483,717 + + 4,189,612 4,273,304 4,337,321 + +_Average Attendance._ + +Day Schools, Year ended August 31. 1882. 1883. 1884. + +Church 1,538,408 1,562,507 1,607,823 +British, &c 245,493 247,990 253,044 +Wesleyan 125,109 125,503 128,584 +Roman Catholic 160,910 162,310 167,841 +Board 945,231 1,028,904 1,115,832 + + 3,015,151 3,127,214 3,273,124 + +_Voluntary Contributions._ + +Day Schools, Year ended 1882. 1883. 1884. + August 31. + + L. s. d. L. s. d. L. s. d. +Church 581,179 5 3 577,313 16 5 585,071 11 10 +British, &c 75,132 11 8 71,519 2 9 72,978 10 0 +Wesleyan 15,705 2 2 15,271 14 1 16,802 2 0 +Roman Catholic 51,283 11 7 51,564 15 2 57,672 1 2 +Board 1,545 2 2 1,420 1 3 1,603 7 10 + + 724,845 12 10 717,089 9 8 734,127 12 10 + +From these Tables it appears that in spite of the surrender of some +Church Schools to Boards, a process which is always to some extent going +on, and which causes an increase in the number of Board Schools beyond +that produced by actual building, the accommodation in Church Schools +rose in 1884 by 41,112, and the average attendance by 45,316. The Church +was also educating about half as many again as were being educated in +Board Schools, and the amount voluntarily contributed during the year +was more than 585,000l., in addition to a large sum expended on +buildings and improvements. + +This does not look much like speedy extinction, and we sincerely trust +that that event is still far distant. It is not so much that we are +opposed to Board schools on principle, still less that we disapprove of +the national determination that every child shall be educated, which +logically leads to some national machinery involving the principle of +Board Schools in some form or other,--not so much this, as that we are +persuaded that the existence of Voluntary Schools is an unspeakable +benefit even to the Board Schools themselves. We hold that a definite +system of religious teaching, according to which the religious studies +of the school and the secular are co-ordinate and equally regarded, and +the religious atmosphere which such consideration implies, are of the +very essence of a rightly ordered school; the ideal may be reached in a +Voluntary School, it is impossible that it should be reached in a Board +School; nevertheless, there may be Board schools _and_ Board Schools; in +some there may be simple secularism, and in others there may be a good +religious spirit and fair religious teaching; and the degree in which +the average quality of Board Schools will approximate to the latter +limit rather than the former, will depend very much upon the standard +set up by the Voluntary Schools. A reference to the Report of the +Committee of Council on Education proves that Voluntary Schools are +worked more cheaply, and, so far as can be judged by the results of +examination, are secularly not less successful than schools upon the +Board system; and therefore even with reference to economy there is some +advantage in keeping the two classes of school going side by side. But +all questions of comparative economy, and of advantages arising from an +honourable competition, are as nothing compared with the reflected +influence in the direction of bringing up the average religious +character of Board Schools to the highest point which the shackles of +legislation allow. + +In addition to the work of voluntary elementary schools, there are two +other departments in which voluntary efforts are doing much in support +of the religious and Christian character of English Education. + +There are no less than thirty Training Colleges in connection with the +Church. The pupils trained in these Colleges are not in general bound by +any rule to accept posts only in Church schools; as a matter of fact, +many are drafted into Board Schools; but it is impossible to exaggerate +the importance to the subsequent influence for good, in a school of +whatever kind, of a thorough religious training in youth upon definite +religious principles. So far as an opinion can be formed, it would seem +that these Training Colleges must always rest upon a voluntary +foundation; it is difficult to conceive of their being carried on upon +State principles; you may make religious teaching optional in an +elementary day school, and the evil results may be not easily +perceptable; but when eighty or a hundred young men or young women are +brought together into one home, to lead a common family life with common +purposes and prospects, the religious equality principle breaks down; +you must have common religious teaching and common worship, and these +must be utterly vapid and miserable, unless there be a hearty agreement +upon the grounds and articles of faith, such as is only possible for +those who are of one Church, or at all events of one denomination. +Doubtless on this very account efforts have been made, and efforts will +be made, to break down the Church Training College system, or to erect +something on broader principles which shall gradually extinguish it; but +on all grounds we trust that these efforts may fail, and that at all +events no change may be introduced which shall be successful in +rendering impossible the carrying on of institutions, to which we are +convinced that the education of the poor children of England is indebted +more than to almost any other. We have but been working out under new +conditions the great problem which De la Salle perceived to lie at the +root of elementary education: the forming of the instrument wherewith to +do the work was, as he clearly perceived, the great thing to be +accomplished; and for that purpose personal influence was needed; it was +necessary to stir up in each young aspirant to the office of a teacher +something of the enthusiasm of teaching, to breed a high conception of +the value and responsibilities of the office, to make it felt that +self-denial and self-devotion were essential conditions of any lasting +success. English Training Colleges differ very widely from that +community which De la Salle established, and over which he presided; in +our opinion, they, at least their managers, might profit by studying his +work and emulating his spirit; but after all, they will still be widely +different, and any attempt at exact imitation amongst ourselves would +perhaps produce a parody rather than an adequate copy. Any one who can +remember the early work of Derwent Coleridge at St. Mark's, Chelsea, and +the vast change which was brought about in the training of the +schoolmaster, the estimate of his qualifications, and his general +status, by the admirable and laborious efforts of that good and able +man, will be conscious that a work has been done amongst us in these +latter days, upon which De la Salle himself would have looked with a +kindly smile of approval, though in some respects he might have +imagined, and perhaps with justice, that it was not so thorough as his +own. + +The other department of voluntary action to which we proposed to refer, +is that which is known as Diocesan Inspection. + +This system of inspection is carried on by Clergymen, who are appointed +with the approval and in connection with the Bishops, and whose stipends +are provided by voluntary contribution. The action is not uniform +throughout the Dioceses, but there is scarcely a Diocese in which the +work is not carried on with great energy. These Inspectors visit the +schools, in some Dioceses and Board Schools as well as those in +connection with the Church; they examine the children, confer with the +masters and mistresses, give advice and encouragement as may seem to be +necessary and fitting, and make a report upon the general condition of +the school with reference to religious knowledge. In most Dioceses there +is in addition some kind of prize scheme, by means of which children are +encouraged to give special attention to the religious side of their +education. + +We think it worth while to call attention to this system of Diocesan +Inspection, because it is well that Englishmen, and especially English +Churchmen, should be awake to the religious needs of our times, and the +efforts which are being made to meet them. We are aware that all such +machinery as that which we have described must be ineffectual in +implanting in the minds of children that 'fear of the Lord,' which is +'the beginning of wisdom.' No system of inspection and examination, and +no careful grinding of certain lessons, whether they be taken from Holy +Scripture or from any other book, into the minds of little children, can +be a substitute for the true influence of heart upon heart; the teacher +who would generate religious life in the soul of a child must imitate +the Prophet, who put his mouth to the child's mouth, and his eyes upon +his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and prayed that the child might +awake to new life; nevertheless on the supposition that no pains are +spared in obtaining suitable masters and mistresses, much may be done to +encourage them in their difficult work by making it manifest that the +heart of England and of England's Church is with them. And indeed it +_is_ a difficult work: the education of children will never be a simple +and easy thing as long as the world lasts: the value of the finished +article may generally be taken as some measure of the labour and care +necessary to produce it: and the value of a pure, simple-hearted, +well-taught Christian child is so immeasurably and indescribably great, +that we may safely conclude that the workmen and workwomen employed in +producing the result must have spent upon their work an incredible +amount of honest self-denying toil: a perfunctory discharge of the +office of schoolmaster,--so many hours a week, and so much pay,--will +never do: the master of the Elementary School must ever be a Christian +Brother in reality, if not in name. + +Passing for a moment from the religious side of the educational +question, the reader may be interested by looking at a few statistics, +indicating the general position of England, or rather England and Wales, +with reference to elementary education. + +In the year ending August 31, 1884, Her Majesty's Inspectors visited +18,761 day schools, having on their registers the names of 4,337,321 +children. Of these, 3,273,134 were, on an average, in daily attendance +throughout the year. The amount of income arising from school-pence, it +may be worth while noting, was 1,734,115l., or nearly two millions. The +Government grants reached 2,722,351l., or nearly three millions. + +Besides the day schools, 847 night schools were examined. In many parts +of the country these night schools were very important: they afford big +boys the only opportunity of keeping up their knowledge, or +intellectually improving themselves. Nearly twenty-five thousand +scholars over twelve years of age are, on an average, in attendance each +night. + +There are nearly forty thousand certificated teachers at work; and 3214 +students are being prepared in forty-one Training Colleges. + +The expense of education at different places varies remarkably, and +apparently without any intelligible principle. Thus the income per +scholar from voluntary contributions in Voluntary Schools, and from +rates in Board Schools, is in certain selected towns as follows:-- + + Voluntary + contributions. Rates. + L s. d. L s. d. +London 0 9 0-1/4 1 9 9 +Brighton 0 11 7-1/2 0 17 7 +Birmingham 0 5 3-3/4 0 13 10-3/4 +Bradford 0 2 11-3/4 0 13 2 +Sheffield 0 2 4-3/4 0 9 8 +Manchester 0 4 7 0 10 10 + +We submit the above figures and facts to the reader's consideration, and +we are compelled to confess that we do not find ourselves in a condition +to offer a satisfactory solution of the difficulties which they suggest. +We should probably have expected that London would be in an exceptional +position with regard to this as to many other matters; but the +magnificent manner in which its Board contributions exceed those of any +other town quite baffles us; it will be observed that the odd shillings +and pence of London more than pay the whole expense at Sheffield. +Possibly the practical difficulty of understanding this economical +anomaly may have had something to do with the results of the late Board +election in London. + +On the whole, we English people seem to be solving the national +education question _more nostro_. We have got a system not quite +symmetrical, not quite logical, not the perfect exponent of the +crotchets of any particular school, but nevertheless one which has on +the whole produced remarkable results, and seems to have in it +sufficient powers of adaptation and development. Of late a new question +has been opened--and an important one--namely, that of making elementary +education entirely gratuitous. There is something to be said in favour +of the proposal, and it is a pity that the merits of the question should +have been somewhat obscured by the intolerable, but to some persons +perhaps attractive, suggestion that the additional expenditure necessary +for making education gratuitous should be supplied by the robbery of the +Church, or (in politer phrase) by the appropriation to the purposes of +education of the national property hitherto supplied to the support of +religion. This cat can scarcely be said to have been let out of the bag, +for her head was no sooner seen peeping out than the alarm created was +dangerously great, and Puss was concealed again in a twinkling; _but she +is inside the bag still_. A much less objectionable proposal was +speedily made, namely, that the deficiency created by the remission of +school-pence should be supplied by a Parliamentary grant. And this +proposal, we presume, may be regarded as at present before the country. + +Looking upon the matter from a Chancellor of the Exchequer point of +view, it is a serious thing to think of having to make an addition of +about two millions to the annual national expenditure; and it may be +observed that leading statesmen on both sides of politics may be found +who are at present unconvinced. Doubtless an expenditure of two millions +would not be grudged by the nation for any necessary purpose; but when +the proposal is to substitute a payment of two millions by the Exchequer +for the two millions paid in driblets by the persons most interested, +for the most part gladly and with special provisions for preventing the +payment pressing hardly upon the exceptionally poor, it may well be that +many sensible persons will ask the question, _Cui bono_? + +Independently, however, of any fiscal considerations, it seems to us +that there are weighty arguments against the proposal of a gratuitous +education. + +It may be observed, and we think it an important observation, that the +proposal of free education is in the teeth of all our recent policy; and +some pressing reasons ought to be given for a complete and sudden +reversal of all that we have hitherto been doing. There are many free +schools in the country, endowed by 'pious founders,' and established for +the special purpose of giving free education to the children of +particular parishes. Some of these schools have had to pass through the +hands of the School Commissioners and to receive new schemes. It has +been, we believe, the invariable practice to insert into these new +schemes the condition of school-pence; the portion of the endowment so +saved has been applied to the foundation of exhibitions and other +methods of assisting deserving children. The inhabitants of the parishes +in which this innovation has been introduced have grumbled and +submitted; it has in some cases been a bitter pill, but the law-abiding +character of the Englishman has caused it to be swallowed without noisy +remonstrance. We cannot, without raising a suspicion of having practised +educational quackery, retreat from the position which we have thus taken +up. + +What is the argument for the position? It is sometimes stated thus, that +people value a thing more when it costs them something to get it. The +argument is not to be despised; but we think that it yields in +importance to the consideration, that the payment of the school fees is +almost the only indication left of the great truth, that the parent is +responsible for his children's education. We have sometimes trembled +when we have seen in Board Schools directions concerning the doings of +the children, which would seem to have had a right to come from parents, +but which do in fact come 'by order of the Board.' We have almost feared +lest in the Fifth Commandment our boys and girls of the rising +generation should be tempted to substitute 'Board' for 'father and +mother.' Certainly there is great danger in virtue of modern social +arrangements lest parents should forget their highest duties to their +children, and children cease to honour their parents in the good +old-fashioned way. We confess, therefore, that we are jealous of the +proposal to take away from the father the proud privilege of paying for +his children's schooling, even though it may sometimes cost him an +effort to do so. + +It may be said, of course, that every man does pay indirectly, because +he pays according to his means to the taxes of the country, and that +therefore the proposal only gives him of his own. The argument is +defective, because it ignores the fact that whatever a man may pay +indirectly in taxes, there is a conscious effort in finding the pence +for the children's schooling, which morally is of great importance. But +the argument fails also on other grounds: it assumes that all men have +children equally; it asserts that the married man with his five children +has no more responsibility than the elderly spinster who lives next +door; it supposes that the parents have not a special interest in their +children, distinct from that which can be felt by any other person +whatever. It may be further urged, that if a man pays for his children +while they are in process of education, the pressure comes upon him when +he is in full vigour, and most able to bear it; whereas if the payment +of pence be commuted for a perpetual tax, the pressure becomes one of a +lifelong character, and is not relieved when the powers of earning begin +to diminish. + +We do not deny that painful cases have occurred, and are likely to still +occur, in which parents are summoned before the magistrates for the +non-attendance of children at school. But free education will not get +rid of these painful cases. Already arrangements are made by law for the +payment of fees for very poor parents who make the proper application; +and if there be any obstacle in the way of the smooth working of the +law, the matter should be looked into and the law amended; but the great +difficulty in the way of good attendance on the part of very poor +children lies, as we apprehend, not more with school-pence, than with +school-clothes, and school-dinners. Attendance cannot be enforced +completely all round, unless free education comprise in its idea free +food and clothing, as well as free books and lessons. + +We cannot but fear also lest the remission of school-pence should be +another step towards the destruction of Voluntary Schools. It is evident +that the proposal is so regarded; and though it may not be difficult to +find arguments to show, that if the loss from school-pence be made up +from the Exchequer, the compensation will work equally and fairly with +respect to all schools, whether Voluntary or Board, still there can be +little doubt that the additional grant will give a handle for proposing +to introduce some more direct interference with the management of +Voluntary Schools than has existed hitherto: and it is probably a true +instinct which leads many friends of Voluntary Schools to look upon the +free system with sincere apprehension. Certainly the indirect abolition +of Voluntary Schools would be a great calamity; and if the views already +expressed be correct, the abolition would leave a legacy of weakness, +and a permanent injury to the Board Schools, when they found themselves +'monarchs of all they survey,' and without the wholesome rivalry of +Voluntary Schools. + +There was no such objection to the free education offered to his poor +brethren by the hero of this article, the sainted De la Salle. He made +himself poor and bound all his disciples to a life of poverty, in order +that they might have fullest sympathy with the poor, and might teach +their children for no other payment or purpose but the love of God. The +atmosphere of a school conducted upon such principles would be so +saturated with the spirit of holiness and godly love, that there would +be no danger of duty to parents, or indeed of any duty either to God or +man, being left out of sight. It would never be forgotten in such +schools that the formation of character is the chief aim of education: +_manners makyth man_--as William of Wickham, our great English father of +liberal education, has taught us: and _manners_, taken in the broadest +and best sense, even more than the three Rs and all the extra subjects +of all the standards, is what we want in our elementary schools, and +what we shall never get, except upon the condition of a religious tone +and a pure atmosphere, and teachers whose hearts are animated by the +love of little children and by the love of God. + +We gladly turn once more, before laying down our pen, to the volume +which we have already introduced to the reader, and out of which we have +told the tale of De la Salle, and the Christian Brothers. We do so for +the purpose of showing what kind of men these good Brothers are, when +put to the test in a severe and unexampled manner. + + 'After the disasters of the Prussian invasion in 1871,' says + our author, 'the City of Boston, in America, placed at the + disposal of the French Academy a special prize of two + thousand francs to be given to whoever should be judged most + worthy of the honour, on account of services rendered during + the siege and in presence of the enemy. The Academy could + find no more fitting recipient of this distinction than the + Community, which during the whole time of the war had sent + five hundred infirmarians into the battlefields, one of whom + had fallen under the fire of the Prussians, among the + wounded at Bourget. Public opinion fully endorsed the + decision, when the first literary body in the world adjudged + this reward to the humble and despised corps of the Freres + des Ecoles Chretiennes. At the same time the National + Defence Government insisted on decorating their venerable + Superior with a cross of honour. He would have refused it, + as he and his predecessors had already done many times, and + he only yielded when he was told that there was nothing + personal in the honour; that it belonged to his Institute; + and that it was only as the representative of the Society + that he was asked to wear it. The eminent Dr. Ricord, who + had been an eyewitness of the devotion of the Brothers, was + charged with the office of fastening the cross on the + cassock of Frere Philippe, in the great hall of the + mother-house. This was the most embarrassing moment in the + life of that man of God. He could not bear to wear the cross + of honour, and in fact he never did wear it. When he + returned after conducting the Doctor to the door at the end + of the ceremony, he somehow managed that no one should + perceive his decoration. The cross was not to be seen; and + it has remained ever since as a kind of myth, or mysterious + souvenir; it was never found.' + +Thus in France Ministers of Public Instruction and Superiors of the +Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes agree in removing the cross from +elementary schools: but how marvellous the distance between the +religious principles which lead to the two kinds of removal! + +And now, in these days of payment by results, let us look for one moment +to the Ecoles Chretiennes from this point of view; and then we will bid +the Brothers a respectful farewell. + + 'For the last forty years a certain number of exhibitions or + scholarships (bourses) have been offered by the City of + Paris for competition amongst the scholars of elementary or + primary schools, which give to the successful candidates a + right of free education in the higher class schools. The + number of scholarships which are offered varies. In 1848 + there were twenty-nine; in 1871, fifty; in 1874, eighty; and + in 1877 the number was raised to a hundred. Competition is + open to all elementary schools, whether taught by the + Christian Brothers, or by lay teachers of no religious order + or society. + + 'The result, taking the thirty years from 1847 to 1877, has + been that of 1445 exhibitions gained by scholars, 1148 have + been won by boys from the Christian schools, and 297 by + those from other schools. Or to take the last seven years of + that period, during which every effort has been made by the + Government, at a lavish outlay, to promote the efficiency of + the secular schools, the results, though the numbers are not + quite so disproportioned, yet show a marked superiority in + the schools of the Christian Brothers. Out of 490 + exhibitions, 364 have been adjudged to their pupils, and 126 + to those of the secular schools.' + +Well done, Christian Brothers! You have preached an admirable sermon to +all those who take an interest in the education of children upon those +comprehensive and deep-reaching words of Christ, 'Take no thought, +saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal +shall we be clothed?... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His +righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] 'The policy of the late Chamber with regard to religion, education, +and the army had very much greater weight with the electors.... The +persistent threat held out by certain Republicans to destroy the Church, +either by a hypocritical fulfillment of the Concordat or by the forcible +separation of Church and State, has been skilfully used by their +adversaries amongst the peasantry, who dread nothing so much as having +to pay their cure themselves. The Government was so well aware of this +fact, that in some of the departments the Catechism was ordered to be +recited in the schools during the last week before the elections, though +only two months earlier the teachers had been strictly forbidden to use +it. This childish stratagem had, as might have been expected, no great +success.'--Gabriel Monod, in 'Contemporary Review,' of December, 1885. + + + + +Art. III.--_The State Papers of the Venetian Republic_; namely, +_Cancelleria Inferiore, Cancelleria Ducale, Cancelleria Secreta,_ +preserved in the Convent of the Frari, at Venice. + + +In recent years a new tendency has been given to historical studies by +the avidity with which scholars have investigated the masses of State +documents accumulated through centuries, almost untouched, in the Record +Offices of various nations. This tendency has been in the direction of +minuteness and accuracy of detail. The finer shades of policy, the +subtler turns in the game of nations, have been revealed by this +intimate study of the documents which record them. Among the archives of +Europe there is none superior, in historical value and richness of +minutiae, to the Archives of the Venetian Republic, preserved now in the +convent of the Frari at Venice. The importance of these archives is due +to three causes: the position of the Republic in the history of Europe, +the fullness of the archives themselves, and the remarkable preservation +and order which distinguishes them, in spite of the many dangers and +vicissitudes through which they have passed. Venice enjoyed a position, +unique among the States of Europe, for two reasons. Until the discovery +of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, she was the mart of Europe +in all commercial dealings with the East--a position secured to her by +her supremacy in the Levant, and by the strength of her fleet; and, in +the second place, the Republic was the bulwark of Europe against the +Turk. These are the two dominant features of Venice in general history; +and under both aspects she came into perpetual contact with every +European Power. The universal importance of her position is faithfully +reflected in the diplomatic documents contained in her archives. The +Republic maintained ambassadors and residents at every Court. These men +were among the most subtle and accomplished diplomatists of their time, +and the government they served was exacting and critical to the highest +degree. The result is that the dispatches, newsletters and reports of +the Venetian diplomatic agents, form the most varied, brilliant, and +singular gallery of portraits, whether of persons or of peoples, that +exists. There is hardly a nation in Europe that will not find its +history illustrated by the papers which belong to the Venetian +department for foreign affairs. Nor are the papers which relate to the +home government of the Republic less copious and valuable. Each +magistracy has its own series of documents, the daily record of its +proceedings: in this we find the whole of that elaborate machinery of +State laid bare before us in all its intricacy of detail; and we are +enabled to study the construction, the origin, development, and +ossification, of one of the most rigid and enduring constitutions that +the world has ever seen; a constitution so strong in its component +parts, so compact in its rib-work, that it sufficed to preserve a +semblance of life in the body of the Republic long after the heart and +brain had ceased to beat. + +Admirable as are the preservation and order of these masses of State +papers, it is not to be expected that each series, each magisterial +archive, should be complete. There are many broad lacunae, especially in +the earlier period, which must ever be a cause for regret: for Venice +growing is a more attractive and profitable subject than Venice dying. +During the nine hundred and eighty-seven years that the Government of +the Republic held its seat in Venice, the State papers passed through +many dangers from fire, revolution, neglect, or carelessness. When we +recal the fires of 1230, 1479, 1574, and 1577, it is rather matter for +congratulation that so much has escaped, than for surprise that so much +has been destroyed. The losses would, undoubtedly, have been much more +severe had all the papers and documents been preserved in one place, as +they are now. But the Venetians stored the archives of the various +magistracies either at the offices of those magistrates, or in some +public building especially set apart for the purpose. The Secret +Chancellery, which was always an object of great solicitude, containing +as it did all the more private papers of the State, was deposited in a +room on the second floor of the Ducal Palace. Many of the criminal +records belonging to the Council of Ten were stored in the Piombi under +the roof of the Palace; and the famous adventurer Casanova relates how +he beguiled some of his prison hours by reading the trial of a Venetian +nobleman, which he found among other papers piled at the end of the +corridor where he was allowed to take exercise. Soon after the fall of +the Republic, the following disposition of the papers was made. The +political archive was stored at the Scuola di S. Teodoro; the judicial, +at the convent of S. Giovanni Laterano; the financial, at S. Procolo. In +the year 1815, the Austrian Government resolved to collect and arrange +all State papers in one place. The building chosen was the convent of +the Frari; and the work was entrusted to Jacopo Chiodo, the first +director of the archives. The scheme suggested by Chiodo has served as a +basis for the arrangement that has been already carried out, or is still +in hand. + +Under the Republic it was natural that access to important diplomatic +papers and to secrets of State should be granted with reserve, and only +to persons especially authorized to make research. The directors +appointed by the Austrian Government showed a disposition to maintain +that precedent; and M. Baschet relates that it was only by a personal +appeal to the Emperor that he obtained access to the archives of the +Ten. The Italian Government allow nearly absolute liberty; and nothing +can exceed the courtesy of the officials under their distinguished +director, the Commendatore Cecchetti. + +Any attempt to explain the archives of Venice and to display their +contents, must be preceded by a statement of the main features of the +constitution of the Republic upon which the order and the arrangement of +the archives is based. The constitution of Venice has frequently been +likened to a pyramid, with the Great Council for its base and the Doge +for apex. The figure is more or less correct; but it is a pyramid that +has been broken at its edges by time and by necessity. The legislative +and political body was originally constructed in four groups, or +tiers--if we are to preserve the pyramidal simile--one rising above the +other. These four tiers were the Maggior Consiglio or Great Council, the +Lower House; the Pregadi or Senate, the Upper House; the Collegio, or +the Cabinet; and the Doge. The famous Council of Ten and its equally +famous Commission, the Three Inquisitors of State, did not enter into +the original scheme; they are an appendix to the State, an intrusion, a +break in the symmetry of the pyramid. Later on we shall explain their +construction and relation to the main body of government. For the +present we leave them aside, and confine our attention to the four +departments of the Venetian constitution above mentioned. + +The Great Council, as is well known, did not assume its permanent form +and place in the Venetian constitution till the year 1296. At that date +the famous revolution, known as the closing of the Great Council, took +place. By that act, which was only the final step in a revolution that +had been for long in process, those citizens who were excluded from the +Great Council remained for ever outside the constitution; all functions +of government were concentrated in the hands of those nobles who were +included by the Council; the constitution of the Republic was +stereotyped as a rigid oligarchy. Previous to the year 1296, a great +council had existed, created first in the reign of Pietro Ziani (1172); +but this council was really democratic in character, not oligarchic; it +was elected each September, and its members were chosen from the whole +body of the citizens. Earlier still than the reign of Ziani, the +population used to meet tumultuously and express their opinion upon +matters of public interest, such as the election of a Doge or a +declaration of war, first in the _Concione_ under their tribunes, while +Venetia was still a confederation of lagoon-islands; and then in the +_Arengo_ under their Doge, when the confederation was centralized at +Rialto. But of these assemblies the latter was disorderly and irregular, +and the former was of doubtful authority. It is from the closing of the +Great Council that we must date the positive establishment of the +Venetian oligarchy, and the completion of that constitution which +endured for five hundred years, from 1296 till the fall of the Republic +in 1797. + +The age at which the young nobles might take their seats in the Council, +that is to say, might enter upon public life, was fixed at twenty-five, +except in the cases of the Barbarelli, or thirty nobles between the ages +of twenty and twenty-five, who were elected by ballot on the fourth of +each December, St. Barbara's day; and in the case of those who, in +return for money advanced to the State, obtained a special grace to take +their seats before their twenty-fifth year. + +The chief functions of the Great Council were the passing of laws, and +the election of magistrates. But in process of time the legislative +duties of the Council were almost entirely absorbed by the Senate; and +the Maggior Consiglio only retained its great and distinguished +function, the election of almost every officer of State, from the Doge +downwards. The large number of these magistracies, and the various +seasons of the year at which they fell vacant, engaged the Great Council +in a perpetual series of elections. It is not our intention to explain +in detail the elaborate process by which the Venetians carried out their +political elections; such an explanation would carry us beyond our +scope, which is to state the position and functions of each member in +the constitution of the Republic. But, briefly, the process was this. +The law required either two or four competitors for every vacant +magistracy, and the election to that magistracy was said to take place +_a due_ or _a quattro mani_, respectively. If the office to be filled +required _quattro mani_, the whole body of the Great Council balloted +for four groups of nine members each, who were chosen by drawing a +golden ball from among the silver ones in the balloting urn. Each of +these groups retired to a separate room, and there each group elected +one candidate to go to the poll for the vacant office. The names of the +four candidates were then presented to the Council and balloted. The +candidate who secured the largest number of votes, above the half of +those present, was elected to the vacant office. Thus the election to +the magistracy was a triple process; first, the election of the +nominators, then the election of the candidates, and finally the +election to the office. + +The Great Council, as representing the whole Republic, possessed certain +judicial functions, which were used on rare occasions only, when the +State believed itself placed in grave danger through the fault of its +commanders. The famous case of Vettor Pisani, after his defeat at Pola, +in 1379, and the case of Antonio Grimani, in the year 1499, were both +sent to the Grand Council, who passed sentence on those generals. But, +broadly speaking, the judicial functions of the Maggior Consiglio hardly +existed, its legislative functions dwindled away, and were absorbed by +the Senate, and its chief duty and prerogative lay in the election of +almost every State official. + +Coming now to the second tier in the pyramid of the constitution, the +Senate, or Pregadi,--the invited, we find that the Senate proper was +composed of sixty members, elected in the Great Council, six at a time. +The elections took place once a week, and were so arranged that they +should be complete by the first of October in each year. In addition to +the Senate proper, another body of sixty, called the _Zonta_ or +addition, was elected by the outgoing Senate at the close of its year of +office; but it was necessary that the names of the _Zonta_ should be +approved by the Great Council before their election was valid. The +Senate and the Zonta together formed one hundred and twenty members; and +besides these, the Doge, his six councillors, the Council of Ten, the +Supreme Court of Appeal, and many special magistrates, who presided over +departments of Finance, Customs, and Justice, belonged _ex officio_ to +the Senate, and brought the number of votes up to two hundred and +forty-six. Further, fifty-one magistrates of minor departments also sat, +with the right to debate, but without the right to vote. + +The Senate was the real core of the Administration. The presence, _ex +officio_, of so many and such various officers of State sufficiently +indicates the wide field which was covered by the authority of the +Pregadi. The large number of the Senatorial body, and the diversity of +subjects with which it dealt, required that business should be carried +on with parsimony of time and precision of method; and therefore private +members were restricted to the right of debate. Only the Doge, his +councillors, the Savii Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma had the right +to move the Senate; and their propositions related to peace, war, +foreign affairs, instructions to ambassadors, and representatives of +foreign Courts, to commercial treaties, finance, and home legislation. +The various measures were spoken to by their proposers, and by the +magistrates whose offices they affected. As in the case of the Great +Council, the Senate also on rare occasions exercised judicial functions. +It was in the discretion of the College to send a faulty commander for +trial either to the Great Council or to the Senate; but in that case the +charge must be one of negligence or misjudgment; if the charge implied +treason, it was taken before the Council of Ten. A few of the higher +officers of State were elected in the Senate, among them the Savii +Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma, and the Admiral of the Fleet. The +functions of the Senate were legislative, judicial, and elective. But +just as the Great Council was pre-eminently the elective body, so the +Senate was pre-eminently the legislative body in the constitution of +Venice. + +The Collegio or Cabinet of Ministers, formed the third tier in the +pyramid. The College was composed of the following members: The Doge, +his six councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal; these +ten persons formed the Collegio minore, or Serenissima Signoria; in +addition to these there were the six Savii Grandi; the five Savii di +Terra ferma, and the five Savii da mar; a body of twenty-six persons in +all, forming the College. Beginning with the lowest in rank, the Savii +agli ordini, or da mar, were, as their name implies, a Board of +Admiralty; but they acted in that capacity under the orders of the Savii +Grandi upon whom the naval affairs of the Republic immediately depended. +The Savii agli ordini had a vote but no voice in the College; this post +was given, for the most part, to young and promising politicians; it was +a training school for statesmen: 'Officio loro,' says Giannotti, 'e +tacere ed ascoltare.' The office lasted for six months only; and so +there was a constant stream of young men passing through the political +school, and becoming intimately acquainted with the affairs of the +Republic and the methods of government. How excellent that school must +have been will become apparent as we proceed to note the functions of +the College of which the Savii agli ordini formed a silent part. + +Next in order above the Savii agli ordini came the Savii di Terra ferma. +This Board was composed of five members; the Savio alia Scrittura, or +Minister for War; the Savio Cassier, or Chancellor of the Exchequer; the +Savio alle ordinanze, or minister for the native militia in the cities +on the mainland; the Savio ai da mo, or minister for the execution of +all measures voted urgent; the Savio ai Ceremoniali, or Minister for +Ceremonies of State. These Savii di Terra ferma, like the Savii agli +ordini, held office for six months only. + +The six Savii Grandi, who came above the Savii di Terra ferma, +superintended the actions of the two boards below them, and, if +necessary, issued orders which would override those of the other +ministers. They were, in fact, the responsible directors of the State. +The Savii Grandi were required to prepare all business to be laid before +the College, where it was first discussed and arranged before being +submitted to the Senate for approval. To facilitate this labour of +preparation, each of the Savii Grandi took a week in turn, and the Savio +of the week was, in fact, Prime Minister of Venice. It was he who read +dispatches, granted audiences to ambassadors, and prepared official +replies. The Doge presided in the College, it is true, but it was the +Savio of the week who opened the business, and suggested the various +measures to be adopted. + +Besides these boards of Savii, the College included the Ducal +Councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal. We shall speak +of these latter when we come to the judicial department of the +constitution. The office of Ducal Councillor was, perhaps, the most +venerable in Venice. These six men held, as it were, the Ducal honours +and functions in commission; they embodied the authority of the Doge to +such an extent, that without their presence he could not act; he became +a nonentity unless supported by four at least of his council; while, on +the other hand, the absence of the Doge in no way diminished the +authority of the Ducal Councillors. For example, the Doge without his +council could not preside, neither in the Maggior Consiglio, nor in the +Senate, nor in the College, but four Ducal Councillors had the power to +preside without the Doge. The Doge might not open dispatches except in +the presence of his council, but his council might open dispatches in +the absence of the Doge. Yet, great as were the external honours of the +Ducal Councillors, the office was rather ornamental than important. It +was the Savii Grandi who were the directing spirit through all the +multitudinous affairs of the College. As we have seen, those affairs +embraced the whole field of government, except the field of Justice. The +College had no judicial functions, nor did it legislate. As the Maggior +Consiglio was the elective member, and the Senate the legislative, so +the College was the initiative and executive member of the State. The +College proposed measures which became law in the Senate; and the +execution of those laws was entrusted to the College which had the +machinery of State at its disposal. It is this right of initiating which +distinguishes the College; and it is just upon this point that the Ducal +Councillors appear to have a slight pre-eminence; for the Doge, his +council, and the Savii alone, had the right to initiate in the Senate; +the Doge, his council, and the chiefs of the Ten alone, had the right to +initiate in the Council of Ten; the Doge and his council alone had the +right to initiate in the Maggior Consiglio. The Doge and his council +alone move through all departments of government, presiding and +initiating, embodying the spirit of the Republic; and yet in no case is +their power great; for the Savii had more influence in the Senate, the +Chiefs of the Ten in the Council of Ten; and the Great Council, where +the Doge and his councillors had the field to themselves, was of little +importance in the direction of affairs. + +At the apex of the constitutional pyramid we find the Doge. The Doge +also had his distinctive functions in the State; his duties were +ornamental rather than administrative. Though all the acts of the +Government were executed in his name, laws passed, dispatches sent, +treaties made, and war declared, yet it is not in these departments that +the Doge stands pre-eminent; it is throughout the pomp and display of +the Republic that he is supreme; and the archive wherein his glory shows +most brightly is the _Ceremoniali_. + +The Doge was elected for life. When a Doge died, the eldest Ducal +Councillor filled the office of Vice-Doge until the election of the new +Prince. The remains of the deceased Doge were laid out in the Chamber of +the Pioveghi, on the first floor of the Ducal Palace, dressed in robes +of State, the mantle of cloth of gold and the ducal beretta. Twenty +Venetian noblemen were appointed to attend in the chapelle ardente. On +the third day the Doge was buried; and the Great Council on the same day +elected the officers who were to revise the coronation oath, and to +render its provisions more stringent if the conduct of the deceased had +revealed any point where a future Doge could exercise even the smallest +independence in constitutional matters. At the same time the Council +elected another body of officers, who were required to examine the +conduct of the late Doge, and, if he had violated his coronation oath, +his heirs paid the penalty by a fine. Immediately after the appointment +of these officers, the Maggior Consiglio proceeded to create the +forty-one electors to the dukedom. The process of election was long and +intricate, and occupied five days at the least; for there was a +quintuple series of ballots and votings to be concluded before the +forty-one were finally chosen. When the forty-one noblemen had been +appointed they were taken to a chamber specially prepared for them, +where, as in the case of a papal election, they were obliged to stay +until they had determined upon the new Doge. They were bound by oath +never to reveal what took place inside this election chamber. But this +oath was not always observed in the spirit; and memoranda of the +proceedings of the forty-one are still preserved in the private archives +of the Marcello family. The first step was to elect three priors, or +presidents, and two secretaries. The presidents took their seats at a +table on which stood a ballot-box and an urn. The secretaries gave to +every elector a slip of paper, upon which each one wrote the name of the +man whom he proposed as Doge. The forty-one slips of paper were then +placed in the urn, and one was drawn out at hazard. If the noble, whose +name was written upon the slip, chanced to be an elector, he was +required to withdraw. Then each of the electors was at liberty to attack +the candidate, to point out defects and recal misdeeds. These hostile +criticisms, which covered the whole of a candidate's private life, his +physical qualities and his public conduct, were written down by the +secretaries, and the candidate was recalled. The objections urged +against him were read over to the aspirant, without the names of the +urgers appearing, and he was invited to defend himself. Attack and +defence continued till no further criticisms were offered, and then the +name of the candidate was balloted before the priors. If it received +twenty-five favourable votes, its owner was declared Doge; if less than +twenty-five, a fresh name was drawn from the urn, and the whole process +was repeated until some candidate secured the necessary five-and-twenty +votes. As soon as this issue was reached, the Signoria was informed of +the result, and the new Doge, attended by the electors, descended to +Saint Mark's, where, from the pulpit on the left side of the choir, the +Prince was shown to the people, and where, before the high altar, he +took the coronation oath and received the standard of Saint Mark. The +great doors of the Basilica were then thrown open, and the Doge passed +in procession round the Piazza and returned to the Porta della Carta. At +the top of the Giants' Stair the eldest Ducal Councillor placed the +beretta on his head, and he was brought to the Sala dei Pioveghi, where +the late Doge had lain in state, and where he too would one day come. +Then the Doge retired to his private apartments, and the ceremony of +election closed. + +As we have already observed, the position of the Doge in the Republic of +Venice was almost purely ornamental. The Doge presided, either in person +or by commission through his councillors, at every Council of State; he +presided, however, not as a guiding and deliberating chief, but as a +symbol of the Majesty of Venice. He is there not as an individual, a +personality, but as the outward and visible sign of an idea, the idea of +the Venetian oligarchy. The history of the personal authority of the +Doge falls into three periods. A period of great vigour and almost +despotic power dates from the foundation of the Dukedom, in the year +697, down to the reign of Pietro Ziani in 1172. During this first +period, the Ducal authority showed a tendency to become concentrated, +and almost hereditary in the hands of one or two powerful families. For +example, we have seen Doges of the Partecipazio house, five Doges of the +Candiani, and three of the Orseoli. But the rivalry and balanced power +of these great families eventually exhausted one another, and preserved +the Dukedom of Venice from ever becoming a kingdom. A second period +extends from the year 1172 down to 1457, and is marked by the emergence +of the great commercial houses, and the development of the oligarchy +upon the basis of a Great Council. The aristocracy during this period +were engaged in excluding the people from any share in the government, +and in curbing and finally crushing the authority of the Doge. The steps +in this process are indicated by the closing of the Great Council, the +revolution of Tiepolo, the trials of Marino Faliero, Lorenzo Celsi, and +the Foscari. The third period covers what remains of the Republic, from +1457 down to 1797. During this period the Doge was little other than the +figurehead of the Republic; the point of least weight and greatest +splendour; the brilliant apex to the pyramid of the Venetian +constitution. + +So far, then, we have examined the four tiers in the original structure +of the constitution, the Doge, the College, the Senate, and the Great +Council; and we have seen that, broadly speaking these were, +respectively, ornamental, initiative and executive, legislative, and +elective. But this pyramid of the constitution was not perfectly +symmetrical; its edges were broken. This interruption of outline was +caused by the Council of Ten. The exact position in the Venetian +constitution occupied by this famous Council, and its relations to the +other members of the government, have proved a constant source of +difficulty and error to students of Venetian history. Leaving aside the +obscure problem of the origin of the Ten, it is still possible for us to +indicate the constitutional necessity which called that Council into +existence. As we have pointed out, the College could not act on its own +responsibility without the Senate; the Senate could not initiate without +the College, for the preparation of all affairs passed through the hands +of the College. To establish connection between these two branches of +the administration was a process that required some time; it could not +be done swiftly and secretly. In all crises of political importance, +whether home or foreign, some instrument, more expeditious than the +Senate, was required to sanction the propositions of the College. That +instrument, acting swiftly and secretly, with a speed and secrecy +impossible in so large a body as the Senate, was created with the +Council of Ten. The Ten were an extraordinary magistracy, devised to +meet unexpected pressure upon the ordinary machine of government. The +emergence of the Ten proves this view. Without determining whether the +Council existed previous to the year 1310, we may take that year as the +date of its first appearance as a potent element in the State. The +rebellion of Tiepolo and Querini, an aristocratic revolt against the +growing power of the new commercial nobility, paralysed the ordinary +machinery of State, and revealed the danger inherent in a large and +slow-moving body of rulers. The Ten were called to power, just as the +Romans created the Dictatorship, in order to save the State in a +dangerous crisis. + +The place of the Ten in the constitutional structure is below the +College and parallel with the Senate. Below the College the +administration bifurcates, the ordinary course of business flows through +the Senate, the extraordinary through the Ten. The Ten possessed an +authority equal to that of the Senate; the choice of which instrument +should be used, rested with the College. The Ten appear to be of more +importance than the Senate, solely because they were used upon more +critical and dramatic occasions. Wherever the machinery of the College +and Senate moves too slowly, we find the swifter machinery of the +College and the Ten in motion. And so not only in political affairs, +home and foreign, but also in affairs financial and judicial, the +Council of Ten takes its part. The Ten, as being the readier instrument +to the hands of the College, gradually absorbed more and more of the +functions which originally belonged to the Senate. This process of +absorption, and the extension of the province of the Ten, is marked by +the establishment of its sub-commissions, that took their place in every +department side by side with the delegations of the Senate and the +ordinary magistrates. In politics and foreign affairs there is the +famous office of the Three Inquisitors of State. In the region of +Justice all cases of treason and coining, and certain cases of outrage +on public morals, came before the Ten; and it was always open to the +College to remove a case from the ordinary courts to the Ten, when State +reasons rendered it expedient to do so. In the Police department the +Esecutori contro la Bestemmia, and in Finance the Camerlenghi, were +officers of that Council. In the War Office the artillery was under +their control; and in the arsenal certain galleys, marked C.X., were +always at their disposal. + +These five great members of the State, four regular and one irregular, +formed the political and legislative departments of the Venetian +Government. It would require too many details to give a similar account +of the Judicial, Educational, and Religious machinery. + +One of the most remarkable features in the Venetian constitution is the +infinite subdivision of government, and the number of offices to be +filled. Nobles alone were eligible for the majority of these offices, +and if we consider how small a body the Great Council really was, it is +clear that the larger number of Venetian noblemen must have been +employed in the service of the State at some time in their lives. The +great political and administrative activity which reigned inside the +comparatively small body that formed the ruling caste, as compared with +the absolute stagnation and quiet which marked the life of the ordinary +citizen, is one of the most noteworthy points in the history of Venice. +Every noble above the age of twenty-five was a member of the Maggior +Consiglio; every week that council had to fill up some office of State, +had some new candidate before it. The tenure of all offices, except the +Dukedom and the Procuratorship of St. Mark, was so brief, rarely +exceeding a year, or sixteen months, that the fret and activity of +elections must have been nearly incessant. This constant unrest bore its +fruit in perpetual intrigues, and the censors were appointed to check +the rampant canvassing and bribery. But the main point which is +impressed upon us is the universality of political training to which all +the nobles of Venice were subjected. No matter how frivolous a young +patrician might be, he would be obliged to sit in the Great Council; he +would be called upon to assist in electing the Ten, whose omniscience +and severity he had every reason to dread; he might even find himself +named to fill some minor post. It was impossible, under these +circumstances, that he should fail to be educated politically, or that +he should ever lose the keenest interest in every movement of the State. +It is to this political activity that we may possibly look for one of +the reasons which conduced to that extraordinary longevity which the +constitution of Venice displayed. + +Each of the Government offices, many as they were, possessed its own +collection of papers. These are either still in loose sheets, just as +they left the office, or bound in volumes. They are indicated by the +name of the Government department, the subject dealt with, and the date. +The pages are of three kinds; first, there are the files or _filze_, the +original minutes of the Board, written down in actual Council by the +secretaries, and with the _filze_ are the dispatches or other documents +upon which the Council took measures. In many of the more important +departments, such as the Senate, the Ten, or the College, these _filze_ +were epitomized; the substance of each day's business was written out in +large volumes known as _Registri_; each entry was signed by the +secretary who had made the digest, and was accepted as authentic for all +purposes of reference. These registers are, in many cases, of the +greatest value where the files have been destroyed or lost. They were +more constantly in use, and therefore more carefully preserved; and now +they frequently form our sole authority for certain periods. As a rule +the registers are very full and good; they contain all that is of +importance in the files; but in making research upon any point it is +never safe to ignore the files where they exist. In some cases the +secretaries made a further digest of the registers in volumes known as +Rubrics, which contain in brief the headings of all materials to be +found in the registers. As the registers sometimes supply the place of +lost files, so the rubrics are occasionally our only authority where +registers and files are both missing. The rubrics are often of the +highest value. As an instance, we may cite the twenty volumes of rubrics +to the dispatches from England between the years 1603 and 1748. The +method of research, therefore, where all three kinds of documents exists +is this, to examine first the rubrics, then the registers, and then the +files. But the infinite subdivisions of the Government offices in Venice +render the task of research somewhat bewildering; and a student cannot +be certain that he has exhausted all the information on his subject, +until he has examined a large number of these minor offices. He will +probably find some notice of the point he is examining in the papers of +the Senate or of the Ten, and, if it be a matter of home affairs, he can +trace it thence through the various magistracies under whose cognizance +it would come; or if it be a matter of foreign policy, he will find +further information in the papers of the College. + +Under the Republic these collections of State papers were not known as +archives, but as chancelleries. The collections of highest interest, the +papers to which the student is most likely to turn his attention, are +those relating to the ceremony, to the home, and to the foreign policy +of Venice. These three groups are contained in the Ducal, the Secret, +and the Inferior Chancelleries. The three chancelleries were committed +to the charge of the Grand Chancellor and his staff of secretaries, who +received, arranged, and registered the official papers as they issued +from the various Councils of State. The Grand Chancellor was not a +patrician; he was chosen from that upper class of commoners known as +_cittadini originarii_, an inferior order of nobility, ranking below the +governing caste, but bearing coat armour. The office of Grand Chancellor +was of great dignity and antiquity, and was held for life. The +Chancellor was head and representative of the people, as the Doge was +head and representative of the patricians; and, when the nobility began +to exclude the people from all share in the government, the Grand +Chancellor was allowed to be present at all sessions of the Great +Council and of the Senate as the silent witness of the people, +confirming the acts of the Government, and bridging, though by the +finest thread, the gulf that otherwise separated the governed from the +governing. The part which the Grand Chancellor took in the business of +the Maggior Consiglio and of the Senate was a constant and an active +part. It was his duty to superintend the arrangements for every +election, to direct the secretaries in attendance, to announce the names +of the candidates for office, and to proclaim the successful competitor. +His seat in the Great Council Hall was on the left-hand of the Doge's +dais, and his secretaries sat below him. But the custody of the State +papers was by far the most important function which the Grand Chancellor +had to perform. To assist him in these labours he was placed at the head +of a large College of Secretaries, trained in a school especially +established to fit them for their duties. In the year 1443 a decree of +the Great Council required the Doge and the Signoria to elect each year +twelve lads to be taught Latin, rhetoric and philosophy, and the number +of the pupils was gradually increased. From this school they passed out +by examination, and became first extra-ordinaries and ordinaries, called +Notaries Ducal, then secretaries to the Senate, and finally secretaries +to the Ten. The post of secretary was one which required much diligence +and discretion. The secretaries were in constant attendance on the +various Councils of State, and thus became intimately acquainted with +all the secret affairs of the Republic. They were frequently sent on +delicate missions. It was a secretary of the Ten who brought Carmagnola +to Venice to stand his trial; and, as we shall presently relate, it was +a secretary of the Senate who announced to Thomas Killigrew, the English +Minister, his dismissal from Venice. The secretaries were sometimes +accredited as Residents to foreign Courts, though they were not eligible +for the post of Ambassador. Inside the Chancellery the secretaries were +entirely at the disposal of the Grand Chancellor, and their duties were +to study, to invent, and to read cipher; to transcribe the registers +and rubrics; to keep the annals of the Council of Ten, and to enter the +laws in the statute book. + +We may now turn our attention to the principal series of State papers +which issued from the five great members of the Constitution, the +Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, the Ten, the College, and the Doge, and +show how these papers were arranged under the three Chancelleries of +which we have spoken. + +The Cancelleria Inferiore was preserved in one large room near the head +of the Giants' Staircase in the Ducal Palace, and was entrusted to the +care of the Notaries Ducal, the lowest order of secretaries. The +documents in this Chancellery related chiefly to the Doge; his rights, +his official possessions, his restrictions, and his state. Among these +papers, accordingly, we find the coronation oaths, the Reports of the +Commissioners appointed to examine those oaths, and the Reports of the +Commissioners appointed to review the life of each Doge deceased. This +series is valuable as revealing the steps by which the aristocracy +slowly curtailed the personal authority of the Doge, and bound his +office about with iron fetters, and crushed his power. In addition to +these papers the Inferior Chancellery contained the documents relating +to the dignitaries of St. Mark's in its capacity as Ducal Chapel; the +order and ceremony of the Ducal household; the expenditure of the Civil +List; and the archives of the Procurators of Saint Mark, which contained +the will, trusts, and bequests of private citizens. + +The Ducal Chancellery, which the Council of Ten once called 'cor nostri +status,' was preserved on the upper floor of the palace, and was reached +by the Scala d'oro. The papers were arranged in a number of cupboards +surmounted by the arms of the various Grand Chancellors who had presided +in that office. The documents of the Ducal Chancellery are of far higher +importance than those contained in the Cancelleria Inferiore; they +consist of political papers which it was not necessary to keep secret. +Among the many interesting series of documents which fell to the Ducal +Chancellery, the most valuable are the 'Compilazione delle Leggi,' or +statute-books distinguished by the various colours of their +bindings--gold, roan, and green--to mark the statutes which relate to +the Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, and the College respectively; the +Secretario alle voci, or record of all elections in the Great Council; +the Libri gratiarum, or special privileges. But most important of all is +the great series of documents which include the whole legislation of the +State relating to Venetian affairs on sea and land. Of this vast series +those marked _Terra_ contain 3128 volumes of files, 411 volumes of +registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics; those marked _Mar_ number 1286 +volumes of files, 247 volumes of registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics. It +will easily be seen how important the Ducal Chancellery is both for the +verification of dates, and also as displaying so large a tract of the +Venetian home administration. + +But important as the Ducal Chancellery undoubtedly is, it cannot vie in +interest with the Cancelleria Secreta, which might, with every justice, +have been called 'cor nostri status', for it is in the papers of that +Chancellery that the long history of the growth, splendour, and decline +of the Republic is to be traced in all its manifold details and +complicated relations. The Secret Chancellery was established by a +decree of the Great Council in the year 1402. Its object was to preserve +those papers of the highest State importance, from the publicity to +which the Ducal Chancellery was exposed. The regulation of the Secret +Chancellery was undertaken by the Council of Ten, and the rigorous +orders which they issued from time to time abundantly prove the +difficulty they experienced in securing the secrecy which they desired. +The Secret Chancellery became the depository of all State papers of +great moment; and if we take the chief members of the constitution in +order, and note the documents issuing from them which fell to the +custody of the Secreta, we shall see how the great flow of Venetian +history is to be followed here rather than in any other department of +the archives. + +To begin with the Maggior Consiglio, we have the long series of +registers containing the deliberations of the Council from the year 1232 +down to the fall of the Republic in 1797, occupying forty-two volumes, +and distinguished, at first, by such capricious names as Capricornus, +Philosus, Presbiter, and Fronesis; and later on by the names of the +secretaries who prepared them, Ottobonus primus, Ottobonus filius, +Busenellus, and Vianolus. In the special archive of the Avogadori di +Commun a contemporary series of registers is to be found; it covers from +1232 to 1547, and should be consulted together with the first series, +for it is more voluminous and minute. The first reference to England +that occurs in the Venetian archives is in the volume Fronesis +(1318-1385). This, and all other documents relating to Great Britain, +have been collected and rendered accessible in the splendid and +monumental series of the 'Calendar of State Papers,' edited with such +diligence and care by the late Mr. Rawdon Brown. Mr. Brown's published +work goes down to the year 1552; and it is only after that date that any +work relating to England remains to be done. That work, however, is +voluminous, for the regular and unbroken series of dispatches from +England does not begin till the reign of James I. Little more respecting +England is to be expected from the papers of the Great Council, however; +for at the date where Mr. Brown's work ends, the Maggior Consiglio had +ceased to occupy a high position in the direction of Venetian foreign +policy; its functions were chiefly confined to the election of +magistrates. + +The Senate supplied a far larger number of papers to the Secret +Chancellery than that yielded by the Great Council. This was to be +expected, owing to the central position of the Senate in the +constitution, and its prominent place in the management of Venetian +policy, home and foreign. The oldest documents in the archives of Venice +belong to the Senate. They are contained among the volumes of Pacts or +treaties, seven in number, without including the volume Albus, which is +devoted to treaties between the Republic and the Eastern Empire, nor the +volume Blancus, which contains the treaties between Venice and the +Emperors of the West. The thirty-three volumes of Commemoriali formed a +sort of commonplace book for the use of statesmen; in them were +registered briefly the most important events and abstracts of principal +documents which passed through the hands of the Government. The +Commemoriali cover the years 1293 to 1797; but after the middle of the +sixteenth century they were neglected, and they are chiefly valuable +down to that date only. After the Patti and Commemoriali we begin the +record of the regular proceedings in the Senate. This series contains +papers relating to home government, foreign policy, the dominions of +Venice on the mainland, in Dalmatia and the Levant, ecclesiastical +matters, relations with Rome, instructions to ambassadors and reports +from governors. So widely spread and so varied were the attributes of +the Senate, that the analysis of a single day's proceedings in that +house would prove most instructive to the student of the Venetian +constitution, and would, in all probability, bring him into contact with +a large number of the leading magistracies of the Republic. The series +of senatorial papers proceeds in almost unbroken completeness from the +year 1293 down to the close of the Republic; and counting files, +registers and rubrics, numbers 1599 volumes. This main series is known +by different names at different periods, and shows signs of that +tendency to subdivision which characterizes all Venetian Government +offices. The volumes which run from the year 1293 to 1440 were known as +Registri misti; those covering from 1491 to 1630, and overlapping the +first Misti, were called Registri secreti. After the year 1630 the +papers of the Senate are divided into those known as Corti, relating to +foreign Powers; and those known as Rettori, relating to the government +of the Venetian dominion. + +Besides this great series of Deliberazioni, containing the general +movement of business in the Senate, there is another voluminous series +of documents, equally important, and even more interesting to the +student of general history, the dispatches received from Venetian +representatives in foreign Courts, and the Relazioni, or reports which +ambassadors read before the Senate upon their return from abroad. +Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of this series; and the value of the +Relazioni at least has been fully recognized. Yet it should be borne in +mind that the Relazioni are only a part of the series, and that, taken +alone and isolated from the dispatches, they lose much of their value. +For we must not forget that the Relazioni were drawn up on more or less +conventional lines; the headings, under which the report was to fall, +were indicated by the Government, and were invariable; and, further, the +home-coming ambassador handed his report to his successor, who +frequently used it as a basis in drawing up his own. The result is that, +except in the descriptions of Court life, and in the sketches of +prominent characters, the Relazioni are apt to repeat themselves. But, +taken with the dispatches, which arrived almost daily, they form the +most varied, brilliant, and minute gallery of national portraits that +the world possesses. The reports and dispatches were made by men whose +whole political training had rendered them the acutest of observers, and +they were presented to critics who were filled with the keenest +curiosity, and were accustomed to demand full and precise information. +Not a detail is omitted as unimportant; the diurnal gossip of the Court, +the daily movements of the sovereign and his favourites; are all +recorded with impartial and unerring observation. The relation of the +Dispacci to the Relazioni is the relation of the study to the picture. +The Relazioni are the large canvas upon which the whole nation is +broadly depicted, the Dispacci are the patient and minute studies upon +which the excellence of the picture depends. The majority of the +Venetian Relazioni between the years 1492 and 1699 have been published; +the earlier part by Signor Alberi, and the later by Signori Barozzi and +Berchet. The eighteenth century still remains to be worked out. In the +series of Relazioni and Dispacci, Great Britain occupies a comparatively +small space. While France, Germany, and Constantinople, each give five +volumes of reports, England gives one only, dating from 1531 to 1763. Of +dispatches from England there are 139 volumes in all; while from +Constantinople we have 242, from France 276, from Milan, 230, and from +Germany 202. + +Previous to the year 1603, when the regular series of dispatches from +England begins, there had been intermittent relations between the +Republic and the English Court. Sebastian Giustiniani was Venetian +ambassador in London in the reign of Henry VIII. (1515-1519); and in the +reign of Mary, Giovanni Michiel represented the Republic for four +years--from 1554 to 1558. The Protestant reign of Elizabeth caused a +long break, during which the Republic received its information about the +affairs of England from its ambassadors in France and Spain. Permanent +relations were not resumed between the two Powers till the accession of +James I., one of whose earliest acts was to send Sir Henry Wotton to +Venice as his ambassador. The appointment of Sir Henry Wotton was a +movement of gratitude on the part of the King; and the cause of it +cannot be better told than in the words of Sir Henry's biographer, who +thus describes this 'notable accident:' + + 'Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to + Florence--which was about a year before the death of Queen + Elizabeth--Ferdinand, the Great Duke of Tuscany, had + intercepted certain letters that discovered a design to take + away the life of James, the then King of Scots. The Duke + abhorring this fact, and resolving to endeavour a prevention + of it, advised with his Secretary Vietta, by what means a + caution might be best given to that King; and after + consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry + Wotton, whom Vietta first commended to the Duke, and the + Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that + frequented his Court. + + 'Sir Henry was gladly called by his friend Vietta to the + Duke, who dispatched him into Scotland with letters to the + King, and with those letters such Italian antidotes against + poison as the Scots till then had been strangers to. + + 'Having parted from the Duke, he took up the name and + language of an Italian; and thinking it best to avoid the + line of English intelligence and danger, he posted into + Norway, and through that country towards Scotland, where he + found the King at Stirling. Being there, he used means, by + Bernard Lindsey, one of the King's bed-chamber, to procure + him a speedy and private conference with his Majesty. + + 'This being by Bernard Lindsey made known to the King, the + King required his name--which was said to be Octavio + Baldi--and appointed him to be heard privately at a fixed + hour that evening. + + 'When Octavio Baldi came to the Presence-chamber door, he + was requested to lay aside his long rapier--which, + Italian-like, he then wore;--and being entered the chamber, + he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords + standing distant in several corners of the chamber; at the + sight of whom he made a stand; which the King observing, + bade him be bold and deliver his message; for he would + undertake for the secrecy of all that were present. Then did + Octavio Baldi deliver his letters and message to the King in + Italian; which when the King had graciously received, after + a little pause, Octavio Baldi steps to the table, and + whispers to the King in his own language that he was an + Englishman, beseeching him for a more private conference + with his Majesty, and that he might be concealed during his + stay in that nation; which was promised and really performed + by the King, during all his abode there, which was about + three months. All which time was spent with much + pleasantness to the King, and with as much to Octavio Baldi + himself as that country could afford; from which he departed + as true an Italian as he came thither.' + +The presence of Sir Henry in Venice, where he was a _persona +gratissima_, both for his love of Italy and his knowledge of the +language, did much to strengthen the new relations between England and +the Republic. The feeling between Venice and the Stuart kings became +extremely cordial; but on the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1642, the +Republic suspended the commission of Vincenzo Contarina, who had been +appointed to succeed Giovanni Giustinian as ambassador to England. The +secretary Girolamo Agostino, however, continued to discharge Venetian +affairs till the year 1645; and his dispatches contain minute +particulars concerning the progress of the Civil War. In the year 1645, +Agostino was recalled, and the interests of Venice in England were +entrusted to Salvetti, the Florentine resident. Agostino left behind him +in England a secret agent, with instructions to forward a weekly report +on the progress of affairs to the Venetian ambassador in France, among +whose dispatches we find these newsletters from London. After the death +of Charles I it is not likely that the Republic would have been +represented at the Court of Cromwell, towards whom the feeling of Venice +was not cordial, had she not been in great straits for help against the +Turk. But in the year 1652 she resolved to dismiss the representative of +Charles II, then in Venice; and, at the same time, the Government +instructed the ambassador at Paris to send his secretary, Lorenzo +Pauluzzi, to London to open negociations with Cromwell. With Pauluzzi +the series of dispatches from London recommences; but these dispatches +are to be found among the communications from the Venetian ambassador in +Paris, by whom they were forwarded to the Senate. The dispatches of +Pauluzzi are of great importance, and give us a vivid though hostile +picture of Cromwell and his surroundings. 'Nell' universale,' he says, +'ha pochissimo affetto;' and further on, 'non ardiscono tentare alcuna +cosa ne parlare che tra i denti; ma ognuno sta sperando un giorno +verificate le profizie che questo governo non possa a lungo durare.' In +1655 the negociations between England and Venice had advanced so far +that the Republic had determined to send an Ambassador Extraordinary to +the Protector's Court. Giovanni Sagredo, ambassador at Paris, was +chosen, and the closing paragraph of his first dispatch shows how +strongly Cromwell's personality impressed him. 