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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29423-8.txt b/29423-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a27c857 --- /dev/null +++ b/29423-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10822 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, +Number 350, December 1844, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 16, 2009 [EBook #29423] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Stephanie Eason, Jonathan +Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + + + + + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S + EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + NO. CCCL. DECEMBER, 1844. VOL. LVI. + + + CONTENTS. + + The Scottish Banking System, 671 + + The Milkman of Walworth, 687 + + Injured Ireland, 701 + + Singular Passages in the Life of a Russian Officer, 713 + + Traditions and Tales of Upper Lusatia. No IV. The Moor Maiden, 726 + + "That's What We Are," 741 + + Edmund Burke, 745 + + My College Friends. No. II. John Brown, 763 + + Nelson's Despatches and Letters, 775 + + Guizot, 786 + + + + EDINBURGH: + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON. + + _To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._ + + SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S + EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + No. CCCL. DECEMBER, 1844. Vol. LVI. + + + + +THE SCOTTISH BANKING SYSTEM. + + +When any important branch of national polity has been impeached, +arraigned, and brought to stand its trial before the bar of public +opinion, it is satisfactory to know that the subject has been +thoroughly investigated, since a searching investigation alone can +excuse a verdict, be it of acquittal or of condemnation. That no man +can be twice tried upon the same indictment, is a proud boast of the +British constitution. It would be well if the same rule were always +applied when mightier interests than those of individuals are at +stake! + +It is just eighteen years ago since a ministry, feeble in practice, +but strong in speculative theory, ventured to put forth its hand +against the monetary system of Scotland, under shelter of which the +country had improved and thriven to a degree of prosperity never +experienced to the north of the Tweed before, and at a ratio which far +exceeded that of any other nation in Europe. In the short space of +half a century, the whole face of the country had changed. From a +bleak, barren, and dilapidated region--for such she undoubtedly was +for many years subsequent to the last rebellion of 1745--Scotland +became, with the shortest possible transition, a favourite land of +husbandry. Mosses and muirs, which, at all events since the forgotten +days of the Jameses, had borne no other crop than rugged bent or +stubborn heather, were subjected to the discipline of the plough, and +produced a golden harvest of grain. Woods sprang up as if by magic, +from the roots of the old Caledonian forest, to hide the nakedness of +the land and redeem the national reproach. The towns and +boroughs--which had never recovered from the terrible blow inflicted +upon them by the failure of the Darien scheme, in which nearly the +whole capital of Scotland was embarked, and which had lost the greater +and more valuable portion of their trade, and dwindled down into +almost hopeless insignificancy--began to revive again. New +manufactures were established, the older ones were extended; the +fisheries rose immensely in magnitude and importance; the mountainous +districts were made profitable by the breeding and export of sheep and +cattle; and even the rugged shores of the Hebrides furnished for a +time a most profitable article of commerce. All this took place in a +poor and very neglected country. England for a long time knew little +of what as going on in the north; perhaps her eyes were then riveted, +with more than the anxiety of a gamester's, upon the great stakes for +which she was contending on the red battle-fields of Europe. This much +she knew, that Scotland could produce in time of need--ay, and did +produce--levies of men, whose high heroic courage, steady discipline, +and daring intrepidity, were the theme even of their enemies' +admiration; and of these services she was, and is, justly and +generously proud. But of the social condition of their northern +neighbours, we repeat, the body of the English, at this period, were +singularly ignorant. We had not very long before suffered the penalty +of adherence to a fallen cause. We were considered to be still rather +too irritable and dangerous for much interference; perhaps, also, it +was thought that it might be _cheaper_ to leave us to ourselves--and, +so long as we paid our proportion of the common taxation, not to +enquire too curiously into our own domestic system of management. In +all respects, therefore, notwithstanding the war, we flourished. + +Peace came; and with peace, as a matter of course, a more searching +investigation into the internal state of the country. Then, for the +first time, Scotland became a sort of marvel. Our agriculture, our +commerce, our internal resources, so strangely and quickly augmented, +attracted the attention of the politician; and the question was +speedily mooted--"How, and by what means, have so poor a nation as the +Scotch attained so singular a position?" And truly the facts were +startling, and such as might justify an enquiry. _The whole coined +money in Scotland, at the date of the Union, was known not to have +exceeded the sum of_ ONE MILLION STERLING; and a large part of this +paltry sum was necessarily hoarded, and so withdrawn from circulation, +throughout the whole period of the intestine troubles. That single +million, therefore, held the place both of that part of the wealth of +the country which is now represented by bank-notes, and also of that +which is now deposited in the hands of the bankers. Aladdin's palace, +which sprang up in one night at the bidding of the slaves of the lamp, +could scarcely have been a greater paradox to the aged Sultan, than +this increase of prosperity on the part of Scotland was to our +southern legislators. How to explain the metamorphosis seemed for a +time a mystery. One thing, at all events, was clear--that English gold +had no participation in the change. North of the Tweed, a guinea was a +suspected article, apt to be rung, and examined, and curiously +weighed, before it was received in currency, and even then accepted +with a certain reluctance. The favourite medium of circulation was +paper-notes of one pound each, of somewhat dubious complexion to the +eye of the stranger, but received and circulated by the Scottish +people with the utmost readiness and confidence. The answer to the +question was a short one--"We have prospered through OUR BANKING +SYSTEM." + +It was some time--not until ten years of peace had elapsed--before any +open attack was made upon that system, which had proved, if facts can +prove any thing, the greatest imaginable boon to the nation; and +which, be it always specially remembered, did not originate with the +state, but with private individuals--upright, honourable, and +patriotic men--who better deserve a monument to their memories, were +that required, than the most successful conqueror whose march is on +humbled thrones. During that period much was done with regard to +internal relations, of which we, in common with every Scotsman who +retains one spark of patriotic feeling, most heartily disapprove. The +tendency towards centralization in London--the inevitable consequence +of the Union treaty--was not only not counteracted, as we maintain it +ought to have been, by a wise and paternal government, but forced and +hurried on by an excessive exercise of power. Every remnant of our +ancient institutions that could be rooted up, and all our local boards +with hardly one exception, were transferred to the seat of +government--regardless of the drain that was thereby made from the +proper resources of the country, and the deep heart-burnings that such +a system must necessarily create amongst a proud, observant, and +jealous, though enduring people. These things we shall not dilate +upon--though the temptation is triply strong, and we know how keenly +that subject is felt by many of the best and most loyal of the +land;--but in the mean time we shall pass over this period of gradual +humiliation, and come at once to the first great attack that was made +upon the source of all our national prosperity. + +At the close of the year 1825, there arrived a period of public +distress, followed by a panic which fortunately has but rarely been +felt in this country. We attributed it then, and we attribute it now, +to an unexampled glut in the money market, which we hold to be in this +trading country the most destructive of any, saving and excepting a +glut in agricultural produce and labour; and for this very plain +reason, that a glut of money resolves itself sooner or later into a +glut of goods, thereby carrying the amount of production in the +country far beyond the amount of the consumption and demand, and so +necessarily for a time closing the door against all the outlets of +industry. But it is of very little consequence to our present purpose +how that distress was created. The effects were very grievous. In +England the panic took effect, and a run was made upon the banks for +gold; the consequence of which was, that a number of the private and +joint-stock establishments failed. In Scotland, where the distress was +certainly not less in proportion, there was not only no failure on the +part of the banks, but no run, and no diminution in the usual credits. +At this time, it is very proper to remark, that England had been +thoroughly centralized; that is, that the whole course and tendency of +its money market was to London; and indeed, for purposes of trade, the +principal circulation of the important districts of Lancashire and +others, seems to have been bills of exchange payable in London, with +from twenty to fifty endorsements on each. With us such a system was +unknown. Scotland, then as now, and we devoutly trust for ever, had +her own internal circulation, and neither took nor gave, except when +statutorily compelled, beyond the limits of her own jurisdiction. + +The attention of the ministry was immediately directed to an +investigation of the cause of the general distress. This was right and +proper, and precisely what a cautious and well-meaning government +ought to do under such circumstances, in order to prevent, if +possible, the recurrence of a similar disaster. But unfortunately the +ministers of the day, though well-meaning, were any thing but +cautious. The majority of them were imbued with speculative notions of +political economy. They were disciples of a school which rejects facts +and cleaves implicitly to theory--men who threw considerations of +circumstance, time, and national characteristics aside, as prejudices +too low for even the momentary regard of a philosopher; in short, they +wished to introduce the standard of an untried rule as the _ne plus +ultra_ of human sagacity, and remorselessly to overturn every existing +institution--no matter at what sacrifice or risk--if it only seemed to +stand in the way of the operation of their darling theories. + +It was easy for men so tutored and trained, to overlook the necessary +effect which fluctuation of the seasons at home and abroad must have +upon the prices of either produce, of the effect of these prices upon +manufactures, and the manifest and established fact that there is a +point when _production_ will exceed _consumption_. This state of +things it is totally beyond the power of man to remedy. The facts of +nature will always be found too strong for the theories of the +political economist; but our rulers in the plenitude of their wisdom +thought otherwise; and began to search within the social system for a +cause of that disorder, which was neither more nor less than an +epidemic, as totally beyond the reach of their prevention as if the +College of Physicians were to issue their solemn fiat--"This year +there shall be neither cholera nor fever." In searching for the cause, +however, they stumbled upon an effect which they at once adroitly +magnified into a cause. In England there had been a marked increase +during the rise in the issue of the country banks. Here was an +opportune discovery for the champions of metallic currency! and, +accordingly, the paper system was prostrated in England to make way +for its more glittering, often more slippery, and always more +expensive rival. + +Scotland, in the mean time, was going on in her old and steady +footing. One and all of the banks--chartered, joint-stock, and +private--were as firm as if each had been backed by the whole weight +and responsibility of the state. Between them and the public the most +perfect confidence subsisted; and very nobly indeed, in that time of +trial and distress, did the banks behave, in maintaining credits +grievously depressed for the moment, but certain to revive with the +return of general prosperity. This mutual confidence is the great +secret of the success of the Scottish system. The banker is to the +trader as a commercial physician--sometimes restrictive, sometimes +liberal, but always a judicious friend. It is impossible to separate +the interests of the two; and as they have risen together, so, in the +event of a change, must they both equally decline. But we will not +anticipate our defence, before we have adduced the facts upon which +that defence is founded. + +All at once, and without sounding any note of preparation, the +ministry announced, that after the expiry of a given season, the whole +Scottish banking system was to be changed, all paper currency under +the five-pound note abolished, and a metallic circulation introduced +and enforced. If Ben Nevis had burst forth at once in the full thunder +of volcanic eruption, we could not have been more astonished. What! +without complaint or enquiry--without the shadow of a cause shown, or +a reason assigned, except it might be that reason--to a Scotsman the +most unpalatable of all--the propriety of assimilating the +institutions of both countries; in other words, of coercing Scotland +to adopt the habit of her neighbours--to excavate the foundation-stone +of our whole prosperity, and make us the victims of a theory which, +even if sound, could not profess to give us one tittle more advantage +than the course which we had so long pursued! We believe that if the +annals of legislation were searched through, we could not find a +parallel case of such wanton and unprovoked temerity! + +We said then, and we say now, with even more emphatic earnestness, it +is the curse of the age that every thing is to be managed by political +economy and philosophy, and that local knowledge is to be utterly +disregarded in the management of local interests. CENTRALIZE and +ASSIMILATE--these were the watchwords of the ministers of that day; +and for aught that we can see, Sir Robert Peel is determined to +persevere in the theory. What excuse was there, _then_, for the +attempt of any assimilation between the banking systems of the two +countries? If it had been alleged that the Scotch paper currency was +surreptitiously carried into England--that it was there supplanting +the legal currency, and absorbing the gold in exchange, there might +have been some show of reason for a slight modification of the +system--at all events for a more stringent preventive check. But no +such allegation was made. The most determined hater of the Scottish +banks knew well that their paper never crossed the Border; for the +very best of all possible reasons, that the notes were not a legal +tender, and that five persons out of six to whom they might happen to +be offered, would unhesitatingly reject them. Again, to absorb the +gold would have been neither more nor less than partially to carry out +the views entertained by the supporters of a metallic currency, and +therefore surely, in their eyes, a venal, if not a meritorious, +offence. But such was not the fact. In Scotland there was no such a +thing known as a gold circulation. The fishermen, the cattle dealers, +and the small traders, would not so much as take it; and the stranger +who, through ignorance, had provided himself with a stock of the +precious metal, was forced to have recourse to a Scottish bank in +order to have it exchanged for notes. Beyond what lay in the bank +reserves, there was literally none in the country; and therefore any +idea of the interference of the currencies was too preposterous to be +maintained. + +But it is not here, or at this point, that we intend to discuss the +propriety of the measure which was then proposed. Unfortunately, we +are called upon to do so with reference to our own times, as well as +to those which are now matter of history; and the remarks which we +shall have occasion to offer are equally applicable to the one as to +the other. In the mean time, let us see how the mere alarm engendered +by that unlucky proposition affected Scotland, and what steps were +taken to resist the threatened change. + +First of all, we have it in evidence that the open threat of the +ministerial scheme produced within the country more actual distress +and bankruptcies than had previously occurred during the period of the +previous depression. This may seem a paradox to a stranger; but the +reason will be readily understood, and the fact candidly admitted by +every one who is conversant with the Scottish system of banking. A +short explanation may be necessary. One large department of the +business of every bank was the granting of CASH-CREDITS; a method of +accommodation to the public which the experience of _ninety-four +years_ (cash-credits were granted by the Royal Bank of Scotland so +early as 1729) had shown not only to be the safest to the bank, but by +far the most advantageous to the public. Indeed it is not too much to +say, that were those credits prohibited, and no other alteration made +in the existing system, the mainspring of the machinery of Scottish +banking would be broken, and its general utility impaired. With that +point we shall deal more fully when we come to the consideration of +the system in detail; at present it is only necessary to remark, that +these credits had been maintained unimpaired during the period of +depression, and were the fortunate means of averting ruin from many. + +But the attitude which the ministry assumed was so formidable, and the +prospect of a sweeping change so alarming, that the bankers were +forced in self-defence, though sorely against their will, to make +preparation for the worst contingencies. They were, so to speak, +compelled to follow the example of England in 1745--to recall all +their outlying forces from abroad, concentrate them at home, and leave +their allies to fight their own battles as they best could, and to +conquer or fall according to their ability or weakness. Their first +step was rigidly to refuse the granting of any new cash-credits; their +second, to withdraw--with as much tenderness as might be, but still to +withdraw--those which were already in existence. It was then that the +country at large began to feel how terribly their interests were +compromised. The trader, who was driving an active business on the +strength of his cash-credit, and turning over the amount of his +bank-account it may be thirty times in the course of the year, found +himself suddenly brought to a stand-still. The country gentleman, in +the midst of his agricultural improvements, and at the very moment +when their cessation would undo all that he had hitherto accomplished, +was compelled either to desist for want of ready money, and throw his +labourers on the parish, or to have recourse to the pernicious system +of discounting bills at a ruinous rate of interest. The manufacturer, +in despair, was reduced to close his works, and the operatives went +forth to combine, or starve, or burn; for the hand of the ministry was +upon them likewise, and their burden was sorer than their masters'. + +These were the first fruits of the proposed metallic currency; and it +soon became evident to all, that nothing was left for Scotland, if she +wished to escape from universal ruin, but to offer a firm and most +determined resistance. The struggle was felt throughout the length and +breadth of the land to be one, which, if it did not actually involve +existence, involved a greater commercial interest than had been at +stake for more than a century before. The combination which took place +in consequence was so extraordinary, that we may be pardoned if we +express our wonder how any minister who witnessed it, can at this hour +have the temerity to return to the charge. Party-spirit, always higher +and keener in Scotland than elsewhere, was at once forgotten in the +common cause. All ranks, from the peer to the peasant, rose up in +wrath at the proposed innovation; and from every county, city, town, +village, and corporation in the kingdom, indignant remonstrances were +forwarded to the foot of the Throne, and to the Imperial Parliament of +Great Britain. It was assuredly a dangerous experiment to make with a +proud and jealous people. Old watchwords and old recollections, buried +spells which it were safer to leave alone, began to revive amongst us; +and many a lighter act of aggression, which had been passed over at +the moment in silence, was then recalled and canvassed, and magnified +into a serious grievance. In short, Scotland, from the bottom of her +heart, felt herself most deeply insulted. + +It was at this time that the celebrated letters of Malachi +Malagrowther appeared. To the general sentiments contained in that +work, we subscribe without the slightest hesitation. Strong language +is usually to be deprecated, but there are seasons when no language +can be too strong. We think meanly of the man who can sit down to +round his periods, and prune his language, and reduce his feelings to +the level of cold mediocrity, when he knows that the best interests of +his country are at stake, and that he is her chosen champion. And +such, most assuredly, and beyond all comparison, was Sir Walter Scott. +He went into that conflict like a giant, in a manner that disdained +conventionalisms; he neither begged, nor prayed, nor conceded, but +took his firm ground on the chartered liberties of his country, and +spoke out in such manly and patriotic accents as Scotland has rarely +heard since the days of Fletcher and Belhaven. All honour be to his +memory! Were it for that good work alone, his name ought for ever to +be immortal. + +In consequence, ministry were condescending enough to allow a +Parliamentary enquiry. Even that was not granted readily, as the +prevailing impression in the cabinet seemed to be, that Scottish +affairs were of too slight importance to occupy the time of the +Imperial Parliament. The old country might be dealt with summarily, +and left to remonstrate at its leisure. But the spirited resistance of +our representatives, and it is no less incumbent upon us to add, that +innate sense of justice in Englishmen, which will not suffer any one +to be condemned unheard, procured us the investigation, upon the issue +of which we were willing to rest our cause. The Scottish banking +system underwent the severest of all scrutinies before committees of +the Houses of Peers and of the Commons; and the following was the +nature of the reports. + +The committee of the House of Commons, after recapitulating the +leading points which were brought out in evidence before them, came to +the following conclusions--which it is very important to bring before +the public now, as they refer not only to the deductions which the +committee had formed from the history of the past, but to the special +reasons which were to influence the legislature in future and +prospective change. + + "Upon a review of the evidence tendered to your committee, and + forming their judgment upon that evidence, your committee _cannot + advise_ that a law should now be passed, prohibiting, from a + period to be therein determined, the future issue in Scotland of + notes below five pounds:-- + + "There are, in the opinion of your committee, sufficient grounds + in the experience of the past for permitting another trial to be + made of the compatibility of a paper circulation in Scotland with + a circulation of specie in this country. + + "Looking at the amount of notes current in Scotland, below the + value of five pounds, and comparing it with the total amount of + the paper currency of that country, _it is very difficult to + foresee the consequences of a law which should prohibit the + future issue of notes constituting so large a proportion of the + whole circulation_. + + "Your committee are certainly not convinced that it would affect + the cash-credits to the extent apprehended by some of the + witnesses; but they are unwilling, without stronger proof of + necessity, to incur the risk of deranging, from any cause + whatever, A SYSTEM ADMIRABLY CALCULATED, in their opinion, to + economize the use of capital, to excite and cherish a spirit of + useful enterprise, and even to promote the moral habits of the + people, by the direct inducements which it holds out to the + maintenance of a character for industry, integrity, and prudence. + + "At the same time that your committee recommend that the system + of currency which has for so long a period prevailed in Scotland, + should not, under existing circumstances, be disturbed, they feel + it to be their duty to add, that they have formed their judgment + upon a reference to the past, and upon the review of a state of + things which may hereafter be considerably varied by the + increasing wealth and commerce of Scotland, by the rapid + extension of her commercial intercourse with England, and by the + new circumstances that may affect that intercourse after the + re-establishment of a metallic currency in this country. + + "Apart from these general observations, bearing upon the + conclusions at which they have arrived, there are two + circumstances to which your committee must more particularly + advert. + + "It is evident that if the small notes issued in Scotland should + be current beyond the Border, they would have the effect, in + proportion as their circulation should extend itself, of + displacing the specie, and even in some degree the local currency + of England. Such an interference with the system established for + England would be a manifest and gross injustice to the bankers of + this part of the empire. If it should take place, and it should + be found impossible to frame a law consistent with sound and just + principles of legislation, effectually restricting the + circulation of Scotch notes within the limits of Scotland, there + will be, in the opinion of your committee, no alternative but the + extension to Scotland of the principle which the legislature has + determined to apply to this country. + + "The other circumstances to which your committee meant to refer, + as bearing materially upon their present decision, will arise in + the event of a considerable increase in the crime of forgery. + Your committee called for returns of the number of prosecutions + and convictions for forgery, and the offence of passing forged + notes, during the last twenty years in Scotland, which returns + will be found in the appendix. There appears to have been, during + that period, no prosecutions for the crime of forgery; to have + been eighty-six prosecutions for the offence of issuing forged + promissory notes--fifty-two convictions; and eight instances in + which the capital sentence of the law has been carried into + effect." + +This may, on the whole, be considered as an impartial report; and, as +it is as well in every case to disencumber a question from +specialties, we shall state here that experience has since shown that +there has been no tendency whatever to the introduction of Scottish +notes into England. With regard to the other special point referred to +by the committee--that of forgery--such a thing as a forged bank-note +is now unknown in Scotland. The evidence taken before the last +committee on banks of issue in 1841, established the fact, that since +the improved steel plates were brought into general use, there has +never been a forgery of a note. Such being the case, it is unnecessary +here to dispute the wisdom of that policy which would leave a great +national institution at the mercy of a single forger. The experience +of this last month alone might show how wretchedly that test would +operate if applied even to the Bank of England. + +Setting these specialties aside, the only possibly grounds which this +committee saw for any future legislative interference were, "the +increasing wealth and commerce of Scotland, the rapid extension of her +commercial intercourse with England, and the circumstances which may +affect that intercourse after the re-establishment of an English +metallic currency." To us the first part of this reservation sounds +somewhat like a threat of future bleeding when Scotland shall have +become more pursy and plethoric. Nevertheless we are ready to join +issue with our opponents on any of these grounds. + +The report of the Lords was even more favourable; and, at the risk of +being thought tedious, we cannot refrain from inserting their +admirable digest of the evidence, which, for candour and clearness, +might be taken as a universal model. + + "With respect to Scotland, it is to be remarked, that during the + period from 1766 to 1797, when no small notes were by law + issuable in England, the portion of the currency in Scotland in + which payments under five pounds were made, continued to consist + almost entirely of notes of £1 and £1, 1s.; and that no + inconvenience is known to have resulted from this difference in + the currency of the two countries. This circumstance, amongst + others, tends to prove that uniformity, however desirable, is not + indispensably necessary. It is also proved, by the evidence and + by the documents, that the banks of Scotland, whether chartered + or joint-stock companies or private establishments, _have for + more than a century exhibited a stability which the committee + believe to be_ UNEXAMPLED IN THE HISTORY OF BANKING; that they + supported themselves from 1797 to 1812 without any protection + from the restriction by which the Bank of England and that of + Ireland were relieved from cash payments; that there was little + demand for gold during the late embarrassments in the + circulation; and that, _in the whole period of their + establishment_, there are not more than two or three instances of + bankruptcy. As, during the whole of this period, a large portion + of their issues consisted almost entirely of notes not exceeding + £1 or £1, 1s., there is the strongest reason for concluding, + that, as far as respects the banks of Scotland, the issue of + paper of that description _has been found compatible with the_ + HIGHEST DEGREE _of solidity_; and that there is not, therefore, + while they are conducted upon their present system, sufficient + ground for proposing any alteration, with the view of adding to a + solidity which has been so long sufficiently established. + + "This solidity appears to derive a great support from the + constant exchange of notes between the different banks, by which + they become checks upon each other, and by which any over-issue + is subject to immediate observation and correction. + + "There is also one part of the system, which is stated by all the + witnesses (in the opinion of the committee very justly stated) to + have had the best effects upon the people of Scotland, and + particularly upon the middling and poorer classes of society, in + producing and encouraging habits of frugality and industry. _The + practice referred to is that of_ CASH-CREDITS. Any person who + applies to a bank for a cash-credit is called upon to produce two + or more competent securities, who are jointly bound, and after a + full enquiry into the character of the applicant, the nature of + his business, and the sufficiency of his securities, he is + allowed to open a credit, and to draw upon the bank for the whole + of its amount, or for such part as his daily transactions may + require. To the credit of this account he pays in such sums as he + may not have occasion to use, and interest is charged or credited + upon the daily balance, as the case may be. From the facility + which these cash-credits give to all the small transactions of + the country, and from the opportunities which they afford to + persons who begin business with little or no capital but their + character, to employ profitably the minutest products of their + industry, it cannot be doubted that the most important advantages + are derived to the whole community. The advantage to the banks + who give those cash-credits arises from the call which they + continually produce for the issue of their paper, and from the + opportunity which they afford for the profitable employment of + part of their deposits. The banks are indeed so sensible that, in + order to make this part of their business advantageous and + secure, it is necessary that their cash-credits should (as they + express it) be frequently operated upon, that they refuse to + continue them unless this implied condition be fulfilled. The + total amount of their cash-credits is stated by one witness to be + five millions, on which the average amount advanced by the banks + may be one-third. + + "The manner in which the practice of deposits on receipt is + conducted tends to produce the same desirable results. Sums to as + low an amount as £10 (and in some instances lower) are taken by + the banks from the depositor, who may claim them at demand. He + receives an interest, usually about one per cent below the market + rate. It is stated that these deposits are, to a great extent, + left uncalled for from year to year, and that the depositors are + in the habit of adding, at the end of each year, to the interest + then accrued, the amount of their yearly savings; that the sums + thus gradually accumulated belong chiefly to the labouring and + industrious classes of the community; and that, when such + accounts are closed, it is generally for the purpose of enabling + the depositors either to purchase a house or to engage in + business. + + "It is contended by all the persons engaged in banking in + Scotland, that the issue of one-pound notes is essential to the + continuance both of their cash-credits and of the branch banks + established in the poorest and most remote districts. Whether the + discontinuance of one-pound notes would necessarily operate to + the full extent which they apprehend, in either of these + respects, may perhaps admit of doubt; but the apprehensions + entertained on this head, by the persons most immediately + concerned, might, for a time at least, have nearly the same + effect as the actual necessity; _and there is strong reason to + believe, that if the prohibition of one-pound notes should not + ultimately overturn the whole system, it must for a considerable + time materially affect it_. + + "The directors of the Bank of England, who have been examined + before the committee, have given it as their opinion, that a + circulation of notes of £1 in Scotland or in Ireland would not + produce any effects injurious to the metallic circulation of + England, provided such notes be respectively confined within the + boundary of their own country. + + "Notwithstanding the opinions which have been here detailed, the + committee are, on the whole, so deeply impressed with the + importance of a metallic circulation below £5 in England, not + only for the benefit of England, but likewise for that of all the + other parts of the empire, that if they were reduced to make an + option between the establishment of such a metallic circulation + in Scotland, or the abandonment of it in England, they would + recommend the prohibition of small notes in Scotland. But they + entertain a reasonable expectation, that legislative measures may + be devised which will be effectual in preventing the introduction + of Scotch paper into England; and unless such measures should in + practice prove ineffectual, or _unless some new circumstance + should arise_ to derange the operations of the existing system in + Scotland itself, or materially to affect the relations of trade + and intercourse between Scotland and England, they are not + disposed to recommend that the existing system of banking and + currency in Scotland should be disturbed." + +This is just what a Parliamentary report ought to be--calm, +perspicuous, and decided. There is no circumlocution nor ambiguity of +expression here. After a patient investigation into the whole +question, and a minute examination of enemies as well as friends, the +Lords arrived at the opinion, that the existing banking system of +Scotland ought on all points to be maintained, and they not only +stated their general conviction, but gave their reasons for upholding +each part in detail, in the luminous manner which has always been the +characteristic of that august Assembly, and which has established its +proud reputation as not only the noblest, but the most upright +tribunal of the world. It is worthy of the most marked attention, that +the committee of the Lords in this report, which afterwards received +the sanction of the House, advocated no temporary continuance of the +banking system in Scotland, but were clearly of opinion that it should +remain as a permanent institution. They evidently entertained no +ideas, grounded upon mere expediency, that it would be prudent to wait +until Scotland, by means of her cherished institutions and her own +internal industry, arrived at that point of condition when it might be +expedient to introduce the lancet, and drain off a little of her +superfluous blood. They vent upon the righteous maxim--that a nation, +as well as a man, is entitled to work out its own resources in peace, +so long as it does not trench upon the industry or prerogatives of its +neighbour, and so long as no impeachment can be laid against the +prudence and stability of its institutions. We defy any man to read +over this report, and to adduce one word from it which shall convey +the idea that it was not intended as a final judgment, with the simple +qualifications that we have stated in the last sentence. + +These two reports saved the country--we trust we shall not hereafter +be compelled to add, only for a time--from its great impending +misfortune. The circulation in England became metallic, with what +success it is not for us to say, whilst Scotland was allowed to retain +her paper currency with at least most perfect satisfaction to herself. +One pregnant fact, however, it would be unpardonable for us to +omit--as showing the stability of the northern system when compared +with that practised in the south--that at the last investigation +before a committee of the House of Commons in 1841, it was stated, +that whereas in Scotland the whole loss sustained by the public from +bank failures, _for a century and a half_, amounted to L. 32,000, the +loss to the public, _during the previous year in London alone, was +estimated at_ TEN TIMES THAT AMOUNT! + +Since 1826, we have had eighteen years' further experience of the +system, without either detecting derangement in its organization, or +the slightest diminution of confidence on the part of the public. +There has been no interference with the metallic currency of England. +Forgery is a crime now utterly unknown, as is also coining, beyond the +insignificant counterfeits of the silver issue. This, in fact, is a +great advantage which we have above the English in point of security, +since we are exempt from the risk of receiving into circulation either +base or light sovereigns, and since the banks provide for the +deterioration of their notes by tear and wear, whilst the holder of a +light sovereign has to pay the difference between the standard and the +deficient weight. When we reflect upon the small amount of the wages +of a labouring man, it is manifest how important this branch of the +subject is; for were gold allowed in Scotland to supersede the paper +currency, a fresh and most dangerous impetus would be given to the +crime of coining; and there cannot be a doubt, that in the remoter +districts, where gold is utterly unknown, a most lamentable series of +frauds would be perpetrated, with little risk of detection, but with +the cruelest consequences to the poor and illiterate classes. + +We are not, however, inclined to adopt the opinion expressed by the +committee of the House of Commons, to the extent of admitting that it +would be either politic or just to disturb the whole banking system of +a country on account of private frauds, whether forgeries or the +fabrication of counterfeit coin. If their opinion was a sound one, the +weight of evidence is now upon our side of the argument; but we hold +that the interests at stake are far too great to be affected by any +such minor details. If any new circumstance has arisen "to affect the +relations of trade and intercourse between Scotland and England," we +at least are wholly unconscious of the occurrence, and, of course, it +is the duty of those who meditate a change to point it out, in order +that it may be thoroughly scrutinized. Internally, the business of the +banks has been increasing, and, commensurate with that increase, there +has been a vast addition to the number of branch banks spread over the +face of the country; so that, whereas in 1825 there was but one office +for every 13,170 individuals, in 1841 there was an office for every +6600 of the population. This is plainly the inevitable effect of +competition; but lest that increase should be founded upon by our +opponents as a proof of over-circulation, we shall say a few words +upon the subject of the _exchange_ between the banks themselves, which +is a leading feature of our whole system, and the most complete check +against over-trading which human ingenuity could devise. Fortunately +we have ample _data_ for our statement in the evidence tendered to the +committee on banks of issue in 1841. + +It is right, however, to premise that, strictly speaking, there are +not more, nay, there are positively _fewer_ banks in Scotland at the +present moment than there were in 1825, though the amount of paid-up +capital in the banks is more than doubled. It is the branches alone +which make this astonishing increase. Now, as a branch is merely a +local agency of the parent bank, established at a distance for the +sake of outlying business, the number of parties engaged in banking +who are responsible to the public is not thereby increased, nor is the +amount in circulation extended. In fact, the multiplication of the +branch banks has been of extraordinary benefit to the public, by +affording the inhabitants of even the remotest districts a ready, +easy, and favourite method of deposit, and by extinguishing all risks +of credit. Further, it has this manifest advantage, that the manager +of the branch bank has far greater facilities of ascertaining the +character, habits, and pursuits of those persons who may have received +the advantage of a cash-credit accommodation, and can immediately +report to his superiors any circumstances which may render it +advisable that the credit should be contracted or withdrawn. So far +are we from holding that the multiplication of branch banks is any +evil or incumbrance, that we look upon it as an increased security not +only to the banker but the dealer. The latter, in fact, is the +principal gainer; because a competition among the banks has always the +effect of heightening the rate of interest given upon deposits, and of +lowering the rates charged upon advances. Nor does this give any +impetus to rash speculation on the part of the dealer, but directly +the reverse. The deposits always increase with the advancing rate of +interest; and experience has shown, that it is not until that rate +declines to two per cent that deposited money is usually withdrawn, +which is the signal of commencing speculation. To the mere speculator +the banks afford no facilities, but the reverse. Their cash credits +are only granted for the daily operations of persons actively engaged +in trade, business, or commerce. So soon as that credit appears to be +converted into a different channel, it is withdrawn, as alike +dangerous to the user and unprofitable to the bank which has given it. + +Of thirty-one banks in Scotland which issue notes, five only are +_chartered_--that is, the responsibility of the proprietors in those +established is confined to the amount of their subscribed capital. The +remaining twenty-six are, with one or two exceptions, joint-stock +banks, and the proprietors are liable to the public for the whole of +the bank responsibilities to the last shilling of their private +fortunes. The number of persons connected with these banks as +shareholders is very great, almost every man of opulence in the +country being a holder of stock to a greater or a less amount. That +some jealousy must exist among so many competitors in a limited field, +is an obvious matter of inference. Such jealousy, however, has only +operated for the advantage of the public, by the maintenance of a +common and vigilant watch upon the manner in which the affairs of each +establishment are conducted, and against the intrusion of any new +parties into the circle whose capital does not seem to warrant the +likelihood of their ultimate stability. Accordingly, the Scottish +bankers have arranged amongst themselves a mutual system of exchange, +as stringent as if it had the force of statute, by means of which an +over-issue of notes becomes a matter of perfect impossibility. _Twice +in every week the whole notes deposited with the different bank +offices in Scotland are regularly interchanged._ Now, with this system +in operation, it is perfectly ludicrous to suppose that any bank would +issue its paper rashly for the sake of an extended circulation. _The +whole notes_ in circulation throughout Scotland return to their +respective banks in a period averaging from ten to eleven days in +urban, and from a fortnight to three weeks in rural districts. In +consequence of the rate of interest allowed by the banks, no person +has any inducement to keep bank paper by him, but the reverse, and the +general practice of the country is to keep the circulation at as low a +rate as possible. The numerous branch banks which are situated up and +down the country, are the means of taking the notes of their +neighbours out of the circle as speedily as possible. In this way it +is not possible for the circulation to be more than what is absolutely +necessary for the transactions of the country. + +If, therefore, any bank had been so rash as to grant accommodation +without proper security, merely for the sake of obtaining a +circulation, in ten days, or a fortnight at the furthest, it is +compelled to account with the other banks for every note they have +received. If it does not hold enough of their paper to redeem its own +upon exchange, it is compelled to pay the difference in exchequer +bills, a certain amount of which every bank is bound by mutual +agreement to hold, the fractional parts of each thousand pounds being +payable in Bank of England notes or in gold. In this way over-trading, +in so far as regards the issue of paper, is so effectually guarded and +controlled, that it would puzzle Parliament, with all its conceded +conventional wisdom, to devise any plan alike so simple and +expeditious. + +The amount of notes at present in circulation throughout Scotland is +estimated at three millions, or at the very utmost three millions and +a half. At certain times of the year, such as the great legal terms of +Whitsunday and Martinmas, when money is universally paid over and +received, there is, of course, a corresponding increase of issue for +the moment which demands an extra supply of notes. It is never +considered safe for a bank to have a smaller amount of notes in stock +than the average amount which is out in circulation; so that the whole +amount of bank-notes, both in circulation and in hand, may be +calculated at seven millions. The fluctuation at the above terms is so +remarkable, that we are tempted to give an account of the number of +notes delivered and received by the bank of Scotland in exchange with +other banks during the months of May and November 1840:-- + + Notes Notes + Delivered. Received. + 1840, + May 1, £ 51,000 £ 43,000 + ... 5, 52,000 32,000 + ... 8, 44,000 45,000 + ... 12, 43,000 48,000 + ... 15, 54,000 64,000 + ... 19, *132,000 *172,000 + ... 22, 98,000 69,000 + ... 26, 38,000 33,000 + + Nov. 3, 38,000 32,000 + ... 6, 37,000 33,000 + ... 10, 51,000 61,000 + ... 13, *99,000 *138,000 + ... 17, 67,000 80,000 + ... 20, 66,000 49,000 + ... 24, 52,000 33,000 + ... 27, 66,000 42,000 + + *Term Settlements. + + +It will be seen from the above table how rapidly the system of bank +exchange absorbs the over-issue, and how instantaneously the paper +drawn from one bank finds its way into the hands of another. + +If further proof were required of the absurdity of the notion, that a +paper circulation has a necessary tendency to over-issue, the +following fact is conclusive. The banking capital in Scotland has +_more than doubled_ between the years 1825 and 1840--a triumphant +proof of their increased stability; whilst the circulation has been +nearly stationary, but, if any thing, _rather diminished than +otherwise_. We quote from a report to the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. + + "The first return of the circulation was made in Scotland in + 1825. Every one knows the extraordinary advance which Scotland + has made between that period and 1840; for instance, in the + former of these years, she manufactured 55,000 bales of cotton, + in the latter, 120,000 bales. In 1826, the produce of the iron + furnaces was 33,500 tons; in 1840, about 250,000 tons. In 1826, + the banking capital of Scotland was £4,900,000; in 1840, it was + about £10,000,000; yet with all this progress in industry and + wealth, the circulation of notes, which in 1825 varied from + £3,400,000 to £4,700,000, was in 1839 from £2,960,000 to + £3,670,000, and in the first three months of 1840, £2,940,000." + +We are induced to dwell the more strongly upon these facts, because we +have strong suspicions that our opponents will endeavour to get at our +monetary system by raising the senseless cry of over-issue--senseless +at any time as a political maxim, it being the grossest fallacy to +maintain that an increased issue is the cause of national distress, +unless, indeed, it were possible to suppose that bankers were madmen +enough to dispense their paper without receiving a proper +equivalent--not only senseless, but positively nefarious, when the +clear broad fact stares them in the face, that Scotland has in fifteen +years thrown double the amount of capital into its banking +establishments, increased its productions in a threefold, and in some +cases a sevenfold ratio, augmented its population by nearly half a +million, (one-fifth part of the whole,) and yet kept its circulation +so low as to exhibit an actual decrease. + +If we were called upon to state the cause of this certainly singular +fact, we should, without any hesitation, attribute it to the great +increase of the bank branches. The establishment of a branch in a +remote locality, has invariably, from the thrifty habits of the +Scottish people, absorbed all the paper which otherwise would have +been hoarded for a time, and left in the hands of the holders without +any interest. It would thus seem, from practice, that the doctrines of +the political economists upon this head are absolutely fallacious; +that the increase of banks, supposing these banks to issue paper and +to give interest on deposits, has a direct tendency to check +over-circulation, and in fact does partially supersede it. + +With these facts before us, we consider that the measure of last +session, prohibiting any further issue of notes beyond those already +taken out by the banks, is almost a dead letter. We have not the least +fear, that under any circumstances there can be a call for a larger +circulation; at the same time, we demur to the policy which ties our +hands needlessly, and we object to all restriction where no case for +restriction has been shown. We look upon that measure as especially +unfair to the younger banks, whose circulation is not yet established, +and whose progress has thus received a material check, from no fault +of their own, but from want of ministerial notice. With every system +where competition is the acknowledged principle, it is clearly +impolitic to interfere; nor can we avoid the painful conviction, that +this first measure, though comparatively light and generally +unimportant, was put out by way of _feeler_, in order to test the +temper of the Scottish people--to ascertain whether eighteen years of +prosperity might not have made them a little more supple and pliable, +and whether they were likely to oppose to innovation the same amount +of obstinate resistance as before. It is dangerous to permit the +smallest rent to be made in a wall, for, with dexterous management, +that rent may be so widened, as to bring down the whole +superstructure. + +In the absence of any distinct charge against the Scottish banks, +which were so honourably acquitted in 1826, we shall confine our +further observations to the effects which must necessarily follow upon +a change in the established currency. In doing so, we shall conjure up +no phantoms of imaginary distress, but merely state the consequences +as they have already been explained to Parliament by men who are far +better able to judge than ourselves, and even--with deference be it +said--than our legislators, of the substitution in Scotland of a +metallic for a paper currency. That measure is to be considered, 1st, +as it will affect the banks; 2dly, as it will affect the public. + +The general effect of the change would be to derange the whole of the +present system. The first result would probably be the abolition and +withdrawal of all the branch banks throughout the kingdom. These +offices are at present fed with notes which are payable at the office +of the parent bank, whither, accordingly, they invariably return. +These are supplied to them at no risk or expense, whereas the +transmission of gold would not only be dangerous, but so expensive as +entirely to swallow up the profits. Add to this, that the banks would +no longer be able to allow interest on deposit accounts; at all events +such interest would be merely fractional, and too insignificant to +induce the continuance of the saving habit which now so fortunately +prevails. In short, all the branch business would stagnate and die. +The consequence of the removal of the branch banks would be the ruin +of the Highlands. + +Mr Kennedy's account of the profits of banking will explain the +sweeping nature of the change. "A banker's profits are derived from +two sources--the brokerage upon the deposit money, and the returns +that he gets from his circulation. We have tried to estimate the +amount of deposits in Scotch banks, and we calculate it at about +thirty millions; that, at the brokerage of one and a half per cent, +yields £450,000 annually. The currency we will take at three millions, +and that, at 5 per cent, is £150,000: making a gross sum of £600,000, +_which is the whole profit derived from banking in Scotland_. Out of +that are to be deducted the whole of the charges. From these figures +it will be perceived that the gross profit of the currency is a fourth +part of the gross profit of banking; but the expense that falls upon +the currency is not so large as the expense that falls upon the other +portions of the banking business; so that I should be inclined to say +that, upon the average, the profit derived from the circulation bore +the proportion of a third to the aggregate profit of banking." + +Assuming Mr Kennedy's calculation to be correct, the profit of +£600,000, derived by the banks, would thus be reduced to £400,000 by +the change of currency. + +But the diminution would not rest there. The brokerage upon the +deposits--that is, the difference between the rates of interest given +and charged by the banks--on the present calculated amount of +deposits, is £450,000. from which the charges are deducted. Now we +have already seen that the banks find it necessary, in order to +encourage deposits, to give a liberal rate of interest; and we have +also seen that, whenever interest falls to two per cent, the deposits +are gradually withdrawn, and a period of speculation begins. Let us +hear Mr John Thomson, of the Royal Bank, on the effect of a gold +currency on deposit accounts:--"I think, on the operating deposits, we +could scarcely allow any interest, and on the more steady deposits, +that the rate of interest would require to be very considerably +reduced." + +It follows, therefore, according to all experience, that, if no +interest were allowed, the deposits would be generally withdrawn for +investment elsewhere; and thus another serious reduction would be made +from the already attenuated amount of the Scottish bankers' profits. +But besides the loss of profit on the small notes, there would be a +further loss sustained by the necessity of keeping up a large stock of +gold in the coffers of the bank. Hear Mr Thomson again upon this +subject:-- + + "It would occasion greater loss than the mere profit on the small + notes, inasmuch as at present we have to keep on hand a large + stock of small notes, to fill up in the circle those that are + taken from it by tear and wear, and to meet occasional demands. + The present mode of keeping up this stock, which consists of our + own notes, is done at no expense; if we had to keep a + corresponding stock of gold to keep up the circle in the same + proportion, we would, perhaps, if there is £1000 dispersed in + small notes, require to keep up a protecting fund of £500 to meet + that, or something in that proportion. So that, upon the whole, + if there was £1,800,000, which was the sum assumed of notes in + circulation, withdrawn, we would require to fill up the place, + £1,800,000, in gold, and in order to fill our coffers with a + protecting stock, perhaps from _seven to nine hundred thousand_, + to keep up the stock; and, in addition to that, there is the + expense of transmission from one part of the country to another, + and the bringing it from London." + + +The small note circulation is here estimated at £1,800,000 but there +is no doubt that it is now considerably larger. Taking it, however, at +Mr Thomson's calculation, what a fearful amount of unoccupied and +inoperative capital is here! This, be it observed also, is only the +first reserve, which at present is represented by the small notes of +the bank. According to the later evidence of Mr Blair, the Scottish +banks are in the habit of holding, _besides this_, a further reserve +of gold and Bank of England notes, equal to _a fourth of their +circulation_, without taking into account exchequer bills, or other +convertible securities which bear interest. + +Thus it follows, as a matter of course, that if the small notes were +abolished, and a gold currency established, there would not be room in +the country for one-fourth of the present number of banks. If the +banks are removed, and more especially the branches, which must +inevitably fall, we should like to know from any theoretical +economist, even from Sir Robert Peel, how the country is to be +supplied with money? + +So much for the effect which the introduction of a metallic currency +would have upon the banking establishments. Let us now see what would +be the consequence of the change upon the interests of the public, who +are the dealers. + +Now, although we hold, that upon every principle of public expediency +and justice, the legislature are bound to regard with particular +tenderness the interests of a body of men, who, like the Scottish +bankers, have not only established, but administered for such a long +time, the monetary system of the country with stability, temperance, +indulgence, and success, equally removed from weak facility and from +grasping avidity of gain; we must, nevertheless, allow that the +interests of the public are paramount to theirs, and that if it can be +shown that the public will be gainers, although the bankers should be +losers by the change, the sooner the metallic currency is established +amongst us the better. Here is the true test of the clause in the +Treaty of Union, providing that no alteration shall be made on laws +which concern private right excepting for the evident utility of the +subjects _within_ Scotland. There shall be no interference with +private rights if that interference is not to benefit the public; if +it does so, private right must of course give way, according to a rule +universally adopted by every civilized nation. In speaking of the +public, we, of course, restrict ourselves to Scotland; for although +the Treaty of Union is not, strictly speaking, a federal one, and in +the larger points of policy and general government is very clearly one +of incorporation, it has yet this important ingredient of federality +in its conception, that the laws of each country and their +administration are left separate and entire, as also their customs and +usages, so long as the same do not interfere with one another. It is a +sore point with the supporters of a metallic currency, and a sad +discouragement to their theories, that they have never been able in +any way to shake the confidence of the Scottish public in the +stability of their national bankers. It was no use drawing invidious +comparisons between a weighty glittering guinea, fresh started from +the mint of Mammon, and the homely unpretending well-thumbed issue of +the North; it was no use hinting that a system which professed to +dispense with bullion must of necessity be a mere illusion, which +would go down with the first blast of misfortune, as easily as its +fragile notes could be dispersed before a breeze of wind. The shrewd +Scotsman knew, what apparently the economist had forgotten, that the +piece of gold exhibited by the latter was in itself but a +representative, and not the reality of property; that the gold to be +acquired _must be bought_; that all representation of wealth within a +country must be conventional in order to have any value; and further, +that however fragile the despised paper might appear, that it was by +convention and by law the representative of things more weighty and +more solid than metal--of the manufactures of the country, of its +agricultural produce, and, finally, OF THE LAND ITSELF; all which were +mortgaged for its redemption. It was in vain to talk to him of the +rates of foreign exchange in the mystic jargon of the Bourse. He knew +well, that when the Scottish mint was abolished, and the bullion trade +transferred to London, that branch of traffic was placed utterly +beyond his reach. He knew further, that the circulation of Scotland +did not ebb or flow in accordance with the fluctuation of foreign +exchanges, but from causes which were always within the reach of his +own ken and observance. All scrutiny beyond that he left to the bank, +in the solvency of which he placed the most implicit confidence; and +accordingly he dealt with it as freely and as confidently as his +father and grandfather had done before him, and laughed the theories +of the political economists to scorn. Such is no overcharged statement +of the sentiments which the Scottish customer entertains;--is he +right, or is he wrong? and how would the change affect him? + +In the first place, he would receive no interest upon his deposit +account. This point we have already touched upon, when proving that +the banks would sustain great loss by the inevitable withdrawal of +their deposits; but of course the profit to the bank is one thing, and +the profit to the customer is another. An operating deposit account on +which a fixed and universal rate of interest is paid, is a thing +unknown in England. In that country, according to Mr John Gladstone, a +Liverpool merchant, and a declared enemy to the Scottish currency, the +bankers only give interest on deposits by special bargain, according +to the length of time that these deposits shall be entrusted to their +hands. This is clearly neither more nor less than permanent loan to +the bank, and, like every other private contract, is arbitrary. But an +operating deposit is a totally different matter, by which the +circulation of the bank paper is promoted, and which acquires actual +value from the frequency of its fluctuations. It is a system so easy +in its working, that no householder in Scotland is without it; and for +every shilling that he deposits in the bank, he receives regular +interest, calculated from day to day, without any deduction or +commission, at as high a rate as if he had left, for a stipulated +period, a million of money unrecallable by him, to be employed in its +trade by the bank. This is surely a great accommodation and +encouragement to the trader. But see how the introduction of the +metallic currency would affect us. Operating deposits there would be +none; for, if the banker were not actually compelled to charge a +certain per centage of commission, he would at least be able to pay no +interest. Or let it be granted that, by great economy, (though we +cannot well see how,) he could still afford to pay a diminished rate, +the proportion would be too small to tempt the dealer to the constant +system of deposit which now exists, and hoarding would be the +inevitable result. Or suppose that the system of deposit should still +continue in the large towns, what is to become of the country when the +branch banks shall have been removed? A little topography might here +be valuable, to correct the notions of the theorists, who would +legislate precisely for the thinly inhabited districts of Kintail and +Edderachylis, as they would for the town-covered surface of +Lancashire. + +But there would be more important losses to the public than the mere +cessation of interest upon operating deposit accounts. All the +witnesses who have been examined, agree that cash-credits must be +immediately withdrawn. Of all the facilities that a mercantile +country, or rather the foremost mercantile system of a country, can +afford to industry, that of cash-credit is certainly the most +unexceptionable. Take the case of a young man just about to start in +business, whose connexion, habits, and education, are such as to give +every possible augury for his future success. The _res angustæ domi_ +are probably hard upon him. He has no patrimony; his friends, though +in fair credit, are not capitalists; and he has not of himself the +opportunity of launching into trade, for the want of that one talent, +which, if judiciously used, would in time multiply itself into ten. He +cannot ask his friends to assist him in the discount of bills. Large +as the affection of a Scotchman may be for some descriptions of paper, +he has a kind of inherent repugnance to that sort of floating private +currency, which in three or in six months is sure to return, coupled +with an awkward protest, to his door. Probably in his own early +experience, or in the days of his father, he has received a salutary +lesson, better than a thousand treatises upon the law and practice of +acceptance; and accordingly, while he will lend you his purse with +readiness, he will not, for almost any consideration, subscribe his +name to a bill. To persons thus situated, the accommodation granted by +the bank cash-credits, is the greatest commercial boon that ever was +devised; but as the committee of the House of Lords, in the report +already quoted, has borne ample testimony in their favour, it is +unnecessary for us to dwell with further minuteness on their utility. + +We must again have recourse to Mr Thomson for an exposition of the +reasons which, if a metallic currency were forced upon us, would lead +to the discontinuance of the cash-credits. "I do not think the +cash-credits would be maintained at all; the banker's profits might be +made up by the charge of a commission on each credit; but it is not +probable that the holders of accounts would pay at such a rate, if +they could borrow money upon bills at a cheaper rate, which they would +do. They would discount bills at five per cent. A banker would not be +disposed to come under the obligation to give a running credit with a +cash account, and thereby bind himself to keep in his hands a stock of +gold to supply the daily operations of a cash-account, while he might +find it perfectly convenient to discount a bill and give the money +away at once." In short, it has been stated, and distinctly proved, +that the difference to the trader between an operating cash-credit and +accommodation by discount, _is the difference between paying five and +a quarter by discount, and two and a half per cent by cash-credit_. +Are our merchants and traders prepared or disposed to submit to such a +sacrifice; more especially when it is considered, that a bank will +often refuse to discount a bill for £100, when it would make no +difficulty, from its opportunities of control, in granting a +cash-credit for five times that amount? + +If individuals are thus to be crippled, the general commercial +business of the country must retrograde as a matter of course. Still +Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and the larger towns might, although they +would suffer immensely, get over the crisis by adopting some system of +internal arrangement, without experiencing a general crash. The great +question, however, yet remains behind--What is to become of the +country districts? To us who are familiar with almost the whole face +of Scotland, it seems a gross absurdity to suppose, that _under any +circumstances_, if the branch banks were withdrawn, a gold metallic +currency could be made operative in the remoter districts. Mr +Dunsmure, then secretary to the commissioners for the public +fisheries, gave very singular evidence upon that point in 1826; so +singular, indeed, that were it our purpose in this paper rather to +amuse than to warn and protest, we should have dwelt more minutely +upon his statements. Speaking of the silver currency, his evidence is +as follows:--"The quantity of silver on the west coast is so very +limited, that there is a great difficulty in getting a proper supply +for the necessary purposes. _Some of the people have been obliged to +issue promissory notes for 5s., long after they had been prohibited by +act of Parliament._ I happened to be at Barra, and the officer there +informed me that, having occasion to purchase some oats for a pony he +found it necessary to keep, the farmer whom he paid for them declared +he had not seen the face of a shilling for two years before." One of +the individuals who was thus forced by necessity to contravene the +statute, was a fish-curer and merchant, who kept a large store in +Tobermory, and the form of his notes is at once curious and +explanatory. "For want of change I owe you 5s., and for four of these +tickets, I will give a one-pound note." The establishment of branch +banks may somewhat have mended matters on the west coast, though we +doubt if the improvement has been commensurate with that of other +districts in Scotland, owing to the severe, and in our view +mischievous, commercial enactment which supplanted the native +manufacture of kelp, by the substitution of foreign barilla; but if +the branches are removed, no discovery short of the philosopher's +stone will establish the metallic currency there. Do our legislators +seriously mean to compel the population of about one-fourth of +Scotland, comprehending the whole western and northern divisions, to +accept the fish-curer's notes, instead of those of a joint-stock bank, +with its paid-up capital for security? + +We have not space here to proceed with a minute analysis of the +evidence which was formerly given. Suffice it to say, that it is of a +much more serious nature than even those who have general notions upon +the question can possibly anticipate. In the event of any change which +shall derange the present system of currency, the landowners and +agriculturists of every class must prepare themselves for crippled +markets, curtailment of the sales of their produce, and consequently +for a great reduction in the rent and value of land. This will apply +equally to the fisheries, the distilleries, and the linen trade--to +every branch, in short, of internal manufacture, which is now +prosperous, and which has become so from the superior ease, facility, +and advantage of our present currency. Compared with these, the +interests of the bankers are actually trifling. Such of them as may +remain under the altered system, will no doubt, in one way or another, +secure their profit; but for that profit the country at large will +have to pay a heavy price. + +The great question now for Scotland to determine is, whether these +interests are to be sacrificed to the theories of any ministry +whatever, without resistance of the most determined nature. That +resistance, in our deliberate opinion, she is not only entitled, but +bound, to make. We have purposely abstained from dwelling--nay, we +have scarcely even touched--upon any points of extraneous irritation +which may exist between the sister countries. Our wish is, that this +question should be tried upon its own merits, independently of any +such considerations; and we are glad to see that this line of conduct +has been adopted by every one of the numerous bodies who have hitherto +met to protest against the change. Believing thoroughly and sincerely +that we have a clear case, both on the score of justice and +expediency, we do not wish to revive any warmer feeling, though we are +convinced that a word could arouse it. Scotland in this matter feels, +and will speak, like a single man. We are sure of the unanimous +support and energy of the members for the ancient kingdom; and +although that phalanx forms but an integral part of the legislature of +Great Britain, we will not allow ourselves to believe that any +minister will proceed with so obnoxious a measure in the face of their +united opposition. One word only of advice we shall venture to offer +them, before they leave their native country to do battle in her +behalf. COMPROMISE NOTHING! Do not, as you value the interests of +Scotland, permit even the smallest interference with a system which +has already obtained the unqualified approval of the state. If you do, +rely upon it that one change will be merely the forerunner of +another--that the statute-book, in each succeeding session of +Parliament, will exhibit new changes and new modifications, until, +gradually and by piecemeal, we shall lose all the benefits of those +national institutions which you are now ready and pledged to maintain +whole and unimpaired. Any other line of tactics must, in the long run, +prove not only injurious, but fatal, to the cause you support. + +And now we have said our say. It is not for us--more especially as the +batteries of our opponents are still masked--to remonstrate with an +administration which assuredly, on many points, has a just claim to +the support and confidence of the nation at large. Still we may +insinuate the question--Is it very politic, in the present state of +matters, to rouse up a feeling in peaceful Scotland which may, with +little fanning of the fuel, terminate in an agitation quite as +extensive as that which at present unhappily prevails in Ireland? It +is not only wrong, but--what Talleyrand held to be a greater sin in a +statesman--most injudicious, to overlook in such a matter the tendency +of the national character. Scotchmen have long memories; and although +the days of hereditary feuds have gone by, they are not the less apt +to remember and to cherish injuries. Would it not, therefore, be +prudent to adhere to the homely but excellent maxim, "Let well be +alone;" and to abstain from forcing the country into a position which +it is really unwilling to assume, merely for the sake of illustrating +another proverb with which we close our remarks upon the Scottish +Banking System--"IT IS POSSIBLE TO BUY GOLD TOO DEAR." + + + + +THE MILKMAN OF WALWORTH. + +CHAPTER I. + + +I was just fifteen, when the battle of Waterloo, (it will soon be +thirty years ago,) by giving peace to Europe, enabled my father to +gratify one of the principal desires of his heart, by sending me to +finish my education at a German university. Our family was a +Lincolnshire one, he its representative, and the inheritor of an +encumbered estate, not much relieved by a portionless wife and several +children, of whom I was the third and youngest son. My eldest brother +was idle, lived at home, and played on the fiddle. Tom, my second +brother, two years older than myself, had just entered the army time +enough to be returned in the Gazette as severely wounded in the action +of the 18th. I was destined for the church--as much, I believe, from +my mother's proneness to Prelacy, (in a very different sense from its +usual acceptation,) she being fond of expatiating on her descent from +one of the Seven of immortal memory, as from my being a formal, +bookish boy, of a reserved and rather contemplative disposition. The +profession did not appear uncongenial to my taste; and although, from +my classical education having been deplorably neglected, there was no +small share of grinding and fag before me, I entered readily into my +father's views; the more especially, as in them was comprehended the +preliminary visit to Germany, the land of my early visions, where I +hoped to be on more intimate terms than ever with my old +acquaintances, the Spirit of the Brocken, the Wild Hunter, &c. &c.; +or, mayhap, to carry to practical results in the heart of the Black +Forest the lessons of natural freedom I had so largely acquired from +Schiller. My father's object in sending me to Heidelberg was not, I +believe, quite of so elevated a character. + +After a month's preliminary bustle, I set out. The Lincoln +Light-o'-Heart coach took me up a couple of miles from my +father's--and with me a chest of stores that would have sufficed for +the north-west passage. Furnished with a letter to a friend in London, +who was prepared to forward me by the first vessel offering for +Holland, I accomplished the journey to town satisfactorily. On +arriving in London, I found Mr Sainsbury, the friend already +mentioned, awaiting me at the coach-office in Lad Lane. He was my +father's banker--a little red-faced hospitable man, fond of Welsh +rabbits, Hessian boots, and of wearing his watch-chain down to his +knees. He welcomed me very cordially, said he had not had time as yet +to make the necessary enquiries about my passage; but as he was sure +no vessel would sail for Helvoetsluys for at least a week, he insisted +upon my putting up at his residence while I remained. Oppressed as I +was with fretting and fatigue, it was a matter of indifference to me +at the moment where I stayed while in town. I therefore, with a proper +expression of thanks, accepted the invitation. A job coach conveyed us +in a short time to Mr Sainsbury's abode. He lived at Walworth, at that +period an extensive suburb on the Surrey side of London, but long +since incorporated into the great mass of the metropolis. The street +in which the mansion stood was large, the houses were spacious and +handsome, their tenants, as I learned afterwards, opulent and +respectable. It was late in August; my friend's family were all at +Margate; and I found none to do the honours of the house but himself +and his eldest son, a young man of prepossessing appearance and +intelligent manners. On finding I was not disposed to go out the +following morning, he recommended me to the library and some +portfolios of choice engravings, and, promising to return early in the +afternoon, departed for his haunts of business in the city. + +I found the library tolerably comprehensive for its size; and having +glanced along its ranges, I tumbled over Hogarth and Gillray on the +print-stands for some time. I settled upon my usual efficacious remedy +in desultory hours--old Burton's _Anatomie_, and dropped with it into +the window-seat. I have seldom found him to fail me on such +emergencies--his quaintness, his humour, the lavish prodigality of +learning and extraordinary thinking that loads his pages, never to me +lose their freshness. Yet on the present occasion I found them fix me +with more difficulty than I ever before, or I believe since, +experienced. My mind wandered constantly from the page back to home, +forward to Heidelberg, and, after a while, I laid down the volume to +gaze vacantly through the window. It overlooked the street. Yet here +the day was so piteously wet there was nothing to arrest my +half-drowsy eye or half-dreamy attention. No young ladies in the +opposite windows. They were all at Hastings or Brighton. No neat +serving-wenches chattering on the area steps--not even a barrel-organ +to blow out one's patience--no vagabond on stilts, with a pipe and +dancing-dogs--no Punch--no nothing!--Once, a ruffian with four +_babbies_, two in his arms and two more at his ankles, strolled down +the street, chanting--"In Jury is God known"--his hat off, and the +rain streaming down at his nose as from a gable-spout. But he, too, +vanished. Occasionally a dripping umbrella hurried past, showing +nothing but thin legs in tights and top-boots, or thick ones in +worsteds and pattens. At one o'clock the milkman passed along the +street silently, and with a soberer knock than usually announces the +presence of that functionary. I counted him at number 45, 46, 47, +48--number 49 was beyond the range of the window; but I believe I +accompanied him with my ear up to number 144--where the +multiplication-table ends. He was assisted in his vocation by his +wife, who attended him--very devotedly too, for I remarked she seemed +regardless of the weather, and carried no umbrella. Wearied out +completely by the monotony and dulness of the street, I next sank into +a doze, which destroyed one hour further towards dinner, and the +remnant of time I managed to dispose of by writing a large portion of +a long letter to my mother. My dinner was a tête-à-tête one with John +Sainsbury--his father having been called away to Margate on affairs +connected with the residents there. Finding myself labouring under a +cold, I avoided wine, and while my companion discussed his _Château +Margaut_, I kept up a languid conversation with him, enlivened +occasionally by the snap of a walnut-shell or indifferent pun, with +now and then an enquiry or remark respecting the street passengers. +Amongst those, the milk-vender and lady at the moment happened to pass +along--"By the by," I said, "there is one peculiarity about that Pair +I cannot help remarking. I observe, that wherever, or at whatever +pace, the man moves, his female companion always keeps at the one +exact distance behind him--about three yards or so--See, just as they +stand now at No. 46! I never perceive her approach nearer. She seems a +most assiduous wife." + +"_Wife!_" rejoined Sainsbury, with a motion of the lip that might have +been a smile, but for the gravity of his other features--"she is not +his wife." + +"Wife, or friend then," I said, correcting myself. + +"She is not his friend either." + +"Well, his sister or relative." + +"Neither sister nor relative--in fact," he said, "I don't think she is +any thing to him." + +"But the deuce is in it, man, you don't mean to say that she is not a +most devoted friend who thus so closely, and at all hours, it appears +to me, attends him and assists"---- + +"She does not assist him," again interrupted Sainsbury. + +"I mean, shares his toil." + +"She has no participation whatever in his business. Come," he said, +rising and advancing to the window, "I see you are puzzled; nor are +you the first who has been at fault respecting that extraordinary +Pair. Just observe them for a moment," and he threw up the sash to +afford me the means of glancing after them along the street; "you +perceive that there is not the slightest communication between them. +He has just stopped at that house, No. 50, and there stands the woman, +rigid as a statue, only three yards behind him; now he has done and +moves rapidly on--how exactly she follows! He stops again, and see, +she is motionless; now, he proceeds slowly across the street to that +house with the lofty portico, but, slowly or quickly, there she is +close at hand." + +"How very odd!" I said; "they never speak." + +"Speak! Watch him narrowly, and you will see he never for a single +instant _looks behind him_. Here they come this way, on his return +homewards. You hear the shout from those idle throngs that have just +caught a glimpse of yonder balloon; you see _that_ man never turns, +never pauses, never looks up; he knows who is behind him, and hurries +on. There, he has turned the corner, and, certain as his death, _she_ +has vanished in his footsteps. Singular--most singular!" he muttered +to himself half musingly. + +"But surely their home reconciles them?" + +"They don't live together! On the contrary, I believe, they dwell far +asunder; and we of this neighbourhood, who have seen them for years, +have just as little cause to conclude that they are known personally +to each other as you have, who have only beheld them once or twice." + +"But this strange companionship, this existence of attraction and +repulsion, which I have witnessed those two days, it surely does not +always continue. You talk of years"---- + +"Yes, several years; and during that time the man has not been once +missed from his business, nor ever found pursuing it unwatched or +unattended by that woman, more constant, in truth, than his very +shadow." + +"Why, here is mystery and romance with a vengeance! ready made, too, +at one's threshold, without having to seek it out in hall or bower. +'Tis a trifle _low_ to be sure; had it been a shepherd and shepherdess +it _might_ do, but a milkman and a--may I say?--milkmaid." + +"I assure you there is no quiz whatever in it. It is just as you see +it and say it--a downright mystery, and one that, perhaps, will never +be cleared up." + +"I think the clue, my dear fellow, a very simple one--the woman is +mad." + +"Not a bit of it; she is perfectly rational; of intelligence, I am +told, far beyond her apparent station in life--a little reserved, to +be sure." + +"Then he is a lunatic, and she his keeper--eh?" + +"For that I refer you to the cook, and all of that respectable calling +who transact business with the fellow. If he must be characterized by +any one particular quality, I would say that there is far more of the +villain than the fool about him." + +"Pray, be kind enough," I said, "to tell me all you know respecting +this curious Pair. I am really interested in them." + +"In what I have said already," replied Sainsbury, resuming his seat, +"I have told you all, or very nearly all, that I, or I believe any +body else, knows of them. My little information is chiefly acquired +from hearing the servants gossip about them; but I very well remember +that, on the first appearance of the Pair in this vicinity, they +excited a good deal of speculation and enquiry amongst every class in +Walworth. It is now more than eight years ago since this man's +predecessor--the purveyor, as he grandiloquently was wont to call +himself, of milk to this large district--died. His dairies, which I +fancy were lucrative things enough, were immediately sold, and taken +by a person who, we were informed, would not only continue to supply +Walworth with their produce, but, from motives of caprice or economy, +would deliver it himself. Accordingly, the man you have seen pass this +evening appeared; and all was uniform and punctual as before. In a few +days, however, he came, attended by that mysterious female, dogged +precisely as you have seen him an hour ago, and at once the heart of +every cook and kitchen-maid in the parish was on fire with curiosity +and suspicion. From the kitchen the contagion spread to the +drawing-room, and commissions of enquiry, in the shape of tea-parties, +were held in every house relative to the strange milk-vender and his +stranger shadow. To those who asked him any questions on the matter, +and very few ventured to do so--for his manner, though civil, had +reserve and sullenness, and there was in his deportment a decent +propriety, that repulsed, or rather prevented, enquiry--he usually +answered that he 'knew nothing of the woman who followed him;' 'that +he dared to say it was from some whim;' 'that she was welcome to do so +if she pleased;' 'she had the same right of highway as any other +person,' and suchlike evasive replies." + +"But his companion--I should rather say, his attendant--from her sex, +she would, at least, be something more communicative?" + +"Not at all. She was very seldom spoken to upon any subject. She kept +aloof from all who seemed disposed to be inquisitive; and if she ever +came within range, as the sailors say, of a question, she never gave +an intelligible, or at least satisfactory, answer. Besides, as she was +never seen save in the track of him whom she lives but to pursue, her +own sex have had no opportunity of conciliating her into an +acquaintanceship, and their patience and curiosity have long consumed +themselves away." + +"Then, after all, it may be only the whim of an eccentric woman that +leads her thus to persecute an inoffensive, industrious person?" + +"I cannot think so. I am persuaded there is some peculiar occurrence +in their past lives that has thus mysteriously associated them--some +conscious secret that, by its influence, draws them forcibly into +contact. What the nature of this strange sympathy may be, I cannot +form the least idea." + +"Has no one attempted to unriddle it before now?" + +"Not with any prospect of success. Of course there have been a +thousand conjectures. Among the lower orders of people, the prevalent +opinion is, that the woman once possessed a large sum of money, out of +which this Maunsell (for such is his name) contrived to cheat her; and +that she has ever since _haunted_ him, as they very appropriately term +it. But this offence I am inclined to think infinitely too light a one +to draw upon him the grievous punishment which has been so many years +inflicted on him. One of our neighbours, Rochfort, a very +matter-of-fact sort of man, not at all given to the marvellous, +asserts, that he witnessed by accident what he is sure was the first +meeting of the Pair after the man's arrival in this quarter. It was +late in the evening; Rochfort was standing, he says, in the shadow of +a gateway that breaks up the long blank wall of a large timber-yard +that belongs to him, at some distance from this, and which skirts a +lonely and unfrequented road leading to Kennington. He is positive +there was not a human being but himself within sight or hearing, when +he perceived the milkman coming along by the wall, his footsteps +echoing loudly up the dusty path. Not choosing to encounter a stranger +at the moment in such a spot, my friend withdrew further into the +shadow of the gateway. The man, in passing it, happening to drop some +pieces of money from his hand, stooped to recover then; and while so +engaged, a female, who, Rochfort asserts, must have risen out of the +earth on the instant, suddenly appeared standing at the searcher's +side, perfectly motionless, and muffled in those dark funereal +garments that have since been so familiar to our eyes. On lifting his +head the man perceived her, started, but, my informant says, it was +more the subdued start of one accustomed to face horror, than the +overwhelming dismay of a person terrified for the first time: he +folded his arms, as if endeavouring to collect himself, but his whole +frame shook convulsively. He was about to speak, when a noise of +workmen approaching up the archway stopped him, and, turning away, he +hastened on--that dark spectral woman gliding noiselessly after him." + +"Perhaps," I said, with a forced laugh--for, despite of myself, the +story was exciting my imagination as well as curiosity--"she really +_is_ a visitant from another world." + +"There are not wanting those who say so," replied my friend; "but +however ghost-like her mission and appearance may be, I believe there +is no doubt that as yet she is a denizen in the flesh." + +"And this Pair--where and how do they reside?" + +"The man lives at his dairies, a considerable way from here, and +although he has, I am told, an extensive establishment, never goes out +but on his daily business. He is of a serious, methodistical +disposition, and, I understand, affects devotional reading a good +deal; yet he is never seen at a place of worship. He is unmarried, nor +does any relative or companion reside with him. The woman--it is +hardly known where she lives; in some miserable lonely room far away, +buried in the heart of one of those dismal courts that lurk in the +outlets of London, her way of life and means of support equally +unknown, the one object of her existence palpable to all--to come +forth at the grey of daybreak in winter and summer, in storm or shine, +and seat herself at a little distance from that man's abode, until he +makes his appearance: when he was passed her, to rise, to follow, to +track him through the livelong day with that unflagging constancy +poets are fond of ascribing to unquenchable love, which the early +Greeks attributed to their impersonations of immortal Hate." + +"Surely the wild and doubtful surmises that those circumstances have +raised in people's minds must have had an injurious effect on +Maunsell's business?" + +"Not at all; on the contrary, I think it has assisted it. Every +neighbourhood loves to have a mystery of its own, and we, you must +confess, have got a superlative one. The man has been found +scrupulously honest, regular, and exact in his dealings; and were we +to lose him now, and get a mere common-place person to succeed him, +half the housewives of Walworth would perish of inanition. And now," +said Sainsbury, rising, "That I have imparted to you all I know +respecting the milkman and his familiar, let us to the drawing-room +and seek some coffee." + + +CHAPTER II. + +The night that followed this conversation was to me a most +uncomfortable one. The episode in the day's occurrences had made so +deep an impression on me, that it excluded all other thoughts from my +mind, which it occupied so intently, that, upon retiring to my +chamber, several hours elapsed before I sought repose. I did so at +last, but in vain. Between the fever attendant upon my indisposition, +and the irksomeness of frame caused by mental inquietude, sleep was +completely banished from my eyelids, or visited them only in short and +broken slumbers, peopled by the distorted images of my waking +thoughts. The mysterious Pair were again before me. I saw them gliding +through the long street, the man hastening on in that attitude, so +strikingly described by Coleridge, like one + + "Who walks in fear and dread; + And having once turn'd round, walks on, + And turns no more his head, + Because he knows a frightful fiend + Doth close behind him tread"-- + +the woman keeping on his track with the constancy of Doom. Or I was +standing a witness to their first meeting in the grim Dark on that +lonely road, their eyes of hate and fear staring wildly into each +other. Sometimes I found myself spellbound between the two, the centre +upon which their fearful sympathies revolved, the object upon which +their long pent-up passions were about to burst. Starting from those +visions, my waking fancies were hardly less tormenting. I was just at +that season of youth, before the calmer and nobler faculties have +acquired maturity and tone; when incidents that vary but little from +the ordinary economy of life, seen through the medium of the +imagination, assume a magnitude of distinctness not properly their +own. On the present occasion, however, my friend's recital was well +calculated to arouse the speculations of a romantic fancy; and mine +was now fully employed in forming a thousand conjectures in +elucidation of the curious circumstances he had repeated to me. What +could be the relation between those strange parties? Was it attachment +in the one and aversion in the other? Or had one, as was commonly +supposed, been the plundered victim--the other the Despoiler? Neither +of these cases could be so. A petty office of police would have +relieved the persecuted--a court of law would have redressed the +robbery. _Monomania_ had been known to instigate persons to a line of +conduct as perseveringly painful as this woman pursued; but then there +could be no motive why the object of her attention should, for years, +resign himself to a system of annoyance that drew upon him so much of +remark and obloquy. Or could the female be the hired instrument of +persecution in the hands of others? The poverty, the utter joylessness +of her solitary life, precluded the supposition. No! crime, I felt +convinced--_crime_ was at the bottom of it all! and crime, too, of no +ordinary quality. Was the man intent upon committing some deadly +offence against society? and was it to prevent its commission that he +was so assiduously watched by his companion? Perhaps he meditated +breaking that instinctive canon which the Most High has so wisely +fixed against "self-slaughter." Or had some hideous deed already been +perpetrated? Was it by one, or both? or was one a soul black with +guilt--the other a spirit of innocence? The more I indulged in those +heated fancies, the wilder they became. Was the woman, after all, a +Being endowed with vitality? The suddenness of her first appearance +before the man watching at the gate--the fearful hour--the lonely +spot--her noiseless tread--her silent demeanour--her sepulchral +dress--almost warranted the contrary opinion. Had she fallen by the +hand of this Maunsell? and was the apparition, which we are told ever +lives by the side of the murderer, thus permitted to haunt him, +embodied before the eyes of men? Such were the troubled thoughts that +disturbed me throughout the night. Long before sunrise I was up, +endeavouring to calm the fever into which I had wrought myself, by +pacing my apartment in the cool of morning. A brilliant sunshine +ushered in the day, and under its enlivening influence my perturbed +spirits gradually subsided to their usual tone. At breakfast, I +confess, I was disposed again to enter on the topic, if an opportunity +occurred; but Sainsbury, occupied in some letters of importance that +had arrived, talked but little, and did not recur to the subject of +the previous evening. This did not assist to allay the interest which +had been so powerfully excited in my bosom. The continuance of my cold +once more served me as a plea for remaining within doors; and, upon +our parting for the day, I did not hesitate to retire to the +dining-parlour, whose windows looked directly on the street, and +there, shutting myself up, I awaited the arrival of the hour at which +the extraordinary pair generally appeared, determined to satisfy +myself by a closer observation than I had hitherto made. + +Exactly as noon sounded, I saw _him_ stop at an opposite door, +and--did I see rightly? Yes--alone. No; I had not approached +sufficiently close to the window; when I did, _she_, too, was there, +at the same slight distance behind, in the same silent, patient, +motionless attitude. He went on, and, steady as his shadow, she +pursued. I now resolved to see them still closer, and for that purpose +proceeded to the hall-door, where I remained carelessly standing until +the man approached it. I could observe that he walked at an even +deliberate pace; and as he carried none of the cumbrous machinery +distinctive of his craft, his step was steady and unimpeded. He was a +low-sized, well-made man, probably somewhat more than forty years of +age. He was neatly dressed; his attire being a suit of some of those +grave colours and primitive patterns which find so much favour in the +eyes of staid Dissenters, and persons of that class. Indeed, I could +see by his whole deportment, that the occupation he pursued was one of +choice, not of necessity. His features were regular, nor was there in +his countenance any thing remarkable, except that it was pale and +subdued, with a look of endurance which peculiar circumstances perhaps +imparted to it. What I chiefly noticed, was an evident consciousness +about the man that some disagreeable object lurked behind him; and +when I caught his eye, which I did once or twice, I could see in its +glance that he quite understood why my attention was directed to him. +He did not utter a word in my hearing, and there was altogether in his +appearance an air of depression and reserve which still further aided +the impression Sainsbury's story had made on my imagination. When he +next paused, his short progress brought his attendant close to me--in +every way a more striking and interesting person. She was a woman tall +in stature, of an erect figure, finely proportioned, as well as the +coarse mourning garments and large dark cloak in which she was muffled +allowed me to judge. She must have been, in youth, very handsome; but +on her thin ashen cheek premature age had already made unusual ravage. +She could not, from the unbroken and graceful outline of her form, be +much more than thirty; but her face was marked with the passionate +traces of nearly double that period. Nothing of life I ever beheld +exhibited the paleness--the monumental paleness of that face. On the +brow, on the cheek, all was the aspect of the grave. Yet +life--intenser life than thrills the soul of Beauty in her bridal +bower, dwelt in the working of those thin compressed lips--lurked +beneath those heavy downcast lids, burned in those dark wild eyes, +whose flashes I more than once arrested ere she passed from before me. +Writing at the interval of time I now do, and disposed as I am to deal +severely with the fantastic imaginations of my youth, I have not in +any way exaggerated the appearance this singular female exhibited. +Should the reader suspect me of such an error, a moment's reflection +will convince him that she who could--from whatever motive it might +be--adopt the strange purpose to which she had devoted her solitary +life, must have been characterized by energies of mind that would of +necessity have filled and informed her frame, and imparted to her an +air that altogether distinguished her from ordinary persons. I +observed that she seemed wholly regardless of what was passing around +her, appearing to be entirely absorbed in one great duty--the business +of her existence--that of attending on the individual whose steps she +so closely followed. He made no movement that, I thought, escaped her. +Insensible, apparently, to every thing else, her glance showed that +never for a moment did she cease to watch him, eager, my fancy +suggested, to catch the slightest indication of his turning round and +encountering her gaze. If so, her vigilance, as long as I beheld the +Pair, was in vain. The man never ventured to look behind him. In half +an hour they had vanished from the street. + +They re-appeared in the evening again as usual, and then, and for +several subsequent days, (for I did not feel well enough to undergo +some twenty or thirty hours' sea-sickness in the packet that offered +the Saturday after my arrival,) I took a morbid and eager pleasure in +awaiting the visits and observing the motions of those inscrutable +beings. Sainsbury and his son were amused, but not surprised, at the +anxiety I evinced to obtain a nearer insight into Maunsell's history. +My curiosity and vigilance were, however, fruitless. The Pair +performed their revolutions with a cold uniformity, a silent +perseverance, that I found sufficiently monotonous; and at length, +after one or two baffled attempts to engage the man in conversation, +and which never proceeded beyond a few common-place words, (about his +companion there was a something indefinable that prevented me from +ever addressing _her_,) I relinquished any further hope of penetrating +the mystery. Towards the close of my stay, and as my indisposition +wore away, the Sainsburys complimented me by giving one or two +dinner-parties, and these, with some morning visits and rambles with +the men I met at the house, served to draw my attention from the +matter; so that by the time I had fairly embarked on board the +_Blitzen_, bound for Helvoetsluys, the circumstances which had +occupied me so intently for the last fortnight were beginning to take +their place among the remembrances of the past. + + +CHAPTER III. + +The passage to the Dutch coast, and my journey onward to Heidelberg, +were performed without interruption, and were unenlivened by any +incident that deserves relating. As it is not my intention to dwell +upon the vicissitudes of my career at the high school and university, +I shall merely say that, attending very little to the conventional and +arbitrary distinctions by which the students of Germany choose to +classify themselves--caring still less for _chores_, _brand-foxes_, +and _Burschenschafft_, and nothing at all for noisy suppers and their +drunken _refrain_-- + + "Toujours fidèle et sans souci + C'est l'ordre du Crambambuli!"-- + +I very earnestly bent myself to second the intentions of my father. +For three years, diligently and indefatigably, I pursued a course of +severe application to long-neglected studies, which enabled me fairly +to redeem the time I had squandered in early youth. Nor is it unworthy +of remark, that, as is often the case with imaginative people, the +temptations which had appeared so inviting when beheld from a +distance, failed in their powers of allurement on a nearer approach. +The Spirit of the Brocken and I made no advances in intimacy, and I +rode through the Black Forest without a desire to enroll myself +amongst its freebooters. + +The fourth year of my stay at Heidelberg was drawing to a close, when, +in pursuance of arrangements entered into with my father, I returned +to England. Upon reaching London, I drove to my kind friends at +Walworth, where I experienced the same ready welcome as before, +accompanied by many congratulations upon my academical success, of +which they had heard from time to time from my family. It was the +middle of winter--the second or third week in December--when London +exhibits all that joyous bustle of plenteousness and good cheer, +amidst which its citizens celebrate the festival of Christmas. As Mrs +Sainsbury and her daughters were now at home, I was easily prevailed +on to prolong my visit for a few days before I departed for +Lincolnshire. The moment I entered the house, the rooms and their +associations recalled to me forcibly the mysterious Pair, whose +proceedings had filled my mind with so much of curiosity and interest +when I was last a sojourner in the abode. During my residence in +Germany I had not forgotten them; and although the austerity of my +pursuits in that country had schooled my fancy to a soberer pace, I +could not forbear from enquiring, in one or two letters which I had +occasion to write to the younger Sainsbury, whether the milkman of +Walworth and his Shadow still pursued their rounds uninterrupted, or +if any thing had transpired that could enlighten our conjectures on +their history. My correspondent always neglected, or forgot, to +satisfy me in this particular; and it was therefore with something, I +am ashamed to say, nearly approaching to anxiety, that on the morning +after my arrival--for the gay variety of the social circle had +monopolized my attention until then--I once more, after so long an +interval, seated myself in the library window, under pretence of +seeking a passage in Herder, which I had quoted for Julia Sainsbury +the preceding evening, and awaited the hour of noon. + +And there, before the clock of the neighbouring church had ceased +striking, with the selfsame step, in the same subdued attire in which +I saw him four years ago, came gliding up the street the dark, sullen +milkman; and there, too, close behind him as ever, followed his +shadowy companion! It is in vain to deny it. I could feel my heart +beating audibly when I beheld them, as if they were unsubstantial +visitants, whose appearance I expected the grave would have +interdicted from my eyes for ever. It was a dim, bitter, wintry day, +and showers of sleet were drifting heavily on the fierce and angry +wind, soaking the man's garments through and through, and sweeping +aside the thin habiliments of the female, as though they would tear +them from her slender form, and leave it a prey to the keen wrath of +the elements. Yet the Pair passed upon their way, seemingly regardless +of weather that had banished all other creatures from the streets. As +they stopped beneath the window where I sat, I scrutinized them +eagerly, to see whether time, or toil, or the terrors of such winters +as that now raging, had wrought the work of ruin I would have expected +in their frames. In that of the woman there was but little alteration. +She was thinner and paler perhaps, and the poorness of her dress +betokened no doubt an increase in her sufferings and privations; but +her glance, when I could catch it, had more of fiery blackness: her +mouth more of compressed determination than when I formerly beheld +her. But in Maunsell there was a striking change: his figure was +stooped, his cheek hollow, his eye sunk; in a word, his aspect now +bore the signs of that mental misery which, on an earlier occasion, I +had looked for in one subjected like him to such long, and steady, and +undying persecution. Mournful beings! I internally exclaimed, as they +proceeded from my sight, whatever sinful sorrow thus serves to link +together your discordant existences, it must indeed be of a damning +nature, if such a career as yours does not go far to expiate it! + +That day, on the re-assembling of the family, I did not fail to allude +to the subject of the milkman, and to express my surprise at his +tenacity to life, as well as at the fixedness of purpose that enabled +him to pursue his occupation through a long series of years, under +such remarkable circumstances. I found, however, that the ladies only +smiled at the interest which my manner exhibited; some of them +assuring me, at the same time, that the neighbourhood was now so +accustomed to the matter, that, although calculated to arrest the +attention of a stranger, to them it had ceased to be either a source +of curiosity or enquiry. I believe they added, that of late the man's +health had begun to fail, and that once or twice, when he happened to +be confined from indisposition, his companion's visits were +interrupted by the occurrence, although she still kept her vigilance +in exercise by watching unremittingly for his re-appearance. + +After a few pleasant days passed in London, I proceeded to +Lincolnshire, and had the happiness of finding my family well when I +arrived at home. My father was quite satisfied with the letters I +conveyed from Professor Von Slammerbogen; my mother delighted to +receive me in any character, whether that of pedant or prodigal. +Nicholas, my elder brother, I found as much attached, as when I left +him, to practising "Dull Care", upon the violin. In Tom, however, +there was a considerable modification, he having left his sinister arm +at Hougomont, in exchange for a three months' campaign in country +quarters and a Waterloo medal. In the following term I entered at +Cambridge, as my father had originally planned; and in due time, upon +obtaining my degree, was admitted into holy orders. My first curacy, +it is singular enough, was obtained through the influence of our +friend the Walworth banker, and was that of St ----'s, in his +neighbourhood, but nearer to town, and the centre of a poor but +densely peopled district. The scene of life I now entered upon was +truly laborious and painful. Resolved to perform its duties diligently +to the best of my ability, I found every moment I could spare from +refreshment and sleep hardly sufficient for the claims which the +Comfortless, whom I had to console, the Sick, whom I had to succour, +the Profligate, to reclaim, the Sceptic, to convince, made upon my +time. Wholesome and profitable to my spirit, I trust, was this +discipline! It seems to me a thing inexplicable, how a man can +advocate the interests, the benefits of religion--can impress upon +others the divine precepts of Christianity, and be himself not a +partaker in the blessings he imparts. Such a one, I hope, I have long +ceased to be; and although I do not profess to have attained that +degree of zealous fervour and devotion, which sees, in the light and +graceful relaxations of life nothing but the darkness and allurements +of sin, I humbly believe I have endeavoured to make my course, as much +as in me was possible, conformable to the doctrines I have taught. + +Upon settling in London, I gladly renewed my acquaintance with the +Sainsburys; yet so arduous were the duties of my profession, that, for +the first two years in which I resided in St ----'s parish, I saw but +little of this amiable family. Towards the close of that period, the +aid of an additional curate, appointed to assist in the district, +afforded me a little more leisure time, and I was enabled occasionally +to spend an evening at Walworth. In passing to and from my friend's +house, I now and then met, and ever with renewed interest and +surprise, the dark PAIR still plodding their melancholy, interminable +rounds. The last time I beheld them, I remember calculating, as they +passed me, the number of years they had been thus incomprehensibly +associated, and speculating on how many more should elapse before age +and death terminated that melancholy partnership. In about two months +after, I dined at the banker's, and the first intelligence with which +John Sainsbury greeted me, was the news that the milkman of Walworth +and his companion had at length disappeared. Maunsell, he said, had +died some weeks before, after a couple of days' illness. No one seemed +to know of what disorder--general debility, it was thought; no doctor +had been called in; and not having left a will, his property went to +some distant relative. With respect to the woman, she was last +noticed, the evening of his death, sitting in the usual spot--within +sight of the gateway leading to his house--where she generally awaited +his appearance. She was not there the following morning; nor was she +seen again. As the deceased had made no disclosure respecting her, nor +left any papers that could tend to explain their connexion, all +chance, it was concluded, of clearing up the mystery was at an end for +ever. I confess this disappointed me not a little. I found I had, +whenever the strange Pair occurred to my recollection, unconsciously +entertained a conviction that I should, at some period or other, learn +their history; and now that all opportunity of so doing had vanished, +the fancies of my early youth again returned, and occupied me with +their wild suggestions for a longer time than was either pleasing or +justifiable. The coincidence, however, which had brought me so often +into contact with those singular persons, was not fated as yet to +discontinue. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +It was, I think, about half a year from this period, that, in +returning late one evening from the neighbourhood of Russell Square, +where my father, during a short visit he was compelled to make to +town, had taken lodgings, I missed my way, and got entangled in the +intricacies of the numerous narrow streets and alleys that lie between +that quarter of London and the eastern end of Holborn. Intending to +avail myself of some of the public conveyances homewards, I had +attempted to shorten my passage to the great thoroughfares, and in +doing so had thus gone astray. As it was past ten o'clock I was +necessarily hurried, and yet the heat and heaviness of the night--it +was July--prevented me freeing myself as rapidly as I should otherwise +have done from the squalid and disagreeable avenues in which I had got +entangled. I was just pausing to enquire my way of a slatternly-looking +woman, who stood considerably in front of the door of a dirty-looking +house in one of the dirtiest lanes I had yet explored, and who, with an +apron thrown round her shoulders, to supply, it seemed to me, the absence +of their appropriate garments, appeared, from the direction of her looks, +to be awaiting some one's arrival, when a lad hastened up the opposite +side of the alley, and breathlessly announced to her, that "the docther +wouldn't come 'thout he first got his fee." + +"Holy Mary, mother of ----! Oh, wisha, what _am_ I to do!" exclaimed +the woman in a strong Irish accent, with that elision of apostrophe +into complaint peculiar to her country. + +"If she goes on this way till mornin', two men wouldn't hould her, let +alone one _colleen_.[1] Run, Micky, to the 'seer, an' let him get her +to the hospiddle, or my heart 'll be broke from her." + +"How dove I know where the 'seer lives at this hour o' the night?" +expostulated the boy. + +"There's a wake in Tim Reilly's second floor--can't you go there, and +they'll tell you--can't you?" + +The messenger disappeared, and I now, before putting the question for +which I had stopped, asked the woman soothingly the cause of her +perturbation. + +"Is it what's the matther, sir? Matther enough thin--a poor crethur of +a woman lodgin' with me is took very bad with the fever. She wasn't to +say so bad entirely till this evenin', when she begin to rave, and +'sist upon gettin' up; an' goin' on with terrible talk, that it would +frighten the heart o' you to hear her." + +"How long," I said, "has she been ill?" + +"Wisha, sir, she was never well since the day she darkened my dure; +but I think 'tis the heat o' the weather, an' her never stirrin' out, +an' the weakness entirely, an' the impression on her heart, that is +killin' her now." + +"And has she had no advice?" + +"Sorrow the 'vice--you'd think she'd go into fits when I mentioned a +docther to her; and as to a priest or a ministher--my dear life, I +might as well mention a blunderbush." + +Well accustomed to hear of, and witness, such suffering as the woman +described, I was about to proceed in quest of a physician myself, if +she had paused in the first part of the sentence just finished. The +concluding remarks arrested me. + +"I am a clergyman," I said; "will you let me see this poor person?" + +"An' a thousand welcomes, sir. I know you're not the Revern' Misthur +Falvey, that I goes to a' Christmas an' Easther--nor the ministher +convenient here. Maybe you're"---- + +"I'm quite unknown here; but by allowing me to see your patient, I +shall be able to judge if she is in a fit state to be removed to an +hospital; or, if instantly necessary, I shall myself procure medical +advice for her." + +The woman entered the house and I followed her, waiting, as she +requested me, in the dark entry, until she procured from the sick +chamber the only light that I presume was burning in the dwelling. She +then re-appeared at the head of the stairs, and requested me to +ascend. + +Lighting me up four ruinous flights of steps, leading to rooms that +appeared to be tenanted by beings as miserable as herself, she ushered +me into an apartment of such large dimensions that the weak rushlight +she carried left its extremity in absolute darkness. It was wretchedly +furnished. At the farthest end from the door was a bed, by the side of +which stood a coarse-looking girl about fifteen, engaged in +preventing--now by soothing, now by forcible restraint--the invalid +who occupied it from attempting to rise. + +"Not another moment--not one moment longer! I _must_ get up--he is +waiting for me! See! I am late already, for 'tis daybreak--though you +cannot see the dawn through that dismal rain. Let me go--wretch, +wretch!--let me go; he shall not stir one step that I won't be near +him to remind him of"---- + +Leaving the candle near the door, my guide approached the bed, and +beckoned me to follow. I advanced, and even through the misty shadows +that enveloped the place, I recognised, in the emaciated Form +struggling on the couch, her wild flashing eyes now wilder with fever +and insanity, the well-remembered wanderer who had so often excited my +interest in Walworth. + +"Ha!" she continued, after stopping suddenly, as lunatics will do when +a stranger unexpectedly appears, and intently observing me for some +minutes. "Ha! I knew I was late--see there. _He_ has come to seek me, +for the first time, too, for seventeen--eighteen-oh! so many long +years. Ha, ha! all in black, too--Barnard--and you've brought your +wealthy bride"--and she glanced at the woman, who stood beside me; +"but, faugh, how her limbs rattle--not a whole bone," she said, with a +hysterical laugh, "in her beautiful body!" + +In this way she continued to rave, during the short time I remained in +the apartment. I attempted to ask her a few questions, to ascertain, +if possible, how far the distraction of her mind was consequent upon +her disorder; but her only replies were mad and incoherent allusions +to past scenes and occurrences, that seemed entirely to engross her +attention. Finding my presence of no avail, I quitted the place, and +was about to deposit a small sum with the hostess for the sufferer's +use, when she very ingenuously informed me it was not at the moment +necessary, that person herself having always, in the payment of her +weekly rent, entrusted to her hands money sufficient to supply the +wants of several ensuing days. + +"An' though we're sometimes bad enough off, sir, when the boys don't +get the work at Mr Cubitt's, still, shure, if I was to wrong a poor +sickly crethur like that of her thrifle of change, 'twould melt away +the weight o' myself in goold if I had it." + +I could not help smiling at this unwonted display of honesty in so +unexpected a quarter, and promising her that such care and attention +to her sick tenant should not go unrewarded, I departed, escorted by +"Micky," who had returned to say that no intelligence of the 'seer was +to be obtained at Tim Reilly's. On making our way into Holborn, I +called at the nearest surgeon's, and, giving him my address, I +dispatched him back with the boy, directing him, at the same time, not +to allow the woman to be removed unless her disorder was a contagious +one, (which, I was persuaded, it was not,) and requesting, should the +aid of a physician be necessary, he would at once procure it, for +which, with all other expenses, I would be answerable. Touching this +latter point, the lad had informed me as we came along, that he did +not think their lodger was at all at a loss for money, as she procured +it about once a-month, he thought, (the only time she ever went +abroad,) from some "gentleman's office in the coorts." + +Although living at such a distance, I contrived to see the unfortunate +invalid several times in the following week. I found I was right as to +the nature of her disorder. An eminent physician had been called in +once or twice during its most violent paroxysms, and stated, that it +was likely her malady was not the cause, but the consequence, of some +extraordinary mental excitement. Under the judicious treatment he +pointed out, the fever gradually subsided, and for a short time there +was an appearance in the patient of returning convalescence. But her +physical energies were exhausted, and it was evident that a very short +period would terminate her existence. Reason, too, never wholly +resumed its functions, if indeed it had ever of late years exercised +them in that wearied brain. Her ideas assumed a certain degree of +coherency. She was able to converse occasionally with calmness, to +recognise faces familiar to her, and appeared sensible of and even +grateful for my visits, and the assiduity with which I sought to +awaken her to some preparation for the great approaching change; but + + "the delicate chain + Of thought, once tangled, never clear'd again:" + +never _wholly_ cleared. The lightning of insanity flashed continually +from the heavy cloud that hung upon her soul. The allusions, too, she +was in the habit of making to some transactions of bygone years, were +of so startling a nature, that I was fully confirmed in my early +impression she had been at one time of her life implicated in some +wonderful, nay, heinous occurrence. Upon this point it was my +intention, if possible, to win her gradually to confide to me the +secret of her guilt or wrongs, hoping by this means to relieve her +spirit by seeming to share in its burdens and distress. + +With the quick perception of persons labouring like her under mental +aberration, she seemed to anticipate my purpose. I was one morning +sitting by her bedside, when she suddenly began-- + +"You asked me yesterday if I remembered having ever seen you before +this illness--this late attack--and I said no. It was false. I spoke +as I thought at the time; but, in looking at you now, I recollect you +were one of those people I often met at Walworth. I even think you +once attempted to get into _his_ confidence--(now, do not interrupt +me.) You likewise desired to know why one like me, who appears +superior in mind and language to the wretched class amongst whom you +find her, should have led the life----Stay! send for a sheriff's +officer, and I will tell you." + +I assured her I saw no necessity at that moment for the presence of +such a person; and, as she appeared somewhat more excited than I had +seen her for several days, I endeavoured to lead her away from the +subject that occupied her, by turning the conversation to some +indifferent topic. But it would not do. She still reverted to the +point at which she had broken off; and I was at length obliged to let +her pursue the course of her own thoughts as she pleased. + +"Did you ever think me handsome? Many once thought me so; but that is +long ago. My father was still handsomer. He was the younger of two +brothers, both wealthy. They were plain Devonshire farmers--each, too, +was a widower, with each a daughter. So far for their likeness to one +another. Now for the contrast. My father spent his wealth, died, and +left me a beggar. _Her's_ (my pretty cousin Martha's) saved it, and +left his child an heiress--a Temptation--a prize for all the bumpkins +and graziers about us. I was glad to live with her. We kept house +together. We were both of an age--young, handsome, lively, and for our +station, or rather for a higher one, well educated. Here again ceased +the resemblance. Like my father, I was open, guileless, +unsuspecting--and it destroyed me. She was mean, cunning, treacherous, +and would--but HELL was too strong for her--have triumphed. My cousin +had numerous offers of marriage. I had none. Among several young men +who frequented our society, was a substantial farmer named Barnard. +You have seen him. When you first beheld him he was little altered. He +had ever that cursed look of Cain upon his forehead, though I branded +it a little deeper. Do not thus stop me!--breath!--I have breath +enough. Barnard was gay, smooth, agreeable--what was more, he was _my_ +suitor--the only one amid throngs that was attentive, kind, obliging +to me. I felt first grateful, and next loved him--you shall hear HOW +WELL. + +"Our match began to be talked of. Martha from some whim disapproved of +it. He ceased to visit at the house--but I would not give him up; and +while he contemplated, as I thought, arrangements for our marriage, we +often met alone. Judgment is over with him now--mine is at hand, and I +will not load him with guilt that, after all, may not be his. He was +the only being that cared for me on earth, and I clung to him with a +tenfold affection. How do I know but it was this mad confidence that +first awoke the villain in his soul? That wine"-- + +I held the glass to her lips; and, while I wiped the damp drops of +agony from her brow, I besought her to defer the sequel of her story +until she was more capable of pursuing it. + +"No," she said; "it must be now, or not at all. I am stronger than I +have been for months to-day. Where was I?--Stealing back day after day +to Martha's, a trampled, but not an unhoping spirit; for I still +looked forward to _his_ fulfilling his promise. He once more was a +visitor at our house. I did not know why--I did not care--he was +there, and I was satisfied: I had no eyes for any thing else. But the +blow was coming. It fell--it smote us all to dust. + +"I was one morning occupied alone in some domestic duty, when I heard +Barnard's name pronounced by two female servants of our farm, who were +employed in the next apartment. I listened--poor souls! they were +merely agreeing 'how natural it was for Mr Barnard to have jilted +Miss--(but let my very name be unpronounced)--and taken up with Miss +Martha, who had all the fortune.' Was it not a natural remark? So +natural, that every being in the country had already made it but her +whose heart it broke to hear it. I rushed from the spot, a mist +spreading before my eyes as I hastened on. I sought out Barnard; I +found him, and alone. I told him of the report I had overheard. He +said it was not new to him. I charged him with perfidy--he avowed it. +Half-dreaming, I attempted to catch his hand. He coolly withdrew it. I +knelt before him--I clasped his knees--I wept, and prayed he would +bless me by treading me to death beneath his feet. He extricated +himself with a laugh, bid me not be a fool, and left me. + +"Before I rose from the spot where I had fallen, a dreadful shadow +passed, as it were, suddenly across me, and some black passion I had +never known till then took possession of my spirit. It was JEALOUSY. +I returned home, and hastened to have an interview with Martha. +Hitherto I had been of a quiet, timid disposition--I was now bold from +frenzy and betrayed affection. I upbraided my cousin with duplicity, +with meanness in receiving the addresses of the man betrothed to her +relative. She retorted by drawing comparisons between our attractions, +personal as well as pecuniary. At these I smiled--bitterly perhaps, +but still I smiled. She scoffed at my pleas that Barnard was my +affianced husband, declared her intention of marrying him, and ended +by insinuating that I had lost him by the very unguardedness of my +affection. I never smiled again. + +"I was mad from that day forward. My whole existence changed. I was a +dissembler--a liar--for my life was a long lie--and, come near--I _am_ +a murderer. I lived blindly on--a day was fixed for their +marriage--but, though I knew not _how it was to be_--I knew another +would never stand at the altar as his bride. + +"She and I had apparently been reconciled--I saw Barnard no more, save +in her presence--I lulled them both into a belief that I was a poor, +trodden, and stingless thing. + +"The Sunday preceding the wedding-day arrived. It was a lovely evening +in summer, and Martha and he and I wandered far away into the +fields--they to taste the freshness of nature, I, to wonder the +flowers did not wither beneath our tread; for we were all alike evil +and abandoned. In our way, we visited a mill that was soon to become +the property of Barnard in right of his bride. In passing through the +different lofts into which it was divided, we paused in one to admire +the immense and complicated machinery connected with the great wheel +that worked the manufactory. Martha, ever capricious and perverse, +wished to see the engine set in motion. But there was not a +servant--not a creature, save ourselves--within a mile of the spot at +the moment. Barnard, however, volunteered to go to the mill-dam +outside, and, on a signal from us, to undo the wicket that kept back +the waters from the wheel. I watched him from the window till he took +his station at the spot. Just then Martha, who, with perverse +inquisitiveness, had been standing caged within the iron framework of +the engines, in hastening to leave it missed her footing, and stumbled +backward again within its circle. A streak as of fire flashed through +the place. I waved my hand; there was the sudden rush of tumbling +water, a faint shriek, and then the roar and thunder of the enormous +wheels hurrying on, grinding and tearing her to pieces. And then came +the horrorstruck look of Him, crying out to Heaven in his vain +impotency, and my own mad laughter, ringing high over it all! + +"His consternation and despair--his wild attempts to stay the progress +of the crashing machinery--his wrath at my exultation--only raised me +to a higher state of frenzy--that frenzy of heart and brain that never +went from me more. I hollowed in his ear how I had done it--and when +he flung himself on the ground in a passion of remorse and grief, I +danced round him, proclaiming my hate and guilt, and summoning him to +give me up to justice. It was now his turn to quiver under the lash of +conscience. He accused himself of the ruin I had wrought--acknowledged +his falsehood--cried aloud for mercy--and still I exulted with a +fiercer laughter, with a louder demand that he would give me to the +gibbet. He endeavored to fly from the spot. I pursued him. I NEVER +LEFT HIM AGAIN. There was a long illness--a blot upon my memory. I +cannot tell you any thing of its duration. _Her_ remains were +found--there was an enquiry--he was the only witness--he kept _our +secret_. On my recovery, I found he had sold his property, and +departed to some distant quarter in the north of England. I tracked +him there. I had vowed to haunt his soul with the memory of my crime, +until he surrendered me to justice. He sought to shun me, by changing +his name and removing from one place of residence to another; but in +vain. My revenge was as hard and cruel as his own look on the morning, +in his orchard, when he spurned me fainting from his feet. Go where he +would, I pursued. At last he settled near London--in that place where +you first beheld us. You know the rest of our career. If guilt can be +atoned for by _human_ suffering--the wrath of years--the raging +wind--the scorching sun--ruined youth--premature age--privation, +misery, madness, and hate, have well atoned for ours. You shake your +head. It is not so? Well, you were the first to teach me to vent my +burning thoughts in prayer. Pray with me now. I seem to have lived all +my evil passions over again in this last hour. Do not leave me yet, +but--pray!" + + * * * * * + +Such was the disastrous tale imparted to me in almost the last +interview I had with its hapless narrator. Either the recollections +she had lived through, as she said, in so short a space, or the +exertions caused by its recital, were too much for her enfeebled +intellect. Delirium shortly after returned, and continued to within a +few hours of her dissolution, which occurred on the evening of the +following day. I was present when she expired. She instructed me where +to find the agent, who paid her a small stipend derived from a distant +relative, (to whom, by her uncle's will, his property descended,) that +I might apprise him of her death. She was quite sensible at the awful +moment; and there is still a hope mingled with the melancholy +remembrance that her last entreaty to me was--to "PRAY!" + + + + +INJURED IRELAND. + + +The miseries of the Irish people, and the oppressions under which they +groan, form the topics of conversation in every quarter of the +globe--you hear of them at Rome and at Constantinople--they are +discussed on the prairies of Texas and in the wilds of the Oregon--in +Paris and at Vienna you are bored by their constant repetition. The +"smart" American contributes his dollars, and the "pious Belgian"[2] +his prayers, to effect their redress; and they have fairly driven from +the field of compassion all sympathy for the plundered Jews and +persecuted Poles. The restless Frenchman speculates on them as the +certain means by which England may be humiliated; and impatiently +awaits the moment when, under the guidance of the young De Joinville, +fifty thousand of "les braves" may be thrown on the coast of Ireland, +and take advantage of the national disaffection, for the double +purpose of mortally wounding his ancient enemy, and of giving, as a +boon to its oppressed inhabitants, that liberty of which he talks so +much and knows so little. Doubtless the sufferings of this _patient_ +people have, before now, drawn tears from the sensitive eyes of "the +brother of the sun;" and the "sagacious and enlightened Lin" has +already suggested to his celestial master the propriety of dispatching +some of his invincible war-junks to effect the liberation of the +degraded slaves of the "red and blue devils" who have so cruelly +annoyed him. Every one has heard, and every one talks, of Irish +grievances; but no one seems to know exactly what those grievances +are: their existence appears to be so unquestionable, that to dispute +it is not only useless but almost disreputable; and yet if one venture +to enquire of those who declaim most loudly against them wherein they +consist, they limit themselves to generalities, and quote the admitted +state of the country as proof positive of English injustice and Saxon +misrule. + +That the inhabitants of distant countries should believe what they +hear so constantly asserted, cannot be a matter of much surprise; nor +that the enemies of England and of order should credit what it suits +their inclinations to believe; but that those who live close to the +scene of such grievous inflictions--that those who are the +fellow-subjects of the oppressed, and who may be said to be the +instruments whereby those enormities are perpetrated--should take for +granted all they hear stated, without endeavouring to discover the +truth of those assertions or the extent of their own culpability, does +seem to us almost incredible. Yet so it is. Irish grievances are now +in fashion. The most glaring fabrications are swallowed with anxiety +if they only profess to be recitals of Irish sufferings; and the +British people seem ready to yield to the clamours of mendacious and +designing demagogues, measures not only detrimental to the interests +of the country for whose welfare they profess so much anxiety, but +absolutely ruinous to the glory and the power of their own. + +We will not stop here to discuss the benefits which we are told would +accrue to the Irish nation from the success of a measure which never +can be carried while Ireland holds loyal subjects, or Britain has an +arm to wield; but we shall at once proceed to ascertain if those +glaring injustices, which make us the world's table-talk, really +exist, and if the admitted misery of the Irish people can, with truth, +be attributed to the unjust or partial legislation of the British +Parliament. + +We do not seek to deny, that the interests of Ireland have not been +neglected or unfairly dealt by, in former times. With that we have +nothing now to do; we take the existing state of things, and we +maintain, and will, we trust, convince our readers, that instead of +being oppressed or wronged by legislative enactments, Ireland is (as +matters are at present managed) greatly favoured, and that instead of +complaining of injustice, her inhabitants should be most grateful for +the exemptions which are granted them, and for the fostering care +which a Conservative government has extended, and is still anxious to +extend to them. + +In supporting our view of the case, we shall appeal to facts--facts +which, if untrue, can easily be refuted; and first, we shall apply +ourselves to the amount of taxation imposed on Ireland by the Imperial +Parliament. _The Irish people are exempt from every species of direct +taxation!_ and their indirect taxes are not more than those to which +the inhabitants of England and Scotland are subject. Thus, while the +English and Scotch gentleman is taxed for his servants, his carriages, +his horses, his dogs, and his armorial bearings--and, in addition, +pays, in common with the trading and operative classes, his +window-tax--the Irish gentleman and tradesman are totally free from +all such imposts. And though, at first sight, this exemption would +seem to benefit only the wealthier classes, still when we find, as is +certainly the case, that it enables the Irish gentry to keep much +larger establishments than men of similar fortune could attempt to do +in this country; that consequently more persons are employed as +servants; that it enhances the value of horses by increasing the +demand for them; that it also greatly adds to the number of carriages +used, and, of course, to the employment of the artisan--we must admit +that it has no slight influence on the condition both of the tradesman +and the agriculturist. + +Ireland pays no income-tax! (at least no Irishman need pay it if he +choose to reside at home;) for the Minister and the Parliament, _so +hostile_ to Irish interests, have only subjected the absentees to its +operation; and we find, that in the year ending the 10th October +1844-- + + England and Scotland paid by assessed + taxes, £4,204,855 + By income-tax, 5,158,470 + ---------- + Total, £9,363,325 + + +While under those two heads, "_injured, persecuted Ireland_" paid not +one shilling! + +Thus we see, that a sum of over nine millions is annually levied from +off the inhabitants of the "_favoured_" portions of the British +empire, towards which "_oppressed Ireland_" is not called upon to +contribute sixpence! + +It may be said, those taxes only affect the wealthy, and it is not +their grievances which call so loudly for redress; it is the burdens +imposed on the poor landholders which demand our attention. + +We have, in a former Number of this Magazine, see Vol. lv. p. 638, +shown that the rents paid for land in Ireland are at least one-third +less than the rents paid in England; (but were it even otherwise, the +right to dispose of property to the best advantage could not be by law +interfered with.) In that article we stated, that in addition to his +rent, the English occupier is subject by law to the payment of tithes, +which in many instances amount to more than the entire rent imposed on +the Irish tenant; and that by recent enactments, the payment of the +Protestant church has been transferred from the Irish tenantry to the +landlords, nine-tenths of whom are Protestants; that the English +tenant pays _all_ the poor-rates, while the Irish tenant is only +called on to pay the _half_; and that while the former is subject to +county and parochial rates, in addition to turnpikes, which are a +heavy burden, the latter pays only the county cess, the amount of +which depends very much on his own conduct. We cannot, then, discover +that the Irish peasantry are subject to any pecuniary grievances which +legislation has inflicted, or could remove; neither can we perceive +any neglect of their interests evinced by the British Minister or the +Saxon Parliament; but, on the contrary, we see that they have been +specially protected by particular enactments against the payment of +charges to which the occupiers of the other portions of the United +Kingdom are still subject. If the Irish farmers set their faces +against the commission of crime, instead of tacitly, if not openly, +affording protection to the greatest delinquents, it is clear that the +amount of the county cess, _the only tax the tenant pays_, might be +greatly diminished; the constabulary force might be, under more +favourable circumstances, reduced from nine thousand men (its present +strength) to half that number; and if the people abstained from +houghing the cattle or burning the houses of those who are obnoxious +to them, the county rates would not amount to more than one-third of +the sum at present levied. Thus, then, the amount of the only direct +tax the peasantry have to pay, is mainly dependent on the peaceable +condition of the country: if the people be orderly and obedient to the +laws, its amount is reduced; if otherwise, and they have heavy +assessments to pay, to reimburse those they have injured, no one is to +blame for it but themselves. We would, then, ask any candid man, if it +would be possible for any government to act more leniently towards +Ireland as regards taxation? She is exempt from her proportion of the +nine millions levied from the other portions of the United Kingdom; +and many of the local assessments to which her inhabitants are +subject, were, by special enactments, removed from the shoulders of +the occupiers of the soil, and placed on those of the proprietors. + +Thus, then, under the head of taxation, no injustice can be said to be +committed. + +The extent of the Irish representation, and the laws regulating the +elective franchise, both in the cities and counties, form a prominent +portion of Irish grievances; yet if the efficiency of the +representation is to be judged by the influence which it exercises on +the councils of the empire, or the registration laws be tested by the +results which they have produced, the Irish have little reason to +complain of either. The very exemption from taxation to the amount we +have already stated, proves one of two things--either that the British +minister and British representation are peculiarly partial to the +interests of Ireland, (which would destroy the favourite doctrine of +"English hatred and Saxon oppression;") or that the Irish +representation is powerful enough not only to protect their +constituents from injustice, but to secure them peculiar advantages. +That the amount of representation already enjoyed by Ireland is _at +least_ sufficient for all constitutional purposes, cannot be doubted; +for every one knows that by the Radical portion of it alone, an +administration odious to the people of Great Britain, and rejected by +their representatives, was for years kept in office, and that through +its instrumentality both Whig and Tory ministers have been compelled +to abandon measures which they believed to be beneficial, and which +they brought forward in a spirit of good feeling, and with a desire +to promote the best interests of the country. + +In the first Parliament elected under the Reform Bill, and after the +system of registration now complained of came into operation, the +Irish representation consisted of + + Liberals, 74 + Conservatives, 31 + +Now, when it is borne in mind, that beyond all question at least +nine-tenths of the landed property of Ireland is possessed by the +Conservative party, and that that party was able to secure to itself +little more than a fourth of the representation, it must be admitted +that numbers told, and that the mass was represented in a ratio beyond +what the constitution contemplates. So far, then, as relates to the +laws regulating the elective franchise, if they are to be judged of by +the results which they produced, the Liberal party have nothing to +complain of, and the Roman Catholics still less; of the Radical +majority, they numbered thirty-five, or nearly one-half; and if +eligible men could be had of their body, or if their leaders wished +it, undoubtedly persons of their profession might have been returned +in every instance in which liberal Protestants were seated. They had +the power to effect this: if they abstained from using it, influenced +either by good taste or motives of prudence, they still have no reason +to complain of the law--it placed the power in their hands; their own +discretion alone restrained its exercise. + +The agitators proclaim that their number in Parliament has diminished, +and that they have lost cities and counties, because the constituency +has decreased under the "emaciating influence of the registration +law." It is true the Irish constituency has diminished, and that the +Destructives have lost many places; but the diminution in the +constituency has not been caused by the state of the law--and this +they know full well--but by the disinclination of the respectable +portion of the people to make themselves any longer their tools! Under +the law when first called into operation, the Radicals had an +overwhelming majority. The same men who registered and voted in 1832 +and in 1837, are generally still in existence--the same tenures under +which they registered still continue--the same assistant barristers +before whom they registered (or ones more favourable to their +interests) still preside; it is clear, therefore, that if the people +were inclined to claim the franchise, they have only to take the +necessary steps to secure it--but they won't. They were persecuted +between the priests and their landlords--they see the hollowness of +the agitators, who used them for their own purposes, and then left +them to ruin; and, as the surest way to avoid trouble, they don't +register at all; the landlords not having any influence over their +votes, and not wishing to quarrel with them, don't induce them to do +so--and they have hitherto resisted the efforts of the country agents +of the Corn Exchange. What man of sense would put himself upon the +register, when he well knows that any deviation from the path pointed +out to him by the priest, would not only entail curses and +persecutions on himself, but insult and outrage on the innocent +members of his family? Who would establish his right to vote, when he +would be called on to exercise that right with _his grave dug before +his dwelling_, and _the_ DEATH'S HEAD AND CROSS-BONES AFFIXED TO HIS +DOOR!! + +The assertions of the agitators, that they have lost ground _because_ +the constituencies have been diminished by the operation of the laws +regulating the possession of the elective franchise, is of a piece +with all their other reckless falsehoods; but fortunately it is more +easy of disproof. It does appear by parliamentary returns, that the +Irish constituency has decreased, _on the whole_, in small degree; but +it is rather curious and unfortunate for those truth-loving gentlemen, +that, in every instance in which _they_ have been beaten, the +constituencies have greatly increased, and that they have only +diminished in those counties in which their interest is +all-powerful.[3] For instance, Antrim, in 1832, (when a Liberal was +returned,) had on the register 3487 electors; and, in 1837, when a +Conservative was seated, 4079.[4] + +Belfast, in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, had 1650; in 1841, +when two Conservatives were elected, 4334. + +Carlow, in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, had 1246; and in +1841, when the Tories beat O'Connell's own son, 1757. + +Down had in 1832, when a Liberal was returned, 3130; and in 1837, when +a Tory was substituted, 3305. + +Dublin County had in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, 2025; and +in 1841, when two Tories displaced them, 2820. + +Dublin City had in 1832, when O'Connell was triumphantly returned, +7008; and in 1841, when he was beaten, 12,290. + +Longford had in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, 1294; and in +1841, when one of them was displaced by a Tory, 1388. + +Queen's County had in 1832, when one Liberal was returned, 1471; and +in 1835, when two Conservatives were elected, 1673. + +Thus we see, by unquestionable proof, that instead of being benefited +by an increase of the constituencies, the cause of the Destructives +has invariably suffered by their enlargement; and yet sure we are, +that most persons on this side the water believe in the truth of the +Liberator's lamentations, and suppose that those patriots who have +been rejected by the votes of the most independent electors and +largest constituencies in Ireland, have lost their seats solely +because the names on the register had been greatly diminished, and the +Liberal portion of the people deprived of their rights, by the +"emaciating influence" of a bad law. + +But if there be defects in the registry laws, who are to blame for +their continuance? The "great grievance" connected with them of which +Mr O'Connell complained, was, "that from the ambiguous wording of the +act, some assistant barristers adopted _the solvent tenant test_," +instead of "_the beneficial interest test_,"[5] which he and those who +acted with him thought to be its legitimate construction. This +unquestionably would make a vast difference to the claimant; and so +thought Sir Robert Peel. He brought in a bill clearly establishing +"the beneficial interest test." And to remedy another objection +founded on the fact of tenants at will in England having the right to +vote, while the Irish law debarred persons similarly circumstanced, he +proposed to give the franchise to all occupiers of certain quantities +of land, merely from the fact of possession;[6] and yet Mr O'Connell +was the first to denounce the measure! The agitators complain of +defects in the law, and the minister agrees to amend them; the +patriots claim for the Irish a full equality in the registration law +granted to England, and more is conceded. When headed by their "august +leader," they denounce the redress of those injustices of which they +complained as "An additional insult," and they raise such a clamour +because what they formerly asked for was about to be granted, that the +minister was compelled to succumb, and the bill was withdrawn. + +The next item in the catalogue of grievances is the municipal law. +None has been more frequently or more forcibly dwelt on; its +injustice, and tendency to exclude the "Liberal" inhabitants of the +towns and cities of Ireland from local influence and political power, +form prominent topics in the speeches of every patriot orator. Let us +see with what justice. + +It must be admitted that there is considerable Conservative property +and respectability in the Irish corporate towns; and yet what has been +the result of the elections under this municipal law so loudly +declaimed against?--There are thirty-three corporations in Ireland, +all of which, with _one solitary exception_, (that of Belfast,) are +not only Liberal but downright Revolutionary. The number of the +friends of order in the town-councils is so small, that they can +accomplish nothing. Overwhelming majorities have voted addresses to +the "convicted conspirators," and their mayors formed a deputation to +present them, and proceeded in state to the "dungeon of the martyrs;" +and yet this law, which lays the corporations of Ireland at the feet +of O'Connell, forms "one of the greatest oppressions under which his +devoted country groans." He has unlimited influence in all. What more +would he have? what more could any law give him? + +Men ought to have a little modesty; but the "Liberator" has gained so +much by reckless assertion that he is justified in persevering in its +practice. He has often said, that "he never knew any statement tell, +or any argument, however powerful, attain the desired end, if only +once repeated;" and on this principle he acts. He repeats and repeats +again, in the teeth of contradiction and disproof, what he wishes to +have believed; and the result shows the wisdom of his proceeding. +Those who contradict soon get tired, while, by perseverance, he is +left in full possession of the field. + +It has been said that the Irish Roman Catholics have been debarred, by +the unfair exercise of political patronage, from the attainment of +those offices at the bar and in the administration to which they were +rendered eligible by the Emancipation Act. The Whigs promoted three +Roman Catholics--Mr Shiel, Mr Wyse, and Mr O'Ferrall; these gentlemen +retired with their party, and if Sir Robert Peel offered them place +to-morrow, they would, as a matter of course, refuse it. These are the +only persons of their religion _unpledged_ to "Repeal of the Union" at +present in the House, who would have any claim on the score of +abilities to official station; it surely cannot be expected that a +Conservative minister would give power to men pledged to the +dismemberment of the British empire, and the supporters of a measure +which he has so unequivocally denounced; neither can it be supposed +that any man would be such a fool as to place red-hot Repealers in the +important office of stipendiary magistrate, when the wishes of the +government might be thwarted and the safety of the country compromised +by their partisanship. + +The Repealers admit their determination to accomplish the destruction +of "Saxon rule" in Ireland, and at the same time _modestly_ declaim +against the Saxon government, because they will not give them power or +confidential employment, by means of which they might more securely +carry out their intentions. Sir Robert Peel has taken every occasion, +to the great detriment and dissatisfaction of his steadfast +supporters, to give place to such of the Roman Catholic party as were +at all eligible; if the number of such persons be limited, the Roman +Catholics themselves, and not the minister, are to blame. + +As to the bar, the list of Roman Catholics was run out before he came +to power. There was no one amongst them whose standing in his +profession would have at all justified the minister in placing him on +the bench; and he had men of his own party, distinguished for their +acquirements, whose interests he could not overlook, whose claims were +recognised even by Mr O'Connell himself, and whose conduct, since +their promotion, has been unimpeachable. + +The agitators cannot, in justice, blame him for having recourse to the +Conservative bar, for when in trouble they sought protection from its +ranks themselves. Except Mr Shiel, who was merely employed to make a +speech, and whose legal knowledge was never insisted on by his +friends; and Mr _Precursor_ Pigott, who was retained lest a slur +should be thrown on the Whigs--all the leading lawyers who conducted +the defence in the "monster trial" were Protestants and Conservatives +of the highest order. + +But what has this much-abused minister done to conciliate Ireland +since he came to office? He has nearly trebled the grant for national +education, and still continues the system adopted by the Whigs and +patronised by the priests, in opposition to a powerful and influential +portion of his own supporters;--he found a board of charitable +bequests composed altogether of Protestants, and seeing, as he stated, +"that two-thirds of the property they had to administer was Roman +Catholic," he dissolved that board and constituted another, in which +the Roman Catholics have an equality, and may under certain +circumstances have a majority;[7]--he found the mortmain laws in +existence, and he repealed them; now any man who wishes may endow the +Roman Catholic church to any extent he pleases. Yet these last +concessions have been denounced by priests and bishops as an +additional insult, as an unjustifiable and tyrannical interference +with their rights. And why? Because Sir Robert Peel clogged the +measure with the condition, that any testator so leaving property +should have his will made and registered three months before his +death. Because he wishes to protect the interests of the Roman +Catholic laity, by securing them against the interference of the +clergy when their relatives are at the point of death, he stirs the +bile and rouses the indignation of ravenous and pelf-seeking +ecclesiastics. He brought in a bill to remedy what was said to be the +great defect in the registration laws, and it was not his fault that +it was not carried; he proposed to extend the franchise, and he was +denounced for doing so by the advocates of universal suffrage; he has +promoted the formation of railways; he has issued a commission to +enquire into the oppressions said to be perpetrated on their tenantry +by the Irish landlords; and he has subjected Irish absentees to the +payment of the property tax. + +Whig promises "in favour of Ireland" were used by Mr O'Connell as +arguments to procure the abatement of the Repeal agitation; although +no man knew better than he did, that if his "base, brutal, and bloody" +friends had even the inclination, they had not the power, to carry out +their intentions. Tory promises of a still more conciliatory nature +are used as a stimulus to its extension; although Mr O'Connell +equally well knows that what Sir Robert Peel promises, his influence +with the English people may probably enable him to accomplish. Ay, but +that is just what the sagacious demagogue wishes to prevent. If his +grievances were removed, the pretence for agitation would be +destroyed. If there be real grievances, and if Mr O'Connell wished to +have then redressed, why not attempt to do so? The ministry are +willing to assist him--the public feeling and the opinion of +Parliament are decidedly in his favour; yet what measures have he or +his followers proposed for the adoption of the legislature? The truth +is, nothing annoys him more than the desire manifested by the premier +and the Parliament to remove all just grounds of complaint, and +therefore it is that he has fixed on "repeal of the union," which he +knows to be impracticable. A man's own interest must be considered, +and "the Liberator" is well aware that, if agitation ceased, the +_twenty thousand a-year_ paid him by the "starving people" as a +recompense for having patriotically rejected an office worth but +_five_, would cease also. + +We have alluded to the amount of taxation imposed on Ireland, to prove +that injustice is not perpetrated upon her under that most touching +head;--we have exposed the fictitious grievances, and recounted the +measures passed and promised by Sir Robert Peel, to show how +groundless the complaints of the agitators are, and that if there be +wrongs, there is, on his part, a sincere desire to redress them;--and +we have adverted to the manner in which those beneficent acts and +promises, so favourable to their views and injurious to his +administration, have been received by those who profess to be the +friends, and are the leaders, of the people for whose welfare they are +intended--to convince the British minister and the British people of +the absolute impossibility of satisfying men, whose own selfish +interest lies at the bottom of all their actions, and who fabricate +grievances that, under the pretence of seeking their redress, they may +be afforded opportunities of inculcating treason. + +What more is there which can be effected by Parliament which would +better the state of the Irish peasantry, _while_ they suffer +themselves to be made the dupes of every headless demagogue, and while +they, by their own atrocities, drive from amongst them every person +who is willing or able to afford them employment? The existing laws +cannot repress the cruel outrages which they commit. Can an act of +Parliament humanize their minds, or impart mercy to their hearts? The +law cannot fix a maximum for rent; and if it could, it would be only +to increase their turbulence, without any mitigating comforts. Extend +the franchise, it will only enable them to accomplish more political +mischief--for they reject as nothing all measures, however beneficial, +which do not tend to the dismemberment of the empire; endow their +church, and they accuse you of corrupting it; truckle to them, and you +but make them more exacting; coerce them, and you benefit themselves +and save the country. + +That Ireland does labour under evils, no man can doubt; but they are +evils which have grown up under an exploded system, which all modern +legislation has tended to remedy, but which no legislation can at once +remove. The education of the people, heretofore altogether neglected, +is now being attended to; but years will have passed before any +favourable change can be effected through its instrumentality; and if +things be suffered to progress as they have lately done, evil instead +of good must result from the enlightenment of the people by means of a +system which imparts knowledge without inculcating religion. If you +extend their information, and still leave them under the political +sway of those who induce the more ignorant by the most monstrous +promises, and compel the more instructed and better disposed by +unchecked intimidation, to follow in their wake, it is clear that you +but endow the demagogues with more power, and render the enemies of +order more capable of effecting their designs. The memorable +expressions of one who was the champion of a people's privileges and +the victim of their ferocity, are most true, that "to inform a people +of their rights before instructing them and making them familiar with +their duties, leads naturally to the abuse of liberty and the +usurpation of individuals; it is like opening a passage for the +torrent before a channel has been prepared to receive, or banks to +direct it."[8] + +Yes, Ireland is afflicted by evils, but those evils are created not so +much by the defects of the law, or by the neglect and tyranny of the +better classes, as by the total demoralization of the lower. The Irish +peasant, naturally brave, generous, and faithful, is, by the system +under which he is brought up, rendered cruel, merciless, and +deceitful. There may be, and probably are, hardships inflicted by some +of the landlords; but they are produced in most instances by criminal +and precedent acts on the part of the people. In no country in the +world are the rights of property so ill understood or so recklessly +violated: the industrious man fears to surround his cottage with a +garden, because his fruit and vegetables would be carried off by his +lazy and dishonest neighbours; and he is deterred from growing +turnips, which would add to his wealth, from the certain knowledge +that his utmost care cannot preserve them. Amongst no people on the +face of the earth are the obligations of an oath or the discharge of +the moral duties so utterly disregarded: any man, the greatest +culprit, can find persons to prove an _alibi_; the most atrocious +assassin has but to seek protection to obtain it. Where in the +civilized world, but in Ireland, can you find a "sliding-scale" of +fees for the perpetration of murder? + +And why is this so? Because the religious instruction of the people +has been totally neglected; because their priests have become +politicians, and stopping at nothing to accomplish their objects, they +teach the peasantry by private precept and example to disrespect and +disregard those doctrines which they publicly inculcate; because their +bishops, pitchforked from the potatoe-basket to the palace, become +drunk with the incense offered to their vulgar vanity, and the +patronage granted in return for their unprincipled political support, +instead of checking the misconduct of the subordinates, stimulate them +to still further violence,[9] and stop at nothing which can forward +their objects; because the opinions of the people are formed on the +statements and advice of mendicant agitators who have but one object +in view, their own pecuniary aggrandizement; because a rabid and +revolutionary press, concealing its ultimate designs under the +praiseworthy and proper motive of affording protection to the weak, +seeks to overturn all law and order, and pandering to the worst +passions of an ignorant and ferocious populace, goads them, by the +most unfounded and mischievous statements, to the commission of crime, +and then adduces the atrocity of their acts as a proof of the +injustice of their treatment. Every murder is palliated, _because_ it +arises from "the occupation of land." Every brutal assassination is +paraded as "a fact" for Lord Devon, and is recommended to that +nobleman's attention; not that the helpless and unoffending family of +the victim may be afforded redress, but that the executioner of their +parent may obtain commiseration. No matter what the conduct of the +tenant may have been--no matter what arrears of rent he may have +owed--to evict him is a crime, which, in the eyes of those +unprincipled journalists, seems to justify an immediate recourse to +"the wild justice of revenge." The rights of property are said to be +guaranteed by the law--while the exercise of those rights is rendered +impossible by the combination of unprincipled men, and the force of a +_morbid_ public opinion. He who would think it "monstrous" that a +merchant should be debarred from the right of issuing execution +against his creditor, shudders with horror at the idea of a landlord +distraining for his unpaid rent. And the individual who delights in +the metropolitan improvements, and glories in the opening of St +Giles's, though it drive thousands of "the suffering poor" at once and +unrecompensed from their miserable abodes, considers the improvement +of an Irish estate as too dearly purchased, if effected by the +expulsion of one ill-conditioned and remunerated ruffian. + +But this morbid public opinion only feels for the lawless, the idle, +and overholding tenant; for the landlord it has no sympathy--_he_ may +be robbed of his rights, he may be unable to educate or support his +family, because he cannot obtain his rents, but his sufferings create +no feeling in his favour; his case forms no fact for Lord Devon. The +accomplished, the well-born, and the good, may be driven from the +homes of their ancestors, and reduced to beggary, because the +dishonest occupiers will neither pay their engagements nor surrender +their lands, and no one laments their fate. The gentleman may be +forced to emigrate, and be sent into exile by his necessities, without +any notice being taken of such an event. But let a tenant who has been +profligate, dishonest, and reduced to poverty by his own misconduct, +be dispossessed of the smallest portion of ground on which he eked out +a wretched existence, and which, if he had it in fee, would not be +sufficient to support his family--let such an one be but dispossessed, +and, even though he be afforded the means of emigrating to countries +where land is plenty and wages remunerative, the "Liberal press" will +teem with "the horrors and the cruelties" of "the Irish system!" +Doubtless it would be most desirable that every man should be +possessed of a sufficiency of land, and that he should (if you will) +have it in fee; but how is this to be accomplished? The Irish +population is too dense to be comfortably supported on the extent of +soil which the country possesses, _without_ the assistance of +manufactures; and the conduct of the people, under the guidance of +their leaders, effectually prevents their establishment. There is but +one way, under existing circumstances, by means of which this happy +state could be produced, and that is by following the example of the +French revolutionists, by cutting the throats or otherwise disposing +of the present proprietors, and then selling to the peasantry at the +moderate prices which were formerly fixed on by the Convention. + +The Irish gentleman is held up to public disapprobation because he has +a lawless and pauper tenantry; and if he attempt to improve their +moral and social condition, by removing the worst conducted, and +enlarging the holdings of the others, so as to enable them to live in +comfort, his conduct is considered still more odious, even though he +send the dispossessed at his own expense to those colonies to which +thousands of the best disposed of the people voluntarily emigrate. +What, in God's name, is he to do? While all remain, it is an absolute +impossibility that good can be effected for any. The evil is +sedulously pointed out, and the only practicable remedy is resisted by +the same persons--the friends, "par excellence," of the people! + +This moral disorganization, and the total disrespect for the rights of +property by which it is accompanied, creates other evils as its +necessary consequences; it produces hostility and ill feeling between +the higher and the lower classes, augments absenteeism, and deprives +the peasantry of the personal superintendence of those who would +really have their interests at heart, and by whose example they would +be benefited. Nor can we be surprised that any person whose +circumstances enables him to do so should reside out of Ireland; when +we see every man of rank and fortune who relinquishes the pleasures of +the capital, and the enjoyments of society, for the purpose of +settling on his estates, and performing his duties, subjected to the +abuse of every scurrilous priest, and the insults of every penniless +agitator. Landlords naturally wish to reside at home where their +possessions, in a wholesome state of society, would secure them local +influence and respect; but unless the Irish gentleman bows to the +dictates of every local representative of the "august leader," he is +deprived of both, and risks his personal safety into the bargain. No +men profess to lament absenteeism more than the priests and agitators. +But how do they act? They declare against the non-residence of the +proprietors; but their sole object in doing so is to rouse the +feelings of their auditors, and thus prepare them for the performance +of what they wish them to effect. What encouragement do they or their +creatures afford to such as do return? We like facts. The Marquis of +Waterford, a bold and daring sportsman, boundless in his charities, +frank and cordial in his manners, not obnoxious on account of his +politics, and admitted on all hands to be one of the very best +landlords in Ireland--in fact, just such a character as the Irish +would admire--he comes to reside and spend his eighty thousand a-year +in the country, and how is he treated? He gets up a splendid sporting +establishment in Tipperary; _his hounds and horses were twice +poisoned_; and this not being found sufficient to drive him from the +neighbourhood, in which he was affording amusement and spending money, +_his offices were fired_, and his servants with difficulty saved their +lives. Compelled to abandon Tipperary, he betakes himself to his +family mansion in Waterford; and how is he received there? Why, in his +own town and within his hearing, we find the "meek and Christian +priest" addressing his tenants and labourers, the men whom he employs +and supports, after the following fashion:--"Men of Portlan! you were +the leading men who put down the Beresford in '26, (_the marquis's +father_.) I call on you now, having put down one set of tyrants, to +put down another set of tyrants," (_the marquis himself_.)[10] Does +such conduct (and this is but one instance of many which we could +adduce) evince a desire, on the part of the "pastors of the people," +to encourage the residence of the gentry, or a wish to procure for the +peasantry those blessings which they paint in such glowing terms as +sure to ensue from their landlords living and spending their incomes +amongst them? Much as the priests and agitators declaim against +absenteeism, nothing would be more contrary to their wishes than that +the absentees should return. They have no desire to share their +influence with others; and hence it is that an excuse is always made +for quarrelling with every resident who cannot be made subservient to +their wishes; and while they steadily persevere in their system of +annoyance and offence, they as lustily reiterate their lamentations on +a state of things which their own conduct tends to produce. + +That we are justified in attributing the poverty, the misery, and the +crimes of the Roman Catholic peasantry to the constant state of +agitation and excitement in which they are kept by their leaders, and +the bad example set them by their religious instructors, and not to +any pecuniary burdens (legislative or local) imposed upon them, we can +easily prove, by a reference to the condition of that portion of the +Irish people who are not subject to their control or corrupted by +their influence. It is well known that in the province of Ulster land +fetches at least one-third more rent than in either of the other +provinces, although the quality of the soil is by no means so good. +Yet what is the condition of the people? what their habits? what the +appearance of the country in this less favoured district? We shall let +an authority often quoted by Mr O'Connell answer our question. + +Mr Kohl[11] tells us, that "the main root of Irish misery is to be +sought in the indolence, levity, extravagance, and want of energy of +the national character." And again, in passing from that portion of +the country where the majority of the inhabitants profess the Roman +Catholic religion, to that in which the great bulk of the population +are Protestants, or Presbyterians, the same writer says--"On the other +side of these miserable hills, whose inhabitants are years before they +can afford to get the holes mended in their potato-kettles--the most +indispensable and important article of furniture in an Irish +cabin--the territory of Leinster ends, and that of Ulster begins. The +coach rattled over the boundary line, and all at once we seemed to +have entered a new world. I am not in the slightest degree +exaggerating when I say, that every thing was as suddenly changed as +if by an enchanter's wand. The dirty cabins by the road-side were +succeeded by neat, pretty, cheerful-looking cottages; regular +plantations, well cultivated fields, pleasant little cottage-gardens, +and shady lines of trees, met the eye on every side. At first I could +scarcely believe my own eyes, and thought that at all events the +change must be merely local and temporary, caused by the better +management of that particular estate. No counter change, however, +appeared; the improvement lasted the whole way to Newry; and, from +Newry to Belfast, every thing continued to show me that I had entered +the country of a totally different people--namely, the district of the +Scottish settlers, the active and industrious Presbyterians." + +Nor can we be surprised at the condition of this unhappy country when +we see the Executive looking quietly on, when the public press has +become the apologist of crime, and public sympathy is enlisted on the +side of the evil-doers. + +_Four murders_ have, within the last month, been perpetrated in +Tipperary, which were all but justified by the local papers, _because_ +they were supposed to have been the acts of tenants dispossessed _for +non-payment of rent_. _They_ excited no horror. A _fifth_ was added to +the bloody catalogue, which roused the indignation of the virtuous +_Vindicator_;[12] and why? _Solely because_ it was the result of a +private quarrel. + +_"We own,"_ says this respectable guardian of public morality, "_that +such a system of murderous aggression_ AS THIS, _remote from any of +those agrarian causes which may account for crime, is calculated to +fill every mind with indignation._"[13] Are we not justified in +demanding of the government how long this state of things is to be +permitted to continue? how long the lives and properties of the +respectable and loyal inhabitants of Ireland are to be left at the +mercy and the disposal of a ferocious and bloodstained populace? how +much further open and undisguised treason is to be allowed to proceed? + +The Taleian policy will not answer. Mr O'Connell may abandon his +plans, falsify his promises, and break his most solemn engagements--but +there will be no relief; he will still be supported so long as his +agitation is unchecked--so long as the people think that through the +instrumentality of _his_ measures _their_ designs may be accomplished. +And if, after a further period of excitement, after a still increasing +belief in their own ability to attain the avowed object of their +wishes, "the free possession of the land," the peasantry should be +deserted or betrayed by their leaders, the best that could then be +expected would be the horrors of an unsuccessful servile war. Mean time +the enemies of Great Britain are openly apprised of the disaffection of +the Irish people, who but bide their time and wait their opportunity. + + + + + +SINGULAR PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF A RUSSIAN OFFICER. + + +During a twelvemonth's residence in a continental city, I became +acquainted with a Russian officer, whom I will designate by the name +of Adrian. He was a man still in the prime of life, but who had +endured much sorrow and calamity, which had imparted a tinge of +melancholy to his character, and rendered him apparently indifferent +to most of the enjoyments that men usually seek. He was no longer in +the Russian service, did not appear to be rich, kept two horses, upon +which he used to take long solitary rides, that constituted apparently +his only pleasure. He had seen much of the world, and his life had +evidently been an adventurous one; but he was not communicative on +matters regarding himself, although on general subjects he would +sometimes converse willingly, and when he did so, his conversation was +highly interesting. He was one of those persons with whom it is +difficult to become intimate beyond a certain point; and although I +had reason to believe that he liked me, and for nearly a year we +passed a portion of each day together, he never laid aside a degree of +reserve, or approached in any way to a confidential intercourse. + +I was one day reading in my room, when Adrian's servant came in all +haste to summon me to his master, who had been thrown from his horse, +and was not expected to survive the injuries he had received. I +hurried to the hotel, and found my unfortunate friend suffering +greatly, but perfectly calm and collected. Two medical men, who had +been called in, had already informed him that his end was rapidly +approaching. He had appeared little moved by the intelligence. I +approached his bedside; he took my hand, and pressed it kindly. I was +deeply grieved at the sad state in which I found him; but time was too +short to be wasted in expressions of sympathy and sorrow, and I +thought I should better show the regard I really felt for him, by +offering to be of any service in my power with respect to the +arrangement of his affairs, or the execution of such wishes as he +might form. + +"My affairs are all in order," he said; "my will, and the address of +my nearest surviving relative, are in yonder writing-desk. I have no +debts, and whatever sum is derived from the sale of my personal +effects, I wish to be given to the hospitals of the town." + +He drew a ring, set with an antique cameo, from his finger. + +"Accept this," he said to me, "as a slight memorial of our +acquaintance, which has been productive of much pleasure to me." + +He paused, exhausted by the exertion he had made to speak. After a few +moments, he resumed. "You have at times seemed to wish to hear +something of my past life," said he, with a faint smile. "Amongst my +papers is a small leathern portfolio, which I give to you, with the +manuscript it contains. These gentlemen," added he, looking at the +physicians, "will bear witness to the bequest." + +At this moment the Roman Catholic priest, who had been sent for, +entered the room, and Adrian expressed a wish to be left alone with +him. That same evening he expired. + +I had no difficulty in obtaining possession of the portfolio +bequeathed to me. In the papers it contained were recorded a series of +incidents so extraordinary, that I am still in doubt whether to +consider them as having really happened, or as being the invention of +a fantastical and overstrained imagination. I kept the MS. by me for +some time, but have finally resolved to translate and publish it, +merely substituting fictitious names for those set down in the +original. The narrative is in some respects incomplete, but whether in +consequence of Adrian's sudden death, or because no further +circumstances connected with it came to his knowledge, I am of course +unable to say. It is as follows:-- + +I am by birth a Russian, but my childhood and youth were passed at +Hamburg. Owing to the early age at which I lost my father, my +recollections of him are necessarily but imperfect. I remember him as +a tall handsome man, somewhat careworn, constantly engaged in the +correspondence rendered necessary by his numerous commercial +speculations, and frequently absent from home upon journeys or voyages +of greater or less duration. His life had been an anxious one, and his +success by no means constant; but he still persevered, led on by a +sanguine temperament, to hope for that fortune which had hitherto +constantly eluded his grasp. + +It was shortly after my tenth birth-day, and we were anxiously +expecting my father's return from a voyage to the East Indies. Before +his departure he had promised my mother, that if he succeeded in the +objects of this distance expedition, he would retire from business, +and settle down quietly to pass the rest of his days in the country. +The letters received from him led her to believe that the result of +his voyage had been satisfactory, and she was therefore anticipating +his return with double pleasure. At last, one evening news was brought +that the ship in which he had taken his passage was come into port, +and just as my mother and myself were leaving the house to go and +welcome the wanderer, my father made his appearance. I will pass over +the transports of joy with which he was received. So soon as they had +a little subsided, he presented to us, under the name of the Signor +Manucci, a dark fine-looking man, who accompanied him, and whom he had +invited to sup with him. I say with _him_, because, to our great +surprise and disappointment, neither my mother nor myself were +admitted to partake of the meal. Hitherto my father's return from his +voyages had been celebrated as a sort of festival. A large table was +laid out, and our friends came in to welcome him, to ask him +innumerable questions, and tell him all that had occurred during his +absence. On this occasion, however, things were arranged very +differently. My father, instead of joining his family and friends at +supper, caused the meal to be served in a separate room for himself +and the Italian; and long after they had done eating, I could hear +them, as I lay in bed, walking up and down the apartment, and +discoursing earnestly together in a foreign tongue. My bed had been +made for that night upon a sofa in one of the sitting-rooms which +adjoined my father's apartment. My usual sleeping-room was given up to +the stranger, who was to pass the night at our house. + +My temperament was naturally a nervous one, and my father's return had +so excited me that I found it impossible to sleep, but lay tossing +about till long after every body in the house had apparently retired +to rest. The strong smell of sea-water proceeding from my father's +cloak, which was lying on a chair near my bed, perhaps also +contributed to keep me awake; and when I at last began to doze, I +fancied myself on board ship, and every thing around me seemed +tumbling and rolling about as in a storm. After lying for some time in +this dreamy state, I at last fell into an uneasy feverish slumber. For +long after that night, I was unable to decide whether what then +occurred was a frightful dream or a still more frightful reality. It +was only by connecting subsequent circumstances and discoveries with +my indistinct recollections, that some years afterwards I became +convinced of the reality of what I that night witnessed. + +I had scarcely fallen asleep, as it seemed to me, when I was awakened +by the creaking of the door leading into my father's room. It was +hastily opened, and the stranger appeared, bearing a lamp in his hand, +and apparently much agitated. He walked several times up and down both +rooms, as if one had been too small for him in his then excited state. +At last he began to speak to himself in broken sentences, some of +which reached my ear. "I leave to-morrow," he said; "when I return, +all will be over--all--the fool!" Then he took another turn through +the room, and paused suddenly before a large mirror. "Do I look like a +murderer?" he exclaimed wildly, and with a ghastly rolling of his +eyes. Then suddenly tearing off a black wig and whiskers which he +wore, he stood before me an old and greyheaded man. At this moment he +for the first time noticed my temporary bed. + +"Ha!" he muttered, with a start, "how imprudent!" He immediately +replaced his wig, and with noiseless steps approached my couch. +Terrified as I was, I had yet sufficient presence of mind to +counterfeit sleep; and the stranger, after standing a minute or two +beside me, went softly into my father's room, the door of which he +shut behind him. + +When I awoke the next morning, and thought of this strange incident, +it assumed so vague and indefinite a form, that I set it down as the +illusion of a dream. Every thing was as usual in the house; my father, +it is true, seemed thoughtful and grave, but that was nothing uncommon +with him. He spoke kindly to me, and apologised to my mother for his +seclusion of the preceding evening; but said that he had been +compelled to discuss matters of the greatest importance with the +Signor Manucci, who was then sitting beside him at breakfast. My +mother was too delighted at her husband's return to be very +implacable; and if the evening had been clouded by disappointment, our +morning meal was, to make amends, a picture of harmony and perfect +happiness. + +About noon, Manucci took an affectionate leave of my father, and +departed; not, however, till he had promised that he would shortly +renew his visit. The day passed without incident. My father had +planned an excursion into the country for the following morning, to +visit an old friend who resided a few leagues from Hamburg. I was +awakened at an early hour, in order to get ready to accompany him and +my mother. I hastily dressed myself, and went down into the parlour. +What was my surprise, when on entering the room I saw my father lying +pale and suffering upon a sofa, while my mother was sitting beside him +in tears, anxiously awaiting the arrival of a physician who had been +sent for, and who presently made his appearance. He felt my father's +pulse, enquired the symptoms, and finally pronounced him to be in a +state of considerable danger. Each successive half hour increased the +sick man's sufferings, and before the afternoon he was speechless. + +In sadness and anxiety we were surrounding my father's couch, when +suddenly a carriage stopped at the house door, and the next instant +Manucci entered the apartment. He expressed the utmost grief and +sympathy upon learning my father's illness, sat down beside the dying +man, for such he now was, and took his hand. My father beckoned his +friend to stoop down, that he might whisper something to him; but +although his lips moved, an inarticulate muttering was all that he +could utter. He then, with an expression of almost despairing grief +upon his countenance, took my hand and that of Manucci, joined them +together in his, which were already damp and chill with the approach +of death, and pressed them to his heart with a deep sigh. The next +instant there was a convulsive movement of his limbs--a rattle in his +throat. My father was dead. + +I shall never forget that moment. It was with some difficulty that +Manucci and myself withdrew our hands from those of my father, which +clutched them tightly in the agony of death. It was the first corpse I +had ever looked upon, and although of a parent whom I dearly loved, I +yet recoiled from it with an irrepressible shudder. The stranger, too, +inspired me with an invincible repugnance. I could not forget my +dream, or vision, or whatever it was, when I had seen him changed into +a grey repulsive-looking old man, and the mysterious words--"Do I look +like a murderer?" rang ever in my ears. + +My mother's grief at her sudden bereavement was boundless. She was +incapable of arranging or ordering any thing; and as my tender years +prevented me from being of any use, Manucci took upon himself the +management of every thing. Through his exertions, the arrangements for +the funeral were rapidly completed; and I followed to the grave the +body of my unfortunate father, who had died, so said the doctor, of a +stroke of apoplexy. Child as I was, I was greatly struck by the +coincidence between this sudden death, and the singular dream I had +had not forty-eight hours previous to it. I said nothing, however; +for I feared Manucci, and should not have thought my life safe had he +heard that I related my dream to any one. In after years, when I was +better able to form a judgment on these matters, I thought it useless +to renew the grief of my poor mother, then becoming old and infirm, by +a communication of what I had witnessed on that memorable night, or by +inspiring her with doubts as to the real cause of her husband's death. + +Meanwhile Manucci busied himself in the arrangement of my father's +affairs, concerning which he appeared perfectly well informed. In the +course of their liquidation, he became acquainted with many of the +chief people in Hamburg, who all spoke very highly of his talents, and +seemed captivated by his agreeable conversation and varied +acquirements. In an incredibly short time he had made himself numerous +friends, who courted his society and invited him to their houses. +Nobody knew any thing more of him than what he himself chose to say, +which was very little. It was rumoured, however, that he belonged to a +religious fraternity--but whether of the Jesuits, or some other order, +no one knew, nor was it possible to trace the origin of the report. +Manucci himself, the object of all these conjectures, seemed perfectly +unconscious of, or indifferent to them. He took a house at a short +distance from the town, close to a small country residence to which my +mother had retired; and in conformity with my father's last and mutely +expressed wish, showed a most friendly disposition towards me, +interesting himself in my studies, and to a certain extent +superintending my education. He visited us very frequently, and +gradually I became accustomed to his presence, and my aversion to him +diminished. The remembrance of my dream grew fainter and fainter, and +the guilty agitation and strange appearance of Manucci on the night of +his arrival at Hamburg, lost the sharp distinctness of outline with +which they had at first been engraved upon my memory. I regarded all +that I had seen that night as a dream, and nothing more. + +The house inhabited by Manucci was of handsome exterior, and situated +in the middle of a large garden. The door was rarely opened to +visitors, and, besides the Italian, an old servant-maid was its only +inmate. I myself was never admitted within its walls till I had +attained my seventeenth year; but when I was, the curious arrangements +of the dwelling made a strong impression upon my fancy. The whole of +the ground floor was one large hall, of which the ceiling was +supported by pillars, and whence a staircase led to three apartments, +one used as a sitting-room, another as bed-chamber, and the third, +which was kept constantly shut, as a study. The sitting-room, instead +of doors, had green silk curtains in the doorways. Eight chandeliers +were fixed in pairs upon the wall, and between them were four black +marble tablets, on which were engraved in golden letters, the +words:--Watch! Pray! Labour! Love! In a recess was a sort of altar, +above which was suspended a valuable painting from the hand of one of +the old masters. Behind a folding screen in the sleeping-room, stood +the bed, which was surrounded by sabres, daggers, stilettoes, and +pistols of various calibre; and from this room a strong door, clenched +and bound with iron, led into the study, the interior of which I never +saw. Altogether, the house made such a strange and unpleasant +impression upon me, that I felt no wish to repeat my visit. + +Manucci had now been residing seven years amongst us, leading a +peaceful and quiet life, a frequent visitor at our house, well looked +upon and liked by all who knew him. Although there was certainly a +degree of mystery attaching to him, yet no one was suspicious of him, +nor had the voice of scandal ever been lifted up to his prejudice. He +was friendly and attentive to my mother, kind to me, courteous to +every one, seemed perfectly contented with his mode of life, and never +talked of changing it. Our astonishment was consequently so much the +greater, when one morning we learnt his sudden disappearance from the +neighbourhood. Enquiries were made in every direction, but none had +seen him depart. His shrivelled old housekeeper was also nowhere to be +found. + +It was within a few weeks after this strange disappearance, that I +obtained the first insight into the character of the mysterious +Italian. After my father's death, and the winding up of his affairs, +his papers and letters had been put in boxes and locked up in a +closet. I one day took it into my head to rummage these papers. There +were vast numbers of bills of lading and exchange, insurance papers +and the like, all matters of no interest to me; but at last, upon +untying a bundle of miscellaneous documents, a small packet fell out +which seemed likely to reward my search. It consisted of fragments of +letters, much damaged by fire, and which, to judge from the size of +the half-burned envelope that contained them, and that had apparently +been originally used for a much larger parcel, probably formed only a +small part of a collection of letters that had been accidentally or +intentionally destroyed by the flames. + +Here are some of these fragments of letters. + + "... The society of a man whose acquaintance I have made since my + arrival here, becomes each day more agreeable to me. He has seen + a vast deal of the world, and his mind is stored with the most + varied knowledge, to such a degree that it sometimes appears to + me as if the longest life would be insufficient to acquire all + that he has learned. Our acquaintance was made in an odd place + enough--a gambling-house, to which I had gone as a matter of + curiosity. He was sitting away from the tables, and addressed + some trifling remark to me, to which I replied. He then, as if he + had known who and what I was, began talking of the commerce in + which I am engaged, and displayed an intimate acquaintance with + mercantile affairs. Our conversation had already become animated + and interesting, when it was interrupted by a noise and bustle in + the play-room; and several persons came up to my new + acquaintance, and congratulated him. It appeared that he had + staked sum equivalent to the whole amount there was in the bank, + and it was while the game was being played that we had entered + into conversation. He now went to the table, and received his + winnings from the disconcerted bankers with an appearance of + perfect indifference, returning them at the same time, a handsome + sum--that they might have, as he said, a chance of recovering + what he had won from them! Then, after giving me his address, and + inviting me to call on him, he left the house" ... + + "... The diamonds ... enormous value ... excellent bargain ... + twenty thousand pounds sterling" ... + + (This letter had been nearly destroyed by the fire.) + + "... It is some days since I have seen my new friend, although + his agreeable conversation and manners render his society more + pleasing to me at every interview. I am embarrassed about this + purchase of diamonds, which I an very desirous of making, but + find myself without sufficient funds for the purpose. If M---- + would join me in the speculation, his recent winnings would be + more than is wanted to make up the deficiency. I must propose it + to him ... + + "... I have just returned from a visit to M----. It appears that + he is an Italian by birth, although speaking several languages as + well as a native, and that he is travelling for the affairs of an + important association of which he is a member. He has travelled a + great deal in Germany, and will probably return thither shortly. + To-day he told me that he was glad to have won the large sum to + which I alluded in a former letter; that he had much need of it + for a great object he had in view, but for which he was still + afraid it would scarcely suffice. Upon hearing this, I resolved + to say nothing to him about the partnership in the diamond + speculation ... + + "... It is impossible for me to describe to you the fascination + which this man exercises over me. You know that I do not usually + exaggerate, although inclined to the mystical and romantic. I + have lived too little on land, however, for any ideas of that + nature to have taken much hold upon my mind. At sea, the movement + of the winds and waves, the unintermitting intercourse with one's + fellow-men--the whole life of a mariner, in short, leaves little + leisure for such fancies. But here, in this tropical clime, where + the heavens are of so deep a blue, and the leaves of so bright a + green, where the imagination is worked upon by Oriental scenery + and magnificence, and the very air one breathes is laden with + perfumes from the flower-fields and spice-groves of Araby the + Blest, here is the land of fiction and reverie, and here I at + times think that my new and most agreeable friend has laid me + under a spell equally pleasant and potent in its effects--a spell + from which I have neither wish nor ability to emancipate myself. + Yet why should I wish to escape an influence exercised only for + my good, and by which I must benefit? My greatest happiness is in + the friendship of this man, my greatest trust and reliance are in + his counsels. Stern is he, bold, almost rash in his actions, but + ever successful; and when he has an end to gain, nothing can + withstand him, no obstacle bar him from its attainment.... + + "... in the kindest manner lent me the sum I wanted to complete + the purchase-money of the diamonds, but obstinately refuses to + share the profits which, on my return to Europe, are sure to + accrue from this speculation. What generosity! M----is assuredly + the most disinterested and the truest of friends. We are becoming + each day more attached to each other. He has formed a project to + come and settle near Hamburg, and there we shall pass the rest of + our days together. He is a most singular and interesting person. + I shall weary you, perhaps, by all these details; but every thing + that relates to him interests me. Only think, the other day I + found in a cabinet in his apartment, a mask, which he told me he + had himself made. I never saw such a masterpiece. It was of wax, + imitating perfectly a human countenance, of an expression + eminently attractive, although sad. He was not in the room when I + found it, in seeking for a book he had promised to lend me. He + came in when I had just taken it out of the drawer in which it + was, and an angry exclamation" ... + + +These disjointed but significant fragments were all of any interest +that the flames had spared. From them, however, I acquired a moral +certainty that Manucci was my father's murderer. In order to obtain +possession of the diamonds, of which no trace had been found after my +father's death, the perfidious Italian had doubtless administered to +him some deadly poison. This must have been so skilfully prepared as +not to take effect till the murderer had left the house a sufficiently +long time to prevent any risk of suspicion attaching to him. + +Burning to avenge my unfortunate parent, I now set to work with the +utmost energy to discover what had become of Manucci. I caused +enquiries to be made in every direction, and resorted to every means I +could devise to find out the assassin; but for a long time all was in +vain. It was not till several years after my mother's death that we +again met--a meeting which, like our first, was to me fraught with +bitter sorrow. + +I had been for some time in the Russian service, and the regiment to +which I belonged was quartered at a village a few leagues from Warsaw. +At the period I speak of, a country house in the neighbourhood of the +village belonged to, and was occupied by, General Count Gutzkoff, a +nobleman of ancient descent and great wealth, and who had an only +daughter called Natalie, the perfection of feminine grace and beauty. +The villa had been christened Natalina, after his daughter, and no +expense had been spared to render it and the grounds attached to it +worthy of their lovely sponsor. Amongst other embellishments, a large +portion of the park had been laid out in miniature imitation of Swiss +scenery, with chalêts, and waterfalls, and artificial mountains, that +must have taken a vast time and labour to construct. There was an +excellent house in this part of the grounds, inhabited by a sort of +intendant or steward, and in this house rooms were assigned to me, I +having been quartered upon General Gutzkoff. I had thus many +opportunities of seeing Natalie, whose charms soon inspired me with a +passion which, to my inexpressible joy, I after a time found to be +reciprocated by her. I am not writing a romance, but a plain +narrative of some of the strangest incidents in my life; I will, +therefore, pass over the rise and progress of our attachment, of the +existence of which the general at length became aware. He was a proud +and ambitious man, and my small fortune and lieutenant's epaulette by +no means qualified me in his eyes to become his son-in-law. Natalie +was threatened with a convent, and I was requested to discontinue my +visits to the house. About the same time, I heard it rumoured that a +rich cousin, then stopping with the general, was the intended husband +of the young countess. + +For some days I found it impossible to obtain a meeting with Natalie, +although I put every stratagem in practice, and sought every +opportunity of meeting her in her walks. After the general's positive, +although courteous prohibition, I of course could not think of +returning to his house. It was therefore with much anxiety that I +looked forward to a ball which was to be given by a rich old Smyrniot, +who lived at Warsaw. He was acquainted with the officers of my +regiment, and to console us, as he said, for the dulness of our +country quarters, he proposed to give a fête sufficiently splendid to +attract the ladies of the capital to the village where we were +stationed. He was intimate with General Gutzkoff, who lent him for the +occasion the part of his domain called the Swiss park, and there the +fête was to be held. I made sure of meeting Natalie there, and perhaps +even of finding an opportunity of speaking to her unobserved by her +father. + +The much wished-for evening came, and a numerous and brilliant company +was assembled in the gardens. The long alleys of trees were rendered +light as day by a profusion of lamps, of which the globes of painted +crystal were suspended by wires from tree to tree, and appeared to +float unsupported upon the air. Under two large pavilions of various +colours, flooring had been laid down, and chalked in fanciful devices. +These were for the dancers. Several bands of music were placed in +different parts of the grounds; and in the various cottages and Swiss +dairies tables were laid out, covered with the most exquisite +refreshments and delicate wines. On either side of the principal +fountains were transparencies, with emblems and mottoes complimentary +to the guests and to the noble owner of the park; and, finally, that +nothing might be wanting to the gratification of every taste, a +crimson tent, richly decorated, contained a faro-table, upon which a +large bank in gold was placed. Crowds of officers, and of beautiful +women splendidly attired, thronged the dancing rooms or rambled +through the illuminated walks. Natalie was there, but accompanied by +her father and cousin, so that I could not venture to accost her. She +looked sad, I thought, but more lovely than ever; and when at last she +sat down in one of the summer-houses, I approached as near as I could +without being myself seen, in order at least to have the pleasure of +gazing on her sweet countenance. I was leaning against a tree, cursing +the cruel fate that separated me from the object of my love, when one +of my comrades came up and asked me if I would not go to the +faro-room. There was a man there, he said playing with the most +wonderful luck that had ever been seen. He had already broken two +banks, and seemed likely to do the same with a third that had been put +down. I was in no humour to take interest in such matters, and should +have declined my brother officer's invitation, had I not just then +seen Natalie and her companions get up and take the direction of the +gambling tent. I followed with my friend. The play that was going on +had, however, no attraction for me; I had no eyes for any one but +Natalie, and was almost unaware of what was passing around me. After +standing for a short time near the table, the general turned aside to +talk with the colonel of my regiment, and his cousin went to speak +with some ladies who had just entered. The moment was favourable for +exchanging a few words with Natalie. I was about to approach her, when +there was a sudden bustle and loud exclamations round the table. + +"See there!" exclaimed my comrade, "he has won again." + +I glanced hastily at the fortunate player, and then started back +petrified by surprise. It was Manucci. + +My first impulse upon beholding the man whom I had been so long +seeking, and whom I held for my father's murderer, was instantly to +seize him and tax him with his crime. An instant's reflection, +however, suggested to me the impropriety of such a course. What +evidence had I to offer before a court of law in support of my +accusation? The tale I had to tell was far too extraordinary a one to +be believed on the unsupported testimony of an accuser. This man +seemed well known to several of the guests who stood near him; he wore +the decorations of two or three foreign orders, and appeared to be a +person of some mark. Might I not even be deceived by a strong +resemblance? At any rate, it was sufficient if I kept him in sight +till I had an opportunity of making enquiries concerning him. If it +were Manucci, I was determined he should not escape me. + +I was still gazing hard at the stranger, and becoming each moment more +and more convinced of his identity with Manucci, when, to my great +surprise, I saw him leave the table and approach Natalie. She seemed +to know him; they exchanged a few sentences, and then, passing through +a door, they left the tent together. I hurried after them as fast as +the crowd of persons through which I had to make my way would allow +me. On getting out of the tent I saw no signs either of Natalie or the +stranger. They could not be far--they must have turned down one of the +numerous sidepaths; and I darted in quest of them down the first I +came to. I had run and walked over nearly half the grounds without +finding them, when I met the general and his cousin, who, with looks +of some suspicion, asked me if I had seen Natalie. I told them with +whom I had last seen her; but my description of the stranger, although +minute and accurate, did not enable the general to recognise in him +any one of his acquaintance; and separating, we resumed our search in +different directions with increased anxiety and redoubled care. + +While thus engaged, loud cries were suddenly heard proceeding from the +upper floor of one of the châlets or ornamental cottages near which I +was then passing, and of which the lower part only was used for the +purposes of the fête. I hastened thither, rushed up the staircase, +and, in so doing, ran against an officer who was carrying down Natalie +in his arms. She was senseless. At that moment her father arrived and +took charge of her. Above stairs, all was confusion and alarm, and a +number of the guests were seeking the villain who had dared to insult +or ill-treat the young countess. But he was nowhere to be found, and +it was supposed that he had jumped out of the window, and, favoured by +the darkness, had made his escape. Natalie, when she recovered from +her swoon, was still too weak and too terrified to give any +explanation concerning the matter. She was conveyed to her father's +house, the fête was broken up, and the guests took their departure. My +brother officers and myself mounted our horses, and rode in every +direction to endeavour to find the offender. All our researches, +however, were fruitless. + +Strange to say, this singular incident excited much less attention, +and was much more rapidly forgotten, than could possibly have been +expected, especially when the rank and importance of the offended +party were considered. After the first day, few efforts seemed to be +made for the discovery of the stranger except by myself; and all that +I did towards that end was unsuccessful. The murderer of my father, +the spoiler of my inheritance, the vile insulter of the woman I loved, +had for this time eluded my vengeance. + +About a fortnight after the fête, it became publicly rumoured that any +project of marriage which might have been contemplated by General +Gutzkoff between his daughter and her cousin, was at an end, and that +Natalie was to take the veil. It was known that, before the death of +the late countess, who was an exceedingly religious woman, it had been +in agitation to devote Natalie to a religious life; but when the +general became a widower, nothing more had been heard of the plan. It +now almost seemed as if its revival and contemplated execution were +in some way consequent on the strange incident at the ball. The +matter, however, was far too delicate for any one to question +concerning it those who alone could have given information. At the +appointed time Natalie entered as novice a convent of Ursulines, +situated at about a league from her father's villa. + +The first news of this event was a terrible shock to me. In spite of +the small favour with which the general regarded my attachment to his +daughter, I had still hoped that time or circumstances might bring +about some change in his sentiments. But the cloister opposed a yet +stronger bar to my wishes than the will of a parent, and the vows once +pronounced, which at the end of one short year Natalie would have to +utter, I might bid farewell to hope. Our separation would then be +irrevocable and eternal in this world. It was necessary, therefore, to +make the best use of the short space of her noviciate, in order to put +in execution one of the numerous plans which I devised for freeing her +from the state of holy bondage which I was certain she had only +through compulsion been induced to enter. Day and night I hovered +about the convent, in hopes of catching a glimpse of Natalie, or of +finding an opportunity of giving her a letter, in which I strenuously +urged her to accept a plan of escape that I proposed to her. At last +an opportunity occurred. She was walking in the convent garden with +another novice, who left her for an instant to gather some flowers. I +was watching all their movements, and at this moment I threw my letter +at Natalie's feet. She took it up, retired into a shrubbery walk to +read it, and presently returned. + +"To-morrow," said she, "the answer--here." + +With what anxious impatience did I look forward to her reply, and with +what despairing feelings did it fill me when I received it! In it +Natalie spoke of her approaching death as of an event of the +occurrence of which she was thoroughly persuaded, and besought me to +give up all hopes of again seeing her. + +At this period of the year the nuns of the Ursuline convent inhabited +their summer cells, which were a row of buildings situated in the +convent garden. Natalie had the last cell, which was separated by +several empty ones from those of the other sisters. It was on the +second day after I received her letter that the nuns were surprised by +her not opening her door at the usual hour. They waited some time for +her appearance, but in vain. They knocked; there was no answer. At +last the door was forced open and Natalie was found lying dead upon +the floor of the cell. She had evidently been dragged out of bed with +great violence; her features were distorted with pain and struggling, +and in her left breast was a wound which had been the cause of her +death. The murderer had broken in through the roof of the cell. + +The news of this horrible occurrence flew with lightning swiftness +through the neighbourhood and to Warsaw. Nobody doubted that there was +some connexion between the crime and the singular occurrence at the +ball, although it was impossible to say what that connexion was. Every +attempt to discover and apprehend the murderer proved unavailing. + +In order to see Natalie for the last time, I repaired to the convent +church, in which, according to custom, her corpse was laid out. With +faltering and uncertain steps I passed through the aisle, and reached +the chapel where the remains of her I had so fondly loved were lying. +I stepped up to the bier, but the next instant turned away my face. I +lacked courage to look upon the cold corpse of my adored mistress. A +violent dizziness seized me, the pillars around me seemed to turn and +twist about, and the roof of the church to shake. I sank senseless +upon a chair. + +How long I may have remained in that state I am unable to say. It was +night when consciousness returned, and the moon was shedding its cold, +clear light through the high Gothic windows. I felt heated and +excited; all manner of strange fancies passed through my head, the +predominant one being to go at once and wander about the world, till I +should discover the fiend to whom the misery I now suffered was +attributable. Before doing so, however, I must see my Natalie once +more. I stepped up to the coffin. Natalie lay there in her nun's +garments, a crucifix upon her breast, and a veil surrounding her face, +which, to my inexpressible astonishment and horror, I now saw was +covered with a mask. + +I was at first unable to explain this singular circumstance, but then +it occurred to me that her lovely features had been said to be much +distorted in death, and doubtless her friends had taken this means of +concealing them from the gaze of vulgar curiosity. I would see her +though, I thought; I would kiss those lips, once so warm and +love-breathing, now so pale and chilled. The better if, in her +death-like embrace, I found an end to my life and suffering. I +stretched out my hand to detach the mask, which was by no means +unpleasing in its appearance. It reminded me of the one spoken of by +my father in one of his letters; and as I stood looking at it, I +little by little persuaded myself it must be the same. The lips curved +into a mournful smile, an attractive expression on the features; only +the sockets for the eyes were empty, and through them shone the glazed +orbs of the departed. + +Whilst given up to these reflections, I suddenly heard a slight +rustling noise near me. I looked round, and saw a muffled figure +sitting at a short distance off, in which I thought I recognized some +old nun keeping her drowsy vigil by the dead. I took no heed of her, +but stretched out my hand to tear the mask from Natalie's face, when +suddenly the figure rose, and with three long, noiseless strides, +stood close beside me. The robe in which it was muffled opened, and I +beheld--Manucci! not the Manucci I had seen at the faro-table, nor yet +he who had lived for years near my mother's house, but the grey old +man who had appeared to me on the night of my father's arrival, and +had said, "Do I look like a murderer?" + +"Thou here, villain!" I exclaimed, on beholding this unexpected +apparition. "The hand of heaven is in this!" + +I stretched forth my arm to seize the murderer, who thus braved me +beside the corpse of his last victim; but as I did so I experienced a +strange stunning sensation, and fell, as though struck by a +thunderbolt, lifeless to the ground. The first persons who entered the +church upon the following morning found me in this state, and carried +me to the nearest house, where I lay for weeks in a raging fever, +during which time Natalie was buried, and the flowers that sprang up +on her grave were withered by the frosts and snows of winter. When I +at last became convalescent, and re-appeared amongst men, Natalie was +forgotten; and the strange circumstances that had occurred to me in +the church would have obtained no credence, or at most would have been +considered as the precursors of fever, the visions resulting from a +heated imagination and exhausted frame. Indeed my memory was in so +confused a state, and the weeks I had passed in the unconsciousness of +delirium, caused every thing that had previously happened to appear so +remote and indistinct, that I was myself almost unable to give any +clear and definite form to the occurrences that preceded my illness. +My health was greatly shaken, and I was no longer equal to any +occupation that required sustained exertion and application. I +resigned my commission, therefore, and formed a plan to divide my life +amongst the various large cities of Europe, changing from time to +time, and constantly endeavouring to seize again the thread that had +escaped me, and if possible to discover and unmask the vile impostor +who had destroyed my life's happiness. I may, perhaps, some day write +down the various and strange adventures that I have met with during +these researches, and in my wandering course of life. In this +portfolio, however, I will put nothing but what relates to any further +discoveries I may make concerning the base Italian and his +machinations. + + * * * * * + +Here Adrian's manuscript ended; but between the two following blank +leaves I found a letter dated from St Petersburg, written in a +different hand, and that seemed to form a sort of appendix or +continuation to the preceding narrative. This letter, from the +different dates scattered through it, appeared to have been continued +from time to time, several weeks elapsing between its commencement and +the period at which it was sent off. The envelope was wanting, and +there was no address; but, from its contents, it appeared that it had +not been written to Adrian, but to a friend of his who had handed it +to him. At the end came a dozen lines in Adrian's handwriting, leaving +off somewhat abruptly. Here follows the letter:-- + + _St Petersburg, 12th June._ + + My dear Augustus,--Of all the wealthy and distinguished + foreigners whom this gay season has brought together in St + Petersburg, not any attract so much attention as the Marchese + d'Emiliano and his daughter. The father is as remarkable for his + learning and talents as the daughter is for her innumerable + graces and accomplishments, which draw all eyes upon her. She has + only one extraordinary peculiarity, which is--but stay, I will + first describe her to you, so that this singularity, when I tell + you of it, may appear the more striking. Picture to yourself a + brunette, slender and perfectly formed, possessing the exact and + beautiful proportions of a Grecian statue--a foot smaller and + better shaped than I ever yet beheld--an exquisite hand, slender + and tapering, not one of those short fleshy hands with dimpled + fingers, which it is now the fashion to admire, but for which no + precedent is to be found in the Medicean goddess or in any other + standard of beauty. A magnificent bust, an arm like alabaster, a + profusion of dark flowing hair, grace in every movement. But--now + comes the wonder, my friend--instead of a face corresponding in + beauty with this perfect form, there is--a mask. Can you imagine + a greater absurdity? and yet they are people who, in every other + respect, show extreme good taste. + + From the lips of this mask proceeds a voice which, for melody and + sweetness, I have never heard equaled. In speaking, its tones are + of silver, but when she sings one forgets mask and every thing + else to give one's-self up to an ecstacy of perfect enjoyment. + She knows a vast deal of Italian, French, and Spanish music, + languages that she speaks with the utmost purity, and she + accompanies herself alternately on piano, guitar, or mandoline, + of which instruments she is a perfect mistress. Her dancing is no + less admirable than her singing; and, at every ball to which she + goes, crowds collect around her to watch the sylph-like grace + with which she glides through the dance. In short, she unites + every womanly accomplishment, and yet this heavenly creature + persists in concealing her face under that vile mask, which fits + so closely that not the smallest portion of her countenance can + be perceived. However hideous the latter may be, it would be + preferable to this horrid covering. Not that the mask is ugly; on + the contrary, it is the handsomest I ever saw, and in itself has + nothing disagreeable. It is formed of wax, and has a mournful + expression which is quite attractive, at least when its owner + sits still; but when she moves or speaks, the dead look of the + mask has an indescribably unpleasant effect. Several persons have + indirectly questioned the Marchese on this subject, but he evades + or turns off their enquiries with all the tact of a consummate + man of the world. Of course it would be indelicate, if not + unfeeling, to ask her about it. Meantime the public amuses itself + with all sorts of absurd suppositions. First it is a vow; then + she has got a pig's face; then her waiting-maid had said that she + had once caught her unmasked, and that her face was covered with + feathers and had a beak in the middle of it. Then, again, it is a + stratagem, to try the man whom she shall marry, and to see if he + will love her for something besides her appearance, and on her + wedding-day she will take off the mask and disclose features of + perfect beauty. All this is of course mere gossip; for nobody + knows any thing about these Italians, except that the Marchese is + enormously rich, and that his daughter, in spite of her mask, is + the most amiable and fascinating of women. Amongst other + absurdities, a report was spread that the marquis was no other + than the celebrated St Germains, who, as is well known, was + himself no other than the Wandering Jew. It is ridiculous to hear + the extraordinary things they tell of him. Only the other day it + was asserted that he had been met in a distant country, where he + passed under another name, and was remarkable for his constant + and almost suspicious success in gambling. I should be very + curious to trace all these reports to their source. Their + inventors can at least have no lack of imagination. The fact is, + that there is unquestionably something strange and mysterious + about the old man--but what does it amount to after all? He is an + old Italian marquis, his foreign manners and appearance, and + imposing title, work upon the imagination of us northerns, and at + once make us suspect an adventurer in this worthy old nobleman. + The mere presence of Natalie (that is his daughter's name) is + sufficient to refute such a suspicion. She is the incarnation of + all that is pure and beautiful; and I confess to you, my friend, + that I am each day becoming more and more the slave of her + attractions. If in society she exhibits her varied + accomplishments, on the other hand, when we are alone, she is the + simple and unsophisticated girl. During our _tête-à-têtes_, + however, it has not escaped me that she is frequently melancholy; + a something seems at times to weigh upon her spirits; and, + although she evidently struggles to hide this, she has been + unable to conceal it from my close and interested observation. + Yes, my friend, interested, for deeply interested I am in all + that concerns Natalie; and, I own to you, that in spite of her + mask, in spite of the mystery that surrounds her, nothing would + make me so happy as to call her mine. + + + _27th June._--A week ago it was Natalie's birth-day. She had felt + herself somewhat indisposed, and had begged the Marchese not to + invite any guests. Nevertheless, when I called to offer my good + wishes on the occasion, they kept me there till evening. We then + walked out in the garden--Natalie and myself, that is to say--and + sat down upon a rustic seat, amidst a cluster of flowering shrubs + that perfumed the air around us. I know not of what we spoke, + but, after a short time, I found myself with my arm round + Natalie's waist, her hand clasped in mine, her mask--alas! that I + cannot say her face--resting upon my shoulder. It was one of + those sweet moments with which past and future have nought to do, + but during which one lives upon the present. Gradually my lips + drew nearer and nearer to her waxen ones, but, half-jesting, she + turned her head away. I became more persevering, and without + saying any thing to her I raised my arm gently till my hand + touched her hair, amongst which the fastenings of the mask were + apparently concealed. In another moment the mystery would be + solved, and I should gaze doubtless on the most lovely + countenance that ever blessed a lover's sight. At that very + instant she uttered a sort of shriek, and sprang from my embrace. + In vain did I entreat and supplicate her to suffer me to remove + that envious mask. She was inexorable, and just then, attracted + perhaps by Natalie's cry, the Marchese appeared. + + "What!" said he in a distant and somewhat angry tone and manner, + "nearly midnight, and you are still here?" + + The time had indeed passed rapidly. The hint was too direct for + me to do otherwise than apologize and depart. + + Since that evening they have treated me with some coolness, nor + can I wonder at it. My constant visits to their house have become + the talk of all St Petersburg; and it is evident that I must + either declare myself the suitor of Natalie or avoid her + altogether. Avoid her! How can I do it? Do not blame me, + Augustus, when I tell you that I have decided to go this day to + the Marquis and ask his daughter's hand. Rank, fortune, every + thing in short, is suitable. Only that mystery--but I will not + think of it. I lay down my pen, and go instantly to execute my + intention. + + + _30th June._--You will set me down as a fool when you read what I + last wrote. I should perhaps say the same of you, were our + positions reversed; and yet, were you not my old friend and + comrade, I should feel disposed to be angry with you for saying + it of me on this occasion. She is mine, Augustus--mine by her + own and her father's promise. My friend, I am unutterably happy. + I am not able to look forward with any thing like coolness to the + moment when she shall remove that odious mask, and disclose the + lovely countenance which I am persuaded it conceals. + + + _8th July._--I cannot understand Natalie. She seems happy at the + prospect of becoming my wife; and yet that same melancholy which + I have before noticed, hangs about her, and seems impossible to + be dissipated. Can she have had some previous attachment, some + disappointed affection, which has left its lingering regrets, and + which her present engagement recalls more vividly to her + recollection? And yet, why torment myself thus? She loves + me--that I cannot doubt; and surely her approaching change of + condition, and the separation from her father which it must + sooner or later entail, are sufficient to account for an + occasional pensiveness on the part of a young and susceptible + girl. In vain do I seek for any other probable cause of her + melancholy. At times I fancy that she has some disclosure or + confession to make to me, which she has difficulty in repressing. + + + _23d July._--The secret is out. Natalie is ugly. You laugh + already at the poor dupe. But beware of laughing too soon: for he + can be no dupe who becomes the husband of Natalie; should her + face prove as hideous as that of Medusa. You will perceive from + this that I have not yet seen it, nor, truth to tell, am I now so + anxious to do so. She has been tormenting herself with the fear + that I should cease to love her when I once saw her unmasked, and + has reproached herself innumerable times for having encouraged my + passion. She has decided what to do. On her marriage-day, before + I lead her to the altar, I am to see her without her mask. + To-morrow is that day; and although I am prepared for the very + worst, yet my uneasiness increases with every hour that brings me + nearer to the decisive moment. My regrets are infinite that she + has persisted so long in her disguise. If at the commencement of + our attachment she had had the courage to remove that fatal mask, + I must still have loved her; no deformity of feature would have + been sufficient to neutralize the effect of her other charms and + accomplishments. But now, at the moment that I have been looking + forward to as the happiest of my life, to have my bliss disturbed + by such a revelation--it is cruel! Yet how can I blame her for + conduct so natural in a woman who loves? She feared to see my + growing affection turned into aversion, and delayed to the utmost + the much dreaded disclosure. Enough for to-day. I send off this + letter. After my marriage you shall hear from me again. Ever + yours, + + Paul S----. + + +What a ray of light thrown upon my dark uncertainties! "To St +Petersburg, instantly! The trace is found!" + +Such was my exclamation after reading the above letter, which was +communicated to me at Vienna by an old and tried friend. In an +incredibly short time I had reached the Russian capital. What I there +learned was as follows:-- + +On the day appointed for the marriage of Natalie d'Emiliano and the +young Swedish count, Paul S----, when all were in readiness to proceed +to the church, and the guests were only waiting the appearance of the +bride and bridegroom, a piercing cry was suddenly heard in a room +adjoining that in which the bridal party was assembled. The company +hurried, in the direction of the sound, and there found the Count +lying apparently lifeless on the floor, while the bride was hastily +securing the fastenings of her mask. The guests thronged round the +former, and tried every means of recovering him from the death-like +swoon into which he had fallen. After much trouble they were +successful. The Marchese and Natalie were then sought for, but both +had disappeared; and neither of them were ever afterwards seen or +heard of in St Petersburg. The bridegroom could never be induced to +tell what it was that the mask concealed. + + + + +TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. + +No. IV. + +THE MOOR MAIDEN. + + +"Wildernesses and heaths are not the only spots that boast of their +_Fata Morgana_," said Woldemar, in a society of torch-bearers which +regularly assembled in the old castle on Christmas night. + +"The vision appears in a hundred places, in shapes answering to the +peculiarity of soil and country in which she rises. Here she is an +apparition of the air, beaming with splendour; there she unfolds +herself in glittering mist. On the unbounded plain, you behold her in +the form of an enchanted city--a paradise of leafy loveliness, or it +may be simply as a fantastic Erl-King, a giddy dazzling vapour. Let +her appear, however, where and how she will, she is ever seductive, +mysterious, and beautiful, and attended with the awe of a strange +nameless delight. + +"You know the high table-land, strewed with countless blocks of +granite, between C---- and K----. Inclosed upon two sides by mountains +and thick groves of beech, it would be a perfect desert but for the +clear crystal brook which purls its way along the glistening stones. +This labyrinthine brook, indeed, fills the barren spot with animation, +whilst it creates too that singular power of attraction which we +cannot explain to ourselves, but which, nevertheless, becomes our +unfailing companion in regions with which the heart of the people has +intimately associated itself by tales of wonder and tradition. + +"The Tradition touching this very table-land is dim and shapeless, +like the thick mist of a sultry summer's day, hanging over hill and +valley. It is most convenient to the common working mind to retain and +hold fast in a history only so much as is needful for the great +catastrophe. The people are content to abide by the beginning and end +of things, not concerning themselves with the important connecting +links. All that lies between is left to the imagination of the more +inquisitive to fill up. A tradition of this order occurs to me this +moment, and, by your leave, I will do my best to complete it:-- + +"A mysterious curse lay upon the noble house of Gottmar. No male scion +was suffered to perpetuate the race. The bride of his selection died +on her wedding-day, and he himself was doomed to follow quickly after. +The rich possessions passed to the nearest relative, who, by virtue of +an ancient law, assumed the name of Gottmar. The family was very +ancient. It traced its origin back to the Sclavonian priests, the +sacrificers to the God Mahr, and bore in its armorial ensigns a +sacrificial axe and a blood channel, in shape like that which at this +day is found cut into the granite-blocks of the high mountain that +bears the name of Gottmar. The later descendants of this powerful and +widely-ramified house could no longer explain the cause of their cruel +condition. It had been deemed advisable by their ancestors to +exterminate every record of it, hoping thereby perhaps to weaken, in +the course of time, the curse itself. The precaution was fruitless. No +alteration whatever took place in the fate of the doomed family, which +at length was regarded, no less by itself than by the world, as the +outlawed of heaven. + +"The last living representative of the house of Gottmar entered upon +the family inheritance upon the death of his cousin. Bolko was a mild +yet enthusiastic youth, glowing with deep, ripe feeling, and needy of +human love. He had little joy in the acquisition of what, in other +circumstances, might have been considered his enviable fortune. He +thought only of the miserable destiny that sentenced him to celibacy +or death. His immediate predecessor, riding across a heath to take a +last farewell of his bride, had been struck dead by lightning, and the +maiden herself had been hurled from life at the edge of a precipice. +Bolko, attired in mourning, sat at the window of his lofty castle, and +surveyed the lovely prospect before him, bathed as it was in the +golden light of evening. Here were rich forests, there teeming fields; +in the depths of the valleys prosperous labouring villages; and in the +far distance, towering above all, the blue crests and jagged peaks of +a mountain region. + +"'And all has become mine!' he exclaimed, resting his forehead +dejectedly upon his hand; 'to pass quickly away again, and unenjoyed! +And I, in ignorance, why! To be a sinner, a criminal, and not +conscious of one criminal aspiration. Yet, to be punished for +crime--to be killed for crime. Oh, it is hard! And heaven, sweet and +fair as she appears, is crueler than I could have believed.' + +"His preceptor, confessor and friend stepped into the apartment. +Hubert was an aged man, learned and pious, and well skilled, it was +believed, in cabalistic science. He had buried three Gottmars, and +received their last confessions. From these he had drawn conjectures +and conclusions which induced him to investigate the traditions +current amongst the people respecting his unhappy patrons; and out of +all, he was able at last to form a picture of probability, to the +completeness of which some demonstrative evidence of its truth was +wanting. At the period of which I speak--it was still before the +Reformation--books were held in slender esteem. Nevertheless, there +was a library in Gottmar castle, consisting of numerous manuscripts, +the production of monks, and chiefly on religious subjects. The lords +of the castle, engaged in the chase, in fishing, and other knightly +pastimes, had not, from time out of mind, disturbed the repose of +their written treasures. They lay piled one upon another, covered with +dust, mildewed, and worm-eaten. Hubert, in the prosecution of his +purpose, did not fail to examine the neglected documents; and he had +reason to rejoice at his labours, when he found amongst the rolls a +learned treatise on astrology, a science which he himself had studied +with unwearied industry and ardour. His joy and astonishment, however, +were not complete, until he found himself master of a decaying +parchment, which, in almost obsolete characters, expounded to his +eager senses the mysterious destiny of the house of Gottmar. He hugged +the knowledge to his soul, deciphered the ancient syllables in his own +quiet cell, and waited for the proper hour to communicate the +marvellous secret to his lord and pupil. He heard the complainings of +the youthful Bolko, and he recognised in them a hint from heaven. He +now approached him with tenderness, and pressed his pupil's hand. + +"'Courage, my son!' said he. 