'Per il resto,' he +writes, 'e uomo di 56 anni, con pochissima barba, di complessione +sanguigna, di statura media e robusta e di presenza marziale. Ha una +fisonomia cupa e profonda. Porta una gran spada al fianco. Soldato +insieme ed oratore, e dotato di talenti per persuadere e per operare.' +The result of Sagredo's mission is contained in the long and brilliant +Relazione which he read in the Senate on his return to Venice in 1656. +In this splendid specimen of a Venetian report, he gives, with singular +lucidity and grasp, a brief sketch of the condition of Great Britain; of +the causes of the Civil War; of Cromwell's rise to power; of his foreign +relations; and closes with a portrait of the Protector which confirms +Pauluzzi's unfavourable view, and draws a terrible picture of that +restlessness and dread which clouded Cromwell's last days--'piu temuto +che amato ... vive con sempiterno sospetto.' When Sagredo returned to +Venice, his secretary Francesco Giavarnia was left behind in England, as +Venetian resident, and continued to hold that post till the Restoration, +sending dispatches every week direct to Venice, detailing the close of +the Protectorate, and the return of Charles II., whom he was the first +to welcome at Canterbury the day after his landing. In 1661 the Republic +gladly re-opened full relations with the Stuarts. Giavarnia was +superseded by two Ambassadors Extraordinary, who conveyed to Charles two +gondolas for the water in St. James's Park, and from that date onwards +the diplomatic connection between England and the Republic followed the +ordinary course. + +We come now to the papers of the Council of Ten; all of these were +committed to the custody of the Secret Chancellery. We have already seen +that the Council of Ten was an extraordinary office, used upon +extraordinary occasions, where secrecy and speed were required. Its +chief occupations may be summed up under three heads--safety of the +State, protection of citizens, and public morals. That being the case, +the number and interest of its documents is very great--greater than +that of any other Council of State; but this interest is confined, for +the most part, to matters affecting the home policy of the Republic; +foreign affairs finds comparatively little illustration among the +papers of the Ten. The series of documents, containing the ordinary +business of the Ten, dates from the year 1315 to the close of the +Republic. The documents are arranged according to the matter they deal +with, that is to say political matter, _parti communi_ and _secreti_, or +criminal matter, _parti crimminali_. The immense importance and interest +attaching to the papers of the Ten will be illustrated by the statement, +that there we find the cases of Marino Faliero, of the Carraresi, of +Carmagnola, of Foscari, of Caterina Cornaro, and of Foscarini. + +Among the papers of the Collegio we find ourselves once more in the +general current of foreign politics. The ordinary proceedings of the +College, the papers containing the arrangement and discussion of affairs +to be presented to the Senate, are included in the volumes of files and +registers, known as the Notatorii del Collegio. The College was +entrusted, as we have said, to receive all the representatives of +foreign Powers and to open all letters and dispatches addressed to the +Government. It is in the three series known as Lettere Principi, +Espozioni Principi, and Ceremoniali, that we obtain the fullest +information about the action of the agents from foreign Courts resident +in Venice. The series called Lettere Principi, letters from royal +personages, covers the years between 1500 and 1797, and is contained in +fifty-four volumes of _filze_. England is represented by two of these, +beginning with the year 1570, and ending with 1796, entitled 'Collegio, +Secreta, Lettere. Re e Regina d'Inghilterra.' These volumes contain one +hundred and seventy-one letters, thus distributed among the various +sovereigns; there are thirteen in the reign of Elizabeth; forty in that +of James I.; four in that of Charles I.; three from Oliver Cromwell; one +from Richard Cromwell; one from Speaker Lenthal: ten during the reign of +Charles II.; five during that of his brother; three during the reign of +William, including one from the Old Pretender; seven in the reign of +Anne; eight in that of George I.; twenty-one from George II; and +fifty-five from George III. These letters are concerned with formal +announcements and the exchange of courtesies, the credentials of +ambassadors and notices of royal births, marriages and deaths. Their +historical importance is very slight. The long series of George III. is +almost entirely occupied by noting the yearly increase of his family. +The autographs of the ministers who countersigned the letters, form +their greatest attraction. The late Mr. Rawdon Brown has published +facsimiles of these autographs down to the year 1659; but after that +date we find such interesting endorsements as those of Lauderdale, +Arlington, Bolingbroke, Carteret, Pitt, Halifax, Henry Conway, +Shelburne, and Charles James Fox. On a loose parchment among these +letters is one very curious document. It is dated Bologna, 21st +February, 1671, and begins 'Carlo Dudley per la gratia di Dio Duca di +Northumbria et del Sacro Romano Impero, Conte di Woruih e di Licester, +et Pari d'Ingliterra.' The document goes on to state that Charles +Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in consideration of the affection and +partiality always shown towards his person and house, grants to Ottavio +Dionisio, noble of Verona, the title of Marquis to him and to his eldest +son, to his younger sons and to his brothers and their sons the title of +Count, in perpetuity; and this in virtue of the declaration and +authority of His Holiness Pope Urban VIII., which conferred on Charles +Dudley and his eldest born the right to exercise all the privileges of +an independent prince. At the date which this document bears, 1671, +there was no Duke of Northumberland; that title had lately been bestowed +by Charles II. on an illegitimate son, and had perished with him. This +Charles Dudley was probably some pretender to the honours of the Dudley +family who once held the dukedom of Northumberland. The document is +curious, for the noble family on whom Charles Dudley conferred this +title of Marquis still exists, and we do not know if any British +subject, either before or after, has even claimed to be a fountain of +honour. But Charles Dudley is not the only English pretender who figures +among the papers at the Frari. Filza 8 of the loose papers, titled +'Miscellanea Diversi Manoscritti,' contains the marriage certificate and +will of James Henry de Boveri Rossano Stuart, natural son of Charles +II., and seven letters from his son James Stuart, dated Milan, Gemona +and Padua, 1722 to 1728. The majority of these letters are addressed to +Cardinal Panighetti, from whom this 'povero principe Stuardo,' as he +calls himself, hoped to receive money and support in some imaginary +claims on the Crown of England. The letters are full of a certain +pathos--the pathos which cannot fail to attach itself to fallen royalty. +The handwriting is that of an uneducated man; and James Stuart, in these +letters, certainly shows no signs of the ability required to meet so +trying a situation. He appeals to the Cardinal first on the grounds of +his creed. It is 'for the Faith that he finds himself in the miserable +little town' of Gemona. Failing upon this line, James Stuart abandons +himself to astrology, in the hope that the stars may give an answer +favourable to his hopes. But to all his appeals the Cardinal replies +with cold reserve, and when he hears of astrology, he adds a sharp and +crushing reprimand. + +Leaving the Lettere Principi we come to the last two series of State +papers of which we shall speak, the Espozioni Principi, or record of +all audiences granted to ambassadors and of the communications made by +them in the name of the Power they represented; and the Libri +Ceremoniali, or record of the great functions of State, coronations and +funerals of the Doges, the elections of the Grand Chancellors, the +reception accorded to ambassadors, princes and distinguished travellers. +The Republic of Venice was as punctilious as any Court of Europe upon +the points of precedence, ceremony, and etiquette. The reader will not +have forgotten the amusing account, given by the elder Disraeli, of the +long struggle between the Master of the Ceremonies and the Venetian +ambassador at the Court of St. James. The Government required from its +representatives a minute account of every detail of etiquette observed +towards them, and replied in kind in their treatment of foreign +ministers in Venice. The Republic was punctilious abroad, and no less so +at home. Every stage in the public entry, first audience and _conge_ of +foreign ambassadors were carefully regulated and based upon precedent. +The ambassadors of Spain and France had each a special volume devoted to +the ceremonies and etiquette which the Republic observed towards them. +M. Baschet describes at length the receptions of the French ambassadors, +for whom he claims the highest rank among the representatives of foreign +Powers at Venice. Great Britain sent fifty-eight embassies, in all, to +the Republic, between the years 1340 and 1797. Of these ambassadors, Sir +Gregory Cassalis filled the office twice, Sir Henry Wotton thrice, the +Earl of Manchester twice, and Elizeus Burgess twice. The ceremony to +which the ambassador was entitled may be gathered from the accounts of +these embassies preserved in the Esposizioni Principi and the +Ceremoniali. + +The reception of Lord Northampton in the year 1762 will afford us the +most detailed view of the ceremony, for on that occasion some questions +of precedent arose, and the Cavaliere Ruzzini, who was entrusted with +the conduct of the affair, presented a long report to the Senate on the +subject. The ambassador was not officially recognized by the Government +until he had made his public entry, and presented his credentials at his +first audience in the College. Until that had taken place, he remained +incognito, and was in fact supposed not to be in Venice. Before the +ambassador arrived, the English Consul was expected to hire a palace for +his use. There was no fixed embassy in Venice; Thomas Killigrew lodged +at San Cassano, Lord Holdernesse at San Benedetto, Lord Manchester at +San Stae. John Udny, who was consul at the time of Lord Northampton's +Embassy, rented the Palazzo Grimani at Cannaregio for the ambassador +whenever his appointment was announced, and an amusing and +characteristic story attaches to this affair. The palace belonged to a +Contessa Grimani, and was in bad repair; but the owner promised to +restore and fit it up for the ambassador. When the consul went to see +the palace, shortly before the ambassador's arrival, he found that +nothing had been done to it, and moreover that a gondolier and his wife +occupied the ground-floor and refused to move. He wrote at once to the +Contessa requesting her to remove the gondolier, to which he received +for answer that the gondolier's wife had been nurse to one of the +Countess's boys, and the Grimanis had promised her twenty ducats a-year; +if the ambassador liked to pay that amount, the gondolier would turn +out; if not, they must manage to share the palace between them. The +consul appealed to the English Resident, John Murray, who wrote an angry +letter to the Government, complaining of this treatment; 'La carita +della nobile donna,' he says, 'verso la moglie del gondoliere merita +senza dubbio gran lode, ma il sottoscritto s'imagina che l'avvocato piu +scaltro si troverebbe bene intrigato di produrre una legge o esempio per +incaricare l'Ambasciatore Inglese di questa carita.' + +The matter was probably arranged, for on the 22nd of October Lord +Northampton arrived, incognito, of course, with all his suite, and took +up his residence. Lord Northampton was ill, and it was not until the +beginning of the next year that he took the necessary steps to make his +entry and to secure his first audience. The etiquette observed upon such +occasions required that the ambassador should send his secretary to +leave copies of his credentials at the door of the College, and to ask +on what day the Doge would receive him. The College reply through one of +their secretaries that an answer will be sent. The Doge was then +consulted what day would suit him, and he answers by putting himself at +the disposal of the College. The Senate is then informed of the +ambassador's arrival, and sixty senators, under the direction of a +leader, are appointed to attend the ambassador until the ceremonies of +his reception shall be completed. The days selected for Lord +Northampton's reception were the 29th and 30th of May, 1763; and the +Caveliere Ruzzini was named as head of the sixty senators who were to +attend the ambassador. Ruzzini informed Lord Northampton of these +arrangements, and at the same time sent him a programme of the ceremony, +which was based upon that observed towards Lord Holdernesse, and was +identical with that which the Republic offered to the ambassador of the +King of Sardinia. Before his public entry, the ambassador and all his +suite went to the island of San Spirito, in the lagoon towards +Malamocco. The fiction of the ceremony supposed all ambassadors to be +lodged there until they had presented their credentials. San Spirito was +chosen as the point of departure for the ambassadorial procession +because the distance between that island and Venice was supposed to +correspond exactly with the distance between London and Greenwich, +whence the Venetian ambassador was wont to begin his progress. Sir Henry +Wotton's second embassy forms a rare exception to this rule, for the +Venetians were so fond of that charming and accomplished poet, that they +allowed him to make his entry from San Giorgio Maggiore, which is much +nearer the city and more convenient. After midday on the 29th, Ruzzini +and his sixty senators, each in his gondola, arrived at San Spirito, and +found the household of the ambassador drawn up along the landing-place +_en grande tenue_. Lord Northampton was informed of Ruzzini's arrival, +and came to meet him on the staircase. After exchanging the prescribed +compliments, Ruzzini, with the ambassador on his right hand, descended, +and both entered the Cavaliere's gondola. The whole procession left San +Spirito and proceeded by the Grand Canal to the ambassador's lodging at +San Girolamo, accompanied, as Ruzzini says, by 'un immenso popolo +spettatore del nostro viaggio;' for these official entries were among +the most popular of the Venetian spectacles, and the whole city went out +to witness them. At the palace fresh speeches and compliments followed. +Lord Northampton was suffering acutely from an illness of which he died +that same year, but Ruzzini reports with obvious satisfaction that he +did not spare him a single ceremony, 'adempi ad ogni parte del consueto +ceremoniale.' The next day Ruzzini and the sixty senators again attended +at the ambassador's palace to conduct him to his audience in the +College. Lord Northampton was worse than he had been the day before; but +Ruzzini was implacable. It cost the ambassador three-quarters of an hour +to ascend the Giant's Stair. When at last he reached the door of the +Collegio, the Doge and all the College rose; the ambassador uncovered +and made three bows, and, leaving his suite behind him, he mounted the +dais and took his seat on the right hand of the Doge. The ambassador +then covered his head, and simultaneously one of each order of the Savii +did the same. The ambassador handed his credentials to the Doge, and +remained uncovered while they were being read. The Doge made a brief and +formal reply, welcoming the ambassador to Venice, and each time the +King's name occurred, the ambassador raised his cap. After repeating his +three bows, the ambassador retired, and was accompanied to his palace +by the sixty senators who had waited for him at the door of the +Collegio. This closed the ceremony of entry. + +The English Ambassador Extraordinary enjoyed certain privileges which +were established on the precedent of the embassy of Lord Falconberg, +Cromwell's son-in-law. Among these privileges was the right to lodging +and maintenance at the cost of the Republic, a right which the +ambassador usually compounded for the sum of five or six hundred ducats; +a box at each theatre in Venice was placed at his disposal, and when he +took his _conge_ the Senate voted him a gold chain and medal of the +value of two thousand scudi. The ambassadors ordinary enjoyed certain +exemptions from customs dues. These exemptions were frequently abused, +and were the cause of constant friction between the Government and the +representatives of the Powers. In the year 1763 Mr. John Murray's +Istrian wine was seized, and he only recovered it after expressing +himself _ben mortificato_. Mr. Murray was constantly in trouble on this +subject. The year before he had addressed an indignant letter to the +Government because 'a certain official of the Custom House had accused +him of allowing his servants to sell wine and flour at the door of the +Residency. It is but a poor satisfaction after so long a period of +suspicion to know that that official is bankrupt and no proof of the +accusation is forthcoming.' But by far the most curious episode of this +nature was that which befell Tom Killigrew, the poet, grandfather of the +Mrs. Anne Killigrew of Dryden's famous ode and a friend of Pepys, who +recals him as 'a merry droll, but a gentleman of great esteem with the +King, who told us many merry stories,' this, perhaps, among the number. +Killigrew was sent to represent Charles II. at Venice in 1649, just +after the execution of Charles I., and while his son was _a ramingo_, or +knocking about, as the Venetian ambassador politely puts it. Killigrew +was received in the usual way on February 10, 1650, and made his address +'in lingua cattiva,' as the report affirms. But the Republic soon tired +of its alliance with an exiled king, and resolved to dismiss Killigrew +as soon as possible. Killigrew was poor, and his master had little or +nothing to give him, so he hit upon the expedient of keeping a butcher's +shop, where he could sell meat, cheaper than any one else in Venice, by +availing himself of his exemptions from octroi. The Senate resolved to +fasten upon this illicit traffic as a pretext for dismissing Killigrew; +and on the 22d of June, 1652, they sent their Secretary, Busenello, to +tell Killigrew, _viva voce_, that he must go. Busenello went to San +Fantin, and there found one of Killigrew's butchers, who told him that +the Resident only kept his shop there, but lived himself at San Cassano. +At San Cassano Busenello was told that Killigrew was dining at Murano, +and would not be home till evening; but very soon after he saw the +Resident at his window, and insisted on being announced. He explained +'with all possible delicacy,' as he says, the order of the Senate; but +Killigrew received the message with every sign of anger and pain. With +tears in his eyes he declared that it was the other ambassadors who +robbed the customs, while he had all the blame. It was true that he did +keep 'a little bit of a butcher's shop to support himself,' but that +could not hurt the revenue; and he added that, under any circumstance he +should leave Venice, for he had received his letters of recall from +France, four days previously. The Senate no more than their secretary +believed in the existence of this letter of recall; but Killigrew really +had the letter, dated March 14th, and it was sent into the College, +along with a brief exculpatory epistle from the Resident, on the 27th of +June. Killigrew left Venice the same day as he was bound to do by +ambassadorial etiquette; and Charles had not another recognized agent to +the Republic until his restoration; for the Venetians definitely adopted +the policy of courting Cromwell, in the vain hope that he would assist +them against the Turk. + +With the papers of the College we close this notice of the political +documents in the archives at the Frari. The other departments of the +Government had each their own series of papers, equally copious and +valuable. The heraldic and genealogical archives of the Avvogadori di +Commun, for example, the Charters of the German and Turkish Exchanges +and the records of the Mint and the public Banks, offer a wide and a +rich field for study; and in spite of the profound and extensive labours +of such scholars as Thomas, Checchetti, Barozzi, Berchet, Fulin, +Lamansky, Mas Latrie, and Rawdon Brown, it will be long before the +materials in the vast storehouse of the Frari are exhausted or even +adequately displayed. + + + + +Art. IV.--1. _Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years 1834, +1835 and 1836._ By Samuel Laing, Esq. London, 1837. + +2. _Le Royaume de Norvege et le Peuple Norvegien._ Par le Dr. O. I. +Broch. Christiania, 1878. + +3. _Official Reports of Prefects on the Economic Condition of the +Provinces of Norway in 1876-80._ Christiania, 1884. + +4. _Publications of the Statistical Bureau, Christiania._ + + +The advocates of a general redistribution of landed property in Ireland, +as well as those who are holding out to the agricultural labours of +other portions of the United Kingdom the Arcadian lure figuratively +known as the 'three acres and a cow,' will find in the work cited at the +head of this article the amplest materials for the justification of the +views they are pressing for adoption partly as a remedy for agricultural +distress, but essentially in application of the Socialist doctrine that +the people of a country have an inherent right to an absolute, +proportionate possession of its soil. + +Mr. Laing's 'Journal' is, indeed, not a record of travel and adventure, +but a treatise, admirably written and replete with facts, in +demonstration of the great superiority of the Norwegian system of land +tenure over that of any other part of civilized Europe. His views have, +moreover, been to a great extent adopted in the numerous works that have +since been produced by British travellers who, after a rapid drive over +the main routes of Norway, have described in terms equally glowing the +happy and enviable condition of the _Bonde_ or yeoman farmer of that +country. + +Considering there is much in common in regard to race, religion, +language, character, and civilization, between the inhabitants of that +interesting little country and its maritime neighbours--the populations, +more especially, of England and Scotland, it will be instructive, on the +eve of the agrarian revolution with which the United Kingdom is +threatened, to study and analyse the statements and conclusions of Mr. +Laing, and to trace the subsequent and present operation of the peculiar +land laws which he so highly extolled in the earlier part of this +century. + +With that object we proceed to describe, almost in Mr. Laing's own +words, the condition of the peasant proprietors of Norway at a period +(1835) when, out of a population of 1,194,827, only about eleven per +cent. inhabited towns, the land in rural districts being held by 103,192 +proprietors and tenants, the proportion of the two latter being +respectively seventy and thirty per cent. + + 'The Norwegians,' wrote Mr. Laing, 'are the most interesting + and singular group of people in Europe. They live under + ancient laws and social arrangements totally different in + principle from those which regulate society and property in + the feudally constituted states. Their country is peculiarly + interesting to the political economist. It is the only part + of Europe in which property from the earliest ages has been + transmitted upon the principle of partition among all the + children. The feudal structure of society with its law of + primogeniture, and its privileged class of hereditary + nobles, never prevailed in Norway. In this remote corner of + the civilized world we may therefore see the effects upon + the condition of society of the peculiar distribution of + property; it will exhibit, on a small scale, what America + and France will be a thousand years hence.... Here are the + Highland glens without the Highland lairds.... If there be a + happy class of people in Europe it is the Norwegian _Bonde_, + king of his own land, and landlord as well as king.' + +This state of happiness is, according to Mr. Laing, the result of the +still existing _Odels ret_ or Allodial Right, under which, he asserts, +the land of Norway was always the property of the people, not of a +feudal class of high nobility. But although this assertion does not much +affect the main and practical object of our enquiry, it may be as well +to point out at once that, whatever might have been the inherent right +of every Norwegian to a portion of the soil on which he was born, Dr. +Broch, an eminent native authority, maintains that a considerable +portion of the land belonged anciently to the kings of Norway, and had +been acquired, as in other countries, partly by confiscation from +nobles. Those lands were leased and, gradually, to a certain extent, +sold. In the days of Roman Catholicism, the Church also held great +landed estates, which the State appropriated at the Reformation. No +inconsiderable part of the State domains was then leased, and, in short, +before the middle of the seventeenth century, leases comprised a little +more than half of the landed property of the country; while even in +1814, they constituted one-third of it. Later, the State lands, and +those which had been distributed among nobles at the Reformation, were +repartitioned among the bulk of the population or sold. + +But to return to the _Odels ret_. It gives, Mr. Laing shows, + + 'to all the kindred of the Odelsmand in possession, in the + order of consanguinity, a certain interest in it. If the + Odelsmand should sell or alienate his land, the next of kin + is entitled to redeem it on paying the purchase-money; and + should he decline to do so, it is in the power of the one + next to him to claim his _Odelsbaarn ret._' + +At the present time, the allodial right is acquired only by the +uninterrupted possession of the same person, his descendants or his +wife, during a period of at least twenty years, and it is lost if the +property has been in strange hands for three years. Testamentary +dispositions, in the case of persons leaving issue, are now limited to +one quarter of the testator's property; whereas before 1854, a testator +could not bequeath anything individually. Since the year 1860, also, +there is perfect equality between the two sexes in the division of real +and personal property. At the period when Mr. Laing visited Norway, the +division of land among children had + + 'not had the effect of reducing properties to the minimum + size that would barely support human existence. One sells to + the other and turns his capital and industry to pursuits + that would enable him to acquire the necessaries of life. + The heirs who sell, very often, instead of a sum of money, + which is seldom at the command of the parties, take a + life-rent payment or annuity of so much grain, the keep of + so many cows, so much firewood, a dwelling-house on the + property, or some equivalent of that kind. Few properties + have no such burthens.' He argued that 'in a country where + land is held, not in tenancy merely, as in Ireland, but in + full ownership, its aggregation by the death of co-heirs, + and by the marriages of female heirs,[5] will balance its + subdivision by the equal succession of children; and also, + that in such a condition of society, the whole mass of + property would be found in such a State to consist of as + many estates of 1000l., as many of 100l., as many of 10l. a + year, at one period as at another.' + + 'Norway,' our author urges, 'affords a strong confutation of + the dreaded excessive subdivision of land. Notwithstanding, + the partition system, continued for ages, it contains farms + of such extent that the owner possesses forty cows.' + +On the whole, the farms appeared to him to be of various sizes: many so +large that a bell was used to call the labourers to or from their work; +while some were so small as to have only a few sheaves of corn, or a rig +or two of potatoes, scattered among the trunks of the trees. These, +however, were occupied by the farm servants, or cotters, paying for +their houses and land in work (_Husmoena_). Twenty to forty cows could +be counted on the large farms. In the district of Verdal +(Trondhjemsfiord) Mr. Laing saw beautiful little farms of forty to fifty +acres, each having a pasturage or grass tract in the mountains, where +the cattle were kept during the summer until the crops were taken in, +and upon each such out-farm, or _Soeter_, there was a house and +regular dairy, to which, he informs us, 'the whole of the cattle and +the dairy-maids, with their sweethearts, are sent to junket and to amuse +themselves for three or four months of the year.[6] We can well believe +that, in such circumstances, Mr. Laing found 'this class of _Boender_ the +most interesting people in Norway,' and that 'there are none similar to +them in the feudal countries of Europe.' He appears to have been more +particularly impressed with + + 'the farms large enough to keep a score of cows, six horses + and a small flock of sheep and goats, and to maintain a + family and servants in all that land usually produces, + leaving a surplus for sale sufficient to pay taxes, wages, + and to provide the comforts and necessaries of life to a + fair extent,' all which could be bought 'for 1000l. or + 1200l., or even less.' + +As regards the agricultural labourer, or cotter, Mr. Laing conceived +'his average condition to be that of holding land on which he could sow +three-quarters of an imperial quarter of corn and three imperial +quarters of potatoes, and which would enable him to keep two cows, or an +equivalent number of sheep or goats.' His wages are stated to have been +4-1/2d. to 6d. per diem, in addition to his food. It was consequently +'amusing to recollect the benevolent speculations in our Agricultural +Reports, of the Sir Johns and Sir Thomases in our midland counties of +England, for bettering the condition of labourers in husbandry, by +giving them, at a reasonable rent, a quarter of an acre of land to keep +a cow on, or by allowing them to cultivate the slips of land on the +roadside, outside of their hedges.' He also derides 'the agricultural +writers' who 'tell us, indeed, that labourers in agriculture are much +better off as farm servants, than they would be as small proprietors,' +for 'if property is a good and desirable thing, the very smallest +quantity of it is good and desirable.' It was obvious to Mr. Laing that +the forty families of two or three Norwegian highland glens, 'each +possessing and living on its own little spot of ground and farming well +or ill, as the case might be, were in a better and happier state, and +formed a more rationally constituted society, than if the whole belonged +to one of these families (and it would be no great estate), while the +other thirty-nine families were tenants and farmers.' + +Mr. Laing found the happy agricultural population of Norway 'much +better lodged than our labouring and middling classes, even in the south +of Scotland;' and that no nation was at that period either better +housed, or so well provided with fuel. The standard of living appeared +to be higher in Norway than in most of our Scotch highland districts, +although the materials were the same, namely, oatmeal, barley meal, +potatoes, fish--fresh and salted--cheese, butter, and milk. He +understood that it was even usual for the yeoman farmers to have animal +food--'salt beef and black-puddings'--at least twice a week. At all +events, he says, four meals a day formed the regular fare, and with two +of those meals even the labourers had a glass of home-made brandy, +distilled from potatoes by the yeoman, who 'could malt and distil in +every way he pleased,' and thereby 'make free use of his agricultural +produce,' with the result of 'increasing the general prosperity, +improving the condition of the people, and promoting the increase of +their numbers.'[7] + +There was, at the time of Mr. Laing's residence in Norway, 'small +difference in the way of living between high and low, because every man +lived from the produce of his farm, and observed the utmost simplicity +and economy with regard to everything that took money out of his +pocket.' Furniture and clothes, except the yeoman's Sunday hat, were all +home-made. 'Here was a whole population, in an old European country, +dealing direct with Nature, as it were, for every article, without the +intervention of money, or even of barter.' It was only the small yeomen +on the verge of the Fjeld, or in the glens, far above the level of the +land producing corn, and the inhabitants of districts less favoured by +nature, 'whose common bread consisted of the bark of trees, mixed and +ground up with ill-ripened oats; but even in their case, trout, dried +and salted for winter, was no inconsiderable part of their provision, +their houses being, at the same time, comfortable, though small, with +wooden floors and glass windows. + +Apart from these exceptionally situated proprietors, Mr. Laing found +there really was 'no difference between the residence of a public +functionary, of a clergyman, or of a gentleman of larger property and +that of a _Bonde_, or peasant. The latter are as well, as commodiously +and even showily, lodged as the former can be, and the properties are as +good.' Mr. Laing, however, makes a reservation under this head in +respect of the 'cultivated classes,' as being indisputably superior in +mental acquirements to the yeoman farmer, and who lived in the same +manner as the corresponding classes in England. + +Towards the end of his stay in Norway, Mr. Laing often heard 'from the +most intelligent men in the country' that the yeoman farmer lived too +high; indulged too much in expensive luxuries, as coffee and sugar; in +frequent and expensive entertainments at each other's houses; in +carrioles, sledges, and harness of a costly kind; and even in a horse or +two more than the farm work required; and he certainly thought this had +resulted in a general want of money among them to pay even the most +trifling taxes and other sums. A man with land worth three or four +thousand dollars, and with horses, cows, and all sorts of products in +abundance, was often at a loss for five or ten dollars. Nevertheless, he +was of opinion that 'the increase of the tastes and habits which belong +to property tended to keep population within the bounds of what can be +comfortably subsisted, and without which the increase of subsistence +would tend to evil rather than good.' It was, indeed, 'a good thing that +they all had the ideas, habits, and character of people possessed of +independent property upon which they were living without any care about +increasing it, and free from the anxiety and fever of money making or +money losing.' + +Their subsistence, Mr. Laing exultingly and repeatedly points out, was +derived mainly from husbandry, carried on under less favourable +conditions of soil, climate, crops, and pasturage than in the Scotch +highlands;-- + + 'but on the simple Norwegian system, to live on the produce + of the land being the main object, and the labourer (the + cotter) being paid chiefly in land, a good crop would be an + unmingled blessing; whereas in countries where agriculture + is carried on as a manufacture, a succession of good crops + may glut the markets, ruin the tenant, and even reduce the + money wages of the labourer. In Norway neither good nor bad + crops can affect the proportion of population to the land + that could in ordinary seasons subsist on it. Paying no + rent, the Norwegian yeoman farmer is not usually employed in + prospective improvements, but simply in raising food, so + that he can see at once whether the land is sufficient to + produce subsistence for himself and his labourers. If grain + and potatoes for the use of the farm, and a little surplus + for sale to pay the land-tax and buy luxuries with, can be + raised by the farm, all the purposes of farming in Norway + are answered. + +On the subject of pauperism, Mr. Laing alleges that 'the dread of +poverty was less influential in Norway, where extreme destitution is as +rare as great wealth, and where there is so much less difference in the +comforts and consideration of the richer and poorer classes.' The +indigent were farmed out for a week or so at a time among the yeomen +farmers, 'whose poor-rate like the tithes of the Church, was too +inconsiderable to mention.' The state of property, and its general +diffusion throughout the social body, had also, he had no doubt, a +beneficial effect on the moral condition of the people. 'The desire for +wealth being considerably blunted, it was not the same actuating, +engrossing principle of human action, the spring of much that was evil +and immoral being thus removed.' Only one case of downright +drunkenness--that of a Laplander--had come under his personal +observation, and it was only on special occasions that the yeoman farmer +could be seen a little elated. His theory, however (we may remark in +passing), respecting the influence of property on the moral condition of +the people is not supported by other facts which he quotes, namely, that +owing to the restraints upon marriage, 'exercised as in Paris or London, +by a high standard of living,' the 'proportion of illegitimate to +legitimate children in Norway was 1 in 5,' while in a parish he +specifies, it was (between 1826 and 1830) 'as high as 1 in 3-26/136.' He +mentions that engagements between couples lasted generally one, two, and +often several years, especially in the case of servants in husbandry +waiting for a house and land to settle in as cotters. In such cases, he +says, 'it too often happened that the privileged kindness between +betrothed parties was carried too far,' and 'the betrothed became a +mother before she was a wife.' + +We quit this painful phase of peasant proprietorship with the +observation that, notwithstanding a still wider diffusion of property +and of moral qualities which, according to Mr. Laing, that diffusion is +calculated to engender, 8.38[8] per cent. of the live children born in +Norway between 1866 and 1870 were born out of wedlock, the corresponding +proportion in 1836 having been 7.07 per cent. It is natural to find, +under these circumstances, that the marriage rate was 6.84 per 1000 of +the population in 1866-75 against 7.31 per 1000 between 1834 and 1836, +with a fractional decrease of the total number of births in the former +period, the average per family remaining slightly over four. + +The ancient Allodial Right and the happy social system based upon it, +Mr. Laing found jealously guarded by the yeomanry, 'who have not only +the legislative power and the election of the Storthing' (or Parliament) +'almost entirely in their own hands, but also the whole civil business +of the community.' He may, therefore, well say, without fear of +contradiction, that 'the Norwegian people enjoy a greater share of +liberty, have the framing and administering of their own laws more +entirely in their own hands, than any European nation of the present +time;' and, further, that 'it is not a little extraordinary that almost +the only result' of the universal delirium of 1790,[9] 'which approaches +in reality to the theories of that period, has been the Norwegian +Constitution.' + +The paramount influence of the agrarian class over the destinies of the +kingdom may be judged by the circumstances that the rural districts are +permanently represented in the Storthing by two-thirds of the total +number of members, limited by the Constitution to 114; and that +practically the suffrage is now universal, the principal conditions of +its possession being, under recent legislation, a qualification of age +(25 years) and a residence of five years in the country. It is well +known that the Parliament thus elected (under a system of double +election), with its _de facto_ single Chamber, subdivided for the more +rapid and effective discharge of certain business into what Mr. Laing +chooses to call an 'Upper House' and a 'House of Commons,' has, within +very recent days, in virtue of the largely predominant rural, radical +vote, exercised its power of impeaching and punishing, by fine and +dismissal from office, an entire Cabinet, for the crime of having +advised the King that his veto was not merely suspensive, but absolute, +in the matter of any Bill affecting the principles of the Constitution, +and that the questions in dispute between the Sovereign and the +Storthing were of a constitutional character, involving indirectly not +only the stability of a monarchical form of government, but also that of +the personal union between the crowns of Norway and Sweden--a stability +pre-eminently essential in both respects to the highest interests of +Scandinavia, and in no small degree also to the maritime and political +interests of this country. It is this form of Parliament that Mr. Laing +extols 'as a working model of a constitutional government on a small +scale, and one which works so well as highly to deserve the +consideration of the people of Great Britain.' + +We have at last done with Mr. Laing's remarkable statements, views, and +recommendations; and the principal question we now have to consider is: +What is the latest phase (after an interval of half a century) of the +development of the peculiar social organization of Norway, and +especially of its system of land tenure, differing, as both do, from the +organization and system evolved out of feudality in Great Britain and +Ireland? We therefore intend to enquire: (1) Has the system of land +tenure in Norway prevented, as foretold by Mr. Laing, an excessive +subdivision of land? (2) Has a dead level of ease and contentment been +maintained? (3) Has the diffusion of land by a natural process, under +the widest form of home rule, kept the rural population of Norway within +the bounds of possible modern existence? (4) Has no pauperism affected +the taxation of landed property? and (5) generally, Is the Norwegian +yeoman farmer in a more thriving condition at the present time than the +tenants and agricultural labourers elsewhere, from whom is still +withheld the freehold possession of land to which, it is alleged by a +certain school of politicians, they have a natural right, disputed only +by monopolists and land-grabbers? + +These are the questions we shall endeavour to answer with the aid, +exclusively, of the latest publications of the Norwegian Government. We +must, however, preface our replies by sketching roughly the influences +that have sprung into operation since Mr. Laing published the Journal of +his residence in Norway. + +In his time the towns contained only about eleven per cent. of the total +population of the kingdom, whereas at the present moment the proportion +is double that of 1835.[10] This urban agglomeration, Dr. Broch shows, +has been 'due principally to causes which have operated in the rest of +Europe. Facilitated means of communication promoted the migration of the +agricultural population towards the towns, where the development of +industry and commerce offered the lure of gains or salaries higher than +those in rural districts.' One of the causes, he justly adds, of the +displacement of the population has been the immense and laudable +progress of public instruction, 'and the growing taste for intellectual +and material enjoyments which gave a great force of attraction to the +towns.' + +As in other advancing countries, the attraction of towns, and the +facilities for obtaining employment in them, operate also in Norway, to +the disadvantage of the yeomen farmers of the present day. Among the +causes of the economic decline of the Province of North Bergen, the +Prefect mentions that + + 'the disinclination of young men of the yeoman farmer class + to take permanent service is very general in this district, + and is easily explained by the ease with which men in the + prime of their strength obtain occupation as labourers in + the fisheries. The great bulk of the day labourers do not + seek with any great eagerness for work in the fields, so + long as they hold previously acquired means sufficient to + provide them with the necessaries of life, however scantily. + As a rule, so long as want does not look in at the window, + they will not engage themselves for such work, except at + very good wages. The wages for a yearly labourer have + doubled during the last twenty years.[11] At the same time + the houseman has lost the command he previously had over his + workmen, and consequently does not get the same amount of + work out of them as formerly. Fishing attracts labour by a + larger immediate return, acquired with less bodily exertion + than in husbandry. It gives the population less taste for + harder work.' + +We leave Mr. Laing in doubt whether the steam-engine could 'ever be +brought to perfection.' That doubt was speedily removed, and in 1852 +Norway followed in the wake of other European nations by building +railways, their total length in 1883 having reached very little short of +a thousand English miles. Nor did their construction, with capital +raised chiefly abroad and punctually repaid, arrest the improvement or +the laying down of ordinary roads, to the extent of 4000 miles, between +1845 and 1875. In addition to this extensive opening-out of +communication by rail and road, the introduction of steamers on inland +waters and their employment as coasters and sea-going vessels, the +construction of telegraphs, and development of fisheries, of ship +building, of banking and other companies, and generally of trade and +industry, produced gradually a wide disturbance in the social economy +found by Mr. Laing. The expansion and prosperity of the towns, as well +as the more refined habits of life adopted by the clergy and the +officials of Government, were viewed by the yeomen farmers with a +jealousy that was undoubtedly the original cause of their present +radical proclivities, the old conservatism being relegated to towns, +contrary to the experience of other European countries, and particularly +to that of Great Britain, until the metaphorical three acres and a cow +were dangled before the eyes of its rural population. + +Under all these influences, and we may include among them the effect of +a constantly-increasing number of travellers, equipped with the modern +appliances of civilization, and demanding accommodation and other +material comforts of a more and more superior character, the Robinson +Crusoe existence of the yeoman farmer, as depicted by Mr. Laing, has +suffered so much invasion that it has well-nigh disappeared. + +In the matter of clothing, an assimilation to general, central European +dress has for years past been noticeable even in districts the most +remote, to the prejudice of home-spinning and weaving. Ancient silver +ornaments have been largely discarded by the women, and converted, first +into money, and eventually into articles of modern use or embellishment, +to an extent that now renders travellers more and more suspicious of the +Brummagem origin of the objects that remain for sale. And it is the same +with old furniture and with the multifarious knicknacks which travellers +less recent delighted to find in the country at reasonable prices. + +The value of money has become more generally appreciated since Mr. Laing +admired the absence of all incentive to 'money-making and money-losing,' +and the previously unambitious character of the yeoman and his sons has +undergone a tolerably complete change since education has opened out the +widest avenues to personal advancement, even from the plough. They no +longer live by bread alone, and therefore their artificial wants have +been increasing at a greater ratio than their means of satisfying them +out of the produce of the land. Without entering here upon the important +effect of the corn supplies from America, and of the depreciation of the +value of the Norwegian timber, owing to the increased competition of +America and other countries, we may sum up this imperfect prefatory +sketch by stating that, from a general point of view, the Gamle Norge +(Old Norway) of Mr. Laing's days has for many years been passing through +a process of transformation, the latest results of which we shall now +describe.[12] + +Mr. Laing's contention, that when land is held in freehold, not as a +rule in tenancy, the relative size or value of the estates into which +the land is divided will remain the same at one period as at another, is +entirely refuted by the official statistics of Norway. In the first +place, the total number of properties, which was about 111,000 in 1838, +had grown, in 1870, to 149,000 (34-1/2 per cent.), and is still higher +at the present day, with a continued tendency to multiplication by +partition. Secondly, the proportion that existed in 1838 between the +various sizes of agricultural holdings has undergone a notable change, +marking a very considerable increase in the relative number of small +plots. + +As it was found practically impossible to estimate the value of landed +property on the basis of its acreage (the physical conditions of the +country giving such great variety to the value of estates), the +'Cadastre' introduced in 1836, established, for purposes of assessment, +a classification based on 'skylddaler,' or taxable, value. This unit of +taxation was assumed to represent a mean capital value of about 89l., +arrived at by estimating the net income derived at that period from the +working of land during an average year. + +The following statement exhibits the cadastral classification of +properties,[13] and the changes that have occurred in the several groups +between 1838 and 1870. + + 1838. 1870. +Estates below 0.2 skylddaler in value 8,866 26,048 + " between 0.2 and 1 " 31,265 52,067 + " " 1 " 2 " 28,652 33,427 + " " 2 " 5 " 32,854 29,498 + " " 5 " 10 " 7,043 6,012 + " " 10 " 20 " 1,791 1,617 + " above 20 " 315 344 + Total 110,786 149,013 + +It is thus evident that, even fifteen years ago, the increase in the +total number of properties, as compared with the number in 1838, had +affected only the three groups of smaller holdings, and particularly the +group (below 0.2) which, according to Dr. Broch, 'includes the sites of +houses and cottages owned by labourers, fishermen, seamen, and artizans, +but estimated to yield an average of 5-1/2 bushels of corn, 8 bushels of +potatoes, and grass for half a cow. The holdings more purely +agricultural, and designated by the same authority as 'small +properties,' are those comprised in the two next categories, namely, +parcels of land over 0.2 and under 2 skylddaler in value. In 1870, we +find that a little more than one-half of the landed properties in Norway +and one-third of the total cadastral area, were included in those two +groups. The average yield of those small properties is estimated by Dr. +Broch at '55 bushels (20 hectol) of cereals, and 82-1/2 bushels (30 +hectol) of potatoes, with fodder for four cows, seven sheep or goats, +and half a horse.' He states, nevertheless, that-- + + 'without subsidiary means of existence, the most frugal + families cannot subsist on them, even when free from debt + and other incumbrances. There can be no question of + employing hired labour on such farms, although a domestic + servant is sometimes kept. The owners or tenants of such + small properties seek their principal means of existence in + fishing, forest work, and a variety of other occupations.' + +The group of properties more particularly admired by Mr. Laing is that +which is officially classed under 'Properties of medium size,' ranging +between two and ten skylddaler in cadastral value. They represented in +1870 only 24 per cent. of the total number of properties, but 59 per +cent. of the cadastral area of Norway. These are the farms which can, on +an average, feed fifteen head of cattle, thirty or forty sheep or goats, +and a couple of pigs, and yield 30 imperial quarters of cereals, 40 +imperial quarters of potatoes, and fodder for a couple of horses. + + 'Agriculture on these properties,' continues Dr. Broch, 'is + not only the most important means of existence, but also in + many cases the only resource. _They suffice for a family of + simple habits, provided the proprietor is not crippled with + debt, that he has not to pay too heavy "foederaa"_ + (annuities, incumbrances) _and on condition that he lives as + a peasant, assisting personally in the work of the + firm_,[14] + +Estates of an assessed value of more than ten 'skylddaler' are +designated as 'Large Properties.' They cover 13.4 per cent. of the total +cadastral area, but represent only 1.3 per cent. of the total number of +properties; and it is exclusively these that afford, according to Dr. +Broch, 'easy circumstances to their possessors, who are not infrequently +ship-owners, forest-owners, engaged in the fishery-trade,' &c. + +It is thus manifest that, in 1878, when Dr. Broch drew up his Report for +the Universal Exhibition at Paris, the diffusion of property in Norway +had left only about 25 per cent. of the yeomen farmers (excluding the +group of 'Large Properties') capable of maintaining themselves and their +families on their freeholds on conditions which, as we shall presently +show, no longer exist, and that the great bulk of the landed proprietors +were in occupation of such small patches of land that their subsistence +was entirely dependent upon other employments. This view is very fully +borne out by the 'Reports of the Norwegian Prefects for the Quinquennial +Period 1876-80.' Their observations on the growing subdivision of land +as one of the causes by which the agricultural economy has been +disturbed, to its great disadvantage, are well worth attention. + +An increasing subdivision of land is reported from the provinces of +North Bergen, Romsdal, South Trondhjem, and Tromsoe. The Prefect of North +Bergen points to it as one of the reasons of the unfavorable condition +of the province:-- + + 'It may,' he writes, 'with just cause be said to exist when + the properties parcelled out are insufficient for the + maintenance of a family, and when the farms are situated in + a locality which does not afford the opportunity of some + kind of subsidiary employment, or if the proprietor of such + a small holding cannot attach himself to another man as a + labourer for hire. When utilised, however, by the + inhabitants of the coast, such subdivision cannot be + regarded as excessive, for the owners of the small patches + are able to obtain for themselves and their families the + necessaries of life by fishing. When, however, a landowner, + on account of the insignificant extent or the small + productiveness of his farm, finds himself unable to subsist + without seeking the wages of a labourer, his position is not + better, or but little better, than that of the cotter + (Husmand) alongside of him, notwithstanding that the latter + is not owner of the land he cultivates. It is a matter of + course that such farmers will be destitute of economical + power, and unable to give the communal or the provincial + exchequer any visible contribution towards the funds that + have to be raised in order to meet the public expenditure. + The existence of such small proprietors is not, on the + whole, desirable.' + +In the province of South Trondhjem the great increase of the +indebtedness of the landowners is ascribed in part to the subdivision of +property by the creation of _Myrmoend_, literally 'bogmen' +(bog-trotters?), or men supplied gratuitously, in recent times, with +small plots of waste land, for the purpose of qualifying them as voters. +Subdivision has likewise resulted from the partition of holdings in +common, which, according to Dr. Broch, formed, in 1870, 13.4 per cent. +of all the properties in Norway; principally in the Western Provinces, +from the Naze to the Fiord of Trondhjem, where they constituted at that +period, on the average as much as 30 per cent. of the landed property. +Under a law passed in 1857, those lands are now divisible or +exchangeable, and it appears from the report of the Prefects that the +demands in that direction cannot be satisfied by the Government +officials with sufficient promptness. In the province of South +Trondhjem, for instance, about 40 per cent. of the properties were still +held in common in 1875, but between 1876 and 1880 the partition of such +lands was advancing 'at the rate of about twenty farms per annum.' + +The Prefect of Romsdal enumerates the causes of an increasing +subdivision of landed property as follows: 1. The clearing of land for +fields and meadows with the view of affording support to more families +than one. 2. The desire of a proprietor to let more of his children than +the nearest _Odelsberretige_[15] come into the possession of his estate. +3. In the case of an indebted proprietor, the necessity of parting with +a portion of his land in order to get clear of his creditors; and 4. The +desire on the part of persons who have no real property to come into the +possession of land, especially tenants and cotters. The yeomen farmers +themselves, he reports: + + 'bring forward as a substantial reason for the increasing + subdivision of land the fact that, owing to the growing + difficulty of obtaining labourers, _it does not pay to + remain in possession of a larger estate than can be worked + by the family itself_.' + +Consequently, the number of holdings was increased in that province by +nearly 10 per cent. between 1876 and 1880. A corroboration of this view +is to be found in other Reports, particularly in the Report from the +Province of North Trondhjem, in which the yeomen farmers are declared to +be compelled to 'cultivate the land with the resources of their own +households.' The effect of the conversion of cotters into small +proprietors may be estimated from the following opinion of another +Prefect: 'The burden of bad times is often felt more heavily by the +proprietor than by the cotter;' and all the Reports show that 'the +times' are as bad in Norway as they are in the United Kingdom, with this +aggravation, that 70 to 80 per cent. of the population of Norway is +settled on the land, and steeped in debt. + +Most of the Prefects report unfavourably on the condition and prospects +of agriculture, and on the depressing influence of American competition +in corn, which began to make itself distinctly felt about the year +1875,[16] when also the forest industry, so intimately connected with +agriculture, first encountered the effects of a greatly increased +shipment of timber from America and other countries to Europe. But these +are not the only reasons, over and above the subdivision of property +already dwelt upon, to which they ascribe a very general decline in the +economic condition of the yeomen farmer. In one province, 'habits of +thrift and providence had been awakened and replaced by new habits of +life, with greater demands for comforts and enjoyments.' High prices +previously realized for timber had caused luxury to enter into all the +circumstances of life, stimulating in many quarters a reckless waste of +money earned.' In another, 'the demand for comforts of life has risen, +and it is not all that have found it easy to limit the satisfaction of +their wants,' and 'more has been consumed than means allowed.' The +female part, more particularly, of the population of North Bergen, is +reproached with an inability to withstand the temptation of buying the +wares of all kinds, 'neither useful nor necessary,' which the present +great number of country storekeepers insidiously placed before their +eyes. 'The improved mode of living introduced during a previous, +flourishing period, has also contributed to ruin the economic condition +of the people, who in the harder times that have succeeded have not +known how to cut their coats according to their cloth.' At the same +time, the Prefect adds, 'the mode of living, taking the rural population +as a whole, is very frugal; yes, far too frugal. It is very desirable +that they should have more substantial food than they have at present, +but they must first have the means to obtain it.' Even so far north as +the Provinces of Nordland and Tromsoe, a similar tendency to live beyond +means, the absence of good economy, and the dissipation of money 'on no +particular system,' are reported to be the present characteristics of +the people who are largely engaged in the fisheries. + +No one who has travelled in Norway can fail to endorse the assertion, +that the fare of the yeomen farmer, however many may be his cows, is of +a character which no English agricultural labourer would be satisfied +with. Oatmeal cakes, potatoes, porridge, butter and milk, and of late +years American pork (when within reach of the yeoman's means) are the +principal articles of food; and the hardiest traveller, whether native +or alien, would not venture to leave the main arteries of communication +without making his own provision of potted meats, or trusting for his +sustenance to the fish and game to be killed by himself. Mr. Laing's +'salted meat and black-puddings' are certainly not to be found, except +at farms that are few and far between. On the high roads, where +tourists' gold circulates, the traveller suffers no deprivation, and the +houses and stations are so comfortable and well-appointed, that only the +most exacting foreigner can find fault with the accommodation provided. +Mr. Laing's observations in this respect apply at present only to +establishments of this kind, and to the very few farms at which the +servants are still 'called to and from their work by means of a bell.' + +Except, therefore, along the course of the tourists' gold stream, and in +the vicinity of towns, the mode of living is rude in the extreme, and +the lament of the Prefect of North Bergen is in reality applicable to +the great bulk of the yeomen farmers of Norway, as well as to their +tenants and cotters. Nor is there any trace of that equality in the mode +of living which Mr. Laing found in existence among the several classes +of the rural population--'the public functionary, the clergyman, the +gentleman of larger property, and the _Bonde_ or peasant.' Refinement +and culture, equal to what exists amongst corresponding classes of this +country, are wanting only to the yeomen farmers; and their efforts to +adopt a 'higher standard of living,' and to acquire the 'comforts of +life,' have in no small degree conduced to the encumbrance of their +estates. From the Reports of the Prefects it is evident that the gravest +symptom of the decline of the rural economy in Norway, and, at the same +time, one of its principle causes, is the heavy indebtedness of the +yeomen farmers, great and small. Its origin is traceable to the year +1816, when the Bank of Norway was founded, chiefly for the purpose of +'advancing on its own notes, upon first securities over land, any sum +not exceeding two-thirds of the value of the property' mortgaged to it. +Mr. Laing alludes to it as 'the peculiar, and for the wants of the +country, well-imagined, Bank of Norway,' which 'facilitates greatly the +family arrangements with regard to land.' Its capital was originally +raised by a forced loan or tax upon all landed property, and the +landholders became shareholders according to the amount of their +respective shares. The borrower repaid half-yearly to the Bank the +interest of the sum that might be to his debit at the rate of 4 per +cent. per annum, and was also bound to pay off 5 per cent. yearly of the +principal, which was thus liquidated in twenty years. Although Mr. Laing +was of opinion that 'a circulation of paper money on such a basis is +evidently next, in point of security, to that of the precious metals,' +he fails to mention that the Bank was forced to suspend specie payments +three years after its establishment, and that the resumption of those +payments was not commenced until 1823, when the notes of the Bank began +to be convertible at little over half their original value; the +operation of raising them to par, on a graduated scale, having been +completed only in 1842, a period since which the Bank, with an increased +Reserve Fund, has maintained an uninterrupted and unimpeachable +stability. But while the Bank still advances money on the security of +landed property, two-thirds of its resources are now employed in the +discount of mercantile bills. At the end of 1883, its loans to the +landed proprietors amounted only to 626,000l. + +In 1852, however, the State had come again to the assistance of the +landowners for the extinction of private mortgages and the consolidation +of old debts by the creation of a special 'State Mortgage Bank,' with an +original capital of 291,000l., increased by successive issues of bonds +representing advances on the security of real property, bearing interest +at the rate of 4 per cent, (at present 4-1/2 per cent.), and repayable +by drawings over a period of thirty years. The amount of the bonds +issued up to 1884 was about 3,812,000l., and in 1878 about +three-quarters of the bonds were held in the country itself, their +market value being still almost at par. + +It is principally into this Bank that the yeomen farmers have been +dipping their estates at a rapidly increasing rate. Thus, while the +loans on the security of real property in rural districts averaged +57,500l. per annum between 1853 and 1855, and 220,600l. between 1876 and +1880, the advances made in 1883 amounted to 396,500l. At the end of that +year the balance of outstanding loans had reached the sum of +3,752,000l., of which about 77 per cent., or 2,889,000l., represented +advances in rural districts, the remaining 23 per cent, having been +borrowed in towns. The interest payable on those loans is respectively +4-1/4 and 4-3/4 per cent., according to whether the borrowers have been +supplied with bonds bearing interest at the rate of 4 or 4-1/2 per cent. +per annum; and 3 per cent. of the capital is repayable per annum until +the extinction of the debt over a period of thirty years. + +There is a third public source available to the landed proprietors for +loans on mortgages and on bonds or bills, namely the Savings Banks. In +1884, the savings-banks, in rural districts alone, held in 'mortgage +bonds' and in 'bonds and bills' a sum of about 3,553,000l.; but in what +proportion that debt was incurred by local traders and by farmers, it is +impossible to say. It is, however, clear that the yeomen farmers have +benefited largely by the deposits made in those banks by the +comparatively few who have been able to accumulate, instead of +borrowing, money. Thus, the Prefect of Hedemarken reports that, 'while +large amounts, realized by the sale of timber, were deposited in the +savings-banks, extensive loans were made by those establishments to +persons in less favourable circumstances,' and that 'the savings-banks, +to be found in so many parishes, have, by the easy access they afford to +loans, beguiled many into a needless borrowing of money, subsequently +squandered.' + +Over and above these facilities for borrowing money from public +institutions, the yeomen farmers are undoubtedly heavily in debt to +local storekeepers, and to merchants and traders in the towns. In fact +the great bulk of the landed proprietors have been borrowing in every +direction as much as they could raise by mortgage or by bill. Owing to +the excellent system of registration that exists in Norway, there is no +difficulty in ascertaining the extent to which the charges on real +property in rural districts have increased between the years 1876 and +1880. It appears from the Reports of the Prefects that, between those +dates, the balance of mortgages newly effected over those extinguished +in rural districts amounted to a sum of about four millions sterling. +The State Mortgage Bank is bound not to advance more than six-tenths of +the value of land and buildings (forests excepted), and it is supposed +that the loans have so far not exceeded four-tenths of the value of +mortgaged property; but as the yeomen farmers generally contrive to +borrow on second mortgages, it may safely be assumed, that their estates +are charged with interest at 4-1/4 to 6 per cent. on a considerable part +of the nominal value of what is not purely forest land, in addition to +an annual repayment of 3 per cent. of the capital borrowed from the +State Mortgage Bank. The forests, on the other hand, have been largely +used up in paying the interest and capital on those loans, either by +cutting them down, or by leasing or pawning them to traders, or to +yeomen who have been able to keep their heads above water and to profit +by the economic distress of the great majority of their +fellow-landowners. The difficulty experienced by that majority in +meeting the payment of interest and capital, especially at a time when +the value of agricultural produce has been considerably diminished by +American competition, and when also the competition of American and +Baltic timber has simultaneously reduced the profits of the forest +industry to a point that hardly repays the felling of trees, is clearly +shown from the statistics of forced sales, of auctions and of distraints +in the rural districts, and from an accompanying increase in the number +of lawsuits before Courts of First Instance. It appears from the +Reports of the Prefects that the sales of real property for debt have +increased in every Province between the two periods 1871-1875 and +1876-1880 to an extent that ranges from 30 per cent. to 600 per cent., +the greatest increase having taken place in the Provinces of +Kristiansamt (600 per cent.), Norland, Nedenaes, Buskerud, Hedemarken and +Akershus, where it ranged between 600 per cent. and 146 per cent. From +another official source we obtain the following statement:-- + +1876-1880. + + Number. Amount. +1. Compulsory sales + of real property + in rural districts. 2513 563,000l. averaging 224l. per sale. +2. Do. of personal + property. 5136 134,000l. ditto 26l. per sale. +3. Distraints for arrears + of taxes, &c. -- 1,089,000l. + +But since real property is of comparatively low value in Norway, and +personal property limited mostly to the veriest necessities of life, it +is not so much the total of the amounts realized by forced sales, or the +sums for which 'executions' and 'distraints' were effected, that give +the measure of the depressed condition of the yeomen farmers, as the +great and steady increase that took place between 1876 and 1880 in the +number of those operations. Thus, while the number of forced sales of +real property in towns, as well as in rural districts, was 424 in 1876, +it had grown to 1378 in 1880. It is therefore not surprising to find in +the Reports of the Prefects from which we have so largely drawn our +figures that 'the means of meeting liabilities and of paying taxes at +the proper time have grown more feeble, and recourse to legal +enforcement of pecuniary claims has consequently become more frequent.' +'The condition of this Province' (Kristiansamt) 'is all the worse from a +pretty widespread misuse of credit during the previous period' +(1871-75). In another province (N. Bergen) we find that the depression +in 1879 and 1880 'compelled those who had claims to enforce them +rigorously. Mortgages, distraints, sales, &c., have therefore increased, +and there has been an exceptionally, large number of suits before the +Courts of Mutual Agreement. 'The value of agricultural produce has +fallen, owing to a great extent to a scarcity of money and to great +competition from a desire to convert as much produce as possible into +money.' In the northern province of Tromsoe 'merchants have suffered from +the impoverishment of their customers' (mostly fishermen as well as +landowners), 'and have caused them to be made bankrupts. Credit has +been misused on a large scale. Its facility induces the population to +live beyond its means. It also encourages traders to set up in business +and get customers with ease, without having capital or means of their +own. The one misuse reacts on the other. All products are sunk +considerably in value, and this fall is even greater in the case of real +estate.' + +The latter statement is not generally applicable to the remaining +provinces, for we find that while the average value of the 'skylddaler,' +or unit of assessment, was 153l.,[17] according to prices paid for land +in 1871-1875, it has risen to about 180l. in 1876-1880, thus confuting +Mr. Laing's theory, that the peculiar succession of property would tend +to keep land at a low value. It would not, however, be right to conclude +from these figures that landed property has, on the whole, increased of +late years in value, despite the general indebtedness of its owners. +Land in the vicinity of towns and railways must naturally become more +and more valuable, and the relatively much higher prices paid for such +land have no doubt had the effect of raising the total average deduced +from sales of every description of landed property. It may also be +assumed that the demand for land is artificially increased by the +facility with which it may be purchased, since at least one-half of the +purchase money generally remains on mortgage, in addition to other +encumbrances. At the same time, the financial institutions, to which so +large a proportion of the real property in Norway is mortgaged, are +interested in maintaining its value, and attain their object by +abstaining from offering at any one period too many defaulting +properties for sale; and it may also be suspected that the statistics of +forced sales represent only cases in which no compromise could be +effected, or in which it was expedient or possible to have recourse to +the ultimate means of recovery without sensibly deteriorating locally +the value of landed property. Cases are, in fact, not infrequent in +which the mortgagees find themselves compelled to retain the property of +the defaulter, and either to place it in the hands of caretakers, with +the hope of future realization on more favourable terms, or to sell it +in small lots as opportunity occurs. In any case, the full and exact +effect of the pawning of all the landed property of the country at a +time when its agriculture has to compete with American cereals, its +timber industry with supplies from America and the Baltic, and its +wooden ships with iron steamers transporting cargoes at an almost +nominal freight, is not yet to be found in statistical records. + +The indisputable fact remains that, notwithstanding the existence of a +system of land tenure which, according to Mr. Laing, was so perfect +between 1834 and 1836 as to render its adoption in this country, and +especially in Ireland, highly desirable, the yeomen farmers of +Norway--framers of their own laws and absolute masters of their own +destinies--are not only at present suffering from the commercial and +agricultural depression that obtains in other countries of Europe, in +which the social state is more or less differently constituted, but also +find themselves, in face of that depression, with exceptionally heavy +burdens on their backs in the form of pecuniary indebtedness at a rate +of interest which mere agriculture, under the most favourable +circumstances, cannot possibly afford to pay. + +This heavy indebtedness has not, as a rule, been incurred for productive +purposes, such as drainage, improved methods of agriculture, the +increase of stock, &c.; and although the use of simple agricultural +machinery is somewhat on the increase in Norway, yet agriculture remains +very much in the same primitive condition in which it was found by Mr. +Laing.[18] The Prefects attribute this backwardness to want of skill on +the part of the proprietors (Romsdal), to the poverty of the soil, to +the dearness of agricultural labour, and generally to the unremunerative +results of husbandry since the depreciation of the value of its +products. In a letter addressed last year to the 'Morgenblad,' the +leading Journal at Christiania, by a native authority on the subject of +agriculture, it is urged that the landed proprietors of Norway have 'for +some years past been going down hill;' the hopes of improving the +condition of agriculture, entertained about thirty years ago, when +efforts were first commenced in that direction, being now entirely +dissipated. + + 'It is painful,' he says 'to see how the forests are + decreasing and how land once under cultivation is lying + unused. When asked the reason, the proprietors reply that + the prices of corn and other agricultural products are so + low and the wages of labour so high, owing to emigration, + that they have not the means to cultivate a large portion of + the land, and could derive no advantage from it even if the + means were available.' + +The yeomen farmers, being therefore in a distressed condition, and +their children and best hands forced to leave their homes in order to +cultivate the fruitful soil of America, to the growing detriment of +those who remain to till the soil of Norway--those farmers, he points +out with great force of argument, must have the same protection which is +accorded to the industrial classes, if agriculture is to be saved from +final ruin. In fact, this remarkable letter points to an agitation in +favour of the imposition of a 'fiscal duty,'[19] on corn, food of all +kind, cattle, dairy produce, &c.; and supports this conclusion with the +argument used by Prince Bismarck on the second reading of his recent +Corn Duties Bill: + + 'The trade of the Baltic will suffer nothing from protective + duties. As regards agriculture, I am opposed to all + legislation against the subdivision of land ... but if you + want to have small occupiers of land, you must vote for + duties on corn.' + +Account must at the same time be taken of the heavy and increasing +charges that fall on landed property for the administration of rural +districts in Norway. While the inhabitants of the rural communities +contribute towards the support of the Central Administration only in the +form of Customs and Excise duties, stamps, succession duties, and +contributions towards the construction of highways, the burthen of local +administration, justice, police, prisons, the Church, public +instruction, poor relief, sanitary service, parochial roads, posting +stations, interest on communal loans, &c., falls on their landed +property. This self-assessed and self-imposed burthen has naturally been +growing more heavy, from year to year, under the exigencies of modern +progress. Thus, while the total communal expenditure in 1853 was +167,000l., it had risen to 497,000l. in 1880, or 197-1/2 per cent. About +one half of the requisite resources is derived from a tax on the +cadastral value of real property; the remaining half is raised by a tax +on capital and income. In 1880 the communal impositions on land +represented a taxation of about 6s. 7d. per head of the rural +population. That the whole of the communal expenditure is not covered by +taxation is apparent from the fact, that in the same year the rural +districts had increased the amount of their total debts to about half a +million sterling, from 312,000l. in 1874. + +In this respect it is certainly significant to discover that Poor +Relief, organized by a law passed in 1863, is the largest item of +communal expenditure, being indeed very little less than half of the +total annual liabilities of the rural districts, in a country in which, +in the halcyon days of Mr. Laing, only the infirm were supported for a +few days at a time by the yeomen farmers. He appears to have attributed +this to the absence of collieries, the introduction of coal as fuel +having, he argues, been coeval in England with the imposition of a rate +for the poor, deprived by that industry of the work of chopping up +firewood which gave so much employment to idle hands in Norway. However +that might be, in 1880 and 1881 the number of persons in receipt of +relief or maintained in hospital, at the charge of rural communities +alone, was respectively 109,688 and about 114,000, or in both years a +little over 7 per cent. of the total rural population. Inclusive of +urban districts the same totals amounted in those years to 81 and 83 per +1000, or above 8 per cent. of the population of the kingdom, the cost of +support having been about 3s. 10d. per head of the entire population, +which contributed 2s. 9d. per head in special taxation for that object, +and the balance in an indirect manner, apparently by housing paupers, +&c. + +These paupers include cotters and labourers, as well as the ruined among +the smaller yeomen. Farmers who had previously been able to employ +labour, 'no longer find their advantage in it,' and consequently-- + + 'even able-bodied workmen (in Hedemarken) were compelled to + seek relief from the Poor Fund when their families were + large. The smaller farmers and the labourers are in the + worst plight, since the falling off in the timber trade has + made them feel the want of the usual steady demand for + labour at high wages.' Further: 'it has become very + difficult for the least affluent and for labourers to gain a + livelihood in the prevailing money and timber crisis.... The + depression must for a long time be felt by many. + +We need only point out that, in the United Kingdom, the percentage of +persons in receipt of relief during the year 1881 was 3 per cent. in +England and Wales, 2.6 per cent. in Scotland, and 11 per cent. in +Ireland,[20] involving an expenditure at the rate respectively of 6s. +3d., 4s. 6d., and 3s. 9d. per head of population. + +Obviously, the relatively greater cost of relieving the poor in Great +Britain is due to the more expensive character of the support afforded, +and to the very heavy sums paid for salaries and other establishment +charges; but it is unquestionably a damaging fact against the system of +land tenure in Norway, that the pauperism by which it is in the present +day accompanied, with a strong tendency to increase, is equalled only by +the state of things in Ireland, which certain legislators now desire to +remedy by the creation of peasant proprietors. + +The relative state of matters in Great Britain and in Norway has +therefore greatly changed since Mr. Laing wrote: + + 'The distribution of the wealth and employment of a country + has much more to do, than the amount, with the well-being + and condition of the people. The wealth and employment of + the British nation far exceed those of any other nation; yet + in no country is so large a proportion of the inhabitants + sunk in pauperism and wretchedness.' + +An increasing rate of pauperism is one of the symptoms of agricultural +distress in Norway, but the strong tide of emigration from rural and +urban districts marks with equal force the depression and congestion +from which the country is suffering in the same degree as the United +Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Aided by improved and cheapened +means of transport, the number of emigrants from Norway ranged between +20,212 in 1880 and 22,167 in 1883, giving an average of 1.3 to 1.5 per +cent. of the total population, the contingent of the rural districts +being about 70 per cent. of the total number. As in the case of +pauperism, the corresponding rate of emigration from Ireland, namely 1.5 +per cent., exhibits a remarkable similarity, and affords another +convincing proof that peasant proprietorship is no _panacea_ for rustic +indigence. + +Those who have not studied the present economic condition of the yeoman +farmer and agricultural labourer in Norway, or who have not taken into +consideration the change that has come over the entire country, and the +ambition, as distinguished from previous apathy, which education and +communication with an outer world, no longer closed to them, has +awakened among the classes with which we are dealing, are inclined to +attribute a good part of this emigrating tendency to the influence and +the material assistance of those who have gone before. Indisputably, the +Norwegian emigrant, by his persevering labour and steady conduct, rarely +fails to succeed in Wisconsin and other States, in which he is always a +welcome settler; and consequently he soon finds himself able to transmit +money for the purpose of enabling his brothers and sisters, and not +seldom his father and mother, to join him. No State or other aid is +afforded for such purposes to Norwegians, although it is occasionally +the case, that the hard cash with which the emigrant leaves his home is +derived from the proceeds of a loan raised by the head of his family for +the purpose of buying out co-heirs under the _Odels ret_, adding +thereby, as we have already shown, to the indebtedness with which the +land is burdened. Others, also, maintain that many young men emigrate +from Norway in order to avoid military conscription, which, although +milder there in its demands than in most other European countries where +that system exists, undoubtedly diminishes the quantity and deteriorates +the quality of agricultural labour. The strongest incentive to +emigration, however, is the desire to escape from the misery and penury +which accompany in Norway, as in every other part of Europe, the +condition of a small landowner, cotter, or labourer who is unable to +find regular employment on adjoining estates that can be kept going, if +nothing more, with the aid of scientific knowledge, machinery and +capital. + +There is, however, yet another proof of the prevalent material _malaise_ +in Norway, particularly among its rural classes, and strangely enough it +bears the same character as that which has brought the 'three acres and +a cow' and Irish land bills, past and expected, into such prominent +relief in our country of lack-lands, namely political agitation. +Whatever may be its merits or demerits on this side of the North Sea, +our readers will scarcely be prepared to learn that a corresponding +ferment has been engendered of late years on the opposite shores. We are +told this by the Prefect of South Trondhjem, one of the most important +provinces of a country where, in the days of Mr. Laing, there was a +dead-level of contentment, where the widest form of home-rule has been +in operation since the early part of the present century, and where the +Crown Administration has all that time been more pure, blameless and +efficient than in any other country on the Continent of Europe. His +significant words are: + + 'As everywhere else in Norway, particularly in rural + districts, politicians (_i. e. agitators_) are here taking + more and more hold over the minds of the people. Political + unrest increases, and immature and extreme opinions are + being advanced more than is desirable. The quiet, temperate, + but progressive development to which Norway had previously + been accustomed, and with which the great bulk of the nation + had been well content, is in danger of being replaced by a + progress in fits and starts, accompanied by leaps in the + dark.' + +No less painful and suggestive is it to find, in the Report from the +Prefect of Hedemarken, that 'the Christian earnestness of the people has +suffered under the influence of the many misleading writings and +tendencies which have in recent times found their way into every stratum +of society.' As at home, so in Norway, the question of Church +Disestablishment, with all its consequences, is approaching within +measurable distance of practical solution.