'The veil is withdrawn.' + +"Bolko drew a heavy sigh. + +"'I have spoken the truth, my child!' continued Hubert. 'Believe and +trust!' + +"'Thanks for thy kind words, good Hubert,' replied the youth. 'I +revere thy wisdom, I esteem thy love. How shall I believe that it has +been permitted thee to break open the gloomy vaults of the past?' + +"'And yet if this were so! If an auspicious--a heaven-sent chance'-- + +"'Hubert!' + +"'Hast thou courage, Bolko, to penetrate into the past?--Then read +this roll attentively. It offers us the means, as I most solemnly +believe, to weaken, if not annihilate, the curse which has so long +persecuted thy unhappy race.' + +"Hubert drew a parchment from the folds of his garment, and placed it +in the hands of the astounded Bolko. The priest immediately withdrew. +The youthful noble as quickly drew a chair to the window; and by the +vanishing light of the evening sky, he read the following history:-- + + "'_This is the last Confession of Walter, baron of Gottmar, which + I, his Confessor, write down by his command, that it may be + preserved in everlasting remembrance, by all who are Descendants + of the House of Gottmar._ + + "'My great-uncle Herbert, the tenth inheritor of this territory, + was a passionate lover of the chase. In all seasons of the year, + in good weather and in bad, by day and night, he scoured the + boundless forests which he called his own. In his time, the + hunting of the boar was a noble and especial sport, and hence + the breeding of these beasts was diligently fostered and + encouraged. The immense forests of beech and fir upon the slopes + of the mountain which bears our name, attracted to their + neighbourhood an extraordinary number of these boars; so that at + all times my ancestor could indulge his passion to the full. + During one of his grand expeditions, two remarkable events had + place. A gigantic boar dug open with his tusks a marvellously + clear spring, which bubbled forth so vigorously, and purled so + bright and cool along the mossy fields, that a brook was formed + from it immediately. This discharged itself into the low grounds + with rare turns and windings; so that Herbert was fain to fix a + village there, and to name it after the boar, and the brook which + his ferocity had brought to light. Whilst this was happening on + the western declivity of the mountain, a similar accident took + place upon the slope projecting to the eastward. Here, in like + manner, a considerable bed of turf was discovered, and close upon + it, beneath granitic sand, another powerful spring. This Herbert + caused empty itself into large ponds; and the turf-pit he had + worked by skilful men, over whom he placed as chief Wittehold his + page. The profit from this turf was so large that the wealth of + Herbert grew more and more, and the population of the + newly-founded village rose as rapidly; since every new settler + was suffered to take on the turf-bed as much fuel as he needed + for firing during the space of five years. + + "'Wittehold, too, the overseer, was well contented with his post. + He enjoyed the confidence of his lord, and became independent. He + married; and, after the lapse of a year, had the happiness to + press a lovely child to his fond bosom. But the birth of the + child cost him the life of her mother. Herbert promised to + provide for the orphan, and maintained his word. My great-uncle + was a bachelor, who had never been able to meet with a maiden + possessing all the qualities which he demanded in a wife. He + postponed the all-important step of marriage from year to year, + without suffering any inconvenience from the delay. + + "'In the mean time the beautiful daughter of Wittehold--who had, + I know not why, been christened AURIOLA--grew to womanhood, and + unfolded a sweetness and grace that fascinated all beholders. + Herbert, whose heart had so long resisted the attacks of love, + was not proof against the beauty, ingenuousness, and innocence of + Auriola. He confessed his affection to the maiden, and petitioned + Wittehold for his child. With the last, contrary to expectation, + he found but little favour. Wittehold submitted that his daughter + was not born to be the consort of so great and rich a lord, and + respectfully declined the honour of her advancement. Moreover, he + had already promised her to a faithful comrade, a worthy overseer + at the turf-works. Herbert expostulated, appealed to his + protection of Auriola, to her affection for him, but in vain. He + plied the obstinate Wittehold with threats. In spite of them the + latter held out: he did more; he bore his child with his own hand + from the castle, and carried her to his cottage near the pit, + hoping, by such a step, and by sound remonstrance, to lead his + fascinated master on to other and to better thoughts. + + "'The conduct of Wittehold threw Auriola into a deep melancholy. + She hurried to the cottage door a hundred times a-day, and looked + with straining eye towards the lofty castle of her lover. Her + father being absent, she would bound, swift as a fawn, through + the silvery grass that trembled and sparkled in the sunny light, + and seat herself upon the high margin of the spring, feeding her + vision with the pearly drops that bubbled from the bottom. The + spot, visited by few, was rendered almost sacred by a cluster of + broad-armed beech-trees that overshadowed it. Herbert encountered + his Auriola in this retreat. Who shall tell their joy? Herbert + urged his suit--Auriola followed him through bush and thicket, + and was powerless before his ardent supplications. Wittehold + surprised the pair. His fury and indignation were ungovernable. + Herbert, in self-defence, had recourse to his good sword, but + this was as a lath against the ire of his assailant. Wittehold + slew his lord. Not yet satisfied, the madman pursued his + fugitive child, whose screams for aid only brought her to a + speedier end. He met her at the spring--there seized the + trembling creature, and mercilessly cast her in. The maiden + struggled for an instant; but, the short conflict over, she + uttered a piteous wail, and sank for ever beneath the + softly-rippling water. Even whilst she struggled, the inhuman + father raised his clenched fist, and pointed with it towards + Gottmar's castle. 'God of heaven!' he exclaimed, 'hear my curse; + and may it fall like the unerring bolt upon this execrated race. + May no male offspring take to his arms a bride, or brighten his + hearth with her presence, until a Gottmar restore my daughter's + virgin honour. Until this happen, let the poor victim be + accursed, and evil work with the posterity of her betrayer!' The + miserable murderer invoked the infernal powers to assist in the + fulfilment of his curse, and then, as if beside himself, ran to + the turf-pits. Here he procured a shovel and an axe. With their + help he choked up the crystal grave of his daughter, and diverted + the strong current into the pit, which it soon flooded. This + done, he fled into the woods, and has not since been heard of. + But his curse has been fulfilled with frightful regularity in the + family of Gottmar. Not one has married with impunity. Bridegroom + and bride have fallen. Auriola, crying for vengeance, hovers + above the turf-pit, which since that hour has become a wide + unfathomable moor. + + Heinrich Wendelin, _Chaplain_.' + + +"The hand of Bolko dropped as he finished the narrative. The evening +twilight thickened before his eyes. He sank into a solemn musing. When +he awoke from it, Hubert was again at his side. + +"'Hast thou read?' enquired the teacher. + +"Bolko slowly raised his head, and looked full in the face of his +confessor. + +"'Canst thou vouch for this, Hubert?' he asked in his turn. 'Is it +genuine, is it true?' + +"'Since when hast thou learned to suspect me of deception?' replied +the old man calmly. + +"'Forgive me, Hubert. This narrative confounds me. I am unable to +distinguish truth from falsehood. But do thou advise me. What dost +thou think of it? Can a curse such as this is represented to have +been--can it have retained its force so long?' + +"'Universal nature is one tremendous mystery,' replied the priest; +'who shall decide wherein her power consists? At the best we can but +conjecture at her connexion with the world of man--her weaving and +working. No one can deny that a solemn curse, spoken with a determined +and haughty purpose, has often, on the very instant, accomplished its +fulfilment. If this be so, why may it not work again and again? The +disregarded belief of the people--that a curse floats in the air until +it finds its victim, and then drops down upon him--is not so worthless +as men would have us think. There is at least expressed in it, dimly +and perhaps unconsciously, the inseparable union that subsists between +the spirit of man and the all-governing spirit of nature.' + +"The youth had risen from his chair, and was pacing the apartment to +appease his agitated soul. + +"'Well, well!' said he, drawing a heavy breath; 'it is a decree which +we must receive without a murmur, and suffer patiently.' + +"'And who says that?' replied the priest with quickness. 'The wisdom +of nature has created an antidote for every poison.' + +"'Art thou serious?' asked Bolko earnestly. + +"'Heaven is merciful!' continued Hubert. 'Pardon is unlimited where +repentance is sincere.' + +"'Who shall repent in this case?' answered Bolko. 'The criminal is +long since dead. Can another atone for his offence?' + +"'Dost thou yet doubt, and art thou my pupil?' said Hubert. 'The WILL +can kill and also vivify.' + +"The eyes of Bolko sparkled in the gloomy chamber. He grasped the hand +of his aged teacher, and drew him to the casement. + +"'Speak!' he exclaimed. 'I will hear thee, and do thy bidding--do all +that thou holdest lawful and right.' + +"Hubert directed his countenance, over which a few hoary locks still +lingered, towards the landscape before them. + +"'You have often heard, my son,' said he, 'that yon desolate spot, +called to this day the _Gold Spring_, is the deadliest spot on earth +to those who bear your name. Far as the wood extends on either side, +extended formerly the turf-pit. The deep moor is covered now by an +unsteady earth-crust, overgrown with pale red sedge, and from its +centre, as from a grotto, the beautiful rivulet ripples forth that +irrigates and renders fruitful all your land. I doubt not that this +grotto, with its golden vault of granite, is the very spring into +which the furious Wittehold cast his daughter. The place is to this +hour deemed unholy. No one willingly sets foot there; no man ventures +to draw water from the fount. Temerity has already been punished for +the attempt. Strange sights have met the eyes of the daring one, and +he has fled like a coward from the spot. Have not many seen--have not +I myself beheld that fairy-like, almost transparent form, with her +unearthly pitcher, drawing water from the spring, then pouring it over +the moor in curious arches by sun and moonlight; and ever so, that the +rays of light kindled therein the most huey gleamings? Is it not well +attested, that when at such times mortals have addressed her, the +delicate creature has grown o' the sudden pale--paler and more +transparent, until, melting into silvery cloud, she has glided +pillar-like along the moor, and vanished at length into the cool and +wondrous grotto?' + +"'You describe the Maiden of the Moor,' said Bolko, interrupting him. + +"'So she is called!' returned Hubert. 'It was her apparition which +drew my attention to the neighbourhood, and to the tales that are +current respecting it. When I had discovered the manuscript, I saw at +once in the Maiden of the Moor the complaining spirit of the unhappy +Auriola.' + +"'And the spirit, as you deem, may be appeased?' + +"'Assuredly, my son; and thou art he who must perform the expiation.' + +"'I!--Father Hubert?--I'---- + +"'Thou art guileless, sound of heart, leading a life of innocence and +nature. To a pure spirit, a determined will, a feeling heart--much is +possible.' + +"'But how, father?--how?' + +"Hubert remained silent for a few minutes. He then proceeded-- + +"'Thy heart is still free, but it yearns for love--for the mysterious, +magical response of another--a _womanly_, heart. It may be that +Auriola will afford thee thy delight, if thou couldst once behold +her.' + +"'What! The Moor Maiden! Father, thou mockest me. What can this female +be to me, appearing as a vision to man, a creature of air?' + +"'And if she appear to _thee_, hast thou courage to address her?' + +"'Father, a lovely form shall hardly frighten me,' said Bolko, with a +smile. + +"'I exact thy promise,' said Hubert quickly. 'From this day forward, +shun the Gold Spring no more. Thou art a lover of nature and her +creations. I have seen thee for hours lost in admiration of the form +and colour of choice butterflies. That spot abounds in the rarest. +Thou mayst find them at any hour of the day. It would seem, indeed, +that the delicate insects of peace had retreated thither to find +security from the tumult of busy money-lusting men. The realm of the +Moor Maiden is the paradise of these tenderest of winged beauties. +Bolko, thou wilt visit them!' + +"The baron gave his right hand to his preceptor without uttering one +word of assurance or affirmation. Hubert had done. He left his young +lord to his own meditations. + + * * * * * + +"Bolko passed some days in restless suspense. Now he was a wanderer in +the woods, now a prisoner in the apartment that looked upon the moor, +watching intently during the day every slight phenomenon that arose +there. The morning and evening mist and the yellow vapour of noon were +his best discoveries. Not a human being approached a place shunned, as +it appeared, by every living thing. The conversation, however, with +Hubert had proved a secret spur to him, and he found no rest until he +visited the dreary moor in person. It was late in the afternoon, when, +furnished with a hunting-knife and insect-net, he set out on his +adventure. Bolko had never before visited the spring, and his surprise +was naturally great when he beheld the peculiar condition of the soil +around him. Along the entire surface of the notorious moor--and its +extent was considerable--there appeared a singularly-coloured sedge. +It was not red, or yellow, or brown, but a mixture of all three, and +it marked, by the sharpest line, the confines of the moor from the +green turf of the remaining country. At every step, the ground, +although very strong, yielded, as it threatening to give way. Towards +the centre of the moor there was an elevation surrounded with bushes. +This was the source of the silvery water that took its serpentine +course along the moor, and through the luxuriant woods beyond. + +"Bolko made his way towards this point, and, reaching it, his eye +rested with delight upon the basin and its border of golden granite. +The water ascended noiselessly from its immeasurable depths in +countless glistening pearls. Over the refreshing fountain, and far +away upon the nodding blades of grass, and bearded turf-flowers, +hovered, in giddy graceful sport, a variegated troop of gorgeous +butterflies. The majestic and solemn _Silver-mantle_, the cherub of +these winged dwellers of the air, the soft and exquisite +_Peacock's-eye_, the burning _Purple-bird_, were here assembled. Bolko +was ravished with the sight, and thought of nothing but a glorious +capture. Delicate and lovely as the creatures were, his cruel hand +robbed them of their gladsome life; and he pursued them further and +further across the moor, and with such ardour and desire, that he +forgot all other things, and suffered the very object of his visit to +escape from his remembrance. Suddenly, and in the act of imprisoning a +multitude of these illuminated beings, he perceived a Maiden sitting +at the extremity of the moor, her back towards him. Her form was +slender, and her hair, golden as the sun, travelled in burnished +tresses from her shoulders to the earth, where it curled along the +moor-grass like rays of the divine orb itself. After the manner of +Sclavonian girls, the stranger wore a closely-fitting snow-white cap, +or rather frontlet, from which, as from a chaplet, the beautiful hair +streamed down. Bolko had approached the maiden unperceived, near +enough to discern a butterfly of rare magnitude and unequaled beauty +oscillating about her marble forehead. The youth stole cautiously +behind the fair one, and tried to catch the flutterer. He touched the +maiden in his eager movement, and she turned round immediately. + +"'Forgive me, lovely child!' said he. 'I'----The words died upon his +tongue. He could say no more. The butterfly escaped from his hands, +and flew slowly towards the Gold Spring, changing its brilliant +colours with every motion of its wing. + +"The singular beauty of the maiden had struck the baron dumb. From a +soft transparent countenance of the purest form, there beamed upon him +a pair of eyes which had derived their holy light from the very +fountain-head of Love. She wore an uncommon but most becoming dress. + +"To a party-coloured gown, scarcely reaching to her ankle, was +attached a sky-blue boddice in front, united by perfect silver clasps, +and not so closely as to prevent the sweetest glimmering of a +snow-white virgin bosom. Her arms, round, delicate, and pure as +marble, were uncovered to the shoulders. Her small feet were bare, yet +protected partly by fairy-looking slippers profusely ornamented. The +beauteous object smiled upon the youth, and answered him in a voice +that dropped like melody upon his ear. + +"'Thou art the robber then,' said she; 'the merciless purloiner of my +fairest thoughts! Can I wonder now that I have been so destitute of +late!' + +"'How?' stammered Bolko, more astonished than ever. + +"'Strange man!' continued the maiden, in the same ravishing voice, +'thou revelest with thy fancies, and dost thou wonder that I, too, +love to dally with my thoughts and dreams? The tiny creatures whom +thou hast taken from me were, and still are, threads of my heart, +which I permit at times to issue into the sunny light of day. Restore +them, living, and beautiful as thou hast found them, or I accuse thee +of breaking this poor heart!' + +"'Who art thou, sweetest child?' + +"'They call me AURIOLA. I know thee well. Thou art Bolko of +Gottmar--Bolko, the accursed!' + +"'Yes--the accursed!' repeated the youth, pressing his hands to his +eyes as if he would forget his doom. When he removed them, Auriola had +risen, and was standing before him. Her lovely countenance, her +matchless eyes were turned full upon him. At her feet he perceived an +earthen pitcher of a peculiar and not ungraceful form. It bore a +strong resemblance to the sacrificial pitchers which are still +discovered in places once inhabited by Sclavonians. + +"'What wilt thou, poor child?' said Bolko in a tone of kindness. 'Can +I help thee?' + +"Auriola smiled. + +"'Thou hast come to me at thine own bidding. I invited thee not, for I +invite none. Yet he who visits me must do my will. Thou hast wrought +me pain in stealing away the thoughts which were soaring in mid air +decked in their brightest robes. Thou must be punished for thy +misdeed. Come!' + +"The marvellous creature took Bolko's hand, and drew him after her +towards the Gold Spring. Before her, and above her head, the +butterflies formed with their magnificent wing-shells a glowing arched +pavilion. The youth was allured by an irresistible attraction, and +would not, if he could, have dragged himself away from the celestial +being; albeit, he still regarded her as a mere apparition. Every +feeling, every thought, every desire of his heart, streamed towards +Auriola. Fleeting shadow that she was, he loved her already to +idolatry. + +"At the margin of the spring, Auriola released her companion, +descended the grotto with her pitcher, and filled it with the purest +water. In a few minutes she was again at his side. She placed the +pitcher on the ground, and her two hands upon the shoulders of the +youth. In this trustful, graceful, loving posture, fixing her wondrous +eyes upon the boy, the maiden spoke. + +"'And canst thou love, too?' + +"He answered not; but he pressed the beauteous Auriola to his heart, +and passionately kissed her forehead. But Bolko started back +affrighted, for he had kissed a forehead colder than ice. + +"'Note me well!' said she, and her voice sounded more melancholy than +before. She seated herself upon the high ledge of the spring, drew +Bolko beside her, and placed the pitcher of water between herself and +him. The butterflies stood now in the full light of the sun over the +rippling spring. A scattered few only still hovered about the moor. + +"'We must tarry yet awhile,' said Auriola, 'until my heart is quite my +own again!' As she spoke, her ecstatic eyes glanced to the single +flutterers on the moor. As if caught by a magnet, they directed their +flight instantly towards the Gold Spring. + +"'Now I am myself--for what is yet wanting rests in thee. Take heed!' + +"Auriola now poured from the pitcher into her small left hand as much +water as this would hold, and extended the right to her companion. He, +surprised by love, encircled the maiden's waist, brought his ear close +to her delicate cheek, and watched with eagerness her strange +performance. Auriola blew at first softly, then more vehemently, into +the hollow of her hand, so that the water, bubbling up, ran to the +slender rosy fingers, and, in glittering drops, sprinkled from the +finger-tips. + +"'Look!' she exclaimed, 'look! Tell me what thou see'st?' + +"The pearly drops had scarcely touched the air before they joined, +when, on the instant, a vision rose before the sight. There was a +bright green meadow, edged by waving beech-trees, through whose +foliage the evening sun shed burnished gold. A youth was on his knees +before a maiden, in the act of offering her a golden ring. The picture +was, in the beginning, dim and indistinct, but it grew clearer and +clearer, until by degrees it dissolved again, and was lost in the +atmosphere. + +"'What means this, Auriola?' enquired the ravished Bolko. 'Chain not +my unguarded heart to thine with such witchery. Misery and death will +be the penalty.' + +"'Dream and listen,' replied Auriola. 'Hearts and souls have nothing +better to do. We do but speak into the future, to catch back the tones +which strike in unison with our desires.' + +"'_Our_ future?' whispered Bolko. + +"'Say _thine_, if it likes thee better,' answered Auriola, filling her +hand anew with water, and once more urging the sparkling fluid towards +her finger-ends. Bolko perceived a horseman galloping across a gloomy +heath, and looking back with horror. This apparition, like the former, +shone distinctly for a time, and then, in the same manner, vanished by +degrees, and expired. + +"'And what is this?' asked Bolko. + +"Auriola shook her head in silence, poured water again into her hand, +and blew it again along her fingers into the air. A lofty, +many-towered castle was visible. A rope-ladder was fastened to a +gallery. A man was climbing up. As soon as he reached the gallery, the +vision was lost. + +"'It is the castle of my ancestors!' cried Bolko. + +"'Thou art mistaken,' answered Auriola. 'But tell me--canst thou +love?' + +"Her voice was again mournful. + +"The youth drew the fair questioner to his heart. His lips fastened on +hers, and hallowing fire streamed through his frame. + +"Auriola heaved a melancholy sigh, and once more filled her hand with +water. At the usual signal there arose a brilliantly illuminated hall. +Dancers, gaily dressed, were in happy motion. Music was heard, and +then the strains and the colours died away in the twilight. + +"'I smart!' exclaimed Bolko. 'I am tortured! My soul is gnawed with +agony!' + +"'Hush, and listen,' said Auriola, in a tone of command--filling her +hand, and impelling the crystal water into the air, as before. A +roaring was heard, like the course of a hurricane sweeping through a +forest. The air grew black. Then the moon broke through night and +mist, and lit up a hilly region, surrounded by wood and cliff. Out of +the wood issued a carriage and four, making at full speed for a +solitary open space, that looked dismal and deserted. The form of a +maiden floated before the carriage, her painfully smiling countenance +ever turned towards it until she evaporated, like a cloud, in the +wood. A flash of lightning from the murky sky struck a beech-tree, +near whose flames the carriage slowly disappeared into the ground. + +"This vision at an end, Auriola bent her head, and tears fell upon her +bosom. + +"'Lovely enchantress,' said Bolko, 'why perform these miracles if they +afflict thee?' + +"'Because there is no longer love upon the earth.' + +"'Say not so!' exclaimed the youth. 'Love still exists--deep, eternal, +holy love. I feel it now. Auriola, I, whose arms never encircled +maiden yet--I love thee, Auriola, with every fibre of my body--with +every faculty of my soul. I will be thine--thine for ever; be thou +mine, my Auriola!' + +"'BE CONSTANT!' The words were uttered in the clear voice of Auriola; +as if from the air. Bolko saw the lovely form grow pale, felt her +vanishing, at his heart. The brilliant cloud of butterflies arose from +the spring, and flew towards heaven by a hundred roads. A thin misty +streak sank into the grotto. Bolko was alone upon the barren moor. +Sultry vapours were exhaling in the twilight. Indescribable sensations +preyed on the soul of Bolko, as he remembered that he had given his +heart to one who was no longer a dweller upon earth--that he had +plighted his faith to the Maiden of the Moor. He hurried from the +scene of his unhallowed engagement, to seek from the wisdom of his +Hubert consolation for the peace of mind which had been so sadly +disturbed, if not for ever taken from him. + + * * * * * + +"The priest listened to the account of Auriola's appearance with +secret delight, and did not fail to comfort the unhappy youth. Bolko, +restored to peace, passed the night in blissful dreams. Once more the +sweet form of the Moor Maiden floated before him--once more the +magical pictures gleamed, ravishing his senses. With sunrise he +quitted the castle, and obeyed the sorcery that allured him to the +moor. All fear and alarm had disappeared. Solitude, erewhile so +hateful to him, was now enchanting! The stony, brown, and barren +plain, the gloomy confines of the wood, the vapours of the boggy soil, +united to create an earthly paradise. He took his seat upon the +margin of the limpid spring, and, gazing on the charmed waters, +invoked the presence of the fair magician. Auriola, however, appeared +not. At noon he quitted the moor unsatisfied, but the approach of +evening found him there again. Still she came not, and nothing +remained to assure him of the reality of his former interview but the +illuminated winged cloud of butterflies which, like a living rainbow, +overarched the spring. Impatient and distressed, the ardent lover +scoured the extensive moor, and at last approached the borders of the +forest. Suddenly he saw--scarce twenty paces from him--the wished-for +figure gliding through the rustling grass, the earthen pitcher +drooping from her hand. Auriola regarded him not, but waved the vessel +gracefully around her head, scattering its contents in glittering +jets, that leaped about her like garlands of the precious diamond. + +"'Auriola!' exclaimed the boy, rushing forward as he spoke. 'My own +Auriola--mine, now and for ever!' He threw himself before her, seized +her hand, and in an instant fixed a golden ring upon her taper finger. + +"The maiden offered no resistance. But when the passionate Bolko rose +from the ground, and was about to embrace his beloved, she lifted the +ring-decked hand, and, in a voice of touching melancholy, exclaimed-- + +"'Behold!' + +"Bolko followed the direction of her finger. Over the live and +swarming cloud there appeared, now here, now there, the apparition of +the previous evening; only that to-day it was larger and more +distinct, and continued longer to the view. + +"Bolko recognised, to his astonishment, the forms of Auriola and +himself. + +"'What does this mean?' said Bolko. 'Is it reality or illusion?' + +"'Thou beholdest!' answered Auriola. 'The air abhors falsehood, and +reflects nothing but truth.' + +"Bolko advanced. Auriola waved the pitcher, and the vision was lost. + +"'Wilt thou be constant?' asked the maid. 'Misery is mine if thou +canst forget this day and its betrothal.' + +"The eyes of Bolko were fixed in amazement on the air where the +picture had shone so palpable a moment before. He saw not, he heard +not, Auriola, and the agony of the preceding evening tortured his +whole frame. When he recovered his suspended faculties, Auriola was +gone. The usual tranquil, solemn repose, the old desolate gloom, +universally prevailed. The low-lying meadows breathed out their thin +vapours, the more distant ponds were enveloped in mist, and the grey +shadows vanished by degrees from hill and thicket. + +"Bolko arrived, agitated and breathless, at his castle gate. He went +at once to the library, where he found, as he expected, his friend and +counsellor. + +"'Save me, save me, father!' cried the young lord. 'Thou hast beguiled +me into a compact with a being of another world. Womanly love has +cozened and betrayed me. Passion has overmastered me. I have bound +myself to the Moor Maiden, and am eternally made over to her sorcery.' + +"'And wherefore should this frighten you?' replied the hoary chaplain. +'Thou hast done my bidding; and since thou art permitted to destroy a +curse which threatens to annihilate thy race, gratitude, not fear, +should move thee. Yonder Moor Maiden contents herself with the sweet +semblance, and will not ask for dull reality. Auriola never looks to +wed thee--never to possess thee--body and soul.' + +"'But I love her--love her to madness!' cried Bolko, furiously. + +"'Love her still; always love her with a spiritual and pure affection. +This will not hinder thee from bestowing the other half of thy +affection upon some fair daughter of Eve, worthy of thy heart.' + +"'And is this to be spiritually faithful?' said Bolko, in a +reproachful tone. + +"'No earthly passion, my son,' continued Hubert, 'can either break or +abolish the spiritual faith which thou hast vowed to Auriola. When +thou hast loved a daughter of Eve, thou wilt see, feel, and be +satisfied, that between the love of thy earthly bride and of the +enchanting Auriola, there is a difference as wide as heaven from +earth.' + +"Bolko heaved a bitter sigh, and shook his head in doubt. +Nevertheless, he meditated long and seriously upon all that Hubert +said. By degrees, even, he acknowledged to himself, that the kernel, +the pure light of a deep truth, glimmered in his words, although in a +manner veiled. He began to question his own heart; the more probable, +nay, the more desirable seemed the consummation of Hubert's promises. +For reasons, which he could scarcely explain to himself, he studiously +avoided another visit to the moor. But in the meanwhile, that which +originally had been a half-formed wish, and scarcely that, ripened +into absorbing passion, vehement desire. Incessant thought nourished +the ever-glowing flame, which burned the brighter, the more the +spiritual love of Auriola receded and grew faint. Remembrance, it is +true, still clung with a devout aspiration upon that beauteous image, +but it resembled rather the placid feeling of a holy friendship, than +the impetuous throbbing of a young and passionate love. 'Hubert is +right!' said the youth; 'I will follow his direction. Auriola, lovely +and rapturous being, angelic, spiritual, and human, will rejoice with +the Accursed, when he carries to his desolate home the mistress of his +castle--the wife of his bosom.' + +"Opportunity is seldom wanting when inclination needs its service. +About three miles from Gottmar, amongst the mountains, majestically +rose the battlements of a proud castle. Baron T----, its wealthy +master, had already visited Bolko upon his accession to the family +estates, and Bolko now determined to acknowledge his neighbour's act +of kindness. Had the baron been childless, it is very likely that +Bolko would still have remembered what was due to society, and to his +own station in the world; and it is equally true, that the fact of his +possessing a young and lovely daughter, did not diminish the youthful +noble's desire to act conformably to usage and propriety. +Unfortunately for the intention of his visit, Bolko learned, on his +arrival at the castle, that the baron was from home. In his stead, +however, a maiden greeted him, slender of figure, noble in bearing. It +was very strange, but it is certain, that the tumultuous feelings +which of late had stirred within him unrestrained--were suddenly +chained and riveted upon an object that afforded them a sweet +tranquillity. Emma was gentle, frank, and beauteous as the blushing +rose. In Bolko's frame of mind, could she fail to make a deep +impression upon his young and too susceptible soul? He lingered at her +side hour after hour, and was himself astonished to find the darkness +of night creeping over the earth, and he not more prepared for +departure than he had been on entering the castle-gates some hours +before. However, the knight did not make his appearance, and good +breeding suggested to unwilling ears that it was time to retire. Bolko +said farewell--more tenderly, perhaps, than he supposed or meant; and +as the delicate hand of Emma lay involuntarily in his own, he +flattered himself that he felt his pressure softly returned, and that +he could perceive a smile of contentment escaping from her lips as he +promised to pay a second visit 'shortly.' + +"The night was very dark: a few stars only twinkled through the thin +veil which covered the heavens. Bolko madly spurred his steed, and the +high-spirited animal, who needed no such incitement, bounded like a +deer towards home. The thoughts of the baron were no longer with him, +but imprisoned in the happy room in which he had passed so many +blissful hours. Trusting to the instinct of the horse, the master took +no heed of the road: and the trustworthy servant, scenting the +vicinity of his stable, found easily for himself the best and shortest +paths towards that wished-for spot. The trees became thinner and +thinner, falling back on either side, whilst a flat and barren region +lay before horse and rider. The former snorted and pranced, and the +latter could not distinguish the locality through the blackness. Bolko +coaxed the steed, and gently urged him forwards. But the animal +trembled, and, in spite of bridle and spur, struck to the side, and +swept along the skirts of the forest, without touching so much as with +a hoof the gloomy-looking heath. Accustomed to the surrounding +darkness, the eye of Bolko was at length able to discern--not without +a creeping of horror--the ruddy and unsteady reed-grass. The moor and +the Gold Spring were on one side of him. Pale stripes of fog, like +ribbed vaults, were spread above him, giving a sacredness to the air, +with which all other things strangely contrasted. The mind of Bolko, +against his will, reverted to Auriola; his heart beat, as though he +were conscious of a heavy fault--of some inhuman crime. He turned his +gaze from the moor, and, with an effort, directed it towards the dark +forest, to which the horse galloped at full speed. + +"The words, 'BE CONSTANT!' fell loudly and articulately upon the ears +of Bolko--uttered in a tone rather of supplication than of demand or +threatening. He turned his horse's head in terror, and--oh amazement! +sitting at the edge of the fountain, covered with a bright veil, +hemmed with diamonds, was--Auriola! Her fair and loosened hair, +encompassed, as at their first meeting, her entire body, and +glittering, curled along the ground. Her right hand was stretched high +above her lovely head, holding between forefinger and thumb the ring +with which the already inconstant Bolko had espoused her. + +"'BE CONSTANT!' The words re-echoed from the moor: the streaks of fog +descended. Over the maiden's head beamed forth a shining spot--gaining +in size, and forming itself into a picture. Bolko, shuddering, beheld +the second vision of Auriola's enchantment, and looked upon himself as +he had burst a few minutes before upon the moor. + +"Auriola beckoned to the youth, and pointed to the picture. Then once +again, more melancholy, more mournfully, more entreatingly upon the +distracted ears of Bolko came--the repeated cry of admonition--'BE +CONSTANT!' + +"The youth galloped for his life. He reached his home paler than +death, and refused to be comforted even by the wisdom of his +preceptor. + +"From this time, Bolko ceased to visit the moor in search of Auriola. +The daughter of earth had inspired him with a love that admitted of no +commingling of affection. Memory however, refused to lose sight of +her. It obtruded her form upon him, the more determinedly he +endeavoured to thrust it from his mind by dwelling upon the charms of +his Emma. He repeated his visit at the castle, and was soon a constant +guest there. He confessed his love to Emma, and she did not rebuke +him. Her father was less tender. He roundly refused his daughter's +hand. 'He had no desire,' he said, 'to make his child unhappy. He knew +well enough how every Lord of Gottmar was obliged to harbour an evil +Kobold in his house, who couldn't endure the sight of women, and no +sooner met one than he mercilessly strangled her. No, sir baron,' he +continued, 'it cannot be. Take not unkindly the answer which I give +thee. It touches not thy noble person, which pleases me right well, +but simply thy house and castle Kobold. Remove the creature, or at +least its power of doing harm, and thou art welcome here. But before +that time, I pray thee come not again, lest I should forget myself, +and do that which both of us would be sorry for.' + +"The lovers protested against the decision, and Bolko tried hard to +convince the old baron that the mysterious power which had so long and +so fatally reigned over the house of Gottmar, was propitiated, and no +longer hurtful. Hubert attested the repeated asseverations of his +pupil, but nothing could bring conviction to the stubborn veteran. He +swore they were all in a league, or building castles in the air, and +he persisted in his resolution. + +"It was autumn. The days were declining. Showers and tempests swept +through the forest. Upon a night, brightened by no moonbeam or +glittering star, Emma sat melancholy and alone in her apartment. The +heavy embroidered curtains were drawn across the high windows of the +balcony, which jutted out as a point of observation from the +castle-wall. At intervals, the maiden applied her delicate ear to the +window, catching eagerly at every strange sound muttered forth by the +growing storm. She had resumed her seat many times, when the +castle-bell tolled eleven, and almost at the same moment the cry of a +screech-owl was distinctly heard. The expectant damsel glided on +tiptoe to the window, and listened eagerly. The cry was repeated. +Emma's eye sparkled at length with joy, a deep blush overspread her +cheeks, and she produced from an aperture a ladder of twine, which she +fastened to the casement. The cry of the owl was heard for the third +time. The ladder was dropped, and in another instant a vigorous youth +had mounted it. + +"Bolko and Emma, happy and blessed, were in each other's arms, and +they forgot all but the delicious present. Vows of love and constancy +were exchanged, and rings were given, in remembrance of the blissful +hour. But strange to say, as Bolko was about to adorn the hand of Emma +with the pledge of his affection, a fearful gust of wind burst the +window open, and blew into the room a little glistening object that +rolled to Bolko's feet and settled there. Emma raised it from the +ground, and discovered in her hand a broken ring. + +"Bolko saw and trembled. It was his gift to Auriola. He fixed his eyes +upon the broken symbol, and there glared before them the third charmed +picture created from the waters. The rope-ladder, the balcony Emma and +himself, all grouped, and taking the shape and form of that bright +vision. Bolko glanced at the window, dreading to meet the reproachful +look of Auriola; but instead of this, he heard with no less horror the +approaching footsteps of his Emma's father. + +"'Fly, Bolko, fly!' exclaimed the maiden. 'My father! We are lost!' + +"Bolko hurried to the recess, and would have escaped, had not the +malicious wind already carried away the rope-ladder. A prisoner and +unarmed, he expected nothing short of death at the hands of the baron. +The latter entered the apartment, stood for a few seconds in silence +at the door, and measured the criminals with looks of stern severity. + +"'My aged eye did not deceive me, then!' he said, at length, advancing +to the trembling lovers. + +"'Baron!' said Bolko, hesitatingly. + +"'Silence, sir!' continued the old knight. 'If I should act now as my +fathers would have done, I should fling you through that very window +which helped you, like a robber, into this room; but I charge myself +with blame already in this business, and I am more disposed to mercy. +Come hither, young man. I know the fire and boldness of our youth. +Give my child your hand; you are her future husband. May God prosper +you both, and send his blessing on your union!' + +"Bolko quaffed with the sturdy Baron of T---- until an early hour of +the morning. The happy Emma acted the part of Hebe, and presented the +flagons to the merry carousers. + + * * * * * + +"'Why have you withheld this from me?' asked Hubert, when Bolko +related to him the unaccountable restoration of the ring. 'Oh, youth, +youth! inconsiderate even to madness, and only content to listen to +the voice of wisdom when they can of themselves find no outlet from +difficulty and danger.' + +"Bolko stood with folded arms at the window, gazing into the forest, +and upon the lofty turrets of Castle T---- peeping in the grey +distance above it. + +"'Thou hast not visited the moor of late?' asked Hubert, after a +pause. + +"'What should I do there?' answered Bolko peevishly. 'Why should I +spend my days in chasing an apparition, the mere creation of an +over-heated fancy?' + +"'Beware whom thou calumniatest!' said Hubert solemnly. 'Beware of the +mysterious being that can deal out weal or woe to thee and all thy +race! One whom thou mightest have appeased hadst thou been obedient +and followed my instructions.' + +"'Thy instructions!' repeated Bolko hastily. 'It is because I have +listened too patiently to thy advice, because I have connected myself +with thy aërial and capricious schemes, that I am the most miserable +of men. But for thy persuasion and thy childish parchment, I should +never have dreamed of making love to a ghost.' + +"Hubert disregarded the youth's reproaches. + +"'Rage avails not here,' he said calmly. 'Wisdom alone can save thee. +Listen to me. Women are women ever, even such as we call +supernatural--easy to anger, easy to persuade--before flattery the +weakest of the weak. Praise the ugliest for her beauty, and she smiles +graciously, yea, with the mirror before her eyes. Speak the plain +truth, and you are a rough uncouth companion. They thrive best upon +the sugary food of delusion--therefore, delude them. It is the rattle +of these eternal glorious children!' + +"'What wouldst thou have me do?' + +"'Cast the ring into the Spring, and pray to Auriola for forgiveness.' + +"'And if she prove obstinate?' + +"'Have no fear; she will forgive you. Here is the ring; take it; it is +once more united!' + +"Bolko took the pledge from Hubert, and hastened to the moor. The high +grass was already withered by storm and cold; it lay bent down upon +the marshy earth-crust, which now breathed out its vapour more +abundantly than ever, wrapping the Gold Spring in one enduring mist. +If this spot looked barren and deserted in summer, the abandonment was +increased a hundred-fold in autumn. Even the butterflies were gone. +The damp and chilly fog only was visible; nothing could be heard but +the monotonous current of the rippling water. + +"The boggy ground yielded to the foot more readily than ever, and +Bolko trod it with a faltering step. He approached the spring, and, +suing for reconciliation, dropped the ring into the charmed element. +As though he feared some extraordinary result from the act, he covered +his eyes with his hands, and could with difficulty summon courage to +remove them. When he did so, he perceived the fog receding by degrees +from the confines of the moor, and the graceful form of Auriola +standing before him at a little distance. As at their first meeting, +her countenance was averted. She waved the earthen pitcher as was her +wont, and bathed the ground on which she went with flashes of the +brilliant water. + +"'Auriola!' cried Bolko, in a voice that carried the tenderness of +love, the sorrow of repentance, to the ear of the listener--'gentle +Auriola!' She turned her face towards the imploring youth, placed the +pitcher at her side, and beckoned him to approach. + +"'My father was right!' said the Moor Maiden. 'No Gottmar but is +fickle and inconstant. Well it is for thee, youth, that thou art here +of thy own free-will, and didst not tarry for my summons. Thou hast +kept thy promise badly, and thou wilt keep it so again, if I give thee +no monitor to aid thee. Take this, and carry it, henceforward, in thy +bosom; it will protect thee from harm, and keep thee faithful in +_spirit_, albeit in heart thou art already estranged from me.' + +"With these words, the enchantress placed upon the neck of Bolko a +chain braided of her own golden hair, to which was attached a small +box wrought of the shards of the Peacock's eye and Purple-bird. In the +tiny case, trembling with its ever-changing light, was one pearly drop +from the spring. + +"'Lose or give away this jewel,' proceeded Auriola--'this jewel, which +is a portion of my heart, and thy ruin and the destruction of thy +house is certain. Love, or at least its symbol, can and must avert the +curse of my father!' + +"Bolko looked into the earnest and marvellously bright eyes of +Auriola, as she pronounced his doom. His heart belonged once more to +the Maiden of the Moor, and his gaze made known his passion. She +touched his forehead with her transparent fingers, poured the last +drops of water into the hollow of her hand, and in her usual manner +blew the little curling waves into the misty air. A multitude of +images arose, but in scarcely finished outline. The moist atmosphere +seemed to hinder their accomplishment. + +"'Now, farewell!' said Auriola. 'Thou hast beheld. Thy life is +troubled, as are the feelings which sway thy heart. Love truly and +wholly, as aforetime thou lovedst me, and the mirror of thought will +again display its clear bright pictures. + +"Auriola took the pitcher, and her bare feet, scarcely disturbing the +faded blades of grass, glided towards the margin of the spring, where +she melted into air. + + * * * * * + +"Emma and Bolko were united in holy matrimony. The halls of Castle +T---- overflowed with joyous guests. Music delighted the noble +visitors during the marriage-feast, and a happier scene could not be +imagined. All hearts joined in wishing prosperity to the bridal pair, +and the latter seemed to entertain no fears for their bright future. +The banquet over, the guests, preceded by the newly-married couple, +withdrew to the adjoining saloon. The old knights seated themselves in +the niches of the windows, having still many goblets to empty over the +dice-box, whilst the younger spirits disposed themselves for dancing. +Bolko, with his high-born bride, commenced the ball. If they were +happy before, they were now at the very porch of a terrestrial heaven. +They made but short pauses in their pleasure, and these only that they +might mingle again the more intensely in the delightful measure. + +"It was during the jocund dance that Bolko's doublet suddenly opened, +and the mysterious little box flew out. The bridegroom was made aware +of the accident by the exclamations of his partner. + +"'Oh! look, look, Bolko! See that magnificent butterfly! How singular +at this season of the year!' + +"Emma caught at the little beauty, and Bolko discovered his fault. + +"'Hold, hold!' said he, in a whisper. 'That is no butterfly for thee, +my love! Its colours play for me alone!' + +"Emma looked enquiringly at her husband, then more closely at the +little box, glowing in a fire of colours, and she beheld the golden +hair chain to which it was attached. + +"'A chain too! and what beautiful hair!' The maiden caught at the +prize, and continued, 'Who gave thee this hair and the sweet case! +Dearest Bolko, to whom does it belong? Why have you never mentioned +this? What need was there of secresy?' + +"Emma sobbed, and Bolko hardly knowing what excuse to offer, withdrew +her to a neighbouring room. + +"'Promise me, dearest Emma,' said he, 'to be calm and patient, and you +shall know every thing.' + +"The young wife looked at him distrustfully. + +"'Make known to me the history and contents of the little box, and I +will restrain my curiosity until----to-morrow.' + +"'Content, my beloved, so let it be; as we return to Gottmar all shall +be cleared up.' + +"'Oh, I unhappy!' exclaimed the girl, bursting into tears. + +"'Say rather _happy_, dearest. Since all our happiness flows from the +history of this chain; from this alone. Sweetest, let us return to the +dance.' + +"Emma resigned her arm to her young lord with a sullen resignation. As +the latter opened the folding-doors of the saloon, and gazed for a few +seconds upon the dancing throng, he seemed to possess a distant +remembrance of the scene. The Gothic arches, the window niches, the +gaily-attired musicians, the groups of dancers--the whole scene had +once before been present to his eyes. He taxed his memory until his +thoughts carried him to the bleak and barren moor. Had not the +dazzling vision flowed into the sunny evening air over the white +transparent fingers of the ethereal Auriola? He acknowledged it, and +shuddered. + +"The dance was at an end. The guests had departed. In the eyes of the +newly-married Emma a tear of troubled joy trembled, as she sank upon +the bosom of her young and doating husband. + +"Upon the following morning, Bolko already repented him of his hasty +promise, and delayed his departure by every means in his power. The +weather favoured him, for hail and storm were pouring down upon the +earth. As the day declined, Bolko found it impossible to conceal his +disquietude; and Emma, when she perceived his anxiety, attributed it +at once to conscious guilt. This conviction on her part only made her +urge their departure with greater perseverance. There remained at last +no good ground for refusal, and Bolko silently acquiesced in her wish. + +"For some time the young couple sat side by side, and were very +sparing of their speech. Bolko, indeed, was dumb. The inquisitive +Emma, however, had not so powerful an excuse for silence. In a few +kind words she reminded her lord of his pledged word, and begged him +to confide in her. + +"'Emma,' said Bolko in reply, and in a serious tone, 'if I comply with +thy request, I risk the eternal happiness of both. I have promised +that which I cannot perform without a breach of faith. Thou canst +gain nothing by my communication, and I pray thee, therefore, give me +back my promise.' + +"Bolko could not have preferred a more untimely suit. Emma, +inquisitive, suspicious, and jealous, would rather have been put to +death in torture than have given up her claim. She refused his +petition at once; implored, threatened, implored again; and, finding +all such efforts only darkened Bolko's humour, proceeded to flattery +and coaxing. She promised the most perfect secresy, and used, in +short, every artifice by which woman knows how to overcome the +strongest resolutions of weak man. Bolko grew tender-hearted, and then +related to his wife all that he had to tell;--the history of the +malediction that rested on his family, and the singular manner in +which he had effected the expiation. + +"Emma listened to the narrative not without an inward pique and lively +jealousy. + +"'I thank thee, Bolko, for thy confidence,' said she. 'Fear not my +prudence. But for the charm, thou wilt not surely wear it so near thy +bosom.' + +"'Next my heart, beloved--since there it shields us both from ruin.' + +"Emma bit her lips with womanly vexation. + +"'Thou canst not wish,' continued Bolko, 'that I should take it +thence.' + +"'I do, I do!' replied the jealous wife. 'I wish it. I insist upon +it--now--this very instant.' + +"The storm increased in fury. The fir-trees were beating together as +if in battle. + +"'It is impossible!' cried Bolko. 'Thou art mad to ask it.' + +"'Then shall I mistrust thy love,' continued Emma, 'or canst thou hope +for my affection whilst that ghostly gift divides us? Never! Inhuman +man, thou wilt teach me to hate thee.' + +"The carriage drove rapidly through the hurricane into the midst of +the forest. The wind bellowed, the yellow lightning glared, and +thunder crashed and resounded fearfully from the distant valleys. + +"'It is the warning voice of heaven!' said Bolko. 'Its lightnings will +reach us if I yield to thy entreaty.' + +"'Heaven has nothing in common with enchanters and sorcerers,' replied +Emma; 'nature is uttering a summons to thee, and--whilst a devoted +wife embraces thee--protects and defends thee against demoniac powers, +bids thee renounce all witchcraft, and put aside the unholy gift.' + +"Bolko answered not, but peered through the door carriage windows to +learn his exact situation. The dark pinnacles of Gottmar lay +immediately before him. Above his head the tempest lowered, hurling +its lightnings on every side. + +"'Art thou angry with me?' enquired Emma sorrowfully, leaning her +ringleted head upon the bosom of her husband. Bolko pressed her +forehead to his lips. Emma threw her arms about his neck. She wept, +she kissed, she coaxed him; they were the fondest lovers, as in the +earliest days of their attachment. The heart of Bolko was melted. In +the intoxication of happiness he forgot his danger; and reposing on +Emma's bosom, did not perceive that she untied his doublet, and +heedfully but eagerly searched for the amulet. She was mistress of it +before Bolko could suspect her intention. + +"'It is mine, it is mine!' almost shrieked the young wife in her +delight, snatching away both chain and box. The next moment the +carriage window was drawn down and the precious objects thrown into +the storm. Bolko caught at them, but too late. A gust of wind had +already clutched them, and carried them away. + +"A flash of lightning struck a beech-tree, that blazed, awfully +illuminating the whole neighbourhood. The horses took fright, plunged +aside, then tore with the carriage towards a treeless melancholy-looking +plain. Bolko recognised the spot at the first brief glance. + +"'The moor! the moor!' he screamed to the driver; but the latter had +lost all power over the snorting steeds, who bore the fated carriage +in a whizzing gallop towards the marsh. The blazing beech-tree +rendered the surrounding objects fearfully distinct. Bolko could +descry the figure of Auriola at the margin of the spring. Between her +fingers glittered the ring, and words of lamentation issuing from her +lips, dropped into the soul of Bolko and paralysed it." + +"'Auriola, Auriola!' exclaimed the youth, supporting the pale and +quivering Emma--'forgive me! forgive me!' + +"The Moor Maiden dropped the ring into the well, and it vanished like +an unearthly flame. Auriola herself, slowly and like a mist, descended +after it. She held her hand above her head, and it seemed to point to +the onward-dashing carriage. + +"Horror upon horror! the carriage itself began to sink into the +earth--quicker and quicker. + +"'We are sinking! Heaven help us!' cried the driver. Bolko burst the +carriage door open, but escape was impossible. The moor had given way +around him. The horses were already swallowed up in the abyss. The +pale earth-crust trembled and heaved like flakes of ice upon a +loosening river. It separated, and huge pieces were precipitated and +hurled against each other. In a few seconds horses and carriage, bride +and bridegroom, had disappeared for ever. As the moor closed over +them, the hand of Auriola vanished. + +"The Curse of her father was accomplished. + +"On the same night, Gottmar castle was struck by lightning. It burned +to the ground, and there the aged Hubert found his grave." + + + + +"THAT'S WHAT WE ARE." + + + "Careful and troubled about many things," + (Alas! that it should be so with us still + As in the time of Martha,) I went forth + Harass'd and heartsick, with hot aching brow, + Thought fever'd, happy to escape myself. + + Beauteous that bright May morning! All about + Sweet influences of earth, and air, and sky, + Harmoniously accordant. I alone, + The troubled spirit that had driven me forth, + In dissonance with that fair frame of things + So blissfully serene. God had not yet + Let fall the weight of chastening that makes dumb + The murmuring lip, and stills the rebel heart, + Ending all earthly interests, and I call'd + (O Heaven!) that incomplete experience--Grief. + + It would not do. The momentary sense + Of soft refreshing coolness pass'd away; + Back came the troublous thoughts, and, all in vain, + I strove with the tormentors: All in vain, + Applied me with forced interest to peruse + Fair nature's outspread volume: All in vain, + Look'd up admiring at the dappling clouds + And depths cerulean: Even as I gazed, + The film--the earthly film obscured my vision, + And in the lower region, sore perplex'd, + Again I wander'd; and again shook off + With vex'd impatience the besetting cares, + And set me straight to gather as I walk'd + A field-flower nosegay. Plentiful the choice; + And, in few moments, of all hues I held + A glowing handful. In a few moments more + Where are they? Dropping as I went along + Unheeded on my path, and I was gone-- + Wandering again in muse of thought perplex'd. + + Despairingly I sought the social scene-- + Sound--motion--action--intercourse of _words_-- + Scarcely of mind--rare privilege!--We talk'd-- + Oh! how we talk'd! Discuss'd and solved all questions: + Religion--morals--manners--politics-- + Physics and metaphysics--books and authors-- + Fashion and dress--our neighbours and ourselves. + But even as the senseless changes rang, + And I help'd ring them, in my secret soul + Grew weariness, disgust, and self-contempt; + And more disturb'd in spirit, I retraced, + More cynically sad, my homeward way. + + It led me through the churchyard, and methought + There entering, as I let the iron gate + Swing to behind me, that the change was good-- + The unquiet living, for the quiet dead. + And at that moment, from the old church tower + A knell resounded--"Man to his long home" + Drew near. "The mourners went about the streets;" + And there, few paces onward to the right, + Close by the pathway, was an open grave, + Not of the humbler sort, shaped newly out, + Narrow and deep in the dark mould; when closed, + To be roofed over with the living sod, + And left for all adornment (and so best) + To Nature's reverential hand. The tomb, + Made ready there for a fresh habitant, + Was that of an old family. I knew it.-- + A very ancient altar-tomb, where Time + With his rough fretwork mark'd the sculptor's art + Feebly elaborate--heraldic shields + And mortuary emblems, half effaced, + Deep sunken at one end, of many names, + Graven with suitable inscriptions, each + Upon the shelving slab and sides; scarce now + Might any but an antiquarian eye + Make out a letter. Five-and-fifty years + The door of that dark dwelling had shut in + The last admitted sleeper. She, 'twas said, + Died of a broken heart--a widow'd mother + Following her only child, by violent death + Cut off untimely, and--the whisper ran-- + By his own hand. The tomb was ancient _then_, + When they two were interr'd; and they, the first + For whom, within the memory of man, + It had been open'd; and their names fill'd up + (With sharp-cut newness mocking the old stone) + The last remaining space. And so it seem'd + The gathering was complete; the appointed number + Laid in the sleeping chamber, and seal'd up + Inviolate till the great gathering day. + The few remaining of the name dispersed-- + The family fortunes dwindled--till at last + They sank into decay, and out of sight, + And out of memory; till an aged man + Pass'd by some parish very far away + To die in ours--his legal settlement-- + Claim'd kindred with the long-forgotten race, + Its sole survivor, and in right thereof, + Of that affinity, to moulder with them + In the old family grave. + + "A natural wish," + Said the authorities; "and sure enough + HE WAS of the old stock--the last descendant-- + And it would cost no more to bury him + Under the old crack'd tombstone, with its scutcheons, + Than in the common ground." So, graciously, + The boon was granted, and he died content. + And now the pauper's funeral had set forth, + And the bell toll'd--not many strokes, nor long-- + Pauper's allowance. He was coming home. + But while the train was yet a good way off-- + The workhouse burial train--I stopp'd to look + Upon the scene before me; and methought + Oh! that some gifted painter could behold + And give duration to that living picture, + So rich in moral and pictorial beauty, + If seen arightly by the spiritual eye + As with the bodily organ! + + The old tomb, + With its quaint tracery, gilded here and there + With sunlight glancing through the o'er-arching lime, + Far flinging its cool shadow, flickering light-- + Our greyhair'd sexton, with his hard grey face, + (A living tombstone!) resting on his mattock + By the low portal; and just over right, + His back against the lime-tree, his thin hands + Lock'd in each other--hanging down before him + As with their own dead weight--a tall slim youth + With hollow hectic cheek, and pale parch'd lip, + And labouring breath, and eyes upon the ground + Fast rooted, as if taking measurement + Betime for his own grave. I stopp'd a moment, + Contemplating those thinkers--youth and age-- + Mark'd for the sickle; as it seem'd--the _unripe_ + To be first gather'd. Stepping forward, then, + Down to the house of death, in vague expectance, + I sent a curious, not unshrinking, gaze. + There lay the burning brain and broken heart, + Long, long at rest: and many a Thing beside + That had been life--warm, sentient, busy life-- + Had hunger'd, thirsted, laugh'd, wept, hoped, and fear'd-- + Hated and loved--enjoy'd and agonized. + Where of all this, was all I look'd to see? + The mass of crumbling coffins--some belike + (The undermost) with their contents crush'd in, + Flatten'd, and shapeless. Even in this damp vault, + With more completeness could the old Destroyer + Have done his darkling work? Yet lo! I look'd + Into a small square chamber, swept and clean, + Except that on one side, against the wall, + Lay a few fragments of dark rotten wood, + And a small heap of fine, rich, reddish earth + Was piled up in a corner. + + "How is this?" + In stupid wonderment I ask'd myself, + And dull of apprehension. Turning, then, + To the old sexton--"Tell me, friend," I said, + "Here should be many coffins--Where are they? + And"--pointing to the earth-heap--"what is that?" + + He raised his eyes to mine with a strange look + And strangely meaning smile; and I repeated-- + (For not a word he spoke)--my witless question. + + Then with a deep distinctness he made answer, + Distinct and slow, looking from whence I pointed, + Full in my face again, and what he said + Thrill'd through my very soul--"_That's what we are!_" + + So I was answer'd. Sermons upon death + I had heard many. Lectures by the score + Upon life's vanities. But never words + Of mortal preacher to my heart struck home + With such convicting sense and suddenness + As that plain-spoken homily, so brief, + Of the unletter'd man. + + "That's what we are!"-- + Repeating after him, I murmur'd low + In deep acknowledgment, and bow'd the head + Profoundly reverential. A deep calm + Came over me, and to the inward eye + Vivid perception. Set against each other, + I saw weigh'd out the things of time and sense, + And of eternity;--and oh! how light + Look'd in that truthful hour the earthly scale! + And oh! what strength, when from the penal doom + Nature recoil'd, in _His_ remember'd words: + "_I am the Resurrection and the Life_." + + And other words of that Divinest Speaker + (Words to all mourners of all times address'd) + Seem'd spoken to me as I went along + In prayerful thought, slow musing on my way-- + "_Believe in me_"--"_Let not your hearts be troubled_"-- + And sure I could have promised in that hour, + But that I knew myself how fallible, + That never more should cross or care of this life + Disquiet or distress me. So I came, + Chasten'd in spirit, to my home again, + Composed and comforted, and cross'd the threshold + That day "a wiser, _not_ a sadder, _woman_." + + C. + + + + +EDMUND BURKE.[14] + + +Burke died in 1797, and yet, after the lapse of almost half a century, +the world is eager to treasure every recollection of his name. This is +the true tribute to a great man, and the only tribute which is worth +the wishes of a great man. The perishable nature of all the memorials +of human hands has justly been the theme of every moralist, since +tombs first bore an image or an inscription. Yet, such as they are, +they ought to be given; but they are all that man can give. The nobler +monument must be raised by the individual himself, and must be the +work of his lifetime; its guardianship must be in the hands, not of +sacristans and chapters, but in those of the world; his panegyric must +be found, not in the extravagance or adulation of his marble, but in +the universal voice which records his career, and cherishes his name +as a new stimulant of public virtue. + +We have no intention of retracing the steps by which this memorable +man gradually rose to so high a rank in the estimation of his own +times. No history of intellectual eminence during the latter half of +the nineteenth century--the most troubled, important, and productive +period of human annals since the birth of the European kingdoms--can +be written, without giving some testimonial to his genius in every +page. But his progress was not limited to his Age. He is still +progressive. While his great contemporaries have passed away, honoured +indeed, and leaving magnificent proofs of their powers, in the honour +and security of their country, Burke has not merely retained his +position before the national eye, but has continually assumed a +loftier stature, and shone with a more radiant illumination. The great +politician of his day, he has become the noblest philosopher of ours. +Every man who desires to know the true theory of public morals, and +the actual causes which influence the rise and fall of thrones, makes +his volumes a study; every man who desires to learn how the most +solemn and essential truths may not merely be adorned, but +invigorated, by the richest colourings of imagination, must labour to +discover the secret of his composition; and every man who, born in +party, desires to emancipate his mind from the egotism, bitterness, +and barrenness of party, or achieve the still nobler and more +difficult task of turning its evils into good, and of making it an +instrument of triumph for the general cause of mankind, must measure +the merits and success of his enterprise by its similarity to the +struggles, the motives, and the ultimate triumph of Edmund Burke. + +The present volumes contain a considerable portion of the +correspondence which Burke carried on with his personal and public +friends during the most stirring period of his life. The papers had +been put in trust of the late French Lawrence the civilian, and +brother to the late Archbishop of Cashel, with whom was combined in +the trust Dr King, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, both able men and +particular friends of Burke. But Lawrence, while full of the intention +of giving a life of his celebrated friend, died in 1809, and the +papers were bequeathed by the widow of Burke, who died in 1812, to the +Bishop of Rochester, the Right Hon. W. Elliot, and Earl Fitzwilliam, +for the publication of such parts as had not already appeared. This +duty chiefly devolved upon Dr King, who had been made Bishop of +Rochester in 1808. Personal infirmity, and that most distressing of +all infirmities, decay of sight, retarded the publishing of the works; +but sixteen volumes were completed. The bishop's death in 1828, put an +end to all the hopes which had been long entertained, of an authentic +life from his pen. + +On this melancholy event, the papers came into the possession of the +late Earl Fitzwilliam, from whom they devolved to the present Earl, +who, with Sir Richard Bourke, a distant relative of the family, and +personally intimate with Burke during the last eight years of his +life, has undertaken the present collection of his letters. Those +letters which required explanation have been supplied with intelligent +and necessary notes, and the whole forms a singularly important +publication. + + * * * * * + +Many of Burke's earliest letters were written to a Richard Shackleton, +the son of a Quaker at whose school Burke with his two brothers had +been placed in 1741. In 1743, he was placed in the college of Dublin, +and then commenced his correspondence with Shackleton. Even those +letters exhibit, at the age of little more than fifteen, the +sentiments which his mature life was spent in establishing and +enlarging. He says of sectaries, and this was to a sectary himself, "I +assure you, I don't think near so favourably of those sectaries you +mentioned, (he had just spoken of the comparative safety of virtuous +heathens, who, not having known the name of Christianity, were not to +be judged by its law,) many of those sectaries breaking, as they +themselves confessed, for matters of indifference, and no way +concerned in the only affair that is necessary, viz. salvation; and +what a great crime schism is, you can't be ignorant. This, and the +reasons in my last, and if you consider what will occur to yourself, +together with several texts, will bring you to my way of thinking on +that point. Let us endeavour to live according to the rules of the +Gospel; and he that prescribed them, I hope, will consider our +endeavours to please him, and assist us in our designs. + +"I don't like that part of your letter, wherein you say you had the +testimony of well-doing in your breast. Whenever such notions rise +again, endeavour to suppress them. We should always be in no other +than the state of a penitent, because the most righteous of us is no +better than a sinner. Read the parable of the Pharisee and the +Publican who prayed in the temple." + +We next have a letter exhibiting the effect of external things on the +writer's mind, and expressed with almost the picturesque power of his +higher days. He tells his friend, that he will endeavour to answer his +letter in good-humour, "though every thing around," he says, +"conspires to excite in him a contrary disposition--the melancholy +gloom of the day, the whistling winds, and the hoarse rumbling of the +swollen Liffey, with a flood which, even where I write, lays close +siege to our own street, not permitting any to go in or out to supply +us with the necessaries of life." + +After some statements of the rise of the river, he says, "It gives me +pleasure to see nature in those great though terrible scenes; it fills +the mind with grand ideas, and turns the soul in upon herself. This, +together with the sedentary life I lead, forced some reflections on +me, which perhaps would otherwise not have occurred. I considered how +little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master +of all things, yet scarce can command any thing. What well laid, and +what better executed scheme of his is there, but what a small change +of nature is entirely able to defeat and abolish. If but one element +happens to encroach a little upon another, what confusion may it not +create in his affairs, what havoc, what destruction: the servant +destined to his use, confines, menaces, and frequently destroys this +mighty, this feeble lord." + +One of those letters mentions his feelings on the defeat of the +luckless Charles Edward, whose hopes of the British crown were +extinguished by the battle of Culloden, (April 16, 1746.) "The +Pretender, who gave us so much disturbance for some time past, is at +length, with all his adherents, utterly defeated, and himself (as some +say) taken prisoner. 'Tis strange to see how the minds of the people +are in a few days changed. The very men who, but a while ago, while +they were alarmed by his progress, so heartily cursed and hated those +unfortunate creatures, are now all pity, and wish it could be +terminated without bloodshed. I am sure I share in the general +compassion. It is, indeed, melancholy to consider the state of those +unhappy gentlemen who engaged in this affair, (as for the rest, they +lose but their lives,) who have thrown away their lives and fortunes, +and destroyed their families for ever, in what, I believe, they +thought a just cause." Those sentiments exhibit the early propensity +of Burke's mind to a generous dealing with political opponents. He was +a Protestant, a zealous admirer of the constitution of 1688, as all +Irish Protestants were in his day, whether old or young; and yet he +feels an unequivocal, as it was a just compassion for the brave men, +who, under an impulse of misapplied loyalty, and in obedience to a +mistaken sense of duty, went headlong to their ruin, for a prince who +was a Papist, and thus would have been, like his father, a most +hazardous sovereign to the liberties and religion of England. + +In allusion to his collegiate career, he describes himself as having +taken up every successive subject, with an ardour which, however, +speedily declined. + +"First, I was greatly taken with natural philosophy, which, while I +should have given my mind to logic, employed me incessantly, (logic +forming a principal part of the first year's studies.) This I call my +_furor mathematicus_. But this worked off as soon as I began to read +it in the college. This threw me back to logic and metaphysics. Here I +remained a good while, and with much pleasure, and this was my _furor +logicus_--a disease very common in the days of ignorance, and very +uncommon in these enlightened times. Next succeeded the _furor +historicus_, which also had its day, but is now no more, being +absorbed in the _furor poeticus_, which (as skilful physicians assure +me) is difficultly cured. But doctors differ, and I don't despair of a +cure." Fortunately, he at last accomplished that cure, for his early +poetry gives no indications of future excellence. His prose is much +more poetic, even in those early letters, than his verse. A great poet +unquestionably is a great man; but Burke's greatness was to be +achieved in another sphere. It is only in the visions of prophecy that +we see the Lion with wings. Burke entered his name at the Middle +Temple in April 1747, and went to London to keep his terms in 1750. He +was now twenty-two years old, and his constitution being delicate, and +apparently consumptive, he adopted, during this period of his +residence in England, a habit to which he probably owed his strength +of constitution in after-life. During the vacations, he spent his time +in travelling about England, generally in company with a friend and +relative, Mr William Burke. Though his finances were by no means +narrow--his father being a man of success in his profession--Burke +probably travelled the greater part of those journeys on foot. When he +found an agreeable country town or village, he fixed his quarters +there, leading a regular life, rising early, taking frequent exercise, +and employing himself according to the inclinations of the hour. There +could be no wiser use of his leisure; exercise of the frame is health +of the mind, open air is life to the student, change of scene is +mental vigour to an enquiring, active, and eager spirit; and thus the +feeble boy invigorated himself for the most strenuous labours of the +man, and laid the foundation for a career of eminent usefulness and +public honour for nearly half a century of the most stirring period of +the modern world. + +Some of his letters touch, in his style of grave humour, on these +pleasant wanderings.--"You have compared me, for my rambling +disposition, to the sun. Sincerely, I can't help finding a likeness +myself, for they say the sun sends down much the same influences +whenever he comes into the same signs. Now I am influenced to shake +off my laziness, and write to you at the same time of the year, and +from the same west country I wrote my last in. Since I had your letter +I have often shifted the scene. I spent part of the winter, that is +the term time, in London, and part in Croydon in Surrey. About the +beginning of the summer, finding myself attacked with my old +complaints, I went once more to Bristol, and found the same benefit." +Of his adventures at Monmouth, he says they would almost compose a +novel, and of a more curious kind than is generally issued from the +press. He and his relative formed the topic of the town, both while +they were there and after they left it. "The most innocent scheme," +said he, "they guessed, was that of fortune-hunting; and when they saw +us quit the town without wives, the lower sort sagaciously judged us +spies to the French king. What is much more odd is, that here my +companion and I puzzled them as much as we did at Monmouth, [he was +then at Turlaine in Wiltshire,] for this is a place of very great +trade in making fine cloths, in which they employ a great number of +hands. The first conjecture, for they could not fancy how any other +sort of people could spend so much of their time at books; but finding +that we receive from time to time a good many letters, they conclude +us merchants. They at last began to apprehend that we were spies from +Spain on their trade." Still they appeared mysterious; and the old +woman in whose lodgings they lived, paid them the rather ambiguous +compliment of saying, "I believe that you be gentlemen, but I ask no +questions." "What makes the thing still better," says Burke, "about +the same time we came hither, arrived a little parson equally a +stranger; but he spent a good part of his time in shooting and other +country amusements, got drunk at night, got drunk in the morning, and +became intimate with every body in the village. But he surprised +nobody, no questions were asked about him, because he lived like the +rest of the world. But that two men should come into a strange +country, and partake of none of the country diversions, seek no +acquaintance, and live entirely recluse, is something so inexplicable +as to puzzle the wisest heads, even that of the parish-clerk himself." + +About the year 1756, Burke, still without a profession--for though he +had kept his terms he was never called to the bar--began to feel the +restlessness, perhaps the self-condemnation, natural to every man who +feels life advancing on him without an object. He now determined to +try his strength as an author, and published his _Vindication of +Natural Society_--a pamphlet in which, adopting the showy style of +Bolingbroke, but pushing his arguments to the extreme, he shows the +fallacy of his principles. This work excited considerable attention at +the time. The name of the author remained unknown, and the imitation +was so complete, that for some time it was regarded as a posthumous +work of the infidel lord. Burke, in one of his later publications, +exclaims--Who now reads Bolingbroke? who ever read him through? We may +be assured, at least, that one read him through; and that one was +Edmund Burke. The dashing rhetoric, and headlong statements of +Bolingbroke; his singular affluence of language, and his easy +disregard of fact; the boundless lavishing and overflow of an +excitable and glowing mind, on topics in which prejudice and passion +equally hurried him onward, and which the bitter recollections of +thwarted ambition made him regard as things to be trampled on, if his +own fame was to survive, was incomparably transferred by Burke to his +own pages. The performance produced a remarkable sensation amongst the +leaders of public opinion and literature. Chesterfield pronounced it +to be from the pen of Bolingbroke. Mallet, the literary lord's +residuary legatee, was forced to disclaim it by public advertisement; +but Mallet's credit was not of the firmest order, and his denial was +scarcely believed until Burke's name, as the author, was known. But +his _Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of the Sublime and +Beautiful_, brought him more unequivocal applause. His theory on this +subject has been disputed, and is obviously disputable; but it was +chiefly written at the age of nineteen; it has never been wholly +superseded, and, for elegance of diction, has never been equaled. It +brought him into immediate intercourse with all that may be called the +fashion of literature--Lyttleton, Warburton, Soame Jenyns, Hume, +Reynolds, Lord Bath, Johnson, the greatest though the least +influential of them all, and Mrs Montague, the least but the most +influential of them all. There must have been a good deal of what is +called fortune in this successful introduction to the higher orders of +London society; for many a work of superior intelligence and more +important originality has been produced, without making its author +known beyond the counter of the publisher. But what chance began his +merits completed. The work was unquestionably fit for the hands of +blue-stockingism; the topic was pleasing to literary romance; the very +title had a charm for the species of philosophy which lounges on +sofas, and talks metaphysics in the intervals of the concert or the +card-table. It may surprise us, that in an age when so many manly and +muscular understandings existed at the same time in London, things so +infinitely trifling as conversaziones should have been endured; but +conversaziones there were, and Burke's book was precisely made to +their admiration. It is no dishonour to the matured abilities of this +great man, that he produced a book which found its natural place on +the toilet-tables, and its natural praise in the tongues of the Mrs +Montagues of this world. It might have been worse; he never thought it +worth his while to make it better; the theory is worth nothing, but +the language is elegant; and the whole, regarded as the achievement of +a youth of nineteen, does honour to the spirit of his study, and the +polish of his pen. + +A change was now to take place in Burke's whole career. He might have +perished in poverty, notwithstanding his genius, except for the chance +which introduced him to Fitzherbert, a graceful and accomplished man, +who united to a high tone of fashionable life a gratification in the +intercourse of intelligent society. Partly through this gentleman's +interference, and partly through that of the late Earl of Charlemont, +Burke was introduced to William Gerard Hamilton, who shortly after +went to Ireland as secretary to the lord-lieutenant, Lord Halifax. +However, this connexion, though it continued for six years, was +evidently an uneasy one to Burke; and a letter written by him in the +second year of his private secretaryship to Hamilton, shows how little +they were fitted for cordial association. A pension of L.300 a-year +was assigned to Burke as a remuneration for his services, which, +however, he evidently seemed to regard in the light of a retaining +fee. In consequence of this conception, and the fear of being fettered +for life, Burke wrote a letter, stating that it would be necessary to +give a portion of his time to publication on his own account. + +"Whatever advantages," said he, "I have acquired, have been owing to +some small degree of literary reputation. It would be hard to persuade +me that any further services which your kindness may propose for me, +or any in which my friends may co-operate with you, will not be greatly +facilitated by doing something to cultivate and keep alive the same +reputation. I am fully sensible that this reputation may be as much +hazarded as forwarded by a new publication; but because a certain +oblivion is the consequence to writers of my inferior class of an +entire neglect of publication, I consider it such a risk as must +sometimes be run. For this purpose some short time, at convenient +intervals, and especially at the dead time of the year, it would be +requisite to study and consult proper books. The matter may be very +easily settled by a good understanding between ourselves, and by a +discreet liberty, which I think you would not wish to restrain, or I +to abuse." + +However, it will be seen that Gerard Hamilton thought differently on +the subject. We break off this part of the correspondence, for the +purpose of introducing a fragment of that wisdom which formed so early +and so promising a portion of the mind of Burke. In writing of his +brother Richard to his Irish friend, he says--"Poor Dick sets off at +the beginning of next week for the Granadas, [in which he had obtained +a place under government.] He goes in good health and spirits, which +are all but little enough to battle with a bad climate and a bad +season. But it must be submitted to. Providence never intended, to +much the greater part, an entire life of ease and quiet. A peaceable, +honourable, and affluent decline of life must be purchased by a +laborious or hazardous youth; and every day, I think more and more +that it is well worth the purchase. Poverty and age suit very ill +together, and a course of struggling is miserable indeed, when +strength is decayed and hope gone. _Turpe senex miles!_" + +Burke's quarrel with Hamilton ended in his resigning his pension. His +feelings appear to have been deeply hurt by Hamilton's superciliousness, +and his demand for the right to employ the whole time of his private +secretary. In a long explanatory letter to Hutchinson, a leading member +of the Irish parliament, and father of the late Lord Donoughmore, he +says, indignantly enough--"I flatter myself to let you see that I +deserved to be considered in another manner than as one of Mr Hamilton's +cattle, or as a piece of his household stuff. Six of the best years of +my life he took me from every pursuit of literary reputation, or of +improvement of my fortune. In that time he made his own fortune, a very +great one; and he has also taken to himself the very little one which I +had made. In all this time you may easily conceive how much I felt at +being left behind by almost all my contemporaries. There never was a +season more favourable for any man who chose to enter into the career +of public life; and I think I am not guilty of ostentation in supposing +my own moral character and my industry, my friends and connexions, when +Mr H. first sought my acquaintance, were not at all inferior to those of +several whose fortune is at this day upon a very different footing from +mine." + +It is evident that Burke's mind was at this period turned to +authorship, and that his chief quarrel arose from the petty and +pragmatical demand of Hamilton, that he should abandon it altogether. +Burke soon had ample revenge, if it was to be found in the obscurity +into which Hamilton rapidly fell, and the burlesque which alone +revived his name from its obscurity. The contrast between the two must +have been a lesson to the vanity of the one, as pungent as was its +triumph. If ever the fate of Tantalus was realized to man, it was in +the perpetual thirst and perpetual disappointment of Hamilton for +public name. The cup never reached his lips but it was instantly dry; +while Burke was seen reveling in the full flow of public +renown--buoyant on the stream into which so many others plunged only +to sink, and steering his noble course with a full mastery of the +current. "Single-speech Hamilton" became a title of ridicule, while +Burke was pouring forth, night after night, speech after speech, rich +in the most sparkling and most solid opulence of the mind. He must +have been more or less than man, to have never cast a glance at the +decrepitude of the formal coxcomb whom he once acknowledged as his +leader, and compared his shrunk shape with the vigorous and athletic +proportions of his own intellectual stature. Hamilton, too, must have +had many a pang. The wretched nervousness of character which at once +stimulated him to pine for distinction, and disqualified him from +obtaining it, must have made his life miserable. If the magnificent +conception of the poet's Prometheus could be lowered to any thing so +trivial as a disappointed politician of the eighteenth century, its +burlesque might be amply shown in a mind helplessly struggling against +a sense of its own inferiority, gnawed by envy at the success of +better men, and with only sufficient intellectual sensibility +remaining to have that gnawing constantly renewed. + +Burke's letters to the chief Irishmen with whom his residence in +Dublin had brought him into intercourse, long continued indignant. +"Having presumed," said he, in one of those explanatory letters, "to +put a test to me, which no man _not born in Africa_ ever thought of +taking, on my refusal he broke off all connexion with me in the most +insolent manner. He, indeed, entered into two several negotiations +afterwards, but both poisoned in their first principles by the same +spirit of injustice with which he set out in his first dealings with +me. I, therefore, could never give way to his proposals. The whole +ended by his possessing himself of that small reward for my services +which, I since find, he had a very small share in procuring for me. +After, or, indeed, rather during his negotiations, he endeavoured to +stain my character and injure my future fortune, by every calumny his +malice could suggest. This is the case of my connexion with Mr +Hamilton." + +If all this be true--and whoever impeached the veracity of Burke in +any thing?--the more effectually his enemy was trampled the better: +malice can be punished sufficiently only by extirpation. + +A powerful letter to Henry Flood, then one of the leading members of +the Irish House of Commons, shows how deeply Burke felt the vexation +of Hamilton's conduct, and not less explicitly administers the moral, +of how much must be suffered by every man who enters into the +conflicts of public life. Flood, too, had his share of those +vexations; perhaps more of them than his correspondent. Henry Flood +was one of the most remarkable men whom Ireland had produced. +Commencing his career with a handsome fortune, he had plunged into the +dissipation which was almost demanded of men of family in his day; but +some accidental impression (we believe a fit of illness) suddenly +changed his whole course. He turned his attention to public life, +entered the House of Commons, and suddenly astonished every body by +his total transformation from a mere man of fashion to a vigorous and +brilliant public orator. He was the most logical of public speakers, +without the formality of logic, and the most imaginative, without the +flourish of fancy. For ten years, Flood was the leader of the House, +on whichever side he stood. He was occasionally in opposition, and the +champion of opposition politics in his earlier career; but at length, +unfortunately alike for his feelings and his fame, he grew indolent, +accepted an almost sinecure place, and indulged himself in ease and +silence for full ten years. A loss like this was irreparable, in the +short duration allotted to the living supremacy of statesmanship. No +man in the records of the English parliament has been at his highest +vigour for more than ten years; he may have been _rising_ before, or +inheriting a portion of his parliamentary distinction--enough to give +dignity to his decline; but his true time has past, and thenceforth he +must be satisfied with the reflection of his own renown. Flood had +already passed his hour when he was startled by the newborn splendour +of Grattan. The contest instantly commenced between those +extraordinary men, and was carried on for a while with singular +animation, and not less singular animosity. The ground of contest was +the constitution of 1782. The exciting cause of contest was the wrath +of Flood at seeing the laurels which he had relinquished seized by a +younger champion, and the daring, yet justified confidence of Grattan +in his own admirable powers to win and wear them. Flood, in the +bitterest pungency of political epigram, charged Grattan with having +sold himself to the people, and then sold the people to the minister +for prompt payment. (A vote of £50,000 had been passed to purchase an +estate for Grattan.) Grattan retorted, that "Flood, after having sold +himself to the minister, was angry only because he was interrupted in +the attempt to sell himself to the people." The country, fond of the +game of partizanship, ranged itself under the banners of both, +alternately hissed and applauded both, and at length abandoned both, +and in its new fondness for change, adopted the bolder banners of +revolution. Both were fighting for a shadow, and both must have known +it; but the prize of rhetoric was not to be given up without a +struggle. The "constitution" was rapidly forgotten, when Flood retired +into England and obscurity; and Grattan, who had been left, if not +victor, at least possessor of the field, grew tired of struggles +without a purpose, and plaudits without a reward. The absurdity of +affecting an independence which could not exist an hour but by the +protection of England, and the burlesque of a parliament into which no +man entered but in expectation of a job; the scandal of an Irish +slave-market, and the costliness of purchasing representatives, only +to be sold by them in turn, became so palpable to the national eye, +that the nation contemptuously cashiered the legislature. The gamblers +who had made their fortunes off the people, and had amused themselves +with building a house of cards, saw their paper fabric fall at the +first breath; and the nation looked on the fall with the negligent +scorn excited in rational eyes by detected imposture. The attempt is +once more prepared, but Ireland will have no house of cards, still +less will she suffer the building of an hospital for decayed fashion +and impotent intrigue--a receptacle for political incurables--and +meritorious, in the sight even of its projectors, simply for affording +them snug stewardships, showy governorships, and the whole sinecure +system of emolument without responsibility. + +Burke again repeats to Flood his wrath at Hamilton's +provocation.--"The occasion of our difference was not any act +whatsoever on my part, it was entirely on his--by a voluntary, but +most insolent and intolerable demand, amounting to no less than a +claim of servitude during the whole course of my life." He then +alludes to the position of political parties, and gives a sketch of +the great Earl of Chatham which shows the hand of a master. "Nothing +but an intractable temper in your friend Pitt can prevent an admirable +and most lasting system from being put together; and this crisis will +show whether pride or patriotism be predominant in his character, for +you may be assured that he has it now in his power to come into the +service of his country upon any plan of politics he may choose to +dictate; with great and honourable claims to himself and to every +friend he has in the world, and with such a stretch of power as will +be equal to every thing but absolute despotism over the king and +kingdom. A few days will show whether he will take his part, or that +of continuing on his bank at Hayes, (his country-seat,) talking +fustian, excluded from all ministerial, and incapable of all +parliamentary service; for his gout is worse than ever, but his pride +may disable him more than his gout." + +We then have an odd rambling letter from Dr Leland, the author of a +History of Ireland, a heavy performance but an honest one, and by far +the best and least unfortunate of the unfortunate attempts to +rationalize the caprices and calamities of that unhappy country. +Leland's letter is written in congratulation to the two brothers, +Edmund and William Burke, the former having been appointed private +secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham in July 1765, the latter one of +the under secretaries of state. In speaking of Ireland, this writer +says, sensibly enough, "Let who will come to govern us poor wretches, +I care not, provided we are decently governed. I would not have his +secretary a jolly, good-humoured abandoned profligate, (the most +dangerous character in society,) or a sullen, vain, proud, selfish, +cankered-hearted, envious reptile--though what matter who is either +lieutenant or secretary?" + +Burke was not at this time in Parliament, nor until the 26th of +December in this year, when he was returned for the borough of +Wendover, through the influence of Lord Verney. A letter from Dr +Markham, afterwards archbishop of York, shows the degree of estimation +in which his abilities were held, and the expectations which he +excited among able men, at a period when his parliamentary faculties +were still unknown. He says to William Burke,--"I was informed of +Ned's cold by a letter from Skynner. I am very glad to hear it is so +much better. I should be grieved to hear he was ill at any time, and +particularly at so critical a time as this. I think much will depend +on his outset. I wish him to appear at once in some important +question. If he has but that confidence in his strength which I have +always had, he cannot fail of appearing with lustre. I am very glad to +hear from you that he feels his own consequence as well as the crisis +of his situation. He is now on the ground on which I have been so many +years wishing to see him. One splendid day will crush the malevolence +of enemies, as well as the envy of some who often praise him. When his +reputation is once established, the common voice will either silence +malignity or destroy its effect." + +This was written three days after Burke's entrance into Parliament. It +is curious to see, in the letters of those early correspondents, most +of them accomplished and practical men, how fully they were possessed +with a sense of his promised superiority. "You are now, I am certain," +says Leland, "a man of business, deeply immersed in public affairs, +commercial and political. You will show yourself a man of business in +the House of Commons, and you will not, I am certain, build your +reputation and consequence there upon a single studied manufactured +piece of eloquence, and then, like the brazen head, shut your mouth +for ever. I trust I shall hear of your rising regularly, though +rapidly; that I shall hear of ministers begging that you would be +pleased to accept of being vice-treasurer of Ireland, and then of your +soaring so high as to be quite out of view of such insects as I--and +so good-night, my dear Ned. If ever chance should bring us together, +we are quite ruined as companions. The saunterings, the readings, the +laughings, and the dosings in Mount Gallagher (his country-seat) are +all over. Your head is filled with questions, divisions, and +majorities. My thoughts are employed on Louth and Warburton." + +Burke began his parliamentary triumphs with but little delay. The +colonies were the grand subject of the time, and Burke instantly +devoted himself to that subject with the whole force of his capacious +intellect. He was regarded by the House, on the first speech which he +made on this voluminous topic, as exhibiting extraordinary knowledge, +combined with a power of language unequalled save by Chatham himself. +One of the letters of congratulations is from Dr Marriott, who was +afterwards judge of the court of admiralty. "Permit me to tell you +that you are the person the least sensible of the members of the House +of Commons, how much glory you acquired last Monday night; and it +would be an additional satisfaction to you that this testimony comes +from a judge of public speaking, the most disinterested and capable of +judging of it. Dr Hay assures me that your speech was far superior to +that of any other speaker on the colonies that night. I could not +refrain from acquainting you with an opinion, which must so greatly +encourage you to proceed, and to place the palm of the orator with +those which you have already acquired of the writer and the +philosopher." Hay was afterwards judge of the admiralty. At his death +he was succeeded by Marriott. He was of the Bedford party, which, as +it was wholly opposed to the Rockingham, made the testimony more +valuable. + +Burke's second speech was equally the subject of admiration. A second +letter from Marriott, with whom he had had some conversation +expressive of his own diffidence, at least as to his manner, in +addressing the House, mentions once more the opinion of Dr Hay, for +whose taste Marriott seems to have had great deference. "His opinion," +he writes, "is, that nothing could be more remote from awkwardness or +constraint than your manner; that your style, ideas, and expression, +were peculiarly your own; natural and unaffected, and so different +from the cant of the House, or from the jargon of the bar, that he +could not imagine any thing more agreeable; that you did not dwell +upon a point till you had tired it out, as is the way of most +speakers, but kept on with fresh ideas crowding upon you, and rising +one out of another, all leading to one point, which was constantly +kept in view to the audience; and, although every thing seemed a kind +of new political philosophy, yet it was all to the purpose and +well-connected, so as to produce the effect; and that he admired your +last speech the more as it was impromptu. I thought he was describing +to me a Greek orator, whose select orations I had translated four +times when I first went to the university, and therefore marked the +traits of this character. It was impossible for me not to communicate +to you a decision from so great a master himself, though differing +from you in party, that you may go on in a way you have begun, with +such glory to yourself, and to which you add so much by being so +little sensible of it." + +In 1766 the Rockingham ministry was suddenly dashed to the ground, and +all its connexions, of course, went down along with it. The marquis +was a man of great estate and excellent intentions, but his ministry +realized the Indian fable of the globe being painted on a +tortoise--the merit of the political tortoise being, in this instance, +to stand still, while its ambition unfortunately was to move. The +consequence naturally followed, that the world took its own course, +and left the tortoise behind. But Burke had distinguished himself so +much that offers of office were made to him from the succeeding +administration. Those he declined, and commenced that neutral +existence which, with the majority of politicians, is worse than none. +There was a weakness in Burke's character which did him infinite +mischief for the first ten years of his political life. We shall not +call it an affectation in the instance of so great a man, but it paid +all the penalties of folly--and this was his propensity to feel, or at +least to express, a personal affection for the men whom he politically +followed. Even of Hamilton, the most supercilious and least loveable +of mankind, Burke speaks with a tenderness absolutely ridiculous +amongst politicians. Of Lord Rockingham he seldom speaks but in a tone +of romance, singularly inapplicable to that formal and frigid figure +of aristocracy. Of Fox, in latter days, he spoke in a sentimental tone +worthy only of a lover on the French stage; and, in all these +instances, he was doubtless laughed at, notwithstanding all his +sensibilities. With the highest admiration of his genius, we must +believe, for the sake of his understanding, that he adopted this style +merely for fashion's sake; for familiarity, which is akin to fondness, +as we are told by the poets that pity is akin to love, was much the +foolish fashion of the day. Men of the highest rank, and doubtless of +the haughtiest arrogance, were called Tom, and Dick, and Harry; and +this silliness was the language of high life, until the French +Revolution and the democratic war at home taught them, that if they +adopted the phraseology of their own footmen, their footmen would +probably take possession of their title-deeds. The hollowness of +public life is as soon discovered as the haughtiness of public men. A +man of heart like Burke ought to have disdained even the language of +courtiership, and while he observed the decorums of society, scorned +to stoop even to the phraseology of humiliation. But one of the most +curious features of this obsolete day is the manner in which the +country was disposed of. No game of whist, in one of the lordly clubs +of St James's Square, was ever more exclusively played. It was simply +a question whether his Grace of Bedford would be content with a +quarter or a half of the cabinet, or whether the Marquis of Rockingham +would be satisfied with two-fifths, or the Earl of Shelburne should +have all or should share power with the Duke of Portland. In all those +barterings and borrowings we never hear the name of the nation. No +whisper announces that there is such a thing in existence as the +people. No allusion ever proceeds from the stately lips, or offends +the "ears polite," of the embroidered conclave, referring to either +the interests, the feelings, or the necessities of the nation. All was +done as in an assemblage of a higher race of existence, calmly carving +out the world for themselves--a tribe of Epicurean deities, with the +cabinet for their Olympus, stooping to our inferior region only to +enjoy their own atmosphere afterwards with the greater zest, or shift +their quarters, like the poet's Jupiter, when tired of the dust and +clamour of war, moving off on his clouds and with his attendant +goddesses, to the tranquil realms of the Hippomolgi. + +And this highbred condition of affairs was the more repulsive, from +the fact that the greater number of those disposers of office and +dividers of empire were among the emptiest of mankind. The succession +of ministers, from the days of Walpole, (unquestionably a shrewd, +though a coarse mind, and profligate personage,) with the exception of +Chatham, was a list of silken imbeciles; very rich, or very highborn, +or very handsomely supplied with boroughs, but, in all other senses, +the last men who should have been entrusted with power. + +We have to thank the satirists, the public misfortunes, and even the +demagogues, for extinguishing this smooth and pacific system. Junius, +with his sarcastic pen, the American war, and even the gross impudence +of Wilkes, stirred the public mind to remember that it had a voice in +the state. A manlier period succeeded; and we shall no more hear of +the government being divided among the select party, like a twelfth +cake, nor see the interests of a nation which represents the interests +of the globe, compromised to suit the contending claims of +full-dressed frivolity. + +As a specimen of this courtly affair, we give a few fragments from a +confidential letter of Burke to the Marquis of Rockingham. "Lord +Shelburne still continues in administration, though as adverse and as +much disliked as ever.--The Duke of Grafton continues, I hear, his +old complaints of his situation, and his genuine desire of holding it +as long as he can. At same time, Lord Shelburne gets loose too. I know +that Lord Camden, who adhered to him in these late divisions, has +given him up, and gone over to the Duke of Grafton. The Bedfords are +horridly frightened at all this, for fear of seeing the table _they +had so well covered_, and at which they sat down with so good an +appetite, kicked down in the scuffle. They find things not ripe at +present for bringing in Grenville, and that any capital move just now +would only betray their weakness in the closet and the nation." Thus, +those noble personages had it all to themselves. Again-- + +"If Grenville was peculiarly exceptionable, another middle person +might have the Treasury. I fancy their middleman to be the same they +had in their thoughts this time twelve-month--Lord Gower. They talked +of the Duke of Northumberland as a proper person for the Treasury, in +case of the Duke of Grafton's going out. The truth is, the Bedfords +will never act any part, either fair or amiable, with your lordship or +your friends, until they see you in a situation to give the law to +them." No doubt all this was perfectly true; the whole was selfish, +supercilious, and exclusive; one red riband matched against another, +one garter balanced against a rival fragment of blue; the whole a +court-ball, in which the nation had no more share than if it had been +danced in the saloon of Windsor; a masquerade in which the political +minuet was gravely danced by the peerage in character, and of which +the nation heard scarcely even the fiddles. But those times have +passed away, and, for the honour of common sense, they have passed +never to return. + +The long contested authorship of "Junius's Letters" makes the subject +of a brief portion of his correspondence. A letter from Charles +Townshend, brother of Lord Sidney, says--"I met Fitzherbert last +night, and talked to him on the subject of our late conversation. I +told him that I had heard that he had asserted that you were the +author of 'Junius's Letters,' for which I was very sorry, because, if +it reached your ears, it would give you a great deal of concern. He +assured me, that he had only said that the ministry now looked upon +you as the author, but that he had constantly contradicted the report +whenever it was mentioned in his company, particularly yesterday and +the day before, to persons who affirmed that you were now fixed on as +the writer of those papers. He declared that he was convinced in his +own mind that you were not concerned in the publication, and that he +had said so." This letter was written in 1771. Burke replies to it, in +two days after, in a letter of thanks, unequivocally denying that he +had any share in those letters. "My friends I have satisfied; my +enemies shall never have any direct satisfaction from me. The +ministry, I am told, are convinced of my having written Junius, on the +authority of a miserable bookseller's preface, in which there are not +three lines of common truth or sense. I have never once condescended +to take the least notice of their invectives, or publicly to deny the +fact on which some of them were grounded. At the same time to you or +to any of my friends, I have been as ready as I ought to be in +disclaiming, in the most precise terms, writings that are as superior, +perhaps, to my talents, as they are most certainly different in many +essential points from my regards and my principles." Burke seems to +have been constantly bored on this subject, for he writes an angry +letter to Markham, then bishop of Chester. Charles Townshend writes to +him again to say that the Public require a more distinct disclaimer. +Burke answers, "I have, I daresay to nine-tenths of my acquaintances, +denied my being the author of Junius, or having any knowledge of the +author, whenever the thing was mentioned, whether in jest or earnest. +I now give you my word and honour that I am not the author of Junius, +and that I know not the author of that paper, and I do authorize you +to say so." + +We believe that this is the first time in which Burke's disclaimer has +been made public; but our only surprise in the matter is, how he could +at any time have been considered as the author of Junius. We should +have rather said that he was the last man in the kingdom who ought to +have been suspected. The styles of Burke and Junius are totally +different: the one loose and flowing, the other terse and pungent; the +one lofty and imaginative, the other level and stern; the one taking +large views on every subject, and evidently delighting in the +largeness of those views, the other fixing steadily and fiercely upon +the immediate object of attack, and shooting every arrow point-blank. +Of course, we have no intention of wandering into a topic so +thoroughly beaten as that of the authorship of Junius; but we must +acknowledge, if Sir Philip Francis was not the man, no other nominal +candidate for the honour has been brought forward with equal claims. +The only objection which we have ever heard to his title as author is, +his not making it in person; for he was said to be a man of such +inordinate admiration of his own powers, that he could not have kept +the secret. It has been said, too, that no fear, after the lapse of +twenty years, could have prevented its being divulged. But there are +other motives than fear which might act upon a proud and powerful +spirit. The author of a work like Junius was clearly contemptuous of +mankind, and more contemptuous in proportion to the rank of his +victims. To such a man even the excitement produced by the general +enquiry into the authorship might be a triumph in itself. Though a +solitary, it might be a high gratification to a morbid spirit of +disdain, to see himself a problem to mankind, to hear perpetual +arguments raised on his identity, and see the puzzled pens of the +pamphleteering word all busy in sketching an ideal likeness which each +fancied to be the original. If we could imagine the shade of Swift or +Shaftesbury, of Scarron or Rabelais, to walk invisibly through the +world playing its bitter and fantastic tricks in the ways of men, +stinging some, astounding others, and startling all, we perhaps would +approach nearest to the feelings which might, now and then, have +indulged the habitual scorn and stimulated the conscious power of +Junius. + +It has also been said that Sir Philip Francis was not equal to the +composition of those masterly letters; and it must be acknowledged +that, though he made some very powerful and pointed speeches in the +House of Commons, they wanted the penetration and the polish of +Junius. But there are several letters by Sir Philip Francis in these +volumes, which, though evidently written in the haste and +desultoriness of private correspondence, exhibit conceptions strongly +resembling the sarcastic strength and high-wrought point of Junius. + +The Hastings' trial brought Francis full before the public; and we +have a letter from Burke describing one of his speeches on this +subject, which, with his usual good nature, he sent to the orator's +wife. It is dated April 20, 1787.--"My dear madam, I cannot, with all +honest appetite, or clear conscience, sit down to my breakfast, unless +I first give you an account, which will make your family breakfast as +pleasant to you, as I wish all your family meetings to be. I have the +satisfaction of telling you, that, not in my judgment only, but in +that of all who heard him, no man ever acquitted himself, on a day of +great expectation, so well as Mr Francis did yesterday. He was clear, +precise, forcible, and eloquent, in a high degree. No intricate +business was ever better unravelled, and no iniquity ever placed so +effectually to produce its natural horror and disgust. * * * * All who +heard him were delighted, except those whose mortification ought to +give pleasure to every good mind. He was two hours and a half on his +legs, and he never lost attention for a moment." + +We give a curious specimen of the daring criticism which this +applauded personage now and then ventured, even on the authorship of +Burke. In 1790, Burke had prepared his celebrated work on the French +Revolution for the press early in the year, and appears to have sent +fragments of it to several of his friends. Casual circumstances +delayed the work until October. Francis's letter was written in +February. It begins--"I am sorry you should have the trouble of +sending for the printed paper you lent me yesterday, though I own I +cannot much regret even a fault of my own, that helps to delay the +publication of that paper. [This was probably a proof sheet of the +_Reflections_.] It is the proper province, and ought to be the +privilege, of an inferior to criticise and advise. The best possible +critic of the Iliad, would be, _ipso facto_, and by virtue of that +very character, incapable of being the author of it. Standing as I do +in this relation to you, you would renounce your superiority, if you +refused to be advised by me. Remember that this is one of the most +singular, that it may be the most distinguished, and ought to be one +of the most deliberate acts of your life. Your writings have hitherto +been the delight and instruction of your own country. You now +undertake to correct and instruct another nation; and your appeal in +effect is to all Europe." After then objecting to Burke's exposure of +Price and his fellow pamphleteers, as beneath the writer and his +subject, he attacks him for his panegyric on the Queen of France. He +then sneeringly asks, "Pray, sir, how long have you felt yourself so +desperately disposed to admire the ladies of Germany?" This was an +allusion to Queen Charlotte, whom Burke's particular friends had long +regarded as one of their impediments to power. He proceeds--"The +mischief you are going to do yourself, is to my apprehension, +palpable. It is visible. It will be audible. I snuff it in the wind. I +taste it already. I feel it in every sense; and so will you +hereafter." This letter certainly wants the polish of Junius, but it +has the power of bitter thought, and it sneers with practised +piquancy. Of course, a broad line is to be drawn between a work of +study and the work of the moment--between the elaborate vigour which +prunes and purifies every straggling shoot away, and exhibits its +production for a prize-show, and the careless luxuriance which suffers +the tree to throw out its shoots under no direction, but that of the +prolific power of nature. Yet the plant is the same, and though we by +no means say, that even this letter gives demonstration, yet the +arrogant ease of the style is such, as we should have expected to find +in the familiar correspondence of Junius. His letter obviously excited +in Burke a mixture of pain and indignation. + +He answered it the next day in a long and eloquent vindication which +was oddly enough inclosed in a letter from his son, scarcely less than +menacing. It begins--"My dear sir, You must conceive that your letter, +combating many old ideas of my father's, and proposing many new ones, +could not fail to set his mind at work, and to make him address the +effect of those operations to you. I must, therefore, entreat you not +to draw him aside from the many and great labours he has in hand, by +_any further written communications of this kind_, which would, +indeed, be very useful, because they are valuable, if they were +conveyed at a time when there was leisure to settle opinions." Those +are hard hits at the critic, but harder were still to come. "There is +one thing of which I must inform you. It is, that my father's opinions +are never hastily adopted, and that even those ideas which have often +appeared to me only the effect of momentary heat, or casual +impression, I have afterwards found, beyond a possibility of doubt, to +be the result of systematic meditation, perhaps of years. * * * * The +thing, I say, is a paradox, but _when we talk of things superior to +ourselves_, what is not paradox?" + +He strikes harder still. "When we say, that one man is wiser than +another, we allow that the wiser man forms his opinions upon grounds +and principles which, though to him justly conclusive, cannot be +comprehended and received by _him who is less wise_. To be wise, is +only to see deeper, and further, and differently _from others_." + +Yet this strong rebuke, which was followed by a long letter from Burke +himself, half indignant, half argumentative, does not seem to have +disturbed the temper of Francis, proverbially petulant as he was, if +it did not rather raise his respect for both parties. He tells Burke, +in a subsequent letter, that he has looked for his work, his +_Reflections on the Revolution_, with great impatience, and read it +with studious delight. He proceeds--"My dear Mr Burke, when I took +what is vulgarly called the liberty of opposing my thoughts and wishes +to the _publication_ of yours, on the late transactions in France, I +do assure you that I was not moved so much by a difference of opinion +on the subject, as by an apprehension of the personal uneasiness +which, one way or other, I thought you would suffer by it. I know that +virtue would be useless, if it were not active, and that it can rarely +be active without exciting the most malignant of all enmity, that in +which envy predominates, and which, having no injury to complain of, +has no ostensible motive either to resent or to forgive." (How like +Junius is all this! The likeness is still stronger as it proceeds.) "I +have not yet had it in my power to read more than one third of your +book. I must taste it deliberately. The flavour is too high--the wine +is too rich; I cannot take a draught of it." In another passage he +gives a powerful sketch of popery. In speaking of the French monarchy, +and its presumed mildness in the last century, he attributes the +cessation of its severities to the European change of manners. "We do +not pillage and massacre quite so furiously as our ancestors used to +do. Why? Because these nations are more enlightened--because the +Christian religion is, _de facto_, not in force in the world! Suspect +me not of meaning the Christian religion of the _gospel_. I mean that +which was enforced, rather than taught, by priests, by bishops, and by +cardinals; which laid waste a province, and then formed a monastery; +which, after destroying a great portion of the human species, +provided, as far as it could, for the utter extinction of future +population, by instituting numberless retreats for celibacy; which set +up an ideal being called the Church, capable of possessing property of +all sorts for the pious use of its ministers, incapable of alienating, +and whose property its usufructuaries very wisely said it should be +sacrilege to invade; that religion, in short, which was practised, or +professed, and with great zeal too, by tyrants and villains of every +denomination." + +These volumes show, in a strong light, the energy with which Burke +watched over his party in the House of Commons, and the importance of +his guardianship. He seems to have been called on for his advice in +all great transactions, and to have watched over its interests during +the period of Fox's absence. In 1788 the mental illness of George III. +became decided, and the prospect of a regency with the Prince of Wales +at its head, awoke all the long excluded ambition of the Whigs. Fox +was at that period in Italy, and he was sent for by express to lead +the party in the assault on office. He immediately turned his face to +England, and arrived on the 24th of November, four days after the +meeting of Parliament, which had, however, immediately adjourned to +the fourth of the following month, for the purpose of ascertaining the +health of his majesty. On this occasion Burke addressed to Fox a long +and powerful letter, marking out the line which the parties should +take, giving his opinion with singular distinctness, and expressing +himself in the tone of one who felt his authority. He begins--"My dear +Fox, If I have not been to see you before this time, it was not owing +to my not having missed you in your absence, or my not having much +rejoiced in your return. But I know that you are indifferent to every +thing in friendship but the substance, and all proceedings of ceremony +have, for many years, been out of the question between you and me." In +allusion to the probable formation of a new ministry, he observes--"I +do not think that a great deal of time is allowed you. Perhaps it is +not for your interest that this state of things should continue long, +even supposing that the exigencies of government should suffer it to +remain on its present footing; but I speak without book. I remember a +story of Fitzpatrick in his American campaign, that he used to say to +the officers who were in the same tent, before they were up, that the +only meals they had to consider how they were to procure for that day, +were breakfast, dinner, and supper. I am worse off; for there are five +meals necessary, and I do not know at present how to feel secure of +one of them. The king, the prince, the Lords, the Commons, and the +People." He then urges a bold line of policy--the public examination +of the physicians, the acting independently of the ministers, and a +movement on the part of the prince worthy of his station; but which, +unhappily for the Whigs, was neither adopted by Fox, nor was +consistent with the courtly indolence of the future king. "Might it +not be better," says Burke boldly, "for the prince at once to assure +himself, to communicate the king's melancholy state by a message to +the Houses, and to desire their counsel and support in such an +exigency? It would put him forward with advantage in the eyes of the +people; it would teach them to look upon him with respect, as a person +possessed of the spirit of command; and it would, I am persuaded, +stifle a hundred cabals, both in parliament and elsewhere, which, if +they were cherished by his apparent remissness and indecision, would +produce to him a vexatious and disgraceful regency and reign." + +Lord Thurlow seems, in some way or other, to have given offence to +every remarkable man of his day. At once crafty and insolent, he +toiled for power with an indefatigable labour, as he indulged his +sense of authority by an intolerable arrogance. Among the multitude of +distinguished men whom this legal savage irritated, was Sir William +Jones, the Orientalist. He thus writes to Burke, "I heard last night, +with surprise and affliction, that the *Thêrion* (the wild-beast--Thurlow) +was to continue in office. Now, I can assure you, from my own positive +knowledge, and I know him well, that though he hates our species in +general, yet his particular hatred is directed against none more +virulently, than against Lord North, and the friends of the late +excellent marquis. He will, indeed, make fair promises, and enter into +engagements, because he is the most interested of mortals; but his +ferocity in opposing the Contractors' Bill, may convince you how +little he thinks himself bound by his _compacts_. He will take a +delight in obstructing all your plans, and will never say, 'Aha, I am +satisfied,' until he has overthrown you. In fact, you will not be +ministers, but tenants by copy of court-roll at the will of the lord. +If you remove him, and put the seal in commission, his natural +indolence is such, that he will give you little trouble, because he +will give himself none; but, if he continue among you, his great joy +will be, and you may rely upon my intelligence, to attack the reports +of your select committee, to support all those whom you condemn, and +to condemn all the measures which you may support. In a word, if +_Caliban_ remain in power, there will be no Prospero in this +fascinated island." + +At this period, Jones was panting for an Indian judgeship, which he +obtained shortly after, and proceeded to Calcutta. It may be doubted, +whether his career would not have been happier and loftier had he +remained at home. His indefatigable diligence must have soon conquered +the difficulties of legal knowledge, and his early intercourse with +the leading men of his time, would, in the common course of things, +have raised him to distinction. He died at forty-seven, too early to +accomplish any work of solid utility, but not too early to spread his +reputation through Europe, for an extraordinary proficiency in the +languages of India. Later scholars speak lightly of this multifarious +knowledge, and nothing can be more probable, than that attainment of +_many_ languages, with any approach to their fluent use, is beyond the +power of man. But his diligence was exemplary, his memory retentive, +and his understanding accomplished by classical knowledge; with those +qualities, much might be done in any pursuit; and though modern +orientalists protest against the superficiality of his acquirements, +their variety has been admitted, and still remain unrivaled. + +Jones had his fits of despondency, like less fortunate men, and +concludes his letter, by intimating a speculation, not unlike that of +Burke himself in his earlier time:--"As for me, I should either settle +as a lawyer at Philadelphia, whither I have been invited, or retire on +my small independence to Oxford; if I had not in England a very strong +attachment, and many dear friends." + +One of Burke's most anxious efforts was to make his son Richard a +statesman. The efforts were unsuccessful. Richard was a good son, and +willing to second the desires of his father; but nature had decided +otherwise, and he remained honest and amiable, but without advancing a +step. Burke first sent him on a kind of semi-embassy to the +headquarters of the emigrant princes at Coblentz, and he there +carried on a semi-negotiation. But success was not to be the fate of +any thing connected with these unfortunate men, and failure was +scarcely a demerit, from its universality. The next experiment was +sending him as a species of private envoy to the Irish Roman +Catholics; but there his failure was even more conspicuous, though +perhaps it was equally inevitable. Burke's imagination was at once his +unrivaled gift and his perpetual impediment. Like a lover, his eye was +no sooner caught, than he invested its charmer with all conceivable +attractions. This susceptibility made him irresistible in a cause +worthy of his powers, but plunged him into difficulties where the +object was inferior to his capacity, and unworthy of his heart. His +early admiration of Fox, of Whiggism, and Reform, was the rapture of +an innamorato. He could discover no defects; he disdained all doubts +as a dishonourable scepticism, and challenged all obstacles, as +evidences of his energy, and trophies of his success. His prosecution +of Hastings, a bold piece of patriot honesty, rapidly fermented into a +splendid blunder. The culprit, who ought to have been tried at the Old +Bailey, was elevated into a national criminal; and the assembled +majesty of the legislature was summoned to settle a case in the lapse +of years, which would have been decided in a day by "twelve good men +and true," in a box in the city. It was in this ardour of spirit that +he adopted the Romish cause. No man knew more thoroughly the +measureless value of an established church, the endless, causeless, +and acrid bitterness of sectarianism, and the mixture of unlearned +doctrine and factious politics which constitute their creeds. Against +Popery in power, Italian, German, or French, in the days of Louis +Quatorze, he would have pledged himself on the ancestral altar to +perpetual hostility. But the romance of popery in Ireland struck his +fancy; he saw nothing but a figure drooping with long travel in +pursuit of privilege; a pious pilgrim, or exhausted giant. Sitting in +his closet at Beconsfield, he pictured the downcast eyes and +dishevelled hair; the limbs loaded with fetters, and the hands help up +in remediless supplication. He grew enamoured of his portraiture, and +without waiting a moment to enquire whether it in the slightest degree +resembled the reality, he volunteered the championship of Irish +popery. His son was commissioned to represent him in this disastrous +connexion. But Richard, once on the spot, was instantly and completely +undeceived. Instead of his "fair penitent," he found a brawny, +bustling Thalestris, wild as the winds, and fierce with the +intoxication of impunity. The mild temperament of the plodding +missionary was baffled, burlesqued, and thrown into fever: he laboured +with humble diligence, but laboured in vain; he talked of +conciliation, while popery talked of conquest; he proposed concession, +while faction shouted triumph; and, when he suggested the suppression +of the old and sharp acerbities of the sects, he was answered by +universal laughter. + +Burke, awakened at last to the truth of things, recalled him, in a +long despatch, concluding in these words--"If you find the Roman +Catholics _irreconcilable with each other_, and that government is +resolved to side with them, or rather, to direct those who _would +betray the rest_, then, my clear opinion is, that you ought not to +wait the playing the _last card of a losing hand_. It would be +disreputable to you. But when you have given your instruction to the +_very few_ in whom you can place confidence for their _future +temperate_ and persevering proceeding, that you will then, with a +_cool_ and _steady dignity_, take your leave." So ended the attempt of +this man of genius and sensibility to guide an Irish faction in the +paths of public tranquillity. He had forgotten that clamour was their +livelihood, and grievance their stock in trade. In the simplicity of a +noble spirit, he had eloquently implored quacks to take their degrees +and follow practice, and solemnly advised travelling showmen not to +disturb the public ear by the braying of their cracked trumpets, and +he succeeded accordingly. Great as he unquestionably was, he could not +make bricks without straw; and after wondering at the perversity of +fortune, and lavishing his indignant soul on a hundred splendid +perplexities touching the nature of politicians in general, and of +Irish politicians in particular, he gave up Ireland as a problem too +profound for his analysis, and to be postponed till the discovery of +the philosopher's stone. + +Richard remained in Ireland for a few months, until he saw the Romish +petition thrown out in the House of Commons by an immense majority. He +then returned to London, and with the rather forward air of an +accredited minister, applied for an interview with the ministry. He +was answered by a prompt note from Dundas, sarcastically informing him +that there was a viceroy in Ireland, whom his Majesty's government had +sent there for the purpose of transacting public business; that they +considered him a very proper person for the purpose, and that, in +consequence, they saw no positive necessity for managing Irish affairs +through any other. "If," says this quiet rebuff, "any of his Majesty's +Catholic subjects have any request or representation which they wish +to lay before his Majesty, they cannot be at a loss for the means of +doing so, in a manner _much_ more _proper_ and AUTHENTIC, than through +the channel of private conversation. Having stated this to you, I +shall forbear _making any observations on the contents_ of your +letter." + +On the 2d of August, 1794, his favourite son died, and Burke received +the blow with the feelings of one, who regarded the hand of destiny as +uplifted against him. His excessive sensibility was agonized by an +event melancholy in its nature to all, but which a wise man will +regard as the will of the Great Disposer, and a religious man will +believe to be a chastisement in mercy. + +Burke was both wise and religious, but his feelings habitually +bewildered him. All the images of desolation rushed across his +creative mind. He was "an uprooted tree," a stream whose course was +swallowed up by an earthquake, a wanderer in the wilderness of the +world, a man struck down by a thunderbolt! From those fearful +fantasies, however, the emergency of public affairs soon summoned him +to the exercise of his noble powers; and he gave his country and the +world, perhaps the most powerful, certainly the most superb and +imaginative, of all his works, the fiery pamphlets on the "regicide +peace." + +On this unhappy occasion for the condolence of friendship, he received +many tributes; but we cannot help quoting one from the celebrated +Grattan, which, though characterized by the peculiarities of his +style, seems to us a model of tenderness and beauty. + + "_August 26, 1794_. + + "My Dear Sir, + + "May I be permitted to sympathize where I cannot presume to + console. + + "The misfortunes of your family are a public care. The late one + is to me a personal loss. I have a double right to affliction, + and to join my grief, and to express my deep and cordial concern + at that hideous stroke which has deprived me of a friend, you of + a son, and your country of a promise that would communicate to + posterity the living blessings of your genius and your virtue. + Your friends may now condole with you, that you should have now + no other prospect of immortality than that which is common to + Cicero and to Bacon; such as never can be interrupted while there + exists the beauty of order, or the love of virtue, and can fear + no death except what barbarity may impose on the globe. + + "If the same strength of reason which could persuade any other + man to bear any misfortune, can administer to the proprietor a + few drops of comfort, we may hope that your condition admits of + relief. The greatest possible calamity which can be imposed on + man, we hope may be supported by the greatest human + understanding. For comfort, your friends must refer you to the + exercise of its faculties, and to the contemplation of its + gigantic proportions--_Dura solatia_--of which nothing can + deprive you while you live. And, though death should mow down + every thing about you, and plunder you of your domestic + existence, you would still be the owner of a conscious + superiority in life, and immortality after it.--I am, my dear + sir, with the highest respect and regard, + + "Yours most truly, + "H. Grattan." + + +We must hastily conclude. + +The threatened ruin of Europe awakened Burke from this reverie at the +tomb of his son. He required strong stimulants, and in the French +Revolution, and the shock of nations, he found them. He now put the +trumpet to his lips, and + + "Blew a blast so loud and dread, + Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe." + +His appeal pierced to the heart of the nation. England had never +_succumbed_, but an indefatigable faction had played every art of +quackery to set her faculties asleep, with the appearance of having +her eyes more open than ever. Whiggism, by its tricks, was +_mesmerising_ the common sense of the country. From this adventitious +torpor Burke recalled her to her natural temperament, restored sight +to her eyes, taught her to resume the sword, and sent her forth to +commence that career of victory which was consummated in the +Tuilleries. + +His advocacy of the Popish question was one of his romances. Popery +was his "Jane Shore," fainting and feeble, wandering through the +highways with those delicate limbs which had once been arrayed in silk +and velvet, and soliciting the "charity of all good Christians" to her +fallen condition. His nature was chivalric, and he at once unsheathed +his sword for so affecting a specimen of penitence and pauperism; but +he soon recovered from this hazardous compassion, and left the pilgrim +to fitter protectors. But if he had lived till our day, what would +Burke have thought of his delusion now? with what self-ridicule must +he not have looked upon the burlesque grievances and the profitable +privations? what an instructive lesson must not his powerful scorn of +charlatanry have given to us, on the display of the whole system of +sleight-of-hand, the popular cups and balls, the low dexterity and the +rabble plunder? or, to sum all in one word, the reduction of all the +claims, the rights, and the efforts of a party pronouncing itself +national, to the collection of an annual tribute; the whole huge and +rattling machinery of popular agitation, grinding simply for the +"rint." How would this lion of the desert, shaking the forest with his +roar, have looked on Jackoo, going round, shaking the penny box! Woe +be to Jackoo if he had come within reach of his talons! + +The volumes, of which we have given an account altogether too brief +and too rapid for their importance, deserve to be studied, as +containing some of the richest transcripts of the richest mind of +England. Letters from various eminent persons diversify them, but the +staple is Burke. If their style seldom rises to the elated ardour and +buoyant strength of his speeches and pamphlets, they exhibit all his +wisdom; they display the entire depth of that current which public +difficulties and obstructions swelled into a cataract. We have the +image of Burke reposing, but still we have all the proportion, all the +dignity, and all the colossal grandeur of the form, ruling senates, +and marshaling the mind of nations for the greatest of their fields. + +Various notes illustrate the volumes, and the edition does every +credit to Lord Fitzwilliam and General Bourke. + + + + +MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. + +NO. II. +JOHN BROWN. + + +A heavy snow-storm, which confined Chesterton and myself pretty much +to the walls of the college for the next few days, prevented us from +paying our friend Brown a visit in his new quarters so soon after his +installation as we intended. When we did succeed in wading there upon +the commencement of a thaw, we found him rather sulky. The sweets of +retirement had become somewhat doubtful; the Grange was certainly not +the place one would have deliberately chosen to be snowed up in; and +so far John was unfortunate in his first week of commencing hermit. + +We found him in full possession of his easy chair, with Bruin extended +on the only piece of carpeting in the room, which did duty as a +hearth-rug. There was a volume of Sophocles open upon the table, with +a watch on one side of it; the Quarterly Review had not at that time +taken upon itself to enlighten undergraduates as to their real state +of mind, and the secrets of successful reading, or there would +doubtless have been the miniature of some fair girl on the other. +(What the effect of such "companions to the classics" may be in +general, I perhaps am no judge. I detest "fair girls," in the first +place; but I have not yet forgotten, if the reader has, that a pair of +_dark_ eyes were the ruin of three months' reading in my own case.) +However, there was no pictured face, except the watch-face, to cheer +the studies of John Brown; and, perhaps, for that reason, our friend +had evidently been asleep. How very glad he was to see us, was +betrayed immediately by the copious abuse which he showered on us for +not having come before. + +"Why, what an unreasonable fellow you are!" said Chesterton; "If you +wanted to see us, why on earth could'nt you come up to college? We can +manage to keep the cold out there, quite as well as in your old castle +here, I fancy; and as neither of us are web-footed any more than +yourself, I don't really see why we are to do all the dabbling about +this precious weather." + +"Oh! I forgot; you have not seen the little note of remembrance which +our darling dons were kind enough to send me before they broke up for +the vacation?" + +"No--what do you mean?" + +"Oh! I'll find it for you in a moment." And he produced a letter +sealed with the college arms, which ran as follows:-- + + "---- _Coll. Common Room_, + _Dec_. --, 18--. + + "The principal and fellows regret to be under the unpleasant + necessity of intimating to Mr Brown, that, although they do not + feel called upon to notice his having fixed his residence in the + immediate neighbourhood of Oxford--a step, which, under the + circumstances, they cannot look upon as otherwise than + ill-judged--he must consider himself strictly prohibited from + appearing within the college walls at any time during the ensuing + vacation." + + +"Now there's a civil card by way of P.P.C. Don't you call that a +spiteful concoction? Silver and Hodgett's last--and worthy of them. So +now, unless you want me to be rusticated for a term or two, you need +not be over-civil in your invitations. But I'll tell you what you +shall do: Hawthorne shall send over that box of Silvas he had just +opened, (if they are good, you shall order some more,) and I'll keep +that Westphalia you talked about here, if you like, Chesterton; and +then you may come here to breakfast, lunch, or supper, if you +please--but mind, I won't give you dinners; I'm not going to have Mrs +Nutt put upon--or myself either." + +We agreed to the terms with some modifications, and proceeded with +some interest to inspect John's domestic arrangements. They were +comfortable, though in some points peculiar. A sort of stand in one +corner, covered with red baise, which supported a plaster bust of our +most gracious majesty, and gave an air of mock grandeur to the +apartment, proved, upon nearer inspection, to be nothing more or less +than a barrel of Hall and Tawney's ale, an old-fashioned cabinet, +once gay with lacquered gold and colours, which the industrious +rubbings of Mrs Nutt and her hand-maid were fast effacing--the +depository perhaps of carefully penned love-missives, and broidered +gloves, jewels, and perfumes, and suchlike shreds and patches of +feminine taste or trickery, in other times--now served as a +resting-place for the heterogeneous treasures of a bachelor's private +cupboard. Cigars and captain's biscuits, open letters and unpaid bills, +packs of cards and lecture note-books; odd gloves, odd pence, and odd +things of all kinds--these filled the drawers: while, from the lower +recesses, our friend, in course of time, produced a decanter of port +and a Stilton. There was an old-fashioned sofa, one of that +stiff-backed, hard-hearted generation, which no man thinks of sitting +down upon twice, and three or four of those comfortable high-backed +arm-chairs, in which, when once fairly seated, in pleasant company, +one never wishes to get up again; a round oak table occupied the space +opposite the fire, and another in one corner held the few books which +formed John Brown's studies at the present. One window looked into the +wet meadows by which the house was nearly surrounded, and the other +commanded a view of the square inclosure before mentioned as now +forming the farm-yard--in former days the inner court of the mansion. + +"Why, Brown, old fellow, you're quite a lively look-out here," said +Chesterton, who had for some minutes been contemplating, apparently +with much interest, the goings on below. "I wish they kept pigs and +chickens in the college quadrangle. I declare, for the last three +days, in this horrid snow, I've watched for hours out of my window, +(that fellow Hawthorne has taken to reading, and sports oak against me +till luncheon time,) and I hav'n't seen a moving creature. I began to +fancy myself up in the Great St Bernard among the monks; and when that +brute of yours came up and howled at my door the other day, I almost +expected to find him carrying a frozen child on his back, and got out +the cherry brandy to be ready for the worst--didn't I, Hawthorne?" + +"I found you one day with Bruin shivering before the fire, and the +cherry brandy on the table, certainly." + +"Well, that's the explanation of it, I assure you. But you must have +found it precious dull shut up here by yourself, Brown?" + +"Why, yes--rather--sometimes--in spite of the pigs and poultry. Their +proceedings are rather monotonous. I feed that brood of chickens, +which have taken upon themselves to come into the world this unnatural +weather, with bread-crumbs out of my window twice a-day. Ah! I see the +old hen has only four to-day; one is gone since yesterday, and one the +day before; there's consumption in the family, that's plain; and they +have always wet feet; I want Mrs Nutt to make them worsted socks, and +to let me put Burgundy pitch-plasters on their throats, but she +won't." + +"But come," said Chesterton, "suppose you give us some lunch, Brown; +'_prome reconditum Cæcubum_'--(I'm getting desperately classical;) +that is, being freely translated--lift up that red baise drapery of +yours, and let's taste the tap." + +The tap was tasted, and approved of; so was the Stilton: and then we +sat over the fire for an hour, and smoked some of the Silvas: then we +paid a visit to Mrs Nutt in her _penetralia_, and astonished her with +our acquaintance with dairy matters; hazarded a criticism or two upon +the pigs, which were well received, and were not so fortunate in our +attempts to cultivate an intimacy with the incorruptible Boxer; and +then set off on our return to Oxford, persuading Brown to start with +us, as the afternoon was fine, in order to freshen his faculties by a +stroll in the High Street. + +Shorn, indeed, of all the glories of a full term, in which it had so +lately shone, and looking doubly cold, cheerless, and deserted, in all +the sloppy dirtiness of half-melted snow, was that never-equalled, and +never-to-be-forgotten street! which the stranger gazes on with +somewhat of an envious admiration, the freshman with an awful kind of +delight--which the departing bachelor of arts quits with a +half-concealed regret, and which the occasionally-returning master +re-enters with feelings which are perhaps a mixture of all these; a +stranger's admiration, an emancipated school-boy's delight, and a +regret, either mellowed by passing years into a tender recollection, +or blunted into indifference by altered habits, or embittered by +severed ties and disappointed hopes. We strolled once up and down its +long sweep, but there was nothing to invite a longer promenade. +Cigar-dealers stood at their shop-doors, or leaned over their +counters, with their hands in their breeches-pockets, smoking their +own genuine Havannahs in desperate independence: here a livery-stable +keeper, with a couple of questionable friends, rattled a tandem over +the stones, as if such things never were let out at two guineas a-day: +then a fishmonger, whose wide front, but a week before, teemed with +such quantity and quality, as spoke audibly to every passer-by of +bursary dinners and passing suppers, was now soliciting a customer to +take his choice of three lank cod-fish, ticketed at so much per lb. +Billiard-rooms were silent, save where a solitary marker practised +impossible strokes: print-shops exhibited a dull uniformity of stale +engravings; and the innumerable horde of mongrel puppies of all +varieties, that, particularly towards the end of term, are dragged +about three or four in a string, and recommended as real Blenheims, +genuine King Charles's, or "one of old Webb's black and tan, real good +uns for rats"--had disappeared from public life, to come out again, +possibly, as Oxford sausages. + +In this kind of way the three first weeks of the vacation passed over +without any very notable occurences. We were quiet enough in +college--there is no fun in two men kicking up a row for the amusement +of each other; even in the eye of the law three are required to +constitute a riot; so, on the strength of our good characters, albeit +somewhat recent of acquisition, we dined two or three times with the +fellows who were still in residence, and who, to do them justice, sank +a point or so from the usual stiffness of the common room, and made +our evenings agreeable enough. We certainly flattered ourselves, that +if they found us in turbot and champagne, we contributed at least our +share to the more intellectual part of the entertainment; we kept +within due bounds, of course, and never overstepped that respect which +young men are usually the more willing to pay to age and station the +less rigidly it is exacted; but we made the old oak pannels ring with +such hearty laughter as they seldom heard; and the pictures of +founders and benefactors might have longed to come down from their +frames to welcome even the shadow of those good old times when sound +learning and hearty good fellowship were not, as now, hereditary +enemies in Oxford. If my graver companions, from the calm dignity of +collegiate office, deign to look back upon the evenings thus spent +with two undergraduates in a Christmas vacation, when, unbending from +the formal and conventional dulness of term and its duties, they +interchanged with us anecdote and jest, and mingled with the sparkling +imaginations of youth the reminiscences of riper years--I am sure they +will have no cause to regret their share in those not ungraceful +saturnalia, even though they may remember that the hour at which we +separated was not always what we used to call "canonical." + +We paid our friend almost daily visits in his banishment. The history +of the expedition was generally the same; a walk out, a lunch, a cigar +or two, a chat with farmer Nutt or his wife, a review of the last +litter of pigs, or an enquiry as to the increasing muster-roll of +lambs. We did not make much progress in farming matters. Chesterton +was the most enterprising, and succeeded in ploughing a furrow in that +kind of line which heralds call wavy, and would, as he declared, have +made a very fair hand of thrashing, if he could but have hit the sheaf +oftener, and his own head not quite so often. The most important +events that took place during this time at the Grange, were the +installation of a successor to the barrel in the corner, and the +catching of an enormous rat, who had escaped poison and traps to be +snapped up in broad daylight, in an unguarded moment by Bruin. Still +John Brown declared that on the whole he got on very well; we all read +moderately; the examination was too near to be trifled with, and an +occasional gallop with the harriers made our only really idle days. + +We had not, since our first visit, heard John recur at all to the +subject of the Dean; and to say the truth, we began to hope for his +sake, that he had given up a game which, however much longer it might +be contested, had evidently begun to be a losing one on his part. But +we were mistaken. We found him one morning in high spirits, and +evidently in possession of some joke which he was anxious to impart. + +"Shut the door and sit down," said he, before we were fairly within +his premises. "I have a letter to show you." + +"From the Dean?" (There was something in his manner, which made us +sure that personage was concerned in some way.) + +"No; but from his good mamma--from dear old Mrs Hodgett; you didn't +know we were correspondents? Why, I wrote to her, you see, to ask +where she lived now that she had resigned business, as I would not on +any account have given up so valuable an acquaintance; and I begged +her, at the same time, to order me a dozen pair of stockings from +Mogg. (I assure you they were capital articles I had from him at +first, and he's a very honest fellow; if you've sent that sparkling +Moselle here to-day that you promised, Master Harry, we'll drink +Mogg's very good health.) Well, I wrote to her, and here is her +answer. You see Hodgett has been poisoning the old lady's mind." + +I cannot give all John Brown's comments upon worthy Mrs Hodgett's +epistle, without doing him great injustice in the recital; but here +the contents are verbatim. + + "Dear Sir,--Your favour of last week came safe to hand, and was + very glad to find you was well, as it leaves us at present. + Concerning your calling here next journey, am sorry to say shall + be from home at that time. Sir, I should have been very glad to + see you, but my son says you are not of an undeniable character, + which, in a widow woman's establishment, must be first + consideration. That was what I said to Mr Spriggins. Betsy, my + daughter, as you know, is to be married to him next month. I + don't think he is quite so steady as some, in regard that he must + have his cigar and his tilberry on Sundays--John Mogg never did; + but we can't all be Moggs in this world, or there wouldn't be no + _great failures_. + + "S. Hodgett, in declining business, returns thanks for all past + favours, and remain, Dear Sir, + + "Your obedient servant, + "J. Spriggins, + (late S. Hodgett.) + + "P.S.--I am afraid college is a sad place for such young men as + is not steady. Mrs Hicks, our great butcher's lady, told me that, + when her son, who was a remarkable good lad, came home from + Cambridge college after being there only two months, they found a + short pipe in his best coat pocket, and he called his father + 'governor,' which, as Mrs H. said, he never was, and he wouldn't + wear his nightcap." + + +"Well," said Chesterton, when we had read this original document two +or three times over, "it doesn't seem quite usual for a man to sign +his own testimonials, especially when, as in Mr Spriggins's case, they +are not the most flattering. Do you suppose he really wrote this, or +signed it by mistake, or what is it? + +"Neither one nor the other. Don't you see, the old lady, in declining +the linen-drapery, merges her own identity in that of her successor? +There's no such firm as 'Hodgett' now, it's 'Spriggins,' and she +thinks it necessary to sign accordingly. Here's the card enclosed." + +"Well, there's one thing very certain, that Mrs Hodgett declines doing +business with you in future, John." + +"Yes; and I'm rather annoyed at it. I meant to have got Mogg to come +down and see me at Oxford, and should have asked the Dean to meet him. +I don't see how he could have refused; any way, I think I could have +paid him in full for his late good offices. Well, I am not quite sure +now, when I've taken my degree, that I sha'n't go and see the old lady +again, and win her heart by paying a wedding-visit to the Spriggins's. +I'll take you with me, if you like, Hawthorne, and introduce you as +Lord some-body-or-other, an intimate friend of the dean's--or stay, +Chesterton will make the best lord of the two. Look with what supreme +disgust he is eyeing poor Mrs Nutt's best wine-glasses. Come now, I +think that vine-leaf pattern is quite Horatian; and if you turn up +your nose at that, Master Harry, you shall have your wine out of a +tea-cup next time you come here. Draw the cork of that Moselle, and +then I have something else to tell you. Do either of you men care +about shooting, or can you shoot?" + +"Why, I flatter myself I can," said Chesterton. "I'll bet you I'll hit +two eggs right and left, nine tines out of ten, as often as you like +to throw them up." + +"I don't call that shooting; and you had better not let Mrs Nutt hear +you talk of breaking eggs right and left in any such extravagant +manner. But what I was going to say is this, that some friend of old +Nutt's has some ground near here for which he has the deputation, and +I have been offered a day's shooting there, for myself and any friend +I like to bring. Now, I don't shoot--though I remember the days when I +was a dead pot-shot at a blackbird; but if either of you are +sportsmen, or fancy you are, which amounts to much the same thing, +why, you can have a day at this place if you like, and I will go with +you on condition you don't carry your guns cocked. Mind, I can't +promise what sort of sport you will have, as it is too near Oxford not +to be pretty well poached over; but you can try." + +Shooting over a man's ground without leave (especially if in the face +of a "notice" to the contrary) is decidedly the best sport, but +unfortunately one of those stolen delights which only schoolboys and +poachers can with any sort of conscience enjoy. Shooting with leave +comes next, but is immeasurably inferior in point of piquancy. +Shooting in one's own preserves at birds which have been reared and +turned out, and cost you on the average about five guineas per brace, +is decidedly the most fashionable, and consequently--the dullest. A +day's shooting of any kind about Oxford, was a rare privilege, +confined chiefly to those who were fortunate enough to be fellows of +St ----, or to have an acquaintance among the surrounding squirearchy. +True, that there were some enterprising spirits, who would gallop out +some three or four miles to a corner of Lord A----'s preserves, give +their horses in charge to a trusty follower, and after firing half a +dozen shots, bag their two or three brace of pheasants, remount and +dash off to Oxford, before the keepers, whom the sound of guns in +their very sanctuary was sure to draw to the spot, could have any +chance of coming up with them. But such exploits were deservedly +rather reprobated than otherwise, even when judged by the +under-graduate scale of morality; and even in the parties concerned, +were the offspring rather of a Robin-Hood-like lawlessness than a +genuine spirit of poaching. + +We of course were delighted with the proposition which would have had +quite sufficient attraction for us at any time; but coming in the +dulness of vacation, it was an offer to be jumped at. "What game is +there in this place?" said Chesterton. "Is there any cover shooting?" + +"Oh, I can't tell you any thing about the place! It's about a mile +off, but I never saw it. There's a good deal of ground to go over, I +believe." + +"What shall we do for dogs?" + +"Mrs Nutt will lend you Boxer, I daresay; and Bruin is a capital hand +at putting up water-rats." + +"Stuff! I can borrow some dogs, though. And now, what day shall it +be?" + +The day was fixed, the dogs procured, the occupant of the property was +to send a man to meet us and show us the ground, and it was settled +that we were to come to breakfast at the farm at half-past seven +precisely, and make a long day of it. Much to his disgust, we roused +the deputy porter from his bed at seven on a raw foggy morning; and +with a lad leading the dogs, and carrying guns and ammunition, we made +our way to Farmer Nutt's. We were proceeding up-stairs, as usual, to +Brown's apartment, when we heard our friend's voice hailing us from +the "house," as the large hall was called which the farmer and his +wife used as a kind of superior kitchen. There we found him snugly +seated by a glorious fire, superintending his hostess in the slicing +and broiling of a piece of ham such as Oxfordshire and Berkshire +farm-houses may well pride themselves upon; while a large pile of +crisp brown toast was basking in front of the hearth, supported on a +round brass footman. It was a sight which might have given a man an +appetite at any time, but, after a two-mile walk on a cold winter's +morning, it was like a glimpse of paradise. + +"Here," said Brown--"here's breakfast, old fellows. Come and make your +bows to Mrs Nutt, who is the very pattern of breakfast makers, and fit +to concoct tea for the Emperor of China. Ah! if ever I marry, Mrs +Nutt, it shall be somebody who is just like you." + +Mrs Nutt laughed merrily, and welcomed us with many curtsies, and +hopes that we should find things comfortable; and when the worthy +farmer, after a brief apology, sat down with us, and the strong black +tea and rich cream were duly amalgamated, what a breakfast we did +make! There was not much conversation; but such a hissing and +frizzling of ham upon the gridiron, such a crumping of toast and +rattling of knives, forks, cups and saucers, surely five people seldom +made. We were hungry enough; and our hospitable entertainers were so +pressing in their attentions, that we caught ourselves eating +plum-cake with broiled ham, honey with fresh-laid eggs, and taking +gulps of strong tea and sips of raspberry-brandy alternately. We bore +up against it all, however, wonderfully; the prospect of a long day's +walk put headache and indigestion out of the question, and we were +beginning to think of moving when certain ominous preparations on the +part of our hostess attracted our attention. A hot slice of toast +having been saturated with brandy, she proceeded, to our undisguised +amazement, to pour upon it the richest and thickest cream her dairy +could produce, and to cover this again with sundry wavy lines of +treacle. This was the _bonne bouche_ with which, in her part of the +world, Devonshire I think she said, a breakfast to be perfect must +always conclude. Start not, delicate reader, until you have had an +opportunity of trying this remarkable compound; but take my word for +it, it only wants a French name to make it a first-rate sweetmeat. We +too regarded it at first with fear and trembling; tasted it out of +courtesy to the fair compoundress, and finally, like Oliver Twist, +asked for more. + +"Now these gentlemen know what a breakfast is, Mr Nutt," said John; +"but I am afraid we can't introduce your good wife's receipt into +college; our cows give nothing but skim-milk. Well, now we had better +be off, if you mean to have any shooting." + +Off we set accordingly, and had to trudge a mile or so before we got +into our preserves. There were some not unpromising covers; the lad +who was to be our guide professed some vague reminiscences of having +seen pheasants there "a bit ago;" and there was no question as to a +hare having been started so lately as yesterday morning. We began our +day, therefore, with somewhat sanguine expectations, which, however, +every subsequent half-hour's progress gradually dispelled. We tumbled +out of one deep ditch into another, scrambled perseveringly through +brambles and brushwood, saw places where pheasants _ought_ to have +been, and places where they had been, but never saw a bird except a +jack-snipe in the distance. The only sport we had was in the untiring +energy of the lad already mentioned, who, long after the dogs had +given it up as a bad job, continued to beat every bush as diligently +as at first starting, and kept up a form of hortatory interjections +addressed to the invisible game, with a hopeful perseverance which was +really enviable. One satisfaction we had; towards the close of the day +we started _the_ hare from a bush which had certainly been tried at +least twice before; she fell victim to a platoon fire of four barrels; +the second, I believe, brought her down, but we were anxious to have +all the shots we could get. And, in truth, there was some credit in +killing her, for Mr Nutt, to whom we presented her, declared that she +was so tough, he wondered how the shots ever got through her skin. + +It takes something more serious than a bad day's sport to damp +youthful spirits; and upon our return we found the good farmer's wife +much more annoyed at our failure than ourselves. "Why, the chap as has +the deputation told my master he had killed ten brace of pheasants +there this season!" He killed the last he could find before he sent +us there, no doubt. Nothing dispirited, we sat down to a leg of +mutton, which Brown had so far departed from his household economy as +to order for us at six, and enjoyed our evening as thoroughly as if we +had been a triple impersonation of Colonel Hawker in point of +successful sportmanship. Nor was it until after the second bottle of +port that we began to accuse each other of being sleepy. + +"Well," said I at last, "it is about time for us to be off; it wants +but three minutes of half-past eleven, and we shall have sharp work of +it now to get into college by twelve. What sort of a night is it?" + +The shutters of the sitting-room were closed, and I stepped into the +bed-room adjoining in order to look out. The window opened into the +court-yard; the moon was shining pretty brightly in spite of the fog, +and I was just turning round to remark that we should have a dry walk +home, when I saw two figures steal quietly across the yard, apparently +from the gateway, and disappear in one of the outhouses. It was too +late for any of the men about the farm to be out, in all probability; +I was certain neither of the two figures was Farmer Nutt himself, so I +quietly closed the door between the sitting and bed rooms, in order +that no light might be seen, and watched the spot where I had lost +sight of them. In a few seconds, I distinctly saw a third man come +over the yard-gates, (which were secured inside at night,) and after +apparently reconnoitring for a moment or two, move in the same +direction as the others. I returned at once to the room where I had +left Brown and Chesterton, closing the bed-room door hastily and +noiselessly, and motioning them to be silent. + +"I say, Hawthorne, what's up?" said Harry Chesterton, pausing, with a +parting cigar half-lighted. + +I confess I was somewhat flurried, and my account of what I had seen +was not the most distinct. + +"Oh!" said Chesterton, "it's some of the girl's sweethearts, I dare +say; let's go down and have 'em out, Brown--shall we?" + +Brown shook his head. + +"Put out the lights," said I. + +We did so, and then opened the shutters of the sitting-room window. We +had hardly done so when the bright flash of a lantern was visible from +the opposite side of the yard. For a few minutes we could see nothing +else, and were obliged to hide carefully behind the shutters to avoid +being noticed from below. + +"Is that old Nutt?" said I. + +Brown thought not. He never knew him carry a lantern. + +At that moment the light disappeared, and in a few seconds we heard a +loud knocking at the back-door. + +"That must be the farmer come home," said I. + +"No," said Brown, looking carefully into the yard, where we could now +plainly distinguish at least three persons, and overhear voices in a +low tone--"No; old Nutt's brown greatcoat would cover all three of +those fellows." + +"What stall we do," said Chesterton, seizing his double-barrel, which +stood in the corner. "Shall we open the window and threaten to fire?" + +"With an empty gun?" said Brown: "no, no, that won't do. Not but what +they would run away fast enough, perhaps; but I think, if they really +are come to attack the house, we ought not to let them off so easily. +What say you, Hawthorne?" + +"Certainly not; but they can hardly be housebreakers, or they would +not keep knocking at the door," said I, as the sounds were repeated +more loudly than before. + +"I don't know that; every body about here is perfectly aware that old +Nutt is gone to Woodstock fair; and they might give a pretty good +guess, even supposing they did not watch him, that he would not be +home till late; and if Mrs Nutt or any of the servants are fools +enough to open the door, it's an easier way of getting in than +breaking it open. However, there's no time to be lost; here's a box of +lucifers; come into this dark passage, you two, and get a candle +lighted, while I go and try to get up Mrs Nutt. I can find my way in +the dark." + +"By Jove, Brown," said Chesterton and myself in the same breath, "you +sha'n't go about the house by yourself--we'll come with you." + +"And break your necks down some of the old staircases; or, at all +events, make row enough to let your friends below know that there's +somebody moving in this part of the house. No, just keep quiet where +you are--there's good fellows--and take care not to show the light." +And taking off his shoes, Brown proceeded along the old passages, +which seemed to creak more than usual out of very spitefulness, into +the unknown regions where lay the unconscious Mrs Nutt. + +Having got a light, after the usual number of scrapings with the +lucifers, we were awaiting his return with some impatience, when a +third and more violent series of knocks at the door were followed by +the sound of a female voice. Concealing the light, we crept to the +window of the sitting-room, whence we could now distinguish only one +figure standing by the door, with whom Mrs Nutt appeared to be holding +a communication from a window above. + +"Who's there? What do you want?" + +"It's me with a note from Master Nutt, missus. I don't think he's +a-coming home to-night." + +"Where did you bring it from? Where is he?" + +"He were at the Bear at Woodstock when I saw him." + +"Well, wait a bit till I get a light, and I'll come down." + +In another minute we were joined by Brown; so quietly did he step, +that in our absorbing interest in the conversation in the yard, we +were both somewhat startled at his sudden appearance. + +"Well, Brown," said Chesterton, "now what shall we do? I'll put a load +in this, however," and he proceeded to the passage, where there was +less risk of the light betraying us, in order to do so. + +"Now," said Brown, "if we can but get that fellow once into the house, +we'll have him at all events. We had better all come down-stairs +quietly. If we can only persuade Mrs Nutt to come with us to speak to +him while we open the door, depend upon it we shall trap him; but +she's in a terrible way, poor soul! she wants me to let her call out +murder, and I am afraid now she'll spoil it all. But she has the +servant with her, who seems rather a plucky girl, and I hope she can +manage her. Now, come on quickly, Chesterton, and hide the light when +you get into the long passage, because there are no shutters to the +windows. The women will meet us at the bottom of the stairs." + +My gun had been left in the kitchen; I seized the poker, and we all +proceeded cautiously along the passage, and down-stairs. Poor Mrs +Nutt, as pale as death, and scarcely able to stand, was waiting for +us, with the servant girl. But it was with the greatest difficulty we +could get her to listen to any such proposition as opening the door; +she was much more inclined to side with Chesterton, who wanted to +present the gun at the fellow from the window, and fire if he made any +attempt either to effect an entrance, or to run away. + +At last, however, by the persuasion of the servant, who really was a +heroine in her way, we got her into the passage at the end of which +the door in question was situated; but as nothing could induce her to +speak to the fellow outside, beyond a very faint "Who's there?" the +girl took up the dialogue, and enquired the man's name. + +"Tom Smith; I've got a note for the missus, and something to say to +her besides. Let's in--there's a good wench; I've been a-knocking here +this half hour already." + +It had been agreed that I was to open the door, and shut and bolt it, +if possible, the instant the speaker had entered. Brown and Chesterton +stood just inside a small pantry, ready to secure their man as soon as +he was fairly inside, and the women were to make their escape out of +harm's way, as soon as their services as a decoy could be dispensed +with. + +It was a moment of breathless expectation while I withdrew the bolts. +Hardly had I done so, when the door flew violently open, and with a +silent but determined rush three men entered. I shut the door +instinctively, but it was evident that our plan was defeated, and we +had now only to fight it out. There was a scream from the women, whose +curiosity had not allowed them to retreat beyond the foot of the +staircase--a rush forward on the part of Brown and Chesterton--an oath +or two from the intruders at finding themselves so unexpectedly +confronted--and then, for a moment or two, an ominous pause on both +sides. It was broken by Chesterton, who clubbed his gun, and brought +the first man to the ground. Nearly at the same time I grappled with +the last who had entered, whilst a heavy crow-bar, in the hands of the +third, after describing an arc within an inch or two of my own head, +descended with a horrible dull sound (I hear it now) upon that of poor +Chesterton, who fell heavily, whilst in the act of springing forwards, +across his prostrate antagonist. Again the murderous weapon was +uplifted--I vainly endeavoured to fling my opponent and myself against +the striker--I heard a scream, and saw the poor servant girl rush +forward with a sort of desperate instinct, armed with no other weapon +than the candlestick--when a report, that sounded like a volley, shook +the whole passage--a bright flash threw out the whole scene vividly +for a moment--the robber with his back to me with his weapon poised, +and the blackened face of the other glaring savagely into my own--then +followed total darkness--the ringing of the iron-bar upon the +bricks--a stifled groan--and then a silence more horrible than all. + +"Get a light!" said Brown at last; "get a light for heaven's sake, Mrs +Nutt, or somebody. Hawthorne, are you hurt?" + +"No, no," said I; "it was you that fired, John?" + +"Yes," said he; "we can do nothing now till we have a light." + +The whole affair, from the unbolting the door to the firing the shot, +had not occupied nearly a minute; nor was it much longer before the +trembling women succeeded in relighting the candle from the embers of +the kitchen hearth; but they were moments into which one crowded +almost years of thought; and I remember now with astonishment how +every miserable consequence of poor Chesterton's probably fate came +vividly and irresistibly before my imagination during those few +hurried breathings of suspense--how his father could be told of +it--how desolate would be now the home of which he was the hope and +idol, (I knew his family)--how the college would mourn for him; nay, +even such wretched particulars as how we were to move him to +Oxford--whether he would be buried there--whether he would have a +monument in the chapel--and a thousand such trivial fancies, were +running through my mind with a distressing minuteness which those only +who have known such moments can understand. + +At last the light came. In my eagerness to ascertain the state of poor +Chesterton, I quite forgot the villain with whom I had been +struggling. We had mutually relaxed our hold upon hearing the shot; +and he now took the opportunity of our whole attention being directed +elsewhere, to open the door and effect his escape. We had too much of +other business in our hands to think of following him. + +The second man lay close to my feet. I stepped over him, and raised +Chesterton's head upon my arm; the eyes were half open, but I could +detect no sign of life. I told Brown I feared it was all over. + +"I know it is," said he; "he is shot through the heart. I aimed there. +But what could I do?" + +I turned round, and it was with somewhat of an angry feeling that I +saw Brown examining the breast of the man who had last fallen, utterly +indifferent, as it seemed, to the dreadful fate of our poor friend. + +"For heaven's sake," said I, "let that villain alone, and help me to +move poor Harry: I believe he is gone." + +"Ay, poor Harry!" said Brown somewhat vacantly: "I wish that blow had +fallen on me! And was that shot too late after all? Your gun hung +fire, Hawthorne--it did indeed. Poor Harry!" + +I was so absorbed in anxiety for Chesterton that Brown's strange +manner made no great impression on me at the time. The first man, who +had been merely stunned by the blow from the but-end of the gun, was +now beginning to revive, and I begged Brown to get something to secure +him with. + +"I don't think, sir," said Mrs Nutt who had recovered her terror +sufficiently to offer her assistance, and whose coarse red hands, +having removed Chesterton's neck-kerchief, and loosened his +shirt-collar, now showed in strong contrast with his fair skin, but +had nevertheless all a woman's sensibility about them--"I don't think +but what the poor young gentleman has life in him--I am sure I can +feel his heart beat." + +"Oh yes, oh yes, Mrs Nutt--he cannot be dead--send for a surgeon! +Hawthorne, why don't you send for a surgeon?" + +"There's none nigher than Oxford," said Mrs Nutt. + +"I'll go for un," said the girl. "I ben't afear'd;" and she turned +pale and shook like a leaf; but the spirit was willing, and she +persisted she was ready to go. However it turned out that there was a +labourer's cottage about a quarter of a mile off, and she was finally +dispatched there for assistance. + +Few people know the ready humanity which exists among the lower +orders: the man must have run all the way to Oxford, for he returned +in little more than half an hour, before the surgeon could dress and +mount his horse. + +However, Chesterton was evidently still living; and when the surgeon +did arrive he gave some hopes of his recovery. The weight of the blow +had been in some degree broken by the gun which poor Harry had raised +in his hand, and this only could have saved the skull from fracture. + +Of course we had soon plenty of volunteers who were ready to be useful +in any way; and when at last the police had made their appearance, and +removed both the living and the dead, and Chesterton had been laid in +Brown's room, and the surgeon, having applied the usual remedies, had +composedly accepted Mrs Nutt's offer to make up a bed for him, and +betaken himself thereto, as if such events were to him matters of +everyday occurrence--I suppose they were--it struck me, for the first +time, that there was a remarkable contrast between Brown's hurried +manner and disturbed countenance now, compared with his perfect +coolness and self-possession while the danger seemed most imminent, +which even Chesterton's dangerous state did not sufficiently account +for. + +"How lucky it was, Brown," said I, "my gun had a load of duck-shot in +it! Don't you remember I was going to have fired it off? And that you +should have laid your hand upon it in the kitchen! I looked for it as +we came by, but could not see it." + +"I'll tell you what, Hawthorne: I almost wish I had not seen it: I +should not have had a man's life to answer for." + +"Why, Brown," said I with some surprise, "surely you can have no +scruple about that poor wretch's death? Why, he has all but murdered +poor Harry--if, indeed, he ever gets over it." + +"Very true, very true," replied Brown, looking at the bed where +Chesterton was lying in utter unconsciousness; "he seems to sleep very +quietly now. I don't think he knew any one just now when he opened his +eyes: did you see the blow, Hawthorne?" + +"Yes," said I; "the lock of the gun is broken, and I fancy that saved +him; but he would have had little chance from a second: that shot came +just in time." + +"I covered the man from the moment he first raised the bar: your head +was in a line with him, or I should have fired sooner. I hardly +thought you would have escaped some part of the charge as it was. +Well, if poor Harry lives, perhaps it is well as it is, if not"-- + +"You have but spared the hangman some trouble," said I. "Come, man, +don't give way to this morbid feeling. I don't say but what it does +you credit, Brown, to regret the necessity for taking a man's life, +even to save your friend's; but, depend upon it, your conduct to-night +is justifiable before a far higher inquest than the coroner's. Do you +think if I had been in your place I should have hesitated one instant? +No! nor have been half as scrupulous afterwards, I fear." + +"You have not blood upon your hand," said Brown gloomily. "And +remember, if we had taken poor Chesterton's advice, and frightened +them off at first, all this might have been spared; it was my folly in +determining to take upon myself the office of thief-taker--cursed +folly it was!" + +The impression which the events of the last hour had left upon my own +mind was any thing but a pleasant one; but I was obliged to assume an +indifference which I did not feel, and use a lighter tone than I +should willingly have done in speaking of the death of a +fellow-creature, however unavoidable, in order to keep up Brown's +spirits, and prevent him from dwelling upon his share in the +catastrophe with that morbid degree of sensitiveness, of the effects +of which I began to be really apprehensive. He wanted me to lie down +and try to sleep, saying that he would watch with Chesterton; but this +I was in no mood to agree to, even had I not been unwilling to leave +him to his present reflections; so we drew a small table close to the +fire in the sitting-room, leaving the door open that we might hear any +movement of the patient, and waited for daybreak with feelings to +which perhaps we had been too little accustomed. They were doubtless +wholesome for us in after life; but at the time those hours of +watching were painful indeed. It was a night which, then and since, I +wished could be blotted from my page of life, and be as if it had +never been. I have grown older and sadder, if not wiser, since, and +feel now that there are recollections in which I then took delight +which I could far more safely part with. + +The danger in Chesterton's case, though at one time imminent, was soon +over; and a few days' quiet at the farm enabled him to be removed to +college. Reading was, of course, forbidden him for some time; and +before term began, he had left Oxford with his father, to keep +perfectly quiet for a few months in the country. The gratitude which +he and all his family expressed to Brown as having been undoubtedly +the means of saving his life, was naturally unbounded; and it did more +than all else to reconcile him to the idea which haunted him, as he +declared, day and night, of having that man's blood upon his head. I +knew that Chesterton had warmly pressed him to come home with him; but +as his name was down for the approaching examination, for which he was +quite sufficiently prepared, it was not without astonishment that I +heard him one morning, just before Chesterton's departure, announce +his intention of going down with him and his father. + +"I think," said he, "the constant sight of poor Harry will do me good +just now; I am not given to romancing, Hawthorne, as you know; but +waking or sleeping, when I am by myself, I see that man standing with +the crow-bar uplifted just as he was when I shot him; and I think, if +I can but manage to get Harry Chesterton's figure between him and me, +as it was that night, and feel that pulling the trigger perhaps saved +his life, why then the picture will be something less horrible that it +is now." + +"Well," said I, "John, I think you do right; but I can tell you this, +that the same sort of _tableau_ is very often before my eyes; and the +horror that I feel is what I did then--seeing Chesterton's brains +knocked out, as I thought, and struggling in vain to get near him; +sooner than feel that again in reality--the thought of it is bad +enough--I'd shoot that villain ten times running, if I only had the +chance." + +"You never _had_ the chance, Hawthorne; pray God you never _may_." + +Such was nearly my last interview, for some years, with my friend John +Brown; for I had taken my degree and left college before he came up +again to pass his examination. He was subpoenaed, with myself, as a +witness on the trial of the man whom we had secured, which took place +at the next assizes; but I was informed by the prisoner's attorney of +his intention to plead guilty, the case against him being such a +strong one; Brown was thus enabled without much risk to remain in the +country with Chesterton, and we were both spared being placed in the +painful position of important witnesses in a trial of life and death. + +The man's confession was full, and apparently honest; and it was a +satisfaction to find that the wretch who had fallen was a man of +well-known desperate character, and probably, as the prisoner +asserted, the concocter of the whole business: while all were +murderers in intention. Had they succeeded in effecting their object +by plundering the house, Farmer Nutt, whose habits of staying somewhat +late from home on fair nights were well known to all the +neighbourhood, was to have been waylaid on the towing-path which led +to his house, and as, although a quiet man, there was a good deal of +resolute spirit about him, and he would have had a heavy purse with +him, the proceeds of stock sold at the fair, with which he would not +easily have parted, there was no question but that he would have found +a grave in the canal. Of Brown's lodging in the house the party were +well aware; but they had laid their plans so warily for effecting an +entrance without noise, and easily overpowering the women, that they +hoped either altogether to avoid disturbing his quarter of the house, +or making it evident to him that resistance was useless. Of course, +our appearance was wholly unexpected; they had watched for some time, +but we had been so quiet for the last hour (being in truth more than +half asleep) that they had no suspicion of there being any one +stirring in Brown's rooms. + +I saw the unfortunate prisoner several times, and found him open and +communicative on every subject but one. Any information with regard to +his accomplice who had escaped, he always steadily refused; nor did a +single unguarded word ever drop from him in conversation with any one +by which the slightest clue could be obtained as to his identity. Even +the police inspector, the most plausible and unscrupulous of his +class, a perfect Machiavel among the Peelers, who could make a +prisoner believe he was his only friend while he was doing his best to +put the halter round his neck, even his practised policy was +unsuccessful here. There was little doubt, however, that it was some +person familiar with the premises, from the circumstance that poor +Boxer, whose silence on the night of the attack we had all been +surprised at, and who was not of a mood to be easily inveigled by +strangers, even with the usual attractions of poisoned meat, &c., had +disappeared, and was never heard of from that time forth. Suspicion of +course fell upon several; but the matter remains to this day, I +believe, a mystery. The prisoner, as I have said, pleaded guilty, and +received sentence of death; under the circumstances of the crime, and +its nearly fatal result, no other could be expected; nor did the judge +who tried him hold out the slightest hope of mercy. But his full +confession, with regard to himself and the man who had fallen, with +honourable silence as to their more fortunate companion, his youth, +(he was but a year older than myself,) and his whole bearing since his +imprisonment, had impressed myself and others deeply in his favour; a +memorial of the case was drawn up representing that justice might well +be satisfied with the violent death of one criminal already, and after +being signed by all parties of any influence in the neighbourhood, was +forwarded for presentation to the crown. But the judge declared that +he could not, consistently with his duty, back our application, and, +to our extreme disappointment, an answer was returned that the law in +this case must take its course. A private and personal interest was at +work, however, which for once proved more powerful than judges or home +secretaries. Brown had signed our memorial of course; but, dreading an +unfavourable reply, had forwarded through other channels a short but +strong remonstrance directly to the Queen. He spoke touchingly of his +own distressed state of mind at having so young in life been compelled +in defence of his friend to take the life of a fellow-creature, and +prayed her Majesty "to restore, as she only could, his peace of mind, +by giving him a life in exchange for that which he had taken away." A +letter accompanied a reprieve by return of post, addressed to John +Brown, which he preserves with a care almost superstitious; it +contains a few short lines, dictated by a royal spirit and a woman's +heart, and signed "VICTORIA." Victoria! mercy and humanity, the +victory was indeed yours! + +Of John Brown I have little to add. Like others with whom I was at one +time so long and intimately allied, I have seen nothing of him now for +years. The Dean was relieved as if from an incubus when he left +college, though I believe there was a cessation of all open hostility +after his return from Chesterton's. At least the only authenticated +mention of any allusion to old grievances on my friend's part is, that +when he paid Mr Hodgett the usual fees which fall to the Dean's share, +upon taking his B.A., he asked him "whether he allowed discount for +ready money?" + + HAWTHORNE. + + + + +NELSON'S DESPATCHES AND LETTERS.[15] + + +The common idea of a sailor--whether with a commodore's broad pendant, +a lieutenant's wooden leg, or a foremast-man's pigtail--was, at one +time, a wild, thoughtless, rollicking man, with very broad shoulders +and a very red face, who talked incessantly about shivering his +timbers, and thought no more of eating a score or two of Frenchmen +than if they had been sprats. Such was the effect of the veracious +chronicles of our countryman Tobias, and the lifelike descriptions of +old Trunnion, and Tom Bowling, and the rest. The jack-tar, as +represented by him--with the addition, perhaps, of a few softening +features, but still the man of blood and 'ounds, breathing fire and +smoke, and with a constant inclination to luff helms and steer a point +or two to windward--has retained possession of the stage to the +present time; and Mr T. P. Cooke still shuffles, and rolls, and +dances, and fights--the beau-ideal and impersonation of the instrument +with which Britannia rules the waves. And that the canvass waves of +the Surrey are admirably ruled by such instruments, we have no +intention of disputing; nor would it be possible to place visibly +before the public the peculiar qualifications that constitute a +first-rate sailor, any more than those which form a first-rate lawyer. +The freaks of a young templar have as much to do with the triumphs of +Lord Eldon, as the dash and vivacity of any fictitious middy have to +do with the First of June. Sailors are made of sterner stuff; and of +all classes of men, have their highest faculties called earliest into +use, and kept most constantly in exercise. Let no man, therefore, +think of the navy as a last resource for the stupidest of his sons. He +will chew salt-junk, and walk with an easy negligence acquired from a +course of practice in the Bay of Biscay; and in due time arrive at his +double epaulettes, and be a blockhead to the end of the chapter. But +all this stupidity, we humbly conceive, might have found as fitting an +arena in Westminster Hall, or even in Westminster Abbey--with +reverence be it spoken--as on the quarter-deck of a man-of-war; for we +maintain it is of less consequence for a man to be a great pleader or +an eloquent divine, (where the utmost extent of evil resulting from +the absence of eloquence and acuteness is a law-suit lost or a +congregation lulled to sleep,) than that he should be active, +energetic, skilful, in one of the "leviathans afloat on the brine." +Science, zeal, courage, and self-reliance, are very pretty qualities +to find in the fool of the family--and without these, no man can ever +be a sailor. But what opportunity is there in the navy for the display +of the wonderful abilities of the fool of the family's antipode, the +genius? Nothing will do for the surpassing brightness of some Highland +star but law or politics; so Donald has Latin and Greek shovelled into +him out of the dignified hat of some prebendary or bishop, goes to +Oxford, talks on all manner of subjects as if his tongue had +discovered the perpetual motion, goes to the bar, where the said +motion is the only one he is called upon to make, forces himself into +high society, wriggles his way into Parliament--the true Trophonius's +cave of aspiring orators--and becomes a silent Demosthenes, as he has +long been a lawless Coke; an ends at last in a paroxysm of wonder that +his creditors are hard-hearted and his country ungrateful, so that, +instead of being promoted to a seat at the Admiralty, he is removed to +one in the Fleet--which brings him very nearly to the same position he +would have been placed in, if a true estimate had been formed of his +powers at first. Oh fathers! if Tom is a donkey, keep him at home or +make him an attorney--it is amazing how a few years in "the office" +will brighten him--but don't trust the lives of men, and the honour of +the flag, to any but the best and wisest of your sons. Such a school +for moral training has never been devised as one of the floating +colleges that carry guns. The youngest midshipman acquires habits of +command, the oldest captain practises the ennobling virtue of +obedience; and these, we take it, form the alpha and omega of man's +useful existence. Power gives self-respect, responsibility gives +caution, and subjection gives humility. With all these united, as they +are in every rank in the service, the character has little room left +for improvement; tenderness and generosity, in addition, make a man a +Collingwood or Pellew--genius and heroism make him a Nelson. + +But not through flowery paths do genius and heroism tread on their +path to fame. What a length of weary way, with what antres vast and +deserts idle, and pathless wildernesses bestrown, lay between the +Raisonable of 1770 and the Victory of 1805! and yet through them all, +the traveller's eye was unalterably fixed on the great light that his +soul saw filling the whole sky with its radiance, and which he knew +the whole time was reflected from the Baltic, and the Nile, and +Trafalgar. The letters of Nelson just given to the public by the +industry of Sir Harris Nicolas, will hereafter be the manual of the +sailor, as the sister service has found a guide in the _Despatches of +the Duke of Wellington_. All that was to be expected from the +well-known talent of the editor, united to an enthusiasm for his hero, +which has carried him triumphantly through the extraordinary labour of +investigating and ascertaining every fact in the slightest degree +bearing upon his subject, is to be found in this volume, in which, +from the beginning to the end, by a continued series of letters, +Nelson is made his own historian; and we sincerely believe, divesting +ourselves as far as possible of all prejudice and partiality, that no +character ever came purer from the ordeal of unreserved +communication--where not a thought is concealed or an expression +studied--than the true friend, the good son, the affectionate brother, +Horatio Nelson. The correspondence in this volume only extends from +1777 to 1794, and no blot has yet occurred to mar the brightness of a +character where there is so much to like, that the reader finds it +difficult to dwell on the heroic parts of it which he is only called +upon to admire. When the volume ends, he is only thirty-six years old, +and is captain of the Agamemnon; but his path is clearly traced +out--his name is in men's mouths and his character established. And, +looking over the whole correspondence, nothing, perhaps, is so +striking as the early development of his peculiar qualities, and the +firm unswerving line he struck into from the beginning and continued +in to the last. A self-reliance, amounting in weaker and less +equally-balanced natures to doggedness and conceit--a clear perception +of the circumstances of a case almost resembling intuition--a +patriotism verging on the romantic, and a sense of duty never for a +moment yielding to the "whips and scorns that patient merit of the +unworthy takes," are displayed in every incident of his life, from the +time that he left the quiet parsonage-house at Burnham Thorpe, till he +finished his glorious career. + +At twelve years of age, he joined his uncle in the Raisonable +sixty-four, and served in her as midshipman for five months; and few +people would have been able to discover the future hero in the feeble +boy he must have been at that time. Still less, perhaps, would they +have expected the future Bronte, a few months later, in the person of +a little fellow, no longer a midshipman in the Royal Navy, but a +working "youngster" on board a West India ship, as he informs us in +his "Sketch of my Life," belonging to the house of Hibbert, Purrier, +and Horton, from which he returned to the Triumph at Chatham, a good +practical seaman, but with a horror of the Royal Navy, and a firm +belief in a saying then constant with the seamen, "Aft the most +honour, forward the better man." The next situation we find him in, +will probably shock the delicate feelings of tender mammas, who expect +their sons to be admirals without any apprenticeship; for he is rated +on the books of the Triumph as "_captain's servant_" for one year, two +months, and two days. We may in some measure relieve their minds, by +assuring them, that he did not wear livery, and was never called upon +to brush the captain's coat. But the horrid man submitted even to +lower degradation, in order to get experience in his profession, which +our Reginald Augustus could never have thought of; for he tells us, +that "when the expedition towards the North Pole was fitted out, +although no boys were allowed to go in the ships--as of no use--yet +nothing could prevent my using every interest to go with Captain +Lutwidge in the Carcass, and as I fancied I was to fill a man's place. +I begged I might be his cockswain; which, finding my ardent desire for +going with him, Captain Lutwidge complied with." + +And Cockswain Nelson "exerted himself, (when the boats were fitted out +to quit the two ships blocked up in the ice,) to have the command of a +four-oared cutter raised upon, which was given him, with twelve men; +and he prided himself in fancying he could navigate her better than +any other boat in the ship." + +And we will back the cockswain to any amount, though he was then only +fifteen, and probably did not weigh more than five stone. + +But the vulgarity of the fellow will be the death of us, and our Laura +Matilda will never listen without disgust to the "Death of Nelson" +again; for he tells us, that on the return of the Polar expedition, he +was placed in the Racehorse of twenty guns, with Captain Farmer, and +watched in the foretop!!! And it is probable, during all these +mutations, that he very seldom tasted venison, and drank very little +champagne. But even in the absence of those usual luxuries of the +cockpit, he made himself a thorough seaman; and when serving in the +Worcester sixty-four, with Captain Mark Robinson, he says, with +characteristic, because fully justified pride, "although my age might +have been a sufficient cause for not entrusting me with the charge of +a watch, yet Captain Robinson used to says, he felt as easy when I was +upon deck as any officer in the ship." + +And this brings us to 1777, the date of his commission, and the +commencement of his correspondence. After the simple statement of his +course of life, we shall hardly be called upon to observe, that Nelson +was no great scholar, as we perceive that his school education was +finished when he was twelve years old. And we owe hearty thanks to Sir +Harris Nicolas for having restored the letters to their original +language, uncicerorian as it may be; for he informs us, that some of +those which had been formerly published in the different biographies +of the hero, were so improved and beautified that it was difficult to +recognise them. By proper clipping and pruning, altering some +sentences and exchanging others, an ingenious editor might +transmogriphy these simple epistles into the philippics of Junius; and +therefore we derive complete satisfaction from the conviction, that, +in this compilation, every sentence is exactly as it was written. With +one other observation, (which we make for the sake of the Laura +Matildas who are horrified at the "cockswain,") we shall proceed to +give such extracts from the letters as we consider the most +characteristic; and "that 'ere observation," as was said by Mr Liston, +"is this here," that Nelson was of what is usually called a very good +family--being nearly connected with the Walpoles, Earls of Orford, and +the Turners of Warham, in Norfolk. But for further information on this +point, we refer them to an abstract of the pedigree prefixed to the +letters. In the year 1777, and several following years, Nelson's +principal correspondents were his brother, the Rev. William Nelson, +who succeeded as second Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Hilborough, +and was created Earl Nelson--Captain William Locker, then in command +of the Lowestoffe, of whom very interesting memoirs have been +published by his son Edward Hawke Locker, Esq., late a commissioner of +Greenwich Hospital--the Rev. Edmund Nelson (his father)--besides the +secretary to the Admiralty, and the official personages to whom his +despatches were addressed. + +To show the affectionate nature of the man, we shall quote his first +letter to Captain Locker, who was one of his dearest friends. The +address of the letter is wanting, but it would appear to have been +written during Captain Locker's temporary absence from his ship, in +consequence of ill health:-- + + "Lowestoffe, at Sea, + _August 12, 1777_. + + "My most worthy Friend--I am exceedingly obliged to you for the + good opinion you entertain of me, and will do my utmost that you + may have no occasion to change it. I hope God Almighty will be + pleased to spare your life for your own sake and that of your + family; but should any thing happen to you (which I sincerely + pray God may not) you may be assured that nothing shall be + wanting on my part for the taking care of your effects, and + delivering safe to Mrs Locker such of them as may be thought + proper not to be disposed of. You mentioned the word consolation + in your letter--I shall have a very great one, when I think I + have served faithfully the best of friends, and the most amiable + of women. All the services I can render to your family, you may + be assured shall be done; and shall never end but with my life; + and may God Almighty, of his great goodness, keep, bless, and + preserve you and your family, is the most fervent prayer of your + faithful servant, + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +In 1781 he was appointed commander of the Albemarle, of twenty-eight +guns, and in the following year had a narrow escape from a strong +French force in Boston Bay. The sailing qualities of the Albemarle +beat the line-of-battle ships, and he immediately brought to for a +frigate that formed part of the chasing squadron, but his courtesy was +declined, and the frigate bore away. He dwells, in several of his +letters, on his good fortune in getting off; but, in the following one +to his father, he omits all mention of his challenge to the pursuer:-- + + "Albemarle, Isle of Bic, + River St Lawrence + _October 19, 1782_. + + "My dear Father--I wrote to Mr Suckling when I was at + Newfoundland, but I have not had an opportunity of writing to you + till this time. I expected to have sailed for England on the + first of November, but our destination is now altered, for we + sail with a fleet for New York to-morrow; and from there I think + it very likely we shall go to the _grand theatre_ of actions--the + West Indies; but, in our line of life, we are sure of no one + thing. When I reach New York you shall hear what becomes of me; + but, while I have health, it is indifferent to me (were it not + for the pleasure of seeing you and my brothers and sisters) where + I go. Health, that greatest of blessings, is what I never truly + enjoyed till I saw _fair_ Canada. The change it has wrought I am + convinced is truly wonderful. I most sincerely wish, my dear + father, I could compliment you the same way; but I hope Bath has + done you a great deal of good this summer. I have not had much + success in the prize way, but it is all in good time, and I do + not know I ought to complain; for, though I took several, but had + not the good fortune to get one safe into port, yet, on the other + side, I escaped from five French men-of-war in a wonderful + manner.... Farewell, my dearest father, and assure yourself I + always am, and ever shall be, your dutiful son, + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +In the following month he writes to his friend Locker--"I am a +candidate with Lord Hood for a line-of-battle ship; he has honoured me +highly by a letter, for wishing to go off this station to a station of +service, and has promised me his friendship. Prince William is with +him." And Sir Harris Nicolas adds in a note--"H. R. H. Prince William +Henry, third son of King George III, afterwards Duke of Clarence, +Admiral of the Fleet, (Lord High Admiral?) and King William IV." The +Prince honoured Nelson with his warmest friendship, and many letters +in this collection were addressed to his Royal Highness. + +The following description of Nelson by the prince is extremely +interesting:-- + + "I was then a midshipman on board the Barfleur, lying in the + Narrows off Staten Island, and had the watch on deck, when + Captain Nelson of the Albemarle came in his barge alongside, who + appeared to be the merest boy of a captain I ever beheld; and his + dress was worthy of attention. He had on a full laced uniform; + his lank unpowdered hair was tied in a stiff Hessian tail of an + extraordinary length, the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat + added to the general quaintness of his figure, and produced an + appearance which particularly attracted my notice, for I had + never seen any thing like it before, nor could I imagine who he + was or what he came about. My doubts were, however, removed when + Lord Hood introduced me to him. There was something irresistibly + pleasing in his address and conversation, and an enthusiasm, when + speaking on professional subjects, that showed he was no common + being. Nelson, after this, went with us to the West Indies, and + served under Lord Hood's flag during his indefatigable cruize off + Cape François. Throughout the whole of the American war the + height of Nelson's ambition was to command a line-of-battle ship; + as for prize-money, it never entered his thoughts; he had always + in view the character of his maternal uncle. I found him warmly + attached to my father, and singularly humane; he had the honour + of the king's service and the independence of the British navy + particularly at heart; and his mind glowed with this idea as much + when he was simply captain of the Albemarle, and had obtained + none of the honours of his country, as when he was afterwards + decorated with so much well-earned distinction." + + +Nelson's opinion of the prince, as a seaman, was scarcely less high; +and it says not a little, in favour of both parties, that their +friendship appears to have been founded on mutual respect. In July, +1783, the Albemarle was paid off; and Nelson having finished the war, +as he expresses it in a letter to his friend Mr Ross, without a +fortune, but without a speck on his character, remained nine months on +half-pay. But as he determined to make use of his spare time in +mastering the French--a feat which he afterwards accomplished without +a grammar--he resolved to go to France with his friend Captain James +Macnamara for that purpose. There are some very Nelsonian sentences in +his correspondence while in the land of the Mounseers. His contempt +for epaulettes--which were not introduced into the English navy till +1795--is very amusing; and he little thought, that in one of the +dandified officers he despised so much, he should find one of his most +distinguished comrades, the gallant Sir Alexander Ball:-- + + To William Locker, Esq. + "St Omer, _Nov. 2, 1783_. + + "My dear sir--Our travels, since we left you, have been extended + to a much greater length then I apprehended; but I must do + Captain Mac the justice to say it was all my doings, and in a + great measure against his advice; but experience bought is the + best; and all mine I have paid pretty dearly for. We dined at + Canterbury the day we parted from you, and called at Captain + Sandys' house, but he was just gone out to dinner in the country, + therefore we did not see him. We slept at Dover, and next morning + at seven o'clock put to sea with a fine north-west wind, and at + half-past ten we were safe at breakfast in Monsieur Grandsire's + house at Calais. His mother kept it when Hogarth wrote his _Gate + of Calais_. Sterne's _Sentimental Journey_ is the best + description I can give of our tour. Mac advised me to go first to + St Omer, as he had experienced the difficulty of attempting to + fix in any place where there are no English; after dinner we set + off, intended for Montreuil, sixty miles from Calais; they told + us we travelled _en poste_, but I am sure we did not get on more + than four miles an hour. I was highly diverted with looking what + a curious figure the postilions in their jack-boots, and their + rats of horses, made together. Their chaises have no springs, and + the roads generally paved like London streets; therefore you will + naturally suppose we were pretty well shook together by the time + we had travelled two posts and a half, which is fifteen miles, to + Marquise. Here we were shown into an inn--they called it, I + should have called it a pig-stye: we were shown into a room with + two straw beds, and with great difficulty they mustered up clean + sheets, and gave us two pigeons for supper, upon a dirty cloth, + and wooden-handled knives. _Oh, what a transition from happy + England!_ + + "But we laughed at the repast, and went to bed with the + determination that nothing should ruffle our tempers. Having + slept very well, we set off at daylight for Boulogne, where we + breakfasted. This place was full of English; I suppose because + wine is so very cheap. We went on after breakfast for Montreuil, + and passed through the finest corn country that my eyes ever + beheld, diversified with fine woods, sometimes for miles + together, through noble forests. The roads mostly were planted + with trees, which made as fine an avenue as to any gentleman's + country-seat. Montreuil is thirty miles from Boulogne, situated + upon a small hill, in the middle of a fine plain, which reached + as far as the eye could carry you, except towards the sea, which + is about twelve miles from it. We put up at the same house, and + with the same jolly landlord that recommended Le Fleur to Sterne. + Here we wished much to be fixed; but neither good lodgings or + masters could be had here--for there are no middling class of + people. Sixty noblemen's families lived in the town, who owned + the vast plain round it, and the rest very poor indeed. This is + the finest country for game that ever was; partridges + twopence-halfpenny a couple, pheasants and woodcocks in + proportion; and, in short, every species of poultry. We dined, + supped, lay, and breakfasted next day, Saturday; then we + proceeded on our tour, leaving Montreuil, you will suppose, with + great regret. + + "We reached Abbeville at eight o'clock; but, unluckily for us, + two Englishmen, one of whom called himself Lord Kingsland--I can + hardly suppose it to be him--and a Mr Bullock, decamped at three + o'clock that afternoon in debt to every shopkeeper in the place. + These gentlemen kept elegant houses, horses, &c. We found the + town in an uproar; and as no masters could be had at this place + that could speak a word of English, and that all masters that + could speak English grammatically attend at the places that are + frequented by the English, which is, St Omer, Lisle, Dunkirk, and + Boulogne, to the northward of Paris, and as I had no intention of + travelling to the south of France till the spring, at any rate, I + determined, with Mac's advice, to steer for St Omer, where we + arrived last Tuesday; and I own I was surprised to find, that + instead of a dirty, nasty town, which I had always heard it + represented, to find a large city, well paved, good streets, and + well lighted. + + "We lodge in a pleasant French family, and have our dinners sent + from a _traiteur's_. There are two very agreeable young ladies, + daughters, who _honour_ us with their company pretty often. One + always makes our breakfast, and the other our tea, and play a + game at cards in the evening. Therefore I must learn French, if + 'tis only for the pleasure of talking to them; for they do not + speak a word of English. Here are a great number of English in + this place; but we visit only two families; for, if I did, I + should never speak French. Two noble captains are here--Ball and + Shepard. You do not know, I believe, either of them. They wear + fine epaulettes, for which I think them great coxcombs. They have + not visited me; and I shall not, be assured, court their + acquaintance. You must be heartily tired of this long epistle, if + you can read it; but I have the worst pen in the world, and I + can't mend it. God bless you; and, be assured, I am your sincere + friend, and affectionate humble servant, + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +In another letter from St Omer, he returns to the charge against Dandy +Ball and Shepard:-- + + "Here are two navy captains, Ball and Shepard, at this place; but + we do not visit. They are very fine gentlemen, with epaulettes. + You may suppose, I hold them a little _cheap_ for putting on any + part of a Frenchman's uniform." + + +And in a short time after, he seems to have made up his mind on two +very important points--politics and the French people. + + To his brother William. + + "... As to your having enlisted under the banners of the + Walpoles, [Whigs,] you might as well have enlisted under those of + my grandmother. They are altogether the merest set of cyphers + that ever existed--in public affairs, I mean. Mr Pitt, depend + upon it, will stand against all opposition. An honest man must + always, in the end, get the better of a _villain_. But I have + done with politics. Let who will get in, I shall be left out." + + "In about a week or fortnight, I think of returning to the + Continent till autumn, when I shall bring a horse, and stay the + winter at Burnham. I return to many charming women; but _no + charming woman_ will return with me. I want to be a proficient in + the language, which is my only reason for returning. I hate their + country and their manners." + + +In March of this year, (1784,) he was appointed to the Boreas frigate +of twenty-eight guns; and had the honour (not very highly valued) of +carrying out Lady Hughes, the wife of the admiral on the Leeward +Island station, and a number of other people, who did not add much to +the efficiency of a man-of-war. It was on this station that he had +first an opportunity of showing the determination and fearlessness of +his character in maintaining what he thought the right--though ill +supported, as was to be expected, by the authorities at home--against +local interests, which any other man would not have ventured to +oppose. We are not about to enter into the history of Nelson's conduct +in defence of the Navigation Act, further than as the correspondence +on the subject brings out some of his peculiarities; and the result +shows, as usual, the policy of firmness, and the certainty of success +to those who are determined to obtain it. + +The Americans, after the recognition of their independence, were by no +means willing to surrender some of the advantages they had enjoyed +when colonists of Great Britain. Among these was an unrestricted trade +with the West Indies. In order to retain this advantage, they stuck at +nothing in the way of oaths and declarations; and, as the American +trade was of great consequence to the islanders, their false pretences +were in all cases supported by the merchants, and even the +custom-house authorities were persuaded to encourage the frauds. A +captain of the navy, twenty-six years of age, undertook to put an end +to these operations; and, in the course of a very short time, he found +himself in as hot water as any gentleman can require. + + To William Locker, Esq. + "Boreas, Baseterre Road, + _January 15, 1785_. + + "The longer I am upon this station the worse I like it. Our + commander has not that opinion of his own sense that he ought to + have. He is led by the advice of the islanders to admit the + Yankees to a trade--at least, to wink at it. He does not give + himself that weight that I think an English admiral ought to do. + I, for one, am determined not to suffer the Yankees to come where + my ship is; for I am sure, if once the Americans are admitted to + any kind of intercourse with these islands, the views of the + Loyalists in settling in Nova Scotia are entirely done away. They + will first become the carriers, and next have possession of our + islands, are we ever again embroiled in a French war. The + residents of these islands are Americans by connexion and by + interest, and are inimical to Great Britain. They are as great + rebels as ever were in America, had they the power to show it. + After what I have said, you will believe I am not very popular + with the people. They have never visited me, and I have not had a + foot in any house since I have been on the station, and all for + doing my duty by being _true to the interests of Great Britain_. + A petition from the President and Council has gone to the + Governor-general and admiral, to request the admission of + Americans. I have given my answer to the admiral upon the + subject--how he will like it I know not; but I am determined to + suppress the admission of foreigners all in my power. I have told + the Customs that I will complain if they admit any foreigner to + an entry. An American arrives--sprung a leak, a mast, and what + not--makes a protest--gets admittance--sells his cargo for ready + money--goes to Martinico--buys molasses--and so round and round. + But I hate them all. The Loyalist cannot do it, consequently must + sell a little dearer." + + +His narrative to the admiral on the same subject is as follows:-- + + "_January 11 or 12, 1785_. + + "Sir--I yesterday received your order of the 29th of December, + wherein you direct me, in execution of your first order, dated + the 12th of November, (which is, in fact, strictly requiring us + to put the Act of Navigation, upon which the wealth and safety of + Great Britain so much depends, in force,) to observe the + following directions, viz, to cause foreigners to anchor by his + Majesty's ship under my command, except in cases of immediate and + urgent distress, until her arrival and situation, in all + respects, shall be reported to his Majesty's governor, or his + representative, at any of the islands where I may fall in with + such foreign ships or vessels; and that if the governor, or his + representative, should give leave for admitting such vessels, + strictly charging me not to hinder them or interfere in their + subsequent proceedings. + + "I ever have been, as in duty bound, always ready to co-operate + with his Majesty's governors, or their representatives, in doing + whatever has been for the benefit of Great Britain. No governor + will, I am sure, do such an illegal act as to countenance the + admission of foreigners into the ports of their islands, nor + _dare_ any officer of his Majesty's Customs enter such + foreigners, without they are in such distress that necessity + obliges them to unlade their cargoes; and then only to sell such + a part of it as will pay the costs. In distress, no individual + shall exceed me in acts of generosity; and, in judging of their + distress, no person can know better than sea officers, of which I + shall inform the governors, &c., when they acquaint me for what + reason they have countenanced the admission of foreigners. + + "I beg leave to hope, that I may be properly understood, when I + venture to say, that, at a time when Great Britain is using every + endeavour to suppress illicit trade at home, it is not wished + that the ships on this station should be singular, by being the + only spectators of the illegal trade, which I know is carried on + at these islands. The governors may be imposed on by false + declarations; we, who are on the spot, cannot. General Shirley + told me and Captain Collingwood how much he approved of the + methods that were carrying on for suppressing the illegal trade + with America; that it had ever been his wish, and that he had + used every means in his power, by proclamation and otherwise, to + hinder it; but they came to him with protests, and swore through + every thing, (even, as the sea-phrase is, through a nine-inch + plank;) therefore got admittance, as he could not examine the + vessels himself; and, further, by the Thynne packet, he had + received a letter from Lord Sydney, one of his Majesty's + principal secretaries of state, saying that Administration were + determined that American ships and vessels should not have any + intercourse with our West India islands; and that he had, upon an + address from the Assembly, petitioning that he would relax the + king's proclamation for the exclusion of Americans, transmitted + it to Lord Sydney to be laid before the king. The answer to + General Shirley was, that his Majesty firmly believed and hoped + that all his orders which were received by his governors would be + strictly obeyed. + + "Whilst I have the honour to command an English man-of-war, I + never shall allow myself to be subservient to the will of any + governor, nor co-operate with him in doing _illegal acts_. + Presidents of council I feel myself superior to. They shall make + proper application to me for whatever they may want to come by + water. + + "If I rightly understand your order of the 29th of December, it + is founded upon an opinion of the king's attorney-general, viz. + 'That it is legal for governors or their representatives to admit + foreigners into the ports of their governments, if they think + fit.' How the king's attorney-general conceives he has a right to + give an illegal opinion, which I assert the above is, he must + answer for. I know the navigation laws. I am, Sir, &c. + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +But the troubles of the unfortunate Horatio were not over; for just at +this time arose another vexed and vexatious question, as to whether a +senior officer on half-pay--though holding a commissionership of the +navy--could be empowered by the admiral on the station to hoist a +broad pendant; and after a spirited correspondence, the point was +decided, though apparently in a very shilly-shally shabby way, in +Nelson's favour--for it is accompanied with a reprimand--the Admiralty +informing him, that he ought to have submitted his doubts to the +commander-in-chief on the station, instead of having taken on himself +"to control the exercise of the functions of his appointment"--whatever +that may mean. + +Too much activity, even in a good cause, is apt to excite the enmity +of the idle drones who have got on without any activity at all, and +for some years the zeal of Nelson got him into disfavour with his +superiors in the service. And yet his whole conduct was regulated by +the strictest sense of duty, and his letters--even those in which he +shows most independence--never give the slightest occasion to suspect +that his actions arose from self-will and disobedience. On this point +he is very explicit. + +He writes to the admiral--"This, sir, I hope you will transmit to my +lords commissioners, that they nor any other of my superior officers +may have the smallest idea that I shall ever dispute the orders of my +superiors." + +And to the Admiralty, on the same occasion--"I must beg their +lordships' indulgence to hear reasons for my conduct, that it may +never go abroad into the world I ever had an idea to dispute the +orders of my superior officer, neither admiral, commodore, or +captain." + +The plot in the mean time thickens, and his anger increases against +the audacious swindling of the Yankees, aided by the islanders; and in +his own defence he goes, according to his custom, to the +fountain-head, and lays his complaint before the secretary of state. +"My name," he says, "most probably is unknown to your lordship," (Lord +Sydney,) "but my character as a man, I trust, will bear the strictest +investigation; therefore I take the liberty of sending enclosed a +letter, though written some few years ago, which I hope will impress +your lordship with a favourable opinion of me. I stand for myself, no +great connexion to support me if inclined to fall; therefore my good +name, as a man, an officer, and an Englishman, I must be very careful +of. My greatest pride is to discharge my duty faithfully; my greatest +ambition to receive approbation for my conduct." + +The chicaneries of the law were brought to bear on the captain of the +Boreas, and by means of a writ for his arrest, (on the trumped-up plea +of detention and imprisonment of some fraudulent Americans--true +ancestors of the repudiators of the present day,) he was forced to +remain on board ship for several months, but was at last released from +durance by the tardy undertaking given by government to be answerable +for his defence. + +The lukewarmness of his superiors, and the villanies of law, were not +enough to fill up his time, and, in the very midst of these agitating +matters, he adds a third: he met Mrs Nisbet, and fell in love. His +letters, however, are not entirely composed of sighs and lightning; +and it gives a high idea of the lady's sense to perceive the calm, yet +real, affection she inspired. We shall only quote one of his letters +to his lady-love, to show the style of them all, and also to show his +feelings towards Prince William Henry, (King William IV.,) who was at +this time under his command as captain of the Pegasus. + + "Off Antigua, _December 12, 1786_. + + "Our young prince is a gallant man; he is indeed volatile, but + always with great good-nature. There were two balls during his + stay, and some of the old ladies were mortified that H. R. H. + would not dance with them; but he says he is determined to enjoy + the privilege of all other men, that of asking any lady he + pleases. + + "_Wednesday._--We arrived here this morning at daylight. His + Royal Highness dined with me, and, of course, the governor. I can + tell you a piece of news, which is, that the prince is fully + determined, and has made me promise him, that he shall be at our + wedding; and he says he will give you to me. His Royal Highness + has not yet been in a private house to visit, and is determined + never to do it except in this instance. You know I will ever + strive to bear such a character as may render it no discredit to + any man to take notice of me. There is no action in my whole life + but what is honourable; and I am the more happy at this time on + that account; for I would, if possible, or in my power, have no + man near the prince who can have the smallest impeachment as to + character; for as an individual, I love him, as a prince, I + honour and revere him. My telling you this history is as to + myself; my thoughts on all subjects are open to you. We shall + certainly go to Barbadoes from this island, and when I shall see + you is not possible for me to guess, so much for marrying a + sailor. We are often separated, but I trust our affections are + not by any means on that account diminished. Our country has the + first demand for our services; and private convenience or + happiness must ever give way to the public good. Give my love to + Josiah. Heaven bless and return you safe to your most + affectionate + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +The attachment here professed for the prince seems to have been caused +not less by the loyalty of Nelson's nature than by the real good +qualities of the sailor king. It is probable he tried to form himself +(professionally) on the model of his young commodore, and a better +original it was impossible for him to study. A certain young +lieutenant, of the name of Schomberg, conceiving that he was +injuriously treated in an order of the day, issued by his Royal +Highness on board the Pegasus, applied to Nelson for a court-martial +to enquire into the charge alleged against him. Nelson granted the +court-martial, and placed the complainant in arrest till a sufficient +number could be collected for his trial, and expressed his opinion of +such frivolous applications in the following general order:-- + + "By Horatio Nelson, Esquire, Captain of his Majesty's ship Boreas. + + "For the better maintaining discipline and good government in the + king's squadron under my command. + + "I think it necessary to inform the officers, that if any one of + them shall presume to write to the commander of the squadron + (unless there shall be ships enough present to bring them to + immediate trial) for a court-martial to investigate their + conduct, on a frivolous pretence, thereby depriving his majesty + of their services by obliging the commander of the squadron to + confine them, that I shall and do consider such conduct as a + direct breach of the 14th and part of the 19th articles of war, + and shall order them to be tried for the same. + + "Given under my hand, &c. + "Horatio Nelson." + + +This probably had the desired effect, and the business was afterwards +adjusted without having recourse to a court-martial, though not +without bringing upon Nelson a rap over the knuckles on his return to +England. In order to obtain the proper court, he had directed the +prince to take his ship to the Jamaica station on his way to Halifax +in Nova Scotia, and the following paragraph contains their lordships' +decision:-- + + "My lords are not satisfied with the reasons you have given for + altering the destination of the Pegasus, and for sending the + Rattler sloop to Jamaica; and that, for having taken upon you to + send the latter away from the station to which their lordships + had appointed her, you will be answerable for the consequence, if + the crown should be put to any needless expense upon that + account." + + +We must close this account of the frivolous court-martial with an +admirable letter from Nelson to the prince. + + "Portsmouth _27th July, 1787_. + + "If to be truly great is to be truly good, (as we are taught to + believe,) it never was stronger verified than in your Royal + Highness in the instance of Mr Schomberg. You have supported your + character, yet, at the same time, by an amiable condescension, + have saved an officer from appearing before a court-martial, + which ever must hurt him. Resentment, I know, your Royal highness + never had, or, I am sure, ever will bear any one. It is a passion + incompatible with the character of a man of honour. Schomberg was + too hasty, certainly, in writing his letter, but now you are + parted, pardon me, my prince, when I presume to recommend that + Schomberg may stand in your royal favour as if he had never + sailed with you; and that, at some future day, you will serve + him. There only wants this to place your character in the highest + point of view. None of us are without failings. Schomberg's was + being rather too hasty; but that, put in competition with his + being a good officer, will not, I am bold to say, be taken in the + scale against him." + + +There is one characteristic circumstance in this collection, namely, +the number of letters written by Nelson in recommendation of all who +have behaved well under his command. He was desirous of acting to +others as, he boasts in one of his letters with pride and exultation, +he had been treated by Lord Howe. "You ask, by what interest did I get +a ship? I answer, having served with credit, was my recommendation to +Lord Howe, first lord of the admiralty." + +The following is an application on behalf of a certain boatswain +called Joseph King, which we quote on account of the extraordinary +politeness,--owing, perhaps, to his study at St Omer--with which +Nelson designates his _protégé_. + + To Philip Stephens, Esq., Admiralty. + + "Boreas, _21st Sept. 1787_. + + "On the 20th, Charles Green, late acting boatswain, was entered + as boatswain of his majesty's ship under my command, agreeable to + a warrant dated at the Navy Pay-office, the 13th instant. I am, + therefore, requested by Joseph King, to write to their lordships, + to request they will be pleased to appoint him to some other + ship, as he hopes he has done nothing deserving of being + superseded; and I beg leave to recommend him as a most excellent + _gentleman_.--I am, &c. + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +Whether this application was successful or not, even the industry of +the editor has not discovered, but we fear that, at this point of his +history, Nelson's recommendation was of no great weight with the +Admiralty. His biographers, indeed, Clarke and M'Arthur, say, that at +this time the treatment he received disgusted him with his +profession, and that he had even determined never to set his foot +again on board a king's ship, but resign his commission at once. But +Sir Harris Nicolas very justly is sceptical as to the truth of this +anecdote, from the fact, that there is no allusion to any intention of +the kind in his correspondence. And from what we see of his +disposition in all his letters, we feel assured that a thought of +leaving the navy never entered his mind, and that he would have +considered the withdrawal of his services as little short of treason. +But there occurred now a long interval of idleness, or at least of +life ashore. The Boreas was paid off in December 1787, and he was only +appointed to the Agamemnon in January 1793. + +The four years of peace passed happily away, principally at Burnham +with his father; and there is little to quote till we find him on his +own element again. He writes to Hercules Ross, a West India merchant, +with whom he had formed a steady friendship while on that station; and +we adduce the passage as a further corroboration of Sir Harris +Nicolas's doubts about the authenticity of Clarke and M'Arthur's +anecdote. + + "You have given up all the toils and anxieties of business, + whilst I must still buffet the waves--in search of what? That + thing called honour, is now, alas, thought of no more. My + integrity cannot be mended, I hope; but my fortune, God knows, + has grown worse for the service. So much for serving my country. + But the devil, ever willing to tempt the virtuous, (pardon this + flattery of myself,) has made me offer, if any ships should be + sent to destroy his majesty of Morocco's ports, to be there; and + I have some reason to think that, should any more come of it, my + humble services will be accepted. I have invariably laid down, + and followed close, a plan of what ought to be uppermost in the + breast of an officer; that it is much better to serve an + ungrateful country, than to give up his own fame. Posterity will + do him justice; a uniform conduct of honour and integrity seldom + fails of bringing a man to the goal of fame at last." + + +But in spite of the coolness of the jacks-in-office, and the cold +shoulder they turned to the little troublesome captain in the time of +peace, no sooner were we likely to come to loggerheads with the +French, than they turned their eyes to the quiet Norfolk parsonage, +and made the _amende_ to the _iracundus Achilles_. + +War with France was declared on the 11th of February 1793, and on the +7th of January, Nelson writes as follows:-- + + To Mrs Nelson. + + "_Post nubila Phoebus._ After clouds comes sunshine. The + Admiralty so smile on me, that really I am as much surprised as + when they frowned. Lord Chatham yesterday made many apologies for + not having given me a ship before this time, and said, that if I + chose to take a sixty-four to begin with, I should be appointed + to one as soon as she was ready, and whenever it was in his + power, I should be removed into a seventy-four. Every thing + indicated war. One of our ships looking into Brest, has been + fired into; the shot is now at the Admiralty. You will send my + father this news, which I am sure will please him.--Love to + Josiah, and believe me, your most affectionate + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +The appointment of Nelson to the Agamemnon, a name which he did nearly +as much to immortalize as Homer, is the great epoch of his +professional life. But though his letters, which now rise to the rank +of despatches, become more interesting to those who watch his progress +as an officer, there are comparatively fewer which let us into the +character of the man. Besides this, the incidents of his career after +this time are so well known, that little new can be expected. What +novelty, however, there was to be obtained has not escaped the +research of the editor, from whom (till we meet him in another volume, +when Nelson will again become interesting in his individual capacity, +as his secret and confidential letters in the Carraccioli and Lady +Hamilton's period, come to be laid before us) we part with feelings of +gratitude and respect. + + + + +GUIZOT. + + +Machiavel was the first historian who seems to have formed a +conception of the philosophy of history. Before his time, the +narrative of human events was little more than a series of +biographies, imperfectly connected together by a few slight sketches +of the empires on which the actions of their heroes were exerted. In +this style of history, the ancient writers were, and to the end of +time probably will continue to be, altogether inimitable. Their skill +in narrating a story, in developing the events of a life, in tracing +the fortunes of a city or a state, as they were raised by a succession +of illustrious patriots, or sunk by a series of oppressive tyrants, +has never been approached in modern times. The histories of Xenophon +and Thucydides, of Livy and Sallust, of Cæsar and Tacitus, are all +more or less formed on this model; and the more extended view of +history, as embracing an account of the countries the transactions of +which were narrated, originally formed, and to a great part executed, +by the father of history, Herodotus, appears to have been, in an +unaccountable manner, lost by his successors. + +In these immortal works, however, human transactions are uniformly +regarded as they have been affected by, or called forth the agency of, +individual men. We are never presented with the view of society _in a +mass_; as influenced by a series of causes and effects independent of +the agency of individual man--or, to speak more correctly, in the +development of which the agency is an unconscious, and often almost a +passive, instrument. Constantly regarding history as an extensive +species of biography, they not only did not withdraw the eye to the +distance necessary to obtain such a general view of the progress of +things, but they did the reverse. Their great object was to bring the +eye so close as to see the whole virtues or vices of the principal +figures, which they exhibited on their moving panorama; and in so +doing they rendered it incapable of perceiving, at the same time, the +movement of the whole social body of which they formed a part. Even +Livy, in his pictured narrative of Roman victories, is essentially +biographical. His inimitable work owes its enduring celebrity to the +charming episodes of individuals, or graphic pictures of particular +events with which it abounds; scarce any general views on the progress +of society, or the causes to which its astonishing progress in the +Roman state was owing, are to be found. In the introduction to the +life of Catiline, Sallust has given, with unequalled power, a sketch +of the causes which corrupted the republic; and if his work had been +pursued in the same style, it would indeed have been a philosophical +history. But neither the Catiline nor the Jugurthine war are +histories; they are chapters of history, containing two interesting +biographies. Scattered through the writings of Tacitus, are to be +found numerous caustic and profound observations on human nature, and +the increasing vices and selfishness of a corrupted age: but, like the +maxims of Rochefoucault, it is to individual, not general, humanity +that they refer; and they strike us as so admirably just because they +do not describe general causes operating upon society as a body--which +often make little impression save on a few reflecting minds--but +strike direct to the human heart in a way which comes home to the +breast of every individual who reads them. + +Never was a juster observation than that the human mind is never +quiescent; it may not give the external symptoms of action, but it +does not cease to have the internal action: it sleeps, but even then +it dreams. Writers innumerable have declaimed on the night of the +Middle Ages--on the deluge of barbarism which, under the Goths, +flooded the world--on the torpor of the human mind, under the combined +pressure of savage violence and priestly superstition; yet this was +precisely the period when the minds of men, deprived of external vent, +turned inwards on themselves; and that the learned and thoughtful, +shut out from any active part in society by the general prevalence of +military violence, sought, in the solitude of the cloister, employment +in reflecting on the mind itself, and the general causes which, under +its guidance, operated upon society. The influence of this great +change in the direction of thought at once appeared when knowledge, +liberated from the cloister and the university, again took its place +among the affairs of men. Machiavel in Italy, and Bacon in England, +for the first time in the annals of knowledge, reasoned upon human +affairs _as a science_. They spoke of the minds of men as permanently +governed by certain causes, and of known principles, always leading to +the same results; they treated of politics as a science in which +certain known laws existed, and could be discovered, as in mechanics +and hydraulics. This was a great step in advance, and demonstrated +that the superior age of the world, and the wide sphere to which +political observation had now been applied, had permitted the +accumulation of such an increased store of facts, as permitted +deductions, founded on experience, to be formed in regard to the +affairs of nations. Still more, it showed that the attention of +writers had been drawn to the general causes of human affairs; that +they reasoned on the actions of men as a subject of abstract thought; +regarded effects formerly produced as _likely to recur_ from a similar +combination of circumstances; and formed conclusions for the +regulation of future conduct, from the results of past experience. +This tendency is, in an especial manner, conspicuous in the _Discorsi_ +of Machiavel, where certain general propositions are stated, deduced, +indeed, from the events of Roman story, but announced as lasting +truths, applicable to every future generation and circumstances of +men. In depth of view and justness of observation, these views of the +Florentine statesman never were surpassed. Bacon's essays relate, for +the most part, to subjects of morals, or domestic and private life; +but not unfrequently he touches on the general concerns of nations, +and with the same profound observation of the past, and philosophic +anticipation of the future. + +Voltaire professed to elevate history in France from the _jejune_ and +trifling details of genealogy, courts, wars, and negotiations, in +which it had hitherto, in his country, been involved, to the more +general contemplation of arts and philosophy, and the progress of +human affairs; and, in some respects, he certainly effected a great +reformation on the ponderous annalists who had preceded him. But the +foundation of his history was still biography; he regarded human +events only as they were grouped round two or three great men, or as +they were influenced by the speculations of men of letters and +science. The history of France he stigmatized as savage and worthless +till the reign of Louis XIV.; the Russians he looked upon as bitter +barbarians till the time of Peter the Great. He thought the +philosophers alone all in all; till they arose, and a sovereign +appeared, who collected them round his throne, and shed on them the +rays of royal favour, human events were not worth narrating; they were +merely the contests of one set of savages plundering another. +Religion, in his eyes, was a mere priestly delusion to enslave and +benighten mankind; from its oppression the greatest miseries of modern +times had flowed; the first step in the emancipation of the human mind +was to chase for ever from the earth those sacerdotal tyrants. The +most free-thinking historian will now admit, that these views are +essentially erroneous; he will allow that, viewing Christianity merely +as a human institution, its effect in restraining the violence of +feudal anarchy was incalculable; long anterior to the date of the +philosophers, he will look for the broad foundation on which national +character and institutions, for good or for evil, have been formed. +Voltaire was of great service to history, by turning it from courts +and camps to the progress of literature, science, and the arts--to the +delineation of manners, and the preparation of anecdotes descriptive +of character; but, notwithstanding all his talent, he never got a +glimpse of the general causes which influence society. He gave us the +history of philosophy, but not the philosophy of history. + +The ardent genius and pictorial eye of Gibbon rendered him an +incomparable delineator of events; and his powerful mind made him +seize the _general_ and characteristic features of society and +manners, as they appear in different parts of the world, as well as +the traits of individual greatness. His descriptions of the Roman +empire in the zenith of its power, as it existed in the time of +Augustus--of its decline and long-protracted old age, under +Constantine and his successors on the Byzantine throne--of the manners +of the pastoral nations, who, under different names, and for a +succession of ages, pressed upon and at last overturned the empire--of +the Saracens, who, issuing from the lands of Arabia, with the Koran in +one hand and the cimeter in the other, urged on their resistless +course, till they were arrested by the Atlantic on the one side, and +the Indian ocean on the other--of the stern crusaders, who, nursed +amid the cloistered shades and castellated realms of Europe, struggled +with that devastating horde "when 'twas strongest, and ruled it when +'twas wildest"--of the long agony, silent decay, and ultimate +resurrection of the Eternal City--are so many immortal pictures, +which, to the end of the world, will fascinate every ardent and +imaginative mind. But, not withstanding this incomparable talent for +general and characteristic description, he had not the mind necessary +for a philosophical analysis of the series of causes which influence +human events. He viewed religion with a jaundiced and prejudiced +eye--the fatal bequest of his age and French education, unworthy alike +of his native candour and inherent strength of understanding. He had +profound philosophic ideas, and occasionally let them out with +admirable effect; but the turn of his mind was essentially +descriptive, and his powers were such, in that brilliant department, +that they wiled him from the less inviting contemplation of general +causes. We turn over his fascinating pages without ever wearying; but +without ever discovering the general progress or apparent tendency of +human affairs. We look in vain for the profound reflections of +Machiavel on the permanent results of certain political combinations +or experiments. He has led us through a "mighty maze;" but he has made +no attempt to show it "not without a plan." + +Hume is commonly called a philosophical historian, and so he is; but +he has even less than Gibbon the power of unfolding the general causes +which influence the progress of human events. He was not, properly +speaking, a philosophic historian, but a philosopher writing +history--and these are very different things. The practical statesman +will often make a better delineator of the progress of human affairs +than the philosophic recluse; for he is more practically acquainted +with their secret Springs: it was not in the schools, but the forum or +the palace, that Sallust, Tacitus, and Burke acquired their deep +insight into the human heart. Hume was gifted with admirable sagacity +in political economy; and it is the good sense and depth of his views +on that important subject, then for the first time brought to bear on +the annals of man, that has chiefly gained for him, and with justice, +the character of a philosophic historian. To this may be added the +admirable clearness and rhetorical powers with which he has stated the +principal arguments for and against the great changes in the English +institutions which it fell to his lot to recount--arguments far abler +than were either used by, or occurred to, the actors by whom they were +brought about; for it is seldom that a Hume is found in the councils +of men. With equal ability, too, he has given periodical sketches of +manners, customs, and habits, mingled with valuable details on +finance, commerce, and prices--all elements, and most important ones, +in the formation of philosophical history. We owe a deep debt of +gratitude to the man who has rescued these important facts from the +ponderous folios where they were slumbering in forgotten obscurity, +and brought them into the broad light of philosophic observation and +popular narrative. But, notwithstanding all this, Hume is far from +being gifted with the philosophy of history. He has collected or +prepared many of the facts necessary for the science, but he has made +little progress in it himself. He was essentially a sceptic. He aimed +rather at spreading doubts than shedding light. Like Voltaire and +Gibbon, he was scandalously prejudiced and unjust on the subject of +religion; and to write modern history without correct views on that +subject, is like playing Hamlet without the character of the Prince of +Denmark. He was too indolent to acquire the vast store of facts +indispensable for correct generalization on the varied theatre of +human affairs, and often drew hasty and incorrect conclusions from the +events which particularly came under his observation. Thus the +repeated indecisive battles between the fleets of Charles II. and the +Dutch, drew from him the observation, apparently justified by their +results, that sea-fights are seldom so important or decisive as those +at land. The fact is just the reverse. Witness the battle of Salamis, +which repelled from Europe the tide of Persian invasion; that of +Actium, which gave a master to the Roman world; that of Sluys, which +exposed France to the dreadful English invasions, begun under Edward +III.; that of Lepanto, which rolled back from Christendom the wave of +Mahometan conquest; the defeat of the Armada, which permanently +established the Reformation in Northern Europe; that of La Hogue, +which broke the maritime strength of Louis XIV.; that of Trafalgar, +which for ever took "ships, colonies, and commerce" from Napoleon, and +spread them with the British colonial empire over half the globe. + +Montesquieu owes his colossal reputation chiefly to his _Esprit des +Loix_; but the _Grandeur et Decadence des Romains_ is by much the +greater work. It has never attained nearly the reputation in this +country which it deserves, either in consequence of the English mind +being less partial than the French to the philosophy of human affairs, +or, as is more probable, from the system of education at our +universities being so exclusively devoted to the study of words, that +our scholars never arrive at the knowledge of things. It is impossible +to imagine a work in which the philosophy of history is more ably +condensed, or where there is exhibited, in a short space, a more +profound view of the general causes to which the long-continued +greatness and ultimate decline of that celebrated people were owing. +It is to be regretted only that he did not come to modern times and +other ages with the same masterly survey; the information collected in +the _Esprit des Loix_ would have furnished him with ample materials +for such a work. In that noble treatise, the same philosophic and +generalizing spirit is conspicuous; but there is too great a love of +system, an obvious partiality for fanciful analogies, and, not +unfrequently, conclusions hastily deduced from insufficient data. +These errors, the natural result of a philosophic and profound mind +wandering without a guide in the mighty maze of human transactions, +are entirely avoided in the _Grandeur et Decadence des Romains_, where +he was retained by authentic history to a known train of events, and +where his imaginative spirit and marked turn for generalization found +sufficient scope, and no more, to produce the most perfect commentary +on the annals of a single people of which the human mind can boast. + +Bossuet, in his _Universal History_, aimed at a higher object; he +professed to give nothing less than a development of the plan of +Providence in the government of human affairs, during the whole of +antiquity, and down to the reign of Charlemagne. The idea was +magnificent, and the mental powers, as well as eloquence, of the +Bishop of Meaux promised the greatest results from such an +undertaking. But the execution has by no means corresponded to the +conception. Voltaire has said, that he professed to give a view of +universal history, and he has only given the history of the Jews; and +there is too much truth in the observation. He never got out of the +fetters of his ecclesiastical education; the Jews were the centre +round which he supposed all other nations revolved. His mind was +polemical, not philosophic; a great theologian, he was but an +indifferent historian. In one particular, indeed, his observations are +admirable, and, at times, in the highest degree impressive. He never +loses sight of the divine superintendence of human affairs; he sees in +all the revolutions of empires the progress of a mighty plan for the +ultimate redemption of mankind; and he traces the workings of this +superintending power in all the transactions of man. But it may be +doubted whether he took the correct view of this sublime but +mysterious subject. He supposes the divine agency to influence +_directly_ the affairs of men--not through the medium of general laws, +or the adaptation of our active propensities to the varying +circumstances of our condition. Hence his views strike at the freedom +of human actions; he makes men and nations little more than the +puppets by which the Deity works out the great drama of human affairs. +Without disputing the reality of such immediate agency in some +particular cases, it may safely be affirmed, that by far the greater +part of the affairs of men are left entirely to their own guidance, +and that their actions are overruled, not directed, by Almighty power +to work out the purposes of Divine beneficence. + +That which Bossuet left undone, Robertson did. The first volume of his +Charles V. may justly be regarded as the greatest step which the human +mind had yet made in the philosophy of history. Extending his views +beyond the admirable survey which Montesquieu had given of the rise +and decline of the Roman empire, he aimed at giving a view of the +_progress of society_ in modern times. This matter, of the progress of +society, was a favourite subject at that period with political +philosophers; and by combining the speculations of these ingenious men +with the solid basis of facts which his erudition and industry had +worked out, Robertson succeeded in producing the most luminous, and at +the same time just, view of the progress of nations that had yet been +exhibited among mankind. The philosophy of history here appeared in +its full lustre. Men and nations were exhibited in their just +proportions. Society was viewed, not only in its details, but its +masses; the _general causes_ which influence its progress, running +into or mutually affecting each other, and yet all conspiring with +more or less efficacy to bring about a general result, were exhibited +in the most lucid and masterly manner. The great causes which have +contributed to form the elements of modern society--the decaying +civilization of Rome--the irruption of the northern nations--the +prostration and degradation of the conquered people--the revival of +the military spirit with the private wars of the nobles--the feudal +system and institution of chivalry--the crusades, and revival of +letters following the capture of Constantinople by the Turks--the +invention of printing, and consequent extension of knowledge to the +great body of the people--the discovery of the compass, and, with it, +of America, by Columbus, and doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by +Vasco de Gama--the discovery of gunpowder, and prodigious change +thereby effected in the implements of human destruction--are all there +treated in the most luminous manner, and, in general, with the justest +discrimination. The vast agency of general causes upon the progress of +mankind now became apparent: unseen powers, like the deities of Homer +in the war of Troy, were seen to mingle at every stop with the tide of +sublunary affairs; and so powerful and irresistible does their agency, +when once revealed, appear, that we are perhaps now likely to fall +into the opposite extreme, and to ascribe too little to individual +effort or character. Men and nations seem to be alike borne forward on +the surface of a mighty stream, which they are equally incapable of +arresting or directing; and, after surveying the vain and impotent +attempts of individuals to extricate themselves from the current, we +are apt to exclaim with the philosopher,[16] "He has dashed with his +oar to hasten the cataract; he has waved with his fan to give speed to +the winds." + +A nearer examination, however, will convince every candid enquirer, +that individual character exercises, if not a paramount, yet a very +powerful influence on human affairs. Whoever investigates minutely any +period of history will find, on the one hand, that general causes +affecting the whole of society are in constant operation; and on the +other, that these general causes themselves are often set in motion, +or directed in their effects, by particular men. Thus, of what +efficacy were the constancy of Pitt, the foresight of Burke, the arm +of Nelson, the wisdom of Wellington, the genius of Wellesley, in +bringing to maturity the British empire, and spreading the Anglo-Saxon +race, in pursuance of its appointed mission, over half the globe! What +marvellous effect had the heroism and skill of Robert Bruce upon the +subsequent history of Scotland, and, through it, on the fortunes of +the British race! Thus biography, or the deeds or thoughts of +illustrious men, still forms a most important, and certainly the most +interesting, part even of general history; and the perfection of that +noble art consists, not in the exclusive delineation of individual +achievement, or the concentration of attention on general causes, but +in the union of the two in due proportions, as they really exist in +nature, and determine, by their combined operation, the direction of +human affairs. The talent now required in the historian partakes, +accordingly, of this two-fold character. He is expected to write +philosophy and biography: skill in drawing individual character, the +power of describing individual achievements, with a clear perception +of general causes, and the generalizing faculty of enlarged +philosophy. He must combine in his mind the powers of the microscope +and the telescope; be ready, like the steam-engine, at one time to +twist a fibre, at another to propel an hundred-gun ship. Hence the +rarity of eminence in this branch of knowledge; and if we could +conceive a writer who, to the ardent genius and descriptive powers of +Gibbon, should unite the lucid glance and just discrimination of +Robertson, and the calm sense and reasoning powers of Hume, he would +form a more perfect historian than ever has, or probably ever will +appear upon earth. + +With all his generalizing powers, however, Robertson fell into one +defect--or rather, he was unable, in one respect, to extricate himself +from the prejudices of his age and profession. He was not a +freethinker--on the contrary, he was a sincere and pious divine; but +he lived in an age of freethinkers--they had the chief influence in +the formation of a writer's fame; and he was too desirous of literary +reputation to incur the hazard of ridicule or contempt, by assigning +too prominent a place to the obnoxious topic. Thence he has ascribed +far too little influence to Christianity, in restraining the ferocity +of savage manners, preserving alive the remains of ancient knowledge, +and laying in general freedom the broad and deep foundations of +European society. He has not overlooked these topics, but he has not +given them their due place, nor assigned them their proper weight. He +lived and died in comparative retirement; and he was never able to +shake himself free from the prejudices of his country and education, +on the subject of Romish religion. Not that he exaggerated the abuses +and enormities of the Roman Catholic superstition which brought about +the Reformation, nor the vast benefits which Luther conferred upon +mankind by bringing them to light; both were so great, that they +hardly admitted of exaggeration. His error--and, in the delineation of +the progress of society in modern Europe, it was a very great +one--consisted in overlooking the beneficial effect of that very +superstition, then so pernicious, in a _prior age of the world_, when +violence was universal, crime prevalent alike in high and low places, +and government impotent to check either the tyranny of the great or +the madness of the people. Then it was that superstition was the +greatest blessing which Providence, in mercy, could bestow on mankind; +for it effected what the wisdom of the learned or the efforts of the +active were alike unable to effect; it restrained the violence by +imaginary, which was inaccessible to the force of real, terrors; and +spread that protection under the shadow of the Cross, which could +never have been obtained by the power of the sword. Robertson was +wholly insensible to these early and inestimable blessings of the +Christian faith; he has admirably delineated the beneficial influence +of the Crusades upon subsequent society, but on this all-important +topic he is silent. Yet, whoever has studied the condition of +European society in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, as it +has since been developed in the admirable works of Sismondi, Thierry, +Michelet, and Guizot, must be aware that the services, not merely of +Christianity, but of the superstitions which had usurped its place, +were, during that long period, incalculable; and that, but for them, +European society would infallibly have sunk, as Asiatic in every age +has done, beneath the desolating sword of barbarian power. + +Sismondi--if the magnitude, and in many respects the merit, of his +works be considered--must be regarded as one of the greatest +historians of modern times. His "History of the Italian Republics" in +sixteen, of the "Monarchy of France" in thirty volumes, attest the +variety and extent of his antiquarian researches, as well as the +indefatigable industry of his pen: his "Literature of the South of +Europe" in four, and "Miscellaneous Essays" in three volumes, show how +happily he has blended these weighty investigations with the lighter +topics of literature and poetry, and the political philosophy which, +in recent times, has come to occupy so large a place in the study of +all who have turned their mind to the progress of human affairs. Nor +is the least part of his merit to be found in the admirable skill with +which he has condensed, each in two volumes, his great histories, for +the benefit of that numerous class of readers who, unable or unwilling +to face the formidable undertaking of going through his great +histories, are desirous of obtaining such a brief summary of their +leading events as may suffice for persons of ordinary perseverance or +education. His mind was essentially philosophical; and it is the +philosophy of modern history, accordingly, which he has exerted +himself so strenuously to unfold. He views society at a distance, and +exhibits its great changes in their just proportions, and, in general, +with their true effects. His success in this arduous undertaking has +been great indeed. He has completed the picture of which Robertson had +only formed the sketch--and completed it with such a prodigious +collection of materials, and so lucid an arrangement of them in their +appropriate places, as to have left future ages little to do but draw +the just conclusions from the results of his labours. + +With all these merits, and they are great, and with this rare +combination of antiquarian industry with philosophic generalization, +Sismondi is far from being a perfect historian. He did well to abridge +his great works; for he will find few readers who will have +perseverance enough to go through them. An abridgement was tried of +Gibbon; but it had little success, and has never since been attempted. +You might as well publish an abridgement of Waverley or Ivanhoe. Every +reader of the _Decline and Fall_ must feel that condensation is +impossible, without an omission of interest or a curtailment of +beauty. Sismondi, with all his admirable qualities as a general and +philosophic historian, wants the one thing needful in exciting +interest--descriptive and dramatic power. He was a man of great vigour +of thought and clearness of observation, but little genius--at least +of that kind of genius which is necessary to move the feelings or warm +the imagination. That was his principal defect; and it will prevent +his great works from ever commanding the attention of a numerous body +of general readers, however much they may be esteemed by the learned +and studious. Conscious of this deficiency, he makes scarce any +attempt to make his narrative interesting; but, reserving his whole +strength for general views on the progress of society, or philosophic +observations on its most important changes, he fills up the +intermediate space with long quotations from chronicles, memoirs, and +state papers--a sure way, if the selection is not made with great +judgment, of rendering the whole insupportably tedious. Every +narrative, to be interesting, should be given in the writer's _own +words_, unless on those occasions, by no means frequent, when some +striking or remarkable expressions of a speaker, or contemporary +writer, are to be preserved. Unity of style and expression is as +indispensable in a history which is to move the heart, or fascinate +the imagination, as in a tragedy, a painting, or an epic poem. + +But, in addition to this, Sismondi's general views, though ordinarily +just, and always expressed with clearness and precision, are not +always to be taken without examination. Like Robertson, he was never +able to extricate himself entirely from the early prejudices of his +country and education; hardly any of the Geneva school of philosophers +have been able to do so. Brought up in that learned and able, but +narrow, and in some respects bigoted community, he was early engaged +in the vast undertaking of the History of the Italian Republics. Thus, +before he was well aware of it, and at a time of life, when the +opinions are flexible, and easily moulded by external impressions, he +became irrevocably enamoured of such little communities as he had +lived in, or was describing, and imbibed all the prejudices against +the Church of Rome, which have naturally, from close proximity, and +the endurance of unutterable evils at its hands, been ever prevalent +among the Calvinists of Geneva. These causes have tinged his otherwise +impartial views with two signal prejudices, which appear in all his +writings where these subjects are even remotely alluded to. His +partiality for municipal institutions, and the social system depending +on them, is as extravagant, as his aversion to the Church of Rome is +conspicuous and intemperate. His idea of a perfect society would be a +confederacy of little republics, governed by popularly elected +magistrates, holding the scarlet old lady of Rome in utter +abomination, and governed in matters of religion by the Presbyterian +forms, and the tenets of Calvin. It is not to be wondered at, that the +annalist of the countries of Tasso and Dante, of Titian and Machiavel, +of Petrarch and Leonardo da Vinci, of Galileo and Michael Angelo, +should conceive, that in no other state of society is such scope +afforded for mental cultivation and the development of the highest +efforts of genius. Still less is it surprising, that the historian of +the crusade against the Albigenses, of the unheard-of atrocities of +Simon de Montfort, of the wholesale massacres, burnings, and +torturings, which have brought such indelible disgrace on the Roman +priesthood, should feel deeply interested in a faith which has +extricated his own country from the abominable persecution. But still, +this indulgence of these natural, and in some respects praiseworthy, +feelings, has blinded Sismondi to the insurmountable evils of a +confederacy of small republics at this time, amidst surrounding, +powerful, and monarchical states; and to the inappreciable blessings +of the Christian faith, and even of the Romish superstition, before +the period when these infamous cruelties began, when their warfare was +only with the oppressor, their struggles with the destroyers of the +human race. + +But truth is great, and will prevail. Those just views of modern +society, which neither the luminous eye of Robertson, nor the learned +research and philosophic mind of Sismondi could reach, have been +brought forward by a writer of surpassing ability, whose fame as an +historian and a philosopher is for the time overshadowed by the more +fleeting celebrity of the statesman and the politician. We will not +speak of M. GUIZOT in the latter character, much as we are tempted to +do so, by the high and honourable part which he has long borne in +European diplomacy, and the signal ability with which, in the midst of +a short-sighted and rebellious generation, clamouring, as the Romans +of old, for the _multis utile bellum_, he has sustained his +sovereign's wise and magnanimous resolution to maintain peace. We are +too near the time to appreciate the magnitude of these blessings; men +would not now believe through what a crisis the British empire, +unconscious of its danger, passed, when M. Thiers was dismissed, three +years and a half ago, by Louis Philippe, and M. Guizot called to the +helm. But when the time arrives, as arrive it will, that the +diplomatic secrets of that period are brought to light; when the +instructions of the revolutionary minister to the admiral of the +Toulon fleet are made known, and the marvellous chance which prevented +their being acted upon by him, has become matter of history; it will +be admitted, that the civilized world have good cause to thank M. +Guizot for saving it from a contest as vehement, as perilous, and +probably as disastrous to all concerned, as that which followed the +French Revolution. + +Our present business is with M. Guizot as a historian and philosopher; +a character in which he will be remembered, long after his services to +humanity as a statesman and a minister have ceased to attract the +attention of men. In those respects, we place him in the very highest +rank among the writers of modern Europe. It must be understood, +however, in what his greatness consists, lest the readers, expecting +what they will not find, experience disappointment, when they begin +the study of his works. He is neither imaginative nor pictorial; he +seldom aims at the pathetic, and has little eloquence. He is not a +Livy nor a Gibbon. Nature has not given him either dramatic or +descriptive powers. He is a man of the highest genius; but it consists +not in narrating particular events, or describing individual +achievement. It is in the discovery of general causes; in tracing the +operation of changes in society, which escape ordinary observation: in +seeing whence man has come, and whether he is going, that his +greatness consists: and in that loftiest of the regions of history, he +is unrivaled. We know of no author who has traced the changes of +society, and the general causes which determine the fate of nations, +with such just views and so much sagacious discrimination. He is not +properly speaking, an historian; his vocation and object were +different. He is a great discourser on history. If ever the philosophy +of history was embodied in a human being, it is in M. Guizot. + +The style of this great author is, in every respect, suited to his +subject. He does not aim at the highest flights of fancy; makes no +attempt to warm the soul or melt the feelings; is seldom imaginative, +and never descriptive. But he is uniformly lucid, sagacious, and +discriminating; deduces his conclusions with admirable clearness from +his premises, and occasionally warms from the innate grandeur of his +subject into a glow of fervent eloquence. He seems to treat of human +affairs, as if he viewed them from a loftier sphere than other men; as +if he were elevated above the usual struggles and contests of +humanity; and a superior power had withdrawn the veil which shrouds +their secret causes and course from the gaze of sublunary beings. He +cares not to dive into the secrets of cabinets; attaches little, +perhaps too little, importance to individual character; but fixes his +steady gaze on the great and lasting causes which, in a durable +manner, influence human affairs. He views them not from year to year +but from century to century; and, when considered in that view, it is +astonishing how much the importance of individual agency disappears. +Important in their generation--sometimes almost omnipotent for good or +for evil while they live--particular men, how great soever, rarely +leave any very important consequences behind them; or at least rarely +do what other men might not have done as effectually as them, and +which was not already determined by the tendency of the human mind, +and the tide, either of flow or ebb, by which human affairs were at +the time wafted to and fro. The desperate struggles of war or of +ambition in which they were engaged, and in which so much genius and +capacity were exerted, are swept over by the flood of time, and seldom +leave any lasting trace behind. It is the men who determine the +direction of this tide, who imprint their character on general +thought, who are the real directors of human affairs; it is the giants +of thought who, in the end, govern the world--kings and ministers, +princes and generals, warriors and legislators, are but the ministers +of their blessings or their curses to mankind. But their dominion +seldom begins till themselves are mouldering in their graves. + +Guizot's largest work, in point of size, is his translation of +_Gibbon's Rome_; and the just and philosophic spirit in which he +viewed he course of human affairs, was admirably calculated to provide +an antidote to the sceptical sneers which, in a writer of such genius +and strength of understanding, are at once the marvel and the disgrace +of that immortal work. He has begun also a history of the English +Revolution, to which he was led by having been the editor of a +valuable collection of Memoirs relating to the great Rebellion, +translated into French, in twenty-five volumes. But this work only got +the length of two volumes, and came no further down than the death of +Charles I., an epoch no further on in the English than the execution +of Louis in the French revolution. This history is clear, lucid, and +valuable; but it is written with little eloquence, and has met with no +great success: the author's powers were not of the dramatic or +pictorial kind necessary to paint that dreadful story. These were +editorial or industrial labours unworthy of Guizot's mind; it was when +he delivered lectures from the chair of history in Paris, that his +genius shone forth in its proper sphere and its true lustre. + +His _Civilisation en France_, in five volumes, _Civilisation +Européenne_, and _Essais sur l'Histoire de France_, each in one +volume, are the fruits of these professional labours. The same +profound thought, sagacious discrimination, and lucid view, are +conspicuous in them all; but they possess different degrees of +interest to the English reader. The _Civilisation en France_ is the +groundwork of the whole, and it enters at large into the whole +details, historical, legal, and antiquarian, essential for its +illustration, and the proof of the various propositions which it +contains. In the _Civilisation Européenne_, and _Essays on the History +of France_, however, the general results are given with equal +clearness and greater brevity. We do not hesitate to say, that they +appear to us to throw more light on the history of society in modern +Europe, and the general progress of mankind, from the exertions of its +inhabitants, than any other works in existence; and it is of them, +especially the first, that we propose to give our readers some +account. + +The most important event which ever occurred in the history of +mankind, is the one concerning which contemporary writers have given +us the least satisfactory accounts. Beyond all doubt the overthrow of +Rome by the Goths was the most momentous catastrophe which has +occurred on the earth since the deluge; yet, if we examine either the +historians of antiquity or the earliest of modern times, we find it +wholly impossible to understand to what cause so great a catastrophe +had been owing. What gave, in the third and fourth centuries, so +prodigious an impulse to the northern nations, and enabled them, after +being so long repelled by the arms of Rome, finally to prevail over +it? What, still more, so completely paralysed the strength of the +empire during that period, and produced that astonishing weakness in +the ancient conquerors of the world, which rendered them the easy prey +of those whom they had so often subdued? The ancient writers content +themselves with saying, that the people became corrupted; that they +lost their military courage; that the recruiting of the legions, in +the free inhabitants of the empire, became impossible; and that the +semi-barbarous tribes on the frontier could not be relied on to uphold +its fortunes. But a very little reflection must be sufficient to show +that there must have been much more in it than this, before a race of +conquerors was converted into one of slaves; before the legions fled +before the barbarians, and the strength of the civilized was +overthrown by the energy of the savage world. For what prevented a +revenue from being raised in the third or fourth, as well as the first +or second centuries? Corruption in its worst form had doubtless +pervaded the higher ranks in Rome from the Emperor downward; but these +vices are the faults of the exalted and the affluent only; they never +have, and never will, extend generally to the great body of the +community; for this plain reason, that they are not rich enough to +purchase them. But the remarkable thing is, that in the decline of the +empire, it was in the lower ranks that the greatest and most fatal +weakness first appeared. Long before the race of the Patricians had +become extinct, the free cultivators had disappeared from the fields. +Leaders and generals of the most consummate abilities, of the greatest +daring, frequently arose; but their efforts proved in the end +ineffectual, from the impossibility of finding a sturdy race of +followers to fill their ranks. The legionary Italian soldier was +awanting--his place was imperfectly supplied by the rude Dacian, the +hardy German, the faithless Goth. So completely were the inhabitants +of the provinces within the Rhine and the Danube paralysed, that they +ceased to make any resistance to the hordes of invaders; and the +fortunes of the empire were, for several generations, sustained solely +by the heroic efforts of individual leaders--Belisarius, Narces, +Julian, Aurelian, Constantine, and many others--whose renown, though +it could not rouse the pacific inhabitants to warlike efforts, yet +attracted military adventurers from all parts of the world to their +standard. Now, what weakened and destroyed the rural population? It +could not be luxury; on the contrary, they were suffering under excess +of poverty, and bent down beneath a load of taxes, which in Gaul, in +the time of Constantine, amounted, as Gibbon tells us, to nine pounds +sterling on every freeman? What was it, then, which occasioned the +depopulation and weakness? This is what it behoves us to know--this it +is which ancient history has left unknown. + +It is here that the vast step in the philosophy of history made from +ancient to modern times is apparent. From a few detached hints and +insulated facts, left by the ancient annalists, apparently ignorant of +their value, and careless of their preservation, modern industry, +guided by the light of philosophy, has reared up the true solution of +the difficulty, and revealed the real causes, hidden from the ordinary +gaze, which, even in the midst of its greatest prosperity, gradually, +but certainly, undermined the strength of the empire. Michelet, in his +_Gaule sous les Romains_, a most able and interesting work--Thierry, +in his _Domination Romaine en Gaule_, and his _Histoire des Rois +Merovingians_--Sismondi, in the three first volumes of his _Histoire +des Français_--and Guizot, in his _Civilisation Européenne_, and the +first volumes of his _Essais sur l'Histoire de France_--have applied +their great powers to this most interesting subject. It may safely be +affirmed, that they have got to the bottom of the subject, and lifted +up the veil from one of the darkest, and yet most momentous, changes +in the history of mankind. Guizot gives the following account of the +principal causes which silently undermined the strength of the empire, +flowing from the peculiar organization of ancient society:-- + + "When Rome extended, what did it do? Follow its history, and you + will find that it was everlastingly engaged in conquering or + founding cities. It was with cities that it fought--with cities + that it contracted--into cities that it sent colonies. The + history of the conquest of the world by Rome, is nothing but the + history of the conquest and foundation of a great number of + cities. In the East, the expansion of the Roman power assumed, + from the very outset, a somewhat dissimilar character; the + population was differently distributed from the West, and much + less concentrated in cities; but in the European world, the + foundation or conquest of towns was the uniform result of Roman + conquest. In Gaul and Spain, in Italy, it was constantly towns + which opposed the barrier to Roman domination, and towns which + were founded or garrisoned by the legions, or strengthened by + colonies, to retain them when vanquished in a state of + subjection. Great roads stretched from one town to another; the + multitude of cross roads which now intersect each other in every + direction, was unknown. They had nothing in common with that + multitude of little monuments, villages, churches, castles, + villas, and cottages, which now cover our provinces. Rome has + bequeathed to us nothing, either in its capital or its provinces, + but the _municipal character_, which produced immense monuments + on certain points, destined for the use of the vast population + which was there assembled together. + + "From this peculiar conformation of society in Europe, under the + Roman dominion, consisting of a vast conglomeration of cities, + with each a dependent territory, all independent of each other, + arose the absolute necessity for a central and absolute + government. One municipality in Rome might conquer the world: but + to retain it in subjection, and provide for the government of all + its multifarious parts, was a very different matter. This was one + of the chief causes of the general adoption of a strong + concentrated government under the empire. Such centralized + despotism not only succeeded in restraining and regulating all + the incoherent members of the vast dominion, but the idea of a + central irresistible authority insinuated itself into men's minds + every where, at the same time, with wonderful facility. At first + sight, one is astonished to see, in that prodigious and + ill-united aggregate of little republics, in that accumulation of + separate municipalities, spring up so suddenly an unbounded + respect for the sacred authority of the empire. But the truth is, + it had become a matter of absolute necessity, that the bond which + held together the different parts of this heterogeneous dominion + should be very powerful; and this it was which gave it so ready a + reception in the minds of men. + + "But when the vigour of the central power declined during a + course of ages, from the pressure of external warfare, and the + weakness of internal corruption, this necessity was no longer + felt. The capital ceased to be able to provide for the provinces, + it rather sought protection from them. During four centuries, the + central power of the emperors incessantly struggled against this + increasing debility; but the moment at length arrived, when all + the practised skill of despotism, over the long _insouciance_ of + servitude, could no longer keep together the huge and unwieldy + body. In the fourth century, we see it at once break up and + disunite; the barbarians entered on all sides from without, the + provinces ceased to oppose any resistance from within; the cities + to evince any regard for the general welfare; and, as in the + disaster of a shipwreck, every one looked out for his individual + safety. Thus, on the dissolution of the empire, the same general + state of society presented itself as in its cradle. The imperial + authority sunk into the dust, and municipal institutions alone + survived the disaster. This, then, was the chief legacy which the + ancient bequeathed to the modern world--for it alone survived the + storm by which the former had been destroyed--cities and a + municipal organization every where established. But it was not + the only legacy. Beside it, there was the recollection at least + of the awful majesty of the emperor--of a distant, unseen, but + sacred and irresistible power. These are the two ideas which + antiquity bequeathed to modern times. On the one hand, the + municipal _régime_, its rules, customs, and principles of + liberty: on the other a common, general, civil legislation; and + the idea of absolute power, of a sacred majesty, the principle of + order and servitude."--(_Civilization Européenne_, 20, 23.) + + +The causes which produced the extraordinary, and at first sight +unaccountable, depopulation of the country districts, not only in +Italy, but in Gaul, Spain, and all the European provinces of the Roman +empire, are explained by Guizot in his _Essays on the History of +France_, and have been fully demonstrated by Sismondi, Thierry, and +Michelet. They were a natural consequence of the municipal system, +then universally established as the very basis of civilization in the +whole Roman empire, and may be seen urging, from a similar cause, the +Turkish empire to dissolution at this day. This was the imposition of +a certain fixed duty, as a burden on each municipality, to be raised, +indeed, by its own members, but admitting of no diminution, save under +the most special circumstances, and on an express exemption by the +emperor. Had the great bulk of the people been free, and the empire +prosperous, this fixity of impost would have been the greatest of all +blessings. It is the precise boon so frequently and earnestly implored +by our ryots in India, and indeed by the cultivators all over the +East. But when the empire was beset on all sides with enemies--only +the more rapacious and pressing, that the might of the legions had so +long confined them within the comparatively narrow limits of their own +sterile territories--and disasters, frequent and serious, were laying +waste the frontier provinces, it became the most dreadful of all +scourges; because, as the assessment on each district was fixed, and +scarcely ever suffered any abatement, every disaster experienced +increased the burden on the survivors who had escaped it; until they +became bent down under such a weight of taxation, as, coupled with the +small number of freemen on whom it exclusively fell, crushed every +attempt at productive industry. It was the same thing as if all the +farmers on each estate were to be bound to make up, annually, the same +amount of rent to their landlord, no matter how many of them had +become insolvent. We know how long the agriculture of Britain, in a +period of declining prices and frequent disaster, would exist under +such a system. + +Add to this the necessary effect which the free circulation of grain +throughout the whole Roman world had in depressing the agriculture of +Italy, Gaul, and Greece. They were unable to withstand the competition +of Egypt, Lybia, and Sicily--the storehouses of the world; where the +benignity of the climate, and the riches of the soil, rewarded seventy +or an hundred fold the labours of the husbandman. Gaul, where the +increase was only seven-fold--Italy, where it seldom exceeded +twelve--Spain, where it was never so high, were crushed in the +struggle. The mistress of the world, as Tacitus bewails, had come to +depend for her subsistence on the floods of the Nile. Unable to +compete with the cheap grain raised in the more favoured regions of +the south, the cultivators of Italy and Gaul gradually retired from +the contest. They devoted their extensive estates to pasturage, +because live cattle or dairy produce could not bear the expense of +being shipped from Africa; and the race of agriculturists, the +strength of the legions, disappeared in the fields, and was lost in +the needy and indolent crowd of urban citizens, in part maintained by +tributes in corn brought from Egypt and Lybia. This augmented the +burdens upon those who remained in the rural districts; for, as the +taxes of each municipality remained the same, every one that withdrew +into the towns left an additional burden on the shoulders of his +brethren who remained behind. So powerful was the operation of these +two causes--the fixity in the state burdens payable by each +municipality, and the constantly declining prices, owing to the vast +import from agricultural regions more favoured by nature--that it +fully equaled the effect of the ravages of the barbarians in the +frontier provinces exposed to their incursions; and the depopulation +of the rural districts was as complete in Italy and Gaul, before a +barbarian had passed the Alps or set his foot across the Rhine, as in +the plains between the Alps or the Adriatic and the Danube, which had +for long been ravaged by their arms. + +Domestic slavery conspired with these evils to prevent the healing +power of nature from closing these yawning wounds. Gibbon estimates +the number of slaves throughout the empire, in its latter days, at a +number equal to that of the freemen; in other words, one half of the +whole inhabitants were in a state of servitude;[17] and as there were +120,000,000 souls under the Roman sway, sixty millions were in that +degraded condition. There is reason to believe that the number of the +slaves was still greater than this estimate, and at least double that +of the freemen; for it is known by an authentic enumeration, that, in +the time of the Emperor Claudius, the number of citizens in the empire +was only 6,945,000 men, who, with their families, might amount to +twenty millions of souls; and the total number of freemen was about +double that of the citizens.[18] In one family alone, in the time of +Pliny, there were 4116 slaves.[19] But take the number of slaves, +according to Gibbon's computation, at only half the entire population, +what a prodigious abstraction must this multitude of slaves have made +from the physical and moral strength of the empire! Half the people +requiring food, needing restraint, incapable of trust, and yet adding +nothing to the muster-roll of the legions, or the persons by whom the +fixed and immovable annual taxes were to be made good! In what state +would the British empire now be, if we were subjected to the action of +similar causes of ruin? A vast and unwieldy dominion, exposed on every +side to the incursions of barbarous and hostile nations, daily +increasing in numbers, and augmenting in military skill; a fixed +taxation, for which the whole free inhabitants of every municipality +were jointly and severally responsible, to meet the increasing +military establishment required by these perils; a declining, and at +length extinct, agriculture in the central provinces of the empire, +owing to the deluge of cheap grain from its fertile extremities, +wafted over the waters of the Mediterranean; multitudes of turbulent +freemen in cities, kept quiet by daily distribution of provisions at +the public expense, from the imperial granaries; and a half, or +two-thirds, of the whole population in a state of slavery--neither +bearing any share of the public burdens, nor adding to the strength of +the military array of the empire. Such are the discoveries of modern +philosophy, as to the causes of the decline and ultimate fall of the +Roman empire, gleaned from a few facts, accidentally preserved by the +ancient writers, apparently unconscious of their value! It is a noble +science which, in so short a time, has presented such a gift to +mankind. + +Guizot has announced, and ably illustrated, a great truth, which, when +traced to its legitimate consequences, will be found to go far towards +dispelling many of the pernicious innovating dogmas which have so long +been afloat in the world. It is this, that whenever an institution, +though apparently pernicious in our eyes, has long existed, and under +a great variety of circumstances, we may rest assured that it in +reality has been attended with some advantages which counterbalance +its evils, and that upon the whole it is beneficial in its tendency. +This important principle is thus stated:-- + + "Independent of the efforts of man, there is established by a law + of providence, which it is impossible to mistake, and which is + analagous to what we witness in the natural world, a certain + measure of order, reason, and justice, without which society + cannot exist. From the single fact of its endurance we may + conclude, with certainty, that a society is not completely + absurd, insensate, or iniquitous; that it is not destitute of the + elements of reason, truth, and justice--which alone can give life + to society. If the more that society developes itself, the + stronger does this principle become--if it is daily accepted by a + greater number of men, it is a certain proof that in the lapse of + time there has been progressively introduced into it more reason, + more justice, more right. It is thus that the idea of political + legitimacy has arisen. + + "This principle has for its foundation, in the first instance, at + least in a certain degree, the great principles of moral + legitimacy--justice, reason, truth. Then came the sanction of + time, which always begets the presumption of reason having + directed arrangements which have long endured. In the early + periods of society, we too often find force and falsehood ruling + the cradles of royalty, aristocracy, democracy, and even the + church; but every where you will see this force and falsehood + yielding to the reforming hand of time, and right and truth + taking their place in the rulers of civilization. It is this + progressive infusion of right and truth which has by degrees + developed the idea of political legitimacy; it is thus that it + has become established in modern civilization. At different + times, indeed, attempts have been made to substitute for this + idea the banner of despotic power; but, in doing so, they have + turned it aside from its true origin. It is so little the banner + of despotic power, that it is in the name of right and justice + that it has overspread the world. As little is it exclusive: it + belongs neither to persons, classes, nor sects; it arises + wherever the idea of right has developed itself. We shall meet + with this principle in systems the most opposite: in the feudal + system, in the municipalities of Flanders and Germany, in the + republics of Italy, as well as in simple monarchies. It is a + character diffused through the various elements of modern + civilization, and the perception of which is indispensable to the + right understanding of its history."--(_Lecture_ iii. 9, 11; + _Civilization Européenne_.) + + +No principle ever was announced of more practical importance in +legislating for mankind, than is contained in this passage. The +doctrine is somewhat obscurely stated, and not with the precision +which in general distinguishes the French writers; but the import of +it seems to be this--That no system of government can long exist among +men, unless it is substantially, and in the majority of cases, founded +in reason and justice, and sanctioned by experienced utility for the +people among whom it exists; and therefore, that we may predicate with +perfect certainty of any institution which has been generally +extended and long established, that it has been upon the whole +beneficial, and should be modified or altered with a very cautious +hand. That this proposition is true, will probably be disputed by none +who have thought much and dispassionately on human affairs; for all +human institutions are formed and supported by men, and unless men had +some reason for supporting them, they would speedily sink to the +ground. It is in vain to say a privileged class have got possession of +the power, and they make use of it to perpetuate these abuses. +Doubtless, they are always sufficiently inclined to do so; but a +privileged class, or a despot, is always a mere handful against the +great body of the people; and unless their power is supported by the +force of general opinion, founded on experienced utility upon the +whole, it could not maintain its ground a single week. And this +explains a fact observed by an able and ingenious writer of the +present day,[20] that if almost all the great convulsions recorded in +history are attentively considered, it will be found, that after a +brief period of strenuous, and often almost superhuman effort, on the +part of the people, they have terminated in the establishment of a +government and institutions differing scarcely, except in name, from +that which had preceded the struggle. It is hardly necessary to remark +how striking a confirmation the English revolution of 1688, and the +French of 1830, afford of this truth. + +And this explains what is the true meaning of, and solid foundation +for, that reverence for antiquity which is so strongly implanted in +human nature, and is never forgotten for any considerable time without +inducing the most dreadful disasters upon society. It means that those +institutions which have descended to us in actual practice from our +ancestors, come sanctioned by the _experience_ of ages; and that they +could not have stood so long a test unless they had been recommended, +in some degree at least, by their utility. It is not that our +ancestors were wiser than we are; they were certainly less informed, +and probably were, on that account, in the general case, less +judicious. But time has swept away their follies, which were doubtless +great enough, as it has done the worthless ephemeral literature with +which they, as we, were overwhelmed; and nothing has stood the test of +ages, and come down to us through a series of generations, of their +ideas or institutions, but what had some utility in human feelings and +necessities, and was on the whole expedient at the time when it arose. +Its utility may have ceased by the change of manners or of the +circumstances of society--that may be a good reason for cautiously +modifying or altering it--but rely upon it, it was once useful, if it +has existed long; and the presumption of present and continuing +utility requires to be strongly outweighed by forcible considerations +before it is abandoned. Lord Bacon has told us, in words which can +never become trite, so profound is their wisdom, that our changes, to +be beneficial, should resemble those of time, which, though the +greatest of all innovators, works out its alterations so gradually +that they are never perceived. Guizot makes, in the same spirit, the +following fine observation on the slow march of Supreme wisdom in the +government of the world:-- + + "If we turn our eyes to history, we shall find that all the great + developments of the human mind have turned to the advantage of + society--all the great struggles of humanity to the good of + mankind. It is not, indeed, immediately that these efforts take + place; ages often elapse, a thousand obstacles intervene, before + they are fully developed; but when we survey a long course of + ages, we see that all has been accomplished. The march of + Providence is not subjected to narrow limits; it cares not to + develope to-day the consequences of a principle which it has + established yesterday; it will bring them forth in ages, when the + appointed hour has arrived; and its course is not the less sure + that it is slow. The throne of the Almighty rests on time--it + marches through its boundless expanse as the gods of Homer + through space--it makes a step, and ages have passed away. How + many ages elapsed, how many changes ensued, before the + regeneration of the inner man, by means of Christianity, + exercised on the social state its great and salutary influence! + Nevertheless, it has at length succeeded. No one can mistake its + effects at this time."--(_Lecture_ i. 24.) + + +In surveying the progress of civilization in modern, as compared with +ancient times, two features stand prominent as distinguishing the one +from the other. These are the _church_ and the _feudal system_. They +were precisely the circumstances which gave the most umbrage to the +philosophers of the eighteenth century, and which awakened the +greatest transports of indignation among the ardent multitudes who, at +its close, brought about the French Revolution. Very different is the +light in which the eye of true philosophy, enlightened by the +experience of their abolition, views these great distinctive features +of modern society. + + "Immense," says Guizot, "was the influence which the Christian + church exercised over the civilization of modern Europe. In the + outset, it was an incalculable advantage to have a moral power, a + power destitute of physical force, which reposed only on mental + convictions and moral feelings, established amidst that deluge of + physical force and selfish violence which overwhelmed society at + that period. Had the Christian church not existed, the world + would have been delivered over to the influence of physical + strength, in its coarsest and most revolting form. It alone + exercised a moral power. It did more; it spread abroad the idea + of a rule of obedience, a heavenly power, to which all human + beings, how great soever, were subjected, and which was above all + human laws. That of itself was a safeguard against the greatest + evils of society; for it affected the minds of those by whom they + were brought about; it professed that belief--the foundation of + the salvation of humanity--that there is above all existing + institutions, superior to all human laws, a permanent and divine + law, sometimes called Reason, sometimes Divine Command, but + which, under whatever name it goes, is for ever the same. + + "Then the church commenced a great work--the separation of the + spiritual and temporal power. That separation is the origin of + liberty of conscience; it rests on no other principle than that + which lies at the bottom of the widest and most extended + toleration. The separation of the spiritual and temporal power + rests on the principle, that physical force is neither entitled + to act, nor can ever have any lasting influence, on thoughts, + conviction, truth; it flows from the eternal distinction between + the world of thought and the world of action, the world of + interior conviction and that of external facts. In truth, that + principle of the liberty of conscience, for which Europe has + combated and suffered so much, which has so slowly triumphed, and + often against the utmost efforts of the clergy themselves, was + first founded by the doctrine of the separation of the temporal + and spiritual power, in the cradle of European civilization. It + is the Christian church which, by the necessities of its + situation to defend itself against the assaults of barbarism, + introduced and maintained it. The presence of a moral influence, + the maintenance of a Divine law, the separation of the temporal + and spiritual power, are the three great blessings which the + Christian church has diffused in the dark ages over European + society. + + "The influence of the Christian church was great and beneficent + for another reason. The bishop and clergy erelong became the + principal municipal magistrates: they were the chancellors and + ministers of kings--the rulers, except in the camp and the field, + of mankind. When the Roman empire crumbled into dust, when the + central power of the emperors and the legions disappeared, there + remained, we have seen, no other authority in the state but the + municipal functionaries. But they themselves had fallen into a + state of apathy and despair; the heavy burdens of despotism, the + oppressive taxes of the municipalities, the incursions of the + fierce barbarians, had reduced them to despair. No protection to + society, no revival of industry, no shielding of innocence, could + be expected from their exertions. The clergy, again, formed a + society within itself; fresh, young, vigorous, sheltered by the + prevailing faith, which speedily drew to itself all the learning + and intellectual strength that remained in the state. The bishops + and priests, full of life and of zeal, naturally were recurred to + in order to fill all civil situations requiring thought or + information. It is wrong to reproach their exercise of these + powers as an usurpation; they alone were capable of exercising + them. Thus has the natural course of things prescribed for all + ages and countries. The clergy alone were mentally strong and + morally zealous: they became all-powerful. It is the law of the + universe."--(_Lecture_ iii. 27, 31; _Civilization Européenne._) + + +Nothing can be more just or important than these observations; and +they throw a new and consoling light on the progress and ultimate +destiny of European society. They are as original as they are +momentous. Robertson, with his honest horror of the innumerable +corruptions which, in the time of Leo X. and Luther, brought about the +Reformation--Sismondi, with his natural detestation of a faith which +had urged on the dreadful cruelties of the crusade of the Albigenses, +and which produced the revocation of the edict of Nantes--have alike +overlooked these important truths, so essential to a right +understanding of the history of modern society. They saw that the +arrogance and cruelty of the Roman clergy had produced innumerable +evils in later times; that their venality in regard to indulgences and +abuse of absolution had brought religion itself into discredit; that +the absurd and incredible tenets which they still attempted to force +on mankind, had gone far to alienate the intellectual strength of +modern Europe, during the last century, from their support. Seeing +this, they condemned it absolutely, for all times and in all places. +They fell into the usual error of men in reasoning on former from +their own times. They could not make "the past and the future +predominate over the present." They felt the absurdity of many of the +legends which the devout Catholics received as undoubted truths, and +they saw no use in perpetuating the belief in them; and thence they +conceived that they must always have been equally unserviceable, +forgetting that the eighteenth was not the eighth century; and that, +during the dark ages, violence would have rioted without control, if, +when reason was in abeyance, knowledge scanty, and military strength +alone in estimation, superstition had not thrown its unseen fetters +over the barbarian's arms. They saw that the Romish clergy, during +five centuries, had laboured strenuously, and often with the most +frightful cruelty, to crush independence of thought in matters of +faith, and chain the human mind to the tenets, often absurd and +erroneous, of her Papal creed; and they forgot that, during five +preceding centuries, the Christian church had laboured as assiduously +to establish the independence of thought from physical coercion, and +had alone kept alive, during the interregnum of reason, the sparks of +knowledge and the principles of freedom. + +In the same liberal and enlightened spirit Guizot views the feudal +system, the next grand characteristic of modern times. + + "A decisive proof that, in the tenth century, the feudal system + had become necessary, and was, in truth, the only social state + possible, is to be found in the universality of its adoption. + Universally, upon the cessation of barbarism, the feudal forms + were adopted. At the first moment of barbarian conquest, men saw + only the triumph of chaos. All unity, all general civilization + disappeared, on all sides was seen society falling into + dissolution; and, in its stead, arising a multitude of little, + obscure, isolated communities. This appeared to all the + contemporaries nothing short of universal anarchy. The poets, the + chroniclers of the time, viewed it as the approach of the end of + the world. It was, in truth, the end of the ancient world; but + the commencement of a new one, placed on a broad basis, and with + large means of social improvement and individual happiness. + + "Then it was that the feudal system became necessary, inevitable. + It was the only possible means of emerging from the general + chaos. The whole of Europe, accordingly, at the same time adopted + it. Even those portions of society which were most strangers, + apparently, to that system, entered warmly into its spirit, and + were fain to share in its protection. The crown, the church, the + communities, were constrained to accommodate themselves to it. + The churches became suzerain or vassal; the burghs had their + lords and their feuars; the monasteries and abbeys had their + feudal retainers, as well as the temporal barons. Royalty itself + was disguised under the name of a feudal superior. Every thing + was given in fief; not only lands, but certain rights flowing + from them, as that of cutting wood, fisheries, or the like. The + church made subinfeudations of their casual revenues, as the dues + on marriages, funerals, and baptisms." + + +The establishment of the feudal system thus universally in Europe, +produced one effect, the importance of which can hardly be +exaggerated. Hitherto the mass of mankind had been collected under the +municipal institutions which had been universal in antiquity, in +cities, or wandered in vagabond hordes through the country. Under the +feudal system these men lived isolated, each in his own habitation, at +a great distance from each other. A glance will show that this single +circumstance must have exercised on the character of society, and the +course of civilization, the social preponderance; the government of +society passed at once from the towns to the country--private took the +lead of public property--private prevailed over public life. Such was +the first effect, and it was an effect purely material, of the +establishment of the feudal system. But other effects, still more +material, followed, of a moral kind, which have exercised the most +important effects on the European manners and mind. + + "The feudal proprietor established himself in an isolated place, + which, for his own protection, he rendered secure. He lived + there, with his wife, his children, and a few faithful friends, + who shared his hospitality, and contributed to his defence. + Around the castle, in its vicinity, were established the farmers + and serfs who cultivated his domain. In the midst of that + inferior, but yet allied and protected population, religion + planted a church, and introduced a priest. He was usually the + chaplain of the castle, and at the same time the curate of the + village; in subsequent ages these two characters were separated; + the village pastor resided beside his church. This was the + primitive feudal society--the cradle, as it were, of the European + and Christian world. + + "From this state of things necessarily arose a prodigious + superiority on the part of the possessor of the fief, alike in + his own eyes, and in the eyes of those who surrounded him. The + feeling of individual importance, of personal freedom, was the + ruling principle of savage life; but here a new feeling was + introduced--the importance of a proprietor, of the chief of a + family, of a master, predominated over that of an individual. + From this situation arose an immense feeling of superiority--a + superiority peculiar to the feudal ages, and entirely different + from any thing which had yet been experienced in the world. Like + the feudal lord, the Roman patrician was the head of a family, a + master, a landlord. He was, moreover, a religious magistrate, a + pontiff in the interior of his family. He was, moreover, a member + of the municipality in which his property was situated, and + perhaps one of the august senate, which, in name at least, still + ruled the empire. But all this importance and dignity was derived + from without--the patrician shared it with the other members of + his municipality--with the corporation of which he formed a part. + The importance of the feudal lord, again, was purely + individual--he owed nothing to another; all the power he enjoyed + emanated from himself alone. What a feeling of individual + consequence must such a situation have inspired--what pride, what + insolence, must it have engendered in his mind! Above him was no + superior, of whose orders he was to be the mere interpreter or + organ--around him were no equals. No all-powerful municipality + made his wishes bend to its own--no superior authority exercised + a control over his wishes, he knew no bridle on his inclinations, + but the limits of his power, or the presence of danger. + + "Another consequence, hitherto not sufficiently attended to, but + of vast importance, flowed from this society. + + "The patriarchal society, of which the Bible and the Oriental + monuments offer the model, was the first combination of men. The + chief of a tribe lived with his children, his relations, the + different generations who have assembled around him. This was the + situation of Abraham--of the patriarchs: it is still that of the + Arab tribes which perpetuate their manners. The _clan_, of which + remains still exist in the mountains of Scotland, and the _sept_ + of Ireland, is a modification of the patriarchal society: it is + the family of the chief, expanded during a succession of + generations, and forming a little aggregation of dependents, + still influenced by the same attachments, and subjected to the + same authority. But the feudal community was very different. + Allied at first to the clan, it was yet in many essential + particulars dissimilar. There did not exist between its members + the bond of relationship; they were not of the same blood; they + often did not speak the same language. The feudal lord belonged + to a foreign and conquering, his serfs to a domestic and + vanquished race. Their employments were as various as their + feelings and their traditions. The lord lived in his castle, with + his wife, his children, and relations: the serfs on the estate, + of a different race, of different names, toiled in the cottages + around. This difference was prodigious--it exercised a most + powerful effect on the domestic habits of modern Europe. It + engendered the attachments of home: it brought women into their + proper sphere in domestic life. The little society of freemen, + who lived in the midst of an alien race in the castle, were all + in all to each other. No forum or theatres were at hand, with + their cares or their pleasures; no city enjoyments were a + counterpoise to the pleasures of country life. War and the chase + broke in, it is true, grievously at times, upon this scene of + domestic peace. But war and the chase could not last for ever; + and, in the long intervals of undisturbed repose, family + attachments formed the chief solace of life. Thus it was that + WOMEN acquired their paramount influence--thence the manners of + chivalry, and the gallantry of modern times; they were but an + extension of the courtesy and habits of the castle. The word + _courtesy_ shows it--it was in the _court_ of the castle that the + habits it denotes were learned."--(_Lecture_ iv. 13, 17; + _Civilization Européenne._) + + +We have exhausted, perhaps exceeded, our limits; and we have only +extracted a few of the most striking ideas from the first hundred +pages of one of Guizot's works--_ex uno disce omnes_. The translation +of them has been an agreeable occupation for a few evenings; but they +awake one mournful impression--the voice which uttered so many noble +and enlightened sentiments is now silent; the genius which once cast +abroad light on the history of man, is lost in the vortex of present +politics. The philosopher, the historian, are merged in the +statesman--the instructor of all in the governor of one generation. +Great as have been his services, brilliant his course in the new +career into which he has been launched, it is as nothing compared to +that which he has left; for the one confers present distinction, the +other immortal fame. + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Little girl--or girl, merely. + +[2] Mr O'Connell stated in his speech, after "the liberation," that +that most unexpected and miraculous event had been publicly prayed for +in all the churches of Belgium. + +[3] Taken from Lewis's Statistics of the Four Reformed Parliaments. + +[4] The following account of the number of freeholders on the +register, in 1837, when the number was largest, and in 1841, taken +from Lewis's tables, will show an immense decrease in those counties +completely under the control of the priests and agitators, and where +their power is unassailable. + + 1837. 1841. + Clare, 3170 1785 + Cork, 4180 3706 + Galway county, 3074 1990 + Galway town, 2084 1600 + King's county, 1520 1078 + Limerick city, 2813 1670 + Limerick county, 2850 1893 + Mayo, 1569 1064 + Meath, 1850 1236 + Roscommon, 2077 1059 + Tipperary, 3460 2464 + Waterford, 1494 802 + Wexford, 3031 1739 + +All those counties and cities are, and always have been, represented +by Radicals and Repealers; so that it appears the Repeal party are +invariably best off where there are least freeholders, notwithstanding +their constant complaints of what they suffer by the domination of the +constituencies. + +[5] Qualifying under the "solvent tenant test," (which was generally +adopted by the Conservative barristers,) the claimant was obliged to +swear and to prove that "he could obtain from a good and solvent +tenant a clear yearly rent of ten pounds over and above what he paid +himself," while the freeholder, qualifying under "the beneficial +interest test," (which was acted on by the Whig and Radical +barristers,) had only to prove that the crops and produce raised on +his land by his own labour, yielded him a surplus of ten pounds over +and above the amount of his rent. + +[6] In England, the right to vote is given to tenants at will paying +£50 rent; it was proposed to grant it to those in Ireland who paid £30 +rent. + +[7] Two judges, who are _ex-officio_ members, may be Roman Catholics; +the numbers would then stand seven and six. + +[8] _Bailly's Memoirs._ + +[9] The Rev. Gregory Lynch of Westland Row, openly charges the +agitating bishops with having _forged_ the signature of many priests +to the protest which they have published against the Charitable +Bequests Bill. See his letter, an extract from which is published in +the Irish correspondence of _The Times_, 27th October. + +[10] Extract from the speech of the Rev. Mr Henebury, as reported in +the Irish correspondence of the _Times_ newspaper, July 3, 1844. + +[11] _Kohl's Ireland_. + +[12] The local newspaper. + +[13] Irish correspondent of the _Times_, Nov. 1, 1844. + +[14] _Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke_. Edited by +Earl Fitzwilliam and Sir Richard Bourke, K.C.B. 4 vols. 8vo. +Rivingtons, London. + +[15] _Nelson's Despatches and Letters, with Notes_. By Sir Harris +Nicolas. + +[16] Ferguson. + +[17] Gibbon. + +[18] _Ibid_. + +[19] Plin. _Hist. Nat._, xxxiii. 47. + +[20] Mr James's Preface to _Mary of Burgundy_. + + + + + +INDEX TO VOL. LVI. + + + Affghanistan, 133 + general review of the question regarding, 135 + motives for the expedition to, 136 + means for effecting the objects sought, 141 + comparison of the competitors for the throne, 142 + resistance to taxation in, 148 + causes of the British disasters in, 150, 151. + + Agitation the cause of the evils of Ireland, 709. + + Alison, Archibald, Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 390. + + Ancient canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, historical account + of the, 182. + + Artist's morning song, the, from Goethe, 419. + + Auckland, Lord, review of his Affghanistan policy, 133. + + Aytoun, W. E., Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 392. + + + Banking System, the Scottish, 671*. + + Barrett, Elizabeth B., review of the poems of, 621. + + Bell, H. G., Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 389. + + Blanc, M., his history of ten years reviewed, 265. + + Bossuet, character of, as a historian, 789. + + Braxfield, lord, letter relating to, 620. + + Brenn, the, a Gaulish chief, career of, 471. + + Bride of Corinth, the, from Goethe, 57. + + Bruce, heart of the, a ballad, 15. + + Burke, Edmund, review of the correspondence of, 745. + + Burns' festival, account of the, 370 + order of the procession, 373 + the banquet, 376 + speeches of Lord Eglinton, ib. + Professor Wilson, 378 + Sir John McNeill, 388 + H.G. Bell, Esq., 389 + Archibald Alison, Esq., 390 + W. E. Aytoun, Esq., 392 + Colonel Mure, 393 + Sir James Campbell, the Lord Justice-General, &c., 395 + stanzas for, by Delta, 399. + + + Cabul, the war with, 133. + + Campbell, Sir James, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 395. + + Canal between the Nile and Red Sea, historical account of the, 182. + + Castle on the mountain, the, from Goethe, 425. + + Catania, 33. + + Catharine of Russia, sketch of, 410. + + Causes of the increase of crime, on the, 1 + districts in which greatest, ib. + in the manufacturing districts, 6 + strikes, 8. + + Cavalier, the old Scottish, a ballad, 195. + + Clarkson, sonnet to, 619. + + Commitments for crime, tables of, 1, 2. + + Cours de Littérature Dramatique, review of, 237. + + Crime, causes of the increase of, 1 + in the manufacturing districts, 6 + increase of, by strikes, 8 + by infant labour, 9 + inefficiency of the proposed preventives of, 13. + + Cupid as a landscape painter, from Geothe, 417. + + + Delphi, defeat of the Gauls at, 472. + + Delta, stanzas for the Burns' festival by, 399 + the tombless man, a dream, by, 583. + + Doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, the, from Goethe, 67. + + Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36 + Part II., 49. + + Dost Mohammed, character of, 142. + + Dunning, anecdotes of, 249, 264. + + Dwarf's well, the, a legend of Upper Lusatia, 196. + + + Earthquake of Lisbon, the, 102. + + Education, effect of imperfect, in Ireland, 708. + + Eglinton, the Earl of, speeches of, at the Burns' festival, 376, 395, + 396. + + Eldon, Lord, sketch of the career of, + his early life, 245 + his first struggles, 249 + and first success, 251 + enters parliament, 253 + becomes solicitor-general, 257 + attorney-general, 259 + chief-justice of the Common Pleas, 262 + and lord chancellor, ib. + his subsequent career, 263. + + Emperor, week of an + an account of the visit of the Emperor Nicholas, 127. + + Erl king, the, from Goethe, 63. + + Etched thoughts by the Etching Club, review of, 153. + + Execution of Montrose, the, a ballad, 289. + + + Fairy tutor, the, a legend of Upper Lusatia, 83. + + Falkland islands, affair of the, 406. + + Finlay's Greece under the Romans, review of, 524. + + First love, from Goethe, 61. + + Fisher, the, from Goethe, 65. + + Fourier and his system, sketch of, 591. + + Frederick the Great, anecdotes of, 404, 409. + + French socialists, 588. + + + Galatia, Gaulish kingdom of, 478. + + Gauls, Thierry's history of, reviewed, 466. + + Gibbon, character of, as a historian, 788. + + Girardin, M., 237. + + God, the, and the Bayaderé, from Goethe, 421. + + Goethe, Poems and Ballads of, No. I. Introduction, 54 + the bride of Corinth, 57 + first love, 61 + who'll buy a Cupid? 62 + second life, ib. + the erl-king, 63 + Mignon, 64 + the fisher, 65 + the minstrel, ib. + the violet, 66 + the doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, 67 + No. II. Cupid as a landscape painter, 417 + the artist's morning song, 419 + the god and the bayaderé, 421 + the treasure-seeker, 423 + the castle on the mountain, 425 + Philine's song, 426 + to my mistress, 427 + the wild rose, ib. + a night thought, 428 + Prometheus, ib. + new love, new life, 429 + separation, 430 + the magician's apprentice, ib. + + Great Britain, increase of crime in, 1. + + Great country's little wars, a, review of, 133. + + Great drought, the, 433 + Chap. II., 436 + Chap. III., 438 + Chap. IV., 440 + Chap. V., 442 + Chap. VI., 452. + + Greece under the Romans, review of, 524. + + Grievances of Ireland, examination of the alleged, 701 + the true, 708. + + Guizot, M., review of the historical works of, 786. + + + Hardy, trial of, for high treason, 261. + + Harris, James, career of, 401. + + Heart of the Bruce, the, a ballad, 15. + + Hill, Mr Sergeant, anecdotes of, 247. + + Histoire des dix ans, review of, 265. + + Historical account of the ancient canal between the Nile and the Red + Sea, 182. + + Hope, the Right Hon. Charles, letter from, 620. + + Hume, character of, as a historian, 788. + + Hydro Bacchus, 77. + + + Increase of crime, causes of, 1 + districts in which greatest, ib. + + Infant labour, increase of crime attributable to, 9. + + Injured Ireland, 701. + + Introduction to his poems, from Goethe, 54. + + Ireland, increase of crime in, 1 + examination of the question as to the injuries of, 701 + its comparative freedom from taxation, 702 + its representation in parliament, 703 + municipal law, 706 + alleged debarring of Roman Catholics from office, 707 + true evils of, and their causes, 708. + + Irish state trials, reversal of the judgment, 539. + + It is no fiction, 364. + + + Jesuits, expulsion of the, from Portugal, 109 + extinction of the order, 112. + + Johnson, Dr, anecdotes of, 247, 257. + + + Knights, last of the + Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36 + Part II., 49. + + + Lamartine, review of the travels of, 657. + + Last of the knights, the + Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36 + Part II., 49. + + Lee, J., anecdotes of, 249, 255. + + Letter to the editor, from the Right Hon. Charles Hope, 620. + + Life in Louisiana, Chap. I., a Voyage on the Red River, 507 + Chap. II., Creole life, 514 + Chap. III., quite unexpected, 518. + + Lines on the landing, of Louis Philippe, by B. Simmons, 654. + + Lisbon, the great earthquake of, 102. + + Louis Philippe, elevation of, to the throne, 272 + lines on the landing of, by B. Simmons, 654. + + Louisiana, life in, Chap. I., 507 + Chap. II., 514 + Chap. III., 518. + + Love chase, in prose, a, Chap. I., 164 + Chap. II., 166 + Chap. III., 170 + Chap. IV., 173 + Chap. V., 178. + + Lunatic asylum of Palermo, the, 20. + + Lusatia, traditions and tales of, No. II., + the fairy tutor, 83 + No. III., the dwarf's well, 196 + No. IV., the moor maiden, 726. + + Lushington on the Affghan war, 133. + + Luther, an ode, 80. + + + Machiavel, character of, as a historian, 787. + + McNeill, Sir John, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 388. + + Magician's apprentice, the, from Goethe, 430. + + Maid of Orleans, remarks on the, 216. + + Malmesbury, life of the Earl of, reviewed, 401. + + Manufacturing districts, increase of crime in the, 2. + + Marston; or, Memoirs of a Statesman + Part XII., 114 + Part XIII., 343 + Part XIV., 601. + + Martin Luther, an ode, 80. + + Memoirs of a Statesman--_see_ Marston. + + Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, review of, 100. + + Memoranda of a month's tour in Sicily + the museum of Palermo, 20 + lunatic asylum, ib. + miscellanea, 21 + journey to Segeste, 23 + Sicilian inns, 24 + approach to Messina, 28 + journey to Taormina, 30 + Catania, 33 + + Messina, approach to, 28. + + Mignon, from Goethe, 64. + + Milkman of Walworth, the, Chap. I., 687 + Chap. II., 691 + Chap. III., 693 + Chap. IV., 696. + + Minstrel, the, from Goethe, 65. + + Montesquieu, character of, as a historian, 789. + + Montrose, execution of, a ballad, 289. + + Moor maiden, the, 726. + + Mure, Colonel, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 393. + + Museum of Palermo, the, 20. + + My college friends + No. I. John Brown, 569 + No. II., the same concluded, 763. + + My first love, a sketch in New York, 69. + + My last courtship; or, life in Louisiana + Chap. I. A voyage on the Red River, 507 + Chap. II., Creole life, 514 + Chap. III., quite unexpected, 518. + + + Natural history of man, Prichard's, review of, 312. + + Nelson's dispatches and letters, review of, 775. + + New love, new life, from Goethe, 429. + + Nicholas, the Emperor, visit of, to Great Britain, 127. + + Night on the banks of the Tennessee, a, 278. + + Night thought, a, from Goethe, 428. + + Nile and the Red Sea, the, historical account of the ancient canal + between, 182. + + North, Lord, anecdotes of, 255. + + + O'Connell case, the + Was the judgment rightly reversed? 539 + statement of the case, 541 + the indictment, 542 + verdict of the jury, 544 + the motion in arrest of judgment, 545 + the judgment, ib. + the writ of error, ib. + opinions of the judges, 548 + and of the peers, 553 + general remarks on the case, 561 + + Old Scottish cavalier, the, a ballad, by W. E. A., 195. + + Oporto wine company, origin of the, 106. + + + Palermo, sketches of, 20. + + Passages in the life of a Russian officer, 713. + + Patmore's poems, review of, 331. + + Philine's song, from Goethe, 426. + + Poems and ballads of Goethe, the + No. I. Introduction, 54 + the bride of Corinth, 57 + first love, 61 + who'll buy a Cupid, 62 + second life, ib. + the erl-king, 63 + Mignon, 64 + the fisher, 65 + the minstrel, ib. + the violet, 66 + the doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, 67 + No. II. Cupid as a landscape painter, 417 + the artist's morning song, 419 + the god and the bayaderé, 421 + the treasure-seeker, 423 + the castle on the mountain, 425 + Philine's song, 426 + to my mistress, 427 + the wild rose, ib. + a night thought, 428 + Prometheus, ib. + new love, new life, 429 + separation, 430 + the magician's apprentice, ib. + + Poetry: + The heart of the Bruce, 15 + poems and ballads of Goethe, No. I., 54 + Hydro Bacchus, 77 + Martin Luther, an ode, 80 + the old Scottish cavalier, 195 + the execution of Montrose 289 + stanzas for the Burns' festival, by Delta, 399 + poems and ballads of Goethe, No. II., 417 + the tombless man, by Delta, 583 + sonnet to Clarkson, 619 + Westminster hall and the works of art, by B. Simmons, 652 + lines on the landing of Louis Philippe, by the same, 654 + "That's what we are," 741. + + Poland, the partition of, 405, 407. + + Pombal, Marquis of, sketch of the career of, 100. + + Portugal, history of, during the administration of the Marquis of + Pombal, 100. + + Prichard's natural history of man, review of, 312. + + Prometheus, from Goethe, 428. + + Ptolemy, completion of the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea by, + 185. + + + Radzivil, Prince, sketch of, 406. + + Red Sea and the Nile, history of the ancient canal between, 182. + + Remarks on Schiller's maid of Orleans, 216. + + Reviews: + Smith's memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, 100 + Lushington's a great country's little wars, 133 + Etched thoughts by the Etching Club, 153 + M. Girardin's cours de littérature dramatique, 237 + Twiss's memoirs of the Earl of Eldon, 245 + Blanc's histoire de dix ans, 265 + Prichard's natural history of man, 312 + Poems by Coventry Patmore, 331 + Life of Lord Malmesbury, 401 + Thierry's history of the Gauls, 466 + Finlay's Greece under the Romans, 524 + Reybaud on French socialism, 588 + Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett, 621 + Lamartine's travels, 657 + Burke's correspondence, 745 + Neson's despatches and letters, 775 + Guizot, 786. + + Reybaud on French socialism, review of, 588. + + Robertson, character of, as a historian, 790. + + Russian officer, passages in the life of a, 713. + + + St Simon, sketch of, 273. + + Schiller's maid of Orleans, remarks on, 216. + + Scotland, increase of crime in, 1. + + Scott, Sir John _see_ Eldon. + + Scott, Sir William, sketches of, 246, 254. + + Scottish banking system, the, 671*. + + Scottish cavalier, the, a ballad, 195. + + Scottish peasantry, character of the, 370. + + Second life, from Goethe, 62. + + Segeste, journey to, 23. + + Separation, from Goethe, 430. + + Shah Soojah, character of, 143. + + Sicilian inns, 24. + + Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in + the museum of Palermo, 20 + the lunatic asylum, ib. + miscellanea, 21 + journey to Segeste, 23 + Sicilian inns, 24 + approach to Messina, 28 + journey to Taormina, 30 + Catania, 33. + + Simmons, B., Westminster hall and the works of art by, 652 + lines on the landing of Louis Philippe by, 654. + + Sismondi, character of, as a historian, 792. + + Sketch in New York, a My first love, 69. + + Smith's memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, review of, 100. + + Socialism in France, history of, 588. + + Some remarks on Schiller's maid of Orleans, 216. + + Sonnet to Clarkson, 619. + + Stanzas for the Burns' festival, by Delta, 299. + + Stolen child, the, a true tale of the Backwoods, 227. + + Stowell, Lord, sketches of, 246, 254. + + Strikes as a cause of the increase of crime, 8. + + + Taormina, journey to, 30. + + Taxation, resistance to, in Affghanistan, 149 + comparative lightness of in Ireland, 702. + + Tender conscience, a, 454. + + Tennessee, a night on the banks of the, 278. + + "That's what we are," a poem, 741. + + Thierry's history of the Gauls, review of, 466. + + Thurlow, Lord, anecdotes of, 258, 259, 263. + + To my mistress, from Goethe, 427. + + Tombless man, the, a dream, by Delta, 583. + + Traditions and tales of Upper Lusatia, No. II., the fairy tutor, 83 + No. III., the dwarf's well, 196 + No. IV., the moor maiden, 726. + + Treasure seeker, the, from Goethe, 423. + + Twiss's life of Lord Eldon, review of, 245. + + + Up stream; or steam-boat reminiscences, 64. + + + Violet, the, from Goethe, 66. + + Voltaire, character of, as a historian, 787. + + + W. E. A., Heart of the Bruce by, 15 + the old Scottish cavalier by, 195 + the execution of Montrose, by, 289. + + Walworth, the milkman of, 687. + + Week of an emperor, the, 127. + + Westminster hall and the works of art on a free admission day, by B. + Simmons, 652. + + Who'll buy a Cupid, from Goethe, 62. + + Wild rose, the, from Goethe, 427. + + Wilson, Professor, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 378. + + Witchfinder, the Part I., 297 + conclusion, 487. + + Writ of error, proceedings on the, 545. + + + + +END OF VOL. LVI. + + +_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work_. + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Passages in italics are indicated by underscore _italics_. + + The following misprints have been corrected: + "corresspondence" corrected to "correspondence" (page 755) + "headach" corrected to "headache" (page 768) + "subsisttence" corrected to "subsistence" (page 798) + + The original text included Greek charcters. For this text version these + letters have been replaced with *Greek* transliterations. + + Additional spacing after some of the block quotes is intentional to + indicate both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new + paragraph as presented in the original text. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +56, Number 350, December 1844, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 29423-8.txt or 29423-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/2/29423/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Stephanie Eason, Jonathan +Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: + + http://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/29423-8.zip b/29423-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ff7f74 --- /dev/null +++ b/29423-8.zip diff --git a/29423-h.zip b/29423-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..728ea03 --- /dev/null +++ b/29423-h.zip diff --git a/29423-h/29423-h.htm b/29423-h/29423-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59c40ab --- /dev/null +++ b/29423-h/29423-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11141 @@ +<!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 Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (Vol. LVI, No. CCCL), by Various Authors. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + 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 */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .right {float: right; text-align: right;} + .rightbl {float: right; text-align: right; margin-right: 10%;} + + .spacer {padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + div.right {text-align: right;} + + ins.correction { + text-decoration:none; /* replace default underline.. */ + border-bottom: thin solid gray; /* ..with delicate gray line */ + } + + div.poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, +Number 350, December 1844, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 16, 2009 [EBook #29423] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Stephanie Eason, Jonathan +Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1> +<h1>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">No</span>. CCCL. <span class="spacer"> </span>DECEMBER, + 1844.<span class="spacer"> </span> <span class="smcap">Vol</span>. LVI.</h2> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">The Scottish Banking System,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_671">671</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">The Milkman of Walworth,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_687">687</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Injured Ireland,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_701">701</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Singular Passages in the Life of a Russian Officer,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_713">713</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Traditions and Tales of Upper Lusatia. No IV. The Moor Maiden,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_726">726</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">"That's What We Are,"</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_741">741</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Edmund Burke,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_745">745</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">My College Friends. No. II. John Brown,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_763">763</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Nelson's Despatches and Letters,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_775">775</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Guizot,</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_786">786</a></td></tr> +<tr> +<td>[<a href="#footnotes">Footnotes</a>]</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>[<a href="#INDEX">Index</a>]</td></tr></table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>EDINBURGH:</h3> +<h3>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;</h3> +<h3>AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.</h3> +<h4><i>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed</i>.</h4> +<p> </p> +<h4>SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.</h4> +<h4>PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.</h4> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_671" id="Page_671">[Pg 671]</a></span></p> +<h2>BLACKWOOD'S</h2> +<h2>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h2> +<p> </p> +<h2><span class="smcap">No</span>. CCCL.<span class="spacer"> </span> DECEMBER, 1844.<span class="spacer"> </span> <span class="smcap">Vol</span>. LVI.</h2> +<p> </p> + +<h2><a name="SCOTTISH_BANKING" id="SCOTTISH_BANKING"></a>THE SCOTTISH BANKING SYSTEM.</h2> + + +<p>When any important branch of national polity has been impeached, +arraigned, and brought to stand its trial before the bar of public +opinion, it is satisfactory to know that the subject has been +thoroughly investigated, since a searching investigation alone can +excuse a verdict, be it of acquittal or of condemnation. That no man +can be twice tried upon the same indictment, is a proud boast of the +British constitution. It would be well if the same rule were always +applied when mightier interests than those of individuals are at +stake!</p> + +<p>It is just eighteen years ago since a ministry, feeble in practice, +but strong in speculative theory, ventured to put forth its hand +against the monetary system of Scotland, under shelter of which the +country had improved and thriven to a degree of prosperity never +experienced to the north of the Tweed before, and at a ratio which far +exceeded that of any other nation in Europe. In the short space of +half a century, the whole face of the country had changed. From a +bleak, barren, and dilapidated region—for such she undoubtedly was +for many years subsequent to the last rebellion of 1745—Scotland +became, with the shortest possible transition, a favourite land of +husbandry. Mosses and muirs, which, at all events since the forgotten +days of the Jameses, had borne no other crop than rugged bent or +stubborn heather, were subjected to the discipline of the plough, and +produced a golden harvest of grain. Woods sprang up as if by magic, +from the roots of the old Caledonian forest, to hide the nakedness of +the land and redeem the national reproach. The towns and +boroughs—which had never recovered from the terrible blow inflicted +upon them by the failure of the Darien scheme, in which nearly the +whole capital of Scotland was embarked, and which had lost the greater +and more valuable portion of their trade, and dwindled down into +almost hopeless insignificancy—began to revive again. New +manufactures were established, the older ones were extended; the +fisheries rose immensely in magnitude and importance; the mountainous +districts were made profitable by the breeding and export of sheep and +cattle; and even the rugged shores of the Hebrides furnished for a +time a most profitable article of commerce. All this took place in a +poor and very neglected country. England for a long time knew little +of what as going on in the north; perhaps her eyes were then riveted, +with more than the anxiety of a gamester's, upon the great stakes for +which she was contending on the red battle-fields of Europe. This much +she knew, that Scotland could produce in time of need—ay, and did +produce—levies of men, whose high heroic courage, steady discipline, +and daring intrepidity, were the theme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_672" id="Page_672">[Pg 672]</a></span> even of their enemies' +admiration; and of these services she was, and is, justly and +generously proud. But of the social condition of their northern +neighbours, we repeat, the body of the English, at this period, were +singularly ignorant. We had not very long before suffered the penalty +of adherence to a fallen cause. We were considered to be still rather +too irritable and dangerous for much interference; perhaps, also, it +was thought that it might be <i>cheaper</i> to leave us to ourselves—and, +so long as we paid our proportion of the common taxation, not to +enquire too curiously into our own domestic system of management. In +all respects, therefore, notwithstanding the war, we flourished.</p> + +<p>Peace came; and with peace, as a matter of course, a more searching +investigation into the internal state of the country. Then, for the +first time, Scotland became a sort of marvel. Our agriculture, our +commerce, our internal resources, so strangely and quickly augmented, +attracted the attention of the politician; and the question was +speedily mooted—"How, and by what means, have so poor a nation as the +Scotch attained so singular a position?" And truly the facts were +startling, and such as might justify an enquiry. <i>The whole coined +money in Scotland, at the date of the Union, was known not to have +exceeded the sum of</i> <span class="smcap">one million sterling</span>; and a large part of this +paltry sum was necessarily hoarded, and so withdrawn from circulation, +throughout the whole period of the intestine troubles. That single +million, therefore, held the place both of that part of the wealth of +the country which is now represented by bank-notes, and also of that +which is now deposited in the hands of the bankers. Aladdin's palace, +which sprang up in one night at the bidding of the slaves of the lamp, +could scarcely have been a greater paradox to the aged Sultan, than +this increase of prosperity on the part of Scotland was to our +southern legislators. How to explain the metamorphosis seemed for a +time a mystery. One thing, at all events, was clear—that English gold +had no participation in the change. North of the Tweed, a guinea was a +suspected article, apt to be rung, and examined, and curiously +weighed, before it was received in currency, and even then accepted +with a certain reluctance. The favourite medium of circulation was +paper-notes of one pound each, of somewhat dubious complexion to the +eye of the stranger, but received and circulated by the Scottish +people with the utmost readiness and confidence. The answer to the +question was a short one—"We have prospered through <span class="smcap">our banking system</span>."</p> + +<p>It was some time—not until ten years of peace had elapsed—before any +open attack was made upon that system, which had proved, if facts can +prove any thing, the greatest imaginable boon to the nation; and +which, be it always specially remembered, did not originate with the +state, but with private individuals—upright, honourable, and +patriotic men—who better deserve a monument to their memories, were +that required, than the most successful conqueror whose march is on +humbled thrones. During that period much was done with regard to +internal relations, of which we, in common with every Scotsman who +retains one spark of patriotic feeling, most heartily disapprove. The +tendency towards centralization in London—the inevitable consequence +of the Union treaty—was not only not counteracted, as we maintain it +ought to have been, by a wise and paternal government, but forced and +hurried on by an excessive exercise of power. Every remnant of our +ancient institutions that could be rooted up, and all our local boards +with hardly one exception, were transferred to the seat of +government—regardless of the drain that was thereby made from the +proper resources of the country, and the deep heart-burnings that such +a system must necessarily create amongst a proud, observant, and +jealous, though enduring people. These things we shall not dilate +upon—though the temptation is triply strong, and we know how keenly +that subject is felt by many of the best and most loyal of the +land;—but in the mean time we shall pass over this period of gradual +humiliation, and come at once to the first great attack that was made +upon the source of all our national prosperity.</p> + +<p>At the close of the year 1825, there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_671b" id="Page_671b">[Pg *671]</a></span> arrived a period of public +distress, followed by a panic which fortunately has but rarely been +felt in this country. We attributed it then, and we attribute it now, +to an unexampled glut in the money market, which we hold to be in this +trading country the most destructive of any, saving and excepting a +glut in agricultural produce and labour; and for this very plain +reason, that a glut of money resolves itself sooner or later into a +glut of goods, thereby carrying the amount of production in the +country far beyond the amount of the consumption and demand, and so +necessarily for a time closing the door against all the outlets of +industry. But it is of very little consequence to our present purpose +how that distress was created. The effects were very grievous. In +England the panic took effect, and a run was made upon the banks for +gold; the consequence of which was, that a number of the private and +joint-stock establishments failed. In Scotland, where the distress was +certainly not less in proportion, there was not only no failure on the +part of the banks, but no run, and no diminution in the usual credits. +At this time, it is very proper to remark, that England had been +thoroughly centralized; that is, that the whole course and tendency of +its money market was to London; and indeed, for purposes of trade, the +principal circulation of the important districts of Lancashire and +others, seems to have been bills of exchange payable in London, with +from twenty to fifty endorsements on each. With us such a system was +unknown. Scotland, then as now, and we devoutly trust for ever, had +her own internal circulation, and neither took nor gave, except when +statutorily compelled, beyond the limits of her own jurisdiction.</p> + +<p>The attention of the ministry was immediately directed to an +investigation of the cause of the general distress. This was right and +proper, and precisely what a cautious and well-meaning government +ought to do under such circumstances, in order to prevent, if +possible, the recurrence of a similar disaster. But unfortunately the +ministers of the day, though well-meaning, were any thing but +cautious. The majority of them were imbued with speculative notions of +political economy. They were disciples of a school which rejects facts +and cleaves implicitly to theory—men who threw considerations of +circumstance, time, and national characteristics aside, as prejudices +too low for even the momentary regard of a philosopher; in short, they +wished to introduce the standard of an untried rule as the <i>ne plus +ultra</i> of human sagacity, and remorselessly to overturn every existing +institution—no matter at what sacrifice or risk—if it only seemed to +stand in the way of the operation of their darling theories.</p> + +<p>It was easy for men so tutored and trained, to overlook the necessary +effect which fluctuation of the seasons at home and abroad must have +upon the prices of either produce, of the effect of these prices upon +manufactures, and the manifest and established fact that there is a +point when <i>production</i> will exceed <i>consumption</i>. This state of +things it is totally beyond the power of man to remedy. The facts of +nature will always be found too strong for the theories of the +political economist; but our rulers in the plenitude of their wisdom +thought otherwise; and began to search within the social system for a +cause of that disorder, which was neither more nor less than an +epidemic, as totally beyond the reach of their prevention as if the +College of Physicians were to issue their solemn fiat—"This year +there shall be neither cholera nor fever." In searching for the cause, +however, they stumbled upon an effect which they at once adroitly +magnified into a cause. In England there had been a marked increase +during the rise in the issue of the country banks. Here was an +opportune discovery for the champions of metallic currency! and, +accordingly, the paper system was prostrated in England to make way +for its more glittering, often more slippery, and always more +expensive rival.</p> + +<p>Scotland, in the mean time, was going on in her old and steady +footing. One and all of the banks—chartered, joint-stock, and +private—were as firm as if each had been backed by the whole weight +and responsibility of the state. Between them and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_672b" id="Page_672b">[Pg *672]</a></span> public the most +perfect confidence subsisted; and very nobly indeed, in that time of +trial and distress, did the banks behave, in maintaining credits +grievously depressed for the moment, but certain to revive with the +return of general prosperity. This mutual confidence is the great +secret of the success of the Scottish system. The banker is to the +trader as a commercial physician—sometimes restrictive, sometimes +liberal, but always a judicious friend. It is impossible to separate +the interests of the two; and as they have risen together, so, in the +event of a change, must they both equally decline. But we will not +anticipate our defence, before we have adduced the facts upon which +that defence is founded.</p> + +<p>All at once, and without sounding any note of preparation, the +ministry announced, that after the expiry of a given season, the whole +Scottish banking system was to be changed, all paper currency under +the five-pound note abolished, and a metallic circulation introduced +and enforced. If Ben Nevis had burst forth at once in the full thunder +of volcanic eruption, we could not have been more astonished. What! +without complaint or enquiry—without the shadow of a cause shown, or +a reason assigned, except it might be that reason—to a Scotsman the +most unpalatable of all—the propriety of assimilating the +institutions of both countries; in other words, of coercing Scotland +to adopt the habit of her neighbours—to excavate the foundation-stone +of our whole prosperity, and make us the victims of a theory which, +even if sound, could not profess to give us one tittle more advantage +than the course which we had so long pursued! We believe that if the +annals of legislation were searched through, we could not find a +parallel case of such wanton and unprovoked temerity!</p> + +<p>We said then, and we say now, with even more emphatic earnestness, it +is the curse of the age that every thing is to be managed by political +economy and philosophy, and that local knowledge is to be utterly +disregarded in the management of local interests. <span class="smcap">Centralize</span> and +<span class="smcap">assimilate</span>—these were the watchwords of the ministers of that day; +and for aught that we can see, Sir Robert Peel is determined to +persevere in the theory. What excuse was there, <i>then</i>, for the +attempt of any assimilation between the banking systems of the two +countries? If it had been alleged that the Scotch paper currency was +surreptitiously carried into England—that it was there supplanting +the legal currency, and absorbing the gold in exchange, there might +have been some show of reason for a slight modification of the +system—at all events for a more stringent preventive check. But no +such allegation was made. The most determined hater of the Scottish +banks knew well that their paper never crossed the Border; for the +very best of all possible reasons, that the notes were not a legal +tender, and that five persons out of six to whom they might happen to +be offered, would unhesitatingly reject them. Again, to absorb the +gold would have been neither more nor less than partially to carry out +the views entertained by the supporters of a metallic currency, and +therefore surely, in their eyes, a venal, if not a meritorious, +offence. But such was not the fact. In Scotland there was no such a +thing known as a gold circulation. The fishermen, the cattle dealers, +and the small traders, would not so much as take it; and the stranger +who, through ignorance, had provided himself with a stock of the +precious metal, was forced to have recourse to a Scottish bank in +order to have it exchanged for notes. Beyond what lay in the bank +reserves, there was literally none in the country; and therefore any +idea of the interference of the currencies was too preposterous to be +maintained.</p> + +<p>But it is not here, or at this point, that we intend to discuss the +propriety of the measure which was then proposed. Unfortunately, we +are called upon to do so with reference to our own times, as well as +to those which are now matter of history; and the remarks which we +shall have occasion to offer are equally applicable to the one as to +the other. In the mean time, let us see how the mere alarm engendered +by that unlucky proposition affected Scotland, and what steps were +taken to resist the threatened change.</p> + +<p>First of all, we have it in evidence that the open threat of the +ministerial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_673" id="Page_673">[Pg 673]</a></span> scheme produced within the country more actual distress +and bankruptcies than had previously occurred during the period of the +previous depression. This may seem a paradox to a stranger; but the +reason will be readily understood, and the fact candidly admitted by +every one who is conversant with the Scottish system of banking. A +short explanation may be necessary. One large department of the +business of every bank was the granting of <span class="smcap">cash-credits</span>; a method of +accommodation to the public which the experience of <i>ninety-four +years</i> (cash-credits were granted by the Royal Bank of Scotland so +early as 1729) had shown not only to be the safest to the bank, but by +far the most advantageous to the public. Indeed it is not too much to +say, that were those credits prohibited, and no other alteration made +in the existing system, the mainspring of the machinery of Scottish +banking would be broken, and its general utility impaired. With that +point we shall deal more fully when we come to the consideration of +the system in detail; at present it is only necessary to remark, that +these credits had been maintained unimpaired during the period of +depression, and were the fortunate means of averting ruin from many.</p> + +<p>But the attitude which the ministry assumed was so formidable, and the +prospect of a sweeping change so alarming, that the bankers were +forced in self-defence, though sorely against their will, to make +preparation for the worst contingencies. They were, so to speak, +compelled to follow the example of England in 1745—to recall all +their outlying forces from abroad, concentrate them at home, and leave +their allies to fight their own battles as they best could, and to +conquer or fall according to their ability or weakness. Their first +step was rigidly to refuse the granting of any new cash-credits; their +second, to withdraw—with as much tenderness as might be, but still to +withdraw—those which were already in existence. It was then that the +country at large began to feel how terribly their interests were +compromised. The trader, who was driving an active business on the +strength of his cash-credit, and turning over the amount of his +bank-account it may be thirty times in the course of the year, found +himself suddenly brought to a stand-still. The country gentleman, in +the midst of his agricultural improvements, and at the very moment +when their cessation would undo all that he had hitherto accomplished, +was compelled either to desist for want of ready money, and throw his +labourers on the parish, or to have recourse to the pernicious system +of discounting bills at a ruinous rate of interest. The manufacturer, +in despair, was reduced to close his works, and the operatives went +forth to combine, or starve, or burn; for the hand of the ministry was +upon them likewise, and their burden was sorer than their masters'.</p> + +<p>These were the first fruits of the proposed metallic currency; and it +soon became evident to all, that nothing was left for Scotland, if she +wished to escape from universal ruin, but to offer a firm and most +determined resistance. The struggle was felt throughout the length and +breadth of the land to be one, which, if it did not actually involve +existence, involved a greater commercial interest than had been at +stake for more than a century before. The combination which took place +in consequence was so extraordinary, that we may be pardoned if we +express our wonder how any minister who witnessed it, can at this hour +have the temerity to return to the charge. Party-spirit, always higher +and keener in Scotland than elsewhere, was at once forgotten in the +common cause. All ranks, from the peer to the peasant, rose up in +wrath at the proposed innovation; and from every county, city, town, +village, and corporation in the kingdom, indignant remonstrances were +forwarded to the foot of the Throne, and to the Imperial Parliament of +Great Britain. It was assuredly a dangerous experiment to make with a +proud and jealous people. Old watchwords and old recollections, buried +spells which it were safer to leave alone, began to revive amongst us; +and many a lighter act of aggression, which had been passed over at +the moment in silence, was then recalled and canvassed, and magnified +into a serious grievance. In short,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_674" id="Page_674">[Pg 674]</a></span> Scotland, from the bottom of her +heart, felt herself most deeply insulted.</p> + +<p>It was at this time that the celebrated letters of Malachi +Malagrowther appeared. To the general sentiments contained in that +work, we subscribe without the slightest hesitation. Strong language +is usually to be deprecated, but there are seasons when no language +can be too strong. We think meanly of the man who can sit down to +round his periods, and prune his language, and reduce his feelings to +the level of cold mediocrity, when he knows that the best interests of +his country are at stake, and that he is her chosen champion. And +such, most assuredly, and beyond all comparison, was Sir Walter Scott. +He went into that conflict like a giant, in a manner that disdained +conventionalisms; he neither begged, nor prayed, nor conceded, but +took his firm ground on the chartered liberties of his country, and +spoke out in such manly and patriotic accents as Scotland has rarely +heard since the days of Fletcher and Belhaven. All honour be to his +memory! Were it for that good work alone, his name ought for ever to +be immortal.</p> + +<p>In consequence, ministry were condescending enough to allow a +Parliamentary enquiry. Even that was not granted readily, as the +prevailing impression in the cabinet seemed to be, that Scottish +affairs were of too slight importance to occupy the time of the +Imperial Parliament. The old country might be dealt with summarily, +and left to remonstrate at its leisure. But the spirited resistance of +our representatives, and it is no less incumbent upon us to add, that +innate sense of justice in Englishmen, which will not suffer any one +to be condemned unheard, procured us the investigation, upon the issue +of which we were willing to rest our cause. The Scottish banking +system underwent the severest of all scrutinies before committees of +the Houses of Peers and of the Commons; and the following was the +nature of the reports.</p> + +<p>The committee of the House of Commons, after recapitulating the +leading points which were brought out in evidence before them, came to +the following conclusions—which it is very important to bring before +the public now, as they refer not only to the deductions which the +committee had formed from the history of the past, but to the special +reasons which were to influence the legislature in future and +prospective change.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Upon a review of the evidence tendered to your committee, and +forming their judgment upon that evidence, your committee <i>cannot +advise</i> that a law should now be passed, prohibiting, from a +period to be therein determined, the future issue in Scotland of +notes below five pounds:—</p> + +<p>"There are, in the opinion of your committee, sufficient grounds +in the experience of the past for permitting another trial to be +made of the compatibility of a paper circulation in Scotland with +a circulation of specie in this country.</p> + +<p>"Looking at the amount of notes current in Scotland, below the +value of five pounds, and comparing it with the total amount of +the paper currency of that country, <i>it is very difficult to +foresee the consequences of a law which should prohibit the +future issue of notes constituting so large a proportion of the +whole circulation</i>.</p> + +<p>"Your committee are certainly not convinced that it would affect +the cash-credits to the extent apprehended by some of the +witnesses; but they are unwilling, without stronger proof of +necessity, to incur the risk of deranging, from any cause +whatever, <span class="smcap">a system admirably calculated</span>, in their opinion, to +economize the use of capital, to excite and cherish a spirit of +useful enterprise, and even to promote the moral habits of the +people, by the direct inducements which it holds out to the +maintenance of a character for industry, integrity, and prudence.</p> + +<p>"At the same time that your committee recommend that the system +of currency which has for so long a period prevailed in Scotland, +should not, under existing circumstances, be disturbed, they feel +it to be their duty to add, that they have formed their judgment +upon a reference to the past, and upon the review of a state of +things which may hereafter be considerably varied by the +increasing wealth and commerce of Scotland, by the rapid +extension of her commercial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_675" id="Page_675">[Pg 675]</a></span> intercourse with England, and by the +new circumstances that may affect that intercourse after the +re-establishment of a metallic currency in this country.</p> + +<p>"Apart from these general observations, bearing upon the +conclusions at which they have arrived, there are two +circumstances to which your committee must more particularly +advert.</p> + +<p>"It is evident that if the small notes issued in Scotland should +be current beyond the Border, they would have the effect, in +proportion as their circulation should extend itself, of +displacing the specie, and even in some degree the local currency +of England. Such an interference with the system established for +England would be a manifest and gross injustice to the bankers of +this part of the empire. If it should take place, and it should +be found impossible to frame a law consistent with sound and just +principles of legislation, effectually restricting the +circulation of Scotch notes within the limits of Scotland, there +will be, in the opinion of your committee, no alternative but the +extension to Scotland of the principle which the legislature has +determined to apply to this country.</p> + +<p>"The other circumstances to which your committee meant to refer, +as bearing materially upon their present decision, will arise in +the event of a considerable increase in the crime of forgery. +Your committee called for returns of the number of prosecutions +and convictions for forgery, and the offence of passing forged +notes, during the last twenty years in Scotland, which returns +will be found in the appendix. There appears to have been, during +that period, no prosecutions for the crime of forgery; to have +been eighty-six prosecutions for the offence of issuing forged +promissory notes—fifty-two convictions; and eight instances in +which the capital sentence of the law has been carried into +effect."</p></div> + +<p>This may, on the whole, be considered as an impartial report; and, as +it is as well in every case to disencumber a question from +specialties, we shall state here that experience has since shown that +there has been no tendency whatever to the introduction of Scottish +notes into England. With regard to the other special point referred to +by the committee—that of forgery—such a thing as a forged bank-note +is now unknown in Scotland. The evidence taken before the last +committee on banks of issue in 1841, established the fact, that since +the improved steel plates were brought into general use, there has +never been a forgery of a note. Such being the case, it is unnecessary +here to dispute the wisdom of that policy which would leave a great +national institution at the mercy of a single forger. The experience +of this last month alone might show how wretchedly that test would +operate if applied even to the Bank of England.</p> + +<p>Setting these specialties aside, the only possibly grounds which this +committee saw for any future legislative interference were, "the +increasing wealth and commerce of Scotland, the rapid extension of her +commercial intercourse with England, and the circumstances which may +affect that intercourse after the re-establishment of an English +metallic currency." To us the first part of this reservation sounds +somewhat like a threat of future bleeding when Scotland shall have +become more pursy and plethoric. Nevertheless we are ready to join +issue with our opponents on any of these grounds.</p> + +<p>The report of the Lords was even more favourable; and, at the risk of +being thought tedious, we cannot refrain from inserting their +admirable digest of the evidence, which, for candour and clearness, +might be taken as a universal model.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"With respect to Scotland, it is to be remarked, that during the +period from 1766 to 1797, when no small notes were by law +issuable in England, the portion of the currency in Scotland in +which payments under five pounds were made, continued to consist +almost entirely of notes of £1 and £1, 1s.; and that no +inconvenience is known to have resulted from this difference in +the currency of the two countries. This circumstance, amongst +others, tends to prove that uniformity, however desirable, is not +indispensably necessary. It is also proved, by the evidence and +by the documents, that the banks of Scotland, whether chartered +or joint-stock companies or pri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_676" id="Page_676">[Pg 676]</a></span>vate establishments, <i>have for +more than a century exhibited a stability which the committee +believe to be</i> <span class="smcap">unexampled in the history of banking</span>; that they +supported themselves from 1797 to 1812 without any protection +from the restriction by which the Bank of England and that of +Ireland were relieved from cash payments; that there was little +demand for gold during the late embarrassments in the +circulation; and that, <i>in the whole period of their +establishment</i>, there are not more than two or three instances of +bankruptcy. As, during the whole of this period, a large portion +of their issues consisted almost entirely of notes not exceeding +£1 or £1, 1s., there is the strongest reason for concluding, +that, as far as respects the banks of Scotland, the issue of +paper of that description <i>has been found compatible with the</i> +<span class="smcap">highest degree</span> <i>of solidity</i>; and that there is not, therefore, +while they are conducted upon their present system, sufficient +ground for proposing any alteration, with the view of adding to a +solidity which has been so long sufficiently established.</p> + +<p>"This solidity appears to derive a great support from the +constant exchange of notes between the different banks, by which +they become checks upon each other, and by which any over-issue +is subject to immediate observation and correction.</p> + +<p>"There is also one part of the system, which is stated by all the +witnesses (in the opinion of the committee very justly stated) to +have had the best effects upon the people of Scotland, and +particularly upon the middling and poorer classes of society, in +producing and encouraging habits of frugality and industry. <i>The +practice referred to is that of</i> <span class="smcap">cash-credits</span>. Any person who +applies to a bank for a cash-credit is called upon to produce two +or more competent securities, who are jointly bound, and after a +full enquiry into the character of the applicant, the nature of +his business, and the sufficiency of his securities, he is +allowed to open a credit, and to draw upon the bank for the whole +of its amount, or for such part as his daily transactions may +require. To the credit of this account he pays in such sums as he +may not have occasion to use, and interest is charged or credited +upon the daily balance, as the case may be. From the facility +which these cash-credits give to all the small transactions of +the country, and from the opportunities which they afford to +persons who begin business with little or no capital but their +character, to employ profitably the minutest products of their +industry, it cannot be doubted that the most important advantages +are derived to the whole community. The advantage to the banks +who give those cash-credits arises from the call which they +continually produce for the issue of their paper, and from the +opportunity which they afford for the profitable employment of +part of their deposits. The banks are indeed so sensible that, in +order to make this part of their business advantageous and +secure, it is necessary that their cash-credits should (as they +express it) be frequently operated upon, that they refuse to +continue them unless this implied condition be fulfilled. The +total amount of their cash-credits is stated by one witness to be +five millions, on which the average amount advanced by the banks +may be one-third.</p> + +<p>"The manner in which the practice of deposits on receipt is +conducted tends to produce the same desirable results. Sums to as +low an amount as £10 (and in some instances lower) are taken by +the banks from the depositor, who may claim them at demand. He +receives an interest, usually about one per cent below the market +rate. It is stated that these deposits are, to a great extent, +left uncalled for from year to year, and that the depositors are +in the habit of adding, at the end of each year, to the interest +then accrued, the amount of their yearly savings; that the sums +thus gradually accumulated belong chiefly to the labouring and +industrious classes of the community; and that, when such +accounts are closed, it is generally for the purpose of enabling +the depositors either to purchase a house or to engage in +business.</p> + +<p>"It is contended by all the persons engaged in banking in +Scotland, that the issue of one-pound notes is essential to the +continuance both of their cash-credits and of the branch banks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_677" id="Page_677">[Pg 677]</a></span> +established in the poorest and most remote districts. Whether the +discontinuance of one-pound notes would necessarily operate to +the full extent which they apprehend, in either of these +respects, may perhaps admit of doubt; but the apprehensions +entertained on this head, by the persons most immediately +concerned, might, for a time at least, have nearly the same +effect as the actual necessity; <i>and there is strong reason to +believe, that if the prohibition of one-pound notes should not +ultimately overturn the whole system, it must for a considerable +time materially affect it</i>.</p> + +<p>"The directors of the Bank of England, who have been examined +before the committee, have given it as their opinion, that a +circulation of notes of £1 in Scotland or in Ireland would not +produce any effects injurious to the metallic circulation of +England, provided such notes be respectively confined within the +boundary of their own country.</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding the opinions which have been here detailed, the +committee are, on the whole, so deeply impressed with the +importance of a metallic circulation below £5 in England, not +only for the benefit of England, but likewise for that of all the +other parts of the empire, that if they were reduced to make an +option between the establishment of such a metallic circulation +in Scotland, or the abandonment of it in England, they would +recommend the prohibition of small notes in Scotland. But they +entertain a reasonable expectation, that legislative measures may +be devised which will be effectual in preventing the introduction +of Scotch paper into England; and unless such measures should in +practice prove ineffectual, or <i>unless some new circumstance +should arise</i> to derange the operations of the existing system in +Scotland itself, or materially to affect the relations of trade +and intercourse between Scotland and England, they are not +disposed to recommend that the existing system of banking and +currency in Scotland should be disturbed."</p></div> + +<p>This is just what a Parliamentary report ought to be—calm, +perspicuous, and decided. There is no circumlocution nor ambiguity of +expression here. After a patient investigation into the whole +question, and a minute examination of enemies as well as friends, the +Lords arrived at the opinion, that the existing banking system of +Scotland ought on all points to be maintained, and they not only +stated their general conviction, but gave their reasons for upholding +each part in detail, in the luminous manner which has always been the +characteristic of that august Assembly, and which has established its +proud reputation as not only the noblest, but the most upright +tribunal of the world. It is worthy of the most marked attention, that +the committee of the Lords in this report, which afterwards received +the sanction of the House, advocated no temporary continuance of the +banking system in Scotland, but were clearly of opinion that it should +remain as a permanent institution. They evidently entertained no +ideas, grounded upon mere expediency, that it would be prudent to wait +until Scotland, by means of her cherished institutions and her own +internal industry, arrived at that point of condition when it might be +expedient to introduce the lancet, and drain off a little of her +superfluous blood. They vent upon the righteous maxim—that a nation, +as well as a man, is entitled to work out its own resources in peace, +so long as it does not trench upon the industry or prerogatives of its +neighbour, and so long as no impeachment can be laid against the +prudence and stability of its institutions. We defy any man to read +over this report, and to adduce one word from it which shall convey +the idea that it was not intended as a final judgment, with the simple +qualifications that we have stated in the last sentence.</p> + +<p>These two reports saved the country—we trust we shall not hereafter +be compelled to add, only for a time—from its great impending +misfortune. The circulation in England became metallic, with what +success it is not for us to say, whilst Scotland was allowed to retain +her paper currency with at least most perfect satisfaction to herself. +One pregnant fact, however, it would be unpardonable for us to +omit—as showing the stability of the northern system when compared +with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_678" id="Page_678">[Pg 678]</a></span> that practised in the south—that at the last investigation +before a committee of the House of Commons in 1841, it was stated, +that whereas in Scotland the whole loss sustained by the public from +bank failures, <i>for a century and a half</i>, amounted to L. 32,000, the +loss to the public, <i>during the previous year in London alone, was +estimated at</i> <span class="smcap">ten times that amount</span>!</p> + +<p>Since 1826, we have had eighteen years' further experience of the +system, without either detecting derangement in its organization, or +the slightest diminution of confidence on the part of the public. +There has been no interference with the metallic currency of England. +Forgery is a crime now utterly unknown, as is also coining, beyond the +insignificant counterfeits of the silver issue. This, in fact, is a +great advantage which we have above the English in point of security, +since we are exempt from the risk of receiving into circulation either +base or light sovereigns, and since the banks provide for the +deterioration of their notes by tear and wear, whilst the holder of a +light sovereign has to pay the difference between the standard and the +deficient weight. When we reflect upon the small amount of the wages +of a labouring man, it is manifest how important this branch of the +subject is; for were gold allowed in Scotland to supersede the paper +currency, a fresh and most dangerous impetus would be given to the +crime of coining; and there cannot be a doubt, that in the remoter +districts, where gold is utterly unknown, a most lamentable series of +frauds would be perpetrated, with little risk of detection, but with +the cruelest consequences to the poor and illiterate classes.</p> + +<p>We are not, however, inclined to adopt the opinion expressed by the +committee of the House of Commons, to the extent of admitting that it +would be either politic or just to disturb the whole banking system of +a country on account of private frauds, whether forgeries or the +fabrication of counterfeit coin. If their opinion was a sound one, the +weight of evidence is now upon our side of the argument; but we hold +that the interests at stake are far too great to be affected by any +such minor details. If any new circumstance has arisen "to affect the +relations of trade and intercourse between Scotland and England," we +at least are wholly unconscious of the occurrence, and, of course, it +is the duty of those who meditate a change to point it out, in order +that it may be thoroughly scrutinized. Internally, the business of the +banks has been increasing, and, commensurate with that increase, there +has been a vast addition to the number of branch banks spread over the +face of the country; so that, whereas in 1825 there was but one office +for every 13,170 individuals, in 1841 there was an office for every +6600 of the population. This is plainly the inevitable effect of +competition; but lest that increase should be founded upon by our +opponents as a proof of over-circulation, we shall say a few words +upon the subject of the <i>exchange</i> between the banks themselves, which +is a leading feature of our whole system, and the most complete check +against over-trading which human ingenuity could devise. Fortunately +we have ample <i>data</i> for our statement in the evidence tendered to the +committee on banks of issue in 1841.</p> + +<p>It is right, however, to premise that, strictly speaking, there are +not more, nay, there are positively <i>fewer</i> banks in Scotland at the +present moment than there were in 1825, though the amount of paid-up +capital in the banks is more than doubled. It is the branches alone +which make this astonishing increase. Now, as a branch is merely a +local agency of the parent bank, established at a distance for the +sake of outlying business, the number of parties engaged in banking +who are responsible to the public is not thereby increased, nor is the +amount in circulation extended. In fact, the multiplication of the +branch banks has been of extraordinary benefit to the public, by +affording the inhabitants of even the remotest districts a ready, +easy, and favourite method of deposit, and by extinguishing all risks +of credit. Further, it has this manifest advantage, that the manager +of the branch bank has far greater facilities of ascertaining the +character, habits, and pursuits of those persons who may have received +the advantage of a cash-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_679" id="Page_679">[Pg 679]</a></span>credit accommodation, and can immediately +report to his superiors any circumstances which may render it +advisable that the credit should be contracted or withdrawn. So far +are we from holding that the multiplication of branch banks is any +evil or incumbrance, that we look upon it as an increased security not +only to the banker but the dealer. The latter, in fact, is the +principal gainer; because a competition among the banks has always the +effect of heightening the rate of interest given upon deposits, and of +lowering the rates charged upon advances. Nor does this give any +impetus to rash speculation on the part of the dealer, but directly +the reverse. The deposits always increase with the advancing rate of +interest; and experience has shown, that it is not until that rate +declines to two per cent that deposited money is usually withdrawn, +which is the signal of commencing speculation. To the mere speculator +the banks afford no facilities, but the reverse. Their cash credits +are only granted for the daily operations of persons actively engaged +in trade, business, or commerce. So soon as that credit appears to be +converted into a different channel, it is withdrawn, as alike +dangerous to the user and unprofitable to the bank which has given it.</p> + +<p>Of thirty-one banks in Scotland which issue notes, five only are +<i>chartered</i>—that is, the responsibility of the proprietors in those +established is confined to the amount of their subscribed capital. The +remaining twenty-six are, with one or two exceptions, joint-stock +banks, and the proprietors are liable to the public for the whole of +the bank responsibilities to the last shilling of their private +fortunes. The number of persons connected with these banks as +shareholders is very great, almost every man of opulence in the +country being a holder of stock to a greater or a less amount. That +some jealousy must exist among so many competitors in a limited field, +is an obvious matter of inference. Such jealousy, however, has only +operated for the advantage of the public, by the maintenance of a +common and vigilant watch upon the manner in which the affairs of each +establishment are conducted, and against the intrusion of any new +parties into the circle whose capital does not seem to warrant the +likelihood of their ultimate stability. Accordingly, the Scottish +bankers have arranged amongst themselves a mutual system of exchange, +as stringent as if it had the force of statute, by means of which an +over-issue of notes becomes a matter of perfect impossibility. <i>Twice +in every week the whole notes deposited with the different bank +offices in Scotland are regularly interchanged.</i> Now, with this system +in operation, it is perfectly ludicrous to suppose that any bank would +issue its paper rashly for the sake of an extended circulation. <i>The +whole notes</i> in circulation throughout Scotland return to their +respective banks in a period averaging from ten to eleven days in +urban, and from a fortnight to three weeks in rural districts. In +consequence of the rate of interest allowed by the banks, no person +has any inducement to keep bank paper by him, but the reverse, and the +general practice of the country is to keep the circulation at as low a +rate as possible. The numerous branch banks which are situated up and +down the country, are the means of taking the notes of their +neighbours out of the circle as speedily as possible. In this way it +is not possible for the circulation to be more than what is absolutely +necessary for the transactions of the country.</p> + +<p>If, therefore, any bank had been so rash as to grant accommodation +without proper security, merely for the sake of obtaining a +circulation, in ten days, or a fortnight at the furthest, it is +compelled to account with the other banks for every note they have +received. If it does not hold enough of their paper to redeem its own +upon exchange, it is compelled to pay the difference in exchequer +bills, a certain amount of which every bank is bound by mutual +agreement to hold, the fractional parts of each thousand pounds being +payable in Bank of England notes or in gold. In this way over-trading, +in so far as regards the issue of paper, is so effectually guarded and +controlled, that it would puzzle Parliament, with all its conceded +conventional wisdom, to devise any plan alike so simple and +expeditious.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_680" id="Page_680">[Pg 680]</a></span>The amount of notes at present in circulation throughout Scotland is +estimated at three millions, or at the very utmost three millions and +a half. At certain times of the year, such as the great legal terms of +Whitsunday and Martinmas, when money is universally paid over and +received, there is, of course, a corresponding increase of issue for +the moment which demands an extra supply of notes. It is never +considered safe for a bank to have a smaller amount of notes in stock +than the average amount which is out in circulation; so that the whole +amount of bank-notes, both in circulation and in hand, may be +calculated at seven millions. The fluctuation at the above terms is so +remarkable, that we are tempted to give an account of the number of +notes delivered and received by the bank of Scotland in exchange with +other banks during the months of May and November 1840:—</p> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" summary="Delivered"> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<th>Notes<br /> Delivered.</th> +<td> </td> +<th>Notes<br /> Received.</th></tr> +<tr> +<td>1840</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td>May 1,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>£ 51,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>£ 43,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 5,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>52,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>32,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 8,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>44,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>45,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 12,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>43,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>48,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 15,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>54,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>64,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 19,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>*132,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>*172,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 22,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>98,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>69,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 26,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>38,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>33,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Nov. 3,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>38,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>32,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 6,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>37,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>33,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 10,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>51,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>61,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 13,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>*99,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>*138,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 17,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>67,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>80,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 20,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>66,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>49,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 24,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>52,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>33,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>... 27,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>66,000</td> +<td> </td> +<td>42,000</td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3">*Term Settlements.</td> +<td> </td></tr></table> + +<p> </p> +<p>It will be seen from the above table how rapidly the system of bank +exchange absorbs the over-issue, and how instantaneously the paper +drawn from one bank finds its way into the hands of another.</p> + +<p>If further proof were required of the absurdity of the notion, that a +paper circulation has a necessary tendency to over-issue, the +following fact is conclusive. The banking capital in Scotland has +<i>more than doubled</i> between the years 1825 and 1840—a triumphant +proof of their increased stability; whilst the circulation has been +nearly stationary, but, if any thing, <i>rather diminished than +otherwise</i>. We quote from a report to the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The first return of the circulation was made in Scotland in +1825. Every one knows the extraordinary advance which Scotland +has made between that period and 1840; for instance, in the +former of these years, she manufactured 55,000 bales of cotton, +in the latter, 120,000 bales. In 1826, the produce of the iron +furnaces was 33,500 tons; in 1840, about 250,000 tons. In 1826, +the banking capital of Scotland was £4,900,000; in 1840, it was +about £10,000,000; yet with all this progress in industry and +wealth, the circulation of notes, which in 1825 varied from +£3,400,000 to £4,700,000, was in 1839 from £2,960,000 to +£3,670,000, and in the first three months of 1840, £2,940,000."</p></div> + +<p>We are induced to dwell the more strongly upon these facts, because we +have strong suspicions that our opponents will endeavour to get at our +monetary system by raising the senseless cry of over-issue—senseless +at any time as a political maxim, it being the grossest fallacy to +maintain that an increased issue is the cause of national distress, +unless, indeed, it were possible to suppose that bankers were madmen +enough to dispense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_681" id="Page_681">[Pg 681]</a></span> their paper without receiving a proper +equivalent—not only senseless, but positively nefarious, when the +clear broad fact stares them in the face, that Scotland has in fifteen +years thrown double the amount of capital into its banking +establishments, increased its productions in a threefold, and in some +cases a sevenfold ratio, augmented its population by nearly half a +million, (one-fifth part of the whole,) and yet kept its circulation +so low as to exhibit an actual decrease.</p> + +<p>If we were called upon to state the cause of this certainly singular +fact, we should, without any hesitation, attribute it to the great +increase of the bank branches. The establishment of a branch in a +remote locality, has invariably, from the thrifty habits of the +Scottish people, absorbed all the paper which otherwise would have +been hoarded for a time, and left in the hands of the holders without +any interest. It would thus seem, from practice, that the doctrines of +the political economists upon this head are absolutely fallacious; +that the increase of banks, supposing these banks to issue paper and +to give interest on deposits, has a direct tendency to check +over-circulation, and in fact does partially supersede it.</p> + +<p>With these facts before us, we consider that the measure of last +session, prohibiting any further issue of notes beyond those already +taken out by the banks, is almost a dead letter. We have not the least +fear, that under any circumstances there can be a call for a larger +circulation; at the same time, we demur to the policy which ties our +hands needlessly, and we object to all restriction where no case for +restriction has been shown. We look upon that measure as especially +unfair to the younger banks, whose circulation is not yet established, +and whose progress has thus received a material check, from no fault +of their own, but from want of ministerial notice. With every system +where competition is the acknowledged principle, it is clearly +impolitic to interfere; nor can we avoid the painful conviction, that +this first measure, though comparatively light and generally +unimportant, was put out by way of <i>feeler</i>, in order to test the +temper of the Scottish people—to ascertain whether eighteen years of +prosperity might not have made them a little more supple and pliable, +and whether they were likely to oppose to innovation the same amount +of obstinate resistance as before. It is dangerous to permit the +smallest rent to be made in a wall, for, with dexterous management, +that rent may be so widened, as to bring down the whole +superstructure.</p> + +<p>In the absence of any distinct charge against the Scottish banks, +which were so honourably acquitted in 1826, we shall confine our +further observations to the effects which must necessarily follow upon +a change in the established currency. In doing so, we shall conjure up +no phantoms of imaginary distress, but merely state the consequences +as they have already been explained to Parliament by men who are far +better able to judge than ourselves, and even—with deference be it +said—than our legislators, of the substitution in Scotland of a +metallic for a paper currency. That measure is to be considered, 1st, +as it will affect the banks; 2dly, as it will affect the public.</p> + +<p>The general effect of the change would be to derange the whole of the +present system. The first result would probably be the abolition and +withdrawal of all the branch banks throughout the kingdom. These +offices are at present fed with notes which are payable at the office +of the parent bank, whither, accordingly, they invariably return. +These are supplied to them at no risk or expense, whereas the +transmission of gold would not only be dangerous, but so expensive as +entirely to swallow up the profits. Add to this, that the banks would +no longer be able to allow interest on deposit accounts; at all events +such interest would be merely fractional, and too insignificant to +induce the continuance of the saving habit which now so fortunately +prevails. In short, all the branch business would stagnate and die. +The consequence of the removal of the branch banks would be the ruin +of the Highlands.</p> + +<p>Mr Kennedy's account of the profits of banking will explain the +sweeping nature of the change. "A banker's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_682" id="Page_682">[Pg 682]</a></span> profits are derived from +two sources—the brokerage upon the deposit money, and the returns +that he gets from his circulation. We have tried to estimate the +amount of deposits in Scotch banks, and we calculate it at about +thirty millions; that, at the brokerage of one and a half per cent, +yields £450,000 annually. The currency we will take at three millions, +and that, at 5 per cent, is £150,000: making a gross sum of £600,000, +<i>which is the whole profit derived from banking in Scotland</i>. Out of +that are to be deducted the whole of the charges. From these figures +it will be perceived that the gross profit of the currency is a fourth +part of the gross profit of banking; but the expense that falls upon +the currency is not so large as the expense that falls upon the other +portions of the banking business; so that I should be inclined to say +that, upon the average, the profit derived from the circulation bore +the proportion of a third to the aggregate profit of banking."</p> + +<p>Assuming Mr Kennedy's calculation to be correct, the profit of +£600,000, derived by the banks, would thus be reduced to £400,000 by +the change of currency.</p> + +<p>But the diminution would not rest there. The brokerage upon the +deposits—that is, the difference between the rates of interest given +and charged by the banks—on the present calculated amount of +deposits, is £450,000. from which the charges are deducted. Now we +have already seen that the banks find it necessary, in order to +encourage deposits, to give a liberal rate of interest; and we have +also seen that, whenever interest falls to two per cent, the deposits +are gradually withdrawn, and a period of speculation begins. Let us +hear Mr John Thomson, of the Royal Bank, on the effect of a gold +currency on deposit accounts:—"I think, on the operating deposits, we +could scarcely allow any interest, and on the more steady deposits, +that the rate of interest would require to be very considerably +reduced."</p> + +<p>It follows, therefore, according to all experience, that, if no +interest were allowed, the deposits would be generally withdrawn for +investment elsewhere; and thus another serious reduction would be made +from the already attenuated amount of the Scottish bankers' profits. +But besides the loss of profit on the small notes, there would be a +further loss sustained by the necessity of keeping up a large stock of +gold in the coffers of the bank. Hear Mr Thomson again upon this +subject:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It would occasion greater loss than the mere profit on the small +notes, inasmuch as at present we have to keep on hand a large +stock of small notes, to fill up in the circle those that are +taken from it by tear and wear, and to meet occasional demands. +The present mode of keeping up this stock, which consists of our +own notes, is done at no expense; if we had to keep a +corresponding stock of gold to keep up the circle in the same +proportion, we would, perhaps, if there is £1000 dispersed in +small notes, require to keep up a protecting fund of £500 to meet +that, or something in that proportion. So that, upon the whole, +if there was £1,800,000, which was the sum assumed of notes in +circulation, withdrawn, we would require to fill up the place, +£1,800,000, in gold, and in order to fill our coffers with a +protecting stock, perhaps from <i>seven to nine hundred thousand</i>, +to keep up the stock; and, in addition to that, there is the +expense of transmission from one part of the country to another, +and the bringing it from London."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>The small note circulation is here estimated at £1,800,000 but there +is no doubt that it is now considerably larger. Taking it, however, at +Mr Thomson's calculation, what a fearful amount of unoccupied and +inoperative capital is here! This, be it observed also, is only the +first reserve, which at present is represented by the small notes of +the bank. According to the later evidence of Mr Blair, the Scottish +banks are in the habit of holding, <i>besides this</i>, a further reserve +of gold and Bank of England notes, equal to <i>a fourth of their +circulation</i>, without taking into account exchequer bills, or other +convertible securities which bear interest.</p> + +<p>Thus it follows, as a matter of course, that if the small notes were +abolished, and a gold currency established, there would not be room in +the country for one-fourth of the pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_683" id="Page_683">[Pg 683]</a></span>sent number of banks. If the +banks are removed, and more especially the branches, which must +inevitably fall, we should like to know from any theoretical +economist, even from Sir Robert Peel, how the country is to be +supplied with money?</p> + +<p>So much for the effect which the introduction of a metallic currency +would have upon the banking establishments. Let us now see what would +be the consequence of the change upon the interests of the public, who +are the dealers.</p> + +<p>Now, although we hold, that upon every principle of public expediency +and justice, the legislature are bound to regard with particular +tenderness the interests of a body of men, who, like the Scottish +bankers, have not only established, but administered for such a long +time, the monetary system of the country with stability, temperance, +indulgence, and success, equally removed from weak facility and from +grasping avidity of gain; we must, nevertheless, allow that the +interests of the public are paramount to theirs, and that if it can be +shown that the public will be gainers, although the bankers should be +losers by the change, the sooner the metallic currency is established +amongst us the better. Here is the true test of the clause in the +Treaty of Union, providing that no alteration shall be made on laws +which concern private right excepting for the evident utility of the +subjects <i>within</i> Scotland. There shall be no interference with +private rights if that interference is not to benefit the public; if +it does so, private right must of course give way, according to a rule +universally adopted by every civilized nation. In speaking of the +public, we, of course, restrict ourselves to Scotland; for although +the Treaty of Union is not, strictly speaking, a federal one, and in +the larger points of policy and general government is very clearly one +of incorporation, it has yet this important ingredient of federality +in its conception, that the laws of each country and their +administration are left separate and entire, as also their customs and +usages, so long as the same do not interfere with one another. It is a +sore point with the supporters of a metallic currency, and a sad +discouragement to their theories, that they have never been able in +any way to shake the confidence of the Scottish public in the +stability of their national bankers. It was no use drawing invidious +comparisons between a weighty glittering guinea, fresh started from +the mint of Mammon, and the homely unpretending well-thumbed issue of +the North; it was no use hinting that a system which professed to +dispense with bullion must of necessity be a mere illusion, which +would go down with the first blast of misfortune, as easily as its +fragile notes could be dispersed before a breeze of wind. The shrewd +Scotsman knew, what apparently the economist had forgotten, that the +piece of gold exhibited by the latter was in itself but a +representative, and not the reality of property; that the gold to be +acquired <i>must be bought</i>; that all representation of wealth within a +country must be conventional in order to have any value; and further, +that however fragile the despised paper might appear, that it was by +convention and by law the representative of things more weighty and +more solid than metal—of the manufactures of the country, of its +agricultural produce, and, finally, <span class="smcap">of the land itself</span>; all which were +mortgaged for its redemption. It was in vain to talk to him of the +rates of foreign exchange in the mystic jargon of the Bourse. He knew +well, that when the Scottish mint was abolished, and the bullion trade +transferred to London, that branch of traffic was placed utterly +beyond his reach. He knew further, that the circulation of Scotland +did not ebb or flow in accordance with the fluctuation of foreign +exchanges, but from causes which were always within the reach of his +own ken and observance. All scrutiny beyond that he left to the bank, +in the solvency of which he placed the most implicit confidence; and +accordingly he dealt with it as freely and as confidently as his +father and grandfather had done before him, and laughed the theories +of the political economists to scorn. Such is no overcharged statement +of the sentiments which the Scottish customer entertains;—is he +right, or is he wrong? and how would the change affect him?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_684" id="Page_684">[Pg 684]</a></span>In the first place, he would receive no interest upon his deposit +account. This point we have already touched upon, when proving that +the banks would sustain great loss by the inevitable withdrawal of +their deposits; but of course the profit to the bank is one thing, and +the profit to the customer is another. An operating deposit account on +which a fixed and universal rate of interest is paid, is a thing +unknown in England. In that country, according to Mr John Gladstone, a +Liverpool merchant, and a declared enemy to the Scottish currency, the +bankers only give interest on deposits by special bargain, according +to the length of time that these deposits shall be entrusted to their +hands. This is clearly neither more nor less than permanent loan to +the bank, and, like every other private contract, is arbitrary. But an +operating deposit is a totally different matter, by which the +circulation of the bank paper is promoted, and which acquires actual +value from the frequency of its fluctuations. It is a system so easy +in its working, that no householder in Scotland is without it; and for +every shilling that he deposits in the bank, he receives regular +interest, calculated from day to day, without any deduction or +commission, at as high a rate as if he had left, for a stipulated +period, a million of money unrecallable by him, to be employed in its +trade by the bank. This is surely a great accommodation and +encouragement to the trader. But see how the introduction of the +metallic currency would affect us. Operating deposits there would be +none; for, if the banker were not actually compelled to charge a +certain per centage of commission, he would at least be able to pay no +interest. Or let it be granted that, by great economy, (though we +cannot well see how,) he could still afford to pay a diminished rate, +the proportion would be too small to tempt the dealer to the constant +system of deposit which now exists, and hoarding would be the +inevitable result. Or suppose that the system of deposit should still +continue in the large towns, what is to become of the country when the +branch banks shall have been removed? A little topography might here +be valuable, to correct the notions of the theorists, who would +legislate precisely for the thinly inhabited districts of Kintail and +Edderachylis, as they would for the town-covered surface of +Lancashire.</p> + +<p>But there would be more important losses to the public than the mere +cessation of interest upon operating deposit accounts. All the +witnesses who have been examined, agree that cash-credits must be +immediately withdrawn. Of all the facilities that a mercantile +country, or rather the foremost mercantile system of a country, can +afford to industry, that of cash-credit is certainly the most +unexceptionable. Take the case of a young man just about to start in +business, whose connexion, habits, and education, are such as to give +every possible augury for his future success. The <i>res angustæ domi</i> +are probably hard upon him. He has no patrimony; his friends, though +in fair credit, are not capitalists; and he has not of himself the +opportunity of launching into trade, for the want of that one talent, +which, if judiciously used, would in time multiply itself into ten. He +cannot ask his friends to assist him in the discount of bills. Large +as the affection of a Scotchman may be for some descriptions of paper, +he has a kind of inherent repugnance to that sort of floating private +currency, which in three or in six months is sure to return, coupled +with an awkward protest, to his door. Probably in his own early +experience, or in the days of his father, he has received a salutary +lesson, better than a thousand treatises upon the law and practice of +acceptance; and accordingly, while he will lend you his purse with +readiness, he will not, for almost any consideration, subscribe his +name to a bill. To persons thus situated, the accommodation granted by +the bank cash-credits, is the greatest commercial boon that ever was +devised; but as the committee of the House of Lords, in the report +already quoted, has borne ample testimony in their favour, it is +unnecessary for us to dwell with further minuteness on their utility.</p> + +<p>We must again have recourse to Mr Thomson for an exposition of the +reasons which, if a metallic currency<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_685" id="Page_685">[Pg 685]</a></span> were forced upon us, would lead +to the discontinuance of the cash-credits. "I do not think the +cash-credits would be maintained at all; the banker's profits might be +made up by the charge of a commission on each credit; but it is not +probable that the holders of accounts would pay at such a rate, if +they could borrow money upon bills at a cheaper rate, which they would +do. They would discount bills at five per cent. A banker would not be +disposed to come under the obligation to give a running credit with a +cash account, and thereby bind himself to keep in his hands a stock of +gold to supply the daily operations of a cash-account, while he might +find it perfectly convenient to discount a bill and give the money +away at once." In short, it has been stated, and distinctly proved, +that the difference to the trader between an operating cash-credit and +accommodation by discount, <i>is the difference between paying five and +a quarter by discount, and two and a half per cent by cash-credit</i>. +Are our merchants and traders prepared or disposed to submit to such a +sacrifice; more especially when it is considered, that a bank will +often refuse to discount a bill for £100, when it would make no +difficulty, from its opportunities of control, in granting a +cash-credit for five times that amount?</p> + +<p>If individuals are thus to be crippled, the general commercial +business of the country must retrograde as a matter of course. Still +Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and the larger towns might, although they +would suffer immensely, get over the crisis by adopting some system of +internal arrangement, without experiencing a general crash. The great +question, however, yet remains behind—What is to become of the +country districts? To us who are familiar with almost the whole face +of Scotland, it seems a gross absurdity to suppose, that <i>under any +circumstances</i>, if the branch banks were withdrawn, a gold metallic +currency could be made operative in the remoter districts. Mr +Dunsmure, then secretary to the commissioners for the public +fisheries, gave very singular evidence upon that point in 1826; so +singular, indeed, that were it our purpose in this paper rather to +amuse than to warn and protest, we should have dwelt more minutely +upon his statements. Speaking of the silver currency, his evidence is +as follows:—"The quantity of silver on the west coast is so very +limited, that there is a great difficulty in getting a proper supply +for the necessary purposes. <i>Some of the people have been obliged to +issue promissory notes for 5s., long after they had been prohibited by +act of Parliament.</i> I happened to be at Barra, and the officer there +informed me that, having occasion to purchase some oats for a pony he +found it necessary to keep, the farmer whom he paid for them declared +he had not seen the face of a shilling for two years before." One of +the individuals who was thus forced by necessity to contravene the +statute, was a fish-curer and merchant, who kept a large store in +Tobermory, and the form of his notes is at once curious and +explanatory. "For want of change I owe you 5s., and for four of these +tickets, I will give a one-pound note." The establishment of branch +banks may somewhat have mended matters on the west coast, though we +doubt if the improvement has been commensurate with that of other +districts in Scotland, owing to the severe, and in our view +mischievous, commercial enactment which supplanted the native +manufacture of kelp, by the substitution of foreign barilla; but if +the branches are removed, no discovery short of the philosopher's +stone will establish the metallic currency there. Do our legislators +seriously mean to compel the population of about one-fourth of +Scotland, comprehending the whole western and northern divisions, to +accept the fish-curer's notes, instead of those of a joint-stock bank, +with its paid-up capital for security?</p> + +<p>We have not space here to proceed with a minute analysis of the +evidence which was formerly given. Suffice it to say, that it is of a +much more serious nature than even those who have general notions upon +the question can possibly anticipate. In the event of any change which +shall derange the present system of currency, the landowners and +agriculturists of every class must prepare themselves for crippled +markets, curtailment of the sales of their produce, and consequently +for a great reduction in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_686" id="Page_686">[Pg 686]</a></span> rent and value of land. This will apply +equally to the fisheries, the distilleries, and the linen trade—to +every branch, in short, of internal manufacture, which is now +prosperous, and which has become so from the superior ease, facility, +and advantage of our present currency. Compared with these, the +interests of the bankers are actually trifling. Such of them as may +remain under the altered system, will no doubt, in one way or another, +secure their profit; but for that profit the country at large will +have to pay a heavy price.</p> + +<p>The great question now for Scotland to determine is, whether these +interests are to be sacrificed to the theories of any ministry +whatever, without resistance of the most determined nature. That +resistance, in our deliberate opinion, she is not only entitled, but +bound, to make. We have purposely abstained from dwelling—nay, we +have scarcely even touched—upon any points of extraneous irritation +which may exist between the sister countries. Our wish is, that this +question should be tried upon its own merits, independently of any +such considerations; and we are glad to see that this line of conduct +has been adopted by every one of the numerous bodies who have hitherto +met to protest against the change. Believing thoroughly and sincerely +that we have a clear case, both on the score of justice and +expediency, we do not wish to revive any warmer feeling, though we are +convinced that a word could arouse it. Scotland in this matter feels, +and will speak, like a single man. We are sure of the unanimous +support and energy of the members for the ancient kingdom; and +although that phalanx forms but an integral part of the legislature of +Great Britain, we will not allow ourselves to believe that any +minister will proceed with so obnoxious a measure in the face of their +united opposition. One word only of advice we shall venture to offer +them, before they leave their native country to do battle in her +behalf. <span class="smcap">Compromise nothing!</span> Do not, as you value the interests of +Scotland, permit even the smallest interference with a system which +has already obtained the unqualified approval of the state. If you do, +rely upon it that one change will be merely the forerunner of +another—that the statute-book, in each succeeding session of +Parliament, will exhibit new changes and new modifications, until, +gradually and by piecemeal, we shall lose all the benefits of those +national institutions which you are now ready and pledged to maintain +whole and unimpaired. Any other line of tactics must, in the long run, +prove not only injurious, but fatal, to the cause you support.</p> + +<p>And now we have said our say. It is not for us—more especially as the +batteries of our opponents are still masked—to remonstrate with an +administration which assuredly, on many points, has a just claim to +the support and confidence of the nation at large. Still we may +insinuate the question—Is it very politic, in the present state of +matters, to rouse up a feeling in peaceful Scotland which may, with +little fanning of the fuel, terminate in an agitation quite as +extensive as that which at present unhappily prevails in Ireland? It +is not only wrong, but—what Talleyrand held to be a greater sin in a +statesman—most injudicious, to overlook in such a matter the tendency +of the national character. Scotchmen have long memories; and although +the days of hereditary feuds have gone by, they are not the less apt +to remember and to cherish injuries. Would it not, therefore, be +prudent to adhere to the homely but excellent maxim, "Let well be +alone;" and to abstain from forcing the country into a position which +it is really unwilling to assume, merely for the sake of illustrating +another proverb with which we close our remarks upon the Scottish +Banking System—"<span class="smcap">It is possible to buy gold too dear.</span>"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_687" id="Page_687">[Pg 687]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="MILKMAN" id="MILKMAN"></a>THE MILKMAN OF WALWORTH.</h2> +<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></h4> + + +<p>I was just fifteen, when the battle of Waterloo, (it will soon be +thirty years ago,) by giving peace to Europe, enabled my father to +gratify one of the principal desires of his heart, by sending me to +finish my education at a German university. Our family was a +Lincolnshire one, he its representative, and the inheritor of an +encumbered estate, not much relieved by a portionless wife and several +children, of whom I was the third and youngest son. My eldest brother +was idle, lived at home, and played on the fiddle. Tom, my second +brother, two years older than myself, had just entered the army time +enough to be returned in the Gazette as severely wounded in the action +of the 18th. I was destined for the church—as much, I believe, from +my mother's proneness to Prelacy, (in a very different sense from its +usual acceptation,) she being fond of expatiating on her descent from +one of the Seven of immortal memory, as from my being a formal, +bookish boy, of a reserved and rather contemplative disposition. The +profession did not appear uncongenial to my taste; and although, from +my classical education having been deplorably neglected, there was no +small share of grinding and fag before me, I entered readily into my +father's views; the more especially, as in them was comprehended the +preliminary visit to Germany, the land of my early visions, where I +hoped to be on more intimate terms than ever with my old +acquaintances, the Spirit of the Brocken, the Wild Hunter, &c. &c.; +or, mayhap, to carry to practical results in the heart of the Black +Forest the lessons of natural freedom I had so largely acquired from +Schiller. My father's object in sending me to Heidelberg was not, I +believe, quite of so elevated a character.</p> + +<p>After a month's preliminary bustle, I set out. The Lincoln +Light-o'-Heart coach took me up a couple of miles from my +father's—and with me a chest of stores that would have sufficed for +the north-west passage. Furnished with a letter to a friend in London, +who was prepared to forward me by the first vessel offering for +Holland, I accomplished the journey to town satisfactorily. On +arriving in London, I found Mr Sainsbury, the friend already +mentioned, awaiting me at the coach-office in Lad Lane. He was my +father's banker—a little red-faced hospitable man, fond of Welsh +rabbits, Hessian boots, and of wearing his watch-chain down to his +knees. He welcomed me very cordially, said he had not had time as yet +to make the necessary enquiries about my passage; but as he was sure +no vessel would sail for Helvoetsluys for at least a week, he insisted +upon my putting up at his residence while I remained. Oppressed as I +was with fretting and fatigue, it was a matter of indifference to me +at the moment where I stayed while in town. I therefore, with a proper +expression of thanks, accepted the invitation. A job coach conveyed us +in a short time to Mr Sainsbury's abode. He lived at Walworth, at that +period an extensive suburb on the Surrey side of London, but long +since incorporated into the great mass of the metropolis. The street +in which the mansion stood was large, the houses were spacious and +handsome, their tenants, as I learned afterwards, opulent and +respectable. It was late in August; my friend's family were all at +Margate; and I found none to do the honours of the house but himself +and his eldest son, a young man of prepossessing appearance and +intelligent manners. On finding I was not disposed to go out the +following morning, he recommended me to the library and some +portfolios of choice engravings, and, promising to return early in the +afternoon, departed for his haunts of business in the city.</p> + +<p>I found the library tolerably comprehensive for its size; and having +glanced along its ranges, I tumbled over Hogarth and Gillray on the +print-stands for some time. I settled upon my usual efficacious remedy +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_688" id="Page_688">[Pg 688]</a></span> desultory hours—old Burton's <i>Anatomie</i>, and dropped with it into +the window-seat. I have seldom found him to fail me on such +emergencies—his quaintness, his humour, the lavish prodigality of +learning and extraordinary thinking that loads his pages, never to me +lose their freshness. Yet on the present occasion I found them fix me +with more difficulty than I ever before, or I believe since, +experienced. My mind wandered constantly from the page back to home, +forward to Heidelberg, and, after a while, I laid down the volume to +gaze vacantly through the window. It overlooked the street. Yet here +the day was so piteously wet there was nothing to arrest my +half-drowsy eye or half-dreamy attention. No young ladies in the +opposite windows. They were all at Hastings or Brighton. No neat +serving-wenches chattering on the area steps—not even a barrel-organ +to blow out one's patience—no vagabond on stilts, with a pipe and +dancing-dogs—no Punch—no nothing!—Once, a ruffian with four +<i>babbies</i>, two in his arms and two more at his ankles, strolled down +the street, chanting—"In Jury is God known"—his hat off, and the +rain streaming down at his nose as from a gable-spout. But he, too, +vanished. Occasionally a dripping umbrella hurried past, showing +nothing but thin legs in tights and top-boots, or thick ones in +worsteds and pattens. At one o'clock the milkman passed along the +street silently, and with a soberer knock than usually announces the +presence of that functionary. I counted him at number 45, 46, 47, +48—number 49 was beyond the range of the window; but I believe I +accompanied him with my ear up to number 144—where the +multiplication-table ends. He was assisted in his vocation by his +wife, who attended him—very devotedly too, for I remarked she seemed +regardless of the weather, and carried no umbrella. Wearied out +completely by the monotony and dulness of the street, I next sank into +a doze, which destroyed one hour further towards dinner, and the +remnant of time I managed to dispose of by writing a large portion of +a long letter to my mother. My dinner was a tête-à-tête one with John +Sainsbury—his father having been called away to Margate on affairs +connected with the residents there. Finding myself labouring under a +cold, I avoided wine, and while my companion discussed his <i>Château +Margaut</i>, I kept up a languid conversation with him, enlivened +occasionally by the snap of a walnut-shell or indifferent pun, with +now and then an enquiry or remark respecting the street passengers. +Amongst those, the milk-vender and lady at the moment happened to pass +along—"By the by," I said, "there is one peculiarity about that Pair +I cannot help remarking. I observe, that wherever, or at whatever +pace, the man moves, his female companion always keeps at the one +exact distance behind him—about three yards or so—See, just as they +stand now at No. 46! I never perceive her approach nearer. She seems a +most assiduous wife."</p> + +<p>"<i>Wife!