[21] + +Supported by official publications, we have now described the present +condition of the yeomen farmers of Norway, and from the facts and +figures we have marshalled, the following replies may confidently be +given to the Socialistic theories and conclusions of Mr. Laing: + +1. Notwithstanding, or rather in part owing to, the existence of the +Allodial Right [which has proved in its results to be an exaggerated +form of primogeniture involving a greater multiplication of encumbrances +even than exists under the system of land tenure in the United Kingdom], +an excessive subdivision of the land has occurred and is still +proceeding in Norway, to the prejudice of estates which in 1836, and +even later, afforded moderate ease and contentment to their owners, and +relatively well remunerated labour to the workman and the cotter. + +2. The dead-level of comfortable subsistence, attributed by Mr. Laing to +the parcelling-out of land into small estates, has been converted, by +the influence of irresistible economic laws, into one of general +distress and discontent among the rural classes. + +3. The rates of pauperism and emigration prove that the agrarian +population has not, as prophesied by Mr. Laing, kept 'within the bounds +of possible modern existence.' + +4. The taxation of landed property, for local purposes, has greatly +increased, particularly under the head of Poor Relief; and + +5. The distressed condition of the yeoman farmer in Norway is strongly +attested by his heavy and growing indebtedness. He may now, in fact, be +classed with the proverbially derided Fife laird, owning 'A wee bit of +land, a great lump of debt, and a dookit.'[22] + +Such being the result of our enquiries into the economic condition of +the great bulk of the yeoman farmers of Norway, the ideal fabric reared +by Mr. Laing at a time when the Norse old world was still asleep, falls +utterly to the ground, and there remains but one of his statements that +we can with any advantage submit to the earnest attention of our +readers, namely, that '_A single fact brought home from such a country +is worth a volume of speculations._' We go further and say, that facts +in relation to the question of land tenure collected in any other part +of Europe are of equally inestimable value; and they have already been +supplied in great abundance from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and +Switzerland.[23] Nothing can truly be more fatal to the successful +solution of such intricate problems than the relief of the agricultural +distress of England and Scotland, or the satisfaction of the alleged +earth-hunger of the Celtic population of Ireland, than to initiate +legislation on the hypothesis that circumstances alter cases, and that +our own country can with impunity be withdrawn from the operation of +economic laws that have asserted their supremacy throughout the entire +Continent of Europe. + +As history repeats itself, so are the laws of civilized development both +general and inexorable. Even in the extreme case of Russia, it has been +proved, in an article we published a few years ago,[24] that a heavy and +ruinous price has been paid for the emancipation of the serfs on a +Socialistic and partly Communistic basis, and on the erroneous +assumption, that the continued existence of the 'Mir' (the ancient +village community even of India) was an institution indigenous to the +country itself, and therefore worthy of being perpetuated by +legislation. Millions of a rural population, freed from personal +servitude, were chained anew to the land by the indebtedness incurred in +the expropriation of the lords of the soil. The allotments, averaging +ten acres, parcelled out among them in 1861, were estimated to be +sufficiently large and productive to provide not only for their support, +but also, firstly, for the payment of the 'redemption dues' with which +the allotted lands were charged for a limited period of years at an +average rate of only 1s. 9d. per acre, and secondly, for the punctual +payment of the moderate poll-tax, which the exigencies of the State +required them to contribute. Those expectations began to vanish soon +after they had been formed, and at the present time we see the +previously rich agricultural plains of Russia, abandoned, as they almost +wholly are, to the slovenly husbandry of a rude and greatly demoralized +peasantry, deteriorating from year to year in the quality of their +produce, and thereby opposing less and less impediment to the successful +competition of other corn-growing countries.[25] The great fall that has +taken place in the value of Russian cereals is apparent from the fact +that, notwithstanding the depreciation of the paper currency of the +country to the extent of about 25 per cent. since the serfs were +emancipated (and nearly 37 per cent. from the par value of the standard +rouble), the corn-grower in Russia actually receives for his produce, in +paper money, some 40 per cent, less than he obtained for it when the +currency was less debased. + +Despair, and the absence of that restraint which education, and the +moral elevation inseparable from it, are establishing in other European +countries, have driven the rural inhabitants of entire districts, and +even provinces, into habits of drunkenness stronger and more general +than those which existed before the autocratic creation of 'peasant +proprietors' in Russia. + +Among the earliest measures adopted in Russia during the present reign +was that of a reduction and partial remission of the 'redemption dues,' +which, on the 1st of January, 1885, represented the interest and sinking +fund on nearly 113 millions sterling,[26] expended by the Government in +the partial expropriation of the now ruined landlords of the +country.[27] + +During the year 1884, alone, those reductions and remissions inflicted a +loss of 1,135,000l.[28] on the Imperial Treasury. The most recent +measure of alleviation has been the total abolition of the poll-tax[29] +(to be completed by the end of the present year); and, consequently, the +State-contribution of at least 85 per cent. of the population of Russia +is being limited to the excise duty on drink, an item of revenue with +which the Imperial Government cannot possibly dispense, since it brings +in a sum more than adequate for the maintenance of the imposing military +forces of the Empire. + +Simultaneously, 'Peasant Land Banks' have been established by the State +in order to facilitate the purchase of still more land by the ex-serfs. +The Minister of Finance was authorized in 1882 to issue annually for +that purpose a sum of 500,000l. in bonds, bearing 5-1/2 per cent. +interest. But, by the 1st of January, 1886, these banks had already +advanced over three millions sterling to 785 Communes, 1576 +'partnerships,' and 359 individual peasants, representing an aggregate +number of 112,765 householders. On loans for 24-1/2 years the interest +and sinking fund, payable by the borrowers, amount to 8-1/2 per cent., +and on those for 34-1/2 years, to 7-1/2 per cent., the lands purchased +by such means remaining inalienable until the extinction of the +mortgages, except with the consent of the mortgagees, _i. e._ the banks. +The effects of this new departure in the direction of providing small +landed proprietors with State funds, will no doubt soon be apparent. + +Whether, therefore, we examine the experience of a civilized, orderly, +home-ruled country like Norway, with a steady, laborious, and, we may +almost say, abstemious, population in many respects akin to our own, or +that of a State still at an immensely distant stage of social +development,--and under a very different form of Government,--the +salient results of bolstering up, by means of State loans, or of +artificially creating, equally at the cost of the State, a numerous body +of small landed proprietors, have been strikingly identical in regard to +the ultimate economic condition of the agrarian classes. + +Insisting, as we do, on the strength of the facts we have adduced, that, +in old Europe, the operation of economic laws affecting land tenure, +admits of no exceptions or extenuating circumstances in favour of their +violation, it appears impossible, without presumptuous sophistry or +political dishonesty, to resist the conclusion, that the infringement of +those laws in any part of the United Kingdom could only terminate, +infallibly and speedily, in damage to the State, after ruin to the +individual. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] The physical results of intermarriage with the object of +concentrating property, are very apparent in many of the older _Bonde_ +families in Norway. + +[6] It would not be right to allow this observation to pass without +mentioning, even at the cost of destroying so fascinating a picture of +pastoral felicity, that the hard-working dairy-maids of Norway are never +accompanied by their sweethearts to the soeters, where, except from +Saturday night until Monday morning, when the young men find time to +visit them, they lead the most solitary lives, and are busy all day in +milking cows and goats and making butter and cheese. + +[7] In 1833 the total production of spirits in the rural districts +amounted to about 3-1/2 gallons per head of the population. The +demoralization that resulted from its increase necessitated the +enactment of restrictive measures, and at last, in 1848, the small +stills were purchased by the State, and private distillation was +prohibited. As in Great Britain, the vice of drunkeness is now +decreasing in Norway, owing partly to the reduced means of the +population, but chiefly to the influence of education and of temperance +societies. + +[8] The average proportion of 1851-52 was 9.32 per cent. There is a +difference of only 1 per cent, between the rates of illegitimacy in +rural and urban districts, to the disadvantage of the latter. + +[9] 'The French Constitution of 1791 is one of the principal sources of +the Fundamental Law of Norway. The suspensive veto has been derived from +it.'--O. I. Broch. + +[10] At the end of 1882, the total population was estimated at +1,922,500, or a decrease 3900 as compared with 1881, when the increase +was only 1000 from the year preceding. + +[11] In 1880, the average rate of wages for labourers engaged by the +year in agricultural districts was 8l. 10s. per annum, and that of daily +labour, without food, 1s. 9d. per diem; the corresponding rates in towns +having been 11l. 6s. 8d. and 2s. + +[12] Our readers must, however, bear in mind that we are dealing only +with the rural economy of Norway, and that the facts we shall submit on +that subject affect but slightly the general financial condition of a +country which continues to derive its earnings mainly from the supply of +timber, fish, wood-pulp, ice, &c., to foreign countries, and from its +extensive carrying trade in sailing vessels and steamers. The prosperity +of the towns is influenced chiefly by the state of trade in the rest of +Europe, while being (to the extent of 122 out of 128) situated on the +seaboard, their successful development reacts but little on the +prosperity of the inland agricultural districts. + +[13] In the 'Tables of Landed Property,' published in 1880, the holdings +(in 1865) are classified as follows:-- + +Properties under 5 acres 34,224 or 15.5 per cent. + " between 5 and 12-1/2 acres 42,984 " 32.1 " + " " 12-1/2 and 50 " 48,575 " 36.2 " + " above 50 acres 8,208 " 6.2 " + +[14] The italics our own. The author states that it is the custom among +the peasants of Norway that when the eldest son or the daughter of the +house (when there is no son), marries, the parents surrender the +property, but retain a right of subsistence upon it. This, he shows, +explains the existence of the large number of detached dwellings on the +same estate, for very often cottages have to be built for the +accommodation of persons who have a right to subsistence, which is not, +however, limited to a dwelling-house, but frequently includes the +usufruct of a small plot of land and, almost always fodder for a certain +number of cows and goats. See also p. 386. + +[15] The eldest of kin having allodial right. + +[16] Between 1871 and 1875 Norway imported about 46 per cent. of the +cereals required for home consumption, in addition to pork, butter, and +other articles of food. + +[17] From statistics recently published, it appears that between 1881 +and 1883 the price of land, estimated on actual sales, has shown a +tendency to rise in the Provinces which have a coast line, populated by +fisherman, &c., and to fall in most of the inland, more purely +agricultural districts. + +[18] Dr. Broch shows that in 1875, which was an average year for crops, +the production of cereals and potatoes (reduced to the value of barley) +was 3125 hectol. per 1000 inhabitants in Norway; whereas the average +crops in France yielded 7400 hectol. per 1000 of the population. + +[19] In 1884 a motion to that effect was made in the Swedish Rigsdag by +a peasant proprietor. At present the duty on cereals imported into +Norway is merely nominal, averaging about 2-1/2 per cent. _ad valorem_. + +[20] From special causes, the number of persons relieved in 1881 and +1882 was exceptionally high in Ireland. In 1879 it was 7-1/2 per cent., +and in 1883 about 8 per cent. of the population. + +[21] Hereditary nobility is already abolished. Under a law passed in +1821, all titles of nobility become extinct in the persons of those who +were born before 1822. + +[22] _I. e._ dovecot. + +[23] Lady Verney's 'Cottier-owners, Little Takes and Peasant +Proprietors,' published last year, is replete with facts drawn from +actual life, showing that small peasant-proprietorship is proving +ruinous on the Continent, even where the system has grown up naturally. + +[24] In No. 302, April 1881. + +[25] It is certainly remarkable to find that Australian tallow, Indian +linseed, and German barley are being imported at St. Petersburg, whence +those articles were, in the days of large landed properties, extensively +exported. The Minister of Finance, following the example of Prince +Bismarck, attempts to check this competition with the staple products of +the small landed proprietors by imposing protective duties. + +[26] Rs. 846,068,368, at the exchange of 32d., current when the great +bulk of the expropriations were effected. + +[27] In provinces of Russia Proper alone, the landed proprietors +(exclusive of the ex-serfs) have mortgaged their estates in various land +and other banks to the extent of 30-3/4 per cent. of their aggregate +acreage, the total remaining debt on such lands being about 49 millions +sterling at the present reduced value of the rouble, or 65 millions +sterling at the rate of exchange adopted in estimating the indebtedness +of the peasantry. + +[28] At the same rate of exchange. + +[29] This tax had previously given to the Imperial Treasury a sum of +about 5-1/2 millions sterling, at the depreciated rate of exchange. It +was assessed at rates that varied in the different Provinces between 2s. +7d. and 4s. 4d. per head of the male registered population, or 'per +soul.' + + + + +Art. V.--_A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; +Secretary, First to the Council of State, and afterwards to the Two +Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell._ In Seven Volumes, containing +authentic Memorials of the English affairs from the year 1638 to the +Restoration of King Charles II. Vol. III. London, 1742. + + +The character of Oliver Cromwell might, for our part, have rested +undisturbed among the 'old, unhappy, far off things' of history, had it +been our intention to fight over again, on the old lines, the contention +whether he was a hero or a knave. On the contrary, towards the solution +of that question a method, as yet untried, has been adopted. Instead of +attempting a review of Cromwell's whole career, to gain an idea of what +manner of man he was, a single train of events, in which his hand was +visible throughout, has been subjected to some degree of scrutiny. A +man's words and deeds, although arising only on one occasion, may supply +an effectual test of his real self. There could, for instance, be hardly +any doubt regarding the leading bias of his disposition, if a supremely +able ruler, that he may procure his safety, consents to-- + + 'play one scene + Of excellent dissembling, and let it look + Like perfect honour.' + +These lines disclose our case. With prescient genius Shakspeare has +described the part that Cromwell took in an event which occurred under +his Protectorate, the so-called Insurrection of March 1655; and in our +examination into the secret history of that occurrence lies the test +that we have applied to Cromwell's character. + +The revelation that we are attempting is not, however, free from +inherent difficulty. In these days of literature made easy, the products +of close research are not readily acceptable. To open up a new vista in +history, much has to be cut down, much put into new order; and the +reader must unavoidably share in the labours of the writer. And though +some curiosity may be aroused by the discovery of that which has +remained hidden, for over two centuries; still, to gratify that +curiosity, many an ingrained idea must be laid aside. Difficult as it +may seem to many, Cromwell at the outset must be regarded not as 'our +heroic One,' but as a man who sold himself to falsehood, that he might +'ride in gilt coaches, escorted by the flunkeyisms, and most sweet +voices.' Nor to appreciate the secret of our character-test, can the +assertion of any historian, from Clarendon down to Carlyle's last +imitator, be credited, that 'a universal rising of Royalists combined +with Anabaptists' broke out in March 1655. On the contrary, it must be +accepted as a preliminary condition in this investigation that England +was, at that time, in a state of immovable tranquillity, and that any +insurrectionary movement during the year 1655 sprang from a far-reaching +design, which Cromwell practised alike on friends, neutrals, and +enemies. + +That this was the case has hitherto escaped notice. Every historian, who +has taken part in the Cromwelliad, regards that revolt as 'a very tragic +reality;' they all agree, that it was 'prevented from breaking into a +dangerous flame by vigilance, prompt action, and by necessary severity.' +That this event might be regarded in a very different light was an idea +far from every one of them. Proof, however, goes before disproof. The +historians should have their say first; and our readers must endure, for +a few moments, what may be termed the received version of the +Insurrection of March 1655. + +According to Godwin, 'A general rising was meditated about the beginning +of March 1655, by the Royalist party in various parts of +England,--Yorkshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Devon and Wilts,' and +also in North Wales. 'Wilmot, about this time created Earl of Rochester, +came over to England' to head the enterprise, 'accompanied by Sir J. +Wagstaff. Charles II., who had spent the winter at Cologne, now came +privately to Middleburg in Holland, that he might be ready to pass over +to England, if the condition of affairs authorized such a measure. The +activity of Cromwell and his assistants speedily defeated these +multiplied intrigues. It does not appear that hostilities anywhere were +actually commenced, except in Yorkshire and the West of England.' + +As historians persist that on Marston Moor, the scene of the +'hostilities' in Yorkshire, an actual affray occurred,--Carlyle throws +in 'a few shots fired';--we must turn to the 'Perfect Proceedings' News +Letter, of March 1655, for a truer description of that event:-- + + 'York. The 8th of March instant, there was a meeting + appointed by the Malignants in Yorkshire to surprise York + City. To that end a party was to come on the west side of + the City, where Sir Richard Malliverer, with divers others, + was on their March. About 100 horse came with a cart load of + arms and ammunition to Hessey (i. e. Marston) Moor. And at + the wynd-mill upon the Moor there came some intelligence, + that a party, that sh'd' have come on the other side of the + City, was not ready that night. And more company failing, + which they expected to meet them that night upon the Moor + they suddenly and disorderly retreated; some Pistols was + scattered and found next morning, and a led horse, with a + velvet saddle, left in Skipbrig Lane, which was found next + day.' + +In Wiltshire, however, the Royalists effected a brief revolt, an +incident which the following quotation from Carlyle will readily recall +to mind:-- + + 'Sunday, March 11th, 1655, in the City of Salisbury, about + midnight, there occurs a thing worth noting. Salisbury was + awakened from its slumbers by a real advent of Cavaliers. + Sir John Wagstaff, "a jolly knight" of those parts, once a + Royalist Colonel: he, with Squire, or Major Penruddock, "a + gentleman of fair fortune," Squire, or Major Grove, and + about two hundred others, did actually rendezvous in arms + about the Big Steeple, that Sunday night, and ring a loud + alarm in those parts. It was Assize time; the Judges had + arrived the day before. Wagstaff seizes the Judges in their + beds, seizes the High Sheriff, and otherwise makes night + hideous;--proposes on the morrow to hang the Judges, as a + useful warning; but is overruled by Penruddock and the rest. + He orders the High Sheriff to proclaim King Charles; High + Sheriff will not, not though you hang him; Town-crier will + not, not even though you hang him. The Insurrection does not + spread in Salisbury, it would seem. The Insurrection quits + Salisbury on Monday night, marches with all speed towards + Cornwall, hoping for better luck there. Marches;--but + Captain Unton Crook marches also in the rear of it; marches + swiftly, fiercely; overtakes it at South Molton in + Devonshire, "on Wednesday about ten at night," and there, in + a few minutes, put an end to it. We took Penruddock, Grove, + and long lists of others; Wagstaff unluckily escaped ... and + this Royalist conflagration, which should have blazed all + over England, is entirely damped out. Indeed so prompt and + complete is the extinction, thankless people begin to say + there had never been anything considerable to extinguish. + Had they stood in the middle of it,--had they seen the + nocturnal rendezvous at Marston Moor, seen what Shrewsbury, + what Rufford Abbey, what North Wales in general, would have + grown to on the morrow,--in that case, thinks the Lord + Protector, not without some indignation, they had + known!--Carlyle's 'Cromwell,' vol. iv. pp. 129, 130. + +If Carlyle had been more heedful he might have taken the hint furnished +by those 'thankless people.' Men are not usually thankless if preserved +from a real and obvious danger. Carlyle, however, thought that he knew +more about those transactions than the men who might have witnessed +them; and so we will accept his somewhat incautious invitation, and our +readers, if they choose to do so, shall perceive, perhaps, 'not without +some indignation,' what the Lord Protector 'had known' about the +insurrection of March 1655; they shall, to a certain extent at least, +regard that event from his point of view. And to enable them to do so +as promptly as possible, they may be at once informed, that the +Protector himself admitted the Earl of Rochester, Sir John Wagstaff, and +their associates into England, in order that they might, in his behalf, +play the part of the conspirator. The circumstance being appreciated, +the Protector's position becomes quite clear. It is obvious that he +wished his subjects to believe, in common with his historians, that +England was, during the opening months of 1655, 'from end to end of it, +ripe for an explosion.' + +Taking then for granted, upon Cromwell's own showing, that he wanted an +insurrection, the assistance toward that end on which he could rely, and +the obstacles that stood in his way, must be considered. The assistance +which Cromwell had at hand, lay in the little band of courtiers who hung +in penury, and vexation of heart, round Charles II. Wanderers on the +Continent, in total ignorance of English opinion, acutely sensible of +their own discomfort, raging against their great Tormentor, the King's +'over sea' counsellors were, by irritation and by 'zeal, made so blind,' +that they were 'soon persuaded of good success' in any possible attempt +to overthrow the Protector.[30] The chief hindrance to Cromwell's +projected insurrection was his palpable prosperity. It was notorious +during the winter and spring of the year 1655, that he had appeased +discontent among his soldiery; had quieted, in prison, Harrison, +Wildman, and the leaders of the Anabaptists; that the Levellers were +reduced to inaction; and that therefore the Royalists were powerless. +And for this reason. Every Englishman, even the most 'Wildrake' among +the Cavaliers, knew full well, that they, unassisted, could not for a +moment stand before Cromwell's armies; and they knew equally well, that +if the King landed on our shores, at the head of a foreign army, all +England would meet him with passionate resistance. Even at the best, the +most confident Royalists knew that a young man, nurtured by a popish +mother, and amidst papists, would not be readily accepted as our King. + +But one chance, therefore, remained to the Royalists, both at home and +abroad: and that was the possibility that Anabaptist fanaticism and army +discontent might unite together against the Protector. If that could be +reckoned on, and if a rising of the Royalists, all over England, could +be timed so as to explode, when the Levellers broke into action, that +would offer a chance indeed, especially if some of the mutineers could +be won over to the King. That chance was, at this season, wholly denied +to the Royalists. The King's most trusted English advisers, the Council +styled 'The Sealed Knot,' repeatedly warned him during January 1655, +that 'since no rising of the Army is to be hoped for, any rising of the +King's party would only be to their destruction.'[31] + +To a person who desired to stimulate an insurrection against the +Protector the course was therefore clear. He must act on the impatient +credulity of those who shared in their King's exile. Far from the scene +of action, they might be persuaded that the Anabaptists and the +discontented soldiers had leagued together, and that the warnings of the +'Sealed Knot' might be set at naught. Charles was thus acted upon. As +the wicked King of Israel was lured on to his destruction by the cry of +false prophets bidding him to go up and prosper, the King was persuaded +to disregard his best counsellors, to believe that 30,000 Royalists were +armed and ready to join in an organized revolt, so skilfully planned +that it would break out, at one moment, all over England, with the +co-operation of the Levellers, and of a portion of Cromwell's army. +Charles was also assured, that if he would but fix the day, the +insurrection would immediately take place. + +The King was hard to persuade; young as he was, his sagacity was not +wanting. He long remained incredulous: he did not believe the +'expresses' which reached him 'every day' from England: he felt sure +that those zealous emissaries were deceived. More messengers accordingly +crossed the water: they were confident that 'the rising would be +general, and many places seized upon, and some declare for the King +which were in the hands of the army, for they still pretended, and did +believe, "that a part of the army would declare against Cromwell, at +least, though not for the King."' + +Those messengers, however, would promise nothing, if Charles did not, +when the Earl of Rochester and his associates started for England, +approve the reality of the plot, by stationing himself on the sea coast, +that he might 'quickly put himself into the head of the Army, which +would be ready to receive him.' And he was warned that this was his last +chance, and that 'if he neglected that opportunity,' his followers would +desert him, as one hopelessly apathetic. Besides these threats, the +persons, who dispatched those messengers from England, resorted to other +means to force Charles into the enterprise. They appointed the day for +the outbreak: he was not able 'to send orders to contradict it:' so he +felt constrained, 'with little noise,' to quit Cologne for Middleburg, +to await there the summons to England. + +Whilst Charles was being thus cajoled, the bright anticipations of his +companions were suddenly saddened. In the midst of their preparations, +Cromwell arrested several noted Royalists in London: it was obvious that +he had discovered 'the design.' But that dark cloud had its silver +lining; it was even converted into an augury of success. The +conspirators at Cologne were 'cheered by letters' from their colleagues +in England, assuring them 'that none of their particular friends at the +intended sea-ports were known.' + +Clarendon, and his associates, little knew how much was known by +Cromwell. He afterwards repeated in public, almost word for word, 'all +those particulars' which these 'expresses' 'communicated in confidence' +to the Royal Court 'to let them know in how happy condition the King's +affairs were in England;' he was forewarned of the very day when Charles +would 'with little noise' quit Cologne for Middleburg 'ten days before +he did stir;' and if so, even Clarendon would have perceived, that the +Protector felt quite assured about the safety of his sea-ports.[32] + +That the project proved in the end, as Charles expected at the +beginning, a weak and improbable attempt, Clarendon admits, and that +they had been befooled; but he maintained, to the end, that those +messengers were 'very honest men, and sent by those who were such.' +Clarendon's opinion is not so indisputable, but that it may be +questioned. The utter failure of the promises that those messengers held +out, might have aroused his doubt as to their good faith. Who was it +then that instructed those false prophets? So improbable were the +expectations which they urged upon Charles, that it is impossible to +credit any true Royalist with the creation of those false hopes: to +dispel them, the King's wisest English advisers did their utmost. Those +encouragements then must have been the counsels of false friends. And +who could be, as we shall prove, a warmer, or a falser friend to the +enterprise of March 1655, than Cromwell? + +Even without direct proof of Cromwell's guilty complicity in that +attempt, it is brought home to him by a variety of antecedent +circumstances. He knew precisely how to spread the only lure that could +ensnare the King; for the counsels of the 'Sealed Knot' were no secret +to Cromwell. He was aware that the King had, in consequence, written, +4th Jan. 1655, to Mr. Roles, 'his loving friend,' and probably also the +Protector's friend, in a tone of utter despair.[33] And who could set +against the King a stream of systematic false encouragement, sufficient +to dispel his just despair, except Cromwell, who had all the secret +agents at home and abroad at his command? or who would undertake so +difficult a task as the creation of such an elaborate scheme of +deception, but one who was anxious that the outbreak should take place? +And we know that such was his wish. + +In every way this is apparent. Even though no actual assistance be +given, still complete foreknowledge of a coming mischief, unfollowed by +corresponding precautions, implies a sanction. And this form of sanction +Cromwell gave to the Insurrection. In a tone of triumphant cunning he +assured his Parliament, during the ensuing year, that he had possessed +'full intelligence of' the conspiracy; though, with characteristic +craft, he concealed the most effectual informant 'of these things,' the +clerk who wrote out the despatches in the King's closet; and poor +Manning, 'as he was dead,' was credited with the discovery; although his +term of espial was not commenced soon enough to supply that 'full +intelligence,' of which his employer boasted.[34] + +Cromwell could even have informed his corps of informers, of the course +that the coming movement would pursue. Two months before they began to +reflect back to him an account of his own design, Cromwell's detection +office in Whitehall contained a report from a supposed Leveller, who had +passed from Essex to Cornwall, and then from Cornwall to Scotland, that +a rumour was afloat, that the republicans in the army who were 'resolved +to stand by their first principles, in opposition to the Government,' +had banded together, under noted leaders, and had chosen the very places +afterwards selected by the Royalists, namely, Salisbury Plain and +Marston Moor for the rendezvous where they might show their strength. +Other informers reported to Cromwell that the Royalists in London, and +in Northumberland, hoped, that if they appeared in arms, they would be +able to 'make use of a good part of the army;' and similar evidence +warned the Government that a man claiming to be a Royalist had been at +work, during February, journeying to and fro between Gloucestershire and +Wiltshire, tempting Royalists to join with him in an insurrection, +because 'the design was first put on foot by the Levellers, who were to +be aiding and assisting the Cavaliers.'[35] + +This information reached Cromwell in ample time for action. A word from +him to his agents abroad, a hint to the editors of the News Letters, or +a proclamation, would have dispersed those mischievious rumours, and +would have reduced Charles to inaction. Although he knew that Charles +based his sole hope of success upon an Anabaptist revolt, and a mutiny +in the army, Cromwell did nothing of the kind. Not that he failed to +secure himself by some ostensible precautions. 'It having pleased God to +make some further notable discovery to Us of the Conspiracy, and the +particular Persons engaged therein,' Cromwell arrested some Royalists, +shortly before the outbreak, but, as we know on the best authority, he +touched none of those 'engaged therein.' He secured London: he moved +troops from Ireland to Liverpool, and may thereby have disconcerted the +Lancashire Cavaliers; but he did not forewarn the Customs House officers +at Dover, or guard that port; just as he, subsequently, somehow failed +to station soldiers near those obvious points of danger, Marston Moor +and Salisbury Plain.[36] 'Oliver, Protector,' evidently 'understood his +Protectorship moderately well, and what Plots and Hydra-Coils were +inseparable from it.' + +Cromwell thus assisting us, we had before us the relative positions of +all engaged in the Insurrection, during the last weeks of February 1655. +Charles was on the Dutch coast awaiting a possible summons to England; +to that end he had despatched the expedition, composed of the Earl of +Rochester, Sir John Wagstaff, Major Armourer, Mr. O'Neale, and their +companions, about fourteen in number; and Cromwell was watching them, +and was preparing for their reception at Dover, not soldiers, but the +friendly assistance of his servant, Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage. +In true Cavalier fashion the Earl of Rochester and his comrades +approached our shores, with ostentatious contempt of danger. They came +not in a small party, dropping over one by one, selecting different and +out-of-the-way spots for landing, but almost in a body, in quick +succession, they alighted at Dover. That was the most public port they +could have chosen; and being courtier Cavaliers, long resident abroad, +they were, in dress and look, marked men, and most unfitted to play the +part they chose, of traders resident in France or Holland. Their +selection of Dover was not, however, so ill-advised as it seemed, for +they also reckoned on the help of Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage. + +Thus in appearance, at least, the conspirators did everything they could +to get themselves into trouble. And, as might be anticipated, Major +Armourer, alias 'Mr. Wright,' and his man 'Morris,' that is to say, Mr. +O'Neale, the first of that company to set foot in Dover, were +immediately arrested. Armourer was imprisoned in the Castle, and O'Neale +in the Sergeant's house. Their detention, however, was of but brief +duration. Armourer at once sought for help through Mr. Day's agency; but +one greater than the Clerk interposed; and after about three days +captivity, Mr. Wright, together with some other captured suspects, was +released by the Dover Port Commissioners 'on receipt of a Commission +from H.H.' the Protector.[37] + +That Commission from His Highness was no ordinary proceeding. By it +Cromwell disturbed order and discipline in the chief entrance-gate to +England, and drove the Port Commissioners into direct collision with the +officers of Dover Castle. Captain Wilson, the Deputy-Lieutenant, who had +charge over the Castle prisoners, was, as shown by his letters, a +straightforward servant of the Protector. Such a serious interference +with his duties, as the release of one of his own prisoners, disturbed +him; and the more so, as it was authorized by the Protector himself. +Accordingly he wrote to Thurloe, greatly troubled, to free himself from +any connection with so untoward an event as the escape of Mr. Wright, +who,--of all the men that Wilson 'had secured'--was the very one with +whom he was most unsatisfied.' Thurloe also felt that it was an awkward +affair; and to avert suspicion from his Master and himself, he reverted +to a mean trick, the causeless accusation of an innocent man. He +reproved Wilson for neglecting to warn Whitehall of the detention of +such a noted suspect as Mr. Wright; although Thurloe was in no ignorance +of that event, and knew all about the prisoner. For besides the +knowledge which he shared with Cromwell, of the near advent of the Earl +of Rochester and his associates, Thurloe held a letter signed 'N. +Wright,' dated 'Dover Castell, 14th February,' to Sir R. Stone, a +supposed friend, who, forwarding it to Thurloe, informed him that Morris +therein mentioned was a 'gentleman to the Princess Royal;' whilst it +was evidently presupposed by Stone, that the Secretary would know who it +was 'that writ' the enclosed letter; as, indeed, is proved by Thurloe's +indorsement, '_Nicholas Armourer to Sir Robert Stone_.' And +again, within seven days after Armourer's release, a similar +'cross-providence' occurred. A Mr. Broughton, evidently another +Royalist, was taken out of Captain Wilson's custody, much to his +surprise and vexation, and set free by the Mayor of Dover. + +The release of one or two prisoners under a Commission from H.H. the +Protector does not, however, prove that he purposely admitted into +England that gang of conspirators. But even that can be proved. Thurloe +and Cromwell knew on the best authority that the Royalists regarded Mr. +Day as their ally; for Armourer, in that letter, mentions 'Mr. Robert +Day, Clarke of the Passage' as a man ready to do him service. Yet +Cromwell, knowing that Armourer and O'Neale were the precursors of even +more dangerous associates, who would also resort to Mr. Day, retained +him in his post; and in spite of prompt and repeated warnings from the +Continent, that Day was a traitor, he acted as Clerk of the Passage +until, during the following July, he had seen safe back across the +Channel the conspirators whom he had admitted in March. And as if the +more fully to trick the Royalists, Day was permitted by the Protector to +intervene actively in their behalf. The Clerk of the Passage obtained, +by his personal undertaking for Armourer's good conduct, the requisite +pass inward, and certified that he was, in truth, a merchant from +Rotterdam.[38] + +It follows from the assistance which the Protector gave to Armourer, +that his man 'Morris' was restored to his master, and that the Earl of +Rochester, after repeated detention and examination, was set free. And +again Cromwell reappears as the patron of the conspiracy. According to +information imparted to the King by Cromwell's nephew, Colonel William +Cromwell, 'my Lord of Rochester was known to Cromwell to be in England +as soon as he landed,' and was met by pretended agents from the army, +Rochester's friends 'in show,' but the Protector's 'really,' who, to +make the Earl 'have the greater confidence' in the enterprise, gave him +false offers of co-operation, and assurances that Cromwell's soldiers +were ripe for mutiny.[39] And facts confirm Colonel Cromwell's words. + +Immediately after his final escape from the custody of Captain Wilson, +the Earl of Rochester 'found Mr. Morton, who carries on their trade +there, ready to come, with some account of his business.'[40] If Morton +had been a true Royalist, in momentary fear for himself, and for the +success of an insurrection that was to overthrow the Protector, would he +have risked a meeting with the Earl of Dover, in a place where he had +been twice arrested, instead of awaiting his arrival in the security of +London? Such a strange course arouses strong suspicion that Morton was +the Protector's emissary referred to by Col. Cromwell; and assuredly a +Mr. Morton is mentioned to Thurloe, by one of his continental agents, as +a friend, and fellow sham-Royalist, who might assist him in enticing +some of the King's retinue into projects, such as the 'murther of H. H. +the Protector.'[41] + +Nor was Mr. Morton the only agent busy in doing all he could 'to ripen +the design of a general rising.' During January and February, 1655, +messengers passed to and fro through the Northern and Western districts +of England to prepare the way for the Earl of Rochester and his +associates, who spread abroad rumours that the 'Levellers were to be +aiding and abetting the Cavaliers,' and that on the 8th of March, a +general rising would take place. Two men can be traced who thus prepared +Wiltshire for insurrection, one of whom was the chief instigator of +Wagstaff's rising at Salisbury. + +Both of them were obscure men, not known in that part of England. An +unnamed emissary came from Yorkshire, passing through London, to +Dorsetshire, taking, on the way, the house, near Lewes, of Col. Bishop, +a Leveller, one of the Wildman faction.[42] The other, Mr. Douthwaite, +reached Wiltshire from Somersetshire. This circumstance, of itself, +aroused suspicion; and he was asked why, if the revolt, as he asserted, +was to be throughout all England, he did not choose Somersetshire, +instead of Wiltshire, for the scene of action. The reason he gave for +that choice had in it a strong dash of unreality. His motive was, he +declared, because 'if he did any mischief, or killed anybody,' he +preferred to do mischief 'among strangers, where he was not known.' So +unsatisfactory was his demeanour, that a recruit, whom he endeavoured to +cajole, refused to join the conspiracy, declaring that 'he was confident +this was a plot of my Lord Protector's own devising, and that he had +some of his own agents in it.' And as, during that winter, the +Dorsetshire Cavaliers had 'whispered that the plot' then 'so loudly +talked on at Court, is nothing but a trick of the great Oliver's,' this +idea seems to have been prevalent in the West of England. Some such +whisper, undoubtedly, had a marked influence on the Wiltshire revolt. +Not a single landowner of importance went out with Wagstaff. Though he +had been told off by the King expressly for that service, no Royalist of +eminent position answered the King's call. They, also, doubtless +suspected Douthwaite, an unknown, low-class stranger, who took upon +himself to summon them to arms against the Protector. And Douthwaite was +undoubtedly the chief instigator of that attempt, 'the very principal +verb' in the affair: a very capable witness, Major Butler, so described +him. In itself this was a suspicious circumstance. And another reason +may be urged for deeming that Cromwell, and not the King, was served by +Douthwaite. Like a shady witness, he proved too much. Antedating the +event by at least three weeks, he asserted in February, that Charles had +left Cologne for the Dutch coast, 'for an opportunity to sail for +England.' This was a startling piece of news, and most arousing to a +hearty Royalist: and the King did take that step on the 4th of March. +But it is noteworthy that a foreknowledge of the King's movements, which +was undoubtedly possessed by Cromwell and Thurloe in London, should have +been so speedily communicated to Douthwaite, in the depths of +Somersetshire.[43] + +Whilst England was thus being prepared for the coming insurrection, the +Earl of Rochester went to London, where, although soldiers were +stationed at the ends of the streets, and extra precautions taken +against the Royalists, 'he consulted,' as Clarendon observes, 'with +great freedom with the King's friends.' Nor were he and his comrades +hindered from traversing England, and passing on into Wiltshire and +Yorkshire, that they might head the intended rendezvous of the Royalists +on Salisbury Plain and Marston Moor; the very places, it should be +remembered, that rumour had designated for a gathering of the Levellers. +Cromwell was powerless: he dared not touch the men he had passed into +England: the object for which he had admitted them must be fulfilled, +even to the end. + +That the end, which Cromwell desired, followed the lines indicated by +his master hand, might be anticipated. But he could not allow the +project to become too real; a necessity that rather stood in his way. +His power of creating the semblance of an actual insurrection was +limited. Of the 'hidden works,' all over England, which he attributed +to the Royalists, but one mine actually exploded, one nearly went off, +and the rest remained dormant. The tameness of that shadowy meeting on +Marston Moor evidently caused Cromwell much vexation. As his dupes +refused to exhibit themselves, and as not a soldier was near at hand, +paragraphs in the News Letters, 'some pistols scattered' on the heath, +and 'a led horse, with a velvet saddle,' were all the proofs that +Cromwell could show that aught had happened on Marston Moor, during the +night of the 8th of March. Nor could he solemnize the event, as he +desired, by the appearance on the scaffold of a single Yorkshireman. + +He sent, for that purpose, to York as Judges, Baron Thorpe, Mr. Justice +Newdigate, and Mr. Serjeant Hutton; but they refused to obey his +bidding. They declined to try upon a capital charge the men that had +been arrested by the Protector's informers, not in arms nor on +horseback, nor even on the highway, but in their own houses. The judges +were doubtful 'whether in point of law,' a possible midnight ride could +be declared by them 'to be treason.' It was in vain that Colonel +Lilbourne used 'diligence' to 'pick up such as are right,' to serve on +the jury. The judges even left York altogether, objecting that due +notice, under which they could try that 'great affair,' had not been +given. + +Pressure was renewed upon Newdigate and Hutton; they were despatched +back to York, to undertake the trial of the Marston Moor prisoners. +Cromwell's law officer, however, found them at Doncaster, on their +return to London, and in a very contrary state of mind. They again +refused to act; and they based their refusal on an objection, which +affected not those prisoners alone, but all Cromwell's prisoners. They +asserted, evidently reckoning on Baron Thorpe's concurrence, that they +could not, as judges, put in force the Ordinance, by which Cromwell had +adapted the Statute Law of England to meet the crime of high treason +against himself, because it was of no validity! They thus anticipated, +in the most unpleasant way, Mr. Coney's refusal to pay taxes imposed, +not by an Act of Parliament, but by an 'Ordinance.' Cromwell was forced +to yield; the Yorkshiremen preserved their lives, but not their liberty +or their estates; and almost immediately, 'Judges Thorpe and Newdigate +were put out of their places, for not observing the Protector's pleasure +in all his commands.'[44] + +Cromwell's 'pleasure' was, however, served by Mr. Serjeant Glyn and Mr. +Recorder Steele, and by the jurymen, 'such as were right,' over whom +they presided, in the trial of the Salisbury insurgents. Those poor +dupes pleaded what may be termed, Baron Thorpe's plea. They argued that +their indictment was not founded on an Act of Parliament, and that +'there can be no treason by an Ordinance.' They urged that a sentence +pronounced by the Serjeant and the Recorder, who were mere 'pleaders, +servants to the Lord Protector,' would be illegal; and they asserted +their right to be tried by Baron Thorpe, 'a sworn judge.' The prisoners, +who could not be convicted of high treason, were condemned to death as +horse stealers. They vainly pleaded, that to requisition a horse for a +warlike enterprise was not felony, and that 'the country knew we did not +intend to steal,' but acted 'as the soldiers did now at London, and +elsewhere, who came against us.'[45] About fourteen of those poor +fellows were put to death, with Grove and Penruddock; and seventy were +sold into West Indian slavery. Accordingly Cromwell was able, as Thurloe +exulted, to prove 'that the Plot was real,' as 'the persons were real,' +who, in consequence, lost their lives, or were condemned to lifelong +misery. + +Thus Cromwell, by a deliberate course of fraud, compassed the death of +men, who might otherwise have lived void of offence against his +government. He next proceeded to delude all his subjects by means of the +sham conspiracy by which he had ensnared his victims on to the scaffold. +This development in Cromwell's course of deception brings us back to the +ordinary path of history. Every historical text-book mentions that +Cromwell, within a few months after the Insurrection of March 1655, +subjected England to the authority, almost unlimited, of twelve +Major-Generals. To each one a separate province was allotted, with power +to imprison, fine, or sell as slaves, all that he might select. The +Major-Generals also were directed by Cromwell to pay themselves, and the +soldiers under them, by the levy of a tax of ten per cent. on the +incomes of all but the poorest Royalists, which he imposed for that +purpose. As historians have believed in the reality of the Insurrection +of March 1655, they hold that Cromwell, therefore, 'found himself +compelled to divide England into districts, over which he set +Major-Generals,' and to inflict upon the Royalists the tax, 'known by +the name of the Decimation.' Yet, curiously enough, these hearty +believers in Cromwell have ignored that solemn confirmation of their +opinion, which he addressed to his subjects, namely, the 'Declaration of +his Highness, by the advice of his Council, showing the Reasons of their +Proceedings for Securing the Peace of the Commonwealth, upon occasion +of the late Insurrection and Rebellion,--October 31, 1655.' + +Than this document, no more admirable illustration could be given of the +manner in which Cromwell carried on his Protectorate. By that +'Declaration' he engrafts into his policy the deception he had practised +on the Royalists, and adapts it to the benefit of the whole nation, by a +description of the pious uses to which it could be applied. And for our +purposes this document is especially convenient, for, whilst it proves +what Cromwell wished his people to believe about the Insurrection, it +enables us to disprove throughout the statements that he makes. But +before we can reach that portion of our disclosure, the operative +clauses of the 'Declaration' must be dealt with. It commences with a +justificatory recital of the misdeeds of the Royalists. As God, Cromwell +argues, 'by His gracious dispensation,' had 'subjected' the Royalists +'to the power of those whom they had designed to enslave and ruin,' 'the +Parliament's party' might, Cromwell asserts, have 'extirpated those men, +with designs of possessing their Estates and Fortunes.' Their +conquerors, however, refrained themselves, 'it having pleased God in his +providence, so to order things;' and the Royalists were allowed to live +and 'enjoy their freedom, and have equal protection in their persons and +estates, with the rest of the Nation.' But what return, the Protector +declares, has been made by the Malignants for the lenity thus extended +to them? 'The actings of that party' proves that 'neither the +dispensations of God, nor kindness of men, would work upon them;' that +'they were implacable in their malice and revenge'; and he cites 'the +late Insurrection and Rebellion,' 'as the greatest and most dangerous' +of all 'their hidden works of darkness.' + +The Protector therefore announces, that as 'he knows by experience, that +nothing but the Sword will restrain the late King's party from blood and +violence,'--'We do now not only find Ourselves satisfied, but obliged in +duty, both towards God and this Nation, to proceed upon other grounds +than formerly,'--and that, to secure 'the Peace of this Commonwealth, We +have been necessitated to erect a new and standing Militia of Horse, in +all the Counties of England, under such Pay as might be a fitting +encouragement to the officers and soldiers. And We, therefore, have +thought fit, to lay the burthen of Maintaining those forces, upon those +who have been engaged in the late Wars against the State.' And Cromwell +declares, in conclusion, that 'We can with comfort appeal to God, +whether this way of proceeding with 'the Royalists' hath been the matter +of Our Choice, or that which We have sought occasion for; or whether +contrary to Our own inclinations, We have not been constrained and +necessitated hereunto, and without the doing whereof, We should have +been wanting to Our Duty to God and these Nations.' + +Such words uttered by a man who, with utmost fervour, has claimed for +himself, that 'I have learned too much of God, to dally with Him, and to +make bold with Him in these things,' ought surely to be believed; and if +there be any one who is still unconvinced that Cromwell, of his own +'choice,' enticed the Earl of Rochester and his associates across the +Channel, and admitted them into England, that they might constrain and +necessitate him to appoint those Major-Generals, 'we can with comfort +appeal' to that 'Declaration' and ask such a believer in Cromwell to +follow us in a comparison between what he really did, with what he +declared he did, 'for securing the Peace of the Commonwealth upon the +occasion of the late Insurrection.' + +In order that his subjects might appreciate the skill and vigilance, by +which the 'contrivements' of the 'cruel and bloody enemy had been +thwarted, Cromwell commenced the account of his execution of his duty as +England's Protecter by a general description of the projects of the +Royalists in March 1655. He asserted that they intended to surprise and +seize London, and all the principal ports and cities throughout England, +and that they reckoned on the support of more than 30,000 armed men. +This description of the projects and resources of the Royalists may be +at once, and contemptuously set aside: it was founded upon lies supplied +by such men as Manning, the spy, or Bamfield, the informer. Cromwell's +words were contradicted by the abortive and petty nature of the +insurrection, by the obvious refusal of all England to join in the +enterprise, and by the conduct of the Protector himself. For he would +not have placed England at the mercy of the Earl of Rochester and his +companions, had he thought that they could call 30,000 men to arms, or +that every important town from London to York, was in danger. Having +thus dealt out fiction by wholesale, and ascribed the overthrow of that +'great and general design' to 'The Lord,' Cromwell proceeds, according +to this method, to show how that was accomplished. + +Beginning with the rising at Salisbury, he declared that + + 'the Insurrection in the West was bold and dangerous in + itself, and had in all likelihood increased to great Numbers + of Horse and Foot by the conjunction of others of their own + party, besides such Foreign forces, as in case of their + success, and seizing upon some place of Strength, were to + have landed in those parts, had they not been prevented by + the motion of some troops, and diligence of the officers, + in apprehending divers of that Party a few days before; and + also been closely pursued by some of our Forces, and in the + conclusion supprest by a handful of men, through the great + goodness of God.' + +As Charles had not at his disposal a single ship, or one soldier in the +pay of any foreign Power, the possibility of a foreign invasion needs no +disproof. And how did Cromwell deal with his enemies at home? Shortly +before the rising of the 11th of March, troops were undoubtedly moved +about in Wiltshire: their course can be traced from day to day. As the +Protector, according to his habit, bases his statements as far as he +can, on facts, so far we can agree with him. But as certainly as they +were marched about, Cromwell's soldiers were marched not towards, but +away from Salisbury. + +During the latter part of February, Major Butler, the officer in charge +over Wiltshire, wrote to Thurloe, telling him that as Bristol was in 'a +peaceable state,' the Major intended to leave that city. He did so: just +eleven days before the outbreak he was on the march to his central +station, at Marlborough, when a messenger from the Protector, summoned +him back to Bristol. Butler was, in consequence, detained there, whilst +the event took place; nor did he reach Salisbury until the third day +after the insurgents had left the town. Cromwell knew what he was about: +on the very Sunday when Wagstaff took possession of Salisbury, Cromwell +occupied Chichester by horsemen, sent there at daybreak; and he +dispatched a warning to Portsmouth, that 'some desperate design was on +foot.' But he kept his soldiers away from Salisbury. He took this +course, although he knew that Salisbury Plain had been named as a +Levellers' rendezvous; and although he had received a report, about +three weeks before the 11th of March, from an officer sent to Salisbury +on police duty, 'that it would be convenient for some horse to be +quartered hereabouts,'[46] because the Royalists in the neighbourhood +were restless. + +And Cromwell himself proves why Major Butler was detained at Bristol: +for when he did reach the scene of the revolt, though the insurgents had +been two days at large in the neighbourhood, and were disbanding, +drifting aimlessly towards Devonshire, Butler was withheld from active +operations by orders from Whitehall. He was directed to keep at a +distance from the insurgents for fear of a mishap. This is shown by the +opening words of Butler's letter of remonstrance to the Protector. 'Now, +my Lord,' Butler wrote, 'though I know it would be of sad consequence if +we assaulting them should be worsted,' still, he pleaded with much +earnestness that he, under 'the good providence of The Lord' would +assuredly be successful. So palpably absurd it was to suppose that his +four troops of horsemen could not make short work of that undisciplined, +badly armed, and disheartened band of men, that Butler declared, that he +could not 'with any confidence stay' here at Salisbury, 'nor look the +country in the face, and let them alone.''[47] + +The Protector, however, was resolute. Butler was forced to let the enemy +alone; and, after four days' delay, they yielded at South Molton to one +troop of horse sent after them from Weymouth. Thus it was Cromwell, and +not Butler, as was surmised by a contemporary observer, who kept his +troopers 'at a distance in the rear' of the Royalists, 'to give them an +opportunity of increasing.'[48] + +With this suspicion afloat, and Major Butler unable 'to look the country +in the face,' Cromwell felt that to ascribe the suppression of +Wagstaff's attempt mainly to the 'close' pursuit of the enemy 'by some +of Our Forces,' would hardly suffice. He accordingly also attributed +that happy result 'to the goodness of God,' and to 'the diligence of the +officers in apprehending some of the party.' In this statement Cromwell +made some approach to the truth. Butler had been diligent; and though he +failed to seize Douthwait, that mysterious 'principal verb', still, +during the last two weeks of February, he did arrest suspects in the +West of England, but none within the district round Salisbury.[49] +Wagstaff and his comrades were undisturbed, whilst preparing for their +attempt. Nor is it an unfounded assumption, if their security is +attributed to the same influence which sanctioned Wagstaff's repair to +the rendezvous, and which protected him from Major Butler's horsemen. + +Having thus dealt with that 'bold and dangerous insurrection in the +West,' Cromwell turned northward, and took in hand that rather vague +affair at Marston Moor, on which, as he asserted, 'the enemy most +relied.' His account of that event was, that the Royalists who met there +dispersed and ran away in confusion, partly because of a failure among +the plotters; but also, 'in respect that Our Forces, by their marching +up and down in the country, and some of them providentially, at that +time, removing their Quarters, near to the place of Rendezvous, gave +them no opportunity to reassemble.' Again, Cromwell is, to a certain +extent, correct. Divided counsels did keep one of the principal +Yorkshire Royalists from the meeting, and he may have had followers; +and others were stayed, when on the march, by a timely warning that they +were on a fool's errand. But the assertion, that the Royalists were +dispersed by a providential movement of troops, and by 'Our Forces +marching up and down' Yorkshire, is utterly false. And, as before, the +witness against Cromwell is one of Cromwell's servants. An officer, +responsible for the peace of Yorkshire, reported to his chief in London +regarding himself and his comrades, that 'notwithstanding all our +frequent alarums from London of the certainty of this plot, carried on +with such secrecy on the traitor's part, though we were upon duty, and +in close quarters, we had no positive notice of it till the day was +past.' And no other soldiers were in that neighbourhood during the night +of the 8th of March. The only martial display that the occasion called +forth, was the march of two troops of horsemen into York about three or +four days subsequently; and the officer in command reported that if more +men were wanted, they must be drawn from Durham, Newark, or Hull.[50] + +Thus it was that Cromwell dealt with 'the Insurrection of Yorkshire.' If +the Royalists had, in truth, 'reckoned on 8000 in the North,' or if York +had been in danger, soldiers, and not 'alarums' would have been sent +into Yorkshire. Nor was he mistaken in deeming that the Royalists relied +most on that attempt. Hoping to find a large gathering of Levellers in +arms against the Protector, many of the principal Yorkshire landowners, +of higher rank and more influential than poor Penruddock or any of his +comrades, met that night on Marston Moor. And probably it was owing to +their social position, that the trick was not fully played out, and +that, sorely to Cromwell's disappointment, they saved their lives. + +Besides the insurrectionary displays at Salisbury and Marston Moor, it +was arranged that on the 8th of March similar symptoms should appear in +various other places, to create the idea that 'the Design was great and +general.' Cromwell was accordingly able to declare that 'the coming of +300 foot from Berwick' dispersed 'those who had rendezvoused near +Morpeth to surprise Newcastle:'--that in North Wales and Shropshire, +where they intended to surprise Shrewsbury, 'some of the chief persons +being apprehended, the rest fled:'--and that, 'at Rufford Abbey, Notts, +was another rendezvous, where about 500 horse met, and had with them a +cart load of horse-arms, to arm such as should come to them; but upon a +sudden, a great Fear fell upon them,' and they, also, dispersed +themselves, and 'cast their arms into the pond.' Nor did the Protector +omit to describe the action of 'other smaller Parties,' also in motion +during the night of the 8th of March, who, 'as in the Town of Chester +designed the surprise of the Castle there, but they, failing in their +expectations, were discouraged for that time.' 'And thus by the goodness +of God, these hidden works of darkness' were discovered. 'Fear' was 'put +into the hearts' of the cruel and bloody enemy, and their great and most +dangerous design was 'defeated, and brought to nothing.' + +The depositions on which Cromwell based his description of the minor +passages of the Insurrection are all mere informers' tales, none rising +above the inanity of the story of a tobacco-pipe-maker's attack on +Chester Castle, of which more anon; and, from Carlyle's point of view, +this sample of Thurloe's papers might assuredly be classed among 'human +stupidities.' But Carlyle has overlooked the fact, that to Cromwell +these depositions were an important element in his government, and were +worked up into his speeches and the 'Declaration of October 1655. Hence +the greater the absurdity of those documents, the greater their +historical importance, as showing, not only how the Royalists were +duped, and how Cromwell duped his subjects, but also that the tricks of +his trepanners were so clumsy that, almost without exception' no +Cavaliers of any standing were drawn into the Protector's game. + +An apt example of the kind of evidence on which Cromwell based his +statements, and also a comical illustration of his propensity to cling +to fact in the midst of fraud, is afforded by that alleged 'rendezvous' +of Royalists 'to surprise Newcastle.' If his spies are to be believed, +presumably with that object, on the 8th of March, 'about 3 score and 10 +horsemen armed with swords and pistols' met by night 'at a place called +Duddo;' and then vanished, not, however, for fear 'of 300 foot coming +from Berwick,' but because the conspirators were warned 'that there was +300 sail of ships come into Newcastle, for fear of whom they durst not +fall upon Newcastle at that time.' Much in the same way, and during the +same night, a party of Royalist gentlemen and their servants, repaired +to the inn on Rufford Abbey Green; and a real cart was driven to the +door containing 'horse-arms,' fifty-six pair of pistols, two buff coats, +two suits of arms, &c., and was then driven away, and the party broke +up. So far the Protector's words are verified by the very full +information that Thurloe collected regarding the Rufford Abbey incident; +but if to the conspirators therein specifically mentioned, a large +addition be made for 'divers unnamed gentlemen,' seen 'coming in and +going out of the inn-door,' the plotters cannot be rated at much above +20, instead of at Cromwell's 500. + +The Protector's concluding statements may be briefly disposed of. +Shrewsbury Castle was to have been taken by 'two men in the apparel of +gentlewomen,' acting in combination with their comrades, 'in certain +alehouses near unto the said castle;' and the determined purpose of +these plotters may be tested by the temper of their ringleader, who +urged his recruits to appear at the rendezvous, but refused for his +part, to join with them, 'because his wife was not well.'[51] The +Shropshire insurrection was, indeed, of so visionary a nature, that +zealous Commissary Reynolds could not manipulate it into any definite +shape. Though sent to Shrewsbury that he might develop the existence of +'a general plot of the malignants' in the West of England, he entirely +failed. And so annoyed was he at his failure, that he suggests to +Thurloe, that it would 'not to be unfit to make' the malignants 'speak +forcibly, by tying matches, or some kind of pain, whereby they may be +made to discover the plot;' and as he re-urges his craving to inflict +torture on his prisoners, the proposal had drawn no disapproval from the +Secretary.[52] + +An account of the 'great and signal disappointment, as great as any this +age can produce,' which the 'goodness of God' inflicted upon that +'smaller party,' 'who' according to Cromwell, 'designed the surprise of +the castle' of Chester, forms an appropriate close to this portion of +our narrative. An 'exceeding poor' dupe, Francis Pickering, tells the +story, and the duper was a Colonel Worthing. After enticing Pickering +into the plot by assurances of a general rising against the Protector, +on the night of the 8th of March, Worthing announced that his part in +the design 'was principally to surprise the Castle of Chester;' and as +related by Pickering, while he and the Colonel remained quietly at home. + + 'Accordingly that night three or four went, sent by Col. + Worthing' to seize the Castle: they were all inhabitants of + Chester, and one of them is commonly known by the name of + Alexander, the tobacco-pipe-maker. These persons brought + back word to Col. Worthing that at the place where they + intended to raise a ladder to surprise the Castle, they + heard a sentinel walk and cough. At which report Col. + Worthing was very much startled! and sent them back again to + seize any other convenient place; and they brought back word + that they had centinels walking.'[53] + +No third attempt was made by Mr. Alexander and his friends; and next day +Pickering was told by Worthing 'that he was much troubled, for that he +could not contrive how to take said Castle;' and, in due time, Pickering +found himself in custody. + +In singular contrast to the vague and absurd stories told by 'exceeding +poor' and foolish men, such as Mr. Pickering and his fellow plotters, +are the numerous and positive assurances that Cromwell received from his +own officers, that all was well with England both before, during, and +after the Insurrection of March 1655. Headed by Thurloe, they are all +unanimous in reporting 'that the nation was much more ready to rise +against, than for Charles Stuart;' that, in the town of Leeds, 'not +thirty men were disaffected to the present Government;' and that 'there +was no design on foot' even in 'the most corrupt and rotten places of +the Nation,' such as Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Kent, and the Eastern +Counties. From Bristol to York all was quiet, or wished to be so, during +February, March, and April, 1655.[54] + +Further illustration of this statement is needless. For, if Cromwell had +thought otherwise, even though he might in his wisdom have admitted the +Earl of Rochester and his associates into England, he certainly would +not have allowed them to remain here, apparently as long as they chose, +after their enterprise was over. That the Protector gave them this +freedom of action is made singularly clear by the Thurloe Papers': they +contain repeated indications of the 'whereabouts' of the Earl of +Rochester, the leader of the revolt. He and Major Armourer did not, +after the Marston Moor failure, fly to the coast, or seek separate +hiding-places. They journeyed together, with two servants, leisurely +through England towards London: and to guard his safety, Rochester would +not disturb his bedtime, or his dinner-hour. After the outbreak, people +were naturally anxious to pick up what they could, by arresting 'the +great ones.' Of these, Rochester was the greatest; and he and Armourer +were arrested at Aylesbury. The resident magistrate gave a warrant to +the constable, desiring him to keep safely the bodies of the Earl and +his three companions, 'in the name of my Lord Protector.' The warrant +was acted upon; the prisoners evidently were 'persons of great quality.' +Yet somehow, both magistrate and constable left the Earl and the Major +in charge of the innkeeper 'where they lay;' and naturally enough, 'when +the constable came in the morning, he found that the innkeeper had let +the two chiefs escape,' taking with them 'all their rich apparel.'[55] +Had this been merely a sample of Aylesbury carelessness, the incident +need not have been noticed. But the example of the magistrate and +constable was followed by Cromwell. Although the escape of Rochester and +Armourer was promptly known, and their course was closely tracked, and +though Cromwell was informed where they might be found, they 'wrote very +comfortably from London;' and they endeavoured 'to lay the foundation of +some new design.' And at last, as if he were an ordinary traveller, +sending his servants before him, Rochester left England for the +Continent, having been a resident here for about five months; and the +latter part of his stay in England was a season of extraordinary +severity against the Royalists. In like manner, every one of his +thirteen comrades returned 'weekly without difficulty' to their King's +presence, apparently at their pleasure; whilst Cromwell's continental +informers repeated their warnings that 'Day, the Clerk of the Passage,' +is 'a rogue,' and that if the Protector had 'been ruled' by them 'all +these had not escaped.'[56] + +In this matter, and indeed throughout his connection with the +Insurrection of March 1655, Cromwell was not his own master. The +conditions under which he obtained the espial of one of the King's most +trusted friends, and a member of the 'Sealed Knot,' formed a complete +protection to the Earl of Rochester and his associates. Nor for his own +sake could he touch those conspirators. Their seizure would have +disclosed the fact, that 'persons in the very bosom of our enemies' gave +him 'intelligence;' and hence, if 'he once discovered the grounds, he +would destroy the intelligence.'[57] Anyhow, it is evident that Cromwell +could with entire safety allow his most determined enemies to remain in +England, and lay foundations for new projects against him. + +Having seen Cromwell's conspirators safe home again, tribute must be +paid to his amazing dexterity. The Prince of Wire-Pullers, he made his +puppets perform what part he chose. Some jerked the royal doll Charles, +against his liking, from Cologne to Middleburg, and some warned him to +keep quiet, and others seemed to fight against the manager of the show, +though in reality they fought in his behalf: all played Cromwell's game, +whilst they thought they were playing their own; and even the most +innocent outsiders were pressed into his service. With comic audacity he +assured his audience that the more trivial was the scene at Salisbury, +the more they ought to recognize its dramatic force. 'Observe,' he said, +'when this Attempt was made--it was made when nothing but a well-formed +Power could hope to put us into disorder. Do you think that' such a +company of mean fellows 'would have attacked Us, if they had not been +supported by vast unseen forces behind the scenes.'[58] With what cruel +craft, but seeming indifference, the artful old showman treated his +manikins! He cut off the heads of some amongst those who responded most +vigorously to his touch; whilst others, not less free upon the wire, +were carefully packed up, and sent home safe. By seizing and boxing up +in the Tower mere bystanders, wholly unconcerned in the sport, he made +his 'little tin soldiers' fancy that he did not see their antics. The +only hitch in his 'knavish piece of work' arose when, too assured, he +placed upon the boards a real live judge, who refused to take the bench +in the manager's sham Court of Justice. In every other respect the +mystery play was a complete success; everybody was puzzled, players, +spectators, and the gentlemen of the press; not one even guessed at the +true meaning of the performance; though a few 'men of wicked spirits' +would try to peep behind the curtain. But they never found him out; they +all danced to Cromwell's tune, but none discovered that the pipe they +heard was in their Protector's mouth. Even Ludlow, with all the +proverbial opportunities of a bystander, though most anxious to know his +great opponent's game, never guessed that he had patched up the +Insurrection of March 1655, from the beginning to the end. + +And such was Cromwell's power of deception, that though dead, he still +deceived; his works did follow him, as he desired, out of sight. He +seems to have anticipated that the records of his detective department +might remain as a witness against him, and to have cast over the +'Thurloe Papers' a spell, that has hitherto rendered them invisible. For +nearly 150 years these evidences of his 'hidden works of darkness' have +been before the world; but Cromwell has preserved his secret; he has +humbugged every historian as effectually as he hoodwinked his +contemporaries. The 'Thurloe Papers' were published in 1742, well +edited and indexed; they contain the documents which Cromwell himself +read and handled, the notes of his speeches, the information of his +spies, the letters of his enemies and of his clerks. Though called after +Thurloe, those papers are, in fact, Cromwell's own. Yet such is the +glamour that he has cast over all that has approached him, that they +have accepted his words without question, or, if they have read his +writings, they have read them according to his inspiration. + +Yet there was much even in that Insurrection itself to arouse suspicion. +Cromwell, in January 1655, assured his Parliament that he had crushed +the various conspiracies which were then on foot against him, all most +'real dangers,' and that he had disarmed and rendered powerless those +conspirators; yet within six weeks they had organized a universal +revolt, and had secreted stores of arms and ammunition all over England. +This universal revolt broke out at Salisbury, 'bold and dangerous'; and +it was put down by a single troop of horsemen, after the rebels had +paraded, disheartened and deserted, across England. Except on that +occasion, the vast design was suppressed without the aid of a single +soldier or even a beadle. And, strangely enough, the Protector himself +supplied a hint which might have provoked some curiosity about the +nature of that 'Rebellion.' + +For surely it is odd that 'such a terrible Protector this; no getting of +him overset!' should have been compelled to contend with the notorious +and obstinate incredulity of the members of his Parliament regarding the +late attempt to overset him? Yet Cromwell's speech of September 1656 is +pervaded with expressions such as these, regarding the 'bold and +dangerous Insurrection' of March 1655,--'I think the world must know and +acknowledge, that it was a general design,'--'I doubt if it be believed, +that there was any rising,' either in North Wales or at Shrewsbury, or +on Marston Moor, 'at the very time when there was an Insurrection at +Salisbury'--' therefore, how men of wicked spirits may traduce Us in +that matter--I leave it!'[59] Surely 'sluggish mortals, saved from +destruction,' not caused by secret agencies, but from an actual +'Rebellion,' which threatened to bring every one of them into 'blood and +confusion,' need not be required to believe in the very existence of so +great and conspicuous a danger! + +And Cromwell felt that he could not afford to leave that 'matter' +untouched. A suspicion was prevalent, during the whole of Cromwell's +reign, that plots were manufactured to suit his purposes. He knew that +full well; he knew also the danger of such a suspicion. The surmises of +the 'men of wicked spirits,' were those 'half tales,' that 'be truths.' +It had been hoped that such a 'real plot' as 'the late Insurrection,' +would give that suspicion a quietus. When it was safely transacted, +Thurloe and his associates congratulated each other over that hope.[60] +But it was not fulfilled. Hence arises the tone of angered honesty, +which Cromwell so repeatedly assumed when he addressed his Parliament, +and Carlyle's indignant protest--'What a position for a hero, to be +reduced continually to say he does not lie!' + +But what was Cromwell's motive in the fabrication of this Insurrection +of March, 1655? It was not, as might be suggested, a device to thwart by +a premature explosion, a dangerous conspiracy during a critical moment +in the Protectorate. Cromwell himself asserts in his 'Declaration,' that +'this Attempt was made, when nothing but a well-formed Power could hope +to put Us into disorder; Scotland and Ireland being perfectly reduced; +Differences with most Neighbour Nations composed; our Forces, both by +Sea and Land, in order and consistency.' Nay, he artfully converted the +very security of his Government into a proof that 'the pretended King' +would not have sent over his servants, and that the Royalists would not +'have actually risen' at Salisbury, had the insurrection been other than +'a general design,' based on a vast secret organization. No one in all +England possessed more certain knowledge, than did Cromwell, that such +was not the case, and that he could not plead in his behalf the poor +excuse, that the Nation as a Nation needed a severe lesson, or that it +was to save England from civil war that he had sacrificed the lives of +those fourteen victims of his deception, and consigned that band of +seventy or eighty Englishmen to the horrors of West Indian slavery. + +But if Cromwell could not claim that excuse, what then was his motive? +Dark as was the light within him, he was not in such utter darkness as +to encompass himself about with written, spoken, and acted lies merely +to gratify caprice, or that he might indulge in causeless cruelty. His +motive was a very simple one. He was forced to obey his servant, the +Army. The men whom he had made, and who had made him, demanded a visible +share in the power and profit that he enjoyed. Reverting to the autumn +of 1654, much had then occurred to disquiet the Army. Cromwell had taken +a distinct step towards Kingship, by attempting to persuade Parliament +to make the Protectorate hereditary. Parliament had made a distinct +movement towards a large reduction in the Army and Navy. If rumour be +evidence, there was, during November, 'a great division in the army.' +And it is certain that, at the close of that month, Cromwell and his +military men came to terms. At a meeting held in St. James's Palace, the +staff of the army agreed 'to live and die with Cromwell.'