</i>" rejoined Sainsbury, with a motion of the lip that might have +been a smile, but for the gravity of his other features—"she is not +his wife."</p> + +<p>"Wife, or friend then," I said, correcting myself.</p> + +<p>"She is not his friend either."</p> + +<p>"Well, his sister or relative."</p> + +<p>"Neither sister nor relative—in fact," he said, "I don't think she is +any thing to him."</p> + +<p>"But the deuce is in it, man, you don't mean to say that she is not a +most devoted friend who thus so closely, and at all hours, it appears +to me, attends him and assists"——</p> + +<p>"She does not assist him," again interrupted Sainsbury.</p> + +<p>"I mean, shares his toil."</p> + +<p>"She has no participation whatever in his business. Come," he said, +rising and advancing to the window, "I see you are puzzled; nor are +you the first who has been at fault respecting that extraordinary +Pair. Just observe them for a moment," and he threw up the sash to +afford me the means of glancing after them along the street; "you +perceive that there is not the slightest communication between them. +He has just stopped at that house, No. 50, and there stands the woman, +rigid as a statue, only three yards behind him; now he has done and +moves rapidly on—how exactly she follows! He stops<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_689" id="Page_689">[Pg 689]</a></span> again, and see, +she is motionless; now, he proceeds slowly across the street to that +house with the lofty portico, but, slowly or quickly, there she is +close at hand."</p> + +<p>"How very odd!" I said; "they never speak."</p> + +<p>"Speak! Watch him narrowly, and you will see he never for a single +instant <i>looks behind him</i>. Here they come this way, on his return +homewards. You hear the shout from those idle throngs that have just +caught a glimpse of yonder balloon; you see <i>that</i> man never turns, +never pauses, never looks up; he knows who is behind him, and hurries +on. There, he has turned the corner, and, certain as his death, <i>she</i> +has vanished in his footsteps. Singular—most singular!" he muttered +to himself half musingly.</p> + +<p>"But surely their home reconciles them?"</p> + +<p>"They don't live together! On the contrary, I believe, they dwell far +asunder; and we of this neighbourhood, who have seen them for years, +have just as little cause to conclude that they are known personally +to each other as you have, who have only beheld them once or twice."</p> + +<p>"But this strange companionship, this existence of attraction and +repulsion, which I have witnessed those two days, it surely does not +always continue. You talk of years"——</p> + +<p>"Yes, several years; and during that time the man has not been once +missed from his business, nor ever found pursuing it unwatched or +unattended by that woman, more constant, in truth, than his very +shadow."</p> + +<p>"Why, here is mystery and romance with a vengeance! ready made, too, +at one's threshold, without having to seek it out in hall or bower. +'Tis a trifle <i>low</i> to be sure; had it been a shepherd and shepherdess +it <i>might</i> do, but a milkman and a—may I say?—milkmaid."</p> + +<p>"I assure you there is no quiz whatever in it. It is just as you see +it and say it—a downright mystery, and one that, perhaps, will never +be cleared up."</p> + +<p>"I think the clue, my dear fellow, a very simple one—the woman is +mad."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it; she is perfectly rational; of intelligence, I am +told, far beyond her apparent station in life—a little reserved, to +be sure."</p> + +<p>"Then he is a lunatic, and she his keeper—eh?"</p> + +<p>"For that I refer you to the cook, and all of that respectable calling +who transact business with the fellow. If he must be characterized by +any one particular quality, I would say that there is far more of the +villain than the fool about him."</p> + +<p>"Pray, be kind enough," I said, "to tell me all you know respecting +this curious Pair. I am really interested in them."</p> + +<p>"In what I have said already," replied Sainsbury, resuming his seat, +"I have told you all, or very nearly all, that I, or I believe any +body else, knows of them. My little information is chiefly acquired +from hearing the servants gossip about them; but I very well remember +that, on the first appearance of the Pair in this vicinity, they +excited a good deal of speculation and enquiry amongst every class in +Walworth. It is now more than eight years ago since this man's +predecessor—the purveyor, as he grandiloquently was wont to call +himself, of milk to this large district—died. His dairies, which I +fancy were lucrative things enough, were immediately sold, and taken +by a person who, we were informed, would not only continue to supply +Walworth with their produce, but, from motives of caprice or economy, +would deliver it himself. Accordingly, the man you have seen pass this +evening appeared; and all was uniform and punctual as before. In a few +days, however, he came, attended by that mysterious female, dogged +precisely as you have seen him an hour ago, and at once the heart of +every cook and kitchen-maid in the parish was on fire with curiosity +and suspicion. From the kitchen the contagion spread to the +drawing-room, and commissions of enquiry, in the shape of tea-parties, +were held in every house relative to the strange milk-vender and his +stranger shadow. To those who asked him any questions on the matter, +and very few ventured to do so—for his manner, though civil, had +reserve and sullenness, and there was in his deportment a decent +propriety,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_690" id="Page_690">[Pg 690]</a></span> that repulsed, or rather prevented, enquiry—he usually +answered that he 'knew nothing of the woman who followed him;' 'that +he dared to say it was from some whim;' 'that she was welcome to do so +if she pleased;' 'she had the same right of highway as any other +person,' and suchlike evasive replies."</p> + +<p>"But his companion—I should rather say, his attendant—from her sex, +she would, at least, be something more communicative?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. She was very seldom spoken to upon any subject. She kept +aloof from all who seemed disposed to be inquisitive; and if she ever +came within range, as the sailors say, of a question, she never gave +an intelligible, or at least satisfactory, answer. Besides, as she was +never seen save in the track of him whom she lives but to pursue, her +own sex have had no opportunity of conciliating her into an +acquaintanceship, and their patience and curiosity have long consumed +themselves away."</p> + +<p>"Then, after all, it may be only the whim of an eccentric woman that +leads her thus to persecute an inoffensive, industrious person?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot think so. I am persuaded there is some peculiar occurrence +in their past lives that has thus mysteriously associated them—some +conscious secret that, by its influence, draws them forcibly into +contact. What the nature of this strange sympathy may be, I cannot +form the least idea."</p> + +<p>"Has no one attempted to unriddle it before now?"</p> + +<p>"Not with any prospect of success. Of course there have been a +thousand conjectures. Among the lower orders of people, the prevalent +opinion is, that the woman once possessed a large sum of money, out of +which this Maunsell (for such is his name) contrived to cheat her; and +that she has ever since <i>haunted</i> him, as they very appropriately term +it. But this offence I am inclined to think infinitely too light a one +to draw upon him the grievous punishment which has been so many years +inflicted on him. One of our neighbours, Rochfort, a very +matter-of-fact sort of man, not at all given to the marvellous, +asserts, that he witnessed by accident what he is sure was the first +meeting of the Pair after the man's arrival in this quarter. It was +late in the evening; Rochfort was standing, he says, in the shadow of +a gateway that breaks up the long blank wall of a large timber-yard +that belongs to him, at some distance from this, and which skirts a +lonely and unfrequented road leading to Kennington. He is positive +there was not a human being but himself within sight or hearing, when +he perceived the milkman coming along by the wall, his footsteps +echoing loudly up the dusty path. Not choosing to encounter a stranger +at the moment in such a spot, my friend withdrew further into the +shadow of the gateway. The man, in passing it, happening to drop some +pieces of money from his hand, stooped to recover then; and while so +engaged, a female, who, Rochfort asserts, must have risen out of the +earth on the instant, suddenly appeared standing at the searcher's +side, perfectly motionless, and muffled in those dark funereal +garments that have since been so familiar to our eyes. On lifting his +head the man perceived her, started, but, my informant says, it was +more the subdued start of one accustomed to face horror, than the +overwhelming dismay of a person terrified for the first time: he +folded his arms, as if endeavouring to collect himself, but his whole +frame shook convulsively. He was about to speak, when a noise of +workmen approaching up the archway stopped him, and, turning away, he +hastened on—that dark spectral woman gliding noiselessly after him."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," I said, with a forced laugh—for, despite of myself, the +story was exciting my imagination as well as curiosity—"she really +<i>is</i> a visitant from another world."</p> + +<p>"There are not wanting those who say so," replied my friend; "but +however ghost-like her mission and appearance may be, I believe there +is no doubt that as yet she is a denizen in the flesh."</p> + +<p>"And this Pair—where and how do they reside?"</p> + +<p>"The man lives at his dairies, a considerable way from here, and +although he has, I am told, an extensive establishment, never goes out +but on his daily business. He is of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_691" id="Page_691">[Pg 691]</a></span> a serious, methodistical +disposition, and, I understand, affects devotional reading a good +deal; yet he is never seen at a place of worship. He is unmarried, nor +does any relative or companion reside with him. The woman—it is +hardly known where she lives; in some miserable lonely room far away, +buried in the heart of one of those dismal courts that lurk in the +outlets of London, her way of life and means of support equally +unknown, the one object of her existence palpable to all—to come +forth at the grey of daybreak in winter and summer, in storm or shine, +and seat herself at a little distance from that man's abode, until he +makes his appearance: when he was passed her, to rise, to follow, to +track him through the livelong day with that unflagging constancy +poets are fond of ascribing to unquenchable love, which the early +Greeks attributed to their impersonations of immortal Hate."</p> + +<p>"Surely the wild and doubtful surmises that those circumstances have +raised in people's minds must have had an injurious effect on +Maunsell's business?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all; on the contrary, I think it has assisted it. Every +neighbourhood loves to have a mystery of its own, and we, you must +confess, have got a superlative one. The man has been found +scrupulously honest, regular, and exact in his dealings; and were we +to lose him now, and get a mere common-place person to succeed him, +half the housewives of Walworth would perish of inanition. And now," +said Sainsbury, rising, "That I have imparted to you all I know +respecting the milkman and his familiar, let us to the drawing-room +and seek some coffee."</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></h4> + +<p>The night that followed this conversation was to me a most +uncomfortable one. The episode in the day's occurrences had made so +deep an impression on me, that it excluded all other thoughts from my +mind, which it occupied so intently, that, upon retiring to my +chamber, several hours elapsed before I sought repose. I did so at +last, but in vain. Between the fever attendant upon my indisposition, +and the irksomeness of frame caused by mental inquietude, sleep was +completely banished from my eyelids, or visited them only in short and +broken slumbers, peopled by the distorted images of my waking +thoughts. The mysterious Pair were again before me. I saw them gliding +through the long street, the man hastening on in that attitude, so +strikingly described by Coleridge, like one</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">"Who walks in fear and dread;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And having once turn'd round, walks on,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And turns no more his head,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Because he knows a frightful fiend</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Doth close behind him tread"—</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>the woman keeping on his track with the constancy of Doom. Or I was +standing a witness to their first meeting in the grim Dark on that +lonely road, their eyes of hate and fear staring wildly into each +other. Sometimes I found myself spellbound between the two, the centre +upon which their fearful sympathies revolved, the object upon which + +their long pent-up passions were about to burst. Starting from those +visions, my waking fancies were hardly less tormenting. I was just at +that season of youth, before the calmer and nobler faculties have +acquired maturity and tone; when incidents that vary but little from +the ordinary economy of life, seen through the medium of the +imagination, assume a magnitude of distinctness not properly their +own. On the present occasion, however, my friend's recital was well +calculated to arouse the speculations of a romantic fancy; and mine +was now fully employed in forming a thousand conjectures in +elucidation of the curious circumstances he had repeated to me. What +could be the relation between those strange parties? Was it attachment +in the one and aversion in the other? Or had one, as was commonly +supposed, been the plundered victim—the other the Despoiler? Neither +of these cases could be so. A petty office of police would have +relieved the persecuted—a court of law would have redressed the +rob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_692" id="Page_692">[Pg 692]</a></span>bery. <i>Monomania</i> had been known to instigate persons to a line of +conduct as perseveringly painful as this woman pursued; but then there +could be no motive why the object of her attention should, for years, +resign himself to a system of annoyance that drew upon him so much of +remark and obloquy. Or could the female be the hired instrument of +persecution in the hands of others? The poverty, the utter joylessness +of her solitary life, precluded the supposition. No! crime, I felt +convinced—<i>crime</i> was at the bottom of it all! and crime, too, of no +ordinary quality. Was the man intent upon committing some deadly +offence against society? and was it to prevent its commission that he +was so assiduously watched by his companion? Perhaps he meditated +breaking that instinctive canon which the Most High has so wisely +fixed against "self-slaughter." Or had some hideous deed already been +perpetrated? Was it by one, or both? or was one a soul black with +guilt—the other a spirit of innocence? The more I indulged in those +heated fancies, the wilder they became. Was the woman, after all, a +Being endowed with vitality? The suddenness of her first appearance +before the man watching at the gate—the fearful hour—the lonely +spot—her noiseless tread—her silent demeanour—her sepulchral +dress—almost warranted the contrary opinion. Had she fallen by the +hand of this Maunsell? and was the apparition, which we are told ever +lives by the side of the murderer, thus permitted to haunt him, +embodied before the eyes of men? Such were the troubled thoughts that +disturbed me throughout the night. Long before sunrise I was up, +endeavouring to calm the fever into which I had wrought myself, by +pacing my apartment in the cool of morning. A brilliant sunshine +ushered in the day, and under its enlivening influence my perturbed +spirits gradually subsided to their usual tone. At breakfast, I +confess, I was disposed again to enter on the topic, if an opportunity +occurred; but Sainsbury, occupied in some letters of importance that +had arrived, talked but little, and did not recur to the subject of +the previous evening. This did not assist to allay the interest which +had been so powerfully excited in my bosom. The continuance of my cold +once more served me as a plea for remaining within doors; and, upon +our parting for the day, I did not hesitate to retire to the +dining-parlour, whose windows looked directly on the street, and +there, shutting myself up, I awaited the arrival of the hour at which +the extraordinary pair generally appeared, determined to satisfy +myself by a closer observation than I had hitherto made.</p> + +<p>Exactly as noon sounded, I saw <i>him</i> stop at an opposite door, +and—did I see rightly? Yes—alone. No; I had not approached +sufficiently close to the window; when I did, <i>she</i>, too, was there, +at the same slight distance behind, in the same silent, patient, +motionless attitude. He went on, and, steady as his shadow, she +pursued. I now resolved to see them still closer, and for that purpose +proceeded to the hall-door, where I remained carelessly standing until +the man approached it. I could observe that he walked at an even +deliberate pace; and as he carried none of the cumbrous machinery +distinctive of his craft, his step was steady and unimpeded. He was a +low-sized, well-made man, probably somewhat more than forty years of +age. He was neatly dressed; his attire being a suit of some of those +grave colours and primitive patterns which find so much favour in the +eyes of staid Dissenters, and persons of that class. Indeed, I could +see by his whole deportment, that the occupation he pursued was one of +choice, not of necessity. His features were regular, nor was there in +his countenance any thing remarkable, except that it was pale and +subdued, with a look of endurance which peculiar circumstances perhaps +imparted to it. What I chiefly noticed, was an evident consciousness +about the man that some disagreeable object lurked behind him; and +when I caught his eye, which I did once or twice, I could see in its +glance that he quite understood why my attention was directed to him. +He did not utter a word in my hearing, and there was altogether in his +appearance an air of depression and reserve which still further aided +the impression Sainsbury's story had made on my imagination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_693" id="Page_693">[Pg 693]</a></span> When he +next paused, his short progress brought his attendant close to me—in +every way a more striking and interesting person. She was a woman tall +in stature, of an erect figure, finely proportioned, as well as the +coarse mourning garments and large dark cloak in which she was muffled +allowed me to judge. She must have been, in youth, very handsome; but +on her thin ashen cheek premature age had already made unusual ravage. +She could not, from the unbroken and graceful outline of her form, be +much more than thirty; but her face was marked with the passionate +traces of nearly double that period. Nothing of life I ever beheld +exhibited the paleness—the monumental paleness of that face. On the +brow, on the cheek, all was the aspect of the grave. Yet +life—intenser life than thrills the soul of Beauty in her bridal +bower, dwelt in the working of those thin compressed lips—lurked +beneath those heavy downcast lids, burned in those dark wild eyes, +whose flashes I more than once arrested ere she passed from before me. +Writing at the interval of time I now do, and disposed as I am to deal +severely with the fantastic imaginations of my youth, I have not in +any way exaggerated the appearance this singular female exhibited. +Should the reader suspect me of such an error, a moment's reflection +will convince him that she who could—from whatever motive it might +be—adopt the strange purpose to which she had devoted her solitary +life, must have been characterized by energies of mind that would of +necessity have filled and informed her frame, and imparted to her an +air that altogether distinguished her from ordinary persons. I +observed that she seemed wholly regardless of what was passing around +her, appearing to be entirely absorbed in one great duty—the business +of her existence—that of attending on the individual whose steps she +so closely followed. He made no movement that, I thought, escaped her. +Insensible, apparently, to every thing else, her glance showed that +never for a moment did she cease to watch him, eager, my fancy +suggested, to catch the slightest indication of his turning round and +encountering her gaze. If so, her vigilance, as long as I beheld the +Pair, was in vain. The man never ventured to look behind him. In half +an hour they had vanished from the street.</p> + +<p>They re-appeared in the evening again as usual, and then, and for +several subsequent days, (for I did not feel well enough to undergo +some twenty or thirty hours' sea-sickness in the packet that offered +the Saturday after my arrival,) I took a morbid and eager pleasure in +awaiting the visits and observing the motions of those inscrutable +beings. Sainsbury and his son were amused, but not surprised, at the +anxiety I evinced to obtain a nearer insight into Maunsell's history. +My curiosity and vigilance were, however, fruitless. The Pair +performed their revolutions with a cold uniformity, a silent +perseverance, that I found sufficiently monotonous; and at length, +after one or two baffled attempts to engage the man in conversation, +and which never proceeded beyond a few common-place words, (about his +companion there was a something indefinable that prevented me from +ever addressing <i>her</i>,) I relinquished any further hope of penetrating +the mystery. Towards the close of my stay, and as my indisposition +wore away, the Sainsburys complimented me by giving one or two +dinner-parties, and these, with some morning visits and rambles with +the men I met at the house, served to draw my attention from the +matter; so that by the time I had fairly embarked on board the +<i>Blitzen</i>, bound for Helvoetsluys, the circumstances which had +occupied me so intently for the last fortnight were beginning to take +their place among the remembrances of the past.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></h4> + +<p>The passage to the Dutch coast, and my journey onward to Heidelberg, +were performed without interruption, and were unenlivened by any +incident that deserves relating. As it is not my intention to dwell +upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_694" id="Page_694">[Pg 694]</a></span> vicissitudes of my career at the high school and university, +I shall merely say that, attending very little to the conventional and +arbitrary distinctions by which the students of Germany choose to +classify themselves—caring still less for <i>chores</i>, <i>brand-foxes</i>, +and <i>Burschenschafft</i>, and nothing at all for noisy suppers and their +drunken <i>refrain</i>—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Toujours fidèle et sans souci</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">C'est l'ordre du Crambambuli!"—</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>I very earnestly bent myself to second the intentions of my father. +For three years, diligently and indefatigably, I pursued a course of +severe application to long-neglected studies, which enabled me fairly +to redeem the time I had squandered in early youth. Nor is it unworthy +of remark, that, as is often the case with imaginative people, the +temptations which had appeared so inviting when beheld from a +distance, failed in their powers of allurement on a nearer approach. +The Spirit of the Brocken and I made no advances in intimacy, and I +rode through the Black Forest without a desire to enroll myself +amongst its freebooters.</p> + +<p>The fourth year of my stay at Heidelberg was drawing to a close, when, +in pursuance of arrangements entered into with my father, I returned +to England. Upon reaching London, I drove to my kind friends at +Walworth, where I experienced the same ready welcome as before, +accompanied by many congratulations upon my academical success, of +which they had heard from time to time from my family. It was the +middle of winter—the second or third week in December—when London +exhibits all that joyous bustle of plenteousness and good cheer, +amidst which its citizens celebrate the festival of Christmas. As Mrs +Sainsbury and her daughters were now at home, I was easily prevailed +on to prolong my visit for a few days before I departed for +Lincolnshire. The moment I entered the house, the rooms and their +associations recalled to me forcibly the mysterious Pair, whose +proceedings had filled my mind with so much of curiosity and interest +when I was last a sojourner in the abode. During my residence in +Germany I had not forgotten them; and although the austerity of my +pursuits in that country had schooled my fancy to a soberer pace, I +could not forbear from enquiring, in one or two letters which I had +occasion to write to the younger Sainsbury, whether the milkman of +Walworth and his Shadow still pursued their rounds uninterrupted, or +if any thing had transpired that could enlighten our conjectures on +their history. My correspondent always neglected, or forgot, to +satisfy me in this particular; and it was therefore with something, I +am ashamed to say, nearly approaching to anxiety, that on the morning +after my arrival—for the gay variety of the social circle had +monopolized my attention until then—I once more, after so long an +interval, seated myself in the library window, under pretence of +seeking a passage in Herder, which I had quoted for Julia Sainsbury +the preceding evening, and awaited the hour of noon.</p> + +<p>And there, before the clock of the neighbouring church had ceased +striking, with the selfsame step, in the same subdued attire in which +I saw him four years ago, came gliding up the street the dark, sullen +milkman; and there, too, close behind him as ever, followed his +shadowy companion! It is in vain to deny it. I could feel my heart +beating audibly when I beheld them, as if they were unsubstantial +visitants, whose appearance I expected the grave would have +interdicted from my eyes for ever. It was a dim, bitter, wintry day, +and showers of sleet were drifting heavily on the fierce and angry +wind, soaking the man's garments through and through, and sweeping +aside the thin habiliments of the female, as though they would tear +them from her slender form, and leave it a prey to the keen wrath of +the elements. Yet the Pair passed upon their way, seemingly regardless +of weather that had banished all other creatures from the streets. As +they stopped beneath the window where I sat, I scrutinized them +eagerly, to see whether time, or toil, or the terrors of such winters +as that now raging, had wrought the work of ruin I would have expected +in their frames. In that of the woman there was but little alteration. +She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_695" id="Page_695">[Pg 695]</a></span> was thinner and paler perhaps, and the poorness of her dress +betokened no doubt an increase in her sufferings and privations; but +her glance, when I could catch it, had more of fiery blackness: her +mouth more of compressed determination than when I formerly beheld +her. But in Maunsell there was a striking change: his figure was +stooped, his cheek hollow, his eye sunk; in a word, his aspect now +bore the signs of that mental misery which, on an earlier occasion, I +had looked for in one subjected like him to such long, and steady, and +undying persecution. Mournful beings! I internally exclaimed, as they +proceeded from my sight, whatever sinful sorrow thus serves to link +together your discordant existences, it must indeed be of a damning +nature, if such a career as yours does not go far to expiate it!</p> + +<p>That day, on the re-assembling of the family, I did not fail to allude +to the subject of the milkman, and to express my surprise at his +tenacity to life, as well as at the fixedness of purpose that enabled +him to pursue his occupation through a long series of years, under +such remarkable circumstances. I found, however, that the ladies only +smiled at the interest which my manner exhibited; some of them +assuring me, at the same time, that the neighbourhood was now so +accustomed to the matter, that, although calculated to arrest the +attention of a stranger, to them it had ceased to be either a source +of curiosity or enquiry. I believe they added, that of late the man's +health had begun to fail, and that once or twice, when he happened to +be confined from indisposition, his companion's visits were +interrupted by the occurrence, although she still kept her vigilance +in exercise by watching unremittingly for his re-appearance.</p> + +<p>After a few pleasant days passed in London, I proceeded to +Lincolnshire, and had the happiness of finding my family well when I +arrived at home. My father was quite satisfied with the letters I +conveyed from Professor Von Slammerbogen; my mother delighted to +receive me in any character, whether that of pedant or prodigal. +Nicholas, my elder brother, I found as much attached, as when I left +him, to practising "Dull Care", upon the violin. In Tom, however, +there was a considerable modification, he having left his sinister arm +at Hougomont, in exchange for a three months' campaign in country +quarters and a Waterloo medal. In the following term I entered at +Cambridge, as my father had originally planned; and in due time, upon +obtaining my degree, was admitted into holy orders. My first curacy, +it is singular enough, was obtained through the influence of our +friend the Walworth banker, and was that of St ——'s, in his +neighbourhood, but nearer to town, and the centre of a poor but +densely peopled district. The scene of life I now entered upon was +truly laborious and painful. Resolved to perform its duties diligently +to the best of my ability, I found every moment I could spare from +refreshment and sleep hardly sufficient for the claims which the +Comfortless, whom I had to console, the Sick, whom I had to succour, +the Profligate, to reclaim, the Sceptic, to convince, made upon my +time. Wholesome and profitable to my spirit, I trust, was this +discipline! It seems to me a thing inexplicable, how a man can +advocate the interests, the benefits of religion—can impress upon +others the divine precepts of Christianity, and be himself not a +partaker in the blessings he imparts. Such a one, I hope, I have long +ceased to be; and although I do not profess to have attained that +degree of zealous fervour and devotion, which sees, in the light and +graceful relaxations of life nothing but the darkness and allurements +of sin, I humbly believe I have endeavoured to make my course, as much +as in me was possible, conformable to the doctrines I have taught.</p> + +<p>Upon settling in London, I gladly renewed my acquaintance with the +Sainsburys; yet so arduous were the duties of my profession, that, for +the first two years in which I resided in St ——'s parish, I saw but +little of this amiable family. Towards the close of that period, the +aid of an additional curate, appointed to assist in the district, +afforded me a little more leisure time, and I was enabled occasionally +to spend an evening at Walworth. In passing to and from my friend's +house, I now and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_696" id="Page_696">[Pg 696]</a></span> met, and ever with renewed interest and +surprise, the dark <span class="smcap">Pair</span> still plodding their melancholy, interminable +rounds. The last time I beheld them, I remember calculating, as they +passed me, the number of years they had been thus incomprehensibly +associated, and speculating on how many more should elapse before age +and death terminated that melancholy partnership. In about two months +after, I dined at the banker's, and the first intelligence with which +John Sainsbury greeted me, was the news that the milkman of Walworth +and his companion had at length disappeared. Maunsell, he said, had +died some weeks before, after a couple of days' illness. No one seemed +to know of what disorder—general debility, it was thought; no doctor +had been called in; and not having left a will, his property went to +some distant relative. With respect to the woman, she was last +noticed, the evening of his death, sitting in the usual spot—within +sight of the gateway leading to his house—where she generally awaited +his appearance. She was not there the following morning; nor was she +seen again. As the deceased had made no disclosure respecting her, nor +left any papers that could tend to explain their connexion, all +chance, it was concluded, of clearing up the mystery was at an end for +ever. I confess this disappointed me not a little. I found I had, +whenever the strange Pair occurred to my recollection, unconsciously +entertained a conviction that I should, at some period or other, learn +their history; and now that all opportunity of so doing had vanished, +the fancies of my early youth again returned, and occupied me with +their wild suggestions for a longer time than was either pleasing or +justifiable. The coincidence, however, which had brought me so often +into contact with those singular persons, was not fated as yet to +discontinue.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></h4> + +<p>It was, I think, about half a year from this period, that, in +returning late one evening from the neighbourhood of Russell Square, +where my father, during a short visit he was compelled to make to +town, had taken lodgings, I missed my way, and got entangled in the +intricacies of the numerous narrow streets and alleys that lie between +that quarter of London and the eastern end of Holborn. Intending to +avail myself of some of the public conveyances homewards, I had +attempted to shorten my passage to the great thoroughfares, and in +doing so had thus gone astray. As it was past ten o'clock I was +necessarily hurried, and yet the heat and heaviness of the night—it +was July—prevented me freeing myself as rapidly as I should otherwise +have done from the squalid and disagreeable avenues in which I had got +entangled. I was just pausing to enquire my way of a slatternly-looking +woman, who stood considerably in front of the door of a dirty-looking +house in one of the dirtiest lanes I had yet explored, and who, with an +apron thrown round her shoulders, to supply, it seemed to me, the absence +of their appropriate garments, appeared, from the direction of her looks, +to be awaiting some one's arrival, when a lad hastened up the opposite +side of the alley, and breathlessly announced to her, that "the docther +wouldn't come 'thout he first got his fee."</p> + +<p>"Holy Mary, mother of ——! Oh, wisha, what <i>am</i> I to do!" exclaimed +the woman in a strong Irish accent, with that elision of apostrophe +into complaint peculiar to her country.</p> + +<p>"If she goes on this way till mornin', two men wouldn't hould her, let +alone one <i>colleen</i>.[<a href="#f1">1</a><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1"></a>] Run, Micky, to the 'seer, an' let him get her +to the hospiddle, or my heart 'll be broke from her."</p> + +<p>"How dove I know where the 'seer lives at this hour o' the night?" +expostulated the boy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[Pg 697]</a></span>"There's a wake in Tim Reilly's second floor—can't you go there, and +they'll tell you—can't you?"</p> + +<p>The messenger disappeared, and I now, before putting the question for +which I had stopped, asked the woman soothingly the cause of her +perturbation.</p> + +<p>"Is it what's the matther, sir? Matther enough thin—a poor crethur of +a woman lodgin' with me is took very bad with the fever. She wasn't to +say so bad entirely till this evenin', when she begin to rave, and +'sist upon gettin' up; an' goin' on with terrible talk, that it would +frighten the heart o' you to hear her."</p> + +<p>"How long," I said, "has she been ill?"</p> + +<p>"Wisha, sir, she was never well since the day she darkened my dure; +but I think 'tis the heat o' the weather, an' her never stirrin' out, +an' the weakness entirely, an' the impression on her heart, that is +killin' her now."</p> + +<p>"And has she had no advice?"</p> + +<p>"Sorrow the 'vice—you'd think she'd go into fits when I mentioned a +docther to her; and as to a priest or a ministher—my dear life, I +might as well mention a blunderbush."</p> + +<p>Well accustomed to hear of, and witness, such suffering as the woman +described, I was about to proceed in quest of a physician myself, if +she had paused in the first part of the sentence just finished. The +concluding remarks arrested me.</p> + +<p>"I am a clergyman," I said; "will you let me see this poor person?"</p> + +<p>"An' a thousand welcomes, sir. I know you're not the Revern' Misthur +Falvey, that I goes to a' Christmas an' Easther—nor the ministher +convenient here. Maybe you're"——</p> + +<p>"I'm quite unknown here; but by allowing me to see your patient, I +shall be able to judge if she is in a fit state to be removed to an +hospital; or, if instantly necessary, I shall myself procure medical +advice for her."</p> + +<p>The woman entered the house and I followed her, waiting, as she +requested me, in the dark entry, until she procured from the sick +chamber the only light that I presume was burning in the dwelling. She +then re-appeared at the head of the stairs, and requested me to +ascend.</p> + +<p>Lighting me up four ruinous flights of steps, leading to rooms that +appeared to be tenanted by beings as miserable as herself, she ushered +me into an apartment of such large dimensions that the weak rushlight +she carried left its extremity in absolute darkness. It was wretchedly +furnished. At the farthest end from the door was a bed, by the side of +which stood a coarse-looking girl about fifteen, engaged in +preventing—now by soothing, now by forcible restraint—the invalid +who occupied it from attempting to rise.</p> + +<p>"Not another moment—not one moment longer! I <i>must</i> get up—he is +waiting for me! See! I am late already, for 'tis daybreak—though you +cannot see the dawn through that dismal rain. Let me go—wretch, +wretch!—let me go; he shall not stir one step that I won't be near +him to remind him of"——</p> + +<p>Leaving the candle near the door, my guide approached the bed, and +beckoned me to follow. I advanced, and even through the misty shadows +that enveloped the place, I recognised, in the emaciated Form +struggling on the couch, her wild flashing eyes now wilder with fever +and insanity, the well-remembered wanderer who had so often excited my +interest in Walworth.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" she continued, after stopping suddenly, as lunatics will do when +a stranger unexpectedly appears, and intently observing me for some +minutes. "Ha! I knew I was late—see there. <i>He</i> has come to seek me, +for the first time, too, for seventeen—eighteen-oh! so many long +years. Ha, ha! all in black, too—Barnard—and you've brought your +wealthy bride"—and she glanced at the woman, who stood beside me; +"but, faugh, how her limbs rattle—not a whole bone," she said, with a +hysterical laugh, "in her beautiful body!"</p> + +<p>In this way she continued to rave, during the short time I remained in +the apartment. I attempted to ask her a few questions, to ascertain, +if possible, how far the distraction of her mind was consequent upon +her disorder; but her only replies were mad and incoherent allusions +to past scenes and occurrences, that seemed entirely to engross her +attention. Finding my presence of no avail, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[Pg 698]</a></span> quitted the place, and +was about to deposit a small sum with the hostess for the sufferer's +use, when she very ingenuously informed me it was not at the moment +necessary, that person herself having always, in the payment of her +weekly rent, entrusted to her hands money sufficient to supply the +wants of several ensuing days.</p> + +<p>"An' though we're sometimes bad enough off, sir, when the boys don't +get the work at Mr Cubitt's, still, shure, if I was to wrong a poor +sickly crethur like that of her thrifle of change, 'twould melt away +the weight o' myself in goold if I had it."</p> + +<p>I could not help smiling at this unwonted display of honesty in so +unexpected a quarter, and promising her that such care and attention +to her sick tenant should not go unrewarded, I departed, escorted by +"Micky," who had returned to say that no intelligence of the 'seer was +to be obtained at Tim Reilly's. On making our way into Holborn, I +called at the nearest surgeon's, and, giving him my address, I +dispatched him back with the boy, directing him, at the same time, not +to allow the woman to be removed unless her disorder was a contagious +one, (which, I was persuaded, it was not,) and requesting, should the +aid of a physician be necessary, he would at once procure it, for +which, with all other expenses, I would be answerable. Touching this +latter point, the lad had informed me as we came along, that he did +not think their lodger was at all at a loss for money, as she procured +it about once a-month, he thought, (the only time she ever went +abroad,) from some "gentleman's office in the coorts."</p> + +<p>Although living at such a distance, I contrived to see the unfortunate +invalid several times in the following week. I found I was right as to +the nature of her disorder. An eminent physician had been called in +once or twice during its most violent paroxysms, and stated, that it +was likely her malady was not the cause, but the consequence, of some +extraordinary mental excitement. Under the judicious treatment he +pointed out, the fever gradually subsided, and for a short time there +was an appearance in the patient of returning convalescence. But her +physical energies were exhausted, and it was evident that a very short +period would terminate her existence. Reason, too, never wholly +resumed its functions, if indeed it had ever of late years exercised +them in that wearied brain. Her ideas assumed a certain degree of +coherency. She was able to converse occasionally with calmness, to +recognise faces familiar to her, and appeared sensible of and even +grateful for my visits, and the assiduity with which I sought to +awaken her to some preparation for the great approaching change; but</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"the delicate chain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of thought, once tangled, never clear'd again:"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>never <i>wholly</i> cleared. The lightning of insanity flashed continually +from the heavy cloud that hung upon her soul. The allusions, too, she +was in the habit of making to some transactions of bygone years, were +of so startling a nature, that I was fully confirmed in my early +impression she had been at one time of her life implicated in some +wonderful, nay, heinous occurrence. Upon this point it was my +intention, if possible, to win her gradually to confide to me the +secret of her guilt or wrongs, hoping by this means to relieve her +spirit by seeming to share in its burdens and distress.</p> + +<p>With the quick perception of persons labouring like her under mental +aberration, she seemed to anticipate my purpose. I was one morning +sitting by her bedside, when she suddenly began—</p> + +<p>"You asked me yesterday if I remembered having ever seen you before +this illness—this late attack—and I said no. It was false. I spoke +as I thought at the time; but, in looking at you now, I recollect you +were one of those people I often met at Walworth. I even think you +once attempted to get into <i>his</i> confidence—(now, do not interrupt +me.) You likewise desired to know why one like me, who appears +superior in mind and language to the wretched class amongst whom you +find her, should have led the life——Stay! send for a sheriff's +officer, and I will tell you."</p> + +<p>I assured her I saw no necessity at that moment for the presence of +such a person; and, as she appeared some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_699" id="Page_699">[Pg 699]</a></span>what more excited than I had +seen her for several days, I endeavoured to lead her away from the +subject that occupied her, by turning the conversation to some +indifferent topic. But it would not do. She still reverted to the +point at which she had broken off; and I was at length obliged to let +her pursue the course of her own thoughts as she pleased.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever think me handsome? Many once thought me so; but that is +long ago. My father was still handsomer. He was the younger of two +brothers, both wealthy. They were plain Devonshire farmers—each, too, +was a widower, with each a daughter. So far for their likeness to one +another. Now for the contrast. My father spent his wealth, died, and +left me a beggar. <i>Her's</i> (my pretty cousin Martha's) saved it, and +left his child an heiress—a Temptation—a prize for all the bumpkins +and graziers about us. I was glad to live with her. We kept house +together. We were both of an age—young, handsome, lively, and for our +station, or rather for a higher one, well educated. Here again ceased +the resemblance. Like my father, I was open, guileless, +unsuspecting—and it destroyed me. She was mean, cunning, treacherous, +and would—but <span class="smcap">hell</span> was too strong for her—have triumphed. My cousin +had numerous offers of marriage. I had none. Among several young men +who frequented our society, was a substantial farmer named Barnard. +You have seen him. When you first beheld him he was little altered. He +had ever that cursed look of Cain upon his forehead, though I branded +it a little deeper. Do not thus stop me!—breath!—I have breath +enough. Barnard was gay, smooth, agreeable—what was more, he was <i>my</i> +suitor—the only one amid throngs that was attentive, kind, obliging +to me. I felt first grateful, and next loved him—you shall hear <span class="smcap">how well</span>.</p> + +<p>"Our match began to be talked of. Martha from some whim disapproved of +it. He ceased to visit at the house—but I would not give him up; and +while he contemplated, as I thought, arrangements for our marriage, we +often met alone. Judgment is over with him now—mine is at hand, and I +will not load him with guilt that, after all, may not be his. He was +the only being that cared for me on earth, and I clung to him with a +tenfold affection. How do I know but it was this mad confidence that +first awoke the villain in his soul? That wine"—</p> + +<p>I held the glass to her lips; and, while I wiped the damp drops of +agony from her brow, I besought her to defer the sequel of her story +until she was more capable of pursuing it.</p> + +<p>"No," she said; "it must be now, or not at all. I am stronger than I +have been for months to-day. Where was I?—Stealing back day after day +to Martha's, a trampled, but not an unhoping spirit; for I still +looked forward to <i>his</i> fulfilling his promise. He once more was a +visitor at our house. I did not know why—I did not care—he was +there, and I was satisfied: I had no eyes for any thing else. But the +blow was coming. It fell—it smote us all to dust.</p> + +<p>"I was one morning occupied alone in some domestic duty, when I heard +Barnard's name pronounced by two female servants of our farm, who were +employed in the next apartment. I listened—poor souls! they were +merely agreeing 'how natural it was for Mr Barnard to have jilted +Miss—(but let my very name be unpronounced)—and taken up with Miss +Martha, who had all the fortune.' Was it not a natural remark? So +natural, that every being in the country had already made it but her +whose heart it broke to hear it. I rushed from the spot, a mist +spreading before my eyes as I hastened on. I sought out Barnard; I +found him, and alone. I told him of the report I had overheard. He +said it was not new to him. I charged him with perfidy—he avowed it. +Half-dreaming, I attempted to catch his hand. He coolly withdrew it. I +knelt before him—I clasped his knees—I wept, and prayed he would +bless me by treading me to death beneath his feet. He extricated +himself with a laugh, bid me not be a fool, and left me.</p> + +<p>"Before I rose from the spot where I had fallen, a dreadful shadow +passed, as it were, suddenly across me, and some black passion I had +never known till then took possession of my spirit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_700" id="Page_700">[Pg 700]</a></span> It +was <span class="smcap">jealousy</span>. +I returned home, and hastened to have an interview with Martha. +Hitherto I had been of a quiet, timid disposition—I was now bold from +frenzy and betrayed affection. I upbraided my cousin with duplicity, +with meanness in receiving the addresses of the man betrothed to her +relative. She retorted by drawing comparisons between our attractions, +personal as well as pecuniary. At these I smiled—bitterly perhaps, +but still I smiled. She scoffed at my pleas that Barnard was my +affianced husband, declared her intention of marrying him, and ended +by insinuating that I had lost him by the very unguardedness of my +affection. I never smiled again.</p> + +<p>"I was mad from that day forward. My whole existence changed. I was a +dissembler—a liar—for my life was a long lie—and, come near—I <i>am</i> +a murderer. I lived blindly on—a day was fixed for their +marriage—but, though I knew not <i>how it was to be</i>—I knew another +would never stand at the altar as his bride.</p> + +<p>"She and I had apparently been reconciled—I saw Barnard no more, save +in her presence—I lulled them both into a belief that I was a poor, +trodden, and stingless thing.</p> + +<p>"The Sunday preceding the wedding-day arrived. It was a lovely evening +in summer, and Martha and he and I wandered far away into the +fields—they to taste the freshness of nature, I, to wonder the +flowers did not wither beneath our tread; for we were all alike evil +and abandoned. In our way, we visited a mill that was soon to become +the property of Barnard in right of his bride. In passing through the +different lofts into which it was divided, we paused in one to admire +the immense and complicated machinery connected with the great wheel +that worked the manufactory. Martha, ever capricious and perverse, +wished to see the engine set in motion. But there was not a +servant—not a creature, save ourselves—within a mile of the spot at +the moment. Barnard, however, volunteered to go to the mill-dam +outside, and, on a signal from us, to undo the wicket that kept back +the waters from the wheel. I watched him from the window till he took +his station at the spot. Just then Martha, who, with perverse +inquisitiveness, had been standing caged within the iron framework of +the engines, in hastening to leave it missed her footing, and stumbled +backward again within its circle. A streak as of fire flashed through +the place. I waved my hand; there was the sudden rush of tumbling +water, a faint shriek, and then the roar and thunder of the enormous +wheels hurrying on, grinding and tearing her to pieces. And then came +the horrorstruck look of Him, crying out to Heaven in his vain +impotency, and my own mad laughter, ringing high over it all!</p> + +<p>"His consternation and despair—his wild attempts to stay the progress +of the crashing machinery—his wrath at my exultation—only raised me +to a higher state of frenzy—that frenzy of heart and brain that never +went from me more. I hollowed in his ear how I had done it—and when +he flung himself on the ground in a passion of remorse and grief, I +danced round him, proclaiming my hate and guilt, and summoning him to +give me up to justice. It was now his turn to quiver under the lash of +conscience. He accused himself of the ruin I had wrought—acknowledged +his falsehood—cried aloud for mercy—and still I exulted with a +fiercer laughter, with a louder demand that he would give me to the +gibbet. He endeavored to fly from the spot. I pursued him. <span class="smcap">I never +left him again</span>. There was a long illness—a blot upon my memory. I +cannot tell you any thing of its duration. <i>Her</i> remains were +found—there was an enquiry—he was the only witness—he kept <i>our +secret</i>. On my recovery, I found he had sold his property, and +departed to some distant quarter in the north of England. I tracked +him there. I had vowed to haunt his soul with the memory of my crime, +until he surrendered me to justice. He sought to shun me, by changing +his name and removing from one place of residence to another; but in +vain. My revenge was as hard and cruel as his own look on the morning, +in his orchard, when he spurned me fainting from his feet. Go where he +would, I pursued. At last he settled near London—in that place where +you first beheld us. You know the rest of our career. If guilt can be +atoned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_701" id="Page_701">[Pg 701]</a></span> for by <i>human</i> suffering—the wrath of years—the raging +wind—the scorching sun—ruined youth—premature age—privation, +misery, madness, and hate, have well atoned for ours. You shake your +head. It is not so? Well, you were the first to teach me to vent my +burning thoughts in prayer. Pray with me now. I seem to have lived all +my evil passions over again in this last hour. Do not leave me yet, +but—pray!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Such was the disastrous tale imparted to me in almost the last +interview I had with its hapless narrator. Either the recollections +she had lived through, as she said, in so short a space, or the +exertions caused by its recital, were too much for her enfeebled +intellect. Delirium shortly after returned, and continued to within a +few hours of her dissolution, which occurred on the evening of the +following day. I was present when she expired. She instructed me where +to find the agent, who paid her a small stipend derived from a distant +relative, (to whom, by her uncle's will, his property descended,) that +I might apprise him of her death. She was quite sensible at the awful +moment; and there is still a hope mingled with the melancholy +remembrance that her last entreaty to me was—to "<span class="smcap">pray</span>!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INJURED_IRELAND" id="INJURED_IRELAND"></a>INJURED IRELAND.</h2> + + +<p>The miseries of the Irish people, and the oppressions under which they +groan, form the topics of conversation in every quarter of the +globe—you hear of them at Rome and at Constantinople—they are +discussed on the prairies of Texas and in the wilds of the Oregon—in +Paris and at Vienna you are bored by their constant repetition. The +"smart" American contributes his dollars, and the "pious Belgian"[<a href="#f2">2</a><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1"></a>] +his prayers, to effect their redress; and they have fairly driven from +the field of compassion all sympathy for the plundered Jews and +persecuted Poles. The restless Frenchman speculates on them as the +certain means by which England may be humiliated; and impatiently +awaits the moment when, under the guidance of the young De Joinville, +fifty thousand of "les braves" may be thrown on the coast of Ireland, +and take advantage of the national disaffection, for the double +purpose of mortally wounding his ancient enemy, and of giving, as a +boon to its oppressed inhabitants, that liberty of which he talks so +much and knows so little. Doubtless the sufferings of this <i>patient</i> +people have, before now, drawn tears from the sensitive eyes of "the +brother of the sun;" and the "sagacious and enlightened Lin" has +already suggested to his celestial master the propriety of dispatching +some of his invincible war-junks to effect the liberation of the +degraded slaves of the "red and blue devils" who have so cruelly +annoyed him. Every one has heard, and every one talks, of Irish +grievances; but no one seems to know exactly what those grievances +are: their existence appears to be so unquestionable, that to dispute +it is not only useless but almost disreputable; and yet if one venture +to enquire of those who declaim most loudly against them wherein they +consist, they limit themselves to generalities, and quote the admitted +state of the country as proof positive of English injustice and Saxon +misrule.</p> + +<p>That the inhabitants of distant countries should believe what they +hear so constantly asserted, cannot be a matter of much surprise; nor +that the enemies of England and of order should credit what it suits +their inclinations to believe; but that those who live close to the +scene of such grievous inflictions—that those who are the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_702" id="Page_702">[Pg 702]</a></span>fellow-subjects of the oppressed, and who may be said to be the +instruments whereby those enormities are perpetrated—should take for +granted all they hear stated, without endeavouring to discover the +truth of those assertions or the extent of their own culpability, does +seem to us almost incredible. Yet so it is. Irish grievances are now +in fashion. The most glaring fabrications are swallowed with anxiety +if they only profess to be recitals of Irish sufferings; and the +British people seem ready to yield to the clamours of mendacious and +designing demagogues, measures not only detrimental to the interests +of the country for whose welfare they profess so much anxiety, but +absolutely ruinous to the glory and the power of their own.</p> + +<p>We will not stop here to discuss the benefits which we are told would +accrue to the Irish nation from the success of a measure which never +can be carried while Ireland holds loyal subjects, or Britain has an +arm to wield; but we shall at once proceed to ascertain if those +glaring injustices, which make us the world's table-talk, really +exist, and if the admitted misery of the Irish people can, with truth, +be attributed to the unjust or partial legislation of the British +Parliament.</p> + +<p>We do not seek to deny, that the interests of Ireland have not been +neglected or unfairly dealt by, in former times. With that we have +nothing now to do; we take the existing state of things, and we +maintain, and will, we trust, convince our readers, that instead of +being oppressed or wronged by legislative enactments, Ireland is (as +matters are at present managed) greatly favoured, and that instead of +complaining of injustice, her inhabitants should be most grateful for +the exemptions which are granted them, and for the fostering care +which a Conservative government has extended, and is still anxious to +extend to them.</p> + +<p>In supporting our view of the case, we shall appeal to facts—facts +which, if untrue, can easily be refuted; and first, we shall apply +ourselves to the amount of taxation imposed on Ireland by the Imperial +Parliament. <i>The Irish people are exempt from every species of direct +taxation!</i> and their indirect taxes are not more than those to which +the inhabitants of England and Scotland are subject. Thus, while the +English and Scotch gentleman is taxed for his servants, his carriages, +his horses, his dogs, and his armorial bearings—and, in addition, +pays, in common with the trading and operative classes, his +window-tax—the Irish gentleman and tradesman are totally free from +all such imposts. And though, at first sight, this exemption would +seem to benefit only the wealthier classes, still when we find, as is +certainly the case, that it enables the Irish gentry to keep much +larger establishments than men of similar fortune could attempt to do +in this country; that consequently more persons are employed as +servants; that it enhances the value of horses by increasing the +demand for them; that it also greatly adds to the number of carriages +used, and, of course, to the employment of the artisan—we must admit +that it has no slight influence on the condition both of the tradesman +and the agriculturist.</p> + +<p>Ireland pays no income-tax! (at least no Irishman need pay it if he +choose to reside at home;) for the Minister and the Parliament, <i>so +hostile</i> to Irish interests, have only subjected the absentees to its +operation; and we find, that in the year ending the 10th October +1844—</p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Taxes"> +<tr> +<td>England and Scotland paid by assessed taxes,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>£4,204,855</td> </tr> +<tr> +<td>By income-tax,</td> +<td> </td> +<td> 5,158,470</td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td>—————</td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Total, </td> +<td>£9,363,325</td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p> +<p>While under those two heads, "<i>injured, persecuted Ireland</i>" paid not +one shilling!</p> + +<p>Thus we see, that a sum of over nine millions is annually levied from +off the inhabitants of the "<i>favoured</i>" portions of the British +empire, towards which "<i>oppressed Ireland</i>" is not called upon to +contribute sixpence!</p> + +<p>It may be said, those taxes only affect the wealthy, and it is not +their grievances which call so loudly for redress; it is the burdens +imposed on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_703" id="Page_703">[Pg 703]</a></span> the poor landholders which demand our attention.</p> + +<p>We have, in a former Number of this Magazine, see Vol. lv. p. 638, +shown that the rents paid for land in Ireland are at least one-third +less than the rents paid in England; (but were it even otherwise, the +right to dispose of property to the best advantage could not be by law +interfered with.) In that article we stated, that in addition to his +rent, the English occupier is subject by law to the payment of tithes, +which in many instances amount to more than the entire rent imposed on +the Irish tenant; and that by recent enactments, the payment of the +Protestant church has been transferred from the Irish tenantry to the +landlords, nine-tenths of whom are Protestants; that the English +tenant pays <i>all</i> the poor-rates, while the Irish tenant is only +called on to pay the <i>half</i>; and that while the former is subject to +county and parochial rates, in addition to turnpikes, which are a +heavy burden, the latter pays only the county cess, the amount of +which depends very much on his own conduct. We cannot, then, discover +that the Irish peasantry are subject to any pecuniary grievances which +legislation has inflicted, or could remove; neither can we perceive +any neglect of their interests evinced by the British Minister or the +Saxon Parliament; but, on the contrary, we see that they have been +specially protected by particular enactments against the payment of +charges to which the occupiers of the other portions of the United +Kingdom are still subject. If the Irish farmers set their faces +against the commission of crime, instead of tacitly, if not openly, +affording protection to the greatest delinquents, it is clear that the +amount of the county cess, <i>the only tax the tenant pays</i>, might be +greatly diminished; the constabulary force might be, under more +favourable circumstances, reduced from nine thousand men (its present +strength) to half that number; and if the people abstained from +houghing the cattle or burning the houses of those who are obnoxious +to them, the county rates would not amount to more than one-third of +the sum at present levied. Thus, then, the amount of the only direct +tax the peasantry have to pay, is mainly dependent on the peaceable +condition of the country: if the people be orderly and obedient to the +laws, its amount is reduced; if otherwise, and they have heavy +assessments to pay, to reimburse those they have injured, no one is to +blame for it but themselves. We would, then, ask any candid man, if it +would be possible for any government to act more leniently towards +Ireland as regards taxation? She is exempt from her proportion of the +nine millions levied from the other portions of the United Kingdom; +and many of the local assessments to which her inhabitants are +subject, were, by special enactments, removed from the shoulders of +the occupiers of the soil, and placed on those of the proprietors.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, under the head of taxation, no injustice can be said to be +committed.</p> + +<p>The extent of the Irish representation, and the laws regulating the +elective franchise, both in the cities and counties, form a prominent +portion of Irish grievances; yet if the efficiency of the +representation is to be judged by the influence which it exercises on +the councils of the empire, or the registration laws be tested by the +results which they have produced, the Irish have little reason to +complain of either. The very exemption from taxation to the amount we +have already stated, proves one of two things—either that the British +minister and British representation are peculiarly partial to the +interests of Ireland, (which would destroy the favourite doctrine of +"English hatred and Saxon oppression;") or that the Irish +representation is powerful enough not only to protect their +constituents from injustice, but to secure them peculiar advantages. +That the amount of representation already enjoyed by Ireland is <i>at +least</i> sufficient for all constitutional purposes, cannot be doubted; +for every one knows that by the Radical portion of it alone, an +administration odious to the people of Great Britain, and rejected by +their representatives, was for years kept in office, and that through +its instrumentality both Whig and Tory ministers have been compelled +to abandon measures which they believed to be beneficial, and which +they brought forward in a spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_704" id="Page_704">[Pg 704]</a></span> of good feeling, and with a desire +to promote the best interests of the country.</p> + +<p>In the first Parliament elected under the Reform Bill, and after the +system of registration now complained of came into operation, the +Irish representation consisted of</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Liberals, 74</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Conservatives, 31</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Now, when it is borne in mind, that beyond all question at least +nine-tenths of the landed property of Ireland is possessed by the +Conservative party, and that that party was able to secure to itself +little more than a fourth of the representation, it must be admitted +that numbers told, and that the mass was represented in a ratio beyond +what the constitution contemplates. So far, then, as relates to the +laws regulating the elective franchise, if they are to be judged of by +the results which they produced, the Liberal party have nothing to +complain of, and the Roman Catholics still less; of the Radical +majority, they numbered thirty-five, or nearly one-half; and if +eligible men could be had of their body, or if their leaders wished +it, undoubtedly persons of their profession might have been returned +in every instance in which liberal Protestants were seated. They had +the power to effect this: if they abstained from using it, influenced +either by good taste or motives of prudence, they still have no reason +to complain of the law—it placed the power in their hands; their own +discretion alone restrained its exercise.</p> + +<p>The agitators proclaim that their number in Parliament has diminished, +and that they have lost cities and counties, because the constituency +has decreased under the "emaciating influence of the registration +law." It is true the Irish constituency has diminished, and that the +Destructives have lost many places; but the diminution in the +constituency has not been caused by the state of the law—and this +they know full well—but by the disinclination of the respectable +portion of the people to make themselves any longer their tools! Under +the law when first called into operation, the Radicals had an +overwhelming majority. The same men who registered and voted in 1832 +and in 1837, are generally still in existence—the same tenures under +which they registered still continue—the same assistant barristers +before whom they registered (or ones more favourable to their +interests) still preside; it is clear, therefore, that if the people +were inclined to claim the franchise, they have only to take the +necessary steps to secure it—but they won't. They were persecuted +between the priests and their landlords—they see the hollowness of +the agitators, who used them for their own purposes, and then left +them to ruin; and, as the surest way to avoid trouble, they don't +register at all; the landlords not having any influence over their +votes, and not wishing to quarrel with them, don't induce them to do +so—and they have hitherto resisted the efforts of the country agents +of the Corn Exchange. What man of sense would put himself upon the +register, when he well knows that any deviation from the path pointed +out to him by the priest, would not only entail curses and +persecutions on himself, but insult and outrage on the innocent +members of his family? Who would establish his right to vote, when he +would be called on to exercise that right with <i>his grave dug before +his dwelling</i>, and <i>the</i> <span class="smcap">death's head and cross-bones affixed to his door</span>!!</p> + +<p>The assertions of the agitators, that they have lost ground <i>because</i> +the constituencies have been diminished by the operation of the laws +regulating the possession of the elective franchise, is of a piece +with all their other reckless falsehoods; but fortunately it is more +easy of disproof. It does appear by parliamentary returns, that the +Irish constituency has decreased, <i>on the whole</i>, in small degree; but +it is rather curious and unfortunate for those truth-loving gentlemen, +that, in every instance in which <i>they</i> have been beaten, the +constituencies have greatly increased, and that they have only +diminished in those counties in which their interest is +all-powerful.[<a href="#f3">3</a><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1"></a>] For instance, Antrim, in 1832, (when a Liberal was +returned,) had on the register 3487 electors; and, in 1837, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_705" id="Page_705">[Pg 705]</a></span>when a +Conservative was seated, 4079.[<a href="#f4">4</a><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1"></a>]</p> + +<p>Belfast, in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, had 1650; in 1841, +when two Conservatives were elected, 4334.</p> + +<p>Carlow, in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, had 1246; and in +1841, when the Tories beat O'Connell's own son, 1757.</p> + +<p>Down had in 1832, when a Liberal was returned, 3130; and in 1837, when +a Tory was substituted, 3305.</p> + +<p>Dublin County had in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, 2025; and +in 1841, when two Tories displaced them, 2820.</p> + +<p>Dublin City had in 1832, when O'Connell was triumphantly returned, +7008; and in 1841, when he was beaten, 12,290.</p> + +<p>Longford had in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, 1294; and in +1841, when one of them was displaced by a Tory, 1388.</p> + +<p>Queen's County had in 1832, when one Liberal was returned, 1471; and +in 1835, when two Conservatives were elected, 1673.</p> + +<p>Thus we see, by unquestionable proof, that instead of being benefited +by an increase of the constituencies, the cause of the Destructives +has invariably suffered by their enlargement; and yet sure we are, +that most persons on this side the water believe in the truth of the +Liberator's lamentations, and suppose that those patriots who have +been rejected by the votes of the most independent electors and +largest constituencies in Ireland, have lost their seats solely +because the names on the register had been greatly diminished, and the +Liberal portion of the people deprived of their rights, by the +"emaciating influence" of a bad law.</p> + +<p>But if there be defects in the registry laws, who are to blame for +their continuance? The "great grievance" connected with them of which +Mr O'Connell complained, was, "that from the ambiguous wording of the +act, some assistant barristers adopted <i>the solvent tenant test</i>," +instead of "<i>the beneficial interest test</i>,"[<a href="#f5">5</a><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1"></a>] which he and those who +acted with him thought to be its legitimate construction. This +unquestionably would make a vast difference to the claimant; and so +thought Sir Robert Peel. He brought in a bill clearly establishing +"the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_706" id="Page_706">[Pg 706]</a></span>beneficial interest test." And to remedy another objection +founded on the fact of tenants at will in England having the right to +vote, while the Irish law debarred persons similarly circumstanced, he +proposed to give the franchise to all occupiers of certain quantities +of land, merely from the fact of possession;[<a href="#f6">6</a><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1"></a>] and yet Mr O'Connell +was the first to denounce the measure! The agitators complain of +defects in the law, and the minister agrees to amend them; the +patriots claim for the Irish a full equality in the registration law +granted to England, and more is conceded. When headed by their "august +leader," they denounce the redress of those injustices of which they +complained as "An additional insult," and they raise such a clamour +because what they formerly asked for was about to be granted, that the +minister was compelled to succumb, and the bill was withdrawn.</p> + +<p>The next item in the catalogue of grievances is the municipal law. +None has been more frequently or more forcibly dwelt on; its +injustice, and tendency to exclude the "Liberal" inhabitants of the +towns and cities of Ireland from local influence and political power, +form prominent topics in the speeches of every patriot orator. Let us +see with what justice.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that there is considerable Conservative property +and respectability in the Irish corporate towns; and yet what has been +the result of the elections under this municipal law so loudly +declaimed against?—There are thirty-three corporations in Ireland, +all of which, with <i>one solitary exception</i>, (that of Belfast,) are +not only Liberal but downright Revolutionary. The number of the +friends of order in the town-councils is so small, that they can +accomplish nothing. Overwhelming majorities have voted addresses to +the "convicted conspirators," and their mayors formed a deputation to +present them, and proceeded in state to the "dungeon of the martyrs;" +and yet this law, which lays the corporations of Ireland at the feet +of O'Connell, forms "one of the greatest oppressions under which his +devoted country groans." He has unlimited influence in all. What more +would he have? what more could any law give him?</p> + +<p>Men ought to have a little modesty; but the "Liberator" has gained so +much by reckless assertion that he is justified in persevering in its +practice. He has often said, that "he never knew any statement tell, +or any argument, however powerful, attain the desired end, if only +once repeated;" and on this principle he acts. He repeats and repeats +again, in the teeth of contradiction and disproof, what he wishes to +have believed; and the result shows the wisdom of his proceeding. +Those who contradict soon get tired, while, by perseverance, he is +left in full possession of the field.</p> + +<p>It has been said that the Irish Roman Catholics have been debarred, by +the unfair exercise of political patronage, from the attainment of +those offices at the bar and in the administration to which they were +rendered eligible by the Emancipation Act. The Whigs promoted three +Roman Catholics—Mr Shiel, Mr Wyse, and Mr O'Ferrall; these gentlemen +retired with their party, and if Sir Robert Peel offered them place +to-morrow, they would, as a matter of course, refuse it. These are the +only persons of their religion <i>unpledged</i> to "Repeal of the Union" at +present in the House, who would have any claim on the score of +abilities to official station; it surely cannot be expected that a +Conservative minister would give power to men pledged to the +dismemberment of the British empire, and the supporters of a measure +which he has so unequivocally denounced; neither can it be supposed +that any man would be such a fool as to place red-hot Repealers in the +important office of stipendiary magis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_707" id="Page_707">[Pg 707]</a></span>trate, when the wishes of the +government might be thwarted and the safety of the country compromised +by their partisanship.</p> + +<p>The Repealers admit their determination to accomplish the destruction +of "Saxon rule" in Ireland, and at the same time <i>modestly</i> declaim +against the Saxon government, because they will not give them power or +confidential employment, by means of which they might more securely +carry out their intentions. Sir Robert Peel has taken every occasion, +to the great detriment and dissatisfaction of his steadfast +supporters, to give place to such of the Roman Catholic party as were +at all eligible; if the number of such persons be limited, the Roman +Catholics themselves, and not the minister, are to blame.</p> + +<p>As to the bar, the list of Roman Catholics was run out before he came +to power. There was no one amongst them whose standing in his +profession would have at all justified the minister in placing him on +the bench; and he had men of his own party, distinguished for their +acquirements, whose interests he could not overlook, whose claims were +recognised even by Mr O'Connell himself, and whose conduct, since +their promotion, has been unimpeachable.</p> + +<p>The agitators cannot, in justice, blame him for having recourse to the +Conservative bar, for when in trouble they sought protection from its +ranks themselves. Except Mr Shiel, who was merely employed to make a +speech, and whose legal knowledge was never insisted on by his +friends; and Mr <i>Precursor</i> Pigott, who was retained lest a slur +should be thrown on the Whigs—all the leading lawyers who conducted +the defence in the "monster trial" were Protestants and Conservatives +of the highest order.</p> + +<p>But what has this much-abused minister done to conciliate Ireland +since he came to office? He has nearly trebled the grant for national +education, and still continues the system adopted by the Whigs and +patronised by the priests, in opposition to a powerful and influential +portion of his own supporters;—he found a board of charitable +bequests composed altogether of Protestants, and seeing, as he stated, +"that two-thirds of the property they had to administer was Roman +Catholic," he dissolved that board and constituted another, in which +the Roman Catholics have an equality, and may under certain +circumstances have a majority;[<a href="#f7">7</a><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1"></a>]—he found the mortmain laws in +existence, and he repealed them; now any man who wishes may endow the +Roman Catholic church to any extent he pleases. Yet these last +concessions have been denounced by priests and bishops as an +additional insult, as an unjustifiable and tyrannical interference +with their rights. And why? Because Sir Robert Peel clogged the +measure with the condition, that any testator so leaving property +should have his will made and registered three months before his +death. Because he wishes to protect the interests of the Roman +Catholic laity, by securing them against the interference of the +clergy when their relatives are at the point of death, he stirs the +bile and rouses the indignation of ravenous and pelf-seeking +ecclesiastics. He brought in a bill to remedy what was said to be the +great defect in the registration laws, and it was not his fault that +it was not carried; he proposed to extend the franchise, and he was +denounced for doing so by the advocates of universal suffrage; he has +promoted the formation of railways; he has issued a commission to +enquire into the oppressions said to be perpetrated on their tenantry +by the Irish landlords; and he has subjected Irish absentees to the +payment of the property tax.</p> + +<p>Whig promises "in favour of Ireland" were used by Mr O'Connell as +arguments to procure the abatement of the Repeal agitation; although +no man knew better than he did, that if his "base, brutal, and bloody" +friends had even the inclination, they had not the power, to carry out +their intentions. Tory promises of a still more conciliatory nature +are used as a stimulus to its extension; al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_708" id="Page_708">[Pg 708]</a></span>though Mr O'Connell +equally well knows that what Sir Robert Peel promises, his influence +with the English people may probably enable him to accomplish. Ay, but +that is just what the sagacious demagogue wishes to prevent. If his +grievances were removed, the pretence for agitation would be +destroyed. If there be real grievances, and if Mr O'Connell wished to +have then redressed, why not attempt to do so? The ministry are +willing to assist him—the public feeling and the opinion of +Parliament are decidedly in his favour; yet what measures have he or +his followers proposed for the adoption of the legislature? The truth +is, nothing annoys him more than the desire manifested by the premier +and the Parliament to remove all just grounds of complaint, and +therefore it is that he has fixed on "repeal of the union," which he +knows to be impracticable. A man's own interest must be considered, +and "the Liberator" is well aware that, if agitation ceased, the +<i>twenty thousand a-year</i> paid him by the "starving people" as a +recompense for having patriotically rejected an office worth but +<i>five</i>, would cease also.</p> + +<p>We have alluded to the amount of taxation imposed on Ireland, to prove +that injustice is not perpetrated upon her under that most touching +head;—we have exposed the fictitious grievances, and recounted the +measures passed and promised by Sir Robert Peel, to show how +groundless the complaints of the agitators are, and that if there be +wrongs, there is, on his part, a sincere desire to redress them;—and +we have adverted to the manner in which those beneficent acts and +promises, so favourable to their views and injurious to his +administration, have been received by those who profess to be the +friends, and are the leaders, of the people for whose welfare they are +intended—to convince the British minister and the British people of +the absolute impossibility of satisfying men, whose own selfish +interest lies at the bottom of all their actions, and who fabricate +grievances that, under the pretence of seeking their redress, they may +be afforded opportunities of inculcating treason.</p> + +<p>What more is there which can be effected by Parliament which would +better the state of the Irish peasantry, <i>while</i> they suffer +themselves to be made the dupes of every headless demagogue, and while +they, by their own atrocities, drive from amongst them every person +who is willing or able to afford them employment? The existing laws +cannot repress the cruel outrages which they commit. Can an act of +Parliament humanize their minds, or impart mercy to their hearts? The +law cannot fix a maximum for rent; and if it could, it would be only +to increase their turbulence, without any mitigating comforts. Extend +the franchise, it will only enable them to accomplish more political +mischief—for they reject as nothing all measures, however beneficial, +which do not tend to the dismemberment of the empire; endow their +church, and they accuse you of corrupting it; truckle to them, and you +but make them more exacting; coerce them, and you benefit themselves +and save the country.</p> + +<p>That Ireland does labour under evils, no man can doubt; but they are +evils which have grown up under an exploded system, which all modern +legislation has tended to remedy, but which no legislation can at once +remove. The education of the people, heretofore altogether neglected, +is now being attended to; but years will have passed before any +favourable change can be effected through its instrumentality; and if +things be suffered to progress as they have lately done, evil instead +of good must result from the enlightenment of the people by means of a +system which imparts knowledge without inculcating religion. If you +extend their information, and still leave them under the political +sway of those who induce the more ignorant by the most monstrous +promises, and compel the more instructed and better disposed by +unchecked intimidation, to follow in their wake, it is clear that you +but endow the demagogues with more power, and render the enemies of +order more capable of effecting their designs. The memorable +expressions of one who was the champion of a people's privileges and +the victim of their ferocity, are most true, that "to inform a people +of their rights before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_709" id="Page_709">[Pg 709]</a></span> instructing them and making them familiar with +their duties, leads naturally to the abuse of liberty and the +usurpation of individuals; it is like opening a passage for the +torrent before a channel has been prepared to receive, or banks to +direct it."[<a href="#f8">8</a><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1"></a>]</p> + +<p>Yes, Ireland is afflicted by evils, but those evils are created not so +much by the defects of the law, or by the neglect and tyranny of the +better classes, as by the total demoralization of the lower. The Irish +peasant, naturally brave, generous, and faithful, is, by the system +under which he is brought up, rendered cruel, merciless, and +deceitful. There may be, and probably are, hardships inflicted by some +of the landlords; but they are produced in most instances by criminal +and precedent acts on the part of the people. In no country in the +world are the rights of property so ill understood or so recklessly +violated: the industrious man fears to surround his cottage with a +garden, because his fruit and vegetables would be carried off by his +lazy and dishonest neighbours; and he is deterred from growing +turnips, which would add to his wealth, from the certain knowledge +that his utmost care cannot preserve them. Amongst no people on the +face of the earth are the obligations of an oath or the discharge of +the moral duties so utterly disregarded: any man, the greatest +culprit, can find persons to prove an <i>alibi</i>; the most atrocious +assassin has but to seek protection to obtain it. Where in the +civilized world, but in Ireland, can you find a "sliding-scale" of +fees for the perpetration of murder?</p> + +<p>And why is this so? Because the religious instruction of the people +has been totally neglected; because their priests have become +politicians, and stopping at nothing to accomplish their objects, they +teach the peasantry by private precept and example to disrespect and +disregard those doctrines which they publicly inculcate; because their +bishops, pitchforked from the potatoe-basket to the palace, become +drunk with the incense offered to their vulgar vanity, and the +patronage granted in return for their unprincipled political support, +instead of checking the misconduct of the subordinates, stimulate them +to still further violence,[<a href="#f9">9</a><a name="f9.1" id="f9.1"></a>] and stop at nothing which can forward +their objects; because the opinions of the people are formed on the +statements and advice of mendicant agitators who have but one object +in view, their own pecuniary aggrandizement; because a rabid and +revolutionary press, concealing its ultimate designs under the +praiseworthy and proper motive of affording protection to the weak, +seeks to overturn all law and order, and pandering to the worst +passions of an ignorant and ferocious populace, goads them, by the +most unfounded and mischievous statements, to the commission of crime, +and then adduces the atrocity of their acts as a proof of the +injustice of their treatment. Every murder is palliated, <i>because</i> it +arises from "the occupation of land." Every brutal assassination is +paraded as "a fact" for Lord Devon, and is recommended to that +nobleman's attention; not that the helpless and unoffending family of +the victim may be afforded redress, but that the executioner of their +parent may obtain commiseration. No matter what the conduct of the +tenant may have been—no matter what arrears of rent he may have +owed—to evict him is a crime, which, in the eyes of those +unprincipled journalists, seems to justify an immediate recourse to +"the wild justice of revenge." The rights of property are said to be +guaranteed by the law—while the exercise of those rights is rendered +impossible by the combination of unprincipled men, and the force of a +<i>morbid</i> public opinion. He who would think it "monstrous" that a +merchant should be debarred from the right of issuing exe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_710" id="Page_710">[Pg 710]</a></span>cution +against his creditor, shudders with horror at the idea of a landlord +distraining for his unpaid rent. And the individual who delights in +the metropolitan improvements, and glories in the opening of St +Giles's, though it drive thousands of "the suffering poor" at once and +unrecompensed from their miserable abodes, considers the improvement +of an Irish estate as too dearly purchased, if effected by the +expulsion of one ill-conditioned and remunerated ruffian.</p> + +<p>But this morbid public opinion only feels for the lawless, the idle, +and overholding tenant; for the landlord it has no sympathy—<i>he</i> may +be robbed of his rights, he may be unable to educate or support his +family, because he cannot obtain his rents, but his sufferings create +no feeling in his favour; his case forms no fact for Lord Devon. The +accomplished, the well-born, and the good, may be driven from the +homes of their ancestors, and reduced to beggary, because the +dishonest occupiers will neither pay their engagements nor surrender +their lands, and no one laments their fate. The gentleman may be +forced to emigrate, and be sent into exile by his necessities, without +any notice being taken of such an event. But let a tenant who has been +profligate, dishonest, and reduced to poverty by his own misconduct, +be dispossessed of the smallest portion of ground on which he eked out +a wretched existence, and which, if he had it in fee, would not be +sufficient to support his family—let such an one be but dispossessed, +and, even though he be afforded the means of emigrating to countries +where land is plenty and wages remunerative, the "Liberal press" will +teem with "the horrors and the cruelties" of "the Irish system!" +Doubtless it would be most desirable that every man should be +possessed of a sufficiency of land, and that he should (if you will) +have it in fee; but how is this to be accomplished? The Irish +population is too dense to be comfortably supported on the extent of +soil which the country possesses, <i>without</i> the assistance of +manufactures; and the conduct of the people, under the guidance of +their leaders, effectually prevents their establishment. There is but +one way, under existing circumstances, by means of which this happy +state could be produced, and that is by following the example of the +French revolutionists, by cutting the throats or otherwise disposing +of the present proprietors, and then selling to the peasantry at the +moderate prices which were formerly fixed on by the Convention.</p> + +<p>The Irish gentleman is held up to public disapprobation because he has +a lawless and pauper tenantry; and if he attempt to improve their +moral and social condition, by removing the worst conducted, and +enlarging the holdings of the others, so as to enable them to live in +comfort, his conduct is considered still more odious, even though he +send the dispossessed at his own expense to those colonies to which +thousands of the best disposed of the people voluntarily emigrate. +What, in God's name, is he to do? While all remain, it is an absolute +impossibility that good can be effected for any. The evil is +sedulously pointed out, and the only practicable remedy is resisted by +the same persons—the friends, "par excellence," of the people!</p> + +<p>This moral disorganization, and the total disrespect for the rights of +property by which it is accompanied, creates other evils as its +necessary consequences; it produces hostility and ill feeling between +the higher and the lower classes, augments absenteeism, and deprives +the peasantry of the personal superintendence of those who would +really have their interests at heart, and by whose example they would +be benefited. Nor can we be surprised that any person whose +circumstances enables him to do so should reside out of Ireland; when +we see every man of rank and fortune who relinquishes the pleasures of +the capital, and the enjoyments of society, for the purpose of +settling on his estates, and performing his duties, subjected to the +abuse of every scurrilous priest, and the insults of every penniless +agitator. Landlords naturally wish to reside at home where their +possessions, in a wholesome state of society, would secure them local +influence and respect; but unless the Irish gentleman bows to the +dictates of every local representative of the "august leader," he is +deprived of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_711" id="Page_711">[Pg 711]</a></span> both, and risks his personal safety into the bargain. No +men profess to lament absenteeism more than the priests and agitators. +But how do they act? They declare against the non-residence of the +proprietors; but their sole object in doing so is to rouse the +feelings of their auditors, and thus prepare them for the performance +of what they wish them to effect. What encouragement do they or their +creatures afford to such as do return? We like facts. The Marquis of +Waterford, a bold and daring sportsman, boundless in his charities, +frank and cordial in his manners, not obnoxious on account of his +politics, and admitted on all hands to be one of the very best +landlords in Ireland—in fact, just such a character as the Irish +would admire—he comes to reside and spend his eighty thousand a-year +in the country, and how is he treated? He gets up a splendid sporting +establishment in Tipperary; <i>his hounds and horses were twice +poisoned</i>; and this not being found sufficient to drive him from the +neighbourhood, in which he was affording amusement and spending money, +<i>his offices were fired</i>, and his servants with difficulty saved their +lives. Compelled to abandon Tipperary, he betakes himself to his +family mansion in Waterford; and how is he received there? Why, in his +own town and within his hearing, we find the "meek and Christian +priest" addressing his tenants and labourers, the men whom he employs +and supports, after the following fashion:—"Men of Portlan! you were +the leading men who put down the Beresford in '26, (<i>the marquis's +father</i>.) I call on you now, having put down one set of tyrants, to +put down another set of tyrants," (<i>the marquis himself</i>.)[<a href="#f10">10</a><a name="f10.1" id="f10.1"></a>] Does +such conduct (and this is but one instance of many which we could +adduce) evince a desire, on the part of the "pastors of the people," +to encourage the residence of the gentry, or a wish to procure for the +peasantry those blessings which they paint in such glowing terms as +sure to ensue from their landlords living and spending their incomes +amongst them? Much as the priests and agitators declaim against +absenteeism, nothing would be more contrary to their wishes than that +the absentees should return. They have no desire to share their +influence with others; and hence it is that an excuse is always made +for quarrelling with every resident who cannot be made subservient to +their wishes; and while they steadily persevere in their system of +annoyance and offence, they as lustily reiterate their lamentations on +a state of things which their own conduct tends to produce.</p> + +<p>That we are justified in attributing the poverty, the misery, and the +crimes of the Roman Catholic peasantry to the constant state of +agitation and excitement in which they are kept by their leaders, and +the bad example set them by their religious instructors, and not to +any pecuniary burdens (legislative or local) imposed upon them, we can +easily prove, by a reference to the condition of that portion of the +Irish people who are not subject to their control or corrupted by +their influence. It is well known that in the province of Ulster land +fetches at least one-third more rent than in either of the other +provinces, although the quality of the soil is by no means so good. +Yet what is the condition of the people? what their habits? what the +appearance of the country in this less favoured district? We shall let +an authority often quoted by Mr O'Connell answer our question.</p> + +<p>Mr Kohl[<a href="#f11">11</a><a name="f11.1" id="f11.1"></a>] tells us, that "the main root of Irish misery is to be +sought in the indolence, levity, extravagance, and want of energy of +the national character." And again, in passing from that portion of +the country where the majority of the inhabitants profess the Roman +Catholic religion, to that in which the great bulk of the population +are Protestants, or Presbyterians, the same writer says—"On the other +side of these miserable hills, whose inhabitants are years before they +can afford to get the holes mended in their potato-kettles—the most +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_712" id="Page_712">[Pg 712]</a></span>indispensable and important article of furniture in an Irish +cabin—the territory of Leinster ends, and that of Ulster begins. The +coach rattled over the boundary line, and all at once we seemed to +have entered a new world. I am not in the slightest degree +exaggerating when I say, that every thing was as suddenly changed as +if by an enchanter's wand. The dirty cabins by the road-side were +succeeded by neat, pretty, cheerful-looking cottages; regular +plantations, well cultivated fields, pleasant little cottage-gardens, +and shady lines of trees, met the eye on every side. At first I could +scarcely believe my own eyes, and thought that at all events the +change must be merely local and temporary, caused by the better +management of that particular estate. No counter change, however, +appeared; the improvement lasted the whole way to Newry; and, from +Newry to Belfast, every thing continued to show me that I had entered +the country of a totally different people—namely, the district of the +Scottish settlers, the active and industrious Presbyterians."</p> + +<p>Nor can we be surprised at the condition of this unhappy country when +we see the Executive looking quietly on, when the public press has +become the apologist of crime, and public sympathy is enlisted on the +side of the evil-doers.</p> + +<p><i>Four murders</i> have, within the last month, been perpetrated in +Tipperary, which were all but justified by the local papers, <i>because</i> +they were supposed to have been the acts of tenants dispossessed <i>for +non-payment of rent</i>. <i>They</i> excited no horror. A <i>fifth</i> was added to +the bloody catalogue, which roused the indignation of the virtuous +<i>Vindicator</i>;[<a href="#f12">12</a><a name="f12.1" id="f12.1"></a>] and why? <i>Solely because</i> it was the result of a +private quarrel.</p> + +<p><i>"We own,"</i> says this respectable guardian of public morality, "<i>that +such a system of murderous aggression</i> <span class="smcap">as this</span>, <i>remote from any of +those agrarian causes which may account for crime, is calculated to +fill every mind with indignation.</i>"[<a href="#f13">13</a><a name="f13.1" id="f13.1"></a>] Are we not justified in +demanding of the government how long this state of things is to be +permitted to continue? how long the lives and properties of the +respectable and loyal inhabitants of Ireland are to be left at the +mercy and the disposal of a ferocious and bloodstained populace? how +much further open and undisguised treason is to be allowed to proceed?</p> + +<p>The Taleian policy will not answer. Mr O'Connell may abandon his +plans, falsify his promises, and break his most solemn +engagements—but there will be no relief; he will still be supported +so long as his agitation is unchecked—so long as the people think +that through the instrumentality of <i>his</i> measures <i>their</i> designs may +be accomplished. And if, after a further period of excitement, after a +still increasing belief in their own ability to attain the avowed +object of their wishes, "the free possession of the land," the +peasantry should be deserted or betrayed by their leaders, the best +that could then be expected would be the horrors of an unsuccessful +servile war. Mean time the enemies of Great Britain are openly +apprised of the disaffection of the Irish people, who but bide their +time and wait their opportunity.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_713" id="Page_713">[Pg 713]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="SINGULAR_PASSAGES" id="SINGULAR_PASSAGES"></a>SINGULAR PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF A RUSSIAN OFFICER.</h2> + + +<p>During a twelvemonth's residence in a continental city, I became +acquainted with a Russian officer, whom I will designate by the name +of Adrian. He was a man still in the prime of life, but who had +endured much sorrow and calamity, which had imparted a tinge of +melancholy to his character, and rendered him apparently indifferent +to most of the enjoyments that men usually seek. He was no longer in +the Russian service, did not appear to be rich, kept two horses, upon +which he used to take long solitary rides, that constituted apparently +his only pleasure. He had seen much of the world, and his life had +evidently been an adventurous one; but he was not communicative on +matters regarding himself, although on general subjects he would +sometimes converse willingly, and when he did so, his conversation was +highly interesting. He was one of those persons with whom it is +difficult to become intimate beyond a certain point; and although I +had reason to believe that he liked me, and for nearly a year we +passed a portion of each day together, he never laid aside a degree of +reserve, or approached in any way to a confidential intercourse.</p> + +<p>I was one day reading in my room, when Adrian's servant came in all +haste to summon me to his master, who had been thrown from his horse, +and was not expected to survive the injuries he had received. I +hurried to the hotel, and found my unfortunate friend suffering +greatly, but perfectly calm and collected. Two medical men, who had +been called in, had already informed him that his end was rapidly +approaching. He had appeared little moved by the intelligence. I +approached his bedside; he took my hand, and pressed it kindly. I was +deeply grieved at the sad state in which I found him; but time was too +short to be wasted in expressions of sympathy and sorrow, and I +thought I should better show the regard I really felt for him, by +offering to be of any service in my power with respect to the +arrangement of his affairs, or the execution of such wishes as he +might form.</p> + +<p>"My affairs are all in order," he said; "my will, and the address of +my nearest surviving relative, are in yonder writing-desk. I have no +debts, and whatever sum is derived from the sale of my personal +effects, I wish to be given to the hospitals of the town."</p> + +<p>He drew a ring, set with an antique cameo, from his finger.</p> + +<p>"Accept this," he said to me, "as a slight memorial of our +acquaintance, which has been productive of much pleasure to me."</p> + +<p>He paused, exhausted by the exertion he had made to speak. After a few +moments, he resumed. "You have at times seemed to wish to hear +something of my past life," said he, with a faint smile. "Amongst my +papers is a small leathern portfolio, which I give to you, with the +manuscript it contains. These gentlemen," added he, looking at the +physicians, "will bear witness to the bequest."</p> + +<p>At this moment the Roman Catholic priest, who had been sent for, +entered the room, and Adrian expressed a wish to be left alone with +him. That same evening he expired.</p> + +<p>I had no difficulty in obtaining possession of the portfolio +bequeathed to me. In the papers it contained were recorded a series of +incidents so extraordinary, that I am still in doubt whether to +consider them as having really happened, or as being the invention of +a fantastical and overstrained imagination. I kept the MS. by me for +some time, but have finally resolved to translate and publish it, +merely substituting fictitious names for those set down in the +original. The narrative is in some respects incomplete, but whether in +consequence of Adrian's sudden death, or because no further +circumstances connected with it came to his knowledge, I am of course +unable to say. It is as follows:—</p> + +<p>I am by birth a Russian, but my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_714" id="Page_714">[Pg 714]</a></span> childhood and youth were passed at +Hamburg. Owing to the early age at which I lost my father, my +recollections of him are necessarily but imperfect. I remember him as +a tall handsome man, somewhat careworn, constantly engaged in the +correspondence rendered necessary by his numerous commercial +speculations, and frequently absent from home upon journeys or voyages +of greater or less duration. His life had been an anxious one, and his +success by no means constant; but he still persevered, led on by a +sanguine temperament, to hope for that fortune which had hitherto +constantly eluded his grasp.</p> + +<p>It was shortly after my tenth birth-day, and we were anxiously +expecting my father's return from a voyage to the East Indies. Before +his departure he had promised my mother, that if he succeeded in the +objects of this distance expedition, he would retire from business, +and settle down quietly to pass the rest of his days in the country. +The letters received from him led her to believe that the result of +his voyage had been satisfactory, and she was therefore anticipating +his return with double pleasure. At last, one evening news was brought +that the ship in which he had taken his passage was come into port, +and just as my mother and myself were leaving the house to go and +welcome the wanderer, my father made his appearance. I will pass over +the transports of joy with which he was received. So soon as they had +a little subsided, he presented to us, under the name of the Signor +Manucci, a dark fine-looking man, who accompanied him, and whom he had +invited to sup with him. I say with <i>him</i>, because, to our great +surprise and disappointment, neither my mother nor myself were +admitted to partake of the meal. Hitherto my father's return from his +voyages had been celebrated as a sort of festival. A large table was +laid out, and our friends came in to welcome him, to ask him +innumerable questions, and tell him all that had occurred during his +absence. On this occasion, however, things were arranged very +differently. My father, instead of joining his family and friends at +supper, caused the meal to be served in a separate room for himself +and the Italian; and long after they had done eating, I could hear +them, as I lay in bed, walking up and down the apartment, and +discoursing earnestly together in a foreign tongue. My bed had been +made for that night upon a sofa in one of the sitting-rooms which +adjoined my father's apartment. My usual sleeping-room was given up to +the stranger, who was to pass the night at our house.</p> + +<p>My temperament was naturally a nervous one, and my father's return had +so excited me that I found it impossible to sleep, but lay tossing +about till long after every body in the house had apparently retired +to rest. The strong smell of sea-water proceeding from my father's +cloak, which was lying on a chair near my bed, perhaps also +contributed to keep me awake; and when I at last began to doze, I +fancied myself on board ship, and every thing around me seemed +tumbling and rolling about as in a storm. After lying for some time in +this dreamy state, I at last fell into an uneasy feverish slumber. For +long after that night, I was unable to decide whether what then +occurred was a frightful dream or a still more frightful reality. It +was only by connecting subsequent circumstances and discoveries with +my indistinct recollections, that some years afterwards I became +convinced of the reality of what I that night witnessed.</p> + +<p>I had scarcely fallen asleep, as it seemed to me, when I was awakened +by the creaking of the door leading into my father's room. It was +hastily opened, and the stranger appeared, bearing a lamp in his hand, +and apparently much agitated. He walked several times up and down both +rooms, as if one had been too small for him in his then excited state. +At last he began to speak to himself in broken sentences, some of +which reached my ear. "I leave to-morrow," he said; "when I return, +all will be over—all—the fool!" Then he took another turn through +the room, and paused suddenly before a large mirror. "Do I look like a +murderer?" he exclaimed wildly, and with a ghastly rolling of his +eyes. Then suddenly tearing off a black wig and whiskers which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_715" id="Page_715">[Pg 715]</a></span> +wore, he stood before me an old and greyheaded man. At this moment he +for the first time noticed my temporary bed.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" he muttered, with a start, "how imprudent!" He immediately +replaced his wig, and with noiseless steps approached my couch. +Terrified as I was, I had yet sufficient presence of mind to +counterfeit sleep; and the stranger, after standing a minute or two +beside me, went softly into my father's room, the door of which he +shut behind him.</p> + +<p>When I awoke the next morning, and thought of this strange incident, +it assumed so vague and indefinite a form, that I set it down as the +illusion of a dream. Every thing was as usual in the house; my father, +it is true, seemed thoughtful and grave, but that was nothing uncommon +with him. He spoke kindly to me, and apologised to my mother for his +seclusion of the preceding evening; but said that he had been +compelled to discuss matters of the greatest importance with the +Signor Manucci, who was then sitting beside him at breakfast. My +mother was too delighted at her husband's return to be very +implacable; and if the evening had been clouded by disappointment, our +morning meal was, to make amends, a picture of harmony and perfect +happiness.</p> + +<p>About noon, Manucci took an affectionate leave of my father, and +departed; not, however, till he had promised that he would shortly +renew his visit. The day passed without incident. My father had +planned an excursion into the country for the following morning, to +visit an old friend who resided a few leagues from Hamburg. I was +awakened at an early hour, in order to get ready to accompany him and +my mother. I hastily dressed myself, and went down into the parlour. +What was my surprise, when on entering the room I saw my father lying +pale and suffering upon a sofa, while my mother was sitting beside him +in tears, anxiously awaiting the arrival of a physician who had been +sent for, and who presently made his appearance. He felt my father's +pulse, enquired the symptoms, and finally pronounced him to be in a +state of considerable danger. Each successive half hour increased the +sick man's sufferings, and before the afternoon he was speechless.</p> + +<p>In sadness and anxiety we were surrounding my father's couch, when +suddenly a carriage stopped at the house door, and the next instant +Manucci entered the apartment. He expressed the utmost grief and +sympathy upon learning my father's illness, sat down beside the dying +man, for such he now was, and took his hand. My father beckoned his +friend to stoop down, that he might whisper something to him; but +although his lips moved, an inarticulate muttering was all that he +could utter. He then, with an expression of almost despairing grief +upon his countenance, took my hand and that of Manucci, joined them +together in his, which were already damp and chill with the approach +of death, and pressed them to his heart with a deep sigh. The next +instant there was a convulsive movement of his limbs—a rattle in his +throat. My father was dead.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget that moment. It was with some difficulty that +Manucci and myself withdrew our hands from those of my father, which +clutched them tightly in the agony of death. It was the first corpse I +had ever looked upon, and although of a parent whom I dearly loved, I +yet recoiled from it with an irrepressible shudder. The stranger, too, +inspired me with an invincible repugnance. I could not forget my +dream, or vision, or whatever it was, when I had seen him changed into +a grey repulsive-looking old man, and the mysterious words—"Do I look +like a murderer?" rang ever in my ears.</p> + +<p>My mother's grief at her sudden bereavement was boundless. She was +incapable of arranging or ordering any thing; and as my tender years +prevented me from being of any use, Manucci took upon himself the +management of every thing. Through his exertions, the arrangements for +the funeral were rapidly completed; and I followed to the grave the +body of my unfortunate father, who had died, so said the doctor, of a +stroke of apoplexy. Child as I was, I was greatly struck by the +coincidence between this sudden death, and the singular dream I had +had not forty-eight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_716" id="Page_716">[Pg 716]</a></span> hours previous to it. I said nothing, however; +for I feared Manucci, and should not have thought my life safe had he +heard that I related my dream to any one. In after years, when I was +better able to form a judgment on these matters, I thought it useless +to renew the grief of my poor mother, then becoming old and infirm, by +a communication of what I had witnessed on that memorable night, or by +inspiring her with doubts as to the real cause of her husband's death.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Manucci busied himself in the arrangement of my father's +affairs, concerning which he appeared perfectly well informed. In the +course of their liquidation, he became acquainted with many of the +chief people in Hamburg, who all spoke very highly of his talents, and +seemed captivated by his agreeable conversation and varied +acquirements. In an incredibly short time he had made himself numerous +friends, who courted his society and invited him to their houses. +Nobody knew any thing more of him than what he himself chose to say, +which was very little. It was rumoured, however, that he belonged to a +religious fraternity—but whether of the Jesuits, or some other order, +no one knew, nor was it possible to trace the origin of the report. +Manucci himself, the object of all these conjectures, seemed perfectly +unconscious of, or indifferent to them. He took a house at a short +distance from the town, close to a small country residence to which my +mother had retired; and in conformity with my father's last and mutely +expressed wish, showed a most friendly disposition towards me, +interesting himself in my studies, and to a certain extent +superintending my education. He visited us very frequently, and +gradually I became accustomed to his presence, and my aversion to him +diminished. The remembrance of my dream grew fainter and fainter, and +the guilty agitation and strange appearance of Manucci on the night of +his arrival at Hamburg, lost the sharp distinctness of outline with +which they had at first been engraved upon my memory. I regarded all +that I had seen that night as a dream, and nothing more.</p> + +<p>The house inhabited by Manucci was of handsome exterior, and situated +in the middle of a large garden. The door was rarely opened to +visitors, and, besides the Italian, an old servant-maid was its only +inmate. I myself was never admitted within its walls till I had +attained my seventeenth year; but when I was, the curious arrangements +of the dwelling made a strong impression upon my fancy. The whole of +the ground floor was one large hall, of which the ceiling was +supported by pillars, and whence a staircase led to three apartments, +one used as a sitting-room, another as bed-chamber, and the third, +which was kept constantly shut, as a study. The sitting-room, instead +of doors, had green silk curtains in the doorways. Eight chandeliers +were fixed in pairs upon the wall, and between them were four black +marble tablets, on which were engraved in golden letters, the +words:—Watch! Pray! Labour! Love! In a recess was a sort of altar, +above which was suspended a valuable painting from the hand of one of +the old masters. Behind a folding screen in the sleeping-room, stood +the bed, which was surrounded by sabres, daggers, stilettoes, and +pistols of various calibre; and from this room a strong door, clenched +and bound with iron, led into the study, the interior of which I never +saw. Altogether, the house made such a strange and unpleasant +impression upon me, that I felt no wish to repeat my visit.</p> + +<p>Manucci had now been residing seven years amongst us, leading a +peaceful and quiet life, a frequent visitor at our house, well looked +upon and liked by all who knew him. Although there was certainly a +degree of mystery attaching to him, yet no one was suspicious of him, +nor had the voice of scandal ever been lifted up to his prejudice. He +was friendly and attentive to my mother, kind to me, courteous to +every one, seemed perfectly contented with his mode of life, and never +talked of changing it. Our astonishment was consequently so much the +greater, when one morning we learnt his sudden disappearance from the +neighbourhood. Enquiries were made in every direction, but none had +seen him depart. His shrivelled old housekeeper was also nowhere to be +found.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_717" id="Page_717">[Pg 717]</a></span>It was within a few weeks after this strange disappearance, that I +obtained the first insight into the character of the mysterious +Italian. After my father's death, and the winding up of his affairs, +his papers and letters had been put in boxes and locked up in a +closet. I one day took it into my head to rummage these papers. There +were vast numbers of bills of lading and exchange, insurance papers +and the like, all matters of no interest to me; but at last, upon +untying a bundle of miscellaneous documents, a small packet fell out +which seemed likely to reward my search. It consisted of fragments of +letters, much damaged by fire, and which, to judge from the size of +the half-burned envelope that contained them, and that had apparently +been originally used for a much larger parcel, probably formed only a +small part of a collection of letters that had been accidentally or +intentionally destroyed by the flames.</p> + +<p>Here are some of these fragments of letters.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"... The society of a man whose acquaintance I have made since my +arrival here, becomes each day more agreeable to me. He has seen +a vast deal of the world, and his mind is stored with the most +varied knowledge, to such a degree that it sometimes appears to +me as if the longest life would be insufficient to acquire all +that he has learned. Our acquaintance was made in an odd place +enough—a gambling-house, to which I had gone as a matter of +curiosity. He was sitting away from the tables, and addressed +some trifling remark to me, to which I replied. He then, as if he +had known who and what I was, began talking of the commerce in +which I am engaged, and displayed an intimate acquaintance with +mercantile affairs. Our conversation had already become animated +and interesting, when it was interrupted by a noise and bustle in +the play-room; and several persons came up to my new +acquaintance, and congratulated him. It appeared that he had +staked sum equivalent to the whole amount there was in the bank, +and it was while the game was being played that we had entered +into conversation. He now went to the table, and received his +winnings from the disconcerted bankers with an appearance of +perfect indifference, returning them at the same time, a handsome +sum—that they might have, as he said, a chance of recovering +what he had won from them! Then, after giving me his address, and +inviting me to call on him, he left the house" ...</p> + +<p>"... The diamonds ... enormous value ... excellent bargain ... +twenty thousand pounds sterling" ...</p> + +<p>(This letter had been nearly destroyed by the fire.)</p> + +<p>"... It is some days since I have seen my new friend, although +his agreeable conversation and manners render his society more +pleasing to me at every interview. I am embarrassed about this +purchase of diamonds, which I an very desirous of making, but +find myself without sufficient funds for the purpose. If M—— +would join me in the speculation, his recent winnings would be +more than is wanted to make up the deficiency. I must propose it +to him ...</p> + +<p>"... I have just returned from a visit to M——. It appears that +he is an Italian by birth, although speaking several languages as +well as a native, and that he is travelling for the affairs of an +important association of which he is a member. He has travelled a +great deal in Germany, and will probably return thither shortly. +To-day he told me that he was glad to have won the large sum to +which I alluded in a former letter; that he had much need of it +for a great object he had in view, but for which he was still +afraid it would scarcely suffice. Upon hearing this, I resolved +to say nothing to him about the partnership in the diamond +speculation ...</p> + +<p>"... It is impossible for me to describe to you the fascination +which this man exercises over me. You know that I do not usually +exaggerate, although inclined to the mystical and romantic. I +have lived too little on land, however, for any ideas of that +nature to have taken much hold upon my mind. At sea, the movement +of the winds and waves, the unintermitting intercourse with one's +fellow-men—the whole life of a mari<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_718" id="Page_718">[Pg 718]</a></span>ner, in short, leaves little +leisure for such fancies. But here, in this tropical clime, where +the heavens are of so deep a blue, and the leaves of so bright a +green, where the imagination is worked upon by Oriental scenery +and magnificence, and the very air one breathes is laden with +perfumes from the flower-fields and spice-groves of Araby the +Blest, here is the land of fiction and reverie, and here I at +times think that my new and most agreeable friend has laid me +under a spell equally pleasant and potent in its effects—a spell +from which I have neither wish nor ability to emancipate myself. +Yet why should I wish to escape an influence exercised only for +my good, and by which I must benefit? My greatest happiness is in +the friendship of this man, my greatest trust and reliance are in +his counsels. Stern is he, bold, almost rash in his actions, but +ever successful; and when he has an end to gain, nothing can +withstand him, no obstacle bar him from its attainment....</p> + +<p>"... in the kindest manner lent me the sum I wanted to complete +the purchase-money of the diamonds, but obstinately refuses to +share the profits which, on my return to Europe, are sure to +accrue from this speculation. What generosity! M—— is assuredly +the most disinterested and the truest of friends. We are becoming +each day more attached to each other. He has formed a project to +come and settle near Hamburg, and there we shall pass the rest of +our days together. He is a most singular and interesting person. +I shall weary you, perhaps, by all these details; but every thing +that relates to him interests me. Only think, the other day I +found in a cabinet in his apartment, a mask, which he told me he +had himself made. I never saw such a masterpiece. It was of wax, +imitating perfectly a human countenance, of an expression +eminently attractive, although sad. He was not in the room when I +found it, in seeking for a book he had promised to lend me. He +came in when I had just taken it out of the drawer in which it +was, and an angry exclamation" ...</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>These disjointed but significant fragments were all of any interest +that the flames had spared. From them, however, I acquired a moral +certainty that Manucci was my father's murderer. In order to obtain +possession of the diamonds, of which no trace had been found after my +father's death, the perfidious Italian had doubtless administered to +him some deadly poison. This must have been so skilfully prepared as +not to take effect till the murderer had left the house a sufficiently +long time to prevent any risk of suspicion attaching to him.</p> + +<p>Burning to avenge my unfortunate parent, I now set to work with the +utmost energy to discover what had become of Manucci. I caused +enquiries to be made in every direction, and resorted to every means I +could devise to find out the assassin; but for a long time all was in +vain. It was not till several years after my mother's death that we +again met—a meeting which, like our first, was to me fraught with +bitter sorrow.</p> + +<p>I had been for some time in the Russian service, and the regiment to +which I belonged was quartered at a village a few leagues from Warsaw. +At the period I speak of, a country house in the neighbourhood of the +village belonged to, and was occupied by, General Count Gutzkoff, a +nobleman of ancient descent and great wealth, and who had an only +daughter called Natalie, the perfection of feminine grace and beauty. +The villa had been christened Natalina, after his daughter, and no +expense had been spared to render it and the grounds attached to it +worthy of their lovely sponsor. Amongst other embellishments, a large +portion of the park had been laid out in miniature imitation of Swiss +scenery, with chalêts, and waterfalls, and artificial mountains, that +must have taken a vast time and labour to construct. There was an +excellent house in this part of the grounds, inhabited by a sort of +intendant or steward, and in this house rooms were assigned to me, I +having been quartered upon General Gutzkoff. I had thus many +opportunities of seeing Natalie, whose charms soon inspired me with a +passion which, to my inexpressible joy, I after a time found to be +reciprocated by her. I am not writing a romance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_719" id="Page_719">[Pg 719]</a></span> but a plain +narrative of some of the strangest incidents in my life; I will, +therefore, pass over the rise and progress of our attachment, of the +existence of which the general at length became aware. He was a proud +and ambitious man, and my small fortune and lieutenant's epaulette by +no means qualified me in his eyes to become his son-in-law. Natalie +was threatened with a convent, and I was requested to discontinue my +visits to the house. About the same time, I heard it rumoured that a +rich cousin, then stopping with the general, was the intended husband +of the young countess.</p> + +<p>For some days I found it impossible to obtain a meeting with Natalie, +although I put every stratagem in practice, and sought every +opportunity of meeting her in her walks. After the general's positive, +although courteous prohibition, I of course could not think of +returning to his house. It was therefore with much anxiety that I +looked forward to a ball which was to be given by a rich old Smyrniot, +who lived at Warsaw. He was acquainted with the officers of my +regiment, and to console us, as he said, for the dulness of our +country quarters, he proposed to give a fête sufficiently splendid to +attract the ladies of the capital to the village where we were +stationed. He was intimate with General Gutzkoff, who lent him for the +occasion the part of his domain called the Swiss park, and there the +fête was to be held. I made sure of meeting Natalie there, and perhaps +even of finding an opportunity of speaking to her unobserved by her +father.</p> + +<p>The much wished-for evening came, and a numerous and brilliant company +was assembled in the gardens. The long alleys of trees were rendered +light as day by a profusion of lamps, of which the globes of painted +crystal were suspended by wires from tree to tree, and appeared to +float unsupported upon the air. Under two large pavilions of various +colours, flooring had been laid down, and chalked in fanciful devices. +These were for the dancers. Several bands of music were placed in +different parts of the grounds; and in the various cottages and Swiss +dairies tables were laid out, covered with the most exquisite +refreshments and delicate wines. On either side of the principal +fountains were transparencies, with emblems and mottoes complimentary +to the guests and to the noble owner of the park; and, finally, that +nothing might be wanting to the gratification of every taste, a +crimson tent, richly decorated, contained a faro-table, upon which a +large bank in gold was placed. Crowds of officers, and of beautiful +women splendidly attired, thronged the dancing rooms or rambled +through the illuminated walks. Natalie was there, but accompanied by +her father and cousin, so that I could not venture to accost her. She +looked sad, I thought, but more lovely than ever; and when at last she +sat down in one of the summer-houses, I approached as near as I could +without being myself seen, in order at least to have the pleasure of +gazing on her sweet countenance. I was leaning against a tree, cursing +the cruel fate that separated me from the object of my love, when one +of my comrades came up and asked me if I would not go to the +faro-room. There was a man there, he said playing with the most +wonderful luck that had ever been seen. He had already broken two +banks, and seemed likely to do the same with a third that had been put +down. I was in no humour to take interest in such matters, and should +have declined my brother officer's invitation, had I not just then +seen Natalie and her companions get up and take the direction of the +gambling tent. I followed with my friend. The play that was going on +had, however, no attraction for me; I had no eyes for any one but +Natalie, and was almost unaware of what was passing around me. After +standing for a short time near the table, the general turned aside to +talk with the colonel of my regiment, and his cousin went to speak +with some ladies who had just entered. The moment was favourable for +exchanging a few words with Natalie. I was about to approach her, when +there was a sudden bustle and loud exclamations round the table.</p> + +<p>"See there!" exclaimed my comrade, "he has won again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_720" id="Page_720">[Pg 720]</a></span>I glanced hastily at the fortunate player, and then started back +petrified by surprise. It was Manucci.</p> + +<p>My first impulse upon beholding the man whom I had been so long +seeking, and whom I held for my father's murderer, was instantly to +seize him and tax him with his crime. An instant's reflection, +however, suggested to me the impropriety of such a course. What +evidence had I to offer before a court of law in support of my +accusation? The tale I had to tell was far too extraordinary a one to +be believed on the unsupported testimony of an accuser. This man +seemed well known to several of the guests who stood near him; he wore +the decorations of two or three foreign orders, and appeared to be a +person of some mark. Might I not even be deceived by a strong +resemblance? At any rate, it was sufficient if I kept him in sight +till I had an opportunity of making enquiries concerning him. If it +were Manucci, I was determined he should not escape me.</p> + +<p>I was still gazing hard at the stranger, and becoming each moment more +and more convinced of his identity with Manucci, when, to my great +surprise, I saw him leave the table and approach Natalie. She seemed +to know him; they exchanged a few sentences, and then, passing through +a door, they left the tent together. I hurried after them as fast as +the crowd of persons through which I had to make my way would allow +me. On getting out of the tent I saw no signs either of Natalie or the +stranger. They could not be far—they must have turned down one of the +numerous sidepaths; and I darted in quest of them down the first I +came to. I had run and walked over nearly half the grounds without +finding them, when I met the general and his cousin, who, with looks +of some suspicion, asked me if I had seen Natalie. I told them with +whom I had last seen her; but my description of the stranger, although +minute and accurate, did not enable the general to recognise in him +any one of his acquaintance; and separating, we resumed our search in +different directions with increased anxiety and redoubled care.</p> + +<p>While thus engaged, loud cries were suddenly heard proceeding from the +upper floor of one of the châlets or ornamental cottages near which I +was then passing, and of which the lower part only was used for the +purposes of the fête. I hastened thither, rushed up the staircase, +and, in so doing, ran against an officer who was carrying down Natalie +in his arms. She was senseless. At that moment her father arrived and +took charge of her. Above stairs, all was confusion and alarm, and a +number of the guests were seeking the villain who had dared to insult +or ill-treat the young countess. But he was nowhere to be found, and +it was supposed that he had jumped out of the window, and, favoured by +the darkness, had made his escape. Natalie, when she recovered from +her swoon, was still too weak and too terrified to give any +explanation concerning the matter. She was conveyed to her father's +house, the fête was broken up, and the guests took their departure. My +brother officers and myself mounted our horses, and rode in every +direction to endeavour to find the offender. All our researches, +however, were fruitless.</p> + +<p>Strange to say, this singular incident excited much less attention, +and was much more rapidly forgotten, than could possibly have been +expected, especially when the rank and importance of the offended +party were considered. After the first day, few efforts seemed to be +made for the discovery of the stranger except by myself; and all that +I did towards that end was unsuccessful. The murderer of my father, +the spoiler of my inheritance, the vile insulter of the woman I loved, +had for this time eluded my vengeance.</p> + +<p>About a fortnight after the fête, it became publicly rumoured that any +project of marriage which might have been contemplated by General +Gutzkoff between his daughter and her cousin, was at an end, and that +Natalie was to take the veil. It was known that, before the death of +the late countess, who was an exceedingly religious woman, it had been +in agitation to devote Natalie to a religious life; but when the +general became a widower, nothing more had been heard of the plan. It +now almost seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_721" id="Page_721">[Pg 721]</a></span> as if its revival and contemplated execution were +in some way consequent on the strange incident at the ball. The +matter, however, was far too delicate for any one to question +concerning it those who alone could have given information. At the +appointed time Natalie entered as novice a convent of Ursulines, +situated at about a league from her father's villa.</p> + +<p>The first news of this event was a terrible shock to me. In spite of +the small favour with which the general regarded my attachment to his +daughter, I had still hoped that time or circumstances might bring +about some change in his sentiments. But the cloister opposed a yet +stronger bar to my wishes than the will of a parent, and the vows once +pronounced, which at the end of one short year Natalie would have to +utter, I might bid farewell to hope. Our separation would then be +irrevocable and eternal in this world. It was necessary, therefore, to +make the best use of the short space of her noviciate, in order to put +in execution one of the numerous plans which I devised for freeing her +from the state of holy bondage which I was certain she had only +through compulsion been induced to enter. Day and night I hovered +about the convent, in hopes of catching a glimpse of Natalie, or of +finding an opportunity of giving her a letter, in which I strenuously +urged her to accept a plan of escape that I proposed to her. At last +an opportunity occurred. She was walking in the convent garden with +another novice, who left her for an instant to gather some flowers. I +was watching all their movements, and at this moment I threw my letter +at Natalie's feet. She took it up, retired into a shrubbery walk to +read it, and presently returned.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," said she, "the answer—here."</p> + +<p>With what anxious impatience did I look forward to her reply, and with +what despairing feelings did it fill me when I received it! In it +Natalie spoke of her approaching death as of an event of the +occurrence of which she was thoroughly persuaded, and besought me to +give up all hopes of again seeing her.</p> + +<p>At this period of the year the nuns of the Ursuline convent inhabited +their summer cells, which were a row of buildings situated in the +convent garden. Natalie had the last cell, which was separated by +several empty ones from those of the other sisters. It was on the +second day after I received her letter that the nuns were surprised by +her not opening her door at the usual hour. They waited some time for +her appearance, but in vain. They knocked; there was no answer. At +last the door was forced open and Natalie was found lying dead upon +the floor of the cell. She had evidently been dragged out of bed with +great violence; her features were distorted with pain and struggling, +and in her left breast was a wound which had been the cause of her +death. The murderer had broken in through the roof of the cell.</p> + +<p>The news of this horrible occurrence flew with lightning swiftness +through the neighbourhood and to Warsaw. Nobody doubted that there was +some connexion between the crime and the singular occurrence at the +ball, although it was impossible to say what that connexion was. Every +attempt to discover and apprehend the murderer proved unavailing.</p> + +<p>In order to see Natalie for the last time, I repaired to the convent +church, in which, according to custom, her corpse was laid out. With +faltering and uncertain steps I passed through the aisle, and reached +the chapel where the remains of her I had so fondly loved were lying. +I stepped up to the bier, but the next instant turned away my face. I +lacked courage to look upon the cold corpse of my adored mistress. A +violent dizziness seized me, the pillars around me seemed to turn and +twist about, and the roof of the church to shake. I sank senseless +upon a chair.</p> + +<p>How long I may have remained in that state I am unable to say. It was +night when consciousness returned, and the moon was shedding its cold, +clear light through the high Gothic windows. I felt heated and +excited; all manner of strange fancies passed through my head, the +predominant one being to go at once and wander about the world, till I +should discover the fiend to whom the misery I now suffered was +attributable. Be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_722" id="Page_722">[Pg 722]</a></span>fore doing so, however, I must see my Natalie once +more. I stepped up to the coffin. Natalie lay there in her nun's +garments, a crucifix upon her breast, and a veil surrounding her face, +which, to my inexpressible astonishment and horror, I now saw was +covered with a mask.</p> + +<p>I was at first unable to explain this singular circumstance, but then +it occurred to me that her lovely features had been said to be much +distorted in death, and doubtless her friends had taken this means of +concealing them from the gaze of vulgar curiosity. I would see her +though, I thought; I would kiss those lips, once so warm and +love-breathing, now so pale and chilled. The better if, in her +death-like embrace, I found an end to my life and suffering. I +stretched out my hand to detach the mask, which was by no means +unpleasing in its appearance. It reminded me of the one spoken of by +my father in one of his letters; and as I stood looking at it, I +little by little persuaded myself it must be the same. The lips curved +into a mournful smile, an attractive expression on the features; only +the sockets for the eyes were empty, and through them shone the glazed +orbs of the departed.</p> + +<p>Whilst given up to these reflections, I suddenly heard a slight +rustling noise near me. I looked round, and saw a muffled figure +sitting at a short distance off, in which I thought I recognized some +old nun keeping her drowsy vigil by the dead. I took no heed of her, +but stretched out my hand to tear the mask from Natalie's face, when +suddenly the figure rose, and with three long, noiseless strides, +stood close beside me. The robe in which it was muffled opened, and I +beheld—Manucci! not the Manucci I had seen at the faro-table, nor yet +he who had lived for years near my mother's house, but the grey old +man who had appeared to me on the night of my father's arrival, and +had said, "Do I look like a murderer?"</p> + +<p>"Thou here, villain!" I exclaimed, on beholding this unexpected +apparition. "The hand of heaven is in this!"</p> + +<p>I stretched forth my arm to seize the murderer, who thus braved me +beside the corpse of his last victim; but as I did so I experienced a +strange stunning sensation, and fell, as though struck by a +thunderbolt, lifeless to the ground. The first persons who entered the +church upon the following morning found me in this state, and carried +me to the nearest house, where I lay for weeks in a raging fever, +during which time Natalie was buried, and the flowers that sprang up +on her grave were withered by the frosts and snows of winter. When I +at last became convalescent, and re-appeared amongst men, Natalie was +forgotten; and the strange circumstances that had occurred to me in +the church would have obtained no credence, or at most would have been +considered as the precursors of fever, the visions resulting from a +heated imagination and exhausted frame. Indeed my memory was in so +confused a state, and the weeks I had passed in the unconsciousness of +delirium, caused every thing that had previously happened to appear so +remote and indistinct, that I was myself almost unable to give any +clear and definite form to the occurrences that preceded my illness. +My health was greatly shaken, and I was no longer equal to any +occupation that required sustained exertion and application. I +resigned my commission, therefore, and formed a plan to divide my life +amongst the various large cities of Europe, changing from time to +time, and constantly endeavouring to seize again the thread that had +escaped me, and if possible to discover and unmask the vile impostor +who had destroyed my life's happiness. I may, perhaps, some day write +down the various and strange adventures that I have met with during +these researches, and in my wandering course of life. In this +portfolio, however, I will put nothing but what relates to any further +discoveries I may make concerning the base Italian and his +machinations.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Here Adrian's manuscript ended; but between the two following blank +leaves I found a letter dated from St Petersburg, written in a +different hand, and that seemed to form a sort of appendix or +continuation to the preceding narrative. This letter, from the +different dates scattered through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_723" id="Page_723">[Pg 723]</a></span> it, appeared to have been continued +from time to time, several weeks elapsing between its commencement and +the period at which it was sent off. The envelope was wanting, and +there was no address; but, from its contents, it appeared that it had +not been written to Adrian, but to a friend of his who had handed it +to him. At the end came a dozen lines in Adrian's handwriting, leaving +off somewhat abruptly. Here follows the letter:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="right"><i>St Petersburg, 12th June.</i></span></p> +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Augustus</span>,—Of all the wealthy and distinguished +foreigners whom this gay season has brought together in St +Petersburg, not any attract so much attention as the Marchese +d'Emiliano and his daughter. The father is as remarkable for his +learning and talents as the daughter is for her innumerable +graces and accomplishments, which draw all eyes upon her. She has +only one extraordinary peculiarity, which is—but stay, I will +first describe her to you, so that this singularity, when I tell +you of it, may appear the more striking. Picture to yourself a +brunette, slender and perfectly formed, possessing the exact and +beautiful proportions of a Grecian statue—a foot smaller and +better shaped than I ever yet beheld—an exquisite hand, slender +and tapering, not one of those short fleshy hands with dimpled +fingers, which it is now the fashion to admire, but for which no +precedent is to be found in the Medicean goddess or in any other +standard of beauty. A magnificent bust, an arm like alabaster, a +profusion of dark flowing hair, grace in every movement. But—now +comes the wonder, my friend—instead of a face corresponding in +beauty with this perfect form, there is—a mask. Can you imagine +a greater absurdity? and yet they are people who, in every other +respect, show extreme good taste.</p> + +<p>From the lips of this mask proceeds a voice which, for melody and +sweetness, I have never heard equaled. In speaking, its tones are +of silver, but when she sings one forgets mask and every thing +else to give one's-self up to an ecstacy of perfect enjoyment. +She knows a vast deal of Italian, French, and Spanish music, +languages that she speaks with the utmost purity, and she +accompanies herself alternately on piano, guitar, or mandoline, +of which instruments she is a perfect mistress. Her dancing is no +less admirable than her singing; and, at every ball to which she +goes, crowds collect around her to watch the sylph-like grace +with which she glides through the dance. In short, she unites +every womanly accomplishment, and yet this heavenly creature +persists in concealing her face under that vile mask, which fits +so closely that not the smallest portion of her countenance can +be perceived. However hideous the latter may be, it would be +preferable to this horrid covering. Not that the mask is ugly; on +the contrary, it is the handsomest I ever saw, and in itself has +nothing disagreeable. It is formed of wax, and has a mournful +expression which is quite attractive, at least when its owner +sits still; but when she moves or speaks, the dead look of the +mask has an indescribably unpleasant effect. Several persons have +indirectly questioned the Marchese on this subject, but he evades +or turns off their enquiries with all the tact of a consummate +man of the world. Of course it would be indelicate, if not +unfeeling, to ask her about it. Meantime the public amuses itself +with all sorts of absurd suppositions. First it is a vow; then +she has got a pig's face; then her waiting-maid had said that she +had once caught her unmasked, and that her face was covered with +feathers and had a beak in the middle of it. Then, again, it is a +stratagem, to try the man whom she shall marry, and to see if he +will love her for something besides her appearance, and on her +wedding-day she will take off the mask and disclose features of +perfect beauty. All this is of course mere gossip; for nobody +knows any thing about these Italians, except that the Marchese is +enormously rich, and that his daughter, in spite of her mask, is +the most amiable and fascinating of women. Amongst other +absurdities, a report was spread that the marquis was no other +than the celebrated St Germains, who, as is well known, was +himself no other than the Wandering Jew. It is ridiculous to hear +the extraordinary things they tell of him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_724" id="Page_724">[Pg 724]</a></span> Only the other day it +was asserted that he had been met in a distant country, where he +passed under another name, and was remarkable for his constant +and almost suspicious success in gambling. I should be very +curious to trace all these reports to their source. Their +inventors can at least have no lack of imagination. The fact is, +that there is unquestionably something strange and mysterious +about the old man—but what does it amount to after all? He is an +old Italian marquis, his foreign manners and appearance, and +imposing title, work upon the imagination of us northerns, and at +once make us suspect an adventurer in this worthy old nobleman. +The mere presence of Natalie (that is his daughter's name) is +sufficient to refute such a suspicion. She is the incarnation of +all that is pure and beautiful; and I confess to you, my friend, +that I am each day becoming more and more the slave of her +attractions. If in society she exhibits her varied +accomplishments, on the other hand, when we are alone, she is the +simple and unsophisticated girl. During our <i>tête-à-têtes</i>, +however, it has not escaped me that she is frequently melancholy; +a something seems at times to weigh upon her spirits; and, +although she evidently struggles to hide this, she has been +unable to conceal it from my close and interested observation. +Yes, my friend, interested, for deeply interested I am in all +that concerns Natalie; and, I own to you, that in spite of her +mask, in spite of the mystery that surrounds her, nothing would +make me so happy as to call her mine.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><i>27th June.</i>—A week ago it was Natalie's birth-day. She had felt +herself somewhat indisposed, and had begged the Marchese not to +invite any guests. Nevertheless, when I called to offer my good +wishes on the occasion, they kept me there till evening. We then +walked out in the garden—Natalie and myself, that is to say—and +sat down upon a rustic seat, amidst a cluster of flowering shrubs +that perfumed the air around us. I know not of what we spoke, +but, after a short time, I found myself with my arm round +Natalie's waist, her hand clasped in mine, her mask—alas! that I +cannot say her face—resting upon my shoulder. It was one of +those sweet moments with which past and future have nought to do, +but during which one lives upon the present. Gradually my lips +drew nearer and nearer to her waxen ones, but, half-jesting, she +turned her head away. I became more persevering, and without +saying any thing to her I raised my arm gently till my hand +touched her hair, amongst which the fastenings of the mask were +apparently concealed. In another moment the mystery would be +solved, and I should gaze doubtless on the most lovely +countenance that ever blessed a lover's sight. At that very +instant she uttered a sort of shriek, and sprang from my embrace. +In vain did I entreat and supplicate her to suffer me to remove +that envious mask. She was inexorable, and just then, attracted +perhaps by Natalie's cry, the Marchese appeared.</p> + +<p>"What!" said he in a distant and somewhat angry tone and manner, +"nearly midnight, and you are still here?"</p> + +<p>The time had indeed passed rapidly. The hint was too direct for +me to do otherwise than apologize and depart.</p> + +<p>Since that evening they have treated me with some coolness, nor +can I wonder at it. My constant visits to their house have become +the talk of all St Petersburg; and it is evident that I must +either declare myself the suitor of Natalie or avoid her +altogether. Avoid her! How can I do it? Do not blame me, +Augustus, when I tell you that I have decided to go this day to +the Marquis and ask his daughter's hand. Rank, fortune, every +thing in short, is suitable. Only that mystery—but I will not +think of it. I lay down my pen, and go instantly to execute my +intention.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><i>30th June.</i>—You will set me down as a fool when you read what I +last wrote. I should perhaps say the same of you, were our +positions reversed; and yet, were you not my old friend and +comrade, I should feel disposed to be angry with you for saying +it of me on this occasion. She is mine, Augustus—mine by her +own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_725" id="Page_725">[Pg 725]</a></span> and her father's promise. My friend, I am unutterably happy. +I am not able to look forward with any thing like coolness to the +moment when she shall remove that odious mask, and disclose the +lovely countenance which I am persuaded it conceals.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><i>8th July.</i>—I cannot understand Natalie. She seems happy at the +prospect of becoming my wife; and yet that same melancholy which +I have before noticed, hangs about her, and seems impossible to +be dissipated. Can she have had some previous attachment, some +disappointed affection, which has left its lingering regrets, and +which her present engagement recalls more vividly to her +recollection? And yet, why torment myself thus? She loves +me—that I cannot doubt; and surely her approaching change of +condition, and the separation from her father which it must +sooner or later entail, are sufficient to account for an +occasional pensiveness on the part of a young and susceptible +girl. In vain do I seek for any other probable cause of her +melancholy. At times I fancy that she has some disclosure or +confession to make to me, which she has difficulty in repressing.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><i>23d July.</i>—The secret is out. Natalie is ugly. You laugh +already at the poor dupe. But beware of laughing too soon: for he +can be no dupe who becomes the husband of Natalie; should her +face prove as hideous as that of Medusa. You will perceive from +this that I have not yet seen it, nor, truth to tell, am I now so +anxious to do so. She has been tormenting herself with the fear +that I should cease to love her when I once saw her unmasked, and +has reproached herself innumerable times for having encouraged my +passion. She has decided what to do. On her marriage-day, before +I lead her to the altar, I am to see her without her mask. +To-morrow is that day; and although I am prepared for the very +worst, yet my uneasiness increases with every hour that brings me +nearer to the decisive moment. My regrets are infinite that she +has persisted so long in her disguise. If at the commencement of +our attachment she had had the courage to remove that fatal mask, +I must still have loved her; no deformity of feature would have +been sufficient to neutralize the effect of her other charms and +accomplishments. But now, at the moment that I have been looking +forward to as the happiest of my life, to have my bliss disturbed +by such a revelation—it is cruel! Yet how can I blame her for +conduct so natural in a woman who loves? She feared to see my +growing affection turned into aversion, and delayed to the utmost +the much dreaded disclosure. Enough for to-day. I send off this +letter. After my marriage you shall hear from me again. Ever +yours,</p> + +<p><span class="right"><span class="smcap">Paul S</span>——.</span><br /> +</p></div> + + +<p> </p> + +<p>What a ray of light thrown upon my dark uncertainties! "To St +Petersburg, instantly! The trace is found!"</p> + +<p>Such was my exclamation after reading the above letter, which was +communicated to me at Vienna by an old and tried friend. In an +incredibly short time I had reached the Russian capital. What I there +learned was as follows:—</p> + +<p>On the day appointed for the marriage of Natalie d'Emiliano and the +young Swedish count, Paul S——, when all were in readiness to proceed +to the church, and the guests were only waiting the appearance of the +bride and bridegroom, a piercing cry was suddenly heard in a room +adjoining that in which the bridal party was assembled. The company +hurried, in the direction of the sound, and there found the Count +lying apparently lifeless on the floor, while the bride was hastily +securing the fastenings of her mask. The guests thronged round the +former, and tried every means of recovering him from the death-like +swoon into which he had fallen. After much trouble they were +successful. The Marchese and Natalie were then sought for, but both +had disappeared; and neither of them were ever afterwards seen or +heard of in St Petersburg. The bridegroom could never be induced to +tell what it was that the mask concealed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_726" id="Page_726">[Pg 726]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="TRADITIONS" id="TRADITIONS"></a>TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA.</h2> +<h4>No. IV.</h4> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Moor Maiden</span>.</h4> + + +<p>"Wildernesses and heaths are not the only spots that boast of their +<i>Fata Morgana</i>," said Woldemar, in a society of torch-bearers which +regularly assembled in the old castle on Christmas night.</p> + +<p>"The vision appears in a hundred places, in shapes answering to the +peculiarity of soil and country in which she rises. Here she is an +apparition of the air, beaming with splendour; there she unfolds +herself in glittering mist. On the unbounded plain, you behold her in +the form of an enchanted city—a paradise of leafy loveliness, or it +may be simply as a fantastic Erl-King, a giddy dazzling vapour. Let +her appear, however, where and how she will, she is ever seductive, +mysterious, and beautiful, and attended with the awe of a strange +nameless delight.</p> + +<p>"You know the high table-land, strewed with countless blocks of +granite, between C—— and K——. Inclosed upon two sides by mountains +and thick groves of beech, it would be a perfect desert but for the +clear crystal brook which purls its way along the glistening stones. +This labyrinthine brook, indeed, fills the barren spot with animation, +whilst it creates too that singular power of attraction which we +cannot explain to ourselves, but which, nevertheless, becomes our +unfailing companion in regions with which the heart of the people has +intimately associated itself by tales of wonder and tradition.</p> + +<p>"The Tradition touching this very table-land is dim and shapeless, +like the thick mist of a sultry summer's day, hanging over hill and +valley. It is most convenient to the common working mind to retain and +hold fast in a history only so much as is needful for the great +catastrophe. The people are content to abide by the beginning and end +of things, not concerning themselves with the important connecting +links. All that lies between is left to the imagination of the more +inquisitive to fill up. A tradition of this order occurs to me this +moment, and, by your leave, I will do my best to complete it:—</p> + +<p>"A mysterious curse lay upon the noble house of Gottmar. No male scion +was suffered to perpetuate the race. The bride of his selection died +on her wedding-day, and he himself was doomed to follow quickly after. +The rich possessions passed to the nearest relative, who, by virtue of +an ancient law, assumed the name of Gottmar. The family was very +ancient. It traced its origin back to the Sclavonian priests, the +sacrificers to the God Mahr, and bore in its armorial ensigns a +sacrificial axe and a blood channel, in shape like that which at this +day is found cut into the granite-blocks of the high mountain that +bears the name of Gottmar. The later descendants of this powerful and +widely-ramified house could no longer explain the cause of their cruel +condition. It had been deemed advisable by their ancestors to +exterminate every record of it, hoping thereby perhaps to weaken, in +the course of time, the curse itself. The precaution was fruitless. No +alteration whatever took place in the fate of the doomed family, which +at length was regarded, no less by itself than by the world, as the +outlawed of heaven.</p> + +<p>"The last living representative of the house of Gottmar entered upon +the family inheritance upon the death of his cousin. Bolko was a mild +yet enthusiastic youth, glowing with deep, ripe feeling, and needy of +human love. He had little joy in the acquisition of what, in other +circumstances, might have been considered his enviable fortune. He +thought only of the miserable destiny that sentenced him to celibacy +or death. His immediate predecessor, riding across a heath to take a +last farewell of his bride, had been struck dead by lightning, and the +maiden herself had been hurled from life at the edge of a precipice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_727" id="Page_727">[Pg 727]</a></span> +Bolko, attired in mourning, sat at the window of his lofty castle, and +surveyed the lovely prospect before him, bathed as it was in the +golden light of evening. Here were rich forests, there teeming fields; +in the depths of the valleys prosperous labouring villages; and in the +far distance, towering above all, the blue crests and jagged peaks of +a mountain region.</p> + +<p>"'And all has become mine!' he exclaimed, resting his forehead +dejectedly upon his hand; 'to pass quickly away again, and unenjoyed! +And I, in ignorance, why! To be a sinner, a criminal, and not +conscious of one criminal aspiration. Yet, to be punished for +crime—to be killed for crime. Oh, it is hard! And heaven, sweet and +fair as she appears, is crueler than I could have believed.'</p> + +<p>"His preceptor, confessor and friend stepped into the apartment. +Hubert was an aged man, learned and pious, and well skilled, it was +believed, in cabalistic science. He had buried three Gottmars, and +received their last confessions. From these he had drawn conjectures +and conclusions which induced him to investigate the traditions +current amongst the people respecting his unhappy patrons; and out of +all, he was able at last to form a picture of probability, to the +completeness of which some demonstrative evidence of its truth was +wanting. At the period of which I speak—it was still before the +Reformation—books were held in slender esteem. Nevertheless, there +was a library in Gottmar castle, consisting of numerous manuscripts, +the production of monks, and chiefly on religious subjects. The lords +of the castle, engaged in the chase, in fishing, and other knightly +pastimes, had not, from time out of mind, disturbed the repose of +their written treasures. They lay piled one upon another, covered with +dust, mildewed, and worm-eaten. Hubert, in the prosecution of his +purpose, did not fail to examine the neglected documents; and he had +reason to rejoice at his labours, when he found amongst the rolls a +learned treatise on astrology, a science which he himself had studied +with unwearied industry and ardour. His joy and astonishment, however, +were not complete, until he found himself master of a decaying +parchment, which, in almost obsolete characters, expounded to his +eager senses the mysterious destiny of the house of Gottmar. He hugged +the knowledge to his soul, deciphered the ancient syllables in his own +quiet cell, and waited for the proper hour to communicate the +marvellous secret to his lord and pupil. He heard the complainings of +the youthful Bolko, and he recognised in them a hint from heaven. He +now approached him with tenderness, and pressed his pupil's hand.</p> + +<p>"'Courage, my son!' said he. 'The veil is withdrawn.'</p> + +<p>"Bolko drew a heavy sigh.</p> + +<p>"'I have spoken the truth, my child!' continued Hubert. 'Believe and +trust!'</p> + +<p>"'Thanks for thy kind words, good Hubert,' replied the youth. 'I +revere thy wisdom, I esteem thy love. How shall I believe that it has +been permitted thee to break open the gloomy vaults of the past?'</p> + +<p>"'And yet if this were so! If an auspicious—a heaven-sent chance'—</p> + +<p>"'Hubert!'</p> + +<p>"'Hast thou courage, Bolko, to penetrate into the past?—Then read +this roll attentively. It offers us the means, as I most solemnly +believe, to weaken, if not annihilate, the curse which has so long +persecuted thy unhappy race.'</p> + +<p>"Hubert drew a parchment from the folds of his garment, and placed it +in the hands of the astounded Bolko. The priest immediately withdrew. +The youthful noble as quickly drew a chair to the window; and by the +vanishing light of the evening sky, he read the following history:—</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'<i>This is the last Confession of Walter, baron of Gottmar, which +I, his Confessor, write down by his command, that it may be +preserved in everlasting remembrance, by all who are Descendants +of the House of Gottmar.</i></p> + +<p>"'My great-uncle Herbert, the tenth inheritor of this territory, +was a passionate lover of the chase. In all seasons of the year, +in good weather and in bad, by day and night, he scoured the +boundless forests which he called his own. In his time, the +hunting of the boar was a noble and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_728" id="Page_728">[Pg 728]</a></span> especial sport, and hence +the breeding of these beasts was diligently fostered and +encouraged. The immense forests of beech and fir upon the slopes +of the mountain which bears our name, attracted to their +neighbourhood an extraordinary number of these boars; so that at +all times my ancestor could indulge his passion to the full. +During one of his grand expeditions, two remarkable events had +place. A gigantic boar dug open with his tusks a marvellously +clear spring, which bubbled forth so vigorously, and purled so +bright and cool along the mossy fields, that a brook was formed +from it immediately. This discharged itself into the low grounds +with rare turns and windings; so that Herbert was fain to fix a +village there, and to name it after the boar, and the brook which +his ferocity had brought to light. Whilst this was happening on +the western declivity of the mountain, a similar accident took +place upon the slope projecting to the eastward. Here, in like +manner, a considerable bed of turf was discovered, and close upon +it, beneath granitic sand, another powerful spring. This Herbert +caused empty itself into large ponds; and the turf-pit he had +worked by skilful men, over whom he placed as chief Wittehold his +page. The profit from this turf was so large that the wealth of +Herbert grew more and more, and the population of the +newly-founded village rose as rapidly; since every new settler +was suffered to take on the turf-bed as much fuel as he needed +for firing during the space of five years.</p> + +<p>"'Wittehold, too, the overseer, was well contented with his post. +He enjoyed the confidence of his lord, and became independent. He +married; and, after the lapse of a year, had the happiness to +press a lovely child to his fond bosom. But the birth of the +child cost him the life of her mother. Herbert promised to +provide for the orphan, and maintained his word. My great-uncle +was a bachelor, who had never been able to meet with a maiden +possessing all the qualities which he demanded in a wife. He +postponed the all-important step of marriage from year to year, +without suffering any inconvenience from the delay.</p> + +<p>"'In the mean time the beautiful daughter of Wittehold—who had, +I know not why, been christened <span class="smcap">Auriola</span>—grew to womanhood, and +unfolded a sweetness and grace that fascinated all beholders. +Herbert, whose heart had so long resisted the attacks of love, +was not proof against the beauty, ingenuousness, and innocence of +Auriola. He confessed his affection to the maiden, and petitioned +Wittehold for his child. With the last, contrary to expectation, +he found but little favour. Wittehold submitted that his daughter +was not born to be the consort of so great and rich a lord, and +respectfully declined the honour of her advancement. Moreover, he +had already promised her to a faithful comrade, a worthy overseer +at the turf-works. Herbert expostulated, appealed to his +protection of Auriola, to her affection for him, but in vain. He +plied the obstinate Wittehold with threats. In spite of them the +latter held out: he did more; he bore his child with his own hand +from the castle, and carried her to his cottage near the pit, +hoping, by such a step, and by sound remonstrance, to lead his +fascinated master on to other and to better thoughts.</p> + +<p>"'The conduct of Wittehold threw Auriola into a deep melancholy. +She hurried to the cottage door a hundred times a-day, and looked +with straining eye towards the lofty castle of her lover. Her +father being absent, she would bound, swift as a fawn, through +the silvery grass that trembled and sparkled in the sunny light, +and seat herself upon the high margin of the spring, feeding her +vision with the pearly drops that bubbled from the bottom. The +spot, visited by few, was rendered almost sacred by a cluster of +broad-armed beech-trees that overshadowed it. Herbert encountered +his Auriola in this retreat. Who shall tell their joy? Herbert +urged his suit—Auriola followed him through bush and thicket, +and was powerless before his ardent supplications. Wittehold +surprised the pair. His fury and indignation were ungovernable. +Herbert, in self-defence, had recourse to his good sword, but +this was as a lath against the ire of his assailant. Wittehold +slew his lord. Not yet satisfied, the madman pursued his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_729" id="Page_729">[Pg 729]</a></span> +fugitive child, whose screams for aid only brought her to a +speedier end. He met her at the spring—there seized the +trembling creature, and mercilessly cast her in. The maiden +struggled for an instant; but, the short conflict over, she +uttered a piteous wail, and sank for ever beneath the +softly-rippling water. Even whilst she struggled, the inhuman +father raised his clenched fist, and pointed with it towards +Gottmar's castle. 'God of heaven!' he exclaimed, 'hear my curse; +and may it fall like the unerring bolt upon this execrated race. +May no male offspring take to his arms a bride, or brighten his +hearth with her presence, until a Gottmar restore my daughter's +virgin honour. Until this happen, let the poor victim be +accursed, and evil work with the posterity of her betrayer!' The +miserable murderer invoked the infernal powers to assist in the +fulfilment of his curse, and then, as if beside himself, ran to +the turf-pits. Here he procured a shovel and an axe. With their +help he choked up the crystal grave of his daughter, and diverted +the strong current into the pit, which it soon flooded. This +done, he fled into the woods, and has not since been heard of. +But his curse has been fulfilled with frightful regularity in the +family of Gottmar. Not one has married with impunity. Bridegroom +and bride have fallen. Auriola, crying for vengeance, hovers +above the turf-pit, which since that hour has become a wide +unfathomable moor.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Heinrich Wendelin</span>, <i>Chaplain</i>.'</span></p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>"The hand of Bolko dropped as he finished the narrative. The evening +twilight thickened before his eyes. He sank into a solemn musing. When +he awoke from it, Hubert was again at his side.</p> + +<p>"'Hast thou read?' enquired the teacher.</p> + +<p>"Bolko slowly raised his head, and looked full in the face of his +confessor.</p> + +<p>"'Canst thou vouch for this, Hubert?' he asked in his turn. 'Is it +genuine, is it true?'</p> + +<p>"'Since when hast thou learned to suspect me of deception?' replied +the old man calmly.</p> + +<p>"'Forgive me, Hubert. This narrative confounds me. I am unable to +distinguish truth from falsehood. But do thou advise me. What dost +thou think of it? Can a curse such as this is represented to have +been—can it have retained its force so long?'</p> + +<p>"'Universal nature is one tremendous mystery,' replied the priest; +'who shall decide wherein her power consists? At the best we can but +conjecture at her connexion with the world of man—her weaving and +working. No one can deny that a solemn curse, spoken with a determined +and haughty purpose, has often, on the very instant, accomplished its +fulfilment. If this be so, why may it not work again and again? The +disregarded belief of the people—that a curse floats in the air until +it finds its victim, and then drops down upon him—is not so worthless +as men would have us think. There is at least expressed in it, dimly +and perhaps unconsciously, the inseparable union that subsists between +the spirit of man and the all-governing spirit of nature.'</p> + +<p>"The youth had risen from his chair, and was pacing the apartment to +appease his agitated soul.</p> + +<p>"'Well, well!' said he, drawing a heavy breath; 'it is a decree which +we must receive without a murmur, and suffer patiently.'</p> + +<p>"'And who says that?' replied the priest with quickness. 'The wisdom +of nature has created an antidote for every poison.'</p> + +<p>"'Art thou serious?' asked Bolko earnestly.</p> + +<p>"'Heaven is merciful!' continued Hubert. 'Pardon is unlimited where +repentance is sincere.'</p> + +<p>"'Who shall repent in this case?' answered Bolko. 'The criminal is +long since dead. Can another atone for his offence?'</p> + +<p>"'Dost thou yet doubt, and art thou my pupil?' said Hubert. 'The <span class="smcap">will</span> +can kill and also vivify.'</p> + +<p>"The eyes of Bolko sparkled in the gloomy chamber. He grasped the hand +of his aged teacher, and drew him to the casement.</p> + +<p>"'Speak!' he exclaimed. 'I will hear thee, and do thy bidding—do all +that thou holdest lawful and right.'</p> + +<p>"Hubert directed his countenance, over which a few hoary locks still +lingered, towards the landscape before them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_730" id="Page_730">[Pg 730]</a></span>"'You have often heard, my son,' said he, 'that yon desolate spot, +called to this day the <i>Gold Spring</i>, is the deadliest spot on earth +to those who bear your name. Far as the wood extends on either side, +extended formerly the turf-pit. The deep moor is covered now by an +unsteady earth-crust, overgrown with pale red sedge, and from its +centre, as from a grotto, the beautiful rivulet ripples forth that +irrigates and renders fruitful all your land. I doubt not that this +grotto, with its golden vault of granite, is the very spring into +which the furious Wittehold cast his daughter. The place is to this +hour deemed unholy. No one willingly sets foot there; no man ventures +to draw water from the fount. Temerity has already been punished for +the attempt. Strange sights have met the eyes of the daring one, and +he has fled like a coward from the spot. Have not many seen—have not +I myself beheld that fairy-like, almost transparent form, with her +unearthly pitcher, drawing water from the spring, then pouring it over +the moor in curious arches by sun and moonlight; and ever so, that the +rays of light kindled therein the most huey gleamings? Is it not well +attested, that when at such times mortals have addressed her, the +delicate creature has grown o' the sudden pale—paler and more +transparent, until, melting into silvery cloud, she has glided +pillar-like along the moor, and vanished at length into the cool and +wondrous grotto?'</p> + +<p>"'You describe the Maiden of the Moor,' said Bolko, interrupting him.</p> + +<p>"'So she is called!' returned Hubert. 'It was her apparition which +drew my attention to the neighbourhood, and to the tales that are +current respecting it. When I had discovered the manuscript, I saw at +once in the Maiden of the Moor the complaining spirit of the unhappy +Auriola.'</p> + +<p>"'And the spirit, as you deem, may be appeased?'</p> + +<p>"'Assuredly, my son; and thou art he who must perform the expiation.'</p> + +<p>"'I!—Father Hubert?—I'——</p> + +<p>"'Thou art guileless, sound of heart, leading a life of innocence and +nature. To a pure spirit, a determined will, a feeling heart—much is +possible.'</p> + +<p>"'But how, father?—how?'</p> + +<p>"Hubert remained silent for a few minutes. He then proceeded—</p> + +<p>"'Thy heart is still free, but it yearns for love—for the mysterious, +magical response of another—a <i>womanly</i>, heart. It may be that +Auriola will afford thee thy delight, if thou couldst once behold +her.'</p> + +<p>"'What! The Moor Maiden! Father, thou mockest me. What can this female +be to me, appearing as a vision to man, a creature of air?'</p> + +<p>"'And if she appear to <i>thee</i>, hast thou courage to address her?'</p> + +<p>"'Father, a lovely form shall hardly frighten me,' said Bolko, with a +smile.</p> + +<p>"'I exact thy promise,' said Hubert quickly. 'From this day forward, +shun the Gold Spring no more. Thou art a lover of nature and her +creations. I have seen thee for hours lost in admiration of the form +and colour of choice butterflies. That spot abounds in the rarest. +Thou mayst find them at any hour of the day. It would seem, indeed, +that the delicate insects of peace had retreated thither to find +security from the tumult of busy money-lusting men. The realm of the +Moor Maiden is the paradise of these tenderest of winged beauties. +Bolko, thou wilt visit them!'</p> + +<p>"The baron gave his right hand to his preceptor without uttering one +word of assurance or affirmation. Hubert had done. He left his young +lord to his own meditations.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>"Bolko passed some days in restless suspense. Now he was a wanderer in +the woods, now a prisoner in the apartment that looked upon the moor, +watching intently during the day every slight phenomenon that arose +there. The morning and evening mist and the yellow vapour of noon were +his best discoveries. Not a human being approached a place shunned, as +it appeared, by every living thing. The conversation, however, with +Hubert had proved a secret spur to him, and he found no rest until he +visited the dreary moor in person. It was late in the afternoon, when, +furnished with a hunting-knife and insect-net, he set out on his +adventure. Bolko had never before visited the spring, and his surprise +was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_731" id="Page_731">[Pg 731]</a></span> naturally great when he beheld the peculiar condition of the soil +around him. Along the entire surface of the notorious moor—and its +extent was considerable—there appeared a singularly-coloured sedge. +It was not red, or yellow, or brown, but a mixture of all three, and +it marked, by the sharpest line, the confines of the moor from the +green turf of the remaining country. At every step, the ground, +although very strong, yielded, as it threatening to give way. Towards +the centre of the moor there was an elevation surrounded with bushes. +This was the source of the silvery water that took its serpentine +course along the moor, and through the luxuriant woods beyond.</p> + +<p>"Bolko made his way towards this point, and, reaching it, his eye +rested with delight upon the basin and its border of golden granite. +The water ascended noiselessly from its immeasurable depths in +countless glistening pearls. Over the refreshing fountain, and far +away upon the nodding blades of grass, and bearded turf-flowers, +hovered, in giddy graceful sport, a variegated troop of gorgeous +butterflies. The majestic and solemn <i>Silver-mantle</i>, the cherub of +these winged dwellers of the air, the soft and exquisite +<i>Peacock's-eye</i>, the burning <i>Purple-bird</i>, were here assembled. Bolko +was ravished with the sight, and thought of nothing but a glorious +capture. Delicate and lovely as the creatures were, his cruel hand +robbed them of their gladsome life; and he pursued them further and +further across the moor, and with such ardour and desire, that he +forgot all other things, and suffered the very object of his visit to +escape from his remembrance. Suddenly, and in the act of imprisoning a +multitude of these illuminated beings, he perceived a Maiden sitting +at the extremity of the moor, her back towards him. Her form was +slender, and her hair, golden as the sun, travelled in burnished +tresses from her shoulders to the earth, where it curled along the +moor-grass like rays of the divine orb itself. After the manner of +Sclavonian girls, the stranger wore a closely-fitting snow-white cap, +or rather frontlet, from which, as from a chaplet, the beautiful hair +streamed down. Bolko had approached the maiden unperceived, near +enough to discern a butterfly of rare magnitude and unequaled beauty +oscillating about her marble forehead. The youth stole cautiously +behind the fair one, and tried to catch the flutterer. He touched the +maiden in his eager movement, and she turned round immediately.</p> + +<p>"'Forgive me, lovely child!' said he. 'I'——The words died upon his +tongue. He could say no more. The butterfly escaped from his hands, +and flew slowly towards the Gold Spring, changing its brilliant +colours with every motion of its wing.</p> + +<p>"The singular beauty of the maiden had struck the baron dumb. From a +soft transparent countenance of the purest form, there beamed upon him +a pair of eyes which had derived their holy light from the very +fountain-head of Love. She wore an uncommon but most becoming dress.</p> + +<p>"To a party-coloured gown, scarcely reaching to her ankle, was +attached a sky-blue boddice in front, united by perfect silver clasps, +and not so closely as to prevent the sweetest glimmering of a +snow-white virgin bosom. Her arms, round, delicate, and pure as +marble, were uncovered to the shoulders. Her small feet were bare, yet +protected partly by fairy-looking slippers profusely ornamented. The +beauteous object smiled upon the youth, and answered him in a voice +that dropped like melody upon his ear.</p> + +<p>"'Thou art the robber then,' said she; 'the merciless purloiner of my +fairest thoughts! Can I wonder now that I have been so destitute of +late!'</p> + +<p>"'How?' stammered Bolko, more astonished than ever.</p> + +<p>"'Strange man!' continued the maiden, in the same ravishing voice, +'thou revelest with thy fancies, and dost thou wonder that I, too, +love to dally with my thoughts and dreams? The tiny creatures whom +thou hast taken from me were, and still are, threads of my heart, +which I permit at times to issue into the sunny light of day. Restore +them, living, and beautiful as thou hast found them, or I accuse thee +of breaking this poor heart!'</p> + +<p>"'Who art thou, sweetest child?'</p> + +<p>"'They call me <span class="smcap">Auriola</span>. I know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_732" id="Page_732">[Pg 732]</a></span> thee well. Thou art Bolko of +Gottmar—Bolko, the accursed!'</p> + +<p>"'Yes—the accursed!' repeated the youth, pressing his hands to his +eyes as if he would forget his doom. When he removed them, Auriola had +risen, and was standing before him. Her lovely countenance, her +matchless eyes were turned full upon him. At her feet he perceived an +earthen pitcher of a peculiar and not ungraceful form. It bore a +strong resemblance to the sacrificial pitchers which are still +discovered in places once inhabited by Sclavonians.</p> + +<p>"'What wilt thou, poor child?' said Bolko in a tone of kindness. 'Can +I help thee?'</p> + +<p>"Auriola smiled.</p> + +<p>"'Thou hast come to me at thine own bidding. I invited thee not, for I +invite none. Yet he who visits me must do my will. Thou hast wrought +me pain in stealing away the thoughts which were soaring in mid air +decked in their brightest robes. Thou must be punished for thy +misdeed. Come!'</p> + +<p>"The marvellous creature took Bolko's hand, and drew him after her +towards the Gold Spring. Before her, and above her head, the +butterflies formed with their magnificent wing-shells a glowing arched +pavilion. The youth was allured by an irresistible attraction, and +would not, if he could, have dragged himself away from the celestial +being; albeit, he still regarded her as a mere apparition. Every +feeling, every thought, every desire of his heart, streamed towards +Auriola. Fleeting shadow that she was, he loved her already to +idolatry.</p> + +<p>"At the margin of the spring, Auriola released her companion, +descended the grotto with her pitcher, and filled it with the purest +water. In a few minutes she was again at his side. She placed the +pitcher on the ground, and her two hands upon the shoulders of the +youth. In this trustful, graceful, loving posture, fixing her wondrous +eyes upon the boy, the maiden spoke.</p> + +<p>"'And canst thou love, too?'</p> + +<p>"He answered not; but he pressed the beauteous Auriola to his heart, +and passionately kissed her forehead. But Bolko started back +affrighted, for he had kissed a forehead colder than ice.</p> + +<p>"'Note me well!' said she, and her voice sounded more melancholy than +before. She seated herself upon the high ledge of the spring, drew +Bolko beside her, and placed the pitcher of water between herself and +him. The butterflies stood now in the full light of the sun over the +rippling spring. A scattered few only still hovered about the moor.</p> + +<p>"'We must tarry yet awhile,' said Auriola, 'until my heart is quite my +own again!' As she spoke, her ecstatic eyes glanced to the single +flutterers on the moor. As if caught by a magnet, they directed their +flight instantly towards the Gold Spring.</p> + +<p>"'Now I am myself—for what is yet wanting rests in thee. Take heed!'</p> + +<p>"Auriola now poured from the pitcher into her small left hand as much +water as this would hold, and extended the right to her companion. He, +surprised by love, encircled the maiden's waist, brought his ear close +to her delicate cheek, and watched with eagerness her strange +performance. Auriola blew at first softly, then more vehemently, into +the hollow of her hand, so that the water, bubbling up, ran to the +slender rosy fingers, and, in glittering drops, sprinkled from the +finger-tips.</p> + +<p>"'Look!' she exclaimed, 'look! Tell me what thou see'st?'</p> + +<p>"The pearly drops had scarcely touched the air before they joined, +when, on the instant, a vision rose before the sight. There was a +bright green meadow, edged by waving beech-trees, through whose +foliage the evening sun shed burnished gold. A youth was on his knees +before a maiden, in the act of offering her a golden ring. The picture +was, in the beginning, dim and indistinct, but it grew clearer and +clearer, until by degrees it dissolved again, and was lost in the +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>"'What means this, Auriola?' enquired the ravished Bolko. 'Chain not +my unguarded heart to thine with such witchery. Misery and death will +be the penalty.'</p> + +<p>"'Dream and listen,' replied Auriola. 'Hearts and souls have nothing +better to do. We do but speak into the future, to catch back the tones +which strike in unison with our desires.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_733" id="Page_733">[Pg 733]</a></span>"'<i>Our</i> future?' whispered Bolko.</p> + +<p>"'Say <i>thine</i>, if it likes thee better,' answered Auriola, filling her +hand anew with water, and once more urging the sparkling fluid towards +her finger-ends. Bolko perceived a horseman galloping across a gloomy +heath, and looking back with horror. This apparition, like the former, +shone distinctly for a time, and then, in the same manner, vanished by +degrees, and expired.</p> + +<p>"'And what is this?' asked Bolko.</p> + +<p>"Auriola shook her head in silence, poured water again into her hand, +and blew it again along her fingers into the air. A lofty, +many-towered castle was visible. A rope-ladder was fastened to a +gallery. A man was climbing up. As soon as he reached the gallery, the +vision was lost.</p> + +<p>"'It is the castle of my ancestors!' cried Bolko.</p> + +<p>"'Thou art mistaken,' answered Auriola. 'But tell me—canst thou +love?'</p> + +<p>"Her voice was again mournful.</p> + +<p>"The youth drew the fair questioner to his heart. His lips fastened on +hers, and hallowing fire streamed through his frame.</p> + +<p>"Auriola heaved a melancholy sigh, and once more filled her hand with +water. At the usual signal there arose a brilliantly illuminated hall. +Dancers, gaily dressed, were in happy motion. Music was heard, and +then the strains and the colours died away in the twilight.</p> + +<p>"'I smart!' exclaimed Bolko. 'I am tortured! My soul is gnawed with +agony!'</p> + +<p>"'Hush, and listen,' said Auriola, in a tone of command—filling her +hand, and impelling the crystal water into the air, as before. A +roaring was heard, like the course of a hurricane sweeping through a +forest. The air grew black. Then the moon broke through night and +mist, and lit up a hilly region, surrounded by wood and cliff. Out of +the wood issued a carriage and four, making at full speed for a +solitary open space, that looked dismal and deserted. The form of a +maiden floated before the carriage, her painfully smiling countenance +ever turned towards it until she evaporated, like a cloud, in the +wood. A flash of lightning from the murky sky struck a beech-tree, +near whose flames the carriage slowly disappeared into the ground.</p> + +<p>"This vision at an end, Auriola bent her head, and tears fell upon her +bosom.</p> + +<p>"'Lovely enchantress,' said Bolko, 'why perform these miracles if they +afflict thee?'</p> + +<p>"'Because there is no longer love upon the earth.'</p> + +<p>"'Say not so!' exclaimed the youth. 'Love still exists—deep, eternal, +holy love. I feel it now. Auriola, I, whose arms never encircled +maiden yet—I love thee, Auriola, with every fibre of my body—with +every faculty of my soul. I will be thine—thine for ever; be thou +mine, my Auriola!'</p> + +<p>"'<span class="smcap">Be constant!</span>' The words were uttered in the clear voice of Auriola; +as if from the air. Bolko saw the lovely form grow pale, felt her +vanishing, at his heart. The brilliant cloud of butterflies arose from +the spring, and flew towards heaven by a hundred roads. A thin misty +streak sank into the grotto. Bolko was alone upon the barren moor. +Sultry vapours were exhaling in the twilight. Indescribable sensations +preyed on the soul of Bolko, as he remembered that he had given his +heart to one who was no longer a dweller upon earth—that he had +plighted his faith to the Maiden of the Moor. He hurried from the +scene of his unhallowed engagement, to seek from the wisdom of his +Hubert consolation for the peace of mind which had been so sadly +disturbed, if not for ever taken from him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>"The priest listened to the account of Auriola's appearance with +secret delight, and did not fail to comfort the unhappy youth. Bolko, +restored to peace, passed the night in blissful dreams. Once more the +sweet form of the Moor Maiden floated before him—once more the +magical pictures gleamed, ravishing his senses. With sunrise he +quitted the castle, and obeyed the sorcery that allured him to the +moor. All fear and alarm had disappeared. Solitude, erewhile so +hateful to him, was now enchanting! The stony, brown, and barren +plain, the gloomy confines of the wood, the vapours of the boggy soil, +united to create an earthly paradise. He took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_734" id="Page_734">[Pg 734]</a></span> his seat upon the +margin of the limpid spring, and, gazing on the charmed waters, +invoked the presence of the fair magician. Auriola, however, appeared +not. At noon he quitted the moor unsatisfied, but the approach of +evening found him there again. Still she came not, and nothing +remained to assure him of the reality of his former interview but the +illuminated winged cloud of butterflies which, like a living rainbow, +overarched the spring. Impatient and distressed, the ardent lover +scoured the extensive moor, and at last approached the borders of the +forest. Suddenly he saw—scarce twenty paces from him—the wished-for +figure gliding through the rustling grass, the earthen pitcher +drooping from her hand. Auriola regarded him not, but waved the vessel +gracefully around her head, scattering its contents in glittering +jets, that leaped about her like garlands of the precious diamond.</p> + +<p>"'Auriola!' exclaimed the boy, rushing forward as he spoke. 'My own +Auriola—mine, now and for ever!' He threw himself before her, seized +her hand, and in an instant fixed a golden ring upon her taper finger.</p> + +<p>"The maiden offered no resistance. But when the passionate Bolko rose +from the ground, and was about to embrace his beloved, she lifted the +ring-decked hand, and, in a voice of touching melancholy, exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"'Behold!'</p> + +<p>"Bolko followed the direction of her finger. Over the live and +swarming cloud there appeared, now here, now there, the apparition of +the previous evening; only that to-day it was larger and more +distinct, and continued longer to the view.</p> + +<p>"Bolko recognised, to his astonishment, the forms of Auriola and +himself.</p> + +<p>"'What does this mean?' said Bolko. 'Is it reality or illusion?'</p> + +<p>"'Thou beholdest!' answered Auriola. 'The air abhors falsehood, and +reflects nothing but truth.'</p> + +<p>"Bolko advanced. Auriola waved the pitcher, and the vision was lost.</p> + +<p>"'Wilt thou be constant?' asked the maid. 'Misery is mine if thou +canst forget this day and its betrothal.'</p> + +<p>"The eyes of Bolko were fixed in amazement on the air where the +picture had shone so palpable a moment before. He saw not, he heard +not, Auriola, and the agony of the preceding evening tortured his +whole frame. When he recovered his suspended faculties, Auriola was +gone. The usual tranquil, solemn repose, the old desolate gloom, +universally prevailed. The low-lying meadows breathed out their thin +vapours, the more distant ponds were enveloped in mist, and the grey +shadows vanished by degrees from hill and thicket.</p> + +<p>"Bolko arrived, agitated and breathless, at his castle gate. He went +at once to the library, where he found, as he expected, his friend and +counsellor.</p> + +<p>"'Save me, save me, father!' cried the young lord. 'Thou hast beguiled +me into a compact with a being of another world. Womanly love has +cozened and betrayed me. Passion has overmastered me. I have bound +myself to the Moor Maiden, and am eternally made over to her sorcery.'</p> + +<p>"'And wherefore should this frighten you?' replied the hoary chaplain. +'Thou hast done my bidding; and since thou art permitted to destroy a +curse which threatens to annihilate thy race, gratitude, not fear, +should move thee. Yonder Moor Maiden contents herself with the sweet +semblance, and will not ask for dull reality. Auriola never looks to +wed thee—never to possess thee—body and soul.'</p> + +<p>"'But I love her—love her to madness!' cried Bolko, furiously.</p> + +<p>"'Love her still; always love her with a spiritual and pure affection. +This will not hinder thee from bestowing the other half of thy +affection upon some fair daughter of Eve, worthy of thy heart.'</p> + +<p>"'And is this to be spiritually faithful?' said Bolko, in a +reproachful tone.</p> + +<p>"'No earthly passion, my son,' continued Hubert, 'can either break or +abolish the spiritual faith which thou hast vowed to Auriola. When +thou hast loved a daughter of Eve, thou wilt see, feel, and be +satisfied, that between the love of thy earthly bride and of the +enchanting Auriola, there is a difference as wide as heaven from +earth.'</p> + +<p>"Bolko heaved a bitter sigh, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_735" id="Page_735">[Pg 735]</a></span> shook his head in doubt. +Nevertheless, he meditated long and seriously upon all that Hubert +said. By degrees, even, he acknowledged to himself, that the kernel, +the pure light of a deep truth, glimmered in his words, although in a +manner veiled. He began to question his own heart; the more probable, +nay, the more desirable seemed the consummation of Hubert's promises. +For reasons, which he could scarcely explain to himself, he studiously +avoided another visit to the moor. But in the meanwhile, that which +originally had been a half-formed wish, and scarcely that, ripened +into absorbing passion, vehement desire. Incessant thought nourished +the ever-glowing flame, which burned the brighter, the more the +spiritual love of Auriola receded and grew faint. Remembrance, it is +true, still clung with a devout aspiration upon that beauteous image, +but it resembled rather the placid feeling of a holy friendship, than +the impetuous throbbing of a young and passionate love. 'Hubert is +right!' said the youth; 'I will follow his direction. Auriola, lovely +and rapturous being, angelic, spiritual, and human, will rejoice with +the Accursed, when he carries to his desolate home the mistress of his +castle—the wife of his bosom.'</p> + +<p>"Opportunity is seldom wanting when inclination needs its service. +About three miles from Gottmar, amongst the mountains, majestically +rose the battlements of a proud castle. Baron T——, its wealthy +master, had already visited Bolko upon his accession to the family +estates, and Bolko now determined to acknowledge his neighbour's act +of kindness. Had the baron been childless, it is very likely that +Bolko would still have remembered what was due to society, and to his +own station in the world; and it is equally true, that the fact of his +possessing a young and lovely daughter, did not diminish the youthful +noble's desire to act conformably to usage and propriety. +Unfortunately for the intention of his visit, Bolko learned, on his +arrival at the castle, that the baron was from home. In his stead, +however, a maiden greeted him, slender of figure, noble in bearing. It +was very strange, but it is certain, that the tumultuous feelings +which of late had stirred within him unrestrained—were suddenly +chained and riveted upon an object that afforded them a sweet +tranquillity. Emma was gentle, frank, and beauteous as the blushing +rose. In Bolko's frame of mind, could she fail to make a deep +impression upon his young and too susceptible soul? He lingered at her +side hour after hour, and was himself astonished to find the darkness +of night creeping over the earth, and he not more prepared for +departure than he had been on entering the castle-gates some hours +before. However, the knight did not make his appearance, and good +breeding suggested to unwilling ears that it was time to retire. Bolko +said farewell—more tenderly, perhaps, than he supposed or meant; and +as the delicate hand of Emma lay involuntarily in his own, he +flattered himself that he felt his pressure softly returned, and that +he could perceive a smile of contentment escaping from her lips as he +promised to pay a second visit 'shortly.'</p> + +<p>"The night was very dark: a few stars only twinkled through the thin +veil which covered the heavens. Bolko madly spurred his steed, and the +high-spirited animal, who needed no such incitement, bounded like a +deer towards home. The thoughts of the baron were no longer with him, +but imprisoned in the happy room in which he had passed so many +blissful hours. Trusting to the instinct of the horse, the master took +no heed of the road: and the trustworthy servant, scenting the +vicinity of his stable, found easily for himself the best and shortest +paths towards that wished-for spot. The trees became thinner and +thinner, falling back on either side, whilst a flat and barren region +lay before horse and rider. The former snorted and pranced, and the +latter could not distinguish the locality through the blackness. Bolko +coaxed the steed, and gently urged him forwards. But the animal +trembled, and, in spite of bridle and spur, struck to the side, and +swept along the skirts of the forest, without touching so much as with +a hoof the gloomy-looking heath. Accustomed to the surrounding +darkness, the eye of Bolko was at length able to discern—not without +a creeping of horror—the ruddy and unsteady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_736" id="Page_736">[Pg 736]</a></span> reed-grass. The moor and +the Gold Spring were on one side of him. Pale stripes of fog, like +ribbed vaults, were spread above him, giving a sacredness to the air, +with which all other things strangely contrasted. The mind of Bolko, +against his will, reverted to Auriola; his heart beat, as though he +were conscious of a heavy fault—of some inhuman crime. He turned his +gaze from the moor, and, with an effort, directed it towards the dark +forest, to which the horse galloped at full speed.</p> + +<p>"The words, '<span class="smcap">Be Constant!</span>' fell loudly and articulately upon the ears +of Bolko—uttered in a tone rather of supplication than of demand or +threatening. He turned his horse's head in terror, and—oh amazement! +sitting at the edge of the fountain, covered with a bright veil, +hemmed with diamonds, was—Auriola! Her fair and loosened hair, +encompassed, as at their first meeting, her entire body, and +glittering, curled along the ground. Her right hand was stretched high +above her lovely head, holding between forefinger and thumb the ring +with which the already inconstant Bolko had espoused her.</p> + +<p>"'<span class="smcap">Be Constant!</span>' The words re-echoed from the moor: the streaks of fog +descended. Over the maiden's head beamed forth a shining spot—gaining +in size, and forming itself into a picture. Bolko, shuddering, beheld +the second vision of Auriola's enchantment, and looked upon himself as +he had burst a few minutes before upon the moor.</p> + +<p>"Auriola beckoned to the youth, and pointed to the picture. Then once +again, more melancholy, more mournfully, more entreatingly upon the +distracted ears of Bolko came—the repeated cry of admonition—'<span class="smcap">Be +Constant!</span>'</p> + +<p>"The youth galloped for his life. He reached his home paler than +death, and refused to be comforted even by the wisdom of his +preceptor.</p> + +<p>"From this time, Bolko ceased to visit the moor in search of Auriola. +The daughter of earth had inspired him with a love that admitted of no +commingling of affection. Memory however, refused to lose sight of +her. It obtruded her form upon him, the more determinedly he +endeavoured to thrust it from his mind by dwelling upon the charms of +his Emma. He repeated his visit at the castle, and was soon a constant +guest there. He confessed his love to Emma, and she did not rebuke +him. Her father was less tender. He roundly refused his daughter's +hand. 'He had no desire,' he said, 'to make his child unhappy. He knew +well enough how every Lord of Gottmar was obliged to harbour an evil +Kobold in his house, who couldn't endure the sight of women, and no +sooner met one than he mercilessly strangled her. No, sir baron,' he +continued, 'it cannot be. Take not unkindly the answer which I give +thee. It touches not thy noble person, which pleases me right well, +but simply thy house and castle Kobold. Remove the creature, or at +least its power of doing harm, and thou art welcome here. But before +that time, I pray thee come not again, lest I should forget myself, +and do that which both of us would be sorry for.'</p> + +<p>"The lovers protested against the decision, and Bolko tried hard to +convince the old baron that the mysterious power which had so long and +so fatally reigned over the house of Gottmar, was propitiated, and no +longer hurtful. Hubert attested the repeated asseverations of his +pupil, but nothing could bring conviction to the stubborn veteran. He +swore they were all in a league, or building castles in the air, and +he persisted in his resolution.</p> + +<p>"It was autumn. The days were declining. Showers and tempests swept +through the forest. Upon a night, brightened by no moonbeam or +glittering star, Emma sat melancholy and alone in her apartment. The +heavy embroidered curtains were drawn across the high windows of the +balcony, which jutted out as a point of observation from the +castle-wall. At intervals, the maiden applied her delicate ear to the +window, catching eagerly at every strange sound muttered forth by the +growing storm. She had resumed her seat many times, when the +castle-bell tolled eleven, and almost at the same moment the cry of a +screech-owl was distinctly heard. The expectant damsel glided on +tiptoe to the window, and listened eagerly. The cry was repeated. +Em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_737" id="Page_737">[Pg 737]</a></span>ma's eye sparkled at length with joy, a deep blush overspread her +cheeks, and she produced from an aperture a ladder of twine, which she +fastened to the casement. The cry of the owl was heard for the third +time. The ladder was dropped, and in another instant a vigorous youth +had mounted it.</p> + +<p>"Bolko and Emma, happy and blessed, were in each other's arms, and +they forgot all but the delicious present. Vows of love and constancy +were exchanged, and rings were given, in remembrance of the blissful +hour. But strange to say, as Bolko was about to adorn the hand of Emma +with the pledge of his affection, a fearful gust of wind burst the +window open, and blew into the room a little glistening object that +rolled to Bolko's feet and settled there. Emma raised it from the +ground, and discovered in her hand a broken ring.</p> + +<p>"Bolko saw and trembled. It was his gift to Auriola. He fixed his eyes +upon the broken symbol, and there glared before them the third charmed +picture created from the waters. The rope-ladder, the balcony Emma and +himself, all grouped, and taking the shape and form of that bright +vision. Bolko glanced at the window, dreading to meet the reproachful +look of Auriola; but instead of this, he heard with no less horror the +approaching footsteps of his Emma's father.</p> + +<p>"'Fly, Bolko, fly!' exclaimed the maiden. 'My father! We are lost!'</p> + +<p>"Bolko hurried to the recess, and would have escaped, had not the +malicious wind already carried away the rope-ladder. A prisoner and +unarmed, he expected nothing short of death at the hands of the baron. +The latter entered the apartment, stood for a few seconds in silence +at the door, and measured the criminals with looks of stern severity.</p> + +<p>"'My aged eye did not deceive me, then!' he said, at length, advancing +to the trembling lovers.</p> + +<p>"'Baron!' said Bolko, hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"'Silence, sir!' continued the old knight. 'If I should act now as my +fathers would have done, I should fling you through that very window +which helped you, like a robber, into this room; but I charge myself +with blame already in this business, and I am more disposed to mercy. +Come hither, young man. I know the fire and boldness of our youth. +Give my child your hand; you are her future husband. May God prosper +you both, and send his blessing on your union!'</p> + +<p>"Bolko quaffed with the sturdy Baron of T—— until an early hour of +the morning. The happy Emma acted the part of Hebe, and presented the +flagons to the merry carousers.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>"'Why have you withheld this from me?' asked Hubert, when Bolko +related to him the unaccountable restoration of the ring. 'Oh, youth, +youth! inconsiderate even to madness, and only content to listen to +the voice of wisdom when they can of themselves find no outlet from +difficulty and danger.'</p> + +<p>"Bolko stood with folded arms at the window, gazing into the forest, +and upon the lofty turrets of Castle T—— peeping in the grey +distance above it.</p> + +<p>"'Thou hast not visited the moor of late?' asked Hubert, after a +pause.</p> + +<p>"'What should I do there?' answered Bolko peevishly. 'Why should I +spend my days in chasing an apparition, the mere creation of an +over-heated fancy?'</p> + +<p>"'Beware whom thou calumniatest!' said Hubert solemnly. 'Beware of the +mysterious being that can deal out weal or woe to thee and all thy +race! One whom thou mightest have appeased hadst thou been obedient +and followed my instructions.'</p> + +<p>"'Thy instructions!' repeated Bolko hastily. 'It is because I have +listened too patiently to thy advice, because I have connected myself +with thy aërial and capricious schemes, that I am the most miserable +of men. But for thy persuasion and thy childish parchment, I should +never have dreamed of making love to a ghost.'</p> + +<p>"Hubert disregarded the youth's reproaches.</p> + +<p>"'Rage avails not here,' he said calmly. 'Wisdom alone can save thee. +Listen to me. Women are women ever, even such as we call +supernatural—easy to anger, easy to persuade—before flattery the +weakest of the weak. Praise the ugliest for her beauty, and she smiles +graciously,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_738" id="Page_738">[Pg 738]</a></span> yea, with the mirror before her eyes. Speak the plain +truth, and you are a rough uncouth companion. They thrive best upon +the sugary food of delusion—therefore, delude them. It is the rattle +of these eternal glorious children!'</p> + +<p>"'What wouldst thou have me do?'</p> + +<p>"'Cast the ring into the Spring, and pray to Auriola for forgiveness.'</p> + +<p>"'And if she prove obstinate?'</p> + +<p>"'Have no fear; she will forgive you. Here is the ring; take it; it is +once more united!'</p> + +<p>"Bolko took the pledge from Hubert, and hastened to the moor. The high +grass was already withered by storm and cold; it lay bent down upon +the marshy earth-crust, which now breathed out its vapour more +abundantly than ever, wrapping the Gold Spring in one enduring mist. +If this spot looked barren and deserted in summer, the abandonment was +increased a hundred-fold in autumn. Even the butterflies were gone. +The damp and chilly fog only was visible; nothing could be heard but +the monotonous current of the rippling water.</p> + +<p>"The boggy ground yielded to the foot more readily than ever, and +Bolko trod it with a faltering step. He approached the spring, and, +suing for reconciliation, dropped the ring into the charmed element. +As though he feared some extraordinary result from the act, he covered +his eyes with his hands, and could with difficulty summon courage to +remove them. When he did so, he perceived the fog receding by degrees +from the confines of the moor, and the graceful form of Auriola +standing before him at a little distance. As at their first meeting, +her countenance was averted. She waved the earthen pitcher as was her +wont, and bathed the ground on which she went with flashes of the +brilliant water.</p> + +<p>"'Auriola!' cried Bolko, in a voice that carried the tenderness of +love, the sorrow of repentance, to the ear of the listener—'gentle +Auriola!' She turned her face towards the imploring youth, placed the +pitcher at her side, and beckoned him to approach.</p> + +<p>"'My father was right!' said the Moor Maiden. 'No Gottmar but is +fickle and inconstant. Well it is for thee, youth, that thou art here +of thy own free-will, and didst not tarry for my summons. Thou hast +kept thy promise badly, and thou wilt keep it so again, if I give thee +no monitor to aid thee. Take this, and carry it, henceforward, in thy +bosom; it will protect thee from harm, and keep thee faithful in +<i>spirit</i>, albeit in heart thou art already estranged from me.'</p> + +<p>"With these words, the enchantress placed upon the neck of Bolko a +chain braided of her own golden hair, to which was attached a small +box wrought of the shards of the Peacock's eye and Purple-bird. In the +tiny case, trembling with its ever-changing light, was one pearly drop +from the spring.</p> + +<p>"'Lose or give away this jewel,' proceeded Auriola—'this jewel, which +is a portion of my heart, and thy ruin and the destruction of thy +house is certain. Love, or at least its symbol, can and must avert the +curse of my father!'</p> + +<p>"Bolko looked into the earnest and marvellously bright eyes of +Auriola, as she pronounced his doom. His heart belonged once more to +the Maiden of the Moor, and his gaze made known his passion. She +touched his forehead with her transparent fingers, poured the last +drops of water into the hollow of her hand, and in her usual manner +blew the little curling waves into the misty air. A multitude of +images arose, but in scarcely finished outline. The moist atmosphere +seemed to hinder their accomplishment.</p> + +<p>"'Now, farewell!' said Auriola. 'Thou hast beheld. Thy life is +troubled, as are the feelings which sway thy heart. Love truly and +wholly, as aforetime thou lovedst me, and the mirror of thought will +again display its clear bright pictures.</p> + +<p>"Auriola took the pitcher, and her bare feet, scarcely disturbing the +faded blades of grass, glided towards the margin of the spring, where +she melted into air.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>"Emma and Bolko were united in holy matrimony. The halls of Castle +T—— overflowed with joyous guests. Music delighted the noble +visitors during the marriage-feast, and a happier scene could not be +imagined. All hearts joined in wishing prosperity to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_739" id="Page_739">[Pg 739]</a></span> the bridal pair, +and the latter seemed to entertain no fears for their bright future. +The banquet over, the guests, preceded by the newly-married couple, +withdrew to the adjoining saloon. The old knights seated themselves in +the niches of the windows, having still many goblets to empty over the +dice-box, whilst the younger spirits disposed themselves for dancing. +Bolko, with his high-born bride, commenced the ball. If they were +happy before, they were now at the very porch of a terrestrial heaven. +They made but short pauses in their pleasure, and these only that they +might mingle again the more intensely in the delightful measure.</p> + +<p>"It was during the jocund dance that Bolko's doublet suddenly opened, +and the mysterious little box flew out. The bridegroom was made aware +of the accident by the exclamations of his partner.</p> + +<p>"'Oh! look, look, Bolko! See that magnificent butterfly! How singular +at this season of the year!'</p> + +<p>"Emma caught at the little beauty, and Bolko discovered his fault.</p> + +<p>"'Hold, hold!' said he, in a whisper. 'That is no butterfly for thee, +my love! Its colours play for me alone!'</p> + +<p>"Emma looked enquiringly at her husband, then more closely at the +little box, glowing in a fire of colours, and she beheld the golden +hair chain to which it was attached.</p> + +<p>"'A chain too! and what beautiful hair!' The maiden caught at the +prize, and continued, 'Who gave thee this hair and the sweet case! +Dearest Bolko, to whom does it belong? Why have you never mentioned +this? What need was there of secresy?'</p> + +<p>"Emma sobbed, and Bolko hardly knowing what excuse to offer, withdrew +her to a neighbouring room.</p> + +<p>"'Promise me, dearest Emma,' said he, 'to be calm and patient, and you +shall know every thing.'</p> + +<p>"The young wife looked at him distrustfully.</p> + +<p>"'Make known to me the history and contents of the little box, and I +will restrain my curiosity until——to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>"'Content, my beloved, so let it be; as we return to Gottmar all shall +be cleared up.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, I unhappy!' exclaimed the girl, bursting into tears.</p> + +<p>"'Say rather <i>happy</i>, dearest. Since all our happiness flows from the +history of this chain; from this alone. Sweetest, let us return to the +dance.'</p> + +<p>"Emma resigned her arm to her young lord with a sullen resignation. As +the latter opened the folding-doors of the saloon, and gazed for a few +seconds upon the dancing throng, he seemed to possess a distant +remembrance of the scene. The Gothic arches, the window niches, the +gaily-attired musicians, the groups of dancers—the whole scene had +once before been present to his eyes. He taxed his memory until his +thoughts carried him to the bleak and barren moor. Had not the +dazzling vision flowed into the sunny evening air over the white +transparent fingers of the ethereal Auriola? He acknowledged it, and +shuddered.</p> + +<p>"The dance was at an end. The guests had departed. In the eyes of the +newly-married Emma a tear of troubled joy trembled, as she sank upon +the bosom of her young and doating husband.</p> + +<p>"Upon the following morning, Bolko already repented him of his hasty +promise, and delayed his departure by every means in his power. The +weather favoured him, for hail and storm were pouring down upon the +earth. As the day declined, Bolko found it impossible to conceal his +disquietude; and Emma, when she perceived his anxiety, attributed it +at once to conscious guilt. This conviction on her part only made her +urge their departure with greater perseverance. There remained at last +no good ground for refusal, and Bolko silently acquiesced in her wish.</p> + +<p>"For some time the young couple sat side by side, and were very +sparing of their speech. Bolko, indeed, was dumb. The inquisitive +Emma, however, had not so powerful an excuse for silence. In a few +kind words she reminded her lord of his pledged word, and begged him +to confide in her.</p> + +<p>"'Emma,' said Bolko in reply, and in a serious tone, 'if I comply with +thy request, I risk the eternal happiness of both. I have promised +that which I cannot perform without a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_740" id="Page_740">[Pg 740]</a></span> breach of faith. Thou canst +gain nothing by my communication, and I pray thee, therefore, give me +back my promise.'</p> + +<p>"Bolko could not have preferred a more untimely suit. Emma, +inquisitive, suspicious, and jealous, would rather have been put to +death in torture than have given up her claim. She refused his +petition at once; implored, threatened, implored again; and, finding +all such efforts only darkened Bolko's humour, proceeded to flattery +and coaxing. She promised the most perfect secresy, and used, in +short, every artifice by which woman knows how to overcome the +strongest resolutions of weak man. Bolko grew tender-hearted, and then +related to his wife all that he had to tell;—the history of the +malediction that rested on his family, and the singular manner in +which he had effected the expiation.</p> + +<p>"Emma listened to the narrative not without an inward pique and lively +jealousy.</p> + +<p>"'I thank thee, Bolko, for thy confidence,' said she. 'Fear not my +prudence. But for the charm, thou wilt not surely wear it so near thy +bosom.'</p> + +<p>"'Next my heart, beloved—since there it shields us both from ruin.'</p> + +<p>"Emma bit her lips with womanly vexation.</p> + +<p>"'Thou canst not wish,' continued Bolko, 'that I should take it +thence.'</p> + +<p>"'I do, I do!' replied the jealous wife. 'I wish it. I insist upon +it—now—this very instant.'</p> + +<p>"The storm increased in fury. The fir-trees were beating together as +if in battle.</p> + +<p>"'It is impossible!' cried Bolko. 'Thou art mad to ask it.'</p> + +<p>"'Then shall I mistrust thy love,' continued Emma, 'or canst thou hope +for my affection whilst that ghostly gift divides us? Never! Inhuman +man, thou wilt teach me to hate thee.'</p> + +<p>"The carriage drove rapidly through the hurricane into the midst of +the forest. The wind bellowed, the yellow lightning glared, and +thunder crashed and resounded fearfully from the distant valleys.</p> + +<p>"'It is the warning voice of heaven!' said Bolko. 'Its lightnings will +reach us if I yield to thy entreaty.'</p> + +<p>"'Heaven has nothing in common with enchanters and sorcerers,' replied +Emma; 'nature is uttering a summons to thee, and—whilst a devoted +wife embraces thee—protects and defends thee against demoniac powers, +bids thee renounce all witchcraft, and put aside the unholy gift.'</p> + +<p>"Bolko answered not, but peered through the door carriage windows to +learn his exact situation. The dark pinnacles of Gottmar lay +immediately before him. Above his head the tempest lowered, hurling +its lightnings on every side.</p> + +<p>"'Art thou angry with me?' enquired Emma sorrowfully, leaning her +ringleted head upon the bosom of her husband. Bolko pressed her +forehead to his lips. Emma threw her arms about his neck. She wept, +she kissed, she coaxed him; they were the fondest lovers, as in the +earliest days of their attachment. The heart of Bolko was melted. In +the intoxication of happiness he forgot his danger; and reposing on +Emma's bosom, did not perceive that she untied his doublet, and +heedfully but eagerly searched for the amulet. She was mistress of it +before Bolko could suspect her intention.</p> + +<p>"'It is mine, it is mine!' almost shrieked the young wife in her +delight, snatching away both chain and box. The next moment the +carriage window was drawn down and the precious objects thrown into +the storm. Bolko caught at them, but too late. A gust of wind had +already clutched them, and carried them away.</p> + +<p>"A flash of lightning struck a beech-tree, that blazed, awfully +illuminating the whole neighbourhood. The horses took fright, plunged +aside, then tore with the carriage towards a treeless melancholy-looking +plain. Bolko recognised the spot at the first brief glance.</p> + +<p>"'The moor! the moor!' he screamed to the driver; but the latter had +lost all power over the snorting steeds, who bore the fated carriage +in a whizzing gallop towards the marsh. The blazing beech-tree +rendered the surrounding objects fearfully distinct. Bolko could +descry the figure of Auriola at the margin of the spring.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_741" id="Page_741">[Pg 741]</a></span> Between her +fingers glittered the ring, and words of lamentation issuing from her +lips, dropped into the soul of Bolko and paralysed it."