[61] And a +train of events, occurring in direct sequence after that meeting, proves +that it was at this conjuncture that Cromwell agreed to parcel out his +Protectorship among the leading officers of the Army. Parliament was +dissolved 22nd January, 1655, on the pretext that under its shadow, +conspiracy and discontent had thriven; and Cromwell gave an alarming +account of the 'real dangers,' of imminent insurrection and anarchy, +that threatened England. That speech was the prologue; then came the +tragedy itself, the Insurrection of March, 1655; then came its +consequence, the appointment of the Major-Generals. And in the end, the +reason why they were appointed, was brought to light by a state of +affairs, very identical with that which had raised them to power. + +Cromwell had renewed the attempt that he had made in the autumn of 1654, +and in his quest after Kingship he had come, during February 1657, +almost within sight of the throne. Again the army officers interfered; +and again Cromwell was forced to meet them face to face; to receive, on +this occasion, their protest against his acceptance of the Crown. He +made a compromise as he had done before; but in speech, he was not +conciliatory. If the Protectorate had been a failure, he told his former +comrades, it was their fault. It was they, and not he who had governed; +as for himself, 'they had made him their drudge upon all occasions: to +dissolve the Long Parliament,' and 'to call a Parliament or Convention +of their naming,' which proved so unsuccessful; and then another +Parliament, alike in unsuccess; and he concluded that catalogue of their +untoward interferences with his government, by reminding his hearers +that they thought it was necessary to have Major-Generals; adding that +so they 'might have gone on,' if they had not insisted on his calling +the Parliament of 1656, against his will, which had given them 'a +foil.'[62] + + +That speech is the most exceptional, in some respects the most +important, of all Cromwell's speeches. Spoken if not 'in haste,' +certainly 'out of the fulness of the heart,' that is caused by anger, it +is, though unusually brief, delightfully incautious. Being addressed to +men who could not well be deceived, the speech must be true, at least so +far as they are concerned, in every particular; it does not contain a +single appeal to God; and of no other among Cromwell's speeches, are the +original MS. notes in existence. This speech, of the utmost historic +importance, is essentially unheroic in tone and circumstance,--the +querulous complaint of a master against servants who have overmastered +him,--an assertion of supremacy made by a man, who felt that he was not +really supreme. But the singularity that attends the address to the +recalcitrant officers is not yet exhausted. Surprise may well be felt +that Carlyle, with this speech before him, ventured on the construction +of his false image of Cromwell, the Hero. Judged even as an ordinary +ruler, he must have been a very sorry Protector who, according to his +own showing, was only a sham supreme magistrate,--the minister, the +'drudge,' of his servants but real masters--who had compelled him to +call, and to dissolve Parliaments, and to impose on England those +military despots. + +Carlyle has endowed his ideal Protector 'with the virtue to create +belief,' by the force of self-assertion, which still finds its +imitators, by pouring out contempt on all who differ from him, and by +implying that, as all other Cromwellian authorities are 'stupidities and +falsities,' he alone was wise and true. This was but a risky basis on +which to exhibit 'this Oliver' to the world, as the noblest Hero 'among +the noblest of Human Heroisms, this English Puritanism of ours,' and as +'not a Man of falsehoods, but a Man of truths.' But reading over these +words, and calling to mind the confidence with which Carlyle compels all +to join with him in his Cromwell-worship, it is impossible to resist the +conviction, that it was with good faith that he could see in Cromwell +'the glimpses,' even the revelation 'of the god-like,' and that he would +not attend to aught that disclosed Cromwell 'not' as 'august and divine, +but hypocritical, pitiable, detestable.' Even though he claimed a +familiar acquaintance with the 'Thurloe Papers,' he must have been +ignorant, it is impossible to think otherwise, of the black stories +which Cromwell's 'expertest of secretaries' could publish against his +master. + +And passing from the worshipper to the Idol; surely it is but in +accordance with common sense and common charity to hope that, as with +Carlyle, so also with his Oliver, the real Cromwell was wholly shrouded +from Cromwell's sight. That hope might, indeed, be forbidden by some. It +might be argued that, although many a wrong-doing, such as bloodshed, +oppression, or even treachery, has been committed by men in the sincere +belief that they were doing God service, Cromwell cannot be placed among +that group of self-deceivers: that he stands by himself, and on a lower +level. It was to save himself, to propitiate a gang of mutinous +servants, that Cromwell contrived and wrought out the deception of +March, 1655, and obtained in the bloodshed that it produced, the +essential result that he desired. And then, to give validity to his +imposture, to grace it with the Divine sanction, he ascribed his course +of acted and uttered lies, and the cruelty and misery they had +engendered, to God himself. + +Undoubtedly that statement is true. But yet on the other hand it may be +pleaded, that nothing but an intense living conviction, that God was +with him in all his ways, could have enabled Cromwell to make 'with +comfort' his 'appeal to God, whether' the Insurrection of March 1655 +'hath been the matter of Our Choice' or 'according to Our own +inclinations?' + +This is but a sorry plea to urge in Cromwell's behalf. The blackness and +the fury of the storm, which roared across England during his dying +hours, cannot have exceeded the blinding energy of that strong delusion, +that ever drove him onward, through his cruel and crooked devices, fully +persuaded that 'God was even such a one as' himself. Though all may +agree in believing that it was not from the lips, but truly from the +heart--not to cheat his hearers, but in a veritable ecstasy--that +Cromwell claimed to stand before God, as one who 'had learned too much +of God, to dally with him,' still it must be felt, that such an +assertion, coming from such a Protector, reveals a mental condition that +baffles the understanding. But as man, when he shrinks from passing +judgment on another, ever takes the better part; and as even with the +best amongst us, the relation of the soul to God is a question which, of +all others, should not be intermeddled with, assuredly we must leave +Cromwell, whose being is one of 'the deep things of God,' to His +judgment.--'Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then +the hearts of the children of men?' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] 'Report of French Ambassador in Holland.' Thurloe, iii. 322. + +[31] 'Clarendon' (Bodleian Papers), iii. II. + +[32] 'Clarendon,' ed. 1839, 871. 'Clarendon' (Bodleian Papers), Cal. +iii. 13 Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2535. fo. 637. + +[33] We thus found this conjecture: Cromwell held an intercepted letter +from the King to Mr. Roles, addressed to him under his alias, Mr. Upton, +expressed in terms of entire confidence (Thurl. iii. 75); but Roles was +not arrested. And the suspicion inspired by the immunity which Cromwell +granted to such a conspicuous Royalist, was confirmed by finding that +Thurloe in a letter (dated 6th April, 1655) to Manning the spy, refers +to 'Mr. Upton' as their common friend. (Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2542. +fo. 166.) + +[34] Masonet. See Note, 'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian) Cal. iii. 14 +Carlyle, iv. 108. + +[35] Information of J. Dallington, R. Glover, J. Stradling, E. Turner.' +Thurloe iii. 35, 74, 146, 181, 222. + +[36] Several Proceedings, &c. Thurs., 8th Feb.--15th Feb. 1655. +'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian Cal.) iii. 16. + +[37] Thurloe, iii. 164. + +[38] Thurloe, iii. 137, 180, 190, 198, 224. + +[39] Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus. 2535, fo. 637. This communication appears +in an anonymous letter addressed to Nicholas. Mr. Warner, with that +ready help that he and his department afford, by a comparison of the +handwriting, attributes that letter to Col. Price, who shared in +Rochester's expedition. + +[40] 'Clarendon Papers' (Bodleian), Cal. iii. 23. + +[41] Thurloe, iii. 573. + +[42] Ibid., iv. 344. + +[43] Thurloe, iii. 122, 182. Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus., 2535, fo. 627 + +[44] Whitlock, 625. Thurloe, iii. 359, 382. + +[45] Thurloe, iii. 391. + +[46] Thurloe, iii. 162 172, 177, 182, 219, 243, Rolls Cal. (1655), 73. + +[47] Thurloe, iii. 238, 243. + +[48] Heath's Chronicle, 367. + +[49] Thurloe, iii. 176, 181, 191. + +[50] 'Rolls Cal.' (1655), p. 216; Baynes Coll., Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. +21,424 fo. 50; Thurloe, iii. 226. + +[51] Thurloe, iii. 210, 222, 228, 241, 253. + +[52] Ibid., iii. 298, 356. In addition to constant terror of 'the +Barbadoes,' to which all Cromwell's prisoners were subject, a Royalist +in the Tower mentions, in a pencilled letter, that he had been +threatened with torture; and that the Protector himself used the menace +of the rack rests on the evidence of another prisoner's +brother.--'Clarendon Papers,' Bodleian Cal., iii. 82, 87. + +[53] Thurloe, iii. 676. + +[54] Pell Coll. Landsdowne MSS., 752. fo. 275, 282. Baynes Coll. Add. +MSS. 21, 423, fo. 74. Thurloe, iii. 170, 224, 246, 248, 253, 281, 284. +'Rolls Cal., 1655, 81, 84, 88, 99, 200. + +[55] Thurloe, iii. 281, 335. + +[56] 'Clarendon Papers,' Bodleian Cal., iii. 27, 34, 36. 'Rolls Cal' +(1655), 193, 245. Thurloe, iii. 358, 530, 561, 659. + +[57] Whalley's Statement; Burton, iv, 155. + +[58] Adapted from the 'Declaration' of Oct. 1655, and Speech. Carlyle, +iv. 107, Vol. 162.--_No. 324_ + +[59] Carlyle, iv. 108, 111. + +[60] Pell Corresp., Landsdowne MSS. Brit. Mus. 752, fo 275, 289. Hist +Rec. Comn. 6th Report, 438. + +[61] 1 Dec. 1654. Pell Corr., Lans. MSS. Brit. Mus., 752 fo. 215, 220. + +[62] 27 Feb. 1657. Burton, i. 383. Carlyle, iv. 177. + + + + +Art. VI.--1. _Oceana, or England and her Colonies._ By James Anthony +Froude. London, 1886. + +2. _Through the British Empire._ By Baron von Huebner. 2 vols. London, +1886. + +3. _The Western Pacific and New Guinea._ By Hugh Hastings Romilly, +Deputy Commissioner of the Western Pacific. London, 1886. + + +In days when proposals for the dismemberment of the Empire can be put +forward by great leaders of public opinion without exciting either +indignation or surprise, it may be worth the while of Englishmen to +spend a few hours in making themselves acquainted with the volumes which +we have cited at the head of this article. Most men are so absorbed in +what is going on immediately under their eyes, that they seldom bestow a +thought upon the remoter portions of the vast territory which +acknowledge allegiance to the Queen. They have but the most vague ideas, +or none at all, concerning the thoughts, wishes, and purposes, of the +large and growing communities which sprung from these islands, and which +have hitherto been proud of their English origin. It is true that this +pride has not been increasing of late years. The neglect or contempt +with which the Colonies have been treated by successive Liberal +Administrations did much to estrange the people, especially of Canada +and Australasia, and the whole foreign policy of England under Mr. +Gladstone's rule served to strengthen the general impression that our +decadence had not only set in, but was advancing with a rapidity which +was palpable to all the world except to those who were chiefly concerned +in arresting it. Mr. Froude tells us that one of the shrewdest and most +eminent of all the colonists whom he met expressed his amazement at the +popularity in this country of Mr. Gladstone,--an amazement which, Mr. +Froude adds, is felt 'wherever the English language is spoken' outside +England itself. We can fully confirm this statement. The hold which Mr. +Gladstone retains upon the country, after the long series of +unparallelled mistakes which a faithful view of his career must forever +associate with his name--the mistakes abroad, the mistakes at home, the +crowning and almost incredible mistakes in Ireland; that he should still +keep his hold of power and popularity after all this, absolutely passes +the understanding of our fellow-subjects abroad, no matter what politics +they profess. To them, we appear to be a people controlled by some +Circean spell, having cast common-sense and prudence to the winds, and +decided to be ruled henceforth by the man who can tickle our ears with +the longest speeches and the smoothest words. Byron was accustomed to +say that he looked upon the opinion of America as the verdict of +posterity. It is certain that our own kinsfolk beyond the seas are +sometimes in a far better position to realize the consequences of what +we are doing here than those who are actually playing the game. We are +too much wrapped up in self-complacency to allow their opinions to have +any weight with us, but they have the satisfaction, such as it is, of +seeing all their prognostications verified one after the other, and of +knowing that a rude and stern awakening from our dreams is hanging over +us. + +Of the three books to which we invite attention, Mr. Froude's is least +like the average book of travel, and undoubtedly is the most suggestive +of thought. Whether we agree with Mr. Froude or whether we do not, it is +always a pleasure to read him. The 'shoddy' work which extends to +everything in the present day, and which is eating into the very heart +of our new literature, has not corrupted the older handicraftsmen among +us. Not one record of travel in a hundred deserves to be mentioned in +the same breath with 'Oceana;' there are not very many books of the kind +in the language which excel it in variety, in vigour of style, in +picturesqueness of description, or in vivid glimpses of insight into +personal character. Baron Huebner is a more genial, discursive, and +garrulous traveller. He tells us everything that comes into his mind, +and has a note about everything he saw. We must add that these notes +are, generally speaking, of great interest, and often very amusing. He +undertook a journey over the greater part of the British Dominions, at a +somewhat advanced period of life, for his readers ought to be reminded +that he is the last survivor of the Congress of Paris, and that few men +have had more valuable experience in the diplomatic service. Before he +started, the Baron heard that his project was freely discussed at the +Traveller's Club. Some said, 'what a plucky old fellow he is!' His +comment upon this shows that he knows something of men as well as of +places: 'If any harm befals me, they will say, "what an old fool he +was!"' Happily, there was no occasion for pronouncing this judgment upon +him. He followed out his prescribed route with wonderful success, and he +has presented a graceful and highly interesting narrative of his +adventures. His observations may, in many respects, be usefully compared +with those of Mr. Froude, though it will not do to carry this comparison +much further. We must, however, do the Baron the justice to acknowledge, +that he always manifests an earnest desire to be fair and just. As for +the third book on our list, it has the advantage of being short and to +the point, and the additional advantage of being founded upon a +personal residence in one of the islands of the Western Pacific. Travels +based upon something more substantial than a mere flying visit are not +too common, and we are grateful to Mr. Romilly for making a very +entertaining addition to the number. We should be equally glad to +receive the account of North New Guinea which a Russian gentleman, Mr. +Miklaho Maclay, is so well able to furnish. It so chanced that he was +landed one night on the north coast of New Guinea, and in the morning +the natives found him sitting upon his portmanteau, like a man waiting +for a train. They took him for a being of supernatural origin, but by +way of making sure, they fired arrows at the stranger, tied him to a +tree, and forced spears down his throat. As he survived these injuries, +though by a narrow chance, the first impression of the natives was +confirmed, and Mr. Maclay was afterwards treated in a manner which seems +to have left him little ground for complaint. Thus far Mr. Maclay, as +Mr. Romilly informs us, has declined to commit any account of his +experience to paper; but a resolution of this kind is seldom unalterable +when a man has anything new to tell the world. + +Mr. Froude, as we have already intimated, intersperses the records of +travel with weighty reflections, or with valuable information, no part +of which can be prudently ignored by the reader. We do not know, for +instance, where in a short compass the arguments for and against +Colonial Federation have been so clearly set forth. As a rule, the +colonists everywhere view with great aversion the idea of placing +themselves under the direct authority of Downing Street, and no one will +be surprised at this who recollects the treatment they have almost +invariably received from that quarter. On the other hand, they are by no +means impatient or eager to proclaim their independence. 'British they +are,' says Mr. Froude, 'and British they wish to remain.' It will not be +their fault, but ours, if total separation ever becomes a popular cry in +Australasia or in Canada. There have been projects of a purely _local_ +colonial confederation, but they are not regarded with much favour by +the leading public men. Mr. Dalley of Sydney, expressed strongly his +disapproval of the scheme, and he also objected to the plan of having +the colonies represented in the Imperial Parliament by Colonial +Agents-general. The one thing which seems at present to be universally +desired is a better organization of the Navy. 'Let there be one Navy,' +Mr. Dalley said, 'under the rule of a single Admiralty--a Navy in which +the colonies should be as much interested as the mother country, which +should be theirs as well as ours, and on which they might all rely in +time of danger.' In these respects, the ideas of modern colonists differ +widely from those held in the last century. The great grievance of the +American colonists was that they were not represented in the British +Parliament. Had that demand been conceded, Mr. Froude is of opinion that +'Franklin and Washington would have been satisfied.' We do not quite +agree with him, for the party of Independence, though small at first, +was never likely to remain long contented with any compromise. +Originally, indeed, as we all remember, the leaders of the Revolution +disclaimed any intention of bringing about a separation. Franklin to the +last protested his desire to keep the colonies united to the mother +country; but Franklin was not the most sincere or straightforward of +men. Undoubtedly, however, the American colonists did not begin the +Revolution with the least desire to create a separate nationality, any +more than in the great civil war of 1861-65 there was at first, or for a +long time, any intention of effecting the abolition of slavery. Both +ideas were acquired by the people by slow degrees. Massachusetts, New +Hampshire, Virginia, and other States gave emphatic instructions to +their delegates in 1774 to 'restore union and harmony between Great +Britain and her Colonies,' and the party of independence was thoroughly +unpopular down even to the close of the struggle. One of its leading +spirits gave emphatic testimony on this point. 'For my own part,' wrote +John Adams, 'there was not a moment in the Revolution when I would not +have given everything I possessed for a restoration to the state of +things before the contest began, provided we could have a sufficient +security for its continuance.' This feeling had no small share in +misleading George III. on the American question, and in deepening his +determination not to let the colonies go--a fact which was brought out +for the first time, we believe, by one of the ablest and most judicious +of modern historians--Mr. Lecky. He also was the first to show, in a +very striking manner, that the American Revolution was practically the +work of a small minority, who, as he remarks--and the remark has no +slight application to the other revolution now going on in our +midst--'succeeded in committing an undecided and fluctuating majority to +courses for which they had little love, and leading them step by step to +a position from which it was impossible to recede.'[63] Nearly one-half +of the Revolutionary army consisted of Irish, who have ever since played +so important a part in the politics of the United States. + +In the present day, our colonists do not seek for separation, +neither--if Mr. Froude is right--do they ask for representation at +Westminster. They 'are passionately attached to their Sovereign,' and +they desire that their Governors 'should be worthy always of the great +person whom they represent.' They wish to have their trade encouraged, +as it might so easily have been a few years ago, if we had possessed +foresight enough to adopt a system of differential duties; they wish to +have good immigrants, and they see the growing necessity for a strong +navy. The information on these subjects which Baron Huebner acquired +should be considered in connection with Mr. Froude's statements. It will +be found that the two writers substantially agree. Baron Huebner found +that the Australian colonists fully comprehend the disadvantage which +complete independence would be to them. They are practically independent +now, but they are spared the political and social turmoil in which the +periodical election of a President would necessarily involve them. 'The +Queen,' said one of the Baron's friends, 'sends every five years a +Governor, who is not an autocrat like the President of the United +States, but the representative of constitutional royalty. In America +every four years, business is arrested, public order is disturbed, and +passions are let loose to the point sometimes of threatening even public +life itself. And why? In order that the nation may elect an absolute +master, irremovable by law during his period of office. Here every one +understands this, and every one knows how to leave well alone.' We do +not quite see how the President of the United States can be described as +an 'autocrat' or as an 'absolute master,' but the Australians are right +in their conclusion, that the American system would be a sorry +substitute for the arrangement which gives them a Governor without +inconvenience to themselves, and without any risk of infringement upon +their liberties. + +In the Cape Colony, the problem presents itself in a different form. In +its origin--as everybody ought to know, but does not--it is not an +English, but a Dutch Colony, and the Boers have never been disposed to +render to English sovereignty more than a passive obedience. The chief +facts in their recent history are but too easily recalled. When the +Transvaal was annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the people at first +submitted quietly; but the new Commissioner aroused first their fears, +and then their anger, by various encroachments which were regarded as +invasions of their rights. The Boers took up arms, English troops were +despatched from the Cape to suppress the rising, and these troops were +beaten at Lang's Neck. General Colley, who then commanded the forces at +Natal, hastened forward with more troops in the hope of retrieving this +disaster, but was himself beaten at Ingogo. He then, without waiting for +the reinforcements which were on their way to him, took up a new +position, was attacked by the Boers, and defeated in the memorable +disaster at Majuba Hill. Mr. Gladstone forthwith surrendered everything, +and since that time the Boers have been, as a matter of course, more and +more antagonistic to the English power. 'They came to Africa,' says +Baron Huebner, 'in 1652, with the intention of remaining there, and they +do remain there. The future and Africa belong to them, unless they are +expelled by a stronger power, the blacks or the English. They accept the +struggle with the blacks, and they avoid all contact with the English.' +Mr. Froude takes now, as he has always taken, a very strong view of our +own responsibility for all the difficulties which have arisen with the +Boers. We have, he says with some bitterness, 'treated them unfairly as +well as unwisely, and we never forgive those whom we have injured.' The +story is long, and it has been treated more than once, and we believe +with strict fairness and impartiality, in these pages. Mr. Froude +himself does not deny, that the effect of the surrender after Majuba +Hill 'was to diminish infallibly the influence of England in South +Africa, and to elate and encourage the growing party whose hope was and +is to see it vanish altogether.' The work was not half done. We insisted +upon a new Treaty, which was immediately broken by the Boers. Mr. Froude +once more recommends us to 'leave the Cape alone'--not to get out of it, +but to allow the Boers to manage their affairs in their own way. 'Our +interferences,' he tells us, 'have been dictated by the highest motives; +but experience has told us, and ought to have taught us, that in what we +have done or tried to do, we have aggravated every evil which we most +desired to prevent. We have conciliated neither person nor party.' + +Baron Huebner arrived at his conclusions by a totally different road from +that pursued by Mr. Froude, but the burden of his story is much the +same. It is the indecision of the Central Government, the uncertainty in +which the Colony is always kept as to what will happen to them next, +which causes nearly all the mischief. We have treated the Cape Colony as +we have treated Ireland, and with every prospect of bringing about the +same results. First 'coercion,' then abject surrender, then coercion +again--'a process,' as Mr. Froude justly remarks, 'which drives nations +mad, as it drives children, yet is inevitable in every dependency +belonging to us which is not entirely servile, so long as it lies at the +will and mercy of so uncertain a body as the British Parliament.' Baron +Huebner, who stands beyond the influence of our party politics, tells us +the same thing in other words. We want a policy, he says, in effect, +which shall be permanent in its application, and therefore not affected +by changes in Ministries. The fact is that we want such a policy for +many parts of our Empire besides South Africa, and we are likely to want +it. With Parliaments elected at short and frequent intervals, and +depending largely on shifting caprices, there is not likely to be any +fixed principle in dealing with political problems arising either at our +own doors or thousands of miles away. + +There is one question in which all the colonists take a deep interest, +and that is the condition and prospects of our trade. The Colonies are +now our best customers, and we sincerely hope they will continue to be +so, for with them we may possibly get, even yet, something like Free +Trade, whereas no chance of securing even an approach to it can be +looked for in the rest of the world. The Colonies will always raise at +the Custom House the greater part of the money they want for the +expenses of internal government, but they may be induced to offer +England more favourable terms than other nations receive. In Australia, +as elsewhere, it begins to be doubted whether 'England can trust +entirely to Free Trade and competition to keep the place she has +hitherto held.' If all our Colonies were bound with us in one commercial +federation, we could make sure of Free Trade over a large part of the +world's surface. 'We should have purchasers for our goods,' remarks Mr. +Froude, 'from whom we should fear no rivalry; we should turn in upon +them the tide of our emigrants which now flows away.' But at present, +and with the fiscal system of 1846 still regarded as sacred and +inviolable, nothing can be done. When we are prepared to acknowledge +that the world has moved since 1846, and that we must move with it, +there may be a possibility of widening the field of our +commerce--unless, indeed, we delay too long. Public opinion in England +is beginning to stir upon the subject. The demand for a great and +radical change will come, when it does come, from the working men, and +they are already showing signs of deep interest in a matter which +concerns the very means of their livelihood. They are in advance of +Parliament and Ministries on this subject. Mr. Froude is well within +bounds in asserting that 'those among us who have disbelieved all along +that a great nation can venture its whole fortunes safely on the power +of underselling its neighbours in calicoes and iron-work, no longer +address a public opinion entirely cold.' What, perhaps, has tended as +much as anything else to open our eyes is the discovery, that other +nations begin to be able to undersell us, not only in foreign markets, +but even in our own--here in England, at Sheffield, Birmingham, and +Manchester. Carlyle usually defined the Free Trade theory as the system +of 'cheap and nasty.' As we have never had Free Trade, and therefore as +it has never been properly tested, it is impossible to say what effects +it was capable of producing, properly worked out. The great fact which +confronts us to-day is that no other nation in the world, and not even +our own colonists, will have anything whatever to do with it on any +terms. This fact, at least, the English workingmen are beginning to see +and to understand, and results will flow from it at present not +anticipated by 'statesmen,' who know little or nothing about the hard +matter-of-fact conditions under which trade is carried on, and who are +assiduously primed by underlings with statistics which they repeat by +rote, and as to the real value or signification of which they are +completely and hopelessly in the dark. + +According to Baron Huebner, the Australian colonists have not abandoned +the hope of forming a customs' union with the mother country, and they +are far from regarding the proposals for giving them representation in +Parliament with the indifference which Mr. Froude imagines that he +detected. No one yet seems to have made even an effort to settle the +details of a scheme by which a navy could be kept up for the defence of +the Colonies, and an Imperial Zollverein formed between England and her +foreign possessions. But the 'advanced men,' according to Baron Huebner, +feel convinced that the idea can be carried out, and they are desirous +of finding, as a preliminary, direct representation in some form at +Westminster. The growth of this idea, says Baron Huebner, 'of a grand +confederation, which would completely revolutionize Old England, or +rather, which would create a new England by the handiwork and after the +pattern of her children in Australia--the growth of this idea among the +masses is, to my mind, an indubitable fact.' More improbable things have +happened than that England, weakened at home by the selfish ambition of +her statesmen, and by the frenzy of party warfare, may be saved by the +patriotism of her descendants in other lands. The first opportunity +which the colonists have had of evincing their determination to stand by +the old country was promptly taken advantage of, and with a heartiness +of spirit that we hope is not yet forgotten, quickly as all events, +great or small, are nowadays crammed into 'the wallet of oblivion.' The +offers of colonial aid during the Egyptian war roused a feeling +throughout the Colonies which astonished all Europe, and probably took +many of the colonists themselves by surprise. 'When English interests +were in peril,' Mr. Froude tells us, 'I found the Australians, not cool +and indifferent, but _ipsis Anglicis Angliciores_, as if at the +circumference the patriotic spirit was more alive than at the centre. +There was a general sense that our affairs were being strangely +mismanaged.' The men who think and talk like this are not struggling for +place and power amid the demoralizing surroundings of modern +Parliamentary life. They are able to take a cool and dispassionate view +of us and our affairs, and they begin to think that public life has +degenerated into a mere scramble for the spoils of office. Their +indignation, when Gordon was deserted by the Government which he had +tried to serve, was far greater than we seem to have had any experience +of amongst ourselves. They looked upon him as 'the last of the race of +heroes who had won for England her proud position among the nations; he +had been left to neglect and death, and the national glory was sullied.' +They volunteered to come over and help us fight our battles. The +Colonial Office, then under Lord Derby, was for a few days disposed to +turn the cold shoulder to these efforts of assistance. But the feeling, +which had been aroused in the country by the first announcements in the +newspapers, was too deep to be mistaken. It broke through the ice in +which the Colonial Office is usually imbedded, and compelled Lord Derby +to make a warm and grateful response to the Colonies. In reality, the +people there are, as many travellers besides Mr. Froude have remarked, +more English than the English themselves in their sensitiveness as +regards the national honour. We talk very coolly here of 'standing +aside,' of 'having seen our best days,' and of giving up one part of our +inheritance after another; but the Englishmen abroad are animated by +very different sentiments. The love of the 'old home' is strong in them, +even though they may have been born in the Colonies. It shows itself in +a thousand different ways. At Ballarat, Mr. Froude seems to have been +struck with a garden which might have been attached to an old cottage in +Surrey or Devonshire. There were cabbage-roses, pinks, columbines, +sweet-williams, laburnums, and honey-suckle--all prized because they +were the flowers of Old England. The people everywhere speak the +language with remarkable purity. The aspirate is rarely misplaced, +unless by a recent immigrant. The misuse of the aspirate is, indeed, a +peculiar part of the birthright of an Englishman. No one ever yet heard +it from the poorest or most illiterate class in the United States. In +Australia, says Mr. Froude, 'no provincialism has yet developed itself. +The tone is soft, the language good.' The young people looked fresh and +healthy, 'not lean and sun-dried, but fair, fleshy, lymphatic.' Mr. +Froude could not see any difference between his countrymen at home and +those who had settled down in this new and wider field of industry. 'The +leaves that grow on one branch of an oak are not more like the leaves +that grow upon another, than the Australian swarm is like the hive it +sprung from.' Mr. Service, the Prime Minister of Victoria, fully shares +the English predilections of his fellow colonists, but he appears to +feel some irritation at the tone so frequently adopted by the Liberal +press and party in this country, and emphatically urged in their day by +Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. This tone is founded upon the argument, 'The +Colonies are of no use to us; therefore the sooner they take themselves +off the better.' If some leaders and members of the Liberal party had +their way, we should be without a colony in the world, without India, +and with Ireland close to our own doors a hostile and an independent +Foreign Power. + +With regard to India it is to Baron Huebner's records of a very +remarkable journey, that we must turn for the notes of the most recent +traveller. The work is not so exhaustive, especially as regards the +Native States, as M. Rousselet's 'L'Inde des Rajahs,' but it is +eminently readable and lively, and the author gives abundant evidence, +that he took with him everywhere an earnest desire to arrive at the +truth, and a determination to form his conclusions with strict +impartiality. It is evident that in India he soon began to feel the +influence of that peculiar spell which the country exercises over most +persons of a susceptible or imaginative temperament. 'India,' he says, +'has always fascinated me, 'and few who have travelled there will not be +ready to make the same confession. It is much to be hoped that the +Radicals will be induced to listen to Baron Huebner's testimony +concerning the way in which we carry on government in our great Eastern +dependency. Nowhere, strange as it may appear, but in our own country is +English rule misunderstood or misrepresented. Injustice is +systematically done to the purest, most conscientious, and most +industrious Civil Service in the whole world; and our countrymen who are +spending the best part of their lives in the effort to promote the +welfare and prosperity of India, are too often held up to opprobrium as +examples of merciless tyrants, whose only object is to grind down the +natives into the dust. We seem to be losing many of the characteristics +which formerly distinguished us in the world, but there is one which +marks us out very plainly from all other nations--the habit of +disparaging our own achievements and vilifying our own reputation. We do +not find the Germans pertinaciously seeking to bring into disrepute the +efforts now being made to extend their colonial possessions; the +Americans have a motto, upon which they invariably act: 'our +country--right or wrong.' This may be carrying a good principle a little +too far; but it is better than the course we pursue, of striving with +might and main to dishonour our past, and to place our country in the +most contemptible light before the rest of mankind. Instead of our +having any reason to be ashamed of what we have done in and for India, +we have every cause to be proud of it; and, if English people had an +adequate knowledge of that work, and were in a position to exercise +their common-sense on the question, untrammelled by agitators and +demagogues, they would acknowledge gladly that they were heartily proud +of it. We believe that the great body of Englishmen in India are +honestly endeavouring to do their duty, according to the measure of +their abilities, and that, if any event occurred to cause our removal +from the country, it would inflict the direst forms of suffering and +calamity upon the people. It is important to hear what a foreigner, not +unduly prejudiced in our favour, has to say upon these points. First, +then, in reference to the men who are engaged in the practical work of +government--the Civil Service--Baron Huebner says:-- + + 'I have met everywhere men devoted to their service, working + from morning till evening, and finding time, notwithstanding + the mutiplicity of their daily labours, to occupy themselves + with literature and serious studies. India is governed + bureaucratically, but this bureaucracy differs in more than + one respect from ours in Europe. To the public servant in + Europe one day is like another; some great revolution, some + European war, is needed to disturb the placid monotony of + his existence. In India it is not so. The variety of his + duties enlarges and fashions the mind of the Anglo-Indian + official; and the dangers to which he is occasionally + exposed serve to strengthen and give energy to his + character. He learns to take large views and to work at his + desk while the ground is trembling beneath his feet. I do + not think I am guilty of exaggeration in declaring that + there is not a bureaucracy in the world better educated, + better trained to business, more thoroughly stamped with the + qualities which make a statesman; and, what none will + dispute, more pure and upright than that which administers + the government of India.' + +Of late years, as everybody is aware, a demand has sprung up for 'local +self-government' in India--a demand not originating with natives +themselves, but with the sentimentalists and philosophers who are doing +their best and their worst to take all the manliness out of the English +character. Lord Ripon was the mechanical mouthpiece of this sect, and +there can be no doubt whatever that no Governor-General or Viceroy of +India ever did so much harm in so short space of time. He and his school +tried their utmost to persuade the natives that what they want is 'Home +Rule'--that panacea for all the evils of modern life which is likely to +entail so many new burdens and trials upon us. The natives of India +never suspected, until Lord Ripon strove to impress it upon them, that +Home Rule is indispensable to their happiness. They are perfectly well +aware that if our hold upon the country is ever relaxed, there will be +nothing but chaos all through the land,--internecine wars, rebellions, +and massacres, such as marked the history of India until our rule became +well established there. Lord Ripon closed his eyes to all +this--_doctrinaire_ at heart, he could see nothing but his own +crotchets. The native, he declared, must have local self-government. But +Baron Huebner found that the people did not understand or desire this +much vaunted contrivance. The native, he says, 'refuses to be elected by +his equals. He wishes to be chosen by his superiors, and his superiors +are the English officials, represented in this case by the district +officer or magistrate. In the North-Western Provinces, this opposition +was so strong that the Supreme Government have been obliged, much +against their own views, to give to the Governor of those Provinces the +power of constituting the municipalities.' The sentimentalists may try +to develop the 'native mind' as they please, but they will never +persuade Hindoos or Mussulmans to trust their own countrymen as they +trust us. We have a reputation among them for fairness and for justice +which no native would ever aim to deserve, although he is not incapable +of understanding and admiring it. An East Indian of any race or religion +will never speak the truth if he can possibly help himself, but he has a +certain respect for the man who can and does. No doubt, the very +earnestness, with which we seek to dispense equal justice among all +classes, is a stumbling-block in our path, and always has been so. The +native likes to deal with a judge who will wink at perjury, and who is +not above taking a bribe. Yet the Englishman is everywhere trusted. 'If +proof were needed,' says Baron Huebner, 'to show how deeply rooted among +the populations is English prestige, I would quote the fact that +throughout the peninsula the native prefers, in civil and still more in +criminal cases, to be tried by an English judge. It would be +impossible, I think, to render a more flattering testimony to British +rule.' But these are facts which had no signification for Lord Ripon. He +pursued a policy which, designedly or undesignedly, was calculated to +bring our rule to an end. 'Lord Ripon's resolution,' some one told +Baron Huebner, 'means nothing or means this: The Government foresees that +the time will come when we must leave India to herself.' Then there was +the Ilbert Bill, placing Europeans in the country districts under the +jurisdiction of native judges. How could the natives of all classes fail +to look upon this as another evidence that the reins of power were +dropping from our nerveless hands? The point of the whole matter was +thus put by one of the civilians to Baron Huebner:--'The principle, that +the jurisdiction over European subjects of the Crown must be reserved +for judges and magistrates who are also European subjects, has always +been maintained. And it has always been recognized that in this +principle lies the only possible effectual guarantee to Europeans living +in country districts against the perjury and false witness so common +among the rural populations.' The Ilbert Bill proposed to take away +these safeguards from the European, and would have left him at the mercy +of native judges and native witnesses, whose only idea of justice is to +make a few rupees out of its administration. + +The school of Radicals represented only too numerously in the present +Parliament--unreasoning, ignorant of India, impulsive, narrow and +insular--is also represented among the more recent importations of +'competition wallahs.' Baron Huebner met with many of them. 'In their +opinion,' he says, 'the ideal of a sound English policy is the +dismemberment of the British Empire, and above all the abandonment of +India. To save England, it is necessary first to destroy her.' To the +shrewd and experienced Austrian diplomatist, these ideas seem to be +absolutely ruinous, but the oddity of it is that thousands of persons in +England cling to them with a sort of idolatry, as if within them was +compressed the sum and substance of human wisdom. The Radical party +to-day lives upon these theories of dismemberment, although it is +careful to keep its ultimate aim as much as possible in the background. +In India, its adherents are doing an immense amount of harm. Baron +Huebner seems to have been struck with amazement at the phenomenon. 'This +is, indeed,' he exclaims, 'a curious and perhaps a unique spectacle--an +immense administration, managed according to doctrines which are +repudiated by the large majority of those who compose it.' The natives +who are educated in our schools and colleges emerge from them filled +with ideas of Socialism and Atheism. We break down their faith in their +own creeds, without succeeding in inducing them to adopt Christianity. +They find themselves free to construct a religion of their own, or to do +without any religion. As regards the Government, they are led to +believe that it ought not to be where it is, and that India should be +ruled by its own people. The native press is full of sedition. Let us +hear what Baron Huebner has to say upon this subject, for it is worth +attention:-- + + 'Is there any public opinion in India? It is declared that + there is none. And yet people agree in saying that the + natives who have been educated in the State colleges have + become singularly importunate of late years, that they are + beginning to adopt a high tone, and that they take especial + delight in criticising the acts of the Government, who, + unwisely, as it seems to me, encourage if not provoke such + criticism. These baboos and their newspapers, I am told, + would only become dangerous at a crisis; and by a crisis is + understood a disastrous European war. But the life of + nations, like that of individuals, is nothing but a series + of successes and reverses. Looked at from this point of + view, the baboo is not such an insignificant being as he + appears to be considered.' + +No doubt our Radicals would contend that the Austrian's notion, that it +is unwise on the part of the Government to encourage criticism directed +against itself, is worthy of a man who has seen the Napoleonic _regime_, +and who perhaps admires the 'one man' form of government. But what is +the English Radical party itself living under now? Was ever the 'one man +form of government' carried out in so relentless a fashion as we see it +now in Parliament? Is there not one man in the Government, surrounded by +a crowd of nonentities--the one man filling the exact position for which +the Americans have invented the significant word 'Boss'? All liberty of +thought or freedom of action is gone. The principle insisted upon is 'do +whatever our leader tells us; go where he leads; give what he asks--all +without murmuring or discontent. The man who murmurs must be drummed out +of the ranks.' If we saw the French submitting to this system, no words +that we could use would be strong enough to express our contempt for +them. As we happen to be doing it ourselves, it must, of course, be good +and wise. Granted that it is so, we may fairly ask even the Radicals +whether they are quite sure that it is wise to think of giving up India? +With what do they propose to replace our government? The testimony of +every fair-minded man is that we have accomplished an incalculable +amount of excellent work there. Our magnificent highways and railroads, +our appliances for irrigation, would alone make our name immortal in the +country. The people thrive under our rule; every man is secure in the +possession of his property; war no longer devastates the country. We +recommend everybody who is unaware of these and similar facts to +consider well the evidence adduced by Baron Huebner:-- + + 'Materially speaking, India has never been as prosperous as + she is now. The appearance of the natives, for the most part + well clothed, and of their villages and well-furnished + cottages, and of their well-cultivated fields, seems to + prove this. In their bearing there is nothing servile; in + their behaviour towards their English masters there is a + certain freedom of manner, and a general air of + self-respect; nothing of that abject deference which strikes + and shocks new comers in other Eastern countries. I have no + means of comparing the natives of to-day with the natives of + former generations, but I have been able to compare the + populations who owe direct allegiance to the Empress with + the subjects of the feudatory princes. For example, when you + cross the frontier of Hyderabad, the climate, the soil, the + race, are the same as those you have just quitted, but the + difference between the two States is remarkable, and + altogether to the advantage of the Presidency of Madras or + of Bombay.' + +He goes on to say, that no one can deny that the British India of to-day +presents a spectacle that has no parallel in the history of the world: + + 'What do we see? Instead of periodical, if not permanent, + wars, profound peace firmly established throughout the whole + Empire; instead of the exactions of chiefs always greedy for + gold, and not shrinking from any act of cruelty to extort + it, moderate taxes, much lower than those imposed by the + feudatory princes; arbitrary rule replaced by even-handed + justice; the tribunals, once proverbially corrupt, by + upright judges whose example is already beginning to make + its influence felt on native morality and notions of right; + no more Pindarris, no more armed bands of thieves; perfect + security in the cities as well as in the country districts, + and on all the roads; the former bloodthirsty manners and + customs now softened, and, save for certain restrictions + imposed in the interests of public morality, a scrupulous + regard for religious worship, and traditional usages and + customs; materially, an unexampled bound of prosperity, and + even the disastrous effects of the periodical famines, which + afflict certain parts of the peninsula, more and more + diminished by the extension of railways which facilitate the + work of relief. And what has wrought all these miracles? The + wisdom and the courage of a few directing statesmen, the + bravery and the discipline of an army composed of a small + number of Englishmen and a large number of natives, led by + heroes; and lastly, and I will venture to say principally, + the devotion, the intelligence, the courage, the + perseverance, and the skill, combined with an integrity + proof against all temptation, of a handful of officials and + magistrates who govern and administer the Indian Empire.' + +Such is the testimony of an Austrian. It ought to bring a flush of shame +to the faces of not a few Englishmen. + +We have scarcely alluded to the lighter parts of Baron Huebner's +volumes--to the excellent touches of description or sketches of +character which enliven his pages, or to the numerous pleasantly-told +anecdotes of personal adventure. One of these anecdotes is worth +repeating, though the author must pardon us if we tell it in our own +way. It is too characteristic of life in New York--too full of valuable +hints for future travellers--to be lost sight of. + +It appears that on his last morning in New York, the Baron found that +his note-book had been taken from his room in the hotel. His servant and +his baggage had already gone on to the steamer, and the Baron prepared +to follow. First, however, as he still had two hours to spare, he +thought he would take a final glimpse of Fifth Avenue. These are the +little accidents which generally decide our fate in life--the visit to +some friend, the call on a stranger, the unpremeditated walk. As the +Baron was passing along, a carriage suddenly stopped, a +'fashionably-dressed gentleman' jumped out, and ran up to the traveller +with a cordial salutation. He introduced himself as a guest who had +dined, with the Baron, at a dinner given by Lord Augustus Loftus in +Sydney. 'I am one of the admirers,' he said, 'of your "Promenade autour +du Monde," and I venture to ask you to do me the favour of writing your +name in my copy of that book. In return, pray accept a volume of +Longfellow's poems, with the author's autograph.' The fashionable +stranger had skilfully touched the weak place in an author's heart. +Baron Huebner consented to be driven back to his hotel, where his new +friend was also residing. On the way, the stranger suddenly bethought +himself that the two books were at the house of an acquaintance, 'two +steps from the hotel.' He put his head out of the window, gave some +fresh directions to the coachman, and the Baron soon found himself being +whirled along at a furious rate along streets which he did not +recognize. Still, the old traveller had no suspicion of anything wrong. +His voyages and adventures certainly seem to have left him in a more +than ordinarily unsophisticated condition. At last the carriage stopped, +our author was conducted into the dark passage of a small house, and +then into a little dirty room, where he found a tall man seated before a +table, with his back to a mirror. In that mirror, the Baron saw his dear +friend from Sydney gently lock the door, and put the key in his pocket. +Then he understood all about it. + +Of course the tall man was polite, and after promising to go and fetch +the volume of Longfellow, he proposed to the gentleman from Sydney a +game at cards. While the two men played their sham game, the Baron had +time to reflect; he saw that he had been pounced upon very skilfully--in +less than two hours the 'Bothnia' would sail, all the people at the +hotel would think he had gone by her, no one would miss him, no one +would search for him. He might be murdered with impunity--with what +impunity the Baron would have fully realized if he had known a little +more of New York. No city in the world presents greater facilities for +getting rid of the evidences of foul play. We have not seen the recent +statistics of murders in New York, and doubt whether they have been +published; but in the five years between 1870 and 1875, we happen to +know that 281 'homicides' were committed there, and that only seven of +the murderers were hanged. Twenty-four were sent to prison--nominally +for life, although that is a mere form--and more than one-fourth of the +criminals were never brought to trial at all. If Baron Huebner had known +all this, he would have regarded his two new acquaintances with even +greater interest than he did. + +How and why they let him go scot-free is to us a mystery. They invited +him to take a hand in the game, and he declined. They pretended to play +for him; won, and offered him the stakes. He told them he had no money +with him, that they would get nothing for their trouble, that the French +Consul was to meet him on board the 'Bothnia' to bid him adieu; if he +were not there a hue and cry at once would be raised. 'Then,' adds the +Baron, 'turning to my friend from Sydney, I said to him, "Open the +door." The ruffians gave in without further trouble. There was an +exchange of looks between them, and the tall man said to the other, +'show him out.' We have heard of many strange things happening in New +York, but never of one so strange as that.' When I stepped upon the deck +of the "Bothnia," says the Baron, 'a few minutes before departure, I +felt that I had had a narrow escape.' Very narrow; we should advise +Baron Huebner, if ever again he finds himself in New York, not to tempt +his good fortune by taking a drive with strangers who admire his +writings. + +For the novel and stirring incidents of travel, we must turn to Mr. +Romilly's narrative of his experiences in the Western Pacific. He +transports us to a comparatively little known region, and it was his +good or ill fortune to come into contact with phases of life which must, +it is to be hoped, for ever remain unknown to most of us. Few living +men, for instance, have been present at a great feast on human flesh, +cannibalism being one of the habits of savage life which is found to +yield at the first touch of civilization. In New Ireland, however, Mr. +Romilly happened to be present at a sort of state banquet, given in +honour of a victory over the enemy. The enemy himself supplied the +materials of the repast. The details of the preparation of the horrible +food may be read in Mr. Romilly's pages by all who have a curiosity on +the subject. Some few particulars concerning a compound called 'Sak-sak' +may here be given:-- + + 'They, [the heads of the victims] were then disposed of in + various ways, and when I asked what would be done with them, + I was told, "They will go to improve the sak-sak." The + natives on the East coast of New Ireland prepare a very + excellent composition of sago and cocoa-nut, called sak-sak. + I used to buy a supply of this every morning, as it would + not keep, for my men. Now it appeared that for the next week + or so, a third ingredient would be added to the sak-sak, + namely, brains. I need hardly say that for the next two days + of my stay I did not taste sak-sak, though my men made no + secret of doing so. The flesh in the ovens had to be cooked + for three days, or until the tough leaves in which it was + wrapped were nearly consumed. When taken out of the ovens + the method of eating it is as follows. The head of the eater + is thrown back, somewhat after the fashion of an Italian + eating macaroni. The leaf is opened at one end, and the + contents are pressed into the mouth until they are finished. + As Bill, my interpreter put it, "they cookum that fellow + three day; by-and-by cookum finish, that fellow all same + grease." For days afterwards, when everything is finished, + they abstain from washing, lest the memory of the feast + should be too fleeting.' + +Mr. Romilly was informed by the natives that human flesh tastes even +better than pork. One is satisfied to take their word for it. In the New +Hebrides it appears that the people prefer to eat it dried, or 'jerked.' +At present, we are told, + + 'the cannibals in the world may be numbered by millions. + Probably a third of the natives of the country where I am + now writing (New Guinea) are cannibals; so are about + two-thirds of the occupants of the New Hebrides, and the + same proportion of the Solomon Islanders. All the natives of + the Santa Cruz group, Admiralties, Hermits, Louisiade, + Engineer, D'Entrecasteaux groups are cannibals, and even + some well-authenticated cases have occurred among the "black + fellows" of Northern Australia. I do not know that the fact + of a native being a cannibal makes him a greater savage. + Some of the most treacherous savages on this coast are + undoubtedly not cannibals, while most of the Louisiade + cannibals are a mild-tempered, pleasant set of men.' + +This testimony can do no harm in England, but it is to be hoped that Mr. +Romilly will not repeat it too often among his black friends, or the +moral of it might be misunderstood. + +The Solomon Islands still form a part of the world of which very little +is known. They are rarely visited, and travellers who have gone for the +purpose of 'taking notes,' have either altered their minds in good +season, or never returned. Some years ago, Mr. Benjamin Boyd, a member +of the Royal Yacht Squadron went out in his yacht, the 'Wanderer,' and +was captured by the natives. Search was made for him from time to time, +and his initials were found carved on trees. A notice was placed on all +the goods sent to the natives to this effect: 'B. B., we are looking for +you'--but no tidings were ever heard of the missing man. Mr. Romilly was +told by the captain of a labour schooner that somewhere on the south +coast he had noticed a European skull in a sort of temple; he recognized +it as European from its size, and he also observed that one of the teeth +was stopped with gold. We take it for granted that the dentists among +the Solomon Islanders do not use gold for filling teeth. This, then, was +probably the skull of the hapless owner of the 'Wanderer.' The Solomon +Islanders now make a practice of killing white men, if it can be done +safely, in revenge for the way in which they have been 'kidnapped' for +the labour traffic. The diseases introduced by their treacherous white +friends have made terrible ravages among them, and their own habits tend +still further to reduce their numbers. There are several places,' says +Mr. Romilly, 'where it is the custom to kill all, or nearly all, of the +children soon after they are born.' This is the only region we ever +heard of where so frightful and unnatural a custom exists. Female +children are, or used to be, destroyed in many countries; but the +indiscriminate slaughter of all children is decidedly uncommon. These +islanders have another device which is supported by an argument not +entirely devoid of strength. 'In a battle the victorious party, if they +can surprise their enemies sufficiently to admit of a wholesale +massacre, kill not only the men, but also the women and children. "We +should be fools," say they, "if we did not. This must be revenged some +day, if there are any men to do it; but how can they get men if we kill +the women and children?"' The same thought has doubtless occurred to +modern conquerors elsewhere, though, happily, circumstances have not +enabled them to carry it into practical effect. Some other curious +details respecting this group of islands, are given by Mr. Romilly. The +old women it appears, become adepts in the occult sciences, and the men +occasionally find the trade of wizard lucrative. They are chiefly called +upon to bring about a change in the weather, and their plan of +operations is to gain time. It resembles, in some striking features, the +method adopted by the 'inspired statesman' of our own latitudes when he +is trying to feel his way towards the development of some scheme which +he is half afraid of himself, and which the public view with profound +suspicion. Surely the most of us could find a counterpart to the +individual described in the following passage:-- + + 'One old sorcerer of my acquaintance was a most interesting + study. If he was asked for fine weather (which, by the way, + in the Solomons is the usual request, the rainfall being + enormous), he used to temporize in a truly masterly manner. + First he would hold out for more payment. This policy he + could continue for an indefinite length of time, as he would + of course require payment in a form which he knew was + difficult or impossible for the natives to comply with. + Then, if he thought there was any likelihood of fine weather + for a day or two, he would become possessed of a devil which + would leave him at once if the sun made its appearance, but + if the bad weather lasted the devil would last too; and + finally, if the bad weather was very obstinate and would not + come, he would hold out again for more payment. In this + manner my old sorcerer was very seldom mistaken in his + forecasts, and the influence he exerted over the clerk of + the weather must have been very irksome to that functionary. + +This leader of his tribe, we are further informed, had a 'great hold +over the imagination of his dupes.' We are more civilized--or _we_ think +so--than the islanders of the Western Pacific; but human nature is +pretty much the same there as here. As for the philosophy of such +matters, it is thus summed up by Mr. Romilly: 'I have often wondered +what the sorcerer thinks of himself; whether he really believes himself +to be a magician, or whether he realizes the fact that he is an arrant +old humbug. I think there is a mixture of both feelings.' It would be +useless to pursue this enquiry any further. + +Another of the unexplored islands of these seas forms a part of the +Admiralty group, and is called Jesus Maria. It was visited by the +'Challenger' in 1875, and again by Mr. Romilly on two occasions, the +last in 1881, in H.M.S. 'Beagle.' The natives, a fierce and warlike +race, crowded round the vessel, eager to sell everything they had +including their babies. Bottles and hoop-iron were eagerly sought for. +While engaged in carrying on this simple traffic, the party on board +noticed, to their amazement a white man on shore who fired off a gun to +attract their attention. The next day a boat rowed to the beach, and +there stood the white man. He proved to be a Scotchman named David Dow, +who was collecting _beche de mer_, and found his trade prospects so good +that he desired to remain where he was. The Admiralty Islanders have +some 'very singular customs,' not to be met with anywhere else; but +after thus piquing our curiosity, Mr. Romilly ruthlessly balks it by +remarking 'that they are, unfortunately, of a nature which cannot be +described here.' We share his regret upon his being obliged to keep the +secret; for when a traveller has found out anything absolutely fresh and +startling, common humanity should, in these dull and overcast times, +induce him to disclose it. But no doubt Mr. Romilly has his reasons for +silence, and we must submit to them. The Germans have recently hoisted +their flag upon several of these islands, and we may trust them to tell +all that they can find out, and more. + +In the Laughlan islands--a small group--the Germans are also to be +found. Indeed, they are spreading rapidly, over the Pacific Isles. As +the spirit of adventure is dying out among Englishmen, it appears to be +increasing in other nations. The genius for colonization appears to have +fled from us to Germany. Certain it is that Germans are everywhere +displaying that daring and enterprise in which we once shone above all +other people in the world. They will probably end by becoming masters of +the larger part of the Western Pacific. As for the Laughlan Islands, it +cannot be said that any one whose lot takes him there need be regarded +as an object of pity. The climate is good; food is abundant; life is +tolerably easy. True, there are no newspapers and no Parliament; but +existence has often been found supportable in the absence of these +things. The natives are friendly; and there are no animals anywhere, not +even rats. The men are decently clad, and the women wear a very +voluminous kilt, sometimes two or three of them, over each other. These +garments are made of grass, leaves, or fibre, stained various colours. +'In wearing two or three, care is taken to produce an aesthetic mixture +of colours--a little vanity which is met with sometimes at home amongst +ladies who like to display petticoats of many colours. It is considered +just as essential here to walk well as it is at home, but the two styles +are not quite the same. The Laughlan lady, in walking, at each step +gives a little twist to the hips, which has the effect of making the +kilts fly out right and left, in what is considered a highly fashionable +and beautiful manner. Though a somewhat similar effect to this may, I am +informed, occasionally be seen in petticoats at home, still I fear that +the firm stride of the Laughlan lady could hardly be reproduced in +English boots. To see ten or twelve of these ladies walking in the +unsociable formation of single file, which they adopt, with their +many-coloured kilts flying out on either side, is a very pretty sight.' +Evidently, a judicious traveller and observer might do worse than take a +tour to the Laughlans. + +Two other interesting spots to visit are Thursday Island and Norfolk +Island, both British possessions, and the first a place of some +importance, as the centre of the Torres Straits pearl-shell fishery. +This trade has demoralized the natives, who now seem to spend a great +part of their time in getting drunk, the Europeans too often setting the +example, 'It is a common thing,' says Mr. Romilly, 'for a diver to go +down three-parts drunk. The dress is supposed to have a very sobering +effect.' Here is a little story which will produce a pang of regret in +the minds of the jewellers of Bond Street:-- + + 'The best pearl I ever saw was in the possession of a + celebrated diver who was a shipmate of mine from Thursday + Island to Brisbane. He was offered on board the ship two + hundred pounds for it, which could not have been a third of + its value. But he refused every offer, as he had just been + paid off, and had plenty of money. I felt sure it would go + the way of all pearls when his money was finished, and + accordingly I informed a Sydney jeweller of it, and where he + could see it. When I was in Sydney a few weeks later I made + inquiries about it, and the jeweller told me that it was the + finest pear-shaped pearl he had ever seen, but that it was + unsaleable at its proper value in Australia, and he had + therefore made no attempt to buy it.' + +But the pearl fishery on these coasts is becoming less lucrative every +year, and it is now falling almost entirely into the hands of natives, +who can stay under water longer than men of our own race, and seem to be +endowed with greater powers of endurance. As for the 'labour trade' of +which we all have heard so much, Mr. Romilly gives us to understand that +it is dying out. It arose under the stimulus which the American war gave +to cotton growing, and to the sudden necessity for procuring assistance +for the planters. At first, the natives were found ready enough to +volunteer for the service, but the treatment they received was not +calculated to encourage the spirit of volunteering. Then all sorts of +artifices were tried to deceive them. Sometimes the labour-hunters +pretended to be missionaries. 'On the usual question being asked, "Where +shippy come?" they would reply, "Missionary." Perhaps they would all +pretend to sing a hymn very slowly, while the hatches would be left +open, and several tins of biscuits would be put into the hold.' +Curiosity would gradually draw the natives aboard, and then the hatches +would be clapped on, and the man-stealers made off for Queensland or +Fiji. It is to be hoped that Mr. Romilly is right in stating that these +practices have ceased, but unless we are mistaken, accounts have +appeared in colonial journals, within a very recent period, of organized +raids upon these coasts for the purpose of carrying off the natives. It +is needless to say, that a sentiment of hostility to all white men is +likely to remain as the permanent result of this abominable system. + +The fact is, that the white men who had the run of these islands down to +a few years ago were chiefly the off-scourings of other countries. They +found among the savages far fewer vices than they brought with them from +the civilized world. Some of them had run away to escape from the +vengeance of the laws which they had outraged; others were attracted by +the freedom which an entirely new life opened up to them. From them have +sprung a brood of half-castes who are the curse of the islands--like +many other half-castes, they manage to combine the evil qualities of +both races. The chief traders along the Pacific are now becoming much +more respectable. Some of them, indeed, appear to emulate the style and +condition of the prosperous English merchant. Mr. Romilly knows such a +man, living 'within a day's march' of the wildest cannibals in the +Pacific, who keeps up an establishment of forty or fifty men, with a +French _chef_. 'In a hitherto almost unknown island, he will give you a +dinner, every night, which could not be equalled at any private house or +club in Australia.' He keeps a yacht for private exploring expeditions, +and is to-day the principal 'trader and pioneer in the Pacific.' A +narrative of his observations and experiences would be of very unusual +interest, but like the Russian settler before referred to, he reserves +for his own benefit the knowledge he has acquired. The Germans are +pushing us hard, and in many respects they are better fitted for their +work than English traders. There seems a fair prospect of a gradual +elevation of social as well as of commercial life throughout the +Pacific. Already, lawlessness is discouraged. Not so very many years +ago, piracy was carried on openly in these seas. Mr. Romilly gives a +very interesting and curious account of one of the last pirates, a +desperado known as 'Bully Hayes,' once a boatman on the Mississippi. +This man began life by robbing his father, and soon afterwards made his +appearance on the Pacific coast the proud proprietor of a fifty-ton +schooner. 'How he had obtained possession of this schooner,' says Mr. +Romilly, 'was a matter of surmise, but he had been seen at Singapore not +long before this time, and a fifty-ton schooner had mysteriously +disappeared from that port without the knowledge of her captain and +owner.' He carried on a bold career of plunder for many years, and only +came to grief at last by an accident which he could not have foreseen. +He had stolen another vessel, and was making for some of his favourite +haunts along the coast, when the cook, who was steering, happened to +give him some offence. At that time, Hayes was accustomed to settle all +disputes off-handed with his revolver, and in accordance with this plan +he ran below to get his 'shooting irons.' Mr. Romilly thus relates the +sequel:-- + + 'The cook objected, and, catching up the first piece of wood + he saw, got on to the top of the little deck-house over the + ladder, and, the moment Hayes showed his head above deck, + gave him a blow which killed him on the spot. This cook + seems to have been some what doubtful as to whether Hayes + was even now dead, so he fetched the largest anchor the + cutter possessed, and bound the body to it, after which he + hove anchor and body overboard, remarking, "For sure Massa + Hayes dead this time."' + +Mr. Romilly, in the course of his wanderings, made a journey to New +Guinea, a portion of which has now been placed under British protection. +Little is known of the resources of this country, trading operations +having hitherto been almost entirely confined to the south coast. Mr. +Romilly's visit was brief, and he was not enabled to add much to our +previous stock of information. He does not seem to be aware of the +progress which the Germans are making in this island, or of the results +of the energetic support which Prince Bismarck invariably extends to his +adventurous countrymen. + +Here, then, are three works which ought to have the effect of reviving +the interest of the English people in their possessions abroad, if they +have not sunk into a hopeless state of indifference and apathy on the +subject. We do not for a moment believe that the working men are +indifferent to the present and future welfare of our Colonies, but they +need to be instructed as to the true value of their great inheritance, +and therefore it is that we earnestly wish such books as these could be +made readily accessible to them. It would be difficult to exaggerate the +importance of convincing them that it is our duty as a nation to hold +fast to all that we have added, from time to time, to the dominions of +the Crown. The foreign policy of the country, no less than the domestic +policy, must henceforth be directed mainly in accordance with their +opinions; and if those opinions are left to be influenced and guided by +the hereditary dislike of the Colonies which infects all Radicalism, our +position in the world will soon be reduced to one of comparative +insignificance. Baron Huebner concludes his volumes with these words: +'Had I to sum up the impressions derived from my travels, I should say, +"British rule is firmly seated in India; England has only one enemy to +fear--herself."' That is the whole truth of the matter. We have to fear +our own party divisions, the want of true public spirit among too many +of our 'politicians,' the tendency of Radical leaders to teach the +doctrine that England ought to shut herself within her own island +boundaries, and cast off all outside responsibilities. Sentiments of +this kind may be, and are, loudly cheered in the House of Commons, but +very few Liberals are daring enough to advocate them in the country. +Lancashire knows how valuable India is to her, and the manufacturing +districts generally see the growing importance to them, merely from a +commercial point of view, of the Australian Colonies. The anti-Colonial +policy is growing less and less popular among the people. To discredit +it altogether, it is only necessary to distribute, far and wide among +the working men, facts and considerations of the kind furnished in the +works to which we have endeavoured to call attention. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[63] See Mr. Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' +vol. ii, p. 443, &c. + + + + +ART. VII.--_The Apostolic Fathers: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp._ Revised +Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations. By J. +B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Bishop of Durham. London, 1885. 2 +vols. + + +This a great book, dealing principally with a great subject--the +'Ignatian Epistles.' The two volumes contain altogether 1849 Pages, 1311 +being devoted to St. Ignatius, the remainder to St. Polycarp. It is no +exaggeration to say that they are full of the most valuable information, +dealing with matters of vital ecclesiastical importance, the whole +presented in the most lucid style, and marked by broad, strong, +scholarship. They are the result of 'a keen interest in the Ignatian +controversy conceived long ago' by the Bishop of Durham. 'The subject +has been before me,' he writes in his Preface, 'for nearly thirty years, +and during this period it has engaged my attention off and on in the +intervals of other literary pursuits and official duties.' The +conception, execution, and production of the work had therefore been +protracted. The volumes as they are issued to-day are not in the form +they were originally written. Thus, the 'Appendix Ignatiana' was in type +several years before the commentary on the genuine Epistles of Ignatius, +and the Introduction and texts of the 'Ignatian Acts of Martyrdom' +passed through the press in 1878. In 1879 Cambridge and London +surrendered their great teacher to Durham; and there in the intervals, +few enough, snatched from official duties, the first volume has been +written, and from thence sent forth. It is necessary to bear this in +mind; because it will, on the one hand, explain absence of reference to +some works published since 1878; and on the other hand it increases the +value of the Bishop's results, when reached in entire independence of, +and yet in entire accordance with, those of other scholars in the same +field. + +This work testifies to the truth, that it is a mark of true greatness to +be modest. The most superficial examination of these volumes exhibits a +_Corpus Ignatianum_ superior to anything yet published. It is, says Dr. +Harnack,[64] 'without exaggeration the most learned and careful +Patristic monograph which has appeared in the nineteenth century.' It +exhibits 'a diligence and knowledge of the subject which show that Dr. +Lightfoot has made himself master of this department, and placed himself +beyond the reach of any rival.... There is nothing in it that is not up +to date, and the whole treatise forms a well-knit unity.' This is the +willing testimony of one of the ablest of the scholars of Germany who +have handled the great questions connected with Ignatius; the testimony, +moreover, of one who, as we shall see presently, finds himself at +variance with the Bishop upon two points, especially which, more than +any other, materially affect the genuineness of the Epistles and their +date. Such, however, is not the Bishop of Durham's thought. As he looks +back upon the work to which he has consecrated the prime of his life, he +speaks of it in language touching in its modesty-- + + 'I have striven to make the materials for the text as + complete as I could.... Of the use which I have made of the + critical materials I must leave others to judge. Of the + introductions, exegetical notes, and dissertations, I need + say nothing, except that I have spared no pains to make them + adequate, so far as my knowledge and ability permitted. The + translations are intended not only to convey to English + readers the sense of the original, but also (where there was + any difficulty of construction) to serve as commentaries on + the Greek. My anxiety not to evade these difficulties forbad + me in many cases to indulge in a freedom which I should have + claimed, if a literary standard alone had been kept in + view.' + +He follows up such words by others, conveying his thanks to those who +have helped him in his work, and the generosity of his recognition of +their services does but enhance the reserveful simplicity with which he +comments upon his own. The 'English reader' and the 'others' whose +judgment he desires, will, at least in England, unite in rendering to +him a respectful and grateful homage. The subject treated by the Bishop +is in a very real sense an Englishman's subject. For three centuries +English critics have not only entered the literary arena, in which the +great historic and ecclesiastical questions connected with his subject +have been discussed, but they have contributed largely to the materials, +offensive and defensive, which the combatants have employed. Ussher, +Pearson, Churton, and Cureton, have been English champions whose merits +all have acknowledged. The Bishop of Durham has now entered the lists to +support what has been proved sound in their conclusions, to remove what +was weak, and do battle for the truth. An impartial English public will +appreciate the gravity of this challenge, and may be trusted to grant or +withhold the victory he puts forth his best powers to win. + +The volumes lend themselves by their construction to an easy statement +of their contents, if those contents by their fulness must be of +necessity the despair of critic and reviewer. First there is the life of +the Saint, then the discussion of the manuscripts and versions which +delineate the Saint and his literary remains. These are followed by +exhaustive discussions upon all that tells for or against their +genuineness, the whole being treated both historically and critically. +Such will be found, briefly stated, the mode of discussing the life and +works both of St. Ignatius of Antioch and of St. Polycarp of Smyrna; and +two results will reward a patient persual of these volumes. The Bishop +has indeed limited these results to the study of the Ignatian Epistles, +but--under his guidance--the reader will find what is affirmed of one to +be true of both:-- + + 'The Ignatian Epistles are an exceptionally good + training-ground for the student of early Christian + literature and history. They present in typical and + instructive forms the most varied problems, textual, + exegetical, doctrinal, and historical. One who has + thoroughly grasped these problems will be placed in + possession of a master key which will open to him vast + storehouses of knowledge. + + 'But' (continues the Bishop) 'I need not say that their + educational value was not the motive which led me to spend + so much time over them. The destructive criticism of the + last half century is, I think, fast spending its force. In + its excessive ambition it has "o'erleapt itself." It has not + indeed been without its use. It has led to a thorough + examination and sifting of ancient documents. It has + exploded not a few errors, and discovered or established not + a few truths. For the rest, it has by its directness and + persistency stimulated investigation and thought on these + subjects to an extent which a less aggressive criticism + would have failed to secure. The immediate effect of the + attack has been to strew the vicinity of the fortress with + heaps of ruins. Some of these were best cleared away without + hesitation or regret; but in other cases the rebuilding is a + measure demanded by truth and prudence alike. I have been + reproached by my friends for allowing myself to be diverted + from the more congenial task of commenting on St. Paul's + Epistles; but the importance of the position seemed to me to + justify the expenditure of much time and labour in + "repairing a breach" not indeed in the "House of the Lord" + itself, but in the immediately outlying buildings.' + +St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp (together with St. Clement of Rome) are +the links which connect the Apostolic age proper with the Fathers of the +second and third centuries; and this fact has made them and their scanty +literature the hope and despair, the pride and the scorn, of opposing +factions. In the whirl and confusion of discordant criticisms it is +everything to study and to build up by the help of one who has caught +the spirit of the master-lives he expounds. There breathes throughout +the volumes of the Bishop of Durham the spirit of St. Ignatius's +counsel-- + + 'Speak to each man severally after the manner of God. Bear + the maladies of all, as a perfect athlete. Where there is + much toil, there is much gain. If thou lovest good scholars, + this is not thankworthy in thee. Rather bring the more + pestilent to submission by gentleness.... The season + requireth thee, as pilots require winds, or as a + storm-tossed mariner a haven, that it may attain unto God. + Be sober, as God's athlete. The prize is incorruption and + life eternal, concerning which thou also art + persuaded.'