</p> + +<p>"'Auriola, Auriola!' exclaimed the youth, supporting the pale and +quivering Emma—'forgive me! forgive me!'</p> + +<p>"The Moor Maiden dropped the ring into the well, and it vanished like +an unearthly flame. Auriola herself, slowly and like a mist, descended +after it. She held her hand above her head, and it seemed to point to +the onward-dashing carriage.</p> + +<p>"Horror upon horror! the carriage itself began to sink into the +earth—quicker and quicker.</p> + +<p>"'We are sinking! Heaven help us!' cried the driver. Bolko burst the +carriage door open, but escape was impossible. The moor had given way +around him. The horses were already swallowed up in the abyss. The +pale earth-crust trembled and heaved like flakes of ice upon a +loosening river. It separated, and huge pieces were precipitated and +hurled against each other. In a few seconds horses and carriage, bride +and bridegroom, had disappeared for ever. As the moor closed over +them, the hand of Auriola vanished.</p> + +<p>"The Curse of her father was accomplished.</p> + +<p>"On the same night, Gottmar castle was struck by lightning. It burned +to the ground, and there the aged Hubert found his grave."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THATS_WHAT_WE_ARE" id="THATS_WHAT_WE_ARE"></a>"THAT'S WHAT WE ARE."</h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"Careful and troubled about many things,"<br /> +(Alas! that it should be so with us still<br /> +As in the time of Martha,) I went forth<br /> +Harass'd and heartsick, with hot aching brow,<br /> +Thought fever'd, happy to escape myself.<br /> +<br /> +Beauteous that bright May morning! All about<br /> +Sweet influences of earth, and air, and sky,<br /> +Harmoniously accordant. I alone,<br /> +The troubled spirit that had driven me forth,<br /> +In dissonance with that fair frame of things<br /> +So blissfully serene. God had not yet<br /> +Let fall the weight of chastening that makes dumb<br /> +The murmuring lip, and stills the rebel heart,<br /> +Ending all earthly interests, and I call'd<br /> +(O Heaven!) that incomplete experience—Grief.<br /> +<br /> +It would not do. The momentary sense<br /> +Of soft refreshing coolness pass'd away;<br /> +Back came the troublous thoughts, and, all in vain,<br /> +I strove with the tormentors: All in vain,<br /> +Applied me with forced interest to peruse<br /> +Fair nature's outspread volume: All in vain,<br /> +Look'd up admiring at the dappling clouds<br /> +And depths cerulean: Even as I gazed,<br /> +The film—the earthly film obscured my vision,<br /> +And in the lower region, sore perplex'd,<br /> +Again I wander'd; and again shook off<br /> +With vex'd impatience the besetting cares,<br /> +And set me straight to gather as I walk'd<br /> +A field-flower nosegay. Plentiful the choice;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_742" id="Page_742">[Pg 742]</a></span>And, in few moments, of all hues I held<br /> +A glowing handful. In a few moments more<br /> +Where are they? Dropping as I went along<br /> +Unheeded on my path, and I was gone—<br /> +Wandering again in muse of thought perplex'd.<br /> +<br /> +Despairingly I sought the social scene—<br /> +Sound—motion—action—intercourse of <i>words</i>—<br /> +Scarcely of mind—rare privilege!—We talk'd—<br /> +Oh! how we talk'd! Discuss'd and solved all questions:<br /> +Religion—morals—manners—politics—<br /> +Physics and metaphysics—books and authors—<br /> +Fashion and dress—our neighbours and ourselves.<br /> +But even as the senseless changes rang,<br /> +And I help'd ring them, in my secret soul<br /> +Grew weariness, disgust, and self-contempt;<br /> +And more disturb'd in spirit, I retraced,<br /> +More cynically sad, my homeward way.<br /> +<br /> +It led me through the churchyard, and methought<br /> +There entering, as I let the iron gate<br /> +Swing to behind me, that the change was good—<br /> +The unquiet living, for the quiet dead.<br /> +And at that moment, from the old church tower<br /> +A knell resounded—"Man to his long home"<br /> +Drew near. "The mourners went about the streets;"<br /> +And there, few paces onward to the right,<br /> +Close by the pathway, was an open grave,<br /> +Not of the humbler sort, shaped newly out,<br /> +Narrow and deep in the dark mould; when closed,<br /> +To be roofed over with the living sod,<br /> +And left for all adornment (and so best)<br /> +To Nature's reverential hand. The tomb,<br /> +Made ready there for a fresh habitant,<br /> +Was that of an old family. I knew it.—<br /> +A very ancient altar-tomb, where Time<br /> +With his rough fretwork mark'd the sculptor's art<br /> +Feebly elaborate—heraldic shields<br /> +And mortuary emblems, half effaced,<br /> +Deep sunken at one end, of many names,<br /> +Graven with suitable inscriptions, each<br /> +Upon the shelving slab and sides; scarce now<br /> +Might any but an antiquarian eye<br /> +Make out a letter. Five-and-fifty years<br /> +The door of that dark dwelling had shut in<br /> +The last admitted sleeper. She, 'twas said,<br /> +Died of a broken heart—a widow'd mother<br /> +Following her only child, by violent death<br /> +Cut off untimely, and—the whisper ran—<br /> +By his own hand. The tomb was ancient <i>then</i>,<br /> +When they two were interr'd; and they, the first<br /> +For whom, within the memory of man,<br /> +It had been open'd; and their names fill'd up<br /> +(With sharp-cut newness mocking the old stone)<br /> +The last remaining space. And so it seem'd<br /> +The gathering was complete; the appointed number<br /> +Laid in the sleeping chamber, and seal'd up<br /> +Inviolate till the great gathering day.<br /> +The few remaining of the name dispersed—<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_743" id="Page_743">[Pg 743]</a></span>The family fortunes dwindled—till at last<br /> +They sank into decay, and out of sight,<br /> +And out of memory; till an aged man<br /> +Pass'd by some parish very far away<br /> +To die in ours—his legal settlement—<br /> +Claim'd kindred with the long-forgotten race,<br /> +Its sole survivor, and in right thereof,<br /> +Of that affinity, to moulder with them<br /> +In the old family grave.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"A natural wish,"</span><br /> +Said the authorities; "and sure enough<br /> +<span class="smcap">He was</span> of the old stock—the last descendant—<br /> +And it would cost no more to bury him<br /> +Under the old crack'd tombstone, with its scutcheons,<br /> +Than in the common ground." So, graciously,<br /> +The boon was granted, and he died content.<br /> +And now the pauper's funeral had set forth,<br /> +And the bell toll'd—not many strokes, nor long—<br /> +Pauper's allowance. He was coming home.<br /> +But while the train was yet a good way off—<br /> +The workhouse burial train—I stopp'd to look<br /> +Upon the scene before me; and methought<br /> +Oh! that some gifted painter could behold<br /> +And give duration to that living picture,<br /> +So rich in moral and pictorial beauty,<br /> +If seen arightly by the spiritual eye<br /> +As with the bodily organ!<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">The old tomb,</span><br /> +With its quaint tracery, gilded here and there<br /> +With sunlight glancing through the o'er-arching lime,<br /> +Far flinging its cool shadow, flickering light—<br /> +Our greyhair'd sexton, with his hard grey face,<br /> +(A living tombstone!) resting on his mattock<br /> +By the low portal; and just over right,<br /> +His back against the lime-tree, his thin hands<br /> +Lock'd in each other—hanging down before him<br /> +As with their own dead weight—a tall slim youth<br /> +With hollow hectic cheek, and pale parch'd lip,<br /> +And labouring breath, and eyes upon the ground<br /> +Fast rooted, as if taking measurement<br /> +Betime for his own grave. I stopp'd a moment,<br /> +Contemplating those thinkers—youth and age—<br /> +Mark'd for the sickle; as it seem'd—the <i>unripe</i><br /> +To be first gather'd. Stepping forward, then,<br /> +Down to the house of death, in vague expectance,<br /> +I sent a curious, not unshrinking, gaze.<br /> +There lay the burning brain and broken heart,<br /> +Long, long at rest: and many a Thing beside<br /> +That had been life—warm, sentient, busy life—<br /> +Had hunger'd, thirsted, laugh'd, wept, hoped, and fear'd—<br /> +Hated and loved—enjoy'd and agonized.<br /> +Where of all this, was all I look'd to see?<br /> +The mass of crumbling coffins—some belike<br /> +(The undermost) with their contents crush'd in,<br /> +Flatten'd, and shapeless. Even in this damp vault,<br /> +With more completeness could the old Destroyer<br /> +Have done his darkling work? Yet lo! I look'd<br /> +Into a small square chamber, swept and clean,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_744" id="Page_744">[Pg 744]</a></span>Except that on one side, against the wall,<br /> +Lay a few fragments of dark rotten wood,<br /> +And a small heap of fine, rich, reddish earth<br /> +Was piled up in a corner.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"How is this?"</span><br /> +In stupid wonderment I ask'd myself,<br /> +And dull of apprehension. Turning, then,<br /> +To the old sexton—"Tell me, friend," I said,<br /> +"Here should be many coffins—Where are they?<br /> +And"—pointing to the earth-heap—"what is that?"<br /> +<br /> +He raised his eyes to mine with a strange look<br /> +And strangely meaning smile; and I repeated—<br /> +(For not a word he spoke)—my witless question.<br /> +<br /> +Then with a deep distinctness he made answer,<br /> +Distinct and slow, looking from whence I pointed,<br /> +Full in my face again, and what he said<br /> +Thrill'd through my very soul—"<i>That's what we are!</i>"<br /> +<br /> +So I was answer'd. Sermons upon death<br /> +I had heard many. Lectures by the score<br /> +Upon life's vanities. But never words<br /> +Of mortal preacher to my heart struck home<br /> +With such convicting sense and suddenness<br /> +As that plain-spoken homily, so brief,<br /> +Of the unletter'd man.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"That's what we are!"—</span><br /> +Repeating after him, I murmur'd low<br /> +In deep acknowledgment, and bow'd the head<br /> +Profoundly reverential. A deep calm<br /> +Came over me, and to the inward eye<br /> +Vivid perception. Set against each other,<br /> +I saw weigh'd out the things of time and sense,<br /> +And of eternity;—and oh! how light<br /> +Look'd in that truthful hour the earthly scale!<br /> +And oh! what strength, when from the penal doom<br /> +Nature recoil'd, in <i>His</i> remember'd words:<br /> +"<i>I am the Resurrection and the Life</i>."<br /> +<br /> +And other words of that Divinest Speaker<br /> +(Words to all mourners of all times address'd)<br /> +Seem'd spoken to me as I went along<br /> +In prayerful thought, slow musing on my way—<br /> +"<i>Believe in me</i>"—"<i>Let not your hearts be troubled</i>"—<br /> +And sure I could have promised in that hour,<br /> +But that I knew myself how fallible,<br /> +That never more should cross or care of this life<br /> +Disquiet or distress me. So I came,<br /> +Chasten'd in spirit, to my home again,<br /> +Composed and comforted, and cross'd the threshold<br /> +That day "a wiser, <i>not</i> a sadder, <i>woman</i>."<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">C.</span></p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_745" id="Page_745">[Pg 745]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="EDMUND_BURKE" id="EDMUND_BURKE"></a>EDMUND BURKE.[<a href="#f14">14</a><a name="f14.1" id="f14.1"></a>]</h2> + + +<p>Burke died in 1797, and yet, after the lapse of almost half a century, +the world is eager to treasure every recollection of his name. This is +the true tribute to a great man, and the only tribute which is worth +the wishes of a great man. The perishable nature of all the memorials +of human hands has justly been the theme of every moralist, since +tombs first bore an image or an inscription. Yet, such as they are, +they ought to be given; but they are all that man can give. The nobler +monument must be raised by the individual himself, and must be the +work of his lifetime; its guardianship must be in the hands, not of +sacristans and chapters, but in those of the world; his panegyric must +be found, not in the extravagance or adulation of his marble, but in +the universal voice which records his career, and cherishes his name +as a new stimulant of public virtue.</p> + +<p>We have no intention of retracing the steps by which this memorable +man gradually rose to so high a rank in the estimation of his own +times. No history of intellectual eminence during the latter half of +the nineteenth century—the most troubled, important, and productive +period of human annals since the birth of the European kingdoms—can +be written, without giving some testimonial to his genius in every +page. But his progress was not limited to his Age. He is still +progressive. While his great contemporaries have passed away, honoured +indeed, and leaving magnificent proofs of their powers, in the honour +and security of their country, Burke has not merely retained his +position before the national eye, but has continually assumed a +loftier stature, and shone with a more radiant illumination. The great +politician of his day, he has become the noblest philosopher of ours. +Every man who desires to know the true theory of public morals, and +the actual causes which influence the rise and fall of thrones, makes +his volumes a study; every man who desires to learn how the most +solemn and essential truths may not merely be adorned, but +invigorated, by the richest colourings of imagination, must labour to +discover the secret of his composition; and every man who, born in +party, desires to emancipate his mind from the egotism, bitterness, +and barrenness of party, or achieve the still nobler and more +difficult task of turning its evils into good, and of making it an +instrument of triumph for the general cause of mankind, must measure +the merits and success of his enterprise by its similarity to the +struggles, the motives, and the ultimate triumph of Edmund Burke.</p> + +<p>The present volumes contain a considerable portion of the +correspondence which Burke carried on with his personal and public +friends during the most stirring period of his life. The papers had +been put in trust of the late French Lawrence the civilian, and +brother to the late Archbishop of Cashel, with whom was combined in +the trust Dr King, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, both able men and +particular friends of Burke. But Lawrence, while full of the intention +of giving a life of his celebrated friend, died in 1809, and the +papers were bequeathed by the widow of Burke, who died in 1812, to the +Bishop of Rochester, the Right Hon. W. Elliot, and Earl Fitzwilliam, +for the publication of such parts as had not already appeared. This +duty chiefly devolved upon Dr King, who had been made Bishop of +Rochester in 1808. Personal infirmity, and that most distressing of +all infirmities, decay of sight, retarded the publishing of the works; +but sixteen volumes were completed. The bishop's death in 1828, put an +end to all the hopes which had been long entertained, of an authentic +life from his pen.</p> + +<p>On this melancholy event, the papers came into the possession of the +late Earl Fitzwilliam, from whom they devolved to the present Earl, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_746" id="Page_746">[Pg 746]</a></span>who, with Sir Richard Bourke, a distant relative of the family, and +personally intimate with Burke during the last eight years of his +life, has undertaken the present collection of his letters. Those +letters which required explanation have been supplied with intelligent +and necessary notes, and the whole forms a singularly important +publication.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Many of Burke's earliest letters were written to a Richard Shackleton, +the son of a Quaker at whose school Burke with his two brothers had +been placed in 1741. In 1743, he was placed in the college of Dublin, +and then commenced his correspondence with Shackleton. Even those +letters exhibit, at the age of little more than fifteen, the +sentiments which his mature life was spent in establishing and +enlarging. He says of sectaries, and this was to a sectary himself, "I +assure you, I don't think near so favourably of those sectaries you +mentioned, (he had just spoken of the comparative safety of virtuous +heathens, who, not having known the name of Christianity, were not to +be judged by its law,) many of those sectaries breaking, as they +themselves confessed, for matters of indifference, and no way +concerned in the only affair that is necessary, viz. salvation; and +what a great crime schism is, you can't be ignorant. This, and the +reasons in my last, and if you consider what will occur to yourself, +together with several texts, will bring you to my way of thinking on +that point. Let us endeavour to live according to the rules of the +Gospel; and he that prescribed them, I hope, will consider our +endeavours to please him, and assist us in our designs.</p> + +<p>"I don't like that part of your letter, wherein you say you had the +testimony of well-doing in your breast. Whenever such notions rise +again, endeavour to suppress them. We should always be in no other +than the state of a penitent, because the most righteous of us is no +better than a sinner. Read the parable of the Pharisee and the +Publican who prayed in the temple."</p> + +<p>We next have a letter exhibiting the effect of external things on the +writer's mind, and expressed with almost the picturesque power of his +higher days. He tells his friend, that he will endeavour to answer his +letter in good-humour, "though every thing around," he says, +"conspires to excite in him a contrary disposition—the melancholy +gloom of the day, the whistling winds, and the hoarse rumbling of the +swollen Liffey, with a flood which, even where I write, lays close +siege to our own street, not permitting any to go in or out to supply +us with the necessaries of life."</p> + +<p>After some statements of the rise of the river, he says, "It gives me +pleasure to see nature in those great though terrible scenes; it fills +the mind with grand ideas, and turns the soul in upon herself. This, +together with the sedentary life I lead, forced some reflections on +me, which perhaps would otherwise not have occurred. I considered how +little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master +of all things, yet scarce can command any thing. What well laid, and +what better executed scheme of his is there, but what a small change +of nature is entirely able to defeat and abolish. If but one element +happens to encroach a little upon another, what confusion may it not +create in his affairs, what havoc, what destruction: the servant +destined to his use, confines, menaces, and frequently destroys this +mighty, this feeble lord."</p> + +<p>One of those letters mentions his feelings on the defeat of the +luckless Charles Edward, whose hopes of the British crown were +extinguished by the battle of Culloden, (April 16, 1746.) "The +Pretender, who gave us so much disturbance for some time past, is at +length, with all his adherents, utterly defeated, and himself (as some +say) taken prisoner. 'Tis strange to see how the minds of the people +are in a few days changed. The very men who, but a while ago, while +they were alarmed by his progress, so heartily cursed and hated those +unfortunate creatures, are now all pity, and wish it could be +terminated without bloodshed. I am sure I share in the general +compassion. It is, indeed, melancholy to consider the state of those +unhappy gentlemen who engaged in this affair, (as for the rest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_747" id="Page_747">[Pg 747]</a></span> they +lose but their lives,) who have thrown away their lives and fortunes, +and destroyed their families for ever, in what, I believe, they +thought a just cause." Those sentiments exhibit the early propensity +of Burke's mind to a generous dealing with political opponents. He was +a Protestant, a zealous admirer of the constitution of 1688, as all +Irish Protestants were in his day, whether old or young; and yet he +feels an unequivocal, as it was a just compassion for the brave men, +who, under an impulse of misapplied loyalty, and in obedience to a +mistaken sense of duty, went headlong to their ruin, for a prince who +was a Papist, and thus would have been, like his father, a most +hazardous sovereign to the liberties and religion of England.</p> + +<p>In allusion to his collegiate career, he describes himself as having +taken up every successive subject, with an ardour which, however, +speedily declined.</p> + +<p>"First, I was greatly taken with natural philosophy, which, while I +should have given my mind to logic, employed me incessantly, (logic +forming a principal part of the first year's studies.) This I call my +<i>furor mathematicus</i>. But this worked off as soon as I began to read +it in the college. This threw me back to logic and metaphysics. Here I +remained a good while, and with much pleasure, and this was my <i>furor +logicus</i>—a disease very common in the days of ignorance, and very +uncommon in these enlightened times. Next succeeded the <i>furor +historicus</i>, which also had its day, but is now no more, being +absorbed in the <i>furor poeticus</i>, which (as skilful physicians assure +me) is difficultly cured. But doctors differ, and I don't despair of a +cure." Fortunately, he at last accomplished that cure, for his early +poetry gives no indications of future excellence. His prose is much +more poetic, even in those early letters, than his verse. A great poet +unquestionably is a great man; but Burke's greatness was to be +achieved in another sphere. It is only in the visions of prophecy that +we see the Lion with wings. Burke entered his name at the Middle +Temple in April 1747, and went to London to keep his terms in 1750. He +was now twenty-two years old, and his constitution being delicate, and +apparently consumptive, he adopted, during this period of his +residence in England, a habit to which he probably owed his strength +of constitution in after-life. During the vacations, he spent his time +in travelling about England, generally in company with a friend and +relative, Mr William Burke. Though his finances were by no means +narrow—his father being a man of success in his profession—Burke +probably travelled the greater part of those journeys on foot. When he +found an agreeable country town or village, he fixed his quarters +there, leading a regular life, rising early, taking frequent exercise, +and employing himself according to the inclinations of the hour. There +could be no wiser use of his leisure; exercise of the frame is health +of the mind, open air is life to the student, change of scene is +mental vigour to an enquiring, active, and eager spirit; and thus the +feeble boy invigorated himself for the most strenuous labours of the +man, and laid the foundation for a career of eminent usefulness and +public honour for nearly half a century of the most stirring period of +the modern world.</p> + +<p>Some of his letters touch, in his style of grave humour, on these +pleasant wanderings.—"You have compared me, for my rambling +disposition, to the sun. Sincerely, I can't help finding a likeness +myself, for they say the sun sends down much the same influences +whenever he comes into the same signs. Now I am influenced to shake +off my laziness, and write to you at the same time of the year, and +from the same west country I wrote my last in. Since I had your letter +I have often shifted the scene. I spent part of the winter, that is +the term time, in London, and part in Croydon in Surrey. About the +beginning of the summer, finding myself attacked with my old +complaints, I went once more to Bristol, and found the same benefit." +Of his adventures at Monmouth, he says they would almost compose a +novel, and of a more curious kind than is generally issued from the +press. He and his relative formed the topic of the town, both while +they were there and after they left it. "The most innocent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_748" id="Page_748">[Pg 748]</a></span> scheme," +said he, "they guessed, was that of fortune-hunting; and when they saw +us quit the town without wives, the lower sort sagaciously judged us +spies to the French king. What is much more odd is, that here my +companion and I puzzled them as much as we did at Monmouth, [he was +then at Turlaine in Wiltshire,] for this is a place of very great +trade in making fine cloths, in which they employ a great number of +hands. The first conjecture, for they could not fancy how any other +sort of people could spend so much of their time at books; but finding +that we receive from time to time a good many letters, they conclude +us merchants. They at last began to apprehend that we were spies from +Spain on their trade." Still they appeared mysterious; and the old +woman in whose lodgings they lived, paid them the rather ambiguous +compliment of saying, "I believe that you be gentlemen, but I ask no +questions." "What makes the thing still better," says Burke, "about +the same time we came hither, arrived a little parson equally a +stranger; but he spent a good part of his time in shooting and other +country amusements, got drunk at night, got drunk in the morning, and +became intimate with every body in the village. But he surprised +nobody, no questions were asked about him, because he lived like the +rest of the world. But that two men should come into a strange +country, and partake of none of the country diversions, seek no +acquaintance, and live entirely recluse, is something so inexplicable +as to puzzle the wisest heads, even that of the parish-clerk himself."</p> + +<p>About the year 1756, Burke, still without a profession—for though he +had kept his terms he was never called to the bar—began to feel the +restlessness, perhaps the self-condemnation, natural to every man who +feels life advancing on him without an object. He now determined to +try his strength as an author, and published his <i>Vindication of +Natural Society</i>—a pamphlet in which, adopting the showy style of +Bolingbroke, but pushing his arguments to the extreme, he shows the +fallacy of his principles. This work excited considerable attention at +the time. The name of the author remained unknown, and the imitation +was so complete, that for some time it was regarded as a posthumous +work of the infidel lord. Burke, in one of his later publications, +exclaims—Who now reads Bolingbroke? who ever read him through? We may +be assured, at least, that one read him through; and that one was +Edmund Burke. The dashing rhetoric, and headlong statements of +Bolingbroke; his singular affluence of language, and his easy +disregard of fact; the boundless lavishing and overflow of an +excitable and glowing mind, on topics in which prejudice and passion +equally hurried him onward, and which the bitter recollections of +thwarted ambition made him regard as things to be trampled on, if his +own fame was to survive, was incomparably transferred by Burke to his +own pages. The performance produced a remarkable sensation amongst the +leaders of public opinion and literature. Chesterfield pronounced it +to be from the pen of Bolingbroke. Mallet, the literary lord's +residuary legatee, was forced to disclaim it by public advertisement; +but Mallet's credit was not of the firmest order, and his denial was +scarcely believed until Burke's name, as the author, was known. But +his <i>Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of the Sublime and +Beautiful</i>, brought him more unequivocal applause. His theory on this +subject has been disputed, and is obviously disputable; but it was +chiefly written at the age of nineteen; it has never been wholly +superseded, and, for elegance of diction, has never been equaled. It +brought him into immediate intercourse with all that may be called the +fashion of literature—Lyttleton, Warburton, Soame Jenyns, Hume, +Reynolds, Lord Bath, Johnson, the greatest though the least +influential of them all, and Mrs Montague, the least but the most +influential of them all. There must have been a good deal of what is +called fortune in this successful introduction to the higher orders of +London society; for many a work of superior intelligence and more +important originality has been produced, without making its author +known be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_749" id="Page_749">[Pg 749]</a></span>yond the counter of the publisher. But what chance began his +merits completed. The work was unquestionably fit for the hands of +blue-stockingism; the topic was pleasing to literary romance; the very +title had a charm for the species of philosophy which lounges on +sofas, and talks metaphysics in the intervals of the concert or the +card-table. It may surprise us, that in an age when so many manly and +muscular understandings existed at the same time in London, things so +infinitely trifling as conversaziones should have been endured; but +conversaziones there were, and Burke's book was precisely made to +their admiration. It is no dishonour to the matured abilities of this +great man, that he produced a book which found its natural place on +the toilet-tables, and its natural praise in the tongues of the Mrs +Montagues of this world. It might have been worse; he never thought it +worth his while to make it better; the theory is worth nothing, but +the language is elegant; and the whole, regarded as the achievement of +a youth of nineteen, does honour to the spirit of his study, and the +polish of his pen.</p> + +<p>A change was now to take place in Burke's whole career. He might have +perished in poverty, notwithstanding his genius, except for the chance +which introduced him to Fitzherbert, a graceful and accomplished man, +who united to a high tone of fashionable life a gratification in the +intercourse of intelligent society. Partly through this gentleman's +interference, and partly through that of the late Earl of Charlemont, +Burke was introduced to William Gerard Hamilton, who shortly after +went to Ireland as secretary to the lord-lieutenant, Lord Halifax. +However, this connexion, though it continued for six years, was +evidently an uneasy one to Burke; and a letter written by him in the +second year of his private secretaryship to Hamilton, shows how little +they were fitted for cordial association. A pension of L.300 a-year +was assigned to Burke as a remuneration for his services, which, +however, he evidently seemed to regard in the light of a retaining +fee. In consequence of this conception, and the fear of being fettered +for life, Burke wrote a letter, stating that it would be necessary to +give a portion of his time to publication on his own account.</p> + +<p>"Whatever advantages," said he, "I have acquired, have been owing to +some small degree of literary reputation. It would be hard to persuade +me that any further services which your kindness may propose for me, +or any in which my friends may co-operate with you, will not be greatly +facilitated by doing something to cultivate and keep alive the same +reputation. I am fully sensible that this reputation may be as much +hazarded as forwarded by a new publication; but because a certain +oblivion is the consequence to writers of my inferior class of an +entire neglect of publication, I consider it such a risk as must +sometimes be run. For this purpose some short time, at convenient +intervals, and especially at the dead time of the year, it would be +requisite to study and consult proper books. The matter may be very +easily settled by a good understanding between ourselves, and by a +discreet liberty, which I think you would not wish to restrain, or I +to abuse."</p> + +<p>However, it will be seen that Gerard Hamilton thought differently on +the subject. We break off this part of the correspondence, for the +purpose of introducing a fragment of that wisdom which formed so early +and so promising a portion of the mind of Burke. In writing of his +brother Richard to his Irish friend, he says—"Poor Dick sets off at +the beginning of next week for the Granadas, [in which he had obtained +a place under government.] He goes in good health and spirits, which +are all but little enough to battle with a bad climate and a bad +season. But it must be submitted to. Providence never intended, to +much the greater part, an entire life of ease and quiet. A peaceable, +honourable, and affluent decline of life must be purchased by a +laborious or hazardous youth; and every day, I think more and more +that it is well worth the purchase. Poverty and age suit very ill +together, and a course of struggling is miserable indeed, when +strength is decayed and hope gone. <i>Turpe senex miles!</i>"</p> + +<p>Burke's quarrel with Hamilton ended in his resigning his pension. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_750" id="Page_750">[Pg 750]</a></span> +feelings appear to have been deeply hurt by Hamilton's superciliousness, +and his demand for the right to employ the whole time of his private +secretary. In a long explanatory letter to Hutchinson, a leading member +of the Irish parliament, and father of the late Lord Donoughmore, he +says, indignantly enough—"I flatter myself to let you see that I +deserved to be considered in another manner than as one of Mr Hamilton's +cattle, or as a piece of his household stuff. Six of the best years of +my life he took me from every pursuit of literary reputation, or of +improvement of my fortune. In that time he made his own fortune, a very +great one; and he has also taken to himself the very little one which I +had made. In all this time you may easily conceive how much I felt at +being left behind by almost all my contemporaries. There never was a +season more favourable for any man who chose to enter into the career +of public life; and I think I am not guilty of ostentation in supposing +my own moral character and my industry, my friends and connexions, when +Mr H. first sought my acquaintance, were not at all inferior to those of +several whose fortune is at this day upon a very different footing from +mine."</p> + +<p>It is evident that Burke's mind was at this period turned to +authorship, and that his chief quarrel arose from the petty and +pragmatical demand of Hamilton, that he should abandon it altogether. +Burke soon had ample revenge, if it was to be found in the obscurity +into which Hamilton rapidly fell, and the burlesque which alone +revived his name from its obscurity. The contrast between the two must +have been a lesson to the vanity of the one, as pungent as was its +triumph. If ever the fate of Tantalus was realized to man, it was in +the perpetual thirst and perpetual disappointment of Hamilton for +public name. The cup never reached his lips but it was instantly dry; +while Burke was seen reveling in the full flow of public +renown—buoyant on the stream into which so many others plunged only +to sink, and steering his noble course with a full mastery of the +current. "Single-speech Hamilton" became a title of ridicule, while +Burke was pouring forth, night after night, speech after speech, rich +in the most sparkling and most solid opulence of the mind. He must +have been more or less than man, to have never cast a glance at the +decrepitude of the formal coxcomb whom he once acknowledged as his +leader, and compared his shrunk shape with the vigorous and athletic +proportions of his own intellectual stature. Hamilton, too, must have +had many a pang. The wretched nervousness of character which at once +stimulated him to pine for distinction, and disqualified him from +obtaining it, must have made his life miserable. If the magnificent +conception of the poet's Prometheus could be lowered to any thing so +trivial as a disappointed politician of the eighteenth century, its +burlesque might be amply shown in a mind helplessly struggling against +a sense of its own inferiority, gnawed by envy at the success of +better men, and with only sufficient intellectual sensibility +remaining to have that gnawing constantly renewed.</p> + +<p>Burke's letters to the chief Irishmen with whom his residence in +Dublin had brought him into intercourse, long continued indignant. +"Having presumed," said he, in one of those explanatory letters, "to +put a test to me, which no man <i>not born in Africa</i> ever thought of +taking, on my refusal he broke off all connexion with me in the most +insolent manner. He, indeed, entered into two several negotiations +afterwards, but both poisoned in their first principles by the same +spirit of injustice with which he set out in his first dealings with +me. I, therefore, could never give way to his proposals. The whole +ended by his possessing himself of that small reward for my services +which, I since find, he had a very small share in procuring for me. +After, or, indeed, rather during his negotiations, he endeavoured to +stain my character and injure my future fortune, by every calumny his +malice could suggest. This is the case of my connexion with Mr +Hamilton."</p> + +<p>If all this be true—and whoever impeached the veracity of Burke in +any thing?—the more effectually his enemy was trampled the better: +malice can be punished sufficiently only by extirpation.</p> + +<p>A powerful letter to Henry Flood,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_751" id="Page_751">[Pg 751]</a></span> then one of the leading members of +the Irish House of Commons, shows how deeply Burke felt the vexation +of Hamilton's conduct, and not less explicitly administers the moral, +of how much must be suffered by every man who enters into the +conflicts of public life. Flood, too, had his share of those +vexations; perhaps more of them than his correspondent. Henry Flood +was one of the most remarkable men whom Ireland had produced. +Commencing his career with a handsome fortune, he had plunged into the +dissipation which was almost demanded of men of family in his day; but +some accidental impression (we believe a fit of illness) suddenly +changed his whole course. He turned his attention to public life, +entered the House of Commons, and suddenly astonished every body by +his total transformation from a mere man of fashion to a vigorous and +brilliant public orator. He was the most logical of public speakers, +without the formality of logic, and the most imaginative, without the +flourish of fancy. For ten years, Flood was the leader of the House, +on whichever side he stood. He was occasionally in opposition, and the +champion of opposition politics in his earlier career; but at length, +unfortunately alike for his feelings and his fame, he grew indolent, +accepted an almost sinecure place, and indulged himself in ease and +silence for full ten years. A loss like this was irreparable, in the +short duration allotted to the living supremacy of statesmanship. No +man in the records of the English parliament has been at his highest +vigour for more than ten years; he may have been <i>rising</i> before, or +inheriting a portion of his parliamentary distinction—enough to give +dignity to his decline; but his true time has past, and thenceforth he +must be satisfied with the reflection of his own renown. Flood had +already passed his hour when he was startled by the newborn splendour +of Grattan. The contest instantly commenced between those +extraordinary men, and was carried on for a while with singular +animation, and not less singular animosity. The ground of contest was +the constitution of 1782. The exciting cause of contest was the wrath +of Flood at seeing the laurels which he had relinquished seized by a +younger champion, and the daring, yet justified confidence of Grattan +in his own admirable powers to win and wear them. Flood, in the +bitterest pungency of political epigram, charged Grattan with having +sold himself to the people, and then sold the people to the minister +for prompt payment. (A vote of £50,000 had been passed to purchase an +estate for Grattan.) Grattan retorted, that "Flood, after having sold +himself to the minister, was angry only because he was interrupted in +the attempt to sell himself to the people." The country, fond of the +game of partizanship, ranged itself under the banners of both, +alternately hissed and applauded both, and at length abandoned both, +and in its new fondness for change, adopted the bolder banners of +revolution. Both were fighting for a shadow, and both must have known +it; but the prize of rhetoric was not to be given up without a +struggle. The "constitution" was rapidly forgotten, when Flood retired +into England and obscurity; and Grattan, who had been left, if not +victor, at least possessor of the field, grew tired of struggles +without a purpose, and plaudits without a reward. The absurdity of +affecting an independence which could not exist an hour but by the +protection of England, and the burlesque of a parliament into which no +man entered but in expectation of a job; the scandal of an Irish +slave-market, and the costliness of purchasing representatives, only +to be sold by them in turn, became so palpable to the national eye, +that the nation contemptuously cashiered the legislature. The gamblers +who had made their fortunes off the people, and had amused themselves +with building a house of cards, saw their paper fabric fall at the +first breath; and the nation looked on the fall with the negligent +scorn excited in rational eyes by detected imposture. The attempt is +once more prepared, but Ireland will have no house of cards, still +less will she suffer the building of an hospital for decayed fashion +and impotent intrigue—a receptacle for political incurables—and +meritorious, in the sight even of its projectors, simply for affording +them snug stewardships, showy governorships, and the whole sinecure +sys<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_752" id="Page_752">[Pg 752]</a></span>tem of emolument without responsibility.</p> + +<p>Burke again repeats to Flood his wrath at Hamilton's +provocation.—"The occasion of our difference was not any act +whatsoever on my part, it was entirely on his—by a voluntary, but +most insolent and intolerable demand, amounting to no less than a +claim of servitude during the whole course of my life." He then +alludes to the position of political parties, and gives a sketch of +the great Earl of Chatham which shows the hand of a master. "Nothing +but an intractable temper in your friend Pitt can prevent an admirable +and most lasting system from being put together; and this crisis will +show whether pride or patriotism be predominant in his character, for +you may be assured that he has it now in his power to come into the +service of his country upon any plan of politics he may choose to +dictate; with great and honourable claims to himself and to every +friend he has in the world, and with such a stretch of power as will +be equal to every thing but absolute despotism over the king and +kingdom. A few days will show whether he will take his part, or that +of continuing on his bank at Hayes, (his country-seat,) talking +fustian, excluded from all ministerial, and incapable of all +parliamentary service; for his gout is worse than ever, but his pride +may disable him more than his gout."</p> + +<p>We then have an odd rambling letter from Dr Leland, the author of a +History of Ireland, a heavy performance but an honest one, and by far +the best and least unfortunate of the unfortunate attempts to +rationalize the caprices and calamities of that unhappy country. +Leland's letter is written in congratulation to the two brothers, +Edmund and William Burke, the former having been appointed private +secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham in July 1765, the latter one of +the under secretaries of state. In speaking of Ireland, this writer +says, sensibly enough, "Let who will come to govern us poor wretches, +I care not, provided we are decently governed. I would not have his +secretary a jolly, good-humoured abandoned profligate, (the most +dangerous character in society,) or a sullen, vain, proud, selfish, +cankered-hearted, envious reptile—though what matter who is either +lieutenant or secretary?"</p> + +<p>Burke was not at this time in Parliament, nor until the 26th of +December in this year, when he was returned for the borough of +Wendover, through the influence of Lord Verney. A letter from Dr +Markham, afterwards archbishop of York, shows the degree of estimation +in which his abilities were held, and the expectations which he +excited among able men, at a period when his parliamentary faculties +were still unknown. He says to William Burke,—"I was informed of +Ned's cold by a letter from Skynner. I am very glad to hear it is so +much better. I should be grieved to hear he was ill at any time, and +particularly at so critical a time as this. I think much will depend +on his outset. I wish him to appear at once in some important +question. If he has but that confidence in his strength which I have +always had, he cannot fail of appearing with lustre. I am very glad to +hear from you that he feels his own consequence as well as the crisis +of his situation. He is now on the ground on which I have been so many +years wishing to see him. One splendid day will crush the malevolence +of enemies, as well as the envy of some who often praise him. When his +reputation is once established, the common voice will either silence +malignity or destroy its effect."</p> + +<p>This was written three days after Burke's entrance into Parliament. It +is curious to see, in the letters of those early correspondents, most +of them accomplished and practical men, how fully they were possessed +with a sense of his promised superiority. "You are now, I am certain," +says Leland, "a man of business, deeply immersed in public affairs, +commercial and political. You will show yourself a man of business in +the House of Commons, and you will not, I am certain, build your +reputation and consequence there upon a single studied manufactured +piece of eloquence, and then, like the brazen head, shut your mouth +for ever. I trust I shall hear of your rising regularly, though +ra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_753" id="Page_753">[Pg 753]</a></span>pidly; that I shall hear of ministers begging that you would be +pleased to accept of being vice-treasurer of Ireland, and then of your +soaring so high as to be quite out of view of such insects as I—and +so good-night, my dear Ned. If ever chance should bring us together, +we are quite ruined as companions. The saunterings, the readings, the +laughings, and the dosings in Mount Gallagher (his country-seat) are +all over. Your head is filled with questions, divisions, and +majorities. My thoughts are employed on Louth and Warburton."</p> + +<p>Burke began his parliamentary triumphs with but little delay. The +colonies were the grand subject of the time, and Burke instantly +devoted himself to that subject with the whole force of his capacious +intellect. He was regarded by the House, on the first speech which he +made on this voluminous topic, as exhibiting extraordinary knowledge, +combined with a power of language unequalled save by Chatham himself. +One of the letters of congratulations is from Dr Marriott, who was +afterwards judge of the court of admiralty. "Permit me to tell you +that you are the person the least sensible of the members of the House +of Commons, how much glory you acquired last Monday night; and it +would be an additional satisfaction to you that this testimony comes +from a judge of public speaking, the most disinterested and capable of +judging of it. Dr Hay assures me that your speech was far superior to +that of any other speaker on the colonies that night. I could not +refrain from acquainting you with an opinion, which must so greatly +encourage you to proceed, and to place the palm of the orator with +those which you have already acquired of the writer and the +philosopher." Hay was afterwards judge of the admiralty. At his death +he was succeeded by Marriott. He was of the Bedford party, which, as +it was wholly opposed to the Rockingham, made the testimony more +valuable.</p> + +<p>Burke's second speech was equally the subject of admiration. A second +letter from Marriott, with whom he had had some conversation +expressive of his own diffidence, at least as to his manner, in +addressing the House, mentions once more the opinion of Dr Hay, for +whose taste Marriott seems to have had great deference. "His opinion," +he writes, "is, that nothing could be more remote from awkwardness or +constraint than your manner; that your style, ideas, and expression, +were peculiarly your own; natural and unaffected, and so different +from the cant of the House, or from the jargon of the bar, that he +could not imagine any thing more agreeable; that you did not dwell +upon a point till you had tired it out, as is the way of most +speakers, but kept on with fresh ideas crowding upon you, and rising +one out of another, all leading to one point, which was constantly +kept in view to the audience; and, although every thing seemed a kind +of new political philosophy, yet it was all to the purpose and +well-connected, so as to produce the effect; and that he admired your +last speech the more as it was impromptu. I thought he was describing +to me a Greek orator, whose select orations I had translated four +times when I first went to the university, and therefore marked the +traits of this character. It was impossible for me not to communicate +to you a decision from so great a master himself, though differing +from you in party, that you may go on in a way you have begun, with +such glory to yourself, and to which you add so much by being so +little sensible of it."</p> + +<p>In 1766 the Rockingham ministry was suddenly dashed to the ground, and +all its connexions, of course, went down along with it. The marquis +was a man of great estate and excellent intentions, but his ministry +realized the Indian fable of the globe being painted on a +tortoise—the merit of the political tortoise being, in this instance, +to stand still, while its ambition unfortunately was to move. The +consequence naturally followed, that the world took its own course, +and left the tortoise behind. But Burke had distinguished himself so +much that offers of office were made to him from the succeeding +administration. Those he declined, and commenced that neutral +existence which, with the majority of politicians, is worse than none. +There was a weakness in Burke's character which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_754" id="Page_754">[Pg 754]</a></span> did him infinite +mischief for the first ten years of his political life. We shall not +call it an affectation in the instance of so great a man, but it paid +all the penalties of folly—and this was his propensity to feel, or at +least to express, a personal affection for the men whom he politically +followed. Even of Hamilton, the most supercilious and least loveable +of mankind, Burke speaks with a tenderness absolutely ridiculous +amongst politicians. Of Lord Rockingham he seldom speaks but in a tone +of romance, singularly inapplicable to that formal and frigid figure +of aristocracy. Of Fox, in latter days, he spoke in a sentimental tone +worthy only of a lover on the French stage; and, in all these +instances, he was doubtless laughed at, notwithstanding all his +sensibilities. With the highest admiration of his genius, we must +believe, for the sake of his understanding, that he adopted this style +merely for fashion's sake; for familiarity, which is akin to fondness, +as we are told by the poets that pity is akin to love, was much the +foolish fashion of the day. Men of the highest rank, and doubtless of +the haughtiest arrogance, were called Tom, and Dick, and Harry; and +this silliness was the language of high life, until the French +Revolution and the democratic war at home taught them, that if they +adopted the phraseology of their own footmen, their footmen would +probably take possession of their title-deeds. The hollowness of +public life is as soon discovered as the haughtiness of public men. A +man of heart like Burke ought to have disdained even the language of +courtiership, and while he observed the decorums of society, scorned +to stoop even to the phraseology of humiliation. But one of the most +curious features of this obsolete day is the manner in which the +country was disposed of. No game of whist, in one of the lordly clubs +of St James's Square, was ever more exclusively played. It was simply +a question whether his Grace of Bedford would be content with a +quarter or a half of the cabinet, or whether the Marquis of Rockingham +would be satisfied with two-fifths, or the Earl of Shelburne should +have all or should share power with the Duke of Portland. In all those +barterings and borrowings we never hear the name of the nation. No +whisper announces that there is such a thing in existence as the +people. No allusion ever proceeds from the stately lips, or offends +the "ears polite," of the embroidered conclave, referring to either +the interests, the feelings, or the necessities of the nation. All was +done as in an assemblage of a higher race of existence, calmly carving +out the world for themselves—a tribe of Epicurean deities, with the +cabinet for their Olympus, stooping to our inferior region only to +enjoy their own atmosphere afterwards with the greater zest, or shift +their quarters, like the poet's Jupiter, when tired of the dust and +clamour of war, moving off on his clouds and with his attendant +goddesses, to the tranquil realms of the Hippomolgi.</p> + +<p>And this highbred condition of affairs was the more repulsive, from +the fact that the greater number of those disposers of office and +dividers of empire were among the emptiest of mankind. The succession +of ministers, from the days of Walpole, (unquestionably a shrewd, +though a coarse mind, and profligate personage,) with the exception of +Chatham, was a list of silken imbeciles; very rich, or very highborn, +or very handsomely supplied with boroughs, but, in all other senses, +the last men who should have been entrusted with power.</p> + +<p>We have to thank the satirists, the public misfortunes, and even the +demagogues, for extinguishing this smooth and pacific system. Junius, +with his sarcastic pen, the American war, and even the gross impudence +of Wilkes, stirred the public mind to remember that it had a voice in +the state. A manlier period succeeded; and we shall no more hear of +the government being divided among the select party, like a twelfth +cake, nor see the interests of a nation which represents the interests +of the globe, compromised to suit the contending claims of +full-dressed frivolity.</p> + +<p>As a specimen of this courtly affair, we give a few fragments from a +confidential letter of Burke to the Marquis of Rockingham. "Lord +Shelburne still continues in administration, though as adverse and as +much dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_755" id="Page_755">[Pg 755]</a></span>liked as ever.—The Duke of Grafton continues, I hear, his +old complaints of his situation, and his genuine desire of holding it +as long as he can. At same time, Lord Shelburne gets loose too. I know +that Lord Camden, who adhered to him in these late divisions, has +given him up, and gone over to the Duke of Grafton. The Bedfords are +horridly frightened at all this, for fear of seeing the table <i>they +had so well covered</i>, and at which they sat down with so good an +appetite, kicked down in the scuffle. They find things not ripe at +present for bringing in Grenville, and that any capital move just now +would only betray their weakness in the closet and the nation." Thus, +those noble personages had it all to themselves. Again—</p> + +<p>"If Grenville was peculiarly exceptionable, another middle person +might have the Treasury. I fancy their middleman to be the same they +had in their thoughts this time twelve-month—Lord Gower. They talked +of the Duke of Northumberland as a proper person for the Treasury, in +case of the Duke of Grafton's going out. The truth is, the Bedfords +will never act any part, either fair or amiable, with your lordship or +your friends, until they see you in a situation to give the law to +them." No doubt all this was perfectly true; the whole was selfish, +supercilious, and exclusive; one red riband matched against another, +one garter balanced against a rival fragment of blue; the whole a +court-ball, in which the nation had no more share than if it had been +danced in the saloon of Windsor; a masquerade in which the political +minuet was gravely danced by the peerage in character, and of which +the nation heard scarcely even the fiddles. But those times have +passed away, and, for the honour of common sense, they have passed +never to return.</p> + +<p>The long contested authorship of "Junius's Letters" makes the subject +of a brief portion of his <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'corresspondence'.">correspondence</ins>. A letter from Charles +Townshend, brother of Lord Sidney, says—"I met Fitzherbert last +night, and talked to him on the subject of our late conversation. I +told him that I had heard that he had asserted that you were the +author of 'Junius's Letters,' for which I was very sorry, because, if +it reached your ears, it would give you a great deal of concern. He +assured me, that he had only said that the ministry now looked upon +you as the author, but that he had constantly contradicted the report +whenever it was mentioned in his company, particularly yesterday and +the day before, to persons who affirmed that you were now fixed on as +the writer of those papers. He declared that he was convinced in his +own mind that you were not concerned in the publication, and that he +had said so." This letter was written in 1771. Burke replies to it, in +two days after, in a letter of thanks, unequivocally denying that he +had any share in those letters. "My friends I have satisfied; my +enemies shall never have any direct satisfaction from me. The +ministry, I am told, are convinced of my having written Junius, on the +authority of a miserable bookseller's preface, in which there are not +three lines of common truth or sense. I have never once condescended +to take the least notice of their invectives, or publicly to deny the +fact on which some of them were grounded. At the same time to you or +to any of my friends, I have been as ready as I ought to be in +disclaiming, in the most precise terms, writings that are as superior, +perhaps, to my talents, as they are most certainly different in many +essential points from my regards and my principles." Burke seems to +have been constantly bored on this subject, for he writes an angry +letter to Markham, then bishop of Chester. Charles Townshend writes to +him again to say that the Public require a more distinct disclaimer. +Burke answers, "I have, I daresay to nine-tenths of my acquaintances, +denied my being the author of Junius, or having any knowledge of the +author, whenever the thing was mentioned, whether in jest or earnest. +I now give you my word and honour that I am not the author of Junius, +and that I know not the author of that paper, and I do authorize you +to say so."</p> + +<p>We believe that this is the first time in which Burke's disclaimer has +been made public; but our only surprise in the matter is, how he could +at any time have been considered as the author of Junius. We should +have rather said that he was the last man in the kingdom who ought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_756" id="Page_756">[Pg 756]</a></span> +have been suspected. The styles of Burke and Junius are totally +different: the one loose and flowing, the other terse and pungent; the +one lofty and imaginative, the other level and stern; the one taking +large views on every subject, and evidently delighting in the +largeness of those views, the other fixing steadily and fiercely upon +the immediate object of attack, and shooting every arrow point-blank. +Of course, we have no intention of wandering into a topic so +thoroughly beaten as that of the authorship of Junius; but we must +acknowledge, if Sir Philip Francis was not the man, no other nominal +candidate for the honour has been brought forward with equal claims. +The only objection which we have ever heard to his title as author is, +his not making it in person; for he was said to be a man of such +inordinate admiration of his own powers, that he could not have kept +the secret. It has been said, too, that no fear, after the lapse of +twenty years, could have prevented its being divulged. But there are +other motives than fear which might act upon a proud and powerful +spirit. The author of a work like Junius was clearly contemptuous of +mankind, and more contemptuous in proportion to the rank of his +victims. To such a man even the excitement produced by the general +enquiry into the authorship might be a triumph in itself. Though a +solitary, it might be a high gratification to a morbid spirit of +disdain, to see himself a problem to mankind, to hear perpetual +arguments raised on his identity, and see the puzzled pens of the +pamphleteering word all busy in sketching an ideal likeness which each +fancied to be the original. If we could imagine the shade of Swift or +Shaftesbury, of Scarron or Rabelais, to walk invisibly through the +world playing its bitter and fantastic tricks in the ways of men, +stinging some, astounding others, and startling all, we perhaps would +approach nearest to the feelings which might, now and then, have +indulged the habitual scorn and stimulated the conscious power of +Junius.</p> + +<p>It has also been said that Sir Philip Francis was not equal to the +composition of those masterly letters; and it must be acknowledged +that, though he made some very powerful and pointed speeches in the +House of Commons, they wanted the penetration and the polish of +Junius. But there are several letters by Sir Philip Francis in these +volumes, which, though evidently written in the haste and +desultoriness of private correspondence, exhibit conceptions strongly +resembling the sarcastic strength and high-wrought point of Junius.</p> + +<p>The Hastings' trial brought Francis full before the public; and we +have a letter from Burke describing one of his speeches on this +subject, which, with his usual good nature, he sent to the orator's +wife. It is dated April 20, 1787.—"My dear madam, I cannot, with all +honest appetite, or clear conscience, sit down to my breakfast, unless +I first give you an account, which will make your family breakfast as +pleasant to you, as I wish all your family meetings to be. I have the +satisfaction of telling you, that, not in my judgment only, but in +that of all who heard him, no man ever acquitted himself, on a day of +great expectation, so well as Mr Francis did yesterday. He was clear, +precise, forcible, and eloquent, in a high degree. No intricate +business was ever better unravelled, and no iniquity ever placed so +effectually to produce its natural horror and disgust. * * * * All who +heard him were delighted, except those whose mortification ought to +give pleasure to every good mind. He was two hours and a half on his +legs, and he never lost attention for a moment."</p> + +<p>We give a curious specimen of the daring criticism which this +applauded personage now and then ventured, even on the authorship of +Burke. In 1790, Burke had prepared his celebrated work on the French +Revolution for the press early in the year, and appears to have sent +fragments of it to several of his friends. Casual circumstances +delayed the work until October. Francis's letter was written in +February. It begins—"I am sorry you should have the trouble of +sending for the printed paper you lent me yesterday, though I own I +cannot much regret even a fault of my own, that helps to delay the +publication of that paper. [This was probably a proof sheet of the +<i>Reflections</i>.] It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_757" id="Page_757">[Pg 757]</a></span> the proper province, and ought to be the +privilege, of an inferior to criticise and advise. The best possible +critic of the Iliad, would be, <i>ipso facto</i>, and by virtue of that +very character, incapable of being the author of it. Standing as I do +in this relation to you, you would renounce your superiority, if you +refused to be advised by me. Remember that this is one of the most +singular, that it may be the most distinguished, and ought to be one +of the most deliberate acts of your life. Your writings have hitherto +been the delight and instruction of your own country. You now +undertake to correct and instruct another nation; and your appeal in +effect is to all Europe." After then objecting to Burke's exposure of +Price and his fellow pamphleteers, as beneath the writer and his +subject, he attacks him for his panegyric on the Queen of France. He +then sneeringly asks, "Pray, sir, how long have you felt yourself so +desperately disposed to admire the ladies of Germany?" This was an +allusion to Queen Charlotte, whom Burke's particular friends had long +regarded as one of their impediments to power. He proceeds—"The +mischief you are going to do yourself, is to my apprehension, +palpable. It is visible. It will be audible. I snuff it in the wind. I +taste it already. I feel it in every sense; and so will you +hereafter." This letter certainly wants the polish of Junius, but it +has the power of bitter thought, and it sneers with practised +piquancy. Of course, a broad line is to be drawn between a work of +study and the work of the moment—between the elaborate vigour which +prunes and purifies every straggling shoot away, and exhibits its +production for a prize-show, and the careless luxuriance which suffers +the tree to throw out its shoots under no direction, but that of the +prolific power of nature. Yet the plant is the same, and though we by +no means say, that even this letter gives demonstration, yet the +arrogant ease of the style is such, as we should have expected to find +in the familiar correspondence of Junius. His letter obviously excited +in Burke a mixture of pain and indignation.</p> + +<p>He answered it the next day in a long and eloquent vindication which +was oddly enough inclosed in a letter from his son, scarcely less than +menacing. It begins—"My dear sir, You must conceive that your letter, +combating many old ideas of my father's, and proposing many new ones, +could not fail to set his mind at work, and to make him address the +effect of those operations to you. I must, therefore, entreat you not +to draw him aside from the many and great labours he has in hand, by +<i>any further written communications of this kind</i>, which would, +indeed, be very useful, because they are valuable, if they were +conveyed at a time when there was leisure to settle opinions." Those +are hard hits at the critic, but harder were still to come. "There is +one thing of which I must inform you. It is, that my father's opinions +are never hastily adopted, and that even those ideas which have often +appeared to me only the effect of momentary heat, or casual +impression, I have afterwards found, beyond a possibility of doubt, to +be the result of systematic meditation, perhaps of years. * * * * The +thing, I say, is a paradox, but <i>when we talk of things superior to +ourselves</i>, what is not paradox?"</p> + +<p>He strikes harder still. "When we say, that one man is wiser than +another, we allow that the wiser man forms his opinions upon grounds +and principles which, though to him justly conclusive, cannot be +comprehended and received by <i>him who is less wise</i>. To be wise, is +only to see deeper, and further, and differently <i>from others</i>."</p> + +<p>Yet this strong rebuke, which was followed by a long letter from Burke +himself, half indignant, half argumentative, does not seem to have +disturbed the temper of Francis, proverbially petulant as he was, if +it did not rather raise his respect for both parties. He tells Burke, +in a subsequent letter, that he has looked for his work, his +<i>Reflections on the Revolution</i>, with great impatience, and read it +with studious delight. He proceeds—"My dear Mr Burke, when I took +what is vulgarly called the liberty of opposing my thoughts and wishes +to the <i>publication</i> of yours, on the late transactions in France, I +do assure you that I was not moved so much by a difference of opinion +on the subject, as by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_758" id="Page_758">[Pg 758]</a></span> an apprehension of the personal uneasiness +which, one way or other, I thought you would suffer by it. I know that +virtue would be useless, if it were not active, and that it can rarely +be active without exciting the most malignant of all enmity, that in +which envy predominates, and which, having no injury to complain of, +has no ostensible motive either to resent or to forgive." (How like +Junius is all this! The likeness is still stronger as it proceeds.) "I +have not yet had it in my power to read more than one third of your +book. I must taste it deliberately. The flavour is too high—the wine +is too rich; I cannot take a draught of it." In another passage he +gives a powerful sketch of popery. In speaking of the French monarchy, +and its presumed mildness in the last century, he attributes the +cessation of its severities to the European change of manners. "We do +not pillage and massacre quite so furiously as our ancestors used to +do. Why? Because these nations are more enlightened—because the +Christian religion is, <i>de facto</i>, not in force in the world! Suspect +me not of meaning the Christian religion of the <i>gospel</i>. I mean that +which was enforced, rather than taught, by priests, by bishops, and by +cardinals; which laid waste a province, and then formed a monastery; +which, after destroying a great portion of the human species, +provided, as far as it could, for the utter extinction of future +population, by instituting numberless retreats for celibacy; which set +up an ideal being called the Church, capable of possessing property of +all sorts for the pious use of its ministers, incapable of alienating, +and whose property its usufructuaries very wisely said it should be +sacrilege to invade; that religion, in short, which was practised, or +professed, and with great zeal too, by tyrants and villains of every +denomination."</p> + +<p>These volumes show, in a strong light, the energy with which Burke +watched over his party in the House of Commons, and the importance of +his guardianship. He seems to have been called on for his advice in +all great transactions, and to have watched over its interests during +the period of Fox's absence. In 1788 the mental illness of George III. +became decided, and the prospect of a regency with the Prince of Wales +at its head, awoke all the long excluded ambition of the Whigs. Fox +was at that period in Italy, and he was sent for by express to lead +the party in the assault on office. He immediately turned his face to +England, and arrived on the 24th of November, four days after the +meeting of Parliament, which had, however, immediately adjourned to +the fourth of the following month, for the purpose of ascertaining the +health of his majesty. On this occasion Burke addressed to Fox a long +and powerful letter, marking out the line which the parties should +take, giving his opinion with singular distinctness, and expressing +himself in the tone of one who felt his authority. He begins—"My dear +Fox, If I have not been to see you before this time, it was not owing +to my not having missed you in your absence, or my not having much +rejoiced in your return. But I know that you are indifferent to every +thing in friendship but the substance, and all proceedings of ceremony +have, for many years, been out of the question between you and me." In +allusion to the probable formation of a new ministry, he observes—"I +do not think that a great deal of time is allowed you. Perhaps it is +not for your interest that this state of things should continue long, +even supposing that the exigencies of government should suffer it to +remain on its present footing; but I speak without book. I remember a +story of Fitzpatrick in his American campaign, that he used to say to +the officers who were in the same tent, before they were up, that the +only meals they had to consider how they were to procure for that day, +were breakfast, dinner, and supper. I am worse off; for there are five +meals necessary, and I do not know at present how to feel secure of +one of them. The king, the prince, the Lords, the Commons, and the +People." He then urges a bold line of policy—the public examination +of the physicians, the acting independently of the ministers, and a +movement on the part of the prince worthy of his station; but which, +unhappily for the Whigs, was neither adopted by Fox, nor was +consistent with the courtly indolence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_759" id="Page_759">[Pg 759]</a></span> the future king. "Might it +not be better," says Burke boldly, "for the prince at once to assure +himself, to communicate the king's melancholy state by a message to +the Houses, and to desire their counsel and support in such an +exigency? It would put him forward with advantage in the eyes of the +people; it would teach them to look upon him with respect, as a person +possessed of the spirit of command; and it would, I am persuaded, +stifle a hundred cabals, both in parliament and elsewhere, which, if +they were cherished by his apparent remissness and indecision, would +produce to him a vexatious and disgraceful regency and reign."</p> + +<p>Lord Thurlow seems, in some way or other, to have given offence to +every remarkable man of his day. At once crafty and insolent, he +toiled for power with an indefatigable labour, as he indulged his +sense of authority by an intolerable arrogance. Among the multitude of +distinguished men whom this legal savage irritated, was Sir William +Jones, the Orientalist. He thus writes to Burke, "I heard last night, +with surprise and affliction, that the <ins class="correction" title="Thêrion">Θηριον</ins> (the +wild-beast—Thurlow) was to continue in office. Now, I can assure you, +from my own positive knowledge, and I know him well, that though he +hates our species in general, yet his particular hatred is directed +against none more virulently, than against Lord North, and the friends +of the late excellent marquis. He will, indeed, make fair promises, +and enter into engagements, because he is the most interested of +mortals; but his ferocity in opposing the Contractors' Bill, may +convince you how little he thinks himself bound by his <i>compacts</i>. He +will take a delight in obstructing all your plans, and will never say, +'Aha, I am satisfied,' until he has overthrown you. In fact, you will +not be ministers, but tenants by copy of court-roll at the will of the +lord. If you remove him, and put the seal in commission, his natural +indolence is such, that he will give you little trouble, because he +will give himself none; but, if he continue among you, his great joy +will be, and you may rely upon my intelligence, to attack the reports +of your select committee, to support all those whom you condemn, and +to condemn all the measures which you may support. In a word, if +<i>Caliban</i> remain in power, there will be no Prospero in this +fascinated island."</p> + +<p>At this period, Jones was panting for an Indian judgeship, which he +obtained shortly after, and proceeded to Calcutta. It may be doubted, +whether his career would not have been happier and loftier had he +remained at home. His indefatigable diligence must have soon conquered +the difficulties of legal knowledge, and his early intercourse with +the leading men of his time, would, in the common course of things, +have raised him to distinction. He died at forty-seven, too early to +accomplish any work of solid utility, but not too early to spread his +reputation through Europe, for an extraordinary proficiency in the +languages of India. Later scholars speak lightly of this multifarious +knowledge, and nothing can be more probable, than that attainment of +<i>many</i> languages, with any approach to their fluent use, is beyond the +power of man. But his diligence was exemplary, his memory retentive, +and his understanding accomplished by classical knowledge; with those +qualities, much might be done in any pursuit; and though modern +orientalists protest against the superficiality of his acquirements, +their variety has been admitted, and still remain unrivaled.</p> + +<p>Jones had his fits of despondency, like less fortunate men, and +concludes his letter, by intimating a speculation, not unlike that of +Burke himself in his earlier time:—"As for me, I should either settle +as a lawyer at Philadelphia, whither I have been invited, or retire on +my small independence to Oxford; if I had not in England a very strong +attachment, and many dear friends."</p> + +<p>One of Burke's most anxious efforts was to make his son Richard a +statesman. The efforts were unsuccessful. Richard was a good son, and +willing to second the desires of his father; but nature had decided +otherwise, and he remained honest and amiable, but without advancing a +step. Burke first sent him on a kind of semi-embassy to the +headquarters of the emigrant princes at Coblentz, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_760" id="Page_760">[Pg 760]</a></span> there +carried on a semi-negotiation. But success was not to be the fate of +any thing connected with these unfortunate men, and failure was +scarcely a demerit, from its universality. The next experiment was +sending him as a species of private envoy to the Irish Roman +Catholics; but there his failure was even more conspicuous, though +perhaps it was equally inevitable. Burke's imagination was at once his +unrivaled gift and his perpetual impediment. Like a lover, his eye was +no sooner caught, than he invested its charmer with all conceivable +attractions. This susceptibility made him irresistible in a cause +worthy of his powers, but plunged him into difficulties where the +object was inferior to his capacity, and unworthy of his heart. His +early admiration of Fox, of Whiggism, and Reform, was the rapture of +an innamorato. He could discover no defects; he disdained all doubts +as a dishonourable scepticism, and challenged all obstacles, as +evidences of his energy, and trophies of his success. His prosecution +of Hastings, a bold piece of patriot honesty, rapidly fermented into a +splendid blunder. The culprit, who ought to have been tried at the Old +Bailey, was elevated into a national criminal; and the assembled +majesty of the legislature was summoned to settle a case in the lapse +of years, which would have been decided in a day by "twelve good men +and true," in a box in the city. It was in this ardour of spirit that +he adopted the Romish cause. No man knew more thoroughly the +measureless value of an established church, the endless, causeless, +and acrid bitterness of sectarianism, and the mixture of unlearned +doctrine and factious politics which constitute their creeds. Against +Popery in power, Italian, German, or French, in the days of Louis +Quatorze, he would have pledged himself on the ancestral altar to +perpetual hostility. But the romance of popery in Ireland struck his +fancy; he saw nothing but a figure drooping with long travel in +pursuit of privilege; a pious pilgrim, or exhausted giant. Sitting in +his closet at Beconsfield, he pictured the downcast eyes and +dishevelled hair; the limbs loaded with fetters, and the hands help up +in remediless supplication. He grew enamoured of his portraiture, and +without waiting a moment to enquire whether it in the slightest degree +resembled the reality, he volunteered the championship of Irish +popery. His son was commissioned to represent him in this disastrous +connexion. But Richard, once on the spot, was instantly and completely +undeceived. Instead of his "fair penitent," he found a brawny, +bustling Thalestris, wild as the winds, and fierce with the +intoxication of impunity. The mild temperament of the plodding +missionary was baffled, burlesqued, and thrown into fever: he laboured +with humble diligence, but laboured in vain; he talked of +conciliation, while popery talked of conquest; he proposed concession, +while faction shouted triumph; and, when he suggested the suppression +of the old and sharp acerbities of the sects, he was answered by +universal laughter.</p> + +<p>Burke, awakened at last to the truth of things, recalled him, in a +long despatch, concluding in these words—"If you find the Roman +Catholics <i>irreconcilable with each other</i>, and that government is +resolved to side with them, or rather, to direct those who <i>would +betray the rest</i>, then, my clear opinion is, that you ought not to +wait the playing the <i>last card of a losing hand</i>. It would be +disreputable to you. But when you have given your instruction to the +<i>very few</i> in whom you can place confidence for their <i>future +temperate</i> and persevering proceeding, that you will then, with a +<i>cool</i> and <i>steady dignity</i>, take your leave." So ended the attempt of +this man of genius and sensibility to guide an Irish faction in the +paths of public tranquillity. He had forgotten that clamour was their +livelihood, and grievance their stock in trade. In the simplicity of a +noble spirit, he had eloquently implored quacks to take their degrees +and follow practice, and solemnly advised travelling showmen not to +disturb the public ear by the braying of their cracked trumpets, and +he succeeded accordingly. Great as he unquestionably was, he could not +make bricks without straw; and after wondering at the perversity of +fortune, and lavishing his indignant soul on a hundred splendid +perplexities touching the nature of politicians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_761" id="Page_761">[Pg 761]</a></span> in general, and of +Irish politicians in particular, he gave up Ireland as a problem too +profound for his analysis, and to be postponed till the discovery of +the philosopher's stone.</p> + +<p>Richard remained in Ireland for a few months, until he saw the Romish +petition thrown out in the House of Commons by an immense majority. He +then returned to London, and with the rather forward air of an +accredited minister, applied for an interview with the ministry. He +was answered by a prompt note from Dundas, sarcastically informing him +that there was a viceroy in Ireland, whom his Majesty's government had +sent there for the purpose of transacting public business; that they +considered him a very proper person for the purpose, and that, in +consequence, they saw no positive necessity for managing Irish affairs +through any other. "If," says this quiet rebuff, "any of his Majesty's +Catholic subjects have any request or representation which they wish +to lay before his Majesty, they cannot be at a loss for the means of +doing so, in a manner <i>much</i> more <i>proper</i> and <span class="smcap">authentic</span>, than through +the channel of private conversation. Having stated this to you, I +shall forbear <i>making any observations on the contents</i> of your +letter."</p> + +<p>On the 2d of August, 1794, his favourite son died, and Burke received +the blow with the feelings of one, who regarded the hand of destiny as +uplifted against him. His excessive sensibility was agonized by an +event melancholy in its nature to all, but which a wise man will +regard as the will of the Great Disposer, and a religious man will +believe to be a chastisement in mercy.</p> + +<p>Burke was both wise and religious, but his feelings habitually +bewildered him. All the images of desolation rushed across his +creative mind. He was "an uprooted tree," a stream whose course was +swallowed up by an earthquake, a wanderer in the wilderness of the +world, a man struck down by a thunderbolt! From those fearful +fantasies, however, the emergency of public affairs soon summoned him +to the exercise of his noble powers; and he gave his country and the +world, perhaps the most powerful, certainly the most superb and +imaginative, of all his works, the fiery pamphlets on the "regicide +peace."</p> + +<p>On this unhappy occasion for the condolence of friendship, he received +many tributes; but we cannot help quoting one from the celebrated +Grattan, which, though characterized by the peculiarities of his +style, seems to us a model of tenderness and beauty.</p> + +<p><span class="rightbl">"<i>August 26, 1794</i>.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>"May I be permitted to sympathize where I cannot presume to +console.</p> + +<p>"The misfortunes of your family are a public care. The late one +is to me a personal loss. I have a double right to affliction, +and to join my grief, and to express my deep and cordial concern +at that hideous stroke which has deprived me of a friend, you of +a son, and your country of a promise that would communicate to +posterity the living blessings of your genius and your virtue. +Your friends may now condole with you, that you should have now +no other prospect of immortality than that which is common to +Cicero and to Bacon; such as never can be interrupted while there +exists the beauty of order, or the love of virtue, and can fear +no death except what barbarity may impose on the globe.</p> + +<p>"If the same strength of reason which could persuade any other +man to bear any misfortune, can administer to the proprietor a +few drops of comfort, we may hope that your condition admits of +relief. The greatest possible calamity which can be imposed on +man, we hope may be supported by the greatest human +understanding. For comfort, your friends must refer you to the +exercise of its faculties, and to the contemplation of its +gigantic proportions—<i>Dura solatia</i>—of which nothing can +deprive you while you live. And, though death should mow down +every thing about you, and plunder you of your domestic +existence, you would still be the owner of a conscious +superiority in life, and immortality after it.—I am, my dear +sir, with the highest respect and regard,</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Yours most truly,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">"H. <span class="smcap">Grattan</span>."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p>We must hastily conclude.</p> + +<p>The threatened ruin of Europe awakened Burke from this reverie at the +tomb of his son. He required strong stimulants, and in the French +Revolution, and the shock of nations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_762" id="Page_762">[Pg 762]</a></span> he found them. He now put the +trumpet to his lips, and</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Blew a blast so loud and dread,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>His appeal pierced to the heart of the nation. England had never +<i>succumbed</i>, but an indefatigable faction had played every art of +quackery to set her faculties asleep, with the appearance of having +her eyes more open than ever. Whiggism, by its tricks, was +<i>mesmerising</i> the common sense of the country. From this adventitious +torpor Burke recalled her to her natural temperament, restored sight +to her eyes, taught her to resume the sword, and sent her forth to +commence that career of victory which was consummated in the +Tuilleries.</p> + +<p>His advocacy of the Popish question was one of his romances. Popery +was his "Jane Shore," fainting and feeble, wandering through the +highways with those delicate limbs which had once been arrayed in silk +and velvet, and soliciting the "charity of all good Christians" to her +fallen condition. His nature was chivalric, and he at once unsheathed +his sword for so affecting a specimen of penitence and pauperism; but +he soon recovered from this hazardous compassion, and left the pilgrim +to fitter protectors. But if he had lived till our day, what would +Burke have thought of his delusion now? with what self-ridicule must +he not have looked upon the burlesque grievances and the profitable +privations? what an instructive lesson must not his powerful scorn of +charlatanry have given to us, on the display of the whole system of +sleight-of-hand, the popular cups and balls, the low dexterity and the +rabble plunder? or, to sum all in one word, the reduction of all the +claims, the rights, and the efforts of a party pronouncing itself +national, to the collection of an annual tribute; the whole huge and +rattling machinery of popular agitation, grinding simply for the +"rint." How would this lion of the desert, shaking the forest with his +roar, have looked on Jackoo, going round, shaking the penny box! Woe +be to Jackoo if he had come within reach of his talons!</p> + +<p>The volumes, of which we have given an account altogether too brief +and too rapid for their importance, deserve to be studied, as +containing some of the richest transcripts of the richest mind of +England. Letters from various eminent persons diversify them, but the +staple is Burke. If their style seldom rises to the elated ardour and +buoyant strength of his speeches and pamphlets, they exhibit all his +wisdom; they display the entire depth of that current which public +difficulties and obstructions swelled into a cataract. We have the +image of Burke reposing, but still we have all the proportion, all the +dignity, and all the colossal grandeur of the form, ruling senates, +and marshaling the mind of nations for the greatest of their fields.</p> + +<p>Various notes illustrate the volumes, and the edition does every +credit to Lord Fitzwilliam and General Bourke.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_763" id="Page_763">[Pg 763]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="COLLEGE" id="COLLEGE"></a>MY COLLEGE FRIENDS.</h2> +<h4><span class="smcap">No.</span> II.</h4> +<h4><span class="smcap">John Brown</span>.</h4> + + +<p>A heavy snow-storm, which confined Chesterton and myself pretty much +to the walls of the college for the next few days, prevented us from +paying our friend Brown a visit in his new quarters so soon after his +installation as we intended. When we did succeed in wading there upon +the commencement of a thaw, we found him rather sulky. The sweets of +retirement had become somewhat doubtful; the Grange was certainly not +the place one would have deliberately chosen to be snowed up in; and +so far John was unfortunate in his first week of commencing hermit.</p> + +<p>We found him in full possession of his easy chair, with Bruin extended +on the only piece of carpeting in the room, which did duty as a +hearth-rug. There was a volume of Sophocles open upon the table, with +a watch on one side of it; the Quarterly Review had not at that time +taken upon itself to enlighten undergraduates as to their real state +of mind, and the secrets of successful reading, or there would +doubtless have been the miniature of some fair girl on the other. +(What the effect of such "companions to the classics" may be in +general, I perhaps am no judge. I detest "fair girls," in the first +place; but I have not yet forgotten, if the reader has, that a pair of +<i>dark</i> eyes were the ruin of three months' reading in my own case.) +However, there was no pictured face, except the watch-face, to cheer +the studies of John Brown; and, perhaps, for that reason, our friend +had evidently been asleep. How very glad he was to see us, was +betrayed immediately by the copious abuse which he showered on us for +not having come before.</p> + +<p>"Why, what an unreasonable fellow you are!" said Chesterton; "If you +wanted to see us, why on earth could'nt you come up to college? We can +manage to keep the cold out there, quite as well as in your old castle +here, I fancy; and as neither of us are web-footed any more than +yourself, I don't really see why we are to do all the dabbling about +this precious weather."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I forgot; you have not seen the little note of remembrance which +our darling dons were kind enough to send me before they broke up for +the vacation?"</p> + +<p>"No—what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I'll find it for you in a moment." And he produced a letter +sealed with the college arms, which ran as follows:—</p> + +<p><span class="rightbl">"—— <i>Coll. Common Room</i>,</span><br /> +<span class="rightbl"><i>Dec</i>. —, 18—.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"The principal and fellows regret to be under the unpleasant +necessity of intimating to Mr Brown, that, although they do not +feel called upon to notice his having fixed his residence in the +immediate neighbourhood of Oxford—a step, which, under the +circumstances, they cannot look upon as otherwise than +ill-judged—he must consider himself strictly prohibited from +appearing within the college walls at any time during the ensuing +vacation."</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p>"Now there's a civil card by way of P.P.C. Don't you call that a +spiteful concoction? Silver and Hodgett's last—and worthy of +them. So now, unless you want me to be rusticated for a term or +two, you need not be over-civil in your invitations. But I'll +tell you what you shall do: Hawthorne shall send over that box of +Silvas he had just opened, (if they are good, you shall order +some more,) and I'll keep that Westphalia you talked about here, +if you like, Chesterton; and then you may come here to breakfast, +lunch, or supper, if you please—but mind, I won't give you +dinners; I'm not going to have Mrs Nutt put upon—or myself +either."</p> + +<p>We agreed to the terms with some modifications, and proceeded with +some interest to inspect John's domestic arrangements. They were +comfortable, though in some points peculiar. A sort of stand in one +corner, covered with red baise, which supported a plaster bust of our +most gracious majesty, and gave an air of mock grandeur to the +apartment, proved, upon nearer inspection, to be nothing more or less +than a barrel of Hall and Tawney's ale, an old-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_764" id="Page_764">[Pg 764]</a></span>fashioned cabinet, +once gay with lacquered gold and colours, which the industrious +rubbings of Mrs Nutt and her hand-maid were fast effacing—the +depository perhaps of carefully penned love-missives, and broidered +gloves, jewels, and perfumes, and suchlike shreds and patches of +feminine taste or trickery, in other times—now served as a +resting-place for the heterogeneous treasures of a bachelor's private +cupboard. Cigars and captain's biscuits, open letters and unpaid bills, +packs of cards and lecture note-books; odd gloves, odd pence, and odd +things of all kinds—these filled the drawers: while, from the lower +recesses, our friend, in course of time, produced a decanter of port +and a Stilton. There was an old-fashioned sofa, one of that +stiff-backed, hard-hearted generation, which no man thinks of sitting +down upon twice, and three or four of those comfortable high-backed +arm-chairs, in which, when once fairly seated, in pleasant company, +one never wishes to get up again; a round oak table occupied the space +opposite the fire, and another in one corner held the few books which +formed John Brown's studies at the present. One window looked into the +wet meadows by which the house was nearly surrounded, and the other +commanded a view of the square inclosure before mentioned as now +forming the farm-yard—in former days the inner court of the mansion.</p> + +<p>"Why, Brown, old fellow, you're quite a lively look-out here," said +Chesterton, who had for some minutes been contemplating, apparently +with much interest, the goings on below. "I wish they kept pigs and +chickens in the college quadrangle. I declare, for the last three +days, in this horrid snow, I've watched for hours out of my window, +(that fellow Hawthorne has taken to reading, and sports oak against me +till luncheon time,) and I hav'n't seen a moving creature. I began to +fancy myself up in the Great St Bernard among the monks; and when that +brute of yours came up and howled at my door the other day, I almost +expected to find him carrying a frozen child on his back, and got out +the cherry brandy to be ready for the worst—didn't I, Hawthorne?"</p> + +<p>"I found you one day with Bruin shivering before the fire, and the +cherry brandy on the table, certainly."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's the explanation of it, I assure you. But you must have +found it precious dull shut up here by yourself, Brown?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes—rather—sometimes—in spite of the pigs and poultry. Their +proceedings are rather monotonous. I feed that brood of chickens, +which have taken upon themselves to come into the world this unnatural +weather, with bread-crumbs out of my window twice a-day. Ah! I see the +old hen has only four to-day; one is gone since yesterday, and one the +day before; there's consumption in the family, that's plain; and they +have always wet feet; I want Mrs Nutt to make them worsted socks, and +to let me put Burgundy pitch-plasters on their throats, but she +won't."</p> + +<p>"But come," said Chesterton, "suppose you give us some lunch, Brown; +'<i>prome reconditum Cæcubum</i>'—(I'm getting desperately classical;) +that is, being freely translated—lift up that red baise drapery of +yours, and let's taste the tap."</p> + +<p>The tap was tasted, and approved of; so was the Stilton: and then we +sat over the fire for an hour, and smoked some of the Silvas: then we +paid a visit to Mrs Nutt in her <i>penetralia</i>, and astonished her with +our acquaintance with dairy matters; hazarded a criticism or two upon +the pigs, which were well received, and were not so fortunate in our +attempts to cultivate an intimacy with the incorruptible Boxer; and +then set off on our return to Oxford, persuading Brown to start with +us, as the afternoon was fine, in order to freshen his faculties by a +stroll in the High Street.</p> + +<p>Shorn, indeed, of all the glories of a full term, in which it had so +lately shone, and looking doubly cold, cheerless, and deserted, in all +the sloppy dirtiness of half-melted snow, was that never-equalled, and +never-to-be-forgotten street! which the stranger gazes on with +somewhat of an envious admiration, the freshman with an awful kind of +delight—which the departing bachelor of arts quits with a +half-concealed regret, and which the occasionally-returning master +re-enters with feelings which are perhaps a mixture of all these; a +stranger's admiration, an emancipated school-boy's delight, and a +regret, either mellowed by passing years into a tender recollection, +or blunted into indifference by altered habits, or embittered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_765" id="Page_765">[Pg 765]</a></span> by +severed ties and disappointed hopes. We strolled once up and down its +long sweep, but there was nothing to invite a longer promenade. +Cigar-dealers stood at their shop-doors, or leaned over their +counters, with their hands in their breeches-pockets, smoking their +own genuine Havannahs in desperate independence: here a livery-stable +keeper, with a couple of questionable friends, rattled a tandem over +the stones, as if such things never were let out at two guineas a-day: +then a fishmonger, whose wide front, but a week before, teemed with +such quantity and quality, as spoke audibly to every passer-by of +bursary dinners and passing suppers, was now soliciting a customer to +take his choice of three lank cod-fish, ticketed at so much per lb. +Billiard-rooms were silent, save where a solitary marker practised +impossible strokes: print-shops exhibited a dull uniformity of stale +engravings; and the innumerable horde of mongrel puppies of all +varieties, that, particularly towards the end of term, are dragged +about three or four in a string, and recommended as real Blenheims, +genuine King Charles's, or "one of old Webb's black and tan, real good +uns for rats"—had disappeared from public life, to come out again, +possibly, as Oxford sausages.</p> + +<p>In this kind of way the three first weeks of the vacation passed over +without any very notable occurences. We were quiet enough in +college—there is no fun in two men kicking up a row for the amusement +of each other; even in the eye of the law three are required to +constitute a riot; so, on the strength of our good characters, albeit +somewhat recent of acquisition, we dined two or three times with the +fellows who were still in residence, and who, to do them justice, sank +a point or so from the usual stiffness of the common room, and made +our evenings agreeable enough. We certainly flattered ourselves, that +if they found us in turbot and champagne, we contributed at least our +share to the more intellectual part of the entertainment; we kept +within due bounds, of course, and never overstepped that respect which +young men are usually the more willing to pay to age and station the +less rigidly it is exacted; but we made the old oak pannels ring with +such hearty laughter as they seldom heard; and the pictures of +founders and benefactors might have longed to come down from their +frames to welcome even the shadow of those good old times when sound +learning and hearty good fellowship were not, as now, hereditary +enemies in Oxford. If my graver companions, from the calm dignity of +collegiate office, deign to look back upon the evenings thus spent +with two undergraduates in a Christmas vacation, when, unbending from +the formal and conventional dulness of term and its duties, they +interchanged with us anecdote and jest, and mingled with the sparkling +imaginations of youth the reminiscences of riper years—I am sure they +will have no cause to regret their share in those not ungraceful +saturnalia, even though they may remember that the hour at which we +separated was not always what we used to call "canonical."</p> + +<p>We paid our friend almost daily visits in his banishment. The history +of the expedition was generally the same; a walk out, a lunch, a cigar +or two, a chat with farmer Nutt or his wife, a review of the last +litter of pigs, or an enquiry as to the increasing muster-roll of +lambs. We did not make much progress in farming matters. Chesterton +was the most enterprising, and succeeded in ploughing a furrow in that +kind of line which heralds call wavy, and would, as he declared, have +made a very fair hand of thrashing, if he could but have hit the sheaf +oftener, and his own head not quite so often. The most important +events that took place during this time at the Grange, were the +installation of a successor to the barrel in the corner, and the +catching of an enormous rat, who had escaped poison and traps to be +snapped up in broad daylight, in an unguarded moment by Bruin. Still +John Brown declared that on the whole he got on very well; we all read +moderately; the examination was too near to be trifled with, and an +occasional gallop with the harriers made our only really idle days.</p> + +<p>We had not, since our first visit, heard John recur at all to the +subject of the Dean; and to say the truth, we began to hope for his +sake, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_766" id="Page_766">[Pg 766]</a></span> he had given up a game which, however much longer it might +be contested, had evidently begun to be a losing one on his part. But +we were mistaken. We found him one morning in high spirits, and +evidently in possession of some joke which he was anxious to impart.</p> + +<p>"Shut the door and sit down," said he, before we were fairly within +his premises. "I have a letter to show you."</p> + +<p>"From the Dean?" (There was something in his manner, which made us +sure that personage was concerned in some way.)</p> + +<p>"No; but from his good mamma—from dear old Mrs Hodgett; you didn't +know we were correspondents? Why, I wrote to her, you see, to ask +where she lived now that she had resigned business, as I would not on +any account have given up so valuable an acquaintance; and I begged +her, at the same time, to order me a dozen pair of stockings from +Mogg. (I assure you they were capital articles I had from him at +first, and he's a very honest fellow; if you've sent that sparkling +Moselle here to-day that you promised, Master Harry, we'll drink +Mogg's very good health.) Well, I wrote to her, and here is her +answer. You see Hodgett has been poisoning the old lady's mind."</p> + +<p>I cannot give all John Brown's comments upon worthy Mrs Hodgett's +epistle, without doing him great injustice in the recital; but here +the contents are verbatim.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dear Sir,—Your favour of last week came safe to hand, and was +very glad to find you was well, as it leaves us at present. +Concerning your calling here next journey, am sorry to say shall +be from home at that time. Sir, I should have been very glad to +see you, but my son says you are not of an undeniable character, +which, in a widow woman's establishment, must be first +consideration. That was what I said to Mr Spriggins. Betsy, my +daughter, as you know, is to be married to him next month. I +don't think he is quite so steady as some, in regard that he must +have his cigar and his tilberry on Sundays—John Mogg never did; +but we can't all be Moggs in this world, or there wouldn't be no +<i>great failures</i>.</p> + +<p>"S. Hodgett, in declining business, returns thanks for all past +favours, and remain, Dear Sir,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Your obedient servant,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"J. <span class="smcap">Spriggins</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">(late S. Hodgett.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"P.S.—I am afraid college is a sad place for such young men as +is not steady. Mrs Hicks, our great butcher's lady, told me that, +when her son, who was a remarkable good lad, came home from +Cambridge college after being there only two months, they found a +short pipe in his best coat pocket, and he called his father +'governor,' which, as Mrs H. said, he never was, and he wouldn't +wear his nightcap."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>"Well," said Chesterton, when we had read this original document two +or three times over, "it doesn't seem quite usual for a man to sign +his own testimonials, especially when, as in Mr Spriggins's case, they +are not the most flattering. Do you suppose he really wrote this, or +signed it by mistake, or what is it?</p> + +<p>"Neither one nor the other. Don't you see, the old lady, in declining +the linen-drapery, merges her own identity in that of her successor? +There's no such firm as 'Hodgett' now, it's 'Spriggins,' and she +thinks it necessary to sign accordingly. Here's the card enclosed."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's one thing very certain, that Mrs Hodgett declines doing +business with you in future, John."</p> + +<p>"Yes; and I'm rather annoyed at it. I meant to have got Mogg to come +down and see me at Oxford, and should have asked the Dean to meet him. +I don't see how he could have refused; any way, I think I could have +paid him in full for his late good offices. Well, I am not quite sure +now, when I've taken my degree, that I sha'n't go and see the old lady +again, and win her heart by paying a wedding-visit to the Spriggins's. +I'll take you with me, if you like, Hawthorne, and introduce you as +Lord some-body-or-other, an intimate friend of the dean's—or stay, +Chesterton will make the best lord of the two. Look with what supreme +disgust he is eyeing poor Mrs Nutt's best wine-glasses. Come now, I +think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_767" id="Page_767">[Pg 767]</a></span> that vine-leaf pattern is quite Horatian; and if you turn up +your nose at that, Master Harry, you shall have your wine out of a +tea-cup next time you come here. Draw the cork of that Moselle, and +then I have something else to tell you. Do either of you men care +about shooting, or can you shoot?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I flatter myself I can," said Chesterton. "I'll bet you I'll hit +two eggs right and left, nine tines out of ten, as often as you like +to throw them up."</p> + +<p>"I don't call that shooting; and you had better not let Mrs Nutt hear +you talk of breaking eggs right and left in any such extravagant +manner. But what I was going to say is this, that some friend of old +Nutt's has some ground near here for which he has the deputation, and +I have been offered a day's shooting there, for myself and any friend +I like to bring. Now, I don't shoot—though I remember the days when I +was a dead pot-shot at a blackbird; but if either of you are +sportsmen, or fancy you are, which amounts to much the same thing, +why, you can have a day at this place if you like, and I will go with +you on condition you don't carry your guns cocked. Mind, I can't +promise what sort of sport you will have, as it is too near Oxford not +to be pretty well poached over; but you can try."</p> + +<p>Shooting over a man's ground without leave (especially if in the face +of a "notice" to the contrary) is decidedly the best sport, but +unfortunately one of those stolen delights which only schoolboys and +poachers can with any sort of conscience enjoy. Shooting with leave +comes next, but is immeasurably inferior in point of piquancy. +Shooting in one's own preserves at birds which have been reared and +turned out, and cost you on the average about five guineas per brace, +is decidedly the most fashionable, and consequently—the dullest. A +day's shooting of any kind about Oxford, was a rare privilege, +confined chiefly to those who were fortunate enough to be fellows of +St ——, or to have an acquaintance among the surrounding squirearchy. +True, that there were some enterprising spirits, who would gallop out +some three or four miles to a corner of Lord A——'s preserves, give +their horses in charge to a trusty follower, and after firing half a +dozen shots, bag their two or three brace of pheasants, remount and +dash off to Oxford, before the keepers, whom the sound of guns in +their very sanctuary was sure to draw to the spot, could have any +chance of coming up with them. But such exploits were deservedly +rather reprobated than otherwise, even when judged by the +under-graduate scale of morality; and even in the parties concerned, +were the offspring rather of a Robin-Hood-like lawlessness than a +genuine spirit of poaching.</p> + +<p>We of course were delighted with the proposition which would have had +quite sufficient attraction for us at any time; but coming in the +dulness of vacation, it was an offer to be jumped at. "What game is +there in this place?" said Chesterton. "Is there any cover shooting?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can't tell you any thing about the place! It's about a mile +off, but I never saw it. There's a good deal of ground to go over, I +believe."</p> + +<p>"What shall we do for dogs?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs Nutt will lend you Boxer, I daresay; and Bruin is a capital hand +at putting up water-rats."</p> + +<p>"Stuff! I can borrow some dogs, though. And now, what day shall it +be?"</p> + +<p>The day was fixed, the dogs procured, the occupant of the property was +to send a man to meet us and show us the ground, and it was settled +that we were to come to breakfast at the farm at half-past seven +precisely, and make a long day of it. Much to his disgust, we roused +the deputy porter from his bed at seven on a raw foggy morning; and +with a lad leading the dogs, and carrying guns and ammunition, we made +our way to Farmer Nutt's. We were proceeding up-stairs, as usual, to +Brown's apartment, when we heard our friend's voice hailing us from +the "house," as the large hall was called which the farmer and his +wife used as a kind of superior kitchen. There we found him snugly +seated by a glorious fire, superintending his hostess in the slicing +and broiling of a piece of ham such as Oxfordshire and Berkshire +farm-houses may well pride<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_768" id="Page_768">[Pg 768]</a></span> themselves upon; while a large pile of +crisp brown toast was basking in front of the hearth, supported on a +round brass footman. It was a sight which might have given a man an +appetite at any time, but, after a two-mile walk on a cold winter's +morning, it was like a glimpse of paradise.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Brown—"here's breakfast, old fellows. Come and make your +bows to Mrs Nutt, who is the very pattern of breakfast makers, and fit +to concoct tea for the Emperor of China. Ah! if ever I marry, Mrs +Nutt, it shall be somebody who is just like you."</p> + +<p>Mrs Nutt laughed merrily, and welcomed us with many curtsies, and +hopes that we should find things comfortable; and when the worthy +farmer, after a brief apology, sat down with us, and the strong black +tea and rich cream were duly amalgamated, what a breakfast we did +make! There was not much conversation; but such a hissing and +frizzling of ham upon the gridiron, such a crumping of toast and +rattling of knives, forks, cups and saucers, surely five people seldom +made. We were hungry enough; and our hospitable entertainers were so +pressing in their attentions, that we caught ourselves eating +plum-cake with broiled ham, honey with fresh-laid eggs, and taking +gulps of strong tea and sips of raspberry-brandy alternately. We bore +up against it all, however, wonderfully; the prospect of a long day's +walk put <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'headach'.">headache</ins> and indigestion out of the question, and we were +beginning to think of moving when certain ominous preparations on the +part of our hostess attracted our attention. A hot slice of toast +having been saturated with brandy, she proceeded, to our undisguised +amazement, to pour upon it the richest and thickest cream her dairy +could produce, and to cover this again with sundry wavy lines of +treacle. This was the <i>bonne bouche</i> with which, in her part of the +world, Devonshire I think she said, a breakfast to be perfect must +always conclude. Start not, delicate reader, until you have had an +opportunity of trying this remarkable compound; but take my word for +it, it only wants a French name to make it a first-rate sweetmeat. We +too regarded it at first with fear and trembling; tasted it out of +courtesy to the fair compoundress, and finally, like Oliver Twist, +asked for more.</p> + +<p>"Now these gentlemen know what a breakfast is, Mr Nutt," said John; +"but I am afraid we can't introduce your good wife's receipt into +college; our cows give nothing but skim-milk. Well, now we had better +be off, if you mean to have any shooting."</p> + +<p>Off we set accordingly, and had to trudge a mile or so before we got +into our preserves. There were some not unpromising covers; the lad +who was to be our guide professed some vague reminiscences of having +seen pheasants there "a bit ago;" and there was no question as to a +hare having been started so lately as yesterday morning. We began our +day, therefore, with somewhat sanguine expectations, which, however, +every subsequent half-hour's progress gradually dispelled. We tumbled +out of one deep ditch into another, scrambled perseveringly through +brambles and brushwood, saw places where pheasants <i>ought</i> to have +been, and places where they had been, but never saw a bird except a +jack-snipe in the distance. The only sport we had was in the untiring +energy of the lad already mentioned, who, long after the dogs had +given it up as a bad job, continued to beat every bush as diligently +as at first starting, and kept up a form of hortatory interjections +addressed to the invisible game, with a hopeful perseverance which was +really enviable. One satisfaction we had; towards the close of the day +we started <i>the</i> hare from a bush which had certainly been tried at +least twice before; she fell victim to a platoon fire of four barrels; +the second, I believe, brought her down, but we were anxious to have +all the shots we could get. And, in truth, there was some credit in +killing her, for Mr Nutt, to whom we presented her, declared that she +was so tough, he wondered how the shots ever got through her skin.</p> + +<p>It takes something more serious than a bad day's sport to damp +youthful spirits; and upon our return we found the good farmer's wife +much more annoyed at our failure than ourselves. "Why, the chap as has +the deputation told my master he had killed ten brace of pheasants +there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_769" id="Page_769">[Pg 769]</a></span> this season!" He killed the last he could find before he sent +us there, no doubt. Nothing dispirited, we sat down to a leg of +mutton, which Brown had so far departed from his household economy as +to order for us at six, and enjoyed our evening as thoroughly as if we +had been a triple impersonation of Colonel Hawker in point of +successful sportmanship. Nor was it until after the second bottle of +port that we began to accuse each other of being sleepy.</p> + +<p>"Well," said I at last, "it is about time for us to be off; it wants +but three minutes of half-past eleven, and we shall have sharp work of +it now to get into college by twelve. What sort of a night is it?"</p> + +<p>The shutters of the sitting-room were closed, and I stepped into the +bed-room adjoining in order to look out. The window opened into the +court-yard; the moon was shining pretty brightly in spite of the fog, +and I was just turning round to remark that we should have a dry walk +home, when I saw two figures steal quietly across the yard, apparently +from the gateway, and disappear in one of the outhouses. It was too +late for any of the men about the farm to be out, in all probability; +I was certain neither of the two figures was Farmer Nutt himself, so I +quietly closed the door between the sitting and bed rooms, in order +that no light might be seen, and watched the spot where I had lost +sight of them. In a few seconds, I distinctly saw a third man come +over the yard-gates, (which were secured inside at night,) and after +apparently reconnoitring for a moment or two, move in the same +direction as the others. I returned at once to the room where I had +left Brown and Chesterton, closing the bed-room door hastily and +noiselessly, and motioning them to be silent.</p> + +<p>"I say, Hawthorne, what's up?" said Harry Chesterton, pausing, with a +parting cigar half-lighted.</p> + +<p>I confess I was somewhat flurried, and my account of what I had seen +was not the most distinct.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Chesterton, "it's some of the girl's sweethearts, I dare +say; let's go down and have 'em out, Brown—shall we?"</p> + +<p>Brown shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Put out the lights," said I.</p> + +<p>We did so, and then opened the shutters of the sitting-room window. We +had hardly done so when the bright flash of a lantern was visible from +the opposite side of the yard. For a few minutes we could see nothing +else, and were obliged to hide carefully behind the shutters to avoid +being noticed from below.</p> + +<p>"Is that old Nutt?" said I.</p> + +<p>Brown thought not. He never knew him carry a lantern.</p> + +<p>At that moment the light disappeared, and in a few seconds we heard a +loud knocking at the back-door.</p> + +<p>"That must be the farmer come home," said I.</p> + +<p>"No," said Brown, looking carefully into the yard, where we could now +plainly distinguish at least three persons, and overhear voices in a +low tone—"No; old Nutt's brown greatcoat would cover all three of +those fellows."</p> + +<p>"What stall we do," said Chesterton, seizing his double-barrel, which +stood in the corner. "Shall we open the window and threaten to fire?"</p> + +<p>"With an empty gun?" said Brown: "no, no, that won't do. Not but what +they would run away fast enough, perhaps; but I think, if they really +are come to attack the house, we ought not to let them off so easily. +What say you, Hawthorne?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not; but they can hardly be housebreakers, or they would +not keep knocking at the door," said I, as the sounds were repeated +more loudly than before.</p> + +<p>"I don't know that; every body about here is perfectly aware that old +Nutt is gone to Woodstock fair; and they might give a pretty good +guess, even supposing they did not watch him, that he would not be +home till late; and if Mrs Nutt or any of the servants are fools +enough to open the door, it's an easier way of getting in than +breaking it open. However, there's no time to be lost; here's a box of +lucifers; come into this dark passage, you two, and get a candle +lighted, while I go and try to get up Mrs Nutt. I can find my way in +the dark."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, Brown," said Chesterton and myself in the same breath, "you +sha'n't go about the house by yourself—we'll come with you."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_770" id="Page_770">[Pg 770]</a></span>"And break your necks down some of the old staircases; or, at all +events, make row enough to let your friends below know that there's +somebody moving in this part of the house. No, just keep quiet where +you are—there's good fellows—and take care not to show the light." +And taking off his shoes, Brown proceeded along the old passages, +which seemed to creak more than usual out of very spitefulness, into +the unknown regions where lay the unconscious Mrs Nutt.</p> + +<p>Having got a light, after the usual number of scrapings with the +lucifers, we were awaiting his return with some impatience, when a +third and more violent series of knocks at the door were followed by +the sound of a female voice. Concealing the light, we crept to the +window of the sitting-room, whence we could now distinguish only one +figure standing by the door, with whom Mrs Nutt appeared to be holding +a communication from a window above.</p> + +<p>"Who's there? What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"It's me with a note from Master Nutt, missus. I don't think he's +a-coming home to-night."</p> + +<p>"Where did you bring it from? Where is he?"</p> + +<p>"He were at the Bear at Woodstock when I saw him."</p> + +<p>"Well, wait a bit till I get a light, and I'll come down."</p> + +<p>In another minute we were joined by Brown; so quietly did he step, +that in our absorbing interest in the conversation in the yard, we +were both somewhat startled at his sudden appearance.</p> + +<p>"Well, Brown," said Chesterton, "now what shall we do? I'll put a load +in this, however," and he proceeded to the passage, where there was +less risk of the light betraying us, in order to do so.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Brown, "if we can but get that fellow once into the house, +we'll have him at all events. We had better all come down-stairs +quietly. If we can only persuade Mrs Nutt to come with us to speak to +him while we open the door, depend upon it we shall trap him; but +she's in a terrible way, poor soul! she wants me to let her call out +murder, and I am afraid now she'll spoil it all. But she has the +servant with her, who seems rather a plucky girl, and I hope she can +manage her. Now, come on quickly, Chesterton, and hide the light when +you get into the long passage, because there are no shutters to the +windows. The women will meet us at the bottom of the stairs."</p> + +<p>My gun had been left in the kitchen; I seized the poker, and we all +proceeded cautiously along the passage, and down-stairs. Poor Mrs +Nutt, as pale as death, and scarcely able to stand, was waiting for +us, with the servant girl. But it was with the greatest difficulty we +could get her to listen to any such proposition as opening the door; +she was much more inclined to side with Chesterton, who wanted to +present the gun at the fellow from the window, and fire if he made any +attempt either to effect an entrance, or to run away.</p> + +<p>At last, however, by the persuasion of the servant, who really was a +heroine in her way, we got her into the passage at the end of which +the door in question was situated; but as nothing could induce her to +speak to the fellow outside, beyond a very faint "Who's there?" the +girl took up the dialogue, and enquired the man's name.</p> + +<p>"Tom Smith; I've got a note for the missus, and something to say to +her besides. Let's in—there's a good wench; I've been a-knocking here +this half hour already."</p> + +<p>It had been agreed that I was to open the door, and shut and bolt it, +if possible, the instant the speaker had entered. Brown and Chesterton +stood just inside a small pantry, ready to secure their man as soon as +he was fairly inside, and the women were to make their escape out of +harm's way, as soon as their services as a decoy could be dispensed +with.</p> + +<p>It was a moment of breathless expectation while I withdrew the bolts. +Hardly had I done so, when the door flew violently open, and with a +silent but determined rush three men entered. I shut the door +instinctively, but it was evident that our plan was defeated, and we +had now only to fight it out. There was a scream from the women, whose +curiosity had not allowed them to retreat beyond the foot of the +staircase—a rush forward on the part of Brown and Chesterton—an oath +or two from the intruders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_771" id="Page_771">[Pg 771]</a></span> at finding themselves so unexpectedly +confronted—and then, for a moment or two, an ominous pause on both +sides. It was broken by Chesterton, who clubbed his gun, and brought +the first man to the ground. Nearly at the same time I grappled with +the last who had entered, whilst a heavy crow-bar, in the hands of the +third, after describing an arc within an inch or two of my own head, +descended with a horrible dull sound (I hear it now) upon that of poor +Chesterton, who fell heavily, whilst in the act of springing forwards, +across his prostrate antagonist. Again the murderous weapon was +uplifted—I vainly endeavoured to fling my opponent and myself against +the striker—I heard a scream, and saw the poor servant girl rush +forward with a sort of desperate instinct, armed with no other weapon +than the candlestick—when a report, that sounded like a volley, shook +the whole passage—a bright flash threw out the whole scene vividly +for a moment—the robber with his back to me with his weapon poised, +and the blackened face of the other glaring savagely into my own—then +followed total darkness—the ringing of the iron-bar upon the +bricks—a stifled groan—and then a silence more horrible than all.</p> + +<p>"Get a light!" said Brown at last; "get a light for heaven's sake, Mrs +Nutt, or somebody. Hawthorne, are you hurt?"</p> + +<p>"No, no," said I; "it was you that fired, John?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he; "we can do nothing now till we have a light."</p> + +<p>The whole affair, from the unbolting the door to the firing the shot, +had not occupied nearly a minute; nor was it much longer before the +trembling women succeeded in relighting the candle from the embers of +the kitchen hearth; but they were moments into which one crowded +almost years of thought; and I remember now with astonishment how +every miserable consequence of poor Chesterton's probably fate came +vividly and irresistibly before my imagination during those few +hurried breathings of suspense—how his father could be told of +it—how desolate would be now the home of which he was the hope and +idol, (I knew his family)—how the college would mourn for him; nay, +even such wretched particulars as how we were to move him to +Oxford—whether he would be buried there—whether he would have a +monument in the chapel—and a thousand such trivial fancies, were +running through my mind with a distressing minuteness which those only +who have known such moments can understand.</p> + +<p>At last the light came. In my eagerness to ascertain the state of poor +Chesterton, I quite forgot the villain with whom I had been +struggling. We had mutually relaxed our hold upon hearing the shot; +and he now took the opportunity of our whole attention being directed +elsewhere, to open the door and effect his escape. We had too much of +other business in our hands to think of following him.</p> + +<p>The second man lay close to my feet. I stepped over him, and raised +Chesterton's head upon my arm; the eyes were half open, but I could +detect no sign of life. I told Brown I feared it was all over.</p> + +<p>"I know it is," said he; "he is shot through the heart. I aimed there. +But what could I do?"</p> + +<p>I turned round, and it was with somewhat of an angry feeling that I +saw Brown examining the breast of the man who had last fallen, utterly +indifferent, as it seemed, to the dreadful fate of our poor friend.</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake," said I, "let that villain alone, and help me to +move poor Harry: I believe he is gone."</p> + +<p>"Ay, poor Harry!" said Brown somewhat vacantly: "I wish that blow had +fallen on me! And was that shot too late after all? Your gun hung +fire, Hawthorne—it did indeed. Poor Harry!"</p> + +<p>I was so absorbed in anxiety for Chesterton that Brown's strange +manner made no great impression on me at the time. The first man, who +had been merely stunned by the blow from the but-end of the gun, was +now beginning to revive, and I begged Brown to get something to secure +him with.</p> + +<p>"I don't think, sir," said Mrs Nutt who had recovered her terror +sufficiently to offer her assistance, and whose coarse red hands, +having removed Chesterton's neck-kerchief, and loosened his +shirt-collar, now showed in strong contrast with his fair skin, but +had nevertheless all a woman's sensibility about them—"I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_772" id="Page_772">[Pg 772]</a></span> think +but what the poor young gentleman has life in him—I am sure I can +feel his heart beat."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, oh yes, Mrs Nutt—he cannot be dead—send for a surgeon! +Hawthorne, why don't you send for a surgeon?"</p> + +<p>"There's none nigher than Oxford," said Mrs Nutt.</p> + +<p>"I'll go for un," said the girl. "I ben't afear'd;" and she turned +pale and shook like a leaf; but the spirit was willing, and she +persisted she was ready to go. However it turned out that there was a +labourer's cottage about a quarter of a mile off, and she was finally +dispatched there for assistance.</p> + +<p>Few people know the ready humanity which exists among the lower +orders: the man must have run all the way to Oxford, for he returned +in little more than half an hour, before the surgeon could dress and +mount his horse.</p> + +<p>However, Chesterton was evidently still living; and when the surgeon +did arrive he gave some hopes of his recovery. The weight of the blow +had been in some degree broken by the gun which poor Harry had raised +in his hand, and this only could have saved the skull from fracture.</p> + +<p>Of course we had soon plenty of volunteers who were ready to be useful +in any way; and when at last the police had made their appearance, and +removed both the living and the dead, and Chesterton had been laid in +Brown's room, and the surgeon, having applied the usual remedies, had +composedly accepted Mrs Nutt's offer to make up a bed for him, and +betaken himself thereto, as if such events were to him matters of +everyday occurrence—I suppose they were—it struck me, for the first +time, that there was a remarkable contrast between Brown's hurried +manner and disturbed countenance now, compared with his perfect +coolness and self-possession while the danger seemed most imminent, +which even Chesterton's dangerous state did not sufficiently account +for.</p> + +<p>"How lucky it was, Brown," said I, "my gun had a load of duck-shot in +it! Don't you remember I was going to have fired it off? And that you +should have laid your hand upon it in the kitchen! I looked for it as +we came by, but could not see it."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what, Hawthorne: I almost wish I had not seen it: I +should not have had a man's life to answer for."</p> + +<p>"Why, Brown," said I with some surprise, "surely you can have no +scruple about that poor wretch's death? Why, he has all but murdered +poor Harry—if, indeed, he ever gets over it."</p> + +<p>"Very true, very true," replied Brown, looking at the bed where +Chesterton was lying in utter unconsciousness; "he seems to sleep very +quietly now. I don't think he knew any one just now when he opened his +eyes: did you see the blow, Hawthorne?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I; "the lock of the gun is broken, and I fancy that saved +him; but he would have had little chance from a second: that shot came +just in time."</p> + +<p>"I covered the man from the moment he first raised the bar: your head +was in a line with him, or I should have fired sooner. I hardly +thought you would have escaped some part of the charge as it was. +Well, if poor Harry lives, perhaps it is well as it is, if not"—</p> + +<p>"You have but spared the hangman some trouble," said I. "Come, man, +don't give way to this morbid feeling. I don't say but what it does +you credit, Brown, to regret the necessity for taking a man's life, +even to save your friend's; but, depend upon it, your conduct to-night +is justifiable before a far higher inquest than the coroner's. Do you +think if I had been in your place I should have hesitated one instant? +No! nor have been half as scrupulous afterwards, I fear."</p> + +<p>"You have not blood upon your hand," said Brown gloomily. "And +remember, if we had taken poor Chesterton's advice, and frightened +them off at first, all this might have been spared; it was my folly in +determining to take upon myself the office of thief-taker—cursed +folly it was!"</p> + +<p>The impression which the events of the last hour had left upon my own +mind was any thing but a pleasant one; but I was obliged to assume an +indifference which I did not feel, and use a lighter tone than I +should willingly have done in speaking of the death of a +fellow-creature, however<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_773" id="Page_773">[Pg 773]</a></span> unavoidable, in order to keep up Brown's +spirits, and prevent him from dwelling upon his share in the +catastrophe with that morbid degree of sensitiveness, of the effects +of which I began to be really apprehensive. He wanted me to lie down +and try to sleep, saying that he would watch with Chesterton; but this +I was in no mood to agree to, even had I not been unwilling to leave +him to his present reflections; so we drew a small table close to the +fire in the sitting-room, leaving the door open that we might hear any +movement of the patient, and waited for daybreak with feelings to +which perhaps we had been too little accustomed. They were doubtless +wholesome for us in after life; but at the time those hours of +watching were painful indeed. It was a night which, then and since, I +wished could be blotted from my page of life, and be as if it had +never been. I have grown older and sadder, if not wiser, since, and +feel now that there are recollections in which I then took delight +which I could far more safely part with.</p> + +<p>The danger in Chesterton's case, though at one time imminent, was soon +over; and a few days' quiet at the farm enabled him to be removed to +college. Reading was, of course, forbidden him for some time; and +before term began, he had left Oxford with his father, to keep +perfectly quiet for a few months in the country. The gratitude which +he and all his family expressed to Brown as having been undoubtedly +the means of saving his life, was naturally unbounded; and it did more +than all else to reconcile him to the idea which haunted him, as he +declared, day and night, of having that man's blood upon his head. I +knew that Chesterton had warmly pressed him to come home with him; but +as his name was down for the approaching examination, for which he was +quite sufficiently prepared, it was not without astonishment that I +heard him one morning, just before Chesterton's departure, announce +his intention of going down with him and his father.</p> + +<p>"I think," said he, "the constant sight of poor Harry will do me good +just now; I am not given to romancing, Hawthorne, as you know; but +waking or sleeping, when I am by myself, I see that man standing with +the crow-bar uplifted just as he was when I shot him; and I think, if +I can but manage to get Harry Chesterton's figure between him and me, +as it was that night, and feel that pulling the trigger perhaps saved +his life, why then the picture will be something less horrible that it +is now."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "John, I think you do right; but I can tell you this, +that the same sort of <i>tableau</i> is very often before my eyes; and the +horror that I feel is what I did then—seeing Chesterton's brains +knocked out, as I thought, and struggling in vain to get near him; +sooner than feel that again in reality—the thought of it is bad +enough—I'd shoot that villain ten times running, if I only had the +chance."</p> + +<p>"You never <i>had</i> the chance, Hawthorne; pray God you never <i>may</i>."</p> + +<p>Such was nearly my last interview, for some years, with my friend John +Brown; for I had taken my degree and left college before he came up +again to pass his examination. He was subpoenaed, with myself, as a +witness on the trial of the man whom we had secured, which took place +at the next assizes; but I was informed by the prisoner's attorney of +his intention to plead guilty, the case against him being such a +strong one; Brown was thus enabled without much risk to remain in the +country with Chesterton, and we were both spared being placed in the +painful position of important witnesses in a trial of life and death.</p> + +<p>The man's confession was full, and apparently honest; and it was a +satisfaction to find that the wretch who had fallen was a man of +well-known desperate character, and probably, as the prisoner +asserted, the concocter of the whole business: while all were +murderers in intention. Had they succeeded in effecting their object +by plundering the house, Farmer Nutt, whose habits of staying somewhat +late from home on fair nights were well known to all the +neighbourhood, was to have been waylaid on the towing-path which led +to his house, and as, although a quiet man, there was a good deal of +resolute spirit about him, and he would have had a heavy purse with +him, the proceeds of stock sold at the fair, with which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_774" id="Page_774">[Pg 774]</a></span> he would not +easily have parted, there was no question but that he would have found +a grave in the canal. Of Brown's lodging in the house the party were +well aware; but they had laid their plans so warily for effecting an +entrance without noise, and easily overpowering the women, that they +hoped either altogether to avoid disturbing his quarter of the house, +or making it evident to him that resistance was useless. Of course, +our appearance was wholly unexpected; they had watched for some time, +but we had been so quiet for the last hour (being in truth more than +half asleep) that they had no suspicion of there being any one +stirring in Brown's rooms.</p> + +<p>I saw the unfortunate prisoner several times, and found him open and +communicative on every subject but one. Any information with regard to +his accomplice who had escaped, he always steadily refused; nor did a +single unguarded word ever drop from him in conversation with any one +by which the slightest clue could be obtained as to his identity. Even +the police inspector, the most plausible and unscrupulous of his +class, a perfect Machiavel among the Peelers, who could make a +prisoner believe he was his only friend while he was doing his best to +put the halter round his neck, even his practised policy was +unsuccessful here. There was little doubt, however, that it was some +person familiar with the premises, from the circumstance that poor +Boxer, whose silence on the night of the attack we had all been +surprised at, and who was not of a mood to be easily inveigled by +strangers, even with the usual attractions of poisoned meat, &c., had +disappeared, and was never heard of from that time forth. Suspicion of +course fell upon several; but the matter remains to this day, I +believe, a mystery. The prisoner, as I have said, pleaded guilty, and +received sentence of death; under the circumstances of the crime, and +its nearly fatal result, no other could be expected; nor did the judge +who tried him hold out the slightest hope of mercy. But his full +confession, with regard to himself and the man who had fallen, with +honourable silence as to their more fortunate companion, his youth, +(he was but a year older than myself,) and his whole bearing since his +imprisonment, had impressed myself and others deeply in his favour; a +memorial of the case was drawn up representing that justice might well +be satisfied with the violent death of one criminal already, and after +being signed by all parties of any influence in the neighbourhood, was +forwarded for presentation to the crown. But the judge declared that +he could not, consistently with his duty, back our application, and, +to our extreme disappointment, an answer was returned that the law in +this case must take its course. A private and personal interest was at +work, however, which for once proved more powerful than judges or home +secretaries. Brown had signed our memorial of course; but, dreading an +unfavourable reply, had forwarded through other channels a short but +strong remonstrance directly to the Queen. He spoke touchingly of his +own distressed state of mind at having so young in life been compelled +in defence of his friend to take the life of a fellow-creature, and +prayed her Majesty "to restore, as she only could, his peace of mind, +by giving him a life in exchange for that which he had taken away." A +letter accompanied a reprieve by return of post, addressed to John +Brown, which he preserves with a care almost superstitious; it +contains a few short lines, dictated by a royal spirit and a woman's +heart, and signed "<span class="smcap">Victoria</span>." Victoria! mercy and humanity, the +victory was indeed yours!</p> + +<p>Of John Brown I have little to add. Like others with whom I was at one +time so long and intimately allied, I have seen nothing of him now for +years. The Dean was relieved as if from an incubus when he left +college, though I believe there was a cessation of all open hostility +after his return from Chesterton's. At least the only authenticated +mention of any allusion to old grievances on my friend's part is, that +when he paid Mr Hodgett the usual fees which fall to the Dean's share, +upon taking his B.A., he asked him "whether he allowed discount for +ready money?"</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Hawthorne</span>.</div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_775" id="Page_775">[Pg 775]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="NELSONS" id="NELSONS"></a>NELSON'S DESPATCHES AND LETTERS.[<a href="#f15">15</a><a name="f15.1" id="f15.1"></a>]</h2> + + +<p>The common idea of a sailor—whether with a commodore's broad pendant, +a lieutenant's wooden leg, or a foremast-man's pigtail—was, at one +time, a wild, thoughtless, rollicking man, with very broad shoulders +and a very red face, who talked incessantly about shivering his +timbers, and thought no more of eating a score or two of Frenchmen +than if they had been sprats. Such was the effect of the veracious +chronicles of our countryman Tobias, and the lifelike descriptions of +old Trunnion, and Tom Bowling, and the rest. The jack-tar, as +represented by him—with the addition, perhaps, of a few softening +features, but still the man of blood and 'ounds, breathing fire and +smoke, and with a constant inclination to luff helms and steer a point +or two to windward—has retained possession of the stage to the +present time; and Mr T. P. Cooke still shuffles, and rolls, and +dances, and fights—the beau-ideal and impersonation of the instrument +with which Britannia rules the waves. And that the canvass waves of +the Surrey are admirably ruled by such instruments, we have no +intention of disputing; nor would it be possible to place visibly +before the public the peculiar qualifications that constitute a +first-rate sailor, any more than those which form a first-rate lawyer. +The freaks of a young templar have as much to do with the triumphs of +Lord Eldon, as the dash and vivacity of any fictitious middy have to +do with the First of June. Sailors are made of sterner stuff; and of +all classes of men, have their highest faculties called earliest into +use, and kept most constantly in exercise. Let no man, therefore, +think of the navy as a last resource for the stupidest of his sons. He +will chew salt-junk, and walk with an easy negligence acquired from a +course of practice in the Bay of Biscay; and in due time arrive at his +double epaulettes, and be a blockhead to the end of the chapter. But +all this stupidity, we humbly conceive, might have found as fitting an +arena in Westminster Hall, or even in Westminster Abbey—with +reverence be it spoken—as on the quarter-deck of a man-of-war; for we +maintain it is of less consequence for a man to be a great pleader or +an eloquent divine, (where the utmost extent of evil resulting from +the absence of eloquence and acuteness is a law-suit lost or a +congregation lulled to sleep,) than that he should be active, +energetic, skilful, in one of the "leviathans afloat on the brine." +Science, zeal, courage, and self-reliance, are very pretty qualities +to find in the fool of the family—and without these, no man can ever +be a sailor. But what opportunity is there in the navy for the display +of the wonderful abilities of the fool of the family's antipode, the +genius? Nothing will do for the surpassing brightness of some Highland +star but law or politics; so Donald has Latin and Greek shovelled into +him out of the dignified hat of some prebendary or bishop, goes to +Oxford, talks on all manner of subjects as if his tongue had +discovered the perpetual motion, goes to the bar, where the said +motion is the only one he is called upon to make, forces himself into +high society, wriggles his way into Parliament—the true Trophonius's +cave of aspiring orators—and becomes a silent Demosthenes, as he has +long been a lawless Coke; an ends at last in a paroxysm of wonder that +his creditors are hard-hearted and his country ungrateful, so that, +instead of being promoted to a seat at the Admiralty, he is removed to +one in the Fleet—which brings him very nearly to the same position he +would have been placed in, if a true estimate had been formed of his +powers at first. Oh fathers! if Tom is a donkey, keep him at home or +make him an attorney—it is amazing how a few years in "the office" +will brighten him—but don't trust the lives of men, and the honour of +the flag, to any but the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_776" id="Page_776">[Pg 776]</a></span>best and wisest of your sons. Such a school +for moral training has never been devised as one of the floating +colleges that carry guns. The youngest midshipman acquires habits of +command, the oldest captain practises the ennobling virtue of +obedience; and these, we take it, form the alpha and omega of man's +useful existence. Power gives self-respect, responsibility gives +caution, and subjection gives humility. With all these united, as they +are in every rank in the service, the character has little room left +for improvement; tenderness and generosity, in addition, make a man a +Collingwood or Pellew—genius and heroism make him a Nelson.</p> + +<p>But not through flowery paths do genius and heroism tread on their +path to fame. What a length of weary way, with what antres vast and +deserts idle, and pathless wildernesses bestrown, lay between the +Raisonable of 1770 and the Victory of 1805! and yet through them all, +the traveller's eye was unalterably fixed on the great light that his +soul saw filling the whole sky with its radiance, and which he knew +the whole time was reflected from the Baltic, and the Nile, and +Trafalgar. The letters of Nelson just given to the public by the +industry of Sir Harris Nicolas, will hereafter be the manual of the +sailor, as the sister service has found a guide in the <i>Despatches of +the Duke of Wellington</i>. All that was to be expected from the +well-known talent of the editor, united to an enthusiasm for his hero, +which has carried him triumphantly through the extraordinary labour of +investigating and ascertaining every fact in the slightest degree +bearing upon his subject, is to be found in this volume, in which, +from the beginning to the end, by a continued series of letters, +Nelson is made his own historian; and we sincerely believe, divesting +ourselves as far as possible of all prejudice and partiality, that no +character ever came purer from the ordeal of unreserved +communication—where not a thought is concealed or an expression +studied—than the true friend, the good son, the affectionate brother, +Horatio Nelson. The correspondence in this volume only extends from +1777 to 1794, and no blot has yet occurred to mar the brightness of a +character where there is so much to like, that the reader finds it +difficult to dwell on the heroic parts of it which he is only called +upon to admire. When the volume ends, he is only thirty-six years old, +and is captain of the Agamemnon; but his path is clearly traced +out—his name is in men's mouths and his character established. And, +looking over the whole correspondence, nothing, perhaps, is so +striking as the early development of his peculiar qualities, and the +firm unswerving line he struck into from the beginning and continued +in to the last. A self-reliance, amounting in weaker and less +equally-balanced natures to doggedness and conceit—a clear perception +of the circumstances of a case almost resembling intuition—a +patriotism verging on the romantic, and a sense of duty never for a +moment yielding to the "whips and scorns that patient merit of the +unworthy takes," are displayed in every incident of his life, from the +time that he left the quiet parsonage-house at Burnham Thorpe, till he +finished his glorious career.</p> + +<p>At twelve years of age, he joined his uncle in the Raisonable +sixty-four, and served in her as midshipman for five months; and few +people would have been able to discover the future hero in the feeble +boy he must have been at that time. Still less, perhaps, would they +have expected the future Bronte, a few months later, in the person of +a little fellow, no longer a midshipman in the Royal Navy, but a +working "youngster" on board a West India ship, as he informs us in +his "Sketch of my Life," belonging to the house of Hibbert, Purrier, +and Horton, from which he returned to the Triumph at Chatham, a good +practical seaman, but with a horror of the Royal Navy, and a firm +belief in a saying then constant with the seamen, "Aft the most +honour, forward the better man." The next situation we find him in, +will probably shock the delicate feelings of tender mammas, who expect +their sons to be admirals without any apprenticeship; for he is rated +on the books of the Triumph as "<i>captain's servant</i>" for one year, two +months, and two days. We may in some measure relieve their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_777" id="Page_777">[Pg 777]</a></span> minds, by +assuring them, that he did not wear livery, and was never called upon +to brush the captain's coat. But the horrid man submitted even to +lower degradation, in order to get experience in his profession, which +our Reginald Augustus could never have thought of; for he tells us, +that "when the expedition towards the North Pole was fitted out, +although no boys were allowed to go in the ships—as of no use—yet +nothing could prevent my using every interest to go with Captain +Lutwidge in the Carcass, and as I fancied I was to fill a man's place. +I begged I might be his cockswain; which, finding my ardent desire for +going with him, Captain Lutwidge complied with."</p> + +<p>And Cockswain Nelson "exerted himself, (when the boats were fitted out +to quit the two ships blocked up in the ice,) to have the command of a +four-oared cutter raised upon, which was given him, with twelve men; +and he prided himself in fancying he could navigate her better than +any other boat in the ship."</p> + +<p>And we will back the cockswain to any amount, though he was then only +fifteen, and probably did not weigh more than five stone.</p> + +<p>But the vulgarity of the fellow will be the death of us, and our Laura +Matilda will never listen without disgust to the "Death of Nelson" +again; for he tells us, that on the return of the Polar expedition, he +was placed in the Racehorse of twenty guns, with Captain Farmer, and +watched in the foretop!!! And it is probable, during all these +mutations, that he very seldom tasted venison, and drank very little +champagne. But even in the absence of those usual luxuries of the +cockpit, he made himself a thorough seaman; and when serving in the +Worcester sixty-four, with Captain Mark Robinson, he says, with +characteristic, because fully justified pride, "although my age might +have been a sufficient cause for not entrusting me with the charge of +a watch, yet Captain Robinson used to says, he felt as easy when I was +upon deck as any officer in the ship."</p> + +<p>And this brings us to 1777, the date of his commission, and the +commencement of his correspondence. After the simple statement of his +course of life, we shall hardly be called upon to observe, that Nelson +was no great scholar, as we perceive that his school education was +finished when he was twelve years old. And we owe hearty thanks to Sir +Harris Nicolas for having restored the letters to their original +language, uncicerorian as it may be; for he informs us, that some of +those which had been formerly published in the different biographies +of the hero, were so improved and beautified that it was difficult to +recognise them. By proper clipping and pruning, altering some +sentences and exchanging others, an ingenious editor might +transmogriphy these simple epistles into the philippics of Junius; and +therefore we derive complete satisfaction from the conviction, that, +in this compilation, every sentence is exactly as it was written. With +one other observation, (which we make for the sake of the Laura +Matildas who are horrified at the "cockswain,") we shall proceed to +give such extracts from the letters as we consider the most +characteristic; and "that 'ere observation," as was said by Mr Liston, +"is this here," that Nelson was of what is usually called a very good +family—being nearly connected with the Walpoles, Earls of Orford, and +the Turners of Warham, in Norfolk. But for further information on this +point, we refer them to an abstract of the pedigree prefixed to the +letters. In the year 1777, and several following years, Nelson's +principal correspondents were his brother, the Rev. William Nelson, +who succeeded as second Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Hilborough, +and was created Earl Nelson—Captain William Locker, then in command +of the Lowestoffe, of whom very interesting memoirs have been +published by his son Edward Hawke Locker, Esq., late a commissioner of +Greenwich Hospital—the Rev. Edmund Nelson (his father)—besides the +secretary to the Admiralty, and the official personages to whom his +despatches were addressed.</p> + +<p>To show the affectionate nature of the man, we shall quote his first +letter to Captain Locker, who was one of his dearest friends. The +address of the letter is wanting, but it would appear to have been +written during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_778" id="Page_778">[Pg 778]</a></span> Captain Locker's temporary absence from his ship, in +consequence of ill health:—</p> + + +<p><span class="rightbl">"Lowestoffe, at Sea,</span><br /> +<span class="rightbl"><i>August 12, 1777</i>.</span><br /></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"My most worthy Friend—I am exceedingly obliged to you for the +good opinion you entertain of me, and will do my utmost that you +may have no occasion to change it. I hope God Almighty will be +pleased to spare your life for your own sake and that of your +family; but should any thing happen to you (which I sincerely +pray God may not) you may be assured that nothing shall be +wanting on my part for the taking care of your effects, and +delivering safe to Mrs Locker such of them as may be thought +proper not to be disposed of. You mentioned the word consolation +in your letter—I shall have a very great one, when I think I +have served faithfully the best of friends, and the most amiable +of women. All the services I can render to your family, you may +be assured shall be done; and shall never end but with my life; +and may God Almighty, of his great goodness, keep, bless, and +preserve you and your family, is the most fervent prayer of your +faithful servant,</p></div> + +<p> +<span class="rightbl">"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p>In 1781 he was appointed commander of the Albemarle, of twenty-eight +guns, and in the following year had a narrow escape from a strong +French force in Boston Bay. The sailing qualities of the Albemarle +beat the line-of-battle ships, and he immediately brought to for a +frigate that formed part of the chasing squadron, but his courtesy was +declined, and the frigate bore away. He dwells, in several of his +letters, on his good fortune in getting off; but, in the following one +to his father, he omits all mention of his challenge to the pursuer:—</p> + +<p><span class="rightbl">"Albemarle, Isle of Bic,</span><br /> +<span class="rightbl">River St Lawrence</span><br /> +<span class="rightbl"><i>October 19, 1782</i>.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"My dear Father—I wrote to Mr Suckling when I was at +Newfoundland, but I have not had an opportunity of writing to you +till this time. I expected to have sailed for England on the +first of November, but our destination is now altered, for we +sail with a fleet for New York to-morrow; and from there I think +it very likely we shall go to the <i>grand theatre</i> of actions—the +West Indies; but, in our line of life, we are sure of no one +thing. When I reach New York you shall hear what becomes of me; +but, while I have health, it is indifferent to me (were it not +for the pleasure of seeing you and my brothers and sisters) where +I go. Health, that greatest of blessings, is what I never truly +enjoyed till I saw <i>fair</i> Canada. The change it has wrought I am +convinced is truly wonderful. I most sincerely wish, my dear +father, I could compliment you the same way; but I hope Bath has +done you a great deal of good this summer. I have not had much +success in the prize way, but it is all in good time, and I do +not know I ought to complain; for, though I took several, but had +not the good fortune to get one safe into port, yet, on the other +side, I escaped from five French men-of-war in a wonderful +manner.... Farewell, my dearest father, and assure yourself I +always am, and ever shall be, your dutiful son,</p></div> + +<p> +<span class="rightbl">"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p>In the following month he writes to his friend Locker—"I am a +candidate with Lord Hood for a line-of-battle ship; he has honoured me +highly by a letter, for wishing to go off this station to a station of +service, and has promised me his friendship. Prince William is with +him." And Sir Harris Nicolas adds in a note—"H. R. H. Prince William +Henry, third son of King George III, afterwards Duke of Clarence, +Admiral of the Fleet, (Lord High Admiral?) and King William IV." The +Prince honoured Nelson with his warmest friendship, and many letters +in this collection were addressed to his Royal Highness.</p> + +<p>The following description of Nelson by the prince is extremely +interesting:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I was then a midshipman on board the Barfleur, lying in the +Narrows off Staten Island, and had the watch on deck, when +Captain Nelson of the Albemarle came in his barge alongside, who +appeared to be the merest boy of a captain I ever beheld; and his +dress was worthy of attention. He had on a full laced uniform; +his lank unpowdered hair was tied in a stiff Hessian tail of an +extraordinary length, the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat +added to the general quaintness of his figure, and produced an +appearance which particularly attracted my notice, for I had +never seen any thing like it before, nor could I imagine who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_779" id="Page_779">[Pg 779]</a></span> he +was or what he came about. My doubts were, however, removed when +Lord Hood introduced me to him. There was something irresistibly +pleasing in his address and conversation, and an enthusiasm, when +speaking on professional subjects, that showed he was no common +being. Nelson, after this, went with us to the West Indies, and +served under Lord Hood's flag during his indefatigable cruize off +Cape François. Throughout the whole of the American war the +height of Nelson's ambition was to command a line-of-battle ship; +as for prize-money, it never entered his thoughts; he had always +in view the character of his maternal uncle. I found him warmly +attached to my father, and singularly humane; he had the honour +of the king's service and the independence of the British navy +particularly at heart; and his mind glowed with this idea as much +when he was simply captain of the Albemarle, and had obtained +none of the honours of his country, as when he was afterwards +decorated with so much well-earned distinction."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>Nelson's opinion of the prince, as a seaman, was scarcely less high; +and it says not a little, in favour of both parties, that their +friendship appears to have been founded on mutual respect. In July, +1783, the Albemarle was paid off; and Nelson having finished the war, +as he expresses it in a letter to his friend Mr Ross, without a +fortune, but without a speck on his character, remained nine months on +half-pay. But as he determined to make use of his spare time in +mastering the French—a feat which he afterwards accomplished without +a grammar—he resolved to go to France with his friend Captain James +Macnamara for that purpose. There are some very Nelsonian sentences in +his correspondence while in the land of the Mounseers. His contempt +for epaulettes—which were not introduced into the English navy till +1795—is very amusing; and he little thought, that in one of the +dandified officers he despised so much, he should find one of his most +distinguished comrades, the gallant Sir Alexander Ball:—</p> + +<div class="rightbl"><p><span class="smcap">To William Locker, Esq</span>.<br /> +"St Omer, <i>Nov. 2, 1783</i>.</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"My dear sir—Our travels, since we left you, have been extended +to a much greater length then I apprehended; but I must do +Captain Mac the justice to say it was all my doings, and in a +great measure against his advice; but experience bought is the +best; and all mine I have paid pretty dearly for. We dined at +Canterbury the day we parted from you, and called at Captain +Sandys' house, but he was just gone out to dinner in the country, +therefore we did not see him. We slept at Dover, and next morning +at seven o'clock put to sea with a fine north-west wind, and at +half-past ten we were safe at breakfast in Monsieur Grandsire's +house at Calais. His mother kept it when Hogarth wrote his <i>Gate +of Calais</i>. Sterne's <i>Sentimental Journey</i> is the best +description I can give of our tour. Mac advised me to go first to +St Omer, as he had experienced the difficulty of attempting to +fix in any place where there are no English; after dinner we set +off, intended for Montreuil, sixty miles from Calais; they told +us we travelled <i>en poste</i>, but I am sure we did not get on more +than four miles an hour. I was highly diverted with looking what +a curious figure the postilions in their jack-boots, and their +rats of horses, made together. Their chaises have no springs, and +the roads generally paved like London streets; therefore you will +naturally suppose we were pretty well shook together by the time +we had travelled two posts and a half, which is fifteen miles, to +Marquise. Here we were shown into an inn—they called it, I +should have called it a pig-stye: we were shown into a room with +two straw beds, and with great difficulty they mustered up clean +sheets, and gave us two pigeons for supper, upon a dirty cloth, +and wooden-handled knives. <i>Oh, what a transition from happy +England!</i></p> + +<p>"But we laughed at the repast, and went to bed with the +determination that nothing should ruffle our tempers. Having +slept very well, we set off at daylight for Boulogne, where we +breakfasted. This place was full of English; I suppose because +wine is so very cheap. We went on after breakfast for Montreuil, +and passed through the finest corn country that my eyes ever +beheld, diversified with fine woods, sometimes for miles +together, through noble forests. The roads mostly were planted +with trees, which made as fine an avenue as to any gentleman's +country-seat. Montreuil is thirty miles from Boulogne, situated +upon a small hill, in the middle of a fine plain, which reached +as far as the eye could carry you, except towards the sea, which +is about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_780" id="Page_780">[Pg 780]</a></span>twelve miles from it. We put up at the same house, and +with the same jolly landlord that recommended Le Fleur to Sterne. +Here we wished much to be fixed; but neither good lodgings or +masters could be had here—for there are no middling class of +people. Sixty noblemen's families lived in the town, who owned +the vast plain round it, and the rest very poor indeed. This is +the finest country for game that ever was; partridges +twopence-halfpenny a couple, pheasants and woodcocks in +proportion; and, in short, every species of poultry. We dined, +supped, lay, and breakfasted next day, Saturday; then we +proceeded on our tour, leaving Montreuil, you will suppose, with +great regret.</p> + +<p>"We reached Abbeville at eight o'clock; but, unluckily for us, +two Englishmen, one of whom called himself Lord Kingsland—I can +hardly suppose it to be him—and a Mr Bullock, decamped at three +o'clock that afternoon in debt to every shopkeeper in the place. +These gentlemen kept elegant houses, horses, &c. We found the +town in an uproar; and as no masters could be had at this place +that could speak a word of English, and that all masters that +could speak English grammatically attend at the places that are +frequented by the English, which is, St Omer, Lisle, Dunkirk, and +Boulogne, to the northward of Paris, and as I had no intention of +travelling to the south of France till the spring, at any rate, I +determined, with Mac's advice, to steer for St Omer, where we +arrived last Tuesday; and I own I was surprised to find, that +instead of a dirty, nasty town, which I had always heard it +represented, to find a large city, well paved, good streets, and +well lighted.</p> + +<p>"We lodge in a pleasant French family, and have our dinners sent +from a <i>traiteur's</i>. There are two very agreeable young ladies, +daughters, who <i>honour</i> us with their company pretty often. One +always makes our breakfast, and the other our tea, and play a +game at cards in the evening. Therefore I must learn French, if +'tis only for the pleasure of talking to them; for they do not +speak a word of English. Here are a great number of English in +this place; but we visit only two families; for, if I did, I +should never speak French. Two noble captains are here—Ball and +Shepard. You do not know, I believe, either of them. They wear +fine epaulettes, for which I think them great coxcombs. They have +not visited me; and I shall not, be assured, court their +acquaintance. You must be heartily tired of this long epistle, if +you can read it; but I have the worst pen in the world, and I +can't mend it. God bless you; and, be assured, I am your sincere +friend, and affectionate humble servant,</p></div> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p>In another letter from St Omer, he returns to the charge against Dandy +Ball and Shepard:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Here are two navy captains, Ball and Shepard, at this place; but +we do not visit. They are very fine gentlemen, with epaulettes. +You may suppose, I hold them a little <i>cheap</i> for putting on any +part of a Frenchman's uniform."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>And in a short time after, he seems to have made up his mind on two +very important points—politics and the French people.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="smcap">To his brother William</span>.</span></p> + +<p>"... As to your having enlisted under the banners of the +Walpoles, [Whigs,] you might as well have enlisted under those of +my grandmother. They are altogether the merest set of cyphers +that ever existed—in public affairs, I mean. Mr Pitt, depend +upon it, will stand against all opposition. An honest man must +always, in the end, get the better of a <i>villain</i>. But I have +done with politics. Let who will get in, I shall be left out."</p> + +<p>"In about a week or fortnight, I think of returning to the +Continent till autumn, when I shall bring a horse, and stay the +winter at Burnham. I return to many charming women; but <i>no +charming woman</i> will return with me. I want to be a proficient in +the language, which is my only reason for returning. I hate their +country and their manners."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>In March of this year, (1784,) he was appointed to the Boreas frigate +of twenty-eight guns; and had the honour (not very highly valued) of +carrying out Lady Hughes, the wife of the admiral on the Leeward +Island station, and a number of other people, who did not add much to +the efficiency of a man-of-war. It was on this station that he had +first an opportunity of showing the determination and fearlessness of +his character in maintaining what he thought the right—though ill +supported, as was to be expected, by the authorities at home—against +local interests, which any other man would not have ventured to +oppos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_781" id="Page_781">[Pg 781]</a></span>e. We are not about to enter into the history of Nelson's conduct +in defence of the Navigation Act, further than as the correspondence +on the subject brings out some of his peculiarities; and the result +shows, as usual, the policy of firmness, and the certainty of success +to those who are determined to obtain it.</p> + +<p>The Americans, after the recognition of their independence, were by no +means willing to surrender some of the advantages they had enjoyed +when colonists of Great Britain. Among these was an unrestricted trade +with the West Indies. In order to retain this advantage, they stuck at +nothing in the way of oaths and declarations; and, as the American +trade was of great consequence to the islanders, their false pretences +were in all cases supported by the merchants, and even the +custom-house authorities were persuaded to encourage the frauds. A +captain of the navy, twenty-six years of age, undertook to put an end +to these operations; and, in the course of a very short time, he found +himself in as hot water as any gentleman can require.</p> + +<div class="rightbl"> +<p><span class="smcap">To William Locker</span>, Esq.<br /> +"Boreas, Baseterre Road,<br /> +<i>January 15, 1785</i>.</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"The longer I am upon this station the worse I like it. Our +commander has not that opinion of his own sense that he ought to +have. He is led by the advice of the islanders to admit the +Yankees to a trade—at least, to wink at it. He does not give +himself that weight that I think an English admiral ought to do. +I, for one, am determined not to suffer the Yankees to come where +my ship is; for I am sure, if once the Americans are admitted to +any kind of intercourse with these islands, the views of the +Loyalists in settling in Nova Scotia are entirely done away. They +will first become the carriers, and next have possession of our +islands, are we ever again embroiled in a French war. The +residents of these islands are Americans by connexion and by +interest, and are inimical to Great Britain. They are as great +rebels as ever were in America, had they the power to show it. +After what I have said, you will believe I am not very popular +with the people. They have never visited me, and I have not had a +foot in any house since I have been on the station, and all for +doing my duty by being <i>true to the interests of Great Britain</i>. +A petition from the President and Council has gone to the +Governor-general and admiral, to request the admission of +Americans. I have given my answer to the admiral upon the +subject—how he will like it I know not; but I am determined to +suppress the admission of foreigners all in my power. I have told +the Customs that I will complain if they admit any foreigner to +an entry. An American arrives—sprung a leak, a mast, and what +not—makes a protest—gets admittance—sells his cargo for ready +money—goes to Martinico—buys molasses—and so round and round. +But I hate them all. The Loyalist cannot do it, consequently must +sell a little dearer."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>His narrative to the admiral on the same subject is as follows:—</p> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"<i>January 11 or 12, 1785</i>.</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"Sir—I yesterday received your order of the 29th of December, +wherein you direct me, in execution of your first order, dated +the 12th of November, (which is, in fact, strictly requiring us +to put the Act of Navigation, upon which the wealth and safety of +Great Britain so much depends, in force,) to observe the +following directions, viz, to cause foreigners to anchor by his +Majesty's ship under my command, except in cases of immediate and +urgent distress, until her arrival and situation, in all +respects, shall be reported to his Majesty's governor, or his +representative, at any of the islands where I may fall in with +such foreign ships or vessels; and that if the governor, or his +representative, should give leave for admitting such vessels, +strictly charging me not to hinder them or interfere in their +subsequent proceedings.</p> + +<p>"I ever have been, as in duty bound, always ready to co-operate +with his Majesty's governors, or their representatives, in doing +whatever has been for the benefit of Great Britain. No governor +will, I am sure, do such an illegal act as to countenance the +admission of foreigners into the ports of their islands, nor +<i>dare</i> any officer of his Majesty's Customs enter such +foreigners, without they are in such distress that necessity +obliges them to unlade their cargoes; and then only to sell such +a part of it as will pay the costs. In distress, no individual +shall exceed me in acts of generosity; and, in judging of their +distress, no person can know better than sea officers, of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_782" id="Page_782">[Pg 782]</a></span> I +shall inform the governors, &c., when they acquaint me for what +reason they have countenanced the admission of foreigners.</p> + +<p>"I beg leave to hope, that I may be properly understood, when I +venture to say, that, at a time when Great Britain is using every +endeavour to suppress illicit trade at home, it is not wished +that the ships on this station should be singular, by being the +only spectators of the illegal trade, which I know is carried on +at these islands. The governors may be imposed on by false +declarations; we, who are on the spot, cannot. General Shirley +told me and Captain Collingwood how much he approved of the +methods that were carrying on for suppressing the illegal trade +with America; that it had ever been his wish, and that he had +used every means in his power, by proclamation and otherwise, to +hinder it; but they came to him with protests, and swore through +every thing, (even, as the sea-phrase is, through a nine-inch +plank;) therefore got admittance, as he could not examine the +vessels himself; and, further, by the Thynne packet, he had +received a letter from Lord Sydney, one of his Majesty's +principal secretaries of state, saying that Administration were +determined that American ships and vessels should not have any +intercourse with our West India islands; and that he had, upon an +address from the Assembly, petitioning that he would relax the +king's proclamation for the exclusion of Americans, transmitted +it to Lord Sydney to be laid before the king. The answer to +General Shirley was, that his Majesty firmly believed and hoped +that all his orders which were received by his governors would be +strictly obeyed.</p> + +<p>"Whilst I have the honour to command an English man-of-war, I +never shall allow myself to be subservient to the will of any +governor, nor co-operate with him in doing <i>illegal acts</i>. +Presidents of council I feel myself superior to. They shall make +proper application to me for whatever they may want to come by +water.</p> + +<p>"If I rightly understand your order of the 29th of December, it +is founded upon an opinion of the king's attorney-general, viz. +'That it is legal for governors or their representatives to admit +foreigners into the ports of their governments, if they think +fit.' How the king's attorney-general conceives he has a right to +give an illegal opinion, which I assert the above is, he must +answer for. I know the navigation laws. I am, Sir, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<p> </p> +<p>But the troubles of the unfortunate Horatio were not over; for just at +this time arose another vexed and vexatious question, as to whether a +senior officer on half-pay—though holding a commissionership of the +navy—could be empowered by the admiral on the station to hoist a +broad pendant; and after a spirited correspondence, the point was +decided, though apparently in a very shilly-shally shabby way, in +Nelson's favour—for it is accompanied with a reprimand—the Admiralty +informing him, that he ought to have submitted his doubts to the +commander-in-chief on the station, instead of having taken on himself +"to control the exercise of the functions of his appointment"—whatever +that may mean.</p> + +<p>Too much activity, even in a good cause, is apt to excite the enmity +of the idle drones who have got on without any activity at all, and +for some years the zeal of Nelson got him into disfavour with his +superiors in the service. And yet his whole conduct was regulated by +the strictest sense of duty, and his letters—even those in which he +shows most independence—never give the slightest occasion to suspect +that his actions arose from self-will and disobedience. On this point +he is very explicit.</p> + +<p>He writes to the admiral—"This, sir, I hope you will transmit to my +lords commissioners, that they nor any other of my superior officers +may have the smallest idea that I shall ever dispute the orders of my +superiors."</p> + +<p>And to the Admiralty, on the same occasion—"I must beg their +lordships' indulgence to hear reasons for my conduct, that it may +never go abroad into the world I ever had an idea to dispute the +orders of my superior officer, neither admiral, commodore, or +captain."</p> + +<p>The plot in the mean time thickens, and his anger increases against +the audacious swindling of the Yankees, aided by the islanders; and in +his own defence he goes, according to his custom, to the +fountain-head, and lays his complaint before the secretary of state. +"My name," he says, "most probably is unknown to your lordship," (Lo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_783" id="Page_783">[Pg 783]</a></span>rd +Sydney,) "but my character as a man, I trust, will bear the strictest +investigation; therefore I take the liberty of sending enclosed a +letter, though written some few years ago, which I hope will impress +your lordship with a favourable opinion of me. I stand for myself, no +great connexion to support me if inclined to fall; therefore my good +name, as a man, an officer, and an Englishman, I must be very careful +of. My greatest pride is to discharge my duty faithfully; my greatest +ambition to receive approbation for my conduct."</p> + +<p>The chicaneries of the law were brought to bear on the captain of the +Boreas, and by means of a writ for his arrest, (on the trumped-up plea +of detention and imprisonment of some fraudulent Americans—true +ancestors of the repudiators of the present day,) he was forced to +remain on board ship for several months, but was at last released from +durance by the tardy undertaking given by government to be answerable +for his defence.</p> + +<p>The lukewarmness of his superiors, and the villanies of law, were not +enough to fill up his time, and, in the very midst of these agitating +matters, he adds a third: he met Mrs Nisbet, and fell in love. His +letters, however, are not entirely composed of sighs and lightning; +and it gives a high idea of the lady's sense to perceive the calm, yet +real, affection she inspired. We shall only quote one of his letters +to his lady-love, to show the style of them all, and also to show his +feelings towards Prince William Henry, (King William IV.,) who was at +this time under his command as captain of the Pegasus.</p> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"Off Antigua, <i>December 12, 1786</i>.</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"Our young prince is a gallant man; he is indeed volatile, but +always with great good-nature. There were two balls during his +stay, and some of the old ladies were mortified that H. R. H. +would not dance with them; but he says he is determined to enjoy +the privilege of all other men, that of asking any lady he +pleases.</p> + +<p>"<i>Wednesday.</i>—We arrived here this morning at daylight. His +Royal Highness dined with me, and, of course, the governor. I can +tell you a piece of news, which is, that the prince is fully +determined, and has made me promise him, that he shall be at our +wedding; and he says he will give you to me. His Royal Highness +has not yet been in a private house to visit, and is determined +never to do it except in this instance. You know I will ever +strive to bear such a character as may render it no discredit to +any man to take notice of me. There is no action in my whole life +but what is honourable; and I am the more happy at this time on +that account; for I would, if possible, or in my power, have no +man near the prince who can have the smallest impeachment as to +character; for as an individual, I love him, as a prince, I +honour and revere him. My telling you this history is as to +myself; my thoughts on all subjects are open to you. We shall +certainly go to Barbadoes from this island, and when I shall see +you is not possible for me to guess, so much for marrying a +sailor. We are often separated, but I trust our affections are +not by any means on that account diminished. Our country has the +first demand for our services; and private convenience or +happiness must ever give way to the public good. Give my love to +Josiah. Heaven bless and return you safe to your most +affectionate</p></div> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p>The attachment here professed for the prince seems to have been caused +not less by the loyalty of Nelson's nature than by the real good +qualities of the sailor king. It is probable he tried to form himself +(professionally) on the model of his young commodore, and a better +original it was impossible for him to study. A certain young +lieutenant, of the name of Schomberg, conceiving that he was +injuriously treated in an order of the day, issued by his Royal +Highness on board the Pegasus, applied to Nelson for a court-martial +to enquire into the charge alleged against him. Nelson granted the +court-martial, and placed the complainant in arrest till a sufficient +number could be collected for his trial, and expressed his opinion of +such frivolous applications in the following general order:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"By Horatio Nelson, Esquire, Captain of his Majesty's ship Boreas.</p> + +<p>"For the better maintaining discipline and good government in the +king's squadron under my command.</p> + +<p>"I think it necessary to inform t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_784" id="Page_784">[Pg 784]</a></span>he officers, that if any one of +them shall presume to write to the commander of the squadron +(unless there shall be ships enough present to bring them to +immediate trial) for a court-martial to investigate their +conduct, on a frivolous pretence, thereby depriving his majesty +of their services by obliging the commander of the squadron to +confine them, that I shall and do consider such conduct as a +direct breach of the 14th and part of the 19th articles of war, +and shall order them to be tried for the same.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Given under my hand, &c.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</span><br /> +</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>This probably had the desired effect, and the business was afterwards +adjusted without having recourse to a court-martial, though not +without bringing upon Nelson a rap over the knuckles on his return to +England. In order to obtain the proper court, he had directed the +prince to take his ship to the Jamaica station on his way to Halifax +in Nova Scotia, and the following paragraph contains their lordships' +decision:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My lords are not satisfied with the reasons you have given for +altering the destination of the Pegasus, and for sending the +Rattler sloop to Jamaica; and that, for having taken upon you to +send the latter away from the station to which their lordships +had appointed her, you will be answerable for the consequence, if +the crown should be put to any needless expense upon that +account."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>We must close this account of the frivolous court-martial with an +admirable letter from Nelson to the prince.</p> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"Portsmouth <i>27th July, 1787</i>.</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"If to be truly great is to be truly good, (as we are taught to +believe,) it never was stronger verified than in your Royal +Highness in the instance of Mr Schomberg. You have supported your +character, yet, at the same time, by an amiable condescension, +have saved an officer from appearing before a court-martial, +which ever must hurt him. Resentment, I know, your Royal highness +never had, or, I am sure, ever will bear any one. It is a passion +incompatible with the character of a man of honour. Schomberg was +too hasty, certainly, in writing his letter, but now you are +parted, pardon me, my prince, when I presume to recommend that +Schomberg may stand in your royal favour as if he had never +sailed with you; and that, at some future day, you will serve +him. There only wants this to place your character in the highest +point of view. None of us are without failings. Schomberg's was +being rather too hasty; but that, put in competition with his +being a good officer, will not, I am bold to say, be taken in the +scale against him."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>There is one characteristic circumstance in this collection, namely, +the number of letters written by Nelson in recommendation of all who +have behaved well under his command. He was desirous of acting to +others as, he boasts in one of his letters with pride and exultation, +he had been treated by Lord Howe. "You ask, by what interest did I get +a ship? I answer, having served with credit, was my recommendation to +Lord Howe, first lord of the admiralty."</p> + +<p>The following is an application on behalf of a certain boatswain +called Joseph King, which we quote on account of the extraordinary +politeness,—owing, perhaps, to his study at St Omer—with which +Nelson designates his <i>protégé</i>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">To Philip Stephens, Esq., Admiralty</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="right">"Boreas, <i>21st Sept. 1787</i>.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p>"On the 20th, Charles Green, late acting boatswain, was entered +as boatswain of his majesty's ship under my command, agreeable to +a warrant dated at the Navy Pay-office, the 13th instant. I am, +therefore, requested by Joseph King, to write to their lordships, +to request they will be pleased to appoint him to some other +ship, as he hopes he has done nothing deserving of being +superseded; and I beg leave to recommend him as a most excellent +<i>gentleman</i>.—I am, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p>Whether this application was successful or not, even the industry of +the editor has not discovered, but we fear that, at this point of his +history, Nelson's recommendation was of no great weight with the +Admiralty. His biographers, indeed, Clarke and M'Arthur, say, that at +this time the treatment he received disgusted him with his +profession, and that he had even determined never to set his foot +again on board a king's ship, but resign his commission at once. But +Sir Harris Nicolas very justly is sceptical as to the truth of this +anecdote, fro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_785" id="Page_785">[Pg 785]</a></span>m the fact, that there is no allusion to any intention of +the kind in his correspondence. And from what we see of his +disposition in all his letters, we feel assured that a thought of +leaving the navy never entered his mind, and that he would have +considered the withdrawal of his services as little short of treason. +But there occurred now a long interval of idleness, or at least of +life ashore. The Boreas was paid off in December 1787, and he was only +appointed to the Agamemnon in January 1793.</p> + +<p>The four years of peace passed happily away, principally at Burnham +with his father; and there is little to quote till we find him on his +own element again. He writes to Hercules Ross, a West India merchant, +with whom he had formed a steady friendship while on that station; and +we adduce the passage as a further corroboration of Sir Harris +Nicolas's doubts about the authenticity of Clarke and M'Arthur's +anecdote.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"You have given up all the toils and anxieties of business, +whilst I must still buffet the waves—in search of what? That +thing called honour, is now, alas, thought of no more. My +integrity cannot be mended, I hope; but my fortune, God knows, +has grown worse for the service. So much for serving my country. +But the devil, ever willing to tempt the virtuous, (pardon this +flattery of myself,) has made me offer, if any ships should be +sent to destroy his majesty of Morocco's ports, to be there; and +I have some reason to think that, should any more come of it, my +humble services will be accepted. I have invariably laid down, +and followed close, a plan of what ought to be uppermost in the +breast of an officer; that it is much better to serve an +ungrateful country, than to give up his own fame. Posterity will +do him justice; a uniform conduct of honour and integrity seldom +fails of bringing a man to the goal of fame at last."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>But in spite of the coolness of the jacks-in-office, and the cold +shoulder they turned to the little troublesome captain in the time of +peace, no sooner were we likely to come to loggerheads with the +French, than they turned their eyes to the quiet Norfolk parsonage, +and made the <i>amende</i> to the <i>iracundus Achilles</i>.</p> + +<p>War with France was declared on the 11th of February 1793, and on the +7th of January, Nelson writes as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class="smcap">To Mrs Nelson</span>.</span></p> + +<p>"<i>Post nubila Phœbus.</i> After clouds comes sunshine. The +Admiralty so smile on me, that really I am as much surprised as +when they frowned. Lord Chatham yesterday made many apologies for +not having given me a ship before this time, and said, that if I +chose to take a sixty-four to begin with, I should be appointed +to one as soon as she was ready, and whenever it was in his +power, I should be removed into a seventy-four. Every thing +indicated war. One of our ships looking into Brest, has been +fired into; the shot is now at the Admiralty. You will send my +father this news, which I am sure will please him.—Love to +Josiah, and believe me, your most affectionate</p></div> + +<div class="rightbl"><p>"<span class="smcap">Horatio Nelson</span>."</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p> </p> +<p>The appointment of Nelson to the Agamemnon, a name which he did nearly +as much to immortalize as Homer, is the great epoch of his +professional life. But though his letters, which now rise to the rank +of despatches, become more interesting to those who watch his progress +as an officer, there are comparatively fewer which let us into the +character of the man. Besides this, the incidents of his career after +this time are so well known, that little new can be expected. What +novelty, however, there was to be obtained has not escaped the +research of the editor, from whom (till we meet him in another volume, +when Nelson will again become interesting in his individual capacity, +as his secret and confidential letters in the Carraccioli and Lady +Hamilton's period, come to be laid before us) we part with feelings of +gratitude and respect.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_786" id="Page_786">[Pg 786]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="GUIZOT" id="GUIZOT"></a>GUIZOT.</h2> + + +<p>Machiavel was the first historian who seems to have formed a +conception of the philosophy of history. Before his time, the +narrative of human events was little more than a series of +biographies, imperfectly connected together by a few slight sketches +of the empires on which the actions of their heroes were exerted. In +this style of history, the ancient writers were, and to the end of +time probably will continue to be, altogether inimitable. Their skill +in narrating a story, in developing the events of a life, in tracing +the fortunes of a city or a state, as they were raised by a succession +of illustrious patriots, or sunk by a series of oppressive tyrants, +has never been approached in modern times. The histories of Xenophon +and Thucydides, of Livy and Sallust, of Cæsar and Tacitus, are all +more or less formed on this model; and the more extended view of +history, as embracing an account of the countries the transactions of +which were narrated, originally formed, and to a great part executed, +by the father of history, Herodotus, appears to have been, in an +unaccountable manner, lost by his successors.</p> + +<p>In these immortal works, however, human transactions are uniformly +regarded as they have been affected by, or called forth the agency of, +individual men. We are never presented with the view of society <i>in a +mass</i>; as influenced by a series of causes and effects independent of +the agency of individual man—or, to speak more correctly, in the +development of which the agency is an unconscious, and often almost a +passive, instrument. Constantly regarding history as an extensive +species of biography, they not only did not withdraw the eye to the +distance necessary to obtain such a general view of the progress of +things, but they did the reverse. Their great object was to bring the +eye so close as to see the whole virtues or vices of the principal +figures, which they exhibited on their moving panorama; and in so +doing they rendered it incapable of perceiving, at the same time, the +movement of the whole social body of which they formed a part. Even +Livy, in his pictured narrative of Roman victories, is essentially +biographical. His inimitable work owes its enduring celebrity to the +charming episodes of individuals, or graphic pictures of particular +events with which it abounds; scarce any general views on the progress +of society, or the causes to which its astonishing progress in the +Roman state was owing, are to be found. In the introduction to the +life of Catiline, Sallust has given, with unequalled power, a sketch +of the causes which corrupted the republic; and if his work had been +pursued in the same style, it would indeed have been a philosophical +history. But neither the Catiline nor the Jugurthine war are +histories; they are chapters of history, containing two interesting +biographies. Scattered through the writings of Tacitus, are to be +found numerous caustic and profound observations on human nature, and +the increasing vices and selfishness of a corrupted age: but, like the +maxims of Rochefoucault, it is to individual, not general, humanity +that they refer; and they strike us as so admirably just because they +do not describe general causes operating upon society as a body—which +often make little impression save on a few reflecting minds—but +strike direct to the human heart in a way which comes home to the +breast of every individual who reads them.</p> + +<p>Never was a juster observation than that the human mind is never +quiescent; it may not give the external symptoms of action, but it +does not cease to have the internal action: it sleeps, but even then +it dreams. Writers innumerable have declaimed on the night of the +Middle Ages—on the deluge of barbarism which, under the Goths, +flooded the world—on the torpor of the human mind, under the combined +pressure of savage violence and priestly superstition; yet this was +precisely the period when the minds of men, deprived of external vent, +turned inwards on themselves; and that the learned and thoughtful, +shut out from any active part in society by the general prevalence of +military violence, sought, in the solitude of the cloister, employment +in reflecting on the mind itself, and the general causes which, under +its guidance, operated upon society. The influence of this great +chan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_787" id="Page_787">[Pg 787]</a></span>ge in the direction of thought at once appeared when knowledge, +liberated from the cloister and the university, again took its place +among the affairs of men. Machiavel in Italy, and Bacon in England, +for the first time in the annals of knowledge, reasoned upon human +affairs <i>as a science</i>. They spoke of the minds of men as permanently +governed by certain causes, and of known principles, always leading to +the same results; they treated of politics as a science in which +certain known laws existed, and could be discovered, as in mechanics +and hydraulics. This was a great step in advance, and demonstrated +that the superior age of the world, and the wide sphere to which +political observation had now been applied, had permitted the +accumulation of such an increased store of facts, as permitted +deductions, founded on experience, to be formed in regard to the +affairs of nations. Still more, it showed that the attention of +writers had been drawn to the general causes of human affairs; that +they reasoned on the actions of men as a subject of abstract thought; +regarded effects formerly produced as <i>likely to recur</i> from a similar +combination of circumstances; and formed conclusions for the +regulation of future conduct, from the results of past experience. +This tendency is, in an especial manner, conspicuous in the <i>Discorsi</i> +of Machiavel, where certain general propositions are stated, deduced, +indeed, from the events of Roman story, but announced as lasting +truths, applicable to every future generation and circumstances of +men. In depth of view and justness of observation, these views of the +Florentine statesman never were surpassed. Bacon's essays relate, for +the most part, to subjects of morals, or domestic and private life; +but not unfrequently he touches on the general concerns of nations, +and with the same profound observation of the past, and philosophic +anticipation of the future.</p> + +<p>Voltaire professed to elevate history in France from the <i>jejune</i> and +trifling details of genealogy, courts, wars, and negotiations, in +which it had hitherto, in his country, been involved, to the more +general contemplation of arts and philosophy, and the progress of +human affairs; and, in some respects, he certainly effected a great +reformation on the ponderous annalists who had preceded him. But the +foundation of his history was still biography; he regarded human +events only as they were grouped round two or three great men, or as +they were influenced by the speculations of men of letters and +science. The history of France he stigmatized as savage and worthless +till the reign of Louis XIV.; the Russians he looked upon as bitter +barbarians till the time of Peter the Great. He thought the +philosophers alone all in all; till they arose, and a sovereign +appeared, who collected them round his throne, and shed on them the +rays of royal favour, human events were not worth narrating; they were +merely the contests of one set of savages plundering another. +Religion, in his eyes, was a mere priestly delusion to enslave and +benighten mankind; from its oppression the greatest miseries of modern +times had flowed; the first step in the emancipation of the human mind +was to chase for ever from the earth those sacerdotal tyrants. The +most free-thinking historian will now admit, that these views are +essentially erroneous; he will allow that, viewing Christianity merely +as a human institution, its effect in restraining the violence of +feudal anarchy was incalculable; long anterior to the date of the +philosophers, he will look for the broad foundation on which national +character and institutions, for good or for evil, have been formed. +Voltaire was of great service to history, by turning it from courts +and camps to the progress of literature, science, and the arts—to the +delineation of manners, and the preparation of anecdotes descriptive +of character; but, notwithstanding all his talent, he never got a +glimpse of the general causes which influence society. He gave us the +history of philosophy, but not the philosophy of history.</p> + +<p>The ardent genius and pictorial eye <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_788" id="Page_788">[Pg 788]</a></span>of Gibbon rendered him an +incomparable delineator of events; and his powerful mind made him +seize the <i>general</i> and characteristic features of society and +manners, as they appear in different parts of the world, as well as +the traits of individual greatness. His descriptions of the Roman +empire in the zenith of its power, as it existed in the time of +Augustus—of its decline and long-protracted old age, under +Constantine and his successors on the Byzantine throne—of the manners +of the pastoral nations, who, under different names, and for a +succession of ages, pressed upon and at last overturned the empire—of +the Saracens, who, issuing from the lands of Arabia, with the Koran in +one hand and the cimeter in the other, urged on their resistless +course, till they were arrested by the Atlantic on the one side, and +the Indian ocean on the other—of the stern crusaders, who, nursed +amid the cloistered shades and castellated realms of Europe, struggled +with that devastating horde "when 'twas strongest, and ruled it when +'twas wildest"—of the long agony, silent decay, and ultimate +resurrection of the Eternal City—are so many immortal pictures, +which, to the end of the world, will fascinate every ardent and +imaginative mind. But, not withstanding this incomparable talent for +general and characteristic description, he had not the mind necessary +for a philosophical analysis of the series of causes which influence +human events. He viewed religion with a jaundiced and prejudiced +eye—the fatal bequest of his age and French education, unworthy alike +of his native candour and inherent strength of understanding. He had +profound philosophic ideas, and occasionally let them out with +admirable effect; but the turn of his mind was essentially +descriptive, and his powers were such, in that brilliant department, +that they wiled him from the less inviting contemplation of general +causes. We turn over his fascinating pages without ever wearying; but +without ever discovering the general progress or apparent tendency of +human affairs. We look in vain for the profound reflections of +Machiavel on the permanent results of certain political combinations +or experiments. He has led us through a "mighty maze;" but he has made +no attempt to show it "not without a plan."</p> + +<p>Hume is commonly called a philosophical historian, and so he is; but +he has even less than Gibbon the power of unfolding the general causes +which influence the progress of human events. He was not, properly +speaking, a philosophic historian, but a philosopher writing +history—and these are very different things. The practical statesman +will often make a better delineator of the progress of human affairs +than the philosophic recluse; for he is more practically acquainted +with their secret Springs: it was not in the schools, but the forum or +the palace, that Sallust, Tacitus, and Burke acquired their deep +insight into the human heart. Hume was gifted with admirable sagacity +in political economy; and it is the good sense and depth of his views +on that important subject, then for the first time brought to bear on +the annals of man, that has chiefly gained for him, and with justice, +the character of a philosophic historian. To this may be added the +admirable clearness and rhetorical powers with which he has stated the +principal arguments for and against the great changes in the English +institutions which it fell to his lot to recount—arguments far abler +than were either used by, or occurred to, the actors by whom they were +brought about; for it is seldom that a Hume is found in the councils +of men. With equal ability, too, he has given periodical sketches of +manners, customs, and habits, mingled with valuable details on +finance, commerce, and prices—all elements, and most important ones, +in the formation of philosophical history. We owe a deep debt of +gratitude to the man who has rescued these important facts from the +ponderous folios where they were slumbering in forgotten obscurity, +and brought them into the broad light of philosophic observation and +popular narrative. But, notwithstanding all this, Hume is far from +being gifted with the philosophy of history. He has collected or +prepared many of the facts necessary for the science, but he has made +little progress in it himself. He was essentially a sceptic. He aimed +rather at spreading doubts than shedding light. Like Voltaire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_789" id="Page_789">[Pg 789]</a></span> and +Gibbon, he was scandalously prejudiced and unjust on the subject of +religion; and to write modern history without correct views on that +subject, is like playing Hamlet without the character of the Prince of +Denmark. He was too indolent to acquire the vast store of facts +indispensable for correct generalization on the varied theatre of +human affairs, and often drew hasty and incorrect conclusions from the +events which particularly came under his observation. Thus the +repeated indecisive battles between the fleets of Charles II. and the +Dutch, drew from him the observation, apparently justified by their +results, that sea-fights are seldom so important or decisive as those +at land. The fact is just the reverse. Witness the battle of Salamis, +which repelled from Europe the tide of Persian invasion; that of +Actium, which gave a master to the Roman world; that of Sluys, which +exposed France to the dreadful English invasions, begun under Edward +III.; that of Lepanto, which rolled back from Christendom the wave of +Mahometan conquest; the defeat of the Armada, which permanently +established the Reformation in Northern Europe; that of La Hogue, +which broke the maritime strength of Louis XIV.; that of Trafalgar, +which for ever took "ships, colonies, and commerce" from Napoleon, and +spread them with the British colonial empire over half the globe.</p> + +<p>Montesquieu owes his colossal reputation chiefly to his <i>Esprit des +Loix</i>; but the <i>Grandeur et Decadence des Romains</i> is by much the +greater work. It has never attained nearly the reputation in this +country which it deserves, either in consequence of the English mind +being less partial than the French to the philosophy of human affairs, +or, as is more probable, from the system of education at our +universities being so exclusively devoted to the study of words, that +our scholars never arrive at the knowledge of things. It is impossible +to imagine a work in which the philosophy of history is more ably +condensed, or where there is exhibited, in a short space, a more +profound view of the general causes to which the long-continued +greatness and ultimate decline of that celebrated people were owing. +It is to be regretted only that he did not come to modern times and +other ages with the same masterly survey; the information collected in +the <i>Esprit des Loix</i> would have furnished him with ample materials +for such a work. In that noble treatise, the same philosophic and +generalizing spirit is conspicuous; but there is too great a love of +system, an obvious partiality for fanciful analogies, and, not +unfrequently, conclusions hastily deduced from insufficient data. +These errors, the natural result of a philosophic and profound mind +wandering without a guide in the mighty maze of human transactions, +are entirely avoided in the <i>Grandeur et Decadence des Romains</i>, where +he was retained by authentic history to a known train of events, and +where his imaginative spirit and marked turn for generalization found +sufficient scope, and no more, to produce the most perfect commentary +on the annals of a single people of which the human mind can boast.</p> + +<p>Bossuet, in his <i>Universal History</i>, aimed at a higher object; he +professed to give nothing less than a development of the plan of +Providence in the government of human affairs, during the whole of +antiquity, and down to the reign of Charlemagne. The idea was +magnificent, and the mental powers, as well as eloquence, of the +Bishop of Meaux promised the greatest results from such an +undertaking. But the execution has by no means corresponded to the +conception. Voltaire has said, that he professed to give a view of +universal history, and he has only given the history of the Jews; and +there is too much truth in the observation. He never got out of the +fetters of his ecclesiastical education; the Jews were the centre +round which he supposed all other nations revolved. His mind was +polemical, not philosophic; a great theologian, he was but an +indifferent historian. In one particular, indeed, his observations are +admirable, and, at times, in the highest degree impressive. He never +loses sight of the divine superintendence of human affairs; he sees in +all the revolutions of empires the progress of a mighty plan for the +ultimate redemp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_790" id="Page_790">[Pg 790]</a></span>tion of mankind; and he traces the workings of this +superintending power in all the transactions of man. But it may be +doubted whether he took the correct view of this sublime but +mysterious subject. He supposes the divine agency to influence +<i>directly</i> the affairs of men—not through the medium of general laws, +or the adaptation of our active propensities to the varying +circumstances of our condition. Hence his views strike at the freedom +of human actions; he makes men and nations little more than the +puppets by which the Deity works out the great drama of human affairs. +Without disputing the reality of such immediate agency in some +particular cases, it may safely be affirmed, that by far the greater +part of the affairs of men are left entirely to their own guidance, +and that their actions are overruled, not directed, by Almighty power +to work out the purposes of Divine beneficence.</p> + +<p>That which Bossuet left undone, Robertson did. The first volume of his +Charles V. may justly be regarded as the greatest step which the human +mind had yet made in the philosophy of history. Extending his views +beyond the admirable survey which Montesquieu had given of the rise +and decline of the Roman empire, he aimed at giving a view of the +<i>progress of society</i> in modern times. This matter, of the progress of +society, was a favourite subject at that period with political +philosophers; and by combining the speculations of these ingenious men +with the solid basis of facts which his erudition and industry had +worked out, Robertson succeeded in producing the most luminous, and at +the same time just, view of the progress of nations that had yet been +exhibited among mankind. The philosophy of history here appeared in +its full lustre. Men and nations were exhibited in their just +proportions. Society was viewed, not only in its details, but its +masses; the <i>general causes</i> which influence its progress, running +into or mutually affecting each other, and yet all conspiring with +more or less efficacy to bring about a general result, were exhibited +in the most lucid and masterly manner. The great causes which have +contributed to form the elements of modern society—the decaying +civilization of Rome—the irruption of the northern nations—the +prostration and degradation of the conquered people—the revival of +the military spirit with the private wars of the nobles—the feudal +system and institution of chivalry—the crusades, and revival of +letters following the capture of Constantinople by the Turks—the +invention of printing, and consequent extension of knowledge to the +great body of the people—the discovery of the compass, and, with it, +of America, by Columbus, and doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by +Vasco de Gama—the discovery of gunpowder, and prodigious change +thereby effected in the implements of human destruction—are all there +treated in the most luminous manner, and, in general, with the justest +discrimination. The vast agency of general causes upon the progress of +mankind now became apparent: unseen powers, like the deities of Homer +in the war of Troy, were seen to mingle at every stop with the tide of +sublunary affairs; and so powerful and irresistible does their agency, +when once revealed, appear, that we are perhaps now likely to fall +into the opposite extreme, and to ascribe too little to individual +effort or character. Men and nations seem to be alike borne forward on +the surface of a mighty stream, which they are equally incapable of +arresting or directing; and, after surveying the vain and impotent +attempts of individuals to extricate themselves from the current, we +are apt to exclaim with the philosopher,[<a href="#f16">16</a><a name="f16.1" id="f16.1"></a>] "He has dashed with his +oar to hasten the cataract; he has waved with his fan to give speed to +the winds."</p> + +<p>A nearer examination, however, will convince every candid enquirer, +that individual character exercises, if not a paramount, yet a very +powerful influence on human affairs. Whoever investigates minutely any +period of history will find, on the one hand, that general causes +affecting the whole of society are in constant operation;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_791" id="Page_791">[Pg 791]</a></span> and on the +other, that these general causes themselves are often set in motion, +or directed in their effects, by particular men. Thus, of what +efficacy were the constancy of Pitt, the foresight of Burke, the arm +of Nelson, the wisdom of Wellington, the genius of Wellesley, in +bringing to maturity the British empire, and spreading the Anglo-Saxon +race, in pursuance of its appointed mission, over half the globe! What +marvellous effect had the heroism and skill of Robert Bruce upon the +subsequent history of Scotland, and, through it, on the fortunes of +the British race! Thus biography, or the deeds or thoughts of +illustrious men, still forms a most important, and certainly the most +interesting, part even of general history; and the perfection of that +noble art consists, not in the exclusive delineation of individual +achievement, or the concentration of attention on general causes, but +in the union of the two in due proportions, as they really exist in +nature, and determine, by their combined operation, the direction of +human affairs. The talent now required in the historian partakes, +accordingly, of this two-fold character. He is expected to write +philosophy and biography: skill in drawing individual character, the +power of describing individual achievements, with a clear perception +of general causes, and the generalizing faculty of enlarged +philosophy. He must combine in his mind the powers of the microscope +and the telescope; be ready, like the steam-engine, at one time to +twist a fibre, at another to propel an hundred-gun ship. Hence the +rarity of eminence in this branch of knowledge; and if we could +conceive a writer who, to the ardent genius and descriptive powers of +Gibbon, should unite the lucid glance and just discrimination of +Robertson, and the calm sense and reasoning powers of Hume, he would +form a more perfect historian than ever has, or probably ever will +appear upon earth.</p> + +<p>With all his generalizing powers, however, Robertson fell into one +defect—or rather, he was unable, in one respect, to extricate himself +from the prejudices of his age and profession. He was not a +freethinker—on the contrary, he was a sincere and pious divine; but +he lived in an age of freethinkers—they had the chief influence in +the formation of a writer's fame; and he was too desirous of literary +reputation to incur the hazard of ridicule or contempt, by assigning +too prominent a place to the obnoxious topic. Thence he has ascribed +far too little influence to Christianity, in restraining the ferocity +of savage manners, preserving alive the remains of ancient knowledge, +and laying in general freedom the broad and deep foundations of +European society. He has not overlooked these topics, but he has not +given them their due place, nor assigned them their proper weight. He +lived and died in comparative retirement; and he was never able to +shake himself free from the prejudices of his country and education, +on the subject of Romish religion. Not that he exaggerated the abuses +and enormities of the Roman Catholic superstition which brought about +the Reformation, nor the vast benefits which Luther conferred upon +mankind by bringing them to light; both were so great, that they +hardly admitted of exaggeration. His error—and, in the delineation of +the progress of society in modern Europe, it was a very great +one—consisted in overlooking the beneficial effect of that very +superstition, then so pernicious, in a <i>prior age of the world</i>, when +violence was universal, crime prevalent alike in high and low places, +and government impotent to check either the tyranny of the great or +the madness of the people. Then it was that superstition was the +greatest blessing which Providence, in mercy, could bestow on mankind; +for it effected what the wisdom of the learned or the efforts of the +active were alike unable to effect; it restrained the violence by +imaginary, which was inaccessible to the force of real, terrors; and +spread that protection under the shadow of the Cross, which could +never have been obtained by the power of the sword. Robertson was +wholly insensible to these early and inestimable blessings of the +Christian faith; he has admirably delineated the beneficial influence +of the Crusades upon subsequent society, but on this all-important +topic he is silent. Yet, whoever has studied the condition of +European<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_792" id="Page_792">[Pg 792]</a></span> society in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, as it +has since been developed in the admirable works of Sismondi, Thierry, +Michelet, and Guizot, must be aware that the services, not merely of +Christianity, but of the superstitions which had usurped its place, +were, during that long period, incalculable; and that, but for them, +European society would infallibly have sunk, as Asiatic in every age +has done, beneath the desolating sword of barbarian power.</p> + +<p>Sismondi—if the magnitude, and in many respects the merit, of his +works be considered—must be regarded as one of the greatest +historians of modern times. His "History of the Italian Republics" in +sixteen, of the "Monarchy of France" in thirty volumes, attest the +variety and extent of his antiquarian researches, as well as the +indefatigable industry of his pen: his "Literature of the South of +Europe" in four, and "Miscellaneous Essays" in three volumes, show how +happily he has blended these weighty investigations with the lighter +topics of literature and poetry, and the political philosophy which, +in recent times, has come to occupy so large a place in the study of +all who have turned their mind to the progress of human affairs. Nor +is the least part of his merit to be found in the admirable skill with +which he has condensed, each in two volumes, his great histories, for +the benefit of that numerous class of readers who, unable or unwilling +to face the formidable undertaking of going through his great +histories, are desirous of obtaining such a brief summary of their +leading events as may suffice for persons of ordinary perseverance or +education. His mind was essentially philosophical; and it is the +philosophy of modern history, accordingly, which he has exerted +himself so strenuously to unfold. He views society at a distance, and +exhibits its great changes in their just proportions, and, in general, +with their true effects. His success in this arduous undertaking has +been great indeed. He has completed the picture of which Robertson had +only formed the sketch—and completed it with such a prodigious +collection of materials, and so lucid an arrangement of them in their +appropriate places, as to have left future ages little to do but draw +the just conclusions from the results of his labours.