--(Ep. of St. Ignatius to St. Polycarp, I, 2.) + +Ignatius of Antioch: Men of old loved to find in his name (or its +Syriace quivalent, Nurono, [Greek: youra = phyr], _fire_) a prescience +of the torch of divine love which blazed in him. The fancy may pass, if +etymologically unsound; for Ignatius, 'the Inflamed,' was a true child +of the fiery East. Contrast him and his letters with St. Clement of Rome +and his Epistle to the Corinthians. Nothing is more notable in the Roman +'than the calm equable temper,' the 'sweet reasonableness.' He is +essentially a _moderator_. On the other hand, impetuosity, fire, +strong-headedness, are impressed on every sentence in the Epistles of +Ignatius. He is by his very nature an _impeller_ of men. Both are +intense, though in different ways. In Clement, the intensity of +moderation dominates and guides his conduct. In Ignatius it is the +intensity of passion--passion for doing and suffering--which drives him +onward. In Clement we listen to the voice of a judge delivering calmly +his sentence from his throne; in Ignatius we + + 'are startled by the ringing cry of the trumpet-call--sharp, + stirring, penetrating--sounding for the battle. The fire of + the hot East bursts in, like a sun, strong and impassioned; + a vivid personality, in flame with love, flashes in upon + the world, quivering as a sword of the cherubim; a rhetoric + in which the rapid, electric thought breaks out of the + strained and formless chaos of the _imagination_, as + lightning out of the rolling and dark thunder-cloud; a + theology, which, by the intense passion of metaphor, forces + an almost violent entrance into the secrets of the Most + High; a morality which can carry forward into the heights of + holiness the madness of faith, the extravagance of zeal, the + recklessness of enthusiasm, the audacity of love, dragging + them into the service of Christ at the chariot-wheels of + God's triumph--such are the characteristics of Ignatius of + Antioch.'[65] + +The Roman name of Ignatius (or Egnatius) tells nothing as to his birth +or origin. It was not unknown in Syria and Palestine, and was sometimes +borne by Jews. But another and a second name--Theophorus--of regular +recurrence in the seven genuine Epistles records at least his spiritual +birth. Ignatius probably assumed the name of 'the God-bearer' at the +time of his conversion or his baptism; the precedent lay before him of a +Saul commemorating a critical incident in his career (Acts xiii. 9) by a +similar adoption of a name; and that assumed by Ignatius became in its +turn an epithet freely applied to the Fathers at the Oecumenical +councils. The name gave birth to more than one beautiful legend. Was not +Ignatius, according to the Eastern belief, the 'God-borne' [Greek: +theophoros], the very child whom the Lord took into His arms (St. Mark +ix. 36, 37)? Was he not the 'God-bearer' [Greek: theophoros] on the +fragments of whose heart according to Western tradition, was found +stamped in golden letters the name of Jesus Christ? Whether he were a +slave or not must remain uncertain. It is a more probable deduction from +his own language that he--the 'untimely birth,'[66]--the 'one born out +of due time' and 'the last' of the faithful, had been rescued from a +pagan life, such as Antioch on the Orontes, the home of panders and +dancing girls, and 'Daphnici mores' would have applauded. + + 'His,' says Bishop Lightfoot, 'was one of those "broken" + natures out of which God's heroes are made. If not a + persecutor of Christ, if not a foe to Christ, as seems + probable, he had at least been for a considerable portion of + his life an alien from Christ. Like St. Paul, like + Augustine, like Francis Xavier, like Luther, like John + Bunyan, he could not forget that his had been a dislocated + life; and the memory of the catastrophe, which had shattered + his former self, filled him with awe and thanksgiving, and + fanned the fervour of his devotion to a white heat. + +There is no chronological inconsistency in supposing that Ignatius was a +disciple of some Apostle, if nothing can be affirmed as to the date of +his accession to the ministry or episcopate. On the supposition that he +was martyred, as an old man, about A. D. 110, his birth may be placed +about A. D. 40. When 25 years of age, or in A. D. 65, companionship +would still have been opened to him with St. Peter and St. Paul; or, if +his teacher were St. John, his conversion may be brought to A. D. 90, +when he would be about 50 years of age. Confessedly all this is +conjectural or traditional, as are also any details of episcopal +administration.' A 'pitchy darkness' envelopes the life and work of +Ignatius, till it is 'at length illumined by a vivid but transient flash +of light.' The story of Ignatius begins and ends with the story of his +death. 'If his martyrdom had not rescued him from obscurity, he would +have remained like his predecessor Euodius, a mere name.' His martyrdom +has made him a distinct and living personality, a true father of the +Church, a teacher and example to all time.' + +Thrilling though the narrative of this martyrdom must ever be, the +barest outline only can be given here. The Martyrologies, if they are to +be set aside as not containing authentic history, will fascinate afresh +the student who turns to them to find in the notes and discussions light +cast upon many a critical and ecclesiastical problem. The genuine +Epistles have furnished the Bishop with the materials of a sketch of +terror which every one will read with the deepest interest. + +For some unknown reason the Church of Antioch was by God's will deprived +of its venerable head; and with other 'convicts,' collected from the +provinces to be + + 'Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday.' + +Ignatius was led Romeward. His journey lay along a route which in part +had been traversed by Xerxes. The procession of the Persian, foremost +among his myriads of men for beauty and stature, halting near Sardis to +decorate a beautiful plane-tree with golden ornaments, and commit it to +the custody of an 'immortal'[67] is in vivid contrast to the procession +of 'criminals,' the Christian leader 'bound amidst ten leopards (or +soldiers) who wax worse when kindly treated,' halting also at Sardis, +his own decoration the 'bonds' which are to him 'spiritual pearls,' and +at Smyrna, writing letters which shall make him immortal.[68] At Troas, +like another St. Paul, he looked upon the shores of the Europe which was +in later ages to rise up and call them blessed; and from thence he +wrote how prepared, how eager he was to meet the 'fire, the sword, the +wild beasts,' how to be 'near to the sword was to be near to God; to be +encircled by wild beasts was to be encircled by God.' And then Rome at +last!--among those who thirsted for his blood, among those whose very +love he dreaded lest it should do him the injury of keeping him from +martyrdom. Touching is the appeal he had sent before him to the Church +'filled with the grace of God without wavering and filtered clear from +every foreign stain':-- + + 'Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can + attain unto God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the + teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of + Christ. Entice the wild beasts that they may become my + sepulchre and may leave no part of my body behind, so that I + may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to any one.' + +Into the colossal pile, erected for the display of the bloodiest of +inhuman crimes, he was led; and his own impassioned appeal was answered: + + 'Come fire and cross, and grapplings with wild beasts! Come + cuttings and manglings, wrenching of bones, hacking of + limbs, crushings of my whole body! Come cruel tortures of + the devil to assail me! Only be it mine to attain unto Jesus + Christ!' + +Men, with tear-stained faces, looked away from his death to 'form +themselves'--as he had bidden them-- + + 'into a chorus in love and sing to the Father in Jesus + Christ. God had vouchsafed that the Bishop from Syria should + be found in the West, having summoned him from the East. + Good was it to set from this world unto God, that he might + rise unto Him.' + +Love is perhaps wrong in asserting that his remains were brought back to +Antioch: it is unerringly right in having raised the Epistle to the +Romans--'his paean prophetic of his coming victory'--to be the martyr's +manual of a grateful posterity. + + 'The glory of Ignatius as a martyr,' writes the Bishop of + Durham, 'has commended his lessons as a doctor. His teaching + on matters of theological truth and ecclesiastical order was + barbed and fledged by the fame of his constancy in that + supreme trial of his faith.' + +If interest in the heresies he combated may be said to be confined +to-day to scholars who study them as a chapter in heresiology, or seek +in them a bone of contention, the interest in the points of +ecclesiastical order delineated by him was never more intense than now. +Only last year the testimony of the Ignatian Epistles to the burning +question of Apostolical succession was one point in the discussion +between Canon Liddon of St. Paul's and Dr. Hatch; this year, the view +presented by the Bishop of Durham meets with its ablest antagonist in +Dr. Harnack. In very truth the letters of the martyr have been the +battlefield of the controversy, which affirms or disallows the threefold +ministry of the Church of Christ. + +It will be perceived at once how much turns, not first upon the +interpretation of the Epistles, but upon the genuineness of the text +presenting itself for interpretation. What is the text? Never before +have the lovers of textual criticism had the opportunity of examining +and answering this question as they have now in the Bishop of Durham's +volumes. He first describes at length the Manuscripts and Versions, on +which a true text may be reasonably founded, and then gives the text, +together with the Versions, accompanied by Introductions and Notes which +leave nothing to desire. The labour necessary for massing and bringing +together all this information is only equalled by the exactness and +orderliness with which it is presented. But the Bishop writes not only +for the scholar, but for the man of general culture and intelligence, +who can enter with interest into a problem historical and antiquarian, +as well as textual and critical. To many the battle of the giants, over +the 'long,' the 'middle,' and the 'short,' form or recension of the +Ignatian Epistles, will be an intellectual treat, as he watches the +fence and scholarship of the various disputants. He will see that in +literary as in political controversy the spirit of compromise is to-day +in the ascendant, and that 'middle'-men have for once their value. + +To explain these terms. By the 'short' form is meant that which consists +of _three_ Epistles only--to St. Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to the +Romans. This exists only in a Syraic version. By the second, 'the middle +form,' are understood these three Epistles, and four more, namely, +Epistles to the Smyrnaeans, Magnesians, Philadelphians, and Trallians. +This form is originally Greek, and is found also in Latin, Armenian, +and--in a fragmentary state--in Syriac and Coptic. The third or 'long' +form, contains the seven already enumerated in a more expanded state, +together with six others, the recension being in a Greek and in a Latin +translation.[69] + +Practically the contest as to the truest form has been reduced to a +duel between the 'short' and the 'middle.' The 'long' form can be shown +to be the work of an unknown author, probably of the latter half of the +fourth century, and constructed from the genuine Ignatian Epistles by +interpolation, alteration and omission. But the 'long' form died hard, +and mainly through the thrusts of our own Ussher. + + 'The history of the Ignatian Epistles,' says the Bishop, 'in + Western Europe before and after the revival of letters, is + full of interest. In the Middle Ages the spurious and + interpolated letters alone have any wide circulation. + Gradually, as the light advances, the forgeries recede into + the background. Each successive stage diminishes the bulk of + the Ignatian literature, which the educated mind accepts as + genuine; till at length the true Ignatius alone remains, + divested of the accretions which perverted ingenuity has + gathered about him.' + +In the 'long' recension there is a letter to one Mary of Cassobola. This +was made the parent of a 'correspondence between St. John and the +Virgin,' bearing the name of Ignatius: and it is not improbably +connected with the outburst of Mariolatry in the eleventh and following +centuries. But with 'the first streak of intellectual dawn this Ignatian +spectre vanished into its kindred darkness.' The forgery was 'consigned +to the limbo of foolish and forgotten things.' This pretender set aside, +St. Ignatius was represented in Western Europe by the epistles of the +'Long' recension. The Latin text was printed in 1498, and the Greek in +1557. At first no doubt was felt about their genuineness. Gradually, +however, unwelcome critics pointed out gross anachronisms and blunders. +Men, with unpleasant habits of comparison, noted that Eusebius, the +Church historian (C. A. D. 310-25), quoted from only seven epistles, and +that the divergence of the 'long' text from that given by early +Christian writers[70] fully warranted the comment of Ussher, that it was +difficult to imagine 'eundem legere se Ignatium qui veterum aetate +legebatur.' Theological and ecclesiastical prejudice lent bitterness to +the rising strife. On the Continent, Reformer and Romanist ranged +themselves in opposite camps: the one quoting with delight passages +which favoured Roman supremacy, or advocated Episcopacy; the other +throwing them over as 'nursery stories' (or 'silly tales,' _naenia_), and +denouncing 'the insufferable impudence of those who equipped themselves +with ghosts like these for the purpose of deceiving' (Calvin). After the +publication of the edition of Vedelius, a Genevan Professor, in 1623, +Anglican writers, such as Whitgift, Hooker, and Andrewes, seem to have +accepted without hesitation the twelve (the seven named by Eusebius and +five others) contained in that edition; but in England as on the +Continent, the absence of so much, which could alone lead men to a right +conclusion, prevented the consideration of the question on its true +merits:-- + + 'Episcopacy was the burning question of the day; and the + sides of the combatants in the Ignatian controversy were + already predetermined for them by their attitude towards + this question. Every allowance should be made for their + following their prepossessions, where the evidence seemed so + evenly balanced. On the one hand, external testimony was so + strongly in favour of the genuineness of certain Ignatian + letters; on the other hand, the only Ignatian letters known + were burdened with difficulties. At the very eve of Ussher's + revelation, a fierce literary war broke out on this very + subject of Episcopacy--evoked by the religious and political + troubles of the times.' + +On the one side were Hall's (Bishop of Exeter) 'Episcopacy by Divine +Right asserted' (1639), and 'An Humble Remonstrance' on behalf of +Liturgy and Episcopacy (1641); Ussher's 'The original of Bishops and +Metropolitans,' and Jeremy Taylor's 'Of the Sacred Order and Offices of +Episcopacy' (1642); on the other, the five Presbyterian ministers whose +initials composed the monstrous name Smectymnuus,[71] issued their +'Answer to the Book entituled an Humble Remonstrance' (1641), and +Milton, in his short treatise 'Of Prelatical Episcopacy' (1641), +fulminated with 'fiery eloquence and reckless invective' against Ussher. + + 'Had God,' wrote Milton, 'intended that we should have + sought any part of useful instruction from Ignatius, + doubtless He would not have so ill-provided for our + knowledge as to send him to our hands in this broken and + disjointed plight; and if He intended no such thing, we do + injuriously in thinking to taste better the pure evangelic + manna by seasoning our mouths with the tainted scraps and + fragments from an unknown table, and searching among the + verminous and polluted rags dropped overworn from the + toiling shoulders of Time, with these deformedly to quilt + and interlace the entire, the spotless, and undecaying robe + of Truth. What impiety,' he added, 'the confronting and + paralleling the sacred verity of St. Paul with the offals + and sweepings of antiquity, that met as accidently and + absurdly as Epicurus his atoms to patch up a Leucippean + Ignatius.' + +'Out of his own mouth,' says Bishop Lightfoot, 'he was soon convicted.' +The "better provision for knowledge" came full soon. To the critical +genius of Ussher belongs the honour of restoring the true Ignatius. +Ussher observed that the quotations from this Father in three English +writers, Robert (Grosseteste) of Lincoln (c. 1250), John Tyssington (c. +1381), and William Wodeford (c. 1396), agreed--not with texts hitherto +known (the Greek and Latin of the 'long' Recension), but--with the +quotations in Eusebius and Theodoret. He concluded that somewhere in the +libraries of England he ought to find MSS. of a version corresponding to +this earlier text of Ignatius: and he discovered two--(1.) _Caiensis_ +395 [L1], a MS. given to Gonville and Cains College, Cambridge, in +1444 by Walter Crome; and (2.) _Montacutianus_ [L2], a parchment from +the library of Bishop Montague or Montacute, of Norwich. Of the first a +transcript was made for Archbishop Ussher, and is still in the library +of Dublin University (D.3.II), and is dated 20 June, 1631. It is full of +inaccuracies, arising sometimes from indifference to spelling on the +part of the transcriber, or to carelessness and inattention, but most +frequently from ignorance of the numerous and perplexing contractions. +The second has disappeared, probably on the day when Parliament ordered +the Archbishop's books to be seized and confiscated (1643). Bishop +Lightfoot has in part restored it by drawing attention to the collation +of this Montacute MS., which occurs between the lines or in the margin +of the Dublin transcript of the Caius MS. Archbishop Ussher's +examination of the Latin version, thus discovered, induced in his mind a +suspicion that Bishop Grosseteste was himself the translator. A marginal +note, for example, betrayed the nationality of its author; 'Incus est +instrumentum fabri; dicitur Anglice _anfeld_ [anvil].' Who so likely to +have had the ability to translate from a Greek version as Robert +Grosseteste, one of the very few Greek scholars of his age? Evidence is +not wanting that the Ignatian Epistles were imported from Greece, and +translated under the Bishop's direction by one or other of the Greek +scholars who were with him: and it is significant, in connection with +this point, that Tyssington and Wodeford belonged to the Franciscan +Convent at Oxford to which Grosseteste left his books. + +The result of Ussher's discovery was to determine, that this Latin +translation--valuable for critical purposes on account of its extreme +literalness[72]--represented the Ignatius known to the Fathers of the +fourth and fifth centuries. The Greek text still remained unknown, and +Ussher attempted to restore it from the 'long' recension by the aid of +his newly discovered Latin version. This he did by bringing the former +as nearly as possible into conformity with the latter. Ussher's book +appeared in 1644. It was marred by one blot. Eusebius had mentioned +seven Epistles, but Ussher--deceived by a mistake on the part of St. +Jerome--exscinded the Epistle to Polycarp, and condemned it as spurious. +Two years later, Isaac Voss published the Greek of six Epistles from a +Florentine MS., the Epistle to the Romans having disappeared from the +copy; and this omission was finally rectified in 1689 by Ruinart. From +the middle of the seventeenth century disputants ceased to trouble +themselves about the 'long' form. Controversy, presently to be noted, +raged about the Vossian letters, Daille (1666) attacking them, Pearson +defending them. + +It is a great leap to the year 1845, but not till then did a new era +dawn upon the questions at issue. It was in that year that Cureton +published the 'Antient Syriac Version of the Epistles of St. Ignatius to +St. Polycarp, the Ephesians, and the Romans.' This version was +discovered in two MSS. at the British Museum, and contained the Epistles +named in a shorter form than either of the Greek or Latin texts.[73] +Cureton's contention was that he had discovered the genuine Ignatius, +and that the remaining four Epistles of the Vossian collection, as well +as the additional portions of these three, were forgeries. Cureton was +opposed by Dr. Wordsworth, the late Bishop of Lincoln, then Canon of +Westminster, and defended by Bunsen. There followed quickly the +_Vindiciae Ignatianae_ (1846) and _Corpus Ignatianum_ (1849), in which +Cureton was considered to have not only refuted his adversary, but also +to have presented arguments which rallied to his standard Ritschl, +Lipsius, Pressense, Ewald, Milman, and Boehringer. Opposition to +Cureton's view was not, however, wanting. The Orientalists, Petermann +and Merx, united with the Conservative critical school, represented by +Denzinger and Uhlhorn, in preferring the Vossian collection; while the +Tuebingen school (Baur and Hilgenfeld) opposed itself to Ignatian +letters, short, middle, or long, as utterly subversive of their theories +of the growth of the Canon, and of the history of the Early Church. The +Bishop of Durham was himself, at that time on Cureton's side, 'led +captive' (as he says) 'for a time by the tyranny of this dominant +force.' We can but record the change in his opinions, and leave to the +reader to follow, in the Bishop's own pages, the reasons which induced +him to abandon a method and decline results that would not stand the +test of a searching criticism. Independent investigation of the +phenomena of the Armenian version and of the Syriac fragments led him to +regard the 'short' or Curetonian recension as an abridgment or +mutilation, rather than the nucleus, of the 'middle' or Vossian form; +and Zahn's monograph, _Ignatius von Antiochien_(1873), never yet +answered, dealt a fatal blow at the claims of the Curetonian letters. +Since then Lipsius has been convinced by Merx; Renan and Harnack are +agreed; and most scholars will come to the conclusion, that through the +Bishop of Durham's own serious investigation of the diction and style of +the 'short' form, 'the last sparks of its waning life have been +extinguished.' The collection was directed by no doctrinal, Eutychian or +Monophysite, motive, nor composed (as Hefele suggested) in support of +moral aim or monastic piety. It is simply a 'loose and perfunctory +curtailment of the middle form, neither epitome nor extract, but +something between the two,' and to be dated about the year A. D. 400 or +somewhat earlier. + +The ground having been thus cleared from the accretions of the 'long' +form and the mutilations of the 'short,' the Bishop of Durham considers +in the next place the genuineness of the seven Epistles known to +Eusebius, and preserved to us not only in the original Greek, but also +in Latin and other translations. It is a bitter reflection, that +discussion on this subject was (and--in a less degree--is still) evoked, +not so much by critical and textual variations and difficulties, as by +the exigencies of party spirit and theological animosity. A dreary, if +necessary, page of ecclesiastical history has to be studied, when French +Protestant and English Puritan turned passionately against the discovery +of Ussher and Voss. It is small comfort to the charitably minded to be +told that, had no Daille attacked[74] the Ignatian letters, Pearson +would not have stepped forward as their champion. + +The consideration of the genuineness of the Seven Epistles falls +naturally under the head of external and internal evidence. + +The Bishop gives his conclusion on the external evidence in the +following words:-- + + '(1.) No Christian writings of the second century, very few + writings of antiquity, whether Christian or pagan, are so + well authenticated as the Epistles of Ignatius. If the + Epistle of Polycarp be accepted as genuine, the + authentication is perfect. (2.) The main ground of objection + against the genuineness of the Epistle of Polycarp is its + authentication of the Ignatian Epistles. Otherwise there is + every reason to believe that it would have passed + unquestioned. (3.) The Epistle of Polycarp itself is + exceptionally well authenticated by the testimony of his + disciple Irenaeus. (4.) All attempts to explain the phenomena + of the Epistle of Polycarp, as forged or interpolated to + give colour to the Ignatian Epistles, have signally failed.' + +These four propositions sum up an examination minute and masterful. Not +only is the testimony of the Epistle of Polycarp adduced, but also that +of Irenaeus; that of the letter of the Smyrnaeans, giving the account of +the martyrdom of Polycarp; that of Lucian, and that of Origen (middle of +third century). After the age of Eusebius (half a century later than +Origen) 'no early Christian writing outside the Canon is attested by +witnesses so many and so various in the ages of the Councils and +subsequently.' Dr. Harnack, however, is opposed to the Bishop's +conclusions, and considers that, 'if we do not retain the Epistle of +Polycarp, the external evidence on behalf of the Ignatian Epistles is +exceedingly weak, and hence is highly favourable to the suspicion that +they are spurious.' This is not the place to enter into the dispute. We +can but record our opinion, that in the Bishop's pages Dr. Harnack's +objections are met by anticipation. + + * * * * * + +The internal evidence is treated by the Bishop under six heads. + +1. The Historical and Geographical Circumstances dealing specially with +the condemnation and the journey to Rome. Under this section are +collected also the personal notices yielding their testimony to the +genuineness of the letters in a manner not less striking, because +incidental and allusive, than the testimony of the geographical section. +The reader will linger here over the thought of the consolation and +refreshment brought to the good Ignatius on his way to martydom. We +learn to love Crocus and Alce, 'names,' says Ignatius, 'beloved by me,' +Burrhus and the widow of Epitropus, for the love they bore the Saint; we +learn to see in the Bishop of Durham's pages how such names bear +undesigned testimony to the Epistles which record them. + +2. The Theological Polemics. + +3. The Ecclesiastical Conditions. To these we shall return immediately, +after a few words on-- + +4. The Literary Obligations, 5, The Personality of the Writer, and 6, +The Style and Diction of the Letters. As regards the Literary +Obligations, the Bishop lays down the following maxim: 'A primary test +of age in any early Christian writing is the relation which the notices +of the words and deeds of Christ and His Apostles bear to the Canonical +writings;' and he adds, 'Tried by this test, the Ignatian Epistles +proclaim their early date. There is no sign whatever in them of a Canon +or authoritative collection of Books of the New Testament.' There are +frequent references to the facts of Christ's life, death, and +resurrection, and Gospel sayings are given; but there is 'not a single +reference to written evangelical records, such as the "Memoirs of the +Apostles," which occupy so large a place in Justin Martyr.' The same +holds good of the Apostolic Epistles. + + 'I would ask,' the Bishop concludes, 'any reader who desires + to apprehend the full force of these (facts with reference + to Ignatius) to read a book or two of Irenaeus continually, + and mark the contrast in the manner of dealing with the + Evangelical narratives and the Apostolic letters. He will + probably allow that an interval of two generations or more + is not too long a period to account for the difference of + treatment.' + +The personality of the writer is no doubt unusual. A power of +communication with angels,[75] 'extravagant' humility and +self-depreciation;[76] and a not less 'extravagant' desire for martyrdom +(confined, however, to the Epistle to the Romans), are not certainly +what a later age commended or found in the Martyrs; but due allowance +being made for the temperament of the Saint and the circumstances of the +case, 'it is a picture much more explicable as the autotype of a real +person than as the invention of a forger.' + +Once more, the Style and Diction of the Letters may be, as Daille and +his followers have thought, 'forced and unnatural' in the use of images, +'confused' as to language, and 'bombastic' as to diction. But what then? +asks the Bishop:-- + + 'What security did his position as an Apostolic Father give + that he should write simply and plainly, that he should + avoid solecisms, that his language should never he + disfigured by bad taste or faulty rhetoric?' + + 'It may not,' he continues, 'be considered very good taste + to draw out the metaphor of a hauling engine (Ephes. 9)--to + compare the Holy Spirit to the rope, the faith of the + believers to the windlass, &c. But on what grounds, prior to + experience, have we any more right to expect either a + faultless taste or a pure diction in a genuine writer at the + beginning of the second century, than in a spurious writer + at the end of the same?' + +Elaborate compounds, Latinisms, reiterations, are no proof of +spuriousness. + +It is not, however, so much on these as on so-called anachronisms that +assailants have attacked the letters. In every instance a supposed +success has ended in a reverse. Thus the term 'leopard,' applied to the +soldiers who conveyed Ignatius,[77] was said to have been unknown before +the age of Constantine; and it was argued that the forger of these +letters had antedated the word by two centuries. Pearson pointed out an +example of the word about A. D. 202; but the Bishop of Durham has found +it in a rescript of the Emperors Marcus and Commodus (A. D. 177-80), and +in an early treatise written by Galen, which carries it back within +about half a century of Ignatius. Evidently it was then a familiar term. +Another alleged anachronism is the use of the term 'Catholic +Church.'[78] Cureton and others have urged, that a period of full fifty +years must have intervened between the time when Ignatius wrote and the +first trace we find of the term 'Catholic Church.' This, says Bishop +Lightfoot, 'is founded on the confusion of two wholly different +things'--Catholic as a technical, and Catholic as a general term. +Centuries before the Christian era, the word Catholic [Greek: +katholikos] is found in the sense of 'universal'; both before and +after the age of Ignatius it is common in writers, classical and +ecclesiastical. 'In this sense the word might have been used at any +time, and by any writer, from the first moment that the Church began to +spread, while yet the conception of its unity was present to the mind.' +It was only later that the term 'Catholic' acquired a technical +meaning--orthodoxy as opposed to heresy, conformity as opposed to +dissent. In Smyrn. 8, 'where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic +Church,' the word is used in its sense of 'universal,' as contrasted +with the Smyrnaean or local Church over which Polycarp presided. Not only +is its use here not indicative of a later date, but this archaic sense +emphasizes an early one. After the word 'Catholic' had acquired its +later and technical use, it could not have been employed in its earliest +meaning without the risk of considerable confusion. + +We must refer our readers to a similarly thorough refutation of the +charge of anachronism brought against these letters on account of their +use of the term 'Christian,' and suggest to them an examination of the +interesting proofs of the position next secured,[79] that certain +characteristics of style and diction tell largely in favour of their +genuineness. + +We turn, after noting the summary of the internal evidences attesting +the genuineness of these letters, to the headings omitted (2, 3) on the +Theological Polemics and the Ecclesiastical Conditions. That summary is +as follows (i. 407):-- + + 'The external testimony to the Ignatian Epistles being so + strong, only the most decisive marks of spuriousness in the + Epistles themselves, as, for instance, proved anachronism, + would justify us in suspecting them as interpolated, or + rejecting them as spurious.--But so far is this from being + the case, that one after another the anachronisms urged + against these letters have vanished in the light of further + knowledge.--As regards the argument which Daille calls + "palmary"--the prevalence of episcopacy as a recognized + institution--we may say boldly that all the facts point the + other way. If the writer of these letters had represented + the churches of Asia Minor as under presbyterial government, + he would have contradicted all the evidence which, without + one dissentient voice, points to episcopacy as the + established form of Church government in these districts + from the close of the first century.--The circumstances of + the condemnation, captivity, and journey of Ignatius, which + have been a stumbling-block to some modern critics, did not + present any difficulty to those who lived near the time, and + therefore knew best what might be expected under the + circumstances; and they are sufficiently borne out by + example, more or less analogous, to establish their + credibility.--The objections to the style and language are + beside the purpose.--A like answer holds with regard to any + extravagances in sentiment, or opinion, or character.--While + the investigation of the contents of these Epistles has + yielded this negative result in dissipating the objections, + it has at the same time had a high positive value, as + revealing indications of a very early date, and therefore + presumably of genuineness, in the surrounding circumstances, + more especially in the types of false doctrine which it + combats, in the ecclesiastical status which it presents, and + in the manner in which it deals with the evangelical and + apostolic documents.--Moreover, we discover in the personal + environments of the assumed writer, and more especially in + the notices of his route, many subtle coincidences which we + are constrained to regard as undesigned, and which seem + altogether beyond the reach of a forger.--So likewise the + peculiarities in style and diction of the Epistles, as also + in the representation of the writer's character, are much + more capable of explanation in a genuine writing than in a + forgery.--While external and internal evidence thus combine + to assert the genuineness of these writings, no satisfactory + account has been or apparently can be given of them as a + forgery of a later date than Ignatius. They would be quite + purposeless as such; for they entirely omit all topics which + would especially interest any subsequent age.' + +The Section upon 'Ecclesiastical Conditions' deals with the ministry of +men, the ministry of women, and the liturgy of the Church. Interesting +though the two last points are of necessity to any student of Church +organization and ritual, we pass them by to consider the 'Ecclesiastical +Polemics.' The Bishop of Durham's view of the ministry of +men--especially of episcopacy--as furnished by the Seven Epistles is +briefly as follows. The name of Ignatius is inseparably connected with +the championship of episcopacy. Such extracts as the following +sufficiently attest the prominence and authority he assigns to the +office: 'We ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself; 'Vindicate' +(O Polycarp) 'thine office in things, temporal as well as spiritual. Let +nothing be done without thy consent, and do thou nothing without the +consent of God;' 'Give heed (ye Smyrnaeans) to your bishop, that God also +may give heed to you;' 'Let no man do anything pertaining to the Church +without the bishop.' Further, the extension of the episcopate in the +time of Ignatius is quite clear. He is himself the bishop 'belonging to +Syria.' He salutes and names the Bishops of Ephesus, of Magnesia, and +Tralles. In those parts of Asia Minor and Syria, with which he is +brought into contact, the episcopate properly so called is an +established and recognized institution. This is in accordance with what +the Bishop of Durham traces elsewhere in the history of the origin and +development of episcopacy;[80] but it is not in accordance with Dr. +Harnack's view. 'The evidence,' says the Bishop, 'points to episcopacy +as the established form of Church government in these districts from the +close of the first century.' Not so, says Dr. Harnack:-- + + 'Ignatius' conception of the position and significance of + the bishop has its earliest parallel in the original + conception of the author of the Apostolic Constitutions (_i. + e._ the end of the 3d cent.); and the Epistles show that the + Monarchical Episcopate in Asia Minor was so firmly rooted, + so highly elevated above all other offices, so completely + beyond dispute, that on the ground of what we know from + other sources of early Church history, no single + investigator would assign the statements under consideration + to the second, but at the earliest to the third century.' + +Let the reader, however, look up the references under the head of +"Apostolical Constitutions" in the Index to vol. i. of the Bishop's +work, and we shall be very much surprised if he agree with Dr. Harnack's +first conclusion. Will there not be even a lurking apprehension that Dr. +Harnack, in arguing from the 'original conception of the author of the +Apostolic Constitutions,' is confounding the 'long' and the 'middle' +Recensions of the letters? Possibly the anxiety of determination to fix +upon the third century rather than the close of the first as the date of +the establishment of Episcopacy may have been tolerable in the time of +Daille, but is it tolerable or should it be repeated now when the means +of a far more critical study of the question is open to all? In fact, +Dr. Harnack is evidently disturbed by the _parti pris_ of his position; +and he may be said to abandon it immediately for a more negative one: +but even so, how can a critic with the authorities placed before him +come even to his second and modified conclusion:--'The statements of +Ignatius regarding the rank to which the Episcopate has attained, +occupy, so far as our knowledge goes, an altogether isolated position in +the second century.' Isolated! This can be examined upon evidence. The +point is this: Are there, or are there not, witnesses to show that +monarchical Episcopacy had been developed in the later years of the +Apostolic Age? Irenaeus (born c. 130, according to Lipsius) was a scholar +of Polycarp, and Polycarp was a scholar of St. John. He delighted to +recal the reminiscences of his teacher, as did Polycarp those of St. +John. He was a travelled scholar; if born in Asia Minor, he lived at +Rome during middle life, and was Bishop of Lyons in Gaul in his later +years. He was probably the most learned Christian of his time. 'The +appreciation of the position of the man,' urges Bishop Lightfoot, 'is a +first requisite to an estimate of his evidence.' And what is his +evidence? Just that which is marked by such development as the man, his +time, and circumstances, would lead us to expect, when compared with the +Ignatius, from whom he is separated by about two generations. To +Ignatius, the bishop is the centre of ecclesiastical unity; so Irenaeus, +the depositary of Apostolic tradition. Irenaeus overlooks the identity of +'bishop' and 'presbyter' in the New Testament, and speaks of 'bishops +_and_ presbyters from Ephesus and the other cities adjoining' coming to +St. Paul at Miletus. It is to him an undisputed fact, that the bishops +of his own age traced their succession back in an unbroken line to men +appointed to the episcopate by the Apostles themselves. Thus he points +out the sequence of the bishops of the Church of Rome 'founded by the +blessed Apostles,' St. Peter and St. Paul, up to his own day; and in the +case of the Church in Smyrna, he finds in Polycarp not only one +'instructed by Apostles and who had conversed with many who had seen +Christ,' but also 'one who was appointed bishop in the Church of Smyrna +by Apostles in Asia.'[81] Similar opinions are reflected in many +passages, and they lead up to this conclusion:-- + + 'After every reasonable allowance made for the possibility + of mistakes in details, the language (of Irenaeus) from a man + standing in his position with respect to the previous and + contemporary history of the Church leaves no room for doubt + as to the early and general diffusion of episcopacy in the + regions with which he was acquainted.' + +Yet it is by fastening upon alleged 'mistakes in details,' and through +counter-conclusions with respect to some of the passages quoted, that +Dr. Harnack affirms that 'from the words of Irenaeus there is absolutely +nothing gained in regard to the origin of the episcopate and its spread +during the period between A. D. 90 and 140.' His method is somewhat +vexatious. He takes, for example, the list of the Bishops of Rome, and +he says, 'Irenaeus communicates this list, and declares that the Apostles +had _ordained_ Linus as Bishop of Rome;' and he adds, 'that this is +false can be proved, and is not denied even by Lightfoot.' The +marvellous part of this statement is, that Irenaeus says nothing of the +kind. The word 'ordination' does not occur in the passage in question. +The sentence is far from faithfully translated by the Bishop of +Durham:[82] Linus 'was entrusted with the office of the bishopric' by +the Apostles. Again, what is 'false'? the whole list, or the statement +as regards Linus individually? Neither is false when rightly understood, +and no denial is therefore forthcoming from the Bishop of Durham, or +required for what is not questioned. But Dr. Harnack--not satisfied with +having refuted an imaginary foe--next proceeds to ask, 'What reliance +then can we have in the statement of Irenaeus, that Polycarp was ordained +a bishop by the Apostles'? It might be answered, 'Your first premiss was +wrong, and until that be mended, further argument is unnecessary.' But +examine the question on its own merits--viz. that due to 'an +appreciation of the position' of Irenaeus--and its veracity is beyond +question. + +The Bishop of Durham supports the language of Irenaeus by the testimony +of Polycrates, of Ephesus, his contemporary, if junior; but without +dwelling upon that and other passages of more general reference, we can +come nearer to the time of Ignatius by reference to his contemporary, +Polycarp. We assume, with Bishop Lightfoot, that the testimony of +Irenaeus to Polycarp is of the highest value; but that assumption is no +rash one. Every one can verify the value of the testimony by perusing +the Bishop's interesting pages on the subject. The relation of Polycarp +to the Apostles has been given above. It is to his language about +episcopacy that we wish to refer. In Polycarp's letter to the +Philippians, the Bishop of Smyrna speaks at length about the duties of +presbyters, deacons, widows, &c., but he makes no mention either of the +bishop, or--in other parts where it might have been expected--of +obedience due to him. This is naturally explained on the supposition +that the see was then vacant, or that ecclesiastical organization was +not fully developed at Philippi. How rash, however, it would be to +affirm the non-existence of episcopacy, or to raise objections to it +such as would render incredible the statements of Ignatius, may be +inferred from the 'Letter of the Smyrnaeans,' which, speaking of 'the +glorious martyr Polycarp, who was found an Apostolic and prophetic +teacher in our own time, a bishop of the Holy Church which is in +Smyrna,' attests at once the respect paid to the office by the writer of +the Letter and to the title by which Polycarp himself was usually +called. + +Other contemporaries of Polycarp's were Clement of Rome and Papias. Do +they give no testimony to the development of monarchical episcopacy in +the later years of the Apostolic Age? Polycarp, if not acquainted with +Clement personally, was yet intimately acquainted with his genuine +letter, the first Epistle to the Corinthians. In this letter there is no +mention of episcopacy properly so-called. With St. Clement, as in the +New Testament, bishop and presbyter are convertible terms. He even drops +all mention of his own name though bishop of the Church in Rome. There +is not even the 'I' of Polycarp, but a 'we,' which defines that the +letter is written in the name of the Church and speaks with the +authority of the Church. The name and personality of the individual are +absorbed in the Church of which he is the spokesman.[83] The same +phenomena are observed in the letter written by Ignatius to the very +Church--Rome--in which alone they are noticed as occurring. The Epistle +of Ignatius to the Romans--save for the mention of his own +rank--contains no indication of the existence of the episcopal office, +inculcates no obedience to bishops, and says not a word about a bishop +of Rome. A like phenomenon is to be noticed in the next (chronologically +speaking) document, emanating from the Church of Rome--viz. the Shepherd +of Hermas. What does this contrast throughout mean, but that where--as +in Asia Minor--false doctrine and schismatical teachers prevailed, there +episcopacy was a safeguard; where these were absent--as in Rome--there +the episcopate had not yet assumed the same sharp and well-defined +monarchical character as in the Eastern churches: and what does this +contrast tend to disprove but the opinion of Dr. Harnack?--'Apart from +the Epistles of Ignatius we do not possess a single witness to the +existence of the monarchical episcopate in the churches of Asia Minor so +early as the times of Trajan or Hadrian' (_i. e._ A. D. 98-138). + +Turning to the other point--the Theological Polemics--disputed by +Harnack, Bishop Lightfoot has dealt with the subject on its positive and +negative sides respectively. The positive side yields results of real +importance in attestation of the date of the letters. The heresy +combated by Ignatius is a type of Gnostic Judaism, the Gnostic element +manifesting itself in a sharp form of Docetism. This marked type of +Docetism, far from being a difficulty, is an indication of early date, +since the tendency of Docetism was to mitigation, as time went on. The +negative side is educed by cross-questioning the writer's silence. There +were certain controversies which rent the Church in the middle and +latter half of the second century. These were such as, first, the +Paschal controversy (the proper day and mode of celebrating the Paschal +festival); secondly, the controversy about Montanism, the theatre of +which was the very region with which these Epistles are concerned. Yet, +not a word, not a hint is there, that the writer felt any interest in, +or was disturbed by, anxieties about either. A similar silence points to +the same conclusion, when we consider the absence of allusion to the +three great heresiarchs, Basilides, Marcion, and Valentinus. Give to the +first a period of notoriety conterminous with the reign of Hadrian (A. +D. 117-38), yet there is not the slightest allusion in Ignatius to the +tenets of the leader or his followers. Place Marcion some years before +the middle of the second century. Remember that he was a native of Asia +Minor and taught at Rome that there he was denounced by Polycarp as the +'first born of Satan;'[84] and that he enjoyed a world-wide reputation +for evil (according to some), for good (according to others). Yet in the +Ignatian letters there is not the faintest aquaintance with the man or +his teaching. Valentinus also taught at Rome (c. A. D. 140-60), and his +strange theories about _AEons_ and Ogdoads, about spiritual, psychical, +and material men, or any other fantasy of his speculative mythology, +were not thought beneath the criticism of an Irenaeus, a Clement of +Alexandria and a Tertullian. Yet no hint is there in the Seven Epistles +that these thoughts were familiar to the writer. At one time an exultant +Daille found in his reading of 'Magn.' 8 an attack on Valentinianism, +and consequently a welcome anachronism which proved the writer of the +letters a forger. The discovery of the true reading has been followed +not only by the collapse of the objection, but also by the adhesion to +the belief, that the writer's use of certain expressions is a testimony +to his existence in a pre-Valentinian epoch, when language had not been +abused to heretical ends. + +Dr. Harnack has little to say against the Bishop of Durham's conclusions +from the negative side of the investigation of these theological +polemics; but he has much to say against the Bishop's deductions from +the positive aspect of them. Though, says Bishop Lightfoot, + + 'in the Trallian and Smyrnaean letters the writer deals + chiefly with Docetism, while in the Magnesian and + Philadelphian letters he seems to be attacking Judaism, yet + a nearer examination shows the two to be so closely + interwoven that they can only be regarded as different sides + of one and the same heresy.' + +Not so Dr. Harnack. To him + + 'the identification of the Judaists and Gnostics in the + Ingnatian Epistles is quite inadmissible. Ignatius combats + the Doketists in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the + Trallians, and the Smyrnaeans, while in the Epistles to the + Magnesians and Philadelphians he warns against the + Ebionistic danger. In the last-named Epistle he warns + against other tendencies which threatened the unity of the + Church.' + +In fact, it is this Epistle to the Philadelphians which, in his opinion, +has led scholars astray. No one he thinks would have misunderstood 'the +fact--that the Judaists in the Epistle to the Magnesians were certainly +not Doketists, and the Doketists described in the Epistles to the +Ephesians, Trallians, and Smyrnaeans were not Judaists--had the Epistles +of Ignatius come to us without the Epistle to the Philadelphians.' It +would be beyond the province of this Review to enter into an +examination of the arguments adduced on each side; it would also be an +injustice to the disputants to infer that each selects or presses what +tells most of his view, but certainly a calm and dispassionate +inspection of these arguments will lead most men to think Uhlhorn, +Lipsius, and Lightfoot more correct in their unanimous verdict, that but +one heresy is attacked in the Ignatian letters, than Hilgenfeld and +Harnack in their preference of two distinct heresies--Ebionism and +Docetism. This latter conclusion can only be reached by treating the +Letters of Ignatius as Hilgenfeld has treated St. Paul's Epistles to the +Colossians; the former is attained by critical methods defining the +Judaism and Gnosticism observable to be but web and woof of one and the +same fabric. + +The very early date, and the consequent genuineness of these Epistles +are thus the legitimate conclusion from the study of the internal as +well as external evidences. That date is placed by the Bishop of Durham +between A. D. 100-118 in the time of Trajan. Wieseler had placed the +date of the martyrdom (upon which depends the date of the letters) as +early as A. D. 107, Harnack as late as A. D. 138; and the latter still +prefers to place them and the Epistle of Polycarp after the year A. D. +130. The earlier date reached by the Bishop of Durham is to him 'a mere +possibility which is highly improbable, because it is not supported by +any word in the Epistle, and because it rests only upon a late and very +problematic witness (Eusebius).' Dr. Harnack's present view is, in all +essentials, the same as that which he previously held. He has had the +advantage--which he courteously acknowledges--of examining Bishop +Lightfoot's 'painstaking consideration' of his views held in 1878; but +nevertheless he considers that the Bishop's method of considering the +whole question is 'not the proper' one--that his 'admittedly profound +learning has contributed little or nothing to the main question,' and +that 'he has not rightly comprehended the problem.'[85] Yet the ordinary +reader, who examines Dr. Harnack's re-statement of some of his views, +will feel that to ask the Bishop of Durham to re-examine them will be +but to ask him to slay afresh the slain. Dr. Harnack still clings, for +example, to his view, that Polycarp is attacking the Docetism of +Marcion; a view which, if sound, would convince the writer of an +anachronism; because in pretending to write between A. D. 100 and 118 he +has introduced a heresiarch not then notorious. But his view has been +shown by Bishop Lightfoot to be fallacious; and all that Dr. Harnack can +now answer is to repeat his preference for his own interpretation of +two passages adduced in the argument. + +From the amenities of this battlefield of friendly criticism we turn for +a few concluding remarks to the second and shorter life--that of +Polycarp--which these monumental volumes discuss. + +In point of method and treatment, the consideration of the history and +writings of this saint of the early Church follows the same lines, as +those followed in the case of St. Ignatius. First, the biography proper. +Next, one of those collections of passages and documents which render +these volumes so remarkable. In seventy pages the student will find a +_corpus_ of original extracts embellished with notes explanatory and +critical--Such as Imperial acts and ordinances relating to or affecting +Christianity; Acts and notices of martyrdoms. Passages from heathen +writers, containing notices of the Christians; Passages from Christian +writers illustrating the points at issue--most helpful to him in +apprehending not only the history of the persecutions, but also the +relations between the Church and the Empire, in the reigns of Hadrian +(A. D. 117-38), Antoninus Pius (A. D. 138-61), and Marcus Aurelius (A. +D. 161-80). Then come in successive order the examination of the MSS and +Versions, a collection of quotations and references, the consideration +of the genuineness of the 'Epistle of Polycarp' and of the 'Letter to +the Smyrnaeans,' closed by a discussion upon the date of the Martyrdom. + +The Church of Christ owes a great debt to Polycarp:-- + + 'In him one single link connected the earthly life of Christ + with the close of the second century, though five or six + generations had intervened. St. John, Polycarp, + Irenaeus--this was the succession which guaranteed the + continuity of the evangelical record and of the Apostolic + teaching. The long life of St. John, followed by the long + life of Polycarp, had secured this result. What the Church + towards the close of the second century was--how full was + its teaching--how complete its canon--how adequate its + organization--how wise its extension--we know well enough + from Irenaeus' extant work. But the intervening period had + been disturbed by feverish speculation and grave anxieties + on all sides. Polycarp saw teacher after teacher spring up, + each introducing some fresh system, and each professing to + teach the true Gospel. Menander, Cerinthus, Carpocrates, + Saturninus, Basilides, Cerdon, Valentinus, Marcion--all + these flourished during his lifetime, and all taught after + he had grown up to manhood. Against all such innovations of + doctrine and practice there lay the appeal to Polycarp's + personal knowledge. With what feelings he regarded such + teachers we may learn not only from his own epistle (Sec. 7), + but from the sayings recorded by Irenaeus, "O good God, for + what times hast Thou kept me, I recognize the firstborn of + Satan." He was eminently fitted, too, by his personal + qualities to fulfil this function as a depositary of + tradition.... Polycarp's mind was essentially unoriginative. + It had no creative power. His Epistle is largely made up of + quotations from the Evangelical and Apostolic writings, from + Clement of Rome, from the Epistles of Ignatius.... A + stedfast, stubborn adherence to the lessons of his youth and + early manhood, an unrelaxing, unwavering hold of "the word + that was delivered to him from the beginning"--this, so far + as we can read the man from his own utterances or from the + notices of others, was the characteristic of Polycarp. His + religious convictions were seen to be "founded," as Ignatius + had said long before (Polyc. 1) "on an immovable rock." He + was not dismayed by the plausibilities of false teachers, + but "stood firm as an anvil under the hammer's stroke." + (_ib._ 3).' + +The Church has ever claimed for her Saint not so much the reverence paid +to the martyr, or the deference due to the ruler, or the teachableness +powerful in the writer, as the attention obligatory to an 'elder.' Why? +We may give the reason in the Bishop's words: + + 'While the oral tradition of the Lord's life and of the + Apostolic teaching was still fresh, the believers of + succeeding generations not unnaturally appealed to it for + confirmation against the many counterfeits of the Gospel + which offered themselves for acceptance. The authorities for + this tradition were "the Elders." To the testimony of these + Elders appeal was made by Papias in the first, and by + Irenaeus in the second generation after the Apostles. With + Papias the Elders were those who themselves had seen the + Lord, or had been eye-witnesses of the Apostolic history: + with Irenaeus the term included likewise persons who, like + Papias himself, had been acquainted with these + eye-witnesses. And among these Polycarp held the foremost + place.' + +The existing letter to the Philippians is now recognized as a genuine +work of the Saint; and this on the testimony of internal evidence, quite +as much as on the direct testimony of Irenaeus, his own disciple. The +arbitrary method of a Daille, the interpolation-theory of Ritschl, and +the wholesale rejection of the Epistle by Schwegler, Zeller, and +Hilgenfeld, have ceased to command attention or demand refutation. The +Epistle is too closely confined to the letters and martyrdom of Ignatius +to warrant our looking for much refutation in it of existing error; but +the spirit and counsel of the 'elder' is truly there warning against +false and hypocritical brethren, and impelling his readers to turn unto +the word delivered unto them from the beginning. + +Never was Christian counsel and sturdy faith more needed than in the +period covered by the lifetime of Polycarp. The Bishop of Durham +describes it as 'the most tumultuous period in the religious history of +the world'; and in connection with the Bishop of Smyrna he notes that 'a +chief arena of the struggle between creeds and cults was Asia Minor.' If +in the earlier part of the second century (A. D. 112) Pliny, in his +celebrated letter to Trajan,[86] deplored what Polycarp may have +witnessed--on the one hand, heathen temples deserted and heathen +sacrifices starved as to their victims; on the other, young and old, man +and woman, patrician and peasant, bond and free, attracted to and +mastered by a 'superstition' which affected alike the city and the +village, the nobleman's mansion and the herdsman's hut, yet the splendid +successes of Christianity did not blind either saint or philosopher. 'A +veritable Pagan propaganda,' as Renan calls it, also set in in the +second century; and when Polycarp died, it was at its height. Everywhere +was it supported by the reigning emperors. 'The political and truly +Roman instincts of Trajan were not more friendly to it than the +archaeological tastes, the cosmopolitan interests, and the theological +levity of Hadrian. From their immediate successors, Antoninus Pius and +Marcus Aurelius, it received even more solid and efficient support.' + +Smyrna, the see of Bishop Polycarp, was fully exposed to the influences +of this reviving Paganism. The rhetorician, Aristides--true type of the +Pagan charlatan who summoned to his aid in subjugating a superstitious +people the mysterious and occult powers with which astrology and dreams, +auguries and witchcrafts, invested their possessors--was himself a +frequent dweller in Smyrna. Often must he have heard of and despised the +man branded by the titles, 'the teacher of Asia, the father of the +Christians, the puller-down of our gods, who teacheth numbers not to +sacrifice nor worship'[87] which--like the inscription over his +crucified Lord--did unconsciously proclaim the very and only truth. +Twice did the city of Smyrna, during Polycarp's prime, receive fresh +honours and privileges for her devotion to the worship of Imperial +deities. The religious guild of the temples of the Augusti celebrated +here their festivals with exceptional splendour; the 'theologians' and +'choristers,' who owed their existence and affluence to the magnificence +of a Hadrian, not only saluted him as their 'god,' their 'saviour and +founder,' but by senatorial decree established games--the Olympia +Hadrianea--grotesquely pompous in titular magnificence. Naturally this +affected the well-being of the infant Church of Christ in Smyrna; but +that Church was assailed from another quarter, and by the sharpened +weapons, not of a scornful superiority, but of fanatical hatred. The +Jews were both numerous and powerful in Smyrna, and two cruel episodes +in their late national history accentuated their fury against the +Christians wherever they met with them. The first was the destruction of +Jerusalem (A. D. 70). The fugitives from Palestine, who found refuge in +Smyrna with their fellow-countrymen already settled there, found +sympathy also--save from one class, the Christians. Compassion these +last could feel for men whose best blood had welled over the courts of +the Temple, whose dearest and nearest had perhaps perished in Jerusalem, +that 'cage of furious madmen, a city of howling wild beasts and of +cannibals--a hell' (Renan); but they knew to be true what a Titus had +acknowledged, that 'the hand of God' was in the victory of Rome. They +saw in the downfall of the Holy City the retribution of the Heavenly +Father for the crucifixion of the Messiah; and sorrow with the sorrow of +the weeping patriots of Israel they could not and would not. Their +refusal was the signal for a determination to seize every opportunity of +revenge; and the second episode, to which we have alluded, is connected +with a specially furious outburst of maddened passion against Christians +on the part of the Jews. Hadrian, fifty years after the fall of +Jerusalem, had resolved upon rearing on its ruins the city of AElia +Capitolina. Then flashed forth the rebellion of the Jew Bar-cochba (A. +D. 132-4). The 'Son of the Star,' supported by his standard-bearer, +Akiba, the greatest of the Rabbins, measured his strength with Rome. +With mouth breathing forth flames,[88] he inspired his partisans with +confidence, and his enemies with terror. Flung back, disappointed, and +slain at Bither, the 'Son of a Lie,' as his disappointed countrymen had +found him to their cost and re-named him, had yet found opportunities of +inflicting terrible tortures and agonizing deaths upon those Christians +in Palestine, who had dared to reject his Messianic claims, and refused +to blaspheme Christ. And the spirit of vengeance spread from the Holy +Land to the provinces. Twenty years after the death of the rebel leader, +the Jews of Smyrna--probably to Polycarp 'a synagogue of Satan,' as in +earlier times St. John his master had described + +them (Rev. ii. 9)--found their opportunity. Their vengeance then was +only slaked by the blood of the Christian Bishop. + +The Saint's martyrdom was the crowning consummation of the Saint's life. +With the Bishop of Durham's help we can now collect all that we shall +probably ever know of both; and to this we turn in conclusion.[89] + +The date of his martyrdom may be accepted as about 155 A. D.[90] If +Polycarp was then 86 years of age, his birth may be placed in A. D. 60 +or 70, at a time nearly coincident with the date of the destruction of +Jerusalem. That event was the cause which drove St. John to fix his +abode ultimately at Ephesus, the traditional home of St. Andrew, and +near to the Phrygian Hierapolis, where St. Philip the Apostle died and +was buried. The proximity of Smyrna to Ephesus, and the reputation +accorded to both in the flattering designation of 'the two eyes' of +proconsular Asia, would make intercourse between the cities familiar and +frequent. In the Christian advantages consequent upon such intercourse +Polycarp had his full share, if it be impossible to assert positively +that he was a Smyrnaean by birth, and of Christian parentage. But the +legends at the close of the fourth century, as embodied in the story of +Pionius, sought and found for his origin a more romantic, if sad, +beginning. One night, God's Angel appeared to a widow of Smyrna named +Callisto, rich in worldly wealth, but still more rich in good work. +'Go,' he bade her, 'to the Ephesian gate. There you will find two men. +They have with them a young lad for sale. Give them their price, and +take and keep the child. He is by birth an Eastern.' The child was +Polycarp. She did as she was bid. She bought and reared him, and +eventually left to him all her substance. The fact implied in the last +words, that Polycarp was a comparatively well-to-do man, is the one fact +out of the above story supported by more authentic documents. Perhaps +also the picture of the man, so pleasing and natural, drawn by Pionius, +may present traits faithful to the original:-- + + 'The love of knowledge and the fondness of the Scriptures, + which distinguishes the people of the East, bore rich fruit + in him. He offered himself a whole offering to God, by + prayer and study of the Scriptures, by spareness of diet and + simplicity of clothing, by liberal almsgiving. He was + bashful and retiring, shunning the busy throngs of men, and + consorting only with those who needed his assistance. When + he met an aged wood-carrier outside the walls, he would + purchase his burden, would carry it himself to the city, and + would give it to the widows living near the gate. The + Bishop Bucolus cherished him as a son, and he in turn + requited his love with filial care and devotion.' + +But we may catch from real and genuine sources three glimpses of the +man: in youth as the disciple of St. John, in middle age as the champion +of Ignatius, in closing life as the teacher of Irenaeus. Of the circle of +disciples who gathered round St. John, Polycarp is indubitably the most +famous. He delighted, in his declining years, to tell his younger +friends what he had himself heard from eye-witnesses of the Lord's life +on earth; and he would dwell especially on his intercourse with the +Apostle of Love. There is nothing improbable in the belief, that he was +ordained to the episcopate by the venerable Apostle. Among his +contemporaries were Clement, Papias, and Ignatius. Polycarp knew, as has +been stated, the letter of the great Bishop of Rome, and Papias--his +'companion,' as Irenaeus[91] calls him--became his neighbour at +Hierapolis. But it is with Ignatius that the younger man is inseparably +linked. They met, probably for the first (and only) time, at Smyrna when +the great Bishop of Antioch was on his way to martyrdom at Rome. +Touching in their affectionateness are the remarks which each passes +upon each. Polycarp inspires Ignatius with 'love.' The younger man is to +the older 'most blessed,' 'clothed with grace,' marked by 'fervid +sincerity,' a man 'whose godly mind is grounded on an immovable rock' +(Letter to Polycarp). To Polycarp, Ignatius 'the blessed' is the pattern +of men, 'obedient unto the word of righteousness and practising all +endurance,' 'encircled in saintly bonds which are the diadems of them +that be truly chosen of God and our Lord.' The two men parted, never +again to meet on earth, yet to be linked together by 'martyrdom +comformable to the Gospel' But ere that 'birthday' arrived, Polycarp had +to live for nearly half a century; and potent was his influence upon the +men of a younger generation. Melito, Claudius Apollinaris, and +Polycrates, famous among the Fathers of Asia, must have known him well; +Justin Martyr visited him from Ephesus; but mightiest and dearest of all +was his pupil Irenaeus, the champion of orthodoxy against Gnosticism. + + 'When I was still a boy,' wrote Irenaeus, '(I was) in company + with Polycarp in Asia Minor.... I can tell the very place in + which the blessed Polycarp used to sit when he discoursed, + his goings out and comings in, his manner of life and his + personal appearance, his discourses which he gave to the + people, and his description of his intercourse with John, + and the rest of those who had seen the Lord.'[92] + +Those were reminiscences and lessons never forgotten by the future +Bishop of Lyons. To him, as to 'all the churches of Asia and to the +successors of Polycarp' himself, the pupil of St. John was 'a much more +trustworthy and safe witness of the truth than Valentinus and Marcion, +and all such wrong-minded men.'[93] + +The end came at last. A persecution was raging; how or why we know not. +All that can be known is told in the 'Letter of the Smyrnaeans.'[94] The +simplicity and pathos of the story, as told by this ancient document, so +moved the great Scaliger, that he felt hardly master of himself. We +cannot tell the tale of triumph in better words than in those of that +exquisite piece of ecclesiastical antiquity. The great annual festival +was being held at Smyrna, presided over by the Asiarch and 'high +priest'[95] Philip, a wealthy citizen of the wealthy Tralles, and graced +by the presence of the Proconsul Statius Quadratus. The persecutor had +asked for blood, and blood had been granted him. Already several +victims, Philadelphians, 'so torn by lashes that the mechanism of their +flesh was visible even as far as the inward veins and arteries,' had +'endured patiently;' showing to the weeping bystanders such bravery that +the explanation became current--'(these) martyrs of Christ being +tortured, were absent from the flesh, or rather the Lord was standing by +and conversing with them.' Others 'condemned to the wild beasts, endured +fearful punishments, being made to lie on sharp shells and buffeted with +other forms of manifold tortures, that the devil might, if possible, by +the persistence of the punishment bring them to a denial; for he tried +many wiles against them.' Men remembered afterwards how 'the right noble +Germanicus,' scorning the pity the Proconsul would have extended to his +youth, 'used violence, and dragged the wild beast towards him.' Such +bravery, 'the bravery of the God-fearing and God-beloved people of the +Christians,' only whetted the pagan thirst for blood. There rang out the +shout, 'Away with the atheists![96] Let search be made for Polycarp!' +He had gone against his will into the country, probably to one of his +own farms; and he was found without much difficulty. He placed before +his captors food and drink, and asked but a single boon of them--'one +hour that he might pray unmolested.' Those mounted soldiers, 'wondering +why there should be such eagerness for the apprehension of an old man +like him,' gave their consent. 'He stood up and prayed; and being full +of the grace of God, for two hours he could not hold his peace, so that +they who heard him were amazed, and many repented that they had come +against such a venerable old man.' They brought him to the city, seated +on an ass. Steadily did he refuse the real and sincere endeavours of +compassionate heathen to 'save himself.' 'What harm,' they asked, 'is +there in saying, Caesar is Lord, and offering incense?' He would only +answer, 'I am not going to do what you counsel me.' As he entered the +stadium, the human roar, fiercer and more cruel than that of wild +beasts, rose above every other sound. Polycarp did not heed it; a voice +came to him from heaven, 'Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man;' and, +nerved by what other Christians had also heard, he stood at last before +Statius. Words, at first pitiful, greeted him: 'Have respect to thine +age!--Swear by the genius of Caesar! Say, "Away with the atheists."' The +Saint caught up the last word. He 'looked with solemn countenance upon +that vast multitude of lawless heathen; and groaning and looking up to +heaven, he said, 'Away with the atheists.' Was he then yielding? The +Proconsul had misunderstood him, but he pressed him hard and said 'Swear +the oath, and I will release thee. Revile the Christ!' Polycarp looked +him in the face, and gave him the answer which can never die. 'Fourscore +and six years have I been His servant, and He hath done me no wrong. How +then can I blaspheme my King Who saved me?' The words of pity changed +into threats. 'I have wild beasts here,' said Statius, 'and I will throw +thee to them except thou change thy mind.' 'Call them,' was the +unflinching answer. 'If thou despisest the wild beasts, I will cause +thee to be consumed by fire.' Polycarp remembered a dream of three days +before in which he had seen his pillow burning with fire, and which he +had interpreted to those with him as signifying that he would be burnt +alive. He answered now, 'Thou threatenest that fire which burneth for a +season and after a little while is quenched. For thou art ignorant of +the fire of the future judgment and eternal punishment, which is +reserved for the ungodly:' and then he added--in his impatience to be +'made a partaker with Christ'--'But why delayest thou? Come, do what +thou wilt.' Saying this, 'he was inspired with courage and joy, and his +countenance was filled with grace.' + +The herald's proclamation was soon heard announcing three times, +'Polycarp hath confessed himself to be a Christian;' and again the human +yell broke forth from Gentile and Jew, this time fashioning itself into +distinct speech: 'This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the +Christians, the puller down of our gods, who teacheth numbers not to +sacrifice nor worship.... Let the lion loose upon him!' 'That is +impossible' was the answer of the Asiarch, 'for the sports have closed.' +They shouted out 'with one accord, "Burn him alive!" Quicker than words +could tell, the crowds collected timber and faggots from workshops and +baths, and the Jews especially assisted in this with zeal, as was their +wont.' They placed around him the 'instruments prepared for the pile,' +and were going to nail him to the stake. He interposed with his last +request of men, 'Leave me as I am. He that hath granted me to endure the +fire, will grant me also to remain at the pile unmoved, without the +security you seek from nails.' They 'tied him to the stake.' He stood up +'like a noble ram out of a great flock for an offering, a +burnt-sacrifice made ready and acceptable to God;' and looking up to +heaven, made his last request of God in one of the noblest prayers +preserved in ancient or modern literature. His Amen said, 'the firemen +lighted the fire. The mighty flame flashed forth,' and men saw then, +what in later days they saw repeated at the martyrdom of a Savonarola +and of a Hooper,[97] the fire, 'like the sail of a vessel filled with +wind, surrounding as with a wall the body of the martyr. It was there in +the midst, not like flesh burning, but like gold and silver refined in a +furnace.' Could he not die? + + 'Lawless men, seeing that his body could not be consumed by + the fire, ordered an executioner to go up to him and stab + him with a dagger. And when he had done this, there came + forth a quantity of blood,[98] so that it extinguished the + fire; and all the multitude marvelled that there should be + so great a difference between the unbelievers and the + elect.' + +The Christians hoped to have taken away the 'poor body,' but 'the +jealous and envious Evil One, the adversary of the family of the +righteous,' instigated the Jews to urge upon the magistrate not to give +up his body, lest they (the Christians) should abandon the crucified One +and begin to worship this man,... 'not knowing' (add the narrators) 'how +impossible it would be for them to forsake at any time the Christ Who +suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are +saved--suffered, though sinless, for sinners--not to worship any other.' +The body was placed again on the pile and consumed. Then 'the bones, +more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold,' were +taken up and laid in a suitable place. + +So died a Polycarp as had died an Ignatius, both martyred, and both +memorable for 'nobleness, patient endurance, and loyalty to their +Master.' The motto of their deaths was the motto of their lives, +condensed into the saying of the martyr of Antioch to the martyr of +Smyrna:-- + + '[Greek: hopou pleion kopos, poly kerdos.] + + 'The greater the pain, the greater the gain.' + +We know nothing certain of the tombs which tradition or affection have +pointed out as the last resting-place of the calcined remains of either +Saint, but we need no longer such perishable monuments. The +English-speaking and English-reading race have in the volumes of the +Bishop of Durham a fitting shrine for those literary remains which +survive destruction. Scholarship and piety, study and prayer, have here +combined to shed light upon the writings, and to raise a monument to the +lives, of those champions of early Christianity, who in their day +wrought a good work, and still speak, though dead. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[64] Bishop Lightfoot's 'Ignatius and Polycarp,' by Prof. A. Harnack, +Ph.D, in 'Expositor' for December, 1885, p. 401. + +[65] 'The Apostolic Fathers,' p. 116. By Canon Scott Holland. + +[66] [Greek: hechtroma], 'Ep. to the Romans,' 9, with Bp. Lightfoot's +note. Compare 1 Corinth. xv. 8. + +[67] Herod, vii. 31, 187. + +[68] 'Ep. to the Rom.' 5, 'to the Ephes.' II, with note + +[69] See the useful Table in i. 222, and the excursus on 'Spurious and +Interpolated Epistles' in i. 223-266. Cf. also the 'Appendix Ignatiana,' +ii. 587, &c. + +[70] Such as Eusebius and Theodoret. Cf. i., pp. 137-40, 161-4. The +catena of quotations and references from the second to the ninth +century, given in i. 127-221 (cf. the hint on p. 220) is most important +for the construction of the text, and as a preliminary to the +determination of the priority and authenticity of the Epistles. +Harnack's objections to the quotation from Lucian (i. 129) are not +shared by Baur or Renan, and are indirectly met by Bishop Lightfoot, i. +331-5. + +[71] Stephen Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, +William Spurstow. + +[72] i, 79 For example, as regards the order of the words in the Greek +text this latin translation may be treated as an authority. The Greek is +rigidly followed without any regard for Latin usage. So also Greek +articles are scrupulously reproduced, in violation of Latin idiom. New +or unusual Latin words are introduced to correspond as exactly as +possible to the original; _e.g._ ingloriatio = [Greek: akanchesia]; +multibona ordinatio = [Greek: to polyeutaktan], &c. + +[73] See i. 72. For the text edited by Dr. W. Wright, see ii. 657., &c.; +and for a translation, ii. 670, &c. + +[74] 'De scriptis quae sub Dionysii Areopagitae et Ignati Antiocheni +nominibus circumferuntur,' &c. (1666). The Bishop of Durham +characterizes Daille's treatment of the Ignatian writings as marked 'by +deliberate confusion.' He knows the facts, but makes the Vossian letters +bear all the odium attached to the 'long' recension. Pearson's work, +'Vindiciae Epistolarum S. Ignatii,' appeared six years later in 1672. +This reply as compared with the attack was 'as light to darkness.' In +England it closed the controversy. + +[75] Trall. 