</p> + +<p>With all these merits, and they are great, and with this rare +combination of antiquarian industry with philosophic generalization, +Sismondi is far from being a perfect historian. He did well to abridge +his great works; for he will find few readers who will have +perseverance enough to go through them. An abridgement was tried of +Gibbon; but it had little success, and has never since been attempted. +You might as well publish an abridgement of Waverley or Ivanhoe. Every +reader of the <i>Decline and Fall</i> must feel that condensation is +impossible, without an omission of interest or a curtailment of +beauty. Sismondi, with all his admirable qualities as a general and +philosophic historian, wants the one thing needful in exciting +interest—descriptive and dramatic power. He was a man of great vigour +of thought and clearness of observation, but little genius—at least +of that kind of genius which is necessary to move the feelings or warm +the imagination. That was his principal defect; and it will prevent +his great works from ever commanding the attention of a numerous body +of general readers, however much they may be esteemed by the learned +and studious. Conscious of this deficiency, he makes scarce any +attempt to make his narrative interesting; but, reserving his whole +strength for general views on the progress of society, or philosophic +observations on its most important changes, he fills up the +intermediate space with long quotations from chronicles, memoirs, and +state papers—a sure way, if the selection is not made with great +judgment, of rendering the whole insupportably tedious. Every +narrative, to be interesting, should be given in the writer's <i>own +words</i>, unless on those occasions, by no means frequent, when some +striking or remarkable expressions of a speaker, or contemporary +writer, are to be preserved. Unity of style and expression is as +indispensable in a history which is to move the heart, or fascinate +the imagination, as in a tragedy, a painting, or an epic poem.</p> + +<p>But, in addition to this, Sismondi's general views, though ordinarily +just, and always expressed with clearness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_793" id="Page_793">[Pg 793]</a></span> and precision, are not +always to be taken without examination. Like Robertson, he was never +able to extricate himself entirely from the early prejudices of his +country and education; hardly any of the Geneva school of philosophers +have been able to do so. Brought up in that learned and able, but +narrow, and in some respects bigoted community, he was early engaged +in the vast undertaking of the History of the Italian Republics. Thus, +before he was well aware of it, and at a time of life, when the +opinions are flexible, and easily moulded by external impressions, he +became irrevocably enamoured of such little communities as he had +lived in, or was describing, and imbibed all the prejudices against +the Church of Rome, which have naturally, from close proximity, and +the endurance of unutterable evils at its hands, been ever prevalent +among the Calvinists of Geneva. These causes have tinged his otherwise +impartial views with two signal prejudices, which appear in all his +writings where these subjects are even remotely alluded to. His +partiality for municipal institutions, and the social system depending +on them, is as extravagant, as his aversion to the Church of Rome is +conspicuous and intemperate. His idea of a perfect society would be a +confederacy of little republics, governed by popularly elected +magistrates, holding the scarlet old lady of Rome in utter +abomination, and governed in matters of religion by the Presbyterian +forms, and the tenets of Calvin. It is not to be wondered at, that the +annalist of the countries of Tasso and Dante, of Titian and Machiavel, +of Petrarch and Leonardo da Vinci, of Galileo and Michael Angelo, +should conceive, that in no other state of society is such scope +afforded for mental cultivation and the development of the highest +efforts of genius. Still less is it surprising, that the historian of +the crusade against the Albigenses, of the unheard-of atrocities of +Simon de Montfort, of the wholesale massacres, burnings, and +torturings, which have brought such indelible disgrace on the Roman +priesthood, should feel deeply interested in a faith which has +extricated his own country from the abominable persecution. But still, +this indulgence of these natural, and in some respects praiseworthy, +feelings, has blinded Sismondi to the insurmountable evils of a +confederacy of small republics at this time, amidst surrounding, +powerful, and monarchical states; and to the inappreciable blessings +of the Christian faith, and even of the Romish superstition, before +the period when these infamous cruelties began, when their warfare was +only with the oppressor, their struggles with the destroyers of the +human race.</p> + +<p>But truth is great, and will prevail. Those just views of modern +society, which neither the luminous eye of Robertson, nor the learned +research and philosophic mind of Sismondi could reach, have been +brought forward by a writer of surpassing ability, whose fame as an +historian and a philosopher is for the time overshadowed by the more +fleeting celebrity of the statesman and the politician. We will not +speak of M. GUIZOT in the latter character, much as we are tempted to +do so, by the high and honourable part which he has long borne in +European diplomacy, and the signal ability with which, in the midst of +a short-sighted and rebellious generation, clamouring, as the Romans +of old, for the <i>multis utile bellum</i>, he has sustained his +sovereign's wise and magnanimous resolution to maintain peace. We are +too near the time to appreciate the magnitude of these blessings; men +would not now believe through what a crisis the British empire, +unconscious of its danger, passed, when M. Thiers was dismissed, three +years and a half ago, by Louis Philippe, and M. Guizot called to the +helm. But when the time arrives, as arrive it will, that the +diplomatic secrets of that period are brought to light; when the +instructions of the revolutionary minister to the admiral of the +Toulon fleet are made known, and the marvellous chance which prevented +their being acted upon by him, has become matter of history; it will +be admitted, that the civilized world have good cause to thank M. +Guizot for saving it from a contest as vehement, as perilous, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_794" id="Page_794">[Pg 794]</a></span> +probably as disastrous to all concerned, as that which followed the +French Revolution.</p> + +<p>Our present business is with M. Guizot as a historian and philosopher; +a character in which he will be remembered, long after his services to +humanity as a statesman and a minister have ceased to attract the +attention of men. In those respects, we place him in the very highest +rank among the writers of modern Europe. It must be understood, +however, in what his greatness consists, lest the readers, expecting +what they will not find, experience disappointment, when they begin +the study of his works. He is neither imaginative nor pictorial; he +seldom aims at the pathetic, and has little eloquence. He is not a +Livy nor a Gibbon. Nature has not given him either dramatic or +descriptive powers. He is a man of the highest genius; but it consists +not in narrating particular events, or describing individual +achievement. It is in the discovery of general causes; in tracing the +operation of changes in society, which escape ordinary observation: in +seeing whence man has come, and whether he is going, that his +greatness consists: and in that loftiest of the regions of history, he +is unrivaled. We know of no author who has traced the changes of +society, and the general causes which determine the fate of nations, +with such just views and so much sagacious discrimination. He is not +properly speaking, an historian; his vocation and object were +different. He is a great discourser on history. If ever the philosophy +of history was embodied in a human being, it is in M. Guizot.</p> + +<p>The style of this great author is, in every respect, suited to his +subject. He does not aim at the highest flights of fancy; makes no +attempt to warm the soul or melt the feelings; is seldom imaginative, +and never descriptive. But he is uniformly lucid, sagacious, and +discriminating; deduces his conclusions with admirable clearness from +his premises, and occasionally warms from the innate grandeur of his +subject into a glow of fervent eloquence. He seems to treat of human +affairs, as if he viewed them from a loftier sphere than other men; as +if he were elevated above the usual struggles and contests of +humanity; and a superior power had withdrawn the veil which shrouds +their secret causes and course from the gaze of sublunary beings. He +cares not to dive into the secrets of cabinets; attaches little, +perhaps too little, importance to individual character; but fixes his +steady gaze on the great and lasting causes which, in a durable +manner, influence human affairs. He views them not from year to year +but from century to century; and, when considered in that view, it is +astonishing how much the importance of individual agency disappears. +Important in their generation—sometimes almost omnipotent for good or +for evil while they live—particular men, how great soever, rarely +leave any very important consequences behind them; or at least rarely +do what other men might not have done as effectually as them, and +which was not already determined by the tendency of the human mind, +and the tide, either of flow or ebb, by which human affairs were at +the time wafted to and fro. The desperate struggles of war or of +ambition in which they were engaged, and in which so much genius and +capacity were exerted, are swept over by the flood of time, and seldom +leave any lasting trace behind. It is the men who determine the +direction of this tide, who imprint their character on general +thought, who are the real directors of human affairs; it is the giants +of thought who, in the end, govern the world—kings and ministers, +princes and generals, warriors and legislators, are but the ministers +of their blessings or their curses to mankind. But their dominion +seldom begins till themselves are mouldering in their graves.</p> + +<p>Guizot's largest work, in point of size, is his translation of +<i>Gibbon's Rome</i>; and the just and philosophic spirit in which he +viewed he course of human affairs, was admirably calculated to provide +an antidote to the sceptical sneers which, in a writer of such genius +and strength of understanding, are at once the marvel and the disgrace +of that immortal work. He has begun also a history of the Eng<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_795" id="Page_795">[Pg 795]</a></span>lish +Revolution, to which he was led by having been the editor of a +valuable collection of Memoirs relating to the great Rebellion, +translated into French, in twenty-five volumes. But this work only got +the length of two volumes, and came no further down than the death of +Charles I., an epoch no further on in the English than the execution +of Louis in the French revolution. This history is clear, lucid, and +valuable; but it is written with little eloquence, and has met with no +great success: the author's powers were not of the dramatic or +pictorial kind necessary to paint that dreadful story. These were +editorial or industrial labours unworthy of Guizot's mind; it was when +he delivered lectures from the chair of history in Paris, that his +genius shone forth in its proper sphere and its true lustre.</p> + +<p>His <i>Civilisation en France</i>, in five volumes, <i>Civilisation +Européenne</i>, and <i>Essais sur l'Histoire de France</i>, each in one +volume, are the fruits of these professional labours. The same +profound thought, sagacious discrimination, and lucid view, are +conspicuous in them all; but they possess different degrees of +interest to the English reader. The <i>Civilisation en France</i> is the +groundwork of the whole, and it enters at large into the whole +details, historical, legal, and antiquarian, essential for its +illustration, and the proof of the various propositions which it +contains. In the <i>Civilisation Européenne</i>, and <i>Essays on the History +of France</i>, however, the general results are given with equal +clearness and greater brevity. We do not hesitate to say, that they +appear to us to throw more light on the history of society in modern +Europe, and the general progress of mankind, from the exertions of its +inhabitants, than any other works in existence; and it is of them, +especially the first, that we propose to give our readers some +account.</p> + +<p>The most important event which ever occurred in the history of +mankind, is the one concerning which contemporary writers have given +us the least satisfactory accounts. Beyond all doubt the overthrow of +Rome by the Goths was the most momentous catastrophe which has +occurred on the earth since the deluge; yet, if we examine either the +historians of antiquity or the earliest of modern times, we find it +wholly impossible to understand to what cause so great a catastrophe +had been owing. What gave, in the third and fourth centuries, so +prodigious an impulse to the northern nations, and enabled them, after +being so long repelled by the arms of Rome, finally to prevail over +it? What, still more, so completely paralysed the strength of the +empire during that period, and produced that astonishing weakness in +the ancient conquerors of the world, which rendered them the easy prey +of those whom they had so often subdued? The ancient writers content +themselves with saying, that the people became corrupted; that they +lost their military courage; that the recruiting of the legions, in +the free inhabitants of the empire, became impossible; and that the +semi-barbarous tribes on the frontier could not be relied on to uphold +its fortunes. But a very little reflection must be sufficient to show +that there must have been much more in it than this, before a race of +conquerors was converted into one of slaves; before the legions fled +before the barbarians, and the strength of the civilized was +overthrown by the energy of the savage world. For what prevented a +revenue from being raised in the third or fourth, as well as the first +or second centuries? Corruption in its worst form had doubtless +pervaded the higher ranks in Rome from the Emperor downward; but these +vices are the faults of the exalted and the affluent only; they never +have, and never will, extend generally to the great body of the +community; for this plain reason, that they are not rich enough to +purchase them. But the remarkable thing is, that in the decline of the +empire, it was in the lower ranks that the greatest and most fatal +weakness first appeared. Long before the race of the Patricians had +become extinct, the free cultivators had disappeared from the fields. +Leaders and generals of the most consummate abilities, of the greatest +daring, frequently arose; but their efforts proved in the end +ineffectual, from the impossibility of finding a sturdy race of +followers to fill their ranks. The legion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_796" id="Page_796">[Pg 796]</a></span>ary Italian soldier was +awanting—his place was imperfectly supplied by the rude Dacian, the +hardy German, the faithless Goth. So completely were the inhabitants +of the provinces within the Rhine and the Danube paralysed, that they +ceased to make any resistance to the hordes of invaders; and the +fortunes of the empire were, for several generations, sustained solely +by the heroic efforts of individual leaders—Belisarius, Narces, +Julian, Aurelian, Constantine, and many others—whose renown, though +it could not rouse the pacific inhabitants to warlike efforts, yet +attracted military adventurers from all parts of the world to their +standard. Now, what weakened and destroyed the rural population? It +could not be luxury; on the contrary, they were suffering under excess +of poverty, and bent down beneath a load of taxes, which in Gaul, in +the time of Constantine, amounted, as Gibbon tells us, to nine pounds +sterling on every freeman? What was it, then, which occasioned the +depopulation and weakness? This is what it behoves us to know—this it +is which ancient history has left unknown.</p> + +<p>It is here that the vast step in the philosophy of history made from +ancient to modern times is apparent. From a few detached hints and +insulated facts, left by the ancient annalists, apparently ignorant of +their value, and careless of their preservation, modern industry, +guided by the light of philosophy, has reared up the true solution of +the difficulty, and revealed the real causes, hidden from the ordinary +gaze, which, even in the midst of its greatest prosperity, gradually, +but certainly, undermined the strength of the empire. Michelet, in his +<i>Gaule sous les Romains</i>, a most able and interesting work—Thierry, +in his <i>Domination Romaine en Gaule</i>, and his <i>Histoire des Rois +Merovingians</i>—Sismondi, in the three first volumes of his <i>Histoire +des Français</i>—and Guizot, in his <i>Civilisation Européenne</i>, and the +first volumes of his <i>Essais sur l'Histoire de France</i>—have applied +their great powers to this most interesting subject. It may safely be +affirmed, that they have got to the bottom of the subject, and lifted +up the veil from one of the darkest, and yet most momentous, changes +in the history of mankind. Guizot gives the following account of the +principal causes which silently undermined the strength of the empire, +flowing from the peculiar organization of ancient society:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"When Rome extended, what did it do? Follow its history, and you +will find that it was everlastingly engaged in conquering or +founding cities. It was with cities that it fought—with cities +that it contracted—into cities that it sent colonies. The +history of the conquest of the world by Rome, is nothing but the +history of the conquest and foundation of a great number of +cities. In the East, the expansion of the Roman power assumed, +from the very outset, a somewhat dissimilar character; the +population was differently distributed from the West, and much +less concentrated in cities; but in the European world, the +foundation or conquest of towns was the uniform result of Roman +conquest. In Gaul and Spain, in Italy, it was constantly towns +which opposed the barrier to Roman domination, and towns which +were founded or garrisoned by the legions, or strengthened by +colonies, to retain them when vanquished in a state of +subjection. Great roads stretched from one town to another; the +multitude of cross roads which now intersect each other in every +direction, was unknown. They had nothing in common with that +multitude of little monuments, villages, churches, castles, +villas, and cottages, which now cover our provinces. Rome has +bequeathed to us nothing, either in its capital or its provinces, +but the <i>municipal character</i>, which produced immense monuments +on certain points, destined for the use of the vast population +which was there assembled together.</p> + +<p>"From this peculiar conformation of society in Europe, under the +Roman dominion, consisting of a vast conglomeration of cities, +with each a dependent territory, all independent of each other, +arose the absolute necessity for a central and absolute +government. One municipality in Rome might conquer the world: but +to retain it in subjection, and provide for the government of all +its multifarious parts, was a very different matter. This was one +of the chief causes of the general adoption of a strong +concentrated government un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_797" id="Page_797">[Pg 797]</a></span>der the empire. Such centralized +despotism not only succeeded in restraining and regulating all +the incoherent members of the vast dominion, but the idea of a +central irresistible authority insinuated itself into men's minds +every where, at the same time, with wonderful facility. At first +sight, one is astonished to see, in that prodigious and +ill-united aggregate of little republics, in that accumulation of +separate municipalities, spring up so suddenly an unbounded +respect for the sacred authority of the empire. But the truth is, +it had become a matter of absolute necessity, that the bond which +held together the different parts of this heterogeneous dominion +should be very powerful; and this it was which gave it so ready a +reception in the minds of men.</p> + +<p>"But when the vigour of the central power declined during a +course of ages, from the pressure of external warfare, and the +weakness of internal corruption, this necessity was no longer +felt. The capital ceased to be able to provide for the provinces, +it rather sought protection from them. During four centuries, the +central power of the emperors incessantly struggled against this +increasing debility; but the moment at length arrived, when all +the practised skill of despotism, over the long <i>insouciance</i> of +servitude, could no longer keep together the huge and unwieldy +body. In the fourth century, we see it at once break up and +disunite; the barbarians entered on all sides from without, the +provinces ceased to oppose any resistance from within; the cities +to evince any regard for the general welfare; and, as in the +disaster of a shipwreck, every one looked out for his individual +safety. Thus, on the dissolution of the empire, the same general +state of society presented itself as in its cradle. The imperial +authority sunk into the dust, and municipal institutions alone +survived the disaster. This, then, was the chief legacy which the +ancient bequeathed to the modern world—for it alone survived the +storm by which the former had been destroyed—cities and a +municipal organization every where established. But it was not +the only legacy. Beside it, there was the recollection at least +of the awful majesty of the emperor—of a distant, unseen, but +sacred and irresistible power. These are the two ideas which +antiquity bequeathed to modern times. On the one hand, the +municipal <i>régime</i>, its rules, customs, and principles of +liberty: on the other a common, general, civil legislation; and +the idea of absolute power, of a sacred majesty, the principle of +order and servitude."—(<i>Civilization Européenne</i>, 20, 23.)</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>The causes which produced the extraordinary, and at first sight +unaccountable, depopulation of the country districts, not only in +Italy, but in Gaul, Spain, and all the European provinces of the Roman +empire, are explained by Guizot in his <i>Essays on the History of +France</i>, and have been fully demonstrated by Sismondi, Thierry, and +Michelet. They were a natural consequence of the municipal system, +then universally established as the very basis of civilization in the +whole Roman empire, and may be seen urging, from a similar cause, the +Turkish empire to dissolution at this day. This was the imposition of +a certain fixed duty, as a burden on each municipality, to be raised, +indeed, by its own members, but admitting of no diminution, save under +the most special circumstances, and on an express exemption by the +emperor. Had the great bulk of the people been free, and the empire +prosperous, this fixity of impost would have been the greatest of all +blessings. It is the precise boon so frequently and earnestly implored +by our ryots in India, and indeed by the cultivators all over the +East. But when the empire was beset on all sides with enemies—only +the more rapacious and pressing, that the might of the legions had so +long confined them within the comparatively narrow limits of their own +sterile territories—and disasters, frequent and serious, were laying +waste the frontier provinces, it became the most dreadful of all +scourges; because, as the assessment on each district was fixed, and +scarcely ever suffered any abatement, every disaster experienced +increased the burden on the survivors who had escaped it; until they +became bent down under such a weight of taxation, as, coupled with the +small number of freemen on whom it exclusively fell, crushed every +attempt at productive industry. It was the same thing as if all the +farmers on each estate were to be bound to make up, annually, the same +amount<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_798" id="Page_798">[Pg 798]</a></span> of rent to their landlord, no matter how many of them had +become insolvent. We know how long the agriculture of Britain, in a +period of declining prices and frequent disaster, would exist under +such a system.</p> + +<p>Add to this the necessary effect which the free circulation of grain +throughout the whole Roman world had in depressing the agriculture of +Italy, Gaul, and Greece. They were unable to withstand the competition +of Egypt, Lybia, and Sicily—the storehouses of the world; where the +benignity of the climate, and the riches of the soil, rewarded seventy +or an hundred fold the labours of the husbandman. Gaul, where the +increase was only seven-fold—Italy, where it seldom exceeded +twelve—Spain, where it was never so high, were crushed in the +struggle. The mistress of the world, as Tacitus bewails, had come to +depend for her <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'subsisttence'.">subsistence</ins> on the floods of the Nile. Unable to +compete with the cheap grain raised in the more favoured regions of +the south, the cultivators of Italy and Gaul gradually retired from +the contest. They devoted their extensive estates to pasturage, +because live cattle or dairy produce could not bear the expense of +being shipped from Africa; and the race of agriculturists, the +strength of the legions, disappeared in the fields, and was lost in +the needy and indolent crowd of urban citizens, in part maintained by +tributes in corn brought from Egypt and Lybia. This augmented the +burdens upon those who remained in the rural districts; for, as the +taxes of each municipality remained the same, every one that withdrew +into the towns left an additional burden on the shoulders of his +brethren who remained behind. So powerful was the operation of these +two causes—the fixity in the state burdens payable by each +municipality, and the constantly declining prices, owing to the vast +import from agricultural regions more favoured by nature—that it +fully equaled the effect of the ravages of the barbarians in the +frontier provinces exposed to their incursions; and the depopulation +of the rural districts was as complete in Italy and Gaul, before a +barbarian had passed the Alps or set his foot across the Rhine, as in +the plains between the Alps or the Adriatic and the Danube, which had +for long been ravaged by their arms.</p> + +<p>Domestic slavery conspired with these evils to prevent the healing +power of nature from closing these yawning wounds. Gibbon estimates +the number of slaves throughout the empire, in its latter days, at a +number equal to that of the freemen; in other words, one half of the +whole inhabitants were in a state of servitude;[<a href="#f17">17</a><a name="f17.1" id="f17.1"></a>] and as there were +120,000,000 souls under the Roman sway, sixty millions were in that +degraded condition. There is reason to believe that the number of the +slaves was still greater than this estimate, and at least double that +of the freemen; for it is known by an authentic enumeration, that, in +the time of the Emperor Claudius, the number of citizens in the empire +was only 6,945,000 men, who, with their families, might amount to +twenty millions of souls; and the total number of freemen was about +double that of the citizens.[<a href="#f18">18</a><a name="f18.1" id="f18.1"></a>] In one family alone, in the time of +Pliny, there were 4116 slaves.[<a href="#f19">19</a><a name="f19.1" id="f19.1"></a>] But take the number of slaves, +according to Gibbon's computation, at only half the entire population, +what a prodigious abstraction must this multitude of slaves have made +from the physical and moral strength of the empire! Half the people +requiring food, needing restraint, incapable of trust, and yet adding +nothing to the muster-roll of the legions, or the persons by whom the +fixed and immovable annual taxes were to be made good! In what state +would the British empire now be, if we were subjected to the action of +similar causes of ruin? A vast and unwieldy dominion, exposed on every +side to the incursions of barbarous and hostile nations, daily +increasing in numbers, and augmenting in military skill; a fixed +taxation, for which the whole free inhabitants of every municipality +were jointly and severally responsible, to meet the increasing +military esta<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_799" id="Page_799">[Pg 799]</a></span>blishment required by these perils; a declining, and at +length extinct, agriculture in the central provinces of the empire, +owing to the deluge of cheap grain from its fertile extremities, +wafted over the waters of the Mediterranean; multitudes of turbulent +freemen in cities, kept quiet by daily distribution of provisions at +the public expense, from the imperial granaries; and a half, or +two-thirds, of the whole population in a state of slavery—neither +bearing any share of the public burdens, nor adding to the strength of +the military array of the empire. Such are the discoveries of modern +philosophy, as to the causes of the decline and ultimate fall of the +Roman empire, gleaned from a few facts, accidentally preserved by the +ancient writers, apparently unconscious of their value! It is a noble +science which, in so short a time, has presented such a gift to +mankind.</p> + +<p>Guizot has announced, and ably illustrated, a great truth, which, when +traced to its legitimate consequences, will be found to go far towards +dispelling many of the pernicious innovating dogmas which have so long +been afloat in the world. It is this, that whenever an institution, +though apparently pernicious in our eyes, has long existed, and under +a great variety of circumstances, we may rest assured that it in +reality has been attended with some advantages which counterbalance +its evils, and that upon the whole it is beneficial in its tendency. +This important principle is thus stated:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Independent of the efforts of man, there is established by a law +of providence, which it is impossible to mistake, and which is +analagous to what we witness in the natural world, a certain +measure of order, reason, and justice, without which society +cannot exist. From the single fact of its endurance we may +conclude, with certainty, that a society is not completely +absurd, insensate, or iniquitous; that it is not destitute of the +elements of reason, truth, and justice—which alone can give life +to society. If the more that society developes itself, the +stronger does this principle become—if it is daily accepted by a +greater number of men, it is a certain proof that in the lapse of +time there has been progressively introduced into it more reason, +more justice, more right. It is thus that the idea of political +legitimacy has arisen.</p> + +<p>"This principle has for its foundation, in the first instance, at +least in a certain degree, the great principles of moral +legitimacy—justice, reason, truth. Then came the sanction of +time, which always begets the presumption of reason having +directed arrangements which have long endured. In the early +periods of society, we too often find force and falsehood ruling +the cradles of royalty, aristocracy, democracy, and even the +church; but every where you will see this force and falsehood +yielding to the reforming hand of time, and right and truth +taking their place in the rulers of civilization. It is this +progressive infusion of right and truth which has by degrees +developed the idea of political legitimacy; it is thus that it +has become established in modern civilization. At different +times, indeed, attempts have been made to substitute for this +idea the banner of despotic power; but, in doing so, they have +turned it aside from its true origin. It is so little the banner +of despotic power, that it is in the name of right and justice +that it has overspread the world. As little is it exclusive: it +belongs neither to persons, classes, nor sects; it arises +wherever the idea of right has developed itself. We shall meet +with this principle in systems the most opposite: in the feudal +system, in the municipalities of Flanders and Germany, in the +republics of Italy, as well as in simple monarchies. It is a +character diffused through the various elements of modern +civilization, and the perception of which is indispensable to the +right understanding of its history."—(<i>Lecture</i> iii. 9, 11; +<i>Civilization Européenne</i>.)</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>No principle ever was announced of more practical importance in +legislating for mankind, than is contained in this passage. The +doctrine is somewhat obscurely stated, and not with the precision +which in general distinguishes the French writers; but the import of +it seems to be this—That no system of government can long exist among +men, unless it is substantially, and in the majority of cases, founded +in reason and justice, and sanctioned by experienced utility for the +people among whom it exists; and therefore, that we may predicate with +perfect certainty of any institution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_800" id="Page_800">[Pg 800]</a></span> which has been generally +extended and long established, that it has been upon the whole +beneficial, and should be modified or altered with a very cautious +hand. That this proposition is true, will probably be disputed by none +who have thought much and dispassionately on human affairs; for all +human institutions are formed and supported by men, and unless men had +some reason for supporting them, they would speedily sink to the +ground. It is in vain to say a privileged class have got possession of +the power, and they make use of it to perpetuate these abuses. +Doubtless, they are always sufficiently inclined to do so; but a +privileged class, or a despot, is always a mere handful against the +great body of the people; and unless their power is supported by the +force of general opinion, founded on experienced utility upon the +whole, it could not maintain its ground a single week. And this +explains a fact observed by an able and ingenious writer of the +present day,[<a href="#f20">20</a><a name="f20.1" id="f20.1"></a>] that if almost all the great convulsions recorded in +history are attentively considered, it will be found, that after a +brief period of strenuous, and often almost superhuman effort, on the +part of the people, they have terminated in the establishment of a +government and institutions differing scarcely, except in name, from +that which had preceded the struggle. It is hardly necessary to remark +how striking a confirmation the English revolution of 1688, and the +French of 1830, afford of this truth.</p> + +<p>And this explains what is the true meaning of, and solid foundation +for, that reverence for antiquity which is so strongly implanted in +human nature, and is never forgotten for any considerable time without +inducing the most dreadful disasters upon society. It means that those +institutions which have descended to us in actual practice from our +ancestors, come sanctioned by the <i>experience</i> of ages; and that they +could not have stood so long a test unless they had been recommended, +in some degree at least, by their utility. It is not that our +ancestors were wiser than we are; they were certainly less informed, +and probably were, on that account, in the general case, less +judicious. But time has swept away their follies, which were doubtless +great enough, as it has done the worthless ephemeral literature with +which they, as we, were overwhelmed; and nothing has stood the test of +ages, and come down to us through a series of generations, of their +ideas or institutions, but what had some utility in human feelings and +necessities, and was on the whole expedient at the time when it arose. +Its utility may have ceased by the change of manners or of the +circumstances of society—that may be a good reason for cautiously +modifying or altering it—but rely upon it, it was once useful, if it +has existed long; and the presumption of present and continuing +utility requires to be strongly outweighed by forcible considerations +before it is abandoned. Lord Bacon has told us, in words which can +never become trite, so profound is their wisdom, that our changes, to +be beneficial, should resemble those of time, which, though the +greatest of all innovators, works out its alterations so gradually +that they are never perceived. Guizot makes, in the same spirit, the +following fine observation on the slow march of Supreme wisdom in the +government of the world:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"If we turn our eyes to history, we shall find that all the great +developments of the human mind have turned to the advantage of +society—all the great struggles of humanity to the good of +mankind. It is not, indeed, immediately that these efforts take +place; ages often elapse, a thousand obstacles intervene, before +they are fully developed; but when we survey a long course of +ages, we see that all has been accomplished. The march of +Providence is not subjected to narrow limits; it cares not to +develope to-day the consequences of a principle which it has +established yesterday; it will bring them forth in ages, when the +appointed hour has arrived; and its course is not the less sure +that it is slow. The throne of the Almighty rests on time—it +marches through its boundless expanse as the gods of Homer +through space—it makes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_801" id="Page_801">[Pg 801]</a></span> a step, and ages have passed away. How +many ages elapsed, how many changes ensued, before the +regeneration of the inner man, by means of Christianity, +exercised on the social state its great and salutary influence! +Nevertheless, it has at length succeeded. No one can mistake its +effects at this time."—(<i>Lecture</i> i. 24.)</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>In surveying the progress of civilization in modern, as compared with +ancient times, two features stand prominent as distinguishing the one +from the other. These are the <i>church</i> and the <i>feudal system</i>. They +were precisely the circumstances which gave the most umbrage to the +philosophers of the eighteenth century, and which awakened the +greatest transports of indignation among the ardent multitudes who, at +its close, brought about the French Revolution. Very different is the +light in which the eye of true philosophy, enlightened by the +experience of their abolition, views these great distinctive features +of modern society.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Immense," says Guizot, "was the influence which the Christian +church exercised over the civilization of modern Europe. In the +outset, it was an incalculable advantage to have a moral power, a +power destitute of physical force, which reposed only on mental +convictions and moral feelings, established amidst that deluge of +physical force and selfish violence which overwhelmed society at +that period. Had the Christian church not existed, the world +would have been delivered over to the influence of physical +strength, in its coarsest and most revolting form. It alone +exercised a moral power. It did more; it spread abroad the idea +of a rule of obedience, a heavenly power, to which all human +beings, how great soever, were subjected, and which was above all +human laws. That of itself was a safeguard against the greatest +evils of society; for it affected the minds of those by whom they +were brought about; it professed that belief—the foundation of +the salvation of humanity—that there is above all existing +institutions, superior to all human laws, a permanent and divine +law, sometimes called Reason, sometimes Divine Command, but +which, under whatever name it goes, is for ever the same.</p> + +<p>"Then the church commenced a great work—the separation of the +spiritual and temporal power. That separation is the origin of +liberty of conscience; it rests on no other principle than that +which lies at the bottom of the widest and most extended +toleration. The separation of the spiritual and temporal power +rests on the principle, that physical force is neither entitled +to act, nor can ever have any lasting influence, on thoughts, +conviction, truth; it flows from the eternal distinction between +the world of thought and the world of action, the world of +interior conviction and that of external facts. In truth, that +principle of the liberty of conscience, for which Europe has +combated and suffered so much, which has so slowly triumphed, and +often against the utmost efforts of the clergy themselves, was +first founded by the doctrine of the separation of the temporal +and spiritual power, in the cradle of European civilization. It +is the Christian church which, by the necessities of its +situation to defend itself against the assaults of barbarism, +introduced and maintained it. The presence of a moral influence, +the maintenance of a Divine law, the separation of the temporal +and spiritual power, are the three great blessings which the +Christian church has diffused in the dark ages over European +society.</p> + +<p>"The influence of the Christian church was great and beneficent +for another reason. The bishop and clergy erelong became the +principal municipal magistrates: they were the chancellors and +ministers of kings—the rulers, except in the camp and the field, +of mankind. When the Roman empire crumbled into dust, when the +central power of the emperors and the legions disappeared, there +remained, we have seen, no other authority in the state but the +municipal functionaries. But they themselves had fallen into a +state of apathy and despair; the heavy burdens of despotism, the +oppressive taxes of the municipalities, the incursions of the +fierce barbarians, had reduced them to despair. No protection to +society, no revival of industry, no shielding of innocence, could +be expected from their exertions. The clergy, again, formed a +society within itself; fresh, young, vigorous, sheltered by the +prevailing faith, which speedily drew to itself all the learning +and intellectual strength that remained in the state. The bishops +and priests, full of life and of zeal, naturally were recurred to +in order to fill all civil situations requiring thought or +informa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_802" id="Page_802">[Pg 802]</a></span>tion. It is wrong to reproach their exercise of these +powers as an usurpation; they alone were capable of exercising +them. Thus has the natural course of things prescribed for all +ages and countries. The clergy alone were mentally strong and +morally zealous: they became all-powerful. It is the law of the +universe."—(<i>Lecture</i> iii. 27, 31; <i>Civilization Européenne.</i>)</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>Nothing can be more just or important than these observations; and +they throw a new and consoling light on the progress and ultimate +destiny of European society. They are as original as they are +momentous. Robertson, with his honest horror of the innumerable +corruptions which, in the time of Leo X. and Luther, brought about the +Reformation—Sismondi, with his natural detestation of a faith which +had urged on the dreadful cruelties of the crusade of the Albigenses, +and which produced the revocation of the edict of Nantes—have alike +overlooked these important truths, so essential to a right +understanding of the history of modern society. They saw that the +arrogance and cruelty of the Roman clergy had produced innumerable +evils in later times; that their venality in regard to indulgences and +abuse of absolution had brought religion itself into discredit; that +the absurd and incredible tenets which they still attempted to force +on mankind, had gone far to alienate the intellectual strength of +modern Europe, during the last century, from their support. Seeing +this, they condemned it absolutely, for all times and in all places. +They fell into the usual error of men in reasoning on former from +their own times. They could not make "the past and the future +predominate over the present." They felt the absurdity of many of the +legends which the devout Catholics received as undoubted truths, and +they saw no use in perpetuating the belief in them; and thence they +conceived that they must always have been equally unserviceable, +forgetting that the eighteenth was not the eighth century; and that, +during the dark ages, violence would have rioted without control, if, +when reason was in abeyance, knowledge scanty, and military strength +alone in estimation, superstition had not thrown its unseen fetters +over the barbarian's arms. They saw that the Romish clergy, during +five centuries, had laboured strenuously, and often with the most +frightful cruelty, to crush independence of thought in matters of +faith, and chain the human mind to the tenets, often absurd and +erroneous, of her Papal creed; and they forgot that, during five +preceding centuries, the Christian church had laboured as assiduously +to establish the independence of thought from physical coercion, and +had alone kept alive, during the interregnum of reason, the sparks of +knowledge and the principles of freedom.</p> + +<p>In the same liberal and enlightened spirit Guizot views the feudal +system, the next grand characteristic of modern times.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A decisive proof that, in the tenth century, the feudal system +had become necessary, and was, in truth, the only social state +possible, is to be found in the universality of its adoption. +Universally, upon the cessation of barbarism, the feudal forms +were adopted. At the first moment of barbarian conquest, men saw +only the triumph of chaos. All unity, all general civilization +disappeared, on all sides was seen society falling into +dissolution; and, in its stead, arising a multitude of little, +obscure, isolated communities. This appeared to all the +contemporaries nothing short of universal anarchy. The poets, the +chroniclers of the time, viewed it as the approach of the end of +the world. It was, in truth, the end of the ancient world; but +the commencement of a new one, placed on a broad basis, and with +large means of social improvement and individual happiness.</p> + +<p>"Then it was that the feudal system became necessary, inevitable. +It was the only possible means of emerging from the general +chaos. The whole of Europe, accordingly, at the same time adopted +it. Even those portions of society which were most strangers, +apparently, to that system, entered warmly into its spirit, and +were fain to share in its protection. The crown, the church, the +communities, were constrained to accommodate themselves to it. +The churches became suzerain or vassal; the burghs had their +lords and their feuars; the monasteries and abbeys had their +feudal retainers, as well as the temporal barons. Royalty itself +was disguised under the name of a feudal superior. Every thing +was given in fief; not only lands, but certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_803" id="Page_803">[Pg 803]</a></span> rights flowing +from them, as that of cutting wood, fisheries, or the like. The +church made subinfeudations of their casual revenues, as the dues +on marriages, funerals, and baptisms."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>The establishment of the feudal system thus universally in Europe, +produced one effect, the importance of which can hardly be +exaggerated. Hitherto the mass of mankind had been collected under the +municipal institutions which had been universal in antiquity, in +cities, or wandered in vagabond hordes through the country. Under the +feudal system these men lived isolated, each in his own habitation, at +a great distance from each other. A glance will show that this single +circumstance must have exercised on the character of society, and the +course of civilization, the social preponderance; the government of +society passed at once from the towns to the country—private took the +lead of public property—private prevailed over public life. Such was +the first effect, and it was an effect purely material, of the +establishment of the feudal system. But other effects, still more +material, followed, of a moral kind, which have exercised the most +important effects on the European manners and mind.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The feudal proprietor established himself in an isolated place, +which, for his own protection, he rendered secure. He lived +there, with his wife, his children, and a few faithful friends, +who shared his hospitality, and contributed to his defence. +Around the castle, in its vicinity, were established the farmers +and serfs who cultivated his domain. In the midst of that +inferior, but yet allied and protected population, religion +planted a church, and introduced a priest. He was usually the +chaplain of the castle, and at the same time the curate of the +village; in subsequent ages these two characters were separated; +the village pastor resided beside his church. This was the +primitive feudal society—the cradle, as it were, of the European +and Christian world.</p> + +<p>"From this state of things necessarily arose a prodigious +superiority on the part of the possessor of the fief, alike in +his own eyes, and in the eyes of those who surrounded him. The +feeling of individual importance, of personal freedom, was the +ruling principle of savage life; but here a new feeling was +introduced—the importance of a proprietor, of the chief of a +family, of a master, predominated over that of an individual. +From this situation arose an immense feeling of superiority—a +superiority peculiar to the feudal ages, and entirely different +from any thing which had yet been experienced in the world. Like +the feudal lord, the Roman patrician was the head of a family, a +master, a landlord. He was, moreover, a religious magistrate, a +pontiff in the interior of his family. He was, moreover, a member +of the municipality in which his property was situated, and +perhaps one of the august senate, which, in name at least, still +ruled the empire. But all this importance and dignity was derived +from without—the patrician shared it with the other members of +his municipality—with the corporation of which he formed a part. +The importance of the feudal lord, again, was purely +individual—he owed nothing to another; all the power he enjoyed +emanated from himself alone. What a feeling of individual +consequence must such a situation have inspired—what pride, what +insolence, must it have engendered in his mind! Above him was no +superior, of whose orders he was to be the mere interpreter or +organ—around him were no equals. No all-powerful municipality +made his wishes bend to its own—no superior authority exercised +a control over his wishes, he knew no bridle on his inclinations, +but the limits of his power, or the presence of danger.</p> + +<p>"Another consequence, hitherto not sufficiently attended to, but +of vast importance, flowed from this society.</p> + +<p>"The patriarchal society, of which the Bible and the Oriental +monuments offer the model, was the first combination of men. The +chief of a tribe lived with his children, his relations, the +different generations who have assembled around him. This was the +situation of Abraham—of the patriarchs: it is still that of the +Arab tribes which perpetuate their manners. The <i>clan</i>, of which +remains still exist in the mountains of Scotland, and the <i>sept</i> +of Ireland, is a modification of the patriarchal society: it is +the family of the chief, expanded during a succession of +generations, and forming a little aggregation of dependents, +still influenced by the same attachments, and subjected to the +same authority. But the feudal community was very different. +Allied at first to the clan, it was yet in many essential +particulars dissimilar. There did not exist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_804" id="Page_804">[Pg 804]</a></span> between its members +the bond of relationship; they were not of the same blood; they +often did not speak the same language. The feudal lord belonged +to a foreign and conquering, his serfs to a domestic and +vanquished race. Their employments were as various as their +feelings and their traditions. The lord lived in his castle, with +his wife, his children, and relations: the serfs on the estate, +of a different race, of different names, toiled in the cottages +around. This difference was prodigious—it exercised a most +powerful effect on the domestic habits of modern Europe. It +engendered the attachments of home: it brought women into their +proper sphere in domestic life. The little society of freemen, +who lived in the midst of an alien race in the castle, were all +in all to each other. No forum or theatres were at hand, with +their cares or their pleasures; no city enjoyments were a +counterpoise to the pleasures of country life. War and the chase +broke in, it is true, grievously at times, upon this scene of +domestic peace. But war and the chase could not last for ever; +and, in the long intervals of undisturbed repose, family +attachments formed the chief solace of life. Thus it was that +WOMEN acquired their paramount influence—thence the manners of +chivalry, and the gallantry of modern times; they were but an +extension of the courtesy and habits of the castle. The word +<i>courtesy</i> shows it—it was in the <i>court</i> of the castle that the +habits it denotes were learned."—(<i>Lecture</i> iv. 13, 17; +<i>Civilization Européenne.</i>)</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>We have exhausted, perhaps exceeded, our limits; and we have only +extracted a few of the most striking ideas from the first hundred +pages of one of Guizot's works—<i>ex uno disce omnes</i>. The translation +of them has been an agreeable occupation for a few evenings; but they +awake one mournful impression—the voice which uttered so many noble +and enlightened sentiments is now silent; the genius which once cast +abroad light on the history of man, is lost in the vortex of present +politics. The philosopher, the historian, are merged in the +statesman—the instructor of all in the governor of one generation. +Great as have been his services, brilliant his course in the new +career into which he has been launched, it is as nothing compared to +that which he has left; for the one confers present distinction, the +other immortal fame.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p>Footnotes:<a name="footnotes" id="footnotes"></a></p> + +<p>[<a href="#f1.1">1</a><a name="f1" id="f1"></a>] Little girl—or girl, merely.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f2.1">2</a><a name="f2" id="f2"></a>] Mr O'Connell stated in his speech, after "the liberation," that +that most unexpected and miraculous event had been publicly prayed for +in all the churches of Belgium.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f3.1">3</a><a name="f3" id="f3"></a>] Taken from Lewis's Statistics of the Four Reformed Parliaments.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f4.1">4</a><a name="f4" id="f4"></a>] The following account of the number of freeholders on the +register, in 1837, when the number was largest, and in 1841, taken +from Lewis's tables, will show an immense decrease in those counties +completely under the control of the priests and agitators, and where +their power is unassailable.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" summary="Freeholders"> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td>1837.</td> +<td> </td> +<td>1841.</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Clare,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>3170</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1785</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Cork,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>4180</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>3706</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Galway county,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>3074</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1990</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Galway town,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>2084</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1600</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>King's county,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>1520</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1078</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Limerick city,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>2813</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1670</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Limerick county,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>2850</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1893</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Mayo,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>1569</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1064</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Meath,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>1850</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1236</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Roscommon,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>2077</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1059</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Tipperary,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>3460</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>2464</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Waterford,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>1494</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>802</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Wexford,</td> +<td> </td> +<td>3031</td> +<td>—</td> +<td>1739</td></tr></table> + +<p>All those counties and cities are, and always have been, represented +by Radicals and Repealers; so that it appears the Repeal party are +invariably best off where there are least freeholders, notwithstanding +their constant complaints of what they suffer by the domination of the +constituencies.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f5.1">5</a><a name="f5" id="f5"></a>] Qualifying under the "solvent tenant test," (which was generally +adopted by the Conservative barristers,) the claimant was obliged to +swear and to prove that "he could obtain from a good and solvent +tenant a clear yearly rent of ten pounds over and above what he paid +himself," while the freeholder, qualifying under "the beneficial +interest test," (which was acted on by the Whig and Radical +barristers,) had only to prove that the crops and produce raised on +his land by his own labour, yielded him a surplus of ten pounds over +and above the amount of his rent.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f6.1">6</a><a name="f6" id="f6"></a>] In England, the right to vote is given to tenants at will paying +£50 rent; it was proposed to grant it to those in Ireland who paid £30 +rent.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f7.1">7</a><a name="f7" id="f7"></a>] Two judges, who are <i>ex-officio</i> members, may be Roman Catholics; +the numbers would then stand seven and six.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f8.1">8</a><a name="f8" id="f8"></a>] <i>Bailly's Memoirs.</i></p> + +<p>[<a href="#f9.1">9</a><a name="f9" id="f9"></a>] The Rev. Gregory Lynch of Westland Row, openly charges the +agitating bishops with having <i>forged</i> the signature of many priests +to the protest which they have published against the Charitable +Bequests Bill. See his letter, an extract from which is published in +the Irish correspondence of <i>The Times</i>, 27th October.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f10.1">10</a><a name="f10" id="f10"></a>] Extract from the speech of the Rev. Mr Henebury, as reported in +the Irish correspondence of the <i>Times</i> newspaper, July 3, 1844.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f11.1">11</a><a name="f11" id="f11"></a>] <i>Kohl's Ireland</i>.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f12.1">12</a><a name="f12" id="f12"></a>] The local newspaper.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f13.1">13</a><a name="f13" id="f13"></a>] Irish correspondent of the <i>Times</i>, Nov. 1, 1844.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f14.1">14</a><a name="f14" id="f14"></a>] <i>Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke</i>. Edited by +Earl <span class="smcap">Fitzwilliam</span> and <span class="smcap">Sir Richard Bourke</span>, K.C.B. 4 vols. 8vo. +Rivingtons, London.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f15.1">15</a><a name="f15" id="f15"></a>] <i>Nelson's Despatches and Letters, with Notes</i>. By Sir <span class="smcap">Harris +Nicolas</span>.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f16.1">16</a><a name="f16" id="f16"></a>] Ferguson.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f17.1">17</a><a name="f17" id="f17"></a>] Gibbon.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f18.1">18</a><a name="f18" id="f18"></a>] <i>Ibid</i>.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f19.1">19</a><a name="f19" id="f19"></a>] Plin. <i>Hist. Nat.</i>, xxxiii. 47.</p> + +<p>[<a href="#f20.1">20</a><a name="f20" id="f20"></a>] Mr <span class="smcap">James's</span> Preface to <i>Mary of Burgundy</i>.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_805" id="Page_805">[Pg 805]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX TO VOL. LVI.</h2> + + +<p> +Affghanistan, 133<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">general review of the question regarding, 135</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">motives for the expedition to, 136</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">means for effecting the objects sought, 141</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comparison of the competitors for the throne, 142</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resistance to taxation in, 148</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">causes of the British disasters in, 150, 151.</span><br /> +<br /> +Agitation the cause of the evils of Ireland, <a href="#Page_709">709</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alison, Archibald, Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 390.<br /> +<br /> +Ancient canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, historical account of the, 182.<br /> +<br /> +Artist's morning song, the, from Goethe, 419.<br /> +<br /> +Auckland, Lord, review of his Affghanistan policy, 133.<br /> +<br /> +Aytoun, W. E., Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 392.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Banking System, the Scottish, <a href="#Page_671b">671*</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Barrett, Elizabeth B., review of the poems of, 621.<br /> +<br /> +Bell, H. G., Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 389.<br /> +<br /> +Blanc, M., his history of ten years reviewed, 265.<br /> +<br /> +Bossuet, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Braxfield, lord, letter relating to, 620.<br /> +<br /> +Brenn, the, a Gaulish chief, career of, 471.<br /> +<br /> +Bride of Corinth, the, from Goethe, 57.<br /> +<br /> +Bruce, heart of the, a ballad, 15.<br /> +<br /> +Burke, Edmund, review of the correspondence of, <a href="#Page_745">745</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burns' festival, account of the, 370<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">order of the procession, 373</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the banquet, 376</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches of Lord Eglinton, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Professor Wilson, 378</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir John McNeill, 388</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">H.G. Bell, Esq., 389</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Archibald Alison, Esq., 390</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">W. E. Aytoun, Esq., 392</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Colonel Mure, 393</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir James Campbell, the Lord Justice-General, &c., 395</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stanzas for, by Delta, 399.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Cabul, the war with, 133.<br /> +<br /> +Campbell, Sir James, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 395.<br /> +<br /> +Canal between the Nile and Red Sea, historical account of the, 182.<br /> +<br /> +Castle on the mountain, the, from Goethe, 425.<br /> +<br /> +Catania, 33.<br /> +<br /> +Catharine of Russia, sketch of, 410.<br /> +<br /> +Causes of the increase of crime, on the, 1<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">districts in which greatest, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the manufacturing districts, 6</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strikes, 8.</span><br /> +<br /> +Cavalier, the old Scottish, a ballad, 195.<br /> +<br /> +Clarkson, sonnet to, 619.<br /> +<br /> +Commitments for crime, tables of, 1, 2.<br /> +<br /> +Cours de Littérature Dramatique, review of, 237.<br /> +<br /> +Crime, causes of the increase of, 1<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the manufacturing districts, 6</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">increase of, by strikes, 8</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by infant labour, 9</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inefficiency of the proposed preventives of, 13.</span><br /> +<br /> +Cupid as a landscape painter, from Geothe, 417.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Delphi, defeat of the Gauls at, 472.<br /> +<br /> +Delta, stanzas for the Burns' festival by, 399<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the tombless man, a dream, by, 583.</span><br /> +<br /> +Doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, the, from Goethe, 67.<br /> +<br /> +Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Part II., 49.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dost Mohammed, character of, 142.<br /> +<br /> +Dunning, anecdotes of, 249, 264.<br /> +<br /> +Dwarf's well, the, a legend of Upper Lusatia, 196.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Earthquake of Lisbon, the, 102.<br /> +<br /> +Education, effect of imperfect, in Ireland, <a href="#Page_708">708</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Eglinton, the Earl of, speeches of, at the Burns' festival, 376, 395, 396.<br /> +<br /> +Eldon, Lord, sketch of the career of,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his early life, 245</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first struggles, 249</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and first success, 251</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enters parliament, 253</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes solicitor-general, 257</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attorney-general, 259</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chief-justice of the Common Pleas, 262</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and lord chancellor, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his subsequent career, 263.</span><br /> +<br /> +Emperor, week of an<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an account of the visit of the Emperor Nicholas, 127.</span><br /> +<br /> +Erl king, the, from Goethe, 63.<br /> +<br /> +Etched thoughts by the Etching Club, review of, 153.<br /> +<br /> +Execution of Montrose, the, a ballad, 289.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fairy tutor, the, a legend of Upper Lusatia, 83.<br /> +<br /> +Falkland islands, affair of the, 406.<br /> +<br /> +Finlay's Greece under the Romans, review of, 524.<br /> +<br /> +First love, from Goethe, 61.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_806" id="Page_806">[Pg 806]</a></span><br /> +Fisher, the, from Goethe, 65.<br /> +<br /> +Fourier and his system, sketch of, 591.<br /> +<br /> +Frederick the Great, anecdotes of, 404, 409.<br /> +<br /> +French socialists, 588.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Galatia, Gaulish kingdom of, 478.<br /> +<br /> +Gauls, Thierry's history of, reviewed, 466.<br /> +<br /> +Gibbon, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Girardin, M., 237.<br /> +<br /> +God, the, and the Bayaderé, from Goethe, 421.<br /> +<br /> +Goethe, Poems and Ballads of, No. I. Introduction, 54<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the bride of Corinth, 57</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first love, 61</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">who'll buy a Cupid? 62</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second life, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the erl-king, 63</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mignon, 64</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the fisher, 65</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the minstrel, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the violet, 66</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, 67</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. II. Cupid as a landscape painter, 417</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the artist's morning song, 419</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the god and the bayaderé, 421</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the treasure-seeker, 423</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the castle on the mountain, 425</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Philine's song, 426</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to my mistress, 427</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the wild rose, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a night thought, 428</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prometheus, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">new love, new life, 429</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">separation, 430</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the magician's apprentice, ib.</span><br /> +<br /> +Great Britain, increase of crime in, 1.<br /> +<br /> +Great country's little wars, a, review of, 133.<br /> +<br /> +Great drought, the, 433<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. II., 436</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. III., 438</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. IV., 440</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. V., 442</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. VI., 452.</span><br /> +<br /> +Greece under the Romans, review of, 524.<br /> +<br /> +Grievances of Ireland, examination of the alleged, <a href="#Page_701">701</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the true, <a href="#Page_708">708</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Guizot, M., review of the historical works of, <a href="#Page_786">786</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hardy, trial of, for high treason, 261.<br /> +<br /> +Harris, James, career of, 401.<br /> +<br /> +Heart of the Bruce, the, a ballad, 15.<br /> +<br /> +Hill, Mr Sergeant, anecdotes of, 247.<br /> +<br /> +Histoire des dix ans, review of, 265.<br /> +<br /> +Historical account of the ancient canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, 182.<br /> +<br /> +Hope, the Right Hon. Charles, letter from, 620.<br /> +<br /> +Hume, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hydro Bacchus, 77.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Increase of crime, causes of, 1<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">districts in which greatest, ib.</span><br /> +<br /> +Infant labour, increase of crime attributable to, 9.<br /> +<br /> +Injured Ireland, <a href="#Page_701">701</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Introduction to his poems, from Goethe, 54.<br /> +<br /> +Ireland, increase of crime in, 1<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examination of the question as to the injuries of, <a href="#Page_701">701</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its comparative freedom from taxation, <a href="#Page_702">702</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its representation in parliament, <a href="#Page_703">703</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">municipal law, <a href="#Page_706">706</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">alleged debarring of Roman Catholics from office, <a href="#Page_707">707</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">true evils of, and their causes, <a href="#Page_708">708</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Irish state trials, reversal of the judgment, 539.<br /> +<br /> +It is no fiction, 364.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jesuits, expulsion of the, from Portugal, 109<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">extinction of the order, 112.</span><br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Dr, anecdotes of, 247, 257.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Knights, last of the<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Part II., 49.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lamartine, review of the travels of, 657.<br /> +<br /> +Last of the knights, the<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Part II., 49.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lee, J., anecdotes of, 249, 255.<br /> +<br /> +Letter to the editor, from the Right Hon. Charles Hope, 620.<br /> +<br /> +Life in Louisiana, Chap. I., a Voyage on the Red River, 507<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. II., Creole life, 514</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. III., quite unexpected, 518.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lines on the landing, of Louis Philippe, by B. Simmons, 654.<br /> +<br /> +Lisbon, the great earthquake of, 102.<br /> +<br /> +Louis Philippe, elevation of, to the throne, 272<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lines on the landing of, by B. Simmons, 654.</span><br /> +<br /> +Louisiana, life in, Chap. I., 507<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. II., 514</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. III., 518.</span><br /> +<br /> +Love chase, in prose, a, Chap. I., 164<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. II., 166</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. III., 170</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. IV., 173</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. V., 178.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lunatic asylum of Palermo, the, 20.<br /> +<br /> +Lusatia, traditions and tales of, No. II.,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the fairy tutor, 83</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. III., the dwarf's well, 196</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. IV., the moor maiden, <a href="#Page_726">726</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lushington on the Affghan war, 133.<br /> +<br /> +Luther, an ode, 80.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Machiavel, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_787">787</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McNeill, Sir John, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 388.<br /> +<br /> +Magician's apprentice, the, from Goethe, 430.<br /> +<br /> +Maid of Orleans, remarks on the, 216.<br /> +<br /> +Malmesbury, life of the Earl of, reviewed, 401.<br /> +<br /> +Manufacturing districts, increase of crime in the, 2.<br /> +<br /> +Marston; or, Memoirs of a Statesman<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Part XII., 114</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Part XIII., 343</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Part XIV., 601.</span><br /> +<br /> +Martin Luther, an ode, 80.<br /> +<br /> +Memoirs of a Statesman—<i>see</i> Marston.<br /> +<br /> +Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, review of, 100.<br /> +<br /> +Memoranda of a month's tour in Sicily<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the museum of Palermo, 20</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lunatic asylum, ib.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_807" id="Page_807">[Pg 807]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">miscellanea, 21</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journey to Segeste, 23</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sicilian inns, 24</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">approach to Messina, 28</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journey to Taormina, 30</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Catania, 33</span><br /> +<br /> +Messina, approach to, 28.<br /> +<br /> +Mignon, from Goethe, 64.<br /> +<br /> +Milkman of Walworth, the, Chap. I., <a href="#Page_687">687</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. II., <a href="#Page_691">691</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. III., <a href="#Page_693">693</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. IV., <a href="#Page_696">696</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Minstrel, the, from Goethe, 65.<br /> +<br /> +Montesquieu, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montrose, execution of, a ballad, 289.<br /> +<br /> +Moor maiden, the, <a href="#Page_726">726.</a><br /> +<br /> +Mure, Colonel, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 393.<br /> +<br /> +Museum of Palermo, the, 20.<br /> +<br /> +My college friends<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. I. John Brown, 569</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. II., the same concluded, <a href="#Page_763">763</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +My first love, a sketch in New York, 69.<br /> +<br /> +My last courtship; or, life in Louisiana<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. I. A voyage on the Red River, 507</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. II., Creole life, 514</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chap. III., quite unexpected, 518.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Natural history of man, Prichard's, review of, 312.<br /> +<br /> +Nelson's dispatches and letters, review of, <a href="#Page_775">775</a>.<br /> +<br /> +New love, new life, from Goethe, 429.<br /> +<br /> +Nicholas, the Emperor, visit of, to Great Britain, 127.<br /> +<br /> +Night on the banks of the Tennessee, a, 278.<br /> +<br /> +Night thought, a, from Goethe, 428.<br /> +<br /> +Nile and the Red Sea, the, historical account of the ancient canal between, 182.<br /> +<br /> +North, Lord, anecdotes of, 255.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +O'Connell case, the<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was the judgment rightly reversed? 539</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statement of the case, 541</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the indictment, 542</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">verdict of the jury, 544</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the motion in arrest of judgment, 545</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the judgment, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the writ of error, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinions of the judges, 548</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and of the peers, 553</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">general remarks on the case, 561</span><br /> +<br /> +Old Scottish cavalier, the, a ballad, by W. E. A., 195.<br /> +<br /> +Oporto wine company, origin of the, 106.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Palermo, sketches of, 20.<br /> +<br /> +Passages in the life of a Russian officer, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Patmore's poems, review of, 331.<br /> +<br /> +Philine's song, from Goethe, 426.<br /> +<br /> +Poems and ballads of Goethe, the<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. I. Introduction, 54</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the bride of Corinth, 57</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first love, 61</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">who'll buy a Cupid, 62</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second life, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the erl-king, 63</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mignon, 64</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the fisher, 65</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the minstrel, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the violet, 66</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, 67</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. II. Cupid as a landscape painter, 417</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the artist's morning song, 419</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the god and the bayaderé, 421</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the treasure-seeker, 423</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the castle on the mountain, 425</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Philine's song, 426</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to my mistress, 427</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the wild rose, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a night thought, 428</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prometheus, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">new love, new life, 429</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">separation, 430</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the magician's apprentice, ib.</span><br /> +<br /> +Poetry:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The heart of the Bruce, 15</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poems and ballads of Goethe, No. I., 54</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hydro Bacchus, 77</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin Luther, an ode, 80</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the old Scottish cavalier, 195</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the execution of Montrose 289</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stanzas for the Burns' festival, by Delta, 399</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poems and ballads of Goethe, No. II., 417</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the tombless man, by Delta, 583</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sonnet to Clarkson, 619</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Westminster hall and the works of art, by B. Simmons, 652</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lines on the landing of Louis Philippe, by the same, 654</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"That's what we are," <a href="#Page_741">741</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Poland, the partition of, 405, 407.<br /> +<br /> +Pombal, Marquis of, sketch of the career of, 100.<br /> +<br /> +Portugal, history of, during the administration of the Marquis of Pombal, 100.<br /> +<br /> +Prichard's natural history of man, review of, 312.<br /> +<br /> +Prometheus, from Goethe, 428.<br /> +<br /> +Ptolemy, completion of the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea by, 185.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Radzivil, Prince, sketch of, 406.<br /> +<br /> +Red Sea and the Nile, history of the ancient canal between, 182.<br /> +<br /> +Remarks on Schiller's maid of Orleans, 216.<br /> +<br /> +Reviews:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smith's memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, 100</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lushington's a great country's little wars, 133</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Etched thoughts by the Etching Club, 153</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">M. Girardin's cours de littérature dramatique, 237</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Twiss's memoirs of the Earl of Eldon, 245</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blanc's histoire de dix ans, 265</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prichard's natural history of man, 312</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poems by Coventry Patmore, 331</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Life of Lord Malmesbury, 401</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thierry's history of the Gauls, 466</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Finlay's Greece under the Romans, 524</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Reybaud on French socialism, 588</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett, 621</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lamartine's travels, 657</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Burke's correspondence, <a href="#Page_745">745</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nelson's despatches and letters, <a href="#Page_775">775</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Guizot, <a href="#Page_786">786</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Reybaud on French socialism, review of, 588.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_808" id="Page_808">[Pg 808]</a></span><br /> +Robertson, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Russian officer, passages in the life of a, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +St Simon, sketch of, 273.<br /> +<br /> +Schiller's maid of Orleans, remarks on, 216.<br /> +<br /> +Scotland, increase of crime in, 1.<br /> +<br /> +Scott, Sir John <i>see</i> Eldon.<br /> +<br /> +Scott, Sir William, sketches of, 246, 254.<br /> +<br /> +Scottish banking system, the, <a href="#Page_671b">671*</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scottish cavalier, the, a ballad, 195.<br /> +<br /> +Scottish peasantry, character of the, 370.<br /> +<br /> +Second life, from Goethe, 62.<br /> +<br /> +Segeste, journey to, 23.<br /> +<br /> +Separation, from Goethe, 430.<br /> +<br /> +Shah Soojah, character of, 143.<br /> +<br /> +Sicilian inns, 24.<br /> +<br /> +Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the museum of Palermo, 20</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the lunatic asylum, ib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">miscellanea, 21</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journey to Segeste, 23</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sicilian inns, 24</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">approach to Messina, 28</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journey to Taormina, 30</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Catania, 33.</span><br /> +<br /> +Simmons, B., Westminster hall and the works of art by, 652<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lines on the landing of Louis Philippe by, 654.</span><br /> +<br /> +Sismondi, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sketch in New York, a My first love, 69.<br /> +<br /> +Smith's memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, review of, 100.<br /> +<br /> +Socialism in France, history of, 588.<br /> +<br /> +Some remarks on Schiller's maid of Orleans, 216.<br /> +<br /> +Sonnet to Clarkson, 619.<br /> +<br /> +Stanzas for the Burns' festival, by Delta, 299.<br /> +<br /> +Stolen child, the, a true tale of the Backwoods, 227.<br /> +<br /> +Stowell, Lord, sketches of, 246, 254.<br /> +<br /> +Strikes as a cause of the increase of crime, 8.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Taormina, journey to, 30.<br /> +<br /> +Taxation, resistance to, in Affghanistan, 149<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comparative lightness of in Ireland, <a href="#Page_702">702</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Tender conscience, a, 454.<br /> +<br /> +Tennessee, a night on the banks of the, 278.<br /> +<br /> +"That's what we are," a poem, <ins class="correction" title="Original reads '744'."><a href="#Page_741">741</a></ins>.<br /> +<br /> +Thierry's history of the Gauls, review of, 466.<br /> +<br /> +Thurlow, Lord, anecdotes of, 258, 259, 263.<br /> +<br /> +To my mistress, from Goethe, 427.<br /> +<br /> +Tombless man, the, a dream, by Delta, 583.<br /> +<br /> +Traditions and tales of Upper Lusatia, No. II., the fairy tutor, 83<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. III., the dwarf's well, 196</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. IV., the moor maiden, <a href="#Page_726">726</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Treasure seeker, the, from Goethe, 423.<br /> +<br /> +Twiss's life of Lord Eldon, review of, 245.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Up stream; or steam-boat reminiscences, 64.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Violet, the, from Goethe, 66.<br /> +<br /> +Voltaire, character of, as a historian, <a href="#Page_787">787</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +W. E. A., Heart of the Bruce by, 15<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the old Scottish cavalier by, 195</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the execution of Montrose, by, 289.</span><br /> +<br /> +Walworth, the milkman of, <a href="#Page_687">687</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Week of an emperor, the, 127.<br /> +<br /> +Westminster hall and the works of art on a free admission day, by B. Simmons, 652.<br /> +<br /> +Who'll buy a Cupid, from Goethe, 62.<br /> +<br /> +Wild rose, the, from Goethe, 427.<br /> +<br /> +Wilson, Professor, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 378.<br /> +<br /> +Witchfinder, the Part I., 297<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conclusion, 487.</span><br /> +<br /> +Writ of error, proceedings on the, 545.<br /> +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>END OF VOL. LVI.</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work</i>.</h3> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p>Transcriber's Notes:</p> +<p>The original text includes two page 671 and two 672; the second of each is preceded by an asterisk as is presented in this document.</p> +<p>Additional spacing after some of the block quotes is intentional to indicate +both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as is in the original text.</p> + +<p>The original Greek included a variant form of "rho" which could not be duplicated.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +56, Number 350, December 1844, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 29423-h.htm or 29423-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/2/29423/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Stephanie Eason, Jonathan +Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 16, 2009 [EBook #29423] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Stephanie Eason, Jonathan +Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + + + + + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S + EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + NO. CCCL. DECEMBER, 1844. VOL. LVI. + + + CONTENTS. + + The Scottish Banking System, 671 + + The Milkman of Walworth, 687 + + Injured Ireland, 701 + + Singular Passages in the Life of a Russian Officer, 713 + + Traditions and Tales of Upper Lusatia. No IV. The Moor Maiden, 726 + + "That's What We Are," 741 + + Edmund Burke, 745 + + My College Friends. No. II. John Brown, 763 + + Nelson's Despatches and Letters, 775 + + Guizot, 786 + + + + EDINBURGH: + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON. + + _To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._ + + SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S + EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + No. CCCL. DECEMBER, 1844. Vol. LVI. + + + + +THE SCOTTISH BANKING SYSTEM. + + +When any important branch of national polity has been impeached, +arraigned, and brought to stand its trial before the bar of public +opinion, it is satisfactory to know that the subject has been +thoroughly investigated, since a searching investigation alone can +excuse a verdict, be it of acquittal or of condemnation. That no man +can be twice tried upon the same indictment, is a proud boast of the +British constitution. It would be well if the same rule were always +applied when mightier interests than those of individuals are at +stake! + +It is just eighteen years ago since a ministry, feeble in practice, +but strong in speculative theory, ventured to put forth its hand +against the monetary system of Scotland, under shelter of which the +country had improved and thriven to a degree of prosperity never +experienced to the north of the Tweed before, and at a ratio which far +exceeded that of any other nation in Europe. In the short space of +half a century, the whole face of the country had changed. From a +bleak, barren, and dilapidated region--for such she undoubtedly was +for many years subsequent to the last rebellion of 1745--Scotland +became, with the shortest possible transition, a favourite land of +husbandry. Mosses and muirs, which, at all events since the forgotten +days of the Jameses, had borne no other crop than rugged bent or +stubborn heather, were subjected to the discipline of the plough, and +produced a golden harvest of grain. Woods sprang up as if by magic, +from the roots of the old Caledonian forest, to hide the nakedness of +the land and redeem the national reproach. The towns and +boroughs--which had never recovered from the terrible blow inflicted +upon them by the failure of the Darien scheme, in which nearly the +whole capital of Scotland was embarked, and which had lost the greater +and more valuable portion of their trade, and dwindled down into +almost hopeless insignificancy--began to revive again. New +manufactures were established, the older ones were extended; the +fisheries rose immensely in magnitude and importance; the mountainous +districts were made profitable by the breeding and export of sheep and +cattle; and even the rugged shores of the Hebrides furnished for a +time a most profitable article of commerce. All this took place in a +poor and very neglected country. England for a long time knew little +of what as going on in the north; perhaps her eyes were then riveted, +with more than the anxiety of a gamester's, upon the great stakes for +which she was contending on the red battle-fields of Europe. This much +she knew, that Scotland could produce in time of need--ay, and did +produce--levies of men, whose high heroic courage, steady discipline, +and daring intrepidity, were the theme even of their enemies' +admiration; and of these services she was, and is, justly and +generously proud. But of the social condition of their northern +neighbours, we repeat, the body of the English, at this period, were +singularly ignorant. We had not very long before suffered the penalty +of adherence to a fallen cause. We were considered to be still rather +too irritable and dangerous for much interference; perhaps, also, it +was thought that it might be _cheaper_ to leave us to ourselves--and, +so long as we paid our proportion of the common taxation, not to +enquire too curiously into our own domestic system of management. In +all respects, therefore, notwithstanding the war, we flourished. + +Peace came; and with peace, as a matter of course, a more searching +investigation into the internal state of the country. Then, for the +first time, Scotland became a sort of marvel. Our agriculture, our +commerce, our internal resources, so strangely and quickly augmented, +attracted the attention of the politician; and the question was +speedily mooted--"How, and by what means, have so poor a nation as the +Scotch attained so singular a position?" And truly the facts were +startling, and such as might justify an enquiry. _The whole coined +money in Scotland, at the date of the Union, was known not to have +exceeded the sum of_ ONE MILLION STERLING; and a large part of this +paltry sum was necessarily hoarded, and so withdrawn from circulation, +throughout the whole period of the intestine troubles. That single +million, therefore, held the place both of that part of the wealth of +the country which is now represented by bank-notes, and also of that +which is now deposited in the hands of the bankers. Aladdin's palace, +which sprang up in one night at the bidding of the slaves of the lamp, +could scarcely have been a greater paradox to the aged Sultan, than +this increase of prosperity on the part of Scotland was to our +southern legislators. How to explain the metamorphosis seemed for a +time a mystery. One thing, at all events, was clear--that English gold +had no participation in the change. North of the Tweed, a guinea was a +suspected article, apt to be rung, and examined, and curiously +weighed, before it was received in currency, and even then accepted +with a certain reluctance. The favourite medium of circulation was +paper-notes of one pound each, of somewhat dubious complexion to the +eye of the stranger, but received and circulated by the Scottish +people with the utmost readiness and confidence. The answer to the +question was a short one--"We have prospered through OUR BANKING +SYSTEM." + +It was some time--not until ten years of peace had elapsed--before any +open attack was made upon that system, which had proved, if facts can +prove any thing, the greatest imaginable boon to the nation; and +which, be it always specially remembered, did not originate with the +state, but with private individuals--upright, honourable, and +patriotic men--who better deserve a monument to their memories, were +that required, than the most successful conqueror whose march is on +humbled thrones. During that period much was done with regard to +internal relations, of which we, in common with every Scotsman who +retains one spark of patriotic feeling, most heartily disapprove. The +tendency towards centralization in London--the inevitable consequence +of the Union treaty--was not only not counteracted, as we maintain it +ought to have been, by a wise and paternal government, but forced and +hurried on by an excessive exercise of power. Every remnant of our +ancient institutions that could be rooted up, and all our local boards +with hardly one exception, were transferred to the seat of +government--regardless of the drain that was thereby made from the +proper resources of the country, and the deep heart-burnings that such +a system must necessarily create amongst a proud, observant, and +jealous, though enduring people. These things we shall not dilate +upon--though the temptation is triply strong, and we know how keenly +that subject is felt by many of the best and most loyal of the +land;--but in the mean time we shall pass over this period of gradual +humiliation, and come at once to the first great attack that was made +upon the source of all our national prosperity. + +At the close of the year 1825, there arrived a period of public +distress, followed by a panic which fortunately has but rarely been +felt in this country. We attributed it then, and we attribute it now, +to an unexampled glut in the money market, which we hold to be in this +trading country the most destructive of any, saving and excepting a +glut in agricultural produce and labour; and for this very plain +reason, that a glut of money resolves itself sooner or later into a +glut of goods, thereby carrying the amount of production in the +country far beyond the amount of the consumption and demand, and so +necessarily for a time closing the door against all the outlets of +industry. But it is of very little consequence to our present purpose +how that distress was created. The effects were very grievous. In +England the panic took effect, and a run was made upon the banks for +gold; the consequence of which was, that a number of the private and +joint-stock establishments failed. In Scotland, where the distress was +certainly not less in proportion, there was not only no failure on the +part of the banks, but no run, and no diminution in the usual credits. +At this time, it is very proper to remark, that England had been +thoroughly centralized; that is, that the whole course and tendency of +its money market was to London; and indeed, for purposes of trade, the +principal circulation of the important districts of Lancashire and +others, seems to have been bills of exchange payable in London, with +from twenty to fifty endorsements on each. With us such a system was +unknown. Scotland, then as now, and we devoutly trust for ever, had +her own internal circulation, and neither took nor gave, except when +statutorily compelled, beyond the limits of her own jurisdiction. + +The attention of the ministry was immediately directed to an +investigation of the cause of the general distress. This was right and +proper, and precisely what a cautious and well-meaning government +ought to do under such circumstances, in order to prevent, if +possible, the recurrence of a similar disaster. But unfortunately the +ministers of the day, though well-meaning, were any thing but +cautious. The majority of them were imbued with speculative notions of +political economy. They were disciples of a school which rejects facts +and cleaves implicitly to theory--men who threw considerations of +circumstance, time, and national characteristics aside, as prejudices +too low for even the momentary regard of a philosopher; in short, they +wished to introduce the standard of an untried rule as the _ne plus +ultra_ of human sagacity, and remorselessly to overturn every existing +institution--no matter at what sacrifice or risk--if it only seemed to +stand in the way of the operation of their darling theories. + +It was easy for men so tutored and trained, to overlook the necessary +effect which fluctuation of the seasons at home and abroad must have +upon the prices of either produce, of the effect of these prices upon +manufactures, and the manifest and established fact that there is a +point when _production_ will exceed _consumption_. This state of +things it is totally beyond the power of man to remedy. The facts of +nature will always be found too strong for the theories of the +political economist; but our rulers in the plenitude of their wisdom +thought otherwise; and began to search within the social system for a +cause of that disorder, which was neither more nor less than an +epidemic, as totally beyond the reach of their prevention as if the +College of Physicians were to issue their solemn fiat--"This year +there shall be neither cholera nor fever." In searching for the cause, +however, they stumbled upon an effect which they at once adroitly +magnified into a cause. In England there had been a marked increase +during the rise in the issue of the country banks. Here was an +opportune discovery for the champions of metallic currency! and, +accordingly, the paper system was prostrated in England to make way +for its more glittering, often more slippery, and always more +expensive rival. + +Scotland, in the mean time, was going on in her old and steady +footing. One and all of the banks--chartered, joint-stock, and +private--were as firm as if each had been backed by the whole weight +and responsibility of the state. Between them and the public the most +perfect confidence subsisted; and very nobly indeed, in that time of +trial and distress, did the banks behave, in maintaining credits +grievously depressed for the moment, but certain to revive with the +return of general prosperity. This mutual confidence is the great +secret of the success of the Scottish system. The banker is to the +trader as a commercial physician--sometimes restrictive, sometimes +liberal, but always a judicious friend. It is impossible to separate +the interests of the two; and as they have risen together, so, in the +event of a change, must they both equally decline. But we will not +anticipate our defence, before we have adduced the facts upon which +that defence is founded. + +All at once, and without sounding any note of preparation, the +ministry announced, that after the expiry of a given season, the whole +Scottish banking system was to be changed, all paper currency under +the five-pound note abolished, and a metallic circulation introduced +and enforced. If Ben Nevis had burst forth at once in the full thunder +of volcanic eruption, we could not have been more astonished. What! +without complaint or enquiry--without the shadow of a cause shown, or +a reason assigned, except it might be that reason--to a Scotsman the +most unpalatable of all--the propriety of assimilating the +institutions of both countries; in other words, of coercing Scotland +to adopt the habit of her neighbours--to excavate the foundation-stone +of our whole prosperity, and make us the victims of a theory which, +even if sound, could not profess to give us one tittle more advantage +than the course which we had so long pursued! We believe that if the +annals of legislation were searched through, we could not find a +parallel case of such wanton and unprovoked temerity! + +We said then, and we say now, with even more emphatic earnestness, it +is the curse of the age that every thing is to be managed by political +economy and philosophy, and that local knowledge is to be utterly +disregarded in the management of local interests. CENTRALIZE and +ASSIMILATE--these were the watchwords of the ministers of that day; +and for aught that we can see, Sir Robert Peel is determined to +persevere in the theory. What excuse was there, _then_, for the +attempt of any assimilation between the banking systems of the two +countries? If it had been alleged that the Scotch paper currency was +surreptitiously carried into England--that it was there supplanting +the legal currency, and absorbing the gold in exchange, there might +have been some show of reason for a slight modification of the +system--at all events for a more stringent preventive check. But no +such allegation was made. The most determined hater of the Scottish +banks knew well that their paper never crossed the Border; for the +very best of all possible reasons, that the notes were not a legal +tender, and that five persons out of six to whom they might happen to +be offered, would unhesitatingly reject them. Again, to absorb the +gold would have been neither more nor less than partially to carry out +the views entertained by the supporters of a metallic currency, and +therefore surely, in their eyes, a venal, if not a meritorious, +offence. But such was not the fact. In Scotland there was no such a +thing known as a gold circulation. The fishermen, the cattle dealers, +and the small traders, would not so much as take it; and the stranger +who, through ignorance, had provided himself with a stock of the +precious metal, was forced to have recourse to a Scottish bank in +order to have it exchanged for notes. Beyond what lay in the bank +reserves, there was literally none in the country; and therefore any +idea of the interference of the currencies was too preposterous to be +maintained. + +But it is not here, or at this point, that we intend to discuss the +propriety of the measure which was then proposed. Unfortunately, we +are called upon to do so with reference to our own times, as well as +to those which are now matter of history; and the remarks which we +shall have occasion to offer are equally applicable to the one as to +the other. In the mean time, let us see how the mere alarm engendered +by that unlucky proposition affected Scotland, and what steps were +taken to resist the threatened change. + +First of all, we have it in evidence that the open threat of the +ministerial scheme produced within the country more actual distress +and bankruptcies than had previously occurred during the period of the +previous depression. This may seem a paradox to a stranger; but the +reason will be readily understood, and the fact candidly admitted by +every one who is conversant with the Scottish system of banking. A +short explanation may be necessary. One large department of the +business of every bank was the granting of CASH-CREDITS; a method of +accommodation to the public which the experience of _ninety-four +years_ (cash-credits were granted by the Royal Bank of Scotland so +early as 1729) had shown not only to be the safest to the bank, but by +far the most advantageous to the public. Indeed it is not too much to +say, that were those credits prohibited, and no other alteration made +in the existing system, the mainspring of the machinery of Scottish +banking would be broken, and its general utility impaired. With that +point we shall deal more fully when we come to the consideration of +the system in detail; at present it is only necessary to remark, that +these credits had been maintained unimpaired during the period of +depression, and were the fortunate means of averting ruin from many. + +But the attitude which the ministry assumed was so formidable, and the +prospect of a sweeping change so alarming, that the bankers were +forced in self-defence, though sorely against their will, to make +preparation for the worst contingencies. They were, so to speak, +compelled to follow the example of England in 1745--to recall all +their outlying forces from abroad, concentrate them at home, and leave +their allies to fight their own battles as they best could, and to +conquer or fall according to their ability or weakness. Their first +step was rigidly to refuse the granting of any new cash-credits; their +second, to withdraw--with as much tenderness as might be, but still to +withdraw--those which were already in existence. It was then that the +country at large began to feel how terribly their interests were +compromised. The trader, who was driving an active business on the +strength of his cash-credit, and turning over the amount of his +bank-account it may be thirty times in the course of the year, found +himself suddenly brought to a stand-still. The country gentleman, in +the midst of his agricultural improvements, and at the very moment +when their cessation would undo all that he had hitherto accomplished, +was compelled either to desist for want of ready money, and throw his +labourers on the parish, or to have recourse to the pernicious system +of discounting bills at a ruinous rate of interest. The manufacturer, +in despair, was reduced to close his works, and the operatives went +forth to combine, or starve, or burn; for the hand of the ministry was +upon them likewise, and their burden was sorer than their masters'. + +These were the first fruits of the proposed metallic currency; and it +soon became evident to all, that nothing was left for Scotland, if she +wished to escape from universal ruin, but to offer a firm and most +determined resistance. The struggle was felt throughout the length and +breadth of the land to be one, which, if it did not actually involve +existence, involved a greater commercial interest than had been at +stake for more than a century before. The combination which took place +in consequence was so extraordinary, that we may be pardoned if we +express our wonder how any minister who witnessed it, can at this hour +have the temerity to return to the charge. Party-spirit, always higher +and keener in Scotland than elsewhere, was at once forgotten in the +common cause. All ranks, from the peer to the peasant, rose up in +wrath at the proposed innovation; and from every county, city, town, +village, and corporation in the kingdom, indignant remonstrances were +forwarded to the foot of the Throne, and to the Imperial Parliament of +Great Britain. It was assuredly a dangerous experiment to make with a +proud and jealous people. Old watchwords and old recollections, buried +spells which it were safer to leave alone, began to revive amongst us; +and many a lighter act of aggression, which had been passed over at +the moment in silence, was then recalled and canvassed, and magnified +into a serious grievance. In short, Scotland, from the bottom of her +heart, felt herself most deeply insulted. + +It was at this time that the celebrated letters of Malachi +Malagrowther appeared. To the general sentiments contained in that +work, we subscribe without the slightest hesitation. Strong language +is usually to be deprecated, but there are seasons when no language +can be too strong. We think meanly of the man who can sit down to +round his periods, and prune his language, and reduce his feelings to +the level of cold mediocrity, when he knows that the best interests of +his country are at stake, and that he is her chosen champion. And +such, most assuredly, and beyond all comparison, was Sir Walter Scott. +He went into that conflict like a giant, in a manner that disdained +conventionalisms; he neither begged, nor prayed, nor conceded, but +took his firm ground on the chartered liberties of his country, and +spoke out in such manly and patriotic accents as Scotland has rarely +heard since the days of Fletcher and Belhaven. All honour be to his +memory! Were it for that good work alone, his name ought for ever to +be immortal. + +In consequence, ministry were condescending enough to allow a +Parliamentary enquiry. Even that was not granted readily, as the +prevailing impression in the cabinet seemed to be, that Scottish +affairs were of too slight importance to occupy the time of the +Imperial Parliament. The old country might be dealt with summarily, +and left to remonstrate at its leisure. But the spirited resistance of +our representatives, and it is no less incumbent upon us to add, that +innate sense of justice in Englishmen, which will not suffer any one +to be condemned unheard, procured us the investigation, upon the issue +of which we were willing to rest our cause. The Scottish banking +system underwent the severest of all scrutinies before committees of +the Houses of Peers and of the Commons; and the following was the +nature of the reports. + +The committee of the House of Commons, after recapitulating the +leading points which were brought out in evidence before them, came to +the following conclusions--which it is very important to bring before +the public now, as they refer not only to the deductions which the +committee had formed from the history of the past, but to the special +reasons which were to influence the legislature in future and +prospective change. + + "Upon a review of the evidence tendered to your committee, and + forming their judgment upon that evidence, your committee _cannot + advise_ that a law should now be passed, prohibiting, from a + period to be therein determined, the future issue in Scotland of + notes below five pounds:-- + + "There are, in the opinion of your committee, sufficient grounds + in the experience of the past for permitting another trial to be + made of the compatibility of a paper circulation in Scotland with + a circulation of specie in this country. + + "Looking at the amount of notes current in Scotland, below the + value of five pounds, and comparing it with the total amount of + the paper currency of that country, _it is very difficult to + foresee the consequences of a law which should prohibit the + future issue of notes constituting so large a proportion of the + whole circulation_. + + "Your committee are certainly not convinced that it would affect + the cash-credits to the extent apprehended by some of the + witnesses; but they are unwilling, without stronger proof of + necessity, to incur the risk of deranging, from any cause + whatever, A SYSTEM ADMIRABLY CALCULATED, in their opinion, to + economize the use of capital, to excite and cherish a spirit of + useful enterprise, and even to promote the moral habits of the + people, by the direct inducements which it holds out to the + maintenance of a character for industry, integrity, and prudence. + + "At the same time that your committee recommend that the system + of currency which has for so long a period prevailed in Scotland, + should not, under existing circumstances, be disturbed, they feel + it to be their duty to add, that they have formed their judgment + upon a reference to the past, and upon the review of a state of + things which may hereafter be considerably varied by the + increasing wealth and commerce of Scotland, by the rapid + extension of her commercial intercourse with England, and by the + new circumstances that may affect that intercourse after the + re-establishment of a metallic currency in this country. + + "Apart from these general observations, bearing upon the + conclusions at which they have arrived, there are two + circumstances to which your committee must more particularly + advert. + + "It is evident that if the small notes issued in Scotland should + be current beyond the Border, they would have the effect, in + proportion as their circulation should extend itself, of + displacing the specie, and even in some degree the local currency + of England. Such an interference with the system established for + England would be a manifest and gross injustice to the bankers of + this part of the empire. If it should take place, and it should + be found impossible to frame a law consistent with sound and just + principles of legislation, effectually restricting the + circulation of Scotch notes within the limits of Scotland, there + will be, in the opinion of your committee, no alternative but the + extension to Scotland of the principle which the legislature has + determined to apply to this country. + + "The other circumstances to which your committee meant to refer, + as bearing materially upon their present decision, will arise in + the event of a considerable increase in the crime of forgery. + Your committee called for returns of the number of prosecutions + and convictions for forgery, and the offence of passing forged + notes, during the last twenty years in Scotland, which returns + will be found in the appendix. There appears to have been, during + that period, no prosecutions for the crime of forgery; to have + been eighty-six prosecutions for the offence of issuing forged + promissory notes--fifty-two convictions; and eight instances in + which the capital sentence of the law has been carried into + effect." + +This may, on the whole, be considered as an impartial report; and, as +it is as well in every case to disencumber a question from +specialties, we shall state here that experience has since shown that +there has been no tendency whatever to the introduction of Scottish +notes into England. With regard to the other special point referred to +by the committee--that of forgery--such a thing as a forged bank-note +is now unknown in Scotland. The evidence taken before the last +committee on banks of issue in 1841, established the fact, that since +the improved steel plates were brought into general use, there has +never been a forgery of a note. Such being the case, it is unnecessary +here to dispute the wisdom of that policy which would leave a great +national institution at the mercy of a single forger. The experience +of this last month alone might show how wretchedly that test would +operate if applied even to the Bank of England. + +Setting these specialties aside, the only possibly grounds which this +committee saw for any future legislative interference were, "the +increasing wealth and commerce of Scotland, the rapid extension of her +commercial intercourse with England, and the circumstances which may +affect that intercourse after the re-establishment of an English +metallic currency." To us the first part of this reservation sounds +somewhat like a threat of future bleeding when Scotland shall have +become more pursy and plethoric. Nevertheless we are ready to join +issue with our opponents on any of these grounds. + +The report of the Lords was even more favourable; and, at the risk of +being thought tedious, we cannot refrain from inserting their +admirable digest of the evidence, which, for candour and clearness, +might be taken as a universal model. + + "With respect to Scotland, it is to be remarked, that during the + period from 1766 to 1797, when no small notes were by law + issuable in England, the portion of the currency in Scotland in + which payments under five pounds were made, continued to consist + almost entirely of notes of L1 and L1, 1s.; and that no + inconvenience is known to have resulted from this difference in + the currency of the two countries. This circumstance, amongst + others, tends to prove that uniformity, however desirable, is not + indispensably necessary. It is also proved, by the evidence and + by the documents, that the banks of Scotland, whether chartered + or joint-stock companies or private establishments, _have for + more than a century exhibited a stability which the committee + believe to be_ UNEXAMPLED IN THE HISTORY OF BANKING; that they + supported themselves from 1797 to 1812 without any protection + from the restriction by which the Bank of England and that of + Ireland were relieved from cash payments; that there was little + demand for gold during the late embarrassments in the + circulation; and that, _in the whole period of their + establishment_, there are not more than two or three instances of + bankruptcy. As, during the whole of this period, a large portion + of their issues consisted almost entirely of notes not exceeding + L1 or L1, 1s., there is the strongest reason for concluding, + that, as far as respects the banks of Scotland, the issue of + paper of that description _has been found compatible with the_ + HIGHEST DEGREE _of solidity_; and that there is not, therefore, + while they are conducted upon their present system, sufficient + ground for proposing any alteration, with the view of adding to a + solidity which has been so long sufficiently established. + + "This solidity appears to derive a great support from the + constant exchange of notes between the different banks, by which + they become checks upon each other, and by which any over-issue + is subject to immediate observation and correction. + + "There is also one part of the system, which is stated by all the + witnesses (in the opinion of the committee very justly stated) to + have had the best effects upon the people of Scotland, and + particularly upon the middling and poorer classes of society, in + producing and encouraging habits of frugality and industry. _The + practice referred to is that of_ CASH-CREDITS. Any person who + applies to a bank for a cash-credit is called upon to produce two + or more competent securities, who are jointly bound, and after a + full enquiry into the character of the applicant, the nature of + his business, and the sufficiency of his securities, he is + allowed to open a credit, and to draw upon the bank for the whole + of its amount, or for such part as his daily transactions may + require. To the credit of this account he pays in such sums as he + may not have occasion to use, and interest is charged or credited + upon the daily balance, as the case may be. From the facility + which these cash-credits give to all the small transactions of + the country, and from the opportunities which they afford to + persons who begin business with little or no capital but their + character, to employ profitably the minutest products of their + industry, it cannot be doubted that the most important advantages + are derived to the whole community. The advantage to the banks + who give those cash-credits arises from the call which they + continually produce for the issue of their paper, and from the + opportunity which they afford for the profitable employment of + part of their deposits. The banks are indeed so sensible that, in + order to make this part of their business advantageous and + secure, it is necessary that their cash-credits should (as they + express it) be frequently operated upon, that they refuse to + continue them unless this implied condition be fulfilled. The + total amount of their cash-credits is stated by one witness to be + five millions, on which the average amount advanced by the banks + may be one-third. + + "The manner in which the practice of deposits on receipt is + conducted tends to produce the same desirable results. Sums to as + low an amount as L10 (and in some instances lower) are taken by + the banks from the depositor, who may claim them at demand. He + receives an interest, usually about one per cent below the market + rate. It is stated that these deposits are, to a great extent, + left uncalled for from year to year, and that the depositors are + in the habit of adding, at the end of each year, to the interest + then accrued, the amount of their yearly savings; that the sums + thus gradually accumulated belong chiefly to the labouring and + industrious classes of the community; and that, when such + accounts are closed, it is generally for the purpose of enabling + the depositors either to purchase a house or to engage in + business. + + "It is contended by all the persons engaged in banking in + Scotland, that the issue of one-pound notes is essential to the + continuance both of their cash-credits and of the branch banks + established in the poorest and most remote districts. Whether the + discontinuance of one-pound notes would necessarily operate to + the full extent which they apprehend, in either of these + respects, may perhaps admit of doubt; but the apprehensions + entertained on this head, by the persons most immediately + concerned, might, for a time at least, have nearly the same + effect as the actual necessity; _and there is strong reason to + believe, that if the prohibition of one-pound notes should not + ultimately overturn the whole system, it must for a considerable + time materially affect it_. + + "The directors of the Bank of England, who have been examined + before the committee, have given it as their opinion, that a + circulation of notes of L1 in Scotland or in Ireland would not + produce any effects injurious to the metallic circulation of + England, provided such notes be respectively confined within the + boundary of their own country. + + "Notwithstanding the opinions which have been here detailed, the + committee are, on the whole, so deeply impressed with the + importance of a metallic circulation below L5 in England, not + only for the benefit of England, but likewise for that of all the + other parts of the empire, that if they were reduced to make an + option between the establishment of such a metallic circulation + in Scotland, or the abandonment of it in England, they would + recommend the prohibition of small notes in Scotland. But they + entertain a reasonable expectation, that legislative measures may + be devised which will be effectual in preventing the introduction + of Scotch paper into England; and unless such measures should in + practice prove ineffectual, or _unless some new circumstance + should arise_ to derange the operations of the existing system in + Scotland itself, or materially to affect the relations of trade + and intercourse between Scotland and England, they are not + disposed to recommend that the existing system of banking and + currency in Scotland should be disturbed." + +This is just what a Parliamentary report ought to be--calm, +perspicuous, and decided. There is no circumlocution nor ambiguity of +expression here. After a patient investigation into the whole +question, and a minute examination of enemies as well as friends, the +Lords arrived at the opinion, that the existing banking system of +Scotland ought on all points to be maintained, and they not only +stated their general conviction, but gave their reasons for upholding +each part in detail, in the luminous manner which has always been the +characteristic of that august Assembly, and which has established its +proud reputation as not only the noblest, but the most upright +tribunal of the world. It is worthy of the most marked attention, that +the committee of the Lords in this report, which afterwards received +the sanction of the House, advocated no temporary continuance of the +banking system in Scotland, but were clearly of opinion that it should +remain as a permanent institution. They evidently entertained no +ideas, grounded upon mere expediency, that it would be prudent to wait +until Scotland, by means of her cherished institutions and her own +internal industry, arrived at that point of condition when it might be +expedient to introduce the lancet, and drain off a little of her +superfluous blood. They vent upon the righteous maxim--that a nation, +as well as a man, is entitled to work out its own resources in peace, +so long as it does not trench upon the industry or prerogatives of its +neighbour, and so long as no impeachment can be laid against the +prudence and stability of its institutions. We defy any man to read +over this report, and to adduce one word from it which shall convey +the idea that it was not intended as a final judgment, with the simple +qualifications that we have stated in the last sentence. + +These two reports saved the country--we trust we shall not hereafter +be compelled to add, only for a time--from its great impending +misfortune. The circulation in England became metallic, with what +success it is not for us to say, whilst Scotland was allowed to retain +her paper currency with at least most perfect satisfaction to herself. +One pregnant fact, however, it would be unpardonable for us to +omit--as showing the stability of the northern system when compared +with that practised in the south--that at the last investigation +before a committee of the House of Commons in 1841, it was stated, +that whereas in Scotland the whole loss sustained by the public from +bank failures, _for a century and a half_, amounted to L. 32,000, the +loss to the public, _during the previous year in London alone, was +estimated at_ TEN TIMES THAT AMOUNT! + +Since 1826, we have had eighteen years' further experience of the +system, without either detecting derangement in its organization, or +the slightest diminution of confidence on the part of the public. +There has been no interference with the metallic currency of England. +Forgery is a crime now utterly unknown, as is also coining, beyond the +insignificant counterfeits of the silver issue. This, in fact, is a +great advantage which we have above the English in point of security, +since we are exempt from the risk of receiving into circulation either +base or light sovereigns, and since the banks provide for the +deterioration of their notes by tear and wear, whilst the holder of a +light sovereign has to pay the difference between the standard and the +deficient weight. When we reflect upon the small amount of the wages +of a labouring man, it is manifest how important this branch of the +subject is; for were gold allowed in Scotland to supersede the paper +currency, a fresh and most dangerous impetus would be given to the +crime of coining; and there cannot be a doubt, that in the remoter +districts, where gold is utterly unknown, a most lamentable series of +frauds would be perpetrated, with little risk of detection, but with +the cruelest consequences to the poor and illiterate classes. + +We are not, however, inclined to adopt the opinion expressed by the +committee of the House of Commons, to the extent of admitting that it +would be either politic or just to disturb the whole banking system of +a country on account of private frauds, whether forgeries or the +fabrication of counterfeit coin. If their opinion was a sound one, the +weight of evidence is now upon our side of the argument; but we hold +that the interests at stake are far too great to be affected by any +such minor details. If any new circumstance has arisen "to affect the +relations of trade and intercourse between Scotland and England," we +at least are wholly unconscious of the occurrence, and, of course, it +is the duty of those who meditate a change to point it out, in order +that it may be thoroughly scrutinized. Internally, the business of the +banks has been increasing, and, commensurate with that increase, there +has been a vast addition to the number of branch banks spread over the +face of the country; so that, whereas in 1825 there was but one office +for every 13,170 individuals, in 1841 there was an office for every +6600 of the population. This is plainly the inevitable effect of +competition; but lest that increase should be founded upon by our +opponents as a proof of over-circulation, we shall say a few words +upon the subject of the _exchange_ between the banks themselves, which +is a leading feature of our whole system, and the most complete check +against over-trading which human ingenuity could devise. Fortunately +we have ample _data_ for our statement in the evidence tendered to the +committee on banks of issue in 1841. + +It is right, however, to premise that, strictly speaking, there are +not more, nay, there are positively _fewer_ banks in Scotland at the +present moment than there were in 1825, though the amount of paid-up +capital in the banks is more than doubled. It is the branches alone +which make this astonishing increase. Now, as a branch is merely a +local agency of the parent bank, established at a distance for the +sake of outlying business, the number of parties engaged in banking +who are responsible to the public is not thereby increased, nor is the +amount in circulation extended. In fact, the multiplication of the +branch banks has been of extraordinary benefit to the public, by +affording the inhabitants of even the remotest districts a ready, +easy, and favourite method of deposit, and by extinguishing all risks +of credit. Further, it has this manifest advantage, that the manager +of the branch bank has far greater facilities of ascertaining the +character, habits, and pursuits of those persons who may have received +the advantage of a cash-credit accommodation, and can immediately +report to his superiors any circumstances which may render it +advisable that the credit should be contracted or withdrawn. So far +are we from holding that the multiplication of branch banks is any +evil or incumbrance, that we look upon it as an increased security not +only to the banker but the dealer. The latter, in fact, is the +principal gainer; because a competition among the banks has always the +effect of heightening the rate of interest given upon deposits, and of +lowering the rates charged upon advances. Nor does this give any +impetus to rash speculation on the part of the dealer, but directly +the reverse. The deposits always increase with the advancing rate of +interest; and experience has shown, that it is not until that rate +declines to two per cent that deposited money is usually withdrawn, +which is the signal of commencing speculation. To the mere speculator +the banks afford no facilities, but the reverse. Their cash credits +are only granted for the daily operations of persons actively engaged +in trade, business, or commerce. So soon as that credit appears to be +converted into a different channel, it is withdrawn, as alike +dangerous to the user and unprofitable to the bank which has given it. + +Of thirty-one banks in Scotland which issue notes, five only are +_chartered_--that is, the responsibility of the proprietors in those +established is confined to the amount of their subscribed capital. The +remaining twenty-six are, with one or two exceptions, joint-stock +banks, and the proprietors are liable to the public for the whole of +the bank responsibilities to the last shilling of their private +fortunes. The number of persons connected with these banks as +shareholders is very great, almost every man of opulence in the +country being a holder of stock to a greater or a less amount. That +some jealousy must exist among so many competitors in a limited field, +is an obvious matter of inference. Such jealousy, however, has only +operated for the advantage of the public, by the maintenance of a +common and vigilant watch upon the manner in which the affairs of each +establishment are conducted, and against the intrusion of any new +parties into the circle whose capital does not seem to warrant the +likelihood of their ultimate stability. Accordingly, the Scottish +bankers have arranged amongst themselves a mutual system of exchange, +as stringent as if it had the force of statute, by means of which an +over-issue of notes becomes a matter of perfect impossibility. _Twice +in every week the whole notes deposited with the different bank +offices in Scotland are regularly interchanged._ Now, with this system +in operation, it is perfectly ludicrous to suppose that any bank would +issue its paper rashly for the sake of an extended circulation. _The +whole notes_ in circulation throughout Scotland return to their +respective banks in a period averaging from ten to eleven days in +urban, and from a fortnight to three weeks in rural districts. In +consequence of the rate of interest allowed by the banks, no person +has any inducement to keep bank paper by him, but the reverse, and the +general practice of the country is to keep the circulation at as low a +rate as possible. The numerous branch banks which are situated up and +down the country, are the means of taking the notes of their +neighbours out of the circle as speedily as possible. In this way it +is not possible for the circulation to be more than what is absolutely +necessary for the transactions of the country. + +If, therefore, any bank had been so rash as to grant accommodation +without proper security, merely for the sake of obtaining a +circulation, in ten days, or a fortnight at the furthest, it is +compelled to account with the other banks for every note they have +received. If it does not hold enough of their paper to redeem its own +upon exchange, it is compelled to pay the difference in exchequer +bills, a certain amount of which every bank is bound by mutual +agreement to hold, the fractional parts of each thousand pounds being +payable in Bank of England notes or in gold. In this way over-trading, +in so far as regards the issue of paper, is so effectually guarded and +controlled, that it would puzzle Parliament, with all its conceded +conventional wisdom, to devise any plan alike so simple and +expeditious. + +The amount of notes at present in circulation throughout Scotland is +estimated at three millions, or at the very utmost three millions and +a half. At certain times of the year, such as the great legal terms of +Whitsunday and Martinmas, when money is universally paid over and +received, there is, of course, a corresponding increase of issue for +the moment which demands an extra supply of notes. It is never +considered safe for a bank to have a smaller amount of notes in stock +than the average amount which is out in circulation; so that the whole +amount of bank-notes, both in circulation and in hand, may be +calculated at seven millions. The fluctuation at the above terms is so +remarkable, that we are tempted to give an account of the number of +notes delivered and received by the bank of Scotland in exchange with +other banks during the months of May and November 1840:-- + + Notes Notes + Delivered. Received. + 1840, + May 1, L 51,000 L 43,000 + ... 5, 52,000 32,000 + ... 8, 44,000 45,000 + ... 12, 43,000 48,000 + ... 15, 54,000 64,000 + ... 19, *132,000 *172,000 + ... 22, 98,000 69,000 + ... 26, 38,000 33,000 + + Nov. 3, 38,000 32,000 + ... 6, 37,000 33,000 + ... 10, 51,000 61,000 + ... 13, *99,000 *138,000 + ... 17, 67,000 80,000 + ... 20, 66,000 49,000 + ... 24, 52,000 33,000 + ... 27, 66,000 42,000 + + *Term Settlements. + + +It will be seen from the above table how rapidly the system of bank +exchange absorbs the over-issue, and how instantaneously the paper +drawn from one bank finds its way into the hands of another. + +If further proof were required of the absurdity of the notion, that a +paper circulation has a necessary tendency to over-issue, the +following fact is conclusive. The banking capital in Scotland has +_more than doubled_ between the years 1825 and 1840--a triumphant +proof of their increased stability; whilst the circulation has been +nearly stationary, but, if any thing, _rather diminished than +otherwise_. We quote from a report to the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. + + "The first return of the circulation was made in Scotland in + 1825. Every one knows the extraordinary advance which Scotland + has made between that period and 1840; for instance, in the + former of these years, she manufactured 55,000 bales of cotton, + in the latter, 120,000 bales. In 1826, the produce of the iron + furnaces was 33,500 tons; in 1840, about 250,000 tons. In 1826, + the banking capital of Scotland was L4,900,000; in 1840, it was + about L10,000,000; yet with all this progress in industry and + wealth, the circulation of notes, which in 1825 varied from + L3,400,000 to L4,700,000, was in 1839 from L2,960,000 to + L3,670,000, and in the first three months of 1840, L2,940,000." + +We are induced to dwell the more strongly upon these facts, because we +have strong suspicions that our opponents will endeavour to get at our +monetary system by raising the senseless cry of over-issue--senseless +at any time as a political maxim, it being the grossest fallacy to +maintain that an increased issue is the cause of national distress, +unless, indeed, it were possible to suppose that bankers were madmen +enough to dispense their paper without receiving a proper +equivalent--not only senseless, but positively nefarious, when the +clear broad fact stares them in the face, that Scotland has in fifteen +years thrown double the amount of capital into its banking +establishments, increased its productions in a threefold, and in some +cases a sevenfold ratio, augmented its population by nearly half a +million, (one-fifth part of the whole,) and yet kept its circulation +so low as to exhibit an actual decrease. + +If we were called upon to state the cause of this certainly singular +fact, we should, without any hesitation, attribute it to the great +increase of the bank branches. The establishment of a branch in a +remote locality, has invariably, from the thrifty habits of the +Scottish people, absorbed all the paper which otherwise would have +been hoarded for a time, and left in the hands of the holders without +any interest. It would thus seem, from practice, that the doctrines of +the political economists upon this head are absolutely fallacious; +that the increase of banks, supposing these banks to issue paper and +to give interest on deposits, has a direct tendency to check +over-circulation, and in fact does partially supersede it. + +With these facts before us, we consider that the measure of last +session, prohibiting any further issue of notes beyond those already +taken out by the banks, is almost a dead letter. We have not the least +fear, that under any circumstances there can be a call for a larger +circulation; at the same time, we demur to the policy which ties our +hands needlessly, and we object to all restriction where no case for +restriction has been shown. We look upon that measure as especially +unfair to the younger banks, whose circulation is not yet established, +and whose progress has thus received a material check, from no fault +of their own, but from want of ministerial notice. With every system +where competition is the acknowledged principle, it is clearly +impolitic to interfere; nor can we avoid the painful conviction, that +this first measure, though comparatively light and generally +unimportant, was put out by way of _feeler_, in order to test the +temper of the Scottish people--to ascertain whether eighteen years of +prosperity might not have made them a little more supple and pliable, +and whether they were likely to oppose to innovation the same amount +of obstinate resistance as before. It is dangerous to permit the +smallest rent to be made in a wall, for, with dexterous management, +that rent may be so widened, as to bring down the whole +superstructure. + +In the absence of any distinct charge against the Scottish banks, +which were so honourably acquitted in 1826, we shall confine our +further observations to the effects which must necessarily follow upon +a change in the established currency. In doing so, we shall conjure up +no phantoms of imaginary distress, but merely state the consequences +as they have already been explained to Parliament by men who are far +better able to judge than ourselves, and even--with deference be it +said--than our legislators, of the substitution in Scotland of a +metallic for a paper currency. That measure is to be considered, 1st, +as it will affect the banks; 2dly, as it will affect the public. + +The general effect of the change would be to derange the whole of the +present system. The first result would probably be the abolition and +withdrawal of all the branch banks throughout the kingdom. These +offices are at present fed with notes which are payable at the office +of the parent bank, whither, accordingly, they invariably return. +These are supplied to them at no risk or expense, whereas the +transmission of gold would not only be dangerous, but so expensive as +entirely to swallow up the profits. Add to this, that the banks would +no longer be able to allow interest on deposit accounts; at all events +such interest would be merely fractional, and too insignificant to +induce the continuance of the saving habit which now so fortunately +prevails. In short, all the branch business would stagnate and die. +The consequence of the removal of the branch banks would be the ruin +of the Highlands. + +Mr Kennedy's account of the profits of banking will explain the +sweeping nature of the change. "A banker's profits are derived from +two sources--the brokerage upon the deposit money, and the returns +that he gets from his circulation. We have tried to estimate the +amount of deposits in Scotch banks, and we calculate it at about +thirty millions; that, at the brokerage of one and a half per cent, +yields L450,000 annually. The currency we will take at three millions, +and that, at 5 per cent, is L150,000: making a gross sum of L600,000, +_which is the whole profit derived from banking in Scotland_. Out of +that are to be deducted the whole of the charges. From these figures +it will be perceived that the gross profit of the currency is a fourth +part of the gross profit of banking; but the expense that falls upon +the currency is not so large as the expense that falls upon the other +portions of the banking business; so that I should be inclined to say +that, upon the average, the profit derived from the circulation bore +the proportion of a third to the aggregate profit of banking." + +Assuming Mr Kennedy's calculation to be correct, the profit of +L600,000, derived by the banks, would thus be reduced to L400,000 by +the change of currency. + +But the diminution would not rest there. The brokerage upon the +deposits--that is, the difference between the rates of interest given +and charged by the banks--on the present calculated amount of +deposits, is L450,000. from which the charges are deducted. Now we +have already seen that the banks find it necessary, in order to +encourage deposits, to give a liberal rate of interest; and we have +also seen that, whenever interest falls to two per cent, the deposits +are gradually withdrawn, and a period of speculation begins. Let us +hear Mr John Thomson, of the Royal Bank, on the effect of a gold +currency on deposit accounts:--"I think, on the operating deposits, we +could scarcely allow any interest, and on the more steady deposits, +that the rate of interest would require to be very considerably +reduced." + +It follows, therefore, according to all experience, that, if no +interest were allowed, the deposits would be generally withdrawn for +investment elsewhere; and thus another serious reduction would be made +from the already attenuated amount of the Scottish bankers' profits. +But besides the loss of profit on the small notes, there would be a +further loss sustained by the necessity of keeping up a large stock of +gold in the coffers of the bank. Hear Mr Thomson again upon this +subject:-- + + "It would occasion greater loss than the mere profit on the small + notes, inasmuch as at present we have to keep on hand a large + stock of small notes, to fill up in the circle those that are + taken from it by tear and wear, and to meet occasional demands. + The present mode of keeping up this stock, which consists of our + own notes, is done at no expense; if we had to keep a + corresponding stock of gold to keep up the circle in the same + proportion, we would, perhaps, if there is L1000 dispersed in + small notes, require to keep up a protecting fund of L500 to meet + that, or something in that proportion. So that, upon the whole, + if there was L1,800,000, which was the sum assumed of notes in + circulation, withdrawn, we would require to fill up the place, + L1,800,000, in gold, and in order to fill our coffers with a + protecting stock, perhaps from _seven to nine hundred thousand_, + to keep up the stock; and, in addition to that, there is the + expense of transmission from one part of the country to another, + and the bringing it from London." + + +The small note circulation is here estimated at L1,800,000 but there +is no doubt that it is now considerably larger. Taking it, however, at +Mr Thomson's calculation, what a fearful amount of unoccupied and +inoperative capital is here! This, be it observed also, is only the +first reserve, which at present is represented by the small notes of +the bank. According to the later evidence of Mr Blair, the Scottish +banks are in the habit of holding, _besides this_, a further reserve +of gold and Bank of England notes, equal to _a fourth of their +circulation_, without taking into account exchequer bills, or other +convertible securities which bear interest. + +Thus it follows, as a matter of course, that if the small notes were +abolished, and a gold currency established, there would not be room in +the country for one-fourth of the present number of banks. If the +banks are removed, and more especially the branches, which must +inevitably fall, we should like to know from any theoretical +economist, even from Sir Robert Peel, how the country is to be +supplied with money? + +So much for the effect which the introduction of a metallic currency +would have upon the banking establishments. Let us now see what would +be the consequence of the change upon the interests of the public, who +are the dealers. + +Now, although we hold, that upon every principle of public expediency +and justice, the legislature are bound to regard with particular +tenderness the interests of a body of men, who, like the Scottish +bankers, have not only established, but administered for such a long +time, the monetary system of the country with stability, temperance, +indulgence, and success, equally removed from weak facility and from +grasping avidity of gain; we must, nevertheless, allow that the +interests of the public are paramount to theirs, and that if it can be +shown that the public will be gainers, although the bankers should be +losers by the change, the sooner the metallic currency is established +amongst us the better. Here is the true test of the clause in the +Treaty of Union, providing that no alteration shall be made on laws +which concern private right excepting for the evident utility of the +subjects _within_ Scotland. There shall be no interference with +private rights if that interference is not to benefit the public; if +it does so, private right must of course give way, according to a rule +universally adopted by every civilized nation. In speaking of the +public, we, of course, restrict ourselves to Scotland; for although +the Treaty of Union is not, strictly speaking, a federal one, and in +the larger points of policy and general government is very clearly one +of incorporation, it has yet this important ingredient of federality +in its conception, that the laws of each country and their +administration are left separate and entire, as also their customs and +usages, so long as the same do not interfere with one another. It is a +sore point with the supporters of a metallic currency, and a sad +discouragement to their theories, that they have never been able in +any way to shake the confidence of the Scottish public in the +stability of their national bankers. It was no use drawing invidious +comparisons between a weighty glittering guinea, fresh started from +the mint of Mammon, and the homely unpretending well-thumbed issue of +the North; it was no use hinting that a system which professed to +dispense with bullion must of necessity be a mere illusion, which +would go down with the first blast of misfortune, as easily as its +fragile notes could be dispersed before a breeze of wind. The shrewd +Scotsman knew, what apparently the economist had forgotten, that the +piece of gold exhibited by the latter was in itself but a +representative, and not the reality of property; that the gold to be +acquired _must be bought_; that all representation of wealth within a +country must be conventional in order to have any value; and further, +that however fragile the despised paper might appear, that it was by +convention and by law the representative of things more weighty and +more solid than metal--of the manufactures of the country, of its +agricultural produce, and, finally, OF THE LAND ITSELF; all which were +mortgaged for its redemption. It was in vain to talk to him of the +rates of foreign exchange in the mystic jargon of the Bourse. He knew +well, that when the Scottish mint was abolished, and the bullion trade +transferred to London, that branch of traffic was placed utterly +beyond his reach. He knew further, that the circulation of Scotland +did not ebb or flow in accordance with the fluctuation of foreign +exchanges, but from causes which were always within the reach of his +own ken and observance. All scrutiny beyond that he left to the bank, +in the solvency of which he placed the most implicit confidence; and +accordingly he dealt with it as freely and as confidently as his +father and grandfather had done before him, and laughed the theories +of the political economists to scorn. Such is no overcharged statement +of the sentiments which the Scottish customer entertains;--is he +right, or is he wrong? and how would the change affect him? + +In the first place, he would receive no interest upon his deposit +account. This point we have already touched upon, when proving that +the banks would sustain great loss by the inevitable withdrawal of +their deposits; but of course the profit to the bank is one thing, and +the profit to the customer is another. An operating deposit account on +which a fixed and universal rate of interest is paid, is a thing +unknown in England. In that country, according to Mr John Gladstone, a +Liverpool merchant, and a declared enemy to the Scottish currency, the +bankers only give interest on deposits by special bargain, according +to the length of time that these deposits shall be entrusted to their +hands. This is clearly neither more nor less than permanent loan to +the bank, and, like every other private contract, is arbitrary. But an +operating deposit is a totally different matter, by which the +circulation of the bank paper is promoted, and which acquires actual +value from the frequency of its fluctuations. It is a system so easy +in its working, that no householder in Scotland is without it; and for +every shilling that he deposits in the bank, he receives regular +interest, calculated from day to day, without any deduction or +commission, at as high a rate as if he had left, for a stipulated +period, a million of money unrecallable by him, to be employed in its +trade by the bank. This is surely a great accommodation and +encouragement to the trader. But see how the introduction of the +metallic currency would affect us. Operating deposits there would be +none; for, if the banker were not actually compelled to charge a +certain per centage of commission, he would at least be able to pay no +interest. Or let it be granted that, by great economy, (though we +cannot well see how,) he could still afford to pay a diminished rate, +the proportion would be too small to tempt the dealer to the constant +system of deposit which now exists, and hoarding would be the +inevitable result. Or suppose that the system of deposit should still +continue in the large towns, what is to become of the country when the +branch banks shall have been removed? A little topography might here +be valuable, to correct the notions of the theorists, who would +legislate precisely for the thinly inhabited districts of Kintail and +Edderachylis, as they would for the town-covered surface of +Lancashire. + +But there would be more important losses to the public than the mere +cessation of interest upon operating deposit accounts. All the +witnesses who have been examined, agree that cash-credits must be +immediately withdrawn. Of all the facilities that a mercantile +country, or rather the foremost mercantile system of a country, can +afford to industry, that of cash-credit is certainly the most +unexceptionable. Take the case of a young man just about to start in +business, whose connexion, habits, and education, are such as to give +every possible augury for his future success. The _res angustae domi_ +are probably hard upon him. He has no patrimony; his friends, though +in fair credit, are not capitalists; and he has not of himself the +opportunity of launching into trade, for the want of that one talent, +which, if judiciously used, would in time multiply itself into ten. He +cannot ask his friends to assist him in the discount of bills. Large +as the affection of a Scotchman may be for some descriptions of paper, +he has a kind of inherent repugnance to that sort of floating private +currency, which in three or in six months is sure to return, coupled +with an awkward protest, to his door. Probably in his own early +experience, or in the days of his father, he has received a salutary +lesson, better than a thousand treatises upon the law and practice of +acceptance; and accordingly, while he will lend you his purse with +readiness, he will not, for almost any consideration, subscribe his +name to a bill. To persons thus situated, the accommodation granted by +the bank cash-credits, is the greatest commercial boon that ever was +devised; but as the committee of the House of Lords, in the report +already quoted, has borne ample testimony in their favour, it is +unnecessary for us to dwell with further minuteness on their utility. + +We must again have recourse to Mr Thomson for an exposition of the +reasons which, if a metallic currency were forced upon us, would lead +to the discontinuance of the cash-credits. "I do not think the +cash-credits would be maintained at all; the banker's profits might be +made up by the charge of a commission on each credit; but it is not +probable that the holders of accounts would pay at such a rate, if +they could borrow money upon bills at a cheaper rate, which they would +do. They would discount bills at five per cent. A banker would not be +disposed to come under the obligation to give a running credit with a +cash account, and thereby bind himself to keep in his hands a stock of +gold to supply the daily operations of a cash-account, while he might +find it perfectly convenient to discount a bill and give the money +away at once." In short, it has been stated, and distinctly proved, +that the difference to the trader between an operating cash-credit and +accommodation by discount, _is the difference between paying five and +a quarter by discount, and two and a half per cent by cash-credit_. +Are our merchants and traders prepared or disposed to submit to such a +sacrifice; more especially when it is considered, that a bank will +often refuse to discount a bill for L100, when it would make no +difficulty, from its opportunities of control, in granting a +cash-credit for five times that amount? + +If individuals are thus to be crippled, the general commercial +business of the country must retrograde as a matter of course. Still +Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and the larger towns might, although they +would suffer immensely, get over the crisis by adopting some system of +internal arrangement, without experiencing a general crash. The great +question, however, yet remains behind--What is to become of the +country districts? To us who are familiar with almost the whole face +of Scotland, it seems a gross absurdity to suppose, that _under any +circumstances_, if the branch banks were withdrawn, a gold metallic +currency could be made operative in the remoter districts. Mr +Dunsmure, then secretary to the commissioners for the public +fisheries, gave very singular evidence upon that point in 1826; so +singular, indeed, that were it our purpose in this paper rather to +amuse than to warn and protest, we should have dwelt more minutely +upon his statements. Speaking of the silver currency, his evidence is +as follows:--"The quantity of silver on the west coast is so very +limited, that there is a great difficulty in getting a proper supply +for the necessary purposes. _Some of the people have been obliged to +issue promissory notes for 5s., long after they had been prohibited by +act of Parliament._ I happened to be at Barra, and the officer there +informed me that, having occasion to purchase some oats for a pony he +found it necessary to keep, the farmer whom he paid for them declared +he had not seen the face of a shilling for two years before." One of +the individuals who was thus forced by necessity to contravene the +statute, was a fish-curer and merchant, who kept a large store in +Tobermory, and the form of his notes is at once curious and +explanatory. "For want of change I owe you 5s., and for four of these +tickets, I will give a one-pound note." The establishment of branch +banks may somewhat have mended matters on the west coast, though we +doubt if the improvement has been commensurate with that of other +districts in Scotland, owing to the severe, and in our view +mischievous, commercial enactment which supplanted the native +manufacture of kelp, by the substitution of foreign barilla; but if +the branches are removed, no discovery short of the philosopher's +stone will establish the metallic currency there. Do our legislators +seriously mean to compel the population of about one-fourth of +Scotland, comprehending the whole western and northern divisions, to +accept the fish-curer's notes, instead of those of a joint-stock bank, +with its paid-up capital for security? + +We have not space here to proceed with a minute analysis of the +evidence which was formerly given. Suffice it to say, that it is of a +much more serious nature than even those who have general notions upon +the question can possibly anticipate. In the event of any change which +shall derange the present system of currency, the landowners and +agriculturists of every class must prepare themselves for crippled +markets, curtailment of the sales of their produce, and consequently +for a great reduction in the rent and value of land. This will apply +equally to the fisheries, the distilleries, and the linen trade--to +every branch, in short, of internal manufacture, which is now +prosperous, and which has become so from the superior ease, facility, +and advantage of our present currency. Compared with these, the +interests of the bankers are actually trifling. Such of them as may +remain under the altered system, will no doubt, in one way or another, +secure their profit; but for that profit the country at large will +have to pay a heavy price. + +The great question now for Scotland to determine is, whether these +interests are to be sacrificed to the theories of any ministry +whatever, without resistance of the most determined nature. That +resistance, in our deliberate opinion, she is not only entitled, but +bound, to make. We have purposely abstained from dwelling--nay, we +have scarcely even touched--upon any points of extraneous irritation +which may exist between the sister countries. Our wish is, that this +question should be tried upon its own merits, independently of any +such considerations; and we are glad to see that this line of conduct +has been adopted by every one of the numerous bodies who have hitherto +met to protest against the change. Believing thoroughly and sincerely +that we have a clear case, both on the score of justice and +expediency, we do not wish to revive any warmer feeling, though we are +convinced that a word could arouse it. Scotland in this matter feels, +and will speak, like a single man. We are sure of the unanimous +support and energy of the members for the ancient kingdom; and +although that phalanx forms but an integral part of the legislature of +Great Britain, we will not allow ourselves to believe that any +minister will proceed with so obnoxious a measure in the face of their +united opposition. One word only of advice we shall venture to offer +them, before they leave their native country to do battle in her +behalf. COMPROMISE NOTHING! Do not, as you value the interests of +Scotland, permit even the smallest interference with a system which +has already obtained the unqualified approval of the state. If you do, +rely upon it that one change will be merely the forerunner of +another--that the statute-book, in each succeeding session of +Parliament, will exhibit new changes and new modifications, until, +gradually and by piecemeal, we shall lose all the benefits of those +national institutions which you are now ready and pledged to maintain +whole and unimpaired. Any other line of tactics must, in the long run, +prove not only injurious, but fatal, to the cause you support. + +And now we have said our say. It is not for us--more especially as the +batteries of our opponents are still masked--to remonstrate with an +administration which assuredly, on many points, has a just claim to +the support and confidence of the nation at large. Still we may +insinuate the question--Is it very politic, in the present state of +matters, to rouse up a feeling in peaceful Scotland which may, with +little fanning of the fuel, terminate in an agitation quite as +extensive as that which at present unhappily prevails in Ireland? It +is not only wrong, but--what Talleyrand held to be a greater sin in a +statesman--most injudicious, to overlook in such a matter the tendency +of the national character. Scotchmen have long memories; and although +the days of hereditary feuds have gone by, they are not the less apt +to remember and to cherish injuries. Would it not, therefore, be +prudent to adhere to the homely but excellent maxim, "Let well be +alone;" and to abstain from forcing the country into a position which +it is really unwilling to assume, merely for the sake of illustrating +another proverb with which we close our remarks upon the Scottish +Banking System--"IT IS POSSIBLE TO BUY GOLD TOO DEAR." + + + + +THE MILKMAN OF WALWORTH. + +CHAPTER I. + + +I was just fifteen, when the battle of Waterloo, (it will soon be +thirty years ago,) by giving peace to Europe, enabled my father to +gratify one of the principal desires of his heart, by sending me to +finish my education at a German university. Our family was a +Lincolnshire one, he its representative, and the inheritor of an +encumbered estate, not much relieved by a portionless wife and several +children, of whom I was the third and youngest son. My eldest brother +was idle, lived at home, and played on the fiddle. Tom, my second +brother, two years older than myself, had just entered the army time +enough to be returned in the Gazette as severely wounded in the action +of the 18th. I was destined for the church--as much, I believe, from +my mother's proneness to Prelacy, (in a very different sense from its +usual acceptation,) she being fond of expatiating on her descent from +one of the Seven of immortal memory, as from my being a formal, +bookish boy, of a reserved and rather contemplative disposition. The +profession did not appear uncongenial to my taste; and although, from +my classical education having been deplorably neglected, there was no +small share of grinding and fag before me, I entered readily into my +father's views; the more especially, as in them was comprehended the +preliminary visit to Germany, the land of my early visions, where I +hoped to be on more intimate terms than ever with my old +acquaintances, the Spirit of the Brocken, the Wild Hunter, &c. &c.; +or, mayhap, to carry to practical results in the heart of the Black +Forest the lessons of natural freedom I had so largely acquired from +Schiller. My father's object in sending me to Heidelberg was not, I +believe, quite of so elevated a character. + +After a month's preliminary bustle, I set out. The Lincoln +Light-o'-Heart coach took me up a couple of miles from my +father's--and with me a chest of stores that would have sufficed for +the north-west passage. Furnished with a letter to a friend in London, +who was prepared to forward me by the first vessel offering for +Holland, I accomplished the journey to town satisfactorily. On +arriving in London, I found Mr Sainsbury, the friend already +mentioned, awaiting me at the coach-office in Lad Lane. He was my +father's banker--a little red-faced hospitable man, fond of Welsh +rabbits, Hessian boots, and of wearing his watch-chain down to his +knees. He welcomed me very cordially, said he had not had time as yet +to make the necessary enquiries about my passage; but as he was sure +no vessel would sail for Helvoetsluys for at least a week, he insisted +upon my putting up at his residence while I remained. Oppressed as I +was with fretting and fatigue, it was a matter of indifference to me +at the moment where I stayed while in town. I therefore, with a proper +expression of thanks, accepted the invitation. A job coach conveyed us +in a short time to Mr Sainsbury's abode. He lived at Walworth, at that +period an extensive suburb on the Surrey side of London, but long +since incorporated into the great mass of the metropolis. The street +in which the mansion stood was large, the houses were spacious and +handsome, their tenants, as I learned afterwards, opulent and +respectable. It was late in August; my friend's family were all at +Margate; and I found none to do the honours of the house but himself +and his eldest son, a young man of prepossessing appearance and +intelligent manners. On finding I was not disposed to go out the +following morning, he recommended me to the library and some +portfolios of choice engravings, and, promising to return early in the +afternoon, departed for his haunts of business in the city. + +I found the library tolerably comprehensive for its size; and having +glanced along its ranges, I tumbled over Hogarth and Gillray on the +print-stands for some time. I settled upon my usual efficacious remedy +in desultory hours--old Burton's _Anatomie_, and dropped with it into +the window-seat. I have seldom found him to fail me on such +emergencies--his quaintness, his humour, the lavish prodigality of +learning and extraordinary thinking that loads his pages, never to me +lose their freshness. Yet on the present occasion I found them fix me +with more difficulty than I ever before, or I believe since, +experienced. My mind wandered constantly from the page back to home, +forward to Heidelberg, and, after a while, I laid down the volume to +gaze vacantly through the window. It overlooked the street. Yet here +the day was so piteously wet there was nothing to arrest my +half-drowsy eye or half-dreamy attention. No young ladies in the +opposite windows. They were all at Hastings or Brighton. No neat +serving-wenches chattering on the area steps--not even a barrel-organ +to blow out one's patience--no vagabond on stilts, with a pipe and +dancing-dogs--no Punch--no nothing!--Once, a ruffian with four +_babbies_, two in his arms and two more at his ankles, strolled down +the street, chanting--"In Jury is God known"--his hat off, and the +rain streaming down at his nose as from a gable-spout. But he, too, +vanished. Occasionally a dripping umbrella hurried past, showing +nothing but thin legs in tights and top-boots, or thick ones in +worsteds and pattens. At one o'clock the milkman passed along the +street silently, and with a soberer knock than usually announces the +presence of that functionary. I counted him at number 45, 46, 47, +48--number 49 was beyond the range of the window; but I believe I +accompanied him with my ear up to number 144--where the +multiplication-table ends. He was assisted in his vocation by his +wife, who attended him--very devotedly too, for I remarked she seemed +regardless of the weather, and carried no umbrella. Wearied out +completely by the monotony and dulness of the street, I next sank into +a doze, which destroyed one hour further towards dinner, and the +remnant of time I managed to dispose of by writing a large portion of +a long letter to my mother. My dinner was a tete-a-tete one with John +Sainsbury--his father having been called away to Margate on affairs +connected with the residents there. Finding myself labouring under a +cold, I avoided wine, and while my companion discussed his _Chateau +Margaut_, I kept up a languid conversation with him, enlivened +occasionally by the snap of a walnut-shell or indifferent pun, with +now and then an enquiry or remark respecting the street passengers. +Amongst those, the milk-vender and lady at the moment happened to pass +along--"By the by," I said, "there is one peculiarity about that Pair +I cannot help remarking. I observe, that wherever, or at whatever +pace, the man moves, his female companion always keeps at the one +exact distance behind him--about three yards or so--See, just as they +stand now at No. 46! I never perceive her approach nearer. She seems a +most assiduous wife." + +"_Wife!_" rejoined Sainsbury, with a motion of the lip that might have +been a smile, but for the gravity of his other features--"she is not +his wife." + +"Wife, or friend then," I said, correcting myself. + +"She is not his friend either." + +"Well, his sister or relative." + +"Neither sister nor relative--in fact," he said, "I don't think she is +any thing to him." + +"But the deuce is in it, man, you don't mean to say that she is not a +most devoted friend who thus so closely, and at all hours, it appears +to me, attends him and assists"---- + +"She does not assist him," again interrupted Sainsbury. + +"I mean, shares his toil." + +"She has no participation whatever in his business. Come," he said, +rising and advancing to the window, "I see you are puzzled; nor are +you the first who has been at fault respecting that extraordinary +Pair. Just observe them for a moment," and he threw up the sash to +afford me the means of glancing after them along the street; "you +perceive that there is not the slightest communication between them. +He has just stopped at that house, No. 50, and there stands the woman, +rigid as a statue, only three yards behind him; now he has done and +moves rapidly on--how exactly she follows! He stops again, and see, +she is motionless; now, he proceeds slowly across the street to that +house with the lofty portico, but, slowly or quickly, there she is +close at hand." + +"How very odd!" I said; "they never speak." + +"Speak! Watch him narrowly, and you will see he never for a single +instant _looks behind him_. Here they come this way, on his return +homewards. You hear the shout from those idle throngs that have just +caught a glimpse of yonder balloon; you see _that_ man never turns, +never pauses, never looks up; he knows who is behind him, and hurries +on. There, he has turned the corner, and, certain as his death, _she_ +has vanished in his footsteps. Singular--most singular!" he muttered +to himself half musingly. + +"But surely their home reconciles them?" + +"They don't live together! On the contrary, I believe, they dwell far +asunder; and we of this neighbourhood, who have seen them for years, +have just as little cause to conclude that they are known personally +to each other as you have, who have only beheld them once or twice." + +"But this strange companionship, this existence of attraction and +repulsion, which I have witnessed those two days, it surely does not +always continue. You talk of years"---- + +"Yes, several years; and during that time the man has not been once +missed from his business, nor ever found pursuing it unwatched or +unattended by that woman, more constant, in truth, than his very +shadow." + +"Why, here is mystery and romance with a vengeance! ready made, too, +at one's threshold, without having to seek it out in hall or bower. +'Tis a trifle _low_ to be sure; had it been a shepherd and shepherdess +it _might_ do, but a milkman and a--may I say?--milkmaid." + +"I assure you there is no quiz whatever in it. It is just as you see +it and say it--a downright mystery, and one that, perhaps, will never +be cleared up." + +"I think the clue, my dear fellow, a very simple one--the woman is +mad." + +"Not a bit of it; she is perfectly rational; of intelligence, I am +told, far beyond her apparent station in life--a little reserved, to +be sure." + +"Then he is a lunatic, and she his keeper--eh?" + +"For that I refer you to the cook, and all of that respectable calling +who transact business with the fellow. If he must be characterized by +any one particular quality, I would say that there is far more of the +villain than the fool about him." + +"Pray, be kind enough," I said, "to tell me all you know respecting +this curious Pair. I am really interested in them." + +"In what I have said already," replied Sainsbury, resuming his seat, +"I have told you all, or very nearly all, that I, or I believe any +body else, knows of them. My little information is chiefly acquired +from hearing the servants gossip about them; but I very well remember +that, on the first appearance of the Pair in this vicinity, they +excited a good deal of speculation and enquiry amongst every class in +Walworth. It is now more than eight years ago since this man's +predecessor--the purveyor, as he grandiloquently was wont to call +himself, of milk to this large district--died. His dairies, which I +fancy were lucrative things enough, were immediately sold, and taken +by a person who, we were informed, would not only continue to supply +Walworth with their produce, but, from motives of caprice or economy, +would deliver it himself. Accordingly, the man you have seen pass this +evening appeared; and all was uniform and punctual as before. In a few +days, however, he came, attended by that mysterious female, dogged +precisely as you have seen him an hour ago, and at once the heart of +every cook and kitchen-maid in the parish was on fire with curiosity +and suspicion. From the kitchen the contagion spread to the +drawing-room, and commissions of enquiry, in the shape of tea-parties, +were held in every house relative to the strange milk-vender and his +stranger shadow. To those who asked him any questions on the matter, +and very few ventured to do so--for his manner, though civil, had +reserve and sullenness, and there was in his deportment a decent +propriety, that repulsed, or rather prevented, enquiry--he usually +answered that he 'knew nothing of the woman who followed him;' 'that +he dared to say it was from some whim;' 'that she was welcome to do so +if she pleased;' 'she had the same right of highway as any other +person,' and suchlike evasive replies." + +"But his companion--I should rather say, his attendant--from her sex, +she would, at least, be something more communicative?" + +"Not at all. She was very seldom spoken to upon any subject. She kept +aloof from all who seemed disposed to be inquisitive; and if she ever +came within range, as the sailors say, of a question, she never gave +an intelligible, or at least satisfactory, answer. Besides, as she was +never seen save in the track of him whom she lives but to pursue, her +own sex have had no opportunity of conciliating her into an +acquaintanceship, and their patience and curiosity have long consumed +themselves away." + +"Then, after all, it may be only the whim of an eccentric woman that +leads her thus to persecute an inoffensive, industrious person?" + +"I cannot think so. I am persuaded there is some peculiar occurrence +in their past lives that has thus mysteriously associated them--some +conscious secret that, by its influence, draws them forcibly into +contact. What the nature of this strange sympathy may be, I cannot +form the least idea." + +"Has no one attempted to unriddle it before now?" + +"Not with any prospect of success. Of course there have been a +thousand conjectures. Among the lower orders of people, the prevalent +opinion is, that the woman once possessed a large sum of money, out of +which this Maunsell (for such is his name) contrived to cheat her; and +that she has ever since _haunted_ him, as they very appropriately term +it. But this offence I am inclined to think infinitely too light a one +to draw upon him the grievous punishment which has been so many years +inflicted on him. One of our neighbours, Rochfort, a very +matter-of-fact sort of man, not at all given to the marvellous, +asserts, that he witnessed by accident what he is sure was the first +meeting of the Pair after the man's arrival in this quarter. It was +late in the evening; Rochfort was standing, he says, in the shadow of +a gateway that breaks up the long blank wall of a large timber-yard +that belongs to him, at some distance from this, and which skirts a +lonely and unfrequented road leading to Kennington. He is positive +there was not a human being but himself within sight or hearing, when +he perceived the milkman coming along by the wall, his footsteps +echoing loudly up the dusty path. Not choosing to encounter a stranger +at the moment in such a spot, my friend withdrew further into the +shadow of the gateway. The man, in passing it, happening to drop some +pieces of money from his hand, stooped to recover then; and while so +engaged, a female, who, Rochfort asserts, must have risen out of the +earth on the instant, suddenly appeared standing at the searcher's +side, perfectly motionless, and muffled in those dark funereal +garments that have since been so familiar to our eyes. On lifting his +head the man perceived her, started, but, my informant says, it was +more the subdued start of one accustomed to face horror, than the +overwhelming dismay of a person terrified for the first time: he +folded his arms, as if endeavouring to collect himself, but his whole +frame shook convulsively. He was about to speak, when a noise of +workmen approaching up the archway stopped him, and, turning away, he +hastened on--that dark spectral woman gliding noiselessly after him." + +"Perhaps," I said, with a forced laugh--for, despite of myself, the +story was exciting my imagination as well as curiosity--"she really +_is_ a visitant from another world." + +"There are not wanting those who say so," replied my friend; "but +however ghost-like her mission and appearance may be, I believe there +is no doubt that as yet she is a denizen in the flesh." + +"And this Pair--where and how do they reside?" + +"The man lives at his dairies, a considerable way from here, and +although he has, I am told, an extensive establishment, never goes out +but on his daily business. He is of a serious, methodistical +disposition, and, I understand, affects devotional reading a good +deal; yet he is never seen at a place of worship. He is unmarried, nor +does any relative or companion reside with him. The woman--it is +hardly known where she lives; in some miserable lonely room far away, +buried in the heart of one of those dismal courts that lurk in the +outlets of London, her way of life and means of support equally +unknown, the one object of her existence palpable to all--to come +forth at the grey of daybreak in winter and summer, in storm or shine, +and seat herself at a little distance from that man's abode, until he +makes his appearance: when he was passed her, to rise, to follow, to +track him through the livelong day with that unflagging constancy +poets are fond of ascribing to unquenchable love, which the early +Greeks attributed to their impersonations of immortal Hate." + +"Surely the wild and doubtful surmises that those circumstances have +raised in people's minds must have had an injurious effect on +Maunsell's business?" + +"Not at all; on the contrary, I think it has assisted it. Every +neighbourhood loves to have a mystery of its own, and we, you must +confess, have got a superlative one. The man has been found +scrupulously honest, regular, and exact in his dealings; and were we +to lose him now, and get a mere common-place person to succeed him, +half the housewives of Walworth would perish of inanition. And now," +said Sainsbury, rising, "That I have imparted to you all I know +respecting the milkman and his familiar, let us to the drawing-room +and seek some coffee." + + +CHAPTER II. + +The night that followed this conversation was to me a most +uncomfortable one. The episode in the day's occurrences had made so +deep an impression on me, that it excluded all other thoughts from my +mind, which it occupied so intently, that, upon retiring to my +chamber, several hours elapsed before I sought repose. I did so at +last, but in vain. Between the fever attendant upon my indisposition, +and the irksomeness of frame caused by mental inquietude, sleep was +completely banished from my eyelids, or visited them only in short and +broken slumbers, peopled by the distorted images of my waking +thoughts. The mysterious Pair were again before me. I saw them gliding +through the long street, the man hastening on in that attitude, so +strikingly described by Coleridge, like one + + "Who walks in fear and dread; + And having once turn'd round, walks on, + And turns no more his head, + Because he knows a frightful fiend + Doth close behind him tread"-- + +the woman keeping on his track with the constancy of Doom. Or I was +standing a witness to their first meeting in the grim Dark on that +lonely road, their eyes of hate and fear staring wildly into each +other. Sometimes I found myself spellbound between the two, the centre +upon which their fearful sympathies revolved, the object upon which +their long pent-up passions were about to burst. Starting from those +visions, my waking fancies were hardly less tormenting. I was just at +that season of youth, before the calmer and nobler faculties have +acquired maturity and tone; when incidents that vary but little from +the ordinary economy of life, seen through the medium of the +imagination, assume a magnitude of distinctness not properly their +own. On the present occasion, however, my friend's recital was well +calculated to arouse the speculations of a romantic fancy; and mine +was now fully employed in forming a thousand conjectures in +elucidation of the curious circumstances he had repeated to me. What +could be the relation between those strange parties? Was it attachment +in the one and aversion in the other? Or had one, as was commonly +supposed, been the plundered victim--the other the Despoiler? Neither +of these cases could be so. A petty office of police would have +relieved the persecuted--a court of law would have redressed the +robbery. _Monomania_ had been known to instigate persons to a line of +conduct as perseveringly painful as this woman pursued; but then there +could be no motive why the object of her attention should, for years, +resign himself to a system of annoyance that drew upon him so much of +remark and obloquy. Or could the female be the hired instrument of +persecution in the hands of others? The poverty, the utter joylessness +of her solitary life, precluded the supposition. No! crime, I felt +convinced--_crime_ was at the bottom of it all! and crime, too, of no +ordinary quality. Was the man intent upon committing some deadly +offence against society? and was it to prevent its commission that he +was so assiduously watched by his companion? Perhaps he meditated +breaking that instinctive canon which the Most High has so wisely +fixed against "self-slaughter." Or had some hideous deed already been +perpetrated? Was it by one, or both? or was one a soul black with +guilt--the other a spirit of innocence? The more I indulged in those +heated fancies, the wilder they became. Was the woman, after all, a +Being endowed with vitality? The suddenness of her first appearance +before the man watching at the gate--the fearful hour--the lonely +spot--her noiseless tread--her silent demeanour--her sepulchral +dress--almost warranted the contrary opinion. Had she fallen by the +hand of this Maunsell? and was the apparition, which we are told ever +lives by the side of the murderer, thus permitted to haunt him, +embodied before the eyes of men? Such were the troubled thoughts that +disturbed me throughout the night. Long before sunrise I was up, +endeavouring to calm the fever into which I had wrought myself, by +pacing my apartment in the cool of morning. A brilliant sunshine +ushered in the day, and under its enlivening influence my perturbed +spirits gradually subsided to their usual tone. At breakfast, I +confess, I was disposed again to enter on the topic, if an opportunity +occurred; but Sainsbury, occupied in some letters of importance that +had arrived, talked but little, and did not recur to the subject of +the previous evening. This did not assist to allay the interest which +had been so powerfully excited in my bosom. The continuance of my cold +once more served me as a plea for remaining within doors; and, upon +our parting for the day, I did not hesitate to retire to the +dining-parlour, whose windows looked directly on the street, and +there, shutting myself up, I awaited the arrival of the hour at which +the extraordinary pair generally appeared, determined to satisfy +myself by a closer observation than I had hitherto made. + +Exactly as noon sounded, I saw _him_ stop at an opposite door, +and--did I see rightly? Yes--alone. No; I had not approached +sufficiently close to the window; when I did, _she_, too, was there, +at the same slight distance behind, in the same silent, patient, +motionless attitude. He went on, and, steady as his shadow, she +pursued. I now resolved to see them still closer, and for that purpose +proceeded to the hall-door, where I remained carelessly standing until +the man approached it. I could observe that he walked at an even +deliberate pace; and as he carried none of the cumbrous machinery +distinctive of his craft, his step was steady and unimpeded. He was a +low-sized, well-made man, probably somewhat more than forty years of +age. He was neatly dressed; his attire being a suit of some of those +grave colours and primitive patterns which find so much favour in the +eyes of staid Dissenters, and persons of that class. Indeed, I could +see by his whole deportment, that the occupation he pursued was one of +choice, not of necessity. His features were regular, nor was there in +his countenance any thing remarkable, except that it was pale and +subdued, with a look of endurance which peculiar circumstances perhaps +imparted to it. What I chiefly noticed, was an evident consciousness +about the man that some disagreeable object lurked behind him; and +when I caught his eye, which I did once or twice, I could see in its +glance that he quite understood why my attention was directed to him. +He did not utter a word in my hearing, and there was altogether in his +appearance an air of depression and reserve which still further aided +the impression Sainsbury's story had made on my imagination. When he +next paused, his short progress brought his attendant close to me--in +every way a more striking and interesting person. She was a woman tall +in stature, of an erect figure, finely proportioned, as well as the +coarse mourning garments and large dark cloak in which she was muffled +allowed me to judge. She must have been, in youth, very handsome; but +on her thin ashen cheek premature age had already made unusual ravage. +She could not, from the unbroken and graceful outline of her form, be +much more than thirty; but her face was marked with the passionate +traces of nearly double that period. Nothing of life I ever beheld +exhibited the paleness--the monumental paleness of that face. On the +brow, on the cheek, all was the aspect of the grave. Yet +life--intenser life than thrills the soul of Beauty in her bridal +bower, dwelt in the working of those thin compressed lips--lurked +beneath those heavy downcast lids, burned in those dark wild eyes, +whose flashes I more than once arrested ere she passed from before me. +Writing at the interval of time I now do, and disposed as I am to deal +severely with the fantastic imaginations of my youth, I have not in +any way exaggerated the appearance this singular female exhibited. +Should the reader suspect me of such an error, a moment's reflection +will convince him that she who could--from whatever motive it might +be--adopt the strange purpose to which she had devoted her solitary +life, must have been characterized by energies of mind that would of +necessity have filled and informed her frame, and imparted to her an +air that altogether distinguished her from ordinary persons. I +observed that she seemed wholly regardless of what was passing around +her, appearing to be entirely absorbed in one great duty--the business +of her existence--that of attending on the individual whose steps she +so closely followed. He made no movement that, I thought, escaped her. +Insensible, apparently, to every thing else, her glance showed that +never for a moment did she cease to watch him, eager, my fancy +suggested, to catch the slightest indication of his turning round and +encountering her gaze. If so, her vigilance, as long as I beheld the +Pair, was in vain. The man never ventured to look behind him. In half +an hour they had vanished from the street. + +They re-appeared in the evening again as usual, and then, and for +several subsequent days, (for I did not feel well enough to undergo +some twenty or thirty hours' sea-sickness in the packet that offered +the Saturday after my arrival,) I took a morbid and eager pleasure in +awaiting the visits and observing the motions of those inscrutable +beings. Sainsbury and his son were amused, but not surprised, at the +anxiety I evinced to obtain a nearer insight into Maunsell's history. +My curiosity and vigilance were, however, fruitless. The Pair +performed their revolutions with a cold uniformity, a silent +perseverance, that I found sufficiently monotonous; and at length, +after one or two baffled attempts to engage the man in conversation, +and which never proceeded beyond a few common-place words, (about his +companion there was a something indefinable that prevented me from +ever addressing _her_,) I relinquished any further hope of penetrating +the mystery. Towards the close of my stay, and as my indisposition +wore away, the Sainsburys complimented me by giving one or two +dinner-parties, and these, with some morning visits and rambles with +the men I met at the house, served to draw my attention from the +matter; so that by the time I had fairly embarked on board the +_Blitzen_, bound for Helvoetsluys, the circumstances which had +occupied me so intently for the last fortnight were beginning to take +their place among the remembrances of the past. + + +CHAPTER III. + +The passage to the Dutch coast, and my journey onward to Heidelberg, +were performed without interruption, and were unenlivened by any +incident that deserves relating. As it is not my intention to dwell +upon the vicissitudes of my career at the high school and university, +I shall merely say that, attending very little to the conventional and +arbitrary distinctions by which the students of Germany choose to +classify themselves--caring still less for _chores_, _brand-foxes_, +and _Burschenschafft_, and nothing at all for noisy suppers and their +drunken _refrain_-- + + "Toujours fidele et sans souci + C'est l'ordre du Crambambuli!"-- + +I very earnestly bent myself to second the intentions of my father. +For three years, diligently and indefatigably, I pursued a course of +severe application to long-neglected studies, which enabled me fairly +to redeem the time I had squandered in early youth. Nor is it unworthy +of remark, that, as is often the case with imaginative people, the +temptations which had appeared so inviting when beheld from a +distance, failed in their powers of allurement on a nearer approach. +The Spirit of the Brocken and I made no advances in intimacy, and I +rode through the Black Forest without a desire to enroll myself +amongst its freebooters. + +The fourth year of my stay at Heidelberg was drawing to a close, when, +in pursuance of arrangements entered into with my father, I returned +to England. Upon reaching London, I drove to my kind friends at +Walworth, where I experienced the same ready welcome as before, +accompanied by many congratulations upon my academical success, of +which they had heard from time to time from my family. It was the +middle of winter--the second or third week in December--when London +exhibits all that joyous bustle of plenteousness and good cheer, +amidst which its citizens celebrate the festival of Christmas. As Mrs +Sainsbury and her daughters were now at home, I was easily prevailed +on to prolong my visit for a few days before I departed for +Lincolnshire. The moment I entered the house, the rooms and their +associations recalled to me forcibly the mysterious Pair, whose +proceedings had filled my mind with so much of curiosity and interest +when I was last a sojourner in the abode. During my residence in +Germany I had not forgotten them; and although the austerity of my +pursuits in that country had schooled my fancy to a soberer pace, I +could not forbear from enquiring, in one or two letters which I had +occasion to write to the younger Sainsbury, whether the milkman of +Walworth and his Shadow still pursued their rounds uninterrupted, or +if any thing had transpired that could enlighten our conjectures on +their history. My correspondent always neglected, or forgot, to +satisfy me in this particular; and it was therefore with something, I +am ashamed to say, nearly approaching to anxiety, that on the morning +after my arrival--for the gay variety of the social circle had +monopolized my attention until then--I once more, after so long an +interval, seated myself in the library window, under pretence of +seeking a passage in Herder, which I had quoted for Julia Sainsbury +the preceding evening, and awaited the hour of noon. + +And there, before the clock of the neighbouring church had ceased +striking, with the selfsame step, in the same subdued attire in which +I saw him four years ago, came gliding up the street the dark, sullen +milkman; and there, too, close behind him as ever, followed his +shadowy companion! It is in vain to deny it. I could feel my heart +beating audibly when I beheld them, as if they were unsubstantial +visitants, whose appearance I expected the grave would have +interdicted from my eyes for ever. It was a dim, bitter, wintry day, +and showers of sleet were drifting heavily on the fierce and angry +wind, soaking the man's garments through and through, and sweeping +aside the thin habiliments of the female, as though they would tear +them from her slender form, and leave it a prey to the keen wrath of +the elements. Yet the Pair passed upon their way, seemingly regardless +of weather that had banished all other creatures from the streets. As +they stopped beneath the window where I sat, I scrutinized them +eagerly, to see whether time, or toil, or the terrors of such winters +as that now raging, had wrought the work of ruin I would have expected +in their frames. In that of the woman there was but little alteration. +She was thinner and paler perhaps, and the poorness of her dress +betokened no doubt an increase in her sufferings and privations; but +her glance, when I could catch it, had more of fiery blackness: her +mouth more of compressed determination than when I formerly beheld +her. But in Maunsell there was a striking change: his figure was +stooped, his cheek hollow, his eye sunk; in a word, his aspect now +bore the signs of that mental misery which, on an earlier occasion, I +had looked for in one subjected like him to such long, and steady, and +undying persecution. Mournful beings! I internally exclaimed, as they +proceeded from my sight, whatever sinful sorrow thus serves to link +together your discordant existences, it must indeed be of a damning +nature, if such a career as yours does not go far to expiate it! + +That day, on the re-assembling of the family, I did not fail to allude +to the subject of the milkman, and to express my surprise at his +tenacity to life, as well as at the fixedness of purpose that enabled +him to pursue his occupation through a long series of years, under +such remarkable circumstances. I found, however, that the ladies only +smiled at the interest which my manner exhibited; some of them +assuring me, at the same time, that the neighbourhood was now so +accustomed to the matter, that, although calculated to arrest the +attention of a stranger, to them it had ceased to be either a source +of curiosity or enquiry. I believe they added, that of late the man's +health had begun to fail, and that once or twice, when he happened to +be confined from indisposition, his companion's visits were +interrupted by the occurrence, although she still kept her vigilance +in exercise by watching unremittingly for his re-appearance. + +After a few pleasant days passed in London, I proceeded to +Lincolnshire, and had the happiness of finding my family well when I +arrived at home. My father was quite satisfied with the letters I +conveyed from Professor Von Slammerbogen; my mother delighted to +receive me in any character, whether that of pedant or prodigal. +Nicholas, my elder brother, I found as much attached, as when I left +him, to practising "Dull Care", upon the violin. In Tom, however, +there was a considerable modification, he having left his sinister arm +at Hougomont, in exchange for a three months' campaign in country +quarters and a Waterloo medal. In the following term I entered at +Cambridge, as my father had originally planned; and in due time, upon +obtaining my degree, was admitted into holy orders. My first curacy, +it is singular enough, was obtained through the influence of our +friend the Walworth banker, and was that of St ----'s, in his +neighbourhood, but nearer to town, and the centre of a poor but +densely peopled district. The scene of life I now entered upon was +truly laborious and painful. Resolved to perform its duties diligently +to the best of my ability, I found every moment I could spare from +refreshment and sleep hardly sufficient for the claims which the +Comfortless, whom I had to console, the Sick, whom I had to succour, +the Profligate, to reclaim, the Sceptic, to convince, made upon my +time. Wholesome and profitable to my spirit, I trust, was this +discipline! It seems to me a thing inexplicable, how a man can +advocate the interests, the benefits of religion--can impress upon +others the divine precepts of Christianity, and be himself not a +partaker in the blessings he imparts. Such a one, I hope, I have long +ceased to be; and although I do not profess to have attained that +degree of zealous fervour and devotion, which sees, in the light and +graceful relaxations of life nothing but the darkness and allurements +of sin, I humbly believe I have endeavoured to make my course, as much +as in me was possible, conformable to the doctrines I have taught. + +Upon settling in London, I gladly renewed my acquaintance with the +Sainsburys; yet so arduous were the duties of my profession, that, for +the first two years in which I resided in St ----'s parish, I saw but +little of this amiable family. Towards the close of that period, the +aid of an additional curate, appointed to assist in the district, +afforded me a little more leisure time, and I was enabled occasionally +to spend an evening at Walworth. In passing to and from my friend's +house, I now and then met, and ever with renewed interest and +surprise, the dark PAIR still plodding their melancholy, interminable +rounds. The last time I beheld them, I remember calculating, as they +passed me, the number of years they had been thus incomprehensibly +associated, and speculating on how many more should elapse before age +and death terminated that melancholy partnership. In about two months +after, I dined at the banker's, and the first intelligence with which +John Sainsbury greeted me, was the news that the milkman of Walworth +and his companion had at length disappeared. Maunsell, he said, had +died some weeks before, after a couple of days' illness. No one seemed +to know of what disorder--general debility, it was thought; no doctor +had been called in; and not having left a will, his property went to +some distant relative. With respect to the woman, she was last +noticed, the evening of his death, sitting in the usual spot--within +sight of the gateway leading to his house--where she generally awaited +his appearance. She was not there the following morning; nor was she +seen again. As the deceased had made no disclosure respecting her, nor +left any papers that could tend to explain their connexion, all +chance, it was concluded, of clearing up the mystery was at an end for +ever. I confess this disappointed me not a little. I found I had, +whenever the strange Pair occurred to my recollection, unconsciously +entertained a conviction that I should, at some period or other, learn +their history; and now that all opportunity of so doing had vanished, +the fancies of my early youth again returned, and occupied me with +their wild suggestions for a longer time than was either pleasing or +justifiable. The coincidence, however, which had brought me so often +into contact with those singular persons, was not fated as yet to +discontinue. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +It was, I think, about half a year from this period, that, in +returning late one evening from the neighbourhood of Russell Square, +where my father, during a short visit he was compelled to make to +town, had taken lodgings, I missed my way, and got entangled in the +intricacies of the numerous narrow streets and alleys that lie between +that quarter of London and the eastern end of Holborn. Intending to +avail myself of some of the public conveyances homewards, I had +attempted to shorten my passage to the great thoroughfares, and in +doing so had thus gone astray. As it was past ten o'clock I was +necessarily hurried, and yet the heat and heaviness of the night--it +was July--prevented me freeing myself as rapidly as I should otherwise +have done from the squalid and disagreeable avenues in which I had got +entangled. I was just pausing to enquire my way of a slatternly-looking +woman, who stood considerably in front of the door of a dirty-looking +house in one of the dirtiest lanes I had yet explored, and who, with an +apron thrown round her shoulders, to supply, it seemed to me, the absence +of their appropriate garments, appeared, from the direction of her looks, +to be awaiting some one's arrival, when a lad hastened up the opposite +side of the alley, and breathlessly announced to her, that "the docther +wouldn't come 'thout he first got his fee." + +"Holy Mary, mother of ----! Oh, wisha, what _am_ I to do!" exclaimed +the woman in a strong Irish accent, with that elision of apostrophe +into complaint peculiar to her country. + +"If she goes on this way till mornin', two men wouldn't hould her, let +alone one _colleen_.[1] Run, Micky, to the 'seer, an' let him get her +to the hospiddle, or my heart 'll be broke from her." + +"How dove I know where the 'seer lives at this hour o' the night?" +expostulated the boy. + +"There's a wake in Tim Reilly's second floor--can't you go there, and +they'll tell you--can't you?" + +The messenger disappeared, and I now, before putting the question for +which I had stopped, asked the woman soothingly the cause of her +perturbation. + +"Is it what's the matther, sir? Matther enough thin--a poor crethur of +a woman lodgin' with me is took very bad with the fever. She wasn't to +say so bad entirely till this evenin', when she begin to rave, and +'sist upon gettin' up; an' goin' on with terrible talk, that it would +frighten the heart o' you to hear her." + +"How long," I said, "has she been ill?" + +"Wisha, sir, she was never well since the day she darkened my dure; +but I think 'tis the heat o' the weather, an' her never stirrin' out, +an' the weakness entirely, an' the impression on her heart, that is +killin' her now." + +"And has she had no advice?" + +"Sorrow the 'vice--you'd think she'd go into fits when I mentioned a +docther to her; and as to a priest or a ministher--my dear life, I +might as well mention a blunderbush." + +Well accustomed to hear of, and witness, such suffering as the woman +described, I was about to proceed in quest of a physician myself, if +she had paused in the first part of the sentence just finished. The +concluding remarks arrested me. + +"I am a clergyman," I said; "will you let me see this poor person?" + +"An' a thousand welcomes, sir. I know you're not the Revern' Misthur +Falvey, that I goes to a' Christmas an' Easther--nor the ministher +convenient here. Maybe you're"---- + +"I'm quite unknown here; but by allowing me to see your patient, I +shall be able to judge if she is in a fit state to be removed to an +hospital; or, if instantly necessary, I shall myself procure medical +advice for her." + +The woman entered the house and I followed her, waiting, as she +requested me, in the dark entry, until she procured from the sick +chamber the only light that I presume was burning in the dwelling. She +then re-appeared at the head of the stairs, and requested me to +ascend. + +Lighting me up four ruinous flights of steps, leading to rooms that +appeared to be tenanted by beings as miserable as herself, she ushered +me into an apartment of such large dimensions that the weak rushlight +she carried left its extremity in absolute darkness. It was wretchedly +furnished. At the farthest end from the door was a bed, by the side of +which stood a coarse-looking girl about fifteen, engaged in +preventing--now by soothing, now by forcible restraint--the invalid +who occupied it from attempting to rise. + +"Not another moment--not one moment longer! I _must_ get up--he is +waiting for me! See! I am late already, for 'tis daybreak--though you +cannot see the dawn through that dismal rain. Let me go--wretch, +wretch!--let me go; he shall not stir one step that I won't be near +him to remind him of"---- + +Leaving the candle near the door, my guide approached the bed, and +beckoned me to follow. I advanced, and even through the misty shadows +that enveloped the place, I recognised, in the emaciated Form +struggling on the couch, her wild flashing eyes now wilder with fever +and insanity, the well-remembered wanderer who had so often excited my +interest in Walworth. + +"Ha!" she continued, after stopping suddenly, as lunatics will do when +a stranger unexpectedly appears, and intently observing me for some +minutes. "Ha! I knew I was late--see there. _He_ has come to seek me, +for the first time, too, for seventeen--eighteen-oh! so many long +years. Ha, ha! all in black, too--Barnard--and you've brought your +wealthy bride"--and she glanced at the woman, who stood beside me; +"but, faugh, how her limbs rattle--not a whole bone," she said, with a +hysterical laugh, "in her beautiful body!" + +In this way she continued to rave, during the short time I remained in +the apartment. I attempted to ask her a few questions, to ascertain, +if possible, how far the distraction of her mind was consequent upon +her disorder; but her only replies were mad and incoherent allusions +to past scenes and occurrences, that seemed entirely to engross her +attention. Finding my presence of no avail, I quitted the place, and +was about to deposit a small sum with the hostess for the sufferer's +use, when she very ingenuously informed me it was not at the moment +necessary, that person herself having always, in the payment of her +weekly rent, entrusted to her hands money sufficient to supply the +wants of several ensuing days. + +"An' though we're sometimes bad enough off, sir, when the boys don't +get the work at Mr Cubitt's, still, shure, if I was to wrong a poor +sickly crethur like that of her thrifle of change, 'twould melt away +the weight o' myself in goold if I had it." + +I could not help smiling at this unwonted display of honesty in so +unexpected a quarter, and promising her that such care and attention +to her sick tenant should not go unrewarded, I departed, escorted by +"Micky," who had returned to say that no intelligence of the 'seer was +to be obtained at Tim Reilly's. On making our way into Holborn, I +called at the nearest surgeon's, and, giving him my address, I +dispatched him back with the boy, directing him, at the same time, not +to allow the woman to be removed unless her disorder was a contagious +one, (which, I was persuaded, it was not,) and requesting, should the +aid of a physician be necessary, he would at once procure it, for +which, with all other expenses, I would be answerable. Touching this +latter point, the lad had informed me as we came along, that he did +not think their lodger was at all at a loss for money, as she procured +it about once a-month, he thought, (the only time she ever went +abroad,) from some "gentleman's office in the coorts." + +Although living at such a distance, I contrived to see the unfortunate +invalid several times in the following week. I found I was right as to +the nature of her disorder. An eminent physician had been called in +once or twice during its most violent paroxysms, and stated, that it +was likely her malady was not the cause, but the consequence, of some +extraordinary mental excitement. Under the judicious treatment he +pointed out, the fever gradually subsided, and for a short time there +was an appearance in the patient of returning convalescence. But her +physical energies were exhausted, and it was evident that a very short +period would terminate her existence. Reason, too, never wholly +resumed its functions, if indeed it had ever of late years exercised +them in that wearied brain. Her ideas assumed a certain degree of +coherency. She was able to converse occasionally with calmness, to +recognise faces familiar to her, and appeared sensible of and even +grateful for my visits, and the assiduity with which I sought to +awaken her to some preparation for the great approaching change; but + + "the delicate chain + Of thought, once tangled, never clear'd again:" + +never _wholly_ cleared. The lightning of insanity flashed continually +from the heavy cloud that hung upon her soul. The allusions, too, she +was in the habit of making to some transactions of bygone years, were +of so startling a nature, that I was fully confirmed in my early +impression she had been at one time of her life implicated in some +wonderful, nay, heinous occurrence. Upon this point it was my +intention, if possible, to win her gradually to confide to me the +secret of her guilt or wrongs, hoping by this means to relieve her +spirit by seeming to share in its burdens and distress. + +With the quick perception of persons labouring like her under mental +aberration, she seemed to anticipate my purpose. I was one morning +sitting by her bedside, when she suddenly began-- + +"You asked me yesterday if I remembered having ever seen you before +this illness--this late attack--and I said no. It was false. I spoke +as I thought at the time; but, in looking at you now, I recollect you +were one of those people I often met at Walworth. I even think you +once attempted to get into _his_ confidence--(now, do not interrupt +me.) You likewise desired to know why one like me, who appears +superior in mind and language to the wretched class amongst whom you +find her, should have led the life----Stay! send for a sheriff's +officer, and I will tell you." + +I assured her I saw no necessity at that moment for the presence of +such a person; and, as she appeared somewhat more excited than I had +seen her for several days, I endeavoured to lead her away from the +subject that occupied her, by turning the conversation to some +indifferent topic. But it would not do. She still reverted to the +point at which she had broken off; and I was at length obliged to let +her pursue the course of her own thoughts as she pleased. + +"Did you ever think me handsome? Many once thought me so; but that is +long ago. My father was still handsomer. He was the younger of two +brothers, both wealthy. They were plain Devonshire farmers--each, too, +was a widower, with each a daughter. So far for their likeness to one +another. Now for the contrast. My father spent his wealth, died, and +left me a beggar. _Her's_ (my pretty cousin Martha's) saved it, and +left his child an heiress--a Temptation--a prize for all the bumpkins +and graziers about us. I was glad to live with her. We kept house +together. We were both of an age--young, handsome, lively, and for our +station, or rather for a higher one, well educated. Here again ceased +the resemblance. Like my father, I was open, guileless, +unsuspecting--and it destroyed me. She was mean, cunning, treacherous, +and would--but HELL was too strong for her--have triumphed. My cousin +had numerous offers of marriage. I had none. Among several young men +who frequented our society, was a substantial farmer named Barnard. +You have seen him. When you first beheld him he was little altered. He +had ever that cursed look of Cain upon his forehead, though I branded +it a little deeper. Do not thus stop me!--breath!--I have breath +enough. Barnard was gay, smooth, agreeable--what was more, he was _my_ +suitor--the only one amid throngs that was attentive, kind, obliging +to me. I felt first grateful, and next loved him--you shall hear HOW +WELL. + +"Our match began to be talked of. Martha from some whim disapproved of +it. He ceased to visit at the house--but I would not give him up; and +while he contemplated, as I thought, arrangements for our marriage, we +often met alone. Judgment is over with him now--mine is at hand, and I +will not load him with guilt that, after all, may not be his. He was +the only being that cared for me on earth, and I clung to him with a +tenfold affection. How do I know but it was this mad confidence that +first awoke the villain in his soul? That wine"-- + +I held the glass to her lips; and, while I wiped the damp drops of +agony from her brow, I besought her to defer the sequel of her story +until she was more capable of pursuing it. + +"No," she said; "it must be now, or not at all. I am stronger than I +have been for months to-day. Where was I?--Stealing back day after day +to Martha's, a trampled, but not an unhoping spirit; for I still +looked forward to _his_ fulfilling his promise. He once more was a +visitor at our house. I did not know why--I did not care--he was +there, and I was satisfied: I had no eyes for any thing else. But the +blow was coming. It fell--it smote us all to dust. + +"I was one morning occupied alone in some domestic duty, when I heard +Barnard's name pronounced by two female servants of our farm, who were +employed in the next apartment. I listened--poor souls! they were +merely agreeing 'how natural it was for Mr Barnard to have jilted +Miss--(but let my very name be unpronounced)--and taken up with Miss +Martha, who had all the fortune.' Was it not a natural remark? So +natural, that every being in the country had already made it but her +whose heart it broke to hear it. I rushed from the spot, a mist +spreading before my eyes as I hastened on. I sought out Barnard; I +found him, and alone. I told him of the report I had overheard. He +said it was not new to him. I charged him with perfidy--he avowed it. +Half-dreaming, I attempted to catch his hand. He coolly withdrew it. I +knelt before him--I clasped his knees--I wept, and prayed he would +bless me by treading me to death beneath his feet. He extricated +himself with a laugh, bid me not be a fool, and left me. + +"Before I rose from the spot where I had fallen, a dreadful shadow +passed, as it were, suddenly across me, and some black passion I had +never known till then took possession of my spirit. It was JEALOUSY. +I returned home, and hastened to have an interview with Martha. +Hitherto I had been of a quiet, timid disposition--I was now bold from +frenzy and betrayed affection. I upbraided my cousin with duplicity, +with meanness in receiving the addresses of the man betrothed to her +relative. She retorted by drawing comparisons between our attractions, +personal as well as pecuniary. At these I smiled--bitterly perhaps, +but still I smiled. She scoffed at my pleas that Barnard was my +affianced husband, declared her intention of marrying him, and ended +by insinuating that I had lost him by the very unguardedness of my +affection. I never smiled again. + +"I was mad from that day forward. My whole existence changed. I was a +dissembler--a liar--for my life was a long lie--and, come near--I _am_ +a murderer. I lived blindly on--a day was fixed for their +marriage--but, though I knew not _how it was to be_--I knew another +would never stand at the altar as his bride. + +"She and I had apparently been reconciled--I saw Barnard no more, save +in her presence--I lulled them both into a belief that I was a poor, +trodden, and stingless thing. + +"The Sunday preceding the wedding-day arrived. It was a lovely evening +in summer, and Martha and he and I wandered far away into the +fields--they to taste the freshness of nature, I, to wonder the +flowers did not wither beneath our tread; for we were all alike evil +and abandoned. In our way, we visited a mill that was soon to become +the property of Barnard in right of his bride. In passing through the +different lofts into which it was divided, we paused in one to admire +the immense and complicated machinery connected with the great wheel +that worked the manufactory. Martha, ever capricious and perverse, +wished to see the engine set in motion. But there was not a +servant--not a creature, save ourselves--within a mile of the spot at +the moment. Barnard, however, volunteered to go to the mill-dam +outside, and, on a signal from us, to undo the wicket that kept back +the waters from the wheel. I watched him from the window till he took +his station at the spot. Just then Martha, who, with perverse +inquisitiveness, had been standing caged within the iron framework of +the engines, in hastening to leave it missed her footing, and stumbled +backward again within its circle. A streak as of fire flashed through +the place. I waved my hand; there was the sudden rush of tumbling +water, a faint shriek, and then the roar and thunder of the enormous +wheels hurrying on, grinding and tearing her to pieces. And then came +the horrorstruck look of Him, crying out to Heaven in his vain +impotency, and my own mad laughter, ringing high over it all! + +"His consternation and despair--his wild attempts to stay the progress +of the crashing machinery--his wrath at my exultation--only raised me +to a higher state of frenzy--that frenzy of heart and brain that never +went from me more. I hollowed in his ear how I had done it--and when +he flung himself on the ground in a passion of remorse and grief, I +danced round him, proclaiming my hate and guilt, and summoning him to +give me up to justice. It was now his turn to quiver under the lash of +conscience. He accused himself of the ruin I had wrought--acknowledged +his falsehood--cried aloud for mercy--and still I exulted with a +fiercer laughter, with a louder demand that he would give me to the +gibbet. He endeavored to fly from the spot. I pursued him. I NEVER +LEFT HIM AGAIN. There was a long illness--a blot upon my memory. I +cannot tell you any thing of its duration. _Her_ remains were +found--there was an enquiry--he was the only witness--he kept _our +secret_. On my recovery, I found he had sold his property, and +departed to some distant quarter in the north of England. I tracked +him there. I had vowed to haunt his soul with the memory of my crime, +until he surrendered me to justice. He sought to shun me, by changing +his name and removing from one place of residence to another; but in +vain. My revenge was as hard and cruel as his own look on the morning, +in his orchard, when he spurned me fainting from his feet. Go where he +would, I pursued. At last he settled near London--in that place where +you first beheld us. You know the rest of our career. If guilt can be +atoned for by _human_ suffering--the wrath of years--the raging +wind--the scorching sun--ruined youth--premature age--privation, +misery, madness, and hate, have well atoned for ours. You shake your +head. It is not so? Well, you were the first to teach me to vent my +burning thoughts in prayer. Pray with me now. I seem to have lived all +my evil passions over again in this last hour. Do not leave me yet, +but--pray!" + + * * * * * + +Such was the disastrous tale imparted to me in almost the last +interview I had with its hapless narrator. Either the recollections +she had lived through, as she said, in so short a space, or the +exertions caused by its recital, were too much for her enfeebled +intellect. Delirium shortly after returned, and continued to within a +few hours of her dissolution, which occurred on the evening of the +following day. I was present when she expired. She instructed me where +to find the agent, who paid her a small stipend derived from a distant +relative, (to whom, by her uncle's will, his property descended,) that +I might apprise him of her death. She was quite sensible at the awful +moment; and there is still a hope mingled with the melancholy +remembrance that her last entreaty to me was--to "PRAY!" + + + + +INJURED IRELAND. + + +The miseries of the Irish people, and the oppressions under which they +groan, form the topics of conversation in every quarter of the +globe--you hear of them at Rome and at Constantinople--they are +discussed on the prairies of Texas and in the wilds of the Oregon--in +Paris and at Vienna you are bored by their constant repetition. The +"smart" American contributes his dollars, and the "pious Belgian"[2] +his prayers, to effect their redress; and they have fairly driven from +the field of compassion all sympathy for the plundered Jews and +persecuted Poles. The restless Frenchman speculates on them as the +certain means by which England may be humiliated; and impatiently +awaits the moment when, under the guidance of the young De Joinville, +fifty thousand of "les braves" may be thrown on the coast of Ireland, +and take advantage of the national disaffection, for the double +purpose of mortally wounding his ancient enemy, and of giving, as a +boon to its oppressed inhabitants, that liberty of which he talks so +much and knows so little. Doubtless the sufferings of this _patient_ +people have, before now, drawn tears from the sensitive eyes of "the +brother of the sun;" and the "sagacious and enlightened Lin" has +already suggested to his celestial master the propriety of dispatching +some of his invincible war-junks to effect the liberation of the +degraded slaves of the "red and blue devils" who have so cruelly +annoyed him. Every one has heard, and every one talks, of Irish +grievances; but no one seems to know exactly what those grievances +are: their existence appears to be so unquestionable, that to dispute +it is not only useless but almost disreputable; and yet if one venture +to enquire of those who declaim most loudly against them wherein they +consist, they limit themselves to generalities, and quote the admitted +state of the country as proof positive of English injustice and Saxon +misrule. + +That the inhabitants of distant countries should believe what they +hear so constantly asserted, cannot be a matter of much surprise; nor +that the enemies of England and of order should credit what it suits +their inclinations to believe; but that those who live close to the +scene of such grievous inflictions--that those who are the +fellow-subjects of the oppressed, and who may be said to be the +instruments whereby those enormities are perpetrated--should take for +granted all they hear stated, without endeavouring to discover the +truth of those assertions or the extent of their own culpability, does +seem to us almost incredible. Yet so it is. Irish grievances are now +in fashion. The most glaring fabrications are swallowed with anxiety +if they only profess to be recitals of Irish sufferings; and the +British people seem ready to yield to the clamours of mendacious and +designing demagogues, measures not only detrimental to the interests +of the country for whose welfare they profess so much anxiety, but +absolutely ruinous to the glory and the power of their own. + +We will not stop here to discuss the benefits which we are told would +accrue to the Irish nation from the success of a measure which never +can be carried while Ireland holds loyal subjects, or Britain has an +arm to wield; but we shall at once proceed to ascertain if those +glaring injustices, which make us the world's table-talk, really +exist, and if the admitted misery of the Irish people can, with truth, +be attributed to the unjust or partial legislation of the British +Parliament. + +We do not seek to deny, that the interests of Ireland have not been +neglected or unfairly dealt by, in former times. With that we have +nothing now to do; we take the existing state of things, and we +maintain, and will, we trust, convince our readers, that instead of +being oppressed or wronged by legislative enactments, Ireland is (as +matters are at present managed) greatly favoured, and that instead of +complaining of injustice, her inhabitants should be most grateful for +the exemptions which are granted them, and for the fostering care +which a Conservative government has extended, and is still anxious to +extend to them. + +In supporting our view of the case, we shall appeal to facts--facts +which, if untrue, can easily be refuted; and first, we shall apply +ourselves to the amount of taxation imposed on Ireland by the Imperial +Parliament. _The Irish people are exempt from every species of direct +taxation!_ and their indirect taxes are not more than those to which +the inhabitants of England and Scotland are subject. Thus, while the +English and Scotch gentleman is taxed for his servants, his carriages, +his horses, his dogs, and his armorial bearings--and, in addition, +pays, in common with the trading and operative classes, his +window-tax--the Irish gentleman and tradesman are totally free from +all such imposts. And though, at first sight, this exemption would +seem to benefit only the wealthier classes, still when we find, as is +certainly the case, that it enables the Irish gentry to keep much +larger establishments than men of similar fortune could attempt to do +in this country; that consequently more persons are employed as +servants; that it enhances the value of horses by increasing the +demand for them; that it also greatly adds to the number of carriages +used, and, of course, to the employment of the artisan--we must admit +that it has no slight influence on the condition both of the tradesman +and the agriculturist. + +Ireland pays no income-tax! (at least no Irishman need pay it if he +choose to reside at home;) for the Minister and the Parliament, _so +hostile_ to Irish interests, have only subjected the absentees to its +operation; and we find, that in the year ending the 10th October +1844-- + + England and Scotland paid by assessed + taxes, L4,204,855 + By income-tax, 5,158,470 + ---------- + Total, L9,363,325 + + +While under those two heads, "_injured, persecuted Ireland_" paid not +one shilling! + +Thus we see, that a sum of over nine millions is annually levied from +off the inhabitants of the "_favoured_" portions of the British +empire, towards which "_oppressed Ireland_" is not called upon to +contribute sixpence! + +It may be said, those taxes only affect the wealthy, and it is not +their grievances which call so loudly for redress; it is the burdens +imposed on the poor landholders which demand our attention. + +We have, in a former Number of this Magazine, see Vol. lv. p. 638, +shown that the rents paid for land in Ireland are at least one-third +less than the rents paid in England; (but were it even otherwise, the +right to dispose of property to the best advantage could not be by law +interfered with.) In that article we stated, that in addition to his +rent, the English occupier is subject by law to the payment of tithes, +which in many instances amount to more than the entire rent imposed on +the Irish tenant; and that by recent enactments, the payment of the +Protestant church has been transferred from the Irish tenantry to the +landlords, nine-tenths of whom are Protestants; that the English +tenant pays _all_ the poor-rates, while the Irish tenant is only +called on to pay the _half_; and that while the former is subject to +county and parochial rates, in addition to turnpikes, which are a +heavy burden, the latter pays only the county cess, the amount of +which depends very much on his own conduct. We cannot, then, discover +that the Irish peasantry are subject to any pecuniary grievances which +legislation has inflicted, or could remove; neither can we perceive +any neglect of their interests evinced by the British Minister or the +Saxon Parliament; but, on the contrary, we see that they have been +specially protected by particular enactments against the payment of +charges to which the occupiers of the other portions of the United +Kingdom are still subject. If the Irish farmers set their faces +against the commission of crime, instead of tacitly, if not openly, +affording protection to the greatest delinquents, it is clear that the +amount of the county cess, _the only tax the tenant pays_, might be +greatly diminished; the constabulary force might be, under more +favourable circumstances, reduced from nine thousand men (its present +strength) to half that number; and if the people abstained from +houghing the cattle or burning the houses of those who are obnoxious +to them, the county rates would not amount to more than one-third of +the sum at present levied. Thus, then, the amount of the only direct +tax the peasantry have to pay, is mainly dependent on the peaceable +condition of the country: if the people be orderly and obedient to the +laws, its amount is reduced; if otherwise, and they have heavy +assessments to pay, to reimburse those they have injured, no one is to +blame for it but themselves. We would, then, ask any candid man, if it +would be possible for any government to act more leniently towards +Ireland as regards taxation? She is exempt from her proportion of the +nine millions levied from the other portions of the United Kingdom; +and many of the local assessments to which her inhabitants are +subject, were, by special enactments, removed from the shoulders of +the occupiers of the soil, and placed on those of the proprietors. + +Thus, then, under the head of taxation, no injustice can be said to be +committed. + +The extent of the Irish representation, and the laws regulating the +elective franchise, both in the cities and counties, form a prominent +portion of Irish grievances; yet if the efficiency of the +representation is to be judged by the influence which it exercises on +the councils of the empire, or the registration laws be tested by the +results which they have produced, the Irish have little reason to +complain of either. The very exemption from taxation to the amount we +have already stated, proves one of two things--either that the British +minister and British representation are peculiarly partial to the +interests of Ireland, (which would destroy the favourite doctrine of +"English hatred and Saxon oppression;") or that the Irish +representation is powerful enough not only to protect their +constituents from injustice, but to secure them peculiar advantages. +That the amount of representation already enjoyed by Ireland is _at +least_ sufficient for all constitutional purposes, cannot be doubted; +for every one knows that by the Radical portion of it alone, an +administration odious to the people of Great Britain, and rejected by +their representatives, was for years kept in office, and that through +its instrumentality both Whig and Tory ministers have been compelled +to abandon measures which they believed to be beneficial, and which +they brought forward in a spirit of good feeling, and with a desire +to promote the best interests of the country. + +In the first Parliament elected under the Reform Bill, and after the +system of registration now complained of came into operation, the +Irish representation consisted of + + Liberals, 74 + Conservatives, 31 + +Now, when it is borne in mind, that beyond all question at least +nine-tenths of the landed property of Ireland is possessed by the +Conservative party, and that that party was able to secure to itself +little more than a fourth of the representation, it must be admitted +that numbers told, and that the mass was represented in a ratio beyond +what the constitution contemplates. So far, then, as relates to the +laws regulating the elective franchise, if they are to be judged of by +the results which they produced, the Liberal party have nothing to +complain of, and the Roman Catholics still less; of the Radical +majority, they numbered thirty-five, or nearly one-half; and if +eligible men could be had of their body, or if their leaders wished +it, undoubtedly persons of their profession might have been returned +in every instance in which liberal Protestants were seated. They had +the power to effect this: if they abstained from using it, influenced +either by good taste or motives of prudence, they still have no reason +to complain of the law--it placed the power in their hands; their own +discretion alone restrained its exercise. + +The agitators proclaim that their number in Parliament has diminished, +and that they have lost cities and counties, because the constituency +has decreased under the "emaciating influence of the registration +law." It is true the Irish constituency has diminished, and that the +Destructives have lost many places; but the diminution in the +constituency has not been caused by the state of the law--and this +they know full well--but by the disinclination of the respectable +portion of the people to make themselves any longer their tools! Under +the law when first called into operation, the Radicals had an +overwhelming majority. The same men who registered and voted in 1832 +and in 1837, are generally still in existence--the same tenures under +which they registered still continue--the same assistant barristers +before whom they registered (or ones more favourable to their +interests) still preside; it is clear, therefore, that if the people +were inclined to claim the franchise, they have only to take the +necessary steps to secure it--but they won't. They were persecuted +between the priests and their landlords--they see the hollowness of +the agitators, who used them for their own purposes, and then left +them to ruin; and, as the surest way to avoid trouble, they don't +register at all; the landlords not having any influence over their +votes, and not wishing to quarrel with them, don't induce them to do +so--and they have hitherto resisted the efforts of the country agents +of the Corn Exchange. What man of sense would put himself upon the +register, when he well knows that any deviation from the path pointed +out to him by the priest, would not only entail curses and +persecutions on himself, but insult and outrage on the innocent +members of his family? Who would establish his right to vote, when he +would be called on to exercise that right with _his grave dug before +his dwelling_, and _the_ DEATH'S HEAD AND CROSS-BONES AFFIXED TO HIS +DOOR!! + +The assertions of the agitators, that they have lost ground _because_ +the constituencies have been diminished by the operation of the laws +regulating the possession of the elective franchise, is of a piece +with all their other reckless falsehoods; but fortunately it is more +easy of disproof. It does appear by parliamentary returns, that the +Irish constituency has decreased, _on the whole_, in small degree; but +it is rather curious and unfortunate for those truth-loving gentlemen, +that, in every instance in which _they_ have been beaten, the +constituencies have greatly increased, and that they have only +diminished in those counties in which their interest is +all-powerful.[3] For instance, Antrim, in 1832, (when a Liberal was +returned,) had on the register 3487 electors; and, in 1837, when a +Conservative was seated, 4079.[4] + +Belfast, in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, had 1650; in 1841, +when two Conservatives were elected, 4334. + +Carlow, in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, had 1246; and in +1841, when the Tories beat O'Connell's own son, 1757. + +Down had in 1832, when a Liberal was returned, 3130; and in 1837, when +a Tory was substituted, 3305. + +Dublin County had in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, 2025; and +in 1841, when two Tories displaced them, 2820. + +Dublin City had in 1832, when O'Connell was triumphantly returned, +7008; and in 1841, when he was beaten, 12,290. + +Longford had in 1832, when two Liberals were returned, 1294; and in +1841, when one of them was displaced by a Tory, 1388. + +Queen's County had in 1832, when one Liberal was returned, 1471; and +in 1835, when two Conservatives were elected, 1673. + +Thus we see, by unquestionable proof, that instead of being benefited +by an increase of the constituencies, the cause of the Destructives +has invariably suffered by their enlargement; and yet sure we are, +that most persons on this side the water believe in the truth of the +Liberator's lamentations, and suppose that those patriots who have +been rejected by the votes of the most independent electors and +largest constituencies in Ireland, have lost their seats solely +because the names on the register had been greatly diminished, and the +Liberal portion of the people deprived of their rights, by the +"emaciating influence" of a bad law. + +But if there be defects in the registry laws, who are to blame for +their continuance? The "great grievance" connected with them of which +Mr O'Connell complained, was, "that from the ambiguous wording of the +act, some assistant barristers adopted _the solvent tenant test_," +instead of "_the beneficial interest test_,"[5] which he and those who +acted with him thought to be its legitimate construction. This +unquestionably would make a vast difference to the claimant; and so +thought Sir Robert Peel. He brought in a bill clearly establishing +"the beneficial interest test." And to remedy another objection +founded on the fact of tenants at will in England having the right to +vote, while the Irish law debarred persons similarly circumstanced, he +proposed to give the franchise to all occupiers of certain quantities +of land, merely from the fact of possession;[6] and yet Mr O'Connell +was the first to denounce the measure! The agitators complain of +defects in the law, and the minister agrees to amend them; the +patriots claim for the Irish a full equality in the registration law +granted to England, and more is conceded. When headed by their "august +leader," they denounce the redress of those injustices of which they +complained as "An additional insult," and they raise such a clamour +because what they formerly asked for was about to be granted, that the +minister was compelled to succumb, and the bill was withdrawn. + +The next item in the catalogue of grievances is the municipal law. +None has been more frequently or more forcibly dwelt on; its +injustice, and tendency to exclude the "Liberal" inhabitants of the +towns and cities of Ireland from local influence and political power, +form prominent topics in the speeches of every patriot orator. Let us +see with what justice. + +It must be admitted that there is considerable Conservative property +and respectability in the Irish corporate towns; and yet what has been +the result of the elections under this municipal law so loudly +declaimed against?--There are thirty-three corporations in Ireland, +all of which, with _one solitary exception_, (that of Belfast,) are +not only Liberal but downright Revolutionary. The number of the +friends of order in the town-councils is so small, that they can +accomplish nothing. Overwhelming majorities have voted addresses to +the "convicted conspirators," and their mayors formed a deputation to +present them, and proceeded in state to the "dungeon of the martyrs;" +and yet this law, which lays the corporations of Ireland at the feet +of O'Connell, forms "one of the greatest oppressions under which his +devoted country groans." He has unlimited influence in all. What more +would he have? what more could any law give him? + +Men ought to have a little modesty; but the "Liberator" has gained so +much by reckless assertion that he is justified in persevering in its +practice. He has often said, that "he never knew any statement tell, +or any argument, however powerful, attain the desired end, if only +once repeated;" and on this principle he acts. He repeats and repeats +again, in the teeth of contradiction and disproof, what he wishes to +have believed; and the result shows the wisdom of his proceeding. +Those who contradict soon get tired, while, by perseverance, he is +left in full possession of the field. + +It has been said that the Irish Roman Catholics have been debarred, by +the unfair exercise of political patronage, from the attainment of +those offices at the bar and in the administration to which they were +rendered eligible by the Emancipation Act. The Whigs promoted three +Roman Catholics--Mr Shiel, Mr Wyse, and Mr O'Ferrall; these gentlemen +retired with their party, and if Sir Robert Peel offered them place +to-morrow, they would, as a matter of course, refuse it. These are the +only persons of their religion _unpledged_ to "Repeal of the Union" at +present in the House, who would have any claim on the score of +abilities to official station; it surely cannot be expected that a +Conservative minister would give power to men pledged to the +dismemberment of the British empire, and the supporters of a measure +which he has so unequivocally denounced; neither can it be supposed +that any man would be such a fool as to place red-hot Repealers in the +important office of stipendiary magistrate, when the wishes of the +government might be thwarted and the safety of the country compromised +by their partisanship. + +The Repealers admit their determination to accomplish the destruction +of "Saxon rule" in Ireland, and at the same time _modestly_ declaim +against the Saxon government, because they will not give them power or +confidential employment, by means of which they might more securely +carry out their intentions. Sir Robert Peel has taken every occasion, +to the great detriment and dissatisfaction of his steadfast +supporters, to give place to such of the Roman Catholic party as were +at all eligible; if the number of such persons be limited, the Roman +Catholics themselves, and not the minister, are to blame. + +As to the bar, the list of Roman Catholics was run out before he came +to power. There was no one amongst them whose standing in his +profession would have at all justified the minister in placing him on +the bench; and he had men of his own party, distinguished for their +acquirements, whose interests he could not overlook, whose claims were +recognised even by Mr O'Connell himself, and whose conduct, since +their promotion, has been unimpeachable. + +The agitators cannot, in justice, blame him for having recourse to the +Conservative bar, for when in trouble they sought protection from its +ranks themselves. Except Mr Shiel, who was merely employed to make a +speech, and whose legal knowledge was never insisted on by his +friends; and Mr _Precursor_ Pigott, who was retained lest a slur +should be thrown on the Whigs--all the leading lawyers who conducted +the defence in the "monster trial" were Protestants and Conservatives +of the highest order. + +But what has this much-abused minister done to conciliate Ireland +since he came to office? He has nearly trebled the grant for national +education, and still continues the system adopted by the Whigs and +patronised by the priests, in opposition to a powerful and influential +portion of his own supporters;--he found a board of charitable +bequests composed altogether of Protestants, and seeing, as he stated, +"that two-thirds of the property they had to administer was Roman +Catholic," he dissolved that board and constituted another, in which +the Roman Catholics have an equality, and may under certain +circumstances have a majority;[7]--he found the mortmain laws in +existence, and he repealed them; now any man who wishes may endow the +Roman Catholic church to any extent he pleases. Yet these last +concessions have been denounced by priests and bishops as an +additional insult, as an unjustifiable and tyrannical interference +with their rights. And why? Because Sir Robert Peel clogged the +measure with the condition, that any testator so leaving property +should have his will made and registered three months before his +death. Because he wishes to protect the interests of the Roman +Catholic laity, by securing them against the interference of the +clergy when their relatives are at the point of death, he stirs the +bile and rouses the indignation of ravenous and pelf-seeking +ecclesiastics. He brought in a bill to remedy what was said to be the +great defect in the registration laws, and it was not his fault that +it was not carried; he proposed to extend the franchise, and he was +denounced for doing so by the advocates of universal suffrage; he has +promoted the formation of railways; he has issued a commission to +enquire into the oppressions said to be perpetrated on their tenantry +by the Irish landlords; and he has subjected Irish absentees to the +payment of the property tax. + +Whig promises "in favour of Ireland" were used by Mr O'Connell as +arguments to procure the abatement of the Repeal agitation; although +no man knew better than he did, that if his "base, brutal, and bloody" +friends had even the inclination, they had not the power, to carry out +their intentions. Tory promises of a still more conciliatory nature +are used as a stimulus to its extension; although Mr O'Connell +equally well knows that what Sir Robert Peel promises, his influence +with the English people may probably enable him to accomplish. Ay, but +that is just what the sagacious demagogue wishes to prevent. If his +grievances were removed, the pretence for agitation would be +destroyed. If there be real grievances, and if Mr O'Connell wished to +have then redressed, why not attempt to do so? The ministry are +willing to assist him--the public feeling and the opinion of +Parliament are decidedly in his favour; yet what measures have he or +his followers proposed for the adoption of the legislature? The truth +is, nothing annoys him more than the desire manifested by the premier +and the Parliament to remove all just grounds of complaint, and +therefore it is that he has fixed on "repeal of the union," which he +knows to be impracticable. A man's own interest must be considered, +and "the Liberator" is well aware that, if agitation ceased, the +_twenty thousand a-year_ paid him by the "starving people" as a +recompense for having patriotically rejected an office worth but +_five_, would cease also. + +We have alluded to the amount of taxation imposed on Ireland, to prove +that injustice is not perpetrated upon her under that most touching +head;--we have exposed the fictitious grievances, and recounted the +measures passed and promised by Sir Robert Peel, to show how +groundless the complaints of the agitators are, and that if there be +wrongs, there is, on his part, a sincere desire to redress them;--and +we have adverted to the manner in which those beneficent acts and +promises, so favourable to their views and injurious to his +administration, have been received by those who profess to be the +friends, and are the leaders, of the people for whose welfare they are +intended--to convince the British minister and the British people of +the absolute impossibility of satisfying men, whose own selfish +interest lies at the bottom of all their actions, and who fabricate +grievances that, under the pretence of seeking their redress, they may +be afforded opportunities of inculcating treason. + +What more is there which can be effected by Parliament which would +better the state of the Irish peasantry, _while_ they suffer +themselves to be made the dupes of every headless demagogue, and while +they, by their own atrocities, drive from amongst them every person +who is willing or able to afford them employment? The existing laws +cannot repress the cruel outrages which they commit. Can an act of +Parliament humanize their minds, or impart mercy to their hearts? The +law cannot fix a maximum for rent; and if it could, it would be only +to increase their turbulence, without any mitigating comforts. Extend +the franchise, it will only enable them to accomplish more political +mischief--for they reject as nothing all measures, however beneficial, +which do not tend to the dismemberment of the empire; endow their +church, and they accuse you of corrupting it; truckle to them, and you +but make them more exacting; coerce them, and you benefit themselves +and save the country. + +That Ireland does labour under evils, no man can doubt; but they are +evils which have grown up under an exploded system, which all modern +legislation has tended to remedy, but which no legislation can at once +remove. The education of the people, heretofore altogether neglected, +is now being attended to; but years will have passed before any +favourable change can be effected through its instrumentality; and if +things be suffered to progress as they have lately done, evil instead +of good must result from the enlightenment of the people by means of a +system which imparts knowledge without inculcating religion. If you +extend their information, and still leave them under the political +sway of those who induce the more ignorant by the most monstrous +promises, and compel the more instructed and better disposed by +unchecked intimidation, to follow in their wake, it is clear that you +but endow the demagogues with more power, and render the enemies of +order more capable of effecting their designs. The memorable +expressions of one who was the champion of a people's privileges and +the victim of their ferocity, are most true, that "to inform a people +of their rights before instructing them and making them familiar with +their duties, leads naturally to the abuse of liberty and the +usurpation of individuals; it is like opening a passage for the +torrent before a channel has been prepared to receive, or banks to +direct it."[8] + +Yes, Ireland is afflicted by evils, but those evils are created not so +much by the defects of the law, or by the neglect and tyranny of the +better classes, as by the total demoralization of the lower. The Irish +peasant, naturally brave, generous, and faithful, is, by the system +under which he is brought up, rendered cruel, merciless, and +deceitful. There may be, and probably are, hardships inflicted by some +of the landlords; but they are produced in most instances by criminal +and precedent acts on the part of the people. In no country in the +world are the rights of property so ill understood or so recklessly +violated: the industrious man fears to surround his cottage with a +garden, because his fruit and vegetables would be carried off by his +lazy and dishonest neighbours; and he is deterred from growing +turnips, which would add to his wealth, from the certain knowledge +that his utmost care cannot preserve them. Amongst no people on the +face of the earth are the obligations of an oath or the discharge of +the moral duties so utterly disregarded: any man, the greatest +culprit, can find persons to prove an _alibi_; the most atrocious +assassin has but to seek protection to obtain it. Where in the +civilized world, but in Ireland, can you find a "sliding-scale" of +fees for the perpetration of murder? + +And why is this so? Because the religious instruction of the people +has been totally neglected; because their priests have become +politicians, and stopping at nothing to accomplish their objects, they +teach the peasantry by private precept and example to disrespect and +disregard those doctrines which they publicly inculcate; because their +bishops, pitchforked from the potatoe-basket to the palace, become +drunk with the incense offered to their vulgar vanity, and the +patronage granted in return for their unprincipled political support, +instead of checking the misconduct of the subordinates, stimulate them +to still further violence,[9] and stop at nothing which can forward +their objects; because the opinions of the people are formed on the +statements and advice of mendicant agitators who have but one object +in view, their own pecuniary aggrandizement; because a rabid and +revolutionary press, concealing its ultimate designs under the +praiseworthy and proper motive of affording protection to the weak, +seeks to overturn all law and order, and pandering to the worst +passions of an ignorant and ferocious populace, goads them, by the +most unfounded and mischievous statements, to the commission of crime, +and then adduces the atrocity of their acts as a proof of the +injustice of their treatment. Every murder is palliated, _because_ it +arises from "the occupation of land." Every brutal assassination is +paraded as "a fact" for Lord Devon, and is recommended to that +nobleman's attention; not that the helpless and unoffending family of +the victim may be afforded redress, but that the executioner of their +parent may obtain commiseration. No matter what the conduct of the +tenant may have been--no matter what arrears of rent he may have +owed--to evict him is a crime, which, in the eyes of those +unprincipled journalists, seems to justify an immediate recourse to +"the wild justice of revenge." The rights of property are said to be +guaranteed by the law--while the exercise of those rights is rendered +impossible by the combination of unprincipled men, and the force of a +_morbid_ public opinion. He who would think it "monstrous" that a +merchant should be debarred from the right of issuing execution +against his creditor, shudders with horror at the idea of a landlord +distraining for his unpaid rent. And the individual who delights in +the metropolitan improvements, and glories in the opening of St +Giles's, though it drive thousands of "the suffering poor" at once and +unrecompensed from their miserable abodes, considers the improvement +of an Irish estate as too dearly purchased, if effected by the +expulsion of one ill-conditioned and remunerated ruffian. + +But this morbid public opinion only feels for the lawless, the idle, +and overholding tenant; for the landlord it has no sympathy--_he_ may +be robbed of his rights, he may be unable to educate or support his +family, because he cannot obtain his rents, but his sufferings create +no feeling in his favour; his case forms no fact for Lord Devon. The +accomplished, the well-born, and the good, may be driven from the +homes of their ancestors, and reduced to beggary, because the +dishonest occupiers will neither pay their engagements nor surrender +their lands, and no one laments their fate. The gentleman may be +forced to emigrate, and be sent into exile by his necessities, without +any notice being taken of such an event. But let a tenant who has been +profligate, dishonest, and reduced to poverty by his own misconduct, +be dispossessed of the smallest portion of ground on which he eked out +a wretched existence, and which, if he had it in fee, would not be +sufficient to support his family--let such an one be but dispossessed, +and, even though he be afforded the means of emigrating to countries +where land is plenty and wages remunerative, the "Liberal press" will +teem with "the horrors and the cruelties" of "the Irish system!" +Doubtless it would be most desirable that every man should be +possessed of a sufficiency of land, and that he should (if you will) +have it in fee; but how is this to be accomplished? The Irish +population is too dense to be comfortably supported on the extent of +soil which the country possesses, _without_ the assistance of +manufactures; and the conduct of the people, under the guidance of +their leaders, effectually prevents their establishment. There is but +one way, under existing circumstances, by means of which this happy +state could be produced, and that is by following the example of the +French revolutionists, by cutting the throats or otherwise disposing +of the present proprietors, and then selling to the peasantry at the +moderate prices which were formerly fixed on by the Convention. + +The Irish gentleman is held up to public disapprobation because he has +a lawless and pauper tenantry; and if he attempt to improve their +moral and social condition, by removing the worst conducted, and +enlarging the holdings of the others, so as to enable them to live in +comfort, his conduct is considered still more odious, even though he +send the dispossessed at his own expense to those colonies to which +thousands of the best disposed of the people voluntarily emigrate. +What, in God's name, is he to do? While all remain, it is an absolute +impossibility that good can be effected for any. The evil is +sedulously pointed out, and the only practicable remedy is resisted by +the same persons--the friends, "par excellence," of the people! + +This moral disorganization, and the total disrespect for the rights of +property by which it is accompanied, creates other evils as its +necessary consequences; it produces hostility and ill feeling between +the higher and the lower classes, augments absenteeism, and deprives +the peasantry of the personal superintendence of those who would +really have their interests at heart, and by whose example they would +be benefited. Nor can we be surprised that any person whose +circumstances enables him to do so should reside out of Ireland; when +we see every man of rank and fortune who relinquishes the pleasures of +the capital, and the enjoyments of society, for the purpose of +settling on his estates, and performing his duties, subjected to the +abuse of every scurrilous priest, and the insults of every penniless +agitator. Landlords naturally wish to reside at home where their +possessions, in a wholesome state of society, would secure them local +influence and respect; but unless the Irish gentleman bows to the +dictates of every local representative of the "august leader," he is +deprived of both, and risks his personal safety into the bargain. No +men profess to lament absenteeism more than the priests and agitators. +But how do they act? They declare against the non-residence of the +proprietors; but their sole object in doing so is to rouse the +feelings of their auditors, and thus prepare them for the performance +of what they wish them to effect. What encouragement do they or their +creatures afford to such as do return? We like facts. The Marquis of +Waterford, a bold and daring sportsman, boundless in his charities, +frank and cordial in his manners, not obnoxious on account of his +politics, and admitted on all hands to be one of the very best +landlords in Ireland--in fact, just such a character as the Irish +would admire--he comes to reside and spend his eighty thousand a-year +in the country, and how is he treated? He gets up a splendid sporting +establishment in Tipperary; _his hounds and horses were twice +poisoned_; and this not being found sufficient to drive him from the +neighbourhood, in which he was affording amusement and spending money, +_his offices were fired_, and his servants with difficulty saved their +lives. Compelled to abandon Tipperary, he betakes himself to his +family mansion in Waterford; and how is he received there? Why, in his +own town and within his hearing, we find the "meek and Christian +priest" addressing his tenants and labourers, the men whom he employs +and supports, after the following fashion:--"Men of Portlan! you were +the leading men who put down the Beresford in '26, (_the marquis's +father_.) I call on you now, having put down one set of tyrants, to +put down another set of tyrants," (_the marquis himself_.)[10] Does +such conduct (and this is but one instance of many which we could +adduce) evince a desire, on the part of the "pastors of the people," +to encourage the residence of the gentry, or a wish to procure for the +peasantry those blessings which they paint in such glowing terms as +sure to ensue from their landlords living and spending their incomes +amongst them? Much as the priests and agitators declaim against +absenteeism, nothing would be more contrary to their wishes than that +the absentees should return. They have no desire to share their +influence with others; and hence it is that an excuse is always made +for quarrelling with every resident who cannot be made subservient to +their wishes; and while they steadily persevere in their system of +annoyance and offence, they as lustily reiterate their lamentations on +a state of things which their own conduct tends to produce. + +That we are justified in attributing the poverty, the misery, and the +crimes of the Roman Catholic peasantry to the constant state of +agitation and excitement in which they are kept by their leaders, and +the bad example set them by their religious instructors, and not to +any pecuniary burdens (legislative or local) imposed upon them, we can +easily prove, by a reference to the condition of that portion of the +Irish people who are not subject to their control or corrupted by +their influence. It is well known that in the province of Ulster land +fetches at least one-third more rent than in either of the other +provinces, although the quality of the soil is by no means so good. +Yet what is the condition of the people? what their habits? what the +appearance of the country in this less favoured district? We shall let +an authority often quoted by Mr O'Connell answer our question. + +Mr Kohl[11] tells us, that "the main root of Irish misery is to be +sought in the indolence, levity, extravagance, and want of energy of +the national character." And again, in passing from that portion of +the country where the majority of the inhabitants profess the Roman +Catholic religion, to that in which the great bulk of the population +are Protestants, or Presbyterians, the same writer says--"On the other +side of these miserable hills, whose inhabitants are years before they +can afford to get the holes mended in their potato-kettles--the most +indispensable and important article of furniture in an Irish +cabin--the territory of Leinster ends, and that of Ulster begins. The +coach rattled over the boundary line, and all at once we seemed to +have entered a new world. I am not in the slightest degree +exaggerating when I say, that every thing was as suddenly changed as +if by an enchanter's wand. The dirty cabins by the road-side were +succeeded by neat, pretty, cheerful-looking cottages; regular +plantations, well cultivated fields, pleasant little cottage-gardens, +and shady lines of trees, met the eye on every side. At first I could +scarcely believe my own eyes, and thought that at all events the +change must be merely local and temporary, caused by the better +management of that particular estate. No counter change, however, +appeared; the improvement lasted the whole way to Newry; and, from +Newry to Belfast, every thing continued to show me that I had entered +the country of a totally different people--namely, the district of the +Scottish settlers, the active and industrious Presbyterians." + +Nor can we be surprised at the condition of this unhappy country when +we see the Executive looking quietly on, when the public press has +become the apologist of crime, and public sympathy is enlisted on the +side of the evil-doers. + +_Four murders_ have, within the last month, been perpetrated in +Tipperary, which were all but justified by the local papers, _because_ +they were supposed to have been the acts of tenants dispossessed _for +non-payment of rent_. _They_ excited no horror. A _fifth_ was added to +the bloody catalogue, which roused the indignation of the virtuous +_Vindicator_;[12] and why? _Solely because_ it was the result of a +private quarrel. + +_"We own,"_ says this respectable guardian of public morality, "_that +such a system of murderous aggression_ AS THIS, _remote from any of +those agrarian causes which may account for crime, is calculated to +fill every mind with indignation._"[13] Are we not justified in +demanding of the government how long this state of things is to be +permitted to continue? how long the lives and properties of the +respectable and loyal inhabitants of Ireland are to be left at the +mercy and the disposal of a ferocious and bloodstained populace? how +much further open and undisguised treason is to be allowed to proceed? + +The Taleian policy will not answer. Mr O'Connell may abandon his +plans, falsify his promises, and break his most solemn engagements--but +there will be no relief; he will still be supported so long as his +agitation is unchecked--so long as the people think that through the +instrumentality of _his_ measures _their_ designs may be accomplished. +And if, after a further period of excitement, after a still increasing +belief in their own ability to attain the avowed object of their +wishes, "the free possession of the land," the peasantry should be +deserted or betrayed by their leaders, the best that could then be +expected would be the horrors of an unsuccessful servile war. Mean time +the enemies of Great Britain are openly apprised of the disaffection of +the Irish people, who but bide their time and wait their opportunity. + + + + + +SINGULAR PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF A RUSSIAN OFFICER. + + +During a twelvemonth's residence in a continental city, I became +acquainted with a Russian officer, whom I will designate by the name +of Adrian. He was a man still in the prime of life, but who had +endured much sorrow and calamity, which had imparted a tinge of +melancholy to his character, and rendered him apparently indifferent +to most of the enjoyments that men usually seek. He was no longer in +the Russian service, did not appear to be rich, kept two horses, upon +which he used to take long solitary rides, that constituted apparently +his only pleasure. He had seen much of the world, and his life had +evidently been an adventurous one; but he was not communicative on +matters regarding himself, although on general subjects he would +sometimes converse willingly, and when he did so, his conversation was +highly interesting. He was one of those persons with whom it is +difficult to become intimate beyond a certain point; and although I +had reason to believe that he liked me, and for nearly a year we +passed a portion of each day together, he never laid aside a degree of +reserve, or approached in any way to a confidential intercourse. + +I was one day reading in my room, when Adrian's servant came in all +haste to summon me to his master, who had been thrown from his horse, +and was not expected to survive the injuries he had received. I +hurried to the hotel, and found my unfortunate friend suffering +greatly, but perfectly calm and collected. Two medical men, who had +been called in, had already informed him that his end was rapidly +approaching. He had appeared little moved by the intelligence. I +approached his bedside; he took my hand, and pressed it kindly. I was +deeply grieved at the sad state in which I found him; but time was too +short to be wasted in expressions of sympathy and sorrow, and I +thought I should better show the regard I really felt for him, by +offering to be of any service in my power with respect to the +arrangement of his affairs, or the execution of such wishes as he +might form. + +"My affairs are all in order," he said; "my will, and the address of +my nearest surviving relative, are in yonder writing-desk. I have no +debts, and whatever sum is derived from the sale of my personal +effects, I wish to be given to the hospitals of the town." + +He drew a ring, set with an antique cameo, from his finger. + +"Accept this," he said to me, "as a slight memorial of our +acquaintance, which has been productive of much pleasure to me." + +He paused, exhausted by the exertion he had made to speak. After a few +moments, he resumed. "You have at times seemed to wish to hear +something of my past life," said he, with a faint smile. "Amongst my +papers is a small leathern portfolio, which I give to you, with the +manuscript it contains. These gentlemen," added he, looking at the +physicians, "will bear witness to the bequest." + +At this moment the Roman Catholic priest, who had been sent for, +entered the room, and Adrian expressed a wish to be left alone with +him. That same evening he expired. + +I had no difficulty in obtaining possession of the portfolio +bequeathed to me. In the papers it contained were recorded a series of +incidents so extraordinary, that I am still in doubt whether to +consider them as having really happened, or as being the invention of +a fantastical and overstrained imagination. I kept the MS. by me for +some time, but have finally resolved to translate and publish it, +merely substituting fictitious names for those set down in the +original. The narrative is in some respects incomplete, but whether in +consequence of Adrian's sudden death, or because no further +circumstances connected with it came to his knowledge, I am of course +unable to say. It is as follows:-- + +I am by birth a Russian, but my childhood and youth were passed at +Hamburg. Owing to the early age at which I lost my father, my +recollections of him are necessarily but imperfect. I remember him as +a tall handsome man, somewhat careworn, constantly engaged in the +correspondence rendered necessary by his numerous commercial +speculations, and frequently absent from home upon journeys or voyages +of greater or less duration. His life had been an anxious one, and his +success by no means constant; but he still persevered, led on by a +sanguine temperament, to hope for that fortune which had hitherto +constantly eluded his grasp. + +It was shortly after my tenth birth-day, and we were anxiously +expecting my father's return from a voyage to the East Indies. Before +his departure he had promised my mother, that if he succeeded in the +objects of this distance expedition, he would retire from business, +and settle down quietly to pass the rest of his days in the country. +The letters received from him led her to believe that the result of +his voyage had been satisfactory, and she was therefore anticipating +his return with double pleasure. At last, one evening news was brought +that the ship in which he had taken his passage was come into port, +and just as my mother and myself were leaving the house to go and +welcome the wanderer, my father made his appearance. I will pass over +the transports of joy with which he was received. So soon as they had +a little subsided, he presented to us, under the name of the Signor +Manucci, a dark fine-looking man, who accompanied him, and whom he had +invited to sup with him. I say with _him_, because, to our great +surprise and disappointment, neither my mother nor myself were +admitted to partake of the meal. Hitherto my father's return from his +voyages had been celebrated as a sort of festival. A large table was +laid out, and our friends came in to welcome him, to ask him +innumerable questions, and tell him all that had occurred during his +absence. On this occasion, however, things were arranged very +differently. My father, instead of joining his family and friends at +supper, caused the meal to be served in a separate room for himself +and the Italian; and long after they had done eating, I could hear +them, as I lay in bed, walking up and down the apartment, and +discoursing earnestly together in a foreign tongue. My bed had been +made for that night upon a sofa in one of the sitting-rooms which +adjoined my father's apartment. My usual sleeping-room was given up to +the stranger, who was to pass the night at our house. + +My temperament was naturally a nervous one, and my father's return had +so excited me that I found it impossible to sleep, but lay tossing +about till long after every body in the house had apparently retired +to rest. The strong smell of sea-water proceeding from my father's +cloak, which was lying on a chair near my bed, perhaps also +contributed to keep me awake; and when I at last began to doze, I +fancied myself on board ship, and every thing around me seemed +tumbling and rolling about as in a storm. After lying for some time in +this dreamy state, I at last fell into an uneasy feverish slumber. For +long after that night, I was unable to decide whether what then +occurred was a frightful dream or a still more frightful reality. It +was only by connecting subsequent circumstances and discoveries with +my indistinct recollections, that some years afterwards I became +convinced of the reality of what I that night witnessed. + +I had scarcely fallen asleep, as it seemed to me, when I was awakened +by the creaking of the door leading into my father's room. It was +hastily opened, and the stranger appeared, bearing a lamp in his hand, +and apparently much agitated. He walked several times up and down both +rooms, as if one had been too small for him in his then excited state. +At last he began to speak to himself in broken sentences, some of +which reached my ear. "I leave to-morrow," he said; "when I return, +all will be over--all--the fool!" Then he took another turn through +the room, and paused suddenly before a large mirror. "Do I look like a +murderer?" he exclaimed wildly, and with a ghastly rolling of his +eyes. Then suddenly tearing off a black wig and whiskers which he +wore, he stood before me an old and greyheaded man. At this moment he +for the first time noticed my temporary bed. + +"Ha!" he muttered, with a start, "how imprudent!" He immediately +replaced his wig, and with noiseless steps approached my couch. +Terrified as I was, I had yet sufficient presence of mind to +counterfeit sleep; and the stranger, after standing a minute or two +beside me, went softly into my father's room, the door of which he +shut behind him. + +When I awoke the next morning, and thought of this strange incident, +it assumed so vague and indefinite a form, that I set it down as the +illusion of a dream. Every thing was as usual in the house; my father, +it is true, seemed thoughtful and grave, but that was nothing uncommon +with him. He spoke kindly to me, and apologised to my mother for his +seclusion of the preceding evening; but said that he had been +compelled to discuss matters of the greatest importance with the +Signor Manucci, who was then sitting beside him at breakfast. My +mother was too delighted at her husband's return to be very +implacable; and if the evening had been clouded by disappointment, our +morning meal was, to make amends, a picture of harmony and perfect +happiness. + +About noon, Manucci took an affectionate leave of my father, and +departed; not, however, till he had promised that he would shortly +renew his visit. The day passed without incident. My father had +planned an excursion into the country for the following morning, to +visit an old friend who resided a few leagues from Hamburg. I was +awakened at an early hour, in order to get ready to accompany him and +my mother. I hastily dressed myself, and went down into the parlour. +What was my surprise, when on entering the room I saw my father lying +pale and suffering upon a sofa, while my mother was sitting beside him +in tears, anxiously awaiting the arrival of a physician who had been +sent for, and who presently made his appearance. He felt my father's +pulse, enquired the symptoms, and finally pronounced him to be in a +state of considerable danger. Each successive half hour increased the +sick man's sufferings, and before the afternoon he was speechless. + +In sadness and anxiety we were surrounding my father's couch, when +suddenly a carriage stopped at the house door, and the next instant +Manucci entered the apartment. He expressed the utmost grief and +sympathy upon learning my father's illness, sat down beside the dying +man, for such he now was, and took his hand. My father beckoned his +friend to stoop down, that he might whisper something to him; but +although his lips moved, an inarticulate muttering was all that he +could utter. He then, with an expression of almost despairing grief +upon his countenance, took my hand and that of Manucci, joined them +together in his, which were already damp and chill with the approach +of death, and pressed them to his heart with a deep sigh. The next +instant there was a convulsive movement of his limbs--a rattle in his +throat. My father was dead. + +I shall never forget that moment. It was with some difficulty that +Manucci and myself withdrew our hands from those of my father, which +clutched them tightly in the agony of death. It was the first corpse I +had ever looked upon, and although of a parent whom I dearly loved, I +yet recoiled from it with an irrepressible shudder. The stranger, too, +inspired me with an invincible repugnance. I could not forget my +dream, or vision, or whatever it was, when I had seen him changed into +a grey repulsive-looking old man, and the mysterious words--"Do I look +like a murderer?" rang ever in my ears. + +My mother's grief at her sudden bereavement was boundless. She was +incapable of arranging or ordering any thing; and as my tender years +prevented me from being of any use, Manucci took upon himself the +management of every thing. Through his exertions, the arrangements for +the funeral were rapidly completed; and I followed to the grave the +body of my unfortunate father, who had died, so said the doctor, of a +stroke of apoplexy. Child as I was, I was greatly struck by the +coincidence between this sudden death, and the singular dream I had +had not forty-eight hours previous to it. I said nothing, however; +for I feared Manucci, and should not have thought my life safe had he +heard that I related my dream to any one. In after years, when I was +better able to form a judgment on these matters, I thought it useless +to renew the grief of my poor mother, then becoming old and infirm, by +a communication of what I had witnessed on that memorable night, or by +inspiring her with doubts as to the real cause of her husband's death. + +Meanwhile Manucci busied himself in the arrangement of my father's +affairs, concerning which he appeared perfectly well informed. In the +course of their liquidation, he became acquainted with many of the +chief people in Hamburg, who all spoke very highly of his talents, and +seemed captivated by his agreeable conversation and varied +acquirements. In an incredibly short time he had made himself numerous +friends, who courted his society and invited him to their houses. +Nobody knew any thing more of him than what he himself chose to say, +which was very little. It was rumoured, however, that he belonged to a +religious fraternity--but whether of the Jesuits, or some other order, +no one knew, nor was it possible to trace the origin of the report. +Manucci himself, the object of all these conjectures, seemed perfectly +unconscious of, or indifferent to them. He took a house at a short +distance from the town, close to a small country residence to which my +mother had retired; and in conformity with my father's last and mutely +expressed wish, showed a most friendly disposition towards me, +interesting himself in my studies, and to a certain extent +superintending my education. He visited us very frequently, and +gradually I became accustomed to his presence, and my aversion to him +diminished. The remembrance of my dream grew fainter and fainter, and +the guilty agitation and strange appearance of Manucci on the night of +his arrival at Hamburg, lost the sharp distinctness of outline with +which they had at first been engraved upon my memory. I regarded all +that I had seen that night as a dream, and nothing more. + +The house inhabited by Manucci was of handsome exterior, and situated +in the middle of a large garden. The door was rarely opened to +visitors, and, besides the Italian, an old servant-maid was its only +inmate. I myself was never admitted within its walls till I had +attained my seventeenth year; but when I was, the curious arrangements +of the dwelling made a strong impression upon my fancy. The whole of +the ground floor was one large hall, of which the ceiling was +supported by pillars, and whence a staircase led to three apartments, +one used as a sitting-room, another as bed-chamber, and the third, +which was kept constantly shut, as a study. The sitting-room, instead +of doors, had green silk curtains in the doorways. Eight chandeliers +were fixed in pairs upon the wall, and between them were four black +marble tablets, on which were engraved in golden letters, the +words:--Watch! Pray! Labour! Love! In a recess was a sort of altar, +above which was suspended a valuable painting from the hand of one of +the old masters. Behind a folding screen in the sleeping-room, stood +the bed, which was surrounded by sabres, daggers, stilettoes, and +pistols of various calibre; and from this room a strong door, clenched +and bound with iron, led into the study, the interior of which I never +saw. Altogether, the house made such a strange and unpleasant +impression upon me, that I felt no wish to repeat my visit. + +Manucci had now been residing seven years amongst us, leading a +peaceful and quiet life, a frequent visitor at our house, well looked +upon and liked by all who knew him. Although there was certainly a +degree of mystery attaching to him, yet no one was suspicious of him, +nor had the voice of scandal ever been lifted up to his prejudice. He +was friendly and attentive to my mother, kind to me, courteous to +every one, seemed perfectly contented with his mode of life, and never +talked of changing it. Our astonishment was consequently so much the +greater, when one morning we learnt his sudden disappearance from the +neighbourhood. Enquiries were made in every direction, but none had +seen him depart. His shrivelled old housekeeper was also nowhere to be +found. + +It was within a few weeks after this strange disappearance, that I +obtained the first insight into the character of the mysterious +Italian. After my father's death, and the winding up of his affairs, +his papers and letters had been put in boxes and locked up in a +closet. I one day took it into my head to rummage these papers. There +were vast numbers of bills of lading and exchange, insurance papers +and the like, all matters of no interest to me; but at last, upon +untying a bundle of miscellaneous documents, a small packet fell out +which seemed likely to reward my search. It consisted of fragments of +letters, much damaged by fire, and which, to judge from the size of +the half-burned envelope that contained them, and that had apparently +been originally used for a much larger parcel, probably formed only a +small part of a collection of letters that had been accidentally or +intentionally destroyed by the flames. + +Here are some of these fragments of letters. + + "... The society of a man whose acquaintance I have made since my + arrival here, becomes each day more agreeable to me. He has seen + a vast deal of the world, and his mind is stored with the most + varied knowledge, to such a degree that it sometimes appears to + me as if the longest life would be insufficient to acquire all + that he has learned. Our acquaintance was made in an odd place + enough--a gambling-house, to which I had gone as a matter of + curiosity. He was sitting away from the tables, and addressed + some trifling remark to me, to which I replied. He then, as if he + had known who and what I was, began talking of the commerce in + which I am engaged, and displayed an intimate acquaintance with + mercantile affairs. Our conversation had already become animated + and interesting, when it was interrupted by a noise and bustle in + the play-room; and several persons came up to my new + acquaintance, and congratulated him. It appeared that he had + staked sum equivalent to the whole amount there was in the bank, + and it was while the game was being played that we had entered + into conversation. He now went to the table, and received his + winnings from the disconcerted bankers with an appearance of + perfect indifference, returning them at the same time, a handsome + sum--that they might have, as he said, a chance of recovering + what he had won from them! Then, after giving me his address, and + inviting me to call on him, he left the house" ... + + "... The diamonds ... enormous value ... excellent bargain ... + twenty thousand pounds sterling" ... + + (This letter had been nearly destroyed by the fire.) + + "... It is some days since I have seen my new friend, although + his agreeable conversation and manners render his society more + pleasing to me at every interview. I am embarrassed about this + purchase of diamonds, which I an very desirous of making, but + find myself without sufficient funds for the purpose. If M---- + would join me in the speculation, his recent winnings would be + more than is wanted to make up the deficiency. I must propose it + to him ... + + "... I have just returned from a visit to M----. It appears that + he is an Italian by birth, although speaking several languages as + well as a native, and that he is travelling for the affairs of an + important association of which he is a member. He has travelled a + great deal in Germany, and will probably return thither shortly. + To-day he told me that he was glad to have won the large sum to + which I alluded in a former letter; that he had much need of it + for a great object he had in view, but for which he was still + afraid it would scarcely suffice. Upon hearing this, I resolved + to say nothing to him about the partnership in the diamond + speculation ... + + "... It is impossible for me to describe to you the fascination + which this man exercises over me. You know that I do not usually + exaggerate, although inclined to the mystical and romantic. I + have lived too little on land, however, for any ideas of that + nature to have taken much hold upon my mind. At sea, the movement + of the winds and waves, the unintermitting intercourse with one's + fellow-men--the whole life of a mariner, in short, leaves little + leisure for such fancies. But here, in this tropical clime, where + the heavens are of so deep a blue, and the leaves of so bright a + green, where the imagination is worked upon by Oriental scenery + and magnificence, and the very air one breathes is laden with + perfumes from the flower-fields and spice-groves of Araby the + Blest, here is the land of fiction and reverie, and here I at + times think that my new and most agreeable friend has laid me + under a spell equally pleasant and potent in its effects--a spell + from which I have neither wish nor ability to emancipate myself. + Yet why should I wish to escape an influence exercised only for + my good, and by which I must benefit? My greatest happiness is in + the friendship of this man, my greatest trust and reliance are in + his counsels. Stern is he, bold, almost rash in his actions, but + ever successful; and when he has an end to gain, nothing can + withstand him, no obstacle bar him from its attainment.... + + "... in the kindest manner lent me the sum I wanted to complete + the purchase-money of the diamonds, but obstinately refuses to + share the profits which, on my return to Europe, are sure to + accrue from this speculation. What generosity! M----is assuredly + the most disinterested and the truest of friends. We are becoming + each day more attached to each other. He has formed a project to + come and settle near Hamburg, and there we shall pass the rest of + our days together. He is a most singular and interesting person. + I shall weary you, perhaps, by all these details; but every thing + that relates to him interests me. Only think, the other day I + found in a cabinet in his apartment, a mask, which he told me he + had himself made. I never saw such a masterpiece. It was of wax, + imitating perfectly a human countenance, of an expression + eminently attractive, although sad. He was not in the room when I + found it, in seeking for a book he had promised to lend me. He + came in when I had just taken it out of the drawer in which it + was, and an angry exclamation" ... + + +These disjointed but significant fragments were all of any interest +that the flames had spared. From them, however, I acquired a moral +certainty that Manucci was my father's murderer. In order to obtain +possession of the diamonds, of which no trace had been found after my +father's death, the perfidious Italian had doubtless administered to +him some deadly poison. This must have been so skilfully prepared as +not to take effect till the murderer had left the house a sufficiently +long time to prevent any risk of suspicion attaching to him. + +Burning to avenge my unfortunate parent, I now set to work with the +utmost energy to discover what had become of Manucci. I caused +enquiries to be made in every direction, and resorted to every means I +could devise to find out the assassin; but for a long time all was in +vain. It was not till several years after my mother's death that we +again met--a meeting which, like our first, was to me fraught with +bitter sorrow. + +I had been for some time in the Russian service, and the regiment to +which I belonged was quartered at a village a few leagues from Warsaw. +At the period I speak of, a country house in the neighbourhood of the +village belonged to, and was occupied by, General Count Gutzkoff, a +nobleman of ancient descent and great wealth, and who had an only +daughter called Natalie, the perfection of feminine grace and beauty. +The villa had been christened Natalina, after his daughter, and no +expense had been spared to render it and the grounds attached to it +worthy of their lovely sponsor. Amongst other embellishments, a large +portion of the park had been laid out in miniature imitation of Swiss +scenery, with chalets, and waterfalls, and artificial mountains, that +must have taken a vast time and labour to construct. There was an +excellent house in this part of the grounds, inhabited by a sort of +intendant or steward, and in this house rooms were assigned to me, I +having been quartered upon General Gutzkoff. I had thus many +opportunities of seeing Natalie, whose charms soon inspired me with a +passion which, to my inexpressible joy, I after a time found to be +reciprocated by her. I am not writing a romance, but a plain +narrative of some of the strangest incidents in my life; I will, +therefore, pass over the rise and progress of our attachment, of the +existence of which the general at length became aware. He was a proud +and ambitious man, and my small fortune and lieutenant's epaulette by +no means qualified me in his eyes to become his son-in-law. Natalie +was threatened with a convent, and I was requested to discontinue my +visits to the house. About the same time, I heard it rumoured that a +rich cousin, then stopping with the general, was the intended husband +of the young countess. + +For some days I found it impossible to obtain a meeting with Natalie, +although I put every stratagem in practice, and sought every +opportunity of meeting her in her walks. After the general's positive, +although courteous prohibition, I of course could not think of +returning to his house. It was therefore with much anxiety that I +looked forward to a ball which was to be given by a rich old Smyrniot, +who lived at Warsaw. He was acquainted with the officers of my +regiment, and to console us, as he said, for the dulness of our +country quarters, he proposed to give a fete sufficiently splendid to +attract the ladies of the capital to the village where we were +stationed. He was intimate with General Gutzkoff, who lent him for the +occasion the part of his domain called the Swiss park, and there the +fete was to be held. I made sure of meeting Natalie there, and perhaps +even of finding an opportunity of speaking to her unobserved by her +father. + +The much wished-for evening came, and a numerous and brilliant company +was assembled in the gardens. The long alleys of trees were rendered +light as day by a profusion of lamps, of which the globes of painted +crystal were suspended by wires from tree to tree, and appeared to +float unsupported upon the air. Under two large pavilions of various +colours, flooring had been laid down, and chalked in fanciful devices. +These were for the dancers. Several bands of music were placed in +different parts of the grounds; and in the various cottages and Swiss +dairies tables were laid out, covered with the most exquisite +refreshments and delicate wines. On either side of the principal +fountains were transparencies, with emblems and mottoes complimentary +to the guests and to the noble owner of the park; and, finally, that +nothing might be wanting to the gratification of every taste, a +crimson tent, richly decorated, contained a faro-table, upon which a +large bank in gold was placed. Crowds of officers, and of beautiful +women splendidly attired, thronged the dancing rooms or rambled +through the illuminated walks. Natalie was there, but accompanied by +her father and cousin, so that I could not venture to accost her. She +looked sad, I thought, but more lovely than ever; and when at last she +sat down in one of the summer-houses, I approached as near as I could +without being myself seen, in order at least to have the pleasure of +gazing on her sweet countenance. I was leaning against a tree, cursing +the cruel fate that separated me from the object of my love, when one +of my comrades came up and asked me if I would not go to the +faro-room. There was a man there, he said playing with the most +wonderful luck that had ever been seen. He had already broken two +banks, and seemed likely to do the same with a third that had been put +down. I was in no humour to take interest in such matters, and should +have declined my brother officer's invitation, had I not just then +seen Natalie and her companions get up and take the direction of the +gambling tent. I followed with my friend. The play that was going on +had, however, no attraction for me; I had no eyes for any one but +Natalie, and was almost unaware of what was passing around me. After +standing for a short time near the table, the general turned aside to +talk with the colonel of my regiment, and his cousin went to speak +with some ladies who had just entered. The moment was favourable for +exchanging a few words with Natalie. I was about to approach her, when +there was a sudden bustle and loud exclamations round the table. + +"See there!" exclaimed my comrade, "he has won again." + +I glanced hastily at the fortunate player, and then started back +petrified by surprise. It was Manucci. + +My first impulse upon beholding the man whom I had been so long +seeking, and whom I held for my father's murderer, was instantly to +seize him and tax him with his crime. An instant's reflection, +however, suggested to me the impropriety of such a course. What +evidence had I to offer before a court of law in support of my +accusation? The tale I had to tell was far too extraordinary a one to +be believed on the unsupported testimony of an accuser. This man +seemed well known to several of the guests who stood near him; he wore +the decorations of two or three foreign orders, and appeared to be a +person of some mark. Might I not even be deceived by a strong +resemblance? At any rate, it was sufficient if I kept him in sight +till I had an opportunity of making enquiries concerning him. If it +were Manucci, I was determined he should not escape me. + +I was still gazing hard at the stranger, and becoming each moment more +and more convinced of his identity with Manucci, when, to my great +surprise, I saw him leave the table and approach Natalie. She seemed +to know him; they exchanged a few sentences, and then, passing through +a door, they left the tent together. I hurried after them as fast as +the crowd of persons through which I had to make my way would allow +me. On getting out of the tent I saw no signs either of Natalie or the +stranger. They could not be far--they must have turned down one of the +numerous sidepaths; and I darted in quest of them down the first I +came to. I had run and walked over nearly half the grounds without +finding them, when I met the general and his cousin, who, with looks +of some suspicion, asked me if I had seen Natalie. I told them with +whom I had last seen her; but my description of the stranger, although +minute and accurate, did not enable the general to recognise in him +any one of his acquaintance; and separating, we resumed our search in +different directions with increased anxiety and redoubled care. + +While thus engaged, loud cries were suddenly heard proceeding from the +upper floor of one of the chalets or ornamental cottages near which I +was then passing, and of which the lower part only was used for the +purposes of the fete. I hastened thither, rushed up the staircase, +and, in so doing, ran against an officer who was carrying down Natalie +in his arms. She was senseless. At that moment her father arrived and +took charge of her. Above stairs, all was confusion and alarm, and a +number of the guests were seeking the villain who had dared to insult +or ill-treat the young countess. But he was nowhere to be found, and +it was supposed that he had jumped out of the window, and, favoured by +the darkness, had made his escape. Natalie, when she recovered from +her swoon, was still too weak and too terrified to give any +explanation concerning the matter. She was conveyed to her father's +house, the fete was broken up, and the guests took their departure. My +brother officers and myself mounted our horses, and rode in every +direction to endeavour to find the offender. All our researches, +however, were fruitless. + +Strange to say, this singular incident excited much less attention, +and was much more rapidly forgotten, than could possibly have been +expected, especially when the rank and importance of the offended +party were considered. After the first day, few efforts seemed to be +made for the discovery of the stranger except by myself; and all that +I did towards that end was unsuccessful. The murderer of my father, +the spoiler of my inheritance, the vile insulter of the woman I loved, +had for this time eluded my vengeance. + +About a fortnight after the fete, it became publicly rumoured that any +project of marriage which might have been contemplated by General +Gutzkoff between his daughter and her cousin, was at an end, and that +Natalie was to take the veil. It was known that, before the death of +the late countess, who was an exceedingly religious woman, it had been +in agitation to devote Natalie to a religious life; but when the +general became a widower, nothing more had been heard of the plan. It +now almost seemed as if its revival and contemplated execution were +in some way consequent on the strange incident at the ball. The +matter, however, was far too delicate for any one to question +concerning it those who alone could have given information. At the +appointed time Natalie entered as novice a convent of Ursulines, +situated at about a league from her father's villa. + +The first news of this event was a terrible shock to me. In spite of +the small favour with which the general regarded my attachment to his +daughter, I had still hoped that time or circumstances might bring +about some change in his sentiments. But the cloister opposed a yet +stronger bar to my wishes than the will of a parent, and the vows once +pronounced, which at the end of one short year Natalie would have to +utter, I might bid farewell to hope. Our separation would then be +irrevocable and eternal in this world. It was necessary, therefore, to +make the best use of the short space of her noviciate, in order to put +in execution one of the numerous plans which I devised for freeing her +from the state of holy bondage which I was certain she had only +through compulsion been induced to enter. Day and night I hovered +about the convent, in hopes of catching a glimpse of Natalie, or of +finding an opportunity of giving her a letter, in which I strenuously +urged her to accept a plan of escape that I proposed to her. At last +an opportunity occurred. She was walking in the convent garden with +another novice, who left her for an instant to gather some flowers. I +was watching all their movements, and at this moment I threw my letter +at Natalie's feet. She took it up, retired into a shrubbery walk to +read it, and presently returned. + +"To-morrow," said she, "the answer--here." + +With what anxious impatience did I look forward to her reply, and with +what despairing feelings did it fill me when I received it! In it +Natalie spoke of her approaching death as of an event of the +occurrence of which she was thoroughly persuaded, and besought me to +give up all hopes of again seeing her. + +At this period of the year the nuns of the Ursuline convent inhabited +their summer cells, which were a row of buildings situated in the +convent garden. Natalie had the last cell, which was separated by +several empty ones from those of the other sisters. It was on the +second day after I received her letter that the nuns were surprised by +her not opening her door at the usual hour. They waited some time for +her appearance, but in vain. They knocked; there was no answer. At +last the door was forced open and Natalie was found lying dead upon +the floor of the cell. She had evidently been dragged out of bed with +great violence; her features were distorted with pain and struggling, +and in her left breast was a wound which had been the cause of her +death. The murderer had broken in through the roof of the cell. + +The news of this horrible occurrence flew with lightning swiftness +through the neighbourhood and to Warsaw. Nobody doubted that there was +some connexion between the crime and the singular occurrence at the +ball, although it was impossible to say what that connexion was. Every +attempt to discover and apprehend the murderer proved unavailing. + +In order to see Natalie for the last time, I repaired to the convent +church, in which, according to custom, her corpse was laid out. With +faltering and uncertain steps I passed through the aisle, and reached +the chapel where the remains of her I had so fondly loved were lying. +I stepped up to the bier, but the next instant turned away my face. I +lacked courage to look upon the cold corpse of my adored mistress. A +violent dizziness seized me, the pillars around me seemed to turn and +twist about, and the roof of the church to shake. I sank senseless +upon a chair. + +How long I may have remained in that state I am unable to say. It was +night when consciousness returned, and the moon was shedding its cold, +clear light through the high Gothic windows. I felt heated and +excited; all manner of strange fancies passed through my head, the +predominant one being to go at once and wander about the world, till I +should discover the fiend to whom the misery I now suffered was +attributable. Before doing so, however, I must see my Natalie once +more. I stepped up to the coffin. Natalie lay there in her nun's +garments, a crucifix upon her breast, and a veil surrounding her face, +which, to my inexpressible astonishment and horror, I now saw was +covered with a mask. + +I was at first unable to explain this singular circumstance, but then +it occurred to me that her lovely features had been said to be much +distorted in death, and doubtless her friends had taken this means of +concealing them from the gaze of vulgar curiosity. I would see her +though, I thought; I would kiss those lips, once so warm and +love-breathing, now so pale and chilled. The better if, in her +death-like embrace, I found an end to my life and suffering. I +stretched out my hand to detach the mask, which was by no means +unpleasing in its appearance. It reminded me of the one spoken of by +my father in one of his letters; and as I stood looking at it, I +little by little persuaded myself it must be the same. The lips curved +into a mournful smile, an attractive expression on the features; only +the sockets for the eyes were empty, and through them shone the glazed +orbs of the departed. + +Whilst given up to these reflections, I suddenly heard a slight +rustling noise near me. I looked round, and saw a muffled figure +sitting at a short distance off, in which I thought I recognized some +old nun keeping her drowsy vigil by the dead. I took no heed of her, +but stretched out my hand to tear the mask from Natalie's face, when +suddenly the figure rose, and with three long, noiseless strides, +stood close beside me. The robe in which it was muffled opened, and I +beheld--Manucci! not the Manucci I had seen at the faro-table, nor yet +he who had lived for years near my mother's house, but the grey old +man who had appeared to me on the night of my father's arrival, and +had said, "Do I look like a murderer?" + +"Thou here, villain!" I exclaimed, on beholding this unexpected +apparition. "The hand of heaven is in this!" + +I stretched forth my arm to seize the murderer, who thus braved me +beside the corpse of his last victim; but as I did so I experienced a +strange stunning sensation, and fell, as though struck by a +thunderbolt, lifeless to the ground. The first persons who entered the +church upon the following morning found me in this state, and carried +me to the nearest house, where I lay for weeks in a raging fever, +during which time Natalie was buried, and the flowers that sprang up +on her grave were withered by the frosts and snows of winter. When I +at last became convalescent, and re-appeared amongst men, Natalie was +forgotten; and the strange circumstances that had occurred to me in +the church would have obtained no credence, or at most would have been +considered as the precursors of fever, the visions resulting from a +heated imagination and exhausted frame. Indeed my memory was in so +confused a state, and the weeks I had passed in the unconsciousness of +delirium, caused every thing that had previously happened to appear so +remote and indistinct, that I was myself almost unable to give any +clear and definite form to the occurrences that preceded my illness. +My health was greatly shaken, and I was no longer equal to any +occupation that required sustained exertion and application. I +resigned my commission, therefore, and formed a plan to divide my life +amongst the various large cities of Europe, changing from time to +time, and constantly endeavouring to seize again the thread that had +escaped me, and if possible to discover and unmask the vile impostor +who had destroyed my life's happiness. I may, perhaps, some day write +down the various and strange adventures that I have met with during +these researches, and in my wandering course of life. In this +portfolio, however, I will put nothing but what relates to any further +discoveries I may make concerning the base Italian and his +machinations. + + * * * * * + +Here Adrian's manuscript ended; but between the two following blank +leaves I found a letter dated from St Petersburg, written in a +different hand, and that seemed to form a sort of appendix or +continuation to the preceding narrative. This letter, from the +different dates scattered through it, appeared to have been continued +from time to time, several weeks elapsing between its commencement and +the period at which it was sent off. The envelope was wanting, and +there was no address; but, from its contents, it appeared that it had +not been written to Adrian, but to a friend of his who had handed it +to him. At the end came a dozen lines in Adrian's handwriting, leaving +off somewhat abruptly. Here follows the letter:-- + + _St Petersburg, 12th June._ + + My dear Augustus,--Of all the wealthy and distinguished + foreigners whom this gay season has brought together in St + Petersburg, not any attract so much attention as the Marchese + d'Emiliano and his daughter. The father is as remarkable for his + learning and talents as the daughter is for her innumerable + graces and accomplishments, which draw all eyes upon her. She has + only one extraordinary peculiarity, which is--but stay, I will + first describe her to you, so that this singularity, when I tell + you of it, may appear the more striking. Picture to yourself a + brunette, slender and perfectly formed, possessing the exact and + beautiful proportions of a Grecian statue--a foot smaller and + better shaped than I ever yet beheld--an exquisite hand, slender + and tapering, not one of those short fleshy hands with dimpled + fingers, which it is now the fashion to admire, but for which no + precedent is to be found in the Medicean goddess or in any other + standard of beauty. A magnificent bust, an arm like alabaster, a + profusion of dark flowing hair, grace in every movement. But--now + comes the wonder, my friend--instead of a face corresponding in + beauty with this perfect form, there is--a mask. Can you imagine + a greater absurdity? and yet they are people who, in every other + respect, show extreme good taste. + + From the lips of this mask proceeds a voice which, for melody and + sweetness, I have never heard equaled. In speaking, its tones are + of silver, but when she sings one forgets mask and every thing + else to give one's-self up to an ecstacy of perfect enjoyment. + She knows a vast deal of Italian, French, and Spanish music, + languages that she speaks with the utmost purity, and she + accompanies herself alternately on piano, guitar, or mandoline, + of which instruments she is a perfect mistress. Her dancing is no + less admirable than her singing; and, at every ball to which she + goes, crowds collect around her to watch the sylph-like grace + with which she glides through the dance. In short, she unites + every womanly accomplishment, and yet this heavenly creature + persists in concealing her face under that vile mask, which fits + so closely that not the smallest portion of her countenance can + be perceived. However hideous the latter may be, it would be + preferable to this horrid covering. Not that the mask is ugly; on + the contrary, it is the handsomest I ever saw, and in itself has + nothing disagreeable. It is formed of wax, and has a mournful + expression which is quite attractive, at least when its owner + sits still; but when she moves or speaks, the dead look of the + mask has an indescribably unpleasant effect. Several persons have + indirectly questioned the Marchese on this subject, but he evades + or turns off their enquiries with all the tact of a consummate + man of the world. Of course it would be indelicate, if not + unfeeling, to ask her about it. Meantime the public amuses itself + with all sorts of absurd suppositions. First it is a vow; then + she has got a pig's face; then her waiting-maid had said that she + had once caught her unmasked, and that her face was covered with + feathers and had a beak in the middle of it. Then, again, it is a + stratagem, to try the man whom she shall marry, and to see if he + will love her for something besides her appearance, and on her + wedding-day she will take off the mask and disclose features of + perfect beauty. All this is of course mere gossip; for nobody + knows any thing about these Italians, except that the Marchese is + enormously rich, and that his daughter, in spite of her mask, is + the most amiable and fascinating of women. Amongst other + absurdities, a report was spread that the marquis was no other + than the celebrated St Germains, who, as is well known, was + himself no other than the Wandering Jew. It is ridiculous to hear + the extraordinary things they tell of him. Only the other day it + was asserted that he had been met in a distant country, where he + passed under another name, and was remarkable for his constant + and almost suspicious success in gambling. I should be very + curious to trace all these reports to their source. Their + inventors can at least have no lack of imagination. The fact is, + that there is unquestionably something strange and mysterious + about the old man--but what does it amount to after all? He is an + old Italian marquis, his foreign manners and appearance, and + imposing title, work upon the imagination of us northerns, and at + once make us suspect an adventurer in this worthy old nobleman. + The mere presence of Natalie (that is his daughter's name) is + sufficient to refute such a suspicion. She is the incarnation of + all that is pure and beautiful; and I confess to you, my friend, + that I am each day becoming more and more the slave of her + attractions. If in society she exhibits her varied + accomplishments, on the other hand, when we are alone, she is the + simple and unsophisticated girl. During our _tete-a-tetes_, + however, it has not escaped me that she is frequently melancholy; + a something seems at times to weigh upon her spirits; and, + although she evidently struggles to hide this, she has been + unable to conceal it from my close and interested observation. + Yes, my friend, interested, for deeply interested I am in all + that concerns Natalie; and, I own to you, that in spite of her + mask, in spite of the mystery that surrounds her, nothing would + make me so happy as to call her mine. + + + _27th June._--A week ago it was Natalie's birth-day. She had felt + herself somewhat indisposed, and had begged the Marchese not to + invite any guests. Nevertheless, when I called to offer my good + wishes on the occasion, they kept me there till evening. We then + walked out in the garden--Natalie and myself, that is to say--and + sat down upon a rustic seat, amidst a cluster of flowering shrubs + that perfumed the air around us. I know not of what we spoke, + but, after a short time, I found myself with my arm round + Natalie's waist, her hand clasped in mine, her mask--alas! that I + cannot say her face--resting upon my shoulder. It was one of + those sweet moments with which past and future have nought to do, + but during which one lives upon the present. Gradually my lips + drew nearer and nearer to her waxen ones, but, half-jesting, she + turned her head away. I became more persevering, and without + saying any thing to her I raised my arm gently till my hand + touched her hair, amongst which the fastenings of the mask were + apparently concealed. In another moment the mystery would be + solved, and I should gaze doubtless on the most lovely + countenance that ever blessed a lover's sight. At that very + instant she uttered a sort of shriek, and sprang from my embrace. + In vain did I entreat and supplicate her to suffer me to remove + that envious mask. She was inexorable, and just then, attracted + perhaps by Natalie's cry, the Marchese appeared. + + "What!" said he in a distant and somewhat angry tone and manner, + "nearly midnight, and you are still here?" + + The time had indeed passed rapidly. The hint was too direct for + me to do otherwise than apologize and depart. + + Since that evening they have treated me with some coolness, nor + can I wonder at it. My constant visits to their house have become + the talk of all St Petersburg; and it is evident that I must + either declare myself the suitor of Natalie or avoid her + altogether. Avoid her! How can I do it? Do not blame me, + Augustus, when I tell you that I have decided to go this day to + the Marquis and ask his daughter's hand. Rank, fortune, every + thing in short, is suitable. Only that mystery--but I will not + think of it. I lay down my pen, and go instantly to execute my + intention. + + + _30th June._--You will set me down as a fool when you read what I + last wrote. I should perhaps say the same of you, were our + positions reversed; and yet, were you not my old friend and + comrade, I should feel disposed to be angry with you for saying + it of me on this occasion. She is mine, Augustus--mine by her + own and her father's promise. My friend, I am unutterably happy. + I am not able to look forward with any thing like coolness to the + moment when she shall remove that odious mask, and disclose the + lovely countenance which I am persuaded it conceals. + + + _8th July._--I cannot understand Natalie. She seems happy at the + prospect of becoming my wife; and yet that same melancholy which + I have before noticed, hangs about her, and seems impossible to + be dissipated. Can she have had some previous attachment, some + disappointed affection, which has left its lingering regrets, and + which her present engagement recalls more vividly to her + recollection? And yet, why torment myself thus? She loves + me--that I cannot doubt; and surely her approaching change of + condition, and the separation from her father which it must + sooner or later entail, are sufficient to account for an + occasional pensiveness on the part of a young and susceptible + girl. In vain do I seek for any other probable cause of her + melancholy. At times I fancy that she has some disclosure or + confession to make to me, which she has difficulty in repressing. + + + _23d July._--The secret is out. Natalie is ugly. You laugh + already at the poor dupe. But beware of laughing too soon: for he + can be no dupe who becomes the husband of Natalie; should her + face prove as hideous as that of Medusa. You will perceive from + this that I have not yet seen it, nor, truth to tell, am I now so + anxious to do so. She has been tormenting herself with the fear + that I should cease to love her when I once saw her unmasked, and + has reproached herself innumerable times for having encouraged my + passion. She has decided what to do. On her marriage-day, before + I lead her to the altar, I am to see her without her mask. + To-morrow is that day; and although I am prepared for the very + worst, yet my uneasiness increases with every hour that brings me + nearer to the decisive moment. My regrets are infinite that she + has persisted so long in her disguise. If at the commencement of + our attachment she had had the courage to remove that fatal mask, + I must still have loved her; no deformity of feature would have + been sufficient to neutralize the effect of her other charms and + accomplishments. But now, at the moment that I have been looking + forward to as the happiest of my life, to have my bliss disturbed + by such a revelation--it is cruel! Yet how can I blame her for + conduct so natural in a woman who loves? She feared to see my + growing affection turned into aversion, and delayed to the utmost + the much dreaded disclosure. Enough for to-day. I send off this + letter. After my marriage you shall hear from me again. Ever + yours, + + Paul S----. + + +What a ray of light thrown upon my dark uncertainties! "To St +Petersburg, instantly! The trace is found!" + +Such was my exclamation after reading the above letter, which was +communicated to me at Vienna by an old and tried friend. In an +incredibly short time I had reached the Russian capital. What I there +learned was as follows:-- + +On the day appointed for the marriage of Natalie d'Emiliano and the +young Swedish count, Paul S----, when all were in readiness to proceed +to the church, and the guests were only waiting the appearance of the +bride and bridegroom, a piercing cry was suddenly heard in a room +adjoining that in which the bridal party was assembled. The company +hurried, in the direction of the sound, and there found the Count +lying apparently lifeless on the floor, while the bride was hastily +securing the fastenings of her mask. The guests thronged round the +former, and tried every means of recovering him from the death-like +swoon into which he had fallen. After much trouble they were +successful. The Marchese and Natalie were then sought for, but both +had disappeared; and neither of them were ever afterwards seen or +heard of in St Petersburg. The bridegroom could never be induced to +tell what it was that the mask concealed. + + + + +TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. + +No. IV. + +THE MOOR MAIDEN. + + +"Wildernesses and heaths are not the only spots that boast of their +_Fata Morgana_," said Woldemar, in a society of torch-bearers which +regularly assembled in the old castle on Christmas night. + +"The vision appears in a hundred places, in shapes answering to the +peculiarity of soil and country in which she rises. Here she is an +apparition of the air, beaming with splendour; there she unfolds +herself in glittering mist. On the unbounded plain, you behold her in +the form of an enchanted city--a paradise of leafy loveliness, or it +may be simply as a fantastic Erl-King, a giddy dazzling vapour. Let +her appear, however, where and how she will, she is ever seductive, +mysterious, and beautiful, and attended with the awe of a strange +nameless delight. + +"You know the high table-land, strewed with countless blocks of +granite, between C---- and K----. Inclosed upon two sides by mountains +and thick groves of beech, it would be a perfect desert but for the +clear crystal brook which purls its way along the glistening stones. +This labyrinthine brook, indeed, fills the barren spot with animation, +whilst it creates too that singular power of attraction which we +cannot explain to ourselves, but which, nevertheless, becomes our +unfailing companion in regions with which the heart of the people has +intimately associated itself by tales of wonder and tradition. + +"The Tradition touching this very table-land is dim and shapeless, +like the thick mist of a sultry summer's day, hanging over hill and +valley. It is most convenient to the common working mind to retain and +hold fast in a history only so much as is needful for the great +catastrophe. The people are content to abide by the beginning and end +of things, not concerning themselves with the important connecting +links. All that lies between is left to the imagination of the more +inquisitive to fill up. A tradition of this order occurs to me this +moment, and, by your leave, I will do my best to complete it:-- + +"A mysterious curse lay upon the noble house of Gottmar. No male scion +was suffered to perpetuate the race. The bride of his selection died +on her wedding-day, and he himself was doomed to follow quickly after. +The rich possessions passed to the nearest relative, who, by virtue of +an ancient law, assumed the name of Gottmar. The family was very +ancient. It traced its origin back to the Sclavonian priests, the +sacrificers to the God Mahr, and bore in its armorial ensigns a +sacrificial axe and a blood channel, in shape like that which at this +day is found cut into the granite-blocks of the high mountain that +bears the name of Gottmar. The later descendants of this powerful and +widely-ramified house could no longer explain the cause of their cruel +condition. It had been deemed advisable by their ancestors to +exterminate every record of it, hoping thereby perhaps to weaken, in +the course of time, the curse itself. The precaution was fruitless. No +alteration whatever took place in the fate of the doomed family, which +at length was regarded, no less by itself than by the world, as the +outlawed of heaven. + +"The last living representative of the house of Gottmar entered upon +the family inheritance upon the death of his cousin. Bolko was a mild +yet enthusiastic youth, glowing with deep, ripe feeling, and needy of +human love. He had little joy in the acquisition of what, in other +circumstances, might have been considered his enviable fortune. He +thought only of the miserable destiny that sentenced him to celibacy +or death. His immediate predecessor, riding across a heath to take a +last farewell of his bride, had been struck dead by lightning, and the +maiden herself had been hurled from life at the edge of a precipice. +Bolko, attired in mourning, sat at the window of his lofty castle, and +surveyed the lovely prospect before him, bathed as it was in the +golden light of evening. Here were rich forests, there teeming fields; +in the depths of the valleys prosperous labouring villages; and in the +far distance, towering above all, the blue crests and jagged peaks of +a mountain region. + +"'And all has become mine!' he exclaimed, resting his forehead +dejectedly upon his hand; 'to pass quickly away again, and unenjoyed! +And I, in ignorance, why! To be a sinner, a criminal, and not +conscious of one criminal aspiration. Yet, to be punished for +crime--to be killed for crime. Oh, it is hard! And heaven, sweet and +fair as she appears, is crueler than I could have believed.' + +"His preceptor, confessor and friend stepped into the apartment. +Hubert was an aged man, learned and pious, and well skilled, it was +believed, in cabalistic science. He had buried three Gottmars, and +received their last confessions. From these he had drawn conjectures +and conclusions which induced him to investigate the traditions +current amongst the people respecting his unhappy patrons; and out of +all, he was able at last to form a picture of probability, to the +completeness of which some demonstrative evidence of its truth was +wanting. At the period of which I speak--it was still before the +Reformation--books were held in slender esteem. Nevertheless, there +was a library in Gottmar castle, consisting of numerous manuscripts, +the production of monks, and chiefly on religious subjects. The lords +of the castle, engaged in the chase, in fishing, and other knightly +pastimes, had not, from time out of mind, disturbed the repose of +their written treasures. They lay piled one upon another, covered with +dust, mildewed, and worm-eaten. Hubert, in the prosecution of his +purpose, did not fail to examine the neglected documents; and he had +reason to rejoice at his labours, when he found amongst the rolls a +learned treatise on astrology, a science which he himself had studied +with unwearied industry and ardour. His joy and astonishment, however, +were not complete, until he found himself master of a decaying +parchment, which, in almost obsolete characters, expounded to his +eager senses the mysterious destiny of the house of Gottmar. He hugged +the knowledge to his soul, deciphered the ancient syllables in his own +quiet cell, and waited for the proper hour to communicate the +marvellous secret to his lord and pupil. He heard the complainings of +the youthful Bolko, and he recognised in them a hint from heaven. He +now approached him with tenderness, and pressed his pupil's hand. + +"'Courage, my son!' said he. 'The veil is withdrawn.' + +"Bolko drew a heavy sigh. + +"'I have spoken the truth, my child!' continued Hubert. 'Believe and +trust!' + +"'Thanks for thy kind words, good Hubert,' replied the youth. 'I +revere thy wisdom, I esteem thy love. How shall I believe that it has +been permitted thee to break open the gloomy vaults of the past?' + +"'And yet if this were so! If an auspicious--a heaven-sent chance'-- + +"'Hubert!' + +"'Hast thou courage, Bolko, to penetrate into the past?--Then read +this roll attentively. It offers us the means, as I most solemnly +believe, to weaken, if not annihilate, the curse which has so long +persecuted thy unhappy race.' + +"Hubert drew a parchment from the folds of his garment, and placed it +in the hands of the astounded Bolko. The priest immediately withdrew. +The youthful noble as quickly drew a chair to the window; and by the +vanishing light of the evening sky, he read the following history:-- + + "'_This is the last Confession of Walter, baron of Gottmar, which + I, his Confessor, write down by his command, that it may be + preserved in everlasting remembrance, by all who are Descendants + of the House of Gottmar._ + + "'My great-uncle Herbert, the tenth inheritor of this territory, + was a passionate lover of the chase. In all seasons of the year, + in good weather and in bad, by day and night, he scoured the + boundless forests which he called his own. In his time, the + hunting of the boar was a noble and especial sport, and hence + the breeding of these beasts was diligently fostered and + encouraged. The immense forests of beech and fir upon the slopes + of the mountain which bears our name, attracted to their + neighbourhood an extraordinary number of these boars; so that at + all times my ancestor could indulge his passion to the full. + During one of his grand expeditions, two remarkable events had + place. A gigantic boar dug open with his tusks a marvellously + clear spring, which bubbled forth so vigorously, and purled so + bright and cool along the mossy fields, that a brook was formed + from it immediately. This discharged itself into the low grounds + with rare turns and windings; so that Herbert was fain to fix a + village there, and to name it after the boar, and the brook which + his ferocity had brought to light. Whilst this was happening on + the western declivity of the mountain, a similar accident took + place upon the slope projecting to the eastward. Here, in like + manner, a considerable bed of turf was discovered, and close upon + it, beneath granitic sand, another powerful spring. This Herbert + caused empty itself into large ponds; and the turf-pit he had + worked by skilful men, over whom he placed as chief Wittehold his + page. The profit from this turf was so large that the wealth of + Herbert grew more and more, and the population of the + newly-founded village rose as rapidly; since every new settler + was suffered to take on the turf-bed as much fuel as he needed + for firing during the space of five years. + + "'Wittehold, too, the overseer, was well contented with his post. + He enjoyed the confidence of his lord, and became independent. He + married; and, after the lapse of a year, had the happiness to + press a lovely child to his fond bosom. But the birth of the + child cost him the life of her mother. Herbert promised to + provide for the orphan, and maintained his word. My great-uncle + was a bachelor, who had never been able to meet with a maiden + possessing all the qualities which he demanded in a wife. He + postponed the all-important step of marriage from year to year, + without suffering any inconvenience from the delay. + + "'In the mean time the beautiful daughter of Wittehold--who had, + I know not why, been christened AURIOLA--grew to womanhood, and + unfolded a sweetness and grace that fascinated all beholders. + Herbert, whose heart had so long resisted the attacks of love, + was not proof against the beauty, ingenuousness, and innocence of + Auriola. He confessed his affection to the maiden, and petitioned + Wittehold for his child. With the last, contrary to expectation, + he found but little favour. Wittehold submitted that his daughter + was not born to be the consort of so great and rich a lord, and + respectfully declined the honour of her advancement. Moreover, he + had already promised her to a faithful comrade, a worthy overseer + at the turf-works. Herbert expostulated, appealed to his + protection of Auriola, to her affection for him, but in vain. He + plied the obstinate Wittehold with threats. In spite of them the + latter held out: he did more; he bore his child with his own hand + from the castle, and carried her to his cottage near the pit, + hoping, by such a step, and by sound remonstrance, to lead his + fascinated master on to other and to better thoughts. + + "'The conduct of Wittehold threw Auriola into a deep melancholy. + She hurried to the cottage door a hundred times a-day, and looked + with straining eye towards the lofty castle of her lover. Her + father being absent, she would bound, swift as a fawn, through + the silvery grass that trembled and sparkled in the sunny light, + and seat herself upon the high margin of the spring, feeding her + vision with the pearly drops that bubbled from the bottom. The + spot, visited by few, was rendered almost sacred by a cluster of + broad-armed beech-trees that overshadowed it. Herbert encountered + his Auriola in this retreat. Who shall tell their joy? Herbert + urged his suit--Auriola followed him through bush and thicket, + and was powerless before his ardent supplications. Wittehold + surprised the pair. His fury and indignation were ungovernable. + Herbert, in self-defence, had recourse to his good sword, but + this was as a lath against the ire of his assailant. Wittehold + slew his lord. Not yet satisfied, the madman pursued his + fugitive child, whose screams for aid only brought her to a + speedier end. He met her at the spring--there seized the + trembling creature, and mercilessly cast her in. The maiden + struggled for an instant; but, the short conflict over, she + uttered a piteous wail, and sank for ever beneath the + softly-rippling water. Even whilst she struggled, the inhuman + father raised his clenched fist, and pointed with it towards + Gottmar's castle. 'God of heaven!' he exclaimed, 'hear my curse; + and may it fall like the unerring bolt upon this execrated race. + May no male offspring take to his arms a bride, or brighten his + hearth with her presence, until a Gottmar restore my daughter's + virgin honour. Until this happen, let the poor victim be + accursed, and evil work with the posterity of her betrayer!' The + miserable murderer invoked the infernal powers to assist in the + fulfilment of his curse, and then, as if beside himself, ran to + the turf-pits. Here he procured a shovel and an axe. With their + help he choked up the crystal grave of his daughter, and diverted + the strong current into the pit, which it soon flooded. This + done, he fled into the woods, and has not since been heard of. + But his curse has been fulfilled with frightful regularity in the + family of Gottmar. Not one has married with impunity. Bridegroom + and bride have fallen. Auriola, crying for vengeance, hovers + above the turf-pit, which since that hour has become a wide + unfathomable moor. + + Heinrich Wendelin, _Chaplain_.' + + +"The hand of Bolko dropped as he finished the narrative. The evening +twilight thickened before his eyes. He sank into a solemn musing. When +he awoke from it, Hubert was again at his side. + +"'Hast thou read?' enquired the teacher. + +"Bolko slowly raised his head, and looked full in the face of his +confessor. + +"'Canst thou vouch for this, Hubert?' he asked in his turn. 'Is it +genuine, is it true?' + +"'Since when hast thou learned to suspect me of deception?' replied +the old man calmly. + +"'Forgive me, Hubert. This narrative confounds me. I am unable to +distinguish truth from falsehood. But do thou advise me. What dost +thou think of it? Can a curse such as this is represented to have +been--can it have retained its force so long?' + +"'Universal nature is one tremendous mystery,' replied the priest; +'who shall decide wherein her power consists? At the best we can but +conjecture at her connexion with the world of man--her weaving and +working. No one can deny that a solemn curse, spoken with a determined +and haughty purpose, has often, on the very instant, accomplished its +fulfilment. If this be so, why may it not work again and again? The +disregarded belief of the people--that a curse floats in the air until +it finds its victim, and then drops down upon him--is not so worthless +as men would have us think. There is at least expressed in it, dimly +and perhaps unconsciously, the inseparable union that subsists between +the spirit of man and the all-governing spirit of nature.' + +"The youth had risen from his chair, and was pacing the apartment to +appease his agitated soul. + +"'Well, well!' said he, drawing a heavy breath; 'it is a decree which +we must receive without a murmur, and suffer patiently.' + +"'And who says that?' replied the priest with quickness. 'The wisdom +of nature has created an antidote for every poison.' + +"'Art thou serious?' asked Bolko earnestly. + +"'Heaven is merciful!' continued Hubert. 'Pardon is unlimited where +repentance is sincere.' + +"'Who shall repent in this case?' answered Bolko. 'The criminal is +long since dead. Can another atone for his offence?' + +"'Dost thou yet doubt, and art thou my pupil?' said Hubert. 'The WILL +can kill and also vivify.' + +"The eyes of Bolko sparkled in the gloomy chamber. He grasped the hand +of his aged teacher, and drew him to the casement. + +"'Speak!' he exclaimed. 'I will hear thee, and do thy bidding--do all +that thou holdest lawful and right.' + +"Hubert directed his countenance, over which a few hoary locks still +lingered, towards the landscape before them. + +"'You have often heard, my son,' said he, 'that yon desolate spot, +called to this day the _Gold Spring_, is the deadliest spot on earth +to those who bear your name. Far as the wood extends on either side, +extended formerly the turf-pit. The deep moor is covered now by an +unsteady earth-crust, overgrown with pale red sedge, and from its +centre, as from a grotto, the beautiful rivulet ripples forth that +irrigates and renders fruitful all your land. I doubt not that this +grotto, with its golden vault of granite, is the very spring into +which the furious Wittehold cast his daughter. The place is to this +hour deemed unholy. No one willingly sets foot there; no man ventures +to draw water from the fount. Temerity has already been punished for +the attempt. Strange sights have met the eyes of the daring one, and +he has fled like a coward from the spot. Have not many seen--have not +I myself beheld that fairy-like, almost transparent form, with her +unearthly pitcher, drawing water from the spring, then pouring it over +the moor in curious arches by sun and moonlight; and ever so, that the +rays of light kindled therein the most huey gleamings? Is it not well +attested, that when at such times mortals have addressed her, the +delicate creature has grown o' the sudden pale--paler and more +transparent, until, melting into silvery cloud, she has glided +pillar-like along the moor, and vanished at length into the cool and +wondrous grotto?' + +"'You describe the Maiden of the Moor,' said Bolko, interrupting him. + +"'So she is called!' returned Hubert. 'It was her apparition which +drew my attention to the neighbourhood, and to the tales that are +current respecting it. When I had discovered the manuscript, I saw at +once in the Maiden of the Moor the complaining spirit of the unhappy +Auriola.' + +"'And the spirit, as you deem, may be appeased?' + +"'Assuredly, my son; and thou art he who must perform the expiation.' + +"'I!--Father Hubert?--I'---- + +"'Thou art guileless, sound of heart, leading a life of innocence and +nature. To a pure spirit, a determined will, a feeling heart--much is +possible.' + +"'But how, father?--how?' + +"Hubert remained silent for a few minutes. He then proceeded-- + +"'Thy heart is still free, but it yearns for love--for the mysterious, +magical response of another--a _womanly_, heart. It may be that +Auriola will afford thee thy delight, if thou couldst once behold +her.' + +"'What! The Moor Maiden! Father, thou mockest me. What can this female +be to me, appearing as a vision to man, a creature of air?' + +"'And if she appear to _thee_, hast thou courage to address her?' + +"'Father, a lovely form shall hardly frighten me,' said Bolko, with a +smile. + +"'I exact thy promise,' said Hubert quickly. 'From this day forward, +shun the Gold Spring no more. Thou art a lover of nature and her +creations. I have seen thee for hours lost in admiration of the form +and colour of choice butterflies. That spot abounds in the rarest. +Thou mayst find them at any hour of the day. It would seem, indeed, +that the delicate insects of peace had retreated thither to find +security from the tumult of busy money-lusting men. The realm of the +Moor Maiden is the paradise of these tenderest of winged beauties. +Bolko, thou wilt visit them!' + +"The baron gave his right hand to his preceptor without uttering one +word of assurance or affirmation. Hubert had done. He left his young +lord to his own meditations. + + * * * * * + +"Bolko passed some days in restless suspense. Now he was a wanderer in +the woods, now a prisoner in the apartment that looked upon the moor, +watching intently during the day every slight phenomenon that arose +there. The morning and evening mist and the yellow vapour of noon were +his best discoveries. Not a human being approached a place shunned, as +it appeared, by every living thing. The conversation, however, with +Hubert had proved a secret spur to him, and he found no rest until he +visited the dreary moor in person. It was late in the afternoon, when, +furnished with a hunting-knife and insect-net, he set out on his +adventure. Bolko had never before visited the spring, and his surprise +was naturally great when he beheld the peculiar condition of the soil +around him. Along the entire surface of the notorious moor--and its +extent was considerable--there appeared a singularly-coloured sedge. +It was not red, or yellow, or brown, but a mixture of all three, and +it marked, by the sharpest line, the confines of the moor from the +green turf of the remaining country. At every step, the ground, +although very strong, yielded, as it threatening to give way. Towards +the centre of the moor there was an elevation surrounded with bushes. +This was the source of the silvery water that took its serpentine +course along the moor, and through the luxuriant woods beyond. + +"Bolko made his way towards this point, and, reaching it, his eye +rested with delight upon the basin and its border of golden granite. +The water ascended noiselessly from its immeasurable depths in +countless glistening pearls. Over the refreshing fountain, and far +away upon the nodding blades of grass, and bearded turf-flowers, +hovered, in giddy graceful sport, a variegated troop of gorgeous +butterflies. The majestic and solemn _Silver-mantle_, the cherub of +these winged dwellers of the air, the soft and exquisite +_Peacock's-eye_, the burning _Purple-bird_, were here assembled. Bolko +was ravished with the sight, and thought of nothing but a glorious +capture. Delicate and lovely as the creatures were, his cruel hand +robbed them of their gladsome life; and he pursued them further and +further across the moor, and with such ardour and desire, that he +forgot all other things, and suffered the very object of his visit to +escape from his remembrance. Suddenly, and in the act of imprisoning a +multitude of these illuminated beings, he perceived a Maiden sitting +at the extremity of the moor, her back towards him. Her form was +slender, and her hair, golden as the sun, travelled in burnished +tresses from her shoulders to the earth, where it curled along the +moor-grass like rays of the divine orb itself. After the manner of +Sclavonian girls, the stranger wore a closely-fitting snow-white cap, +or rather frontlet, from which, as from a chaplet, the beautiful hair +streamed down. Bolko had approached the maiden unperceived, near +enough to discern a butterfly of rare magnitude and unequaled beauty +oscillating about her marble forehead. The youth stole cautiously +behind the fair one, and tried to catch the flutterer. He touched the +maiden in his eager movement, and she turned round immediately. + +"'Forgive me, lovely child!' said he. 'I'----The words died upon his +tongue. He could say no more. The butterfly escaped from his hands, +and flew slowly towards the Gold Spring, changing its brilliant +colours with every motion of its wing. + +"The singular beauty of the maiden had struck the baron dumb. From a +soft transparent countenance of the purest form, there beamed upon him +a pair of eyes which had derived their holy light from the very +fountain-head of Love. She wore an uncommon but most becoming dress. + +"To a party-coloured gown, scarcely reaching to her ankle, was +attached a sky-blue boddice in front, united by perfect silver clasps, +and not so closely as to prevent the sweetest glimmering of a +snow-white virgin bosom. Her arms, round, delicate, and pure as +marble, were uncovered to the shoulders. Her small feet were bare, yet +protected partly by fairy-looking slippers profusely ornamented. The +beauteous object smiled upon the youth, and answered him in a voice +that dropped like melody upon his ear. + +"'Thou art the robber then,' said she; 'the merciless purloiner of my +fairest thoughts! Can I wonder now that I have been so destitute of +late!' + +"'How?' stammered Bolko, more astonished than ever. + +"'Strange man!' continued the maiden, in the same ravishing voice, +'thou revelest with thy fancies, and dost thou wonder that I, too, +love to dally with my thoughts and dreams? The tiny creatures whom +thou hast taken from me were, and still are, threads of my heart, +which I permit at times to issue into the sunny light of day. Restore +them, living, and beautiful as thou hast found them, or I accuse thee +of breaking this poor heart!' + +"'Who art thou, sweetest child?' + +"'They call me AURIOLA. I know thee well. Thou art Bolko of +Gottmar--Bolko, the accursed!' + +"'Yes--the accursed!' repeated the youth, pressing his hands to his +eyes as if he would forget his doom. When he removed them, Auriola had +risen, and was standing before him. Her lovely countenance, her +matchless eyes were turned full upon him. At her feet he perceived an +earthen pitcher of a peculiar and not ungraceful form. It bore a +strong resemblance to the sacrificial pitchers which are still +discovered in places once inhabited by Sclavonians. + +"'What wilt thou, poor child?' said Bolko in a tone of kindness. 'Can +I help thee?' + +"Auriola smiled. + +"'Thou hast come to me at thine own bidding. I invited thee not, for I +invite none. Yet he who visits me must do my will. Thou hast wrought +me pain in stealing away the thoughts which were soaring in mid air +decked in their brightest robes. Thou must be punished for thy +misdeed. Come!' + +"The marvellous creature took Bolko's hand, and drew him after her +towards the Gold Spring. Before her, and above her head, the +butterflies formed with their magnificent wing-shells a glowing arched +pavilion. The youth was allured by an irresistible attraction, and +would not, if he could, have dragged himself away from the celestial +being; albeit, he still regarded her as a mere apparition. Every +feeling, every thought, every desire of his heart, streamed towards +Auriola. Fleeting shadow that she was, he loved her already to +idolatry. + +"At the margin of the spring, Auriola released her companion, +descended the grotto with her pitcher, and filled it with the purest +water. In a few minutes she was again at his side. She placed the +pitcher on the ground, and her two hands upon the shoulders of the +youth. In this trustful, graceful, loving posture, fixing her wondrous +eyes upon the boy, the maiden spoke. + +"'And canst thou love, too?' + +"He answered not; but he pressed the beauteous Auriola to his heart, +and passionately kissed her forehead. But Bolko started back +affrighted, for he had kissed a forehead colder than ice. + +"'Note me well!' said she, and her voice sounded more melancholy than +before. She seated herself upon the high ledge of the spring, drew +Bolko beside her, and placed the pitcher of water between herself and +him. The butterflies stood now in the full light of the sun over the +rippling spring. A scattered few only still hovered about the moor. + +"'We must tarry yet awhile,' said Auriola, 'until my heart is quite my +own again!' As she spoke, her ecstatic eyes glanced to the single +flutterers on the moor. As if caught by a magnet, they directed their +flight instantly towards the Gold Spring. + +"'Now I am myself--for what is yet wanting rests in thee. Take heed!' + +"Auriola now poured from the pitcher into her small left hand as much +water as this would hold, and extended the right to her companion. He, +surprised by love, encircled the maiden's waist, brought his ear close +to her delicate cheek, and watched with eagerness her strange +performance. Auriola blew at first softly, then more vehemently, into +the hollow of her hand, so that the water, bubbling up, ran to the +slender rosy fingers, and, in glittering drops, sprinkled from the +finger-tips. + +"'Look!' she exclaimed, 'look! Tell me what thou see'st?' + +"The pearly drops had scarcely touched the air before they joined, +when, on the instant, a vision rose before the sight. There was a +bright green meadow, edged by waving beech-trees, through whose +foliage the evening sun shed burnished gold. A youth was on his knees +before a maiden, in the act of offering her a golden ring. The picture +was, in the beginning, dim and indistinct, but it grew clearer and +clearer, until by degrees it dissolved again, and was lost in the +atmosphere. + +"'What means this, Auriola?' enquired the ravished Bolko. 'Chain not +my unguarded heart to thine with such witchery. Misery and death will +be the penalty.' + +"'Dream and listen,' replied Auriola. 'Hearts and souls have nothing +better to do. We do but speak into the future, to catch back the tones +which strike in unison with our desires.' + +"'_Our_ future?' whispered Bolko. + +"'Say _thine_, if it likes thee better,' answered Auriola, filling her +hand anew with water, and once more urging the sparkling fluid towards +her finger-ends. Bolko perceived a horseman galloping across a gloomy +heath, and looking back with horror. This apparition, like the former, +shone distinctly for a time, and then, in the same manner, vanished by +degrees, and expired. + +"'And what is this?' asked Bolko. + +"Auriola shook her head in silence, poured water again into her hand, +and blew it again along her fingers into the air. A lofty, +many-towered castle was visible. A rope-ladder was fastened to a +gallery. A man was climbing up. As soon as he reached the gallery, the +vision was lost. + +"'It is the castle of my ancestors!' cried Bolko. + +"'Thou art mistaken,' answered Auriola. 'But tell me--canst thou +love?' + +"Her voice was again mournful. + +"The youth drew the fair questioner to his heart. His lips fastened on +hers, and hallowing fire streamed through his frame. + +"Auriola heaved a melancholy sigh, and once more filled her hand with +water. At the usual signal there arose a brilliantly illuminated hall. +Dancers, gaily dressed, were in happy motion. Music was heard, and +then the strains and the colours died away in the twilight. + +"'I smart!' exclaimed Bolko. 'I am tortured! My soul is gnawed with +agony!' + +"'Hush, and listen,' said Auriola, in a tone of command--filling her +hand, and impelling the crystal water into the air, as before. A +roaring was heard, like the course of a hurricane sweeping through a +forest. The air grew black. Then the moon broke through night and +mist, and lit up a hilly region, surrounded by wood and cliff. Out of +the wood issued a carriage and four, making at full speed for a +solitary open space, that looked dismal and deserted. The form of a +maiden floated before the carriage, her painfully smiling countenance +ever turned towards it until she evaporated, like a cloud, in the +wood. A flash of lightning from the murky sky struck a beech-tree, +near whose flames the carriage slowly disappeared into the ground. + +"This vision at an end, Auriola bent her head, and tears fell upon her +bosom. + +"'Lovely enchantress,' said Bolko, 'why perform these miracles if they +afflict thee?' + +"'Because there is no longer love upon the earth.' + +"'Say not so!' exclaimed the youth. 'Love still exists--deep, eternal, +holy love. I feel it now. Auriola, I, whose arms never encircled +maiden yet--I love thee, Auriola, with every fibre of my body--with +every faculty of my soul. I will be thine--thine for ever; be thou +mine, my Auriola!' + +"'BE CONSTANT!' The words were uttered in the clear voice of Auriola; +as if from the air. Bolko saw the lovely form grow pale, felt her +vanishing, at his heart. The brilliant cloud of butterflies arose from +the spring, and flew towards heaven by a hundred roads. A thin misty +streak sank into the grotto. Bolko was alone upon the barren moor. +Sultry vapours were exhaling in the twilight. Indescribable sensations +preyed on the soul of Bolko, as he remembered that he had given his +heart to one who was no longer a dweller upon earth--that he had +plighted his faith to the Maiden of the Moor. He hurried from the +scene of his unhallowed engagement, to seek from the wisdom of his +Hubert consolation for the peace of mind which had been so sadly +disturbed, if not for ever taken from him. + + * * * * * + +"The priest listened to the account of Auriola's appearance with +secret delight, and did not fail to comfort the unhappy youth. Bolko, +restored to peace, passed the night in blissful dreams. Once more the +sweet form of the Moor Maiden floated before him--once more the +magical pictures gleamed, ravishing his senses. With sunrise he +quitted the castle, and obeyed the sorcery that allured him to the +moor. All fear and alarm had disappeared. Solitude, erewhile so +hateful to him, was now enchanting! The stony, brown, and barren +plain, the gloomy confines of the wood, the vapours of the boggy soil, +united to create an earthly paradise. He took his seat upon the +margin of the limpid spring, and, gazing on the charmed waters, +invoked the presence of the fair magician. Auriola, however, appeared +not. At noon he quitted the moor unsatisfied, but the approach of +evening found him there again. Still she came not, and nothing +remained to assure him of the reality of his former interview but the +illuminated winged cloud of butterflies which, like a living rainbow, +overarched the spring. Impatient and distressed, the ardent lover +scoured the extensive moor, and at last approached the borders of the +forest. Suddenly he saw--scarce twenty paces from him--the wished-for +figure gliding through the rustling grass, the earthen pitcher +drooping from her hand. Auriola regarded him not, but waved the vessel +gracefully around her head, scattering its contents in glittering +jets, that leaped about her like garlands of the precious diamond. + +"'Auriola!' exclaimed the boy, rushing forward as he spoke. 'My own +Auriola--mine, now and for ever!' He threw himself before her, seized +her hand, and in an instant fixed a golden ring upon her taper finger. + +"The maiden offered no resistance. But when the passionate Bolko rose +from the ground, and was about to embrace his beloved, she lifted the +ring-decked hand, and, in a voice of touching melancholy, exclaimed-- + +"'Behold!' + +"Bolko followed the direction of her finger. Over the live and +swarming cloud there appeared, now here, now there, the apparition of +the previous evening; only that to-day it was larger and more +distinct, and continued longer to the view. + +"Bolko recognised, to his astonishment, the forms of Auriola and +himself. + +"'What does this mean?' said Bolko. 'Is it reality or illusion?' + +"'Thou beholdest!' answered Auriola. 'The air abhors falsehood, and +reflects nothing but truth.' + +"Bolko advanced. Auriola waved the pitcher, and the vision was lost. + +"'Wilt thou be constant?' asked the maid. 'Misery is mine if thou +canst forget this day and its betrothal.' + +"The eyes of Bolko were fixed in amazement on the air where the +picture had shone so palpable a moment before. He saw not, he heard +not, Auriola, and the agony of the preceding evening tortured his +whole frame. When he recovered his suspended faculties, Auriola was +gone. The usual tranquil, solemn repose, the old desolate gloom, +universally prevailed. The low-lying meadows breathed out their thin +vapours, the more distant ponds were enveloped in mist, and the grey +shadows vanished by degrees from hill and thicket. + +"Bolko arrived, agitated and breathless, at his castle gate. He went +at once to the library, where he found, as he expected, his friend and +counsellor. + +"'Save me, save me, father!' cried the young lord. 'Thou hast beguiled +me into a compact with a being of another world. Womanly love has +cozened and betrayed me. Passion has overmastered me. I have bound +myself to the Moor Maiden, and am eternally made over to her sorcery.' + +"'And wherefore should this frighten you?' replied the hoary chaplain. +'Thou hast done my bidding; and since thou art permitted to destroy a +curse which threatens to annihilate thy race, gratitude, not fear, +should move thee. Yonder Moor Maiden contents herself with the sweet +semblance, and will not ask for dull reality. Auriola never looks to +wed thee--never to possess thee--body and soul.' + +"'But I love her--love her to madness!' cried Bolko, furiously. + +"'Love her still; always love her with a spiritual and pure affection. +This will not hinder thee from bestowing the other half of thy +affection upon some fair daughter of Eve, worthy of thy heart.' + +"'And is this to be spiritually faithful?' said Bolko, in a +reproachful tone. + +"'No earthly passion, my son,' continued Hubert, 'can either break or +abolish the spiritual faith which thou hast vowed to Auriola. When +thou hast loved a daughter of Eve, thou wilt see, feel, and be +satisfied, that between the love of thy earthly bride and of the +enchanting Auriola, there is a difference as wide as heaven from +earth.' + +"Bolko heaved a bitter sigh, and shook his head in doubt. +Nevertheless, he meditated long and seriously upon all that Hubert +said. By degrees, even, he acknowledged to himself, that the kernel, +the pure light of a deep truth, glimmered in his words, although in a +manner veiled. He began to question his own heart; the more probable, +nay, the more desirable seemed the consummation of Hubert's promises. +For reasons, which he could scarcely explain to himself, he studiously +avoided another visit to the moor. But in the meanwhile, that which +originally had been a half-formed wish, and scarcely that, ripened +into absorbing passion, vehement desire. Incessant thought nourished +the ever-glowing flame, which burned the brighter, the more the +spiritual love of Auriola receded and grew faint. Remembrance, it is +true, still clung with a devout aspiration upon that beauteous image, +but it resembled rather the placid feeling of a holy friendship, than +the impetuous throbbing of a young and passionate love. 'Hubert is +right!' said the youth; 'I will follow his direction. Auriola, lovely +and rapturous being, angelic, spiritual, and human, will rejoice with +the Accursed, when he carries to his desolate home the mistress of his +castle--the wife of his bosom.' + +"Opportunity is seldom wanting when inclination needs its service. +About three miles from Gottmar, amongst the mountains, majestically +rose the battlements of a proud castle. Baron T----, its wealthy +master, had already visited Bolko upon his accession to the family +estates, and Bolko now determined to acknowledge his neighbour's act +of kindness. Had the baron been childless, it is very likely that +Bolko would still have remembered what was due to society, and to his +own station in the world; and it is equally true, that the fact of his +possessing a young and lovely daughter, did not diminish the youthful +noble's desire to act conformably to usage and propriety. +Unfortunately for the intention of his visit, Bolko learned, on his +arrival at the castle, that the baron was from home. In his stead, +however, a maiden greeted him, slender of figure, noble in bearing. It +was very strange, but it is certain, that the tumultuous feelings +which of late had stirred within him unrestrained--were suddenly +chained and riveted upon an object that afforded them a sweet +tranquillity. Emma was gentle, frank, and beauteous as the blushing +rose. In Bolko's frame of mind, could she fail to make a deep +impression upon his young and too susceptible soul? He lingered at her +side hour after hour, and was himself astonished to find the darkness +of night creeping over the earth, and he not more prepared for +departure than he had been on entering the castle-gates some hours +before. However, the knight did not make his appearance, and good +breeding suggested to unwilling ears that it was time to retire. Bolko +said farewell--more tenderly, perhaps, than he supposed or meant; and +as the delicate hand of Emma lay involuntarily in his own, he +flattered himself that he felt his pressure softly returned, and that +he could perceive a smile of contentment escaping from her lips as he +promised to pay a second visit 'shortly.' + +"The night was very dark: a few stars only twinkled through the thin +veil which covered the heavens. Bolko madly spurred his steed, and the +high-spirited animal, who needed no such incitement, bounded like a +deer towards home. The thoughts of the baron were no longer with him, +but imprisoned in the happy room in which he had passed so many +blissful hours. Trusting to the instinct of the horse, the master took +no heed of the road: and the trustworthy servant, scenting the +vicinity of his stable, found easily for himself the best and shortest +paths towards that wished-for spot. The trees became thinner and +thinner, falling back on either side, whilst a flat and barren region +lay before horse and rider. The former snorted and pranced, and the +latter could not distinguish the locality through the blackness. Bolko +coaxed the steed, and gently urged him forwards. But the animal +trembled, and, in spite of bridle and spur, struck to the side, and +swept along the skirts of the forest, without touching so much as with +a hoof the gloomy-looking heath. Accustomed to the surrounding +darkness, the eye of Bolko was at length able to discern--not without +a creeping of horror--the ruddy and unsteady reed-grass. The moor and +the Gold Spring were on one side of him. Pale stripes of fog, like +ribbed vaults, were spread above him, giving a sacredness to the air, +with which all other things strangely contrasted. The mind of Bolko, +against his will, reverted to Auriola; his heart beat, as though he +were conscious of a heavy fault--of some inhuman crime. He turned his +gaze from the moor, and, with an effort, directed it towards the dark +forest, to which the horse galloped at full speed. + +"The words, 'BE CONSTANT!' fell loudly and articulately upon the ears +of Bolko--uttered in a tone rather of supplication than of demand or +threatening. He turned his horse's head in terror, and--oh amazement! +sitting at the edge of the fountain, covered with a bright veil, +hemmed with diamonds, was--Auriola! Her fair and loosened hair, +encompassed, as at their first meeting, her entire body, and +glittering, curled along the ground. Her right hand was stretched high +above her lovely head, holding between forefinger and thumb the ring +with which the already inconstant Bolko had espoused her. + +"'BE CONSTANT!' The words re-echoed from the moor: the streaks of fog +descended. Over the maiden's head beamed forth a shining spot--gaining +in size, and forming itself into a picture. Bolko, shuddering, beheld +the second vision of Auriola's enchantment, and looked upon himself as +he had burst a few minutes before upon the moor. + +"Auriola beckoned to the youth, and pointed to the picture. Then once +again, more melancholy, more mournfully, more entreatingly upon the +distracted ears of Bolko came--the repeated cry of admonition--'BE +CONSTANT!' + +"The youth galloped for his life. He reached his home paler than +death, and refused to be comforted even by the wisdom of his +preceptor. + +"From this time, Bolko ceased to visit the moor in search of Auriola. +The daughter of earth had inspired him with a love that admitted of no +commingling of affection. Memory however, refused to lose sight of +her. It obtruded her form upon him, the more determinedly he +endeavoured to thrust it from his mind by dwelling upon the charms of +his Emma. He repeated his visit at the castle, and was soon a constant +guest there. He confessed his love to Emma, and she did not rebuke +him. Her father was less tender. He roundly refused his daughter's +hand. 'He had no desire,' he said, 'to make his child unhappy. He knew +well enough how every Lord of Gottmar was obliged to harbour an evil +Kobold in his house, who couldn't endure the sight of women, and no +sooner met one than he mercilessly strangled her. No, sir baron,' he +continued, 'it cannot be. Take not unkindly the answer which I give +thee. It touches not thy noble person, which pleases me right well, +but simply thy house and castle Kobold. Remove the creature, or at +least its power of doing harm, and thou art welcome here. But before +that time, I pray thee come not again, lest I should forget myself, +and do that which both of us would be sorry for.' + +"The lovers protested against the decision, and Bolko tried hard to +convince the old baron that the mysterious power which had so long and +so fatally reigned over the house of Gottmar, was propitiated, and no +longer hurtful. Hubert attested the repeated asseverations of his +pupil, but nothing could bring conviction to the stubborn veteran. He +swore they were all in a league, or building castles in the air, and +he persisted in his resolution. + +"It was autumn. The days were declining. Showers and tempests swept +through the forest. Upon a night, brightened by no moonbeam or +glittering star, Emma sat melancholy and alone in her apartment. The +heavy embroidered curtains were drawn across the high windows of the +balcony, which jutted out as a point of observation from the +castle-wall. At intervals, the maiden applied her delicate ear to the +window, catching eagerly at every strange sound muttered forth by the +growing storm. She had resumed her seat many times, when the +castle-bell tolled eleven, and almost at the same moment the cry of a +screech-owl was distinctly heard. The expectant damsel glided on +tiptoe to the window, and listened eagerly. The cry was repeated. +Emma's eye sparkled at length with joy, a deep blush overspread her +cheeks, and she produced from an aperture a ladder of twine, which she +fastened to the casement. The cry of the owl was heard for the third +time. The ladder was dropped, and in another instant a vigorous youth +had mounted it. + +"Bolko and Emma, happy and blessed, were in each other's arms, and +they forgot all but the delicious present. Vows of love and constancy +were exchanged, and rings were given, in remembrance of the blissful +hour. But strange to say, as Bolko was about to adorn the hand of Emma +with the pledge of his affection, a fearful gust of wind burst the +window open, and blew into the room a little glistening object that +rolled to Bolko's feet and settled there. Emma raised it from the +ground, and discovered in her hand a broken ring. + +"Bolko saw and trembled. It was his gift to Auriola. He fixed his eyes +upon the broken symbol, and there glared before them the third charmed +picture created from the waters. The rope-ladder, the balcony Emma and +himself, all grouped, and taking the shape and form of that bright +vision. Bolko glanced at the window, dreading to meet the reproachful +look of Auriola; but instead of this, he heard with no less horror the +approaching footsteps of his Emma's father. + +"'Fly, Bolko, fly!' exclaimed the maiden. 'My father! We are lost!' + +"Bolko hurried to the recess, and would have escaped, had not the +malicious wind already carried away the rope-ladder. A prisoner and +unarmed, he expected nothing short of death at the hands of the baron. +The latter entered the apartment, stood for a few seconds in silence +at the door, and measured the criminals with looks of stern severity. + +"'My aged eye did not deceive me, then!' he said, at length, advancing +to the trembling lovers. + +"'Baron!' said Bolko, hesitatingly. + +"'Silence, sir!' continued the old knight. 'If I should act now as my +fathers would have done, I should fling you through that very window +which helped you, like a robber, into this room; but I charge myself +with blame already in this business, and I am more disposed to mercy. +Come hither, young man. I know the fire and boldness of our youth. +Give my child your hand; you are her future husband. May God prosper +you both, and send his blessing on your union!' + +"Bolko quaffed with the sturdy Baron of T---- until an early hour of +the morning. The happy Emma acted the part of Hebe, and presented the +flagons to the merry carousers. + + * * * * * + +"'Why have you withheld this from me?' asked Hubert, when Bolko +related to him the unaccountable restoration of the ring. 'Oh, youth, +youth! inconsiderate even to madness, and only content to listen to +the voice of wisdom when they can of themselves find no outlet from +difficulty and danger.' + +"Bolko stood with folded arms at the window, gazing into the forest, +and upon the lofty turrets of Castle T---- peeping in the grey +distance above it. + +"'Thou hast not visited the moor of late?' asked Hubert, after a +pause. + +"'What should I do there?' answered Bolko peevishly. 'Why should I +spend my days in chasing an apparition, the mere creation of an +over-heated fancy?' + +"'Beware whom thou calumniatest!' said Hubert solemnly. 'Beware of the +mysterious being that can deal out weal or woe to thee and all thy +race! One whom thou mightest have appeased hadst thou been obedient +and followed my instructions.' + +"'Thy instructions!' repeated Bolko hastily. 'It is because I have +listened too patiently to thy advice, because I have connected myself +with thy aerial and capricious schemes, that I am the most miserable +of men. But for thy persuasion and thy childish parchment, I should +never have dreamed of making love to a ghost.' + +"Hubert disregarded the youth's reproaches. + +"'Rage avails not here,' he said calmly. 'Wisdom alone can save thee. +Listen to me. Women are women ever, even such as we call +supernatural--easy to anger, easy to persuade--before flattery the +weakest of the weak. Praise the ugliest for her beauty, and she smiles +graciously, yea, with the mirror before her eyes. Speak the plain +truth, and you are a rough uncouth companion. They thrive best upon +the sugary food of delusion--therefore, delude them. It is the rattle +of these eternal glorious children!' + +"'What wouldst thou have me do?' + +"'Cast the ring into the Spring, and pray to Auriola for forgiveness.' + +"'And if she prove obstinate?' + +"'Have no fear; she will forgive you. Here is the ring; take it; it is +once more united!' + +"Bolko took the pledge from Hubert, and hastened to the moor. The high +grass was already withered by storm and cold; it lay bent down upon +the marshy earth-crust, which now breathed out its vapour more +abundantly than ever, wrapping the Gold Spring in one enduring mist. +If this spot looked barren and deserted in summer, the abandonment was +increased a hundred-fold in autumn. Even the butterflies were gone. +The damp and chilly fog only was visible; nothing could be heard but +the monotonous current of the rippling water. + +"The boggy ground yielded to the foot more readily than ever, and +Bolko trod it with a faltering step. He approached the spring, and, +suing for reconciliation, dropped the ring into the charmed element. +As though he feared some extraordinary result from the act, he covered +his eyes with his hands, and could with difficulty summon courage to +remove them. When he did so, he perceived the fog receding by degrees +from the confines of the moor, and the graceful form of Auriola +standing before him at a little distance. As at their first meeting, +her countenance was averted. She waved the earthen pitcher as was her +wont, and bathed the ground on which she went with flashes of the +brilliant water. + +"'Auriola!' cried Bolko, in a voice that carried the tenderness of +love, the sorrow of repentance, to the ear of the listener--'gentle +Auriola!' She turned her face towards the imploring youth, placed the +pitcher at her side, and beckoned him to approach. + +"'My father was right!' said the Moor Maiden. 'No Gottmar but is +fickle and inconstant. Well it is for thee, youth, that thou art here +of thy own free-will, and didst not tarry for my summons. Thou hast +kept thy promise badly, and thou wilt keep it so again, if I give thee +no monitor to aid thee. Take this, and carry it, henceforward, in thy +bosom; it will protect thee from harm, and keep thee faithful in +_spirit_, albeit in heart thou art already estranged from me.' + +"With these words, the enchantress placed upon the neck of Bolko a +chain braided of her own golden hair, to which was attached a small +box wrought of the shards of the Peacock's eye and Purple-bird. In the +tiny case, trembling with its ever-changing light, was one pearly drop +from the spring. + +"'Lose or give away this jewel,' proceeded Auriola--'this jewel, which +is a portion of my heart, and thy ruin and the destruction of thy +house is certain. Love, or at least its symbol, can and must avert the +curse of my father!' + +"Bolko looked into the earnest and marvellously bright eyes of +Auriola, as she pronounced his doom. His heart belonged once more to +the Maiden of the Moor, and his gaze made known his passion. She +touched his forehead with her transparent fingers, poured the last +drops of water into the hollow of her hand, and in her usual manner +blew the little curling waves into the misty air. A multitude of +images arose, but in scarcely finished outline. The moist atmosphere +seemed to hinder their accomplishment. + +"'Now, farewell!' said Auriola. 'Thou hast beheld. Thy life is +troubled, as are the feelings which sway thy heart. Love truly and +wholly, as aforetime thou lovedst me, and the mirror of thought will +again display its clear bright pictures. + +"Auriola took the pitcher, and her bare feet, scarcely disturbing the +faded blades of grass, glided towards the margin of the spring, where +she melted into air. + + * * * * * + +"Emma and Bolko were united in holy matrimony. The halls of Castle +T---- overflowed with joyous guests. Music delighted the noble +visitors during the marriage-feast, and a happier scene could not be +imagined. All hearts joined in wishing prosperity to the bridal pair, +and the latter seemed to entertain no fears for their bright future. +The banquet over, the guests, preceded by the newly-married couple, +withdrew to the adjoining saloon. The old knights seated themselves in +the niches of the windows, having still many goblets to empty over the +dice-box, whilst the younger spirits disposed themselves for dancing. +Bolko, with his high-born bride, commenced the ball. If they were +happy before, they were now at the very porch of a terrestrial heaven. +They made but short pauses in their pleasure, and these only that they +might mingle again the more intensely in the delightful measure. + +"It was during the jocund dance that Bolko's doublet suddenly opened, +and the mysterious little box flew out. The bridegroom was made aware +of the accident by the exclamations of his partner. + +"'Oh! look, look, Bolko! See that magnificent butterfly! How singular +at this season of the year!' + +"Emma caught at the little beauty, and Bolko discovered his fault. + +"'Hold, hold!' said he, in a whisper. 'That is no butterfly for thee, +my love! Its colours play for me alone!' + +"Emma looked enquiringly at her husband, then more closely at the +little box, glowing in a fire of colours, and she beheld the golden +hair chain to which it was attached. + +"'A chain too! and what beautiful hair!' The maiden caught at the +prize, and continued, 'Who gave thee this hair and the sweet case! +Dearest Bolko, to whom does it belong? Why have you never mentioned +this? What need was there of secresy?' + +"Emma sobbed, and Bolko hardly knowing what excuse to offer, withdrew +her to a neighbouring room. + +"'Promise me, dearest Emma,' said he, 'to be calm and patient, and you +shall know every thing.' + +"The young wife looked at him distrustfully. + +"'Make known to me the history and contents of the little box, and I +will restrain my curiosity until----to-morrow.' + +"'Content, my beloved, so let it be; as we return to Gottmar all shall +be cleared up.' + +"'Oh, I unhappy!' exclaimed the girl, bursting into tears. + +"'Say rather _happy_, dearest. Since all our happiness flows from the +history of this chain; from this alone. Sweetest, let us return to the +dance.' + +"Emma resigned her arm to her young lord with a sullen resignation. As +the latter opened the folding-doors of the saloon, and gazed for a few +seconds upon the dancing throng, he seemed to possess a distant +remembrance of the scene. The Gothic arches, the window niches, the +gaily-attired musicians, the groups of dancers--the whole scene had +once before been present to his eyes. He taxed his memory until his +thoughts carried him to the bleak and barren moor. Had not the +dazzling vision flowed into the sunny evening air over the white +transparent fingers of the ethereal Auriola? He acknowledged it, and +shuddered. + +"The dance was at an end. The guests had departed. In the eyes of the +newly-married Emma a tear of troubled joy trembled, as she sank upon +the bosom of her young and doating husband. + +"Upon the following morning, Bolko already repented him of his hasty +promise, and delayed his departure by every means in his power. The +weather favoured him, for hail and storm were pouring down upon the +earth. As the day declined, Bolko found it impossible to conceal his +disquietude; and Emma, when she perceived his anxiety, attributed it +at once to conscious guilt. This conviction on her part only made her +urge their departure with greater perseverance. There remained at last +no good ground for refusal, and Bolko silently acquiesced in her wish. + +"For some time the young couple sat side by side, and were very +sparing of their speech. Bolko, indeed, was dumb. The inquisitive +Emma, however, had not so powerful an excuse for silence. In a few +kind words she reminded her lord of his pledged word, and begged him +to confide in her. + +"'Emma,' said Bolko in reply, and in a serious tone, 'if I comply with +thy request, I risk the eternal happiness of both. I have promised +that which I cannot perform without a breach of faith. Thou canst +gain nothing by my communication, and I pray thee, therefore, give me +back my promise.' + +"Bolko could not have preferred a more untimely suit. Emma, +inquisitive, suspicious, and jealous, would rather have been put to +death in torture than have given up her claim. She refused his +petition at once; implored, threatened, implored again; and, finding +all such efforts only darkened Bolko's humour, proceeded to flattery +and coaxing. She promised the most perfect secresy, and used, in +short, every artifice by which woman knows how to overcome the +strongest resolutions of weak man. Bolko grew tender-hearted, and then +related to his wife all that he had to tell;--the history of the +malediction that rested on his family, and the singular manner in +which he had effected the expiation. + +"Emma listened to the narrative not without an inward pique and lively +jealousy. + +"'I thank thee, Bolko, for thy confidence,' said she. 'Fear not my +prudence. But for the charm, thou wilt not surely wear it so near thy +bosom.' + +"'Next my heart, beloved--since there it shields us both from ruin.' + +"Emma bit her lips with womanly vexation. + +"'Thou canst not wish,' continued Bolko, 'that I should take it +thence.' + +"'I do, I do!' replied the jealous wife. 'I wish it. I insist upon +it--now--this very instant.' + +"The storm increased in fury. The fir-trees were beating together as +if in battle. + +"'It is impossible!' cried Bolko. 'Thou art mad to ask it.' + +"'Then shall I mistrust thy love,' continued Emma, 'or canst thou hope +for my affection whilst that ghostly gift divides us? Never! Inhuman +man, thou wilt teach me to hate thee.' + +"The carriage drove rapidly through the hurricane into the midst of +the forest. The wind bellowed, the yellow lightning glared, and +thunder crashed and resounded fearfully from the distant valleys. + +"'It is the warning voice of heaven!' said Bolko. 'Its lightnings will +reach us if I yield to thy entreaty.' + +"'Heaven has nothing in common with enchanters and sorcerers,' replied +Emma; 'nature is uttering a summons to thee, and--whilst a devoted +wife embraces thee--protects and defends thee against demoniac powers, +bids thee renounce all witchcraft, and put aside the unholy gift.' + +"Bolko answered not, but peered through the door carriage windows to +learn his exact situation. The dark pinnacles of Gottmar lay +immediately before him. Above his head the tempest lowered, hurling +its lightnings on every side. + +"'Art thou angry with me?' enquired Emma sorrowfully, leaning her +ringleted head upon the bosom of her husband. Bolko pressed her +forehead to his lips. Emma threw her arms about his neck. She wept, +she kissed, she coaxed him; they were the fondest lovers, as in the +earliest days of their attachment. The heart of Bolko was melted. In +the intoxication of happiness he forgot his danger; and reposing on +Emma's bosom, did not perceive that she untied his doublet, and +heedfully but eagerly searched for the amulet. She was mistress of it +before Bolko could suspect her intention. + +"'It is mine, it is mine!' almost shrieked the young wife in her +delight, snatching away both chain and box. The next moment the +carriage window was drawn down and the precious objects thrown into +the storm. Bolko caught at them, but too late. A gust of wind had +already clutched them, and carried them away. + +"A flash of lightning struck a beech-tree, that blazed, awfully +illuminating the whole neighbourhood. The horses took fright, plunged +aside, then tore with the carriage towards a treeless melancholy-looking +plain. Bolko recognised the spot at the first brief glance. + +"'The moor! the moor!' he screamed to the driver; but the latter had +lost all power over the snorting steeds, who bore the fated carriage +in a whizzing gallop towards the marsh. The blazing beech-tree +rendered the surrounding objects fearfully distinct. Bolko could +descry the figure of Auriola at the margin of the spring. Between her +fingers glittered the ring, and words of lamentation issuing from her +lips, dropped into the soul of Bolko and paralysed it." + +"'Auriola, Auriola!' exclaimed the youth, supporting the pale and +quivering Emma--'forgive me! forgive me!' + +"The Moor Maiden dropped the ring into the well, and it vanished like +an unearthly flame. Auriola herself, slowly and like a mist, descended +after it. She held her hand above her head, and it seemed to point to +the onward-dashing carriage. + +"Horror upon horror! the carriage itself began to sink into the +earth--quicker and quicker. + +"'We are sinking! Heaven help us!' cried the driver. Bolko burst the +carriage door open, but escape was impossible. The moor had given way +around him. The horses were already swallowed up in the abyss. The +pale earth-crust trembled and heaved like flakes of ice upon a +loosening river. It separated, and huge pieces were precipitated and +hurled against each other. In a few seconds horses and carriage, bride +and bridegroom, had disappeared for ever. As the moor closed over +them, the hand of Auriola vanished. + +"The Curse of her father was accomplished. + +"On the same night, Gottmar castle was struck by lightning. It burned +to the ground, and there the aged Hubert found his grave." + + + + +"THAT'S WHAT WE ARE." + + + "Careful and troubled about many things," + (Alas! that it should be so with us still + As in the time of Martha,) I went forth + Harass'd and heartsick, with hot aching brow, + Thought fever'd, happy to escape myself. + + Beauteous that bright May morning! All about + Sweet influences of earth, and air, and sky, + Harmoniously accordant. I alone, + The troubled spirit that had driven me forth, + In dissonance with that fair frame of things + So blissfully serene. God had not yet + Let fall the weight of chastening that makes dumb + The murmuring lip, and stills the rebel heart, + Ending all earthly interests, and I call'd + (O Heaven!) that incomplete experience--Grief. + + It would not do. The momentary sense + Of soft refreshing coolness pass'd away; + Back came the troublous thoughts, and, all in vain, + I strove with the tormentors: All in vain, + Applied me with forced interest to peruse + Fair nature's outspread volume: All in vain, + Look'd up admiring at the dappling clouds + And depths cerulean: Even as I gazed, + The film--the earthly film obscured my vision, + And in the lower region, sore perplex'd, + Again I wander'd; and again shook off + With vex'd impatience the besetting cares, + And set me straight to gather as I walk'd + A field-flower nosegay. Plentiful the choice; + And, in few moments, of all hues I held + A glowing handful. In a few moments more + Where are they? Dropping as I went along + Unheeded on my path, and I was gone-- + Wandering again in muse of thought perplex'd. + + Despairingly I sought the social scene-- + Sound--motion--action--intercourse of _words_-- + Scarcely of mind--rare privilege!--We talk'd-- + Oh! how we talk'd! Discuss'd and solved all questions: + Religion--morals--manners--politics-- + Physics and metaphysics--books and authors-- + Fashion and dress--our neighbours and ourselves. + But even as the senseless changes rang, + And I help'd ring them, in my secret soul + Grew weariness, disgust, and self-contempt; + And more disturb'd in spirit, I retraced, + More cynically sad, my homeward way. + + It led me through the churchyard, and methought + There entering, as I let the iron gate + Swing to behind me, that the change was good-- + The unquiet living, for the quiet dead. + And at that moment, from the old church tower + A knell resounded--"Man to his long home" + Drew near. "The mourners went about the streets;" + And there, few paces onward to the right, + Close by the pathway, was an open grave, + Not of the humbler sort, shaped newly out, + Narrow and deep in the dark mould; when closed, + To be roofed over with the living sod, + And left for all adornment (and so best) + To Nature's reverential hand. The tomb, + Made ready there for a fresh habitant, + Was that of an old family. I knew it.-- + A very ancient altar-tomb, where Time + With his rough fretwork mark'd the sculptor's art + Feebly elaborate--heraldic shields + And mortuary emblems, half effaced, + Deep sunken at one end, of many names, + Graven with suitable inscriptions, each + Upon the shelving slab and sides; scarce now + Might any but an antiquarian eye + Make out a letter. Five-and-fifty years + The door of that dark dwelling had shut in + The last admitted sleeper. She, 'twas said, + Died of a broken heart--a widow'd mother + Following her only child, by violent death + Cut off untimely, and--the whisper ran-- + By his own hand. The tomb was ancient _then_, + When they two were interr'd; and they, the first + For whom, within the memory of man, + It had been open'd; and their names fill'd up + (With sharp-cut newness mocking the old stone) + The last remaining space. And so it seem'd + The gathering was complete; the appointed number + Laid in the sleeping chamber, and seal'd up + Inviolate till the great gathering day. + The few remaining of the name dispersed-- + The family fortunes dwindled--till at last + They sank into decay, and out of sight, + And out of memory; till an aged man + Pass'd by some parish very far away + To die in ours--his legal settlement-- + Claim'd kindred with the long-forgotten race, + Its sole survivor, and in right thereof, + Of that affinity, to moulder with them + In the old family grave. + + "A natural wish," + Said the authorities; "and sure enough + HE WAS of the old stock--the last descendant-- + And it would cost no more to bury him + Under the old crack'd tombstone, with its scutcheons, + Than in the common ground." So, graciously, + The boon was granted, and he died content. + And now the pauper's funeral had set forth, + And the bell toll'd--not many strokes, nor long-- + Pauper's allowance. He was coming home. + But while the train was yet a good way off-- + The workhouse burial train--I stopp'd to look + Upon the scene before me; and methought + Oh! that some gifted painter could behold + And give duration to that living picture, + So rich in moral and pictorial beauty, + If seen arightly by the spiritual eye + As with the bodily organ! + + The old tomb, + With its quaint tracery, gilded here and there + With sunlight glancing through the o'er-arching lime, + Far flinging its cool shadow, flickering light-- + Our greyhair'd sexton, with his hard grey face, + (A living tombstone!) resting on his mattock + By the low portal; and just over right, + His back against the lime-tree, his thin hands + Lock'd in each other--hanging down before him + As with their own dead weight--a tall slim youth + With hollow hectic cheek, and pale parch'd lip, + And labouring breath, and eyes upon the ground + Fast rooted, as if taking measurement + Betime for his own grave. I stopp'd a moment, + Contemplating those thinkers--youth and age-- + Mark'd for the sickle; as it seem'd--the _unripe_ + To be first gather'd. Stepping forward, then, + Down to the house of death, in vague expectance, + I sent a curious, not unshrinking, gaze. + There lay the burning brain and broken heart, + Long, long at rest: and many a Thing beside + That had been life--warm, sentient, busy life-- + Had hunger'd, thirsted, laugh'd, wept, hoped, and fear'd-- + Hated and loved--enjoy'd and agonized. + Where of all this, was all I look'd to see? + The mass of crumbling coffins--some belike + (The undermost) with their contents crush'd in, + Flatten'd, and shapeless. Even in this damp vault, + With more completeness could the old Destroyer + Have done his darkling work? Yet lo! I look'd + Into a small square chamber, swept and clean, + Except that on one side, against the wall, + Lay a few fragments of dark rotten wood, + And a small heap of fine, rich, reddish earth + Was piled up in a corner. + + "How is this?" + In stupid wonderment I ask'd myself, + And dull of apprehension. Turning, then, + To the old sexton--"Tell me, friend," I said, + "Here should be many coffins--Where are they? + And"--pointing to the earth-heap--"what is that?" + + He raised his eyes to mine with a strange look + And strangely meaning smile; and I repeated-- + (For not a word he spoke)--my witless question. + + Then with a deep distinctness he made answer, + Distinct and slow, looking from whence I pointed, + Full in my face again, and what he said + Thrill'd through my very soul--"_That's what we are!_" + + So I was answer'd. Sermons upon death + I had heard many. Lectures by the score + Upon life's vanities. But never words + Of mortal preacher to my heart struck home + With such convicting sense and suddenness + As that plain-spoken homily, so brief, + Of the unletter'd man. + + "That's what we are!"-- + Repeating after him, I murmur'd low + In deep acknowledgment, and bow'd the head + Profoundly reverential. A deep calm + Came over me, and to the inward eye + Vivid perception. Set against each other, + I saw weigh'd out the things of time and sense, + And of eternity;--and oh! how light + Look'd in that truthful hour the earthly scale! + And oh! what strength, when from the penal doom + Nature recoil'd, in _His_ remember'd words: + "_I am the Resurrection and the Life_." + + And other words of that Divinest Speaker + (Words to all mourners of all times address'd) + Seem'd spoken to me as I went along + In prayerful thought, slow musing on my way-- + "_Believe in me_"--"_Let not your hearts be troubled_"-- + And sure I could have promised in that hour, + But that I knew myself how fallible, + That never more should cross or care of this life + Disquiet or distress me. So I came, + Chasten'd in spirit, to my home again, + Composed and comforted, and cross'd the threshold + That day "a wiser, _not_ a sadder, _woman_." + + C. + + + + +EDMUND BURKE.[14] + + +Burke died in 1797, and yet, after the lapse of almost half a century, +the world is eager to treasure every recollection of his name. This is +the true tribute to a great man, and the only tribute which is worth +the wishes of a great man. The perishable nature of all the memorials +of human hands has justly been the theme of every moralist, since +tombs first bore an image or an inscription. Yet, such as they are, +they ought to be given; but they are all that man can give. The nobler +monument must be raised by the individual himself, and must be the +work of his lifetime; its guardianship must be in the hands, not of +sacristans and chapters, but in those of the world; his panegyric must +be found, not in the extravagance or adulation of his marble, but in +the universal voice which records his career, and cherishes his name +as a new stimulant of public virtue. + +We have no intention of retracing the steps by which this memorable +man gradually rose to so high a rank in the estimation of his own +times. No history of intellectual eminence during the latter half of +the nineteenth century--the most troubled, important, and productive +period of human annals since the birth of the European kingdoms--can +be written, without giving some testimonial to his genius in every +page. But his progress was not limited to his Age. He is still +progressive. While his great contemporaries have passed away, honoured +indeed, and leaving magnificent proofs of their powers, in the honour +and security of their country, Burke has not merely retained his +position before the national eye, but has continually assumed a +loftier stature, and shone with a more radiant illumination. The great +politician of his day, he has become the noblest philosopher of ours. +Every man who desires to know the true theory of public morals, and +the actual causes which influence the rise and fall of thrones, makes +his volumes a study; every man who desires to learn how the most +solemn and essential truths may not merely be adorned, but +invigorated, by the richest colourings of imagination, must labour to +discover the secret of his composition; and every man who, born in +party, desires to emancipate his mind from the egotism, bitterness, +and barrenness of party, or achieve the still nobler and more +difficult task of turning its evils into good, and of making it an +instrument of triumph for the general cause of mankind, must measure +the merits and success of his enterprise by its similarity to the +struggles, the motives, and the ultimate triumph of Edmund Burke. + +The present volumes contain a considerable portion of the +correspondence which Burke carried on with his personal and public +friends during the most stirring period of his life. The papers had +been put in trust of the late French Lawrence the civilian, and +brother to the late Archbishop of Cashel, with whom was combined in +the trust Dr King, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, both able men and +particular friends of Burke. But Lawrence, while full of the intention +of giving a life of his celebrated friend, died in 1809, and the +papers were bequeathed by the widow of Burke, who died in 1812, to the +Bishop of Rochester, the Right Hon. W. Elliot, and Earl Fitzwilliam, +for the publication of such parts as had not already appeared. This +duty chiefly devolved upon Dr King, who had been made Bishop of +Rochester in 1808. Personal infirmity, and that most distressing of +all infirmities, decay of sight, retarded the publishing of the works; +but sixteen volumes were completed. The bishop's death in 1828, put an +end to all the hopes which had been long entertained, of an authentic +life from his pen. + +On this melancholy event, the papers came into the possession of the +late Earl Fitzwilliam, from whom they devolved to the present Earl, +who, with Sir Richard Bourke, a distant relative of the family, and +personally intimate with Burke during the last eight years of his +life, has undertaken the present collection of his letters. Those +letters which required explanation have been supplied with intelligent +and necessary notes, and the whole forms a singularly important +publication. + + * * * * * + +Many of Burke's earliest letters were written to a Richard Shackleton, +the son of a Quaker at whose school Burke with his two brothers had +been placed in 1741. In 1743, he was placed in the college of Dublin, +and then commenced his correspondence with Shackleton. Even those +letters exhibit, at the age of little more than fifteen, the +sentiments which his mature life was spent in establishing and +enlarging. He says of sectaries, and this was to a sectary himself, "I +assure you, I don't think near so favourably of those sectaries you +mentioned, (he had just spoken of the comparative safety of virtuous +heathens, who, not having known the name of Christianity, were not to +be judged by its law,) many of those sectaries breaking, as they +themselves confessed, for matters of indifference, and no way +concerned in the only affair that is necessary, viz. salvation; and +what a great crime schism is, you can't be ignorant. This, and the +reasons in my last, and if you consider what will occur to yourself, +together with several texts, will bring you to my way of thinking on +that point. Let us endeavour to live according to the rules of the +Gospel; and he that prescribed them, I hope, will consider our +endeavours to please him, and assist us in our designs. + +"I don't like that part of your letter, wherein you say you had the +testimony of well-doing in your breast. Whenever such notions rise +again, endeavour to suppress them. We should always be in no other +than the state of a penitent, because the most righteous of us is no +better than a sinner. Read the parable of the Pharisee and the +Publican who prayed in the temple." + +We next have a letter exhibiting the effect of external things on the +writer's mind, and expressed with almost the picturesque power of his +higher days. He tells his friend, that he will endeavour to answer his +letter in good-humour, "though every thing around," he says, +"conspires to excite in him a contrary disposition--the melancholy +gloom of the day, the whistling winds, and the hoarse rumbling of the +swollen Liffey, with a flood which, even where I write, lays close +siege to our own street, not permitting any to go in or out to supply +us with the necessaries of life." + +After some statements of the rise of the river, he says, "It gives me +pleasure to see nature in those great though terrible scenes; it fills +the mind with grand ideas, and turns the soul in upon herself. This, +together with the sedentary life I lead, forced some reflections on +me, which perhaps would otherwise not have occurred. I considered how +little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master +of all things, yet scarce can command any thing. What well laid, and +what better executed scheme of his is there, but what a small change +of nature is entirely able to defeat and abolish. If but one element +happens to encroach a little upon another, what confusion may it not +create in his affairs, what havoc, what destruction: the servant +destined to his use, confines, menaces, and frequently destroys this +mighty, this feeble lord." + +One of those letters mentions his feelings on the defeat of the +luckless Charles Edward, whose hopes of the British crown were +extinguished by the battle of Culloden, (April 16, 1746.) "The +Pretender, who gave us so much disturbance for some time past, is at +length, with all his adherents, utterly defeated, and himself (as some +say) taken prisoner. 'Tis strange to see how the minds of the people +are in a few days changed. The very men who, but a while ago, while +they were alarmed by his progress, so heartily cursed and hated those +unfortunate creatures, are now all pity, and wish it could be +terminated without bloodshed. I am sure I share in the general +compassion. It is, indeed, melancholy to consider the state of those +unhappy gentlemen who engaged in this affair, (as for the rest, they +lose but their lives,) who have thrown away their lives and fortunes, +and destroyed their families for ever, in what, I believe, they +thought a just cause." Those sentiments exhibit the early propensity +of Burke's mind to a generous dealing with political opponents. He was +a Protestant, a zealous admirer of the constitution of 1688, as all +Irish Protestants were in his day, whether old or young; and yet he +feels an unequivocal, as it was a just compassion for the brave men, +who, under an impulse of misapplied loyalty, and in obedience to a +mistaken sense of duty, went headlong to their ruin, for a prince who +was a Papist, and thus would have been, like his father, a most +hazardous sovereign to the liberties and religion of England. + +In allusion to his collegiate career, he describes himself as having +taken up every successive subject, with an ardour which, however, +speedily declined. + +"First, I was greatly taken with natural philosophy, which, while I +should have given my mind to logic, employed me incessantly, (logic +forming a principal part of the first year's studies.) This I call my +_furor mathematicus_. But this worked off as soon as I began to read +it in the college. This threw me back to logic and metaphysics. Here I +remained a good while, and with much pleasure, and this was my _furor +logicus_--a disease very common in the days of ignorance, and very +uncommon in these enlightened times. Next succeeded the _furor +historicus_, which also had its day, but is now no more, being +absorbed in the _furor poeticus_, which (as skilful physicians assure +me) is difficultly cured. But doctors differ, and I don't despair of a +cure." Fortunately, he at last accomplished that cure, for his early +poetry gives no indications of future excellence. His prose is much +more poetic, even in those early letters, than his verse. A great poet +unquestionably is a great man; but Burke's greatness was to be +achieved in another sphere. It is only in the visions of prophecy that +we see the Lion with wings. Burke entered his name at the Middle +Temple in April 1747, and went to London to keep his terms in 1750. He +was now twenty-two years old, and his constitution being delicate, and +apparently consumptive, he adopted, during this period of his +residence in England, a habit to which he probably owed his strength +of constitution in after-life. During the vacations, he spent his time +in travelling about England, generally in company with a friend and +relative, Mr William Burke. Though his finances were by no means +narrow--his father being a man of success in his profession--Burke +probably travelled the greater part of those journeys on foot. When he +found an agreeable country town or village, he fixed his quarters +there, leading a regular life, rising early, taking frequent exercise, +and employing himself according to the inclinations of the hour. There +could be no wiser use of his leisure; exercise of the frame is health +of the mind, open air is life to the student, change of scene is +mental vigour to an enquiring, active, and eager spirit; and thus the +feeble boy invigorated himself for the most strenuous labours of the +man, and laid the foundation for a career of eminent usefulness and +public honour for nearly half a century of the most stirring period of +the modern world. + +Some of his letters touch, in his style of grave humour, on these +pleasant wanderings.--"You have compared me, for my rambling +disposition, to the sun. Sincerely, I can't help finding a likeness +myself, for they say the sun sends down much the same influences +whenever he comes into the same signs. Now I am influenced to shake +off my laziness, and write to you at the same time of the year, and +from the same west country I wrote my last in. Since I had your letter +I have often shifted the scene. I spent part of the winter, that is +the term time, in London, and part in Croydon in Surrey. About the +beginning of the summer, finding myself attacked with my old +complaints, I went once more to Bristol, and found the same benefit." +Of his adventures at Monmouth, he says they would almost compose a +novel, and of a more curious kind than is generally issued from the +press. He and his relative formed the topic of the town, both while +they were there and after they left it. "The most innocent scheme," +said he, "they guessed, was that of fortune-hunting; and when they saw +us quit the town without wives, the lower sort sagaciously judged us +spies to the French king. What is much more odd is, that here my +companion and I puzzled them as much as we did at Monmouth, [he was +then at Turlaine in Wiltshire,] for this is a place of very great +trade in making fine cloths, in which they employ a great number of +hands. The first conjecture, for they could not fancy how any other +sort of people could spend so much of their time at books; but finding +that we receive from time to time a good many letters, they conclude +us merchants. They at last began to apprehend that we were spies from +Spain on their trade." Still they appeared mysterious; and the old +woman in whose lodgings they lived, paid them the rather ambiguous +compliment of saying, "I believe that you be gentlemen, but I ask no +questions." "What makes the thing still better," says Burke, "about +the same time we came hither, arrived a little parson equally a +stranger; but he spent a good part of his time in shooting and other +country amusements, got drunk at night, got drunk in the morning, and +became intimate with every body in the village. But he surprised +nobody, no questions were asked about him, because he lived like the +rest of the world. But that two men should come into a strange +country, and partake of none of the country diversions, seek no +acquaintance, and live entirely recluse, is something so inexplicable +as to puzzle the wisest heads, even that of the parish-clerk himself." + +About the year 1756, Burke, still without a profession--for though he +had kept his terms he was never called to the bar--began to feel the +restlessness, perhaps the self-condemnation, natural to every man who +feels life advancing on him without an object. He now determined to +try his strength as an author, and published his _Vindication of +Natural Society_--a pamphlet in which, adopting the showy style of +Bolingbroke, but pushing his arguments to the extreme, he shows the +fallacy of his principles. This work excited considerable attention at +the time. The name of the author remained unknown, and the imitation +was so complete, that for some time it was regarded as a posthumous +work of the infidel lord. Burke, in one of his later publications, +exclaims--Who now reads Bolingbroke? who ever read him through? We may +be assured, at least, that one read him through; and that one was +Edmund Burke. The dashing rhetoric, and headlong statements of +Bolingbroke; his singular affluence of language, and his easy +disregard of fact; the boundless lavishing and overflow of an +excitable and glowing mind, on topics in which prejudice and passion +equally hurried him onward, and which the bitter recollections of +thwarted ambition made him regard as things to be trampled on, if his +own fame was to survive, was incomparably transferred by Burke to his +own pages. The performance produced a remarkable sensation amongst the +leaders of public opinion and literature. Chesterfield pronounced it +to be from the pen of Bolingbroke. Mallet, the literary lord's +residuary legatee, was forced to disclaim it by public advertisement; +but Mallet's credit was not of the firmest order, and his denial was +scarcely believed until Burke's name, as the author, was known. But +his _Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of the Sublime and +Beautiful_, brought him more unequivocal applause. His theory on this +subject has been disputed, and is obviously disputable; but it was +chiefly written at the age of nineteen; it has never been wholly +superseded, and, for elegance of diction, has never been equaled. It +brought him into immediate intercourse with all that may be called the +fashion of literature--Lyttleton, Warburton, Soame Jenyns, Hume, +Reynolds, Lord Bath, Johnson, the greatest though the least +influential of them all, and Mrs Montague, the least but the most +influential of them all. There must have been a good deal of what is +called fortune in this successful introduction to the higher orders of +London society; for many a work of superior intelligence and more +important originality has been produced, without making its author +known beyond the counter of the publisher. But what chance began his +merits completed. The work was unquestionably fit for the hands of +blue-stockingism; the topic was pleasing to literary romance; the very +title had a charm for the species of philosophy which lounges on +sofas, and talks metaphysics in the intervals of the concert or the +card-table. It may surprise us, that in an age when so many manly and +muscular understandings existed at the same time in London, things so +infinitely trifling as conversaziones should have been endured; but +conversaziones there were, and Burke's book was precisely made to +their admiration. It is no dishonour to the matured abilities of this +great man, that he produced a book which found its natural place on +the toilet-tables, and its natural praise in the tongues of the Mrs +Montagues of this world. It might have been worse; he never thought it +worth his while to make it better; the theory is worth nothing, but +the language is elegant; and the whole, regarded as the achievement of +a youth of nineteen, does honour to the spirit of his study, and the +polish of his pen. + +A change was now to take place in Burke's whole career. He might have +perished in poverty, notwithstanding his genius, except for the chance +which introduced him to Fitzherbert, a graceful and accomplished man, +who united to a high tone of fashionable life a gratification in the +intercourse of intelligent society. Partly through this gentleman's +interference, and partly through that of the late Earl of Charlemont, +Burke was introduced to William Gerard Hamilton, who shortly after +went to Ireland as secretary to the lord-lieutenant, Lord Halifax. +However, this connexion, though it continued for six years, was +evidently an uneasy one to Burke; and a letter written by him in the +second year of his private secretaryship to Hamilton, shows how little +they were fitted for cordial association. A pension of L.300 a-year +was assigned to Burke as a remuneration for his services, which, +however, he evidently seemed to regard in the light of a retaining +fee. In consequence of this conception, and the fear of being fettered +for life, Burke wrote a letter, stating that it would be necessary to +give a portion of his time to publication on his own account. + +"Whatever advantages," said he, "I have acquired, have been owing to +some small degree of literary reputation. It would be hard to persuade +me that any further services which your kindness may propose for me, +or any in which my friends may co-operate with you, will not be greatly +facilitated by doing something to cultivate and keep alive the same +reputation. I am fully sensible that this reputation may be as much +hazarded as forwarded by a new publication; but because a certain +oblivion is the consequence to writers of my inferior class of an +entire neglect of publication, I consider it such a risk as must +sometimes be run. For this purpose some short time, at convenient +intervals, and especially at the dead time of the year, it would be +requisite to study and consult proper books. The matter may be very +easily settled by a good understanding between ourselves, and by a +discreet liberty, which I think you would not wish to restrain, or I +to abuse." + +However, it will be seen that Gerard Hamilton thought differently on +the subject. We break off this part of the correspondence, for the +purpose of introducing a fragment of that wisdom which formed so early +and so promising a portion of the mind of Burke. In writing of his +brother Richard to his Irish friend, he says--"Poor Dick sets off at +the beginning of next week for the Granadas, [in which he had obtained +a place under government.] He goes in good health and spirits, which +are all but little enough to battle with a bad climate and a bad +season. But it must be submitted to. Providence never intended, to +much the greater part, an entire life of ease and quiet. A peaceable, +honourable, and affluent decline of life must be purchased by a +laborious or hazardous youth; and every day, I think more and more +that it is well worth the purchase. Poverty and age suit very ill +together, and a course of struggling is miserable indeed, when +strength is decayed and hope gone. _Turpe senex miles!_" + +Burke's quarrel with Hamilton ended in his resigning his pension. His +feelings appear to have been deeply hurt by Hamilton's superciliousness, +and his demand for the right to employ the whole time of his private +secretary. In a long explanatory letter to Hutchinson, a leading member +of the Irish parliament, and father of the late Lord Donoughmore, he +says, indignantly enough--"I flatter myself to let you see that I +deserved to be considered in another manner than as one of Mr Hamilton's +cattle, or as a piece of his household stuff. Six of the best years of +my life he took me from every pursuit of literary reputation, or of +improvement of my fortune. In that time he made his own fortune, a very +great one; and he has also taken to himself the very little one which I +had made. In all this time you may easily conceive how much I felt at +being left behind by almost all my contemporaries. There never was a +season more favourable for any man who chose to enter into the career +of public life; and I think I am not guilty of ostentation in supposing +my own moral character and my industry, my friends and connexions, when +Mr H. first sought my acquaintance, were not at all inferior to those of +several whose fortune is at this day upon a very different footing from +mine." + +It is evident that Burke's mind was at this period turned to +authorship, and that his chief quarrel arose from the petty and +pragmatical demand of Hamilton, that he should abandon it altogether. +Burke soon had ample revenge, if it was to be found in the obscurity +into which Hamilton rapidly fell, and the burlesque which alone +revived his name from its obscurity. The contrast between the two must +have been a lesson to the vanity of the one, as pungent as was its +triumph. If ever the fate of Tantalus was realized to man, it was in +the perpetual thirst and perpetual disappointment of Hamilton for +public name. The cup never reached his lips but it was instantly dry; +while Burke was seen reveling in the full flow of public +renown--buoyant on the stream into which so many others plunged only +to sink, and steering his noble course with a full mastery of the +current. "Single-speech Hamilton" became a title of ridicule, while +Burke was pouring forth, night after night, speech after speech, rich +in the most sparkling and most solid opulence of the mind. He must +have been more or less than man, to have never cast a glance at the +decrepitude of the formal coxcomb whom he once acknowledged as his +leader, and compared his shrunk shape with the vigorous and athletic +proportions of his own intellectual stature. Hamilton, too, must have +had many a pang. The wretched nervousness of character which at once +stimulated him to pine for distinction, and disqualified him from +obtaining it, must have made his life miserable. If the magnificent +conception of the poet's Prometheus could be lowered to any thing so +trivial as a disappointed politician of the eighteenth century, its +burlesque might be amply shown in a mind helplessly struggling against +a sense of its own inferiority, gnawed by envy at the success of +better men, and with only sufficient intellectual sensibility +remaining to have that gnawing constantly renewed. + +Burke's letters to the chief Irishmen with whom his residence in +Dublin had brought him into intercourse, long continued indignant. +"Having presumed," said he, in one of those explanatory letters, "to +put a test to me, which no man _not born in Africa_ ever thought of +taking, on my refusal he broke off all connexion with me in the most +insolent manner. He, indeed, entered into two several negotiations +afterwards, but both poisoned in their first principles by the same +spirit of injustice with which he set out in his first dealings with +me. I, therefore, could never give way to his proposals. The whole +ended by his possessing himself of that small reward for my services +which, I since find, he had a very small share in procuring for me. +After, or, indeed, rather during his negotiations, he endeavoured to +stain my character and injure my future fortune, by every calumny his +malice could suggest. This is the case of my connexion with Mr +Hamilton." + +If all this be true--and whoever impeached the veracity of Burke in +any thing?--the more effectually his enemy was trampled the better: +malice can be punished sufficiently only by extirpation. + +A powerful letter to Henry Flood, then one of the leading members of +the Irish House of Commons, shows how deeply Burke felt the vexation +of Hamilton's conduct, and not less explicitly administers the moral, +of how much must be suffered by every man who enters into the +conflicts of public life. Flood, too, had his share of those +vexations; perhaps more of them than his correspondent. Henry Flood +was one of the most remarkable men whom Ireland had produced. +Commencing his career with a handsome fortune, he had plunged into the +dissipation which was almost demanded of men of family in his day; but +some accidental impression (we believe a fit of illness) suddenly +changed his whole course. He turned his attention to public life, +entered the House of Commons, and suddenly astonished every body by +his total transformation from a mere man of fashion to a vigorous and +brilliant public orator. He was the most logical of public speakers, +without the formality of logic, and the most imaginative, without the +flourish of fancy. For ten years, Flood was the leader of the House, +on whichever side he stood. He was occasionally in opposition, and the +champion of opposition politics in his earlier career; but at length, +unfortunately alike for his feelings and his fame, he grew indolent, +accepted an almost sinecure place, and indulged himself in ease and +silence for full ten years. A loss like this was irreparable, in the +short duration allotted to the living supremacy of statesmanship. No +man in the records of the English parliament has been at his highest +vigour for more than ten years; he may have been _rising_ before, or +inheriting a portion of his parliamentary distinction--enough to give +dignity to his decline; but his true time has past, and thenceforth he +must be satisfied with the reflection of his own renown. Flood had +already passed his hour when he was startled by the newborn splendour +of Grattan. The contest instantly commenced between those +extraordinary men, and was carried on for a while with singular +animation, and not less singular animosity. The ground of contest was +the constitution of 1782. The exciting cause of contest was the wrath +of Flood at seeing the laurels which he had relinquished seized by a +younger champion, and the daring, yet justified confidence of Grattan +in his own admirable powers to win and wear them. Flood, in the +bitterest pungency of political epigram, charged Grattan with having +sold himself to the people, and then sold the people to the minister +for prompt payment. (A vote of L50,000 had been passed to purchase an +estate for Grattan.) Grattan retorted, that "Flood, after having sold +himself to the minister, was angry only because he was interrupted in +the attempt to sell himself to the people." The country, fond of the +game of partizanship, ranged itself under the banners of both, +alternately hissed and applauded both, and at length abandoned both, +and in its new fondness for change, adopted the bolder banners of +revolution. Both were fighting for a shadow, and both must have known +it; but the prize of rhetoric was not to be given up without a +struggle. The "constitution" was rapidly forgotten, when Flood retired +into England and obscurity; and Grattan, who had been left, if not +victor, at least possessor of the field, grew tired of struggles +without a purpose, and plaudits without a reward. The absurdity of +affecting an independence which could not exist an hour but by the +protection of England, and the burlesque of a parliament into which no +man entered but in expectation of a job; the scandal of an Irish +slave-market, and the costliness of purchasing representatives, only +to be sold by them in turn, became so palpable to the national eye, +that the nation contemptuously cashiered the legislature. The gamblers +who had made their fortunes off the people, and had amused themselves +with building a house of cards, saw their paper fabric fall at the +first breath; and the nation looked on the fall with the negligent +scorn excited in rational eyes by detected imposture. The attempt is +once more prepared, but Ireland will have no house of cards, still +less will she suffer the building of an hospital for decayed fashion +and impotent intrigue--a receptacle for political incurables--and +meritorious, in the sight even of its projectors, simply for affording +them snug stewardships, showy governorships, and the whole sinecure +system of emolument without responsibility. + +Burke again repeats to Flood his wrath at Hamilton's +provocation.--"The occasion of our difference was not any act +whatsoever on my part, it was entirely on his--by a voluntary, but +most insolent and intolerable demand, amounting to no less than a +claim of servitude during the whole course of my life." He then +alludes to the position of political parties, and gives a sketch of +the great Earl of Chatham which shows the hand of a master. "Nothing +but an intractable temper in your friend Pitt can prevent an admirable +and most lasting system from being put together; and this crisis will +show whether pride or patriotism be predominant in his character, for +you may be assured that he has it now in his power to come into the +service of his country upon any plan of politics he may choose to +dictate; with great and honourable claims to himself and to every +friend he has in the world, and with such a stretch of power as will +be equal to every thing but absolute despotism over the king and +kingdom. A few days will show whether he will take his part, or that +of continuing on his bank at Hayes, (his country-seat,) talking +fustian, excluded from all ministerial, and incapable of all +parliamentary service; for his gout is worse than ever, but his pride +may disable him more than his gout." + +We then have an odd rambling letter from Dr Leland, the author of a +History of Ireland, a heavy performance but an honest one, and by far +the best and least unfortunate of the unfortunate attempts to +rationalize the caprices and calamities of that unhappy country. +Leland's letter is written in congratulation to the two brothers, +Edmund and William Burke, the former having been appointed private +secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham in July 1765, the latter one of +the under secretaries of state. In speaking of Ireland, this writer +says, sensibly enough, "Let who will come to govern us poor wretches, +I care not, provided we are decently governed. I would not have his +secretary a jolly, good-humoured abandoned profligate, (the most +dangerous character in society,) or a sullen, vain, proud, selfish, +cankered-hearted, envious reptile--though what matter who is either +lieutenant or secretary?" + +Burke was not at this time in Parliament, nor until the 26th of +December in this year, when he was returned for the borough of +Wendover, through the influence of Lord Verney. A letter from Dr +Markham, afterwards archbishop of York, shows the degree of estimation +in which his abilities were held, and the expectations which he +excited among able men, at a period when his parliamentary faculties +were still unknown. He says to William Burke,--"I was informed of +Ned's cold by a letter from Skynner. I am very glad to hear it is so +much better. I should be grieved to hear he was ill at any time, and +particularly at so critical a time as this. I think much will depend +on his outset. I wish him to appear at once in some important +question. If he has but that confidence in his strength which I have +always had, he cannot fail of appearing with lustre. I am very glad to +hear from you that he feels his own consequence as well as the crisis +of his situation. He is now on the ground on which I have been so many +years wishing to see him. One splendid day will crush the malevolence +of enemies, as well as the envy of some who often praise him. When his +reputation is once established, the common voice will either silence +malignity or destroy its effect." + +This was written three days after Burke's entrance into Parliament. It +is curious to see, in the letters of those early correspondents, most +of them accomplished and practical men, how fully they were possessed +with a sense of his promised superiority. "You are now, I am certain," +says Leland, "a man of business, deeply immersed in public affairs, +commercial and political. You will show yourself a man of business in +the House of Commons, and you will not, I am certain, build your +reputation and consequence there upon a single studied manufactured +piece of eloquence, and then, like the brazen head, shut your mouth +for ever. I trust I shall hear of your rising regularly, though +rapidly; that I shall hear of ministers begging that you would be +pleased to accept of being vice-treasurer of Ireland, and then of your +soaring so high as to be quite out of view of such insects as I--and +so good-night, my dear Ned. If ever chance should bring us together, +we are quite ruined as companions. The saunterings, the readings, the +laughings, and the dosings in Mount Gallagher (his country-seat) are +all over. Your head is filled with questions, divisions, and +majorities. My thoughts are employed on Louth and Warburton." + +Burke began his parliamentary triumphs with but little delay. The +colonies were the grand subject of the time, and Burke instantly +devoted himself to that subject with the whole force of his capacious +intellect. He was regarded by the House, on the first speech which he +made on this voluminous topic, as exhibiting extraordinary knowledge, +combined with a power of language unequalled save by Chatham himself. +One of the letters of congratulations is from Dr Marriott, who was +afterwards judge of the court of admiralty. "Permit me to tell you +that you are the person the least sensible of the members of the House +of Commons, how much glory you acquired last Monday night; and it +would be an additional satisfaction to you that this testimony comes +from a judge of public speaking, the most disinterested and capable of +judging of it. Dr Hay assures me that your speech was far superior to +that of any other speaker on the colonies that night. I could not +refrain from acquainting you with an opinion, which must so greatly +encourage you to proceed, and to place the palm of the orator with +those which you have already acquired of the writer and the +philosopher." Hay was afterwards judge of the admiralty. At his death +he was succeeded by Marriott. He was of the Bedford party, which, as +it was wholly opposed to the Rockingham, made the testimony more +valuable. + +Burke's second speech was equally the subject of admiration. A second +letter from Marriott, with whom he had had some conversation +expressive of his own diffidence, at least as to his manner, in +addressing the House, mentions once more the opinion of Dr Hay, for +whose taste Marriott seems to have had great deference. "His opinion," +he writes, "is, that nothing could be more remote from awkwardness or +constraint than your manner; that your style, ideas, and expression, +were peculiarly your own; natural and unaffected, and so different +from the cant of the House, or from the jargon of the bar, that he +could not imagine any thing more agreeable; that you did not dwell +upon a point till you had tired it out, as is the way of most +speakers, but kept on with fresh ideas crowding upon you, and rising +one out of another, all leading to one point, which was constantly +kept in view to the audience; and, although every thing seemed a kind +of new political philosophy, yet it was all to the purpose and +well-connected, so as to produce the effect; and that he admired your +last speech the more as it was impromptu. I thought he was describing +to me a Greek orator, whose select orations I had translated four +times when I first went to the university, and therefore marked the +traits of this character. It was impossible for me not to communicate +to you a decision from so great a master himself, though differing +from you in party, that you may go on in a way you have begun, with +such glory to yourself, and to which you add so much by being so +little sensible of it." + +In 1766 the Rockingham ministry was suddenly dashed to the ground, and +all its connexions, of course, went down along with it. The marquis +was a man of great estate and excellent intentions, but his ministry +realized the Indian fable of the globe being painted on a +tortoise--the merit of the political tortoise being, in this instance, +to stand still, while its ambition unfortunately was to move. The +consequence naturally followed, that the world took its own course, +and left the tortoise behind. But Burke had distinguished himself so +much that offers of office were made to him from the succeeding +administration. Those he declined, and commenced that neutral +existence which, with the majority of politicians, is worse than none. +There was a weakness in Burke's character which did him infinite +mischief for the first ten years of his political life. We shall not +call it an affectation in the instance of so great a man, but it paid +all the penalties of folly--and this was his propensity to feel, or at +least to express, a personal affection for the men whom he politically +followed. Even of Hamilton, the most supercilious and least loveable +of mankind, Burke speaks with a tenderness absolutely ridiculous +amongst politicians. Of Lord Rockingham he seldom speaks but in a tone +of romance, singularly inapplicable to that formal and frigid figure +of aristocracy. Of Fox, in latter days, he spoke in a sentimental tone +worthy only of a lover on the French stage; and, in all these +instances, he was doubtless laughed at, notwithstanding all his +sensibilities. With the highest admiration of his genius, we must +believe, for the sake of his understanding, that he adopted this style +merely for fashion's sake; for familiarity, which is akin to fondness, +as we are told by the poets that pity is akin to love, was much the +foolish fashion of the day. Men of the highest rank, and doubtless of +the haughtiest arrogance, were called Tom, and Dick, and Harry; and +this silliness was the language of high life, until the French +Revolution and the democratic war at home taught them, that if they +adopted the phraseology of their own footmen, their footmen would +probably take possession of their title-deeds. The hollowness of +public life is as soon discovered as the haughtiness of public men. A +man of heart like Burke ought to have disdained even the language of +courtiership, and while he observed the decorums of society, scorned +to stoop even to the phraseology of humiliation. But one of the most +curious features of this obsolete day is the manner in which the +country was disposed of. No game of whist, in one of the lordly clubs +of St James's Square, was ever more exclusively played. It was simply +a question whether his Grace of Bedford would be content with a +quarter or a half of the cabinet, or whether the Marquis of Rockingham +would be satisfied with two-fifths, or the Earl of Shelburne should +have all or should share power with the Duke of Portland. In all those +barterings and borrowings we never hear the name of the nation. No +whisper announces that there is such a thing in existence as the +people. No allusion ever proceeds from the stately lips, or offends +the "ears polite," of the embroidered conclave, referring to either +the interests, the feelings, or the necessities of the nation. All was +done as in an assemblage of a higher race of existence, calmly carving +out the world for themselves--a tribe of Epicurean deities, with the +cabinet for their Olympus, stooping to our inferior region only to +enjoy their own atmosphere afterwards with the greater zest, or shift +their quarters, like the poet's Jupiter, when tired of the dust and +clamour of war, moving off on his clouds and with his attendant +goddesses, to the tranquil realms of the Hippomolgi. + +And this highbred condition of affairs was the more repulsive, from +the fact that the greater number of those disposers of office and +dividers of empire were among the emptiest of mankind. The succession +of ministers, from the days of Walpole, (unquestionably a shrewd, +though a coarse mind, and profligate personage,) with the exception of +Chatham, was a list of silken imbeciles; very rich, or very highborn, +or very handsomely supplied with boroughs, but, in all other senses, +the last men who should have been entrusted with power. + +We have to thank the satirists, the public misfortunes, and even the +demagogues, for extinguishing this smooth and pacific system. Junius, +with his sarcastic pen, the American war, and even the gross impudence +of Wilkes, stirred the public mind to remember that it had a voice in +the state. A manlier period succeeded; and we shall no more hear of +the government being divided among the select party, like a twelfth +cake, nor see the interests of a nation which represents the interests +of the globe, compromised to suit the contending claims of +full-dressed frivolity. + +As a specimen of this courtly affair, we give a few fragments from a +confidential letter of Burke to the Marquis of Rockingham. "Lord +Shelburne still continues in administration, though as adverse and as +much disliked as ever.--The Duke of Grafton continues, I hear, his +old complaints of his situation, and his genuine desire of holding it +as long as he can. At same time, Lord Shelburne gets loose too. I know +that Lord Camden, who adhered to him in these late divisions, has +given him up, and gone over to the Duke of Grafton. The Bedfords are +horridly frightened at all this, for fear of seeing the table _they +had so well covered_, and at which they sat down with so good an +appetite, kicked down in the scuffle. They find things not ripe at +present for bringing in Grenville, and that any capital move just now +would only betray their weakness in the closet and the nation." Thus, +those noble personages had it all to themselves. Again-- + +"If Grenville was peculiarly exceptionable, another middle person +might have the Treasury. I fancy their middleman to be the same they +had in their thoughts this time twelve-month--Lord Gower. They talked +of the Duke of Northumberland as a proper person for the Treasury, in +case of the Duke of Grafton's going out. The truth is, the Bedfords +will never act any part, either fair or amiable, with your lordship or +your friends, until they see you in a situation to give the law to +them." No doubt all this was perfectly true; the whole was selfish, +supercilious, and exclusive; one red riband matched against another, +one garter balanced against a rival fragment of blue; the whole a +court-ball, in which the nation had no more share than if it had been +danced in the saloon of Windsor; a masquerade in which the political +minuet was gravely danced by the peerage in character, and of which +the nation heard scarcely even the fiddles. But those times have +passed away, and, for the honour of common sense, they have passed +never to return. + +The long contested authorship of "Junius's Letters" makes the subject +of a brief portion of his correspondence. A letter from Charles +Townshend, brother of Lord Sidney, says--"I met Fitzherbert last +night, and talked to him on the subject of our late conversation. I +told him that I had heard that he had asserted that you were the +author of 'Junius's Letters,' for which I was very sorry, because, if +it reached your ears, it would give you a great deal of concern. He +assured me, that he had only said that the ministry now looked upon +you as the author, but that he had constantly contradicted the report +whenever it was mentioned in his company, particularly yesterday and +the day before, to persons who affirmed that you were now fixed on as +the writer of those papers. He declared that he was convinced in his +own mind that you were not concerned in the publication, and that he +had said so." This letter was written in 1771. Burke replies to it, in +two days after, in a letter of thanks, unequivocally denying that he +had any share in those letters. "My friends I have satisfied; my +enemies shall never have any direct satisfaction from me. The +ministry, I am told, are convinced of my having written Junius, on the +authority of a miserable bookseller's preface, in which there are not +three lines of common truth or sense. I have never once condescended +to take the least notice of their invectives, or publicly to deny the +fact on which some of them were grounded. At the same time to you or +to any of my friends, I have been as ready as I ought to be in +disclaiming, in the most precise terms, writings that are as superior, +perhaps, to my talents, as they are most certainly different in many +essential points from my regards and my principles." Burke seems to +have been constantly bored on this subject, for he writes an angry +letter to Markham, then bishop of Chester. Charles Townshend writes to +him again to say that the Public require a more distinct disclaimer. +Burke answers, "I have, I daresay to nine-tenths of my acquaintances, +denied my being the author of Junius, or having any knowledge of the +author, whenever the thing was mentioned, whether in jest or earnest. +I now give you my word and honour that I am not the author of Junius, +and that I know not the author of that paper, and I do authorize you +to say so." + +We believe that this is the first time in which Burke's disclaimer has +been made public; but our only surprise in the matter is, how he could +at any time have been considered as the author of Junius. We should +have rather said that he was the last man in the kingdom who ought to +have been suspected. The styles of Burke and Junius are totally +different: the one loose and flowing, the other terse and pungent; the +one lofty and imaginative, the other level and stern; the one taking +large views on every subject, and evidently delighting in the +largeness of those views, the other fixing steadily and fiercely upon +the immediate object of attack, and shooting every arrow point-blank. +Of course, we have no intention of wandering into a topic so +thoroughly beaten as that of the authorship of Junius; but we must +acknowledge, if Sir Philip Francis was not the man, no other nominal +candidate for the honour has been brought forward with equal claims. +The only objection which we have ever heard to his title as author is, +his not making it in person; for he was said to be a man of such +inordinate admiration of his own powers, that he could not have kept +the secret. It has been said, too, that no fear, after the lapse of +twenty years, could have prevented its being divulged. But there are +other motives than fear which might act upon a proud and powerful +spirit. The author of a work like Junius was clearly contemptuous of +mankind, and more contemptuous in proportion to the rank of his +victims. To such a man even the excitement produced by the general +enquiry into the authorship might be a triumph in itself. Though a +solitary, it might be a high gratification to a morbid spirit of +disdain, to see himself a problem to mankind, to hear perpetual +arguments raised on his identity, and see the puzzled pens of the +pamphleteering word all busy in sketching an ideal likeness which each +fancied to be the original. If we could imagine the shade of Swift or +Shaftesbury, of Scarron or Rabelais, to walk invisibly through the +world playing its bitter and fantastic tricks in the ways of men, +stinging some, astounding others, and startling all, we perhaps would +approach nearest to the feelings which might, now and then, have +indulged the habitual scorn and stimulated the conscious power of +Junius. + +It has also been said that Sir Philip Francis was not equal to the +composition of those masterly letters; and it must be acknowledged +that, though he made some very powerful and pointed speeches in the +House of Commons, they wanted the penetration and the polish of +Junius. But there are several letters by Sir Philip Francis in these +volumes, which, though evidently written in the haste and +desultoriness of private correspondence, exhibit conceptions strongly +resembling the sarcastic strength and high-wrought point of Junius. + +The Hastings' trial brought Francis full before the public; and we +have a letter from Burke describing one of his speeches on this +subject, which, with his usual good nature, he sent to the orator's +wife. It is dated April 20, 1787.