5. + +[76] See, for example, Rom. 4, 9: Trall. 3, 13; Ephes. 1, 3, 21. + +[77] Rom. 5. + +[78] Smyrn. 8. + +[79] See i. 400, 405. + +[80] Consult Bishop Lightfoot's Essay on this subject in his Commentary +on the Epistle to the Philippians (p. 181, &c.). The 'Teaching of the +Twelve Apostles,' published in 1884, is rightly referred to now by the +Bishop of Durham as confirming his positions. + +[81] Comp. Irenaeus, 'Haer.' iii. 3, Sec. Sec. 3,4; iii. 14, Sec. 2. + +[82] Essay in 'Philippians,' p. 218. + +[83] Cf. Bishop Lightfoot's edition of 'St. Clement of Rome,' App. p. +252, &c. + +[84] Iren. 'Haer.' iii. 3, 4. + +[85] Cf. i. 568, &c. + +[86] See i. 50, &c.; ii. 532. The Bishop of Durham's collection of facts +and references dealing with this subject is an admirable +specimen--everywhere repeated--of the exhaustive treatment he applies to +single points. + +[87] Letter of the Smyrnaeans, Sec. 12. + +[88] He had learnt the trick of keeping lighted tow or straw in his +mouth. See other instances in Milman's 'History of the Jeos,' ii. 429, +n. _x_. + +[89] Cf. Justin Martyr in Eusebius, 'Hist.' iv, 8. + +[90] i. 422, 629, &c. Mr. Rendell, in the 'Studia Biblica' (oxf. 1885), +has come to the same conclusion by an independent treatment. + +[91] Haer. v. 33, 34. + +[92] Euseb. 'Hist. Eccl.' v. 20 + +[93] Iren. 'Haer.' iii. 3. + +[94] The genuineness of the main document (at least) is unaffected by +recent attacks. The impugning process of Schuerer, Lipsius, and Kelm has +been successfully resisted by Renan, Hilgenfeld (in part), and the +Bishop of Durham (i 588, &c.). + +[95] The subjects of the Asiarchate, of the identity of Asiarch and +high-priest, have suggested to the Bishop of Durham another of those +exhaustive discussions which will win for him the gratitude of the +students (see ii. 987, &c.) + +[96] The name given by the heathen to the Christians, whom they counted +godless because they had neither image nor visible representation of the +Deity. See ii. 160, note to line 1. + +[97] See i. 599 nn. 1, 6. + +[98] On the celebrated reading, 'there came forth a dove and a quantity +of blood, see ii. 974, note to i. 3. It is to be explained by the +belief, that the soul departed from the body at death in the form of a +bird; the dove most readily suggesting itself as the emblem of a +Christian soul. + + + + +Art. VIII.--1. _An Address delivered to the Students of Edinburgh +University on Nov. 3, 1885._ By the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord Rector of +the University of Edinburgh. + +2. _Hearing, Reading and Thinking: an address to the Students attending +the Lectures of the London Society for the Extension of University +Teaching._ By the Rt. Hon. G.J. Goschen, M.P. + +3. _The Choice of Books and other Literary Pieces._ By Frederic +Harrison. London, 1886. + + +The subject of Books and Reading is _in the air_ at the present time; +Lord Iddlesleigh raised the question last November, by his admirable +discourse on Desultory Reading, delivered at Edinburgh. Sir John Lubbock +was not slow to follow the lead, in his lecture at the Working Men's +College; and lastly, we have Mr. Goschen's more abstract and despondent +remarks on Hearing, Reading, and Thinking. The discussion has been +carried forward from Newspaper to Journal, and from Journal to Magazine, +and has attracted representatives of the most heterogeneous elements +into the ever widening circle. Sir John Lubbock wound up by enumerating +a _hundred_ of the books-- + + 'most frequently mentioned with approval by those who have + referred directly or indirectly to the pleasure of reading, + and I have ventured to include some, which though less + frequently mentioned, are especial favourites of my own. I + have abstained for obvious reasons from mentioning works by + living authors.' ('Self Help,' however, is admitted into Sir + John's revised list), 'though from many of them, Tennyson, + Ruskin, and others, I have myself derived the keenest + enjoyment; and have omitted works of Science, with one or + two exceptions, because the subject is so progressive. I + feel that the attempt is over bold, and must beg for + indulgence; but indeed one object I have had in view is to + stimulate others, more competent far than I am, to give us + the advantage of their opinions. If we had such lists drawn + up by a few good guides, they would be most useful.' + +The challenge thus thrown down was quickly taken up by the Editor of the +'Pall Mall Gazette,' who forthwith sent out a Circular to certain +eminent men of the day, inviting them 'to jot down such a list--not +necessarily containing a hundred volumes--as would help the present +generation to choose their reading more wisely.' Whether the majority of +the 'guides' thus appealed to have responded to the call, we are not +informed; the replies of several have been published; and our thanks are +due to those who have been instrumental in opening up a discussion of +great variety and universal interest; though we must confess to some +regret that the initiative was not given in a different form. Why the +number should be fixed at one hundred; why works of Science should be +excluded; why Biography and Travels should enjoy so meagre a +representation on Sir John Lubbock's list, are questions to which no +satisfactory answer has been given. + +Who is it, we would ask in the first place, for whom this list is +primarily intended? Not the man whose love of books is firmly +established, for he will have chosen for himself his own walk among the +innumerable highways and byepaths of literature; nor he whose tastes are +just forming, for the field is too wide, and he would hardly prefer the +Analects of Confucius, the Shahnameh, and the Sheking, to 'Marco's +Polo's Travels,' Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' and 'AEsop's Fables.' No +list, however, that could be drawn up would escape criticism, and our +desire is not so much to suggest in what manner the present list might +be amended, as to indicate how, in our opinion, it might have been made +to serve some practical purpose. + +'Books have brought some men to knowledge and some to madness. As +fulness sometimes hurteth the stomach more than hunger, so fareth it +with arts; and as of meats, so likewise of books, the use ought to be +limited according to the quality of him that useth them.' Thus wrote +Petrarch, and the comparison between the bodily and mental digestion, if +trite, is very far from being a mere superficial analogy. + +Those who are blessed with a judicial friend, quite competent to make a +diagnosis of their literary capacity and prescribe a diet, are indeed +fortunate--'sua si bona norint.' Such prescriptions have been long since +made, and handed down to us. That written out by Doctor Johnson, for his +friend the Rev. Mr. Astle of Ashbourne, is brief enough, and savours of +the drastic remedies fashionable in the last century.[99] If on glancing +over the Doctor's list our readers are inclined to assume that the Rev. +Mr. Astle was possessed of a very healthy digestion, we would remind +them that solid joints and heavy folios were more in vogue at that time +than in these days of French cookery and periodical literature. + +In later times Comte also, among others, has furnished a catalogue, or +syllabus of books for general reading; but even his faithful follower +Mr. Harrison admits, half apologetically, that it 'has no special +relation to current views of education, to English literature, much less +to the literature of the day. It was drawn up thirty years ago by a +French philosopher, who passed his life in Paris, and who had read no +new book for twenty years.' + +'What shall I read?' There are few questions more frequently asked than +this; few, perhaps, to which a thoughtless answer is more frequently +given. Coming from one of that large class to which Lord Iddesleigh has +given the name of 'indolent readers,' it might be assumed to be lightly +asked, and might be as lightly answered by the recommendation of some +three-volume novel, or the more fashionable shilling's-worth of gruesome +mystery; but if the enquirer be a young book-lover, a worthy answer is +far to seek. The diagnosis and opinion of the physician do not present +greater difficulties, and in many cases are not attended by more +momentous results. To turn a juvenile adrift in Sir John Lubbock's list +would be to prescribe an exclusive diet of richly seasoned dishes and +rare wines to a convalescent patient--to feed him on strong meats, on +cavaire and truffles, and to omit the simple, wholesome, homely fare on +which, in his condition, health and efficient progress must in the main +depend. + +How often has the young enquirer been imbued with a distaste for solid +literature by being compelled to read 'masterpieces' long before he was +able to appreciate their value, or even to comprehend their history! The +system at many of our schools is much to blame in this respect. There +are, we believe, comparatively few boys who acquire, until they seek it +for themselves, even the roughest general outline of the world's +history, to which their various episodic studies may be applied, so that +each may fall into its proper place and order. 'Periods' and 'Epochs' +are studied minutely and painfully, without any knowledge of the grand +structure of which they form but a single fragment; and history is too +often divorced from geography. A schoolboy is set to work on a play of +Aristophanes before he has made acquaintance with the social and +political movements of which Pericles and Cleon were the +representatives. He reads his Bible and his Homer, his Virgil and +Horace, his Caesar and Livy, but probably with the vaguest ideas of their +relations to one another, or their respective positions in the world's +chronology. Or it may be that the whole of one term is devoted to one or +two books of 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey,' 'the AEneid' or the 'Odes,' +which are ground out line by line and word by word, all the interest and +flavour of the complete work being inevitably and hopelessly dissipated +in the process. Even 'the college prizeman, and the college tutor cannot +read a chorus in the Trilogy but what his mind instinctively wanders on +optatives, choriambi, and that happy conjecture of Smelfungus in the +antistrophe.'[100] But certain books having to be got up for an +examination by the cramming process, the receptacle for all this +erudition only looks forward to the time when he may throw his Classics +behind the fire for ever. No book with the least pretention to permanent +value can be read purely by and for itself; inevitably it must draw on +the reader--if he be in any sense worthy of the name--from point to +point beyond its own immediate sphere, until he finds his interest +expanding and his tastes forming under a natural and rapid process of +evolution. Can any intelligent person read his Homer or his 'AEneid,' his +Boswell, his 'Old Mortality,' or 'The Voyage of the Beagle' without +asking himself who are these strange characters, and where are these +strange lands that seem so familiar to us? + +He who stands on a hill and surveys a wide landscape, easily recognizes +the leading features of the country--the river and the homestead, the +church and the corn-field--they need no guide, they tell their own tale. +In like manner the great landmarks of the literature of the past are +well defined and unmistakable to him who has eyes to see and a mind to +comprehend. The traveller may choose his line, and as he goes his way he +will not fail to find guides who will give him the directions which +passing doubts and difficulties may render necessary. The world's great +books stand out as the old stone walls of some great feudal +fortress--prominent and indestructible. Their original uses have been +superseded by the world's advance; but time and change add greatly to +their interest. He, however, who finds himself entangled in the dense +jungle of books that are not 'masterpieces,' and are so plentiful in +modern literature, is in a sorry plight; his way lies through this +jungle, be it long or short, and he cannot escape it altogether. He has +heard of the quiet groves of the Academy, and of the heights of +Parnassus, but he is rarely able to catch a glimpse of them. He is +whirled along and loses his foothold in the eddying torrent of +periodical literature; or he is entangled in the briars of controversy, +and, torn and vexed, is apt to lose his way. Here then it is that he +particularly needs a guide, and here it is that Sir John Lubbock bids +good-bye to him, and leaves him to his own resources. + +The student, thus perplexed, may be surprised to learn from Mr. Ruskin +that 'any bank clerk could write a history as good as Grote's,' and that +Gibbon only chronicled 'putrescence and corruption; 'he may be deeply +interested in the information that Professor Bryce prefers Pindar to +Hesiod, that the Lord Chief Justice knows nothing of Chinese or +Sanskrit, and that Miss Braddon has spent 'great part of a busy life +reading the "Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews."' But all this does not +help him in his bewildering journey among the 10,000 books which are +annually flooding the world of English speaking readers--a mass of which +we fear that the quality advances in inverse ratio to the quantity. + +Sir John Lubbock's list, as it stands, suggests a gathering of +illustrious Generals and officers, without any men. They are very +distinguished and admirable in appearance and qualifications, but would +be doubly so if seen at the head of the army which they lead and +represent. Had Sir John commenced by marshalling his hundred books in +groups, either of subjects to be studied or of readers to be provided +for, and then called upon the 'guides' to fill up the gaps, and supply +the rank and file of his army, he would have earned the thanks of all +book-lovers. + +In the selection of books two considerations must alternately be +paramount. One of these would have reference to the subjects to be +studied, the other would have reference to the readers to be provided +for. We are aware of the long controversies and technical difficulties +involved in this question of Classification, which has stirred the +hearts of Librarians from time immemorial, but for our present purpose +the elaboration of an exhaustive scientific system is unnecessary; a +statement of the rough headings and divisions, under which the books for +general readers should be grouped, presents no insurmountable obstacles. +Various minor considerations may subsequently assert themselves; as, for +example, whether the books are required with the ultimate object of the +formation of a library, and 'the cultivation of literature is an object +which cannot be accomplished without the acquisition of a library of a +greater or less extent,' or for the mere purpose of amusement. To draw +up such a catalogue as we propose would exceed the capacity of any +single individual; each section should be the work of one or more +persons specially versed in the subject. + +We are, of course, dealing rather with those who are aspiring to be book +lovers than with those who, having already attained to that distinction, +can trust to the guidance of their own inclinations. These aspirants +must seek first an able and judicious guide for each department of +study. One guide may be fully competent to make a list of works in +history or biography, but may lack experience in philosophy or in art; +while, on the other hand, the regimen prescribed for the country curate +would hardly be appropriate for the mechanic or the soldier. + +But, first, we must endeavour to define, by a rough process of +elimination, the book lover, whether mature or in embryo. He is not the +mere 'glutton of the lending library,' who bolts the contents of the +monthly box without discrimination and without reflection, his main +object being to while away an idle day or to gain a superficial +reputation at the next dinner party at which he may be present; nor is +he the collector of gaudy bindings; nor one who has never possessed nor +desired to possess a library of his own, who has never read a book more +than once, and has never committed to memory a single passage. He is not +the man, in short, who fails to realize that 'the utility of reading +depends not on the swallow but on the digestion.' + +From the American Westerner who buys an Encyclopaedia in parts, and finds +in it all that he requires of instruction and amusement, to the princely +founders of libraries--the Spencers and Parkers, the De Thous, the +Sunderlands, and the Beckfords--is a wide interval, and includes all +sorts and conditions of men, diverse from one another in everything but +their love of books. + +Sir John Lubbock, by his eminence in the world of science and the world +of commerce, is admirably qualified to draw up a list of works on +science and trade. But these he has unfortunately excluded from his +consideration. Such lists would be invaluable to the thousands who from +intellectual, or more purely mercenary motives, are now seeking for +light. Had Sir John classified his list on some simple and +discriminating plan, such as we have suggested, we might, as a result of +the discussion, have obtained a summary of works on art by Mr. Ruskin, +or a soldier's library by Lord Wolseley. Others, whose replies have been +published, would have furnished special lists; and a still wider circle +would, no doubt, have seen their way to rendering much help and service. +We should, moreover, have been spared some rather irrelevant and wayward +criticisms to which the discussion has given rise. + +Two or three of the 'guides' have, with more or less success, adopted +for themselves a definite system. Mr. William Morris has given us a +list, the perusal of which may perchance arouse serious misgivings in +the heart of the general reader, who cannot 'even _with_ great +difficulty read Old German,' and who has not yet been educated up to the +point of regarding Virgil and Juvenal as 'sham classics.' The +'Admiral's' list is good, if somewhat too technical; and we would plead +for the admission of Southey's 'Life of Nelson,' even, if need be, to +the exclusion of the 'Annual Register' in 110 volumes. The Head Master +of Harrow 'tried to think how he should answer a boy's question if he +were to ask, at any point of his school life, what books it were best +worth while to read before the end (let me say) of his thirtieth year;' +and we venture to regard Mr. Welldon's list as the best of all in point +of conciseness and practical value. + +The last to enter the lists, though not under the auspices of the 'Pall +Mall Gazette,' is Mr. Frederic Harrison, who comes armed with a volume +entitled 'The Choice of Books,' though four-fifths of the contents have +strayed far away into such remote pastures as 'The Opening of the Courts +of Justice,' 'A Plea for the Tower of London,' and 'The AEsthete.' With +the small residue of the book, which has remained faithful to the +titlepage, we have little fault to find. Mr. Harrison, as might be +expected, regards everything through the spectacles of Auguste +Comte--'hinc omne principium, huc refer exitum.' Comte's 'Syllabus,' to +which we have already referred, was the basis of at least one of his +essays, and is the subject of his closing remarks. + +For our present purpose, the first article, 'How to Read,' is +undoubtedly the most valuable and practicable. It deals in a +straightforward and vigorous manner with many of the snares and +difficulties by which the reader is beset, and sweeps away much of the +sentimental, sickly, criticism which is unfortunately prevalent at the +present time. We think, however, that Mr. Harrison is inclined to raise +the standard of taste too high for the mass of general readers. + + 'Putting aside the iced air of the difficult mountain tops + of epic, tragedy, or psalm, there are some simple pieces + which may serve as an unerring test of a healthy or vicious + taste for imaginative work. If the "Cid," the "Vita Nuova," + the "Canterbury Tales," Shakspeare's "Sonnets," and + "Lycidas" pall on a man; if he care not for Malory's "Morte + d'Arthur" and the "Red Cross Knight"; if he thinks "Crusoe" + and the "Vicar" books for the young; if he thrill not with + the "Ode to the West Wind" and the "Ode to a Grecian Urn"; + if he have no stomach for "Christabelle," or the lines + written on "The Wye above Tintern," he should fall on his + knees and pray for a cleanlier and quieter spirit.' + +Now we believe that there is many a humble aspirant to literary taste on +whom the above paragraph will produce an effect similar to that of 'iced +air and mountain tops' by taking his breath away. Literary palates are +mercifully endowed with tastes and appreciations as varied as mere +bodily palates, and we must protest against any such Procrustean method +of ascertaining whether a man's 'spirit be cleanly and quiet,' or, which +is terrible to contemplate, the reverse. On another page Mr. Harrison +himself loudly deprecates and disclaims any narrow or sectarian view; he +is nothing if not Catholic in his tastes. 'I protest that I am devoted +to no school in particular; I condemn no school; I reject none. I am for +the school of all the great men; and I am against the school of the +smaller men.' + +All taste must be founded on knowledge, and between the hard, dry +teaching of the Board School or the Examination Room on the one hand, +and the aetherial atmosphere of Desultory Reading and the purest literary +discernment on the other, there lies an intermediate region, a +'penumbral zone,' which differs from the first in that it is entered +voluntarily, and from the second in that it is attainable by all who +care to enter it. The way through this region, though pleasant is +laborious; system, accuracy, and discipline are essential to him who +would traverse it. To be a desultory reader, in the sense defined by +Lord Iddesleigh, a man must first have been a student; and not to every +student is given the temperament, capacity, and opportunity, to become a +desultory reader--still less can every student aspire to that refined +literary taste, which Mr. Harrison possesses in so large a measure, and +which, in its characteristics, he describes so well. + +So far as modern literature is concerned, it may be said, that the +Reviewers are, by their skill and experience, qualified to direct, and +ever ready to aid the wayfarer; and in theory this is true. But, putting +aside the few leading journals and periodicals, daily and weekly--of +which we would only speak with the greatest respect--we fear that the +reviewer's art is at a low ebb in these days. Often the side breezes of +controversy, of private jealousy, or of personal interest, intervene to +divert straightforward criticism; still more often does absolute +incompetence render these guides worthless. A score of books may be +seen, huddled together in an unbroken column of so-called criticism, +with no other bond of union than their publication in course of the same +week. The interested author, wading through this disconnected mass, +suddenly stumbles on a few words extracted--possibly perverted--from his +own preface, to which a line of commonplace commendation is affixed; and +he then suddenly encounters a subject as far removed from his own as the +'Republic' of Plato is distant from 'Called Back.' + +Among all these discordant voices, who shall help us to detect the true +ring? Thrice happy are those privileged few who enjoy the loving care +and supervision of some wise mentor to guide their choice and to watch +their progress; but for the multitude, to whom such a privilege is +denied, a good classified list, not excluding recent works, carefully +sifted and added to by the most prominent men of the day, would be of +inestimable value. + +In the first place, a connected chain of histories, from the earliest +times to the present day, with a selected list of contemporary memoirs +and biographies, would throw a guiding gleam of light on thousands who +are wandering, dark and aimless, in a labyrinth of 'masterpieces.' In +this enquiry system is essential. Of desultory comments, charming and +instructive in themselves and valuable in the formation of taste, we +have abundant store. Who that has read Emerson's 'Essay on Books,' or +Charles Lamb's 'Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading,' or Isaac +Disraeli's 'Curiosities of Literature' and 'Literary Character,' or +Byron's brilliant and impulsive criticisms on books and authors, can be +without some kindling of enthusiasm and of desire to know more fully the +great works thus passed in critical review? But the essential +characteristics of such commentaries as these are snares to the student. +The temptation to pass from one subject to another is inseparable from +treatment of this kind, and so becomes a hindrance to more earnest +application. + +Dibdin's 'Library Companion' in some respects fulfils the requirements +we have mentioned; but apart from the fact, that the information it +contains is now in a great measure obsolete, too much space is devoted +to the description and value of choice and rare editions. It is a +book-buyer's rather than a reader's guide. Perkins's 'The Best Reading' +is too bald a catalogue, and requires a vast amount of sifting, and the +addition of a few words of running comment to render it serviceable. It +lacks, in short, the characteristics of a _catalogue raisonnee_. + +The Historical List which we have proposed should be prefaced by a +chronological table, indicating the epochs into which the World's +History divides itself, and the periods covered by each of the works +recommended. This would give the student a bird's-eye view of the field +which he is about to explore, and enable him, at any moment in his +exploration, to take his reckonings and verify his position. + +Careful distinction should be made between Chroniclers and Historians, +between those who have provided the materials and those who have +designed and reared the complete structure. Sometimes these chroniclers +have furnished merely rough and unhewn stones, useful in themselves, +but with no pretence to artistic finish or individuality of character; +and these have been absorbed into the building. Other chronicles, again, +are perfected in form, and are not merely integral, essential portions +of the complicated structure, but become a source of endless pleasure +from the merit of their workmanship. Thucydides and Clarendon are +universally read, while Hecataeus has all but vanished; and Thomas May's +'History of the Long Parliament,' though pronounced by Lord Chatham to +be a 'much honester and more instructive book of the same period than +Lord Clarendon's,' is relegated to the shelves of the specialist or the +bookworm. + +Histories are scarcely less ephemeral than books of science; and the +object of the list we are advocating is not to provide an exhaustive +catalogue, a task which in these days would overtax the capacity of +half-a-dozen Dr. Johnsons, but to select those works which will give the +best continuous narrative of the period under discussion, and represent +the most recent scholarship; omitting those which have been absorbed or +superseded. + +Mitford and Gillies have given place to Thirwall and Grote; and even the +star of Hallam, outshining De Lolme, is beginning to wane before the +searching light which, by the publication of State Papers and other +archives, is being brought to bear on the History of England and of +Modern Europe. But such materials, though ruthlessly relegating much of +what we have hitherto regarded as the 'Pearls of History' to the +category of 'Mock Pearls,' cannot immediately be made available for the +ordinary student, or become absorbed into the popular histories of the +day. We can ill spare from our list the names of those writers, who, +from Livy to Lord Macaulay, have added a fascination to the study of +history; though in their works most beautiful Mock Pearls abound. But +the student should be warned against implicit reliance on their records. + +To Clarendon has been ascribed the honor of being the first Englishman +who wrote History, as we regard it; his predecessors having been in the +main mere chroniclers or annalists. Clarendon elaborated the picture of +which these annalists had merely supplied the materials; and the +eighteenth century saw the development of this new method in the +brilliant triad of contemporaries, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon. Our own +age has witnessed a further advance in the school of philosophical +historians, who, without aiming at any connected narrative of events, +present to us the profound lessons which history teaches; pointing out +the far-reaching causes which have influenced and are influencing +events occurring in widely distant countries; causes and events which to +the superficial observer seem totally disconnected. This philosophical +category would form one of the most interesting, and in these days, when +political empiricism shows a growing tendency to supplant statesmanlike +research, not the least important portion of our historical list. If to +this main stem of History there be added the due complement of branches +and leaves--memoirs and biographies--the Plutarchs and Pepyses, the +Walpoles and St. Simons, the Crokers and Grevilles of each +generation--we shall have a tree of knowledge which would yield to none +in point of interest and utility. + +We have dwelt at some length on this part of the subject, first, because +of its almost unlimited extent; and secondly, because, owing to this +extent, there is such difficulty in making a genuine and trustworthy +selection. There is, besides, an apparently constant antagonism in +history between the qualities of strict accuracy and literary +brilliancy. The two are not incompatible, but the striving after +literary merit is as great a snare to the writer as its attainment by +the writer is, in too many cases, to the student. + +Of voyages and travels, 'I would also have good store, especially the +earlier, when the world was fresh and unhackneyed, and men saw things +invisible to the modern eye: They are fast-sailing ships to waft away +from present troubles to the Fortunate Islands.'[101] Grouped under each +quarter of the globe, we should have selections of the works of those +travellers, who, from Herodotus to Mr. Stanley, and from Marco Polo or +Captain Cook down to Miss Bird, have made us who stay at home familiar +with the remotest corners of the earth. Much of the romance of travel +has of necessity perished in these matter-of-fact days; but as the +writing of history has developed from a mere chronicle of events into a +scientific and philosophical method, so the art of travelling is now +assuming a political form under pressure of the gigantic problems which +are exercising the mind of the civilized world; and a section of +political travels, of which Mr. Froude and Baron von Huebner have +recently given us examples, should not be omitted. + +Without pretending to enumerate all the departments which our catalogue +should comprise--and most of them are too obvious to require +enumeration--we would suggest a good selection of the best translations +and editions of the Greek and Roman Classics. In mentioning translations +we, of course, disclaim any recommendation of the common 'crib,' but +refer to those scholarly works which have brought the classical +masterpieces to the very doors of the general public; such, for example, +as Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' or Prof. Jowett's 'Plato and Thucydides;' as +Lord Derby's 'Iliad,' Gifford's 'Juvenal,' or Conington's 'Virgil:' nor +is the crib more widely removed from such works as these, than, in the +matter of editions, is Anthon's 'Virgil,' for example, from Munro's +'Lucretius.' In the opinion of Mr. Harrison, this 'is the age of +accurate translation. The present generation has produced a complete +library of versions of the great Classics, chiefly in prose, partly in +verse, more faithful, true, and scholarly than anything ever produced +before.' Mr. Harrison's own essay on the 'Poets of the Old World,' goes +far to supply one at least of the branches of this section. Last, but by +no means least, do we plead for a guide to 'Children's Books.' We run +some risk in these days of competitive examinations and 'higher +education,' of placing instruction too prominently in the front, to the +exclusion of pure amusement; forgetting that it is through the +imagination that the interest of a child is most readily aroused, and +that, unless the interest be aroused, our educational labours will be +worthless. A child can live in an atmosphere of genial fiction, and +appreciate it, without the danger which lurks in a misrepresentation of +what passes around him in his daily experience. It is exaggeration, not +fiction, that is liable to injure the mind of a child. + +On the vital question, 'how to read,' the student has received matter +for careful and deliberate consideration, alike from Lord Iddesleigh and +Mr. Goschen, from Mr. Harrison and Mr. Lowell. The burden of their +advice is the same, though the forms differ; they all unite in +deprecating and deploring the hurry, the want of application, the want +of restraint which prevail in the present day. The hurrying reader, on +the one hand, and the indolent reader, on the other, are the types to be +avoided with the most scrupulous care. We suffer from an excess of +opportunities, and require to be constantly reminded that 'it is +impossible to give any method to our reading till we get nerve enough to +reject.' + +If we look through the long list of English literary celebrities, we +cannot but be struck with the large proportion of those who have +received little or no regular education in their early days, and whose +opportunities of study have been of the scantiest. Ben Jonson working as +a bricklayer with his book in his pocket: Wm. Cobbett reading his +hard-earned 'Tale of a Tub' under the haystack, or mastering his grammar +when he was a private soldier on the pay of 6d. a day; when 'the edge of +my berth or that of my guard-bed was my seat to study in; my knapsack +was my bookcase; a bit of board lying on my lap was my writing table, +and the task did not demand anything like a year of my life:' Gifford, +as a cobbler's apprentice, working out his problems on scraps of waste +leather; or Bunyan, confined for twelve years in Bedford jail with only +his Bible and 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs,' are but a few among scores of +instances which will immediately suggest themselves. + +There are many persons who are possessed with a strange and +unaccountable conviction, that to read a book and to write a book are +processes which require little, if any, previous training or +preparation. The one error is sufficiently obvious to all who pay any +attention to the great mass of cheap literature which is pouring from +our printing-presses; the other is less easy of detection. 'The first +lesson in reading is that which teaches us to distinguish between +literature and merely printed matter,' is the admirable maxim laid down +by Mr. Lowell, and this is one of the essential points in which the +personal influence of an experienced friend is of inestimable value. As +the latent beauties of some great masterpiece of art unfold themselves +to our eye under the guidance of a Kugler or a Ruskin, and we are thus +enabled to detect their presence or their absence in the works of other +hands and other schools, so in the masterpieces of literature the +realization of the points, wherein the chief merits of each lie, places +us in a position to form a standard--to possess a talisman, which shall +enable us unerringly to detect the true from the false. Mrs. Knowles +said of Dr. Johnson, 'He knows how to read better than any one; he gets +at the substance of a book directly; he tears the heart out of it.' This +faculty, which was exhibited in a marvellous degree also in Southey and +Macaulay, is as rare as it is enviable; but there are not a few who +erroneously suppose themselves to be possessed of it. The hurried, +careless, method of reading is one of the chief dangers a student should +guard against. In studying a work of biography, for example--but above +all in studying the classics--the first requisite, and one which is, as +we have said, sadly overlooked in public school teaching, is the +acquisition of a simple, general outline of the period to which the work +relates. In the fashionable phrase of the day, the books so read are +frequently not in correspondence with their environment. To him whose +views of Roman history are but a shapeless mist, if not an absolute +void, Virgil and Horace are sealed books; nor can any one who is +ignorant of Scotland and her traditions penetrate beyond the husk of +'Waverley' or 'Old Mortality.' To the young beginner a few judicious +words of explanation at the commencement of a book may serve to awaken +that interest without which reading is useless, and to make darkness +light; and, similarly, a few words of discussion, when the book is +completed, will have the effect of consolidating the floating ideas to +which the perusal has given rise. The habit of casting aside a book as +soon as the last page is read, without pondering over its contents and +recalling the argument and refreshing the memory where it has failed, or +allowing the 'frenzied current of the eye to be stopped for many moments +of calm reflection or thought,' is apt to render worthless all the +previous effort. Lord Erskine, we are told, was in the habit of making +long extracts from Burke, and Lord Eldon is said to have copied out +'Coke upon Littleton' twice with his own hand. 'Writing an analysis,' +says Archibishop Whately,[102] 'or table of contents, or index, or +notes, is very important for the study, properly so called, of any +subject. And so also is the practice of previously conversing or writing +on the subject you are about to study.' Reading can produce a beneficial +result only in proportion to the extent and accuracy of information +previously stored in the mind of the reader. Such information is like +the roots of some flourishing oak; every fresh fact is, as it were, a +new fibre confirming and strengthening the growth of the tree, and +attracting nourishment from new soil. + +'The moment you have a definite aim, attention is quickened, the mother +of memory; and all that you acquire groups and arranges itself in an +order that is lucid, because everywhere and always it is in intelligent +relation to a central object of constant and growing interest.'[103] +Bearing this in mind, we would urge the student to investigate every +unfamiliar allusion which may occur in the course of his reading or +conversation. A fact or subject thus sought out fixes itself more firmly +in the memory than most of those which are merely passed in the ordinary +course of reading. + +The use of odd moments should not be overlooked. 'Blockheads,' wrote Sir +Walter Scott, 'can never find out how folks cleverer than themselves +came by their information. They never know what is done at +dressing-time, meal-time even, or in how few minutes they can get at the +sense of many pages.' It is not possible always to have a book at hand, +but any one who will take the trouble to copy out, from time to time, +passages which have attracted his attention, and carry them about with +him to learn by heart at odd moments, may perhaps be astonished to find +how much may be acquired in this manner. + +There are some books which by their nature lend themselves to a snatchy +method of perusal, and a few minutes may often be well employed in +reading an ode of Horace, or the disjointed conversations of Dr. +Johnson, but such moments should as a rule be devoted to books which are +already more or less familiar. The habit of frivolously taking up, and +as frivolously casting aside, a book is, however, one which should be +guarded against with the utmost care. It was a strict rule in the family +of Goethe the elder, that any book once commenced should be read through +to the end. Dr. Johnson, on the other hand, considered a rule of this +kind 'strange advice; you may as well resolve that whatever men you +happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep them for life.' + +A snare, which did not exist in the time of Goethe or of Dr. Johnson, +presents itself in these days to the reader, in the ever-increasing mass +of periodical literature. But the busy man, who has not time to turn +aside from his own work to the thorough investigation of the topic of +the hour, may sometimes, in the pages of a magazine, find the case +stated tersely by distinguished advocates on both sides; and he may thus +at least discern the main positions of assailant and assailed. An +exhaustive and genuine review of a book is occasionally afforded by +periodical literature, more rarely perhaps than is generally believed; +but such essays to have any value, should be read only after the work to +which they relate, a condition that is, we fear, seldom fulfilled. + +The 'desultory reader' has now been defined and elevated. We can hardly +be mistaken in considering that by reason of Lord Iddesleigh's admirable +remarks the expression has acquired a new signification; at least a +large number of those who may have fondly imagined themselves to be +desultory readers have now been effectually eliminated from the +category. + +We live in days of 'specialism,' and the book-making specialist of our +generation probably yields to none of his predecessors in the literary +roll in respect of industry, skill, and accuracy; but his subject, as a +rule, is his business, his breadwinner. The desultory reader regards +literature as his pastime and recreation. Happy is he who has the time, +the opportunity, and the education, to become a desultory reader, in +Lord Iddlesleigh's sense of the word. + +But admitting that Desultory Dilettanteism may under certain favourable +conditions be both profitable and a fascinating attainment, and claiming +as we do a very high value for good guidance in the choice of books, we +must not lose sight of the fact, that the basis on which the main +practical question of the selection and proper use of books rests, is +not what is good in general, or in special literature, but what is +fitted for each individual man. And to discover this the man himself, or +his immediate ancestor, the youth or boy, must be examined. The +foundation of success in any sphere of life is physical and mental, +nervous and moral aptitude; and those who have to direct, or to decide +for, or to advise the young respecting their career in life, should make +the personal condition of their proteges their careful study. From the +ascertained condition the capacity of each may be discerned, and his +future capabilities may be, to some extent, foreseen. These capabilities +are the indicators of the course of reading first required; by them the +youth's career should chiefly be selected and decided on. Unfortunately +in most cases careful forethought is neglected. Qualities that actually +make the man are, in a decision that affects his hopes and happiness for +life, too often overlooked; and some mere transient incident, esteemed +perhaps a stroke of fortune, is accepted, without any hesitating thought +about the suitability of its results, as a sufficient introduction to +the business of the world. The consequence of this neglect is obvious +enough. In every social and commercial sphere we find men drudging on in +hopeless slavery, or ruined by the natural revolt of sensibilities that +could not be controlled, against the influence of circumstances wholly +inappropriate, and for which these sensibilities, most useful in their +proper sphere, were not of course designed. + +A young man's very desultory reading will perhaps be one of the most +useful means for finding what his life's career should be. Knowing +himself, or being known, as has been said, by those directing him, and +by his own discursive reading having learnt what work for his peculiar +abilities is open for him in the world, he probably will judge quite +readily what line of study he should at first pursue, and following out +this clue, at first by the aid of judicious external guidance, he will, +with ever-increasing self-reliance and discrimination, proceed to fulfil +the requirements of education and the inclination of his own mental +disposition. This method of development is the natural order by which +intellectual growth, by means of books, or any other means, proceeds. To +make a choice of certain hundred books for any man's perusal, in his +youth or afterwards, is but a feat of cleverness, arousing curiosity or +wonder, but evolving nothing--ending in the choice. A man may be +possessed of any number of good books; and possibly a thousand books +might be selected, all of which would be by general consent called +excellent, and worth possessing; and perhaps he would be none the +better for them all. Young men do not require a hundred books at once. +Indeed the fewer well-selected books a youth has to begin with, the more +safe he is against excessive loss of time. His most important question +is not, what shall I read? but, what need I read? The student's care +should be to read as little, and to think as much as possible. Thus, he +will find what thing it is that he at any time immediately requires to +know, and he will make this pressing need the object of his next +acquirement in books. This method tends to education; it develops mental +power, and makes a cultivated man. A hundred books procured and read +without appropriate sympathy, and interest, and thought, will merely +make an animated bookcase of the man. + +Not only should the student's books be few, but as he reads he should be +constantly upon his guard. Most readers read to be informed or to be +entertained; and books of information are absorbed as if all printed +statements must of course be true, or even if not true must, as a +record, be worth knowing. This omnivorous, careless style of reading is +a grievous waste of life and energy. Were books read with critical, +enquiring thought, the time misspent in reading would be wholesomely +reduced, and readers would increase in mental power in due proportion to +their increased information. + +In books of entertainment, and especially of fiction, corresponding +carefulness is necessary. There are books among the best which are, in +various degrees and ways, of evil influence, and should be read with +caution and reserve. To yield one's self to the enjoyment of an +entertaining book may be as foolish as to give one's self into the hands +of an untried agreeable companion. Ability to please is to these +incautious subjects of it a most dangerous influence; and books as well +as men when most attractive should be treated warily. In Rabelais and +Swift, in Fielding and Smollett, coarse manners must be reprobated. In +George Eliot's novels, with exceptions, and in 'Jane Eyre,' there is a +subtle taint that is unwholesome to the unguarded reader. Thackeray too +frequently compels us to associate with evil company; and, while +admiring the writer's skill, the reader should keep well outside of +almost every group in Thackeray's novels. + +Distinct alike from the progressive student and the discriminating +reader, is an abundant class who, without individuality, and mere +omnivorous devotees of books, chiefly reading the lighter literature of +the day. These people, through excess and self-indulgence, become +feeble-minded, intellectually dissipated, and incapable of serious +study. In every rank of life the book-devouring vice abounds; but +chiefly among women, girls, and boys; men finding in the newspapers +their daily pabulum. This thoughtless, fragmentary, reading has +debilitated the contemporary mental fibre of the nation; and has so +absorbed the time, we cannot say the attention, of the immense majority +of the reading public, that many of them are ignorant even of the +existence of the standard works of literature. The late discussion, +therefore, about books has been of use; it has made known to the great +community of people, who now can read, the fact, that there are certain +books, a hundred more or less, far more worth reading than the popular +and periodical literature of the day. If this discovery could be +impressed upon the public mind with practical effect, the result would +be a beneficial change in their condition. The abundant tattle and +affected interest about names and things of mean and transient +notoriety, and the discursive dinner-table gossip of the world would +then perhaps subside; and English conversation would become a constant +and a beneficial intellectual enjoyment. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[99] Croker's 'Boswell,' pp. 767, 8vo. ed. + +[100] 'The Choice of Books,' p. 37. + +[101] Mr Lowell's Address at the dedication of the Free Public Library, +Chelsea, Massachusetts. + +[102] Notes to Bacon's 'Essays.' + +[103] Mr. Lowel. + + + + +Art. IX.--1. _Popular Government. Four Essays._ By Sir Henry Sumner +Maine. Second Edition. London, 1886. + +2. _Democracy in America._ By Alexis de Tocqueville. Translated by Henry +Reeve. New Edition. London, 1862. + +3. _On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789._ +Translated by Henry Reeve. Second Edition. London, 1873. + +4. _Correspondence and Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with +Nassau W. Senior, 1834-59._ London, 1872. + +5. _On the Government of Dependencies._ By Sir George Cornewall Lewis. +London, 1841. + +6. _On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion._ By the Same. +London, 1849. + +7. _A Dialogue on the best Form of Government._ By the Same. London, +1863. + +8. _The English Constitution._ By Walter Bagehot. Revised Edition. +London, 1883. + + +Of the latest Work on the Characteristics of Democracy we are precluded +from speaking, as Sir Henry Maine's valuable Essays first appeared in +the pages of this Review. But we desire on the present occasion to call +attention to some writers on the subject, who are almost unknown to a +younger generation, or known only by occasional references made to them +by those who were well acquainted with the writers and their works. And +among these half-forgotten names few perhaps will recur more frequently +in the recollections of the best-informed men of from forty-five to +sixty, or more surprise those who have entered on life since their +owners left it, than those of Alexis de Tocqueville, Nassau William +Senior, and Walter Bagehot. Among the statesmen of the last generation, +few who will fill so small a space in history are so often or so +reverently quoted by those who remember Lord Palmerston's Government, +the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny, as Sir George Cornewall Lewis. +Most men under forty will hear with surprise that in the City, at least, +he was deemed a sounder and safer financier than Mr. Gladstone; honoured +as the Chancellor of the Exchequer who first redeemed the financial +reputation of the Whigs from the discredit that had clung to the party +of retrenchment and reform for a whole generation. Of the small minority +who know him as the founder of the English school of historical +sceptics, how many have heard of his multifarious literary and political +works, or his shrewd, genial, two-edged, criticisms on public and social +life? It seems too probable that our grandchildren will retain nothing +of his save the characteristic saying, that 'life would be very +tolerable but for its pleasures;' and _that_, probably, will be assigned +to some more famous and far less wise _causeur_ or phrasemaker, losing +half its force in the transfer. Even Mill is known to the passing and +the rising generation by different works and diverse characteristics. To +the one he is little more than the greatest, most original, and most +heretical of English economists; a standard author on logic and +metaphysics. The other prefers to remember him by his later and lesser +writings; those sexagenarian and posthumous Essays, in which the riper +wisdom of a mind, very slow to learn the lessons of practical life, was +gathered, and the wilder errors of his earlier theories modified or +corrected. Much of that which is really best in his thought and +teaching, set forth in these last writings, bears a close analogy to the +views of Tocqueville Senior, and Bagehot, and shows that a tardy, +hardly-acquired, unwillingly accepted, knowledge of men and women, of +the real and ineradicable tendencies of human nature, brought the giant +of the closet into nearer accord with the practical philosophy of a man +like Sir George Cornewall Lewis, wise, calm, and judicial, by natural +temper, wiser yet by the closet-study which had analysed the experiences +of the literary, business, and political, world, of administration, +Parliament, and the Cabinet. + +One common and very striking feature characterizes the political +thought of all these men--all of them Liberals in more than mere nominal +profession or party connection. All regarded the triumph of Democracy as +near and inevitable, and all, from different points of view, regarded it +with a mixture of resignation and distrust, strangely significant in men +of such different views, of such diverse character, mental training, and +personal experience. None of them were fatalists, much less pessimists; +none inclined _a priori_ to that political superstition which +recognizes, in the tendencies of a thing so uncertain and changeful as +the spirit of the age, the hand of Providence, or the indication of +'manifest destiny.' All were men of more than average independence of +temper, an independence which, in one or two, approached nearly to that +which practical politicians call impracticability. None of them were +disposed to be silent when the many-headed Caesar had spoken. Mill's most +striking, and--to the credit of Democracy be it spoken--most popular +characteristic, was a stern and almost pardoxical defiance alike of +personal consequences and of public opinion. On the verge of his +entrance into public life he affronted the working-classes by telling +them, with more than Carlylese directness and exaggeration, that they +were 'mostly liars.' If ever there were a man sure to protest to the +last against false doctrines and mischievous tendencies, to protest the +more fiercely the more certain their victory seemed, it was John Stuart +Mill. + +Tocqueville, conscious of no common political and administrative +capacity--a statesman whose strong popular sympathies, practical wisdom, +contempt of popular catchwords, knowledge of and respect for concrete +facts; above all, whose signal freedom from the characteristic +weaknesses and vices of French statesmanship, rendered him the fittest +of all men to direct the destiny of France, whose counsels and guidance +would have saved her from all the worst mistakes and most signal +disasters--was content to spend a lifetime first in opposition, +afterwards in absolute exile from public life, rather than go 'the way +that was not his way for an inch.' An Orleanist, an enthusiastic lover +of Parliamentary institutions, he would not stoop with Guizot and Thiers +to serve a King whose power was founded on corruption. A minister of the +President, he held aloof as sternly from the despotism of the Empire as +from the factions of the Republican Assembly. He never designed to +conceal or soften the expressions of the most unpopular sentiments or +convictions. + +Sir George Cornewall Lewis was an eminently English statesman, fully +aware of the necessity of mutual concession--more willing than most to +be guided as a Minister by the tradition of his office, to leave the +administration for which he must answer in Parliament to the practical +experience of his permanent subordinates--but one whom, assuredly, no +one ever accused of undue pliancy, or excessive deference to party or +popular feeling. + +Mr. Bagehot alone of the three was a man likely, _coeteris paribus,_ +to prefer the winning side; to believe that the belief of the many was +likely to be right; looking, however, to the opinion of the many +educated and thoughtful rather than of the many ignorant and +over-occupied. Yet all agree at once in treating the coming rule of +numbers almost as a law of nature, which it were folly to criticize and +madness to resist; and in anticipating its advent with doubt and +distrust, with deep and sometimes gloomy apprehension. Their constant, +thoughtful concurrence in both convictions, their equal assurance that +pure Democracy was dangerous and that it was inevitable, deserves a +profound significance from their utterly distinct points of view; from +the utter unlikeness of their tempers, their experience, and their +natural bias. + +Sir George Cornewall Lewis, as a Liberal politician, was decidedly +distrustful of electoral reform, and accepted it only as a party +necessity. His personal delight in the exposure of popular errors, his +insistence on the value of authority, and the immense extent of the +sphere in which the thought and conduct of the many are necessarily +controlled by the authority of the few, the spirit of such books as his +'Essay on the Government of Dependencies' are those of a mind wholly +adverse to democratic theories, and intensely mistrustful of popular +judgments. He was not fascinated by what he describes as 'the splendid +_vision_ of a community bound together by the ties of fraternity, +liberty, and equality, exempt from hereditary privilege, giving all +things to merit, and presided over by a government in which all the +national interests are faithfully represented.' He put these words into +the mouth of the advocate of Democracy in his 'Dialogue on the best form +of Government,' which he published shortly before his death. In this +work his own views are expressed in the person of Crito. + + 'Even if I were to decide in favour of one of these forms, + and against the two others, I should not find myself nearer + the solution of the practical problem. A nation does not + change the form of its government with the same facility + that a man changes his coat. A nation in general only + changes the form of its government by means of a violent + revolution.... The history of forcible attempts to improve + governments is not cheering. Looking back upon the course of + revolutionary movements, and upon the character of their + consequences, the practical conclusion which I draw is, that + it is the part of wisdom and prudence to acquiesce in any + form of government, which is tolerably well administered, + and affords tolerable security to person and property. I + would not, indeed, yield to apathetic despair or acquiesce + in the persuasion that a merely tolerable government is + incapable of improvement. I would form an individual model, + suitable to the character, disposition, wants, and + circumstances of the country, and I would make all + exertions, whether by action or by writing, within the + limits of the existing law, for ameliorating its existing + condition, and bringing it nearer to the model selected for + imitation; but I should consider the problem of the best + form of government as purely ideal, and as unconnected with + practice; and should abstain from taking a ticket in the + lottery of revolution, unless there was a well-founded + expectation that it would come out a prize.' + +The conservatism of Lewis was that of a profoundly sceptical instinct, +of practical cautious incredulity. Bagehot's was the conservatism of +middle-class English thought and experience. Tocqueville's was that of +wide observation and bitter disappointment. Mill was a Conservative only +so far as conservatism was forced upon a mind essentially radical and +even revolutionary, imbued with a profound faith in abstract principles +leading far beyond universal suffrage to, if not across the verge of +communism, by the danger which he foresaw to individual liberty and +unfettered intellectual freedom from the ascendency of mere numbers. +Upon this point he agreed closely with Tocqueville, though upon nearly +every other their views were as opposite as their character and +experience; and their teaching has been fully confirmed by the actual +working of the most successful, the most tolerant, and the most +fortunately situated democracy that the world has ever seen. + +The tendency of Democracy to naked despotism is obvious enough in the +recent history of France; but sanguine democrats ascribe the special +experience of France to the intense centralization inherited, as +Tocqueville shows, by the Republic, the Constitutional Monarchy and the +Empire from the _Ancien Regime_; the absence of any local school of +practical discussion, mutual tolerance, and co-operation; the bitterness +of factions fighting not for administrative or legislative control, but +for fundamentally incompatible forms of Government,--to anything rather +than the unfitness of the French nation for Teutonic liberties. +Conservative pessimists and democratic optimists can only find a common +ground, a test which both will accept, in the experience of the United +States. Whatever vices are found in American democracy must be inherent +in democracy itself; and it must be granted that, looking on the surface +of public life, the larger facts of national history, and the material +condition of the people, there is no evidence, obvious to the hasty +observer, of interference with personal freedom, of any demoralizing or +weakening influence on individual character exercised by political or +social equality. It is outside of the proper field of politics, in facts +invisible to distant observers, and not visible at a glance to +thoughtful travellers, that we must seek for proof of the bearing of +democratic institutions and ideas upon personal and social liberty, upon +the maintenance of individual and collective rights. + +Upon such a point the remarks of a leisurely, thoughtful, cultivated +writer, like Richard Grant White, a man who had enjoyed exceptional +opportunities of comparing the effect upon daily life of English +aristocracy and American democracy, are more instructive than the +elaborate treatises of political theorists or the generalizations of +historians. The testimony of such writers bears out the inference which +careful students might draw from English history, that the influence of +a local and landed aristocracy is far more favourable, than that even of +a landed democracy, to the jealous and resolute assertion of legal +rights, to a strenuous and successful resistance to the encroachments of +power, social or political, upon the property, the comfort, the liberty, +and the privileges, of individuals or communities. The moral of Mr. +Grant White's sketches of English and American life is, that the English +peasant or tradesman is far safer from practical oppression or injustice +than the American farmer or citizen; that an Englishman, whatever his +rank, is far more free to speak his mind, and far more likely to have a +mind worth speaking, than one of the same position in France, or even in +Massachusetts. The lively interest in, the diffused knowledge of, +politics and public matters, found among educated, and even +half-educated men and women throughout the upper and middle classes of +England, evidently impressed Mr. White by the contrast it presented to +the indifference of American 'Society' to State and Federal politics. He +notes particularly the higher tone, the wider knowledge, the freedom +from petty class and personal concerns, the broader range of thought, +the familiarity with subjects of general human interest, which +characterize the conversation of an English dinner-table or +drawing-room, as compared with that of American clubs and parlours. He +speaks, with the bitterness of a man often and deeply bored, of the +limited range of American table-talk, the prominence of the 'shop,' the +professional interests of each chance assemblage; the price of stocks +and railway shares, and the chances and changes of Wall Street; the +inferior tone of thought among men and women alike, in the best or at +least the wealthiest society of New York and Philadelphia. In this he is +incidentally confirmed by so observant and candid a social critic as +Laurence Oliphant. There is an American society of higher cultivation +and loftier interests; but that society, except in Boston, is +necessarily scattered and somewhat exclusive; and, standing wholly aloof +from politics, lacks the knowledge of history, of legislation, of social +and economic interests, of current opinion, of foreign affairs--which is +in itself a sort of liberal, if necessarily superficial, education. +American ladies, and even gentlemen, hardly know who are the Senators +for their State, much less who is the representative of their district; +care nothing for, and know little of, the debates in Congress, still +less in the State Legislature, deeply as these may affect the well-being +of the community, the laws under which they and their children are to +live. + +But this lack of interest in public affairs has a deeper and far more +reaching consequence. Everybody's business is nobody's business. In a +community really democratic there are no natural leaders; none bound by +rank, station, and recognized primacy, to originate resistance; none too +strong to be crushed by the animosity of a Fiske or a Gould, or +grievously wronged by a corrupt corporation like that of New York, a +dishonest political organization like Tammany Hall, or a powerful +Tramway or Railway Company. The consequence is, that not only the +individual citizen, but a whole community submits to high-handed +oppression, to administrative and judicial corruption, to impudent +usurpation and flagrant illegalities, such as the greatest of English +corporations would never dream of attempting. Perhaps the most +oppressive and insolent exactions, to which living Englishmen have as +yet submitted, are those of the Water Companies of London; but the +offenders have repeatedly been resisted and brought to justice; and it +is in London alone, the one English city which lacks natural leaders and +protectors, which is too large for any citizen or body of citizens--save +that great City Corporation which English Radicalism has marked for +destruction--to speak and act in its name, that the Water Companies +would have been endured for five years. Even in London, no such +high-handed interference with the rights of property and the comfort of +families, as the Elevated Railways of New York, with their uncompensated +destruction of individual privacy and comfort throughout many of the +wealthiest streets of the first city in the Union, would have been +obviously and utterly impossible. + +The tolerance of Democracy for what seem to English ideas the grossest +form of oppression--oppression systematic and legal, arbitrary power and +class privilege, formally embodied in the law and made a fundamental +principle of government--is illustrated by that clause of the Code +Napoleon, which exempts the whole bureaucracy of France from civil or +criminal liability. No official can be prosecuted, no redress sought at +law for the abuse of powers the most extensive, affecting every man's +daily life--powers which enable their holder to harass and almost ruin +individuals and communities at his pleasure--save by permission of the +Council of State, a body of officials inclined of course to believe and +to shield its subordinates. This law has been sustained by each +successive Government that has seized the reins of centralized power; +nor are we aware that any serious effort has been made to repeal it. + +The tyranny of democracy is, as Mill insists, the most formidable, +searching, and irresistible of all. Under an autocracy or oligarchy, +public opinion is the protector of the injured, and imposes limits on +arbitrary power. Assassination is the resort of the victim driven to +frenzy by individual oppression, and tempers the sternest despotism; but +Demos wields opinion and defies the dagger. By general confession life +is far less free, individual taste, caprice or eccentricity is kept +under far sharper restraint by fashion and feeling, in America than in +aristocratic England. At every epoch of American history, the freedom of +opinion has been curtailed at certain points within strict if +ill-defined limits. The patriots of Virginia proclaimed in 1775 that any +who dared 'by speech or writing to maintain' Royalist or Constitutional +views should be treated as an enemy of his country. A similar ban was +put some fifty years ago upon the Abolitionists of Illinois and +Connecticut. A time came when it was almost equally dangerous to +maintain the constitutional doctrines which the Abolitionists had +assailed. Nowadays, of actual persecution there is little, because there +is little need; because the repression acts, save with the most +independent, original and contradictious tempers, upon thought rather +than expression. No human intellect or character can resist the +universal, insensible, unconscious, pressure of the atmosphere which +surrounds it from the cradle. Upon certain political, social, and +ethical dogmas, wherever national pride and democratic prejudice are +touched, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that the 'unanimous +opinion' of the North and West has demoralized or extinguished thought +itself. + +Demos is not only tyrant but Pope. He feels, and his courtiers venture +openly to claim for him, not only the royalty which can do no wrong, but +the infallibility which can define right and wrong themselves. He +resents, we are told upon democratic authority, all pretension to +special knowledge. + + 'No observer of American polities' (Mr. Godkin admits in his + reply to Sir Henry Maine) 'can deny that, with regard to + matters which can become the subject of legislation, the + American voter listens with extreme impatience to anything + which has the air of instruction; but the reason is to be + found not in his dislike of instruction so much as his + dislike in the political field of anything which savours of + superiority. The passion for equality is one of the very + strongest influences in American politics. This is so fully + recognized now by politicians, that self-depreciation, even + in the matter of knowledge, has become one of the ways of + commending one's self to the multitude, which even the + foremost men of both parties do not disdain. In talking on + such subjects as the currency, with a view of enlightening + the people, skilful orators are very careful to repudiate + all pretence of knowing anything more about the matter than + their hearers. The speech is made to wear as far as possible + the appearance of being simply a reproduction of things with + which the audience is just as familiar as the speaker. + Nothing is more fatal to a stump orator than an air of + superior wisdom on any subject. He has, if he means to + persuade, to keep carefully, in outward seeming at all + events, on the same intellectual level as those whom he is + addressing. Orators of a demagogic turn, of course, push + this caution to its extreme, and often affect ignorance, and + boast of the smallness of the educationale opportunities + enjoyed by them in their youth, and of the extreme + difficulty they had in acquiring even the little they know. + There is nothing, in fact, people are less willing to + tolerate in a man, who seek office at their hands, than any + sign that he does not consider himself as belonging to the + same class as the bulk of the voters--that either birth, or + fortune, or education has taken him out of sympathy with + them, or caused him, in any sense, to look down on them.' + +Historians treat the vote of the present generation as decisive, morally +as well as practically, on the issues of the past. The people has, by +chance or caprice, passed judgment upon questions, in discussing which +consummate statesmen with intimate practical knowledge of their bearings +profoundly differed; and that judgment concludes the controversy, +determines the right or wrong, the wisdom or folly, of men like J.Q. +Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun. We have seen too +much of this abject superstition in recent English historical essays, as +well as in political polemics. It is needless to point out the debasing +effect upon all discussion of such anticipatory appeal to the arbitrary +decision of Pope or posterity. No man can reason vigorously, frankly, +forcibly, and fully, who feels that he, or the heirs of his thought, may +be forced not merely to accept defeat, but to cry '_peccavi_.' The maxim +'_securus judicat orbis terrarum_' has no place in historical +criticism; and if it had, one nation is not the world, nor the next +generation a posterity on whose experience and impartiality reliance +might be placed. + +M. de Tocqueville is known to the world chiefly by two great works. His +'Democracy in America' was the production of his early manhood. In New +England he saw democracy at its best and brightest; saw nothing of that +deterioration which the decay of the old Puritan severity, the infusion +of a strong foreign element, the corruption and the passions of the +Civil War, have confessedly caused. The colonial traditions and +principles were still in modified force; simple habits of life, a +general prevalence of competence, the absence of ostentatious wealth and +luxury, left women content to be mothers and housekeepers; a position of +which, as trustworthy witnesses allege, modern luxury, culture, and love +of leisure, have rendered them impatient; while the impossibility of +devolving their domestic duties upon servants makes the family a burden, +and maternity no longer the deepest instinct and strongest hope of +womanhood. He saw no beginning of that manifold change of morals and +manners which the survivors of an elder generation now regard with deep +dismay. His portrait of Democracy, as seen in New England, is decidedly +rose-coloured. He saw enough in the Middle and Southern States of the +working of democracy under different social conditions, to tinge that +picture with the hues of doubt, if not yet with the sombre colours of +deep apprehension. + +How apt to be partial is the widest and closest political observation is +shown by the very partial lessons derived from the experience of the New +World. Few observe how signally the history of Central and South America +contradicts the inferences so confidently drawn from the United +States--or rather from the New England of yesterday, and the present +condition of California and the States bounded by the Lakes and the +Ohio, the Mississippi and the Alleghanies. Among the States of Spanish +and Portuguese speech and civilization--it would be too much to say +blood--the failure of democracy has been complete, glaring, and ruinous. +Social and political anarchy, utter insecurity of life and property, +incessant revolution and murderous war, have been its only fruits. The +happy accident of hereditary princes, exceptionally wise, able, and +forbearing, has barely saved Brazil. The one prosperous, solvent, +orderly State between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn is the aristocratic +republic of Chili. So large, striking, and impressive a fact can hardly +have escaped a thinker like Tocqueville, whose French birth and +experience protected him in great measure from the insular ignorance, +rather than arrogance, which leads the ablest English writers to base +their political philosophy exclusively upon Anglo-Saxon experience and +examples: yet it is strange to find so striking a lesson so lightly +touched by the wisest, widest, most reflective, and best-informed, among +the political teachers of his age. + +In the _Ancien Regime_ we see the seeds of all that is worst and most +dangerous in the modern French polity: the hothouse which fostered into +a growth, unknown elsewhere, that passion of envy, which Tocqueville +regards as the radical vice, the paramount impulse, the fundamental +principle, of Democracy. The peculiar reasons for this dominant +sentiment of hatred and jealousy in the democracy of France will be +found in his own writings. Much as there was to admire in the old +nobility of France, the people saw it only in an aspect calculated to +excite unmingled hatred and contempt. It had ceased to govern, to render +any service in return for privileges, exemptions, and exactions so +odious, vexatious, and oppressive that no service could atone for them. +Even these were forgiven to the resident aristocracy of La Vendee. But +absentees supported by such exactions, an Order known to the people not +even by neglected duties and ill-directed interference, but solely by +demands and extortions unconnected with any remaining or remembered +functions, a class whose wealth and luxury were supported not by rents +or other returns paid by the tillers of the soil to its original owners, +holders, or 'lords,' but by rates, tithes, fines, heriots, monopolies +(to use the nearest English equivalents) levied for their benefit, and +levied in the worst possible way--what feelings could these excite among +a people consciously fainting beneath the load of taxes, _corvees_, +restrictions and imposts, fees and stamps, of which only a part ever +reached the empty Treasury of the State? Is it strange that so monstrous +a fabric, when those on whose living bodies it was built rose in revolt, +should have fallen with a great ruin, and have crushed all whom it had +sheltered? 