--"My dear madam, I cannot, with all +honest appetite, or clear conscience, sit down to my breakfast, unless +I first give you an account, which will make your family breakfast as +pleasant to you, as I wish all your family meetings to be. I have the +satisfaction of telling you, that, not in my judgment only, but in +that of all who heard him, no man ever acquitted himself, on a day of +great expectation, so well as Mr Francis did yesterday. He was clear, +precise, forcible, and eloquent, in a high degree. No intricate +business was ever better unravelled, and no iniquity ever placed so +effectually to produce its natural horror and disgust. * * * * All who +heard him were delighted, except those whose mortification ought to +give pleasure to every good mind. He was two hours and a half on his +legs, and he never lost attention for a moment." + +We give a curious specimen of the daring criticism which this +applauded personage now and then ventured, even on the authorship of +Burke. In 1790, Burke had prepared his celebrated work on the French +Revolution for the press early in the year, and appears to have sent +fragments of it to several of his friends. Casual circumstances +delayed the work until October. Francis's letter was written in +February. It begins--"I am sorry you should have the trouble of +sending for the printed paper you lent me yesterday, though I own I +cannot much regret even a fault of my own, that helps to delay the +publication of that paper. [This was probably a proof sheet of the +_Reflections_.] It is the proper province, and ought to be the +privilege, of an inferior to criticise and advise. The best possible +critic of the Iliad, would be, _ipso facto_, and by virtue of that +very character, incapable of being the author of it. Standing as I do +in this relation to you, you would renounce your superiority, if you +refused to be advised by me. Remember that this is one of the most +singular, that it may be the most distinguished, and ought to be one +of the most deliberate acts of your life. Your writings have hitherto +been the delight and instruction of your own country. You now +undertake to correct and instruct another nation; and your appeal in +effect is to all Europe." After then objecting to Burke's exposure of +Price and his fellow pamphleteers, as beneath the writer and his +subject, he attacks him for his panegyric on the Queen of France. He +then sneeringly asks, "Pray, sir, how long have you felt yourself so +desperately disposed to admire the ladies of Germany?" This was an +allusion to Queen Charlotte, whom Burke's particular friends had long +regarded as one of their impediments to power. He proceeds--"The +mischief you are going to do yourself, is to my apprehension, +palpable. It is visible. It will be audible. I snuff it in the wind. I +taste it already. I feel it in every sense; and so will you +hereafter." This letter certainly wants the polish of Junius, but it +has the power of bitter thought, and it sneers with practised +piquancy. Of course, a broad line is to be drawn between a work of +study and the work of the moment--between the elaborate vigour which +prunes and purifies every straggling shoot away, and exhibits its +production for a prize-show, and the careless luxuriance which suffers +the tree to throw out its shoots under no direction, but that of the +prolific power of nature. Yet the plant is the same, and though we by +no means say, that even this letter gives demonstration, yet the +arrogant ease of the style is such, as we should have expected to find +in the familiar correspondence of Junius. His letter obviously excited +in Burke a mixture of pain and indignation. + +He answered it the next day in a long and eloquent vindication which +was oddly enough inclosed in a letter from his son, scarcely less than +menacing. It begins--"My dear sir, You must conceive that your letter, +combating many old ideas of my father's, and proposing many new ones, +could not fail to set his mind at work, and to make him address the +effect of those operations to you. I must, therefore, entreat you not +to draw him aside from the many and great labours he has in hand, by +_any further written communications of this kind_, which would, +indeed, be very useful, because they are valuable, if they were +conveyed at a time when there was leisure to settle opinions." Those +are hard hits at the critic, but harder were still to come. "There is +one thing of which I must inform you. It is, that my father's opinions +are never hastily adopted, and that even those ideas which have often +appeared to me only the effect of momentary heat, or casual +impression, I have afterwards found, beyond a possibility of doubt, to +be the result of systematic meditation, perhaps of years. * * * * The +thing, I say, is a paradox, but _when we talk of things superior to +ourselves_, what is not paradox?" + +He strikes harder still. "When we say, that one man is wiser than +another, we allow that the wiser man forms his opinions upon grounds +and principles which, though to him justly conclusive, cannot be +comprehended and received by _him who is less wise_. To be wise, is +only to see deeper, and further, and differently _from others_." + +Yet this strong rebuke, which was followed by a long letter from Burke +himself, half indignant, half argumentative, does not seem to have +disturbed the temper of Francis, proverbially petulant as he was, if +it did not rather raise his respect for both parties. He tells Burke, +in a subsequent letter, that he has looked for his work, his +_Reflections on the Revolution_, with great impatience, and read it +with studious delight. He proceeds--"My dear Mr Burke, when I took +what is vulgarly called the liberty of opposing my thoughts and wishes +to the _publication_ of yours, on the late transactions in France, I +do assure you that I was not moved so much by a difference of opinion +on the subject, as by an apprehension of the personal uneasiness +which, one way or other, I thought you would suffer by it. I know that +virtue would be useless, if it were not active, and that it can rarely +be active without exciting the most malignant of all enmity, that in +which envy predominates, and which, having no injury to complain of, +has no ostensible motive either to resent or to forgive." (How like +Junius is all this! The likeness is still stronger as it proceeds.) "I +have not yet had it in my power to read more than one third of your +book. I must taste it deliberately. The flavour is too high--the wine +is too rich; I cannot take a draught of it." In another passage he +gives a powerful sketch of popery. In speaking of the French monarchy, +and its presumed mildness in the last century, he attributes the +cessation of its severities to the European change of manners. "We do +not pillage and massacre quite so furiously as our ancestors used to +do. Why? Because these nations are more enlightened--because the +Christian religion is, _de facto_, not in force in the world! Suspect +me not of meaning the Christian religion of the _gospel_. I mean that +which was enforced, rather than taught, by priests, by bishops, and by +cardinals; which laid waste a province, and then formed a monastery; +which, after destroying a great portion of the human species, +provided, as far as it could, for the utter extinction of future +population, by instituting numberless retreats for celibacy; which set +up an ideal being called the Church, capable of possessing property of +all sorts for the pious use of its ministers, incapable of alienating, +and whose property its usufructuaries very wisely said it should be +sacrilege to invade; that religion, in short, which was practised, or +professed, and with great zeal too, by tyrants and villains of every +denomination." + +These volumes show, in a strong light, the energy with which Burke +watched over his party in the House of Commons, and the importance of +his guardianship. He seems to have been called on for his advice in +all great transactions, and to have watched over its interests during +the period of Fox's absence. In 1788 the mental illness of George III. +became decided, and the prospect of a regency with the Prince of Wales +at its head, awoke all the long excluded ambition of the Whigs. Fox +was at that period in Italy, and he was sent for by express to lead +the party in the assault on office. He immediately turned his face to +England, and arrived on the 24th of November, four days after the +meeting of Parliament, which had, however, immediately adjourned to +the fourth of the following month, for the purpose of ascertaining the +health of his majesty. On this occasion Burke addressed to Fox a long +and powerful letter, marking out the line which the parties should +take, giving his opinion with singular distinctness, and expressing +himself in the tone of one who felt his authority. He begins--"My dear +Fox, If I have not been to see you before this time, it was not owing +to my not having missed you in your absence, or my not having much +rejoiced in your return. But I know that you are indifferent to every +thing in friendship but the substance, and all proceedings of ceremony +have, for many years, been out of the question between you and me." In +allusion to the probable formation of a new ministry, he observes--"I +do not think that a great deal of time is allowed you. Perhaps it is +not for your interest that this state of things should continue long, +even supposing that the exigencies of government should suffer it to +remain on its present footing; but I speak without book. I remember a +story of Fitzpatrick in his American campaign, that he used to say to +the officers who were in the same tent, before they were up, that the +only meals they had to consider how they were to procure for that day, +were breakfast, dinner, and supper. I am worse off; for there are five +meals necessary, and I do not know at present how to feel secure of +one of them. The king, the prince, the Lords, the Commons, and the +People." He then urges a bold line of policy--the public examination +of the physicians, the acting independently of the ministers, and a +movement on the part of the prince worthy of his station; but which, +unhappily for the Whigs, was neither adopted by Fox, nor was +consistent with the courtly indolence of the future king. "Might it +not be better," says Burke boldly, "for the prince at once to assure +himself, to communicate the king's melancholy state by a message to +the Houses, and to desire their counsel and support in such an +exigency? It would put him forward with advantage in the eyes of the +people; it would teach them to look upon him with respect, as a person +possessed of the spirit of command; and it would, I am persuaded, +stifle a hundred cabals, both in parliament and elsewhere, which, if +they were cherished by his apparent remissness and indecision, would +produce to him a vexatious and disgraceful regency and reign." + +Lord Thurlow seems, in some way or other, to have given offence to +every remarkable man of his day. At once crafty and insolent, he +toiled for power with an indefatigable labour, as he indulged his +sense of authority by an intolerable arrogance. Among the multitude of +distinguished men whom this legal savage irritated, was Sir William +Jones, the Orientalist. He thus writes to Burke, "I heard last night, +with surprise and affliction, that the *Therion* (the wild-beast--Thurlow) +was to continue in office. Now, I can assure you, from my own positive +knowledge, and I know him well, that though he hates our species in +general, yet his particular hatred is directed against none more +virulently, than against Lord North, and the friends of the late +excellent marquis. He will, indeed, make fair promises, and enter into +engagements, because he is the most interested of mortals; but his +ferocity in opposing the Contractors' Bill, may convince you how +little he thinks himself bound by his _compacts_. He will take a +delight in obstructing all your plans, and will never say, 'Aha, I am +satisfied,' until he has overthrown you. In fact, you will not be +ministers, but tenants by copy of court-roll at the will of the lord. +If you remove him, and put the seal in commission, his natural +indolence is such, that he will give you little trouble, because he +will give himself none; but, if he continue among you, his great joy +will be, and you may rely upon my intelligence, to attack the reports +of your select committee, to support all those whom you condemn, and +to condemn all the measures which you may support. In a word, if +_Caliban_ remain in power, there will be no Prospero in this +fascinated island." + +At this period, Jones was panting for an Indian judgeship, which he +obtained shortly after, and proceeded to Calcutta. It may be doubted, +whether his career would not have been happier and loftier had he +remained at home. His indefatigable diligence must have soon conquered +the difficulties of legal knowledge, and his early intercourse with +the leading men of his time, would, in the common course of things, +have raised him to distinction. He died at forty-seven, too early to +accomplish any work of solid utility, but not too early to spread his +reputation through Europe, for an extraordinary proficiency in the +languages of India. Later scholars speak lightly of this multifarious +knowledge, and nothing can be more probable, than that attainment of +_many_ languages, with any approach to their fluent use, is beyond the +power of man. But his diligence was exemplary, his memory retentive, +and his understanding accomplished by classical knowledge; with those +qualities, much might be done in any pursuit; and though modern +orientalists protest against the superficiality of his acquirements, +their variety has been admitted, and still remain unrivaled. + +Jones had his fits of despondency, like less fortunate men, and +concludes his letter, by intimating a speculation, not unlike that of +Burke himself in his earlier time:--"As for me, I should either settle +as a lawyer at Philadelphia, whither I have been invited, or retire on +my small independence to Oxford; if I had not in England a very strong +attachment, and many dear friends." + +One of Burke's most anxious efforts was to make his son Richard a +statesman. The efforts were unsuccessful. Richard was a good son, and +willing to second the desires of his father; but nature had decided +otherwise, and he remained honest and amiable, but without advancing a +step. Burke first sent him on a kind of semi-embassy to the +headquarters of the emigrant princes at Coblentz, and he there +carried on a semi-negotiation. But success was not to be the fate of +any thing connected with these unfortunate men, and failure was +scarcely a demerit, from its universality. The next experiment was +sending him as a species of private envoy to the Irish Roman +Catholics; but there his failure was even more conspicuous, though +perhaps it was equally inevitable. Burke's imagination was at once his +unrivaled gift and his perpetual impediment. Like a lover, his eye was +no sooner caught, than he invested its charmer with all conceivable +attractions. This susceptibility made him irresistible in a cause +worthy of his powers, but plunged him into difficulties where the +object was inferior to his capacity, and unworthy of his heart. His +early admiration of Fox, of Whiggism, and Reform, was the rapture of +an innamorato. He could discover no defects; he disdained all doubts +as a dishonourable scepticism, and challenged all obstacles, as +evidences of his energy, and trophies of his success. His prosecution +of Hastings, a bold piece of patriot honesty, rapidly fermented into a +splendid blunder. The culprit, who ought to have been tried at the Old +Bailey, was elevated into a national criminal; and the assembled +majesty of the legislature was summoned to settle a case in the lapse +of years, which would have been decided in a day by "twelve good men +and true," in a box in the city. It was in this ardour of spirit that +he adopted the Romish cause. No man knew more thoroughly the +measureless value of an established church, the endless, causeless, +and acrid bitterness of sectarianism, and the mixture of unlearned +doctrine and factious politics which constitute their creeds. Against +Popery in power, Italian, German, or French, in the days of Louis +Quatorze, he would have pledged himself on the ancestral altar to +perpetual hostility. But the romance of popery in Ireland struck his +fancy; he saw nothing but a figure drooping with long travel in +pursuit of privilege; a pious pilgrim, or exhausted giant. Sitting in +his closet at Beconsfield, he pictured the downcast eyes and +dishevelled hair; the limbs loaded with fetters, and the hands help up +in remediless supplication. He grew enamoured of his portraiture, and +without waiting a moment to enquire whether it in the slightest degree +resembled the reality, he volunteered the championship of Irish +popery. His son was commissioned to represent him in this disastrous +connexion. But Richard, once on the spot, was instantly and completely +undeceived. Instead of his "fair penitent," he found a brawny, +bustling Thalestris, wild as the winds, and fierce with the +intoxication of impunity. The mild temperament of the plodding +missionary was baffled, burlesqued, and thrown into fever: he laboured +with humble diligence, but laboured in vain; he talked of +conciliation, while popery talked of conquest; he proposed concession, +while faction shouted triumph; and, when he suggested the suppression +of the old and sharp acerbities of the sects, he was answered by +universal laughter. + +Burke, awakened at last to the truth of things, recalled him, in a +long despatch, concluding in these words--"If you find the Roman +Catholics _irreconcilable with each other_, and that government is +resolved to side with them, or rather, to direct those who _would +betray the rest_, then, my clear opinion is, that you ought not to +wait the playing the _last card of a losing hand_. It would be +disreputable to you. But when you have given your instruction to the +_very few_ in whom you can place confidence for their _future +temperate_ and persevering proceeding, that you will then, with a +_cool_ and _steady dignity_, take your leave." So ended the attempt of +this man of genius and sensibility to guide an Irish faction in the +paths of public tranquillity. He had forgotten that clamour was their +livelihood, and grievance their stock in trade. In the simplicity of a +noble spirit, he had eloquently implored quacks to take their degrees +and follow practice, and solemnly advised travelling showmen not to +disturb the public ear by the braying of their cracked trumpets, and +he succeeded accordingly. Great as he unquestionably was, he could not +make bricks without straw; and after wondering at the perversity of +fortune, and lavishing his indignant soul on a hundred splendid +perplexities touching the nature of politicians in general, and of +Irish politicians in particular, he gave up Ireland as a problem too +profound for his analysis, and to be postponed till the discovery of +the philosopher's stone. + +Richard remained in Ireland for a few months, until he saw the Romish +petition thrown out in the House of Commons by an immense majority. He +then returned to London, and with the rather forward air of an +accredited minister, applied for an interview with the ministry. He +was answered by a prompt note from Dundas, sarcastically informing him +that there was a viceroy in Ireland, whom his Majesty's government had +sent there for the purpose of transacting public business; that they +considered him a very proper person for the purpose, and that, in +consequence, they saw no positive necessity for managing Irish affairs +through any other. "If," says this quiet rebuff, "any of his Majesty's +Catholic subjects have any request or representation which they wish +to lay before his Majesty, they cannot be at a loss for the means of +doing so, in a manner _much_ more _proper_ and AUTHENTIC, than through +the channel of private conversation. Having stated this to you, I +shall forbear _making any observations on the contents_ of your +letter." + +On the 2d of August, 1794, his favourite son died, and Burke received +the blow with the feelings of one, who regarded the hand of destiny as +uplifted against him. His excessive sensibility was agonized by an +event melancholy in its nature to all, but which a wise man will +regard as the will of the Great Disposer, and a religious man will +believe to be a chastisement in mercy. + +Burke was both wise and religious, but his feelings habitually +bewildered him. All the images of desolation rushed across his +creative mind. He was "an uprooted tree," a stream whose course was +swallowed up by an earthquake, a wanderer in the wilderness of the +world, a man struck down by a thunderbolt! From those fearful +fantasies, however, the emergency of public affairs soon summoned him +to the exercise of his noble powers; and he gave his country and the +world, perhaps the most powerful, certainly the most superb and +imaginative, of all his works, the fiery pamphlets on the "regicide +peace." + +On this unhappy occasion for the condolence of friendship, he received +many tributes; but we cannot help quoting one from the celebrated +Grattan, which, though characterized by the peculiarities of his +style, seems to us a model of tenderness and beauty. + + "_August 26, 1794_. + + "My Dear Sir, + + "May I be permitted to sympathize where I cannot presume to + console. + + "The misfortunes of your family are a public care. The late one + is to me a personal loss. I have a double right to affliction, + and to join my grief, and to express my deep and cordial concern + at that hideous stroke which has deprived me of a friend, you of + a son, and your country of a promise that would communicate to + posterity the living blessings of your genius and your virtue. + Your friends may now condole with you, that you should have now + no other prospect of immortality than that which is common to + Cicero and to Bacon; such as never can be interrupted while there + exists the beauty of order, or the love of virtue, and can fear + no death except what barbarity may impose on the globe. + + "If the same strength of reason which could persuade any other + man to bear any misfortune, can administer to the proprietor a + few drops of comfort, we may hope that your condition admits of + relief. The greatest possible calamity which can be imposed on + man, we hope may be supported by the greatest human + understanding. For comfort, your friends must refer you to the + exercise of its faculties, and to the contemplation of its + gigantic proportions--_Dura solatia_--of which nothing can + deprive you while you live. And, though death should mow down + every thing about you, and plunder you of your domestic + existence, you would still be the owner of a conscious + superiority in life, and immortality after it.--I am, my dear + sir, with the highest respect and regard, + + "Yours most truly, + "H. Grattan." + + +We must hastily conclude. + +The threatened ruin of Europe awakened Burke from this reverie at the +tomb of his son. He required strong stimulants, and in the French +Revolution, and the shock of nations, he found them. He now put the +trumpet to his lips, and + + "Blew a blast so loud and dread, + Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe." + +His appeal pierced to the heart of the nation. England had never +_succumbed_, but an indefatigable faction had played every art of +quackery to set her faculties asleep, with the appearance of having +her eyes more open than ever. Whiggism, by its tricks, was +_mesmerising_ the common sense of the country. From this adventitious +torpor Burke recalled her to her natural temperament, restored sight +to her eyes, taught her to resume the sword, and sent her forth to +commence that career of victory which was consummated in the +Tuilleries. + +His advocacy of the Popish question was one of his romances. Popery +was his "Jane Shore," fainting and feeble, wandering through the +highways with those delicate limbs which had once been arrayed in silk +and velvet, and soliciting the "charity of all good Christians" to her +fallen condition. His nature was chivalric, and he at once unsheathed +his sword for so affecting a specimen of penitence and pauperism; but +he soon recovered from this hazardous compassion, and left the pilgrim +to fitter protectors. But if he had lived till our day, what would +Burke have thought of his delusion now? with what self-ridicule must +he not have looked upon the burlesque grievances and the profitable +privations? what an instructive lesson must not his powerful scorn of +charlatanry have given to us, on the display of the whole system of +sleight-of-hand, the popular cups and balls, the low dexterity and the +rabble plunder? or, to sum all in one word, the reduction of all the +claims, the rights, and the efforts of a party pronouncing itself +national, to the collection of an annual tribute; the whole huge and +rattling machinery of popular agitation, grinding simply for the +"rint." How would this lion of the desert, shaking the forest with his +roar, have looked on Jackoo, going round, shaking the penny box! Woe +be to Jackoo if he had come within reach of his talons! + +The volumes, of which we have given an account altogether too brief +and too rapid for their importance, deserve to be studied, as +containing some of the richest transcripts of the richest mind of +England. Letters from various eminent persons diversify them, but the +staple is Burke. If their style seldom rises to the elated ardour and +buoyant strength of his speeches and pamphlets, they exhibit all his +wisdom; they display the entire depth of that current which public +difficulties and obstructions swelled into a cataract. We have the +image of Burke reposing, but still we have all the proportion, all the +dignity, and all the colossal grandeur of the form, ruling senates, +and marshaling the mind of nations for the greatest of their fields. + +Various notes illustrate the volumes, and the edition does every +credit to Lord Fitzwilliam and General Bourke. + + + + +MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. + +NO. II. +JOHN BROWN. + + +A heavy snow-storm, which confined Chesterton and myself pretty much +to the walls of the college for the next few days, prevented us from +paying our friend Brown a visit in his new quarters so soon after his +installation as we intended. When we did succeed in wading there upon +the commencement of a thaw, we found him rather sulky. The sweets of +retirement had become somewhat doubtful; the Grange was certainly not +the place one would have deliberately chosen to be snowed up in; and +so far John was unfortunate in his first week of commencing hermit. + +We found him in full possession of his easy chair, with Bruin extended +on the only piece of carpeting in the room, which did duty as a +hearth-rug. There was a volume of Sophocles open upon the table, with +a watch on one side of it; the Quarterly Review had not at that time +taken upon itself to enlighten undergraduates as to their real state +of mind, and the secrets of successful reading, or there would +doubtless have been the miniature of some fair girl on the other. +(What the effect of such "companions to the classics" may be in +general, I perhaps am no judge. I detest "fair girls," in the first +place; but I have not yet forgotten, if the reader has, that a pair of +_dark_ eyes were the ruin of three months' reading in my own case.) +However, there was no pictured face, except the watch-face, to cheer +the studies of John Brown; and, perhaps, for that reason, our friend +had evidently been asleep. How very glad he was to see us, was +betrayed immediately by the copious abuse which he showered on us for +not having come before. + +"Why, what an unreasonable fellow you are!" said Chesterton; "If you +wanted to see us, why on earth could'nt you come up to college? We can +manage to keep the cold out there, quite as well as in your old castle +here, I fancy; and as neither of us are web-footed any more than +yourself, I don't really see why we are to do all the dabbling about +this precious weather." + +"Oh! I forgot; you have not seen the little note of remembrance which +our darling dons were kind enough to send me before they broke up for +the vacation?" + +"No--what do you mean?" + +"Oh! I'll find it for you in a moment." And he produced a letter +sealed with the college arms, which ran as follows:-- + + "---- _Coll. Common Room_, + _Dec_. --, 18--. + + "The principal and fellows regret to be under the unpleasant + necessity of intimating to Mr Brown, that, although they do not + feel called upon to notice his having fixed his residence in the + immediate neighbourhood of Oxford--a step, which, under the + circumstances, they cannot look upon as otherwise than + ill-judged--he must consider himself strictly prohibited from + appearing within the college walls at any time during the ensuing + vacation." + + +"Now there's a civil card by way of P.P.C. Don't you call that a +spiteful concoction? Silver and Hodgett's last--and worthy of them. So +now, unless you want me to be rusticated for a term or two, you need +not be over-civil in your invitations. But I'll tell you what you +shall do: Hawthorne shall send over that box of Silvas he had just +opened, (if they are good, you shall order some more,) and I'll keep +that Westphalia you talked about here, if you like, Chesterton; and +then you may come here to breakfast, lunch, or supper, if you +please--but mind, I won't give you dinners; I'm not going to have Mrs +Nutt put upon--or myself either." + +We agreed to the terms with some modifications, and proceeded with +some interest to inspect John's domestic arrangements. They were +comfortable, though in some points peculiar. A sort of stand in one +corner, covered with red baise, which supported a plaster bust of our +most gracious majesty, and gave an air of mock grandeur to the +apartment, proved, upon nearer inspection, to be nothing more or less +than a barrel of Hall and Tawney's ale, an old-fashioned cabinet, +once gay with lacquered gold and colours, which the industrious +rubbings of Mrs Nutt and her hand-maid were fast effacing--the +depository perhaps of carefully penned love-missives, and broidered +gloves, jewels, and perfumes, and suchlike shreds and patches of +feminine taste or trickery, in other times--now served as a +resting-place for the heterogeneous treasures of a bachelor's private +cupboard. Cigars and captain's biscuits, open letters and unpaid bills, +packs of cards and lecture note-books; odd gloves, odd pence, and odd +things of all kinds--these filled the drawers: while, from the lower +recesses, our friend, in course of time, produced a decanter of port +and a Stilton. There was an old-fashioned sofa, one of that +stiff-backed, hard-hearted generation, which no man thinks of sitting +down upon twice, and three or four of those comfortable high-backed +arm-chairs, in which, when once fairly seated, in pleasant company, +one never wishes to get up again; a round oak table occupied the space +opposite the fire, and another in one corner held the few books which +formed John Brown's studies at the present. One window looked into the +wet meadows by which the house was nearly surrounded, and the other +commanded a view of the square inclosure before mentioned as now +forming the farm-yard--in former days the inner court of the mansion. + +"Why, Brown, old fellow, you're quite a lively look-out here," said +Chesterton, who had for some minutes been contemplating, apparently +with much interest, the goings on below. "I wish they kept pigs and +chickens in the college quadrangle. I declare, for the last three +days, in this horrid snow, I've watched for hours out of my window, +(that fellow Hawthorne has taken to reading, and sports oak against me +till luncheon time,) and I hav'n't seen a moving creature. I began to +fancy myself up in the Great St Bernard among the monks; and when that +brute of yours came up and howled at my door the other day, I almost +expected to find him carrying a frozen child on his back, and got out +the cherry brandy to be ready for the worst--didn't I, Hawthorne?" + +"I found you one day with Bruin shivering before the fire, and the +cherry brandy on the table, certainly." + +"Well, that's the explanation of it, I assure you. But you must have +found it precious dull shut up here by yourself, Brown?" + +"Why, yes--rather--sometimes--in spite of the pigs and poultry. Their +proceedings are rather monotonous. I feed that brood of chickens, +which have taken upon themselves to come into the world this unnatural +weather, with bread-crumbs out of my window twice a-day. Ah! I see the +old hen has only four to-day; one is gone since yesterday, and one the +day before; there's consumption in the family, that's plain; and they +have always wet feet; I want Mrs Nutt to make them worsted socks, and +to let me put Burgundy pitch-plasters on their throats, but she +won't." + +"But come," said Chesterton, "suppose you give us some lunch, Brown; +'_prome reconditum Caecubum_'--(I'm getting desperately classical;) +that is, being freely translated--lift up that red baise drapery of +yours, and let's taste the tap." + +The tap was tasted, and approved of; so was the Stilton: and then we +sat over the fire for an hour, and smoked some of the Silvas: then we +paid a visit to Mrs Nutt in her _penetralia_, and astonished her with +our acquaintance with dairy matters; hazarded a criticism or two upon +the pigs, which were well received, and were not so fortunate in our +attempts to cultivate an intimacy with the incorruptible Boxer; and +then set off on our return to Oxford, persuading Brown to start with +us, as the afternoon was fine, in order to freshen his faculties by a +stroll in the High Street. + +Shorn, indeed, of all the glories of a full term, in which it had so +lately shone, and looking doubly cold, cheerless, and deserted, in all +the sloppy dirtiness of half-melted snow, was that never-equalled, and +never-to-be-forgotten street! which the stranger gazes on with +somewhat of an envious admiration, the freshman with an awful kind of +delight--which the departing bachelor of arts quits with a +half-concealed regret, and which the occasionally-returning master +re-enters with feelings which are perhaps a mixture of all these; a +stranger's admiration, an emancipated school-boy's delight, and a +regret, either mellowed by passing years into a tender recollection, +or blunted into indifference by altered habits, or embittered by +severed ties and disappointed hopes. We strolled once up and down its +long sweep, but there was nothing to invite a longer promenade. +Cigar-dealers stood at their shop-doors, or leaned over their +counters, with their hands in their breeches-pockets, smoking their +own genuine Havannahs in desperate independence: here a livery-stable +keeper, with a couple of questionable friends, rattled a tandem over +the stones, as if such things never were let out at two guineas a-day: +then a fishmonger, whose wide front, but a week before, teemed with +such quantity and quality, as spoke audibly to every passer-by of +bursary dinners and passing suppers, was now soliciting a customer to +take his choice of three lank cod-fish, ticketed at so much per lb. +Billiard-rooms were silent, save where a solitary marker practised +impossible strokes: print-shops exhibited a dull uniformity of stale +engravings; and the innumerable horde of mongrel puppies of all +varieties, that, particularly towards the end of term, are dragged +about three or four in a string, and recommended as real Blenheims, +genuine King Charles's, or "one of old Webb's black and tan, real good +uns for rats"--had disappeared from public life, to come out again, +possibly, as Oxford sausages. + +In this kind of way the three first weeks of the vacation passed over +without any very notable occurences. We were quiet enough in +college--there is no fun in two men kicking up a row for the amusement +of each other; even in the eye of the law three are required to +constitute a riot; so, on the strength of our good characters, albeit +somewhat recent of acquisition, we dined two or three times with the +fellows who were still in residence, and who, to do them justice, sank +a point or so from the usual stiffness of the common room, and made +our evenings agreeable enough. We certainly flattered ourselves, that +if they found us in turbot and champagne, we contributed at least our +share to the more intellectual part of the entertainment; we kept +within due bounds, of course, and never overstepped that respect which +young men are usually the more willing to pay to age and station the +less rigidly it is exacted; but we made the old oak pannels ring with +such hearty laughter as they seldom heard; and the pictures of +founders and benefactors might have longed to come down from their +frames to welcome even the shadow of those good old times when sound +learning and hearty good fellowship were not, as now, hereditary +enemies in Oxford. If my graver companions, from the calm dignity of +collegiate office, deign to look back upon the evenings thus spent +with two undergraduates in a Christmas vacation, when, unbending from +the formal and conventional dulness of term and its duties, they +interchanged with us anecdote and jest, and mingled with the sparkling +imaginations of youth the reminiscences of riper years--I am sure they +will have no cause to regret their share in those not ungraceful +saturnalia, even though they may remember that the hour at which we +separated was not always what we used to call "canonical." + +We paid our friend almost daily visits in his banishment. The history +of the expedition was generally the same; a walk out, a lunch, a cigar +or two, a chat with farmer Nutt or his wife, a review of the last +litter of pigs, or an enquiry as to the increasing muster-roll of +lambs. We did not make much progress in farming matters. Chesterton +was the most enterprising, and succeeded in ploughing a furrow in that +kind of line which heralds call wavy, and would, as he declared, have +made a very fair hand of thrashing, if he could but have hit the sheaf +oftener, and his own head not quite so often. The most important +events that took place during this time at the Grange, were the +installation of a successor to the barrel in the corner, and the +catching of an enormous rat, who had escaped poison and traps to be +snapped up in broad daylight, in an unguarded moment by Bruin. Still +John Brown declared that on the whole he got on very well; we all read +moderately; the examination was too near to be trifled with, and an +occasional gallop with the harriers made our only really idle days. + +We had not, since our first visit, heard John recur at all to the +subject of the Dean; and to say the truth, we began to hope for his +sake, that he had given up a game which, however much longer it might +be contested, had evidently begun to be a losing one on his part. But +we were mistaken. We found him one morning in high spirits, and +evidently in possession of some joke which he was anxious to impart. + +"Shut the door and sit down," said he, before we were fairly within +his premises. "I have a letter to show you." + +"From the Dean?" (There was something in his manner, which made us +sure that personage was concerned in some way.) + +"No; but from his good mamma--from dear old Mrs Hodgett; you didn't +know we were correspondents? Why, I wrote to her, you see, to ask +where she lived now that she had resigned business, as I would not on +any account have given up so valuable an acquaintance; and I begged +her, at the same time, to order me a dozen pair of stockings from +Mogg. (I assure you they were capital articles I had from him at +first, and he's a very honest fellow; if you've sent that sparkling +Moselle here to-day that you promised, Master Harry, we'll drink +Mogg's very good health.) Well, I wrote to her, and here is her +answer. You see Hodgett has been poisoning the old lady's mind." + +I cannot give all John Brown's comments upon worthy Mrs Hodgett's +epistle, without doing him great injustice in the recital; but here +the contents are verbatim. + + "Dear Sir,--Your favour of last week came safe to hand, and was + very glad to find you was well, as it leaves us at present. + Concerning your calling here next journey, am sorry to say shall + be from home at that time. Sir, I should have been very glad to + see you, but my son says you are not of an undeniable character, + which, in a widow woman's establishment, must be first + consideration. That was what I said to Mr Spriggins. Betsy, my + daughter, as you know, is to be married to him next month. I + don't think he is quite so steady as some, in regard that he must + have his cigar and his tilberry on Sundays--John Mogg never did; + but we can't all be Moggs in this world, or there wouldn't be no + _great failures_. + + "S. Hodgett, in declining business, returns thanks for all past + favours, and remain, Dear Sir, + + "Your obedient servant, + "J. Spriggins, + (late S. Hodgett.) + + "P.S.--I am afraid college is a sad place for such young men as + is not steady. Mrs Hicks, our great butcher's lady, told me that, + when her son, who was a remarkable good lad, came home from + Cambridge college after being there only two months, they found a + short pipe in his best coat pocket, and he called his father + 'governor,' which, as Mrs H. said, he never was, and he wouldn't + wear his nightcap." + + +"Well," said Chesterton, when we had read this original document two +or three times over, "it doesn't seem quite usual for a man to sign +his own testimonials, especially when, as in Mr Spriggins's case, they +are not the most flattering. Do you suppose he really wrote this, or +signed it by mistake, or what is it? + +"Neither one nor the other. Don't you see, the old lady, in declining +the linen-drapery, merges her own identity in that of her successor? +There's no such firm as 'Hodgett' now, it's 'Spriggins,' and she +thinks it necessary to sign accordingly. Here's the card enclosed." + +"Well, there's one thing very certain, that Mrs Hodgett declines doing +business with you in future, John." + +"Yes; and I'm rather annoyed at it. I meant to have got Mogg to come +down and see me at Oxford, and should have asked the Dean to meet him. +I don't see how he could have refused; any way, I think I could have +paid him in full for his late good offices. Well, I am not quite sure +now, when I've taken my degree, that I sha'n't go and see the old lady +again, and win her heart by paying a wedding-visit to the Spriggins's. +I'll take you with me, if you like, Hawthorne, and introduce you as +Lord some-body-or-other, an intimate friend of the dean's--or stay, +Chesterton will make the best lord of the two. Look with what supreme +disgust he is eyeing poor Mrs Nutt's best wine-glasses. Come now, I +think that vine-leaf pattern is quite Horatian; and if you turn up +your nose at that, Master Harry, you shall have your wine out of a +tea-cup next time you come here. Draw the cork of that Moselle, and +then I have something else to tell you. Do either of you men care +about shooting, or can you shoot?" + +"Why, I flatter myself I can," said Chesterton. "I'll bet you I'll hit +two eggs right and left, nine tines out of ten, as often as you like +to throw them up." + +"I don't call that shooting; and you had better not let Mrs Nutt hear +you talk of breaking eggs right and left in any such extravagant +manner. But what I was going to say is this, that some friend of old +Nutt's has some ground near here for which he has the deputation, and +I have been offered a day's shooting there, for myself and any friend +I like to bring. Now, I don't shoot--though I remember the days when I +was a dead pot-shot at a blackbird; but if either of you are +sportsmen, or fancy you are, which amounts to much the same thing, +why, you can have a day at this place if you like, and I will go with +you on condition you don't carry your guns cocked. Mind, I can't +promise what sort of sport you will have, as it is too near Oxford not +to be pretty well poached over; but you can try." + +Shooting over a man's ground without leave (especially if in the face +of a "notice" to the contrary) is decidedly the best sport, but +unfortunately one of those stolen delights which only schoolboys and +poachers can with any sort of conscience enjoy. Shooting with leave +comes next, but is immeasurably inferior in point of piquancy. +Shooting in one's own preserves at birds which have been reared and +turned out, and cost you on the average about five guineas per brace, +is decidedly the most fashionable, and consequently--the dullest. A +day's shooting of any kind about Oxford, was a rare privilege, +confined chiefly to those who were fortunate enough to be fellows of +St ----, or to have an acquaintance among the surrounding squirearchy. +True, that there were some enterprising spirits, who would gallop out +some three or four miles to a corner of Lord A----'s preserves, give +their horses in charge to a trusty follower, and after firing half a +dozen shots, bag their two or three brace of pheasants, remount and +dash off to Oxford, before the keepers, whom the sound of guns in +their very sanctuary was sure to draw to the spot, could have any +chance of coming up with them. But such exploits were deservedly +rather reprobated than otherwise, even when judged by the +under-graduate scale of morality; and even in the parties concerned, +were the offspring rather of a Robin-Hood-like lawlessness than a +genuine spirit of poaching. + +We of course were delighted with the proposition which would have had +quite sufficient attraction for us at any time; but coming in the +dulness of vacation, it was an offer to be jumped at. "What game is +there in this place?" said Chesterton. "Is there any cover shooting?" + +"Oh, I can't tell you any thing about the place! It's about a mile +off, but I never saw it. There's a good deal of ground to go over, I +believe." + +"What shall we do for dogs?" + +"Mrs Nutt will lend you Boxer, I daresay; and Bruin is a capital hand +at putting up water-rats." + +"Stuff! I can borrow some dogs, though. And now, what day shall it +be?" + +The day was fixed, the dogs procured, the occupant of the property was +to send a man to meet us and show us the ground, and it was settled +that we were to come to breakfast at the farm at half-past seven +precisely, and make a long day of it. Much to his disgust, we roused +the deputy porter from his bed at seven on a raw foggy morning; and +with a lad leading the dogs, and carrying guns and ammunition, we made +our way to Farmer Nutt's. We were proceeding up-stairs, as usual, to +Brown's apartment, when we heard our friend's voice hailing us from +the "house," as the large hall was called which the farmer and his +wife used as a kind of superior kitchen. There we found him snugly +seated by a glorious fire, superintending his hostess in the slicing +and broiling of a piece of ham such as Oxfordshire and Berkshire +farm-houses may well pride themselves upon; while a large pile of +crisp brown toast was basking in front of the hearth, supported on a +round brass footman. It was a sight which might have given a man an +appetite at any time, but, after a two-mile walk on a cold winter's +morning, it was like a glimpse of paradise. + +"Here," said Brown--"here's breakfast, old fellows. Come and make your +bows to Mrs Nutt, who is the very pattern of breakfast makers, and fit +to concoct tea for the Emperor of China. Ah! if ever I marry, Mrs +Nutt, it shall be somebody who is just like you." + +Mrs Nutt laughed merrily, and welcomed us with many curtsies, and +hopes that we should find things comfortable; and when the worthy +farmer, after a brief apology, sat down with us, and the strong black +tea and rich cream were duly amalgamated, what a breakfast we did +make! There was not much conversation; but such a hissing and +frizzling of ham upon the gridiron, such a crumping of toast and +rattling of knives, forks, cups and saucers, surely five people seldom +made. We were hungry enough; and our hospitable entertainers were so +pressing in their attentions, that we caught ourselves eating +plum-cake with broiled ham, honey with fresh-laid eggs, and taking +gulps of strong tea and sips of raspberry-brandy alternately. We bore +up against it all, however, wonderfully; the prospect of a long day's +walk put headache and indigestion out of the question, and we were +beginning to think of moving when certain ominous preparations on the +part of our hostess attracted our attention. A hot slice of toast +having been saturated with brandy, she proceeded, to our undisguised +amazement, to pour upon it the richest and thickest cream her dairy +could produce, and to cover this again with sundry wavy lines of +treacle. This was the _bonne bouche_ with which, in her part of the +world, Devonshire I think she said, a breakfast to be perfect must +always conclude. Start not, delicate reader, until you have had an +opportunity of trying this remarkable compound; but take my word for +it, it only wants a French name to make it a first-rate sweetmeat. We +too regarded it at first with fear and trembling; tasted it out of +courtesy to the fair compoundress, and finally, like Oliver Twist, +asked for more. + +"Now these gentlemen know what a breakfast is, Mr Nutt," said John; +"but I am afraid we can't introduce your good wife's receipt into +college; our cows give nothing but skim-milk. Well, now we had better +be off, if you mean to have any shooting." + +Off we set accordingly, and had to trudge a mile or so before we got +into our preserves. There were some not unpromising covers; the lad +who was to be our guide professed some vague reminiscences of having +seen pheasants there "a bit ago;" and there was no question as to a +hare having been started so lately as yesterday morning. We began our +day, therefore, with somewhat sanguine expectations, which, however, +every subsequent half-hour's progress gradually dispelled. We tumbled +out of one deep ditch into another, scrambled perseveringly through +brambles and brushwood, saw places where pheasants _ought_ to have +been, and places where they had been, but never saw a bird except a +jack-snipe in the distance. The only sport we had was in the untiring +energy of the lad already mentioned, who, long after the dogs had +given it up as a bad job, continued to beat every bush as diligently +as at first starting, and kept up a form of hortatory interjections +addressed to the invisible game, with a hopeful perseverance which was +really enviable. One satisfaction we had; towards the close of the day +we started _the_ hare from a bush which had certainly been tried at +least twice before; she fell victim to a platoon fire of four barrels; +the second, I believe, brought her down, but we were anxious to have +all the shots we could get. And, in truth, there was some credit in +killing her, for Mr Nutt, to whom we presented her, declared that she +was so tough, he wondered how the shots ever got through her skin. + +It takes something more serious than a bad day's sport to damp +youthful spirits; and upon our return we found the good farmer's wife +much more annoyed at our failure than ourselves. "Why, the chap as has +the deputation told my master he had killed ten brace of pheasants +there this season!" He killed the last he could find before he sent +us there, no doubt. Nothing dispirited, we sat down to a leg of +mutton, which Brown had so far departed from his household economy as +to order for us at six, and enjoyed our evening as thoroughly as if we +had been a triple impersonation of Colonel Hawker in point of +successful sportmanship. Nor was it until after the second bottle of +port that we began to accuse each other of being sleepy. + +"Well," said I at last, "it is about time for us to be off; it wants +but three minutes of half-past eleven, and we shall have sharp work of +it now to get into college by twelve. What sort of a night is it?" + +The shutters of the sitting-room were closed, and I stepped into the +bed-room adjoining in order to look out. The window opened into the +court-yard; the moon was shining pretty brightly in spite of the fog, +and I was just turning round to remark that we should have a dry walk +home, when I saw two figures steal quietly across the yard, apparently +from the gateway, and disappear in one of the outhouses. It was too +late for any of the men about the farm to be out, in all probability; +I was certain neither of the two figures was Farmer Nutt himself, so I +quietly closed the door between the sitting and bed rooms, in order +that no light might be seen, and watched the spot where I had lost +sight of them. In a few seconds, I distinctly saw a third man come +over the yard-gates, (which were secured inside at night,) and after +apparently reconnoitring for a moment or two, move in the same +direction as the others. I returned at once to the room where I had +left Brown and Chesterton, closing the bed-room door hastily and +noiselessly, and motioning them to be silent. + +"I say, Hawthorne, what's up?" said Harry Chesterton, pausing, with a +parting cigar half-lighted. + +I confess I was somewhat flurried, and my account of what I had seen +was not the most distinct. + +"Oh!" said Chesterton, "it's some of the girl's sweethearts, I dare +say; let's go down and have 'em out, Brown--shall we?" + +Brown shook his head. + +"Put out the lights," said I. + +We did so, and then opened the shutters of the sitting-room window. We +had hardly done so when the bright flash of a lantern was visible from +the opposite side of the yard. For a few minutes we could see nothing +else, and were obliged to hide carefully behind the shutters to avoid +being noticed from below. + +"Is that old Nutt?" said I. + +Brown thought not. He never knew him carry a lantern. + +At that moment the light disappeared, and in a few seconds we heard a +loud knocking at the back-door. + +"That must be the farmer come home," said I. + +"No," said Brown, looking carefully into the yard, where we could now +plainly distinguish at least three persons, and overhear voices in a +low tone--"No; old Nutt's brown greatcoat would cover all three of +those fellows." + +"What stall we do," said Chesterton, seizing his double-barrel, which +stood in the corner. "Shall we open the window and threaten to fire?" + +"With an empty gun?" said Brown: "no, no, that won't do. Not but what +they would run away fast enough, perhaps; but I think, if they really +are come to attack the house, we ought not to let them off so easily. +What say you, Hawthorne?" + +"Certainly not; but they can hardly be housebreakers, or they would +not keep knocking at the door," said I, as the sounds were repeated +more loudly than before. + +"I don't know that; every body about here is perfectly aware that old +Nutt is gone to Woodstock fair; and they might give a pretty good +guess, even supposing they did not watch him, that he would not be +home till late; and if Mrs Nutt or any of the servants are fools +enough to open the door, it's an easier way of getting in than +breaking it open. However, there's no time to be lost; here's a box of +lucifers; come into this dark passage, you two, and get a candle +lighted, while I go and try to get up Mrs Nutt. I can find my way in +the dark." + +"By Jove, Brown," said Chesterton and myself in the same breath, "you +sha'n't go about the house by yourself--we'll come with you." + +"And break your necks down some of the old staircases; or, at all +events, make row enough to let your friends below know that there's +somebody moving in this part of the house. No, just keep quiet where +you are--there's good fellows--and take care not to show the light." +And taking off his shoes, Brown proceeded along the old passages, +which seemed to creak more than usual out of very spitefulness, into +the unknown regions where lay the unconscious Mrs Nutt. + +Having got a light, after the usual number of scrapings with the +lucifers, we were awaiting his return with some impatience, when a +third and more violent series of knocks at the door were followed by +the sound of a female voice. Concealing the light, we crept to the +window of the sitting-room, whence we could now distinguish only one +figure standing by the door, with whom Mrs Nutt appeared to be holding +a communication from a window above. + +"Who's there? What do you want?" + +"It's me with a note from Master Nutt, missus. I don't think he's +a-coming home to-night." + +"Where did you bring it from? Where is he?" + +"He were at the Bear at Woodstock when I saw him." + +"Well, wait a bit till I get a light, and I'll come down." + +In another minute we were joined by Brown; so quietly did he step, +that in our absorbing interest in the conversation in the yard, we +were both somewhat startled at his sudden appearance. + +"Well, Brown," said Chesterton, "now what shall we do? I'll put a load +in this, however," and he proceeded to the passage, where there was +less risk of the light betraying us, in order to do so. + +"Now," said Brown, "if we can but get that fellow once into the house, +we'll have him at all events. We had better all come down-stairs +quietly. If we can only persuade Mrs Nutt to come with us to speak to +him while we open the door, depend upon it we shall trap him; but +she's in a terrible way, poor soul! she wants me to let her call out +murder, and I am afraid now she'll spoil it all. But she has the +servant with her, who seems rather a plucky girl, and I hope she can +manage her. Now, come on quickly, Chesterton, and hide the light when +you get into the long passage, because there are no shutters to the +windows. The women will meet us at the bottom of the stairs." + +My gun had been left in the kitchen; I seized the poker, and we all +proceeded cautiously along the passage, and down-stairs. Poor Mrs +Nutt, as pale as death, and scarcely able to stand, was waiting for +us, with the servant girl. But it was with the greatest difficulty we +could get her to listen to any such proposition as opening the door; +she was much more inclined to side with Chesterton, who wanted to +present the gun at the fellow from the window, and fire if he made any +attempt either to effect an entrance, or to run away. + +At last, however, by the persuasion of the servant, who really was a +heroine in her way, we got her into the passage at the end of which +the door in question was situated; but as nothing could induce her to +speak to the fellow outside, beyond a very faint "Who's there?" the +girl took up the dialogue, and enquired the man's name. + +"Tom Smith; I've got a note for the missus, and something to say to +her besides. Let's in--there's a good wench; I've been a-knocking here +this half hour already." + +It had been agreed that I was to open the door, and shut and bolt it, +if possible, the instant the speaker had entered. Brown and Chesterton +stood just inside a small pantry, ready to secure their man as soon as +he was fairly inside, and the women were to make their escape out of +harm's way, as soon as their services as a decoy could be dispensed +with. + +It was a moment of breathless expectation while I withdrew the bolts. +Hardly had I done so, when the door flew violently open, and with a +silent but determined rush three men entered. I shut the door +instinctively, but it was evident that our plan was defeated, and we +had now only to fight it out. There was a scream from the women, whose +curiosity had not allowed them to retreat beyond the foot of the +staircase--a rush forward on the part of Brown and Chesterton--an oath +or two from the intruders at finding themselves so unexpectedly +confronted--and then, for a moment or two, an ominous pause on both +sides. It was broken by Chesterton, who clubbed his gun, and brought +the first man to the ground. Nearly at the same time I grappled with +the last who had entered, whilst a heavy crow-bar, in the hands of the +third, after describing an arc within an inch or two of my own head, +descended with a horrible dull sound (I hear it now) upon that of poor +Chesterton, who fell heavily, whilst in the act of springing forwards, +across his prostrate antagonist. Again the murderous weapon was +uplifted--I vainly endeavoured to fling my opponent and myself against +the striker--I heard a scream, and saw the poor servant girl rush +forward with a sort of desperate instinct, armed with no other weapon +than the candlestick--when a report, that sounded like a volley, shook +the whole passage--a bright flash threw out the whole scene vividly +for a moment--the robber with his back to me with his weapon poised, +and the blackened face of the other glaring savagely into my own--then +followed total darkness--the ringing of the iron-bar upon the +bricks--a stifled groan--and then a silence more horrible than all. + +"Get a light!" said Brown at last; "get a light for heaven's sake, Mrs +Nutt, or somebody. Hawthorne, are you hurt?" + +"No, no," said I; "it was you that fired, John?" + +"Yes," said he; "we can do nothing now till we have a light." + +The whole affair, from the unbolting the door to the firing the shot, +had not occupied nearly a minute; nor was it much longer before the +trembling women succeeded in relighting the candle from the embers of +the kitchen hearth; but they were moments into which one crowded +almost years of thought; and I remember now with astonishment how +every miserable consequence of poor Chesterton's probably fate came +vividly and irresistibly before my imagination during those few +hurried breathings of suspense--how his father could be told of +it--how desolate would be now the home of which he was the hope and +idol, (I knew his family)--how the college would mourn for him; nay, +even such wretched particulars as how we were to move him to +Oxford--whether he would be buried there--whether he would have a +monument in the chapel--and a thousand such trivial fancies, were +running through my mind with a distressing minuteness which those only +who have known such moments can understand. + +At last the light came. In my eagerness to ascertain the state of poor +Chesterton, I quite forgot the villain with whom I had been +struggling. We had mutually relaxed our hold upon hearing the shot; +and he now took the opportunity of our whole attention being directed +elsewhere, to open the door and effect his escape. We had too much of +other business in our hands to think of following him. + +The second man lay close to my feet. I stepped over him, and raised +Chesterton's head upon my arm; the eyes were half open, but I could +detect no sign of life. I told Brown I feared it was all over. + +"I know it is," said he; "he is shot through the heart. I aimed there. +But what could I do?" + +I turned round, and it was with somewhat of an angry feeling that I +saw Brown examining the breast of the man who had last fallen, utterly +indifferent, as it seemed, to the dreadful fate of our poor friend. + +"For heaven's sake," said I, "let that villain alone, and help me to +move poor Harry: I believe he is gone." + +"Ay, poor Harry!" said Brown somewhat vacantly: "I wish that blow had +fallen on me! And was that shot too late after all? Your gun hung +fire, Hawthorne--it did indeed. Poor Harry!" + +I was so absorbed in anxiety for Chesterton that Brown's strange +manner made no great impression on me at the time. The first man, who +had been merely stunned by the blow from the but-end of the gun, was +now beginning to revive, and I begged Brown to get something to secure +him with. + +"I don't think, sir," said Mrs Nutt who had recovered her terror +sufficiently to offer her assistance, and whose coarse red hands, +having removed Chesterton's neck-kerchief, and loosened his +shirt-collar, now showed in strong contrast with his fair skin, but +had nevertheless all a woman's sensibility about them--"I don't think +but what the poor young gentleman has life in him--I am sure I can +feel his heart beat." + +"Oh yes, oh yes, Mrs Nutt--he cannot be dead--send for a surgeon! +Hawthorne, why don't you send for a surgeon?" + +"There's none nigher than Oxford," said Mrs Nutt. + +"I'll go for un," said the girl. "I ben't afear'd;" and she turned +pale and shook like a leaf; but the spirit was willing, and she +persisted she was ready to go. However it turned out that there was a +labourer's cottage about a quarter of a mile off, and she was finally +dispatched there for assistance. + +Few people know the ready humanity which exists among the lower +orders: the man must have run all the way to Oxford, for he returned +in little more than half an hour, before the surgeon could dress and +mount his horse. + +However, Chesterton was evidently still living; and when the surgeon +did arrive he gave some hopes of his recovery. The weight of the blow +had been in some degree broken by the gun which poor Harry had raised +in his hand, and this only could have saved the skull from fracture. + +Of course we had soon plenty of volunteers who were ready to be useful +in any way; and when at last the police had made their appearance, and +removed both the living and the dead, and Chesterton had been laid in +Brown's room, and the surgeon, having applied the usual remedies, had +composedly accepted Mrs Nutt's offer to make up a bed for him, and +betaken himself thereto, as if such events were to him matters of +everyday occurrence--I suppose they were--it struck me, for the first +time, that there was a remarkable contrast between Brown's hurried +manner and disturbed countenance now, compared with his perfect +coolness and self-possession while the danger seemed most imminent, +which even Chesterton's dangerous state did not sufficiently account +for. + +"How lucky it was, Brown," said I, "my gun had a load of duck-shot in +it! Don't you remember I was going to have fired it off? And that you +should have laid your hand upon it in the kitchen! I looked for it as +we came by, but could not see it." + +"I'll tell you what, Hawthorne: I almost wish I had not seen it: I +should not have had a man's life to answer for." + +"Why, Brown," said I with some surprise, "surely you can have no +scruple about that poor wretch's death? Why, he has all but murdered +poor Harry--if, indeed, he ever gets over it." + +"Very true, very true," replied Brown, looking at the bed where +Chesterton was lying in utter unconsciousness; "he seems to sleep very +quietly now. I don't think he knew any one just now when he opened his +eyes: did you see the blow, Hawthorne?" + +"Yes," said I; "the lock of the gun is broken, and I fancy that saved +him; but he would have had little chance from a second: that shot came +just in time." + +"I covered the man from the moment he first raised the bar: your head +was in a line with him, or I should have fired sooner. I hardly +thought you would have escaped some part of the charge as it was. +Well, if poor Harry lives, perhaps it is well as it is, if not"-- + +"You have but spared the hangman some trouble," said I. "Come, man, +don't give way to this morbid feeling. I don't say but what it does +you credit, Brown, to regret the necessity for taking a man's life, +even to save your friend's; but, depend upon it, your conduct to-night +is justifiable before a far higher inquest than the coroner's. Do you +think if I had been in your place I should have hesitated one instant? +No! nor have been half as scrupulous afterwards, I fear." + +"You have not blood upon your hand," said Brown gloomily. "And +remember, if we had taken poor Chesterton's advice, and frightened +them off at first, all this might have been spared; it was my folly in +determining to take upon myself the office of thief-taker--cursed +folly it was!" + +The impression which the events of the last hour had left upon my own +mind was any thing but a pleasant one; but I was obliged to assume an +indifference which I did not feel, and use a lighter tone than I +should willingly have done in speaking of the death of a +fellow-creature, however unavoidable, in order to keep up Brown's +spirits, and prevent him from dwelling upon his share in the +catastrophe with that morbid degree of sensitiveness, of the effects +of which I began to be really apprehensive. He wanted me to lie down +and try to sleep, saying that he would watch with Chesterton; but this +I was in no mood to agree to, even had I not been unwilling to leave +him to his present reflections; so we drew a small table close to the +fire in the sitting-room, leaving the door open that we might hear any +movement of the patient, and waited for daybreak with feelings to +which perhaps we had been too little accustomed. They were doubtless +wholesome for us in after life; but at the time those hours of +watching were painful indeed. It was a night which, then and since, I +wished could be blotted from my page of life, and be as if it had +never been. I have grown older and sadder, if not wiser, since, and +feel now that there are recollections in which I then took delight +which I could far more safely part with. + +The danger in Chesterton's case, though at one time imminent, was soon +over; and a few days' quiet at the farm enabled him to be removed to +college. Reading was, of course, forbidden him for some time; and +before term began, he had left Oxford with his father, to keep +perfectly quiet for a few months in the country. The gratitude which +he and all his family expressed to Brown as having been undoubtedly +the means of saving his life, was naturally unbounded; and it did more +than all else to reconcile him to the idea which haunted him, as he +declared, day and night, of having that man's blood upon his head. I +knew that Chesterton had warmly pressed him to come home with him; but +as his name was down for the approaching examination, for which he was +quite sufficiently prepared, it was not without astonishment that I +heard him one morning, just before Chesterton's departure, announce +his intention of going down with him and his father. + +"I think," said he, "the constant sight of poor Harry will do me good +just now; I am not given to romancing, Hawthorne, as you know; but +waking or sleeping, when I am by myself, I see that man standing with +the crow-bar uplifted just as he was when I shot him; and I think, if +I can but manage to get Harry Chesterton's figure between him and me, +as it was that night, and feel that pulling the trigger perhaps saved +his life, why then the picture will be something less horrible that it +is now." + +"Well," said I, "John, I think you do right; but I can tell you this, +that the same sort of _tableau_ is very often before my eyes; and the +horror that I feel is what I did then--seeing Chesterton's brains +knocked out, as I thought, and struggling in vain to get near him; +sooner than feel that again in reality--the thought of it is bad +enough--I'd shoot that villain ten times running, if I only had the +chance." + +"You never _had_ the chance, Hawthorne; pray God you never _may_." + +Such was nearly my last interview, for some years, with my friend John +Brown; for I had taken my degree and left college before he came up +again to pass his examination. He was subpoenaed, with myself, as a +witness on the trial of the man whom we had secured, which took place +at the next assizes; but I was informed by the prisoner's attorney of +his intention to plead guilty, the case against him being such a +strong one; Brown was thus enabled without much risk to remain in the +country with Chesterton, and we were both spared being placed in the +painful position of important witnesses in a trial of life and death. + +The man's confession was full, and apparently honest; and it was a +satisfaction to find that the wretch who had fallen was a man of +well-known desperate character, and probably, as the prisoner +asserted, the concocter of the whole business: while all were +murderers in intention. Had they succeeded in effecting their object +by plundering the house, Farmer Nutt, whose habits of staying somewhat +late from home on fair nights were well known to all the +neighbourhood, was to have been waylaid on the towing-path which led +to his house, and as, although a quiet man, there was a good deal of +resolute spirit about him, and he would have had a heavy purse with +him, the proceeds of stock sold at the fair, with which he would not +easily have parted, there was no question but that he would have found +a grave in the canal. Of Brown's lodging in the house the party were +well aware; but they had laid their plans so warily for effecting an +entrance without noise, and easily overpowering the women, that they +hoped either altogether to avoid disturbing his quarter of the house, +or making it evident to him that resistance was useless. Of course, +our appearance was wholly unexpected; they had watched for some time, +but we had been so quiet for the last hour (being in truth more than +half asleep) that they had no suspicion of there being any one +stirring in Brown's rooms. + +I saw the unfortunate prisoner several times, and found him open and +communicative on every subject but one. Any information with regard to +his accomplice who had escaped, he always steadily refused; nor did a +single unguarded word ever drop from him in conversation with any one +by which the slightest clue could be obtained as to his identity. Even +the police inspector, the most plausible and unscrupulous of his +class, a perfect Machiavel among the Peelers, who could make a +prisoner believe he was his only friend while he was doing his best to +put the halter round his neck, even his practised policy was +unsuccessful here. There was little doubt, however, that it was some +person familiar with the premises, from the circumstance that poor +Boxer, whose silence on the night of the attack we had all been +surprised at, and who was not of a mood to be easily inveigled by +strangers, even with the usual attractions of poisoned meat, &c., had +disappeared, and was never heard of from that time forth. Suspicion of +course fell upon several; but the matter remains to this day, I +believe, a mystery. The prisoner, as I have said, pleaded guilty, and +received sentence of death; under the circumstances of the crime, and +its nearly fatal result, no other could be expected; nor did the judge +who tried him hold out the slightest hope of mercy. But his full +confession, with regard to himself and the man who had fallen, with +honourable silence as to their more fortunate companion, his youth, +(he was but a year older than myself,) and his whole bearing since his +imprisonment, had impressed myself and others deeply in his favour; a +memorial of the case was drawn up representing that justice might well +be satisfied with the violent death of one criminal already, and after +being signed by all parties of any influence in the neighbourhood, was +forwarded for presentation to the crown. But the judge declared that +he could not, consistently with his duty, back our application, and, +to our extreme disappointment, an answer was returned that the law in +this case must take its course. A private and personal interest was at +work, however, which for once proved more powerful than judges or home +secretaries. Brown had signed our memorial of course; but, dreading an +unfavourable reply, had forwarded through other channels a short but +strong remonstrance directly to the Queen. He spoke touchingly of his +own distressed state of mind at having so young in life been compelled +in defence of his friend to take the life of a fellow-creature, and +prayed her Majesty "to restore, as she only could, his peace of mind, +by giving him a life in exchange for that which he had taken away." A +letter accompanied a reprieve by return of post, addressed to John +Brown, which he preserves with a care almost superstitious; it +contains a few short lines, dictated by a royal spirit and a woman's +heart, and signed "VICTORIA." Victoria! mercy and humanity, the +victory was indeed yours! + +Of John Brown I have little to add. Like others with whom I was at one +time so long and intimately allied, I have seen nothing of him now for +years. The Dean was relieved as if from an incubus when he left +college, though I believe there was a cessation of all open hostility +after his return from Chesterton's. At least the only authenticated +mention of any allusion to old grievances on my friend's part is, that +when he paid Mr Hodgett the usual fees which fall to the Dean's share, +upon taking his B.A., he asked him "whether he allowed discount for +ready money?" + + HAWTHORNE. + + + + +NELSON'S DESPATCHES AND LETTERS.[15] + + +The common idea of a sailor--whether with a commodore's broad pendant, +a lieutenant's wooden leg, or a foremast-man's pigtail--was, at one +time, a wild, thoughtless, rollicking man, with very broad shoulders +and a very red face, who talked incessantly about shivering his +timbers, and thought no more of eating a score or two of Frenchmen +than if they had been sprats. Such was the effect of the veracious +chronicles of our countryman Tobias, and the lifelike descriptions of +old Trunnion, and Tom Bowling, and the rest. The jack-tar, as +represented by him--with the addition, perhaps, of a few softening +features, but still the man of blood and 'ounds, breathing fire and +smoke, and with a constant inclination to luff helms and steer a point +or two to windward--has retained possession of the stage to the +present time; and Mr T. P. Cooke still shuffles, and rolls, and +dances, and fights--the beau-ideal and impersonation of the instrument +with which Britannia rules the waves. And that the canvass waves of +the Surrey are admirably ruled by such instruments, we have no +intention of disputing; nor would it be possible to place visibly +before the public the peculiar qualifications that constitute a +first-rate sailor, any more than those which form a first-rate lawyer. +The freaks of a young templar have as much to do with the triumphs of +Lord Eldon, as the dash and vivacity of any fictitious middy have to +do with the First of June. Sailors are made of sterner stuff; and of +all classes of men, have their highest faculties called earliest into +use, and kept most constantly in exercise. Let no man, therefore, +think of the navy as a last resource for the stupidest of his sons. He +will chew salt-junk, and walk with an easy negligence acquired from a +course of practice in the Bay of Biscay; and in due time arrive at his +double epaulettes, and be a blockhead to the end of the chapter. But +all this stupidity, we humbly conceive, might have found as fitting an +arena in Westminster Hall, or even in Westminster Abbey--with +reverence be it spoken--as on the quarter-deck of a man-of-war; for we +maintain it is of less consequence for a man to be a great pleader or +an eloquent divine, (where the utmost extent of evil resulting from +the absence of eloquence and acuteness is a law-suit lost or a +congregation lulled to sleep,) than that he should be active, +energetic, skilful, in one of the "leviathans afloat on the brine." +Science, zeal, courage, and self-reliance, are very pretty qualities +to find in the fool of the family--and without these, no man can ever +be a sailor. But what opportunity is there in the navy for the display +of the wonderful abilities of the fool of the family's antipode, the +genius? Nothing will do for the surpassing brightness of some Highland +star but law or politics; so Donald has Latin and Greek shovelled into +him out of the dignified hat of some prebendary or bishop, goes to +Oxford, talks on all manner of subjects as if his tongue had +discovered the perpetual motion, goes to the bar, where the said +motion is the only one he is called upon to make, forces himself into +high society, wriggles his way into Parliament--the true Trophonius's +cave of aspiring orators--and becomes a silent Demosthenes, as he has +long been a lawless Coke; an ends at last in a paroxysm of wonder that +his creditors are hard-hearted and his country ungrateful, so that, +instead of being promoted to a seat at the Admiralty, he is removed to +one in the Fleet--which brings him very nearly to the same position he +would have been placed in, if a true estimate had been formed of his +powers at first. Oh fathers! if Tom is a donkey, keep him at home or +make him an attorney--it is amazing how a few years in "the office" +will brighten him--but don't trust the lives of men, and the honour of +the flag, to any but the best and wisest of your sons. Such a school +for moral training has never been devised as one of the floating +colleges that carry guns. The youngest midshipman acquires habits of +command, the oldest captain practises the ennobling virtue of +obedience; and these, we take it, form the alpha and omega of man's +useful existence. Power gives self-respect, responsibility gives +caution, and subjection gives humility. With all these united, as they +are in every rank in the service, the character has little room left +for improvement; tenderness and generosity, in addition, make a man a +Collingwood or Pellew--genius and heroism make him a Nelson. + +But not through flowery paths do genius and heroism tread on their +path to fame. What a length of weary way, with what antres vast and +deserts idle, and pathless wildernesses bestrown, lay between the +Raisonable of 1770 and the Victory of 1805! and yet through them all, +the traveller's eye was unalterably fixed on the great light that his +soul saw filling the whole sky with its radiance, and which he knew +the whole time was reflected from the Baltic, and the Nile, and +Trafalgar. The letters of Nelson just given to the public by the +industry of Sir Harris Nicolas, will hereafter be the manual of the +sailor, as the sister service has found a guide in the _Despatches of +the Duke of Wellington_. All that was to be expected from the +well-known talent of the editor, united to an enthusiasm for his hero, +which has carried him triumphantly through the extraordinary labour of +investigating and ascertaining every fact in the slightest degree +bearing upon his subject, is to be found in this volume, in which, +from the beginning to the end, by a continued series of letters, +Nelson is made his own historian; and we sincerely believe, divesting +ourselves as far as possible of all prejudice and partiality, that no +character ever came purer from the ordeal of unreserved +communication--where not a thought is concealed or an expression +studied--than the true friend, the good son, the affectionate brother, +Horatio Nelson. The correspondence in this volume only extends from +1777 to 1794, and no blot has yet occurred to mar the brightness of a +character where there is so much to like, that the reader finds it +difficult to dwell on the heroic parts of it which he is only called +upon to admire. When the volume ends, he is only thirty-six years old, +and is captain of the Agamemnon; but his path is clearly traced +out--his name is in men's mouths and his character established. And, +looking over the whole correspondence, nothing, perhaps, is so +striking as the early development of his peculiar qualities, and the +firm unswerving line he struck into from the beginning and continued +in to the last. A self-reliance, amounting in weaker and less +equally-balanced natures to doggedness and conceit--a clear perception +of the circumstances of a case almost resembling intuition--a +patriotism verging on the romantic, and a sense of duty never for a +moment yielding to the "whips and scorns that patient merit of the +unworthy takes," are displayed in every incident of his life, from the +time that he left the quiet parsonage-house at Burnham Thorpe, till he +finished his glorious career. + +At twelve years of age, he joined his uncle in the Raisonable +sixty-four, and served in her as midshipman for five months; and few +people would have been able to discover the future hero in the feeble +boy he must have been at that time. Still less, perhaps, would they +have expected the future Bronte, a few months later, in the person of +a little fellow, no longer a midshipman in the Royal Navy, but a +working "youngster" on board a West India ship, as he informs us in +his "Sketch of my Life," belonging to the house of Hibbert, Purrier, +and Horton, from which he returned to the Triumph at Chatham, a good +practical seaman, but with a horror of the Royal Navy, and a firm +belief in a saying then constant with the seamen, "Aft the most +honour, forward the better man." The next situation we find him in, +will probably shock the delicate feelings of tender mammas, who expect +their sons to be admirals without any apprenticeship; for he is rated +on the books of the Triumph as "_captain's servant_" for one year, two +months, and two days. We may in some measure relieve their minds, by +assuring them, that he did not wear livery, and was never called upon +to brush the captain's coat. But the horrid man submitted even to +lower degradation, in order to get experience in his profession, which +our Reginald Augustus could never have thought of; for he tells us, +that "when the expedition towards the North Pole was fitted out, +although no boys were allowed to go in the ships--as of no use--yet +nothing could prevent my using every interest to go with Captain +Lutwidge in the Carcass, and as I fancied I was to fill a man's place. +I begged I might be his cockswain; which, finding my ardent desire for +going with him, Captain Lutwidge complied with." + +And Cockswain Nelson "exerted himself, (when the boats were fitted out +to quit the two ships blocked up in the ice,) to have the command of a +four-oared cutter raised upon, which was given him, with twelve men; +and he prided himself in fancying he could navigate her better than +any other boat in the ship." + +And we will back the cockswain to any amount, though he was then only +fifteen, and probably did not weigh more than five stone. + +But the vulgarity of the fellow will be the death of us, and our Laura +Matilda will never listen without disgust to the "Death of Nelson" +again; for he tells us, that on the return of the Polar expedition, he +was placed in the Racehorse of twenty guns, with Captain Farmer, and +watched in the foretop!!! And it is probable, during all these +mutations, that he very seldom tasted venison, and drank very little +champagne. But even in the absence of those usual luxuries of the +cockpit, he made himself a thorough seaman; and when serving in the +Worcester sixty-four, with Captain Mark Robinson, he says, with +characteristic, because fully justified pride, "although my age might +have been a sufficient cause for not entrusting me with the charge of +a watch, yet Captain Robinson used to says, he felt as easy when I was +upon deck as any officer in the ship." + +And this brings us to 1777, the date of his commission, and the +commencement of his correspondence. After the simple statement of his +course of life, we shall hardly be called upon to observe, that Nelson +was no great scholar, as we perceive that his school education was +finished when he was twelve years old. And we owe hearty thanks to Sir +Harris Nicolas for having restored the letters to their original +language, uncicerorian as it may be; for he informs us, that some of +those which had been formerly published in the different biographies +of the hero, were so improved and beautified that it was difficult to +recognise them. By proper clipping and pruning, altering some +sentences and exchanging others, an ingenious editor might +transmogriphy these simple epistles into the philippics of Junius; and +therefore we derive complete satisfaction from the conviction, that, +in this compilation, every sentence is exactly as it was written. With +one other observation, (which we make for the sake of the Laura +Matildas who are horrified at the "cockswain,") we shall proceed to +give such extracts from the letters as we consider the most +characteristic; and "that 'ere observation," as was said by Mr Liston, +"is this here," that Nelson was of what is usually called a very good +family--being nearly connected with the Walpoles, Earls of Orford, and +the Turners of Warham, in Norfolk. But for further information on this +point, we refer them to an abstract of the pedigree prefixed to the +letters. In the year 1777, and several following years, Nelson's +principal correspondents were his brother, the Rev. William Nelson, +who succeeded as second Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Hilborough, +and was created Earl Nelson--Captain William Locker, then in command +of the Lowestoffe, of whom very interesting memoirs have been +published by his son Edward Hawke Locker, Esq., late a commissioner of +Greenwich Hospital--the Rev. Edmund Nelson (his father)--besides the +secretary to the Admiralty, and the official personages to whom his +despatches were addressed. + +To show the affectionate nature of the man, we shall quote his first +letter to Captain Locker, who was one of his dearest friends. The +address of the letter is wanting, but it would appear to have been +written during Captain Locker's temporary absence from his ship, in +consequence of ill health:-- + + "Lowestoffe, at Sea, + _August 12, 1777_. + + "My most worthy Friend--I am exceedingly obliged to you for the + good opinion you entertain of me, and will do my utmost that you + may have no occasion to change it. I hope God Almighty will be + pleased to spare your life for your own sake and that of your + family; but should any thing happen to you (which I sincerely + pray God may not) you may be assured that nothing shall be + wanting on my part for the taking care of your effects, and + delivering safe to Mrs Locker such of them as may be thought + proper not to be disposed of. You mentioned the word consolation + in your letter--I shall have a very great one, when I think I + have served faithfully the best of friends, and the most amiable + of women. All the services I can render to your family, you may + be assured shall be done; and shall never end but with my life; + and may God Almighty, of his great goodness, keep, bless, and + preserve you and your family, is the most fervent prayer of your + faithful servant, + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +In 1781 he was appointed commander of the Albemarle, of twenty-eight +guns, and in the following year had a narrow escape from a strong +French force in Boston Bay. The sailing qualities of the Albemarle +beat the line-of-battle ships, and he immediately brought to for a +frigate that formed part of the chasing squadron, but his courtesy was +declined, and the frigate bore away. He dwells, in several of his +letters, on his good fortune in getting off; but, in the following one +to his father, he omits all mention of his challenge to the pursuer:-- + + "Albemarle, Isle of Bic, + River St Lawrence + _October 19, 1782_. + + "My dear Father--I wrote to Mr Suckling when I was at + Newfoundland, but I have not had an opportunity of writing to you + till this time. I expected to have sailed for England on the + first of November, but our destination is now altered, for we + sail with a fleet for New York to-morrow; and from there I think + it very likely we shall go to the _grand theatre_ of actions--the + West Indies; but, in our line of life, we are sure of no one + thing. When I reach New York you shall hear what becomes of me; + but, while I have health, it is indifferent to me (were it not + for the pleasure of seeing you and my brothers and sisters) where + I go. Health, that greatest of blessings, is what I never truly + enjoyed till I saw _fair_ Canada. The change it has wrought I am + convinced is truly wonderful. I most sincerely wish, my dear + father, I could compliment you the same way; but I hope Bath has + done you a great deal of good this summer. I have not had much + success in the prize way, but it is all in good time, and I do + not know I ought to complain; for, though I took several, but had + not the good fortune to get one safe into port, yet, on the other + side, I escaped from five French men-of-war in a wonderful + manner.... Farewell, my dearest father, and assure yourself I + always am, and ever shall be, your dutiful son, + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +In the following month he writes to his friend Locker--"I am a +candidate with Lord Hood for a line-of-battle ship; he has honoured me +highly by a letter, for wishing to go off this station to a station of +service, and has promised me his friendship. Prince William is with +him." And Sir Harris Nicolas adds in a note--"H. R. H. Prince William +Henry, third son of King George III, afterwards Duke of Clarence, +Admiral of the Fleet, (Lord High Admiral?) and King William IV." The +Prince honoured Nelson with his warmest friendship, and many letters +in this collection were addressed to his Royal Highness. + +The following description of Nelson by the prince is extremely +interesting:-- + + "I was then a midshipman on board the Barfleur, lying in the + Narrows off Staten Island, and had the watch on deck, when + Captain Nelson of the Albemarle came in his barge alongside, who + appeared to be the merest boy of a captain I ever beheld; and his + dress was worthy of attention. He had on a full laced uniform; + his lank unpowdered hair was tied in a stiff Hessian tail of an + extraordinary length, the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat + added to the general quaintness of his figure, and produced an + appearance which particularly attracted my notice, for I had + never seen any thing like it before, nor could I imagine who he + was or what he came about. My doubts were, however, removed when + Lord Hood introduced me to him. There was something irresistibly + pleasing in his address and conversation, and an enthusiasm, when + speaking on professional subjects, that showed he was no common + being. Nelson, after this, went with us to the West Indies, and + served under Lord Hood's flag during his indefatigable cruize off + Cape Francois. Throughout the whole of the American war the + height of Nelson's ambition was to command a line-of-battle ship; + as for prize-money, it never entered his thoughts; he had always + in view the character of his maternal uncle. I found him warmly + attached to my father, and singularly humane; he had the honour + of the king's service and the independence of the British navy + particularly at heart; and his mind glowed with this idea as much + when he was simply captain of the Albemarle, and had obtained + none of the honours of his country, as when he was afterwards + decorated with so much well-earned distinction." + + +Nelson's opinion of the prince, as a seaman, was scarcely less high; +and it says not a little, in favour of both parties, that their +friendship appears to have been founded on mutual respect. In July, +1783, the Albemarle was paid off; and Nelson having finished the war, +as he expresses it in a letter to his friend Mr Ross, without a +fortune, but without a speck on his character, remained nine months on +half-pay. But as he determined to make use of his spare time in +mastering the French--a feat which he afterwards accomplished without +a grammar--he resolved to go to France with his friend Captain James +Macnamara for that purpose. There are some very Nelsonian sentences in +his correspondence while in the land of the Mounseers. His contempt +for epaulettes--which were not introduced into the English navy till +1795--is very amusing; and he little thought, that in one of the +dandified officers he despised so much, he should find one of his most +distinguished comrades, the gallant Sir Alexander Ball:-- + + To William Locker, Esq. + "St Omer, _Nov. 2, 1783_. + + "My dear sir--Our travels, since we left you, have been extended + to a much greater length then I apprehended; but I must do + Captain Mac the justice to say it was all my doings, and in a + great measure against his advice; but experience bought is the + best; and all mine I have paid pretty dearly for. We dined at + Canterbury the day we parted from you, and called at Captain + Sandys' house, but he was just gone out to dinner in the country, + therefore we did not see him. We slept at Dover, and next morning + at seven o'clock put to sea with a fine north-west wind, and at + half-past ten we were safe at breakfast in Monsieur Grandsire's + house at Calais. His mother kept it when Hogarth wrote his _Gate + of Calais_. Sterne's _Sentimental Journey_ is the best + description I can give of our tour. Mac advised me to go first to + St Omer, as he had experienced the difficulty of attempting to + fix in any place where there are no English; after dinner we set + off, intended for Montreuil, sixty miles from Calais; they told + us we travelled _en poste_, but I am sure we did not get on more + than four miles an hour. I was highly diverted with looking what + a curious figure the postilions in their jack-boots, and their + rats of horses, made together. Their chaises have no springs, and + the roads generally paved like London streets; therefore you will + naturally suppose we were pretty well shook together by the time + we had travelled two posts and a half, which is fifteen miles, to + Marquise. Here we were shown into an inn--they called it, I + should have called it a pig-stye: we were shown into a room with + two straw beds, and with great difficulty they mustered up clean + sheets, and gave us two pigeons for supper, upon a dirty cloth, + and wooden-handled knives. _Oh, what a transition from happy + England!_ + + "But we laughed at the repast, and went to bed with the + determination that nothing should ruffle our tempers. Having + slept very well, we set off at daylight for Boulogne, where we + breakfasted. This place was full of English; I suppose because + wine is so very cheap. We went on after breakfast for Montreuil, + and passed through the finest corn country that my eyes ever + beheld, diversified with fine woods, sometimes for miles + together, through noble forests. The roads mostly were planted + with trees, which made as fine an avenue as to any gentleman's + country-seat. Montreuil is thirty miles from Boulogne, situated + upon a small hill, in the middle of a fine plain, which reached + as far as the eye could carry you, except towards the sea, which + is about twelve miles from it. We put up at the same house, and + with the same jolly landlord that recommended Le Fleur to Sterne. + Here we wished much to be fixed; but neither good lodgings or + masters could be had here--for there are no middling class of + people. Sixty noblemen's families lived in the town, who owned + the vast plain round it, and the rest very poor indeed. This is + the finest country for game that ever was; partridges + twopence-halfpenny a couple, pheasants and woodcocks in + proportion; and, in short, every species of poultry. We dined, + supped, lay, and breakfasted next day, Saturday; then we + proceeded on our tour, leaving Montreuil, you will suppose, with + great regret. + + "We reached Abbeville at eight o'clock; but, unluckily for us, + two Englishmen, one of whom called himself Lord Kingsland--I can + hardly suppose it to be him--and a Mr Bullock, decamped at three + o'clock that afternoon in debt to every shopkeeper in the place. + These gentlemen kept elegant houses, horses, &c. We found the + town in an uproar; and as no masters could be had at this place + that could speak a word of English, and that all masters that + could speak English grammatically attend at the places that are + frequented by the English, which is, St Omer, Lisle, Dunkirk, and + Boulogne, to the northward of Paris, and as I had no intention of + travelling to the south of France till the spring, at any rate, I + determined, with Mac's advice, to steer for St Omer, where we + arrived last Tuesday; and I own I was surprised to find, that + instead of a dirty, nasty town, which I had always heard it + represented, to find a large city, well paved, good streets, and + well lighted. + + "We lodge in a pleasant French family, and have our dinners sent + from a _traiteur's_. There are two very agreeable young ladies, + daughters, who _honour_ us with their company pretty often. One + always makes our breakfast, and the other our tea, and play a + game at cards in the evening. Therefore I must learn French, if + 'tis only for the pleasure of talking to them; for they do not + speak a word of English. Here are a great number of English in + this place; but we visit only two families; for, if I did, I + should never speak French. Two noble captains are here--Ball and + Shepard. You do not know, I believe, either of them. They wear + fine epaulettes, for which I think them great coxcombs. They have + not visited me; and I shall not, be assured, court their + acquaintance. You must be heartily tired of this long epistle, if + you can read it; but I have the worst pen in the world, and I + can't mend it. God bless you; and, be assured, I am your sincere + friend, and affectionate humble servant, + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +In another letter from St Omer, he returns to the charge against Dandy +Ball and Shepard:-- + + "Here are two navy captains, Ball and Shepard, at this place; but + we do not visit. They are very fine gentlemen, with epaulettes. + You may suppose, I hold them a little _cheap_ for putting on any + part of a Frenchman's uniform." + + +And in a short time after, he seems to have made up his mind on two +very important points--politics and the French people. + + To his brother William. + + "... As to your having enlisted under the banners of the + Walpoles, [Whigs,] you might as well have enlisted under those of + my grandmother. They are altogether the merest set of cyphers + that ever existed--in public affairs, I mean. Mr Pitt, depend + upon it, will stand against all opposition. An honest man must + always, in the end, get the better of a _villain_. But I have + done with politics. Let who will get in, I shall be left out." + + "In about a week or fortnight, I think of returning to the + Continent till autumn, when I shall bring a horse, and stay the + winter at Burnham. I return to many charming women; but _no + charming woman_ will return with me. I want to be a proficient in + the language, which is my only reason for returning. I hate their + country and their manners." + + +In March of this year, (1784,) he was appointed to the Boreas frigate +of twenty-eight guns; and had the honour (not very highly valued) of +carrying out Lady Hughes, the wife of the admiral on the Leeward +Island station, and a number of other people, who did not add much to +the efficiency of a man-of-war. It was on this station that he had +first an opportunity of showing the determination and fearlessness of +his character in maintaining what he thought the right--though ill +supported, as was to be expected, by the authorities at home--against +local interests, which any other man would not have ventured to +oppose. We are not about to enter into the history of Nelson's conduct +in defence of the Navigation Act, further than as the correspondence +on the subject brings out some of his peculiarities; and the result +shows, as usual, the policy of firmness, and the certainty of success +to those who are determined to obtain it. + +The Americans, after the recognition of their independence, were by no +means willing to surrender some of the advantages they had enjoyed +when colonists of Great Britain. Among these was an unrestricted trade +with the West Indies. In order to retain this advantage, they stuck at +nothing in the way of oaths and declarations; and, as the American +trade was of great consequence to the islanders, their false pretences +were in all cases supported by the merchants, and even the +custom-house authorities were persuaded to encourage the frauds. A +captain of the navy, twenty-six years of age, undertook to put an end +to these operations; and, in the course of a very short time, he found +himself in as hot water as any gentleman can require. + + To William Locker, Esq. + "Boreas, Baseterre Road, + _January 15, 1785_. + + "The longer I am upon this station the worse I like it. Our + commander has not that opinion of his own sense that he ought to + have. He is led by the advice of the islanders to admit the + Yankees to a trade--at least, to wink at it. He does not give + himself that weight that I think an English admiral ought to do. + I, for one, am determined not to suffer the Yankees to come where + my ship is; for I am sure, if once the Americans are admitted to + any kind of intercourse with these islands, the views of the + Loyalists in settling in Nova Scotia are entirely done away. They + will first become the carriers, and next have possession of our + islands, are we ever again embroiled in a French war. The + residents of these islands are Americans by connexion and by + interest, and are inimical to Great Britain. They are as great + rebels as ever were in America, had they the power to show it. + After what I have said, you will believe I am not very popular + with the people. They have never visited me, and I have not had a + foot in any house since I have been on the station, and all for + doing my duty by being _true to the interests of Great Britain_. + A petition from the President and Council has gone to the + Governor-general and admiral, to request the admission of + Americans. I have given my answer to the admiral upon the + subject--how he will like it I know not; but I am determined to + suppress the admission of foreigners all in my power. I have told + the Customs that I will complain if they admit any foreigner to + an entry. An American arrives--sprung a leak, a mast, and what + not--makes a protest--gets admittance--sells his cargo for ready + money--goes to Martinico--buys molasses--and so round and round. + But I hate them all. The Loyalist cannot do it, consequently must + sell a little dearer." + + +His narrative to the admiral on the same subject is as follows:-- + + "_January 11 or 12, 1785_. + + "Sir--I yesterday received your order of the 29th of December, + wherein you direct me, in execution of your first order, dated + the 12th of November, (which is, in fact, strictly requiring us + to put the Act of Navigation, upon which the wealth and safety of + Great Britain so much depends, in force,) to observe the + following directions, viz, to cause foreigners to anchor by his + Majesty's ship under my command, except in cases of immediate and + urgent distress, until her arrival and situation, in all + respects, shall be reported to his Majesty's governor, or his + representative, at any of the islands where I may fall in with + such foreign ships or vessels; and that if the governor, or his + representative, should give leave for admitting such vessels, + strictly charging me not to hinder them or interfere in their + subsequent proceedings. + + "I ever have been, as in duty bound, always ready to co-operate + with his Majesty's governors, or their representatives, in doing + whatever has been for the benefit of Great Britain. No governor + will, I am sure, do such an illegal act as to countenance the + admission of foreigners into the ports of their islands, nor + _dare_ any officer of his Majesty's Customs enter such + foreigners, without they are in such distress that necessity + obliges them to unlade their cargoes; and then only to sell such + a part of it as will pay the costs. In distress, no individual + shall exceed me in acts of generosity; and, in judging of their + distress, no person can know better than sea officers, of which I + shall inform the governors, &c., when they acquaint me for what + reason they have countenanced the admission of foreigners. + + "I beg leave to hope, that I may be properly understood, when I + venture to say, that, at a time when Great Britain is using every + endeavour to suppress illicit trade at home, it is not wished + that the ships on this station should be singular, by being the + only spectators of the illegal trade, which I know is carried on + at these islands. The governors may be imposed on by false + declarations; we, who are on the spot, cannot. General Shirley + told me and Captain Collingwood how much he approved of the + methods that were carrying on for suppressing the illegal trade + with America; that it had ever been his wish, and that he had + used every means in his power, by proclamation and otherwise, to + hinder it; but they came to him with protests, and swore through + every thing, (even, as the sea-phrase is, through a nine-inch + plank;) therefore got admittance, as he could not examine the + vessels himself; and, further, by the Thynne packet, he had + received a letter from Lord Sydney, one of his Majesty's + principal secretaries of state, saying that Administration were + determined that American ships and vessels should not have any + intercourse with our West India islands; and that he had, upon an + address from the Assembly, petitioning that he would relax the + king's proclamation for the exclusion of Americans, transmitted + it to Lord Sydney to be laid before the king. The answer to + General Shirley was, that his Majesty firmly believed and hoped + that all his orders which were received by his governors would be + strictly obeyed. + + "Whilst I have the honour to command an English man-of-war, I + never shall allow myself to be subservient to the will of any + governor, nor co-operate with him in doing _illegal acts_. + Presidents of council I feel myself superior to. They shall make + proper application to me for whatever they may want to come by + water. + + "If I rightly understand your order of the 29th of December, it + is founded upon an opinion of the king's attorney-general, viz. + 'That it is legal for governors or their representatives to admit + foreigners into the ports of their governments, if they think + fit.' How the king's attorney-general conceives he has a right to + give an illegal opinion, which I assert the above is, he must + answer for. I know the navigation laws. I am, Sir, &c. + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +But the troubles of the unfortunate Horatio were not over; for just at +this time arose another vexed and vexatious question, as to whether a +senior officer on half-pay--though holding a commissionership of the +navy--could be empowered by the admiral on the station to hoist a +broad pendant; and after a spirited correspondence, the point was +decided, though apparently in a very shilly-shally shabby way, in +Nelson's favour--for it is accompanied with a reprimand--the Admiralty +informing him, that he ought to have submitted his doubts to the +commander-in-chief on the station, instead of having taken on himself +"to control the exercise of the functions of his appointment"--whatever +that may mean. + +Too much activity, even in a good cause, is apt to excite the enmity +of the idle drones who have got on without any activity at all, and +for some years the zeal of Nelson got him into disfavour with his +superiors in the service. And yet his whole conduct was regulated by +the strictest sense of duty, and his letters--even those in which he +shows most independence--never give the slightest occasion to suspect +that his actions arose from self-will and disobedience. On this point +he is very explicit. + +He writes to the admiral--"This, sir, I hope you will transmit to my +lords commissioners, that they nor any other of my superior officers +may have the smallest idea that I shall ever dispute the orders of my +superiors." + +And to the Admiralty, on the same occasion--"I must beg their +lordships' indulgence to hear reasons for my conduct, that it may +never go abroad into the world I ever had an idea to dispute the +orders of my superior officer, neither admiral, commodore, or +captain." + +The plot in the mean time thickens, and his anger increases against +the audacious swindling of the Yankees, aided by the islanders; and in +his own defence he goes, according to his custom, to the +fountain-head, and lays his complaint before the secretary of state. +"My name," he says, "most probably is unknown to your lordship," (Lord +Sydney,) "but my character as a man, I trust, will bear the strictest +investigation; therefore I take the liberty of sending enclosed a +letter, though written some few years ago, which I hope will impress +your lordship with a favourable opinion of me. I stand for myself, no +great connexion to support me if inclined to fall; therefore my good +name, as a man, an officer, and an Englishman, I must be very careful +of. My greatest pride is to discharge my duty faithfully; my greatest +ambition to receive approbation for my conduct." + +The chicaneries of the law were brought to bear on the captain of the +Boreas, and by means of a writ for his arrest, (on the trumped-up plea +of detention and imprisonment of some fraudulent Americans--true +ancestors of the repudiators of the present day,) he was forced to +remain on board ship for several months, but was at last released from +durance by the tardy undertaking given by government to be answerable +for his defence. + +The lukewarmness of his superiors, and the villanies of law, were not +enough to fill up his time, and, in the very midst of these agitating +matters, he adds a third: he met Mrs Nisbet, and fell in love. His +letters, however, are not entirely composed of sighs and lightning; +and it gives a high idea of the lady's sense to perceive the calm, yet +real, affection she inspired. We shall only quote one of his letters +to his lady-love, to show the style of them all, and also to show his +feelings towards Prince William Henry, (King William IV.,) who was at +this time under his command as captain of the Pegasus. + + "Off Antigua, _December 12, 1786_. + + "Our young prince is a gallant man; he is indeed volatile, but + always with great good-nature. There were two balls during his + stay, and some of the old ladies were mortified that H. R. H. + would not dance with them; but he says he is determined to enjoy + the privilege of all other men, that of asking any lady he + pleases. + + "_Wednesday._--We arrived here this morning at daylight. His + Royal Highness dined with me, and, of course, the governor. I can + tell you a piece of news, which is, that the prince is fully + determined, and has made me promise him, that he shall be at our + wedding; and he says he will give you to me. His Royal Highness + has not yet been in a private house to visit, and is determined + never to do it except in this instance. You know I will ever + strive to bear such a character as may render it no discredit to + any man to take notice of me. There is no action in my whole life + but what is honourable; and I am the more happy at this time on + that account; for I would, if possible, or in my power, have no + man near the prince who can have the smallest impeachment as to + character; for as an individual, I love him, as a prince, I + honour and revere him. My telling you this history is as to + myself; my thoughts on all subjects are open to you. We shall + certainly go to Barbadoes from this island, and when I shall see + you is not possible for me to guess, so much for marrying a + sailor. We are often separated, but I trust our affections are + not by any means on that account diminished. Our country has the + first demand for our services; and private convenience or + happiness must ever give way to the public good. Give my love to + Josiah. Heaven bless and return you safe to your most + affectionate + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +The attachment here professed for the prince seems to have been caused +not less by the loyalty of Nelson's nature than by the real good +qualities of the sailor king. It is probable he tried to form himself +(professionally) on the model of his young commodore, and a better +original it was impossible for him to study. A certain young +lieutenant, of the name of Schomberg, conceiving that he was +injuriously treated in an order of the day, issued by his Royal +Highness on board the Pegasus, applied to Nelson for a court-martial +to enquire into the charge alleged against him. Nelson granted the +court-martial, and placed the complainant in arrest till a sufficient +number could be collected for his trial, and expressed his opinion of +such frivolous applications in the following general order:-- + + "By Horatio Nelson, Esquire, Captain of his Majesty's ship Boreas. + + "For the better maintaining discipline and good government in the + king's squadron under my command. + + "I think it necessary to inform the officers, that if any one of + them shall presume to write to the commander of the squadron + (unless there shall be ships enough present to bring them to + immediate trial) for a court-martial to investigate their + conduct, on a frivolous pretence, thereby depriving his majesty + of their services by obliging the commander of the squadron to + confine them, that I shall and do consider such conduct as a + direct breach of the 14th and part of the 19th articles of war, + and shall order them to be tried for the same. + + "Given under my hand, &c. + "Horatio Nelson." + + +This probably had the desired effect, and the business was afterwards +adjusted without having recourse to a court-martial, though not +without bringing upon Nelson a rap over the knuckles on his return to +England. In order to obtain the proper court, he had directed the +prince to take his ship to the Jamaica station on his way to Halifax +in Nova Scotia, and the following paragraph contains their lordships' +decision:-- + + "My lords are not satisfied with the reasons you have given for + altering the destination of the Pegasus, and for sending the + Rattler sloop to Jamaica; and that, for having taken upon you to + send the latter away from the station to which their lordships + had appointed her, you will be answerable for the consequence, if + the crown should be put to any needless expense upon that + account." + + +We must close this account of the frivolous court-martial with an +admirable letter from Nelson to the prince. + + "Portsmouth _27th July, 1787_. + + "If to be truly great is to be truly good, (as we are taught to + believe,) it never was stronger verified than in your Royal + Highness in the instance of Mr Schomberg. You have supported your + character, yet, at the same time, by an amiable condescension, + have saved an officer from appearing before a court-martial, + which ever must hurt him. Resentment, I know, your Royal highness + never had, or, I am sure, ever will bear any one. It is a passion + incompatible with the character of a man of honour. Schomberg was + too hasty, certainly, in writing his letter, but now you are + parted, pardon me, my prince, when I presume to recommend that + Schomberg may stand in your royal favour as if he had never + sailed with you; and that, at some future day, you will serve + him. There only wants this to place your character in the highest + point of view. None of us are without failings. Schomberg's was + being rather too hasty; but that, put in competition with his + being a good officer, will not, I am bold to say, be taken in the + scale against him." + + +There is one characteristic circumstance in this collection, namely, +the number of letters written by Nelson in recommendation of all who +have behaved well under his command. He was desirous of acting to +others as, he boasts in one of his letters with pride and exultation, +he had been treated by Lord Howe. "You ask, by what interest did I get +a ship? I answer, having served with credit, was my recommendation to +Lord Howe, first lord of the admiralty." + +The following is an application on behalf of a certain boatswain +called Joseph King, which we quote on account of the extraordinary +politeness,--owing, perhaps, to his study at St Omer--with which +Nelson designates his _protege_. + + To Philip Stephens, Esq., Admiralty. + + "Boreas, _21st Sept. 1787_. + + "On the 20th, Charles Green, late acting boatswain, was entered + as boatswain of his majesty's ship under my command, agreeable to + a warrant dated at the Navy Pay-office, the 13th instant. I am, + therefore, requested by Joseph King, to write to their lordships, + to request they will be pleased to appoint him to some other + ship, as he hopes he has done nothing deserving of being + superseded; and I beg leave to recommend him as a most excellent + _gentleman_.--I am, &c. + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +Whether this application was successful or not, even the industry of +the editor has not discovered, but we fear that, at this point of his +history, Nelson's recommendation was of no great weight with the +Admiralty. His biographers, indeed, Clarke and M'Arthur, say, that at +this time the treatment he received disgusted him with his +profession, and that he had even determined never to set his foot +again on board a king's ship, but resign his commission at once. But +Sir Harris Nicolas very justly is sceptical as to the truth of this +anecdote, from the fact, that there is no allusion to any intention of +the kind in his correspondence. And from what we see of his +disposition in all his letters, we feel assured that a thought of +leaving the navy never entered his mind, and that he would have +considered the withdrawal of his services as little short of treason. +But there occurred now a long interval of idleness, or at least of +life ashore. The Boreas was paid off in December 1787, and he was only +appointed to the Agamemnon in January 1793. + +The four years of peace passed happily away, principally at Burnham +with his father; and there is little to quote till we find him on his +own element again. He writes to Hercules Ross, a West India merchant, +with whom he had formed a steady friendship while on that station; and +we adduce the passage as a further corroboration of Sir Harris +Nicolas's doubts about the authenticity of Clarke and M'Arthur's +anecdote. + + "You have given up all the toils and anxieties of business, + whilst I must still buffet the waves--in search of what? That + thing called honour, is now, alas, thought of no more. My + integrity cannot be mended, I hope; but my fortune, God knows, + has grown worse for the service. So much for serving my country. + But the devil, ever willing to tempt the virtuous, (pardon this + flattery of myself,) has made me offer, if any ships should be + sent to destroy his majesty of Morocco's ports, to be there; and + I have some reason to think that, should any more come of it, my + humble services will be accepted. I have invariably laid down, + and followed close, a plan of what ought to be uppermost in the + breast of an officer; that it is much better to serve an + ungrateful country, than to give up his own fame. Posterity will + do him justice; a uniform conduct of honour and integrity seldom + fails of bringing a man to the goal of fame at last." + + +But in spite of the coolness of the jacks-in-office, and the cold +shoulder they turned to the little troublesome captain in the time of +peace, no sooner were we likely to come to loggerheads with the +French, than they turned their eyes to the quiet Norfolk parsonage, +and made the _amende_ to the _iracundus Achilles_. + +War with France was declared on the 11th of February 1793, and on the +7th of January, Nelson writes as follows:-- + + To Mrs Nelson. + + "_Post nubila Phoebus._ After clouds comes sunshine. The + Admiralty so smile on me, that really I am as much surprised as + when they frowned. Lord Chatham yesterday made many apologies for + not having given me a ship before this time, and said, that if I + chose to take a sixty-four to begin with, I should be appointed + to one as soon as she was ready, and whenever it was in his + power, I should be removed into a seventy-four. Every thing + indicated war. One of our ships looking into Brest, has been + fired into; the shot is now at the Admiralty. You will send my + father this news, which I am sure will please him.--Love to + Josiah, and believe me, your most affectionate + + "Horatio Nelson." + + +The appointment of Nelson to the Agamemnon, a name which he did nearly +as much to immortalize as Homer, is the great epoch of his +professional life. But though his letters, which now rise to the rank +of despatches, become more interesting to those who watch his progress +as an officer, there are comparatively fewer which let us into the +character of the man. Besides this, the incidents of his career after +this time are so well known, that little new can be expected. What +novelty, however, there was to be obtained has not escaped the +research of the editor, from whom (till we meet him in another volume, +when Nelson will again become interesting in his individual capacity, +as his secret and confidential letters in the Carraccioli and Lady +Hamilton's period, come to be laid before us) we part with feelings of +gratitude and respect. + + + + +GUIZOT. + + +Machiavel was the first historian who seems to have formed a +conception of the philosophy of history. Before his time, the +narrative of human events was little more than a series of +biographies, imperfectly connected together by a few slight sketches +of the empires on which the actions of their heroes were exerted. In +this style of history, the ancient writers were, and to the end of +time probably will continue to be, altogether inimitable. Their skill +in narrating a story, in developing the events of a life, in tracing +the fortunes of a city or a state, as they were raised by a succession +of illustrious patriots, or sunk by a series of oppressive tyrants, +has never been approached in modern times. The histories of Xenophon +and Thucydides, of Livy and Sallust, of Caesar and Tacitus, are all +more or less formed on this model; and the more extended view of +history, as embracing an account of the countries the transactions of +which were narrated, originally formed, and to a great part executed, +by the father of history, Herodotus, appears to have been, in an +unaccountable manner, lost by his successors. + +In these immortal works, however, human transactions are uniformly +regarded as they have been affected by, or called forth the agency of, +individual men. We are never presented with the view of society _in a +mass_; as influenced by a series of causes and effects independent of +the agency of individual man--or, to speak more correctly, in the +development of which the agency is an unconscious, and often almost a +passive, instrument. Constantly regarding history as an extensive +species of biography, they not only did not withdraw the eye to the +distance necessary to obtain such a general view of the progress of +things, but they did the reverse. Their great object was to bring the +eye so close as to see the whole virtues or vices of the principal +figures, which they exhibited on their moving panorama; and in so +doing they rendered it incapable of perceiving, at the same time, the +movement of the whole social body of which they formed a part. Even +Livy, in his pictured narrative of Roman victories, is essentially +biographical. His inimitable work owes its enduring celebrity to the +charming episodes of individuals, or graphic pictures of particular +events with which it abounds; scarce any general views on the progress +of society, or the causes to which its astonishing progress in the +Roman state was owing, are to be found. In the introduction to the +life of Catiline, Sallust has given, with unequalled power, a sketch +of the causes which corrupted the republic; and if his work had been +pursued in the same style, it would indeed have been a philosophical +history. But neither the Catiline nor the Jugurthine war are +histories; they are chapters of history, containing two interesting +biographies. Scattered through the writings of Tacitus, are to be +found numerous caustic and profound observations on human nature, and +the increasing vices and selfishness of a corrupted age: but, like the +maxims of Rochefoucault, it is to individual, not general, humanity +that they refer; and they strike us as so admirably just because they +do not describe general causes operating upon society as a body--which +often make little impression save on a few reflecting minds--but +strike direct to the human heart in a way which comes home to the +breast of every individual who reads them. + +Never was a juster observation than that the human mind is never +quiescent; it may not give the external symptoms of action, but it +does not cease to have the internal action: it sleeps, but even then +it dreams. Writers innumerable have declaimed on the night of the +Middle Ages--on the deluge of barbarism which, under the Goths, +flooded the world--on the torpor of the human mind, under the combined +pressure of savage violence and priestly superstition; yet this was +precisely the period when the minds of men, deprived of external vent, +turned inwards on themselves; and that the learned and thoughtful, +shut out from any active part in society by the general prevalence of +military violence, sought, in the solitude of the cloister, employment +in reflecting on the mind itself, and the general causes which, under +its guidance, operated upon society. The influence of this great +change in the direction of thought at once appeared when knowledge, +liberated from the cloister and the university, again took its place +among the affairs of men. Machiavel in Italy, and Bacon in England, +for the first time in the annals of knowledge, reasoned upon human +affairs _as a science_. They spoke of the minds of men as permanently +governed by certain causes, and of known principles, always leading to +the same results; they treated of politics as a science in which +certain known laws existed, and could be discovered, as in mechanics +and hydraulics. This was a great step in advance, and demonstrated +that the superior age of the world, and the wide sphere to which +political observation had now been applied, had permitted the +accumulation of such an increased store of facts, as permitted +deductions, founded on experience, to be formed in regard to the +affairs of nations. Still more, it showed that the attention of +writers had been drawn to the general causes of human affairs; that +they reasoned on the actions of men as a subject of abstract thought; +regarded effects formerly produced as _likely to recur_ from a similar +combination of circumstances; and formed conclusions for the +regulation of future conduct, from the results of past experience. +This tendency is, in an especial manner, conspicuous in the _Discorsi_ +of Machiavel, where certain general propositions are stated, deduced, +indeed, from the events of Roman story, but announced as lasting +truths, applicable to every future generation and circumstances of +men. In depth of view and justness of observation, these views of the +Florentine statesman never were surpassed. Bacon's essays relate, for +the most part, to subjects of morals, or domestic and private life; +but not unfrequently he touches on the general concerns of nations, +and with the same profound observation of the past, and philosophic +anticipation of the future. + +Voltaire professed to elevate history in France from the _jejune_ and +trifling details of genealogy, courts, wars, and negotiations, in +which it had hitherto, in his country, been involved, to the more +general contemplation of arts and philosophy, and the progress of +human affairs; and, in some respects, he certainly effected a great +reformation on the ponderous annalists who had preceded him. But the +foundation of his history was still biography; he regarded human +events only as they were grouped round two or three great men, or as +they were influenced by the speculations of men of letters and +science. The history of France he stigmatized as savage and worthless +till the reign of Louis XIV.; the Russians he looked upon as bitter +barbarians till the time of Peter the Great. He thought the +philosophers alone all in all; till they arose, and a sovereign +appeared, who collected them round his throne, and shed on them the +rays of royal favour, human events were not worth narrating; they were +merely the contests of one set of savages plundering another. +Religion, in his eyes, was a mere priestly delusion to enslave and +benighten mankind; from its oppression the greatest miseries of modern +times had flowed; the first step in the emancipation of the human mind +was to chase for ever from the earth those sacerdotal tyrants. The +most free-thinking historian will now admit, that these views are +essentially erroneous; he will allow that, viewing Christianity merely +as a human institution, its effect in restraining the violence of +feudal anarchy was incalculable; long anterior to the date of the +philosophers, he will look for the broad foundation on which national +character and institutions, for good or for evil, have been formed. +Voltaire was of great service to history, by turning it from courts +and camps to the progress of literature, science, and the arts--to the +delineation of manners, and the preparation of anecdotes descriptive +of character; but, notwithstanding all his talent, he never got a +glimpse of the general causes which influence society. He gave us the +history of philosophy, but not the philosophy of history. + +The ardent genius and pictorial eye of Gibbon rendered him an +incomparable delineator of events; and his powerful mind made him +seize the _general_ and characteristic features of society and +manners, as they appear in different parts of the world, as well as +the traits of individual greatness. His descriptions of the Roman +empire in the zenith of its power, as it existed in the time of +Augustus--of its decline and long-protracted old age, under +Constantine and his successors on the Byzantine throne--of the manners +of the pastoral nations, who, under different names, and for a +succession of ages, pressed upon and at last overturned the empire--of +the Saracens, who, issuing from the lands of Arabia, with the Koran in +one hand and the cimeter in the other, urged on their resistless +course, till they were arrested by the Atlantic on the one side, and +the Indian ocean on the other--of the stern crusaders, who, nursed +amid the cloistered shades and castellated realms of Europe, struggled +with that devastating horde "when 'twas strongest, and ruled it when +'twas wildest"--of the long agony, silent decay, and ultimate +resurrection of the Eternal City--are so many immortal pictures, +which, to the end of the world, will fascinate every ardent and +imaginative mind. But, not withstanding this incomparable talent for +general and characteristic description, he had not the mind necessary +for a philosophical analysis of the series of causes which influence +human events. He viewed religion with a jaundiced and prejudiced +eye--the fatal bequest of his age and French education, unworthy alike +of his native candour and inherent strength of understanding. He had +profound philosophic ideas, and occasionally let them out with +admirable effect; but the turn of his mind was essentially +descriptive, and his powers were such, in that brilliant department, +that they wiled him from the less inviting contemplation of general +causes. We turn over his fascinating pages without ever wearying; but +without ever discovering the general progress or apparent tendency of +human affairs. We look in vain for the profound reflections of +Machiavel on the permanent results of certain political combinations +or experiments. He has led us through a "mighty maze;" but he has made +no attempt to show it "not without a plan." + +Hume is commonly called a philosophical historian, and so he is; but +he has even less than Gibbon the power of unfolding the general causes +which influence the progress of human events. He was not, properly +speaking, a philosophic historian, but a philosopher writing +history--and these are very different things. The practical statesman +will often make a better delineator of the progress of human affairs +than the philosophic recluse; for he is more practically acquainted +with their secret Springs: it was not in the schools, but the forum or +the palace, that Sallust, Tacitus, and Burke acquired their deep +insight into the human heart. Hume was gifted with admirable sagacity +in political economy; and it is the good sense and depth of his views +on that important subject, then for the first time brought to bear on +the annals of man, that has chiefly gained for him, and with justice, +the character of a philosophic historian. To this may be added the +admirable clearness and rhetorical powers with which he has stated the +principal arguments for and against the great changes in the English +institutions which it fell to his lot to recount--arguments far abler +than were either used by, or occurred to, the actors by whom they were +brought about; for it is seldom that a Hume is found in the councils +of men. With equal ability, too, he has given periodical sketches of +manners, customs, and habits, mingled with valuable details on +finance, commerce, and prices--all elements, and most important ones, +in the formation of philosophical history. We owe a deep debt of +gratitude to the man who has rescued these important facts from the +ponderous folios where they were slumbering in forgotten obscurity, +and brought them into the broad light of philosophic observation and +popular narrative. But, notwithstanding all this, Hume is far from +being gifted with the philosophy of history. He has collected or +prepared many of the facts necessary for the science, but he has made +little progress in it himself. He was essentially a sceptic. He aimed +rather at spreading doubts than shedding light. Like Voltaire and +Gibbon, he was scandalously prejudiced and unjust on the subject of +religion; and to write modern history without correct views on that +subject, is like playing Hamlet without the character of the Prince of +Denmark. He was too indolent to acquire the vast store of facts +indispensable for correct generalization on the varied theatre of +human affairs, and often drew hasty and incorrect conclusions from the +events which particularly came under his observation. Thus the +repeated indecisive battles between the fleets of Charles II. and the +Dutch, drew from him the observation, apparently justified by their +results, that sea-fights are seldom so important or decisive as those +at land. The fact is just the reverse. Witness the battle of Salamis, +which repelled from Europe the tide of Persian invasion; that of +Actium, which gave a master to the Roman world; that of Sluys, which +exposed France to the dreadful English invasions, begun under Edward +III.; that of Lepanto, which rolled back from Christendom the wave of +Mahometan conquest; the defeat of the Armada, which permanently +established the Reformation in Northern Europe; that of La Hogue, +which broke the maritime strength of Louis XIV.; that of Trafalgar, +which for ever took "ships, colonies, and commerce" from Napoleon, and +spread them with the British colonial empire over half the globe. + +Montesquieu owes his colossal reputation chiefly to his _Esprit des +Loix_; but the _Grandeur et Decadence des Romains_ is by much the +greater work. It has never attained nearly the reputation in this +country which it deserves, either in consequence of the English mind +being less partial than the French to the philosophy of human affairs, +or, as is more probable, from the system of education at our +universities being so exclusively devoted to the study of words, that +our scholars never arrive at the knowledge of things. It is impossible +to imagine a work in which the philosophy of history is more ably +condensed, or where there is exhibited, in a short space, a more +profound view of the general causes to which the long-continued +greatness and ultimate decline of that celebrated people were owing. +It is to be regretted only that he did not come to modern times and +other ages with the same masterly survey; the information collected in +the _Esprit des Loix_ would have furnished him with ample materials +for such a work. In that noble treatise, the same philosophic and +generalizing spirit is conspicuous; but there is too great a love of +system, an obvious partiality for fanciful analogies, and, not +unfrequently, conclusions hastily deduced from insufficient data. +These errors, the natural result of a philosophic and profound mind +wandering without a guide in the mighty maze of human transactions, +are entirely avoided in the _Grandeur et Decadence des Romains_, where +he was retained by authentic history to a known train of events, and +where his imaginative spirit and marked turn for generalization found +sufficient scope, and no more, to produce the most perfect commentary +on the annals of a single people of which the human mind can boast. + +Bossuet, in his _Universal History_, aimed at a higher object; he +professed to give nothing less than a development of the plan of +Providence in the government of human affairs, during the whole of +antiquity, and down to the reign of Charlemagne. The idea was +magnificent, and the mental powers, as well as eloquence, of the +Bishop of Meaux promised the greatest results from such an +undertaking. But the execution has by no means corresponded to the +conception. Voltaire has said, that he professed to give a view of +universal history, and he has only given the history of the Jews; and +there is too much truth in the observation. He never got out of the +fetters of his ecclesiastical education; the Jews were the centre +round which he supposed all other nations revolved. His mind was +polemical, not philosophic; a great theologian, he was but an +indifferent historian. In one particular, indeed, his observations are +admirable, and, at times, in the highest degree impressive. He never +loses sight of the divine superintendence of human affairs; he sees in +all the revolutions of empires the progress of a mighty plan for the +ultimate redemption of mankind; and he traces the workings of this +superintending power in all the transactions of man. But it may be +doubted whether he took the correct view of this sublime but +mysterious subject. He supposes the divine agency to influence +_directly_ the affairs of men--not through the medium of general laws, +or the adaptation of our active propensities to the varying +circumstances of our condition. Hence his views strike at the freedom +of human actions; he makes men and nations little more than the +puppets by which the Deity works out the great drama of human affairs. +Without disputing the reality of such immediate agency in some +particular cases, it may safely be affirmed, that by far the greater +part of the affairs of men are left entirely to their own guidance, +and that their actions are overruled, not directed, by Almighty power +to work out the purposes of Divine beneficence. + +That which Bossuet left undone, Robertson did. The first volume of his +Charles V. may justly be regarded as the greatest step which the human +mind had yet made in the philosophy of history. Extending his views +beyond the admirable survey which Montesquieu had given of the rise +and decline of the Roman empire, he aimed at giving a view of the +_progress of society_ in modern times. This matter, of the progress of +society, was a favourite subject at that period with political +philosophers; and by combining the speculations of these ingenious men +with the solid basis of facts which his erudition and industry had +worked out, Robertson succeeded in producing the most luminous, and at +the same time just, view of the progress of nations that had yet been +exhibited among mankind. The philosophy of history here appeared in +its full lustre. Men and nations were exhibited in their just +proportions. Society was viewed, not only in its details, but its +masses; the _general causes_ which influence its progress, running +into or mutually affecting each other, and yet all conspiring with +more or less efficacy to bring about a general result, were exhibited +in the most lucid and masterly manner. The great causes which have +contributed to form the elements of modern society--the decaying +civilization of Rome--the irruption of the northern nations--the +prostration and degradation of the conquered people--the revival of +the military spirit with the private wars of the nobles--the feudal +system and institution of chivalry--the crusades, and revival of +letters following the capture of Constantinople by the Turks--the +invention of printing, and consequent extension of knowledge to the +great body of the people--the discovery of the compass, and, with it, +of America, by Columbus, and doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by +Vasco de Gama--the discovery of gunpowder, and prodigious change +thereby effected in the implements of human destruction--are all there +treated in the most luminous manner, and, in general, with the justest +discrimination. The vast agency of general causes upon the progress of +mankind now became apparent: unseen powers, like the deities of Homer +in the war of Troy, were seen to mingle at every stop with the tide of +sublunary affairs; and so powerful and irresistible does their agency, +when once revealed, appear, that we are perhaps now likely to fall +into the opposite extreme, and to ascribe too little to individual +effort or character. Men and nations seem to be alike borne forward on +the surface of a mighty stream, which they are equally incapable of +arresting or directing; and, after surveying the vain and impotent +attempts of individuals to extricate themselves from the current, we +are apt to exclaim with the philosopher,[16] "He has dashed with his +oar to hasten the cataract; he has waved with his fan to give speed to +the winds." + +A nearer examination, however, will convince every candid enquirer, +that individual character exercises, if not a paramount, yet a very +powerful influence on human affairs. Whoever investigates minutely any +period of history will find, on the one hand, that general causes +affecting the whole of society are in constant operation; and on the +other, that these general causes themselves are often set in motion, +or directed in their effects, by particular men. Thus, of what +efficacy were the constancy of Pitt, the foresight of Burke, the arm +of Nelson, the wisdom of Wellington, the genius of Wellesley, in +bringing to maturity the British empire, and spreading the Anglo-Saxon +race, in pursuance of its appointed mission, over half the globe! What +marvellous effect had the heroism and skill of Robert Bruce upon the +subsequent history of Scotland, and, through it, on the fortunes of +the British race! Thus biography, or the deeds or thoughts of +illustrious men, still forms a most important, and certainly the most +interesting, part even of general history; and the perfection of that +noble art consists, not in the exclusive delineation of individual +achievement, or the concentration of attention on general causes, but +in the union of the two in due proportions, as they really exist in +nature, and determine, by their combined operation, the direction of +human affairs. The talent now required in the historian partakes, +accordingly, of this two-fold character. He is expected to write +philosophy and biography: skill in drawing individual character, the +power of describing individual achievements, with a clear perception +of general causes, and the generalizing faculty of enlarged +philosophy. He must combine in his mind the powers of the microscope +and the telescope; be ready, like the steam-engine, at one time to +twist a fibre, at another to propel an hundred-gun ship. Hence the +rarity of eminence in this branch of knowledge; and if we could +conceive a writer who, to the ardent genius and descriptive powers of +Gibbon, should unite the lucid glance and just discrimination of +Robertson, and the calm sense and reasoning powers of Hume, he would +form a more perfect historian than ever has, or probably ever will +appear upon earth. + +With all his generalizing powers, however, Robertson fell into one +defect--or rather, he was unable, in one respect, to extricate himself +from the prejudices of his age and profession. He was not a +freethinker--on the contrary, he was a sincere and pious divine; but +he lived in an age of freethinkers--they had the chief influence in +the formation of a writer's fame; and he was too desirous of literary +reputation to incur the hazard of ridicule or contempt, by assigning +too prominent a place to the obnoxious topic. Thence he has ascribed +far too little influence to Christianity, in restraining the ferocity +of savage manners, preserving alive the remains of ancient knowledge, +and laying in general freedom the broad and deep foundations of +European society. He has not overlooked these topics, but he has not +given them their due place, nor assigned them their proper weight. He +lived and died in comparative retirement; and he was never able to +shake himself free from the prejudices of his country and education, +on the subject of Romish religion. Not that he exaggerated the abuses +and enormities of the Roman Catholic superstition which brought about +the Reformation, nor the vast benefits which Luther conferred upon +mankind by bringing them to light; both were so great, that they +hardly admitted of exaggeration. His error--and, in the delineation of +the progress of society in modern Europe, it was a very great +one--consisted in overlooking the beneficial effect of that very +superstition, then so pernicious, in a _prior age of the world_, when +violence was universal, crime prevalent alike in high and low places, +and government impotent to check either the tyranny of the great or +the madness of the people. Then it was that superstition was the +greatest blessing which Providence, in mercy, could bestow on mankind; +for it effected what the wisdom of the learned or the efforts of the +active were alike unable to effect; it restrained the violence by +imaginary, which was inaccessible to the force of real, terrors; and +spread that protection under the shadow of the Cross, which could +never have been obtained by the power of the sword. Robertson was +wholly insensible to these early and inestimable blessings of the +Christian faith; he has admirably delineated the beneficial influence +of the Crusades upon subsequent society, but on this all-important +topic he is silent. Yet, whoever has studied the condition of +European society in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, as it +has since been developed in the admirable works of Sismondi, Thierry, +Michelet, and Guizot, must be aware that the services, not merely of +Christianity, but of the superstitions which had usurped its place, +were, during that long period, incalculable; and that, but for them, +European society would infallibly have sunk, as Asiatic in every age +has done, beneath the desolating sword of barbarian power. + +Sismondi--if the magnitude, and in many respects the merit, of his +works be considered--must be regarded as one of the greatest +historians of modern times. His "History of the Italian Republics" in +sixteen, of the "Monarchy of France" in thirty volumes, attest the +variety and extent of his antiquarian researches, as well as the +indefatigable industry of his pen: his "Literature of the South of +Europe" in four, and "Miscellaneous Essays" in three volumes, show how +happily he has blended these weighty investigations with the lighter +topics of literature and poetry, and the political philosophy which, +in recent times, has come to occupy so large a place in the study of +all who have turned their mind to the progress of human affairs. Nor +is the least part of his merit to be found in the admirable skill with +which he has condensed, each in two volumes, his great histories, for +the benefit of that numerous class of readers who, unable or unwilling +to face the formidable undertaking of going through his great +histories, are desirous of obtaining such a brief summary of their +leading events as may suffice for persons of ordinary perseverance or +education. His mind was essentially philosophical; and it is the +philosophy of modern history, accordingly, which he has exerted +himself so strenuously to unfold. He views society at a distance, and +exhibits its great changes in their just proportions, and, in general, +with their true effects. His success in this arduous undertaking has +been great indeed. He has completed the picture of which Robertson had +only formed the sketch--and completed it with such a prodigious +collection of materials, and so lucid an arrangement of them in their +appropriate places, as to have left future ages little to do but draw +the just conclusions from the results of his labours. + +With all these merits, and they are great, and with this rare +combination of antiquarian industry with philosophic generalization, +Sismondi is far from being a perfect historian. He did well to abridge +his great works; for he will find few readers who will have +perseverance enough to go through them. An abridgement was tried of +Gibbon; but it had little success, and has never since been attempted. +You might as well publish an abridgement of Waverley or Ivanhoe. Every +reader of the _Decline and Fall_ must feel that condensation is +impossible, without an omission of interest or a curtailment of +beauty. Sismondi, with all his admirable qualities as a general and +philosophic historian, wants the one thing needful in exciting +interest--descriptive and dramatic power. He was a man of great vigour +of thought and clearness of observation, but little genius--at least +of that kind of genius which is necessary to move the feelings or warm +the imagination. That was his principal defect; and it will prevent +his great works from ever commanding the attention of a numerous body +of general readers, however much they may be esteemed by the learned +and studious. Conscious of this deficiency, he makes scarce any +attempt to make his narrative interesting; but, reserving his whole +strength for general views on the progress of society, or philosophic +observations on its most important changes, he fills up the +intermediate space with long quotations from chronicles, memoirs, and +state papers--a sure way, if the selection is not made with great +judgment, of rendering the whole insupportably tedious. Every +narrative, to be interesting, should be given in the writer's _own +words_, unless on those occasions, by no means frequent, when some +striking or remarkable expressions of a speaker, or contemporary +writer, are to be preserved. Unity of style and expression is as +indispensable in a history which is to move the heart, or fascinate +the imagination, as in a tragedy, a painting, or an epic poem. + +But, in addition to this, Sismondi's general views, though ordinarily +just, and always expressed with clearness and precision, are not +always to be taken without examination. Like Robertson, he was never +able to extricate himself entirely from the early prejudices of his +country and education; hardly any of the Geneva school of philosophers +have been able to do so. Brought up in that learned and able, but +narrow, and in some respects bigoted community, he was early engaged +in the vast undertaking of the History of the Italian Republics. Thus, +before he was well aware of it, and at a time of life, when the +opinions are flexible, and easily moulded by external impressions, he +became irrevocably enamoured of such little communities as he had +lived in, or was describing, and imbibed all the prejudices against +the Church of Rome, which have naturally, from close proximity, and +the endurance of unutterable evils at its hands, been ever prevalent +among the Calvinists of Geneva. These causes have tinged his otherwise +impartial views with two signal prejudices, which appear in all his +writings where these subjects are even remotely alluded to. His +partiality for municipal institutions, and the social system depending +on them, is as extravagant, as his aversion to the Church of Rome is +conspicuous and intemperate. His idea of a perfect society would be a +confederacy of little republics, governed by popularly elected +magistrates, holding the scarlet old lady of Rome in utter +abomination, and governed in matters of religion by the Presbyterian +forms, and the tenets of Calvin. It is not to be wondered at, that the +annalist of the countries of Tasso and Dante, of Titian and Machiavel, +of Petrarch and Leonardo da Vinci, of Galileo and Michael Angelo, +should conceive, that in no other state of society is such scope +afforded for mental cultivation and the development of the highest +efforts of genius. Still less is it surprising, that the historian of +the crusade against the Albigenses, of the unheard-of atrocities of +Simon de Montfort, of the wholesale massacres, burnings, and +torturings, which have brought such indelible disgrace on the Roman +priesthood, should feel deeply interested in a faith which has +extricated his own country from the abominable persecution. But still, +this indulgence of these natural, and in some respects praiseworthy, +feelings, has blinded Sismondi to the insurmountable evils of a +confederacy of small republics at this time, amidst surrounding, +powerful, and monarchical states; and to the inappreciable blessings +of the Christian faith, and even of the Romish superstition, before +the period when these infamous cruelties began, when their warfare was +only with the oppressor, their struggles with the destroyers of the +human race. + +But truth is great, and will prevail. Those just views of modern +society, which neither the luminous eye of Robertson, nor the learned +research and philosophic mind of Sismondi could reach, have been +brought forward by a writer of surpassing ability, whose fame as an +historian and a philosopher is for the time overshadowed by the more +fleeting celebrity of the statesman and the politician. We will not +speak of M. GUIZOT in the latter character, much as we are tempted to +do so, by the high and honourable part which he has long borne in +European diplomacy, and the signal ability with which, in the midst of +a short-sighted and rebellious generation, clamouring, as the Romans +of old, for the _multis utile bellum_, he has sustained his +sovereign's wise and magnanimous resolution to maintain peace. We are +too near the time to appreciate the magnitude of these blessings; men +would not now believe through what a crisis the British empire, +unconscious of its danger, passed, when M. Thiers was dismissed, three +years and a half ago, by Louis Philippe, and M. Guizot called to the +helm. But when the time arrives, as arrive it will, that the +diplomatic secrets of that period are brought to light; when the +instructions of the revolutionary minister to the admiral of the +Toulon fleet are made known, and the marvellous chance which prevented +their being acted upon by him, has become matter of history; it will +be admitted, that the civilized world have good cause to thank M. +Guizot for saving it from a contest as vehement, as perilous, and +probably as disastrous to all concerned, as that which followed the +French Revolution. + +Our present business is with M. Guizot as a historian and philosopher; +a character in which he will be remembered, long after his services to +humanity as a statesman and a minister have ceased to attract the +attention of men. In those respects, we place him in the very highest +rank among the writers of modern Europe. It must be understood, +however, in what his greatness consists, lest the readers, expecting +what they will not find, experience disappointment, when they begin +the study of his works. He is neither imaginative nor pictorial; he +seldom aims at the pathetic, and has little eloquence. He is not a +Livy nor a Gibbon. Nature has not given him either dramatic or +descriptive powers. He is a man of the highest genius; but it consists +not in narrating particular events, or describing individual +achievement. It is in the discovery of general causes; in tracing the +operation of changes in society, which escape ordinary observation: in +seeing whence man has come, and whether he is going, that his +greatness consists: and in that loftiest of the regions of history, he +is unrivaled. We know of no author who has traced the changes of +society, and the general causes which determine the fate of nations, +with such just views and so much sagacious discrimination. He is not +properly speaking, an historian; his vocation and object were +different. He is a great discourser on history. If ever the philosophy +of history was embodied in a human being, it is in M. Guizot. + +The style of this great author is, in every respect, suited to his +subject. He does not aim at the highest flights of fancy; makes no +attempt to warm the soul or melt the feelings; is seldom imaginative, +and never descriptive. But he is uniformly lucid, sagacious, and +discriminating; deduces his conclusions with admirable clearness from +his premises, and occasionally warms from the innate grandeur of his +subject into a glow of fervent eloquence. He seems to treat of human +affairs, as if he viewed them from a loftier sphere than other men; as +if he were elevated above the usual struggles and contests of +humanity; and a superior power had withdrawn the veil which shrouds +their secret causes and course from the gaze of sublunary beings. He +cares not to dive into the secrets of cabinets; attaches little, +perhaps too little, importance to individual character; but fixes his +steady gaze on the great and lasting causes which, in a durable +manner, influence human affairs. He views them not from year to year +but from century to century; and, when considered in that view, it is +astonishing how much the importance of individual agency disappears. +Important in their generation--sometimes almost omnipotent for good or +for evil while they live--particular men, how great soever, rarely +leave any very important consequences behind them; or at least rarely +do what other men might not have done as effectually as them, and +which was not already determined by the tendency of the human mind, +and the tide, either of flow or ebb, by which human affairs were at +the time wafted to and fro. The desperate struggles of war or of +ambition in which they were engaged, and in which so much genius and +capacity were exerted, are swept over by the flood of time, and seldom +leave any lasting trace behind. It is the men who determine the +direction of this tide, who imprint their character on general +thought, who are the real directors of human affairs; it is the giants +of thought who, in the end, govern the world--kings and ministers, +princes and generals, warriors and legislators, are but the ministers +of their blessings or their curses to mankind. But their dominion +seldom begins till themselves are mouldering in their graves. + +Guizot's largest work, in point of size, is his translation of +_Gibbon's Rome_; and the just and philosophic spirit in which he +viewed he course of human affairs, was admirably calculated to provide +an antidote to the sceptical sneers which, in a writer of such genius +and strength of understanding, are at once the marvel and the disgrace +of that immortal work. He has begun also a history of the English +Revolution, to which he was led by having been the editor of a +valuable collection of Memoirs relating to the great Rebellion, +translated into French, in twenty-five volumes. But this work only got +the length of two volumes, and came no further down than the death of +Charles I., an epoch no further on in the English than the execution +of Louis in the French revolution. This history is clear, lucid, and +valuable; but it is written with little eloquence, and has met with no +great success: the author's powers were not of the dramatic or +pictorial kind necessary to paint that dreadful story. These were +editorial or industrial labours unworthy of Guizot's mind; it was when +he delivered lectures from the chair of history in Paris, that his +genius shone forth in its proper sphere and its true lustre. + +His _Civilisation en France_, in five volumes, _Civilisation +Europeenne_, and _Essais sur l'Histoire de France_, each in one +volume, are the fruits of these professional labours. The same +profound thought, sagacious discrimination, and lucid view, are +conspicuous in them all; but they possess different degrees of +interest to the English reader. The _Civilisation en France_ is the +groundwork of the whole, and it enters at large into the whole +details, historical, legal, and antiquarian, essential for its +illustration, and the proof of the various propositions which it +contains. In the _Civilisation Europeenne_, and _Essays on the History +of France_, however, the general results are given with equal +clearness and greater brevity. We do not hesitate to say, that they +appear to us to throw more light on the history of society in modern +Europe, and the general progress of mankind, from the exertions of its +inhabitants, than any other works in existence; and it is of them, +especially the first, that we propose to give our readers some +account. + +The most important event which ever occurred in the history of +mankind, is the one concerning which contemporary writers have given +us the least satisfactory accounts. Beyond all doubt the overthrow of +Rome by the Goths was the most momentous catastrophe which has +occurred on the earth since the deluge; yet, if we examine either the +historians of antiquity or the earliest of modern times, we find it +wholly impossible to understand to what cause so great a catastrophe +had been owing. What gave, in the third and fourth centuries, so +prodigious an impulse to the northern nations, and enabled them, after +being so long repelled by the arms of Rome, finally to prevail over +it? What, still more, so completely paralysed the strength of the +empire during that period, and produced that astonishing weakness in +the ancient conquerors of the world, which rendered them the easy prey +of those whom they had so often subdued? The ancient writers content +themselves with saying, that the people became corrupted; that they +lost their military courage; that the recruiting of the legions, in +the free inhabitants of the empire, became impossible; and that the +semi-barbarous tribes on the frontier could not be relied on to uphold +its fortunes. But a very little reflection must be sufficient to show +that there must have been much more in it than this, before a race of +conquerors was converted into one of slaves; before the legions fled +before the barbarians, and the strength of the civilized was +overthrown by the energy of the savage world. For what prevented a +revenue from being raised in the third or fourth, as well as the first +or second centuries? Corruption in its worst form had doubtless +pervaded the higher ranks in Rome from the Emperor downward; but these +vices are the faults of the exalted and the affluent only; they never +have, and never will, extend generally to the great body of the +community; for this plain reason, that they are not rich enough to +purchase them. But the remarkable thing is, that in the decline of the +empire, it was in the lower ranks that the greatest and most fatal +weakness first appeared. Long before the race of the Patricians had +become extinct, the free cultivators had disappeared from the fields. +Leaders and generals of the most consummate abilities, of the greatest +daring, frequently arose; but their efforts proved in the end +ineffectual, from the impossibility of finding a sturdy race of +followers to fill their ranks. The legionary Italian soldier was +awanting--his place was imperfectly supplied by the rude Dacian, the +hardy German, the faithless Goth. So completely were the inhabitants +of the provinces within the Rhine and the Danube paralysed, that they +ceased to make any resistance to the hordes of invaders; and the +fortunes of the empire were, for several generations, sustained solely +by the heroic efforts of individual leaders--Belisarius, Narces, +Julian, Aurelian, Constantine, and many others--whose renown, though +it could not rouse the pacific inhabitants to warlike efforts, yet +attracted military adventurers from all parts of the world to their +standard. Now, what weakened and destroyed the rural population? It +could not be luxury; on the contrary, they were suffering under excess +of poverty, and bent down beneath a load of taxes, which in Gaul, in +the time of Constantine, amounted, as Gibbon tells us, to nine pounds +sterling on every freeman? What was it, then, which occasioned the +depopulation and weakness? This is what it behoves us to know--this it +is which ancient history has left unknown. + +It is here that the vast step in the philosophy of history made from +ancient to modern times is apparent. From a few detached hints and +insulated facts, left by the ancient annalists, apparently ignorant of +their value, and careless of their preservation, modern industry, +guided by the light of philosophy, has reared up the true solution of +the difficulty, and revealed the real causes, hidden from the ordinary +gaze, which, even in the midst of its greatest prosperity, gradually, +but certainly, undermined the strength of the empire. Michelet, in his +_Gaule sous les Romains_, a most able and interesting work--Thierry, +in his _Domination Romaine en Gaule_, and his _Histoire des Rois +Merovingians_--Sismondi, in the three first volumes of his _Histoire +des Francais_--and Guizot, in his _Civilisation Europeenne_, and the +first volumes of his _Essais sur l'Histoire de France_--have applied +their great powers to this most interesting subject. It may safely be +affirmed, that they have got to the bottom of the subject, and lifted +up the veil from one of the darkest, and yet most momentous, changes +in the history of mankind. Guizot gives the following account of the +principal causes which silently undermined the strength of the empire, +flowing from the peculiar organization of ancient society:-- + + "When Rome extended, what did it do? Follow its history, and you + will find that it was everlastingly engaged in conquering or + founding cities. It was with cities that it fought--with cities + that it contracted--into cities that it sent colonies. The + history of the conquest of the world by Rome, is nothing but the + history of the conquest and foundation of a great number of + cities. In the East, the expansion of the Roman power assumed, + from the very outset, a somewhat dissimilar character; the + population was differently distributed from the West, and much + less concentrated in cities; but in the European world, the + foundation or conquest of towns was the uniform result of Roman + conquest. In Gaul and Spain, in Italy, it was constantly towns + which opposed the barrier to Roman domination, and towns which + were founded or garrisoned by the legions, or strengthened by + colonies, to retain them when vanquished in a state of + subjection. Great roads stretched from one town to another; the + multitude of cross roads which now intersect each other in every + direction, was unknown. They had nothing in common with that + multitude of little monuments, villages, churches, castles, + villas, and cottages, which now cover our provinces. Rome has + bequeathed to us nothing, either in its capital or its provinces, + but the _municipal character_, which produced immense monuments + on certain points, destined for the use of the vast population + which was there assembled together. + + "From this peculiar conformation of society in Europe, under the + Roman dominion, consisting of a vast conglomeration of cities, + with each a dependent territory, all independent of each other, + arose the absolute necessity for a central and absolute + government. One municipality in Rome might conquer the world: but + to retain it in subjection, and provide for the government of all + its multifarious parts, was a very different matter. This was one + of the chief causes of the general adoption of a strong + concentrated government under the empire. Such centralized + despotism not only succeeded in restraining and regulating all + the incoherent members of the vast dominion, but the idea of a + central irresistible authority insinuated itself into men's minds + every where, at the same time, with wonderful facility. At first + sight, one is astonished to see, in that prodigious and + ill-united aggregate of little republics, in that accumulation of + separate municipalities, spring up so suddenly an unbounded + respect for the sacred authority of the empire. But the truth is, + it had become a matter of absolute necessity, that the bond which + held together the different parts of this heterogeneous dominion + should be very powerful; and this it was which gave it so ready a + reception in the minds of men. + + "But when the vigour of the central power declined during a + course of ages, from the pressure of external warfare, and the + weakness of internal corruption, this necessity was no longer + felt. The capital ceased to be able to provide for the provinces, + it rather sought protection from them. During four centuries, the + central power of the emperors incessantly struggled against this + increasing debility; but the moment at length arrived, when all + the practised skill of despotism, over the long _insouciance_ of + servitude, could no longer keep together the huge and unwieldy + body. In the fourth century, we see it at once break up and + disunite; the barbarians entered on all sides from without, the + provinces ceased to oppose any resistance from within; the cities + to evince any regard for the general welfare; and, as in the + disaster of a shipwreck, every one looked out for his individual + safety. Thus, on the dissolution of the empire, the same general + state of society presented itself as in its cradle. The imperial + authority sunk into the dust, and municipal institutions alone + survived the disaster. This, then, was the chief legacy which the + ancient bequeathed to the modern world--for it alone survived the + storm by which the former had been destroyed--cities and a + municipal organization every where established. But it was not + the only legacy. Beside it, there was the recollection at least + of the awful majesty of the emperor--of a distant, unseen, but + sacred and irresistible power. These are the two ideas which + antiquity bequeathed to modern times. On the one hand, the + municipal _regime_, its rules, customs, and principles of + liberty: on the other a common, general, civil legislation; and + the idea of absolute power, of a sacred majesty, the principle of + order and servitude."--(_Civilization Europeenne_, 20, 23.) + + +The causes which produced the extraordinary, and at first sight +unaccountable, depopulation of the country districts, not only in +Italy, but in Gaul, Spain, and all the European provinces of the Roman +empire, are explained by Guizot in his _Essays on the History of +France_, and have been fully demonstrated by Sismondi, Thierry, and +Michelet. They were a natural consequence of the municipal system, +then universally established as the very basis of civilization in the +whole Roman empire, and may be seen urging, from a similar cause, the +Turkish empire to dissolution at this day. This was the imposition of +a certain fixed duty, as a burden on each municipality, to be raised, +indeed, by its own members, but admitting of no diminution, save under +the most special circumstances, and on an express exemption by the +emperor. Had the great bulk of the people been free, and the empire +prosperous, this fixity of impost would have been the greatest of all +blessings. It is the precise boon so frequently and earnestly implored +by our ryots in India, and indeed by the cultivators all over the +East. But when the empire was beset on all sides with enemies--only +the more rapacious and pressing, that the might of the legions had so +long confined them within the comparatively narrow limits of their own +sterile territories--and disasters, frequent and serious, were laying +waste the frontier provinces, it became the most dreadful of all +scourges; because, as the assessment on each district was fixed, and +scarcely ever suffered any abatement, every disaster experienced +increased the burden on the survivors who had escaped it; until they +became bent down under such a weight of taxation, as, coupled with the +small number of freemen on whom it exclusively fell, crushed every +attempt at productive industry. It was the same thing as if all the +farmers on each estate were to be bound to make up, annually, the same +amount of rent to their landlord, no matter how many of them had +become insolvent. We know how long the agriculture of Britain, in a +period of declining prices and frequent disaster, would exist under +such a system. + +Add to this the necessary effect which the free circulation of grain +throughout the whole Roman world had in depressing the agriculture of +Italy, Gaul, and Greece. They were unable to withstand the competition +of Egypt, Lybia, and Sicily--the storehouses of the world; where the +benignity of the climate, and the riches of the soil, rewarded seventy +or an hundred fold the labours of the husbandman. Gaul, where the +increase was only seven-fold--Italy, where it seldom exceeded +twelve--Spain, where it was never so high, were crushed in the +struggle. The mistress of the world, as Tacitus bewails, had come to +depend for her subsistence on the floods of the Nile. Unable to +compete with the cheap grain raised in the more favoured regions of +the south, the cultivators of Italy and Gaul gradually retired from +the contest. They devoted their extensive estates to pasturage, +because live cattle or dairy produce could not bear the expense of +being shipped from Africa; and the race of agriculturists, the +strength of the legions, disappeared in the fields, and was lost in +the needy and indolent crowd of urban citizens, in part maintained by +tributes in corn brought from Egypt and Lybia. This augmented the +burdens upon those who remained in the rural districts; for, as the +taxes of each municipality remained the same, every one that withdrew +into the towns left an additional burden on the shoulders of his +brethren who remained behind. So powerful was the operation of these +two causes--the fixity in the state burdens payable by each +municipality, and the constantly declining prices, owing to the vast +import from agricultural regions more favoured by nature--that it +fully equaled the effect of the ravages of the barbarians in the +frontier provinces exposed to their incursions; and the depopulation +of the rural districts was as complete in Italy and Gaul, before a +barbarian had passed the Alps or set his foot across the Rhine, as in +the plains between the Alps or the Adriatic and the Danube, which had +for long been ravaged by their arms. + +Domestic slavery conspired with these evils to prevent the healing +power of nature from closing these yawning wounds. Gibbon estimates +the number of slaves throughout the empire, in its latter days, at a +number equal to that of the freemen; in other words, one half of the +whole inhabitants were in a state of servitude;[17] and as there were +120,000,000 souls under the Roman sway, sixty millions were in that +degraded condition. There is reason to believe that the number of the +slaves was still greater than this estimate, and at least double that +of the freemen; for it is known by an authentic enumeration, that, in +the time of the Emperor Claudius, the number of citizens in the empire +was only 6,945,000 men, who, with their families, might amount to +twenty millions of souls; and the total number of freemen was about +double that of the citizens.[18] In one family alone, in the time of +Pliny, there were 4116 slaves.[19] But take the number of slaves, +according to Gibbon's computation, at only half the entire population, +what a prodigious abstraction must this multitude of slaves have made +from the physical and moral strength of the empire! Half the people +requiring food, needing restraint, incapable of trust, and yet adding +nothing to the muster-roll of the legions, or the persons by whom the +fixed and immovable annual taxes were to be made good! In what state +would the British empire now be, if we were subjected to the action of +similar causes of ruin? A vast and unwieldy dominion, exposed on every +side to the incursions of barbarous and hostile nations, daily +increasing in numbers, and augmenting in military skill; a fixed +taxation, for which the whole free inhabitants of every municipality +were jointly and severally responsible, to meet the increasing +military establishment required by these perils; a declining, and at +length extinct, agriculture in the central provinces of the empire, +owing to the deluge of cheap grain from its fertile extremities, +wafted over the waters of the Mediterranean; multitudes of turbulent +freemen in cities, kept quiet by daily distribution of provisions at +the public expense, from the imperial granaries; and a half, or +two-thirds, of the whole population in a state of slavery--neither +bearing any share of the public burdens, nor adding to the strength of +the military array of the empire. Such are the discoveries of modern +philosophy, as to the causes of the decline and ultimate fall of the +Roman empire, gleaned from a few facts, accidentally preserved by the +ancient writers, apparently unconscious of their value! It is a noble +science which, in so short a time, has presented such a gift to +mankind. + +Guizot has announced, and ably illustrated, a great truth, which, when +traced to its legitimate consequences, will be found to go far towards +dispelling many of the pernicious innovating dogmas which have so long +been afloat in the world. It is this, that whenever an institution, +though apparently pernicious in our eyes, has long existed, and under +a great variety of circumstances, we may rest assured that it in +reality has been attended with some advantages which counterbalance +its evils, and that upon the whole it is beneficial in its tendency. +This important principle is thus stated:-- + + "Independent of the efforts of man, there is established by a law + of providence, which it is impossible to mistake, and which is + analagous to what we witness in the natural world, a certain + measure of order, reason, and justice, without which society + cannot exist. From the single fact of its endurance we may + conclude, with certainty, that a society is not completely + absurd, insensate, or iniquitous; that it is not destitute of the + elements of reason, truth, and justice--which alone can give life + to society. If the more that society developes itself, the + stronger does this principle become--if it is daily accepted by a + greater number of men, it is a certain proof that in the lapse of + time there has been progressively introduced into it more reason, + more justice, more right. It is thus that the idea of political + legitimacy has arisen. + + "This principle has for its foundation, in the first instance, at + least in a certain degree, the great principles of moral + legitimacy--justice, reason, truth. Then came the sanction of + time, which always begets the presumption of reason having + directed arrangements which have long endured. In the early + periods of society, we too often find force and falsehood ruling + the cradles of royalty, aristocracy, democracy, and even the + church; but every where you will see this force and falsehood + yielding to the reforming hand of time, and right and truth + taking their place in the rulers of civilization. It is this + progressive infusion of right and truth which has by degrees + developed the idea of political legitimacy; it is thus that it + has become established in modern civilization. At different + times, indeed, attempts have been made to substitute for this + idea the banner of despotic power; but, in doing so, they have + turned it aside from its true origin. It is so little the banner + of despotic power, that it is in the name of right and justice + that it has overspread the world. As little is it exclusive: it + belongs neither to persons, classes, nor sects; it arises + wherever the idea of right has developed itself. We shall meet + with this principle in systems the most opposite: in the feudal + system, in the municipalities of Flanders and Germany, in the + republics of Italy, as well as in simple monarchies. It is a + character diffused through the various elements of modern + civilization, and the perception of which is indispensable to the + right understanding of its history."--(_Lecture_ iii. 9, 11; + _Civilization Europeenne_.) + + +No principle ever was announced of more practical importance in +legislating for mankind, than is contained in this passage. The +doctrine is somewhat obscurely stated, and not with the precision +which in general distinguishes the French writers; but the import of +it seems to be this--That no system of government can long exist among +men, unless it is substantially, and in the majority of cases, founded +in reason and justice, and sanctioned by experienced utility for the +people among whom it exists; and therefore, that we may predicate with +perfect certainty of any institution which has been generally +extended and long established, that it has been upon the whole +beneficial, and should be modified or altered with a very cautious +hand. That this proposition is true, will probably be disputed by none +who have thought much and dispassionately on human affairs; for all +human institutions are formed and supported by men, and unless men had +some reason for supporting them, they would speedily sink to the +ground. It is in vain to say a privileged class have got possession of +the power, and they make use of it to perpetuate these abuses. +Doubtless, they are always sufficiently inclined to do so; but a +privileged class, or a despot, is always a mere handful against the +great body of the people; and unless their power is supported by the +force of general opinion, founded on experienced utility upon the +whole, it could not maintain its ground a single week. And this +explains a fact observed by an able and ingenious writer of the +present day,[20] that if almost all the great convulsions recorded in +history are attentively considered, it will be found, that after a +brief period of strenuous, and often almost superhuman effort, on the +part of the people, they have terminated in the establishment of a +government and institutions differing scarcely, except in name, from +that which had preceded the struggle. It is hardly necessary to remark +how striking a confirmation the English revolution of 1688, and the +French of 1830, afford of this truth. + +And this explains what is the true meaning of, and solid foundation +for, that reverence for antiquity which is so strongly implanted in +human nature, and is never forgotten for any considerable time without +inducing the most dreadful disasters upon society. It means that those +institutions which have descended to us in actual practice from our +ancestors, come sanctioned by the _experience_ of ages; and that they +could not have stood so long a test unless they had been recommended, +in some degree at least, by their utility. It is not that our +ancestors were wiser than we are; they were certainly less informed, +and probably were, on that account, in the general case, less +judicious. But time has swept away their follies, which were doubtless +great enough, as it has done the worthless ephemeral literature with +which they, as we, were overwhelmed; and nothing has stood the test of +ages, and come down to us through a series of generations, of their +ideas or institutions, but what had some utility in human feelings and +necessities, and was on the whole expedient at the time when it arose. +Its utility may have ceased by the change of manners or of the +circumstances of society--that may be a good reason for cautiously +modifying or altering it--but rely upon it, it was once useful, if it +has existed long; and the presumption of present and continuing +utility requires to be strongly outweighed by forcible considerations +before it is abandoned. Lord Bacon has told us, in words which can +never become trite, so profound is their wisdom, that our changes, to +be beneficial, should resemble those of time, which, though the +greatest of all innovators, works out its alterations so gradually +that they are never perceived. Guizot makes, in the same spirit, the +following fine observation on the slow march of Supreme wisdom in the +government of the world:-- + + "If we turn our eyes to history, we shall find that all the great + developments of the human mind have turned to the advantage of + society--all the great struggles of humanity to the good of + mankind. It is not, indeed, immediately that these efforts take + place; ages often elapse, a thousand obstacles intervene, before + they are fully developed; but when we survey a long course of + ages, we see that all has been accomplished. The march of + Providence is not subjected to narrow limits; it cares not to + develope to-day the consequences of a principle which it has + established yesterday; it will bring them forth in ages, when the + appointed hour has arrived; and its course is not the less sure + that it is slow. The throne of the Almighty rests on time--it + marches through its boundless expanse as the gods of Homer + through space--it makes a step, and ages have passed away. How + many ages elapsed, how many changes ensued, before the + regeneration of the inner man, by means of Christianity, + exercised on the social state its great and salutary influence! + Nevertheless, it has at length succeeded. No one can mistake its + effects at this time."--(_Lecture_ i. 24.) + + +In surveying the progress of civilization in modern, as compared with +ancient times, two features stand prominent as distinguishing the one +from the other. These are the _church_ and the _feudal system_. They +were precisely the circumstances which gave the most umbrage to the +philosophers of the eighteenth century, and which awakened the +greatest transports of indignation among the ardent multitudes who, at +its close, brought about the French Revolution. Very different is the +light in which the eye of true philosophy, enlightened by the +experience of their abolition, views these great distinctive features +of modern society. + + "Immense," says Guizot, "was the influence which the Christian + church exercised over the civilization of modern Europe. In the + outset, it was an incalculable advantage to have a moral power, a + power destitute of physical force, which reposed only on mental + convictions and moral feelings, established amidst that deluge of + physical force and selfish violence which overwhelmed society at + that period. Had the Christian church not existed, the world + would have been delivered over to the influence of physical + strength, in its coarsest and most revolting form. It alone + exercised a moral power. It did more; it spread abroad the idea + of a rule of obedience, a heavenly power, to which all human + beings, how great soever, were subjected, and which was above all + human laws. That of itself was a safeguard against the greatest + evils of society; for it affected the minds of those by whom they + were brought about; it professed that belief--the foundation of + the salvation of humanity--that there is above all existing + institutions, superior to all human laws, a permanent and divine + law, sometimes called Reason, sometimes Divine Command, but + which, under whatever name it goes, is for ever the same. + + "Then the church commenced a great work--the separation of the + spiritual and temporal power. That separation is the origin of + liberty of conscience; it rests on no other principle than that + which lies at the bottom of the widest and most extended + toleration. The separation of the spiritual and temporal power + rests on the principle, that physical force is neither entitled + to act, nor can ever have any lasting influence, on thoughts, + conviction, truth; it flows from the eternal distinction between + the world of thought and the world of action, the world of + interior conviction and that of external facts. In truth, that + principle of the liberty of conscience, for which Europe has + combated and suffered so much, which has so slowly triumphed, and + often against the utmost efforts of the clergy themselves, was + first founded by the doctrine of the separation of the temporal + and spiritual power, in the cradle of European civilization. It + is the Christian church which, by the necessities of its + situation to defend itself against the assaults of barbarism, + introduced and maintained it. The presence of a moral influence, + the maintenance of a Divine law, the separation of the temporal + and spiritual power, are the three great blessings which the + Christian church has diffused in the dark ages over European + society. + + "The influence of the Christian church was great and beneficent + for another reason. The bishop and clergy erelong became the + principal municipal magistrates: they were the chancellors and + ministers of kings--the rulers, except in the camp and the field, + of mankind. When the Roman empire crumbled into dust, when the + central power of the emperors and the legions disappeared, there + remained, we have seen, no other authority in the state but the + municipal functionaries. But they themselves had fallen into a + state of apathy and despair; the heavy burdens of despotism, the + oppressive taxes of the municipalities, the incursions of the + fierce barbarians, had reduced them to despair. No protection to + society, no revival of industry, no shielding of innocence, could + be expected from their exertions. The clergy, again, formed a + society within itself; fresh, young, vigorous, sheltered by the + prevailing faith, which speedily drew to itself all the learning + and intellectual strength that remained in the state. The bishops + and priests, full of life and of zeal, naturally were recurred to + in order to fill all civil situations requiring thought or + information. It is wrong to reproach their exercise of these + powers as an usurpation; they alone were capable of exercising + them. Thus has the natural course of things prescribed for all + ages and countries. The clergy alone were mentally strong and + morally zealous: they became all-powerful. It is the law of the + universe."--(_Lecture_ iii. 27, 31; _Civilization Europeenne._) + + +Nothing can be more just or important than these observations; and +they throw a new and consoling light on the progress and ultimate +destiny of European society. They are as original as they are +momentous. Robertson, with his honest horror of the innumerable +corruptions which, in the time of Leo X. and Luther, brought about the +Reformation--Sismondi, with his natural detestation of a faith which +had urged on the dreadful cruelties of the crusade of the Albigenses, +and which produced the revocation of the edict of Nantes--have alike +overlooked these important truths, so essential to a right +understanding of the history of modern society. They saw that the +arrogance and cruelty of the Roman clergy had produced innumerable +evils in later times; that their venality in regard to indulgences and +abuse of absolution had brought religion itself into discredit; that +the absurd and incredible tenets which they still attempted to force +on mankind, had gone far to alienate the intellectual strength of +modern Europe, during the last century, from their support. Seeing +this, they condemned it absolutely, for all times and in all places. +They fell into the usual error of men in reasoning on former from +their own times. They could not make "the past and the future +predominate over the present." They felt the absurdity of many of the +legends which the devout Catholics received as undoubted truths, and +they saw no use in perpetuating the belief in them; and thence they +conceived that they must always have been equally unserviceable, +forgetting that the eighteenth was not the eighth century; and that, +during the dark ages, violence would have rioted without control, if, +when reason was in abeyance, knowledge scanty, and military strength +alone in estimation, superstition had not thrown its unseen fetters +over the barbarian's arms. They saw that the Romish clergy, during +five centuries, had laboured strenuously, and often with the most +frightful cruelty, to crush independence of thought in matters of +faith, and chain the human mind to the tenets, often absurd and +erroneous, of her Papal creed; and they forgot that, during five +preceding centuries, the Christian church had laboured as assiduously +to establish the independence of thought from physical coercion, and +had alone kept alive, during the interregnum of reason, the sparks of +knowledge and the principles of freedom. + +In the same liberal and enlightened spirit Guizot views the feudal +system, the next grand characteristic of modern times. + + "A decisive proof that, in the tenth century, the feudal system + had become necessary, and was, in truth, the only social state + possible, is to be found in the universality of its adoption. + Universally, upon the cessation of barbarism, the feudal forms + were adopted. At the first moment of barbarian conquest, men saw + only the triumph of chaos. All unity, all general civilization + disappeared, on all sides was seen society falling into + dissolution; and, in its stead, arising a multitude of little, + obscure, isolated communities. This appeared to all the + contemporaries nothing short of universal anarchy. The poets, the + chroniclers of the time, viewed it as the approach of the end of + the world. It was, in truth, the end of the ancient world; but + the commencement of a new one, placed on a broad basis, and with + large means of social improvement and individual happiness. + + "Then it was that the feudal system became necessary, inevitable. + It was the only possible means of emerging from the general + chaos. The whole of Europe, accordingly, at the same time adopted + it. Even those portions of society which were most strangers, + apparently, to that system, entered warmly into its spirit, and + were fain to share in its protection. The crown, the church, the + communities, were constrained to accommodate themselves to it. + The churches became suzerain or vassal; the burghs had their + lords and their feuars; the monasteries and abbeys had their + feudal retainers, as well as the temporal barons. Royalty itself + was disguised under the name of a feudal superior. Every thing + was given in fief; not only lands, but certain rights flowing + from them, as that of cutting wood, fisheries, or the like. The + church made subinfeudations of their casual revenues, as the dues + on marriages, funerals, and baptisms." + + +The establishment of the feudal system thus universally in Europe, +produced one effect, the importance of which can hardly be +exaggerated. Hitherto the mass of mankind had been collected under the +municipal institutions which had been universal in antiquity, in +cities, or wandered in vagabond hordes through the country. Under the +feudal system these men lived isolated, each in his own habitation, at +a great distance from each other. A glance will show that this single +circumstance must have exercised on the character of society, and the +course of civilization, the social preponderance; the government of +society passed at once from the towns to the country--private took the +lead of public property--private prevailed over public life. Such was +the first effect, and it was an effect purely material, of the +establishment of the feudal system. But other effects, still more +material, followed, of a moral kind, which have exercised the most +important effects on the European manners and mind. + + "The feudal proprietor established himself in an isolated place, + which, for his own protection, he rendered secure. He lived + there, with his wife, his children, and a few faithful friends, + who shared his hospitality, and contributed to his defence. + Around the castle, in its vicinity, were established the farmers + and serfs who cultivated his domain. In the midst of that + inferior, but yet allied and protected population, religion + planted a church, and introduced a priest. He was usually the + chaplain of the castle, and at the same time the curate of the + village; in subsequent ages these two characters were separated; + the village pastor resided beside his church. This was the + primitive feudal society--the cradle, as it were, of the European + and Christian world. + + "From this state of things necessarily arose a prodigious + superiority on the part of the possessor of the fief, alike in + his own eyes, and in the eyes of those who surrounded him. The + feeling of individual importance, of personal freedom, was the + ruling principle of savage life; but here a new feeling was + introduced--the importance of a proprietor, of the chief of a + family, of a master, predominated over that of an individual. + From this situation arose an immense feeling of superiority--a + superiority peculiar to the feudal ages, and entirely different + from any thing which had yet been experienced in the world. Like + the feudal lord, the Roman patrician was the head of a family, a + master, a landlord. He was, moreover, a religious magistrate, a + pontiff in the interior of his family. He was, moreover, a member + of the municipality in which his property was situated, and + perhaps one of the august senate, which, in name at least, still + ruled the empire. But all this importance and dignity was derived + from without--the patrician shared it with the other members of + his municipality--with the corporation of which he formed a part. + The importance of the feudal lord, again, was purely + individual--he owed nothing to another; all the power he enjoyed + emanated from himself alone. What a feeling of individual + consequence must such a situation have inspired--what pride, what + insolence, must it have engendered in his mind! Above him was no + superior, of whose orders he was to be the mere interpreter or + organ--around him were no equals. No all-powerful municipality + made his wishes bend to its own--no superior authority exercised + a control over his wishes, he knew no bridle on his inclinations, + but the limits of his power, or the presence of danger. + + "Another consequence, hitherto not sufficiently attended to, but + of vast importance, flowed from this society. + + "The patriarchal society, of which the Bible and the Oriental + monuments offer the model, was the first combination of men. The + chief of a tribe lived with his children, his relations, the + different generations who have assembled around him. This was the + situation of Abraham--of the patriarchs: it is still that of the + Arab tribes which perpetuate their manners. The _clan_, of which + remains still exist in the mountains of Scotland, and the _sept_ + of Ireland, is a modification of the patriarchal society: it is + the family of the chief, expanded during a succession of + generations, and forming a little aggregation of dependents, + still influenced by the same attachments, and subjected to the + same authority. But the feudal community was very different. + Allied at first to the clan, it was yet in many essential + particulars dissimilar. There did not exist between its members + the bond of relationship; they were not of the same blood; they + often did not speak the same language. The feudal lord belonged + to a foreign and conquering, his serfs to a domestic and + vanquished race. Their employments were as various as their + feelings and their traditions. The lord lived in his castle, with + his wife, his children, and relations: the serfs on the estate, + of a different race, of different names, toiled in the cottages + around. This difference was prodigious--it exercised a most + powerful effect on the domestic habits of modern Europe. It + engendered the attachments of home: it brought women into their + proper sphere in domestic life. The little society of freemen, + who lived in the midst of an alien race in the castle, were all + in all to each other. No forum or theatres were at hand, with + their cares or their pleasures; no city enjoyments were a + counterpoise to the pleasures of country life. War and the chase + broke in, it is true, grievously at times, upon this scene of + domestic peace. But war and the chase could not last for ever; + and, in the long intervals of undisturbed repose, family + attachments formed the chief solace of life. Thus it was that + WOMEN acquired their paramount influence--thence the manners of + chivalry, and the gallantry of modern times; they were but an + extension of the courtesy and habits of the castle. The word + _courtesy_ shows it--it was in the _court_ of the castle that the + habits it denotes were learned."--(_Lecture_ iv. 13, 17; + _Civilization Europeenne._) + + +We have exhausted, perhaps exceeded, our limits; and we have only +extracted a few of the most striking ideas from the first hundred +pages of one of Guizot's works--_ex uno disce omnes_. The translation +of them has been an agreeable occupation for a few evenings; but they +awake one mournful impression--the voice which uttered so many noble +and enlightened sentiments is now silent; the genius which once cast +abroad light on the history of man, is lost in the vortex of present +politics. The philosopher, the historian, are merged in the +statesman--the instructor of all in the governor of one generation. +Great as have been his services, brilliant his course in the new +career into which he has been launched, it is as nothing compared to +that which he has left; for the one confers present distinction, the +other immortal fame. + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Little girl--or girl, merely. + +[2] Mr O'Connell stated in his speech, after "the liberation," that +that most unexpected and miraculous event had been publicly prayed for +in all the churches of Belgium. + +[3] Taken from Lewis's Statistics of the Four Reformed Parliaments. + +[4] The following account of the number of freeholders on the +register, in 1837, when the number was largest, and in 1841, taken +from Lewis's tables, will show an immense decrease in those counties +completely under the control of the priests and agitators, and where +their power is unassailable. + + 1837. 1841. + Clare, 3170 1785 + Cork, 4180 3706 + Galway county, 3074 1990 + Galway town, 2084 1600 + King's county, 1520 1078 + Limerick city, 2813 1670 + Limerick county, 2850 1893 + Mayo, 1569 1064 + Meath, 1850 1236 + Roscommon, 2077 1059 + Tipperary, 3460 2464 + Waterford, 1494 802 + Wexford, 3031 1739 + +All those counties and cities are, and always have been, represented +by Radicals and Repealers; so that it appears the Repeal party are +invariably best off where there are least freeholders, notwithstanding +their constant complaints of what they suffer by the domination of the +constituencies. + +[5] Qualifying under the "solvent tenant test," (which was generally +adopted by the Conservative barristers,) the claimant was obliged to +swear and to prove that "he could obtain from a good and solvent +tenant a clear yearly rent of ten pounds over and above what he paid +himself," while the freeholder, qualifying under "the beneficial +interest test," (which was acted on by the Whig and Radical +barristers,) had only to prove that the crops and produce raised on +his land by his own labour, yielded him a surplus of ten pounds over +and above the amount of his rent. + +[6] In England, the right to vote is given to tenants at will paying +L50 rent; it was proposed to grant it to those in Ireland who paid L30 +rent. + +[7] Two judges, who are _ex-officio_ members, may be Roman Catholics; +the numbers would then stand seven and six. + +[8] _Bailly's Memoirs._ + +[9] The Rev. Gregory Lynch of Westland Row, openly charges the +agitating bishops with having _forged_ the signature of many priests +to the protest which they have published against the Charitable +Bequests Bill. See his letter, an extract from which is published in +the Irish correspondence of _The Times_, 27th October. + +[10] Extract from the speech of the Rev. Mr Henebury, as reported in +the Irish correspondence of the _Times_ newspaper, July 3, 1844. + +[11] _Kohl's Ireland_. + +[12] The local newspaper. + +[13] Irish correspondent of the _Times_, Nov. 1, 1844. + +[14] _Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke_. Edited by +Earl Fitzwilliam and Sir Richard Bourke, K.C.B. 4 vols. 8vo. +Rivingtons, London. + +[15] _Nelson's Despatches and Letters, with Notes_. By Sir Harris +Nicolas. + +[16] Ferguson. + +[17] Gibbon. + +[18] _Ibid_. + +[19] Plin. _Hist. Nat._, xxxiii. 47. + +[20] Mr James's Preface to _Mary of Burgundy_. + + + + + +INDEX TO VOL. LVI. + + + Affghanistan, 133 + general review of the question regarding, 135 + motives for the expedition to, 136 + means for effecting the objects sought, 141 + comparison of the competitors for the throne, 142 + resistance to taxation in, 148 + causes of the British disasters in, 150, 151. + + Agitation the cause of the evils of Ireland, 709. + + Alison, Archibald, Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 390. + + Ancient canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, historical account + of the, 182. + + Artist's morning song, the, from Goethe, 419. + + Auckland, Lord, review of his Affghanistan policy, 133. + + Aytoun, W. E., Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 392. + + + Banking System, the Scottish, 671*. + + Barrett, Elizabeth B., review of the poems of, 621. + + Bell, H. G., Esq., speech of, at the Burns' festival, 389. + + Blanc, M., his history of ten years reviewed, 265. + + Bossuet, character of, as a historian, 789. + + Braxfield, lord, letter relating to, 620. + + Brenn, the, a Gaulish chief, career of, 471. + + Bride of Corinth, the, from Goethe, 57. + + Bruce, heart of the, a ballad, 15. + + Burke, Edmund, review of the correspondence of, 745. + + Burns' festival, account of the, 370 + order of the procession, 373 + the banquet, 376 + speeches of Lord Eglinton, ib. + Professor Wilson, 378 + Sir John McNeill, 388 + H.G. Bell, Esq., 389 + Archibald Alison, Esq., 390 + W. E. Aytoun, Esq., 392 + Colonel Mure, 393 + Sir James Campbell, the Lord Justice-General, &c., 395 + stanzas for, by Delta, 399. + + + Cabul, the war with, 133. + + Campbell, Sir James, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 395. + + Canal between the Nile and Red Sea, historical account of the, 182. + + Castle on the mountain, the, from Goethe, 425. + + Catania, 33. + + Catharine of Russia, sketch of, 410. + + Causes of the increase of crime, on the, 1 + districts in which greatest, ib. + in the manufacturing districts, 6 + strikes, 8. + + Cavalier, the old Scottish, a ballad, 195. + + Clarkson, sonnet to, 619. + + Commitments for crime, tables of, 1, 2. + + Cours de Litterature Dramatique, review of, 237. + + Crime, causes of the increase of, 1 + in the manufacturing districts, 6 + increase of, by strikes, 8 + by infant labour, 9 + inefficiency of the proposed preventives of, 13. + + Cupid as a landscape painter, from Geothe, 417. + + + Delphi, defeat of the Gauls at, 472. + + Delta, stanzas for the Burns' festival by, 399 + the tombless man, a dream, by, 583. + + Doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, the, from Goethe, 67. + + Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36 + Part II., 49. + + Dost Mohammed, character of, 142. + + Dunning, anecdotes of, 249, 264. + + Dwarf's well, the, a legend of Upper Lusatia, 196. + + + Earthquake of Lisbon, the, 102. + + Education, effect of imperfect, in Ireland, 708. + + Eglinton, the Earl of, speeches of, at the Burns' festival, 376, 395, + 396. + + Eldon, Lord, sketch of the career of, + his early life, 245 + his first struggles, 249 + and first success, 251 + enters parliament, 253 + becomes solicitor-general, 257 + attorney-general, 259 + chief-justice of the Common Pleas, 262 + and lord chancellor, ib. + his subsequent career, 263. + + Emperor, week of an + an account of the visit of the Emperor Nicholas, 127. + + Erl king, the, from Goethe, 63. + + Etched thoughts by the Etching Club, review of, 153. + + Execution of Montrose, the, a ballad, 289. + + + Fairy tutor, the, a legend of Upper Lusatia, 83. + + Falkland islands, affair of the, 406. + + Finlay's Greece under the Romans, review of, 524. + + First love, from Goethe, 61. + + Fisher, the, from Goethe, 65. + + Fourier and his system, sketch of, 591. + + Frederick the Great, anecdotes of, 404, 409. + + French socialists, 588. + + + Galatia, Gaulish kingdom of, 478. + + Gauls, Thierry's history of, reviewed, 466. + + Gibbon, character of, as a historian, 788. + + Girardin, M., 237. + + God, the, and the Bayadere, from Goethe, 421. + + Goethe, Poems and Ballads of, No. I. Introduction, 54 + the bride of Corinth, 57 + first love, 61 + who'll buy a Cupid? 62 + second life, ib. + the erl-king, 63 + Mignon, 64 + the fisher, 65 + the minstrel, ib. + the violet, 66 + the doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, 67 + No. II. Cupid as a landscape painter, 417 + the artist's morning song, 419 + the god and the bayadere, 421 + the treasure-seeker, 423 + the castle on the mountain, 425 + Philine's song, 426 + to my mistress, 427 + the wild rose, ib. + a night thought, 428 + Prometheus, ib. + new love, new life, 429 + separation, 430 + the magician's apprentice, ib. + + Great Britain, increase of crime in, 1. + + Great country's little wars, a, review of, 133. + + Great drought, the, 433 + Chap. II., 436 + Chap. III., 438 + Chap. IV., 440 + Chap. V., 442 + Chap. VI., 452. + + Greece under the Romans, review of, 524. + + Grievances of Ireland, examination of the alleged, 701 + the true, 708. + + Guizot, M., review of the historical works of, 786. + + + Hardy, trial of, for high treason, 261. + + Harris, James, career of, 401. + + Heart of the Bruce, the, a ballad, 15. + + Hill, Mr Sergeant, anecdotes of, 247. + + Histoire des dix ans, review of, 265. + + Historical account of the ancient canal between the Nile and the Red + Sea, 182. + + Hope, the Right Hon. Charles, letter from, 620. + + Hume, character of, as a historian, 788. + + Hydro Bacchus, 77. + + + Increase of crime, causes of, 1 + districts in which greatest, ib. + + Infant labour, increase of crime attributable to, 9. + + Injured Ireland, 701. + + Introduction to his poems, from Goethe, 54. + + Ireland, increase of crime in, 1 + examination of the question as to the injuries of, 701 + its comparative freedom from taxation, 702 + its representation in parliament, 703 + municipal law, 706 + alleged debarring of Roman Catholics from office, 707 + true evils of, and their causes, 708. + + Irish state trials, reversal of the judgment, 539. + + It is no fiction, 364. + + + Jesuits, expulsion of the, from Portugal, 109 + extinction of the order, 112. + + Johnson, Dr, anecdotes of, 247, 257. + + + Knights, last of the + Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36 + Part II., 49. + + + Lamartine, review of the travels of, 657. + + Last of the knights, the + Don John and the heretics of Flanders, 36 + Part II., 49. + + Lee, J., anecdotes of, 249, 255. + + Letter to the editor, from the Right Hon. Charles Hope, 620. + + Life in Louisiana, Chap. I., a Voyage on the Red River, 507 + Chap. II., Creole life, 514 + Chap. III., quite unexpected, 518. + + Lines on the landing, of Louis Philippe, by B. Simmons, 654. + + Lisbon, the great earthquake of, 102. + + Louis Philippe, elevation of, to the throne, 272 + lines on the landing of, by B. Simmons, 654. + + Louisiana, life in, Chap. I., 507 + Chap. II., 514 + Chap. III., 518. + + Love chase, in prose, a, Chap. I., 164 + Chap. II., 166 + Chap. III., 170 + Chap. IV., 173 + Chap. V., 178. + + Lunatic asylum of Palermo, the, 20. + + Lusatia, traditions and tales of, No. II., + the fairy tutor, 83 + No. III., the dwarf's well, 196 + No. IV., the moor maiden, 726. + + Lushington on the Affghan war, 133. + + Luther, an ode, 80. + + + Machiavel, character of, as a historian, 787. + + McNeill, Sir John, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 388. + + Magician's apprentice, the, from Goethe, 430. + + Maid of Orleans, remarks on the, 216. + + Malmesbury, life of the Earl of, reviewed, 401. + + Manufacturing districts, increase of crime in the, 2. + + Marston; or, Memoirs of a Statesman + Part XII., 114 + Part XIII., 343 + Part XIV., 601. + + Martin Luther, an ode, 80. + + Memoirs of a Statesman--_see_ Marston. + + Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, review of, 100. + + Memoranda of a month's tour in Sicily + the museum of Palermo, 20 + lunatic asylum, ib. + miscellanea, 21 + journey to Segeste, 23 + Sicilian inns, 24 + approach to Messina, 28 + journey to Taormina, 30 + Catania, 33 + + Messina, approach to, 28. + + Mignon, from Goethe, 64. + + Milkman of Walworth, the, Chap. I., 687 + Chap. II., 691 + Chap. III., 693 + Chap. IV., 696. + + Minstrel, the, from Goethe, 65. + + Montesquieu, character of, as a historian, 789. + + Montrose, execution of, a ballad, 289. + + Moor maiden, the, 726. + + Mure, Colonel, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 393. + + Museum of Palermo, the, 20. + + My college friends + No. I. John Brown, 569 + No. II., the same concluded, 763. + + My first love, a sketch in New York, 69. + + My last courtship; or, life in Louisiana + Chap. I. A voyage on the Red River, 507 + Chap. II., Creole life, 514 + Chap. III., quite unexpected, 518. + + + Natural history of man, Prichard's, review of, 312. + + Nelson's dispatches and letters, review of, 775. + + New love, new life, from Goethe, 429. + + Nicholas, the Emperor, visit of, to Great Britain, 127. + + Night on the banks of the Tennessee, a, 278. + + Night thought, a, from Goethe, 428. + + Nile and the Red Sea, the, historical account of the ancient canal + between, 182. + + North, Lord, anecdotes of, 255. + + + O'Connell case, the + Was the judgment rightly reversed? 539 + statement of the case, 541 + the indictment, 542 + verdict of the jury, 544 + the motion in arrest of judgment, 545 + the judgment, ib. + the writ of error, ib. + opinions of the judges, 548 + and of the peers, 553 + general remarks on the case, 561 + + Old Scottish cavalier, the, a ballad, by W. E. A., 195. + + Oporto wine company, origin of the, 106. + + + Palermo, sketches of, 20. + + Passages in the life of a Russian officer, 713. + + Patmore's poems, review of, 331. + + Philine's song, from Goethe, 426. + + Poems and ballads of Goethe, the + No. I. Introduction, 54 + the bride of Corinth, 57 + first love, 61 + who'll buy a Cupid, 62 + second life, ib. + the erl-king, 63 + Mignon, 64 + the fisher, 65 + the minstrel, ib. + the violet, 66 + the doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, 67 + No. II. Cupid as a landscape painter, 417 + the artist's morning song, 419 + the god and the bayadere, 421 + the treasure-seeker, 423 + the castle on the mountain, 425 + Philine's song, 426 + to my mistress, 427 + the wild rose, ib. + a night thought, 428 + Prometheus, ib. + new love, new life, 429 + separation, 430 + the magician's apprentice, ib. + + Poetry: + The heart of the Bruce, 15 + poems and ballads of Goethe, No. I., 54 + Hydro Bacchus, 77 + Martin Luther, an ode, 80 + the old Scottish cavalier, 195 + the execution of Montrose 289 + stanzas for the Burns' festival, by Delta, 399 + poems and ballads of Goethe, No. II., 417 + the tombless man, by Delta, 583 + sonnet to Clarkson, 619 + Westminster hall and the works of art, by B. Simmons, 652 + lines on the landing of Louis Philippe, by the same, 654 + "That's what we are," 741. + + Poland, the partition of, 405, 407. + + Pombal, Marquis of, sketch of the career of, 100. + + Portugal, history of, during the administration of the Marquis of + Pombal, 100. + + Prichard's natural history of man, review of, 312. + + Prometheus, from Goethe, 428. + + Ptolemy, completion of the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea by, + 185. + + + Radzivil, Prince, sketch of, 406. + + Red Sea and the Nile, history of the ancient canal between, 182. + + Remarks on Schiller's maid of Orleans, 216. + + Reviews: + Smith's memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, 100 + Lushington's a great country's little wars, 133 + Etched thoughts by the Etching Club, 153 + M. Girardin's cours de litterature dramatique, 237 + Twiss's memoirs of the Earl of Eldon, 245 + Blanc's histoire de dix ans, 265 + Prichard's natural history of man, 312 + Poems by Coventry Patmore, 331 + Life of Lord Malmesbury, 401 + Thierry's history of the Gauls, 466 + Finlay's Greece under the Romans, 524 + Reybaud on French socialism, 588 + Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett, 621 + Lamartine's travels, 657 + Burke's correspondence, 745 + Neson's despatches and letters, 775 + Guizot, 786. + + Reybaud on French socialism, review of, 588. + + Robertson, character of, as a historian, 790. + + Russian officer, passages in the life of a, 713. + + + St Simon, sketch of, 273. + + Schiller's maid of Orleans, remarks on, 216. + + Scotland, increase of crime in, 1. + + Scott, Sir John _see_ Eldon. + + Scott, Sir William, sketches of, 246, 254. + + Scottish banking system, the, 671*. + + Scottish cavalier, the, a ballad, 195. + + Scottish peasantry, character of the, 370. + + Second life, from Goethe, 62. + + Segeste, journey to, 23. + + Separation, from Goethe, 430. + + Shah Soojah, character of, 143. + + Sicilian inns, 24. + + Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in + the museum of Palermo, 20 + the lunatic asylum, ib. + miscellanea, 21 + journey to Segeste, 23 + Sicilian inns, 24 + approach to Messina, 28 + journey to Taormina, 30 + Catania, 33. + + Simmons, B., Westminster hall and the works of art by, 652 + lines on the landing of Louis Philippe by, 654. + + Sismondi, character of, as a historian, 792. + + Sketch in New York, a My first love, 69. + + Smith's memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, review of, 100. + + Socialism in France, history of, 588. + + Some remarks on Schiller's maid of Orleans, 216. + + Sonnet to Clarkson, 619. + + Stanzas for the Burns' festival, by Delta, 299. + + Stolen child, the, a true tale of the Backwoods, 227. + + Stowell, Lord, sketches of, 246, 254. + + Strikes as a cause of the increase of crime, 8. + + + Taormina, journey to, 30. + + Taxation, resistance to, in Affghanistan, 149 + comparative lightness of in Ireland, 702. + + Tender conscience, a, 454. + + Tennessee, a night on the banks of the, 278. + + "That's what we are," a poem, 741. + + Thierry's history of the Gauls, review of, 466. + + Thurlow, Lord, anecdotes of, 258, 259, 263. + + To my mistress, from Goethe, 427. + + Tombless man, the, a dream, by Delta, 583. + + Traditions and tales of Upper Lusatia, No. II., the fairy tutor, 83 + No. III., the dwarf's well, 196 + No. IV., the moor maiden, 726. + + Treasure seeker, the, from Goethe, 423. + + Twiss's life of Lord Eldon, review of, 245. + + + Up stream; or steam-boat reminiscences, 64. + + + Violet, the, from Goethe, 66. + + Voltaire, character of, as a historian, 787. + + + W. E. A., Heart of the Bruce by, 15 + the old Scottish cavalier by, 195 + the execution of Montrose, by, 289. + + Walworth, the milkman of, 687. + + Week of an emperor, the, 127. + + Westminster hall and the works of art on a free admission day, by B. + Simmons, 652. + + Who'll buy a Cupid, from Goethe, 62. + + Wild rose, the, from Goethe, 427. + + Wilson, Professor, speech of, at the Burns' festival, 378. + + Witchfinder, the Part I., 297 + conclusion, 487. + + Writ of error, proceedings on the, 545. + + + + +END OF VOL. LVI. + + +_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work_. + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Passages in italics are indicated by underscore _italics_. + + The following misprints have been corrected: + "corresspondence" corrected to "correspondence" (page 755) + "headach" corrected to "headache" (page 768) + "subsisttence" corrected to "subsistence" (page 798) + + The original text included Greek charcters. For this text version these + letters have been replaced with *Greek* transliterations. + + Additional spacing after some of the block quotes is intentional to + indicate both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new + paragraph as presented in the original text. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +56, Number 350, December 1844, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 29423.txt or 29423.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/2/29423/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Stephanie Eason, Jonathan +Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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