'The guilt of an Order cannot palliate the massacre of its +Innocents.' True; but human nature being what it is, the unreasoning +burst of fury which strove to stamp out every trace of old institutions, +to exterminate the race of the unconscious oppressors, was less strange +than the fidelity of the Vendeans. + +And yet that massacre is in itself suggestive. The wholesale butcheries +of the Terror are accountable; even the attempt of Robespierre, St. +Just, and Barere to suppress revolt and discontent by _noyades_ and +_mitraitlades_, if fiendish, is intelligible. It had a political aim. It +satisfied a definite if diabolical desire. But the executions of +veteran philosophers, of grey-haired parish-priests, of harmless +nuns--the deliberate cold-blooded cruelty which punished with death the +resentment, the imprudence, often the mere birth, of orphaned lads; the +prayers or the tears of schoolgirls who might well hav urged the piteous +plea of Sejanus' infant daughter--these recal the indiscriminate +ferocity of wild beasts, the atrocities occasionally committed by +destructive maniacs in an excess of fury, or the infectious frenzies of +lycanthropy and similar forms of epidemic madness, rather than such +human cruelty as prompted the massacre of Drogheda, the butchery of +Melos, or the destruction of Carthage. What could schoolboys have done +worthy of the guillotine, even in the eyes of the Jacobin Club? Girls, +like children, can try the temper and patience of manhood, and among +rough men or in rough times get roughly punished; but when, save in +1793, did men ever think of killing them? There was but one fault +besides their birth--a fault almost inseparable from their birth--which +the boy-ensigns and pages, the convent-bred demoiselles, shared with +their parents; that inalienable, instinctive, inborn grace, that sense, +air, and bearing of superiority, which we find acknowledged alike by the +noble and the _bourgeois_, the _von Adel_ and the _buerger_, acknowledged +by those who regret or resent as distinctly as by those who would uphold +it. The unpardonable sin of the _noblesse_, the inheritance of which +they could not be deprived but with their lives, the secret sting that +maddened the Jacobin to slay not merely the beardless heirs but the +innocent and helpless daughters of the captured chateau, may perhaps be +hinted in a question and answer like the following, between Senior and +De Tocqueville, after the third Revolution had proved its impotence to +efface the footmarks of nature:-- + + 'I said that I was told that the distinction between noble + and _roturier_ existed in its full force in real life. + + '"Yes," said Tocqueville, "it does, meaning by noble, + _gentilhomme_; and it is a great misfortune, since it keeps + up distinctions and animosities of caste; but it is + incurable--at least, it has not been cured, or perhaps much + palliated, by our sixty years of revolution. It is a sort of + Freemasonry. When I talk to a _gentilhomme_, though we have + not two ideas in common, though all his opinions, wishes, + and thoughts are opposed to mine, yet I feel at once that we + belong to the same family, that we speak the same language, + that we understand one another. I may like a bourgeois + better, but he is a stranger." I mentioned the remark to me + of a very sensible Prussian, _buerger_ himself, that it was + unwise to send out as ambassador any not noble. I said it + did not matter in England, where the distinction is unknown. + "Yes," he replied, "unknown with you; but you may be sure + that when any of our _buerger_ ministers meets one who is + _von Adel_, he does not negociate with him on equal terms; + he is always wishing to sneak under the table."' + +In these conversations, preserved in a separate series of Senior's +Journals, we have the best, latest, and wisest, of De Tocqueville's +thoughts; none the less valuable, and to English readers all the more +intelligible and impressive, that we have them in undress; put into the +terse, pithy, concentrated style of summarized oral conversation by the +recorder, instead of being elaborately tricked out in all the formal +grace of French literary diction by one of the most fastidious of French +writers. Senior, who habitually wrote down in his Journals the +conversation of the great, wise, and thoughtful--the leaders of +political action or literary criticism, the statesmen and thinkers--with +whom in the course of a leisurely life of social observation he was +brought into intimate intercourse, had a gift of getting from each man +the best he had to give. His friends knew that their table-talk was +recorded, often themselves read and corrected the record, and therefore +gave him what they were willing to give not to the contemporary world, +but to posterity; those opinions upon the current facts of the day by +which they were willing to be judged hereafter. No opinions upon the +tendencies and consequences, the prospects and passions, the strength +and weakness of democracy, could well be more valuable than those which +the painter of Democracy in America--after the experience of many years +in the public life of France, in the Representative Chamber of the +Orleans Monarchy, and in the Legislature of the Republic,--delivered for +the benefit of readers far removed by time and distance, during the +latter months of the rickety infancy of that ill-starred Government and +the first period of the Second Empire. Tocqueville spoke from a point of +vantage, such as few other men have attained, upon a theme which he had +studied profoundly in youth, and upon which Fate had ever since been +writing elaborate commentaries. He spoke with a mind naturally calm, +candid, and judicial, enriched by a deeper knowledge than any other +Continental writer enjoyed of the working of popular institutions in +England and America, matured by the experience of a lifetime; spoke +while the most critical experiments in democratic Constitutionalism and +democratic Caesarism were being worked out before his eyes. + +Founding a so-called Constitutional Monarchy upon a corruption as gross +as that of Walpole, Louis Phillippe had rendered his power absolute at +the price of sapping its foundation; and Tocqueville had predicted the +Revolution long before accident precipitated it--predicted it as an +inevitable result of the corruption he denounced, and indicated the +forces of silent discontent which were sure to overthrow it. In 1848, +and still more in 1871, the people of France at large turned +instinctively to those natural leaders whom at all other times they had +so persistently ostracized. Alarmed in the first case by an unexpected +and undesired triumph of the Parisian populace--in the second, chastened +by a great national disaster, without definite views or objects of their +own--they deliberately trusted their interests to the larger landowners, +whose interests must coincide with theirs; to the men of hereditary +culture, of thoughtful habits, and wider experience, in whom they +recognized a natural capacity to deal with problems that bewildered +themselves, with events that had taken them utterly unawares. But, save +at such times, and under the sobering influence of such lessons, +equality, and not liberty, is the root of French Democracy. To equality, +liberty is readily and unhesitatingly sacrificed. + + _'"Egalite,"_ said Tocqueville, "is an expression of envy. + It means in the real heart of every Republican, 'No one + shall be better off than I am;' and while this is preferred + to good government, good government is impossible. In fact, + no party desires good government. The first object of the + reactionary party is to keep down the Republicans; the + second, if it be the second, object of each branch of that + party, is to keep down the two others. The object of the + Republicans is, as they admit, _egalite_--but as for + liberty, or security, or education, or the other ends of + government, no one cares for them."' + +It was the passion for Equality that made the Second Empire possible. +The city _proletariat_ would endure anything but a privilege of class, a +constitutional monarchy associated in their experience with an +artificial peerage and a narrow uniform franchise; the _bourgeoisie_, +terrified by socialism--that is, confiscation--would accept any +Government strong enough to put and keep down the Reds, the Anarchists, +who under the Republic had kept Paris always within a week--had brought +her more than once within twenty-four hours--of sack and pillage. The +peasantry hated privilege and Socialism with an equal and impartial +hatred. The First Empire had given them much of what they most prized in +their actual condition, and was credited with all. Its one hateful +association was incessant and at last disastrous war, anticipated +conscriptions, and foreign invasion. The Second Empire, with its promise +of peace, was the embodiment of their ideal. It promised work to the +operative, opportunities of fortune to the restless, and safe investment +to the prudent among the middle-class. Its protectorate of the Pope +secured the clergy and the women; and it mattered nothing that, crushing +under foot the freedom at once of the press and the tribune, it incurred +the bitter hatred of the intellectual classes in a country where pure +intellect is more ambitious and more immediately powerful than in any +other. It stood firm and unshaken while it kept its promise of peace and +prosperity--the firmer that it embodied so distinctly the errors and +illusions of the many, and not the less popular that it showed so +profound and cynical a contempt for the intelligence of the few. Its +Budgets alone would have been fatal to a Government resting on and +responsible to Opinion, for the rapid growth of the Debt in a time of +peace and plenty would have terrified men accustomed to sift the +'capital' and 'revenue' accounts of great Companies, and to calculate +the resources of Empires as a peasant the yield of his farm. But the +millions were content; the worse the credit of the State, the higher the +interest on their savings; the embellishment of Paris and other great +public works were a practical acknowledgement of the _droit au travail_; +and the calculations of those, who criticised the fearful waste +(_coulage_) of such a system, proved to demonstration that a spendthrift +State must come to the end of a spendthrift _rentier_--with what +consequences the Commune of 1871 bare witness--found no attention; spoke +in a tongue not understood by the people. The masses were not even +alarmed by the warnings of veteran statesmen, consummate financiers, and +_doctrinaires_ of every school. Only in those great crises when all that +is left to wisdom is a choice of calamities, as in 1848 and 1871, does +Demos abdicate; recognize for a moment that all men are not born, much +less trained to remain, free _and equal_, and entreat the pilots by +hereditary profession to see the ship of State through the breakers. + +In the criticism, and especially in the best, most thoughtful, and least +obvious criticism, provoked by the long foreseen electoral settlement of +last year, the direct and indirect influence of Mr. Bagehot's writings +was constantly to be traced. On this subject he had looked back and +looked forward farther than most political reasoners. Household suffrage +seemed to him the inevitable consequence, the logical development, of +the reform of 1832. It was at that point, as he considered, that the +right and wrong path had diverged; that chance and destiny, rather than +choice, determined at the moment the adoption of that which led +necessarily and logically to sheer Democracy. The practice of the old +system had become throughly vicious, but the underlying principle was +sound and safe. All classes, all interests, were represented; but +accident had given, not to wealth or birth, but to a particular kind of +wealth, a certain set of families, an enormously disproportionate +representation. The landed interest was wronged in the utterly +inadequate representation of the counties. Ireland was misrepresented; +and the Scotch people could not be said to be represented at all. But +every class, every great interest, had its spokesmen; exercised a direct +and independent influence in the national councils. Rotten or pocket +boroughs were not only nurseries of professional statesmanship, but a +back door through which interests, whose direct representation was +impossible, found access to Parliament. The West Indian interest, the +East India Company, and the statesmen trained in its service, with their +special knowledge and zealous care for the welfare of our Oriental +empire, could secure a hearing for views to which no English +constituency would listen. Under such a system our Australian Colonies, +the great Dominion of Canada, the English minority which sustains the +Imperial cause in South Africa, would never have complained, as now, +that their voice was unheard, their feelings unreflected, in an assembly +which is no longer merely the Parliament of Great Britain, but the +Senate of an Empire greater than that of Rome. + +The working classes were represented through those numerous +constituencies in which the scot and lot franchise prevailed. It was +imperative that the abuses of the system should be redressed; that the +new communities which had grown up since the Restoration should be +directly represented; that the borough proprietors and the great +families should be deprived of their excessive weight in Parliament; +that the middle class should acquire a power more adequate to its new +social and political importance; that Scotland, again, should be really +and directly represented. But in Mr. Bagehot's view universal and varied +representation was of more consequence than arithmetical proportion. No +class, no interest, represented in the House of Commons, was likely to +be grossly wronged, none could be neglected or unheard. No class +intelligent enough to understand its own grievances, to have distinct +ideas and desires of its own, would have failed, under a reform +retaining the principle of the old system, to command attention and +secure redress. Had Pitt been able to carry out his well-known and +thoroughly sincere scheme of practical reform, or had Canning and his +followers sided with the Whigs upon this as upon almost every other +question, reform might have anticipated revolution. It was the weakness, +rather than the will, of the Whigs that compelled them to go not only +farther and faster, but in another direction, than their actual opinions +and traditional inclinations would have carried them. They were +compelled to present a scheme broad, simple, and extreme enough, to +attract irresistible support. + +When once uniformity of franchise and proportionate representation were +made the basis of the electoral system, the extension of the former, the +more and more accurate adjustment of the latter, became a mere question +of time. The poorest class of householders in towns in 1886 are probably +as intelligent and competent as were the ten-pounders of 1832. The +masses might have been satisfied with the gradual enlargement of their +old representation; having been once disfranchised by wholesale, it was +certain that they would ere long demand and ultimately secure that +wholesale enfranchisement, by which every other class must necessarily +be swamped. Minority representation, electoral districts, and single +seats, are at best lame and unsatisfactory methods of engrafting on pure +democracy securities and checks, which were essential and natural parts +of the old representation of classes and interests. When once every +borough below a certain numerical standard had been extinguished, and +all below another deprived of their second member, the upward extension +of the principle became a logical and historical necessity. So again +much, perhaps most, of what has been written upon the contrast between +the American and English constitutions--the two great types of popular +government, Parliamentary and Presidential, the direct and indirect +election of the actual Executive, terms fixed by law or dependent upon +Parliamentary favour--was anticipated in the best chapters of Mr. +Bagehot's 'English Constitution.' + +Few writers so terse, compact, and clear, have been so completely free +from the temptation of deliberate phrase making as Mr. Bagehot; yet few +professional phrase-makers have left in the minds of their readers so +many telling, forcible, and suggestive phrases; sentences in which a +novel or striking thought, an impressive view of new or old truth, a +principle apt to be forgotten or imperfectly appreciated, is vivified +and incarnated in a few emphatic words. It would be difficult to quote +any passage of ten times the length half so suggestive of the +exceptional conditions that have secured to England peace and stability +during the last two centuries of storm and shipwreck, revolution, and +reaction abroad, any phrase so expressive of the distinctive character +of the nation and its Government, as the two aptly chosen epithets +employed by Mr. Bagehot--the 'dignified parts' of the English +Constitution and the 'deferential tendency' of the English people. In +both instances he has, as we think, overstated his point. The dignified +parts of the Constitution are more real and living, are more intimately +associated with the practical work of Government, than he was disposed +to allow. Popular deference is paid more to truth and less to fiction +than he supposed. It is eminently characteristic of the cautious English +temper, the distrust of sharp contrasts and clever paradoxes engrained +in his nature, that (so far as we remember) he never adopts the familiar +saying of Thiers, that a constitutional Prince _regne et ne gouverne +pas_. But his actual conception of the English monarchy approaches far +too near that misleading and mischievous fallacy. + +It is a little strange that so devoted a disciple of Darwin, a writer +who applied the principle of Evolution with so much skill, insight, and +success, to the life of nations and the course of politics, should have +allowed so little weight to the natural selection which operates so +powerfully upon the character of hereditary Princes and aristocracies. +It is far from obvious why so close and careful an observer should have +drawn his illustrations of the working of constitutional monarchy so +exclusively from the past, and especially from the examples of George +III. and William IV., ignoring so completely the experience of the +present reign; the deep, lasting, and for the most part wholesome, +influence exercised in European politics by men like Leopold I., Prince +Albert, and the present Emperor of Germany. Prince Bismarck owes to +Royal favour and trust the foundation of his power, the strength which +enabled him in the teeth of a short-sighted Liberal opposition to create +that Prussian army, to carry out that ruthless but eminently successful +policy of blood and steel, which excluded Austria from her place in the +Confederation, put an end to the old dualism, and achieved the union of +Germany. Italy owes everything to Cavour; but she owed Cavour to Victor +Emmanuel. The selection of Russian, Austrian, and German ministers, the +consistency of their policy, the power or rather authority, most +judiciously used by the Crown at more than one critical period of recent +English history, completely refute Mr. Bagehot's theoretical and +historical doctrine that a Parliament must be wiser than an average +sovereign. He forgets that a Prince is exempt from the influence of +party, whose disastrous action in the great crisis of the national +fortunes has been brought home of late with painful force to all +thoughtful Englishmen. + +Nor has he escaped that influence in his criticism of George III. It +would be easy to show that the modern theory of Parliamentary +Government, the theory accepted by his immediate predecessors and now +firmly established, was one on which no scrupulous and conscientious +Prince in the position of George III. could possibly have acted. The +King found throughout the earlier years of his reign, until the younger +Pitt obtained an actual potent and controlling influence in the Houses +and in the closet, that the influence which secured a Parliamentary +majority was not his ministers' but his own. The dismissal of the elder +Pitt and Newcastle broke at once the strongest coalition of aristocratic +and popular influence, the mightiest league between intellect sustained +by national confidence, borough-mongering wealth, and family interest, +that ever dominated the unreformed Parliament. It was in the King's +power to give the control of the House to whom he would--to Chatham, +Grafton, Rockingham, or North. The one thoroughly unconstitutional use +of the Royal influence, with which the King can fairly be charged, was +employed to defeat the most unconstitutional and indefensible measure +ever brought forward by a corrupt and unprincipled coalition--the India +Bill, which endeavoured to secure for Fox and North personally the power +and patronage of our Oriental Empire. The King could not shift the +responsibility of administration upon ministers who owed office and +Parliamentary support to himself. The American war was not his work. The +Stamp Act was brought in during his first illness by the minister he +most hated. The Tea Duty was the madness of Townshend; and the step, +which gave the signal for revolt, was really a remission of two-thirds +of that duty. True that the King was the last man to agree to the +disruption of the empire, the abandonment of thousands of American loyal +subjects, to lower the flag of England before her coalesced European +enemies; but in that perseverance, surely not unkingly, he had one +enthusiastic supporter; and those who censure the King pass the same +censure on the dying speech of Lord Chatham. The one fatal error of a +long and conscientious reign should be laid to the account less of +George III. than of those who betrayed Pitt's counsels and played upon +the conscientious vagaries of a half-crazed brain. + +Mr. Bagehot dwells exclusively upon the unfavourable incidents of a +royal education. He overlooks the direct and indirect influences which +are brought to bear from the very cradle upon an hereditary Prince--the +sense of responsibility, the consciousness of a great position, the +familiarity with the gravest interests, a youth passed under the tuition +of the ablest masters, and above all that constant intercourse with the +finest intellects of the age, which secure for a future King a moral and +intellectual training unequalled in its excellence. The effect of that +training we see in our own Royal family, unfortunate as they have been +in the withdrawal at the most critical period of a father's control and +guidance. Of the Queen's daughters it is needless to speak. Her sons +are, by general admission, soldiers and sailors of more than average +professional ability. The Crown Prince of Germany, the late King of +Spain, the present heir of the House of France, Leopold II. of Belgium, +and King Humbert of Italy, are generally credited with high ability; and +more than one of them would take rank among the first statesmen of his +Kingdom. A Prince of fair abilities, with such a training and such +knowledge of the men with whom he is necessarily brought into contact, +has every means of knowing, at least as well as Parliament, who are the +most competent and most trustworthy statesmen to whom he can commit the +fortunes of his Kingdom. His continuous, experience of politics, +legislation, and government, his access, especially with regard to +foreign affairs, to wider and more impartial sources of information, +lend to his counsels an authority which no prudent or thoughtful +statesman will disregard. He looks at affairs from a higher point of +view, with a wider survey as a rule, and also with a calmer and more +unbiassed judgment. + +Mr. Bagehot dwells at length on what may be called the fictitious value +of Constitutional Monarchy; and this he was evidently inclined to +exaggerate. The English people, he thought, are, as a rule, too ignorant +to understand what the Queen's Government really is--how completely it +is carried on in the Royal name by Parliamentary Ministers. For them the +law is really incarnate in the Sovereign; in yielding obedience to +magistrates and policemen, to common law and Parliamentary statutes, in +forbearing or resisting riot, they obey or uphold the Royal authority. +Were they aware that at each general election they choose their real and +effective rulers for an indefinite period, they would be confused, +alarmed, and bewildered, to a degree which would render them incapable +of a real and intelligent choice. The people--the lower orders--may have +been, when Mr. Bagehot wrote, and probably are now, somewhat wiser and +better informed as to the real character of the Government--the actual +responsibility for particular measures--than their critic supposed. But +it is beyond doubt that the Queen's name is a great power. The law is +too mere an abstraction, the names of Ministers represent too much party +feeling, excite too much antagonism, to command the prompt obedience, +the loyal reverence, the enthusiastic support which is rendered to the +name of the Sovereign. In France and America a very different feeling +prevails. + +Mr. Senior, than whom no Englishman of his day was more intimate with a +number of French statesmen of different parties, views and +character--than whom there was, perhaps, no cooler, closer, or more +constant observer of French politics--remarks that Frenchmen are always +weak and timid in upholding, daring, resolute, and even fierce in +resisting the powers that be. Confidence, enthusiasm, conviction, seem +in every case of insurrection and dangerous riot to be on the side of +the mob. The revolution of 1848 afforded very striking examples of this +contrast. The overthrow of Louis Philippe, deeply as the King himself +was disliked and despised, narrow as was the electorate, unpopular as +was the Ministry, was the act of a small minority. The Republic was +imposed upon France by a knot of reckless journalists and +semi-communistic dreamers, backed by the dreaded populace of Paris, +against the will of the peasantry who formed four-fifths of the voters, +and of the educated or semi-educated classes, amounting to one half of +the remaining fifth. Again and again was the Provisional +Government--though backed by all who had anything to lose, by all who +dreaded anarchy--on the point of overthrow, and saved only by +Lamartine's eloquence from the conspiracy of a few thousand desperadoes, +and the stormy passions of a mob that hardly knew what it wanted. The +Assembly itself was invaded and terrorized for several hours: the lives +of the leaders, to whom all France looked up with reverence, were in +imminent peril at the hands of a faction numerically insignificant. Only +in the terrible days of June did the National Guard, after four months +of distress and incessant panic, of daily and hourly fear of sack and +pillage, act with energy and decision; and even then the struggle +between the army, supported by the National Guard and the Anarchist +faction of the barricades, was long balanced and doubtful: yet the party +of order in Paris itself constituted an overwhelming majority. + +In America, New England perhaps excepted, the mob and the people, the +party of lawless force and law-abiding principle, meet on more equal +terms. No one dreams of disputing, in the last resort, the authority of +the Sovereign, but that Sovereign is invisible and inaccessible. It must +be remembered, moreover, that more than one of the hundred popular +risings, that the Union has seen during its hundred years' existence, +were risings, not against the law, but for the law against the laxity of +its administrators. This very fact makes it the more clear how uncertain +and ineffective is the authority of abstract law and an impersonal +Sovereign. The legal authorities, State or Federal, are not necessarily +representative of the power by which they are elected. In California, +after a period of anarchy, the respectable classes rose with the tacit +support of the people against the State Government which the people had +elected; deposed it almost without an effort, and established in its +place the arbitrary rule of a self-appointed Vigilance Committee, whose +members no one knew. That lawless Government hanged as many rowdies, +pilferers, highway robbers and card sharpers as it thought fit; +banished hundreds under penalty of death--a penalty sure to be +enforced--re-established order, and laid down its power without having +encountered the shadow of legal or popular resistance. We have seen an +actual insurrection of the better elements of society provoked by the +escape of murderers and other criminals through the hands of lax or +corrupt juries, and of an administration whose use of the prerogative of +mercy was imputed to partisanship or to bribery. But in a great majority +of instances, riots that have reached the proportions of insurrection +have been simply anarchical or rebellious. It is not so long since the +railway employes of Pennsylvania, striking work upon an every-day +quarrel between employer and employed, took possession of the iron +highways of the State, intercepted communication, seized the great +railway arsenal of Pittsburg, and fought a pitched battle against the +militia, as obstinate and almost as sanguinary as the minor combats of +the Civil War. While we write, another strike of the same class has +suspended the traffic of the great Western railway line. In three States +the militia have been called out to protect property and liberty, the +rights of capital, the freedom of labour, the interest of the public, +against a class insurrection; the public authorities have been forcibly +resisted, and lives have been lost in a skirmish with fire-arms between +the _posse_ of the Sheriff and the insurgent Knights of Labour. Every +American mob feels itself invested with something of the majesty of the +sovereign people. Every body of English rioters--political, social, or +simply lawless--knows and feels itself guilty of resistance to the +Sovereign. The truncheon of the police, the uniform of the soldier, +unquestionably represents the legal will of the Sovereign; and before +that will the largest and most excited multitude gives way at once. + +Mr. Bagehot overlooks the _certainty_ which personal sovereignty gives: +the absence of a moment's possible doubt on which side is that supreme +arbiter, sure to be backed by nine-tenths of the physical forces of +society. He underrates, if he does not altogether ignore, the much wider +and deeper influence of the Royal name; its power over passion as well +as over ignorance. The omnipotence of Parliament, even when, in the +belief of half the nation, a Parliamentary majority represents a +minority of the people, is due less to traditional respect for the House +of Commons, or superstitious reverence for a majority vote, such as +prevails in America, than to the fact, that resistance means rebellion, +visible, unmistakable disobedience to the Queen. It is therefore deeply +to be regretted, not for any sentimental reason, but for the sake of +order and the protection of life and property, that the democratic +changes in our Constitution are gradually undermining the habit of +submission to the Queen's Majesty which still characterizes, to a great +extent, the English people. The Services still feel proud to consider +that they serve, in their own phrase--not the State but--'the Queen.' +That sentiment of loyalty, which Mr. Bagehot ascribes to the ignorant +alone, is as strong in the upper or middle as in the lower orders; has a +far wider, deeper influence than he allows, than it was consistent with +the whole scope of his work on the English constitution to recognize. + +One of the most remarkable and interesting points in Tocqueville's +conversations, as recorded by Mr. Senior, is the value which he and +other interlocutors ascribe to the English Poor Law. Mr Senior had seen +its essential principle, the right of subsistence, worked out +farther--to extremer and more dangerous consequences--than perhaps any +other political or social experiment, before the practical common sense +of England interfered. Under the old Poor Law, at least in the rural +districts, the income of a household was regulated by its number. Every +head of a family was entitled to an allowance, increasing with its +increase, and wholly independent of his earnings. Nominal wages had been +actually forced down _below_ the starvation point. The law had +demoralized industry by placing the idlest ditcher on a level of comfort +with the best ploughman, and threatened to swallow up property in the +support of poverty. Tocqueville and his friends had seen the danger from +another point of view. The most popular and most formidable of the +dogmas of that Socialism, which had infected so deeply the _proletariat_ +of Paris and other French cities, was in another and yet more insidious +and destructive form the doctrine of the Poor Law. The right of +subsistence was admitted by the establishment of the _ateliers +nationaux_, and asserted by the insurgents of June, 1848, under the +nobler and more dignified guise of the _droit au travail_. The State was +bound, according to that doctrine, not to keep the idle alive, but to +furnish the industrious with work suited to their skill at market rate +of wages; a rate which had no right to fall below the average standard +of an artizan's needs, or rather of his habits. + +A principle which contradicts the laws of nature is obviously false; and +the right to subsistence--if claimed not for all who do, but for all who +may, exist in a given country--yet more clearly the _droit au travail_ +of which this is the practical meaning--involves the demand, that +agricultural production shall keep pace with population. But, save for +checks all ultimately reducible to the fear of want, checks which it is +the essential object of a Poor Law to relax, population would rapidly, +in any old country, overtake subsistence. That, were the population of +England or France to multiply at an American rate, it would soon lack +standing room, is mathematically demonstrable. A poor law then must be +attended by checks on population as effective as those of Nature +herself; and from their artificial character necessarily more offensive, +revolting, and difficult to enforce. None the less, Englishmen familiar +as Senior with the ruinous operation of the old Poor Law, Frenchmen +confronted like Tocqueville by the terrible theory of the _droit au +travail_, the alarming experience of the _ateliers nationaux_, were +inclined to regard that admission of the right to subsistence--limited +to those actually born--which is the fundamental principle of the +present Poor Law, as a most valuable, if not an indispensable, guarantee +of social security; a signal instance of that practical English wisdom, +which refuses to push admitted principles, sound or false, to +consequences undeniably logical, but practically dangerous. + +It might be thought that in a Christian, and especially a Roman Catholic +country, the danger of starvation could never be very practical--that +men, and still more women and children, bearing in their forms and faces +the stamp of actual want, of pinching hunger, would never be denied. But +Senior's experiences of the Irish famine pointed to a different +conclusion. Death by famine is at last rapid, sudden, and unexpected. On +the road to Kenmare, from which many Irish emigrants were despatched to +America, corpses were daily found with collapsed stomachs _and money in +their pockets_. Hoping to reach the port, keeping their money to pay +their passage, death had overtaken them unawares; and this in the face +of organized measures of relief, the largest and most liberal that +public or private charity has ever provided. In cases of prolonged and +extreme distress, but for the Poor Law, hundreds would die of want +almost unawares, before want had overcome their reluctance to beg. And +if actual starvation were rare, yet in the absence of a recognized right +to food and shelter, the fear of starvation must be ever present. This +spectral horror, Tocqueville evidently thought, haunted the imagination +of the French operative; and had much to do with the popularity of +Socialism in a country of diffused property and general thrift, and with +the ferocity of Socialistic or Red Republican insurrections. Charity, +however liberal, is an uncertain and--to their credit be it spoken--to +the majority of French operatives, a repulsive and degrading resource. +It cannot exorcise the hideous spectre of actual famine, which, though +remote, seems ever to threaten them, their wives and their children; and +which in times of distress and depression looms terribly near, distinct, +and horrible. No wonder that men haunted by such a spectre should be +driven to gloomy envy, sullen hate, and outbreaks of ferocity worse than +those provoked by actual suffering. No wonder that any schemes, however +frantic and however unrighteous, should have charms for a class whose +reason is disturbed by the perpetual vision of that ultimate but +undeniably possible horror. We have seen in France within the last few +weeks moral portents which can hardly be ascribed to any other final +cause an atrocious murder committed by workmen, and, what is infinitely +worse, extenuated and almost approved by responsible legislators. It is +probable that the Belgian riots approach as near as any witnessed in +Europe during the last two centuries to a revolt of actual want. Belgium +has secured an artificial manufacturing prominence--a disproportionate +trade to hard toil and low wages. The latter had lately been forced down +to the _minimum_, as profits had been well-nigh extinguished, by the +general depression of business. In fear of actual want, the populace +rose, wasted farms, destroyed factories, plundered and levied +blackmail--in a word, tried to inflict on others the misery that had +maddened themselves. The word has been given to the most quiet and +law-abiding people in Europe _to defend themselves_: a step far more +significant of stern intentions than the sharpest military repression. +Yet the Government is forced to accompany its preventive measures with +an expenditure of 20_s_ per head of the population on public +works--equivalent to an English rate in aid of twenty millions! Could +there be a more conclusive proof that the dread of hunger is a real and +a terrible power for evil among Continental nations; that their choice +lies, in a word, between a recognition of the right to subsistence--a +Poor Law with severe labour tests and restrictions--and periodical, +spasmodic measures of relief enforced by insurrection? Or can there be a +doubt, that the latter is infinitely the more dangerous and demoralizing +alternative: that only the adoption of a Poor law can prevent the +lessons of 1886 from shaking the very foundations of order, property and +civil government in countries situate as are France and Belgium? + +It seems strange that French Democracy should not have long since +insisted on laying for ever the spectre of starvation by a Poor Law more +liberal than that of England. It must be remembered, however, that the +democracy of France is a propertied and landed democracy, heavily +burdened with taxes and interest on mortgages, pinched by necessity, +and pinching itself by thrift. No class is so hard to want, so ruthless +to idleness, as a peasantry which wins for itself a bare subsistence by +constant toil, and provides for the future by constant self-denial. + +The temper of a progressive and prosperous democracy is very different. +Many, perhaps most of the American States, are without a Poor Law. +Slavery dispensed with it, and the race antagonism consequent on the +manner and circumstances of emancipation has rendered a thorough +revision of social relations--a systematic attempt to meet the new and +very exceptional conditions of Southern society in its present +form--hitherto impossible. Yet, by the confession of one of their +bitterest enemies, no people are so tender, so generous, so lavish of +active sympathy towards the sick, the bereaved, and the unfortunate. In +States which, probably from an instinct under their circumstances just +and wise, refuse to recognize the right to subsistence by a legal +provision for the poor, whereby the idle and vicious would chiefly +benefit, nevertheless paupers by the visitation of God--the aged and +infirm, the blind, the deaf, and dumb, lunatics and idiots--are amply +provided by public and private charity with all that can alleviate their +lot: or teach them, as far as possible, the means of self-dependence. +American charity towards the victims of great natural catastrophes, far +more common there than here--communities burned out by a forest fire, or +ruined by a flood--and yet more the personal sacrifices made, the +readiness with which men and women devote their leisure thought, and +energy to the supervision of public institutions, the efficient +distribution of public subscriptions, the succour and nursing of a +community stricken by pestilence, are above praise. A careful study of +Transatlantic examples might put our own boasted lavishness of charity +to shame. + +Even in England, organized private charity, wisely directed, might +surely contrive to effect a discrimination between those who are paupers +by vice, unthrift, and idleness, and those whom God has striken for no +fault that humanity is entitled to pass judgment upon; between the +fitting inmates of the workhouse, and those--helpless from age, +infirmity, accident, and disease--to whom the associations of the +workhouse are humiliating, painful and demoralizing. Nothing is more +essential, under democratic rule, than the maintenance of due severity +towards those who will not work; nothing more likely to relax that +needful severity than its indiscriminate application to those who +cannot. + + + + +ART. X.--1. _Fourth Midlothian Campaign._ Political speeches delivered, +November, 1885, by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. Edinburgh, 1886. + +2. John Morley: _The Irish Record of the New Chief Secretary, 1886._ + +3. _Ireland; A Book of Light on the Irish Problem._ Edited by Andrew +Reid. London, 1886. + +4. _Home Rule._ Reprint from the 'Times' correspondence, &c. 1886. + +5. _Social Order in Ireland. Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union._ Dublin, +1886. + +6. _Speech of Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons, April 8, 1886, on +moving for leave to bring in a Bill to make provision for the future +Government of Ireland._ + + +The fate of the scheme for the Government of Ireland, which Mr. +Gladstone disclosed in the House of Commons last week, has been +practically determined. Whether the Bill be rejected on the second +reading, whether amidst the currents of adverse opinion which have +already set in, it slowly goes to wreck upon the shoals of Parliamentary +procedure, its ultimate doom is already settled, but the mischief which +has been done will not be removed so promptly. A great blow has been +struck at the United Kingdom. The proposal to recognize Irish +nationality as a political force apart from Great Britain--a proposal +made by a Prime Minister, a leader of a great Parliamentary party--will +for many a day to come stimulate in Ireland all the elements of +disorder, which a noble series of statesmen, from Burke to Peel, have +resolutely laboured to eradicate. + +It was no surprise to the House that had listened to the marvellous +dream of Mr. Gladstone, when Mr. Parnell rose to express his gratitude +in terms almost of emotion:-- + + 'It will prove a happy and fortunate thing, both for Ireland + and England, that there was one man living, one English + statesman living, with the great power and the extraordinary + ability of the right hon. gentleman to lend his voice on + behalf of poor helpless Ireland. He had devoted his great + mind, his extraordinary energy to the unravelling of this + question and to the construction of this Bill.... To none of + the sons of Ireland--at any time has there ever been given + the genius and talent of the right hon. gentleman--certainly + nothing approaching to it in these days.' + +The people, whom a few months ago Mr. Parnell denounced as representing +to him and his friends 'imprisonment, chains and death,' now came to +offer him a scheme of Irish nationality, and Shylock, recognizing the +wisdom of the sham Balthazar, was not more appreciative: 'A Daniel come +to judgment, yea a Daniel,' but, like Shylock, Mr. Parnell relied upon +his bond. Whilst he accepted the offering with the effusion of a +successful speculator, he took care to remind his hearers that he was +not bound to take it in discharge of his claim. He reserved any +'definite or positive expression of opinion;' 'there were undoubtedly +great faults and blots in the measure,' but he could safely say, +'whavever might be the fate of the Bill, the cause of Ireland, the cause +of Irish autonomy, will enormously gain by the genius of the right hon. +gentleman.' This is the solid result of the strange events which have +been passing for the last three months. A distinguished public man has +been called to office by the Parnellite vote. He has demanded and +obtained ample time to consider the difficulties of his position and +offer his solution. + +A glance at the new scheme shows that the proposal is at once +disingenuous and fantastic. The Prime Minister shrinks from admitting +the nature of the work he is engaged in. He breaks up the unity of the +Kingdom, but he will not allow that his Bill involves the repeal of the +Union. But whatever quibbles may be indulged in, the main principle of +the Act of Union, that Ireland should be represented at Westminster is +swept away. As Irish nationality is not to be ignored, it finds +expression in a Parliament in Dublin; but Ireland is to pay a +contribution towards the debt and towards public defence, and in the +application of this money is to have no voice. Thus we have Irish +nationality started with machinery which sets aside the first principle +of free governments, that there should be no taxation without +representation; and the internal arrangements of the Dublin Parliament +are equally suggestive of confusion in the future. + +The Prime Minister does not ask Parliament to disregard the risks to +which property and loyalty will be exposed in the Dublin Assembly, and +he proposes to satisfy our conscience by giving them the security of +representation in Dublin by a special Order. The Dublin Parliament is +divided into two Orders, each of which shall have a veto on the +legislation of the majority. The First Order consists of persons who +must be possessors of 4000l. or an equivalent income. That is their +personal qualification, and they are to be elected by occupiers rated at +25l. Property qualification for Members of Parliament was abolished in +England some thirty years ago. Rating, as a qualification for electors, +has been abandoned in a series of deliberate public measures from 1866 +to 1885; but it is these old clothes of English Parliaments which Mr. +Gladstone offers to his new nationality. Why should these expedients be +adopted in Ireland? Checks upon legislative action, a second Chamber, a +Second or a First Order, are questions upon which theorists are divided. +They are certainly not questions which have occupied the National +League. These 'Orders' in Parliamentary life are not native Irish ideas. +These reproductions of quaint customs, such as we might find in some +ecclesiastical synod, or in the village organization of some old +Scandinavian community, are England's guarantees for the security of +property in the Sister Island. That Island, we know, has been abandoned +for some years to the National League, whose power was founded on their +opportunities of excommunicating any one who did not subscribe to their +funds and obey their decrees. The principle of the National League was +that property in land was an outrage on Irish opinion; and we are asked +to believe that this American-Irish organization, clothed with +Parliamentary power in Dublin, will be kept in check by a device, which +has no sanction in ancient tradition, in local sympathy, in recognized +opinion. The First Order in the new Chamber will be so many people +marked out for plunder. If any one possessing 4000l. worth of property, +which he can convert into cash, is venturesome enough to accept a seat +in the Chamber, what will become of him and his electors, people who are +scheduled in each locality as the owners of property rated at 25l. a +year? The majority of them in the South and West will be tenants who +have not dared to pay their rents, because the National League +prohibited the payment. Let us suppose people are found to constitute +the First Order, and they veto some scheme of the majority, and a +general election occurs, will the expedients which have made the League +what it is be suddenly forgotten? Can we doubt that the First Order and +its electors would be straightway boycotted out of existence? The +Ministerial proposal is an attempt to meet the views of Mr. Parnell; +and, without admitting that it is all he requires, the Irish leader +cordially accepts it, but he wants, he has told us, 'the full and +complete right to arrange our own affairs and make ours a nation--to +secure for her, free from outside control, the right to direct her own +course among the peoples of the world.' We are asked to suppose that he +and his friends, started in their new career, will be stopped by such a +ridiculous invention as this First Order. And it is a project like this, +inconsistent with itself, implying constitutional degradation of the +very people whom it is supposed to conciliate, patched up with strange +curiosities as unknown in England as in Ireland, which Parliament is +asked to accept as a 'final settlement' of our Irish difficulties. + +The Bill proposed settles nothing. Its only result is a renewed +manifestation of the power and influence of the Irish agitator. In this +extraordinary state of affairs men are apt to forget the series of +events which have brought about our present condition. Ministries come +and go at the bidding of Mr. Parnell. English policy in the future, +important schemes affecting the gravest concerns of England, of +Scotland, of Ireland, depend not on any principle accepted by the +British public, but on the humour of the Irish leader. The existence of +the House of Lords, the legal position of the Church of Scotland, the +maintenance of our most important military reserve, the right of the +Sovereign in relation to peace and war, are exposed to critical +divisions, not because British opinion is eager for revolution, or has +become indifferent to the vast interests involved, but because the +Nationalist party wish to remind us of their voting power. + +Our alarm at all this should not make us lose sight of the antecedent +facts which have built up this force of mischief. Mr. Gladstone is Prime +Minister by the favour of the Irish party, and this party is the outcome +of Mr. Gladstone's own policy. Whether the fluent rhetorician foresaw +his present position, whether perched on his slender ledge of power he +now enjoys it, we need not stop to consider. What we would remind our +readers is that for nearly twenty years past he has, in the main line of +his public life, notwithstanding some convulsive oscillations, pursued +with the pertinacity of one possessed the policy of which the present +Irish organization is the natural and the logical development. The +National League represents the spirit to which Mr. Gladstone appealed at +Southport in 1867. In the December of that year he charged the new +voters, in words of solemn adjuration, to look at Ireland from the Irish +point of view. This appeal had an electric effect upon the population of +that island. In the years which have passed since, his own injunction +has been sometimes rudely disregarded by Mr. Gladstone himself, but he +never long delayed to turn again to his favourite theory, to make +another effort to justify the principle with which he had started, and +at each renewal of his enterprise he plunged himself and his party +deeper into the morass of Hibernian disorder. Mr. Gladstone's admirers +are very proud of his numerous successes in carrying important Bills +through Parliament, but it is forgotten that his Irish Bills, though +carried, have never attained the ends for which they were passed. Twice +have all the resources of his genius, all the machinery of his party, +been called into requisition to bring about a final settlement of the +Irish Land question, and yet the work is still to be done. The +explanation is not far to seek. Mr. Gladstone's passionate recklessness +committed him in 1867 to an enterprise, the magnitude of which excited +his vanity, the actual nature of which he only dimly perceived. + +In the year we have named he was trying to recover his footing after a +heavy fall in his first start as leader of the Liberal Party. A scheme +of Parliamentary reform, carried by his political opponent, had marked +the commencement of another epoch. In the new arena of public life two +centres of political energy were certain to be strongly represented in +the organization which Mr. Gladstone hoped to lead back to office. The +Spirit of Dissent was all powerful among the English householders. The +Irish tenant, whose electoral strength, directed by the Roman +priesthood, had been exhibited with much effect in 1852, was sure to +receive a great increase of power under the new Reform Bill. To combine +these influences was one of the conditions of any prolonged tenure of +office by the Liberal party. The Irish Establishment had been forsaken +by English opinion in previous years. Its overthrow would be hailed with +enthusiasm by the Dissenting communities, whilst the Irish priesthood +would regard disestablishment with undoubted satisfaction. The condition +of Irish Land Tenure was admitted by all parties to require amendment, +and its settlement would be a substantial benefit to the Irish farmer. + +These were subjects which naturally tempted the daring energies of a man +occupying Mr. Gladstone's position in the winter of 1867. Turned out of +office after the death of Lord Palmerston, his subsequent management of +the reform question, as leader of the Opposition, had only increased the +distrust of his party. He was without a constituency at the coming +election, and he went down to Lancashire to seek in that great centre of +hard-headed Englishmen the confiding constituency which he subsequently +found in Midlothian. New legislation on the Irish Church, a reform in +Irish Land Tenure, were subjects for which his party, for which the +majority of Englishmen were pretty well prepared. The Liberal Churchmen, +like Sir Roundell Palmer, who held back on the subject of +Disestablishment, were more than counterbalanced by the Dissenters, who +were attracted by the scheme. Popular Legislation on these subjects +might have been granted to Ireland as the matured outcome of British +opinion. Such a mode of approaching the work in hand did not suit the +exuberant temperament of Mr. Gladstone. Whilst the report of the +Clerkenwell explosion was still echoing through the land, he announced +his policy as one to be recommended, not because the great British +community had examined and adopted the proposed measures, but because +Irish opinion was to be henceforth accepted as our guide in Irish +Legislation. With characteristic recklessness he hurried to turn to the +account of his own ambition the throb of excitement which he saw +traversing the nation. He appealed to his audience to regard the Fenian +outrages as a sort of revelation from heaven, to commune with their own +hearts, not on the state of Ireland, and the remedies sensible men could +offer, but on the sentiments of Irishmen. His final test of legislation +was to be, not its consonance with the judgment of the British people, +but with the demand of the Irish crowd. + + 'Ireland is at your doors. Providence has placed her there. + Law and legislation have been a compact between you. You + must face these obligations. You must deal with them and + discharge them. As to the modes of giving effect to this + principle I do not now enter upon them. I am of opinion they + should be dictated, as a general rule, by that which may + appear to be the mature, well-considered, and general sense + of the Irish people.'--20th Dec. 1867. + +At this date 'the general sense of the Irish people' was, to Mr. +Gladstone's mind, the policy formulated by the Irish Episcopacy, the +scheme which at a later stage of the campaign in the following year he +described as the lopping off the three branches of the Upas tree of +Protestant ascendancy. He failed in Lancashire, but his success in other +parts of the kingdom was complete; and then ensued the abolition of the +Irish Establishment and an adjustment of the land question which carried +the recognition of local customs farther than Englishmen had +anticipated. + +The Liberal party had been charged to consult Irish opinion. As long as +Cardinal Cullen and Mr. Gladstone were agreed all went merrily, even if +some rude coercion like the Westmeath Act was required to deal with +Irish ideas which did not find expression in the Cardinal. But whilst +the English Minister and the Irish Primate declared, that Ribbonism was +an impudent pretender to any representative character and must be rooted +out, a third organ of opinion claimed the benefit of the Southport +principle in the form of the Home Rule Association, and Mr. Gladstone at +Aberdeen replied with angry scorn: + + 'Can any sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that, + at this time of day, in this condition of the world, we are + going to disintegrate the capital institutions of this + country for the purpose of making ourselves ridiculous in + the sight of all mankind, and crippling any power we possess + for bestowing benefits, through legislation, on the country + to which we belong?'--26th Sept. 1871. + +The ideas expressed by the Roman hierarchy, attracted by the +Disestablishment, substantially interested in the better position of the +farmer, and confidently anticipating for themselves the acquisition of a +power over public education such as their order enjoyed nowhere else in +the world, these were ideas which Mr. Gladstone recognized as national. +On the subject of education, however, he was not able to go as far as +the Ultramontane party required. They directed the Irish members to vote +against him. The coalition between Dissent and the Roman Hierarchy was +dissolved. The Minister, who had brought it about, suddenly awoke to a +sense of the evil teaching of his late allies in the government of +Ireland, and '_Vaticanism_' held them up to the reprobation of +Protestant England. + +The new Liberal discovery, the principle of Irish ideas, had broken down +as a party engine. It had made the Ministry of 1868, but it had failed +to preserve it. Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of the party +to the greater freedom of an independent member of Parliament, and in +this capacity led the stormy agitation against Lord Beaconsfield, making +the foreign policy of England a party question. + +Meanwhile the theory of the Southport speech, and the results which had +attended it, were not forgotten in Ireland. The Home Rule movement, +which was denounced so angrily at Aberdeen, enlisted all the resources +of local sentiment, feelings similar to those which make a Lancashireman +proud of Lancashire, a Scotchman delight in Scotch associations. Among +its promoters were professors, poets, Irish Catholics, who were glad to +show themselves on a public platform without being the puppets or the +opponents of their bishops, Irish Protestants, who were irritated at the +desertion of the Irish Church, a number of well-meaning people who were +attracted by the opportunity of talking eloquently and vaguely about +nothing in particular. This Academic scheme of Home Rule found an +admirable exponent in Mr. Butt, an able lawyer of ambitious politics. + +What answer were Liberals to give to this new embodiment of their great +statesman's theory? They denounced Mr. Butt, pondering feebly meanwhile +what it all meant; but the Home Rule organization, once set a-going, was +soon permeated by the Fenian spirit. Platitudes about 'patriotism' and +'green Erin' meant to an Irish crowd, 'Down with England and with +landlords.' That great hotbed of disatisfaction, Irish popular feeling, +supplied stimulating nutriment to the new party. In proportion as +hostility to England was more openly declared, funds came in rapidly +from the Irish in America. Year by year the Home Rule members gained in +parliamentary power, one section of the Liberal party after another +giving them encouragement--in the first place because they were +troublesome to a Tory Ministry, in the second because the flaccid +thought of modern Liberalism made them welcome any organization, which +would save them the trouble of facing the difficulties of Irish +administration. + +In 1880 the public took no heed to Lord Beaconsfield's historic warning, +that danger was brewing in Ireland. The Liberal legislation of ten years +before had, they tried to believe, disposed of Irish difficulties in +their most serious aspect. Both before and after the General Election +they were assured by Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone, that Irish affairs +were proceeding satisfactorily. The new Ministry had, however, to face a +formidable parliamentary party, who refused to recognize the legislation +of 1869 and 1870 as any settlement of the Irish question. Their first +device was to abandon the Act of their predecessors, passed in 1875, +which applied some of the milder provisions of the Westmeath Act to the +whole of Ireland. A reconstruction of the Local Government of the United +Kingdom, and a new Reform Bill, were the tasks assigned by public +opinion to the second Gladstone Ministry; but finding the abandonment of +coercion did not conciliate the Irish party, the Premier returned with a +rush to the policy of 1867. He determined to justify his claim to be the +statesman who had found out the secret of Irish administration. Within +two months after the Ministry was formed the public were warned that +they were within measurable distance of civil war. This danger was not +urged as a reason for recurring to accepted principles of government; on +the contrary, it was a plea for new expeditions in pursuit of the _ignis +fatuus_ of Irish opinion. We know the events which followed. + +The Compensation for Disturbance Bill seemed a small matter in itself, +but involved principles fatal to all security for property. During the +next autumn and winter, Ireland was abandoned to the savage dominion of +the Land League. The quiescence of the Government excited remonstrance +even from advanced Radicals like Mr. Leonard Courtney. That stalwart +Liberal had not been then in office, had not had the experience he has +since acquired. He had not yet learned the dutiful lesson that, whatever +his own convictions, the probabilities were in favour of the view that +his great leader was in the right, or at least, might be successful. As +a concession to public opinion, a Coercion Act was passed, new fangled +and hesitating. But it was not so much on effective legislation and a +resolute determination to curb disorder that the Ministry relied, as on +the recognition of Irish opinion which the Land Act of 1881 embodied. +It was truly said of that measure by an exulting Radical, that it struck +a blow at property which was felt in every country in Europe. In his +main calculation, his purpose to win popularity in Ireland, Mr. +Gladstone failed, as he has so often failed; and as usual the failure +was due to the wickedness or perversity of some one else. In 1874 it was +Pius IX. and the Jesuits who had misled his Irish friends. In 1881 the +evil influence was Mr. Parnell. + +In the autumn the Prime Minister startled his hearers at Leeds by a +passionate complaint, that-- + + 'a small band of men had arisen who were not ashamed to + preach in Ireland the doctrine of public plunder ... now + that Mr. Parnell is afraid, lest the people of England by + their long continued efforts should win the hearts of the + whole Irish nation, he has a new and enlarged gospel of + plunder to proclaim.' + +He went back with a swing to the high-handed policy he had so often +denounced. Irishmen must be made to recognize Gladstone, and not +Parnell, as their true friend. The Land League was dissolved by +proclamation, its principal leaders, including Mr. Parnell, were clapped +into jail, and it was proclaimed at Knowsley that the Cabinet were going +'to relieve the people of Ireland from the weight of a tyrannical yoke.' + +These speeches, full as they were of denunciation of Mr. Parnell, were +still on the lines of the Southport speech. They were not declarations +of the opinion of the British community, warnings to Ireland to take +account of the settled judgment of the nation, of which the sister +island must always form part. They contrasted with the manly utterance +of Mr. Chamberlain on this subject, the same month, at Birmingham. They +were angry appeals to Ireland to quarrel with her chosen leaders. Mr. +James Lowther was denounced for stating, that 'the party headed by Mr. +Parnell commanded the support of the large majority of the people of +Ireland.' Mr. Gladstone added, 'The proposition here made is one on +which we are entirely at issue. I profoundly disbelieve it; I utterly +protest against it. I believe a greater calumny on the Irish nation,... +a more gross and injurious statement could not possibly be made against +the Irish nation.' + +In the following year it was found that the recognition of Mr. +Gladstone, as the father of the Irish people was still remote; whilst +Mr. Forster declared, that a stronger Coercion Bill was necessary, if +life was to be protected in Ireland. Then came another plunge after the +coveted ideal. Mr. Forster, who had so generously devoted himself to +his party and his leader in the pursuit of a new Irish policy, was +abandoned to the Irish members, and to Mr. John Morley's crusade against +him in the columns of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' Mr. Parnell was called +out of jail to secure votes to the Government, and order in Ireland, by +the help of Mr. Sheridan and other ex-convicts. The Phoenix Park +murder, following on the Kilmainham Treaty, postponed the full carrying +out of this arrangement. The sort of measure, which Mr. Forster had been +refused a month before, was now passed with provisions of excessive +stringency; and Lord Spencer, who had been sent to Ireland to win that +popularity, which the late Chief Secretary had been unable to obtain, +was chiefly occupied in curbing the violence which that Minister had +denounced, in bringing to justice the criminals whom he had not been +allowed to reach. We recollect that the new Viceroy was exposed to a +storm of unpopularity so violent and outrageous, that the public readily +forgot the discreditable folly of his original enterprise, and honoured +the resolution and dignity with which he discharged the laborious duties +of a thankless office. + +The construction of the Irish Government at this time was such as to +make the Lord Lieutenant personally responsible for the administration +of justice, and the carrying out of the main provisions of the Crimes +Act. He was in the Cabinet, whilst his chief Secretaries, Mr. Trevelyan +and Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, were only subordinate members of the +Ministry. They conducted Irish business in the House of Commons, +representing in their relations with the Irish members, as far as +circumstances allowed, their leader's yearning after Irish popularity, +whilst Lord Spencer, the Whig Earl, who belonged to things that had been +rather than to the rising power of the Radical party, bore all the odium +of unpopular imprisonments or executions. + +The significance of such an arrangement was not lost on the Irish crowd. +By the end of 1882 the Land League was reconstructed under the name of +the National League. The new organization, of which 'United Ireland' was +the especial organ, gradually established branches from one end of +Ireland to the other. Strong as the provisions of the Crimes Prevention +Act were, no attempt was made to bring the new society under its +operation. The columns of 'United Ireland,' on the other hand, bore +plenty of evidence of a disposition to move on. The Irish farmers were +reproachfully asked if they were content with a paltry reduction of +rent. 'Had they no other account to settle with England?' The leaders +reminded their followers that the Crimes Act would expire before long. +They renewed with savage energy that campaign against the _personnel_ +of the Irish administration, which Mr. John Morley had so warmly +espoused up to the murder of Mr. Burke. A continual storm of abuse and +calumny was directed against Lord Spencer and every one else concerned +with Irish government. Mr. Clifford Lloyd and Mr. Trevelyan were removed +by way of warning, that there was no room in Ireland for public servants +who did their duty. The National League, in fact, became in each +district a conspicuous and formidable power. Their representatives in +Parliament received much attention from the Prime Minister and his +colleagues. They exercised great influence and had many chances before +them in the new organization of the electorate. With all these +advantages on the side of the Irish Revolution, the Queen's Government +had nobody to champion it but the not imposing personality of Lord +Spencer. + +It is not surprising that in such a state of things Ireland was already, +at the commencement of 1885, like a country occupied by two hostile +armies. There was the National League camp with its scouts and +emissaries all over the country, with a vigorous Press proclaiming its +policy and success. The Government forces remained within their lines, +attempting nothing, doing nothing, unless some outrage by a moonlight +gang compelled them to make some show of interference to check violation +of the truce between treason and loyalty. The greatest care was taken +not to identify the Government with the scattered Loyalists. They might +be very worthy persons, but they were the special aversion of the +Nationalist party, and the business of the Government was not to protect +or encourage loyalty, but to prevent Nationalism from going too fast. +The Nationalist aspirations of Mr. Gladstone's friends were not to be +irritated by attentions shown to their adversaries. + +When Parliament reassembled in the spring of 1885, men asked what +provision was made for renewing the Crimes Act, which would expire in +the autumn. Week after week passed, month after month; and it was +impossible to extract from the Ministry what their policy was as regards +the government of Ireland. At length, in the summer, it was announced +that on a day, which was never fixed, a Bill would be introduced +renewing certain provisions of the expiring Act. This announcement from +the Treasury Bench was followed at once by a notice from Mr. John Morley +to oppose the Bill. So much time had already been lost, that it was +practically impossible for any Ministry to carry a Coercion Bill against +the determined opposition of the Irish members, without the most +resolute effort on the part of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues. Were +they prepared to make these exertions? One of the conditions, on which +the Reform question had been settled, was the definite postponement of a +dissolution until after the 1st November. Each day men became more and +more engrossed with the great question of the winter--the new +election--more indifferent to the business of the Session; the +Parnellite party more exultant and defiant. Rumours of dissensions in +the Cabinet, had been already rife, and grew more frequent every day. +The country awoke one morning to find that the second Gladstone +Ministry, with its clear majority of over eighty, was at an end. Rather +than confess their disunion, the ministry had allowed themselves to be +defeated on another question, and Mr. Parnell came before his countrymen +as the avenger who had chastised the suggestion of renewed coercion by +destroying the Government which made it. + +In this collapse of administration the only course open to the Tory +party was to prepare as rapidly as possible for an appeal to the +country, doing what they could meanwhile in foreign and in home affairs +to mitigate the mischief which they were powerless to remedy. When the +dissolution came, Mr. Gladstone opened his canvass in Midlothian by many +sneers at the election policy of the Irish Nationalists. He reminded his +hearers, that the subject of extending local government in Ireland must +come forward in the new Parliament, and urged that, 'in dealing with +this question the unity of the empire was not to be compromised or be +put in jeopardy.' 'Nothing was to be done which should tend to +impair,--visibly or sensibly to impair,--the unity of the Empire.' +Auditors who had made no special study of Mr. Gladstone's phraseology +interpreted these words as a declaration against a separate Parliament +in Dublin. He apparently was prepared for large schemes of +decentralization, either specially for Ireland or in connection with the +projected reform of local government in England; but there was to be +nothing which should 'visibly impair' the Imperial unity. He went on to +dwell on the danger of 'condescending either to clamour or to fear,' and +added:-- + + 'But quite apart from the names of Whig and Tory, one thing + I will say, and will endeavour to impress, and it is this, + that it will be 'a _vital danger_ to the country if at the + time that the demand of Ireland for large powers of + self-government is to be dealt with--it will be a _vital + danger_ to the Empire if there is not in Parliament ready to + deal with that subject, ready to influence the proceedings + upon that subject, _a party totally independent of the Irish + vote_.' + +Even the most enthusiastic followers of the Liberal chief have learnt to +be very cautious in saying what meaning is to be attributed to his +utterances, but there can be no doubt that this language was read by +the public as saying, 'whatever lengths I may go in working out the +principle of local government, whatever may be the understanding between +the Home Rulers and the Tories, I at least will not accept the principle +of an Irish Parliament.' Not only was this the natural reading of Mr. +Gladstone's declarations at the election, but nearly every member of his +party, who referred to this question at all, spoke in the same sense. +Mr. Campbell Bannerman denounced the Parnellite demands as 'separation +under one name or another,' and many other Liberals were equally +emphatic, whilst a still larger number never alluded to the subject. + +Well may Lord Hartington protest against the competence of the present +Parliament to deal with the legislation now proposed. + + 'There was no thought, no warning held out to the country, + that a radical reform in the relations between Great Britain + and Ireland would be the main work of the present + Parliament.... The country had no sufficient warning--I + think I may say the country had no warning at all--that any + proposals of the magnitude and vastness of those which were + unfolded to us last night were to be considered in the + present Parliament, much less were to form the first subject + of consideration upon the meeting of this Parliament. I am + perfectly aware that there exists in our Constitution no + principle of the mandate. I know that the mandate of the + constituencies is as unknown to our Constitution, as the + distinction between fundamental laws and laws which are of + an inferior sanction. But, although no principle of a + mandate may exist, I maintain that there are certain limits + which Parliament is bound to observe, and beyond which + Parliament has morally not the right to go in its relations + with the constituencies. The constituencies of Great Britain + are the source of the power, at all events, of this branch + of Parliament, and I maintain that in the presence of an + emergency which could not have been foreseen, the House of + Commons has no moral right to initiate legislation, + especially upon its first meeting, of which the + constituencies were not informed, and of which the + constituencies might have been informed, and as to which, if + they had been so informed, there is, at all events, the very + greatest doubt what their decision might be.' + +Over and over again in the Parliament of 1874 and of 1880 have we heard +Mr. Gladstone appealing to this principle, that schemes of crucial +importance ought to be discussed before the constituencies; yet the most +important proposal made in Parliament for some generations is presented +after a general election, in which the constituencies were invited by +the Prime Minister and his colleagues to believe, that this particular +question was outside the region of practical politics. + +No sooner had it become apparent that the country had refused that +renewal of power which Mr. Gladstone had asked for, than his resolution +not to accept defeat was promptly manifested. Public men remembered his +use of the Royal prerogative in 1872, to carry into execution a scheme +for which he had sought and failed to obtain the consent of Parliament. +He had not been a week at Hawarden after his journey from Scotland, when +people became conscious that the return to office, which he had told the +country would be their security against Mr. Parnell, he was now ready to +seek with the aid of that leader. + +It was on the 8th of December, just after the main results of the +elections were settled, that Mr. Herbert Gladstone wrote from Hawarden +to a casual correspondent, 'If five-sixths of the Irish people wish to +have a Parliament in Dublin, for the management of their own local +affairs, I say in the name of justice and wisdom, let them have it.' A +few days afterwards the Press announced that the Liberal chief had, in +consultation with some former colleagues, matured a scheme which +embodied the points desired by Mr. Parnell. The announcement was +immediately followed by a telegram from Hawarden, denying the accuracy +of the scheme as sketched in the Press. On the main point, whether he +was prepared to co-operate with the Home Rule Party, whether he had +recovered from the fear he expressed at Edinburgh, that it would be a +'vital danger' to the Empire, if Home Rule came on for discussion +'without the presence in Parliament of a party totally independent of +the Irish vote,' on these questions, with which all England was busy, +Mr. Gladstone said never a word. He relied on the virtue he assumed to +protect him from inconvenient questionings, and meanwhile the +Nationalists were invited to reflect during the Christmas holidays, that +perhaps after all their best friend was at Hawarden. + +Mr. Chamberlain followed up the rumour of a settled scheme by a prompt +denial that he was a party to it, and added an emphatic statement of the +way in which he and his friends read the Midlothian speeches--'all +sections of the party were determined that the integrity of the Empire +should be a reality, and not an empty phrase.' Mr. Chamberlain had +listened to his great leader too long not to be aware of the importance +of marking the distinction between a 'reality' and a 'phrase.' In a few +days Lord Hartington too wrote to say, that he was no party to the +suggested policy. + +The ultimate result of the elections left the government at Christmas +only 251 votes, and the Liberals 333. Had it been clear that the +Liberal party were united in a scheme, which was consistent with the +current of British opinion, the solution would have been simple enough. +Had the appeals for straightforward dealing, made more than once during +the election by Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph Churchill, been +responded to, the Government might have made way for a Liberal Ministry, +the best men on both sides recognizing, what the soundest public opinion +required, that the Irish vote of 86 should be disregarded on questions +affecting the existence of a Cabinet; but before the elections were all +over, the divisions in the Liberal party were obvious. Mr. Gladstone had +returned with more eagerness than ever to the policy of Irish ideas, +whilst experience had at length opened the eyes of his ablest +lieutenants. + +In such a condition of affairs, the only course for Lord Salisbury's +Government was to await the onset of their opponents, meanwhile applying +themselves to settle that scheme of Irish policy which they as a party +were prepared to champion in office or out of office. They met +Parliament with an emphatic declaration to maintain the Union, and a few +days afterwards announced that further legislation in defence of public +order was necessary. This announcement was made on the 26th of January, +when several of the Amendments in the Address were still on the paper. +Before the House rose, the Government had ceased to exist. By a majority +of 79, in a House of 583; a Resolution in support of a policy advocated +by the Radical section of the Liberal party was carried against the +Government. The motion of Mr. Jesse Collings was, it must be remembered, +not a necessary assertion of a particular principle. The importance of +the questions of allotments was acknowledged by the Ministry +collectively and individually. It was not supposed, even by Mr. Collings +himself, that the carrying of this particular Motion on the Address +would advance legislation on the subject by a single day. The motion was +one of those demonstrations of opinions, ordinary enough in Parliament, +and generally resulting in a debate without a division or if pushed to a +division, in the withdrawal from the House of all but declared +partizans. On this particular occasion the motion was taken up and +pressed to a division, in order that the National League was to be put +down, was followed in a few hours by a vote which, in the existing +constitution of parties, necessarily involved the restoration of Mr. +Gladstone to power. So transparent was the object of the division that +13 Liberals voted with the Ministers, among others such staunch +adherents of Liberalism as Lord Hartington and Sir Henry James. + +When the new Ministry was formed, two extraordinary circumstances came +to light. Lord Hartington, the heir-apparent to the Liberal Leadership, +Lord Derby, Mr. Gladstone's most distinguished proselyte, Lord Selborne, +and other eminent colleagues in the conduct of the Liberal party, would +have nothing to do with the new scheme for the final settlement of +Ireland for the third time. Another still more singular fact was soon +disclosed. All the members of the new Cabinet, who had any future before +them, had come in with reservations of a right of further consideration, +when the subject of Irish policy should be brought up for discussion. + +One remarkable ally, however, Mr. Gladstone had found in his momentous +enterprise. The appointment of Mr. John Morley to the principal post in +the Government of the part of the kingdom, which had fallen under the +sway of such an organization as the National League, was in itself a +revolution. The new Chief Secretary had no official experience, and no +parliamentary position. A favoured person, who had audience of great +Trades' Union gatherings, he was observed with some interest by the late +Parliament, busy with speculations on the character of the new +Electorate. But, if his parliamentary work had been slight, he had +considerable literary reputation, and had taken an active part, in the +press, in discussions on the Irish question. The apologist of Danton, +the champion of the Jacobin Club, he was the one English political +writer who believed himself able to find in the throes of the French +Revolution valuable examples of public policy. The figures of that +terrible convulsion did not attract him so much by their range of human +passion, by the largeness of the space they filled in a great drama of +humanity. It was their fanaticism which inspired him. Their capacity to +combine, with the perpetration of atrocious crimes, an ardent apostolate +of abstract ideals, had for him a vivid fascination. A gentle critic of +Robespierre, he could see in the execution of Marie Antoinette traces of +discriminating statesmanship. Entering on political work with such +dispositions, he was early attracted to the seething cauldron of Mr. +Gladstone's Irish policy. Having satisfied himself that Ireland was in a +state of revolution, he regarded murder and robbery as necessary +incidents. When an unfortunate lady driving in the evening along a +country road was shot dead beside her husband, whose only offence was +that of being a landlord, the public were lectured for the inconsequence +of their indignation. On the Dublin conspirators, who were watching to +murder Mr. Forster, were not lost the lessons which Mr. Morley had been +preaching on the vileness of the permanent officials at the Castle. They +determined to murder Mr. Burke, and in killing him slew his companion +also; and Mr. Morley deprecatingly reminded his readers, that the death +of Lord Frederick Cavendish was 'almost an accident.' With these +professed opinions, it was easy for him to acknowledge what Mr. +Gladstone might have hesitated to confess, that Mr. Parnell and the +National League were the true expression of 'the general sense of the +Irish people.' + +The Nationalist party had long recognised the value of his aid in +Parliament. They felt the truth of the saying, that he was 'Mr. Parnell +in an Englishman's skin,' and consequently enjoying more freedom of +action, able, on occasion, to do more service for the National League in +a Parnellite Cabinet than Mr. Parnell himself. Although the principles +he had laid down, strictly applied, would oblige him to say, let Ireland +take care of herself and work out her own destiny, he has qualified his +faith--he has never very clearly explained why--by a declaration in +favour of the integrity of the Kingdom. A believer in revolution, Mr. +Morley is astute enough to be ready to take what he can get. 'We do +wrong,' he said, writing after the breakdown of the Kilmainham Treaty, +'in being content with nothing short of perfection and finality. If we +see our way to the next step, that is enough.' 'Perfection' in Irish +affairs would perhaps be that Irish opinion should be organized in a +convention at Dublin, and then, tempered by a full course of revolution, +should come to the conclusion, that the Union after all was the best +thing for both islands. As the public are not yet prepared for trying +this experiment, we are to have a succession of 'next steps.' + +As a set off to Mr. Morley's want of official experience and of weight +in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone placed the consideration he +enjoyed with the Parnellite party and a disposition, composed of +fanaticism and adroitness, fitting him well to co-operate in the schemes +which were to follow from the wild passion of the National League in +combination with the skill of the 'old Parliamentary hand.' + +No sooner was the new Ministry formed than the Nationalist party +recognized the greatness of their opportunity. An attitude of reserve +was taken up by the Nationalist members and their Press. The Ministry +had not been a week in office, when the most advanced and outspoken of +the Irish leaders, Mr. John Dillon, presiding at a meeting of the +National League, frankly declared 'he never felt more inclined to say +nothing than to-day, the present Ministry had been formed on one +question and on one question alone, and that was the rights of the Irish +nation.' With Mr. Gladstone in office, the policy of the League was to +apply the policy of silence so often inculcated by Mr. Parnell. Speaking +out might only embarrass their new allies. + +The country, up to a week ago, knew nothing of the momentous scheme on +which the Ministry were engaged. One Cabinet council considered it with +the result, that the collective action of the Cabinet ceased for the +next fortnight; and then the only two public men of weight, whom Mr. +Gladstone had induced to give his scheme the compliment of a hearing, +retired from the Ministry. Our readers are now in possession of so much +of the new scheme as they may be able to discern through the glamour of +Mr. Gladstone's rhetoric; but the condition of affairs during the last +three months is a picture to remember for all time. + +When the Hawarden scheme was disclosed before Christmas, Mr. Gladstone's +principal organ in the London Press declared within a week that the game +was up. The public would have none of it. The return of Mr. Gladstone to +office, with Mr. John Morley as Irish Secretary, suddenly revived the +hopes of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' His new start in pursuit of the Irish +ideal banished the despair which had settled upon even the most reckless +of his adherents. The age, the physical power of the Premier, his long +public career, called up reflections which could not be disposed of in a +moment by foes, still less by former allies. He claimed time, and he has +taken the most important part of the Session, to mature his plans, +amidst the silence of the Opposition and of his Home Rule allies. + +But, if his opponents were silent, his nomination of Mr. Morley to the +most important place in his Cabinet was not lost upon the motly crowd +outside. All the dancing dervishes of politics rushed upon the scene to +amaze a bewildered public with fantastical gyrations. 'The Empire of +Liberty,' cried one, 'can never employ coercion.' Another enthusiast +exclaimed, after reviewing the course of events since the Hawarden +revelations, 'To call these things to mind does one's heart good. It +seems as if nothing need be despaired of, as if words of hope need never +be empty words.' A well-known economist tried to ease the public +conscience, and to neutralize the resistance of the unfortunate Irish +landlord, by a nebulous scheme for buying up the landlords' rights, but +what the supply of money is to be, and who is to supply it, are +questions to which the answers vary every hour. A separate Parliament is +to be accompanied by a system of guarantees, and Professor Rogers +declares that the surest guarantee was the hostages we have in the two +millions of Irish inhabiting Great Britain; as if these unfortunate +persons could be made liable to imprisonment or torture in order to +secure the good conduct of Mr. Parnell's Dublin Cabinet, as if such an +arrangement, if made, would have the slightest effect upon the Irish +revolutionists. + +But whilst Mr. Gladstone lingered, waiting to see how far the outer +public could be brought into sympathy with his schemes, he did not +hesitate a moment to consolidate the power of the National League. The +subject of evictions for non-payment of rent was brought before the new +Government in the form of a question, alleging that a particular +eviction was not in strict conformity with the landlord's right. Mr. +Morley offered to consider the question of right, and added that what +was much wanted in Ireland was 'a strict and scrupulous and literal +spirit of legality.' Later on the same evening, Mr. Dillon made a +vigorous appeal to the Chief Secretary not to give the aid of armed +force to carry out evictions. Mr. Morley responded with alacrity. 'I for +one am not prepared to admit that we are justified in every case, in +which a shadow of legal title is made out, to bring out the military +force to execute decrees which, on the ground of public policy as well +as that of equity, may seem inadvisable and unnecessary.' Legal right, +if it is relied on in favour of the subjects of the Land League, must be +interpreted in a 'scrupulous and literal spirit.' If it is acted on by +the landlord, there come in considerations of public policy and of +equity. + +The result of a long debate was that organized resistance to the +execution of the law would not be interfered with, unless the Government +were satisfied that in particular circumstances equity required such +interference. We have thus arrived at once at a system of official +despotism. The law is not to be a guarantee of the rights of the +subject, unless so far as the Minister may think fit to permit it. And +this dispensing power is to be exercised in favour of the subjects of +the National League. + +The self-sufficiency of the Liberal party had been vigorously appealed +to during the years 1883-5. Liberals tried to persuade themselves, that +the comparative repose of Ireland was due to, or was likely to generate, +a Conservative feeling amongst the farmer class. Their harvests were +good, and they had got so much from the Land Bill, they had so much, in +fact, to lose now, in comparison with their condition in former years, +men argued, that they would not care to risk their well-being in pursuit +of Nationalist projects, with the certainty of being subject to the +village ruffians Mr. Forster had described whilst the struggle was going +on, with the probability of having to share what they had with these +same ruffians as soon as an Irish Parliament obtained power. + +This reasoning took little account of historical experience in cases +where property is suddenly given to one class by an arbitrary act. Care +for what one possesses, forethought to avoid its loss, come only with +habits of acquisition. The Irish farmer was confessedly careless in the +past, because, it was said, providence could be of so little use to him +in the then state of the law, but his prosperity under the legislation +of 1881 was not the result of his own industry. It was due to a long +course of agrarian outrage in Ireland and of Parliamentary outrage at +Westminster. A favourite commonplace of Land Reformers is the +conservatism of the French peasant, turned into a proprietor by the +decrees of the Legislative Assembly of 1791. We are reminded of his +industry, his self-denial, his distrust of the revolutionary spirit +which rages in the towns, but we forget the date at which this sober, +assiduous, conservatism made its appearance in history. The immediate +result of the change made in 1791 was a savage orgie of bloodshed and +outrage, nor was the wild fury, once let loose, sated by the blood of +Frenchmen. It was nearly a generation before the fire of Revolution +burnt itself out. The French peasantry of 1815 only came to value the +land they acquired, to devote their lives to its cultivation, after +twenty-three years of savage warfare had strewed the bones of their +fathers and their brothers over every battlefield from Salamanca to +Borodino, after Teuton and Cossack and Saxon had traversed French +territory from end to end. + +Nor does the work of revolution produce other effects among the backward +turbulent British population, whom Irish rhetoric describes as the Irish +nation. Whatever we might hope from the children or grandchildren of +those farmers who profited by the change which Mr. Parnell had already +brought about, to suppose that prudence and a judicious spirit of +self-interest would come to them as rapidly as the reduction of their +rents, was to ignore all the facts of human nature. The desire for +further winnings possessed them, as the passion of a gambler. Mr. +Parnell's triumphant personality was the first thought in their minds. +He had already taken 20 per cent. off their rents. Next time they were +confident he would take off 50 per cent. or abolish rent altogether. + +The Liberals who had been dreaming complacently about the happy results +of Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy awoke to find Ireland in possession of +the powerful, well-organized, hostile, combination known as the National +League. + +To make our readers understand what this power means, we should like to +be able to bring them within the closed doors of the room where the +League Committee sits in the remote country village. We should then hear +the report of the member, respecting the funds obtained, their review of +the wealth and independence around them, within their reach, but not yet +brought under tribute, the gleeful narrative of resistance subdued, the +dark hints of resources for future conquest. The details of the action +of the League, as avowed by their press, have been published by the +Loyal and Patriotic Union, and would fill many pages of this Review. + +The rapid growth of the new organization is easily understood. They had +the past success of Mr. Parnell to work on, and this success was both +appreciable in their balance of unpaid rent at the Bank, and stimulating +to the imagination. The whole island was busy observing the execution of +Mr. Parnell's behests in the re-adjustment of contracts for land. The +Ministry, which had rebelled against his criticism and sprung at his +throat, had been compelled to bring him out of jail supplicating for his +alliance. The object of creating the new body was not so much to move +forward as to keep Mr. Parnell's friends well together, to take +advantage of the effect on the popular mind, which Mr. Parnell's +achievements were producing in every hamlet. The practical advantages +already won were an earnest of the future, secured new support, and +would give greater momentum and unity to the Parnellite movement; when +the time came for another attack upon property. The suspects who had +been imprisoned by Mr. Forster, constituted local centres for the +establishment of branches of the League. Every country public-house was +a place of meeting for the branches or their agents. Once the League was +organized in a particular district, the next point was to secure +subscriptions. Land-grabbing, that is, becoming tenant of land from +which some one else had been evicted, was the offence against which the +League in the first place directed its energies, and this disregard of +popular opinion was punished by social excommunication; but the system +of boycotting once called into requisition involved new duties and +responsibilities. If a man had not taken land himself, he might have +worked for some one who had, or bought cattle from a land-grabber. The +League in Kerry enjoined the following procedure on their subscribers:-- + + 'That any person found communicating with a few obnoxious + individuals in this locality will be expelled from the + league. That every person presenting cattle for sale at a + fair shall produce his card, and that no buyers shall + purchase from any person without producing the same. + + 'That no individual shall sell to any dealer without + presenting his card, as it is the only way to detect those + employed by the Defence Unionists, and that we call on the + other branches to follow this example.'--'United Ireland,' + Dec. 12th, 1885. + +As the power of the League became better established, the subscribers +were guaranteed against the caprice of their customers by such +resolutions as the following, adopted at New Ross:-- + + 'That we hereby give final notice to Mr. Murtagh Stafford, + that if he does not give back his work to the Nationalist + blacksmiths, Messrs. Bowe and Busher, we cannot retain him + on our league. That we inform all members of our branch that + we expect them to patronize National blacksmiths, artisans, + etc., if they wish to remain members.'--'New Ross Standard,' + Jan. 9th, 1886. + +The complicated equities, which arose under the operation of these local +tribunals, are illustrated by another case reported from Wexford. + + 'Farrell and a man named Shee had been partners in a + thrashing machine. Shee was boycotted in 1883 for having + taken an evicted farm, and accordingly the machine was + allowed to remain idle. Under these circumstances both + agreed to dissolve partnership, and Farrell purchased Shee's + share in the machine for 370l., a sum of 60l. being paid in + ready cash and the remainder being secured by a bill of + sale. Farrell then went to the Tullogher branch to get + "absolution for the machine," but his application was + refused, it being decided that Shee still had a certain + interest in it. In the "New Ross Standard," on Sept. 30th, + 1885, Farrell, it is reported, being desirous of appealing + to the Central League in Dublin, had forwarded his statement + to the Tullogher branch and declared he was now ready to + verify it on oath. His request to have it sent on to the + Central League was, however, refused by the local + branch.'--'New Ross Standard.' + +The election to local public offices soon engaged the attention of the +League. The branches were not content with nominating candidates and +interfering with the elections; they next assumed the direction of the +proceedings of Boards of Guardians and Town Councils. At Ennis this +intervention was publicly announced by resolution. + + 'That in every future election to any office under the + board, no candidate shall be supported by the National + Guardians _unless he be a member of the National League_ for + at least six months previous to the date of the election, + and produces his certificate, signed by the chairman and + secretary of the branch, and further, that when selecting a + candidate to be put forward for election, the minority of + the National guardians should be bound to act on vote with + the majority present and voting.'--'Clare Journal,' Nov. + 11th, 1885. + +Contracts were only to be given to Members of the League. No one could +be elected to a country dispensary or engaged as solicitor by any +electoral body without the sanction of the League. A large portion of +the struggling professional classes in the South and West were forced by +a sense of self preservation to join the local associations. To remain +outside the ranks of the League was to forfeit a man's best chances of +getting on in life, and might any day become a personal danger. Mr. +Harrington M.P., who has been for some years in charge of the Central +Office of the League, tells us that 'at Meetings of the branches of the +Organization discussions frequently occur upon incidents in the +locality.' We can quite believe it, and are not surprised to find from +the columns of 'United Ireland' what is the result of these discussions. + +In a system of pillage and tyranny so elaborated, there was no necessity +to perpetrate acts of violence, frequently or continually. The daily +operation of the League was a standing outrage, bringing a proof of its +power to every man's door. A limited number of conspicuous crimes was +sufficient for the purposes of the League. Curtin was murdered in +November; Finlay, in the West of Ireland, in February; and the local +persecution of the families of the victims was even a more awful tribute +to the sway of the popular organization. + +It is not surprising that Mr. Lecky, in former years the most +distinguished advocate of Irish Nationalism, in what may be called its +social aspects, should say of the organ of the National League, 'United +Ireland,' 'any English statesman who reads that paper, and then proposes +to hand over the property and the virtual government of Ireland to the +men whose ideas it represents, must be either a traitor or a fool.' + +There is no occasion to dwell on the existence of this body or the +character of its operations. They are part of the case of the +Government. Mr. Morley has frankly told us, that we ought to pass the +new Bill, because the League is so strong. If we did not, we should have +to quarrel with the League, and to meet not only this great association +as we knew it in its times of prosperity, but the League as supported by +all the reserve forces of Mr. Egan and Mr. Ford. At present these +leaders of public opinion send money; but if the National League, its +staff, its secretaries, its branches, its newspapers and Members of +Parliament, are not enough, they are ready to send dynamite. + +One remarkable fact, however, in connection with the National League +deserves special consideration, for it illustrates the singularly +disastrous character of Mr. Gladstone's interposition in Irish affairs. +The society, which we have endeavoured to describe, and which Mr. +Morley recommends to our attention as the _locum tenens_ of dynamite and +the dagger, is now officered in nearly every village by the priests of +the Roman Church. At the beginning of his career, Mr. Parnell personally +was regarded by the Roman Catholic hierarchy with suspicion, if not with +hostility. Mr. Butt had never succeeded in securing their hearty +co-operation in his Home Rule scheme. Mr. Parnell was not only a +Protestant, but expressed his contempt very freely for the adherents of +the Roman Church, whilst he avowed his sympathy with Revolutionists, +whom the Irish Catholic had been taught to regard as enemies of the Holy +Father. We can always trace in the history of this Church two forces at +work; the principle of order and authority, worldly and calculating, in +sympathy with the powers that be, trusting by skill and caution to +manipulate them for its own ends; and on the other hand, the wilder +spirit of sacerdotal ambition ready to ride the storm and dare +catastrophe. Before Mr. Gladstone's second Administration, the former +influence was gaining much strength in Ireland. Even if we make +allowance for the social origin of the Irish priests, filled from their +infancy with the rebel sentiment of the peasantry, there are many sins +that the disposition of their Church was until very recently to rely +upon intrigue and organization for gaining its ends, rather than to ally +itself openly with the Irish Revolution. Even after Mr. Parnell had +secured the allegiance of the farmer class by his great largess in the +shape of 20 per cent. reduction of rent, not only did Cardinal McCabe +continue to oppose him, but Archbishop Croke evinced a desire to act on +the side of Government. + +Such a line of action, however, was only possible on the supposition, +that government was to be maintained in Ireland; and the tenure of +Ireland by Lord Spencer gave no such assurance. We know the passionate +efforts which Mr. Gladstone made to exclude Archbishop Walsh from the +See of Dublin. Sir George Errington was sent to Rome to get the Pope to +do what Mr. Gladstone dare not do himself--bid defiance to the Irish +leader. That resolute politician had a policy; the English Minister had +none. A quarrel with the Nationalist party meant to the Roman Church +loss of income, loss of influence--influence which, in these +iconoclastic days, it might take them generations to recover; and, after +all their sacrifices, they might find that Mr. Gladstone had +capitulated, and had handed them and the rest of Ireland over to the +National League. Their only practical course, as discreet politicians, +was to throw in their lot with the great Nationalist leader, relying on +the old traditions of the Irish peasant to protect clerical interests +against the host of Revolutionists, who would, on Mr. Parnell's triumph, +flock into Ireland from all the ends of the earth. The priests do not +forget that the member for Cork denounced their co-religionists. They +have no enthusiasm for a revolutionary dictator, who, whatever his +opinions on religious matters, cannot be claimed as a son of the Church. +Mr. Gladstone, however, left the sacerdotal power no choice but to make +the best terms they could with the Irish leader, who was only too glad +to secure their co-operation. Archbishop Walsh has been accepted as a +sort of ecclesiastical assessor to Mr. Parnell's government, and at the +last election the priests went as one man for the National League. + +It is an Ireland, thus abandoned for years to the evil spirits evoked by +the rhetorician of Southport--an Ireland, in which the natural springs +of Conservatism have been dried up by the fever of slumbering +revolution--that England is now called upon to deal with, and the remedy +of the Ministry is to call into power a public opinion schooled in +conspiracy and violence; for now at length Mr. Gladstone has given up +the notion of intervening between Mr. Parnell and the Irish crowd. The +preachers of the gospel of plunder are invited to share in the +government of a part of the Kingdom. + +We shall not attempt to examine further the scheme which Mr. Gladstone +has foreshadowed, but which, as we write, is not yet published in +detail. One characteristic, we may note, in the Prime Minister's speech +was very unusual with him. It is full of admissions which seem to be due +not so much to his habitual daring as to unconsciousness of their +import. He is ready to buy out the landlords at a great cost to the +English taxpayer, because the idea of landed property came to the +Irishman in English garb, and is therefore not likely to be respected in +the new system; but why should he be obliged to make special provision +for the Irish judges? They are men of ability, of stainless character. +They do not belong to any particular party, or race, or creed; they are +members of a great profession which all civilized societies require. +They have that experience of their profession which would make their +services particularly useful to a community entering on a new social +stage; but the mere fact, that they have been engaged in applying the +law, makes their position dangerous, and Mr. Gladstone is obliged to ask +England to provide that they shall not suffer in purse from the opening +of the new era which he proposes in that part of the United Kingdom +where he has undertaken to reconstruct society. + +For the moment Mr. Morley prefers the _role_ of Sieyes rather than of +Danton, but the outcome of the legislation, proposed by the Ministry +with the assent of Mr. Parnell, must be to advance, if not to +consummate, the theory of Irish Independence. We thus arrive at that +result which Mr. Morley, on his own principles, would find it difficult +to refuse assent to. He has told us that his policy is to be 'thorough.' +A separate Irish nationality or reconquest must be the ultimate +consequence of any substitution of local institutions in Ireland for the +Parliament at Westminster, unless so far as the proposed substitution +were part of a scheme common to all four components of the kingdom. Most +people will agree with the old Duke of Wellington, that 'the repeal of +the Union must be the dissolution of the connection between the two +countries.' + +To withdraw the English flag from Ireland as we did from the Ionian +Isles, to have a Convention called at Dublin to determine the future +government of the Island, such a plan would have the advantage that it +recognizes the one political opinion, which we can trace in Irish +popular expression--the desire to be done with England. It is true, that +the policy of Irish ideas declared at Southport was a means to an +end--the better union of the two countries--but pledged to two +antagonistic principles, Mr. Gladstone must some time choose which he +will abandon. + +On the other hand, in accepting Irish independence we shrink from +responsibility for the acts of England. We know that the disorder now +ruling in Ireland is, to some extent, the result of English +misgovernment in past generations, and instead of attempting by firmness +and patience to remedy the mischief our fathers have done, we leave the +future to Providence. In this aspect of the question, we would remind +our readers of the words used in our article on 'Disintegration' not +three years ago:-- + + 'The highest interests of the Empire, as well as the most + sacred obligations of honour, forbid us to solve this + question by conceding any species of independence to + Ireland; or, in other words, any licence to the majority in + that country to govern the rest of Irishmen as they please. + To the minority, to those who have trusted us, and on the + faith of our protection have done our work, it would be a + sentence of exile or of ruin. All that is Protestant--nay, + all that is loyal--all who have land or money to lose, all + by whose enterprize and capital industry and commerce are + still sustained, would be at the mercy of the adventurers + who have led the Land League, if not of the darker + counsellors by whom the Invincibles have been inspired. If + we have failed after centuries of effort to make Ireland + peaceable and civilized, we have no moral right to abandon + our post and leave all the penalty of our failure to those + whom we have persuaded to trust in our power. It would be an + act of political bankruptcy, an avowal that we were unable + to satisfy even the most sacred obligations, and that all + claims to protect or govern any one beyond our own narrow + island were at an end.'--'Quarterly Review,' October, 1883, + pp. 593, 594. + +Mr. Gladstone assured his hearers last week, that he was bent on +consolidating the unity of the kingdom; he would not tolerate that his +new constitution should be called a repeal of the Union; but his final +argument was this, 'Do not let us disguise this from ourselves. We stand +face to face with what is termed "Irish nationality."' Now, what is this +'Irish nationality'? Let us examine it from the point of view of the +welfare of the Irish population. It may be conceded at once that there +is a strong current of local sentiment running through the Irish +population of the south and west. This is a tender, home feeling--a very +different thing from the stronger, more complex, and more highly +developed, conception round which a political nationality gathers. It is +such a sentiment as exists in one form or another in every group of +counties, in every county, in every country-side, in almost every +village. It is a kindly recollection of old memories, associated with a +disposition to stand up for our own. It is the result of intimate +knowledge of certain habits and ideas, and a tender reminiscence of the +best types of character associated with those habits. This sentiment of +local feeling is the germ of nationality, but it exists in many regions +where the wider ideas of nationality have never supervened. There are +many other places again, where this same feeling remains fresh and +vigorous after the political nationality connected with it has passed +away, merged in larger conceptions, in a sense of more extended +interests. + +Such was the feeling of Cicero when he said that he had two countries. +His Volscian home was the country of his affection, but Rome that of +duty and right. Arpinum will always be my country, said he, but Rome +still more my country, for Arpinum has its share in the honours and +dominion of Rome. + +Such is the feeling of the proud and vigorous nationality occupying +North Britain, various in race, in creed, and in social condition, but +united in mutual knowledge, in local sympathies, and in self-respect. +The Scotch, as an aggregate, are intellectually, physically, and in +their local institutions and habits one of the most distinct national +types existing. They are drawn together by a strong sentiment of +patriotism, but they are as little likely to demand a separate political +system, a parliament sitting at Edinburgh, as the members from +Hampshire and Wiltshire are likely to combine for the establishment of +parliamentary government on the banks of the Itchin. + +Now what is Ireland, and what indications has that portion of the +population known as Nationalist given of a capacity to form itself into +a nation? Ireland has a geographical boundary in a sea channel crossed +from Great Britain in three hours or in an hour and a-half, according to +the line of passage selected. It is inhabited by some five millions, +whose native language is English, with the exception of a decimal +percentage of mountaineers, who nearly all speak English as well as +Irish. The race is more mixed than in any other district of the kingdom +containing the same amount of population. The northern coasts are +thickly peopled by Scotch settlers. In the south and west are many +varieties of race not of English introduction, but strongly different +from each other. In many of the most Catholic districts of Munster and +Leinster we find, in the names, physique, and temper, of the people, +evident results of the Cromwellian settlements, although the faith and +political principles of their forefathers have passed away. With this +mixed population we have a social cleavage probably the most remarkable +in Europe. The mass of the people, except in about one-fifth of the +island on the north-east coast, are Roman Catholic, Celtic in their +traditions and habits, and extremely poor. The Northern fifth is +industrious, order-loving, prosperous, Protestant, and British in +sentiment. Next to the masses of the population in importance are the +great landowners, of whom six-sevenths are Protestants, and nearly the +whole of Norman, Scotch, or English origin. There is no important +mercantile class, except in the towns of Belfast, Dublin, and Cork; and +the professional classes, with the exception of the Catholic priesthood, +are chiefly Protestant and British. + +This population, so strangely wanting in homogeneity, have no history +which might attract them into unconsciousness of their differences. It +has been well said, that 'anybody who knew nothing of the Irish past, +except what he got from the speeches of Irish Nationalists, would +suppose that at some comparatively recent period the green flag had +floated over fleets and armies, and that Irish kings had played a part +of some kind in the field of modern European politics.' But as a matter +of fact Ireland has no part in European history before its conquest by +England. Not only was the kingdom of Ireland, as the style of the island +went before 1800, an English creation; but the name of Ireland has never +had any political significance except in connection with the English +crown. + +External signs of difference between English and Irish there are many; +nimble apprehension, fluent utterance, genial demeanour, the attraction +of the flashing Celtic face, distinguish an Irish from an English group, +but characteristics like this do not prove any original or consistent +power of thought. They rather perhaps indicate the absence of it. It is +not on qualities like these, cemented even by strong feelings of home +sentiment, that we can expect to see the foundation of a new Nationality +happily laid. With one exception there is not a single idea, which an +orator could present to an Irish crowd, that could not be urged with +equal chance of sympathy upon an English crowd. Personal liberty, the +principles of no taxation without representation, of trial by jury, +freedom of conscience, sympathy with the prosperity of the greatest +number, all these are English ideas and must be illustrated, where they +need illustration, by the events of history peculiar to England or +common to the British dominion. The one topic, which is specially +attractive to an Irish meeting, is abuse of England as the source of +Irish misery. Community of hatred the mixed Nationalist population has, +but whether such a passion is sufficiently creative to build up a new +national type the reader can judge for himself. With this exception, +laws, political teachings, commercial habits, are all of English origin. + +Mr. Gladstone, in recommending to the House of Commons his scheme for +the establishment of an independent Parliament in Ireland, cited as +precedents the independent Legislatures of Sweden and Norway, and of +Austria and Hungary. He dwelt particularly upon the precedent of +Norway:-- + + 'The Legislature of Norway has had serious controversies, + not with Sweden, but with the King of Sweden, and it has + fought out those controversies successfully upon the + strictest constitutional and Parliamentary grounds. And yet + with two countries so united, what has been the effect? Not + discord, not convulsion, not danger to peace, not hatred, + not aversion, but a constantly-growing sympathy; and every + man who knows their condition knows that I speak the truth + when I say, that in every year that passes the Norwegians + and the Swedes are more and more feeling themselves to be + the children of a common country, united by a tie which + never is to be broken.' + +If Mr. Gladstone had been better acquainted with the recent historic and +economic condition of Norway, of which we have given some account in our +present number,[104] he might have quoted that country as a warning +rather than an example. The 'Storthing,' or Parliament of Norway, is +omnipotent, and two-thirds of its representatives are permanently in the +hands of the peasant proprietor. The King has only a suspensive veto on +Bills enacted by the Storthing, which therefore become law, if passed in +their original form by three successive triennial Parliaments. The +recent dispute between the King and the Parliament, to which Mr. +Gladstone alluded, related to the right of the King to exercise an +absolute veto in the case of Bills affecting the principles of the +Constitution. The existence of such a right was denied by the Radical +majority in the Storthing, which established in 1884 a Supreme Court of +Justice composed exclusively of Radical members, and the Judges of the +ordinary High Court of Justice. It was a packed Court, bound to secrecy; +and the tribunal thus constituted condemned, in violation of the first +principles of justice, all the King's Ministers in Norway to deprivation +of office and to pecuniary fines, for having advised their master, that +the Constitution could not be altered without his sanction. The King was +compelled to yield, though he was supported in his opposition to the +Storthing by his Swedish Cabinet; and his ultimate submission to the +Radical majority in Norway was followed by a Ministerial crisis in +Sweden. The Swedes rightly argue that, if the King has no absolute veto +on matters affecting the principles of the Constitution in Norway, there +is no obstacle to an abolition of the Monarchical form of government in +that kingdom, or to a repeal of the union between the two countries. +There is in consequence much discontent in Sweden at the conduct of +Norway; and the Norwegians, on their side, have an intense and +ever-growing 'hatred and aversion' to the Swedes. Hence has arisen a +considerable tension in the official relations between the two countries +instead of the 'constantly growing sympathy' of which Mr. Gladstone +spoke. It is characteristic of the Prime Minister's mode of stating a +case, that he tells us the Norwegian controversies are 'not with Sweden +but with the King of Sweden.' Sweden has nothing to say in Norwegian +affairs, except in the person of the King. The King is the only +connecting link between the two countries. If the Dublin Parliament +should impeach the Irish Viceroy, we suppose Mr. Gladstone would tell us +that the difficulty was not with England but with Queen Victoria. + +Nor was Mr. Gladstone much happier in his allusion to Hungarian +Nationality in recent times. For more than 150 years Austria endeavoured +to extinguish the national life of Hungary. In 1867 this policy was +definitely abandoned, and Hungary was called to a share in the Empire of +the Hapsburgs. As recently as last October Mr. Parnell, when insisting +that Ireland must have an independent Parliament, said: 'We can point +to the example of other countries--to Austria and to Hungary--to the +fact that Hungary, having been conceded self-government, became one of +the strongest factors in the Austrian Empire.' The favour, with which +these references have been received by the Liberal party, is a singular +example how far afield they are ready to go in search of an argument. +Austria, in 1867, was a great military despotism, tottering to its fall +amidst a group of eager rivals. A general appeal to the nation, such as +France made at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, was out of the +question. Differences of race, differences of language, differences of +social condition, made national unity impossible within the wide +dominions of the House of Austria. The government at Vienna consented to +the division of its territories into groups of nearly equal strength. In +each of these groups various alien nationalities were clustered round a +central power more advanced in politics, in civilization, and in wealth, +than the adjacent territories. Instead of trying to weld their multiple +varieties of race into one great popular community, Austria, smitten at +Sadowa, shared her dominion with Hungary, and asked her to take charge +of the Government of the East Leithan Slavs, whilst the German +population of Austria dealt with the Czechs and Moravians and +Carinthians on the western side of the river. + +Sir Henry Elliott has well pointed out, that what success the experiment +has had is in no small degree due to the large powers still enjoyed by +the Crown, and to the personal character and influence of the Emperor +Francis, the connecting link between the two dominions; but apart from +this actual result, the feasibility of the dual scheme depended on the +following considerations. In the first place, there was no alternative +in the condition in which the House of Austria found itself in 1867, +defeated in battle and bankrupt in finance. Without some such +arrangement civil war was inevitable, with the ultimate prospect of the +absorption of the various races by the hostile neighbouring Powers. In +the second place, the allies were pretty nearly equal in strength as +regards each other, whilst they were each similarly weighted by the +difficulty of holding their own within the respective territories +assigned them. They were each so busy with their subordinate territories +and the less advanced populations inhabiting them, that it was not their +interest or their inclination to bring about conflicts with each other. +Hungary boasts a larger area than Austria, and a population equal to +three-fourths that of the Western Monarchy. On the western side of the +Leitha the dominant race, dominant by force of nature, by brain power, +and the traditions and acquirements this power has given them, are 36 +per cent. of the whole population. In the Transleithan provinces the +race similarly situated, the Magyar, constitutes about 40 per cent. of +the whole population. + +There is not a single circumstance in the relations between England and +Ireland to make reference to the creation of the Empire-Kingdom anything +but an absurdity. Ireland never can compare with Great Britain in +material resources. Her population is hardly one-sixth that of the +larger island, whilst her area is little more than a third. She is +deficient in climate, in soil, in mineral resources, and in population. +Not only is she without a well-organized aristocracy skilled in +political science, such as Hungary boasted; Ireland, as the term is +understood by the National League, is without an educated class. Her +intellect is represented by the moonlight maurauder and the fanatic +priest. As regards England, the parallel is still more preposterous: She +is not a military despotism, but a well-organized community, boasting +parliamentary traditions of a thousand years. Her shores are guarded by +sea from foreign interference. Notwithstanding many scandalous +shortcomings in her rulers, her influence and her power are still +unrivalled in the world. However long Mr. Gladstone may rule, her Sadowa +is yet to come; and, if it did come, the example of the Dual State would +offer no solution of our Irish difficulties, for none of the conditions +which made the Dual State possible exist in the case of the two chief +British Islands. + +The delusive character of Mr. Gladstone's reference to the Dual State is +best illustrated by the facts, that the council for common affairs +consist of an equal number of representatives from each side of the +dominion, that this council is concerned with military and foreign +affairs, two subjects on which, according to the new scheme, Ireland is +to have no vote. + +It will be found, on a little examination, that appeals to the example +of the foreigner are as misleading as the theory of nationality. All +such arguments are only endeavours to divert the public from the +exercise of their own judgment and common-sense in dealing with the +mischiefs which the perverse genius of Mr. Gladstone has created. +Recognized principles of government, the ordinary traditions of England +applied with the happy immunity from friction, which the commercial +policy of modern times makes possible, would have long since settled the +difficulty, but it would have been settled in disregard of that popular +Irish feeling which, in 1867, Mr. Gladstone pledged himself to follow. +He would have had to admit that his new Irish policy was a mistake; and +he never admits that he has made any mistake--unless it be in Egypt--or +in acting on the opinion of other people. When he has discovered a new +line of policy, he believes himself infallible. Let us assume for a +moment, that the combination of the personal adherents of Mr. Gladstone +and of Mr. Parnell enables the Prime Minister to pass some measure on +the lines he has selected, or on those laid down by Mr. Davitt, and that +the rowdy treason of a Dublin Cabinet proceeds to bring within the +sphere of its operations what wealth and civilization has hitherto +escaped the National League. + +In the struggle which must ensue, we shall have within three hours of +our shores a raging volcano of revolution, threatening the peace of +Europe and our own. Fenians, Nihilists, and Irish Yankees, will flock to +the new vantage ground. The conflict between Socialism and property, +between infidelity and superstition, will be fought out amidst the +strangest complications of local hatred and of fiscal disorder. If +foreign governments abstain from interfering, and we escape consequent +difficulties with them, are we sure that we ourselves will be able to +remain passive spectators? Many of us are old enough to recollect the +agitation which shook this kingdom during the struggle between North and +South on the other side of the Atlantic. No question of Home politics +for generations past had so deeply moved our people. It required all the +exertions of the most sober part of the nation to prevent our becoming +involved in the conflict, and we recollect the help this party of wisdom +got from the impulsive statesman who has undertaken for the third time +the final settlement of the Irish question. If the great American Civil +War, desolating a country three thousand miles away, thus stirred +popular feeling, what will be the result of a Civil War between, on the +one side, the Irish Celt animated by religious hatred and love of +plunder, and supported by the Irish American, and on the other the +loyalty, endurance and Protestantism of Ulster--a Civil War almost +within sight of our shores? + +But, if we turn from the suggestions of empiricism and vanity and come +to those practical considerations which affect men's minds in matters so +important as political organization, the main argument pressed on +English people is that we cannot go on as we are. 'Irish Government is a +failure.' 'We must close this terrible crisis as rapidly as possible.' +'Separation itself, could not be worse than the present state of +things.' 'The Act of Union has completely failed. After eighty-four +years it has given an Ireland more hostile to England than at any period +of its history.' Mr. Gladstone recites the number of Coercion Acts, +which have been passed since 1832, and declares 'we are like the man +who, knowing that medicine may be the means of his restoration to +health, endeavours to live upon medicine.' + +Before considering whether this confession of failure is true, we would +remind our readers what it implies, what it leads up to. It is now +proposed as an argument for establishing a separate Parliament in +Dublin. The establishment of this separate Parliament is necessary, +because we must give Ireland the opportunity of doing what we ourselves +are unable to do, to find the best machinery they can to carry on the +business of government. But, when this machinery is once found and +invested with the resources and influence of a Government, we cannot +suppose that our troubles will be at an end. If disputes arise in the +working out of the new Irish Constitution, the popular majority will not +be slow to call in the aid of the American Irish who have founded the +National League. Mr. Jennings, whose opinion on this matter is entitled +to great weight, from his long residence in the United States, reminded +the House that + + 'one consideration which they must bear in mind was that of + the formidable difficulties which would inevitably arise + from the action of the great body of Irish Americans. If + this Bill granted to Ireland a free and independent + Parliamentary Assembly with full powers over the Executive, + as proposed by the Prime Minister, there would inevitably + come a time when either the payment of the interest due, or + some other cause, would bring the Irish Parliament into + antagonism with the English. If they were to endeavour to + demand what was necessary, whether payment of interest or + what not, and to threaten to use force, could any one + suppose that the great body of Irish Americans would stand + by silently and see that done? He believed that the United + States would say to them: "You have acknowledged your + incompetence to govern Ireland; you have given her practical + independence, now you must take your hands off her; we will + not stand by and see her crushed." He believed that there + was no government in the United States which could withstand + such pressure as that which would be brought to bear on it + by the Irish Americans, especially if a Presidential + election were near.' + +But is this allegation of failure actually true? For our part we are +inclined to agree with Lord Hartington, that the argument founded on the +paralysis of government in Ireland in recent years is allowed more +weight in this question than it should have. In the first place, it is +difficult to see how any government conducted as ours has been during +the last few years, could be other than disastrous, Mr. Gladstone, at +the commencement of his career as leader of the Liberal party, pledged +himself to the policy of Irish ideas, ignorant, if not reckless, of what +the term meant. Year by year he has been getting a closer view of the +creed he had unconsciously adopted, and, after a struggle, he accepts +one dogma, then another. The great dogma of all in the Home Ruler's +creed, that Englishmen should be sent bag and baggage out of Ireland, +has not yet been adopted; and naturally the Home Ruler keeps his +resources ready for that ringing of the chapel bell to which Mr. +Gladstone alluded in speaking of the Clerkenwell explosion and its +effect on the question of the Irish Establishment. The 'dynamite and the +dagger,' to which Mr. Morley recently appealed as conclusive reasons for +passing the Cabinet scheme, retain their fascination for the Irish mind. + +As long as Mr. Gladstone is a power in English public life, and his +pledges given in Lancashire are unredeemed or unrepudiated, the Home +Rule party will press him without mercy; but it is not reasonable to +argue from their success, a success which Mr. Gladstone has given them, +that they exercise a permanent influence on Irish affairs. When the +Southport pledges were given, the Irish land laws were yet without that +reform which a series of Governments, Tory as well as Whig, had admitted +to be necessary. It could not be said until after 1870 that the book of +English neglect of Irish interests was finally closed, and that is only +sixteen years ago. During this period we have seen the great English +Parliamentary Ruler continually plunging after coercion, and returning +to make some other big concession to agitation. Thus Ireland has had no +chance of trying what a good system of laws consistently administered +could supply. The principle of the Land Act of 1870 was a provision for +the protection of property--the tenants' property recognized by custom +during a long course of years, although ignored by the law and exposed +to confiscation by the reckless Whig legislation of 1850-2. The Land Act +of 1881 was an arbitrary attempt to remedy the misfortunes of an +improvident agricultural interest by legislative interference with +contract. Contracts were readjusted and finally settled for fifteen +years to come. Political economy was bidden to take itself off, but +prices varied quite regardless of Mr. Gladstone's arrangements, and the +weather did not pay them the least consideration. The passion for +revolution was stimulated, and a large number of Mr. Gladstone's clients +are as badly off as before. Might it not be worth while to try for a +time how far good government, after the removal of all substantial +grievances, might supply that 'real settlement,' 'that finality,' which +the country is now asked to find in Dublin Parliaments, First Orders, +and bribes at the cost of the English taxpayer? + +This counter-policy of maintaining order and good government in Ireland +should be emphasized by measures to make that island, even more +completely than she now is, a part of the United Kingdom. The Queen's +laws in Ireland are the same, except in some slight details, as in +England. The Irish judicature might be made part of the High Court at +Westminster. The Queen's writs from Westminster should run throughout +Ireland as they have done for hundreds of years throughout Wales. +Limerick or Sligo are not so remote from London now as Harlech or Durham +were in the reign of George I. The Irish judges would form no +undistinguished addition to the English Bench, while the presence of +English judges on circuit in Ireland would have the best effect in +disarming the animosity of the people against the law. It is too often +forgotten in these days that, however rapidly we move from place to +place, however swift the transmission of intelligence, the human mind +has not yet acquired the nimbleness of the telegraph needle. Habits of +thought are not changed as rapidly as the fashions of our dress. It is +only sixteen years since our Irish legislation has assumed its present +form, and we are ready to throw to the winds all maxims of statecraft, +all principles hitherto recognized in the delicate work of government. +We are in despair, and call in the company of _a priori_ statesmen--men +whose sole qualification to deal with complex questions is the fact that +they have studied the science of revolution. Why should we not try, now +that we have provided for manifest Irish grievances, what time, and +resolution, and common-sense, might do for us and our Irish +fellow-subjects? + +The first part of the Government policy is disclosed. We have still to +learn what its complement, the Land Purchase Bill, is to be, what +proposal is to be made about loyal Ulster, the subject on which Mr. +Gladstone was so strangely vague, on which Mr. Parnell was discreetly +silent. These further manifestations of Cabinet wisdom can hardly save +the scheme now lingering on to death. We wish we could be certain, that +this collapse would rid Parliament and Ireland of all such projects for +the future. But, whatever be the fate of the present Ministry, we may be +sure that the end is not yet, unless Mr. Parnell's faction is completely +broken, unless the policy urged by Lord Hartington is firmly adopted, +and party life reorganized in England, on the principle of excluding the +Irish vote from consideration in our party conflicts. If no such +resolution is enforced by English patriotism, Irish Nationalists will +return to their demands, enhanced in power and renown by the tribute +they have extorted from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. + +On these events of the future we shall not now speculate; but if past +history throws any light on the character of our population, one thing +may be confidently predicted. If Home Rule should be ultimately conceded +to Ireland, the political party which may be responsible for the +carrying of the scheme, will have to look forward to a long period of +exclusion from public confidence. However the British people may be +worried or deluded into forgetfulness of their duty to themselves and to +Ireland, the working of a Dublin Parliament will soon rouse them, the +reaction will set in; and the authors of the scheme will have before +them as lengthened a banishment from power, as the country gentlemen +suffered when their chivalrous devotion to the House of Stuart blinded +them for a time to the practical interests of England; as was the fate +of the Whigs at the beginning of this century, when they identified +their party with implacable opposition to Pitt's struggle to deliver +Europe from the tyranny of Bonaparte. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[104] See Art. IV. 'Yeomen Farmers in Norway.' + + + + +INDEX TO THE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SECOND VOLUME OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. + + +A. + +St. Alban's Abbey, 305 + its revenue, 307 + culture of the vine, 308 + its Grammar School, 310 + the Scriptorium, 312, 313 + Historiographers, 314 + Abbot's, 316, 317. + +Alford, Dean, on the severance of the Church from the State, 7. + +Apostolic Fathers, the, by the Bishop of Durham, 467 + Ignatius contrasted with St. Clement, 470 + his uncertain birth and origin, 471 + martyrdom, 472, 473 + testimony to the Apostolical succession, 474 + the 'short,' 'middle' and 'long' form, _ib._ + forgery in the 'long' recension, 475 + literary war on episcopacy, 476 + Milton's invective, _ib._ + Archbp. Ussher's discovery, 477 + condemns the Epistle to Polycarp, 478 + Cureton's version, _ib._ + genuineness of the seven Epistles known to Eusebius 479, 480 + style and diction, 481 + external testimony, 483 + 'Apostolical Constitutions,' 485 + Irenaeus on Apostolic succession, 485, 486 + Linus at Rome, 486 + Polycarp on episcopacy, 487 + Clement of Rome and Papias, _ib._ + Theological Polemics, 488 + Judaists and Gnostics, 489 + _S. Polycarp_, his history and writings, 491 + reverence paid to him, 492 + reviving Paganism, 493 + legend of his youth, 495 + meets Ignatius, 496 + reminiscences by Irenaeus, _ib._ + his martyrdom, 498, 499. + +Aracan. _See_ Burma. + +Archives of the Venetian Republic, 356. _See_ Venetian. + +d'Aumale, Duc his 'Histoire des Princes de Conde,' 80 + his tribute to Gen. France d'Houdetot, 107. + + +B. + +Bagehot, Mr. Walter, his 'English Constitution,' 518 + his character, 521 + influence of his writings, 532 + universal and varied representation, 533 + clear style, 534 + the principle of evolution, 535 + on royal education, 536 + Constitutional monarchy, 537. + +Banker, the Country, by Mr. George Rae, 133 + Joint Stock Banking, 134 + loanable capital, 135 + trade interests, 136 + individual responsibility, _ib._ + limited liability, 137 + uncovered advances, _ib._ + prosperity of Scotland, 138 + difference between a mortgage and a bill of exchange, 139 + fixed capital, 140 + floating capital, 141 + telegraphic transfer, _ib._ + personal security, 142 + 'runs' on a bank, 143-145 + banking reserve, 145 + panics, 146, 147 + the Act of 1844, 147 + the Golden Age, 149 + Bank Law of Germany, 149, 150 + National Banks of the U.S., 150 + Swedish Banks, 151 + banking system of Australasia, 152 + 'Popular Banks in Italy, 153 + contrasted with the Post Office Savings-banks in England, 154. + +Batchelor, Rev. H., sermon upon 'The Bishops on Disestablishment,' 38. + +Beaconsfield, Lord, his historic warning in 1880 of danger in Ireland, 551. + +Bismarck, Prince, his opinion of Mr. Gladstone, 281, 282. + +Books and Reading, 501 + Sir John Lubbock's list, _ib._ + Comte's catalogue or syllabus, 502 + indolent readers, 503 + perplexity of the student, 504 + difficulties in classification, 505 + Mr. Weldon's practical list, 507 + Mr. F. Harrison's 'Choice of Books, _ib._ + the desultory reader, 508 + Dibdin's 'Library Companion,' 509 + Chroniclers and Historians, _ib._ + philosophical histories, 510 + Voyages and Travels, 511 + Children's Books, 512 + Mr. Lowell's maxim for reading, 513 + use of odd moments, 514 + periodical literature, 515 + selection of books, 516 + students' books, 517 + fragmentary reading, 518. + +Brewer, Prof., his 'Introductions,' 293 + Essay on 'New Sources of English History,' 294 + draws attention to the value of the 'Calendars,' _ib._ + +British Empire. _See_ Travels. + +Broch, Dr., '_Le Royaume de Norvege et le Peuple Norvegien_,' 384 + his Report for the Exhibition at Paris, 397 + production of cereals and potatoes in Norway, in 1875, 405 _note_. + _See_ Yeomen. + +Brown, Rev., on the control exercised in the Dissenting Churches, 37. + +----, Mr. Rawdon, the late, his facsimiles of the Autographs in the + _Lettere Principi_, 377. + _See_ Venetian. + +Burma, Past and Present, 210 + number of rivers, 211 + influence of India and China, _ib._ + chief nationalities, 213 + the Karens, _ib._ + influence of Buddhism, 214 + affinity with Ceylon, _ib._ + Hindoo nomenclature, 215 + architectural remains, _ib._ + the city of Pagan, 216 + Niccolo de' Conti's geographical accuracy, 217 + Pegu captured, _ib._ + the _Yuva Raja's_ gorgeous court, 218 + extravaganzas of F. M. Pinto, _ib._ + splendour of the monarchy, 219 + internal and external wars, _ib._ + reign of Nicote, 220 + his execution, 221 + decay of the power of Ava, _ib._ + resistance of Alompra, _ib._ + his successes and death, 222, 223 + Ran-gun founded, 222 + conquest of Aracan, _ib._ + peace concluded between China and Ava, _ib._ + Capt. Symes, Envoy to the Burmese Court, 224 + Lord Wellesley's endeavours for a treaty of alliance, _ib._ + geographical extent of the Empire, 225 + Sir A. Campbell's conquests, 226 + Col. H. Burney's residence, 227 + Lord Dalhousie annexes Pegu, _ib._ + Capt. A. Phayre's successful administration of Pegu, 228 + death of Mengdun-Meng, and succession of Theebau, _ib._ + massacre of the prisoners, 229 + revolt at Hlain, 230 + English Residency withdrawn, 231 + relations with France cultivated, 232 + Gen. D'Orgoni's mission, 233 + the French Envoy's secret articles disavowed, 234 + French occupation of the Anamite provinces, _ib._ + Franco-Burmese Treaty, 235 + and Bank at Mandalay, 236 + the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation, 237 + Ultimatum of the Indian Government, 238 + resources of, 287. + + +C. + +'Calendars,' the, of Letters and Papers, Prof. Brewer's 'Introductions' to, +293, 294. + +Cape Colony, the, treatment of, 448. + +Carlyle's account of the Royalist attack on Salisbury, 416 + his false image of Cromwell, 441. + _See_ Cromwell. + +Cervantes, Life of, 58. + _See_ 'Don Quixote.' + +Chamberlain, Mr., his bribe to the rural voters, 258 + on Mr. Gladstone's manifesto, 290. + _See_ Parliament. + +Christian Brothers, the, Religious Schools in France and England, 325 + the _Freres Chretiens_ founded by De la Salle, 330 + work at Paris, 331 + vow of dedication, _ib._ + Articles of rules for the Society, 332 + laymen appointed in preference to priests, 333 + the five vows and rule of daily life, _ib._ + Manuals for their guidance, 334 + conditions of punishment, 335 + success of the work, _ib._ + abolished during the Reign of Terror, 337 + revived under Napoleon, _ib._ + discouragements, 338 + Our Duties towards Ourselves, 339 + Morals, 340 + Freedom of Labour, _ib._ + Gregory on Competition, 341 + Political Duties, 342 + Cross of honour awarded after the Prussian invasion, 354 + scholarships gained, 355. + +Church and State, 2 + Lord Hartington's loyalty, 3 + imputation on the Tories, _ib._ + Liberationist tactics, 4, 7 + Mr. Gladstone's manifesto, 5, 6 + finances of the Liberation Society, 8, 9 + Scottish subscriptions, 10 + Welsh Nonconformists, 11 + characteristics of Democracy, _ib._ + Liberation leaflets, 13-16 + cost of 'voluntary schools,' 16 + Pope Gelasius on tithes, 17 + the Church in Wales and London, 18-21 + number of adult baptisms, 21 + Mr. G. Rogers on Disendowment, 22 + the 'Radical programme,' 23, 24 + Bp. Magee on Disestablishment, 25 + M. Scherer on Democracy, 27 + the question of inequality, 28 + history and effects of Establishment, 29 + misstatements, 30 + spiritual influence, 31 + example of the United States, _ib._ + results of the voluntary system, 32, 33 + denominational rivalry, 34 + Mr. Bancroft on the Church in Virginia, 35 + danger of rashness in any change, 36 + control in the Dissenting Church, 37 + case of Jones _v._ Stannard, _ib._ + Rev. H. Batchelor's sermon, 38 + decrease of Baptist and Congregational pastors, 39 + the Bp. of Rochester's estimate of the parishes that would suffer, 40 + Bp. of Derry's experience, _ib._ + +Cid, the, Poem of, 46. + _See_ 'Don Quixote.' + +Clement, St., compared to Ignatius, 470. + +Colonies, the British. _See_ Travels in British Empire. + +Conde, the House of, 80 + character of Henri, the third Prince, 81 + married to Charlotte de Montmorency, 82 + avidity for wealth, 83 + applies for a bishopric for his infant son, 84 + Richelieu's reply, 85 + imprisonment, 85-89 + joined by his wife, 89 + birth of his son Duc d'Anguien, 90 + his education, 91-93 + at the Military Coll., Paris, 94 + government of Burgundy, _ib._ + his child-bride, 95 + imprisonment at Vincennes, 96 + first campaign, 97 + Richelieu's domination, 98 + efforts for his safety, 99 + treatment of the Cardinal-Archb., _ib._ + changes on Richelieu's death, 100 + his appearance described, 101 + military talents, 102 + generals, 103 + personal courage, 104. + +Constitution, English, 518 _sqq._ + +Cowper, Lord, his letter on supporting the Land-Act of 1881, 277. + +Cromwell, Oliver: + his character illustrated by himself, 414 + received version of the Insurrection of March, 1655, 415 + meeting at Marston Moor, _ib._ + attack on Salisbury, 416 + endeavours to stimulate an insurrection, 417 + counsels of false friends, 419 + secret agents, 420 + intercepted letter to Mr. Roles, 420 _note_ + Earl of Rochester and his comrades land at Dover, 421 + arrested and released, 422, 423 + Morton, the sham-Royalist, 424 + Mr. Douthwaite's movements, suspected, 424, 425 + the Judges refuse to try the Marston Moor prisoners, 428 + trial of Salisbury insurgents, 427 + twelve Major-Generals, _ib._ + 'Declaration' to secure the Peace of the Commonwealth, 428 + projects of the Royalists in March, 1655, 429 + officers and soldiers kept from Salisbury, 430 + Major Butler forbidden to take active operations, _ib._ + his account of the dispersal of the Royalists at Marston Moor, 432 + alleged 'rendezvous' of Royalists to surprise Newcastle, 433 + the Rufford Abbey incident, _ib._ + Shropshire insurrection, 434 + Pickering's story about Chester Castle, _ib._ + Earl of Rochester and Armourer arrested at Aylesbury, 435 + their escape, 436 + power of deception, 437 + the 'Thurloe Papers,' _ib._ + incredulity of the members of his Parliament, 438 + motive for the fabrication of the Insurrection, 439 + speech on the dissolution of Parliament in Jan. 1655, 440 + Carlyle's false image of the Hero, 441 + claims the Divine sanction, 442. + + +D. + +Dalley, Mr., of Sidney, on a better organization of the Navy for + the Colonies. + _See_ Travels. + +Darwin's view of primitive human society, 182. + _See_ Patriarchal Theory. + +Davitt, Mr., on Irish landlords, 292. + +Democracy, M. Scherer on, 2 + characteristics of, 518 + its tendency to despotism, 522 + Mr. G. White on English aristocracy and American democracy, 523 + its tolerance of oppression, 525 + Mr. Godkin on American politics, 526 + failure of, in the Spanish and Portuguese States, 527 + political aim of the Reign of Terror, 528, 529 + real meaning of equality, 531 + Mr. Bagehot's views, 532 + universal and varied representation, 533 + influence exercised by hereditary Princes and aristocracies, 535 + errors of George III.'s reign, 536 + royal education, _ib._ + of Constitutional Monarchy, 537 + 'Vigilance Committee' in California, 538 + strikes in Pennsylvania, 539 + value of the English Poor Law, 540 + Irish famine, 541 + Belgian riots, 532 + American charity, 543. + +Democracy, 11, 25. + _See_ Church. + +Dibdin, Mr., on the present features of Establishment, 29. + _See_ Church. + +'Don Quixote,' Mr. Ormsby's, 43 + ignorance of Spanish literature in England, _ib._ + a key to the history of Europe, 45 + popularity of the work, 46 + translations, 47-49 + Dore's illustrations, 50 + proverbs, 51, 52 + opening of the 2nd Part, 53 + emendations, 54 + 'Life of Cervantes,' 58 + his personal history little known, 59 + early years, 61 + at Rome, and at the battle of Lepanto, _ib._ + prisoner in Algiers, 62 + liberated, 63 + marriage, 64 + collector of revenue at Granada, _ib._ + life in Madrid, 65 + death, 66 + no known portrait of him, 67 + describes his own features, _ib._ + theories for the popularity of his work, 68-71 + broad humour, 71 + chivalry, 72 + C. Kingsley's opinion, 73 + madness of the knight, 74 + Sancho's character, 76 + ordinances for good government, 78. + +Doerpfeld, on the method of lighting at Tiryns, 122. + _See_ Tiryns. + +Doyle, Sir F., translation of the Olympian Ode, 178. + _See_ Pindar. + + +E. + +Education, royal, 536 + religious, in France. _See_ Christian Brothers. + +Eusebius. _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + + +F. + +Fergusson, Mr. J., on lighting the Parthenon, 123. + _See_ Tiryns. + +France, primary schools of, 338. + _See_ Christian Brothers. + +Froude, J. A., his 'Oceana, or England and her Colonies,' 443 + our responsibility with the Boers, 448 + Free Trade, 449 + love of 'old home' in the Colonies, 451. + _See_ Travels. + +Fustel de Coulanges, M., his 'Recherches sur quelques problemes +d'Histoire', 187. + + +G. + +Gaius, the Commentaries of, found by Niebuhr, 183. + +Gasparin, Comte Agenor, on the titles of landowners, &c., 17. + _See_ Church. + +Gildersleeve, Prof., his contribution to Pindaric literature, 161, _note_. + +Gladstone, Mr., his manifesto on Church Establishment, 5 + ambiguity, 6 + preparations for Home Rule in 1882, 261 + enigmatical replies, 263 + 'healing measures' for Ireland, 265 + his 'Divine light' and Irish policy, 266 + coercions and concessions, 268 + speech at Leeds, 273 belief in him, 275 + on the Irish question, 275, 276 + foreign policy, 281 + the advances of Russia, 282, 283. + +Gladstone-Morley Administration, the, 544 + the two 'Orders' for the Irish Parliament, 545 + voting power of the Nationalists, 547 + Mr. Gladstone's appeal to Southport in 1867, 547-549 + abolition of Irish Establishment, 549 + the Home Rule Association denounced at Aberdeen, _ib._ + Mr. Butt on Home Rule, 550 + Lord Beaconsfield's warning in 1880, 551 + the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, and a Coercion Act, _ib._ + the Land League dissolved, Mr. Parnell and its leaders in jail, 552 + Mr. Forster's exertions, 553 + Lord Spencer's responsibilities, _ib._ + the National League, _ib._ + removal of Mr. Clifford Lloyd and Mr. Trevelyan, 554 + delay in renewing the Crimes Act, _ib._ + declarations of Imperial unity, 555 + Mr. C. Bannerman on the Parnellite demands, 556 + Lord Hartington's protestation, _ib._ + Mr. Gladstone's telegram denying the scheme as sketched in the Press, 557 + Mr. Chamberlain's denial of being a party to it, _ib._ + declaration of Lord Salisbury's Government to maintain the Union, 558 + Mr. J. Collings's motion, _ib._ + new Ministry, 559 + Mr. J. Morley's appointment; his inexperience, 560 + system of guarantees, 561 + evictions, 562 + example of the French peasantry, 563 + power of the National League, 563, 564 + instance of Farrell and Shee, _ib._ + election to local public offices, _ib._ + Mr. Lecky on the National League, 566 + sympathy of the Irish priests, 567 + Archbp. Walsh, 567, 568 + provision for Irish judges, 568 + our responsibilities to Ireland, 569 + Irish nationality, 570 + population, 571 + compared to Norway and Hungary, 572-574 + deficient resources of Ireland, 575 + Mr. Jennings on an Irish Parliament, 577 + the Land Purchase Bill, 579. + +Goschen, Mr., his 'Hearing, Reading, Thinking,' 501. + _See_ Books. + +Grant White, Mr. R., his sketches of English and American Life, 523. + +Grosseteste's Letters, 300. + + +H. + +Hahn, F. von, on Roman Law, 187. + +Hallam's 'Hist. of the Middle Ages,' ignorance of English Monasticism, 298. + +Harcourt, Sir William, his prophecy about the Tory party, 261. + +Hardy, Sir T. Duffus, on the Madden Hypothesis, 301 + on the St. Albans Scriptorium, 312. + +Harnack, Dr. on episcopacy, 484-486. + _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + +Harrison, Mr., 'Choice of Books', 507. + +Hartington, Lord, on Disestablishment, 3 + on the Law of the Land League, 267 + no warning being given of the proposed legislation for Ireland, 556. + +Haxthausen, Baron von, on Slavonic and Russian society, 193-195. + +Historians of Greece and Rome, their superficial area, 323. + +Historical Commission, the, publication of the House of Lords MSS., 242. + _See_ Lords. + +Home Rulers, increased strength of, 260. + _See_ Parliament, Gladstone, &c. + +Homicides, number in New York, 459. + +Horses, breed of, upheld in Hellas, 159. + +d'Houditot, Gen. C., tribute to his memory by the Duc d'Aumale, 107. + +Huebner, Baron, his 'Through the British Empire,' 444 + on the disadvantage of complete independence to the Australian + Colonist, 447 + the Boers in Africa, 448 + idea of a grand confederation, 450 + the Civil Service of India, 452 + devotion and daily labours of the officials, 453 + no desire for self-government, 454 + Socialism and Atheism, 455 + the native Press, 456 + prosperity, 457 + his adventure in New York, 458. + +Hughes, Mr., on the voluntary system in the United States, 32. + + +I. + +Iddesleigh, Earl of, address to the Students at Edinburgh, 501. + +Ignatian Epistles, the Bp. of Durham on the, 467. + _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + +Ignatius, meaning of his name, 470. + +Indemnity, the Act of, 249. + +India, our administrations of, 453. + +Italy, the Popular Banks of, 152. + +Ireland. _See_ Gladstone-Morley, Land Bill, National League. + + +J. + +Jennings, Mr., on an Irish Parliament, 577. + _See_ Gladstone-Morley. + + +K. + +Killigrew, Tom, Charles II.'s representative at Venice, 382, 383. + + +L. + +Labour trade in the Pacific, 464. + +Laing, Mr., his 'Journal of a Residence in Norway during 1834, 35 + and 36,' 384. + _See_ Yeomen Farmers. + +Land Bill, the, for Ireland, effect of it, 278 + progress in Scotland and Wales, 279. + _See_ Parliament. + +Lewis, Sir G. C., his practical philosophy, 519 + an eminent statesman, 520 + distrustful of electoral reform, 521 + his Conservatism, 522. + +Liberal Press, the, activity of, 257. + +Liberation Society, the, financial report of, 8, 9 + its ability and skill, 11 + its publications, 13-16. + +'Liberator,' the, on Mr. Gladstone's ambiguity, 7. + +Lords, the, and Popular Rights, 239 + vague accusations, 241 + discovery of the House of Lords MSS., 242 + attitude towards constitutional freedom, _ib._ + moderate counsels and religious toleration, 242, 252 + important position in the early years of Charles I., 244 + appeals and petitions, 244-246 + extensive jurisdiction, 246 + protection of private rights, 247 + intervention for peace, 248 + the Restoration, 249 + the Acts of Indemnity, &c., _ib._ + restitution of property, 250, 251 + execution of Vane, 251 + the Act of Uniformity, 252 + the Five Mile Act, 253 + opposed to the re-establishment of Popery, 254 + the Declaration of Indulgence and the Test Act, _ib._ + advantage of the bicameral system, 255 + excesses of the House of Commons, 255, 256. + +Luard, Dr., his edition of Cotton's Chronicle, 299 + 'Letters of Robert Grosseteste,' 300 + 'Chronica Majora,' 302 + on the St. Alban's School of History, 314. + +Lubbock, Sir John, his list of books for reading, 501, 505. + + +M. + +Maclay, Mr. Miklaho, his reception in New Guinea, 445. + _See_ Travels. + +Madden, Sir F., Hypothesis about the 'Historia Minor,' 301 + +Magee, Bp., on Disestablishment, 25. + +Mahaffy Mr., on the destruction of Tiryns and Mycenae, 114. + +Maille-Breze, Clemence de, her marriage with Conde, 95 + heads an insurrection in his favour, 96 + imprisoned for life at Chateauroux, _ib._ + +Maine, Sir H. S., on the lowering effect of democracy, 12 + describes the Patriarchal Theory, 182 + on monogamy, 206. + _See_ Patriarchal. + +Maitland, Dr., his 'Essays on the Dark Ages,' 298. + +Mayne, Mr. J. D., his article on the Patriarchal Theory, 190. + +Mezger, Prof. F., his '_Pindar's Siegeslieder_,' 163. + +Milton on the Ignatian Epistles, 476. + +Monachism, British, in the 13th century, 303. + _See_ Paris, Matthew. + +Monasteries at end of 13th century, 304 + popularity, 307 + farming and pisciculture, 308 + a place of refuge, 309. + +Monod, G., on the policy of the late Chamber in France, 338, _note_. + +Morgan, Mr. L. E., on 'group marriage,' 205. + _See_ Patriarchal Theory. + +Morice, Rev. F. D., his 'Pindar for English Readers, 156. + _See_ Pindar. + +Morley, Mr. J. _See_ Gladstone-Morley. + +Mortgages & Bills of Exchange, 139. + + +N. + +National League, the, 563-565. + +---- Records, the, Commission for methodizing and digesting, 295. + +Navy, the, and the Colonies, 445. + +Norway, the Bank of, 400 + State Mortgage Bank, and Savings Bank, 401. + _See_ Yeomen. + + +O. + +Oldham, business record of the co-operative spinners for 1885, 285. + +Ormsby, Mr., his 'Don Quixote,' 43 + 'Poem of the Cid,' 46. + + +P. + +Pacific Islands. _See_ Romilly, Travels. + +Paris, Mathew, 293 + early years, 315 + a monk at St. Alban's, 316 + various accomplishments, _ib._ + sent to Norway, 317 + succeeds Roger of Wendover as historiographer, _ib._ + utilizes facts and documents, 318 + lashes the enemies of the abbey, 319 + his denunciations of the Pope, 319, 320 + anecdotes, 321 + omens and portents, _ib._ + weather reports, _ib._ + +Parliament, the New, 257 + activity of the Liberal press, _ib._ + Radicalism based on pure ignorance, 258 + Mr. Chamberlain's bribe to the rural voters, 258, 259 + state of parties in 1880 and 1885, 260 + the Home Rulers, 261 + Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule in 1882, _ib._ + Lord Salisbury's remarks on it, 262 + the 'Quarterly Review' of Jan. 1882, _ib._ + the scheme of separation and two Parliaments, 264 + Mr. Gladstone's 'healing measures' for Ireland, 265-268 + Sir J. Stephen on the Irish Parliament, 269 + English capital in Ireland, 271 + Davitt on landlordism, 272 + Parnell on Home Rule, _ib._ + dissentients in the press, 276 + 'strenuous policy' of the American war, _ib._ + Lord Cowper on the Land Act of 1881, 277 + opinions on the Land Bill, 278 + its progress in Scotland and Wales, 279 + Mr. G. Smith on concession, _ib._ + good effect of Lord Salisbury's accession to power, _ib._ + tone of European opinion, 280 + Mr. Gladstone's foreign policy, 281 + Prince Bismark's opinion of great orators, 282 + Russian advances, 282, 283 + state of trade, 284 + the co-operative spinners of Oldham, 285 + indifference of the Liberals, 286 + new channel for trade in Burma, 286, 287 + formation of a German Syndicate, 288 + discordant element of the Liberal party, 290, 291. + +Parnell, Mr., on national independence, 267 + Protective tariffs, 270 + private property, 271 + Home Rule, 272 + encomium on Mr. Gladstone, 544. + +Patriarchal Theory, the, 181 + described by Sir H. Maine, 182 + Darwin's view, _ib._ + the Patria Potestas and Agnation, 185 + analogy in England, 186 + Teutonic and Roman families, 187 + Salic Law, 188 + family system of the Hindus, 189 + Agnates and Cognates, _ib._ + Mr. J. D. Maynes's article, 190 + religious origin of Civil law, 191 + Mahommedan law, 191, 192 + system among the Arabian tribes, 192 + Slavonic and Russian society, 193-195 + legend of Queen Libussa, 196 + rejection of Roman law, 198 + maternal uncles and nephews, 200 + want of history with savages, _ib._ + theory of the origin and growth of the Family, 201 + Hordes and their Totems, _ib._ + infanticide, _ib._ + fewness of women, 202 + female descents, 203 + Exogamy, 204 + Polyandry, _ib._ + two schools of 'agriologists,' 205 + Sir H. Maine on monogamy, 206 + Darwin on the habits of primitive men, 207 + ancestor worship, 208. + +Peddie, Mr. Dick on Liberationist Literature, 10. + +Pegu, annexation of, 227. + _See_ Burma. + +Pentecost, Dr. G. F., on Denominational rivalry in America, 34. + +Phayre, Sir A., his works on Burma, 210 + wise ministration in Pegu, 228. + +Pindar's Odes of Victory, 156 + reverence paid to him, _ib._ + imperfectly comprehended, 157 + Voltaire's opinion, _ib._ + the English and the ancient Greek mind, 158 + public games, 159 + Olympic festivals, 160 + constructive skill of the Odes, 161 + Prof. Mezger's work, 163 + names of the members of the Terpandrian nome, _ib._ + structural phenomena, 165 + fifth Isthmian Ode, _ib._ + innovation in the structure, 169 + word-pictures, 170 + reference to architecture, 171-173 + structure, 173, 174 + turgidity and bombast explained, 175 + main source of obscurity, 176 + the love of Apollo and Cyrene, _ib._ + the genius of Pindar and Bossuet compared, 178 + his human sympathies, 180. + +Polycarp, St. _See_ Apostolic Fathers. + +Poor Law, the English, its value, 540 + in Norway, 408. + _See_ Democracy. + + +R. + +'Radical Programme,' the, 23. + +Radicalism based on ignorance, 258. + +Rae, Mr. George, 'The Country Banker,' 133. + _See_ Banker. + +Rangoon founded, 222. + _See_ Burma. + +Religious Schools in England, 344 + Tables of Accommodation, 345 + Registers, attendance, and voluntary contributions, 346 + Training Colleges, 347 + Diocesan Inspection, 349 + schools visited in 1884, 350 + expense of education, _ib._ + question of gratuitous elementary education, 351. + +_Revue Contemporaine_, the, on Lord Salisbury's accession to power, 280. + +Richelieu, Cardinal. _See_ Conde. + +Riley, Mr., his 'Chronica Monasterii Sancti Albani,' 300. + +Rochester, Bishop of, his estimate of the number of parishes which would +suffer from Disendowment, 40. + +Rogers, Mr. Guinness, on the good work of the Church, 22. + +Romilly, Sir John, of the Rolls, 295 + proposal for the publication of the 'Rolls Series,' 297. + +----, Mr., his 'Western Pacific and New Guinea,' 445 + cannibalism, 459 + the Solomon Islands, 461 + a sorcerer, 462 + the ladies of Laughlan Islands, 463 + describes a fine pearl, 464 + labour trade, _ib._ + 'Bully Hayes,' 465. + _See_ Travels. + +Russia, advances of, in Asia, 282 + effect of allotments upon the emancipated serfs, 411 + fall in value of cereals, _ib._ + 'redemption' dues, 412 + Peasant Land Banks, 412. + + +S. + +Sagredo, Giovanni, his mission from Venice to Cromwell, 376. + +Salisbury, Lord, on the Home Rulers, 262. + _See_ Parliament. + +Salle, J. B. de la, 325 + Canon of the Cathedral of Rheims, 326 + takes charge of an orphanage for girls, 327 + patron of other schools, 328 + spends his fortune on the poor, 329 + prayer for guidance, _ib._ + founder of the Christian Brothers, 330 + his self-dedication, 331 + success of his work, 335 + death, 337. + +Scherer, M., on Democracy, 11, 27. + +Schliemann, Dr. H. _See_ Tiryns. + +Schmidt, C. A., on Roman Law, 187. + +Scottish Council, its contribution to the Liberation Society, 10. + +Senior, Nassau, W., 'Correspondence and Conversations of A. de +Tocqueville,' 518 + his intimate acquaintance with French statesmen, 537 + the English Poor Law, 540 + the Irish famine, 541. + _See_ Democracy. + +Smith, Mr. Goldwin, on concession in Ireland, 279. + +----, Rev. G. Vance, on the control exercised in Dissenting churches, 37. + +Spain. _See_ Don Quixote. + +Stephen, Sir James, on an Irish Parliament, 269. + _See_ Parliament. + + +T. + +Theebau, King, atrocities at the beginning of his reign, 228. + +Tiryns, Schliemann's 108 + the excavations mainly architectural, 110 + the plain of Argolis, 111 + site of the citadel, _ib._ + history, 113 + Mr. Mahaffy's theory, 114 + style of pottery, 116 + upper citadel, 117 + arrangements of the palace, 118 + propylaeum, 120 + men's forecourt, _ib._ + portico, 121 + megaron and hearth, 122 + basilican lighting, 123 + bath-room, 124 + women's apartments, 125 + cyanus frieze, 127 + Cyclopean walls, 128 + Phoenician origin asserted by Doerpfeld, 129 + Greek architecture, 130, 131 + date of the fall, 132. + +Tocqueville, M. Alexis de, 'Democracy in America,' 518 + his practical wisdom, 520 + conservatism, 522 + rose-coloured portrait of democracy, 527 + his _Ancien Regime_, 528 + the distinction between noble and _roturier_, 529 + _Egalite_, 531. + +Travels in the British Empire, 443 + Colonial Federation, 445 + better organization of the Navy, 445 + the American Revolution, 446 + no desire for separation in our Colonists, 447 + Cape Colony, _ib._ + its treatment from England, 448 + conditions and prospects of trade, 449 + Free Trade, 449, 450 + offers of aid in the Egyptian war, 450 + love of 'old home,' 451 + purity of language, _ib._ + India and its Civil Service, 452 + Lord Ripon's endeavours to promote 'self-government,' 454 + the Ilbert Bill, 455 + Radical ideas of dismemberment, _ib._ + native press of India, 456 + prosperity of British India, 457 + cannibalism in New Ireland, 460 + murder of children in the Solomon Islands, 461 + sorcerers, 462 + David Dow, _ib._ + the Admiralty, Laughlan, Thursday, and Norfolk Islands, 462-463 + the labour trade, 464 + 'Bully Hayes,' 465 + commercial importance of the Australian Colonies, 467. + + +U. + +Uniformity, Act of, 252. + _See_ Lords. + +United States, National Banks of the, 150. + _See_ Banker. + + +V. + +Venetian Republic, Archives of the, 356 + their preservation and order, 357 + Constitution and the Great Council, 358 + the Senate or Pregadi, 360 + the Zonta, _ib._ + Collegio or Cabinet of Ministers, 361 + the Savii, _ib._ + Ducal Councillors, 362 + the Doge, 363 + election of, 363, 364 + Council of Ten, 365 + political training of the nobles, 367 + the Ducal, Secret, and Inferior Chancelleries, 368, 370, 371 + duties of the Grand Chancellor, 369 + College of Secretaries, _ib._ + Senatorial papers, 372 + the Relazioni, 373 + Paullizzi's despatches, 375 + Sagredo's mission to Cromwell, 376 + diplomatic connection with England, _ib._ + of the Collegio and the Lettere Principi, 377 + curious document of one Charles Dudley, 378 + letters from James Stuart, _ib._ + 'Espozione Principi,' _ib._ + reception of Lord Northampton, 479-482 + Tom Killigrew's expedient, 482. + +Verney, Lady, 'Cottier-owners and Peasant Proprietors,' 410, _note_. + +Villemain, M., his comparison of the genius of Pindar and Bossuet, 178. + + +W. + +Wales, the Church in, 18-21. + +Water Companies of London, oppressive and insolent exactions, 524. + +Wendover, Roger of, a monkish historiographer, 314 + at St. Albans, 316, 317. + +Westphal, R., his examination of the Choric Odes of AEschylus, 163. + +Wotton, Sir H., goes to Scotland from Venice to warn James VI. of a design +on his life, 374. + + +Y. + +Yeomen Farmers in Norway, 384 + condition of peasant proprietors in 1834, 385 + the _Odels ret_, or Allodial Right, _ib._ + division of land, 386 + life on the _Soeters_, 387 + private distillation of spirits prohibited, 388, + pauperism, _ib._ + illegitimacy, 390 + the agrarian class permanently represented in the Storthing, 391, _ib._ + attraction of the rural population to towns, 392 + rate of wages, 393 + railways, _ib._ + dress and ornaments, 394 + value of money, _ib._ + classification of properties, 395 + increasing subdivisions of land, 397, 398 + creation of _Myrmaend_ in South Trondhjem, 397 + influence of American competition in corn, _ib._ + absence of good economy, 399 + fare of the rural population, _ib._ + heavy indebtedness of the farmers, 400 + Banks and Savings Banks, 401-402 + sales of real property for debt, 403 + primitive condition of agriculture, 405 + heavy and increasing charges on landed properties, 406 + Poor Relief, _ib._ + increase of paupers, 407, 408 + emigration, _ib._ + political agitators, 409 + Church Disestablishment, _ib._ + hereditary nobility abolished, 409, _note_ + effects of subdivision of land in Norway, &c., 410 + Lady Verney on peasant proprietors, 410, _note_. + + +END OF THE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SECOND VOLUME. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. +324, April, 1886, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERLY REVIEW, APRIL, 1886 *** + +***** This file should be named 26439.txt or 26439.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/4/3/26439/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/26439.zip b/26439.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b44839 --- /dev/null +++ b/26439.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5abf3b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #26439 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26439) |
